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JAN  29  1S50 
OGKM   St 


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"BS  4=1  i 


v.ia 


The  People's  Bible- 


DISCOURSES    UPON  HOLY  SCRIPTURE, 


M\    99    1Q5Q 


BY 

JOSEPH    PARKER,    D.D., 

Minister  of  the  City  Temple,  Holborn  J  'induct,  London. 

AUTHOR     OF     "  ECCE     DEL'S,"     "tH8    TARACLETB,"     "tHE     I'RIESTHOOD     OF   CHRIST,"    ETC. 


'T, 

THESE   SAYINGS    OF   MINE, 

AS   REVEALED    L.V    THE    GOSPEL    OF   MATTHEW. 
Volume  I. 

"THESE  SAYINGS   OF   MINE." 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY  CHARLES  F.   DEEMS,  LL.D. 


NEW   YORK : 
FUNK   &   WAGNALLS,    Publishers, 

18    AND    20   ASTOR   PLACE. 
1888. 


Copyri.ijht,  1881, 
by  I.    K.   F  u  N  K  &  C  o . 


PRESS  OP 

FUNK   &  WAGNALLS, 
18  and  20  Astor  Place, 

NEW  YORK 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  publishers  of  tliis  volume  desire  a  few  introductory  paragraphs  from 
one  who  knows  the  famous  London  preacher. 

Joseph  Parker  was  born  in  1830  in  Northumberland,  England,  a  county 
which  has  produced  such  a  lawyer  as  Lord  Eldon,  such  an  engineer  as 
George  Stephenson,  and  such  a  preacher  as  Thomas  Binney.  He  regards 
his  training  for  the  ministry  to  have  commenced  when  he  was  seven  years 
of  age.  It  is  told  that  when  he  was  not  more  than  five  he  was  seen  alone, 
and  heard  saying,  as  he  looked  at  the  dazzling  sun, 

"  Wbat  are  these  arrayed  in  white. 
Brighter  thau  the  noonday  sun." 

After  a  thorough  training  in  the  ancient  languages  and  mathematics,  he 
studied  logic  and  natural  and  moral  philosophy  in  University  College, 
London.  After  that  he  was  for  a  short  time  pulpit  assistant  to  Dr.  John 
Campbell,  of  the  Whitfield  Tabernacle.  Then  he  was  settled  five  years  in 
Banbury,  where  he  built  a  new  chapel,  after  which  he  succeeded  the  learned 
Dr.  Robert  Halley  in  Manchester,  where  he  labored  with  increasing  success 
and  distinction  until  he  was  called  to  the  Church  in  the  Poultry,  London, 
1S69.  More  and  more,  as  preacher  and  author,  he  became  known  to  the 
public.  By  instituting  a  Thursday  morning  course  of  sermons  he  increased 
the  numbers  of  those  whom  he  reached  with  the  Gospel,  as  many  whose 
engagements  elsewhere  precluded  them  from  hearing  Dr.  Parker  on  Sunday 
could  attend  these  services.  He  projected  and  built  the  City  Temple,  a 
noble  structure  at  one  end  of  Holborn  Viaduct,  far  from  the  fashionable 
quarter  of  London  and  removed  from  even  the  plainer  portion  of  dwellings, 
but  in  the  heart  of  what  is  technically  called  "  The  City."  This  great 
church  cost  $250,000,  and  such  men  as  Dean  Stanley  and  England's  great 
Prime  Minister,  Mr.  Gladstone,  have  spoken  in  it. 

The  first  knowledge  we  had  of  him  in  America  was,  I  think,  the  publi- 
cation of  his  work  styled  "  Ecce  Deus."  "  Ecce  Homo  "  had  appeared 
anonymously  and  been  known  and  read  by  all  religious  American  scholars, 
md  had  produced  a  very  great  impression.     "  Ecce  Deus  "would  naturally 


iv  INTRODUCTION. 

attract  attention  as  probably  occasioned  by  "Ecce  Homo,"  So  in  point  of 
fact  it  was.  But,  while  meeting  many  points  of  "  Ecce  Homo  "  polemically, 
it  had  its  own  aim  and  scope.  It  exhibited  a  freshness  and  a  power  which 
would  have  secured  its  place,  on  the  ground  of  its  other  higher  merits,  even 
if  it  had  not  had  the  additional  virtue  of  antagonizing  certain  errors  of 
"Ecce  Homo."  Whoso  read  it  felt  that  its  author  must  be  a  man  of  much 
more  than  ordinary  ability.  When  it  was  announced  that  Dr.  Parker  was 
the  author  thousands  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  became  interested  in  him. 
It  prepared  the  warm  reception  which  he  met  when  he  came  to  the  Evan- 
gelical Alliance  in  1873.  It  is  well  remembered  that  no  representative 
from  Great  Britain  produced  such  a  marked  impression  as  Dr.  Parker  did 
Dy  the  magnificent  address  which  he  delivered  in  the  Madison  Avenue 
Presbyterian  Church.  Ever  since  that  very  many  Americans  have  had  a 
great  interest  in  this  London  preacher.  His  book,  "  The  Paraclete,"  main- 
tained his  reputation  and  enlarged  the  circles  of  his  readers.  His  sermons 
have  been  republished  frequently  in  religious  newspapers  of  different 
denominations  in  different  parts  of  the  United  States,  and  perhaps  the  Doc- 
tor never  speaks  from  his  pulpit  without  having  Americans  in  his  audience. 
But  nothing  that  he  has  published  so  shows  the  man,  I  think,  as  the  fol- 
lowing sermons.  I  heard  three  of  them.  The  Doctor's  plan  is  to  preach  his 
sermons  from  notes,  not  very  copious,  and  the  discourse  of  Sunday  morn- 
ing is  taken  down  verbatim  by  an  American  phonographer.  They  are  very 
little  "  touched  up  "  for  the  press,  and  are  printed  in  "  The  Fountain  "  so 
as  to  be  ready  for  the  public  on  the  Thursday  morning  when  they  are  rede- 
livered. This  Thursday  morning  service  is  a  peculiarity.  It  is  duly  adver- 
tised*. Indeed,  a  large  placard  stands  in  front  of  the  City  Temple,  making 
announcements  of  church  work  and  publications.  As  the  Doctor's  stated 
parishoners  have  heard  these  sermons,  they  leave  the  edifice  for  the  worship- 
pers on  Thursday  morning.  Ordinarily  the  lower  floor  is  well  filled,  and  it 
is  a  congregation  of  mark.  People  who  have  heard  of  the  Doctor  or  of 
the  City  Temple  or  have  read  his  works  come  from  different  parts  of  Lon- 
don and  of  the  world  to  hear  him  preach.  In  the  vestibule  the  sermon 
which  is  about  to  be  delivered  can  be  bought  for  a  penny.  You  may 
undertake  the  experiment  of  following  the  delivered  discourse  from  the 
printed  page,  but  it  will  be  a  failure.  The  preacher  looks  his  congrega- 
tion in  the  face,  and  goes  at  preaching  as  one  goes  at  threshing.  He  keeps 
on  the  track  of  the  printed  discourse  until  he  has  got  on  a  head  of  steam, 
and  then  in  turning  an  angle  in  the  road  he  is  very  liable  to  jump  off  and 
plough  the  fields  until  he  reaches  the  track  again.  Like  all  strong  preachers 
he  is  most  difficult  to  report.  The  finest  passage  I  heard  in  the  three  dis- 
courses to  which  I  listened  was  not  in  the  printed  report  in  "  The  Fountain," 
nor  does  it  appear  in  the  sermon  in  this  volume.  The  preacher  had  climbed 
to  the  top  of  the  ladder  of  one  portion  of  his  sermon,  and  had   ascended 


INTRODUCTION.  V 

SO  rapidly  and  ardently  as  to  have  acquired  a  rush  which  made  him  spread 
his  wings  and  take  a  flight  beyond.  That  flight  carried  his  whole  congre- 
gation with  him,  and  they  were  more  breathless  than  he.  The  advantage 
of  extemporaneous  preaching  is  that  it  accomplishes  that  for  which  preach- 
ing was  intended,  but  it  can  never  be  reproduced.  The  preacher  must  make 
his  choice.  Usually  what  is  richest  in  preaching  is  poorest  in  print.  Whit- 
field's sermons  as  printed  are  almost  absolutely  worthless.  The  "  report  " 
shows  the  track  on  which  the  sermon  ran  ;  but  we  know  that  the  most  intel- 
ligent man,  who  had  never  seen  a  railroad,  could  never  from  gazing  at  a  track 
produce  mentally  the  bounding  locomotive  and  the  richly  freighted  train 
as  they  thundered  along  the  railway.  These  republished  discourses,  which 
show  very  accurately  the  track  of  the  preacher's  mind,  will  be  very  useful 
as  studies  to  those  who  have  not  listened  to  Dr.  Parker ;  while  those  who 
have  heard  him,  of  whom  there  are  multitudes  in  America,  will  have  fresh 
pleasure  in  filling  up  the  outline  by  recollections  of  the  large,  hearty, 
impressive  preacher. 

It  is  proper  to  let  Dr.  Parker  speak  for  himself,  that  the  reader  may 
know  what  the  preacher's  idea  of  this  volume  really  is.  In  accounting  for 
the  abrupt  and  urgent  style  often  perceptible  in  these  discourses,  and  which 
will  be  their  chief  charm  to  many,  the  Doctor  says  : 

"  There  is  no  attempt  at  literary  composition.  My  aim  was  to  p7'each  ; 
to  formulate  sentences  that  would  go  immediately  home  to  the  intelligence 
and  feeling  of  my  hearers,  and  to  prevent  all  wandering  of  interest  and 
expectancy.  Now  that  I  see  my  own  hurried  words  in  print,  I  see  where 
I  could  mend  many  of  the  sentences  as  to  their  merely  literary  structure  ; 
on  the  other  hand  I  see  a  force  in  many  of  them  which  could  not  have 
been  imparted  in  the  coldness  of  the  study.  I  care  less  and  less  for 
literary  sermons.  What  Mr.  Gladstone  is  in  parliament  ;  what  Henry 
Brougham  was  at  the  bar  ;  and  what  Bishop  Wilberforce  was  on  the  platform  ; 
that,  as  to  extemporaneousness,  preachers  should  aim  to  be  in  the  pulpit. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  extemporaneous  preaching  is  extemporaneous 
thinking.  With  the  tJioughts  of  these  discourses  I  have  been  familiar  for  a 
life-time  ;  the  words  alone  are  the  choice  of  the  moment.  Let  young 
preachers  mark  this  distinction  carefully,  lest  they  imagine  they  have  only 
to  ascend  a  pulpit  and  give  out  a  text  in  order  to  preach  and  enforce  the 
sacred  gospel.  To  young  preachers  I  have  often  said.  Give  your  days  to 
study  and  your  nights  to  prayer,  if  you  would  solidly  and  permanently 
excel  in  the  holy  ministry.  That  solemn  advice  I  reiterate  with  all  the 
mellow  emphasis  of  ever-enlarging  personal  experience  of  pulpit  life  and 
service.  At  the  same  iixnQ,  preach  iht  gospel  !  Do  not  read  \t,  or  if  you 
must  read  to  some  extent,  reserve  the  power  to  speak  directly  and  fervently 
to  the  heart  of  the  hearer,  with  all  the  urgency  and  passion  of  the  most 
earnest  yearning  for  his  instruction  and  salvation.     Strange  as  it  may 


Vi  INTRODUCTION. 

appear  to  those  who  have  had  no  experience  in  the  matter,  it  is  easier  to  read 
than  to  preach  a  sermon,  assuming  that  both  the  reading  and  the  preaching 
are  really  to  be  of  the  best  quality.  Less  thought  is  required  in  a  written 
than  in  a  spoken  address,  because  so  much  more  use  can  be  made  of 
language  ;  it  can  be  arranged  in  so  many  different  ways  ;  it  can  be  made 
to  take  on  all  sides  and  varieties  of  rhetorical  color  ;  the  writer  has  time 
for  all  this  in  the  seclusion  and  quiet  of  his  study.  It  is  not  so  with  the 
speaker  ;  he  must  seize  the  thought  instantly  and  hasten  forward  without 
lingering  in  literary  wistfulness  over  the  form  and  line  of  his  eager  sentences. 
Preachers  should  remember  that  there  is  extemporaneous  hearing  as  well 
as  extemporaneous  preaching.  Hearers  are  unprepared  ;  probably  their 
last  sentence  before  entering  church  was  rather  secular  than  religious  ;  their 
minds  have  to  be  brought  from  afar  to  the  immediate  business  of  the  tran- 
sient occasion  ;  they  are  in  no  mood  to  appreciate  merely  literary  beauties  ; 
they  must  be  called  almost  with  sharpness  and  military  decision  to  the  work 
which  is  to  be  done,  and  this  call  will  be  most  effectively  delivered  by  the 
man  who  is  least  trammeled  with  the  mere  formalities  of  his  sacred  office." 

Last  summer  Dr.  Parker  and  his  charming  wife  made  a  hurried  visit  to 
New  York.  He  came  merely  for  the  rest  which  the  sea-trip  gives.  We 
had  several  delightful  interviews  with  him,  renewing  the  pleasant  inter- 
course which  we  had  in  his  beautiful  home  at  North  Holme,  Highbury 
Park,  in  the  north  of  London.  A  writer  in  the  "  Homiletic  Monthly  " 
availed  himself  of  an  opportunity  to  get  his  views  on  various  points.  We 
have  space  for  two  : — 

"  Do  you  pay  attention  to  physical  training  ?  " 

"  My  residence  at  North  Holme,  Highbury  Park,  is  three  miles  from  City 
Temple.  Every  Sunday  morning  I  walk  to  church  and  take  a  bath  there, 
coming,  therefore,  to  my  work  fresh  and  resilient. 

"  A  walk  home  gives  me  six  miles  for  the  day's  exercise.  My  studies 
are  not  usually  extended  into  the  night.  This  trip  is  taken  mainly  for  the 
invigoration  to  be  gained  by  the  ocean  passage." 

"  How  do  you  prepare  sermons  ?  " 

"  I  have  no  uniform  plan  of  preparation  for  the  pulpit.  I  have  tried  all 
plans  except  the  memoritcr,  and  that  I  have  never  been  able  to  adopt.  I 
cannot  commit  anything  to  memory  with  the  certainty  of  recalling  it  when 
needed  ;  indeed,  I  may  say  that  for  words  I  have  no  memory  at  all.  Some 
of  my  most  friendly  critics  have  suggested  that  I  should  have  been  an  actor, 
not  knowing,  I  presume,  that  Shakespeare  would  have  been  verbally  slain 
by  my  treacherous  slips,  and  that  Hamlet  or  Othello  would  have  been  a 
new  character  every  night  and  an  eternal  surprise  to  the  actor  himself.  I 
leave  the  words  to  suggest  themselves  at  the  moment  bi  delivery,  though 
sometimes,  especially  when  the  subject  requires  critical  handling,  I  have 
<i:arefully  shaped  and  adjusted  every  sentence. 


INTRODUCtlON.  Vll 

"  Of  all  kinds  of  preaching,  I  love  the  expository  most.  You  will 
understand  this  from  the  fact  that  I  have,  during  the  last  seven  years, 
expounded  most  of  the  first  two  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  the  whole  book 
of  Nehemiah,  the  whole  of  Ecclesiastes,  and  nearly  half  the  Gospel  of  Mat- 
thew. I  care  less  and  less  for  mere  catch-texts  and  for  small  ingenuities 
in  pulpit  mechanics.  Our  cleverness  is  our  destruction  as  expositors.  In 
its  exercise  we  lose  breadth,  substance,  and  dignity,  and  become  mere 
tricksters  and  jugglers.  I  care  very  little  for  merely  literary  polish  in  preach- 
ing. We  want  intelligence,  unction  and  directness.  All  the  rest  is 
comparatively  worthless.  The  preacher  is  not  an  author,  reading  his  own 
manuscript  ;  he  is  a  Voice,  a  Fire,  a  Herald,  bold  and  eager  in  his  sacred 
work — an  orator  speaking  in  Heaven's  name  and  strength.  There  are 
more  authors  in  the  pulpit  than  preachers.  Here  is  the  weakness  of  the 
pulpit.  It  has  become  a  competitor  of  the  press,  and  has  abandoned  its 
special  and  incommunicable  function." 

It  will  give  me  pleasure  to  know  that  any  word  of  mine  can  make  an 
increase  in  the  number  of  Dr.  Parker's  readers  and  friends.  I  thank  the 
publishers  for  giving  me  an  opportunity  of  saying  a  kind  word  in  behalf 
of  a  preacher  of  whom  I  have  occasionally  heard  unkind  words,  but  from 
whose  lips  I  never  heard  an  uncharitable  speech  of  mortal  man. 

CHARLES  F.  DEEMS. 

Chtjrch  of  the  Strangers, 
Neio  York,  Dec,  18«0. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


VOLUME  I. 

PAGE 

Intkoduction ill 

I.   Matthew  i.  1-17.      Every  Name  Historical — Christ  Always  Coming — 

Christ  Comes  through  all  Sorts  of  People 1 

II.  Matthew  ii.  18-25.  Christ's  Birth  Always  a  Miracle — The  Garden  of 
Eden — The  Perplexity  of  Joseph — The  Ministry  of  Dreams — Re- 
view of  the  Chapter — Genesis  and  Matthew  Compared — Matter 
Ordered — Man  Educated — The  Moral  Value  of  Time — The  Reason  of 
Divine  Delay — The  Two  Beginnings  are  One 8 

III.  Matthew  ii.  1-10.     The  Culture  of  the  Young — The  Reason  of  Christ's 

Sovereignty — Flattering   Christ — Christ  Himself  is  with  Men 23 

IV.  Matthew   ii.    11-15.      Life    Larger   than   Logic — The   Helpfulness  of 

Science — The  Religious  Imagination — The  Difficulty  of  Patience.  . .     32 
V.  Matthew  ii.   16-23.       Second    Causes    Not    Sufficient — Physical    Force 
Weaker  than  Moral — Angel  Ministries — Afraid  of  Whole  Families 

— Goodness  Cannot  Die 41 

VI.  Review  of  the  Second  Chapter — The  Troubled  King — The  Beneficence 

of  Trials — The  Scriptures  Always  New  50 

VII.  Matthew  iii.  1-6.  The  Continuousness  of  History — Repentance  a 
Common  Term — Teaching  Positive  as  well  as  Negative — The  True 

Baptism 58 

VIII.  Matthew  iii.  7-12.  John's  Preaching — The  Right  Spirit  of  Hearing — 
The  Old  Grit  is  Lost — A   Kingdom  oi  a  Wrath — Different  Reports 

of   Preaching 66 

IX.  Matthew  iii.  13-17.     Sympathy,  Inauguration  and  Sympathy — Provi- 
dence both  Slow  and  Swift — Review  of  the  Chapter — The  True  Law 

of  Development — The  True  Baptism 75 

X.  Matthew  iv.  1-11.  The  Temptation  of  Christ — Life  itself  is  Tempta- 
tion— The  Devil's  Three  Temptations — The  True  Character  of  the 

Tempter— The  Devil's  Threefold  Knock 83 

XL  Matthew  iv.  1-11  (Continued).  The  Answers  of  Jesus  Christ — Life 
"Sustained  in  Many  Ways — Tempting  Friendship — Worship  Leads 

to  Service — Definition  of  Simplicity — The  Devil  Leaveth  Him 92 

XII.  The  Temptation  (Continued)— The  Comfort  of  Temptation — The 
Grandeur  of  Man — The  Temptation,  If — The  Enemy's  True  Char- 
acter  - 101 

XIII.  Matthew  iv.   12-17.     Temptation  Prepares  for  Work — The  Sculptured 

but  Useless  Stone — The  Restf  ulness  of  Obedience — Some  Texts  Be- 
yond Our  Strength — Good  Listening.  . , 108 

XIV.  Matthew  iv.   18-25.     A  Cry  to  Heaven—  The  Divine  Call  to  Service — 

Suffered   Nothing   for  Christ — A  Picture  of  Christ's  World — Men 

who  Play  the  Scrutineer 117 

XV.  Matthew  v.  1-12.  Christ's  Missionary  Example — Multitudes  and  Dis- 
ciples— Christ's  Picture  of  Blessedness — A  Gate  for  Every  Man 126 

XVI.  Matthew  v.   13-16.     The   Character  of  the   Disciples— T  he   Effect  of 

Encouragement — Influence  may  be  Lost— The  Need  of  Caution 134 

XVII.  Matthew  v.  17-20.     Fulfilling  the  Law — The  Minuteness  of  the  Law 

— Learn  by  Doing — A  Grand  Opportunity. , .  , 140 


CONTENTS. 


VOLUME  II. 

PAGE 

XVIII.  Matthew  v.  20.     Faitliful  unto  Death— False  Sabbath-keeping— Ortho- 
dox and  Heterodox 150 

XIX.  Matthew  v.    21-32.     Divine  Education — Christian  Spirituality — Self- 
denial  Inevitable — Christ's  Teaching  is  Spiritual 159 

XX.  Matthew  v.  33-48.  The  Beatitudes  in  Practical  Form — On  Taking 
Oaths — The  Personal  Resistance  of  Evil — On  Borrowing  and  Lend- 
ing    168 

XXI.  Matthew  vi.   1-18.     True  Almsgiving — No  Compulsion  in  Religion — 

The  Meaning  of  Long  Prayers — The  Hypocrisy  of  Fasting 17G 

XXII.  Matthew  vi.  19-34.  Christ  Anxious  about  the  Heart — The  Safety  of 
Spiritual  Riches — The  Rectitude  of  Motive — Secular  Anxiety  and 
Worldly  Fear — The  Uselessness  of  Anxiety 185 

XXIII.  Matthew  vi.  24^34.     God  and  Mammon — Be  Anxious  about  the  night 

Thing — The  Healing  Power  of  Nature — Dr.  Thomas  Goodwin 195 

XXIV.  Matthew  vii.  1-6.     The  Necessity  of  Judgment — Sowing  and  Reaping 

— Censoriousness  in  the  Beam — The  Dogs  and  Swine  of   Society — 

The  Mockery  of  Love 205 

XXV.  Matthew  vii.  7-12.  The  Conditions  of  Prayer— The  Text  and  the  Con- 
text— The  Filial  Relation  to  God — Much   Given   without  Prayer — 

The  Blossom  and  Fruit  of  History 212 

XXVI.  Matthew  vii.  13,  14.     The  Straitness  of  the  Gate— Seeking  and  Not 

Entering — The  Eleventh  Commandment — The  Exhortation 223 

XXVII.  Matthew  vii.   15-29.     Hypocrisy  in  Art — Judgment  by  Fruits — Christ's 

Forecast  of  Himself 231 

XXVIII.  Matthew  vii.  24-29.  The  Omissions  of  the  Sermon — Christ's  Adapta- 
tion to  his  Audience — Caution  Against  Mere  T  '^eralism — Common 
Trials 238 

CHRIST  AS  A  PREACHER. 

I.  Christ's  Doctrine  as  a  Preacher. 

Matthew  vii.  28.     The  Preacher  Like  no  other  Man — Our  Civilisation 

an  Inheritance — Some  Badly-used  Words — The  Helpful  Preacher 249 

II.  Christ's  Object  as  a  Preacher. 

Luke  xix.  10.  Evangelical  Preaching — Christ's  Injunction  to  the 
Church — Charming  the  Poor  by  Music — The  Difficulty  of  Salvation. .. .   256 

III.  Christ's  Qualifications  as  a  Preacher. 

Isaiah  Ixi.  1.  The  Necessity  of  Character — Christ's  Intellectual  Re- 
sources— What  we  Owe  to  the  Enemy — The  Variety  of  Christ's 
Method 263 

IV.  Christ's  Texts  as  a  Preacher. 

Luke  xiv.  7.  Christ's  Way  of  Getting  Texts — Christ's  Private  Exposi- 
tions— Who  was  their  Preacher  ? — An  Appeal  to  All 271 

V.  Christ's  Failure  as  a  Preacher. 

Matthew  xiii.  58.  Sympathy  Necessary  in  Hearing — The  Perils  of  Lit- 
eralism— Christ  Declined  Applause — Spirituality  the  Supreme  Test 279 

VI.  Christ's  Success  as  a  Preacher. 

The  Universal  Preacher — Expository  Preaching — In  the  Btginiiing — The 
True  Meaning  of  Success 287 

The  Hearing  Ear. 

Mark  vii.  16.  Preparation  for  Kjaring — The  ManiuT  of  Preaching — 
Doers  not  Hearers  only 295 

A  Gospel  Parable 301 


THESE  SAYINGS  OF  MINE. 

By  JOSEPH  PARKER,  D.  D. 
VOLUME  I. 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 


EVERY     NAME     HISTORICAL  CHRIST    ALWAYS    COMING  CHRIST      COMEE 

THROUGH    ALL    SORTS    OF    PEOPLE. 

Matthew  i.  1-17. 

1.  The  book  of  the  generation  (a  Hebrew  form)  of  Jesus  Christ  (Jesus  was  a 
common  name,  but  not  Christ),  the  Son  of  David  (the  most  popular  of  his  names),  the 
son  of  Abraham. 

2.  Abraham  begat  Isaac  ;  and  Isaac  begat  Jacob  ;  and  Jacob  begat  Judas  and  his 
brethren  ; 

3.  And  Judas  begat  Phares  and  Zara  of  Thamar  (quite  exceptional  to  find  the  name 
of  a  woman  in  a  Jewish  genealogy)  ;  and  Phares  begat  Esroni  ;  and  Esrom  begat  Aram ; 

4  And  Aram  begat  Aminadab  ;  and  Aminadab  begat  Naasson  (the  brother-in-law 
of  Aaron) ;  and  Naasson  begat  Salmon  (probably  one  of  the  two  spies  saved  by  Rahab) ; 

5.  And  Salmon  begat  Booz  of  Rachab  (the  harlot  of  Jericho) ;  and  Booz  begat  Obed 
of  Ruth  (a  heathen  Moabitess)  ;  and  Obed  begat  Jesse  ; 

6.  And  Jesse  begat  David  the  king  ;  and  David  the  king  begat  Solomon  of  her  that 
had  been  the  wife  of  Urias  (the  last  woman's  name  in  the  genealogy)  ; 

7.  And  Solomon  begat  Roboam  ;  and  Roboam  begat  Abia  ;  and  Abia  begat  Asa  ; 

8.  And  Asa  begat  Josaphat  ;  and  Josaphat  begat  Joram  ;  and  Joram  begat  Ozias 
(the  Uzziah  of  the  Old  Testament)  ; 

9.  And  Ozias  begat  Joatham ;  and  Joatham  begat  Acliaz  ;  and  Achaz  begat 
Ezekias  ; 

10.  And  Ezekias  begat  Manasses ;  and  Manasses  begat  Amon ;  and  Amon  begat 
Josias  ; 

11.  And  Josias  begat  Jechonias  and  his  brethren,  about  the  time  they  were  carried 
away  to  Babylon  : 

12.  And  after  they  were  brought  to  Babylon,  Jechonias  begat  Salathiel ;  and  Sala 
thiel  begat  Zorobabel  ; 

13.  And  Zorobabel  begat  Abiud  ;  and  Abiud  begat  Eliakim  ;  and  Eliakim  begat  Azor  ; 

14.  And  Azor  begat  Sadoc  ;  and  Sadoc  begat  Achim  ;  and  Achim  begat  Eliud  ; 

15.  And  Eliud  begat  Eleazar  ;  and  Eleazar  begat  Matthan  ;  and  Matthan  begat  Jacob ; 

16.  And  Jacob  begat  Joseph  (descended  from  David  through  Rehoboam  and  Solo- 
mon) the  husband  of  Mary,  of  whom  was  born  Jesus,  who  is  called  Christ. 

17.  So  all  the  generations  from  Abraham  to  David  are  fourteen  generations  ;  and 
from  David  until  the  carrying  away  into  Babylon  are  fourteen  generations  ;  and  from 
the  carrying  away  into  Babylon  unto  Christ  are  fourteen  generations.  (So  divided 
merely  to  help  the  memory.     The  division  is  arbitrary.) 

This  is  a  genealogical  tree.  One  sometimes  wonders  why  such  lists  of 
names  are  in  a  book  which  is  specifically  known  as  a  revelation  of  the  will 


2  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

and  love  of  God.  Who  cares  to  read  a  genealogical  table  ?  Most  of  the 
names  are  unknown,  many  of  them  are  difificult  to  pronounce,  and  once 
read,  who  can  remember  a  solitary  verse  of  the  whole  catalogue  .?  Yet  the 
names  are  here,  and  if  here,  there  must  be  some  purpose  in  the  record. 
God  is  a  severe  economist  of  space  as  of  everything  else  :  he  does  not 
throw  anything  away,  though  there  may  be  wastefulness  here  and  there, 
according  to  our  present  incomplete  notions  of  things.  Fasten  your  atten- 
tion upon  this  genealogical  tree  for  the  purpose  of  studying  it  with  a  view 
of  finding  out  whether  the  matter  ends  within  this  formal  tree,  or  whether 
it  does  not  become  a  tree  that  fills  the  whole  earth  and  heaven,  yea,  and 
spreads  itself  over  all  the  spaces  and  liberties  of  the  universe. 

The  great  mistake  which  you  have  to  overcome  in  your  Christian  studies 
is,  that  Jesus  Christ  lived  within  a  few  days  only,  and  then  ceased  to  live 
upon  the  earth.  In  only  a  very  narrow  sense  is  that  true.  I  am  inter- 
ested for  the  time  being  in  learning  the  peculiar  circumstances  under 
which  my  Lord's  ministry  was  conducted.  I  am  not  unwilling  to  listen  to 
pictorial  descriptions  of  the  scenery  through  which  he  passed  :  it  gives  me 
but  momentary  delight  to  know  whether  he  spoke  in  the  sunrise  or  in  the 
sunset,  yet  I  like  to  hear  the  rhetoricians'  beautiful  way  of  setting  forth 
the  surrounding  circumstances  of  his  ministry.  But  Jesus  Christ  was  7iot 
a  figure  on  a  landscape  :  he  was  and  is  the  life  of  all  living  things.  Paint 
the  landscape  when  you  are  going  to  give  some  hint  of  mighty  discoverers 
or  warriors  or  men  of  local  and  perishable  renown  ;  the  landscape  may  be 
more  important  than  such  men  themselves  were  within  the  immediate  lines 
of  their  earthly  history  ;  but  in  the  case  of  Jesus  Christ  I  want  nothing  but 
Christ  :  I  want  the  landscape  to  fade  away  into  an  invisible  fleck,  and 
nothing  to  be  seen  but  the  CHRIST,  filling  all  things  and  making  all 
things  look  small  under  his  infinite  presence. 

We  speak  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  historical  character.  In  no  such  sense 
can  I  be  constrained  to  speak  of  him  except  for  momentary  convenience. 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  contemporary  of  all  ages.  He  is  living  as  certainly  j 
upon  the  earth  as  he  ever  lived  in  Nazareth.  He  is  the  Man  of  to-day, 
and  there  is  no  man  beside.  All  good  things  flow  from  him,  all  beauty  \ 
takes  the  hue  of  its  tenderest  colour  from  his  countenance,  and  all  strength 
is  but  a  flash  and  throb  of  his  almightiness.  It  is  in  this  way  that  I  study 
Christ,  and  it  is  so  that  we  come  to  live  upon  most  intimate  terms,  so  that 
every  day  he  baptizes  me  with  his  blood,  and  I  besprinkle  him  with  my 
tears.  Do  not  go  to  the  grave  to  find  Christ  :  you  will  only  find  an  angel 
there  who  says,  "  He  is  not  here,  he  is  risen."  That  is  the  daily  speech 
-  which  may  be  made  about  Christ :  he  is  risen,  so  as  to  claim  a  still  higher 
place  in  the  attention  and  confidence  of  men,  so  as  to  fill  a  wider  place, 
so  as  to  claim  a  higher,  stronger  throne — alway  rising.  The  resurrection 
is  not  a  miracle,  measurable  within  five  seconds,  or  within  the  twinkling 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  3 

of   an  eye — it  is  the  perpetual   miracle  of   truth    and  purity  and  divine 
life. 

Realize  the  ncarijcss  of  Christ.     Do  not  vex  your  souls  by  thinking  that  / 
he  lived  centuries  since.     The  centuries  have  nothing  to  do  witli  his  life  I 
except  to  continue  it,  and  to  open  up  some  new  unfoldment  of  its  infinite  j 
compass  and  resource.     I   will  say  to  my  soul — Thy   Saviour  is  looking  \y 
upon  thee  :  he  is  Avatching  all  thy  growth,  he  is  sending  his  daily  blessings 
upon  thee,  he  is  alway  dying,  alway  rising,  alway  interceding — a  contradic- 
tion it  may  be  in  literal  words,  but  the  soul  that  has  passed  through  the 
mystery  of  that  agony  which   is  birth,  will   understand   that   amid  all  this 
contradiction  of  letters  there  is  a  solid  and  melodious  reconciliation  and 
unity  of  meaning. 

Every  name  is  more  or  less  historical.  Even  your  obscure  name  has 
around  it  a  little  circle  of  associations  peculiarly  and  incommunicably  its 
own.  What  we  call  obscurity  is  only  a  relative  term.  God  knows  all  the 
insects  that  are  in  the  air  :  all  the  ephemera  that  are  born  in  the  sunbeam 
and  that  die  in  the  moment  of  their  birth,  he  registers  in  his  great  record. 
Do  not  say  it  does  not  matter  what  you,  so  little,  obscure,  unknown  and 
socially  contemptible,  do.  Every  atom  has  its  own  shadow,  every  life  has 
its  own  charge,  and  because  you  are  obscure  and  uninfluential  now,  it  does  ' 
not  follow  that  you  need  be  so  in  the  lapse  of  time.  Besides  that,  consider  , 
your  son.  Sometimes  a  great  figure  stands  upon  a  common  and  rough  ^ 
pedestal  :  who  can  tell  the  name  of  the  father  and  mother  of  Moses  ?  Yet 
Moses  stands  up  in  the  gallery  of  history  the  most  towering  and  inde- 
structible figure.  Do  not  let  us  therefore  look  at  our  own  personal  stand- 
ing alone  :  we  cannot  tell  what  lives  we  may  be,  under  God,  creating, 
guiding,  stimulating,  blessing.  AVe  may  bless  others  by  sympathy,  we  may 
help  the  great  by  prayer  :  many  an  obscure  suppliant  gladdened  the  great 
heart  of  Paul  by  nothing  but  simple,  loving  intercession  for  him,  that  he 
might  set  his  feet  upon  the  neck  of  his  enemies  and  be  crowned  with  the 
glory  of  Christ's  honour. 

Some  of  these  names  were  in  the  direct  line  of  the  royal  succession,  and 
some  come  into  the  genealogical  table,  as  it  were  indirectly,  so  that  com- 
mentators have  to  pause  in  their  annotations  and  wonder  how  such  and 
such  names  came  into  the  genealogical  table  at  all.  We  are  soon  puzzled 
by  divine  providences — things  do  not  always  fall  into  easy  straight  lines  ; 
life  is  a  complication,  a  problem,  a  difficulty.  Now  and  again  we  catch  a 
clue,  and  think  we  can  unwind  the  whole,  and  presently  we  come  to  a  knot 
which  we  cannot  disentangle,  and  which  it  would  be  impious  to  attempt  to 
cut.  You  know  not  what  your  incidental  and  indirect  relations  to  the 
great  lines  of  history  are.  You  may  be  startled  some  day  to  find  how 
much  you  have  been  and  how  much  you  have  done.     And  when  you  ask 


^  THESE    SAVINGS    OK    .MINE. 

how  it  is  that  this  sudden  renown  has  brought  upon  you  the  flame  of 
[  I  immortality,  the  answer  may  be  this  :  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of 
'  '  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  did  it  unto  me."  Do  not  say  that  yo 
are  not  upon  the  great  lines  of  history,  that  you  are  not  tributaries  to  the 
great  river  that  seems  to  fray  for  itself  an  infinite  channel  through  the 
earth,  and  pours  its  noble  waters  into  a  great  sea.  All  rills  trickle  into 
the  rivers.  There  is  a  royalty  of  mind  as  well  as  a  royalty  of  blood. 
There  is  a  royalty  of  behaviour  as  well  as  a  royalty  of  descent.  The 
question  for  each  of  us  to  consider  is,  whether  we  are  acting  up  to  the 
measure  of  our  endowment  and  responsibility,  and  having  answered  that 
question  in  the  affirmative,  all  the  rest  will  be  settled  by  the  Supreme 
Power. 

These  words  are  spoken  that  I  may  break  the  spell  of  delusion  and  self- 
despair  under  which  some  men  may  be  suffering.  Do  Ave  not  all  suffer 
from  that  unhappy  spell  sometimes  ?  Now  and  again  we  say.  "  Let  the 
gourd  wither,  and  let  me  cease  to  live,  for  all  my  efforts  are  bat  beatings 
of  the  air,  and  I  seem  to  have  no  relation  to  the  great  currents  and  swift 
deep  movements  of  Divine  Providence — and  why  I  am  here  at  all  I  cannot 
tell  :  would  God  the  sleeping  hour  would  come,  when  I  might  fall  off  into 
an  everlasting  self-oblivion  !  "  It  is  foolish  talk.  The  very  least  of  us  has 
a  mission  to  fulfil,  a  function  to  discharge,  a  reward  to  secure.  Let  me 
then,  as  an  apostle  of  Christ,  call  upon  myself,  upon  every  other  soul,  to 
seize  the  privilege  and  magnify  the  office  to  which  we  are  called  by  the 
All-wise  and  All-good  Creator. 

'  All  generations  travail  in  birth  with  one  greater  than  themselves.  The 
great  man  is  not  yet  come,  he  is  always  coming.  The  Son  of  Man  has 
come  ?  Yes,  but  not  in  his  glory.  Christ  has  come  ?  Yes,  but  in  his 
everyday  clothes,  to  begin  his  work,  to  give  the  earnest  of  his  blood — but 
he  is  always  coming.  That  was  the  explanation  of  apostolic  fire  and  un- 
quenchable enthusiasm,  and  it  must  be  the  explanation  of  the  inspiring 
force  under  which  our  own  life  is  stirred  and  whirled  in  its  daily  course. 
I  am  always  looking  for  and  hastening  to  the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
will  never  come  as  a  man.  He  will  come  with  a  new  coming,  wider  and 
more  beautiful  and  satisfying  than  as  a  visible  figure.  Let  those  ex- 
plain the  meaning  of  such  terms,  who  have  felt  what  it  is  to  have  the 
heart  move  to  apprehensions  and  seizures  of  realities  for  which  there  are 
no  words.  "Thy  kingdom  come."  Do  I  thus  pray  for  some  great  square 
figure  to  fall  out  of  the  blue  heavens  and  establish  itself  upon  wheels  to 
roll  round  the  earth  ?  I  pray,  rather,  for  the  infinite  domination  of  ideas, 
purposes,  and  intentions  of  the  most  elevated  and  sacred  kind.  When 
Christianity  comes,  Christ  will  come  :  when  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  has 
established  itself  upon  the  earth,  then  tell  the  heavens  that  the  arrival  has 


THESE    SAVINGS    OF    MINE.  5 

been  completed,  and  that  earth  is  just  outside  heaven,  sunned  with  all  its 
light,  and  made  tuneful  with  all  its  music. 

I  find  from  these  genealogical  records  that  the  most  illustrious  lines 
often  dip  into  strange  places  and  seem  to  become  lost  in  great  moral 
swamps,  so  much  so  that  it  appears  to  be  impossible  they  can  ever  be 
found  again  and  re-united.  There  is  many  a  bad  man  in  this  list.  There 
are  men  here  who  have  broken  all  the  commandments  of  God.  There  are 
women  here  who  have  done  the  same.  And  yet  the  grand  purpose  moves 
on  :  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  men's  hands  to  break  the  threads  of  the  divine 
purpose  and  scheme.  The  Saviour  comes,  notwithstanding  at  times  the 
whole  history  seems  to  be  depraved  and  utterly  lost.  I  remark  upon  this 
fact  the  more  pathetically  because  'it  is  even  so  in  the  individual  life. 
Sometimes  we  find  ourselves  where  it  seems  to  be  impossible  that  God  can 
ever  find  us  more.  Yet  the  life  is  redeemed  with  great  cost  to  God,  for  he 
pays  blood  for  blood,  but  his  redeemed  ones  are  not  given  over  to  the 
power  of  the  destroyer.  Cast  down,  but  not  destroyed  ;  smitten  on  the 
cheekbone,  but  not  forsaken  ;  cursing,  swearing,  denying  Christ  with  oaths 
and  blasphemy,  flat,  black — and  then  saying,  "  Lord,  thou  knowest  all 
things,  thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee."  As  the  predicted  man  camel 
through  all  the  troubled  lines,  now  illustrious  witli  moral  purity,  now 
shamed  with  infinite  disgrace,  so  through  my  life  and  thine,  with  all  their 
slips  and  falls,  their  mighty  prayers  and  horrible  blasphemies,  our  better 
self  shall  come,  the  saint  that  is  in  us  shall  be  delivered  and  nourished  and 
perfected,  and  through  our  ungainly  life,  most  depraved  and  occasionally 
most  loathsome,  there  shall  come  that  glorious  body,  that  shining  self, 
which  is  like  Christ. 

As  I  read  this  genealogy,  I  feci  how  true  it  is  that  grace  is  not  hereditary. 
The  good  man,  so  good  as  to  be  almost  an  angel,  has  a  son  that  shames 
the  very  genius  of  decency  and  insults  with  violence  the  very  spirit  of 
righteousness.  This  is  a  great  mystery,  that  a  mother,  whose  voice  the 
angels  might  well  mistake  for  a  voice  of  their  own,  gives  birth  to  a  son  that 
breaks  her  heart  with  his  great  wickedness.  And  a  more  astounding  won- 
der still  that  a  man  whose  name  is  a  disgrace  to  humanity  shall  have  a 
daughter  beautiful  as  an  angel,  a  son  both  philosopher  and  saint.  Despise 
no  man,  blame  no  man,  for  circumstances  over  which  he  had  no  control, 
and  praise  no  man  for  advantages  which  were  thrust  upon  him  without  any 
spontaneity  on  his  own  part.  Remember  what  your  children  may  be  ; 
though  oftentimes  your  minds  become  shocked  and  confounded  because  it 
seems  as  if  the  divine  purpose  were  broken  off,  know  that  God  is  at  the 
head,  and  through  all  the  process  of  the  suns,  his  grand  purpose  is  develop- 
ing and  widening  itself.  Judge  not  by  the  accident  ;  do  not  come  to 
broad  genepalizations  upon  the  circumstance  of  the  passing  moment  ;  re- 
member that  all  history,  all  time,  all  influences  are  under  divine  moulding 


-J 


6  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

and  direction,  and  when  God  says  "  It  is  finished,"  he  and  the  universe 
may  hold  quiet  and  solemn  Sabbath  together. 

In  reading  further  these  genealogical  records,  I  find  that  Jesus  Christ 
cavic  through  all  sorts  of  people.  If  I  were  minded  to  challenge  him,  I  could 
upbraid  him  with  some  names  that  are  here,  and  with  cruel  taunting  I  could 
add  bitterness  to  his  cup.  He  tells  me  that  he  came  through  all  sorts  to 
all  sorts.  It  must  be  so  with  your  life,  if  you  are  to  be  a  great  minister  of 
God.  You  must  not  belong  to  any  one  class.  You  must  have  been  de- 
praved in  your  ancestors,  however  holy  you  are  in  yourself.  O  thou  Son 
of  Man,  I  have  found  thee,  ancestrally,  in  the  very  pit  of  shame.  What  a 
history  lay  behind  him  :  how  he  brought  it  all  up  into  one  focus  and  lived 
it  over  again  in  his  tender  sympathy,  his  universal  understanding  of  human 
want,  and  his  infinite  beneficence  whilst  ministering  to  all  classes  of  human 
kind.  O  thou  art  my  preacher  who  comest  up  to  every  mood  of  my  soul, 
so  that  when  I  am  less  than  beast,  thou  knowest  how  to  speak  to  me,  and 
nearly  angel,  thou  canst  accost  me  in  the  better  tongue. 

This  is  the  Christ  that  we  preach,  the  Christ  who  came  through  all  sorts 
of  people,  that  he  might  teach  and  bless  all  sorts  of  people,  so  that  you, 
wise  sage,  can  go  to  him  and  find  that  your  ingenuity  is  a  blunder  and  your 
profundity  the  shallowest  of  surfaces — so  that  you,  poor  sinner,  can  go  to 
him,  and  find  him  girded  with  a  towel,  ready  to  wash  with  water  or  with 
blood  the  stain  that  no  other  but  himself  can  ever  reach.  And  you  too, 
little  child,  dear  sweet  little  girl  or  boy,  you  can  go  to  him,  for  he  himself 
was  the  Child  Jesus,  and  he  knows  everything  that  swells  the  child's  breast 
and  makes  the  child's  eyes  glisten  and  the  child's  soul  laugh  with  glee. 
Behold,  this  is  no  class-man,  no  local  deity,  no  special  missionary,  no  man 
who  can  speak  in  one  language  only.  His  tabernacle  is  in  the  sun,  and  his 
speech  as  impartial  and  universal  as  the  wind. 

In  looking  still  further  into  this  genealogical  table,  I  find  that  Jesus 
Christ  did  not  always  come  through  the  eldest  sons.  Some  of  these  names 
are  the  names  of  the  eldest  sons  of  their  families  and  some  are  younger 
sons.  God  will  not  be  bounded  in  his  movements  by  our  little  laws  of 
primogeniture  and  precedency.  To-day  he  says,  "  I  will  go  through  the 
eldest  son  ;"  next  time  he  says,  "  Younger  son,  come,  I  will  elect  thee."  And 
thus  he  moves,  not  by  our  ceremonial  arrangements,  but  by  a  grandeur  and 
a  sweep  of  movement  which  takes  in  all  elements  and  all  arrangements  of 
human  life,  and  gives  a  tender  sanctity  to  the  things  that  we  often  foolishly 
despise. 

The  question  has  arisen  again  and  again  as  I  have  been  perusing  this 
genealogical  table.  Why  did  not  Jesus  Christ  come  earlier  2  Thus  I  come 
upon  a  mystery  in  Divine  Providence.  Jesus  Christ  came  before  he  came 
in  the  flesh.  I  want  you,  therefore,  to  recall  the  very  first  lesson  of  the 
morning,  that  as  he  comes  now,  since  his  flesh  was  buried,  so  he  came  be- 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  7 

fore  his  incarnation  in  Bethlehem.  Said  he,  "Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  my 
day."  As  a  Guest,  a  nameless  Presence,  a  wrestling  Angel,  a  Cloud  by  day, 
a  Fire  by  night,  an  Eye  in  the  wheels  of  the  chariots  of  Israel,  in  a  thou- 
sand ways  he  came  to  the  olden  church,  in  a  thousand  ways  he  comes  to 
the  baptized  church  of  to-day.  Have  all  your  doors  and  windows  open, 
for  you  cannot  tell  by  what  means  he  will  find  access  to  your  individual 
I  life  or  to  your  organized  existence  as  churches.  Be  ready  for  him.  What 
I  say  unto  one  I  say  unto  all,  Watch. 

Let  me  say  that  there  is  a  record  in  which  even  our  names  may  all  be 
found.  Rejoice  not  that  the  spirits  are  subject  unto  you,  but  rather  re- 
joice because  your  names  are  written  in  heaven.  Let  every  soul  remember 
that  his  name  may  be  written  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  Life.  When  the 
Saviour  was  told  that  his  mother  and  other  relatives  stood  without,  desir- 
ing to  see  him,  he  said,  "  Who  is  my  mother  and  who  are  my  brethren  ? 
Whosoever  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  the  same  is  my 
mother,  and  sister,  and  brother."  So  we  may  all  be  in  the  genealogical 
tree  of  which  he  is  the  root  :  we  may  all  be  in  the  great  sky,  as  little  stars 
indeed,  of  wluch  he  is  the  central  and  inextinguishable  glory. 


II. 

Christ's   birth  always  a  miracle — the  garden  of  eden — the  per- 
plexity OF  JOSEPH the  ministry   OF    DREAMS REVIEW  OF  THE  CHAP- 

-j-ER GENESIS       AND    MATTHEW     COMPARED MATTER    ORDERED  :     MAN 

EDUCATED THE    MORAL  VALUE  OF    TIME THE  REASON    OF    DIVINE    DE- 
LAY  THE  TWO  BEGINNINGS  ARE  ONE. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  who  can  speak  like  thee  ?  There  is  music  in  thy  voice  and  there 
is  infinite  tenderness  in  every  tone  which  thou  dost  breathe  into  tlie  listening  heart. 
Thy  words  are  full  of  hope  :  thou  dost  bring  a  great  brightness  to  shine  upon  our 
dark  life,  and  in  many  a  prophetic  word  thou  dost  cause  us  to  forecast  the  morning 
and  rejoice  in  the  broad  light  of  boundless  day.  Thou  hast  never  withheld  the  word 
of  hope  from  the  race  of  mankind.  In  the  hour  of  sadness  and  intolerable  depres- 
sion thou  hast  caused  thy  voice  to  be  heard,  promising  that  the  light  shall  come  and 
that  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  fill  the  earth.  We  bless  thee  that  we  have  seen  the 
fulfilment  of  thy  promises  :  we  live  in  the  cloudless  noontide  :  Jesus  Christ  thy  Son, 
our  Saviour,  ha£  come  in  all  the  plenitude  of  his  redeeming  power,  and  after  his  de- 
scent upon  us  there  can  be  no  more  night  on  earth.  May  we  receive  him  as  men  re- 
ceive the  light  who  have  been  long  waiting  for  it  :  worn  out,  wearied,  and  sleep- 
bound,  we  rejoice  when  thou  dost  come  to  us  with  rest,  security,  and  peace.  We  re- 
joice when  the  light  calls  us  to  renewed  duty  and  to  rekindled  hope.  May  the  Sou  of 
the  Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace,  the  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords  be  born 
again  in  our  hearts  every  day.  May  our  breasts  be  the  Bethlehem  of  his  incarnation, 
and  may  our  life  be  the  sphere  of  his  illuminating  and  redeeming  ministry. 

For  his  great  glad  words  we  bless  thee  :  they  are  sweeter  to  our  taste  than  honey, 
yea  than  the  honeycomb.  For  his  simple  but  infinite  sayings  that  touch  our  whole 
life  how  can  we  praise  thee  enough?  We  live  upon  them  as  upon  living  bread  sent 
down  from  heaven  ;  they  are  our  joy  and  song,  they  are  our  strength  and  security, 
they  are  the  answer  to  every  hard  question,  they  are  the  light  which  turns  every 
mystery  into  a  blessing.  We  assemble  around  his  cross,  we  see  the  tragedy  of  his 
suffering,  we  feel  the  meaning  of  his  agony — it  was  for  us  he  thus  endured  the  cursed 
tree,  he  was  delivered  for  our  offences,  he  suffered,  the  Just  for  the  unjust.  Ever- 
more draw  us  away  with  infinite  constraint  of  love  from  the  foolish  delusion  that  we 
could  have  saved  ourselves,  bind  us  with  ever  deepening  and  ever  purifying  loyalty 
to  Jesus  Christ,  our  only  Saviour,  infinite  in  his  redeeming  power. 

We  need  this  gospel  all  our  life  long,  but  specially  in  hours  of  agony  when  our  sin 
is  heavy  upon  us  and  our  remorse  doth  eat  as  a  canker  and  our  conscience  is  as  a  flam- 
ing fire  within  us,  and  all  life  gathers  itself  up  into  an  unanswerable  accusation.  Then 
may  we  hide  ourselves  in  thy  wounded  side,  Messiah,  Son  of  God.  We  humbly  im- 
plore thee  to  guide  us  during  our  life.  It  is  a  life  that  is  reckoned  in  days  :  behold  it  is 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  9 

in  the  power  of  man  to  tell  us  Low  mauy  breaths  there  are  in  our  seventy  years.  We 
count  our  small  life  by  its  single  respirations — we  liuow  not  that  we  may  ever  draw 
another  breath.  Our  house  is  built  half  over  the  grave,  and  at  any  time  the  other 
half  may  be  engulfed  in  the  great  tomb.  Help  us  then  to  live  wisely,  with  sobriety 
of  heart,  with  dignity  of  purpose,  with  obedience  of  will,  having  no  will  or  mind  of 
our  own,  but  seeking  to  live  thy  will  and  to  breathe  all  thy  purpose.  Thou  didst 
make  u.s  and  not  we  ourselves  :  we  are  thine,  we  are  not  our  own,  therefore  would 
we  resign  to  thee  that  which  never  belonged  to  us,  and  our  prayer  would  sum  itself 
up  in  this  one  desire,  namely,  not  my  will  but  thiue  be  done. 

Thou  hast  clothed  us  with  great  and  terrible  power  ;  thou  hast  enabled  us  to  blas- 
pheme thy  name  ;  thou  hast  so  made  us  that  we  can  curse  thee  to  thy  face  ;  thou  hast 
given  us  that  power,  almost  divine,  which  enables  us  to  lift  ourselves  up  in  haughty 
pride  and  daring,  so  that  we  may  challenge  thy  supremacy.  We  have  played  the 
actor  well  ;  our  hypocrisy  has  been  a  life-long  success  ;  we  have  spoken  the  language 
of  selfishness  with  the  accent  of  sacrifice  ;  we  have  hidden  the  gems  and  the  garments 
we  have  stolen,  and  our  wealth  is  a  great  theft.  Behold  our  life  lies  naked  before 
thee,  a  throbbing,  black,  horrible  lie.  Our  prayers  are  aggravations,  and  our  piety 
but  a  refined  sin.  O  thou  who  hast  the  atoning  blood,  the  riven  heart,  out  of  which 
alone  there  streams  the  river  that  can  cleanse  the  defilement  of  mankind — let  us  know 
the  cleansing  power  of  that  precious  blood. 

We  put  ourselves  and  one  another  confidently  and  affectionately  into  thine  hands  : 
deal  with  us  as  thou  dost  see  best :  keep  us  here  or  send  us  yonder  as  may  be  right 
in  thy  sight,  not  in  ours.  Make  our  house  larger  and  multiply  our  estate  greatly,  or 
diminish  both  and  send  us  into  blankness  and  poverty,  if  it  be  for  our  soul's  health. 
Grant  unto  our  counsels  and  devices  great  success  and  abundant  honour,  or  drive  them 
all  back  again  into  our  open  windows  that  they  may  be  ours  without  result,  if  so  be 
our  life  may  thereby  be  saved. 

Pity  us  in  our  distresses,  laugh  not  at  us  from  the  heavens  derisively  when  we  try 
to  climb  and  then  ignominiously  fall,  but  lift  us  with  strong  and  healing  hands  and 
set  us  where  thou  wouldst  have  us  be,  and  not  our  will  but  thine  be  done,  again  and 
again  we  say.     We  have  no  better  prayer  :  it  is  not  ours,  it  is  thy  Son's.     Amen. 

Matthew  ii.  18-25. 

18.  Now  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ  was  on  this  wise  :  When  as  his  mother  Mary 
(probably  an  orphan,  as  her  parents  are  not  roentioned)  was  espoiTsed  (for  a  whole 
year  during  which  the  bride  and  bridegroom  elect  did  not  meet)  to  Joseph,  before  they 
came  together,  she  was  found  with  child  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

19.  Then  Jose^ih  her  husband  (so  called  among  the  Jews  from  the  moment  of  be- 
trothal), being  a  just  man,  and  not  willing  to  make  her  a  public  example,  was  minded 
to  put  her  away  privily. 

20.  But  while  he  thought  (was  distracted  and  perplexed)  on  these  things,  behold, 
the  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  unto  him  in  a  dream,  saying,  Joseph,  thou  son  of  Da- 
vid, fear  not  to  take  unto  thee  Mary  thy  Avife  :  for  that  which  is  conceived  (begotten) 
in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

21.  And  she  shall  bring  forth  a  son,  and  thou  shalt  call  his  name  JESUS  (not  yet 
a  specially  sacred  name) ;  for  he  shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins. 

22.  Now  all  this  was  done,  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  of  the  Lord 
by  the  prophet,  saying  : 

23.  Behold,  a  virgin  [r}  irapBsvo? — tJie  Yivgin,  or  "even  a  virgin"]  shall  be  with 
child,  and  shall  bring  forth  a  son,  and  they  shall  call  his  name  Emmanuel,  which 
being  interpreted  is,  God  with  us. 


lO  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

24.  Then  JosepTi,  being  raised  from  sleep,  did  as  tlie  angel  of  the  Lord  had  bidden 
him,  and  took  unto  him  his  wife  : 

25.  And  knew  her  not  till  she  had  brought  forth  her  first-born  son  :  and  he  called 
his  name  JESUS. 

From  this  time  human  history  takes  a  new  departure.  How  otherwise 
would  you  have  Christ  come  ?  You  suggest  a  difficulty  or  two  as  to  the 
acceptance  of  the  story  we  have  read  :  will  you  be  good  enough  to  sug- 
gest another  story  by  which  we  shall  escape  all  difficulty,  the  object  being 
to  bring  into  the  human  race  a  man  different  from  all  other  men,  and  yet  a 
Saviour  and  Redeemer  of  all  mankind  ?  How  will  you  escape  difficulty 
in  carrying  out  that  grand  design  ?  It  is  not  enough  for  us  to  criticise  the 
method  by  which  Jesus  Christ  was  declared  to  have  come  into  the  world  ; 
we  ought  to  go  one  step  further  if  we  can,  and  that  is  to  suggest  a  method 
which  would  have  been  clear  of  every  difficulty,  and  which  yet  would  have 
obviously  covered  the  whole  ground  and  accomplished  the  one  supreme 
design.  We  are  awaiting  suggestions  ;  as  soon  as  the  right  ones  come  we 
shall  know  them  :  we  cannot  mistake  true  music,  we  shall  know  whether 
the  wind  comes  along  the  earth  and  brings  the  earth's  dust  with  it,  or 
whether  it  comes  resoundingly  from  the  heavens  and  brings  with  it  voices 
and  utterances  of  the  upper  and  better  world.  Observe  what  had  to  be 
done  :  a  Redeemer  like  ourselves  in  all  points  had  to  be  introduced  into 
the  race,  and  yet  so  unlike  us  as  to  be  wholly  separate  from  sinners.  Put 
that  problem  distinctly  before  your  mind,  and  answer  how  it  could  have 
been  accomplished  as  a  grand  historical  success,  except  on  the  basis  which 
is  laid  down  in  the  Evangelic  narrative. 

Wherever  Christ  is  born  it  is  a  miracle.  When  he  is  born  in  us  it  is  by  a 
miraculous  conception.  You  do  not  suppose  that  a  man  becomes  a 
Christian  by  some  simple  and  obvious  method  which  anybody  can  suggest 
and  which  any  mind  can  fathom  and  understand  ?  When  Christ  is  born  in 
your  heart  and  mine,  precisely  the  same  operation  is  gone  through  as  is  in- 
dicated in  this  opening  chapter  of  the  gospel.  It  is  an  unexpected  event, 
it  is  an  event  brought  about  by  the  overshadowing  and  ministry  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  It  is  associated  with  ineffable  joy,  it  enlists  the  co-operation 
of  the  angels  in  lifting  up  our  gladness  to  its  true  pitch  of  utterance.  The 
language  of  the  gospel  is  only  romantic  and  intellectually  distressing  to 
those  who  bring  to  bear  upon  it  nothing  but  the  effort  of  an  unassisted 
mind.  Regarded  sympathetically,  seized  emotionally,  read  in  the  light  of 
our  own  individual  experience,  no  other  language  can  so  adequately  and 
correctly  set  forth  the  infinite  wonder  and  the  ineffable  emotion  as  that 
which  we  find  in  the  gospel  story.  Moreover,  it  is  in  the  line  of  the  divine 
development,  it  is  in  harmony  with  the  creation  of  the  first  Adam  :  out  of 
the  dust  was  brought  the  man,  out  of  the  man  was  brought  the  woman,  out 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  I£ 

of  the  woman  was  brought  the  Son,  out  of  the  Son  is  brought  the  Church, 
which  is  his  body,  the  glory  of  his  ministry,  the  conquest  of  his  almighty 
arm.  It  is  all  one  line,  beginning  in  the  dust,  ending  where  God  ends,  a 
development  historical,  gradual,  sequential,  complete.  In  very  deed,  great 
is  the  mystery  of  godliness. 

Human  history  then,  I  repeat,  breaks  away  into  a  new  line  at  this 
point,  namely,  the  i8th  verse  of  the  first  chapter  of  the  gospel  by  Matthew. 
The  great  exception  takes  place  here.  From  this  moment  human  history 
has  an  upward  direction,  and  focalises  itself  in  a  personality  hitherto  but 
dimly  indicated  by  the  voice  of  often  enigmatical  prophecy.  There  are 
such  distinct  points  of  departure  in  your  life  and  mine.  The  point  of 
departure,  therefore,  given  by  the  Evangelist,  ought  not  to  startle  us  as 
though  it  had  no  analogy  or  confirmation  in  human  experience.  I  object 
to  the  law  which  says  that  it  can  receive  nothing  that  has  not  a  counterpart 
in  human  consciousness  and  experience,  because  human  consciousness  and 
experience  may  yet  have  themselves  to  enlarge  :  they  have  not  reached  the 
highest  and  last  point  of  their  own  development.  On  the  other  hand,  I 
would  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  are  a  great  many  things  within 
human  consciousness  and  experience  which  are  not  distinctly  recognised 
as  being  there.  Why  recoil  from  the  first  chapter  of  the  book  of  Genesis 
or  the  first  chapter  of  the  gospel  by  Matthew  ?  If  I  regard  these  chapters 
in  a  merely  literal  and  verbal  way,  I  am  filled  with  distress.  If  I  regard 
them  sympathetically,  and  in  the  light  of  what  takes  place  in  the  dim  sanc- 
tuary of  my  own  consciousness,  I  understand  them  every  whit.  That  sub- 
tle old  serpent,  the  devil,  has  talked  to  me.  I  do  not  ask  the  naturalist  to 
tell  me  whether,  by  the  conformation  of  the  serpent's  mouth,  it  was  possi- 
ble for  the  serpent  to  practise  the  utterance  of  articulate  language  :  that  is 
the  question  of  a  mountebank.  The  serpent  has  spoken  with  fatal  elo- 
quence to  every  man  amongst  us.  Object  to  the  figure,  if  you  like,  but 
the  grim,  stern,  damning  fact  remains.  And  as  to  the  tree  in  the  midst  of 
the  garden,  and  the  fiery,  flaming  sword  and  guarding  cherubim,  I  know 
them.  It  is  impossible  to  get  back  to  the  lost  chance,  it  is  impossible  to 
sponge  out  one  spot  of  crime,  it  is  impossible  to  find  the  way  to  the  tree 
we  have  once  despoiled.  To  try  it  is  to  fight  with  fire,  and  the  fire  roots 
itself  in  the  inextinguishable  furnaces  of  the  divine  anger. 

And  in  very  deed,  if  I  go  further  back  still,  and  think  of  man  being  shaped 
out  of  the  dust,  I  know  it :  I  feel  the  dust,  I  feel  the  Deity  too.  I  know  it 
must  have  been  out  of  the  deepest  dust  of  the  earth  some  parts  of  my  nature 
were  made,  and  I  also  know  that  there  burns  within  me  a  fire  which  mly  God 
could  have  lighted.  Observe,  therefore,  that  I  do  not  go  back  with  the  gram- 
marian and  the  pedantic  etymologist  and  ask  those  teachers  to  be  kind 
enough  to  explain  to  me  the  opening  chapters  of  Genesis  or  the  opening 
chapters  of  human  life  in  any  of  its  grand  beginnings  and  developings.     I 


f2  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

go  down  there  alone,  all  silent,  all  wondering,  and  myself  is  the  best  anno- 
tation. So  it  is  with  this  opening  chapter  of  the  gospel  of  Matthew. 
Jesus  Christ  is  born  in  me,  and  a  new  departure  is  taken  in  my  life  by  pro- 
cesses which  can  never  be  explained  in  words.  In  your  development  from 
infancy  to  spiritual  manhood  there  comes  in  the  story  this  all-separating 
— "  NOW."  When  did  it  enter  ?  You  cannot  tell.  The  chronometer  has 
not  yet  been  made  that  indicates  these  millionths  of  seconds  in  which 
great  divine  ministrations  accomplish  themselves  in  births  that  have  no 
deaths.  Have  we  passed  from  death  unto  life  ?  Has  Christ  been  born  in 
us  the  hope  of  glory  ? 

Read  the  chapter  still  further  until  you  see  the  wonderful  union  in  Christ 
of  the  human  and  the  divine — the  human  on  the  mother's  side,  the  divine 
as  indicated  by  the  mysterious  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  was  no 
imaginary  Mary.  This  literal  history  was  required  in  order  to  vindicate 
her  memory  from  the  charge  of  her  being  a  merely  dramatic  woman.  She 
was  real,  like  ourselves,  one  of  us  ;  she  lived  the  common  human  life,  wept 
the  common  human  tears,  enjoyed  the  same  enjoyments  that  fall  to  our 
lot :  there  is  enough  said  about  her  in  the  gospels  to  prove  the  pure  human 
nature  of  the  woman,  and  little  enough  said  about  her  not  to  magnify  her 
into  a  feminine  god.  She  is  here  long  enough  to  be  seen,  understood, 
spoken  about,  attested,  initialled  by  every  witness  that  knows  human  na- 
ture, and  behold  she  is  gone  !  The  mother  of  Emmanuel  must  not  remain 
too  long :  she  must  be  before  my  eye  long  enough  for  me  to  know  that  she 
is  Mary,  and  none  other  :  not  a  theatrical  woman  or  a  paper  minister,  con- 
ceived by  the  wild  imagination  of  a  delirious  theology,  but  a  WOMAN,  a 
sister,  a  friend,  a  sufferer,  a  loving  one — and  then  she  must  go,  and  I  can- 
not tell  how.  Buried  without  a  funeral,  buried  without  a  grave,  buried 
without  an  epitaph — gone,  and  the  eye  cannot  follow  the  swift  movement 
of  her  translation. 

As  for  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  begins  and  ends  in  the  word 
miracle.  Yet  it,  too,  is  a  miracle  which  has  its  correspondence  in  our  own 
nature.  I  cannot  tell  the  source  of  my  prayers.  AVhen  I  pray  with  you, 
it  is  not  I  praying,  it  is  a  voice  I  never  heard  before  in  that  same  tone. 
When  I  close  my  eyes  to  lead  you  upward,  is  it  by  some  utterance  I  have 
committed  to  memory,  some  paragraphs  I  have  formulated  in  the  library, 
some  sentences  I  have  caught  and  detained  as  friends  ?  God  forbid.  // 
is  a  hirth  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  poor  words,  half  dumb,  and  trembling 
through  and  through  with  a  throb  of  conscious  weakness,  may  be  partly 
mine,  but  the  thing  they  labour  to  say  I  know  not.  Can  you  tell  me  the 
genesis,  and  give  me  the  roots  and  starting  fibres  of  all  the  purposes  that 
have  distinguished  your  life  and  made  it  as  a  flame  of  sacred  fire,  burning 
upward  unto  the  heavens  ?  You  can  rehearse  to  me  the  history  of  your 
commerce,  and  even  that  you  can  give  in  some  instances  only  in  part,  for 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  I^ 

you  know  not  whence  the  brightest  suggestions  came.  You  can  tell  me 
somewhat  of  the  outward  history  of  your  life  and  body  during  the  day — 
as  to  where  you  have  been  and  partly  what  you  have  seen  ;  but  even  then 
the  story  is  remarkable  mainly  for  its  incompleteness.  Behind,  and  around, 
and  above  there  are  forces  and  ministries  which  have  entered  as  living  fac- 
tors in  all  you  have  done,  for  which  you  have  no  name — forces  that  have 
broken  your  thigh  in  the  night's  wrestling,  but  left  you  in  the  morning  with 
a  nobler  name. 

Such  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  not  to  be  settled  in  language. 
The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof ; 
thou  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it  goeth  ;  so  is  every  one 
that  is  born  of  the  Spirit.  We  prove  our  birth,  we  do  not  explain  it.  I 
cannot  tell  you  how  I  came  to  be  ;  the  Lord  help  every  one  of  us  to  vin- 
dicate his  being  by  temper  pure  as  fire,  by  love  noble  as  sacrifice  ! 

There  was  one  man  who  looked  on  with  great  wonder.  All  the  ages 
have  crowded  around  that  man,  and,  so  to  speak,  have  thronged  him  into 
an  infinite  multitude,  all  looking  on  with  the  same  amazement,  all  dis- 
tracted by  the  same  perplexity.  Joseph  knew  not  what  angel  was  coming 
to  him  along  the  crooked  lines  of  his  mental  distraction.  We  seem  to  be  born 
to  misunderstand  everything  that  is  at  all  great  and  noble  :  we  cannot  under- 
stand ourselves,  we  can  give  but  foolish  answers  to  all  the  great  questions 
which  relate  to  our  own  being  and  our  own  destiny.  No  man  yet  ever  satis- 
fied his  friend  fully  and  left  him  in  the  position  in  which  he  could  ask  no 
question  or  suggest  no  doubt  regarding  any  movement  in  life  which  was  really 
tragical,  involving  suffering  when  that  suffering  might  have  been  escaped. 
You  are  looking  at  your  life  as  a  great  perplexity.  God  delights  in  our  em- 
barrassments :  you  cannot  see  how  this  knot  can  be  untied,  and  you  feel  that 
it  would  be  impious  to  attempt  to  cut  it.  Be  in  no  haste.  I  have  had  a 
thousand  knots  like  that  in  my  life.  When  I  touched  them  my  fingers  were 
too  soft  to  get  hold  of  the  lines  that  bound  them  together  in  hardness.  When 
I  have  called  for  steel,  I  have  been  guilty  consciously  of  a  coward's  trick,  and 
the  angel  has  said,  "  Do  not  cut  it  :  let  it  alone  :  the  answer  of  all  things 
is  not  yet ;  in  due  time  that  knot  shall  prove  itself  to  be  part  of  the  strange 
but  ever  beneficent  ministry  of  the  divine  and  Holy  Father." 

A  most  remarkable  reason  is  given  why  the  name  should  be  q.^^^.Jcsus. 
Referring  to  the  21st  verse,  you  will  find  that  the  reason  is,  "for  he  shall 
save  his  people  from  their  sins."  Christ  is  the  only  man  known  in  history 
who  was  born  with  specific  and  exclusive  reference  to  the  sins  of  the 
human  family.  He  does  not  come  into  the  race  with  a  small  programme. 
The  world  had  sickened  at  its  heart  of  programmes  an  inch  long  ;  in  its  in- 
tolerable soreness  of  soul  it  could  not  have  endured  another.  Make  way  : 
here  is  a  man  who  is  going  to  remove  the  dust  from  our  house  windows. 
We  are  glad  to  see  him.     Make  way  again  :  here  is  a  man  who  is  going  to 


14  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

remove  the  dust  from  our  doorstep.  Welcome  to  him  also.  Again  and 
again  make  way  for  a  thousand  men,  each  of  whom  has  a  short  purpose 
and  a  superficial  programme.  So  far  as  they  go  we  bid  each  a  cor- 
dial welcome.  But  when  all  the  thousand  have  done  their  little  work, 
and  have  gone  away  from  our  door,  we  feel  that  ANOTHER  must  come 
with  some  fuller  purpose,  with  some  grander  ministry.  I  thank  all  men  who 
have  done  anything  for  me,  but  there  is  a  fire  in  me  that  is  burning  up  my 
life — who  is  to  put  that  out  ?  For  all  temporary  mitigations  of  suffering  I 
am  thankful,  but  there  is  an  asp  biting  my  soul  and  I  am  dying  of  its  in- 
jected poison.  Who  can  touch  a  mind  diseased  ?  This  Son  of  Mary,  Son 
of  God,  comes  with  the  avowed  purpose  oi  doing  this  very  thijjg  I  wa?it  to 
have  done.  By  so  much,  therefore,  as  he  even  seems  to  rise  to  the  dignity  of  the 
occasion,  I  hail  him,  for  he  has  caught  the  genius  of  my  malady — perhaps 
he  may  bring  with  him  the  one  remedy.  If  he  had  made  light  of  my  dis- 
ease, I  should  have  run  away  from  him,  for  he  had  not  then  understood 
me.  If  he  had  come  with  light  and  jaunty  words  upon  his  lips,  I  should 
have  called  him  liar,  and  found  the  evidence  in  his  tone.  But  when  he 
meets  me  he  says  the  case  is  grave,  the  case  is  fatal,  the  disease  is  sin,  the 
malady  is  in  the  soul,  the  blood  is  tainted,  the  life  is  rotten,  the  burden  is 
grievous.  I  say  to  him,  as  a  mere  man,  "  Sir,  thou  understandest  me  :  what 
is  the  answer  to  all  this  suffering?"  And  when  he  says  ^'' Blood"  I  feel 
that  we  are  grappling  with  a  Man  that  has  at  all  events  the  right  words. 
Let  him  prove  them — then  will  he  be  the  crowned  Saviour  of  the  race,  and  his 
name  shall  be  worn  by  no  thief,  but  by  himself  only,  every  other  Jesus  for- 
gotten in  him  whose  surname  is  Christ. 

All  that  we  have  now  read  was  done  in  fulfilment  of  prophecy.  God  does 
not  work  extemporaneously,  the  suddenness  of  his  movements  is  only  ap- 
parent ;  every  word  he  says  comes  up  from  eternity  around  the  birth-place 
of  Jesus  Christ.  There  assembled  the  prophets  and  the  minstrels  of  an- 
cient time.  "  All  this  was  done  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken 
by  the  prophet."  The  prophets  were  misunderstood  men  ;  they  seemed 
to  sing  a  song  which  found  an  entrance  into  no  heart.  Their  forecasts 
were  met  with  derisive  laughter,  their  vaticinations  were  but  the  plaints  of 
a  disordered  and  unbalanced  mind,  and  many  a  time,  wrapping  their  man- 
tles around  them,  travel-stained,  they  lay  down,  saying,  "  V/ould  God  the 
prophetic  afflatus  had  never  moved  me  to  speech."  Prophets  always 
suffer.  It  is  a  crucifixion  to  be  born  before  your  time.  Happy  he  who 
speaks  the  language  of  the  day  :  popular  as  a  god  is  he.  The  man  who 
projects  himself  by  divine  energy  through  centuries  ahead,  dies  a  thousand 
deaths.  The  prophets  suffered  for  us  :  Isaiah,  Ezekiel,  and  Daniel,  and 
the  mighty  tribe  of  men  who  never  spake  to  their  own  day,  but  shot  their 
thunder  voices  across  the  ages,  died  for  us.  They  have  their  reward.  I  can- 
not think  of  them  as  dead  dust,  scattered  upon  the  winds  and  going  to  make 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  15 

up  some  other  man's  grave,  and  there  an  end  of  them.  I  must,  following 
the  instinct  of  justice  and  nobleness  of  compensation,  think  of  them  as  see- 
ing the  triumphs  they  predicted,  and  turning  into  songs  all  the  tears  and 
woes  that  afflicted  them  during  their  misunderstood  ministry. 

Joseph  was  put  to  sleep  by  God,  and  was  talked  to  through  the  medium 
of  a  dream.  It  is  God's  old  plan  :  He  puts  us  into  a  deep  sleep,  and  be- 
hold when  we  come  out  of  it,  there  is  the  beautiful  companionship  of  our 
life  standing  before  us,  or  there  is  the  great  answer  to  a  small  difficulty 
that  turned  our  life  into  a  sharp  pain,  or  there  is  the  way  out  of  an  en- 
tanglement difficult  as  a  labyrinth,  puzzling  as  a  thicket,  devised  by  all  the 
cunning  cruelty  of  our  worst  enemies.  Sometimes  I  have  done  as  you 
have  ;  many  a  time  fallen  off  into  sleep,  quite  unable  to  do  the  work  that 
was  pressing  upon  me.  A  refreshing  slumber  has  blessed  the  brain,  has 
wound  it  up  in  every  energy  and  force,  and  the  awakening  has  been  as  a  re- 
surrection, and  we  have  gone  to  the  work  that  defied  us,  and  lo,  in  the 
hands  recovered  by  sleep  there  has  been  cunning  enough  to  lift  the  burden, 
or  to  dispel  the  difficulty,  and  we,  who  had  fainted  in  weariness,  rejoiced 
in  a  renewed  and  apparently  inexhaustible  strength. 

We  are  most  alone  when  we  are  asleep.  God  loves  to  speak  to  us  in  our 
loneliness.  We  are  more  spiritual  when  we  are  are  asleep  than  when  we 
are  awake.  When  I  am  awake  I  have  to  do  with  all  this  world  ;  I  am  lost 
and  dazed  amid  countless  eyes  that  are  watching  ;  I  am  struck  by  a  million 
wonders  that  challenge  my  attention  ;  my  ears  are  filled  with  countless 
noises  that  fall  upon  one  another  and  make  rough  tumult  in  my  soul.  God 
says  to  me,  "  Come  into  the  darkness,  and  I  will  close  thine  eyelids  and 
speak  to  thee  alone."  If  you  ask  me  if  I  believe  in  dreams,  taking  the 
word  dream  in  its  wholeness,  I  say  no  :  if  you  ask  me  if  I  believe  in  par- 
ticular dreams,  I  say  yes.  Who  would  give  up  his  dream  life  ?  In 
the  dream  life  we  are  larger  than  in  our  waking  hours.  In  dream 
I  float  through  the  air  by  easy  and  pleasant  levitation  ;  I  move  across 
difficulties  I  dare  not  encounter  when  I  am  awake.  In  dreams  I  step 
from  star  to  star  and  cross  the  horizon  at  a  bound.  I  know  that  these 
things  appear  to  me  in  a  light  almost  laughable  when  I  awake,  yet  in  my 
better  thinking  I  get  out  of  them  hints,  hints  that  startle  me,  make  me 
think  of  possibilities  which  never  come  within  the  dull  routine  of  life,  and 
which  have  no  place  in  the  reckonings  of  the  book-makers. 

Thank  God  for  sleep,  thank  God  for  dreams,  thank  God  for  every 
ministry  that  gets  you  out  of  your  littleness.  If  any  minister  of  God  in 
any  church  can  charm  you  away  from  your  counter  and  your  desk,  and 
make  you  feel  even  for  one  moment  that  the  universe  is  larger  than 
you  had  supposed  it  to  be,  go  and  hear  that  man  :  he  is  your  soul's  true 
friend.     If  by  tone  of  the  voice,  if  by  vehemence  of  appeal,  if  by  tender- 


l6  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

ness  of  prayer,  he  can  turn  you  to  an  upward  look,  he  is  God's  minister  to 
your  soul.  Love  him,  honour  him.  You  may  disagree  with  him  in  many 
of  his  words,  some  of  his  propositions  you  may  be  quite  unable  to  accept 
from  an  intellectual  point  of  view  ;  again  and  again  he  may  provoke  you 
into  controversy  by  statements  that  appear  to  you  either  rash  or  irrecon- 
cilable ;  but  by  as  much  as  he  has  the  power  to  make  you  look  up  and  see 
God's  wonders  in  the  heavens,  and  to  excite  in  you  a  desire  to  be  broader 
and  nobler  than  you  are,  is  he  the  anointed  minister  of  God  to  you,  and 
should  be  received  as  such.  I  read  the  books  that  make  me  larger,  I  follow 
the  authors  that  tell  me  of  bigger  things  than  I  have  yet  seen,  I  love  the 
souls  that  lure  me  into  sleep  that  is  enriched  with  dreaming,  that  extends 
the  horizon,  and  doubles  the  stars,  and  heightens  the  sky  in  which  they 
shine.  From  such  companionship  I  return  saying,  "  I  have  seen  heaven's 
gate  open  to-day,  and  there  are  lines  in  this  universe  that  were  never 
dreamed  of  before  in  my  philosophy."         • 

Thus,  then,  Jesus  Christ  comes  into  the  world.  We  have  now,  from  time 
to  time,  to  follow  him  in  his  wondrous  ministry.  I  will  not  attempt  to 
prove  the  miracle  of  the  incarnation  by  any  verbal  argument,  but  I 
will  ask  him  to  meet  us  here  morning  by  morning,  and  to  vindicate, 
by  the  eloquence  of  his  own  speech  and  the  marvellousness  of  his  own 
action,  the  claim  that  is  set  up  for  him  in  this  chapter — that  he  is  at  once 
the  Son  of  Mary  and  the  begotten  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Review  of  the  whole  Chapter. 

You  will  find  it  a  delightful  and  profitable  study  to  look  at  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis  and  the  first  chapter  of  Matthew  together.  I  have 
found  it  useful  to  read  the  one  chapter  immediately  after  the  other.  The 
contrast  between  Genesis  and  Matthew  is  most  vivid,  and  in  some  points 
most  startling.  In  both  cases  you  have  what  is  termed  the  Beginning — a 
term  that  cannot  be  defined.  There  are  compasses,  one  point  of  which  we 
can  lay  upon  these  terms,  but  the  other  point  cannot  be  stretched  to  the 
full  extent  of  their  meaning.  Both  chapters,  with  a  most  startling  audacity, 
give  us  a  point  to  begin  at  :  they  create  history,  they  draw  a  line  and  say, 
"  History  begins  here."  How  far  the  beginning  is  right  has  to  be  ascer- 
tained by  long  continued  investigation.  No  answer  can  be  immediately 
given  to  the  bold  assumption  :  it  must  be  found  in  the  course  of  persistent 
and  enlightend  inquiry.  Let  us,  having  read  both  the  chapters,  look  at 
some  of  the  points  of  contrast  and  some  of  the  points  of  union,  and  learn 
as  the  result  of  our  study  how  with  completeness  the  Bible  confirms  itself 
and  challenges  attention  to  points  which  lie  below  the  surface  and  are 
likely  to  elude  the  most  watchful  criticism  that  is  not  inspired  by  the  pur- 
est desires  of  the  heart 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  I7 

In  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  we  see  how  order  and  beauty  were 
brought  out  of  confusion,  and  in  the  other  how  spiritual  harmony  was 
brought  out  of  infinite  discord.  In  Genesis  you  have  chaos  turned  into 
cosmos,  in  Matthew  you  have  a  tumuhuous,  fierce,  rebelhous  humanity, 
shaped  into  dignity  and  worship,  and  blessed  with  the  completeness  of 
rest.  If  these  chapters  were  mere  poetry,  I  should  be  struck  with  the 
manner  in  which  both  the  conceptions  are  expressed.  The  manner  is,  in 
this  case,  nothing  less  than  an  argument.  This  to  my  mind  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  of  the  incidental  illustrations  of  the  truth  of  the  Bible.  In 
the  first  instance  we  have  to  deal  with  matter.  What  is  the  tone  in  which 
matter  is  dealt  with  ?  It  is  a  tone  of  command,  it  is  a  fiat.  Put  into 
words,  the  words  would  be — Let  it  be  done.  There  is  no  consultation, 
\A.  there  is  no  entreaty,  there  is  no  persuasion,  there  is  no  remonstrance. 
y  I  The  fiat  is  omnific.  As  a  mere  question  of  poetic  concei)tion  this  manner 
^  is  equal  to  the  occasion.  When  we  go  into  the  region  of  matter,  we  do 
'  not  say  "  If  you  please  ;  "  we  stand  above  it,  we  command  it.  This  is  a 
fact  of  our  own  consciousness  and  experience.  When  you  want  to  shape 
that  long  stretch  of  iron  into  an  arch,  what  do  you  say  ?  You  say  pre- 
cisely what  is  said  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  You  cannot  get  away 
from  this  biblical  tether,  you  say  "  Let  it  be  done."  Is  your  tone  one  of 
beseeching  entreaty — do  you  ask  the  iron  to  be  kind  enough  to  adow  itself 
to  be  moulded  into  an  arch  ?  When  you  want  the  quarry  to  yield  you 
stones  wherewith  to  build  a  temple,  what  say  you  ?  You  copy  the  first 
chapter  of  the  book  of  Genesis  :  you  are  biblical  without  the  Bible,  the 
tone  cannot  be  changed,  you  say  "  Let  it  be  done,"  and  therein  you  echo 
the  fiat  that  rounded  the  heavens  and  populated  the  seas. 

This  then  is  true  to  our  own  consciousness  and  experience.  I  say, 
"  Let  my  house  be  built,  let  it  be  decorated,  let  it  be  richly  furnished,  let 
it  be  thus  and  so."  Why  is  my  tone  so  dogmatic  and  positive  ?  Because 
I  am  within  a  region  where  the  human  will  is  supreme.  You  may  remind 
me  of  incidental  circumstances,  and  I  am  not  oblivious  of  them,  but  their 
being  in  the  case  as  details  does  not  for  one  moment  alter  the  principle 
which  I  am  endeavouring  to  elucidate,  namely,  that  wherever  mere  matter 
is  concerned,  our  will  determines  its  uses.  There  shall  be  a  bridge  across 
that  river,  there  shall  stand  a  temple  on  that  site,  there  shall  be  a  picture 
on  that  wall.  So  far  as  the  matter  is  one  purely  materialistic,  the  will  is 
supreme,  the  word  creates,  the  word  determines. 

In  the  second  case,  it  is  not  matter  that  is  dealt  with,  but  manhood. 
How  different  is  the  process,  how  long  the  delay,  how  intricate  the  method, 
how  innumerable  and  subtle  the  perils.  Instead  of  commanding,  we  have 
persuasion,  entreaty,  nurture,  encouragement,  even  the  whole  ministry  of 
long-suffering  patience  and  all-hoping  love.  Looking  at  this  also  as  a 
mere  conception  of  manner,  how  true  it  is  to  our  own  consciousness  and 


1 8  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

experience  and  method.  You  can  order  a  coat  for  your  child — you  can- 
not order  a  character.  You  can  command  a  dress  to  be  fashioned,  you 
cannot  command  an  education  to  be  receiv^ed,  except  in  the  only  sense, 
namely,  the  mechanical,  which  proves,  by  a  still  broader  illustration,  the 
very  principle  on  which  I  am  insisting.  You  can  decorate  your  house 
with  a  word,  you  cannot  decorate  your  child's  intellectual  nature — nay,  vou 
cannot  decorate  his  back  without  his  consent.  He  tears  your  jewelled 
rags  from  his  shoulders,  throws  them  on  the  ground,  steps  on  them  and 
defies  you. 

Look,  therefore,  at  both  the  chapters  as  indicating  a  wide  contrast  of 
manner,  a  contrast  arising  from  the  fact  that  in  the  one  case  it  is  matter 
that  is  being  treated,  and  in  the  other  case  it  is  manhood  that  is  being  cre- 
ated and  trained  and  completed.  Can  you  amend  this  method  ?  You 
give  orders  for  a  building,  you  cannot  give  orders  for  a  soul.  You  will  go 
to  your  desk  to-morrow  morning,  and  with  one  scratch  of  your  pen  you 
will  order  work  for  a  thousand  pounds,  or  ten  thousand,  to  be  done,  and 
you  properly  say  you  have  given  the  order.  If  you  understood  the  mean- 
ing of  your  own  music,  you  would  be  taken  back  to  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  and  set  down  there  repeating  the  first  words — you  have  never  got 
beyond  that  liberty  !  You  will  come  home  after  having  given  your  order, 
and  you  will  have,  with  your  children  round  about  you,  to  ask  their  consetit 
to  kiss  them.  It  is  no  kiss  upon  the  child's  lip  that  is  given  by  force — a 
kiss  of  the  flesh,  not  a  kiss  of  the  soul  Then  you  will  come  into  the  first 
chapter  of  Matthew,  and  find  how,  by  wondrous  processes,  too  subtle  to 
be  caught  in  iron  speech,  hearts  are  won,  characters  are  formed,  and  des- 
tinies are  determined. 

It  is  by  these  practical  illustrations  that  I  find,  again  and  again,  how 
unexpectedly  and  wondrously  the  Bible  is  confirmed,  and  how  our  liberty 
is  restricted  by  a  history  thousands  of  years  old.  We  think  we  do  some 
things  by  our  own  ingenuity  and  by  our  own  strength,  and  again  and 
again  we  are  reminded  that  our  originality  is  stale  and  our  wit  a  borrowed  dart. 

If  we  look  at  these  two  chapters  side  by  side  from  another  point  of  view, 
we  shall  find  that  in  both  cases  the  events  spread  themselves,  as  to  their 
execution,  over  vast  periods  of  time.  As  for  the  creation,  the  date  is — 
"in  the  beginning."  Search  your  calendar  for  that  line,  or  put  a  better 
line  in  its  place.  Man  likes  to  know  details  simply  because  he  is  himself 
a  detail.  But  as  he  grows  in  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  in  the  complete- 
ness of  his  purposed  character,  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  divine  will,  he 
finds  that  detail  is  but  a  momentary  convenience.  Observe  how  pro- 
foundly true  this  is  also  to  our  own  consciousness  and  experience.  Time 
represents  value.  We  have  a  saying  amongst  ourselves  to  the  effect  that 
time  is  money.     Time  is  more,  time  represents  value  :  the  political  econ- 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  IJ 

omist  says  that  money  is  nothing,  a  mere  token  or  symbol,  of  that  which 
money  can  purchase — the  vahie  is  not  in  the  money,  it  is  in  the  production. 
And  a  greater  teacher  than  the  political  economist  tells  us  that  time  is 
nothing  ;  I  must  look  at  what  time  represents  :  a  day  is  not  the  same 
thing  to  the  idle  man  that  it  is  to  the  man  who  is  busy. 

Lay  it  down  broadly  that  time  represents  value.  "  Why,"  said  an  artist 
no  sooner  born  than  dead,  to  a  great  painter,  "  do  you  spend  so  much  time 
upon  your  pictures  ? "  The  profound  and  courteous  answer  was,  "  Because 
I  paint  for  immortality."  And  as  a  man  soweth  so  shall  he  also  reap. 
"And  why,"  said-one  who  looked  upon  a  great  sculptor,  "are  you  spend- 
ing so  much  time  over  that  face  ?  I  saw  it  a  month  ago,  and  it  seemed  to 
be  as  far  advanced  in  its  formation  as  it  is  now."  "  No,"  said  Angelo, 
"  I  have  been  rounding  that  cheek,  and  giving  a  little  additional  expression 
to  that  nostril,  and  bringing  out  that  under  part  of  the  eye  more  clearly." 
Said  the  observer,  "  These  are  but  trifles."  "  True,"  answered  the  great 
man  of  the  chisel,  "  these  are  trifles,  but  trifles  make  perfection,  and  per- 
fection is  no  trifle."  Thus  to  the  wise  time  represents  value.  We  say  of 
some  buildings  that  they  hare  been  run  up  in  the  night  time,  and  when 
we  pass  that  commentary  upon  them,  we  mean  it  as  a  sneer,  or  as  an  indi- 
cation of  the  estimate  we  place  upon  the  value  of  the  thing  done.  We 
call  such  buildings  shells,  we  say  they  will  need  repair  in  a  month  or  two 
— no  time  has  been  spent  upon  them,  and  for  no  time  will  they  endure. 

The  expenditure  of  time,  therefore,  must  have  a  jnoral  value  yet  to  be 
discovered.  What  time  was  spent  on  building  the  universe  !  Men  who 
have  made  the  universe  from  that  point  of  view  a  special  study,  say  that 
the  earth  must  have  taken  tens  of  thousands  of  ages  to  build.  They  ridi- 
cule the  notion  of  a  six  thousand-years-old  globe  :  they  take  me  down  as 
far  as  they  can  to  the  roots  of  the  rocks  and  show  me  the  stony  registers, 
pile  on  pile,  where  the  ages  are  buried  under  unsculptured  stone.  When 
I  compare  these  wondrous  things  with  what  I  know  to  be  true  in  my  own  con- 
sciousness and  experience,  I  reason  thus  : — Time  represents  value  :  a  man 
spends  time  upon  the  outworking  of  a  purpose  according  to  the  value  he 
sets  upon  it :  if  thousands  of  ages  have  been  sown  upon  these  barren  fields, 
God's  meaning  in  that  scattering  of  the  ages  upon  a  rocky  surface  must  be 
profound  and  is  not  now  to  be  understood  or  explained. 

Yet  to  one  test  I  can  put  this  expenditure  of  time.  It  is  a  common  test: 
it  is  in  use  amongst  ourselves  ;  we  apply  it  to  all  things,  perhaps  even  to 
the  most  sacred.  I  can  stand  on  the  green  surface  of  the  earth  and  look 
up  into  the  starry  roof,  and  ask  what  has  come  of  all  this  time,  what  is  the 
success  which  has  attended  this  infinite  delay  ?  Then  comes  to  my  waiting 
mind  and  heart  the  great  answer  : — "  Canst  thou  amend  anything  that  is 
within  thy  reach,  O  man  ?  Stoop  down  and  pluck  thee  a  grass-blade  from 
thy  feet,  look  at  it  and  say  whether  thou  couldst  sharpen  it  to  a  finer  point, 


20  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

fill  it  with  more  delicate  blood,  clothe  it  with  a  tenderer  bloom,  make  it  in 
any  respect  more  beautiful  ?  Look  at  the  sun  :  canst  thou  sphere  him  out 
into  a  more  perfect  circle,  or  add  one  ray  to  his  effulgence,  or  suggest  a 
supplement  to  his  infinitude  of  light  ?  "  These  questions  are  put  to  me 
with  courteousness,  yet  reading  between  the  lines  I  feel  that  they  mock  me 
like  a  defiant  thunder.  Then  I  come  to  the  conclusion  that  time  repre- 
sents value.  I  cannot  paint  the  lily  without  painting  upon  it  my  own 
folly.  I  cannot  suggest  a  single  re-adaptation  of  any  of  the  functions  of 
my  body,  I  cannot  add  a  healthier  colour  to  my  blood,  I  cannot  fix  my  eyes  so 
as  to  see  better  than  they  now  see  the  wonders  of  this  gallery  and  museum  of 
things  infinite  and  grand.  I  cannot  amend  God's  work.  It  is  to  this  little 
test,  yet  not  useless,  that  I  can  bring  this  marvellous  fact  of  the  expendi- 
ture of  what  to  us  is  an  eternity,  in  the  building  up  of  a  globe  that  holds 
upon  its  face  all  that  is  beautiful  of  summer,  and  hides  in  its  kind  heart  all 
that  is  ghastly  in  death. 

The  Lord  having  thus  made  me  a  universe  says,  "  My  child,  this  is  a 
symbol :  this  is  not  made  for  its  own  sake,  this  is  meant  to  teach  thee 
great  lessons  ;  it  is  my  board  of  illustration  ;  I  have  inscribed  the  heavens 
and  the  earth  with  innumerable  sermons,  and  lessons,  and  poems  and  para- 
bles— go  thou  and  find  them  out,  write  them  in  thine  own  speech,  and 
make  thyself  glad  in  this  deep  and  gracious  study."  He  is  also  building  a 
spiritual  universe,  and  it  takes  him  a  long  time  to  construct  it.  He  is 
making  Man,  and  man  takes  more  making  than  all  the  stars  that  throw 
their  light  on  space.  Why,  this  is  true  at  home  :  you  made  your  carpet, 
and  your  table,  and  your  pictures,  and  your  china  in  no  time  ;  you  sent 
them  back  and  had  them  altered  :  but  your  child,  the  son  that  has  never 
yet  stooped  in  filial  worship  at  your  knee  ;  that  daughter,  bad  with  a  fire 
your  love  has  been  unable  to  quench  ;•  that  will  that  seems  to  hold  you  at 
its  cruel  mercy — there  your  efforts  appear  to  have  been  wasted. 

I  might  argue  that  as  it  has  taken  God  a  long  time  to  build  creation,  so 
it  takes  Him  a  long  time  to  build  the  higher  creation  of  manhood.  I  set  up 
no  such  contention,  nor  dare  I  avail  myself  of  any  such  illustration.  The 
rocks  require  long  time,  but  they  cannot  be  damned.  What  care  I  if  we  pile 
eternities  upon  them  ?  They  cannot  suffer.  But  man  dies  and  goes  to 
hell  !  To  me,  therefore,  some  tenderer  and  deeper  argument  must  be  ad- 
dressed than  the  argument  of  analogy  from  the  long  periods  required  for 
physical  formations,  and  the  spaces  and  periods  of  time  required  for  the 
development  of  moral  harmony  and  beauty.  I  find  the  necessity  for  the 
expenditure  of  long  time,  in  myself,  in  my  moral  nature.  I  will  not  let  God 
complete  his  work.     I  find  the  reason  of  the  delay  in  me,  not  in  him. 

Nor  need  this  be  considered  as  a  piece  of  theological  metaphysics.  It 
is  a  piece  of  matter-of-fact  life.     Every  one  now  hearing  me  I  could  sum- 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  21 

mon  as  a  witness  to  bear  testimony  to  the  fact  that  to  do  right  is  not  pleas- 
ant to  any  of  us.  If  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  to  be  discounted  or  set 
aside  simply  because  it  takes  a  long  time  to  make  itself  universally  felt  in 
the  world,  then  with  it,  by  parity  of  reasoning,  must  go  down  everything 
that  is  beautiful  and  noble  in  human  education,  morals,  and  progress.  Do 
not  suppose  that  your  blow  terminates  upon  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  when 
you  say  that  if  that  faith  were  divine  it  would  make  more  rapid  progress  in 
the  world.  That  blow,  if  it  have  any  effect  at  all,  shatters  the  entire  tem- 
l)le  of  beauty,  morals,  and  all  that  goes  to  make  up  com])leteness  of  human 
character.  We  all  agree,  for  example,  that  honesty  is  right  and  good.  Not 
one  dissentient  voice  is  raised  to  that  proposition.  But,  according  to  the 
reasoning  by  which  you  wish  to  upset  the  divinity  of  Christ's  religion,  hon- 
esty cannot  be  good,  otherwise  every  man  would  be  honest.  We  are  all 
further  agreed  that  temperance  is  excellent,  self-control,  personal  modera- 
tion, having  all  our  faculties,  passions,  fires  of  our  nature  under  our  en- 
tire dominion  and  sway.  To  that  proposition  not  one  single  dissentient 
voice  is  raised.  But,  according  to  the  reasoning  referred  to,  temperance 
cannot  be  a  good  t/iing,  otherwise  every  man  would  practise  it.  The  very 
fact  that  it  is  rejected,  would,  according  to  the  reasoning  now  in  question, 
upset  the  claim  of  temperance  to  be  a  virtue  at  all.  We  are  all  agreed 
that  cleanliness  is  beneficial  to  health  :  we  say  properly  that  without  clean- 
liness there  can  be  no  permanent  health.  That  proposition  is  unanimously 
carried  in  every  intelligent  assembly  ;  but  if  I  am  to  avail  myself  of  the 
reasoning  which  is  now  levelled  against  the  divinity  of  Christ's  religion,  then 
I  reply,  cleanliness  cannot  be  beneficial,  otherwise  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  would  instantly  be  cleanly.  Every  man,  woman,  and  child  is  not  cleanly, 
therefore  cleanliness  cannot  be  the  excellent  thing  you  try  to  prove  it  to  be. 

So  with  the  pleas  of  God,  the  expostulations  of  the  Most  High,  and  the  of- 
fers of  the  gospel — they  all  fall  into  the  ruck  of  these  common  reasonings, 
and  I,  who  have  been  convicted  on  every  point  of  the  former  indictment,  am 
convicted  with  a  ten  thousand  fold  conviction  upon  the  supreme  point  of 
all,  namely,  that  God  waits  to  be  gracious,  and  I  keep  him  waiting. 

But  as  in  the  former  case  of  the  creation,  so  in  this  latter  case  of  the 
completeness  of  the  human  character,  the  result  will  be  worthy  of  him 
who  has  been  conducting  the  process.  I  cannot  amend  his  heavens,  add  a 
deeper  tint  of  blue  to  his  sky,  increase  the  richness  of  the  green  which  he 
has  spread  over  the  earth,  suggest  an  improvement  to  a  single  sporule  of 
moss  or  blade  of  grass,  or  feather  on  bird's  wing.  In  all  these  things  I 
have  to  say  "It  is  very  good."  If  amendment  might  be  possible,  not  on 
my  side  has  the  possibility  been  realized.  So  he  will  build  this  other  crea- 
tion, the  great  house  of  Manhood,  the  infinite  temple  of  redeemed  and 
sanctified  humanity,  and  when  it  is  done  he  will  say,  "  It  is  very  good,  a 
glorious  church,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing,  complete, 


*^  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

rhythmic,  restful,  majestic,  immortal."  I  must,  therefore,  make  right  use 
ox  the  material  symbol,  and  translate  it  into  its  highest  spiritual  meanings 
I  look  for  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth  and  a  new  Jerusalem,  a  church 
beautiful  as  the  Lamb  that  redeemed  it. 

This  brings  me  to  the  last  point  of  contrast   which  I  can  now  notice 
namely,  that  in   the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  the  endeavour,  the  process 
rather,  is  to  make  man,  in  Matthew  the  object  is  to  REDEEM  man      In 
the  first  instance,  we  had  no  part  or  lot.     If  you  will  search  into  this  'mat 
ter,  you  will  find  how  at  all  points  you  are  restricted  and  humbled  so  far 
as  your  birth  is  concerned.     For  a  moment  look  at  this  matter      You  are 
bom  without  your  own  will,  configured  without  your  own  consent  •  wheth- 
er you  were  to  be  dark  or  fair,  tall  or  short,  strong  or  weak-not  a  word 
had  you  in  that  solemn   covenant.     You  were   nationalised  without   your 
own   consent;   you  were  not  asked,  ''Will  you  be  born  in  the  temperate 
zone  or  in  the  tornd  zone?     Will  you  be  born  in  a  little  island  or  in  a 
broad  continent  ?_   Will  you  prefer  to  bean   Englishman  or  a  Turk-an 
Indian  or  an  African?"     In  that  destiny  you   had  neither  part  nor  lot 
Why,  your  consent  was  not  asked  even  to  the  name  you  bear  !     You  were 
born    nationalised,  named,   and  over   these  things  you    had  no   control 
whatsoever.     How  wondrously  we  are  limited  on  that  side  of  our  nature 
yet  on  the  other  what  marvellous  freedom  we  have  !     We  who  can  curse 
God  to  his  face,  cannot  add  one  cubit  to  our  stature.     We  who  can  say 
No      to  all  the  eloquence  of   the  divine    love,   cannot  make  one  hair 
white  or  black.     Calvinism  is  true,  and  Arminianism  is  true  and  thev  are 
both  in  the  Bible,  and  they  are  both  in  your  life.     Limit  aid  Hbe'ty'law 
and  freedom,  you  find  everywhere.     You  are  pinned  down  and  cannot 

nkelreedom  ■     ^''  ^°''  ^'''^'  '''^'''  '''°"^^''  '°  ^'"^  ^'°'^  '^'^  ^"^^°^^  ^^  ^"fi" 

We  were  no  parties  to  our  being  made,  we  are  asked  to  be  parties  to  our 

being  redeenud     Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden  and 

lasIln/rT  ' V  '''n  '^'^°^°^^^^  believeth  shall  not  perish  but  have  ever- 
lasting life.  \  e  will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might  have  life.  How  often 
would  I  have  gathered  thee,  but  thou  wouldst  not 

_  I  have  spoken  of  two  beginnings,  yet  the  two  are  but  one,  Jesus  Christ 
IS  not  a  point  in  history,  he  is  the  point  which  antedates  all  history  In  the 
beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was 
God  And  the  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  amongst  us.  He  is  the 
Lamb  slain  from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world.  He  created  all 
things,  and  he  is  before  all  things  and  by  him  all  things  consist.  When 
therefore,  we  speak  of  the  beginning  of  the  gospel  as  subsequent  to  the  be' 
gmning  of  creation,  we  only  use  a  phrase  for  human  convenience  The 
divme  meanina  is  that  all  things  begin  in  God,  and  that  God  never  be^^an 


Ill 


THE  CULTURE  OF  THE  YOUNG THE  REASON  OF  CHRIST  S  SOVEREIGNTY 

FLATTERING   CHRIST CHRIST   HIMSELF  IS  WITH  MEN. 

PKAYER. 

Almighty  God,  we  bloss  tliee  for  psalm  and  gospel  ;  we  thank  thee  that  the  olden 
men  were  enabled  to  speak  their  heart's  life  in  holy  psalm.  Though  they  saw  not  the 
King,  yet  did  they  speak  tunefully  of  him  :  it  was  in  no  mean  praise  they  forecasted 
the  coming  One.  Thou  didst  give  them  music,  music  of  heart  and  voice — lo,  in  that 
music  they  all  but  realized  the  ineffable  joy  of  the  divine  presence  upon  the  earth.  It 
is  thus  thou  dost  ever  treat  us  :  thou  dost  give  us  means  of  utterance  which  are  them- 
selves sacred,  and  in  the  very  utterance  of  our  prayer  thou  dost  give  us  sweet  answers. 
We  bless  thee  that  we  have  read  the  word  of  the  gospel,  spoken  in  no  poetry  of  ex- 
pression, but  in  the  poetry  of  fact,  for  we  have  seen  Jesus,  and  his  star,  we  have  been 
present  at  the  offering  of  the  first  worship  to  the  child — may  that  worship  be  the  key- 
note of  our  life,  expressing  always  our  uppermost  desire  :  may  it  be  our  joy  to  be 
found  serving  no  other  master,  and  loyally  bending  before  no  other  king.  We  will 
have  this  Man  to  reign  over  us  by  thy  grace,  yea,  though  we  once  rejected  his  do- 
minion, yet  now  would  we  contritely  and  humbly  welcome  him.  We  would  live  in 
Christ,  for  Christ  would  we  live,  we  Avould  be  found  in  him  as  the  branch  is  found  in 
the  vine,  drawing  our  life  and  its  daily  sustenance  from  him  who  is  the  one  root. 
Seeing  that  this  is  our  desire  and  that  it  has  risen  into  a  prayer,  we  accept  the  prayer 
as  the  inspiration  of  thy  Holy  Spirit,  and  knowing  it  to  be  inspired,  we  are  already 
assured  of  thine  infinitely  gracious  answer.  We  Avould  no  longer  live  in  ourselves 
and  to  ourselves.  We  would  enter  into  fellowship  with  Christ  in  every  pang  of  his 
suffering  and  in  every  ecstacy  of  his  joy.  Let  this  our  prayer  be  answered  to-day, 
and  we  shall  rejoice  with  exceeding  great  jov,  vea  our  satisfaction  and  gladness  shall 
be  full. 

For  all  the  mercies  of  another  week  we  bless  thee.  Thou  hast  given  us  a  staff  to 
help  us  along  every  difficult  road,  thou  hast  set  lights  above  us  in  the  time  of  dark- 
ness, in  the  hour  of  solitude  ;  thou  hast  spread  companionships  for  our  souls,  yea  all 
thine  angels  have  ministered  unto  us,  and  because  of  their  society  we  have  not  the 
pain  or  the  temptation  of  loneliness  ;  thou  hast  given  us  food  convenient  for  us  ;  thou 
hast  not  neglected  us  in  any  point  or  in  any  degree  whatsoever,  thy  ministry  towards 
US  has  been  one  of  overflowing  love,  we  are  +o-day  the  living,  the  living  to  praise  thee 
with  new  and  richer  song  for  all  thy  kindness,  for  thy  patience,  thy  tender  mercy. 
Evermore  fill  us  with  a  sense  of  thy  presence,  let  a  consciousness  of  thy  nearness  de- 
stroy all  fear  of  man,  let  it  expel  from  onr  heart  everything  that  is  of  the  earth, 
earthy,  and  fill  us  with  high  desire  to  enlarge  our  capacity  and  to  discharge  with  a 
more  ardent  zeal  all  the  obligations  of  this  life. 

We  mourn  our  sin  :  it  makes  our  tongue  black  to  mention  our  iniquities,  and  our 


^4  THESE    SAVINGS    OF    MINE. 

lips  quiver  under  the  infinite  distress  of  tlieir  burden.  We  know  not  where  to  bedn 
and  beginning,  we  should  never  end,  for  our  breath  is  tainted  with  corruption  ^r 
every  thought  is  borne  downward  to  the  dust,  our  prayers  are  mingled  with  eir'tMi 
ness  :  we  cannot  escape  this  bondage  except  by  thy  grace,  thou  loving  one  who  didsi 
die  for  us  and  rise  again,  to  lead  us  to  the  noblest  conquests.  Let  thy  grace  abound 
over  our  sm,  we  now  penitently  and  humbly  entreat  thee  ;  let  the  ci4s  of  Chdst 
rear  Itself  above  all  our  iniquity,  and  have  written  above  all  the  superscription  o 
Pilate  the  great  welcome  of  thy  love,  and  the  gracious  assurance  of  thy  pardon 

Enable  us  to  live  our  few  days  in  peace  and  quietness,  in  zeal  for  all  godliness  in 
dihgent  and  honest  service  in  thy  kingdom.  Seeing  that  our  days  are  few  and  that 
they  are  flying  whilst  we  mourn  over  their  brevity,  we  mav  gird  up  our'lons  and 

confide"  t'sr"  "'  "*  ''  """"'  '""-^  ''''  ""^  ''''^'^'^  P'^'--  -^^  -tl' 
According  to  our  individual  necessities,  let  thy  gospel  come  to  us  this  day.  Thou 
knowest  the  prayen.  we  cannot  utter,  thou  understandest  the  thoughts  for  which  there 
1  no  langiiage.  ^^  e  ask  thee  now  to  come  into  our  heart,  to  see  our  need  exactly  as 
It  is,  and  to  supply  our  want  out  of  thy  great  grace.  f-^acuy  as 

In  our  prayer  we  would  remember  our  loved  ones  who  are  not  with  us,  the  children 
00  young  to  come,  the  sick   and  the  weary,  shut  up,  in  pain,  desiring  release  from 

hin  T'"f  '   r^'''  ''"'  '^'"  '^^'^  ^  ^^"-^  disappointment,    -et  willifg  to  "all    nto 
tl  me  hand  and  know  no  will  but  thine.     The   poor,  the  desolate,  the  ffeble,  the  in 
film   the  fnendless-the  Lord's  blessing  be  upon  them  all,  giving  them  warmth  of 
heart  and  such  renewal  of  hope  as  can  find  its  satisfaction  in  Christ  onlv      Be  with 
those  also  who  are  separated  from  us  by  long  distance  :  the  Lord's  merciful  messac.es 
go  out  towards  them,  Sabbatic  gospels  and  benedictions-reniinding  them  of  this  4r 
vice   fillmg  their  souls  with  all  gladness.     The  Lord's  blessing  be  round  about  the 
whole  globe  like  a  living  light  ;  omit  none  from  thy  benediction  ;  let    the  rudest 
poorest,  vilest,  feel  that  tlie  heavens  are  filled  with  the  Father,  and  that  the  earth  is 
h;s  footstool. 

Let  thy  word  be  amongst  us  to-day,  a  sweet  message,  a  wind  from  heaven  a  fire 
from  above  the  fountains  of  the  sun,  a  great  joy,  an  ineffable  rapture  ;  yea,  may  it  be 
all  things  beautiful,  tender,  and  ennobling  to  our  waiting  souls.     Anion. 

Matthew  ii.  1-10 

1.  Now,  when  Jesus  wrs  born  in  Eethlehem  (six  Eoman  miles  south-west  of  Jeru- 
salem) of  Judea  (so  called  to  distinguish  it  from  another  Bethlehem  in  (Jalilee)  in  the 
days  of  Herod  the  King  (the  father  of  Herod  Antipas  and  the  grandfather  of  Herod 
Agrippa,  before  whose  son  Paul  pleaded),  behold  there  came  wise  men  (Magians-^ 
Magicians)  from  the  east  (the  fm-  East,  supposed  by  some  to  be  Persians)  to  Jeru- 
salem. 

2.  Saying,  Where  is  he  that  is  born  King  of  the  Jews  (not  King  of  the  Jews  alone, 
but  the  king  that  springs  from  the  Jews),  for  we  have  seen  his  star  (an  astrological 
mystery  for  which  there  is  no  modern  interpretation)  in  the  east,  and  are  come  (more 
than  a  four  months'  journey)  to  worship  (to  do  homage  to)  him. 

3.  When  Herod  the  king  had  heard  these  things  he  was  troubled,  and  all  Jerusalem 
with  him. 

4.  And  when  he  had  gathered  all  the  chief  priests  and  scribes  of  the  people  together 
he  demanded  of  them  where  Christ  should  be  born. 

5.  And  they  said  unto  him,  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea,  for  thus  it  is  written  by  the 
prophet. 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  t$ 

6.  And  thou  Bethlehem,  in  the  land  of  Juda,  art  not  the  least  among  the  princes  of 
Juda  ;  for  out  of  thee  shalt  come  a  governor  that  shall  rule  (literally  shall  conduct  as 
a  shepherd,  Ttotjuavsi)  my  people  Israel. 

7.  Then  Herod,  when  he  had  privily  (secretly)  called  the  wise  men  (for  royalty 
must  consult  wisdom),  inquired  of  them  diligently  (ascertained  exactly)  what  time 
(iiaving  found  out  tlie  pla<.'e  by  another  authority)  the  star  appeared. 

8.  And  he  sent  them  to  Bethlehem  (from  a  metropolis  to  a  village — the  usual  way  !) 
and  said.  Go  and  search  diligently  for  the  young  child,  and  when  ye  have  found  him 
bring  me  word  again,  that  I  may  come  and  worship  him  also. 

9.  And  when  they  had  heard  (equal  to  the  Latin  verb  nudire,  which  implies  not 
only  hearing  but  obedience)  the  king,  they  departed  ;  and  lo,  the  star  which  they 
saw  in  the  east  went  before  them  till  it  came  and  stood  over  where  the  young  child 
was. 

10.  When  they  saw  the  star  they  rejoiced  with  exceeding  great  joy. 

Here  would  seem  to  begin  the  inquiry  cabout  Jesus  Christ  which  has 
never  since  ceased  to  be  the  supreme  question  of  the  religious  mind.  That 
inquiry,  I  take  it,  is  more  eager  and  widespread  to-day  than  ever  it  was  in 
any  period  of  human  history.  Still  the  great  subject  is — 7vhere  is  Christ, 
7vho  is  Christ,  7vhat  is  Christ  ?  The  books  that  reveal  him  most  profoundly 
and  lovingly  to  the  human  mind  and  heart  are  books  which  hold  their  own 
to-day  amid  the  fiercest  possible  literary  competition.  All  this  means 
something.  There  is  in  it  a  deep  and  all  but  tragical  mystery  ;  an  agony 
of  the  heart  speaks  in  this  inquiry  of  the  lips.  The  life  of  man  wants 
something  more  than  it  has  yet  secured  ;  it  tries  to  evade  answers  that 
bring  with  them  severe  moral  obligations,  and  yet  it  recurs  to  those  answers 
as  if  they  were  the  only  profound  and  \ital  replies.  It  is  a  great  mystery, 
it  is  even  a  sharp  pain,  it  is  a  dense  cloud,  and  out  of  it  there  come,  in 
strange  and  terrible  gleamings,  lightnings  that  might  affright  and  destroy 
the  mind  that  inquires  and  wonders. 

The  great  inquiry  related  to  that  which  was  essential  rather  than  to  that 
which  was  accidental.  Of  course  that  which  was  accidental  had  to  come 
into  the  inquiry.  Certain  things  had  been  prophetically  written,  certain 
places  and  times  had  been  specifically  indicated,  and  therefore  attention 
must  be  directed  into  those  quarters.  Still  the  grave  and  everlasting  in- 
quiry relates  to  that  which  is  essential  and  immutable.  The  word  upon 
which  I  would  lay  the  strongest  emphasis  is  the  word  born.  Not  upon  the 
word  jj^^//«o-,  not  upon  the  Avord  cJiild.  "  Young  "  is  a  term  that  lives  on 
for  a  few  days,  and  then  melts  out  of  our  sight  and  becomes  age  whilst  yet 
we  admire  its  tender  bloom.  "  Child  "  is  a  beautiful  bud  that  bursts  into 
a  full  flower  whilst  we  are  looking  at  it.  But  BORN  is  a  historical  word  : 
it  is  the  same  always,  it  indicates  the  revelation  of  life,  the  setting  up  of 
new  ministries  and  forces  in  the  universe.  To  be  young  is  to  be  a  child, 
is  to  pass  through  very  transitory  stages  and  attractions  ;  but  to  be  born 
sets  up  a  fact,  immortal  as  God.      We  have  been  born.     Our  youth  has 


20  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

gone  like  the  mist  of  the  morning,  our  childhood  is  a  hardly  remembered 
sun-spot  in  our  recollection,  but  our  birth  hastens  to  shape  itself  into  a 
permanent  destiny.  It  is  in  this  light  I  look  upon  your  dear  little  children 
when  you  bring  them  to  me  to  be  baptized.  I  do  not  sneer  at  babyhood, 
nor  do  I  say,  how  can  the  dear  unconscious  little  infant  understand  this 
ordinance  of  baptism  ?  Life  is  larger  than  understanding,  life  is  grander 
than  logic.  Are  we  subjects  for  the  vivisecting  instruments  of  the  Aris- 
totles  of  the  ages  ?  Are  we  not  something  infinitely  and  inexpressibly  more  ? 
When  you  bring  the  child,  you  bring  more  than  childhood,  you  bring  life,  and 
when  I  throw  upon  the  dear  little  face  the  baptismal  drops,  I  throw  them 
not  upon  a  creature  six  weeks  old,  but  a  creature  bor7i — a  new  creation,  a 
beautiful  presence  in  the  universe,  great  enough  for  God  to  take  an  in- 
terest in,  small  enough  for  us  to  smile  about,  precious  enough  for  Christ  to 
die  for. 

This  interest  in  childhood  should  teach  us  a  great  deal.  Childhood  in 
itself  is  little,  but  it  is  a  quantity  that  is  always  growing.  Let  old  Pharaoh 
teach  us  what  to  do  with  the  children.  He  said,  "  These  Israelites  will  be 
too  many  for  us  one  day."  What,  then,  did  he  propose  in  the  view  of 
their  over-multiplication  ?  To  kill  off  all  the  men,  or  all  the  women  ? 
His  was  a  profounder  policy  :  I  would  God  the  Church  could  seize  it  and 
apply  it  to  the  current  questions  of  our  own  economy.  He  said,  "  Kill 
the  boys,  drown  them."  Am  I  appalled  by  the  idiot's  philosophy  ?  No  ; 
but  I  am  struck  by  the  wisdom  that  sees  in  childhood,  boyhood,  a  growing 
power,  and  that  directs  its  attention  to  the  early  life  of  nations,  for  they 
who  begin  with  the  adults  begin  at  the  wrong  end,  and  they  who  begin 
with  the  little  ones  begin  at  the  right  point,  and  may  achieve  profound  and 
permanent  success.  Do  not  sneer  at  the  boys.  Do  not  count  them  for 
nothing.  They  will  be  your  successors,  they  may  now  be  your  scholars. 
For  a  time  they  may  grieve  you  and  annoy  you,  and,  by  an  impertinence 
that  is  only  for  the  passing  day,  they  may  again  and  again  bring  momentary 
annoyance  or  distress  upon  you  ;  but  it  is  a  grand  thing  to  have  to  do 
with  them.  Let  your  gentleness  make  them  great.  Show  yourself  so 
deeply  interested  in  them,  by  many  an  inquiry,  as  to  start  in  their  minds 
the  question  whether  they  be  not  something  greater  and  grander  than  they 
appear  to  be  merely  for  the  passing  moment. 

Pharaoh  and  Herod  directed  their  attention  to  young  life.  If  they  could 
have  gotten  hold  of  the  young  life  and  turned  it  in  their  direction  they 
might  have  built  up  very  bad  sovereignties,  but  it  was  one  of  two  things 
with  them,  either  the  boys  would  overcome  them  or  they  must  overcome 
the  boys.  Let  me  speak  words  of  strong  encouragement  and  genuine  com- 
fort to  those  of  you  who  are  young.  You  cannot  tell  what  you  may  be 
yet.  AVork  with  a  high  aim,  be  moved  to  noble  and  pure  ambitions.  You 
will  have  your  broad  chance  in  the  world.     O  may  every  finger  you  have, 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  2  7 

and  every  faculty,  be  made  keen  enough  and  strong  enough   to  seize  the 
chance  and  turn  it  as  it  were  into  fine  gold. 

In  reading  this  text  one  is  struck  with  the  power  of  one  life  to  rouse  a 
world.  Observe  who  gather  around  this  young  child.  Wise  men  from  the 
east,  kings,  chief  priests  and  scribes  of  the  people,  and  elsewhere  we  hear 
of  the  interest  of  shepherds  who  were  keeping  their  flocks  by  night.  A 
strange  thing  for  these  old  Persian  astrologers  to  come  four  months  from 
their  homes  to  see  one  who  was  born — not  king  of  the  Persians,  then  their 
journey  would  have  admitted  an  easy  explication — but  king  of  the  Jc7vs 
— why  should  those  Oriental  star-gazers  be  interested  in  Jewish  history  to 
this  extent  ?  There  is  more  in  the  question  than  appears  on  the  surface. 
This  king  of  the  Jews  is  not  king  of  the  Jews  only,  but  he  is  the  king  who 
springs  out  of  the  Jews  to  be  the  king  of  all  men.  He  will  choose  his  own 
name  presently.  Our  fathers  called  us  what  they  pleased  without  consult- 
ing us  :  not  a  man  was  asked  what  name  he  would  bear  :  his  name  is  the 
finger-mark  of  a  power  he  can  neither  understand  nor  resist,  but  there 
comes  a  time  when  every  man  may  make  himself  a  name,  may  by  his  spirit 
and  his  actions  build  up  an  appellation  which  will  endure  through  all  eternity. 
When  Jesus  Christ  comes  to  speak  of  himself  he  will  explain  this  Persian 
eagerness.  He  will  call  himself  the  Son  of  Man.  He  will  broaden  away 
from  his  birthpoint  until  he  covers  the  whole  area  of  human  nature 
answering  every  throbbing  pain,  anticipating  every  distressful  prayer,  and 
giving  answers  greater  than  any  questions  that  ever  could  be  framed. 

Herein  is  the  explanation  of  all  kinds  of  people  wanting  to  know  about 
Jesus  Christ.  Philosophy  calls  in  to  see  what  he  is.  Kings  pause  a  mo- 
ment on  their  royal  processions  to  ask  questions  about  him,  chief  priests 
and  scribes  of  the  people  betake  themselves  to  literary  research  and  re- 
ligious investigation  that  they  may  be  able  to  answer  popular  inquiries 
concerning  this  unnameable  Man.  And  all  kinds  of  poor  people  want  to 
know  where  he  is,  that  they  may  speak  to  him  a  prayer  that  has  come  back 
from  every  door,  a  bruised  bird  that  could  find  no  space  for  its  flying.  We 
have  read  in  the  seventy-second  psalm  of  the  first  Solomon,  type  of  a 
greater,  who  shall  have  dominion  from  sea  to  sea  and  from  the  river  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth — why  ?  Heard  ye  the  sweet  answer  ?  For  he  shall 
deliver  the  poor  and  the  needy  and  him  that  Jiath  no  helper.  This  is  not  a 
painted  majesty,  a  gilded  dominion,  a  great  comet-like  blaze  of  transient 
splendour  :  it  is  a  monarchy  built  on  beneficence.  He  who  makes  it  his 
supreme  business  in  life  to  help  the  poor  and  the  needy,  the  woman  and 
the  child,  the  far  off  and  the  destitute,  the  misunderstood  and  the  friend- 
less— nothing  can  hinder  him  putting  on  his  head  crown  upon  crown  until 
other  kings  look  petty  beside  his  majesty. 

It  is  thus  that  Jesus  Christ  will  reign.  Not  by  force  of  chariots  and 
multitudinousness  of  horses,  not  by  the  grandeur  of  his  earth-state,  but  by 


28  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

that  loving  sympathy  which  understands  everybody,  by  that  infinite  bene- 
ficence that  stops  not  at  donations  of  the  hand  but  gives  all  the  blood  of 
its  heart.  Hereon  ye  may  build  the  Christian  argument,  and  naught  will 
be  able  to  overthrow  it.  They  will  be  able  to  ask  you  difficult  questions 
about  miracles  and  mysteries  of  every  kind,  they  will  be  able  to  puzzle 
you  with  grammatical  inquiries,  they  may  lose  you  altogether  in  historical 
and  archaeological  investigations  and  references  :  your  heads  may  become 
bewildered  there — you  stand  to  this  grand  sovereign  fact,  let  him  be  king 
who  can  do  most  for  men.  Here  you  have  the  key  which  explains  the  in- 
rushing  upon  Christ  of  all  the  nations  and  climates  of  the  world. 

Yet  one  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the  different  purposes  of  the  inquiry. 
The  Magians  said,  "We  have  come  to  worship  him," — literally  to  do 
homage  to  him.  Trust  the  men  who  can  do  homage  to  anything,  out  of 
and  greater  than  themselves.  Always  set  a  high  price  upon  reverence. 
Veneration  is  the  basis  of  all  noble  and  tender  and  beneficent  character. 
I  would  distrust  the  man  who  has  proved  himself  destitute  of  veneration. 
It  does  us  good  to  bend  the  knee  to  an  object  which  we  suppose  to  be 
greater  than  we  are  ourselves.  We  have  all  seen  the  poor  superstitious 
creatures,  as  we  deem  them,  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  coming  into  the 
churches  for  a  moment  and  bowing  and  genuflecting  after  a  manner  which 
we  could  not  understand.  I  never  could  mock  that  service.  I  have 
thought  I  have  seen  upon  the  peasant's  face  a  tenderer  expression,  a  more 
glowing  solemnity  because  of  that  little  service  in  the  house  of  God. 
There  are  men  who  are  greater  in  blasphemy  than  in  reverence,  and  the 
world  over  they  never  had  anything  good  to  say  of  men,  and  they  never 
did  anything  for  men  worthy  of  a  moment's  remembrance.  Why  have  we 
come  into  Christ's  house  this  morning  ?  If  we  have  come  to  worship  him, 
we  shall  retire  from  the  house  larger  and  better  men  :  the  small  critical 
function  with  which  we  might  have  distressed  ourselves  in  passing  through 
the  service  will  be  suspended,  and  in  our  hearts  there  will  glow  a  fire  of 
new  love.  By  so  much  as  we  have  bent  the  knee  lovingly  and  loyally  to 
the  Son  of  Man  have  we  thrown  off  the  worst  part  of  ourselves,  and  taken 
upon  us  part  of  that  which  constitutes  his  beauty  and  strength. 

Herod's  purpost:  was  not  to  worship  him  :  he  said  it  was  to  worship — he 
lied.  Can  men  lie  about  religious  things  ?  Yes.  Can  men  say  worship 
when  they  mean  destroy  ?  They  say  it  every  day.  Can  men  be  found 
who  will  put  up  a  church  for  Christ  and  yet  not  know  what  they  are  build- 
ing ?  Alas,  it  is  not  only  possible,  it  is  the  saddest  fact  of  our  business, 
that  we  build  temples,  and  curse  the  stones  as  we  put  them  together.  We 
set  up  ministers,  not  with  songs  but  sometimes  with  oaths.  There  is  a 
possibility  of  destroying  Christ,  under  the  guise  of  worshipping  him,  and 
there  is  a  further  possibility  of  destroying  Christ  more  or  less  unconscious- 
ly, by  giving  false  notions  of  him,  by  making  him  a  class-Redeemer,  by 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  29 

setting  him  apart  for  sectarian  uses,  by  attaching  to  him  badges  and  labels, 
scarves,  and  memorials,  that  make  him  belong  to  one  corner  only,  by  nar- 
rowing his  words  down  into  denominational  shibboleths — by  a  thousand 
such  ways  we  destroy  Christ's  influence  in  the  world.  Know  ye  that 
Christ  is  a  Sun  which  cannot  be  touched,  and  also  a  light  which  plays  with 
loving  familiarity  upon  the  one-paned  cottage  of  the  poor  man  and  upon 
the  stately  palaces  of  royalty  and  wealth  ?  He  is  a  Sun  not  to  be  clipped 
by  your  instruments  or  rearranged  by  your  eager  fingers,  and  he  is  a  light 
that  will  bless  you,  but  must  never  be  trifled  with. 

Then  there  are  othei  men  who  do  not  come  to  worship  Christ,  and  who 
certainly  do  not  come  to  destroy  him — who  simply  come  to  speculate  upon 
him.  They  make  him  an  intellectual  puzzle.  He  is  the  mystery  of  the 
day  to  them,  they  must  say  something  about  him,  he  is  an  enigma  they 
cannot  afford  wholly  to  ignore,  and  it  is  heart-breaking  to  hear  the  chaff 
they  pour  forth  without  one  grain  of  wheat  in  the  innumerable  bushels. 
And  sadder  still  to  hear  xhQ  patronage  they  offer  the  Son  of  God.  Have 
you  heard  how  they  speak  about  him  ?  With  measured  approbation,  with 
a  fine  critical  discrimination  as  to  his  properties,  and  qualities,  and  place 
in  human  history.  It  makes  me  sad  to  hear  how  they  damn  him  with 
faint  praise.  They  say  he  had  upon  him  the  inspiration  of  genius,  they 
allow  that  he  was  an  excellent  character,  perhaps  a  little  too  amiable  now 
and  then.  He  had  wondrous  prevision,  he  saw  a  great  deal  more  than  many 
of  his  contemporaries  saw.  He  was  a  very  excellent  man  in  all  his  pur- 
poses ;  his  motives  were  unquestionably  good.  If  he  is  not  more  than 
that,  he  is  the  crowning  hypocrisy  of  history.  What  I  dread  amongst  you 
most  is  not  that  you  will  destroy  Christ,  but  that  you  will  patronise  him. 
You  who  laid  the  hand  upon  the  fat  bullock  and  said  "Good,"  will  put 
the  same  paw  upon  the  Son  of  God  and  say  "  Not  bad."  He  will  resist 
such  patronage,  and  denounce  it,  and  decline  it,  and  return  it  to  rest  upon 
those  who  gave  it.     It  will  be  a  curse  that  they  can  never  survive. 

Jesus  Christ  is  nothing  to  me  if  he  is  not  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  I 
never  heard  persons  in  moments  of  great  agony  or  distress  speak  about  the 
inspiration  of  genius  being  upon  Christ.  I  have  heard  them  say  so  when 
they  were  doing  well :  I  have  heard  them  speak  thus  about  Christ  when 
they  were  parenthetically  interposing,  "  No  more,  thank  you,"  about  their 
fat  dinner.  But  when  I  have  seen  them  doubled  up  with  great  distress, 
and  thrust  into  dark  corners,  and  carrying  burdens  that  break  the  back, 
and  shuddering  under  clouds  that  may  be  laden  with  death  darts,  I  have 
heard  a  whimper  that  would  have  disgraced  a  dog.  You  will  know  what 
Jesus  Christ  is  most  and  best  when  you  are  in  greatest  need  of  such  ser- 
vice as  he  can  render. 

You  find,  too,  very  different  results  flowing  from  these  inquiries.    Herod 


3°  THESE    SAYINGS   OP   MINE, 

was  troubled,  but  the  wise  men  rejoiced  with  exceeding  great  joy.  This 
is  a  summary  of  to-day's  experience.  It  is  one  of  two  things  with  this 
Christ  in  the  life.  He  is  either  the  source  of  your  keenest  troubles,  or  he 
is  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  your  supremest  joys.  The  good 'always 
trouble  the  bad.  The  honest  clerk  troubles  you  who  are  not  honest.  You 
hate  that  young  man  :  he  is  good  to  look  upon,  he  is  pleasant  to  speak  to, 
he  is  most  companionable,  many  an  attraction  attaches  to  his  method  and 
ways  amongst  men,  but  his  honesty  is  a  continual  judgment  upon  your 
dishonesty.  If  you  were  to  hear  that  he  had  dropped  down  dead,  it  would 
only  be  a  hypocrite's  sigh  that  would  answer  the  announcement.  It  is  a 
law  of  the  universe,  if  we  may  judge  by  its  being  a  law  of  society,  that  the 
bad  are  always  troubled  by  the  good,  the  generous  giver  is  a  daily  trouble 
to  the  penurious  man  :  he  finds  motives  for  his  generosity,  he  attributes 
his  liberality  to  false  inspirations,  he  wonders  he  could  not  be  more  pru- 
dent, careful,  and  thoughtful  :  all  the  while  in  his  heart  he  hates  the  man 
who  by  contrast  throws  him  into  very  cold  and  distant  shadow. 

On  the  other  hand,  no  man  has  given  such  joy  to  the  world  as  Jesus 
Christ  has  given.  He  carries  all  his  disciples  up  to  the  point  of  rapture. 
Such  have  been  the  feelings  of  Christian  men  that  a  new  language  has  had 
to  be  invented  for  the  expression  of  their  lofty  and  sacred  emotions. 
Religion,  say  you,  has  a  cant  of  its  own  :  it  is  only  a  cant  to  those  who 
have  not  been  fired  to  the  same  intensity  of  zeal,  and  brought  to  the  same 
nobility  of  sacrificial  temper.  When  the  Christian  man  shouts,  "  Praise 
the  Lord,  Amen,  Hallelujah,"  he  utters  a  fool's  language  to  those  who 
have  never  been  in  his  temper.  It  is  a  foreign  tongue  to  them,  which  they 
can  only  answer  by  foolish  mocking.  But  there  are  times  in  the  religious 
experience  when  only  such  a  word  as  Hallelujah— Hallelujah— a  word  not 
to  be  explained  in  smaller  terms— expresses  the  dominant  feeling  of  the 
excited  and  grateful  soul. 

Have  you  seen  Christ's  star  in  the  east  ?  That  is  a  sight  which  we  may 
never  behold  ;  but  we  may  see  a  greater  sight  than  that.  We  may  see 
himself.  It  is  only  the  accidental  that  drops  off— such  words  as  young, 
child,  Bethlehem,  star— fall  away  into  their  proper  insignificance,  but  such 
words  as  born.  King,  Christ,  Redeemer,  sin,  salvation— abide  with  a  most 
indestructible  permanence  in  human  recollection.  It  will  be  a  happy  day 
when  we  are  more  eager  to  see  Christ  than  we  are  to  see  any  symbol  of 
Him  that  could  be  found,  either  in  the  heavens  or  on  the  earth.  I  do  not 
want  you,  as  my  fellow-students  of  this  Word,  to  care  about  baptism  and 
the  Lord's  supper,  and  the  Sabbath-day,  and  the  church  built  with  hands 
—except  as  these  may  lead  you  further  into  the  inner  sanctuary  where  is 
enthroned  Christ  himself.  If  I  found  men  now  earnestly  searching  the 
heavens  with  the  most  scientifically  constructed  telescopes,  that  they 
might  find  a  star  resembling  what  the  Persian  sages  saw,  that  they,  too, 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  3I 

might  follow  its  guiding  light  to  some  distant  Bethlehem,  I  would  say  to 
them,  "  Christ  is  not  here  nor  there  :  he  is  not  to  be  found  in  sign  or  sym- 
bol now,  except  in  some  low  and  momentarily  convenient  sense.  He  him- 
self is  with  us  :  he  is  to  be  found  in  our  consciousness,  he  is  to  be  the 
answer  to  our  sin,  he  is  to  be  the  satisfaction  of  our  hunger,  he  is  to  be  the 
light  of  our  intellectual  firmament,  he  is  to  be  the  glory  of  our  spiritual 
hope." 

What,  then,  is  our  supreme  anxiety  to-day  ?  Is  it  to  see  the  star  or  to 
see  the  Saviour  ?  Is  it  to  make  a  prophetical  calculation  of  years  and 
months,  or  to  go  out  of  the  heart  searching  for  One  who  is  the  answer  to 
sin  and  the  balm  for  its  cruel  wounding  ?  If  you  say,  "  Sirs,  I  would  see 
Jesus,"  you  will  find  him  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  you  will  find  him  in  every 
Christian's  experience,  in  proportion  as  it  is  enlarged  and  true  ;  yea,  you 
will  find  him  in  the  very  question  itself,  for  no  man  ever  asked  that  ques- 
tion with  the.sincerity  and  earnestness  of  fire,  without  the  answer  beginning 
the  moment  the  question  ended. 


