THE GOSPEL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 KINGDOM OE HEAVEN.
 
 THE GOSPEL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: 
 
 A COURSE OF LECTURES 
 ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 
 
 BY F. D. MAUEICE, 
 
 INCUMBENT OF ST. PETER'S, YERE STREET. 
 
 ' Come forth out of Thy royall clmmhers, Prince of all the Icings of the earth ! Put on 
 the robes of Thy imperiall majesty ! take up that unlimited sceptre which Thy Almighty 
 Father hath hequeath'd Thee.' for now tlui voice of Thy Bride calls Thee, and all creatures 
 aigh to hee reneiv'd.' — Milton. 
 
 ITonbon iiub Cambr'ibge : 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 1864. 
 
 The Rigid of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 B. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 PUEE ACE. 
 
 I HAVE called these discourses 'Lectures/ uot sermons. 
 They are strictly readings on the Gospel of St. Luke. 
 But they were addressed to a congregation. Tlie ordinary 
 rules of preaching were observed in the delivery of them ; 
 a text was placed at the head of each. It was cliosen 
 because much of the sense of the surrounding passages 
 seemed to be woven into it. That I presume is the 
 meaning of a 'text;' the justification for its use in the 
 pulpit. It should always suggest, and in some sort 
 compel, the study of the book from which it is taken ; 
 it should never be forgotten in the disquisition which 
 is appended to it. When I revised the lectures, and 
 prepared them for the press, I might, along with other 
 alterations, have dropped these headings. But I Nvas 
 unwilling to give the book the form of a commentary, or 
 to lose any of the links which connected the Gospel that 
 is written with the Gospel that is preached. Why I felt 
 this reluctance will be evident if I explain the object of 
 the course, and the circumstances wliich suggested it. 
 
 1C59S56
 
 VI PEEFACE. 
 
 The life of a Jesus wlio was not the Christ, who is 
 not the King of Men, who came from no Father in 
 heaven, who baptized with no Spirit, who did not rise 
 from the dead, has been written with consummate ability. 
 Though this Jesus claimed titles which were not his, 
 though he practised mean deceptions, he has been recog- 
 nised as a hero both by his biographer, and by numbers 
 who have read the biography. Men and women, rich and 
 poor, in all parts of what we still called Christendom, 
 have been inclined to accept him as a substitute for 
 the Person whom in their infancy they were taught to 
 revere. If they could fully accept him, casting away all 
 their old impressions, a great incubus, they think, would 
 be taken from their spirits, they would breathe more 
 freely. 
 
 In these Lectures I have endeavoured to ascertain what 
 is told us respecting the life of Jesus by one of those 
 Evangelists who proclaim Him to be the Christ, who says 
 that He did come from a Father, that He did baptize 
 with the Holy Spirit, that He did rise from the dead. 
 I have chosen the one who is most directly connected 
 with the later history of the Church, who was not 
 an Apostle, who professedly wrote for the use of a 
 man already instructed in the faith of the Apostles. I 
 have followed the course of this writer's narrative, not 
 changing it under any pretext. I have adhered to his
 
 PREFACE. VH 
 
 phraseology, striving to avoid the substitution of any other 
 for his. 
 
 Can such a task be necessary in our days? Is not 
 every Sunday-school child acquainted with the letter 
 of the Gospels ? Is it not our business to consider whence 
 they were derived, how they may be interpreted and 
 modified to suit the temper of our times, what divine 
 and human elements there may be in them, how far 
 they represent exactly the acts and words of Christ, 
 how far they embody thoughts and beliefs of which the 
 Evangelists became possessed after their Master had 
 departed from them? I do not c[uestion the wisdom of 
 discussing any of these questions. I am glad to profit 
 by the learning and sagacity of those who take part in 
 them on either side. But I have not found the other 
 task, which requires no learning, superfluous for myself. 
 I think it is not superfluous for our age. 
 
 If the children in Sunday-schools understand and 
 accept the letter of the Gospels, their teachers and those 
 who preach to them out of pulpits, I fear, do not. Certain 
 conventional notions mingle themselves with it in all our 
 minds ; we read it as if they were inseparable from it. 
 Clergymen receive these notions as sacred heirlooms. 
 They are enforced by public opinion. If an ecclesiastical 
 synod should acquire the power of imposing penalties, 
 spiritual or civil, they will be enforced by those penalties.
 
 Vlll PEEFACE. 
 
 They subvert, as it seems to me, the words of the Bible 
 and the principle of the Creeds. They create that wish 
 to be rid of Him who is the centre and subject of the 
 JN^ew Testament history which M. Renan's book has deve- 
 loped. At the same time they contain the germs of the 
 new faith. The Jesus of the Frenchman has been formed 
 in orthodox schools and circles. 
 
 I purpose in this preface to indicate three or four of 
 these conventional notions. I have done what I could 
 that my reader might be able to test them by the 
 Scriptures themselves. Whatever be his opinions, he 
 will have every motive to expose me. I am about to 
 encounter a set of interpretations which apologists for the 
 Bible take for granted, which opposers of the Bible equally 
 take for granted. I should not dare to dispute them if 
 I were not convinced that God Himself is proving them 
 to be untenable, and is calling upon us to abandon them 
 as the only condition on which we can retain the belief 
 of our forefathers. 
 
 I. In these Lectures I have had again and aoain to 
 consider the question whether the Gospel of St. Luke 
 exhibits to us a Christ -^vho breaks throuoh the order of 
 the universe by strange and irregular acts of power. That 
 He did so is assumed by the writers of our books of 
 evidence. That He could transgress laws is said to be 
 the proof of the truth of His mission. All that reverence
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 for fixed laws which characterises our time — which is the 
 encouragement to our scientific inquiries, and the fruit of 
 them — rebels against such a proof. ' The tokens/ says 
 the objector, ' of One who comes from the God of order 
 ' should be, that He upholds order not that He vio- 
 ' lates it.' That assertion seems to me incontrovertible. 
 Gods made out of men's own thoughts — gods made in the 
 likeness of things in heaven or earth or under the earth — 
 may be capricious as those thoughts are capricious, may 
 be variable as the things which we observe are variable. 
 The proper ministers of such gods are enchanters and 
 magicians, who play tricks with nature that they may 
 prove how great and wise they are. The ministers of 
 a God who gives the sea its bounds that it should not 
 pass, who hath established the earth and it abideth, should 
 take the very oj)posite course to that of these magicians. 
 They should be witnesses for laws, against anomalies. 
 They should show that there is a living and eternal order 
 which all the changes and vicissitudes of nature obey. 
 They should show that true power is exercised in obedience 
 to this order, that all power which sets it aside is to be 
 broken in pieces. 
 
 It seems to me that exactly the claim which the Evan- 
 gelists put forth for Jesus is, that He was the revealer 
 and asscrtor of the Divine order, that He entered into 
 conflict with the anomalies which disturbed that order.
 
 X PKEFACE. 
 
 He came, they say, preaching the Kingdom of Heaven, 
 the Kingdom of the eternal, unchangeable God. The laws 
 of that Kingdom He proclaimed as more fundamental, less 
 capable of any suspension or modification, than the laws 
 that were written on stone and were ratified by thunders 
 and lightnings. This Kingdom of Heaven is a Kingdom 
 over men. But Christ drew His illustrations of it from 
 the facts and the course of nature. That He exhibited 
 as another part of the same living order. What we call 
 miracles are said to be the signs and powers of the heavenly 
 kingdom, the signs of its permanent nature, the powers 
 by which it works out its effects. How do they answer 
 to these titles ? They are directed against the confusions 
 of the world, against the plagues and torments which 
 distract human life. Is the novelty of these acts the 
 proof of their greatness? The Evangelists' language 
 would lead us to exactly the contrary opinion. Christ is 
 said to do the works of His Father in Heaven. If He 
 was really the Son of God, if He might really claim to 
 manifest His Father's mind and will to men, this would 
 be just the account of them which we should expect, 
 which we should consider most reasonable. And there- 
 fore it must be a secret feeling that He was not this, that 
 the words which seem to import this are not real but 
 fictitious words, that has led to the theory upon which 
 we are at times ready to rest the whole evidence of the
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 Gospels. That sucli a view of tilings was very reasonable 
 in tlie Unitarian apologists for the Gospels in the last 
 century, that it may not have seemed very unreasonable 
 to Paley, I quite understand. But can those who adhere 
 to the words of our Creeds, can those who take the declara- 
 tion of Christ's Sonship in a strict sense, can those who 
 think that all human sonship is the image of His, accept 
 that hypothesis ? These are thoughts which I would 
 suggest to persons who are eager to uphold the popular 
 notion of miracles. Before they charge any who dissent 
 from it as heretics, they should consider carefully whether 
 they are orthodox. At all events, they shoidd ask them- 
 selves whether they are adhering to the letter of the 
 statements in the Evangelists, or are departing from it ; 
 whether there is anywhere to be found in them a hint 
 of that exaltation of power at the expense of law which 
 is becoming characteristic of our divinity. 
 
 I admit, then, the full force of the objection which the 
 advocates of the Eenan Gospel allege against us who pro- 
 fess to be champions of the old Gospel. But I think that 
 we have incurred this charge by departing from that old 
 Gospel, and by practically accepting the premises upon 
 which the new Gospel rests. We start from the idea of a 
 natural Jesus : we attribute to Him certain suiKrnatiiral 
 exercises of power. All such exercises are by the very 
 assumption irregular, anomalous. The old Gospel starts
 
 Xll PEEFACE. 
 
 from the supernatural ground, assumes a supernatural 
 Being to be the Author of the universe, to have created it 
 according to laws which are the expression of His mind. 
 The tendency has been apparent in human creatures at all 
 times to make themselves the measures of the universe, 
 to deduce laws from appearances, to mould the lawgiver 
 after their conceptions. The revelation of a Creator is the 
 counteraction of this tendency, the discovery of Him who 
 preserves tlie harmonies of the universe, the witness that 
 its discords cannot be perpetual. ' There is no such 
 ' revelation,' says the new Gospel ; ' everything begins from 
 'phenomena, or from man, the observer of phenomena.' 
 Then, if the past history of the world is true, there will be 
 a succession of enchanters like the Jesus of Eenan. The 
 more any man is a reformer — the more impatient he is 
 of the abuses he sees around him, of the evils which are 
 besetting his fellow-creatures — the more he will practise 
 these falsehoods ; he has no other chance. He must cheat if 
 he is to save his fellow-creatures from being cheated. He 
 must lie, if he has the least care that truth should prevail. 
 II. The second notion to which I shall allude is this. 
 ' The New Testament is the proclamation of a certain 
 'religion. It is the true religion, the religion which all 
 ' ought to believe. The Gospels contain the simpler part 
 ' of this religion. The doctrines or mysteries of it are 
 ' set forth in the Epistles.' This statement would strike
 
 PEEFACE. Xlll 
 
 a number of readers as too obvious to be clisxmted. 
 Whatever may be the evidence wliieli supports the 
 authority either of Gospels or Epistles, this account of 
 them— that they announce or embody a relir/ ion— would 
 be equally accepted by all parties of Christians, and by 
 those who reject Christianity. 
 
 ' But then/ say these last, ' though you are all agreed 
 ' that these books contain a religion, and that it is the true 
 'religion, the only religion, the religion which all men 
 • ought to receive, you are not the least agreed Avhat it is. 
 ' Greeks, Eomanists, Protestants, are at war upon tliat 
 ' question. Protestants are split into a multitude of sects, 
 ' each of which declares that its own is the Christian 
 ' religion. When you are brouglit face to face with Hin- 
 ' doos or Bivddhists, they ask you which of your different 
 ' religions you wish them to accept ; and you can make no 
 ' answer, or only the most stammering answer. When you 
 ' are brought face to face with Mahometans, they can 
 ' boast that their religion grew up six centuries after 
 ' yours ; that it conquered a number of the countries which 
 ' once were yours ; that it does not yield at all to the 
 ' force of your arguments.' 
 
 These facts are indisputable. If there are any special 
 pleas to be urged against them, I liave no such pleas. 
 They seem to me just as important as any facts of nature. 
 I cannot believe in God without regarding them as His
 
 XIV PREFACE. 
 
 facts. I cannot shut my eyes to tliem without trying to 
 hide from myself some lessons, profound, tremendous les- 
 sons, which He is teaching us. 
 
 But are the Gospels the announcement of a religion ? 
 Is that what they profess to be ? Is that the conception 
 which would be formed of them by any one who simply 
 read them as they are written ? Does the word ' religion,' 
 or anything which answers to that word, even occur in 
 them? Do they not profess to be the account of One 
 who was born King of the Jews, who did certain acts 
 proving, in the judgment of the Evangelists, that that 
 title was really His, whose claims were rejected by the 
 Jewish priests and rulers ? Do not the Evangelists say 
 that Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven 
 to all classes and conditions of men — that He claimed all 
 as His subjects ? Do they not say that this was the main 
 cause of His rejection ; that His greatest opponents were 
 those who professed a strict and exclusive religion, and Avho 
 drew sharp lines between themselves and the rest of their 
 countrymen ? Is not the connexion between the Gospels 
 and the other parts of the New Testament this, that the 
 Apostles proclaimed the son of David to have risen from 
 the dead, and ascended on high, that He might be the 
 King of all men ? Did not their battle with their country- 
 men turn upon the question, whether there was a Son of 
 Man who might be announced by that name to Jews and
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 Greeks, to Barbarians and Scythians, to bondsmen and 
 freemen, wlietlier there was One in whom God had recon- 
 ciled the world to Himself, One in whom all things in 
 Heaven and earth shall be at last gathered up ? 
 
 If we adhere to this language, we must cast aside the 
 other, however plausible it sounds. "We must treat it as 
 an invention of men, as their substitute for the message 
 of God. Those who hold the Bible not only to contain, 
 but to be, the word of God, are especially bound to take 
 this course. And if we do take it, the Gospels will them- 
 selves explain to us why the attempt to make men embrace 
 a religion must have been, and must for ever be, futile. 
 Men, by their religion, seek to establish some meeting- 
 place or reconciliation between them and God. The Gospel 
 is the news that God is reconciled to man in His Son, 
 that in Him there is a meeting-point between God and 
 man. A religion must always be affected by the local 
 habits, by the individual temperaments, of those who 
 profess it. A Gospel is the unveiling or discovery to men 
 of a common Head. At the message of a Son of Man in 
 whom Jews and Greeks were one, a Church consisting of 
 men with different languages, opposing habits, contrasted 
 educations, hostile religions, started into life. At the 
 message of a Son of Man who had taken the nature of 
 men, Goths rose out of their brutal condition, Latins rose 
 out of a civilization which was worse than barbarism.
 
 Xvi PKEFACE. 
 
 Then there grew out of the conceptions which Latins 
 formed of this Gospel, a Latin religion ; out of the con- 
 ceptions which Greeks formed of it, a Greek religion ; out 
 of the conceptions which Goths formed of it, a Gothic 
 reliaion. These reli"ions were at variance with each 
 other. Within each of them there were elements of 
 continual strife. They had no force before the Islamite 
 shout, ' There is one God ; a man is His prophet and the 
 conqueror in His Name.' That mighty and living message 
 could only be encountered by nations which confessed an 
 actual King — one with man, one with God — as the bond of 
 their fellowship. But the Islamite faith lasted on. For 
 the West, while it could organize its polity and fight its 
 battles in this Name, must have its religion, its schemes 
 of drawing nigh to God, its methods of propitiation. In 
 the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, the name of the Eternal 
 Father confronted the mere ruler who was represented by 
 Caliphs and Sultans. He was hidden from the people by 
 mediators visible and invisible. He from whom all grace 
 and love proceed was continually presented to the con- 
 science as the great object of its terror, in the very likeness 
 of the Evil Spirit, His perfect Image was of necessity 
 darkened, as He was darkened. The Saints or the Virgin 
 
 crenerally some local virgin — must persuade the Son to 
 
 persuade His Father not to punish crimes wdiich it was 
 infinitely desirable for the order of society, for the cause
 
 PEEFACE. Xvil 
 
 of- righteousness, that He should punish, to ask toleration 
 for sins by Avhich His children were enslaved. Against 
 this Latin religion came forth the Gospel, ' God has made 
 ' peace with us in His Son. We may trust the Son 
 ' absolutely to put away sins. Indulgences are the devil's 
 'gifts, not His.' But the Gospel of Luther became the 
 religion of Lutheranism. It was opposed by the religion 
 of Geneva, by the religion of Zurich, by the religion of 
 England. Each nation has been great while it has ac- 
 knowledged Jesus as a King ; each sect has been great 
 when it has accepted a Gospel of Christ, and protested 
 against some religion which was hiding Him from men. 
 Each nation has become separate from every other when it 
 has boasted some system of religion, and has rallied round 
 that. Each sect has become narrow and persecuting as it 
 has set up its own religion, and has called that the religion 
 of Christ. And yet every nation has borne witness of 
 the truth by showing that it must prefer its own king, 
 an actual man, to any system whatsoever ; each sect 
 has borne witness to the truth by showing that the name 
 of its founder was dearer to it, and a greater security foi 
 its continuance, than any system of opinions. The Latin 
 Church has borne witness to the truth by confessing that 
 its religious system must go to pieces if there is not a 
 Bishop who is also a King (it signifies little whether he 
 is the best or the worst man on earth, whether his govern- 
 
 h
 
 Xviii PREFACE. 
 
 ment is the model of tlie Divine Government or concentrates 
 in itself all the baseness, tyranny, and corruption that is 
 diffused through the Governments of the world) to declare 
 what the religion is, and to bind those who profess it into 
 one. All these are testimonies to the need of a living 
 Head. Nor till the Head of Humanity is proclaimed will 
 the insufficiency of the partial heads be felt, will the 
 counterfeit universal head shrink into nothingness. 
 
