FINAL WARNINGS
OUR Lord concludes the Sermon on the Mount with three emphatic and
striking warnings. We may paraphrase them thus:――There are two ways
in life, the easy way of self-pleasing and the hard way of self-denial.
Many are found to seek the first, few to tread the second. But they
lead directly away from one another: and the first is the way to death,
the second is the way to life.
There are many voices of teachers in the world, speaking fair-sounding
words. But not by their words, nor by the results they seem to win,
shall men be judged by the Son of Man, but by their characters.
There are many spiritual fabrics which men are raising. They seem the
one very much as good as the other; but the test lies in their capacity
to last. And no spiritual fabric that is built on anything else than
the teaching of the Son of Man can endure the strain and stress which
will come upon it before the end.
Let us direct our attention to each of these three warnings in turn.
THE TWO WAYS
“Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that
enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way,
that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.”
This is the “doctrine of the two ways.” Human instinct has seized on
the metaphor in many parts of the world; the easy way of self-pleasing,
the difficult way of duty. It speaks home to every heart, to every
intelligence, and nothing needs to be said about it. But I would ask
your attention to one question which in our time arises instantly as
we read these words――Are we to suppose that our Lord is here saying
that at the last issue many will be “lost” and few “saved”? Is this
the meaning of “Few be they that find it”?
To this question we may reply thus: On one occasion the disciples
categorically asked our Lord, “Are there few that are being saved?”
and our Lord replied, “Strive to enter in by the narrow door.” And on
another occasion Peter asked the question about John, “What shall this
man do?” and was answered, “What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.”[86]
Beyond all question, our Lord does not intend us to know the answer to
the questions which our curiosity raises as to the ultimate destinies
of men. He fixes our attention, we may say, on three great principles:
the character of God our Father, and His impartial, individual,
disciplinary love: the final and universal victory of His kingdom
over all resisting forces within and without: the critical character
of our present life with its capacities for good or for evil, and the
limitless consequences for good or evil which flow from the present
attitude of each individual towards his personal responsibilities.
It is not unfair to translate our Lord’s words here, “Many there be
that _are entering_ the broad way; few there be that _are finding_ the
narrow way.” Thus they embody what is always found to be true in the
experience of men. Always, to one who wants to do his duty, it will
become plain in the long run that he has to be prepared to stand
alone, or at any rate to go against the majority. He cannot tell the
opportunities and responsibilities that others may have. He knows
that God is infinitely considerate, and will do the best possible
for every soul that He has created; but he can, he does, know his own
responsibility and his own duty, and in following that he will have to
bear the burden of going with the few and watching the spectacle, so
depressing or staggering to the imagination, of the multitude running
to do evil.
CHARACTER THE ONE THING NEEDFUL
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know
them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even
so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt
tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and
cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out devils,
and by thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work
iniquity.”
There is nothing against which our Lord warns us so terribly as against
hypocrisy. The discernment of Frenchmen and Germans has detected, or
fancies it has detected that Englishmen are specially liable to be
hypocrites, to profess what they do not practise, to care for the
outward appearance of morality and religion while they neglect their
inward essence. Whether this be specially true of us or no, it behoves
us to look to ourselves. In literature, in journalism, in the pulpits,
in political life, there are so many “prophets,” so many professors, so
many remedy-mongers. They speak fair words, and brilliant success often
seems to attend them. “Have we not prophesied in Thy name,” they cry,
“and in Thy name cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful
works?” But not all the fair-seeming words, not all the brilliant,
even miraculous successes, can compensate for the absence of personal
character. That is the one thing to which our Lord looks. He warns us
that not the most brilliant results can avail anything if we lack that
inner character which is like Christ’s.
This is a tremendous warning for days of wide and somewhat vague
philanthropy, of restless activity, of nervous anxiety for successes
and results, for days such as our own day. It is a tremendous warning
for days of journalism, when every one is tempted to advertise
himself or allow himself to be advertised, when everything is dragged
prematurely into publicity, and even those who are working for
Christ are apt to be morbidly anxious to produce results which can
be tabulated in parish magazines or even proclaimed in newspapers. We
need to remember that all these results in Christ’s eyes will not bear
looking at, except so far as they are the product of inward Christian
character, a character which He can recognize as His own. For He cannot
accept anything, whatever its orthodox profession, in which He does not
trace the lineaments of His own character.
There are two other points which may be overlooked in this paragraph
but which are of great importance. First, our Lord does encourage
us or even command us to believe that wherever there is the good
character, the Christlike character, there the Holy Spirit is at work.
God works far beyond His own appointed channels. The principle of
loyalty and obedience binds us who know His will to use His sacraments,
His instituted ordinances; but God is not tied to His own ordinances.
He can work wherever He sees the good disposition; and it is blasphemy
against His Spirit to deny that He is at work anywhere where we witness
the forming of the Christian character. The good fruit cannot come from
anything else than the good tree.
Then, secondly, we should notice the claim which our Lord here makes
for Himself. Without preface, without emphasis, as a matter of course,
He implies that He is the final judge of all men, not only as to the
outward results they achieve, but also as regards the secret inner
motives of their hearts and the character of their lives. “Many shall
come to me in that day,” i.e. in “the Day of Jehovah,” the day of final
assessment――“They will come to _Me_; they will profess loyalty to _Me_,
saying, ‘Lord, Lord’; they will plead their good works: but I shall
discern the true inner character of their lives.” Many Jews of our
Lord’s day in Palestine believed that the Son of Man, the Messiah,
would act as the vicegerent of God in “the day of judgement,” at “the
end of the world.” In implying that He would so act our Lord is, in
other words, professing that He is the Messiah: but, more than this,
He gives to the Messianic claim a depth and fullness of meaning which
makes it identical with a properly _divine_ claim. Can one conceive men
living, as the Apostles lived, with one who they were led to believe
was the ultimate judge of their outward conduct and of their secret
thoughts, the ultimate arbiter of their destinies, the final Justice,
without passing into an attitude towards Him of awe, trust, and worship,
which would be idolatrous and disastrous if He to whom it was directed
was not truly divine?
Again, is it even conceivable that any man could claim to be in this
inner introspective sense the final judge of all men without being
either (with reverence be it spoken) a tremendous blasphemer or the
very Son of God, of the Father’s own nature?
ENDURANCE THE TEST
And lastly, our Lord gives the warning that each spiritual fabric must
be judged by its power of lasting.
“Every one therefore which heareth these words of mine, and
doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which built his
house upon the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and beat upon that house: and it fell not;
for it was founded upon the rock. And every one that heareth
these words of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto
a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote
upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof.”
Here, again, is the tremendous claim: the only solid foundation for
life is Jesus and His words.
We know how this necessity of a rock-like foundation for a spiritual
structure, and the possibility of finding such a foundation only in
His own words and person, were illustrated by our Lord’s method in
the foundation of His Church. A crowd came round Him at the first,
offering Him the same kind of allegiance which men will give to
spiritual teachers and benefactors in moments of enthusiasm. “Many
believed on his name, beholding the signs which he did.” And our Lord
stood strangely aloof from them. “He did not trust himself unto them,”
St. John says, “for that he knew all men, and because he needed not
that any should bear witness concerning man, for he knew of himself
what was in man.”[87] So He tested the would-be disciples, till at
last by His strange self-withdrawing ways, by His severe words, by
His enigmatic utterances, He had sifted out those who were really in
earnest in following Him from those who were not; exhibiting in all
this a strange contempt for majorities or mere numbers. At last He
had gathered round Him the little band of those who were really ready
to follow and obey to the uttermost, the band of His apostles. Here
were men who had indeed got down to the rock, and were building on
it and nothing short of it. Here were men who could trust Him and
His word, and take as the basis for their life the confession of His
name. Therefore, like that on which they built, they were themselves
rock-like, and not as the shifting sand of ordinary human nature.