LIFE  LARGER  THAN  LOGIC THE  HELPFULNESS  OF  SCIENCE — THE  RELIGIOUS 

IMAGINATION— THE  DIFFICULTY  OF  PATIENCE. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  we  know  thee  tlirougli  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  our  Priest  and 
Saviour.  He  is  the  Mediator  between  Uod  and  Man,  he  is  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins,  his  blood  cleanseth  from  all  guilt,  he  is  our  joy  and  our  stiength,  and  there  is 
none  beside  him,  our  whole  salvation,  a  redemption  complete  and  infinite.  We 
assemble  to-day  around  his  Cross,  we  touch  the  dying  Lamb,  we  look  first  at  our  sin 
and  then  at  his  grace  ;  where  sin  abounds  grace  doth  much  more  abound,  so  that  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ  thy  Son  is  our  answer  to  thy  fierce  law.  We  liave  no  other 
reply,  our  hearts  are  silent  when  thy  law  accuses,  but  in  Christ  Jesus  and  his  cross, 
and  in  all  the  wondrous  work  he  did,  Ave  find  our  answer  to  the  accusations  of  thy 
righteousness  and  all  the  challenges  of  thy  law.  We  pray  in  his  name  ;  our  inter- 
cessions are  mighty  because  they  are  offered  at  his  cross  ;  they  are  weak  and  worth- 
less in  themselves,  but  because  of  what  Jesus  is  and  what  Jesus  did,  all  our  weakness 
is  turned  into  strength,  and  our  trembling  prayer  becomes  a  prevalent  intercession. 

We  have  come  to  bless  thee  with  a  new  song,  for  thy  mercies  have  been  renewed  in 
our  life  day  by  day.  Every  hour  has  brought  its  own  miracle  of  grace,  every  mo- 
ment has  seen  some  fresh  display  of  thy  patience  or  providential  care.  The  very 
hairs  of  our  head  are  all  numbered.  Thou  hearest  the  throbbing  of  our  heart,  thou 
knowest  the  way  that  we  take  ;  yea,  thou  dost  beset  us  behind  and  before,  and  upon 
us  is  laid  tuy  gentle  yet  mighty  hand.  We  are  here  because  of  thy  goodness,  thou 
hast  saved  our  soul  from  death,  we  are  yet  on  praying  ground,  we  have  the  opportu- 
nity of  uttering  our  psalm  and  hymn  and  prayer  into  Heaven  in  the  name  and  for  the 
sake  of  the  one  Saviour.  Thou  hast  given  us  bread  to  eat,  thou  hast  sheltered  us 
from  the  darkness  and  the  storm,  thou  hast  given  unto  us  rest  in  sleep,  and  the 
renewal  of  strength  therein,  thou  hast  continued  unto  us  oar  reasoning  faculties,  the 
chain  of  our  friendship  has  not  been  broken  in  one  link — because,  therefore,  of  all 
these  thine  earthly  mercies,  we  bless  thee  with  a  rising  gratitude,  we  praise  thee 
with  a  full  heart,  for  thy  mercies  have  been  many  and  tender. 

Thou  hast,  above  all  things,  nourished  our  soul.  Though  we  were  branches  that 
had  no  place  in  the  living  stem,  yet  hast  thou  graffed  us  in,  so  that  now  we  partake 
of  the  root  and  the  fatness  of  the  olive.  Thou  didst  find  us  when  we  were  lost, 
thou  didst  make  us  sons  when  we  were  aliens  and  Avanderers,  thou  didst  invest  us 
with  all  the  privileges  of  thy  church  when  our  arm  had  been  lifted  against  thee  in 
continual  rebellion.  This  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes.  May 
we  enjoy  all  thy  privileges  now,  may  we  seize  our  inheritance  and  claim  it  Avith  our 
whole  heart,  so  that  we  avIio  were  poor  by  reason  of  this  world's  sins  and  disti'esses 
may  now  become  rich  Avith  imperishable  Avealth.  To  this  end  do  thou  pour  upon  us 
the  Holy  Ghost  ;  may  he  dAvell  in  us,  ruling  our  thought  and  purpose  and  Avill,  and 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  33 

sanctifying  us  altogether,  till  there  be  in  our  whole  nature  nothing  of  impurity  or 
wrong.  Complete  the  miracle  of  thy  grace  in  our  sanctification  ;  may  we  be  without 
spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing,  glorious  personally,  and  glorious  as  a  redeemed 
church. 

We  put  our  life  into  thy  care  day  by  day.  We  know  not  when  its  last  breathings 
shall  be  ;  help  us,  therefore,  to  be  diligent  with  all  care  and  filial  anxiety  to  do  that 
which  is  right  in  thy  sight,  and  to  make  the  most  of  our  day  and  generation.  De- 
liver us  from  the  torment  of  fear,  saTe  us  from  the  hell  of  despondency,  create  in  us 
that  happiness,  that  oversowing  joyousness  which  comes  of  complete  trust  in  God. 
May  wo  not  give  way  to  tlie  temptation  of  the  evil  one,  may  our  fears  never  multiply 
themselves  against  us  to  the  extinction  of  our  hope,  and  in  the  darkest  night  may  we 
see  some  distant  and  trembling  star,  in  the  coldest  winter  may  there  come  upon  us 
now  and  again  some  gleam  of  light  that  tells  of  the  summer  that  is  yet  to  dawn.  In 
all  the  way  that  we  take  give  us  guidance,  ensure  unto  us  defence,  then  shall  our 
steps  be  steady,  and  they  shall  all  point  towards  the  city  of  light  and  the  city  of  rest. 

Tliou  knowest  what  we  net^d :  grant  unto  us,  we  humbly  prjty  thee,  in  the  name 
and  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  which  our  heart  most  truly  requires.  Wherein 
our  words  do  not  express  our  needs,  do  thou  not  hear  those  words  nor  answer  them  : 
wherein  we  are  inspired  to  speak  of  our  real  and  vital  wants,  do  thou  command  thy 
blessing  to  rest  upon  us,  even  life  for  evermore.  Pity  us  wlien  we  are  infirm  and 
little  in  soul  and  in  purpose,  save  us  when  we  are  most  conscious  of  our  aggravated 
guilt,  fill  our  vision  with  thy  beauty  when  that  which  is  of  the  earth  and  time  would 
tempt  us  with  its  meaner  attractions. 

Hear  us  when  we  pray  one  for  another,  when  we  pray  for  heads  of  houses  that 
they  may  be  clothed  with  wisdom,  sobriety,  and  grace,  for  children,  that  they  may 
be  brought  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,  for  masters  and  servants, 
that  they  may  understand  and  help  one  another,  for  the  sick  and  the  afflicted,  that  in 
their  weakness  they  may  see  the  incoming  of  Christ,  bringing  with  him  health  and 
inmiortality,  for  the  distant  and  the  wandering,  those  from  whom  we  are  for  the  mo- 
ment separated,  that  there  may  be  no  division  of  soul  or  distraction  of  love,  but  that 
though  far  apart,  we  may  yet  be  one  in  affection  and  godly  desire. 

The  Lord  hear  us  on  account  of  those  who  never  pray  for  themselves,  those  who 
are  aliens  and  prodigals,  who  have  broken  every  vow,  dishonoured  every  covenant, 
and  have  gone  far  away  into  the  bleak  wilderness  of  iniquity — the  Lord's  Gospel  flee 
after  them  like  a  saving  angel,  and  flash  upon  them  some  home-light  or  strike  in 
their  hearts  some  tender  chord  that  shall  bring  them  back  again,  that  there  may  be 
rejoicing  on  earth  and  in  Heaven.  The  Lord's  light  make  our  morning  glad,  the 
beauty  of  the  Lord  himself  be  upon  us,  making  our  souls  lovely  with  his  presence 
and  strong  with  his  grace.     Amen. 

Matthew  ii.  11-15. 

11.  And  when  they  were  come  into  the  house  they  saw  the  young  child  (the  child 
first,  not  the  mother  :  this  order  should  be  marked)  with  Mary  his  mother,  and  fell 
down  and  worshipped  him  (a  word  often  used  in  a  double  sense  ;  Xenophon  says  that 
Cyrus  was  icorsMpped  by  his  subjects)  ;  and  when  they  had  opened  their  treasures 
(caskets  or  packages),  they  presented  (according  to  oriental  custom)  unto  him  gifts  : 
gold  and  frankincense,  and  myrrh  (Psalm  xlv.  8,  Ixxii.  15  ;  Isa.  Ix.  6). 

12.  And  being  warned  of  God  in  a  dream  that  they  should  not  return  to  Herod, 
they  departed  into  their  own  country  another  way. 

13.  And  when  they  were  departed,  behold,  the  (an)  angel  of  the  Lord  appeareth  to 
^oseph  in  a  dream,  saying,  Arise  and  take  the  young  child  and  his  mother,  and  flee 


34  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

into  Egypt  (tlie  nearest  asylum),  and  be  thou  there  until  I  bring  thee  word  :  for  Herod 
will  seek  the  young  child  to  destroy  him. 

14.  When  he  arose,  he  took  the  young  child  and  his  mother  (this  order  is  unnatu- 
ral, if  not  inspired)  by  night,  and  departed  into  Egypt  ; 

lb.  And  was  there  until  the  death  of  Herod  :  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was 
spoken  of  the  Lord  by  the  prophet  (of  Israel,  but  typically  of  Christ),  saying.  Out  of 
Egypt  have  I  called  my  son, 

"  They  found  the  young  child  with  Mary,  his  mother."  Surely  this  is 
an  inversion  of  the  right  method  of  stating  the  case,  judged  by  our  little 
rules,  pedantic  and  inadequate.  A  critic  might  here  interpose  and  say, 
You  have  adopted  the  wrong  order  of  sequence,  you  have  inverted  the 
proper  method  of  statement.  Instead  of  saying,  Mary,  the  mother,  and 
the  young  child,  you  have  actually  put  the  young  child  first,  and  thus 
you  have  inverted  the  order  of  time.  Nor  is  this  a  slip,  for  I  find  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  adopting  the  same  sequence  in  the  13th  verse,  saying  te 
Joseph  in  a  dream,  "  Take  the  young  child  with  his  mother,"  and  after- 
wards in  the  20th  verse,  the  angel  again  says,  "  Arise,  and  take  the  young 
child  and  his  mother,"  and  in  the  21st  verse,  "  Arise,  and  take  the  young 
child  and  his  mother."  The  frequency  of  the  repetition  shows  us  that  to 
indicate  the  young  child  first  and  the  mother  afterwards  was  not  a  literary 
slip. 

When  will  we  learn  that  life  is  larger  than  logic  ?  When  will  we  keep 
our  little  technical  rules  away  from  great  providences  and  mysteries  ?  We 
are  ruined  herein  by  our  own  exactness.  The  literalist  can  never  be  right  in 
anything  that  challenges  the  highest  efforts  of  the  mind.  He  who  is  right 
in  the  mere  order  of  words,  after  a  pedantic  law  of  Tightness  and  accuracy, 
often  misses  the  genius,  the  poetry,  the  overflowing  and  ineffable  life  of 
things.  He  boasts  of  his  exactitude,  he  is  very  clever  in  defending  him.- 
self  against  etymological  and  critical  assaults,  but  he  is  vitally  wrong. 
Within  the  limits  which  he  has  assigned  for  the  movement  of  his  powers  he 
is  right,  but  those  limits  themselves  are  wrong,  and,  therefore,  it  is  possible 
to  be  partially  right  and  yet  to  be  substantially  and  vitally  in  error.  He, 
for  example,  who  says  the  earth  stands  still,  is  in  a  popular  sense  right,  and 
yet  his  statement  is  absolutely  wrong. 

If  we  could  apply  this  great  thought  of  the  largeness  of  life  to  the  inter- 
pretation of  Scripture,  we  should  not  be  fretted  by  many  of  those  petty 
and  distracting  criticisms  which  bring  down  heaven  to  the  scale  of  earth, 
and  vex  us  with  unworthy  controversies.  The  rule  is,  Christ  first — the 
young  child  mentioned  at  the  top  of  every  list.  "  He  was  before  all  things 
and  by  him  all  things  consist."  If  he  is  Alpha,  he  is  Omega  ;  if  he  is  the 
young  child,  he  is  the  Ancient  of  Days.  He  takes  precedence  of  the  whole 
universe,  for  he  was  before  it — he  laid  its  foundations,  and  arched  its 
canopies.     Refrain,  therefore,  from  thy  little  and  dwarfing  criticisms  «s  tQ 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  35 

chronological  sequence,  and  abandon  those  neat  exactitudes  which,  by 
their  very  superficial  claim  to  being  considered  right,  may  prevent  the  en- 
trance into  thy  mind  of  the  larger  light  and  the  broader  revelation. 

When  the  wise  men  came  into  the  house  they  fell  down  and  worshipped 
the  young  child.  They  did  not  fall  down  and  worship  Mary — they  hardly 
saw  the  mother.  Who  can  see  anything  but  Christ  when  he  is  there  ?  To 
see  anything  in  God's  house  but  God  is  to  waste  the  opportunity.  The 
wise  men  worshipped  the  young  child,  they  did  him  homage,  they  bent  be- 
fore him,  they  became  oblivious  of  themselves  in  his  presence  ;  not  a  word 
might  they  say,  for  worship  when  deepest  is  often  silent.  Words  have 
been  hindrances  in  the  way  of  spiritual  progress.  Words  are  to  blame  for 
the  thousand  controversies  that  afflict  and  distress  the  Church.  I  would 
to  God  we  could  do  without  words,  for  who  can  understand  even  his  friend  ? 
Who  can  catch  the  subtle  emphasis,  who  has  eyes  quickened  to  see  the 
colouring  of  the  word,  and  sagacity  to  set  it  in  its  right  place,  so  as  to  lose 
nothing  of  its  rhythm,  and  harmony,  and  sweet  intent  ?  Whatever  the 
word  worship  may  mean  here,  religiously— for  that  word  is  used  ambigu- 
ously both  in  the  classics  and  in  Scripture — it  is  evident  that  the  wise  men 
offered  homage  to  the  young  child.  The  right  attitude  of  wisdom  is  to 
bend  before  Christ,  to  be  silent  in  his  presence,  to  wait  for  him  to  lead  the 
conversation.  If  wisdom  venture  to  utter  its  voice  first,  it  ought  to  be  in 
inquiry  or  in  praise.  Wisdom  is  always  reticent  of  speech  ;  it  is  the  fool 
who  chatters,  the  wise  man  thinks.  When  Socrates  was  told  that  he  was  the 
wisest  man  in  the  world,  he  ran  away,  and  yet  returned  to  accept  the  com- 
pliment, for,  said  he,  "  I  knew  that  I  knew  nothing,  and  I  have  met  with 
no  other  man  so  wise." 

If  we  come  into  the  house  where  Jesus  Christ  is,  our  business  is  to  imi- 
tate the  wise  men  who  came  from  the  far  east,  namely,  to  bend  the  knee, 
to  put  our  hand  over  our  eyes,  lest  we  be  blinded  by  the  great  light,  to  be 
silent,  to  wait.  It  would  be  well,  if  in  our  brief  time  of  worship  we  could 
set  aside  a  few  minutes  for  absolute  silence.  No  minister  to  speak,  no 
organ  to  utter  its  voice,  no  hymn  to  trouble  the  air.  If  we  could,  with 
shut  eyes  and  bent  head,  spend  five  minutes  in  absolute  speechlessness, 
that  would  be  prayer,  that  would  be  worship.  The  fool  would  misunder- 
stand it,  and  think  nothing  was  being  done,  but  as  the  last  expression  of 
velocity  is  rest,  so  the  last  expression  of  eloquence  is  silence,  and  some- 
times the  highest  liturgy  is  to  be  dumb.  We  have  banished  the  angel  of 
silence,  the  angel  of  quietude  is  a  nuisance  to  our  fussy  civilization  ;  we 
have  set  noise  in  the  front,  and  silence  has  been  exiled  from  the  Church. 

Not  only  did  the  wise  men  worship  Christ,  they  presented  unto  \\\xa.gifts, 
"  gold  and  frankincense  and  myrrh."  This  is  the  method  of  love.  Wor- 
ship isgivinfi;,  it  is  not  receiving.  We  are  never  to  see  Christ  without  giv- 
ing him  ourselves.     Jesus  Christ   docs  not  seek  the  homage  of  a  courteous 


36  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

recognition,  he  seeks  the  loyalty  of  absolute  sacrifice.  The  wise  men  gave 
him  all  they  had,  and  Jesus  Christ  never  says,  "  Hold,  you  have  given 
enough."  Never,  till  the  heart's  last  fibre  is  given  to  him,  and  the  last  red 
blood-drop  falls  upon  his  hand — then,  having  received  us  in  the  totality  of 
our  being,  his  soul  is  satisfied. 

"  And  being  warned  of  God  in  a  dream  that  they  should  not  return  to 
Herod,  they  departed  into  their  own  country  another  way."  God  is  in 
continual  communication  with  the  right-minded.  He  speaks  to  them  by 
starry  eloquence.  He  speaks  to  them  in  words  and  visions  and  dreams. 
He  is  a  God  nigh  at  hand,  and  not  afar  off  to  all  those  who  are  rightly  dis- 
posed towards  him,  and  whose  hearts  rise  up  in  vehement  desire  to  know 
his  will.  He  will  be  as  near  us  as  our  desire  is  pure  :  the  fire  of  our 
earnestness  will  be,  as  it  were,  the  measure  of  his  readiness  to  come  and 
give  us  guidance  and  defence.  He  spake  to  the  wise  men  in  a  dream.  We 
have  debased  the  word  dream,  and  then  we  ask  one  another  with  a  hilarious 
scepticism  if  we  believe  in  dreams  ?  What  word  have  we  not  fouled  and 
despoiled,  and  then,  having  brought  it  to  its  smallest  significations,  we  have 
turned  round  and  asked  if  we  believe  that  such  terms  can  be  measured  by 
divine  revelations  ?  By  overfeeding,  we  have  brought  upon  ourselves  all 
the  .distresses  of  dyspeptic  nightmare,  and  having  come  out  of  the  nightly 
struggle,  we  say,  "  Now  do  you  suppose  that  there  is  any  truth  in  dreams  ?  " 
See  how  the  argument  is  put  upon  a  false  centre,  see  how  we  first  waste  the 
inheritance,  and  then  demand  its  ra/i/e  ? 

What  does  the  word  dream  signify  ?  Not  a  nightmare,  not  the  incoher- 
ences and  ravings  of  a  disordered  brain,  resulting  from  overfeeding.  It 
means  the  outgo  of  the  soul  towards  the  invisible,  distant,  spiritual,  incom- 
prehensible, eternal.  We  have  lost  the  dream  out  of  the  Church.  We 
have  lost  everything — prophecy,  tongues,  miracles,  songs,  gifts  of  healing, 
helps,  governments,  enthusiasms,  heroisms — we  have  lost  them  all  !  It  is 
just  like  us — fools,  we  ought  never  to  have  been  trusted  with  anything  ! 
What  have  we  left  now  ?  Nothing.  Miracles  gone,  prophecy  gone,  the 
devil  gone,  God — GOING.  As  for  dreams,  we  have  long  survived  their 
foolish  means  of  communicating  with  the  invisible.  As  for  dreams,  we 
despise  them,  and  laugh  mockingly  over  our  smoking  chocolate,  and  ask 
one  another  if  we  believe  in  dreams  !  Reclaim  the  original  signification  of 
the  term,  rebuild  the  shattered  inheritance,  and  then  ask  the  great  ques- 
tion, and  you  shall  have  a  great  reply. 

The  dream  stands  for  that  grandest  of  all  powers,  the  religious  imagina- 
tion. That,  again,  is  a  word  which  must  be  used  with  great  guardedness, 
because  the  word  imagination  has  itself  been  stripped,  wounded,  and  left 
half-dead.  Who  can  now  define  imagination  with  the  original  fire  and  with 
the  original  grandeur  ?  We  abuse  and  misapply  the  terms.  We  now  say, 
speaking  of  a  man  who  makes  false  suppositions,  "  He  imagines  things." 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  37 

When  we  so  use  the  word,  we  use  it  with  improper  limitations,  and  in  short 
we  give  a  wrong  turn  to  the  term.  No  wonder,  therefore,  that  we  are 
afraid  to  use  the  grand  word  imagination  in  any  religious  sense.  It  is  only 
a  man  in  a  century  or  two  who  is  really  gifted  with  imagination.  Imagina- 
tion is  a  creative  faculty,  imagination  images  the  unimaged,  gives  visibility 
and  palpableness  to  the  immaterial,  the  unmeasured  and  the  unnamed. 

When  we  charge  certain  persons  with  having  no  imagination,  they  start 
and  say,  "  If  we  have  one  faculty  more  than  another,  it  is  imagination." 
When  we  ask  them  to  provide  the  proof,  what  do  they  reply  ?  They  mis- 
take description  for  imagination  ;  thus,  they  will  describe  an  object  as  blue 
on  one  side  and  yellow  on  the  other  and  surmounted  by  a  coronal  of  red, 
and  then  they  will  claim  for  their  speech  the  sublime  epithet  of  imagina- 
tion! It  is  a  house  painter's  imagination.  It  is  the  imagination  of  a  man 
who  paints  rustic  signs  for  rustic  inns.  Imagination! — it  is  God's  supreme 
gift  to  the  human  mind.  When  a  thought  presents  itself  to  the  intelligence, 
imagination  bodies  it,  gives  it  form,  configuration,  colour,  and  enters  into 
high  dialogue  with  the  strange  and  most  wondrous  guest.  The  most  of  us 
have  no  imagination  ;  the  next  best  gift  we  can  have  is  to  listen  with  pa- 
tience rising  into  delight,  to  the  man  to  whom  God  has  given  this  great 
gift  of  making  the  dumb  speak,  and  calling  into  visibleness  the  unseen  and 
unpalpable. 

The  wise  men  ''  departed  into  their  country  another  way."  God  knows 
the  way  into  your  countries  and  kingdoms,  how  distant  soever  they  be. 
You  have  made  a  high  road  out  of  your  Persia  into  the  distant  Judea,  how 
will  you  get  back  again  ?  Why,  by  the  same  road — there  is  no  other,  say 
you,  in  conscious  wisdom  concerning  the  whole  topographical  arrangement. 
The  angel  of  the  Lord  says,  "  I  Avill  show  you  the  way  home  :  not  one  step  of 
the  old  road  shall  you  take,  I  will  make  a  way  for  you."  Do  not  say  there 
is  no  way  out  of  your  difficulty.  It  is  a  family  difficulty,  or  a  difficulty  im- 
perial or  ecclesiastical,  or  a  difficulty  vipon  which  you  can  take  no  human 
counsel.  Do  not,  therefore,  say  that  your  way  is  passed  over  from  your 
God,  that  you  have  been  brought  into  a  cid  de  sac,  and  must  bruise  your 
head  against  the  resisting  and  defiant  walls.  Stand  still,  and  say,  "  Lord, 
show  me  thy  salvation  :  take  me  home  by  another  way  :  I  thought  this  was 
the  right  road,  I  find  that  my  thinking  has  been  misinformed,  or  that  cir- 
cumstances have  arisen  which  throw  my  calculations  into  preplexity  and 
environ  my  life  with  strange  and  mighty  opposition.  Lord,  I  will  not 
move  one  inch  until  thou  dost  lead  the  way."  Say  you  so — is  that  your 
heart's  sweet  litany  ?  No  weapon  that  is  formed  against  thee  shall  prosper. 
Commit  thy  way  unto  the  Lord  :  trust  also  in  him  and  he  shall  bring  it  to 
pass.  Oh,  rest  in  the  Lord  and  wait  patiently  for  him,  and  he  shall  give 
thee  thv  heart's  desire. 

This  incident  shows  us  in  how  many  ways>  God  interposes  in  human  af- 


38  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

fairs.  The  angel  of  the  Lord  warned  the  wise  men,  and  he  also  warned 
Joseph.  There  is  a  ministry  of  warning  in  our  life.  Why  that  sudden 
start  ?  You  cannot  explain  it.  It  was  a  frightening  angel  that  looked  upon 
your  life  for  a  moment,  and  by  his  look  said,  "  Not  this  way — straight 
on."  Why  tear  up  the  programme  on  which  you  have  spent  months  ? 
You  cannot  explain  why,  but  a  voice  said  to  you,  "  That  programme  is  all 
wrong,  tear  it  to  pieces  and  throw  it  into  the  fire  :  there  is  danger  there. 
Beware,  take  care.  Not  this  road.  Trust  not  to  thine  own  understand- 
ing. That  programme  is  a  witness  to  thy  folly  and  shallowness  :  throw  it 
from  thee  as  thou  wouldst  throw  poison,  and  stand  empty-handed  before 
God,  and  ask  him  to  write  the  way-bill."  "  In  all  thy  ways  acknowledge 
him,  and  he  shall  direct  thy  paths.     Lean  not  to  thine  own  imderstanding." 

Sometimes  God  sends  warnings  to  us  in  extraordinary  ways  by  extraor- 
dinary people  and  under  improbable  circumstances.  I  am  conscious  of 
the  presence  of  this  warning  ministry  in  my  life,  though  I  have  no  words 
subtle  and  keen  enough  wherewith  to  express  all  that  I  feel  on  that  solemn 
subject.  Shall  I  shake  hands  with  yonder  man  ?  I  think  I  will  ;  he  looks 
healthy,  he  looks  kind,  and  yet  in  the  midst  of  all  these  hopeful  lucubra- 
tions, my  hand  takes  sudden  palsy  and  I  will  not  shake  hands  with  him, 
and  cannot.  How  so  ?  There  is  a  warning  angel  in  my  life.  I,  poor  un- 
suspecting fool,  would  shake  hands  with  every  man  who  smiles  upon  me, 
for  I  have  no  eye  for  the  detection  of  the  villain's  cheek,  but  the  warning 
angel  says,  "  Take  care,  go  aside,  he  is  a  goodly  apple — rotten  at  the 
core." 

Not  only  is  there  a  warning  ministry  in  this  incident,  there  is  also  a 
7vatclting  ministry.  The  angel  of  the  Lord  watched  Herod,  watched  the 
young  child  and  his  mother,  watched  the  wise  men.  O  those  watchers 
that  fill  the  air — your  mother,  your  child,  your  friend,  your  guardian  angel 
— every  one  of  us  has  an  angel-self  to  be  seen  only  with  the  eyes  of  the  soul's 
inspired  imagination.  They  watch  us  night  and  day.  "  Are  they  not  all 
ministering  spirits,  sent  forth  to  minister  to  them  who  shall  be  the  heirs  of 
salvation  ? "  I  am  alone,  yet  I  am  not  alone,  for  God's  angel  is  with  me. 
Do  not  live  a  little  fleshly  life,  do  not  shut  yourself  up  within  the  limits  of 
your  constabulary  arrangements  and  imagine  that  no  eye  is  upon  you  but 
the  eye  of  detective  and  suspicious  law.  Love  watches,  redemption,  em- 
bodied in  Jesus  Christ,  watches,  we  are  beset  behind  and  before,  and  there 
is  a  hand  upon  us,  and  a  kind  eye  is  behind  the  cloud,  looking  now  and 
again  upon  our  life,  and  flashing  a  tender  morning  ray  upon  our  long- 
bound  and  darkness-wearied  souls. 

Learn  from  the  next  passage  in  the  incident,  that  man's  simple  business 
in  preplexity  is  to  obey.  "  Joseph  arose  and  took  the  young  child  and  his 
mother  by  night,  and  departed  into  Egypt."  Obedience  sometimes  re- 
quires activity.     The  angel  said,  "Arise  and  flee."     That  is  the  easiest  part 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  39 

of  obedience.  There  is  no  difficulty  about  fleeing,  about  exerting  oneself  ; 
the  blood  heats,  and  activity  is  delight.  God  puts  these  calls  to  activity 
into  our  life  at  the  right  times  and  with  the  right  measure  of  appointment. 
Why,  you  say,  you  would  have  died  on  the  dear  friend's  coffin,  but  that 
you  were  obliged  to  arouse  yourself  to  attend  to  the  last  obsequies.  Kind 
is  the  way  of  God  even  in  these  matters.  When  death  darkens  your  win- 
dow and  turns  your  day  into  night  it  always  says  to  you,  "Arise  and  flee, 
work,  arrange,  settle,"  and  one  of  the  first  things  you  have  to  do  in  the 
midst  of  your  intolerable  agony  is  to  bestir  yourself.  In  that  bestirring 
there  is  sometimes  salvation. 

After  activity  comes />afic/ice.  The  angel  said,  "And  be  thou  there  un- 
til I  bring  thee  word."  That  is  the  //arc/  part  of  life.  Whilst  I  am  climb- 
ing the  mountains,  passing  through  the  wildernesses,  daring  dangers,  I  feel 
comparatively  (juiet,  or  even  glad.  But  to  sit  down  when  the  angel  tells 
me  to  sit,  and  not  to  stir  till  he  comes  back  again — who  can  do  it  ?  I  in- 
quire of  the  first  man  who  comes  near  me,  whether  I  cannot  get  away  out 
of  Egypt  ?  He  says  he  thinks  I  can  if  I  try  the  next  turn,  and  I,  disobedi- 
ent soul,  move  towards  the  next  turn,  and  if  a  wolf  sent  of  God  did  not 
show  its  gleaming  teeth  at  me  there,  I  would  be  off,  so  fond  am  I  of  activ- 
ity and  self-direction,  and  so  impossible  is  it  to  me  to  sit  still  and  see  the 
outworking  of  the  divine  will. 

The  true  interpretation  of  human  purposes  is  from  God.  Herod  said, 
"  I  will  worship  him,  when  you  bring  me  word."  The  angel  said,  "  Herod 
will  seek  the  young  child  to  destroy  him."  Herod  said  wors/iip — Herod 
meant  destroy.  The  angel  knows  our  meaning  :  God  does  not  take  our 
words  always  in  the  sense  in  which  we  offer  them.  He  reads  between  the 
lines.  He  peruses  the  small  print  of  the  motive  and  of  the  inward  and 
half-revealed  or  even  half-formed  desire.  He  shows  us  to  ourselves. 
Sometimes  when  we  say  ivors/iip,  he  shows  us  by  an  analysis  of  our  own 
acceptation  of  the  term,  that  destroy  is  the  proper  meaning  of  our  language. 
Lord,  interpret  my  speech  to  me  :  I  use  words  of  false  meaning,  I  think 
sometimes  I  mean  to  be  religious — show  me  that  some  religions  are  lies, 
and  that  some  prayers  are  offences.  Save  me  from  being  my  own  lexicog- 
rapher :  when  I  write  a  word,  do  thou,  gentle  Father,  ever  wise,  write  after 
it  its  true  and  proper  meaning. 

The  young  child,  Mary  and  Joseph,  are  now  at  this  point  of  the  incident, 
away  in  Egypt.  There  are  times  of  retreat  in  every  great  life,  times  when 
Christ  must  be  driven  into  Egypt,  when  the  prophet  must  be  banished  into 
solitude,  when  John  the  Baptist  must  be  in  the  desert  eating  locusts  and 
wild  honey,  when  Saul  of  Tarsus  must  be  driven  off  into  Arabia — times 
when  we  are  not  to  be  found.  An  asylum  need  not  be  a  tomb,  retreat 
need  not  be  extinction.  For  a  time  you  are  driven  away — make  the  best 
of  your  leisurei     You  want  to  be  at  the  front,  instead  of  that  you  have  been 


40  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

banished  to  the  rear  :  it  is  for  a  wise  purpose.  Gather  strength,  let  the 
brain  sleep,  yield  yourself  to  the  spirit  of  the  quietness  of  God,  and  after 
what  appears  to  be  wasted  time  or  unprofitable  waiting,  there  shall  come 
an  inspiration  into  thy  soul  that  shall  make  thee  strong  and  fearless,  and 
the  banished  one  shall  become  the  centre  of  nations. 


SECOND  CAUSES  NOT  SUFFICIENT PHYSICAL    FORCE  WEAKER    THAN    MORAL 

ANGEL    MINISTRIES — AFRAID  OF  WHOLE    FAMILIES GOODNESS    CANNOT 

DIE. 

PRAYER 

Almighty  Ooo,  tliy  way  is  very  wonderful,  and  we  cannot  find  it  out  ;  thou  dost 
justify  thyself  in  righteousness  and  in  mercy,  notwithstanding  our  sore  perplexity 
and  the  vexation  of  our  soul  in  time  of  trouble.  Thou  dost  send  men  on  strange 
errands,  thy  requests  are  bold  ;  thou  dost  lay  thine  hand  upon  our  life,  and  require  it 
as  our  gift.  VVho  can  restrain  thee  ?  Who  can  mitigate  thy  severity '?  Who  can 
answer  thy  great  thunder?  What  sword  have  we  tluit  can  reply  to  thy  lightning? 
Teach  us  that  our  place  is  to  obey,  to  receive  the  will  from  heaven,  and  with  all 
patience  and  loving  industry  to  do  it  every  whit.  How  can  we  do  so  ?  We  are  of 
yesterday,  and  know  nothing  ;  we  mistake  the  near  for  the  precious  and  the  great ; 
we  do  not  allow  for  distance  and  colour  in  the  proportion  of  things,  so  we  are  con- 
stantly mistaking  that  which  is  in  our  hand  as  being  greater  and  better  than  that 
wliich  is  afar  off.  We  consult  impatient  temper  ;  we  are  the  slaves  of  an  imperfect 
and  depraved  will  ;  a  thousand  mean  and  treacherous  appetites  besiege  the  very 
centre  and  source  of  our  best  life — how  then  can  we  obey?  This  is  of  the  Lord's 
doing  :  we  are  saved  by  grace  and  not  by  work ;  this  is  not  an  offering  of  our  own  ; 
it  is  the  outworking  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  do  not  marvel  now 
that  we  must  be  born  again  ;  we  bless  thee  for  this  gospel  of  regeneration,  which  is 
the  gospel  of  the  heart  of  thy  Son,  for  the  laver  of  regeneration  is  filled  with  noth- 
ing less  than  the  blood  of  the  heart  of  Christ.  To  no  baptismal  water  do  we  come, 
but  to  a  laver  and  fountain  of  regenerating  blood.  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  thy 
Son,  cleanseth  from  all  sin.  We  would  test  its  power  ;  we  would  see  our  sin  cleansed 
by  its  efficacy  ;  we  are  weary  of  sin  :  it  tires  those  whom  for  a  moment  it  pleases — 
the  fire  of  wickedness  goes  out  and  leaves  a  death-like  cold  behind  it.  We  would 
therefore  turn  unto  the  Lord  with  full  purpose  of  heart ;  we  would  live  in  the  Lord, 
for  the  Lord  would  we  live,  our  delight  would  be  in  thy  testimonies,  and  our  satis- 
faction in  thy  service. 

Thou  hast  appointed  unto  us  but  a  few  days  wherein  to  live.  Our  life  is  as  a  dying 
smoke,  or  as  a  wind  that  flietli  speedily  away  and  which  none  can  find.  We  are  like 
water  spilled  upon  the  ground  which  cannot  be  gathered  up.  Few  and  evil  are  the 
days  of  thy  servants  ;  our  life  is  but  a  span  ;  we  see  the  meanness  of  its  duration  and 
the  poverty  of  its  own  resources,  yet  are  we  enslaved  by  fascinations  which  throw 
their  spell  upon  us  every  day.  We  would  that  God  would  deliver  us  from  all  the.se 
bondages,  and  cause  us  to  enter  into  the  wide  and  glorious  liberty  of  his  Son.  That 
we  should  ever  have  prayed  this  prayer  is  the  miracle  of  our  life,  for  we  were  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sin,  and  our  soul's  delight  was  in  the  gardens  forbidden,  and  in  the 
trees  that  are  interdicted,  but  now  we  are  alive  in  Christ,  and  our  soul's  desire  is  to 


42  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINfi. 

drink  of  the  living  stream,  to  pluck  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  to  do  God's  will  with 
hearty  sincerity,  with  humble  devoutness,  with  reverence  that  itself  is  worship. 

Appoint  unto  us  our  tasli  and  give  us  sti-ength  to  fulfil  it  all.  When  the  burden  is 
very  heavy,  do  not  lessen  the  load,  but  increase  the  strength.  When  the  hill  is  very 
high  and  the  wind  is  very  bleak,  and  we  are  ill  able  to  bear  it,  reduce  nothing  of  the 
severity  of  the  discipline,  bat  increase  in  us  that  loving  patience,  that  high  hope,  that 
gentle  trust,  which  accepts  everything  at  thine  hand  as  right  and  wise  and  good. 

Thou  art  teaching  us  many  lessons  difficult  to  learn,  hard  to  apply,  yet  which  in 
the  application  turn  to  sweet  gospels,  even  to  resurrections  and  great  deliverances. 
Thou  dost  take  away  the  pride  of  our  life,  the  delight  of  our  eyes,  the  song  of  our 
souls.  Thou  dost  make  us  poor  indeed  :  thou  sendest  a  bitter  cold  upon  us,  under 
which  we  shiver  and  tremble  with  agony  :  thou  dost  distress  us  by  many  troubles, 
thou  wilt  not  allow  us  to  keep  the  dear  child — it  is  plucked  like  an  unopened  bud. 
When  thou  dost  see  us  in  the  midst  of  our  joy  thou  dost  trouble  our  cup  with  bitter- 
ness— as  for  our  fig  tree,  thou  dost  bark  It  and  leave  it  naked — as  for  our  one  lamb, 
its  loneliness  is  no  protection  against  thy  judgment  ;  thou  dost  take  it  away  in  the 
night  time,  and  in  the  iiiorning  we  are  visited  with  infinite  distress. 

This  is  the  life  we  live  :  we  sing  and  curse  and  mourn  and  reproach,  and  there  is  no 
prayer  found  upon  our  lips,  yet  dost  thou  send  unto  us  messages  from  heaven,  yea, 
last  of  ail  thou  didst  send  thy  Son,  and  he  gave  himself  for  us.  We  have  been 
touched  by  the  pathos  of  the  cross,  we  have  been  moved  by  the  entreaties  of  the 
dying  Christ,  we  have  found  in  him  our  one  and  only  priest — now  we  would  live  in 
him,  and  for  him  and  to  him,  and  would  be  bound  to  his  kingdom  as  willing  and 
loving  slaves.     Amen. 

Mattiikw  ii.   16-33. 

IG.  Then  Herod,  when  he  saw  that  he  was  mocked  of  the  wise  men  (mocked  of 
God,  rather)  was  exceeding  wroth,  and  sent  forth  (murderers),  and  slew  all  the 
children*  that  were  in  Bethlehem,  and  in  all  the  coasts  (suburbs  or  precincts)  thereof, 
from  two  years  old  and  under,  according  to  the  time  which  he  had  diligently  enquired 
of  the  wise  men. 

17.  Then  was  fulfilled  that  which  was  spoken  by  Jeremy  the  prophet,  saying, 

18.  In  Rama  (which  lay  on  the  way  to  Babylon)  was  there  a  voice  heard,  lamenta- 
tion, and  weeping,  and  great  mourning,  Rachel  (the  progenetrix  of  Israel)  weeping 
for  her  children,  and  would  not  be  comforted,  because  they  are  not. 

19.  But  when  Herod  was  dead,  behold  an  angel  of  the  Lord  appeareth  in  a  dream 
to  Joseph  in  Egypt. 

20.  Saying,  Arise,  and  take  the  young  child  and  his  mother,  and  go  into  the  land 
©f  Israel  (the  country  is  divinely  named  ;  the  particular  toicii  was  humanly  selected) ; 

*  "  The  number  of  those  slaughtered  on  this  occasion  has  been  erroneously  thought 
to  be  great,  and  the  deed  itself  a  horrible  massacre,  whereas,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
there  could  be  but  a  few  children  under  two  years  in  a  little  town  like  Bethlehem, 
and  these  might  be  put  out  of  the  way  without  any  stir." — OlsJunisen.  With  regard 
to  the  silence  of  Joseiihus  respecting  this  massacre.  Bishop  Ellicott  says  : — "  What, 
we  may  fairly  ask,  was  such  an  act  in  the  history  of  a  monster  whose  hand  reeked 
with  tiie  blood  of  whole  families  and  of  his  nearest  and  dearest  relations  ?  Wliat 
was  the  murder  of  a  few  children  of  Bethlehem  in  the  dark  history  of  one  who  had, 
perchance,  but  a  few  days  before  burnt  alive  at  Jerusalem  above  forty  hapless  zealots 
who  had  torn  down  his  golden  eagle?  What  was  the  lamentation  at  Rama  compared 
with  that  which  had  been  heard  in  that  monster's  own  palace,  and  which,  if  liis  in- 
human orders  had  been  executed,  would  have  been  soon  heard  in  every  street  io 
Jerusalem?" — Hulsean  Lecture,  1859. 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  43 

for  they  are  dead  ■which   sought  the  young  child's  life  (literally  the  young  child's 
soul). 

21.  And  he  arose,  and  took  the  young  child  and  his  mother,  and  came  into  the  land 
of  Israel. 

22.  But  when  he  heard  that  Archelaus  did  reign  (under  the  inferior  title  of  Eth- 
narch)  in  Judea  in  the  room  of  his  father  Herod,  he  was  afraid  to  go  thither  ;  not- 
withstanding, being  warned  of  God  in  a  dream,  he  turned  aside  into  the  parts  of 
Galilee  : 

23.  And  he  came  and  dwelt  in  a  city  called  Nazareth,  that  it  might  be  fulfilled 
which  was  spoken  by  the  prophets,  he  shall  be  called  a  Nazarene  (mean  and  con- 
temptible, so  the  root  of  the  word  signifies.) 

"  Then  Herod,  when  he  saw  that  he  was  mocked  of  the  wise  men  " — 
yet  the  wise  men  did  not  mock  him  at  all !  When  will  people  get  away 
from  the  region  of  secondary  causes,  and  understand  that  life  has  a  divine 
centre,  and  that  all  things  are  governed  from  the  throne  of  heaven  ?  It  is 
not  only  a  philosophical  mistake  to  drop  into  second  causes  for  the  pur- 
pose of  finding  the  origin  of  our  miseries,  it  sometimes,  yea  often,  becomes 
a  practical  mischief,  a  sore  and  terrible  disaster  of  a  personal  and  social 
kind.  Therefore  with  great  urgency  would  I  drive  men  away  from  second- 
ary lines  and  intermediate  causes,  to  the  great  cause  of  all — God,  and  King, 
and  Lord,  and  Christ.  Herod  was  mocked  of  God :  he  was  not  mocked 
of  the  Persian  sages  :  they  were  not  unwilling  to  ally  themselves  with  him, 
so  far  as  they  were  personally  concerned,  if  they  could  contribute  aught 
to  his  intelligence  or  to  the  carrying  out  of  his  expressed  purpose  to 
"  worship  "  the  Child  of  whom  they  themselves  were  in  quest.  Herod 
was  mocked,  vexed  from  heaven,  troubled  from  the  centre  of  things.  The 
fog  that  fell  upon  his  eyes  came  downwards,  not  upwards,  it  was  a  blind- 
ing mist  from  him  who  sends  upon  men  delusions  as  well  as  revelations. 

We  have  ourselves  been  mocked  of  God,  and  we  have  taken  vengeance 
upon  human  instrumentalities.  If  we  insist  upon  having  our  own  way, 
there  is  a  point  at  which  God  says,  "  Take  it,  and  with  it  take  the  conse- 
quences." If  we  resolutely  and  impatiently  say,  "  We  will  find  success 
along  this  line  and  no  other,"  God  may  say  to  us,  "  Proceed,  and  find 
what  you  can."  And  at  the  end  of  that  line,  what  have  we  found  ?  A 
great  rock,  a  thousand  feet  thick,  and  God  has  said,  "  You  may  find  suc- 
cess if  you  will  thrust  your  hand  through  that  granite."  So  we  have  been 
mocked.  We  have  determined  to  proceed  along  a  certain  course,  notwith- 
standing the  expostulations  of  heaven,  and  having  gone  mile  after  mile, 
what  have  we  found  at  the  end  of  the  course  ?  A  great  furnace,  and  God 
has  said  to  us  with  mocking  laughter,  that  hast  shaken  the  skies,  "  Your 
success  is  in  the  middle  of  that  furnace  :  put  your  hand  right  into  the 
centre  and  take  it," — knowing  that  he  who  puts  his  hand  in  there  takes  it 
out  no  more. 

In  proportion,  therefore,  as  we  are  mocked  and  vexed,  as  we  come  back 


44  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

from  the  wilderness,  bringing  with  us  nothing  but  the  wind,  as  we  return 
from  the  mountains  bringing  with  us  nothing  but  a  sense  of  perplexity,  it 
becomes  us  to  ask  serious  questions  about  our  failure.  JF/ic>  mocked  us  ? 
Not  men,  not  women — we  were  laughed  at  from  heaven.  There  is  no 
passage  of  Scripture  which  has  upon  me  so  weird  an  effect  as  that  which 
says  that  God  will  mock  at  our  calamity,  and  laugh  when  our  fear  cometh. 
We  have  seen  his  tears — they  baptized  Jerusalem,  they  have  fallen  in 
gracious  showers  upon  the  graves  that  hold  our  heart's  treasure,  but  we 
have  never  heard  his  laugh.  There  is  a  human  laughter  that  turns  us  cold 
— God  forbid  that  we  should  ever  hear  our  divine  Father's  laughter,  when 
the  great  fire-waves  swell  around  us  and  all  heaven  seems  to  be  pleased 
with  the  discomfiture  of  our  souls. 

When  Herod  saw  that  he  was  mocked  of  the  wise  men,  what  did  he  ? 
Let  us  suppose  that  the  passage  is  interrupted  at  that  point  and  that  we 
are  required  to  continue  the  story.  Now  let  us  set  our  wits  to  work  to  com- 
plete the  sentence  which  begins  with  "When  Herod  saw  that  he  was 
mocked  of  the  wise  men."  Let  me  suggest  this  continuation — He  saw  a 
religious  myste/y  in  this  matter  :  he  said,  "  This  is  not  the  doing  of  the 
wise  men,  there  is  a  secret  above  and  behind  and  around  this,  which  I 
have  not  yet  penetrated  :  I  am  troubled,  but  it  is  with  religious  perplexity. 
I  will  fall  down  upon  my  knees,  I  will  outstretch  mine  arms  in  prayer,  and 
will  cry  mightily  to  God  to  visit  me  in  this  crisis  of  my  intellectual  dis- 
tress and  moral  consternation."  Let  me  now  turn  and  see  how  far  my 
conjecture  is  right.  "  Then  Herod,  when  he  saw  that  he  was  mocked  of 
the  wise  men,  was  exceeding  wroth,  and  sent  forth  and  slew."  The  power 
of  wickedness  is  physical,  the  power  of  goodness  is  vioj'al.  Wickedness 
says,  "  A  sword  ;"  goodness  says,  "A  pen." 

We  know  that  this  narrative  is  true  in  the  case  of  Herod,  because  it  is 
made  true  every  day  in  our  own  experience.  When  we  are  vexed  and 
mocked  and  disappointed,  we  do  exactly  what  Herod  did — we  grow  ex- 
ceeding wroth,  and  slay.  You  need  not  consult  the  ancient  historians  to  know 
whether  Herod  really  did  this  work  or  not,  when  we  ourselves  are  doing 
it  every  day  of  our  vexation  and  disappointment.  We  all  play  the  fool 
under  such  visitations.  Not  unless  we  are  regenerated  by  God  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  cleansed  through  and  through  by  the  atoning  blood  do  we 
rise  to  the  high  dignity  and  grandeur  of  moral  dominion  and  spiritual 
conquest. 

There  are  two  victories  possible  to  us,  the  one  is  physical,  the  other  is 
a  moral.  I  want  this  child  to  attend  public  worship.  I  say  to  the  child, 
"  You  7nust :  if  you  refuse  I  will  scourge  you  until  you  go  to  church.  I  am 
older,  I  am  stronger  than  you  are,  and  you  shall  feel  the  supremacy  of 
my  age  and  the  oppressiveness  of  my  strength.  To  church  I  will  make 
you  go."     I  have  succeeded,  the  child  is  in  the  church  to-day.     The  child 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  45 

is  here,  but  not  here.  By  a  perverse  will  the  child  is  turning  this  church 
into  a  desecrated  place.  The  child's  will  is  not  here,  nor  is  the  child's 
love  present  with  us  :  our  prayers  have  been  burdensome,  and  God's  own 
word  has  lost  its  music,  because  of  the  constraint  under  which  that  attend- 
ance has  been  enforced. 

Let  me  take  the  case  of  the  child  from  another  point.  I  have  been 
dwelling  upon  the  advantages  of  going  to  church  :  I  have  been  speaking 
about  God  and  God's  love,  Christ  and  Christ's  cross,  about  the  tender 
music  and  the  beautiful  word  and  the  loving  gospel,  and  I  have  said  to  the 
child,  "  I  should  like  you  to  go .:  it  would  make  my  heart  glad  if  you  did 
go — I  only  ask  you,  I  do  not  force  you."  And  the  child  has  said,  "Cer- 
tainly I  will  go  ;  show  me  the  way,  I  should  be  glad  to  go."  The  child 
is  here,  every  blood-drop  in  his  heart  is  here,  his  eyes  are  rounding  into  a 
great  wonder,  and  his  breast  heaving  with  an  unusual  but  most  glad  emotion. 
Which  is  the  conquest  ?  The  conquests  of  force  exhaust  themselves  and 
perish  in  ignominious  failure,  the  conquests  of  love  grow  and  increase  with 
the  processes  of  time. 

When  Herod  saw  that  he  was  mocked  of  the  wise  men,  he  was  exceed- 
ing wroth,  and  sent  forth  and  slew  all  the  children  that  were  in  Bethlehem. 
The  power  of  badness  is  dcsln/clive,  the  power  of  goodness  is  presei'vative. 
We  need  direction  in  the  quality  and  uses  of  strength.  It  is  easy  to  de- 
stroy :  even  a  beast  can  crush  a  flower,  but  no  angel  in  all  the  heavens  can 
reset  the  broken  joint.  We  mistake  destructiveness  as  a  sign  of  power. 
What  power  there  is  in  the  act  of  destructiveness  is  of  the  lowest  and  coars- 
est quality.  You  cannot  drive  evil  out  of  men  by  any  merely  negative 
and  destructive  process.  If  you  call  out  "  Repent,"  you  must  immediately 
follow  the  word  with  "  For  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand."  The  call 
to  repentance  is  in  a  sense  a  negative  call,  the  announcement  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand  is  the  positive  and  affirmative  call,  which 
tends  to  the  upfiUing  of  the  emptied  heart  with  the  better  dominion,  the 
sanctuary  from  heaven.  You  may  cut  down  all  the  weeds  in  your 
garden,  but  if  you  do  not  attend  to  that  garden,  putting  in  the  place  of 
that  which  was  noxious  that  which  is  useful,  the  old  roots  will  re-assert 
themselves  and  your  garden  will  become  a  scene  of  confusion.  Jesus  does 
not  destroy  without  creating.  If  we  suppress  anything  we  do  not  believe 
in,- we  ought  to  set  up  in  its  place  influences  of  a  higher  and  nobler  kind. 
It  is  no  use  for  you,  my  friends,  to  empty  the  public-house  unless  you  open 
some  other  place  that  shall  attract  within  its  better  limits  those  whom  you 
have  expelled.  It  is  of  no  use  for  you  to  drive  the  devil  out  of  a  man  unless 
you  have  something  to  put  into  the  man.  That  devil  will  wander  about 
and  will  return  and  bring  with  him  seven  worse  than  himself,  and  the  end 
of  the  man  will  be  worse  than  the  beginning. 

"  Then  was  fulfilled  that  which  was  spoken  by  Jeremy  the  prophet,  say- 


46  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

ing,  In  Rama  was  there  a  voice  heard,  mourning,  lamentation,  weeping," 
distress  night  and  day,  the  cry  of  pain  and  the  moan  of  agony.  The  re- 
sult of  selfishness  is  human  distress,  the  result  of  goodness  is  good-will  to- 
wards men.  See  then  what  the  world  would  come  to  under  a  selfish  ruler- 
ship.  Selfish  rulership  says,  "  If  I  cannot  have  my  own  way  easily,  I  will 
have  it  at  all  costs  and  hazards."  Selfish  rulership  lifts  up  its  sword  and  says, 
"  Make  way."  Selfish  rulership  will  purchase  its  own  ends  at  any  cost  of 
mourning,  lamentation,  and  weeping.  Thus  the  bad  man  seems  to  succeed 
more  than  the  good  man  ;  his  way  is  rougher,  his  manners  are  ruder,  he 
destroys,  he  does  not  create,  and  it  is  always  easier  to  pull  down  than  to 
build  up.  Jesus  Christ  proceeds  slowly  because  of  the  depth  and  vitality 
and  permanence  of  his  work.  It  is  easier  to  curse  than  to  pray.  Under 
Herod  the  world  would  become  a  scene  of  selfish  triumph  ;'  under  Christ 
it  would  become  a  family  united  by  tenderest  bonds,  made  holy  by  mutual 
and  sympathetic  love,  and  sacred  by  the  exercise  of  those  obligations 
which  elevate  and  ennoble  human  nature.  I  ask  you,  therefore,  to-day,  as 
the  end  of  this  part  of  the  exposition — who  is  to  be  king,  Herod  or  Christ, 
violence  or  persuasion,  force  or  love,  selfishness  or  beneficence  ?  The  choice 
is  sharp,  the  division  is  distinct  :  he  who  would  seek  to  muddle  and  confuse 
these  distinctions,  is  not  the  friend  of  progress,  he  is  the  victim  of  a  mis- 
chievous pedantry.  The  world  can  only  be  under  one  of  two  kings,  God — 
mammon,  Christ — Herod,  beneficence — selfishness.  Choose  ye  ;  put  high 
his  banner  over  your  life  and  let  it  float  so  that  men  can  see  it  from  afar. 

In  the  next  paragraph  of  our  text  we  find  the  appearance  of  an  angel  of 
the  Lord  in  a  dream.  The  angels  are  ever  mindful  of  the  good.  "  Are 
they  not  all  ministering  spirits  sent  forth  to  minister  to  them  who  shall  be 
the  heirs  of  salvation  ?  "  You  say  you  have  had  no  experience  of  angel 
ministry  :  be  careful  what  you  say,  lest  you  narrow  yourselves  unduly  by 
the  mere  letter,  and  miss  the  poetry  and  grandeur  of  your  life.  You  say 
you  are  bound  by  things  visible  and  palpable,  and  beyond  those  things  do 
not  venture  to  go.  I  am  not  asking  you  to  venture  to  go  any  distance 
beyond  those  limitations,  but  I  am  asking  you  to  allow  God  the  power  to 
come  to  you  by  any  one  of  a  series  of  innumerable  ministries.  You  must 
not  "limit  the  Holy  One  of  Israel."  The  question  is  not,  What  can  /do? 
It  is,  What  can  God  do  ? 

I  could  imagine  a  little  boy  with  his  arithmetic  saying  that  all  things 
that  could  be  reckoned  up,  in  space  and  in  quantity,  were  reckonable  upon 
the  basis  of  his  book  of  figures.  He  begins  and  ends  with  the  multiplica- 
tion table  ;  he  says  the  multiplication  table  ends  at  twelve  times  twelve, 
and  beyond  that  he  will  never  go.  He  is  not  going  to  be  wise  above  what 
is  written :  if  any  man  should  venture  to  ask  him  how  many  are  thirteen 
times  thirteen,  he  would  shudder  with  arithmetical  aversion,  and  reply  that 
thirteen  times  thirteen  was  not  to  be  found  in  the  multiplication  table. 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  47 

Would  he  be  rii:;ht?  He  would  be  as  far  wrong  as  possible  !  Thirteen 
times  thirteen  is  as  certainly  in  the  multiplication  table  as  twice  one  or 
five  times  five.  He  will  find  that  out  by-and-by.  He  thinks  he  is  keeping 
himself  within  due  limits  and  must  not  transgress  certain  boundaries,  when 
he  says  the  table  ends  at  twelve  times  twelve.  He  is  going  to  be  arith- 
metically orthodox  :  other  people  may  dream  about  thirteen  times  thirteen 
if  they  please,  he  thinks  that  inquiry  involves  a  very  grave  responsibility  : 
he  shrinks  from  their  society,  and  he  betakes  himself  with  renewed  ardour 
to  the  four  corners  of  the  table  that  begins  at  twice  one  and  ends  at 
twelve  times  twelve.  Is  he  arithmetically  pious  and  arithmetically  ortho- 
dox ?  He  is  arithmetically  narrow  and  arithmetically  bigoted  and  arith- 
metically foolish  ! 

By-and-by  he  will  advance  further.  I  will  say  to  him,  "  What  is  the 
square  root  of  five-and-twenty  ?"  And  he  will  say,  "Anybody  knows 
that  the  square  root  of  five-and-twenty  is  five."  "  What  is  the  square  root 
of  minus  a?  "  "Ah,  I  do  not  go  into  that  sort  of  thing  at  all."  "  But  there 
's  a  science  which  tackles  questions  of  that  YxViA."  The  boy  replies,  "I 
know  nothing  about  it  ;  I  do  not  want  to  be  wise  above  that  which  is 
written.  I  can  give  you  the  square  root  of  one  hundred  in  a  moment,  but 
the  square  root  of  minus  a — he  must  be  a  very  presumptuous  and  arrogant 
person  to  discuss  such  a  question  !  If  it  be  not  presumptuous,  which  it 
appears  to  me  to  be,  it  is  exceedingly  foolish."  He  lives  within  his  arith- 
metic, he  does  not  know  that  there  is  another  science  just  over  it,  which 
undertakes  to  find  out  sums  by  signs,  and  to  discuss  deep  problems  by 
letters  and  symbols  that  appear  to  be  foolish  to  those  who  have  never 
entered  their  higher  education. 

When  I  come  to  these  angel  ministries,  they  baffle  me.  I  say,  "  They 
are  not  in  my  arithmetic,  they  are  not  in  the  multiplication  table."  Let 
me  never  forget  that  algebra  continues  and  perfects  common  arithmetic, 
and  let  me  never  forget  that  even  beyond  algebra  itself  are  methods  of 
calculation  unknown  to  those  who  are  in  the  lower  ranges  of  human 
thought.  I  must  not  set  up  myself  as  the  measure  and  bound  of  things. 
If  the  Bible  comes  to  me  with  angel  ministries,  with  assurances  of  what 
has  been  done  by  angels  and  through  the  medium  of  dreams,  by  high 
efforts  of  the  religious  imagination,  I  must  not  play  the  boy-fool  by  say- 
ing that  reckoning  ends  with  twelve  times  twelve  ;  I  must  remember  that 
the  universe  is  larger  than  I  have  yet  imagined  it  to  be,  and  that  there  are 
men~^vho  are  older  and  wiser,  and  it  is  not  for  me  to  say  God's  ministry 
begins  here  and  ends  there.  I  love  to  live  in  an  enlarging  universe,  I  love 
the  horizon  which  tempts  me  to  touch  it,  and  then  vanishes  to  an  infinite 
distance. 

The  angel  of  the  Lord  said,  "  They  are  dead  which  sought  the  young 
child's  life."  The  good  have  everything  to  hope  from  time,  the  bad  have 
everything  to  fear  from  it. 


48  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

The  bad  man  is  in  haste,  the  good  man  rests  in  the  Lord  and  waits 
patiently  for  him.  The  bad  man  says,  "It  must  be  done  now  ;  my  motto 
is  '  ad  rem,' — now  or  never,  strike  the  iron  while  it  is  hot,  let  passion  have 
its  way  instantaneously."  They  that  believe  do  not  make  haste,  they  are 
calm  with  the  p(?ace  of  God  ;  they  trust  to  time  ;  they  say,  "All  things  will 
be  fulfilled  in  the  order  of  duration  and  the  process  of  the  suns."  Inno- 
cence can  wait  ;  innocence  can  go  into  any  land  and  tarry  there  until  sent 
for  by  the  angel  ;  innocence  can  go  into  any  prison  and  wait,  not  till  helped 
by  a  butler,  but  until  sent  for  by  the  king.  If  thou  art  innocent,  be  quiet ; 
■  if  thou  art  really  good  at  the  core,  through  and  through,  simple-minded, 
honest  in  motive,  pure  in  purpose,  high  and  sacred  in  ambition,  wait ;  thy 
-'    funeral  will  not  be  first. 

Yet  another  fear  fell  upon  the  mind  of  Joseph.  When  he  heard  that 
Archelaus  reigned  in  Judea,  under  the  inferior  title  of  Ethnarch,  in  the 
room  of  his  father  Herod,  he  was  "  afraid  to  go  thither."  There  are  some 
families  of  which  we  are  afraid  :  there  are  whole  generations  that  seem  to  be 
blighted  with  a  common  taint.  There  are  some  chains  whose  links  are  all 
bad.  Joseph  thought  that  Archelaus  might  inherit  the  prejudices  and  hostil- 
ities of  his  father.  There  was  no  need  for  him  to  do  so.  Thank  God,  a  man 
may  break  away  from  his  own  family,  a  child  may  be  a  stranger  to  his  own 
father.  ThanTv  God  for  these  possibilities  of  beginning  again.  I  see  what 
is  called /<?/<?  in  the  order  and  destiny  of  men  :  I  have  taken  hold  of  the 
chain  and  find  it  to  be  thick  and  strong — yet  I  see  also  the  wonderful 
liberties  of  men,  so  that  they  can  detach  themselves  from  a  melancholy  and 
shameful  past  on  the  part  of  others  and  begin  again,  by  themselves,  under 
God's  blessing  and  direction,  for  themselves.  Was  yonr  father  a  bad  man  ? 
You  may  be  a  good  son.  Fear  not,  do  not  droop  under  the  blighting 
cloud.  If  it  be  in  your  heart  to  be  better  and  you  mention  this  purpose 
in  prayer  to  God,  your  father's  name  shall  rot,  and  yours  shall  be  a  memor- 
ial of  goodness  and  hope,  long  as  the  sun  endures. 
!  Thf'v  are  DEAD  which  sought  the  young  child's  life.  That  is  always 
the  ending  of  wickedness  :  that  is  the  history  of  all  the  assaults  that  ever 
have  been  made  upon  Jesus  Christ  and  his  kingdom.  I  have  seen  great 
armies  of  men  come  up  against  the  young  child,  and  behold  they  have  per- 
ished in  a  night,  and  in  the  morning  the  angels  have  said  to  one  another, 
"They  are  DEAD  Avhich  sought  the  young  child's  life."  I  have  seen 
armies  of  infidel  books  come  up  to  put  down  Christianity,  to  expose  it, 
and  refute  it  and  cut  it  to  pieces,  and  destroy  it  as  Herod's  sword  the 
children  of  Bethlehem,  and  lo,  in  twelve  months  not  one  of  them  could  be 
found,  and  the  angels  have  said  to  one  another,  "  They  are  DEAD  which 
sought  the  young  child's  life."  I  have  seen  critics  come  up  with  keen  eye 
and  sharp  knife,  and  a  new  apparatus  adapted  to  carry  out  its  processes 
and  purposes  of  extermination,  and  behold  the  critics  have  cut  their  own 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  49 

bones  and  died  of  their  own  wounds,  and  the  angels  have  said,  "  They  are 
DEAD  that  sought  the  young  child's  life."  I  have  seen  whole  towns  of 
new  institutions,  created  for  the  purpose  of  putting  down  the  Christian 
Church.  All  kinds  of  competitive  buildings  have  been  put  up  at  a  lavish 
expenditure,  the  preacher  was  to  be  put  down,  the  Bible  wa^  to  be  shut  up, 
the  old  hymn-singing  was  to  be  done  away  with,  a  new  era  was  to  dawn 
upon  the  wilderness  of  time,  and  lo,  the  bankruptcy  court  had  to  be  en- 
larged to  take  in  groups  of  new  mendicants,  for  they  DIED  that  sought  the 
young  child's  life  ! 

No  man  ever  died  who  sought  the  young  child's  saving  ministry  ;  no 
man  ever  died  who  went  to  the  young  child  and  said,  "  My  Saviour,  thy 
grace  is  greater  than  my  sin,  pity  me  and  lift  me  out  of  this  deep  pit  by  the 
hand  of  thy  love."  The  angels  never  said  about  such  a  one,  "  He  is  dead 
who  offered  that  prayer."  No  dead  man  is  found  at  the  foot  of  the  cross, 
they  live  who  touch  that  tree,  they  are  immortal  who  open  their  hearts  to 
receive  that  baptism  of  blood,  they  are  a  triumphant  host  that  take  hold  of 
hands  around  the  young  child. 

He  is  always  young  :  he  is  always  in  bloom.  Time  cannot  wither  him  : 
as  for  custom  it  cannot  "  stale  the  infinite  variety  "  of  his  ministry  and  his 
worship.  God  delights  in  youth  :  there  is  no  wearying  in  the  duration  of 
goodness — wickedness  runs  down  into  exhaustion,  goodness  runs  up  into 
renewal  of  efflorescence  and  beauty,  and  eternal  spring. 


VI. 

REVIEW    OF    THE    SECOND    CHAPTER THE    TROUBTED    KING — THE     BENEFI- 
CENCE   OF    TRIALS THE    SCRIPTURES    ALWAYS    NEW. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  we  know  tliee  as  a  God  of  Love,  and  it  is  to  tliy  pity  that  we  now 
come  with  our  praises  and  our  prayer.  We  do  not  address  thy  rigliteousness,  for  thy 
purity  malies  iis  afraid  with  a  great  and  painful  fear  :  we  come  to  thy  mercy — thou 
hast  been  pleased  to  exercise  mercy  towards  the  sinful  children  of  men.  Through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour  we  know  of  this  mercy  ;  he  indeed  is  the  mercy  of  God  in 
human  form,  our  Priest,  our  Saviour,  our  only  Intercessor,  mighty  in  all  things,  but 
mightiest  in  the  intercession  of  his  love.  We  would  hide  ourselves  in  Jesus  Christ ; 
he  is  our  safety,  our  security  ;  the  rock  that  cannot  be  broken  into  by  thief  or  robber, 
or  overwhelmed  by  fiercest  storm.  Hide  us  in  thyself,  thou  Rock  of  Ages,  then  shall 
we  be  safe  for  ever  from  fear  of  man,  and  from  all  other  fear. 

We  have  come  with  a  great,  broad,  loud  psalm  in  our  heart,  for  our  joy  is  great  and 
our  thankfulness  unutterable  in  mortal  speech.  We  look  back  and  behold  a  great 
light ;  on  either  hand  we  look,  and  behold  a  rod  and  a  staff,  and  if  we  venture  to 
trespass  and  look  for  one  moment  into  the  future,  there  is  no  trouble  there  ;  the 
clouds  will  roll  away  and  the  broad  bright  morning  will  shine  upon  our  life.  We 
wish  to  trust  thee  more,  our  desire  is  to  go  out  of  ourselves,  to  bid  farewell  to  our 
own  devices  and  defences,  and  to  cast  ourselves  upon  the  wisdom  and  the  protection 
of  our  Father  in  heaven.  We  have  heard  wonderful  things  of  thee,  we  know  they 
are  all  true,  for  we  ourselves  have  tested  them  word  by  word,  and  are  to-day  thy 
living  witnesses,  showing  forth  the  abundance  of  thy  goodness  and  the  sureness  of 
thy  promises. 

Thou  hast  dried  our  tears,  thou  hast  recovered  us  from  many  a  slip  ;  when  the 
enemy  has  taken  us  in  his  strong  snares,  thou  hast  broken  every  one  of  them  and 
blessed  us  with  renewal  of  liberty.  We  have  played  the  fool,  and  prayed  down- 
wards instead  of  upwards,  and  our  hearts  have  gone  far  astray  from  thee,  yet  has  thy 
love  been  greater  than  our  sin,  thy  grace  has  overflowed  our  guilt,  and  by  the  infinitude 
of  thy  mercy  and  thy  love  we  have  been  brought  back  again  from  far  off  places,  and 
set  once  more  within  the  warmth  of  our  Father's  house.  We  bless  thee  for  all  thy 
care.  There  is  nothing  too  small  for  thee  to  look  at.  Thou  governest  the  heavens 
and  thou  blessest  little  children.  Thou  lightest  the  lamps  which  flame  across  the 
nniverse,  and  thou  dost  make  the  lily  beautiful  in  its  quiet  place.  Thou  numberest 
the  hairs  of  our  head,  our  tears  thou  dost  put  in  thy  bottle,  our  heart-throbs  thou 
dost  count  one  by  one  ;  when  the  last  pulsation  comes,  our  immortality  shall  begin. 

We  have  come  to  bless  thee  :  this  was  our  set  purpose  ;  our  one  meaning  was  to 
lift  up  the  psalm  high  as  heaven,  until  it  filled  thine  ear,  and  made  thee  glad  with 
our  filial  love,     We  now  commend  ourselves  to  thy  keeping.     We  would  not  live  ono 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  5I 

day  without  thee  :  we  would  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  in  God.  We  would 
rest  in  the  Lord  and  wait  patiently  for  him  ;  we  would  have  iV)  desire  that  cannot  be 
satisfied  by  his  grace.  Our  hearts  would  be  as  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  which 
the  loving  One  reigns  and  rules  with  all  the  omnipotence  of  love.  The  Lord  purify 
us  by  the  blood  of  sacrifice,  the  Lord  wash  us  in  the  holy,  sacred  stream  that  flowed 
from  the  Saviour's  riven  side,  the  Lord  give  us  to  know  the  mystery  of  pardon  and 
the  joy  of  adoption  into  his  family. 

We  commend  also  unto  thee  all  whom  we  love  and  for  whom  we  ought  to  pray. 
As  patriots  we  remember  our  country  and  say,  God  save  the  Queen,  bless  the  land, 
make  its  harvest  abundant  and  its  commerce  prosperous,  and  let  all  the  people  sitting 
at  the  table  of  plentifulness  remember  who  spread  the  banquet,  and  praise  the  Lord 
with  a  life  of  love.  We  remember  our  sick  ones,  too,  for  whom  we  have  prayed 
many  a  prayer,  and  for  whom  we  seem  to  be  unable  to  do  aught  that  is  really  effec- 
tual for  their  bodily  recovery.  We  can  do  more,  and  we  do  it  now  :  we  pray  that 
thy  grace  may  be  greater  than  their  weakness,  and  that  in  their  hearts  there  may  be 
a  sacred  joy,  a  very  rapture  and  song  of  triumph,  a  victory  greater  than  all  the  dis- 
tresses which  make  them  weak. 

We  pray  for  those  from  whom  we  are  separated  for  awhile,  for  our  friends  on  the 
great  wide  sea — the  Lord  give  the  winds  and  the  waves  charge  concerning  them.  For 
our  loved  ones  in  far  away  lands,  for  our  sons  and  daughters  in  the  cqlouies,  for  all 
for  whom  we  ought  to  pray,  of  every  class  and  name,  the  Lord  bind  us  together  in 
the  bonds  of  a  true  love.  Being  one  in  Christ,  may  our  fellowship  be  complete  and 
lasting. 

Let  thy  word  dwell  in  us  richly,  let  thy  gospel  come  to  us  this  morning  as  a  sing- 
ing angel,  coming  with  sweet  messages  from  thy  heart,  and  may  wo  listen  to  every 
tone  and  give  broad  welcome  to  every  word  from  heaven.     Amen. 

Review  of  the  whole  Chapter. 

The  second  chapter  of  Matthew  is  a  record  of  trials.  Everybody  en- 
gaged in  the  tragedy  seems  to  liave  been  pierced  through  and  through 
with  the  same  sharp  sword.  This  is  the  more  wonderful,  seeing  that  the 
object  of  the  chapter  is  to  set  up  the  kingdom  of  heaven  amongst  men.  One 
Avould  have  supposed  that  with  a  purpose  so  lofty  and  so  beneficent,  the 
career  would  have  been  one  perfectly  clear  of  all  difficulty,  broadening 
like  a  dawning  day,  and  offering  to  every  one  engaged  a  right  hearty  wel- 
come, and  crowning  each  toiler  with  a  gentle  and  loving  benediction.  If 
the  people  engaged  in  this  exciting  narrative  had  been  about  to  do  some- 
thing very  bad^  we  would  have  followed  their  punishment  with  keen  inter- 
est, and  after  each  infliction  of  the  deserved  blow  we  would  have  said, 
*'  This  is  merited  ;  no  man  can  do  wrong  and  yet  enjoy  prosperity."  But 
nothing  of  the  kind  is  here.  With  one  exception  everybody  wants  to  do 
what  \'=>  good  %o  far  as  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  concerned,  and  yet  every 
one  engaged  in  this  marvellous  development  of  human  history  is  smitten, 
pierced,  thrown  down,  banished,  or  otherwise  visited  with  some  heavy  and 
inexplicable  penalty.  This  chapter  is  a  record  of  trials,  and  these  trials 
acquire  a  keener  accent  and  a  more  painful  significance  from  the  fact  that 
they  all  occur  in  connection  with  the  establishment   of  a  beneficent  king- 


52  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

dom,  whose  avowed  object  is  the  salvation  and  holiness  and  infinite  bless- 
edness of  all  who  accept  its  dominion. 

There  are  trials  purely /rrj-^w^?/,  for  example  those  of  Joseph  and  Mary. 
Mary  comes  into  the  story  by  the  pressure  of  an  infinite  destiny.  She 
does  not  ask  to  be  an  actor  in  this  scene — she  is  modest ;  violet-like  she 
seeks  the  shade,  she  craves  for  no  renown,  she  does  not  ask  to  be  put  in 
the  fore-front  of  any  battle  or  contest.  Yet  to  pains  of  divers  kinds  is 
added  the  agony  of  misunderstanding  and  banishment,  suspicion  of  the 
foulest  kind  and  abandonment  by  those  who  should  have  loved  her  most. 
This,  in  connection  with  setting  up  the  Christly  kingdom  on  the  earth  ! 
Our  narrow,  short-sighted  sympathy  says  she  might  have  been  spared  this  ; 
an  angel  might  have  rolled  a  white  cloud  for  her  to  sit  upon  as  upon  a 
throne.  Instead  of  this,  behold  the  severity  of  her  lot,  behold  what  un- 
merited punishment  darkens  her  little  patch  of  sky  and  makes  her  earth 
barren  and  desolate,  without  green  thing  or  root  of  promise. 

And  Joseph,  a  negative  character,  a  man  who  is  in,  and  yet  hardly  knows 
why  he  is  in,  the  story,  sustaining  an  incidental  and  relative  position  to  it, 
wholly  secondary,  almost  yet  not  altogether  needless, — even  he  is  afflicted 
with  great  visions  and  great  distresses,  startled  by  unexpected  ghost.s, 
aroused  from  his  sleep  that  he  may  be  told  to  flee  away  as  if  he  were  an 
offender  against  human  law  and  social  decency.  He  must  needs  be  up 
and  flee  like  a  thief  in  the  night-time.  And  all  this,  in  connection  with 
introducing  to  the  world  the  only  Friend  it  ever  had  !  These  historical 
recollections  would  always  be  interesting  to  minds  who  study  the  unity  of 
the  human  race,  but  they  are  more  than  interesting,  they  are  religiously 
suggestive  and  comforting  to  those  who  remember  that  all  these  trials  are 
repeated  in  the  life  of  every  honest  man  and  woman  to-day. 

Then  there  were  trials,  imperial  as  well  as  personal.  Herod  was  troubled. 
Not  Herod  the  individual  man,  but  Herod  the  king.  His  throne,  which 
had  been  steady  as  a  rock,  began  to  quake  under  him,  and  he  said,  "  What 
ghost  is  shaking  this  firm  seat  ?  "  He  was  distracted,  his  mind  was  split  in 
two,  lie  was  in  perplexity,  in  intellectual  vexation — he  could  not  bring  the 
pieces  together  and  shape  them  into  coherence  and  meaning.  He  Avas  a 
shrewd  man,  a  man  to  whom  councillors  appealed  in  the  time  of  their  per- 
plexity, a  man  high  in  authorit)-,  to  whom  was  committed  the  giving  of 
great  decisions  ;  and  yet  something  occurred  in  his  history  which  brought 
a  great  blinding  mist  over  his  eyes.  He  mistook  distance,  proportion,  col- 
our, he  could  see  nothing  as  it  really  was  ;  he  rubbed  his  eyes  to  cleanse 
them  of  the  mist,  but  it  grew  as  he  rubbed,  and  he  was  blinder  at  the  last 
than  at  the  first.  And  this,  let  us  constantly  remember,  in  connection  with 
setting  up  a  kingdom  of  light  and  pfeace,  righteousness  and  love. 
^  Instead  of  the  king  having  the  first  revelation,  and  receiving  that  revela- 
tion as  the  earth  receives  the  bright  morning,  he  seems  to  have  been  left 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  53 

out  of  the  count  altogether.  He  stumbles  into  it,  he  does  not  walk  lov- 
ingly and  loyally  into  this  inheritance.  The  revelation  is  a  ghost,  a  flash 
of  light,  a  rattle  of  thunder,  a  shaking  of  the  throne,  a  darkening  of  the 
window,  an  overturning  of  the  hot  brain.  Herod  cannot  speak  coherently  ; 
all  other  questions  have  dwindled  into  commonplace  or  into  trifles  since 
this  great  inquiry  thrust  itself  on  his  reluctant  but  startled  mind.  Hitherto 
he  has  sat  on  his  throne  or  presided  over  his  court,  he  has  been  attentive 
to  every  one,  and  has  meted  out  justice  with  an  even  hand,  with  a  balance 
that  could  not  be  tampered  with.  He  has  acted  in  a  manner  that  claimed 
and  secured  the  confidence  of  those  who  were  round  about  him,  but  a 
question  has  arisen  in  his  intellectual  thinking  which  makes  all  other 
questions  mean  and  covers  them  with  infinite  contempt.  Since  that  ques- 
tion arose  and  gave  direction  and  colour  to  his  thinking,  all  the  questions 
that  he  had  hitherto  thought  to  be  great  have  fallen  away  from  their 
eminence,  and  he  can  hardly  command  patience  to  consider  and  balance 
and  decide  the  trifling  inquiries.  This  again  would  be  an  interesting  his- 
torical fact,  if  it  were  only  confined  to  Herod  himself,  but  it  broadens  into 
something  greater,  brightens  into  something  more  fascinating,  when  we 
remember  that  this  trouble,  vexation,  or  pain  is  repeated  in  the  case  of 
every  king  and  every  country  receiving  or  inquiring  about  the  Son  of  God. 
Surely  the  trials  end  here  ?  We  must  now  have  come  to  the  end  of  the 
blank  catalogue.  The  light  will  come  now.  As  a  faithful  expositor  of 
the  Word,  I  must  say,  not  yet  can  the  light  come.  There  were  trials  per- 
sonal, as  in  the  case  of  Joseph  and  Mary  ;  there  were  trials  imperial,  as  in 
the  case  of  Herod  the  king  ;  I  have  to  add,  in  pathetic  and  distressing 
culmination,  that  there  were  trials  domestic,  as  in  the  massacre  of  the  inno- 
cents. "  Herod  was  exceeding  wroth,  and  sent  forth  and  slew  all  the 
children  that  were  in  Bethlehem  and  all  the  coasts  thereof,  from  two  years 
old  and  under."  It  was  truly  called  the  massacre  of  the  innocents,  it  was 
making  the  many  suffer  for  the  one  ;  it  was  a  picture  of  the  indiscriminate 
vengeance  of  excited  and  unconcroUable  human  nature.  It  was  the  thrust 
of  a  blind  man  who  said,  "  I  will  strike  who  comes  first,  if  haply  I  nlay 
strike  the  offender."  Who  can  calculate  the  number  of  little  ones  slain  by 
that  fierce  and  cruel  sword  ?  Who  can  hear  the  mourning,  lamentation, 
great  weeping  and  distress  ?  We  stand  a  thousand  years  and  more  away 
from  those  desolated  and  depeopled  homes  ;  we  can  take  with  some  com- 
fort a  tragedy  two  thousand  years  old,  but  that  is  to  our  shame  and  not  to 
our  honour.  It  is  possible  to  set  ourselves  back  along  the  historical  line, 
far  enough  to  sympathise  with  those  whose  children  were  given  up  to  that 
unsparing  sword.  All  this,  let  me  say  again,  was  in  connection  with  the 
setting  up  of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  upon  the  earth  !  A  sword 
through  his  mother's  heart,  a  shadow  across  the  path  of  his  reputed  father, 
a  king  smitten  by  invisible  lightning,  troubled  as  with  a  cloud  terrible  with 


54  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

the  presence  of  innumerable  ghosts,  homes  made  black  because  of  the 
death  of  little  children.  AH  this  was  not  in  our  reckoning.  This  never 
came  into  our  dream.  No  poet  dare  have  dreamt  this  poem  ;  it  would 
have  damned  his  reputation.  Truth  is  stranger  than  fiction,  reality  is 
hardly  reached  by  poetry  ;  when  it  is  the  highest  poetry  of  all  it  is  the 
most  real,  it  touches  heights  which  men  call  insanity. 

What  then  have  we,  as  Christian  readers,  to  say  about  these  trials  in 
their  relation  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ?  I  have  three  things  to  say  about 
them,  and  the  first  is  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  as  represented  by  Jesus 
Christ,  was  not  responsible  for  them.  It  is  a  fine  matter,  is  this  allotment 
of  responsibility.  We  are  sometimes  occasions  without  being  causes. 
Who  is  responsible  for  the  pain  suffered  by  that  poor  man  whose  limb  is 
being  amputated  at  this  moment  ?  Do  we  say,  "  Cruel  surgeon,  why  do 
you  inflict  such  pain  on  a  fellow  creature  ? "  We  do  not  hold  the  surgeon 
responsible  for  the  agony  of  the  sufferer  :.  he  may  be  the  occasion  of  it, 
but  he  inflicts  agony  that  he  may  save  from  some  greater  distress.  You 
must  look  into  causes  preceding  the  ministry  of  the  surgeon  ;  the  limb 
was  beginning  to  putrify — it  was  momentary  agony  or  death,  and  the 
surgeon  beneficently  advised  the  infliction  of  transient  pain.  When  he 
said,  "  Cut  off  the  limb,"  he  did  not  say  it  loudly  or  unfeelingly,  he  spoke 
the  language  of  sympathy  and  beneficence.  Let  us  know  that  in  all  our 
education  and  uplifting  pain  is  unavoidable,  because  of  the  moral  condi- 
tion into  which  we  have  brought  ourselves.  When  the  father  uses  the  rod 
upon  the  criminal  child,  does  he  inflict  the  pain  cruelly  ?  He  inflicts  it 
beneficently.  If  he  loved  less  he  would  strike  less,  if  he  were  less  loving 
he  would  be  less  severe.  His  very  severity  is  an  expression  of  his  pity 
and  yearning  love. 

It  is  hard  to  understand  this,  it  cannot  be  defended  as  a  mere  theory  ; 
it  is  not  open  to  any  discussion  that  could  be  conducted  in  words,  but  it 
comes  up  as  a  great  fact  in  the  swelling  human  heart,  that  sometimes  we 
are  obliged  to  prove  our  love  by  our  severity.  When  the  Son  of  God 
came  into  the  world  there  was  no  room  for  him  :  he  had  to  make  room 
for  himself,  and  sometimes  when  a  tree  makes  room  for  itself  it  overthrows 
old  walls  and  strong  buildings — those  silent,  ever  swelling  roots  thrust  out 
the  masonry  of  man. 

This  leads  me  to  say,  in  the  second  place,  that  these  trials  were  part  of 
a  happy  necessity.  All  education  is  but  another  word  for  pain,  trial,  trouble, 
discipline.  The  education  that  comes  otherwise  may  disappear  as  it  came. 
We  learn  by  pain,  we  advance  by  strange  and  often  intolerable  agonies,  we 
cannot  understand  why  our  ignorance  should  be  driven  away  only  by  pro- 
cesses that  tear  and  wear  the  finest  sensibilities  of  the  soul.  Look  back 
upon  your  education  :  oh  the  headaches,  the  smartings,  the  disappoint- 
ments, the  troubles,  the  evasions  ;  and  yet  the  result  of  the  whole  is  wis- 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  55 

dom.  Your  will  was  curbed  at  every  point,  your  little  plans  were  turned 
upside  down,  you  were  made  to  know  that  you  must  begin  at  this  hour 
and  work  till  that  appointed  time,  or  if  not  you  must  suffer  the  penalty. 
The  tasks  we  had,  the  lines  to  commit  to  memory,  the  sharp  visitations  of 
the  rod,  the  chidings  and  reproachings  and  scoldings  and  buffetings,  the 
shamings  with  the  uplifted  finger  of  the  mocking  master,  and  yet  now, 
somehow,  it  seems  as  if  all  these  things  worked  together,  being  duly  and 
lovingly  controlled,  to  the  formation  of  a  massive  and  broad  character  not 
easy  of  destruction. 

As  civilization  widens,  trials  multiply.  You  could  not  introduce  the 
locomotive  engine  into  your  English  civilization  without  a  great  massacre 
of  innocents.  When  the  locomotive  engine  took  his  breath  and  gave  his 
first  utterance  into  the  startled  air,  what  a  slaughter  there  was  all  over  the 
country  of  innocent  speculators,  innocent  investors,  innocent  people  of  all 
kinds.  What  vested  interests  went  down,  what  arrangements  of  stabling 
and  hostelry  and  hospitality  of  every  kind  were  knocked  on  the  head. 
Every  grand  improvement  in  civilization  means  death  as  well  as  life,  in 
proportion  as  a  man  or  an  improvement  is  great.  No  introduction  can  be 
effected  into  old  habits  or  established  upon  old  lines  without  great  rend- 
ing and  tearing  of  things  long-existent.  No  preacher  could  come  into 
London  with  any  dominating  power  of  light  and  wisdom  without  having 
to  make  room  for  himself  and  inflict  pain  upon  many  innocent  people. 
He  would  not  be  otherwise  admitted.  He  must  come  by  fighting,  battling, 
blood,  fury,  vehemence,  for  seven  years  be  suspected  and  misunderstood, 
and  reproached,  and  only  as  the  divinity  is  within  him  would  he  create 
his  own  space  and  liberty.  His  friends  would  be  troubled,  driven  off  into 
Egypt  ;  all  Herods  would  shake  on  their  thrones,  and  innocent  people  of 
all  kinds  would  be  caught  in  a  shower  of  stones.  It  is  the  mystery  of 
civilization  ;  it  belongs  to  the  widening  course  of  things  ;  it  is  true  of  all 
departments  of  life. 

The  third  thing  I  have  to  say  about  these  trials  is  that  they  imperfectly, 
yet  definitely,  represent  the  greater  trials  of  God  in  the  education  and 
maintenance  of  his  universe.  He  can  do  nothing  without  pain.  He  is 
tried  every  day.  He  builds  a  wall  around  his  vineyard  and  sets  up  a 
tower  in  it  ;  and  he  comes  at  the  appointed  time  to  gather  the  grapes  that 
he  may  crush  them  into  wine  for  his  heart's  drinking,  and  behold  the 
vineyard  bringeth  forth  wild  grapes.  He  nourishes  and  brings  up  chil- 
dren :  the  ox  knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  his  master's  crib  ;  but  his 
children  do  not  know,  do  not  consider,  take  their  bread  as  if  it  had 
come  from  the  earth,  and  not  fallen  from  heaven,  drink  their  unblest 
water,  and  sleep  an  irreligious  slumber.  He  looks  on  from  the  heavens 
with  a  great  face  of  trouble,  more  marred  than  the  face  of  any  man.  He 
cannot  rule  his  children  without  being  insulted  every  day.     He  cannot 


56  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

propose  to  add  one  beam  of  light  to  the  glory  which  falls  upon  them 
without  criticism  that  amounts  to  impiety,  or  Avithout  reproaches  that  add 
up  to  the  sum  total  of  blasphemy. 

Let  us  not,  then,  suppose  that  these  are  merely  historical  trials,  and  that 
they  have  no  counterpart  in  the  current  experience  of  the  day  or  in  the 
mysteries  of  the  divine  government  of  man.  The  glory  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  that  it  is  new.  I  would  not  charge  myself  with  boldness  if  1 
undertook  to  show  that  every  line  in  this  New  Testament  was  printed  only 
yesterday,  so  true  is  it  to  human  life,  so  photographic  of  everything  that  is 
immediately  round  about  us,  so  ardent  with  the  warmth  of  our  own  life,  so 
throbbing  with  all  that  is  quick  in  our  own  pulsations.  Hast  thou  read 
the  New  Testament  as  an  old  book,  say  sixteen  or  eighteen  hundred  years 
old  ?  I  do  not  wonder  that  thou  hast  stumbled  in  many  places  and  been 
caught  in  many  a  thicket,  and  in  trying  to  disentangle  thyself  hast  come  to 
great  difficulty  and  distress.  I  read  the  New  Testament  as  just  written, 
just  put  into  my  hands,  printed  afresh  with  the  ink  of  heaven  every  morn- 
ing, and  sent  down  for  the  day's  guidance.  It  is  the  part  of  the  Christian 
preacher  to  freshen  old  histories,  to  throw  upon  them  the  dew  of  the  morn- 
ing, and  make  them  sparkle  with  immediate  light. 

What  is  true  of  these  trials,  so  far  as  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom 
of  Christ  upon  the  broad  earth  is  concerned,  is  painfully  and  often  in- 
sufferably true  of  the  setting  up  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  the  individual 
heart.  It  is  not  easy  to  go  over  from  Baal  to  Jehovah.  Some  of  us  are 
now  only  on  the  road,  with  the  journey  merely  begun,  though  we  have 
been  five-and-twenty  years  endeavouring  to  take  a  step  or  two.  Could  I 
address  some  dear  young  heart,  looking  upon  these  statements  as  great 
mysteries,  that  heart  would  say  to  me,  "  Oh,  you  must  be  such  a  happy 
man,  you  are  free  from  all  these  trials  and  bitternesses,  and  are  already  in 
Beulah's  fair  land,  blest  with  the  spirit  of  peace,  lighted  with  the  glories  of 
heaven,  far  above  the  cold  winds  and  darkening  fogs.  You  have  accom- 
plished the  journey."  To  that  sweet  speech  I  should  make  a  frank  reply. 
For  days,  and  weeks,  and  months,  dear  child,  I  know  not  what  joy  is. 
Sometimes  I  feel  as  if  I  were  worse  now  than  I  txtx  was  in  my  whole 
Christian  life  before.  My  wonder  is  that  I  am  not  damned  and  put  out  of 
sight.  God  has  hard  work  with  me  :  it  is  difficult  for  him  to  build  his 
temple  in  such  a  heart  as  mine  :  the  devil  will  not  let  me  lay  one  stone 
upon  the  top  of  another  without  trying  to  throw  it  down,  the  enemy  will 
not  let  me  get  one  whole  prayer  right  clear  out  of  me — he  stands  at  my 
mouth  to  prevent  the  word,  to  twist  the  prayer.  Whilst  I  am  in  my  high- 
est moods  of  communion,  he  whispers  to  me  with  hot  breath,  "  What  a 
fool  you  are  :  this  is  mockery,  this  is  emptiness  ;  take  your  prayer  back, 
you  impious  idiot,  and  use  your  breath  for  other  work."  Still  the  king- 
dom of  heaven   is   going  on  in  my  heart  ;  other  voices  say,   "  Cheer  thee ; 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  57 

thy  way  is  one  of  tribulation,  but  the  end  is  peace.  Fear  not,  they  that 
are  for  thee  are  more  than  all  they  that  can  be  against  thee.  God  will  ac- 
complish his  purpose  little  by  little,  but  he  will  have  the  victory.  Great 
are  they  that  are  against  thee,  greater  they  that  are  for  thee.  Hold  up  thy 
head,  fear  not,  the  angel  will  break  the  power  of  the  enemy,  and  out  of 
thy  distress  shall  come  thy  joy." 

These  words  fall  on  the  breaking  heart  with  infinite  healing,  and  com- 
fort me  with  a  sure  hope.  By-and-by  we  shall  say  to  some  watcher,  fairer 
than  the  morning  light,  "What  are  these  arrayed  in  white  robes,  and 
whence  came  they?"  He  will  answer,  "These  are  they  that  came  out  of 
great  tribulation."  Tribulation  is  another  word  for  education  if  rightly 
accepted.  Let  me,  then,  cheer  you  and  cheer  myself.  It  is  a  hard  fight, 
the  trials  are  thick  on  the  ground,  the  air  is  black  with  them,  but  we  shall 
be  "  more  than  concjuerors  through  him  that  loved  us."  Be  this  your 
motto  :   "  The  Sword  of  the  Lord — and  Forward !" 


VII. 

THE      CONTINUOUSNESS     OF      HISTORY REPENTANCE     A     COMMON      TERM 

TEACHING    POSITIVE    AS    WELL    AS    NEGATIVE THE    TRUE    BAPTISM. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  our  voice  is  lifted  up  to  thee  in  praise  and  thanksgiving,  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  because  of  all  thy  tender  mercy  and  thy  loving 
kindness  shown  unto  us  since  we  last  assembled  here.  Thou  dost  lead  us  by  ways 
that  we  know  not,  and  unexpected  answers  dost  thou  give  to  our  trouble  and  our  want. 
We  look  back  to  behold  a  long  line  of  light :  that  line  is  thy  love,  thy  care,  thy  pa- 
tience ;  and  as  we  look  forward  we  behold  a  long  line  of  golden  promise  and  tender 
assurance,  so  that  we  have  no  fear  clouding  and  darkening  our  hearts.  This  is  the 
Lord  doing,  this  is  the  gift  of  heaven,  this  is  the  revelation  of  God's  love  to  our  life, 
though  it  be  dark,  dark  with  sin  and  vexed  with  many  cares.  What  time  we  are 
afraid,  we  put  our  trust  in  God  ;  when  the  sky  is  blaclv,  we  know  that  the  sun  is 
still  there,  and  that  no  force  but  thine  can  shake  that  source  of  light.  Help  us  to 
know  that  tlie  troubles  of  this  life  are  for  a  moment,  but  as  their  season  is  short, 
so  their  visitation  is  often  sharp.  May  we  put  our  trust  in  thy  love  and  righteous- 
ness and  tender  care,  and  be  quiet,  though  the  earth  be  removed  and  the  mountains 
be  carried  into  the  midst  of  the  sea. 

Thou  hast  written  thy  testimony  in  our  life,  thou  hast  proved  thyself  every  day  of 
our  individual  history.  Thou  hast  made  us  and  not  we  ourselves,  we  are  the  people 
of  thy  pasture  and  the  sbeep  of  thine  hand.  Thou  knowest  our  frame,  thou  remem- 
berest  that  we  are  dust  ;  every  bone  thou  didst  fashion,  our  reason  thou  didst  set 
upon  its  throne,  our  whole  life  is  brightened  by  the  light  of  thy  presence,  and  as  for 
the  troul)les  which  vex  and  divide  us,  behold  thou  dost  so  direct  them  as  to  bring 
joy  out  of  our  greatest  sorrow.  What  shall  we  render  unto  the  Lord  for  all  his  bene- 
fits towards  us  ?  We  will  take  the  cup  of  salvation  and  call  upon  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  yea,  with  loudness  as  men  call  who  are  burning  with  the  fire  of  earnestness. 
We  will  not  restrain  our  song  before  God,  but  with  loud  hallelujahs  will  we  praise 
thee  for  thy  wonderful  care,  thy  continual  mercy. 

We  come  always  to  Jesus,  because  he  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  for  ever, — 
always  full  of  love,  full  of  pity,  full  of  thought  for  our  whole"  life.  He  died  for  us 
and  rose  again  ;  he  is  our  Saviour  ;  and  he  is  our  intercessor  ;  for  us  he  shed  his 
blood,  for  us  he  breathed  away  his  heart  in  priestly  prayer.  We  have  no  other 
Saviour  ;  we  need  no  other.  His  blood  is  our  answer  to  thy  law,  his  cross  the  sanc- 
tuary of  the  soul  when  pursued  by  its  guilt. 

We  bless  thee  that  we  are  in  thine  house,  for  it  is  good  to  be  here.  Thou  dost 
cause  a  great  calm  to  fill  tlie  sanctuary,  and  the  spirit  of  peace  speaks  to  the  sons  of 
peace,  and  having  fellowship  one  with  another,  and  with  our  common  Father,  great 
love  floods  the  soul.     Forgetting  earth  and  time  and  dreary  sense,  we  already  claim 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  59 

the  heritage  bought  for  us  by  our  Saviour  Christ.  Enjoying  this  opportunity  of  com. 
munion  with  (tocI  the  Father,  the  Son,,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  may  we  return  to  the 
family,  to  the  market-place,  to  all  the  daily  engagements  of  life,  with  renewed  purity 
of  soul,  elevation  of  purpose,  and  breadth  of  charity,  accepting  our  little  life  as  a 
great  opportunity,  and  diligently  working  with  both  hands,  not  as  hired  servants,  but 
as  loving  sons. 

Set  up  thy  kingdom  within  our  heart — call  it  kingdom  of  God,  kingdom  of  heaven^ 
kingdom  of  light,  kingdom  of  truth — we  shall  know  it  by  what  name  soever  it  is 
called,  for  it  will  absorb  all  other  masteries  and  rule  us  with  infinite  and  gracious  do- 
minion. Help  us  to  see  the  best  of  one  another,  teach  us  to  read  each  other's  life  in 
the  light  of  divine  hope  and  redeeming  love,  fill  our  hearts  with  the  very  love  of 
Christ,  and  may  we  prove  discipleship  by  the  cross. 

Thou  knowest  the  need  of  every  heart,  the  pain  of  the  wounded  spirit,  the  joy  of 
the  delivered  soul,  the  song  of  those  who  have  great  hope,  and  the  purpose  of  those 
whose  to-morrow  is  bright  with  great  gladness.  The  Lord  come  to  us  according  to  our 
varied  necessities,  and  according  to  the  want  or  the  joy  of  each  heart,  let  thy  blessing  be 
measured  unto  us.  When  our  purpose  is  evil,  turn  our  counsel  vipside  down  with  a 
ruthless  hand  ;  when  our  aim  is  good,  help  us  to  accomplish  our  whole  purpose. 
Break  the  arm  that  is  lifted  in  rebelliou  against  light,  truth,  beauty,  holiness,  and  all 
heavenliness  of  love  and  purpose. 

The  Lord  give  strength  unto  those  whose  desire  it  is  to  make  the  world  gladder  day 
by  day.  The  Lord  look  upon  the  old  man  whose  life  is  behind  him  and  speak  some 
gospel  of  hope  to  his  waiting  .soul.  The  Lord  speak  to  the  young  man  that  he  may 
estimate  the  number  of  his  days  and  their  brevity,  and  work  in  the  spirit  of  the 
solemn  responsibility.  The  Lord  look  upon  the  missionary  at  home,  the  loving 
mother,  the  gracious  parent,  the  one  who  sacrifices  herself  for  her  children,  and  loves 
them  with  unutterable  affection.  The  Lord  look  into  the  nursery,  into  the  cradle,  into 
the  school,  among  all  our  .young  and  loved  ones,  and  baptize  them  with  the  dew  of  the 
morning.  The  Lord  be  the  physician  in  the  sick  chamber,  and  bear  his  own  gospel 
to  hearts  that  can  listen  to  no  human  tongue.  The  Lord's  light  brighten  over  the 
whole  heavens  until  there  be  no  shadow  left.     Amen. 

Matthew  iii.  1-6. 

1.  In  those  days  (thirty  years  after  the  events  of  Chapter  U.)  came  (rojnctli)  John 
the  Baptist,  preaching  (after  the  manner  of  a  herald),  in  the  wilderness  of  Judijea  (bor- 
dering on  the  Jordan  and  the  Dead  Sea). 

2.  And  saying,  repent  ye  (change  your  mind  and  purpose)  :  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  (a  phrase  used  by  Matthew  about  thirty  times,  and  by  him  only  in  the  New 
Testament)  is  at  hand  (has  come  nigh), 

3.  For  this  is  he  that  was  spoken  of  by  the  prophet  Esaias,  saying,  The  voice  of 
one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord,  make  his  paths 
straight. 

4.  And  the  same  John  had  his  raiment  of  camel's  hair,  and  a  leathern  girdle  about 
his  loins  :  and  his  meat  was  locusts  and  wild  honey. 

5.  Then  went  out  to  him  Jerusalem,  and  all  Judaea,  and  all  the  region  round  about 
Jordan  (the  whole  length  of  the  river  valley,  including  parts  of  Perea,  Samaria,  Gali- 
lee, and  Gaulonitis). 

6.  And  were  baptized  of  him  in  Jordan,  confessing  their  sins.  i 

If  you  read  the  last  verse  of  the  second  chapter — '•  And  he   came  and 


6o  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

dwelt  in  a  city  called  Nazareth,  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken 
by  the  prophets,  he  shall  be  called  a  Nazarene" —  and  then  read  the  first 
verse  of  the  third  chapter — "  In  those  days  came  John  the  Baptist  " — you 
might  suppose  that  the  two  events  followed  one  another  within  a  very  brief 
interval,  whereas  the  fact  is  that  thirty  years  intervened  between  the  last 
verse  of  the  second  chapter  and  the  first  verse  of  the  third.  The  heart  is 
sad  at  that  thought :  we  do  not  want  the  historian  to  take  such  wide  leaps  ; 
we  want  him  to  take  us  down  to  Nazareth,  and  give  us  almost  daily  glimpses 
into  that  obscure  but  wondrous  home.  We  long  to  overhear  somewhat  of 
the  conversation  that  passes  amongst  its  inmates  ;  especially  do  we  want 
to  look  at  one  with  a  human  face,  brightened  often  with  divine  flashes, 
and  to  listen  to  a  voice  like  our  own,  yet  much  unlike  it,  so  rich,  so  varied, 
so  tender  in  pathos,  so  royal  in  command.  Yet  we  stand  here,  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  third  chapter  (with  one  glimpse  given  by  another  writer)  with 
thirty  years  overleaped  in  silence  that  is  to  the  imagination  provoking. 

"  In  those  days  came  " — literally  "  in  those  days  co?)ieth,"  as  if  all  the 
movement  were  continuous,  without  break  or  gap,  as  if  there  were  no  past 
tense,  as  if  we  lived  in  a  perpetual  present,  as  if  history  were  a  continuous 
breathing,  not  a  succession  of  shocks,  but  a  perpetual  outgo  of  the  divine 
purpose  and  the  heavenly  will.  We  have  broken  up  our  grammar  so  that 
we  now  have  present,  past,  perfect,  pluperfect,  and  future,  but  there  is  an- 
other grammar  in  which  there  is  but  one  mood  and  one  tense,  and  it  is 
Christ's  purpose  to  draw  us  up  into  his  own  thinking,  until  all  history  and 
all  developments,  the  whole  sweep  and  current  of  things,  shall  be  to  us  a 
living  indicative.  You  go  back  to  take  up  the  past,  you  break  life  up  into 
sections,  you  cut  it  up  into  parentheses,  you  vex  the  flowing  narrative  with 
foot-notes  and  marginalia,  so  that  I  am  lost  in  this  wondrous  history  of  the 
race.  He  calms  me  by  completing  me,  withdraws  my  attention  from  frac- 
tional times  and  momentary  incidents,  and  fixes  it  upon  the  infinite  oneness 
of  the  divine  purpose  and  way. 

In  those  days  came  John  the  Buptist.  A  transient  name.  The  Baptist 
must  die,  the  Congregationalist,  the  Presbyterian,  the  Episcopalian  must 
die — his  very  name  is  indicative  of  the  transientness  of  his  coming  and 
purpose.  No  man  can  be  known  by  any  one  little  accent  of  his  case 
throughout  immortality.  AVhen  a  man  is  so  specialized  the  meaning  is 
that  his  mission  is  here  and  gone,  whilst  you  are  speaking  about  him — a 
breath,  a  shock,  a  voice,  an  echo,  a  vacancy.  Do  you  still  follow  the 
Baptist  ?  Poor  laggard,  what  business  hast  thou,  in  this  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, with  following  the  Baptist  ?  He  himself  said  his  mission  was  intro- 
ductory,  symbolical,  a  plunge,  and  all  was  over.  Why  art  thou  still  dog- 
ging his  steps,  as  if  he  had  aught  to  give  thee  ?  He  has  eaten  up  the  locusts 
and  wild  honey,  and  his  raiment  and  his  leathern  girdle  are  worn  out  and 
are  not  worth  thy  picking  up.     O  haste  thee  to  catch  his  Master. 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  6l 

Still,  John  had  a  mission,  and  a  great  one  ;  and  it  will  be  our  object  to 
measure  it  in  future  expositions.  John  the  Baptist  c^mo. preaching — a  term 
but  little  understood.  There  are  few  preachers,  and  ought  to  be  few. 
There  are  too  many  who  bear  the  name  who  do  not  understand  the  voca- 
tion. He  is  not  a  preacher  who  stands  in  one  place  year  after  year,  talk- 
ing to  the  same  people,  and  overfeeding  them  with  intellectual  luxuries. 
Preaching,  in  the  New  Testament,  is  a  term  which  means  heralding,  going 
up  and  down  from  east  to  west,  crying,  shouting,  with  a  ringing  voice, 
*'  Prepare  !  "  He  is  the  preacher  who  does  so,  who  breathes  through  the 
herald's  trumpet,  and  startles  the  stagnant  air  with  shattering  blasts  and 
says,  "  The  -King  !  the  King  !  "  In  our  days  we  have  degraded  preaching 
into  bending  the  head  over  a  sheet  of  ill-written  paper  and  mumbling  it 
with  very  uncertain  emphasis.  In  the  New  Testament  the  preacher  is  the 
shouting  man.  We  do  not  like  shouting  ;  we  object  to  exclamation  ;  but 
the  true  preacher  is'  the  vox  damantis.  "  Prepare  !  look  out  !  attention  !  " 
After  the  preacher  of  course  will  come  the  teacher,  the  pastor,  the  exposi- 
tor, the  man  whose  business  it  is  to  stand  in  one  place  and  unfold  the  in- 
finite riches  of  the  divine  wisdom  ;  but  the  preacher — defining  that  term 
in  the  light  of  the  New  Testament — is  a  herald,  a  man  who  has  a  proclama- 
tion in  his  hands,  whose  sermon  is  brief  because  not  a  speech  well  com- 
posed and  elaborate,  but  a  cry,  as  of  a  man  who  should  call  "  Fire  "  to  a 
sleeping  town. 

"  In  those  days  came  John  the  Baptist,  saying.  Repent  ye,  for  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  at  hand."  The  cry  of  all  widening  civilization  has  been 
Repent.  Do  not  be  startled  with  the  word,  as  if  it  were  a  church  term  and  a 
Bible  word  only  ;  it  is  a  word  you  cannot  do  without  in  the  history  of  secu- 
lar civilization.  Do  not  sneer  at  the  preacher  when  he  says  "  Repent,"  as  if 
he  had  picked  up  a  fanatical  word  and  were  using  it  for  fanatical  purposes. 
What  is  the  meaning  of  this  word  repent,  as  used  in  this  connection  ?  The 
meaning  of  it  is,  change  your  purpose,  alter  your  mind,  turn  round,  face' 
about,  you  are  on  the  wrong  road,  return !  It  is  the  utterance  of  men 
who  have  a  new  proposition  to  make  in  politics,  in  commerce,  in  engineer- 
ing, in  all  the  ways  and  processes  of  advancing  life.  He  who  corrects  the 
thinking  of  his  age,  having  verified  his  own  conclusions  in  privacy,  comes 
forth  and  says  to  his  era,  "  Repent,  you  are  wrong,  change  your  mind,  alter 
your  standpoint."  When  the  word  is  taken  up  into  the  religious  sphere, 
and  invested  with  its  vital  meanings,  it  still  continues  the  first  signification, 
and  enhances  that  signification  with  other  meanings  deeper  and  grander 
still.  When  a  man  repents  of  his  sin,  he  knows  the  bitterness  of  inward 
sorrow,  his  heart  weeps  blood,  his  soul  is  afflicted  with  grievous  distress 
on  account  of  sin.  Then  the  repentance  expresses  itself  in  an  outward 
change  of  standing,  attitude  and  relationship,  coming  up  out  of  an  inward 
conviction  wrought  through  infinite  pain,  and  by  ministries  for  which  there 
are  no  words. 


02  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

John's,  then,  was  not  a  very  cheerful  ministry,  or  a  very  popular  or  com- 
fortable  one.  It  is  pleasanter  for  me  to  come  down  to  any  assembly  and 
say,  "  I  approve  all  your  doings,  I  confirm  your  proceedings,  I  endorse 
your  policies.  Heaven's  blessing  shine  upon  you  like  a  summer  day  !  "  He 
who  comes  with  a  speech  of  that  kind  to  the  populace,  will  for  the  time 
being  be  the  popular  idol.  To  come  into  the  midst  of  a  city,  or  to  go  up 
and  down  a  land,  crying  "  Repent,"  is  to  excite  the  most  desperate  preju- 
dice. Who  are  you  ?  Why  this  challenging  tone  ?  quo  warranto  ?  Prove 
your  standing  :  whence  came  you,  what  is  the  measure  of  your  responsi- 
bility ?  Then  will  come  insinuations  as  to  sinister  motive,  and  implica- 
tions of  dishonest  or  selfish  purpose.  Then  the  tu  quoque  will  be  the 
weapon  of  the  hour.  The  man  whose  /ittle  sermon  is  "  Repent  "  sets  him- 
self against  his  age,  and  will  for  the  time  being  be  battered  mercilessly  by 
the  age  whose  moral  tone  he  challenges.  There  is  but  one  end  for  such 
a  man — "  off  with  his  head."  You  had  better  not  try  to  preach  repentance 
until  you  have  pledged  your  head  to  Heaven. 

The  negativeness  of  this  ministry  accounts  for  Avhat  is  popularly  termed 
the  want  of  success.  John's  ministry  was  to  clear  the  ground  ;  he  was  a 
pioneer,  he  was  a  herald,  he  was  one  whose  work  was  more  or  less  of  the 
negative  kind,  or  introductory  at  the  best.  Such  men  do  not  add  up  to 
much  in  the  sum  total  of  vulgar  arithmetic.  When  they  are  added  up  into 
their  total  by  God  himself  the  sum  is  not  inconsiderable.  We  have  re- 
formers amongst  us  whose  business  it  is  to  get  men  into  a  state  of  mind 
to  hear  the  gospel.  Having  heard  the  gospel  and  received  it,  the  men 
who  conducted  the  introductory  ministry  are  too  often  forgotten,  as  though 
they  had  done  next  to  nothing.  Your  business  it  may  be,  is  to  go  out  and 
persuade  a  man  to  alter  his  personal  habits  and  his  social  relationships  so 
as  to  bring  himself  within  the  sound  of  the  Christian  gospel.  He  comes 
to  hear  the  minister  ;  the  minister,  baptized  with  fire  and  clothed  with 
zeal,  arrests  the  man,  and  makes  him  a  prisoner  of  the  law.  It  may  be  that 
your  outside  and  comparatively  negative  work  is  forgotten  by  men,  but 
God  is  not  unrighteous  to  forget  your  work  of  faith  and  labour  of  love. 
Yours  is  a  preparational  ministry  ;  yours  is  introductory,  and  because  in- 
troductory more  or  less  transient  in  its  public  effects  and  fame.  Never- 
theless it  is  a  ministry  without  which  the  Church  cannot  live.  Persevere 
through  good  report  and  through  evil  report,  and  come  not  to  Time's  low 
counter  for  your  pay,  but  to  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ. 

Consider  well  what  it  is  to  preach  the  gospel  of  repentance.  I  would 
rather  preach  the  gospel  of  comfort ;  it  would  suit  me  personally  better  to 
say  to  every  man  Avho  hears  me,  "You  are  altogether  right  ;  all  you  need 
is  comfort,  the  kiss  and  seal  of  holy  peace.  Cheer  you  ;  it  will  be  well 
with  you."  To  stand  before  any  man,  and  say  to  him,  "  If  we  are  to  make 
solid  work  we  must  begin  with  the  fact  that  you  are  as  bad  as  you  can  be," 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  63 

is  to  excite  prejudice  and  to  create  tremendous,  if  not  insuperable,  diffi- 
culty. Here  is  the  disadvantage  of  the  preacher  ;  he  has  always  to  chal- 
lenge his  hearers,  charge  them  with  want  of  integrity  ;  his  indictment  is 
heavy,  every  count  of  it  rising  above  every  other  count  before  it  in  the 
gravity  of  its  impeachment.  The  lecturer  comes  before  you  with  his  kid 
gloves  and  scented  arrangements,  and  tells  you  how  delighted  he  is  to 
have  the  opportunity  of  speaking  to  so  large,  enlightened,  and  influential 
an  assemblage.  The  preacher  stands  up  and  says,  "  Repent  "  ;  and  who 
likes  to  listen  to  a  man  whose  voice  is  a  charge,  whose  sentences  are 
thunderbolts  ?  Yet  through  this  ministry  of  repentance  we  must  all  pass 
ere  we  can  enter  into  a  ministry  of  reconciliation,  and  enjoy  the  infinite 
calm  of  God's  own  peace. 

Yet  John's  ministry  was  not  wholly  negative.  There  is  a  positive  ele- 
ment in  it,  that  should  be  carefully  noted.  He  said,  indeed,  "  Repent  ye," 
but  his  deliverance  did  not  end  there.  He  added  a  reason,  "  For,  or  be- 
cause, the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand."  Do  not  charge  your  hearer  se- 
verely, so  as  to  overwhelm  him  with  intolerable  sorrow.  Having  brought 
him  to  his  knees  in  penitence,  and  broken  his  heart  with  contrition,  and 
left  him  without  a  rag  with  which  to  cover  the  nakedness  of  his  iniquity, 
tell  him  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand,  intimating  that  his  repent- 
ance is  a  sorrow  that  brings  joy,  that  repentance  is  an  introductory  neces- 
sity, that  it  endures  for  a  night,  and  joy  cometh,  bringing  with  it  its  own 
morning,  a  day  that  never  dips  into  the  darkness  of  eventide.  So  this 
heroic  preacher,  so  severe,  so  terrible  in  aspect,  so  piercing  and  rending  in 
voice,  has  a  sweet,  sweet  tone — "  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand.  The 
morning  cometh,  the  summer  dawns,  the  rain  is  over  and  gone,  and  the  voice 
of  the  turtle  is  heard  in  the  land.  Attend,  repent,  change,  turn  round — for 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand."  A  challenge  of  moral  integrity  should 
always  be  associated  with  the  presentation  of  a  great  opportunity.  Tell  a 
man  to  repent  only,  and  leave  him  there,  and  you  put  a  dart  into  his  breast. 
Tell  him  to  repent,  and  add  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  with  all  its  light 
and  healing  and  redemption,  is  at  hand,  and  you  preach  to  him  something 
like  a  complete  gospel.  The  indictment  associated  with  the  word  repent- 
ance must  be  followed  with  the  inspiration  connected  with  the  term,  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 

"This  is  he  that  was  spoken  of  by  the  prophet."  Every  preacher  who 
deeply  moves  his  age,  is  a  fulfilment  of  prophecy.  The  great  man  is  always 
to  come.  History  is  a  process  of  daily  fulfilment  of  prophecy.  We  are  al- 
ways startled  with  conformations  of  the  Divine  Word,  and  when  the  right 
man  comes,  there  is  something  about  him  which  indicates  his  reality.  My 
sheep  know  my  voice.  When  a  man  hears  the  truth,  there  is  something 
within  him  which  says,  "So  it  is."  I  may  resent  what  you  say  to  me,  may 
put  my  imagination  to  great  stress,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  up   excuses 


64  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

and  pleas  in  reply  to  your  charges,  when  you  accuse  me  of  being  guilty  be- 
fore God,  yet  all  the  while,  deep  down  in  my  self-reproachful  heart,  I  feel 
that  you  are  right,  and  that  my  palliations  do  but  add  to  my  sin. 

What  was  the  result  of  this  man's  preaching,  so  far  as  this  section  of  the 
history  will  enable  us  to  judge  ?  There  went  out  to  him  Jerusalem  and  all 
Judea,  and  all  the  region  round  about  Jordan.  See  the  power  of  one  con- 
secrated and  burning  heart.  John  was  one — the  whole  valley  of  the  river 
was  shaken  by  his  voice,  and  men  poured  around  him  from  every  quarter. 
Believe  in  individuality  of  labour,  believe  that  you,  solitary  thinker,  lonely 
teacher,  preacher,  reformer — that  you  in  your  solitariness  may  have  the 
power  given  you  of  God,  of  moving  a  whole  age  and  inspiring  a  whole  na- 
tion. Take  the  large  view  of  your  mission  ;  do  not  be  behind  the  very 
chief  of  the  apostles,  not  in  your  own  conceit,  but  in  your  interpretation  of 
the  breadth  and  grandeur  of  the  divine  call.  Everywhere  do  I  read  of 
great  results  attending  one  man's  ministry.  One  man  is  sometimes  an  army, 
one  man  is  sometimes  a  congregation.  Despise  not  the  two  and  the  three  ; 
there  is  a  religion  which  can  condescend  to  bless  meetings  of  twos  and  threes: 
consider  that  that  condescension  is  a  proof  of  the  divinity  of  the  doctrine. 
That  which  is  artificial  works  for  the  artificial,  that  which  is  real  works  for 
the  human,  the  vital,  the  image  of  God.  To-day  we  call  out  for  thousands 
to  hear  us,  and  if  the  thousands  are  not  there,  we  think  but  little  of  the  few 
who  gather  in  the  house  of  God.  If  we  were  in  right  mood  of  heart  we 
should  see  in  every  little  child  an  opportunity  for  preaching  with  all  the 
fire  that  could  burn  in  the  heart  of  the  most  consecrated  patriot  or  a  twice- 
anointed  minister  of  God. 

G'"t  away  from  the  baptism  of  John  as  soon  as  you  can.  .We  are  not  al- 
Avays  to  be  standing  in  introductory  rites  and  ceremonial  observances. 
Again  and  again  would  I  say  that  the  ministry  of  John  was  by  its  very 
constitution  a  temporary  and  not  a  permanent  ministry.  Is  it  possible  that 
there  are  men  and  women  amongst  us  to-day,  squabbling  with  one  another 
'about  the  matter  of  baptism  ?  With  what  baptism  you  have  been  baptized 
I  care  not — if  you  have  been  baptized  with  the  dew  of  the  morning, 
sprinkled  with  hands  prelatic  or  archiepiscopal — care  not  if  you  have  been 
plunged  in  the  middle  of  all  the  great  seas  that  roll  round  the  earth.  Such 
baptism  is  nothing  if  it  has  not  been  followed  by  the  true  baptism  of  blood 
and  FIRE.  Into  what  baptism,  then,  have  we  been  baptized  ?  I  believe 
that  a  sound  argument  can  be  set  up  in  favour  of  the  suggestion  that  in 
Christian  baptism  since  the  apostolic  days  there  is  no  water  at  all.  It  does 
not  follow  that  you  must  have  water  in  order  to  have  baptism,  but,  my 
friend,  if  you  want  the  Atlantic  have  it  :  if  the  drop  of  dew  trembling  on 
the  rosebud  will  suffice  you,  take  it,  but  they  are  both  nothing  but  ritual- 
ism, ceremonialism  and  superstition.  If  you  do  not  seize  the  inner  meaning, 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  65 

cry  for  the  laver  of  blood,  and  mightily  implore  God  to  visit  you  with  the 
baptism  of  fire. 

See  that  the  baptismal  water  does  not  freeze  upon  you,  and  encrust  you 
as  with  ice,  and  make  a  bigot  of  you.  The  one  baptism  of  which  all  other 
baptisms  were  indications,  types  and  symbols,  is  the  baptism  of  blood  and 
the  chrism  of  fire. 


VIII. 

John's  trkaching — the  right   spirit  of  hearing — the  old  grit  is 
lost a  kingdom  or  a  wrath different  reports  of  preaching. 

PRAYER. 

ALMIGHTY  GoD,  our  moutli  is  filled  witli  tliauksgiving,  because  our  heart  is  stirred 
with  gratitude.  Thou  hast  done  great  things  for  us,  and  most  wonderful,  therefore 
is  our  mouth  opened  in  praise,  therefore  are  our  hands  stretched  out  to  thee  in  the 
offer  of  loving  service.  Thou  hast  beset  us  behind  and  before  and  laid  thine  hands 
upon  us,  and  thine  eye  has  gleamed  from  heaven  like  a  great  sun,  shining  upon  all  our 
way,  bringing  us  continual  light  and  hope.  Thou  hast  lifted  us  above  our  fears,  so 
that  the  clouds  have  rolled  under  our  feet,  and  Ave  have  seen  thy  bright  blue  morning 
spreading  over  our  Avliole  destiny,  like  a  father's  blessing.  Thou  art  great,  thou  art 
kind,  thy  name  is  mercy,  thy  ministry  is  love.  These  things  have  we  learned  in  our 
heart  in  its  deep  pain  and  want,  and  having  learned  them,  we  would  turn  them  into 
religious  hymns  and  continual  and  delightful  service.  Thou  art  our  God,  and  we 
have  none  beside  ;  thine  hand  is  the  treasury  of  our  almightiness,  and  in  thine  heart 
is  hidden  the  gospel  of  our  salvation.  We  will  look  unto  the  hills  whence  cometh 
our  help  ;  we  will  repair  to  the  Saviour's  cross  in  the  time  of  infinite  distress  on  ac- 
count of  sin,  and  through  his  most  precious  blood,  shed  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world,  our  guilt  shall  receive  the  answer  of  thy  forgiveness. 

We  bless  thee  for  this  uplifed  cross,  a  tree  higher  than  all  forests,  a  spectacle  that 
makes  all  other  sights  dull  and  poor — the  great  tragedy  of  thy  love.  To  that  tree  we 
come  :  its  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations,  and  other  healing  for  the  heart 
of  man  there  is  none.  This  is  the  Lord's  doing  ;  may  we  within  its  span  be  in  the 
Lord's  spirit,  lifted  up  in  heart,  made  ecstatic  in  joy,  having  around  us  all  the  sweet 
bright  ministry  of  holy  hope.  Being  delivered  from  every  fear,  freed  from  every 
snare,  and  delivered  from  every  perjilexity,  may  our  souls  become  filled  with  thy  joy 
and  soothed  and  calmed  by  thy  peace. 

We  mourn  our  sin  :  'tis  our  daily  cry  ;  we  have  done  the  things  we  ought  not  to 
have  done,  we  have  left  undone  the  things  that  we  ought  to  have  done — the  Lord's 
mercy  be  multiplied  unto  us,  and  all  the  ministry  of  Christ  be  sent  to  our  aid.  Let 
us  every  one  hear  the  utterance  of  thy  forgiving  love,  let  the  most  burdened  conscience 
be  delivered  from  its  load,  let  the  wounded  and  crying  heart  be  healed  of  its  pain, 
and  over  all  the  assembly  may  there  pass  the  assurance  of  thy  pardon,  and  may  there 
return  upon  our  life  the  lifting  up  of  the  light  of  thy  countenance. 

We  bless  thee  for  all  thy  blessings  :  they  are  in  our  individual  life,  for  thou  hast 
continued  unto  us  health  and  strength  and  reasoning  power  and  hope  within  the 
limits  of  this  present  scene.  Thou  hast  blessed  us  in  basket  and  in  store,  so  that  our 
trade  has  brought  profit  and  our  merchandise  has  yieldeel  us  a  living.  Thou  hast 
given  us  favour  in  the  sight  of  the  people,  so  that  our  foothold  in  society  is  not  lost. 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  67 

Thou  hast  saved  us  from  many  a  temptation  and  delivered  us  from  many  a  sin  and 
snare,  so  that  our  feet  walk  in  the  ways  of  freedom  and  we  breathe  the  air  of  liberty. 
Thou  hast  blessed  us  in  the  family  ;  the  father  and  the  mother  and  the  child  are 
here,  reunited,  returned  to  one  another,  in  the  grace  and  fulness  of  thy  protection. 
The  Lord  continue  all  household  mercies  to  us  :  spare  the  elder  and  the  younger, 
may  there  bene  vacant  chair,  no  empty  heart,  no  desolated  spirit.  Where  thou  hast 
sent  thy  bereaving  providence  send  thine  all-healing  grace  ;  where  thou  hast  but 
now  dug  the  deepest  grave  ever  dug  in  the  heart,  the  Lord  fill  it  up  with  flowers, 
and  so  set  upon  it  the  sign  and  seal  of  a  sure,  glorious  resurrection.  Where  the 
house  is  dark,  do  thou  kindle  an  unexpected  fire  ;  where  the  life  is  impoverished, 
do  thou  come  with  all  thy  treasure  about  it. 

The  Lord  heal  the  wounded,  the  Lord  carry  the  tired  in  his  arms,  the  Lord  bless 
the  unblest,  and  send  dew  upon  the  withering  flower.  Thou  knowest  us  every  one, 
our  ancestry,  our  difficulties,  our  temptations,  our  temperaments^peculiarities  which 
individualize  us  one  from  the  other.  Thou  knowest  all  that  is  in  us  and  about  us — be 
the  God  of  each  life,  the  Saviour  of  each  heart,  the  friend  of  each  pilgrim. 

Give  thy  word  mighty  wings  to-day,  that  it  may  fly  farther  than  ever  :  make  the 
voices  of  thy  servants  sweeter  than  trumpets  of  silver  and  louder  than  shocks  of 
thunder,  and  let  thy  word  be  heard  everywhere,  awakening  and  gladdening  the 
hearts  of  men. 

Pity  us  in  our  littleness  and  infirmity,  make  the  way  down  to  the  grave  as  easy  as 
thou  canst,  and  may  the  farewells  of  earth  have  in  them  tones  subtle  and  tender, 
tuggesting  reunion  in  heaven.     Amen. 

Matthew  iii.  7-12. 

7.  But  when  he  saw  many  of  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  come  to  his  baptism,  he 
said  unto  them,  O  generation  (brood)  of  vipers,  who  hath  warned  (taught)  you  to  flee 
from  the  wrath  (a  kingdom  to  some,  a  icrath  to  others)  to  come  ? 

8.  Bring  forth  therefore  fruits  meet  for  repentance  : 

9.  And  think  not  to  say  within  yourselves,  we  have  Abraham  to  {as)  our  father : 
for  I  say  unto  you,  that  God  is  able  of  these  stones  to  raise  up  children  unto  Abra- 
ham.    ("  God  is  not  tied  to  the  law  of  succession  in  the  church.") 

10.  And  now  (already)  also  the  axe  is  laid  unto  the  root  of  the  trees  (the  Jews  :  the 
Gentiles  were  stones)  :  therefore  every  tree  which  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit  is 
hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  fire. 

11.  I  indeed  baptize  you  with  water  unto  repentance  ;  but  he  that  cometh  after  me 
is  mightier  than  I,  whose  shoes  I  am  not  worthy  to  bear  :  he  shall  baptize  you  with 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  with  fire  : 

12.  Whose  fan  is  in  his  hand,  and  he  will  thoroughly  purge  his  floor,  and  gather 
his  wheat  into  the  garner  ;  but  he  will  burn  up  the  chafE  with  unquenchable  fire. 

This  is  a  wonderful,  yet  not  difificult,  change  of  tone  in  the  speech  of 
such  a  man  as  John  the  Baptist.  His  baptism  was  the  sensation  of  the 
day.  Everybody  seemed  to  have  more  or  less  interest  in  it.  Not  to  have 
heard  it  was  to  be  misinformed  or  wanting  in  information,  and  not  to  have 
partaken  of  it  was  to  have  missed  a  great  opportunity.  All  the  valley  of 
the  Jordan  was  moved,  people  poured  in  from  every  centre,  great  and 
small,  in  order  that  they  might  hear  this  new  prophet,  for  a  prophet  had 
not  appeared  in  Israel  for  five  hundred  years.     Curiosity  was  touched, 


68  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

wonder  was  on  the  alert,   national   pride   was  excited,   and   a  great  and 
hardly  expressed  hope  was  moving  the  ambition  of  the  people. 

For  a  long  time  John  seems  to  have  pursued  his  baptismal  course  with- 
out interruption,  and  indeed  with  some  signs  of  satisfaction.  There  went 
out  to  him  Jerusalem  and  all  Judea,  and  all  the  region  round  about  Jor- 
dan, and  were  baptized  of  him  in  Jordan,  confessing  their  sins — not,  I  im- 
agine, confessing  their  sins  in  a  minute  and  detailed  manner,  but  generally 
acknowledging  that  they  were  not  as  good  as  they  ought  to  have  been, 
pleading  guilty  to  a  certain  great,  broad,  general  indictment,  which  all 
men  probably  over  the  civilized  world  are  not  unwilling  to  do.  This  was 
enough,  as  a  starting  point,  in  the  case  which  John  the  Baptist  represent- 
ed. But  when  he  saw  many  of  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  coming  to  his 
baptism,  the  great  and  leading  men  of  the  day,  pure  in  their  own  estima- 
tion, not  needing  any  such  ministry  as  he  came  to  conduct,  except  in  an 
official  and  ceremonial  manner,  it  changed  his  tone  ;  he  cried  aloud  with 
piercing  and  ringing  voice,  "  O  brood  of  vipers,  progeny  of  serpents, 
deceitful,  cunning,  malignant,  empoisoned,  how  do  you  account  for  being 
here  ?  Who  hath  warned  you,  called  you,  who  hath  entitled  you  to  avail 
yourselves  of  this  opportunity  ?  " 

John  was  a  man  who  recognised  the  possibility  of  people  coming  to 
religious  ordinances  from  wrong  motives.  The  people  to  whom  he  spake 
did  not  come  for  purely  religious  purposes  at  all.  They  thought  it  was 
something  to  be  passed  through  in  order  to  realize  a  great  end.  They 
accepted  it  as  a  little  ceremonial,  preceding  some  great  national  endow- 
ment or  fulfilment  of  long  delayed  prophecy.  John  startled  them,  there- 
fore, with  the  tidings  that  this  was  a  religious  ordinance,  and  that  men 
can  only  avail  themselves  satisfactorily  of  religious  ordinances  in  propor- 
tion as  they  come  to  them  with  religious  motives. 

Are  the  Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees  of  the  olden  time  the  only  people  who 
have  come  to  church  through  wrong  motives  ?  Is  it  possible  that  any  of 
us  can  ever  go  to  a  holy  place  with  unholy  intent,  or  with  a  purpose  infi- 
nitely below  the  grandeur  of  the  opportunity  ?  When  I  ask  the  questions 
I  kill  myself.  Do  I  pierce  any  of  your  hearts,  or  wound,  ever  so  slightly, 
any  of  your  consciences  ?  Whatever  is  religious  must  be  touched  religiously, 
or  it  will  yield  no  true  benefit  or  profit.  You  are  not  to  touch  the  Bible 
as  literary  men,  you  are  not  to  come  to  church  as  clever  men,  you  are  not 
to  sit  bolt  upright  as  those  who  have  a  claim  to  judge  in  God's  sanctuary. 
The  attitude  is  abasement,  the  spirit  is  contrition,  the  desire  is  a  yearning 
for  a  purer  and  broader  life.  "  To  this  man  will  I  look — the  man  that  is 
of  a  humble  and  contrite  heart,  and  that  trembleth  at  my  word."  The 
haughty  he  will  bow  down,  the  wise  he  will  confound  and  disappoint.  He 
will  look  to  the  eager  heart,  the  gentle,  simple,  yearning  spirit  whose  one 
object  is  to  know  God's  will  and  to  try  to  do  it. 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE,  69 

When  men  come  to  religious  ordinances,  they  should  be  warned  of  the 
meaning  of  the  action  which  they  wish  to  accomplish.  They  should  have 
a  clear  and  most  intelligent  conception  of  the  whole  purpose  of  religious 
worship.  It  is  the  business  of  the  heralds  of  the  cross  and  the  ministers 
of  the  truth  to  give  this  warning,  to  keep  back  those  who  have  not  the  right 
credentials.  This  is  a  kingdom  that  can  only  be  entered  by  one  right,  the 
right  of  sin,  avowed,  confessed,  deplored.  Blind  man,  your  blindness  is 
your  certificate,  you  want  no  other.  Broken-hearted,  wounded  man,  your 
contrition  or  your  penitence  is  your  credential  ;  seek  for  none  beside. 
Weary,  tired  soul,  altogether  overborne  and  distressed  by  the  burdens  and 
difficulties  of  life,  your  weariness  is  your  claim.  Do  not  try  to  get  up  your 
strength.  When  you  lie  flat  in  your  weakness,  your  attitude  is  most  ac- 
ceptable to  Heaven.  To  try  to  gain  your  breath  that  you  may  appear  with 
some  decorousness  in  his  presence  is  to  enhance  your  sin.  To  come  pant- 
ing, heaving,  out  of  breath,  gasping,  dying — that  is  the  guarantee  of  a  good 
hearing  in  the  presence  of  God. 

How  comes  it  that  people  so  little  profit  by  religious  ordinances  ?  Be- 
cause they  are  too  clever,  too  wise,  too  conceited,  too  good,  in  their  own 
estimation.  I  never  heard  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  praise  with  religious 
gratitude  any  service  they  ever  attended.  They,  mighty  men,  confer  an 
honour,  they  add  lustre  to  the  altar,  they  lift  up  the  church  in  which  their 
self-vaunting  supplications  are  uttered.  How  then  can  they,  who  are  so 
full  of  themselves,  who  are  enriched  with  the  emptiness  of  their  own  self- 
satisfaction,  gain  any  spiritual  advantage  from  any  church  they  ever  en- 
tered ?  They  do  not  go  to  church  to  get  benefit,  but  to  give  it.  Their 
purpose  is  to  lay  a  flattering  hand  upon  the  infinite,  and  to  bless  it  with 
the  paw  of  their  consecration.  We  should  have  been  richer  men  to-day, 
broader  and  more  massive  in  all  religious  instruction,  intelligence,  and 
force,  if  we  had  come  with  a  true  humbleness  and  bent  down  before  God 
with  an  utter,  absolute  sense  of  unworthiness  in  his  sight. 

Surely  he  was  a  wilderness-trained  man  who  spake  thus  to  the  high  citi- 
zens of  the  day.  Look  at  him,  with  his  camel's  hair  and  the  leathern 
girdle  about  his  loins,  fed  with  locusts  and  wild  honey.  When  he  speaks, 
he  will  speak  honey,  but  only  in  his  speech  to  self-satisfied  men  there  will 
be  less  honey  than  locusts.  Upon  some  men  you  cannot  confer  any  social 
advantage.  They  do  not  want  it.  What  can  I  do  for  you,  poor  Diogenes, 
living  in  your  tub  ?  Nothing,  but  stand  out  of  the  light.  The  religious 
man  ought  never  to  be  one  to  whom  no  favour  can  be  shown.  A  man  who 
can  live  in  the  wilderness,  read  the  literature  of  the  everlasting  hills,  and 
decipher  the  poetry  of  the  skies,  asks  for  no  favour,  can  stoop  to  receive 
none  ;  his  is  a  marvellous  independence  of  all  social  patronage  and  help. 
"  Do  not  offend  the  Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees,  conciliate  them,  conceal 
as  much  as  you  can  :  they  have  it  in  their  power  to  do   great  things  for 


70  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

you."  Such  might  have  been  the  speech  spoken  to  this  man  with  the 
camel's  hair  and  the  leathern  girdle,  fed  on  locusts  and  wild  honey  ;  but 
he  would  have  hurled  it  back  again  in  shattering  accents  of  scorn.  So  the 
religious  teacher  has  it  in  his  power  to  lift  himself  high  above  the  line  of 
patronage  and  the  line  of  obligation,  for  religious  men  should  be  able  to 
live  upon  nothing.  Every  true  teacher  of  God  should  have  bread  to  eat 
that  the  world  knoweth  not  of,  so  that  when  men  who  misunderstand  his 
mission  come  to  him  and  say,  "  Let  us  hear  your  sermon,  and  then  you 
shall  have  the  loaf,"  he  should  be  able  to  decline  the  loaf,  to  preach  his 
discourse,  and  to  vanish  into  the  wilderness. 

