The Sermon on the Mount - A Practical Exposition

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Title: The Sermon on the Mount - A Practical Exposition
Author: Gore, Charles
Language: English
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THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

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FIRST EDITION _December, 1896_.
_Reprinted in the same month._
_Reprinted_ _January, 1897_.
_Reprinted_ _March, 1897_.
_Reprinted_ _June, 1897_.
_Reprinted_ _March, 1898_.
_Reprinted_ _December, 1898_.
_Reprinted_ _June, 1900_.
_Reprinted_ _October, 1901_.
_Reprinted_ _October, 1902_.
_Reprinted_ _January, 1905_.

_Edition (6d.) for distribution in paper covers, March, 1904._

_Reprinted_ _October, 1904_.
_Reprinted_ _March, 1906_.
SECOND EDITION (1/-) _June, 1910_.
_Reprinted_ _October, 1911_.
THIRD EDITION (2/6) _March, 1912_.

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION

BY CHARLES GORE, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D.
BISHOP OF OXFORD

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1912

PREFACE TO THE REISSUE OF 1910

IN reissuing this little book in a new form I wish, by way of preface,
to say a few words upon the passages (pp. 72‒78 and Appendix III.,
p. 227) in which I deal with the question of divorce in the Christian
Church. I am not prepared to alter the conclusions there drawn, so
far as they were drawn from the first Gospel, upon which alone I was
commenting. But I should wish to express a different opinion on the
relation of the statements about divorce in the first Gospel to those
given us by St. Mark and St. Luke.

The course of recent criticism seems to make it fairly certain that
we must regard the Gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke as giving us our
Lord’s teaching on this subject in its original form. They are as
follows:

_St. Mark_ x. 11, 12: “And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put
away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her:
and if she herself shall put away her husband, and marry another, she
committeth adultery.”

_St. Luke_ xvi. 18: “Every one that putteth away his wife and marrieth
another, committeth adultery: and he that marrieth one that is put away
from a husband committeth adultery.”

Cp. _1 Cor._ vii. 10, 11: “But unto the married I give charge, yea not
I, but the Lord, That the wife depart not from her husband (but and
if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her
husband); and that the husband leave not his wife.”

Our Lord in these passages is represented as recognizing remarriage
after divorce in no case at all. He treats marriage as strictly
indissoluble. The astonishment of the disciples as expressed even in
the first Gospel (St. Matt. xix. 10: “If the case of the man is so with
his wife, it is not expedient to marry”) seems to require this teaching
to make it intelligible. It would not be intelligible if our Lord
were only reasserting the stricter of two views about divorce already
current among the Jews.[1] On the other hand, it is certain that the
passages in the first Gospel upon which I have commented in the text
of this book do admit an exception to the indissolubility of marriage
in favour at least of the innocent husband in the case of his wife’s
adultery. I must adhere to all that is said in this book in support of
this conclusion; but I now find myself constrained to believe that the
exception as recorded in St. Matthew, though it is an integral part
of our present Gospel, represents a serious modification of our Lord’s
teaching, due probably to Jewish tradition within the Church. The
Jewish Christians seem to have introduced a gloss into their record
of our Lord’s teaching, believing, no doubt, that they were rightly
interpreting His mind; and the gloss is represented in our first Gospel.
The fact that the Christian Church has accepted the first Gospel, and
stamped it with the fullest authority, accounts for the teaching of
the Church on the indissolubility of the marriage tie having been in
certain times and places uncertain. We cannot to-day equitably ignore
the appeal to the first Gospel, even though we do not believe it to
represent on this point the original teaching of our Lord. My practical
conclusions therefore are not different from those set out in this
book, except that I should now be still more decisive than formerly in
resisting any proposal to introduce any exception into the existing law
of the Church in England.

For the substance of this note――so far as it concerns the Gospels――I
would refer to Dr. Plummer’s _Exegetical Commentary on St. Matthew_
(Elliot Stock) and Allen’s _International Critical Commentary on
St. Matthew_ (T. & T. Clark), on Matt. v. 31 ff. and xix. 3 ff. Also
to Dr. Salmon’s _Human Element in the Gospels_ (Murray, 1907), p. 391,
and to a work of Professor Tyson’s entitled _The Teaching of our Lord
as to the Indissolubility of Marriage_ (University Press of Sewanee,
Tennessee, 1909).

C. B.

_Easter, 1910._

PREFACE

There is no plant in the spiritual garden of the Church of England
which at the present moment needs more diligent watering and tending
than the practical, devotional study of Holy Scripture. The extent to
which spiritual sloth, or reaction against Protestant individualism,
or the excuse of critical difficulties is allowed to minister to the
neglect of this most necessary practice, is greatly to be deplored. It
is surprising in how few parts of the Bible critical difficulties, be
they what they may, need be any bar to its practical use.

The present exposition is, I trust, based upon a careful study of the
original text, but it is, as presented, intended simply to assist
ordinary people to meditate on the Sermon on the Mount in the Revised
Version, and to apply its teaching to their own lives. If it proves
useful, I hope, as occasion offers, to follow it up with other similar
expositions of St. Paul’s epistles to the Romans and Ephesians, and the
epistles of St. John.

My original intention was to publish some lectures given in
Westminster Abbey on the Sermon on the Mount in Lent and Easter, 1895.
But the attempt to correct for the press a report of those lectures was
practically abandoned, and the exposition as now printed is a new one.

It is intended to suggest thoughts rather than to develop them, and
to minister to practical reflection rather than to intellectual study;
and I have ventured, in view of this latter aim, to omit almost all
references and discussions such as involve footnotes.

I owe as much gratitude as usual to the Rev. Richard Rackham, my
brother in the Community of the Resurrection, for help in the
correction of proofs.

C. G.

RADLEY,
_All Saints’ Day, 1896_.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAP.
I. THE SERMON

II. THE BEATITUDES IN GENERAL

III. THE BEATITUDES IN DETAIL

IV. THE REVISION OF THE OLD LAW

V. THE REVISION OF THE OLD LAW (_cont._)

VI. THE MOTIVE OF THE CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

VII. THE LORD’S PRAYER

VIII. UNWORLDLINESS

IX. CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS

X. FINAL WARNINGS

APPENDIX
I. THE TEXT OF THE SERMON WITH PARALLEL PASSAGES IN
ST. LUKE’S GOSPEL

II. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR CHRISTIANS

III. THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH WITH REGARD TO DIVORCE

ANALYSIS
OF
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

ST. MATTHEW V‒VII.

_The character of the citizens of the kingdom of God_ v. 3‒12

_The place of this character in the world_ 13‒16

_The relation of this character to the righteousness of 17‒48
the old Covenant_

A relation of continuity 17‒19

A relation of supersession 20‒48

both of the existing standard of its professors 20

and of the original standard of the law 21‒48

the law of murder (Comm. vi) 21‒26

the law of adultery (Comm. vii) 27‒30

the law of divorce 31‒32

the law of perjury (Comm. iii) 33‒37

the law of retaliation 38‒42

the hatred of enemies 43‒48

_The motive of the citizens of the kingdom_ vi. 1‒34

The approval of God, not of man 1

this applied to almsgiving 2‒4

this applied to prayer 5‒6

[further directions about prayer 7‒8

the gift of the pattern prayer 9‒15]

the gift of fasting 16‒18

their consequent unworldliness 19‒24

and freedom from anxiety 25‒34

_Further characteristics of the citizens of the vii. 1‒12
kingdom_

The uncritical temper 1‒5

Reserve in communicating religious privileges 6

Impartial considerateness, based on experience of
the character of God 7‒12

_Final warnings_ vii. 13‒27

The two ways 13‒14

Character the one thing needful 15‒23

Endurance the test 24‒27

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

CHAPTER I

THE SERMON

WHAT is the Sermon on the Mount? It is the moral law of the kingdom
of Christ, or in other words it occupies in the New Testament the
place which in the Old Testament is occupied by the Ten Commandments.
It is thus an excellent example of the relation of the two divine
“testaments,” or rather covenants, to one another. There is a sentence
of St. Augustine’s on this subject which it would be useful for every
one to have constantly in mind. “We do wrong,” he says, “to the Old
Testament if we deny that it comes from the same just and good God
as the New. On the other hand, we do wrong to the New Testament if we
put the Old on a level with it.”[2] This is a general statement of the
relation between the two covenants, and it applies especially to the
moral law. The moral law of the Old Testament, as it is expressed in
the Ten Commandments, was the utterance of the same God who now speaks
to us in the person of Jesus Christ. It reappears here in the Sermon on
the Mount, but deepened and developed. We may say with truth that the
Sermon on the Mount supersedes the Ten Commandments; but it supersedes
them by including them in a greater, deeper, and more positive whole.

This Sermon on the Mount, then, is the moral law of the new kingdom,
the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of the Messiah. We have been used
to think of the Messiah, the Christ, as an isolated figure; but the
Messiah whose advent is expected in the Old Testament is only the
centre of the Messianic kingdom. Round about the king is the kingdom.
The king implies the kingdom as the kingdom implies the king. Thus the
way in which Christ announced His Messiahship was by the phrase “The
kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And now――now that He has gathered round
Him his first disciples――He takes them apart, and there on the mountain
He announces to them the moral law of the new kingdom to which they are
to belong. Thus it is a law not only for individual consciences, but
for a society――a law which, recognized and accepted by the individual
conscience, is to be applied in order to establish a new social order.
It is the law of a kingdom, and a kingdom is a graduated society of
human beings in common subordination to their king.

But observe, what we have here is law――law, not grace. In St. Paul’s
phrase, it is letter, not spirit. When St. Paul says that “the
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life,”[3] he means this――that
an external written commandment (that is, the letter) is capable
of informing our consciences, of telling us what God’s will is, of
bowing us down to the dust with a sense of our inability to fulfil it;
but it is not capable of going further. Thus it “killeth”; it makes
us conscious of our sin, of our powerlessness, but it leaves it for
something else to put life into us to do the thing we ought. That
life-giving power is the Spirit. Thus the law, by informing, kills
us: the Spirit, by empowering, gives us life. Observe, it is a good,
a necessary thing to be thus killed. The perilous state is “to be alive
without the law,”[4] that is, to have an unenlightened conscience and
be living in a false peace. “If the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness.” The first thing is to know what we ought
to do; and the very fact that we feel our powerlessness to do it, makes
us ready to offer the cry, the appeal for divine help.

Again I would ask you to notice a sentence of Augustine’s, which is
full of meaning: “The law was given that men might seek grace; grace
was given that the law might be fulfilled.”[5]

Thus what we have here, in the Sermon on the Mount, is the climax
of law, the completeness of the letter, the letter which killeth;
and because it is so much more searching and thorough than the Ten
Commandments, therefore does it kill all the more effectually. It
makes us all the more conscious of sin; all the more full of the
clamorous demand that God, who asks such things of us, shall give
us also the power to fulfil them. But just as in many departments of
human life “man’s necessity is God’s opportunity,” just as in some
well-constructed drama the very culminating moment of difficulty
suggests the immediate arrival of release, so it is here. The divine
requirement is pressed home with unequalled force upon the conscience,
but it is pressed home not in the form of mere laws of conduct, but (as
we shall see) as a type of character,――not out of the thick darkness by
an inaccessible God, but by the Divine Love manifested in manhood and
pledging His own faithfulness that he who hungers shall be satisfied
and he who asks shall be heard. The hard demand of the letter is here
in the closest possible connexion with the promise of the Spirit.

You will often see it noticed that a resemblance to some of the
precepts in the Sermon on the Mount is to be discovered, not only in
the Old Testament, on which the whole is confessedly based, but in the
sayings of Jewish fathers, or in heathen philosophers and writers, like
Confucius among the Chinese, and Socrates or Plato among the Greeks;
and this has at times distressed Christians jealous of the unique glory
of their religion. Thus they have sometimes sought to account for the
coincidences between “inspired” and “uninspired” authors, or between
the divine and the human speakers, by supposing that even heathen
writers borrowed from the Old Testament. They were forgetting surely
a great truth, a truth of which in the early centuries the minds of
men were full: that Christ is the Word; and it is through fellowship
in the Word, who is also the Reason of God, that all men are rational.
Christ, therefore, is the light which in conscience and reason lightens
every man from end to end of history. Christ has been at work, moving
by His Spirit in the consciousness of man, so that the whole moral
development of mankind, the whole moral education of the human race, is
of one piece from end to end. There moves in it the same Spirit, there
expresses itself the same Word. So that, as we should expect, there
are fragments of the moral truth which in the Sermon on the Mount is
completely delivered, fragments――greater or smaller, we need not now
discuss――to be found among the Chinese, the Japanese, the Greeks, the
Indians, because God left Himself nowhere without witness, the witness
of His Word and Spirit in the hearts of men.[6]

But what we also find to be true is, that the moral law here given
supersedes the moral law as it is found among heathen nations or even
among the Jews, by including it in a greater whole. We may compare the
morality of this Sermon with that expressed by other religious teachers
in several ways.

1. The Sermon on the Mount compared with the summaries of moral
duty belonging to other religions is comprehensive while they are
fragmentary. No moral code can be produced which approaches this in
completeness or depth. There is no other moral code belonging to an
accepted and ancient religion for which any educated European could
even claim finality and completeness. We know what John Stuart Mill,
though not a believer, said about our Lord’s moral teaching. He said
“Not even now would it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a
better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the
concrete, than to endeavour so to live that Jesus Christ would approve
our life.” And Dr. Pusey commented on that by saying “If men would set
this before themselves, there would be fewer unbelievers.”[7] There is
then, I say, no other moral summary belonging to an ancient religion on
behalf of which a man of modern enlightenment could, with a reasonable
chance of being listened to, make the claim that its principles can
never be outgrown or found insufficient for any race of men. This is
to others as the comprehensive to the fragmentary.

2. It is as the pure to the partially corrupt or mixed. Origen, in
commenting on the words of the twelfth Psalm, “the words of the Lord
are pure words, even as the silver which from the earth is tried and
purified seven times in the fire,” contrasts in this respect the sacred
writings of the heathen with those of the Christians. “For though there
are _noble_ words among those who are not Christians, yet they are not
_pure_, because they are mixed up with so much that is false.” Take
for an example the Symposium of Plato. You find in it much that is
most noble about divine love; but you find this noble element mixed
with dross, that is with acquiescence in some of the foulest practices
of Greek life. The same is true of the sacred books of Buddhism. The
Sermon on the Mount, then, is to other moral codes as the pure to the
mixed or partially corrupt.

3. It is as teaching for grown men, who are also free, compared
to teaching for children and slaves. It teaches, not by negative
enactments or by literal enactments at all, but by principles, positive
and weighty principles, embodied in proverbs which must be apprehended
in their inner spirit and reapplied continually anew as circumstances
change.

4. Lastly, it differs from other codes by the authoritative sanction
which is given to the words by the person of the speaker. “He spoke as
one having authority, and not as the scribes.” All the weight of His
mysterious person, all the majesty of His tone, His demeanour, His
authority, go to give sanction to this law which He uttered: and not
only to give it sanction, in the sense of making men feel that they
were dealing with one whose mysterious power it would be better not to
offend: His person gives sanction to His words also by inspiring the
profoundest confidence that He who makes the claim will also provide
strength to correspond with it.

III

I must say one word about a problem which could not by any means be
satisfactorily dealt with in the space now at our disposal.

We know that the critics of the Gospel narratives are in our time
occupied with nothing so much as with the difficult problem of the
relation which the Gospels bear to one another. This problem presents
itself in connexion with our present subject.

The Sermon on the Mount as given in St. Matthew corresponds, though
with many differences, to what you find scattered over a great number
of different chapters in St. Luke――vi. 20‒49, xi. 1‒4, 9‒13, 33‒36,
xii. 22‒31, 58‒59, xiii. 24‒27, xiv. 34‒35, xvi. 13, 17‒18.[8] Now
what are we to say about the relation of these two accounts of the
same teaching? There is a good deal that is most characteristic in
St. Matthew’s sermon which has nothing corresponding to it in the other
evangelist, e.g. the spiritual treatment of the Commandments and of the
typical religious duties of prayer, almsgiving and fasting; but where
they are on the same ground they are often so closely similar that it
is plain they are drawing from the same source. Whether this source was
oral or written is a question we need not now discuss; but what are we
to say of the different treatment of the same material?

It is throughout the method of St. Matthew to collect or group
similar incidents or sayings. Thus he gives us a group of miracles
(ch. viii‒ix), a group of seven parables (ch. xiii), a long
denunciation of the Pharisees which is represented in two different
passages of St. Luke’s Gospel (ch. xxiii), and a great group of
discourses about “the end” of which the same thing may be said
(ch. xxiv). Judging from his general method, then, we should conclude
that in the Sermon on the Mount we have grouped together sayings which
probably were uttered in fact, as St. Luke represents, on different
occasions. For it is St. Luke’s intention throughout to present events
“in order,” and the sayings of Christ each in its proper context.

But it must not be forgotten that a teacher who, like our Lord, teaches
by way of “sentences” or proverbs, is sure to repeat the same truth
in different forms and from different points of view. Those who have
examined Francis Bacon’s note-books and published works tell us how
those weighty sentences of his were written down again and again and
reappear continually in slightly different shapes. So we may suppose
it probable that our Lord frequently repeated similar utterances.

Thus if St. Luke truly represents that our Lord on a certain occasion
consoled His disciples by short and emphatic benedictions pronounced
on the actual poverty in which they lived and the actual persecutions
which they endured――“Blessed are ye poor, blessed are ye that hunger
now, blessed are ye that weep now, blessed are ye when men hate
you”――it does not by any means follow that He did not on another
occasion pronounce, as recorded by St. Matthew, similar benedictions,
more numerous, more general, and more spiritual, beginning with one
not now on certain actually poor men, but on the “poor in spirit”
in general. Thus on another occasion[9] He repeated the saying, “How
hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God,” in
the more spiritual form, “How hard it is for them that trust in riches
to enter into the kingdom of God.” Again, it does not follow that
because He gave the pattern prayer in a shorter form, as recorded
by St. Luke, He should not also have given it in the longer form, as
recorded by St. Matthew.

The collection of our Lord’s discourses which characterizes the
first Gospel is――there is every reason to believe――the work of the
apostle St. Matthew. If so, we need to remember that it was the
work not only of a first-rate witness, but also of one whose memory,
naturally retentive, was quickened by a special gift of the divine
Spirit bestowed on the apostles “to bring to their remembrance all that
Christ had said unto them.”[10]

CHAPTER II

THE BEATITUDES IN GENERAL

“And seeing the multitudes, he went up into the mountain: and
when he had sat down, his disciples came unto him: and he opened
his mouth and taught them, saying,

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

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

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

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for
they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

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

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

Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’
sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when
men shall reproach 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.”

OUR Lord went up into the mountain to get away from the multitudes.
Thither He was followed by His chosen disciples, and it is to them that
the Sermon is uttered. It was spoken to the Church, not to the world;
but as ‘the multitudes’ appear also to have listened[11] to it, we may
say that it was spoken into the ear of the Church and overheard by the
world.

1. It begins with the familiar “Beatitudes.” They are a description
of the character of the citizen of the new kingdom; that is, the
character of the man who, enjoying the freedom of the kingdom of God,
has entered into the inheritance of true blessedness. Observe, we
have a description of a certain character, not of certain acts. Christ
requires us not to do such and such things, but to be such and such
people. And the character which we find here described is beyond all
question nothing else than our Lord’s own character put into words,
the human character of our Lord corresponding always in flawless
perfection with the teaching which He gave. Here are two reasons why
our Lord’s teaching is capable of universal and individual application:
(1) because it is not made up of detailed commandments, but is the
description of a character which, in its principles, can be apprehended
and embodied in all possible circumstances: (2) because it is not only
a description in words but a description set side by side with a living
example.

And we cannot remind ourselves too early that this is the character
by which we shall be finally judged. It is “by this man,” as St. Paul
says, “God will judge the world.” And St. John says “we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is.”[12] The estimate of our worth in
God’s sight depends simply on this, How like are we, or rather, how
like are we becoming to the character of Christ? But of this we shall
have opportunity of speaking later on.

2. The beatitudes describe the blessed life――in other words,
the citizen of the new kingdom is one who can say with Mary “all
generations shall call me blessed.”

The idea of a blessed life had been common. We cannot begin to think
about life without seeing that there are certain conditions which
a man’s life must have if we are to be able to congratulate him on
being alive. What sort of life is worth living? That is a question
thinking men have asked from old days. Gautama and Confucius, Plato
and Aristotle asked it. What sort of life possesses the characteristics
which make it blessed――what sort of life can you congratulate a man,
thoroughly and heartily, upon living?

Now observe a contrast in the answers given. To Gautama, the Buddha,
the existence not merely of selfishness, but of the self, is a
fundamental evil, delusion, and source of misery; and the true
blessedness of painless peace is only to be attained by the emptying
out of all desire, the extinction of all clinging to existence, and so
at last by the extinction of life or personality itself. Thus though
the Buddha’s moral teaching has many beautiful resemblances to that
of our Lord, it has this fundamental difference, that Buddha regarded
personal existence as a delusion and an evil to be got rid of, but
Christ as a supreme truth and good to be at last realized in the vision
of God and the fruition of eternal life. “I came that they may have
life and may have it abundantly.”

Again, Aristotle asked the question, What is the blessed life? and he
came to the conclusion that the life truly worth living was possible
only for very few men. It was impossible for slaves, because they
were the mere tools of other men; or for the diseased, because they
were necessarily miserable; or for paupers, because they had not a
sufficiency of this world’s goods; or for those dying young, because
they had not time enough to realize true blessedness. Observe, I say,
the contrast in all this. Christ lays the blessed life open to all. And
why? Because he takes a man at once up to God: He centres his life on
God: He puts him in full view of God as the goal of life: He bases life
on God as a foundation. Again, as a consequence of this, He calculates
life――as a life lived in God must be calculated――on the scale of
eternity. Grant these two things――that each human life may be based
on God and calculated on the scale of eternity――and you get rid of all
the limitations which made Aristotle declare that neither the slave,
nor the diseased, nor the poor, nor those who die young, can live
the blessed life. Thus our Lord has described the character of true
blessedness as belonging to man as man, to all men if they will have
it, simply by the recognition of their true relation to God. From that
point of view all accidents of life fade away into insignificance. They
give, indeed, its special character to each life, and the conditions of
its probation, but they cannot touch its true blessedness.

We can go one step farther. If you take the latter parts of the
beatitudes, you will find in them a more detailed account of the
blessed life. The end of each beatitude tells us what our Lord meant by
blessedness. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven; they shall be comforted;
they shall inherit the earth; they shall be filled; they shall obtain
mercy; they shall see God; they shall be called sons of God.” All the
last six of these seven expressions may be said simply to expand the
first. They amplify the idea of membership in the kingdom of heaven.
Membership in the kingdom is a life of perfect relationship with
man and nature based on perfect fellowship with God. That is true
blessedness, and that is open to all. Therein is consolation after all
troubles; there is the freedom to move about with a sense of heirship
in God’s world, as in our legitimate heritage and with no fear of being
turned out; there is the satisfaction of all legitimate aspiration;
there is gracious acceptance at all hands; there is the vision of
all truth and beauty and goodness, in God; there is final and full
recognition. That is true blessedness. That is the life which our Lord
promises to every one who will simply put himself in the right relation
to God.

3. There is only one more point that we need notice with regard to
these beatitudes as a whole, and it concerns their order. Our Lord
begins with strong paradoxes: Blessed are the poor――the mourners――the
meek. That is to say in other words, He first describes the true
character by its contrast to the character of the world. We frequently
have occasion to use the expression “the world.” Let me, therefore,
once for all explain what I understand by it when it is used in a bad
sense. It means, of course, not God’s creation as such, which was
pronounced very good. When “the world” is spoken of in a bad sense――the
worldly world――you may define it in this way: it is human society
organizing itself apart from God. That is what in the Bible is meant
by “the world.” Well, the world notoriously clutches at all the gold
it can get. The world avoids all the pain and suffering it possibly
can, avoids it with a calculating selfishness. The world shrinks from
nothing so much as from humiliation, and says “Assert yourself and
your rights as much as you can.” Our Lord then describes the true
blessedness, first of all negatively in the first three beatitudes
by strong and marked contrasts to the character of the world: blessed
are the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are the mourners. Then
He goes on to give its positive characteristics: its strong spiritual
appetite for righteousness; its active and vigorous compassionateness;
its single-mindedness or purity of heart; the deliberate aim it has to
promote the kingdom of peace. Then, in the last beatitude, He answers
the question how is such a character likely to find itself in such a
world; and answers that question in terms very like those employed by
a Jewish writer, possibly not very long before our Lord’s time, the
writer of the Book of Wisdom, who describes the attitude of the world
towards the righteous thus:

“But let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
Because he is of disservice to us
And is contrary to our works,
And upbraideth us with sins against the law,
And layeth to our charge sins against our discipline.
He professeth to have knowledge of God,
And nameth himself servant of the Lord.
He became to us a reproof of our thoughts.
He is grievous unto us even to behold,
Because his life is unlike other men’s,
And his paths are of strange fashion.
We were accounted of him as base metal,
And he abstaineth from our ways as from uncleannesses.
The latter end of the righteous he calleth happy;
And he vaunteth that God is his father.
Let us see if his words be true,
And let us try what shall befall in the ending of his life.
For if the righteous man is God’s son, he will uphold him,
And he will deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries.
With outrage and torture let us put him to the test,
That we may learn his gentleness,
And may prove his patience under wrong.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
For he shall be visited according to his words.

Thus reasoned they, and they were led astray;
For their wickedness blinded them,
And they knew not the mysteries of God,
Neither hoped they for wages of holiness,
Nor did they judge that there is a prize for blameless souls.”[13]

* * * * *

“Blessed are ye when men shall reproach 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.”

CHAPTER III

THE BEATITUDES IN DETAIL

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

THE Old Testament is full of descriptions of the spirit of the world,
the spirit of selfish wealth with its attendant cruelty: and by
contrast to this are descriptions of the oppressed poor who are the
friends of God. Our Lord took up all this language upon His own lips
when, as St. Luke records, He turned to His disciples and said “Blessed
are ye poor ... woe unto you that are rich.” But all the actually
poor are not the disciples of Christ. It is possible to combine the
selfishness and grasping avarice of “the rich” with the condition of
poverty. So our Lord has, as recorded by St. Matthew, gone beneath the
surface and based His kingdom, the character of His citizens, not upon
actual poverty, but upon detachment. The world says “Get all you can,
and keep it.” Christ says, Blessed are those who at least in heart and
will have nothing.

There is one verse in the Old Testament which describes this poverty
of spirit. It is the utterance of Job:[14] “The Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” There is pure,
perfect detachment. Job took and used aright what God gave him, adoring
the sovereignty of God. The sovereign took away what He had given; Job
gave it up freely. Being detached――that is poverty of spirit; at the
least, “having food and covering, let us be therewith content.”[15]

Our Lord says then, Blessed are those who are thus detached;
and of course we look to Him for illustration, for these beatitudes
express His own character. He was detached. The Incarnation was a
self-emptying. He clung not to all the glories of heaven, but “emptied
Himself” and “beggared Himself,” as St. Paul says.[16] Then when He had
been born a man, He set the example of clinging to nothing external.
He abandoned ease, popularity, the favour of the great, even the
sympathy of His friends, even, last and greatest of all, on the cross,
the consolation of the divine presence. Each privilege in turn was
abandoned without a murmur, not, speaking generally, on the ascetic
principle, but because moral obedience to God in fulfilment of His
mission required it. He became utterly naked, poorer than the poorest;
therefore in a supreme sense “His was the kingdom of heaven.” He stood
empty, persecuted, before Pilate, and said “Thou sayest that I am a
king”; and the moral conscience of the world has witnessed that He
spoke truth. So we, like Him, are to be ready to surrender, ready to
give up; and in proportion to this detachment, in proportion as we do
really in will adore the sovereignty of God, and are ready to receive
and to give up according to His will, in that proportion are all the
hindrances removed by which the royalty of His kingdom is prevented
from entering into our hearts and lives. St. Paul’s comment on this
first beatitude lies in his description of the apostles “As having
nothing, and yet possessing all things”; or in his encouragement to
Christians generally “All things are yours.”[17] The wilfulness with
which we cling to supposed “necessaries of life,” “things we cannot do
without”; false claims on life for enjoyments which we should be the
stronger for dispensing with; false ideals of vanity and display――these,
and not our circumstances, are the hindrances to that largeness of
heart and peace and liberty and joy, which have their root only in the
bare and naked relation of the soul to God.