 Tliese facts, then, are indeed of unspeakable value. 
 They show that Eeligion in the original Eoman sense, as 
 expressing obligation to some unseen ruler, is grand, 
 sacred, imperishable. But what the obligation is, must 
 be determined by the character of the ruler. If that is 
 not righteous, or if the righteousness is not declared so 
 that it may be known, the rehgion will become identical 
 with superstition, with the mere dread of a power which 
 can do the worshipper miscliief It will be supported by 
 the State for its own purposes, the statesmen all the while 
 mocking at its pretences. If the State, as in the case of 
 Eome, becomes a despotism, ruling over many tribes which 
 profess different religions, some of these will be treated 
 as lawful, some as unla,wful. Such as obviously interfere 
 with civil order wiU be put dov/n ; the rest will be protected, 
 as affording a help more or less useful in keeping those 
 who adopt it in subjection to the visible emperor. Only 
 if there should be the announcement of a kingdom based
 
 PEEFACE. XIX 
 
 on a foundation exactly the opposite to liis, toleration will 
 inevitably be changed into persecution ; the kingdoms 
 must fight till one of them fall. Such is the history of 
 the struggle which occupied the first centuries of the 
 modern world. It was not a struggle between a Christian 
 religion and another religion, or a multitude of other 
 religions. It was the struggle between a kingdom which 
 was grounded on the dominion of a man raised to be a 
 God, with the announcement that the true King of men 
 is one avIio, being in the form of God, took upon Him the 
 nature of His subjects, that He might deliver them from 
 all their oppressors bodily and spiritual. Is there such a 
 one ? Is the kingdom real or imaginary ? That has been 
 the question in all periods ; that is the question now. 
 Mr. Carlyle has taught us how, in every age — in this 
 democratic age as much as any — the demand of men is 
 for a king ; how any one who has exercised any influence 
 over his fellows has come forth to meet that demand. He 
 has made us acquainted with some of these kings ; the 
 best of them have surely been those who have confessed 
 a kingdom of w'hich they were only ministers ; he asks 
 reverence for them as for men who bowed to eternal laws. 
 They died, and left the world, he thinks, very bare and 
 sorrowful. Very bare indeed, if there is not a King who 
 entirely obeyed and fidtilled the eternal la\\s, and who is 
 not dead but alive. Very sorrowful, if the best message it 
 
 12
 
 XX PREFACE. 
 
 can hear is tins : ' You have been dreaming for the last 
 ' three-quarters of a century of a common humanity. 
 ' You have been utterly unable to realize it without a 
 ' head, a king. You have been convinced, by evidence 
 ' more and more overwhelming, that he who professes 
 ' to be the Visible Head of humanity has no power to bind 
 ' its limbs together; he cries for the help of earthly 
 ' monarchs to uphold him. Philology, and criticism, have 
 ' been trying to connect the present with the past ; every 
 ' man feels that connexion, and confesses one with an inter- 
 ' minable future. And now hear and understand ! Criticism 
 ' and philology have clearly ascertained that there is no 
 ' Head of humanity, no one who binds the ages together ; 
 ' no Prince of the kings of the earth.' The news may be 
 very loudly proclaimed. For some reasons I have given 
 already, for others which I may state presently, it may 
 eagerly be welcomed. Oiir unbelief has been anticipating 
 it, and preparing for it. But it will not have the kind of 
 success which those who send it forth anticipate. Men will 
 have a Christ of some kind. He may be a mob Barabbas, he 
 may be a Ccesar. We may make our choice between these 
 Christs, we may try them alternately. Either must have more 
 reality and more influence than a Galilean Thaumaturgist, 
 who feigned to contend with death and was overcome by it. 
 But the tyranny of each will at last be intolerable. The cry for 
 deliverance will again arise ; God will show who is His Christ.
 
 PEEFACE. Xxi 
 
 III. The third of the j^revalent opinions to which I shall 
 refer depends upon the second. * There being a religion 
 ' which men are required to accept, there must be sanc- 
 ' tions to enforce it. They must consist of the most bril- 
 ' liant rewards for obedience, of the most tremendous 
 ' punishments for disobedience. Pains and pleasures are 
 ' the motives by which men are stimulated to act as the 
 ' human legislator wishes them to act. The pains and 
 ' pleasures which a Divine Legislator holds out cannot be 
 ' limited by the threescore years and ten during which we 
 ' stay upon this earth. They must stretch through illimit- 
 ' able ages ; there can be no term to them.' 
 
 ' Yes,' the believer in the Jesus of Eenan says, ' beyond 
 ' all doubt this must ]}e the opinion of those who accept 
 ' what you call the Gospels, who suppose them to have 
 ' proceeded from a Divine Author ; who think that they 
 ' express the judgment of a Son of God ; of one that rose 
 ' from the dead. The words everlasting life and everlasting 
 ' ;^unishment are, those Gospels say, His words. Modern 
 ' divines have not introduced them. Eather it has been 
 ' the habit of our time to hide them from view, to explain 
 ' them away. Only a few are honest enough to take them 
 ' in all their horrible significance. Even those only use the 
 ' threatening part of them occasionally for great offenders 
 ' or desperate heretics — even they do not speak of the 
 'devil and of demons as the Gospels speak continually.
 
 Xxii J'REFACE. 
 
 ' almost in every page. We are told that we must acknow- 
 ' ledge the existence of such beings ; but in general little 
 ' is said about them. It seems to be thouglit that they 
 ' had tremendous power in Palestine, wdiile Jesus walked 
 ' the earth, but that their influence is not much exerted 
 ' over us. AVe are very depraved, of course, utterly de- 
 ' praved. But that is the fault of our own nature. Malig- 
 ' nant spiritual influences were believed in during the 
 ' Middle Ages, were thought then to be present and active. 
 ' What cultivated man dares confess a similar conviction 
 ' now ? Does not a clergyman, going into districts where 
 ' such superstitions exist, labour to discourage them ? 
 ' Does not the English Clergyman denounce the Irish 
 'Priest for making use of them, _ that the people may 
 ' tremble at his curse, and hope for his exorcism ? ' 
 
 I acknowledge at once that we have evaded the express 
 statements of the Gospels rejecting eternal or everlasting 
 life, respecting eternal or everlasting punishment. I ac- 
 knowledge it as an indication of the same habit of mind, 
 that we give so little prominence to the story of our 
 Lord's temptation by the devil, which stands at the very 
 threshold of the Gospel narrative, to those stories of the 
 casting out of demons which form one of their capital and 
 obvious characteristics. I think any objector has a right 
 to demand the reason of these omissions and prevarica- 
 tions. No reason seems to me so entirely to meet the
 
 PKEFACE, XXUl 
 
 facts of the case as this. We have regarded those phrases 
 about everlasting life and everlasting punishment as 
 the sanctions of a religion. We have translated the 
 Gospels into Bentham-Dumont Traites des Peines ct des 
 Recompenses. We have believed that we were to outdo 
 the Benthamite legislator by producing heavier punish- 
 ments and greater recompenses than he could produce. 
 And therefore these words have been kept as a reserved 
 force, to be brought forth at the end of discourses, to 
 clench the arguments and rhetoric of preachers. And the 
 preacher has been supposed to exhibit his discretion in 
 distributing promises and threatenings according to some 
 theory of his as to the persons who might need the one 
 and mioht not need the other, 
 
 ISTow when we read the Gospels, we find that the first 
 announcement of the Christ is this : ' He shall baptize with 
 the Holy Ghost and with fire. His fan is in His hand, 
 and He ivill throughly purge His fioor, and will gather the 
 vjheat into the garner ; hut will hum up the chaff ivith un- 
 quenchahle fire.' No one can suppose the Gospels to be 
 true and to have any order in them who does not take 
 these words as cardinal words, words of which all the 
 subsequent history is an illustration and fuliilmunt. The 
 Evangelists never suffer us to forget them. The charac- 
 teristic of the Christ is tliat which is indicated by the 
 name ; He is anointed with the Spirit. All His exercises
 
 XXI V PEEFACE. 
 
 of power are the works of the Spirit. They are not acts 
 directed towards the outside of the man, but to the man 
 himself. If they affect his body, they affect the springs 
 of life in his body ; that which determines its condition, 
 but which the eye cannot see. And the conflict is always 
 represented as being with powers which have usurped 
 dominion over his thoughts, over his will — powers which 
 have made him a slave. The Holy Spirit is at work to 
 deliver him from this captivity. What would this regene- 
 rating baptism of the Spirit be worth if it were not accom- 
 panied with a fire to burn up whatever defiles man and 
 the societies of man ? Can that fire be a poor material 
 fire, which, like all material things, must die out ? If it 
 is to purge an immortal being — a fellowship of immortal 
 beings — must it not be an unquenchable fire, one that no 
 evil with which it comes into contact can overcome or 
 extinguish ? Such a divine fire must be that with which 
 the Son of Man baptizes ; even as with such a fire He was 
 Himself baptized. 
 
 But are there not threatenings of an ' outer darkness,' of 
 ' weeping and gnashing of teeth,' of a ' damnation of Hell,' 
 which it is most hard to escape ? Fearful indeed are these 
 threatenings ; fearful in tlie frequency of their repetition ; 
 fearful in the occasions which called them forth. Oh, let 
 us meditate them well ! Let us observe that they are not 
 reserved for publicans or harlots, or heretics and heathens ;
 
 PREFACE. XXV 
 
 that they are reserved, strictly, carefully reserved, for the 
 most religious men, for those who were practising the 
 most exclusive religion, for those who were using the 
 sanctions of this religion, habitually, perseveringly, against 
 publicans and harlots and heretics and heathens. Let 
 us ask ourselves whether the outer darkness is not that 
 exclusion from the love which was seeking to embrace 
 publicans, harlots, heretics, heathens ; whether the weeping 
 and gnasliing of teeth is not for the loss of the fellowship 
 with the Son of INIan and with the race for which He died 
 through this exclusiveness ; whether the deep hell into which 
 the Jewish nation and its rulers were sinking was not the 
 hell of Covetousness, of Hypocrisy, of Malignity, out of 
 which the Spirit of God was seeking to raise them, which 
 the fires of God were seeking to consume in them. If we 
 think over these things, the Epistles will interpret the 
 Gospels to us. We shall understand how the law of the 
 Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus delivered Saul of Tarsus 
 (who had been living under the sanctions of his religion, 
 and enforcing those sanctions upon all other men) from the 
 law of sin and death ; we may understand what his conver- 
 sion meant, and what his Gospel to the world meant, and 
 why that Gospel exposed liim to the same bitter persecution 
 which he liad once enkindled. 
 
 And then, also, we shall never feel tempted to contract 
 the meaning of the words eternal or everlasting when,
 
 XXvi PREFACE. 
 
 tliey are applied to the Divine fires, or tlie Divine punish- 
 ments. We shall only complain of the contraction and 
 mutilation which they have suffered — both in this relation 
 and when they are associated with life — through the refusal 
 to take them in their natural original sense. All through 
 the Old Testament we hear of Him who is, and who was, 
 and who is to come. If we suppose the New Testament 
 to be in very deed the revelation of this God in a man, 
 we must accept St. John's words literally, that in Him the 
 life of the Father, the Eternal Life, was manifested to us. 
 And if so, the eternal fires must be those by which God 
 has in all ages been purging His universe of its corruptions ; 
 the eternal punishment must be that which has been, and 
 is, and will be directed to the extirpation of the great 
 curse of moral evil. 
 
 Is there, then, no indication anvwhere of fires which 
 
 7 7 tJ 
 
 are not purifying but destructive, of punishments which 
 do not aim at the cure of evil, but at the perpetual 
 prolongation of evil? Such fires, such punishments, we 
 are distinctly warned of. They are connected with those 
 passages, which we are rightly accused of slurring over, 
 respecting the Spirit of evil who tempted our Lord, re- 
 specting those demons whom He cast out. Not a part 
 of the message of the Kingdom of Heaven, but every part 
 of it, concerns the struggle of the Son of Man with the 
 Accuser^ the Tempter, the Destroyer; concerns the de-
 
 PREFACE. XXVH 
 
 liverance of men from the physical and moral slavery 
 which he has brought into God's universe. Everywhere' 
 the Son of IMan is defying his claim to rule ; everywhere 
 He is asserting the creation to be the Creator's. I 
 accept this as the most glorious message ever brought to 
 mankind. If I confess that the conflict came to its crisis 
 when the Deliverer appeared in our world — that there is 
 nothing in the Old Testament at all resembling the 
 Temptation in the Wilderness, or the exorcisms of evil 
 spirits — I do not therefore confine the meaning of those 
 records by any limits of space or time. They reveal to us, 
 I conceive, the principle and secret of the war that has 
 been waged in every palace and every hovel from the 
 beginning of the world. They contain the interpretation 
 of that which has been most confused in the language, 
 most radical in the convictions, of every nation, civilized 
 and uncivilized. Tliey give a sense to the most cowardly 
 superstitions, to the cries and confessions of the bravest 
 men. Abstractions about evil have satisfied schoolmen and 
 lazy speculators. Such abstractions have never satisfied 
 workers and sufferers. They have felt evil as a power 
 whicli was threatening them or holding them in bondage. 
 Take from biography, history, poetry, all that expresses and 
 embodies this conviction, and what a ghastly skeleton of 
 each will be left ! Take from us the sense that we are 
 wrestling with actual principalities and powers, and you
 
 XXViii PREFACE. 
 
 turn our existence into a series of sliadow-figlits. Then 
 the ghost assumes the place of the spirit ; there is a dread 
 of apparitions which may present themselves to the 
 eye, because the dread of influences that corrupt the 
 conscience and the heart has evaporated. We have, in 
 our days, in the highest circles, even amongst scientific 
 men, proofs enough that the sense of spiritual power, the 
 desire for spiritual communications, has not passed away. 
 But the sense and the desire have become fantastic and 
 frivolous, and combined with gross materialism, because 
 they have been divorced almost wholly from any association 
 with moral good and evil. Far more venerable, pointing 
 to far deeper human necessities, is the witch mythology 
 of the Middle Ages, are tlie superstitions of peasants 
 in all countries and ages. These may be often blended 
 with a grotesque humour, but they are not playthings to 
 fill up a vacant hour, new excitements to supply the place 
 of old excitements that have been worn out. They have 
 a dreadful seriousness. They have been the cause of un- 
 paralleled cruelties, especially when those who should have 
 met them with the Gospel of a Spirit of Power, and Love, 
 and a sound mind, have cultivated the servile terrors of 
 the people, have confounded these terrors with godly fear, 
 have turned them to the increase of their own influence. To 
 such blending of light with darkness, to such dishonesty, 
 whether in the priests of one communion or another,
 
 PEEFACE. XXIX 
 
 some of the darkest crimes in human history must he 
 traced. The office of the true minister of God's Kingdom 
 is surely to lahour for the extirpation all such superstitions 
 in all countries, Christian and heathen. He has a right 
 to tell the Irish priests, or any priests who are fostering 
 them, that they are doing the devil's work. But his 
 efforts and his denunciations will avail little if he only 
 hovers between the demonology of the old world and- the 
 materialism of the modern. He will lose the loyalty to 
 human experience which is latent under the first, the 
 loyalty to the facts of nature which is obvious in the 
 other. When we dare to accept the Gospels as they stand, 
 we shall be able to oppose the Manicheeism which draws 
 from the sense of moral and physical evil the inference 
 that there are two rival Creators, each of whom requires 
 some homage, the most malignant the greatest homage ; 
 we shall be able to spoil the occupation of the charlatan, 
 whose art consists in blending the phenomena of the 
 visible world with the terrors of the invisible, and making 
 man the victim and slave of both. For we shall believe 
 in a King of men, who went into death and the grave and 
 hell, that He might destroy him that had the power of 
 death and hell. We shall believe in a Spirit of God who 
 makes us partakers of the deliverance that has been 
 wrought for our race, who gives us power to be children 
 of God and citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.
 
 XXX PREFACE. 
 
 What iimst one who asks this help of Jesus think of 
 the Jesus of Eenan ? He is simply the Christ stripped 
 of all power to overcome any terrors of human beings, to 
 put down any superstition or priestcraft, to raise humanity 
 out of any of the natural or supernatural miseries which 
 have crushed and tormented it. He is the embodiment 
 of an impotent wish to do men good and conquer their 
 oppressors — a wish which could only succeed in its most 
 partial efforts by practising the cheats which have been the 
 greatest instruments of sacerdotal and imperial tyranny. 
 And yet I see not where we can stop short of such a 
 conception if we do not confess a Christ, who exhibited 
 on earth the power which He has exerted and will exert 
 through the ages till all enemies are put under His feet.* 
 
 * It has been often suggested that those who object to the notions of 
 future punisliment which are popuLarly adopted, have strong personal 
 motives for their dissent. A prelate of the English Church has recently, 
 I understand, given the weight of his episcopal authority to this sus- 
 picion. Some have complained of it as uncharitable. Testing it as I 
 ought to test every such admonition, by my own conscience — since I have 
 no facidty for determining how far it applies to my neiglibours — I at once 
 recognise its justice ; I accept it without modification. I liave a strong 
 personal motive for rejecting these popular notions ; the motive may be 
 exactly the one which the defender of them supposes. I do find that I am 
 tempted to those evil states of mind which constitute, as the Bible teaches 
 me, the curse and hoiTor of hell, to wliich all its outward physical 
 torments, be they what they may, are subordinate. I do not find that 
 I have anj'^ power to raise myself out of these states of mind. I 
 acknowledge the influence of an evil sj^irit who would draw me into them 
 and fix me in them. My'ho])e of deliverance from them arises wholly 
 from the belief that it is the will of God manifested in Christ to raise
 
 PEEFACE. X-Xxi 
 
 IV. The last of these notions is one to which I alluded 
 at the beginning of this Preface ' The four Gospels are 
 ' written documents. Before we can give credence to the 
 ' message which they contain, we must be assured of their 
 ' authenticity and inspiration. When we are assured 
 ' of their authenticity and inspiration, we must accept 
 ' them absolutely, unreservedly. Therefore,' says the 
 objector, ' if you cannot prove the authenticity and inspira- 
 ' tion of these books ; if you are not agreed among your- 
 ' selves what inspiration means, what is involved in 
 ' authenticity ; if questions about the composition of these 
 ' books are giving you ever-increasing trouble, and leading 
 ' you into ever-fresh evasions ; if you long to hide these 
 ' questions from the vulgar, and yet confess that you 
 ' cannot hide them — where must your belief go ? what 
 ' security have you for its permanence in any class of 
 ' men ? There are some who already refuse to accept your 
 ' books of evidence as inspired. With the increase of educa- 
 ' tion, will not their number be multiplied indefinitely ? ' 
 
 All that I have said in this Preface implies that 1 
 
 my will, and the will of those who are tempted as I am tempted, and wlio 
 have fallen as I have fallen, out of this perdition. Can I have a stronger 
 or more directly personal motive for rejecting the opinion which is pro- 
 claimed in so many pulpits, wliich it seems the object of recent declara- 
 tions to endorse, that it is the purpose of God to keep men iu a state of 
 sin — a continually increasing and deepening state of sin— for ever and 
 ever ? That I hold to be the purpose of the devil, whose works Clirist 
 came to destroy.
 