This  gospel  of  Christ,  either  in  its  prophetic  outlines,  or  in  this  tran- 
sient dispensation  of  the  Baptist,  or  in  its  full  revelation  in  Jesus  Christ, 
has  never  sought  to  make  itself  a  popular  religion  in  the  sense  of  bowing 
down  hopefully  before  thrones  on  which  were  seated  kings  that  could  con- 
fer advantages  upon  it.  Its  fierce,  all  but  savage,  independence  always 
strikes  me  with  infinite  force.  When  the  Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees 
came  to  the  baptism  of  John,  he  said,  "  You  are  a  brood  of  vipers."  He 
called  them  by  their  right  name.  We  dare  not  use  such  names  now,  be- 
cause we  do  not  live  in  the  wilderness,  we  live  in  a  city  ;  we  are  not  clothed 
with  camel's  hair  and  a  leathern  girdle  about  our  loins,  we  have  now  gown 
and  bands  and  a  silken  girdle,  therefore  we  must  be  very  complacent  with 
the  Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees,  and  with  people  who  are  socially  tall, 
I  heard  a  fine  and  most  prosperous  gentleman  say  that  he  entered  a  Lon- 
don church  once  and  only  once  because  in  the  course  of  the  service  the 
minister  called  some  person  who  had  been  acting  vilely — a  wretch.  "  For  that 
reason  I  have  shut  up  the  Bible — I  heard  a  man  call  the  most  respectable 
citizens  of  his  day  a  brood  of  vipers,  a  progeny  of  serpents,  a  nest  of 
evil  things.  And  I  heard  another  man  call  a  king  a  fox,  and  others  he 
called  whited  sepulchres,  hidden  graves,  actors,  masked  men."  The  age 
of  free,  clear,  grand  speech  is  dead  :  we  have  come  into  the  age  of  eupho- 
nism.  He  is  the  bold  man  who  so  utters  his  sentences  that  nobody  can  quote 
them,  who  so  rounds  and  oils  them  that  it  is  impossible  to  retain  them  in 
the  grasp.  The  old  grit  is  lost,  the  old  free  piercing  speech  is  gone  ;  we 
have  alighted  upon  silken  times,  and  hard  words  would  not  become  the 
lips  that  cannot  live  but  on  the  rich  man's  viands. 

Though  the  gospel  has  never  endeavoured  to  make  itself  popular  in  the 
sense  of  conciliating  those  who  might  confer  patronage  upon  it,  yet  it  has 
always  welcomed  with  infinite  pathos  the  hearts  that  felt  their  need  of  its 
redemption.  No  broken  heart  was  ever  turned  away  from  the  cross,  no 
weary  and  overborne  soul  was  ever  discouraged  by  the  Son  of  God.  No 
poor  bent  woman,  having  nothing  left  but  her  touch  of  faith,  was  ever 
spurned  by  God's  dear  Son.  He  resents  our  fulness,  not  our  poverty  :  it 
is  when  we  are  great  he  has  nothing  to  say  to  us,  not  when  we  are  little  in 
our  own  esteem. 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  7I 

It  is  everywhere  made  clear  in  these  Scriptures,  that  in  coming  for  di- 
vine blessings  we  must  renounce  all  human  satisfactions.  Nothing  but 
emptiness  can  be  heard  at  the  divine  bar.  John  gives  a  hint  of  this  grand 
condition  of  entrance  into  the  divine  kingdom  when  he  says,  "  Think  not 
— literally  plume  not  yourselves — by  saying.  We  have  Abraham  for  our 
father.  This  is  a  kingdom  that  knows  nothing  of  these  intermediate  and 
transient  relationships  ;  this  is  not  a  kingdom  of  great  families,  it  is  a  king- 
dom of  humanity."  Therefore,  for  John  the  Baptist,  trained  in  the  wilder- 
ness, to  come  up  amid  all  these  glittering  things  and  to  lay  down  this 
doctrine  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  being  founded  upon  humanity,  was  a 
miracle  then — it  is  a  common-place  now,  becaus:  we  have  had  full  in- 
struction upon  gospel  principles  and  purposes.  But  in  John  the  Baptist's 
day  to  lay  down  this  grand  doctrine — here  is  a  kingdom  not  for  special 
families  and  particular  kindreds,  but  for  all  the  wide  world — that  was  a 
consummation  of  all  the  miracles  as  well  as  a  fulfilment  of  all  the 
prophecies. 

How  difficult  it  is  to  break  a  man's  prejudice  when  it  rests  upon  con- 
siderations of  the  kind  which  John  refers  to.  A  man  had  Abraham  to  his 
father,  therefore,  he  wildly  reasons,  it  will  be  all  right  with  him  whatever 
may  happen  in  the  world.  Christianity  aims  a  destructive  blow  at  all  such 
pretences.  This  is  the  last  fibre  of  badness.  You  cannot  take  out  of 
some  men  a  claim  to  God's  favour,  because  of  something  ancestral  or  offi- 
cial represented  by  their  individual  life.  Blessed  are  they  who  never  heard 
of  Abraham  as  compared  with  those  who  turn  their  Abrahamic  ancestry 
into  a  prejudice  against  the  divine  kingdom  or  a  condition  of  entering  it. 
Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.  Blessed 
are  they  who  can  sa\' — 

"  Just  as  I  am — witliout  oue  plea, 
But  tliat  tliy  blood  was  slied  for  me. 
And  that  thou  bidst  me  come  to  thee — 
O  Lamb  of  God,  I  come." 

Who  can  reach  this  high  degree  of  self-renunciation  ?  Who  can  deliver 
himself  from  the  prejudice  that  he  has  some  claim  to  God's  favour  because 
his  father  built  a  church,  because  his  father  was  a  minister,  because  in  his 
family  religion  has  always  had  a  place  of  consideration  ?  Every  one  of 
us  has  to  go  before  God  as  if  his  father  had  never  lived,  so  far  as  the 
patronising  of  churches  and  religious  sentiments  is  concerned.  All  false 
grounds  of  hope  must  be  destroyed.  God  is  able  of  these  stones  to  raise 
up  children  unto  Abraham — which  may  be  paraphrased  thus  :  Do  not 
suppose  that  God  is  dependent  upon  you  for  an  ancestry,  for  a  progeny,  for 
a  religious  fame,  or  the  nucleus  of  a  divine  kingdom.  If  you  were  all 
swept  out  of  the  earth  to-day,  he  could  have  a  family  ten  thousand  strong 
to-morrow  out  of  the  pebbles  that  lie  in  the  river's  bed  or  on  the  face  of 


72  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

the  wide  desert.  You  cannot  lay  God  under  obligation  :  recognise  that 
great  truth,  because  it  involves  our  proper  relation  to  him  as  always  re- 
ceivers and  never  donors  of  the  benefit. 

"  Who  hath  warned  you  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come  ? "  This  is  the 
first  time  I  have  heard  you  say  "  wrath  ; "  when  you  began  to  preach  you 
said,  "  the  kingdom  of  Heaven."  How  do  you  account  for  this  change 
in  your  language  and  your  tone  ?  In  reply  to  this  inquiry  John  tells  me 
that  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  either  a  kingdom  or  a  wrath.  It  is  a  saviour 
of  life  unto  life,  or  a  saviour  of  death  unto  death.  It  is  a  gospel  or  a 
judgment,  a  heaven  or  a  hell,  an  eye  turned  towards  the  zenith  of  God's 
heart,  bright  as  a  morning,  or  the  same  eye  turned  in  kindling  wrath  to- 
wards the  Egyptians,  troubling  the  camp,  and  striking  off  the  chariot- 
wheels  though  they  be  made  of  solid  iron.  This  book  cannot  occupy  a 
middle  place  in  society.  It  is  either  the  Book  or  no  Book,  a  gospel  or  a 
lie,  a  religion  or  a  blasphemy.  No  man  can  entertain  an  opinion  of  in- 
difference regarding  Jesus  Christ.  If  he  has  considered  the  subject  at  all, 
he  must  worship  Christ  or  crucify  Him.  He  cannot  be  allowed  to  live  as 
an  indifferent  person,  about  whom  any  opinions  may  be  formed  you  please. 
When  there  is  earnestness  in  the  inquiry  and  the  criticism,  that  earnestness 
ends  in  homage  or  crucifixion. 

This  sermon  by  John  the  Baptist  is  not  the  kind  of  introduction  one 
would  have  expected  to  the  incoming  of  the  Son  of  God.  No  gentle  tone 
seems  to  escape  the  lips  of  this  man  :  it  is  as  if  a  stormy  whirlwind  had 
caught  him  and  borne  him  on  through  the  wilderness  of  Judea,  and  as  if  a 
great  fire  were  behind  him  as  he  earnestly  makes  his  way.  Strange  and 
terrible  are  these  words — Repent,  Prepare,  Axe,  Purge  his  floor.  Burn  up 
the  chaff  with  unquenchable  fire.  In  all  these  there  is  not  one  tone  of 
conciliation,  one  smile  of  amiability,  one  outflow  of  cordiality.  Yet  this 
man  comes  before  the  Prince  of  Peace.  Nor  does  he  allude  in  this  report 
to  the  gentler  aspects  of  the  coming  One.  He  is  taken  up  with  the  idea 
of  power  ;  hence  he  says,  "  He  that  cometh  after  me  is  mightier  than  I." 
The  preacher  in  the  wilderness  deals  with  the  idea  of  strength  ;  strength 
as  a  terror  to  evil,  as  a  terrible  judicial  power.  A  melodious  hymn,  such 
as  peace  would  sing  in  a  garden  of  flowers,  might  have  been  expected, 
trembling,  quivering  with  hopeful  joy  ;  but  instead,  there  is  a  roar  as  of  a 
sudden  storm,  and  a  cry  as  of  unexpected  terror.  This  is  not  the  intro- 
duction I  looked  for,  yet  it  is  like  the  way  of  God  in  the  making  of  human 
history.  He  is  always  setting  aside  hun\an  expectations,  and  building  His 
temples  in  unlikely  places  and  with  unlikely  material.  God  uses  the  storm. 
The  ages  are  not  all  made  up  of  long  radiant  summer  days :  night,  and 
storm,  and  battle,  as  well  as  day,  and  calm,  and  peace,  are  God's  servants. 
This  age  requires  voices  that  can  be  heard  :  the  world's  vast  wilderness  is 
open,  and  the  man  that  is  needed  now  and  in  every  age  is  the  man  who. 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  73 

with  throat  of  brass,  Inspired  with  iron  kings,  can  cry,  "  Repent."  The 
church  is  now  in  danger  of  overfeeding  the  few  and  forgetting  the  hungry 
many.  There  is  a  work  to  be  done  in  the  wilderness  ;  the  manner  appro- 
priate to  the  wilderness  may  not  be  appropriate  to  the  church  ;  what  is 
wanted,  therefore,  is  adaptation,  the  loud  cry  or  the  subdued  tone — both 
are  wanted,  and  always  will  be  wanted,  to  meet  the  world's  great  want. 

Yet  how  incomplete  it  would  be  to  say  that  this  report  of  John's  minis- 
try given  in  the  gospel  by  Matthew  fully  represents  the  work  done  by  the 
energetic  Baptist.  Supposing  we  had  no  other  account  but  the  one  which 
is  now  immediately  before  us,  we  should  have  no  conception  approaching 
completeness  of  the  work  which  John  did  in  his  short  day.  It  is  so  that 
all  preacher's  suffer.  Let  us  go  and  inquire  of  those  who  have  heard  John 
the  Baptist  preach,  and  listen  what  reports  they  give  of  this  wonderful 
man.  Have  you  heard  this  new  preacher  deliver  a  discourse — the  man 
whose  raiment  is  of  camel's  hair,  with  a  leathern  girdle  about  his  loins  ? 
"Yes,"  is  the  reply,  "we  have  heard  him  preach."  What  do  you  think  of 
him  ?  "  He  is  a  harsh  man,  his  voice  grates,  he  utters  austere  words." 
What  did  you  hear  him  say  ?  "  We  heard  him  call  the  Pharisees  and  the 
Sadducees  a  brood  of  vipers."  He  did  not  call  the  Pharisees  and  the 
Sadducees  a  brood  of  vipers  to  their  faces,  did  he  ?  "  Yes."  Then  we  do 
not  care  to  hear  so  fierce  a  preacher. 

Ask  others.  Have  you  heard  John  the  Baptist  preach  ?  "Yes."  What 
say  you  about  him  ?  "  Savage,  terrible  ;  do  not  go  near  him,  he  will 
offend,  he  will  affright  you."  Why  ?  you  say.  Can  you  tell  us  anything 
you  have  heard  him  say  ?  "  Yes,  we  heard  him  say,  The  axe  is  laid  unto 
the  root  of  the  trees  :  therefore  every  tree  which  bringeth  not  forth  good 
fruit  is  hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  fire  ;  and  after  that  he  said  it  was  an 
unquenchable  fire."  Then  he  is  not  the  kind  of  preacher  that  would  suit 
us  :  we  like  the  gentle  and  the  quiet,  the  contemplative,  the  almost  silent : 
above  all  things  we  love  the  pathetic  and  the  soothing — so  we  shall  not  go 
to  hear  this  Jordan-preacher. 

But  here  are  others  coming  from  the  sermon  :  have  you  heard  him 
preach?  "Yes."  What  said  he?  "He  said  there  was  One  coming, 
whose  fan  was  in  his  hand,  and  he  would  thoroughly  purge  his  floor,  and 
gather  the  wheat  into  the  garner,  but  burn  up  the  chaff  with  unquenchable 
fire." 

All  these  three  reports  concur  :  they  all  represent  John  the  Baptist  as  a 
fierce,  objurgatory  preacher.  His  lips  are  iron-bound,  his  voice  is  like  a 
shock  of  tempest,  and  there  is  no  gentleness  in  his  heart.  By  these  fierce 
utterances  he  disproves  his  claim  to  be  the  herald  of  the  man  you  expect. 

There  the  report  of  this  great  preacher  might  end.  Would  you  have  a 
true  conception  of  his  marvellous  power  from  the  report  which  Matthew 
gives  in  this  chapter  ?     You  must  collate  the  other  evangelists  and  put  the 


74  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

Story  together,  piece  by  piece,  until  you  get  its  wholeness.  This  same  John 
the  Baptist  said  the  tenderest  thing  that  ever  fell  from  human  lips.  The 
man  who  said,  "  Vipers — axe — fire — fan"  said  the  most  touching  words 
that  ever  fell  on  the  bruised  and  expectant  heart  of  men.  I  have  noticed 
that  to  be  the  case  so  frequently — that  the  men  who  can  denounce  the  age 
with  so  fierce  an  accent,  can  bless  the  age  with  its  softest  and  sweetest 
benedictions.  I  have  noticed  that  the  humorist  is  the  master  of  pathos. 
I  have  observed  that  the  man  who  is  most  fierce  against  iniquity  can  also 
be  the  most  sympathetic  with  weakness  and  sorrow. 

Now  having  heard  the  three  reports  about  John,  let  us  wait  a  few  days 
and  then  inquire  again.  Let  us  suppose  those  few  days  to  have  elapsed, 
and  here  is  a  party  coming  from  listening  to  the  Baptist.  Let  us  inquire 
— have  you  heard  the  Baptist  preach?  "Yes."  What  think  ye  of  him? 
"  He  'hath  broken  our  hearts."  What,  has  he  said  anything  about  viper, 
and  fire,  and  axe,  and  fan?  "Nothing."  What  then  did  he  say?  He 
cannot  have  spoken  any  gentle  thing  :  gentle  things  would  not  become 
that  fierce  mouth.  What  said  he  ?  Now  listen  to  the  reply,  and  tell  me  if 
this  does  not  reveal  the  character  of  the  Baptist  in  its  roundness.  He 
said,  looking  upon  One  who  was  within  sight,  and  pointing  to  him,  "  Be- 
hold the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  What, 
did  the  man  who  said,  "  Viper,  axe,  fire,  fan,  purge  the  floor  " — did  he 
say,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  "  ?  "  Yes."  Then  he  preached  the  only 
sermon  worth  preaching. 


IX. 

SYMPATHY,     INAUGURATION,      AND     SYMPATHY PROVIDENCE     BOTH     SLOW 

AND    SWIFT REVIEW    OF    THE    CHAPTER THE    TRUE    LAW    OF    DEVELOP- 
MENT  THE    TRUE    BAPTISM. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  since  the  darkness  and  tlie  light  are  both  alike  unto  thee,  thou 
canst  make  it  light  in  our  hearts,  even  though  they  be  under  a  great  cloud  and  gloom. 
Thou  delightest  to  come  into  the  soul  of  man,  and  to  shed  upon  it  all  the  brightness 
and  beauty  of  heavenly  morning.  So  do  thou  now  come  unto  our  hearts  and  create 
all  the  peace  of  thy  sacred  Sabbath,  and  give  thy  pilgrims  rest.  Very  good  art  thou, 
and  as  for  thy  truth,  it  is  more  sure  than  the  sun.  Very  tender,  beyond  all  we  know 
of  pity,  is  the  Lord,  and  he  is  our  Father,  and  on  him  do  we  rest  in  the  time  of  sore 
trouble  and  great  fear.  For  a  long  time  we  turned  our  eyes  away  from  thee  as 
though  we  knew  thee  not,  and  then  suddenly  coming  upon  great  woe,. behold  our 
hearts  turned  their  eyes  towards  the  heavens  to  search  for  him  who  reigns  and  rules 
over  all.  Thou  dost  receive  thy  prodigals  every  day,  yea,  in  the  night  time  dost  thou 
open  the  door  of  thy  house  to  let  thy  wanderers  in.  We  are  all  thine,  though  we 
have  spoken  against  thee  ;  we  bear  thine  image,  though  our  hand  has  been  thrust  into 
thy  face  :  we  are  still  thy  children,  though  we  have  ruined  every  faculty  and  wasted 
our  inheritance,  and  are  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy  sons.  So  great  is  thy  love, 
so  all-forgiving  is  thy  spirit :  we  come  to  thee  now  without  any  defence  or  excuse,  as- 
sured by  the  very  breath  of  thy  gospel  that  we  shall  be  received,  even  with  joy  ful- 
ness, in  the  courts  of  our  Father's  house. 

We  have  done  wickedly  :  we  bring  back  no  commandment  to  thy  throne  that  we 
have  kept  :  we  dare  not  stand  iipon  our  virtue  and  innocence  and  ask  for  thine  in- 
quiry. We  are  evil  and  we  have  done  evil,  and  we  are  witnesses  against  ourselves, 
and  the  day  is  too  short  to  hear  1,he  testimony  of  our  self-accusation.  But  great  is  the 
mercy  of  the  Lord,  and  full  is  his  everlasting  love,  and  ready  to  reply  in  his  yielding 
and  clement  heart,  seeing  that  we  do  come  in  the  appointed  way,  and  breathe  our 
penitential  prayer  at  the  foot  of  the  cross  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  We 
speak  in  his  sweet  great  name,  it  is  a  name  to  sinners  dear,  it  was  created  for  the  use 
of  sinners — verily  it  is  their  name,  a  rock  in  which  they  hide,  a  sun  from  which  they 
expect  their  light,  a  sanctuary  of  delight  and  a  pledge  of  power. 

We  entreat  thee  to  hear  our  praises  when  w^e  bless  thee  for  all  thy  loving  care. 
The  fire  has  not  gone  out  at  home,  the  sick  one  is  still  with  us,  and  a  new  gleam  of 
hope  lights  up  the  chamber  of  gloom.  Thou  hast  kept  our  roof  over  our  head,  and 
the  snow  has  melted  without  drenching  us.  Behold  thou  hast  kept  the  winter  out- 
side, and  on  the  hearthstone  hast  thou  set  the  flower  of  summer.  Our  table  thou 
dost  spread  with  a  liberal  hand,  thou  dost  make  our  bed,  and  soften  our  pillow,  and 
send  sweet  sleep  to  give  us  renewal  of  strength.     All  our  friends  are  with  us  still, 


76  THESE    SAVINGS    OF    MINE. 

clieerful  and  glad,  and  touching  us  with  the  contagion  of  a  rich  sympathy,  blessing- 
us  with  the  comfort  of  high  fellowship,  and  giving  gladness  to  the  earth.  Our  rea- 
soning faculties  thou  hast  spared  unto  us,  we  are  men  at  liberty  and  not  in  prison, 
we  are  bound  to  one  another  by  the  bonds  of  love,  no  fetter  falls  upon  our  limbs. 
What,  then,  shall  we  render  unto  the  Lord  for  all  his  personal  and  social  blessings 
unto  us?  We  will  lift  high  our  hymn  of  praise,  and  bless  the  Lord  with  a  solemn 
psalm. 

Beyond  all  this,  thou  hast  made  our  hearts  rich  with  grace  :  before  our  eyes  thou 
hast  set  a  bright  hope,  thou  hast  put  into  our  souls  the  comfort  of  thy  Son,  thou  hast 
given  us  a  Saviour,  name  high  above  all  others,  sweet  beyond  all  names  we  know. 
May  he  be  unto  us  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  the  mighty  God,  the  Everlasting  Father, 
the  Prince  of  peace,  all  and  in  all,  what  we  need,  what  we  cannot  live  without,  as- 
surance upon  assurance,  as  grace  upon  grace,  until  our  confidence  becomes  a  high 
triumph. 

We  bless  thee  for  thy  written  word,  placed  before  us  in  our  mother  tongue  :  we 
thank  thee  for  ability  to  read  it,  each  man  for  himself.  As  we  read,  do  thou  explain  : 
then  shall  thy  Avord  bo  written  iipon  the  page  before  us,  and  upon  the  inner  page  of 
our  loving  hearts. 

Hear  all  special  praises  and  incline  thine  ear  to  all  particular  complaints.  Do  thou 
give  rest  unto  the  weary,  and  hope  to  the  sad,  and  a  new  beghming  to  those  who 
have  spoiled  all  the  past.  Lift  us  into  high  ecstasy  because  of  the  renewal  of  our 
life  and  hope  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  as  the  year  closes  aroimd  us,  and  bids  us  pensively 
Farewell,  may  we  rise  in  the  spirit  of  devotion  and  consecration,  and  attach  ourselves 
to  thy  cause  by  broad  and  honourable  vows. 

Good  Lord,  hear  us  :  let  thy  pity  be  greater  than  our  sin,  let  the  cross  of  Jesus 
Christ  rise  infinitely  beyond  the  gloom  of  our  distress,  and  give  us  assurance  of  par- 
don, purity,  and  heaven.     Amen. 

Matthew  ili.  13-17. 

13.  "Then  cometh  Jesus  from  Galilee  to  Jordan  unto  John,  to  be  baptized  of  him. 

14.  But  John  forbade  (sought  to  hinder)  him,  saying,  I  have  need  to  be  bajitized  of 
thee,  and  comest  thou  to  me  ? 

15.  And  Jesus  answering  said  unto  him,  Suffer  it  to  be  so  now  (for  the  present), 
for  thus  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness.     Then  he  suffered  him. 

16.  And  Jesus  Avhen  he  was  baptized  went  straightway  out  of  the  water,  and  lo 
the  heavens  Avere  opened  unto  him,  and  he  saw  the  Spirit  of  God  descending  like  a 
dove  and  lighting  upon  him  : 

17.  And  lo  a  voice  from  heaven  saying.  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
])leased." 

There  is  one  point  upon  A\-hich  we  are  all  agreed — namely,  that  the 
baptism  of  Jesus  Christ  could  not  be  a  baptism  unto  repentance.  "  He  did 
no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  his  mouth."  He  was  without  spot  or 
wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing,  the  very  Son  of  God,  pure  as  the  bosom  on 
which  he  rested  and  out  of  which  he  came.  We  must,  therefore,  find 
other  reasons  than  that  of  repentance  for  this  baptism  of  the  Saviour  of 
the  world.  John  must  enlarge  his  own  conception  of  the  baptism  which 
he  came  to  administer.  He  had  used  the  word  Repent  ;  now  a  new  word 
was  to  be  attached  to  his  baptism,  and  an  infinitely  older  and  larger  word 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  77 

What  man  amongst  us  is  there  who  knows  the  exact  measure  of  his  work  ? 
Yet,  for  the  sake  of  convenience,  every  one  of  us  has  a  name  by  which  lie 
designates  his  ministry.  John,  for  example,  called  his  service  a  baptism 
unto  repentance.  But  tliere  came  one  unto  him  who  said,  "  The  other 
word  which  enlarges  your  service  to  its  true  proportion,  and  indicates  its 
high  intent  and  purport,  is — Righteousness."  John  thought  his  ministry  a 
negative  one  :  Jesus  Christ  taught  him  that  his  baptism  was  positive  as 
well  as  negative,  a  baptism  unto  righteousness  or  in  accordance  with  tlie 
spirit  of  righteousness,  as  well  as  a  baptism  unto  repentance. 

This  baptism  of  Christ  was  a  baptism  of  sympathy.  Sympathy  means 
feeling  with,  having  a  common  pathos  or  feeling,  emotion,  or  passion,  and 
he,  the  Saviour,  was  in  all  points  made  like  unto  his  brethren,  that  in  all 
points  he  might  have  a  fellow-feeling,  a  kindred  passion  :  that  there  might 
be  no  tone  in  all  the  gamut  of  their  life's  utterance  to  which  he  could  not 
respond,  giving  it  a  counterpart,  a  fulfilment,  a  higher  emphasis,  a  keener 
and  truer  accent.  Jesus  Christ  identified  himself  with  all  the  dispensa- 
tions of  providence  ;  he  was  the  spirit  of  the  prophets,  and  now  he  came 
into  this  baptism  of  John.  "When  he  expounded  the  Scriptures  he  began  at 
Moses — he  could  not  have  begun  earlier — and  he  expounded  them  to 
those  who  listened  to  him — what  was  written  in  Moses,  in  the  prophets, 
and  in  the  Psalms  ;  and,  having  been  present  in  all  these  dispensations  or 
varieties  of  the  divine  mood  in  relation  to  the  children  of  men,  was  he  to 
be  absent  only  from  the  baptism  of  John  ?  So  he  accepted  that  baptism, 
not  because  the  word  Repentance  was  associated  with  it,  but  because  it 
also  extended  itself  by  subtle  processes  wholly  unknown  to  the  Baptist 
himself — to  Righteousness. 

It  was  a  baptism  of  inavgiiration  and  a  baptism  of  approval  j  John 
was  hereby  sealed  as  a  witness  and  messenger  of  God.  By  this  act  Jesus 
Christ  said,  "  John  is  no  adventurer,  and  his  baptism  is  no  mere  sensation 
of  the  passing  hour.  It  goes  back  to  the  decree  and  purpose  of  God,  it 
looks  forward  to  the  infinite  gospel  which  it  holds,"  and  thus  John  himself 
was  sealed,  approved,  and  crowned  in  this  very  act  of  humble  service  per- 
formed by  the  Son  of  God.  It  was,  I  repeat,  a  baptism  of  inauguration. 
Jesus  Christ  was  not  in  the  sacerdotal  line,  though  in  the  line  royal :  he 
came  to  be  the  Priest  of  the  universe,  having  from  eternity  been  its  King, 
now  he  was  introduced  or  inaugurated  into  his  high-priestly  office. 

How  little  we  know  what  we  are  doing  when  we  baptize  any  life.  We 
speak  of  repentance  and  cleansing  as  the  meaning  and  purport  of  baptism, 
and  sometimes  we  are  baptizing  kings  and  priests,  and  we  know  it  not. 
The  possibility  that  we  may  be  thus  inaugurating  to  high  office  and  noble 
position  some  human  life  should  throw  over  our  whole  service  a  tender  and 
hopeful  solemnity.  You  cannot  tell  who  is  under  your  influence  :  it  may 
be  a  king,  a  priest,  a  deliverer.     You  thought  your  work  was  a  preliminary 


78  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

one,  you  called  yourself  an  elementary  teacher,  you  said,  in  humble  self- 
deprecation,  "  I  am  but  a  pioneer,  I  am  only  a  forerunner,  my  name  is  a 
herald  and  nothing  more,  and  I  give  introductory  lessons,  and  cannot  pro- 
ceed to  the  higher  learning  :  I  am  only  a  precursor,  and  nothing  more." 
You  limited  yourself  too  much.  John  thought  he  was  a  crying  voice, 
whereas  it  was  appointed  of  God  that  he  should  inaugurate  to  his  priestly 
office  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 

Thus  the  lesser  may  be  concerned  in  the  service  of  the  greater.  "  I 
have  need  to  be  baptized  of  thee."  If  a  man  does  not  feel  his  own  need 
of  baptism  he  is  unworthy  of  administering  the  rite  in  any  of  its  higher 
senses  to  the  humblest  creature  that  ever  was  presented  at  the  altar.  "  I 
have  need  to  be  baptized  of  thee,  and  comest  thou  to  me  ? "  We  know 
the  meaning  of  this  in  other  ranges  of  thinking.  A  minister  sometimes 
sees  before  him  persons  to  whom  intellectually  he  is  but  slave  and  minis- 
ter, and  he  says,  "  I  have  need  to  be  intellectually  elevated  and  illuminated 
by  thee,  and  comest  thou  to  me  ? "  Yet  the  coming  is  perfectly  right,  for 
this  kingdom  of  Christ  is  not  a  merely  intellectual  school,  it  is  a  school  in 
which  intellect  has  to  sit  down  and  humble  itself,  and  patiently  wait  for 
the  illumining  revelation  which  is  shed  from  Heaven.  We  do  not  sit 
here  in  our  cleverness  and  grandeur  and  intellectual  influence,  but  in  our 
moral  nakedness  and  necessity,  in  our  spiritual  simplicity  and  childlike- 
ness,  waiting  not  for  man  but  for  God,  and  for  man  only  in  so  far  as  he  is 
the  medium  on  which  the  infinite  silence  breaks  into  momentary  speech 
for  the  teaching  and  comforting  of  the  human  heart. 

Thus,  too,  God  puts  himself  under  his  own  laws.  "  The  laws  of  na- 
ture "  is  a  mood  of  God,  is  but  another  expression  for  God  himself.  Do 
not  speak  of  laws  of  nature  as  if  they  were  somewhat  independent  of 
God.  They  are  God,  they  are  God  in  motion,  God  made  visible,  God 
made  audible,  God  coming  down  in  wondrous  condescension  so  far  into 
our  region,  and  thinking  that  we  can  in  some  degree  trace  him,  and  iden- 
tify him,  and  judge  him.  Thus  Jesus  Christ  came  unto  the  baptism  of 
John.  It  Avas  to  him  a  baptism  of  sympathy,  a  baptism  of  approval,  a 
baptism  of  inauguration,  a  stooping  of  the  divine  so  as  to  take  up  its  own 
laws  and  exemplify  its  own  purposes. 

Review  of  the  Chapter. 

Now,  looking  at  the  third  chapter  as  a  whole,  having  already  gone 
through  it  in  detail,  we  seem  to  see  in  this  brief  chapter  the  history  of  a 
whole  dispensatio7i,  the  dispensation  of  John  the  Baptist.  It  begins  and 
ends  i-n  these  seventeen  short  verses.  In  this  chapter  I  read,  "  Then  Com- 
eth John,"  and  I  also  read,  "Then  cometh  JESUS."  God  thus  con- 
denses much  into  brief  space.     Sometimes  he  takes  a  long  line,  and  we  say 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  79 

he  has  gone  into  a  far  country,  and  we  know  not  when  he  will  return. 
Sometimes  he  seems  to  work  with  urgency  and  suddenness,  and  in  a  mo- 
ment to  begin  and  complete  a  whole  dispensation.  He  is  not  to  be 
measured  by  our  lines  or  described  by  our  terms  :  we  cannot  tell  what  he 
will  do — he  may  take  ages  countless  in  which  to  build  a  rock,  he  may  take 
a  short  night-time  in  which  to  begin  and  complete  a  whole  dispensation  of 
his  providence.  Thus  he  baffles  all  our  statistical  tables.  We  have  no 
calculus  by  which  we  can  tell  when  he  will  come,  or  where  he  will  be  at  a 
given  period  ;  we  cannot  take  him  within  our  sweep  and  line.  He  loves 
to  baffle  the  ingenuity  of  man.  We  have  reduced  everything  now  to  a 
law  of  averages,  but  God  stands  out  of  our  reckoning,  and  no  man  can 
say  whether  he  will  not  come  to-night  to  judge  the  world.  Thus  are  we  kept 
in  continual  expectation,  thus  there  is  ever  near  us  a  ghost  that  alarms  or 
comforts,  according  to  the  mood  of  our  heart.  Let  us  learn  that  our 
business  is  to  rest  in  the  Lord  and  to  wait  patiently  for  him,  so  that 
whether  he  come  to-night  or  do  not  come  for  long  ages  yet  to  elapse,  we 
may  be  found  doing  our  little  best,  cultivating  our  tiny  corner,  watching, 
waiting,  praying,  hoping,  suffering  with  a  hero's  confidence,  toiling  with  a 
son's  delight,  and  then,  come  when  he  may,  it  will  be  summer  for  our 
souls,  release  and  freedom  for  all  that  makes  us  mean. 

Looking  again  at  this  chapter  as  a  whole,  we  see  that  it  introduces  a  new 
name  into  human  history.  May  I  pause  a  moment  to  ask  you  what  that 
new  name  is  ?  As  we  have  read  the  chapter  over  several  times  together, 
did  you  hear  one  name  that  struck  you  as  music  strikes  an  attentive  soul  ? 
It  is  a  short  name,  it  is — Son.  "This  is  my  beloved  Son."  We  have  made 
ourselves  so  familiar  with  that  word  that  we  read  it  as  though  it  did  not 
mark  a  new  epoch  in  human  history  ;  but  if  we  could  have  read  the  Bible 
through  at  one  long  sitting,  we  should  have  seen  that  the  line  of  develop- 
ment moves  in  this  form,  Man — Servant — Prophet — Messenger — Son. 
Last  of  all  he  sent  his  Son  also.  It  is  infinitely  exciting  to  see  how  these 
new  words  came  into  human  speech.  All  the  time  we  felt  something  was 
wanting  :  Matt  was  a  great  name,  Servatit  a  high  office.  Prophet  a  marvel- 
lous function.  Messenger  a  high  ministry — SON  takes  them  up  and  rounds 
them  into  completeness,  and  lights  them  with  ineffable  splendour. 

The  divine  movement  is  always  climacteric,  the  divine  progress  is  an 
ascension.  God  does  not  begin  with  Son  and  work  down  to  servant,  nor 
with  man  and  work  down  to  some  insignificant  molecule  :  he  begins  at  the 
other  end,  and  always  the  better  day  is  to  come.  Prophecy  meant  that  the 
day  of  light  was  to  dawn  upon  the  hills  and  valleys  of  time,  and  that  music 
was  to  take  the  place  of  groaning.  That  is  the  thread  or  line  of  the  Bible, 
and  because  it  is  so  I  find  in  that  very  movement  of  ascension  a  confirma- 
tory illustration,  not  to  say  an  original  and  complete  argument,  on  behalf 
of  the  divinity  and  authority  of  the  Book  which  we  worship  as  divinely 
inspired  and  final  in  its  moral  revelations. 


8o  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

Then,  looking  again  at  the  chapter  as  a  whole,  we  see  that  it  completes 
what  other  dispensations  only  began.  The  proofs  upon  this  point  are 
several  and  brilliant.  What  is  the  first  word  we  hear  in  connection  with 
human  history,  or  with  the  formation  of  man  ?  It  is  make.  "  Let  us  make 
man."  In  connection  with  Jesus  Christ,  "This  is  my  only  begotten 
Son."  A  Creator,  a  Father,  an  Artist,  a  God.  Still  the  line  heightens 
itself  in  the  same  direction.  What  is  the  description  of  the  character  of 
man  in  the  first  instance  ?  Uprig/it.  God  made  man  upright.  What  is 
the  word  used  in  connection  with  the  Son  ?  Beloved.  See  how  God  rises, 
and  how  his  revelation  brightens  broadly.  Upright — an  experiment  in 
moral  mechanics  :  upright — an  attitude  :  upright — negative.  Beloved — 
kindred,  sympathetic,  approved,  complete.  It  is  thus  that  the  Bible  grows 
from  root  to  flower ;  this  is  development.  We  claim  that  word  as  a 
Christian  term,  we  cannot  do  without  it  in  the  church  ;  the  whole  scheme 
of  the  divine  administration  of  human  affairs  is  a  development,  a  progress, 
an  upward  marching  :  see  it  in  the  blade,  the  ear,  the  full  corn  in  the  ear  : 
we  would  have  God's  Book  judged  by  that  law  or  science  of  development, 
and  so  judged  we  are  brought  from  Make  to  Begotten,  from  Upright  to 
Beloved,  and  from  Very  Good  to  Well  Pleased.  Hear  ye  not  the  same 
old,  rich  voice  ?  "  God  saw  everything  that  he  had  made,  and  behold  it 
was  very  good."  "  Lo,  a  voice  from  heaven  saying,  This  is  my  beloved 
Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased."  In  both  cases  he  sets  himself  in  a  rela- 
tion of  satisfaction  to  what  is  before  him.  Man,  standing  there,  fashioned 
in  his  own  image,  upright,  faultless,  inexperienced,  with  a  great  destiny  to 
work  out — on  him  is  written  "Very  good."  The  last  outcome  of  this  hu- 
man growth  and  mystery  stands  before  him  on  Jordan's  banks,  and  a  voice 
says  "  Well  pleased,"  and  when  God  is  pleased  law  is  satisfied  and  grace 
is  triumphant. 

Then  we  come  further  still,  from  the  Us  of  the  creating  Trinity  to  the 
My  of  the  apjiroving  Father.  Thus  in  the  creation  of  man  we  read,  "  Let 
us  make  man."  In  the  inauguration  of  the  Son  we  read,  "  This  is  my  be- 
loved Son."  Examine  still  further,  and  in  other  fields  and  relationships, 
this  suggestion  of  the  continuous,  ever-culminating  development  of  the 
divine  purpose,  and  say  if  there  be  not  in  it  a  rich  fund  of  spiritual  instruc- 
tion and  satisfaction.  There  has  been  a  divine  ideal  in  the  rest  towards 
which  God  has  been  slowly  moving,  through  revolution,  and  war,  and  dis- 
tress, and  manifold  experiences  of  every  human  kind,  but  never  did  he  say 
"  Well  pleased  "  until  there  stood  before  him  his  only  begotten  Son.  Five 
hundred  years  before  he  was  not  at  rest.  A  century  before,  his  purpose 
was  still  a  hundred  years  ahead,  but  steadily,  surely,  grandly  he  moved 
on,  the  line  now  dipping  into  deep  pits,  now  starting  up  high  hills — still 
on  he  moved.  You  cannot  turn  God  back,  though  now  the  ancestral  line 
is  lost  in  a  harlot,  and  now  it  is  put  to  risk  in  a  wayward  king.     Still  he 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE,  8l 

moves  on,  and  presently  he  says,  "It  is  finished:  this  is  my  beloved 
SON." 

So  shall  it  be  in  the  culmination  and  upgathering  of  all  things.  Jesus 
Christ  must  reign  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under  his  feet.  The  last 
enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed  is  death,  and  when  death  lies  below  his  feet, 
he  will  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  God  and  his  Father,  and  God  shall  be 
all  in  all.  Haste  thee,  calm  morning — a  flame  with  every  colour  of  beauty, 
peaceful  with  the  divine  benediction — O,  come.  The  old  earth  is  torn  with 
pain  and  distressed  with  intolerable  pangs — but  that  morning  cometh. 
Watchman,  what  of  the  night  ?  The  night  cometh,  and  also  the  morning. 
We  are  in  sad  case  just  now.  England  was  never  baser  in  her  morals  in 
many  public  aspects  of  her  history  than  she  is  at  this  moment.  She  never 
more  foully  debased  her  journalism,  or  poured  out  of  her  history  streams 
more  revolting  and  pestilential.  But  God  is  moving  on  ;  it  is  his  old 
movement  ;  he  knows  every  knot  in  the  line,  every  twist  in  the  road,  every 
difficulty  in  the  path — but  if  you  could  see  his  eye,  it  never  moves  from 
the  point  he  has  set  before  him,  and  he  will  bring  in  all  his  purposes  and 
decrees,  his  completed  oaths  and  covenants  fulfilled,  for  his  own  mouth 
hath  spoken  it. 

Are  we  now  to  bid  farewell  to  John  the  Baptist  ?  Are  you  still  in  John's 
baptism  ?  He  was  a  burning  and  a  shining  light,  but  you  ought  to  have 
left  him  long  ago.  Are  you  still  down  by  Jordan's  banks,  wanting  to  take 
the  plunge  ?  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  amongst  them  that  are  born  of  women 
there  hath  not  appeared  a  greater  than  John  the  Baptist ;  nevertheless,  he 
that  is  least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  greater  than  he.  You  ought, 
therefore,  to  take  the  step  from  the  initial  baptism  into  the  inner  and 
Christian  one.  You  ought  to  leave  the  letter  and  pass  into  the  spirit.  You 
ought  now  to  be  able  to  enjoy  the  large,  calm,  sweet  liberty  of  the  gospel, 
and  not  be  bound  by  ordinances,  and  observances,  and  divers  ceremonies. 
We  have  left  these  behind  us  :  they  were  useful  in  their  time,  they  were 
elements  which  God  used  for  the  further  broadening  and  illumination  of 
'his  righteousness,  so  far  as  our  vision  was  concerned,  but  now  I  know 
nothing  of  any  ceremony  :  I  have  outlived  it  ;  if  I  do  anything,  it  is  merely 
to  remind  me,  merely  as  a  suggestion  ;  not  as  a  necessity,  but  as  a  help  to 
some  higher  spiritual  blessing. 

Do  you  say  you  have  been  baptized,  and  therefore  you  are  all  right  ? 
All  the  water  in  all  the  seas  and  firmaments  of  heaven  would  not  cleanse 
you.  Do  you  say  you  sit  down  regularly  to  the  Lord's  supper  ?  All  the 
wine  in  all  the  vineyards  of  creation  would  not  contain  one  drop  of  blood 
to  you,  if  you  are  not  already  hidden  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Son  of  God. 
Do  you  say  you  regularly  come  to  church  and  observe  religious  fasts  and 
festivals  ?  Away  with  all  these  externals,  if  they  do  not  indicate  contri- 
tion, self-renunciation,  trust  in  a  living  Christ,  identification  with  the  Son 


g2  .  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

of  God.  We  are  not  saved  by  the  outward,  but  by  the  inward.  All  the 
outward  is  but  symbolical — the  inward  baptism  is  a  shedding  abroad  in 
the  heart  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  Lord's  peace  be  in  our  souls,  and  the  Lord  help  us  to  see  beyond 
the  letter  into  all  the  brightness  and  beauty  of  the  spirit. 


X. 

THE    TEMPTATION    OF    CHRIST— LIFE    ITSELF  IS    TEMPTATION THE  DEVIL's 

THREE    TEMPTATIONS THE    TRUE    CHARACTER    OK    THE    TEMPTER THE 

devil's    THREE-FOLD    KNOCK. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  we  know  that  thy  Word  is  true,  because  it  is  written  in  our  own 
life,  and  syllable  by  syllable  we  live  it  out  every  day.  There  is  in  the  heart  of  man 
an  answer  to  the  appeal  of  thy  Book  :  we  know  what  is  naeaut  when  we  come  upon 
the  words  sin,  temptation,  pain,  and  fear  ;  we  bless  thee  that  we  also  know  the  mean- 
ing of  the  words  love,  grace,  pardon — these  are  thy  heart-words,  they  come  with  all 
the  yearning  of  thy  spirit,  and  they  cry  uuto  us  and  make  known  unto  our  souls  the 
gospel  of  thy  pity.  We  bless  thee  that  we  have  light  upon  one  side  of  our  life,  for 
we  do  not  deserve  it  :  our  sin  might  have  surrounded  us  with  infinite  night,  and  left 
no  room  for  light  on  all  the  way  that  we  take.  But  where  sin  abounds  grace  doth 
much  more  abound  :  thou  dost  answer  death  by  life  :  where  the  devil  is  strong  thou 
art  stronger  :  more  are  they  that  be  for  us  than  they  that  be  against  us.  Who  then 
shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ  ?  There  is  no  arm  so  strong  as  thine,  there 
is  no  wisdom  so  full  of  light  as  is  the  omniscience  of  God.  As  for  thy  grace,  it  is 
deeper  than  the  sea,  and  thy  love  is  higher  than  the  sun.  Thus  doth  rest  come  into 
our  hearts  and  peace  alight  upon  our  spirits  as  a  dove  from  Heaven.  Enable  us 
amid  all  sin  and  sorrow  of  every  kind  to  fix  our  eyes  upon  the  uplifted  cross  and  upon 
the  Son  of  God,  then  shall  the  light  thereof  break  upon  us  like  a  morning  long  delay- 
ed, and  in  our  souls  there  shall  be  all  the  comfort  of  thy  peace. 

We  are  here,  not  to  keep  silence  before  thee,  but  to  speak  of  thy  goodness  and  thy 
mercy,  long  continued  and  never  failing.  Thy  rod  and  thy  stafE  have  comforted  us, 
and  thou  hast  enlarged  thy  house  so  that  we  have  found  it  everywhere,  in  business, 
in  affliction,  in  service,  in  waiting.  We  would  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  for 
ever  and  ever,  and  in  his  temple  would  we  build  our  nest,  yea,  by  thine  altars  would 
we  be  found  at  last,  so  that  death  shall  be  but  an  entrance  into  Heaven. 

We  implore  thee  to  take  care  of  us  during  our  remaining  days.  Hold  thou  us  up 
and  we  shall  be  safe  :  forsake  us  not  for  one  instant,  for  the  serpent  is  vigilant,  and 
the  enemy  is  mighty.  Give  us  the  right  answer  to  every  temptation,  give  us  the 
right  view  of  every  trial,  help  us  so  to  number  our  days  as  to  apply  our  hearts  unto 
wisdom,  give  iis  that  holy  trust  in  thy  name  and  grace  which  no  power  can  shake 
May  our  hearts  wait  upon  God  steadfastly,  with  all  the  constancy  of  inviolable  love, 
may  we  look  unto  God  from  whom  is  all  our  expectation. 

Thou  hast  shot  sore  at  some  of  us  ;  yea,  our  hearts  are  full  of  thine  arrows  which 
are  drinking  our  blood.  Thou  hast  darkened  the  sunniest  room  in  the  house.  Thou 
bast  taken  away  our  chosen  good,  thou  hast  turned  upside  down  our  supreme  earthly 
delight,  thou  hast  made  havoc  in  the  garden,  and  the  place  of  flowers  hath  become  a 


84  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

■wild  wilderness.  This  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes.  Thou 
liast  dug  the  grave  in  the  midst  of  our  home,  and  instead  of  the  turtle,  thou  hast  sent 
the  mocking-bird  to  taunt  us  with  strange  tones.  To  some  of  us  thou  hast  given  of 
the  very  Avine  of  Heaven,  yea  thy  sun  hath  smiled  upon  our  roof,  our  basket  and 
our  store  thou  hast  blessed,  our  flocks  and  herds  are  a  multitude,  and  our  ground 
brings  forth  abundantly.  The  rivers  are  full  of  fish  and  the  air  dark  with  birds,  and 
behold  our  house  is  set  upon  a  rock,  and  the  south  wind  breathes  through  every 
chamber.  The  Lord  sanctify  prosperity  unto  the  prosperous,  as  well  as  adversity 
unto  those  who  sit  in  trouble.  Show  us  that  there  is  danger  on  the  mountain  top  as 
well  as  in  the  deep  valley. 

Thou  hast  granted  irnto  our  children  health  and  strength  and  beauty,  and  thou  hast 
filled  their  mouth  with  laughter,  and  their  mind  with  sunny  hope  and  dream.  In 
their  tongue  is  found  music  and  in  their  feet  readiness  to  obey.  The  Lord  spare  their 
lives,  the  Lord  make  them  better  than  their  ancestors,  the  Lord  baptize  them  from 
the  heavens  with  his  benediction  day  by  day  till  old  age  shall  come. 

Look  upon  us,  one  and  all — upon  the  old  man,  weary,  hardly  knowing  why  ;  upon 
the  little  child,  glad  with  a  laughter  that  is  never  to  perish  ;  upon  the  busy  man  with 
bent  back,  raking  in  the  dust  for  that  which  is  of  no  worth  ;  upon  the  man  of  leisure 
whose  idleness  is  a  trial,  upon  the  silent,  broken-hearted  mother,  who  cries  over  her 
prodigal  child  and  dare  not  name  his  name  ;  iipon  those  who  have  little  bread  and 
fear  to  touch  it  lest  it  Avaste  ;  upon  the  great  man  in  the  fulness  of  his  breadth  and 
power — yea,  upon  us  all,  overlooking  none,  do  thou  command  thine  all-enriching 
blessing,  that,  according  to  our  years,  our  weakness,  our  necessity,  and  our  joy,  we 
may  receive  of  the  Lord's  hand. 

Help  us  to  forgive  our  enemies  :  give  us  a  memory  that  quickly  forgets  all  injuries 
and  a  recollection  that  clings,  with  all  the  tenacity  of  love,  to  every  deed  of  kindness 
and  speech  of  gratitude.  The  Lord  anoint  us  afresh  to  his  work,  the  Lord  pity  our 
littlenesses  and  reckon  them  not  as  sins  against  us,  the  Lord  have  mercy  upon  us 
according  to  the  fulness  of  his  own  grace  and  the  infinite  work  of  our  one  and  only 
Priest  and  Saviour.  Drive  back  the  enemy,  break  his  teeth,  disappoint  his  expecta- 
tion, and  cover  him  with  shame. 

Bless  our  friends  who  would  sympathise  with  us  and  cheer  us  and  speak  the  word  of 
Heaven  to  us  in  earthly  imprisonment  and  darkness,  and  the  Lord  be  with  us  till  the 
little  tale  of  our  life  be  all  told  and  make  us  ready  for  the  green  churchyard  and  for 
the  greener  heaven.     Amen. 

Matthew  iv.  1-11. 

1.  Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  spirit  into  the  wilderness,  to  be  tempted  of  the 
devil. 

2.  And  when  he  had  fasted  forty  days  and  forty  nights,  he  was  afterward  an 
hungered. 

3.  And  when  the  tempter  came  to  him,  he  said.  If  thou  be  the  son  of  God,  com- 
mand that  these  stones  be  made  bread. 

4.  But  he  answered  and  said.  It  is  written,  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but 
by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God. 

5.  Then  the  devil  taketh  him  up  into  the  holy  city,  and  setteth  him  on  a  pinnacle 
of  the  temple. 

6.  And  saith  unto  him.  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  cast  thyself  down  ;  for  it  is 
written.  He  shall  give  his  angels  charge  concerning  thee :  and  in  their  hands  they 
shall  bear  thee  up,  lest  at  any  time  thou  dash  thy  foot  against  a  stone. 

7.  Jesus  said  unto  him,  It  is  written  again,  Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God. 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  65 

8.  Again,  the  devil  taketh  liim  up  into  an  exceeding  liigli  mountain,  and  sheweth 
him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  Avorld,  and  the  glory  of  them  ; 

9.  And  saith  unto  him.  All  these  things  will  I  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and 
worship  me. 

10.  Then  saith  Jesus  unto  him,  Get  thee  hence,  Satan  ;  for  it  is  written,  Thou 
shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him  only  shalt  thou  serve. 

11.  Then  the  devil  leavethhim,  and,  behold,  angels  came  and  ministered  unto  him, 

"  Then."  That  word  indicates  a  point  of  time.  It  will  be  interesting 
to  fix  that  point  wnth  some  definiteness.  We  like  to  know  under  what 
circumstances  great  events  transpire.  Sometimes  we  want  to  know  not 
only  the  fact,  but  the  atmosphere  which  surrounded  it.  You  do  not  see 
any  event  in  its  proper  altitude,  relationship  and  colour,  milil  you  take  in 
the  circumstances  leading  up  to  it  or  surrounding  it.  When  therefore  I 
read,  ''''Then  was  Jesus  led  up,"  my  mind  anxiously  inquires.  When  ? 
Herod  wanted  to  know  what  time  the  star  appeared  ;  what  wonder  if  we 
want  to  know  what  time  the  devil  appeared  ?  To  find  the  answer  to  this 
inquiry  you  must  go  back  to  the  chapter  whose  exposition  we  have  just 
completed.  "  Jesus  when  he  w'as  baptized,  went  up  straightway  out  of  the 
water,  and  lo,  the  heavens  Avere  opened  unto  him,  and  he  saw  the  Spirit  of 
God  descending  like  a  dove,  and  lighting  upon  him  :  and  lo,  a  voice  say- 
ing, This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  w^hom  I  am  well  pleased.  Then  was 
Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil." 
Such  are  the  violent  alternations  of  human  experience,  baptized  and 
tempted,  approved  of  God  and  handed  over  to  the  devil,  standing  with  a 
grand  inaugural  sign  upon  our  heads  on  the  river's  bank  and  then  driven 
as  with  whips  and  scourges  into  the  wilderness  to  fight  life's  determining 
battle. 

Do  not  question  the  validity  of  your  baptism  because  it  was  succeeded 
by  a  fierce  temptation.  Do  not  say  you  must  have  been  mistaken  when 
you  thought  the  dove  descended  from  heaven  and  alighted  upon  you, 
otherwise  you  could  never  have  been  subjected  to  this  succession  of  thun- 
der-storms. Read  the  life  of  your  Lord  and  Master,  and  find  from  that 
life  that  our  relationships  to  God  seem,  in  their  outward  aspects,  to  change 
suddenly  and  even  vitally.  You  are  a  son  of  God,  standing  on  the  bank 
of  the  river,  and  you  are  just  as  much  a  son  of  God  when  tormented  and 
vexed  by  all  the  forces  of  hell  in  the  wilderness.  Your  sonship  does  not 
depend  upon  your  moods  and  feelings.  You  are  a  child  of  God,  whatever 
may  be  your  momentary  relationship,  either  to  Heaven,  earth,  or  hell. 
God  is  not  variable,  his  elections  are  not  so  many  opportunities  of  recall- 
ing his  decrees.  Be  sure  of  your  adoption  into  the  family  of  God,  and 
then  leave  yourselves  to  be  operated  u])on  by  all  the  discipline  which  is  of 
heavenly  appointment,  for  it  works  only  to  the  maturing  and  the  cleansing 
of  your  soul,  and  the  ripening  and  sanctification  of  your  redeemed  powers. 


86  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

Jesus  Christ  was  a  son  when  the  dove  alighted  upon  him,  and  he  was  a 
son  when  the  devil  set  his  whole  force  of  genius  and  subtlety  to  bear  upon, 
the  citadel  of  his  faith. 

Cheer  thee,  then,  despondent  soul,  for  God  can  make  the  wilderness 
blossom  as  the  rose. 

"  Then  was  Jesus  led  up."  We  speak  sometimes  of  temptation  as  if  it 
were  an  accident  of  life  :  we  forget  the  words  "  led  up."  These  words  _ 
indicate  that  temptation  is  part  of  a  plan,  it  is  a  step  in  the  succession  to 
a  better  life.  Sometimes  we  delude  ourselves  with  the  foolish  imagination 
that  if  we  step  very  softly,  we  shall  get  past  the  serpent's  nest  without  the 
serpent  hearing  us,  we  shall  elude  the  devil,  we  shall  play  a  trick  upon 
him,  and  when  we  are  miles  off  we  will  laugh  at  him  as  an  enemy  that 
overslept  himself,  whose  leaden  ears  were  sealed  in  sleep,  so  that  he  did 
not  hear  us  when  we  passed  him  in  velvet  slippers.  Take  no  such  mean  ' 
and  unworthy  view  of  life.  Life  itself  is  temptation.  To  be,  is  to  be 
nearly  lost.  To  be  here  at  all  is  to  be  in  the  devil's  hands,  in  senses  which 
will  appear  as  the  exposition  advances. 

Understand  that  you  have  to  be  tempted.  The  wilderness  is  not  a 
sphere  lying  a  thousand  miles  from  your  course,  into  which  you  Tuay  go  if 
you  are  disposed  to  undertake  perilous  adventure.  Your  eye  is  fixed  on 
Heaven,  and  right  across,  from  sea  to  sea,  lies  the  wilderness,  and  you  can- 
not escape  it.  I  do  not  speak  of  wildernesses  and  temptations  and  devils 
as  if  they  were  parts  of  a  universe  over  which  God  had  put  imperfect  con- 
trol. The  Lord  sitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the  earth  and  upon  the  very 
height  of  Heaven,  and  the  devil  is  his  slave,  chained  with  iron  and  with 
bits  in  his  savage  mouth,  and  beyond  his  chain  he  cannot  go.  Do  not 
speak  with  bated  breath  to  me  about  this  matter  of  temptation,  as  if  it 
were  possible  for  me  to  sneak  into  Heaven.  I  must  be  assailed,  tried,  tor-  / 
mented,  vexed,  thrown  down,  battered,  stamped  on,  and  if  I  have  not 
passed  through  experiences  of  this  kind,  the  whole  priesthood  of  Christ 
has  been  lost  upon  me,  and  if  there  be  no  experiences  of  this  kind  to  pass 
through,  then  the  cross  of  Christ  is  an  exaggeration  of  remedial  meas- 
ures, and  there  was  no  need  for  the  heart  of  the  Son  of  God  to  burst  in 
pity  or  in  sacrifice.  Count  it  no  strange  thing  when  temptations  befall 
you  ;  to  be  finite  is  to  be  tempted,  to  be  a  fraction  instead  of  a  whole 
number  is  to  have  in  you  the  unrest  of  incompleteness,  and  the  strange 
restless  spirit  that  says,  "  Try  to  complete  yourself,  for  the  fraction  may 
become  an  integer." 

From  this  point  of  view,  then,  temptation  is  part  of  the  divine  scheme. 
The  devil  is  under  the  control  of  God.  Why  there  should  have  been  a 
devil,  I  cannot  tell ;  I  only  know  that  we  owe  the  shadow  to  the  light,  and 
I  further  console  myself  in  moments  of  impious  intellectual  ambition  with 
the  thought  that  I  am  of  yesterday  and  know  nothing,  and  that  there  is  a 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  87 

time  coming  for  deeper  study,  for  further  and  completer  investigation. 
These  mysteries  are  not  to  be  solved  here  and  now  ;  I  accept  them  as  mys- 
teries, and  I  accept  them  with  the  less  hesitation  because  they  tally  with 
my  inmost  consciousness,  with  experiences  known  to  the  human  heart, 
altogether  apart  from  religious  convictions  of  this  or  that  particular  theo- 
logical kind. 

"  Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  I 
of  the  devil,"  and  when  the  tempter  came  to  him,  he  said  three  things. 
The  tempter  has  only  three  things  to  say  ;  the  tempter's  programme  is 
short  and  shallow ;  beyond  those  three  things  he  has  never  advanced  one 
step.  He  is  not  a  genius  of  infinite  resource  ;  he  is  not  an  assailant  that 
may  surprise  us  with  dazzling  originalities — his  temptations  are  stale,  I  can 
weigh  them  in  scales  and  assign  their  weight  ;  I  can  measure  them  and 
tell  you  their  circumference,  I  know  where  they  begin,  and  how  they  oper- 
ate, and  how  they  close.  He,  the  devil,  is  not  the  subtle  and  ever-fertile 
genius  which  we  have  vainly  imagined  him  to  be.  He  has  three  great 
clubs  with  which  he  endeavours  to  smite  you  ;  I  can  give  you  their  names, 
their  size,  and  their  whole  capability. 

Let  us  then  hear  what  the  devil  said.  "If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God, 
command  that  these  stones  be  made  bread."  This  was  an  appeal  to  im- 
mediate necessity.  The  devil  comes  to  us  in  a  spirit  of  benevolence  ;  he 
shrinks  into  as  little  devil  as  possible  and  says,  "  You  are  hungry  ;  if  I 
could  make  bread  for  you  I  would,  but  I  am  only  devil,  blamed  one,  bear- 
ing the  stigma  of  the  universe  ;  if  I  could  have  brought  you  bread  all 
this  distance  I  would  have  done  so,  but  if  you  are  the  Son  of  God,  you 
must  have  power  to  work  miracles — turn  these  stones  into  bread."  The 
devil  addresses  himself  to  the  appetite  of  the  moment,  to  the  supreme  im- 
pulse of  the  passing  time.  Whatever  you  want  most,  he  is  willing  to 
supply — at  what  expense  will  presently  appear. 

Observe  his  benevolence,  and  observe  how  harmless  was  the  temptation. 
It  was  hardly  a  temptation  at  all.  What  harm  could  there  be  in  making 
bread  in  a  moment  of  hunger  ?  The  suggestion  was  marked  by  the  most 
obvious  pertinence  and  excellent  good  sense.  After  forty  days  and  forty 
nights  of  abstinence,  you  must  be  suffering  pangs  which  none  can  fully 
understand  ;  therefore  make  bread  for  yourself,  and  satisfy  the  importu- 
nate and  lawful  appetite  which  now  maddens  you.  You  know  that  tempta- 
tion— you  know  the  voice  which  softens  itself  into  a  tender  wheedling  and 
says  to  you,  "There  can  be  at  least  no  harm  in  this."  And  there  rnay  be 
no  harm  in  certain  words,  in  themselves  considered,  but  there  may  be 
great  harm  in  accepting  the  suggestion  of  the  devil.  If  it  were  possible 
for  him  to  preach  a  gospel  to  us,  there  might  be  infinite  risk  in  accepting 
it  at  his  lips,  for  they  are  pledged  with  a  thousand  oaths  to  do  another 
kind  of  work,  and  if  he  have  stolen  into  this  service,  he  has  a  purpose  in 


88  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

it  approved  of  his  own  soul,  and  therefore  which  should  excite  in  us  sus- 
picion and  alarm. 

The   next   thing   the   enemy  said  to  Christ  was,  "  If  thou  be  the  Son  of 
God,  cast  thyself  down,  for  it  is  written,  He  shall  give  his  angels  charge 
.concerning  thee."     He  comes  now  to  develop  our  faith  ;  he   appears  with 
the  sacred  mission  of  endeavouring  to  show  us  how  to  become  more  reli- 
gious than  ever.     Was  there  ever  such  a  devil  !     He  shows  us  how  we  may 
be  more  pious  than  we  ever  hoped  or  expected  to  be,  by  throwing  our- 
selves about,  by  entering  into  engagements  as  pious  and   all-trusting  acro- 
bats.    His  motto  is — Presume  upon  God,  test  his  strength,  bring  him  the 
opportunity  of  showing  what  he  means  by  his  promises.     And  in  levelling 
this  temptation  at  the  heart,  he  takes  care  to  surrourd  himself  by  circum- 
stances which  might  substantially  aid  his  malign  puipose.     He  took  Christ 
I  to  the  holy  city  and  set  him  on  a  pinnacle  of  the  Temple — surrounded  him 
I  by  external  religion  in  order  to  persuade  him  to  dethrone  an  interior  loy- 
J  alty  to  God.     As  if  the  devil  had  said,  "  This  is  the  holy  city  ;  within  its 
confines  God  will  permit  no  lapse  of  his   promise   to   take  place.     This  is 
the  Temple,  and  a  pinnacle  of  it,  and  in  connection  with  his  own  chosen 
sanctuary,  he  will  allow  no  spiritual  tragedy  to  take  place.     Do  not  sup- 
pose I  should  tempt  you  to  anything  evil  in  this   holy  city,  and   whilst  we 
are  standing  on  the  topmost  point   of  the  most   sacred  house  under  the 


sun 


This  was  an  appeal  to  the  Son  of  God  to  be  presumptuous,  to  force 
meanings  into  the  divine  word  which  the  divine  Spirit  never  intended  to 
convey,  to  force  God  into  situations  which  he  never  intended  to  be  occu- 
pied. Do  you  know  the  subtlety  and  force  of  such  suggestions  ?  Do  you 
know  what  it  is  for  men  to  get  themselves  almost  purposely  into  trouble, 
that  they  may  put  the  divine  word  to  its  fullest  stress  ?  Do  you  know 
what  it  is  to  shut  the  eyes,  to  lower  the  head  and  to  run  straight  against  a 
granite  rock,  and  then  to  blame  God  for  not  softening  it  into  a  cloud 
through  which  you  could  thrust  your  head  with  ease  ?  Let  those  answer 
the  pungent  inquiries  who  are  best  acquainted  with  their  soul's  own 
history. 

The  third  thing  the  enemy  said,  and  this  ends  his  programme.  Avas,  "All 
these  things — namely,  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the  glory  of 
them — will  I  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship  me."  It  was 
the  temptation  of  bribery  ;  it  was  the  temptation  addressed  to  every  in- 
stinct which  is  in  every  human  heart  to  turn  much  into  more  ;  it  was  a 
short  and  easy  method  of  becoming  rich — the  direct  cut  to  rulership  ;  it 
was  the  simplification  of  all  the  intricacies  and  complexities  and  difficulties 
of  ordinary  life.  It  was  a  blade  that  cut  the  knot,  and  made  the  way  short 
and  simple. 

Beyond  these  three  things  the  devil  has  never  got.     I  pause  now  to  look 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE.  89 

at  them,  with  a  view  of  finding  in  the  temptations  the  true  chatacter  of  the 
tempter.  If  we  are  to  know  a  tree  by  its  fruits,  so  we  may  know  a  tempter 
by  his  temptations.  In  very  deed  the  devil  has  said  nothing  bad  here,  tak- 
ing the  mere  letter  in  its  littleness.  "  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  command 
that  these  stones  be  made  bread.  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  cast  thyself 
down,  and  put  God  to  the  test.  All  these  things  will  I  give  thee  if  thou  . 
wilt  fall  down  and  worship  me."  Given  such  evidence,  to  find  out  by  fair 
induction  what  the  devil  is. 

Let  us  now  study  the  temptations  in  the  light  of  that  inquiry.  Let  us 
look  at  both  sides  of  the  wedge.  Given  the  thin  end  of  the  wedge,  to  find 
out  the  thick  end.  That  can  be  easily  done  with  these  paragraphs  before 
us,  thus.  As  he  would  have  turned  stones  into  bread,  so  he  would  turn 
l)read  into  stones  ;  and  that  is  what  he  means  to  do.  He  begins  innocently, 
benevolently  :  "  Turn  these  stones  into  bread  ;  "  and  having  obeyed  him 
in  that  particular,  he  makes  a  precedent  of  that  obedience,  and  by-and-by 
he  will  say,  "  Now  turn  this  bread  into  stones."  That  is  what  he  wants  to 
do  with  every  one  of  us — wants  us  to  turn  our  virtues  into  vices,  wants  us 
to  turn  our  prayers  into  presumptions,  wants  us  to  turn  our  religion  into 
profanity  and  blasphemy.  No  worth  of  character  deters  him  ;  he  would 
take  your  dear  little  child  and  make  an  imp  of  his  own  of  that  beautiful 
soul ;  he  would  take  all  the  bread  of  heaven  and  make  a  stone  of  it  ;  he 
would  diabolize  the  very  Deity  himself.  That  is  the  thick  end  of  the 
wedge.  He  believes  in  processes  of  transformation  ;  but  his  is  a  trans- 
formation that  operates  in  both  ways — namely,  turning  stones  into  bread 
and  turning  bread  into  stones.  Beautiful  soul,  with  thy  high  dreams  and 
sacred  purposes  and  noble  impulses,  the  devil  would  turn  all  these  high 
excitements  and  forces  of  thine  into  ministries  which  would  serve  his 
own  kingdom. 

Then  with  regard  to  the  next  temptation.  As  he  would  have  risked  a 
life  on  the  pretence  of  trusting  Cjod,  so  he  would  risk  God  on  the  pretence  of 
saving  life.  That  is  the  thick  end  of  the  wedge.  He  is  always  tempting 
God  to  do  from  his  point  what  he  tempted  Christ  to  do  from  a  lower 
point.  He  tempted  Christ  to  risk  his  life  to  put  God's  word  to  the  test,  he 
tempts  God  to  save  life  that  he  may  lose  himself.  Thus  the  devil  is  con- 
tinually blaming  God  for  the  inequalities  of  human  life.  He  is  perpetually 
sending  challenges  to  heaven,  saying,  "  If  thou  art  almighty,  why  permit 
these  social  monstrosities,  rebellions,  poverties,  wars  ?  If  thou  art  almighty, 
why  not  by  a  fiat  put  an  end  to  the  lake  of  fire  and  the  whole  region  of 
devildom,  and  reign  over  a  universe  uncut  by  a  single  grave — unblasted  by 
a  single  sin  ? 

This  is  precisely  the  temptation  which  was  levelled  against  the  con- 
stancy of  Christ.  Said  he  to  Christ,  "  Risk  yourself  to  save  a  life."  The 
infidel  has  no  weapon  that  he  deems  longer,  stronger,  and  sharper  than  this 


90  THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE, 

challenge  to  God  to  prove  his  almightiness  by  deposing  and  destroying  the 
devil.  If  the  whole  question  were  to  be  determined  within  four-and -twenty 
hours,  if  God's  eternity  were  an  affair  of  one  round  of  the  clock,  there 
might  be  some  little  force  in  this  temptation  and  blasphemy.  But  God 
operates  by  a  long  circuit  ;  we  cannot  tell  what  he  is  doing  in  the  secret 
places  of  the  universe  ;  we  hear  but  a  very  little  of  his  voice,  the  full 
thunder  of  it  would  break  the  listening  ear.  I  am  creature,  not  creator, 
child  of  a  day,  not  the  inhabitant  of  eternity,  so  I  would  quietly  and  lov- 
ingly wait  till  God's  processes  are  brought  to  their  culmination. 

Look  at  the  third  temptation.  As  the  devil  offered  kingdoms  in  return 
for  worship,  he  knows  whoever  receives  the  7vorship  actually  holds  the 
kingdoms  !  This  is  the  subtlest  of  all  the  temptations.  Give  a  sentiment 
for  property  ;  bow  the  knee  for  a  crown  ;  fall  down  before  me  and  say, 
"  Thou  art  my  God,"  and  I  will  give  thee  kingdoms  and  dominions,  vast 
and  innumerable.  Who  would  hesitate  to  pay  down  a  sentiment  for  a 
nation,  who  would  hesitate  to  change  a  god,  if  by  a  theological  transmuta- 
tion an  empire  could  be  purchased  ?  We  are  cautioned  to  beware  of  sen- 
timent ;  we  are  told  certain  objections  are  sentimental,  we  are  put  on  our 
guard  against  emotion.  Religion  has  been  watered  down  into  a  sentiment, 
and  I  protest  against  the  infamous  dilution.  Religion  is  a  conviction,  an 
obligation,  a  constraint  of  the  soul,  an  allegiance  of  the  faculties  which 
make  me  man.  It  is  not  an  evaporating  tear,  it  is  not  a  transient,  dying 
sigh,  it  is  my  life,  translated  into  its  highest  speech. 

Observe  how  the  benevolence  of  the  devil  is  shown  at  last  to  be  utter 
selfishness.  "  All  these  things  will  I  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and 
worship  me."  To  worship  is  to  give  ;  whom  I  worship  I  serve.  If  I  wor- 
ship God  and  keep  anything  back  from  him,  my  worship  is  blasphemy. 
If  I  love  the  cross  and  hold  anything  back  from  its  outstretched  arms,  I 
am  a  mocker  and  no  saint.  We  seek  not  yours,  but  you — \v2.\\x\gyou  we 
have  yours  !  We  only  give  where  we  love.  The  benevolence  of  the  devil 
is  a  fraud,  the  generosity  of  the  devil  is  a  lie.  My  young  friend,  the  devil 
never  gives  anything  good  that  he  promises  ;  you  fall  down  and  worship 
him,  and  then  call  upon  him  for  the  kingdoms  and  he  will  not  give  them. 
Show  him  the  writing,  recall  the  oath,  and  he  will  mock  thee,  and  with 
leering  eye,  look,  and  with  a  mocking,  taunting  voice,  say,  "  I  am  not  i'  th' 
vein."  I  challenge  any  man  in  the  world  to  show  me  that  he  ever  got  any- 
thing good  at  the  hands  of  the  devil. 

The  three  temptations,  then,  are  now  before  us,  and  the  character  of  the 
devil,  as  suggested  by  these  temptations,  is  also  before  us  in  rough  out- 
line. The  devil  has  no  other  temptations.  He  appeals  to  your  dominant 
appetite,  he  asks  you  to  make  God  your  servant,  always  to  be  at  your  beck 
and  bidding,  to  give  you  a  good  harvest,  and  a  fine  income,  and  plenty  to 
eat  and  drink  and  abundance  of  possessions.     He  says,  "  Trust  him  to 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 


91 


that  extent,  force  him  to  the  keeping  of  his  word,  and  ask  him,  if  the 
harvest  is  bad,  what  he  means  by  sending  you  a  bad  harvest  when  you 
were  praying  for  a  good  one.  Tax  him  to  his  face  with  his  promises,  and 
compel  him  to  keep  them."  And  then,  last  of  all,  he  says,  "  Give  up 
everything  for  the  world,  give  up  your  prayers  and  your  hymn-singing, 
and  all  your  religion,  for  more  mud,  and  more  mud,  and  more  mud — have 
all  the  mud  and  have  it  for  next  to  nothing,  for  an  inclination  of  the  head, 
for  a  bending  of  the  knee,  for  one  loyal  remark."  No  other  temptation 
has  Satan  to  level  at  your  hearts.  He  may  vary  the  form,  he  may  change 
the  manner  and  expression,  but  centrally  and  substantially  his  programme 
is  written  in  this  text,  and  every  man  can  prove  it  for  himself,  and  know 
the  measure  and  the  force  of  every  syllable  of  it. 

Thus  the  devil  delivers  a  threefold  knock  on  the  door  of  the  heart. 
What  answers  Christ  will  make  when  he  oijcns  the  door,  we  shall  see  in  our 
next  exposition. 


XI. 

THE  ANSWERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST LIFE  SUSTAINED  IN  MANY  WAYS TEMPT- 
ING FRIENDSHIP WORSHIP  LEADS  TO  SERVICE DEFINITION  OF  SIM- 
PLICITY  THE  DEVIL  LEAVETH  HIM. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  tlioii  knowest  wliy  we  are  in  haste,  for  our  days  are  but  a  liandful, 
and  our  breath  is  dying  in  our  nostrils.  Few  aud  evil  have  been  the  days  of  thy 
servants,  yet  hast  thou  given  unto  us  great  mercy  and  gladness,  though  we  have  often 
turned  aside  from  thy  gifts  and  have  not  enjoyed  the  bounty  of  thy  love.  Behold 
our  years  are  hastening  away  :  no  man  hath  hand  long  enough  and  strong  enough  to 
catch  and  detain  them  ;  they  fly  away  on  broad,  swift  wings,  and  we  cannot  tell  which 
way  they  go,  nor  can  any  man  find  his  dead  yesterdays.  O  that  men  were  wise,  that 
they  would  consider  these  things,  and  lend  an  attentive  mind  to  all  thy  Word,  so 
that  their  lives  might  be  founded  in  wisdom,  and  rise  up  in  all  the  brightness  of  hope. 
Yet  we  are  foolish  before  God,  and  obstinate  :  with  a  strange  hardness  of  heart  we 
receive  his  rain  as  the  barren  rock  receives  it,  and  return  nothing  that  is  beautiful  and 
useful  to  him.  God  be  merciful  unto  us  sinners,  and  remember  not  the  past  against 
us  as  an  accusation  ;  give  us  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  will  lead  us  to 
better  life,  that  we  may  treasure  our  moments  with  most  miserly  care  and  spend  them 
as  men  who  must  give  an  account  of  their  outlay.  Then  shall  our  lives  be  filled  with 
the  beauty  of  a  loving  service,  and  in  our  very  breath  there  shall  be  the  expectation  of 
a  great  hope. 

We  bless  thee  that  we  are  still  in  the  land  of  the  living,  that  though  the  days  yet 
to  come  may  be  few  and  dark,  yet  we  shall  spend  them  here,  where  the  altar  is, 
where  the  open  Bible  may  be  read,  where  the  great  cross  of  Christ  rises  above  all 
our  sin,  and  where  even  yet  we  may  know  the  joy  and  the  liberty  of  divine  salvation. 

We  bless  thee  for  the  year  that  is  now  dying,  so  full  of  mercy,  though  full  of 
trouble.  Tliou  hast  watched  us  and  tended  us  night  and  day,  aud  though  our  life 
has  been  a  daily  peril  and  a  nightly  trouble,  yet  through  all  hast  thou  shown  thy  pres- 
ence and  given  proof  of  thy  government  and  dominion.  The  Lord  overrule  all  things 
to  happy  ends,  the  Lord  pardon  his  servants  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  Priest  and 
Saviour  of  the  world,  for  every  sin  that  has  marred  their  lives  ;  the  Lord  accept  any 
sacrifice  we  have  rendered,  not  as  gifts  of  our  own,  but  as  expressions  of  his  inspiration. 

We  bless  thee  for  all  thy  tender  care  and  thy  loving  mercy  ;  and  as  for  thy  rod, 
so  long  and  sharp  and  heavy,  we  would  endeavour  to  kiss  it,  and  bless  the  hand 
that  has  dealt  the  stroke.  Wherein  thou  hast  taken  away  from  our  eyes  the 
beauty  which  filled  them,  hast  thou  not  transplanted  the  flower  to  fairer  climes  ? 
Wherein  thou  hast  dug  the  grave  where  we  least  of  all  would  have  it  dug,  is  it  not 
that  thou  mightest  wean  our  love  to  things  worthy  of  its  fire  ?  Help  us  to  see  the 
divine  meaning  of  our  life,  and  to  hide  ourselves  within  the  ample  purpose  of  God's 


J 


THESE   SAYINGS   OP   MINE,  93 

love  and  wisdom  ;  may  we  keep  our  lives  from  sin,  and  our  hearts  from  that  aching 
despair  wliich  leaves  an  open  gate  for  the  devil  and  his  angels.  May  we  at  all  times 
rest  in  the  Lord  and  wait  patiently  for  him,  knowing  that  we  must  not  tempt  him  to 
our  rescue,  nor  bring  about  our  own  purpose  by  deceitful  means. 

The  Lord  give  cheerfulness  of  heart  to  those  who  have  known  long  sorrow ;  the 
Lord  show  one  small  rift  in  ihe  dark  cloud,  through  which  the  morning  may  be  seen 
— yea,  the  lord  be  tender  with  his  own  comfortableness  to  those  who  have  been  long 
strangers  to  ought  of  joy  and  high  delight. 

Enable  us  all  to  make  better  vows  and  to  keep  them.  Permit  us  all  to  see  the  New 
Year  with  a  higher  courage  and  a  nobler  faith  in  God  and  in  his  Son.  May  our  motto 
be — "  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory  save  in  the  cross  of  our  lord  Jesus  Christ,"  and 
upon  the  banner  of  our  life  may  there  be  written,  "  For  me  to  live  is  Christ."  And 
grant  unto  us  thy  Holy  Spirit,  an  indwelling  guest  and  friend,  to  inspire  the  right 
thought,  to  dictate  the  right  word,  to  show  us  the  right  course  in  life.  When  the 
last  day  comes  and  the  last  word  is  spoken,  and  the  farewell  is  bidden  to  a  world,  by 
our  sin  not  worth  living  in,  may  we  have  given  us  an  entrance  into  the  city  of  gardens, 
the  city  of  light,  the  mother  Jerusalem,  the  tender  one,  in  whose  breast  we  shall  be 
nursed  and  nourished  for  ever.     Amen. 

Matthew^  iv.  i-ii.  (continued.) 

We  are  speaking  now  about  the  temptation  of  Jesus  Christ.     Last  Sun- 

"1   day  morning  we  considered  the  temptations,  one  by  one,  and  promised  that 

we  should  consider  this  morning  the  replies  made  to  them  by  Jesus  Christ. 

Referring  to  a  remark  I  made  last  Sunday  morning,  that  all  things  were 
under  the  control  of  an  independent  and  self-existent  Being,  even  the  devil 
himself  being  included  in  all  things,  the  question  has  been  asked  whether, 
considering  there  is  one  self-existent  being,  there  might  not  be  a  possibility 
of  there  being  two.     I  think  if  we  look  a  little  attentively  into  the  matter, 
we  shall  find  that  there  is  only  one  representative  or  original  of  everything. 
We  shall  find  that  there,  is  only  one  word  in  human  speech  :  all  other  words 
come  out  of  that  as   the  branches  and  the  leaves  come  out  of  the  root. 
There  is  only  one  verb  in  all   grammar  :  for  the  sake  of  convenience  we 
have,  perhaps,  a  thousand  verbs,  regular  and  irregular,  but  looked  at  closely 
we  shall  find  that  there  is  only  one  verb  in  all  human   speech  :  that  is  the 
verb  fo  he.     All  the   other  verbs  come  out  of  it  ;  no  other  verb  can  live 
without  it — all  the  other  verbs  are  phases  and  moods  and  aspects  of  that — 
"I  am  that  I  am."     We  shall  find  that  there  is  only  one  number,  and  that  I 
number  is  One.     Two  is  an  invention  of  yours.     The  multiplication  table  \^ 
is  a  trick  of  man's  ;  there  is  only  the  number  one.     Two  is  a  guess,  a  con- 
jecture, something  that  has  to  be  granted  in  order  that  other  reckoning  may 
be  made,  but  all  these   numbers  will  run  round  again  and  come  back  to — 
One.     There  is  only  one  light  ;  our  sun  is  lighted  by  some   other  flame. 
There  is  an  inner  and  essential  Shekinah  in  the  universe  at  which  all  the 
meaner  torches  are  lighted  ;  planets  and  constellations  catch  their  tiny  blaze 
from  that  central  and   infinite  lustre.     There  is  but  one  life,  God  and  th^  /  I 
devil  is  part  of  him.     So  is  man,  so  is  every  angel.     Mystery  of  mysteries 


94  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE, 

\ 

(  I  — there  is  but  one  mystery  in  the  universe,  and   that  is  not  how  the  devil 
I  I  came  to  be,  but  how  God  came  to  be. 

These  I  give  as  rough  indications  of  lines  of  thinking,  and  simply  pay 
this  heed  to  the  suggestion  which  has  been  thrown  out  and  for  which  I  am 
thankful.  Follow  me,  if  you  please,  in  all  these  expositions,  and  assist  me 
by  questions,  by  difficulties,  by  putting  things  in  my  mind  that  have  not 
occurred  to  it  already.  In  this  way  we  shall  set  a  thousand  lamps  around 
the  book  and  get  light  from  one  another.  Do  not  let  me  teach  alone  ;  ask 
me  if  I  am  not  wrong,  correct  me  when  I  am  inaccurate,  amplify  the  teach 
ing  when  it  is  incomplete.  In  this  way  let  us  be  fellow-students  of  the 
Holy  Word. 

Having  looked  at  the  temptations  one  by  one,  let  us  now  take  the  same 
'  I  course  with  regard  to  the  answers.  The  first  answer  is,  "  Man  shall  not 
\j  I  live  by  bread  alone."  This  is  a  profound  view  of  life  as  contrasted  with  a 
shallow  one.  The  devil's  notion  was  that  life  could  be  sustained  only  in 
one  way  ;  his  short  programme  was,  "  Eat  and  live.  Take  plenty  of  bread 
and  refuse  to  die."  That  is  his  narrow  conception  of  this  wondrous  im- 
mortality ;  he  thinks  it  is  something  that  must  be  spoon-fed,  his  notion  of 
it  is  that  if  a  man  have  bread  enough,  what  more  can  he  want  ?  And  it  is 
»  thus  he  befools  the  world,  by  asking  us  to  put  a  loaf  in  every  cupboard,  by 
asking  us  to  fill  the  house  from  floor  to  ceiling  with  bread  :  and  then  we 
shall  have  no  difficulty  in  maintaining  and  prolonging  our  life.  "With  what 
a  revealing  flash  must  this  answer  have  fallen  upon  his  stupid  mind — Man 
shall  not  live  by  bread  alone.  There  are  fifty  other  ways  of  living:  if  God 
so  will  it,  there  are  ten  thousand  other  ways  of  living.  Man  need  not 
receive  his  life  from  his  body  at  all,  man  can  suspend  his  bodily  functions 
and  live  in  another  way,  if  it  so  please  God  to  sustain  him.  Do  not  suppose 
that  God  is  shut  up  to  one  way  of  keeping  our  human  mechanism  going  : 
he  could  feed  us  with  his  breath,  sustain  us  by  his  word,  command  our  life 
to  grow,  and  we  need  not  resort  to  any  of  the  little  contrivances  which  so 
vex  us  by  their  detail  to  sustain  our  bodily  life. 

We  have  always  been  thinking  that  there  was  but  one  way  of  sustaining 
our  breath  :  man  has  been  victimised  and  befooled  by  the  delusion,  that  if  he 
had  no  bread,  he  could  not  live.  Jesus  Christ  comes  to  enlarge  the  pos- 
sibilities of  life,  to  say  to  you,  "  Take  no  care  or  thought  for  to-morrow, 
what  ye  shall  eat  or  what  ye  shall  drink.  Life  is  not  a  question  of  drinking' 
or  eating.  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  put  your 
trust  in  the  Lord  and  he  will  feed  you,  he  will  find  bread  for  you  which  the! 
soul  can  eat."  Thus  Jesus  Christ  strikes  at  the  foundation  of  our  mistakes. 
He  does  not  say,  "  Whatever  you  do,  make  bread  enough."  He  says,  "  Take 
no  thought  about  bread  at  all.  Rest  in  God,  serve  God,  want  to  do  the 
right,  want  to  be  the  good,  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  to  you."  The 
true  notion  of  the  text  is  that  God  has  innumerable  ways  of  sustaining  life, 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  95 

and  that  we  live,  not  because  we  eat,  but  because  God  wills  that  we  live,  j 
Your  bread  is  a  secondary  cause,  or  a  transient  occasion,  it  explains  next  1 
to  nothing  :  j'ou  live  not  because  you  have  had  a  sufficiency  of  bread,  , 
but  because  God's  decree  has  gone  forth,  and  your  days  are  appointe,d  and 
registered  in  heaven.  y 

Suppose  I  should  make  the  meaning  a  little  more  lucid,  by  putting  it  thus. 
Man  can  make  bread  by  one  trade  alone.     You  see  the  mistake  there.     Man 
can  make  bread  only  in  one  way  of   commerce — you  laugh  at  that  as  a 
sophism  ;  you  say,  "  There   are  a   thousand   trades  by  which  a  man  may 
make  bread.     Now  make  that  a  spiritual  conception  and  carry  it  up  into 
the  highest  regions,  and  you  will  understand  what  Jesus  Christ  meant  when 
he  said,  "  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone."     Bread  does  not  cover  the  ; 
whole  possibility  of  living,  it  is  the  divine  will   that  settles  everything  :  if 
God  mean  me  to  live,  you  may  take   away  from  me  all  bread,  and  all  the  : 
fruits  of  the  earth  and  the  juices  thereof,  all  the  rams  of  Nebaioth  and  the  '^ 
beasts  that  browse  in  the  meadows,  and  you  will  find  me,  forty  years  hence, 
young,  strong,  without  a  wrinkle,  without  one  token  of  infirmi'y  in  my 
body. 

That  is  the  true  conception  of  life.  We  are  misled  by  any  other.  We 
say  if  we  do  not  make  bread  we  cannot  live.  That  is  true  only  withlVi  very 
small  limits,  but  the  limits  themselves  may  be  atheistic.  I  live,  not  because 
I  baked  a  loaf  yesterday  and  ate  it  to-day,  but  because  God  wills  that  I 
should  live.  Your  life  is  not  a  keeping  up  of  yourself  as  the  resultant  of 
some  cunning  contrivance  of  yours  ;  your  breath  is  in  your  nostrils,  and 
God  himself  keeps  it  there.  When  I  receive  that  conception,  in  all  its  ful- 
ness and  poetry,  into  my  soul,  I  know  what  Jesus  Christ  meant  when  he  \| 
said,  "  Take  no  thought  for  the  morrow  :  sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil 
thereof.  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness."  "  Trust 
in  the  Lord,  and  do  good,"  said  an  older  speaker  still,  "  so  shalt  thou  dwell 
in  the  land,  and  verily  thou  shalt  be  fed."  We  shall  have  bread  to  eat  that  '' 
the  world  knoweth  not  of  ;  our  life  shall  not  then  be  the  vulgar  result  of 
bread-eating,  but  it  shall  be  a  mystery  to  everybody  how  we  live,  and  live 
on  so  little — that  is,  so  little  that  is  measurable  ;  but  he  who  draws  his  life  | 
from  God's  heart  has  more  than  a  little  to  live  on.  Thou  fool,  thy  loaf 
perishes  in  the  handling,  God's  life  seems  to  grow  in  the  using.  ^ 

The  second  answer.  "Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God."  This 
is  a  right  use  of  liberty  as  contrasted  with  a  wrong  one.  Let  us  understand 
the  meaning  of  this  word,  tempt.  Let  us  put  it  in  this  broad  fashion — 
thou  shalt  not  make  experiments  upon  God,  thou  shalt  not  set  traps  for  God, 
thou  shalt  not  put  thyself  into  false  relations  just  in  order  to  try  God  and 
to  put  religion  to  the  test.  Do  not  run  into  danger  for  the  purpose  of 
being  delivered  from  it.  That,  I  take  it,  is  the  practical  meaning  and 
application  of  the  word  tempt.     Perhaps  we  shall  understand  it  better  by 


g6  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

taking  a  social  illustration,  for  we  often   see  things  clearly  by  means  of 
human  analogy. 

There  are  persons  who  are  always  tempting  our  friendship.  They  do 
not  broadly  and  lovingly  trust  it,  they  do  not  meet  us  half-way  in  joyful  and 
hopeful  co-operation,  but  they  continually  set  little  traps  by  which  they  may 
catch  us  if  they  can.  Have  you  had  acquaintance  with  such  disagreeable  per- 
sons and  their  detestable  habits  ?  If  they  are  in  company,  walking  with  you, 
they  fall  a  little  way  behind,  just  to  see  if  you  will  look  after  them.  They 
are  always  testing  you,  tempting  you,  giving  you  opportunities  of  showing 
how  much  you  care  for  them.  They  stay  away  from  church  just  to  seel 
whether  the  minister  will  miss  them.  Nice  people  to  have  to  deal  with  !U 
They  will  stay  away  another  Sunday  just  to  see  whether  the  people  in  the 
next  pew  call  upon  them.  That  is  tempting  friendship,  putting  it  to  little 
tests,  setting  little  snares  for  it  to  catch  it,  and  then  to  say,  "  Now  I  see 
just  how  much  you  care  for  me."  If  you  have  had  experience  of  such 
persons,  you  understand  what  it  is  to  tempt  love,  to  tempt  power,  to  tempt 
God. 

Jesus  Christ  says,  "Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God."  Do  not 
put  thyself  into  foolish  situations  in  order  to  draw  him  forth  from  his  secret 
tabernacle  and  to  work  some  mighty  wonder  for  thy  deliverance.  Do  not 
use  him  for  merely  individual  ends  and  purposes,  do  not  fall  into  a  pit,  say- 
ing, "  God  will  come  and  deliver  me  out  of  this  pit,  and  so  reveal  his  mighty 
strength  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  people."  You  try  rather  to  give  God  as  little 
trouble  as  possible.  Work  up  to  the  end  of  your  liberty  ;  say  to  him, 
"Father,  I  would  come  a  longer  way  to  meet  thee  if  I  could  ;  I  will  do  all 
in  my  little  power  to  carry  out  thy  will,  to  keep  myself,  to  preserve  my  life 
from  danger.  I  will  not  run  risks  for  the  sake  of  bringing  thee  out  of 
heaven  in  order  to  work  some  mighty  demonstration  on  my  behalf  in  the 
eyes  of  the  vulgar  and  the  profane."  That  is  true  religion,  and  that  is  true 
friendship  also.  If  I  am  truly  your  friend  I  do  not  set  little  traps  for  you. 
On  the  contrary,  I  take  the  best  view  of  you,  I  love  you,  and  if  there  be 
anything  like  mystery  about  your  conduct  to  me,  I  say  the  misunderstand- 
ing is  mine,  there  is  nothing  of  purposed  trial  on  the  other  side  ;  I  must 
be  more  on  the  alert,  and  I  must  co-operate  more  heartily  and  sympatheti- 
cally with  my  friend.  But  if  I  be  only  your  friend  in  a  superficial  and 
momentary  sense,  then  I  am  always  trying  you,  setting  little  gins  and  snares 
in  your  road  and  watching  you,  and  if  I  am  a  member  of  your  congrega- 
tion, I  absent  myself  to  see  whether  you  mark  my  absence,  and  if  I  am 
your  minister,  I  try  your  love  in  this  small  way  and  that.  Shame  on  us  if 
such  be  the  way  in  which  we  bruise  the  angel  of  friendship.  Let  heart 
meet  heart  and  man  meet  God,  and  work  with  him,  and  do  not  put  his 
almightiness  to  little  strains  and  stresses,  which,  being  interpreted,  mean 
nothing  less  than  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief.     Work  as  if  you  were  God,  and 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  97 

trust  as  though  you  had  no  power  of  your  own.  Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the 
Lord  thy  God,  but  love  him  and  co-operate  with  him,  and  be  as  much  to 
him  as  you  possibly  can. 

Take  the  third  answer.  "  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and 
him  only  shalt  thou  serve."  This  is  constancy  in  worship  as  contrasted 
with  caprice  and  fickleness. 

Thou  shalt  worship.  Take  that  word  in  opposition  to  tempt.  Thou  shalt 
not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God,  but  thou  shalt  worship  him,  give  him  the 
heart's  adoration,  the  spirit's  whole  fire  of  love,  without  one  spark  falling 
otherwhere.  Thy  religious  life  should  be  a  concentrated  offering,  intense  as 
flame.  That  is  what  keeps  a  man  right,  religiously  and  theologically.  We 
are  not  propped  up  by  little  clevernesses,  mechanical,  ecclesiastical,  and 
theological  ;  we  are  not  shored  up  by  some  religious  mechanism  of  man's 
contrivance  ;  we  are  only  right  in  proportion  as  our  worship  is  right.  If 
we  live  in  our  ideas  and  syllogisms,  if  we  secure  ourselves  behind  the 
covert  and  defence  of  our  own  way  of  stating  theological  propositions,  the 
very  first  thunderstorm  that  comes  will  carry  us  away.  I  am  right  only 
when  I  rightly  pray,  I  am  secure  only  whilst  I  truly  worship,  I  am  delivered 
from  fear  of  death  and  hell  only  in  proportion  as  my  fellowship  with  the 
Father  is  intimate  and  sweet.  Ask  me  to  define  myself  in  words,  and  I 
say  words  seem  to  be  but  temptations  of  controversy,  propositions  are  only 
so  many  opportunities  of  contradiction,  but  worship,  deep  as  the  life,  silent 
as  the  springs  of  being,  mighty  as  the  urgency  of  love,  that  it  is,  and  that 
only,  that  keeps  a  man  right  amid  all  this  swirl  and  hurry,  tumult  and 
danger,  of  a  probationary  life. 

How  is  it  with  us  in  prayer?  I  do  not  ask  how  it  is  with  us  in  the  mere 
fluency  of  sentences  :  that  is  often  a  temptation  and  a  mockery,  or  may 
easily  become  such  ;  but  how  is  it  with  the  desire  of  the  heart,  with  the  out- 
going of  the  soul,  with  the  supreme  and  inflexible  purpose  of  the  will  ?  Do 
we  love  God,  wait  for  him,  trust  in  him,  believe  every  syllable  he  has  spoken, 
and  do  we  know  him,  not  by  some  trained  act  of  the  intellect,  but  by  an 
inexplicable  and  ineffable  operation  of  that  sympathetic  power  of  the  soul 
which  makes  us  men  ?  I  am  afraid  lest  any  of  us  be  living  a  merely  intel- 
lectually religious  life.  There  is  great  danger  of  hiding  ourselves  behind 
verbal  statements  and  trusting  to  formulated  faiths  :  these  are  both  and  all 
useful  in  their  way,  but  their  way  goes  but  a  little  distance — the  only  thing 
that  is  invincible  is  love,  the  only  supreme  religion  is  the  sacrifice  of  the 
broken  heart  in  complete  and  affectionate  trust  in  the  living  God. 

Not  only  must  there  be  this  worship,  but  following  it  and  coming  out  of 
it  there  must  be  service.  Thus  the  text  reads,  "  Thou  shalt  Avorship  the 
Lord  thy  God,  aiid_him  only  shj,lt  thouserve."  Religion  is  not  a  contem- 
plation only,  religion  is  a  service  ;  religion  is  not  a  folding  of  the  hands 
together  and  an  upturning  of  the  eyes  to  measurable  heavens,  and  a  silent 


g8  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

expectation  of  something  that  shall  fall  upon  our  indolence  and  act  upon 
our  industry — religion  is  activity,  service,  sacrifice,  devotion,  whole-hearted 
consecration  of  every  power  of  the  life  to  one  object,  and  if  we  have  not 
attained  that  height,  let  us  strive  after  it  with  sweet  modesty  and  with  burn- 
ing energy.  Let  our  heart  go  out  in  that  direction.  I  should  have  pity 
upon  a  poor  wounded  traveller  whose  face  was  set  towards  his  home,  though 
he  could  not  take  one  step  to  it.  He  says  by  that  action  of  the  face,  "  1 
want  to  be  at  home,  I  would  God  I  were  there.  Sickness  calls  me,  want 
implores  me,  death  beckons  me  :  I  cannot  go,  but  I  can  turn  my  eyes  to 
the  old  homestead,  and  look  as  if  I  would  be  there  above  all  other  things 
on  earth."  We  take  the  will  for  the  deed.  It  is  so  with  God  :  if  we  really 
purpose  in  our  hearts  to  serve  Him,  and  if  we  fail  in  a  great  majority  of 
the  points  which  constitute  that  purpose,  yet  if  our  desire  be  intense  and 
high  it  wall  be  set  down  as  an  accomplished  fact. 

These,  then,  are  the  three  answers  which   Jesus  Christ  delivered  to  the 
devil's  temptations.     One  point  before  we  look  at  the  answers  as  a  whole. 

Jesus  Christ  said,  in  answer  to  the  devil's  quotation  of  Scripture,  "  It  is 
written  again."  What  is  the  meaning  of  that  ?  It  is  that  the  Bible  is  not  I 
made  to  be  of  one  text ;  the  meaning  is  that  you  must  compare  Scripture/  . 
with  Scripture.  It  is  possible  to  fasten  the  mind  upon  one  single  line,  so 
as  to  miss  the  meaning  of  the  whole  revelation  of  the  Bible.  We  have  to 
compare  spiritual  things  with  spiritual — it  is  written  here,  and  it  is  written 
there,  and  the  two  writings  must  be  brought  together  in  intelligent,  critical, 
and  spiritual  comparison.  It  is  written  and  it  is  written  again,  and  the 
one  passage  must  be  read  in  the  light  of  the  other.  You  must  have  the 
whole  Bible,  and  not  an  isolated  text,  to  rest  upon.  There  is  a  biblical 
spirit  as  well  as  a  biblical  letter.  Is  it  not  possible  that  some  of  us  have 
fixed  our  minds  upon  someone  passage  of  Scripture  that  is  really  torturing 
us  with  agony  we  dare  not  explain  to  our  chosen  minister  ?  Whereas,  if  it 
could  be  pointed  out,  he  might  be  able  to  say  to  us,  "  It  is  so  written  there, 
but  it  is  writtenagain,"  and  thus  the  light  might  come  and  all  the  joy  of 
liberty.  If  there  is  any  man  here  whose  soul  is  afflicted  by  one  special 
passage  of  Scripture,  and  I  can  be  of  any  service  in  showing  him  other 
writings  which  illuminate  it,  it  will  be  the  joy  of  my  life  to  be  of  that  service 
to  any  soul  bowed  down  by  such  distress. 

Looking  at  the  answers  as  a  whole,  three  things  strike  me.  First  of  all, 
they  were  written  answers.  This  is  no  matter  of  ready  repartee  ;  this  is 
not  a  question  of  the  quickness  of  Christ's  intelligence  :  this  is  not  an  un- 
expected flash  of  fire  by  friction  that  had  not  been  counted  upon — this  is  / 
quotation  ;  this  is  rest  upon  the  revealed  word  ;  this  is  an  endorsement  of. 
all  that  was  written  in  the  then  Holy  Scriptures.  Let  the  word  of  Christ 
dwell  in  you  richly.  You  are  not  called  upon  to  be  geniuses  in  your  con- 
flicts with  the  devil  ;  you   are  only  called  upon  to  know  you  Bibles  well. 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  99 

Where  is  the  man  who  knows  his  Bible  well  ?  and  yet  where  is  there  a  man 
in  England  who  has  not  some  portion  of  the  Bible  humming  in  his  head, 
so  much  so  that  he  thinks  he  knows  it — who  when  called  upon  for  quota- 
tion, round,  complete,  direct,  can  give  it  ?  What  wonder  that  the  devil 
plays  his  game  successfully  with  men  whose  Scripture  quotations  halt  and 
tremble  for  very  weakness,  being  uncertain  how  the  words  stand,  and  not 
knowing  whether  the  point  of  the  sword  be  the  hilt  or  the  hilt  the  point  ? 
Who  can  fight  so,  now  trying  one  end  and  now  the  other  ?  Let  us  read  the 
Bible  all  over  again  ;  get  it  into  our  hearts  as  a  letter  and  a  spirit — yea,  let 
it  dwell  in  us  richl)'^,  for  as  there  is  but  one  verb,  one  number,  one  light,  so 
there  is  but  one  Book — all  other  books  are  but  broken  lights  of  that.  Jesus 
Christ  went  directly  to  the  supernatural  ;  he  went  to  revealed  truth.  It 
is  marvellous  that  amid  all  these  replies  he  does  not  make  what  we  should 
call  an  original  observation.  He  quotes,  and  if  you  search  further  into  the 
matter  you  will  find  that  he  quotes — himself. 

These  answers  were  not  only  written,  but  they  were  simple.  There  is  no 
deep  metaphysic  here,  Avhich  bewilders  the  head  of  poor  believers,  and 
makes  them  giddy  with  exercises  of  unwonted  intricacy,  and  calling  for 
unwonted  intellectual  energy.  Great  answers  are  always  simple,  simplicity 
being  understood  as  the  last  result  of  wisdom — not  something  shallow  and 
superficial,  but  as  the  ultimate  result  of  processes  which  spread  over  the 
whole  being  of  God.  The  whole  movement  of  civilization  is  towards  sim- 
plicity :  every  now  and  then  we  startle  ourselves  by  the  simplicity  of] 
answers  which  we  thought  would  have  been  infinitely  profound.  We  had  I 
been  looking  for  words  six  feet  long,  and  lo  !  all  the  meaning  we  wanted 
was  trembling  in  a  Avord  of  one  syllable,  brief  and  beautiful  as  a  dewdrop 
when  the  sun  inflames  it  with  tender  glory.  O,  thou  groper  and  seeker 
after.deep  things  in  relation  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  thou  who  dost  want  to 
climb  up  to  the  skies  by  some  clever  staircase  of  thine  own  making,  know 
thou  that  the  way  is  simple  in  the  sense  already  defined.  It  expresses  God's 
eternity,  and  yet  it  bows  itself  down  to  thy  littleness  and  weakness.  "  It 
is  written" — be  that  thine  answer.  "It  is  written  again" — be  that  thy 
further  reply.  Never  go  to  search  for  keen  retort  or  flashing  repartee  wdthin 
thine  own  genius  :  the  answer  is  not  in  thee,  it  is  in  God.  Strike  no  match  1 1 
of  thine  own  wit  ;  pluck  thy  lightnings  from  the  heavens — they  never  fail. 

Then  the  answers  were  not  only  written  and  simple,  they  were  authorita- 
tive. They  are  not  quoted  as  conjectures,  they  are  not  submitted  as  sug- 
gestions. When  a  man  goes  into  war,  he  must  not  take  with  him  a  sword 
that  has  to  be  tried,  but  one  that  has  been  tested  and  approved.  God 
knows  exactly  what  temptations  every  one  of  us  has  to  endure,  and  he  has 
written  down  for  us  the  exact  answer.  If  we  try  any  other  reply,  we  shall 
get  a  retort  from  the  enemy  ;  but  if  we  accumulate  God's  answers,  and  hurl  /' 
them  at  him,  he  will  leave  us,  and  angels  will  come  and  minister  unto  us.     ' 


lOO  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

Let  US  be  thankful  that  in  all  these  answers  Jesus  Christ  has  said  noth- 
ing that  we  ourselves  are  not  entitled  to  say.  When  the  devil  tells  me  that 
I  must  live  by  bread  alone,  I  say,  "  What  a  liar!  I  can  live  in  any  way  God 
sees  fit  to  appoint.  He  is  not  shut  up  to  one  way  of  keeping  man's 
breath  in  his  nostrils.  Thou  art  a  liar  !  "  Wlien  the  devil  says  to  me, 
•'*  Do  something  rash,  just  for  the  purpose  of  testing  whether  God  does  love 
you  ;  "  when  the  devil  says  to  me,  as  he  did  to  some  magazine  writer  not 
long  ago,  "  Now  let  two  hospitals  be  chosen,  and  in  connection  with  the 
one  there  shall  be  prayer,  and  in  connection  with  the  other  there  shall  be 
no  prayer,  and  let  us  see  into  which  of  the  hospitals  the  patients  get  better 
sooner" — I  say,  "  O,  what  folly,  what  temjDting  of  God,  what  trap-setting, 
what  small  experimenting,  what  neat  ways  of  forming  ourselves  into  an 
innumerable  jury  for  the  purpose  of  putting  the  Almighty  to  the  test." 
Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God.  Providence  is  not  a  question  of 
balloting,  and  snare-setting,  and  testing  and  tempting  ;  it  is  a  question  of 
trusting,  living  in  and  with  God,  and  knowing  that  an  inch  is  not  an  ell, 
and  that  a  part  is  not  the  whole. 

I-  am  tempted  to  tempt  God.  I  want  him  to  bless  my  wheat-fields.  I, 
speaking  out  of  my  folly,  say  to  heaven,  "  God,  if  thou  wouldst  give  me,  a 
praying  man,  a  great  crop,  and  starve  the  fields  of  that  profane  person  over 
the  road,  people  would  begin  to  think  there  is  a  God  in  heaven — do  it." 
It  is  a  superficial  speech,  utterly  shallow  and  narrow,  and  it  is  a  tempta- 
tion or  unworthy  trial  of  God. 

When  the  devil  says  to  me,  "  Worship  me,  and  I  will  give  thee  the  world," 
then  I  am  entitled  to  get  angry.  There  is  a  keener  accent  in  the  last 
answer,  "  Get  thee  hence  " — the  dog  was  ordered  behind.  If  we  could 
speak  \\nth  more  emphasis  we  should  get  a  clearer  path  for  our  feet,  but 
if  we  are  "  if-you-please"-ing  the  devil,  and  asking  him  to  be  good  enough 
to  get  out  of  the  way,  if  we  are  saying,  "  By  your  leave,  Satanic  majesty, 
we  will  go  forward,"  do  you  suppose  he  will  give  us  his  leave  that  we  may 
advance  ?  I  tell  you  religion  has  lost  its  emphasis,  religion  has  fallen 
down  before  conventional  moods  and  standards,  and  has  lost  that  high 
accentuation  which  made  its  speech  heard  above  the  hurling  storm.  Hear 
the  Blessed  One,  see  his  flushed  face,  hear  that  new  tone  in  his  voice — we 
have  not  heard  it  before  in  these  readings,  "  Get  thee  hence  !  "  Speak  with 
keener  emphasis,  with  broader  meaning — open  thy  throat  to  the  fulness 
of  its  compass,  and  let  thy  words  shoot  out  like  cannon  balls,  and  God  will 
give  thee  victory. 

"  Then  the  devil  leaveth  him, "  with  bowed  limbs  and  shrunken  neck, 
and  eyes  fastened  on  the  dust,  crestfallen,  jaw-broken,  his  head  a-swim 
with  a  new  dizziness,  with  purpose  malignant  as  hell  burning  in  his  heart, 
but  every  energy  of  his  being  collapsed,  made  limp,  flaccid,  his  back-bone 
melted  like  wax  in  the  fire.  He  left  him.  Whether  he  will  return,  we 
shall  see  as  the  exposition  advances. 


XII. 

THE  TEMPTATION   (cONTINUEd) THE  COiMFORT  OF  TKMPIATION THE 

GRANDEUR  OF  MAN THE  TEMPTATION,  IF THE  ENEMV's  TRUE  CHAR- 
ACTER. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  we  would  begin  the  year  in  thy  strength,  and  in  all  the  hope  of 
thine  infinite  grace.  Not  one  day  would  we  live  jvithout  thee,  every  morning  would 
we  be  found  at  thy  gate.s,  and  every  eventide  with  a  new  song  upon  our  lips.  This 
is  our  purpose,  how  much  greater  is  tJiine  intent  concerning  us.  Thou  hast  given  us 
this  lifting  up  of  heart:  we  speak  not  in  view  of  our  own  inspiration,  our  tongue 
utters  what  thou  hast  already  told  the  heart  to  say.  Let  thine  Amen  be  greater  than 
our  prayer,  yea  let  thine  answer  overflow  the  letter  of  our  petition  as  the  waters 
cover  the  channels  of  the  sea.  From  this  day  forth  may  we  all  be  thine,  may  no 
man  call  himself  his  own,  may  the  cross  be  the  object  of  our  love,  and  the  Jvingdom 
of  Christ  the  supreme  hope  of  our  life.  Forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind,  may 
we  press  towards  the  things  that  are  before — better  things,  higher  and  altogether 
greater  ;  by  a  mighty  and  daily  constraint  of  the  heart  may  we  be  drawn  onward  to 
the  things  which  are  full  of  God  and  therefore  full  of  heaven. 

We  give  thee  unanimous  and  unfeigned  thanks  for  all  the  mercies  of  the  year  to 
which  we  have  said  farewell.  Within  that  year  we  have  wedded  the  bride,  and 
rocked  the  cradle,  and  dug  the  grave ;  we  have  heard  the  birds  sing  and  seen  the 
flowers  die,  and  now  it  is  gone  away  with  the  story  of  our  temptation  and  our  sin, 
our  many  prayers  and  our  feeble  efforts.  The  Lord  help  us  in  the  year  that  is  now 
coming  to  be  nobler  in  every  purpose,  more  steadfast  in  every  grace  :  may  we  be 
marked  in  our  whole  life  by  a  broader  and  stronger  charity,  and  by  a  constancy  which 
no  wind  of  temptation  can  shake.  Where  there  is  particular  fear,  may  there  be  par- 
ticular help,  and  if  anyone  is  desiring  this  night  to  offer  special  prayer  for  special 
mercies  in  circumstances  critical,  full  of  danger  and  distress,  the  Lord  hear  us  on 
the  behalf  of  such,  and  send  gracious  answers  of  light  and  hope  to  suffering  children 
of  men. 

The  Lord  hear  us  in  all  our  prayers,  and  cause  us  to  love  his  altar,  with  a  higher 
affection.  The  Lord  save  us  from  all  delusions,  all  vain  notions,  all  unworthy  pur- 
poses, and  fill  us  with  a  consuming  desire  to  know  himself  and  his  truth  more  pro- 
foundly. If  any  man  have  a  quarrel  against  any,  let  the  quarrel  cease  just  now.  If 
any  man  have  an  uncharitable  thought  about  his  fellow-man,  let  the  heart  be  cleansed 
Oi  ohat  evil  thought  just  now.  If  any  man  have  consciously  done  wrong  to  any  fel- 
low-creature, work  in  him  an  immediate  desire  to  apologise  and  repair  and  repent 
both  towards  man  and  towards  God.  Wherein  our  purposes  are  right,  strengthen 
them  every  one  :  wherein  our  counsel  is  founded  in  vanity  and  marked  by  feebleness, 
the  Lord  turn  it  upside  down  and  visit  us  with  the  darkness  of  confusion. 

The  Lord  pity  us,  the  Lord  forgive  us.     Our  prayer  is  not  of  our  own  utterance, 


I02  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

nor  is  it  offered  in  our  own  name.  We  pray  in  tlie  name  of  the  Priest,  the  Inter- 
cessor, the  One  Mediator  between  God  and  man.  Remembering  his  cross,  his  precious 
blood,  his  infinite  sacrifice,  we  commit  our  prayer  to  his  priesthood,  and  we  know  the 
answer  wUl  be  great  and  sure.     Amen. 

The  Temptation  {continued'). 

Let  me  ask  your  attention  for  the  third  time  to  the  record  of  our  Sav- 
iour's temptation,  which  we  have  just  read.  Already  we  have  twice  assem- 
bled around  this  incident  :  in  the  first  case  making  ourselves  acquainted 
with  the  precise  nature  of  the  temptations  addressed  to  our  Lord,  and  in 
the  second  instance  making  ourselves  acquainted  with  the  answers  which 
were  returned  to  those  subtle  and  terrific  assaults.  Our  purpose  to-night 
will  be  limited  to  the  setting  forth  of  certain  practical  lessons  suggested 
by  the  conflict,  which  may  apply  to  ourselves  in  all  the  weary  strife  and 
painful  discipline  and  all  but  incessant  temptations  of  our  own  earthly 
course. 

Shall  I  startle  you  very  much  if  I  say  that  there  is  some  comfort  to  be 
derived  even  from  temptation  ?  Shall  I  for  the  moment  depart  from  the 
usual  course  of  preachers  and  instead  of  dwelling  on  the  dark  side  of 
temptation,  show  you  how  light  comes  in  that  black  hour  ?  There  are 
times  enough  in  the  year  when  I  may  seek  to  afflict  you  with  considera- 
tions that  pain  the  soul ;  what  if,  for  the  time  being,  we  get  lifted  in  ten- 
derer mood  altogether,  and  speak  light  to  those  who  sit  in  darkness  ?  This 
is  of  the  Lord's  doing  and  it  is  as  marvellous  in  our  eyes  as  it  is  consola- 
tory to  our  heart. 

For  example,  temptation  implies  a  measure  of  goodness  on  the  part  of  the 
man  who  is  tempted.  The  orchard  robber  does  not  go  into  the  orchard 
in  the  winter  time  :  he  says  there  is  nothing  to  be  gained  ;  why  skulk  be- 
hind the  hedge,  why  watch  the  doors  of  the  house,  why  lay  plots  and 
schemes  for  the  robbery  of  this  orchard  ?  There  is  not  one  particle  of 
fruit  to  be  had  upon  all  these  winter-bound  branches.  The  robber  of 
orchards  comes  in  fruit  time  ;  it  is  the  fruit  that  tempts  him  ;  it  is  the 
fruit  that  is  worth  having  ;  he  does  not  want  the  h^arren  branch,  how  great 
and  far-reaching  soever  it  may  be  ;  he  wants  the  ripening  fruit — for  that 
his  fingers  itch. 

Is  it  not  so,  in  some  degree,  with  regard  to  the  assault  of  the  enemy  ? 
There  is  some  virtue  he  would  pluck  from  us,  there  is  some  noble  temper 
he  would  spoil,  there  is  some  high  desire  he  would  mar,  there  is  some  med- 
itated prayer  just  taking  wing  for  Heaven  that  he  would  turn  aside. 
Reflect,  then,  that  your  temptations  may  be,  from  the  diabolical  side,  but 
so  many  indications  that  you  are  worth  tempting. 

Then  let  us  once  for  all  get  rid  of  the  delusion  that  temptation  is  sin 
That  thought  has  troubled  many  an  honest  heart.     A  man  feels  himself 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE.  IO3 

strongly  drawn  in  a  wrong  direction,  and  he  says,  "  I  am  a  very  bad  man." 
Once  let  a  man's  hope  in  himself  through  God  fail,  and  he  will  be  the  very 
thing  that  he  fears.  The  temptation  doubles  itself  in  its  breadth  and 
momentum  by  suggesting  that  itself  is  sin.  The  best  are  the  most  tempted; 
we  have  already  seen  that  in  the  course  of  our  exposition,  when  we  read 
these  words  together,  one  after  the  other  in  sharp  succession — "  This  is 
my  beloved  Son.  Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  spirit  to  be  tempted  of 
the  devil."  We  all  remember  instances  in  which  the  thought  that  tempta- 
tion was  sin  utterly  took  the  sunshine  out  of  our  life.  You  are  tempted 
to  take  that  drink  that  has  ruined  you.  You  say,  "  I  have  as  good  as 
done  it ;  there  is  a  pull  at  my  heart  which  wants  me  to  do  it,  and  if  I  have 
already  drunk  it  in  my  heart  I  may  as  well  drink  it  with  my  lips.  I  have 
committed  my  sin  spiritually,  I  may  as  well  perfect  it  externally."  Beware 
lest  you  give  temptation  sharpness,  leverage,  and  the  use  of  all  the  me- 
chanical powers  by  considering  that  temptation  is  itself  sin.  Do  not  say, 
"  What  a  bad  heart  I  have,  or  I  could  not  be  tempted  so  ;  "  on  the  con- 
trary, reason  thus — "What  a  strong  enemy  I  have,  how  he  plagues  me,  and 
does  he  play  his  game  for  nothing  ?  Is  he  laying  all  his  plots  and  schemes 
and  plans  that  he  may  win  a  rotten  straw  ?  "  Through  the  force  and 
urgency  and  number  of  your  temptations,  see  the  grandest  side  of  your 
nature.  Who  wastes  his  guns  on  empty  citadels  ?  Who  wastes  his  fire 
in  burning  up  that  Avhich  is  itself  valueless  for  all  the  purposes  of  cleans- 
ing and  purification  ?  In  proportion  as  you  are  great  and  noble  and  heav- 
enly-minded will  be  the  force  and  persistency  of  the  diabolic  assault. 

There  is  yet  another  streak  of  comfort  in  this  dreary  discipline.  The 
struggle  excites  uitcrest  in  tivo  worlds.  In  this  great  battle  you  find  the 
devil,  you  find  humanity,  and  j^ou  find  angels.  The  last  verse  reads, 
"  Then  the  devil  leaveth  him,  and  behold  angels  came  and  ministered 
unto  him."  We  are  watched.  Seeing  then  that  we  are  surrounded  by  so 
great  a  cloud  of  witnesses — what  then  ?  Let  us  run  with  patience  the  race 
that  is  set  before  us,  looking  unto  Jesus,  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  our 
faith.  "Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  spirit  into  the  wilderness."  Then 
he  will  be  alone.  He  will  be  struck  at  where  there  is  no  friend  to  help 
him.  Not  so  !  Put  the  first  verse  and  the  last  together.  No  man  was 
there,  but  all  God's  angels  thronged  the  assaulted  Christ.  Lord,  open  our 
eyes  that  we  may  see  the  reality  of  things.  We  think  we  are  alone  when 
all  high  Heaven  is  round  about  us,  and  every  angel  is  on  guard  to  defend 
our  life  and  consummate  our  purpose.  We  are  blind,  we  have  mistaken 
the  ceiling  for  the  sky,  and  walls  of  our  own  building  have  we  mistaken 
for  thine  unmeasured  horizon.     Give  us  accuracy  and  farness  of  vision. 

How  differently — let  us  dream  a  moment,  wildly,  almost  blasphe- 
mously— the  verse  might  have  finished,  namely  thus,  "  Then  the  devil 
leaveth  him,  and  behold  his  angels,  black  as  himself,  pitiless  as  his  own 


T04  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

heart,  came  and  dragged  him  away."  O  wild  dream,  nearing  the  border 
hne  of  blasphemy,  yet  not  without  its  wholesome  suggestion,  for  what  was 
impossible  in  the  case  of  Christ  is  possible  in  the  case  of  every  one  of  us, 
for  we  are  so  frail,  so  short-sighted,  so  open  to  seduction  and  false  lure. 
Shall  it  be  said  of  me,  of  you,  "  Then  the  devil  leaveth  him,  and  sent 
hounds  of  hell  to  drag  the  wounded  soul  into  the  pit.  Then  the  devil 
having  bruised  his  heart  and  thrown  him  down  and  cast  him  to  the  ground 
with  infinite  superiority  of  strength,  left  him  to  be  fetched  home  by  some 
hound  of  hell  "  ?  I  hit  my  body  in  the  eye,  I  blacken  both  my  eyes,  I 
push  and  thrust  sharp  knuckles  into  my  eye,  lest,  having  preached  to 
others,  I  myself  become  a  castaway.  What  I  say  unto  one  I  say  unto  all — 
Watch.  Resist  the  devil,  and  he  will  flee  from  you.  We  fight  not  with 
flesh  and  blood,  but  against  principalities,  against  powers,  against  the 
rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world,  against  forces  impalpable  and  all  but 
irresistible. 

I  cannot  look  then  at  the  temptation  in  this  light,  without  seeing  some- 
what of  the  grandeur  of  MAN.  Two  worlds  contend  for  his  possession  ; 
the  angels  want  him,  and  the  damned  host  gnash  their  teeth  upon  him  and 
long  to  devour  him.  What  is  he  ?  Some  dying  insect ;  some  frail,  ani- 
mated dust,  some  little  creature  that  can  be  consumed  utterly  as  to  his 
soul  as  well  as  to  his  body,  before  the  moth  ?  It  is  not  so  that  I  read  the 
biblical  account  of  my  own  nature  ;  the  divinity  stirs  within  me,  I  can 
utter  vast  prayers,  I  can  stretch  my  supplications  onward  till  the  stars  fall 
under  them,  like  earth-lamps  dimly  seen  through  infinite  mists.  Do  not 
tell  me  that  I  am  little  and  mean  and  worthless  ;  I  know  what  I  am  when 
the  devil  would  give  all  he  has  to  get  me,  and  when  Christ  laid  down  his 
life  that  I  may  never  die.  Not  the  metaphysician,  not  the  psychologist, 
not  the  philosopher,  can  take  from  me  by  long  and  weary-winding  reason- 
ing my  grandeur.  I  feel  it,  I  know  it ;  Avhen  the  long-strained  argument 
has  ceased  its  murky  and  confusing  eloquence,  I  rise  and  say,  "  I  feel  that 
I  am  the  bearer  of  the  image  of  the  divine."  My  consciousness  cannot  be 
argued  down,  my  vocabulary  may  be  exhausted,  my  intelligence  may  be 
put  to  shame  by  the  superior  knowledge  of  many  a  disputant,  but  when 
all  that  can  be  said  on  the  other  side  has  completed  itself  in  many  a  weary 
period,  my  consciousness  rises  and  says,  '*  Thou  art  a  king's  son  ;  claim 
thine  heirship  and  insist  on  the  possession  of  thine  inheritance."  Tell  me 
if  you  have  not  had  moments  of  consciousness  in  which  you  have  forgot- 
ten your  littleness  and  have  stood  out  in  heroic  breadth  and  grandeur, 
transformed,  your  very  clothes  shining  with  light  and  your  face  aflame 
with  a  lustre  not  thrown  upon  it  from  any  external  lamp. 

Thus  would  I  gather  comfort  from  the  temptations  of  life.  Doubt  your- 
self if  your  temptations  are  few.  The  man  who  sleeps  in  a  wooden  hut, 
with  not  one  thing  of  any  value  whatever  upon  his  person  or  within  his 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  I05 

residence,  says,  "  I  hear  a  good  deal  of  burglaries  and  felonies  of  one  kind 
and  another,  but  do  you  know  I  have  no  faith  in  the  rumours.  /  am  never 
assaulted,  /  have  never  seen  a  burglar,  no  man  ever  interferes  with  me  ;  I 
fancy,  therefore,  that  all  this  talk  about  the  burglarious  invasion  of  houses 
is  folly."  Can  you  account  for  that  man's  never  having  a  visit  from  a  bur- 
glar ?  How  would  you  account  for  his  exemption  from  that  social  pest  ? 
Instantly  you  would  say,  "  That  man  has  nothing  worth  taking  ;  burglars 
do  not  waste  their  time  on  such,  they  go  where  the  prey  is."  So  I  say  to 
thee,  my  tempted  friend,  wearying  thyself  out  with  much  vivisection  and 
cross-examination  of  thy  poor  tortured  heart.  If  the  temptations  are 
many,  it  may  be  because  the  possessions  are  great.  Take  this  view  of  the 
assault  and  strengthen  thyself  in  God. 

Beware  of  the  temptation  which  comes  with  an  IF  in  its  moutli.  //  thou 
be  the  Son  of  God,  command  that  these  stones  be  made  bread.  If  thou 
be  the  Son  of  God,  cast  thyself  down.  Suspicion  may  be  the  beginning 
of  ruin.  Suspect  your  sonship  and  you  are  undone  at  once.  For  a  mo- 
ment begin  to  wonder  if  you  are  really  a  child  of  God,  and  the  battle  is 
half  won  by  the  enemy.  The  old  divines  used  to  preach  the  grand  and 
savoury  doctrine  of  assurance.  They  used  to  say,  faith  is  the  milk,  assur- 
ance is  the  cream.  With  puritanic  zeal,  but  with  a  divine  enthusiasm,  they 
used  to  urge  us  to  claim  all  the  enjoyment  and  security  of  distinct  assur- 
ance. Have  we  escaped  from  their  terms  and  from  their  theology  ?  Then 
we  have  escaped  from  a  rich  banquet,  that  Ave  might  feed  ourselves  upon 
the  empty  wind.  Recall  the  great  and  noble  words  of  Scripture — "  Now 
are  we  the  sons  of  God,  and  it  doth  not  appear  what  we  shall  be  ;  if  sons, 
then  heirs,  heirs  of  God  and  joint-heirs  with  Christ."  There  is  substance 
in  that  talk  ;  it  is  not  a  coloured  vapour,  it  is  the  substance  of  the  soul's  dis- 
tinct recognition  of  certain  divine  securities  which  God  has  promised  never 
to  withdraw  from  the  faithful  and  loving  soul.  Can  you  "  Abba,  Father," 
cry  ?  Can  you  ever  with  your  soul's  tenderest  trust  say,  "  God  is  my 
Father  "  ?  Then,  never  let  the  devil  write  his  big  and  hideous  if  upon 
your  faith.  Fatherhood  like  God's  does  not  change  with  the  wind  ;  this 
divine  relationship  is  not  a  question  of  the  barometer  ;  this  acceptance  on 
the  part  of  the  divine  Father,  is  not  a  question  of  your  physical  sufferings 
and  moods  and  indigestions  and  divers  infirmities.  Remember  that  you 
built  your  house  upon  a  rock,  and  do  not  suppose  any  fog  can  overthrow 
it.  If  you  had  built  the  edifice  of  your  life  upon  the  shifting  fog  it  would 
not  have  been  worth  one  moment's  purchase.  If  your  foundation  is  right, 
the  air  will  presently  be  clear.  You  know  what  visitations  of  fog  we  have 
had,  and  suppose  anyone  had  said  to  you,  "  All  the  great  buildings  of 
London  are  now  in  imminent  danger,"  you  would  have  smiled  at  the 
childish  suggestion.  Why  ?  Because  nothing  has  interfered  with  the 
foundations  of  those  building.?.     Fogs  break  no  slates,  fogs  cannot  even 


Io6  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

break  the  glass  ;  how  then  should  fogs  shake  the  rocks  and  make  the  towers 
totter  ? 

It  is  even  so  with  our  spiritual  life.  These  temptations  and  times  of 
depression,  sad  feeling,  low-heartedness,  and  want  of  courage,  are  but  the 
fogs  that  come  for  a  moment.  You  are  founded  on  a  rock,  then  lift  up 
your  heads — the  fogs  will  pass  and  every  star  will  be  found  to  be  firm  in 
its  place.  As  for  those  of  you  who  serve  the  devil,  let  me  tell  you  that  you 
are  either  under  the  dominion  of  God  or  you  are  under  the  dominion  of  God's 
enemy.  Do  not  suppose  that  there  is  a  third  master.  It  is  God  or  mam- 
mon. Do  not  suppose  that  if  you  escape  religion  you  escape  all  service — 
bondage — you  are  the  slaves  of  the  devil,  or  you  are  the  slaves  of  Christ. 
Let  me  tell  you  one  or  two  things  about  your  master.  He  was  once  mine 
and  I  know  him.  I  have  studied  his  game.  I  know  every  move  he  makes. 
He  has  only  three  moves  with  their  variations  on  the  chess-board  of  life. 
He  has  only  one  world  to  offer,  and  he  offered  it  to  Christ.  "  All  these 
things,"  said  he,  "  will  I  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship  me." 
AH — a  little  ALL  !  It  appeared  great  to  his  eye,  as  it  appears  great  to 
our  eye,  but  it  is  a  Little  all,  and  how  infinitely  little  it  must  have  appeared 
to  him  who  made  all  the  worlds  !  If  you  have  devised  a  little  light  that 
Avill  shine  ten  yards  further  than  the  light  which  somebody  else  has  devised, 
you  will  have  column  after  column  in  the  newspaper  about  it,  and  it  will 
appear  a  great  light.  But  if  you  had  made  one  single  sunbeam,  you  would 
laugh  at  the  greatness  of  your  supposed  illustrious  flame.  If  you  could 
see  all  the  solar  system  and  all  the 'outlying  stellar  universe,  circuit  beyond 
circuit,  flame  beyond  flame,  and  then  be  called  to  look  at  some  little  jet  of 
man's  contrivance,  you  would  smile  at  the  mighty  epithets  which  he  applies 
to  its  definition.  The  devil  looks  upon  the  world  and  says  "  All  these 
things  Avill  I  give  thee  "  to  a  Man  who  made  the  universe,  and  stands  above 
it,  and  sets  on  the  proudest  sun  the  imprint  of  his  footstep.  Do  not  be 
deceived  by  nearness  and  by  small  proverbs  and  by  immediate  possessions. 
Have  bread  to  eat  the  world  knoweth  not  of  ;  have  the  high  acquaintance- 
ship of  God,  and  then  the  petty  fellowship  of  earthly  princes  will  dwindle 
into  its  proper  insignificance. 

I  will  tell  you  another  thing  about  your  master  which  will  make  you 
ashamed  of  him.  He  trade?,  upon  my  weakness ;  he  never  comes  to  me  in 
my  strength  ;  for  whenever  he  sees  me  a  little  weary,  then  he  comes  with 
all  his  force.  When  I  have  fasted  forty  days  and  forty  nights  and  become 
conscious  of  painful  hunger,  then  he  slouches  up  and  tells  me  his  little 
plan  for  bread-making  out  of  stones.  When  I  feel  tired  at  night,  all  my 
energy  gone  out  of  me,  he  comes  to  me  and  says,  "  You  could  do  a  great 
deal  better  than  this,  you  know,  if  you  left  the  pulpit  and  took  up  with 
another  line  of  life  that  I  could  put  you  into — why,  there  is  no  telling  what 
you  might  do,"     And  I  say,  "I  do  feel  tired,  I  wish  I  could  escape  this 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE,  loy 

weariness."  And  he  says,  with  pleasant  voice,  lowered  into  a  soft  minor, 
so  dear  to  true  confidence,  "  I  can  show  you  how."  The  beast  never  faced 
me  when  I  was  strong,  he  was  afraid  of  me  when  the  God  shone  in  my  face, 
but  whenever  he  has  caught  me  weak  and  depressed  and  sad,  with  tears  in 
mine  eyes,  at  the  grave-side,  at  the  bedside  of  my  dying  friend,  then  he  has 
come  to  me  and  said,  "  I  can  get  you  out  of  all  this."  Be  ashamed  of  such 
a  coward,  disown  him,  write  a  better  name  on  your  life-banner — he  is  a 
coward,  a  liar,  a  murderer  from  the  beginning,  a  separater  of  brethren,  a 
deceiver,  a  usurper.     Resist  the  devil  and  he  will  flee  from  you. 

And  as  for  you,  poor  soul,  barely  living,  I  want  a  word  with  yo-u  at  the 
opening  of  this  year.  You  are  a  misunderstood  man  ;  persons  come  to  you 
and  say  that  you  ought  not  to  do  this,  and  ought  not  to  do  that,  and  you 
know  it  well  enough,  and  their  exhortation  is  but  so  much  vitriol  poured 
into  an  open  wound.  They  call  you  a  bad  man  and  they  have  no  hope  in 
you,  and  everybody  has  left  you  now  but  your  mother,  and  sometimes  you 
think  she  is  going  too,  but  if  she  goes  out  at  one  door  she  will  come  back 
through  another.  When  a  man's  mother  leaves  him,  no  angel  can  come  to 
minister  unto  him  ;  he  is  ready  then  for  the  hounds  that  drag  him  down. 
Shall  I  set  myself  up  against  you  and  boast  and  triumph  over  you  ?  No. 
Why  ?  Because  you  have  been  sorely  tempted,  and  I  may  not  have  been 
tempted  so  sorely.  It  took  you  a  long  time  to  fall ;  I  might  have  fallen  in 
half  the  time  :  who  am  I  then  that  I  should  taunt  you  and  mock  you  ?  Be 
it  far  from  me  to  practise  this  kind  of  reproach — it  is  the  meanest  use  of 
morality. 

And  you  have  lived  a  poor,  poor  life  and  are  next  to  nothing  to  look  at 
now  from  a  spiritual  point  of  view,  and  you  are  going  almost  to  give  up. 
Don't,  The  friends  around  you  know  what  temptations  you  have  fallen 
into,  but  as  Robert  Burns  says  in  one  of  the  sweetest  of  his  poems, 

"  They  know  not  what's  resisted." 

We  see  only  one  aspect  of  a  man's  life.  When  he  tumbles  flat  down  in  the 
mud  we  say,  "  We  always  knew  it," — but  when  he  is  just  going  along  the 
road,  staggering,  drunk  but  not  with  wine,  almost  in  hell,  they  know  not 
what  has  been  resisted.  There  is  one  judge  and  his  name  is  God,  and  if 
we  do  our  utmost  in  his  strength,  he  will  count  our  purposes  temples  and 
our  desires  shall  be  precious  to  him  as  accomplished  facts. 


XIII. 

TEMPTATION      PREPARES      FOR     WORK THE      SCULPTURED     BUT      USELESS 

STONE THE     RESTFULNESS    OF    OBEDIENCE SOME     TEXTS     BEYOND    OUR 

STRENGTH — GOOD    LISTENING. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  if  we  are  remembered  by  tliee,  it  matters  not  by  whom  we  are  for- 
gotten ;  thou  dost  engrave  our  names  on  the  pahns  of  thine  hands,  the  walls  of  Zion 
are  continually  before  thee,  and  sooner  shall  our  eyes  behold  the  falling  of  all  that  is 
in  thy  heavens  than  we  shall  see  that  thou  hast  forgotten  them  that  trust  thee. 
Whilst  thou  art  mindful  bf  thy  children,  may  thy  children  be  mindful  of  their  Lord. 
May  our  right  hand  forget  its  cunning,  and  our  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  our 
mouth  if  we  forget  Jerusalem,  and  prefer  it  not  before  our  chief  joy.  May  we  be 
enabled  to  utter  these  things  by  the  intelligence  and  the  ardour  of  our  love.  Truly 
thou  hast  remembered  us  in  our  low  estate,  thou  wert  mindful  of  us  before  we  had 
returned,  and  whilst  yet  we  were  in  the  far  off  wilderness,  even  then  thine  eye  pitied 
and  thine  arm  was  outstretched  in  salvation.  And  now  that  we  have  returned  to  the 
Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  our  souls,  and  are  enfolded  with  those  that  love  and  follow 
thee,  surely  thy  remembrance  of  us  will  be  quicker  than  ever,  and  thy  tenderness 
will  flow  towards  us  in  perpetual  fulness. 

We  have  to  bless  thee  for  thy  gentle  care,  thy  long-suffering,  thy  great  patience. 
We  have  outworn  our  friends,  we  have  tried  and  vexed  with  sore  distress  those  who 
bare  us,  and  behold  thy  love  is  greater  than  our  mother's,  and  thy  patience  has  been 
without  limit.  We  live  in  thy  long  suffering  :  if  thou  wert  strict  to  mark  iniquities, 
we  could  not  stand  before  thee  in  judgment.  Thou  dost  look  upon  us  in  thy  Son 
Jesus  Christ,  our  one  priest  and  our  only  Saviour,  and  see  in  him  and  through  his 
work  ;  behold  thou  dost  count  us  of  great  value  ;  yea,  thou  dost  set  store  by  us,  as  if 
we  were  needful  to  the  completion  of  thy  happiness. 

