sad picture of man's too frequent unmercifulness to his brother, and
the just punishment of his cruelty visited upon the delinquent. Here
are five points worthy of our attention; which, duly considered, may
serve to impress upon our minds the duty of fraternal forgiveness.
First, we have the two creditors, with their respective claims. The
king represents God in his relation to man; the first servant
represents man in his relation to mankind. God has his supreme claims,
as creator and sovereign lord, upon the love, worship and obedience of
the whole human race; while man has his subordinate claims, as an equal
and a brother, upon the justice, the kindness, the sympathy and the
charity of all other men--sometimes, as patron and official superior,
upon the reverence, submission and loyal service of a particular part
of them.
Then, we have the two debtors, with the different amounts of debt. Both
are servants, holding a like relation to the king. Both are in arrears,
the one to the king, the other to his fellow-servant. Ought not a
common bond and a common condition to produce in them mutual kindness
and sympathy? But how great the disparity of their debts! ten thousand
talents, and a hundred pence--the latter less than a millionth part of
the former--if the gold talent is intended, less than a hundred
millionth. Surely if the king could forgive the greater, it were a
small matter with his servant to forgive the less. In comparison of our
sins against God, what are our brother's sins against us? "As the small
dust of the balance, lighter than vanity itself."
Next, we have the two arrests, with the opposite methods of their
making. Calmly and kindly, in his accustomed way, worthy of his royal
dignity, and just as he treated others, the king calls his servant to
account. This proceeding was to be expected, and involves neither
harshness nor severity. But when the man is found so culpably in
arrears with nothing to pay--a case which could not happen without
great dishonesty and wickedness--the king orders, as he has legal right
to do, the sale of the culprit, with his family and effects, to satisfy
some small part of the royal claim against him. Now mark the very
different conduct of the criminal. No sooner is he released than he
goes out--not staying a moment to express his gratitude or admire the
mercy shown him--finds the man who owes him fifteen dollars: and, with
a violence unprovoked and inexcusable, lays hands on him, takes him by
the throat, and exclaims, "Pay me that thou owest!" Could there be a
more unlovely contrast to the conduct of the king? Such is the
difference between God's dealing with guilty men and man's dealing with
his delinquent brother; the former all mildness and forbearance, the
latter all harshness and severity.
Again, we have the two pleas, with their contrary receptions by the
creditors. The two pleas are identical; the two receptions, quite
opposite. The first servant falls down before the king, saying, "Have
patience with me, and I will pay thee all;" so falls down the second
servant before the first, with the very same words upon his lips. Not
forgiveness, but merciful indulgence, is what each debtor craves of his
creditor; and full payment is what each promises. The payment of a
hundred _denarii_ seems quite practicable, and not at all
improbable; but the payment of ten thousand talents is beyond all power
except that of royalty itself. Yet the wretched impossibility moves the
royal heart to compassion; while the feasible and probable meets with
stern and cruel refusal from the servile defaulter--all mercy on the
one side, all implacability on the other. If, when overwhelmed with
conscious guilt, you smote upon your breast and implored the divine
mercy, your penitential tears moved the compassion of Heaven, how can
you now harden your heart against the like plea of an offending
brother? Even if he offer no plea, can you be utterly indifferent to
his grief? Is this the spirit of Him who prayed for those who were
nailing him to the cross? Perhaps your brother's heart is almost
breaking, while he is too proud to apologize. A kind word, a look of
love, might melt him into tears at your feet. Oh! give him that word,
that look! It will restore to your arms a brother--to your heart a
peace like that of heaven.
Finally, we have the two issues, with their consequences in impressive
contrast. Great as his debt is, the king's debtor is released and
forgiven; but the servant's debtor, owing so small a sum, is cast into
prison till he shall pay the debt. But how shall he pay it in prison?
Nay, it is not to secure payment that he is incarcerated, so much as to
gratify the malignity of a wicked and revengeful heart. After so great
a mercy shown to himself, the creditor cannot show the smallest mercy
to his fellow-servant. And there the poor man must lie, in a private
dungeon, amidst filth and darkness, his creditor his jailor, no
comforts nor supplies but what are furnished him by friends without, no
hope of deliverance till death comes to his release. Such is the
contrast between God's dealing with man, and man's dealing with his
brother. He compassionately forgives; we cruelly proceed to punish. Or
if we pretend to forgive, how different is our forgiveness from his!
God forgives gladly; we reluctantly. God forgives promptly; we after
long delay. God forgives completely; we but partially and imperfectly.