 XXXIl PREFACE. 
 
 recognise the Gospel narrative as a Divine message to 
 mankind, and that I ask Christians to receive that 
 message in a mnch more direct and simple sense than 
 they are wont to receive it. Therefore do I recognise 
 the truth of the arguments which I have just recited. 
 If the Gospel is a Divine message to mankind, it cannot 
 depend for the proof of its veracity, for its influence 
 over men, upon any theories about the composition of the 
 books which contain it, upon any arguments about their 
 authenticity or inspiration, upon any definitions Avhich we 
 can give of the words ' iVuthenticity ' and ' Inspiration.' A 
 Gospel to the poor, a Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, 
 never did make its way, never could make its way, to the 
 hearts, consciences, reasons of those for whom it was in- 
 tended, by any such process. We deny history, we con- 
 tradict in terms our own professions, when we assume that 
 it did. And what has been the effect of that assumption 
 upon our own minds ? I have endeavoured to show in 
 this Preface what it has been. We give the Gospels credit 
 for being authentic, inspired, Divine. We lift our voices 
 loudly against those who doubt their possession of any 
 of the qualities which Ave associate or fancy we associate 
 with these titles. And there our duty to them ends. 
 What they actually say we do not inquire. We change 
 their language into language of our own ; we efface their 
 most obvious characteristics ; we, in effect, re.-write them ;
 
 TEEFACE. XXXlll 
 
 all the while affirmiug that they not only contain, but are, 
 the Word of God. 
 
 And is it not inevitable that we should commit these 
 great contradictions whilst we adhere to that formula ? 
 Looked at as documents, what is the great question 
 respecting these Gospels — the question which is at the 
 root of all others ? It is this. ' Are not the three so-called 
 ' synoptical Gospels histories mixed with a certain leaven 
 ' of later theology ? Is not the fourth Gospel the full 
 ' development of that later theology, with a human history 
 'artificially and awkwardly grafted upon it?' This is 
 the battle we have to fight with those who dispute the 
 authority of the Gospels in France, Germany, and England. 
 All other battles are child's play to this. But with w^hat 
 weapons do we go into this ? We have thrown away 
 our weapons. We have to all intents and purposes 
 admitted the conclusions of our opponents. For w^e say 
 that St. John uses the expression Word of God in a sense 
 which may be very convenient for a system of Divinity, 
 but which has nothing to do with our habitual language, 
 with our common life. In these the book sliall mean the 
 Word of God, shall he the AVord of God. And therefore 
 we cannot hear the Person, tlte AVord, speaking out of the 
 book. We must regard it as containing a set of letters 
 and notions which we may twist and manipulate as much 
 
 c
 
 XXxiv PKEFACE. 
 
 as we please. The awe of the Word, the power of the 
 Word, has departed, while we are in the very act of 
 asserting its awe and its power. The Word no longer 
 convinces us, governs ns. We are its masters, we are to 
 enforce it on the acceptance and obedience of men. 
 
 Should this habit of mind continue among us, I believe 
 we shall find more and more of our countrymen who only 
 hesitate between the two opinions, whether the fourth 
 Gospel is a feeble reproduction of Philo's Theosophy, or 
 whether, as Eenan thinks, there are in it the footprints of 
 a genuine narrative, which must have been written by a 
 vain old man, jealous of the preference that had been 
 given to Peter over him in the older Evangelists, and full 
 of bitter spite against Judas. It is easy to denounce these 
 as extreme and monstrous notions. It is far better and 
 safer to inquire what has produced them, and how we 
 may be led into either of them. If we do not habitually 
 think of the Word of God as a living Person, it signifies 
 little whether the first verse of the fourth Gospel, and 
 all the rest of the writings which profess to set forth the 
 operations of the Word, were derived from Pliilo or from 
 any one else. If we think that the Eternal Life which was 
 with the Eather has not been manifested, and according 
 to the constitution of humanity cannot be manifested to 
 us, we must treat the apostle who wrote to testify of its
 
 PEEFACE. XXXV 
 
 manifestation as the greatest of all impostors ; that we do 
 not feel the personal bitterness to such a deceiver which 
 Eenan feels, must be the accident of our circumstances or 
 the effect of our indifference. 
 
 On the other hand, if we do heartily recognise these as 
 the fundamental principles of our faith, the first three 
 Gospels will become clear to us in the light of these ; we 
 shall examine their differences, not with trembling, but 
 with satisfaction. The theology of the fourth Gospel will 
 be the key to their history. We shall find that they have 
 had power over men, because the divine Word has been 
 making His Gospel heard in them, when those who were 
 entrusted with it have most darkened it by their fancies, 
 have most used the holy book to shut out the Holy God. 
 We shall read them as the record not of a life which 
 lasted thirty-three years, but of a life which has been the 
 light of men in all ages, which is the source of all that 
 is true and beautiful in human existence now, which will 
 be revealed as the satisfaction of all that men have 
 longed for, all that God has promised. The life of such a 
 Jesus as Eenan has described may be written by any one 
 who has learning and artistic skill for the task. The life 
 of Christ can only be contained in a Gospel of the 
 Kingdom of Heaven. If I should succeed in persuading 
 a few readers to study that Gospel as it is written in the 
 
 c 2
 
 XXXVl PKEFACE. 
 
 manly and wholesome words of one of those by whom 
 it was originally declared to mankind, and to forget any 
 words of mine and of other interpreters which have con- 
 cealed the import and weakened the power of his, the 
 purpose of these Lectures will be accomplished. 
 
 /
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Concerning certain prevalent opinions which hinder those who receive 
 the Gospels from taking them in their simple sense, and which induce 
 many to reject them. 
 
 LECTUEE I. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. I. vv. 1 — 5. 
 
 St. Luke an Evangelist in both senses of the name — For whom he 
 writes — His predecessors — Not an eye-witness — Expression 'Eye- 
 witness of the Word,' what it means — St. Luke's investigations — His 
 method — His likeness to the other Evangelists — His difference from 
 them Pages 1 — 13. 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SON OF DAVID. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. I. vv. 6 — 80. 
 
 Zacharias and Elisabeth — The Vision in the Temple — Characteristics of 
 angelic visitations in the Old Testament history — Presence of those 
 characteristics in this story — The Annunciation — It is the Annuncia- 
 tion of a Kingdom — The Songs — Their resemblances and contrasts — 
 Are they inventions of tlie historian ?— What tests they have endured 
 — The Icimous oi ilm MiKjnificat ... ... Pages 14 — 24.
 
 XXXVlll CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE KING. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. IL 
 
 Bethlehem and Nazareth — The reason for the journey from Galilee — Why 
 it is discredited by modern critics — The manger — The shepherd — 
 Pastoral stories — The Circumcision —The Nunc Dirnittis — The Boy in 
 the Temple Pages 25— 36 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AT HAND. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. III. vv. 1—23. 
 
 Pictures of the infant John and the infant Jesus — The contrast between 
 John and Jesus in the Gospels — The quotation from Isaiah — How 
 fulfilled in the preaching of the Baptist — Sentence in it which only 
 St. Luke has introduced — The Baptist's message of deliverance — His 
 message of terror — The Baptism with water — The Baptism with the 
 Spirit and fire — The Baptism of Jesus Pages 37 — 48. 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 THE TEMPTATION OF THE KING. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. IV. vv. 1—33, 
 
 Reference to the Genealogies of St. Matthew and St. Luke — Is the 
 Temptation a part of the human history ? — The Spirit who leads Jesus 
 — The wilderness — The Tempter — The hunger — In what the Tempta- 
 tion consisted — How it was resisted— Are the kingdoms of the world 
 the devil's ? — The pinnacle of the Temple— To whom the story of the 
 Temptation addresses itself — Jesus going in the power of the Spirit into 
 Galilee — The Gospel at Nazareth — How it was received . Pages 49 — 61 . 
 
 LECTURE VI. ' 
 
 THE KING CASTING OUT EVIL SPIRITS. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. IV. vv. 33—44. 
 
 The demons of the Gospels not found in deserts, but in public haunts — 
 Jesus a Redeemer of what, and from what ? — Characteristics of the man 
 with the unclean spirit — Is the language of the Evangelist unreal 
 or exceptional language ? — Is it favourable or unfavourable to super- 
 stition ? — Deliverances of the body as well as the spirit — Privacy of 
 some of Christ's acts of healing — Modem exorcisms . Pages 62 — 70.
 
 CONTENTS. XXXIX" 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 POWERS AND SIGNS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. V. 
 
 The draught of fishes — Its effect upon Peter — A sign to fishermen and to 
 men — The cure of the leper — Was it a breach of the Law or a fulfil- 
 ment of it ? — The cure of the man with the palsy^The forgiveness of 
 sins — What the Scribes meant by it — What it was to the sick man — 
 The calling of Matthew — Feast to the Publicans — The Bridegroom of 
 Humanity Pages 71 — 81. 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 THE LORD OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. VI. vv. 1 — 12. 
 
 Importance given to the question of the Sabbath-day by all the Evangelists 
 — The whole controversy between the Pharisees and the Son of Man 
 involved in it — How the Pharisees explained the fourth Commandment 
 — Did they adliere to the letter of that Commandment as it stands in 
 Exodus or in Deuteronomy ? — The complaint against the Disciples in 
 the corn-fields — What is implied in our Lord's justification of them ? — 
 The man with the withered hand — Doiug good and doing evil — Modern 
 questions about the Sabbath —Is it national or universal ? — Can the 
 foiu-th Commandment have the same authority with the fifth or the 
 sixth ? — Can it apply to those who keep Sunday ? . . Pages 82— 1>6. 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 THE KING CHOOSING HIS MINISTERS, 
 
 Subject. LuKE, c. W. vv. 13 — 17. 
 
 St. John's Day — The Prayer of Christ the preparation for His choice of 
 the Apostles — The difference between the Apostles and the other 
 Disciples — How St. John explains it — The number of the Apostles — 
 How St. Paul seems to treat the number twelve with indifference — 
 How the Apocalypse seems to re-affirm its iin})ortance — The notion 
 tliat we have lost an Order out of the Church — What we have lost and 
 may hope to see restored Pages 97 — lO'J.
 
 xl CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 THE SUBJECTS AND LAWS OF THE KINGDOM. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. YL vv. 17 — 49. 
 
 Supposed character of this discourse — To whom addressed — The poor 
 and the poor in spirit — Was the blessing only to the last ? — "What the 
 words "Kingdom of Heaven" denoted — Are _the rich cursed? — 
 Weeping and laughing- -What is the joy of the persecuted, the calamity 
 of the persecutors — Is the morality of the Sermon exclusive or level- 
 ling?— Does it condemn the world or the Church most? — What its 
 actual influence on society has been — Has it been opposed to civil or 
 national order ? — ' Give and it shall he given you ; Give and hope for 
 nothing ; ' are these precepts inconsistent ? — The real hindrance to 
 Gospel morality Pages 110 — 125. 
 
 LECTURE XI. 
 
 THE KING CALLING FORTH THE FAITH OF HIS SUBJECTS. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. Vll. 
 
 This chapter records a series of Epiphanies or manifestations of Christ — 
 To what in men He was iu each case manifested — The manifestation 
 to the Roman Centurion in the cure of his servant ^ — AVhy his faith was 
 such as had not been found in Israel — The raising of the widow's son 
 — What the words, ' Young man, J say unto thee, arise,' imported — 
 What was the evidence to John's disciples and to -John himself — The 
 discourse respecting John — How Wisdom was justified of her children 
 — The manifestation to Simon and to the sinful woman — ' Thy faith 
 hath saved thee ' — Faith in a Person the only faith . Pages 126 — 136. 
 
 LECTURE XII. 
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. VIII. 
 
 The Kingdom of Heaven, how it unveiled itself to the women who 
 ministered to Jesus, especially to Mary Magdalen — The acts and words 
 of Christ different portions of the same revelation — All Christ's teaching 
 S'Wpei'natural, none of it unnatural — How He leads His disciples to 
 observe the facts of nature — How the mysteries which most concern 
 their own spirits are discovered through these facts — The power of seeds 
 — The power of words — How either become unproductive — Whether
 
 CONTENTS. xli 
 
 the unproductiveness is fatal, and cannot be arrested— The candle 
 under the bushel — ' Take heed how ye hear ' — The mother and brethren, 
 and those who do Christ's word— The Voice on the Lake — The 
 Voice to the Demoniac — The Voice to the woman with the issue 
 of blood and to the daughter of Jairus — The various parables of 
 life Pages 137—149. 
 
 LECTURE XIII. 
 
 THE GLORY AND HUMILIATION OF THE KING. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. IX. vv. 1—48. 
 
 The Transfiguration a critical event in the Revelation of the Divine 
 Kingdom — The mission of the Apostles a previous step in that 
 revelation — The message of a Kingdom excites the questioning of 
 Herod — The retirement of the Apostles — The multitudes fed in the 
 Desert— The old Prophets and the Christ of God — The prophecj' of 
 rejection and Crucifixion— The great paradox of Christian Theolog}' 
 and Christian morality — How experience supports it— The transitori- 
 ness of the Vision on the Mount — The permanence of its eff"ects— The 
 epilejitic boy — The Apostles unable to understand the union of 
 humiliation and glory — The little child .... Pages 150— 150. 
 
 LECTURE XIV. 
 
 THE ETERNAL LIFE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. IX. vv. 49—62, and c. X. vv. 1—38. 
 
 St. John — Two illustrations of his temper — How he was educated to 
 understand the law of love — ' Let the dead bury their dead ' — The 
 mission of the Seventy — The woes to the Galilean cities — The joy of 
 the disciples — The joy of Christ — What the blessing was which Kings 
 and propliets had looked for — The question of the lawyer — The love 
 of the neighbour — The Eternal Life in that . . . Pages 160 — 171. 
 
 LECTURE XV. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE KING AND OF THE JEWISH RULERS. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. X. vv. 38 — 42, and c. XI. 
 
 Mary and Martha— The contrasts in the language of Jesus— The Lord's
 
 xlii CONTENTS. 
 
 Praj'er — The petitions not new — What was new in it ? — The impor- 
 tunity which Christ encouraged, of what kind was it — God and Beel- 
 zebub — The battle with the strong man armed — The deserted house 
 and the evil spirits that take possession of it — The woman's notion of 
 blessedness — Tlie larger blessing of Christ — The people of Nineveh and 
 the Queen of Sheba judging the age — The light that may become 
 darkness — The denunciation of the Pharisees — Was it a merciful or 
 an unmerciful one ? — The woe upon the lawyers — The effect of three 
 warnings — How they harmonise with the previous passages of the 
 chapter — What lessons they have for us ... . Pages 172 — 186. 
 
 LECTURE XVI. 
 
 THE FIRE WHICH IS TO BAPTIZE THE NATION AND THE KING. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. XII. vv. 1 — 51. 
 
 The open war between our Lord and the Pharisees — The leaven of the 
 Pharisees — That leaven was infecting the disciples and the whole 
 nation — The cure for Hypocrisy — The ground of courage — Confessing 
 in Christ — The blasphemy against the Son of Man and against the 
 Holy Ghost — The Spirit of Truth the deliverer from fear — Christ's 
 treatment of the habit of Covetousness — Difference between possessions 
 and life — The grandeur of life — ' Sell that ye have and give alms' — The 
 precept and its abrtse illustrated by the history of the Church — The 
 coming of the Son of Man, was that an announcement to the dis- 
 ciples or to all ? — The few stripes and the many stripes — The baptism 
 with fire — How Christ shares in it Pages 187 — 203. 
 
 LECTURE XVII. 
 
 THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. XII. vv. 51 — 59, and c. XIII. 
 
 Christ bringing not peace upon earth, but division — The agony of that 
 thought to Himself — The signs of the weather and the signs of the 
 times — The adversary and the Judge— The cruelty of Pilate to the 
 Galileans — The warning that is drawn from it to the nation at large — 
 The Husbandman and the fig-tree — One of the signs that the fig-tree 
 was perishing — Jesus healing the crippled woman on the Sabbath-
 
 CONTENTS. xliii 
 
 (lay — The new tree that was to spring out of tlie mustard-seed — The 
 secret leaven — '■Are, there feio that shall he saved? ' — Christ's answer — • 
 The exclusion from the Kingdom — The opening of the Kingdom — 
 Jesus warned against the plots of Herod — A prophet cannot die out of 
 Jerusalem — The woe and the pi'omise to Jerusalem . Pages 204 — 218. 
 
 LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 THE FEAST OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEK. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. XIV. 
 
 New acts of healing on the Sabbath-day — Wlierein they differ from 
 those recorded before— Taking the lowest room at feasts— Why our 
 Lord's words are said to be a parable—Transition to the words, 
 ' Whe7i thou makest a feast, call the poor '—Abuse of those words 
 — The invitations to the Divine feast — ^Why they were rejected — 
 The messengers sent into the streets and lanes — Then to the high- 
 ways and hedges— How selfishness has perverted this kingly feast in 
 later days— The true and false compulsion — How a man is to hate his 
 father and mother — How the clause, his oivn life or soul, has been 
 forgotten— The failure of the builders— The defeat in the battle— What 
 is the cause of each ?— The salt losing its savour , Pages 219—232. 
 
 LECTURE XIX. 
 
 THE JOY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. XV. 
 
 The subject of the last chapter continued in this — The contrast between 
 the mind of God and the mind of His ministers on earth— The parable 
 of the Shepherd — The nature of his joy — The parable of the woman 
 finding her piece of money — The character of her joy — The joy of 
 the angels like hers— The parable of the father with the two sons — 
 Are these two sons the Jews and Gentiles ? — That interpretation does 
 not exclude a personal application of the story — The acts, sufferings, 
 repentance, of the younger son— The joy of the father— The dis- 
 content of the elder brother — What is meant by ' Son, thou art ever 
 vnth me, and all that I have is thine?' — The moral lies in those 
 words Pages 233—245.
 
 xliv CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE XX. 
 
 THE KING DISMISSING HIS STEWARD. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. XVL 
 
 Tlie parables of the prodigal son and the unjust steward connected by 
 St. Luke — Importance of remembering that the Jewish nation was 
 a steward — Spiritual and outward treasures connected by the parable 
 — The conduct of the steward exactly the conduct of the nation — His 
 desire to make friends a good desire — How our Lord teaches His dis- 
 ciples to imitate the steward — Connexion of the passage respecting 
 the Law and the Prophets and divorce with this parable and the one 
 that follows it — Why that is called a parable — Who is the rich man — 
 What is his clothing and his sumj^tuous fare — Who is the beggar — 
 To what is the beggar raised ? — Into what state does the rich man fall ? 
 — The blessing of that state to him — This parable, like the others, true 
 as a story and in its individual application . . . Pages 246 — 262. 
 
 LECTURE XXI. 
 
 HOW THE KINGDOM OF GOD COMES. 
 