The  very  hairs  of  our  head  are  all  numbered  ;  thou  dost  count  our  steps-  one  by 
one,  our  downsitting  and  our  uprising  are  not  too  mean  to  be  noticed  in  Heaven  ; 
thou  dost  beset  us  behind  and  before,  and  lay  thine  hand  upon  us  ;  thou  dost  send 
thine  angels  to  watch  our  life  and  to  bless  us  with  many  benedictions.  Thou  hast 
filled  our  cup,  thou  hast  made  our  bed,  thou  hast  kept  our  dwelling-place,  thou  hast 
been  round  about  us  as  a  defence  of  fire.  What  shall  we  render  unto  the  Lord  for 
all  his  benefits  towards  us?  We  are  here  this  day  to  bow  down  our  heads  and  to  say 
that  we  are  unprofitable  because  unclean  ;  we  have  come  that  we  might  make  com- 
mon confession  of  sin,  and  unanimously  implore  the  exercise  of  thy  forgiveness, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  blessed  and  infinite  Redeemer.  Wherein  our  conscience  is 
oppressed  as  with  a  great  weight,  wherein  our  life  is  made  gloomy  by  the  infinite 
darkness  of  aggravated  sin,  let  the  Lord  manifest  himself  towards  us  in  peculiar  con- 
cern and  sympathy,  and  look  upon  us  through  all  the  work  accomplished  for  us  by  his 
Son  Christ  Jesus.     Wherein  we  have  spoiled  the  week  thou  didst  give  us  to  work  in, 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  lOg 

let  thy  pardon  come  to  us.  Wherein  the  days  have  hecn  blotted  by  our  unskilful 
hands,  wherein  we  have  returned  thy  gifts  perverted  and  dishonoured,  let  the  Lord 
be  merciful  unto  us,  remembering  that  we  came  of  the  dust,  and  that  we  are  in  our- 
selves but  as  a  wind  that  cometh  for  a  little  time  and  then  passetli  away.  The 
Lord's  love  be  greater  than  his  judgment,  and  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  shall  be  more 
than  all  our  sin. 

We  bless  thee  that  our  desire  is  still  towards  the  light  ;  once  we  loved  darkness, 
now  we  pray  for  the  broadening  light  of  the  day,  that  it  may  be  spread  over  us  until 
the  whole  sky  be  filled  with  its  brightness  and  there  be  no  shadow  left,  but  we  stand 
in  the  infinite  fulness  of  such  glory  as  our  souls  can  now  receive.  We  bless  thee, 
too,  that  we  care  for  thy  truth,  that  we  look  into  thy  book  with  wistful  eyes  and 
eager  heart,  desiring  to  see  and  to  hear  what  God  the  Lord  will  say.  Enable  us  to 
see  the  beauty  of  thy  word,  to  feel  the  nearness  of  the  sympathy  of  thy  spirit,  and 
may  thy  revelation  destroy  all  earthly  delusions,  all  foolish  prejudices,  all  narrow 
conceptions  of  our  own  imagining,  and  may  we  stand  not  in  our  own  thinking,  but 
in  the  breadth  and  glory  of  the  divine  revelation. 

We  commend  one  another  to  thy  tender  care.  Help  us  to  pray  for  one  another, 
with  a  full  and  anxious  heart.  Thou  knowest  what  we  need — we  are  always  need- 
ing, our  want  is  daily,  our  life  is  a  long  cry  of  necessity,  and  a  long  moan  of  pain. 
So  would  we  always  have  the  Lord's  fulness  near  and  the  Lord's  blessing  at  hand  ; 
we  would  not  be  for  one  moment  without  thee,  for  in  that  moment  would  our  ruin  be 
wrought.  Where  there  is  desire  to  know  thee  better,  let  the  light  increase  in  lustre 
and  in  breadth  ;  where  there  is  bitterness  of  soul  on  account  of  sin,  let  the  infinite 
sweetness  of  thy  forgiving  grace  be  tasted  ;  where  there  is  a  vow  to  live  a  nobler  life, 
enable  him  who  took  the  oath  to  fulfil  it  to  its  letter  ;  where  there  is  a  heart  strug- 
gling against  difficulty,  temptation,  distress  of  mind,  body,  or  estate,  let  the  angel  of 
the  Lord  help  the  struggler,  and  bring  him  into  more  than  victory.  Where  there  is 
self-conceit,  self-trust,  consciousness  that  all  that  is  needed  lies  within  human  power, 
the  Lord  consume  the  delusion  as  with  fire  from  Heaven,  and  work  in  every  self- 
righteous  heart  the  spirit  of  child -like  humility,  of  Christian  modesty. 

The  Lord  help  us  when  we  need  help  most.  The  angel  of  the  Lord  be  near  us 
when  the  enemy  would  come  in  as  a  flood,  and  may  the  delivering  spirit  redeem  us 
from  despair  and  set  our  tried  souls  again  high  on  the  everlasting  hills  where  they 
will  catch  all  the  brightness  of  the  hope  that  is  in  God.  Pity  us  when  we  are  proud 
of  ourselves,  fight  not  against  us  when  we  give  way  before  thee  and  fall  down  in 
penitence  and  expectation,  and  let  the  light  of  thy  countenance  fall  upon  us — it  will 
never  be  a  burden,  it  will  be  a  deliverance  and  a  hope.  If  any  man  have  a  quarrel 
against  any,  let  the  quarrel  now  cease,  let  the  spirit  of  reconciliation  seize  the  heart 
from  which  it  has  gone  in  exile.  If  any  man  cry  unto  thee  because  of  a  peculiar 
trial  which  he  cannot  put  into  words,  the  Lord  read  his  heart  and  secretly  answer  his 
prayer. 

Remember  the  stranger  within  our  gates,  the  traveller,  the  man,  the  woman,  far 
from  home,  great  seas  rolling  between  them  and  the  place  they  love,  the  Lord  be 
with  such  and  give  to  them  to  feel  that  this  is  their  Father's  house,  and  by  the  eleva- 
tion of  Christian  fellowship,  by  the  flooding  of  the  soul  with  all  that  is  Christian  and 
divine,  may  there  be  an  uplifting  above  all  temporary  separation  and  distress. 

The  Lord's  blessing  go  beyond  us — to  the  sick  chamber,  where  there  is  danger, 
where  there  is  pain,  where  death  has  almost  taken  possession  ;  to  the  prison  where 
the  prisoner  languishes  and  is  being  taught  the  value  of  moral  reflection  by  his  isola- 
tion and  punishment,  to  the  sea  where  men  are  in  trouble  and  in  great  fear,  to  the 
field  of  battle  where  the  soldier's  life  is  one  keen  anxiety  ;  yea,  let  thy  blessing  go 


no  THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

the  wliole  earth  round,  omitting  none  from  its  baptism  of  light,  and  let  the  earth  feel 
that  it  is  still  in  God's  hand,  yea,  in  God's  heart,  the  earth  that  has  borne  the  cross, 
and  shall  one  day  see  the  throne  of  the  Saviour's  glory.     Amen. 

Matthew  iv.  12-17. 

12.  Now  when  Jesus  had  heard  (and  hccause  he  had  heard)  that  John  was  cast 
into  prison  (at  Machoerus),  he  departed  into  Galilee  (by  the  shortest  route,  through 
Samaria). 

13.  And  leaving  Nazareth,  he  came  and  dwelt  in  Capernaum,  which  is  upon  the 
sea-coast,  In  the  borders  of  Zabulon  and  Nephthalim  : 

14.  That  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  Avas  spoken  by  Esaias  the  prophet,  saying, 

15.  The  land  of  Zabulon,  and  the  land  of  Nephthalim,  by  the  way  of  the  sea,  be- 
yond Jordan,  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles  ; 

16.  The  people  which  sat  in  darkness  saw  great  light :  and  to  them  which  sat  in 
the  region  of  the  shadow  of  death  light  is  sprung  up. 

17.  From  that  time  Jesus  began  to  preach,  and  to  say,  Eepent :  for  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  at  hand. 

The  eleventh  verse  reads — "  Then  the  devil  leaveth  him,  and  behold 
angels  came  and  ministered  unto  him  ;  "  and  the  twelfth  verse  reads — 
"  Now,  when  Jesus  had  heard  that  John  was  cast  into  prison,  he  departed 
into  Galilee."  You  must  not  imagine  that  the  events  in  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  verses  followed  one  another  in  immediate  succession.  Jesus  had 
been  exercising  something  like  an  eight  months'  ministry  in  Judea,  when 
he  heard  that  John  was  cast  into  prison.  Still,  I  cannot  but  feel  that  the 
temptation  prepared  the  great  Worker  for  his  marvellous  toil.  He  was  in 
all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  how  otherwise  could  he  have  been  our 
Priest  and  Saviour  in  every  sense  of  those  immeasurable  terms  ?  No  angel 
could  have  preached  to  me  ;  he  would  not  have  understood  me,  his  lan- 
guage would  be  unknown,  he  would  have  nothing  in  common  with  my 
deepest  and  most  painful  experience,  he  would  be  altogether  above  me, 
too  grand  and  sublime  for  my  spiritual  conception  ;  it  was  needful  that  he 
who  was  to  speak  the  universal  language,  should  pass  under  the  universal 
experience  .  he  should  know  the  devil,  he  should  have  met  him  as  it  were 
face  to  face,  he  should  have  felt  the  keenness  of  his  subtlest  approaches, 
and  the  blow  of  his  heaviest  assault.  Jesus  Christ  was  thus  prepared  by 
temptation  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  world,  and  indeed  to  do  all  the 
work  for  the  world  which  he  had  from  eternity  undertaken  to  accom- 
plish. 

Men  are  fitted  for  work  in  various  ways.  Some  men  are  fitted  for  it  by 
the  reading  of  many  books  hard  and  difficult  to  be  understood,  others  are 
fitted  by  a  wear  and  tear  that  seems  to  have  no  expression  adequate  to 
itself  in  human  words,  a  continual  vexation  of  the  soul  and  distress  of  all 
its  best  faculties,  so  that  they  come  up  out  of  great  agonies  to  speak  tender 
words,  and  they  bring  themselves  out  of  the  night  of  intolerable  despair  to 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE,  IH 

Utter  the  word  of  benediction.  But  no  man  can  be  prepared  for  any  deep 
and  vital  work  in  the  world  who  has  not  gone  through  the  school  of  the 
devil.  You  cannot  be  taught  to  preach  by  reading  many  books,  how  long 
and  eloquent  soever.  You  overshoot  my  life  ;  I  must  hear  something  in 
your  tone  which  will  enable  me  to  identify  you  as  of  my  own  kindred. 
Now  and  again  there  must  break  from  your  heart's  voice  tones  and  accents 
which  tell  me  that  you  too  have  been  in  the  pit,  have  been  dragged  through 
the  lake  of  fire,  and  have  understood  what  it  is  to  be  almost — gone.  He 
has  wonderful  influence  over  me  who  can  pity  me  in  the  distresses  of  my 
temptation.  He  who  can  only  make  my  intellect  wonder,  touch  my  imagi- 
nation with  new  and  flashing  lights,  has  but  momentary  fascination  for 
me  ;  I  own  it,  and  bid  the  man  farewell ;  but  he  who  knows  the  devil  in 
and  out,  all  the  temptations  in  me,  and  who  has  come  away  from  the  life- 
battle  feeling  that  the  enemy  is  no  small  one,  but  subtle  in  suggestion  and 
mighty  in  influence,  and  who  says  to  me,  "  The  battle  is  very  heavy,  do 
not  underrate  it  ;  your  strength  will  be  tried  to  its  very  last  fibre  and  throb, 
but  God  will  help  you  ;  your  extremity  shall  be  his  opportunity  " — then  he 
takes  me  under  his  influence,  and  I  yield  myself  to  him  and  call  him,  not 
preacher  only,  and  teacher,  wise  and  true,  but  friend  sympathetic,  with 
whose  soul  mine  has  fellowship,  and  we  can  go  together  both  in  blessed 
and  hopeful  union  to  the  common  throne  of  the  church,  from  which  is  dis- 
pensed the  blessing  which  is  better  than  bread,  the  word  which  gives  the 
soul  immortality. 

Have  you  been  fitted  for  your  work  ?  If  so,  why  are  you  not  doing  it  ? 
To  be  qualified  and  yet  to  be  idle  is  to  incur  the  severest  displeasure  of 
man  and  of  God.  How  many  more  books  are  you  going  to  read  before 
you  begin  to' speak  ?  How  much  longer  are  you  going  to  study  the  provi- 
dence of  God  amongst  the  children  of  men  before  you  begin  to  open  your 
mouth  in  witness  ?  How  many  more  sermons  and  prayers  are  you  going 
to  hear  and  endorse,  before  you  begin  in  the  market-place  to  say,  "  My 
scales  are  kept  in  Heaven  and  my  standards  are  set  up  in  the  sanctuary  of 
the  sky  "  ?  It  is  time  that  some  of  us  were  proving  our  fitness  by  our 
activity  ;  sad  is  the  sight  of  a  man  qualified,  evidently  fitted  to  do  certain 
work,  and  yet  not  doing  it.  We  have  all  heard  of  that  wonderful  stone  in 
the  quarry  out  of  which  Baalbec  was  builded  ;  it  was  a  great  stone,  it  was 
cut  out  of  the  rock  with  great  labour,  the  mason  squared  it,  the  sculptor 
chiselled  it,  nothing  more  that  the  tool  could  do  to  it  remained  to  be  done, 
and  yet  there  it  lay  in  the  quarry,  not  lifted  to  its  proper  eminence,  not  set 
amid  its  designed  surroundings,  a  gigantic  miscarriage,  a  horrible  failure  ; 
fitted,  made  beautiful,  almost  speaking  in  its  perfected  sculpture,  and  yet 
there  it  was  lying  with  the  rubbish,  when  it  might  have  been  shining  like  a 
living  presence  in  some  magnificent  temple. 

What  is  true  of  that  stone  is  surely  true  of  some  of  us.     We  have  been 


112  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

a  long  time  at  school,  yet  we  never  use  our  learning  for  the  good  of  men. 
We  have  been  much  trained  in  music,  yet  we  do  little  but  mumble  in  the 
vocal  worship  of  Almighty  God.  We  have  read  many  books,  yet  we  are 
silent  as  the  grave.  We  have  passed  through  many  a  temptation,  but  the 
word  of  sympathy  never  falls  from  our  lips.  We  have  proved  the  vanity 
of  the  world  and  we  have  never  told  the  j'oung  that  the  world  is  a  gigantic 
lie  and  life  but  an  empty  wind  apart  from  God  and  the  infinite  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ.  How  much  longer  therefore  shall  we  be  qualified  to  do 
much  and  yet  be  doing  little  ?  How  much  longer  shall  we  have  studied 
the  eloquence  which  is  taught  only  in  the  expensive  school  of  experience, 
and  yet  shut  up  our  lips  in  criminal  dumbness  ?  Our  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  having  been  qualified  for  his  work,  went  to  it.  Arise,  let  us  go 
hence. 

When  Jesus  heard  that  John  was  cast  into  prison — cast  into  prison  by 
Herod,  because  the  Baptist  had  reproved  the  ruler  for  his  evil  ways — then 
the  work  ceased.  Shut  up  the  preacher  in  prison  and  you  will  shut  up 
Christ's  Church,  would  seem  to  be  the  short  and  easy  method  of  persons 
who  take  superficial  views  of  divine  truth.  A  man  is  plaguing  you  with 
his  remonstrances  :  shut  him  up  in  gaol,  and  there  will  be  an  end  of  your 
trouble.  That  would  be  a  fool's  speech  to  make,  if  ever  you  did  make 
one.  You  can  shut  up  the  worker,  but  can  you  shut  up  the  work  ?  You 
can  silence  the  individual  minister — what  is  he  but  a  little  creature  in  the 
presence  and  in  relation  to  the  power  of  a  reigning  monarch  ?  But  how 
can  you  shut  up  the  divine  truth  ?  John  was  cast  into  prison,  but  there 
came  a  great  light.  Now,  Herod,  rattle  your  gaol-keys,  get  them  all  out 
and  shut  up  the  light  in  gaol.  O  the  mockery,  the  satire,  the  instructive 
sarcasm  of  the  King  that  reigns  over  all  !  John  is  incarcerated,  and  the 
Lord  sends  a  great  light  over  the  lands,  and  bids  the  kings  of  the  earth 
shut  it  up  in  their  dungeons.  So  it  is  Avith  the  progress  of  divine  truth. 
A  minister  dies,  but  the  light  increases  :  the  individual  speaker  comes  to 
the  end  of  his  discourse,  but  there  are  silent  and  subtle  ministries  ever- 
more proceeding  with  infinite  effect  to  work  out  the  decree  and  purpose 
of  God.  The  eloquent  thunder  ceases,  the  silent  light  goes  on.  This 
Christian  kingdom  is  a  ministry  of  light  ;  it  is  a  marvellous  light,  it  is  a 
great  light,  it  is  impalpable,  intangible,  immeasurable  ;  it  is  around  us  and 
we  cannot  touch  it  ;  we  put  out  our  hands  and  dash  through  it,  and  still 
it  stands  there,  an  angel  that  fills  the  whole  horizon.  Fear  not  :  your 
great  Baptist  is  mewed  up  in  prison  and  the  axe  is  being  whetted  that 
shall  take  off  his  head  :  the  next  thing  that  axe  will  have  to  do  will  be  to 
strike  the  beams  off  the  sun.  Can  it  perform  that  deed,  or  is  the  axe  not 
yet  made  that  can  shatter  one  ray  from  the  source  out  of  which  it 
falls  ? 

When  Jesus  had  heard  that  John  was  cast  into  prison  he  departed,  that 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE.  II3 

it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet.  Can  a  man  not  go 
from  one  city  or  province  to  another,  without  fulfilling  some  old  and 
sacred  word  of  prophecy  ?  The  answer  to  that  inquiry  is  "  No."  Did  you 
come  to  church  to-day  by  the  divine  decree  ?  The  answer  to  that  inquiry 
is  "  Yes."  You  could  not  help  coming.  Do  not  suppose  that  we  are  here 
by  accident.  We  are  here  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by 
the  prophet.  Do  not  isolate  yourself  from  the  great  body  of  history  and 
the  great  stream  of  prophecy,  and  say  that  you  do  just  what  you  like. 
You  think  you  do  :  it  is  your  delusion,  and  it  will  prove  in  the  long  run 
to  be  a  source  of  unrest  and  pain  to  you.  Let  me  feel  my  connection 
with  all  my  kind  ;  let  me  feel  that  I  am  in  God's  hands,  and  that  the 
bounds  of  my  habitation  are  fixed  ;  let  me  feel  that  my  liberty  is  itself 
but  part  of  the  divine  law.  Then  there  will  come  into  my  soul  a  deep 
rest,  a  gentle  peace,  a  profound  assurance,  and  though  the  mountains  be 
removed  and  carried  into  the  depths  of  the  sea,  yet  I  shall  remain  at  rest 
in  the  very  heart  of  God. 

There  is  nothing  trifling  in  your  life.  As  to  whether  you  shall  livt  oiv 
this  side  of  the  street  or  that,  will  be  settled  for  you  if  you  will  put  your- 
self quietly  into  the  hand  of  God.  Why  do  you  undertake  anything  on 
your  own  account  ?  Why  do  you  say  you  will  do  this  or  do  that,  purely  of 
your  own  suggestion  and  to  carry  out  some  motion  of  your  own  will  ?  I 
will  not  go  out  until  the  Master  sends  for  me,  I  will  tarry  in  dark  Egypt 
till  the  angel  says,  "  The  way  is  clear  :  arise  and  go":  yea,  I  will  sit  down 
in  prison  until  Pharaoh  send  for  me  by  God's  suggestion.  Could  I  talk 
so  I  should  feel  that  life  were  worth  living,  and  as  for  to-morrow's  letters, 
and  difficulties,  and  fears,  and  perils,  and  distresses,  I  would  meet  them  all 
after  a  long  night's  deep  slumber,  and  they  would  vanish  before  my 
strength.  Oh,  fussy  little  fool,  a  self-manager  and  self-controller,  sit  thee 
down  and  learn  that  to  obey  is  better  than  to  be  clever,  and  to  wait  upon 
God  is  sometimes  the  sublimest  genius. 

Thus  wondrously  does  the  Old  Testament  overlap  the  New.  Men  who 
are  critical  upon  these  matters  tell  us  that  some  two  hundred  and  sixty 
times  there  are  references  in  the  New  Testament  to  the  Old,  and  thus  the 
Old  and  the  New  overlap  and  intertwine,  and  the  two  Testaments  are  one 
revelation,  as  the  morning  and  the  evening  are  one  day.  Now  and  again 
we  see  a  little  into  the  details  of  life.  This  is  an  instance  in  point — Jesus 
arises,  leaving  Nazareth  to  dwell  in  Capernaum,  that  it  might  be  fulfilled 
which  was  spoken  by  Esaias  the  prophet.  Details  vex  us  ;  we  cannot 
piece  them  together  and  make  anything  of  imity  and  shape  of  them  ;  they 
fall  to  pieces  under  our  clumsy  fingers.  Now  and  again  there  is  a  rent, 
and  I  see  somewhat  of  the  meaning  of  detail  :  I  see  that  there  is  a  hand 
jointing  them,  articulating  them,  and  behold  it  is  making  order  out  of  con- 
fusion.   Lord,  take  up  all  the  details  of  my  life  :  they  are  exceedingly  inco- 


114  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

herent,  and  they  bafifle  me  ;  they  sometimes  ahnost  make  a  non-believer 
of  me  ;  they  sometimes  arise  and  fall  upon  my  life  altogether  as  if  they 
would  crush  it.  I  bless  thee  for  these  little  peeps  into  this  inner  working 
of  thine,  about  the  hairs  of  my  head,  the  guiding  of  my  steps,  the  order- 
ing of  my  habitation — undertake  for  me  altogether — let  me  do  nothing 
but  in  fulfilment  of  thy  providence. 

He  came  and  dwelt  in  Capernaum.  Thou  art  exalted  unto  heaven, 
take  care  lest  thou  be  thrust  down  into  hell.  It  is  an  awful  and  sacred 
thing  to  have  a  good  neighbour,  to  come  into  contact  with  a  good  man,  to 
have  amongst  us  a  voice  of  fire,  a  teaching  of  love,  a  ministry  of  light. 
He  came  and  dwelt  in  Capernaum.  He  came  as  the  light  came  into  this 
house  this  morning,  without  making  any  noise,  but  filling  the  whole  space. 
He  came  without  noise  or  cry  or  tremulous  voice,  but  Capernaum  felt  that 
there  was  a  ghost,  a  spirit,  a  strange  influence  within  itself,  and  that  Caper- 
naum, if  it  grow  not  right  up  into  heaven  and  be  absorbed  into  Zion, 
will  be  thrust  down  into  hell.     Our  privileges  become  our  judgments. 

Zabulon  and  Nephthalira,  Jordan,  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles — are  these  a 
mere  cluster  of  words  ?  What,  the  Gentiles  already  ?  His  beginnings  are 
like  endings,  his  first  words  have  somewhat  of  the  ripeness  and  mellow- 
ness of  high  climaxes.  Already  is  there  flashing  even  in  secondary  light 
some  gleam  of  divine  lustre  upon  the  Gentile  places  of  the  earth  ?  Does 
the  word  Gentiles  occur  so  soon  in  the  sacred  narrative  ?  We  are  Gen- 
tiles. Whenever  we  see  that  word  we  should  say,  "  There  is  something 
about  us  :  what  is  it  ?  "  It  is  like  seeing  our  name  in  a  foreign  book,  like 
opening  a  work  written  in  a  language  we  cannot  understand,  and  seeing 
our  name  broadly  in  the  middle  of  the  page.  We  are  arrested,  and  we 
wonder  what  it  means.  God's  purpose  is  one  that  girdles  the  whole  earth: 
it  takes  it  little  by  little,  but  it  takes  it  all  in,  and  the  meadow  is  not  jeal- 
ous because  the  mountain-tops  catch  the  light  first.  You  have  stood  on  a 
mountain-top  to  watch  the  sun  rise — why  didn't  you  stay  in  the  valley  ? 
Because  you  said,  "  The  mountain-top  will  catch  the  first  light  ;  let  us  be, 
therefore,  on  the  highest  possible  point."  And  did  the  valleys  below  re- 
tire from  the  earth  and  say  they  would  never  grow  any  more  gardens  and 
meadows,  and  any  more  harvests  of  wheat,  because  the  snowy  peaks 
caught  the  first  blessing  and  warmed  to  the  earliest  kiss  ?  Thou  art  but  a 
poor  reader  of  history  who  objectest  that  the  Jews  caught  the  first  gleam 
of  the  new  morning.  I  would  sooner  think  of  yonder  sweet  blue  Lucerne 
water  grumbling  and  working  itself  up  into  gruff  noises  and  tumultuous 
storms  because  Pilatus  had  the  first  gleam  upon  his  rocky  head,  or  because 
the  snows  of  the  Rhigi  blushed  with  the  dawn  before  the  waters  of  the 
lake  felt  its  touch.  A  little  more  time  and  that  sun  will  fill  the  earth,  a 
little  more  time  and  this  Sun  of  Righteousness  will  shoot  out  his  glories 
until  every  land  shall  be  bright  with  the  pure  lustre  of  divine  truth. 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  11^ 

When  Jesus  heard  that  John  was  cast  mtc  prison  he  came  to  the  front. 
It  might  have  been  an  excellent  reason  for  departing  again  into  the  wilder- 
ness to  avoid  danger.  It  would  have  been  so  had  the  kingdom  which  they 
came  to  reveal  and  establish  been  a  kingdom  of  mere  sentiment  or  a  con- 
ception of  merely  and  purely  intellectual  energy.  This  is  how  «^he  Chris- 
tian kingdom  has  advanced  from  the  first  ages  until  now.  The  front  rank 
of  soldiers  all  shot — Forward  next  rank,  over  the  dead  bodies  !  That  has 
been  done  and  is  being  done,  and  none  can  hinder  the  progress  of  this 
divine  kingdom,  connected  as  that  progress  is  with  a  heroism  that  is  not  of 
human  inspiration,  but  of  divine  beginning  and  strength.  Where  there  is 
danger  there  should  be  a  provocation  of  courage. 

We  know  nothing  about  courage  now.  There  are  some  texts  I  dare  not 
preach  from.  Dare  I  jjreach  from  this  text — "  None  of  these  things  move 
me,  yea,  I  count  not  my  life  dear  unto  me  that  I  may  finish  the  ministry 
which  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus  "  ?  You  will  never  hear  me 
preach  from  that  text.  It  would  burn  like  a  conscious  lie  upon  my  coward 
lips.  These  things  do  move  me.  I  am  annoyed  by  trifles,  discouraged  by 
trumpery  circumstances  of  a  temporary  nature — dare  I  preach  from  ahero's 
words  ?  There  have,  however,  been  times  in  the  church  when  Christians 
have  been  heroic.  We  read  in  history  not  more  than  three  hundred  years 
old  of  Christians  who  having  heard  that  John  was  cast  into  prison  went 
forward  to  take  his  place.  I  was  reading  only  a  few  days  ago  some  such 
occurrence.  The  Christians  of  one  town  were  all  driven  into  one  dungeon  ; 
they  were  gathered  together  and  shut  up  into  one  prison,  and  the  execu- 
tioner came  to  them  and  took  them  out  one  by  one,  having  first  put  a 
muffler  over  the  eyes  of  the  doomed  victiili.  He  led  him  out  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  others  to  the  place  of  execution,  and  put  a  knife  through  his 
throat,  and  leaving  him  half  dead,  he  took  the  muffler  off  and  went  back 
for  the  next,  the  knife  streaming  with  blood  held  between  his  teeth,  as  he 
tied  the  muffler  over  the  eyes  of  -the  next  victim.  And  twenty  were  done 
so,  and  forty  and  sixty,  and  seventy  and  eighty-eight,  and  that  human 
butcher  failed,  not  the  Christian  heroism.  It  was  so  that  your  liberties  were 
bought.  We  were  redeemed  not  with  corruptible  things,  but  with  precious 
blood,  and  we  sit  here  to-day,  quiet,  perhaps  indifferent,  as  the  result  of 
human  blood.  Are  we  worthy  of  our  traditions  ?  We  dare  not  go  out  if 
it  is  raining,  we  take  offence  because  of  trifles,  we  leave  the  work  because 
of  some  little  pique,  not  worthy  of  a  moment's  consideration.  Let  us  get 
back  into  the  spirit  of  those  traditions  which  have  made  the  country  what 
it  is,  as  far  as  it  is  great  and  noble  and  influential  for  good. 

What  have  we  done  for  our  Lord  ?  Of  the  eighty-eight  sufferers  it  was 
said  that  it  was  Avell  borne  by  the  elder  Christians,  but  when  the  execu- 
tioner came  to  the  younger  ones  they  were  more  timorous.  Who  wonders  ? 
Does  the   dear  young  life  like  to  give  itself  out  thus  boldly,  all  at  once, 


Il6  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

early  in  the  morning  ?  But  not  a  heart  fell  back.  Do  not  tell  me  that  a 
kingdom  thus  begun  and  thus  continued  is  going  to  fall.  These  men  did 
not  work  through  some  delusion  for  which  they  could  give  no  account  ; 
they  accepted  their  fate  intelligently,  they  gave  reasons  for  it,  they  were 
not  moved  by  mere  delusions,  but  by  arguments  which  to  them  were  as 
intellectually  complete  as  they  were  morally  influential. 

I  would  God  we  had  a  little  more  heroism  in  the  church.  I  ask  you 
younger  men  and  women  to  come  forward  and  take  the  places  of  the  elder, 
who  are  not  cast  into  prison,  but  who  may  be  disabled  by  age,  who  may  be 
constrained  by  one  uncontrollable  circumstance  or  another  to  leave  the 
front.  They  have  had  along  and  useful  day,  and  now  they  desire  to  rest,  and 
it  is  no  coward's  prayer  they  pray  when  they  ask  for  relief  if  not  release. 
Will  you  see  the  place  left  vacant  ?  Are  you  content  to  see  great  gaps  in 
the  ranks  of  the  church  ?  Will  you  be  baptized  for  the  dead  ?  Will  you 
know  that  it  is  your  turn  next  ?  There  is  a  soldier  in  front  of  you  dying  ; 
pluck  up  your  courage  in  the  divine  strength,  and  be  ready  to  take  his 
place.  When  this  spirit  returns  to  the  church  Herod  will  be  troubled 
upon  his  throne,  and  the  time  is  not  far  off  when  he  will  be  consumed  by 
the  fire  of  the  Lord. 

Jesus  began  to  preach,  and  he  repeated  John's  sermon.  The  sermon  is 
one.  He  said,  "  Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand."  Why, 
who  preached  that  sermon  before  ?  John  the  Baptist,  and  Jesus  Christ, 
seeing  that  John  was  in  prison,  saw  that  the  sermon  should  not  fail  of 
utterance,  and  with  another  voice,  that  had  in  it  wondrous  possibility  of 
intonation  and  colour,  he  said,  "  Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
hand."  He  l>egan  to -preach.  Have  we  begun  to  hear  ?  Hearing  is  an 
art,  listening  is  not  possible  except  to  the  attentive  soul.  Who  listens 
well  ?  Few  men.  What  happens  to  him  who  listens  well  ?  He  hears  the 
Spirit's  music. 


XIV. 

A    CRY    TO    HEAVEN THE    DIVINE    CALT,    TO    SERVICE SUFFERED  NOTHING 

FOR    CHRIST — A     PICTURE     OF    CHRISt's    WORLD — MEN    WHO     PLAY     THE 
SCRUTINEER. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  if  thou  dost  answer  us  out  of  thy  mercy,  who  then  can  tell  the 
measure  of  thy  reply  to  our  prayer  and  our  thanksgiving?  BL-hold,  thy  love  is  a  sea 
whose  depths  have  never  been  searched,  and  thy  mercy  is  higher  than  the  sky,  yea, 
no  man  can  lay  a  line  upon  all  the  pity  and  compassion  of  God.  Our  life  stands  in 
thy  goodness,  we  are  surrounded  by  thy  mercy,  verily  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being  in  God,  Show  us  that  thou  art  not  a  God  far  ofE,  but  a  God  nigh  at  hand, 
yea,  within  us,  nearer  than  our  own  breath  and  oar  own  life,  without  whom,  indeed, 
we  could  not  live.  We  bless  thee  for  the  house  of  prayer,  the  place  of  silence  and 
of  song,  the  house  of  inspiration,  the  sanctuary  of  defence,  the  place  where  prayer  is 
wont  to  be  made,  and  we  bless  thee  for  the  wide  and  open  way  to  thy  throne  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  only  Saviour.  We  keep  that  living  way,  we  are  all  found  in  it  this 
very  moment,  so  is  the  moment  the  sweetest  in  our  life,  and  there  is  in  it  a  bi'ight- 
ness  above  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  it  is  alive  with  the  most  sacred  and  elevating 
hope. 

Thou  dost  not  disappoint  the  heart  of  man  ;  when  his  soul  is  lifted  iip  towards  thee 
thou  dost  bathe  it  with  all  the  light  of  heaven's  morning,  and  when  his  cry  rises  from 
his  heart  to  thy  throne,  thou  dost  turn  it  into  a  sweet  hymn,  and  enrich  the  heart 
with  all  the  graciousness  of  thy  love.  We  have  come  to  thine  house  to-day  with  no 
small  expectancy,  our  hearts  are  inflamed  into  a  great  desire,  our  tongue  is  open  be- 
fore thee  with  speech,  demanding  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  not  our  own,  all  the 
promises  to  be  fulfilled  ;  yea,  is  ours  a  violence — we  come  to  take  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  by  force.  So  hast  thou  allowed  us  to  do,  yea,  thou  hast  charged  us  to  seize 
the  gates  of  thy  kingdom  and  to  open  them  with  the  violence  of  importunate  love. 
We  bless  thee  for  these  heavenly  desires,  we  thank  thee  for  influences  that  move  the 
heart  upwards  from  the  dust  and  through  the  stars,  and  onward  to  things  divine  and 
everlasting.  May  those  noble  desires  never  die,  may  our  life  be  a  continual  petition 
for  enlargement  and  sanctification.  We  have  been  content  too  long  to  live  in  the 
dust  and  eat  its  perishing  roots  ;  we  would  now  live  in  the  heavens,  and  sustain  our 
hearts  on  God. 

We  bless  thee  for  all  thy  Bible  of  love,  wide  as  the  heavens  and  green  as  the  earth 
in  summer-time,  and  tender  as  all  the  songs  of  love.  We  bless  thee  for  that  inner 
revelation  of  the  spirit,  that  sacred  ministry  which  is  beyond  all  words,  and  too  holy 
for  song.  O  dwell  within  us,  abide  with  us,  soothe  us  with  all  the  comforting,  stim- 
ulate us  with  all  the  hopefulness  which  thou  dost  bring  to  bear  upon  the  lives  of  men 
who  are  given  to  thee  wholly,  body,  soul,  and  spirit.  Turn  the  discipline  of  thy  rod 
to  the  advantage  of  our  souls,  save  us  amid  the  gathering  gloom  from  the  last  dark- 


Il8  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

ness  of  despair  ;  wlien  every  earthly  proj:)  and  liope  is  given  up,  do  thou  grant  unto 
us  the  defences  and  assurances  of  thy  sanctuary  and  thy  presence. 

Thou  knowest  us  altogether  ;  the  old  and  the  young,  the  rich  and  the  poor  are 
here,  the  head  hoary  with  the  snows  and  frosts  of  many  a  winter,  and  the  face  bright 
and  uuwrinkled  and  young,  and  the  life  full  of  charming  hope.  Thou  knowest 
those  who  are  in  bitterness  and  sorrow  of  soul,  thou  understaudest  all  our  life  ;  we 
therefore  come  before  thee  assured  that  in  Christ  Jesus  all  our  wants  shall  be  sup- 
plied and  our  jjoverty  shall  become  the  occasion  of  our  wealth. 

The  Lord  help  us  to  do  every  good  work  with  earnestness,  the  Lord  work  in  us  a 
holy  dislike  and  detestation  of  all  evil  things,  and  the  Lord  grant  unto  us  such 
answers  in  the  course  of  his  providence  to  our  best  desires  and  holiest  vows  as  shall 
assure  us  that  the  voice  of  the  heart  does  not  fall  to  the  ground. 

We  would  read  thy  word  attentivel}*,  we  would  listen  to  every  tone  Qf  thy  revela- 
tion, as  if  our  soul's  best  interests  depended  iipon  hearing  it.  Whilst  thus  we  attend 
thou  wilt  not  withhold  the  illuminating  and  confirming  spii'it,  but  thou  wilt  pour 
out  upon  us  all  that  we  need  as  zealous  and  adorning  students  of  thy  holy  book. 

Bless  us  altogether,  those  of  us  who  are  old  friends  and  old  fellow-students  of  thy 
word,  well  known  to  one  another  as  common  suppliants  at  thy  throne,  and  bless  the 
stranger  within  our  gates,  who  joins  our  worship  to-day  for  the  first  and  only  time  : 
destroy  all  feeling  of  distance  and  strangeness  and  exile,  and  fill  his  soul  Avithallthe 
light  and  love  of  heaven,  and  thus  in  the  unity  of  the  spirit,  -with  common  and  un- 
distracted  fellowship,  may  we  wait  upon  God  to  our  soul's  profiting. 

The  Lord  speak  to  the  indifferent  man  and  awake  him  to  attention,  the  Lord  rebuke 
the  worldly  man  Avhose  heart  is  at  this  moment  far  away  from  thy  house  though  his 
body  is  here,  and  the  Lord  grant  great  rich  answers  of  peace  and  assurance,  pardon 
and  love,  to  those  whose  best  desire  is  to  know  the  Lord  more  fully,  and  to  serve  him 
with  increasing  earnestness  and  delight.     Amen. 

Matthew  iv.  18-25. 

18.  And  Jesus  (a  consideral:)le  time  after  the  temptation),  walking  by  the  sea  of 
Galilee  (the  lake  of  Gennesareth  or  Tiberias),  saw  two  brethren,  Simon  called  Petefj 
and  Andrew  his  brother,  casting  a  net  into  the  sea  :  for  they  were  fishers. 

19.  And  he  saith  unto  them,  Follow  me,  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men. 

20.  And  they  straightway  left  their  nets,  and  followed  him. 

21.  And  gohig  on  from  thence,  he  saw  other  two  brethren,  James  the  son  of  Zeb- 
edee,  and  John  his  brother,  in  a  ship  with  Zebedee  their  father,  mending  their  nets  ; 
and  he  called  them. 

23.  And  they  immediately  left  the  ship  and  their  father,  and  followed  him. 

23.  And  Jesus  went  about  all  Galilee,  teaching  in  their  synagogues,*  and  preaching 
the  gospel  of  the  kingdom,  and  healing  all  manner  of  sickness  and  all  manner  of 
disease  among  the  jjeople. 

24.  And  his  fame  went  throughout  all  Syria  (the  province  of  which  Palestine  was 

*  "  Divine  service  was  held  in  the  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath,  and  also  ou  the  second 
and  fifth  day  of  each  week.  The  service  consisted  in  reading  the  law  and  the 
prophets  by  those  who  were  called  upon  by  the  angel  of  the  church,  and  in  prayers 
offered  up  by  the  minister  for  the  people,  the  people  responding  '  Amen.'  The  syna- 
gogues were  not  churches  alone.  They  were  also  courts  of  law,  in  which  sentences 
were  both  pronounced  and  executed — '  they  shall  scourge  you  in  their  synagogues.' 
The  synagotjups  were  also  public  schools,  and,  lastly,  the  synagogues  were  the  divmity 
schools  or  ilienlogical  college  of  the  Jews."  See  the  Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools.  la 
Jerusalem  aloue  there  were  more  than  450  synagogues. 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  ITQ 

considered  a  part),  and  tliey  brought  unto  him  all  sick  people  that  were  taken  with 
divers  diseases  and  torments,  and  those  which  were  possessed  with  devils  (demons), 
and  those  which  were  lunatic  (affected  by  the  moon),  and  those  that  had  the  palsy  ; 
and  he  healed  them. 

25.  And  there  followed  him  great  multitudes  (plural,  on  account  of  the  places 
whence  they  came)  of  people  from  Galilee,  and  from  Decapolis  (a  group  of  ten 
cities),  and  from  Jerusalem,  and  fiom  Judea,  and  from  beyond  Jordan. 

We  are  not  to  understand  that  this  event  took  place  immediately  after 
our  Lord's  temptation.  A  very  considerable  interval  passed  between  the 
temptation  and  this  work  by  the  sea  of  Galilee.  Still  the  incident  comes 
Avith  infinite  beauty  and  suggestiveness  after  that  great  crisis  in  the  history 
of  our  Lord.  Shall  we  be  too  fanciful  if  we  think  of  the  places  in  con- 
nection with  the  events — the  quiet  river  and  the  sacred  baptism,  the  soli- 
tary wilderness  and  the  fierce  assault  of  hell's  chief,  the  busy  sea  and  the 
call  to  service  ?  If  a  painter  seeks  a  background,  and  if  the  novelist  feels 
it  needful  roughly  and  with  the  haste  of  great  skill  to  thrust  in  a  little 
scenery  and  landscape  in  order  to  throw  up  the  figures,  why  should  we 
hesitate  to  connect  certain  great  events  in  our  Lord's  life  and  certain 
special  events  in  our  own  life  with  the  peculiar  atmosphere  in  which  they 
were  developed — the  river  and  the  baptism,  the  wilderness,  silent,  solemn, 
awful,  and  its  temptations,  and  the  sea,  never  at  rest,  and  its  call  to  labour, 
heroic  sacrifice,  noble  toil  ? 

We  are  not  to  understand  that  these  men  never  saw  Jesus  Christ  until 
the  day  referred  to  in  the  text.  They  knew  him  jjcrfectly  well.  Jesus 
Christ  had  been  preaching  and  labouring  in  many  places,  and  these  very 
men  sustained  the  relation  of  a  kind  of  nominal  discipleship  to  him 
already.  There  was  in  them  a  wonder,  nearly  equal  to  faith,  there  was  in 
them  an  expectation  which  sometimes  almost  dignified  itself  into  a  reli- 
gion. They  knew  his  person,  they  knew  his  voice,  they  knew  somewhat  of 
his  claim,  and  they  had  seen  somewhat  of  his  power.  They  were  already 
in  a  sense  followers  of  Christ  just  as  some  of  you  are,  in  a  distant  way, 
gropingly,  wonderingly,  well  inclined  towards  him,  with  a  mind  half  set 
in  all  the  loftiness  of  the  direction  which  he  himself  took.  They  would 
have  been  wounded  if  you  had  told  them  they  did  not  care  for  him,  and 
yet  they  would  have  been  puzzled  if  you  had  asked  them  why.  Why  this 
is  just  your  case  ;  if  you  could  be  suddenly  and  rudely  told  that  you  did 
not  care  for  Christ,  you  would  half  resent  the  impeachment.  Yet  you  are 
not  in  the  circle  wholly  and  for  ever.  The  time  now  came  when  Jesus 
Christ  called  these  men  with  a  more  definite  call  to  service.  This  was  not 
a  call  to  piety,  to  religious  devotion,  in  the  sense  of  mere  worship.  Under- 
stand that  this  was  a  call  to  toil,  service,  work.  "  I  will  make  you  fishers 
of  men."  He  was  not  reasoning  with  the  persons  referred  to,  saying, 
*'  Give  your  hearts  to  God,  be  good  in  the  truly  religious  sense  of  the 


120  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

word,  leave  your  atheism  and  worship  the  true  and  living  God  "  ;  it  was 
not  an  appeal  of  this  kind  that  was  addressed  to  the  fishermen,  it  was  a 
call  to  service — "  Follow  me,  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men." 

There  is  a  time  in  every  life  when  such  a  call  is  addressed  to  it.  Have 
you  heard  your  call — a  ghostly  hour  in  which  you  heard  a  voice  and  could 
not  tell  whence  it  came  ?  You  said  you  were  moved,  stirred,  all  but  in- 
spired, and  you  knew  not  what  to  make  of  that  strange  incident  in  your 
life.  Did  it  ever  occur  to  you  that  it  was  the  voice  of  Christ  ?  Did  you 
ever  give  a  broadly  and  sublimely  religious  interpretation  to  the  ghostly 
ministries  which  have  affected  your  thinking  and  toned  your  ambition  ? 
If  you  have  been  looking  downward  for  small  interpretations  that  might 
be  written  with  a  fool's  finger  in  the  dry  dust,  let  me  now  ask  you  to  lift 
up  your  eyes  and  see  if  the  meaning  be  not  found  in  the  stars  rather  than 
in  the  cold  stones. 

You  do  not   deny  the  call,  but   how  to  carry  it  out  is  your  difficulty. 
You  have  nothing  to  do  with  that.     Hear  this  voice  and  tell  me  if  every- 
thing be  not  in  it — "  Follow  me."     That  may  mean  a  great  tax  upon  my 
strength.     "  Follow  me."     That  may  mean  a  rash  adventure.     "  Follow 
me."     I  may  not  be  equal  to  the  occasion.     But  the  call  does  not  end 
with  "  Follow  me."     He  who  spake  these  words  spake  other  words  which 
address  themselves  immediately  to   every  misgiving  of  the  modest  heart. 
The  other  words  are,  "  I  will  make  you  " — as  if  he  had  said,  "  Rely  on  me 
for  the  power,  puzzle  not  yourselves  with  vain  enquiries  as  to  how  this  fol-' 
lowing  is  to  be  sustained  and  completed  ;  he  who  gives  the  call  gives  the 
power."     Herein  we  are  entitled  to  bind  Christ  to  his  own  promise.     We 
do  not  start  upon  a  warfare  or  a  race  at  our  own  charges.     We  have  come 
out  at  the  bidding  of  God,  to  do  God's  work  and  to  do  it  in  God's  strength 
— where,    then,   is   your  cleverness,   your   ingenuity,  your   self-supplying  '^ 
strength  ?     You  have  none,  you  need  none  :  your  daily  bread  is  in  heaven  ; 
go  for  it  every  morning,  live  upon  God,  make  yourselves   strong  with  his 
promises.     I  know  not  what  I  shall  do  for  the  next  seven  years  ;  they  will 
oppress  me,  they  will  kill  me,  they  will  utterly  put  an  end  to  me — so  would  ' 
I  talk  if  I  were  dependent  upon  my  own   suggestiveness  and   fertility  of 
invention.     But  when  Christ  says,  "  I  will  make   you — "  he  never  leaves  ■' 
unfinished  any  tower  that  he  begins.     He  has  not  left  any  star  unrounded, 
there  is  no  useless  rubbish  in  his  universe.     I  will  then  even  live  in  him,    , 
and  wait  for  his  word,  and  when  I  am  most   dumb  because  of  my  self- 
exhaustion,  he  will  be  most  eloquent  if  my  eyes  be  lifted  up  to  him  in  the 
prayerfulness  of  a  confident  expectation. 

So  many  of  you  are  standing  back  because  you  think  you  have  to  do 
everything  at  your  own  charges.  You  are  afraid  you  would  fail  if  you 
went  forward  to  attempt  this  or  that  work  in  the  name  of  Christ.  Let  me 
tell  you  the  secret  of  your  fear — you  have  not  read  the  call  right  through 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  121 

from  beginning  to  end.  You  have  heard  the  words  "  Follow  me  " — the 
most  of  us  only  hear  parts  of  sentences  ;  there  are  very  few  men  that  can 
quote  any  sentence  right  through  from  end  to  end.  They  hear  the  lead- 
ing word,  they  forget  all  the  other  words  that  give  it  perspective  and  tone 
and  colour.  Men  hear  according  to  their  moral  condition  ;  we  often  hear 
only  what  we  want  to  hear  ;  our  attention  is  not  of  that  round  and  com- 
plete kind  that  takes  in  the  entire  statement  and  weighs  it  to  the  utmost 
syllable  and  tone. 

How  are  we  to  know  when  a  divine  call  has  really  been  addressed  to 
the  heart  ?  There  are  many  calls  that  may  only  be  voices  that  we  should 
not  listen  to — how  then  are  we  to  know  when  the  call  does  really  come 
down  from  heaven,  ringing  with  all  its  music  and  filled  with  all  its  gentle 
persuasiveness  ?  The  text  will  tell  you — the  answer  is  here.  Know  that 
your  call  to  service  is  likely  to  be  a  divine  vocation  if  it  involve — sacrifice. 
You  want  to  know  no  more.  "  Leave  your  ship,  leave  your  father,  leave 
your  nets,  leave  your  friends,  and  follow  me."  A  call  that  summons  men 
to  surrender  all  things  in  this  way  is  likely  to  be  a  healthy  and  true  call. 

I  never  knew  God  address  any  call  to  any  human  soul  that  did  not 
involve  loss.  Anticipating  our  natural  and  eager  desire  to  know  whether 
a  call  is  heavenly  or  earthly,  God  has  always  associated  with  his  calls — 
sacrifice.  When  Moses  was  called,  he  counted  it  greater  honour  to  follow 
God  than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season  and  to  enrich  himself 
with  all  the  riches  of  Egypt.  When  Hadad  astounded  Pharaoh  by  saying 
he  wanted  to  go  back  to  Edom,  Pharaoh  said,  "What  hast  thou  lacked  ?" 
and  the  young  man  said,  "  Nothing,  howbeit  in  anywise  let  me  go."  The 
jLord  had  stirred  up  the  heart  of  Hadad,  and  Hadad  went  from  Egypt  to 
[poor  Edom,  from  rest  to  battle,  from  assured  and  continued  prosperity  to 
all  the  perils  and  adventures  of  hazardous  war.  So  through  all  history — 
having  digressed  for  a  moment  from  the  text  now  under  consideration. 

This  man  Simon,  called  Peter,  and  Andrew  his  brother,  left  their  nets 
and  followed  Christ.  Have  we  ever  left  anything  for  the  Saviour  ?  I  have 
'  left  nothing.  He  has  given  me  more  than  I  ever  gave  him — the  whole 
advantage  is  on  my  side.  If  ever  he  should  say  to  me,  "  I  was  sick  and  in 
prison,  and  ye  came  unto  me,"  I  will  contradict  him  to  his  face.  He  will 
have  to  prove  it.  There  are  those  of  us,  perhaps,  who  think  we  have 
given  up  a  good  deal  for  the  gospel  ;  I  am  not  of  that  number — I  have 
given  up  nothing  for  the  gospel.  There  have  been  men  who  have  not 
counted  their  lives  dear  unto  them  that  they  might  follow  and  serve  Christ. 
It  would  be  my  distress  not  to  follow  him.  There  would  be  no  poorer 
wretch  on  all  the  earth's  green  surtace  than  I  should  be  were  he  to  dismiss 
me  from  his  service.  I  have  never  been  bruised  for  him.  I  have  had 
gardens  of  flowers  given  to  me  because  I  have  endeavoured  to  preach  him, 
and  all  times  of  comfortableness  and  honour  :  if  ever  he  should  say  to  me, 


122  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

"  Blessed  one,  because  I  was  an  hungered  and  thou  didst  give  me  bread," 
if  I  have  not  strength  to  contradict  him,  I  hope  I  shall  have  the  honesty 
to  hang  my  head  and  deny  by  silence  what  I  would  gladly  contradict  by 
speech.  Let  none  of  us  set  up  as  sacrificing  anything  for  Christ — we  have 
never  done  it. 

We  observe  further,  from  this  incident,  that  Christ's  calls  are  always  to 
something  higher.  "I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men."  He  gives  the 
broadest  interpretation  to  our  daily  want.  Whatever  you  are,  he  spirit- 
ually uses  as  a  type  of  the  other  service  to  which  he  calls  you.  Are  you 
fishers  in  the  ordinary-  sense  of  the  term  ?  He  comes  to  you  and  says,  "  I 
will  make  you  fishers  of  men."  Are  you  builders  of  stone  and  wood  ? 
He  says,  "  I  will  make  you  builders  of  a  living  temple."  Are  you  servants 
of  masters  who  pay  you  ?  He  says,  "  I  will  make  you  servants  of  the  King 
of  kings."  If  we  have  not  realized  the  spiritual  side  of  our  earthly  voca- 
tion, Ave  are  still  in  the  outer  court,  and  have  much  to  learn.  Oh,  ye  who 
heal  the  body,  come,  and  Christ  will  show  you  how  to  heal  the  soul.  Oh, 
ye  tradesm.en,  and  merchants,  and  money-turners,  come,  and  he  will  show 
you  how  to  make  fine  gold  and  imperishable  wealth.  Accept  your  present 
secular  position  as  a  type  and  hint  of  the  call  which  Christ  is  addressing 
to  the  soul. 

So  Christ  Jesus  called  men  to  his  ministry,  and  unless  a  man  is  called 
to  his  ministry  he  had  better  not  enter  it.  I  hold  that  no  man  is  a  true 
minister  who  is  not  directly  called  by  Christ.  This  limits  the  ministry, 
but  it  strengthens  it  indefinitely.  You  cannot  learn  to  preach,  you  cannot 
learn  to  expound  the  spiritual  word — all  your  vocables  may  be  neatly 
enunciated,  you  may  learn  the  art  of  breathing  and  the  art  of  delivering 
the  voice,  but  you  have  not  learned  on  earth,  for  it  is  not  taught  in  the 
schools  of  men,  how  to  touch  the  sin-cursed  and  sin-burdened  soul ;  that 
art  is  taught  in  heaven  :  there  is  but  one  Master,  and  he  never  tires. 

What  is  true  of  the  spiritual  ministry  is  true  of  all  the  ministries  of  life. 
AVhatever  you  are,  you  will  succeed  in  it  only  in  proportion  as  Christ  has 
called  you  to  it.  Some  of  you  are  in  wrong  positions  altogether,  you 
ought  never  to  have  begun  where  you  did  begin.  By  providences,  over 
which  you  had  no  control,  you  were  turned  into  wrong  lines,  and  you 
know  it,  and  your  life  is  a  daily  pain  and  a  continual  sacrifice.  After  fifty 
years  of  age  you  cannot  shift  over  to  the  right  lines.  Make  the  best  of 
your  position.  You  are  like  men  who  are  working  against  the  tide,  and  it 
is  hard  work  rowing,  but  inasmuch  as  you  did  not  enter  upon  that  arduous 
undertaking  of  your  own  conceit  or  self-will,  inasmuch  as  others  are  to 
blame  for  it  more  than  you  are,  I  now  give  you  good  heart,  I  now  cheer 
you  in  the  name  of  the  merciful  One — he  knows  your  distresses  and  disad- 
vantages, and  he  will  not  overlook  these  when  he  audits  the  account  of 
your  life. 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE, 


123 


"  And  Jesus  went  about  all  Galilee,  teaching  in  their  synagogues,  and 
preaching  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom,  and  healing  all  manner  of  sickness 
and  all  manner  of  disease  among  the  people.  And  his  fame  went  through- 
out all  Syria,  and  they  brought  unto  him  all  sick  people  that  were  taken 
with  divers  diseases  and  torments,  and  those  which  were  possessed  with 
devils,  and  those  which  were  lunatic,  and  those  that  had  the  palsy," — what 
a  world  he  came  into  !  And  he  knew  it  before  he  entered  it.  If  the 
world  had  been  less  damned  he  need  not  have  come.  In  these  verses  you 
have  a  picture  of  the  real  state  of  humanity  as  Jesus  Christ  found  it.  I 
want  to  go  where  the  people  are  all  well.  Tell  me  where  the  lepers  are, 
where  divers  diseases  and  torments  dwell,  and  where  those  live  who  are 
possessed  with  devils,  and  those  which  are  lunatic,  and  those  which  have 
the  palsy,  and  I  will  flee  away.  What  are  terrors  to  me  were  attractions 
to  the  infinite  heart. 

This  is  the  real  condition  of  the  world  in  every  age — it  is  a  world  full 
of  sickness,  and  disease,  and  torment,  a  world  in  which  men  are  who  are 
possessed  with  demons,  who  are  moon-struck,  and  shivering  and  trembling 
with  humanly  incurable  palsy.  Do  we  want  men  of  culture  to  go  into 
such  a  world — nice,  dainty-fingered  men  who  faint  at  the  sight  of  blood, 
and  shudder  if  they  see  a  paralytic  on  the  streets?  Is  that  the  cruel 
irony  we  are  going  to  perpetrate  in  such  a  world  as  this  ?  Let  us  send 
down  a  hundred  and  fifty  nice  kid-gloved  young  men,  who  never  speak 
above  their  breath,  and  who  are  infinitely  gifted  in  the  art  of  saying 
nothing  in  many  words.  They  will  return,  they  will  sigh  for  summer 
days,  and  calmer  climes,  and  fairer  sights.  Alas  !  "  We  are  adapted  to 
certain  classes  of  people  of  a  more  elevated,  dignified,  and  cultured  kind." 
Fie  on  thee,  my  soul,  if  thou  art  cursed  with  a  conceit  like  that.  The 
world  is  a  sick  world,  a  dying  world,  a  mad  world,  and  thy  little  dainti- 
nesses, and  prettinesses,  and  machine-turned  sentences  will  never  touch  it. 
The  world  wants  blood  ;  no  other  price  will  redeem  it.  Oh,  church  of 
the  living  God,  Zion,  Jerusalem,  called  by  a  thousand  tender  names,  what 
art  thou  doing  but  running  away  to  pick  up  flowers  when  thou  shouldst 
be  labouring  with  coat  off,  with  both  hands  earnestly  at  the  deliverance 
and  the  healing  of  souls. 

If  you  do  not  buy  the  world  with  blood  you  will  never  buy  it.  There 
be  those  who  object  to  the  expression,  The  blood  of  Christ.  We  have 
now  refined  that  very  much  into  the  Love  of  Christ,  the  Example  of 
Christ,  the  Swee  Influence  of  Christ.  We  are  now  unwilling  to  say.  The 
blood  of  Christ.  Why  ?  If  I  read  your  human  history,  I  find  you  have 
never  got  anything  worth  having  unless  you  paid  blood  for  it.  How  were 
the  slaves  redeemed  and  emancipated  ?  What  was  laid  down  on  the 
counter  ?  Blood.  Have  you  your  Magna  Charta,  and  do  you  boast  of 
that  large  paper  ?     What  paid  you  for  it^    Blood.    Show  me  in  all  English 


124 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 


history  a  single  great  treasure  you  have,  and  I  will  show  you  as  the  signa- 
ture of  its  lawful  purchase — red  blood,  heart  blood,  human  blood.  Yet, 
when  I  come  into  a  church  and  think  of  redeemed  men,  I  am  told  not  to 
mention  the  word  blood,  but  to  substitute  for  it  example,  love,  sympathy, 
kindness.  No,  no.  The  music  is  one,  the  anthem  is  indivisible,  redemp- 
tion is  always  by  blood,  and  he  who  has  paid  less  than  blood  for  any 
redemption  has  bought  it  at  the  wrong  counter  and  paid  for  it  with 
counterfeit  coin. 

Imagine  a  man  coming  into  such  a  world  as  is  described  in  the  tv/enty- 
third  and  twenty-fourth  verses  to  do  anything  for  it  merely  by  way  of 
example.  It  is  by  tragedy  that  we  live.  Your  home  life  owes  all  its 
beauty  and  dignity  to  the  tragedy  which  is  at  the  heart  of  it.  If  we  are 
ever  to  impress  this  age  we  must  do  it  by  something  more  than  dainty 
words  and  accurately  regulated  ecclesiastical  mechanism.  When  we  go 
nearer  the  city  we  must  weep  over  it,  and  when  we  go  into  the  city  we 
must  die  for  it.  Other  programmes  you  may  write,  but  the  angels  will 
tear  them  and  scatter  them  as  waste  paper  upon  the  mocking  winds. 

Wondrous  is  one  little  word  in  this  twenty-fourth  verse.  "  He  healed 
them," — as  easily  as  the  light  fills  the  firmament,  without  struggle  or  noise 
or  huge  effort.  Mark  the  infinite  ease  of  the  expression,  "  He  healed 
them."  Set  that  expression  beside  "  He  created  them,  he  set  them  in 
their  places,  he  rolled  the  stars  along — he  healed  them."  It  is  part  of 
the  same  music,  omnipotence  never  fluttered  on  account  of  weakness,  and 
never  despaired  because  of  miscalculation.  What  is  thy  complaint,  O 
heart  of  man  ?  He  will  heal  thee.  Do  not  go  in  the  detail  of  complaints, 
there  is  but  one  disease  and  its  short  name  is — sin.  All  diseases  are  but 
details  of  that  awful  fact.  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  God's  Son,  cleans- 
eth  from  all  sin.  There  is  a  fountain  opened  in  the  house  of  David 
for  sin.     The  details  are  innumerable,  the  central  and  vital  disease  is  one. 

Jesus  Christ's  ministry  was  thus  twofold.  It  was  not  a  literary  ministry, 
it  was  a  philanthropic  ministry  in  the  noblest  interpretation  of  that  term, 
a  man-loving  ministry,  a  ministry  that  loved  the  body  and  that  loved  the 
soul.  What  are  we  doing  for  the  body  ?  I  know  there  are  great  dangers 
in  doing  for  the  body,  lest  people  should  becume  hypocrites.  I  would 
rather  make  a  few  hypocrites  than  miss  the  chance  of  doing  good  to  one 
really  deserving  soul.  But  who  am  I  that  I  should  set  up  as  scrutineer 
into  real  deserts  ?  What  are  my  deserts  ?  None.  Shall  we  pass  up  to 
the  judgment  bar  in  the  official  character  of  scrutineers  and  say  to  the 
great  King- Judge,  "  Lord,  I  played  the  part  of  scrutineer,  I  examined  the 
credentials  of  other  people,  I  plucked  the  mask  from  the  hypocrite's  face, 
I  stood  nigh  to  see  that  no  undeserving  ones  got  a  crumb  from  the  loaf  of 
charity  :  what  am  I  to  have  as  a  scrutineer  ?  "  There  are  too  many  scru- 
tineers.    I  was  the  other  night  accosted,  walking  with  my  wife,  by  a  poor 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  I25 

creature,  who  said,  "  I  am  very  faint,  sir."  It  well  became  me  to  play  the 
scrutineer  and  to  say,  "  All  due  to  her  evil  behaviour."  How  dare  I  say 
so  ?  Her  evil  behaviour  ?  If  she  was  faint  it  was  my  business  to  help  her 
to  overcome  that  faintness.  I  would  rather  be  taken  in,  deceived,  in 
response  to  such  a  petition,  than  go  home  and  sit  down  over  a  smoking 
supper  and  applaud  myself  as  a  sagacious  scrutineer. 

I  like,  as  you  do  perhaps  best  of  all,  to  help  the  little  children.  We  say, 
at  all  events  they  cannot  be  much  to  blame.  And  a  friend,  known  to  us 
all,  saw  two  little  children  the  other  day,  cold — cold — looking  into  a  con- 
fectioner's window,  the  heaven  of  youth,  the  paradise  of  the  undisciplined 
mind.  Poor  ragged  little  creatures  !  And  the  friend  said,  "  Would  you 
like  one  of  these  things?" — "Yes,"  and  two  of  them  were  bought,  and 
the  one  child  was  too  far  gone  to  feel  much  interest  in  it, — the  other's 
face  glowed  with  unspeakable  delight.  How  much  better  it  would  have 
been  to  have  played  the  scrutineer,  to  have  gone  into  the  detail  of  the  case, 
and  to  have  shown  that  three  generations  ago  this  disease  began  its  can- 
kering work  in  the  family.  May  God  save  me  from  such  scrutineering, 
and  may  I  play  the  fool  a  thousand  times  a  day,  in  giving  to  the  deserving 
or  the  undeserving,  rather  than  be  so  sagacious.  I  should  have  nothing 
this  day  if  the  benefits  of  heaven  were  given  to  merit.  He  is  kind  to  the 
unthankful  and  the  evil,  he  sendeth  his  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust. 
Thy  dinner  will  choke  thee  to-day  if  thou  dost  not  eat  it  with  a  mouth  first 
opened  in  gratitude. 

This  practical  ministry  of  our  Saviour  has  yet  to  be  repeated  on  a  very 
great  scale.  We  shall  be  taken  in  many  times  ;  I  myself  have  been  more 
taken  in  than  any  living  man  I  ever  heard  of,  and  still  they  are  trying  to 
take  me  in,  and  I  am  always  going  to  learn  better  and  never  do.  Yester- 
day a  letter  reached  me  from  a  friend  who  had  been  much  benefited  by 
my  ministry,  and  he  asked  me  to  find  for  him  what  he  calls  some  large- 
hearted  Christian  who  will  say  to  him,  "  Here  are  forty  or  fifty  pounds  for 
you  to  commence  business  with."  That  is  the  kind  of  man  who  never  takes 
me  in,  and  I  never  take  him  in.  I  am  not  speaking  of  persons  of  that  sort  ; 
but  you  know  in  the  Galilee  you  go  through,  and  the  Decapolis  and  the 
Jerusalem  and  the  Judea  and  the  Jordan  known  to  you,  there  are  thousands 
to  whom  you  can  minister,  and  that  is  part  of  the  Christian  vocation  as 
truly  as  preaching  the  gospel  in  any  merely  literary  sense.  These  are  all 
ministries  of  Christ — teaching  the  ignorant,  clothing  the  naked,  feeding  the 
hungry,  teaching  the  intellect,  stirring  the  ambition  to  nobler  daring,  and  in 
all  ways  fulfilling,  completing,  glorifying  our  call  from  heaven.  And  then, 
at  the  last,  "Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant."  May  we  all  hear  that 
sweet  word — we  shall  need  no  other  heaven. 


XV. 
Christ's  missionary   example — multitudes   and    disciples — Christ's 

PICTURE    OF    blessedness A    GATE    FOR    E\ERY    MAN. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  we  thank  tliee  that  we  have  not  come  to  the  mount  that  might  be 
touched,  and  that  burned  with  fire,  and  unto  darkness  and  tempest  and  the  sound  of 
a  trumpet  and  the  voice  of  words,  a  siglit  so  terrible  that  Moses  said,  "  I  exceedingly 
fear  and  quake"  ;  but  we  have  come  to  Mount  Zion,  the  city  of  the  Heavenly  Jeru- 
salem, the  place  made  sacred  by  the  presence  of  our  Saviour.  We  are  now  about  to 
sit  at  his  feet,  that  from  his  gracious  lips  we  may  hear  the  new  and  larger  law.  We 
bless  thee  that  he,  too,  went  up  into  a  mountain,  and  that  his  voice  was  low,  tender, 
gentle,  because  of  our  weakness  ;  yea,  falling  in  tender  whispers  upon  the  agony  of 
our  conscious  guilt,  and  shedding  upon  us  not  a  lightning  to  daszle,  but  a  gentle 
summer  morning,  quiet  as  light  and  almighty  as  love. 

We  bless  thee  for  the  enthroned  Christ,  seated  upon  the  mountain,  teaching,  lifted 
up  upon  the  Cross,  dying  in  atoning  sacrifice,  exalted  far  above  all  principalities 
and  powers  and  names  and  dominions  and  ministries  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  rul- 
ing all  things,  giving  centre  and  vitality  and  hope  to  the  great  universe.  We  gather 
around  him  this  day,  Avitb  loyal  hearts  and  true,  with  undivided  love,  with  thankful- 
ness loud  and  sweet  in  its  utterance,  and  to  him  we  give  the  unbroken  psalm  of  ador- 
ation and  gratitude.  O,  that  we  might  this  day  pass  away  from  the  earth  in  all  our 
higher  feelings  and  seize  the  promised  joys,  the  inmost  love,  the  divine  love.  Liberate 
us  from  the  enthralment  of  time  and  sense  and  all  things  measurable,  and  give  us 
liberty  in  heaven  to  enjoy,  by  exquisite  foretaste,  all  the  banquet  thou  hast  provided 
for  our  eternal  nourishment.  We  bless  thee  for  this  stairway  up  to  heaven,  this 
lower  sanctuary,  this  outer  porch  and  court  of  the  great  temple.  Whilst  we  are  here 
uTA'"  ^^'6  learn  much  of  thy  law,  and  study  to  the  enlightenment  of  our  mind  and 
the  comforting  of  our  heart  such  of  thy  doctrines  and  thy  promises  as  our  life  most 
needs  to  know. 

We  come  with  the  week's  hymn  of  love  ;  for  all  the  six  days  gone  thou  hast  been 
with  us — the  brightness  of  our  morning,  tlie  star  of  our  night.  Thou  hast  protected 
our  roof,  and  our  door  and  our  windows  ;  thou  hast  made  our  bed,  and  enkindled  our 
fire  and  spread  our  table,  and  thy  rod  is  an  unbroken  staff  in  our  hand.  Behold  us, 
then,  grateful  ;  full  of  high  desire  to  bless  and  praise  thee,  and  worthily  magnify 
thy  name.  Let  our  weakness  become  strength,  let  our  infirmity  add  pathos  to  the 
sacrifice  which  is  thereby  made  incomplete  ;  may  our  very  sin  endear  thee  to  us  by 
reason  of  our  contrition  and  repentance.  The  old  man  and  the  young  man,  the 
mother  and  the  child,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  strong  and  the  weak,  are  all  here 
for  one  sacred  purpose,  with  hearts  beating  steadily  to  one  offering  of  ardent  love. 
Surely  when  thou  pnssest  throuirh  the  heavens  nnd  lookest  down  upon  the  earth, 
hou  wilt  not  forget  the  places  where  thy  people  meet  to  pray.     Send  a  special 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINK.  1 27 

blessing  upon  every  congregated  host  assembled  to  sing  thy  praise  and  wait  upon  tliy 
footstool,  and  give  us  this  day  a  baptism  gentle  as  dew,  ardent  as  fire,  bright  as 
light,  and  let  us  henceforward  be  thine  by  a  deeper  consecration. 

Hear  the  voice  of  those  who  to-day  are  uttering  good  woj'ds  for  the  future.  They 
would  live  better  than  ever,  they  would  begin  anew,  they  would  sin  no  more  ;  their 
hearts  are  in  high  mood  of  expectation  ;  they  hate  the  past  wherein  it  was  guilty, 
and  they  would  give  thee  the  future  unstained  by  sin.  Hear  their  vow,  and  whilst 
they  utter  it  in  all  sincerity,  minister  unto  them  the  grace  which  will  enable  them  to 
fulfil  it.  The  Lord  knows  how  impossible  it  is  for  us  whilst  on  earth  to  be  in  heaven, 
yet  thou  wilt  count  our  holy  purposes  as  holy  deeds,  and  what  we  would  be  we  shall 
be  in  the  writing  of  thy  book. 

The  Lord  direct  us  in  all  business  engagements,  in  all  commercial  perplexities,  in 
all  honest  endeavours  to  make  a  livelihood  in  the  sight  of  society.  Prosper  our 
schemes  and  plans  wherein  they  are  inspired  by  thine  own  spirit,  and  give  unto  us 
the  prosperity  which  will  itself  be  sanctified  as  a  gift  from  heaven,  and  spare  us 
those  humiliations  which  would  drive  us  into  hopelessness  and  despair.  May  we 
give  our  strength  to  tlue,  nor  withhold  our  weakness  from  thine  altar.  May  our 
whole  life  be  given  to  thee,  an  entire  gift,  uubegrudged,  yielded  with  the  whole  love 
of  the  heart,  because  of  what  thou  hast  done  for  us. 

The  Lord  be  kind  unto  all  for  whom  we  ought  to  pray — to  the  old  man  our  father 
at  home,  to  the  sick  send  messages  of  consolation,  to  the  poor  speak  such  words  as 
their  poverty  can  understand,  to  the  baffled  and  afflicted,  the  bewildered  and  the 
panic-stricken,  thou  knowest  what  to  say,  for  we  are  dumb.  To  the  soldier  and  the 
sailor,  and  the  stranger  far  from  home,  and  the  prodigal,  the  unthankful  and  the 
evil,  the  murderer  of  father  and  of  mother  by  daily  and  aggravated  sin — send  mes- 
sages from  thy  house  in  heaven,  thou  gentle  Father,  thou  almost  Mother.  The  Lord 
be  kind  unto  us  this  day,  and  set  a  flame  in  his  house  that  shall  give  us  illumination 
not  of  earth,  and  grant  unto  us  revelations  of  truth  which  will  make  us  glad  with 
holy  and  grateful  surprise.     Amen. 

Mattiieav  v.  1-12. 

1.  And  seeing  the  multitudes,  he  went  up  into  a  mountain  :  and  when  he  was  set, 
his  disciples  came  unto  him  : 

2.  And  he  opened  his  mouth,  and  taught  them,  saying, 

3.  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit  :  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

4.  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn  :  foB  they  shall  be  comforted. 

5.  Blessed  are  the  meek  :  for  they  shall  inherit  the  earth. 

6.  Blessed  are  they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  :  for  they  shall 
"be  filled. 

7.  Blessed  are  the  merciful  :  for  they  .shall  obtain  mercy. 

8.  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart  :  for  they  shall  see  God. 

9.  Blessed  are  the  peacemakers  :  for  they  shall  be  called  the  children  of  God. 

10.  Blessed  are  they  which  are  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake  .  for  theirs  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

11.  Blessed  are  ye,  when  men  shall  revile  you,  and  persecute  you,  and  shall  say 
all  manner  of  evil  against  you  falsely,  for  my  sake. 

12.  Rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad  :  for  great  is  your  reward  in  heaven  :  for  so 
persecuted  they  the  prophets  which  were  before  you. 

"And  seeing  the  multitudes,  he  went  up  into  a  mountain."      He  has 


128  THESE    SAYINGS    OK    MINE. 

already  been  in  the  river,  and  walking  by  the  seaside  :  to-day  he  goes  up 
into  a  mountain,  and  presently  we  shall  have  to  accompany  him  in  his 
journeys  through  cities  and  towns  and  villages.  Thus,  little  by  little,  a 
place  at  a  time,  he  will  claim  and  sanctify  the  whole  earth.  He  was  bap- 
tized in  the  river,  walking  by  the  seaside  he  called  men  to  service  :  this 
morning  he  walks  up  the  hill  as  up  a  stairway  his  own  hands  have  fash- 
ioned ;  presently  he  will  go  further  and  spread  his  own  gospel  typically 
over  all  the  face  of  the  earth.  Thus  he  will  do  in  symbol  what  he  will 
tell  us  to  do  literally,  for  what  other  places  are  there  upon  the  whole  globe 
besides  the  river,  the  sea,  the  mountain,  the  city,  the  town,  the  village,  the 
house  ?  Thus  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  a  grain  of  mustard  seed.  In  the 
doing  and  work  of  our  own  Saviour  he  will  give  us  the  germ  of  the  mis- 
sionary idea  ;  we  -shall  see  the  people  of  one  town  getting  round  him  and 
saying,  "  Don't  leave  us,"  and  he  will  rise  above  them  and  say,  "  I  must 
preach  the  gospel  in  other  cities  also."  Thus,  when  he  comes  to  wind  all 
up,  in  the  most  beneficent  climax  that  ever  crowned  the  eloquence  of  a 
lifetime,  he  will  only  tell  us  to  expand  wha:t  he  himself  began. 

He  went  up  into  a  mountain,  into  a  pulpit  not  made  with  hands.  I  like 
these  weird  beginnings.  He  did  not  go  in  conventional  methods  ;  we 
wait  till  the  church  is  built :  he  said  the  church  was  not  made  with  hands  : 
Avherever  there  is  a  sky  there  is  a  roof,  wherever  there  is  a  floor  there  is  a 
platform,  wherever  there  is  a  man  there  is  a  congregation,  wherever  there  is 
a  human  heart  there  is  an  opportunity  of  preaching  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

"  And  when  he  was  set."  Did  the  carpenter's  son  do  what  the  Rabbis 
did  ?  They  gathered  their  robes  about  them  when  they  sat  down  in  Moses' 
seat,  for  the  Jewish  Rabbi  always  sat  whilst  he  talked.  It  was  even  so  that 
Jesus  did  on  a  larger  and  grander  scale.  He  begins  royally  :  there  is  a 
subtle  claim  of  dominion  in  this  very  attitude  of  his  ;  he  does  not  beg  to 
be  heard  ;  he  does  not  say,  "  If  you  please,  I  shall  be  glad  to  mention  to 
you  a  suggestion  or  two  which  have  been  stirring  in  mine  own  heart."  He 
sits,  and  the  mountain  gives  him  hospitality.  He  fills  the  mountain,  it 
beseems  him  like  a  king's  throne.  Close  your  eyes  and  open  the  vision  of 
your  hearts,  and  look  at  him.  We  go  into  small  buildings,  we  ask  permis- 
sion to  speak  in  limited  synagogues  ;  why,  in  the  motion  of  his  limbs  there 
is  a  subtle,  strange  royalty  of  mien.  When  he  sits  he  sits  as  one  who  has 
a  right  to  the  mountain,  and  when  he  speaks  it  is  as  one  whose  gentle  voice 
fills  the  spaces  like  a  healing  breeze. 

H  "  He  opened  his  mouth."  The  ages  had  been  waiting  for  the  opening 
of  those  lips.  When  some  great  men  amongst  us  and  all  over  the  world 
open  their  lips  in  high  places  they  seem  to  have  the  power  of  making  his- 
tory. Other  nations  are  listening,  wondering,  hoping,  fearing  ;  when  this 
Man  opened  his  mouth  he  uttered  words  which  would  fill  creation,  which 
would  be  a  gospel  set  in  every  language  ever  spoken  by  mankind,  and 


^1 


J 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  1 29 

easily  set  in  every  language.  There  are  tongues  into  which  you  cannot 
drive  Milton.  Shakespeare  must,  in  many  of  his  utterances,  be  a  stranger 
for  ever  to  those  who  have  but  one  tongue,  and  that  not  rich  in  its  capacity 
of  utterance.  But  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ  go  everywhere,  and  fall  intoi'l 
all  languages  with  infinite  ease.  He  speaks  of  light,  love,  life,  truth,  peaceY 
God,  home.  There  cannot  be  a  language  without  these  words  having) 
some  distinct  share  in  it.  He  sits  down  upon  every  mountain  and  breathes 
through  every  language  his  most  ineffable  gospel.  / 

1  "He  taught  them."  This  is  a  new  word  ;  we  have  not  met  with  this 
if  word  before  in  our  reading.  When  we  listened  to  Jesus  Christ  before,  he 
was  preaching,  now  he  is  teaching.  The  preacher  was  a  herald,  a  crying 
voice:  "Repent,"  said  he.  The  air  was  startled  by  the  cry.  Now  hei 
changes  the  tone  :  he  sits  down  and  teaches,  explains,  simplifies,  draws 
the  listeners  into  confidence  and  sympathy  with  himself,  and  makes  them 
co-partners  of  the  infinite  secret  of  the  divine  truth  and  love. 

Do  we  run  after  preachers  or  teachers  ?  Unquestionably  after  preachers. 
The  teachers  of  London  to-day  are  talking  to  half-dozens,  the  preachers 
are  thronged.  Who  cares  to  be  taught  ?  How  many  of  us  bring  our 
Bible  to  church  and  follow  the  preacher  page  by  page,  checking  every 
reference,  testing  every  doctrine,  asking  for  explanations  by  eager  eyes  and 
burning  faces  ?  By  the  trick  of  an  anecdote  I  will  engage  to  seduce  from 
the  wisest  teacher  in  London  nine-tenths  of  his  hearers.  We  are  in  the 
anecdotal  age  :  some  child's  story  would  tickle  us,  while  the  philosopher's 
doctrine  would  muddle  the  heads  that  are  nearly  lunatic  because  of  the 
mean  and  vulgar  noises  of  a  mean  and  vulgar  world. 

"  Saying,  Blessed."  That  is  a  new  word  also.  I  have  not  met  that  word 
aforetime.  What  was  it  that  he  said  when  we  first  heard  him  ?  "  Repent." 
And  now  he  says  "  Blessed."  There  is  a  high  logic  in  this  sequence. 
Preaching  first,  then  teaching.  Repentance  first,  then  inspiration — these 
are  the  coherences  and  minute  consistencies,  the  moral  unities  Avhich  you 
find  all  through  and  through  this  Christian  revelation,  which  make  it  not  a 
chaos,  but  a  living  world  with  a  living  centre. 

In  this  verse  I  find  two  classes  referred  to — multitudes  and  disciples. 
Are  they  not  co-ordinate  terms  ?     Far  from  it.     How  vv^ell  it  would  have 
read,  hoAv  noble  would  have  been  the  music,  complete  as  a  sphere,  had  it 
said — "  When  he  beheld  the  multitudes  he  hailed  them  as  disciples  and 
taught  them."     Already  there  begins  the  division — that  terrible  distinction!/' 
which  separates  man  from  man,  the  hearer  from  the  scholar,  the  onlookei  1 
from  the  inlooker,  the  particle  of  a  mob  from  the  particle  of  a  family     ToM 
which  class  do  we  belong  ?     Are  we  part  of  the  anonymous  multitudes,  or/- 
part  of  the  registered  household  ?     We  may  all  be  disciples  ;  why  should 
we  not  be  scholars  of  the  one  Teacher  ?     Come,  let  him  lure  thee — give  up 
all  other  teachers  and  hear  this  teacher  sent  from  God.     Lord,  open  mine 
ears  that  I  may  hear  the  whole  music  of  thy  heaven-unfolding  voice. 


130  THESE    SAVINGS    OF    MINE. 

This  discourse  was  not  delivered  to  the  multitudes,  it  was  deliveicd  to 
the  disciples.  Some  preparation  is  needed  for  hearing  Christ.  Presently 
he  will  stand  right  out  in  the  busy  market-place  and  speak  common  words 
to  the  common  heart,  but  on  this  mountain  he  is  speaking  to  a  few  chosen 
ones  who  have  a  measure,  very  inadequate,  of  understanding  and  apprecia- 
tion. Why,  it  requires  a  little  preparation  to  go  into  a  picture-gallery  ; 
how  much  more  to  go  into  a  church  ?  When  the  uninstructed  visitor  goes 
into  a  picture-gallery,  he  is  seized  by  subjects,  not  by  art.  A  pleasing 
face,  a  sweet  child,  a  loving  home,  some  little  pathetic  incident  touches  him. 
An  idealized  tree,  a  landscape  made  into  poetry,  he  would  not  see  :  he 
X'  '  does  not  look  for  art,  he  looks  for  subjects.  You  require  some  little 
preparation  for  going  into  a  music-hall  ;  how  much  more  for  going  into 
God's  sanctuary  ?  What  pieces  are  applauded  ?  Listen.  Pieces  that  are 
subjects  again,  that  mingle  easily  with  the  unthinking — the  sparkling,  the 
rattling,  or  the  pathetic  :  pieces  that  require  to  be  read  with  the  inner  eye 
are  lost  upon  the  uninitiated,  and  it  is  certain  to  me,  therefore,  and  it  is 
no  wonder,  that  some  preparation  should  be  needed  for  listening  to  Jesus 
Christ. 

His  very  first  sentence  is  a  secret  which  can  have  no  meaning  to  the  vast 
majority  of  hearers.  What  is  that  first  sentence  ?  "  Blessed  are  the  poor 
in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  AVhat  said  the  preacher 
you  heard  this    morning  ?     Nothing.     Quote   me  one   sentence  that  he 

(Uttered.  He  began  by  saying,  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs 
J  lis  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Commonplace  talk  like  that  ;  sparkle,  bril- 
liance, there  was  none  ;  he  is  not  worth  listening  to  ;  he  seemed  rather 
weak  in  his  way  of  speaking,  his  voice  was  low,  and  yet  well  heard  ;  I 
expected  another  kind  of  voice  altogether,  and  another  type  of  subject, 
and  he  began,  after  all  this  weary  waiting  of  the  listening  ages,  by  saying, 
"  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  He 
began  by  healing  broken  hearts,  he  began  by  comforting  those  that  we 
want  to  write  off  the  register,  for  we  arc  sick  of  puling  and  whining  and 

[  groaning  and   sighing.     He  stooped  to  pick  up  a  broken  reed  when  we 
thought  he  would  have  mount':  l  th-;  stars  and  passed  before  us  with  the 

I  wondrous  velocity  and  splendour  of  'ho  lightning. 

The  heart  needs  some  preparation  to  know  the  meaning  of  this  expres- 
sion, "  the  poor  in  spirit."     The  expression  sounds  as  if  it  were  simple,] 
and  so  it  is,  but  it  is  the  simplicity  which  is  a  last  result.     We  may  have 
to  spend  a  weary  and  baffled  lifetime  before  we  come  into  the  mystery  of 
this  eloquence,  "  the  poor  in  spirit." 

,'     I  propose  to  look  at  the  beatitudes  as  a  whole,  and  not  just  now  to  look 
at  them  in  detail.     The  time  may  come  when  we  shall  be  able  to  look  at 
each  verse  as  a  single  gem  :  meanwhile  my  inquiry  is,  "  AVhat  was  Christ's 
-  idea  of  a  blessed  life  ? " 


THESE   SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  I3I 

In  Christ's  idea  of  a  blessed  life  I  find  a  marvellous  union  of  the  divine 
and  the  human.  Some  of  the  beatitudes  look  up  right  away  into  heaven, 
others  of  them  look  down  into  all  the  relations  of  earth  and  time.  In 
other  words  some  of  the  beatitudes  are  intensely  theological,  and  others 
are  intensely  moral  and  social.  Thus  in  the  beatitudes  we  have  a  com- 
plete representation  of  the  religion  which  Jesus  Christ  came  to  establish 
and  expound,  a  religion  combining  the  theological  with  the  moral,  the 
doctrinal  with  the  practical,  the  God  and  the  neighbour  :  thou  shalt  love 
.  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbour  as  thyself. 

What  is  our  religion  ?  Theological  only,  or  moral  ?  Have  we  magnifi- 
cent doctrine  and  do  we  pay  our  debts  ?  Have  we  splendid  intellectual 
conceptions  of  the  metaphysical  constitution  of  the  universe,  and  do  we 
forgive  our  enemies  ?  Are  we  orthodox  in  all  spiritual  conception,  and  do 
we  feed  the  hungry  and  clothe  the  naked  ?  In  Christ's  religion  earth  and 
heaven  go  together,  and  there  is  not  a  flower  that  blooms  on  the  green 
earth  that  does  not  owe  its  beauty  to  the  sun. 

In  Christ's  conception  of  the  blessed  life  I  find  many  persons  mentioned 
that  I  did  not  expect  to  find  referred  to,  and  I  find  many  persons  omitted 
that  I  expected  Avould  have  been  first  spoken  of.     Let  me  take  the  beati- 
tudes as  a  picture  of  heaven.    Who  is  in  heaven  ?    Blessed  are  the  mighty,  1 
for  they  are  in  heaven  ;  blessed  are  the  rich,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  ) 
glory  ;  blessed  are  the  famous,  for  theirs  are  the  trumpets  of  eternity  ;  I 
blessed  are  the  noble,  for  the  angels  are  their  servants.     Why,  that  is  not  ^ 
the  text.     Who  is  in  heaven  ?     The  poor  in  spirit,  they  that  mourn,  the 
meek,  they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  the  merciful, 
the  pure  in  heart,  the  peacemakers.     Then,  then,  perhaps  we  may  be  there. 
Not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble,  not  many  learned,  not  many  brilliant 
are  called.      Then  perhaps  we  may  be   there.     Woman,   mother,  sister, 
obscure  person,  unknown  life — you   may  be  there.     Who  cares  to   seek 
such  flowers  as  these  ?     Give  me  the  flowers  that  flame  like  fir    ,  and  I  will 
call  these  a  worthy  garland.     Who  cares  to  turn  their  heads  to  look  back 
to  seek  such  modest  beauty  ?     God  does.     A  broken  and  a  contrite  heart, 
O  God,  thou  wilt  not  despise. 

In  Christ's  conception  of  the  blessed  life  I  find  that  goodness  and 
reward  always  go  together.  Goodness  is  indeed  its  own  reward.  The 
flower  brings  its  own  odour,  the  light  brings  its  own  revelations.  The 
goodness  is  the  reward,  the  prayer  t's  the  answer.  There  are  persons  who 
say,  "  You  have  prayed  the  prayer,  have  you  got  the  reply  ?  "  Certainly, 
while  we  are  yet  speaking.  You  do  not  understand  this  mystery,  you 
thought  there  would  be  a  telegram  or  a  man  with  a  four  square  letter  at 
your  door,  saying,  "  Here  is  the  answer."  Whatsoever  things  ye  pray  for, 
believe  that  ye  have  them,  and  have  them  you  certainly  will.  This  blessed- 
ness, therefore,  comes  with  the  condition  specified.     The  poor  in  spirit 


132  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

have  the  kingdom  of  heaven  already,  have  it  of  divine  gift  and  divine  right. 
Sometimes  we  enter  into  this  high  experience  right  fully,  we  know  what  it 
means  without  any  preacher  telling  us  in  so  many  words.  There  are  times 
when  the  heart  is  just  alive  with  heaven.  There  are  seasons  when  we 
could  crowns  despise  rather  than  give  up  the  high  rapture  or  the  sweet 
tenderness  of  soul  which  ennobles  us.  You  have  been  in  those  occasional 
moods,  and,  therefore,  I  need  not  further  explain  or  refer  to  them.  If  you 
have  not  been  caught  up  into  that  third  heaven,  I  might  speak  until  the 
night  turn  into  the  morning,  and  you  would  not  catch  a  tone  of  this  sacred 
truth. 

In  Christ's  conception  of  the  blessed  life  I  find  that  even  the  enemy 
himself  is  made  a  contributor.  *'  Blessed  are  they  which  are  persecuted 
for  righteousness'  sake,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Blessed  are 
ye  when  men  shall  revile  you  and  persecute  you,  and  say  all  manner  of 
evil  against  you  falsely  for  my  sake.  Rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad,  for 
great  is  your  reward  in  heaven,  for  so  persecuted  they  the  prophets  which 
were  before  you."  Why,  he  shows  us  how  flowers  grow  in  the  night-time, 
how  the  wilderness  may  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose,  how  the  black 
devil  with  sharp  teeth  and  eyes  of  fire  is  the  servant  of  the  good  man, 
and  waits  upon  him  and  ministers  to  his  joy.  O  that  we  might  enter  intof 
this  meaning,  then  all  things  would  be  ours,  life,  death,  height,  depth — our 
servants  would  be  a  multitude,  and  in  that  multitude  would  be  found  the! 
angels  of  God. 

Now  into  which  verse  can  I  come  ?  Let  each  man  ask  for  himself.  I 
am  not  all  these  eight — which  is  my  little  wicket-gate,  through  which  I 
pass  into  God's  reward?  Let  me  see  what  choice  of  gates  there  is — the 
poor  in  spirit,  they  that  mourn,  the  meek,  they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst 
after  righteousness,  the  merciful,  the  pure  in  heart,  the  peacemakers,  the 
persecuted.  Let  each  scholar  ask,  "  Which  is  my  gate  ?  "  There  is  only  k 
one  gate  that  I  see  here  that  I  ever  have  any  hope  of  getting  in  at.  I 
think,  perhaps,  through  that  gate  I  might  go.  "  Blessed  are  they  that 
hunger."  If  I  cannot  get  through  that  gate,  I  fear  all  the  others  are 
1  shut. 

But  there  is  a  gate  for  all  of  us — which  is  yours,  my  brother  ?  Seek  and 
ye  shall  find,  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you,  for  he  that  seeketh 
findeth,  and  to  every  one  that  knocketh  it  shall  be  opened.  And  yet  me- 
thinks  that  all  the  gates  somehow  interfold,  and  that  if  we  get  through 
one  we  shall  seem  to  have  gone  through  all.  This  is  a  mystery  known 
only  to  the  heart  of  the  elect. 

Concerning  these  beatitudes  two  things  may  be  said  :  first,  they  can  be 
tested.  These  are  not  metaphysical  abstractions  that  no  man  can  lay  his 
hand  upon,  these  are  practical  truths  that  every  man  can  test  for  himself. 
And  the  next  thing  that  can  be  said  about  them  is  that  the  blessings  here 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE,  I33 

promised  are  already  in  possession.  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for 
theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  We  do  not  wait  for  immortality,  we 
begin  it  now.  We  shall  not  perhaps  be  the  sons  of  God  in  ages  yet  unborn 
and  untold,  we  are  the  sons  of  God.  We  are  not  to  be  in  heaven  a  long 
time  after,  we  are  now  in  heaven — with  limitations,  but  with  a  deep  assur- 
ance the  world  can  never  shake.  Not  yet  completed  there  is  infinitely 
more  to  come  and  to  shine  upon  us,  but  whilst  we  pray  we  enter  heaven 
by  prayer.  Whilst  we  love,  we  enttr  iieaven  by  love.  When  we  forgive, 
we  are  in  heaven. 


XVI. 

THE   CHARACTER   OF    THE    DISCIPLES — THE  EFFECT  OF    ENCOURAGEMENT 

INFLUENCE    MAY    BE    LOST THE    NEED    OF    CAUTION. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  thy  way  concerning  us  we  do  not  understand  :  it  is  enough  for  us 
to  know  that  it  is  thy  way.  Help  us  to  walk  in  it  step  by  step,  with  all  patience  and 
hopefulness,  knowing  that  thou  wilt  bring  us  at  last  into  a  large  and  quiet  place. 
Thou  dost  astonish  the  upright  and  turn  the  innocent  pale  by  thy  judgments  and 
mysteries,  so  that  we  cannot  tell  what  thou  doest  in  the  heavens  or  upon  the  earth, 
and  when  men  question  us  about  thee  there  is  no  reply  upon  our  lips  :  we  can  but 
say,  This  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes.  He  setteth  the  mighty 
upon  their  heads,  and  turneth  their  mansions  upside  down  ;  yea,  he  changeth  the 
channels  of  the  sea  and  turneth  the  rivers  into  a  wilderness  ;  he  taketli  up  the  isles 
as  a  very  little  thing,  and  from  his  seat  upon  the  circle  of  the  earth  the  populations  are 
as  grasshoppers.  This  is  the  Lord's  rule  ;  yea,  it  is  our  Father's  reign  and  sover- 
eignty, and  we  rest  in  that,  and  find  ourselves  at  peace. 

We  are  of  yesterday,  and  know  nothing  ;  we  close  our  eyelids  and  behold  we  are 
blind  in  a  moment,  we  cannot  stretch  beyond  the  length  of  our  arms,  we  are  barred 
and  caged  in  like  lives  that  are  watched  ;  to-morrow  we  die,  and  the  third  day  are  we 
forgotten  as  if  we  had  never  been.  It  well  becometh  us,  therefore,  to  hold  our  peace, 
to  look  on  in  silence,  and  with  religious  wonder,  and  to  wait  hopefully  for  the  grand 
last  revelation.  Make  of  us  what  thou  wilt.  We  would  be  busier,  but  that  comes 
from  our  impatience  ;  we  would  be  more  famous  and  influential,  but  that  is  the  mis- 
chief of  our  ambition  ;  so  we  will  withdraw  wholly  our  own  counsel  and  purpose,  and 
we  will  wait  as  slaves  wait  upon  their  masters,  asking  thee  to  give  us  the  liberty  of 
thine  own  love,  and  to  bind  us  fast  with  the  loyalty  of  a  love  created  in  our  hearts  by 
thyself. 

The  days  flee  away  ere  we  can  count  them  one  by  one  ;  they  cease  to  be  days,  they 
are  like  flashes  in  the  darkness  and  are  gone  instantly.  O  that  we  might  number 
them  as  best  we  may,  with  some  view  of  finding  the  way  in  wisdom,  and  making  the 
reckoning  as  becometh  men  of  understanding.  Help  us  to  know  the  measure  of  our 
life,  how  little  it  is,  a  child's  tiny  span,  and  our  time  is  as  a  flying  shuttle,  as  a  post 
hastening  on  its  way,  as  a  shadow  that  continueth  not.  So  teach  us,  therefore,  in 
our  joys  to  remember  how  speedily  they  fall.  May  the  young  be  wise  as  the  aged, 
and  the  aged  be  as  those  who  have  obtained  the  venerableness  of  great  experience. 

The  Lord  help  us  to  do  our  work  with  both  hands,  and  with  our  whole  head  and 
heart,  as  if  everything  depended  upon  us,  and  then  to  leave  it  as  if  we  did  nothing  at 
all.  Feed  us  with  thy  grace,  enrich  and  nourish  us  with  thy  most  gracious  word  ; 
may  thy  doctrine  distil  as  the  dew,  and  thy  gospel  sing  to  us  as  an  angel,  and  charm 
us  out  of  ourselves  into  thy  great  service.  May  thy  promises  become  exhortations, 
and  in  the  midst  of  thine  exhortations  may  we  hear  the  voice  of  benediction. 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  I35 

Let  the  Lord's  pity  be  poured  out  upon  us  as  from  the  very  fountain  of  his  heart, 
and  may  we  know  that  our  life  is  the  object  of  thy  compassion,  that  thou  dost  not 
revile  us  in  the  heavens  or  laugh  at  us  in  the  distant  skies  ;  but  with  all  merciful- 
ness and  pitifulness  of  heart  dost  look  upon  us  as  those  whose  days  are  as  a  shadow 
fast  fleeing  away  ;  yea,  thou  hast  set  up  for  us  the  cross — the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  our  one  Priest,  our  only  Saviour,  our  infinite,  our  atoning  sacrifice  ;  in  him 
we  see  how  great  we  are  in  thy  purpose.  Help  us  to  behold  his  priesthood  and  to 
avail  ourselves  of  his  loving  ministry  ;  in  all  onr  sin  and  sorrow,  in  all  our  daily  vex- 
ation and  passing  trouble,  may  we  enter  into  his  heart  as  men  enter  into  a  sanctuary 
which  cannot  be  violated. 

The  Lord  hear  the  prayers  we  cannot  speak,  the  uprisings  and  motionings  of  ouJ 
dumb  hearts  ;  multiply  our  few  words  into  a  great  intercession,  and  let  all  our  utter- 
ances be  repronounced  by  our  Priest  in  heaven. 

The  Lord  send  messages  from  his  great  house  to  the  dwelling-places  of  those  who 
are  ailing,  sick,  dying,  wearying  to  die,  waiting  for  the  angel,  longing  for  some 
sound  of  the  coming  chariot  wheels.  The  Lord  send  messages  to  those  who  are 
sitting  in  the  gloom  of  despair,  who  say  they  have  tried  every  key  upon  their  girdle 
and  none  will  fit,  who  sit  down  beside  barred  gates  and  walls  too  high  to  be  scaled. 
The  Lord  speak  his  own  comforting  word  to  hearts  to  whom  the  darkness  is  a  burden, 
and  to  whom  the  night  has  no  star.  Preserver  of  the  strangers,  take  away  the  lone- 
liness of  the  stranger's  heart,  give  him  to  feel  in  thine  house  that  he  isat  his  Father's 
table  and  under  his  Father's  blessing.  And  grant  unto  the  widow  and  the  orphan, 
the  poor,  the  lonely,  the  comfortless,  and  them  that  have  no  helper,  some  message 
and  assurance  that  shall  recover  their  heart's  hope,  and  re-establish  them  in  a  wise 
confidence. 

The  Lord  hold  us  all  as  if  we  belonged  to  him,  and  draw  us  nearer  his  heart  the 
more  the  tempter  assails.     Amen. 

Matthew  v.  13-16. 

13.  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth  :  but  if  the  salt  have  lost  his  savour,  wherewith 
shall  it  be  salted  ?  It  is  thenceforth  good  for  nothing  but  to  be  cast  out,  and  to 
be  trodden  under  foot  of  men. 

14.  Ye  are  the  liglit  of  rhe  world.     A  city  that  is  set  on  a  hill  cannot  be  hid. 

15.  Neither  do  men  light  a  candle,  and  put  it  under  a  bushel,  but  on  a  candlestick; 
and  it  giveth  light  unto  all  that  are  in  the  house. 

16.  Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see  your  good  works,  and 
glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

There  are  two  ways  of  looking  at  this  portion  of  the  Lord's  address. 
He  is  speaking  to  the  disciples — that  may  be  inferred  from  the  first  verse 
of  the  chapter,  wherein  it  says,  "  When  he  was  set,  his  disciples  came  unto 
him,  and  he  opened  his  mouth  and  taught  them."  Are  we  to  suppose 
that  these  disciples  referred  to  were  the  salt  of  the  earth  and  the  light  of 
the  world,  and  a  city  set  upon  a  high  hill  ?  Surely  not  in  their  merely 
personal  capacity,  and  in  their  then  condition.  Let  us  take  the  first  view, 
therefore  ;  namely,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  speaking  of  the  Jews,  and  speak- 
ing of  them  he  hesitates  not  to  describe  them  as  the  salt  of  the  earth,  the 
light  of  the  world,  the  city  set  upon  a  hill     And  yet  in  a  very  gentle  way, 


136  THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

but  SO  broad  as  to  admit  of  no  misapprehension,  he  intimates  that  the  salt 
has  lost  its  savour,  the  light  has  been  put  under  a  bushel,  and  the  con- 
spicuousness  of  the  city  has  become  but  the  greater  shame.  The  effect 
of  this  'feaching  is  to  remind  men  of  great  calling  and  election,  and  of 
great  and  appalling  declension,  and  to  prepare  the  way  for  such  remedial 
and  reclaiming  measures  as  were  in  the  purpose  and  counsel  of  the  Eter- 
nal. This  was  not  dust  that  had  become  drier,  it  was  not  clay  that  had 
become  harder,  it  was  salt  that  had  lost  its  savour,  light  that  was  in  dan- 
ger of  being  wholly  extinguished.  Jesus  Christ,  therefore,  recognising  the 
greatness  and  the  grandeur  of  the  call  in  which  the  Jews  stood,  proceeded 
in  this  most  gracious  and  gentle  manner  to  indicate  the  declension  into 
which  they  had  fallen.     That  is  one  view. 

Take  the  other  view.  Jesus  Christ  sees  in  those  disciples  what  his 
church  is  to  be.  Not  addressing  them  in  their  then  intellectual  and  spirit- 
ual condition,  but  looking  forward  as  men  look  from  the  germ  to  the  full 
fruition,  he  regarded  them  as  the  beginning  of  his  own  divine  kingdom, 
and  addressing  them  as  such,  he  described  them  as  the  salt  of  the  earth, 
the  light  of  the  world,  and  a  city  set  upon  a  hill.  Both  views  are,  in  my 
opinion,  correct.  There  is  enough  in  each  of  them  to  awaken  the  most 
solemn  reflection,  to  affect  the  soul  with  all  the  pain  of  the  bitterest  humil- 
iation, and  to  inspire  it  with  all  that  is  most  animating  in  the  sacred 
word.     I  will  take  the  second  view  and  set  it  with  some  breadth  before  you. 

Christ  sees  the  greatest  side  of  our  nature,  and  he  addresses  that  side, 
because  we  are  more  easily  and  effectually  moved  by  encouragement  than 
by  any  other  influence.  Tell  a  man  he  is  a  fool  and  you  cast  him  into 
despair.  Tell  him  that  he  has  lost  every  chance,  spoiled  every  opportu- 
nity, neglected  all  the  counsel  of  heaven,  and  is  no  longer  worthy  of  being 
counted  a  living  creature  in  God's  universe,  and  possibly  you  may  burden 
him  with  all  the  distress  of  absolute  despair.  The  effect  will  be  accord- 
ing to  the  nature  of  the  particular  man  who  is  addressed.  Jesus  Christ 
never  gave  us  a  discouraging  view  of  ourselves  whenever  he  saw  us  set  in 
any  relation  to  himself,  of  earnest  listening  or  religious  expectation  or 
incipient  desire  to  be  wiser  and  better  men.  When  we  stood  before  him 
in  the  full  erectness  of  our  own  purity,  and  came  before  him  with  a  certifi- 
cate of  our  own  integrity,  and  requested  to  be  heard  upon  the  basis  of 
our  righteousness,  he  turned  upon  us  the  fury  of  the  east  wind,  and  ban- 
ished us  from  his  presence  as  men  to  whom  he  had  nothing  to  say.  When- 
ever we  grouped  ourselves  around  him  and  said  we  would  listen  with  rev- 
erence and  with  religious  expectation  to  what  he  had  to  say,  then  he 
opened  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  not  until  our  capacity  was  sur- 
charged did  he  withdraw  his  gracious  and  redeeming  revelations  of  truth. 

This  is  the  great  law  of  human  teaching.  If  you  want  your  boy  to  be  a 
gentleman,  do  not  begin  by  treating  him  as  an  invincible  and  incurable 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  I37 

boor.  I  wait  until  that  lesson  gets  right  down  into  your  apprehension. 
If  you  want  to  encourage  your  scholars  in  your  Sunday-school  or  your 
scholastic  establishment,  begin  by  treating  them  as  young  philosophers. 
Give  them  credit  for  as  much  as  you  possibly  can — by  so  doing  you  will 
cast  them  upon  themselves  in  serious  reflection,  and  with  some  anxiety 
they  will  endeavour  to  respond  to  the  breadth,  the  sympathy,  and  the 
nobleness  of  your  estimation  of  their  capacity  and  dilligence.  If  you  want 
any  man  to  do  his  best,  trust  him  with  considerable  responsibility.  Who 
could  do  his  best  if  he  knew  he  was  watched,  suspected,  distrusted,  and 
that  the  object  of  the  vigilant  criticism  was  to  entrap  him,  to  find  out  his 
defects,  and  to  convince  him  by  multitudinous  arguments  that  he  was 
wholly  unfit  for  his  position  ?  Many  of  us  could  not  work  at  all  under 
such  circumstances  ;  we  should  simply  succumb  under  their  distressing 
weight  if  we  did  not  resent  them  as  intolerable  humiliations.  -, 

Jesus  Christ  comes  to  us  and  says,  "  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth  " — says  ' 
to  a  man  who  thought  himself  useless  in  the  world,  "  Thou  art  as  pungent 
salt  in  the  midst  of  a  putrid  age,"  or,  "  Thou  art  as  salt  cast  upon  that 
which  is  already  good,  to  preserve  it  from  decay."  Jesus  Christ  adds, 
**  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world  " — tells  a  man  who  never  suspected  himself 
of  having  any  light  at  all,  that  it  is  in  him  to  throw  a  circle  of  radiance 
around  his  family,  his  neighbourhood,  or  it  may  be  his  country.  Let  us 
learn  to  follow  this  example  in  some  degree.  We  get  from  men  in  many 
cases  just  what  we  tell  them  we  expect  from  them  ;  there  is  something  in 
human  nature  that  likes  to  be  trusted  with  responsibility^  something  in  us 
that  responds  to  great  occasions.  Jesus  Christ  always  supplied  a  grand 
occasion  to  his  hearers,  and  he  opened  the  broad  and  sunny  road  of  hope. 
He  did  not  point  to  the  low  and  dank  caverns  of  despair. 

Jesus  Christ  recognises  the  true  i7iflue7ice  of  good  men.  He  called  them 
salt  which  is  pungent,  light  which  is  lustrous,  a  city  set  on  a  hill  which  is 
conspicuous,  and  may  be  seen  afar  by  travellers  and  by  those  who  long  for 
home.  Some  influences  are  active — salt  and  light  ;  some  influences 
passive — a  city  set  on  a  hill.  We  must  not  judge  one  another's  influence 
by  our  own,  and  condemn  any  man's  influence  in  the  church  because  it 
does  not  take  its  tone  and  range  from  our  own  method  of  doing  things. 
Some  clocks  do  not  strike.  They  have  to  be  looked  at  if  from  them  we 
would  know  the  time  of  day.  Some  clocks  do  strike,  and  they  strike  in 
the  darkness  as  well  as  in  the  light,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  the  weary,  sleep- 
less one  now  and  again  to  catch  the  tone  which  tells  him  that  the  darkness 
is  going  and  the  light  is  coming.  Do  not  undervalue  me  because  I  am  a 
man  of  but  passive  influence.  Do  not  charge  me  with  ambition  and  mad- 
ness because  I  am  a  man  of  energetic  influence.  Let  each  be  what  the 
great,  loving,  wise  Father  meant  him  to  be.  There  is  room  in  his  heart 
for  all.     The  brain  makes  no  noise  ;  the  tongue  no  man  can  tame — is  the 


138  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

tongue,  therefore,  not  a  divine  creation?  Yea,  verily,  God  taught  it  its 
trick  of  speech  and  its  wizardry  of  music.  Is  the  brain  not  of  divine 
formation  because  it  makes  no  noise  ?  Yea,  verily,  it  is  as  the  inmost 
church  of  the  Lord  wherein  God  shows  the  fullest  of  his  heavenly  and 
immortal  splendour. 

George  Gilfillan,  in  his  most  energetic  and  inspiriting  book  called 
"  Bards  of  the  Bible,"  has  some  observations  upon  this  matter  of  silence 
as  contrasted  with  noise.  As  a  boy  I  used  to  be  very  fond  of  that  rhetor- 
ical writer,  and  as  a  man  I  do  not  renounce  him.  I  have  not  seen  the 
sentence  for  twenty  years,  but  I  think  I  can  quote  it  even  now  in  sub- 
stance. He  says,  "  The  greatest  objects  in  nature  are  the  stillest  :  the 
ocean  has  a  voice,  the  sun  is  dumb  in  his  courts  of  praise.  The  forests 
murmur,  the  constellations  speak  not.  Aaron  spoke  ;  Moses'  face  but 
shone.  Sweetly  might  the  High  Priest  discourse,  but  the  Urim  and  the 
Thummim,  the  blazing  stones  upon  his  breast,  flash  forth  a  meaning 
deeper  and  diviner  far."  Young  men,  store  your  memory  with  such  words 
as  these,  and  you  will  never  want  to  run  away  from  your  own  society. 
The  chairs  may  be  vacant,  but  the  air  will  be  full  of  angels. 

Yet  whatever  our  influence  may  be,  we  may  lose  it.  The  salt  may  lose 
its  savour,  the  light  may  be  put  under  a  bushel,  and  a  city  set  upon  a  hill 
may  turn  its  lights  out,  or  build  its  walls  against  the  sun  and  turn  its  win- 
dows otherwhere.  The  foolish  discussion  has  been  sometimes  raised  as  to 
whether  salt  could  lose  its  pungency — raised  by  people  who  wanted  to 
catch  the  Saviour  tripping  in  his  speech.  But  in  proportion  to  the  diffi- 
culty is  the  solemnity.  He  who  made  the  salt  knows  more  about  it  than 
we  do,  and  whatever  may  become  of  the  salt,  taking  the  mere  letter  as  the 
limit  of  our  criticism,  we  all  know  as  the  saddest  and  most  tragical  fact 
in  life  that  some  of  the  grandest  intellects  have  lost  their  glory,  and  some 
right  hands  always  lifted  in  defence  of  the  right  have  lost  their  cunning. 
Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth  take  heed  lest  he  fall.  What  I  say  unto 
one  I  say  unto  all — watch. 

Every  man  sheds  a  \\^\\.  peculiar  to  himself.  No  man  has  all  the  light ; 
no  one  star  holds  in  its  little  cup  all  the  glory  of  the  universe.  One  star 
differeth  from  another  star  in  glory.  Suppose  one  of  the  least  of  the  stars 
should  say,  "  I  am  going  to  withdraw  from  the  firmament  because  I  see  a 
great  flame,  compared  with  whose  splendour  I  am  but  as  a  glowworm  in 
the  presence  of  the  sun."  Better  for  that  little  foolish  star  to  say,  "  The 
God  that  made  yonder  great  flame  trims  my  lamp,  gives  me  my  little 
sparkle  of  light." 

There  is  a  right  way  of  using  influence.  Observe  how  Jesus  Christ  puts 
the  matter  when  he  says,  "  Let  your  light  SO  shine  before  men";  the  word 
so  should  be  emphasized  as  indicating  the  manner  of  the  shining.  Light 
may  be  so  held  in  the  hand  as  to  dazzle  the  observer  ;  light  may  be 
brought  too  near  the  eyes,  light  may  be  set  at  a  wrong  angle,  light  may  be 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  130 

wasted,  its  beams  be  displayed  so  as  to  be  of  no  use  to  the  man  who  would 
read  or  work.  Hence  it  is  not  enough  to  be  luminous,  but  so  to  use  our 
luminousness  as  to  be  of  use  to  other  people.  There  are  men  who,  from 
my  point  of  view,  are  luminous  enough  to  light  a  whole  country  who  do 
not  light  their  own  little  house.  There  are  men  who  need  to  be  focalised, 
all  but  immeasurable  men,  with  a  kind  of  infinite  capacity  for  anything, 
and  who  yet,  for  want  of  right  setting  and  bringing  together  and  focalis- 
ing,  live  as  splendid  nothings  and  die  as  bubbles  die  upon  the  troubled 
wave.  It  is  not  enough,  therefore,  for  us  to  have  light  and  to  be  luminous  ; 
we  must  study  the  great  economic  laws  by  which  even  a  little  light  may 
sometimes  go  a  long  way,  and  a  great  light  may  throw  its  timely  splendour 
upon  the  road  of  him  who  is  in  perplexity  and  doubt. 

Our  Saviour  further  teaches  us  that  our  light  is  so  to  shine  that  our  good 
works  may  be  seen.  He  does  not  say  that  tlie  worker  may  be  made  visi- 
ble, but  that  the  works  may  be  observed,  admired,  imitated,  may  induce 
men  to  give  glory  to  the  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  It  is  thus  that  his 
own  sun  works  daily  in  the  heavens  :  who  dares  look  at  the  sun  when  he 
so  shines  as  to  fill  the  earth  with  all  the  beauty  of  summer  ?  We  turn  our 
eyes  up  to  him  and  he  rebukes  us  with  darts  of  fire  ;  he  says,  "  Look 
down,  not  up  ;  look  at  the  works,  not  the  worker."  So  we  may  feast  our 
eyes  upon  a  paradise  of  flowers,  and  get  much  of  heaven  out  of  it,  but  the 
moment  we  venture  to  say,  "  Who  did  this — where  is  he  ? "  "  Show  me 
the  worker,"  the  sun  answers  us  with  a  rebuke  of  intolerable  light.  So  no 
man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time,  but  we  see  his  son  Jesus  Christ.  No  man 
hath  seen  God  at  any  time,  yet  we  count  his  stars  when  the  great  daylight 
is  away  ;  we  wonder  how  they  were  hung  upon  nothing,  and  how  they 
shine  without  wasting,  and  what  they  are — porch  lamps  of  a  King's  palace, 
street  lamps  on  a  heavenly  way — who  can  tell  ?  None,  yet  the  bare  ques- 
tion-asking stirs  the  mind  and  the  heart  with  a  noble  wonder  that  is  almost 
religious.  What  wonder,  then,  if  you  cannot  look  at  the  sun,  that  you 
cannot  look  at  the  God  that  made  the  sun  ?  If  he  is  invisible  in  himself, 
he  is  not  invisible  in  his  ministry.  We  also  are  his  offspring.  In  every 
little  child  I  see  his  work,  in  the  meanest  human  life  I  see  the  infinitude 
of  his  wisdom  and  the  beneficence  of  his  purpose.  In  myself  I  see  the 
divinity  of  God. 

Thus  our  lesson  stands  in  the  meantime.  A  kind  word  of  encouragement 
has  been  spoken  to  us  :  we  are  not  regarded  as  little,  insignificant,  contempt- 
ible, not  worth  gathering  up  :  we  are  spoken  of  as  salt,  light,  and  a  city  set 
on  a  hill.  Let  us  answer  the  grandeur  of  the  challenge.  We  have  been  told 
that  the  best  influence  may  decline  and  die  :  salt  may  lose  its  savour,  the 
light  may  be  extinguished.  Let  us  hear  the  solemn  exhortation,  and  exer- 
cise a  spirit  of  vigilant  caution.  We  have  been  called  to  a  certain  manner 
of  life  ;  let  us  take  heed  unto  the  call,  lest  having  magnificent  powers  we 
waste  them  as  rain  would  be  wasted  upon  the  unanswering  and  barren  sand. 


XVII. 

FULFILLING  THE  LAW THE  MINUTENESS  OF  THE  LAW LEARN  BY  DOING 

A  GRAND  OPPORTUNITY. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  surely  thou  dost  put  us  into  the  fire  to  take  out  of  us  all  that  is 
bad,  and  to  make  us  as  good  as  thou  art,  according  to  our  degree.  Thoa  dost  not 
delight  to  see  our  life  in  pain,  thou  hast  no  pleasure  in  death,  and  the  darkness  thou 
dost  abhor.  All  thy  purpose  concerning  us  is  love,  therefore  dost  thou  try  us  by 
many  waj's,  that  we  may  be  brought  into  thy  purity  and  love,  and  show  forth  thine 
infinite  holiness.  Thou  dost  smite  the  pride  of  our  eyes  and  rob  our  right  hand  of 
its  riches,  and  cause  our  right  foot  to  tremble  and  to  fall,  that  thou  mayest  do  some 
good  to  our  soul,  awakening  the  attention  of  our  love,  and  charming  the  trust  of  our 
heart  that  it  may  give  itself  wholly  to  thee  and  live  in  none  beside.  Give  us  this 
view  of  thy  way  amongst  us,  and  then  our  fears  shall  no  longer  distress  us,  but  upon 
our  smitten  life  there  shall  shine  a  great  light  as  of  the  very  hope  of  heaven.  Whom 
the  Lord  loveth  he  chasteneth,  and  scourgeth  every  son  whom  he  receiveth.  No 
chastening  for  the  present  seemeth  to  be  joyous,  but  rather  grievous  ;  nevertheless 
afterwards  it  worketh  the  peaceable  fruits  of  righteousness  to  them  that  are  exercised 
thereby.  We  have  not  yet  resisted  unto  blood,  striving  against  sin,  and  our  strength 
has  not  been  utterly  crushed  in  the  great  warfare.  Behold,  thou  hast  purposes  of 
mercy  towards  us  in  all  these  struggles,  fears,  contests,  and  subtle  temptations. 
Thou  art  training  us,  by  a  wondrous  education,  to  be  like  thyself  in  all  pureness  and 
grace.  Thou  hast  chastened  us  sore,  but  thou  hast  not  left  us  utterly  in  the  hands 
of  the  tormentor.  We  are  cast  down  but  not  destroyed,  we  are  persecuted  but  not 
forsaken  ;  thou  dost  save  us  with  an  infinite  salvation,  and  no  man  can  pluck  us  out 
of  our  Father's  hand.  Undertake  for  us  in  all  our  way,  set  before  us  to  eat  and  to 
drink  what  thou  wilt,  grant  unto  us  rest  or  unrest,  send  upon  us  the  great  storm  or 
the  benediction  of  light  ;  only  in  the  end  make  us  true  and  good,  fit  for  thy  society, 
and  qualified  for  thy  service. 

We  have  to  bless  thee  in  long,  sweet  hymns  for  thy  loving  kindness  and  thy  tender 
mercy  :  having  begun  to  sing  thy  praise,  our  hearts  Avould  sing  themselves  away  in 
grateful  song,  for  thy  mercies  are  without  number  and  thy  loving  kindness  cannot  be 
measured.  Through  the  dark  gate  of  our  fear  thou  sendest  angels  of  light  and 
deliverance  ;  through  our  sickness  thou  dost  bring  healing  of  the  soul  ;  when  we  are 
far  away  in  the  wilderness  where  is  no  sanctuary,  thou  dost  gather  us  into  a  house 
not  made  with  hands,  and  thou  givest  unto  us  songs  amongst  the  rocks. 

We  put  ourselves  into  thine  hands  for  the  few  days  we  have  to  live — how  few  ! 
Our  days  are  as  a  post,  speeding  on  its  urgent  way  ;  our  life  is  like  a  weaver's  shuttle, 
flying  to  and  fro,  too  quickly  for  the  eye  to  follow  it ;  we  are  consumed  before  the 
moth,  and  we  are  digging  our  own  grave  every  day.  Do  thou  undertake  for  us  m  all 
things,  granting  us  sanctification  ot  every  trouble,  deliverance  oui.  of  every  perplexitj, 
and  where  w«  expect  to  die  may  we  by  thy  grace  begin  to  sing. 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE.  I4I 

Work  witliin  us  all  the  miracles  of  thy  grace,  Thou  Holy  One.  We  have  read  of 
thy  curing  of  those  that  were  diseased  and  raising  up  of  those  that  were  dead,  and 
our  poor  ignorance  has  been  startled  into  impious  wondering  as  we  have  beheld  the 
marvels  of  thy  power.  Help  us  now  to  realise  in  our  own  hearts  the  infinitely 
grander  miracles  of  thy  grace.  Wash  us  with  blood,  cleanse  us  by  the  wondrous 
sacrifice  of  thy  Son  oar  one  and  only  Saviour,  recover  our  hearts  of  their  leprosy,  and 
touch  our  blind  eyes  that  we  may  see  with  the  vision  of  the  soul.  Recover  us  from 
all  alienation,  from  all  bitter  hostility,  from  all  insubordination  of  heart  ;  bring  us 
one  and  all,  with  unanimous  and  joyous  consent,  to  sit  at  thy  feet,  and  to  know  no 
will  but  thine. 

Pity  our  littleness,  and  let  our  infirmities  become  sacred  unto  thee  as  opportunities 
for  the  exercise  of  thy  gracious  power.  Thou  knowest  what  anger  there  is  yet  in 
our  hearts,  what  pride,  what  ambition,  what  self-sufficiency,  and  what  cunning  secret 
trust  there  is  ;  that  after  all  the  key  of  the  kingdom  may  fall  into  our  hands  and  be 
used  according  to  our  desire.  Lord,  cleanse  our  hearts  of  these  evil  spirits,  and  leave 
none  of  them  behind,  but  reign  thyself  in  the  chambers  thou  hast  purified. 

We  think  of  all  for  whom  wo  ought  to  pray,  for  the  sick,  for  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  pain,  long,  wearying,  intolerable  pain — God  pity  them,  and  speak  some  gospel  too 
sacred  and  tender  for  our  rough  lips.  Be  thine  own  mmister,  Holy  Ghost,  and  speak 
to  the  hearts  of  all  who  suffer.  We  think  of  the  poor  and  the  perplexed,  the  friend- 
less, the  wandering,  the  homeless  ;  we  think  of  the  stranger  within  our  gates  who  is 
here  to  join  our  song  and  come  to  join  our  supplications  for  all  the  mercies  of  heaven 
upon  this  wondrous  life.  The  Lord's  gospel  be  multiplied  unto  them  all,  and  the 
Lord's  grace  be  upon  every  heart  lifted  up  in  true  and  simple  desire  for  better  life. 

Regard  the  land  in  which  we  live,  give  wisdom  unto  our  counsellors  and  direction 
to  those  who  lead  our  affairs.  With  the  plentiful  spirit  of  thy  grace  do  thou  bless 
and  enrich  our  Sovereign  the  Queen,  continue  long  her  reign,  and  as  her  days  are 
many  may  her  blessings  be  even  more.  The  Lord  cause  prosperity  to  return  to  our 
trade  and  commerce,  and  establish  confidence  in  all  our  honourable  relations  with  the 
various  empires  and  nationalities  of  the  earth.  The  Lord  give  unto  us  as  individ- 
uals, as  families,  congregations,  churches,  and  a  nation  what  we  most  need  from 
heaven  ;  bind  us  one  and  all  with  new  oaths  of  loyalty  to  love  and  serve  the  Cross — 
when  we  are  tempted  to  put  baser  devices  on  our  banner  may  we  hear  the  voice  of 
the  tempter,  and  know  it  to  be  the  voice  of  the  devil.     Amen. 

Matthew  v.  17-20. 

17.  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law,  or  the  prophets  :  I  am  not  come 
to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil. 

18.  For  verily  I  say  unto  you.  Till  heaven  and  earth  pass,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall 
in  no  wise  pass  from  the  law,  till  all  be  fulfilled. 

19.  Whosoever  therefore  shall  break  one  of  these  least  commandments,  and  shall 
teach  men  so,  he  shall  be  called  the  least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  :  but  whosoever 
shall  do  and  teach  them,  the  same  shall  be  called  great  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

20.  For  I  say  unto  you,  That  except  your  righteousness  shall  exceed  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. 

*'  Think  not."  There  is  a  possibility  of  having  false  notions  about 
Christ.  Closely  observe  that  the  subject  may  be  right,  and  that  our  idea 
concerning  it  may  be  wrong.     It  is  not  enough  to  be  attached  to  a  good 


f4^  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

cause,  we  must  worthily  represent  that  cause  to  those  who  are  looking  on 
or  listening.  You  say,  for  example,  that  you  believe  in  Christ,  but  in  hav- 
ing said  so  you  have  given  me  no  clear  notion  of  what  you  really  do 
believe.  I  must  ask  you  some  questions,  such  as — Who  was  Christ  ? 
What  do  you  believe  about  him  ?  and  why  do  you  believe  ?  The  name  is 
excellent,  but  what  is  your  precise  idea  about  the  meaning  and  influence 
of  that  name  ?  So,  at  the  very  opening  of  his  ministry,  Jesus  Christ  had 
to  recognise  the  possibility  of  mistaken  notions  concerning  himself.  We 
are  not  at  liberty  to  say  that  if  a  thing  be  true  it  will  so  shine  upon  the 
mind  as  to  commend  its  truth  to  us  and  to  bear  down  all  prejudice  and  all 
misconception.  Even  Jesus  Christ  himself  was  not  understood  by  his 
contemporaries,  his  disciples,  or  the  friends  of  his  own  house.  First  of 
all,  therefore,  he  has  to  do  a  negative  work,  he  has  to  call  man  to  the  right 
mental  mood  and  attitude,  he  has  to  awaken  that  latest  and  fastest  of  all 
sleepers — Attention.  He  will  not  be  rushed  upon,  he  will  not  be  seized  by 
the  extemporaneous  genius  of  mankind,  he  will  not  be  treated  as  a  feather 
that  any  fingers  can  catch  in  the  wind.  There  must  be  thought,  consider- 
ation— right  thought,  close  consideration  ;  for  only  as  the  result  of  patient 
and  devout  reflection,  inspired  and  directed  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  do  we 
come  to  have  clear,  complete,  right  conceptions  of  Jesus  Christ. 

"  Think  not."  That  was  a  legal  phrase,  it  was  used  by  the  lawyers  and 
by  the  interpreters  of  the  law.  Literally  it  means — "  Do  not  get  into  the 
habit  of  thinking,"  or,  "  Do  not  become  accustomed  to  think  that  I  am 
come  to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets."  He  was  warning  his  disciples, 
and  through  them  all  Christian  ages,  against  a  mental  habit.  What  is 
there  so  difficult  to  eradicate  as  unintelligent  prejudice  ?  You  think,  and 
think,  and  think,  until,  by  the  very  processes  of  your  own  mind,  you  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  what  you  have  thought  must  be  true.  Christ  warns 
us  against  intellectual  prejudices  ;  mental  habits  that  start  from  a  wrong 
base,  live  and  grow  up  into  formidable  proportions  and  strength.  Chris- 
tian attention  should  always  be  young.  Christian  attention  should  always 
be  impressible.  Christian  attention  should  stand  a  long  way  from  old  and 
hoary  prejudice  ;  Christian  attention  should  always  be  ready  to  take  on 
the  phase  of  the  moment,  and  to  hear  the  note  of  the  passing  tune. 

"  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy."  Gentle  one,  thou  didst  not 
come  to  destroy,  thy  name  is  Saviour.  And  yet  he  did  come  to  destroy. 
'*  For  this  purpose  was  I  manifested,  that  I  might  destroy  " — there  he 
takes  up  the  word,  takes  it  up  as  thunder  might  take  it — "  the  works  of 
the  devil."  But  no  work  of  God  would  he  destroy  ;  the  Son  of  Man  is 
come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost.  The  Son  of  Man  is  not 
come  to  destroy  men's  lives  but  to  save  them.  Think  not  that  I  am  come 
to  destroy  the  law — that  is,  to  make  a  dead  letter  of  it,  to  treat  it  as  a  mis- 
take, to  say  "  Now  we  will  utterly  ignore  all  the  ancient  law  and  take  a 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE.  143 

new  point  of  departure,  and  begin  again  upon  a  new  foundation."  I  am 
not  come  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil.  What  does  that  mean  ?  To  fulfil — 
that  is  what  the  noonday  does  to  the  dawn.  The  dawn  is  cold,  gray, 
struggling,  the  noon  is  the  culmination  of  its  purpose  and  interest.  The 
noon  is  not  something  different  from  the  dawn,  the  noon  is  the  dawn  com- 
pleted. When  the  first  gray  light  fell  upon  the  dewy  hills,  it  said,  "  I 
mean  to  be  noon,  noon  is  in  me,  and  I  will  climb  the  zenith  and  stand  right 
above  the  world  and  flood  it  with  infinite  splendour  and  beauty."  The 
summer  fulfils  the  spring  ;  there  is  no  schism  amongst  the  seasons  :  the 
spring  comes  and  does  its  little  elementary  and  initial  work,  plants  its 
little  crocusses  and  does  all  it  can  for  the  outside  world,  does  it  quietly, 
sweetly,  fragrantly,  with  wondrous  grace  and  love,  then  the  summer 
comes  and  does  in  infinite  grandeur  what  the  spring  could  only  begin.  It 
fulfils  the  spring. 

Manhood  fulfils  childhood.  You  say  the  child  is  father  of  the  man.  I 
need  no  better  illustration.  The  law  prefigured  and  anticipated  the  gospel ; 
statutes,  precepts,  and  commandments  began  that  marvellous  process  which 
culminates  in  principle,  grace,  truth,  inspiration,  the  divinely  recreated  and 
ruled  intuitions,  which  sees  a  root  by  the  penetration  of  vision  which  the 
literal  schoolmaster  could  never  give. 

You  are  merchantmen  and  traders — tell  me  how  is  a  promissory  note 
fulfilled.  Show  it  to  me  :  I  will  fulfil  it  thus  :  I  tear  it  into  little  pieces 
and  throw  it  into  the  dust.  Have  I  fulfilled  the  note  ?  You  instantly  tell 
me  that  I  have  not  fulfilled,  I  have  destroyed.  Then  show  me  another 
and  I  will  fulfil  it  thus  :  By  thrusting  it  into  the  very  midst  of  the  fire  and 
letting  it  go  up  in  flame.  Have  I  fulfilled  it  ?  You  tell  me  instantly  that 
I  have  done  in  this  case  as  in  the  former  ;  I  have  not  fulfilled,  I  have 
destroyed.  Then  pass  the  promissory  note  at  the  date  of  its  maturity  into 
the  hands  of  the  man  who  signed  it,  and  he  pays  you  the  money  pound  by 
pound  to  the  last  demand,  and,  having  got  the  money  into  your  hand, 
what  has  been  done  with  the  promissory  note  ?  It  has  been  destroyed  by 
fulfilment,  and  that  is  the  only  destruction  possible  to  any  law  that  is  right. 

The  law  was  our  schoolmaster  to  bring  us  unto  Christ.  I  prefer  another 
way  of  stating  that.  The  modern  Greek  would  not  understand  that  expres- 
sion if  he  read  it  in  the  original  tongue.  "  What  is  the  meaning  of  that 
expression  ?"  I  have  myself  said  to  a  modern  Greek  ;  and  he  said,  "  You  have 
not  caught  the  idea  at  all  in  your  English."     "Then  what  is  the  idea?" 

Why,"  said  he,  "it  is  this, — Not  the  law  was  our  schoolmaster,  but  the 
law  was  our  nurse,  or  guardian,  or  care-taker,  to  bring  us  to  our  school- 
master, Christ."  We  know  what  that  means  by  daily  illustration  in  our 
own  English  life.  You  send  your  little  child  in  the  care  of  some  one  to 
school.  The  maid  takes  the  little  creature  and  says,  "  Come,  and  I  will 
take  you  to  school,"  and  away  they  go  together  to  the  place  of  instruction. 


144  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

Now,  the  law  was  our  care-taker,  our  companion,  to  take  us  to  our  school- 
master, Christ ;  Christ  keeps  a  school,  Christ  calls  those  who  go  to  his  school 
his  disciples,  his  scholars  ;  Christ  says,  "  Learn  of  me."  Christ  is  the  teacher 
of  the  world.  The  law  took  us  hand  in  hand  to  Christ.  The  law  is  one — 
there  is  no  change  in  the  divine  education  of  the  world.  We  are  not  to 
suppose  that  Christ  was  an  afterthought  in  the  divine  mind,  or  that  his 
coming  marked  a  sudden  departure  from  sacred  precedents.  All  that 
went  before  him  pointed  to  him.  Every  man  said,  "  Not  I,  but  there 
Cometh  one  after  me." 

The  Bible  from  the  very  beginning  says,  "  I  am  going  to  be  a  gospel." 
If  the  spire  of  your  church  is  rightly  built  it  will  say  to  the  artistic  obser- 
ver on  its  very  first  course  of  stones,  "  I  am  going  to  be  a  pinnacle." 
There  will  be  a  set  in  the  very  first  line  of  stones  which  the  artistic  eye 
can  see,  which,  being  interpreted,  is — Pinnacle,  sharp,  finger-like,  pointing 
to  the  sky.  It  does  not  begin  to  be  a  spire  a  long  way  up,  but  from  the 
very  first,  if  it  has  been  conceived  by  a  true  architect ;  it  begins  to  be  a 
spire  when  its  very  first  stone  is  laid  in  the  depth  of  the  earth.  So  with 
this  Bible-building.  I  did  not  know  what  it  was  going  to  be,  but  I  saw 
that  it  was  going  to  be  something  other  than  it  was  in  itself  just  at  the  par- 
ticular moment  of  my  observation.  Now  that  I  go  back  upon  it  with  more 
learning  and  with  a  keener  power  of  observation,  I  see  that  from  the  very 
first  verse  this  Book  meant  to  be  a  benediction,  to  have  set  upon  its  upper- 
most points  these  words,  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you 
all."  So  the  law  is  not  broken  into  unrelated  parts,  it  is  from  the  begin- 
ning meant  to  be  a  complete  and  final  cosmos. 

What  wonder  then,  if  Jesus  Christ  should  continue  to  say,  "  Till  heaven 
and  earth  pass,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  from  the  law,  till 
all  be  fulfilled."  In  the  seventeenth  verse  you  have  the  word  "fulfil,"  in 
the  eighteenth  verse  you  have  the  word  "  fulfilled,"  and  yet  they  are  not  the 
same  word  as  they  were  originally  written.  In  the  eighteenth  verse  the 
word  fulfilled  means — accomplished,  a  purpose  turned  into  a  reality,  a  seed 
fully  grown  into  a  great  tree,  to  which  nothing  could  be  added  in  propor- 
tion or  in  beauty. 

"One  jot  or  one  tittle."  Why,  then,  is  there  nothing  superfluous  in  the 
law  ?  There  is  nothing  insignificant  in  all  the  works  of  God.  Pluck  me 
a  grass-blade,  and  let  me  see  what  I  can  do  with  it.  How  many  veins  has 
it  which  could  be  done  without  ?  How  much  blood  circulates  through 
all  this  veinous  system  ?  How  much  less  might  have  done  ?  Can  you 
mend  it  ?  Can  you  sharpen  its  point  ?  Can  you  accelerate  its  circulation  ? 
Can  you  pluck  out  of  it  one  tiny  fibre  that  the  little  thing  could  have  done 
without  ?     Take  care  how  you  touch  it,  for  it  is  God's  handiwork. 

"  One  jot."  One  yod,  a  little  thing  that  is  not  a  letter  in  itself,  so  much 
as  the  adjunct  or  the  helper  of  some  other  letter — a.jo^,  a  silent  thing.  The 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  145 

name  of  the  wife  of  Abraham  was  turned  from  Sarai  to  Sarah,  and  it  was 
the  jW  that  did  it :  it  was  that  Httle,  silent,  insignificant  adjunct  that  turned 
her  into  Princess.  God  is  careful  of  Wis  rod,  or  jof,  ox  jot, — He  does  not 
dot  his  /■  for  nothing,  nor  cross  his  t  merely  for  decoration  :  there  is  blood 
in  the  act.  Take  care  ;  touch  not  the  Lord's  anointed,  and  do  His 
prophets  no  harm.  The  destruction  of  the  law  by  literalists  and  meddlers, 
bv  mere  outside  observers  and  worshippers,  such  as  the  Scribes  and  Phari- 
sees, begins  by  interfering  with  the,  jot  and  tittle.  Who  would  take  a  large 
sharp  knife  and  begin  all  at  once  in  shocking  and  impious  vulgarity  to 
scratch  out  the  whole  law  ?  And  yet  many  a  man  who  would  shrink  from 
that  coarse  blasphemy  begins  with  finer  insruments  to  interfere  with  the 
xod,  the  dot,  the  tittle.  He  says,  "Nobody will  miss  that."  We  do  things 
little  by  little,  insidiously,  that  we  never  could  do  by  thunder-like  assaults. 