These then could be used as the foundations of Christ’s new society. So
under circumstances where a special strain was put upon their loyalty,
He asked the great question of the apostles; and Peter gave the great
answer: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Then, as
it were with a sigh of relief, our Lord turns upon him, and greets
him with His supreme benediction, and recognizes in him――if not yet
something which is ready to His hand, yet something which is capable
of being made ready:
“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I
also say unto thee, that thou art Peter――rock-man――and upon this
rock I will build my church.”[88]
Thus our Lord illustrated in His own practice what He teaches here.
He would have men dig down to the rock, and build their spiritual
fabrics there; and the rock is nothing else than His own person and His
own word. To hear Him, and go away without imbibing His teaching and
putting it into practice, to be nominally a Christian but in reality of
the world, that is to build a house upon the sand.
And the test of all spiritual fabrics is their capacity to stand the
strain of wild and rough experiences. That is a formidable lesson for
an age of rapid workmanship; an age which resents the necessity for
underground work and silent preparation.
It suggests a momentous question with regard to the spiritual fabric of
our own personal lives, and also in regard to any spiritual enterprise
in which we may be engaged: Have we dug deep enough and got down to the
rock, or have we preferred quick results to solid foundations? Have we
thought Christ’s words impossible of application, and so been content
with something short of Him? If so, our work is doomed. It will not
last. It will not stand the rain and the wind and the storm.
We see how true this principle has proved in the history of the Church
of Christ, which was built on the solid rock of His word and person.
The Catholic Church through all vicissitudes has yet endured. Body
after body naming the name of Christ have arisen and seemed to succeed
better than the Church for a time, generally through some defect in her
teaching or character: for it has been generally through the fault of
the Church that they have arisen, and on the neglect of the Church’s
duty that they have spread. But these bodies have not exhibited lasting
power. Any great catastrophe which, as it were, shatters the structure
of human society down to its foundations, brings to naught multitudes
of enterprises which seemed successful. But there is one society which
has exhibited a marked capacity for lasting, which after whatever
vicissitudes has shown that it has still the power of recovery and
persistence. This is that Church which is rooted on the word of Christ,
which has the succession from His apostles, in which are administered
His sacraments according to His appointment, which holds to His
apostolic tradition, and appeals back to His sacred Scriptures.
That is the test――to last! We must apply it to our own lives. We
know that temptation is both thorough and searching, and that our
moral and religious principles will in different ways be tested to
the uttermost. To stand the test and carry our moral being through
it all to victory――that is the one thing that matters; and to make
this possible there is one sovereign expedient――that is thorough and
whole-hearted conversion of our will, our intellect, our affection, to
Christ and His word.
“And it came to pass, when Jesus ended these words, the
multitudes were astonished at his teaching: for he taught them
as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”
And here we leave the great sermon. It is not, as some suppose, the
whole of Christianity. Those who have been inclined so to esteem it
have been apt to underrate the amount of theological doctrine which
is to be found in it. It postulates, as we have seen, two central
doctrines: that of the divinity of Christ’s person, and that of the
sinfulness of human nature. But, even so, it is not the whole of
Christianity. It begets in us, or develops and deepens, the sense
of sin, and so may be said to point to what it does not teach, the
atonement by which our Lord has expiated the sins of the world, and
brought us back to reconciliation with our Father which is in heaven.
But again an atonement which merely secured our forgiveness for past
sins would be no real remedy. It would leave us weak as we were before.
Nothing can satisfy us but actual and permanent redemption from the
power and the taint of sin. Thus again the sermon may be said to point
forward to that great supply of moral power which by the coming of
the Spirit of God has been given inwardly in the hearts of His people.
It is that inward grant of Christlike power――the administration of
the Spirit――which is the real essence of Christianity. All else is a
preparation for it. Christianity is not so much a statement of the true
end or ideal of human life as it is a great spiritual instrument for
realizing the end.
The realizing of the moral end of life――that is the test of your
Christianity. Be sure of that. The hold we have on our creeds, the
use we make of the sacraments, can be judged by one test――do they lead
to the formation in us of Christian character? The character may be
cleansed and perfected after death, but here and now is our opportunity
for laying its foundations deep and firm, and showing its power to
absorb the whole of our being. That is the test which we cannot press
home upon ourselves too often――am I becoming like Christ? Many will
come to Him in that day with a record of their orthodoxy and of their
observances, of their brilliant successes in His professed service;
but He will protest unto them, “I never knew you.” He “knows” no man
in whom He cannot recognize His own likeness.
APPENDICES
I. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, WITH THE PARALLEL PASSAGES IN
ST. LUKE’S GOSPEL.
II. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR CHRISTIANS.
III. THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH WITH REGARD TO DIVORCE.
APPENDIX I
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PARALLEL PASSAGES FROM
ST. LUKE.[89]
AND seeing the multitudes, =St. Luke vi. 20‒49.=
he went up into the mountain:
and when he had sat down, his And he lifted up his eyes on
disciples came unto him: and his disciples, and said, Blessed
he opened his mouth and taught are ye poor: for yours is the
them, saying, kingdom of God. Blessed are ye
Blessed are the poor in spirit: that hunger now: for ye shall be
for theirs is the kingdom of filled. Blessed are ye that weep
heaven. now: for ye shall laugh. Blessed
Blessed are they that mourn: are ye, when men shall hate you,
for they shall be comforted. and when they shall separate you
Blessed are the meek: for they from their company, and reproach
shall inherit the earth. you, and cast out your name as
Blessed are they that hunger evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
and thirst after righteousness: Rejoice in that day, and leap for
for they shall be filled. joy: for behold, your reward is
Blessed are the merciful: for great in heaven: for in the same
they shall obtain mercy. manner did their fathers unto the
Blessed are the pure in heart: prophets. But woe unto you that
for they shall see God. are rich! for ye have received
Blessed are the peacemakers: your consolation. Woe unto you,
for they shall be called sons of ye that are full now! for ye
God. shall hunger. Woe unto you, ye
Blessed are they that have been that laugh now! for ye shall
persecuted for righteousness’ mourn and weep. Woe unto you,
sake: for theirs is the kingdom when all men shall speak well
of heaven. Blessed are ye when of you! for in the same manner
men shall reproach you, and did their fathers to the false
persecute you, and say all manner prophets.
of evil against you falsely,
for my sake. Rejoice, and be
exceeding glad: for great is
your reward in heaven: for so
persecuted they the prophets
which were before you.
Ye are the salt of the earth: =xiv. 34, 35.=
but if the salt have lost its
savour, wherewith shall it be _Salt therefore is good: but
salted? it is thenceforth good if even the salt have lost its
for nothing, but to be cast out savour, wherewith shall it be
and trodden under foot of men. seasoned? It is fit neither for
Ye are the light of the world. A the land nor for the dunghill:
city set on a hill cannot be hid. men cast it out. He that hath
Neither do men light a lamp, and ears to hear, let him hear._
put it under the bushel, but on
the stand; and it shineth unto
all that are in the house. Even =St. Luke xi. 33.=
so let your light shine before
men, that they may see your good _No man, when he hath lighted
works, and glorify your Father a lamp, putteth it in a cellar,
which is in heaven. neither under the bushel, but on
the stand, that they which enter
Think not that I came to it may see the light._
destroy the law or the prophets:
I came not to destroy, but to
fulfil. For verily I say unto =xvi. 17.=
you, Till heaven and earth pass
away, one jot or one tittle _But it is easier for heaven
shall in no wise pass away from and earth to pass away, than for
the law, till all things be one tittle of the law to fall._
accomplished. Whosoever therefore
shall break one of these least
commandments, and shall teach men
so, shall be called least in the
kingdom of heaven: but whosoever
shall do and teach them, he shall
be called great in the kingdom of
heaven. For I say unto you, that
except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom
of heaven.