The splendid promise attached to this beatitude brings it into contrast
with an old Jewish saying which has many parallels, “Ever be more and
more lowly in spirit, for the prospect of man is to become the food
of worms.” The motive to humility which our Lord suggests is very
different.

Before we pass on, let us observe how important it is that there
should be at all times those in the Church who are capable, not merely
of poverty in spirit, but voluntarily of poverty in fact. Upon all
men our Lord enjoins detachment. But upon one young man in particular
He enjoined that he should give his possessions away, that he should
sell all that he had and give to the poor. So in the Church there have
been those who in the religious orders have dedicated themselves in
voluntary poverty to the service of God and of man; and the Church
has lost incalculably in ages when there have been none such. Like
all other institutions, the religious orders have been liable to great
abuses: they have been homes very often, not so much of scandalous
vices, as of sloth and corporate greed; but we must not give up the
ideal because there are abuses. There is the command of the Lord to all
to be, like Job, detached; there is the counsel of the Lord to some to
be, in fact, voluntarily poor.

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

These beatitudes follow one another, as St. Chrysostom says, in a
golden chain. Once again our Lord is putting Himself in startling
opposition to one of the favourite maxims of the world. The world says
“Get as much pleasure as you can out of life; suck it in wherever you
can; and hug yourself as close as you can from all that disquiets you
or makes you uncomfortable; in a word, get as much pleasure and avoid
as much pain as by intelligence and forethought you can possibly do.”
In startling opposition to this maxim of the world our Lord puts His
maxim “Blessed are they that mourn.”

What does that mean? Briefly: there are two chief kinds of mourning
into which it is the duty of every true servant of our Lord to
enter――the mourning for sin and the mourning for pain. We must mourn
for sin, for we are sinners. It is possible to hide the fact from
our eyes, to prevent the inconvenient light from coming in upon our
consciences, to suppose that things that are widely tolerated must be
tolerable, that things that are frequently or habitually done must have
something to say for themselves. But the Christian gets into the light;
he lets the light of the divine word go down into his heart; he strives
to see himself first, in the silence of his own soul, as the Lord
sees him. Thus he is brought to repentance, and repentance which is in
regard to the future a “change of purpose,” is with respect to the past
a true mourning: if not emotional sorrow, still profound and heartfelt
regret on account of those things in which we have gone against the
will of God: and “blessed are they that mourn.”

Next to this mourning for sin is the mourning of sympathy with others’
pain. There are moments when a Christian may legitimately, like his
Lord in the garden of Gethsemane, be engrossed in the bearing of “his
own burden.”[18] But in the main a Christian ought, like his Lord, or
like St. Paul, to have his own burden so well in hand, that he is able
to leave the large spaces of his heart for other people to lay their
sorrows upon. “Bear ye one another’s burdens.”[19] Of our Lord it was
said “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases”[20]――not on
the cross simply, but as He moved about in Galilee and Judæa, and the
sad, the sorrowful and the sick came to Him. It is always possible to
use the advantages of a comparatively prosperous position to exempt
ourselves, to screen ourselves off, from the common lot of pain. This
is to shut ourselves off from true fruitfulness and final joy. “Except
a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself
alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit. He that loveth his life,
loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto
life eternal.”[21] “Blessed are they that mourn.”

“He that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend.
Eternity mourns that. ’Tis an ill cure
For life’s worst ills, to have no time to feel them.
Where sorrow’s held intrusive and turn’d out
There wisdom will not enter, nor true power,
Nor aught that dignifies humanity.”

And in proportion to the fullness with which you enter into penitence
for sin and into sympathy for the sufferings of men, you shall get, not
the miserable laughter of forgetfulness, which lasts but for a moment,
but the comfort (or encouragement) of God. “That we may be able to
comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith
we ourselves are comforted of God.”[22] “The sorrow of the world
worketh death,” but “godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation,
not to be repented of.[23]” “Blessed are they that mourn: for they
shall be comforted.”

And here, by way of warning, let me point out that there is a false
as well as a true mourning. It is possible to be discontented with
the world but to lack the courage of faith which makes our discontent
fruitful of reform. It is possible to be discontented with ourselves,
and yet never so simply and humbly make our confession to God our
Father as to get the joy which comes of being forgiven. We are
discontented; but our discontent is pride, not the humility of true
sorrow. It will not be comforted, it will not thankfully take the
divine offer of absolution. The “woman that was a sinner” made no delay
in believing herself forgiven, but set to work at once to show the
love which springs of gratitude in the heart of those who accept their
release. The false sorrow of pride was noticed by one of the leaders of
monasticism in the west――Cassian, who describes and contrasts thus the
true sorrow and the false:[24]

“But that sorrow which ‘worketh repentance unto stable salvation’ is
obedient, approachable, humble, amiable, gentle and patient, inasmuch
as it comes down from the love of God and, inspired with the desire
of perfection, gives itself over unweariedly to all pain of body and
contrition of spirit; and having a happiness of its own and a vitality
which comes from the hope of progress, it keeps all the amiability of
an approachable and patient disposition, possessing in itself all the
fruits of the Holy Spirit which the apostle enumerates. But the false
sorrow is bitter, impatient, hard, full of rancour and fruitless grief,
and penal despair, breaking off and recalling the man whom it has
got into its grasp from industry and salutary sorrow, because it is
irrational, and not only impedes the efficacy of prayers but also
empties out of the soul all those spiritual fruits which the true
sorrow knows how to impart.”

III

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

Still our Lord is explaining the character of the kingdom by contrast
to the ideals of the world. The world says “Stand up for your rights;
make the most of yourself; don’t let any man put upon you.” And so we
are always standing on our dignity, always thinking ourselves insulted
or imposed upon. “Blessed are the meek,” our Lord says. The meek――that
is manifestly, those who are ready to be put upon as far as they
themselves are concerned. This is the character of our Lord, who,
“when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened
not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.”[25]

Of course, from another point of view, we may be quite bound from time
to time to assert ourselves. Our Lord recognizes that, as we shall have
an opportunity of noticing in another connexion. We may have to assert
ourselves for the sake of the moral order of the church and of the
world. But no one gets true peace, or has really got to the foundation
of things, until, as far as his own dignity is concerned, he is in a
position to say, You can wrong God and you can wrong society; and it
may be my duty to stand up for God and for society; but me, as far as
I am concerned, you cannot provoke. That is the ideal to which we have
to attain. That is the meekness which is appropriate to sinners like
ourselves who know what we deserve, who _on a general review of life_
can seldom feel that we are suffering unmerited wrong; but it is the
meekness also of the sinless and righteous one.

And the result of this entire absence of self-assertion is that we can
make no claim on the world which God will not at the last substantiate.
“Blessed are the meek”――our Lord is here quoting the psalm――“for
they shall _inherit_ the earth.”[26] What is an heir? An heir is a
person who enters into rightful possession. He is in no fear that any
other can ever come and turn him out. He moves at ease amongst his
possessions, because the things that he inherits are really his. No one
with a better claim can come to oust him. Now, if we go about the world
making claims on society which God does not authorize, refusing to bear
what God will have us bear, the day will come when the true Master
appears, and we shall be exposed to shame. We have made claims which He
did not authorize; we have asserted ourselves where He gave us no right
or title to assert ourselves; we shall be ousted. But the meek, who
ever committed themselves to Him that judgeth righteously, have nothing
to fear. “Friend, come up higher,” is all that is before them. They
will simply, in steady and royal advance, enter into the full heritage
of that which men kept back from them, but God has in store for them.

“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness:
for they shall be filled.”

In strong, bold outlines our Lord has begun by sketching for us the
character of His citizens in marked contrast to the ideals of the world.
But He is not satisfied with giving us these, as it were, negative
characteristics; He passes on to more positive traits. The citizens
of the new kingdom “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Every one
knows what appetite is, what hunger and thirst mean. It is a strong
craving, a craving which must be satisfied, or we perish. You cannot
forget that you are hungry or thirsty. And in human pursuits we again
and again see what is like hunger and thirst. You see an appetite
for place; a man is bent upon it; he will by whatever means get that
position which his soul desires. So again you see in men’s amusements
a similar craving. Go to the side of the Thames at Putney, and you may
see two crews of eight men practising there for a famous race, their
supporters and backers looking on. All is eagerness, and there is not
the slightest betrayal of consciousness that anything in the world
could be more important than the winning of that race. That is what
may be truly called a hunger and thirst. And such is the appetite
for righteousness which possesses the citizens of our Lord’s kingdom.
Righteousness, or rather _the_ righteousness, that character which God
has marked out for us, the character of Christ――blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after it.

Brethren, we so often feel hopeless about getting over our faults. Let
us hunger and thirst after righteousness, and we shall be filled. As
our Lord saw of the travail of His soul and was satisfied, so, depend
upon it, shall we. If you only seriously want to be good, your progress
may be slow, but at the last you will be good. Christ is pledged to
satisfy, if only you will go on wanting. There is not in the pursuit
of goodness any failure except in ceasing to hunger and thirst――that
is, in ceasing to want, to pray, to try. Do you want righteousness
seriously, deliberately? Then you can have it, and not for yourself
only, but for the world. “Till righteousness turn again unto judgement,
all such as are true in heart shall follow it.” It is pledged to
us. The day will come when the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of
righteousness and meekness and truth, shall be an established and
a visible fact. Blessed are they that here and now hunger and thirst
after righteousness in themselves and in the world: for they shall be
filled.

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

Of course wherever human misery is, there is also human pity. But,
apart from Christ, it was not thought of as a motive force, to be
used in redeeming others’ lives and in enriching our own. The Buddha,
indeed, one of the purest and noblest men who have ever lived, was
first awakened from the dream of luxury, in which he had been brought
up, by the threefold spectacle of human misery――decrepitude, disease
and death. And once awakened, he made his “great renunciation”: he
abandoned his royal state: after much searching, he discovered for
himself, as he thought, the way of emancipation from life and, being
filled with compassion, taught it to others. But he believed life
to be radically an evil. He could imagine no redemption _of_ life but
only escape _from_ it. The philosopher Aristotle, who examined and
catalogued human qualities, could not have failed to come across the
fact of pity. But he seems even to have regarded it as a troublesome
emotion――a disturbing force which had better be got rid of in practical
concerns. The Greek tragedy, which by its marvellous presentations
of the weakness of man was calculated to evoke the sentiment of pity
in great intensity, he regarded as a vent or outlet for the emotion
which in this way could be purged off and leave the Greek citizen in
untroubled serenity in face of actual life. It is to be feared that we
very often use the drama and literature in this way. We let our emotion
of pity be stirred by the pictures of human misfortune presented to
us, and we find a luxury in the indulgence of the emotion. But it
is a luxury, and nothing more. It leads to no effective action for
the removing of the misery which we deplore. This is pagan. For the
disciple of Christ pity is a motive to vigorous action. God in Christ
declares His “power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity.” Powerful
pity is pity which passes from emotion into practical and redemptive
action. Of such pity only does Christ say “Blessed are the merciful or
pitiful.” Compassion which does nothing is in the New Testament[27]
regarded as a form of pernicious hypocrisy.

And the merciful shall obtain mercy. Here we get a great law of the
divine dealing. God deals with us as we deal with our fellow-men. In
the Old Testament[28] it is said “With the merciful thou, God, wilt
show thyself merciful; with the perfect man thou wilt show thyself
perfect; with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the
perverse thou wilt show thyself froward.” And again, in our Lord’s
parable,[29] when the servant who had been let off his debts by his
master was found to deal unmercifully with his fellow-servant who was
indebted to him, the remission was cancelled, and the weight of his old
debt fell back upon him, to teach us that God deals with us as we deal
with our fellow-men. Thus again, in view of the last great day, our
Lord says “Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these my brethren,
come ye blessed, inherit the kingdom.” So in our Lord’s Prayer, we pray
“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against
us.” Do we want to know how our Lord will regard us at the last day?
We can find the answer by considering how our face looks, not in mere
passing emotion, but in its serious and deliberate aspect, towards our
fellow-men. God deals with us then, as we deal with our fellows. Nor
need we confine the principle to God’s dealings with us. The same law
is observable in the treatment we receive at men’s hands. On the whole
we can determine men’s attitude to us by our attitude to them. Almost
all men have their best selves drawn out towards a really compassionate
life. “Perchance for a _good_ man――one who is not only just, but
good――some would even dare to die.”[30] “Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.”

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

If we take part in the kingdom, there must be singleness of purpose.
Purity of heart is, of course, continually taken in its narrower
meaning of absence of sensual defilement and pollution. That is an
important part of purity; and may I say a word about the pursuit of
purity in this narrower sense? A great many people are distressed by
impure temptations, and they very frequently fail to make progress with
them for one reason, namely, that while they are anxious to get rid
of sin in this one respect, they are not trying after goodness as a
whole. Uncleanness of life and heart they dislike. It weighs upon their
conscience and destroys their self-respect. But they have no similar
horror of pride, or irreverence, or uncharity. People very often say
that it is impossible to lead a “pure” life. The Christian minister
is not pledged to deny this, if a man will not try to be religious
all round, to be Christ-like altogether. For the way to get over
uncleanness is, in innumerable cases, not to fight against that only,
but to contend for positive holiness all round, for Christlikeness, for
purity of heart in the sense in which Christ used the expression, in
the sense in which in the 51st Psalm a clean heart is coupled with a
“right spirit”――that is, a will set straight towards God, or simplicity
of purpose. There is an old Latin proverb――“Unless the vessel is clean,
whatever you pour into it turns sour.” It is so with the human will.
Unless the human will is directed straight for God, whatever you put
into the life of religious and moral effort has a root of bitterness
and sourness in it which spoils the whole life. Our Lord means “Blessed
are the single-minded,” for they, though as yet they may be far from
seeing God, though as yet they may not believe a single article of the
Christian Creed, yet at last shall attain the perfect vision; yes, as
surely as God is true, they shall be satisfied in their every capacity
for truth and beauty and goodness; they shall behold God.

Any measure of true spiritual illumination, like that of Job when
the Lord had answered his questionings, may be described as “seeing
God;” and in this sense to see God is a necessary preliminary to
repentance[31] and is requisite for spiritual endurance.[32] But in
its full sense it is incompatible with any remaining dissatisfaction;
it is the final goal of human efforts, the reward of those who
here are content to “walk by faith, not by sight,” and it includes
in perfection――what in a measure all discovery after search
includes――satisfaction for the intellect, and full attainment for
the will, and the ecstasy of the heart, in God as He is.

VII

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of
God.”

Christ is the Prince of Peace. He brings about peace among men,
breaking down all middle walls of partition between classes and
races and individuals, by making them first of all at peace with
God――atonement among men by way of atonement with God. This is the only
secure basis of peace. There are many kinds of false and superficial
peace, which the Prince of Peace only comes to break up. “I came not to
send peace on earth, but a sword.”[33] Peace can never be purchased in
God’s way by the sacrifice of truth. But peace in the truth we, like
our Master, must be for ever pursuing.

Do we habitually remember how it offends our Lord to see divisions
in the Christian Church, nations nominally Christian armed to the
teeth against one another, class against class and individual against
individual in fierce and relentless competition, jealousies among
clergy and church-workers, communicants who forget that the sacrament
of union with Christ is the sacrament of union also with their
fellow-men?

Christians are to be makers of Christ’s peace. Something we can all
do to reconcile individuals, families, classes, churches, nations. The
question is, Are we, as churchmen and citizens, by work and by prayer,
in our private conduct and our public action, doing our utmost with
deliberate, calculated, unsparing effort? If so our benediction is the
highest: it is to be, and to be acknowledged as being, sons of God.

VIII

“Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’
sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

There has now been given the picture of the Christian character in its
wonderful attractiveness――that detachment, that readiness to enter into
the heritage of human pain, that self-suppressing meekness and humility
towards our fellow-men, that strong passion for righteousness, that
effective compassion, that singleness of heart, that striving for peace.
Yet, where it is not welcomed, it stings by its very beauty, it hardens
by its very holiness. Thus there came about the strange result, that
when that character was set in its perfection before men’s eyes in the
person of our Lord, they would not have it. They set upon Him and slew
Him. It is in full view of this consequence of being righteous that our
Lord speaks this last beatitude: and He gives it pointed and particular
application to His disciples.

THE PLACE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER IN THE WORLD.

As soon as ever a man sets himself seriously to aim at this Christian
character, the devil at once puts this thought into his mind――Am I not
aiming at what is too high to be practicable? am I not aiming too high
to do any good? If I am to help men, surely I must be like them? I must
not be so unworldly, if I am to help men in this sort of world. Now our
Lord at once anticipates this kind of argument. He says at once, as it
were, No, you are to help men by being unlike them. You are to help men,
not by offering them a character which they shall feel to be a little
more respectable than their own, but by offering them a character
filled with the love of God. They may mock it for a while; but in the
“day of visitation,” in the day when trouble comes, in the day when
they are thrown back on what lies behind respectability, in the day
when first principles emerge, they will glorify God for the example
you have given them. They will turn to you then, because they will
feel that you have something to show them that will really hold water,
something that is really and eternally worth having.

Thus our Lord at once proceeds to answer the question, How is a
character such as the beatitudes describe, planted in a world such as
this is, to effect good? It is to purify by its own distinctive savour,
it is to be conspicuous by its own splendid truth to its ideal, it is
to arrest attention by its powerful contrast to the world about it.
This is the meaning of the metaphors which follow the beatitudes:

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its
savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for
nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Ye
are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.”

“Ye are the salt of the earth.” Salt is that which keeps things pure
by its emphatic antagonistic savour. “Ye are the light of the world.”
Light is that which burns distinctively in the darkness. “A city that
is set on a hill” is a marked object, arresting attention over a whole
country side.

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savour,
wherewith shall it be salted?” The savour of a Christianity which does
not mean what it says, wherewith can it be salted? How can it recover
its position and influence? Would it not be better never to have been
Christians at all than to be Christians who do not mean what they
say? What is so useless as a hollow profession of religion? “It is
thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot
of men.” “I would thou wert cold or hot. So because thou art lukewarm,
and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth.”[34]
Christians exist in order to make the contrast of their own lives
apparent to the world.

“Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but
on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house.
Even so let your light shine before men, that they may see your
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

We may point the significance of this teaching of our Lord by
contrasting it with that of another great religious teacher. We have
often heard it said that more people are good Mohammedans in Mohammedan
countries than good Christians in Christian countries. That may be
true, and for this reason: Mohammed set before his disciples an ideal
of conduct calculated to commend itself naturally to the people he
had to do with. Supposing no fundamental change of character, no real
transformation, was required of them, he saw that they would be ready
enough to observe religious ceremonies, and to fight, and to abstain
from drink. He fastened on these things. These, he said, are what
God requires of you. And he has won a high measure of success on the
average. Mohammedans have been conspicuous for courage and temperance
and regularity in the transaction of religious forms. But just because
Mohammed was so easily satisfied, his religion has been a religion of
stagnation. He neither aimed at nor effected any regeneration of man.

But our Lord said “Except a man be born again,”――i.e. unless so
fundamental a change take place in him, that it can only be compared to
a fresh birth――“he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And He made it plain
that the working out of this new birth would not be possible without
the sternest self-denial. For this very reason our Lord’s religion
has found fewer _genuine_ adherents than Mohammedanism, but by means
of those who have been genuine adherents it has effected a profound
spiritual renewal even in society as a whole.

No doubt the Church has often seemed to forget her Lord’s method.
There have been times――as at the baptism of the Franks――when the Church
incorporated men in masses, allowing the Christian standard to be
lowered almost indefinitely, in order that a whole race might be called
Christian. So, again, there was a time when Jesuit casuists said (in
effect), if only we can keep people Catholic, making their confessions
and receiving absolution, it shall be done at any cost of accommodation
to existing morals. Once more, the Church of England, in order to
maintain the ideal of “a national Church,” has in result allowed almost
all the power of spiritual discipline, which she should have kept in
her own hand, to be surrendered to a Parliament which is in the loosest
possible relation to Christianity of any kind.

In each of these cases the Church abandoned the method of Christ: she
sacrificed reality to numbers, or genuine discipleship to supposed
political influence, and as a result in each case the salt lost its
savour.

The question remains for us “Wherewith can it be salted?” Is the savour
of true Christianity among us so far gone as to be irrecoverable? We
thankfully answer No. But if we are to make good our denial, we must
set to work to let men understand that, as the Church has a creed which
she cannot let go, and a ministry and sacraments which are committed to
her to exercise and to dispense, so she has a moral standard, which, if
she is not to fall under the curse of barrenness, she must re-erect and
be true to. Only when men have come to understand what the Christian
moral standard is――in marriage and in the home, in commerce and in
politics――and to understand that it can no more be dispensed with than
the creed or the sacraments, is there any prospect of a healthy revival
of church life.

CHAPTER IV

THE REVISION OF THE OLD LAW

THE character of the citizens of the new kingdom as described by our
Lord was so surprising, so paradoxical, that it was inevitable the
question should arise, Was He a revolutionary who had come to upset
and destroy all the old law――was this a revolutionary movement in the
moral and religious world? To this question, then, our Lord directly
addressed Himself. The rest of the first chapter of the Sermon on
the Mount――St. Matthew v. 17 to the end――is simply a statement of the
relation in which this new righteousness, this righteousness of the new
kingdom, stands to the old righteousness of the Mosaic Law.

Our Lord explains that the new law stands in a double relation to
the old. First, it is in direct continuity with what had gone before
(vv. 17‒19); and, secondly (vv. 20‒48), it supersedes it, as the
complete supersedes the incomplete.

(1) The continuity is thus stated:

“Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I
came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you,
Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments,
and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom
of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Here we get the divine principle of action. God does not despair of
what is imperfect because it is imperfect. He views every institution
(or person) not as it is, but as it is becoming; not by the level
of its present attainment, but by the character and direction of
its movement. Everything that is moving in the right direction is
destined in the divine providence to reach its fulfilment. This was
the case pre-eminently with the Old Testament. It was imperfect, but
its tendency was directed aright. As St. Irenæus says “The commandments
are common to the Jews and us: with them they had their beginning
and origin, with us their development and completion.”[35] And
St. Augustine: “The New Testament is latent in the Old, and the Old
Testament is patent in the New.”[36] Here then we have our chief
object-lesson in the method of divine education. If we examine the
matter in detail, we shall see that in the New Testament every element
in the Old Testament finds itself fulfilled.

Is it prophecy, in the sense of prediction? In the Old Testament an
ideal is projected into the future by inspired men, and in Christ and
His kingdom it is realized. Moreover, if you look to the beginning
of the Acts of the Apostles or to St. Matthew’s Gospel, you will see
how full the early Christians were of the sense of this realization,
of the sense that in the Old Testament is a forecast and in the New
a fulfilment. Or is it the ritual law? You study its enactments in
Leviticus; and then you read the Epistle to the Hebrews. You see how,
to the mind of the spiritual Jewish-Christian writer, in the old law
is external symbol and in Christ spiritual realization. Or is it the
moral law? You compare the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament with
our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount or St. James’ Epistle. They stand to one
another as preliminary education to final enlightenment. And in another
sense law altogether is represented by St. Paul as only the training of
slaves or children in preparation for the sonship or manhood which is
reached when the Spirit is given.

Or, once more, is it types of character that are in question? You
know the old difficulty about Jacob and Esau. How can we approve of
Jacob who was so deceitful? How can we disapprove of Esau who was so
generous and impulsive? The answer is a deep and true one. It is that
Esau’s impulsive nature led to nothing; he was “profane”;[37] in fact,
Edom――the race of which Esau is the parent and type――produced nothing,
changed nothing, brought nothing to perfection. Jacob, for all his
mendacity, knew what it was to be in covenant with God, and his race
grew into the likeness of God. Israel led to something.

All the imperfect elements in the Old Testament――and, of course, they
are imperfect――reach fulfilment in the New. They enshrine the will
of God at a certain stage. Therefore they are worthy of respect. They
are to be realized, not violated. And so our Lord goes on to warn His
disciples lest, in the enthusiasm of the new teaching, they should
think that they could best show their zeal by disparaging elements in
the old law under which they had been brought up. For it is always the
case that when people have learned something new, their first impulse
is to show what they have learned by disparaging what they knew before.
Thus our Lord warns them of the low place in His kingdom which they
will hold who exhibit towards even the details of the older teaching
a spirit of destructiveness, and of the high esteem which will be
accorded to the reverent handling of it.

(2) Then our Lord passes to the other side of the question. The old
law was imperfect; the new law is to supersede it. The new law is to
supersede it both as it is represented in the actual standard of its
professors, the scribes and Pharisees (v. 20), and then, more than
that, it is to supersede it even in its actual principles (vv. 21‒48).

First, as regards its professors:

“For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no
wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

It is well known what the scribes and Pharisees represented. They had
left out of consideration the prophetic teaching in the Old Testament
and the prophetic element in the books of Moses――all that made light
of outward observances by contrast with moral holiness or, still more,
as divorced from it. They had made the observance of the ceremonies
“the be-all and the end-all” of religion. Thus their religion was
pre-eminently external and, as such, unprogressive. It was a religion,
again, which with the help of dispensations and evasions could be
practised without much spiritual or moral effort. Hence it ministered
to self-satisfaction and hypocrisy. Thus our Lord continually judges
it, and here He warns His disciples not to suppose that His revision
of the old law is to result in the establishment of an easier religion
than that of scribes and Pharisees. The requirement of obedience will
be deeper and more searching.

But our Lord goes back behind the professors upon the law itself;
and He proceeds in detail to deal with the old moral law, in order to
deepen it into the law of His new kingdom.

There are two points to which I would call attention, which apply to
all these modifications or deepenings of the old law.

First, notice the authority of the teacher. “It was said _to_ them
of old time”――that is by God Himself in the Mosaic Law――Thou shalt not
do this or that; “but I say unto you.” Now this is a new tone, and it
has only one legitimate explanation. All the prophets had said “Thus
saith the Lord”: they had spoken the word of another. Jesus says “I say
unto you,” thus giving one of many indications that He who spoke was
different in kind from all other speakers upon earth; that He was the
fount of the moral law, and could speak as the one supreme legislator
with the voice, with the authority, of God Himself.

Secondly, notice that when our Lord deals with the different
commandments, He deals with them on principles which in each case would
apply to all the others. You could take the distinctive principle which
emerges in His dealing with the law of murder or of adultery, and apply
it to the case of all the other commandments.[38] This is only one
instance which goes to prove that our Lord does not mean to save us
trouble. He teaches in a way which leaves us a great deal to do for
ourselves, and requires of us a great deal of moral thoughtfulness.

THE LAW OF MURDER

“Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt
not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the
judgement: but I say unto you, that every one who is angry with
his brother shall be in danger of the judgement; and whosoever
shall say to his brother, Raca [vain fellow!], shall be in
danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall
be in danger of the hell of fire.”

In explanation of this let us look at the Second Book of the
Chronicles. “And he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced
cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, Consider what
ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord; and he is with you
in the judgement. Now therefore let the fear of the Lord be upon you;
take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God,
nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts. Moreover in Jerusalem did
Jehoshaphat set of the Levites and the priests, and of the heads of
the fathers’ houses of Israel, for the judgement of the Lord, and for
controversies.”[39]

King Jehoshaphat is here said to have appointed a central court in
Jerusalem and local courts in all the towns; and the arrangement was
permanent. The local court or Sanhedrin is apparently what is meant by
“the judgement” in this passage of the Sermon, and the central court
or supreme Sanhedrin is what is meant by “the council.” Now certain
even capital offences could be dealt with by the local courts, but the
gravest only by the central Sanhedrin. Thus there was a gradation of
crimes. Moreover, the Jews believed in an awful penalty after death
for those who had egregiously sinned. Gehenna――that is, the Valley
of Hinnom, close to Jerusalem――was the place where children had been
burnt alive in sacrifice to Moloch; and it had become later a metaphor
for the place of punishment after death. Thus, it appears, the Jews
recognized ordinary offences which came before the local court, special
offences which came before the central court, and an awful penalty
after death for the worst sort of offences.