All  character  seems  to  go  down  by  interfering  with  the  yod,  the  dot,  the 
jot,  the  tittle,  the  iota,  the  subscript,  the  accent,  the  breathing-point.  Who 
jumps  right  off  the  temple  top  into  pits  of  darkness  at  one  grand  leap  ?  A 
man  begins  by  giving  up  the  morning  service,  by  going  to  church  occasion- 
ally, by  dropping  little  customs,  as  he  calls  them,  and  comparatively  insig- 
nificant habits.  What  is  he  doing  ?  He  has  begun  a  work,  the  end  of 
which  is  destruction,  ruin,  death.  It  is  to  me  no  wonder,  therefore,  that 
Jesus  Christ  should  depose  and  degrade  into  an  inferior  position  whoso- 
ever shall  break  one  of  these  least  commandments  and  shall  teach  men  so. 
Observe  how  these  words  go,  in  what  perfect  and  suggestive  rhythm  they 
fall  upon  the  ear — break  and  teach.  And  in  the  second  member  of  the 
sentence  observe  how  the  same  rhythm  is  preserved — do  and  teach.  Work 
begins  in  the  individual  relation  to  the  law  ;  when  I  have  broken  a  com- 
mandment I  long  to  get  companionship,  to  bring  others  into  the  same  con- 
demnation :  having  broken  it,  to  justify  the  breach,  to  show  that  it  was 
better  broken  than  not,  and  on  the  ruins  of  my  own  character  set  up  as  the 
seducer  of  other  men. 

Then  do  and  teach.  Who  can  teach  if  he  does  not  first  do  ?  If  he  be 
a  mere  hireling  the  whole  words  would  have  been  committed  to  memory 
and  would  trip  off  his  reluctant  lips  without  music  or  force.  My  teacher 
must  at  least  try  to  do  what  he  says.  If  he  fail  I  will  not  despise  him,  if 
his  efforts  be  sincere.  I  know  that  human  infirmity  will  mar  men,  and 
diabolic  temptation  will  do  its  utmost  to  despoil  and  pervert  the  purpose 
of  his  heart,  but  his  will  shall  count  as  his  deed. 

Many  of  us  are  so  anxious  to  enter  into  the  metaphysics  of  Christian 
doctrine  that  we  refrain  from  doing  the  little  that  we  understand.  Let 
me  speak  for  a  moment  to  this  little  child.  Little  child,  lying  in  your  cot, 
you  must  walk  as  soon  as  you  have  learned  to  do  so.  You  will  learn  to 
do  so  by  lying  just  where  you  are,  and  by  looking  at  the  ceiling  of  your 
nursery  twelve  hours  every  day.     You  must  think  about  walking,  analyse 


14^  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

it,  ask  what  locomotion  really  means,  and  where  the  word  came  from,  get 
clear  definitions,  and  don't  you  stir  from  your  feathery  cot  till  you  have 
had  a  complete  analysis  of  the  whole  method  of  locomotion.  Hear  me  ? 
Yes. 

What  would  you  think  of  me  as  a  teacher  of  walking  ?  I  say  rather, 
"  Little  dear,  I  am  going  to  lift  you  out  of  this,  and  you  are  going  to  walk 
from  this  chair  to  that,  eighteen  inches  apart,  and  I  am  going  to  stretch 
my  arms  almost  around  you  all  the  time,  till  you  get  over  the  ground. 
Now  go."  The  eighteen  inches  have  been  passed,  and  I  feel  as  if  a  crisis 
in  that  child's  existence  had  also  passed.  But  it  is  the  right  way  ;  there 
is  no  other  way. 

Wou'idst  thou  be  a  sober  man,  set  the  glass  down  there,  and  turn  youi 
back  upon  it  and  go  in  the  other  direction.  Who  was  it — some  shrewd 
old  teacher,  certainly — who  said  to  a  man  who,  intending  a  certain  branch 
of  learning,  said  that  he  was  going  to  seek  out  a  private  tutor,  that  .he 
might  learn  this  branch  of  which  he  was  ignorant,  whereupon  the  old  man 
said:  "Engage  a  tutor?  Tut,  tut,  take  a  pupil."  Do  you  thus  learn. 
What  was  the  name  of  that  great  Cambridge  professor  of  geology  ? — was 
it  Sedgwick  ?  He  came  to  put  in  a  claim  for  the  chair  at  Cambridge,  and 
those  who  were  in  authority  said,  "  Do  you  understand  geology  ?  "  "  No," 
said  he,  "  I  do  not ;  but  I  understand  enough  to  enable  me  to  keep  ahead 
of  the  young  men  who  come  here  to  learn  it,  and  I  will  engage  to  always 
keep  ahead  of  them."  He  was  appointed,  and  how  he  did  keep  ahead  of 
them  history  will  never  fail  to  tell.  If  you  want  to  understand  a  subject, 
deliver  a  lecture  upon  it.  The  people  will  never  know.  They  will  applaud 
you  and  pass  a  vote  of  thanks,  and  all  the  time  you  will  be  saying,  "  Oh, 
if  they  only  knew  how  little  I  know  about  this,  they  would  never  have  had 
me  here,  and  certainly  they  would  not  have  proposed  this  vote  of  thanks." 
If  you  want  to  oppose  the  Government  of  the  country,  whatever  that 
Government  may  be,  write  a  five-hundred  page  essay  upon  the  whole 
scheme  of  English  Government.  Do  it  with  a  bold  hand,  and  you  will  be 
surprised  when  you  come  out  of  the  process  how  much  you  have  really 
taught  yourself. 

Well,  what  is  true  with  modifications  on  all  those  lines  of  analogy,  is 
pre-eminently,  and  may  I  not  say  infinitely,  true  of  this  kingdom  of  heaven. 
We  learn  by  doing,  we  become  preachers  by  being  practisers,  they  that  do 
the  will  shall  know  the  doctrine.  The  Lord  reveals  himself  to  his  indus- 
trious servants.  It  is  when  we  are  persevering  on  the  right  road,  scrub- 
bing and  drudging  at  oftentimes  unwelcome  duties,  that  God's  angel 
stands  up  before  us  and  flings  upon  our  faith  a  sudden  and  gracious  light. 
Blessed  is  that  servant  who  is  faithful,  he  shall  have  '.ities  in  heaven  to 
rule. 

Jesus  then  came  to  fulfil  the  law.     There  was  a  moral  law,  the  meaning 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  I47 

of  which  was  obedience.  He  became  obedient,  even  unto  the  death  of 
the  cross  :  he  had  no  will  but  God's — "  Not  my  will  but  thine  be  done.*^' 
There  was  the  fulfilment  of  the  moral  law.  There  was  a  sacrificial  law, 
the  slaying  of  animals  and  outpouring  of  blood  and  offering  of  gifts. 
This  man  was  both  the  Priest  and  the  Victim.  He  built  the  altar  and 
slew  himself  upon  it  with  priestly  hands.  Thus  he  fulfilled  the  sacrificial 
law.  There  was  a  national  law,  a  theocracy,  a  gathering  together  of  the 
people,  a  federating  of  tribes  and  sections,  a  grand  nationalistic  idea. 
How  did  he  fulfil  that?  By  founding  his  Church.  Upon  this  rock  I 
build  my  Church.  Empires  mean,  when  rightly  translated,  Churches  ; 
Politics  is  a  word  which  means,  held  up  to  its  highest  point,  Morality  ; 
Nationality,  too  often  debased  into  a  geographical  term,  causing  many  dis- 
tractions and  controversial  definitions,  really  means,  when  fructified,  the 
Church,  the  Redeemed  Church,  the  Theocracy,  the  God-Government.  The 
kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  God  and  of  his 
Christ.  Then  cometh  the  end,  when  we  shall  have  delivered  up  the  king- 
dom to  God  and  his  Father,  having  fulfilled  the  law  as  a  tree  fulfils  the 
acorn,  and  God  shall  be  all  in  all. 

We  are  in  the  line  of  this  education,  we  are  helping  on  this  glorious 
ministry.  Would  God  I  could  arouse  every  sleeper  and  inflame  with 
Heaven's  fire  every  reluctant  heart  to  take  this  upward  progress.  Teach 
no  other  notion  of  advancement,  move  with  Moses,  the  minstrels,  the 
prophets,  the  Christ — be  in  that  succession,  and  if  thou  hast  not  ten  cities 
to  rule,  thou  shalt  have  five,  or  one,  or  some  share  in  the  final  and  ever- 
lasting dominion. 

Behold,  I  set  before  you  the  door,  wide  open,  of  a  grand  opportunity. 
Seize  it,  and  be  thankful  and  glad  with  the  joy  of  rapture. 


THESE  SAYINGS  OF  MINE. 

By  JOSEPH  PARKER,  D.  D. 
VOLUME  II. 


XVIII.  ' 

FAITHFUL     UNTO     DEATH  —  FALSE     SABBATH-KEEPING  —  ORTHODOX    AND 

HETERODOX. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  we  bless  thee  for  the  gift  of  rest.  Enable  us  to  take  it  as  thou 
dost  give  it  with  joyfulness,  and  may  we,  as  the  result  of  its  acceptance,  be  stronger, 
and  happier,  and  moie  useful  in  the  world.  Thou  dost  cause  a  great  sleep  to  fall 
upon  the  life  of  man,  and  out  of  that  sleep,  as  out  of  a  grave,  dost  thou  bring  him 
again,  quieted,  and  rested,  and  blest.  Thou  hast  also  given  a  rest  for  the  soul,  a 
time  of  quietness  and  peace  for  the  mind  ;  may  we  enjoy  it  to  the  full,  knowing  that 
to-morrow  will  bring  its  toil  and  its  burden,  and  that  soon  we  shall  be  in  the  world 
again,  confused  by  its  manifold  tumult.  May  this  be  a  Sabbath  in  the  soul,  a  rest  in 
the  heart,  a  benediction  pronounced  upon  the  inner  life,  and  under  its  soothing  and 
healing  influence  may  our  best  nature  rise  again  to  claim  thyself,  with  all  the  Impa- 
tience and  delight  of  filial  love. 

May  thy  word  dwell  in  our  hearts  richly  ;  let  all  the  sweetness  ot  its  music  be 
heard  by  the  ear  of  our  soul,  and  may  the  light,  which  is  above  the  brightness  of  tlie 
sun,  shine  upon  our  entire  life  and  make  it  beautiful  with  the  beauteousness  of 
heaven.  We  come  to  thine  house  as  men  flee  to  a  sanctuary,  a  refuge  in  the  time  of 
peril,  a  shelter  in  the  great  storm,  and  a  place  of  prospect  from  which  they  can  see 
the  better  time,  the  brighter  morning,  the  greater  land.  Disappoint  no  soul  that 
waits  upon  thee  in  trembling,  reverent  love.  Speak  large  words  in  reply  to  our 
prayer,  and  while  we  are  yet  praying,  do  thou  flood  the  soul  with  thy  love,  and  lift 
us  above  all  that  is  mean  in  earth  and  time. 

Thy  hand  has  been  put  out  towards  us  in  great  richness  of  love,  thou  hast  with- 
held no  good  thing  from  us,  thoa  hast  spread  our  table  morning,  noon,  and  night, 
thou  hast  been  round  about  our  dwelling-place  as  a  defence,  thou  hast  kept  the  storm 
from  destroying  us,  and  thou  hast  given  thine  angels  charge  concerning  our  life. 
Therefore  do  we  return  to  thy  holy  sanctuary  with  a  new  song  upon  our  lips,  and  a 
new  gladness  in  our  hearts.  Meet  us,  we  humbly  pray  thee,  according  to  the  urgency 
of  our  need,  our  pain,  and  our  desire.  Where  the  burden  is  heavy,  thou  canst  lift  it 
wholly  off  the  trembling  and  crushed  spirit  ;  where  it  is  more  needful  that  it  should 
iemain  than  it  should  be  removed,  thou  canst  give  sustaining  and  comforting  grace. 
Not  our  will  but  thine  be  done,  herein.  Where  the  pain  is  intolerable,  sharpening 
itself  into  a  great  fiery  agony,  the  Lord  come  with  heaven's  own  balm  and  save  those 
who  are  in  great  distress,  lest  they  be  swallowed  up  of  sorrow  overmuch.  Where 
our  desire  is  towards  the  heavens  and  all  heavenly  things,  becoming  a  solemn  and 
urgent  prayer  for  the  indwelling  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  the  heart,  thou  wilt  not 
say  No  ;  thine  answer  shall  be  a  great  Yes  of  acquiescence,  and  in  the  heart  desiring 
thy  Son  there  shall  be  a  great  light  and  a  peculiar  joy. 

We  would  put  the  remainder  of  our  life  into  thine  hands,  we  would  think  nothing. 


152  THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

be  notliing,  do  notliing  but  under  tlie  inspiration  of  thy  Holy  Spirit.  Undertake  for 
us,  we  humbly  pray  thee,  and  send  us  bread,  little  or  much — light,  dull  or  splendid, 
and  do  thou  make  us  contented  because  it  is  of  thy  giving  and  sending,  and  may  our 
joy  be  in  thyself  and  not  in  the  passing  circumstances  of  the  dying  day.  Where  any 
heart  is  set  against  thee  stonily,  with  obduracy  and  obstinacy  of  feeling,  in  great 
rebellion  and  tumult,  the  Lord  break  not  such  a  heart  to  its  destruction,  but  break  it 
to  its  healing.  And  bring  in  those  that  are  afar  off,  that  they  may  see  thy  light  and 
be  affrighted  and  saved  by  thy  grace  and  thy  redemption.  And  where  any  are  in 
great  fear  and  distress  of  mind  because  of  their  relation  to  thyself,  send  forth  the 
spirit  of  thy  Son  into  their  hearts,  the  spirit  of  thy  redeeming  and  sanctifying  grace, 
recall  all  tender  memories  and  all  blessed  associations,  awaken  the  feelings  that  are 
lying  dead,  and  give  to  such  to  know  the  power  of  the  assurance  of  faith.  Help  us 
all  to  grow  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus.  Make  us  true,  honour- 
able, sincere,  before  heaven  and  earth,  enable  us  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  thy  gospel 
and  to  exemplify  all  its  beauty  and  its  tenderness.  Save  us  from  the  poverty  of  the 
letter  which  killed,  and  lead  us  into  the  spirit  which  givetli  life,  and  may  all  our 
conduct  be  attuned  by  thy  Spirit  and  lifted  up  by  thy  grace,  and  may  it  become  a 
great  light  shining  afar  to  the  guidance  of  any  who  are  in  doubt  and  fear. 

The  Lord  pardon  our  sins,  and  delight  in  doing  it,  the  Lord  repeat  his  miracle  of 
grace  in  our  life  every  day.  We  say  this  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  our  Priest,  our  Inter- 
cessor, the  Daysman  between  thyself  and  us  :  thou  hearest  him  always,  thy  delight 
is  to  look  upon  his  face,  and  to  consider  what  he  has  done.  Behold  our  shield  and 
look  upon  the  face  of  thine  anointed,  and  from  the  inner  and  hidden  sanctuary  send 
us  forgiveness  and  bless  us  with  all  spiritual  help.  Disappoint  the  bad  man  in  all 
his  evil  counsels  :  cause  him  to  forget  himself,  and  strike  him  dumb  when  he  would 
speak  forbidden  words. 

The  Lord  help  every  honest  and  good  man  to  do  good  whilst  his  little  day  lasts, 
and  may  we  all  be  found  in  the  end  good  and  faithful  servants,  inspired  by  thy  spirit, 
upheld  by  thy  grace,  made  strong  by  thy  truth,  rejoicing  in  the  assurance  that  the 
life  spent  in  thy  service  will  be  crowned  with  heaven  in  thy  presence.     Amen. 

Matthew  v.  20. 

"  For  I  say  unto  you,  that  except  your  righteousness  shall  exceed  the  righteousness 
of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  Heaven," 

For  7-ighleous7tess  read  rightncss.  Then  the  text  will  read,  "  For  I  say 
unto  you,  that  except  your  rightness,  your  notion  and  idea  of  what  is 
right,  shall  exceed  the  notion  and  idea  entertained  by  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  as  to  what  is  right,  ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven."  Given,  a  ministry  which  begins  in  this  tone,  to  know  how  it 
will  end.  It  is  impossible  that  it  can  end  otherwise  than  in  crucifixion. 
The  Cross  is  here.  If  the  Scribes  and  Phaiisees  get  to  know  that  a  man 
has  been  speaking  so  of  them,  they  will  never  rest  until  they  kill  him. 
The  shadow  of  the  Cross  is  in  everything  spoken  and  done  by  Jesus 
Christ.  He  here  assails  the  religion  and  the  respectability,  the  learning  / 
and  the  influence  of  his  day.  This  is  more  than  a  speech,  it  is  a  challenge^  '^ 
it  is  an  impeachment,  it  is  an  indictment  of  high  treason — how  then  can  the 
speaker  finish  his  eloquence  but  in  a  peroration  of  blood  ?    He  must  die  for 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE.  1^3 

this,  or  play  the  hypocrite  further  on.  A  man  who  talks  so,  in  any  age,  even 
including  the  nineteenth  century,  must  die.  The  reason  we  do  not  die  now 
is  that  we  do  not  speak  the  truth.  The  preacher  now  follows  those  whom 
he  appears  to  lead  :  if  he  put  himself  into  a  right  attitude  to  his  age,  its 
corruption,  its  infidelities,  and  its  hypocrisies,  he  would  be  killed.  No 
preacher  is  now  killed,  because  no  preacher  is  now  faithful. 

Consider  who  these  Scribes  and  Pharisees  were.  They  were  the  bishops 
and  clergy  and  ministers  of  the  day.  Suppose  a  reformer  should  now 
arise  and  say  concerning  the  whole  machine  ecclesiastical  and  spiritual, 
"  Except  your  righteousness  shall  exceed  the  righteousness  that  is  turned 
out  of  that  machine  ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  I 
do  not  know  that  we  should  nail  him  to  wood  with  vulgar  iron  nails,  but 
we  would  take  care  to  pinch  him  so  in  bread  and  water  as  to  take  the  life 
out  of  him.  Christianity  is  nothing  if  not  an  eternal  challenge  in  the  direc- 
tion of  honesty,  reality,  breadth,  charity.  Has  not  the  whole  Church,  in 
all  its  fragments  and  communions,  become  a  mere  theological  grinding 
machine  for  turning  out  certain  quantities  and  colours,  of  regulation  extent 
and  tone  ? 

Religion  was  polluted  at  the  well-head.  It  had  become  a  ceremony,  a 
profession,  a  dead  adherence  to  dead  formalities,  synagogue-going,  word- 
splitting,  hand-washing,  and  an  elaborate  system  of  trifling  and  refining. 
Understand  who  these  men  were.  They  hiew  the  law  :  the  Scribes  spent 
Iheir  time  in  copying  it,  in  expounding,  or  rather  in  confounding  and  con- 
fusing those  who  listened  to  their  peculiar  expositions  of  its  solemn  require- 
ments. They  were  not  illiterate,  so  far  as  the  law  was  concerned  :  they 
knew  every  letter,  they  had  a  thousand  traditions  concerning  it,  they  formed 
themselves  into  synods  and  consistories  for  the  purpose  of  extending,  defin- 
ing, and  otherwise  treating  the  requirements  of  the  law.  They  were  so 
familiar  with  it  as  to  miss  its  music,  as  we  have  become  so  familiar  with 
the  sunlight  as  not  to  heed  its  beauty.  A  rattle,  a  sputter  in  the  air,  will 
excite  more  attention  than  the  great,  broad,  calm  shining  of  the  king  of 
day.  The  Scribes  were  the  men  who  professed  to  have  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  upon  their  girdles,  and  yet  Jesus  Christ,  the  reputed 
son  of  the  carpenter,  arises  and  says  to  them,  "  Ye  are  not  in  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  at  all ;  actors,  mimics,  pretenders,  painted  ones,  ye  are  not  in  the 
spirit  and  the  genius  of  the  heavenly  kingdom  ? "  No  man  dares  this  day 
say  a  word  against  a  bishop  or  a  minister — I  speak  of  all  churches,  and 
not  of  one  in  particular — without  being  publicly  and  severely  reprimanded 
for  his  impious  audacity.  Jesus  gathered  himself  up  into  one  strain  of 
power,  and  hurled  his  energy  in  one  blighting  condemnation  against 
the  whole  of  the  Scribe  and  Pharisee  system  of  his  day.  Beware  !  He 
was  killed !  He  did  not  talk  against  disreputable  persons,  as  the  world 
accounts  repute  ;  the  Scribes  and  the  Pharisees  were  the  most  respectable 


154 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 


people  of  their  generation,  they  were  looked  up  to  as  leaders  and  guides 
by  those  amongst  whom  they  lived.  They  were  the  saints,  the  pillars  of 
the  Church,  the  lights  of  the  synagogue,  the  very  cream  of  respectable 
society  :  yet  this  Galilean  peasant  beards  them  all,  lays  his  soft  but  sinewy 
fingers  upon  their  throats,  and  says,  "  Stand  back,  ye  defile  .nd  pervert  the 
kingdom  ye  profess  to  serve."  Do  not,  therefore,  let  us  be  too  bold  and 
too  faithful.  The  cost  of  integrity  everywhere  in  a  corrupt  age  is — 
death. 

I  infer  from  Christ's  treatment  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  that  it  is 
possible  for  men  to  deceive  themselves  on  religious  methods — to  suppose 
that  they  are  in  the  kingdom  of  God  when  they  are  thousands  of  miles 
away  from  it.  Is  it  possible  that  any  of  21s  can  have  fallen  under  the 
power  of  that  delusion  ?  I  fear  it  may  be  so.  What  is  your  Christianity? 
A  letter,  a  written  creed,  a  small  placard  that  can  be  published,  contain- 
ing a  few  so-called  fundamental  points  and  lines  ?  Is  it  an  affair  of  words 
and  phrases  and  sentences  following  one  another  in  regulated  and  approved 
succession  ?  If  so,  and  only  so,  there  is  not  one  drop  of  Christ's  blood  in 
it :  it  is  not  Christianity,  it  is  a  little  intellectual  conceit,  a  small  moral 
prejudice.  Christianity  is  life,  love,  charity,  nobleness — it  is  sympathy  with 
God. 

My  belief  is  that  if  Jesus  Christ  were  to  come  into  England  to-day^  the 
first  thing  he  would  do  would  be  to  condemn  all  places  of  so-called  wor- 
ship. What  he  would  do  with  other  buildings  I  cannot  tell,  but  it  is  plain 
that  he  would  shut  up  all  churches  and  chapels.  They  are  too  narrow  ; 
they  worship  the  letter ;  they  are  the  idolaters  of  details  ;  they  are  given 
up  to  the  exaggeration  of  mint,  rue,  anise,  cummin,  herbs  and  weeds  of 
the  garden  and  the  field  ;  but  charity,  nobleness,  honour,  all-hopefulness, 
infinite  patience  with  evil — where  are  they?  If  judgment  begins  at  the 
house  of  God,  where  shall  the  ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear?  In  dis- 
puting about  the  letter,  the  danger  is  that  we  neglect  and  despise  the 
spirit;  we  quarrel  about  trifles  ;  we  are  founders  of  sects  and  parties,  and 
the  champions  of  our  own  inventions  ;  we  pay  tithe  of  mint  and  anise, 
and  neglect  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law.  The  Christianity  of  this 
day,  so  far  as  I  have  been  enabled  to  examine  it,  has  no  common  meeting 
ground.  If  Jesus  Christ  came  amongst  us  now  he  would  have  to  call 
upon  the  leaders  of  the  various  denominations,  and  if  he  did  not  happen 
to  begin  at  the  right  quarter  he  would  have  but  scant  hospitality.  If  he 
called  upon  the  Independents  first,  the  Plymouth  Brethren  would  decline 
to  see  him  ;  and  if  he  called  upon  the  Primitive  Methodists  in  the  first 
instance  the  Independents  would  urge  the  claims  of  an  earlier  ancestry. 
He  would  find  us  in  pugilistic  attitude,  separated  by  cobwebs,  or  bickering 
and  chaffering  with  one  another  over  high  walls,  and  pinning  sheets  of 
paper  over  little  crevices  in  those  walls  lest  any  of  the  saintly  air  should 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  I55 

get  through  to  the  other  side.     Is  this  the  Church  Christ  died  to  redeem  ? 
Is  this  the  blood-bought  host  ?    Where  is  our  common  meeting  ground  ? 

Let  me  now  show  you  what  religion  had  been  brought  to  by  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees  in  their  time.  I  called  attention  to  some  of  these  points  in 
a  discourse  not  long  ago.  I  cannot  do  better  than  ask  your  attention 
again  to  those  very  points.  Take  the  instance  of  Sabbath-keeping.  To 
what  pass  do  you  suppose  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  had  brought  this 
matter  of  the  tourth  commandment  ?  Recent  writers  upon  the  life  of 
Christ  have  been  at  great  pains  in  reading  the  Talmud  (or  doctrine),  the 
Mishna  (or  repetition),  and  the  Gemara  (or  supplement)  ;  and  it  would 
be  amusing,  if  it  were  not  distressing,  to  find  how  these  theological  carpen- 
ters have  whittled  away  the  broad,  grand,  solemn  commandments  of  our 
Father  in  heaven.  With  regard  to  the  Sabbatic  observance,  recent  author- 
ities tell  us  that  the  Scribes  and  their  allies  laid  it  down  that  a  knot  which 
could  be  untied  with  one  hand  might  be  untied  on  the  Sabbath  day,  but 
not  one  that  required  both  hands.  A  man  might  carry  a  burden  upon  his  1 
shoulder,  but  if  that  burden  were  slung  between  t7vo,  or  even  slung  between 
the  shoulders,  the  carrying  of  it  would  be  a  breach  of  the  sanctity  of  the 
Sabbath  day.  It  was  unlawful  to  carry  a  loaf  in  the  public  streets  on  the 
-  Sabbath,  but  if  two  people  carried  the  same  loaf  the  act  was  good.  It 
was  so  written  in  the  Mishna  and  the  Gemara.  Understand  this.  If  a 
man  carried  a  loaf  in  the  public  streets,  it  was  breaking  the  Sabbath  Day  ; 
but  if  he  got  some  other  man  to  take  hold  of  another  end,  they  two  could 
be  carrying  it  without  a  breach  of  the  commandment !  This  was  the  state 
of  things  when  that  carpenter's  Son  came  into  the  world.  The  law  for- 
bade any  visiting  upon  the  Sabbath  day — when  I  say  the  law,  I  mean  the 
traditional  law — yet  the  Scribes  must  visit  ;  how  then  was  this  difficulty  to 
be  overcome  ?  They  fixed  a  chain  at  one  end  of  the  street,  and  another 
chain  at  the  other  end  of  the  street,  and  they  called  the  enclosure  one  ' 
house,  and  thus  the  painted  hypocrites  went  backward  and  forward,  din- 
ing and  drinking,  and  feasting  and  revelling,  and  yet  keeping  the  Sabbath 
day  !  Two  thousand  cubits  was  a  Sabbath  day's  journey,  but  two  thou- 
sand cubits  was  too  short  a  walk  for  some  of  these  traditionalists.  What 
did  they  do  ?  On  the  Friday  they  went  two  thousand  cubits  and  depos- 
ited a  loaf,  and  where  a  man  deposited  a  loaf  he  was  entitled  to  call  the 
place  his  home  for  the  time  being.  So  the  literalist  walked  his  two  thou- ' 
sand  cubits  to  his  loaf,  and  then  began  his  Sabbath  day's  journey  of  two| 
thousand  cubits  further  on.  Do  you  v/onder  that  when  a  man  whose  soulj 
was  aflame  with  righteousness  came  into  such  corruption,  he  damned  the 
society  of  his  day,  and  said  it  was  not  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ?  This  is 
the  way  to  try  Christ,  this  will  show  you  what  he  was — no  trimmer,  no  oscil- 
lating theological  pendulum,  now  here,  now  there — but  a  fire,  a  judgment, 
a  stem  word,  a  living  critic  of  the  corrupt  heart.     It  is  in  such  instances 


156  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

as  these  that  I  see  the  shining  of  his  real  personality,  and  it  is  in  such 
denunciations  as  are  in  the  text  that  I  see  the  beginning  of  his  cruci- 
fixion. 

When  the  Pharisee  invited  him  to  dine,  he  went  in  and  sat  down  to 
meat  without  washing  his  hands,  and  the  Pharisee  marvelled  that  he  should 
eat  with  hands  unwashed.  His  marvelling  was  audible  in  all  probability, 
and  Jesus  Christ  answered  it  with  the  severest  denunciation.  We  cannot 
understand  the  importance  which  was  attached  by  the  Pharisees  and  others 
to  the  washing  of  hands  before  eating.  Not  to  wash  the  hands  before  a 
meal  was,  we  are  told  by  competent  annotators,  equal  to  homicide.  Dwell 
upon  that  fact  for  one  moment.  Not  to  wash  the  hands  before  eating  was, 
in  the  estimation  of  the  Pharisees,  an  act  equal  to  the  killing  of  a  man. 
Jesus  Christ,  knowing  this,  went  into  the  house  of  the  Pharisee,  and  sat 
down  to  eat  without  hand-washing.  Did  it  take  no  courage  so  to  act  upon 
personal  conviction  ?  Was  this  a  weak-minded  man,  was  this  an  effemi- 
nate Redeemer  ?  Does  it  cost  nothing  to  rise  up  in  daily,  manly  protest 
against  the  most  settled  and  cherished  usages  of  the  time  ?  Give  him  the 
honour  due  to  his  energy,  consider  the  circumstances  by  which  he  was 
surrounded,  and  then  tell  me  if  he  was  the  carpenter's  son  or  the  Son  of 
God. 

So  far  was  this  matter  carried  by  the  Pharisees  that  no  man,  but  them- 
selves probably,  could  touch  the  parchment  or  skin  upon  which  the  law 
was  written  without  being  pronounced  unclean.  So  we  learn  from  those 
who  take  an  interest  in  such  studies  that  the  question  Avas  asked  of  them, 
"  How  is  it  that  a  man  can  touch  the  pages  of  Homer  and  be  clean,  and 
yet  he  cannot  touch  the  parchment  or  skin  on  which  the  law  is  written 
without  being  defiled  ? "  The  answer  was,  "  Because  of  the  peculiar 
sacredness  of  the  law."  Thus  extremes  meet.  It  was  because  the  law 
was  so  holy,  that  no  man  might  touch  the  parchment  on  which  it  was 
written  without  being  pronounced  ceremonially  defiled.  And  one  com- 
mentator tells  us  that  there  was  something  like  an  ironical  and  sarcastic 
joke  among  the  people  of  the  time,  who  said  to  those  high  authorities  in 
the  law,  "  How  is  it  that  we  can  touch  the  bones  of  a  dead  ass  without 
contracting  pollution,  and  yet  cannot  touch  the  bones  of  John  Hyrcanus, 
the  most  saintly  of  the  High  Priests,  without  being  unclean  ?  "  And  the 
casuistic  answer  was,  "  Because  Hyrcanus  was  a  holy  man,  and  his  very 
holiness  caused  those  who  touched  his  bones  to  be  unclean." 

It  was  to  this  pass  that  religion  had  been  brought  by  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,  the  traditionalists  and  the  literalists  of  the  time  before  Christ. 
There  were  hundreds  of  refinements,  colourings,  degrees  of  violation  of 
the  law  and  breaches  of  requirements  of  the  letter,  and  it  required  a  man 
a  lifetime  to  read  all  that  had  been  written  as  to  the  violation  of  the  law, 
so  that  by  the  time  he  had  become  acquainted  with  all  the  traditional  exac- 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  157 

tions  and  requirements  of  the  literalists  he  was  an  old  man.  Can  you 
wonder  that  when  an  earnest  soul  came  to  take  charge  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  upon  earth,  he  sent  a  fire  on  such  paper  palaces  and  devoured  the 
walls  of  such  sectarian  and  monstrous  restrictions  ?  Jesus  Christ  came  to 
give  liberty.  "  If  the  Son  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  indeed." 
With  the  besom  of  destruction  he  swept  these  things  into  the  sea.  He 
said,  "Away  with  them,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  purity,  peace,  love, 
charity." 

What  say  you  to  following  this  new  Leader  ?  I  like  his  tone,  it  sounds 
like  the  tone  of  an  honest  heart.  But  for  him  we  should  have  fallen  in 
the  wake  of  these  men,  in  all  probability  ;  and  our  religion  would  have 
consisted  of  innumerable  lines  of  exact  requirements,  punctual  observ- 
ance, ceremonial  cleanness,  until  our  souls  would  have  been  vexed  within 
us,  and  life  would  have  been  reduced  to  one  daily  chafe  and  fret.  Jesus 
Christ  came  and  said,  "  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  you.  What  doth 
the  Lord  thy  God  require  of  thee,  O  man,  but  to  do  justly,  to  love  mercy, 
and  to  walk  humbly  with  God  .?"  "  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken 
spirit :  a  broken  and  a  contrite  heart,  O  God,  thou  wilt  not  despise."  V 

This  question  arises,  and  I  would  put  it  with  the  sharpest  emphasis  of 
which  the  human  voice  is  capable,  were  it  in  my  power  to  do  so —  What  u 
our  religion!  I  dare  not  ask  what  mine  is.  It  is  church-going,  it  is  cere- 
mony, it  is  going  to  a  particular  church,  it  is  singing  out  of  a  particular 
hymn-book,  it  is  being  set  within  a  certain  regular  surrounding  of  circum- 
stances. I  am  so  afraid  of  my  religion — I  speak  of  mine  that  I  may  not  re- 
proach others — becoming  a  question  of  routine  and  regulation.  I  now  ask 
a  man  to  put  down  on  paper  what  he  believes,  then  I  take  it  up  and  I 
examine  it,  and  I  say,  "  You  are  orthodox."  To  another  man  I  say,  "  Put 
down  on  paper  what  you  believe."  The  man  writes  it.  I  examine  it,  and 
say,  "  Heterodox."  The  orthodox  man  has  gone  out  of  the  church.  I  ask 
him  to  bring  in  his  week's  report  of  work  done,  and  he  says,  "  I  bound 
your  certificate  upon  my  forehead,  I  went  amongst  men  as  orthodox,  and 
I  have  sent  at  least  two  hundred  people  to  hell  for  not  believing  what  I 
believe.  I  got  them  to  put  down  on  paper  what  they  believed,  and  I 
found  they  did  not  know  what  they  did  believe,  and  so  I  sent  them  all  to 
perdition,  and  I  have  waked  up  the  church  ;  and  I  will  do  the  same  next 
week."  Heterodox  man,  bring  in  your  report.  How  does  it  read  ? 
"  Visited  ten  poor  families,  gave  each  of  them  five  shillings  and  a  word  of 
encouragement,  and  told  them  to  send  for  me  if  I  could  be  of  any  help  to 
them  at  any  time.  Saw  a  poor  woman  sitting  on  a  door-step,  without  a 
friend  or  a  home  in  the  world — 

"  '  O  it  was  pitiful. 
Near  a  whole  city  full. 
Home  she  had  none.* 


158  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

Made  an  appointment  with  her,  gave  her  something  to  be  going  on  with, 
and  I  intend  to  see  this  woman  as  often  as  possible,  until  I  get  her  estab- 
lished in  life."     Who  is  the  Christian  ? 

What,  then,  is  Christianity  ?  A  broken  heart  on  account  of  sin — going 
to  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lamb  of  God,  the  Son  of  God,  the  wounded  One,  the 
Priest,  and  saying — 

"  Forever  here  my  rest  shall  be, 
Close  to  tliy  bleeding  side. 
This  all  my  hope  and  all  my  plea. 
For  me  the  Saviour  died." 

Then,  out  of  that  coming  all  the  beautifulness  of  life,  which  grows,  and 
grows  only,  in  the  garden  of  God. 


XIX. 

DIVINE      EDUCATION — CHRISTIAN      SPIRITUALITY — SELF-DENIAL      INEVITA- 
BLE— Christ's  teaching  is  spiritual. 

PRAYER. 

ALinGHTT  God,  surely  thy  word  is  sharper  tlian  any  two-edged  sword,  piercing  to 
the  dividing  asunder  of  the  joints  and  marrow.  Thine  eye  of  judgment  is  as  a  great 
fire,  from  the  light  of  which  nothing  can  be  hidden.  Thou  triest  the  reins  and 
searchest  the  hearts  of  the  children  of  men.  Thou  wilt  not  be  satisfied  by  the  offering 
of  the  hand,  thou  dost  demand  the  loyalty  of  our  undivided  love.  Thou  dost  make 
great  charges  upon  us — who  can  answer  thy  call,  for  thou  demandest  the  whole 
heart  ?  Surely  we  are  surrounded  by  infinite  temptations,  the  earth  claims  us,  sense 
and  time  urge  their  importunate  appeals,  the  necessity  of  the  passing  hour  claims  to 
be  answered  instantly — yet  thou  dost  thunder  down  from  thy  heavens  upon  us  the 
demand  for  our  united  heart.  Surely  thou  dost  also  send  grace,  so  that  thou  sup- 
portest  the  soul  on  which  thou  dost  lay  this  great  obligation  ;  thou  givest  more 
grace,  thy  commands  are  equalled  by  thy  mercy  ;  if  thou  dost  call  for  much,  thou 
dost  give  the  needful  strength  ;  if  the  burden  be  heavy,  thou  dost  give  us  power  to 
sustain  it  every  whit.  Enable  us  to  look  into  our  hearts  and  to  see  the  condition  of 
our  spirit,  and  awaken  Avithin  us  the  cry,  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O  God,  and 
renew  within  me  a  right  spirit. 

Save  us  from  imagining  that  by  fulfilling  the  letter  we  have  fulfilled  the  law,  and 
that  by  our  outward  observances  we  prove  that  we  have  entered  into  the  inner  sanc- 
tuary of  thy  kingdom.  Show  us  how  possible  it  is  to  read  thy  Book  in  the  letter 
without  understanding  it  in  the  spirit,  and  how  easy  it  is  to  wash  the  hands,  and  how 
all  but  impossible  to  cleanse  the  heart.  Herein  is  thy  gospel  sweet  to  us,  the  very 
word  we  need,  the  one  voice  that  touches  with  its  sacred  music,  our  wonder  and  our 
desire.  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  thy  Son  cleanseth  from  all  sin  :  thou  hast  made 
provision  for  the  cleansing  of  every  heart ;  we  bless  thee  for  its  fulness,  we  thank 
thee  that  every  one  of  us  can  avail  himself  of  thy  grace  ;  we  bless  thee  that  there  is 
no  guilt  too  great  for  thy  cleansing.  Thou  canst  come  over  the  mountain  of  our 
transgression  though  it  be  high  as  the  heaven,  and  thou  canst  melt  it  so  that  it  fall 
away,  and  thou  canst  meet  us  in  reconciliation,  and  in  all  the  warmth  and  joy  of 
eternal  affection. 

We  praise  thee  that  we  may  read  thy  word  to  our  understanding,  to  the  profit  of 
our  heart,  to  the  sanctification  and  obedience  of  our  will,  and  so  as  to  realize  all  the 
comfort  and  strength  which  thou  dost  design  to  dve  unto  the  life  of  men.  Let  a 
light  shine  upon  thy  word  whilst  we  read  it,  so  that  we  may  see  its  inner  beauty,  its 
heavenly  grace,  and  let  thy  Spirit  work  in  our  heart  that  we  may  give  great  and  glad 
welcome  to  all  the  messages  of  Heaven. 

We  have  done  the  things  we  ought  not  to  have  done,  there  is  not  a  finger  upon  our 
hands  that  has  not  sinned  against  thee,  and  thou  knowest,  in  numbering  the  hairs  of 


l6o  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

our  head,  that  our  sins  are  more  in  number  than  they.  Our  way  has  been  broadened 
out  for  the  society  of  the  evil,  and  our  souls  have  been  shut  up  so  as  to  exclude  the 
light  of  the  good.  We  will  not  seek  for  words  in  self-defence,  nor  shall  we  try  to 
build  up  a  high  wall  to  shut  out  the  judgments  of  God.  We  will  fall  down  before 
thee,  and,  in  tearfulness  and  contrition  and  penitence,  each  will  say,  "  God  be  mer- 
ciful to  me  a  sinner,  and  repeat  thy  miracle  in  my  cleansing  and  redemption." 

Help  us  to  live  the  remainder  of  our  days  before  thee  in  all  reverence,  quietness, 
love,  and  usefulness.  Enable  us  to  remember  the  brevity  of  the  day,  the  sudden 
coming  of  the  night,  and  to  be  obedient  with  all  diligence  and  ardour  whilst  we  can. 
Wherein  thou  has  prospered  us  in  basket  and  in  store,  let  these  goodnesses  lead  us 
to  repentance,  let  all  these  proofs  of  thy  outward  regard  for  our  life  lead  us  to  con- 
sider how  much  thou  hast  done  for  our  redemption  and  sanctification,  and  thus  may 
we  grope  our  way  little  by  little  from  that  which  is  outward  and  perishable  to  that 
which  is  internal  and  indestructible. 

According  to  our  necessity  do  thou  now  come  to  us.  Touch  every  one  of  us  with  a 
beam  of  light  from  heaven,  speak  a  word  especially  to  each  heart ;  whilst  the  great 
general  truth  is  being  proclaimed  in  universal  terms,  may  a  tender  accent  fall  upon 
every  ear,  as  a  special  token  of  thy  peculiar  care  and  love.  May  tlie  old  forget  their 
age  in  the  gladness  of  high  communion  with  heaven,  may  the  youthful  imagination 
be  touched  into  a  religious  wonder  whilst  the  great  truths  of  heaven  are  being  pro- 
claimed with  fulness  and  unction.  May  the  slave  of  time  and  the  serf  of  the  earth 
pause  in  his  toil  to  hear  of  the  kingdom  wherein  the  service  is  rest.  Heal  us  wherein 
we  are  sick,  give  us  light  wherein  the  darkness  is  too  thick  to  be  penetrated  by  our 
own  vision,  and  lead  us  evermore,  one  step  at  a  time,  not  where  we  want  to  go,  but 
where  it  is  best  for  us  to  be. 

The  Lord's  angels  be  our  servants,  the  Lord's  light  be  our  morning,  and  the  infinite 
gospel  of  the  blood  of  Christ  be  our  hope  and  joy  in  the  time  of  torment  and  despair. 
Amen. 

Matthew  v.  21-32. 

21.  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  by  them  of  old  time  (after  the  return  from 
Babylon,  when  synagogues  began  to  be  established),  Thou  shalt  not  kill  ;  and  whoso- 
ever shall  kill,  shall  be  in  danger  of  (liable  to)  the  judgment  : 

22.  But  I  (the  personal  pronoun  is  emphatic)  say  unto  you,  that  whosoevor  is  angry 
with  his  brother  without  a  cause,  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  judgment :  and  whoso- 
ever shall  say  to  his  brother,  Raca  (any  term  of  personal  contempt),  shall  be  in  dan- 
ger of  the  council  ;  but  whosoever  shall  say.  Thou  fool !  shall  be  in  danger  of  hell  fire. 

23.  Therefore,  if  thou  bring  thy  gift  to  the  altar  (if  thou  shouldst  be  ofiering),  and 
there  rememberest  that  thy  brother  hath  aught  against  thee  ; 

24.  Leave  there  thy  gift  before  the  altar  (reconciliation  is  better  than  liturgical 
propriety),  and  go  thy  way  ;  first  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother,  and  then  come  and 
offer  thy  gift. 

25.  Agree  with  thine  adversary  quickly,  whilst  thou  art  in  the  way  with  him  ;  lest 
at  any  time  the  adversary  deliver  thee  to  the  judge,  and  the  judge  deliver  thee  to  the 
officer,  and  thou  be  cast  into  prison. 

26.  Verily  I  say  unto  thee,  thou  shalt  by  no  means  come  out  thence,  till  thou  hast 
paid  the  uttermost  farthing. 

27.  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  by  them  of  old  time.  Thou  shalt  not  commit 
adultery. 

28.  But  I  say  unto  you,  that  whosoever  looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her  hath 
committed  adultery  with  her  already  in  his  heart. 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  l6l 

29.  And  if  thy  right  eye  offend  thee,  pluck  it  out,  and  cast  it  from  thee  ;  for  it  is 
Iprofitable  for  thee  that  one  of  thy  members  should  perish,  and  not  that  thy  whole 
body  should  be  cast  into  hell. 

30.  And  if  thy  right  hand  ofEend  thee,  cut  it  off,  and  cast  it  from  thee  :  for  it  is 
profitable  for  thee  that  one  of  thy  members  should  perish,  and  not  that  thy  whole 
body  should  be  cast  into  hell. 

31.  It  hath  been  said.  Whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife,  let  him  give  her  a  writ- 
ing of  divorcement ; 

32.  But  I  say  unto  you,  that  whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife,  saving  for  the 
cause  of  fornication,  causeth  her  to  commit  adultery  ;  and  whosoever  shall  marry  her 
that  is  divorced  comniitteth  adultery. 

This  shows  us  the  principle  upon  which  the  education  of  the  world  was 
being  conducted  by  the  Divine  Teacher.  Perhaps  the  education  could  not 
have  begun  otherwise  than  very  roughly.  The  mind  is  not  prepared  for 
the  higher  form  of  truths,  and  the  more  spiritual  application  of  them  at 
the  beginning.  We  all  need  to  be  trained.  In  our  higher  training  we 
must  go,  as  in  our  lower  tuition,  a  step  at  a  time.  Do  not  be  too  hasty  in 
your  movement.  Easy  come,  easy  go,  is  a  proverb  which  applies  in  many 
directions.  Always  read  over  again  the  last  lesson  before  you  begin  the 
next,  if  you  wish  to  be  really  accurate  and  profound  scholars.  You  know 
how  you  train  your  child.  First  you  lay  down  some  broad,  and  general 
commandment.  He  is  not  to  break  things,  he  is  not  to  endanger  himself, 
he  is  not  to  touch  fire,  he  is  to  keep  away  from  the  water,  he  is  not  to  use 
his  little  fists,  and  so  in  some  broad  and  general  way  you  indicate  what 
the  child  is  not  to  do.  If  you  spoke  to  the  child  in  any  other  terms  and 
in  any  other  tone,  your  education  might  be  of  a  very  superior  order,  but 
it  would  be  utterly  lost,  so  far  as  the  child's  appreciation  and  obedience 
are  concerned.  You  must  begin  where  the  child  can  begin,  you  must 
humble  yourself  and  take  upon  you  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  become 
obedient  unto  death,  the  death  of  your  intellectual  pride,  even  the  death 
of  the  cross,  and  must  break  up  your  words  into  very  little  tones  and  syl- 
lables in  order  to  suit  your  youthful  auditor.  It  would  become  you,  per- 
haps, by  reason  of  the  elevation  and  range  of  your  own  intellectual  acquire- 
ments, to  adopt  a  very  high  tone  to  the  child  :  but  you  must  come  down 
out  of  your  intellectual  sky  and  talk  the  plain  and  common  language  of 
the  earth  if  you  would  make  any  good  impression  upon  the  child's  mind 
and  heart. 

So  at  the  beginning  it  was,  perhaps,  enough  to  say,  "Thou  shalt  not  kill." 
But  there  came  a  time  in  the  training  and  advancement  of  the  world  when 
a  keener  tone  was  to  enter  into  the  divine  teaching.  That  keener  tone  we 
hear  in  the  words  that  are  now  before  us.  Christ  has  brought  us  a  long 
way  from  the  broad  and  rough  commandment.  Thou  shalt  not  kill.  He 
asks  us  to  pass  a  line  and  enter  into  a  kingdom  in  which  we  are  not  to 
tJiink  unkindly  or  unjustly  of  one  another.      He  discovers  for  us  that  the 


l62  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

principle  is  the  same  in  evil  speaking  as  in  murder.  With  those  sharp  eyes 
of  his,  to  which  the  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike,  he  says  that  in 
the  unjust  thought  is  the  principle  of  manslaughter.  It  would,  therefore, 
have  been  but  poor  work  on  his  part  to  come  down  and  repeat  the  old 
broad  general  morality  ;  he  must  bring  in  a  new  standard,  he  must  set  up 
a  new  kingdom,  he  must  flood  the  world  with  a  purer  light.  Herein  he 
sets  up  his  throne  of  judgment  amongst  us  to-day,  and  he  calls  us  up  one 
by  one  to  be  measured  and  weighed.     Let  us  hasten  to  obey  his  call. 

What  have  you  to  say?  He  will  ply  the  charge  of  slaying  men — what  is 
your  answer  ?  An  instantaneous,  frank,  unreserved  denial.  So  far,  so 
good.  Have  you  ever  thought  one  unjust  thought  respecting  your  neigh- 
bour ?  Where  your  glibness  now  ?  If  you  have,  then  you  are  still  in  the 
old  school,  and  you  have  not  entered  into  the  Christian  kingdom  at  all. 
Where  then  are  the  Christians  ?  Judged  by  that  high  and  pure  standard, 
my  mournful  answer  to  the  inquiry  is,  I  cannot  tell.  There  are  no  Chris- 
tians. Jesus  says  to  us,  in  effect,  "  If  you  come  to  me,  simply  saying  that 
your  hands  are  clear  of  human  blood,  you  belong  to  the  old  school,  you 
are  faithful  scholars  of  them  of  old  time  ;  but  the  first  condition  of  entrance 
into  my  school,  or  the  first  proof  of  being  in  that  school,  is  that  a  man  be 
not  angry  with  his  brother  without  a  cause.  There  must  be  no  evil  think- 
ing, evil  speaking,  evil  judgment,  uncharitable  criticism."  Who  then  can 
stand  the  test  of  that  fire  ?  "  What  do  ye  more  than  others  ?  You  do  not 
kill,  you  do  not  steal,  you  do  not  commit  adultery,  you  do  not  make  your- 
selves amenable  to  the  law  of  the  land — what  do  ye  more  than  others  ? 
Do  not  even  the  publicans  the  same  ?  "  So  he  definitely  chides  us,  and  we 
have  no  answer. 

Still  he  would  lead  us  on  little  by  little  ;  he  would  not  deny  us  a  place 
in  his  kingdom  if  we  can  honestly  say,  "  Lord,  I  believe,  help  thou  mine 
unbelief.  I  am  still  in  the  body,  and  I  feel  all  the  passion  and  urgency  of 
my  lower  nature.  Sometimes  a  cruel  thought  does  arise  in  my  heart,  and 
sometimes  I  give  too  generous  a  welcome  to  uncharitable  criticism  of  my 
brother,  but  afterwards  I  hate  myself  for  having  entertained  so  vile  a 
guest.  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner."  If  such  be  our  speech,  then  it 
pleaseth  the  great  Christ,  the  Man  of  the  shepherdly  heart,  to  give  us  a 
position  in  his  school  and  teaching. 

Let  us  beware  of  these  vain  distinctions  of  ours.  A  man  does  not  kill, 
and  therefore  he  claims  to  be  a  Christian.  Jesus  Christ  says  to  him,  "  That 
is  an  insufficient  and  untenable  claim  altogether.  A  thousand  men  who 
never  go  to  church  can  say  the  same  thing.  You  must  adopt  a  higher 
tone,  or  you  know  nothing  of  the  spirit  of  the  Cross  and  the  love  of  God." 
Thus  our  preachers  must  urge  upon  us  the  ideal  side  of  things,  and  we 
must  not  pardon  them  if  they  do  other.  They  must  not  come  down  to  us 
and  tell  us  that  not  killing  is  equal  to  loving.     Though  they  condemn 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  163 

themselves  with  every  breath  they  breathe,  and  thrust  sharp  swords  into 
their  own  hearts  with  every  syllable  they  utter,  yet  this  must  be  done,  the 
ideal  must  be  lifted  up  and  magnified  that  we  may  see  how  far  short  we 
fall  or  come  of  being  true  Christ-ones.  We  call  ourselves  respectable  per- 
sons ;  so  we  are,  with  the  publicans'  respectability.  There  is  not  a  man 
here  to-day,  probably,  who  cannot  walk  up  and  down  the  thoroughfares  of 
the  city  and  defy  the  magistrate  to  touch  him.  That  is  not  Christianity, 
that  is  respectable  paganism — that  is  not  the  religion  of  the  sanctuary  of 
Christ,  that  is  ceremonialism,  high  j^aganism,  outward  cleanliness.  Chris- 
tianity is  a  condition  of  the  heart. 

How  is  it  with  us  when  that  question,  keen  as  a  sting  of  fire,  is  put  to 
us,  namely.  What  about  your  inner  life,  your  heart  ?  You  do  not  kill,  but 
you  think  evil  of  your  neighbour  ;  you  do  not  slay  a  man  with  the  sword, 
but  you  whisper  unkind  words  about  your  friend.  You  do  not  violate  the 
open  laws  of  decency,  but  yours  is  an  uncharitable  judgment ;  you  have 
not  passed  a  counterfeit  coin,  but  you  would  take  away  a  reputation  and 
wound  a  heart.  You  would  not  openly  tell  a  lie,  you  say  you  scorn  to  tell 
a  lie  ;  yet  if  two  constructions  can  be  put  upon  any  human  action,  you 
elect  the  worst  of  the  two.  If  that  is  true  of  you  or  me,  by  so  much  we 
are  not  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  at  all.  We  may  be  expositors  and 
critics  and  respectable  pagans,  but  we  are  not  in  the  Christian  kingdom 
at  all. 

Terrible  is  the  talk  of  Christ's  as  a  great  burning  judgment,  and  it  keeps 
us  at  bay  like  a  fire.  What  wonder  if  sometimes  our  hearts  are  so  dejected 
as  to  think  that  no  progress  is  being  made  with  Christian  civilization  at 
all.  When  a  man  seventy  years  of  age  can  talk  just  as  he  did  at  thirty,  as 
uncharitably  and  unfeelingly  and  hopelessly  about  his  kind  ;  when  the  very 
first  thought  that  occurs  to  his  mind  is  one  of  ungenerous  criticism,  how 
can  he  have  been  in  the  school  of  Christ  ?  Charity  thinketh  no  evil,  char- 
ity suffereth  long  and  is  kind,  charity  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things, 
endureth  all  things,  charity  never  faileth,  and  without  charity  no  man  can 
be  a  follower  of  Christ. 

Jesus  Christ  is  very  urgent  about  these  human  relations  of  ours  ;  there- ' 
fore  he  says,  "  If  thou  bring  thy  gift  to  the  altar,  and  there  rememberest 
that  thy  brother  hath  aught  against  thee,  leave  there  thy  gift  before  the 
altar,  and  go  thy  way  ;  first  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother,  and  then  come 
and  offer  thy  gift."  We  are  not  to  remember  whether  we  have  anything 
against  our  brother  ;  that  would  be  easily  done,  our  memory  needs  no 
spur  on  that  side,  we  so  soon  forget  our  own  delinquencies.  Where  did 
my  last  word  of  fire  drop  ?  What  heart  did  I  wound  in  my  last  speech  ? 
On  what  right  did  I  trample  in  my  last  transaction  .''  Whom  did  I  strike 
down  in  order  to  accomplish  my  last  purpose  ?  Let  me  examine  myself 
thus,  and  I  shall  be  a  long  time  in  getting  to  the  altar.  At  the  altar,  whited, 


164  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

painted  hypocrite  ?  Leave  the  altar  and  go  away  to  discharge  your  plain 
human  duties,  bind  up  hearts  you  have  broken,  comfort  those  you  have 
thrown  into  dejection,  and  apologise  on  both  knees  to  the  woman,  the  child, 
the  man  you  have  injured,  and  then  come  and  take  up  your  hymn-book 
and  lay  your  offering  on  the  altar  purer  than  snow. 

I  do  not  wonder  that  Jesus  Christ  does  not  make  much  progress  in  the 
world,  and  I  do  not  wonder  that  any  old  trickster  in  words  and  conjurer 
in  doctrines  can  get  more  followers  than  Christ.  He  keeps  men  away 
from  him  by  these  judgments  of  fire.  His  doctrine  is  a  continual  rebuke, 
the  very  holiness  of  his  speech  creates  a  torment  in  the  heart  that  is  not 
equal  to  obedience.  But  wherein  he  is  severe  he  makes  good  work  ;  he 
builds  slowly,  but  he  means  that  no  wind  shall  ever  throw  down  the  towers 
which  he  rears.  He  collects  his  members  very  gradually,  and  by  a  gate 
most  narrow  and  strait  does  he  bring  men  to  him,  but  they  never  leave 
him.  He  is  not  building  a  beautiful  house  of  smoke  which  the  wind  will 
blow  away  ;  he  is  building  a  Church,  and  he  has  calculated  the  strength 
of  the  swing  of  the  gates  of  hell,  and  having  built  his  masonry  up  with  a 
slow  hand,  he  says,  "  There — the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against 
it." 

He  now  passes  on  to  give  directions  concerning  the  crucifixion  of  the 
flesh  and  the  senses,  and  he  lays  down  this  great  principle — and  I  include 
the  whole  teaching  under  it — namely,  that  under  the  stress  of  fierce  temp- 
tation either  the  body  has  to  be  denied  or  the  soul  has  to  be  injured.  He 
says  in  effect,  "  I  put  the  case  before  you  thus  :  temptation  will  come,  and 
one  or  other  must  fall,  the  body  or  the  soul."  The  body  says,  "  I  will 
have  my  way,  I  will  enjoy  myself,  I  will  throw  off  restraint,  I  will  do  what 
I  please,  every  appetite  shall  be  gratified."  And  the  soul  sits  as  far  back 
as  it  can,  in  the  foul  house,  and  mourns  like  an  exile.  I  see  it,  I  see  its 
drooping  countenance,  its  eyelids  heavy  and  red,  I  hear  its  great  sob,  I  see 
its  infinite  dejection.  The  great  principle  is  that  denial  has  to  come  into 
your  life  somewhere.  You  deny  the  body  or  you  deny  the  soul.  Deny 
the  body  and  the  soul  comes  to  the  front  and  floods  your  life  with  sacred 
light,  with  heaven's  pure  splendour.  Gratify  the  body,  and  the  soul  retires, 
and  its  hot  tears  fall  in  the  hearing  of  God.  Self- slaughter  takes  place 
somewhere  ;  it  is  for  us  to  say  where  it  shall  take  place.  It  can  take  place 
in  the  cutting  off  of  a  hand,  or  in  the  thrusting  of  a  dagger  into  the  very 
fountain  of  life,  and  it  lies  within  the  power  of  the  human  will  to  say  where 
the  wound  shall  be  inflicted. 

There  is  a  bloated  man  who  never  said  "  No  "  to  an  appetite.  You  see 
it  in  his  face.  That  is  not  the  face  of  his  childhood  developed  into  noble 
age,  that  is  another  face  :  he  is  made  now  in  the  image  and  likeness  of 
the  devil.  His  very  eye  has  a  twist  in  it,  his  very  speech  has  lost  its 
music.     He  does  not  want  to  come  into  a  pure  home,  he  does  not  want  to 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  165 

look  upon  the  unsullied  flowers,  he  does  not  care  to  listen  to  the  birds 
singing  their  sweet  song  in  the  spring  light.  His  affections  are  otherwhere. 
All  the  urgency  of  his  life  moves  amid  other  directions,  he  is  less  a  man 
than  he  ever  was,  unhappily. 

Here  is  a  man  who  has  crucified  the  flesh,  the  affections,  and  the  lusts 
thereof  ;  he  has  cut  off  his  right  hand,  plucked  out  his  right  eye,  struck 
himself  everywhere  with  heavy  blows,  but  his  soul  throws  over  his  maimed 
condition  a  sacred  light,  a  beautiful  expression.  The  form  is  rugged,  the 
countenance  is  marred,  but  through  it  there  is  a  soft  shining  light  which 
tells  that  the  soul  is  growing  angelward  and  Godward,  and  every  day 
sweetens  his  nature  and  prepares  it  for  higher  society. 

In  looking  at  all  these  injunctions,  let  me  urge  you  to  beware  of  nibbling 
criticism  and  exposition.  It  would  be  easily  possible  for  us  to  spend  many 
mornings  over  the  discussion  of  the  paragraph  which  is  now  before  us. 
I  question  whether  it  would  be  profitable  to  do  so.  In  reading  Holy 
Scripture  seize  the  principle,  get  hold  of  the  genius,  the  divine  meaning, 
and  in  proportion  as  you  are  critical  about  the  mere  letter  are  you  in  dan- 
ger of  losing  the  divine  inspiration.  Suppose,  to  make  the  meaning 
clearer,  I  should  undertake  to  explain  to  you  the  meaning  of  the  word  sky. 
I  begin  by  telling  you  that  it  is  a  word  of  one  syllable,  I  point  out  that 
that  one  syllable  consists  of  three  letters,  I  call  your  attention  to  the  fact 
that  it  opens  with  the  nineteenth  letter  of  the  English  alphabet,  and  that 
it  closes  with  the  last  letter  but  one  in  that  alphabet.  What  do  you  know 
about  the  meaning  of  the  word  sky  ?  You  know  nothing  of  it.  Let  me 
tell  you  that  the  word  sky  is  not  to  be  looked  at  or  spelled  or  taken  to 
pieces  by  rough  vivisection  of  mere  letters,  but  lift  up  your  eyes  when  the 
morning  is  spreading  itself  above  you  in  all  its  beauty  and  freshness,  and 
one  look  into  the  great  arch  will  do  more  for  your  understanding  of  the 
term  sky  than  all  the  mere  conjuring  with  the  three  letters  that  the  most 
skilful  literalist  could  ever  do. 

So  it  is  possible  for  you  to  take  to  pieces  every  one  of  those  words  in 
this  long  paragraph,  and  yet  to  know  at  the  end  nothing  about  the  mean- 
ing of  Christ's  doctrine.  His  doctrine  is  one  of  inward  purity,  of  spirit- 
ual rectitude,  of  absolute  and  loving  sympathy  with  God.  There  be  those, 
no  doubt,  who  are  most  anxious  to  know  what  was  meant  by  Raca,  and 
Fool,  and  Hell-fire.  To  take  these  words  to  pieces  might  appear  instruc- 
tive, but  so  far  as  the  doctrine  of  Christ  is  concerned  it  might  easily  be 
destructive.  Raca,  for  example,  is  a  forgotten  word.  Words  come  and 
go.  To  us  it  means  nothing,  but  as  used  by  those  in  the  olden  time  it 
meant  insolence,  contempt — the  man  who  called  another  "  Raca,"  despised 
him,  spat  upon  him,  humbled  the  manhood  made  in  the  image  and  likeness 
of  God.  We  have  no  such  word  arrfongst  us  now,  but  we  have  the  con- 
temptuous feeling,  we  have  the  up-gathering  of  our  conventional  respecta- 


l66  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

bility  and  our  drawing  aside  from  the  unworthy,  the  meanly  dressed,  the 
unfavoured,  the  great  unwashed.  The  great  teaching  of  Christ  is  that 
contempt  of  humanity  is  punished  by  being  thrown  into  Gehenna,  the 
valley  given  up  to  fire. 

In  discussing  the  temptation  of  our  Lord,  we  inferred  the  character  of 
the  tempter  from  the  kind  of  temptations  which  he  urged.  We  might  apply 
the  same  principle  to  the  teaching  of  Christ,  and  infer  the  character  of 
Christ  from  the  kind  of  teaching  which  he  submitted  to  the  world.  Mark 
the  undivided  responsibility  which  he  assumes — "I  say  unto  you."  The 
personal  pronoun  is  there  emphatic,  it  takes  into  itself  all  the  meaning.  In 
the  first  instance  you  have  a  plural  term,  ''  It  hath  been  said  by  thene  of 
old  time,  but  " — now  comes  the  singular  term — "  I  say  unto  you."  There 
is  no  division  of  responsibility,  there  is  no  hiding  of  himself  behind  multi- 
tudinous precedents,  there  is  no  mere  focaiization  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
dead  ages.  Here  is  personal  responsibility,  clear,  definite,  undivided, 
incommunicable.  It  required  some  courage  on  the  part  of  a  mere  peas- 
ant to  stand  up  and  say  to  a  great  multitude  of  people,  "  I  put  myself 
above  all  that  ever  taught  you  in  the  ages  gone."  Yet  mark  how 
what  he  said  was  in  fulfihnent  of  truth  and  not  in  destruction  of  the 
ancient  law.  Christ  did  not  say,  "  You  may  kill  if  you  please,"  he  accepted 
the  teaching,  "  Thou  shalt  not  kill,"  and  he  carried  it  on  a  step  further. 
He  said,  "  Out  of  the  heart  killing  comes  ;  make  the  tree  good  and  the 
fruit  will  be  good.  It  is  no  use  for  the  hand  to  be  able  to  uplift  itself  and 
show  that  it  is  without  one  drop  of  blood  upon  it — the  question  is.  How 
many  murders  has  the  heart  committed  ?  "  This  is  the  true  doctrine  of 
development,  this  is  the  true  fulfilment  of  the  law. 

Mark  the  intense  spirituality  of  all  Christ's  teaching.  He  says,  **  How 
is  it  with  the  heart,  how  is  it  with  the  spirit,  what  would  you  do  if  you 
could,  how  far  is  your  respectability  a  mere  deference  to  the  clay  god  of 
custom,  how  far  is  your  outward  cleanliness  a  mere  expression  of  defer- 
ence to  the  usages  of  the  time  ?  "  A  man  is  what  his  heart  is,  "A  man  is 
no  stronger  than  his  weakest  point,"  says  the  strategist,  and  the  moralist 
adds,  "  A  man  is  no  better  than  in  his  feeblest  morality."  We  are  to  be 
judged  by  the  heart  and  not  by  the  hand.  Many  will  say  to  me  in  that 
day,  "  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  thy  name,  and  in  thy  name 
done  many  wonderful  works  ?  "  Then  will  I  profess  unto  them,  "I  never 
knew  you  ;  depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity."  If  we  are  humble 
in  heart,  contrite,  penitential,  self-renouncing,  always  wishing  and  desiring 
to  be  better,  Christ  will  accept  this  purpose  as  an  accomplished  fact,  and 
astound  us  by  the  revelation  of  his  rewards. 

Understand  what  kind  of  teacher  we  have  now  come  upon.  This  is 
terrible  preaching  which  we  read  in  our  text  to  day.  It  is  a  judgment  upon 
the  preacher  if  it  be  not  a  vindication.    He  must  keep  up  to  his  own  stand- 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  167 

ard.  Having  challenged  the  righteousness  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
he  must  show  a  better.  Having  demanded  purity  of  heart,  he  must  show 
it,  or  endeavour  to  show  it.  Having  scorned  as  a  final  consummation  all 
the  moralities  that  every  one  before  him  taught,  he  must  be  faithful  to  the 
new  and  larger  doctrine.  If  not,  he  opens  his  heart  to  all  the  assaults  of 
even  the  least  ingenious  of  his  foes.  He  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile 
found  in  his  mouth,  his  robe  was  seamless,  no  man  could  charge  him  with 
violating  his  own  doctrine — he  was  the  only  preacher  that  lived  his  ser- 
mons, in  him  alone  was  perfect,  absolute  consistency.  What  he  looks  for 
from  us  is  a  humble,  daily,  loving  endeavour  to  follow  him.  That  is  all 
we  can  claim,  and  we  claim  it  with  most  bated  breath. 


XX. 

THE     BEATITUDES     IN     PRACTICAL     FORM ON    TAKING    OATHS THE     PER- 
SONAL   RESISTANCE    OF    EVIL ON    BORROWING    AND    LENDING. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  we  cannot  mistake  tliy  word,  it  is  as  fire  and  it  is  as  music,  it  is  as 
the  sound  of  a  mighty  wind  from  heaven — there  is  none  lilce  it ;  our  hearts  know  thy 
voice,  and  when  we  follow  thy  word  thy  blessing  upon  us  is  like  a  great  wave.  Thou 
hast  written  for  us  thy  book,  thou  hast  given  unto  us  thy  Holy  Spirit  for  its  interpre- 
tation and  for  the  enlightenment  of  our  mind  ;  enable  us  to  receive  thy  book,  not  as 
the  word  of  man,  but  as  the  express  deliverance  and  message  of  heaven.  Save  us 
from  all  the  reading  of  the  letter,  that  does  not  see  into  the  meaning  of  the  infinite 
Spirit,  bring  us  into  sympathy  with  thine  own  purpose  whilst  we  read  thy  wondrous 
words.  We  long  to  hear  thy  voice  ;  it  will  soothe  us,  it  will  give  us  courage,  it  will 
answer  every  rising  inquiry  and  repel  every  urgent  temptation.  Let  thy  voice  fill 
the  hearing  of  our  soul  to-day  and  make  us  glad  with  the  music  of  heaven. 

Give  us  release  from  the  anxieties  and  torments  of  a  worldly  life  ;  lift  us  above  the 
cares  and  distresses  incident  to  an  earthly  pilgrimage,  and  bring  us  into  thine  inner 
chamber,  where  our  hearts  shall  see  the  radiance  of  thy  face,  and  our  life  shall  be 
lifted  up  into  a  new  and  immortal  hope.  Thou  hast  been  with  us  in  the  valley  of  the 
week,  and  even  in  the  darkness  we  have  seen  where  the  flowers  were,  and  our  hands 
have  been  filled  with  their  beauty.  Thou  hast  caused  us  to  pass  over  stony  places, 
yet  even  in  the  rock  hast  thou  found  a  river  of  water,  so  that  we  have  not  died  in  the 
wilderness  by  reason  of  thirst.  Where  the  water  has  been  bitter  thou  hast  given  us 
a  plant  to  heal  its  bitterness,  thou  hast  turned  upon  us  an  eye  brighter  than  the 
morning,  and  upon  our  enemies  thou  hast  turned  a  cloud  darker  than  the  night. 
Because  of  thy  great  goodness  we  are  here  this  day,  living,  with  hearts  uplifted 
heavenward,  with  a  great  desire  going  out  after  thyself  that  our  souls  may  be  com- 
pleted in  perfection  and  soothed  with  peace. 

Hear  us  whilst  we  confess  our  sin,  and  whilst  we  mourn  our  iniquity.  Let  thy 
forgiveness,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  one  Priest  and  only  Saviour,  be  greater  than 
all  our  guilt.  When  we  sin  most  we  most  need  him,  for  he  is  the  Saviour  of  the 
world  and  the  Redeemer  of  those  that  are  in  bondage.  Bring  us  all  round  his  cross, 
and  high  above  all  the  writing  of  those  who  slew  him  may  we  see  the  superscription 
traced  by  thine  own  hand,  "  The  Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
was  lost." 

We  put  ourselves  into  thine  hands  for  guidance,  direction,  sustenance,  and  all 
things  needfuh  We  shall  die  to-morrow,  but  to  die  is  to  live,  if  so  be  we  die  unto 
the  Lord.  Our  days  are  thinning  down,  so  much  so  that  we  see  through  the  remainder 
of  them  and  behold  tlie  tomb  at  the  other  end.  Yet,  though  our  days  be  few,  we 
would  live  them  as  industrious  servants,  being  found  diligent  and  faithful,  stooping 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  169 

down  to  our  work  with  a  hearty  good  will,  and  doing  it  in  all  the  strength  and  fear 
and  hope  of  God. 

We  commend  one  another  with  mutual  love  to  thy  gentle  care.  Carry  our  sick 
ones  in  thy  great  arms,  press  our  little  ones  to  thine  infinite  heart,  kiss  the  tears  of 
our  sorrow  from  our  reddened  cheek,  and  give  us  a  time  of  sunshine,  when  the  storm 
has  spent  itself  upon  our  poor  life.  Help  every  man  who  wishes  to  do  better  to 
realize  this  solemn  hope  ;  to  every  man  who  would  lift  himself  up  by  thy  grace  and 
strength  so  as  to  catch  the  full  shining  of  thy  light,  give  grace,  strength,  comfort,  and 
renewal  of  confidence  every  day.  If  any  heart  be  set  upon  evil  and  any  hand  be 
trying  to  find  what  mischief  it  can  work,  the  Lord  confound  the  counsel  of  those  who 
are  wrong   and  overturn  the  purpose  of  those  who  know  not  and  fear  not  thy  name. 

Thy  word  awaits  us,  may  we  await  its  deliverance,  may  it  come  to  us  with  great 
power  and  breadtli,  great  simplicity  and  unction — may  every  heart  throw  open  its 
gates  to  give  riglit  loving  welcome  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  The  Lord  direct  us  in 
everything,  individually,  congregationally,  socially,  and  nationally.  Give  righteous- 
ness and  a  spirit  of  mercy  and  judgment  to  all  who  are  in  high  places.  God  save  the 
Queen,  and  add  many  unto  the  days  of  her  life  ;  the  Lord  himself  rule  the  nation  and 
make  us  glad  under  his  sovereignty.  Send  light  and  truth,  purity  and  peace  all  over 
the  world,  and  make  the  whole  earth  thy  sanctuary,  thou  who  didst  redeem  it  with 
blood. 

Hear  us  in  these  our  uttered  prayers,  and  as  for  the  desires  we  may  not  and  cannot 
speak,  read  them  every  one,  as  they  lie  unuttered  in  the  heart.  Wherein  they  point 
towards  truth  and  belter  life  and  penitence  and  nobler  purpose,  thou  wilt  give  them 
infiui?,e  answers  of  satisfaction  and  peace.     Amen. 

Matthew  v.  33-^8. 

33.  Again,  ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said  by  them  of  old  time,  thou  shalt  not 
forswear  thyself,  but  shalt  perform  unto  the  Lord  thine  oaths  : 

34.  But  I  say  unto  you.  Swear  not  at  all  ;  neither  by  heaven  ;  for  it  is  God's  throne  : 

35.  Nor  by  the  earth  ;  for  it  is  his  footstool  :  neither  by  Jerusalem  ;  for  it  is  the 
city  of  the  great  King. 

36.  Neither  shalt  thou  swear  by  thy  head,  because  thou  canst  not  make  one  hair 
white  or  black. 

37.  But  let  your  communication  be,  Yea,  yea  ;  Nay,  nay  :  for  whatsoever  is  more 
than  these  cometh  of  evil. 

38.  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  An  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth  : 

39.  But  I  say  unto  you,  That  ye  resist  not  evil  :  but  whosoever  shall  smite  thee  on 
thy  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also. 

40.  And  if  any  man  will  sue  thee  at  the  law,  and  take  away  thy  coat,  let  him  have 
thy  cloak  also. 

41.  And  whosoever  shall  compel  thee  to  go  a  mile,  go  with  him  twain. 

42.  Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee,  and  from  him  that  would  borrow  of  thee  turn 
not  thou  away. 

43.  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour,  and  hate 
thine  enemy. 

44.  But  I  say  unto  you.  Love  yonr  enemies,  bless  them  that  curse  you,  do  good  to 
them  that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them  which  despitefullyuseyou,  and  persecute  you  ; 

45.  That  ye  may  be  the  children  of  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  :  for  hemaketh 
his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the 


170  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

46.  For  if  ye  love  tbem  wliicli  love  you,  wliat  reward  have  ye?  do  not  even  the 
publicans  the  same  ? 

47  And  if  ye  salute  your  brethren  only,  what  do  ye  more  than  others  ?  do  not  even 
the  puljlicans  so  ? 

48.  Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect. 

We  had  some  difficulty  in  understanding  the  beatitudes,  the  musfc 
seemed  to  be  too  exquisite  and  refined  for  the  rough  instruments  at  ou« 
disposal.  We  hastened  over  them,  rather  than  deliberately  read  them 
As  your  teacher,  I  had  a  purpose  in  this  ;  I  knew  that  the  beatitudes  would 
all  come  up  again  in  practical  form.  Who  can  understand  abstract  and 
purely  spiritual  truth  ?  But  that  which  is  impossible  from  one  point  of  view 
may  be  rendered  comparatively  easy  from  another.  Jesus  Christ  now  pro- 
ceeds to  give  examples  upon  what  we  might  call  the  black  board.  When 
he  said,  looking  it  whilst  he  did  say  it,  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for 
they  shall  see  God,"  we  did  not  understand  the  meaning  of  the  unfathom- 
able doctrine.  When  he  said,  "  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they  shall  inherit 
the  earth,"  we  thought  he  was  speaking  of  himself,  or  of  strangers,  for  we 
had  never  come  within  the  sacred  lines  described  by  that  simple  yet  immeas- 
urable word,  meekness.  Now  he  is  proceeding  from  doctrine  to  exhorta- 
tion, and  you  will  find  under  his  exhortations  the  whole  set  of  the  beati- 
tudes :  he  is  giving  you  now  to  drink  out  of  the  wells  he  dug  when  he  laid 
down  the  doctrine. 

I  cannot  tell  what  he  means  by  purity  of  heart,  so  he  approaches  my 
dull  understanding  with  this  practical  direction — Do  not  be  angry  with 
your  brother  without  a  cause,  do  not  call  your  brother  by  contemptuous 
names,  do  not  describe  any  man  wilfully  and  maliciously  as  a  fool.  I 
think  these  are  easy  exhortations,  and  when  I  begin  to  give  them  incarna- 
tion in  my  life  I  find  they  are  supreme  difficulties  ;  I  have  not  motive 
force  in  me  enough  to  carry  this  tremendous  engine  along.  Now  I  take 
him  aside  and  say  privately  in  the  house,  "  I  know  now  something  of  what 
you  meant  when  you  said.  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart."  "  Yes,"  he 
replies,  "  that  was  my  purpose,  and  if  your  heart  be  not  right  you  will 
never  be  able  to  do  the  apparently  simple  duties  which  I  have  now  indi- 
cated. Unless  there  be  pureness  of  heart  there  will  be  pollution  of  lips, 
unless  there  be  rightness  of  heart  there  will  be  hidden  and  baleful  fire  in 
the  spirit,  and  it  will  express  itself  in  contempt  and  malice,  and  harshness 
and  cruelty."  So  now  that  he  comes  into  practical  particulars,  I  find  that 
they  balance  the  spiritual  doctrine  which  I  could  not  understand.  But  I 
will  try  to  do  the  duty — I  shall  be  led  back  into  the  doctrine,  and  be  made 
to  feel  that  I  cannot  work  with  the  hand  except  it  expresses  the  inspira- 
tion of  a  cleansed  heart. 

So  when  he  says  to  me,  "  If  a  man  smite  thee  on  the  one  cheek,  turn  to 
him  the  other  also  ;  "  when  I  ask,  "  How  is  this  to  be  done  ? "  he  says, 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  17I 

"  Recall  the  beatitudes."  I  then  endeavour  to  remember  what  he  said  in 
the  spiritual  part  of  his  discourse,  and  this  sweet  word  returns  to  my  mem- 
ory— "  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they  shall  inherit  the  earth."  When  I 
heard  that  sentence  the  first  time  I  dismissed  it  as  a  very  beautiful  con- 
ception, a  high  and  beautiful  theory,  written  in  clouds  and  illustrated  with 
sunset  colours  ;  but  now  that  it  comes  down  to  me  in  a  practical  form,  I 
find  it  was  no  cloudy  revelation,  no  mere  touch  of  intellectual  beauty,  no 
flash  of  the  moral  imagination,  but  something  sound,  honest,  vital,  divine. 
So  it  is  no  use  telling  a  man  to  turn  the  other  cheek  to  the  man  who  has 
smitten  him  if  he  has  not  first  turned  his  heart  towards  meekness.  You  can- 
not put  on  meekness  except  as  you  put  on  paint  that  can  be  washed  off. 
If  you  have  not  the  meek  heart,  you  cannot  do  the  meek  deed.  Do  not 
play  at  meekness,  do  not  simulate  meekness  ;  let  us  hide  ourselves  with 
Christ,  who  is  meek  and  lowly  in  heart,  then  we  shall  be  exactly  what  he 
meant  when  he  told  us  that  when  we  were  smitten  on  one  cheek  we  had  to 
turn  the  other  also.  Throughout  the  whole  of  these  practical  exhorta- 
tions you  will  find  that  he  is  reducing  the  beatitudes  or  spiritual  doctrines 
to  spiritual  form  and  expression. 

Let  us  now  go  a  little  into  detail  to  establish  this  with  some  breadth  of  illus- 
tration. "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said  by  them  of  old  time,  Thou 
shalt  not  forswear  thyself,  but  shalt  perform  unto  the  Lord  thine  oaths." 
That  is,  you  have  heard  it  laid  down  broadly  that  you  are  not  to  commit 
perjury  :  having  taken  a  vow,  you  must  be  faithful  to  it ;  having  uttered 
your  oath,  you  must  carefully  and  deliberately  reduce  it  to  practice.  It 
must  not  be  made  a  dead  letter,  it  must  not  be  evaded,  it  must  not  be 
inverted,  there  must  be  no  perjury  or  false-swearing  or  foregoing  of  the 
most  sacred  oaths  of  life  ;  but  I  say  unto  you,  that  that  is  a  very  poor 
advancement  in  the  right  direction.  So  far  as  it  goes  it  is  right  enough, 
but  go  forward,  follow  me,  so  as  to  relieve  yourself  from  the  necessity  of 
ever  swearing  at  all.  That  is  to  say,  let  your  heart  be  so  sincere  that  your 
speech  must  be  simple  ;  cultivate  that  state  of  heart  in  the  sight  of  God 
which  naturally  and  necessarily,  by  virtue  of  the  divine  compulsion, 
expresses  itself  in  simple,  transparent,  and  beauteous  sincerity  and  sim- 
plicity. 

I  do  not  understand  the  Saviour  as  forbidding  what  is  known  as  judi- 
cial oath-taking  or  swearing.  He  always  recognised  certain  necessities  of 
the  time,  and  he  adapted  his  revelation  from  the  beginning  to  the  hard- 
ness of  the  hearts  of  those  whom  he  had  to  instruct.  But  he  was  bound 
to  point  to  the  ultimate  line  he  set  up  of  ideal  conversation.  It  is  his 
purpose  to  make  us  so  like  himself  that  we  cannot  but  speak  exactly  what 
is  true.  Consider  the  monstrousness  of  any  man  speaking  only  what  is 
true  because  he  has  sworn  to  do  it.  That  man  is  a  liar.  In  his  very  na- 
ture and  blood  he  is  false,  if  he  will  only  speak  that  which  is  true  simply 


172  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

on  the  ground  that  he  has  taken  an  bath  to  do  it.  There  can  be  no  formal 
truthfulness  :  sincerity  is  a  condition  of  heart  ;  it  is  not  the  result  of  a 
mechanical  contrivance  coming  out  of  the  kissing  a  certain  book  under  a 
certain  adjuration.  Jesus  Christ  therefore  educates  the  race  up  to  the 
point  of  not  needing  to  swear  or  affirm  or  declare,  with  unusual  emphasis. 
He  would  have  our  very  breathing  to  be  the  expression  of  our  hearts'  con- 
dition, so  that  if  a  man  said  Yea,  he  meant  that,  and  that  only  :  if  he  said 
Nay,  there  was  no  mental  reservation,  no  subtle  and  unexpressed  equivo- 
cation of  meaning,  no  intention,  deep  down  in  the  heart,  to  take  advantage 
of  a  certain  set  of  terms  under  a  certain  set  of  circumstances — that  is  the 
deep  and  glorious  meaning  of  the  Son  of  God.  Be  so  right  within  as  to 
be  incapable  of  uttering  one  word  that  is  not  pure  as  light  and  as  fire.  It 
is  to  that  high  result  he  would  bring  us.  We  are  dull  scholars,  and  the 
teacher  has  yet  an  infinite  work  before  him. 

Jesus  Christ  then  addressed  himself  to  certain  little  trickeries  that  were 
in  custom  amongst  the  people.  He  told  them  not  to  swear  by  heaven,  nor 
by  earth,  nor  by  Jerusalem,  nor  by  the  head.  Why  did  he  go  into  this 
detail  ?  Because  such  was  the  corruption  of  his  age,  that  there  were  great 
and  learned  men  who  laid  it  down  as  right  to  break  any  oath  in  which  you 
could  not  find,  in  so  many  letters,  the  name  Jehovah.  There  was  one  great 
man  in  history  who  openly  avowed  that  he  felt  himself  to  be  at  liberty  to  break 
any  oath  in  which  he  did  not  expressly  use  the  word  God.  If  the  word 
,  God  had  passed  his  lips  he  felt  himseh  bound  in  honour  to  fulfil  his  oath, 
but  if  he  sware  by  heaven,  by  the  altar,  by  the  queen,  by  his  hair,  by  his 
palace,  he  did  but  gather  so  much  straw  as  he  could  cast  into  the  fire  of 
his  passion  and  burn  when  he  pleased.  Jesus  Christ,  with  that  marvellous 
comprehensiveness  of  teaching  which  is  characteristic  of  his  school,  pro- 
ceeds to  show  that,  though  you  may  not  have  the  name  of  God  in  your 
oath,  whatever  you  touch  is  sacred  and  has  God  in  it.  "  Swear  not  by 
heaven,  for  it  is  God's  throne  ;  nor  by  the  earth,  for  it  is  his  footstool  ;  nor 
by  Jerusalem,  for  it  is  his  city  ;  nor  by  thine  head,  for  he  fashioned  it  and 
clothed  it,  and  thou  canst  not  make  one  hair  white  or  black."  So  he 
delivered  the  term  God  from  its  consisting  of  so  many  letters  and  syllables, 
and  showed  that  the  whole  universe  was  alive  with  God,  and  that  to  swear 
by  a  stone  was  to  invoke  the  Creator  that  formed  it.  To  be  under  such  a 
Teacher  is  an  inspiration,  to  hear  such  a  man  is  to  expose  yourself  to  the 
mountain  breeze  or  a  whiff  of  ocean  air  full  of  life  and  giving  life. 

Take  the  next  particular.  "Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  An 
eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  but  I  say  unto  you  that  ye  resist 
not  evil,  but  whosoever  shall  smite  thee  on  the  one  cheek  turn  to  him  the 
other  also,  and  if  any  man  shall  sue  thee  at  the  law  and  take  away  thy 
coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloak  also.  And  if  any  man  compel  thee  to  go  a 
mile,  go  with  him  twain."     We  all  know  to  what  absurdities  and  iniquities 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  173 

a  merely  literal  acceptance  of  these  words  would  lead.  You  nibble  at  the 
meaning  of  Christ  when  you  begin  to  think  that  you  see  it  all  in  these  bare 
words,  as  they  would  be  understood  by  the  unenlightened  and  unspiritual 
mind.  What  is  Jesus  Christ  teaching  here  ?  He  is  teaching  the  great 
principle  of  forbearance  or  long-suffering.  He  quells  all  human  passion, 
and  sets  upon  human  revenge  the  seal  of  his  displeasure.  Revenge  is  not 
to  enter  into  our  thoughts.  As  to  self-protection  it  is  written  in  our  na- 
ture; it  is  not  a  debased  instinct,  it  was  in  the  original  Adam,  the  divinely- 
shaped  and  divinely-inspired  man,  and  the  very  first  word  spoken  to  the 
man  constituted  an  appeal  to  this  instinct,  "  Take  care  ;  in  the  day  thou 
eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die.  Protect  thyself."  It  cannot  be  taken 
out  of  our  manhood,  this  instinct  of  self-preservation  ;  it  can  be  sancti- 
fied, moderated,  ennobled,  and  this  is  what  Christ  meant  it  to  be.  I  may 
smite  in  judgment  or  I  may  smite  in  revenge,  but  the  individual  man  who 
is  injured  cannot  smite  in  judgment.  I  smite  in  temper — that  is  the  very 
thing  forbidden.  We  caution  a  man  against  taking  the  law  into  his  own 
hands — that  is  exactly  what  Jesus  Christ  means  in  this  direction.  You 
ought  not  to  have  taken  the  law  into  your  own  hands — Why  ?  Because 
you  were  only  an  individual  and  the  individual  is  incomplete.  What,  then, 
should  I  have  done  ?  You  should  have  referred  it  to  the  complete  man. 
What  is  his  name  ?  Society.  Society  will  lay  its  terrific  hand  upon  the 
man  that  smote  you.  When  will  you  learn  that  you  are  only  a  part  and 
not  a  whole,  a  fraction  and  not  an  integer  ?  The  judge,  when  he  sits  upon 
the  bench  and  condemns  a  fellow-creature  to  penal  servitude  for  life,  is  not 
an  individual,  he  is  the  embodiment  of  Society,  the  representative  of  the 
latest  civilization  of  his  time  and  land.  If  you,  being  smitten  on  one 
cheek,  turn  round  and  smite  the  man  who  smote  you,  you  may  both  be 
taken  before  the  judge.  Rather  than  that,  turn  to  him  the  other  also. 
Leave  your  defence  and  his  punishment  in  the  hands  of  the  social  man, 
the  aggregate  humanity,  the  judge. 

This  is  exactly  what  Christ  did  himself.  Christ  did  not  personally 
resist  evil.  He  exemplified  the  very  doctrine  now  being  explained.  Per- 
sonally, when  he  was  reviled,  he  reviled  not  again,  when  he  suffered  he 
threatened  not  ;  he  gave  his  back  to  the  smiters  and  his  cheeks  to  them 
that  pluck  off  the  hair.  But  as  Judge,  not  the  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  but  the 
Son  of  Man,  he  shall  come  in  his  glory  and  all  the  holy  angels  with  him, 
he  shall  divide  the  nations  and  open  hell  under  the  feet  of  those  that 
despised  him.  We  believe  that  thou  wilt  come  to  be  our  Judge.  Every 
eye  shall  see  him,  they  that  pierced  him  shall  mourn  because  of  him,  those 
whose  hands  are  wettest  and  reddest  with  human  blood  shall  seek  mercy 
of  the  rocks  and  pity  of  the  mountains,  for  the  wrath  of  his  face  shall 
scourge  them  like  the  fire  that  awaits  their  coming.  Resist  not  evil,  do  not 
take  the  law  into  your  own  hands  ;  personally  be  meek,  forbearing,  long- 


174  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE, 

suffering,  show  that  the  spirit  of  revenge  has  no  place  in  you,  show  that 
you  would  rather  suffer  wrong  than  do  wrong  ,  take  the  larger  view,  be 
gentle,  hopeful,  noble,  and  as  to  your  sufferings,  there  is  an  organised  anger 
that  shall  burn  the  adversary,  there  is  a  judicial  scourge  that  shall  cut  to 
his  bone.  "  Dearly  beloved,  avenge  not  yourselves,  but  rather  give  place 
unto  wrath,  for  it  is  written.  Vengeance  is  mine,  I  will  repay,  saith  the 
Lord,"  and  he  repays  through  organised  society,  through  enlightened  and 
established  civilization,  and  by  a  thousand  ministries  which  we  can  neither 
name  nor  measure. 

"And  whosoever  shall  compel  thee  to  go  a  mile,  go  with  him  twain." 
This  refers  to  the  system  of  forced  courierships.  In  ancient  times  and 
oriental  lands,  messages  were  delivered  by  couriers,  persons  were  required 
to  show  the  way  to  strangers.  If  you  were  lost  upon  a  mountain  or  in  a 
valley,  it  was  part  of  your  right  to  insist  upon  any  person  who  was  in  the 
neighbourhood  to  go  with  you  part  of  the  road,  to  help,  you  out  of  your 
difficulty.  Persons  could  be  compelled  to  bear  messages  and  letters.  One 
Simon,  a  Cyrenian,  was  compelled  to  bear  the  cross.  Who  would  not 
carry  that  every  mile  he  has  yet  to  walk  ?  The  Saviour  said,  "  If  a  man 
compel  you  to  go  a  mile  with  him  to  show  him  the  road,  go  two  rather 
than  not  go  at  all.  Show  a  cheerful  disposition  under  the  pressure,  let 
your  philanthropy  absorb  your  convenience." 

"  Give  to  him  that  asketh  of  thee,  and  from  him  that  would  borrow  of 
thee,  turn  not  thou  away."  We  all  know  that  society  would  be  wrecked  in 
a  very  short  time  if  this  rule  were  to  be  literally  applied.  In  fact  it  bears 
upon  its  face  the  proof  that  it  does  not  admit  of  application  in  the  way 
which  the  mere  literalist  would  expect.  It  is  too  broad  to  mean  anything 
as  a  mere  letter  ;  it  is,  as  the  lawyers  say,  void  by  generality.  It  means  so 
much  as  to  mean  nothing.  And  yet  it  must  have  some  profound  signifi- 
cation ?  Certainly.  Where  shall  we  find  that  signification  ?  In  God's 
own  government,  just  as  we  find  the  explanation  of  non-resistance  in 
Christ's  own  conduct.  God  does  not  do  this  himself,  as  the  literalist  would 
interpret  it.  He  does  it  in  the  nobler  and  larger  way  which  is  of  no  use 
to  the  mere  devotee  of  the  letter.  Let  me  explain.  I  ask  God  to  give  me 
what  I  mention  to  him,  yet  he  turns  away.  Then  he  tells  me  to  give  to  the 
man  that  asketh  of  me.  I  must  find  the  meaning  of  these  words  in  the 
course  of  his  own  action.  I  would  borrow  of  God,  and  yet  he  turns  away 
from  my  cry.  He  judges  what  is  best  for  me,  what  is  good  for  me  :  He 
says  "  No  "  to  many  a  prayer :  many  a  desire  of  mine  that  I  have  sent 
out  towards  the  heavens  has  fallen  back  upon  the  door-sill  like  a  wounded 
bird.  I  know  now  what  Christ  means  :  he  teaches  me  clemency,  sym- 
pathy, he  developes  in  me  an  interest  in  human  affairs,  he  saves  me  from 
absurdity  and  folly  and  recklessness  and  from  putting  myself  into  the  very 
position  in  which  I  should  have  gone  to  repeat  the  doctrine  he  lays  down. 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  175 

and  thus  keep  up  a  system  and  action  of  absurd  borrowing,  now  one  man 
having  it  and  now  another,  and  so  passing  it  between  themselves  through 
every  hour  of  the  day. 

If  you  want  to  find  the  meaning  of  these  sweet  words,  you  can  easily 
find  them.  Do  not  try  to  discover  it  in  the  letter.  Whenever  you  are 
clement,  sympathetic,  large-hearted,  kind-handed,  you  are  going  in  the 
direction  of  the  meaning  of  this  passage.  Jesus  is  not  laying  down  little 
laws  and  small  maxims,  he  is  developing  infinite  principles  which  can  be 
applied  in  every  climate,  and  which  can  embody  themselves  under  all  the 
various  circumstances  which  make  up  all  the  changefulness  of  human  life. 

That  I  am  right  in  seeking  the  explanation  of  the  whole  doctrine  in 
myself  and  in  God  is  proved  by  what  Jesus  Christ  immediately  adds,  *'  That 
ye  may  be  the  children  of  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven,"  that  you  may  do 
in  your  degree  as  he  does  upon  an  infinite  scale.  He  does  not  answer 
every  petition,  he  turns  away  from  some  requests,  he  knows  that  difficulty 
has  a  place  in  the  discipline  and  sanctification  of  life,  and  he  uses  the  rod 
as  sometimes  the  only  admissible  lesson.  I  would  be  taught  by  him,  I 
would  be  like  him,  I  would  err,  as  we  sometimes  say,  on  the  liberal  side 
rather  than  on  the  ungenerous.  I  would  rather  be  taken  in  than  take  in 
any  human  creature,  I  would  rather  try  to  find  the  means  of  healing  a  man 
than  sourly  turn  away  from  his  distressed  face  and  his  faltering  voice.  If 
that  be  my  disposition  of  heart,  I  am  in  the  school  of  Christ. 

But  take  these  exhortations  as  you  like,  you  cannot  give  their  application, 
without  you  have  help  from  heaven.  It  is  not  in  man  that  liveth  to  work 
out  this  sublime  morality,  it  is  not  in  the  human  heart  as  at  present  exist- 
ing to  find  room  for  these  divinities.  He  who  made  the  heart  must  disin- 
fect it,  cleanse  it,  enlarge  it  to  give  hospitality  to  such  guests. 


XXI. 

TRUE     ALMSGIVING NO     COMPULSION     IN     RELIGION THE      MEANING     OF 

LONG    PRAYERS THE    HYPOCRISY    OF    FASTING. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  we  would  hide  ourselves  under  tlie  wings  of  tliy  mercy.  We  dare 
not  look  at  thy  law,  for  we  have  broken  it,  nor  at  thy  righteousness,  for  it  is  now  unto 
us  as  a  two-edged  sword  ;  but  thou  hast  permitted  us  to  look  at  thy  mercy.  Thine 
eternal  pity,  those  tears  of  thine  that  bid  us  silent  but  large  welcome  to  all  the  love 
of  thine  heart,  God  be  merciful  unto  us  sinners.  We  have  done  our  alms,  and  men 
have  seen  the  doing  of  them  ;  we  have  prayed,  and  behold  our  prayers  have  fallen 
back  unheard,  unanswered.  We  have  fasted  that  we  might  draw  attention  to  the 
dejection  of  our  face.  God  be  merciful  unto  us  sinners.  We  have  done  the  things  we 
ought  not  to  have  done,  we  have  left  undone  the  things  that  we  ought  to  have  done ; 
we  pierce  ourselves  with  many  accusations,  we  cannot  spare  the  infliction  of  bitter 
self-reproach,  we  mourn,  we  repent,  we  bow  down  ourselves  before  thee  in  utterest 
humiliation,  no  voice  have  we  of  self  defence.  God  be  merciful  unto  us  sinners.  Our 
standard  has  been  short,  our  balances  have  been  unequal,  our  purposes  have  been 
double,  our  words  have  had  one  meaning  to  others  and  another  meaning  to  ourselves  ; 
we  have  lied  without  speaking,  by  smiling,  by  action,  by  hint.  God  be  merciful  unto 
us  sinners,  make  us  clean  of  heart,  clean  in  the  spirit,  right  in  our  motive,  holy 
within  ;  then  shall  our  life  be  a  sacred  sacrifice,  thou  wilt  receive  it  daily  in  thy 
heavenly  places  as  a  well-meaning  offering  of  the  soul. 

We  bless  thee  for  all  thy  patient  care,  thy  long-suffering,  thy  tender  mercy.  Thou 
hast  taken  care  of  us,  as  if  we  were  of  consequence  to  thee  ;  thou  hast  numbered  the 
hairs  of  our  heads,  as  if  thou  hadst  not  to  count  the  innumerable  planets,  and  set  the 
stars  in  their  places.  Thou  hast  hidden  us  in  the  hollow  of  thine  hand,  and  drawn  us 
very  near  to  thine  heart,  and  many  a  message  of  tenderest  love  hast  thou  addressed 
to  us  in  our  low  estate.  Thanks  be  unto  God  for  his  unspeakable  gifts.  Thou  hast 
given  as  thine  only-begotten  Son.  Son  of  Mary,  Son  of  Man,  Son  of  God,  Lamb  of 
God,  Saviour  of  the  world,  whose  name  gathers  unto  itself  all  music,  and  comes 
down  upon  our  sin  and  woe  like  the  very  gospel  of  thine  heart.  Thanks  be 
unto  God  for  his  unspeakable  gift. 

Thou  hast  not  left  thyself  without  witness  in  our  hearts.  Thou  hast  given  unto  us 
thy  Holy  Spirit  to  convince  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment  to  come  ;  to 
purify  us  as  with  flame,  to  illuminate  our  minds  as  with  the  very  light  of  thy  throne, 
to  teach  us  the  meaning  of  thy  truth,  and  to  help  us  to  apply  it  to  our  varied  necessi- 
ties. What  shall  we  render  unto  the  Lord  for  all  his  benefits  towards  us.  Truly  we 
can  render  nothing  in  return,  but  it  shall  be  well  with  us  if  with  our  hearts  and  lips 
we  can  bless  thee  for  all  thy  love. 

Thou  art  still  in  the  world,  thou  hast  not  withdrawn  thy  rule  from  the  sons  of  men. 
Still  the  horn  of  thine  anointed  doth  bud,  and  still  thou  givest  unto  him  a  lamp  that 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  177 

shall  be  a  perpetual  light.  Thou  liftest  up  the  crushed  truth,  and  thou  givest 
renewed  beauty  to  graces  that  have  been  trampled  upon  by  heedless  or  cruel  feet. 
The  Lord  reigneth,  his  tlirone  is  in  the  heavens,  and  his  sceptre  is  stretched  out  over 
all.  We  know  not  what  we  do  ;  we  cannot  tell  what  a  day  may  bring  forth  ;  we  hide 
ourselves  in  the  infinitude  of  thy  love  ;  we  put  our  whole  life  into  thy  care ;  we 
would  expend  it  in  thy  service,  we  would  yield  it  to  thy  glory. 

Wherein  any  heart  is  heavily  burdened  to-day,  let  special  messages  of  grace  be  sent 
to  it  from  heaven.  Wherein  the  light  of  any  house  has  been  suddenly  put  out,  O 
thou,  who  hast  all  the  lamps  of  the  universe,  do  thou  set  a  new  light  to  chase  away 
the  sudden  and  heavy  darkness.  Where  great  tears  of  woe  are  starting  from  the 
eyes,  because  of  bereavement,  bitter  disappointment,  brokenness  of  heart  because  of 
family  trouble,  the  Lord's  own  hand  touch  those  tears  and  dry  them,  for  our  hands 
cannot  touch  a  grief  so  great  and  heavy.  Wherein  our  purposes  are  right,  do  thou 
prosper  them  ;  wherein  they  are  wrong  or  mistalcen,  do  thou  confound  them.  We 
put  our  life  again  and  again,  day  by  day,  with  every  waiting  and  every  sleep,  into 
thine  hand  :  thou  didst  give  it,  and  it  shall  all  be  thine. 

Send  thy  word  out  to  those  who  are  not  with  us  to-day,  to  those  who  are  shut  up 
in  solitude  in  the  sick  chamber,  suffering  or  waiting  upon  others  ;  be  with  those  who 
are  called  upon  suddenly  to  travel  and  leave  us  for  a  while,  with  those  in  trouble  on 
the  sea,  with  weary  hearts  too  tired  to  pray,  with  those  to  whom  life  has  become  a 
great  despair.  The  Lord  lift  the  great  cross  higher,  and  let  it  burn  with  all  the  fire 
of  his  love,  and  throw  out  its  heat  so  that  the  coldest  heart  may  feel  it  and  the  most 
desponding  life  may  answer  its  warming  ray. 

The  Lord's  light  be  held  above  his  word,  and  the  Lord's  light  spring  out  of  his 
word,  that  in  the  light  coming  from  heaven  and  springing  from  the  written  page  we 
may  see  God's  meaning,  and  give  it  loving  welcome  to  our  mind  and  heart.     Amen. 

Matthew  vi.  1-18. 

1.  Take  heed  that  ye  do  not  your  alms  before  men,  to  be  seen  of  them  :  otherwise 
ye  have  no  reward  of  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

2.  Therefore  when  thou  doest  thine  alms,  do  not  sound  a  trumpet  before  thee,  as 
the  hypocrites  do  in  the  synagogues  and  in  the  streets,  that  they  may  have  glory  of 
men.     Verily  I  say  unto  you,  They  have  their  reward. 

3.  But  when  thou  doest  alms,  let  not  thy  left  hand  know  what  thy  right  hand  doeth  ; 

4.  That  thine  alms  may  be  in  secret :  and  thy  Father  which  seeth  in  secret  himself 
shall  reward  thee  openly. 

5.  And  when  thou  prayest,  thou  shalt  not  be  as  the  hypocrites  are  ;  for  they  love 
to  pray  standing  in  the  synagogues,  and  in  the  corners  of  the  streets,  that  they  may 
be  seen  of  men.     Verily  I  say  unto  you,  They  have  their  reward. 

6.  But  thou,  when  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet,  and  when  thou  hast  shut 
thy  door,  pray  to  thy  Father  which  is  in  secret ;  and  thy  Father  which  seeth  in  secret 
shall  reward  thee  openly. 

7.  But  when  ye  pray,  use  not  vain  repetitions,  as  the  heathen  do  :  for  they  think 
that  they  shall  be  heard  for  their  much  speaking. 

8.  Be  not  ye  therefore  like  unto  them :  for  your  Father  knoweth  what  things  ye 
have  need  of,  before  ye  ask  him. 

9.  After  this  manner  therefore  pray  ye  :  Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven,  hallowed 
be  thy  name. 

10.  Thy  kingdom  come.     Thy  will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

11.  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. 


178  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

12.  And  forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  forgive  our  debtors. 

13.  And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil  :  For  thine  is  tbe king- 
dom, and  the  power,  and  the  glory,  for  ever.     Amen. 

14.  For  if  ye  forgive  men  their  trespasses,  your  heavenly  Father  will  also  forgive 
you  : 

15.  But  if  ye  forgive  not  men  their  trespasses,  neither  will  your  Father  forgive 
your  trespasses. 

16.  Moreover  when  ye  fast,  be  not,  as  the  hypocrites,  of  a  sad  countenance  :  for 
they  disfigure  their  faces,  that  they  may  appear  unto  men  to  fast.  Verily  I  say  unto 
you.  They  have  their  reward. 

17.  But  tliou,  when  thou  fastest,  anoint  thine  head,  and  wash  thy  face  ; 

18.  That  thou  appear  not  unto  men  to  fast,  but  unto  thy  Father  which  is  in  secret . 
and  thy  Father  whicli  seeth  in  secret  shall  reward  thee  openly. 

"When  thou  doest  thine  alms  do  not  sound  a  trumpet  before  thee,  as 
the  hypocrites  do  in  the  synagogues  and  in  the  streets."  The  boxes  in  the 
temple  treasury  were  shaped  like  trumpets.  Jesus  Christ  said,  "  Do  not 
make  a  trumpet  of  the  box  :  it  looks  like  one,  but  do  not  use  it  for  the 
purpose  of  calling  attention  to  what  you  are  about  to  put  into  it."  It  is 
strange  how  we  may  pervert  the  most  exquisite  beauty,  and  turn  it  to  false 
uses,  forms,  and  colours,  which  God  meant  to  lead  us  to  higher  thought 
and  finer  feeling.  It  is  a  box  for  the  reception  of  secret  alms,  not  a  trum- 
pet for  sounding  for  the  purpose  of  calling  public  attention  to  what  is 
about  to  be  done.  Use  everything  for  its  right  purpose,  and  beware  of 
perversion  ;  do  not  say  you  got  the  suggestion  from  the  thing  itself — it  was 
never  meant  to  convey  such  a  suggestion,  it  was  meant  for  a  totally  differ- 
ent purpose.  He  is  the  honest  man,  as  well  as  the  wise,  who  seizes  the 
definite  intention  of  providence,  and  works  along  that  line  without  putting 
upon  it  glosses  and  twists  and  perversions  of  his  own. 

"When  thou  doest  thine  alms."  Literally,  and  this  may  surprise  some 
of  you,  when  thou  doest  thy  righteousness.  In  the  fifth  chapter  and  the 
twentieth  verse,  which  we  have  already  expounded,  we  read,  "  Except  your 
righteousness  exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees^  ye 
shall  in  no  case  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  What  a  different  mean- 
ing is  infused  into  the  sentence  now,  when  we  replace  the  word  a/mswith  the 
word  righteousness.  I  thought  almsgiving  was  a  matter  of  pity,  transient 
emotion,  kindly  feeling.  It  is  more  than  that  :  under  all  the  flowers  of  the 
earth  are  the  great  ribs  of  rocks,  without  which  the  earth  could  not  cohere 
and  exist.  I  understood  that  when  I  gave  alms  I  was  displaying  pity,  kind 
feeling,  nice  sentiment,  and  that  I  was  drawing  attention  to  myself  as  a  man 
of  peculiarly  good  nature  and  most  amiable  sensibility.  Nothing  of  the 
kind.  It  is  right  to  give  :  when  the  strong  man  helps  the  weak,  he  is  not 
showing  you  the  beauties  of  amiability,  he  is  not  indulging  or  exemplify- 
ing a  merely  transient  emotion,  it  is  not  a  specimen  of  social  chivalry,  it 
comes  out  of  the  righteousness  of  God,  the  very  law  of  right.     If  he  had 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  lyg 

done  anything  else,  he  would  have  been  guilty  before  God  of  a  violation  of 
the  spirit  of  righteousness. 

When  you  took  that  dear  little  child  off  the  streets  and  gave  it  a  chair  at 
your  table,  it  was  not  an  action  that  could  be  covered  with  some  such 
words  as  pity,  kindness,  sympathy,  gentleness,  and  amiability.  All  these 
words  themselves  are  used  oftentimes  with  too  narrow  a  meaning.  If  our 
actions  do  not  go  back  to  the  rock  of  righteousness,  then  they  will  be,  how- 
ever beautiful  in  their  immediate  manifestation,  transient  in  their  duration. 
They  will  be  forgotten  as  dreams  are  forgotten  when  the  light  comes.  On 
the  other  hand,  only  let  us  get  the  notion  that  to  help  a  man,  a  child,  a 
woman,  to  give  alms  to  poverty,  to  do  any  deed  of  charity,  is  a  right  thing, 
and  then  see  how  our  life  becomes  grand  in  solemnity,  how  it  founds  itself 
on  the  immutable  and  the  complete,  and  how  we  cease  to  be  moved  by 
caprice  and  impulse  that  cannot  be  calculated  and  controlled,  and  become 
the  servants  of  a  great  law,  the  apostles  of  an  infinite  and  beneficent  right- 
eousness. 

This  almsgiving  is  to  be  done,  I  observe,  in  the  sight  of  God.  Then  is 
God  always  looking  ?  So  the  great  Master  teaches  us.  "  Your  Father 
which  is  in  secret,  your  Father  which  seeth  in  secret,  your  Father  who  is 
always  looking  on."  What,  am  I  ever  in  the  great  Taskmaster's  eye  ? 
Does  that  eye  never  close  in  slumber  ?  Is  there  not  one  moment  when  it 
tires  of  looking  ?  In  that  moment  I  might  snatch  his  sceptre  and  dispute 
his  sovereignty.  But  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  slumbereth  not  nor  sleepcth  : 
the  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  unto  him.  That  which  is  spoken 
in  the  ear  he  hears  in  thunder  in  heaven.  This  gives  me  a  very  solemn 
and  grand  view  of  life. 

Why,  then,  many  of  our  processes  in  the  matter  of  almsgiving  must  be 
given  up.  Sometimes  men  meet  and  challenge  one  another  to  do  good.  If 
it  is  done  with  modesty  all  but  infinite,  it  is  permissible.  It  is  a  dangerous 
trick.  "I  will  give  fifty  pounds  if  you  will  give  fifty  pounds,"  says  a  man 
who  imagines  he  is  going  to  do  something  great.  If  it  is  a  mere  matter  of 
taste,  so  far  as  any  matter  can  be  so  limited  the  challenge  is  allowable,  but 
if  it  relate  to  the  higher  charities,  to  consecration,  to  the  outgoing  ?.nd 
uplifting  and  offering  of  the  heart  to  God,  do  not  mention  what  you  are 
going  to  do,  ask  not  what  other  people  are  going  to  do.  Beware  of  that 
most  mischievous  sophism,  which  says,  "  I  am  only  waiting  to  see  what 
others  do."  Stand  before  God,  calculate  the  whole  case  in  his  presence, 
soliloquise  in  his  hearing,  Tiave  but  one  auditor,  and  that  your  Father 
which  heareth  in  secret,  and  then  do  whatever  is  right,  according  to  your 
then  sanctified  conviction,  and  God  will  do  the  rest. 

Compulsion  is  not  to  enter  into  almsgiving,  except  self-compulsion,  the 
best  of  all.  If  you  compel  me  to  do  an  alms  or  to  give  a  gift,  I  will  undo 
it  if  I  can,  when  you  are  not  looking,  but  if  I  am  compelled  by  ministries 


l8o  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

within  to  do  an  alms,  I  do  it  with  my  love.  I  could  not  withdraw  it,  it  is 
given  to  God  in  holy  sacrifice  and  grateful  prayer.  In  this  matter  of  reli- 
gion there  ought  to  be  no  compulsion  at  all,  except  the  compulsion  of  love. 
That  love  needs  continual  warming.  It  is  amazing  how  soon  our  affec- 
tions become  cooled  by  the  chilling  winds  of  the  earth.  So  I  must  hasten 
to  the  sanctuary,  I  must  get  me  into  the  inner  spirit  of  the  divine  word,  I 
must  climb  the  sacred  eminence  on  which  stands  the  one  cross,  out  of 
which  all  other  crosses  are  cut,  and  so  much  I  renew  the  fire  of  my  love. 
For  love  in  the  church  is  nothing  if  it  be  not  a  constant  flame.  Let  us 
beware  of  sudden  outbreaks  of  fire.  If  they  be  beside  the  continual 
burnt-offering,  they  are  good,  but  the  burnt-offering  itself  must  be  steady, 
continual,  daily,  and  if  now  and  again  the  flame  shoot  heaven-high,  so  be 
it,  but  the  steady  glow  must  never  fail. 

We  are  to  see  the  divine  in  the  human  in  this  giving  of  alms.  When  I 
give  something  to  a  little  poor  child,  to  whom  do  I  give  it,  if  my  motive  is 
right  and  pure  ?  I  give  it  to  Christ.  That  is  his  own  interpretation  of 
my  action,  he  astounds  me  by  its  vastness  and  brightness.  "  Inasmuch  as 
ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done 
it  unto  me.  I  was  an  hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  meat."  O  hungry  one, 
Christ  is  suffering  the  pang  that  gives  thee  pain.  In  all  our  affliction  he  is 
afflicted.  Whenever  a  hand  of  righteous  charity  is  put  out  to  alleviate 
our  distresses,  he  feels  the  tingling  of  it  in  his  own  pierced  palm,  and 
writes  it,  to  be  spoken  of  another  day. 

The  hypocrites  are  not  so,  the  actors  are  of  another  temper  :  their  act 
is  the  same  as  the  right  act,  but  it  is  done  from  the  wrong  motive,  and 
therefore  it  has  no  value  in  the  sight  of  heaven.  It  is  like  a  prayer  that 
paints  itself  on  the  ceiling,  not  like  a  living  bird,  loosened  from  the  secret 
heart  and  sent  out  to  find  its  invisible  nest  in  heaven. 

Jesus  Christ,  then,  is  very  deep  in  teaching.  He  gets  down  to  the  fun- 
damental line,  and  yet  in  doing  so  there  is  a  marvellous  satire  in  his  tone. 
Speaking  about  the  actors  or  hypocrites,  he  says,  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you, 
they  have  their  reward."  They  get  what  they  seek  ;  they  seek  applause, 
they  get  it  for  the  moment  and  it  dies  away,  and  they  are  left  with  the  void 
air.  They  get  their  heaven,  an  empty  place,  a  silent  chamber,  a  heaven 
they  would  gladly  part  with  ;  when  you  have  received  your  applause  for 
your  almsgiving  that  is  all  you  will  gex,  if  you  did  it  from  a  wrong  motive. 
You  will  hear  a  clapping  of  hands  apd  a  stamping  of  feet,  and  an  uproari- 
ous "  Huzza  !  "  for  a  second  or  two  and  then,  gone  ;  and  when  it  is  gone, 
your  heaven  has  vanished.  As  to  tl?'*.  after  work,  who  can  tell  what  that 
may  be  when  the  mask  is  taken  fron»  the  hypocrite's  face,  when  the  paint 
is  washed  from  his  countenance  and  he  stands  out  in  the  ghastliness  of  his 
true  meaning  ?     My  soul,  enter  not  Jhou  into  such  a  secret. 

You  will  find  as  you  proceed  with  your  lesson  that  Jesus  Christ  applies 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE,  l8l 

the  same  principle  to  everything  he  now  deals  with.  The  fire  is  the  same, 
he  does  not  change  the  test,  his  chemistry  is  not  fickle,  throughout  the 
whole  he  is  seeking  for  purity  ol  heart,  and  throughout  the  whole  he  shows 
how  the  trick  ot  the  hand  may  be  made  momentarily  to  represent  purity 
of  heart  and  purpose.  Thus  with  regard  to  ])rayer.  "  When  thou  prayest, 
thou  shalt  not  be  as  the  actors,  for  they  love  to  y^ray  standing  in  the  syna- 
gogues and  in  the  corners  of  the  streets,  that  they  may  be  seen  of  men," 
Right  things  may  be  done  in  a  wrong  way,  and  so  may  lose  their  value.  It 
is  right  to  give,  right  to  pray,  right  to  fast,  but  they  may  all  be  done  in  a 
wrong  way. 

We  do  not  understand  in  England  what  is  meant  by  these  words,  ''long 
prayers,  vain  repetitions,  and  much  speaking,"  though  sometimes  we  say  a 
prayer  is  long  if  it  went,  say,  to  the  length  of  ten  minutes,  or  fifteen,  or 
twenty  ;  if  to  half-an-hour,  we  describe  it  as  very  long  and  tedious  ;  but 
that  was  not  the  measure  indicated  by  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ,  it  had 
come  to  be  in  his  time  a  matter  of  settled  conviction  among  certain  people, 
to  whom  he  now  definitely  refers,  that  if  they  only  prayed  times  enough, 
kept  on  saying  the  same  things  over  and  over  again,  they  would  purchase 
heaven  as  a  matter  of  right,  as  you  purchase  an  article  by  laying  down  a 
certain  money  value  for  it  on  the  counter.  The  article  is  yours,  it  is  not 
a  gift  of  the  original  proprietor,  it  has  passed  on  to  you  as  having  value 
received  on  the  part  of  the  man  who  first  held  it.  So  among  the  hypo- 
crites and  the  actors,  they  thought  that  if  they  read  a  certain  document  called 
the  Sch'ma — if  they  read  that  over  and  over  again,  and  kept  at  it,  and  made 
a  question  of  regular  mechanical  repetition  of  it,  by  a  certain  turn  of  the 
wheel  they  would  be  able  to  claim  heaven  as  men  claim  a  field  for  which 
they  have  paid  the  price.  Jesus  Christ  having  reference  to  this  mechan- 
ical piety,  said,  "  That  is  a  vital  mistake  on  their  part  ;  they  think  they 
shall  be  heard  for  their  much  speaking.  Your  Father  knoweth  what 
things  ye  have  need  of  before  ye  ask  him."  Beware  of  vain  repetition  :  in 
other  words,  beware  of  a  mechanical  piety.  No  prayer  is  long  that  is 
prayed  with  the  heart  :  as  long  as  the  heart  can  talk  the  prayer  is  very 
brief — let  that  be  the  measure  and  standard  of  our  long  and  much  pray- 
ing. Do  not  measure  your  prayers  by  minutes,  but  by  necessities.  Some- 
times we  have  no  influence  with  the  King.  He  appears  to  have  deafened 
himself  against  us  or  to  have  turned  into  stone  at  our  approach,  and  our 
prayers  and  utterances  are  lost  upon  him  as  rain  upon  the  barren  rock. 
Sometimes  we  can  talk  the  whole  day  with  him,  we  cannot  tell  where  the 
growing  numbers  of  our  praise  will  end,  our  heart  is  enlarged  in  great  and 
free  utterance,  and  then  we  enter  into  the  mystery  of  communion  ;  not 
asking,  begging,  soliciting,  wanting  more  and  more  like  the  horse-leech, 
but  talking  out  to  him  as  the  dews  go  up  to  the  morning  sun.  When  you 
have  such  opportunities,  make  the  most  of  them,  and  do  not  let  the  words, 


182  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

''vain  repetitions  and  much  speaking,"  come  into  your  minds  as  tempta- 
tions. One  sentence  may  be  much  speaking,  and  is  so,  if  it  be  not  meant. 
A  day's  long  talk,  a  night's  long  communion,  will  be  but  too  short,  if  you 
see  the  King  as  it  were  face  to  face. 

Thus,  again,  Jesus  Christ  brings  us  to  the  point — "  Blessed  are  the  pure 
in  heart."  Jesus  Christ  came  to  set  purity  of  heart  in  opposition  to  the 
formalism  and  corruption  of  his  day.  He  found  that  evil  hands  had  written 
lies  and  blasphemies  upon  every  beam  in  the  Temple,  he  found  that  the 
windows  that  ought  to  have  looked  heavenward  had  been  cobwebbed  with 
traditions,  and  curtained  and  screened  so  as  to  conceal  the  iniquity  which 
was  wrought  behind  them.  So,  with  glowing  ardour,  burning  like  an  oven, 
he  cleansed  the  desecrated  house,  and  relighted  its  shaded  chambers  with 
the  very  glory  of  heaven,  called  back  the  exiled  and  dishonoured  angels  of 
purity,  mercy,  meekness,  peace,  and' he  banished  the  ghouls  of  selfishness, 
oppression,  cruelty,  and  strife.  He  lifted,  peasant's  son  though  he  was,  an 
arm  of  thunder  and  shattered  the  vile  creations  that  were  set  up  to  mock 
the  holiness  of  God. 

"  What  think  ye  of  Christ  ? "  A  grand  Teacher.  He  made  no  beck 
and  bow  to  his  age,  saying,  "  If  you  please,  will  you  be  good  enough  to 
hear  me  ? "  He  spoke  the  eternal  word,  and  there  was  something  in  the 
human  heart  that  said,  "  This  is  he  of  whom  Moses  and  the  prophets  did 
write."  You  know  the  true  voice  when  you  hear  it ;  there  is  a  spirit  in 
man  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty  giveth  him  understanding. 

The  Saviour  then  proceeds  to  apply  the  same  principle  to  the  matter  of 
fasting.  He  did  not  find  fault  with  fasting  as  a  religious  ordinance,  but 
he  said,  in  effect,  "  This  religious  observance  has  been  perverted  like 
prayer  and  almsgiving ;  now  you  must  not  disfigure  your  face,  and  so  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  you  are  fasting  ;  you  must  fast  in  your  heart, 
it  must  be  the  soul  that  fasts.  Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I  have  chosen  to 
do  unto  heavy  burdens,  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free,  to  speak  for  the 
dumb,  and  be  feet  and  hands  to  them  that  are  lame  and  helpless  ? " 
He  did  not  find  fault  with  the  words,  almsgiving,  prayer,  fasting,  but  he 
carried  them  up  to  their  highest  definitions.  We  have  degraded  every 
term  we  have  ever  used.  In  our  Saviour's  time  the  hypocrites  or  actors 
used  to  spread  ashes  upon  their  heads  literally,  and  used  to  tear  their  gar- 
ments and  make  their  faces  the  very  picture  and  exemplification  of  hunger 
and  dejection,  and  they  used  to  walk  up  and  down  the  streets,  saying  by 
these  actions,  "  Look  at  us,  how  pious  we  are,  how  observant  of  the  law  ; 
see  to  what  extreme  lengths  we  carry  our  devotion."  Christ  looked  at 
them,  and  his  eyes  flashed  fire  on  them,  and  he  said,  "  Hypocrites,  actors, 
masked  men,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  you  have  your  reward.  You  put  out 
your  hand  to  catch  a  gilded  bubble,  you  seize  it  with  greedy  fingers  and  it 
melts  and  dies." 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE,  183 

This  matter  of  fasting  was  carried  so  far  that  one  historian  tells  us  it 
was  mimicked  and  mocked  in  the  Roman  theatre.  At  one  play,  the 
audience  being  seated  and  in  expectation  of  the  performance,  a  camel  was 
led  across  the  stage,  and  that  camel  was  in  such  a  lean  and  miserable  con- 
dition, looking  so  utterly  dejected  and  forsaken,  that  voices  called  out, 
"  What  is  the  matter  with  the  camel  ?  "  and  the  dramatic  answer  was,  "  This 
is  fasting-time  amongst  the  Jews,  and  the  camel  has  been  observing  the 
fast,"  That  is  what  our  canting  impiety  always  comes  to  ;  it  is  the  tempt- 
ing, snivelling  hypocrite  that  is  put  upon  the  boards  of  our  novels,  and  not 
the  earnest  and  loving  and  true  soul.  When  I  come  u])on  any  character 
in  a  novel  or  romance  that  is  meant  to  typify  the  ministry  of  the  day  or 
the  Christian  spirit  of  the  day,  I  give  the  artist  credit  for  endeavouring  to 
set  forth  a  hypocrisy  and  not  a  reality.  I  do  not  look  even  upon  those 
Roman  pagans  as  traducing  a  grand  religious  consecration,  but  as  mimick- 
ing and  mocking  and  bitterly  taunting  men  who  had  forsaken  the  spirit  of 
their  religion,  and  had  perverted  and  prostituted  the  letter  to  the  most 
unworthy  purposes.  If  any  man  shall  attempt  to  travesty  that  which  is 
real,  true,  pure,  divine,  the  thick  end  of  the  beam  shall  fall  upon  his  own 
head  in  due  time.  As  to  those  who  take  delight  in  caricaturing  things 
that  are  counterfeit  and  unfit  and  unworthy — you  have  a  ministry  in  life, 
and  I  wish  you  success  in  the  discharge  of  your  grave  and  responsible 
function. 

"  What  think  ye  of  Christ  ?  "  There  is  a  tone  of  reality  about  this  Man's 
teaching.  Is  his  ministry  vital,  is  he  working  in  the  right  direction,  is  this 
the  reforming  ministry  which  all  ages  need  .''  Sometimes  we  say  that  our 
ministers  preach  to  the  times — in  doing  so  they  follow  the  example  of 
their  Lord  and  Master.  If  Christ  were  living  now  he  would  speak  to  the 
•times  :  he  would  not  speak  to  some  dumb  ages,  he  would  speak  to  the 
men  who  are  living  around  him,  working  all  kinds  of  mischief,  and  having 
within  them  counsels  and  purposes  unworthy  alike  of  their  manhood  and 
of  the  divine  vocation  that  is  in  all  human  life.  I  cannot  imagine  Jesus 
Christ  coming  to  read  something  to  us  of  an  abstract  kind.  He  would 
now  and  again  lay  down  great  breadths  of  noble  doctrine,  but  he  would  be 
swiftly  out  in  the  age  again.  You  would  find  him  in  the  market-place, 
you  would  find  him.  in  the  broad  thorougfares,  you  would  find  him  where 
merchants  most  do  congregate,  you  would  find  him  in  all  the  activities  of 
life,  trying  everything  by  the  fire  of  heaven.  He  lived  in  a  time  of  cor- 
ruption, he  never  shut  his  mouth  concerning  it.  He  saw  a  kingdom  per- 
verted and  lifted  up  his  voice  in  condemnation  of  it.  He  told  the 
painted  actors,  the  dressed  coxcombs  of  his  day,  that  they  had  not  yet 
crossed  the  threshold  of  the  kingdom  which  they  pretended  to  hold  in 
personal  custody,  and  then,  having  cursed  the  corruption  of  his  day  as 
no  other   man    had  the  power  to  do,  he  turned   round,  and   with  inef- 


i84  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINK. 

fable  blessing,  and  with  most  tender  speech,  he  spake  to  the  weary  and 
the  heavy-laden,  and  the  sad-hearted,  to  the  woman  that  was  a  sinner,  and 
to  the  little  child  brought  for  his  blessing.  And  then  last  of  all  he  poured 
out  his  soul  unto  death.  A  mistake — does  any  whisper  such  a  suggestion  ? 
Ivookmg  at  the  life  that  })receded  it,  at  the  thunder  and  lightning  of  the 
denunciation  of  all  wrong  that  went  before  it,  at  the  beatitudes  and  the 
gospels  poured  out  upon  those  whose  hearts  were  broken  and  whose  lives 
were  weary — that  death  was  the  only  fit  conclusion  ;  it  belonged  to  the 
antecedent  mistake,  it  set  forth  in  the  most  vivid  and  graphic  colours  what 
had  been  indicated  in  hasty  sketches  in  every  day's  beneficent  ministry. 

He  died,  he  rose  again,  he  lives,  he  expects  us,  he  is  preparing  a  place 
for  us,  and  when  he  prepares,  what  will  the  result  be  .-'  I  have  seen  his 
earth,  his  flowers,  his  summers,  his  mornings — I  have  seen  his  sun,  I  have 
seen  some  of  his  innumerable  stars.  He  will  outdo  it  all,  for  he  will  pre- 
pare, not  to  be  worthy  of  me,  but  to  be  worthy  of  himself. 


XXII. 

CHRIST    ANXIOUS    ABOUT    THE    HEART THE    SAFETY  OF   SPIRITUAL  RICHES 

■ — THE      RECTITUDE      OF      MOTIVE SECULAR      ANXIETY      AND     WORLDLY 

TEAR THE    USELESSNESS    OF    ANXIETY. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  we  have  read  of  tliy  care  of  our  life,  and  without  reading  it  in  a 
book  we  know  it  well,  for  day  by  day  thou  art  at  our  right  hand,  thou  dost  satisfy 
ou:  mouth  with  good  things,  thou  dost  renew  our  youth  like  the  eagle's,  our  strength 
is  returned  to  us  after  its  expenditure,  thou  dost  keep  our  eyes  from  tears,  our  feet 
from  falling,  and  our  soul  from  death.  Thou  hast  sliown  unto  us  great  and  wonder- 
ful things  as  we  have  come  along  the  pathway  of  life  ;  we  have  begun  to  pray  where 
we  expected  to  die  ;  thou  hast  planted  a  tree  beside  the  bitter  lake,  and  made  its 
waters  sweet  with  the  branches  thereof  ;  thou  hast  planted  flowers  upon  the  tomb  ; 
thou  hast  dried  tears  which  no  human  hand  of  sympathy  or  tenderness  could  reach  ; 
and,  when  the  grief  was  keenest  and  the  darkness  most  burdensome,  then  was  the  star 
the  brightest  and  in  the  cold  wind  there  were  voices  of  hope. 

We  bless  thee  for  all  thy  tender  care,  thy  long-continued  patience  ;  thou  dost  watch 
over  each  of  us  as  if  he  were  an  only  child.  Behold  there  is  no  measure  to  the  Lord's 
mercy,  and  his  compassions  fail  not.  We  bless  thee  for  thy  great  Book,  so  full  of 
music  and  truth  and  beauty  ;  touching  us  at  every  point  of  our  life,  speaking  to  us 
the  one  word  we  most  need,  comforting  us  with  infinite  solaces,  opening  the  prospect 
beyond  the  horizon  of  time,  and  enabling  us  to  see  into  the  rest  and  the  joyous  service 
of  heaven. 

We  give  ourselves  into  thy  keeping  ;  we  would  have  no  will  but  thine  ;  we  would 
not  attempt  to  open  any  door  but  with  thy  key.  Thou  hast  been  our  God  and  our 
Helper,  and  in  thy  love  do  we  rest  as  in  an  inviolable  defence.  Show  us  more  of 
thyself  ;  fill  our  whole  life  with  light,  may  our  eye  be  single,  that  our  whole  body  may 
be  lighted  with  the  flame  of  thy  glory.  May  our  whole  life,  body,  soul,  and  spirit, 
be  a  daily  sacrifice  on  the  sacred  altar  ;  may  our  whole  desire  rise  up  before  thee  in  a 
solemn  and  all-believing  prayer. 

We  thank  thee  for  thine  house  ;  we  bless  thee  that  no  storm  can  overtake  us  hidden 
in  the  sanctuary  of  God.  The  Lord's  blessing  be  in  every  heart,  the  Lord's  light 
shine  upon  every  eye,  and,  as  for  our  whole  life,  we  open  it  now  and  give  thee  all  the 
hospitality  of  our  love.  Come,  abide  with  us,  and  in  the  breaking  of  our  bread  we 
shall  see  great  revelations  of  heaven. 

We  commend  one  another  to  thy  tender  care.  The  Lord  help  every  man,  woman, 
child,  now  bent  in  prayer.  Thou  knowest  the  secret  desire  of  each  heart,  the  solemn 
purpose  of  each  life  •  thou  knowest  the  sting  that  pierces  the  heart,  the  burden  too 
heavy  for  mortal  strength,  the  great  fear  that  deepens  into  dejection,  and  threatens  to 
become  a  mortal  injury.  Thou  knowest  our  family  life,  our  commercial  difliculties, 
and  our  whole  estate  is  known  to  thee.     The  Lord  undertake  for  evej-y  one  of  us 


lS6  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MI>ffi. 

according  to  tlie  heart's  necessity,  and  multiply  unto  us  liis  grace,  so  tliat  beyond  all 
our  want  there  may  be  an  overtiovv  of  divine  love. 

We  bless  thee  again  and  again,  in  never-ending  hymn  and  psalm,  for  the  gift  of 
thine  only-begotten  and  well- beloved  Sou.  We  know  Jesus  Christ,  we  have  heard 
his  Avords,  we  have  louched  the  hem  of  his  garment,  we  have  seen  the  outtiowing  of 
his  sacred  blood  :  we  remember  that  his  cross  M-as  set  up  for  us,  and  in  the  agoiy 
of  our  contrition  he  is  our  only  hope.  God  be  merciful  unto  us  sinners  :  give  as 
assurance  of  daily  pardon,  and  strengthen  our  confidence  in  every  divine  promise  : 
then  shall  our  life  be  quiet  and  bright,  and  strong  and  good.  Hear  us  when  we  siag 
thy  praises,  hear  the  desires  we  cannot  put  into  words,  see  the  falling  of  secret  tears 
on  account  of  secret  sin,  and  help  us  one  and  all  with  the  unfailing  strength  of  thipe 
infinite  grace  to  live  before  thee  in  all  faith,  in  all  affection,  and  in  pure  desire  to 
know  and  do  thy  blessed  will.     Amen.  j 

Matthew  vi.  19-34. 

19.  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth,  where  moth  and  rust  doth  cor- 
rupt, and  where  thieves  break  through  and  steal : 

20.  But  lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven,  where  neither  moth  nor  rust  doth 
corrupt,  and  where  thieves  do  not  break  through  nor  steal  : 

21.  For  where  your  treasure  is,  there  will  your  heart  be  also. 

22.  The  light  of  the  body  is  the  eye  :  if  therefore  thine  eye  be  single,  thy  whole 
body  shall  be  full  of  light. 

23.  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  that  darkness  ! 

24.  No  man  can  serve  two  masters  :  for  either  he  will  hate  the  one,  and  love  the 
other  ;  or  else  he  will  hold  to  the  one,  and  despise  the  other.  Ye  cannot  serve  God 
and  mammon. 

25.  Therefore  I  say  unto  you.  Take  no  thought  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  meat,  and  the  body  than  raiment  ? 

26.  Behold  the  fowls  of  the  air  :  for  they  sow  not,  neither  do  they  reap,  nor  gather 
Into  barns  ;  yet  your  heavenly  Father  feedeth  them.  Are  ye  not  much  better  than 
they? 

27.  Which  of  you  by  taking  thought  can  add  one  cubit  unto  his  stature? 

28.  And  why  take  ye  thought  for  raiment  ?  Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field,  how 
they  grow  ;  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin  : 

29.  And  yet  I  say  unto  you.  That  even  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed 
like  one  of  these. 

30.  Wherefore,  if  God  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  ? 

31.  Therefore  take  no  thought,  saying,  What  shall  we  eat?  or.  What  shall  we 
drink  ?  or.  Wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed  ? 

32.  (For  after  all  these  things  do  the  Gentiles  seek  :)  for  your  heavenly  Father 
knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  all  these  things 

33.  But  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  his  righteousness  ;  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you. 

34.  Take  therefore  no  thought  for  the  morrow  :  for  the  morrow  shall  take  thought 
for  the  things  itself.     Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof. 

In  this  passage   you   have,  first,  an  exJiortation^  and,  secondly,  a  reason 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  187 

for  It.  The  exhortation  is,  "  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon 
earth  :  lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven."  The  reason  is,  "  For 
where  your  treasure  is,  there  will  your  heart  be  also."  You  will  never 
understand  the  exhortation  till  you  understand  the  reason  given  for  it. 
Vain  is  all  criticism  upon  the  words,  "  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures 
upon  earth."  It  is  in  the  treatment  of  those  words  that  the  annotators 
have  failed.  A  thousand  little  and  mean  questions  arise  whilst  we  confine 
our  attention  to  the  words,  "  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon 
earth."  We  are  not  in  a  condition  to  criticise  that  language  until  we  com- 
plete the  sentence  and  find  at  its  close  the  all-convincing  reason  for  giving 
such  an  exhortation. 