Ye have heard that it was said =xii. 58, 59.=
to them of old time, Thou shalt
not kill; and whosoever shall _For as thou art going with
kill shall be in danger of the thine adversary before the
judgement: but I say unto you, magistrate, on the way give
that every one who is angry with diligence to be quit of him;
his brother shall be in danger lest haply he hale thee unto
of the judgement; and whosoever the judge, and the judge shall
shall say to his brother, Raca, deliver thee to the officer,
shall be in danger of the council; and the officer shall cast thee
and whosoever shall say, Thou into prison. I say unto thee,
fool, shall be in danger of the Thou shalt by no means come out
hell of fire. If therefore thou thence, till thou have paid the
art offering thy gift at the very last mite._
altar, and there rememberest that
thy brother hath aught against
thee, leave there thy gift before
the altar, and go thy way, first
be reconciled to thy brother,
and then come and offer thy
gift. Agree with thine adversary
quickly, whiles thou art with
him in the way; lest haply the
adversary deliver thee to the
judge, and the judge deliver thee
to the officer, and thou be cast
into prison. Verily I say unto
thee, Thou shalt by no means come
out thence, till thou have paid
the last farthing.
Ye have heard that it was said, =St. Mark ix. 43‒48.=
Thou shalt not commit adultery:
but I say unto you, that every _And if thy hand cause thee to
one that looketh on a woman to stumble, cut it off: it is good
lust after her hath committed for thee to enter into life
adultery with her already in his maimed, rather than having thy
heart. And if thy right eye two hands to go into hell, into
causeth thee to stumble, pluck it the unquenchable fire. And if thy
out, and cast it from thee: for foot cause thee to stumble, cut
it is profitable for thee that it off: it is good for thee to
one of thy members should perish, enter into life halt, rather than
and not thy whole body be cast having thy two feet to be cast
into hell. And if thy right hand into hell. And if thine eye cause
causeth thee to stumble, cut it thee to stumble, cast it out: it
off, and cast it from thee: for is good for thee to enter into
it is profitable for thee that the kingdom of God with one eye,
one of thy members should perish, rather than having two eyes to be
and not thy whole body go into cast into hell; where their worm
hell. It was said also, Whosoever dieth not, and the fire is not
shall put away his wife, let quenched._
him give her a writing of
divorcement: but I say unto you,
that every one that putteth away =St. Luke xvi. 18.=
his wife, saving for the cause
of fornication, maketh her an _Every one that putteth away
adulteress: and whosoever shall his wife, and marrieth another,
marry her when she is put away committeth adultery: and he that
committeth adultery. marrieth one that is put away
from a husband committeth
Again, ye have heard that it adultery._
was said to them of old time,
Thou shalt not forswear thyself,
but shalt perform unto the Lord
thine oaths: but I say unto you,
Swear not at all; neither by the
heaven, for it is the throne of
God; nor by the earth, for it is
the footstool of his feet; nor by
Jerusalem, for it is the city of
the great King. Neither shalt
thou swear by thy head, for thou
canst not make one hair white
or black. But let your speech
be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: and
whatsoever is more than these is
of the evil one.
Ye have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth: but I say unto you,
Resist not him that is evil: but
whosoever smiteth thee on thy
right cheek, turn to him the
other also. And if any man would
go to law with thee, and take
away thy coat, let him have thy
cloke also. And whosoever shall
compel thee to go one mile, go
with him twain. Give to him that
asketh thee, and from him that
would borrow of thee turn not
thou away.
Ye have heard that it was said, =vi. 27‒36.=
Thou shalt love thy neighbour,
and hate thine enemy: but I say But I say unto you which hear,
unto you, Love your enemies, Love your enemies, do good to
and pray for them that persecute them that hate you, bless them
you; that ye may be sons of your that curse you, pray for them
Father which is in heaven: for that despitefully use you. To
he maketh his sun to rise on the him that smiteth thee on the one
evil and the good, and sendeth cheek offer also the other; and
rain on the just and the unjust. from him that taketh away thy
For if ye love them that love cloke withhold not thy coat also.
you, what reward have ye? do not Give to every one that asketh
even the publicans the same? And thee; and of him that taketh away
if ye salute your brethren only, thy goods ask them not again. And
what do ye more than others? do as ye would that men should do to
not even the Gentiles the same? you, do ye also to them likewise.
Ye therefore shall be perfect, as And if ye love them that love
your heavenly Father is perfect. you, what thank have ye? for
even sinners love those that love
Take heed that ye do not your them. And if ye do good to them
righteousness before men, to be that do good to you, what thank
seen of them: else ye have no have ye? for even sinners do the
reward with your Father which is same. And if ye lend to them of
in heaven. whom ye hope to receive, what
thank have ye? even sinners lend
When therefore thou doest alms, to sinners, to receive again as
sound not a trumpet before thee, much. But love your enemies, and
as the hypocrites do in the do them good, and lend, never
synagogues and in the streets, despairing; and your reward shall
that they may have glory of men. be great, and ye shall be sons
Verily I say unto you, They have of the Most High: for he is kind
received their reward. But when toward the unthankful and evil.
thou doest alms, let not thy left Be ye merciful, even as your
hand know what thy right hand Father is merciful.
doeth: that thine alms may be
in secret: and thy Father which
seeth in secret shall recompense
thee.
And when ye pray, ye shall not =St. Luke xi. 1‒4.=
be as the hypocrites: for they
love to stand and pray in the _And it came to pass, as he
synagogues and in the corners was praying in a certain place,
of the streets, that they may be that when he ceased, one of his
seen of men. Verily I say unto disciples said unto him, Lord,
you, They have received their teach us to pray, even as John
reward. But thou, when thou also taught his disciples. And he
prayest, enter into thine inner said unto them, When ye pray say,
chamber, and having shut thy Father, Hallowed be thy name.
door, pray to thy Father which is Thy kingdom come. Give us day by
in secret, and thy Father which day our daily bread. And forgive
seeth in secret shall recompense us our sins; for we ourselves
thee. And in praying use not vain also forgive every one that is
repetitions, as the Gentiles do: indebted to us. And bring us not
for they think that they shall be into temptation._
heard for their much speaking. Be
not therefore like unto them: for
your Father knoweth what things
ye have need of, before ye ask
him. After this manner therefore
pray ye: Our Father which art in
heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done,
as in heaven, so on earth. Give
us this day our daily bread. And
forgive us our debts, as we also
have forgiven our debtors. And
bring us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil
one. For if ye forgive men their
trespasses, your heavenly Father
will also forgive you. But if ye
forgive not men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses.