God forgives from the heart; we only with outward formalities. God
forgives very tenderly; we with indifference or contempt. God forgives
and forgets the crime; we cherish the bitter memory for many years. God
forgives and takes the pardoned sinner to his heart; we thrust him away
from our presence and our fellowship forever. God forgives so lovingly
that he is said to delight in mercy and rejoice over the pardoned; we
with such coldness, such hatred, such haughty disdain, that to meet the
object of our clemency in heaven would spoil our joy!
That the cruel severity of the servile creditor should touch the hearts
of his fellow-servants with sorrow is no matter of wonder. Stern and
inexorable as were the laws of the age, no man without grief or anger
could witness such inhumanity. In our day the case would have convoked
an indignation meeting, if not a mob; with denunciatory resolutions, if
not the prompt application of the code of Judge Lynch. The better
method, however, is chosen; and the sad matter is prudently reported to
the king. The king recalls the late object of his amazing clemency, in
a dignified but very pointed speech remonstrates with him, and then
delivers him to the tormentors till he shall pay the last farthing of
the debt once forgiven. A righteous but terrible punishment! A state
criminal, he goes to the public prison, the royal dungeons--perhaps,
like the Mammertine and Tullian at Rome, three stories under ground.
The debtor's prison, however, was ordinarily in the house of the
creditor--often in his cellar; where the prisoner was kept in chains,
subject to the creditor's will, to be tortured or slain as he chose.
Slaves were there on purpose to torment him, and make his life as
wretched as possible. They scourged him, beat him with rods, racked him
with engines, pulled out his teeth, plucked out his nails, burned out
his eyes, cut off his nose and ears, tore and mangled his flesh with
hooks and pincers--to make him disclose his hidden treasures, to induce
his friends to pay his debt for him, or simply to gratify a diabolical
spirit of revenge. That all this has its counterpart in God's
retribution upon the implacable, though almost too terrible for our
faith, is the plain teaching of the parable. Men and angels rise up in
remonstrance with Heaven against the unforgiving. And when the divine
Heart-searcher calls him to judgment, what answer can he make to the
dread animadversions of the angry king? Dare he now pray, as he often
did on earth, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors!" Will he
lift up his voice and sing, as he used to do in the church,
"That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me!"
It was a mockery then; he will not repeat it now. Speechless as the
unrobed intruder at the marriage feast, he stands trembling before his
Judge. Angels of justice, take him away! Let us not see his anguish,
nor hear his lamentation! Showing no mercy, he has lost all claim upon
mercy. Conscience his eternal tormentor, any spot in the universe may
be his dungeon of despair. Ask him now the question he has often asked
with a sneer--"Is there a hell, and where is it?" He lays his hand upon
his heart and answers--"There is, and it is here!" Angels of justice,
take him away!
"So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your
hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."
[1] Preached in St. John's, Buffalo, N.Y., 1869.
[2] Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity.
XVII.
CHRIST WITH HIS MINISTERS.[1]
Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world.--Matt. xxviii. 20.
The agony of redemption is accomplished. The lately crucified and
buried is alive forevermore. Forty days he has walked the earth in his
resurrection body, instructing and comforting his disciples. The time
is come for his return to the Father. He must enter into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God for us. If he go not away, the
Comforter will not come--the baptism of fire and power will not descend
upon the Church. But before his departure, he renews the commission of
his apostles: "All power is given unto me, in heaven and in earth; go
ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe
all things, whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world."
Ye publicans and fishermen, what an embassy! How vast the field! How
grand the work! How glorious the promise! Heaven never gave a sublimer
commission; man never went forth under a mightier sanction, or on a
nobler errand. To utter the words which were syllabled in thunder from
out the flames of Sinai, to publish the love that was written in blood
upon the cleft rocks of Calvary, to administer the sacramental
mysteries of the new and everlasting covenant, to negotiate a perpetual
amnesty with this revolted and ruined province of Jehovah's empire, to
convert perishing souls from sin to righteousness and build them up in
the blessed faith that saves,--this is to do what for ages has occupied
the purest spirits and loftiest intellects of our race, and enlisted
the interest and the energies of seraphim and cherubim, and furnished
constant employment for all the agencies of the infinite goodness and
wisdom and power. How poor in the comparison are all earthly
diplomacies and royal ministries! Thrones, triumphs, the homage of the
living world, and the praise of a thousand generations to come,--what
were these to the office and dignity of Heaven's ambassador! How should
the Christian minister tremble beneath the burden that weighs down the
angel's wing, or rejoice to bear the tidings sung by celestial voices
over the hills of Bethlehem! And who were sufficient for these things,
but for the Master's promise appended to the command--"Lo, I am with
you alway, even unto the end of the world!"
"Lord, it is enough. With such assurance, we will go. With such
assistance, we will preach. With such encouragement, we will baptize.