What  is  Christ  anxious  about  ?     What  is  it  that  he  wishes  to  take  care 
of  ?     He  himself  gives  an  explicit  answer  to  the  inquiry.     His  one  anxiety 
is  about  the  condition  of  the  HEART.     "  '  For  where  your  treasure  is, 
there  will  your  heart  be  also  ;'  and  it  is  the  heart  that  touches  my  supreme 
solicitude.     If  the  heart  be  right,  the  whole  outgoing  of  the  life  will  be  right ; 
but  if  the  heart  be  wrong,  then  all  the  actions  that  make  up  the  sum  total 
of  the  duties  and  exercises  of  life  will  also  be  wrong."     Now  I  see  the 
whole  meaning,  I  understand  what  my  Teacher  intends  me  to  receive  as 
his  doctrine.     Provided  my  heart  is  right,  he  does  not  care  if  my  posses- \ 
sions  are  heaven-high,  if  I  can  rise  above  them  and  stand  upon  them,  and  1 
use  them  with  mighty  strength.     He  is  most  anxious  that  they  should  not  ) 
be  bigger  than  I  am,  his  supreme  anxiety  is  that  they  should  not  lure  my  ■ 
confidence  and  make  up  the  sum  total  of  my  hope  and  expectation.     So  \^ 
long  as  I  can  treat  them  as  so  many  conveniences  and  use  them  for  the 
good  of  my  fellow-creatures,  he  cares  not  how  many,  how  rich,  may  be  my 
possessions.     He  says  to  me  lovingly,  with  infinite  pathos  and  concern, 
"  Brother,  friend,  man — keep  thine  heart  right,  keep  thy  love  in  its  right 
direction,  let  thy  life  be  a  continual  sacrifice,  burning  upwards  to  the  holy 
throne  that  deserves  it.     Then,  as  for  thy  possessions,  thou  wilt  be  master,  j 
not  slave.     The  more  thou  hast,  the  more  the  poor  will  have  ;  thou  wilt 
be  treasurer  and  custodian,  thou  wilt  not  be  oppressed  by  the  riches,  buti 
ennobled  to  dignity  by  them."     So  then  there  is  no  exhortation  here[_^ 
against  laying  up  property.     The  world  must  have  property,  and  the  more 
that  property  is  in  good  hands  the  better  ;  and,  concerning  every  man 
who  makes  a  good  use  of  money,  I  pray  the  Lord  to  send  him  tenfold  more. 
The  more  he  has,  the  more  the  poor  have  ;  the  more  money  the  good  man 
has,  the  more  the  whole  church  has.     It  is  better  that  that  money  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  a  good  treasurer  than  in  the  hands  of  an  untrustworthy 
custodian. 

Look  at  the  figures  in  this  exhortation,  showing  how  keen  was  the  obser- 
vation of  Jesus  Christ  regarding  everything  going  on  around  him.  "  Lay 
not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  on  earth,  where  moth  and  rust  doth  cor- 


l88  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

rupt."  The  property  of  the  contemporaries  of  Christ  consisted  largely  of 
linen  and  embroidered  goods.  To  have  great  stores  of  these  was  the  Jews' 
great  notion  of  wealth.  Jesus  Christ,  looking  at  all  the  piles  of  linen  and 
embroidery,  said,  "  Take  care  that  the  moth  does  not  get  into  them  ; 
remember  that  there  is  a  moth — do  not  forget  the  consuming  insect."  It 
was  a  practical  and  most  secular  exhortation. 

"And  rust  doth  corrupt."  The  treasures  were  largely  hidden  in  the 
earth.  Men  would  dig  deep  pits  in  the  field  and  hide  their  most  valuable 
possessions,  and  there  they  would  rust.  Jesus  Christ,  looking  at  the  man 
filling  up  the  earth  upon  his  treasure,  says,  "  Remember  the  rust :  what  you 
have  put  in  the  earth  there  is  exposed  to  danger  :  you  may  cover  it  up 
very  carefully,  but  the  rust  will  get  at  it."  There  is  always  some  danger 
to  be  provided  against. 

"Where  thieves  break  through  and  steal."  The  houses  were  mud 
houses,  the  walls  were  mud  walls,  and  the  thief  is  at  the  back  yonder, 
breaking  through,  boring  his  way  through  the  mud  defence  that  he  may 
get  at  the  treasures  hidden  inside.  Jesus  Christ  says  to  the  builder  of  the 
mud  wall,  "  Take  care,  it  is  only  mud,  understand  that  mud  is  not  imper- 
vious :  always  remember  that  there  are  weapons  of  iron  that  can  break 
through  your  mud  defences."  And  again  I  say  unto  you,  there  is  always 
danger  to  be  guarded  against,  and  a  man  is  no  stronger  than  his  weakest 
point.  Beware  of  the  moth,  beware  of  the  rust,  beware  of  the  thief.  Life 
is  based  upon  caution,  unless  it  be  founded  in  God,  and  then  it  is  lifted 
up  above  all  danger,  or  the  dangers  that  affect  it  themselves  fall  away 
before  its  supreme  strength  and  immovable  confidence. 

So  much  for  the  exhortation,  and  so  much  for  the  reason.  Now  what 
is  it  as  an  argument  ?  I  am  always  struck  with  the  common  sense  of  this 
divine  Talker.  Apart  from  his  metaphysics  and  high  imagination  and 
noble  courage  and  heroism,  there  is  an  element  of  marvellous  common 
sense.  He  grasps  his  subject  :  he  lays  upon  it  a  grip  that  means  "  You 
cannot  take  this  easily  from  me."  Let  us  look  at  it  merely  as  an  argu- 
ment. 

Jesus  Christ  Says,  "  Riches  can  be  stolen,  riches  can  perish,  riches  can 
fly  aivay,  therefore  look  out  for  treasures  that  are  not  subject  to  these  vexa- 
tions and  harassing  contingencies."  Is  the  argument  sound  ?  Look  at  it 
again.  What  you  have  in  your  hands  may  be  taken  out  of  them,  therefore 
have  something  in  your  heart  that  no  man  can  get  at  and  steal.  The  rea- 
soning is  sound  and  unanswerable.  He  who  has  nothing  but  what  he  can 
grasp  in  his  hnnds  is  no  stronger  in  his  possessions  than  his  fingers.  A 
man  can  wrench  what  he  holds  out  of  his  possession,  and  they  will  be  his 
no  longer.  Where  is  your  Bible  ?  If  it  is  only  in  your  hands  as  a  book, 
though  you  are  pressing  it  to  your  heart,  it  can  be  taken  away  from  you,  and 
you  may  be  without  it.     But,  where  is  your  Bible  ?     "  In  my  head,"  say 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  189 

you,  "in  my  heart ;  I  know  it."  Then,  though  the  book  be  burned  with 
fire,  the  revelation  is  untouched. 

Jesus  Christ  says,  "  Have  an  inward  life,  have  an  interior  life,  have  a 
soul."  The  Teacher  who  teaches  thus  is  a  wise  man.  He  warns  us  against 
the  things  that  can  be  destroyed,  and  points  us  to  the  possessions  that 
are  indestructible.  He  tells  you  in  so  many  words  that  you  are  no  richer 
than  your  heart  is  ;  though  your  books  be  many  enough  to  make  a  library 
of,  you  are  only  as  rich  as  you  are  in  your  thought,  feeling,  aspiration, 
desire  after  God  and  all  things  godly.  I  feel  that  such  teaching  is  true  : 
no  long  and  laboured  argument  is  needed  to  make  me  feel  its  truthfulness. 
If  I  speak  right  out  of  my  heart  and  let  my  better  self  be  heard,  I  say  with 
the  Scribe,  "  Well,  Master,  thou  hast  said  the  truth." 

Take  it  in  another  light,  that  it  may  be  clearly  seen  by  those  who  can 
understand  better  by  illustration  than  by  mere  argument.  You  come  into 
the  house  of  your  friend,  and  you  are  struck  with  his  books,  say  upon 
ogrici/Itttre.  You  look  over  the  volumes  and  say,  "  Well,  how  very  many 
books  you  have  upon  agriculture.  I  am  surprised  at  your  collection  of 
works  upon  this  subject."  A  friend  belonging  to  the  house  says  to  you, 
"  If  you  think  the  books  upon  agriculture  are  many,  what  will  you  say  when 
I  show  you  the  library  upon  astronomy  ?  If  you  think  these  books  a  good 
many  upon  agriculture,  when  I  show  you  the  astronomical  works  you  will 
be  utterly  confounded."  By  the  help  of  that  illustration,  you  go  a  little 
further  and  reason  thus.  If  you  think  this  man  is  rich  in  shares  and  stocks 
and  fields  and  investments  of  one  kind  and  another,  what  will  you  say 
when  you  see  his  thoughts,  his  feelings,  his  prayers,  his  aspirations,  his 
plans  for  the  amelioration  of  the  race.  Our  inner  nature  should  be  so 
much  in  excess  of  our  outer  nature  as  to  give  the  impression  that  we  have  no 
outer  nature  at  all.  We  are  to  be  so  much  larger  in  the  soul  than  we  are 
in  the  hand  as  to  throw  the  hand  into  infinite  insignificance,  though  in 
itself  it  have  a  giant's  fist  and  can  deliver  a  Herculean  blow.  Let  every 
man  therefore  ask  himself  what  he  has  in  the  bank  of  the  heart. 

"  The  light  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  (double),  thy 
whole  body  shall  be  full  of  darkness.  If  therefore  the  light  that  is  in  thee 
be  darkness,  how  great  is  that  darkness  !  "  The  heart  is  in  the  eye  of  the 
life  :  always  keep  the  heart  pure  and  right,  sincere  and  true,  and  you  can- 
not stumble  long.  Let  your  motive  be  correct,  and  you  will  be  brought 
along  the  right  road,  even  though  you  may  have  stumbled  into  the  wrong 
path  for  a  moment.  Let  your  heart  be  right, land  I  care  not  in  what  thicket 
you  be  tangled,  you  will  see  a  clear,  broad  road  out  of  it,  and  you  shall  yet 
rejoin  the  main  path  that  lies  right  up  towards  the  light  and  the  heaven  that 
is  at  the  end  of  it. 

How  is  it  then  with  the  heart  which  is  the  eye  of  the  life  ?     What  is  your 


190  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

motive,  what  is  your  purpose  ?  Dare  you  throw  back  the  screen  and  show 
the  motive  to  heaven's  Hght  ?  If  so,  you  cannot  be  weak  ;  you  cannot  be 
the  subjects  of  long  continued  depression  and  fear.  O  youth — my  child, 
my  son — give  God  thine  heart  ;  and  as  for  thy  mistakes,  they  prove  thee 
only  to  be  mortal.  But  once  let  your  motives  become  mixed,  let  them 
double  themselves  back  into  reservations  and  ambiguities  and  uncertain- 
ties, let  the  inner  life  become  a  hesitation  and  a  compromise  and  a  trick  in 
expediency,  and  you  are  blinded  in  your  very  centre  and  fount  of  light. 
And  if  the  light  that  is  in  thee  be  darkness,  how  great  is  that  darkness  ! 
If  your  supreme  manhood  be  debased,  how  utter  is  the  degradation.  If 
you  have  gone  down  in  your  motive,  you  have  gone  altogether.  So  let  a 
man  examine  himself  as  to  his  motives  and  purposes,  and  keeping  these 
right,  so  as  to  bear  the  very  test  of  fire  and  to  stand  the  examination  of 
light,  he  may  maintain  his  life  in  the  quietness  of  religious  confidence.  If 
you  have  got  wrong  in  your  motives,  stop.  Do  not  be  lured  away  by  inven- 
tiveness in  making  excuses  and  palliations.  To  your  knees,  and  become 
strong  by  first  becoming  weak.  No  coverings  up,  no  clever  juggleries, 
no  assumptions  of  appearance,  but  complete,  unreserved,  emphatic,  con- 
trite confession,  and  then  begin  again.  Remember  that  your  eye  is  the 
centre  of  light,  and  if  the  eye  be  put  out  or  injured,  no  other  part  of  you 
can  receive  that  great  gift.  The  eye  once  blinded,  your  finger  tips  cannot 
be  flamed  up  into  illumination,  your  whole  body  is  darkness.  With  the 
eye,  the  light  is  gone  for  ever,  and  wisdom  at  one  entrance  quite  shut  out. 

How  marvellous  it  is  that  a  single  organ  should  hold  so  much,  and  there 
should  be  no  alternative  arrangements  in  this  matter  of  light,  looking  at 
which  we  can  say,  "Well,  it  matters  little  if  the  light  goes  out  at  one  point, 
it  can  come  in  at  another."  Such  is  not  the  arrangement  of  divine  provi- 
dence :  you  have  the  one  inlet  of  light ;  lose  that,  and  your  whole  body, 
though  it  be  great  and  strong  and  healthy,  and  apparently  beyond  the 
touch  of  death,  will  be  full  of  darkness.  See  how  much  depends  upon 
one  faculty,  one  organ.  Let  the  ear  be  deafened  and  all  music  is  lost  ;  let 
the  eye  be  blinded,  and  the  whole  firmament,  with  all  its  sun  and  stars,  is 
but  a  covering  of  darkness.  There  is  but  a  step  between  thee  and  death: 
thou  hast  but  one  right  hand,  take  care  lest  it  be  paralyzed  and  fall  use- 
lessly by  thy  side  for  ever.  These  are  the  cautions  of  no  alarmist  ;  they 
are  the  strong,  grand,  pure  teachings  of  a  Man  who  breathed  the  moun- 
tain air,  and  had  the  sea's  freshness  ever  breathing  through  his  magnificent 
heart. 

"  No  man  can  serve  two  masters,  for  either  he  will  hate  the  one  and 
love  the  other,  or  he  will  hold  to  the  one  and  despise  the  other.  Ye  can- 
not serve  God  and  mammon."  We  do  not  understand  this  in  English. 
Men  run  away  with  very  shallow  notions  of  what  is  here  said  ;  these  Eng- 
lish words  do  not  express  the   Saviour's  meaning,  except  with  indefinite- 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 


191 


ness  and  a  great  distance  of  appreciation.  No  man — literally,  no  slave, 
and  we  do  not  know,  thank  God,  what  a  slave  is.  The  slave  had  no  will 
of  his  own  ;  every  pulse  of  his  body  belonged  to  his  master  ;  he  dare  only 
look  as  the  master  approved  ;  there  must  be  no  protest  even  in  his  eye,  or 
he  lost  his  life.  He  must  stand,  sit,  come,  go,  at  the  will  that  was  iron  and 
that  could  not  be  broken.  No  man,  says  Christ,  can  sustain  that  relation  to 
two  masters  ;  he  cannot  belong,  absolutely,  body,  soul,  spirit,  will,  imagi- 
nation, energy,  feeling,  to  two  different  masters.  Masters — we  do  not  under- 
stand this  in  English.  We  never  can  enter  into  the  tragical  pathos  of  that 
awful  word  :  never  to  be  able  to  call  an  hour  my  own  ;  never  to  be  at 
liberty  to  utter  the  voice  of  complaint ;  never  to  be  permitted  to  look  my 
true  self,  but  to  wear  a  mask  to  please  another's  eye  ;  to  be  at  the  beck 
and  call  of  a  man  who  can  take  my  life  from  me  with  impunity — that  is 
to  be  under  a  master. 

How  many  persons  there  are  who  have  read  this  text  so  as  to  sever  the 
spiritual  and  the  secular.  It  is  thus  the  Bible  has  been  maltreated  by 
some  of  its  friends  :  it  is  thus  that  great  excisions  have  been  made,  so  that 
religion  has  been  left  in  the  church  as  an  all  but  impalpable  shadow.  That 
is  the  meaning  of  this  great  Teacher — we  must  use  the  spiritual  and  secular, 
for  all  things  are  sacred  according  to  the  hand  that  touches  them.  What 
God  hath  cleansed,  that  call  not  thou  common  or  unclean.  You  miss  the 
grandest  side  of  life  when  you  separate  it  into  spiritual  and  secular. 
There  are  some  persons  who  talk  about  the  temporalities  of  the  church — 
there  are  no  temporalities  in  the  church.  There  are  those  who  speak  of 
the  business  side  of  the  church — there  is  no  business  side  of  the  church 
in  any  degrading  sense  of  the  term  :  it  is  all  business.  "  Wist  ye  not  that 
I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business  ? "  He  who  lights  a  lamp  in  the 
church  is  as  he  who  preaches  a  sermon  ;  he  who  opens  a  door  or  keeps  a 
gate,  as  he  who  breathes  a  gospel  and  unfolds  a  revelation.  The  differ- 
ence is  in  the  degree,  not  in  the  quality  ;  "  He  Avho  sweeps  a  floor  for  thy 
sake,  makes  that  and  the  action  fine."  We  must  be  lifted  up  in  our  whole 
conception  of  life  and  labour,  industry  and  reward,  if  we  would  enter  into 
the  spirit  of  Christ  in  his  interpretation  of  our  life  and  its  duties. 

Now  comes  the  grand  wondrous  discourse  concerning  secular  anxiety 
and  worldly  fear,  the  beautiful  sermon  wherein  you  find  the  reference  to 
the  lilies  and  the  birds  and  the  grass  of  the  field.  Let  us  look  at  that 
wonderful  sermon  a  moment.  We  are  treating  this  gospel  by  Matthew  in 
its  wholeness  and  not  going  into  the  mere  detail  of  the  occasion — as  a 
painter  paints  a  landscape  with  a  church  upon  it.  He  does  not  take  you 
into  the  church,  he  simply  throws  the  church  upon  the  landscape  as  part 
of  something  else,  and  you  must  catch  it  in  its  proper  outline  and  relation- 
ship. It  is  so  I  am  treating  this  gospel.  By-and-bye  we  shall  go  to  the 
church  and  spend  a  day  there  ;  by-and-bye  we  shall  come  into  the  detail 


192 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 


and  study  each  particular  delicate  line  ;  meantime  we  have  to  treat  the 
gospel  in  its  totality,  and  under  the  direction  of  this  feeling  look  at  this 
most  marvellous  discourse. 

"  Take  no  thought  for  your  life."  We  do  not  get  at  the  Saviour's  mean- 
ing in  this  English  word  "thought."  We  do  not,  indeed,  get  into  the 
right  meaning  of  the  word  thought  some  three  hundred  years  after 
the  use  which  it  first  assumed.  When  this  translation  was  made,  the  word 
thought  meant  something  different  from  what  it  means  to-day — it  meant 
anxiety,  restless,  carking  care  ;  it  meant  that  penetration  of  fear  which 
upsets  the  balance  of  life  and  turns  the  whole  soul  into  moods  of  dejec- 
tion and  wearing  anxiety.  The  word  thought  meant  this  in  the  time  when 
the  English  Bible  was  translated — hence  one  of  the  historians  says, 
"  Queen  Catherine  died  of  thought."  Hence  Cleopatra  said  to  Enobarbus, 
"  What  shall  we  do,  Enobarbus  ? "  And  the  answer  was,  "  Think,  and 
die."  In  other  words,  "  Fear,  fret,  pine  away,  succumb  to  depression, 
anxiety,  and  all  the  influences  that  can  vex  and  tear  the  balance  of  the 
heart."     It  is  against  such  thought  that  Jesus  Christ  warns  his  disciples. 

Is  it  possible  that  any  man  here  can  be  encouraging  himself  in  languor 
and  indifference  and  idleness  by  saying  that  he  is  considering  the  lilies 
and  beholding  the  fowls,  and  yielding  himself  to  the  genius  of  this  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  ?  I  must  rudely  disturb  his  foolish  and  atheistical  lassitude. 
Let  us  behold  the  fowls  of  the  air  for  a  moment,  and  see  how  far  their 
course  justifies  the  man  who  is  simply  folding  his  arms  and  sitting  still  and 
letting  God  take  care  of  him.  First,  the  fowls  get  up  soon  in  the  morning 
— where  are  you  ?  Away  goes  one  of  your  props.  In  the  next  place  the 
fowls  are  most  industrious  :  it  is  one  of  my  little  pleasures  to  watch  the 
industry  of  the  birds,  and,  indeed,  they  seem  to  have  no  hours.  I  trust 
nobody  will  ever  form  them  into  a  union  for  the  purpose  of  shortening  the 
hours  of  labour  :  that  would  be  a  great  mishap  in  the  air,  to  cut  short  their 
song  exactly  as  the  clock  struck  five  !  O,  the  building  that  is  going  on 
now  !  The  straw-carrying  and  the  feather-catching  and  the  leaf -binding 
— what  industry  !  Up  with  the  sun,  working  all  the  hours  of  the  light, 
and  twittering  and  trilling  and  singing  all  the  time.  There  is  another  of 
your  props  gone,  lazy  man. 

I  find,  too,  that  the  birds  are  self-supporting :  they  would  never  take  any- 
thing at  your  hand  if  they  could  help  it.  A  bird  is  sadly  driven  when  it 
comes  to  any  man  and  says,  "Let  me  peck  at  your  hand,  if  you  please." 
The  birds  support  themselves — who  supports  you  ?  You  would  borrow  a 
shilling  of  your  poor  old  mother  if  you  could,  and  you  talk  about  behold- 
ing the  fowls  of  the  air.  You  have  borrowed  of  every  friend  you  ever  had 
— be  just  in  your  exegesis  of  the  divine  word,  and  add  not  the  blasphemy 
of  a  fool's  criticism  to  the  behaviour  of  a  cowardly  spirit. 

And  the  lilies — is  it  a  happy-go-lucky  life  with  them  ?     Far  from  it. 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  I93 

The  word  lilies  here  is  a  word  that  may  be  so  interpreted  as  to  include  all 
flowers,  and  the  flowers  are  found  in  their  proper  places,  they  are  where 
they  were  meant  to  be,  if  they  are  growing  properly  ;  not  only  so,  the 
flowers  are  working  in  harmony  with  great  laivs.  Every  flower  draws  its 
beauty  from  the  sun  :  the  flower  roots  itself  in  dark  places,  and  prays  with 
open  face  for  the  great  light,  and  holds  itself  out  with  gracious  willingness 
to  catch  every  drop  of  dew  that  it  can  hold.  So  we  must  be  in  our  proper 
spheres,  in  our  right  relations  :  we  must  keep  the  economy  of  life  and 
nature  as  God  has  established  it,  then  we  shall  truly,  with  a  wide  and 
healthy  wisdom,  behold  the  fowls  and  consider  the  lilies. 

Jesus  Christ  gives  a  reason  for  this  exhortation  again.  He  saySy 
"  Which  of  you,  by  taking  thought,  can  add  one  cubit  unto  his  stature  ? " 
He  thus  shows  the  nselcssness  of  anxiety.  Suppose  now  you  sit  up  all 
night  with  your  hands  folded  or  twisted,  in  expression  of  keen  unappeasa- 
ble solicitude  and  yearning — what  does  it  come  to  in  the  morning  >  Noth- 
ing. Suppose  you  should  belabour  yourself  all  day  long,  what  does  it 
come  to  to-morrow  ?  To  weariness,  dejection,  sadness,  and  to  all  the 
results  of  misdirected  energy  and  irreligious  folly.  A  great  teacher  now 
living  has  well  said  that  if  any  friend  of  ours  had  told  us  one  hundredth 
part  of  the  lies  our  fears  have  told  us,  we  never  would  have  allowed  him  to 
speak  to  us  again.  We  would  have  said,  "  Get  thee  behind  me,  thou  lying 
man."  But  our  fears  come  every  day  and  tell  us  exactly  the  same  lies, 
and  wc  give  them  exactly  the  same  confidence.  Is  that  religion  ?  It  is; 
but  only  the  religion  of  paganism.  The  religion  of  trust,  love,  faith,  rests 
in  the  Lord  and  waits  patiently  for  him  ;  forms  a  grand  and  loving  expec- 
tation, directs  it  often  in  speechless  prayer  to  the  generous  and  over-arching 
heavens,  and  calmly  awaits  the  revelation  and  the  whole  answer  of  God. 

This  is  how  I  want  to  live  :  I  want  to  subordinate  every  desire  to  the 
one  aim  of  seeking  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness  ;  I  want 
to  interpret  that  kingdom  as  meaning  and  including  all  other  kingdoms  ; 
and  I  would  calmly  await  the  leading  of  divine  providence.  Why  fidget 
yourself,  why  fret  and  annoy  yourself,  why  go  out  and  throw  yourself  into 
a  bed  of  stinging  nettles  merely  for  the  sake  of  doing  something  ?  I 
would  not  anticipate  to-morrow  any  more  than  I  would  anticipate  death. 
Death  is  abolished  ;  there  is  no  dying  for  the  man  who  is  in  Christ.  Let 
the  child  close  his  eyelids  ;  he  will  open  them  in  heaven.  Let  a  pagan  call 
that  death  if  he  likes  ;  the  Christian  calls  it  life.  Nothing  wrong  can 
happen  to  me  if  I  be  really  rooted  in  God,  and  if  my  eye  be  set  towards 
him  with  the  one  anxiety  of  receiving  his  light. 

Given  that  I  have  to  take  care  of  myself,  and  make  all  my  arrangements, 
and  go  up  and  down  life  as  if  everything  depended  on  me,  and  my  life 
becomes  a  cloud,  a  fear,  a  sting,  a  great  distress  ;  but  given  that  I  am  crea- 
ture, not  creator,  child  of  the  one  ever-living,  ever-loving  Father,  the  very 


194  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

hairs  of  my  head  are  all  numbered,  my  name  is  written  in  heaven,  and  the 
whole  plan  of  my  destiny  is  mapped  out  in  the  skies — that  I  am,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  so  long  as  my  desire  is  as  a  pure  flame,  working 
out  the  divine  intention.  Let  me  feel  that  to  be  the  case  ;  f^hen,  come 
weal,  come  woe,  high  hill  or  cold  river,  or  bleak  wilderness  or  beauteous 
garden — come  what  may,  God  will  come  with  it,  and  my  life  shall  be  a 
great,  sweet  peace. 


XXIII. 

GOD    AND    MAMMON — BE    ANXIOUS    ABOUT    THE    RIGHT  THING — THE  HEAL- 
ING   POWER    OF    NATURE DR.   THOMAS    GOODWIN 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  truly  thou  dost  remember  thy  children,  and  with  infinite  mindful- 
ness dost  thou  watch  thine  own,  in  all  the  way  that  they  take,  in  all  the  sufferings 
they  undergo,  and  in  all  the  purposes  which  form  the  inspiration  of  their  life.  Wa 
rejoice  that  there  is  an  eye  evermore  looking  upon  us  which  never  slumbers  and 
never  sleeps  ;  it  is  our  joy  to  believe  that  the  arms  of  everlasting  strength  are  round 
about  us,  and  that  the  defences  of  omnipotence  protect  us  from  all  injury.  This  is 
our  confidence  in  God,  this  creates  the  music  of  our  life  and  the  hope  of  ourgladdest 
expectation.  We  rejoice  and  are  exceeding  glad  because  the  covenant  of  the  Lord 
is  written  in  righteousness  and  is  signed  with  his  own  best  name  of  love.  Though 
the  righteous  stumble,  he  shall  not  utterly  fall,  though  he  be  cast  down,  he  shall  not 
be  utterly  destroyed ;  the  Lord's  hand  is  round  about  him,  behold  his  defence  is 
greater  than  fire. 

We  have  tested  thy  word,  all  thy  promises  have  been  renewed  and  redeemed  in 
our  own  experience,  we  are  the  living  to  bless  thee,  we  are  the  living  to  magnify  thy 
name.  Truly,  each  of  us  can  say,  "This  poor  man  cried  unto  the  Lord  and  he  heard 
him,  and  delivered  him  out  of  his  distresses."  Thou  didst  find  us  in  the  deep  clay 
and  in  the  horrible  mire,  and  thou  hast  set  our  feet  upon  a  rock  and  lifted  up  our 
face  towards  the  sun  ;  thou  hast  hidden  thy  word  in  our  hearts — it  has  been  meat  to 
us  in  the  time  of  keen  hunger,  and  water  from  heaven  in  the  hour  of  distressing 
thirst.  Thou  hast  made  thine  angels  our  ministering  servants,  and  thy  comforts  have 
delighted  and  strengthened  our  souls.  What  shall  we  render  unto  the  Lord  for  all 
his  benefits  towards  us?  We  would  give  him  our  whole  life,  we  would  spare  noth- 
ing of  our  energy,  we  do  but  render  thee  thine  own,  for  we  are  bought  with  a  price, 
and  our  body  and  our  soul  are  God's.  We  remember  the  price  thou  dost  pay  for 
our  redemption,  we  are  not  redeemed  with  corruptible  things,  but  with  the  precious 
blood  of  Christ ;  we  are  the  purchase  of  his  sacrifice,  we  are  the  trophies  of  his 
redeeming  strength,  he  is  our  Priest,  our  Sacrifice,  our  Reconciliation,  he  is  our  all 
and  in  all  ;  we  would  see  no  man  in  our  redemption  but  Jesus  only,  and  lying  low 
before  his  cross,  hiding  our  mouth  in  the  dust,  by  reason  of  infinite  shame,  we 
would  hope  to  receive  the  offer  and  the  gift  of  thy  pardon  because  Jesus  died  for  us. 

We  thank  thee  for  this  glorious  gospel  ;  it  turns  our  weakness  into  strength,  it 
sows  the  very  stars  of  light  upon  the  field  of  infinite  darkness,  and  it  brings  us  hope 
when  reason  brings  us  nothing  but  despair.  Our  trust  is  in  Christ,  our  daily  confi- 
dence is  in  his  blessed  cross,  we  flee  to  him  for  succour,  for  pardon,  for  hope,  we  find 
all  we  need  in  thy  Son,  our  Saviour — his  riches  are  unsearchable. 

We  give  thee  praises  for  all  thy  kindness  to  us  during  the  time  that  has  elapsed 
since  we  met  together  in  holy  fellowship  at  the  altar.     Thou  hast  kept  our  eyes  from 


^9^  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

tears,  our  feet  from  falling,  and  our  soul  from  death  ;  tliou  hast  renewed  our  youth, 
thou  hast  rekindled  the  lamp  of  our  hope,  our  table  thou  hast  spread,  our  chamber 
thou  hast  watched,  our  house  has  been  surrounded  by  thy  protecting  angels.  We 
therefore  take  the  cup  of  salvation,  and  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  bless 
him  with  all  our  love,  and  trust  him  with  our  whole  heart.  Thou  hast  brought  some 
of  us  up  from  long  solitude,  wherein  we  have  seen  the  darkness  of  afflicting  provi- 
dences ;  thou  hast  chastened  us  sore,  thou  hast  reduced  our  strength  so  that  it  has 
been  turned  into  the  weakness  of  water,  thou  hast  given  us  to  feel  how  frail  we  are 
and  how  little  before  thee.  Yet  hast  thou  nourished  us  with  secret  comfort  and 
enlightened  us  with  glory  from  heaven,  and  now  that  we  have  returned  to  thy  house, 
having  exchanged  the  chamber  of  affliction  and  solitude  for  the  open  church  of  enjoy- 
ment and  high  Christian  fellowship  and  rapture,  we  thank  thee  for  all  thy  mercies, 
we  bless  thee  for  thy  gentle  care.  Others  of  us  thou  hast  been  with  on  land  and  on 
sea,  at  home  and  in  distant  places  ;  thou  hast  brought  us  from  our  wanderings  to  our 
accustomed  associations.  The  Lord's  mercy  be  magnified  and  praised  in  daily  hymn 
for  all  this  wondrous  care.  Thou  dost  number  the  hairs  of  our  head,  thou  dost  watch 
our  stei)s,  thou  dost  keep  our  feet  from  falling,  thou  art  mindful  of  thine  own,  thy 
patience  is  long-suffering,  thy  love  what  man  can  measure?  We  therefore  praise 
thee,  yea  we  bless  thee,  yea  we  magnify  thee,  yea  with  all  music  would  we  elevate 
thy  name,  and  call,  upon  our  soul  and  all  that  is  within  us  to  give  honour  unto  God, 
to  whom  we  owe  our  life  and  our  hope. 

Let  the  study  of  thy  word  be  useful  to  us  to-day — may  we  eat  of  thy  word  as  men 
who  are  hungered  eat  of  bread,  may  we  drink  of  thy  word  as  those  who  are  dying  of 
thirst  long  for  living  streams.  Destroy  all  prejudice  that  would  hinder  a  right  con- 
ception of  thy  sacred  messages,  release  us  fnmi  the  anxieties  and  reflections  and  tor- 
menting fears  of  this  world,  and  give  us  such  sympathy  with  light,  divinity,  and  all 
things  spiritual  and  truly  beautiful,  as  shall  enable  us  to  regard  this  service  as  a  ban- 
quet spread  by  the  king's  own  hand,  and  may  we  hear  his  welcome  and  enjoy  his 
hospitality. 

The  Lord's  blessing,  like  the  light  of  the  sun,  run  everywhere  and  carry  with  it 
morning  and  hope  and  summer,  and  all  the  joy  of  life.  The  Lord  visit  the  sick- 
chamber,  the  prison  where  the  penitent  lies,  the  land  where  the  prodigal  mourns 
his  folly  and  curses  his  pin.  Be  with  the  broken-hearted,  the  spirit  suffering  in  silence 
that  dare  not  utter  itself  in  mortal  speech,  be  with  the  widow  and  the  fatherless  in 
their  afiliction  and  dumb  hopelessness  :  be  Avith  the  man  who  utters  to-day  his  first 
prayer,  with  the  pilgrim  who  is  just  going  home,  with  the  little  child,  opening  like  a 
bud  in  the  summer  morning — yea,  be  with  every  one  of  us,  exclude  none  from  thy 
blessing,  that  the  appeal  of  thy  love  may  be  the  beginning  of  our  redemption.     Amen. 

Matthew  vi.  24-34. 

24.  No  man  can  serve  two  masters :  for  either  he  will  hate  the  one,  and  love  the 
other  ;  or  else  he  will  hold  to  the  one  and  despise  the  other.  Ye  cannot  serve  God 
and  mammon. 

25.  Therefore  I  say  unto  you,  Take  no  thought  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  meat,  and  the  body  than  raiment  ? 

26.  Behold  the  fowls  of  the  air  :  for  they  sow  not,  neither  do  they  reap,  nor  gather 
into  barns  ;  yet  your  heavenly  father  feedeth  them.  Are  ye  not  much  better  than 
they  T 

27.  Which  of  you  by  taking  thought  can  add  one  cubit  unto  his  stature  ? 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE.  197 

28.  And  why  take  ye  thought  for  raiment  1    Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field,  how 
they  grow  ;  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin  ; 

29.  And  yet  I  say  unto  you.  That  even  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed 
like  one  of  these. 

30.  Wherefore,  if  God  so  clothe  the  grass  of  the  field,  which  to-day  is,  and  to-mor- 
row is  cast  into  the  oven,  shall  he  not  much  more  clothe  you,  O  ye  of  little  faith  V 

31.  Therefore  take  no  thought,  saying,  What  shall  we  eat?  or,  What  shall  we 
drink  ?  or,  Wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed  ? 

33.  (For  after  all  these  things  do  the  Gentiles  seek) :  for  your  heavenly  Father 
knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  all  these  things. 

33.  But  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  his  righteousness  ;  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you. 

34.  Take  therefore  no  thought  for  the  morrow  :  for  the  morrow  shall  take  thought 
for  the  things  of  itself.     Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof. 

"  No  man  can  serve  two  masters,  for  either  he  will  hate  the  one  and 
love  the  other,  or  else  he  will  hold  to  the  one  and  despise  the  other.  Ye 
cannot  serve  God  and  mammon."  I  venture  to  say  that  the  true  meaning 
of  this  passage  has  not  been  always  represented.  The  common  notion  is 
that  a  man  may  fry  to  serve  God  and  mammon.  Jesus  Christ  does  not 
ask  you  for  one  moment  to  believe  so  flagrant  an  absurdity.  The  experi- 
ment cannot  even  be  tried.  What,  then,  becomes  of  your  interpretation 
of  your  neighbour  about  whom  you  have  said,  many  a  time,  "  That  man  is 
trying  to  serve  God  and  mammon."  The  experiment  does  not  admit  of 
trial.  You  must  get  into  the  profound  meaning  of  this  word  cannot.  It 
indicates  an  impossibility  even  so  far  as  the  matter  of  trial  or  experiment 
is  concerned.  So  the  passage  is  a  consolatory  one  ;  it  is  not  a  warning 
against  any  kind  of  practical  hypocrisy  and  double-handedness — Jesus  is 
not  lifting  up  his  voice  against  the  ambidexters  who  are  trying  to  do  the 
same  thing  with  both  hands — he  lays  down,  as  he  always  does,  a  universal 
and  everlasting  law  ;  ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon,  equal  to — ye 
cannot  go  east  and  west  at  the  same  time.  Have  you  ever  tried  to  do 
that,  have  you  ever  made  such  a  fool  of  yourself  as  to  endeavour  to  cross 
the  Atlantic  by  staying  on  shore  ?  The  meaning  is,  if  a  man's  supreme 
purpose  in  life  be  to  seek  God  and  to  glorify  him,  whatever  his  business 
upon  earth  may  be,  he  elevates  that  business  up  to  the  level  of  his  supreme 
purpose. 

Where,  then,  is  the  value  of  your  criticism  upon  the  rich  Christian  man  ? 
You  have  said,  mockingly,  "  That  man  has  served  God  and  mammon  to 
some  purpose,  for  he  has  accumulated  immense  wealth."  Your  reasoning 
I  would  call  childish  but  for  my  fear  of  degrading  the  sweet  name  of  child. 
Where  a  man's  heart  burns  with  the  love  of  God,  if  he  be  the  owner  of  the 
Bank  of  England,  he  lifts  up  all  his  property  to  the  high  level  of  the  pur- 
pose which  inspires  him. 

I  now  see  a  new  and  gracious  light  upon  the  Saviour's  words.     I  have 


iqS  these  sayings  of  mine. 

cudgelled  myself  mercilessly  in  many  a  piece  of  self-discipline,  by  imagin- 
ing with  the  foolish  that  I  could  be  serving  God  with  one  hand  and  serving 
mammon  with  the  other.  I  thought  the  Saviour  was  teaching  that  narrow 
lesson.  To-day  he  says  to  me,  "  I  lay  it  down  as  a  law  that  the  supreme 
purpose  of  a  man's  life  gives  a  character  to  all  he  does." 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  subject  from  the  other  end,  and  thus  get  double 
light  upon  it.  Ye  cannot  serve  mammon  and  God.  The  meaning  is — If 
your  supreme  purpose  in  life  be  selfish,  narrow,  little,  worldly — if  your  one 
object  in  life  be  to  accumulate  property,  power,  renown,  anything  that  is 
sublunary,  ye  cannot  serve  God,  though  you  may  sing  hymns  all  the  day 
long,  though  you  may  attend  church  whenever  the  gates  are  open,  though 
you  may  give  your  body  to  be  burned  and  your  goods  to  feed  the  poor. 

All  these  are  but  so  many  mammon  arrangements,  without  religious 
value.  The  supreme  purpose  of  your  life  is  to  be  satisfied  with  the  things 
at  hand,  within  the  circumference  of  this  world,  and  therefore  ye  cannot 
be  religious,  ye  cannot  serve  God,  God  can  only  be  served  by  the  supreme 
purpose,  the  dominating  and  all-inspiring  impulse  that  moves  the  heart  and 
controls  the  behaviour. 

Poor  soul,  you  thought  when  you  asked  for  an  increase  of  income  that 
the  people  would  suspect  you  of  being  something  of  a  mammon-worshipper. 
Never  mind  :  they  were  cruel  and  foolish,  and  they  did  not  know  Christ's 
great  gospel.  You  were  no  money-lover,  no  money-grubber,  you  only 
Avanted  to  work  your  way  honestly  in  the  world,  and  to  eat  the  wealth 
gotten  by  honest  labour.  And  you,  when  you  told  that  huge  lie,  so  black 
that  there  is  no  paint  in  the  darkness  grim  and  gloomy  enough  to  give  it 
right  character,  when  you  said  that  if  you  had  a  thousand  pounds  more 
you  would  feed  the  poor  and  support  the  church  and  did  not  mean  a  bit  of 
it,  it  was  a  lie  you  told — you  were  serving  mammon.  As  the  poet  says  of 
you,  anticipating  your  coming  into  the  world,  "  You  stole  the  livery  of  the 
court  of  heaven  to  serve  the  devil  in." 

The  passage  no  longer  affrights  me,  I  understand  its  glorious  meaning 
now.  It  is  impossible  to  go  east  and  west  at  the  same  time  :  the  whole 
law  of  gravitation  says  "  No,"  in  an  instant.  It  cannot  be  done.  And  so 
if  I  want  to  be  heavenly  and  worldly  it  is  impossible  ;  if  I  am  heavenly  I 
sanctify  the  world,  if  I  am  worldly  I  debase  the  heaven.  You  are  there- 
fore one  of  two  things,  and  there  is  no  mixture  in  your  character.  Judge 
ye  what  I  say. 

Now  we  come  again  to  the  long  and  yet  pithy  lecture  on  earthliness,  and 
iis  mean  and  fruitless  anxieties.  I  have  gone  at  length  into  that  subject, 
yet  I  have  something  more  to  add.  You  tell  me,  when  the  Saviour  warns 
you  against  thought — understanding  by  that  word,  as  explained  in  the  last 
lecture,  cankering  anxiety,  killing  fretfulnsss — that  man  is  an  anxious 
being  ;  you   say  that  no  allowance  is  made  for  that  great  constitutional 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  I99 

fact  that  man  must  forecast  and  provide  and  previse  and  meddle  with 
things  contingent  and  uncertain.  You  say  the  gospel  arbitrarily  forbids 
that  which  is  instinctive.  Let  me  once  more  correct  your  mistake.  Jesus 
Christ  does  provide  for  this  very  instinct  of  anxiety  ;  in  effect  he  says, 
"  You  say  you  must  be  anxious  :  very  good,  by  all  means  be  anxious  ;  be 
true  to  your  nature,  obey  the  law  of  your  constitution — only  this  is  v/hat 
I  have  to  say  to  you,  be  sure  you  direct  your  anxiety  along  the  right  lines. 
Do  not  waste  your  anxiety,  do  not  make  your  anxiety  a  leak  in  your  nature 
through  which  all  that  is  sweetest  and  best  may  ooze."  Anxious  ?  Cer- 
tainly, be  anxious,  but  fix  your  anxiety  upon  the  right  object.  Thus  : 
Here  is  a  friend  who  is  going  to  take  a  railway  journey.  We  will,  in  imag- 
ination, accompany  him  up  to  the  point  of  starting.  He  has  gotten  everything 
with  him  that  he  thinks  he  requires.  He  drives  to  the  station,  he  hastens 
to  the  book-stall,  he  is  most  anxious  to  get  the  last  and  best  news.  He 
buys  papers  representing  every  section  of  religious  and  political  thought, 
he  fills  up  his  compartment  with  that  varied  literature.  He  has  been  most 
anxious  about  it,  most  fussy,  almost  turbulent  ;  he  has  pushed  other  peo- 
ple aside  in  order  that  he  might  get  his  favourite  paper  and  the  principal 
antagonist  to  the  doctrines  which  he  believes  in.  And  now  there  he  is, 
with  his  compartment  almost  snowed  up  with  the  literature  of  the  morn- 
ing. The  train  will  start  in  a  minute.  "  Tickets,  please."  He  has  not 
got  his  ticket.  Then  he  cannot  go — too  late  ;  the  law  may  run  that  if  you 
have  not  got  your  ticket  there  is  no  time  to  get  it,  and  you  must  wait  for 
the  next  train.  Has  the  man  been  anxious  ?  Most  anxious — about  noth- 
ing, about  the  wrong  thing.  Of  course  I  say  to  him  "  Be  anxious,  oe 
vigilant,  be  on  the  alert,  be  on  the  qui  vive,  do  not  close  your  eyes  and  fall 
into  a  slumber  ;  be  anxious,  but  be  anxious  about  the  right  thing,  sir." 
What  avails  it  that  he  has  stuffed  his  carriage  with  the  literature  of  the 
morning  and  has  forgotten  the  one  thing  without  which  he  cannot  go  ? 
How  would  you  accost  him,  if  he  explained  his  case  to  you  on  the  plat- 
form ?  You  might  audibly  accost  him  m  the  language  of  sympathy — I 
fancy  you  would  mentally  accost  him  in  a  more  appropriate  tone. 

That  is  precisely  what  many  of  us  are  doing,  and  Jesus  Christ  says  : 
''  Be  anxious,  most  certainly,  but  do  not  waste  your  anxiety  ;  fix  it  on  the 
right  objects,  direct  it  to  the  proper  quarter  and  the  right  end  ;  seek,  seek, 
seek  " — and  that  word  seek,  as  he  spoke  it,  has  in  it  agony,  paroxysm,  pas- 
sion, importunity — "  seek."  O,  how  you  did  misunderstand  him  when  you 
thought  he  forbade  anxiety,  and  had  omitted  a  constituent  element  of 
your  nature,  and  had  made  no  provision  for  the  outgoing  and  association 
of  an  almost  necessary  anxiety.  He  hits  the  case  very  graphically,  with  a 
sharpness  the  dullest  eye  must  see  ;  for  he  says,  "  Which  of  you  by  tak- 
ing thought,  by  doing  all  this  kind  of  thing,  of  the  nature  of  fretfulness 
and  peevishness,  which  of  you  by  indulging  in  that  expensive  luxury,  can 


200  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

add  one  cubit  to  his  stature  ? "  What  does  it  all  come  to  in  practical 
eifect  ?  is  the  meaning  of  Christ's  doctrine.  Which  of  you  by  fretting 
about  to-morrow,  planning  for  it  and  scheming  about  it,  and  worrying  out 
your  very  souls  concerning  its  fortunes  and  destinies,  can  make  one  hair 
white  or  black  ?  There  are  rocks  which  your  anxiety  cannot  melt  into 
water  ;  there  are  great  rolling  seas  which  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  your 
anxiety  to  divide.  Spend  your  solicitude  upon  the  right  objects  ;  be 
careful  about  the  supreme  purpose  of  your  existence  :  in  that  direction 
there  cannot  be  too  much  solicitude.  Give  your  eyes  no  rest  nor  close 
your  eyelids  in  slumber  until  you  have  acquainted  yourselves  with  God 
and  become  at  peace  with  him.  And  remember  that  anxiety,  improperly 
used,  wastes  your  nature,  dissipates  your  energy,  incapacitates  you  for  the 
discharge  of  the  noblest  duties  of  life. 

Let  us  put  the  thing  again  before  us  illustratively.  Here  is  a  man  whose 
son  is  very  delicate.  He  has  not  known  what  it  was  to  enjoy  a  day's  real 
health  since  he  was  born.  He  ajDpears  to  be  declining  day  by  day  in 
strength.  The  father  comes  to  us,  and  we  ask  questions  concerning  the 
child  ;  and  in  reply  to  our  inquiries  the  father  says,  "  I  am  always  most 
anxious  that  he  should  dress  well,  that  his  gloves  should  fit  him  like  his 
skin,  that  his  boots  should  be  of  the  best  possible  quality,  and  that  he 
should  never  go  out  without  being  so  dressed  as  to  attract  the  admiring 
attention  of  those  who  may  pass  him  on  the  road."  What  would  you  think 
of  a  man  who  could  talk  so  under  such  circumstances  ?  Do  not  be  hard 
upon  him,  because  your  admission  I  will  take  and  apply  to  you  as  a  whip. 
Do  you  acquit  him  ?  Remember  that  the  judge  is  condemned  when  the 
guilty  are  acquitted. 

This  is  the  very  thing  we  are  doing,  and  Jesus  Christ  comes  to  us  and 
says,  "  Is  not  the  body  more  than  raiment  ? "  So  you  have  said  to  the  man 
described  thus  imaginatively,  ''  Sir,  what  about  your  boy's  health  ?  Is  h« 
getting  stronger  ? — is  he  more  robust  ? — what  can  be  done  to  establish  hiu 
health  ?  And  as  for  his  dress  and  his  gloves  and  his  attire  altogether — all 
these  things  may  be  left  to  settle  themselves.  Seek  ye  first  the  establish- 
ment of  the  child's  health." 

Well,  then,  this  Christian  doctrine  is  not  so  impracticable  and  other- 
worldly. This  Christian  doctrine  is  not  a  metaphysical  quibble  in  the 
clouds  ;  there  is  downright  common-sense — strong,  robust,  graphic  com- 
mon-sense about  this  Christian  preaching.  I  should  not  wonder  if  this 
carpenter's  Son  seated  upon  the  mountain  talking  to  his  disciples  should 
turn  out,  in  the  long  run,  to  be  the  world's  greatest  preacher.  Let  us  not, 
however,  anticipate,  but  attend  him,  and  listen  with  the  understanding  ta 
the  gracious  words  which  proceed  out  of  his  mouth. 

It  is  not  enough  to  speak  against  anxiety  or  to  direct  it  into  proper 
quarters.      Jesus  Christ,  recognising  this  fact,   proceeds  to  mitigate  the 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  20I 

anxiety  that  eats  up  the  life  like  a  canker.  What  do  you  think  he  does  in 
the  way  of  mitigation  ?  Something  most  beautiful.  He  takes  us  all  out 
for  a  day  into  the  open  fields.  It  is  only  recently  that  some  doctors  have 
learned  from  the  great  Physician  to  get  their  patients  out  of  town  as  soon 
as  they  could.  I  speak  now  to  many  doctors  :  stand  by  that  rule,  get  your 
patients  away  out  of  their  old  associations,  out  of  their  old  chambers, 
where  they  know  every  pattern  upon  the  paper,  and  get  them  away  to  the 
sea,  and  into  the  country,  and  up  the  mountains  and  by  the  riversides  as 
soon  as  you  possibly  can,  and  take  your  own  course  as  to  whether  yon 
throw  physic  to  the  dogs.  This  was  Jesus  Christ's  plan  :  he  said,  "  Take 
a  walk,  change  your  circumstances,  get  rid  of  these  narrow  brick  walls, 
get  into  the  wide  fields,  read  the  flowers,  listen  to  the  music  of  the  birds." 
Was  this  a  novel  suggestion  on  the  part  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Not  at  all.  Did 
he  borrow  from  any  man  ?  No,  other  men  borrowed  from  him,  only  he 
was  not  always  the  revealed  and  incarnate  Teacher  ;  he  was  the  invisible 
and  incomprehensible  Inspirer  of  all  that  went  before  him  in  the  kingdom 
of  truth  and  light.  Where  do  we  find  this  recipe  before  ?  A  thousand 
years  prior  to  the  incarnation  of  the  peasant  teacher,  and  a  thousand  years 
more  than  that.  Once  Zion  was  ill  ;  she  was  bowed  down  to  the  dust  ; 
there  was  no  more  hope  in  her  fainting  heart,  and  Jacob  was  slain  with  an 
intolerable  thirst.  What  was  the  recipe  of  the  divine  Physician  ?  Nature. 
How  did  it  run  in  English  ?  Thus  :  "  Lift  up  your  eyes  and  behold  who 
hath  created  all  this."  First  he  points  to  the  stars,  then  to  the  lilies,  then 
to  the  birds — to  all  nature  ;  its  infinite  light,  its  minute  flushes  and  blush- 
ings  of  colour,  and  its  little  trills  of  song  from  tiny  and  tremulous  throats. 
Are  you  in  great  trouble  and  care  and  anxiety  ?  Go  away  as  soon  as  you 
can.  First  of  all  get  a  right  theological  conception  of  your  circumstances 
and  understand  that  anxiety  is  wasted  energy,  if  it  be  directed  to  such 
things  as  lie  beyond  your  control.  And  then,  having  taken  a  right  theo- 
logical view  of  the  case,  go  away,  go  into  the  fields — there  is  healing  in 
nature  ;  she  is  a  kind  and  noble  mother,  always  ready  to  nurse  and  carry 
us  in  her  generous  heart.  The  soft  wind  cools  our  fever,  the  infinite  light 
charms  our  despair,  the  great  space  offers  us  new  liberties  ;  the  all-filling 
music,  subtle  as  an  odour  wafted  from  distant  paradises,  stirs  the  heart  to 
better  hope.  You  have  no  money  to  go  far  away,  do  you  say  ?  Then  go 
as  far  as  you  can  walk.  You  cannot  tell  how  healing  and  medicating  this 
is.  Kind  Naturfe,  Alma  Mater,  Loving  Mother,  she  spreads  her  bounties. 
with  infinite  hospitality,  and  by  every  open  way  to  our  natures  she  sends 
her  healing  ministries. 

You  now  tell  me  that  whilst  you  have  no  doubt  about  the  doctrine,  that 
you  are  confronted  by  certain  facts  which  astound  and  distress  you,  facts, 
for  example,  of  this  kind,  that  good  men  of  your  own  acquaintance  are  cftcn 
in  great  trouble,  that  praying  men  who  really  and  truly  love  God  and  wait 


202  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

upon  him  are  sometimes  in  great  straits,  and  you  are  puzzled  to  harmonize 
the  doctrine  and  the  fact.  There  I  think  you  occupy  soHd  ground,  and 
deserve  a  respectful  answer.  My  reply  is  threefold.  Trials  are  useful, 
trials  often  develop  the  best  faculties  of  our  nature,  qualities  that  stir  us 
sometimes  into  our  healthiest  energy.  I  would  never  have  known  how 
rich  and  good  some  friend  were  but  for  the  afflictions  that  befell  me.  I 
have  seen  what  I  thought  were  pampered  children,  spoiled  boys  and  girls  ; 
I  have  sometimes  ventured  to  reason  with  the  parents  as  to  their  method 
of  bringing  up  their  children  ;  I  have  ventured  perhaps  to  say,  "  Now,  what 
can  become  of  them  in  the  event  of  any  misfortune  befalling  you  ?  '*  I 
have  seen  that  misfortune  come,  and  I  have  seen  the  children  of  such 
parents  turned  out  to  make  their  bread,  and  they  have  done  it  with  such 
noble  temper,  such  high  quality  of  heroism,  as  to  affect  me  deeply  with  a 
consciousness  of  my  entire  ignorance  of  what  lay  hidden  in  their  character. 
Those  children  themselves  have  come  to  bless  the  misfortune  that  bat- 
tered in  the  roof  of  the  old  house  they  called  their  home,  those  children 
have,  in  some  cases,  traced  the  beginning  of  their  best  and  healthiest 
developments  to  afflictions  which,  for  the  time  being,  distressed  them  with 
intolerable  agony.  I  call  you  to  witness  whether  you  would  have  been  the 
man  you  are  to-day  in  wisdom,  in  range  of  experience,  in  mellowness,  if 
your  one  ewe  lamb  had  not  been  taken  from  you,  if  your  fig-tree  had  not 
been  barked,  if  your  little  heritage  had  not  been  shaken  by  the  rude  winds. 
You  are  the  sweeter  for  every  loss  you  have  sustained.  You  are  the  kinder 
and  nobler  for  every  affliction  you  have  rightly  received,  your  weakness 
has  become  your  strength. 

Then  I  would  remember  in  the  second  place  that  prosperity  has  its 
pains  and  trials.  Do  not  imagine  that  prosperity  of  a  worldly  kind  is 
another  word  for  heaven.  You  think  v/hat  you  would  have  done  if  your 
circumstances  of  an  outward  kind  had  been  very  different.  You  are  mis- 
taken. Let  us  go  into  this  rich  man's  fine  house  and  sit  in  the  sumptu- 
ously garnished  room  until  he  comes  in.  What  a  room  it  is  ;  I  see  the 
artist's  hand  everywhere.  What  a  beautiful  outlook,  what  noble  grounds, 
what  ancient  trees,  what  singing  birds  !  The  man  who  lives  here  cannot 
be  unhappy  ;  surely  this  is  the  very  vicinage  of  some  better  land.  So  you 
soliloquise,  and  when  you  get  into  confidential  conversation  with  the  occu- 
pant of  that  noble  mansion  you  may  find  that  there  is  a  thorn  under  every 
rose,  a  worm  at  every  root,  bitterness  in  every  cup,  and  that  the  house  is 
but  a  garnished  sepulchre.  It  may  be  so,  it  may  not  be  so — still  the  solemn 
fact  remains  that  prosperity  itself  is  a  continual  temptation,  a  subtle  and 
persistent  trial  of  every  virtue  of  the  heart. 

To  this  double  reply  I  add  another  answer,  namely,  that  God  knows 
exactly  with  how  much  he  can  be  trusted.  If -he  knows  what  temptations 
we  can  bear,  understanding  that  word  in  its  narrow  sense  as  including  only 


These  sayings  of  mine.  563 

diabolic  assaults  on  the  heart,  he  knows  also  what  prosperity  we  can  bear. 
He  gives  me  just  what  I  can  do  with  ;  he  that  gathers  much  has  nothing 
over,  he  that  gathers  little  has  no  want.  A  contented  spirit  is  a  continual 
feast ;  when  the  heart  has  rest  in  God  there  is  always  bread  enough  on  the 
table.  We  think  we  can  do  with  more,  but  God  knows  what  we  can  do 
with,  and  he  will  see  that  we  shall  have  it.  Your  Heavenly  Father  knows 
what  ye  have  need  of,  and  his  knowledge  is  the  measure  of  his  service.  I 
rest  in  that  doctrine,  and  no  fool  can  throw  a  troubling  stone  into  the  paci- 
fic lake  of  my  profoundest  confidence. 

Is  this  a  new  doctrine  in  the  church  assembling  in  this  place  ?  We  have 
often  reminded  ourselves  that  the  church  was  founded  by  the  most  learned 
man  of  his  day,  the  illustrious  Dr.  Thomas  Goodwin,  two  centuries  and  a 
half  ago.  What  was  the  doctrine  he  preached — what  kind  of  preacher 
was  he  ?  Did  he  mumble  platitudes  that  had  no  meaning  ?  Did  he  speak 
without  accent,  or  was  there  a  strange  sharpness  and  an  occasional  tart- 
ness in  his  way  of  delivering  himself  ?  Was  he  figurative,  illustrative, 
metaphorical  ?  I  will  tell  you.  The  other  day  I  met  with  a  short  passage 
in  his  writings  upon  this  very  subject,  and  I  have  it  before  me.  Let  our 
founder  speak  to  us,  let  the  illustrious  Goodwin  come  back  as  it  were  to 
his  own  pulpit  and  preach  a  homily  in  our  hearing,  and  let  us  listen  with  a 
view  of  ascertaining  whether  the  pulpit  of  to-day  contradicts  the  pulpit 
of  two  centuries  ago.  Says  Goodwin  on  this  particular  text,  "  To  do 
unnecessary  things  in  the  first  place  and  neglect  those  which  are  most 
necessary,  and  put  them  off  to  the  last — is  not  this  the  part  of  a  fool  ?  If  a 
man  should  go  to  London  to  get  a  pardon,  or  about  some  great  suit  at  law, 
and  should  in  the  first  place  spend  the  most  or  chiefest  of  all  his  time  in 
seeing  the  lions  at  the  Tower,  the  tombs  in  Westminster  Abbey,  or  the 
streets  and  buildings  of  the  city,  or  in  visiting  friends,  and  put  the  other 
off  to  the  last — would  he  not  be  a  fool  ? "  Why,  then,  this  church  is  keep- 
ing up  its  old  traditions,  is  speaking  in  the  old,  old  language,  is  trying  to  be 
as  graphic  and  as  keen  as  was  the  man  who  humanly  founded  it.  Yes,  a 
fool.  There  have  been  some  persons  who  have  objected  to  the  use  of 
that  word  in  the  pulpit ;  I  am  glad  to  find  that  our  founder  was  not  among 
those  dainty  people.  We  had  better  know  exactly  what  is  the  value  of  our 
actions  ;  do  not  trifle  with  us,  speak  a  plain  clear  language  about  our  con- 
duct :  if  v/e  are  acting  foolishly  do  not  address  us  in  terms  of  mere  cour- 
tesy which  would  convey  a  false  impression  to  the  mind,  tell  us  exactly 
what  we  are  and  what  we  are  doing,  and  then  in  the  final  day  we  shall  not 
be  able  to  turn  upon  our  teachers  with  reproachful  face  and  to  pour  into 
their  ears  an  accusing  voice. 

Now  what  are  we  seeking  ?  What  is  our  supreme  purpose  ?  What  is 
the  set  and  ambition  of  our  life  ?  Is  it  to  glorify  God  ?  Then  all  the  rest 
will   come   right.     Is  it  to   glorify   selC?     Then  nothing  we  do  can  ever 


204  THESiE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

make  it  right.     You  may  paint  it,  decorate  it,  visor  it,  mask  it — it  is  a 
lie. 

The  Lord  inspire  us  with  the  spirit  of  truth :  may  we  be  found  at  last, 
though  faint,  yet  pursuing,  our  hands  indeed  weak  and  tremulous,  but 
using  their  last  energy  in  gripping  the  right  plough ! 


XX'iV. 

THE    NECESSITY    OF    JUDGMENT SOWING    AND    REAPING CENSORIOUSNESS 

IN    THE    BEAM THE    DOGS    AND     SWINE    OF    SOCIETY THE    MOCKERY    OF 

LOVE. 

PRAYER. 

AiiMiGHTY  God,  we  know  that  thy  word  is  truth,  and  that  the  entrance  in  of  thy 
word  doth  give  light  to  every  heart.  There  is  no  light  without  thy  word,  nor  is 
there  any  truth.  We  humbly  pray  thee  to  send  ui)on  us  the  glory  of  thy  revielation, 
that  seeing  the  light  from  heaven  we  may  not  mistake  the  things  that  are  upon  the 
earth.  ^Ve  humbly  pray  thee  to  give  us  a  right  sense  of  all  the  things  that  are  round 
about  us  ;  we  mistake  the  small  for  the  great  and  the  near  for  the  precious,  and  we 
know  not  where  we  ai'e  nor  what  we  look  at  but  as  thy  spirit  dwelleth  in  us,  giving 
us  the  right  vision  and  the  right  sense  of  all  things.  Show  us  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
so  far  as  our  eyes  may  be  able  to  bear  the  great  light ;  wherein  our  vision  fails  to 
look  upon  the  glory,  show  unto  our  eyes  all  the  goodness  of  God.  Make  thy  good- 
ness pass  before  us,  thy  gentle  acts,  long-suffering  patience,  thine  all-hopeful  love 
concerning  men  who  have  smitten  thee  in  the  face,  and  wounded  sorely  thy  very 
heart.  Thus  beholding  thy  goodness,  may  we  be  prepared  for  the  revelation  of  thy 
•  glory,  when  thou  dost  call  us  into  the  other  and  higher  state. 

Thy  care  of  us  has  been  very  tender  ;  thou  hast  dried  our  tears  with  a  soft  hand, 
thou  hast  spoken  to  our  hearts  iu  a  voice  that  did  not  smite  them  as  with  thunder, 
but  that  fell  Avith  the  graciousness  of  the  early  and  the  latter  rain.  Thou  hast  been 
mindful  of  our  weakness  ;  wherein  thou  hast  brought  thine  omnipotence  to  bear  upon 
our  feebleness,  thou  hast  repeated  the  greatest  of  thy  miracles.  Thou  hast  spread 
our  table  in  the  wilderness,  and  found  water  for  us  in  sandy  and  barren  places  ;  thou 
hast  put  laughter  into  our  mouth  suddenly,  when  our  life  was  woebegone  and  the 
grave  was  yawning  at  our  feet.  Mighty  have  been  our  deliverances — thou  hast  taken 
the  prey  from  strong  hands  and  thou  hast  brolien  down  men  of  great  power.  Thou 
hast  delivered  us  and  redeemed  us  and  magnified  thy  name  and  thy  grace  in  our  life, 
therefore  are  we  here  to-day,  this  Easter  morn,  with  a  new  hymn  and  a  glowing 
psalm,  yea,  with  a  loud  sweet  anthem  to  bless  the  great  and  mighty  hand  of  God  and 
the  infinite  heart  of  his  immeasurable  love. 

Hear  thou  the  prayer  thy  servants  pray  ;  listen  to  the  sighing  of  tlie  sad,  the 
tvounded  spirit ;  give  peace  where  there  has  long  been  unrest  or  fierce  tunmlt  or 
great  dejection  ;  grant  a  divine  deliverance  to  those  who  have  been  long  bound  in 
darkness  they  could  not  penetrate  ;  and  upon  us  all  send  some  Easter  blessing,  some 
resurrectional  glance  of  infinite  glory  that  shall  awaken  our  best  hopes  and  revive  oiir 
forgotten  recollections,  and  rekindle  the  enthusiasm  of  our  early  love.  Thou  didst 
call  us  out  of  darkness  into  thy  marvellous  light,  thou  didst  give  unto  our  hearts 
resurrection  through  the  cross  and  sacrifice  of  our  dearly-beloved  and  only  Saviour. 
Wherein  we  have  forgotten  these  marvels  of  thy  grace,  do  thou  now  revive  their  ten- 


20t>  THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

derest  recollection,  so  tliat  every  lieart  may  bless  tliee  with  a  new  delight,  with  a 
high  satisfaction,  and  with  an  ennobled  infinite  hope. 

We  put  our  lives  into  thine  hands,  we  would  not  take  care  of  ourselves,  or  surely 
our  protection  would  be  vanity.  We  therefore  ask  thee  to  take  us,  body,  soul,  and 
spirit,  into  tliine  own  keeping  :  watch  the  door  of  our  heart,  keep  the  source  of 
our  thoughts,  and  sanctify  the  very  spring'  of  our  will  and  all  the  actions  in  which  it 
expresses  itself,  and  may  we  be  found  at  last,  through  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  without 
a  spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing,  worthy  of  his  own  beauty,  worthy  of  his  own 
comeliness. 

The  Lord  send  a  light  upon  his  word  whensoever  we  read  it,  that  we  may  behold 
Its  true  meaning,  and  may  not  fall  into  the  dejection  of  those  who  understand  nothing 
but  the  letter.  Show  us  that  the  letter  is  the  goblet  which  holds  the  wine,  and  may 
we  drink  of  the  wine  of  thy  w'sdom  and  thy  love,  and  be  refreshed  and  inspired  by 
it  every  day. 

The  Lord  look  upon  us  at  this  time  of  the  year,  with  all  the  hopefulness  of  spring 
breathing  ai'ound  us,  with  many  a  sign  of  returning  life.  Thou  art  re-writing  thy 
promises  in  every  opening  flower  and  every  promising  bud  :  behold  in  this  revolution 
of  the  year  do  we  see  the  re-writing  of  some  of  thy  tenderest  words.  May  there  be 
spring  in  our  heart,  a  vernal  breeze  in  the  soul,  a  gracious  and  hopeful  liglit  shining 
upon  the  whole  breadth  of  our  life,  and  in  due  time  may  we  bring  forth  fruit  unto 
God  which  shall  please  the  Most  High  and  gladden  him  who  planted  the  vine. 

We  beseech  thee  to  direct  us  in  all  the  way  that  we  should  take,  in  view  of  our 
great  responsibilities  and  opportunities.  Enable  us  to  see  the  measure  of  our  life, 
and  to  understand  the  brevity  of  our  day,  and,  with  all  the  wakefulness  of  lieart, 
and  industry  of  hand,  and  vigilance  of  mind,  may  we  be  about  our  Father's  business, 
and  be  found  at  last  as  they  that  wait  for  their  Lord.  Regard  the  family,  spare  the 
father,  the  mother,  and  all  the  children,  kindle  the  fire  on  the  cold  day,  spread  the 
table  to  mi^et  returning  hunger,  and  make  the  bed  of  the  afflicted,  and  bless  its  pillow 
with  the  touch  of  thine  own  hand.  Regard  those  who  are  engaged  in  business,  and 
help  them  to  do  their  work  every  day  with  an  honourable  spirit  and  a  religious  pur 
pose,  and  may  their  bread  be  sweet  and  satisfying  because  of  the  honesty  through 
wliich  it  is  procured.  Bless  thy  servants  in  basket  and  in  store,  and  may  there  be  no 
reason  for  bitter  anxiety  because  of  the  bread  that  perisheth. 

Direct  the  nation  in  all  the  crises  of  its  history,  inspire  the  minds  of  men  by  thy 
Holy  Spirit — do  thou  rule  the  raging  of  the  seas  and  make  the  waters  calm  ;  walk 
thou  upon  every  sea  that  has  been  disturbed,  and  breathe  thy  blessing  upon  all  thy 
people.  God  save  the  Queen,  add  many  unto  the  days  of  her  life,  establish  her 
throne  in  righteousness,  and  clothe  her  reign  with  prosperity. 

And  now  let  us  seek  for  a  blessing  coming  to  every  heart,  a  consciousness  of  sin 
forgiven  through  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  a  happy  delight  in  the  possession  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  whose  it  is  to  sanctify  and  to  make  pure  with  the  holiness  of  God.    Amen, 

Matthew  vii.  1-6. 

1.  Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged. 

2.  For  with  what  judgment  ye  judge,  ye  shall  be  judged  :  and  with  what  measure 
ye  mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again. 

3.  And  why  beholdest  thou  the  mote  that  is  in  thy  brother's  eye,  but  considerest  not 
tlie  beam  that  is  in  thine  own  eye? 

4.  Or  how  wilt  thou  say  to  thy  brother.  Let  me  pull  out  the  mote  out  of  thine  eye; 
and,  behold,  a  beam  is  in  thine  own  eye? 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE.  207 

5.  Thou  hypocritP,  first  cast  out  the  beam  out  of  thine  own  eye  ;  and  then  shaJt 
thou  see  clearly  to  cast  out  the  mote  out  of  thy  brother's  eye. 

6.  Give  not  that  which  is  holy  unto  the  dogs,  neither  cast  ye  your  pearls  before 
swine,  lest  they  trample  them  under  tlieir  feet,  and  turn  again  and  rend  you. 

"  Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged."  Do  not  criticise  with  a  censori- 
ous and  unkindly  spirit,  do  not  be  bitter,  do  not  be  moved  by  the  spirit  of 
animosity  and  ilUberaHty  and  uncharitableness.  We  must  judge,  in  the 
sense  of  forming  opinions  and  estimates  of  one  another — that  is  not  the 
kind  of  judgment  which  is  forbidden  in  this  exhortation  by  Jesus  Christ. 
"We  may  get  the  true  meaning  of  the  word  by  another  use  which  is  made 
of  it  elsewhere  in  the  Scriptures.  Thus,  in  John,  third  chapter  and  seven- 
teenth verse,  we  read  :  "  For  God  sent  not  his  Son  into  the  world  to  con- 
demn the  world  ;  "  the  same  word  is  translated  judged  in  our  text  that  is 
translated  condemn  in  this  verse.  And  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  John  :  "I 
came  not  to  judge  the  world,"  to  take  a  bitter  and  unkind  and  hostile  view 
of  it.  And  again  we  read  :  "  Of  the  hope  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead 
am  I  " — the  same  word — ^^  called  in  question."  And  once  more  we  read  : 
"  One  man  estcemcth — "  the  same  word — "  one  day  above  another:  another 
man  cstcemeth  " — the  same  word — "  every  day  alike."  When  therefore  we 
are  called  upon  not  to  judge,  we  are  warned  against  the  self-righteousness 
which  condemns  everybody  who  does  not  do  exactly  as  we  think  they 
ought  to  do.  The  spirit  that  is  condemned  here  is  one  of  infallibility. 
Find  a  man  who  makes  himself  the  standard  of  everybody's  conduct,  who 
judges  everybody  by  himself,  by  what  he  would  have  done  under  such  and 
such  circumstances,  and  who  gives  large  licence  to  his  tongue  in  forming 
and  giving  opinions  upon  such  persons,  and  you  find  the  very  man  referred 
to  in  this  exhortation.  In  so  far  as  you  are  self-contented,  self-pleased, 
self-righteous,  in  so  far  as  you  think  it  to  be  your  duly  to  sit  down  upon 
the  throne  of  judgment  and  to  judge  all  your  neighbours  and  the  whole 
human  race,  in  so  far  are  you  guilty  of  the  spirit  of  judgment  which  Jesus 
Christ  condemns  in  this  text. 

Jesus  Christ  tells  you  that  such  judgment  does  not  fall  to  the  ground  : 
you  are  doing  more  than  merely  uttering  words  when  you  pass  such  judg- 
ment.upon  your  fellow-creatures.  You  are  not  whiling  away  an  hour,  you 
are  sowing  seed  which  you  will  one  day  have  to  reap  in  the  form  of  fruit, 
for,  "  with  what  judgment  ye  judge,  ye  shall  be  judged  :  and  with  what 
measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again."  Do  not  suppose  that 
you  are  merely  passing  an  opinion  upon  your  fellow-men,  do  not  fall  back 
upon  your  supposed  innocence,  and  say  that  you  merely  observed  or 
remarked  so  and  so.  You  shall  give  an  account  for  every  idle  word  ;  you 
shall  be  made  to  feel  the  bitterness  of  your  own  speech,  the  cruelty  of  your 
own  judgment  shall  come  back  upon  you  like  a  devouring  flame.  Jesus 
Christ  undertakes  to  warn  men  as  to  the  consequence  and  issue  of  certain 


2o8  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

conditions  of  spirit,  so  that  no  man  goes  forward  in  these  matters  in  igno- 
rance of  what  the  result  will  be. 

Let  us  understand  what  he  meant  by  this.  Did  he  mean,  literally,  "with 
what  judgment  ye  judge,  ye  shall  be  judged  "  ? — that  is  to  say,  that  some 
other  man  would  pass  exactly  the  same  opinion  upon  us  that  we  passed 
upon  others.  Not  at  all  in  that  little  narrow  sense  of  the  word.  That 
was  not  the  lex  talionis  which  he  laid  down  :  therein  he  would  have  but 
repeated  the  old  law  of  a  tooth  for  a  tooth  and  an  eye  for  an  eye,  whereas 
he  came  to  lay  down  a  broader  judgment.  What,  then,  did  the  words 
mean  ?  Not  that  we  should  have  snarl  for  snarl,  hostile  criticism  for  hos- 
tile criticism,  one  for  one  and  two  for  two,  according  to  the  number  and 
measure  thereof.  He  meant  that  somehow  or  other  all  society,  the  aggre- 
gated man,  the  all  but  God,  would  encounter  us  in  our  own  spirit ;  people 
who  never  heard  of  us  would  somehow  rise  up  to  condemn  us  and  reward 
us  according  to  our  own  spirit.  By  some  mysterious  action  of  divine 
providence,  society  would  condemn  us  with  the  condemnation  we  had 
accorded  to  others. 

You  have  often  been  puzzled  to  know  how  it  was  that  such  and  such 
consequences  arose  from  such  and  such  acts.  You  have  wondered  at  the 
unkindness  of  men,  at  the  bitterness  of  their  judgment.  Has  it  ever 
occurred  to  you  that  the  reason  may,  possibly,  have  been  in  yourself — a 
reason  that  has  been  sleeping  full  twenty  years,  and  is  now  only  bearing 
fruit?  You  remember  your  unkindness  to  your  father  and  your  mother; 
how  you  sat  ^..  the  throne  of  criticism  at  the  fireside  and  condemned  the 
whole  household  in  a  spirit  of  self-righteous  pride  ?  You  remember  what 
an  intolerable  nuisance  you  were  in  the  church  twenty  years  ago,  snarling 
at  everyone,  snubbing  everybody,  setting  up  your  great  righteousness  as  a 
rebuke  of  their  feeble  morality — how  the  unkind  word  was  always  upon 
your  tongue,  and  how  men  might  feel  perfectly  sure  that  you  would  go 
along  any  censorious  line  along  which  they  might  lead.  All  that  is  now 
coming  back  to  you.  You  have  been  smitten  first  on  the  one  cheek,  then 
on  the  other.  You  have  been  smitten  on  the  head  ;  society  scorns  you, 
repudiates  you,  views  you  with  suspicion  and  unkindness  and  distrust. 
You  sowed  the  wind,  you  are  reaping  the  whirlwind  ;  you  have  eaten  for- 
bidden fruit,  and  you  are  now  undergoing  its  most  painful  consequences. 

Find  a  kind  man,  one  of  noble  and  liberal  spirit,  whose  thought  is  ahvays 
of  the  charitable  type,  who  cannot  be  gotten  to  say  a  harsh  or  unfeeling 
word  about  anybody — the  time  will  come  when  society  will  throw  its  arms 
around  him  and  take  care  of  him  and  nourish  and  defend  him.  He  shall 
reap  the  bountiful  harvest  of  his  own  beneficence.  Such  a  man  will  not 
be  allowed  to  be  friendless  in  the  time  of  his  old  age  :  he  took  no  pains  to 
defend  or  befriend  himself,  he  had  a  kind  word  for  everybody,  he  had  a 
crust  of  bread  for  the  poor  and  a  cup  of  water  for  the  thirsty — he  could 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  20Q 

always  be  looked  to  for  the  glowing  and  kind  word,  nothing  mean,  bitter, 
selfish,  hostile,  unamiable,  ever  fell  from  his  ruddy  lips — and  now  in  the 
time  of  his  old  age  and  decrepitude,  or  when  any  evil  report  maliciously  arises 
against  him,  society  will  close  around  him  and  protect  the  grand  old  tree  from 
the  knife  and  the  axe  and  the  sword  of  those  who  would  cleave  it  down. 

And  what  is  true  of  the  kind  man  is  true  also  of  the  bitter  man.     There 
are  some  personr  who  cannot  speak  sweetly.     I  do  not  altogether  blame 
them,  for  their  life  seems  to  be  one  of  the  mysteries  of  Providence,  inscrut- 
able,  wholly  beyond   our  explanation,  here  and  now  :  we  can  only  say 
it  were  better        such  that  they  had  not  been  born — but  they  cannot  speah 
the  noble  word   they  cannot  r^ive  you  a  grand  beneficent  judgment  of  anj 
human  creature  or  any  human  deed,  their  criticism  is  bitter,  highly  acidu- 
lated — something  even  worse,  highly  vitriolized,  most  pungent,  and  every 
word  has  in  it  an  intent  of  cruel  death.     What  will  be  the  judgment  society 
will  pass  upon  such  persons  by-and-bye  ?     They  will  get  what   they  have 
given,  they  will  reap  as  they  have  sown — let  that  word  never  be  forgotten. 
God  is  not  mocked  :  whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap. 
Not  in  some  little  literal  way  of  a  man  dealing  with  liim  as  he  dealt  with 
others,  but  with  the  marvellous  social  influence  which  gets  around  a  man 
to  help  him  up  or  to  smite  and  blast  him.     Thank  God  for  these  great 
promises  and  laws  that  make  society  secure  !     They  give  solidity  to  the 
whole  constitution  of  humanity.     We  cannot  play  at  criticism  and  be  harm- 
less,  we  cannot  be  censorious  and  then   retire  upon  our  respectability. 
Every  bitter  word  you  have  spoken  about  man,  woman,  or  child  has  gone 
out  to  come  back  again,  and  will  smite  you  some  day.     With  what  judg- 
ment ye  judge  ye  shall  be  judged,  and  with  what  measure  ye  mete,  it  shall 
be  measured  to  you  again.     This  is  a  great  law,  and  all  human  history  is 
its  exposition  and  justification. 

Jesus  Christ  now  proceeds  to  give  a  vivid  application  of  these  words, 
and  to  accent  them  as  with  the  point  of  a  sword.  "  And  why  beholdest 
thou  the  mote  that  is  in  thy  brother's  eye  but  considerest  not  the  beam 
that  is  in  thine  own  eye  ?  "  Are  we  sure  that  we  have  laid  hold  of  the 
right  exposition  of  these  words  in  our  other  lessons  received  upon  them 
from  divers  teachers  ?  What  is  the  beam  in  the  eye  of  the  judge  ?  Does 
it  mean  that  though  I  condemn  some  little  fault  in  you  I  have  a  greater 
fault  of  my  own  which  has  not  yet  been  discovered  ?  I  do  not  understand 
it  in  that  light.  Here  is  a  man  about  whom  no  fault  can  ever  be  found  of 
the  usual  kind,  and  yet  he  is  continually  judging  other  men,  sentencing 
some  to  darkness  and  others  to  oblivion,  and  passing  various  sentences 
upon  those  who  are  round  about  him,  and  yet  he  is  sober,  chaste,  good  in 
all  we  can  say  about  him,  punctual  in  his  church  attendances,  exact  in  his 
payments,  of  good  standing  in  the  market-place — what  beam  is  there  in 
the  eye  of  such  a  man  ?     Now  we  come  to  the  right  meaning.     He  is  cen- 


2IO  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

sorious  :  that  is  tlie  beam  referred  to  by  the  great  Teacher.  The  "ery 
fact  that  he  judges  another  man  in  an  uncharitable  spirit  is  the  beam, 
con::pared  with  which  any  other  fault  is  a  mere  mote  or  speck,  a  mere 
splinter  of  wood  compared  to  a  great  beam  of  timber. 

That  is  how  Jesus  Christ  estimates  the  censorious  spirit.  He  say?  it  is 
to  other  faults  as  a  beam  is  to  a  little  splinter.  The  man  is  a  model  man 
in  everything  else  so  far  as  society  knows  him,  exact,  punctual,  critical  in 
all  his  relations,  a  more  honourable  man  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  market- 
place, all  his  payments  are  promptly  and  completely  made,  and  there  is 
nothing  at  all  about  him  except  this  miserable  spirit  of  criticism  upon 
other  people,  always  finding  fault  with  somebody  else.  Now  Jesus  Christ 
says  that  although  he  be  faultless  in  all  the  ordinary  senses  of  that  term, 
the  very  spirit  of  censoriousness  that  is  in  him  is  a  great  beam  across  his 
eyes.  Let  us,  then,  take  great  care  lest  the  very  thing  that  we  had  imag- 
ined to  be  no  fault  at  all  is  the  supreme  fault. 

Let  us  illustrate  this  :  here  is  a  man  who  will  slander  his  neighbour  by 
the  hour,  and  calls  himself  a  Christian,  and  never  doubts  his  own  Chris- 
tianity ;  he  sends  heterodox  thinkers  to  hell  by  the  thousand,  he  whips 
the  Unitarians  into  the  very  hottest  perdition — all  that  he  himself  does  is 
to  slander  his  neighbour,  and  then  engage  in  prayer.  It  never  occurs  to 
him  that  slander  is  a  deadlier  sin  than  mere  intellectual  error.  Jesus  calls 
the  slanderous  spirit  a  beam  compared  with  which  any  other  mistake  is  a 
little  thin  splinter.  Here  is  a  man  who  condemns  every  poor  creature 
that  is  overtaken  in  a  fault.  He  has  no  sympathy  with  such.  The  man 
took  a  glass  of  drink  too  much,  lost  his  equilibrium,  was  seen  in  a  reeling 
state — that  circumstance  is  reported  to  the  man  who  only  indulges  in  slander- 
ous criticism,  and  the  man  instantly  calls  for  the  excommunication  of  the 
erring  brother  from  the  church,  not  knowing  that  he  himself  is  drunk,  but 
not  with  wine,  drunk  with  a  hostile  spirit,  drunk  with  uncharitableness, 
drunk  with  the  feeling  that  rejoices  in  the  slips  and  falls  of  others.  O 
thou  hypocrite,  actor,  masked  and  visored  man  !  Pluck  the  beam  from 
thine  own  eye — then  shalt  thou  see  more  clearly  the  mote,  the  splinter,  that 
is  in  thy  brother's  eye. 

I  would  preach  to  myself  as  loudly  and  keenly  as  to  any  other  man,  herein, 
if  so  be  I  had  been  guilty  of  this  ineffable  meanness,  and  this  most  detest- 
able of  all  tricks  of  the  devil,  to  speak  an  unkind  word  about  any  human 
creature,  to  suspect  the  honesty  of  any  man.  If  ever  I  have  said  about  a 
brother  minister,  "  He  is  a  fine  man  in  many  respects,  a  noble  creature, 
grand,  chivalrous,  kind  of  soul — but —  "  if  ever  I  have  said  that  bid^  God 
will  punish  me  for  it.  I  shall  suffer  loss  therein.  If  my  brother  has  fallen, 
and  I  have  said,  so  low  down  in  my  consciousness  that  I  could  hardly  hear 
it  myself,  "  I  am  rather  glad  of  it,"  God  will  give  me  a  hell  for  that.  It  is 
a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God.     Have  I  ever  said 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  211 

one  unkind  and  thoughtless  word  about  any  human  creature  It  has  been 
as  a  beam  in  my  eye,  while  your  faults,  even  if  you  have  beer,  intemperate, 
are  virtues,  compared  with  my  huge  overshadowing  sin. 

We  do  not  lay  hold  of  this  great  truth  sufficiently.  We  think  that  a  little 
slander  is  of  no  consequence.  To  be  called  up  before  the  church  and 
condemned  for  slander  !  Condemn  the  drunkard,  turn  out  the  man  who 
by  infinite  pressure  has  committed  some  sin — turn  him  out — certainly,  and 
never  go  after  him  and  never  care  what  becomes  of  him,  let  a  wolf  gnaw 
him  at  the  core — only  get  rid  of  him  : — if  we  go  home  and  speak  unkindly 
of  man,  woman,  or  child,  who  is  the  great  sinner,  the  drunkard  we  have 
just  expelled,  or  the  closely-shaven,  highly  polished  Christian  who  does 
nothing  but  filch  his  neighbour's  good  name  ?  It  shall  be  more  tolerable 
for  Tyre  and  Sidon  in  the  day  of  judgment  than  for  you.  You  do  not 
know  the  meaning  of  Christ's  gospel,  you  are  not  in  the  kingdom  at  all  ; 
ycu  have  learned  a  few  words  which  you  chatter  with  parrot-like  accuracy, 
but  the  gospel,  the  ail-redeeming,  all-hoping,  all-saving  gospel,  you  know 
nothing  about. 

So  then  do  not  imagine  that  this  is  the  case  of  a  great  drunkard  speak- 
ing against  some  person  with  a  much  smaller  fault.  It  is  the  case  of 
censoriousness  against  any  other  fault,  the  slander-spirit  against  the  whole 
catalogue  of  devilisms.  Wherein  then  shall  we  wash  our  hearts  and  cleanse 
our  souls  ?  Perhaps  I  may  have  spoken  against  some  men — if  I  have,  I 
shall  yet  feel  the  rod  of  the  divin-^  vengeance  upon  my  life.  Thou  art 
inexcusable,  O  man  !  whosoever  thou  .^rt  that  judgest,  for  wherein  thou 
judgest  another  thou  condemnest  thyself,  for  thou  that  judgest  doest  the 
same  things.  That  is  the  meaning  of  th?  Saviour's  teaching.  Wherein 
thou  judgest  another  thou  condemnest  thyself.  To  judge  is  to  con- 
demn. Cleanse  the  church  of  this  spirit  of  bitterness  and  its  orthodoxy 
will  take  care  of  itself.  O  I  cry  before  Christ  sometimes,  when  I  see  him 
very  clearly — I  just  fall  right  down  at  his  feet  and  cry,  and  tell  him  that 
the  people  are  most  anxious  about  their  intellectual  views,  and  M'ould  curse 
any  number  of  people  who  did  not  subscribe  their  catechism,  and  take  a 
keen  delight  in  damning  and  ramming  them  down  in  the  deepest  and  hot- 
test hell — but,  O  Thou  wounded  One  !  when  they  get  together  they  have 
not  a  kind,  noble,  hopeful  word  to  speak  of  any  creature  that  differs  from 
them.  "  Then,'  saith  he,  "  they  have  a  beam  in  their  eye,  compared  with 
which  the  faults  of  others  may  be  but  splinters."  Why  dost  thou  judge  thy 
brother,  why  dost  thou  set  at  naught  thy  brother,  for  we  shall  all  stand 
before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ  ? 

Now  let  us  come  to  verse  6.  "Give  not  that  which  is  holy  unto  the 
dogs,  neither  cast  your  pearls  before  the  swine,  lest  they  trample  them 
under  their  feet,  and  turn  again  and  rend  you."  Now  here  is  the  spirit 
of  judgment ;  bow  am  I  to  know  which  is  the  dog,  how  am  I  to  know  how 


212  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

to  classify  those  who  are  no  better  than  swine — is  not  this  the  very  spirit 
that  has  been  condemned  ?  No,  we  are  not  now  talking  about  men  who 
belong  to  the  same  universe.  We  have  been  speaking,  or  hearing  Christ 
speak;  rather,  about  brother's  treatment  of  brother  ;  we  are  now  hearing 
him  speak  about  the  treatment  of  those  who  neither  understand  nor  appre- 
ciate our  heart's  best  life.  The  word  brother  now  drops  out  of  the  criti- 
cism and  other  words  are  imported  into  the  consideration  of  the  case. 
Jesus  Christ  when  he  went  before  Herod  would  not  give  that  which  was 
holy  unto  the  dogs,  neither  would  he  cast  his  pearls  before  swine.  You 
must  speak  your  deepest  thinkings  to  the  ear  of  sympathy,  you  must  find 
out  who  has  the  spirit  of  communion  with  your  spirit,  when  you  come  to 
utter  the  profoundest  feelings  and  highest  aspirations  of  your  heart.  Speak 
not  in  the  ears  of  a  fool  ;  for  he  will  despise  the  wisdom  of  thy  words. 
Reprove  not  a  scorner  lest  he  hate  thee,  rebuke  a  wise  man  and  he  will 
love  thee. 

You  know  what  it  is  to  be  in  want  of  sympathy.  You  have  a  great  grief, 
and  you  say,  "  To  whom  can  I  tell  this  ?"  If  I  tell  it  to  one,  I  get  it  all 
back  again,  as  if  I  had  spoken  to  a  rock  ;  if  I  tell  it  to  another  kind  of 
heart,  why  the  very  telling  of  it  seems  to  be  a  kind  of  evaporation  by  which 
my  oppressed  spirit  is  relieved.  Do  not  speak  the  deepest  secrets  of  your 
soul  to  those  who  have  never  been  in  the  same  mental  or  spiritual  condi- 
tion :  they  will  think  you  erratic,  romantic,  eccentric — they  will  pity  you  : 
when  they  go  away  from  hearing  your  tale  they  will  intimate  that  your 
mind  is  a  little  unsettled,  and  that  they  have  their  fears  about  you.  They 
do  not  understand  the  graphic  language  of  your  tragic  experience,  they 
have  never  been  in  the  same  darkness,  never  fought  the  same  battle,  never 
drunk  of  the  same  bitter  cup  ;  therefore,  when  you  come  near  them,  speak 
not  :  silence  is  better  than  speech  in  such  society — give  not  that  which  is 
holy  unto  the  dogs,  neither  cast  ye  your  pearls  before  swine,  lest  they 
trample  them  under  their  feet  and  turn  again  and  rend  you,  and  you  hear 
that  your  most  sacred  feelings  have  been  travestied  and  your  most  solemn 
words  have  been  mocked. 

We  have  all  had  experience  of  this  kind,  it  may  be,  in  some  degree  :  we 
have  told  what  we  thought  was  a  friendly  heart  some  bitter  thing  that  was 
troubling  us  very  much,  and  it  has  actually  come  back  to  us  in  the  form  of  a 
falsehood,  that  has  turned  again  and  rent  us.  Hast  thou  a  friend  ?  Treat 
him  as  such,  bind  him  to  thine  heart  with  hooks  of  steel,  tell  him  every- 
thing :  he  will  divide  thy  burdens,  he  will  double  thy  joys.  Beware  of  the 
unsympathetic  ear,  beware  of  the  unsympathetic  heart  :  thou  wilt  get 
nothing  from  those  but  trampling  and  rending. 

Now  some  may  say,  having  heard  this  preaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  "  Where 
is  the  gospel  ?  There  is  not  a  word  of  gospel  in  all  the  sermon  which 
Jesus  Christ  has  preached  to  us  this  morning.     There  is  nothing  evangelic, 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  213 

there  is  nothing  doctrinally  savoury,  there  is  no  old  wine  of  blood.  Seneca 
might  have  said  this,  it  might  have  been  written  in  old  Latin."  You  think 
so  ?  You  try  to  carry  out  the  injunction  of  the  text,  and  ere  you  have  gone 
two  steps  in  the  direction  of  its  accomplishment  you  will  want  Christ  and 
the  cross,  and  the  blood  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  this  is  the  last  and  chiefest 
of  the  divine  directions. 

This  teaching,  some  may  say,  is  purely  negative  ;  it  is  telling  us  what 
not  to  do.  You  try  to  realize  the  doctrine  and  you  will  see  how  far  it  is 
merely  negative.  If  you  sit  within  the  narrowness  of  the  letter  you  may 
call  it  a  negative  kind  of  teaching,  but  if  you  try  to  carry  it  out  in  your 
life,  if  you  never  more  have  to  slander  a  man,  think  or  speak  unkindly 
about  any  human  creature,  you  will  soon  know  whether  the  doctrine  is 
negative  or  positive.  It  is  courageous,  for  the  Scribes  and  the  Pharisees 
were  the  princes  of  slander,  and  of  malicious  hostile  criticism  ;  it  is  spirit- 
ual, for  it  searches  the  heart,  and  lays  down  a  principle  which  cannot  be 
carried  out  by  mere  mechanism.  This  is  not  a  trick  in  handicraft,  this  is 
an  outgoing  and  blossom  of  the  renewed  heart  :  it  is  practical,  there  is 
nothing  sentimental  in  this,  this  is  the  eloquence  of  action. 

If  you,  from  this  time  forth,  could  show  the  spirit  of  charity,  you  would 
strike  the  mocker  dumb.  He  has  his  best  hold  upon  us  when  he  hears 
us  criticising  one  another.  He  says,  "  See  how  these  Christians  love  one 
another."  When  he  hears  ministers  undervaluing  one  another,  running 
down  each  other's  preaching  and  methods  of  work,  he  says,  "  See  how 
these  Christians  love  one  another."  When  he  hears  various  communions 
of  Christians  traducing  one  another,  proving  one  another  wrong,  and 
excommunicating  one  another,  he  says,  "  See  how  these  Christians  love 
one  another."  When  he  comes  to  a  cemetery  and  sees  a  chapel  on  one 
side  on  consecrated  ground  and  a  chapel  on  the  other  on  unconsecrated 
ground,  he  laughs  a  laugh,  he  has  a  right  to  laugh,  and  says,  "  See  how 
these  Christians  love  one  another." 

My  friends,  it  has  too  long  been  the  case  of  orthodoxy  versus  hetero- 
doxy, trinitarian  versus  unitarian,  citadel  against  tower,  and  A  against  B. 
•*  Thou  hypocrite,"  says  the  great  Teacher,  "  thou  hypocrite,  first  cast  out 
the  beam  of  hostile  judgment  and  uncharitable  criticism  out  of  thine  own 
eye  ;  then  shalt  thou  see  more  clearly  to  cast  out  the  little  splinter  that  is 
in  thy  brother's  eye." 


XXV. 

THE      CONDITIONS      OF      PRAYER THE      TEXT      AND     THE     CONTEXT THE 

FILIAL     RELATION      TO      GOD MUCH      GIVEN      WITHOUT      PRAYER THE 

BLOSSOM    AND    FRUIT    OF    HISTORY, 

PRAYER, 

Almighty  God,  do  thou  send  a  plentiful  rain  upon  thine  inheritance,  and  make 
this  people  rejoice  with  great  joy.  Do  thou  nourish  us  and  comfort  us  with  the  bread 
of  heaven,  and  with  all  the  tender  solaces  of  thine  heart.  Our  life  is  in  thine  hand 
and  not  in  our  own,  our  days  thou  dost  number,  and  our  appointments  thou  dost  make, 
yea,  the  day  of  our  birth  and  the  day  of  our  death  are  both  set  down  in  the  book 
which  is  open  before  thee.  Thou  hast  assured  us  of  thy  presence,  if  we  cry  for  it 
mightily  tlirough  Jesus  Christ  our  Priest  and  Saviour ;  for  thy  presence  we  do  now 
cry,  yea,  our  whole  heart  gathers  itself  up  into  one  vehement  desire  that  we  might 
know  where  to  find  thee,  that  we  might  come  into  thy  presence,  that  thou  mightest 
dwell  with  us,  and  abide  with  lis,  and  bear  dominion  over  our  whole  life.  This  is 
our  prayer,  and  to  it  thou  hast  but  one  answer  :  thy  reply  is  an  answer  of  love,  thou 
wilt  not  deny  the  request  of  the  heart  that  begs  thy  presence,  through  all  the  won- 
drous ministry  of  the  Cross. 

Thou  hast  kept  us  and  not  we  ourselves  ;  thou  hast  lighted  our  lamp,  and  the  strong 
wind  has  not  blown  it  out;  thou  hast  established  us  in  sureness,  and  behold  the  storm 
has  vanished  and  we  are  still  alive.  It  is  because  the  good  hand  of  the  Lord  our 
God  is  upon  us  that  we  are  continued  unto  this  day  with  root  unshaken  and  branch 
unbroken,  and  with  all  the  spring  light  pouring  its  tender  blessing  upon  us.  every 
beam  a  prophecy  and  every  ray  a  blessing.  We  are  in  thine  house  noAv  to  eat  and  to 
drink  according  to  the  abundance  of  thine  own  welcome  ;  we  bring  our  hunger  and 
our  thirst  where  they  can  alone  be  satisfied.  In  our  Father's  house  there  is  bread 
enough  and  to  spare,  and  as  for  the  river  of  God  it  is  full  of  water,  and  if  a  man 
drink  thereof  he  shall  thirst  no  more.  Whilst  we  are  in  thine  house  may  the  light 
fill  our  life,  may  the  love  of  the  cross  burn  in  our  hearts,  may  the  infinite  work  of 
thy  Son  our  Saviour  disclose  unto  us  all  the  beauteousness  and  all  the  suflSciency 
which  he  intended  it  to  disclose.  May  our  hearts  glow  with  a  new  ardour,  may  our 
spirits  rise  with  still  higher  and  purer  aspiration,  may  our  heart  go  out  after  the 
Living  One  in  cries  of  distress  and  yet  of  hope,  until  thou  dost  come  to  every  heart 
amongst  us,  and  make  it  thy  chosen  dwelling-place. 

Few  and  evil  have  been  the  days  of  thy  servants  upon  the  earth,  yea,  though  they 
be  counted  as  many  among  men,  yet  has  their  number  been  few  in  thy  sight  and  evil 
in  our  own.  Behold  we  are  of  yesterday  and  know  nothing,  we  are  afraid  of  the  dust, 
we  tremble  before  the  shadow,  we  turn  away  from  the  stroke  of  thy  rod,  and  our 
hearts  are  melted  with  fear  like  water.  Do  thou  therefore  visit  us  in  our  weakness 
and  come  as  the  physician  comes  to  men  that  die,  and  breathe  upon  us  with  all  gentle- 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE.  215 

ness,  subduing  the  wind  of  tliine  infinity,  breathing  upon  us  thy  tender  blessing.  We 
are  bruised  reeds,  unfit  for  music  ;  do  thou  bind  up  our  wounds  and  heal  us  and  then 
breathe  into  us,  and  may  our  answer  be  one  of  gentle  music.  We  are  as  smoking 
flax,  we  flicker  before  thee  like  a  flame  and  die.  O,  that  thou  wouldst  breathe  upon 
it,  and  strengthen  the  fire  by  thy  breathing,  until  our  whole  nature  is  aflame  and  aglow 
with  thy  presence  ;  then  would  our  life  be  always  in  the  Sabbath,  and  our  whole 
hope  would  be  set  upou  things  invisible. 

Pity  us  in  our  sorrows  and  distresses,  do  not  mock  us  in  our  miscalculations  and  fol- 
lies, do  not  discourage  us  with  bitter  taunting  from  heaven  when  our  own  souls  misgive 
us  and  we  are  afraid  to  try  the  good  again  ;  but  with  all  gentleness  and  comfortable- 
ness do  thou  encourage  us  once  more  to  do  that  which  is  right  and  to  attempt  that 
which  is  holy,  and  with  every  attempt  do  thou  give  increase  of  strength. 

The  Lord  visit  us  according  to  the  breadth  and  depth  of  our  painful  necessity. 
What  every  heart  needs  thou  knowest  :  the  prayer  we  dare  not  speak  thou  hearest  ; 
the  gentlest  knocking  at  thy  door  is  heard  as  thunder  in  thine  house.  When  we 
seek  may  we  find.  Thou  knowest  what  we  would  be,  what  we  would  have,  and 
what  we  would  do,  and  we  lay  this  before  thee  in  uttered  words  or  in  silent  desire, 
and  we  would  desire  to  say  at  last,  having  completed  the  tale  of  our  want  and  the 
prayer  of  our  ignorance,  "  ISevertheless,  not  our  will  but  thine  be  done."     Amen. 

Matthew  vii.  7-13. 

7.  Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you  ;  seek,  and  ye  shall  find  ;  knock,  and  it  shall  be 
opened  unto  you  : 

8.  For  every  one  that  asketh  receiveth  ;  and  he  that  seeketh  findeth  ;  and  to  liim 
that  knocketh  it  shall  be  opened. 

9.  Or  what  man  is  there  of  you,  whom  if  his  son  ask  bread,  will  he  give  him  a 
stone  ? 

10.  Or  if  he  ask  a  fish,  will  he  give  him  a  serpent  ? 

11.  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? 

18.  Therefore  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye 
even  so  to  them  :  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets. 

So,  then,  the  commerce  between  earth  and  heaven  is  perfectly  honest 
and  straightforward.     There  is  nothing  of  moral  jugglery  about  it.     The 
wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  may  read  these  plain  words  and  understand 
them.     Do  not  attempt  to  steal  anything  from  heaven  ;  ask  for  it.     Do 
not  try  any  illegitimate  methods  of  getting,  finding,  or  anything  else.     The 
plan  is  simple,  honest,  perfectly  intelligible  and  available  to  every  sincere 
and  simple-minded  heart.      Did  you  suppose  that  any  man  got  aught  from 
heaven  by  a  species  of  legerdemain  ?     Has  it  ever  entered  into  your  heart 
that  some  man  was  richer  in  spiritual  graces  than  you  are  because  he  ] 
deluded  God  ?     Such  is  an  infinite  mistake  on  your  part  :  the  human  side  [^ 
of  this  transaction  is  beautiful  in  its  simplicity — ask,  seek,  knock.     You 
thought  religion  was  an  affair  of  mystery, — deep  and  dark  clouding,  and 
impenetrable  haze.     It  is  the  commerce  between  a  child  and  his  father.  \_^ 
There  is  no  mystery  whatever  about  it,  it  is  honest  commerce.     The  bread 


2l6  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

we  get  from  heaven  we  get  honestly  ;  you  are  not  ill-used  if  you  have  not 
got  that  bread  :  ye  have  not,  because  ye  ask  not,  or  because  ye  ask  amiss. 
It  is  something  to  know  that  the  human  side  of  this  transaction  is  per- 
fectly intelligible  and  simple,  and  it  is  something  to  know  that  the  human 
side  of  this  transaction  is  that  which  applies  to  all  our  progress  in  life 
whatsoever  it  be,  in  so  far  as  it  is  honest,  substantial,  and  really  good  and 
durable.  There  is  no  particular  masonic  word  to  get  hold  of,  nor  is 
there  any  Eleusinian  grip  of  the  hand  to  learn.  This  is  not  a  trick  in  the 
black  art ;  it  is  asking,  receiving — seeking,  finding — knocking  and  having 
the  door  opened  in  reply  to  the  appeal.  All  religion  will  be  found  at  last, 
in  so  far  as  it  is  true,  to  be  equally  simple,  equally  to  illustrate  the  law  of 
cause  and  effect.  The  mystery  that  we  find  in  the  Christian  religion  we 
too  often  bring  to  it :  it  is  but  a  gilding  of  the  cloud  of  our  own  igno- 
rance. The  way  of  the  Lord  is  equal,  and  his  path  among  men  is  often  such 
as  can  be  apprehended  by  sanctified  intelligence. 

"  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."  If 
you  want  your  income  increased,  ask  for  it ;  if  you  want  your  health 
.  re-established,  seek  the  Physician — God,  the  one  Healer,  in  whose  heart 
^  grow  all  plants  with  healing  juice  flowing  in  their  salubrious  veins.  If  you 
want  to  advance  in  life  knock  at  the  door,  and  while  you  are  knocking  it 
shall  be  thrown  open  to  you.  There  is  no  condition  specified,  there  is  no 
particular  class  of  persons  identified  as  the  favoured  sect  or  denomination 
— for  every  one  that  asketh  receiveth.  There  is  no  condition  of  title,  char- 
acter, claim  :  words  cannot  be  more  simple  and  more  inclusive.  If  you 
want  increase,  health,  joy,  satisfaction,  advancement,  riches,  honour — ask, 
and  ye  shall  receive,  for  every  one  that  asketh  receiveth.  Why  sit  we 
here,  therefore,  poor  dwarfs,  empty  of  pocket,  feeble  of  hand,  blind  of 
intellect,  failing  in  health,  crushed  before  the  moth  and  the  worm,  and 
courting  with  cowardly  spirit  our  own  grave,  that  we  may  be  hidden  from 
the  light  of  the  day  ?  Nothing  lies  between  me  and  what  I  want  but  , 
honest  supplication.  Be  careful  for  nothing,  but  in  everything  by  prayer  ' 
and  supplication  make  known  your  requests  unto  God.  Never  mind  how 
bad  you  are — you  have  simply  to  ask  what  you  like  and  you  shall  have  it.  1 

There  is  not  one  word  of  truth  in  that  statement,  and  yet  who  would 
wonder  if  some  persons  who  read  the  Bible  in  fragments  and  morsels 
should  openly  and  emphatically  declare  that  to  be  the  divine  revelation. 
Learn  to  trust  not  only  in  the  text  but  in  the  context.  What  I  have  now 
laid  down  to  you  would  seem  to  be  the  very  first  meaning  of  the  words  I 
have  read.  That  meaning  seems  to  be  written  upon  the  very  face  of  the 
text,  and  yet  every  sentence  I  have  uttered  in  the  latter  part  of  the  exposi- 
tion is  utterly  false.     How  can  that  be  proved  to  be  so  ?     By  Christ's  own 


THESE   SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  21; 

words.  But  is  there  any  condition  signified  in  the  text  ?  Most  undoubt- 
edly there  is  a  vital  condition,  not  only  signified  but  explicitly  laid  down  in 
so  many  words.  You  must  not  break  in  on  the  Saviour  whilst  he  is  preach- 
ing and  teaching  ;  you  must  hear  his  whole  statement  and  compare  part 
with  part,  and  by  comparing  one  part  with  another  you  must  establish  the 
truth  which  he  came  to  reveal  and  enforce.  Let  us,  therefore,  look  at 
the  illustration  which  he  himself  gives  of  the  doctrine  which  he  has  laid 
down. 

"  Or  w'hat  hian  is  there  of  you,  whom  if  his  son  ask  bread  will  he  give 
him  a  stone,  or  if  he  ask  a  fish  will  he  give  him  a  serpent  ? "  Then  there 
is  a  certain  class  specified  in  the  text  ?  Undoubtedly.  What  is  that  class  ? 
"What  man  is  thereof  you  whom  if  Jiis  son  ask  bread."  It  is  a  filial 
relation,  it  is  a  child  praying  to  his  father.  It  is  not  an  alien,  a  stranger,  a 
rebel,  it  is  a  child's  heart  praying  a  child's  prayer.  What  further  condi- 
tion is  there  specified  in  the  text  ?  The  next  condition  laid  down  in  the 
text  is  that  what  we  ask  for  is  good.  Read  again.  "  What  man  is  there  of 
you  whom  if  his  son  ask  bread,  ox  fish,  or  egg."  Why,  these  are  necessary 
to  life.  You  talked  just  now  about  asking  for  a  double  income,  and  a 
larger  house,  and  fifty  more  fields  added  to  your  small  estate.  No,  no — 
the  doctrine  relates  to  bread  fish,  egg — food — necessaries  of  life,  and  it  is 
,  the  son  that  prays.  So,  then,  the  foolish  man  who  first  ran  away  wath  the 
idea  that  we  only  had  to  go  and  ask  and  have,  is  altogether  disqualified  for 
the  exposition  of  this  portion  of  Scripture.  He  talks  a  foreign  tongue,  he 
utters  the  fool's  swift  language  that  hath  no  faith  or  sense  in  it.  The 
strong  limitation,  the  definition  of  boundary  that  is  not  to  be  trespassed,  is 
— Son,  as  the  suppliant :  Bread,  Fish,  Egg  as  the  subjects  of  petition. 
Bodily  nutriment,  intellectual  nutriment,  spiritual  nutriment,  the  bread,  the 
fish,  the  egg  applied  to  all  the  necessities  of  our  multifold  hunger  and  thirst 
that  evermore  besiege  and  urge  and  distress  our  nature.  Give  not  that 
which  is  holy  unto  the  dogs.  Dog,  you  cannot  pray.  This  is  a  portion  of 
meat  for  the  king's  children  ;  it  is  a  special  household  that  sits  down  at  this 
table  and  eats  and  drinks  abundantly  of  this  divine  hospitality. 

"What  man  is  there  of  you,  whom  if  his  son  ask  bread  will  he  give  him 
a  stone,  or  if  he  ask  a  fish  will  he  give  him  a  serpent,"  and  elsewhere,  "  if  he 
ask  an  egg  will  he  give  him  a  scorpion  ?  "  What  is  the  great  deduction  of 
the  divine  Teacher?  "If  ye  then,  being  evil,  short-sighted,  mean-hearted, 
children  of  miscalculation,  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  ?  "  This  is  the  true  method  of  teaching,  climbing  up 
step  by  step  from  the  human  to  the  divine.  Said  I  not  unto  you  ye  are 
gods  ?  Learn  from  the  little  divinity  that  is  in  yourself,  O  man,  the  infinite 
divinity  that  is  in  God.  When  you  are  at  your  very  best,  in  love,  pity, 
sacrifice,  care  for  others,  multiply  that  condition  of  heart  by  infinity,  and 


il8  tHESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

the  result  will  be  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  Let  common-sense 
assist  you  in  all  these  expositions,  and  you  will  have  no  difficulty  in  getting 
down  to  the  root. 

Look  at  the  case  of  your  own  family  to-day,  and  your  child  shall  come 
and  say  to  you,  "  Give  me  your  most  precious  possession."  What  would 
be  your  reply  to  the  little  child  ?  Would  it  be  an  instant  imparting  of  the 
gift  ?  Nothing  of  the  kind.  Your  child  shall  come  to  you  and  say,  "  Let  me 
go  out  all  to-day  and  all  to-morrow,  and  never  you  ask  where  I  am  or  what 
I  am  doing.  Now  I  have  asked  you,  you  give."  What  woirid  you  say  to 
your  seven-year-old  little  boy  who  came  with  that  prayer  ?  If  ye  then, 
being  evil,  children  of  the  night,  and  of  the  bewildering  shadows,  unable 
to  see  straight  and  clear,  know  how  to  say  "  No  "  under  the  inspiration  of 
love,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  say  "  No  "  to 
your  poor  prayers,  your  mean  and  ignorant  supplications,  your  asking  for 
scorpions  under  the  supposition  that  they  are  eggs  ?  For  the  naturalist 
tells  us  that  the  scorpion  roils  itself  up  so  as  to  look  very  like  an  egg  ;  hard- 
hearted would  be  our  Father  in  heaven,  having  heard  our  prayer  when  we 
have  mistaken  a  coiled  scorpion  for  an  egg,  if  his  answer  would  be  the 
reply  of  death. 

How  do  I  stand  then  towards  this  Giver?  Just  as  a  child  stands  towards 
a  wise  father.  Why,  sometimes  a  father  says  to  a  child,  when  the  child 
asks  for  more  bread,  "  You  have  had  enough,  child."  The  father  does 
not  begrudge  the  bread,  he  delights  in  the  child's  appetite  for  food,  but 
having  some  regard  to  the  child's  capacity  and  health,  he  may,  even  in  that 
direction,  interpose  the  suggestion  that  the  boundary  has  been  reached. 
Is  he  therefore  cruel  ?  Is  he  therefore  unkind  ?  He  may  simply  be  wise 
and  thoughtful,  a  prudent  father  whose  love  asserts  itself  even  in  the  form 
of  prohibition.  Is  he  a  wise  father  who  lets  his  child  do  exactly  what  the 
child  wants  to  do,  who  gives  a  hearty  "  Yes  "  to  every  appeal  of  the  child, 
who  has  no  will  of  his  own,  no  love,  no  firmness  ?  What  can  become  of  a 
child  brought  up  under  such  loose  government,  if  the  word  government  in 
that  connection  be  not  wholly  a  misapplication  of  the  word  ?  The  child 
will  come  to  ruin.  It  is  not  love  that  suspends  discipline,  it  is  love  that 
adjusts  it,  measures  it,  lifts  it  into  a  sacrament,  making  it  holy,  often 
straining  the  sensibilities  of  him  who  enforces  or  inflicts  it,  but  under  the 
sweet  and  bright  hope  that  its  infliction  will  terminate  in  health  and  bless- 
ing. We  have  had  fathers  of  our  flesh  who  corrected  us,  and  we  gave 
them  reverence  ;  shall  we  not  much  more  be  subject  unto  the  Father  of 
spirits  and  live  ? 

So  we  find  the  element  of  character  and  discipline  and  prohibitive  wis- 
dom even  in  this  domain  of  supplication  and  desire.  Be  sure  you  ask  for 
good  things  and  your  answer  shall  be  plentiful  ;  and  thank  God  that  he 
says  "  No  "  to  some  prayers.     I  have  gone,  as  no  doubt  you  have,  with 


THESE    SAVINGS   OF    MINE.  2ig 

prayers  to  God  to  be  sent,  or  to  be  spared,  or  to  be  directed  thus  and  so, 
and  if  the  answer  had  been  "Yes"  we  should  not  have  been  Uving  men 
to-day.  Let  us,  therefore,  learn  to  put  our  prayers  into  the  court  of 
heaven,  and  having  delivered  them  word  by  word,  it  may  be  sometimes 
with  strong  crying  and  tears,  as  if  our  life  depended  upon  an  instant 
reply,  let  us  learn  to  say,  "  Nevertheless,  not  my  will,  but  thine  be  done." 

Read  again.  "  Ask,  seek,  knock."  That  might  be  the  development  of/ 
one  action  ;  these  may  not  be  three  distinct  services  on  our  part,  but  this 
line  may  mark  the  grooving  intensity  of  our  religious  application.  Ask — 
the  easiest  and  simplest  of  exercises  :  seek — implying  more  industry  and 
anxiety  :  knock — suggestive  of  vehement  desire  and  perhaps  impatience 
of  spirit  and  eagerness  of  will  and  resoluteness.  Our  prayer  has  passed  v 
through  all  these  transitions.  Hear  the  good  man's  wise,  rich  prayer,  how 
he  asks  in  quiet,  deep,  fluent  speech,  how  he  passes  on  into  seeking,  stoop- 
ing, lighting  a  candle  and  sweeping  the  house  diligently,  as  if  in  search  of 
that  which  is  more  precious  than  gold.  See  how  he  betakes  himself  to 
one  supreme  effort,  laying  down  torch  and  broom,  and  going  with  both 
hands  to  the  door  of  heaven,  and  knocking  as  if  God  had  hardly  time  to 
open  the  door,  because  the  wolf  was  so  near.  It  is  one  grand  prayer, 
beginning  with  the  ease  of  a  child's  communion,  ending  with  the  resolute- 
ness and  the  violence  of  a  man  who  feels  that  time  is  dying  and  opportu- 
nity closing  swiftly. 

Do  you  know  all  the  manners  of  prayer  ?     Is  your  prayer  quite  an  easy 
exercise,  or  does  it  strain  the  soul  and  awaken  the  highest  efforts  ?     Look 
how  much  we  have  that  we  do  not  ask  for,  and  that  does  not  come  as  the 
result  of  our  seeking,  knocking,  or  any  variety  of  our  supplication  and 
appeal  to  heaven.     And  yet  they  must  have  come  in  answer  to  some  word 
that  is  equivalent  to  prayer.     For  example — all  the  light  of  day  :  the  sun 
does  not  come  out  of  his  eastern  chamber  because  some  suppliant  begged 
that  he  might  return.     And  all  the  beauty  of  the  spring,  the  luxuriance  of  { 
the  summer,   the  infinite  largess    of  the    autumn — these   are    not  God's 
"  Amens  "  to  your  small  petitions,  they  are  divine  anticipations  of  human  j 
necessity,  they  are  answers  before  the  prayer  is  spoken — he  /r^-vents  us  ^ 
with  his  goodness,  and  his  goodness  should  lead  us  to  repentance.     And 
we  learn  from  the  infinitude  of   his  gifts,   laid    upon    our    life  without 
our  asking,  how  to   utter  big  prayers,  vast  petitions,  petitions  worthy  of 
himself. 

Have  we  not,  poor  drivelling  souls,  measured  our  prayers  by  ourselves, 
and  only  stretched  our  supplications  over  the  mean  breadth  of  our  own 
conception  of  life  ?     When  shall  we  learn  to  fill  our  mouth  with  great 
words  and  to  utter  prayers  meant  for  heaven  ?     Ye  have  not,  because  ye  I 
ask  not.     God  says,  "  Bring  your  vessels,  and  the  oil  shall  flow."     More  L^ 
vessels,  more  oil  ;  more  still,  and  still  more  oil.    (Who  gives  up  ?     Man.\ 


220  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

He  says,  "  I  have  no  more  vessels  " — and  God  causes  the  oil  to  cease  its 
flow.     Never  did  God  say,  "  There  is  no  more  oil ; "  it  is  always  man  that  \ 
saysj ."  There  is  no  more  room."  ^ 

I  have  spoken  of  the  gift  of  the  light  of  the  day,  I  have  spoken  of  the  beauty 
and  richness  of  the  succeeding  seasons,  but  these  are  mean  gifts.  He  who 
gave  them  gave  us  without  our  asking — Christ.  And  he  that  spared  not 
hiy  own  Son,  but  freely  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not  with 
.  him  also  freely  give  us  all  things  ?  Christ  did  not  come  in  answer  to 
prayer,  the  cross  was  not  set  up  because  some  ardent  heart  desired  its 
elevation  ;  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Lamb  slain  from  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world,  God's  answer  to  God's  own  prayer.  So  also  is  the  gift  of  our : 
life  and  all  its  responsibilities  ;  we  did  not  ask  to  live,  we  did  not  ask  for 
one  talent,  or  two,  or  five  :  I  did  not  ask  to  be  preacher  or  teacher,  you 
did  not  ask  to  be  merchantman  or  writer  or  thinker,  or  leader  of  human 
opinion — we  are  what  we  are  in  all  these  matters  of  capacity  and  appoint- 
ment by  the  grace  or  wisdom  of  God.  l^ 

So  then  there  is  a  region  in  which  prayer  seems  to  be  uncalled  for,  or  to 
be  utterly  without  opportunity  and  avail.  The  gifts  of  God  in  nature,  in 
redemption,  in  life,  in  responsibility,  these  are  determined  by  his  own  will 
and  not  by  our  prayer.  "Vet  there  are,  in  relation  to  our  life,  many  inter-  i 
stices  which  are  to  be  filled  by  our  own  supplications  and  prayers.  A  man  I 
comes  to  feel  somewhat  of  the  range  of  his  own  capacity,  then  he  besieges 
the  throne  of  grace  for  direction,  sanctification,  and  for  the  upholding  and 
comforting  of  holy  grace  that  he  may  not  waste  his  life,  pouring  it  out  like 
a  plentiful  rain  upon  the  unanswering  sand.  The  man  comes  to  find  that 
he  was  born  into  the  world  with  feeble  constitution,  with  an  irritable  tem- 
perament, with  physical  defects  or  excesses  that  require  the  continual  vigi- 
lance of  his  heart  and  the  continual  sanctification  of  God.  There  he 
begins  to  pray,  God  having  in  all  things  left  an  opening  for  prayer.  There 
be  those  who  pray  for  fine  days — I  do  not  now  :  all  days  are  fine.  There 
be  those  who  pray  for  health  :  I  would  like  to  live  to  be  able  to  pray  for 
health  with  this  supplement  to  my  prayer — Nevertheless,  if  sickness  be 
better  for  me,  the  Lord  make  me  sick  every  day. 

Now  the  Saviour  comes  to  his  last  word.  Let  me  ask  you  to  read  it. 
"  Therefore,  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do 
ye  even  so  to  them,  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets."  Who  has  an 
eye  acute  enough  in  vision  to  see  the  connection  between  this  therefore 
and  .the  argument  that  has  gone  before  ?  It  startled  me  :  I  did  not  know 
that  the  argument  stretched  itself  beyond  the  eleventh  verse — "  If  ye  then, 
being  ovil,  know  how  to   give  good   gifts  to   your  children,   how  much 

more ."     Said  I,  "  The  argument  ends  with  that  enquiry,"  and  behold 

in  the  twelfth  verse  I  was  challenged  with  a  great  therefore,  as  if  the  syllo- 
gism did  not  complete  itself    until  we  came  to  this  conclusion — "  AH 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  221 

things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to 
them."  What  has  that  to  do  with  the  subject  ?  "  Evidently  nothing," 
say  you.  "  Evidently  much,"  says  Christ.  This  is  no  incoherence  on  the 
part  of  the  divine  Teacher.  He  does  sometimes  startle  by  taking  what  are 
called  new  departures,  but  in  this  Ergo  he  stands  steadily  by  the  argu- 
ment he  has  been  establishing.  Let  us  read  it  with  the  intent  of  discov- 
ering his  meaning. 

"  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  to  your  children — 
the  good  gifts  being  indicated  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  verses — what  man  is 
there  of  you  whom  if  his  son  ask  bread  will  he  give  him  a  stone  ?     None. 
Therefore,  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  giving  you 
bread  when  you  ask  bread,  and  not  a  stone.     Or  if  he  ask  a  fish,  will  he 
give  him  a  serpent  ?     No.     Therefore,  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that 
men  should  do  to  you,  in  answer  to  your  prayers,  never  giving  a  serpent 
for  a  fish,  a  stone  for  bread,  a  scorpion  for  an  egg,  do  ye  even  so  to  them. 
How  would  you  feel,  if  asking  your  father  for  an  egg,  he  gave  you  a  scor- 
pion ?    Would  he  not  disqualify  himself  for  the  paternal  relation  ?    There-  j 
forego  by  your  own  judgment,  follow  out  your  own   reasoning — if  you/ 
would  not  receive  a  scorpion  for  an  egg,  as  an  act  of  love  and  of  honour, 
never  perpetrate  that  bitter  and  disastrous   irony  in  your  own  dealings' 
with  mankind,  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets — this  is  the  blossom,  Ij 
this  the  fruit  of  all  history  :  it  grows  up  into  this,  blossoming  into  love  and  |^ 
fructifying  into  noble  charity  and  honour. 

Does  not  this  seem  a  small  result  for  so  great  a  prophecy  ?  Did  it 
require  thousands  of  years  to  grow  this  tree  and  to  mould  and  mellow,  in 
complete  sweetness,  this  fruit  ?  What  is  the  fruit  ?  Love.  All  the  law  is 
fulfilled  in  one  word — Love.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself. 
For  this  the  ages  have  travailed  in  birth,  and  this  the  child — Love.  This 
is  the  law  and  the  prophets. 

Where  are  you  ?  Still  in  the  region  of  opinions — still  discussing  tiny 
metaphysics,  still  asking  one  another  about  your  little  narrow  hazy  theo- 
logical views  ?  I  despise  you,  if  you  mean  to  rest  there,  chaffering  and  chat- 
tering about  your  denominational  peculiarities  and  your  metaphysical  and 
theological  distinctions,  your  orthodoxy  and  your  heterodoxy,  jomx  isms  and 
your  ations.  If  you  are  there  and  still  mean  to  stop  there,  I  want  to  go  on. 
What  to  ?  Love.  Again  and  again  remember  that  Love  is  the  fulfilling 
of  the  law.  He  that  loveth  not  knoweth  not  God,  for  God  is  love.  If  a 
man  love  not  his  brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can  he  love  God  whom 
he  hath  not  seen  ?  I  am  more  anxious  to  cure  the  disease  of  your  affec-  \\ 
tions  than  to  correct  your  purely  intellectual  mistakes.  Believe  what  you 
may  intellectually,  if  your  spirit  be  not  bathed  in  the  very  love  of  God  you 
have  not  entered  into  the  inner  places  of  the  holy  kingdom.  This  blessed 
love  is  often  the  best  guide  of  the  intellect.     It  makes  men  modest,  it 


222  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

prostrates  them  in  the  lowliness  which  is  acceptable  to  God,  and  it  expels 
from  the  heart  every  passion  that  would  contest  the  supremacy  of  Christ. 
I  do  not  call  you  to  brilliance  or  grandeur  of  intellect,  but  I  do  most 
strenuously  exhort  you  to  follow  in  the  upward  direction  that  is  ever  taken 
by  the  spirit  of  heavenly  love. 


XXVI. 

THE    STRAITNESS     OF     THE     GATE — SEEKING     AND     NOT     ENTERING — THE 
ELEVENTH    COMMANDMENT THE    EXHORTATION. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  our  hearts  know  thee,  and  in  their  deepest  love  is  thy  name  set 
as  their  one  jewel  and  treasure.  We  cannot  understand  thee,  but  we  can  love  thee  ; 
thou  dost  not  come  into  our  intelligence  or  sit  down  in  our  understandiug,  thou  knockest 
at  the  door  of  our  heart,  and  into  its  love  thou  dost  come  with  all  readiness,  bringing 
with  thee  all  heaven.  Our  hearts  are  towards  thee  to-day  in  great  expectancy,  we 
have  assured  ourselves  that  this  is  thy  day,  and  that  thou  wilt  make  a  temple  of  every 
heart,  and  sit  down  with  every  one  of  us,  and  make  us  see  thy  life.  It  is  not  to  such 
expectancies  thou  dost  :-eturn  some  cold  reply,  thou  dost  come  with  swiftness  to  hearts 
that  are  waiting,  for  the  sigh  is  contrite  and  the  groan  is  one  because  of  heavy  and 
intolerable  sin  :  where  the  eyes  of  our  hearts  are  set  towards  the  cross  of  thy  Son, 
thou  dost  come  with  wings  outstretched,  flying  faster  than  the  lightning,  that  thou 
mayest  heal  and  comfort  and  mightily  redeem.  We  come  to  thee  with  our  love 
shaped  into  an  earnest  prayer,  with  our  hearts  crying  after  the  living  God  with  infinite 
desire. 

We  have  tested  the  poverty  of  time,  we  have  seen  the  little  boundaries  which 
encircle  and  imprison  us,  and  our  souls  are  filled  with  infinite  discontent  because  of 
the  meanness  of  space  and  time.  We  would  look  beyond,  we  would  be  drawn  by 
mighty  forces  that  are  above,  we  would  yield  ourselves  to  ministries  that  have  no 
sufficient  name,  plying  the  heart  with  subtle  tenderness,  luring  the  affections  with 
mighty  strength,  promising  our  love  and  our  whole  capacity  an  ample  and  sweet 
satisfaction  in  regions  beyond  the  line  of  time. 

We  bless  thee  for  thy  sacred  Book,  behold  it  is  written  with  thine  own  finger  ;  we 
see  no  human  writing  in  it.  Beyond  the  human  scribe  we  see  the  divine  inspirer,  we 
hear  in  human  words  music  that  is  not  of  earth,  we  see  in  the  beanty  of  thy  revela- 
tion a  light  that  never  fell  from  created  suns.  Help  us  to  enter  into  the  sanctuary  of 
thy  word  and  richly  to  enjoy  thy  revelation,  and  may  our  hearts  abound  with  loving 
thankfulness  to  thee  for  putting  into  our  speech  something  of  the  meaning  and  pur- 
pose of  thine  own  heart.  Help  us  to  read  thy  Book  wisely,  save  us  from  the  narrow- 
ness and  poverty  of  the  mere  letter,  may  the  letter  of  thy  Book  be  but  as  a  door  open- 
ing upon  boundless  spaces  and  liberties,  and  may  we  enter  in  and  enjoy  the  heritage 
of  a  glorious  and  indestructible  freedom. 

Thou  knowest  our  life  :  what  is  it  but  a  breath  in  the  nostrils,  a  flying  shadow,  a 
dying  vapour,  a  post  hastening  on  his  way  ? — behold  we  are  as  the  grass  that  is  con- 
sumed in  the  oven,  and  in  our  strength  there  is  no  duration,  our  joys  are  bubbles  upon 
the  stream  that  burst,  and  what  we  gather  are  but  flowers  plucked,  and  that  must 
wither.  Help  us  then  to  lay  up  treasure  in  heaven  ;  may  Christ  be  our  wealth,  may 
the  Son  of  God  be  our  chief  possession  ;  having  him  in  the  heart,  dwelling  in  the 


224  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

mind,  ruling  the  will,  directing  every  step  of  our  life,  we  shall  be  rich  with  inexhaust- 
ible treasures.     Enrich  us,  thou  Sou  of  God. 

As  for  our  sin,  who  may  name  such  blackness?  But  thou  hast  light  enough  to 
drive  it  all  away.  Who  dare  speak  of  guilt  so  deep  and  dark?  But  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ  thy  Sou  cleanseth  from  all  sin,  so  where  great  sin  abouudeth  grace  doth 
:nuch  more  abound  ;  as  in  the  darkness  we  see  the  stars,  so  in  our  great  sorrow,  when 
the  tears  big  and  hot  fall  from  our  reddened  eyes,  do  thou  therein  shine  upon,  them  a 
divine  light  which  makes  them  gleam  with  many  a  tender  colour.  O  thou  who  dost 
forgive,  who  has  paid  a  ransom  for  men,  and  whose  delight  it  is  to  release  fi'om  the 
torment  and  the  shame  of  sin,  come  to  every  heart  to-day  with  pardon  and  its 
attendant  liberty. 

Look  upon  those  hairs  that  are  grey,  that  are  bent  before  thee  with  the  reverence 
of  age,  and  supply  the  old  man  with  what  he  needs  of  grace  and  light  and  help. 
Thou  hast  chastened  him  with  many  an  affliction,  thou  hast  dug  many  a  grave  on  his 
life  path,  thou  hast  startled  him  by  many  a  fear — now  let  the  evening  be  quiet,  take 
the  storm  out  of  the  clouds  and  fill  them  with  hopeful  life.  Look  upon  all  the  young 
men  and  women  full  of  life  and  fire,  whose  every  look  is  an  expectation,  whose  every 
word  is  a  vow  of  nobler  life,  and  grant  unto  such  increasing  power  of  prayer,  increas- 
ing energy  to  overthrow  every  temptation.  Hide  within  young  hearts  thy  living 
word,  an  eloquence  that  cannot  be  answered,  a  reply  to  which  the  devil  can  return 
no  answer.  Look  upon  the  busy  man  lest  he  be  so  busy  as  to  let  the  King  pass  by, 
lest  he  seek  in  the  dust  and  find  nothing  there  but  a  pit  for  his  body.  The  Lord  help 
us  all  to  earn  our  bread  honestly,  give  us  plenty  of  it,  no  more  than  is  good  for  us  ; 
and  as  for  our  house,  do  thou  keep  the  key  of  its  principal  door,  and  upon  the  win- 
dows pour  the  smiling  light  of  thy  blessing.  Be  with  us  in  the  cradle,  be  with  us  in 
the  market-place,  be  with  us  in  the  school  and  in  the  church  and  everywhere  ;  may 
every  step  we  take  be  a  step  in  the  right  direction. 

Bless  the  stranger  within  our  gates,  the  heart  that  is  far  from  home,  between  whose 
love  and  the  objects  of  it  there  roll  mighty  seas  or  stretch  innumerable  miles  ;  by  the 
spirit  of  thy  love  make  the  fellowship  complete,  destroy  all  space  and  time,  and  give 
the  joy  of  spiritual  communion. 

Send  messages  from  thy  heavens  to  our  sick-chambers.  Some  whom  thou  lovest 
are  sick,  and  thou  lovest  them  to  be  sick  because  oat  of  their  sickness  thou  wilt  work 
a  better  health.  The  Lord  be  their  Physician  and  their  comforter,  and  a  light  above 
the  brightness  of  the  sun  be  in  their  darkened  chambers. 

The  Lord  will  not  forget  the  prodigal,  the  wanderer,  the  man  of  the  hard  heart, 
those  who  are  invincible  by  any  power  of  ours — the  Lord's  hand  be  upon  them,  not 
for  destruction,  but  for  salvation,  and  bring  gladness  into  our  hearts  by  the  intelli- 
gence that  they  have  arrived  at  home. 

Dry  our  tears,  make  our  poverty  an  occasion  of  thy  coming  to  us,  may  our  blind- 
ness be  the  reason  of  thine  approach,  and  do  thou  dwell  in  us  and  make  us  living 
temples.     Amen, 

Matthew  vii.  13,  14. 

13.  Enter  ye  in  at  the  strait  gate,  for  wide  is  the  gate,  and  broad  is  the  way  that 
leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many  there  be  which  go  in  thereat 

14.  Because  strait  is  the  gate  and  narrow  is  the  way  which  leadeth  unto  life,  and 
few  there  be  that  find  it. 

This  is  rather  a  mournful  view,  not  only  of  human  life,  but  of  the  king- 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  225 

dom  of  heaven  itself  ;  as  if  it  would  be  thinly  populated,  and  give  us  at 
last  rather  a  representation  of  infinite  failure  on  the  one  side  than  of  real 
success  and  completeness  on  the  other.  That,  however,  would  be  a  wrong 
exposition  of  the  text.  There  is  more  light  in  it  than  seems  to  flash  upon 
the  eye  at  the  first  look.  There  is  really  nothing  novel  or  unintelligible  in 
the  principle  which  is  here  laid  down,  namely,  that,  because  strait  is  the 
gate  and  narrow  is  the  way,  few  there  be  that  find  it.  We  know  that  to 
be  a  true  principle  in  the  common  walks  and  ranges  of  life.  It  is  the  prin- 
ciple which  applies  at  home,  in  the  school,  in  the  market-place,  everywhere 
in  fact ;  the  principle,  that  is,  that  according  to  the  value  of  any  kingdom 
is  the  straitness  of  the  gate  which  opens  upon  it.  If  you  will  accustom 
the  mind  to  that  thought  for  a  moment  or  two,  you  will  not  be  struck  by 
any  novelty,  certainly,  by  any  harshness  in  the  conditions  which  are 
attached  to  entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

Into  what  kingdom  is  it  that  you  are  anxious  now  to  enter  ?  Above  all 
things  you  wish  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  music.  Very  well.  This  is 
the  New  Testament  doctrine  concerning  the  kingdom  of  music.  "  Strait 
is  the  gate  and  narrow  is  the  way  which  leadeth  unto  excellence  in  music, 
and  few  there  be  that  find  it."  You  have  to  study  night  and  day,  you  have 
no  time  for  yourself,  you  are  at  it,  always  at  it,  or  getting  ready  for  it,  crit- 
icising or  being  criticised,  repeating,  rehearsing,  going  over  it  again  and 
again,  still  higher  and  higher.  If  that  is  the  law  of  your  little  kingdom  of 
music,  why  should  it  not  be  the  law  of  the  larger  kingdom  of  life,  which 
includes  all  beauty,  and  learning,  and  music,  and  power  ?  Show  me  any 
musician  that  is  ever  really  and  completely  satisfied  with  his  own  attain- 
ment ;  in  that  proportion  will  he  be  no  musician  at  all — an  amateur,  easily 
satisfied  with  himself.  When  Handel  composed  his  "  Messiah,"  and  sat 
a  long  way  off  to  hear  it,  he  came  again  and  again  to  some  of  the  players 
upon  the  wind  instruments,  and  said,  "  Loudaire  ;  "  and  again  he  came 
and  said,  "  Loudaire,"  and  away  he  went,  and  came  again  and  said,  "  Lou- 
daire ;  "  and  at  last  they  said,  "  Where  is  the  wind  to  come  from  ?  "  He 
wanted  all  the  winds  of  heaven,  and  all  the  thunders  that  slumbered  in 
the  clouds,  and  all  creation  to  take  up  his  Amen  and  sing  it,  till  the  uni- 
verse vibrated  with  its  infinite  life. 

What  is  the  kingdom  that  you  are  most  anxious  to  enter  into  ?  "I  am," 
say  you,  "  most  anxious  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  painting,  pictures, 
the  mystery  of  colour,  the  language,  subtle  and  infinite,  that  expresses 
itself  through  the  medium  of  colour."  Is  it  easy  ?  You  shake  your  head 
in  despondent  reply,  and  say  that  you  seem  to  get  worse  rather  than  bet- 
ter. At  first  you  were  rather  pleased,  and  now  you  could  tear  up  the 
canvas — it  vexes  you  by  the  vulgarity  you  write  upon  it  with  your  clumsy 
fingers.  Strait  is  the  gate  and  narrow  is  the  way  which  leadeth  unto  art, 
and  few  there  be  that  find  it.     My  young  friend,  do  not  imagine  that  you 


226  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

can  jump  into  eminence  :  if  you  can  jump  into  it,  you  may  easily  jump 
out  of  it.  Character  must  be  a  growth,  long-continued  and  patiently  cul- 
civated.  One  of  yourselves  took  me  into  his  study  the  other  day,  and  said, 
"I  want  you  to  look  at  this  sketch."  Said  I,  "This  lies  a  long  way  from 
your  range  of  studies."  ''  Yes,"  was  the  reply — "  my  temptation  is  towards 
impatience  ;  I  get  tired  of  things,  and  I  at  the  last  lump  them  and  hasten 
them  through,  becoming  utterly  careless  towards  the  close.  I  undertook 
this  work  to  teach  me  patience,  slowness,  and  completeness  of  toil.  How 
long  do  you  think  I  was  over  that?"  "I  cannot  tell  how  long."  "I 
spent  upon  that  two  hours  every  day,  Sundays  excepted,  for  two  months." 
A  little  thing  about  the  size  of  the  palm  of  your  hand  :  he  could  have  done 
it  in  half  the  time,  but  then  he  would  have  missed  the  direct  purpose  of 
his  attempting  to  do  it.  He  must  straiten  the  gate  and  narrow  the  road, 
because  he  wants  to  go  into  a  kingdom  that  is  worth  going  into,  and  there 
is  no  kingdom  worth  having  that  you  can  snatch  and  pocket,  and  keep 
without  equivalent  toil  or  thought. 