Moreover when ye fast, be =St. Luke xi. 34‒36.=
not, as the hypocrites, of a sad
countenance: for they disfigure _The lamp of the body is thine
their faces, that they may be eye: when thine eye is single,
seen of men to fast. Verily I thy whole body also is full of
say unto you, They have received light; but when it is evil, thy
their reward. But thou, when thou body also is full of darkness.
fastest, anoint thy head, and Look therefore whether the light
wash thy face; that thou be that is in thee be not darkness.
not seen of men to fast, but of If therefore thy whole body be
thy Father which is in secret: full of light, having no part
and thy Father, which seeth in dark, it shall be wholly full of
secret, shall recompense thee. light, as when the lamp with its
bright shining doth give thee
Lay not up for yourselves light._
treasures upon the earth, where
moth and rust doth consume, and
where thieves break through and =xvi. 13.=
steal: but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where _No servant can serve two
neither moth nor rust doth masters: for either he will hate
consume, and where thieves do the one, and love the other; or
not break through nor steal: for else he will hold to one, and
where thy treasure is, there will despise the other. Ye cannot
thy heart be also. The lamp of serve God and mammon._
the body is the eye: if therefore
thine eye be single, thy whole
body shall be full of light. But =xii. 22‒34.=
if thine eye be evil, thy whole
body shall be full of darkness. _Therefore I say unto you, Be
If therefore the light that is not anxious for your life, what
in thee be darkness, how great ye shall eat; nor yet for your
is the darkness! No man can serve body, what ye shall put on. For
two masters: for either he will the life is more than the food,
hate the one, and love the other; and the body than the raiment.
or else he will hold to one, Consider the ravens, that they
and despise the other. Ye cannot sow not, neither reap; which
serve God and mammon. Therefore I have no store-chamber nor barn;
say unto you, Be not anxious for and God feedeth them: of how
your life, what ye shall eat, or much more value are ye than the
what ye shall drink; nor yet for birds! And which of you by being
your body, what ye shall put on. anxious can add a cubit unto his
Is not the life more than the stature? If then ye are not able
food, and the body than the to do even that which is least,
raiment? Behold the birds of why are ye anxious concerning
the heaven, that they sow not, the rest? Consider the lilies,
neither do they reap, nor gather how they grow: they toil not,
into barns; and your heavenly neither do they spin; yet I say
Father feedeth them. Are not ye unto you, Even Solomon in all his
of much more value than they? And glory was not arrayed like one of
which of you by being anxious can these. But if God doth so clothe
add one cubit unto his stature? the grass in the field, which
And why are ye anxious concerning to-day is, and to-morrow is cast
raiment? Consider the lilies of into the oven; how much more
the field, how they grow; they shall he clothe you, O ye of
toil not, neither do they spin: little faith? And seek not ye
yet I say unto you, that even what ye shall eat, and what ye
Solomon in all his glory was not shall drink, neither be ye of
arrayed like one of these. But if doubtful mind. For all these
God doth so clothe the grass of things do the nations of the
the field, which to-day is, and world seek after: but your Father
to-morrow is cast into the oven, knoweth that ye have need of
shall he not much more clothe these things. Howbeit seek ye his
you, O ye of little faith? Be not kingdom, and these things shall
therefore anxious, saying, What be added unto you. Fear not,
shall we eat? or, What shall we little flock; for it is your
drink? or, Wherewithal shall we Father’s good pleasure to give
be clothed? For after all these you the kingdom. Sell that ye
things do the Gentiles seek; for have, and give alms; make for
your heavenly Father knoweth that yourselves purses which wax not
ye have need of all these things. old, a treasure in the heavens
But seek ye first his kingdom, that faileth not, where no
and his righteousness; and all thief draweth near, nor moth
these things shall be added unto destroyeth. For where your
you. Be not therefore anxious for treasure is, there will your
the morrow: for the morrow will heart be also._
be anxious for itself. Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof.
Judge not, that ye be not =St. Luke vi. 37‒42.=
judged. For with what judgement
ye judge, ye shall be judged: And judge not, and ye shall
and with what measure ye mete, it not be judged: and condemn not,
shall be measured unto you. And and ye shall not be condemned:
why beholdest thou the mote that release, and ye shall be
is in thy brother’s eye, but released: give, and it shall be
considerest not the beam that given unto you; good measure,
is in thine own eye? Or how wilt pressed down, shaken together,
thou say to thy brother, Let me running over, shall they give
cast out the mote out of thine into your bosom. For with what
eye; and lo, the beam is in thine measure ye mete it shall be
own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out measured to you again.
first the beam out of thine own
eye; and then shalt thou see And he spake also a parable
clearly to cast out the mote out unto them, Can the blind guide
of thy brother’s eye. the blind? shall they not both
fall into a pit? The disciple is
Give not that which is holy not above his master: but every
unto the dogs, neither cast your one when he is perfected shall be
pearls before the swine, lest as his master. And why beholdest
haply they trample them under thou the mote that is in thy
their feet, and turn and rend brother’s eye, but considerest
you. not the beam that is in thine own
eye? Or how canst thou say to thy
brother, Brother, let me cast out
the mote that is in thine eye,
when thou thyself beholdest not
the beam that is in thine own
eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out
first the beam out of thine own
eye, and then shalt thou see
clearly to cast out the mote
that is in thy brother’s eye.
Ask, and it shall be given you; =St. Luke xi. 9‒13.=
seek, and ye shall find; knock,
and it shall be opened unto _And I say unto you, Ask, and
you: for every one that asketh it shall be given you; seek,
receiveth; and he that seeketh and ye shall find; knock, and
findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened unto you. For
it shall be opened. Or what man every one that asketh receiveth;
is there of you, who, if his son and he that seeketh findeth; and
shall ask him for a loaf, will to him that knocketh it shall be
give him a stone; or if he shall opened. And of which of you that
ask for a fish, will give him a is a father shall his son ask a
serpent? If ye then, being evil, loaf, and he give him a stone?
know how to give good gifts unto or a fish, and he for a fish give
your children, how much more him a serpent? Or if he shall
shall your Father which is ask an egg, will he give him a
in heaven give good things to scorpion? If ye then, being evil,
them that ask him? All things know how to give good gifts unto
therefore whatsoever ye would your children, how much more
that men should do unto you, even shall your heavenly Father give
so do ye also unto them: for this the Holy Spirit to them that ask
is the law and the prophets. him?_
Enter ye in by the narrow gate:
for wide is the gate, and broad =xiii. 24‒27.=
is the way, that leadeth to
destruction, and many be they _Strive to enter in by the
that enter in thereby. For narrow narrow door: for many, I say unto
is the gate, and straitened the you, shall seek to enter in, and
way, that leadeth unto life, and shall not be able. When once the
few be they that find it. master of the house is risen up,
and hath shut to the door, and
Beware of false prophets, which ye begin to stand without, and to
come to you in sheep’s clothing, knock at the door, saying, Lord,
but inwardly are ravening wolves. open to us; and he shall answer
By their fruits ye shall know and say to you, I know you not
them. Do men gather grapes of whence ye are; then shall ye
thorns, or figs of thistles? Even begin to say, We did eat and
so every good tree bringeth forth drink in thy presence, and thou
good fruit; but the corrupt tree didst teach in our streets; and
bringeth forth evil fruit. A he shall say, I tell you, I know
good tree cannot bring forth evil not whence ye are; depart from
fruit, neither can a corrupt tree me, all ye workers of iniquity._
bring forth good fruit. Every
tree that bringeth not forth
good fruit is hewn down, and cast =vi. 43‒49.=
into the fire. Therefore by their
fruits ye shall know them. Not For there is no good tree that
every one that saith unto me, bringeth forth corrupt fruit;
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the nor again a corrupt tree that
kingdom of heaven; but he that bringeth forth good fruit. For
doeth the will of my Father which each tree is known by its own
is in heaven. Many will say to me fruit. For of thorns men do not
in that day, Lord, Lord, did we gather figs, nor of a bramble
not prophesy by thy name, and by bush gather they grapes. The good
thy name cast out devils, and by man out of the good treasure of
thy name do many mighty works? his heart bringeth forth that
And then will I profess unto which is good; and the evil man
them, I never knew you: depart out of the evil treasure bringeth
from me, ye that work iniquity. forth that which is evil: for out
Every one therefore which heareth of the abundance of the heart his
these words of mine, and doeth mouth speaketh.
them, shall be likened unto a
wise man, which built his house And why call ye me, Lord, Lord,
upon the rock: and the rain and do not the things which I
descended, and the floods came, say? Every one that cometh unto
and the winds blew, and beat me, and heareth my words, and
upon that house; and it fell not: doeth them, I will show you to
for it was founded upon the rock. whom he is like: he is like a man
And every one that heareth these building a house, who digged and
words of mine, and doeth them went deep, and laid a foundation
not, shall be likened unto a upon the rock: and when a flood
foolish man, which built his arose, the stream brake against
house upon the sand: and the rain that house, and could not shake
descended, and the floods came, it: because it had been well
and the winds blew, and smote builded. But he that heareth,
upon that house; and it fell: and and doeth not, is like a man
great was the fall thereof. that built a house upon the earth
without a foundation; against
And it came to pass, when Jesus which the stream brake, and
ended these words, the multitudes straightway it fell in; and the
were astonished at his teaching: ruin of that house was great.
for he taught them as one having
authority, and not as their
scribes.