 Subject. St. Lttke, c. XVII. 
 
 Connexion of this chapter with the preceding one — Scandals — How to 
 avert scandals — The disciples' prayer for faith — The grain of mustard- 
 seed — The power which can move mountains — Not given that men 
 may feast themselves— The ten lepers — All equally healed of the 
 disease — Wherein the Samaritan was more blessed than the Jews — 
 Lessons on the way in which the Kingdom of God would manifest 
 itself — The day of the Son of Man — The warning from Noah and Lot 
 — The definiteness of our Lord's words — They must point to an 
 approaching crisis Pages 263 — 276. 
 
 LECTURE XXII. 
 
 WHO CAN ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN? 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. XVIII. 
 
 The terror of the events which our Lord had said to be approaching — 
 Encouragement not to faint — The woman and her adversary — Con- 
 nexion of this parable with the next — The publican wants an avenger, 
 the Pharisee none — The childi-en brought to Christ — Why repelled —
 
 CONTENTS. xlv 
 
 The vanity of conscious faith — Christ's rebuke of it — The young ruler 
 — What can he give to get eternal life ? — Life and goodness ; Life and 
 the common Commandments — The test of what he will give — The 
 barrier of riches — All things possible with God — The pride of self- 
 sacrifice — Its real reward — The mockery and rejection of the King — 
 The disciples perplexed — The Son of David discovered to the blind 
 beggar Pages 277—289. 
 
 LECTURE XXIIL 
 
 THE KING ENTERING HIS CAPITAL, 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. XIX. 
 
 The Son of David discovered to the rich publican — Effect of the dis- 
 covery on him — The approach to Jerusalem — The nobleman going to 
 claim a kingdom ; he commits a pound to each of his servants — Their 
 use of the pound — Their reward — Motive of him who hoards the 
 treasure — His jiunishment — Application to the Jews — Application to 
 the disciples — The royal entrance into the city — The lamentation over 
 the city not to be turned into a metaphor — The purification of the 
 Temple — Lessons from the story taken in its simplest sense. 
 
 Pages 290—300. 
 
 LECTURE XXIV. 
 
 THE KING AMIDST THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND SCRIBES. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. XX. 
 
 Sympathies of the people in Jerasalem — The question of the nilers, 
 ' WJio gave thee this authority?' — The answer — Fear of the people — The 
 owner of the vineyard and the husbandman — The story understood 
 and felt — The Pharisaic case of conscience, 'Shall we give tribute or 
 no 1 ' — The reply a direct one — The image and superscription — Mis- 
 interpretation of the story — The message which it contains to every 
 nation — The Sadducees' difficulty, ' WJiose wife shall she be of the 
 seven ? ' — The answer — It has been supposed to treat all human rela- 
 tions as of the eai-th — Its real witness to their permanence — The 
 Gospel of the Resurrection opposed to the dogma of the Resurrection 
 — Christ's question to the people — He excited them to look into an 
 apparent contradiction — What His question involved — Why the Scribe 
 could not believe in a Lord who was also a Son . . Pages 301 — 311.
 
 xlvi CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE XXY. 
 
 THE FALL OF THE TEMPLE THE SIGN THAT THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 
 
 WAS AT HAND. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. XXL 
 
 Whitsuntide— St. Peter's Sermon on the Day of the Lord — Difference 
 between the predictions in this chapter and in the seventeenth — The 
 widow's mite thrown into the Temple treasury — The goodly gifts of 
 the Temple — The Christs who would come to save the Temple— The 
 wars of the Nations — Josephus and Tacitus — The nearness of the 
 Crisis — The rage against the Apostles — Promise of a mouth and 
 wisdom — ' Not a hair of your head shall perish '^Jerusalem com- 
 passed with armies — The times of the Gentiles — The Son of Man 
 coming — The words fulfilled — The warning for that day and all 
 days Pages 312—32.3. 
 
 LECTURE XXVL 
 
 THE KING IN HIS AGONY. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. XXII. 
 
 Trinity Sunday ; where we may learn best to keep it — The Priests' fears 
 of an insurrection — The Betrayal — Preparation for the Passover — The 
 last taste of the old Feast — The new Feast — The Betrayer's hand on 
 the table — ^ Lord, is it IV — The strife who shall be greatest — The 
 law of the Divine Kingdom — Simon's temptation — The two swords 
 — The Agony — The kiss — The struggle — The surrender — Peter's 
 denial — Jesus smitten by the officers^' Art thou the Christ ? ' — The 
 answer Paees 324 — 342. 
 
 LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 THE KING ON THE CKOSS. 
 
 Subject. St. Luke, c. XXIII. 
 
 The King not forgotten by the Evangelists in the Sufferer — Christ 
 before Pilate — His contempt of the charge — Herod — The regal robe — 
 Pilate's second judgment — ' Away with this man, and release unto us 
 Barabbas ' — Pilate's third struggle— Pilate yields — The ascent of the
 
 CONTENTS. :dvii 
 
 hill — ' Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me ' — * Father, forgive ' 
 — The inscrijition on the Cross — ' Zord, remember me v)henthou earnest 
 into thy Kingdom ' — The darkness — ' Father, into thy hands I com- 
 mend my spirit ' — The Centurion — Joseph of Arimathea — The 
 Body Pages 343—356. 
 
 LECTUEE XXVIII. 
 
 THE KING TRIUMPHANT. 
 
 Subject. St. Ltjke, c. XXIV. 
 
 The Sabbath-day— The morning^The angels — Peasants may find it as 
 hard to believe in a Resurrection as Philosophers — The walk to 
 Emmaus — The Stranger — Moses and the Prophets — The breaking of 
 bread — ' Peace be iinto you ' — Seeing a spirit — ' Handle me and see ' — 
 He eats before them — Preparations of the witnesses — The promise of 
 the Father — The blessing— The Ascension— Praise in the Temple . . 
 
 Pages 357—368.
 
 LECTUEE I. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 St. Luke I. 1 — 5. 
 
 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration 
 of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they 
 delivered them, tmto us, ivhichfrom the beginning were eyewitnesses, and 
 ministers of tlie word ; it seemed good to me also, having fiad perfect 
 understaruling of all things from, the very first, to write unto thee in order, 
 most excellent Theophilas, that thoxi mightest know the certainty of those 
 things, tvherein thou hast been instructed. 
 
 Two years ago, on St. Luke's day, I began a series of 
 Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles. This year I com- 
 mence a series on the Gospel of St. Luke. Am I not 
 reversing the order of these writings ? Does not the 
 Evangelist call that 'the former treatise' which I am 
 considering last ? 
 
 Let me remind you that St. Luke was the preacher of a 
 Gospel before he was the wTiter of one. The book which 
 we call the Acts of the Apostles tells us what he preached, 
 and to what kind of men he preached. It tells us what 
 message St. Peter delivered to those who were assembled, 
 from all parts of the Eoman and Parthian empires on 
 the day of Pentecost. It tells us what message St. Paul 
 delivered to Jews and Gentiles both, in different cities of 
 
 B
 
 2 LECTURE I. 
 
 Greece and Asia Minor. The word Gospel, or good tidingS' 
 is a word especially dear to St. Paul, whose companion 
 St. Luke was. We are not left to gather from his writings 
 what sense he attached to it. He has defined it carefully 
 in the opening passage of the Epistle to the Eomans : — 
 'Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to he an apostle, 
 separated unto the gospel of God (which he had promised 
 afore hy his prophets in the lioly scriptures), concerning his 
 Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of 
 David, according to the flesh ; and declared to he the Son of 
 God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, hy the 
 res2irrection from the dead : hy lohom we have received grace 
 and apostleship, for ohedience to the faith among all nations, 
 for his name : among whom are ye also the called of Jesus 
 Christ: 
 
 These, then, were the tidings which St. Paul and 
 St. Luke delivered. In answer to these tidings Churches 
 arose. Those who were received into them, Jews and 
 Gentiles, confessed One who was made of the seed of 
 David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son 
 of God with power, to be their common Lord, the bond 
 of their fellowship. They said that they were held 
 together by that Spirit of Holiness which dwelt in Him. 
 They spoke of themselves as citizens of the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 Those who had received this Gospel and been baptized 
 into this fellowship, had been told by the Apostles of certain 
 acts by which Jesus, while He was upon earth, had shown 
 Himself to be the Son of David and the Son of God. There 
 must have been a multitude of reports concerning these 
 acts floating about, some coming from friends, some from 
 enemies. Could they not be collected ? could not the chaff
 
 THE PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL. 3 
 
 be separated from the wheat, the fancies of men from the 
 Divine discovery ? The answer to this demand is in the 
 written Gospel. How a Gospel should be written, who 
 should write it, those who longed for one could not tell. 
 But they believed the longing to be given them from 
 above ; they could not doubt that He who inspired it would 
 in some way gratify it. 
 
 As I read the Gospels, I find how this need has been 
 supplied. From the place which they occupy in our 
 Bibles, it has been supposed that they contain 'lives of 
 Jesus,' originally simple, probably derived from a common 
 source, increased and interpolated by degrees as notions of 
 His character and office, which had not been previously 
 entertained, were developed in the Church. Such a notion, 
 it seems to me, is dispelled, if we take any one of them 
 and consider it carefully and regularly. I propose to do 
 this with St. Luke's, not from any preference for it, but 
 specially on account of its connexion with that other 
 treatise of which I have spoken to you already. When we 
 have gone through it, you may reconsider that treatise in 
 what appears its natural order. 
 
 (1) The introduction to this Gospel is the highest 
 authority for that account of the purpose of its compo- 
 sition which I have given you. Theophilus, whoever 
 he was, was already a disciple. He had been instructed 
 in the things which were most surely believed in the 
 Church. He desired to know the certainty of those things. 
 St. Luke believed that it was his vocation to give hiTn 
 what he wanted. If Theophilus was an individual, he 
 represented the need of the Church generally. That which 
 was good for him, might, if God pleased, be good for ages 
 to come. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 LECTURE I. 
 
 (2) Many, St. Luke says, had attempted this task 
 before him. They had taken in hand, our translators say, 
 to set forth a declaeation of the things which are most 
 surely believed in the Churches. The declaration, I conceive, 
 had been made already. That had been contained in the 
 preaching of the Apostles and their helpers. What was 
 wanted was a continuous Narrative of the things which 
 made the substance of the declaration ; for it was a 
 declaration of things, not of opinions; of events that 
 had happened, of acts that had been done. The preaching 
 concerned a person, the narrative must exhibit a person. 
 
 Who had taken this great enterprise in hand St. Luke 
 does not say. He may or may not have read the narrative 
 of St. Matthew or St. Mark. Those narratives may or 
 may not have been written. At all events, his phrase 
 ' many ' will not be satisfied by these two. Nor does 
 St. Luke pronounce on the merits or demerits of his 
 predecessors. That was not his calling. There was a 
 better judge than he of the genuine and the spurious. 
 "We may safely affirm that he was not afraid if the expe- 
 riments to produce a record of our Lord's acts were ever 
 so numerous ; if some of them were ever so confused and 
 erroneous. He could not believe the word which he preached 
 unless he had confidence that what was true would live, 
 that what was false would be, sooner or later, divided 
 from it. If God had conferred the highest blessing on the 
 human race, He would take care that the human race 
 should not miss the blessing through any want of means 
 to be acquainted with it. 
 
 (3) The next clause of this introduction has perplexed 
 many, perhaps has given pain to some. As they delivered 
 these things to lis, which from the beginning were eyeicitnesses.
 
 THE PUKPOSE OF THE GOSPEL. 5 
 
 AVhat then, are we uot about to read the story of an eye- 
 witness ? St. Luke does not claim that character ; he does 
 not desire that we should invest him with it. He has 
 received these records from those who were. He has exa- 
 mined their reports carefully. He does not say that he ever 
 saw Christ whilst he was walking in Galilee or Judaea. He 
 seems to imply the contrary. Now here is a difference 
 between him and some of the other Evangelists, perhaps 
 between him and all the other three. Is it a difference 
 which puts him below them, which makes his testimony 
 inferior to theirs ? According to their own judgment and 
 confession, assuredly it is not. They tell us that they did 
 not understand the words and acts of Jesus whilst they 
 were walking with him, whilst they were eyewitnesses of 
 what He did. They misapprehended the particular words 
 and acts. They misapprehended their relation to each other. 
 They misapprehended the Person who was the speaker of 
 the words and the doer of the acts. They tell us this 
 again and again, in various forms of expression, all natural, 
 all simple. ' Their eyes were holden,' ' Their hearts were 
 hardened.' 
 
 No doubt they would, sometimes, have ventured to repro- 
 duce His parables, or His explanation of the parables, to 
 those about them. They must have been conscious that 
 their lips were stammering, that they misrepresented Him 
 when they most wished to be faithful in their reports ; 
 that they degraded Him whom they most wished that 
 others should exalt. By degi-ees, they will have learnt the 
 wisdom of obeying Him simply, by only preaching ' Repent, 
 for the kingdom, of Heaven is at hand,' as He bade them, 
 and using the powers of that kingdom as He imparted 
 them. "What they all say — what no one says so frequently
 
 6 LECTURE I. 
 
 as the beloved disciple — is, that the things which they could 
 not understand at first came to them with full power and 
 revelation when they saw Him no more ; that His Spirit 
 brought back to them acts which had been hidden in the 
 cells of their memor)^ quickened words that had been mere 
 dead sounds, harmonized precepts which had seemed frag- 
 mentary or contradictory, discovered to them the divine 
 source from which they had issued. No doubt to be eye- 
 witnesses of a fact or a person is an honourable distinction : 
 but an eyewitness may glorify himself on that distinction, 
 and attribute a worth to it which no careful student of 
 evidence will concede. There are qualities necessary in an 
 eyewitness besides his eyes, if he would teach us anything, 
 if he would impart truth to us ; one who possesses these 
 qualities, and who faithfully sifts the testimonies of eye- 
 witnesses, may tell us what they do not tell, may open 
 to us the very sense and purpose of what they do tell. It 
 is so in all cases : if we believe the Evangelists — those of 
 them who were eyewitnesses — it is pre-eminently so in 
 this case. 
 
 (4) In connexion with this subject, I would direct your 
 attention to an expression of St. Luke which is sometimes 
 overlooked. He speaks of those who were eyewitnesses and 
 ministers of the Word. What does he mean by the Word ? 
 He does not surely mean that a man could be an eye- 
 witness of sounds, or a minister of sounds. If the ex- 
 pression occurred in St. John's Gospel, it would cause no 
 perplexity. We should assume at once that he was speak- 
 ing of the Word which was in the beginning ; whose life 
 was the light of men ; who was made flesh and dwelt among 
 men. But it has been customary to assume that no other 
 of the Evangelists ever fell into this kind of language.
 
 THE PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL. 7 
 
 I cannot doubt that the Apostle who survived to the end 
 of the age, was specially appointed to remove confusions 
 which had haunted the readers of the earlier Gospels and 
 which were giving occasion to various partial theories, by 
 declaring broadly that He who healed the sick and cast 
 out demons whilst He walked below, was the eternal Source 
 of all good and deliverance to the sons of men, one with 
 the Father before the worlds were. But every Jew could 
 read, as well as St. John, that the Word of God had come 
 to Isaiah or Jeremiah or Ezekiel. Every Jew who read 
 their prophecies as they were written, believefl they had 
 conversed with this Word as with a living person. The 
 thought, ' He with whom we have conversed is that same 
 Person — He has in human flesh revealed Himself to us,' 
 was not a strange speculation, the refinement of a later 
 age. It was the simplest way of connecting the old world 
 with their day. It was the great escape from the rabbinical 
 traditions which buried the divine Person under the mere 
 letter of the books. That this thought should express 
 itself naturally — unconsciously, as it were — at the outset 
 of a Gospel concerning a Person, who was an impostor if 
 He were not the messenger of God, the utterer of His mind, 
 cannot, I think, cause us any surprise. Formally to assert 
 the force of the prophetical phrase — to make it prominent 
 before all others — was not St. Luke's calling. The King, 
 the Christ, is his subject. If we admit any direction of the 
 minds of those who wrote these books — indeed, any special 
 callings of men in this world at all — we can perceive why 
 the tasks of the different Evangelists should be different. 
 We can perceive also why each should inevitably at times 
 adopt forms of speech which appear more characteristic of 
 another.
 
 8 LECTUKE I. 
 
 (5) Many having written, ' it seemed good to me also,' 
 says Luke, to write. ' It seemed good to him ! ' Some may 
 cry, ' Was he not then taught to write by the Spirit of 
 God ? ' I imagine, my friends, that he who described the 
 day of Pentecost, and referred the whole existence and 
 work of the Church to tlie Spirit of God, had quite as 
 awful a feeling of His government over himself as any of 
 us can have. The freedom of his language shows me liow 
 strong his feeling was ; our sensitiveness and unwilling- 
 ness to connect the Spirit with the operations of the human 
 intellect, indicate the weakness of ours. The habitual con- 
 viction that he could not have undertaken such a task as 
 he was now entering upon, if he had not been moved to it 
 by the Holy Spirit — that he could not pursue it faithfully, 
 laboriously, effectually, unless the Spirit . were at every 
 moment leading his mind out of its own fantasies to the 
 apprehension of that which is — preserved the Evangelist from 
 a number of subtleties into which we fall, because we have 
 lost that conviction, and rather suppose that we are to 
 protect the lessons of the Spirit, than that He is to protect 
 us. We ask for distinctions about the degrees and measures 
 in which the Spirit has been, or will be, vouchsafed. The 
 Evangelists make no such distinctions. I think they dared 
 not. Could they doubt, that if the Spirit called them to 
 the greatest of all works — to that which would most con- 
 cern the name of God, and the good of their fellow-men for 
 generations — they should have the help and light which 
 they required, that which the Source of all light and help 
 knew that they required ? Would they have wished us to 
 doubt that, in all our works, even the humblest. He will 
 grant us what we require ? 
 
 (6) Ttie next clause teaches us much on this subject.
 