Do  you  want  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  influence,  do  you  want  to  be 
a  man  that  shall  be  consulted  in  difficulties,  to  whom  people  shall  come  in 
hours  of  perplexed  thought,  to  whom  they  shall  state  their  cases,  and  for 
whose  opinion  they  shall  anxiously  wait  ?  Influence  comes  out  of  time, 
care,  experience,  and  these  things  are  not  to  be  hurried.  A  man,  well- 
known  to  most  of  us,  is  lying  sick  to-day,  and  a  physician  of  renown  was 
called  in  to  see  him  not  long  ago  ;  the  doctors,  having  heard  the  opinion 
of  this  eminent  man,  declined,  one  and  all,  to  give  his  own  conception  of 
the  case.  Why  is  it  so  amongst  you  that  if  a  great  physician  gives  his 
opinion,  you  will  not  give  yours  ?  "  Yes — there  is  no  opinion  after  his." 
The  man  grows  to  that — do  not  suppose  that  you  can  dream  yourselves 
to  that.  Inspiration  there  is  in  it,  no  doubt,  but  a  man  has  to  work  for 
it,  and  pay  for  it,  and  climb  his  way  to  it,  one  round  of  the  ladder  at  a 
time.  Strait  is  the  gate  and  narrow  is  the  way  which  leadeth  unto  supreme 
influence,  and  few  there  be  that  find  it. 

I  have  troubled  you  with  these  illustrations,  just  to  show  that  really 
there  is  nothing  novel,  extraordinary,  or  harsh  in  the  principle  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  value  of  any  kingdom  that  you  aim  to  reach,  is  the  straitness 
of  the  gate  and  is  the  narrowness  of  the  road  leading  unto  it.  It  is  my 
wont — bear  me  witness  if  you  please — always  to  speak  a  word  for  the  weak 
man.  Have  I  ever  put  out  a  finger  and  laid  it  upon  any  soul  as  a  burden 
that  was  trying  to  be  better  ?  Cheer  me  by  telling,  what  is  only  the  truth, 
that  I  may  have  erred  in  excess  of  charity,  never  in  excess  of  severity. 
Comfort  me  with  these  words,  tell  me  you  have  so  understood  me,  and  I 
shall  preach  to  you  with  a  broader  and  warmer  love.  I  want  to  do  so  with 
peculiar  tenderness  just  now. 

Enter  ye  in  at  the  strait  gate — or,  as  we  read  elsewhere,  strive  to  enter 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE  227 

in  at  the  strait  gate,  seek  to  enter  in,  labour  to  enter  in,  agonize  to  enter 
in.  The  fear  is  that  some  of  you  may  imagine  that  striving  is  conquest, 
and  you  may  visit  upon  a  man  who  is  merely,  though  with  all  his  heart, 
striving  to  enter  in,  the  judgment  that  you  would  accord  to  him  after  he 
had  passed  the  gate,  and  had  walked  long  miles  up  the  heavenly  steep. 
You  have  been  cruel  to  some  of  your  friends,  you  have  taunted  them  with 
bitter  mockery  when  they  have  been  striving  to  enter  in  ;  you  thought 
they  had  already  professed  to  have  entered,  and  you  have  mocked  them 
with  bitterness  ;  you  have  asked  them  if  that  was  their  goodness,  you  have 
taken  up  little  specks  of  their  life,  and  said,  "  Aha,  is  this  a  sample  of  your 
piety  ? "  It  was  only  a  sample  of  their  agony,  it  was  only  a  pattern  of 
their  striving.  It  was  not  to  be  picked  up  as  a  trophy  of  conquest,  but  to 
be  referred  to  as  an  incident  in  the  great  agony  of  striving  to  enter  in. 

When  the  young  Christian  slips  and  falls,  don't  mock  him  ;  when  a  man 
is  labouring,  even  in  agonistic  earnestness,  to  be  better,  and  when  in  the 
midst  of  it  all  he  gets  tripped  up,  and  somehow  or  other  falls  down  as  he 
were  dead  drunk  at  your  feet,  he  may  be  a  better  man  than  you  are  :  you 
never  got  wrong  socially — you  may  be  the  worst  man  alive  for  anything  I 
know  to  the  contrary,  you  proud  Pharisee,  you  whitewashed  sepulchre,  you 
trick  undiscovered — take  care  lest  ye  be  wounding  good  men  who  have 
the  true  seed  in  them,  but  who,  peculiarly  constituted,  fall  twenty  times  a 
day,  and  have  the  devil's  iron  teeth  crushed — crushed — through  them,  all 
over.  I  do  not  defend  their  vices,  I  sympathise  with  their  weakness  ;  I 
have  known  the  prayers  of  such  men,  and  to  no  other  prayers  have  I  ever 
added  so  cordial  an  Amen — prayers  that  had  blood  in  them,  and  music  sub- 
tle and  far  brought  and  far  sounding,  prayers  of  the  very  inmost  soul ;  and 
I  did  not  judge  them  harshly,  I  saw  they  were  striving  to  enter  in,  seeking 
to  enter  in,  agonizing  to  enter  in,  and  the  measure  of  their  earnestness  was 
the  measure  of  the  diabolic  assault  upon  them.  If  I  speak  to  such  hearts 
now,  when  possibly  I  may  do  so,  let  my  word  be  one  of  the  broadest  cheer, 
a  great  sun-like  word,  brightening  upon  their  lives  with  infinite  hope.  Still 
strive  to  enter  in,  and  God  will  be  pitiful  to  you. 

But  we  read  that  some  will  seek  to  enter  in  and  shall  not  be  able. 
That  we  read  in  another  gospel  than  the  one  we  are  now  expounding. 
How  singular  it  is  then  that  some  shall  seek  to  enter  in  and  shall  not  be 
able.  Is  not  this  a  mockery  of  human  effort  ?  How  many  persons  have 
been  puzzled  by  that  expression,  and  have  gone  to  their  pastors  and  teachers 
with  it,  as  men  would  go  with  a  great  pain,  and  said,  "  Can  you  heal  this 
mortal  agony  ?  I  am  discouraged  because  it  says  some  will  seek,  yea, 
many  will  seek,  to  enter  in  and  shall  not  be  able.  I  may  be  one  of  the 
many — God  help  me.  Tell  me  if  it  is  so  :  I  feel  this  thought  darkening 
upon  me  like  a  cloud  of  thunder."  O  distressed  one,  shall  I  call  thee  Fool 
and  slow  of  heart  to  believe  all  that  the  Speaker  spake  when  he  uttered 


228  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

these  words  that  give  thee  trouble  ?  The  answer  is  in  the  very  next  verse 
— 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."  The  seeking  and  the  knocking  referred  to 
take  place  when  the  day  of  mercy  is  no  more.  When  the  good  man  of  the 
house  has  risen  up  and  gone  to  rest,  when  Christ  is  risen  from  the  media- 
torial seat  and  has  delivered  up  the  kingdom  unto  God  and  his  Father, 
then  the  shout  of  agony  shall  die  in  space,  and  the  cry  of  despair  shall  be 
the  awful  music  of  hell. 

The  words,  therefore,  do  not  apply  to  you  at  all.  The  good  man  of  the 
house  has  not  risen  and  shut  the  door,  the  Son  of  God  has  not  completed 
his  priestly  ministry,  Jesus  Christ  is  still  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all 
that  come  unto  God  by  him,  God  still  waits  to  be  gracious,  the  door  is  set 
wide  open,  and,  therefore,  the  verse  which  before  was  a  burden  to  you  and 
a  great  darkness  may  now  be  lifted  off  your  shoulder  and  chased  away,  to 
the  last  shadow  of  it,  from  your  life  path,  for  it  never  referred  to  any  man 
who  earnestly  sought  the  Lord  while  he  might  be  found,  and  called  upon 
him  while  he  was  near.  What  say  you  to  seeking  now,  and  striving  ? 
What  if  we  make  this  day  the  most  memorable  day  in  our  life  by  sending 
the  heart  out  like  a  living  bird  to  such  a  rest  in  God  ?  Let  thine  heart  fly 
God-ward,  poor  soul ;  do  thou  gather  thyself  up  into  one  flaming  prayer, 
and  say,  "  God  be  merciful  unto  me  a  sinner,"  and  thy  joy  shall  be  too 
great  for  words,  thy  rapture  shall  leave  even  music  behind  it,  as  the  lark 
leaves  under  his  wings  the  clouds  of  the  smoking  city.  Now  is  the  accepted 
time,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation. 

"  Few  there  be  that  find  it."  Do  not  judge  success  by  numbers.  It  is 
always  pleasant  to  see  great  numbers  gathering  round  the  standard  you  set 
up,  but  always  remember  that  quality  is  better  than  quantity,  the  audience 
may  be  fit  though  few.  They  are  strong  men  who  gather  themselves  around 
Christ,  for  they  have  nothing  to  rest  upon  but  inspiration  ;  no  property, 
no  ancestry,  no  fine  clothing,  no  parchments,  nothing  but  the  grace  of  God. 
Jesus  Christ  never  sought  to  make  his  kingdom  popular  in  the  sense  of 
bringing  into  it  any  and  everybody  that  casually  applied  for  admission.  A 
young  man  once  came  to  him  and  said,  "  I  would  like  to  enter  in  at  the 
gate  ;  "  and  Jesus  Christ  said,  "  Why  not  ?  This  gate  is  a  strait  one,  and 
thou  knowest  the  commandments."  Said  the  young  man,  "All  these 
have  I  kept  from  my  youth  up."  A  commandment  that  can  be  kept  is 
by  necessity  a  very  narrow  one  ;  a  commandment  must  always  overflow 
its  own  letter,  if  it  is  really  a  revelation  of  the  highest  morality.  The 
young  man  measured  off  the  commandments,  ten  in  number,  and  he 
said  he  had  kept  them,  letter  by  letter,  every  one,  from  his  youth  up. 
Jesus  Christ,  closing  his  eyes  that  he  might  see  the  better,  said,  "  There  is 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE.  229 

an  eleventh  commandment ;  sell  all  thou  hast  and  give  it  unto  the  poor, 
and  come  and  follow  me ;  "  and  the  young  man  went  away  sorrowful,  for 
he  had  great  possessions.  He  thought  the  gate  was  broad  enough  surely  to 
admit  him  and  all  his  wealth-burden  ;  and  Christ  said,  "  You  cannot  all 
get  through  :  there  is  room  only  for  the  soul,  and  not  for  these  poor  perish- 
able holdings  that  are  of  no  use  on  the  other  side  of  the  gate."  So  Jesus 
did  not  add  to  his  numbers  rashly. 

Another  man  said  to  him,  "  Lord,  I  will  follow  thee,  but — "  Christ  said, 
"  No,  that  word  dui  must  be  dropped,  there  must  be  no  qualifications  ;  let 
the  dead  bury  their  dead,  come  thou  and  follow  me."  On  another  occa- 
sion he  said,  "  If  any  man  will  follow  me,  let  him  take  up  his  cross  and 
come  after  me.  Let  a  man  deny  himself  and  follow  me.  Except  a  man 
deny  himself  he  cannot  be  my  disciple."  You  do  not  wonder  therefore 
that  very  few  people  attached  themselves  livingly  and  lovingly  to  a  man 
whose  conditions  were  so  precise  and  severe.  His  conditions  ought  to 
make  us  all  tremble.  Have  I  denied  myself  ?  Where  ?  Have  I  taken  up 
my  cross  ?  What  weight  is  it  ?  Can  men  see  it  ?  Do  I  feel  it  ?  Why, 
Christianity  has  been  my  maker  :  by  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am. 
Christianity,  every  one  of  us  may  say,  has  made  me  respectable  ;  I  owe  all 
I  have  to  Christianity  :  I  have  been  a  receiver — what  have  I  given  ?  I 
have  held  out  both  hands,  what  have  I  returned  ?  Do  I  not  encourage 
every  whim,  do  I  not  cultivate  every  prejudice,  do  I  not  give  scope  to 
every  antipathy,  am  I  not  harsh  in  judgment,  uncharitable  in  feeling,  Phar- 
isaical in  self-sufficiency,  scribe-like  in  my  obedience  to  the  mere  letter  of 
the  law,  whilst  I  neglect  its  infinite  spirit  ?  Such  questions  as  these  I  could 
inflict  upon  myself  until  I  destroyed  every  whit  of  comfort  and  solace  that 
I  now  enjoy.  There  is  no  cross-bearing  in  being  a  Christian  of  the  nomi- 
nal sort  :  what  cross-bearing  there  would  be  in  being  a  Christian  of  the 
real  sort,  who  can  tell  ?  If  any  man  will  live  godly  in  Jesus  Christ  he 
shall  suffer  persecution. 

When  I  go  into  trade  and  arrange  all  my  business,  I  say  I  have  arranged 
this  business  on  the  principle  that  I  must  live.  Then  it  is  a  false  princi- 
ple, for  there  is  no  need  for  you  to  live.  Did  that  thought  ever  strike 
you  ?  There  is  a  great  need  that  every  man  should  be  honest,  but  not  the 
slightest  necessity  in  the  world  that  any  man,  either  in  the  pulpit  or  out 
of  it,  should  live  an  hour.  "  In  making  my  arrangements  and  dispositions 
of  energy,  and  talent,  and  time,  I  have  always  had  in  full  view  the  fact 
that  I  must  have  subsistence."  There  is  your  error  :  that  is  the  fallacy  in 
your  practical  logic.  What  is  your  subsistence  ?  Who  wants  that  mechan- 
ism of  bones  you  call  yourself  to  stand  upright  for  five  minutes  longer  ? 
What  do  you  mean  by  subsistence  ?  You  must  have  infinite  capacity  of 
eating  and  drinking.  Subsistence  for  how  many  years  ?  On  what  scale  ? 
Do  not  even  the  publicans  the  same — is  not  that  pagan  talk — do  not  the 


230  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

heathen  write  such  maxims  upon  their  papers  and  hang  them  up  in  their 
business  places  as  their  only  Bible  ?  Labour  not  for  the  meat  that  perish- 
eth,  but  labour  for  the  bread  that  endureth  unto  everlasting  life. 

This  is  the  high  gospel  of  Christ.  Who  can  live  it  ?  I  cannot,  I  do 
not.  How  then  can  we  classify  ourselves  ?  As  those  who  are  striving  to 
enter  in.  Sometimes  I  have  tried  for  a  day  or  two,  but  with  such  ample 
reservation  that  it  destroyed  my  action  so  far  as  I  claimed  it  to  be  one  of 
faith.  Sometimes  I  have  said,  "  Now  I  will  try  the  sea."  I  have  gone 
down  to  it,  and  waited  till  it  was  very  quiet,  and  then  have  touched  it  with 
one  timid  foot,  and  called  that  trusting  the  sea — with  a  friend  holding  my 
hand  and  my  other  foot  well  on  shore.  I  have  gone  down  to  touch  with 
reluctance  that  little  foaming  wavelet  that  broke  on  the  golden  sand.  That 
is  not  sea-faring,  that  is  not  sea-going — but  that  is  my  religion  in  Christ, 
too  much.  I  speak  of  myself,  lest  I  should  offend  any  by  unnecessary 
harshness — for  if  any  man  has  gone  a  mile  out  into  the  water,  thank  God 
for  him,  and  let  him  go  a  mile  further  still.  Yet  I  feel  as  if  going  down 
to  the  water  was  moving  in  the  right  direction,  and  perhaps  some  day — 
who  can  tell  ? — I  may  boldly  throw  myself  on  the  great  wave  and  be  caught 
by  Christ's  hand  and  led  to  the  better  land. 

Do  not  let  us  give  up  our  striving  and  our  seeking  and  our  persevering 
— in  due  season  ye  shall  reap  if  ye  faint  not.  Try  once  more,  go  again — • 
what  seest  thou  ?  Nothing.  Go  a  third  time — what  seest  thou  ?  Nothing. 
A  fourth  time,  and  a  fifth,  and  a  sixth — what  seest  thou  ?  A  cloud  about 
the  size  of  a  man's  hand.  Hasten — that  cloud  will  spread  faster  than 
thou  canst  run,  and  presently  there  will  be  a  plash  of  descending  rain,  and 
the  earth  shall  rejoice  in  the  baptism  of  the  divine  blessing. 

This  is  the  great  lesson  of  striving,  and  seeking,  and  trying,  and  perse- 
vering. "  Though  faint,  yet  pursuing  " — be  that  thy  motto,  my  poor  soul. 
The  discouragements  are  innumerable,  but  the  promises  are  many  and 
large.  "He  giveth  more  grace."  Try  again!  Let  me  summon  your 
utmost  hopefulness  into  exercise,  for  when  we  fear  we  go  down  in  che  vol- 
ume and  quality  of  our  being.  Hope  is  power.  Hope  is  inspiration. 
Hope  is  one  of  the  guarantees  of  its  own  fulfilment.  The  great  and  loving 
One  is  watching  you  from  his  bright  heaven,  nor  will  he  spare  his  angels, 
even  should  twelve  legions  be  needed,  to  give  you  victory  and  rest.  My 
soul,  hope  thou  in  God,  and  wait  for  him  until  his  brightness  drives  the 
gloom  for  ever  away. 


XXVII. 

HYPOCRISV     IN     ART JUDGMENT     BY     FRUITS CHRISt's     FORECAST     OP 

HIMSELF. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  truly  is  our  life  a  great  mystery,  and  there  is  no  answer  to  it  in 
ourselves,  but  in  thy  sweet  gospel  do  we  find  the  whole  explanation,  yea,  we  find  the 
infinite  light.  Thou  hast  set  our  life  strangely  so  that  we  know  neither  the  begin- 
ning nor  the  end  of  it.  Thou  dost  fix  our  abode,  and  thou  dost  determine  our  lot 
upon  the  earth  and  we  are  not  our  own,  we  are  wholly  thine.  Thou  hast  made  us  so 
that  we  can  sin  against  thee  with  both  hands  and  our  whole  heart,  and  thou  hast  so 
made  our  life  that  it  can  be  turned  into  one  joyous  and  loving  prayer — this  is  the 
Lord's  doing  and  it  is  wonderful  in  our  eyes.  Surely  this  life  of  ours  is  cruel  ;  thou 
dost  afflict  us  sorely,  and  by  many  a  deprivation  dost  thou  bring  us  to  poverty 
extreme.  Sometimes  thou  seemest  to  have  no  mercy  upon  the  children  of  men. 
Thou  dost  scourge  them  to  the  flowing  of  the  blood,  and  when  they  turn  up  their 
eyes  in  faint  prayer,  the  sky  is  dark  and  sullen.  Behold  thou  dost  separate  us  one 
from  another,  and  care  not  for  our  Farewell  ;  thou  dost  dig  the  grave  at  the  very  foot 
of  our  pleasure,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  feast  thou  dost  blight  us  with  great  fears. 
Yet  thou  art  also  full  of  compassion  and  loving -kindness  :  we  see  it  not  wholly  just 
now — we  see  glimpses  and  sharp  glances  of  thy  love,  quick  lights  that  flash  and  flare 
a  moment,  and  we  believe  that  thou  wilt  by-and-by  explain  it  all,  and  show  that 
thou  hast  done  all  things  well.  Thou  dost  rule  us  with  a  rod  of  iron,  and  thou  dost 
touch  us  with  a  sceptre  of  love.  Thou  dost  bind  us  with  cords  that  cannot  be 
broken  by  human  strength  and  thou  dost  give  us  a  great  liberty  that  cannot  be 
measured  by  human  imagination.  This  is  our  life,  a  pain,  a  joy,  a  night,  a  day,  a 
thrilling  fear,  an  inspiring  hope. 

We  bring  to  thee  the  robe  of  the  week,  fouled  and  torn,  that  thou  mayest  again 
array  us  in  tlie  white  linen  of  the  saints.  We  have  done  the  things  we  ought  not  to 
have  done,  we  have  left  undone  the  things  that  we  ought  to  have  done,  and  we  come 
without  excuse  or  defence,  for  thou  hast  given  us  light  enough  to  see  all  the  way, 
and  help  enough  to  sustain  us  against  every  assault,  yet  have  we  utterly  failed  and 
there  is  no  white  day  in  our  whole  life,  without  scar  or  blot  upon  its  beauty.  God 
be  merciful  unto  us  sinners,  and  show  us  the  cross,  the  sacred  cross,  the  infinite  cross, 
the  redeeming,  healing,  hopeful  cross,  and  in  the  sight  of  that  vision  our  sin  shall  be 
all  forgotten. 

Thou  dost  give  us  a  handful  of  days,  and  we  go  to  work  to  spend  it  as  though  it 
were  an  eternity — such  fools  are  we  and  so  utterly  blind.  We  do  not  reckon  our  little 
store  and  set  it  out  in  lots,  saying,  "  This  shall  be  done  to-day  and  that  to-morrow, 
if  the  Lord  will,  but  with  a  ruffian's  force  and  a  prodigal's  thoughtlessness  we  rush 
upon  our  little  dowry  of  time  and  spend  it  without  thy  fear.  How  brief  a  span  is 
our  life  ;  our  breath,  is  in  our  nostrils,  our  little  day  is  but  twelve  hours  long,  aad  we 


232  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

know  not  that  we  sliall  live  the  whole  time — so  teach  us  to  number  our  days,  that 
we  may  apply  our  hearts  unto  wisdom. 

We  bless  thee  for  all  Christian  light,  for  all  Christian  truth  and  consolation  ;  may 
thy  light  shine  upon  our  hearts  this  day,  may  thy  truth  make  our  understandings 
strong  as  a  great  tower,  and  thy  consolation  guard  our  hearts  against  destructive 
fears.  Save  us  from  the  anxiety  that  is  unchristian,  from  the  care  that  is  the  result 
of  unbelief,  and  that  becomes  an  offence  against  thy  dignity  and  love — enable  us  to 
live  as  those  who  love  the  Saviour  and  trust  the  loving  Father,  and  in  whom  death  is 
abolished. 

Thou  seest  us  as  we  are  gathered  and  bent  here,  praying,  suppliant,  contrite  hearts. 
Omit  no  one  from  thy  blessing — let  the  old  man  feel  young  again,  let  the  young  be 
startled  into  a  sobriety  that  may  become  religious  in  the  long  run,  let  the  busy  man 
remember  that  he  can  take  nothing  out  of  the  world  into  which  he  brought  nothing, 
and  may  those  who  are  in  affliction,  sorrow,  secret  distress,  and  mortal  pain,  sigh 
what  they  cannot  speak  in  words,  and  tell  thee  the  latent  breathings  of  their  heart, 
what  they  may  not  speak  in  the  ear  of  man.  The  prodigal  is  here,  with  his  broken 
staff  and  his  weary  feet,  and  his  head  dizzy  and  aching,  and  his  heart  broken  and 
crushed — the  Lord  give  him  another  chance  in  life,  the  Lord  show  him  the  way  back 
again  and  give  him  courage  to  take  it,  every  step.     Amen. 

Matthew  vii.  15-29. 

15.  Beware  of  false  prophets,  which  come  to  you  in  sheep's  clothing,  but  inwardly 
they  are  ravening  wolves. 

16.  Ye  shall  know  them  by  their  fruits.  Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs 
of  thistles  ? 

17.  Even  so  every  good  tree  bringeth  forth  good  fruit  ;  but  a  corrupt  tree  bringeth 
forth  evil  fruit. 

18.  A  good  tree  cannot  bring  forth  evil  fruit,  neither  can  a  corrupt  tree  bring  forth 
good  fruit. 

19.  Every  tree  that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit  is  hewn  down,  and  cast  into  the 
fire. 

20.  Wherefore  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them. 

21.  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

22.  Many  will  say  to  me  in  that  day.  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  phrophesied  in  thy 
name  ?  and  in  thy  name  have  cast  out  devils  ?  and  in  thy  name  done  many  wonderful 
works  ? 

23.  And  then  will  I  protest  unto  them,  I  never  knew  you  :  depart  from  me  ye  that 
work  iniquity. 

24.  Therefore  whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and  doeth  them,  I  will 
liken  him  unto  a  Avise  man,  which  built  his  house  upon  a  rock  ; 

25.  And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon 
that  house  ;  and  it  fell  not  ;  for  it  was  founded  upon  a  rock. 

26.  And  everyone  that  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and  doeth  them  not,  shall  be 
likened  unto  a  foolish  man,  which  built  his  house  upon  the  sand  : 

27.  And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat 
upon  that  house  ;  and  ii  fell :  and  great  was  the  fall  of  it. 

28.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Jesus  had  ended  these  sayings,  the  people  were 
astonished  at  his  doctrine  : 

29.  For  he  taught  them  as  one  having  authority,  and  not  as  the  scribes. 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE  233 

"  Beware  of  false  prophets,  which  come  to  you  in  sheep's  clothing,  but 
inwardly  they  are  ravening  wolves."  Beware  of  the  false  in  everything  : 
encourage  the  instinct  and  spirit  of  truth — then  you  will  have  no  need  to 
be  instructed  as  to  particulars  and  details.  Be  as  true  as  fire,  a  perpetual 
disinfectant,  a  test  that  can  never  be  deceived.  Have  in  you,  ever  dwell- 
ing in  the  temple  of  your  heart,  the  spirit  of  truth,  then  you  will  know  the 
false  man  the  moment  you  look  at  him  :  the  detection  of  falsehood  will 
not  be  an  act  of  skill  or  cleverness,  but  you  will  shudder  when  the  false 
man  is  within  a  mile  of  you,  as  the  wind  in  some  parts  of  the  sea  has  a 
sudden  chill  in  it  because  of  the  far-off  icebergs.  Beware  of  the  false  in 
everything,  false  promises,  false  directions,  false  appearances.  Then  add 
the  word  prophets,  for  there  is  more  in  the  word  false  than  there  is  in  the 
yf 0x6.  prophets.  A  man  is  not  a  good  man  simply  because  he  is  a  prophet  • 
do  not  trust  to  the  goodness  or  the  nobleness  of  your  office  for  your  per- 
sonal vindication  :  you  should  be  bigger  than  your  office — no  pulpit  on 
earth  should  be  as  grand  as  you  are,  no  prophet's  robe  that  ever  covered 
human  shoulder  should  be  worth  your  majesty, 

"False  prophets."  What  ironies  there  are  in  speech.  To  think  the 
word  false  should  ever  have  been  married  to  the  word  prophets.  Surely 
that  sacred  word  prophet  might  have  escaped  this  foul  contamination.  Let 
the  word  false  go  wooing  otherwhere,  let  it  marry  the  market-place,  but  let 
it  keep  a  thousand  miles  away  from  the  snow-like  purity  of  the  church  of 
Christ.  "  False  prophets."  Who  can  imagine  two  words  more  positively 
contradictory  ?  Who  can  imagine  a  union  so  palpably  and  grossly  absurd  ? 
Who  can  effect  a  junction  between  two  words  that  shall  mean  so  much 
that  is  mischievous,  disastrous,  ruinous  ?  It  requires  Jesus  Christ  surely 
to  say  the  word  false  before  the  word  prophets.  Surely  that  v^ord  false 
was  written  in  faint  ink,  and  required  his  eyes  of  fire  to  see  it.  In  other 
cases  it  was  written  large  enough  :  it  seemed  to  boast  of  its  haziness, 
and  to  make  its  very  bigness  a  kind  of  satirical  virtue  ;  but  in  connection 
with  \.)\Q \f ord prophets,  who  ever  found  it  before?  False  professor,  false 
prophet,  false  teacher,  false  thinker — it  is  in  that  line  that  lying  does  its 
worst  mischief. 

There  is  arising  amongst  us  a  class  of  men  who  are  exceedingly  anx- 
ious not  to  tell  lies  in  art.  It  is  provocative  of  secret  laughter,  and  much 
of  it.  Solemn  persons,  who  will  not  allow  a  painter  to  tell  lies  in  oil.  Yet 
it  is  not  unbeautiful,  and  not  wholly  unsuggestive  of  things  heavenly,  Mr. 
Ruskin  would  never  allow  you  to  paint  a  piece  of  wood  as  if  it  were  oak: 
such  an  action  would  send  him  half  wild.  Paint  it  as  black  as  soot  if  you 
like ;  paint  it  a  glaring,  fiery  red  ;  steep  it  in  amber — but  do  not  imitate 
oak.  To  such  an  art-critic  it  is  a  lie,  it  is  a  piece  of  hypocrisy  in  art,  it 
is  not  true,  and  therefore  it  ought  to  be  frowned  out  of  your  houses.  You, 
skilful  amateur,  have  painted  a  piece  of  common  slate  so  skilfully  that 


234  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

your  neighbours  suppose  it  to  be  marble.  Your  mother  insists  that  it  is 
marble  ;  or,  at  all  events,  that  she  never  could  have  told  the  difference 
between  it  and  marble.  Your  neighbours  almost  go  the  length  of  applaud- 
ing you  as  an  artist.  If  one  of  the  class  to  which  I  have  referred  could 
come  into  your  house  and  see  that  painted  slate,  veined  and  shaded  like  a 
cutting  from  the  rock,  he  would  call  it  a  lie,  and  your  cleverness  would  be 
so  much  set  down  to  your  discredit. 

Now,  whilst  I  am  not  able  to  say  much  either  for  or  against  these  pur- 
ists in  art,  I  have  sometimes  wondered  if  it  could  be  possible  for  a  man 
who  would  go  into  a  rage  about  seeing  a  piece  of  common  deal  painted 
like  oak  to  tell  a  lie.  The  swallowing  powers  of  man  are  painful  myster- 
ies to  his  Creator.  I  will  tell  you  what  a  man  can  do  :  he  can  strain  at  a 
gnat  and  swallow  a  camel.  Yet  he  will  not  believe  in  miracles.  Who  can 
believe  anything  with  so  roomy  a  throat  ?  It  would  seem  to  swallow  up 
the  whole  man  that  he  should  seem  to  be  nothing  but  throat.  Have  you 
never  met  in  life  persons  who  would  almost  go  into  a  fit  if  you  were  to 
suggest  to  them  any  falsehood  in  certain  directions,  who  yet  could  turn 
right  round  in  pious  rage  from  that  suggestion  and  tell  falsehoods  of 
another  kind  the  clock  round  ? — so  curious  a  creature  and  irregular  and 
unmanageable  is  man. 

In  all  ages  the  false  has  followed  the  true.  I  do  not  wonder  :  it  is  an 
excellent  speculation.  In  all  ages  the  false  has  brought  the  true  into 
trouble.  "  Of  your  own  selves  shall  men  arise,  speaking  perverse  things, 
to  draw  away  disciples  after  them.  They  that  are  such,"  says  the  apostle, 
"serve  not  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  their  own  belly,  and  by  good  words 
and  fair  speeches  deceive  the  hearts  of  the  simple."  The  nearer  the  false 
approaches  the  true,  the  more  dangerous  is  it.  What  do  you  think  they 
are  doing  now  ?  Making  stones  which  they  call  simile  diamonds.  Take 
care.  People  are  now  making  paste  so  like  diamonds  as  to  deceive  the 
unwary.  My  wonder  is  that  people  who  are  so  anxious  along  that  line  of 
life  should  exhibit  anything  but  the  slightest  anxiety  in  matters  of  doctrine 
touching  correct  thinking  and  the  like.  Present  them  with  a  false  dia- 
mond as  a  true  one,  and  let  them  find  out  the  mistake,  and  then — you  know 
the  rest.  But  suggest  to  them  a  false  idea,  a  crude  and  self-contradictory 
philosophy  of  the  universe,  any  mad  theory  of  creation  you  like,  and  they 
will  call  it  ingenious,  skilful — what  a  young  man  once  called  to  me  "  a 
clever  doubt."  Where  will  be  their  rage,  where  their  sublime  madness, 
where  their  fiery  and  honest  indignation  ? 

The  fear  is  that  we  become  technical  purists  and  moral  liars.  Your  life 
cannot  be  good  if  your  teaching  is  bad.  Doctrine  lies  at  the  basis  of  life. 
There  may  be  those  who  refine  upon  doctrine  and  turn  it  into  useless  dis- 
tinction and  vexatious  definition,  but  doctrine,  teaching,  correct  idea,  lies 
at  the  root  and  core  of  our  life.     You   are  what  you  believe.     You  may 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  235 

profess  to  believe  a  good  many  things  which  you  do  not  turn  into  a  lie, 
but  in  reality  what  you  believe  is  the  very  substance  and  inspiration  of  your 
character.  How  needful,  therefore,  that  we  should  be  rooted  and  grounded 
in  it,  and  saved  from  perversion  and  folly,  and  hold  the  truth  of  God  with 
a  grip  not  to  be  relaxed  by  the  most  importunate  fingers  that  try  to  tear 
us  from  our  attachment  to  divine  verities. 

How  are  we  to  know  the  false  from  the  true  ?  Jesus  Christ  tells  us. 
"By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  The  purist  I  have  been  speaking 
about  would  be  horrified  with  this  kind  of  preaching  ;  if  it  were  done  so 
by  any  living  man,  he  would  write  a  paragraph  in  the  newspaper  about  it  ; 
he  would  say,  "The  preacher  in  such  and  such  a  church  is  the  most 
remarkable  character  for  mixed  metaphor  that  probably  ever  lived.  That 
w^e  may  not  be  apparently  speaking  to  his  disadvantage  without  reason,  let 
us  cite  the  following  example."  Then  in  small  type  would  come,  "  Beware 
of  false  prophets  which  come  to  you  in  sheep's  clothing,  but  inwardly  they 
are  ravening  wolves.  Ye  shall  know  them  by  their  fruits.  Do  men  gather 
grapes  of  thorns  or  figs  of  thistles  ?  "  He  was  talking  about  a  wolf,  and 
now  he  is  talking  about  grapes  and  figs  and  thistles.  The  teaching  of  the 
great  teacher,  whoever  he  is,  is  full  of  ellipses.  He  thinks  more  rapidly 
than  he  can  speak  :  words  cannot  keep  pace  with  his  intellectual  velocity. 
This  is  pre-eminently  the  case  with  all  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  lacunre,  or  gaps,  and  breaks,  are  innumerable,  and  only  the 
man  who  wants  to  find  the  truth  can  find  it  amid  many  of  the  statements 
which  are  of  the  figurative  or  metaphorical  kind.  If  you  really  want  to 
know  what  Christ  means  in  this  case,  do  not  trouble  yourselves  with  the 
rapidity  with  which  he  changes  the  metaphor  ;  but,  with  an  honest  and 
sober  heart,  look  at  the  case,  when  he  says,  "  By  their  results  shall  ye  know 
them."  So  then  a  false  teacher  may  require  a  little  time  for  self-revela- 
tion. The  nearer  tie  approaches  the  truth  the  longer  time  may  he  require 
fully  to  disclose  his  doctrine  and  his  purpose.  The  hand  may  be  the  hand 
of  Esau,  the  voice  may  be  the  voice  of  Jacob  :  it  is  difficult  for  the  false 
hand  to  get  a  false  voice,  and  for  the  false  voice  to  get  a  false  hand  :  na- 
ture is  set  against  such  conjunctions,  and  will  not  afford  facilities  for  the 
completion  of  lies. 

Jesus  Christ  submitted  to  his  own  test.  His  words  are,  "  Many  good 
works  have  I  showed  you  from  my  Father  ;  for  which  of  these  works  do 
you  stone  me  ?  "  And,  again,  "  If  I  do  not  the  works  of  my  Father, 
believe  me  not ;  but  if  I  do,  though  ye  believe  me  not,  believe  the  works, 
that  ye  may  know  and  believe  that  the  Father  is  in  me  and  I  in  him." 
Judge  all  preaching  by  its  results,  judge  all  doctrine  by  its  effects.  My 
young  friend,  let  me  speak  soberly  and  with  great  breadth  of  persuasive- 
ness and  sympathy  to  you  upon  this  subject.  The  doctrine  to  which  you 
have  been  listening  recently  in  various  places  seems  to  you  to  be  brilliant 


236  THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

— you  are  enamoured,  you  are  under  a  spell,  you  say  the  doctrine  seems 
to  refute  all  other  doctrine,  and  to  be  bright  with  new  hopes.  You  are 
now  in  the  intellectual  period.  How  does  the  doctrine  come  down  into 
life  ?  What  does  it  make  of  its  believer  ? — is  it  a  painted  cloud  to  be  gazed 
at  and  wondered  about  like  an  apocalypse  in  the  air,  or  is  it  an  inspiration 
that  expresses  itself  in  charity,  love,  patience,  forbearance,  sympathy,  and 
that  compels  to  honourableness  of  conduct  ?  My  first  question  about  any 
doctrine  is — How  does  it  come  down-stairs  out  of  its  dreamer's  intellect 
and  behave  itself  in  the  kitchen  ? — how  does  it  put  on  its  apron  and  tuck 
up  its  sleeves  and  go  to  life's  daily  work  ? — how  does  it  go  into  the  cham- 
ber and  hush  itself  into  gentleness  and  quietness,  and  what  does  it  say  to 
the  pained  heart,  and  what  to  the  ebbing  life  ?  By  its  fruits  let  it  be 
known  :  What  it  can  do  in  the  plain,  every-day  circles  of  life  shall  be  its 
proofs  to  me  of  its  heavenly  origin.  It  requires  God  to  make  himself  of 
no  reputation,  and  do  earth's  lowest,  humblest  work.  I  ask  you  not, 
therefore,  how  much  your  doctrine  titillates  your  intellect,  inflames  and 
pleases  your  fancy  ;  I  ask  you  how  it  comes  down  to  the  counter  and  pays 
its  bills  ? — how  it  stands  by  a  man  when  all  hell  seems  to  be  against  him 
in  huge  and  terrible  assault  on  his  integrity  and  his  peace  ?  The  rainbow 
is  to  me  most  beautiful,  but  I  cannot  live  upon  it. 

Now  we  come  to  a  remarkable  passage,  in  which  the  tone  of  the  great 
Preacher  changes  with  some  suddenness — the  twenty-first  verse  to  the 
twenty-third  inclusive.  "  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord, 
shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven."  That  is  a  new  tone  in  the  sermon — Lord, 
Lord.  Why,  whoever  thought  of  saying,  "  Lord,  Lord,"  to  the  carpenter's 
son  ?  Inflamed  by  the  passion  of  his  own  rhetoric  he  has  started  up  into 
lordship.  We  never  thought  of  calling  thee  Lord,  poor  Peasant.  It  is  a 
matter  of  consideration  amongst  some  of  us  why  certain  men  should  be 
called  "  Mr."  at  all.  Think  of  that,  that  we  solid-headed  Englishmen 
make  a  matter  of  enquiry  as  to  whether  certain  persons  should  be  called 
"  Mr."  And  then  a  very  acute  subject,  rising  into  a  kind  of  social  agony, 
is  as  to  whether  certain  persons  can  properly  be  called  "  Esquire."  These 
are  the  mighty  problems  that  tear  and  vex  our  nineteenth  century  utterly 
now  and  then.  Here  is  a  man  who  began  life  in  a  manger,  and  whose 
parents  absconded  suddenly  into  Egypt  and  wandered  about  homelessly 
for  some  time,  who  says  that  at  a  certain  time  people  will  be  calling  him 
"Lord,  Lord,"  and  he  will  not  know  them.  It  is  in  these  subtle  touches 
that  I  find  the  true  quality  of  my  Teacher's  character. 

"Many  will  say  to  me  in  that  day."  What,  and  is  he  to  be  Judge  as 
well  as  Lord  ?  Is  he  to  be  the  Arbitrator  as  well  as  the  Teacher  ?  What 
a  forecast,  what  an  assumption,  how  high  the  ground  on  which  he  stands. 
If  it  be  not  a  rock,  he  will  fall  off,  and  we  shall  hear  no  more  of  him. 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  237 

"  But  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  Is  he 
not  our  Father  which  is  in  heaven  ?  Yes,  mediately,  not  immediately. 
Through  a  priestly  intercession,  not  by  right  of  filial  obedience  and  uncor- 
rupted  and  incorruptible  love. 

"  Many  will  say  unto  me,  Have  we  not  prophesied  in  thy  name  ? " 
There  he  feels  the  throbbing  of  his  own  almightiness  :  he  feels  already 
that  his  name  is  to  be  a  charm  in  the  world  :  thus  early  he  forecasts  the 
marvels  that  will  be  wrought  in  his  name.  Men  will  wear  it  as  an  amulet, 
speak  of  it  as  a  charm,  offer  it  as  a  certificate,  wear  it  as  a  seal  and  an 
endorsement.  This  he  said,  not  after  ten  centuries'  experience,  but  at  the 
very  beginning  of  the  beginning.     How  true  it  is  let  time  testify. 

"  Then  will  I  say  unto  them,  Depart  from  me."  What,  then,  does  he 
make  heaven,  and  does  he  make  hell  ;  and  is  everything  to  be  determined 
by  his  will,  and  have  we  all  to  be  subjected  to  his  criticism  and  to  undergo 
his  judgment  ?  All  this  is  most  fully  involved  in  the  statement  we  are  now 
perusing. 

Now  I  see  what  it  meant  when  he  went  up  into  a  mountain.  He  speaks 
as  if  he  were  on  a  mountain.  I  wondered  why  he  withdrew  to  that  height  : 
he  explains  it  in  the  conclusion  of  his  sermon.  Why  the  sermon  itself  is  a 
mountain,  in_  shape,  in  bulk,  in  dignity  ;  beginning  with  the  gentle  slopes 
of  the  beatitudes,  easy,  vernal  slopes,  green  with  spring's  own  loveliness, 
he  passes  on  to  rugged  places,  modified  Sinais,  stony,  rough,  rugged  places 
that  would  affright  us  but  for  the  light  of  his  smile  which  falls  upon  them 
— and  on  he  goes,  higher  and  higher  in  his  doctrine,  he  rises  to  high  chal- 
lenges and  new  proclamations,  and  now  the  sermon  culminates  in  lord- 
ships and  supremacies  which  overlook  and  dominate  the  whole  earth.  We 
saw  him  by  the  quiet  river,  we  watched  him  driven  into  the  bleak  wilder- 
ness, we  saw  him  walking  by  the  seaside  ;  now  we  behold  him  seated  upon 
a  mountain — a  culmination  in  very  deed,  an  upgathering  of  all  that  went 
before,  and  a  place  whence  he  projected  himself  across  the  whole  abyss  of 
time.  Henceforward  Jesus  takes  the  name  of  Lord  ;  henceforward  "  these 
sayings  of  mine  "  are  to  be  the  root  and  core  of  the  only  durable  philoso- 
phy, and  henceforward  men  are  wise  or  foolish  according  as  they  build  or 
build  not  on  Christ. 

Now  we  see  why  he  chose  the  mountain  ;  no  other  pulpit  would  have 
been  worthy  of  such  a  discourse,  no  scaffold  of  man's  making  could  have 
borne  that  infinite  weight,  no  platform  of  human  erection  could  have  sup- 
plied base  enough  for  the  projection  of  such  teaching.  Great  husband- 
man, on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  thou  dost  scatter  a  handful  of  corn  ;  the 
fruit  thereof  shall  shake  like  Lebanon  and  the  cities  of  the  plain  shall 
rejoice  in  its  abundance. 


XXVIII. 

THE   OMISSIONS   OF    THE   SERMON — CHRIST's     ADAPTATION     TO     HIS    AUDI- 
ENCE— CAUTION    AGAINST    MERE   LITERALISM — COMMON    TRIALS. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  for  every  gentle  promise  of  thine  our  hearts  would  bless  thee. 
We  need  thy  tenderest  word,  for  the  wounds  in  our  life  are  vital,  and  there  is  no 
recovery  for  the  soul  of  man  but  by  the  healing  which  thou  dost  supply.  We  are 
wounds  and  bruises  and  putrefying  sores,  and  there  is  no  health  in  us  :  we  have 
destroyed  ourselves,  but  in  thee  is  our  help.  This  we  say  to  ourselves  when  we  are 
most  sober-minded,  and  see  most  clearly  into  our  real  condition  in  the  sight  of  heaven. 
Sometimes  we  delude  ourselves,  and  by  many  a  pretence  do  we  seek  to  mislead  divine 
judgment :  we  wash  our  hands  with  soap  and  nitre,  and  we  think  that  therefore  our 
heart  must  be  clean  :  we  robe  ourselves  in  white  linen  as  if  we  clothed  the  spirit 
with  the  snow  of  absolue  holiness,  but  now  and  again  we  see  into  our  own  corrup- 
tion and  it  frightens  us  with  a  great  terror,  for  in  us  there  is  no  health — we  are 
charnel  houses,  we  are  dead  souls,  we  are  corrupt  and  pestilent  in  thy  sight,  and  we 
annoy  heaven  by  our  very  breathing. 

To  whom  shall  we  come  but  unto  the  living  one  for  life,  and  to  the  eternal  for  the 
extension  of  our  duration  ?  We  hasten  to  the  cross,  we  flee  with  feet  of  lightning 
to  thy  side,  thou  wounded  One,  Emmanuel,  the  God-Man.  Thou  didst  never  cast 
out  the  contrite  seeker,  thou  didst  never  say  "No"  to  the  broken  heart;  when 
streaming  eyes  have  been  turned  to  thee  thou  hast  poured  upon  them  the  light  of  thy 
smile,  and  made  even  the  tears  of  sorrow  beautiful.  We  all  come  to  thee  with  great 
piercing  cries  of  want,  sharp  and  ringing  utterances  of  agony,  principally  saying, 
"God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner;"  and  we  wait  with  one  grand  expectation  for 
thine  infinite  answer  of  pardon  and  peace  through  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.     Amen. 

Matthew  vii.  34-29. 

24.  Therefore  whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and  doeth  them  I  will 
liken  him  unto  a  wise  man,  which  built  his  house  upon  a  rock  : 

25.  And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat 
upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell  not  :  for  it  was  founded  upon  a  rock. 

26.  And  every  one  that  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and  doeth  them  not,  shall 
be  likened  unto  a  foolish  man,  which  built  his  house  upon  the  sand  : 

27.  And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat 
upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell :  and  great  was  the  fall  of  it. 

28.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Jesus  had  ended  these  sayings,  the  people  were 
astonished  at  his  doctrine  : 

29.  For  he  taught  them  as  one  having  authority,  and  not  as  the  scribes* 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  239 

We  have,  as  you  are  aware,  gone  verse  by  verse  through  all  the  preced- 
ing chapters  in  the  gospel  by  Matthew.  We  began  with  the  words,  "  The 
book  of  the  generation  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  David,  the  Son  of 
Abraham,"  and  from  time  to  time  we  have  pursued  a  consecutive  study 
of  the  gospel  by  Matthew,  and  we  have  now  come  to  the  close  of  the 
Sermon  upon  the  Mount.  My  object  to-night  is  to  review  the  Sermon 
upon  the  Mount  as  a  whole,  having  already  perused  it  sentence  by  sen- 
tence and  commented  thereupon. 

It  is  a  very  common  question  which  men  ask  of  one  another,  "  What 
did  you  think  of  the  sermon  to-day  ?  "  It  is  that  question  which  I  intend 
to  answer,  the  sermon  being  the  Sermon  upon  the  Mount  and  the  Preacher 
being  the  Son  of  God. 

Looking  at  the  sermon  as  a  whole,  I  will  take  it  for  granted  that  you 
ask  me  what  I,  having  heard  the  sermon,  thought  of  it.  Let  me  tell  you 
first  of  all,  how  much  I  was  struck  with  the  omissions  of  the  sermon.  I 
am  told  that  a  sermon  is  right  in  proportion  as  it  begins  with  the  creation 
of  man  and  steadily  pursues  its  heavy  way  through  all  human  history,  and 
sums  itself  up  by  the  events  of  the  day  of  judgment.  If  that  is  a  correct 
interpretation  of  a  sound  and  good  sermon,  then  the  sermon  delivered 
upon  the  mount  must  be  regarded  as  being  most  remarkable  for  its  seri- 
ous omissions.  I  am  not  aware  that  die  Preacher  has  ever  referred  to  the 
existence  of  Adam.  To  the  best  of  my  recollection,  there  is  not  one  soli- 
tary word  in  the  sermon  about  what  took  place  in  Eden,  and  the  terms 
"  original  sin  "  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  discourse  from  beginning  to  end. 
Nowhere  did  the  Preacher  say,  to  the  best  of  my  recollection,  "You  are 
wounds  and  bruises  and  putrefying  sores,  and  there  is  no  health  in  you  ;  " 
never  once  did  he  say,  "  All  ye  like  sheep  have  gone  astray,  ye  have  turned 
everyone  to  his  own  way  ;  "  in  no  instance  did  he  say,  "  There  is  none 
righteous,  no,  not  one  ;  God  looked  down  from  heaven  to  see  the  children 
of  men,  and  behold  if  there  were  any  that  did  good,  and  lo  there  was  none 
that  served  him  with  a  perfect  heart."     How  then  ? 

In  the  next  place  I  am  struck  by  the  utter  absence  of  what  we  call 
now-a-days  Evangelical  Doctrine.  There  is  nothing  here  about  the  Blood 
of  Christ,  there  is  nothing  here  about  the  Cross  of  Calvary,  there  is  noth- 
ing here  about  believing  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved, 
as  that  word  is  evangelically  interpreted  and  applied.  There  is  here  noth- 
ing of  the  doctrine  of  grace,  nothing  of  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith,  nothing  of  the  grand  savoury  doctrine  of  the  assurance  of  adoption 
into  the  family  of  God.  The  Preacher  himself  calls  his  discourse  a  set 
of  Sayings.  Where  is  orthodoxy  ?  where  is  grace  ?  where  is  faith  ?  where 
is  election  >.  where  is  assurance  ?  where  is  a  single  element  that  is  denoted 
amongst  us  to-day  as  evangelical  ?  where  is  unction  ?  So  far,  I  think,  I 
could  justify  myself  in  every  sentence  I  have  uttered  by  the  letter  that  is 


240  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

now  spread  open  before  me  in  the  sacred  volume.  And  yet  it  would  be 
only  a  justification  in  the  letter,  for  every  one  of  the  grand  doctrines  I 
have  now  referred  to,  though  not  specifically  named  in  the  discourse,  is 
absolutely  and  profoundly  assumed  as  the  basis  of  the  entire  utterance. 
So  mistaken  may  we  be  when  we  hear  preachers  :  we  bind  them  too 
severely  to  the  mere  letter  :  if  we  do  not  hear  our  favourite  set  of  terms 
and  tones  exactly  as  we  have  always  heard  them,  the  temptation  is  to  feel 
and  to  suggest  that  the  preacher  is  not  preaching  the  grand  old  doctrine 
by  which  we  obtained  our  personal  salvation. 

Now  the  reality  of  the  case  is  that  this  Sermon  upon  the  Mount  could 
not  have  been  preached  if  man  had  not  fallen  from  his  first  estate.  The 
language  would  have  been  an  unknown  tongue,  the  doctrine  would  have 
been  without  application  and  point  to  any  living  creature.  Jesus  Christ 
takes  human  history  as  he  finds  it  :  he  addresses  the  human  nature  that 
was  before  him,  and  I  ask  you  to  lay  your  finger  upon  a  single  point  in  his 
discourse  that  would  have  been  appropriate  if  there  had  not  taken  place, 
some  time  in  human  history,  a  total  collapse  of  human  integrity.  We  must 
allow  our  preachers  therefore  some  latitude  of  expression,  we  must  allow 
that  some  things  are  to  be  taken  for  granted  ;  we  really  must  not  insist  on 
having  in  every  discourse  a  correct  and  formal  statement  of  all  our  theo- 
logical beliefs  and  doctrines  ;  we  must  seize  human  history  as  it  actually 
is,  we  must  modernise  some  antique  expressions,  and  must  mint  again 
some  grand  old  words  and  turn  them  into  the  coinage  and  the  currency  of 
our  present  phraseology.  Be  careful  how  you  take  away  the  reputation  or 
character  of  any  man  for  not  being  evangelical.  Such  persons  as  I  now 
refer  to  might  have  taken  away  the  reputation  of  the  Son  of  God  himself 
by  confining  their  attention  strictly  to  the  narrow  letter.  Rely  upon  it 
that  the  evangelical  doctrine  is  to  be  found  sometimes  under  apparently 
uncouth  forms  of  expression.  Now  and  again  the  rocks  of  our  thinking 
may  be  reddened  with  unseen  blood,  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  himself, 
whilst  we  who  only  see  imperfectly  what  is  taking  place,  may  blame  the 
preacher  for  want  of  evangelical  grace  and  unction  and  pathos. 

Suppose  a  man  should  say  to  a  student,  "  In  order  to  be  a  sea  captain, 
you  must  be  able  to  take  the  latitude  and  the  longitude  of  a  ship  at  sea. 
That  is  one  thing  which  you  must  be  able  to  do."  What  would  you  think 
of  that  young  student  turning  round  and  saying  to  his  father,  "  This 
teacher  ignores  great  fundamental  truths  :  he  never  said  a  word  to  me 
about  the  first  four  rules  in  arithmetic — do  you  call  that  orthodox  direction 
and  calculation  ?  He  uses  long,  fine  words  ;  he  says  I  must  be  able  to  take 
the  latitude  and  the  longitude  of  a  ship  at  sea — is  that  fundamental  teach- 
ing ?  The  man  ignores  the  very  root  and  base  of  arithmetical  reckoning." 
How  would  you  esteem  such  a  criticism  ?  Surely  as  a  piece  of  blatant 
folly  :  for  how  can  any  man  take  the  latitude  and  longitude  of  a  ship  at 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  24I 

sea  if  he  is  ignorant  of  the  first  four  rules  of  arithmetic  ?  To  be  able  to 
do  it  assumes  all  previous  knowledge  and  training.  The  teacher  states 
results  rather  than  processes,  and  this  form  of  teaching  must  sometimes  be 
allowed  to  the  pulpit.  Jesus  Christ  speaks  to  human  nature  as  he  finds 
it ;  he  takes  the  human  history  for  granted,  and  he  lets  his  gracious  words 
fall  upon  the  hearing  of  mankind  to  be  received,  adopted,  and  applied 
according  to  the  personal  conditions  and  requirements. 

If  you  ask  me  again  what  I  thought  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  when 
I  heard  it,  I  should  say  how  much  struck  I  was  by  the  infinite  wisdom  and 
tact  of  the  preacher,  in  beginning  just  where  his  audience  was  prepared  to 
begin.  Instead  of  coming  with  some  high-flown  morality,  of  which  the 
world  had  never  heard  before,  he  said,  "  What  are  your  maxims  ?  Hew 
far  have  you  gone  in  the  Book  already  ?  "  And  when  they  said  to  him, 
"We  have  come  up  to  this  point,  namely.  Thou  shalt  not  kill,"  he  said  in 
effect,  "  Very  well  ;  so  far  so  good.  But  that  is  a  rough  and  vulgar  moral- 
ity that  hardly  begins  to  be  morality  at  all  :  it  is  a  very  little  way  beyond 
the  merest  barbarism.  It  is  a  little  from  it,  and  so  far  it  is  upon  a  right 
line — but  I  say  unto  you.  Ye  shall  not  be  angry  with  your  brother  without 
a  cause.  How  far  have  you  got  upon  the  line  of  civilisation  ? "  The 
answer  is,  "  Thus  far,  namely.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  and  hate 
thine  enemy."  Jesus  Christ  says,  "You  must  alter  your  doctrine  upon  the 
latter  point :  I  say  unto  you.  Love  your  enemies." 

Still  the  point  to  be  noted  is  this,  that  Jesus  Christ  took  morality  as  he 
found  it,  began  where  the  people  were  prepared  to  begin.  He  took  upon 
him  the  form  of  a  servant  and  became  such  to  their  ignorance  :  he  made 
himself  of  no  reputation — instead  of  taking  in  a  high-flown  language  which 
the  people  could  not  understand,  he  took  their  germs  and  elements  of 
morality  und  civilisation,  and  carried  them  onward  to  their  proper  develop- 
ment and  culmination. 

This  is  the  right  method  of  teaching,  this  is  the  philosopher's  plan.  If 
I  want  to  teach  a  child,  I  must  ask  the  child  where  he  can  begin — I  must  not 
play  the  great  scholar  with  my  little  pupil,  I  must  lay  aside  my  intellectual 
divinity,  and  be  born  in  the  child's  place.  I  must  make  myself  of  no  repu- 
tation, and  find  little  words  for  my  little  hearer,  and  begin  the  race  where 
his  little  feet  can  begin  to  run.  The  child  looks  at  his  alphabet,  and  his 
face,  his  eyes,  his  mouth,  round  into  a  great  wonder,  not  unmarked  by 
a  peculiar  trace  of  distress,  for  he  thinks  it  impossible  that  he  can  ever 
make  friends  with  such  monstrous  looking  figures.  What  had  I  to  do  ? 
To  sympathise  with  his  distress,  to  tell  him  that  once  upon  a  time  I  was 
quite  frightened,  and  that  little  by  little  I  got  to  know  them,  and  that  now 
we  are  the  best  friends  in  the  world.  Then  I  say  to  my  little  hearer,  "  You 
have  not  got  to  tackle  the  whole  six-and-twenty  at  once,  you  have  got  to 
take  them  one  by  one.     Now  we  will  drop  the  other  five-and-twenty  and 


242  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

see  what  we  can  do  with  the  first  one."  Is  that  the  man  I  have  heard  talk 
in  polysyllables  and  in  long  and  well-connected  sentences,  and  who  has 
endeavoured  to  work  his  way  up  into  high  climax  and  ringing  appeal  in  the 
hearing  of  the  great  congregation  ?  Yet  he  is  talking  so  to  that  little  child 
— why  ?  Simply  because  he  is  a  little  child.  If  I  were  to  talk  so  to  a  man, 
I  would  talk  below  the  occasion,  I  would  not  rise  to  the  height  of  my 
responsibility.  Jesus  Christ  therefore  says  in  effect,  "  Where  can  you 
begin  ?  You  begin  at.  Thou  shalt  not  kill.  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery, 
Thou  shalt  hate  thine  enemy,  an  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth — 
now  hear  me."  And  then  he  proceeds  to  unwind  and  disclose  the  superior 
revelation,  and  to  lead  his  disciples  onward,  little  by  little,  from  height  to 
height,  until  they  are  all  on  the  mountain  with  him  together,  a  happy,  thank- 
ful, well-instructed  band. 

And  yet  there  are  dangers  about  that  method  of  teaching.  It  is  God's 
method  in  the  Bible,  and  he  has  gotten  himself  well  affronted  for  it ;  every 
pigmy  who  could  double  up  his  fist  has  smitten  God  in  the  face  for  adopt- 
ing that  kind  of  teaching.  Persons  have  written  books  in  contravention 
of  Mosaic  history.  Mosaic  science.  Mosaic  archaeology,  geology,  and  many 
other  ologies  with  awkward  names.  Well,  now,  how  does  all  this  intellectual 
opposition  arise  ?  Here  are  men  with  sharp  eyes  and  pointed  fingers  gathered 
around  the  first  chapter  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  and  they  are  saying,  "  How 
can  this  be  ?  "  not  knowing  that  God  spake  to  men  as  children,  and  as  they 
were  able  to  hear  it.  He,  in  effect,  said,  what  Christ  said  upon  the  mount, 
"  How  far  have  ye  come  ?  "  Men  talked  about  the  sun  rising  and  the  sun 
setting — it  seemed  as  if  it  did.  A  man  said,  "  I '  saw  the  sun  in  the  East, 
and  I  watched  and  waited,  and  I  saw  him  sink  in  the  AVest ;  so  the  sun 
rises  and  the  sun  sets."  And  the  Lord  said,  "  So  be  it  ;  that  is  your  con- 
ception of  the  astronomy  of  the  universe  ;  then  let  us  begin  there  and  say 
the  sun  rises  and  the  run  sets,  and  let  us  talk  as  if  that  were  really  so." 

And  again  they  say,  "  How  can  all  this  take  place  in  a  day  ? "  The 
Lord  spoke  to  those  to  whom  he  was  speaking  in  the  only  language  they 
could  understand.  What  is  a  day?  Twelve  hours  ?  Nothing  of  the  kind. 
Four-and-twenty  hours  ?  Nothing  of  the  sort.  That  is  only  one  kind  of 
day.  Day  is  a  long  word,  a  broad  word,  a  strange  word,  spreading  itself 
out  over  great  spaces.  Why,  you  say,  "  Every  dog  has  its  day  ;  "  you  say, 
"  I  must  preach  to  the  day  " — what  mean  ye  .?  That  I  must  preach  to  every 
twelve  hours  the  clock  ticks  off  ?  You  know  that  you  have  no  such  mean- 
ing, and  yet  now  that  God  gave  us  these  infantile  lessons  because  we  were 
in  an  infantile  state  of  mind,  we  go  up  to  him  and  say,  "  What  did  you 
mean  by  talking  to  us  about  the  sun  rising  and  the  sun  setting,  when  the 
sun  never  does  anything  of  the  sort  ?  And  what  did  you  mean  by  saying 
this  and  that  were  done  in  one  day  when  there  are  only  four-and-twenty 
hours  in  the  day,  and  part  of  that  must  be  spent  in  sleeping?  " 


THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE.  243 

Why  it  is  just  like  this  :  you  gave  your  little  boy  at  four  or  five  years  of 
age  a  rocking-horse,  and  when  he  is  four-and-twenty  he  comes  to  you  and 
says,  "  What  did  you  mean  by  so  insulting  me — giving  me  a  rocking-horse 
— what  did  you  mean  by  giving  a  man  a  thing  like  that,  a  dead  piece  of 
wood,  a  painted  horse — what  did  you  mean  by  giving  a  man  such  a  gift  ? " 
Suppose  you  had  such  an  idiot  son,  what  would  you  say  to  him  ?  You 
would  say,  "  My  boy,  it  was  not  given  to  the  man,  it  was  given  to  the 
child  ;  it  was  not  given  to  five-and-twenty  years  of  age,  it  was  given  to  a 
five-year-old  infant :  it  was  not  intended  that  you  should  always  be  on  the 
rocking-horse,  it  was  a  hint,  a  suggestion,  something  to  be  going  on  with 
— the  only  thing  you  could  then  use.  It  was  adapted  to  the  then  state  of 
your  mind,  and  all  this  abuse  you  are  now  pouring  upon  me  is  utterly 
undeserved  and  beside  the  mark." 

So  there  are  persons  who  still  reckon  the  Bible  in  its  letter  only  ;  they 
have  not  seen  into  the  inner  meaning,  their  religious  imagination  has 
never  been  inflamed,  they  know  nothing  of  the  holy  passion,  the  secret 
heart-unction  which  breaks  a  loaf  into  a  feast  for  thousands,  and  which 
finds  in  one  cup  of  water  wine  enough  for  a  life's  long  drinking.  O,  my 
friend,  thou  art  a  personal  letter,  locked  up  in  the  little  gaol  of  some  literal 
verse.  I  heard  of  a  person  the  other  day  who  thinks  that  she  ought  not  to 
pray  unless  her  head  is  covered.  To  think  of  the  eternal  Father  of  us  all 
looking  down  to  see  if  you,  dear  old  mother  or  young  sister,  have  got  your 
head  covered  before  you  say,  "  Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven."  So,  to 
meet  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  not  always  having  an  umbrella  at  her 
disposal,  she  puts  a  pock&t-handkerchief  on  her  head  in  order  to  accommo- 
date the  infinite  Jehovah.  Would  you  believe  that  such  idiocy  were  possible 
in  the  nineteenth  century  ? 

This  is  the  difficulty  of  the  preacher  :  he  cannot  get  his  hearer  or  stu- 
dent away  from  the  letter.  The  student  will  not  sow  the  seed  of  the  letter 
and  let  it  grow  into  the  fruit  of  the  spirit.  "  No,  no,"  says  he,  "  I  have 
got  this  seed  :  I  am  not  going  to  part  with  it ;"  and  he  is  thought  to  be 
very  tenacious  of  the  truth,  he  is  reported  to  be  exceedingly  attached  to 
the  old  truth.  The  man  who  takes  his  handful  of  corn  called  the  biblical 
letter  and  sows  it  in  his  consciousness,  sows  it  in  his  imagination,  sows  it 
in  his  heart,  sows  it  in  every  part  of  his  nature,  and  lets  it  grow  in  the  sun- 
shiny blessing  and  the  dewy  baptism  of  heaven  until  it  blooms  into  verdure 
and  blossom  and  beauty  and  culminates  in  fruitfulness,  is  the  man  who 
uses  the  Bible  in  the  right  way.  It  was  so  the  Son  of  God  used  it  :  he 
met  us  where  we  could  be  met,  he  took  us  by  the  hand  as  little  children, 
and  he  left  us  under  the  ministry  of  God  the  Holy  Ghost  to  grow  in 
grace,  to  grow  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  grow  in  that 
subtle,  loving  sympathy  which  sees  God  and  touches  him  and  holds  him 
with  a  heart  grip  for  which  there  are  no  words.     Hast  thou  attained  that 


244  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE, 

height  in  the  divine  life  ?  Then  truly  art  thou  born  again,  and  truly  are 
thine  ears  circumcised  to  hear  the  inner  music  of  the  celestial  world. 

You  have  asked  me  what  I  thought  of  the  sermon  as  a  whole  :  now  I 
should  like  to  know  what  Jesus  Christ  himself  thought  of  it.  The  preacher 
has  an  estimate  or  an  opinion  of  every  sermon  which  he  is  permitted  to 
proclaim.  I  cannot  but  wonder  therefore  what  Christ's  own  opinion  of  his 
discourse  was,  and  happily  we  have  a  reply  to  that  inquiry.  He  treated 
his  sayings  as  fundamental  ;  he  said,  in  effect,  "  These  are  foundation 
stones,  these  are  not  fine  things  to  put  on  the  top  of  the  capital,  these  are 
great  rough,  unhewn  rocks  to  build  on."  We  like  polish  in  our  modern 
preachers  ;  in  fact  we  have  gone  so  far  as  to  say  of  certain  preachers,  that 
they  are  extremely  finished — which  is  awfully  true.  Jesus  Christ  laid 
foundations  :  he  himself  is  revealed  to  us  as  a  rock,  and  we  may  say  of 
those  who  do  not  follow  us,  "  Their  rock  is  not  as  our  rock,  our  enemies 
themselves  being  judges.  He  is  a  stone,  a  tried  stone,  a  precious  corner- 
stone, elect,  tested  by  every  means  at  the  divine  disposal."  That  is  the 
kind  of  preacher  we  ought  to  hear  every  now  and  then,  and  though  we  do, 
now  and  again,  hear  a  man  who  is  in  every  sense  of  the  term  most  finished, 
we  should  again  and  again  for  our  soul's  bettering  and  rousing  hear  a 
kind  of  preacher  that  is  fundamental,  that  brings  us  back  to  the  rock,  that 
puts  a  test  into  the  base  we  are  building  upon,  and  that  says,  "  Either  this 
is  rock  or  this  is  mud — sand.     Beware." 

He  also  regarded  his  sayings  as  supplying  an  indestructible  basis  of 
life.  The  rain  descended,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  tipon  the  rock- 
founded  house,  and  it  fell  not.  Like  foundation,  like  building;  Jesus  Christ 
thus  gave  his  hearers  assurance  of  durability,  strength,  protection,  inde- 
structibleness,  immortality.  I  cannot  see  the  foundation  of  this  building:  it 
looks  Avell  as  an  edifice,  its  proportions,  its  decorations,  its  defences  are 
excellent,  so  far  as  my  eye  can  judge,  but  what  the  foundation  is  I  cannot 
tell.  So  it  is  with  many  a  human  life.  Many  a  man  talks  to  me  of  whom 
I  form  an  excellent  opinion.  He  looks  well,  he  speaks  well,  his  appear- 
ance is  all  that  can  be  desired,  but  what  his  foundation  is  I  do  not  know. 
Do  not  be  content  with  appearances,  do  not  be  satisfied  with  mere  exter- 
nal decoration.  If  you  are  going  to  build  me  a  house,  I  say,  "  Be  sure 
first  of  all  about  the  foundation  :  never  mind  about  the  decoration,  let 
me  know  that  the  house  is  well  founded,  do  not  tell  me  that  the  drawing- 
room  is  well  papered.  Mere  decoration  I  can  take  in  hand  little  by  little, 
as  I  may  be  disposed  to  expend  money  upon  it,  but  the  foundation  once 
laid,  who  can  get  at  it  again  ?  " 

Both  the  houses  had  trial.  The  rain  descended  and  the  floods  came, 
and  the  winds  blew  and  beat  upon  both  houses.  So  I  have  heard  men 
say,  "  Well,  it  seems  to  me  as  if  you  Christian  people  had  quite  as  many 
trials  as  other  folks,"     So  they  have,     I  have  heard  you  say,  "  It  seems  to 


THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE.  245 

me  as  if  being  religious  did  not  save  you  from  trouble,  for  really  you  seem 
to  have  just  as  much  to  contend  with  as  I  have,  and  I  make  no  profession 
of  religion."  So  it  is.  What  is  the  result  ?  Everything  depends  upon 
the  foundation  :  if  your  foundation  is  not  right,  I  do  not  care  how  high 
your  building  is,  or  how  it  is  decorated,  or  how  put  together.  I  do  not 
care  if  it  is  pinnacled  all  over  with  gold,  all  but  piercing  the  clouds — it 
will  come  down,  and  great  will  be  the  fall  of  it.  I  have  seen  the  wicked 
in  great  power  and  spreading  himself  like  a  green  bay  tree,  yet  he  passed 
away,  and  lo,  he  was  not,  yea,  I  sought  him,  but  he  could  not  be  found. 
A  little  that  a  righteous  man  hath  is  better  than  the  riches  of  many 
wicked. 

What  is  your  foundation  ?  Are  you  resting  upon  the  eternal  Son  of 
God  •  are  you  resting  upon  Christ  ?  You  shall  be  saved,  for  the  founda- 
tion is  safe.  Your  house  is  a  very  odd  one,  my  friend  ;  I  never  look  at  it 
with  any  pleasure  ;  you  are  peculiar,  crotchety,  odd-minded,  eccentric, 
extremely  impracticable,  and  very  few  people  care  to  visit  you  or  sym- 
pathise with  you — but  you  shall  be  saved,  for  the  foundation  is  elect,  pre- 
cious, tried,  laid  in  Zion  by  hands  divine. 

On  the  contrary,  here  is  a  man  that  I  like  very  much  ;  I  like  his  look, 
I  like  his  voice,  I  like  his  reading,  I  go  with  all  his  aspirations  and  sym- 
pathies of  a  social,  civilising,  and  literary  and  elevating  kind.  So  far  as 
this  world  is  concerned,  he  is  a  beautiful  and  noble  soul  to  all  outward 
seeming,  but  he  has  no  foundation  except  a  foundation  of  sand.  Then 
your  rejoicing  is  but  for  a  time  :  so  long  as  health  continues  and  business 
is  prosperous  and  all  around  you  is  sunny,  men  will  praise  you  and  believe 
in  you — but  there  is  a  trying  time  coming.  I  know  it  will  come  upon 
you  :  you  are  broad-chested,  heavy-boned,  full-blooded,  nobly  built  from 
a  physical  point  of  view,  and  it  would  seem  as  if  death  could  never  strike 
such  a  target.  But  he  will — that  great  thunder  voice  shall  be  contracted 
into  a  whining  whisper,  that  great  strong  frame  shall  be  bent  down  like  a 
broken  bulrush,  the  time  will  come  when  you  will  be  thankful  for  the  most 
menial  service  which  your  most  menial  servant  can  render  you.  The  time 
will  come  when  the  window  that  used  to  be  a  blaze  of  light  will  be  dark- 
ened and  there  will  be  a  shadow  upon  it,  grim  as  a  skeleton.  Then  the 
quality  of  the  man  will  be  discovered  :  in  that  hour  it  were  well  to  know 
the  Son  of  God,  the  sweet  Jesus,  the  infinite  Saviour,  the  bleeding  Lamb. 

Let  us  all  endeavour  to  read  this  Sermon  on  the  Mount  over  and  over 
again,  and  to  make  it  our  life-chart,  and  to  do  nothing  that  will  not  stand 
the  test  of  its  divine  fire. 


CHRIST   AS   A   PREACHER 


I. 

CHRIST'S  DOCTRINE  AS  A  PREACHER. 

THE    PREACHER    LIKE    NO     OTHER     MAN OUR    CIVILISATION    AN    INHERl 

TANCE SOME    BADLY-USED    WORDS THE    HELPFUL    PREACHER. 

PRAYER. 

ALiHGHTY  God,  vre  come  to  tlaee  througli  Jesus  Christ,  our  only  Saviour,  for  lie 
alone  is  tlie  Way,  tlie  Truth,  and  the  Life,  and  there  is  none  other  :  he  is  sent  of  God 
to  bring  us  unto  the  Father,  and  no  man  cometh  unto  Christ  except  the  Father  draw 
him.  Herein  are  wonderful  mysteries,  which  we  cannot  penetrate,  but  where  we  can- 
not understand  we  fall  down  and  adore.  What  are  we  that  we  should  know  aught  ? 
We  are  of  yesterday  and  know  nothing  :  our  breath  is  in  our  nostrils,  and  whilst  we 
talk  of  life  behold  we  are  thrown  down  and  are  dead  men.  It  well  becometh  us, 
therefore,  to  hold  our  peace  in  thy  house,  and  to  listen  attentively,  with  the  whole 
hearing  of  our  heart,  lest  we  miss  any  tone  of  thy  gracious  and  living  voice.  Jesus 
Christ  our  Saviour  loved  us  :  he  gave  himself  for  us  ;  his  head,  his  hands,  his  heart, 
his  feet,  his  side,  bled  for  us  :  it  was  holy  blood — the  blood  of  atonement. 

Thou  art  always  careful  of  us,  as  if  we  were  worth  much  in  thy  sight.  We  cannot 
understand  thy  care.  We  could  understand  thy  crushing  us  because  of  the  provoca- 
tion of  our  sins,  but  why  thou  shouldst  saveusand  spare  us  and  love  us  and  mightily 
redeem  us  with  blood,  every  day  in  the  year,  lo,  this  is  a  mystery  of  love  which  baffles 
our  mind.  Deep  is  thy  design,  gracious  is  thy  purpose,  immeasurable  is  thine  intent, 
unknown  in  its  beginning  and  uncomprehended  in  its  issues — it  is  enough  for  us 
to  know  that  thou  doest  all  things  in  wisdom  and  in  love.  To-day  is  the  battle, 
and  to-morrow  the  mystery,  and  on  the  third  day  dost  thou  perfect  the  issue.  Help 
us  to  fight,  to  wait,  to  worship,  to  suffer,  to  endure  with  noble  courage  and  unmur- 
muring  patience,  knowing  that  the  end  will  come  as  a  great  surprise  of  hidden  love, 
a  revelation  of  infinite  tenderness. 

We  bless  thee  for  thy  word  ;  it  is  good  reading  in  sandy  places,  and  in  wildernesses 
full  of  stones  and  wild  beasts  :  it  makes  the  very  wind,  when  loudest  and  coldest, 
music  in  our  hearing.  It  shows  us  where  the  tree  is,  the  brandies  of  which  will 
sweeten  the  bitter  pool ;  it  is  a  friend  that  sticketh  closer  than  a  brother.  Help  us  to 
understand  it  by  our  modesty,  humility,  self-renunciation,  utter,  child-like,  unques- 
tioning trust.  Thou  dost  speak  wonderful  things  to  the  child -heart — may  ours  ever- 
more be  such.  Save  us  from  our  own  imaginings,  deliver  us  from  the  temptations  of 
our  own  sagacity  and  learning,  and  help  us  in  all  simpleness,  with  complete  trust  and 
love  of  heart,  and  with  the  openness  of  soul  which  receives  all  heaven's  gifts,  to  wait 
upon  the  Lord,  yea,  to  wait  patiently  for  him. 

Every  heart  has  its  own  story — of  joy,  of  sorrow,  of  baffled  hope,  of  dead  ambitions, 
of  frustrated  purposes  and  trusts — send  a  gospel  to  each  soul,  that  none  may  feel 
itself  left  out  on  the  day  of  benediction  and  rest.     Speak  comfortably  unto  Jerusalem : 


250  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

send  thine  angel  to  cry  unto  her  that  her  warfare  is  accomplished,  that  her  iniquity 
is  pardoned,  yea,  let  this  be  the  day  of  jubilee,  when  silver  trumpets  shall  announce 
the  glad  reprieve,  the  great  and  universal  amnesty  and  release.  Give  us  a  nail  in  thy 
sanctuary,  give  us  a  standing  on  the  threshold  of  thy  house,  bring  us  quite  within  the 
sacred  enclosure  of  the  holy  temple,  and  give  us  rest  and  peace  within  its  hallowed 
defences.     Amen. 

Text  :  "  His  doctrine." — Matthew  vii.  28. 

In  what  is  known  as  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  Jesus  Christ's  preaching 
was  shown  to  be  profoundly  doctrinal.  There  is  many  a  figure  here  and 
there — the  figures  being  points  of  gold  that  glitter  in  the  infinite  mass  of 
rock,  the  rock  being  the  doctrine  which  is  expounded  with  so  marvellous 
and  astounding  an  authority.  Yet  there  is  hardly  any  hint  of  the  parable  of 
which  Jesus  Christ  was  to  make  such  copious  use  in  his  after-ministry, 
until  we  come,  indeed,  to  the  closing  sentences,  and  there,  in  the  image  of 
the  two  builders  and  the  two  foundations,  we  have  a  hint  of  the  more  vivid 
and  popular  method  of  teaching  which  was  coming.  In  this  sermon  Jesus 
Christ  was  profoundly  and  vitally  doctrinal.  In  his  opening  discourse  he 
was  pre-eminently  the  WORD.  Hence  the  deep  thinking,  the  benedic- 
tions that  seem  to  come  up  from  eternity,  and  the  whole  doctrine  of  the 
individual  inspiration  of  character,  until  we  reach  the  very  holiness  and 
perfection  of  God.  This  is,  indeed,  the  very  mystery  of  the  Logos,  the 
Word,  the  ineffable  and  infinite  thought.  This  is  the  divine  meaning, 
incarnated  in  plain  human  words.  In  this  discourse  we  are  quite  out  of 
the  region  of  finite  speculation  ;  here  are  no  happy  guesses,  no  striking 
suggestions  which  startle  the  speaker  quite  as  much  as  they  startle  the 
hearer.  We  have  here  the  deep  things  of  God,  spoken  with  an  unction 
which  makes  the  very  hearing  of  them  the  most  solemn  responsibility  we 
ever  incurred.  To  have  heard  some  sermons  is  to  have  laid  up  wrath 
against  the  day  of  wrath,  or  to  have  added  to  the  joy  of  the  day  of  supreme 
gladness.  It  were  better  for  us  that  we  had  not  heard  some  sermons — our 
life  was  never  the  same  after  the  hearing. 

Now  the  servant  must  herein  be  as  the  Master,  according  to  the  measure 
and  degree  of  his  capacity.  His  speech  must  be,  above  all  things,  religious. 
Not  religious  because  of  surrounding  circumstances,  as,  for  example,  the 
Sabbath,  the  sanctuary,  the  pulpit — but  in  itself,  its  origin,  its  tone,  its  mean- 
ing, it  must  be  profoundly  religious,  it  must  be  from  above.  It  must  not  be 
literary,  clever,  piquant,  or  anything  else  that  is  of  the  quality  and  limita- 
tion of  art.  It  must  come  with  all  the  sacredness  of  a  divine  origin,  bring- 
ing with  it  the  living  air  of  the  upper  world,  and  bearing  the  thought  of  the 
hearer  upward  to  the  holy  elevation  and  sympathy  which  come  of  the 
presence  of  God.  The  danger  is,  and  the  people  make  that  danger  greater 
every  day,  that  preaching  be  mere  literature,  made  peculiar  by  a  religious 
accent.     The  danger  is  that  preaching  becomes  one  of  many  things  all 


CHRIST    AS    A    PREACHER.  25I 

Standing  upon  a  level,  and  if  it  should  become  so,  the  hearer  will  be  to  blame 
quite  as  much  as  the  speaker.  The  preacher  must  be  like  no  other  man. 
Every  other  speaker  you  may  be  able  to  measure  and  estimate  ;  you  know 
where  he  begins  and  where  he  ends,  and  you  can  weigh  out  his  merit  in 
scales,  and  announce  his  stature  in  inches  ;  but  the  preacher  must  be  a 
weird  man,  without  beginning  of  days,  without  father  or  mother,  a  secret, 
a  mystery,  a  voice,  a  flash  of  light,  a  revelation,  a  burning  bush,  and  the 
great  question  must  always  be  :  Whence  hath  he  this  ?  It  is  not  in  the 
lockers  of  the  rich  man,  it  is  not  in  the  treasures  of  the  literary  student — 
Whence  this  wisdom  ?  And  the  answer  must  be,  God-begotten,  Heaven- 
born,  its  roots  deep  in  the  rock  and  its  pinnacles  flashing  beyond  the 
stars  ! 

If  preaching  can  be  traced  back  to  a  school,  a  teacher,  a  custom,  it  is 
shallow  and  barren.  It  must  come  from  eternity,  from  the  invisible  God, 
being  at  once  so  simple  as  to  excite  the  interest  and  curiosity  of  little  chil- 
dren and  so  profound  as  to  abash  the  wise.  The  first  thing,  therefore,  the 
preacher  has  to  do  is  to  renounce  himself.  He  must  not  limit  himself  to 
his  own  little  power  of  invention  and  expression  ;  he  must  not  dig  wells  in 
the  sand  of  his  own  cleverness,  or  they  who  drink  thereof  will  thirst  again. 
He  is  a  messenger  :  he  must  deliver  God's  message.  If  he  do  not  deliver 
God's  message,  blame  the  hearer.  The  congregation  creates  the  pulpit. 
The  earnest  hearer  comes  to  hear  God's  word,  but  how  many  earnest  hearers 
are  there  in  any  assembly  ?  If  I  had  one  man  here,  and  he  wanted  to  hear 
God's  word,  I  dare  not  speak  my  own.  But  I  have  a  thousand  men  here 
who  want  to  hear  my  word  and  not  God's.  If  a  soul  were  here  affrighted 
by  its  own  sin,  asking  me,  with  eye  and  voice  and  trembling  fame,  to 
reveal  the  Gospel,  I  dare  not  keep  back  any  part  of  it.  But  you  are  not 
here  for  that  purpose — I  speak  of  the  multitude,  not  of  the  individual  here 
and  there  whose  object  it  may  be,  indeed  is,  to  hear  what  God  the  Lord 
will  say. 

But  if  a  sermon  be  charged  with  God's  messages,  will  it  be  dull  and 
heavy  ?  Look  at  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  for  answer.  What  variety, 
what  penetration,  what  liveliness,  what  startling  application  and  appeal  ! 
How  restful  the  benedictions,  quieting  the  soul,  soothing  all  fear,  encourag- 
ing all  goodness,  and  watering  the  very  roots  of  life  from  the  river  of  God  ! 
Now  the  great  Teacher  must  be  figurative.  He  has  not  begun  the  great 
parabolical  fancy  and  use  yet.  Still  I  see  the  beginnings  of  it  in  that  very 
initial  discourse.  He  cannot  be  dull.  He  says.  Ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world,  ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  ye  are  a  city  set  on  a  hill."  Then  he 
tells  about  the  candle  and  the  candlestick,  and  the  bushel,  and  then  he  tells 
about  the  beam  in  one  man's  eye  and  the  mote  in  another's,  and  then  he 
winds  up  with  the  two  hearers,  the  two  foundations,  the  two  houses,  and  the 
two  destinies.     A  wonderful  sermon,  and  yet  so  doctrinal.     It  is  not  dry 


252  THESE   SAYINGS   OP   MINE. 

doctrine,  but  doctrine  vitalised,  illumined,  glittering  all  over  with  diamonds 
of  the  first  water.  How  solemn  the  lessons  to  the  lustful,  the  angry  heart, 
the  violent  tongue,  the  anxious  spirit ;  what  a  review  of  the  past,  what  an 
outlook  upon  the  future  ?  Verily  this  is  not  a  sermon  in  our  sense  of  the 
term.  You  might  describe  it  by  great  figures,  call  it  the  very  Ganges  of 
truth,  illustration,  philosophy,  moral  teaching,  and  appeal  ;  call  it  a  sky 
Avhich  seems  to  have  been  built  to  cover  our  little  world,  and  yet  which 
encloses  within  itself  unnumbered  millions  of  planets. 

Was  the  sermon,  then,  dull  and  heavy  ?  It  was  an  infinite  beginning. 
That  is  the  marked  peculiarity  of  Christ's  preaching ;  it  never  ended. 
Persons  sometimes  said,  "  What,  is  he  done  ?  "  What  did  that  curious 
question  arise  from  ?  Not  from  the  abruptness  of  the  speaker,  but  from 
the  infinitude  and  immeasurableness  of  his  message.  Others  can  round 
off  their  discourses  :  from  the  pipe  of  their  wit  they  can  mould  and  sphere 
the  soap-bubbles  of  their  cleverness,  and  let  them  float  on  the  air — done  ! 
But  the  speaker  of  infinite  secrets  and  infinite  gospels,  conclude  as  he  may, 
can  never  be  done.  There  may  be  a  comma,  a  semi-colon,  and  even  a 
colon,  in  this  high  mystic  literature,  but  the  period  is  never  wanted,  for 
the  conclusion  is  never  accomplished. 

Yes,  this  sermon  on  the  mount  is  emphatically  the  WORD — the  Word 
made  flesh  and  dwelling  among  us,  the  Word  showing  itself  in  our  mean 
syllables,  illuminating  but  not  consuming  them.  It  took  all  that  time  to 
get  the  speech  of  the  world  ready  to  receive  the  gospel,  even  in  the  degree 
in  which  it  was  preached  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  You  cannot  tell 
how  much  time  is  required,  or  would  be  required,  if  you  yourself  had 
everything  to  do  in  order  to  enable  you  to  accomplish  the  simplest  act  in 
civilisation.  O,  ingrates  are  we,  and  most  thoughtless  inheritors  of  inher- 
itances all  but  infinite  !  If  you  had  to  do  everything  for  yourself  in  the 
simplest  act  of  civilisation,  it  would  be  seventy  years  before  you  could 
dine.  It  would  be  a  hundred  years  and  more  before  you  could  travel 
from  one  capital  to  another.  But  to-day  we  take  all  these  things  as  a 
right.  We  grumble  at  the  roads,  of  course  ;  poor  fool,  dost  thou  know  it, 
that  if  thou  hadst  to  make  a  road  it  would  take  thee  twenty  years  to  get 
from  here  to  thy  mother's  house  ?  It  took  a  thousand  years  to  get  human 
speech  ready  to  take  in  the  gospel  and  utter  it  in  poor  broken  syllables. 
For  God's  difficulty  is  our  language.  He  cannot  tell  us  what  he  means 
because  the  dewdrop  is  not  big  enough  to  hold  the  sun.  So  we  have  sug- 
gestion and  hint  and  flash  of  light  and  sudden  large  glimpse,  as  we  suppose 
it  to  be,  of  things  divine.  But  our  human  speech  is  an  inn  too  small  for 
the  birth  of  God  into  our  human  imagination  and  individual  grasp  of 
thought. 

Jesus  Christ  had  something  distinct  and  definite  to  say  to  mankind.    He 
was  not  one  teacher  amongst  many      How  often  shall  I  insist  that  the 


CHRIST    AS   A    PREACHER.  2^3 

preacher  is  not  one  amongst  many,  yet  the  foolish  virgins  and  more  fooHsh 
men  will  compare  the  preacher  with  the  lecturer.  The  preacher  has  noth- 
ing to  say  to  you  ;  the  lecturer  lives  on  his  own  vitals,  spins  his  own 
cleverness,  and  works  marvellous  jugglery  with  his  own  ability,  and  elo- 
quence, and  wit",  and  fancy,  and  fun.  It  is  beautiful,  and  instructive,  and 
useful.  But  the  preacher  plucks  no  word  from  his  own  tree.  What  am  I 
— a  lecturer  ?  A  man  with  so  many  yards  of  foolscap  on  which  he  writes 
beautiful  sentences  and  telling  stories  ?  Have  I  fallen  to  that  ?  The 
minister  is  an  errand-bearer  ;  he  has  to  tell  what  he  has  been  told.  Do 
not  find  fault  with  him  ;  you  want  to  hear  something  else  ;  he  has  nothing 
else  to  tell.  How  I  could  please  you  sometimes  if  I  were  in  tolerably 
good  health,  if  you  would  allow  me  to  talk  my  own  nonsense  ;  it  would  be 
easy  to  gratify  you  then.  I  would  weave  coloured  clouds  around  you, 
and  call  those  coloured  clouds  sermons.  I  would  salute  your  ears  with 
witty  stories,  I  would  mock  you  with  intellectual  taunt,  and  I  would  speak 
severe  things  to  the  man  hi  the  next  pew,  and  you  would  be  so  delighted  ! 
But  I  dare  not  put  in  a  single  word  of  my  own  without  initialing  it.  Ah, 
me  !  if  the  manuscript  is  initialed  all  over,  it  is  not  God's  sermon,  but 
mine.  Paul  once  or  twice  ventured  to  say  something,  and  he  always 
initialed  it,  put  a  large  and  most  legible  P  under  it — said,  "  I  speak  this  of 
myself."  He  need  not  have  said  so.  We  knew  it  to  be  so  at  once  ;  the 
discrepancy  was  infinite.  Still,  conscientious  man  as  he  was,  he  put  down 
a  very  large  P  against  his  own  suggestions,  and  it  was  as  well  he  did  so, 
for  they  are  most  impracticable. 

When  Christ's  sermon  was  done  the  criticism  passed  upon  it  was,  "  Not 
as  the  scribes."  That  is  the  criticism  with  which  every  sermon  should  be 
listened  to,  not  as  the  speculatists,  not  as  the  guessers,  not  as  the  lecturers, 
not  as  the  inquirers,  not  as  the  gropers — but  with  authority,  with  all  the 
momentum  of  an  eternal  and  infinite  impulse.  How  can  a  finite  creature 
give  such  an  impulse  ?  He  cannot :  this  is  the  gift  of  God,  and  always 
goes  along  with  the  word  of  God.  Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you 
richly.  Search  the  Scriptures.  Preach  the  preaching  that  I  bid  thee,  and 
let  the  hearers  come  to  hear  God's  word  and  they  will  assuredly  receive  it. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  emphatically  what  is  termed  a  dogmatic 
discourse,  that  is  to  say,  it  was  positive,  definite,  practical,  final.  It  was 
not  a  paper  read  before  a  religious  debating  society,  for  the  purpose  of 
eliciting  opinions — that  is  the  idea  of  a  modern  sermon,  and  therefore  we 
say  when  we  get  away  from  church,  "  Aye,  aye,  it  is  all  very  well,  you 
know,  for  him  to  be  standing  up  there  and  having  it  all  his  own  way." 
Indeed  !  If  he  has  it  all  his  own  way  he  is  an  unfaithful  servant.  A  ser- 
mon is  not  a  paper  read  before  a  number  of  equals  for  the  purpose  of  the 
reader's  saying  afterwards,  "  Now,  my  fellows,  men  of  equal  understanding 
will  you  be  kind  enough  to  tell  me  what  you  think  of  all  this  ? "     If  it 


254  THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE, 

admits  of  an  appeal  of  that  kind,  it  is  not  a  sermon,  it  is  a  lecture  out  of 
the  lecturer's  own  brain.  If  it  is  the  word  of  God,  pure,  simple,  unadul- 
terated, absolute,  that  is  to  say,  if  it  is  quoted  from  the  Book  which  we,  by 
the  very  fact  of  our  assembling  here,  accept  as  God's  Book,  then  the 
preacher  has  it  not  all  his  own  way  ;  he  is  an  errand-bearer,  he  is  a  deliv- 
erer of  holy  messages,  and  the  messages  are  not  to  be  measured  by  his 
personality,  but  by  the  degree  in  which  they  can  be  substantiated  from  the 
volume  which  he  is  set  up  to  open  and  expound. 

I  do  not  wonder  at  this  word  dogmatic  falling  into  a  bad  reputation.  I 
do  not  like  the  word  myself.  In  itself  it  is  an  innocent  word.  Turn  it 
into  Greek,  turn  it  into  Latin,  beat  it  into  English,  it  is  still  an  honest,  a 
pure  word,  in  itself ;  but  it  has  been  made  such  bad  use  of  that  I  do  not 
wonder  that  people  should  avoid  it.  I  do  not  suppose  that  you  would  be 
very  fond  of  using  a  rope  in  which  somebody  has  been  hung.  This  word 
dogmatic  is  therefore  a  word  which  has  in  some  relations  a  bad  or  an 
unwelcome  meaning.  So  is  the  word  casuistry  a  very  innocent  word  in 
itself,  and  expressive  of  a  very  proper  intellectual  process,  but  it  has  been 
so  badly  used  that  I  have  begun  to  distrust  and  disown  it.  So  is  the  word 
catholic  a  simple  and  beautiful  word,  but  it  has  been  tied  up  in  such  wrong 
relations  that,  like  a  rope  which  has  hanged  somebody,  we  feel  as  if  it 
might  hang  lis  too  if  we  did  not  take  care  of  it.  So  have  words  been 
debased,  prostituted,  defiled,  so  that  I  do  not  wonder  at  many  persons 
looking  askance  upon  those  words  and  avoiding  dogmatic  teaching,  casuis- 
tical reasoning,  and  catholic  divinity. 

Looking  upon  this  Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  a  model  for  preachers 
through  all  time,  it  justifies  the  preacher  in  laying  down  a  definite  doc- 
trine. The  preacher  does  not  invite  his  hearers  to  talk  over  something 
with  a  view  to  a  settlement.  That  of  rourse  would  be  very  comfortable  if 
we  could  meet  here  and  lay  our  arms  upon  a  table  and  say,  "  Now  what 
do  you  think  about  '\\  ?  "  Well,  it  would  be  chatty,  and  nice,  and  sort  of 
friendly,  and  almost  convivial  it  might  become.  We  do  not  assemble  to 
make  a  Bible,  but  to  read  one.  We  are  HEARERS  :  let  that  word  be 
emphatic.  Observe  its  limit,  its  meaning  ;  we  are  hearers,  we  do  not  speak, 
we  listen.  We  say,  "  Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth."  How  far 
from  this  our  congregational  discipline  !  The  very  first  word  you  would 
have  said  this  morning,  if  I  had  not  made  this  remark,  would  have  been, 
the  moment  you  got  outside,  'How  did  you  like  him  this  morning,  eh?" 
How  did  you  like  him — poor  hireling  performer,  poor  miserable  clerk  of 
all  work — how  did  you  like  him  ?  What  about  the  substance,  the  doctrine, 
the  call,  the  appeal,  the  tears,  the  unction,  the  consequences  ?  Ask  how 
you  like  the  electric  light  as  compared  with  the  poor  half-drunken  gas 
flame,  but  do  not  ask  how  you  like  the  infinite,  the  complete,  the  divine, 
the  eternal.     Hear  it — listen — the  Lord  is  in  his  holy  temple,  let  all  the 


CHRIST   AS   A   PREACHER.  255 

earth  keep  silence  before  him.  To  be  a  good  hearer  is  to  be  a  good 
learner.  Hearing  is  an  art  of  the  soul,  an  accomplishment  of  the  heart. 
Sir  Isaac  Newton  said  the  only  difference  he  knew  between  himself  and 
others  was  that  he  seemed  to  be  able  to  pay  more  attention  than  some  of 
them.  The  power  to  pay  attention  is  a  gift  from  God.  Some  of  us  can- 
not pay  attention.  All  the  while  we  are  making  running  commentaries  in 
our  mind,  doing  business,  entertaining  anxieties  ;  we  hear  the  word,  we  do 
not  hear  the  music  ;  we  hear  the  syllables,  we  do  not  catch  the  meaning. 
To  hear,  a  man  should  pray  an  hour  before  he  comes  into  God's  house. 

Looking  at  this  as  a  model  sermon  for  all  time,  the  preacher  is  justified 
in  preaching  practically.  A  mistake  is  often  made  about  this  matter  of 
practical  preaching.  If  a  man  denounce  the  iniquities  of  his  day  he  is 
thought  to  be  a  practical  preacher-  To  a  certain  extent  he  is  entitled  to 
that  designation.  If  I  were  to  denounce  theatres  (as  usually  understood), 
racecourses,  public-houses,  gambling  tables,  I  should  be  thought  to  be  a 
most  practical  preacher,  and  within  a  given  limit — a  very  small  one,  albeit 
■ — I  should  be  preaching  practically  and  usefully.  That  work  needs  to  be 
done,  must  be  done.  If  it  is  not  done,  a  very  solemn  duty  remains  undis- 
charged. But  he,  too,  is  a  practical  preacher  who  encourages  men  to  try  to  be 
better  and  to  do  better.  He  also  is  a  practical  preacher  who  says,  "  Young 
man,  you  failed  there,  but  pluck  up  your  spirits  ;  try  again  ;  God  bless 
you;  try  to  do  better  next  time."  He  also  is  a  practical  preacher  who 
recognises  the  sufferings  of  those  who  come  to  God's  house  to  hear  his 
word.  Sorrow  is  as  great  a  fact  as  sin.  There  is  not  a  heart  here  to-day 
that  is  not  aching,  or  that  will  not  ache  by-and-by,  or  perhaps  that  has  not 
already  had  days  and  nights  of  aching.  I  take  you  man  for  man,  pew  after 
pew,  and  the  mourners  outnumber  those  who  have  nothing  but  gladness. 
The  preacher,  therefore,  is  a  practical  preacher  who  recognises  that  fact, 
and  speaks  comfortably,  who  delivers  healing  gospels  to  broken  hearts, 
who  deals  out  bread  to  the  hungry,  and  who  gives  the  garment  of  praise 
for  the  spirit  of  heaviness.  I  often  want  to  hear  such  a  preacher  myself, 
namely,  the  man  who  takes  the  high  and  bright  view  of  things,  who  shows 
me  that  my  pain  is  for  my  good,  that  my  loss  is  the  beginning  of  my  riches, 
that  all  discipline  and  chastening,  though  for  the  present  anything  but  joy- 
ous, yea,  truly  grievous,  will  afterwards  yield  me  results  that  will  make  the 
soul  nobler  and  tenderer. 


II. 

CHRIST'S  OBJECT  AS  A  PREACHER. 

EVANGELICAL     PREACHING CHRIST's     INJUNCTION      TO      THE     CHURCH 

CHARMING    THE    POOR    BY    MUSIC — THE    DIFFICULTY    OF   SALVATION. 

Text  :  "To  save  that  wliicli  was  lost." — Luke  xix.  10. 

The  preacher  is  bound  to  set  before  himself  a  distinct  object.  The 
question  which  he  ought  to  propose  is  this  :  What  is  my  purpose  in  this 
discourse  ?  Is  it  to  instruct,  convince,  or  comfort  ?  Is  it  to  convince  sin- 
ners, or  is  it  to  edify  believers  ?  He  must  be  perfectly  familiar  with  the 
end  at  which  he  is  aiming,  or  he  will  spend  his  time  in  fighting  uncer- 
tainly, and  in  beating  the  air.  The  preacher  will  always  find  his  object 
in  his  text.  What  was  Jesus  Christ's  object  as  a  preacher  ?  To  save  men. 
If  that  was  the  object  of  the  Master,  should  the  servant  have  any  lower 
end  in  view? 

But  let  us  look  at  that  word  "save."  Like  many  other  simple-looking 
words,  it  is  very  large  in  its  application.  It  is  not  to  be  limited  to  one 
point.  Men  are  to  be  saved  from  sin — certainly  primarily.  But  does  the 
word  "  save  "  end  there  ?  Men  are  to  be  saved  from  ignorance,  to  be  saved 
from  error,  to  be  saved  from  the  bondage  of  the  letter,  from  false  wor- 
ship, from  self-confidence,  from  despair  ;  so  that  this' word  "  save,"  which 
looked  so  little  and  so  simple,  stretches  itself  over  our  whole  life — of 
guilt,  action,  ignorance,  behaviour,  spirit.  It  includes  in  its  holy  purpose 
the  whole  circle  of  our  being.  I  wish  we  could  thoroughly  understand 
this,  and  we  should  be  more  liberal  and  more  just  in  our  construction  of 
what  our  ministers  are  endeavouring  to  do  for  us.  When  the  preacher  is 
refuting  a  false  doctrine  he  is  as  certainly  endeavouring  to  save  men  as 
when  he  stands  by  the  very  cross  of  the  one  Saviour,  and  speaks  of  noth- 
ing but  the  reconciling  and  all-cleansing  blood.  Men  say  to  us,  "  Preach 
the  simple  gospel."  What  is  simple  ?  and  why  should  there  be  any  diffi- 
culty about  the  simple  gospel  ?  When  we  preach  apparently  otherwise  it 
is  not  because  the  gospel  is  wanting  in  simplicity,  but  because  sin,  vice, 
is  manifold  in  its  duplicity.  The  ten  commandments  are  not  ten  because 
virtue  is  divisible  into  ten  mysteries  ;  they  are  ten  because  vice  has  a  ten- 
fold aspect,  and  must  be  met  in  every  phase  and  attitude. 


CHRIST    AS   A   PREACHER.  257 

Our  whole  conception  about  preaching,  so  as  to  save  men,  needs  enlarge- 
ment and  purification.  Only  let  a  man  cry  out  for  the  space  of  half  an 
hour,  "  Come  to  Jesus,  come  to  Jesus,  just  now  ;  come  to  Jesus,  just  now  ;" 
and  he  is  thought  to  be  preaching  the  gospel.  To  me  he  would  be  preach- 
ing no  gospel.  I  am  so  constituted  that  I  must  instantly  ask  him  to  define 
his  terms.  "  Come — "  What  is  the  meaning  of  that  short  word  ?  Is  it  easy, 
is  it  a  child's  walk,  is  it  a  luxury,  is  it  a  natural  expression  of  the  intellect 
and  conscience  and  will  ?  IV/iy  come  ?  And  /i07o  ?  Thus  that  which 
appeared  to  be  so  simple,  small  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  when  I  plant  it 
or  sow  it,  it  becomes  a  great  tree,  outbranching  widely,  and  shaking  ques- 
tions and  difficulties  from  every  twig  of  the  gigantic  fabric.  So  I  must  ask 
for  definition  of  terms. 

Another  man  might  preach  to  me  and  never  mention  the  name  of  Jesus, 
and  yet  he  would  so  preach  as  to  make  me  unhappy  ;  he  would  so  deal 
with  my  life,  showing  its  mystery,  its  pain,  its  poverty,  its  self-helplessness, 
as  to  make  me  cry  out,  "  What  shall  I  do  ?  "  And  when  he  had  wrought 
that  question  in  me,  and  brought  it  to  my  tongue,  then  he  would  unfold  the 
infinite  and  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ. 

Now  this  was  Jesus  Christ's  method  of  gaining  his  object.  When  I  say 
"his  method  "  I  speak  a  millionfold  term.  When  you  heard  him,  though 
it  were  the  thousandth  time,  you  felt  as  if  you  had  never  heard  him  before 
— so  new  was  he,  vital,  true,  sympathetic,  beautiful.  The  chariots  of  God 
are  twenty  thousand.  Does  he  always  ride  forth  in  one  chariot,  so  that 
you  can  tell  it  is  the  King  by  the  chariot  he  rides  in  ?  No.  Twenty 
thousand  and  thousands  of  thousands  are  his  angels.  So  in  the  ministry 
of  Christ  I  find  innumerable  methods,  all  converging  upon  one  object. 
Watch  that  marvellous  ministry.  Jesus  Christ  told  stories — about  a  man 
who  had  two  sons,  about  a  man  who  went  down  from  Jerusalem  to  Jeri- 
cho, about  a  woman  who  took  leaven  and  hid  it  in  three  measures  of  meal, 
about  innumerable  other  things,  and  he  so  told  them  that  little  children 
quickened  their  ears,  and  looked  with  eyes  full  of  wonder.  The  busy  man 
stopped  with  foot  half  way  up  in  the  air  to  hear  what  next  he  would  say 
with  that  magical,  mysterious,  musical  voice.  He  created  fine  fancies  of 
the  mind,  as,  for  example,  "  A  sower  went  forth  to  sow,"  "  The  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  like  to  a  net  thrown  into  the  midst  of  the  sea."  He  asked  ques- 
tions. When  tliey  would  not  admit  him  into  the  house  as  a  preacher,  he 
went  in  as  a  doctor.  Every  preacher  ought  to  be  a  healing  man,  a  physi- 
cian. He  said,  "  If  you  will  not  have  me  as  the  Son  of  God,  come  to 
reveal  the  Father — where  is  your  poor  child  that  is  sick  ?  I  will  raise  the 
little  life  up  again."  And  once  he  was  so  busy  breaking  bread  that  you 
would  have  thought  he  was  the  world's  housekeeper.  Martha  never  was 
so  busy  as  was  her  Lord  just  then,  and  for  what  purpose  ?  What  does  he 
mean  by  all  this  ? — to  save  men,  to  get  a  hold  over  them,  to  win  their 


258  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

attention,  to  conciliate  their  confidence,  and  then  to  open  their  wondering 
and  dehghted  eyes  to  the  light  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Sometimes  we  must  adopt  a  roundabout  method  in  trying  to  secure  our 
object  as  Christian  teachers.  Instead  of  sharply  clashing  with  prejudice 
we  might  diffidently  ask  a  question.  Instead  of  bluntly  asking  a  man 
about  his  Christian  condition,  we  might  delicately  ask  him  about  his  chil- 
dren. Instead  of  giving  a  man  a  tract,  we  might  sometimes  politely  offer 
him  the  paper  of  the  day.  Only  we  should  have  our  object  always  in  view, 
and  it  should  always  be  sovereign,  supreme,  holy.  This  was  the  Apostle 
Paul's  method.  He  tells  us  exactly  how  it  was  with  him  in  his  ministry. 
"  I  made  myself  servant  unto  all  that  I  might  gain  the  more.  Unto  the 
Jew  I  became  as  a  Jew,  that  I  might  gain  the  Jews.  To  them  that  are 
under  the  law  as  under  the  law,  that  I  might  gain  them  that  are  under  the 
law.  To  the  weak  became  I  as  weak,  that  I  might  gain  the  weak.  I  am 
made  all  things  unto  all  men,  that  I  might  by  all  means  save  some."  When 
will  the  church  learn  this  great  lesson  ?  The  church  is  not  fertile  in  inven- 
tion ;  the  church  is  not  quick  and  full  in  suggestion  and  adaptation  ;  the 
church  is  stiff,  iron,  stolid,  wanting  in  elasticity  and  power  of  accommoda- 
tion to  the  ever-changing  phases  and  necessities  of  the  time.  If  Paul  had 
lived  now  how  would  he  have  modernised  that  paragraph  in  his  letter  to 
the  Corinthians?  "To  the  outsiders  I  became  an  outsider,  to  the  musical 
I  became  musical,  to  the  scientific  I  became  scientific,  to  the  man  of  the 
world*  I  became  as  a  man  of  the  world,  that  by  all  means  I  might  gain, 
save,  bless,  some."  And  to  what  pass  have  we  come?  This — "If  they 
will  not  come  to  me,  I  will  not  go  to  them.  I  have  my  church,  and  my 
service  at  eleven  in  the  morning  and  seven  in  the  evening,  and  if  they  will 
not  come  to  me  I  will  not  go  to  them.  I  have  so  many  hymns  and  prayers 
and  readings.  I  begin  at  a  point  and  end  at  a  point,  and  I  do  the  same 
all  the  year  round  ;  my  programme  never  changes.  If  they  come,  so  be 
it  ;  if  they  stay  away,  so  be  it."  An  un-Christly  speech,  an  ungodly  and 
unholy  position  ! 

Look  at  this  matter  in  a  practical  light.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  nine-tenths 
of  the  places  of  worship  in  London  on  Sunday  night  are  almost  deserted. 
Some  of  them  are  perhaps  half  full,  in  others  there  is  what  is  called  "  a 
nice  sprinkling."  In  many  churches  there  are  less  than  fifty  men  of  any 
size  and  force.  Now  there  must  be  a  reason  for  this.  Let  us  faithfully 
ask.  What  is  that  reason  ?  It  is  either  that  the  attraction  at  church  is  very 
poor,  or  that  there  is  a  greater  attraction  elsewhere.  Let  me,  as  a  Chris- 
tian teacher,  ask  myself  the  question,  seriously,  Is  the  singing  cheerless,  is 
the  preaching  dull,  is  the  service  too  long,  would  some  other  method 
better  gain  the  attention  of  the  population  than  the  method  which  I  am 
adopting?  If  men  will  not  have  my  methods  ought  I  not  to  change  them? 
If  they  would  like  a  parable,  a  story,  a  high  imagining  about  the  kingdom 


CHRIST    AS    A    PREACHER.  «59 

of  heaven,  ought  I  not  to  endeavour  to  supply  these  ?  If  I  cannot  supply 
them,  ought  I  not  to  retire  and  make  way  for  the  man  who  can  ?  What 
changes  can  I  introduce  so  as  to  gain  some  and  save  some  ?  This  is  the 
question  which  the  church  dare  not  ask. 

What  is  the  remedy  for  all  this?  Christ  gives  us  the  remedy.  We 
must  leave  the  ninety-and-nine  and  go  out.  I  stop  there, — Go  out.  O 
wondrous  word  !  Go  out.  How  far  !  Far  as  the  prodigal  has  strayed  ! 
Go  out  from  old  methods,  old  usages,  old  conventionalities,  old  habitudes, 
old  institutionalisms.  Go  out.  How  far — how  long  ?  Until  we  find  it. 
The  church  dare  not  do  this  ;  the  church  is  paralysed  with  timidity. 
Sydney  Smith  said  the  church  was  dying  of  dignity  ;  its  dignity  is  now 
drivelled  down  into  timidity.  Think  of  those  great  churches — I  mean  by 
churches  all  kinds  of  places  of  worship — standing  nearly  empty  every 
Sunday  night  in  the  year.  Why  not  have  music  in  them  ?  Music  would 
fill  them  ;  music  would  startle  the  old  echoes  ;  music  would  make  the 
walls  wonder  what  was  the  matter  with  them.  Music — God's  first-born 
angel  !  Try  music.  Why  not  have  lectures  ?  Observe,  where  there  is 
no  need  of  these  things  I  do  not  advocate  their  introduction.  If  a  church 
can  be  filled  because  a  man  is  going  to  read  a  chapter  of  the  Bible,  and 
do  nothing  else,  I  should  say  that  was  the  highest  triumph  of  modern 
civilisation.  If  a  church  can  be  filled  to  hear  a  sermon  preached  about 
Jesus  and  sin,  and  truth,  and  God,  and  Heaven,  so  much  the  better  ;  but 
when  you  find  the  people  running  away  from  you,  abandoning  your 
churches,  leaving  your  finest  edifices  almost  wholly  empty,  then  leave  the 
ninety-and-nine  old  methods,  plans,  programmes,  and  go  out  after  that 
which  is  lost,  and  do  not  come  back  until  you  have  found  it. 

How  many  noble  church  organs  are  standing  dumb  to-night  that  might 
be  doing  the  work  of  God  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  people.  They 
will  be  used  here  and  there  for  the  purpose  of  eking  out  the  ebbing  life 
of  some  aged  and  asthmatic  common  metre  tune  mumbled  by  persons  of 
decaying  respectability,  when  they  might  be  interpreting  infinite  and  thril- 
ling melodies  to  hearts  in  which  bafiled  hope  is  dying.  God  made  the 
organ  !  He  who  orders  the  winds  out  of  their  caves,  and  makes  the  ocean 
roar  its  hoarse  amen,  fills  the  air  with  birds  of  varying  note,  and  makes 
the  rills  drip  music  as  they  fall  down  from  mountain  slopes,  and  sends  the 
wide  rivers  singing  to  the  sea,  there  to  merge  their  liquid  treble  in  crea- 
tion's ancient  bass — he  whose  deafening  thunders  seem  to  shake  the  uni- 
verse, he,  mighty  God,  put  it  into  the  mind  and  heart  of  man  to  make 
that  king  of  instruments,  the  organ,  which  can  announce  a  jubilee  or 
bless  a  mourner's  heart.  Yet  we  lock  it  up  and  hide  the  key,  and  must 
not  have  too  much  of  it,  though  there  be  poor  people  to-night  in  many  of 
these  places  round  about  us  who  would  be  glad  to  come  in  and  hear  the 
thousand-throated  instrument,  speaking  its  gospel  of  soothing  and  hope. 


z6o  THESE   SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

Some  persons  would  rather  hear  themselves  humming  and  boommg  like 
lost  bumble  bees  than  they  would  admit  stringed  instruments  into  the 
house  of  God.  I  say  let  us  by  a/l  means  seek  to  save  some.  If  they 
will  not  hear  the  preacher  preach,  let  them  hear  the  organ  play.  If  they 
will  not  hear  the  preacher  theologise,  let  them  hear  the  lecturer  expound 
and  instruct  and  startle  by  many  a  happy  suggestion.  By  all  means  let 
us  try  to  save  some.  You  will  be  forgiven  on  the  last  day  if  you  can  say 
that  you  did  stretch  a  point  here  and  there,  and  you  did  really  venture  to 
do  something  irregular  and  almost  eccentric  in  order  to  charm  the  drunk- 
ard from  the  public-house,  and  the  sensualist  from  his  den  of  iniquity, 
and  the  wayfarer  from  his  strolling,  and  the  prodigal  from  his  wilderness. 
You  meant  it  well.  What  will  he  say — Man  of  the  parable  and  the  story, 
and  the  bread-baking  and  the  child-kissing — what  will  he  say  ?  "  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant ;  thou  hast  been  faithful  according  to  thy 
light  and  opportunity  ;  enter  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 

Many  of  you  could  help  very  much  in  gaining  some  and  in  saving  others. 
Why  don't  you  who  have  this  gift  of  preaching  by  music  take  the  schoolroom 
belonging  to  your  several  churches,  and  invite  the  poor  old  people  round 
about  who  would  not  be  admitted  into  concerts,  to  hear  any  kind  of  music 
you  could  give  them  ? — a  nice  bright  little  song,  sometimes  a  hymn,  put  in  by 
stealth,  as  it  were.  What  kind  of  people  ?  Why,  just  the  poorest  old 
crones  you  could  gather — nobody  to  come  in  who  had  the  slightest  trace  of 
respectability  about  him,  the  door  shut  in  the  face  of  every  man  who  has 
one  sixpence  to  rub  upon  another.  Poor  old  bodies,  with  their  knitting, 
it  may  be,  or  their  sewing — poor  worn  mothers,  with  two  or  three  children 
in  their  arms,  who  have  not  seen  their  husbands  for  many  hours — get  them 
in.  But  perhaps  they  will — they  will — spoil  the  place  ?  Let  them  spoil  it. 
I  like  to  see  a  place  spoiled  in  that  sort  of  way.  "  Lord,  here  is  the  place, 
unspoiled  ;  no  paint  scratched  off,  no  varnish  interfered  with,  every  chair 
in  a  nice  cleanly  condition.  This  is  how  we  kept  our  place,  but  vv^e  took 
care  never  to  open  the  church  night  or  day  more  than  we  could  help." 
What  will  he  say  ?     May  I  not  be  there  to  hear  ! 

Now  what  I  have  said  about  one  department  outside  the  church,  namely, 
music,  I  would  say,  if  time  permitted,  about  fifty  others,  and  ask  you  music 
people,  literary  people,  persons  who  can  contribute  towards  the  enjoyment 
of  the  people,  especially  the  poor — I  would  have  you  say,  each  of  you, 
"What  is  my  talent,  and  how  can  I  spend  it  so  as  to  sa7ie  some  ?  "  I  want 
allies  of  all  kinds,  lieutenants  big  and  little  ;  I  want  men  to  be  doing  all 
they  can,  each  in  his  own  way,  and  all  meaning  the  same  thing,  namely, 
the  gaining  and  saving  of  men.  I  take  Jesus  Christ's  idea  of  preaching, 
which  he  turned  into  the  widest  institution  upon  the  earth.  It  included 
feeding  the  hungry,  clothing  the  naked,  visiting  the  sick,  healing  those  that 
were  ill,  working  miracles,  preaching  the  truth,  revealing  God,  pronouncing 


CHRIST   AS   A    PREACHER.  26 1 

benedictions,  denouncing  public  sins,  encouraging  the  young  and  the  old — 
a  great  ministry.  He  who  built  that  great  sky,  and  filled  it  with  worlds  so 
many  and  so  bright,  must  have  grand  and  gracious  conceptions  about  any 
ministry  that  is  meant  to  teach  and  save  and  bless  the  immortal  soul. 

Why  is  it  so  difficult  to  save  men  ?  We  say,  "If  this  gospel  is  of  God 
surely  it  will  at  once  vindicate  itself  and  save  the  souls  of  them  who  hear 
it."  The  salvation  of  men  is  the  supreme  difficulty  of  God.  The  ques- 
tion you  have  just  put  would  be  to  me  the  most  disturbing  and  distressing 
of  all  questions  if  we  could  not  relieve  it  by  others  which  do  not  come 
strictly  within  the  power  of  reason  to  answer.  Why  do  men  need  to  hear 
more  than  one  appeal  to  come  to  the  Saviour  according  to  the  way  he  has 
laid  down  himself  in  his  blessed  word  and  testimony  ?  One  would  suppose 
that,  with  a  divine  message,  a  man  had  simply  to  stand  at  the  place  of  the 
concourse  of  people,  and  say,  "  This  is  God's  message,"  and  instantly  all 
hearts  would  yield  their  homage  and  their  love.  How  can  we  relieve  the 
fearful  mystery  ? — by  suggesting,  or  rather  calling  to  mind,  the  fact,  how 
difficult  it  is  to  do  right  in  any  direction.  Do  you  know  how  difficult  it  is 
to  get  any  man  to  be  thoroughly  clean  ?  I  do  not  say  difificult  to  get  a  man 
to  wash  his  hands,  but  to  be  thoroughly  clean  and  to  love  cleanliness.  Do 
you  know  how  exceedingly  difficult  it  is  to  get  some  persons  to  ho.  punctual ? 
Why,  to  be  punctual — they  do  not  know  the  meaning  of  the  word.  You 
say,  "  Eight  o'clock  is  the  time."  They  will  be  there  at  half-past  nine,  or 
they  will  forget  the  appointment  altogether,  or  they  will  come  the  day 
after.  Do  you  know  how  exceedingly  difficult  it  is  to  get  some  people  to 
pay  their  debts  ?     To  pay — they  are  not  to  the  manner  born. 

Now  I  use  these  outside  illustrations,  only  on  an  inferior  level,  to  lead 
you  up  step  by  step  to  the  crowning  difficulty.  Do  you  know  how  difificult 
it  is  to  get  a  man  to  say  absolutely  what  he  means  ?  When  Jesus  Christ 
said,  "  Let  your  yea  be  yea,  and  your  nay  nay,"  he  seemed  to  be  talking 
a  very  small  kind  of  talk,  but  where  is  the  man  whose  yes  means  yes  with- 
out a  taint  or  shadow  of  no  in  it  ?  Have  you  thought  of  that  ?  Where  is 
the  man  whose  speech  is  dazzlingly  true  ?  The  most  of  us  speak  what  is 
generally  true,  relatively  true,  substantially  true,  true  with  a  grain  of  salt, 
with  a  mental  reservation,  with  a  suppressed  parenthesis — but  dazzlingly 
true,  transparently  and  gleamingly  true  !  If  it  be  so  difficult  in  these  mat- 
ters to  do  that  which  is  right,  can  you  not  see,  through  them,  how  possibly 
it  may  be  the  supreme  difficulty  of  the  universe  to  save  men  ?  Jesus  Christ 
said,  "  Ye  will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might  have  life."  The  great 
difficulty  for  us  is  to  do  right  in  any  way.  Now,  if  you  could  show  me 
that  it  is  so  natural  and  so  easy  for  men  to  do  right  in  every  other  way 
that  they  ought  to  accept  the  gospel  if  it  were  true,  I  would  say  you  had 
urged  against  this  divine  testimony  a  very  powerful  argument.  But  the 
whole  head  is  sick,  the  whole  heart  is  faint.     Through  and  through,  up  and 


262  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

down,  we  are  wounds  and  bruises  and  putrefying  Sores  ;  the  right  hand 
is  crippled,  and  the  left  hand  is  withered,  and  the  head  is  giddy,  and  the 
heart  irregular,  and  the  foot  skilled  in  going  backwards.  What  wonder, 
when  the  grand  climax,  the  sovereign  appeal  is  reached,  to  surrender  to 
God  and  to  love  him,  we  should  come  upon  the  supreme  difficulty  ! 

What,  then,  is  left  the  preacher  to  do  to  himself,  and  to  those  who  hear 
him  ? — to  proclaim  the  gospel,  to  speak  of  human  sin  and  Christ's  pre- 
cious blood,  to  announce  the  grand  catastrophe  of  evil,  and  the  grander 
remedy  of  God's  holiness  in  Christ.  That  is  all  he  can  do  except  to 
announce  the  consequences  of  the  rejection  or  acceptance  of  his  ministry. 
The  rejection — "  The  wicked  shall  be  turned  into  hell,  with  all  the  nations 
that  forget  God.  These  shall  go  away  into  everlasting  punishment.  There 
is  no  more  sacrifice  for  sins.  The  door  will  be  shut.  Many  will  say  to 
me.  Lord,  open  unto  us,  but  I  will  say,  I  never  knew  you.  Cast  ye  the 
unprofitable  servant  into  outer  darkness,  there  shall  be  wailing  and  gnash- 
ing of  teeth."  And  the  minister  dare  not  trifle  with  these  terms.  They 
are  not  given  to  him  to  gloss,  amend,  soften,  but  to  utter  with  self-suppres- 
sion and  with  tearfulness.  The  result  of  acceptance — "  Ye  shall  find  rest 
unto  your  souls.  Your  sins,  which  are  many,  will  all  be  forgiven  you.  Let 
the  wicked  turn  unto  the  Lord,  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon.  Great 
peace  have  they  that  love  thy  law." 

Thus  promise  after  promise  must  the  speaker  pronounce  to  them  who 
receive  the  word  with  joy.  This  I  would  humbly,  reverently  do  now.  My 
friend,  are  you  hearing  the  gospel  for  the  thousandth  time,  and  yet  have 
not  received  it  ?  Are  you  going  to  reject  it  now  ?  This  may  be  your  last 
visit  to  God's  house.  Think  !  Are  you  going  to  receive  Christ  to-night, 
saying,  "  Well,  he  endeavoured  by  all  means  to  save  some,  he  shall  save  me. 
Lord,  receive  me,  save  me  ;  open  thine  arms,  and  I  will  flee  to  thee  "  ? 
Are  you  going  to  say  that  ?  There  is  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels 
over  one  sinner  that  repenteth. 


III. 

CHRIST'S  QUALIFICATIONS  AS  A  PREACHER. 

THE    NECESSITY    OF    CHARACTER CHRIST's     INTELLECTUAL    RESOURCES 

WHAT  WE  OWE  TO  THE  ENEMY THE  VARIETY  OF  CHRIST's  METHOD. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  we  come  to  thee  in  tlie  name  of  tliy  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour, 
and  not  ours  only,  but  the  Saviour  of  the  whole  world,  who  by  his  precious  blood 
answered  all  the  accusation  of  thy  law.  He  is  the  Way,  the  Truth,  the  Life,  and 
there  is  none  other,  and  we  now  accept  him  as  thy  gift,  the  very  utterance  and 
expression  of  thine  own  infinite  love.  We  rejoice  to  know  that  there  is  one  God  and 
one  Mediator  between  God  and  man,  the  Man  Christ  Jesus  ;  wo  come  therefore  to  thee, 
through  him  alone  :  in  him  is  our  worthiness,  in  him  is  our  strength,  and  if  we  are 
dumb  before  thee,  it  is  that  he  himself  may  pray  for  us. 

We  thank  thee  that  we  still  have  an  interest  in  the  affairs  of  thy  kingdom. 
Time  doth  not  charm  us,  and  all  the  earth  with  its  fulness  and  all  the  sea  with  its 
music  cannot  content  us.  We  declare  plainly  that  we  seek  a  country  ;  our  eyes  are 
lifted  up,  and  we  seek  a  city  which  hath  foundations,  whose  builder  and  maker  is 
God.  Thou  hast  stirred  us  by  a  Divine  ambition,  thou  art  moving  us  by  heavenly 
impulses,  the  unrest  which  disturbs  our  heart  is  itself  a  blessing,  calling  upon  us  to 
arise  and  work  and  serve  and  wait  and  suffer  until  the  end,  which  is  full  of  light, 
shall  come. 

Wherein  we  have  done  wrong  in  thy  sight  do  thou  now  exercise  thy  mercy,  that 
the  miracle  of  thy  forgiveness  may  exceed  the  marvel  of  our  guilt.  Thou  hast  an 
answer  to  us  in  Christ  Jesus  :  he  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions,  he  was  bruised 
for  our  iniquities,  the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  him,  and  by  his  stripes  we 
are  healed.  Lo,  this  is  thy  gospel,  to  our  heart  when  it  smites  itself  with  accusation, 
and  to  our  conscience  when  it  rises  threateningly  and  demands  our  life.  Help  us  to 
.find  rest  in  Christ,  refuge  in  the  cross,  and  peace  in  the  holy  blood — then  let  thy 
word  dwell  in  us  richly  as  a  new  life  and  a  new  light,  the  very  glory  of  Heaven,  the 
very  peace  of  God.  So  shall  we  have  an  answer  to  every  tempter,  a  refuge  in  the 
time  of  every  tempest,  and  our  peace  shall  be  complete,  because  it  is  of  the  nature  of 
the  tranquillity  of  God.  Help  us  to  use  our  time  well  :  may  no  talent  be  wrapped 
up  and  laid  aside,  may  we  be  living  at  every  point  of  our  character,  yea,  may 
there  be  no  death  in  us  at  all ;  even  now  may  we  lay  hold  upon  our  immortality  and 
bring  to  bear  iipon  the  things  of  the  dying  day  the  power  of  an  endless  life. 

Where  there  is  sorrow  of  heart  this  day,  surprise  the  sorrowful  with  new  joys  : 
where  there  is  a  sense  of  blankness  and  emptiness  because  of  the  visitations  of  thy 
bereaving  providence,  do  thou  fill  up  such  blankness  with  thy  presence  more  fully 
than  ever  thou  hast  yet  done.  When  the  tears  are  in  the  eyes  and  the  sob  is  sup- 
pressed in  the  heart,  bring  thy  gospel  in  all  its  tender  solaces  and  infinite  consolations 


264  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

to  bear  upon  the  bruised  and  heavy  laden.  Interpret  unto  us  the  meaning  of  the 
grave  that  is  dug  under  our  own  hearthstone — show  us  why  death  is  a  continual 
guest  at  our  table,  and  do  thou  thus  interpret  unto  us  the  mystery  of  life  and  give 
unto  us  the  piety  which  sees  the  bright  view,  the  far  and  celestial  outlook,  that 
anticipates  the  resurrection,  the  utter  and  lasting  destruction  of  death.  Then  shall 
our  voices  mingle  with  the  sweet  hymn  in  thy  house  that  gives  thee  praise  for  all 
thy  dispensation,  and  the  psalm  that  adores  thee  shall  have  in  it  the  utterance  of 
our  love. 

Text  :  "  The  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach." — Isaiah  Ixi.  i, 

Christ's  supreme  qualification  as  a  preacher  was  that  he  himself  was 
the  Word  made  flesh,  was  both  the  text  and  the  sermon,  the  doctrine  and 
its  exemplification.  That  must  be  the  qualification  of  his  ministers  : 
in  such  degree  as  is  possible  to  them  they  must  be  incarnations  of  the  very 
spirit  and  perfection  of  God.  They  will  not,  of  course,  succeed  in  this, 
but  they  will  press  towards  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  their  high  calling  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus.  I  am  not  aware  that  any  promise  is  given  to  genius 
or  learning,  in  the  matter  of  expounding  the  Divine  word,  but  exceeding 
great  and  precious  promises  are  given  to  modesty,  humility,  trust,  child- 
like love,  transparent,  ingenuous  simplicity.  Blessed  are  the  pure  in 
heart,  for  they  shall  see  God.  The  Lord  resisteth  the  proud,  but  he  giveth 
grace  unto  the  humble.  You  will  find  at  the  basis  of  Christ's  ministry 
what  must  be  at  the  basis  of  every  ministry  that  is  divine,  true,  and  benefi- 
cent— solid  character.  This  is  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ  : — Without 
sin  ;  a  just  man  ;  innocent  blood  ;  no  fault  in  him  ;  he  did  no  violence, 
neither  was  any  deceit  in  his  mouth.  That  is  the  basis  of  all  vital  and 
lasting  influence  in  every  man.  In  the  long  run  character  goes  for  most. 
Tongues  cease,  prophecy  fails,  eloquence  is  dumb,  and  music  is  silent,  but 
character,  charity,  love,  abideth  forever. 

You  mistake  Jesus  Christ  if  you  think  of  him  as  a  miracle-worker  only. 
He  made  nothing  of  his  miracles,  except  as  means  to  ends.  He  was  never 
intoxicated  by  the  eulogiums  of  the  people  who  said,  "  Never  man  spake 
like  this  Man,"  who  wondered  at  the  gracious  words  which  proceeded  out 
of  his  mouth  like  rich,  deep  '■ivers  running  in  green  pastures.  He  was  not 
stopped  in  his  course  by  being  applauded  as  the  most  perfect,  graceful, 
and  eloquent  speaker  of  his  time,  a  magician  in  the  use  of  words  and  a 
master  in  their  application.  All  those  trivial  compliments  he  despised  : 
he  was  holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  separate  from  sinners — with  us,  above 
us,  here,  yonder,  on  earth,  in  Heaven — that  weird  mystery  that  eternally 
frightens  all  wickedness.  He  was  more  than  a  merely  good  man— that, 
being  a  very  doubtful  description,  may  mean  much  that  Jesus  Christ  would 
have  resented.  He  was  holy,  he  was  in  deep  sympathy  with  God,  he 
dwelt  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Almighty,  he  made  his  habitation  in  the 
Lord,  whereas  in  our  case  the  temple  may  have  a  thousand  pinnacles 


CHRIST    AS   A    PREACHER.  265 

flashing  in  the  sun,  and  on  every  pinnacle  a  thousand  marble  gods,  but 
the  temple  itself  is  on  the  sand,  and  the  wind  will  carry  it  away. 

First  of  all,  there  must  be  in  all  Christian  teachers,  public  or  private, 
high  or  obscure,  solid,  indestructible  character.  But  there  will  be  imper- 
fections? Certainly.  Mistakes,  failures  in  judgment,  sometimes  actions 
that  seem  to  mock  the  very  first  suggestions  of  common  sense  ?  Truly. 
These  things  do  not  touch  character.  You  may  fall  a  thousand  times  a 
day,  and  still  there  may  be  in  you  that  seed  of  the  divine  sonship  which 
the  devil  cannot  steal,  and  which  winter  cannot  bind  up  in  more  than  tem- 
porary frost.  When  I  speak  of  character,  I  do  not  speak  of  what  is  termed 
outward  and  visible  perfection — a  mechanically-wrought  contrivance  of 
expediencies,  which  challenge  the  most  jealous  and  critical  human  eye — 
but  of  an  inner  kingdom  of  spirit,  conviction,  sympathy,  purpose,  against 
which  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail.  Peter  fell  :  Peter  was  not  lost. 
All  men  have  fallen,  yet  man  shall  be  saved.  This  is  a  great  mystery,  but 
I  speak  to  those  who  understand  it  by  many  a  suffering,  by  many  a  grief, 
by  many  a  tragedy  too  sacred  for  words. 

Not  only  was  Christ  holy,  he  was  called.  It  is  not  every  good  man  that 
is  called  to  preach.  Jesus  Christ  was  distinctly  called  to  this  high  work 
of  the  ministry,  "  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon  me,  because  the 
Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  unto  the  meek.  He  hath 
sent  me  to  bind  up.  the  broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  cap- 
tives, and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound."  "  Be- 
hold my  servant  whom  I  uphold,  mine  elect  in  whom  my  soul  delighteth. 
I  have  put  my  spirit  upon  him."  "God  giveth  not  the  spirit  by  measure 
unto  him."  God  anointed  Jesus  of  Nazareth  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
with  power.  Thus,  then,  Jesus  Christ  was  a  holy  Man — I  now  take  the 
merely  human  view  of  the  case — distinctly  and  specifically  called  of  God 
to  preach  a  certain  gospel.  It  is  beautiful  to  think  that  almost  every 
man,  when  he  is  converted,  wants  to  be  a  minister.  Do  not  ridicule  the 
young  ambition.  There  is  an  element  of  grandeur — shall  I  say  of 
divinity  ? — about  it.  Have  I  ever  received  a  young  man  into  the 
church  who  did  not  come  to  me  soon  after  and  say  that  he  felt  as  if  he 
would  like  to  be  a  minister,  a  preacher  of  the  truth  which  has  made 
him  what  he  is  in  his  new  life  ?  Yea,  in  that  first  love,  in  that  early 
passion  of  consecration,  he  is  willing  to  be  a  missionary — an  enthusiasm 
which  often  dies  out  too  soon.  He  says  he  will  be  a  home  missionary, 
he  will  even  be  an  evangelist  ;  his  love  is  so  simple,  large,  and  pure, 
that  he  will  be  a  door-keeper  in  the  house  of  the  Lord.  W^ll,  it  is 
morally  beautiful,  it  is  spiritually  pathetic,  exquisite  in  the  perfectness  of 
its  delicacy,  and  in  the  subtlety  of  its  deepest  meanings,  yet  every  man  is 
not  called  to  be  a  minister,  I  gently  discourage  all  I  can  from  being 
preachers.     My  gentle  discouragements  will  do  them  no  harm  :  if  God 


266  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

really  means  to  have  them  in  this  work,  he  will  know  where  to  find  them 
and  how  to  call  them.  You  cannot  mistake  fire — was  fire  ever  mistaken 
for  anything  else  ?  It  is  a  baptism  of  fire  with  which  God  anoints  his 
chosen  ones.  It  is  fire  that  makes  the  difference  between  one  man  and 
another  ;  it  is  not  intelligence,  it  is  not  the  mere  use  of  words.  The  most 
copious  speakers  I  have  ever  heard  in  my  life  have  been  to  me  the  most 
inane  and  pointless.  What  was  wanted  ?  Fire.  Who  can  despise  it  ? 
None.  Who  can  feel  it  ?  All.  Be  quiet,  then,  for  the  time,  my  neophyte  ; 
see  whether  it  is  really  God's  fire  that  is  under  thee,  and  in  thee,  and 
round  about  thee — it  cannot  easily  be  put  out,  and  there  will  be  no  mis- 
taking it  by-and-by. 

Men  are  called  to  be  what  they  are.  Every  musician  is  called  of  God. 
Do  you  suppose  that  every  man  who  has  ten  fingers  can  play  the  organ  ? 
Do  you  suppose  that  every  man  who  has  large  lungs  can  play  upon  a 
trumpet  to  the  instruction  and  edification  of  those  who  hear  him — to  their 
lifting  up  and  their  resurrection  ?  Every  poet  is  called  to  make  his  verse: 
he  is  anointed  of  God.  Herein  is  that  saying  true  which  a  Frenchman 
spoke,  to  whom  it  was  said,  "  It  must  be  very  difficult  to  make  epic 
verses."  Said  he,  "No  :  easy,  or  impossible."  Every  tradesman  is  called 
to  his  employment,  if  he  be  in  the  right  sphere.  A  tradesman  cannot  be 
made  any  more  than  a  poet.  I  know  how  to  account  for  all  the  failures 
in  commercial  life ;  either  the  men  are  not  in  their  right  places,  and  were 
never  meant  for  those  places,  or  there  is  that  necessary  want  of  energy 
and  genius,  tact  and  perseverance,  which  comes  out  of  antipathy  to  the 
pursuit.  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  catch  God's  idea  con- 
cerning him,  interpret  the  Divine  idea  in  the  creation  of  his  life,  and  then 
you  will  have  a  natural,  symmetrical,  and  happy  development  of  faculty 
and  energy  and  love,  and  at  the  last  you  will  have  a  life  beautiful  for  its 
completeness  and  utility. 

