+I. God is the universal Father.+--1. God is the Father of all
things, or of us as creatures, as the efficient Cause and Creator of
them all. 2. The Father of intellectual beings. He is styled the
Father of spirits; the angels, in way of excellency, are called the
sons of God. 3. The Father in a more especial manner to mankind.
4. The Father of all good men, with a relation being built upon
higher grounds; for as good they have another original from Him,
virtue springs in their hearts from a heavenly seed, that emendation
and perfection of nature is produced by His grace enlightening and
quickening them; they are images of Him, resembling Him in judgment
and disposition of mind, in will and purpose, in action and
behaviour, which resemblances argue them to be sons of God and
constitute them such.
+II. The uses of this truth.+--1. It may teach us what reverence,
honour, and observance are due from us to God, in equity and justice,
according to ingenuity and gratitude. 2. This consideration may
instruct and admonish us what we should be and how we should behave
ourselves, for if we be God's children it becometh us, and we are
obliged in our disposition and demeanour to resemble, to imitate Him.
It is natural and proper for children to resemble their parents in
their complexion and countenance, to imitate them in their actions
and carriage. 3. This consideration may raise us to a just regard,
esteem, and valuation of ourselves; may inspire noble thoughts and
breed generous inclinations in us; may withdraw us from mean, base,
and unworthy designs or practices; may excite and encourage us to
handsome, brave, worthy resolutions and undertakings suitable to the
dignity of our nature, the nobleness of our descent, the eminence of
so high a relation, of so near an alliance to God. 4. This
consideration is a motive to humility, apt to depress vain conceit
and confidence in ourselves. If we are God's children, so as to have
received our beings, all our powers and abilities, all our goods and
wealth, both internal and external, both natural and spiritual, from
His free disposal, so as be continually preserved and maintained by
His providence to depend for all our subsistence upon His care and
bounty, what reason can we have to assume or ascribe anything to
ourselves? 5. This consideration shows us the reason we have to
submit entirely to the providence of God with contentedness and
acquiescence in every condition. 6. Obligeth us to be patient and
cheerful in the sorest afflictions, as deeming them to come from a
paternal hand, inflicted with great affection and compassion,
designed for and tending to our good. 7. Shows the reason we have to
obey those precepts which enjoin us to rely on God's providence.
8. Serves to breed and cherish our faith, to raise our hope, to
quicken our devotion. For whom shall we confide in if not in such a
Father? From whom can we expect good if not from Him? To whom can we
have recourse so freely and cheerfully on any occasion if not to Him?
9. Considering this point will direct and prompt us how to behave
ourselves towards all God's creatures according to their respective
natures and capacities. If God be the Father of all things, they are
all thence in some sort our brethren, and so may claim from us a
fraternal affection and demeanour answerable thereto.--_Barrow._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 7-12.
_The Gifts of Christ to His Church_--
+I. That each member of the Church possesses some gift from
Christ.+--"Unto every one of us is given grace according to the
measure of the gift of Christ" (ver. 7). All are not alike talented,
but each one has some gift of grace. Every gift is not from earth,
but from heaven; not from man, but from Christ. Look not down, then,
as swine to the acorns they find lying there, and never once up to
the tree they come from. Look up; the very frame of our body bears
that way. It is nature's check to the body. "Graces are what a man
_is_; but enumerate his gifts and you will know what he _has._ He
_is_ loving, he _has_ eloquence, or medical skill, or legal
knowledge, or the gift of acquiring languages, or that of healing.
You have only to cut out his tongue, or to impair his memory, and the
gift is gone. But you must destroy his very being, change him into
another man, obliterate his identity, before he ceases to be a loving
man. Therefore you may contemplate the gift separate from the man;
you may admire it and despise him. But you cannot contemplate the
grace separate from the man" (_F. W. Robertson_).
"If facts allure thee, think how BACON shined,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind."--_Pope._
The humblest member of the Church of Christ is not without his gift.
The grace of the Gospel elevates and sanctifies all his powers and
opportunities, and turns them into noblest uses.
+II. That the gifts of Christ to His Church are distributed with the
lavish generosity of a conqueror returning from the field of victory+
(vers. 8-10).--We have read of the profuse gifts of victorious
warriors:--of Gonsalvo, the great Spanish captain, whose unselfish
prodigality was proverbial. "Never stint your hand," he was
accustomed to say: "there is no way of enjoying one's property like
giving it away";--of Alexander the Great, who on one occasion gave a
blank draft to one of his generals with liberty to fill in any amount
he chose. When the treasurer, surprised at the enormous sum inserted,
asked his imperial master if there was not some mistake, he answered:
"No; pay it, pay it; the man honours me by assuming the inexhaustible
resources of my empire";--of Belisarius, whose victories were always
followed by liberal and extravagant largesses. "By the union of
liberality and justice," writes Gibbon, "he acquired the love of his
soldiers, without alienating the affections of the people. The sick
and wounded were relieved with medicines and money, and still more
efficaciously by the healing visits and smiles of their commander.