 THE PUKPOSE OF THE GOSPEL. 9 
 
 and would teach us more, if it had not been unhappily 
 perverted in our version. AVe represent St. Luke as 
 saying, that he had perfect understanding of all things 
 from the, very first. I do not know exactly what meaning 
 our translators wished us to attach to that statement ; 
 but if any readers have attached this meaning to it, that 
 St. Luke arrived at once, without effort — without any 
 process of sifting or inquiry — at an understanding of the 
 facts which he records, they have directly inverted his 
 words. What he says is, that it seemed good to him to 
 write, having followed out all things with careful diligence 
 from their source, just as a man traces the source of a 
 river from its mountain bed through all its windings. 
 Instead of being absolved from this diligence by the 
 presence of the divine Spirit, he felt himself obliged by 
 that Spirit to spare no labour, not to omit the most earnest 
 and solicitous examination of what he heard from those 
 who were eyewitnesses and ministers of the "Word ; not to 
 give himself credit for understanding it at the first, but to 
 wait for that clear penetrating light which could distinguish 
 between his own impressions and the truth of things. And 
 I apprehend, that the difference between those reports 
 which many had undertaken to write, and those which 
 have really stamped themselves on the heart and con- 
 science and faith of mankind, may be traced mainly to 
 this cause — that the first were the fruits of immature 
 thoughts and feelings which had a strong hold on the 
 writers' minds, but which had never been submitted to any 
 severe process whereby the gold might be severed from 
 the dross ; that the others came from men who remembered 
 the promise, ' He shall baptize witJi the Spirit and ivith 
 fire,' and who believed that whatever passed through their
 
 10 LECTURE I. 
 
 intellects must undergo this divine fire, if it was to last 
 through the ages, and to testify, in them all, of Him who 
 does not change. ' 
 
 (7) There is one word more in this preface which I 
 cannot pass by. St. Luke professes to write to Theophilus 
 in order. The narrative is to be an orderly or continuous 
 one. If it does not fulfil this condition, it will not answer 
 its purpose ; it will not tell Theophilus the certainty of those 
 things wherein he has been instructed. Can we then discover 
 the order which St, Luke has followed ? Clearly, it is very 
 different from that of common biographers, especially dif- 
 ferent from that which a biographer of Jesus would have 
 adopted, if we may judge from the experience of eighteen 
 centuries. Think how the fancy of painters and of writers 
 of legends has expatiated over the infancy and boyhood 
 of Christ, and then remember how many incidents are 
 recorded by our Evangelist — who yet records more than 
 any other — of all the period before He began to be about 
 thirty years of age. Evidently, his conception of the life 
 must be entirely different from theirs. What with them is 
 most substantial is for him a mere introduction, — a most 
 valuable introduction, as I think, — but one which must 
 become false to us if we lose the Evangelist's perspective, 
 and contemplate it according to some theory of our own. 
 What then is this perspective ? What rule does it follow ? 
 The answer to this question will come out, I trust, in the 
 course of our readings. I will only anticipate it thus far. 
 I think you will find that what the Evangelist traces are 
 the steps by which a King claimed dominion over His 
 subjects ; how they were prepared for Him ; how He was 
 prepared for going forth among them ; how He manifested 
 the powers of His Kingdom ; how He illustrated the nature
 
 THE PUEPOSE OF THE GOSPEL. 11 
 
 of it ; what kinds of opposition He encountered ; what 
 battles He fought ; who stood by Him, who deserted Him ; 
 how He seemed to be vanquished ; how He prevailed at 
 last. Tlie more steadily we keep before ourselves the 
 thought of a Kingdom of Heaven — a kingdom actual in 
 the highest sense, explaining the nature and forces of every 
 kingdom that has existed on the earth, showing what in 
 those kingdoms must abide, what must pass away — the 
 more shall we adhere to the letter of the Gospels, the more 
 shall we enter into their spirit. 
 
 This characteristic is common to them all. And it is in 
 the light of that common object we can best examine their 
 specific differences. In general, the hint of a purpose is 
 given very early in the narratives. The title of St. 
 Matthew's Gospel — The hook of the generations of Jesus 
 Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham — with the 
 genealogy which follows, marks out his design to associate 
 Jesus with the foregone history of his land. Much as 
 St. Mark resembles liim, it is evidently his main object to 
 set forth a Gospel of the Son of God. He exhibits royalty 
 more in act, less as the fulfilment of past anticipations. 
 In this first chapter of St. Luke we have certain signs of 
 his intention, which criticism has often sought to oblite- 
 rate. The stories of the vision to Zacharias and of the 
 birth of J(jlin the Baptist, and of the annunciation to 
 the Virgin, belong exclusively to him. Those who sup- 
 pose that he was writing the life of a Teacher whom he 
 had preferred to other teachers, to whom he attributed 
 great supernatural powers, of course assume these to be 
 embellishments, introduced for the purpose of magnifying 
 the hero, and of showing that, like otlidr heroes, he had a 
 celestial parentage. On that hypothesis we must at once
 
 12 LECTUEE I. 
 
 concede the extravagance and falsity of that wliich St. 
 Luke sets down as true. Were the hypothesis established, 
 we must abandon the stories of this chapter, and along 
 with them, I conceive, all the rest of the narrative. 
 
 If Jesus was not the Son of David or the Son of God, 
 the notion that a preacher of repentance was appointed as 
 the witness of His birth, as well as the notion that a 
 Virgin was chosen to be the instrument of it, fall naturally 
 and without an effort. If He was the Son of God and the 
 King of men, we may feel, we ought to feel, that these 
 records are not those which ^rove Him to possess His 
 divine royalty — that He must have had it, apart from all 
 circumstances of His birth. The evidence for it may be 
 quite independent of any such circumstances. We may 
 be very thankful to St. John for setting forth His higher 
 generation, to St. Mark for fixing our minds on that 
 evidence of His works on earth which was wholly uncon- 
 nected with the Virgin. But we shall not feel that such a 
 narrative as we read here is a startling or inconsistent one. 
 Theophilus nmst have asked, ' If such a Person as you 
 ' speak of did come into the world, How did He come ? 
 ' Was His birth like another birth ? Was there no prepara- 
 ' tion for it, no announcement of it ? ' An Evangelist who 
 undertook to tell him the certainty of those things wherein 
 he had been instructed, could not evade such inquiries. 
 The answer, it seems to me, which is given is the simplest 
 that we can imagine. What it is, in what manner the two 
 gifts to men, of a Prophet and of a Son, were announced 
 and were received, I propose to consider next Sunday. I 
 would only allude here to the connexion of these passages 
 with what we knov^ of the writer. The distinction between 
 the Old and the New Covenant, the covenant with servants
 
 THE PUEPOSE OF THE GOSPEL. 13 
 
 and the covenant with sons, the covenant with the nation 
 and the covenant with mankind, must have been always 
 present to the mind of a companion of St. Paul. To show 
 how one passed into the other, how one fulfilled the other, 
 must have been a prominent object in his preaching. "When 
 he began to examine all the records of his Lord upon earth, 
 would it have seemed to him a strange anomaly, would it 
 not have struck him as an orderly, reasonable commence- 
 ment of such a history that there should be a birth like that 
 of the son of Zacharias, the climax of those births on 
 which the Old Testament puts such honour, that there 
 should be one like that of the Son of Mary to inaugurate 
 the new age ? May not the evidence of these have come 
 mightily home to him, not being exceptions in the divine 
 method, but as the highest illustrations of it, — as a jus- 
 tification of the past, and a preparation for the future? 
 Are not these stories witnesses to us of the glory and 
 blessing of human parentage, of our right to claim a divine 
 parentage ?
 
 LECTUKE 11. 
 
 THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SON OF DAVID. 
 
 St. Luke I. 46—48. 
 
 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath 
 rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his 
 handmaiden : for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me 
 llessed. 
 
 St. Luke's introduction, whicli we considered last Sun- 
 day, is strictly prosaic. He speaks of the carefulness 
 with which he had studied the reports of those who had 
 been eyewitnesses of Christ's acts. He claims no exemp- 
 tion from the ordinary toils of a historian. He seems to 
 think that he is more bound to perform them because his 
 subject is so awful, and because he believes himself 
 divinely called to unfold it. 
 
 The narrative begins with a quietness befitting this 
 preface. We hear of two old people, both of the sacred 
 Jewish family, who are walking in all the commandments 
 of the Lord blameless. They are childless. Zacharias 
 punctually fulfils his duties as a priest. At a certain time 
 he goes according to the order of his course into the House 
 of the Lord. It is his lot to burn incense. 
 
 Then we arrive, some will say, at the supernatural part 
 of the story. 
 
 ' A nd the wJiole multitude of the people were 'praying with-
 
 THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SON OF DA^^D. 15 
 
 out at the time of incense. And there appeared unto hini an 
 angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of 
 incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was tronhled, 
 and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear 
 not, Zacharias : for thy prayer is heard ; and thy wife 
 Elisabeth shall hear thee a son, and thou shall call his name 
 John. And thou shall have joy and gladness ; and many 
 shall rejoice at his hirth. For he shall he great in the sight 
 of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink ; 
 and he shall he filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his 
 mother's tvomh. And many of the children of Israel shall 
 he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go hefore him 
 in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the 
 fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of 
 the just ; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 
 And Zacharias said unto the angel. Whereby shall I know 
 this ? for I am an old man, and my loife well stricken in 
 years. And the angel ansvjering said unto him, 1 am 
 Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God ; and am sent 
 to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And, 
 behold, thou shall be dumb, and not able to speak, until the 
 day that these things shall he performed, because thou he- 
 lievest not my words, which shall he fidfilled in their season. 
 And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled, that he 
 tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he 
 could not speak unto them : and they perceived that he had 
 seen a vision in the temple : /w he beckoned unto them, and 
 remained speechless. And it came to pass, that, as soon as 
 the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed 
 to his otvn house! 
 
 This narrative of an angelic visitation does not bring us 
 into a supernatural region. We are in one already. The
 
 16 LECTUEE II. 
 
 Temple-worship meant nothing if there were not an actual 
 established intercourse between the visible and the invisi- 
 ble world. The Jew believed that He who dwelt behind 
 the veil had made a covenant with his fathers and him, 
 that He had given them a law, that He had appointed 
 their priests and their sacrifices. In His name they pro- 
 tested against all worship of visible things. And therefore 
 the visits of angels are not in the Old Testament what 
 they are in Pagan records. The heathen started from the 
 human ground, was continually feeling after God. Ever and 
 anon, he was sure that communications from heaven did reach 
 the earth. Without such, the condition of man seemed to 
 him utterly dreary, inexplicable, hopeless. But these com- 
 munications are disorderly interruptions of the course of 
 human life, even if they confer on it some of its chief 
 blessings. The Hebrew starts from the divine ground. He 
 does not want casual appearances to testify that God is 
 speaking to men. That He should not speak is for him 
 the perplexing anomaly. Life must cease, according to the 
 lessons which he had received from his childhood, if God 
 were withdrawn from His universe ; above all from the 
 creatures whom He had made in His image. 
 
 But there were times when it did seem as if He were 
 withdrawn from His universe ; when the children of the 
 Covenant seemed to have lost sight of Him ; wdien their 
 worship had been either turned to other objects, or had 
 become utterly hard and unreal, a punctual observance of 
 rites, not a living intercourse. At such times we do hear 
 of angel visits. They come to those who are beginning to 
 think that the world is deserted by its Deliverer, and given 
 over to its oppressors. They come seldom to the great of 
 the earth ; rather to peasants like Gideon, who are threshing
 
 ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SON OF DAVID, 17 
 
 their wheat by the winepress when the IVIidianites are 
 possessing the land of Israel, and the Israelites are bowing 
 down to Baal. They are sent to break the yoke of some 
 great superstition which has degraded the people. They 
 are never imparted to any man that he may be exalted, 
 but that he may understand God to be the God of his 
 countrymen as much as himself ; that he may be a witness 
 to them of their true unchanging Lord ; that he may stir 
 them up to defy and mock those who pretend to be their 
 lords. These are almost invariable characteristics of the 
 angelic appearances in the Old Testament. The one which 
 startled Zacharias, and sent him dumb to his house, will 
 bear the test. It told him that he was the priest of a 
 living God, not of one about whom he might read in a 
 book ; of a God who directed the minds of His creatures, 
 not of one who merely demanded from them a certain 
 quantity of sacrifice and incense. 
 
 We hear that, when the promise of the angel was fulfilled 
 to Zacharias, when his child was actually born, when he 
 had written on the table that its name was to be John, 
 his tongue was loosed. He could not but sing, as his 
 fathers had sung in every great crisis of their history. 
 He had felt, no doubt, that there was some merit in his 
 punctual observance of the commandments, some great 
 distinction between him, the Levite, the descendant of 
 Aaron, and the people who might not enter the Holy 
 Place. Now, when the weight that had crushed his heart 
 and his wife's heart has been removed, all such self-glori- 
 fying thoughts disappear. He speaks of the Lord God 
 of Israel, who has visited and redeemed His people. The 
 wonder of a common birth, an ordinary fother's joy 
 mingles in his thanksgiving with the belief that God is 
 
 c
 
 18 LECTURE II. 
 
 accomplishing His purposes to the land, that there is to be 
 an unveiling of Him, such as all prophets had longed for. 
 The child is to be a prophet of the Highest, ' to give hnow- 
 ledge of salvation unto His people hy the remission of their 
 sins, through the tender mercy of our God ; whereby the day- 
 spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them 
 that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our 
 feet into the way of peace! See how impossible it is for 
 any true Israelite to think of God except as a Deliverer 
 of his nation and of mankind. 
 
 But there is another story in this chapter, the scenery of 
 which is altogether different. We are no longer in Jeru- 
 salem, amidst the worship in the holy Temple, amidst the 
 clouds of incense. We are in a despised city of Galilee, 
 in the house of a poor maiden. To her, too, we are told^ 
 an angel comes, and thus he speaks : ' Hail, thou that art 
 highly favoured: the Lord is with thee. Messed art thou among 
 women.' To her he says : 'Fear not, Mary: for thou hast 
 found favour with God. And, behold, thou shall conceive in 
 thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. 
 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: 
 and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father 
 David : and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever ; 
 and of his kingdom there shall be no end.' She is at first, 
 like Zacharias, troubled at the angeVs saying, and casts in 
 her mind what manner of salutation this should be. But 
 she receives it with awe and submission ; * Behold the hand- 
 maid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy ivord.' 
 
 The remark seems too obvious to be necessary, that we 
 have here the announcement of a King and a Kingdom. 
 But my object in these lectures is to fix your minds upon 
 those commonplaces in the Gospels, which we overlook, or
 
 ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SON OF DAVID, 19 
 
 explain away, or change for some more refined notions 
 of our own. I wish you to see that, at all events in the 
 judgment of St, Luke, these names, Son of God and Son of 
 David, are not introduced to prove a doctrine or establish 
 a mission ; that they are essential to the Gospel, as a 
 Gospel; that it would have no significance apart from 
 them. ' He is to reign over the House of Israel ; of His 
 * kingdom there is to be no end ;' are key-notes to all the 
 subsequent history. 
 
 The Song of Mary, when she rose with haste and came 
 into tJie hill country of Judwa, and had heard the salu- 
 tation of Elizabeth, is the hymn at the birth of a King, as 
 the one I have just spoken of is the hymn at the birth of 
 a Prophet. It is the hymn for mothers, as that is the 
 hymn for fathers; not the less the hymn for all mothers, 
 because the Virgin felt herself to be the mother of the 
 Cliild ; the mother in a more eminent sense than any 
 other could claim to be. It is the hymn of the Jewish 
 mother who feels that she cannot be merely that. The 
 promise being fulfilled to Abraham and his seed, all gene- 
 rations of men must call her blessed. 
 
 The Life that is to come forth from her is a new life to 
 herself. It raises her wholly out of herself. Her soul 
 magnifies the Lord, her spirit rejoices in God her Saviour. 
 A communion is opened between her and Heaven; she 
 knows that she is not merely a child of earth. And yet 
 she is most truly a child of earth. He ' hath regarded the 
 loio estate of His handmaiden.' She has never understood 
 her own nothingness so much as in this moment of 
 exaltation ; there has never been awakened in her such 
 awe of the divine Majesty as now when she is brought 
 so near to it. ' He that is mighty hidh done to me great 
 
 c2
 
 20 LECTURE II. 
 
 tilings, Mid holy is his Nam,e! And that which I pointed 
 out as characteristic of the other song is far more 
 characteristic of this. Instead of feeling more separate 
 from other creatures by reason of the honour that has 
 been put upon her, her deepest joy springs from the 
 sense of union with them ; God's care for her is the 
 pledge of His care for them. 'His mercy is on them that 
 fear him, from generation to generation.' All the greatness 
 is His ; what she hopes for is the manifestation of His glory, 
 and the overthrow of those that exalt themselves into His 
 throne. ' He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath 
 scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts' There 
 speaks the true Israelite. The downfall of the powers 
 which men have worshipped to their own misery and 
 slavery — the manifestation of Him who alone has a right 
 to the worship of His creatures — this she hails as the 
 ultimate deliverance to the race. To her, as to Hannah 
 and every mother of the land in the days of old, the 
 mystery of birth, its feebleness and its glory, explains the 
 condition of man and the purpose of his Creator. 'He 
 hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted 
 them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good 
 things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.' And she, 
 in the fullest sense, perceives, what others had perceived 
 in a lower sense, how the gift of the Child is the 
 witness of the permanence of the divine Word, so that 
 nothing which was assured to the times of old could fail of 
 its fulfilment in the times to come. 'He hath holpen his 
 servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy ; as he spake to 
 our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever! >» 
 
 In these hymns there is that union of the Old and New 
 Testaments, that contrast between them, which I thought
 
 AJSfNOUNCEMENT OF THE SON OF DAVID. 21 
 
 that St. Paul's fellow-worker would "be more likely than 
 most other men to recognise and to bring before us. A 
 sense might be given to that remark which I should 
 consider utterly false. It may be said that these hymns 
 are the work of an artist who had a purpose of his own, 
 who composed them to teach the world certain lessons 
 which he deemed important. If they had been devised 
 to express a certain sentiment, I do not believe they 
 could have expressed that sentiment. If they had been 
 written to denote the passage from one period to another, 
 I am sure they would not have helped us to understand 
 that passage. Artificial compositions — (even if they are 
 not dishonest as these must have been) — compositions 
 with a set theme — always fail to make the impression 
 which is left on us by the outpouring of a heart at some 
 great moment of its grief or joy. The actual sufferer, 
 the actual rejoicer, is the spolvesman of human beings ; 
 the sophist and rhetorician vainly try to expound what 
 human beings might feel or ought to feel. The song of 
 Zacharias is emphatically the song of a man whose tongue 
 is unloosed ; who for the first time has entered into the 
 meaning of the books which he has been reading since 
 his childhood, of the services in which he has been engaged 
 ever since he became a priest. A speech may be invented 
 with tolerable success for a general on the eve of a battle, 
 though such as have really come down to us stir the blood 
 far more ; but the mimicry of this kind of feeling must 
 have been odious and contemptible. I know not where 
 you could find the stamp of fraud more clear and in- 
 effaceable than on a document which attempted it. 
 If the words of Zacharias have lasted to our day, and 
 have been accepted by men of different races as vital and
 
 22 LECTURE II. 
 
 true words — as words which speak to and speak forth the 
 human heart within them — I cannot persuade myself that 
 they bear that stamp of insincerity. 
 