I  am  not  sure  that  any  man  has  yet  made  enough  of  Christ's  intellectual 
resources  as  a  preacher.  I  do  not  remember  any  essay  upon  the  intellect 
of  Christ.  We,  of  course,  as  Evangelical  Christians,  believe  him  to  have 
been  God  the  Son — that  is  the  central  fact  in  my  Christian  faith.  But 
speaking  of  him  now  as  a  historical  character,  merely  as  a  preacher,  a 
speaker,  a  teacher  of  men,  I  feel  that  we  have  not  dwelt  sufficiently  upon 
the  intellectual  virility,  fecundity,  and  majesty  of  Christ.  Only  this  morning 
the  idea  occurred  to  me  how  his  intellectual  power  is  displayed  in  the  hell 
which  he  described  in  the  lesson  I  have  just  read.  Thinking  of  my  service 
this  morning,  that  conception  of  hell  came  before  me  as  one  of  the  finest 
exemplifications  of  the  intellectual  power  of  Christ,  and  therefore  I  deter- 
mined to  read  to  you,  as  I  have  now  done,  that  solemn  and  mysterious 
parable  concerning  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus.  I  will  risk  my  whole  con- 
tention as  to  Christ's  intellectual  supremacy  upon  that  one  parable.     I  read 


CHRIST    AS   A    PREACHER,  267 

Dante's  hell  till  I  became  familiar  with  it :  it  is  a  poet  labouring  to  kindle  a 
hell  with  fagots  of  words,  and  the  trick  is  well  done.  But  you  may  multi- 
ply words  till  you  work  in  the  hearer  a  familiarity  which  makes  him  a  critic 
upon  the  very  hell  you  meant  him  to  fear.  What  a  hell  is  this,  in  the  pas- 
sage we  have  just  read  !  "  Have  mercy  on  me," — the  man  is  in  a  place, 
for  the  first  time  in  his  being,  where  mercy  never  came, — "  send  Lazarus  " 
— the  humiliation  that  forms  part  of  the  final  penalty — "  that  he  may  dip 
the  tip  of  his  finger  in  water  " — the  very  least  blessing  magnified  into  a 
redemption — "  and  cool  my  tongue,  for  I  am  tormented  in  this  flame."  He 
made  that  hell  who  made  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  !  These  colours 
are  thrown  on  with  a  master's  touch  :  there  is  no  labour  here.  Dante's 
hell  is  a  perdition  which  the  poet  has  dreamed,  Christ's  hell  is  a  pit  which 
he  has  seen. 

All  the  parables  indicate  the  supreme  intellectual  majesty  of  Christ. 
There  was  no  end  to  his  inventiveness.  All  his  parables  are  original. 
To-day  we  have  books  of  anecdotes,  thick  books,  sold  for  ministerial  use, 
that  the  minister  may  feather  his  arrows  with  anecdotes  imagined  by  other 
men.  If  I  told  you  twenty  anecdotes,  I  should  have  borrowed  them  from 
various  sources.  Christ  made  his  anecdotes,  invented  his  parables,  elabo- 
rated, out  of  an  inexhaustible  genius,  all  the  beauteous  pictures  which  he 
hung  up  before  the  eye  and  the  fancy  of  his  hearers.  Gather  them  alto- 
gether into  one  gallery,  mark  their  contrasts,  their  varieties — hardly  any 
two  of  them  alike — why,  he  who  made  the  flowers  made  these  paradisal 
plants  ;  they  bear  the  same  signature,  they  have  about  them  the  same  mys- 
tery— alike,  dissimilar,  identical,  separate — all  the  widest  contrasts  possible 
to  imagination.  The  parable  of  the  Sower  and  the  parable  of  Dives  and 
Lazarus  came  out  of  the  same  mind.  The  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan, 
and  the  parables  by  which  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  illustrated  in  twenty 
different  shining  lights,  all  came  out  of  the  same  mind  ;  and  that  mind 
had  never  been  at  school,  that  mind  was  an  untrained  peasant's  mind, 
that  mind  never  knew  letters  in  the  rabbinical  and  scholastic  sense  of 
the  term,  and  yet  it  grew  those  flowers,  like  a  garden  tilled  by  an  invis- 
ible hand,  of  which  God  was  the  husbandman.  Collect  these  things,  dwell 
upon  them,  and  see  how  they  add  up  to — Deity  ! 

But  the  instantaneousness  of  the  speech  was  as  remarkable  as  its  invent- 
iveness. Christ's  was  not  the  art  that  conceals  art,  not  the  trick  of  a 
preacher  who  can  have  a  long  written  sermon  before  him,  and  yet  be  so 
reading  it  as  to  appear  not  to  be  reading  it  at  all.  Jesus  Christ  knew 
nothing  of  our  homiletic  tricks.  He  had  no  time  to  prepare  some  of  his 
sublimest  utterances  ;  they  were  retorts.  How  long  would  it  take  me  to 
make  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  ?  Would  you  begrudge  me  three 
days  if  I  asked  that  time  in  which  to  make  the  parable  ?  I  believe  you 
would  willingly  grant  me  that  space  for  preparation.     How  long  did  Christ 


268  THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

take  ?     An  immeasurable  moment.     The  tempting  lawyer  said,  "  Who  is 

my  neighbour  ?"     And  he,  answering,  said .     Then  came  that  beautiful 

utterance  :  not  a  three  days*  thinking,  not  a  week's  preparation,  but  an 
answer  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart.  The  heart  that  could  give  such 
utterances  every  day  was  not  a  peasant's  heart  only,  it  was — God's. 

All  the  most  beautiful  parables  of  Christ  were  spoken  in  reply  to  the 
enemy.  "  Then  drew  near  to  him  the  publicans  and  the  sinners  to  hear 
him.  And  he  said,  'A  certain  man  had  two  sons.'  "  Then  came  the  para- 
ble of  the  Prodigal  Son.  Look  at  Christ's  knowledge  of  human  nature. 
He  needed  not  that  any  should  testify  of  man,  for  he  knew  what  was  in 
man.  That  was  one  of  his  supreme  qualifications  as  a  public  expounder 
of  Divine  mysteries.  He  knew  his  audience  ;  he  knew  his  material.  A 
great  musician  says,  "I  must  know  my  organ."  One  of  the  greatest  musi- 
cians in  our  land  says,  that  before  you  can  play  any  organ  you  must  get 
out  of  your  memory  every  other  organ  you  ever  touched,  and  must  make 
the  particular  instrument  to  be  played  upon  a  separate  and  independent 
study.  Jesus  Christ  knew  every  string  in  the  instrument  he  had  to  play. 
Socrates  says  the  orator  must  be  all  man.  Jesus  Christ  needed  not  that 
any  should  testify  of  man,  for  he  knew  what  was  in  man. 

This  must  be  the  secret  of  our  power  as  preachers  and  teachers  and 
private  expositors  of  the  Divine  mysteries.  Not  to  know  human  nature 
is  to  be  ignorant.  To  know  human  nature  is  to  speak  all  languages.  Some 
men  have  the  spirit  of  burning  who  have  not  the  spirit  of  judgment  in 
this  matter.  What  shall  we  say  of  a  young  man  who,  in  the  excess  of  his 
zeal,  was  giving  away  religious  tracts,  and  to  two  acquaintances  of  my  own, 
two  very  respectable  citizen-mothers,  two  ladies  of  the  highest  character, 
this  young  man  gave  a  tract,  each  on  the  subject  of  profane  sivearing  ? 
Vou  could  hardly  believe  any  such  idiocy  :  you  could  scarcely  believe 
that  any  man  could  perpetrate  so  foul  an  irony.  If  thou  dost  not  know 
human  nature  thy  ministry  will  be  a  pitiful  failure.  Know  how  to  speak 
to  every  man.  If  he  is  a  weakling  who  comes  to  thee,  chaffer  like  a 
weakling,  and  make  him  feel  like  a  hail  fellow  well  met,  and  he  will  go 
away  saying,  "  Well,  really,  he  is  not  such  a  grea*^  man  as  I  thought  he 
was  :  I  felt  as  if  we  were  just  standing  on  a  level."  That's  right.  That 
is  genius.  And  when  the  great  man  comes  to  talk  to  thee,  speak  in  another 
language — take  him  on  his  own  level,  and  he  will  say  as  he  is  going  away, 
"I  did  not  expect  to  find  so  superior  and  distinguished  a  man."  That  is 
genius.  To  the  weak,  weak ;  to  the  strong,  strong ;  to  the  shrewd, 
shrewd  ;  to  the  simple,  simple  ;  to  all  men,  all  things.  So  was  Christ.  A 
ruler  among  the  Jews  could  talk  to  him  till  his  flesh  crept  as  if  ghosts 
were  tormenting  him  all  over,  and  a  woman  at  a  well  could  talk  to  him 
and  ask  him  questions,  and  little  children  could  go  up  to  him  and  toddle 
about  him  as  if  they  had  the  right  to  do  so,  and  kings  and  procurators 


CHRIST    AS    A    PREACHER.  269 

turned  pale  in  his  presence,  and  were  made  silent  by  his  silence.  He 
looked  at  them  till  they  were  afraid  of  themselves.  He  knew  what  was 
in  man,  yet  he  was  a  peasant,  a  carpenter,  a  Nazarene — whence  had  this 
Man  this  wisdom  ?  And  echo  answers,  "Whence?"  And  the  answer 
only  comes  from  eternity. 

Then  consider  what  an  eye  he  had  for  the  suggestiveness  of  the  mater- 
ial world.  A  sparrow  falling  to  the  ground,  a  lily  growing,  a  ship  sailing, 
the  fields  whitening  unto  the  harvest,  the  sky  lowering,  red  at  night,  red 
in  the  morning — all  things  helped  him  to  make  his  ministry  clearer,  fuller, 
stronger.  The  whole  heaven  and  earth  became  to  him  a  great  gallery  of 
illustration  ;  every  star  was  a  teacher,  every  flower  had  in  it  the  power  of 
suggesting  to  him  deeper  and  ever  deeper  truth.  Lift  up  thine  eyes  and 
behold  ;  seek  not  in  thy  worm-eaten  books  for  new  revelations,  seek  for 
them  in  God's  lights  and  God's  flowers,  old  as  immemorial  time,  new  as 
the  dew  that  was  made  out  of  the  viscid  vapours  last  night. 

Jesus  Christ  availed  himself  of  every  method.  What  was  Jesus  Christ's 
method  of  preaching  ?  You  cannot  tell.  The  chariots  of  God  are  twenty 
thousand.  He  taught ;  then  his  voice  fell  into  a  conversational  tone  ;  he 
was  expository,  communicative,  illuminative  ;  he  took  words,  and  terms, 
and  phrases  to  pieces  ;  he  went  back  upon  the  old  writings,  and  put  them 
into  new  forms — set  them  so  that  they  could  catch  the  light  at  angles 
hitherto  unillumined.  He  solemnly,  quietly  taught  the  people,  spoke  \vith 
infinite  dignity,  scarcely  seemed  to  move  a  finger  or  a  feature  ;  in  the 
deepest  sense  of  infinite  quiet  and  peace,  he  taught  the  people.  His  words 
were  light,  his  sentences  were  baptisms,  his  expositions  were  revelations — 
the  quietness  overawed  and  soothed  the  auditors. 

That  was  one  method.  Was  he  always  the  same  ?  No.  He  cried.  I 
should  like  to  have  heard  the  uplifting  of  his  voice.  "  And  Jesus  stood — 
on  the  last  day,  the  great  day  of  the  feast,  Jesus  stood  " — usually  he  sat 
to  teach  the  people,  but  on  that  day  he  stood,  full  height,  expanded  to  the 
utmost  of  his  dignity,  "  And  cried,  saying.  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come 
unto  me  and  drink."  Not  a  note  lost,  every  tone  alighting  upon  every 
man  as  if  the  whole  of  it  belonged  to  him,  an  entire  gospel  for  his  thirst- 
ing soul.  So  it  is  this  day — the  thirst  is  here,  it  burns  our  heart,  it  scorches 
our  tongue,  it  dries  up  our  whole  life,  and  still  that  sweet,  resonant  voice 
is  lifted  up  in  its  cry  of  welcome,  "  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto 
Me  and  drink." 

Was  that  his  only  method — of  teaching  and  crying  ?  No  :  he  entreated. 
"Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy-laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest.  O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  beautiful  as  a  sister,  tender  as  a  mother, 
city  of  cities,  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thee  and  thou  wouldst  not 
be  gathered.  Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock  ;  if  any  man  open 
the  door  I  will  come  in." 


270  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

These  were  the  methods  of  Christ :  he  taught  quietly  as  a  sage,  cried 
loudly  like  an  evangelist,  wooed,  entreated,  persuaded,  warned — like  one 
whose  whole  life  was  love,  and  who  lived  in  the  pain  and  agony  of  his 
affection. 

These  were  Jesus  Christ's  qualifications  :  a  solid,  holy  character,  a  spe- 
cific, Divine  call,  an  intellectual  power  more  than  equal  to  every  occasion, 
an  inventiveness  never  rivalled  in  its  fecundity,  an  instantaneousness  that 
outran  the  lightning,  a  knowledge  of  human  nature  that  looked  into 
every  vein  and  fibre  of  our  life  and  soul,  an  eye  for  the  beautiful  and 
grand  in  physical  creation,  and  a  method  diversified,  so  that  to  have  heard 
him  once  was  to  have  known  nothing  about  him.  He  taught,  he  cried,  he 
entreated,  he  came  in  all  ways  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God. 

In  which  way  will  you  come  ?  Do  you  yield  to  teaching  ?  Jesus  taught. 
Do  you  answer  appeal  ?  Jesus  appealed.  Do  you  say  you  are  not  to  be 
driven,  you  are  to  be  led  ?  Jesus  entreated,  and  yearned,  and  persuaded, 
and  waited  for,  till  a  mother  would  have  tired  and  a  father  would  have 
died.  "  What  more  could  I  do  ?  "  saith  he.  He  has  been  to  us  Father 
and  Mother,  Sister,  Shepherd,  and  Nurse  and  Friend,  a  friend  that  stick- 
eth  closer  than  a  brother.  How  shall  we  escape  if  we  neglect  so  great 
salvation  ?  How  can  your  genius  for  escape  exceed  his  genius  for 
redemption  ?  It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living 
God. 


IV. 

CHRIST'S  TEXTS  AS  A  PREACHER. 
Christ's    way    of   getting    texts — Christ's   private    expositions — 

WHO    WAS    their    preacher  ? AN    APPEAL    TO    ALL. 

Text:  "When  he  marked." — Luke  xiv.  7. 

Where  did  Jesus  Christ  get  his  texts  ?  We  have  what  we  call  our  text- 
book, and  we  go  to  it  in  order  that  we  may  find  passages  for  the  purposes 
of  exposition  and  application.  Where  did  Jesus  Christ,  pre-eminently  the 
preacher,  get  his  texts  ?  His  sermons  were  always  new,  always  bright  with 
a  light  above  the  brightness  of  the  sun,  often  tender  with  a  pathos  which 
made  his  hearers'  hearts  burn  within  them.  He  got  some  of  his  texts 
from  the  Old  Testament,  we  know.  Those  texts  are  given.  He  was 
familiar  with  Moses,  with  the  Psalms,  and  with  the  prophets,  with  the 
whole  ancient  Scriptures,  and  in  every  line  of  those  venerable  writings  he 
found  some  trace  and  token  of  himself.  Was  there  any  other  book  which 
he  read  ?  If  so,  I  should  like  to  know  its  name,  and  to  have  it  in  my 
keeping.  There  was  one  great  book  which  he  read  every  day ;  out  of 
that  open  volume  he  brought  many  texts,  most  startling  and  most  suggest- 
ive. That  book  is  not  in  the  British  Museum,  nor  is  it  in  the  Bodleian, 
Mor  was  it  burnt  in  some  of  the  ancient  libraries.  It  is  all  men's  book, 
to  be  had  without  money  and  without  price.  It  is  written  in  the  largest 
capitals  ;  the  wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  need  not  err  therein  ;  and  my 
purpose  in  the  discourse  of  this  morning  is  to  accompany  you  in  listening 
to  Jesus  Christ  as  he  takes  some  of  his  texts  out  of  that  voluminous  and 
ever-open  book. 

Let  us  begin  with  Luke,  chapter  xiv.,  verse  7  :  "  And  he  put  forth  a 
parable  to  them  which  were  bidden,  when  he  marked  how  they.  .  .  ." 
The  book  of  daily  life  was  Christ's  great  text-book.  What  every  man  did 
gave  him  a  subject ;  every  word  he  heard  started  a  novel  theme.  We 
poor  preachers  of  this  nineteenth  century  often  cannot  find  a  text,  and  say 
to  one  another,  "  What  have  you  been  preaching  about  ?  I  wish  I  could 
get  hold  of  another  subject  or  two."  Poor  professional  dunderheads  ! 
and  the  great  book  of  life,  joy,  sorrow,  tragedy,  comedy,  is  open  night  and 
day.     Jesus  Christ  put  forth  a  parable,  not  after  he  had  been  shutting  him- 


272 


THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 


self  up  for  a  fortnight,  and  reading  the  classic  literature  of  immemorial 
time,  but  when  he  marked  how  they ....  Keep  your  eyes  open  if  you 
would  preach  well — keep  your  eyes  open  upon  the  moving  panorama 
immediately  in  front  of  you,  omit  nothing,  see  every  line  and  every  hue, 
and  hold  your  ear  open  to  catch  every  tone,  loud  and  sweet,  low  and  full 
of  sighing,  and  all  the  meaning  of  the  masonry  of  God.  Jesus  Christ 
was,  in  this  sense  of  the  term,  pre-eminently  an  extemporaneous  speaker, 
not  an  extemporaneous  thinker.  There  is  no  occasion  for  all  your  elab- 
orate preparation  of  words  if  you  have  had  an  elaborate  preparation  of 
— yourself.  Herein  the  preacher  would  do  well,  not  so  much  to  prepare 
his  sermon  as  to  prepare  himself,  his  life,  his  manhood,  his  soul.  As  for 
the  words,  let  him  rule  over  them,  call  them  like  servants  to  do  his  behest, 
and  order  them  to  express  his  regal  will. 

What  sermons  our  Saviour  would  have  if  he  stood  here  now !  He 
would  mark  how  that  man  came  in  and  tried  to  occupy  two  seats  all  to 
himself — a  cunning  fellow,  a  man  who  has  great  skill  in  spreading  his  coat 
out  and  looking  big,  so  as  to  deceive  a  whole  staff  of  stewards.  What  a 
sermon  he  would  have  evoked  on  selfishness,  on  want  of  nobleness  and 
dignity  of  temper,  how  the  Lord  would  have  shown  him  how  to  make 
himself  half  the  size,  so  as  to  accommodate  some  poor  weak  person  who 
has  struggled  miles  to  be  here,  and  is  obliged  to  stand.  I  have  been 
enabled  to  count  the  number  of  pews  from  the  front  of  the  pulpit  where 
the  man  is.  I  paused  there.  My  Lord — keener,  truer — wOuld  have 
founded  a  sermon  on  the  ill-behaviour.  He  would  have  spoken  about  us 
all.  He  would  have  known  who  came  here  through  mere  curiosity,  who 
was  thinking  about  finery  and  amusement,  who  was  shop-keeping  even  in 
the  church,  buying  and  selling  to-morrow  in  advance  ;  and  upon  every 
one  of  us,  preacher  and  hearers,  he  would  have  founded  a  discourse.  Po 
you  wonder  now  at  his  graphic,  vivid  talk  ?  Do  you  wonder  now  whence 
he  got  his  accent  ?  Can  you  marvel  any  longer  to  what  he  was  indebted 
for  his  emphasis,  his  clearness,  his  directness  of  speech,  his  practical 
exhortation  ?  He  put  forth  a  parable  when  he  marked  how  they — did  the 
marketing,  dressed  themselves,  trained  or  mistrained  their  families,  went 
to  church  for  evil  purposes,  spake  hard  words  about  one  another,  took  the 
disennobling,  instead  of  the  elevating,  view  of  their  neighbours'  work  and 
conversation.  The  hearers  gave  that  preacher  his  text,  and  what  they 
gave  he  took  and  sent  back  again  in  flame  or  in  blessing.  Observe,  "when 
he  marked" — when  he  marked  how  Beaconsfield  went  into  the  Berlin 
Congress  with  the  island  of  Cyprus  in  his  pocket ;  when  he  marked  how 
ecclesiastical  livings  are  bought  and  sold  in  the  auction-room  ;  when  he 
marked  how  his  church  is  broken  up  into  a  hundred  contending  sections  ; 
when  he  marked  how  envious  one  preacher  is  of  another,  and  how  anx- 
ious to  pluck  at  least  one  feather  out  of  his  cap ;  when  he  marked  how 


CHRIST    AS   A    PREACHER.  273 

eloquent  men  are  in  gossip  and  how  dumb  in  prayer — then  he  opened  his 
mouth  in  parables  which  were  judgments,  and  in  allegories  which  filled 
their  guilty  hearers  with  fear. 

Now  let  us  listen  to  him  again.  In  Matthew,  chapter  xiii.,  verses  2  and 
3  :  "When  great  multitudes  came  to  him  "  what  did  he  do  ?  Mark  the 
divinity  of  the  Man.  See  where  his  mastery  lay.  "  He  " — I  would  that 
every  ear  might  catch  this — "  He  spake  many  things."  It  is  in  such  little 
out-of-the-way  touches  as  these  that  I  see  what  he  was.  How  to  handle  a 
multitude  ?  With  one  string,  with  one  idea,  with  one  little  mean  method 
of  attack  ?  No,  no.  Seeing  the  multitudinous  spectacle,  he  delivered  a 
multitudinous  address.  A  multitude  cannot  all  be  like  one  man — trained, 
cultured,  critical,  right  up  to  the  highest  point  of  intellectual  perception 
and  moral  sympathy.  Where  you  have  an  almost  infinite  number  of  per- 
sons, you  have  a  corresponding  number  of  conditions,  circumstances, 
tastes.  That  speaker  is  the  Divine  one  who  speaks  many  things,  who  has 
not  one  little  drop  of  dew  to  let  fall  upon  a  Jiost,  but  a  great  shower  of 
rich  rain,  so  that  every  soul  may  have  its  own  baptism  and  go  home  with 
its  own  blessing. 

A  marvellous  chapter  is  that  13th  of  Matthew.  What  parables  are  in  it 
— the  sower,  the  woman  with  the  leaven,  the  tares  sown  among  the  wheat, 
the  pearl  of  great  price,  and  many  others.  Why  so  many  parables  ?  That 
everybody  might  have  something.  You  are  sitting  there,  a  well-trained 
scholar,  and  you  want  a  continuous,  concatenated  discourse,  culminating 
in  some  dazzling  and  convincing  climax.  The  man  next  you  has  hardly 
put  off  his  shop  apron,  and  his  hands  still  have  the  shop  dust  on  them, 
and  he  wauts  something  to  be  going  on  with.  And  the  little  child  to 
whom  life  is  a  dream,  a  wonder,  a  mystery,  a  dance,  half  begun  yet 
nearly  ended — wants  an  anecdote,  a  story,  and  you  say,  "  Pooh,  pooh, 
nothing  but  anecdotes  ;  just  a  string  of  anecdotes  from  beginning  to  end  ;  " 
and  you  don't  like  anecdotes,  and  you  like  logic — strong,  persistent,  inex- 
orable, relentless  logic.  The  man  next  you  cannot  spell  logic,  and  if  he 
could  spell  it  he  could  hardly  pronounce  it,  and  if  he  could  pronounce  it 
he  could  not  define  it,  and  he  wants  a  figure  of  speech,  a  little  story,  a 
bright  parable,  truth  in  a  blossom,  a  gospel  in  a  flower  ;  he  could  under- 
stand that.  So  when  Jesus  saw  great  multitudes  come  to  him,  he  spake 
many  things  ;  the  scholar  had  a  portion  of  meat,  and  so  had  the  illiterate, 
and  the  little  child  had  its  cut  of  living  bread,  and  the  poor  creature  who 
was  too  feeble  to  lift  the  water  to  her  lips  has  it  lifted  by  the  hand  that 
gave  it.  When  shall  we  understand  this,  and  honour  this  kind  of  minis- 
try, and  when  shall  we  believe  that  every  man  had  his  ministry  in  the 
church  ;  the  great  thinker,  and  the  great  parabolist,  the  man  who  can  tell 
an  anecdote  before  you  have  time  to  object  to  it,  and  apply  the  moral  so 


274  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

that  you  waken  up  to  find  that  he  has  been  meaning  you  all  the  time  ?  I 
believe  that  a  multitudinous  humanity  requires  a  multitudinous  tuition, 
and  into  the  church  I  welcome  every  man  who  can  speak  one  word  for 
his  Master  ;  somebody,  somewhere,  wants  that  particular  word.  God  bless 
us,  every  one. 

Now  let  us  be  present  upon  another  occasion.  You  will  find  the  cir- 
cumstance in  the  5th  chapter  of  the  gospel  by  Matthew  :  "When  his  dis- 
ciples came  unto  him,  he  opened  his  mouth  and  taught  them."  How 
different  from  every  other  discourse.  He  was  then  speaking  to  the  church. 
A  poor  rude  church  it  was  just  then  ;  still,  it  was  the  nucleus  of  the  visi- 
ble kingdom  of  God  upon  the  earth,  and  the  only  church  which  Jesus 
Christ  could  then  have  addressed.  "  When  his  disciples  came  to  him,  he 
opened  his  mouth  and  taught  them,  saying  " — then  came  the  beatitudes, 
the  exposition  of  eternal  laws,  the  application  of  great  moral  truths,  calls 
to  luminousness  of  character,  diligence  of  service,  nobility  of  temper, 
non-resistance  of  evil — to  the  perfectness  of  God's  purity.  No  parable, 
no  story,  no  anecdote  ,•  criticism,  doctrine,  history,  dogma,  great  principle, 
solid  law,  exposition  of  righteousness,  talk  that  went  to  the  church's  soul; 
and  that  is  the  basis  of  all  doctrine  and  ethics  in  the  church  to  this  day, 
and  shall  be  to  the  end  of  time. 

There  ought  to  be  seasons  when  the  church  only  comes  together.  Then 
we  should  have  the  richer  talk  ;  then  we  might  be  led  into  the  inner 
places,  where  the  mysteries  are  most  sacred  and  most  tender  ;  then  we 
should  drink  the  old,  old  wine  of  God.  When  can  this  be  arranged  ? 
There  be  many  charmers  that  address  the  ear  and  call  us  otherwhere  ; 
alas  !  there  ought  to  be  found  time  when  Christians  should  come  together 
as  Christians  to  read  the  small  print,  to  read  between  the  lines,  to  read 
the  richer,  deeper  mysteries  of  the  Divine  kingdom. 

When  the  disciples  came  to  him  he  opened  his  mouth  and  taught  them. 
It  was  shepherdly  talk,  and  that  leads  me  to  offer  this  suggestion  to  you. 
There  is  pastoral  preaching  as  well  as  pastoral  visitation.  There  are  some 
persons  who  are  never  content  unless  the  pastor  is  always  visiting  them.  Per- 
sonally, I  should  allow  them  to  enjoy  their  discontentment;  they  like  it,  they 
would  be  unhappy  if  they  had  nothing  to  grumble  about.  There  is  pas- 
^ral  preaching,  rich  revelation  of  Divine  truth,  high,  elevating  treatment 
of  Christian  mysteries,  and  he  is  the  pastor  to  me  who  does  not  come  to 
drink,  and  smoke,  and  gossip,  and  show  his  littleness,  but  who,  out  of  a 
rich  experience,  meets  me  with  God's  word  at  every  turn  and  twist  and 
phase  of  my  life,  and  speaks  the  something  to  me  that  I  just  then  want. 
See  him  when  he  is  largest  and  noblest,  catch  him  in  the  moods  of  his 
inspiration,  and  do  not  drag  him  down  to  make  a  hassock  of  him  in  the 
drawing-room.  Know  you  that  there  is  pastoral  preaching,  talk  to  the 
disciples  alone,  quiet,  beauteous,  sympathetic,  luminous  talk,  that  makes 


CHRIST    AS    A    PREACHER.  275 

the  brain  rejoice  m  a  new  light,  and  the  heart  glow  with  a  more  ardent 
love.     May  we  have  more  and  more  such  preaching. 

Let  us  be  present  upon  another  occasion  to  find  how  Jesus  got  his  texts. 
You  will  find  the  incident  in  the  twenty-fourth  chapter  of  Matthew,  verse 
3  :  "  They  came  unto  him  privately  " — and  how  he  changed  his  tone.  I 
can  see  it  was  the  same  speaker,  but  the  tone  was  dropped  to  the  occa- 
sion. It  is  in  these  modulations  of  voice  that  I  see  what  my  Lord  really 
was.  He  comes  to  me  where  I  am  ;  if  I  am  standing  outside  alone,  when 
he  is  passing  out  of  the  church,  and  I  say  to  him,  ''  There  was  one  thing 
I  did  not  quite  understand  about  the  sower  and  the  seed,"  he  will  take 
me  to  the  house  and  talk  to  me  as  earnestly  as  if  I  were  a  thousand  men, 
and  as  quietly  as  if  I  were  a  bruised  reed.  Christ  is  not  God  to  me  because 
of  some  cunning  application  of  Greek  syntax  :  I  do  not  outwit  the  Uni- 
tarian by  some  knowledge  of  Greek  jDunctuation  of  which  he  is  ignorant : 
it  is  not  a  question  of  Greek  conjugation,  and  declension,  and  parsing — it 
is  in  these  things,  his  out-of-the-way  traits,  these  secret  characteristics, 
these  personal  kindnesses,  these  marvellous  reaches  over  my  whole  life, 
that  I  find  what  he  is,  venerable  as  eternity,  new  as  the  young  morning, 
the  ancient  of  days  and  the  child  of  Bethlehem. 

There  are  many  things  that  are  to  be  spoken  privately  about  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  Herein  is  the  great  delicacy  and  the  great  difficulty  ot 
Christian  teaching.  You  cannot  proclaim  everything  on  the  house-top. 
How  misunderstood  we  are  when  we  venture  in  the  pulpit  to  relate  our 
deepest  experience.  I  dare  hardly  pray  in  public.  Some  earnest  and,  no 
doubt,  in  his  own  sphere,  which  I  never  penetrated,  intelligent  soul  wrote 
to  me  from  the  West  of  England  on  a  post-card,  to  know  if  I  really  was 
the  bad  man  I  depicted  myself  in  my  prayers,  for  it  had  quite  grieved 
him.  Do  I  pray  here  in  secret  ?  Am  I  speaking  about  one  man  ?  Do  I 
not  try  to  be,  as  it  were,  your  priest  and  intercessor,  gathering  up  into  one 
broad  public  address  our  inmost  desires,  and  confessing  oui  inmost  sin  ? 
When  the  minister  speaks  in  public  prayer  do  not  ten  thousand  hearts 
speak  in  his  voice  ?  Ah  me  !  it  is  so  sad  that  there  are  persons  who  will 
belittle  every  occasion,  and  will  not  rise  to  the  grandeur  and  the  dignity 
of  the  circumstances.  Some  things  must  be  spoken  privately,  to  the  con- 
fidential ear,  to  the  one  listening  heart  :  we  have  much  of  sorrow  to  tell, 
and  difficulty  and  doubt,  and  secret  encounter,  and  it  is  good  to  be  ena- 
bled now  and  then  in  private  to  tell  the  story,  the  inner  tale,  to  show  what 
the  heart  is  in  its  solitude,  in  its  secret  realisations  of  the  mystery  of  life, 
the  mystery  of  sin,  and  the  mystery  of  grace.  Then  they  that  feared  the 
Lord  spake  often  one  to  another,  and  the  Lord  hearkened  and  heard  it, 
and  a  book  of  remembrance  was  written  of  that  private  household  talk. 
I  would  there  were  more  of  it — then  the  household  fire  would  never  go 
out,  the  household  table  would  never  be  barren  of  a  feast. 


276  THESE   SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

Let  US  be  present  upon  one  more  occasion.  "  Then  drew  near  to  him 
all  the  publicans  and  sinners  for  to  hear  him,"  we  read  in  the  15th  chapter 
of  Luke,  What  was  the  discourse  ?  In  the  5th  of  Matthew  we  had  the 
disciples  coming  to  him,  and  he  said,  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit, 
blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  blessed  are  the  merciful,  blessed  are  the 
meek,  blessed  are  the  peacemakers,  blessed  are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst 
after  righteousness  ;  "  and  now  the  congregation  changes,  and  the  sermon 
changes.  What  spake  he  when  the  publicans  and  sinners  came  for  to  hear 
him  ?  Three  parables  that  shall  be  read  and  spoken  with  tears  wherever 
this  gospel  is  preached.  About  the  one  lost  sheep,  about  the  one  lost 
piece  of  money,  about  the  one  lost  prodigal.  The  chapter  that  holds  the 
tale  of  the  prodigal  son  is  a  chapter  the  ink  of  which  shall  never  be  dry, 
the  music  of  which  shall  never  fade.  But  my  object  is  now  not  to  anal- 
yse these  parables,  but  to  direct  attention  to  the  method  of  this  man's 
ministry  to  show  you  where  and  how  he  got  his  subjects.  Methinks  he 
would  sit  on  the  sea-shore  or  on  the  mountain-side  or  in  the  synagogue, 
and  not  know  what  he  was  going  to  preach  till  he  saw  the  congregation  he 
had  to  deal  with.  His  disciples  came  to  him  and  he  said,  "  Blessed." 
Then  drew  near  to  him  all  the  publicans  and  sinners  for  to  hear  him,  and 
he  spake  three  parables  about  loss  and  gain,  and  these  parables  set  forth 
his  gospel  and  the  spirit  of  its  ministry. 

What  say  you  to  this  Man  ?  Give  him  his  due  :  I  like  every  man  to 
have  the  palm  who  honestly  wins  it.  What  think  you  about  him  ?  He 
was  but  a  peasant,  he  had  never  been  to  school,  he  had  no  certificate  and 
no  prizes  and  no  rabbinical  endorsement.  He  was  but  carpenter  and  car- 
penter's son  :  you  would  not  expect  much  from  him.  His  disciples  came 
unto  him,  and  he  delivered  a  great  doctrinal  discourse  which  doctors 
might  have  heard  and  wondered  at.  When  great  multitudes  came  unto" 
him,  he  spake  unto  them  many  things,  so  that  every  one  in  the  mass  might 
have  something.  When  the  disciples  could  not  quite  understand  what  he 
said,  they  came  unto  him  privately,  and  he  sat  down  in  the  house  and 
went  over  all  the  truth  with  them,  and  drove  it  into  their  thick  heads. 
When  the  publicans  and  sinners  came,  what  did  he  ?  He  spoke  three 
parables,  which  he  might  at  the  moment  have  plucked  from  heaven  itself, 
so  beauteous,  so  musical,  so  pathetic,  so  infinitely  vivid  and  true  to  the 
life.  A  few  days  ago  I  tried  to  show  you  this  in  particular  about  that 
young  prodigal.  We  said  :  "  Now  we  shall  find  out  what  Jesus  Christ 
really  is  :  he  may  be  able  to  describe  a  virtuous  man,  for  he  knew  nothing 
about  the  ways  of  vice,  but  how  will  he  describe  a  rake  ?  We  shall  have 
the  laugh  over  him  there  when  he  comes  to  describe  a  roiie^  a  rake,  a  spend- 
thrift, a  prodigal,  a  villain.  He  will  make  a  poor  villain,  a  knock-kneed 
villain.  He  will  never  be  able  to  find  the  colours  that  suit  a  villain."  I 
charge  you  to  tell  me,  after  reading  the  qarable  of  the  prodigal  son,  if  he 


CHRIST    AS    A    PREACHER.  277 

has  not  drawn  him  to  the  life.  Whence  hath  this  Man  this  wisdom  !  He 
who  was  without  sin,  on  whose  fair  brow  there  was  no  wrinkle  wrought  by 
remorse,  in  whose  voice  there  was  no  tone  or  sob  of  personal  penitence, 
a  Man  whose  feet  had  never  been  in  the  ways  of  evil  for  his  own  purpose, 
how  came  he  to  give  you  line  by  line  in  neutral  distance,  in  blood  tints  at 
the  front,  with  eyes  that  had  prodigality  in  every  look — how  came  he  to 
draw  that  picture  ?  Give  him  the  credit  that  is  due  to  him,  do  not  be- 
grudge him  ;  he  needed  not  that  any  should  testify  of  man,  for  he  knew 
what  was  in  man. 

Now  the  great  practical  application  of  this  is,  that  you  will  find  in 
Jesus  Christ's  talk,  whoever  you  are,  just  what  you  want,  just  what  you 
most  need.  What  are  you  ?  A  cunning,  long-headed  old  thinker  ?  Go 
to  Jesus  Christ.  I  have  seen  such  go  to  him  :  I  have  seen  how  they  mar- 
velled as  he  spoke  unto  them.  Once  a  deputation  of  that  sort  went  to 
wait  upon  him.  They  got  up  a  nice  little  case  about  a  woman  and  seven 
husbands — "  And  the  seven  husbands  died,  and  last  of  all  the  woman  died 
also  " — and  the  Sadducees  wanted  to  know  whose  wife  she  would  be  in 
the  resurrection.  The  disciples  would  have  shown  their  folly  over  that 
question.  Jesus  heard  their  tale  out,  and  he  was  a  magnificent  listener, 
and  when  they  were  done,  he  said  :  "  Ye  do  err  :  you  are  wrong  funda- 
mentally. You  do  not  know  your  own  Scriptures,  for  in  the  resurrection 
they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  of 
God."  And  so  these  long-headed,  cunning  thinkers  came  back  with  their 
heads  a  long  way  down  in  their  necks.  They  went  in,  tolerably  young 
men,  under  fifty  :  they  came  out  about  five  hundred  years  of  age.  He 
was  a  wonderful  talker  ! 

What  are  you  ?  "I  am  a  poor  woman  who  has  got  all  wrong  somehow." 
Go  and  see  him  :  he  knows  all  the  sins,  and  if  you  behave  aright  he  will 
say,  "  Thy  sins  which  are  many  " — he  does  not  conceal  them — "  are  all 
forgiven  thee.  Begin  again,  and  summer  will  dawn  in  thy  poor  winter- 
bound  soul." 

What  are  you  ?  "A  thief  half-damned."  What,  just  going  into  hell  ? 
"Yes."  Say,  "Lord,  remember  me,"  and  though  the  affairs  of  eternity 
are  on  his  brain,  he  will  not  forget  thee. 

What  are  you  ?  Just  a  poor  little  lad,  just  a  wee  little  lassie,  only  a 
little  child  ?  Toddle  up  to  him.  Go,  thread  your  way  through  the  big 
folks  as  they  are  standing  there,  and  put  out  a  finger,  and  he  will  see  it 
and  you  will  be  in  his  arms  next  moment,  and  that  lift  will  bring  you  nearer 
heaven  than  ever  you  will  be  again  on  earth. 

What  are  you  ?  "A  poor  suffering  creature,  a  poor  woman  with  a 
secret  sorrow,  with  a  heavy  affliction :  my  very  heart  oozing  out  of  me, 
and  nobody  to  speak  to.  I  live  in  one  of  these  lanes  off  Holborn.  I 
just  came  in  here  to  spend  an  hour ;  I  did  not  know  much  what  else  to 


278  TMFSE   SAYINGS  OF   MINE. 

do.  My  very  heart  is  leaking  away,  I  have  no  joy  in  life,  I  have  tried  all 
physicians  and  curatives  and  restoratives,  and  here  I  am  just  as  bad  as 
ever,  perhaps  worse."  Go  to  him.  I  saw  a  dear  old  mother  go  to  him  in 
just  such  a  plight  as  you.  She  said — I  heard  her  say  it  just  under  her 
breath  as  women  sometimes  speak — "  If  I  may  but  touch  the  hem  of  his 
garment  I  shall  be  made  whole."  I  saw  the  poor  creature  wriggling  her 
way  through  the  crowd,  and  when  she  thought  nobody  was  looking,  she 
just  touched  the  hem  of  his  garment  and  she  stood  upright  like  a  tree  of 
the  Lord's  right  hand  planting. 

Go.  I  will  go  too.  I  need  him,  as  you  do,  every  day.  Sometimes  as  a 
Judge,  often  as  a  Comforter,  always  as  a  Teacher,  and  the  more  I  need 
him,  the  more  he  is. 


V. 

CHRIST'S  FAILURE  AS  A  PREACHER. 

SYMPATHY     NECESSARY      IN      HEARING THE      PERILS      OF       LITERALISM — 

CHRIST    DECLINED    APPLAUSE SPIRITUALITY    THE    SUPREME    TEXT. 

Text:  "Because  of  tlieir  unbelief." — Matthew  xiii.  58. 

One  would  have  thought  that  no  difficulties  would  have  stood  in  the 
way  of  such  a  preacher  as  Jesus  Christ.  The  Man  who  could  work  mira- 
cles could  surely  clear  all  obstacles  out  of  his  path.  So  it  would  seem  to 
our  ignorance  ;  but  so  it  was  not  in  reality.  Jesus  Christ  complained  of 
difficulties,  and  confessed  his  inability  to  remove  them.  Those  difficulties 
assume  a  peculiar  significance  when  we  remember  that  Jesus  Christ  seemed 
to  have  all  the  elements  that  both  deserve  and  command  success.  His 
miracles  were  confessed  and  admired  on  every  hand.  He  was  beyond  all 
question  the  most  popular  speaker  of  his  day,  characterised  by  marvellous 
graciousness  and  completeness  and  wisdom  of  address  ;  so  much  so  that 
the  most  learned  wondered  and  the  most  illiterate  understood,  and  those 
who  were  most  ignorant  felt  the  coming  upon  them  of  a  new  and  very 
welcome  light.  Still,  this  Man,  worker  of  miracles  and  speaker  of  beauti- 
ful speeches,  failed,  in  a  sense  which  I  shall  presently  explain,  in  his  minis- 
try. He  did  not  numerically  fail :  great  multitudes  thronged  him  on  the 
hill-side,  and  along  by  the  sea-shore  ;  the  popularity  of  numbers  was  tri- 
umphant— it  was  never  so  seen  in  Israel.  Yet  every  heart  was  a  difficulty, 
every  man  was  a  stumbling-block,  and  in  many  cases  the  doctrine  was 
wasted  like  rain  upon  the  barren  sand.  At  one  place  even  his  miracles 
were  powerless  ;  at  that  place  he  could  do.  but  few  mighty  works — their 
unbelief  was  greater,  so  to  speak,  than  his  faith,  and  he  did  not  there  many 
mighty  works  because  of  their  unbelief. 

Have  we  any  consciousness  or  experience  on  our  own  part  which  an- 
swers to  this  in  any  degree,  and  helps  us  to  understand  it  ?  You  preachers 
have,  for  you  know  that  there  are  some  towns  in  which  you  cannot  preach. 
Personally  I  know  that  right  well.  There  are  some  towns  in  which  I  find 
it  utterly  impossible  to  say  what  I  have  prepared  to  say.  I  may,  indeed, 
utter  the  words,  but  they  come  back  upon  me,  and  bring  no  blessing  or 
answer  of  human  heart  along  with  them.     They  have  struck  a  wall  and 


28o  THESE   SAYINGS  OF   MINE. 

rebounded  and  come  home,  and  I  cannot  get  rid  of  them  as  gospels  and 
as  benedictions.  You  singers  know  it.  There  are  some  rooms  in  which 
you  cannot  sing  :  you  are  choked,  suffocated — nothing  in  the  construction 
of  the  room  answers  to  your  voice  ;  you  have  no  co-operation  in  the 
walls,  in  the  ceiling,  in  the  floor — everything  is  dead  against  you,  and  you 
who  can  in  other  places,  under  kindlier  circumstances,  sing  to  the  delight 
of  your  friends,  and  even  to  the  satisfaction  of  critics,  are  not  at  all  your- 
selves under  circumstances  which  seem  to  depress  and  disable  you.  We 
all  know  it.  There  are  some  men  to  whom  we  cannot  talk.  Conversation 
is  still-born  when  they  are  present.  I  want  to  say  something,  but  I  caa 
not  ;  I  have  propositions  to  make,  but  I  cannot  make  propositions  to  dead 
walls  or  to  gravestones.  I  have  sorrows  to  tell,  I  have  griefs  for  which  I 
want  some  human  sympathy,  but  I  cannot  unburden  myself  to  the  men 
who  are  round  about  me  on  this  occasion  or  on  that.  We  all  know  the 
meaning  of  this  temporary  disability  and  disennoblement,  so  that  we  who 
have  power  under  other  circumstances  are  unable  to  do  any  mighty  works 
there  because  of  some  want,  some  antipathy,  some  occult  and  unnameable 
cause  that  shuts  us  up  and  makes  us  barren  alike  of  intellectual  concep- 
tion and  verbal  expression  and  force. 

Well,  it  was  much  the  same  with  Jesus  Christ  upon  another  plane,  that 
is  to  say,  upon  a  much  higher  level.  He  was  not  the  same  Christ  always. 
The  conditions  being  prepared  and  equal,  how  his  speech  rolled  like  a 
river — the  people  welcoming  him,  eager  to  hear  him,  giving  him  heart- 
room.  Why,  he  seemed  to  talk  himself  up  into  heaven,  and  thence  to  dis- 
tribute the  very  bread  of  life  and  water  from  the  river  of  God.  Such  is 
.he  power  of  sympathy  ;  so  true  is  it  that  faith  works  miracles,  that  good 
hearing  creates  good  speaking,  that  social  sympathy  elicits  the  whole  ful- 
ness of  the  heart,  all  its  secret  and  mystery  and  blessedness  of  love. 

How  was  it  that  Jesus  Christ  failed  in  his  ministry  ?  Some  reasons  are 
given  in  the  sacred  narrative.  First  of  all,  the  people  said,  "  We  know 
this  man.  We  do  not  know  whence  he  gets  his  wisdom.  Is  not  this  the 
carpenter's  son — is  not  his  mother  called  Mary,  and  his  brethren  James 
and  Joses,  Simon  and  Judas  ;  and  his  sisters,  are  they  not  all  with  us  ? 
Whence  then  hath  this  man  all  these  things  ?  "  And  they  were  offended 
in  him.  There  was  a  kind  of  wild  logic  in  their  reasoning,  a  kind  of 
maniac  intelligence  about  their  grim  philosophy — they  said  :  "  The  cause 
is  not  equal  to  the  effect.  We  can  measure  this  man.  We  know  almost 
his  birthday.  We  know  his  father  and  his  mother  and  his  business  and 
his  training,  and  all  about  him,  and  there  is  not  in  him,  so  far  as  we  know 
his  antecedents,  anything  to  account  for  a  wisdom  that  overlaps  our  rab- 
binical theology  and  our  doctrinal  philosophy.  There  is  not  in  him 
enough  to  account  for  the  wonders  which  he  flings  from  his  fingers  and 
breathes  from  his  lips." 


CHRIST    AS   A   PREACHER.  zSl 

Do  not  let  us  altogether  despise  these  people,  because  we  repeat  their 
error  to-day.  My  brethren,  we  repeat  all  the  old  errors;  there  is  no  origi- 
nality in  folly.  Our  fathers  killed  the  prophets,  and  we  build  the  sepul 
chres  of  the  dead  men  and  kill  other  living  men,  that  our  posterity  may 
have  grave-digging  and  tomb-building  to  attend  to  in  their  time.  Do  not 
believe  all  the  nonsense  you  hear  talked  about  heroic  lives  and  splendid 
boys,  who  have  triumphed  over  this  and  that  and  the  other,  and  do  not 
join  the  mob  when  they  clap  their  untrained  hands  in  clamorous  and 
thoughtless  applause  about  those  boys  now  dead.  Ask  them  how  they 
treat  the  boys  that  are  living  in  their  own  streets,  and  who  are  trying  hero- 
ically and  quietly  to  repeat  the  miracles  which  they  have  paid  a  shilling 
entrance-fee  to  clap  in  the  great  hall.  Let  us  see  what  we  do  ourselves, 
and  not  be  gloriously  heroic  over  dead  people. 

Jesus  Christ  therefore  shared  the  common  fate.  "  There  is  his  father, 
there  is  his  mother,  there  are  his  kinsfolk — from  whence  hath  this  Man 
this  wisdom  ?  It  is  guessing,  it  is  conjecture,  it  is  audacity,  it  is  blasphemy: 
it  cannot  be  accounted  for,"  and  there  is  nothing  people  get  so  angry 
with  as  mystery  of  a  supernatural  kind.  They  feel  as  if  they  ought  to 
know  it ;  they  are  intelligent  people,  they  are  upon  boards  of  direction, 
they  are  ministers  of  churches,  they  are  office-bearers  in  high  institutions, 
and  they  ought  to  be  able  to  understand  everything  of  the  kind.  Here  is 
a  case  in  which  the  spiritual  power  is  in  excess  of  the  social  antecedency 
and  the  social  surroundings  :  therefore  ignore  it,  deny  it,  contradict  it, 
offend  it,  disable  it,  put  it  down.  Rude  reasoning,  with  just  as  much  logic 
about  it  as  you  have  seen  occasional  light  in  a  lunatic's  eye. 

Well,  there  is  another  reason  of  failure — the  utter  bondage  to  the  letter. 
The  people  to  whom  Christ  spoke  were  literalists.  I  do  not  despise  the 
letter,  only  I  do  consider  that  it  is  not  all.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  as 
a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  the  least  among  seeds,  but  when  it  is  sown  and 
fully  developed,  it  becomes  a  very  great  tree.  So  with  the  letter.  It  is 
necessary  ;  we  cannot  do  without  it ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  held  in  the  hand, 
but  is  to  be  planted  as  a  seed,  and  is  to  bring  forth  all  the  poetry  of  bad 
and  blossom  and  fruit,  and  is  to  afford  lodgment  for  singing-birds,  ay,  room 
enough  to  give  habitations  to  God's  birds,  not  one  of  which  he  overlooks 
or  neglects.  When  Jesus  Christ  said,  "  Beware  of  the  leaven,"  "  O,"  they 
said,  "  that  is  because  we  have  not  brought  any  bread  with  us  ;  "  and  it 
distressed  the  Saviour  to  think  that  after  all  his  teaching,  they  could  give  no 
higher  interpretation  to  his  figures — nay,  they  ceased  to  be  figures  before 
such  unimaginative  minds.  When  he  said,  "  Except  a  man  eat  my  flesh, 
he  cannot  live,"  they  said,  "  How  can  a  man  give  his  flesh  to  eat  ?  "  and  it 
distressed  God's  Christ  to  hear  such  literalistic  criticism.  You  cannot 
interpret  religious  truth  without  the  religious  imagination — that  wondrous 
power  which  keeps  the  literal  and  yet  comes  out  into  apocalyptic  visions 


282  THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

and  interpretations,  and  glorifies  the  letter  until  its  raiments  shine  and  its 
face  glistens  with  a  light  brighter  than  the  sun.  When  Jesus  Christ  said 
"  bread,"  the  people  thought  he  meant  bread.  When  he  said,  "  I  could 
give  thee  water  to  drink,  which,  having  drunk,  would  cause  thee  never  to 
thirst  again,"  the  woman  said,  "  Then  let  me  have  it,"  not  knowing  that  he 
.  spake  of  his  heart's  life  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  inner  baptism,  the  satis- 
faction of  the  soul's  thirst.  Wherever  this  literalism  is,  in  any  congrega- 
tion, the  ministry  will  be  a  failure,  unless,  indeed,  the  ministry  itself  is  a 
piece  of  literalism,  and  then  it  will  be  a  double  failure. 

The  third  cause  of  the  non-success  of  our  Lord's  preaching  was  the 
spirituality  of  the  man  and  of  the  doctrine.  This  was  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty of  all.  The  Jews  sought  the  more  to  kill  him  because  he  had  not 
only  broken  the  Sabbath,  but  said  also  that  God  was  his  Father.  "  The 
words  that  I  speak  unto  you  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life. — The  Son  of 
Man,  which  is  in  heaven."  There  was  a  strange  ghostliness  about  the 
doctrine  of  Christ.  It  had  earthly  aspects  of  extreme  and  indestructible 
beauty,  but  the  people  were  afraid  to  acknowledge  the  fascination,  lest, 
by  their  admissions,  they  should  be  hurried  to  conclusions  that  would 
make  them  Christians.  Jesus  had  always  something  beyond.  He  never 
said,  "This  is  the  point  at  which  I  want  you  to  stand  still."  His  plan  of 
educating  his  church  is  God's  plan  of  educating  the  world.  The  promise 
come,  the  promise  realised,  a  higher  promise  still  is  spoken.  The  prize 
seized,  a  grander  prize  is  offered,  and  thus  God  "  allures  to  brighter  worlds 
and  leads  the  way." 

The  people  having  seen  this  to  be  part  of  his  method  were  very  careful 
how  they  conceded  anything  or  made  any  admissions  without  looking  well 
around  the  circle  of  consequences.  They  learned  caution  by  experience. 
At  first  they  were  clamorous  in  their  applause,  but  by-and-by  they  came 
to  understand  that  applause  was  not  enough.  Then  they  came  to  hostility. 
They  found  it  was  one  of  two  things  then,  and  it  is  one  of  two  things  now 
— either  worship  or  hatred.  There  are  men  about  whom  you  have  no 
strong  opinion  ;  they  are  what  are  called  nice,  pleasant  men,  very  agreea- 
ble persons,  individuals  whom  you  might  pass  by  the  thousand  in  the 
street,  and  take  no  notice  of — altogether  without  specialty  or  accent.  But 
when  Christ  comes,  it  is  one  of  two  things  ;  it  is,  worship  him,  love  him, 
give  him  all  ;  or  it  is,  crucify  him,  crucify  him.  So  the  people  were  going 
to  give  applause.  "  Well  done,"  said  they  ;  "  repeat  that  miracle,  show  us 
another  sign,  renew  the  testimony  of  tokens  ;  "  and  Jesus  said,  "You  have 
had  enough  of  this  ;  I  have  wrought  miracles  enough  to  save  the  world  if 
miracles  ever  would  save  it ;  now  you  must  think,  love,  trust,  repent, 
believe."  At  that  point  the  great  division  was  set  up.  The  people  said, 
in  effect,  "  His  parables  are  intellectual  gems,  his  voice  is  full  of  varied 
and  thrilling  music,  his  language  is  nothing  short  of  a   Divine  election  of 


CHRIST    AS    A    PREACHER.  ^^3 

words,  his  retorts  are  keen  and  final,  his  miracles  are  mighty  and  benefi- 
cent, he  is  indeed  the  supreme  wonder  of  our  land."  Jesus  Christ  said, 
*'  That  will  not  do  ;  so  far,  so  good,  if  good  ;  so  far,  so  bad,  if  the  rest  be 
not  added."  There  was  partial  faith,  no  doubt.  Many  of  the  J«ews 
believed  on  him,  and  said,  "  When  Christ  cometh  will  he  do  more  miracles 
than  these  which  this  man  hath  done  ?  "  That  reasoning  would  seem  to 
point  to  this  man  as  the  Messiah.  Many  of  the  people,  when  they  heard 
these  sayings,  said,  "  Of  a  truth  this  is  that  prophet."  All  the  people  were 
amazed,  and  said,  "  Is  not  this  the  Son  of  David  ? " 

So  there  was  an  acknowledgment  of  peculiar  influence  and  special 
powers.  Was  Christ  satisfied  ?  A  very  beautiful  trait  of  his  character 
comes  out  here.  An  impostor  would  have  been  intoxicated  with  the 
applause  ;  Christ  declined  it.  The  people  said,  "  Never  man  spake  like 
this  man."  The  people  would  have  taken  him  by  force  to  make  him  a 
king,  the  people  delighted  in  his  miracles,  and  made  him  famous  concern- 
ing them.  Was  this  enough  ?  Alas  !  it  brought  the  expression  of  an  in- 
finite distress  into  Christ's  face.  There  is  some  applause  that  damns  a 
man,  there  is  a  liking  for  a  ministry  which  crushes  the  minister.  What 
did  Christ  want  ?  To  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  !  To  applaud  his  miracles 
was  to  annoy  him,  to  speak  about  what  he  had  done  was  to  give  him 
offence.  He  said,  "  Do  not  speak  about  it  ;  miracles  spoken  about  lose 
their  meaning.  Tell  no  man  ;  go  home  to  thy  friends  and  think."  He 
was  afraid  that  the  people's  applause  would  end  in  itself,  in  mere  admira- 
tion, and  in  merely  spreading  for  him  a  high-sounding  name  as  a  kind  of 
consecrated  juggler.  He  knew  human  nature,  and  he  said,  "  Be  quiet 
about  the  miracles  ;  go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel." 
When  the  miracle  was  wrought,  he  said,  "  Go  home  and  say  nothing  about 
it."  We  cannot  be  trusted  with  too  many  miracles;  they  unsettle  our 
intelligence,  they  were  not  meant  as  other  than  alphabetic  and  indicative. 
If  we  make  more  of  them  we  invert  and  spoil  the  purpose  of  Christ. 
Christ  spoke  of  his  soul — the  travail  of  his  soul,  "  My  soul  is  exceeding 
sorrowful  even  unto  death."  Please  his  soul,  and  you  give  him  sincere 
and  pure  delight. 

But  surely  Jesus  Christ  kept  in  hand  all  whom  he  did  succeed  in  getting 
to  hear  him  and  like  him  ?  No.  Many  escaped  from  his  grasp.  "  From 
that  time  many  of  his  disciples  went  back,  and  walked  no  more  with  him." 
He  was  a  stone  of  stumbling  anfi  a  rock  of  offence  to  both  the  houses  of 
Israel.  That  is  a  marvellous  circumstance  in  our  Lord's  life.  He  had 
difficulty  in  getting  any  :  he  did  not  keep  all  whom  he  did  get.  He  was 
despised  and  rejected  of  men.  Can  we  wonder  that  we  hear  in  our  own 
day  of  ministers  who  have  to  complain  of  similar  non-success  ?  Do  you 
know  how  ministers  of  Christ  are  now  spoken  of  in  this  matter  of  failure 
and  success  ?     I  will  tell  you,  but  do  not  repeat  what  I  tell  you.     The 


284  THESE    SAYINGS   OF   MINE. 

common  mquiry  is,  *'  How  is  he  getting  on  ?  "  and  the  frequent  reply  is, 
"  They  are  not  filling — they  are  not  filling.  He  does  not  fill  the  place.  He 
does  not  keep  up  his  congregation.  The  place  was  not  so  full  as  I  have 
seen  it.  I  think  there  is  a  falling  away."  Why  I  have  even  heard  some 
lunatics  say  that  the  collection  was  not  quite  so  large  as  it  used  to  be  !  Ah, 
me  !  my  Christ,  my  God's  Christ,  it  is  the  old  criticism  over  again,  and  it 
will  be  the  old  crucifixion.  God  grant  that  it  may  be  the  old  resurrection  ! 
We  are  wrong  in  our  standards,  false  in  our  reckoning.  /  do  not  complain 
of  the  criticism.  I  thank  God  that  for  five-and-twenty  years  I  have  been 
standing  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd  as  a  Christian  minister,  and  therefore  I 
make  no  personal  references  in  the  matter,  but  there  are  higher  standards 
than  numbers,  money,  patronage,  gifts,  or  anything  that  is  outside  and  secon- 
dary. Do  not  let  us  despise  these  ;  they  are  most  useful  and  necessary,  and 
if  any  man  here  has  the  gift  of  speech  and  can  eulogise  these  things  soberly 
and  fully,  I  will  accept  his  statement  and  will  replace  my  own  with  his 
description.  Only  let  us  know  that  Jesus  Christ  had  to  suffer  from  exactly 
this  same  cause.  "  From  that  time  many  of  his  disciples  went  back,  and 
walked  no  more  with  him."  Did  he  then  cease  to  walk  ?  He  hardened 
his  face  and  went  to  the  Jerusalem  of  his  destiny.  Keep  steadily  on  thy 
purpose,  and  never  mind  who  comes  or  who  goes,  be  thy  face  towards 
God's  will,  and  God  will  see  that  no  stone  can  keep  thee  in  the  grave. 

A  falling-off  of  physical  power  there  may  be  in  your  minister  :  alas  !  he 
cannot  always  be  young.  Time  makes  insidious  advances  upon  us  all. 
As  there  came  a  time  in  our  boyhood  when  words  suddenly  revealed  their 
full  meaning  to  us,  so  there  are  special  moments  in  our  after  life  when  a 
man  says,  "Why,  I  am  no  longer  young."  Who  cares  for  the  aged  minis- 
ter— who  cares  for  the  minister  whose  vigour  is  gone  !  Even  a  decline  of 
intellectual  force  is  possible  :  the  man  is  not  so  re.ady  and  strong  as  he 
used  to  be.  Once  he  answered  the  occasion  as  powder  answers  fire — now 
he  is  more  torpid,  he  has  farther  to  come,  his  sleep  is  of  another  kind,  and 
steals  more  fatally  over  his  brain.  Who  cares  for  him  in  that  withering 
time  ?     Always  some — thank  God. 

But  this  physical  decline,  or  intellectual  falling  away,  is  not  the  cause  ; 
the  real  reason  may  be  deeper,  and  may  actually  be  the  supreme  honour 
of  the  minister,  as  it  was  in  the  case  of  Christ.  When  did  the  disciples 
fall  away  and  walk  no  more  with  Christ — when  his  power  of  working  mira- 
cles was  gone,  when  his  power  of  inventing  and  delivering  beauteous  para- 
bles had  declined  ?  The  cause  lay  deeper  :  do  not  let  us  hasten  over  it, 
but  rather  let  us  consider  it  deeply.  From  what  time  was  it,  then,  when 
many  of  his  disciples  went  back  ?  It  was  when  Jesus  was  most  spiritual 
in  his  teaching.  Hear  the  testimony.  He  began  to  say,  "  Except  ye 
eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  Man  and  drink  his  blood  ye  have  no  life  in 
you.     Whoso  eateth  my  flesh   and  drinketh  my  blood  dwelleth  in    me 


CHRIST    AS   A   PREACHER.  2^5 

and  I  in  him.  As  the  loving  Father  hath  sent  me,  and  as  I  live  by  the 
Father,  so  he  that  eateth  me  even  he  shall  live  by  me."  It  was  THEN 
that  the  disciples  said,  "  This  is  a  hard  saying  :  who  can  hear  it  ?  "  Jesus 
hearing  that  objection  went  further,  and  said,  plainly,  "  No  man  can  come 
unto  me  except  it  were  given  unto  him  of  my  Father."  From  THAT 
TIME  many  of  his  disciples  went  back  and  walked  no  more  with  him. 
Why  ?  Because  the  miracles  were  less  glittering  and  notable  ?  No. 
Because  the  parables  fell  off  in  intellectual  beauty  and  force  ?  No — but 
because  the  ministry  became  more  sf>intital.  Just  so  now.  When  and 
why  do  the  people  love  the  minister  ?  Which  are  the  sermons  which  are 
little  liked  ?  I  know.  What  are  the  sermons  that  will  empty  any  church 
in  London  ?  O,  my  friends,  belonging  to  this  place  or  to  that,  for  we 
gather  here  from  many  religious  centres,  how  is  it  with  you  ?  Are  you 
still  hungering  for  little  stories,  striking  anecdotes,  pretty  parables — are 
you  still  delighted  with  small  rhetorical  toys  cut  with  a  jack-knife  and 
painted  red  and  blue,  or  do  you  want  the  inner  truth,  Christ's  flesh  to  eat, 
Christ's  blood  to  drink,  a  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  keen,  piercing 
insight  into  the  inner  mysteries  of  God's  invisible  kingdom  ?  From  that 
time,  from  the  moment  he  became  intensely  spiritual,  his  disciples  walked 
no  more  with  him. 

I  heard  a  great  organist  play.  He  played  from  Handel,  and  the  people 
answered  Avith  feeble  enthusiasm  of  hand  and  foot.  He  played  from 
Mendelssohn  and  Beethoven,  and  there  was  the  same  acquiescence  in  fate 
— it  was  to  be  so,  and  was  taken  as  such.  He  played  a  piece  full  of  scenic 
representation,  the  village  dance,  the  storm  brewing,  rolling,  shattering 
the  heavens — then  the  quiet,  gentle  hymn  :  it  was  most  pictorial,  most 
vivid  and  graphic,  and  the  people  answered  as  with  a  roar.  The  organist 
said  to  me  afterwards,  on  being  complimented  on  the  reception  of  the 
piece  in  question,  "Well,  it  was  somewhat  ad  captandiun."  He  was  not 
pleased  with  the  compliment.  It  was  a  beautiful  piece,  a  rare  and  won- 
derful piece — but  Handel  and  Beethoven,  these  were  masters,  so  to  speak, 
who  opened  the  infinite.     Alas  !  who  cares  ? 

Now  this  review  of  Christ's  failure  destroys  two  sophisms.  First,  that 
earnestness  is  always  successful.  O,  the  cant  that  is  talked  about  earnest- 
ness !     Was  Christ  earnest  ? 

Cold  mountains  and  the  midnight  air 
Witnessed  the  fervour  of  his  prayer. 

Was  he  earnest  who,  when  he  came  to  the  city,  wept  over  it,  and  said,  "  I 
would,  but  ye  would  not "  ?  Was  he  earnest  who  sweat  as  it  were  great 
drops  of  blood,  when  no  eye  saw  him  but  the  waiting,  wondering  angels  of 
God  ?  Was  he  earnest  who  said  at  twelve  years  of  age,  "  Wist  ye  not  that 
I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business  ?  "     Was  he  earnest  who  said,  "  My 


286  tHESE   SAYINGS   OF   MlN]^ 

meat  and  drink  is  to  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me  "  ?  Was  he  earnest 
who  said,  "  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ? "  Was  he 
earnest  ?  And  yet  he  was  despised  and  rejected  of  men,  and  from  that 
time  forth  many  of  his  disciples  went  back  and  walked  no  more  with  him. 
And  this  review  destroys  the  sophism  that  a  right  presentation  of  the 
gospel  is  always  successful.  People  say,  "  Only  preach  the  simple  gospel 
and  you  are  sure  to  succeed  :  only  depict  God's  great  love,  only  dwell 
upon  the  moral  beauties  of  the  government  of  the  Most  High,  only  speak 
earnestly,  pathetically,  and  kindly,  only  exhibit  the  love  of  God,  and  you 
are  sure  to  succeed."  O  vile  fools,  and  wicked,  in  God's  house  to  talk  so, 
for  it  crucifies  the  Son  of  God  afresh  and  puts  him  to  an  open  shame. 
Such  chaffering  kills  the  true  man.  Did  not  he  present  the  gospel  in  right 
aspects  who  called  it  bread  and  water  and  pardon  and  light  and  life  and 
rest  and  peace  and  heaven  ?    Yet  he  was  despised  and  rejected  of  men  ? 


VI. 

CHRIST'S  SUCCESS  AS  A  PREACHER. 

THE     UNIVERSAL     PREACHER — EXPOSITORY     PREACHING — IN      THE     BEGIN- 
NING  THE    TRUE   MEANING    OF    SUCCESS, 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  whilst  our  eyes  are  lifted  up  unto  the  hills  whence  cometh  our 
help,  may  nothing  rise  between  them  and  the  sight  they  seek  to  prevent  the  glory 
and  completeness  of  the  vision.  The  enemy  would  deter  us  from  prayer;  many  a 
worldly  memory,  many  an  unhappy  anxiety,  would  torment  our  worship  and  break 
its  peace.  Do  thou,  therefore,  lift  up  thy  spirit  as  a  standard  against  the  foe,  so 
that  we  may  have  full  advantage  of  the  opportunity  which  thou  hast  created  for  us 
in  thy  good  providence.  To-day  we  publicly  meet  one  another  at  the  cross  of  Christ 
— we  who  are  so  different  the  one  from  the  other  find  in  Jesus  a  common  meeting- 
point.  We  are  one  in  sin,  in  want,  in  pain.  There  is  but  one  Healer — thanks  be 
unto  God,  his  name  is  Wonderful  and  his  power  is  infinite. 

We  come  to  confess  our  sins — how  can  we  begin  the  dreary  tale,  for  it  is  without 
beginning  in  our  recollectiou,  as  it  is  without  end  in  our  fear.  We  cannot  tell  when 
we  did  not  sin  ;  we  were  born  in  sin,  we  were  shapen  in  iniquity,  we  are  the  children 
of  wrath,  there  is  no  sunlight  to  guide  us  to  a  time  when  we  did  no  sin.  But  thy 
love  is  older  than  our  guilt.  Jesus  is  the  lamb  slain  from  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world.  Thy  grace  did  anticipate  our  apostacy,  and  because  of  the  infinitude  of 
thy  wisdom  and  thy  purpose  we  had  no  sooner  sinned  than  thou  didst  show  us  the 
delivering  cross.  Wash  us  all  in  the  sacred  blood,  it  penetrates  the  inner  life,  it 
finds  its  holy,  redeeming  way  into  the  recesses  of  the  spirit  ;  where  the  guilt  is 
deepest,  there  its  triumphs  are  most  astounding.  Help  us  to  believe  in  the  suffi- 
ciency of  Christ ;  remove  all  doubt  and  fear  from  our  mind  when  it  looks  to  the  tree 
on  which  the  Saviour  died  ;  beyond  all  that  is  little  and  limited  in  the  letter,  may 
we  see  the  infinite  gospel  of  the  infinite  love,  and  may  our  heart  go  out  towards  it  in 
great  bursts  of  sacred  passion  and  grateful  delight. 

Our  life  is  in  thy  keeping — we  cannot  keep  it  ourselves.  When  we  think  we  have 
seized  it,  behold  it  has  eluded  our  grasp.  We  suppose,  in  our  ignorant  wisdom,  that 
we  have  taken  the  measure  thereof  and  stated  it  in  clear  numbers,  when  behold  it 
clothes  itself  with  immortality  and  stands  up  immeasurable  as  thine  own  purpose. 
Help  us  to  know  that  we  are  the  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  forbid  that  we  should 
call  ourselves  little  or  mean  or  unclean,  for  is  not  thy  stamp  upon  us,  and  do  not 
men  read  upon  one  another  a  superscription  not  written  by  human  hands?  Help  us  to 
realise  our  greatness  in  thy  purpose,  our  littleness  in  our  own  deeds,  our  majesty  in 
creation,  our  utter  apostacy  in  our  evil  behaviour,  and  thus  seeing  how  great  we  are 
find  how  small,  may  we  go  out  of  ourselves  to  find  the  answer  to  the  painful  mystery, 
aor  rest  until  we  find  it  in  the  holy,  only  Sou  of  God. 


j88  these  sayings  of  mine. 

Thy  word  is  dear  to  us  every  day  ;  it  speaks  to  us  with  a  new  accen  every  time 
we  hear  it ;  it  has  for  us  a  deeper  answer  to  our  deepening  poverty  ;  it  has  a  gospel 
for  every  pain  and  ache  and  sorrow  and  sore  agony.  Verily  this  is  the  word  of  God 
and  none  other.  Other  words  all  do  fail,  but  this  abideth  for  ever.  May  we  be  com- 
forted by  it  this  day  as  by  a  gospel  old  as  eternity,  yet  new  as  the  pain  that  kills  us 
now.  Thus  may  we  delight  in  all  the  venerableness  of  truth,  and  in  all  its  newness, 
according  to  the  newness  of  our  desire  and  our  fear.  We  have  been  foolish  before 
thee — the  whole  ten  virgins  have  been  fools  ;  we  have  wasted  our  life,  we  have 
neglected  our  opportunities,  we  have  been  the  willing  slaves  and  dupes  of  the  eager 
devil,  we  have  done  evil  Avith  both  hands  earnestly,  we  have  drunk  poison  out  of 
golden  goblets  and  earthen  vessels — wheresoever  we  could  find  it  we  have  drunk  it 
with  the  thirst  of  fire.  God  be  merciful  unto  us  sinners  ;  now  let  this  be  the  day  of 
wisdom,  the  time  of  the  coming  of  a  new  light  into  the  soul,  the  hour  of  holy  vow 
and  sacred  oath — may  every  man  lay  his  trembling  right  hand  upon  the  blood-altar 
and  say,  "  Hence  on,  I  am  Christ's  and  he  is  mine." 

Nourish  and  comfort  thy  people  as  children  who  wait  upon  thy  table  and  have  no 
other  feast  to  eat  ;  see  that  none  goes  without  his  daily  bread.  Dry  the  tear  that  no 
human  hand  can  reach  ;  turn  into  hymn  and  psalm  and  glad  anthem  the  groaning 
and  the  sighing  which  lie  beyond  all  our  curatives,  and  this  day  may  there  be  joy  in 
Zion  such  as  never  was  known  before. 

Pardon  our  last  transgression,  our  newest  sin  do  thou  cover  up  with  all  the  waves 
of  tlie  sea.  Regard  us  as  old  men  and  as  little  children,  as  men  whose  business  is  in 
the  open  world,  as  women  who  wait  at  the  fireside  and  make  up  the  bed  of  sickness 
and  pain.  Regard  us  as  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  and  by  reason  of  the  inflow  of 
the  infinite  compassion  of  Christ  into  our  souls,  may  we  forget  all  these  accidents  of 
age  and  station  and  time,  and  enter  into  a  communion  that  shall  be  rapturous,  a 
fellowship  that  shall  make  us  one. 

Pity  our  littlenesses  and  infirmities  :  some  we  cannot  help,  some  are  our  very 
selves,  and  without  them  men  would  not  know  us.  Whilst  thou  dost  pity  what  is 
little,  pardon  what  is  sinful  with  all  the  pardon  of  pardons  which  thou  hast  treasured 
up  in  the  all-forgiving  heart  of  Christ. 

If  any  are  here  under  special  circumstances,  let  thy  grace  overflow  the  occasion 
and  make  it  more  memorable  still.  Bless  the  bridegroom  and  the  bride,  the  stranger 
within  our  gates,  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  the  sad  and  the  lonely,  the  wrecked  and 
the  ruined,  the  prodigal  who  dare  not  pray,  the  wanderer  who  thinks  he  is  too  far 
off  ever  to  return.     Amen. 

Jesus  Christ  achieved  great  fame  as  a  preacher.  The  fame  of  him 
Avent  abroad  through  the  city  where  he  was  and  all  the  region  round  about. 
Perhaps  we  have  not  sufficiently  considered  the  value  of  fame.  It  arrests 
attention,  it  begets  interest  first,  perhaps  confidence  subsequently.  Some 
men  are  famous  preachers  to  children,  others  are  famous  with  women, 
others  with  scholars,  others  with  sectarians.  That  is  not  fame.  Because 
it  has  no  deepness  of  earth  it  will  soon  wither  away.  There  are  some 
who  are  great  Church  of  England  preachers,  others  who  are  great  Dis- 
senting preachers,  but  if  either  the  one  qualifying  term  or  the  other  is 
needed,  there  is  no  greatness  and  there  can  be  no  immortality.  He  only 
can  be  immortal  who  speaks  to  the  universal  heart,  that  is,  who  speaks  all 
languages,  sympathises  with  all  emotions,  is  acquainted  with  and  can 
answer  all  the  mysteries  of  the  soul. 


CHRIST    AS    A    PREACHER.  289 

Such  a  preacher  will  of  course  have  a  7nixed  congregation.  Such  a  con- 
gregation had  Jesus  Christ  always  round  about  him.  Now  we  say  of  this 
man  or  of  that,  "  He  has  a  very  select  congregation."  Poor  soul  !  we  say, 
and  think  it  a  compliment  that  he  has  a  picked  audience.  Mean  man  ! 
Jesus  Christ  had  all  the  world  to  hear  him,  the  old  man  and  the  little  child 
and  the  wondering  woman,  the  scholar,  the  peasant,  the  prodigal,  the  Phari- 
see, the  publican — had  he  a  very  select  assembly  ?  The  man  who  has  a 
select  assembly  lives  in  a  very  poor  twilight,  and  wields  a  very  poor  influ- 
ence. Jesus  Christ  had  a  great  heart,  therefore  all  men  came  to  him.  The 
Man  who  preached  about  rest  was  sure  to  have  a  large  company  of  hearers. 
For  we  are  all  weary,  weary  all  over,  and  if  any  man  or  woman  shall  rise 
to  offer  rest,  the  offer  has  music  enough  in  it  to  make  a  gospel.  We  are 
not  all  glad,  but  we  are  all  sorrowful.  Gladness  is  a  transient  light,  a  par- 
tial glory  ;  but  sorrow's  gloom  is  a  night  big  as  our  world,  and  it  gloomily 
encloses  every  heart.  Jesus  Christ  spoke  to  sorrow,  to  sin,  to  the  deepest 
necessities  of  the  heart.  He  always  touched  that  deeper,  hidden  inner 
string  that  nobody  else  could  get  at,  and  because  of  his  so  doing  all  the 
world  went  out  after  him  to  hear  his  gracious  words.  A  man  who  should 
come  to  you  all  the  year  round  speaking  of  laughter  and  comedy  and  farce 
would  be  a  man  who  would  soon  wear  out  your  patience  ;  he  who  spoke 
of  the  deeper  things,  of  the  need  of  pardon  and  the  want  of  rest,  and  the 
offer  of  peace  and  the  possibility  of  heaven,  might  be  dull  now  and  then, 
but  the  year  round  he  would  be  God's  angel  to  you.  If  your  days  are  a 
thousand,  you  want  such  a  man  for  more  than  nine  hundred  of  them. 

There  was  a  marvellous  unity,  or  combination,  of  qualities  in  the  preach- 
ing of  Christ.  Combination  is  itself  an  excellence.  The  charm  may  be  of 
the  very  fact  of  multitudinous  and  many-coloured  union.  I  can  show  you 
red  and  amber  and  blue  and  purple,  separately,  here,  there,  and  yonder, 
and  in  many  places  not  to  be  numbered  ;  but  if  you  want  to  see  them 
altogether,  and  what  they  can  be  and  can  do,  at  their  best,  you  must  wait 
till  the  sun  turns  the  storm  into  a  rainbow.  In  the  union  you  will  see  a 
charm  all  its  own.  No  separate  colour  can  claim  the  whole  charm  ;  you 
need  them  all,  and  all  blended  as  God  blends  colours  on  his  palette,  and 
then  will  you  see  that  combination  itself  is  a  mystery  and  a  perfection.  So 
in  the  case  of  Jesus  Christ.  Miracles  had  been  performed  before  Jesus 
Christ  was  born  into  the  world.  Parables,  graphic  and  beautiful,  had  been 
spoken  by  Old  Testament  Prophets,  sermons  had  been  delivered  to  the 
people  from  time  immemorial,  from  wooden  pulpit  and  rocky  platform  and 
in  temples  of  the  wilderness,  but  in  the  unity  of  these  things  Jesus  Christ 
stood  alone,  King  of  kings.  Lord  of  lords,  solitary,  unapproachable,  a  very 
rainbow  for  combination  and  unity,  gathering  up  into  himself  all  colours, 
lights,  beauties,  and  shaping  them  into  a  grace  complete  and  infinite. 

Jesus  Christ  despised  fame  as  an  end :  he  used  it  as  a  means.     He  did 


290  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

not  want  to  be  merely  talked  about,  he  was  afraid  lest  devotion  should 
ooze  away  in  flattering  speech.  That  is  the  fear  of  the  ministry  to-day,  it 
is  the  fear  of  the  New  Testament,  it  is  the  fear  of  every  parable  and  every 
sermon  in  the  New  Covenant,  that  our  worship  should  perish  in  eulogium. 
Jesus  Christ  would  rather  be  contradicted  and  opposed  than  merely  thanked 
and  forgotten.  This  is  wonderfully  set  forth  in  the  book  of  the  prophecies 
of  Ezekiel :  "  Also,  thou  son  of  Man,  the  children  of  thy  people  still  are 
talking  against  thee  by  the  walls  and  in  the  doors  of  houses,  and  speak 
to  one  another,  every  one  to  his  brother,  saying.  Come,  I  pray  you,  and 
hear  what  is  the  word  that  cometh  forth  from  the  Lord.  And  they  come 
unto  thee,  as  the  people  cometh,  and  they  sit  before  thee  as  my  people, 
and  they  hear  thy  words,  but  they  will  not  do  them,  for  with  their  mouth 
they  show  much  love,  but  their  heart  goeth  after  their  covetousness,  and 
lo  !  thou  art  unto  them  as  a  very  lovely  song  of  one  that  hath  a  pleas- 
ant voice  and  can  play  well  on  an  instrument,  for  they  hear  thy  words  but 
they  do  them  not.  And  when  this  cometh  to  pass  (lo  !  it  will  come)  then 
shall  they  know  that  a  prophet  hath  been  among  them."  This  was  the 
fear  of  Jesus  Christ,  lest  the  people  should  praise  his  voice,  praise  his  tones, 
praise  his  way,  praise  his  mouth,  and  never  get  at  the  story  of  blood,  the 
gift  of  pardon,  and  never  hear  the  cry  of  God  in  heaven  over  their  perish- 
ing souls.  How  is  it  with  us  ?  Are  we  men  who  praise  the  vessel  and  for- 
get to  drink  the  living  wine  ?  Are  we  those  who  look  in  upon  the  banquet- 
ting  room  and  say,  "Well  laid — well  spread,"  and  carry  our  hunger  away  ? 
Let  us  bethink  ourselves,  lest  a  prophet  has  been  in  our  midst  and  we 
have  mistaken  him  for  a  common  man  ! 

Jesus  Christ's  success  as  a  preacher  was  attained  hy  his  profound  exposi- 
tion of  the  Scripture.  That  is  the  only  success  worth  having — a  success 
that  comes  up  out  of  the  Scripture  that  abideth  for  ever  will  partake  of  the 
quality  of  the  Scripture  and  will  endure  long.  Jesus  Christ's  expositions 
of  the  Scripture  were  always  new.  How  we  mistake  that  matter  of  nov- 
elty !  Our  want  is  always  new,  our  sin  is  always  fresh,  our  hunger  is 
always  a  novelty.  You  cannot  become  accustomed  to  hunger  or  to  thirst. 
You  may  indeed  be  benumbed  in  a  sense  by  their  long  continuance,  but 
there  is  a  loss  going  on  all  the  time.  If  we  brought  to  the  church  the 
originality  of  hunger,  the  preacher  would  supply  the  originality  of  answer. 
But  if  we  drag  our  cold  bodies  and  colder  minds  into  God's  house,  if  we 
constitute  such  a  mass  of  commonplace  that  no  human  tongue  can  reach 
us  or  penetrate  us,  it  is  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  we  shall  be  startled 
and  dazzled  by  the  originalities  of  a  man  who.  is  bone  of  our  bone  and 
flesh  of  our  flesh.  The  demand  will  determine  the  supply.  Blessed  are 
they  that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  for  they  shall  be  filled. 
God  shall  always  be  new  to  him  whose  sin  is  vividly  remembered  and 
whose  heart-want  is  actually  felt. 


CHRIST    AS    A    PREACHER.  29! 

The  people  who  heard  Jesus  supposed  that  they  knew  the  Bible.  The 
everlasting  delusion,  the  all-ruining  sophism  !  No  man  knows  the  Bible  ! 
no  man  has  read  the  Bible  through,  except  in  the  letter.  I  have  not  read 
the  first  chapter  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  except  in  the  poverty  of  its  sylla- 
bles— its  music,  its  reckoning,  its  sweep,  its  conception,  its  poetry,  its 
pathos,  amaze  me  every  time  I  read  the  wondrous  words.  The  Bible  holds 
its  influence  over  men  not  because  it  is  a  thousand  years  old  or  ten  thou- 
sand, but  because  it  is  the  present  answer  to  our  present  need.  A  book  that 
is  merely  venerable  will  outgrew  itself — there  is  a  possibility,  as  we  all 
know,  of  a  man  outliving  his  own  reputation,  or  surviving  himself — so  will  it 
be  with  any  book  that  has  nothing  to  plead  in  its  own  favour  but  its  ven- 
erableness.  The  Bible  is  not  only  venerable  in  point  of  age,  it  answers 
to-day  my  sharpest  pain,  my  hottest  tears,  my  brightest  joys.  When  I  lose 
my  child  to-day,  it  says,  "  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and  for- 
bid them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  When  I  dig  my 
mother's  grave  to-day  it  brings  the  largest  lapful  of  freshest  flowers  to  put 
around  and  upon  the  tomb,  so  deep,  so  dark.  When  all  the  blinds  are 
down  and  the  fine  house  is  shrunken  into  a  shadow,  it  is  then  I  ask  for 
God's  book,  and  then  it  is  most  clearly  God's. 

Do  you  suppose  you  know  the  Bible  ?  The  Sadducees  thought  they 
did,  and  when  they  came  to  Jesus  Christ  he  said,  "Ye  do  err,  not  know- 
ing the  Scriptures."  The  Scribes  thought  they  knew  the  Scriptures ; 
indeed  they  were  the  very  men  who  wrote  the  holy  words  and  read  them  ; 
they  were,  so  to  speak,  the  custodians  or  treasurers  of  the  Divine  litera- 
ture, and  if  they  did  not  know  the  Scriptures  who  did  ?  You  would  think 
the  people  who  live  in  a  mountainous  country  would  love  the  mountains 
best.  You  and  I  have  gone  through  Alpine  villages  in  which  the  people  evi- 
dently looked  upon  the  mountains  with  eyes  unlighted,  without  wonder,  with- 
out emotion.  Why  ?  Because  of  their  familiarity  with  those  gigantic  and 
glorious  hills.  It  was  so  with  the  Scribes  ;  they  were  so  familiar  with  the 
letter  that  they  did  not  understand  the  spirit,  as  we  may  be  so  familiar 
with  church  ordinances  as  merely  to  observe  the  ceremony  and  never 
realise  the  Divine  intent  and  music.  Jesus  Christ  said,  "  Search  the  Scrip- 
tures." Have  we  understood  that  word  search  ?  You  have  seen  a  man 
dig  for  silver  ?  That  is  one  help  towards  the  meaning  of  the  term 
"  search."  You  have  seen  a  woman  light  a  candle  and  sweep  the  floor  and 
seek  diligently  till  she  found  the  piece  she  had  lost  ?  That  is  a  hint 
towards  the  meaning  of  the  word  "  search."  You  have  seen  a  man  look- 
ing for  one  document  which  if  he  could  find  would  make  him  a  peer  of 
the  realm  ?  Look  at  him,  with  spectacled  eyes,  with  busy  fingers,  with 
bent  form,  with  eager  face — look  how  he  listens  to  any  suggestion,  what 
letters  he  sends  out  to  registrars,  clerks,  beadles,  sextons,  clergymen,  any 
person  or  persons  likely  to  help  hini      Have   you  seen  such   a  process  ? 


292  ■  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

That  will  give  you  some  idea  of  what  Jesus  meant  when  he  said  "  Search." 
He  did  not  mean  that  we  were  to  look  round  with  cold,  indifferent  eyes, 
and  take  up  anything  that  might  happen  to  occur  in  our  process  of  blind 
looking.  He  meant  the  industry  of  the  soul,  the  very  agony  of  the  spirit, 
a  searching,  seeking,  digging,  groping,  striving,  that  meant  the  very  agony 
of  the  combined  faculties  which  make  us  men. 

Jesus  did  not  come  with  a  new  Bible.  He  read  the  old  one,  and  when 
he  read  it  men's  hearts  burned  within  them.  We  cannot  read  it  so,  in  the 
same  degree  ;  yet  in  our  own  degree  we  can  read  it  after  that  very  self- 
same sort.  You  hear  one  man  pronounce  a  word,  and  you  think  nothing 
about  it  ;  another  man  says  the  same  word  and  it  sounds  like  a  call  to  bat- 
tle, or  like  the  dropping  of  a  mother's  benediction.  When  Jesus  read  the 
Scriptures  men  contested  amongst  themselves  whether  he  was  reading  out 
of  the  very  scroll  or  not.  We  need  no  new  Bible — we  need  the  right  heart 
to  read  the  old  one,  and  then  it  will  make  the  heart  that  so  reads  it  glow 
with  sacred  emotion,  it  will  lift  up  that  heart  to  heights  of  rapture  and 
triumph,  in  the  feeling  of  which  time  will  be  but  a  passing  shadow,  and 
earth  a  speck  neither  to  be  mentioned  nor  named. 

Look  at  that  first  chapter  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  at  the  very  first  verse. 

It  will  always  remain  to  be  explained.     In  the  beginning "     Th9t 

would  prove  the  Scripture  to  be  inspired,  to  me.  I  want  nothing  more 
The  subtlety  of  the  suggestion,  the  infinity  of  the  wisdom,  not  to  fix  a  date 
where  no  date  could  be  fixed,  where  the  astounding  figures  would  absorb 
our  arithmetic  and  want  another  a  million  times  larger,  and  would  mock  it 
in  proportion  to  its  swollen  magnitude.  If  there  arise  men  who  say  that 
the  world  has  been  existing  sixty  thousand  years,  the  "  BEGINNING  " 
swallows  up  the  sixty  thousand  as  the  Atlantic  swallows  up  a  stone. 
When  the  great  man  has  turned  all  the  rocks  into  slate  and  all  the  forests 
into  pencil,  and  filled  his  huge  slate  with  ciphers,  with  the  largest  unit  at 
their  head,  '■  In  the  BEGINNING  "  swallows  up  him  and  his  slate,  and 
lo  !  it  stands  the  only  truth.  Parable  is  larger  than  dogma.  '^  In  the 
beginning  "  is  the  dateless  date,  the  immeasurable  and  unnameable  period. 

For  any  man  to  have  written  that  word  of  his  own  accord  seems  to  riie 
to  be  impossible.  Look  at  all  other  men — take  ourselves  as  an  example — 
we  want  to  find  the  date  :  this  man  did  not.  How  did  he  come  to  be  dif- 
ferent from  us  ?  We  turn  wrinkled  and  grey,  and  our  backs  stoop 
because  of  our  sedentary  devotion  to  the  slate,  because  we  want  to  find 
out  the  exact  date.  That  is  human  :  intensely,  awfully,  comically  human  ! 
He  would  be  a  man  bigger  than  all  others  who  could  come  into  an  assem- 
bly and  say,  "  Gentlemen,  this  world  was  made  on  January  the  13th,  seven- 
teen thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty  seven  years  and  five  months  ago." 
Aye,  what  a  great  man  he  would  be  ! 

"  In  the  beginning,  GOD  " — the  name  out  of  which  all  other  names 


CHRIST    AS    A    PREACHER.  293 

come,  the  life-name,  the  name  which  encloses  within  itself  Father,  Mother, 
Child,  Helper,  Saviour,  Lord,  King  :  for  are  not  all  these  but  sparkles  of 
an  infinite  glory,  and  not  final  terms  which  begin  and  end  in  themselves  ? 
GOD — so  multitudinous  yet  so  lonely,  so  awful  yet  so  familiar,  so  neces- 
sary yet  so  appalling,  who  has  yet  defined  God  and  set  a  ring  of  empty 
words  around  him  which  shall  stand  as  the  equivalent  of  his  infinity  ? 
That  God  is  a  whole  number — who  has  found  out  all  the  fractions  that 
completely  represent  him  ?  That  is  the  unceasing  mystery  and  the  unceas- 
ing torment  of  the  human  mind. 

"  In  the  beginning,  God  CREATED."  We  are  familiar  with  that 
word  created  now  ;  but  think  yourselves  back  and  tell  me  what  it  means. 
It  was  a  new  word  in  human  speech.  We  know  what  artifice  is,  and  man- 
ufacture, and  handiwork — but  what  \s  created ?  It  has  no  equivalent  in 
all  our  literature.  It  is  a  word  at  once  familiar  as  light  and  inaccessible 
as  a  star.  Beware  lest  your  familiarity  deprive  you  of  originality.  Beware 
lest,  having  said  "created,"  you  think  that  utterance  is  definition.  "  Begin- 
ning" stands  undefined;  "  6^^^/ "  undefined  ;  ^^  created"  undefined.  To 
live  within  little  literary  definitions  is  to  live  on  sand,  when  we  might  be 
revelling  in  the  Paradise  of  God. 

Another  element  in  the  success  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  preacher  was  t/ie 
continual  and  healthy  excitement  which  his  preaching  occasioned.  Nobody 
could  listen  to  Jesus  Christ  with  indifference.  I  have  heard  of  men  listening 
in  London  city,  and  that  not  a  great  way  from  here,  as  if  they  were  not 
listening.  I  have  heard  of  men  talking  while  great  preachers  were  deliv- 
ering their  discourses  under  swelling  domes.  I  have  been  present  when 
people  were  gathered  around  a  preacher,  and  who  were  paying  not  the 
slightest  attention  to  him,  and  my  wonder  was  why  they  should  have  come 
at  all,  chaffering  and  chattering  as  they  were  in  their  seats.  Jesus  Christ's 
preaching  excited  everybody.  It  maddened  some  people — and  unless  our 
preaching  does  that  it  is  of  no  use.  If  a  man  goes  to  church  and  sleeps, 
I  do  not  care  who  the  preacher  is,  he  is  not  equal  to  the  miracle  of  doing 
that  man  any  good,  and  if  a  sermon  be  so  simple  and  nice  and  beautiful 
and  so  charming  as  to  roll  over  the  hearer  as  water  rolls  over  an  oiled  sur- 
face, it  will  do  the  hearer  no  good.  I  like  to  be  turned  into  a  frenzy  by  a 
preacher.  I  like  to  contradict  him,  to  ask  him  questions,  to  say  "  Stop," 
at  the  time  he  torments  me  and  makes  me  writhe  under  him  ;  but  after- 
wards I  feel  as  if  I  had  been  at  school,  or  on  a  battlefield,  or  on  a  moun- 
tain, drinking  the  wine  ot  the  fresh  wind,  and  receiving  baptisms  and  ben- 
edictions. 

The  failure  of  Jesus  Christ,  upon  which  I  spoke  last,  was  local  and  tem- 
porary— his  success  is  universal  and  everlasting.  Jesus  Christ  is  preaching 
to-day  All  the  congregations  gathered  this  morning  all  over  the  globe  are 
gathered  around  Jesus  :  all  the  hymns  that  are  sung  to-day  by  congregated 


294  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

millions  are  sung  in  honour  of  Jesus  ;  every  trembling  prodigal  that  comes 
home  to-day  saying,  "  1  am  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son,"  is  brought 
in  by  Jesus  ;  every  emotion  that  swells  our  hearts  to-day,  every  hope  that 
breaks  upon  the  lowering  cloud  and  cleanses  the  sky  of  such  gloom,  is  a 
miracle  of  Jesus.  He  still  turns  the  water  into  wine,  he  still  gives  us  our 
dead  back  in  great  resurrections,  he  still  turns  the  corruption  of  our  life 
into  the  incorruption  of  our  immortality.  Without  Christ  there  would  be 
no  preaching  to-day. 

Let  us  beware  how  we  use  that  word  "  success  "  in  connection  with 
spiritual  things.  It  is  not  an  arithmetical  term.  A  man  is  not  failing 
because  his  pews  are  empty — a  ministry  is  not  necessarily  a  failure  because 
there  may  not  be  numerical  additions  to  the  visible  church,  A  man  is  not 
necessarily  succeeding  because  his  pews  are  crowded  and  because  thousands 
enroll  themselves  on  the  register  of  the  visible  fellowship.  We  have 
nothing  to  do  with  either  failure  or  success  ;  we  are  called  to  sow  the  seed, 
to  do  the  work,  to  suffer  and  endure  and  wait  and  hope,  and  God  giveth 
the  increase.  Poor  father  and  mother,  you  think  you  have  had  no  reward 
in  your  family  ?  Cheer  up,  you  will  have  good  harvest  yet.  You  nave 
planted  and  sown  and  watered  ?  Yes.  God  giveth  the  increase,  thou 
canst  not  tell  how  or  when  or  which  way — leave  it,  dear  honoured  parent, 
and  it  will  be  well  with  the  child. 

Ministers  of  Christ,  you  say  you  have  cried  your  very  eyes  out,  and 
worked  until  your  heart  has  been  sore,  and  ached  with  great  agonies,  and 
no  good  seems  to  have  come  of  your  labour.  Wait.  In  the  morning  sow 
thy  seed,  in  the  evening  withhold  not  thine  hand,  for  thou  knowest  not 
which  shall  prosper,  or  whether  both  shall  be  alike  good.  Cast  thy  bread 
upon  the  waters,  and  after  many  days  thou  shall  find  it.  God  is  not 
mocked  :  whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap.  Labour  more 
abundantly  and  more  hopefully,  and  leave  the  Harvest  to  God,  as  he  has 
left  the  seed  time  to  you. 

You  say,  "  There  has  not  been  much  success  in  the  church,  we  only  added 
one  last  year."  I  am  not  speaking  now  about  any  particular  church,  but 
about  a  church  in  which  such  circumstances  may  easily  have  occurred.  "  We 
only  added  one  last  year."  Who  was  that  one  ?  "  Well,  it  was  a  poor 
washerwoman."  O  indeed.  Any  family?  "  Large  family  ;  six  boys  that 
we  know  of."  And  you  added  the  mother  of  six  boys  to  your  church  ? 
Who  can  tell  how  many  you  added  when  you  added  that  poor  laundress  ? 
These  may  be  six  kings,  six  leaders  of  men,  six  apostles.  And  you  say 
you  only  added  one  last  year.  What  was  his  name  ?  "  His  name  ?  I 
think  his  name  was  Robert  Moffat."  And  you  only  added  Robert  Moffat 
to  the  church  in  one  year>  Do  you  know  who  Robert  Moffat  is  !  When 
you  added  Robert  Moffat  to  the  church  you  added  a  WORLD  ! 


THE  HEARING  EAR. 

PREPARATION  FOR  HEARING THE  MANNER  OF  PREACHING DOERS  NOT 

HEARERS  ONLY. 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  do  tliou  toucli  our  ear  and  it  sliall  hear  wisely  and  justly,  and  shall 
lose  nothing  of  all  the  music  of  thy  voice.  Our  ear  is  already  filled  with  vulgar  noise, 
so  that  we  cannot  hear  the  goings  of  the  Almighty,  and  much  of  the  tenderness  of  thy 
tone  do  we  lose,  because  of  the  uproar  which  engages  our  attention.  0  that  our  ear 
might  be  touched,  even  circumcised,  and  blest,  and  prepared  to  hear  every  word  that 
proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God.  Call  us  now  to  attention  ;  may  every  man  here 
listen  for  his  soul's  good  ;  if  any  have  come  to  listen  for  aught  else  may  the  change 
take  place  in  the  view  this  moment,  and  may  the  supreme  inquiry  of  every  heart  be, 
"  What  saith  the  Lord  ?  "  and  may  every  soul  go  out  to  him  saying,  "  Speak,  Lord,  for 
thy  servant  heareth."  Yea,  let  a  spirit  of  hearing  fall  upon  the  whole  congregation, 
an  earnest  desire  to  listen,  so  that  nothing  may  be  lost  of  all  the  message  which  thou 
dost  this  night  give  unto  us.  We  bless  thee  for  thy  gospel,  so  full  of  tenderness,  glow- 
ing with  light  and  love,  the  very  utterance  of  thine  heart,  the  one  way  to  the  living  God 
and  his  everlasting  heaven.  Help  us  to  listen  to  it  gratefully,  with  ecstasy  of  delight 
and  passion  of  thankfulness,  without  indifference  of  heart,  but  with  all  ardour  and 
intensity  of  love. 

Regard  every  one  of  us  as  each  most  particularly  needs.  If  any  man  here  is  pray- 
ing his  first  true  prayer,  let  this  be  the  time  of  a  great  answer  to  his  sonl.  If  any 
man  here  is  vowing  to  lead  a  better  life.  Lord,  turn  over  the  page  for  him  on  which 
he  means  to  write  his  better  writing  ;  establish  him  in  the  goodness  of  his  oath  ;  may 
nothing  occur  to  imperil  the  constancy  of  his  holy  resolution,  but  may  he  watch  unto 
prayer,  and  succeed  in  the  great  work.  If  any  man  is  in  peculiar  circumstances  of 
perplexity  and  strangeness,  blind  so  that  he  cannot  see,  weak  so  that  he  cannot  stand, 
dazed  and  confounded  by  the  infinite  rush  of  life,  the  Lord  himself  send  his  angel  or 
his  prophet  to  give  sight,  and  strength,  and  comfort,  and  guidance  to  such.  If  any 
of  us  are  fat  of  heart,  having  waxed  prosperous  and  forgotten  our  early  love,  the 
Lord  judge  us  not  with  his  lightning  and  thunder,  but  speak  to  us  with  rebukes  that 
shall  awaken,  and  not  with  judgments  that  shall  destroy.  If  any  man  is  planning 
the  wrong  trick  and  about  to  play  the  foul  game,  and  to  do  the  thing  which  is  hateful 
in  the  sight  of  God,  the  Lord  turn  his  counsel  upside  down,  and  cause  all  the  lines  of 
his  life  to  tremble  in  confusion.  And  if  any  man  is  endeavouring  now  to  serve  the 
Lord  with  his  whole  might,  to  live  a  complete  and  unbroken  life  in  Christ,  send  more 
than  twelve  legions  of  angels  to  help  him  to  carry  out  his  purpose. 

We  want  the  spirit  of  hearing  now,  we  want  the  prepared  ear,  we  want  our  hearts 
to  be  at  peace,  and  our  whole  attention  to  be  on  the  alert.  Blessed  Christ,  come  to 
us,  speak  thine  own  word  to  our  quickened  ear.  We  bless  thee  for  thy  life,  thy 
teaching,  thy  atoning  sacrificial  blood,  thy  whole  priesthood,  thy  mighty,  prevalent 


296  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

mediation.     0,  if  tliou  dost  open  thy  wounds  again,  may  it  be  to  give  us  room  in  thine 
heart      Amen, 

Text  :  '  If  any  man  have  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear." — Mark  vii.  16. 

This  is  a  common  expression  in  the  Scriptures.  "  He  that  hath  ears  to 
hear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  unto  the  churches."  The  text 
says,  "  If  any  man  have  ears."  All  men  have  ears,  but  that  is  not  the 
meaning  of  this  particular  text.  He  must  not  only  have  ears,  he  must 
have  ears  to  hear,  ears  that  can  hear,  and  that  do  hear.  It  is  not  enough  to 
have  the  sense  of  hearing,  it  must  be  put  into  exercise,  and  it  must  be  kept 
at  the  highest  point  of  attention.  Many  persons  have  ears  who  never  hear 
anything  worth  hearing.  You  cannot  hear  unless  you  listen.  If  you  were 
in  earnest  you  would  listen — are  you  ?  Do  not  leave  all  the  work  upon 
the  preacher  :  meet  him  half-way,  give  him  your  attention,  and  he  cannot 
fail;  his  message  is  such  as  to  protect  him  from  failure,  but  he  cannot  do  many 
mighty  works  among  you  if  you  shut  the  door  of  your  ear.  Take  a  thousand 
men  listening  to  a  sermon  ;  probably  not  one  in  ten  hears  the  sermon  as 
the  preacher  meant  it  to  be  heard.  Every  man  hears  a  voice,  a  sound,  a 
noise — he  hears  one  sentence  following  another  ;  but  that  inner  music 
which  seeks  the  soul  in  its  loneliness,  to  heal  it  with  the  love  and  hope  of 
God,  who  hears  in  its  ineffable  meaning  and  its  sweet  benediction  !  Nor 
is  this  much  to  be  wondered  at.  Consider  how  the  ear  has  been  treated 
all  the  week.  Do  not  condemn  the  ear  unheard.  Let  it  plead  its  own 
cause,  and  it  will  mitigate  the  harshness  of  our  judgment.  "  All  the 
week  long,"  says  the  ear,  "  I  have  heard  nothing  throughout  the  day  but 
the  clang  of  money,  the  tumult  of  bargaining,  the  uproar  of  commerce,  the 
clamour  of  selfish  controversy  ;  and  at  night  I  have  heard  nothing  but 
gossip,  and  twaddle,  and  childish  remarks  on  childish  topics — I  cannot 
easily  liberate  myself  from  these  degradations,  and  listen  to  words  most 
ghostly  and  to  gospels  that  seem  to  come  from  other  worlds.  Have  patience 
with  me,  for  I  need  awakening  first  out  of  an  entangled  and  troubled  dream." 
Verily  there  is  sense  in  that  fair  speech  ;  then  it  should  have  due  weight. 
But  the  sense  of  the  speech  imposes  a  corresponding  responsibility  upon 
the  speaker.  We  should /r^ar^  ourselves  to  hear  the  Divine  voice.  The 
reader  of  an  immortal  play  asks,  and  asks  in  reason,  that  the  audience 
should  be  seated  ten  minutes  before  the  reading  begins.  It  is  a  sensible 
stipulation.  Shall  I  be  unjust  if  I  ask  that  my  friends  should  be  ati  hour 
with  God  before  coming  to  hear  the  public  proclamation  of  his  word  ?  Is 
it  decent  that  we  should  wait  on  Shakspeare  and  leave  the  Eternal  to  wait 
on  us .'  The  ear  should  have  a  little  prayer  all  its  own.  I  will  teach  it 
one  :  "  Lord,  still  the  waves  that  are  heaving  and  foaming  in  me,  or  I  shall 
miss  all  that  is  tenderest  in  the  music  of  thy  voice.  Quiet  the  mean  noises 
which  fill  me  with  a  worldly  din,  and  let  me  hear  the  words,  every  one  of 


THE    HEARING    EAR.  297 

them,  which  will  bless  the  life.  Circumcise  me  :  yea,  put  thy  sharp  knife 
upon  me,  thou  God  of  the  circumcision,  and  make  me  hear.  Then  speak, 
Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth."  There  would  be  no  poor  sermons  if  we 
came  thus ;  we  should  be  all  ATTENTION.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  how 
does  the  case  stand  ?  What  was  the  last  word  you  spoke  at  the  door  ? 
Some  mean  word  about  the  cold  wind,  some  poor  little  narrow  word  of 
criticism  upon  a  neighbour's  reputation,  some  childish  remark  upon  a 
puerile  topic,  chaffer  and  chatter,  and  hollowness,  and  nothing,  and 
then  rushing  in  you  sing,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  of  hosts."  It  can- 
not be  done  ;  such  miracles  are  beyond  your  power.  Can  you  be  draggling 
your  wings  in  the  mud  this  moment,  and  in  the  flash  of  an  eye  spreading 
them  out  in  the  sun  ?  Then  say  not  that  the  age  of  miracles  is  past  !  I 
cannot  do  it.  I  must  have  time.  I  must  think  and  pray,  and  then  the 
banquet  is  always  more  than  enongh,  abundant  to  redundance,  the  lavish 
generosity  of  God  ! 

That  I  am  not  speaking  unjurstly  of  the  ear,  I  may  refer  to  your  own 
proverb,  "  Believe  nothing  you  hear."  Why  ?  Because  you  do  not  hear 
it.  The  first  man  did  not  hear  it  :  he  twisted  it  ;  in  passing  through  his 
corkscrew  hearing,  the  straight  line  got  a  twist,  and  he  never  can  straighen 
it  out.  So  it  has  come  down  to  him  a  marvellous  story,  a  wondrous  nar- 
rative of  self-contradiction,  utter  and  palpable  absurdity.  Then  men  say, 
"  I  thought  he  said  so  and  so  ;  I  tinder  stood  him  to  mean  thus  and  thus  ; 
O,  I  beg  pardon,  I  did  not  catch  then  what  he  said."  And  out  of  such 
foul  springs  do  the  streams  of  conversation  rise,  carrying  their  mud  with 
them  all  through  the  acreage  of  our  social  economy.  Thus  we  tell  lies 
without  lying  ;  we  are  carriers  of  falsehood,  though  we  never  mean  to  be 
untrue.  How  is  this  ?  Because  we  do  not  hear.  The  ear  is  preoccupied; 
invisible  speakers  are  addressing  it,  lovers  unseen  are  soliciting  its  atten- 
tion, or  it  is  asleep  or  on  a  journey,  or  under  a  spell.  Hardly  a  man  in 
this  congregation  can  listen.  It  takes  a  Judge  to  listen.  How  the  Judges 
do  listen  !  We  are  buying  and  selling  all  the  time  the  man  is  preaching  ; 
yea,  we  are  doing  a  little  business  in  the  middle  of  his  prayer  !  To 
listen — who  can  do  it  ?  God  knew  this,  and  therefore  again  and  again  he 
says,  "  He  that  hath  an  ear  to  hear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  unto 
the  churches."  "  If  any  man  have  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear."  Who 
would  attempt  to  deliver  a  message  to  a  man  asleep,  or  propose  to  speak 
to  a  man  a  mile  off  ?  There  are  men  in  this  house  who  are  just  now  three 
thousand  miles  away  ! 

Many  a  message  has  been  lost  because  the  speaker  has  not  first  roused 
the  attention  of  his  hearers.  There  is  a  man  standing  a  little  averted  from 
you — his  back  is  partly  towards  you — he  is  engaged  in  doing  something, 
and  you  say,  "  Bring  me  three  volumes  of  the  '  Family  Magazine,'  John." 
He  hears  his  own  name  at  last,  and  says,  "Sir?"     Poor  rhetorician  thou! 


ig^  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

That  was  beginning  at  the  wrong  end.  You  should  have  said,  "  JOHN  ! 
Bring  me  three  volumes  of  the  '  Family  Magazine '  out  of  the  library." 
"  Yes,  sir."  See  ?  Is  that  in  the  Bible  ?  Every  word  of  it — as  to  pur- 
pose and  philosophy.  How  does  God  speak  ?  First,  atte7ition.  "  Moses, 
Moses,"  and  he  said,  "Here  am  I."  "  Samuel,  Samuel."  "Speak,  Lord, 
for  thy  servant  heareth."  "O  earth,  earth,  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord." 
There  is  a  science  herein  ;  study  it,  speaker  and  hearer. 

The  first  thing  to  be  done  is  to  compel  the  ear  to  listen  for  the  7-ighi 
thing.  When  I  enter  the  house  of  God,  it  is  to  hear  the  word  of  God.  If 
I  went  to  hear  a  professional  elocutionist  I  should  go  to  judge  of  the  bal- 
ance of  his  voice  ;  I  should  look  out  for  the  colouring  of  his  tones  ;  I 
should  measure  the  velocity  and  the  weight  of  his  articulation  ;  I  should 
make  an  elocutionary  study  of  the  man.  But  in  going  to  hear  God's 
preacher,  I  go  to  hear  God's  word,  how  I  may  be  saved,  redeemed,  puri- 
fied, and  fitted  for  Divine  uses  in  this  world.  I  want  to  hear  how  I  may 
get  home  again  after  many  weary  wanderings  in  stony  places  ;  I  want  to 
hear  what  Christ  said  about  sin,  and  pain,  and  woe,  and  want,  and  pardon; 
I  want  to  hear  about  those  who  have  gone  up,  who  cares  for  them,  what 
do  they,  how  near  are  they  ;  I  want  to  hear  about  the  secret  place  where 
die  light  is  pure  and  the  rest  is  without  shock,  or  pain,  or  dream.  My 
soul  being  alive  with  expectation  and  aflame  with  hope,  God  will  not  dis- 
appoint it,  or  he  will  expunge  from  his  own  book  the  sweet  promise 
'  Blessed  are  they  that  do  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  for  they 
shall  be  filled." 

It  is  said  that  the  jnanner  of  the  speaker  has  a  good  deal  to  do  with  the 
attention  of  the  hearer.  That  is  true,  but  an  earnest  hearer  will  care  very 
little  about  the  manner  if  he  is  deeply  interested  in  the  matter  itself. 
Just  look  at  that  company  of  men,  and  listen  to  that  person  with  a  long 
paper  standing  at  the  head  of  the  table.  He  seems  to  have  chronic  bron- 
chitis. How  he  chammers  his  words,  how  hoarsely  he  utters  his  sen- 
tences, how  poor  his  enunciation  !  he  calls  a  bush  a  bash,  and  a  foot  a 
fut.  Listen  to  him  and  see  how  the  people  are  all  on  the  qui  vive.  What 
is  the  matter  ?  He  is  reading  a  WILL,  and  every  man  in  the  company 
expects  to  get  something.  How  choice  they  are  about  the  elocution  !  They 
say  to  one  another,  "  Rather  a  bad  manner,  don't  you  think  ?  His  manner 
is  much  against  him,  don't  you  think  ? "  No,  no.  "  What  is  there  for 
me .''  and  how  much  for  me  ?  "  and  they  would  go  twenty  times  a  day  to 
hear  that  wheezy,  asthmatic,  non-elocutionist  read  a  WILL,  if  they  had 
any  hope  of  getting  anything  out  of  it.  Now  I  have  a  will ;  hear  it  : — 
"  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God."  That  is  your 
portion.  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  T\\?i\.'\% yours.  "Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they  shall  inherit 
the  earth."     Claim  your  inheritance    and    enjoy  it  !     "  Blessed  are  the 


THE    HEARING    EAR.  299 

knerciful,  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy."  Take  it  all.  Have  you  heard  the 
will  ?     Claim  your  property  ! 

You  say  that  manner  has  a  good  deal  to  do  with  speaking.  So  it  has. 
Let  me  remind  you  that  manner  has  a  good  deal  to  do  with  hearing.  Our 
Saviour  is  reported  in  the  Gospel  of  Luke  to  have  said,  "  Take  heed, 
therefore,  how  ye  hear."  There  is  an  art  of  hearing  ;  attention  is  not 
without  a  science  of  its  own.  Hear  for  eternity,  hear  for  your  soul's  good. 
Do  you  zvajit  to  hear  the  gospel  now  ?  Then  you  shall.  "  This  is  a  faith- 
ful saying  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners."  You  hear  that]  "The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
God's  Son,  cleanseth  from  all  sin."  "Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way  and 
the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts,  and  let  him  return  unto  the  Lord,  and 
he  will  have  mercy  upon  him,  and  to  our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly  par- 
don." "  Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come."  Hear  ye  these  words,  or  do 
they  fall  upon  the  cold  ears  of  a  dead  soul  ?  If  you  have  heard  these 
words  you  never  can  say  again,  long  as  you  live,  that  you  never  heard  the 
gospel ! 

Yes,  there  is  a  manner  of  hearing.  Some  persons  listen  captiously — 
they  go  for  the  purpose,  express,  of  finding  fault  and  showing  their  own 
cleverness  in  pointing  out  the  fault  which  they  suppose  they  have  found. 
"These  are  spots  in  your  feasts  of  charity."  Some  listen  critically.  They 
will  make  a  man  an  offender  for  a  word.  They  will  dwell  upon  non- 
essential points  :  they  prefer  the  pleasure-ground  of  art  to  the  entangled 
forests  of  nature,  out  of  which  you  cut  the  navies  of  the  world.  "  These 
are  clouds  without  water."  Some  listen  indifferently  :  they  care  not  what 
is  said,  or  who  says  it :  the  preacher  sheds  his  blood  in  vain  for  them — 
they  see  not  nor  heed  the  living  sacrifice  ;  they  know  not  what  the  pas- 
sion costs.  "  These  are  trees  twice  dead,"  and  will  be  "  plucked  up  by 
the  roots." 

When  I  was  at  Niagara  I  could  not  get  a  drink  of  water  out  of  the 
cascade,  not  because  there  was  so  little  water,  but  because  there  was  so 
much.  It  is  the  worst  place  in  the  world  to  go  for  a  glass  of  water,  is  the 
torrent  of  Niagara  ;  it  will  drown  both  you  and  your  glass  !  If  there 
had  been  less^  I  could  have  got  more.  It  is  even  so  with  some  discourses. 
You  do  not  get  the  benefit  of  them  at  the  time,  but  down  the  river  of  the 
week,  as  far  as  about  Wednesday,  you  can  stoop  and  drink  the  quiet 
stream  ;  the  water  that  was  shattered  into  foam  by  its  infinite  plunge  is 
now  healed  and  calmed  like  a  redeemed  life,  and  a  mile  down  you  may  see 
your  face  reflected  in  the  water  that  was  snow  a  day  since,  silver  foam 
making  rainbows  round  the  rocks — now  it  falls  and  quiets  itself  into  a 
stream  which  makes  glad  the  city  of  your  life.  The  torrents  of  Chalmers 
are  even  now  settling  into  quiet  streams  which  many  people  are  drinking 
with  thankful  gladness.     Even  as  far  down  the  Time-river  as  this,  the 


300  THESE    SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

torrents  of  puritan  eloquence  and  theology  are  only  just  flowing  at  pace 
enough  to  be  caught  and  used  for  the  soul's  drinking.  Wondrous  is  this. 
Jesus  Christ's  speeches  dazed  the  people  at  the  time  ;  they  said,  "  He  is 
mad  ; "  and  now  these  speeches,  having  taken  their  plunge  like  the  Niag- 
ara cascade,  are  streams  that  make  glad  the  city  of  God. 

"  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear."  "If  any  man  have  ears  to 
hear,  let  him  hear."     "Take  heed  how  ye  hear." 

"  Whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine  and  doeth  them,  I  will  liken 
him  unto  a  wise  man."  Have  you  heard  these  things  ?  If  you  say,  "  Yes, 
every  word,"  then  "  Be  ye  DOERS  of  the  word,  and  not  hearers  only.' 


A   GOSPEL    PARABLE. 

Picture  to  yourselves  a  man  of  lofty  stature  and  beaming  countenance, 
one  of  the  noblest  specimens  of  the  human  race — strong,  dignified,  majes- 
tic. Think  of  his  sitting  at  the  door  of  his  dwelling  as  the  summer  sun  is 
glowing  in  the  far  west,  having  around  him  a  group  of  loving  children  who 
delight  to  call  him  father,  and  vie  with  each  other  in  many  playful  attempts 
to  rouse  him  from  an  unusual  fit  of  silence.  They  have  never  feared  him  ; 
his  approach  has  always  added  to  their  joy  ;  they  have  ever  hung  upon 
him  with  undoubting  trust  and  love.  They  had  good  reason  to  do  so. 
Probably  he  had  no  superior  in  the  country  of  which  he  was  the  pride. 
When  strangers  passed  him  they  turned  to  admire  his  towering  stature  and 
kingly  carriage.  Nor  was  there  one  sign  of  repelling  haughtiness  upon  his 
noble  face  ;  at  the  sight  of  a  little  child  it  would  expand  into  a  luminous 
smile,  and  a  tender  concern  would  sadden  it  when  in  presence  of  tottering 
old  age  or  incurable  pain.  It  was  no  act  of  constrained  courtesy  or  pre- 
tentious condescension  on  his  part  to  pick  a  wayside  flower  for  an  unknown 
child,  or  to  guard  infirm  travellers  from  the  dangers  of  the  busy  thorough- 
fare. What  he  did,  he  did  with  charming  naturalness  ;  what  he  said,  he 
said  with  manly  simplicity.  No  honest  man  ever  had  occasion  to  fear 
him  ;  no  unjust  person  could^  feel  quite  easy  in  his  presence.  A  kind  of 
spiritual  sunlight  seemed  to  accompany  him,  which  not  only  caused  his 
own  character  to  stand  out  with  perfect  distinctness,  but  gave  unexpected 
revelations  of  the  character  of  others.  His  domestic  life  was  a  scene  of 
happiness  :  adored  by  the  wife  of  his  youth,  loved  with  all  the  love  of  his 
children's  hearts,  he  was  at  rest  in  his  house,  as  a  man  without  a  suspicion 
or  a  fear,  so  strong  yet  so  tender  ;  so  mighty  to  defend,  so  gentle  to  con- 
sole ;  courtly  enough  for  the  society  of  princes,  simple  enough  for  the 
plainest  of  his  neighbours  ;  his  very  presence  was  an  inspiration  ;  weak 
people  felt  that  his  strength  was  their  own,  young  men  set  him  before  them 
as  their  ideal  of  manhood.  One  look  would  convince  the  observer  that  to 
physical  advantages  of  the  highest  rank  he  added  intellectual  powers  of  no 
mean  order  ;  the  form  of  his  head,  the  steadiness  and  lustre  of  his  pierc- 
ing eye,  the  lines  upon  his  face,  showed  that  he  was  no  stranger  to  careful 
and  exciting  thought.  He  had,  indeed,  long  been  accustomed  to  the  kind  of 
thinking  that  always  brings  suffering  in  its  train  ;  not  cold  speculation, 
but  study  that  troubles  the  heart  with  many  a  bold  assault  upon  its  most 


302  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE, 

valued  trusts.  There  is  a  style  of  so-called  thinking  which  is  merely  a 
mental  amusement,  there  is  also  a  thinking  which  strains  the  heart  to  the 
point  of  agony.  The  rugged  lines  cut  into  that  solemn  yet  glowing  face 
showed  how  much  the  heart  had  been  engaged  in  this  man's  thinking.  In 
many  a  lonely  wandering  in  the  deep  ravine  and  over  the  rocks  which  lay 
within  easy  distance  of  the  splendid  metropolis  in  which  he  resided,  he 
had  watched  as  if  for  an  angel  which  should  tell  him  divine  secrets,  and 
had  prayed  to  be  saved  from  the  delirium  which  comes  of  intellectual 
trespass  upon  the  sacred  provinces  of  God.  Death  had  visited  his  house 
and  twice  turned  the  cradle  into  a  coffin,  and  he  had  not  forgiven  death 
for  that  great  sorrow.  The  problem  of  Providence — the  government 
which  turns  into  a  tormenting  enigma  the  course  of  everyday  affairs — he 
vainly  attempted  to  solve,  for  he  did  but  find  in  every  answer  another  and 
deeper  question.  These  experiences  left  their  mark  upon  him ;  they 
ennobled,  yet  saddened,  the  expression  of  his  countenance,  and  threw  into 
his  voice  a  chastened  and  pathetic  tone.  On  the  evening  referred  to,  he 
had  been  sitting  at  his  door  for  most  of  an  hour  in  a  silence  which  the 
mirth  of  his  little  children  could  not  thoroughly  break  ;  whilst  looking  at 
his  little  ones  he  seemed  to  be  looking  far  beyond  them  ;  in  answering 
their  questions  he  seemed  to  be  listening  to  unseen  interrogators;  and 
when  his  hand  was  put  out  to  them  it  seemed  as  if  an  invisible  power  was 
pulling  it  in  another  direction.  Only  the  sunset  before  he  had  sat  in  the 
same  place,  calm,  and  even  joyful — to-night  he  is  as  one  hovering  on  the 
brink  of  a  troubled  world,  through  whose  shadows  he  can  see  nothing  of 
light. 

I. 

Having  this  morning  sanctified  his  house  by  praise  and  prayer 
addressed  to  the  God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob,  he  proceeded  to 
engage  in  his  customary  work.  Tender  was  his  adieu  to  his  household — 
not,  perhaps,  in  reality  tenderer  than  usual,  certainly  not  intentionally  so, 
yet,  in  the  gloomy  days  which  soon  came  upon  her,  his  wife  recalled  with 
mournful  satisfaction  the  pathos  of  his  farewell.  She  knew  that  he  had 
spent  many  hours  in  painful  and  fruitless  endeavour  to  understand  the 
ways  of  God  amongst  the  children  of  men  ;  and  now  and  then,  with  all  the 
skill  of  that  blessed  love  which  speaks  from  a  distance,  that  softens  its 
tone  to  the  ear  of  pain,  she  had  sought  to  remind  him  of  the  manifold 
practical  blessings  with  which  human  life  had  been  enriched,  and  which 
should  protect  the  mind  from  the  insidious  temptation  which  comes  from 
the  side  of  mystery.  His  recognition  of  these  blessings  was  most  grateful 
and  emphatic ;  yet  he  turned  from  the  light  with  anxious  desire  to  dispel 
every  shadow  which  lingered  on  the  way  of  God.  This  morning  his 
prayer  was  hardly  free  from  implied  reflection  upon  the  government  of  the 


A    PARABLE.  303 

world,  especially  upon  the  permission  of  death  to  destroy  the  life  of  chil- 
dren. Still  there  was  nothing  in  his  tone  to  indicate  an  unusual  state  of 
mind,  or  to  excite  uneasiness  or  apprehension.  The  mystery  of  the  world 
had  been  to  him  so  long  a  burden  that  those  who  knew  him  best  had 
ceased  to  wonder  at  the  melancholy  which  shadowed  his  worship.  On  his 
way  to  the  confines  of  the  city  where  awaited  him  the  engagements  of  this 
particular  day,  a  mighty  wind  suddenly  arose  ;  now  it  wailed  as  if  in  pain, 
and  then  it  roared  as  if  in  defiance  or  triumph  ;  for  a  moment  it 
became  subdued,  and  instantly  it  rushed  in  shattering  shocks,  and  tore  the 
trees  Avhich  clothed  the  deep  ravine  as  if  the  very  spirit  of  vengeance  had 
been  let  loose  upon  them.  No  other  traveller  was  in  sight,  yet  a  Voice 
distinctly  addressed  the  lonely  man. 

"  Bitter,  infinitely  bitter,"  said  the  Voice,  in  a  whisper  which  chilled  him. 
He  paused  :  he  looked,  but  there  was  no  sign  of  a  presence  ;  he  turned 
his  eyes  to  the  cloud  which  had  just  thrown  a  shadow  over  him.  but  no 
figure  gave  it  shape  or  meaning — 

"  Yes,"  continued  the  unearthly  Voice,  drawing,  if  possible,  still  nearer 
the  astounded  man  ;  "  accursed  be  his  power — may  his  throne  fall,  and  his 
sceptre  rot — amen,  amen,"  it  groaned  in  a  stifled  manner. 

The  man,  though  brave  and  fearless  in  all  the  ordinary  relations  of  life, 
was  stricken  with  horror.  Hot  drops  started  from  his  brow,  to  be  followed 
quickly  by  a  chill  which  made  him  shiver.  With  parched  and  reluctant 
lips,  he  could  only  say — 

"  Who— what  ? " 

And  as  he  spake  it  seemed  as  if  heavy  wings  were  softly  flapping  in  the 
now  quieter  wind. 

"  Sitting  there,"  continued  the  ghostly  voice,  in  the  same  sad  tone — 
"  sitting  there  with  his  feet  upon  the  humbled  world,  seeing  men  perish 
and  devils  suffer,  yet  never  spending  a  thought  of  mercy  upon  them  ; 
pleasing  his  vanity  by  making  suns  and  blowing  them  out  ;  keeping  up  a 
treacherous  peace  in  his  stately  halls  by  driving  away  the  noble  angels  that 
ask  a  question  or  suggest  a  doubt.  Oh  !  Oh  !  would  I  could  strike  off 
the  pillars  of  his  proud  throne,  and  bring  him  for  one  hour  into  the  lake 
of  fire." 

The  Voice  seemed  to  be  nearer  still,  speaking  not  only  in  the  ear,  but 
in  the  very  soul.  "  Poor  men — poor  men — praying  to  a  God  who  never 
hears  them." 

The  lonely  listener  was  bound  to  the  spot,  though  anxious  to  move  ;  he 
was  under  a  spell  which  he  had  no  power  to  break — the  Voice  was 
mightier  than  an  arm. 

"  Man,"  said  the  Voice,  with  fuller  emphasis,  "  speak  freely  to  me  and 
thou  shalt  be  safe  ;  I  will  comfort  thee  at  least  with  such  poor  comfort  as 
we  can  have  so  long  as  /le  drops  the  poison  of  his  sovereignty  into  the 


304  THESE    SAYINGS    OF    MINE. 

fountains  of  the  universe — I  will  watch  thee,  I  will  comfort  thee,  I  will 
show  thee  where  alone  thou  canst  have  a  moment's  rest — I  will  lead  thee 
to  a  spot  on  which  he  seldom  deigns  to  look,  and  which  is  therefore  blest ; 
tell  me,  O  man,  though  thou  art  strong  in  body,  hast  thou  not  had  sorrows 
which  darken  and  weaken  the  soul  ?  " 

The  listener  was  dumb  :   self-control  was  utterly  lost. 

"  Yes,"  continued  the  Voice,  "  thy  silence  is  right ;  we  know  thee  well ; 
thou  hast  had  sorrow  upon  sorrow  even  to  the  breaking  of  thy  heart ;  thou 
hast  no  fool's  brain,  yet  often  has  it  been  on  the  point  of  madness  when 
thinking  upon  his  crooked  and  unequal  ways." 

Suddenly  there  was  a  sound  in  the  air  as  of  much  subdued  yet  mocking 
laughter,  and  in  unconsciously  turning  as  if  to  see  whence  the  sound  pro- 
ceeded, the  eye  of  the  traveller  descried  the  dim  outline  of  a  procession 
moving  towards  the  tombs. 

"Again — again — and  every  hour,"  the  Voice  continued;  "see  yonder, 

0  man  ;  knowest  thou  those  who  mourn  ?  knowest  thou  what  they  carry  ? 
It.  is  their  only  child — their  idol — and  he  allowed  the  little  life  to  perish 
whilst  he  was  occupied  in  receiving  the  applauding  hallelujahs  of  a  servile 
host  that  would  slay  him  if  they  could.  We  saw  the  child  die  ;  we  counted 
the  bitter  tears  of  those  who  loved  him  ;  we  pitied  but  could  not  help  the 
sufferers,  and  there  they  now  go  to  lay  on  the  banqueting  table  of  death 
the  very  treasure  of  their  hearts."  And  as  the  Voice  so  said,  the  fiendish 
laughter  was  repeated. 

"  Thou  rememberest,  O  man,  when  thine  own  little  girl  died  ? " 

The  listener  fell  to  the  ground  as  if  smitten  by  an  irresistible  arm. 

"  Thou  dost  ;  thy  love  hath  an  imperishable  memory.     That  same  night 

1  was  near  thee  ;  I  saw  thee  again  and  again  fall  upon  thy  knees  in  a 
secret  chamber,  and  I  heard  thy  sobbing  prayer  to  him  thou  callest  God  ; 
it  was  a  useless  prayer  ;  he  was  making  suns,  and  banishing  angels,  and 
raining  fire  into  the  bottomless  pit,  and  doing  other  mighty  things  that 
better  become  a  God  than  drying  human  tears.  He  could  have  spared  thy 
little  girl  ;  she  might  have  been  with  thee  to-day  "  Again  the  air  was 
shaken  by  a  mocking  sound,  and  the  poor  man  clung  to  the  dust  as  if  in 
fear  he  should  be  borne  away. 

"  And  thy  brightest  boy,  too,  I  remember,  when  he  died  I  was  there  :  I 
saw  thee  smile  at  the  child  to  comfort  him,  when  thy  manly  heart  was 
breaking  with  grief.  I  saw  thee  retire  to  wring  thy  helpless  hands  in  mor- 
tal agony,  and  then  come  back  to  smile  at  the  child.  I  knew  how  much 
that  smile  cost  thee — I  saw  all  the  wonderful  display  of  thine  innocent 
hypocrisy,  and  I  blessed  thee  for  it ;  he,  too,  saw  it,  but  he  came  not  to 
thy  help  ;  he  looked  coldly  down  through  the  courses  of  the  stars,  and 
allowed  thee  to  suffer  on  through  all  the  dreary  hours  ;  he  was  playing 
with  the  lightnings,  he  was  marshalling  the  timid  angels  in  eccentric  order, 


A    PARABLE. 


305 


he  was   showing  his   craven   idolaters  how  grand   a  thing   it  is  to   be   a 
God." 

But  this  time  there  seemed  to  be  a  great  number  of  invisible  presences 
in  the  yet  wailing  though  less  tempestuous  wind.  The  voice  continued  as 
if  its  complaint  would  never  end — 

"  They  who  know  nothing  of  him  call  him  Father  ;  I  say  it  is  a  lie  ;  he 
can  see  men  lose  their  property,  lose  their  children,  lose  their  reason,  and 
spend  their  days  in  drivelling  idiocy  or  raging  madness,  and  never  cease 
his  star-making,  his  angel-taming,  and  his  comet-driving  ;  could  I  pluck 
yonder  key  of  hell  from  his  shining  girdle — "  [here  the  legions  shook  in 
concert  with  helpless  rage  or  rekindled  ambition] — "  O  could  I,  could  I 
escape  that  hateful  eye  that  follows  me  everywhere — did  he  but  sleep  one 
hour  in  a  hundred  years — I  would  steal  upon  him  in  his  slumber  and  he 
should  be  God  no  more, — I  would  sit  upon  his  throne,  and  men  should  be 
blessed,  little  children  should  never  die,  no  orphan  should  be  found  in  all 
the  earth,  for  tears  there  should  be  delight  and  peace — would  that  I  were 
a  God!" 

"  Shall  we  dwell  with  thee,  O  man  ?  "  said  the  Voice  after  a  momentary 
pause  ;  "  we  will  guard  thee  ;  we  will  share  thy  griefs,  and  take  nothing 
from  thy  little  joy  ;  we  will  help  thy  thinking,  and  guide  thee  to  right 
conclusions." 

****** 

Suddenly,  in  the  very  fulness  of  his  strength,  his  countenance  glowing 
with  unnatural  animation,  the  lonely  man  stood  erect,  and  with  frantic 
energy  demanded — 

"  Who  speaks  to  me  of  my  girl  in  heaven,  of  my  dear  boy  with  God  ? " 

But  there  was  no  change  in  the  low,  dull  tone  of  the  Voice.  "  Heaven," 
it  said,  "  there  is  none  for  thy  children,  poor  man,  deluded  by  the  hope 
that  has  mocked  all  ages  ;  they  die,  and  are  as  the  glittering  insects  that 
perish  ;  thou  thinkest  of  them  as  winged  angels  rejoicing  in  the  un- 
clouded light ;  alas  !  thy  thought  is  but  a  dream  ;  thy  children  are  in 
yonder  tombs,  they  are  not  in  heaven." 

"  Lie,  lie,  cruel  lie,"  screamed  the  frantic  man  ;  "  what  I  hear  is  a  lie  ! 
My  Rachel  is  in  heaven  :  my  Benjamin  is  in  heaven  :  they  are  as  angels 
in  God's  house  ! " 

"  Oh,  man  deluded,"  said  the  Voice,  "  I  tell  thee,  tell  thee  sadly,  thou 
livest  in  a  mocking  dream  ;  we  pity  thee,  yet  we  teach  thee  truth  ;  thy 
little  children,  dear  for  ever  to  the  memory  of  thy  love,  are  as  lights  blown 
out :  thou  couldest  not  find  them  in  all  the  chambers  of  his  blazing  crea- 
tion. Hear  us,  O  man,  hear  us,  and  be  wise.  We  know  him  better  than 
he  can  be  known  by  the  creatures  of  yesterday,  who  call  themselves  men. 
Ten  thousand  thousand  years  have  we  watched  him  from  afar  :  he  is  a 
great  God,  making  worlds  that  he  may  crush  them,  creating  hearts  that  he 


306  THESE   SAYINGS   OF    MINE. 

may  break  them,  kindling  fires  that  he  may  torture  all  whom  he  dislike*  . 
we  have  watched  his  ways  through  unnumbered  ages  ;  for  unnumbered 
ages  we  have  shivered  at  his  footstool  as  unwilling  suppliants  ;  for  unnum- 
bered ages  we  have  felt  the  weight  of  his  ponderous  foot;  it  is  only  for  want 
of  equal  strength  that  we  have  so  suffered  ;  our  Spirit  is  yet  untamed,  we 
hate  his  presence,  we  resent  his  rule,  and  though  he  makes  our  hell  intol- 
erable, we  delight  to  curse  him  to  his  face.  Seest  thou  yonder  pool  which 
men  call  a  sea  ?  It  is  but  a  drop,  compared  with  the  mighty  waters  with 
which  we  are  acquainted.  Oh  to  have  seen  what  our  pitying  eyes  have 
beheld  on  those  stormy  deeps — husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children, 
crying  through  the  tempest  that  he  might  come  and  help  them,  and  just  as 
their  thrilling  prayer  reached  the  point  of  agony,  a  thundering  billow  has 
dashed  the  vessel  into  ruin,  and  the  Voice  of  Prayer  was  heard  no  more  ; 
this  is  God — this  is  Father  !  " 

The  wind  ceased,  and  as  it  subsided  another  voice  said — 
"We  will  return  to  thee,  and  comfort  thee  at  the  time  of  the  setting  of 
the  sun." 


Date  Due