+I. It is our duty to do good.+--This duty is enforced both by the
words and example of Christ. Christianity not only requires its
adherents to abstain from evil, but it demands their active service.
+II. In doing good man attains to true nobility of character.+--The
characters in history that exert the greatest fascination over us are
not those of eminent statesmen or scientists, but those who have been
distinguished for their philanthropy. We see in them a moral dignity
that is unique. What reversals in human estimates of character will
take place when the Divine standard of greatness is appealed to!
+III. In doing good we find true happiness.+--God has so constituted
us that the exercise of our malevolent passions is productive of
inward dissatisfaction, while the exercise of benevolent affections
is attended with the greatest joy. There is real luxury in doing
good.--_Preacher's Magazine._
_The Opportunity of Beneficence._
+I. What a precious thing is opportunity.+--People talk about making
time for this or that purpose. The time is really made for us, only
we are too idle or too careless to use it for the proper end.
Opportunities of usefulness are of frequent occurrence; they are wont
to come and go with rapidity. They must be seized as you would lay
hold of a passing friend in the street.
+II. The whole of life is an opportunity.+--There is such a thing as
a useful life, a true life, a noble life, though all lives must needs
contain a multitude of neglected opportunities. As a series of
opportunities its record is woefully imperfect. As one opportunity it
is not utterly unworthy of the example of Christ. Let us have a
thread of right intention running through life. Let us have an active
purpose of benevolence--a constant design of love. The continuous
opportunity of life must be utilised, if the particular opportunities
of life are to be turned to the best account.
+III. The field of beneficence is very wide.+--Wherever men are found
it is possible for us to do them good. We touch only a few persons,
but each of these is in contact with others. To do great things with
great powers is easy enough; but things so done may be undone so. The
glory of Christianity has always been that it does great things with
small powers, or powers that men think small; and the results of its
work remain. Good work done by many hands is better than the extended
philanthropy of an individual; for what is this but the effort of one
man to make amends for the neglect of a thousand?
+IV. Though all men have a claim on our Christian benevolence some
are entitled to a special share.+--A man does not become a better
citizen when he spurns his own family and neglects his duties at
home. On the contrary, the noblest philanthropist is the most
affectionate of fathers and husbands, and he who loves most widely in
the world loves most intensely in his own house. So it will be with
us in our Christian charity. We shall begin with those who are called
by the common name and worship the common Lord, and from these we
shall go on, with our energy not exhausted but rather refreshed, to
the great mass of mankind.--_Edward C. Lefroy._
_Doing Good._
+I. We must do good with that only which is our own.+--We may not cut
a large and liberal shive off another man's loaf; we may not steal
from one to give to another, or deal unjustly with some that we may
be merciful to others.
+II. We must do good with cheerfulness and alacrity.+--What more free
than gift; therefore we may not play the hucksters in doing good, for
that blemishes the excellency of the gift.
+III. We must so do good as that we do not disable ourselves for ever
doing good.+--So begin to do good as that we may continue.
+IV. We must do all the good we can within the compass of our
calling+ and hinder all the evil.
+V. We must do good to all.+--1. From the grounds of love and
beneficence. 2. God is good and bountiful to all. 3. Do good to
others as we would they should do to us. 4. Our profession and the
reward we look for require us to do this.
+VI. There is no possibility of doing good to others after this
life.+--_Perkins._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11-13.
_Apostolic Exposure of False Teachers._
+I. The apostle gives special emphasis to his warning by concluding
his epistle in his own handwriting.+--"Ye see how large a letter I
have written unto you with mine own hand" (ver. 11). The apostle
usually dictated his epistle to an amanuensis, except the concluding
salutation, which he wrote himself by way of authentication. At this
point of the epistle to the Galatians he appears to have taken the
pen from the hand of the amanuensis, and with his own hand written
the concluding sentences in clear, bold characters, thus giving the
utmost possible emphasis and solemnity to his words. They are a
postscript, or epilogue, to the epistle, rehearsing with incisive
brevity the burden of all that it was in the apostle's heart to say
to these troubled and shaken Galatians. He wishes to reimpress upon
his emotional readers the warnings he had already expressed against
the false teachers, to assure them of his intense regard for their
welfare, and to lay additional stress upon the peril of their
hesitating attitude. The more apparent and imminent the danger, the
louder and more earnest is the warning expressed.
+II. It is shown that the policy of the false teachers was to avoid
the suffering connected with the ignominy of the cross of
Christ.+--"They constrain you to be circumcised, only lest they
should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." (ver. 12). The
false teachers were really cowards, though this accusation they would
be the first indignantly to resent. They wanted to mix up the old
faith with the new, to entangle the new Christian converts with
Mosaic observances. If they succeeded in persuading the Gentile
Christians to be circumcised, they would propitiate the anger of
their Israelite kindred, and dispose them to regard the new doctrine
more favourably. They would, with heartless recklessness, rob the
believer of all his privileges in Christ in order to make a shield
for themselves against the enmity of their kinsmen. Cowards at heart,
they were more afraid of persecution than eager to know and propagate
the truth. If a man will be a Christian, he cannot avoid the cross;
and to attempt to avoid it will not release from suffering. It is a
craven fear indeed that refuses to espouse the truth because it may
bring pain. "No servant of Christ," says Augustine, "is without
affliction. If you expect to be free from persecution, you have not
yet so much as begun to be a Christian."
+III. The insincerity of the false teachers was apparent in their not
keeping the law themselves, but in boasting of the number of their
converts to its external observance.+--"For neither they themselves
who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised,
that they may glory in your flesh" (ver. 13). The Judaists were not
only cowardly, but insincere. It was not the glory of the law they
were concerned about, but their own success. If they had tried to
convert the heathen, however imperfect might be their creed, they
would have merited some respect; but, like some religious troublers
to-day, they selected for their prey those who were already
converted. They practised their wiles on the inexperience of young
believers, as they expected to gather from that class the greater
number of proselytes of whom to make their boast. "Their policy was
dishonourable both in spirit and in aim. They were false to Christ in
whom they professed to believe, and to the law which they pretended
to keep. They were facing both ways, studying the safest not the
truest course, anxious in truth to be friends at once with the world
and Christ. Their conduct has found many imitators, in men who make
godliness a way of gain, whose religious course is dictated by
considerations of worldly self-interest. Business patronage,
professional advancement, a tempting family alliance, the _entrée_
into some select and envied circle--such are the things for which
creeds are bartered, for which men put their souls and the souls of
their children knowingly in peril."
+Lessons.+--1. _The false teacher may be the occasion of much
mischief and spiritual loss._ 2. _He succumbs in the presence of
suffering._ 3. _He is more anxious for public success than for the
spread of the truth._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._