 The Virgin's song has endured a severer test in the 
 ages through which it has been transmitted to us. It 
 has lived on — it still lives on — through an adoration of 
 her which makes her adoration of Him who did to her 
 great things, her profound lowliness, her identification of 
 herself with the race which was to call her blessed, the 
 strangest contradictions. If it has borne a continual 
 witness against these profanations — if they have not been 
 able to change its letter or its spirit — how much may it 
 have done to keep alive, in a multitude of hearts that 
 have stooped to the most dangerous sentimentalism, even 
 to the vulgarest idolatry, the belief of a great Head of 
 tiumanity, whom she was permitted to bring forth — of an 
 Everlasting Father, whom she might dare, in Him, to 
 approach. No cold prosaic words, nothing else than a 
 lyrical rapture, could have been a genuine expression of 
 her spirit, could have become an expression for the true 
 spirit of Christendom during eighteen centuries. 
 
 I believe, my friends, that if that song has effected 
 something for mankind, its greatest work yet remains to 
 be effected. First, I claim it for the wives and mothers 
 of England. Let those who bind themselves to what 
 they think a holier state — a state more like that of 
 the Virgin — use it as devoutly as they will. I do not 
 grudge it them. I earnestly trust that they will meditate 
 upon it, and enter into it far more deeply than they have 
 ever done. The correction of whatever is mischievous 
 in their theories or their practices lies in it, not in our 
 protests against them. But those who have accepted
 
 ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SON OF DAVID. 23 
 
 another condition — who have believed that God called 
 them to it, and sanctifies it — should understand how the 
 birth hallows every birth, with what dignity the Mother 
 invests all maternity ; how her joy is the warrant and 
 example of all joy ; how it links the infant that blesses 
 any one household to humanity. 
 
 Secondly. Since this century is the one in which this 
 word humanity is most spoken of, in which humanity is 
 becoming an object of worship, let us who sing this song 
 consider whether we have ever accepted it in its full sense 
 — whether, if we did, it might not deliver us from the 
 perils of this idolatry, and might not enable us to realize 
 the truth which the idolatry conceals. Is not Mary's song 
 a witness against the disposition of humanity to exalt 
 itself, or to exalt any one of the creatures who share it^ 
 into the throne of heaven ? Is not her song a witness for 
 the redemption and glory of humanity in the person of 
 its Lord? Has not the Church herseK fallen into the 
 error which is now reaching its climax in those who 
 renounce the Church ? Has she ever fully proclaimed 
 the principle which might subvert that error? Has she 
 ever confessed, as the Israelite did, that God glorifies 
 Himself by raising to a divine life the humanity which, 
 without Him, must sink into utter death. 
 
 Lastly. If this song may help us to look on the lowest 
 creatures we see on earth with a reverence which we have 
 never paid them yet, if it should make every child an 
 object of awe to us, may it not teach us also how to 
 think of those whom we remember to-day as having passed 
 away from the earth ? They have shared in the adoration 
 which has been bestowed on the jMother of their Lord. 
 Did they not share with her — do they not share with her —
 
 24 LECTUEE ir. 
 
 that sense of a low estate whicli God regarded ? Are tliey 
 not a communion, because they give all glory to their 
 Divine Head, and take none to themselves? Shall we 
 not claim our places in their communion just in propor- 
 tion as we magnify Him — as His Spirit enables our spirit 
 to rejoice in God their Saviour and ours ?^ 
 
 * Preaclied on All Saints' Day.
 
 LECTUEE III. 
 
 BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE KING. 
 
 St. Luke II. 13, 14. 
 
 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host 
 praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
 peace, good mill toward men. 
 
 I. — (1) The Birtli of Jesus is the first subject which comes 
 before us in this chapter. That He was born at Nazareth, 
 not, as St. Luke says, at Bethlehem, is the opinion of most 
 wlio suppose the Evangelists to be the biographers of a 
 great and favourite Teacher, an eminent Galilenn Eeformer. 
 It is difficult to understand how they could arrive at any 
 other conclusion. If Jesus was not a King, in any real 
 sense of the word, the notion that He was born in the city 
 of David must have been a fancy of those who supposed 
 Him to possess that honour. There is no need of argu- 
 ment to prove that the two beliefs stand or fall together. 
 The attempt to sustain the credit of the place when that 
 which gives it all its fitness is gone must be a futile one. 
 Therefore, I conceive that modern critics may reckon 
 upon an easy triumph over those who hold the language 
 and adopt the mode of thinking which prevails among us.
 
 26 LECTUKE III. 
 
 If we separate the Saviour from the King, or use that last 
 title in some metaphorical sense — even though we suppose it 
 may acquire a real sense in some future age — we must not 
 be surprised if other men draw the natural inference from 
 such premises ; if, the substance of the evangelical message 
 having disappeared, they say that its accidents cannot 
 remain. I apprehend it is better on all accounts that 
 Nazareth should receive the honour heretofore bestowed on 
 Betlilehem, unless we confess the reason for which it was 
 bestowed. We shall sink into a poor rabbinical habit of 
 mind if we ground our opinion that Jesus was the Christ 
 upon the concurrence of his birthplace with some supposed 
 prediction. St. John has taught us, in his seventh chapter, 
 to what that slavish feeling about the letter of a prophecy 
 leads, when its purpose has been overlooked. The officers 
 who were sent by the chief priests to take Jesus, came back 
 without Him, saying, ' Never man spake like tliis man.' The 
 Pharisees could not listen to such poor evidence ; ' Out of 
 Galilee ariseth no prophet,' was an all satisfactory reason why 
 they should not listen to Him who was called a Galilean. 
 Jesus Himself never appealed to His birth at Bethlehem 
 as any proof of His mission. Those who would not receive 
 Him for what He did and for what He was, could not have 
 received Him if the proofs of His descent from David had 
 been ever so overwhelming. 
 
 A mere legend, doubtless, this account of the journey to 
 Bethlehem, and the birth at Bethlehem, must be, if Jesus 
 were not the Person whom the preachers of the Gospel 
 proclaimed Him to be, if He were not the King whose 
 appearing fulfilled the expectation of previous ages and 
 explained their history. And yet, even readers who have 
 wholly cast off the notion that He was this, must, I
 
 BIETH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE KING. 27 
 
 think, discover sometliing curiously simple, curiously 
 unlike the style of ordinary legends, in such a record as 
 this : — 
 
 'And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a 
 decree from Ccesar Augustus, that all the world should he 
 taxed. {And this taxing ivas first made when Cyrenius was 
 governor of Syria.) And all ivent to he taxed, every one into 
 his own city. And Joseph also loent up from Galilee, out of 
 the city of Nazareth, into Judcca, unto the city of Domd, 
 which is called Bethlehem ; (because he was of the house and 
 li7ieage of David :) To he taxed ivith Mary his espoused wife, 
 being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were 
 there, the days were accomplished that she shoidd he delivered. 
 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in 
 swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger : because there 
 was no room for them in the inn.' 
 
 There is no grand reason, you see, given why Mary and 
 Joseph should go to Judaea. The angel who is said to have 
 announced the coming birth does not appear again to tell 
 them that they must travel, since otherwise the Son of 
 David will not be connected with His ancestral dwellinii- 
 place. They go because every one else is going. A decree 
 of the Caesar obliges the man to register himself in the 
 village, whatever it is, to which he belongs. It may be 
 an awkward contrivance — as a modern writer says it is 
 — to make the conception of royalty fit with the facts. 
 Assuredly the critic, or any ingenious man in this day, 
 could have invented a much better tale. And if forgers 
 of that day had, as he supposes, an unlimited command of 
 supernatural incidents, these poor peasants might have 
 been transported by any kind of celestial machinery to the 
 spot in which they were required to be. Nor can we doubt
 
 28 LECTURE III. 
 
 that a Frenclimaii now, or an Oriental then, would have 
 introduced such an event with becoming pomp. If it was 
 part of the scheme that the birth should be humble, he 
 would have taken pains that we should observe that part 
 of it. There would have been starts of surprise, exclama- 
 tions at the stooping of the Highest of all to the lowest 
 place. Here is nothing of the kind. Events, the belief 
 of which has affected all the art and speculation of the 
 most civilized nations in the modern world, are recorded 
 in fewer words, with less effort, than an ordinary his- 
 torian, or the writer of a newspaper, would deem suitable 
 to the account of the most trivial transaction. Such 
 marvellous associations have clung for centuries to these 
 verses, that it is hard to realize how absolutely naked they 
 are of all ornament. "We are obliged to read them again 
 and again to assure ourselves that they really do set forth 
 what we call the great miracle of the world. 
 
 If, on the other hand, the mind of the Evangelist was 
 possessed by the conviction that he was not recording a 
 miracle which had interrupted the course of history, and 
 deranged the order of human life, but was telling of a 
 divine act which explained the course of history and 
 restored the order of human life, one can very well account 
 for his calmness ; if that conviction was a true one, we 
 might account for the impression which his brief sentences 
 have made on later ages. That the poU tax of the first 
 Emperors should be the instrument of bringing forth the 
 King before whom the Csesars were to bow, would then 
 seem one of those incidents in the drama of the universe 
 which discover a God who is not suddenly interfering to 
 untie knots that are too difficult for human hands, but 
 who is directing all the course of the action, from the
 
 BIETH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE KING. 29 
 
 "beginning to the catastrophe; not crushing the wills of 
 the persons in the drama, but leading them on, by 
 methods which we cannot see or conjecture, to fill their 
 places in it. And the birth in the manger would be felt, 
 not as an embellishment of the narrative, but as a part of 
 the revelation. The King, who proves His title and His 
 divinity by stooping to the lowest condition of His sub- 
 jects, is brought into direct contrast with him who had 
 risen by intrigues, proscriptions, and the overthrow of an 
 ancient order, to be hailed as the Deliverer and highest 
 God of the earth. 
 
 (2) Taking the first words in this sense, Christendom has 
 adopted that which follows as the true commentary upon 
 them. 
 
 ' And there were in (he same country shepherds abiding in 
 the field, Tceeping watch over their fiockhy night. And lo, the 
 angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord 
 shone round about them : and they were sore afraid. And 
 the angel said unto them, Fear not : for, behold, 1 bring you 
 good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For 
 unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, 
 which is Christ the Lord. And this shcdl be a sign unto 
 you ; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in sxoaddling clothes, 
 lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel 
 a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying. 
 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will 
 toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone 
 away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to 
 another, Let us note go even unto Bethlehem, and see this 
 thing which is come to p)ass, which the Lord hath made Icnown 
 unto us. And they came ivith haste, and found Mary, and 
 Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And wlien they had
 
 30 LECTURE III. 
 
 seen it, they made hnown abroad the saying ivhich was told 
 them concerning this child. And all they that heard it won- 
 dered at those things which were told them hy the sh&pherds. 
 But Mary Tcept all these things, and pondered them in her 
 heart.' 
 
 The question concerning these Gospels is frequently set 
 before us in this way. Are we to go on believing in a 
 supernatural record, when we might reduce it to nature 
 and common sense by leaving out certain incidents which 
 have been thrown in to give it greater effect ? Why, for 
 instance, not regard this old story of the shepherds, how- 
 ever much beauty there may be in it, however much it may 
 have taken hold of human hearts, as merely one of the 
 Arcadian stories which are to be found in other countries 
 of the world as well as Judsea ; all having, no doubt, a 
 certain value ; all, in some degree, serving to refine and 
 adorn human nature ? 
 
 My answer is this. The supernatural did, as you say, 
 cleave to all the stories of the ancient world. To rob 
 them of their supernatural element is to destroy them. 
 And no part of these stories is so striking, or has had so 
 much influence over men, as that which speaks of higher 
 beings descending to hold intercourse with the lower, to 
 teach them and to do them good. These stories bear a 
 witness to the hearts of men everywhere of that which 
 they need, in One whom they can reverence and trust, be 
 He ever so far above them. It is a witness also that, 
 without beings above them whom they could reverence 
 and trust, their lives must be poor and dreary. It is 
 equally true, that men at a certain time began to think, 
 ' We have invented these stories for ourselves ; we have, 
 in fact, created our gods.' This conviction had spread
 
 BIETH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE KING. 31 
 
 widely, had penetrated deeply in the days of Augustus 
 Caesar. It was expressed or muttered by philosophers ; it 
 was felt by the priests who were performing the services 
 of the gods, and labouring to uphold their reputation. 
 And at last comes the result of the opinion. A man — 
 a general of armies, is recognised as the real King of 
 kings and Lord of lords. The gods are under the pro- 
 tection of the Emperors. There you have the supernatural 
 in one of its senses : a divine machinery grounded on a 
 human foundation, upholding a human tyranny. I demand. 
 Is there any other sense of the supernatural? Is there 
 tliat sense of it which all those legends you speak of 
 betoken ? If that is merely an imagination, this Eoman 
 Empire is the exposure of the imagination. It adopts all 
 the old fictions of the world into itself ; it uses them all 
 in its own service. You do not lose the supernatural, you 
 have it everywhere, conscious of its own falsehood, always 
 begetting fresh falsehoods. If that other sense pointed to 
 a truth, has the truth come forth ? Has the Divine shown 
 itself to be not the mere invention of humanity, but the 
 ground of humanity ? Take the instance before us. Sup- 
 pose we could have, not Arcadian shepherds, but Jewish 
 shepherds, men of the people, with all their feelings, and 
 sufferings, and ignorance. Suppose it were announced to 
 them that a King was actually born in the city of David, 
 who was not to mix with them for a few hours or days, 
 but who was to establish Glory to God in the highest, j^eace 
 on earth, good will to men ; that is to say, who was to be 
 exactly the reverse of the human divinity. Suppose this ; 
 you woidd have exactly what has been the belief of 
 Christendom, what vindicates and purifies the dreams of 
 heathens. Shall wq not be flooded with legends, with
 
 32 LECTUEE III. 
 
 legends serving to support an unnatural tyranny by super- 
 natural help, if we let this belief go ? If we hold it fast, 
 if we enter into it much more thoroughly than we have 
 ever entered into it, may we not banish the legends, and 
 shake the tyranny ? 
 
 11. The songs of Zacharias and of Mary exhibited a 
 contrast between the old world and the new, on which 
 T supposed that St. Luke would especially like to dwell. 
 The story of our Lord's circumcision and of the purification 
 of the Virgin, which is found only in this Gospel, has, 
 I conceive, a similar import, 
 
 ' And when eight days were accom'plished for the circum- 
 cising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so 
 named of the angel hcfore he was conceived in the womb. 
 And when the days of her jpurification according to the law 
 of Moses ivere accomplished, they drought him to Jerusalem, 
 to present him to the Lord : (As it is written in the law of 
 the Lord, Every male that opencth the womb shall be called 
 holy to the Lord:) A^id to offer a sacrifice according to that 
 which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtle-doves, 
 or tvjo young pigeons.' * 
 
 Here is a punctual compliance with all the terms and 
 conditions of the Law. It is assimied by the other Evan- 
 gelists : it is carefully noted by St. Luke. That which is 
 to be superseded must be first observed. He that is to be 
 the King of men must be first shown to be a true Israelite. 
 He is declared to be holy to the Lord by the same rite 
 which declared the son of every Jewish mother to be 
 holy to the Lord. And this mother undergoes the same 
 purification which was appointed for every other mother. 
 Most carefully are we taught that neither child or mother 
 claims our reverence by taking an exceptional position.
 
 BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE KING. 33 
 
 Both fidfil that which others have done and been imper- 
 fectly. So the verses which follow acquire their full force. 
 * And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name 
 was Simeon ; and the same man was jitst and. devout, wait- 
 ing for the consolation of Israel : and the Holy Ghost ivas 
 upon hint. And it loas revealed, unto him hj tlie Holy 
 Ghost, that he should not see death hefore lie had seen the 
 Lord's Christ. And he came hy the Spirit into the te^nple : 
 and ivhen the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for 
 him after tlie custom of the law, tlien took lie him up in his 
 arms, a'lid blessed God, and said. Lord, now lettest thou thy 
 servant depart in peace, axcording to thy word : for mine eyes 
 have seen thy salvation. Which thou hast prepared before the 
 face of all people ; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the 
 glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother 
 marvelled at tJwse things which were spoken of him.' 
 
 Had there been the least exemption from the Law 
 claimed for Jesus, the old doctor of the Law would not 
 have seen in Him the Christ for whom he had been 
 waiting. He had been longing for one who should 
 Himself obey the Law, and enable all who honoured it 
 to obey it. The King who should keep the Law in 
 its spirit — the King who should impart a Spirit to His 
 subjects that they might keep it — the King who should be 
 shown not to be only the King of Israel but the King of 
 men — this was He whom the heart of Simeon had re- 
 cognised while reading the Prophets ; this was He whom 
 lie had learnt must come in great humility, if Pie was to 
 be the consolation of all who were suffering and hoping. 
 
 The Nunc Dimittis, like the song of Zacharias and the 
 song of Mary, has become a part of our worship. We 
 hear it and join in it without much recollection of the 
 
 D
 
 34 LECTUKE III. 
 
 occasion upon which it was spoken. But that occasion 
 gives it all its force as a living commentary on the New 
 Testament ; that makes it so beautiful and calm a vesper 
 hymn. It is this occasion which teaches us how the Lord's 
 Christ is manifested to any human being ; how only an in- 
 ward illumination can make the sacred letters intelligible 
 even to those who study them most faithfully. It tells 
 us that all Law and Prophecy are nothing till a Person 
 is seen through them, till the shout of a king is heard 
 amidst the thunders of Sinai, and the low wailings of 
 the seer. It tells us how impossible it was that those 
 thunders should really be recognised as the voice of the 
 Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and of 
 great mercy, till He was revealed in One who delighted to 
 do the Will of God ; how impossible it was that those 
 prophetical wailings could be satisfied till One appeared 
 who was the Light of the Gentiles as well as the Glory 
 of Israel Hard it was for an old Hillel doctor not to 
 think that the glory of Israel must involve the darkness 
 and downfall of the Gentiles. Through this Infant the 
 truth flashed upon him that there must be a reconcilia- 
 tion of both ; that He w^as the Reconciler. He would 
 accomplish the meaning of circumcision. He would bestow 
 that purification which the Jew and the Gentile needed 
 equally, by which both might rise to be men. At the same 
 time there is in all prophecy a bitter mixed with the sweet, 
 a sorrow which the joy cannot quench. Simeon has known 
 too much of himself, too much of his countrymen, not to 
 j)erceive that one who should work out the Eedemption he 
 looked for would stir the heart of the nation to its depths, 
 would bring out all its fierceness and evil as well as its 
 good. 'Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising
 
 BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE KING. 35 
 
 again of many in Israel ; and for a sign ivhich shall he 
 spoken against' And then turning to the mother, who is 
 musing on these sayings, he says, * Yea, a sivord shall 
 pierce through thy oion soul also, that the thoughts of many 
 hearts may he revealed'. Wonderful words, deeper than 
 he could fathom even when his inspiration was fullest and 
 brightest ; deeper than we can fathom ; words which ful- 
 filled themselves in that day and have be^n fulfilling 
 themselves in every day since. 
 