Now, no offence was brought under the cognizance of the Jewish law at
all which was not a sin in act; the sin of actual murder for instance.
But our Lord raises the whole standard of guilt. He takes no account
of sins of act at all. In the citizens of His new kingdom, sins of
act are, as it were, out of the question. The way He deals with the
law――specifically the law of murder, but in principle all the laws――is,
if we may paraphrase His words, this: Under the new law you are to
think of malicious anger, of anger and malice entertained in your
hearts, as under the old law men were accustomed to think of ordinary
homicide. When this malice of heart expresses itself in the word of
dislike and contempt, that is a graver offence, and shall have attached
to it the same moral guilt as would in the old days have brought a man
before the central court. And the stronger expression of reprobation,
“Thou fool,” is a sin which may bring a man into eternal punishment.
“He is liable (literally) up to the point of the Gehenna of fire.”

Our Lord certainly speaks in metaphor. Because obviously one could not
in fact bring a man under any earthly tribunal for the thoughts of his
heart. But the meaning is plain. Our Lord raises deliberately allowed
sins of thought and feeling to the level previously occupied by
overt acts; and words He counts yet graver sins; and the deliberate
expression of hatred He counts a sin which may destroy the soul.

This is the way in which He deals with the sixth commandment (though it
would apply to all the others). And then He adds a sort of parenthesis
dealing with the duty of _hastening_ to remove any uncharitable
relation in which we may stand towards others.

“If therefore thou art offering thy gift at 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.
Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art with him
in the way; lest haply the adversary deliver thee to the judge,
and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into
prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out
thence, till thou have paid the last farthing.”

Our Lord is speaking to Jews who were accustomed to bring their
offerings into the temple. He says that if one of them, while engaged
in this religious observance, should remember that his brother has
aught against him, he is to leave his gift before the altar and to
go away hastily, as a man who is leaving an unfinished work, and be
reconciled; and then come back and offer his gift. It is to be done
quickly. This is emphasized in a second metaphor. In case of a debt
you would have to act quickly, or the law would be in train and extreme
consequences would follow. So in moral offences go quickly and satisfy;
purge your conscience and get free; suffer no delay; otherwise the
moral consequences will be in train, and the issue inevitable, and
the final result follow.

He speaks to Jews, but he also speaks to Christians. It is the law
of the new kingdom. We have an altar. We have to offer up spiritual
sacrifices, the worship of God in spirit and in truth. Thus in the
course of the first century Jewish Christians apparently applied this
saying of our Lord to the Holy Communion. In _The Doctrine of the
Twelve Apostles_[40] you find: “Let no man who has a dispute with his
fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled [the word in
St. Matt. v. 24], that your sacrifice be not defiled.” Surely we need
to lay to heart this teaching, that we are to _make haste_ to get rid
of whatever hinders our approach to God. We Englishmen are so apt to
pride ourselves on not being hypocrites. It was once said to me, and
the saying has always remained in my mind, that the great need in our
day is to preach against the Pharisaism of the publican! How many say,
“I don’t come to the sacrament: a man who has to knock about and make
his way in the world must do things and put up with things which if one
comes to the sacrament one is supposed to repent of. And if I do not
profess to be impossibly strict, at least I am not a hypocrite.” So he
goes off. “Lord, I thank thee that I am not one of these hypocrites:
I make no religious professions, thank God!” Now this is what I call
the Pharisaism of the publican. Pharisaism is being satisfied with
ourselves. And the Pharisaism of the man who makes no religious
professions is at least as bad as the Pharisaism of the man who abounds
in them. Our Lord does not bid us abstain from coming to the altar if
we are not fit, but He says, See to it that you make yourselves fit;
and that too in a hurry. “Leave there thy gift before the altar,” but
you cannot leave it long. It will be in the way there. There is an
unfinished work which you are engaged in. Make haste to come back and
finish it. If among my readers are some who belong to the Church and
are not communicants, and are satisfied because they are not hypocrites,
I would say to them――do not be satisfied: begin to approach the altar:
commit yourself to it, by telling your wife or husband, or friend or
parish priest, that you hope to receive the Communion, and when; and
then go your ways quickly and remove the moral obstacles which hinder
your doing so; otherwise the moral train will be set in motion, and the
great and inevitable issue come before you know it.

There is one other point which I will ask you to notice――our Lord’s use
in this passage of the word “brother.” In the Bible the term “brother”
is confined to those who belong to the covenant; in the old law to the
Jews, in the new law to the Christians. Our Lord then is here dealing
with the relation of Christian to Christian, who have realized their
brotherhood in the common fatherhood of God. All men are meant for
brotherhood, but our Lord is speaking here to those who are brothers
in fact.

THE LAW OF ADULTERY

“Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
but I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to
lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his
heart.”

We notice that our Lord here brings to light a fresh principle. In
the case of the sixth commandment He notes the sin of allowing even
the feeling of hatred; but he _distinguishes_ the guilt of an allowed
_feeling_, not only from that of an act, but also from that of a word.
But here our Lord _identifies_ with the overt act in guilt even the
desire of the heart when it reaches the point of deliberate _intention_
to sin. The man whom our Lord is here considering must be supposed to
have the deliberate intention to sin; he looks on the woman _in order
to_[41] excite his lust; he is only restrained from action (if it be
so) by lack of opportunity or fear of consequences; in his will and
intention he has already committed the act. Our Lord then says that
to will to sin and deliberately to stimulate sin in oneself has in
His sight all the guilt of sin, even though circumstances may restrain
one from the actual commission of it. This again is a principle which
applies to other commandments besides the seventh.

Then, in view of the difficulty of sexual purity, our Lord goes on to
urge men to take those necessary steps in the way of self-discipline,
which will enable them to be preserved from sin:

“And if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and
cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy
members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell.
And if thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and
cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy
members should perish, and not thy whole body go into hell.”

Here our Lord lays down the important principle of asceticism or
self-discipline, and we should carefully notice some points in His
teaching about it.

1. What our Lord tells us is that a safe life is better than a complete
life. All parts of our nature were made by God. The best thing is that
we should be able to exercise freely all our faculties; but we must be
safe at the centre before we can be free at the circumference. And if
we find that any one of our faculties is so disordered in fact that it
is destroying the roots of our life, we must be remorseless in limiting
ourselves; a limited life is better than a life insecure at the roots.
Whatever exposes us to temptation that is too strong for us must at all
costs be abandoned. Bengel says, with much insight, “How many there are
who have been destroyed by neglecting the mortification of one single
member.”

This principle is easy of application to questions which are
constantly coming up. Is it right to go to the theatre, or to this
or that theatre? Is this or that particular sort of art or literature
legitimate and justifiable? Now to a certain extent these questions
can be answered on general principles. But it does not at all follow,
because on general principles I can justify this or that drama, or
this or that literature, or this or that kind of art, that therefore
it is justified for me. That is quite another question. The question
for me is, what is its effect on me? does it in me stimulate what is
bad? does it put my moral nature to a disadvantage? does it in fact
betray me into sin? If so, I have no right at all to excuse myself from
abstinence on general grounds――unless, indeed, I am one of those people
in whose case conscientiousness has a tendency to become a morbid
scrupulosity. In such cases of mental disease the individual conscience
often needs rectifying by reference to a more healthy common sense. But
these for the moment are not under consideration. The peril which our
Lord has in view is the more usual one of moral carelessness. And His
warning is very solemn. Speaking of course in metaphor, but speaking
metaphor which means something terribly real, He says it is better to
live a maimed life than with all our faculties about us to be destined
to moral death.

2. Here is the distinctive principle of Christian asceticism. If we
go to India, we still find ascetics there whose asceticism is based on
the oriental idea that the body is in itself an evil thing, and that to
be spiritual is to be separated from material things. That is not the
Christian idea. The Christian idea is that the whole of this material
nature, including our bodies, is good in itself and meant to be
consecrated to spiritual uses. We are never to mortify any faculty as
if it were an evil thing to be got rid of. The end of all Christian
self-discipline is that we may have the freedom of our whole nature.
But freedom is only possible where there is rational control. Thus any
sacrifice is worth making sooner than that the lower part of our nature
should lord it over the higher.

Next, as a sequence to this treatment of the seventh commandment, our
Lord deals with the question of divorce.

“It was said also, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him
give her a writing of divorcement; but I say unto you, that
every one that putteth away his wife, saving for the cause of
fornication, maketh her an adulteress: and whosoever shall marry
her when she is put away committeth adultery.”

The Jewish law of divorce is given in Deuteronomy xxiv. 1, 2:

“When a man taketh a wife, and marrieth her, then it shall
be, if she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found
some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of
divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his
house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and
be another man’s wife.”

This, especially as interpreted in Jewish tradition, had given a
great liberty of divorce, which our Lord here abolishes or restrains.
What we may truly call His legislation on this subject is repeated in
St. Matthew xix. 3‒9:

“And there came unto him Pharisees, tempting him, and saying,
Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And
he answered and said, Have ye not read, that he which made them
from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this
cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave
to his wife; and the twain shall become one flesh. So that they
are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why then
did Moses command to give a bill of divorcement, and to put
her away? He saith unto them, Moses for your hardness of heart
suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it
hath not been so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away
his wife, except for fornication, and shall marry another,
committeth adultery: and he that marrieth her when she is put
away committeth adultery.”

Now leaving out of question the clause in both passages in which an
exception seems to be made, we notice, first of all, that our Lord
proclaimed, as a prominent law of His new kingdom, the indissolubility
of marriage. And for us as Christians it is perfectly plain that not
all the parliaments or kings on earth can alter the law of our Lord.
And if any ministers of Christ, or persons claiming to represent the
Church of Christ, ever dare to let the commandment of men, in however
high places, override the law of Christ, they are simply behaving in
a way which brings them under the threat which our Lord so solemnly
uttered: “Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this
adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also shall be ashamed
of him, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy
angels.”[42] Beyond all question, for the Church, and for all who
desire to call themselves Christians, it is absolutely out of the
question to regard those as married who, having been divorced, have
been married again, contrary to the law of Christ, during the lifetime
of their former partner. It is quite true that this indissolubility of
marriage may press hardly upon individuals in exceptional cases. But
so does every law which is for the welfare of mankind in general; and,
press it hardly or softly, the words of our Lord are quite unmistakable.
He who refused to legislate on so many subjects legislated on this, and
the simple question arises whether we prefer the authority of Christ to
any other authority whatever.

But, secondly, our Lord appears in both passages to make an exception,
and the exception would seem to sanction, or, more strictly, not to
prohibit, the re-marriage of an innocent man who has put away his wife
for adultery.

Various attempts have been made to obviate the force of this exception.
But to the present writer they do not commend themselves as at all
satisfactory.[43] Chiefly it is pleaded that the exception does not
appear in St. Luke’s Gospel or in St. Paul’s epistles where marriage
is dealt with. But it is a law of interpretation that a command with a
specific qualification is more precise than a general command without
any specific qualification; and that the one where the qualification
occurs must interpret the other where this qualification does not
occur.[44] We must recognize also that in the undivided Church there
was great difference of opinion on this subject, that in the Eastern
Church at least the re-marriage of the innocent party has been allowed,
and that, though not tolerated in the Western Church or in the canons
of the English Church, the bishops of the Anglican communion assembled
at Lambeth in 1888 have allowed its recognition. Their resolutions are
as follows:――

“1. That, inasmuch as our Lord’s words expressly forbid divorce,
except in the case of fornication or adultery, the Christian
Church cannot recognize divorce in any other than the excepted
case, or give any sanction to the marriage of any person who has
been divorced contrary to this law, during the life of the other
party.

2. That under no circumstances ought the guilty party, in the
case of a divorce for fornication or adultery, to be regarded,
during the lifetime of the innocent party, as a fit recipient of
the blessing of the Church on marriage.

3. That, recognizing the fact that there always has been a
difference of opinion in the Church on the question whether our
Lord meant to forbid marriage to the innocent party in a divorce
for adultery, the Conference recommends that the clergy should
not be instructed to refuse the sacraments or other privileges
of the Church to those who, under civil sanction, are thus
married.”

I have dealt only with the interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel;
not directly with the present duty of English churchmen. But there is
perhaps no matter which threatens so seriously the peace of the Church
of England as this matter of divorce. And I venture to state my own
view of the best way to meet the difficulty.

I have stated above that the unaltered law of the _Church_ of
England――as distinct from the _State_――allows no exception to the
indissolubility of marriage. Those who assent to the interpretation of
the passages in St. Matthew’s Gospel which has just been given, will
recognize that the church law of England might be modified in the sense
of the Lambeth decisions without any disloyalty to Christ. But it has
not been modified, and, as it stands, it ought to control our action.
Moreover in the present state of feeling, in view of our present social
experiences, and of the difficulty of maintaining the distinction
between the innocent and guilty party, it is probably undesirable to
attempt to modify it by canon. The best course, in my judgement, is to
maintain the existing church law by refusing to allow any re-marriage,
even of the innocent party in a divorce for adultery, with the rites or
in the consecrated buildings of the Church. This would still leave it
open for bishops to act upon the third clause of the recommendation
of the Lambeth Conference, and to instruct their clergy to admit to
communion such “innocent parties” as have been re-married under civil
sanction.

THE LAW OF TAKING AN OATH

“Again, ye have heard that it was said to them of old time,
Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord
thine oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by
the heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for
it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the
city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head,
for thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your
speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: and whatsoever is more than these
is of the evil one.”

The third commandment, taken with other passages of the Old
Testament,[45] enjoined upon the Israelite to swear only by the name of
Jehovah; and so swearing, to be diligent to perform his oath. And our
Lord both restores the injunction[46] and deepens it.

What, we ask, is the nature of an oath? It is for a man to put himself
solemnly in God’s presence, and assert that, as surely as God is God,
and as he hopes for His blessing on his life, what he is saying is
the truth. The essence of the oath is the solemnly putting oneself _on
special occasions_ in the presence of God. But is not God everywhere
present? Are we ever out of His presence? Does not everything live
simply with His life and depend on His will? Is there then any meaning
in selecting set occasions to put ourselves in God’s presence, when
God is always present and all that exists exists in Him? It is to this
truth of the omnipresence and omnipotence of God that our Lord calls
men’s attention; and He deals with the Jewish commandment by lifting
all conversation, all use of language, in His new kingdom to the level
which had previously been held by declarations on oath. To the Jew
it had been a great thing to forswear himself, but little or nothing
to speak in ordinary talk what was not true. Our Lord says: God is
everywhere and all words are uttered in His presence; therefore truth
is of universal obligation; your yea is always to be yea, and your
nay, nay.

Not only have we in St. James’ Epistle[47] a repetition of this
injunction of our Lord, when it was much needed, but we have an
instructive comment upon it in the distress which it occasioned
St. Paul to be accused unjustly of prevarication and untruth to his
promise.[48] Truth to his word is to be always and everywhere the
characteristic of a Christian. It is not to be at one time “yea, yea,”
and at another time “nay, nay.” How fundamentally the absence of this
characteristic of mutual trustworthiness can hinder social progress
among Christians is, I fear, apparent at the present day in the case
of those whom (by a limitation of the term equally unfortunate for
those who are included in it, and for those who are not) we call the
working-classes.

In this connexion we may notice three points.

1. The duty of truthfulness comes under the third commandment as
deepened by our Lord. In questions for self-examination on the Ten
Commandments, as interpreted for Christians, one almost always sees the
duty of truthfulness brought under the ninth. But that, in view of our
Lord’s words, is certainly wrong, and is due originally to a tendency
to depreciate the sinfulness of lying, except where wrong appears
to be done by it to the reputation or interests of another. Our Lord
brings untruthfulness of all kinds under the prohibition of the third
commandment simply by deepening its fundamental principle.

2. Though our Lord teaches God’s omnipresence, yet He none the less
recognizes degrees of His presence. We very often hear objections made,
if we allege a special presence of God in the church, or at the altar
in the Holy Communion. Is not God, it is asked, present everywhere?
Yes; “heaven is God’s _throne_; the earth is His _footstool_; Jerusalem
is His _city_.”[49] Just because God’s presence is not physical, but
spiritual, therefore it admits degrees of intensity. God is everywhere
present; but He is present in a special way and for a special purpose
where two or three are gathered together; and, again, in a special way
and for a special purpose in the ordinances of His sacramental grace.
Similarly He is, we may say, more present in rational beings than in
irrational; and in good men more than in bad.

3. We must answer the question――Are all oaths prohibited to the
Christian? is it always wrong for a Christian to go into a court of
justice and be sworn? Our Lord Himself, we notice, consented to be
put on oath by the high priest――“I adjure thee by God,”――and to that
adjuration He answered.[50] And on three or four occasions St. Paul
takes God to witness, and says, in effect, As God is my witness, this
is true. With these precedents, I do not think it is possible to say
a Christian may not take an oath in a court of justice, or difficult
to explain why he may. It is for this reason. When a Christian goes to
take an oath in a court of law he should only go to profess openly that
motive to truthfulness which rules all his speech. Even so, the need
that he should take an oath comes of the habitual neglect of truth in
ordinary conversation: in this sense any taking of an oath “is of the
evil one.” And a man is quite below the Christian standard who thinks
himself bound to truth by his oath, but not by his word in common
speech. What are we to say then of the universally attested fact that
even perjury, or false swearing, is in the law-courts of our Christian
country a quite ordinary occurrence?

CHAPTER V

THE REVISION OF THE OLD LAW (_continued_)

AFTER dealing thus with three of the Ten Commandments our Lord proceeds
to deal with two other prescriptions or ideas of the old covenant. As
He had done to the commandments, He deepens and intensifies them till
they reach that standard which commends itself to His holy and perfect
mind. In both cases our Lord’s treatment of the older moral standard is
both profoundly interesting and at the same time the cause of no little
difficulty and scruple to Christian consciences.

THE LAW OF REVENGE

“Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth: but I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil:
but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
other also. And if any man would go to law with thee, and take
away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall
compel thee to go one mile, go with him twain. Give to him that
asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not
thou away.”

Our Lord is here dealing with one interesting prescription of the old
law. It had definitely allowed revenge up to a certain point, but no
further. It might go to the point of exact reciprocity. So the law in
Exodus xxi. 24, 25 lays it down: “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand
for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe
for stripe.”

1. Here we must remark, first, that the law of the old covenant was in
itself a limitation of human instinct. The savage instinct of revenge
is to rush blindly in, and do as much harm to an enemy as can be done.
The savage satisfies himself to the full; he kills the man that has
done him wrong and his wife and family. Now nothing is more striking
in the old covenant than that it checks barbarous habits and puts them
under restraint. It is so with the habit of animal sacrifice; it is
so in the law of revenge. The Mosaic law stands by, as it were, as a
policeman, and says, An eye? is that the wrong done? Then an eye may
be put out in return; but no more. You must stop there. The point
which needs emphasizing is that the old law worked by way of gradual
limitation, not of sudden abolition. God dealt with men gradually.
Their savage passions are restrained under the Old Testament as a
preparation for the time when they were to be brought under the perfect
discipline of the Son of Man. So now, when the fullness of the time
is come, our Lord lays on this passion of revenge a harder and deeper
prescription, and says in fact to each of His disciples: A wrong aimed
at thee as an individual is, so far as thy feeling goes, simply to be
an occasion for showing complete liberty of spirit and superiority to
all outrage. The Lord requires not moderation in revenge, but complete
self-effacement.

2. Secondly, we may notice that this requirement of self-effacement is
of the nature of an ascetic prescription, as when our Lord said “If thy
right eye offend thee, pluck it out; if thy right hand offend thee, cut
it off.” The necessity for this self-mutilation――cutting off a hand,
plucking out an eye――lay in the fact that these limbs, or faculties,
or functions of our nature had been so utterly misused that before
they could be again used legitimately they must be put under this stern
discipline of effacement.

So with this instinct of revenge. The instinct has in it something that
is right: something of the passion of justice. It is a true instinct
which makes us feel that for wrong done man should suffer wrong. It
is derived from the divine principle of justice. But in our own cases,
where our own interests are concerned, this passion of justice has come
to be so mixed up with selfishness, and with those excessive demands
which spring of selfishness――in a word, it has become so defiled with
sin――that our Lord imposes on it an absolute ban; He says “Vengeance
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.” He takes away from us, as
it were, the right to administer justice in our own case. “The wrath
of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”[51] He requires us as
individuals to acknowledge the law of self-effacement.

3. The requirement which our Lord lays on His disciples is not only
made in words. It was enforced, where the enforcement is most striking,
in our Lord’s example. You watch our Lord in His passion; and when
you look delicately and accurately at the details of the treatment He
received, you observe how almost intolerably hard to bear were many
of His trials. We can hardly conceive what to Him it must have been to
bear the hideous insults and injustices of men. Think for example, to
take a subtle but impressive instance,[52] of those false accusations
brought against Him which had in them the sound of truth. “And there
stood up certain, and bear false witness against him, saying, We heard
him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in
three days I will build another made without hands.”[53] He had said in
fact not that, but something like it. He had said “Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up.”[54] That is, Suppose you destroy,
then I will rebuild. There was a great difference between what He had
said and what He was accused of saying. But you know in what atmosphere
it is that such accusations are brought. The crowd does not consider
details; it listens to the vague sound of the words; it is easily
convinced: “He said something of that sort. If he defends himself, he
has to quibble.” And thus they rush off and put down to the accused man
not what he said, but what he was supposed to have said. Now our Lord
had that delicate instinct of the pastor. He knew there were people
watching Him, and wondering whether He were the true Messiah or no. To
have an accusation brought against Him which sounded as if true, and,
though it was not true, excited such fierce animosity against Him――this
was a profound trial of spirit: and it is only one instance in which
a little imagination, if we bring it to bear, shows us the depth of
what our Lord had to endure not only in the way of insults, but of
injustices. Yet “when he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he
suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth
righteously.”[55]

4. When our own personal feeling has been utterly suppressed, then it
is quite possible that another duty, the duty of justice, the duty of
maintaining the social order, may come into prominence again. Thus our
Lord is in another passage[56] recorded to have said something that may
appear at first sight plainly contradictory to what He says here. “If
thy brother sin against thee”――are you simply to take no notice of it?
No. You are to “shew him his fault between thee and him alone: if he
hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take
with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three
every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it
unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be
unto thee as the Gentile and the publican.”

Here it is obvious our Lord is enjoining not an extreme measure of
personal meekness, but an extreme insistence on social justice. And
He Himself made a certain claim on justice in His trial: “And when he
had said this, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his
hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? Jesus answered him,
If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why
smitest thou me?”[57] So St. Paul, in the Acts of the Apostles, claims
justice: “I am standing before Cæsar’s judgement-seat, where I ought
to be judged: to the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou also very well
knowest. If then I am a wrong-doer, and have committed anything worthy
of death, I refuse not to die: but if none of those things is true,
whereof these accuse me, no man can give me up unto them. I appeal unto
Cæsar.”[58]

We observe therefore two opposite duties. There is the clear duty, so
far as mere personal feeling goes, of simple self-effacement. Only then,
when we have got our own wills thoroughly subordinated to God’s will,
when all the wild instinct of revenge is subdued, are we in a position
to consider the other duty and to ask ourselves what the maintenance of
the moral order of society may require of us.

This particular point gives us an opportunity to consider generally
our Lord’s method in teaching. We have been brought up against one
conspicuous instance in which our Lord appears to contradict Himself;
and the explanation of this lies in His method. At times we must notice
His method was metaphorical. When we were considering what He says
about asceticism, for example, we saw that the instances given were
plainly metaphorical. “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast
it from thee.” That is a metaphor for violently putting under restraint
any faculty which has been misused.

But here His instances are not metaphorical. They are such as
quite admit of actual and literal application. They are, however,
_proverbial_. You may notice in the proverbs of all nations that
they easily admit of appearing to be contradictory and yet of being
perfectly intelligible in the guidance they give us. One day you
will hear a man condemned as “penny wise and pound foolish”; another
day it is “take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of
themselves.” One day it is “look before you leap”; another “nothing
venture, nothing have.” The suggestions involved in these pairs of
proverbs are contradictory. The important matter according to the
one is to be careful about large sums, according to the other to be
careful about small sums: according to one to think before you act,
according to the other to be ready to run a risk. But each gives
what is obviously the right guidance to certain characters in certain
situations, and gives it after the manner of proverbs. A proverb
embodies a principle of common, but not universal, application in
an absolute and extreme form. Another proverb may embody another
principle in a similar form. And thus expressed they may easily appear
contradictory, and both alike impracticable, if taken literally,
because all the qualifying circumstances are left out.

Our Lord then teaches by proverbs. In emphasizing one principle He
expresses it as an absolute direction in an extreme instance: “If a
man will take thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.” In emphasizing
another principle He expresses it in a similar form: “If thy brother
trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault” and follow the matter
up to its extreme consequences.

And every one must recognize that the right application of each proverb
depends on the question, What is the particular principle which at a
particular moment is to be brought into play? No proverb could be ever
taken as a rule for constant action, but only as a type of action when
a particular principle is to be expressed.

Now we may take the injunctions which our Lord gives, and ask ourselves
how we can apply these particular proverbs to-day.

“But I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil: but whosoever
smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

The actual words need of course no explanation. But can we see how
we are to apply the precept? would it “do” to obey it exactly and
literally? Well, there are occasions when it might be obeyed, if not
literally――because people may seldom, or perhaps never, smite us on the
right cheek――yet nearly literally; occasions when nothing is concerned
but our own instinct of revenge or our own pride, and we had better
simply take meekly some insult or wrong, and make no effort to defend
ourselves.

For example: there is a nasty thing said about you in the newspaper or
a nasty thing whispered about you in the circle where you move, and you
know quite well who has put it into the newspaper or given it currency.
You cannot be mistaken; there is evidence; only one person could
have done it. And the statement made is really untrue. No one can be
subjected to that kind of wrong, without being brought face to face
with the question whether he intends to be a thorough-going Christian.
For there is no doubt what we ought to do. We ought not to be content
till we have utterly crushed out of ourselves the least desire, as far
as our own personal feeling is concerned, to take any kind of revenge
whatever. We are to efface ourselves utterly, we are to turn the other
cheek. That means, of course, that we decline to show in any way that
we know who has done the wrong, and that we are at pains to look out
for an opportunity of kindness to the person who has wronged us. That
would be not a literal but a practical application of the principle,
and there are numerous occasions in any man’s life when it is right
to act thus, and any other course of conduct at all is more or less
morally wrong, because no social duty compels us to assert our just
cause.

The next injunction is:

“And if any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy
coat, let him have thy cloke also.”

There again, it is quite plain what is meant. It is to refuse to
resist legal injustice. Very often it can and ought to be literally
obeyed. “Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you, that ye have
lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be
defrauded?”[59] But there are also instances in which to act literally
on this precept would be, in any sober judgement, doing a great wrong
to society and to the man who is himself the wrong doer. But the
question is, am I able to look at the matter from that point of view?
The difficulty to almost all of us is to get into such a state of mind
that we can honestly say, As far as my own will goes, I am ready to
suffer this and more; and not to let the question of legal proceedings
come into our minds at all till we are sure that our motive is the
general interest of society and of the wrong doer.

Then, once more:

“And whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him
twain.”

There was a public transport service which passed from the Persian
into later empires. Our Lord then says “When any public officer presses
thee into the transport service for a certain way, be prepared to take
double the impost.” That is――do not resent public claims upon you, bear
the public burdens, and be willing that, as far as you are concerned,
they should be double what they are. But how we dislike the rates and
taxes! How few there are who take a Christian view of paying them, and
are glad, up to their means, to accept the burden which membership in
this great nation lays upon them. Something more is our duty than to
make barely honest returns for an income tax.

“Give to him that asketh thee,” and (in St. Luke) “of him that
taketh away thy goods ask them not again.”

Probably most of us know the old sculpture on the back of the screen
behind the high altar in our abbey of Westminster. It is one of those
in which are represented the traditions about our (almost) patron saint,
Edward the Confessor. The king is resting after the labours of the day,
and Hugolin, his chamberlain, has brought out the chest of money to pay
his various retainers. But he leaves it open while he is out of the way;
a scullion comes in, and thinking the king is asleep, twice he carries
off treasure out of the chest. While he is enriching himself the third
time, the king, who has seen all, quietly observes: “Fly, fellow, as
quickly as you can, for Hugolin is coming back, and he will not leave
you so much as a half-penny.” Hugolin does come, and, finding out what
has occurred, questions the king. The king however will not disclose
who has taken the treasure: “He needed it more than we; Edward has
surely enough treasure. As Jesus Christ teaches us, worldly property
ought to be common to all those who have need of it.”[60]

We need not doubt that occasions still occur when even fantastic
acts of generosity, such as this, are the things needed to make an
impression on hardened or embittered or careless hearts. Every one
knows Victor Hugo’s story of the bishop and the convict in _Les
Miserables_, and no doubt it represents realities in life and
experience.