And when he was come down from
the mountain, great multitudes
followed him.
APPENDIX II
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR CHRISTIANS
IT has been noticed above in the exposition of St. Matt. v. 21‒48 that
different moral principles are brought out by our Lord in His treatment
of the different commandments. Thus in His treatment of Commandment VI
(vv. 21‒24) the moral requirement is deepened in its application below
the act to the words of the lips and the thoughts of the heart. In
the treatment of Commandment VII, not only is the outward scope of
the sin of adultery enlarged by a stricter law of marriage (vv. 31‒32),
but also the deliberate intention of sin is shown to be, without
proceeding further, the moral equivalent of the outward act of sin[90]
(vv. 27‒28); from the recognition of which principle there follows the
need of an augmented moral discipline (vv. 29‒30). In the treatment of
Commandment III, starting from the prohibition to violate any oath made
in the name of Jehovah (v. 33), our Lord augments the prohibition by
forbidding oaths generally (vv. 34‒36), and turns the requirement from
the negative to the positive and from the occasional to the universal
(v. 37), by simply enjoining truthfulness or sincerity in all
utterances.
In His treatment of the prohibition of unrestricted revenge
(vv. 38‒42), and the principle of limited love (vv. 43‒48), the same
two principles emerge――the transition from negation or prohibition of
evil to injunction of positive good, and from the partial or limited
duty to the universal and perfect.
These principles admit of general application to each of the
commandments. Thus――
I. _Thou shalt have none other gods before_ [or _beside_] _me_.
Whatever be the original limitation of this precept, it becomes, and
indeed in the teaching of psalmist and prophet which prepared for the
Christ had already become, a universal injunction upon men to recognize
the one true God in every faculty of their being, in every act and
moment of their lives. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart (or will), with all thy soul (i.e. with thy whole sum of
faculties), with all thy mind (or intelligence), and with all thy
strength (i.e. with a vigorous and active service).” This includes
(1) the recognition of God’s supremacy and fatherhood; the putting
Him first in all things; the acknowledgement that our life with all
its faculties is a trust to be made the best of, for His honour:
(2) humility, considered as the recognition that we are utterly
dependent upon God; that our only wisdom and happiness lie in
correspondence with Him; that any claim of independence of God, or
vanity on account of His gifts entrusted to us, is not only wickedness
but folly:[91] (3) the glad acceptance of His disclosure of Himself as
Father, Son, and Spirit; the acknowledgement and public confession of
His name both in speech, conduct and worship.
II. _Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, etc._ This
negative commandment becomes the positive injunction to worship God
aright, as He has revealed Himself to us, “in spirit and in truth”;
or in other words, according to the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer and
of the Eucharist, which are of Christ’s institution; or in the spirit
of His own worship. This involves earnestness and effort of will in
prayer: reasonable method, and use of the body with its faculties or
instruments: the action of the intelligence meditating on the word of
God so that we may have right ideas about God: systematic prayer for
others――the Church, humanity, various classes and individuals――as
well as for ourselves: public prayer and private: adoration and
thanksgiving, as well as making requests――i.e. a life of worship of
which the two hinges are the Eucharist (St. Luke xxii. 19) and secret
prayer (St. Matt. vi. 6). This positive injunction involves negatives.
Thus though the old prohibition to make any visible representation of
God is modified by His incarnation, it still remains a duty which the
Church has often neglected to guard against idolatry. It is idolatry
to let our worship (1) be directed towards persons lower than God,
as mediators, because they seem easier to approach and less awful; or
(2) rest upon circumscribed objects so as to imperil the omnipresence
of God; or (3) be moulded by false conceptions of God, as when the
worth of prayer is estimated by the place where it is offered, or
by some measure of length, contrary to the principles expressed in
St. John iv. 21 ff., St. Matt. vi. 7.
III. _Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain._
This limited prohibition of perjury becomes the positive and universal
injunction of truthfulness, i.e. the injunction to live and therefore
to speak as in God’s presence, so that our words represent the
reality, so far as we can know it, whether those words be promises,
or statements (a) personal, (b) historical or scientific. This duty of
truthfulness extends into all regions of life, political, commercial,
controversial, as well as the private and domestic sphere, i.e. we are
never justified in deceiving others for our own interest or that of our
Church or party.[92]
This commandment, as deepened by our Lord, also prohibits all other
kinds of speech which by their character ignore the reverence we owe to
an omnipresent God, i.e. blasphemous or unmeaning oaths and expressions
derogatory to God’s honour, irreverent or “foolish talking and jesting
which are not convenient,” etc.
IV. _Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou
labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the
Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor
thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle,
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord
made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed
it._
This commandment lays down three laws for human life.
1. The law of work, which――though the kinds of work are various, as of
body, mind, character, spirit, suffering――lies upon all men alike. “If
any man will not work, neither let him eat.”
2. The law of rest, like God’s rest. God works, as in creation,
redemption, the establishment of the kingdom; and then rests in
contemplation of His finished work; see Gen. i. 31, Matt. iii. 17,
Rev. xxi. 2: or, as otherwise stated by our Lord (St. John v. 17), God
works continually and yet rests in working, as is exemplified in our
Lord “semper agens, semper quietus.” Thus man is to share God’s rest,
by resting in God (Ps. cxxvii), and the sabbath was intended to help to
this end. The sabbath however was a day of rest from physical labour,
which only secondarily became a day of worship. The Christian Lord’s
day, on the other hand, was originally a day of worship, which became
secondarily a day of rest from labour. The primary object of Sunday
is that men by taking time and thought for worship should learn the
true rest, which is rest in God. The secondary object is that all men
equally should have the opportunity for physical rest and recreation.
All questions as to Sunday observance are to be judged by their
relation to those two objects in their right order.
3. The law of fellowship. This fellowship of all men (and even of men
with beasts) is developed in the New Testament into the principle that
each man has a right to equal consideration, that each man counts for
one, and nobody for more than one. Cp. above, p. 182.
V. _Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon
the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee._ By this “commandment
with promise” honour to parents, which is the principle of family life,
is made also the basis of national prosperity (cf. Deut. v. 16). It
is enlarged in all the “wise sayings” of the Book of Proverbs about
family life. It receives its completion in the principle of mutual
duty between parents and children, husbands and wives, masters and
servants, which are enunciated in such passages as Eph. v. 22‒vi. 9;
Col. iii. 18‒iv. 1. It receives a natural extension, so as to include
the whole principle of mutual subordination in Church and State: cf.
Hebr. xiii. 17; Rom. xiii; 1 Pet. ii. 13‒iii. 7. It involves towards
the Church the duty, not only of loyal obedience, but of generous
support. “Give to thy mother what thou wouldst allow to ev’ry
corporation.”
VI. _Thou shalt do no murder._ This commandment is developed by our
Lord so as to prohibit hatred or contempt in thought and word as well
as in deed. Translated from the negative into the positive it becomes
an injunction to do all that lies in one’s power to promote the life
of others, physically and spiritually――to “love thy neighbour as
thyself”――and to do this with a good will even towards enemies.