 The figure of the widow of fourscore years -who departed 
 not from the Temple, but served God with fasting and 
 prayer day and night, as she comes at that moment and 
 gives thanks, completes the picture of the circumcision, 
 and combines — as in the Church they always have been 
 and always must be combined — the man and the woman in 
 the same retrospection and the same hope. 
 
 III. I can say nothing to you on the third subject — the 
 appearance of the boy of twelve years old in the Temple — 
 w^hich has not been, said with a life and power that no 
 words save those af Scripture can reach, in a picture with 
 which most of you wHl be familiar. The blessing of such 
 earnest studies is that they bring a person before us, 
 and remind us that it is with Christ as a Person, not 
 with any discourses concerning Him, that we have to do. 
 The Artist, too, has felt the transition from the old world 
 to the new, to which the Evangelist points so often. 
 Behind that house made with hands, one is coming forth 
 wliich is eternal in the lieavens ; a Father's House in 
 tlie fullest sense. Behind the weary interpreters of the 
 Law is coming forth that Interpreter who is as yet only 
 hearing and asking questions, but such questions as reveal 
 to those who tried to answer them, secrets in themselves 
 
 D 2
 
 36 LECTUKE III. 
 
 and in the Divine mind which they had only dreamed 
 of, or never dreamed of before. He is still the boy ; not 
 restless in that state, not grasping at any of the rights 
 and faculties of manhood ; but on His gaze an abyss of 
 light is opening, and He makes even those around Him 
 feel a little of the awe which possesses Him. He is the 
 boy ready to obey those who are set over Him upon earth, 
 but who must be ever in communion with a Father, 
 different from any parent who asserts a claim over Him 
 TdcIow. 
 
 There the story closes. Wlien it opens again it is to 
 tell us how that Father was preparing men for the mani- 
 festation of His Son ; how He did declare Him by this 
 name. I shall not anticipate that great subject. I only 
 desire to remind you that till this veil is withdrawn, 
 till the voice is heard in the Baptism, we are only in 
 "the vestibule of the Temple. How grand the vestibule 
 is, how suitable it is to that which lies beyond it, I 
 have wished to show you. But the Annunciation, with 
 all its awe and its tenderness, the songs of Mary and 
 Zacharias and Simeon, though they have wrought them- 
 selves into the life of the wisest and the iiumblest people 
 on the earth for 1800 years, even the birth in the manger, 
 even the songs of the angels, even the looks and the 
 questionings of the Divine boy among the doctors, are but 
 the preludes to the Gospel of the Son in whom the Father 
 was well pleased, to His baptism with the Spirit and with 
 fire.
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AT HAND. 
 
 St. Luke III. 15, Iff. 
 
 And as tlie 'pco'plc were in expectation, and all voen mused in their hearts 
 of John, lohethcr he were the Christ, or not ; John answered, saying unto 
 them all, I indeed baptize you with water ; but one mightier than I 
 Cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to icnloose : he shall 
 baptize you ivith the Holy Ghost and with fire. 
 
 In the homage of the infant John to the infant Jesus, 
 painters have striven to express the contrast between 
 them. The Evangelists present this contrast to us quite 
 differently. St. Luke indicated it in his narrative of 
 the two births ; the full declaration of it is in the words 
 I have just read to you. They correspond almost literally 
 with some which you will find in the third chapter of 
 St. Matthew. They are in substance adapted by St. Mark 
 iu his opening chapter. I do not complain of the painters 
 for departing from the text of Scripture, and adopting 
 traditions which had become part of the oral teaching, 
 of Christendom. Every great picture has helped to 
 elevate these traditions, to bring out their moral signifi- 
 cance, to suggest the study of the books which have been 
 darkened by them. Other influences have been, and are
 
 88 LECTURE IV. 
 
 more pernicious, than any which have proceeded from 
 artists ; but their works, especially when they have been 
 of a soft and sentimental character, have contributed to a 
 result which they could not foresee. Together with the 
 acts of devotion which have been directed to the sacred 
 heart of Jesus, with the society which has profaned tliat 
 name, with all the books and discourses of Eomanists or of 
 Protestants which have separated it from the Christ, they 
 have led us to think that the difference between the 
 Baptist and Him whose shoes he was not worthy to stoop 
 down and unloose, was the difference between a certain 
 rough human excellence and a certain transcendent super- 
 human grace and sweetness. The Lord Jesus is set before 
 us not exactly as a Divine Person, not exactly as a human 
 person. Some qualities, which we suppose to be divine, are 
 mixed confusedly with some which we suppose to be 
 human. There is a certain amount of awe awakened by 
 the first — an awe which interferes with sympathy. There is 
 a certain amount of sympathy awakened by the last — a 
 sympathy which diminishes the awe. We feel such a state 
 of mind to be one that we cannot retain ; we accept one of 
 two alternatives. The image which we had tried to bring 
 near us recedes into an immeasurable distance ; we are 
 afraid to think of it ; practically, we dismiss it from our 
 minds. Or else it is stripped of all that made it wonderful 
 and adorable to our childhood. It shrinks into the form of 
 one whose acts we can ea-sily measure and interpret, to 
 whom we attribute whatever of moral excellence does 
 not too much throw our own into the shade, to whom 
 we at last impute an untruthfulness which we acknow- 
 ledge would be disgraceful in any teacher of our century. 
 Very painful it is to describe this habit of thinking
 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEA^TIN AT HAND. 39 
 
 simply and distinctly. But it must be described, because 
 it is a prevalent one, and is likely to be more pre- 
 valent ; because we who preach the Gospel are in a very 
 great degree answerable for it ; because it should teach us 
 to consider our ways and to repent of much for which 
 we have given ourselves credit. If it does produce that 
 repentance in us, we may be led back to the direct state- 
 ments of the Evangelists, and through them to the belief 
 which is contained in our Creeds ; the belief not in a half- 
 God and half-man, Ijut in One who is very God, and 
 therefore very Man ; the perfect image of t]ie Father, and 
 for that reason the image after which we are created. 
 What healthiness and freedom of mind, what deliverance 
 from mawkishness and superstition, what a standard of 
 morality for ourselves, what mercy to others, we should 
 gain if we did heartily receive that old faith, I think we 
 none of us know, though God may make our children 
 know it. We and they may have to learn another lesson 
 first ; that there is a path to the most grovelling and the 
 most antiquated forms of superstition and idolatry — to the 
 most utter confusion of truth and falsehood — throufjh those 
 attempts to divide Jesus from the King and the Son of 
 God, which many regard as the greatest achievements of 
 modern refinement and discrimination. 
 
 You will see at once that the lano-uaffe of the text leads 
 us to consider John as a messenger of God, great only in 
 that character, great only as he acknowledges his calling 
 and girds himself to the fulfilment of it. You will see 
 that they lead us to think, not of some man born in Beth- 
 lehem, or in Nazareth, but of the Christ, the anointed of 
 God, who was to bestow the Spirit with which He was 
 anointed, upon men. Who this Christ was, no Evangelist
 
 40 LECTURE IV. 
 
 tells us that John the Baptist guessed. St. John introduces 
 Him, saying in direct words that he did not know. He 
 knew what the office of the Christ was ; what his was not. 
 He could prepare the way for Him, by preaching the 
 baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. That 
 baptism, not John's wisdom, was to manifest the Christ to 
 Israel. 
 
 Of this preparation for the Son of God, St. Matthew 
 and St. Mark speak nearly in the same terms as St. Luke. 
 Both quote a passage from the 40tli chapter of Isaiah, as 
 being fulfilled in John ; St. Luke quotes more than the 
 others. Now the question is often asked, Did Isaiah mean 
 John the Baptist by the voice crying in the wilderness .? or 
 if not, were his words distorted by the Evangelists from 
 their right and natural signification ? Are they making a 
 forced application of an old sentence ? I have answered 
 the question in another case. John the Baptist, though a 
 contemporary of Jesus, and even a kinsman of His mother, 
 did not know Him as the Christ, if he knew Him at 
 all. But he had a clear apprehension of what the Christ 
 must be. This was the illumination of a prophet, this 
 was that which had been given at sundry times and in 
 divers manners to the prophets before him. The vision 
 dawned upon them gradually, of one who must be the 
 perfect King of others, who must be the perfect image 
 of God. When He should be declared to men, the older 
 prophets could not say ; how He should be declared to men 
 they learnt by degrees through their own trials and the 
 trials of their land ; they could announce the tidings as 
 they were needed. But they were sure that if He were 
 to be fully manifested in the ages to come. He was living 
 then ; that He was manifesting Himself through imperfect
 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AT JL\XD. 41 
 
 men, kings, priests, or prophets ; that He was mani- 
 festing Himself through the judgments upon them when 
 they failed of their duty. And Isaiah knew in him- 
 self, knew in his countrymen, what hindered the per- 
 ception of this true King, what kept men from confessing 
 Him, and expecting a fuller discovery of Him. Some 
 were self-exalted, some were desponding of the Divine 
 goodness, some were finding the path of life very tor- 
 tuous and intricate, some were finding it very painful 
 to the feet. They could not understand how God could 
 have devised such ways for creatures whom He loved. 
 What must one do who should come in the name of 
 the Lord to prepare for a revelation of Him? He must 
 show that God was bringing down hills and exalting the 
 valleys, was making straight the crooked ways, was making 
 the rough ways smooth. He must show it by more than 
 words. He must have a message to all manner of people, 
 which all manner of people should feel to be a divine one, 
 and which each should feel was adapted to him and his 
 troubles. ' The glort/ of the Lord ' — this is the portion of 
 the passage which the other Evangelists have omitted and 
 which St. Luke has preserved, ' The glory of the Lord shall 
 he revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.' How that 
 was to be, how all flesh could bear such an unveiling, 
 the prophet might not know. But this and nothing less 
 than this could answer to his sense of the deep necessity 
 of his race, and of the Divine purpose towards it. So far 
 the vision is clear and full as to the nature of the mes- 
 sage, but it contains no limitations of space or time, no 
 intimation of one more than another who should accom- 
 plish it. Would it not be right to say that evenj prophet 
 must in his own time and in his own place act in conformity
 
 42 LECTURE IV. 
 
 with this divine announcement ? There could be no account 
 of his functions so vivid and so accurate. 
 
 There is, however, one point in the description which 
 appears to be more locah ' The voice is heard crying in tlie 
 wilderness.' How often this incident would be repeated, 
 how often the preacher who spoke to people concerning 
 their God, would be literally as well as morally a speaker 
 in the wilderness, it is needless to inquire. The divine 
 impulse which led John to choose it as his appointed 
 place will not have been less divine, less inward, if it 
 gathered strength from the study of this very passage ; 
 whether it did or not, there was something entirely fitting 
 in the place to the mind and object of the speaker. And so 
 without the least debating about the amount of foresight 
 which Isaiah possessed, without the least caring whether 
 he intended this application or not, the Evangelist could 
 say, ' Here is, in the strictest, completest sense, the fulfil- 
 ment of the prophet's sense. He who knows the end from 
 the beginning, and has ordained words for our use, must 
 mean us to connect these words with this event, to interpret 
 them by it, and it by them.' 
 
 And surely, if by any act or by any speech, valleys 
 could be exalted, hills could be made low, crooked ways 
 could be made straight, rough ways smooth, the preaching 
 of the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins was 
 that act and that speech. All the children of Abraham, 
 without exception — the religious Pharisee and the harlot, 
 the most wise Sadducee and the most ignorant handicrafts- 
 man, the proudest Jewish patriot and the publican who was 
 profiting by the Eoman tribute — were addressed as God's 
 people, were told that He was calling them to repent of 
 sins which separated them from Him, were all alike assured.
 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AT HAND. 43 
 
 by a significant token, that He sent away their sins. What 
 a universal message, yet what an individual message ! It 
 meant nothing till it found the particular man with his own 
 particular burthen pressing upon his conscience. Then it said 
 to him, ' He who knows of that burthen. He who knows 
 how it came to thee, invites thee to cast it off. Thou may est 
 confess it. Thou mayest be delivered from it. Thou mayest 
 go forth a free man.' Had the Pharisee anything to 
 confess ? Perhaps not ; he was satisfied ; he w^as better 
 and holier than others. In that superiority and holi- 
 ness he must abide. If that was all he wanted he might 
 enjoy it. And then assuredly he would not see the 
 salvation of God, for he would have nothing to be saved 
 from. If he did confess that his self-glorification had 
 kept him from God, that it was a great sin, a heavy 
 burthen, it would be taken from him ; the hill vjoidd he made 
 Imu. Had the harlot anything to confess ? She might 
 think she had nothing ; she had fallen into that miserable 
 condition through circumstances, through the faults of 
 others, she could not charge it against herself. Then 
 the burthen must still be borne. But if she confessed 
 it, she might be set as free from her load as the Pharisee 
 from his ; she, like him, might see the salvation of God. 
 The valley would he exalted. Did the Sadducee see any- 
 thing at all strange or crooked in his own course, or in the 
 course of the world ? Perhaps not, perhaps he had a theory 
 which would account for everything ; he wanted no 
 straighter way than that which he was in. But if he 
 did, if he found that his wit was at fault, if he owned 
 himself a fool, that confession might bring liini to see 
 what he had supposed was a mere fantasy. He might 
 see the salvation of God, and so his blessing would be
 
 44' LECTUEE IV. 
 
 like that of the ignorant man whom he despised. He, 
 bewailing his ignorance, confessing that he could see in 
 what path he was to walk, might have the crooked ivaymade 
 straight. And the weariness and despondency of those 
 who complained of weariness and despondency, might be 
 taken away by Him who bids His creatures be of a good 
 heart. Their rough way might he made smooth. 
 
 Thus, the message had all the qualities which prophetic 
 message could have. It bore witness of its origin from 
 One who knew what is in man. It appealed to all equally. 
 It appealed to each man by himself. It went home to that 
 in each which wanted remission and purification. It did 
 its work. It was at once levelling and exalting. St. Mat- 
 thew and St. Mark are so busj^ with their main subject, 
 ' Prepare the way of the Lord' that they can think of no 
 other. For St. Luke, whose mind is occupied with the Gospel 
 to the Gentiles — to all mankind — the clause ' All fiesh shall 
 see the salvation of God' was very important ; it blended 
 itself with the previous sentence ; he could not divide them. 
 
 But if the message ' Eepent, and turn to God, who 
 puts away sins, who sets the conscience free,' is a blessed 
 message, what are we to . say of this ' Then said he to the 
 multitude that came forth to he ha/ptized of Mm, genera- 
 tion of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to 
 come t ' They are certainly very unlike the previous words. 
 And yet the same man must have uttered them both. 
 Their resemblance is inward and essential ; the opposition 
 is on the surface. Every prophet who had asked the 
 children of Abraham to turn to the God of their fathers 
 had asked them to turn from an idolatry and a slavery 
 which were destroying them. Every prophet had said 
 that idolatry and slavery would infallibly bring down
 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AT HAND, 45 
 
 curses upon their land. In the form of invasion from some 
 enemy, above all from the great Babylonian Empire, they 
 would experience the misery of having sold their hearts 
 to vain things, of having trusted in that which would 
 give them no courage to resist, or fortitude to bear. Their 
 horses and chariots would not save them from those 
 who had a far greater multitude of chariots and horses. 
 When these were their confidence they must feel their 
 own pettiness ; the enemy would laugh them to scorn. 
 About the poor divided, sect-ridden, mouey-worshipping 
 Jews of John's age the clouds were gathering close and 
 thick. An empire mightier than any Clialdean Empire 
 was trampling upon them — might in a little time ex- 
 tinguish them. The thought of this coming wrath was 
 pressing intensely upon the mind of the preacher. This 
 was the issue to which the pride of the Pharisees and the 
 Sadducees was leading ! This was the horror which the 
 whole country would have to bear because the sins of its 
 rulers had infected every part of it ! In St. Matthew the 
 speech of John is directed expressly to the opposing sects 
 who were to be the ruin of the commonwealth. St. Luke 
 speaks as if it had been addressed to the people at 
 large. Both rulers and people were, no doubt, warned of 
 that which would affect both. Rulers and people were 
 asked alike to cast away the abominations whicli were 
 bringing on the catastrophe. And of rulers and people 
 it was equally true that if they merely came to the 
 baptism because tlicy were afraid of a wrath to come, 
 they would remain a generation of vipers ; that if they 
 came to be delivered from sins wliich oppressed them, 
 they would have tlie poison taken out of them — they would 
 receive remission of their sins.
 
 46 LECTUEE IV. 
 
 Tlierefore he bade them one and all bring forth fruits 
 worthy of that repentance which they had professed. 
 God wished to tear out their sins by the roots. He 
 was not striking at some forms of evil, but at the great 
 mother sin ; at their trust in themselves, at their distrust 
 of Him. These had been the causes of all misery to 
 their forefathers ; these were the causes of their misery. 
 They were saying to themselves, ' We have Ahraham to 
 our father.' They were boasting of their difference from 
 other people. Cunningest, vilest form of infidelity ! 
 Denial of the God of Abraham, under pretence of honour 
 to Abraham ! Let them know that God was able of those 
 stones — of what seemed the hardest, most impenetrable 
 materials — to raise up children to Abraham. 
 
 If tlie message of John, as delivered by St. Luke, is 
 more general in its call and in its warnings than that 
 which we read elsewhere, it is also more minute and 
 definite. It is St. Luke who tells us that the soldiers, the 
 publicans, and the people at large asked John what they 
 should do — what fruits of repentance he demanded of 
 them ; and that his answers in each case referred to their 
 ordinary duties and temptations. They were not to for- 
 sake their work that they might serve God more punctually 
 and faithfully, — that would be a distrust and denial of 
 Him. They were to serve Him in their work ; they were 
 to avoid those things which they knew were inconsistent 
 with fidelity to it ; they were to do the acts of simple 
 kindliness and good neighbourhood which belonged to 
 their position, and which came in their way. The 
 preacher in the wilderness, whose raiment was of camel's 
 hair, and whose meat was locusts and wild honey, 
 attached no worth to such costume or such food. They
 
 THE KIXGDO:*! OF HEAVEN AT HAXD. 47 
 
 ■were suitable to him ; he recommended them to no one 
 else. Soldiers and tax-gatherers were to be soldiers and 
 tax-gatherers still. 
 