On the whole, however, it is seldom that it would be right to let the
thief have his own way. But it is always right to deal very mercifully
with first offences and to take trouble to give the offenders a clear
fresh chance. And even if the law is let to take its course with a
criminal, yet kindness to him while he is suffering his sentence and
after it――kindness which does not shrink from taking a great deal of
trouble――can produce the same moral impression as a literal application
of the divine proverb like King Edward’s.

“Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of
thee, turn not thou away.”

What are we to say to the beggar, of whatever grade? Now, first of
all, there are a great many cases where help is needed, and “asked
for” therefore, whether by a spoken or an unspoken appeal, by people of
whom we know the character and circumstances antecedently. Misfortunes
happen to people who are such as can profitably be helped, that is,
such as when they are helped in a temporary difficulty will be enabled
to resume the normal course of a self-helping life: or such as will
need permanent help indeed, as they are permanently incapacitated, but
have the will and character to work. Or there are cases where help can
be given to educate a young man or woman for the priesthood or some
other honourable career. There are in fact no lack of cases in which
we can with the greatest profit help individuals, and that largely and
generously, to say nothing of innumerable societies and institutions
which need and ask, but find few to give regularly and bountifully.
This sort of regular generosity costs us much more than giving coppers
to beggars or shillings to applicants by post. “Let thine alms sweat
into thine hand, until thou knowest to whom thou shouldest give,” was
the advice given in a very early Christian community.[61]

Next, let us take notice that we can “make inquiries.” People shrink
from this because it takes trouble and implies methodical principles.
But there is no equally secure means of sifting out cases of honest
need from those of professional begging. The “professionals” will not
come near a house where it is known that inquiries are made. And the
fact that we take kindly trouble about them, should appeal to what is
good in any man’s conscience.

But as to indiscriminate charity? It has been encouraged very often
by the teachers of Christianity.[62] But if a tree is known by its
fruits, the system is all condemned. It is in fact an indulgence of our
feelings of compassion, with little trouble to ourselves, and at the
expense of society. To give indeed to any beggar the plainest broken
food may do no harm. But it is very seldom welcomed. Again we can do
something to indicate friendly, kindly feeling towards an applicant,
if we take pains. Perhaps, for instance, we can get a boy-beggar on to
a training ship. At least, so far as we can, let us not resent taking
trouble about people who have no “special claim” on us. And when our
Christian judgement can approve it, let us not resent expense. Let our
whole conduct make it evident that we welcome and do not resent claims
either on our purse, or on our heart, or on our intelligence. But our
intelligence must be brought to bear upon our charity as well as our
heart. To illustrate how this is forgotten I will only repeat a story
of the saintly William Law. He seems to have distributed as much as
£2,500 a year, chiefly in doles to applicants who came into his back
yard; he succeeded in getting rid of his money, and in demoralizing the
neighbourhood.[63] But it is plainly not our Lord’s will that we should
do manifest harm.

Indiscriminate charity is not enjoined, but a self-sacrificing
generosity is. And it would be well if every Christian who is wealthy
or “comfortably-off” would, before passing on from this passage, kneel
upon his knees as in God’s presence and ask himself if he is making a
serious attempt to accept loyally the claim upon his time and money
which his Lord makes on behalf of those who want.

THE TREATMENT OF ENEMIES

“Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour,
and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and
pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your
Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the
evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.
For if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye? do not
even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only,
what do ye more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same?
Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.”

The exact expression, “Thou shalt hate thine enemy,” nowhere occurs in
the Mosaic law; and there are, both in the law and elsewhere in the Old
Testament, passages which come nearer to the Christian standard.[64]
But on the whole we must accept Dr. Mozley’s conclusion:[65] “The whole
precept as it stands undoubtedly represents, and is a summary of, the
sense of the law”: nor can “the enemy” be regarded as meaning _only_
the enemies of Israel. Thus many Christian consciences are distressed
while psalms are being sung in our services which contain imprecations
upon enemies, such as the 109th. Some modern critics assure us that
these psalms express no individual feelings towards personal enemies,
but the feeling of righteous Israel towards the enemies of the Lord. It
may be doubted whether this is altogether the case. And even if it is
so, the psalms still fall short of the Christian standard both of hope
for the conversion of enemies and of love toward them in any case. No
doubt, if we take the Righteous One who speaks in them to be Christ,
we can find in them the divine principles of judgement; and so they are
interpreted in the New Testament. Still in their mode of expression,
and in the temper which they historically represent, they fall short
of the Christian standard. And this ought not to surprise us. The whole
Old Testament is on right lines of divine development: but it has not
reached the goal, which is Christ. “It was said to them of old ... but
I say unto you.”

Our Lord, in deepening and widening the Old Testament law of love,
inculcates kindliness in disposition, in word, in act. In disposition,
we are to “love our enemies.” Not of course that we can feel alike
towards all people; but we can set our will, or what the Bible calls
our heart, to do them good. And if we dispose ourselves aright towards
others, we shall probably end by feeling aright, though that can never
be a matter of commandment. And we are to show our disposition towards
them by kindly salutations, or the ordinary words which express human
goodwill, and by deeds, both earnest prayer for them and acts which
imitate the impartial beneficence of our Father in heaven.

Nothing is said about the effect which such kindness to professed
enemies may have. But there is no question that if we treat people as
if they were permanently and necessarily what they are at the moment,
we fix or do our best to fix them in their present condition. To make
people better, we must believe that God intends them to be better and
treat them as if we believed them in fact to be better than they are.
The clever barrister, Sidney Carton, in Dickens’ _Tale of Two Cities_,
who had been his own enemy, who had fallen from bad to worse, who had
ceased to believe in himself as his friends also had ceased to believe
in him, was recovered by a good and merciful woman who refused to
take him at the general estimate and would not give him up――recovered,
after many relapses, to the point of a final act of heroism by which
he lost his own life to save his true friend’s husband. So if we refuse
to treat people as our enemies, we have the best possible chance of
winning them to be our friends. God has redeemed men by treating them,
not as they are, but as they are capable of becoming.

Our Lord calls our attention to the fact that He is requiring such
conduct of us as only a supernatural motive, the motive of fellowship
with God, can account for. This is a consideration which we can apply
to other parts of Christian duty――for instance, to the obligation of
purity. But our Lord here applies it to kindliness. “You are kind to
your friends. Are not the publicans the same?” The publicans proper
were capitalists who “farmed” the Roman taxes, undertaking to hand over
a certain sum for a certain district and then getting as much as they
could out of the inhabitants. But the name was also applied to their
subordinates, the custom-house officers, as in the New Testament. These
were held in special odium by their countrymen and generally justified
a character for rapacity. But even such men are kind to their friends.
It requires no other motive than human convenience, the most ordinary
social virtue. But what our Lord asks of us is something which requires
the supernatural or divine motive to account for it. Here then we have
a serious question. Consider your actions, your ordinary dealings with
others. Are they such as can be accounted for by convenience and social
requirement, or does your conduct require the divine motive, the motive
of fellowship with God, to explain it and to make it possible? It is
only this latter sort of conduct that makes it――so to speak――worth
while that Jesus Christ should have come down from heaven and
sacrificed Himself for you. Are you walking worthily of the vocation
wherewith ye are called? For your principle of conduct is to be nothing
less than a real striving after the perfection of God, which is indeed
the character of Christ.

“Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.”

Yet we must not despair. We have Christ’s Spirit working within us to
make us like Christ: and if only we have the right ideal in front of us
and are moving however slowly towards it, or even constantly recurring
to the pursuit of it, we shall be perfected at last. We have eternity
before us to grow in――not a year or two, or a life-time, but eternity.
And in our best moments we do really recognize that what is most worth
having in the world is the character of Christ. Only in proportion as
we feel the magnitude of what is asked of us, let us throw ourselves
upon the divine readiness to give strength and wisdom according to our
needs. Let us pray with Augustine “Give what Thou commandest and then
command what Thou willest.”

CHAPTER VI

THE MOTIVE OF THE CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

WHEN we were considering the way in which our Lord deepens the law of
love, while abrogating the law of revenge, we were obliged to notice
that what He gives us is not literal enactments, but rather principles
or motives for action. He expresses Himself indeed proverbially, in
the form of particular injunctions or prohibitions. But the proverbial
nature of these directions is apparent, in part because they are
sometimes mutually contradictory; and they must be taken, like
proverbs generally, as embodying in extreme concrete instances general
principles or motives for action.

We may truly say that the Sermon on the Mount gives us a social law for
Christians. That is true in this sense: the Sermon on the Mount gives
us principles of action which every Christian must apply and re-apply
in his social conduct. But just because it embodies motives and
principles and does not give legal enactments, it must appeal in the
first instance to the individual, to his heart and conscience; and it
is only as the character thus formed must set itself to remodel social
life on a fresh basis, that the Sermon on the Mount can become a social
law for Christians. You cannot take any one of its prescriptions,
and apply it as a social law at once. You cannot take the maxim “If
a man smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also,” or
“If a man take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also,” and make
it obligatory on Christians as a rule of external conduct, without
upsetting the whole basis of society and without ignoring a contrary
maxim which our Lord gives us in another connexion.

But each of the maxims can be taken to the heart and conscience of
the individual, to become a principle of each man’s own character
and conduct, and then to reappear, retranslated into social action,
according to the wisdom of the time or the wisdom of the man or the
wisdom of the Church.

This truth――that our Lord is giving us principles, not laws――will
appear only more conspicuously now, when we pass to the next great
section of the Sermon; because it will be obvious that our Lord
can only be dealing with motives of action――motives such as belong
to the secret heart of the individual. He proceeds to inculcate
the abandonment of a worldly temper by prohibiting, literally, such
religious actions as other men can see. But His own example, His own
institution of a corporate religion, His special promises to common
worship, His countermaxim “Let your light so shine before men, that
they may see your good works,” force us to recognize the proverbial
character of these prohibitions, and to look for the principle rather
than the law.

And indeed this sixth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel has one
subject throughout. It teaches us one great principle――that the new
righteousness, the righteousness of the citizens of the kingdom, looks
throughout towards God. God is its motive, God is its aim, God is its
object; God, and nothing lower than God. No man is truly a citizen who
is not in all his conduct and life looking directly God-ward.

We will attend first to verses 1‒18, omitting the positive directions
about prayer. Their theme does not vary: The Christian righteousness,
in all its departments, looks for divine praise; never for human
praise. Our Lord lays this down first of righteousness generally, then
of its different branches. Thus, in the first place, of righteousness
generally:

“Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be
seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father which is
in heaven.”

We may observe here, once for all, that our Lord in no way disparages
the seeking a reward, only the seeking it in a wrong place. There are
“altruists” who regard the seeking of even an eternal reward from God
as ignoble; they would find the true religious motive only in such
an utterance as that of St. Francis Xavier, “My God, I love Thee, not
because I hope for heaven thereby,” and would recall the mediæval story
of the man who would quench with water the flames of hell and burn
up with fire the joys of heaven, that men might seek God for His own
sake. But indeed these philosophers ignore indestructible and necessary
instincts in human nature. We cannot separate love for God from a
desire to find our own happiness in God. This is inseparable from
personality. We must crave for ultimate satisfaction, recognition,
approval. The point is that we should seek it in the right place, that
is from God. For coming from Him it can never involve any spoiling
of our own capacity for usefulness to others, or narrowing of our
own selves. Thus there is a true self-love: and a true self-love
seeks satisfaction in the fellowship of God in the eternal world. If
“other-worldliness” or the seeking of the divine reward has done harm
in religion, that is because the character of the God whom we seek,
as revealed in the character and teaching of Jesus Christ, has not
been attended to. Granted that we seek God as He is, there can be no
possible peril of our undervaluing this world or the bodies of men,
nor of our tolerating selfishness in religion. He that said “What is
a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own life
(soul)?” said also, “He that saveth his life (soul) shall lose it.”

Then our Lord applies the general principle of seeking only God’s
approval to the three great branches of human conduct. Christian, and
indeed human conduct generally, looks in three directions. There is a
duty to God, there is a duty to one’s neighbour, and there is a duty
to one’s self. And each of these great departments of human conduct has
one typical form of action, one form of action in which it specially
expresses itself. Our duty to God expresses itself particularly
in prayer. Our duty to man expresses itself in works of mercy, or
alms. Our duty towards ourselves expresses itself in self-subdual,
self-mastery――that is, fasting. And so our Lord applies the general
principle to each of these typical duties. In your prayers, in your
alms, in your fastings――in each case you are to look to nothing lower
than the praise of God.

And, before we study these passages, let me ask you to notice how
simply our Lord does always regard human life as bound to move in these
three directions. There is our duty to God. That He puts first, not
to be merged in our duty to our neighbour. There is our personal duty
to God as a person, and it is the first and chief commandment to love
the Lord our God. Then there is our duty towards our neighbour; and
then, also, there is our duty towards ourselves. “Thou shalt love thy
neighbour――as thyself!” Our duty towards ourselves is, in a word, to
make the best of ourselves. Each one is an instrument, divinely created
by God, with that sum total of faculties which the Bible calls his
life or soul. Well, he is to make the best of himself. Considered as
a spiritual being, capable of right spiritual activity, each man is
to love himself and his neighbour and God; himself, by bringing his
whole being into good order and efficiency, which cannot be without
fasting or the subdual of the flesh to the spirit: his neighbour, by
considering his true interests like his own, which cannot be without
almsgiving or actual gifts out of his substance to supply the other’s
needs: and God, which cannot be unless he deal with Him as a person by
way of actual personal requests in prayer. And in each direction he is
to seek only the praise of God.

ALMSGIVING

“When therefore thou doest alms, sound not 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
received their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy
left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be
in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense
thee.”

Our Lord is clearly using a metaphor. We cannot suppose that the Jews,
when they went to give alms, caused their own trumpet to be blown in
a literal sense; and in the same way, when our Lord speaks of the left
hand not knowing what the right hand doeth, it is clearly a metaphor;
but a metaphor vividly descriptive. For what our Lord is here
forbidding is obviously ostentation in doing good.

Here is a matter upon which it is for each man to examine himself. We
are to find out what our _motive_ is. We are not to be troubled because,
when we are trying to do good, there comes across us the temptation to
think that people are looking at us. We shall often be tempted in this
way: but the point is, what is our motive? We can find that out. When
people are not looking at us, do we stop doing the good action? When we
cannot be seen, do we omit it? If not, let us not be worried because we
may be tempted with thoughts of vainglory. You know what an old saint
said to Satan: “Not for thy sake did I begin this; and not for thy sake
shall I leave it off.” But on the other hand, if you give a half-crown
in a collection when there is a plate, and a penny when there is a bag
and your gift cannot be seen; or if you put yourself down for a larger
sum in a subscription list in order to be brought into association with
a duchess, then you have the gravest possible reason to doubt your
motive.

And let me add this: there are many charitable people who desire to
collect money for good objects; let them take care that in order to do
so they do not encourage people in bad motives. If they play upon bad
motives to get money, assuredly they are partakers of other men’s sins:
and the money is not to the glory of God or for the good of His work.

PRAYER

“And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites: for they
love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of
the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you,
They have received their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray
to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in
secret shall recompense thee.”

The same principle of seeking only divine praise is here applied to
our approach to God. It seems to require no further notice, but we
may consider here a subordinate principle which is applied also to
almsgiving and fasting――the principle of recompense――“they have their
reward.”

Every kind of conduct gets its reward on the plane of its motive. If
you look out for human praise, on the whole you get it. If you aim
vigorously at getting on and winning a good position, the chances are
you will succeed. On the whole, then, you get the reward on the plane
of your motive. And our Lord recognizes these lower motives and their
proper reward; and you find that in the Old Testament, in many passages,
God is represented as being, as it were, careful to distribute rewards
on the lower plane. See, for instance, how (in Ezek. xxix. 18‒20) God
notes that Nebuchadnezzar’s army served against Tyre and got no wages;
therefore He will give Egypt for their wages.

So then if your motive is earthly, your reward is earthly. You “have
out” your reward to the full, and must not imagine there is anything
over and above which still appeals to God. When John Henry Newman
was made a Cardinal, he――a devout, religious man, one of those who
apparently without vanity have the power of talking about their own
state of feeling――said he trembled to take this great honour, lest
he should be taking out his reward here on earth; because he could
not think that anything he had tried to do in his life was such that
it would not have its reward exhausted by his receiving so great a
position.

We need not scrutinize such an expression of fear too closely, but
only notice that a real Christian, instead of being anxious to obtain
recognition, is on the other hand rather alarmed if he always seems
to get full credit for all that he tries to do. He believes that he
is aiming only at the approval of God, and finds too liberal a reward
in this world even disquieting, as though it were a sign that he was
mistaken as to his motive.

FASTING

“Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad
countenance: for they disfigure[66] their faces, that they
may be seen of men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have
received their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy
head, and wash thy face; that thou be not seen of men to fast,
but of thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth
in secret, shall recompense thee.”

Here, under the head of fasting, we may notice again――what applies
equally to prayer or almsgiving――that our Lord is passing no slight
on “common” or public religious actions. St. Paul tells us (1 Cor.
xvi. 2) that we are to have church collections; and our Lord (St. Matt.
xviii. 19‒20) tells us we are to pray together; and He instituted
the Eucharist, which is the Church’s chief social or public act of
communion with God and mutual fellowship. So that it is ridiculous to
suppose that our Lord is here slighting social religious acts――acts
which are performed by the Church as a body, and in the performance of
which we have the encouragement which comes of co-operation and the
sense of responsibility to the community as well as to God. And most
of all it is ridiculous to suppose that our Lord is discouraging common
fasts, but not common prayer or almsgiving. In no case is our Lord
undervaluing the common religious acts. But He is indicating the new
motive of religious action, whether it be prayer or almsgiving or
fasting. Its motive is to be God, and not man.

Once more, our Lord is not here saying anything against the
manifestation of our religion by outward acts. We cannot pray
properly――speaking generally――without adopting a fit attitude in
prayer, that is on the regular occasions of public and private prayer.
We should pray in an attitude which befits our relation to God, on our
knees, humbly, devoutly, because we are creatures of soul and body, and
we cannot express the religious feeling of the soul properly without
its influencing the gesture of the body also. We are made up of soul
and body, and a “spiritual” act of worship is one in which the spirit,
that is the will, heart, and intelligence is engaged; not one in which
the body takes no part. Then if we learn to pray aright, kneeling
upon our knees, we can carry the habit of prayer into our common life.
In the same way, if we are to fast, the act must have a definite and
methodical outward expression. Do not let us be afraid of outward
expressions of religion. Our Lord is emphasizing this, and this only,
namely, the motive which we should have in all kinds of righteousness,
whether it be worship or charity or self-subdual.

Thirdly, we shall do well to consider, what is the principle and
meaning of fasting. Our Lord says less about it in the New Testament
than about prayer; and you notice in the Revised Version that the
mention of it has vanished from a good many of those passages where
in the Authorized Version it stood side by side with prayer.[67] It
is quite true, then, to say that our Lord says less about fasting than
about prayer. It is quite true that fasting may be abused, and was
in our Lord’s time abused, more easily than prayer; but it is a great
mistake, because you have got a certain truth, therefore to exaggerate
it. Our Lord Himself fasted, as He prayed; He fasted forty days
and forty nights. Our Lord said the disciples should fast; that it
would betoken the time when He was taken from them. St. Paul mentions
fasting as part of his own practice――“in fastings often,” and he bids
Christians “distress”[68] their bodies in order to reduce them to
subjection. So again the Church from the first has fasted. And the
great authors of religious revivals in our own Church――Simeon, and
Pusey, and Maurice alike――practised and encouraged fasting. We may then
depend upon it that we are foolish if we neglect it. And the object
of it is this: it is the bringing the body under the spirit, whereas
without it the body is apt to have the upper hand. It is not because
our body is evil that we are to fast; but because our body is, or is
meant to be, holy, and the effective instrument of the spirit. People
sometimes talk about their body as if it were merely animal, and the
spirit were only attached to it. That is not true. Our whole being
is meant to be spiritual, as governed by the spirit. Just as when the
principle of life takes hold on the inorganic world, it makes the whole
nature organic of living; so when the spirit takes hold of the animal
body, its work is to make the whole body spiritual.

It is worth while dwelling on this. People often justify sensual sin
by saying it is “natural;” and the fallacy in this excuse lies in
supposing that our body can be treated apart from our spirit. Nothing
is natural to man in which his spiritual nature is not brought into
play. This is the reason why Christian marriage is truly natural. It
gives to the bodily relation of the sexes a spiritual purpose, and
makes it serve high ends of the home and family. Thus in the same way
eating and drinking is to serve spiritual ends. Everything that the
true Christian does is part of a great spiritual whole; and it is, I
say, because our body has grown lawless, and is apt to trample upon the
spirit instead of being subordinate to it, that we have, as it were,
to take revenges on the body and from time to time to harass it, as
St. Paul says, and to hold it as a slave.

For the same reason we are foolish and un-Christian if we fast in
such a way, either excessively or unwisely, as to unfit the body for
spiritual activities. If you fast so that you cannot work, you are
violating your duty. But many people eat and drink and sleep too well;
their bodies have the upper hand; and they ought to fast, and to take
the opportunity of Lent to fast, that their bodies may be brought under
their spirits.

“The Scriptures bid us fast; the Church says, now:
Give to thy Mother what thou wouldst allow
To ev’ry corporation.”

Now we must return to consider the parenthesis about prayer which is to
be found in chapter vi. 7‒15, and which teaches us something more than
that its motive is to be not vainglory, but God.

First, we are taught that prayer is not to be measured by length, but
intensity:

“And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do:
for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”

If you were to go into a Buddhist country at the present time, you
would find prayer there reduced to something so formal and mechanical
that people do not need to say it themselves, but have prayer wheels
and prayer flags to wind or spread out their prayers before the holy
one. And I am afraid there has been a good deal of a like mechanical
praying in the Christian Church. But the value of prayer, our Lord
warns us, is not to be measured by its length, but the amount of will
and intention we put into it. There is always need that we should
remember this. There is always a danger that in praying dutifully and
according to some rule our praying should be becoming mechanical, and
that we should find ourselves measuring its value by its length.

Secondly, Christian prayer is not for the sake of informing God:

“Be not therefore like unto them [the Gentiles]: for your Father
knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”

Why is it, then, that God requires of us to pray? The answer is a
quite simple one. It is because God is our Father, and He wishes us to
be trained in habits of conscious intercourse with Him. Therefore, just
as many blessings which God wishes to give us are made dependent on
our working for them, so many other blessings are made dependent on our
regular and systematic asking. God wills to give them, but He wills to
give them only if we ask Him; and this in order that the very necessity
of continually holding intercourse with a personal God and making
requests to Him may train us in the habit of realizing that we are sons
of our heavenly Father. The wisdom of this provision is best realized
if we reflect how easily, when the practice of prayer is abandoned,
the sense of a personal relation to God fades out of our human life.
We are to pray then not to inform God, but to train ourselves in habits
of personal intercourse with our Father who is in heaven.

CHAPTER VII

THE LORD’S PRAYER

OUR Lord is not satisfied with giving us abstract principles of prayer,
but teaches us how to pray by giving us an example:

“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in
heaven,” &c.

In regard to this great prayer, I would content myself with calling
attention to the points of chief importance, and trying to explain
some few difficulties, which lie in the separate clauses, and then very
briefly indicating some of the principles which as a whole it enshrines.

“Our Father which art in heaven.”

The spirit of a prayer depends in great measure on whether the
worshipper’s thought of God is true or false, adequate or inadequate.
The Christian invokes God under the completest of all His titles, the
title of Father, for “God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
our hearts crying, Abba, Father.”[69] And we call Him the _Father which
is in heaven_, not because He is far off us――for in the Kingdom of
Christ heavenly and earthly things are mingled and we “are come unto
the heavenly Jerusalem,”[70]――but because He is raised far above all
the pollution and wilfulness and ignorance of man “as the heaven is
higher than the earth.” So we invoke our Father, infinitely above us
yet unspeakably near. And the first prayer we offer is:

“Hallowed be thy name.”

What is the name of God? That is very well worth our consideration.
The name of God in the Bible means that whereby He discloses or reveals
Himself. You may indeed almost say that the name of God means God
Himself as He is manifested. God has shown Himself to man; He has spelt
out His great name, letter by letter, syllable by syllable, before
the eyes of men or into their hearts, in nature, in conscience, by
the voice of His prophets and in Jesus Christ His Son. Thus to hallow
or sanctify His name is to set store by His revelation of Himself, as
Father, Son and Spirit, one God. To pray that His name may be hallowed,
is to pray that His revelation of Himself may be accepted of men, and
His religion professed openly and secretly: that He may be acknowledged
in conduct and worship, in Church and in State, on Sunday and on
week-day.

“Thy kingdom come.”

The kingdom of God meant to the Jews, of course, the kingdom of the
Messiah: that is to say that coming age, when heaven and earth shall
be fused in one, when God shall be manifested in His glory, when all
things shall be seen in their true light, and the reign of Christ in
truth and meekness and righteousness shall be not only real but also
manifest and indisputable. This is “the end of the world,” the “far
off, divine event,” which is still future. At times, indeed, the Church
as it already exists among us is called “the kingdom of God,” but at
other times (as is implied here) the Church is regarded as a divine
institution, representing indeed the kingdom here and now in the world,
but also preparing for its arrival in the future. To pray for the
coming of the kingdom is therefore to pray for the spread and progress
of the Church, and also for the diffusion in every way of all truth
and meekness and righteousness and of all that can find its place
in the city of God. It is to pray for the overthrow of every form
of “lawlessness”――lawless lusts and appetites, lawless ambition and
insolence and denial, godless worldliness and lies and vanities,
cruelty, oppression and malice in every shape. For all these are
forms of rebellion; and we know that they represent only a temporary
usurpation. We are looking forward to, and would fain hasten, the
coming of the King.

“Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.”

This is a prayer against all wilfulness and also against all sloth:
a prayer for the vigorous co-operation of all rational creatures in
furthering the divine order of the world. And we should notice that
the phrase “as in heaven, so on earth” refers probably to all the three
preceding clauses: Hallowed be Thy Name, as in heaven, so on earth; Thy
kingdom come, as in heaven, so on earth; Thy will be done, as in heaven,
so on earth. The Church of Rome, in the _Catechism_ put forth by the
Council of Trent, specially exhorts her clergy to call the attention
of the faithful to this connexion of the clauses of the Lord’s Prayer.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

Strangely enough, one of the most difficult words in the whole New
Testament is this word translated “daily” in the Lord’s Prayer. Nobody
can be quite certain what it means, but probably it means “the bread
for the coming day.”[71] Give us to-day the bread for the coming day,
is therefore a prayer that the bodily needs of the immediate future
may be supplied for all members of the Christian family. It is a
prayer which only those can truly pray who are contented with such
satisfaction of their bodily needs as enables them to do the work
of God, who will ask nothing for themselves that they do not ask for
others, and who are content to wait from day to day upon the hand of
God.

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

We cannot do God’s work without the supply of our physical needs:
therefore the last prayer was offered. But equally we cannot do God’s
work unless we are at peace with Him: therefore this prayer follows.
Sin may be regarded from many points of view――as a flaw or mistake in
our nature or conduct: as a violation or transgression of a divine law
(as in ver. 14): or (as here) as an act by which we have robbed God of
His rights and incurred an obligation or debt which we cannot satisfy,
and in regard to which we can only appeal to the divine pity. From
the first point of view what is needed is nothing else than recovery
and correction: from the second point of view we need forgiveness,
but forgiveness of such sort as is only morally possible when our
will is brought back into harmony with our Father’s will. Only from
the third point of view is forgiveness the same as being let off. And
the position which the petition to be forgiven holds in this prayer,
prevents us from supposing that we can be “forgiven our debts” without
having been brought into union with God’s will and into the fellowship
of His Kingdom.

On the principle involved in this petition our Lord Himself immediately
comments:

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Here is the divine principle which, as we noticed before, is made
so plain in the parable (St. Matt. xviii. 31), where the unthankful
servant finds that all the debt which had been forgiven him has rolled
back upon him because he in his turn has behaved himself unforgivingly,
unmercifully, towards his fellow-servant. God deals with us as we deal
with our fellow-men; and if we want to know how the face of God looks
towards us, we must examine ourselves to see what is the aspect we
present towards them.

“And bring us not into temptation.”