VII. _Thou shalt not commit adultery._ Our Lord deals with this
commandment partly by an increased strictness with regard to the
marriage law which brings under the head of adultery a number of
remarriages after divorce hitherto tolerated under the Jewish system;
partly by making the indulged intention to sin equally guilty with
the sin itself. On another occasion our Lord gives “adulteries,
fornications, lasciviousness,” a conspicuous place among the sins which
“proceed out of the heart” or “from within,” as though to emphasize the
necessity in regard to this class of sins in particular of cleansing
the inner springs of action and feeling. If we make the injunction
positive and general instead of negative and partial, we arrive at the
“law of liberty,” the duty of subordinating the flesh to the spirit, in
respect of eating and drinking, as well as of the sexual passions; and
the necessity of self-discipline or fasting as a means to that end (see
above, pp. 120 f.).
VIII. _Thou shalt not steal_, converted from the negative into
the positive, becomes “Thou shalt labour, working with thine hands
the thing that is good, that thou mayest have to give to him that
needeth.”[93] It is, in another form, the loving one’s neighbour as
oneself: the having the same care for his goods as for one’s own: the
same anxiety that he should have proper wages for labour as oneself.
From the Christian point of view this commandment is broken, not only
by stealing in the ordinary sense, but also (1) by fraudulent dealings
in business or trade, whereby our fellow man receives for money
given something less, or other, than he had a right to expect: (2) by
“sweating” or requiring others to work for inadequate wages: (3) by
giving or receiving bribes or, in other ways, defrauding an employer
of the best service of the employed: (4) by expecting others to work
for us without doing our own fair share of work: (5) by neglecting or
inadequately performing the duty of almsgiving. And in our generation
we specially need reminding that association in “companies” leaves
the moral responsibility for commercial dealings still resting on
each member of the company, at least in the form of a duty to vote for
directors who will have righteousness in view: to discountenance all
unrighteousness as far as possible: to refuse gains for unrighteous
dealing, when known. In all cases the Christian must prefer to suffer
wrong rather than to do it.
IX. _Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour._ This
commandment, converted from the negative――the prohibition of wilful
slander――to the positive, becomes an injunction to make the law of
love the motive of all our speech, with as tender a regard to others’
reputation as to our own. We may have to speak painful truth against
others, to rebuke, to accuse, to punish, etc., but the motive of all
speech is to be a deliberate good will.
X. _Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, etc._ The ten
commandments, as has been remarked, began and ended with an injunction
bearing not upon the outward conduct, but upon the heart. This one
affords no discouragement to our vital instinct of making the best
of ourselves, but it bids us have regard to what we can ascertain of
the divine intention for ourselves. We are to realize God’s purpose
for us, and to desire that every one else should do the same. Thus
this commandment prohibits envy or jealousy at another’s success or
abilities: discontent with what God has allowed us: ambition properly
so called, i.e. the desire to compass greatness, without regard to the
will of God. The New Testament even tends to make us personally prefer
the humbler to the higher place, and obedience to authority. But, on
the other hand, it says all that is possible to encourage a “divine
discontent” with the disorder of the world, which is the work of evil
wills resisting the will of God, that sort of discontent which makes a
man a fellow-worker with Christ for the realization of the kingdom of
heaven.
* * * * *
I have thought this analysis of the ten commandments in their
deepest principles, inadequate as it is, might be worth making, partly
because I cannot feel altogether satisfied with such as are commonly
current,[94] partly because the attempt to make such an analysis
deepens in my own mind the conviction that if the ten commandments
were not――as our Lord teaches us they were not――perfect, they were
none the less, in the truest sense, “the word of God,” for the moral
education of His chosen people, and through them of the human race.
Their principles are extraordinarily complete and suggestive, and there
is no early moral legislation which seems to me to be even comparable
to them.
APPENDIX III
THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH IN REGARD TO DIVORCE
ABOVE, in the text of the exposition, it has been maintained (1) that
Christ, by a distinct act of legislation, prohibited divorce among His
disciples in such sense as allows of remarriage, except in the case of
the adultery of one of the parties, in which case He did not prohibit
it; but (2) that the Church law and tradition in England, as in
the whole Western Church, maintains the absolute indissolubility
of the marriage tie. Both propositions, however, are denied, and it
is necessary to make some remarks upon the respective denials.
1. The present tendency of those who deny that Christ’s words, as
repeated on two occasions in St. Matthew’s Gospel, allow the remarriage
of the innocent party after divorce for adultery is――abandoning
with good cause the older arguments (1) that πορνεία only applies to
prenuptial sin: (2) that the words as quoted in St. Matthew were only
intended to apply to the Jews――to lay stress upon the uncertainty
of the text in St. Matt. xix where the words occur “and shall marry
another.” To this it may be replied (i) that it is strange to find
people not generally recognized as very advanced textual critics going,
in this single case, further than even Dr. Hort ventured to go, in
maintaining the textual authority of the Vatican manuscript, which
alone among the great uncials omits the clause; (ii) that it would
appear sufficiently obvious that the variation of the text in this
passage is due to assimilation to the similar passage in chapter v;
(iii) that it is not time to deprive people of the right to appeal
to an accepted text until some trustworthy editors have been found
to venture to remove it from its place; (iv) that the sense remains
the same in any case. For the text, as given in chapter v, or in
chapter xix with the words “and shall marry another” omitted, yet
carries the liberty to do so, see text given above, pp. 72, 73.
Divorce, as understood by the Jews, meant divorce _a vinculo_, i.e.
divorce with liberty of remarriage. Is any sane man prepared to say
that divorce, in the sense of separation of a wife from bed and board,
without liberty of remarriage, is only permissible to a Christian when
the wife has been adulterous?
I do not think then that the obvious force of the passages in
St. Matthew can be dissolved.
2. On the other hand, admitting all that can be said as to the
difficulty, which is due to the historical relation of Church and State
in England, of saying what is Church law pure and simple, it does seem
to me that the Western law of divorce, as distinct from the Eastern,
was accepted by the English Church and not only never repudiated,
but at least assumed to be permanent in the Post-Reformation Canons.
What has happened since then is (1) that the opinion of a great number
of the best English divines and commentators on St. Matthew has been
expressed in favour of allowing the remarriage of the “innocent party”
after a divorce for adultery; (2) that the Lambeth Conference of 1888
allowed such remarriage; (3) that statute law in England has recently
allowed the remarriage of both innocent and guilty party.
But the Lambeth Conference only expresses the opinion (however weighty)
of a gathering of Anglican bishops. It cannot legislate for the Church
of England. And the legislation which has taken place is purely civil
legislation made from a civil point of view and going beyond what the
Lambeth Conference would allow. And on such a matter as marriage which
lies at the heart of our religious life it seems quite unreasonable to
ask Christian people to accept this, as authority sufficient to upset
an ancient practice of the Church.
Granted then (1) that Christ did not prohibit[95] the remarriage of
an innocent party after a divorce for adultery, (2) that the unaltered
Church law of England does prohibit it, it seems to me that the best
course is _not_, at least in the present state of Church feeling, to
alter the Church law on the matter, up to the point which Christ allows,
by getting leave for Convocation to make a new Canon――though this would
be a course to which no one could take just exception――but to retain
and observe the Church law, allowing no remarriage with the rites of
the Church, but simply leaving it to bishops to act on the decision of
the Lambeth Conference as far as admission to communion is concerned.
This refusal to allow remarriage in churches may involve some collision
with statute law till an equitable concession to our principles is
accorded. But the difficulty is not greater than has been overcome by a
little resolution in the case of the Public Worship Regulation Act. If
in the process of the controversy the institution of compulsory civil
marriage here in England, with the same publicity as in most foreign
countries, to be followed by a voluntary religious ceremony, becomes a
more likely event, there would be a good many Churchmen who would not
regret it.
