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