Now, this clause is intelligible enough to our hearts, but rather
difficult to explain exactly. St. James writes, “My brethren, count
it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.” How can we pray not
to be tempted or tried when we know that it is only through temptation
that we can become strong? One explanation is to be got from our Lord’s
words to His disciples at the time of His agony in the garden: “Watch
and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” If you fail to be on your
guard, if you live carelessly, without watching or praying, God suffers
you, as a punishment, to be brought within the scope of temptation, and
you find it too strong for you. Therefore the prayer may be interpreted
by expansion thus: make us watchful and prayerful, so that we never
be suffered to fall into temptation as into a snare. But it seems
better to interpret the prayer more generally as the expression of
that self-distrust for which we have only too sufficient grounds, as
a prayer like that of Christ’s, “Father, if it be possible let the cup
of trial pass from me without my drinking it, nevertheless, thy will
be done.”[72]

“But deliver us from the evil one.”

That is “from the devil.” Modern society seems to be very unwilling
to believe in the devil or diabolical temptation. It has been cleverly
said, “Satan never did a more successful stroke than when he persuaded
people to disbelieve in his own existence.” There is truth in that.
It is a real hindrance to our spiritual struggle, and an increase
of despondency, if we forget that evil solicitations come, not only
from our own nature, but from evil spirits. Moreover, if Christ
is a true prophet――if He discerned the conditions of our spiritual
struggle――certainly diabolical temptation must be real, for He is
always talking of it. When He sees evil at work, evil for body or soul,
His mind penetrates behind the appearances and detects hostile wills
working to pervert the kingdom of God, hostile wills which He knows are
to be at last subdued to God and are even now controlled by Him, but
which He knows also to be at present active and malevolent. He looks
forth upon the disorder of the world and says, “An enemy hath done
this.” And He teaches us to pray for deliverance from the evil one.

The familiar doxology “For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the
glory, for ever and ever, Amen,” which in our Church, though not over
the greater part of Christendom, follows here, was not in the original
Lord’s Prayer, though it was added to it very early. It was a doxology
in use in the early Church, which was added at the end of many of
the prayers, and which in very early times came to be attached to the
Lord’s Prayer in some of the manuscripts. It was thus given a place
which it cannot rightly claim, though it states, grandly enough, the
reason why we thankfully worship the Father.

It remains for us to notice some of the great principles which are
enshrined in the Lord’s Prayer as a whole.

1. The Lord’s Prayer is not one prayer among many, as you may have
a number of collects for a number of different objects, and each
particular collect is just one prayer among many. The Lord’s Prayer is
rather the type and mould of all Christian prayer: “After this manner
pray ye.” Understand the Lord’s Prayer, and you understand altogether
how to pray as a Christian should. It is not really an exaggeration to
say that the climax of Christian growth is to have thoroughly learned
to say the Lord’s Prayer in the spirit of Him who first spoke it.

And this has been clearly recognized in the use which the Church in
all ages has made of the Lord’s Prayer. Among human compositions there
are hardly any more beautiful than the liturgies in which Christians,
at the altar, have approached the Father of their Lord in the pleading
of His sacrifice. Now, almost all the ancient liturgies, both Eastern
and Western, are so constructed that the point upon which each service
converges is the saying of the Lord’s Prayer. That is the point up to
which they climb. That is their central act; because the highest thing
in the way of worship that the Christian can do is to say Christ’s own
prayer in the freedom of that approach to God once won for him by the
Son of Man.

So, in our English Communion service, we put ourselves into the right
frame of mind by saying the first Lord’s Prayer; and afterwards, in the
power of His sacrifice and in the unity of His life communicated to us
in His body and blood, we say again the Lord’s Prayer with its doxology
as the highest point of our whole service.

Once more, in the daily offices of morning and evening prayer the
Lord’s Prayer occurs at the beginning, and again in the prayers after
the Creed. It occurs at the beginning to put us into the right frame
of mind for praying; and at the end it sums up our petitions――all that
we have learned to pray for in the Psalms and lessons. And to leave out
the second Lord’s Prayer, as is sometimes done by way of shortening the
service, is surely to betray ignorance of the structure of the service
and of the use of the Lord’s Prayer.

This is indeed the way in which the Church, catching the spirit of
her Lord, has used the Lord’s Prayer; and, as individuals, it is a
great happiness and power for us when we have learned to use it freely.
Whatever particular object we may want to pray for, we have never
prayed for it aright till we have prayed for it in the words and spirit
of the Lord’s Prayer. That, I repeat, is not one prayer among many.
It covers all legitimate Christian praying, and indeed the saying of
it affords the best test whether our wants of the moment can become
a prayer offered “in the name of Christ.”

2. I say “in the name of Christ.” The Lord’s Prayer is the great prayer
in His name. You know how many people have a very strangely childish
notion, that praying in the name of Christ means simply the addition of
the words “through Jesus Christ our Lord” at the end of their prayers.
But depend upon it they do not by adding these words, or any words,
bring it about that their prayers should be in the name of Christ. To
pray in the name of Christ means to pray in such a way as represents
Christ. The representative always must speak in the spirit and meaning
of those for whom he speaks. If Christ is our representative, that must
be because He speaks our wishes, or what we ought to make our wishes;
and if we are to pray in the name of Christ, that means that we are,
however far off, expressing His wishes and intentions.

Therefore, as this Lord’s Prayer represents profoundly and perfectly
the spirit of Him who first spoke it, and who taught it to His Church,
it follows that it is, beyond all other prayers, the prayer in Christ’s
name. Do you then want to know whether this or that thing can be prayed
for in Christ’s name? The answer is to be found in another question,
Can it be legitimately covered by the clauses of the Lord’s Prayer?

3. The knowing and saying of the Lord’s Prayer, as the prayer in
Christ’s name, was in the early Church regarded as being, like the
knowing and saying of the Creed, the privilege of those only who
were members of the Christian family. It was the prayer of the family
because of its first words, “Our Father.” The Christian creed, we know,
would teach us to believe that God is the father of all men, and that
He wills all men to realize their sonship. They cannot reach true
manhood till they have come to know themselves to be, and to realize
what is involved in being, sons of God.

But since sin has separated men from God, it is through Christ and
by the partaking of His Spirit that they enter or re-enter into the
privileges of sonship. Thus the right of calling upon God as “Our
Father” was believed to have come with the coming of the gift of the
Holy Ghost: “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” We are apt to have rather “free and
easy” notions of the divine fatherhood. And it is important to be
reminded that to call God our Father, we must ourselves be sons, and
it is they who are led by the Spirit, they and they only, that are the
sons of God.

This Lord’s Prayer then is the prayer of the great Christian family;
the prayer of the whole Catholic Church; the prayer which, though it
may be spoken by a single member in a quiet corner, yet is instinct
with the aspirations and needs and wants of all that great society
which represents all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues in
this world and in that which lies beyond the grave.

4. There is a searching lesson which lies in the order of the petitions
in the Lord’s Prayer; for in praying much depends on the order in which
we rank the objects of prayer.

There is a saying, not recorded in our canonical Gospels, but which
yet the very earliest traditions of the Church treasured, and ascribed
to our Lord; the saying is this: “Ask for great things, and the small
things will be given unto you. Ask for heavenly things, and the earthly
things will be given unto you.” Now, that is exactly the spirit of
the Lord’s Prayer. It puts our wants in the right order. It puts first
the heavenly things, the great things, and not the little things, the
earthly things, the things that seem to touch us closest.

We know that it is not easy to adopt this order in our prayers. There
are many who have lost altogether the habit of praying and who are won
back to it by some anxiety or trouble that touches them nearly. Some
son or daughter perhaps lies dying, and the father and mother, who long
have been alien to the habit of prayer, are driven back to it by the
very stress of their pressing need. Or some calamity is threatening to
overwhelm ourselves, and we fall on our knees, after a great interval
of prayerlessness, to implore that it may be averted. And, of course,
we must bless God that anyhow men should be brought to pray: and God
can lead us to higher things through things which touch our flesh and
blood, from earth to heaven. But the point is that that is not the
right order of prayer. The true Christian does not pray first for the
things that most nearly touch himself. That impulsive prayer which
springs simply out of our own needs is not the prayer “in the name of
Christ.”

We remember what our Lord said to the disciples in those solemn hours
in the upper chamber before His passion: “Hitherto ye have asked
nothing in my name.” They had presented all kinds of petitions and
requests; but in their own name. So it is so often with us. Hitherto
have we asked nothing in His name. But that of course is a fault to
be altered. We must let our prayers be in Christ’s name: that is to
say in the order reflected in the Lord’s Prayer.

Now, let us examine it. The prayer of human instinct runs: My Father,
give me to-day what I so sorely require. But the Lord’s Prayer begins
with “Our Father”――not “my,” but “our.” I must begin with losing my
selfishness, with recollecting that I am only one of the great body
of God’s children, of the great mass of humanity. Thus I cannot ask
for anything for myself which conflicts with the interests of others.
And the invocation proceeds, “which art in heaven.” It places us in
a reverent way at the feet of God. “God is in heaven, and thou upon
earth: therefore, let thy words be few.”

“Hallowed be Thy name.” It puts God’s revelation of Himself to men
above all human needs. We are so apt to think last of the glory and
honour of God; but here as we pray we are forced to exalt it into the
first place; and next, “Thy kingdom come.” That is――May that divine
order which, point by point, in many parts and many manners, through
all the great web of history, has gradually to be woven out――may that
great purpose of God find at last its fulfilment. Thus we are forced
as we pray to merge our own narrow interests and schemes till they are
lost in the largeness and wisdom of the divine method.

“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Here we are forced
to bend our stubborn or short-sighted wills to conformity with the
divine will and to make the law of heaven the pattern for earth.
Only then, when we have exalted God’s glory above man’s need, when
we have subordinated our little designs utterly to the great purpose
of God, when we have bent our little wills under the great and divine
will――only then are we allowed to express our wants for ourselves.

And even so how modestly, how restrictedly. “Give us,” we pray, not
anything that we may want, but “to-day the bread for to-morrow:” enough
to do God’s work upon in God’s way; and so that our eating may not
involve others’ hungering. And then, because we cannot do God’s work
unless we are in His peace, “Forgive us our trespasses”――not anyhow;
but according to that necessary law by which God deals with us as we
deal with others; “as we forgive them that trespass against us.” And,
because we are weak and frail, “lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from the evil one.”

Is there not then in this prayer the whole philosophy of praying?
And when we come to think of it, we shall find that the philosophy
or secret of prayer lies in the recognition of the same law of
correspondence, which has been the secret of scientific progress in the
development of the resources of nature, and which, in that department,
Francis Bacon has the credit of teaching men, or of putting into words
for them. Before his time men had been trying to get extraordinary
good things out of nature in accordance with the whims and fancies of
astrologers and alchemists: they had dreamt of making gold, or finding
the elixir of life. But all this was profitless because it was done
in ignorance of nature’s actual laws. And Bacon spoke a prophetic word
when he said “Nature can only be controlled by being obeyed;” that
is――in reverent correspondence with nature as it is, is the secret
of power. Now, in the higher region, that is what our Lord taught us
about prayer. Man had been offering all sorts of prayers, sacrifices,
propitiations. That God mercifully regarded such ignorant worship we
cannot doubt: but it _was_ ignorant of God’s character and method. Now,
so far as is good for us, our Lord has enlightened us about the nature
and method of God: and He has shown us that prayer should not be an
attempt to impose our own whims and fancies on the wisdom of God, but
a constant act of correspondence by which we bring our short-sighted
wills and reasons into correspondence, the intelligent correspondence
of sons, with the perfect reason and will of God, the all-wise Father
of all human souls and of the great universe.

5. Here finally we find an answer to all our manifold questionings as
to what we may pray for, and what we may not.

Our Lord gave us that answer also in another way at another time――in
the prayers of His passion. In His passion He prayed for the coming
of the kingdom, in that great prayer recorded in St. John’s Gospel. He
prayed then without qualification. Similarly, He prayed for those rough
soldiers who were unwittingly doing Him such awful wrong: “Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do.” But when, in the garden,
He asked to be Himself delivered from the coming agony, in the true
humility of His manhood He prayed conditionally, “Father, _if it be
possible_, let this cup pass from me.”

Now, that is exactly the lesson of the Lord’s Prayer. There are many
things which God has revealed to us that He intends to give us. He
has promised that He will give us all those things which belong to His
kingdom and its righteousness. For these things we can pray, not only
urgently, but with the certainty of faith that we must win them for
ourselves and others by importunate asking. We cannot, of course, force
the will of others, but we can with the assurance of faith win for
others, as for ourselves, the spiritual opportunities, resources, and
advantages of God’s kingdom.

There are also many things God has revealed that He does not mean to
give us, and there are laws of His ordering, spiritual and physical,
that by revelation or natural investigation He has made known. For
these things, then, or against these laws, we must not pray; we must
not ask that God will violate His general laws in our private interest.

But there is a great mass of things which lie in between these two
regions of certainty. We do not know if it is God’s will that this
or that person should recover from sickness, or this or that calamity
should be averted. God is wiser than we are. We do not know whether it
is God’s will that we should have the rain that is so necessary for our
crops. There are things like these that lie in a region of uncertainty
into which the intelligence of man cannot penetrate. So then as the
object of prayer is not to bring the divine will down to the human,
but to lift the human up into correspondence with the divine, for all
these uncertain things we can pray indeed, but uncertainly――“If it be
possible, let this or that come to pass; nevertheless, not my will, but
Thine, be done.”

CHAPTER VIII

UNWORLDLINESS

THE keynote of St. Matthew vi. is, as we have seen, this: that the true
motive of the religious life in all its activities is simply the desire
for divine approval. It owns one only master, God, whom it trusts with
an absolute confidence. There results from this a complete freedom from
the anxieties of the world. It is then an unworldly disposition, as the
result of simplicity of motive, that our Lord proceeds to enjoin:

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth
and rust doth consume, and where thieves dig through and steal:
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break
through nor steal: for where thy treasure is, there will thy
heart be also.”

In the days when our Lord spoke these words people mostly preserved
their money and other treasures by concealing it, as in many parts of
Europe they do still. Thus the task of thieves was, in the main, to
“dig through” into places in houses or fields where treasure was likely
to be hidden. This is the meaning of our Lord’s metaphor. We are to
lay up our store in heaven, where no thief can get at it, and where no
natural process of corruption can affect it. Now heaven is God’s throne.
It is where His will works centrally and peacefully; and the kingdom of
the Christ is the kingdom of heaven, because, though a visible society
in the world, God is there specially known and recognized, and His good
will towards man is consequently at work with a special freedom and
fullness.

If then you are asked, what is it to lay up treasure in heaven, I
think you may answer with great security: To lay up treasure in heaven
is to do acts which promote, or belong to, the kingdom of God; and what
our Lord assures us of is that any act of our hands, any thought of
our heart, any word of our lips, which promotes the divine kingdom
by the ordering whether of our own life or of the world outside――all
such activity, though it may seem for the moment to be lost, is really
stored up in the divine treasure-house; and when the heavenly city, the
New Jerusalem, shall at last appear, that honest effort of ours, which
seemed so ineffectual, shall be found to be a brick built into that
eternal and celestial fabric.

And our Lord gives the answer to a difficulty continually perplexing
honest Christians――How am I to learn to _love_ God? I want to do my
duty, but I do not feel as if I loved God. Our Lord gives the answer,
“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Act for
God: do and say the things that He wills: direct your thoughts and
intentions God-ward; and depend upon it, in the slow process of nature
all that belongs to you――your instincts, your intelligence, your
affections, your feelings――will gradually follow along the line of your
action. Act for God: you are already _showing_ love to Him and you will
learn to _feel_ it.

“The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be
single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye
be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore
the light that is in thee be darkness how great is the darkness!
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one,
and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

The question of vital importance is therefore simply this: are we
single-minded in seeking God? Single-mindedness is what gives clearness
and force to life. Put God clearly and simply first in great things
and in small. Then your life will be full of light, full of power. And,
in fact, you must put God first, or nowhere. Examine any man’s life,
of what sort it is. Cross-question it. You will find at last that one
motive is dominant. Either, at the last push, he will do God’s will, or
he will do that by which he thinks to serve his interests in the world.
Now, what a man does at the last analysis or when pushed into a corner,
that is what reveals his real motive. The motive on which he then acts
is his only real master-principle. There can be only one such in a
life. At the bottom it is either God which rules a life or mammon,
i.e. money. Thus you must put God first, or, in fact, you are putting
Him nowhere; if He is not first, then He can be no more than the
superficial decoration of a life really devoted to something else.

But how can it be, we ask, that the exclusive service of God in all
things will not narrow our life? How can God be so “jealous” without
restricting our legitimate freedom of expansion? For this reason: that
God contains everything in Himself, the whole sum of being; so that
there is no beauty or truth or goodness in the world which does not
fall to you to delight in as part of your love and service of God.
Loving God and serving Him should lead you to watch for and respond to
all the truth and beauty that there is in God’s world, all the traits
of excellence in human character, and to own your allegiance to your
family, to your friends, to your country, to your Church, and to
humanity as a whole. “All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos,
or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or
things to come; all are yours,” if “ye are Christ’s,” as “Christ is
God’s.”[73]

Never let us fear then that to put God first and serve Him utterly
will narrow any faculty or dwarf any capacity. It can but fill with an
evergrowing largeness every vital force of our being, every instinct
of our life. “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of
light.”

But we must notice the warning which our Lord gives us as to a possible
condition of our conscience. The light that is in us may be darkness.
We so often talk as if we were only obliged to “follow our conscience:”
as if no one could lay anything to our charge unless we were acting
against the present voice of conscience. But this is a very perilous
error. We are also obliged to enlighten our conscience and to keep
it enlightened. It is as much liable to error as our uninstructed
intelligence, as much liable to failure as our sight. Probably of every
ten criminals brought up before judge and jury on account of some crime
the majority were not, at the time of its commission, acting against
their conscience. They had stifled or darkened that long ago. There is,
I believe, nothing to which in our time attention needs to be called
more than to the fact that conscience is only a _faculty_ for knowing
God and His will. It is certain, unless it is educated, to give wrong
information. And the way to educate it, is to put it to school with the
“Light of the world.” Alas! there must be multitudes of respectable and
self-enlightened people of whom it is true that the light which is in
them is darkness.

The result of singleness of mind in seeking God is to be a complete
freedom from worldly anxiety. The keynote, as it were, of the passage
which concludes this chapter is the phrase, “Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and all the rest shall be added unto
you.” Look to God first. Obey God. Enthrone Him in unique supremacy
in your heart. He is your Father, and as such you can trust Him. If
day by day you do His will simply, and cast your care on Him, then
you can have a wonderful freedom from anxiety as to your future, and
can live at peace――the sort of peace which finds its illustration
in the fascinating tranquillity of the flowers of the field, and the
light-heartedness of the birds of the air. These are our Lord’s words:

“Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye
shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what
ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the
body than the raiment? Behold the birds of the heaven, that they
sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your
heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than
they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto
his stature? And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither
do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so
clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow
is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye
of little faith? Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall
we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be
clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for
your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these
things. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore
anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Anxiety――that is what we are to be freed from. It is not forethought,
or “carefulness” in that sense, against which our Lord is warning us,
but anxiety. We are to trust God. To do daily the duty of the day, and
then trust God for the consequences.

Our pattern in this freedom from anxiety is, of course, our Lord
Himself. You notice that through all His ministry He looked forward,
and lived His life as a whole, on a certain plan; but there was no
anxiety as to results. It is a sort of symbol of this attitude of mind
that once, amidst the howling storm on the lake, the Master was found
asleep on a pillow. It is, as it were, an object lesson of what is
said in Psalm cxxvii; which more than anything in the Old Testament
expresses our Lord’s meaning in this passage:

“It is vain for you that ye rise up early, and so late take rest,
And eat the bread of toil:
For so he giveth unto his beloved sleep.”

That is the motto to write under the picture of Christ in the boat on
the stormy sea.

Our Lord here, as elsewhere, is manifestly expressing Himself in the
proverbial manner. It is the proverbial manner to express a thing by an
extreme one-sided instance. We have noticed this repeatedly: and that,
for this reason, one proverbial utterance may need to be balanced by
another contrary one. Thus, on another occasion our Lord bids us take
thought of what His service will involve, looking towards the future
like a man who is about to build a house or a king who is preparing for
a campaign. Here He is putting the other thought, that we are to cast
all our care upon God our Father, who careth on our behalf.

But indeed if taking this passage alone you think of the metaphors
which our Lord employs――metaphors of the flowers of the field and the
birds of the air――you will see that what He means to warn us against
is anxiety, not prevision. For think of the growth of the plant; it
is always looking towards the future in its own instinctive way; the
process by which it grows is a gradual process; all its activity is
directed towards the preparation of the seeds by which the permanence
of the species is secured. And so with the birds when they build their
nests: they are making provision. Everything is done by bird and plant
in view of the future, but done with a tranquillity which reposes
unconsciously upon the purpose of God. What they do unconsciously we
are to do consciously.

Here, then, is a lesson specially necessary for our time. There is
no greater plague of our generation than the nervous anxiety which
characterizes all its efforts. How many people are there who make their
health much worse than it would naturally be, because they are always
morbidly anxious about their symptoms or some possibility of infection.
Again and again it is anxiety about health which is a main cause of our
unserviceableness in doing our duty. We ought to be reasonably careful
and to go boldly forward in the peace of God.

Again, how many good schemes fail because people are so nervously
anxious about their success that they never reach that condition of
peaceful persistence in work which is necessary if it is to be fruitful.
“Semper agens, semper quietus”――“always at work, always tranquil”――that
is the right motto.

Once more, as to holidays. What a vast mistake people often make
in turning a holiday into an occasion of solicitude; seeking for
distraction at the expense of repose, and forgetting that the only
central repose for wearied or jaded faculties is the reposing upon
the Eternal. There alone is “the central peace subsisting at the heart
of endless agitation.” People would get much more even of physical
good from Sunday and holiday rests, if they used them first of all
as occasions for returning to God and finding rest in Him. And this
applies to the clergy no less than to the laity. “Be still, then, and
know that I am God.” That is what we are to learn. Repose upon God
quietly, and do daily the duties of the day, and bear daily the evils
of the day, and, like Christ our Lord, though it be through cross and
passion, we shall come to the glory which is predestined for us by God.

And observe the phrase, “Sufficient unto the day is the _evil_
thereof.” Our Lord is not in any sort of way promising us that we
shall not suffer trouble if we put our trust in God. What He tells us
is simply that “According to thy day, so shall thy strength be.” We are
in God’s hands. God gives us the evil and the good. We are only, like
our Lord, to trust in His divine fatherhood; and doing our best to-day,
exercising our judgement to the best of our power, we are to repose in
His love.

CHAPTER IX

CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS

THE seventh chapter――the last which belongs to the Sermon――is occupied
with a number of accessory topics. The character of the citizen of
the kingdom of God has now been portrayed for us; the relation of
this character to the old law has been explained; its main motive or
principle has been described. Now there follow some characteristics
which flow naturally from the relation in which the citizen of the
kingdom stands both towards God and towards man. The first of these
is the uncritical temper. “Judge not and ye shall not be judged.”

THE UNCRITICAL TEMPER

We should observe that in the parallel passage in St. Luke vi.
this exhortation follows very suggestively upon a description of
the character of God which corresponds to an earlier passage in
St. Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount. “Ye shall be the
sons of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and the
evil. Be ye merciful, even as your Father is merciful. And judge not,”
&c. That is to say, God is not critical; He does the best for every
one. He gives to every one the gifts he can appreciate. This is to be
embodied in the temper of the disciple.

“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye
judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it
shall be measured unto you. And why beholdest thou the mote that
is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in
thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast
out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own
eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own
eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of
thy brother’s eye.”

Manifestly, what is in our Lord’s mind is the temper and character
of the Pharisee. The Pharisee was in his way a strict religionist, a
strict observer of religion. But you may almost say that the Pharisee
tested progress in religion by the capacity to condemn other people.
“This multitude which knoweth not the law is accursed.”[74] The
Pharisee had passed through a certain probation in learning. He had, as
it were, passed his examinations and stood his tests; and now he was in
a position to set every one else in his proper and subordinate place.
That was the very test of his progress, that he was able to “despise
others”; and it followed that he could be, in regard to his own _inner_
character, lax and self-satisfied. He had attained the right standard;
he was performing the right observances. So long as he did these things,
he need not be over-scrupulous in examining himself. Therefore the
Pharisee was both critical and hypocritical; critical with regard to
others, with regard to himself hypocritical.

Our Lord, then, did not mean to make of His disciples a new kind of
Pharisee. He did not mean that His disciples, as they grew to learn
and follow the strictness of their Master’s standard, should come to
be supercilious like the Pharisees, and, like them, morally hollow.
Therefore He warns against these two easily combined characteristics.

On the contrary, the temper which our Lord approves is the humility
which makes the best of others, and is severe with itself. You,
He seems to say, have every opportunity to know your own failings;
therefore look stringently to yourself, “the mote, or the beam, that
is in thine own eye.” That “bulks big” enough in your own vision. To
consider it prevents you from over-estimating yourself, and humbles you
in your own sight. Let it also take out of your heart and off your lips
all the readiness to criticize and condemn other people.

Make the best of others. For that is, in fact, what our Lord means by
“judge not.” It is what we should most naturally express by “Do not be
critical.” Because a thing is strange or new to you, because it does
not fall in with your ideas, do not condemn it off-hand, but try to
appreciate it with sympathy first of all. Make the best of every thing
and every person. And there is no doubt that if after looking for the
good points in any idea, or undertaking, or person, you are at last
bound to condemn, the weight attaching to your adverse verdict will
depend very largely on whether you have escaped the reputation of being
a “critical” and censorious person. The condemnation of one who is
always finding fault carries no moral weight.

I say, If at last you are bound to condemn, and that may be the
Christian’s duty. For here, again, as throughout this Sermon, we must
notice our Lord’s proverbial method, otherwise we may misinterpret
altogether the temper which our Lord here commends. There is a temper
of universal toleration very prevalent in our age, both in conversation
and in literature; which can indeed tolerate everything, because it has
no fixed standards of right and wrong, of true and false, at all. But
it is clear enough that this was not what our Lord meant to recommend;
it would be so utterly antagonistic to His own character. No one is
severer in discriminating judgement than our Lord when the occasion
requires it. More than this, our Lord did deliberately intend that
His Church, and the members of His Church, should have standards of
goodness and truth which should enable them――aye, which should require
them when duty called――to condemn their own brethren. A passage in
St. Matthew’s Gospel which has been referred to already is clear upon
this. “If thy brother trespass against thee”――are you to say, “It is
of no account. It is not my business to condemn?” No. When it is not a
question of the love of criticizing or of uncharitable judgement, but
of maintaining the law of right and wrong, then it becomes our business
to judge, and after consideration and patience to condemn.

“Go, shew him his fault between thee and him alone; if he
hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee
not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two
witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he
refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church: and if he refuse
to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and
the publican. Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever
ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”[75]

Our Lord does here actually commit to the Church――as on an earlier
occasion to St. Peter as the chief and representative apostle――not the
right, but the duty, to bind and to loose: that is, to pass judgements
as to what is right and what is wrong, what is to be permitted and
what is not to be permitted, in the Christian society. Again, after His
resurrection He gives to His apostles the power and the duty to apply
these judgements to persons, to absolve and to retain sins.[76] Thus
the Church, and each of its members, is not indeed to be censorious in
temper, or to make the worst of people; but, when occasion requires, is
to maintain the moral standard. So it is that St. Paul expressly tells
the Corinthian Church that, as a Christian society, they are to judge,
not those that are without, but those that are within their own body:
and he severely condemns them because they had let pass, or tolerated,
a serious moral offence without discriminating judgement being passed
upon it.[77]

It is the same where doctrine is concerned. The New Testament
continually warns Christians that they are to have standards of
judgement; to test all things, and hold fast that which is right;[78]
to test the spirits whether they be of God.[79] And if any teacher come
with a doctrine calculated to subvert the principles which lie at the
basis of the Christian life, St. Paul and St. John alike recommend an
attitude towards him which cannot exactly be described as tolerance.

“As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man
preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received,
let him be anathema.”

“If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching,
receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting: for
he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works.”[80]

These injunctions are given in view of cases where fundamental matters
of principle are at stake. About minor matters St. Paul adopts a tone
of the widest toleration.[81]

There is then a duty of judgement: while on the other hand our Lord
condemns the critical and censorious temper. Is it not true that a
candid conscience finds very little difficulty in distinguishing the
duty of judgement from the sin of censoriousness and criticism? And is
it not the case that those who have the lowest and vaguest standards
of what is true and right, are yet very often the most critical in
judgement of other people?