As regards the allowance of remarriage to the innocent party after
a divorce for adultery, it is sometimes pointed out that it is only
explicitly allowed by our Lord to the innocent _husband_. But it is,
I submit, at least competent to the Church to interpret this in the
more lenient sense as extending to the aggrieved wife also. It is more
often urged that it is illogical to forbid to the guilty party what
is allowed to the innocent――that if declared adultery dissolves the
marriage tie for either, it does so for both. To this I should only
reply that our Lord appears on the matter to be _legislating_ rather
than laying down a principle. His legislation covers the one exception
but not (with any degree of clearness) the other. He appears to be
sanctioning in the case of an innocent and deeply aggrieved person a
dispensation which violates the logic of the marriage tie on grounds of
equity: but this carries with it no necessary consequence of a similar
dispensation in favour of the chief offender.
INDEXES
I. PERSONS AND AUTHORITIES CITED
Aristotle,
on the “Blessed Life,” 18
on pity, 39
on the use of the drama, 39
Augustine, St.,
on the relation of Old and New Testaments, 1, 56
on the law and grace, 4
his prayer, 108
Bacon (Francis),
note-books illustrate Christ’s method, 12
his scientific method applied to prayer, 147
Bengel, on self-mortification, 70
Buddha,
on the “Blessed Life,” 18
on pity, 38‒9
“Carton, Sidney,” 106
Cassian, on sorrow, 32
Chase (Bp.), on the Lord’s Prayer, 132, 135
Chichester, Dean of, on Christ under semi-false accusation, 88
Chrysostom, on the Beatitudes, 28
_Didaché_,
on reconciliation and communion, 65
on almsgiving, 100
on duty to neighbour, 181 _n._
“Dream of Gerontius,” 44
Edward the Confessor, story of, 98‒9
Esau and Jacob, essential difference between, 57
Franks, conversion of, low standard, 51
Gnostics, and the “Mysteries,” 174
Gospel, uncanonical, record of a word of Christ on prayer, 143
_Hermas_, on alms, 101
Hillel (Rabbi), on duty to neighbour, 181
Irenaeus, on Old and New Testament, 55
Jacob and Esau, essential difference between, 57
Jehoshaphat’s reforms, 62
Job,
his detachment (poverty of spirit), 25
“seeing God,” 43
Kant, on duty to neighbour, 182
Law (Wm.), indiscriminate charity, 102
_Les Miserables_, 99
Maurice (F. D.), and fasting, 123
Mill (J. S.), on Christ’s moral teaching, 8
Mohammedanism, 51‒2
Mozley, on the imprecatory psalms, 103
Newman (J. H.), and the cardinalate, 119
Origen, on Ps. xii, and Christ’s teaching, 8
Plato, _Symposium_, 9, 181 _n._
Pusey,
on Mill, 8
on fasting, 123
“Sidney Carton,” 106
Simeon (Chas.), and fasting, 123
_Tale of Two Cities_, 106
Trent, Council of, its catechism, 132
Wisdom, Book of, and the world, 22
Xavier’s hymn, 112
II. SUBJECTS
Act, sin of, 63
Advertisement, self-, 190
Altar, of new kingdom, 65
Answer to prayer, 177‒8
Anxiety,
for health, 160
in holidays, 161
for success, 161
worldly, 157‒60
Christ’s freedom from, 160
Appreciation, power of, necessary for reception of religious
truth, 172‒3, 175
Asceticism, 69
Christian, compared with Indian, 71
Atonement,
nature of true, 199
need for, 198
Bad motives, playing upon, 118
Beatitudes, order of, 20
Beggars, attitude to, 99‒102
Benevolence, impartial, 175
Best thing in the world, 108
“Blessed Life,” 16‒21
according to Buddha, 18
according to Aristotle, 18
Body not evil, 71‒2
Body relation to spirit, 69‒70
Brotherhood of Christians, 68
Burdens, bearing others’, 30
Carelessness, moral, 71
Character, 188‒9
in the new kingdom, 16
of Christ’s teaching, 16
Christian, in the world, 47‒53
of Christ, the best thing in the world, 108
of Pharisees, 164‒5
CHRIST,
His authority, 60
bearing our burdens, 30
character of, the most precious thing in the world, 108
Divine nature, 6, 56‒7, 179
only foundation of life, 193
His freedom from anxiety, 160
His freedom illustrated by Ps. cxxvii, 160
gives principles, not laws, 109
Judge of all, 191‒2
His methods, 92‒4
His method to give principles, 64, 67, 109
parable of unmerciful servant, 41
Prince of Peace, 44
principle of interpretation of all laws, 64
use of proverbs, 92‒3
proverbial manner, 159, 168
was He revolutionary? 54
saying about prayer, an uncanonical, 143
His superiority over other teachers, 180
His teaching unique, 15, 16, 180
teaching of truthfulness, 81
under semi-false accusation, 89
the WORD, 6
His words the foundation of life, 193
His words the foundation of the Church, 193
Church, test of, 196‒7
Conditions,
of power of reception of truth, 173‒4, 175
of the offer of spiritual privileges, 174
Conduct,
motive of, 107, 118
social, principle of, 181
Conscience, 155‒6
Conversation, 80
Courts of Law, Jewish, 62‒3
Covenant, old, check on savage human instincts, 86
Criticism,
the temper of, 165‒9
wrong, 167
right, 167
“Daily,” significance of the word in the Lord’s Prayer, 132
Dealing, laws of the Divine, 40‒1, 54‒5, 85, 134
“Detachment” = poverty of spirit, 25
“Detachment” of Christ in the Incarnation, 25
Devil, existence of, 136‒7
Discipline, of self, 69
Divorce, 72‒8
in law of the Church of England, 77
in the Eastern Church, 76
“innocent party” in, 76
Duty,
threefold, to God, neighbour, and self, 114‒5
to self, fasting the expression of, 115
to self = making the best of ourselves, 115
Education, of man, God’s method of, 56
Enlightenment of conscience, 153‒4
Fall of man, 179‒80
Fasting,
expression of duty to self, 115
abuse of, 122‒3
examples of practice, 123
Fictitious pity, 40
Forgiveness,
nature of, 133
for the past, by itself no real remedy, 199
Foundation,
of life, 193
of the Church, 193
Freedom, the end of self-discipline, 72
GOD,
centre of all in Christ’s teaching, 19
character of, 187
dealings with imperfection, 55
dealings with us, 40‒1, 54‒5, 85, 134
Fatherhood of, 129, 141‒2
love of, how learned, 153
and mammon, 154
method of education, 56
nature of, 154‒5
Name = His revelation, 129
not tied to His own ordinances, 191
Presence of, degrees of, 82
purpose, 55
seeing Him, 43‒4
sole object of new righteousness, 111
and the world, 22
Gradation of crime in Jewish law, 62
Health and anxiety, 160
Heathen teaching in relation to Sermon on the Mount, 6‒10
“Heaven,” 129, 152
treasure in, 152
Hiding money, 151
Holidays and anxiety, 161
Holy Spirit, and good character, 191
Humility, 165
Hunger after righteousness, 36‒7
illustrated by boat-race, 37
Hypocrisy, 189‒90
English, 189
Imperfection, God’s dealing with, 55
Imprecatory psalms, 103‒4
Impurity, antidote to, 42
Injustice, legal, resistance to, 96
Intention = sin, 68
Jewish courts of law, 62‒3
gradation of crime, 62
Judgement, Christ’s coming to, 191
duty of, 166, 169
standards of, to be maintained, 48‒9, 167‒8
Justice, public, and private feeling, 89‒90
Kindness to enemies, effect of, 105