With so mighty a patronage, we will summon the nations to thy feet. If
thou be with us, we shall fear nothing, we can do all things. If thou
aid and defend us, no enemy is invincible, no achievement is
impracticable. In court or camp, in palace or prison, in temple or
forum, in city or desert, to Jews or Gentiles, princes or peasants,
scholars or rustics, sages or savages, we will gladly set forth thy
claims and offer thy salvation." So might the apostles have answered
their ascending Lord; and so, in effect, they did answer him. They went
forth everywhere, and preached the kingdom of the Crucified. Mighty in
spirit, they conferred not with flesh and blood. Strong in faith and
hope, they consulted neither present appearances nor future
probabilities. Constrained by the love of Christ, they hastened, with
his message of grace, from city to city, from province to province,
from nation to nation. Nothing retards them; nothing intimidates them.
The word of the Lord is as fire shut up in their bones, and they are
weary with forbearing. They must speak, or they will die; and though
they die, they will speak. They cry aloud, and spare not. In the
dungeons they lift up their voices, and in the tempests of the sea they
are not silent. Before awful councils and sceptred rulers they bear
witness to the precious truth. Under the crimson scourge and on the
cruel rack they steadfastly maintain their testimony. Death only can
effectually interdict their prophesying: and even in the agonies of
death, ere yet the organs of speech are paralyzed, they offer Christ's
salvation to their murderers, tenderly beseech those who are mocking
their tortures, and bless with loving words the lips that are cursing
them out of the world. And with what effect, let the early triumphs of
the gospel testify; idols abolished; temples abandoned; cities
converted; churches planted everywhere; whole provinces embracing the
faith of Jesus; monarchs upon their thrones trembling before manacled
preachers; Christianity spreading, even during the lifetime of the
apostles, as far northward as Scythia, southward as Ethiopia, eastward
as Parthia and India, westward as Gaul, Spain, and the British Isles;
and a little later, assuming the imperial purple, and lifting the
Labarum, glorified with the cross, as the signal of salvation to the
nations; and all this, because Christ hath said, and so far hath
fulfilled the saying,--"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the world."
But the promise is ours. It extends through all time. It can never be
obsolete, while Christ hath an ordained servant upon earth. Who talks
of change? Who says the apostolic office, with its high prerogatives
and awful responsibilities, was intended only for a season, and has
long since passed away? Who sneers and scoffs at the claim of the Holy
Catholic Church to this sublime descent on the part of her chief
pastors, and the consequent connection of the whole body of her clergy,
through a regular series of ordinations, with the blessed men first
commissioned by our divine Lord to go forth and disciple all nations?
And hath the Master abandoned those who are obeying the mandate and
perpetuating the sacred succession? Hath the Word forever settled in
heaven come utterly to naught, and the Rock dissolved on which the
Church was founded, and the gates of hell prevailed against her? True,
the direct inspiration is withdrawn, and the miraculous endowments are
no more; but these are not essential to the apostolate, and were not
intended to be permanent; being only the needful authentication of a
new revelation from heaven, and therefore discontinued as soon as the
Christian faith was once well established among men. The work of the
ministry, however, is the same, and its divine sanctions are the same,
and its three orders are the perpetual ordinance of Jesus Christ. Ay,
and its conflicts are the same, and its succors and consolations in all
its sorrows and sufferings are the same, and the faithful servant is
still as much as ever the object of his Master's loving care. Whoever
else may abandon him, the glorified Man of sorrows saith, "I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee." Wherever he goes, Christ attends him.
Wherever he labors, Christ sustains him. Wherever he preaches the
gospel or administers the sacraments, he has the express authority and
assured blessing of their heavenly Author. As the Lord stood by St.
Paul, and strengthened him, when all men forsook him; so will he stand
by his ministers in every time of trial, and strengthen them for every
duty and every danger. Trusting in his might, they will never be left
to their own weakness. Depending upon his counsel, they will never be
abandoned to their own poor expedients. Weary and faint, his arm will
support them. Doubtful and perplexed, his wisdom will direct them.
Destitute and afflicted, his bounty will relieve them. Persecuted and
calumniated, his providence will vindicate them. Faithful to their
sacred functions, all their teachings will be clothed with a divine
power, and every priestly act will be hallowed with a heavenly unction.
O my brethren! beside all your baptismal fonts to-day, at all your
altars, and in all your pulpits, stands he of the wounded hands, the
mangled feet, the thorn-pierced brow, and the ever-open side,
saying,--"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world!"