We are then to be anxious to make the best of others: and our Lord here
again recognizes that law which we have so often heard from His lips,
that God deals with us as we deal with our fellow-men.

“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye
judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it
shall be measured unto you.”

This describes no doubt how God will deal with us. And from the
parallel passage of St. Luke we should gather that the retaliation will
not be confined to God. As we deal with other men, so other men also
will deal with us.

“And judge not, and ye shall not be judged: and condemn not, and
ye shall not be condemned: release, and ye shall be released:
give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed
down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your
bosom. For with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you
again.”[82]

From all sides you get as you give. If you deal with men in the
critical, censorious, narrow temper, men will deal so with you. If you
make the best of others, others will make the best of you.

RESERVE IN COMMUNICATING RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES

The next characteristic of the temper of the Christian follows by way
of contrast on what has gone before. It is reserve in communicating
religious privileges.

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your
pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under
their feet, and turn and rend you.”

There are high privileges which many men cannot appreciate; and if you
press these upon them, you must not be surprised if, indignant with
you for having given them something which seems so worthless, they take
violent reprisals upon you.

We ask the question, Has our Lord, in inculcating the uncritical
temper, inculcated the undiscriminating temper also? Certainly not.
That which the Christian has received is of inestimable worth. The
kingdom of God, as our Lord told us, is like a pearl of great price,
which when a man hath found, for joy thereof he goeth and selleth all
that he hath and buyeth that pearl. The Christian knows what it is to
be a Christian, admitted into the fellowship of God, illuminated by His
truth, empowered by His Spirit. In the light of God in which he lives
he cannot but gaze out into the world with a discrimination like his
Lord’s.

Our Lord, we notice, gave men the best they were capable of
receiving. To all the world, if they had but the faith to trust His
power, He gave the outpouring of that power in works of healing. He
had compassion on them; He gave them what alone they were capable of
appreciating――kindness, goodness. But did He teach all men the highest
truth? No. He sifted, He discriminated them, till He had got those to
deal with who really had ears to hear the highest truth, and then He
told it them. Our Lord did not cast His pearls before swine, lest they
should turn again and rend Him.

Thus we are to put before men what they are capable of appreciating.
Not by any merits of ours, God has given us admission to His fellowship;
He has given us great things and small things. We are not to be selfish
misers, we are to be anxious to communicate all; but we are to be
discriminating. Kindness, self-sacrifice, care for their interests,
and their whole life――that all men can appreciate, and we are to give
it to all. But we are not to shriek the highest truths of religion at
the street corner. We are to wait till people show a desire for the
deepest things before we offer them religion. There is to be reserve
in communicating religious privileges and religious truths.

Such was the method of the early Church. It went out into the world.
It let all the world see the beauty of its life, the glory of its
brotherhood, the splendour of its liberality. It made men feel that
Christians were the friends of God. But it did not teach them the
secrets of its life――its Creed, its Eucharist, its Prayer――till
they were ready for them, and showed their readiness at least by
inquiry. The Church would explain herself in apologies and dissipate
misconceptions, but it was not her way to press her innermost truths
upon the indifferent.

At the same time the Church has not an esoteric system, like the Pagan
mysteries, or the schools of Gnosticism. These Gnostics would have only
the intellectual admitted to the mysteries of God. That was not the
Church’s way; her way was to teach _every_ man (who would come with
faith), that she might present every man perfectly initiated in Jesus
Christ.[83] The Church believed that nothing was necessary for the
highest union with God but a simple sense of sin and faith in God, in
His Son, in His Spirit. Nothing was necessary but these qualities of
wanting and trusting, which are possible to all men. Her cry was――“Ho!
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” Only, let them come
thirsty!

And surely that method which belonged to the early Church――although no
doubt it was capable of being abused――is yet the true and best method.
Let the Church show her compassion and goodness and geniality to all
men, but not press upon them the mysteries of God until, under her
discipline and teaching, they begin to show some disposition to receive
them. This is a principle which admits of very different applications
in a heathen country, in preaching religion among nominal Christians,
and in the social intercourse of individuals; but it admits of some
application everywhere. And above all let us take care that the Church
appears before men’s eyes as offering provision of spiritual privileges
not for those who can pay for them, but for those who have some measure
of spiritual appetite.

IMPARTIAL CONSIDERATENESS

The Christian is to be discriminating, but not niggardly. On the
contrary, recognizing the readiness of God to give in response to human
prayer and effort, he will exhibit a like impartial benevolence towards
all men. This is the last of the three characteristics of the Christian
character which our Lord enjoins: impartial benevolence proceeding from
its own experience and knowledge of the divine character.

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh
it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son
shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall
ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them
that ask him? All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is
the law and the prophets.”

As reported by St. Luke, our Lord gives a commentary on “Knock, and it
shall be opened unto you.” For He gives us the parable of one who comes
at an inconveniently late hour, and knocks at the door of a neighbour’s
house, and demands food for a friend who has unexpectedly arrived. And
our Lord represents how the owner of the house is at last unwillingly
overcome by the importunity of the applicant, and consents to rise and
give his neighbour what he wants.

Our Lord then in His proverbial way lays down the general principle
that importunity――asking, seeking, knocking――at last overcomes all
obstacles and obtains what it wants. And we notice that our Lord first
arouses attention by the indiscriminate assertion of this general
principle. Having done that, when the attention of men was arrested,
He on different occasions――for those who had ears to hear――modified it,
or gave it its more definite meaning.

Such modifications or exacter definitions are the following: “All
things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, _believe that ye have received
them and ye shall have them_” (St. Mark xi. 24). “_If ye abide in me,
and my words abide in you_, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be
done unto you” (St. John xv. 7). “Hitherto have ye asked nothing _in
my name_: ask, and ye shall receive” (St. John xvi. 24). It is not too
much to say that all these three statements are in effect identical.
To ask in Christ’s name is to ask in accordance with Christ’s will,
and this brings the third statement into identity with the second.
We can only, as intelligent sons of our Father, “believe that we have
received” requests which we know to be in accordance with His mind.
Thus the first statement, in common with the other two, makes the
effective prayer the prayer which rises in intelligent correspondence
with the revealed will and character of God.

Even in this passage may be found a suggestion to the same purpose.
“What man is there of you,” asks our Lord, “who, when his son asks
a loaf or a fish, will give him”――something that looks like what he
has asked for, but is in fact wholly useless or noxious? If then human
fathers are to be relied upon in this way, much more is our heavenly
Father to be relied upon to give good things to them that ask Him.
But there is a converse to that statement. If a son asks for something
harmful, what will a wise father do? Not give him what he asks for,
but give him according to his request as it is interpreted by his own
larger wisdom. So it is with God. He must hear and answer prayers, not
simply as they are ignorantly offered, but as interpreted for our good
in accordance with His wise purposes. Roman Catholics and Anglicans and
Eastern Christians and Nonconformists may be praying for unity among
Christians, each according to their own preconceptions. God will be
attentive to the good-will of their prayers: they will not, as has been
suggested, “neutralize one another:” for God will answer them according
to His own wisdom.

Very suggestive then is the version of this saying of our Lord which is
given by St. Luke: “Shall not your Father which is in heaven give”――not
good things, but――“the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”

It is often said, we know, that the Sermon on the Mount contains no
dogmas, no doctrines. But it implies, in a remarkable way, two cardinal
Christian doctrines: the Godhead of Christ and the “fallen” state of
man. The Godhead of Christ, as has been and will again be noticed,
is involved in the authoritative tone in which He speaks. And a
significant expression in this paragraph is unintelligible unless
all men, even the best, may be assumed to be sinful. For our Lord is
talking about good parents who will do their best for their children:
yet He says “If ye, _being evil_.” Now, I do not know any words which
could more forcibly imply――all the more forcibly because incidentally,
or by the way――that our Lord thought of us all as having something
evil and corrupt in our nature as it is; so that every one of us needs
regeneration and conversion, in order that we may become what our
Lord would have us. The intimation seems to me to be indeed the more
emphatic because, as I say, it is uttered by the way. “If ye, being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more....”

Finally, on these considerations of the divine goodness, our Lord bases
our duty towards our fellow-men.

“Therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,
even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the
prophets.”

Our conduct towards our fellow-men is to be the reflection of that
benevolence which we have learned and experienced in our own relations
to God.

In the maxim in which our Lord expresses our social duty there are
several points which require notice.

(1) In its negative form it had been already announced both among
the Jews and among the Greeks: “Do not do unto others what you would
not have them do unto yourselves.”[84] But one great superiority
of our Lord over other teachers lies in the positive character of
His teachings. His will is not simply that men should abstain from
wrong-doing, but rather that they should be occupied in right-doing.

(2) Here, as elsewhere, our Lord is proverbial; and this maxim must not
be interpreted “at the foot of the letter.” Nothing in common life is
more annoying than when people do so interpret and act upon it; with
the result that they behave as if every one must agree with them in
what they like or dislike. What is meant of course is that we are to
act towards others with the same considerateness which we would desire
that others should exhibit towards us.

(3) We must realize that here we have the very kernel of Christian
social duty. There was a great truth announced by the philosopher
Immanuel Kant: “So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own
person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never
as a means only.” We are to treat all men always as ends in themselves;
never as means merely towards some other end which we have in view,
whether it be production, or convenience, or pleasure. Now this is only
putting into a philosophical form what our Lord states more simply,
more practically. We are to take the same thought for others that we
would have others take for ourselves. We are to make no exceptions
in our own favour. We are to love our neighbour as ourselves. We are
to remember that every one in God’s sight counts for one; and that
nobody counts for more than one. This, I say, is the principle of all
Christian social conduct. It is the principle of justice; that is, of
equal consideration. We could go on drawing out its applications for
hours, and never have exhausted them. And it cannot be said that it
is at present within reasonable distance of being realized in what is
called Christian society. We have a more or less true ideal of what our
own human life ought to be――of what opportunities we ought to have for
the development of our faculties――of what home and school and college,
youth and married life and old age, work and rest, ought to mean for
ourselves and our families. We are to make these ideals universal.
We are so to limit our desires that what we want for ourselves we can
reasonably expect also for others. We are to be as truly zealous and
active for other classes or other individuals as we are for our own
class or our own family or ourselves. The service which we expect
from others, we are to see that we render in some real sense to them,
and that without respect of persons. This maxim is not inconsistent
with inequality of position or (within limits) of wealth――for men are
differently constituted in their capacities and wants――but it does
demand equality of consideration.

(4) “This,” our Lord says, “is the law and the prophets,” that is,
this is the principle in which the true spirit of the Old Testament
culminates. There was, of course, much in the Old Testament narrower
than this and on a lower level; and, as we have seen, our Lord occupied
a large part of this sermon in showing us those points in which the
Christian law is to supersede the legislation of the Old Testament.
But the Old Testament represents throughout a process of growth; and
this is the point towards which it tends and in which it culminates.
As St. Paul says, “If there be any other commandment it is briefly
comprehended”――summed up, or accomplished――“in this saying, namely,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”[85]

CHAPTER X

FINAL WARNINGS

OUR Lord concludes the Sermon on the Mount with three emphatic and
striking warnings. We may paraphrase them thus:――There are two ways
in life, the easy way of self-pleasing and the hard way of self-denial.
Many are found to seek the first, few to tread the second. But they
lead directly away from one another: and the first is the way to death,
the second is the way to life.

There are many voices of teachers in the world, speaking fair-sounding
words. But not by their words, nor by the results they seem to win,
shall men be judged by the Son of Man, but by their characters.

There are many spiritual fabrics which men are raising. They seem the
one very much as good as the other; but the test lies in their capacity
to last. And no spiritual fabric that is built on anything else than
the teaching of the Son of Man can endure the strain and stress which
will come upon it before the end.

Let us direct our attention to each of these three warnings in turn.

THE TWO WAYS

“Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that
enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way,
that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.”

This is the “doctrine of the two ways.” Human instinct has seized on
the metaphor in many parts of the world; the easy way of self-pleasing,
the difficult way of duty. It speaks home to every heart, to every
intelligence, and nothing needs to be said about it. But I would ask
your attention to one question which in our time arises instantly as
we read these words――Are we to suppose that our Lord is here saying
that at the last issue many will be “lost” and few “saved”? Is this
the meaning of “Few be they that find it”?

To this question we may reply thus: On one occasion the disciples
categorically asked our Lord, “Are there few that are being saved?”
and our Lord replied, “Strive to enter in by the narrow door.” And on
another occasion Peter asked the question about John, “What shall this
man do?” and was answered, “What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.”[86]
Beyond all question, our Lord does not intend us to know the answer to
the questions which our curiosity raises as to the ultimate destinies
of men. He fixes our attention, we may say, on three great principles:
the character of God our Father, and His impartial, individual,
disciplinary love: the final and universal victory of His kingdom
over all resisting forces within and without: the critical character
of our present life with its capacities for good or for evil, and the
limitless consequences for good or evil which flow from the present
attitude of each individual towards his personal responsibilities.

It is not unfair to translate our Lord’s words here, “Many there be
that _are entering_ the broad way; few there be that _are finding_ the
narrow way.” Thus they embody what is always found to be true in the
experience of men. Always, to one who wants to do his duty, it will
become plain in the long run that he has to be prepared to stand
alone, or at any rate to go against the majority. He cannot tell the
opportunities and responsibilities that others may have. He knows
that God is infinitely considerate, and will do the best possible
for every soul that He has created; but he can, he does, know his own
responsibility and his own duty, and in following that he will have to
bear the burden of going with the few and watching the spectacle, so
depressing or staggering to the imagination, of the multitude running
to do evil.

CHARACTER THE ONE THING NEEDFUL

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know
them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even
so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt
tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and
cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
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. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out devils,
and by thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work
iniquity.”

There is nothing against which our Lord warns us so terribly as against
hypocrisy. The discernment of Frenchmen and Germans has detected, or
fancies it has detected that Englishmen are specially liable to be
hypocrites, to profess what they do not practise, to care for the
outward appearance of morality and religion while they neglect their
inward essence. Whether this be specially true of us or no, it behoves
us to look to ourselves. In literature, in journalism, in the pulpits,
in political life, there are so many “prophets,” so many professors, so
many remedy-mongers. They speak fair words, and brilliant success often
seems to attend them. “Have we not prophesied in Thy name,” they cry,
“and in Thy name cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful
works?” But not all the fair-seeming words, not all the brilliant,
even miraculous successes, can compensate for the absence of personal
character. That is the one thing to which our Lord looks. He warns us
that not the most brilliant results can avail anything if we lack that
inner character which is like Christ’s.

This is a tremendous warning for days of wide and somewhat vague
philanthropy, of restless activity, of nervous anxiety for successes
and results, for days such as our own day. It is a tremendous warning
for days of journalism, when every one is tempted to advertise
himself or allow himself to be advertised, when everything is dragged
prematurely into publicity, and even those who are working for
Christ are apt to be morbidly anxious to produce results which can
be tabulated in parish magazines or even proclaimed in newspapers. We
need to remember that all these results in Christ’s eyes will not bear
looking at, except so far as they are the product of inward Christian
character, a character which He can recognize as His own. For He cannot
accept anything, whatever its orthodox profession, in which He does not
trace the lineaments of His own character.

There are two other points which may be overlooked in this paragraph
but which are of great importance. First, our Lord does encourage
us or even command us to believe that wherever there is the good
character, the Christlike character, there the Holy Spirit is at work.
God works far beyond His own appointed channels. The principle of
loyalty and obedience binds us who know His will to use His sacraments,
His instituted ordinances; but God is not tied to His own ordinances.
He can work wherever He sees the good disposition; and it is blasphemy
against His Spirit to deny that He is at work anywhere where we witness
the forming of the Christian character. The good fruit cannot come from
anything else than the good tree.

Then, secondly, we should notice the claim which our Lord here makes
for Himself. Without preface, without emphasis, as a matter of course,
He implies that He is the final judge of all men, not only as to the
outward results they achieve, but also as regards the secret inner
motives of their hearts and the character of their lives. “Many shall
come to me in that day,” i.e. in “the Day of Jehovah,” the day of final
assessment――“They will come to _Me_; they will profess loyalty to _Me_,
saying, ‘Lord, Lord’; they will plead their good works: but I shall
discern the true inner character of their lives.” Many Jews of our
Lord’s day in Palestine believed that the Son of Man, the Messiah,
would act as the vicegerent of God in “the day of judgement,” at “the
end of the world.” In implying that He would so act our Lord is, in
other words, professing that He is the Messiah: but, more than this,
He gives to the Messianic claim a depth and fullness of meaning which
makes it identical with a properly _divine_ claim. Can one conceive men
living, as the Apostles lived, with one who they were led to believe
was the ultimate judge of their outward conduct and of their secret
thoughts, the ultimate arbiter of their destinies, the final Justice,
without passing into an attitude towards Him of awe, trust, and worship,
which would be idolatrous and disastrous if He to whom it was directed
was not truly divine?

Again, is it even conceivable that any man could claim to be in this
inner introspective sense the final judge of all men without being
either (with reverence be it spoken) a tremendous blasphemer or the
very Son of God, of the Father’s own nature?

ENDURANCE THE TEST

And lastly, our Lord gives the warning that each spiritual fabric must
be judged by its power of lasting.

“Every one therefore which heareth these words of mine, and
doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which built his
house upon the rock: 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 the rock. And every one that heareth
these words of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto
a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote
upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof.”

Here, again, is the tremendous claim: the only solid foundation for
life is Jesus and His words.

We know how this necessity of a rock-like foundation for a spiritual
structure, and the possibility of finding such a foundation only in
His own words and person, were illustrated by our Lord’s method in
the foundation of His Church. A crowd came round Him at the first,
offering Him the same kind of allegiance which men will give to
spiritual teachers and benefactors in moments of enthusiasm. “Many
believed on his name, beholding the signs which he did.” And our Lord
stood strangely aloof from them. “He did not trust himself unto them,”
St. John says, “for that he knew all men, and because he needed not
that any should bear witness concerning man, for he knew of himself
what was in man.”[87] So He tested the would-be disciples, till at
last by His strange self-withdrawing ways, by His severe words, by
His enigmatic utterances, He had sifted out those who were really in
earnest in following Him from those who were not; exhibiting in all
this a strange contempt for majorities or mere numbers. At last He
had gathered round Him the little band of those who were really ready
to follow and obey to the uttermost, the band of His apostles. Here
were men who had indeed got down to the rock, and were building on
it and nothing short of it. Here were men who could trust Him and
His word, and take as the basis for their life the confession of His
name. Therefore, like that on which they built, they were themselves
rock-like, and not as the shifting sand of ordinary human nature.
These then could be used as the foundations of Christ’s new society. So
under circumstances where a special strain was put upon their loyalty,
He asked the great question of the apostles; and Peter gave the great
answer: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Then, as
it were with a sigh of relief, our Lord turns upon him, and greets
him with His supreme benediction, and recognizes in him――if not yet
something which is ready to His hand, yet something which is capable
of being made ready:

“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I
also say unto thee, that thou art Peter――rock-man――and upon this
rock I will build my church.”[88]

Thus our Lord illustrated in His own practice what He teaches here.
He would have men dig down to the rock, and build their spiritual
fabrics there; and the rock is nothing else than His own person and His
own word. To hear Him, and go away without imbibing His teaching and
putting it into practice, to be nominally a Christian but in reality of
the world, that is to build a house upon the sand.

And the test of all spiritual fabrics is their capacity to stand the
strain of wild and rough experiences. That is a formidable lesson for
an age of rapid workmanship; an age which resents the necessity for
underground work and silent preparation.

It suggests a momentous question with regard to the spiritual fabric of
our own personal lives, and also in regard to any spiritual enterprise
in which we may be engaged: Have we dug deep enough and got down to the
rock, or have we preferred quick results to solid foundations? Have we
thought Christ’s words impossible of application, and so been content
with something short of Him? If so, our work is doomed. It will not
last. It will not stand the rain and the wind and the storm.

We see how true this principle has proved in the history of the Church
of Christ, which was built on the solid rock of His word and person.
The Catholic Church through all vicissitudes has yet endured. Body
after body naming the name of Christ have arisen and seemed to succeed
better than the Church for a time, generally through some defect in her
teaching or character: for it has been generally through the fault of
the Church that they have arisen, and on the neglect of the Church’s
duty that they have spread. But these bodies have not exhibited lasting
power. Any great catastrophe which, as it were, shatters the structure
of human society down to its foundations, brings to naught multitudes
of enterprises which seemed successful. But there is one society which
has exhibited a marked capacity for lasting, which after whatever
vicissitudes has shown that it has still the power of recovery and
persistence. This is that Church which is rooted on the word of Christ,
which has the succession from His apostles, in which are administered
His sacraments according to His appointment, which holds to His
apostolic tradition, and appeals back to His sacred Scriptures.

That is the test――to last! We must apply it to our own lives. We
know that temptation is both thorough and searching, and that our
moral and religious principles will in different ways be tested to
the uttermost. To stand the test and carry our moral being through
it all to victory――that is the one thing that matters; and to make
this possible there is one sovereign expedient――that is thorough and
whole-hearted conversion of our will, our intellect, our affection, to
Christ and His word.

“And it came to pass, when Jesus ended these words, the
multitudes were astonished at his teaching: for he taught them
as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”

And here we leave the great sermon. It is not, as some suppose, the
whole of Christianity. Those who have been inclined so to esteem it
have been apt to underrate the amount of theological doctrine which
is to be found in it. It postulates, as we have seen, two central
doctrines: that of the divinity of Christ’s person, and that of the
sinfulness of human nature. But, even so, it is not the whole of
Christianity. It begets in us, or develops and deepens, the sense
of sin, and so may be said to point to what it does not teach, the
atonement by which our Lord has expiated the sins of the world, and
brought us back to reconciliation with our Father which is in heaven.
But again an atonement which merely secured our forgiveness for past
sins would be no real remedy. It would leave us weak as we were before.
Nothing can satisfy us but actual and permanent redemption from the
power and the taint of sin. Thus again the sermon may be said to point
forward to that great supply of moral power which by the coming of
the Spirit of God has been given inwardly in the hearts of His people.
It is that inward grant of Christlike power――the administration of
the Spirit――which is the real essence of Christianity. All else is a
preparation for it. Christianity is not so much a statement of the true
end or ideal of human life as it is a great spiritual instrument for
realizing the end.

The realizing of the moral end of life――that is the test of your
Christianity. Be sure of that. The hold we have on our creeds, the
use we make of the sacraments, can be judged by one test――do they lead
to the formation in us of Christian character? The character may be
cleansed and perfected after death, but here and now is our opportunity
for laying its foundations deep and firm, and showing its power to
absorb the whole of our being. That is the test which we cannot press
home upon ourselves too often――am I becoming like Christ? Many will
come to Him in that day with a record of their orthodoxy and of their
observances, of their brilliant successes in His professed service;
but He will protest unto them, “I never knew you.” He “knows” no man
in whom He cannot recognize His own likeness.

APPENDICES

I. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, WITH THE PARALLEL PASSAGES IN
ST. LUKE’S GOSPEL.

II. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR CHRISTIANS.

III. THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH WITH REGARD TO DIVORCE.

APPENDIX I

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PARALLEL PASSAGES FROM
ST. LUKE.[89]

AND seeing the multitudes, =St. Luke vi. 20‒49.=
he went up into the mountain:
and when he had sat down, his And he lifted up his eyes on
disciples came unto him: and his disciples, and said, Blessed
he opened his mouth and taught are ye poor: for yours is the
them, saying, kingdom of God. Blessed are ye
Blessed are the poor in spirit: that hunger now: for ye shall be
for theirs is the kingdom of filled. Blessed are ye that weep
heaven. now: for ye shall laugh. Blessed
Blessed are they that mourn: are ye, when men shall hate you,
for they shall be comforted. and when they shall separate you
Blessed are the meek: for they from their company, and reproach
shall inherit the earth. you, and cast out your name as
Blessed are they that hunger evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
and thirst after righteousness: Rejoice in that day, and leap for
for they shall be filled. joy: for behold, your reward is
Blessed are the merciful: for great in heaven: for in the same
they shall obtain mercy. manner did their fathers unto the
Blessed are the pure in heart: prophets. But woe unto you that
for they shall see God. are rich! for ye have received
Blessed are the peacemakers: your consolation. Woe unto you,
for they shall be called sons of ye that are full now! for ye
God. shall hunger. Woe unto you, ye
Blessed are they that have been that laugh now! for ye shall
persecuted for righteousness’ mourn and weep. Woe unto you,
sake: for theirs is the kingdom when all men shall speak well
of heaven. Blessed are ye when of you! for in the same manner
men shall reproach you, and did their fathers to the false
persecute you, and say all manner prophets.
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.

Ye are the salt of the earth: =xiv. 34, 35.=
but if the salt have lost its
savour, wherewith shall it be _Salt therefore is good: but
salted? it is thenceforth good if even the salt have lost its
for nothing, but to be cast out savour, wherewith shall it be
and trodden under foot of men. seasoned? It is fit neither for
Ye are the light of the world. A the land nor for the dunghill:
city set on a hill cannot be hid. men cast it out. He that hath
Neither do men light a lamp, and ears to hear, let him hear._
put it under the bushel, but on
the stand; and it shineth unto
all that are in the house. Even =St. Luke xi. 33.=
so let your light shine before
men, that they may see your good _No man, when he hath lighted
works, and glorify your Father a lamp, putteth it in a cellar,
which is in heaven. neither under the bushel, but on
the stand, that they which enter
Think not that I came to it may see the light._
destroy the law or the prophets:
I came not to destroy, but to
fulfil. For verily I say unto =xvi. 17.=
you, Till heaven and earth pass
away, one jot or one tittle _But it is easier for heaven
shall in no wise pass away from and earth to pass away, than for
the law, till all things be one tittle of the law to fall._
accomplished. Whosoever therefore
shall break one of these least
commandments, and shall teach men
so, shall be called least in the
kingdom of heaven: but whosoever
shall do and teach them, he shall
be called great in the kingdom of
heaven. For I say unto you, that
except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom
of heaven.

Ye have heard that it was said =xii. 58, 59.=
to them of old time, Thou shalt
not kill; and whosoever shall _For as thou art going with
kill shall be in danger of the thine adversary before the
judgement: but I say unto you, magistrate, on the way give
that every one who is angry with diligence to be quit of him;
his brother shall be in danger lest haply he hale thee unto
of the judgement; and whosoever the judge, and the judge shall
shall say to his brother, Raca, deliver thee to the officer,
shall be in danger of the council; and the officer shall cast thee
and whosoever shall say, Thou into prison. I say unto thee,
fool, shall be in danger of the Thou shalt by no means come out
hell of fire. If therefore thou thence, till thou have paid the
art offering thy gift at the very last mite._
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. Agree with thine adversary
quickly, whiles thou art with
him in the way; lest haply the
adversary deliver thee to the
judge, and the judge deliver thee
to the officer, and thou be cast
into prison. Verily I say unto
thee, Thou shalt by no means come
out thence, till thou have paid
the last farthing.

Ye have heard that it was said, =St. Mark ix. 43‒48.=
Thou shalt not commit adultery:
but I say unto you, that every _And if thy hand cause thee to
one that looketh on a woman to stumble, cut it off: it is good
lust after her hath committed for thee to enter into life
adultery with her already in his maimed, rather than having thy
heart. And if thy right eye two hands to go into hell, into
causeth thee to stumble, pluck it the unquenchable fire. And if thy
out, and cast it from thee: for foot cause thee to stumble, cut
it is profitable for thee that it off: it is good for thee to
one of thy members should perish, enter into life halt, rather than
and not thy whole body be cast having thy two feet to be cast
into hell. And if thy right hand into hell. And if thine eye cause
causeth thee to stumble, cut it thee to stumble, cast it out: it
off, and cast it from thee: for is good for thee to enter into
it is profitable for thee that the kingdom of God with one eye,
one of thy members should perish, rather than having two eyes to be
and not thy whole body go into cast into hell; where their worm
hell. It was said also, Whosoever dieth not, and the fire is not
shall put away his wife, let quenched._
him give her a writing of
divorcement: but I say unto you,
that every one that putteth away =St. Luke xvi. 18.=
his wife, saving for the cause
of fornication, maketh her an _Every one that putteth away
adulteress: and whosoever shall his wife, and marrieth another,
marry her when she is put away committeth adultery: and he that
committeth adultery. marrieth one that is put away
from a husband committeth
Again, ye have heard that it adultery._
was said to them of old time,
Thou shalt not forswear thyself,
but shalt perform unto the Lord
thine oaths: but I say unto you,
Swear not at all; neither by the
heaven, for it is the throne of
God; nor by the earth, for it is
the footstool of his feet; nor by
Jerusalem, for it is the city of
the great King. Neither shalt
thou swear by thy head, for thou
canst not make one hair white
or black. But let your speech
be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: and
whatsoever is more than these is
of the evil one.