Lambeth Conference, on divorce, 76
Law, old,
relation to new, 1, 4, 54
check on savage human instincts, 86
Lawful subjects of prayer, 149‒50
“Letter,” of the Commandments, the meaning of, 3
Life of Blessedness, 16‒21
Lord’s Prayer, 128‒49
type and model of all prayer, 138
converging point of all ancient liturgies, 138
in Morning and Evening Prayer, 139
paraphrased, 145‒8
Lost, and saved, number of, 186‒7
Love of self, a true, 113
of God, how learned, 153
Mammon, and God, 154
Man, fallen state of, 179
Matthew, record of the Sermon on the Mount, his, 14
Maxims, of the world, 24, 28, 33
Meekness, 34
Mendicity, 99 _et seq._
Mohammedanism, compared with Christianity, 51‒2
Money, hiding of, 151
Motives, 109, 111‒27
bad, playing upon, 118
of religious life, 151
test of, 118, 151
Mourning,
for sin, 29
false, 32‒3
of sympathy, 30
Name, God’s, His revelation of Himself, 129
“National Church,” idea of, danger of, 52
Oath,
defined, 79
accepted by Christ, 82
accepted by St. Paul, 82
Ordinances, God not tied to His own, 191
Peace, 44‒5, 157
Peacemakers, 44‒6
Perfection, to be striven after, 108
Pharisaic religion, 59‒60
Pharisaism of the Publican, 66
Pharisees, character of, 59, 165
Pity, 38‒42
Aristotle’s, 39
Buddha’s, 38‒9
“dramatic,” 39
Poverty,
of spirit, 25‒8
voluntary, 28
Prayer,
definition of, 147
answer to, 178
effective, 178
“in Name of Christ,” 140, 142
in the region of uncertainty, 149
= intercourse with God, 126‒7
its reward, 118
lawful, 149‒50
Lord’s, 128‒49
and scientific method, 147
and selfishness, 144
spirit of, depends on idea of God, 129
test of, 141, 142
uncanonical saying of Christ about, 143
wheels and flags (Buddhist), 125
Presence of God, degrees of, 82
Prevision, is not anxiety, 160
Pride, 42
Principle,
of safe life, applied to art, 70
of social conduct, 181
Principles,
of Commandments, 64
Christ’s method to give, 63, 65, 109
new, in Seventh Commandment, 69
Proverbs, Christ’s use of, 92‒3
Psalms, imprecatory, 103‒4
Public justice and private feeling, 89‒90
Purity of heart, 42
Rates and taxes, 96
Reception of religious truth, condition of, 172‒3, 175
Reciprocity in life, 171
Relief cases, how to deal with, 99‒100
Religion,
outward, visible, 112, 121‒2
Pharisaic, 59‒60
Religious life,
true motive of, 151
orders, and voluntary poverty, 28
Remarriage
of “innocent party,” 78
Lambeth Conference of 1888 upon, 76
“Reserve”
in Christian teaching, 171‒4
in early Church, 174‒6
Resistance to legal injustice, 96
Revenge,
law of, 84
and public justice, 89‒90
Rewards, 112‒3, 118‒9
Righteousness, definition of, 36
Salvation, dependent on three great principles, 187
Sanhedrin, nature of, 62
Saved, and lost, number of, 186‒7
“Seeing God,” 43‒4
Self-discipline, 69
Self-love, true, 113
Sin,
nature of, 133
forgiveness of, 133
Single-mindedness, 43, 154
Sins
of act, 63
in intention, 68
of thought, 64
Social conduct, principle of, 181
Social law, for Christians, 109
Socialism and the Sermon on the Mount, 183
Sonship, of Christians, 142
Spirit, relation to body, 69‒70, 124
Spiritual
fabrics, test of, 193‒6
privileges, offer of, 174
Standard,
of Christianity, compared with Mohammedanism, 51‒2
of judgement, to be maintained, 167‒8
danger of lowering, 51‒2
Story of the Confessor and the scullion thief, 98‒9
Story of the Bishop and Jean Valjean, 99
Success and anxiety, 161
Sympathy, 30
Taxes, and rates, 96
Teaching,
discrimination in, 167‒70
of Christ, universal, 16
Temper, critical, 165‒9
Test,
of Christianity, 199
of the Church, 196‒7
of motives, 115, 151
of prayer, 141, 142
of spiritual fabrics, 193‒6
Thought, sins of, 64
Transport service of the Empire, 97
Treasure in heaven, 152
Truth, religious, condition of reception of, 172‒3, 175
Truthfulness,
as taught by Christ, 81
enjoined by Third Commandment, 81
Uncertainty, as to lawfulness of subjects for prayer, 149
Victory, final, of Christ’s kingdom, 198
Ways, the two, in life, 185‒6
Westminster Abbey, old sculpture in, 98
Words _v._ character, 185
“World,”
definition of, 21
in Book of Wisdom, 22
in Old Testament, 24
maxims, 24, 28, 33
III. TEXTS ELUCIDATED
Job i. 21, 25
Ps. lviii. 2, 82
Isa. lxvi. 1, 82
Ezek. xxix. 18‒20, 118
St. Matt.
x. 34, 45
xvi. 17, 195
xviii. 15‒18, 168
St. Mark xi. 24, 177
St. John
xi. 24‒5, 31
xv. 7, 178
xvi. 24, 178
xx. 23, 169
Rom.
v. 7, 42
vii. 1‒3, 76
vii. 4, 9
viii. 14, 170
1 Cor.
iii. 21, 27
iii. 22‒3, 155
vi. 7, 96
2 Cor.
iii. 6, 3
vi. 10, 27
viii. 9, 25
Gal. vi. 5, 30
Phil. ii. 7, 25
Heb.
xii. 16, 57
xii. 22, 129
St. Jas. ii. 15‒16, 101
1 St. John iii. 17, 101
Rev. iii. 15‒16, 49 _n._
IV. APHORISMS――“SEED THOUGHTS”
Atonement, must = redemption, 199
Attitude of others to us, 39
“On the whole we can determine men’s attitude to us by our
attitude to them”
Body and spirit must be treated together, 123
Care for health, 160
“We ought to be reasonably careful and to go boldly forward
in the peace of God”
Church, the offer of the, 174‒5
Comfort from God, 31
Conscience, 155
“Conscience is only a faculty for knowing God and His will. It
is certain, unless it is educated, to give wrong information”
Cost of duty, 188
Dealing of God with us, 40‒1
Duty to self, 114
“Our duty towards ourselves is, in a word, to make the best of
ourselves”
God’s dealings, 40‒1, 85
“God dealt with men gradually”
Health, care for, 160
Helping others, 46
“You are to help men by being unlike them”
How to make people better, 106
Imperfection, God’s treatment of, 55
“God does not despair of what is imperfect because it is
imperfect. He views every institution (or person) not as it
is, but as it is becoming”
“Judge not,” 163, 168
“Make the best of everything and every person”
“From all sides you get as you give”
Law of Correspondence in prayer, 148
Law of Prayer, 149
“We must not ask that God will violate His general laws in our
private interest”
Motive, real test of, 151
“Name of Christ,” in the, 140, 142
“To pray in the name of Christ means to pray in such a way as
represents Christ”
“That impulsive prayer which springs simply out of our own
needs is not the prayer ‘in the name of Christ’”
Peace, and truth, 44
“Peace can never be purchased in God’s way by the sacrifice
of truth”
Pharisaism of the Publican, 66
Reward, 118
“Every kind of conduct gets its reward on the plane of its
motive”
Safe life, 69‒70
“A safe life is better than a complete life”
Sermon on the Mount and Socialism, 183
Test of real motive, 151
Truth, and peace, 44
Truthfulness, Christ’s teaching on, 75
Value of the individual to God, 182
“Every one in God’s sight counts for one; and nobody counts
for more than one”
World, definition of, 21
“It is human society organizing itself apart from God”
These Indexes the author owes to the kindness of the
Rev. W. E. ASHDOWN.
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