And do we not need such assurance? What is the end and aim of the
gospel ministry? To undo the work of the Devil; to turn men from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; to reconcile
them to the law of holiness, and bring their rebellious thoughts into
captivity to the obedience of Christ; to draw them against the stream
of their carnal inclinations and worldly ambitions and interests; to
make them love what they naturally hate, and hate what they naturally
love; to graft the degenerate plant of a strange vine into a new and
heavenly stock, that, nourished by its life, it may bring forth the
wholesome fruits of righteousness; to assure the penitent of the divine
pardon, and feed the faithful with the bread that cometh down from
heaven; to perfect the saints in that precious knowledge, and edify the
Church in that holy faith, which are the sources of all spiritual
excellence and the earnests of eternal life; in short, to subvert the
seat of the great usurper, and build upon its wreck the imperishable
throne of the Prince of peace, and give back into the hand of him whose
right it is the sceptre of a ruined world restored. Are these
achievements to be wrought without the Master's presence? Are these
victories to be won without the Captain of our salvation? What saith
the holy apostle? "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any
thing, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath
made us able ministers of the New Testament, even of the Spirit that
giveth life." Christ with us is at once the guaranty and the glory of
our success. If the word proves powerful to save the hearer, it is
because Christ is with the preacher. If the water conveys regenerating
grace to the infant, it is because Christ is with the baptizer. If the
consecrated bread and wine impart spiritual comfort and nourishment to
the faithful, it is because Christ is with the celebrant. If the
appointed absolution and benediction give peaceful assurance of pardon
and heavenly succor to the penitent believer, it is because Christ is
with the officiating priest. If Christ were not with him, all his
learning, his logic and eloquence, were but a sounding brass or a
tinkling cymbal. If Christ were not with him, all his sublime
sacerdotal functions, though instituted and ordained by Christ himself,
were as powerless upon the spirits of men as the moonbeams upon the
frozen sea. If Christ were not with him, the blind eye would not be
opened, the dead conscience would not be quickened, the rebel against
God would not be subdued, the lost wanderer from the fold would not be
restored, the moral leper would still remain festering in his fatal
impurity. Oh! who could undertake the work of the ministry, with the
least hope of winning souls, awakening sinners, edifying the body of
Christ, or accomplishing effectually any of the objects of his divine
commission, without the infallible promise--"Lo, I am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world!"
Moreover, it is important, in the work of human salvation, that the
excellency of the power should be of God, and not of us, that no flesh
may glory in his presence. When Joab had captured the city of Rabbah,
he sent for King David to come and claim the honor of the achievement.
When Garibaldi had conquered the Two Sicilies, he sent for Victor
Emmanuel to come and take possession of the united kingdom. And Christ
must have the credit of his servants' success in the good fight of
faith. The warfare is ours; the crown belongs to him who giveth us the
victory. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the
praise, for thy loving mercy and for thy truth's sake." But if we could
accomplish aught without his aid, the honor would be ours, and not the
Master's; and there would be no justice nor reason in the command, "He
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." Therefore the Divine Wisdom
hath ordered that all our success shall depend upon the divine
blessing; and to this end, Christ is ever present with those whom he
hath commissioned, helping them mightily with his Holy Spirit. All the
power of the gospel to convert the soul, all the power of the
sacraments to purify the heart, all the efficiency of Christ's
ambassadors in establishing and fortifying the Church, is attributable
to this unction of the Holy One. Was it not the angel in the waters of
Bethesda, that gave them their healing virtue? Was it not Jehovah in
the waters of the Jordan, that cured the leprosy of Naaman the Syrian?
And what is it but the gracious presence of Christ in the preached word
and the administered ordinance, that renders them effectual to the
salvation of those who believe? Is it not as true to-day, as it was
when he said it, nearly nineteen centuries ago, "Without me ye can do
nothing"? Without Christ, what were our knowledge but ignorance, our
wisdom but folly, our eloquence but noise? what our profession but an
imposture, our ritual but a solemn farce, and all our zeal but painted
fire? It is God that "always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and
maketh manifest by us the savor of his knowledge in every place." He
who girds us with the sword must nerve the arm that wields it. Now and
forever, "We see the Lamb in his own light," and shine only by the
reflection of his glory. The ministry, in its three orders, with all
their spiritual endowments, is the gift of Christ to the Church; and
through these his chosen representatives, though he is ascended on
high, he still hath his tabernacle with men, and dwelleth manifestly
among them; and millions of saints, throughout the earth and throughout
the ages, united in one body, inspired by one Spirit, saved through one
calling, sealed with one baptism, professing one faith, cherishing one
hope, obeying one Lord, and adoring one God and Father of all, are
built up in him, a spiritual house, a temple of living stones, whose
foundations are deeper than the earth, and whose towers are lost in the
empyrean. This great truth, so humiliating to the pride of man, and so
glorifying to the grace of God--this great truth, that all depends upon
Christ, let us keep constantly in view; listening for the Master's feet
behind his messengers, and looking for the Master's blessing in all
their ministrations; ever inviting his presence, and never forgetting
his promise--"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."