Ye have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth: but I say unto you,
Resist not him that is evil: but
whosoever smiteth thee on thy
right cheek, turn to him the
other also. And if any man would
go to law with thee, and take
away thy coat, let him have thy
cloke also. And whosoever shall
compel thee to go one mile, go
with him twain. Give to him that
asketh thee, and from him that
would borrow of thee turn not
thou away.

Ye have heard that it was said, =vi. 27‒36.=
Thou shalt love thy neighbour,
and hate thine enemy: but I say But I say unto you which hear,
unto you, Love your enemies, Love your enemies, do good to
and pray for them that persecute them that hate you, bless them
you; that ye may be sons of your that curse you, pray for them
Father which is in heaven: for that despitefully use you. To
he maketh his sun to rise on the him that smiteth thee on the one
evil and the good, and sendeth cheek offer also the other; and
rain on the just and the unjust. from him that taketh away thy
For if ye love them that love cloke withhold not thy coat also.
you, what reward have ye? do not Give to every one that asketh
even the publicans the same? And thee; and of him that taketh away
if ye salute your brethren only, thy goods ask them not again. And
what do ye more than others? do as ye would that men should do to
not even the Gentiles the same? you, do ye also to them likewise.
Ye therefore shall be perfect, as And if ye love them that love
your heavenly Father is perfect. you, what thank have ye? for
even sinners love those that love
Take heed that ye do not your them. And if ye do good to them
righteousness before men, to be that do good to you, what thank
seen of them: else ye have no have ye? for even sinners do the
reward with your Father which is same. And if ye lend to them of
in heaven. whom ye hope to receive, what
thank have ye? even sinners lend
When therefore thou doest alms, to sinners, to receive again as
sound not a trumpet before thee, much. But love your enemies, and
as the hypocrites do in the do them good, and lend, never
synagogues and in the streets, despairing; and your reward shall
that they may have glory of men. be great, and ye shall be sons
Verily I say unto you, They have of the Most High: for he is kind
received their reward. But when toward the unthankful and evil.
thou doest alms, let not thy left Be ye merciful, even as your
hand know what thy right hand Father is merciful.
doeth: that thine alms may be
in secret: and thy Father which
seeth in secret shall recompense
thee.

And when ye pray, ye shall not =St. Luke xi. 1‒4.=
be as the hypocrites: for they
love to stand and pray in the _And it came to pass, as he
synagogues and in the corners was praying in a certain place,
of the streets, that they may be that when he ceased, one of his
seen of men. Verily I say unto disciples said unto him, Lord,
you, They have received their teach us to pray, even as John
reward. But thou, when thou also taught his disciples. And he
prayest, enter into thine inner said unto them, When ye pray say,
chamber, and having shut thy Father, Hallowed be thy name.
door, pray to thy Father which is Thy kingdom come. Give us day by
in secret, and thy Father which day our daily bread. And forgive
seeth in secret shall recompense us our sins; for we ourselves
thee. And in praying use not vain also forgive every one that is
repetitions, as the Gentiles do: indebted to us. And bring us not
for they think that they shall be into temptation._
heard for their much speaking. Be
not therefore like unto them: for
your Father knoweth what things
ye have need of, before ye ask
him. After this manner therefore
pray ye: Our Father which art in
heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done,
as in heaven, so on earth. Give
us this day our daily bread. And
forgive us our debts, as we also
have forgiven our debtors. And
bring us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil
one. For if ye forgive men their
trespasses, your heavenly Father
will also forgive you. But if ye
forgive not men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses.

Moreover when ye fast, be =St. Luke xi. 34‒36.=
not, as the hypocrites, of a sad
countenance: for they disfigure _The lamp of the body is thine
their faces, that they may be eye: when thine eye is single,
seen of men to fast. Verily I thy whole body also is full of
say unto you, They have received light; but when it is evil, thy
their reward. But thou, when thou body also is full of darkness.
fastest, anoint thy head, and Look therefore whether the light
wash thy face; that thou be that is in thee be not darkness.
not seen of men to fast, but of If therefore thy whole body be
thy Father which is in secret: full of light, having no part
and thy Father, which seeth in dark, it shall be wholly full of
secret, shall recompense thee. light, as when the lamp with its
bright shining doth give thee
Lay not up for yourselves light._
treasures upon the earth, where
moth and rust doth consume, and
where thieves break through and =xvi. 13.=
steal: but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where _No servant can serve two
neither moth nor rust doth masters: for either he will hate
consume, and where thieves do the one, and love the other; or
not break through nor steal: for else he will hold to one, and
where thy treasure is, there will despise the other. Ye cannot
thy heart be also. The lamp of serve God and mammon._
the body is the eye: if therefore
thine eye be single, thy whole
body shall be full of light. But =xii. 22‒34.=
if thine eye be evil, thy whole
body shall be full of darkness. _Therefore I say unto you, Be
If therefore the light that is not anxious for your life, what
in thee be darkness, how great ye shall eat; nor yet for your
is the darkness! No man can serve body, what ye shall put on. For
two masters: for either he will the life is more than the food,
hate the one, and love the other; and the body than the raiment.
or else he will hold to one, Consider the ravens, that they
and despise the other. Ye cannot sow not, neither reap; which
serve God and mammon. Therefore I have no store-chamber nor barn;
say unto you, Be not anxious for and God feedeth them: of how
your life, what ye shall eat, or much more value are ye than the
what ye shall drink; nor yet for birds! And which of you by being
your body, what ye shall put on. anxious can add a cubit unto his
Is not the life more than the stature? If then ye are not able
food, and the body than the to do even that which is least,
raiment? Behold the birds of why are ye anxious concerning
the heaven, that they sow not, the rest? Consider the lilies,
neither do they reap, nor gather how they grow: they toil not,
into barns; and your heavenly neither do they spin; yet I say
Father feedeth them. Are not ye unto you, Even Solomon in all his
of much more value than they? And glory was not arrayed like one of
which of you by being anxious can these. But if God doth so clothe
add one cubit unto his stature? the grass in the field, which
And why are ye anxious concerning to-day is, and to-morrow is cast
raiment? Consider the lilies of into the oven; how much more
the field, how they grow; they shall he clothe you, O ye of
toil not, neither do they spin: little faith? And seek not ye
yet I say unto you, that even what ye shall eat, and what ye
Solomon in all his glory was not shall drink, neither be ye of
arrayed like one of these. But if doubtful mind. For all these
God doth so clothe the grass of things do the nations of the
the field, which to-day is, and world seek after: but your Father
to-morrow is cast into the oven, knoweth that ye have need of
shall he not much more clothe these things. Howbeit seek ye his
you, O ye of little faith? Be not kingdom, and these things shall
therefore anxious, saying, What be added unto you. Fear not,
shall we eat? or, What shall we little flock; for it is your
drink? or, Wherewithal shall we Father’s good pleasure to give
be clothed? For after all these you the kingdom. Sell that ye
things do the Gentiles seek; for have, and give alms; make for
your heavenly Father knoweth that yourselves purses which wax not
ye have need of all these things. old, a treasure in the heavens
But seek ye first his kingdom, that faileth not, where no
and his righteousness; and all thief draweth near, nor moth
these things shall be added unto destroyeth. For where your
you. Be not therefore anxious for treasure is, there will your
the morrow: for the morrow will heart be also._
be anxious for itself. Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof.

Judge not, that ye be not =St. Luke vi. 37‒42.=
judged. For with what judgement
ye judge, ye shall be judged: And judge not, and ye shall
and with what measure ye mete, it not be judged: and condemn not,
shall be measured unto you. And and ye shall not be condemned:
why beholdest thou the mote that release, and ye shall be
is in thy brother’s eye, but released: give, and it shall be
considerest not the beam that given unto you; good measure,
is in thine own eye? Or how wilt pressed down, shaken together,
thou say to thy brother, Let me running over, shall they give
cast out the mote out of thine into your bosom. For with what
eye; and lo, the beam is in thine measure ye mete it shall be
own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out measured to you again.
first the beam out of thine own
eye; and then shalt thou see And he spake also a parable
clearly to cast out the mote out unto them, Can the blind guide
of thy brother’s eye. the blind? shall they not both
fall into a pit? The disciple is
Give not that which is holy not above his master: but every
unto the dogs, neither cast your one when he is perfected shall be
pearls before the swine, lest as his master. And why beholdest
haply they trample them under thou the mote that is in thy
their feet, and turn and rend brother’s eye, but considerest
you. not the beam that is in thine own
eye? Or how canst thou say to thy
brother, Brother, let me cast out
the mote that is in thine eye,
when thou thyself beholdest not
the beam that is in thine own
eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out
first the beam out of thine own
eye, and then shalt thou see
clearly to cast out the mote
that is in thy brother’s eye.

Ask, and it shall be given you; =St. Luke xi. 9‒13.=
seek, and ye shall find; knock,
and it shall be opened unto _And I say unto you, Ask, and
you: for every one that asketh it shall be given you; seek,
receiveth; and he that seeketh and ye shall find; knock, and
findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened unto you. For
it shall be opened. Or what man every one that asketh receiveth;
is there of you, who, if his son and he that seeketh findeth; and
shall ask him for a loaf, will to him that knocketh it shall be
give him a stone; or if he shall opened. And of which of you that
ask for a fish, will give him a is a father shall his son ask a
serpent? If ye then, being evil, loaf, and he give him a stone?
know how to give good gifts unto or a fish, and he for a fish give
your children, how much more him a serpent? Or if he shall
shall your Father which is ask an egg, will he give him a
in heaven give good things to scorpion? If ye then, being evil,
them that ask him? All things know how to give good gifts unto
therefore whatsoever ye would your children, how much more
that men should do unto you, even shall your heavenly Father give
so do ye also unto them: for this the Holy Spirit to them that ask
is the law and the prophets. him?_

Enter ye in by the narrow gate:
for wide is the gate, and broad =xiii. 24‒27.=
is the way, that leadeth to
destruction, and many be they _Strive to enter in by the
that enter in thereby. For narrow narrow door: for many, I say unto
is the gate, and straitened the you, shall seek to enter in, and
way, that leadeth unto life, and shall not be able. When once the
few be they that find it. master of the house is risen up,
and hath shut to the door, and
Beware of false prophets, which ye begin to stand without, and to
come to you in sheep’s clothing, knock at the door, saying, Lord,
but inwardly are ravening wolves. open to us; and he shall answer
By their fruits ye shall know and say to you, I know you not
them. Do men gather grapes of whence ye are; then shall ye
thorns, or figs of thistles? Even begin to say, We did eat and
so every good tree bringeth forth drink in thy presence, and thou
good fruit; but the corrupt tree didst teach in our streets; and
bringeth forth evil fruit. A he shall say, I tell you, I know
good tree cannot bring forth evil not whence ye are; depart from
fruit, neither can a corrupt tree me, all ye workers of iniquity._
bring forth good fruit. Every
tree that bringeth not forth
good fruit is hewn down, and cast =vi. 43‒49.=
into the fire. Therefore by their
fruits ye shall know them. Not For there is no good tree that
every one that saith unto me, bringeth forth corrupt fruit;
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the nor again a corrupt tree that
kingdom of heaven; but he that bringeth forth good fruit. For
doeth the will of my Father which each tree is known by its own
is in heaven. Many will say to me fruit. For of thorns men do not
in that day, Lord, Lord, did we gather figs, nor of a bramble
not prophesy by thy name, and by bush gather they grapes. The good
thy name cast out devils, and by man out of the good treasure of
thy name do many mighty works? his heart bringeth forth that
And then will I profess unto which is good; and the evil man
them, I never knew you: depart out of the evil treasure bringeth
from me, ye that work iniquity. forth that which is evil: for out
Every one therefore which heareth of the abundance of the heart his
these words of mine, and doeth mouth speaketh.
them, shall be likened unto a
wise man, which built his house And why call ye me, Lord, Lord,
upon the rock: and the rain and do not the things which I
descended, and the floods came, say? Every one that cometh unto
and the winds blew, and beat me, and heareth my words, and
upon that house; and it fell not: doeth them, I will show you to
for it was founded upon the rock. whom he is like: he is like a man
And every one that heareth these building a house, who digged and
words of mine, and doeth them went deep, and laid a foundation
not, shall be likened unto a upon the rock: and when a flood
foolish man, which built his arose, the stream brake against
house upon the sand: and the rain that house, and could not shake
descended, and the floods came, it: because it had been well
and the winds blew, and smote builded. But he that heareth,
upon that house; and it fell: and and doeth not, is like a man
great was the fall thereof. that built a house upon the earth
without a foundation; against
And it came to pass, when Jesus which the stream brake, and
ended these words, the multitudes straightway it fell in; and the
were astonished at his teaching: ruin of that house was great.
for he taught them as one having
authority, and not as their
scribes.

And when he was come down from
the mountain, great multitudes
followed him.

APPENDIX II

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR CHRISTIANS

IT has been noticed above in the exposition of St. Matt. v. 21‒48 that
different moral principles are brought out by our Lord in His treatment
of the different commandments. Thus in His treatment of Commandment VI
(vv. 21‒24) the moral requirement is deepened in its application below
the act to the words of the lips and the thoughts of the heart. In
the treatment of Commandment VII, not only is the outward scope of
the sin of adultery enlarged by a stricter law of marriage (vv. 31‒32),
but also the deliberate intention of sin is shown to be, without
proceeding further, the moral equivalent of the outward act of sin[90]
(vv. 27‒28); from the recognition of which principle there follows the
need of an augmented moral discipline (vv. 29‒30). In the treatment of
Commandment III, starting from the prohibition to violate any oath made
in the name of Jehovah (v. 33), our Lord augments the prohibition by
forbidding oaths generally (vv. 34‒36), and turns the requirement from
the negative to the positive and from the occasional to the universal
(v. 37), by simply enjoining truthfulness or sincerity in all
utterances.

In His treatment of the prohibition of unrestricted revenge
(vv. 38‒42), and the principle of limited love (vv. 43‒48), the same
two principles emerge――the transition from negation or prohibition of
evil to injunction of positive good, and from the partial or limited
duty to the universal and perfect.

These principles admit of general application to each of the
commandments. Thus――

I. _Thou shalt have none other gods before_ [or _beside_] _me_.
Whatever be the original limitation of this precept, it becomes, and
indeed in the teaching of psalmist and prophet which prepared for the
Christ had already become, a universal injunction upon men to recognize
the one true God in every faculty of their being, in every act and
moment of their lives. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart (or will), with all thy soul (i.e. with thy whole sum of
faculties), with all thy mind (or intelligence), and with all thy
strength (i.e. with a vigorous and active service).” This includes
(1) the recognition of God’s supremacy and fatherhood; the putting
Him first in all things; the acknowledgement that our life with all
its faculties is a trust to be made the best of, for His honour:
(2) humility, considered as the recognition that we are utterly
dependent upon God; that our only wisdom and happiness lie in
correspondence with Him; that any claim of independence of God, or
vanity on account of His gifts entrusted to us, is not only wickedness
but folly:[91] (3) the glad acceptance of His disclosure of Himself as
Father, Son, and Spirit; the acknowledgement and public confession of
His name both in speech, conduct and worship.

II. _Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, etc._ This
negative commandment becomes the positive injunction to worship God
aright, as He has revealed Himself to us, “in spirit and in truth”;
or in other words, according to the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer and
of the Eucharist, which are of Christ’s institution; or in the spirit
of His own worship. This involves earnestness and effort of will in
prayer: reasonable method, and use of the body with its faculties or
instruments: the action of the intelligence meditating on the word of
God so that we may have right ideas about God: systematic prayer for
others――the Church, humanity, various classes and individuals――as
well as for ourselves: public prayer and private: adoration and
thanksgiving, as well as making requests――i.e. a life of worship of
which the two hinges are the Eucharist (St. Luke xxii. 19) and secret
prayer (St. Matt. vi. 6). This positive injunction involves negatives.
Thus though the old prohibition to make any visible representation of
God is modified by His incarnation, it still remains a duty which the
Church has often neglected to guard against idolatry. It is idolatry
to let our worship (1) be directed towards persons lower than God,
as mediators, because they seem easier to approach and less awful; or
(2) rest upon circumscribed objects so as to imperil the omnipresence
of God; or (3) be moulded by false conceptions of God, as when the
worth of prayer is estimated by the place where it is offered, or
by some measure of length, contrary to the principles expressed in
St. John iv. 21 ff., St. Matt. vi. 7.

III. _Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain._
This limited prohibition of perjury becomes the positive and universal
injunction of truthfulness, i.e. the injunction to live and therefore
to speak as in God’s presence, so that our words represent the
reality, so far as we can know it, whether those words be promises,
or statements (a) personal, (b) historical or scientific. This duty of
truthfulness extends into all regions of life, political, commercial,
controversial, as well as the private and domestic sphere, i.e. we are
never justified in deceiving others for our own interest or that of our
Church or party.[92]

This commandment, as deepened by our Lord, also prohibits all other
kinds of speech which by their character ignore the reverence we owe to
an omnipresent God, i.e. blasphemous or unmeaning oaths and expressions
derogatory to God’s honour, irreverent or “foolish talking and jesting
which are not convenient,” etc.

IV. _Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou
labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the
Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor
thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle,
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord
made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed
it._

This commandment lays down three laws for human life.

1. The law of work, which――though the kinds of work are various, as of
body, mind, character, spirit, suffering――lies upon all men alike. “If
any man will not work, neither let him eat.”

2. The law of rest, like God’s rest. God works, as in creation,
redemption, the establishment of the kingdom; and then rests in
contemplation of His finished work; see Gen. i. 31, Matt. iii. 17,
Rev. xxi. 2: or, as otherwise stated by our Lord (St. John v. 17), God
works continually and yet rests in working, as is exemplified in our
Lord “semper agens, semper quietus.” Thus man is to share God’s rest,
by resting in God (Ps. cxxvii), and the sabbath was intended to help to
this end. The sabbath however was a day of rest from physical labour,
which only secondarily became a day of worship. The Christian Lord’s
day, on the other hand, was originally a day of worship, which became
secondarily a day of rest from labour. The primary object of Sunday
is that men by taking time and thought for worship should learn the
true rest, which is rest in God. The secondary object is that all men
equally should have the opportunity for physical rest and recreation.
All questions as to Sunday observance are to be judged by their
relation to those two objects in their right order.

3. The law of fellowship. This fellowship of all men (and even of men
with beasts) is developed in the New Testament into the principle that
each man has a right to equal consideration, that each man counts for
one, and nobody for more than one. Cp. above, p. 182.

V. _Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon
the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee._ By this “commandment
with promise” honour to parents, which is the principle of family life,
is made also the basis of national prosperity (cf. Deut. v. 16). It
is enlarged in all the “wise sayings” of the Book of Proverbs about
family life. It receives its completion in the principle of mutual
duty between parents and children, husbands and wives, masters and
servants, which are enunciated in such passages as Eph. v. 22‒vi. 9;
Col. iii. 18‒iv. 1. It receives a natural extension, so as to include
the whole principle of mutual subordination in Church and State: cf.
Hebr. xiii. 17; Rom. xiii; 1 Pet. ii. 13‒iii. 7. It involves towards
the Church the duty, not only of loyal obedience, but of generous
support. “Give to thy mother what thou wouldst allow to ev’ry
corporation.”

VI. _Thou shalt do no murder._ This commandment is developed by our
Lord so as to prohibit hatred or contempt in thought and word as well
as in deed. Translated from the negative into the positive it becomes
an injunction to do all that lies in one’s power to promote the life
of others, physically and spiritually――to “love thy neighbour as
thyself”――and to do this with a good will even towards enemies.

VII. _Thou shalt not commit adultery._ Our Lord deals with this
commandment partly by an increased strictness with regard to the
marriage law which brings under the head of adultery a number of
remarriages after divorce hitherto tolerated under the Jewish system;
partly by making the indulged intention to sin equally guilty with
the sin itself. On another occasion our Lord gives “adulteries,
fornications, lasciviousness,” a conspicuous place among the sins which
“proceed out of the heart” or “from within,” as though to emphasize the
necessity in regard to this class of sins in particular of cleansing
the inner springs of action and feeling. If we make the injunction
positive and general instead of negative and partial, we arrive at the
“law of liberty,” the duty of subordinating the flesh to the spirit, in
respect of eating and drinking, as well as of the sexual passions; and
the necessity of self-discipline or fasting as a means to that end (see
above, pp. 120 f.).

VIII. _Thou shalt not steal_, converted from the negative into
the positive, becomes “Thou shalt labour, working with thine hands
the thing that is good, that thou mayest have to give to him that
needeth.”[93] It is, in another form, the loving one’s neighbour as
oneself: the having the same care for his goods as for one’s own: the
same anxiety that he should have proper wages for labour as oneself.
From the Christian point of view this commandment is broken, not only
by stealing in the ordinary sense, but also (1) by fraudulent dealings
in business or trade, whereby our fellow man receives for money
given something less, or other, than he had a right to expect: (2) by
“sweating” or requiring others to work for inadequate wages: (3) by
giving or receiving bribes or, in other ways, defrauding an employer
of the best service of the employed: (4) by expecting others to work
for us without doing our own fair share of work: (5) by neglecting or
inadequately performing the duty of almsgiving. And in our generation
we specially need reminding that association in “companies” leaves
the moral responsibility for commercial dealings still resting on
each member of the company, at least in the form of a duty to vote for
directors who will have righteousness in view: to discountenance all
unrighteousness as far as possible: to refuse gains for unrighteous
dealing, when known. In all cases the Christian must prefer to suffer
wrong rather than to do it.

IX. _Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour._ This
commandment, converted from the negative――the prohibition of wilful
slander――to the positive, becomes an injunction to make the law of
love the motive of all our speech, with as tender a regard to others’
reputation as to our own. We may have to speak painful truth against
others, to rebuke, to accuse, to punish, etc., but the motive of all
speech is to be a deliberate good will.

X. _Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, etc._ The ten
commandments, as has been remarked, began and ended with an injunction
bearing not upon the outward conduct, but upon the heart. This one
affords no discouragement to our vital instinct of making the best
of ourselves, but it bids us have regard to what we can ascertain of
the divine intention for ourselves. We are to realize God’s purpose
for us, and to desire that every one else should do the same. Thus
this commandment prohibits envy or jealousy at another’s success or
abilities: discontent with what God has allowed us: ambition properly
so called, i.e. the desire to compass greatness, without regard to the
will of God. The New Testament even tends to make us personally prefer
the humbler to the higher place, and obedience to authority. But, on
the other hand, it says all that is possible to encourage a “divine
discontent” with the disorder of the world, which is the work of evil
wills resisting the will of God, that sort of discontent which makes a
man a fellow-worker with Christ for the realization of the kingdom of
heaven.

* * * * *

I have thought this analysis of the ten commandments in their
deepest principles, inadequate as it is, might be worth making, partly
because I cannot feel altogether satisfied with such as are commonly
current,[94] partly because the attempt to make such an analysis
deepens in my own mind the conviction that if the ten commandments
were not――as our Lord teaches us they were not――perfect, they were
none the less, in the truest sense, “the word of God,” for the moral
education of His chosen people, and through them of the human race.
Their principles are extraordinarily complete and suggestive, and there
is no early moral legislation which seems to me to be even comparable
to them.

APPENDIX III

THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH IN REGARD TO DIVORCE

ABOVE, in the text of the exposition, it has been maintained (1) that
Christ, by a distinct act of legislation, prohibited divorce among His
disciples in such sense as allows of remarriage, except in the case of
the adultery of one of the parties, in which case He did not prohibit
it; but (2) that the Church law and tradition in England, as in
the whole Western Church, maintains the absolute indissolubility
of the marriage tie. Both propositions, however, are denied, and it
is necessary to make some remarks upon the respective denials.

1. The present tendency of those who deny that Christ’s words, as
repeated on two occasions in St. Matthew’s Gospel, allow the remarriage
of the innocent party after divorce for adultery is――abandoning
with good cause the older arguments (1) that πορνεία only applies to
prenuptial sin: (2) that the words as quoted in St. Matthew were only
intended to apply to the Jews――to lay stress upon the uncertainty
of the text in St. Matt. xix where the words occur “and shall marry
another.” To this it may be replied (i) that it is strange to find
people not generally recognized as very advanced textual critics going,
in this single case, further than even Dr. Hort ventured to go, in
maintaining the textual authority of the Vatican manuscript, which
alone among the great uncials omits the clause; (ii) that it would
appear sufficiently obvious that the variation of the text in this
passage is due to assimilation to the similar passage in chapter v;
(iii) that it is not time to deprive people of the right to appeal
to an accepted text until some trustworthy editors have been found
to venture to remove it from its place; (iv) that the sense remains
the same in any case. For the text, as given in chapter v, or in
chapter xix with the words “and shall marry another” omitted, yet
carries the liberty to do so, see text given above, pp. 72, 73.
Divorce, as understood by the Jews, meant divorce _a vinculo_, i.e.
divorce with liberty of remarriage. Is any sane man prepared to say
that divorce, in the sense of separation of a wife from bed and board,
without liberty of remarriage, is only permissible to a Christian when
the wife has been adulterous?

I do not think then that the obvious force of the passages in
St. Matthew can be dissolved.

2. On the other hand, admitting all that can be said as to the
difficulty, which is due to the historical relation of Church and State
in England, of saying what is Church law pure and simple, it does seem
to me that the Western law of divorce, as distinct from the Eastern,
was accepted by the English Church and not only never repudiated,
but at least assumed to be permanent in the Post-Reformation Canons.
What has happened since then is (1) that the opinion of a great number
of the best English divines and commentators on St. Matthew has been
expressed in favour of allowing the remarriage of the “innocent party”
after a divorce for adultery; (2) that the Lambeth Conference of 1888
allowed such remarriage; (3) that statute law in England has recently
allowed the remarriage of both innocent and guilty party.

But the Lambeth Conference only expresses the opinion (however weighty)
of a gathering of Anglican bishops. It cannot legislate for the Church
of England. And the legislation which has taken place is purely civil
legislation made from a civil point of view and going beyond what the
Lambeth Conference would allow. And on such a matter as marriage which
lies at the heart of our religious life it seems quite unreasonable to
ask Christian people to accept this, as authority sufficient to upset
an ancient practice of the Church.

Granted then (1) that Christ did not prohibit[95] the remarriage of
an innocent party after a divorce for adultery, (2) that the unaltered
Church law of England does prohibit it, it seems to me that the best
course is _not_, at least in the present state of Church feeling, to
alter the Church law on the matter, up to the point which Christ allows,
by getting leave for Convocation to make a new Canon――though this would
be a course to which no one could take just exception――but to retain
and observe the Church law, allowing no remarriage with the rites of
the Church, but simply leaving it to bishops to act on the decision of
the Lambeth Conference as far as admission to communion is concerned.

This refusal to allow remarriage in churches may involve some collision
with statute law till an equitable concession to our principles is
accorded. But the difficulty is not greater than has been overcome by a
little resolution in the case of the Public Worship Regulation Act. If
in the process of the controversy the institution of compulsory civil
marriage here in England, with the same publicity as in most foreign
countries, to be followed by a voluntary religious ceremony, becomes a
more likely event, there would be a good many Churchmen who would not
regret it.

As regards the allowance of remarriage to the innocent party after
a divorce for adultery, it is sometimes pointed out that it is only
explicitly allowed by our Lord to the innocent _husband_. But it is,
I submit, at least competent to the Church to interpret this in the
more lenient sense as extending to the aggrieved wife also. It is more
often urged that it is illogical to forbid to the guilty party what
is allowed to the innocent――that if declared adultery dissolves the
marriage tie for either, it does so for both. To this I should only
reply that our Lord appears on the matter to be _legislating_ rather
than laying down a principle. His legislation covers the one exception
but not (with any degree of clearness) the other. He appears to be
sanctioning in the case of an innocent and deeply aggrieved person a
dispensation which violates the logic of the marriage tie on grounds of
equity: but this carries with it no necessary consequence of a similar
dispensation in favour of the chief offender.