The loss of a weapon or a horse was instantly repaired, and each deed
of valour was rewarded by the rich and honourable gifts of a bracelet
or a collar, which were rendered more precious by the judgment of
Belisarius. He was endeared to the husbandmen by the peace and plenty
which they enjoyed under the shadow of his standard. Instead of being
injured, the country was enriched by the march of the Roman armies;
and such was the rigid discipline of their camp that not an apple was
gathered from the tree, not a path could be traced in the fields of
corn. Victory by sea and land attended his armies. He subdued Africa,
Italy, and the adjacent islands, led away captives the successors of
Genseric and Theodoric, filled Constantinople with the spoils of
their palaces, and in the space of six years recovered half the
provinces of the Western empire";--and of Aurelian, whose triumphant
entry into Rome after his victories in the East was the longest, most
brilliant, and imposing of any recorded in the annals of the empire,
and was signalised by rich donations to the army and the people; the
Capitol and every other temple glittered with the offerings of his
ostentatious piety, and the temple of the sun alone received above
fifteen thousand pounds of gold. But who can measure the munificence
of the ascended Saviour, the Divine Conqueror, who, as the fruit of
His unparalleled victory, has scattered His gifts among men, to
enrich them for ever? He gives not grudgingly and sparingly, but
after the measure of His own great nature. He gives not for display
but for blessing, and His smallest gift out-values the most lavish
donation of the richest earthly benefactor.
+III. That the gifts of Christ qualify man for special work in His
Church+ (ver. 11).--The "apostles, prophets, evangelists" linked
Church to Church and served the entire body; the "pastors and
teachers" had charge of local and congregational affairs. The
apostles, with the prophets, were the founders of the Church. Their
distinctive functions ceased when the foundation was laid and the
deposit of revealed truth was complete. The evangelistic and pastoral
callings remain; and out of them have sprung all the variety of
Christian ministries since exercised. Evangelists, with apostles or
missionaries, bring new souls to Christ and carry His message into
new lands. Pastors and teachers follow in their train, tending the
ingathered sheep, and labouring to make each flock that they
shepherd, and every single man, perfect in Christ Jesus.
+IV. That the gifts of Christ furnish the full moral equipment of the
members of His Church+ (ver. 12).--Christ's gifts of great and good
men in every age have been bestowed for a thoroughly practical
purpose--"the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, the
edifying of the body of Christ." No one man has all the gifts
requisite for the full development of the Church; but it is the
privilege and honour of each worker to use his special gift for the
general good. The combination of gifts, faithfully and diligently
employed, effects the desired end. The Church must be built up, and
this can be done only by the harmonious use of the gifts of Christ,
not by mere human expedients. "We may have eloquent preaching,
crowded churches, magnificent music, and all the superficial
appearance of a great religious movement, whilst the vaunted revival
is only a poor galvanised thing, a corpse twitching with a strange
mimicry of life, but possessed of none of its vital energy and
power." Gifts are dangerous without the grace and wisdom to use them.
Many a brilliant genius has gone down into oblivion by the reckless
abuse of his gifts. Christ endows His people with gifts that they may
use them for the increase and upbuilding of His Church, and they must
be exercised in harmony with the rules and purposes of the Divine
Architect. "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that
build it."
+Lessons.+--1. _Christ's estimate of His Church is seen in the
spiritual riches He has lavished upon it._ 2. _The gifts of each
member of the Church are for the benefit of all._ 3. _The gifts of
Christ to His Church are the offerings of a boundless love._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._
Ver. 7. _The Gospel according to Mark._--The writers of the four
Gospels completed their work not for the sake of making a literary
reputation for themselves, or of adding to the literary masterpieces
of the world, but for the spiritual benefit of the Christian Church.
Christ our Lord sitting in the heavens, seeing exactly what was
wanted in the apostolic Churches, and in the Church of all time,
seeing what was wanted in the evangelists themselves if they were to
supply the Church's wants, measured out His gifts to the evangelists.
Accordingly, to each evangelist He gave that special gift which was
needed in order to do his particular work. What was the grace that
was given to St. Mark? It has been said that St. Mark's Gospel has no
special character, that it is the least original of the four, that it
is insipid, that it might have been dispensed with without loss to
the harmony of the evangelical narrative. Even St. Augustine has
spoken of it as an epitome of St. Matthew; and his deservedly great
authority has obtained a currency of this opinion in the Western
Church. But in point of fact, although St. Mark has more in common
with St. Matthew than with any other evangelist, he is far from being
a mere epitomist of the first Gospel. He narrates at least three
independent incidents which St. Matthew does not notice. He has
characteristics which are altogether his own.