INDEXES

I. PERSONS AND AUTHORITIES CITED

Aristotle,
on the “Blessed Life,” 18
on pity, 39
on the use of the drama, 39

Augustine, St.,
on the relation of Old and New Testaments, 1, 56
on the law and grace, 4
his prayer, 108

Bacon (Francis),
note-books illustrate Christ’s method, 12
his scientific method applied to prayer, 147

Bengel, on self-mortification, 70

Buddha,
on the “Blessed Life,” 18
on pity, 38‒9

“Carton, Sidney,” 106

Cassian, on sorrow, 32

Chase (Bp.), on the Lord’s Prayer, 132, 135

Chichester, Dean of, on Christ under semi-false accusation, 88

Chrysostom, on the Beatitudes, 28

_Didaché_,
on reconciliation and communion, 65
on almsgiving, 100
on duty to neighbour, 181 _n._

“Dream of Gerontius,” 44

Edward the Confessor, story of, 98‒9

Esau and Jacob, essential difference between, 57

Franks, conversion of, low standard, 51

Gnostics, and the “Mysteries,” 174

Gospel, uncanonical, record of a word of Christ on prayer, 143

_Hermas_, on alms, 101

Hillel (Rabbi), on duty to neighbour, 181

Irenaeus, on Old and New Testament, 55

Jacob and Esau, essential difference between, 57

Jehoshaphat’s reforms, 62

Job,
his detachment (poverty of spirit), 25
“seeing God,” 43

Kant, on duty to neighbour, 182

Law (Wm.), indiscriminate charity, 102

_Les Miserables_, 99

Maurice (F. D.), and fasting, 123

Mill (J. S.), on Christ’s moral teaching, 8

Mohammedanism, 51‒2

Mozley, on the imprecatory psalms, 103

Newman (J. H.), and the cardinalate, 119

Origen, on Ps. xii, and Christ’s teaching, 8

Plato, _Symposium_, 9, 181 _n._

Pusey,
on Mill, 8
on fasting, 123

“Sidney Carton,” 106

Simeon (Chas.), and fasting, 123

_Tale of Two Cities_, 106

Trent, Council of, its catechism, 132

Wisdom, Book of, and the world, 22

Xavier’s hymn, 112

II. SUBJECTS

Act, sin of, 63
Advertisement, self-, 190
Altar, of new kingdom, 65
Answer to prayer, 177‒8
Anxiety,
for health, 160
in holidays, 161
for success, 161
worldly, 157‒60
Christ’s freedom from, 160
Appreciation, power of, necessary for reception of religious
truth, 172‒3, 175
Asceticism, 69
Christian, compared with Indian, 71
Atonement,
nature of true, 199
need for, 198

Bad motives, playing upon, 118
Beatitudes, order of, 20
Beggars, attitude to, 99‒102
Benevolence, impartial, 175
Best thing in the world, 108
“Blessed Life,” 16‒21
according to Buddha, 18
according to Aristotle, 18
Body not evil, 71‒2
Body relation to spirit, 69‒70
Brotherhood of Christians, 68
Burdens, bearing others’, 30

Carelessness, moral, 71
Character, 188‒9
in the new kingdom, 16
of Christ’s teaching, 16
Christian, in the world, 47‒53
of Christ, the best thing in the world, 108
of Pharisees, 164‒5
CHRIST,
His authority, 60
bearing our burdens, 30
character of, the most precious thing in the world, 108
Divine nature, 6, 56‒7, 179
only foundation of life, 193
His freedom from anxiety, 160
His freedom illustrated by Ps. cxxvii, 160
gives principles, not laws, 109
Judge of all, 191‒2
His methods, 92‒4
His method to give principles, 64, 67, 109
parable of unmerciful servant, 41
Prince of Peace, 44
principle of interpretation of all laws, 64
use of proverbs, 92‒3
proverbial manner, 159, 168
was He revolutionary? 54
saying about prayer, an uncanonical, 143
His superiority over other teachers, 180
His teaching unique, 15, 16, 180
teaching of truthfulness, 81
under semi-false accusation, 89
the WORD, 6
His words the foundation of life, 193
His words the foundation of the Church, 193
Church, test of, 196‒7
Conditions,
of power of reception of truth, 173‒4, 175
of the offer of spiritual privileges, 174
Conduct,
motive of, 107, 118
social, principle of, 181
Conscience, 155‒6
Conversation, 80
Courts of Law, Jewish, 62‒3
Covenant, old, check on savage human instincts, 86
Criticism,
the temper of, 165‒9
wrong, 167
right, 167

“Daily,” significance of the word in the Lord’s Prayer, 132
Dealing, laws of the Divine, 40‒1, 54‒5, 85, 134
“Detachment” = poverty of spirit, 25
“Detachment” of Christ in the Incarnation, 25
Devil, existence of, 136‒7
Discipline, of self, 69
Divorce, 72‒8
in law of the Church of England, 77
in the Eastern Church, 76
“innocent party” in, 76
Duty,
threefold, to God, neighbour, and self, 114‒5
to self, fasting the expression of, 115
to self = making the best of ourselves, 115

Education, of man, God’s method of, 56
Enlightenment of conscience, 153‒4

Fall of man, 179‒80
Fasting,
expression of duty to self, 115
abuse of, 122‒3
examples of practice, 123
Fictitious pity, 40
Forgiveness,
nature of, 133
for the past, by itself no real remedy, 199
Foundation,
of life, 193
of the Church, 193
Freedom, the end of self-discipline, 72

GOD,
centre of all in Christ’s teaching, 19
character of, 187
dealings with imperfection, 55
dealings with us, 40‒1, 54‒5, 85, 134
Fatherhood of, 129, 141‒2
love of, how learned, 153
and mammon, 154
method of education, 56
nature of, 154‒5
Name = His revelation, 129
not tied to His own ordinances, 191
Presence of, degrees of, 82
purpose, 55
seeing Him, 43‒4
sole object of new righteousness, 111
and the world, 22
Gradation of crime in Jewish law, 62

Health and anxiety, 160
Heathen teaching in relation to Sermon on the Mount, 6‒10
“Heaven,” 129, 152
treasure in, 152
Hiding money, 151
Holidays and anxiety, 161
Holy Spirit, and good character, 191
Humility, 165
Hunger after righteousness, 36‒7
illustrated by boat-race, 37
Hypocrisy, 189‒90
English, 189

Imperfection, God’s dealing with, 55
Imprecatory psalms, 103‒4
Impurity, antidote to, 42
Injustice, legal, resistance to, 96
Intention = sin, 68

Jewish courts of law, 62‒3
gradation of crime, 62
Judgement, Christ’s coming to, 191
duty of, 166, 169
standards of, to be maintained, 48‒9, 167‒8
Justice, public, and private feeling, 89‒90

Kindness to enemies, effect of, 105

Lambeth Conference, on divorce, 76
Law, old,
relation to new, 1, 4, 54
check on savage human instincts, 86
Lawful subjects of prayer, 149‒50
“Letter,” of the Commandments, the meaning of, 3
Life of Blessedness, 16‒21
Lord’s Prayer, 128‒49
type and model of all prayer, 138
converging point of all ancient liturgies, 138
in Morning and Evening Prayer, 139
paraphrased, 145‒8
Lost, and saved, number of, 186‒7
Love of self, a true, 113
of God, how learned, 153

Mammon, and God, 154
Man, fallen state of, 179
Matthew, record of the Sermon on the Mount, his, 14
Maxims, of the world, 24, 28, 33
Meekness, 34
Mendicity, 99 _et seq._
Mohammedanism, compared with Christianity, 51‒2
Money, hiding of, 151
Motives, 109, 111‒27
bad, playing upon, 118
of religious life, 151
test of, 118, 151
Mourning,
for sin, 29
false, 32‒3
of sympathy, 30

Name, God’s, His revelation of Himself, 129
“National Church,” idea of, danger of, 52

Oath,
defined, 79
accepted by Christ, 82
accepted by St. Paul, 82
Ordinances, God not tied to His own, 191

Peace, 44‒5, 157
Peacemakers, 44‒6
Perfection, to be striven after, 108
Pharisaic religion, 59‒60
Pharisaism of the Publican, 66
Pharisees, character of, 59, 165
Pity, 38‒42
Aristotle’s, 39
Buddha’s, 38‒9
“dramatic,” 39
Poverty,
of spirit, 25‒8
voluntary, 28
Prayer,
definition of, 147
answer to, 178
effective, 178
“in Name of Christ,” 140, 142
in the region of uncertainty, 149
= intercourse with God, 126‒7
its reward, 118
lawful, 149‒50
Lord’s, 128‒49
and scientific method, 147
and selfishness, 144
spirit of, depends on idea of God, 129
test of, 141, 142
uncanonical saying of Christ about, 143
wheels and flags (Buddhist), 125
Presence of God, degrees of, 82
Prevision, is not anxiety, 160
Pride, 42
Principle,
of safe life, applied to art, 70
of social conduct, 181
Principles,
of Commandments, 64
Christ’s method to give, 63, 65, 109
new, in Seventh Commandment, 69
Proverbs, Christ’s use of, 92‒3
Psalms, imprecatory, 103‒4
Public justice and private feeling, 89‒90
Purity of heart, 42

Rates and taxes, 96
Reception of religious truth, condition of, 172‒3, 175
Reciprocity in life, 171
Relief cases, how to deal with, 99‒100
Religion,
outward, visible, 112, 121‒2
Pharisaic, 59‒60
Religious life,
true motive of, 151
orders, and voluntary poverty, 28
Remarriage
of “innocent party,” 78
Lambeth Conference of 1888 upon, 76
“Reserve”
in Christian teaching, 171‒4
in early Church, 174‒6
Resistance to legal injustice, 96
Revenge,
law of, 84
and public justice, 89‒90
Rewards, 112‒3, 118‒9
Righteousness, definition of, 36

Salvation, dependent on three great principles, 187
Sanhedrin, nature of, 62
Saved, and lost, number of, 186‒7
“Seeing God,” 43‒4
Self-discipline, 69
Self-love, true, 113
Sin,
nature of, 133
forgiveness of, 133
Single-mindedness, 43, 154
Sins
of act, 63
in intention, 68
of thought, 64
Social conduct, principle of, 181
Social law, for Christians, 109
Socialism and the Sermon on the Mount, 183
Sonship, of Christians, 142
Spirit, relation to body, 69‒70, 124
Spiritual
fabrics, test of, 193‒6
privileges, offer of, 174
Standard,
of Christianity, compared with Mohammedanism, 51‒2
of judgement, to be maintained, 167‒8
danger of lowering, 51‒2
Story of the Confessor and the scullion thief, 98‒9
Story of the Bishop and Jean Valjean, 99
Success and anxiety, 161
Sympathy, 30

Taxes, and rates, 96
Teaching,
discrimination in, 167‒70
of Christ, universal, 16
Temper, critical, 165‒9
Test,
of Christianity, 199
of the Church, 196‒7
of motives, 115, 151
of prayer, 141, 142
of spiritual fabrics, 193‒6
Thought, sins of, 64
Transport service of the Empire, 97
Treasure in heaven, 152
Truth, religious, condition of reception of, 172‒3, 175
Truthfulness,
as taught by Christ, 81
enjoined by Third Commandment, 81

Uncertainty, as to lawfulness of subjects for prayer, 149

Victory, final, of Christ’s kingdom, 198

Ways, the two, in life, 185‒6
Westminster Abbey, old sculpture in, 98
Words _v._ character, 185
“World,”
definition of, 21
in Book of Wisdom, 22
in Old Testament, 24
maxims, 24, 28, 33

III. TEXTS ELUCIDATED

Job i. 21, 25

Ps. lviii. 2, 82

Isa. lxvi. 1, 82

Ezek. xxix. 18‒20, 118

St. Matt.
x. 34, 45
xvi. 17, 195
xviii. 15‒18, 168

St. Mark xi. 24, 177

St. John
xi. 24‒5, 31
xv. 7, 178
xvi. 24, 178
xx. 23, 169

Rom.
v. 7, 42
vii. 1‒3, 76
vii. 4, 9
viii. 14, 170

1 Cor.
iii. 21, 27
iii. 22‒3, 155
vi. 7, 96

2 Cor.
iii. 6, 3
vi. 10, 27
viii. 9, 25

Gal. vi. 5, 30

Phil. ii. 7, 25

Heb.
xii. 16, 57
xii. 22, 129

St. Jas. ii. 15‒16, 101

1 St. John iii. 17, 101

Rev. iii. 15‒16, 49 _n._

IV. APHORISMS――“SEED THOUGHTS”

Atonement, must = redemption, 199
Attitude of others to us, 39
“On the whole we can determine men’s attitude to us by our
attitude to them”

Body and spirit must be treated together, 123

Care for health, 160
“We ought to be reasonably careful and to go boldly forward
in the peace of God”
Church, the offer of the, 174‒5
Comfort from God, 31
Conscience, 155
“Conscience is only a faculty for knowing God and His will. It
is certain, unless it is educated, to give wrong information”
Cost of duty, 188

Dealing of God with us, 40‒1
Duty to self, 114
“Our duty towards ourselves is, in a word, to make the best of
ourselves”

God’s dealings, 40‒1, 85
“God dealt with men gradually”

Health, care for, 160
Helping others, 46
“You are to help men by being unlike them”
How to make people better, 106

Imperfection, God’s treatment of, 55
“God does not despair of what is imperfect because it is
imperfect. He views every institution (or person) not as it
is, but as it is becoming”

“Judge not,” 163, 168
“Make the best of everything and every person”
“From all sides you get as you give”

Law of Correspondence in prayer, 148
Law of Prayer, 149
“We must not ask that God will violate His general laws in our
private interest”

Motive, real test of, 151

“Name of Christ,” in the, 140, 142
“To pray in the name of Christ means to pray in such a way as
represents Christ”
“That impulsive prayer which springs simply out of our own
needs is not the prayer ‘in the name of Christ’”

Peace, and truth, 44
“Peace can never be purchased in God’s way by the sacrifice
of truth”
Pharisaism of the Publican, 66

Reward, 118
“Every kind of conduct gets its reward on the plane of its
motive”

Safe life, 69‒70
“A safe life is better than a complete life”
Sermon on the Mount and Socialism, 183

Test of real motive, 151
Truth, and peace, 44
Truthfulness, Christ’s teaching on, 75

Value of the individual to God, 182
“Every one in God’s sight counts for one; and nobody counts
for more than one”

World, definition of, 21
“It is human society organizing itself apart from God”

These Indexes the author owes to the kindness of the
Rev. W. E. ASHDOWN.

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GORE, the Right Rev. Charles――Edited by.

LUX MUNDI. A Series of Studies in the Religion of the
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HARDWICH, the Rev. J. M., and
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OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. In Five Periods. Crown 8vo, 2s. each
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HOARE, H. W. Hamilton,
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OUR ENGLISH BIBLE. The Story of its Origin and Growth. With
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HORAN, the Rev. F. S.,
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A CALL TO SEAMEN and other Sermons Preached to Naval Cadets at
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INGE, the Very Rev. William Ralph, D.D.,
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TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD IN RELIGION. Six Lectures delivered at
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STUDIES OF ENGLISH MYSTICS. The St. Margaret’s Lectures. Fourth
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JOHNSTON. R. F.

BUDDHIST CHINA. With numerous Illustrations. Demy 8vo, 15s.
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JOURDAN, G. V., B.D.,
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JOWETT, Benjamin, M.A.,
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SELECT PASSAGES FROM THE THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS OF BENJAMIN
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SERMONS. Edited by the Very Rev. the Hon. W. H. FREMANTLE,
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THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS, GALATIANS,
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JULIAN, the Rev. John, D.D.,
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A DICTIONARY OF HYMNOLOGY. Setting forth the Origin and History
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LUSHINGTON, the Rev. F. de W.,
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SERMONS TO YOUNG BOYS. Third Edition. Crown 8vo, 3s. net.

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LYTTELTON, the Right Rev. the Hon. A. T., D.D.,
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THE PLACE OF MIRACLES IN RELIGION. The Hulsean Lectures for
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MACALISTER, Prof. R. A. Stewart, F.S.A.

THE EXCAVATION OF GEZER, 1902‒5 AND 1907‒9. Two Volumes of
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MENZIES, the Rev. Allan, D.D.,
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HISTORY OF RELIGION. A Sketch of Primitive Beliefs and
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MILMAN, the Very Rev. Henry Hart, D.D.,
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THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS. From the Earliest Period to Modern
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MOBERLY, the Right Rev. George, D.C.L.,
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DULCE DOMUM: BISHOP MOBERLY, HIS FAMILY, AND FRIENDS. By Miss
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MURRAY’S ILLUSTRATED BIBLE DICTIONARY.

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MURRAY’S DICTIONARY OF CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHY.

A DICTIONARY OF CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHY, LITERATURE, SECTS, AND
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NIELSEN, Dr. Fredrik,
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THE HISTORY OF THE PAPACY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
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OESTERLEY, the Rev. W. O. E., D.D.,
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THE DOCTRINE OF THE LAST THINGS—JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN. Crown
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LIFE, DEATH, AND IMMORTALITY. Studies in the Psalms. Crown 8vo,
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OGLE, the Rev. Arthur, M.A.,
_Rector of Otham, Maidstone_.

THE CANON LAW IN MEDIÆVAL ENGLAND. An Examination of William
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PETRIE, W. M. Flinders, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.

THE GROWTH OF THE GOSPELS. As Shown by Structural Criticism.
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POLLEN, JOHN HUNGERFORD.

JOHN HUNGERFORD POLLEN, 1820‒1902. By ANNE POLLEN. With
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POLLOCK, the Right Rev. Bertram, D.D., C.V.O.,
_Bishop of Norwich_.

THE BIBLE TO-DAY. Demy 8vo, 2s. 6d. net.

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FELLOWSHIP WITH THE DEPARTED. A Sermon Preached in St. Mary
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PRATT, Helen Marshall.

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PRAYER BOOK.

THE CONVOCATION PRAYER BOOK. Being the Book of Common Prayer,
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PROTHERO, Rowland E., M.V.O.

THE PSALMS IN HUMAN LIFE. Large Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. net. Also
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“The great subject discussed by Mr. Prothero in his
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ROBERTSON, the Rev. James Craigie,
_Late Canon of Canterbury_.

HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, from the Apostolic Age to the
Reformation. 8 vols. Post 8vo, 6s. each.
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ST. MARGARET’S LECTURES.

_FIRST SERIES, 1902_

CRITICISM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Large Crown 8vo, 6s. net.

INTRODUCTION, ON NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM, by Prof.
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_SECOND SERIES, 1903_

STUDIES ON ENGLISH RELIGION IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By
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THE PRÆ-LAUDIAN CHURCH OF ENGLAND――SABBATARIANISM――THE
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_FOURTH SERIES, 1905_

STUDIES OF ENGLISH MYSTICS. By the Very Rev. W. R. INGE, D.D.
Large Crown 8vo, 6s. net.

ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM――THE _Ancren Riwle_
AND JULIAN OF NORWICH――WALTER HYLTON――WILLIAM LAW――THE
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Footnotes.

1 – Also the alteration of the original question (St. Mark x. 3),
“Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?” by the
addition of the words “for every cause” (Matt. xix. 3) is
most significant.

2 – _De Gest. Pelag._ v. (15).

3 – 2 Cor. iii. 6.

4 – Rom. vii. 9.

5 – _De Sp. et Lit._ 34.

6 – See especially St. John i. 4‒12, Rom. ii. 14‒16,
Acts xvii. 22‒31.

7 – Mill’s _Three Essays on Theism_, p. 255. Pusey’s _Univ.
Sermons_, 1864‒72, “God and human independence,” p. 10,
note 1.

8 – The Sermon with the parallel passages is given at length in
Appendix I., pp. 202 ff.

9 – If the reading, and not the margin, of the R.V. be right in
Mark x. 23, 24.

10 – St. John xiv. 26.

11 – St. Matt. vii. 28.

12 – Acts xvii. 31; 1 St. John iii. 2‒3.

13 – Wisdom ii. 12 ff.

14 – Job i. 21.

15 – 1 Tim. vi. 8.

16 – Phil. ii. 7, 2 Cor. viii. 9.

17 – 2 Cor. vi. 10, 1 Cor. iii. 21.

18 – Gal. vi. 5.

19 – Gal. vi. 2.

20 – St. Matt. viii. 17.

21 – St. John xii. 24, 25.

22 – 2 Cor. i. 4.

23 – 2 Cor. vii. 10.

24 – _Institutes_, ix. 11.

25 – 1 Peter ii. 23

26 – Ps. xxxvii. 29.

27 – St. James ii. 15‒16; 1 John iii. 16‒18.

28 – Ps. xviii. 24‒26.

29 – St. Matt. xviii. 23 f.

30 – Rom. v. 7.

31 – Job xlii. 5, St. Luke v. 8; and cf. the vision which is the
beginning of purification after death in Cardinal Newman’s
_Dream of Gerontius_.

32 – Hebr. xi. 27.

33 – St. Matt. x. 34.

34 – Rev. iii. 15‒16. These words mean, I think, not “I would
that ye, the Church of Laodicea, were either morally worse
than ye are or morally better”; but “I would that either
ye were not Christians at all or better Christians.”

35 – _C. hær._ iv. 13. 4.

36 – _Quæst. 73 in Exod._

37 – Hebr. xii. 16.

38 – This is drawn out in Appendix ii., p. 218.

39 – 2 Chron. xix. 5 8, cf. Josephus _Antiq._ IV. viii. 14.

40 – _Did._ xiv. 2.

41 – Cf. vi. 1, “in order to be seen of men,” where the phrase
is the same and describes the deliberate motive.

42 – St. Mark viii. 38.

43 – See App. iii. p. 227. Duty of the Church with regard to
divorce.

44 – And it cannot be overlooked that in one of the passages of
St. Paul’s epistles where the law of the indissolubility
of marriage is stated (Romans vii. 1‒3) he is referring to
the _Jewish_ law (see ver. 1) which confessedly admitted
exceptions, and yet he does not allude to them.

45 – Lev. xix. 12; Deut. vi. 13; Amos viii. 14.

46 – St. Matt. xxiii. 16‒20.

47 – Ch. v. 12.

48 – 2 Cor. i. 17, 18.

49 – Is. lxvi. 1; Ps. lviii. 2.

50 – St. Matt. xxvi. 63.

51 – St. James i. 20.

52 – I owe this thought, I believe, to an address given by the
Dean of Chichester.

53 – St. Mark xiv. 57‒8.

54 – St. John ii. 19.

55 – 1 St. Peter ii. 23.

56 – St. Matt. xviii. 15.

57 – St. John xviii. 22‒23.

58 – Acts xxv. 10‒11, cf. xvi. 37.

59 – 1 Cor. vi. 7.

60 – The story is given from a Norman-French poem of the time
of Henry III, probably by a Westminster monk; see _Lives
of Edward the Confessor_, Rolls Series, iii. pp. 53, 207.

61 – _Didache_ 1. It must not be forgotten that both St. John
(1 John iii. 17) and St. James (ii. 15‒16) are speaking of
helping “a brother” or “sister,” i.e. a fellow-Christian.
And in those days there was an immense probability that
a member of the Christian society would be one who had
character enough to profit by help. But it soon became
necessary to “organize charity” by desiring the faithful
to give only indirectly through the bishop.

62 – From the days of the sub-apostolic Hermas, who makes the
responsibility rest wholly with the recipient of alms.

63 – Overton’s _Life and Opinions of W. Law_, p. 244.

64 – e.g. Job xxxi. 29; Exod. xxiii. 4.

65 – _Lectures on the O.T._ viii. 2, p. 188.

66 – “Disfigure” or possibly “conceal” their faces, so that by
a form of dress drawn over the face they may be shown to be
persons going about as penitents.

67 – e.g. St. Matt. xvii. 21; St. Mark ix. 29; 1 Cor. vii. 5.

68 – 1 Cor. ix. 27; 2 Cor. xi. 27.

69 – Gal. iv. 6.

70 – Hebr. xii. 22.

71 – It is not improbable, as has been recently suggested
by Mr. Chase (see below, p. 135), that this expression,
occurring side by side with “this day,” is due to the use
of the prayer both morning and evening. In the morning
Christians prayed “give us our bread to-day,” and in the
evening “give us our bread for to-morrow.”

72 – The difficulty experienced in regard to this clause by the
early Christians is well known. I may refer to Mr. Chase’s
_Lord’s Prayer in the Early Church_ (Texts and Studies,
Cambridge, 1891), pp. 60 ff. Mr. Chase also points out
the close resemblance between the “Lord’s Prayer” and our
Lord’s own language of prayer or about prayer in the time
of the passion. “Father ... Thy will be done....” “Pray
that ye enter not into temptation.” “I pray that thou
shouldest keep them from the evil one.” There are other
resemblances perceptible in the prayer recorded in
St. John xviii.

In the original language used by our Lord “_Lead_ (us not
into temptation”) and “_Enter_ (into temptation”) would
only be different forms of the same verb.

73 – 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23.

74 – St. John vii. 49.

75 – St. Matt. xviii. 15‒18.

76 – St. John xx. 23.

77 – 1 Cor. v.

78 – 1 Thess. v. 21.

79 – 1 John iv. 1.

80 – Gal. i. 9; 2 John 10‒11.

81 – Rom. viii. 14.

82 – St. Luke vi. 37‒38.

83 – Col. i. 28.

84 – The reference is to the saying of Hillel, “What to thyself
is hateful, to thy neighbour thou shalt not do; this is the
whole law and the rest is commentary” (cp. _Tobit_ iv. 15;
_Did._ i. 3), and to the similar maxim suggested by Plato
and current among the Stoics.

85 – Rom. xiii. 9.

86 – St. Luke xiii. 23‒49; St. John xxi. 21‒22.

87 – St. John ii. 23‒25.

88 – St. Matt. xvi. 17.

89 – Those not occurring continuously in chap. vi. are printed
in italics.

90 – This is a higher moral principle than that Jewish method
of “making a fence to the law,” which is expressed in
the _Didachè_ 3. “Be not prone to anger, _for anger
leads to murder_.... Be not lustful, _for lust leads
to fornication_.” The wrong condition of the will is,
according to our Lord, itself the evil, apart from what
it may lead to. What is needed is not merely outward
respectability or conformity, but a right spirit.

Humility both towards God and towards our fellow-men is
simply the recognition of the truth about ourselves.

92 – It can hardly, however, be denied that there are rare
cases where untruthfulness in word becomes a duty owing
to the social evil which verbal truthfulness would involve.
Thus almost all men would think it right to lie to a
would-be murderer in order to save a life. I twice heard
the late Master of Balliol, who had great moral common
sense, in answer to the question what he would do in such
a case, reply: “I suppose I should tell the lie, but I
had rather not think about it beforehand or justify it
afterwards.” This is the best answer in regard to such
quite abnormal cases. But there are certain more normal
cases where professional reserve involves something
approaching untruthfulness. The lawyer, doctor, or Cabinet
Minister may be asked a question which ought not to be
asked, and have no alternative but to give some more or
less misleading answer, or in effect disclose (even by
silence or refusal to answer) a professional secret. The
“seal of the confessional”――imposed on the clergy (with
a gradually increasing stringency) by the general law of
the Church and by the Anglican canons of 1603 (c. 113)――is
an intensified case of such professional obligation of
secrecy. In such cases the possible moral evil is reduced
to a minimum if society recognizes that what is known
under a “seal,” sacramental or professional, is not
included in the knowledge which is recognized in social
life. I have written the above because if there are
circumstances, however rare, where a man would not act
on the ordinary obligation of candid speech he had better
give general public notice of it. But I cannot feel
satisfied with the reasonings of moralists, Jesuit,
Anglican or Protestant, about the morality of the matter.
E.g. Newman Smyth, _Christian Ethics_ (Clark, Edin. 1892),
pp. 388 ff.

93 – Eph. iv. 28; 1 Tim. vi. 17, 18; James v. 4.

94 – The account of our duty to God and our duty towards our
neighbour in our Catechism is, when quoted correctly (“in
that state of life into which it _shall_ please God to
call me”) and interpreted rightly (“betters” not meaning
“those keeping carriages”), admirable, but of course very
short.

95 – It is perhaps hardly fair to say more than this.
Christ simply exempted a particular case from a general
prohibition, leaving the Church free in regard to it.

Transcriber’s Notes.

The following corrections have been made in the text:

Page 176:
Sentence starting: The Christian is to be....
– ‘Christain’ replaced with ‘Christian’
(The Christian is to be)

Page Index:
Sentence starting: Sanhedrin....
– ‘Sanhedrim’ replaced with ‘Sanhedrin’
(Sanhedrin, nature of,)

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