+I. St. Mark is remarkable for his great attention to subordinate
details.+--He supplies many particulars which evangelists who write
more at length altogether omit. From him, for instance, we learn the
name of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, and of Bartimæus, the
blind man healed by our Lord. From him we learn how Simon of Cyrene
was related to well-known Christians of the next
generation--Alexander and Rufus. He it is who tells us that the woman
of Canaan whose petition our Lord so indulgently received was a
Syrophenician, and that our Lord was popularly spoken of as the
carpenter. He is careful to point out more minutely than do others
the scenes in which our Lord took part on four occasions. He
describes particularly our Lord's look. He notes the express
affections of our Lord's human soul, His love for the rich young man,
His anger with the Pharisee, His pity for the leper, His groaning in
spirit on two separate occasions. And here we have something more
than a literary peculiarity--than a style of writing which
corresponds to those pre-Raphaelite artists who render every leaf and
every blade of grass with scrupulous accuracy. I say that we are here
face to face with a moral and spiritual excellence which forms part
of the special grace given to St. Mark. Close attention to details in
any workman means a recognition of the sacredness of fact. Where
details are lost sight of, or blurred over, in the attempt to produce
a large, general, indistinct effect, there is always a risk of
indifference to the realities of truth. The very least fact is
sacred, whatever be its relative importance to other facts. But in a
life like that of our Lord, everything is necessarily glowing with
interest, however trivial it might appear to be in any other
connection. This care for details is thus the expression of a great
grace--reverence for truth, reverence for every fragment of truth
that touched the human life of the Son of God.
+II. St. Mark is remarkable for the absence of a clearly discernible
purpose in his Gospel,+ over and above that of furnishing a narrative
of our Lord's conflict with sin and evil during His life as man upon
the earth. The three other evangelists have each of them a manifest
purpose in writing of this kind. St. Matthew wishes to show to the
Jews that our Lord is the Messiah of the Jewish prophecy. St. Luke
would teach the Gentile Churches that He is the Redeemer whose saving
power may be claimed through faith by the whole race of men. St. John
is, throughout, bent upon showing that He speaks and acts while in
the flesh as the eternal Word or Son of God, who has been made flesh
and was dwelling among us. And it has been said that St. Mark's
narrative is an expansion of those words of Peter--that Jesus of
Nazareth "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed
of the devil, for God was with Him." Probably this is true; but then
these words describe not a purpose beyond the narrative, but the
substance of the narrative itself. St. Mark simply records a sacred
life as he had learned it from the lips of Peter, not for any purpose
beyond the narrative itself; but whatever it might prove beyond
itself, it was to a believing Christian unspeakably precious.
+III. A few words in conclusion.+--"Unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." As no two
human souls exactly resemble each other, so no two souls are endowed
in an exactly similar way. And for the difference of endowment let us
be sure there is always a reason in the Divine Mind, for each soul in
every generation has its appointed work to do, without itself as
within itself; and it is endowed with exactly the grace, whether of
mind or heart, which will best enable it to do that particular work.
Some may think that they have received little or nothing--some gift
so small as to be scarcely appreciable. The probability is that they
have not yet considered what God has done for them. They have spent
their time in thinking of what He has withheld, instead of thinking
of what He has given; of what they might have been, instead of what
they are. Certainly the grace which our Lord gave to St. Paul when he
wrote his great epistle to the Romans was immensely greater than that
which He gave to Tertius, the poor amanuensis, who took it down from
the apostle's dictation, and who inserts a greeting from himself just
at the end of the document. And yet Tertius, too, had his part in the
work--a humble but a very real part, according to the measure of the
gift of Christ. He did not say, "Because I am not the eye I am not of
the body." He made the most of the grace which was certainly his. And
others may think, rightly or wrongly, that unto them very great
graces have been given according to the gift of Christ, that they are
the hands or the eyes of the holy body, the men who do its work, or
the men who discern the truths which support its life. Well, if it be
so, this is a reason, not for confident satisfaction, but for
anxiety. Such gifts as these are edge tools; they may easily prove
the ruin of their possessors. For all such gifts an account must one
day most assuredly be rendered; and if self has appropriated that
which belongs to God or to His Church, it cannot but entail misery on
the possessor. If a man has wealth, or ability, or station; much more
if he has cultivated intelligence and generous impulses; most of all
if his heart has been fixed by the love of God, and the unseen is to
him a serious reality, and he has hopes and motives which really
transcend the frontiers of the world of sense, then, assuredly, his
safety lies in remembering that he is a trustee who will one day have
to present his account at the great audit, when the eminence of his
gifts will be the exact measure of his responsibility. Eighteen
centuries have passed since St. Mark went to reign somewhere beneath
his Master's throne whose life he had described; but he has left us
the result of his choicest gift--he has left us his Gospel. What has
it--what have the four Gospels--hitherto done for each of us? It is
recorded that John Butler, an excellent Church of England layman of
the last generation, stated on his death-bed that on looking back on
his life the one thing he most regretted was that he had not given
more time to the careful study of the life of our Lord in the four
evangelists. Probably he has not been alone in that regret; and if
the truth were told, many of us would have to confess that we spend
much more thought and time upon the daily papers, which describe the
follies and errors of the world, than on the records of that Life
which was given for the world's redemption. The festival of an
evangelist ought to suggest a practical resolution that, so far as we
are concerned, the grace which he received, according to the measure
of the gift of Christ, shall not, please God, be lost. Ten minutes a
day seriously spent on our knees, with the Gospel in our hands, will
do more to quicken faith, love, reverence, spiritual and moral
insight and power, than we can easily think.--_H. P. Liddon._