 And then follow the words I have taken for mv text. I 
 have spoken to you already of their main import. They 
 announced One who would be endowed with a divine 
 Spirit, and who would impart that Spirit. They declared 
 this to be the distinction between Him and John, between 
 Him and all other prophets. He who was not able to be- 
 stow this gift was not the King and Deliverer their fathers 
 had looked for. He was not the King and Deliverer who 
 could raise them out of their low estate, or who could 
 confer anv riii^hts or blessings on mankind. 
 
 Strange is it to think of the contrasts which men have 
 drawn between John and Jesus, as if the first were merely 
 a severe preacher, and the last were all tolerance and pity ; 
 and then to read this description. 'Whose fan is in his 
 hand, and he loill throughly purge his jioor, and will gather 
 the tvheat into the garner, but ivill hum up the chaff with fire 
 unquenxhahle.' Yet was it not such an one as this that 
 the people of Palestine wanted ; one who could look into 
 the heart of their society, into the heart of each man, and 
 burn up its evils, and burn up his evils ? One who could 
 kindle a new and divine life within them ? Would any- 
 thing less than this divine fire, than this divine Spirit, 
 have sufficed for their renovation ? My friends, will any- 
 thing less than this divine fire, this divine Spirit, suffice 
 for our renovation ? AVill it avail us to talk of the meek 
 and lowly Jesus ? Do we not know that we may talk of 
 Him, and think ourselves much better for talking of Him, 
 and may boast of our superiority to people who do not 
 know Him, till all meekness and gentleness depart from
 
 48 LECTURE IV. 
 
 US — till we become like the Jews, who said, ' We have 
 AhraJmm to our father T Will any soft, sentimental faith 
 purge out the sectarianism and the money-worship from our 
 English nation, from our English church 1 Must there not 
 be One with a fan in His hand, to accomplish for us what 
 no outward baptism, no preaching of repentance, has been 
 able to accomplish ? Is there such an One ? I think there 
 is, for I accept this as a true sentence. ' Now when the people 
 were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized 
 and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost 
 descended in a bodily shape like a dove icpon him, and a voice 
 came from heaven, ivhich said, Thou art my beloved Son ; in 
 thee am I ivell pleased.' 
 
 Here I find the commencement of that Kingdom of 
 Heaven which John declared to be at hand. Here is 
 the revelation of a Name which had been implied in 
 every revelation, but which had never yet been spoken. 
 He who is and was and is to come, is never forgotten ; 
 but the Father is discovered in the Baptism. Tlie Word 
 who said, ' Let there he light, and there was light,' is never 
 lost sight of But this Baptism declares a Son who is to 
 do nothing of Himself, who is to show forth the will 
 Avhence all blessing and restoration proceed. And the 
 Baptism reveals the Spirit, not as moving on the face 
 of the waters, but as possessing the whole heart and 
 mind of a man, as directing the thought and purposes of 
 a man, as uniting the highest rule with the most per- 
 fect obedience. All that follows is the living exposition 
 of Christ's baptism.
 
 LECTUEE V. 
 
 THE TEMPTATION OF THE KING. 
 
 St. Ltjke IV. 13. 
 
 And when the devil had eiided all his temptation, he departed from hAmfor 
 
 a season. 
 
 The story of the Baptism of Jesus is followed, in this 
 Gospel, by a genealogy ascending to Adam. He who has 
 been declared to be the Son of God, we are reminded 
 is emphatically the Son of Man. He is connected not 
 merely with the family of Abraham, though His descent is 
 traced through that. He is marked out as the Head 
 of the race. If the ordinary succession from father to son 
 has been interrupted, in His case, to assert a higher prin- 
 ciple, to denote the express relation of the Lord of man to 
 God, that succession has not been dishonoured. It has 
 acquired a new sacredness from the interruption. Each 
 birth into this world has a dignity which it must want, if 
 the message at the Baptism was a fiction. If you dwell on 
 this use of the genealogy, and compare it with the words 
 of St. Paul, which must have been so familiar to St. Luke, 
 respecting the first and the second Adam, you will not, 
 I think, be disposed to occupy yourselves with minute 
 questions about special links which may appear or may 
 be wanting in the series. The discovery that tliere are 
 difficulties in it which we cannot explain, has, I doubt 
 
 E
 
 50 LECTUEE V. 
 
 not, been of great use, in forcing us to seek more for the 
 sense and purpose of the Divine narratives. Whilst we 
 are slaves to the letter, as I shall often have occasion to 
 show you in these lectures, the force of the letter escapes 
 us ; we continually pass over or pervert the plainest and 
 broadest statements. To emancipate us from this slavery, 
 to make us honest students of God's Eevelations, to give us 
 some adequate feeling of their grandeur. He may use many 
 methods. That of confounding our ingenuity, and of 
 obliging us to see inconsistencies which we cannot ac- 
 count for, is perhaps the one which humbles us most, and 
 therefore for which we have most cause to be thankful. 
 At all events, I have no solutions to offer of any difficulties 
 which have been raised about this list of names ; if I had, 
 I hope I should not trouble you with them, knowing that 
 you are busy men, and have not time for trifles. 
 
 It is quite otherwise with the next passage in this 
 record. That, I believe, you need ask no leisure to under- 
 stand. "Work — the commonest work — will interpret it 
 better than leisure. You have tests by which you can try 
 what I say of the Temptation. I trust you will apply 
 those tests strictly, that I may not fritter away, by any 
 theories of mine, what you and all people require for the 
 practice of every day. 
 
 'And Jesus, being full of the Holy GJiost, returned from 
 Jordan, and was led hy the Spirit into the wilderness, being 
 forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did 
 eat nothing : and when they were ended, he aftervjard huiv- 
 gered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of 
 God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus 
 answered him, saying, It is written. That man shall not live 
 by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the devil,
 
 THE TEMPTATION OF THE KING. 51 
 
 taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all 
 the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the 
 devil said unto him, All this poiver will I give thee, and the 
 glory of them : for that is delivered unto me ; and to whorrh- 
 soever I will I give it. If thou, therefore, wilt worship me, 
 all shall he thine. And Jesus answered, and said unto him. 
 Get thee behind me, Satan; for it is written. Thou shalt 
 worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 
 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle 
 of the tewjple, and said unto him. If thou he the Son of God 
 cast thyself down from hence ; for it is written, He shall 
 give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee : and in their 
 hands they shall hear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy 
 foot against a stone. And Jesus answering, said unto him. 
 It is said. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And 
 when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from 
 him for a season! 
 
 What ! is this a part of the Gospel which I dare to 
 claim as belonging to the business of life, as appealing 
 to the sympathies and consciences of human beings ? 
 Is not this just one of those supernatural additions 
 which mingle so strangely with the common history, 
 and which all who are trying to extricate that common 
 history from its environment, instantly cast aside ? No 
 doubt. The Temptation is treated by a number of those 
 who accept, no less than by most of those who reject, the 
 Evangelical narrative, as standing outside of it — as having, 
 perhaps a doctrinal, perhaps a traditional value, but as 
 altogether distinct from the records of our Lord's journeys 
 and of His moral teaching. This separation I cannot make. 
 I can understand no part of the subsequent history, if I 
 omit the scene in the wilderness. All appears to me 
 
 E 2
 
 52 LECTURE V. 
 
 incoherent and fantastical. The G.ospel loses its interest 
 for me as a commentary on my own life and the life of my 
 fellow-creatures. Perhaps I ought to receive it because it 
 is written, but why it should have been written, what it 
 has to do with us, I cannot discover. It is this preliminary 
 struggle of the Spirit of God with the spirit of evil which 
 shows me what our Lord's struggle was with the Jewish 
 people, what is the struggle of every nation and age, what 
 is going on in every one of us. 
 
 And this has been the conviction of different periods — of 
 those periods which have been most energetic, and have left 
 the deepest marks of their energy on the world's history ; 
 this has been the conviction of those men who have fought 
 the stoutest battles, and done most for mankind. You may 
 expect me to begin with warning you not to think of the 
 Temptation as Dante and the men in the middle ages 
 thought of it, or as Luther and the men at the time of the 
 Eeformation thought of it, or as Milton and the Puritans 
 thought of it. I shall do no such thing. I believe they 
 all thought of it imperfectly; that they impaired the 
 beauty of the clear, sharply-chiselled marble, by colouring 
 borrowed from their own fancy and the fancy of their 
 times. But they have shown with what intense reality 
 this record has come to them in the most terrible moments 
 of their existence. If they have seen it through a mist, it 
 has not created the mist ; it has done more than all other 
 lights to dispel the mist. Truth and falsehood, good and 
 evil, have stood out before them in their unchangeable 
 opposition ; not as abstractions engaged in a shadow-fight, 
 but as powers of life and death grappling in that fight on 
 which the condition of the universe and of each person in 
 it depends. We may learn something from each teacher
 
 ' THE TEMPTATION OF THE KING. 53 
 
 "whicli the other could not tell us. Their mistakes may 
 warn us of those into which we are likely to fall. If God 
 gives us grace to enter heart and hand into the conflict 
 which He has appointed for us and our time, we shall read 
 this passage of St. Luke more simply than those read it 
 who have gone before us. 
 
 (1) He was led by the Spirit. That is the charac- 
 teristic of the acts of the Son in all we read from this 
 time onwards. He has been baptized with His Tather's 
 Spirit. He is guided by that Spirit whithersoever He goes. 
 He does not choose for HimseK whether He shall be 
 in the city or the wilderness. Here is the secret of His 
 power. He is governed, and so exercises the highest 
 and most perfect government. It is a mystery surely, the 
 deepest of mysteries ; but if we reflect upon it, a light will 
 be thrown upon the mysteries of our life — upon that which 
 makes our acts harmonious — a light that you will find 
 nowhere else. 
 
 (2) The wilderness into whicli He went ' was haunted, 
 according to popular belief, by demons.' So speaks the 
 author of a recent ' Life of Jesus.' We surely do not want 
 the authority of a learned man to endorse so very probable 
 a statement. No doubt, popular beHef filled Jewish deserts, 
 as it fills all deserts, with demons. The curious fact is, 
 that this being the case, the Evangelists, who are supposed 
 to have been the victims of aU popular beliefs, do not 
 suggest the thought of demons in tliis desert. They say 
 much of demons elsewhere ; what they say, I hope to con- 
 sider next Sunday. That which they speak of here is far 
 more serious and awful. 
 
 (3) Being forty days tempted of the devil. The difference 
 is aU important. "SVe are not in the region of dark forms
 
 54 LECTURE V. 
 
 which haunt particular spots. We have been brought into 
 the spiritual region. That is to say, we have been brought 
 out of the region of things into the region of persons ; out 
 of the region of mere outsides and shapes into the region of 
 living powers. The accuser, the slanderer, strikes at the 
 very being of Him to whom he speaks. The desert may be 
 the place of the encounter. It is a suitable place, because 
 creatures of flesh and blood being out of the way, we know 
 that the encounter itself is between spirits. 
 
 (4) ' In tJiose days he did eat nothing, and when they 
 were ended he afterwards hungered.' Another exhaustion of 
 outward circumstances. The taste, the appetite, has been 
 continually represented as the cause of evil. Take away 
 the motives which speak to the flesh, reduce that to nothing- 
 ness — and then ? Then, say the Evangelists, the power of the 
 tempter may be felt as it was not felt before. Hunger may 
 be his instrument quite as much as food. Eeason and 
 experience would say so. The Bible accords with them. 
 It bears witness against the widely-spread, the ever-recur- 
 ring, heresy which makes the animal nature the source of 
 wrong; against the innumerable practical deductions which 
 have been drawn from that heresy by those who have in 
 terms rejected it. But that is not all. Men are hungry 
 who do not deny themselves food for any purpose of mor- 
 tification. Is it nothing for them to know that their 
 anguish has been felt by the Son of Man — the King of 
 Men ? Is there no Gospel in that announcement ? Has it 
 not been felt as a Gospel by thousands ? When we believe 
 more in One who took our nature, and less in One who 
 came to save select individuals out of the condition of their 
 race, may it not reach millions ? 
 
 (5): ' And the devil said unto him, If thou he the Son of God,
 
 THE TEMPTATION OF THE KING. 55 
 
 command this stone to he made hread! Now we begin to 
 perceive the principle of the Temptation, its real force. 
 A stone may serve as the instrument of solicitation ; the 
 natural craving for food may be all that is spoken to ; but 
 this is the speech : ' If thou be the Son of God.' ' The 
 ' words at thy baptism cannot be true, if thou art not able 
 'to exercise this power for the relief of thy own necessities.' 
 He must do something of Himself and for Himself What 
 is His name worth otherwise ? 
 
 (6) His name is worth this : — ' Jt is ivnttcn, wmu shall not 
 live hy bread alone, hut hy every word of God.' I claim the 
 words because they are written of man. I claim the state 
 of man. I am one with men. There is the King ; and 
 the King is the Son. He can depend upon the Word of 
 God. He can trust that for Himself, and for those with 
 whom He has identified Himself. 
 
 (7) A King ideally, perhaps. But actually is the world 
 His ? Is it His Father's ? 'And the devil taking him np 
 into an high mountain, shoived unto him all the kingdoms of 
 the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto 
 him, All this power loill I give thee, and the glory of them, 
 for that is delivered to me, and to whomsoever I will I give it. 
 If thou, tlurefore, wilt worship me, all shall he thine.' ' How 
 ' was He taken to the mountain ? Did He see with His eyes, 
 ' or only with His mind?' My friends, I know these questions 
 occur to us all. They have occurred to me. And I can 
 only fmd this answer to them : — I am reading of a tempta- 
 tion presented by a spirit to a spirit. If Christ saw all 
 those kingdoms with His bodily eye, still it must have 
 been His sj)irit which took in the prospect, which took in 
 the force of the Scripture words. That is what concerns 
 me — concerns me infinitely. The devil is reported to have
 
 56 LECTUEE V. 
 
 said something wliicli seems to me most plausible. All 
 appearances in that time confirmed his words. The most 
 religious men in times since have thought that he spoke 
 truly. They have said that the kingdoms of the world and 
 the glory of them are his. And I fancy they have rendered 
 him no little worship because they have said so. They have' 
 had a reserved homage for his enemy ; but they have sup- 
 posed he had a title to actual homage in virtue of that great 
 inheritance. If it is his, I am sure I shall worship him; 
 so far as I have accounted it his, I am sure I have wor- 
 shipped him. I want then to know if there is one whom 
 I can trust who declared that it was not his, who would 
 not do him service. I read these words : — 
 
 (8) ' Get thee hehind me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt 
 worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.' 
 Is that true ? Did One in human flesh indeed say, 
 ' Adversary, get thee behind me. All these things are 
 'the Creator's, not thine. All these things are His who 
 ^ redeemed His people out of bondage, not thine. He 
 'told the Israelites He was the Lord their God. I take 
 ' my place as an Israelite. I call Him the Lord my God. 
 ' 1 vindicate that name for myself, for tliem. I confess 
 * Him to be the Lord, Him only.' Is not that the word 
 of a Man, of the Man ? Is it not the word of a Son ? Is 
 it not a Gospel to us all ? 
 
 (9) 'And he hvught him to Jerusalem, and set him on 
 a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto hiin. If thou he the 
 Son of God, east thyself doion from hence : for it is written. 
 He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee : and 
 in their hands they shall hear thee up), lest at any time thou 
 dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus ansivering said 
 unto him. It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God'
 
 THE TEMPTATION OF THE KING. 57 
 
 I need not discuss the question in this case, how He was 
 brought to Jerusalem, how He was set on a pinnacle of 
 the temple. I should say the temptation was the most 
 real that could be. He was actually tempted to try 
 whether God would not bear him up if He cast Himself 
 down. He was actually tempted by a text of Scripture to 
 give that proof of His Sonship and of His Father's faith- 
 fulness. Whatever were His circumstances, that thought 
 was presented to His spirit by the evil spirit. And so 
 we know that He was tempted like as we are. In all 
 varieties of circumstances this thought is presented to us. 
 Every man hears, at some time or other, a voice whispering 
 to him, ' Go out of the place in which you are put. Do 
 something extraordinary. Do something wrong. See 
 whether God will not help you. Can you not depend 
 upon His promise that He will ? Is Scripture false that 
 He will ? ' How many of those false steps, how many of 
 those first wrong acts which have made a second, a third, 
 a fourth necessary, have proceeded from this calculation ! 
 ^^^lence came that voice ? I accept this story. I beheve 
 that it is the voice of the tempter, the enemy of me, the 
 enemy of man, he who is seeking to make us distrust our 
 Father in heaven, he who is seeking to divide us from 
 Him. And therefore, I want to know if the argument 
 from Scripture has been answered, and how we may treat 
 that and the like arguments. Hear and consider this : 
 ' And Jesus answering said, Thou shall not tenupt the Lord 
 thy God.' The Son of God once more claims the right 
 to obey a commandment — the right to trust and to de- 
 pend. Once more He claims that right for us. We 
 may aldde where we are placed, for our Father has 
 placed us there. If He was not the Lord our God, we
 
 58 LECTURE V. 
 
 might make experiments on that which He would do for 
 us supposing we broke His law. Because He is, we may 
 submit to it, and rejoice in it. 
 
 My friends, this story has pleaded its own cause for 
 eighteen centuries wdth those who are fighting a battle. 
 I do not think it can be accepted as true — in any im- 
 portant sense of the word true — by any others. They 
 may maintain its canonical authority, they may insist that 
 it cannot be rejected without peril to their theory of the 
 infallibility of the Bible ; but though they will defend it 
 against objectors, and for others, it will not signify any- 
 thing to themselves. If it did, they would not despair of 
 its coming with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power 
 to any objector — to any man. They would set little value 
 on any demonstration but that. In this sense it is, I think, 
 a most beautiful introduction to the rest of the Gospel. 
 May a man trust the word of God to supply him with 
 bread? Are the kingdoms of the world the devil's, or 
 do they belong to the Lord our God ? Which is a man to 
 worship ? May a man trust God ? May he tempt God ? 
 These questions were debated between the Spirit of Jesus 
 and the spirit of falsehood in the wilderness. These were 
 the questions which He was to debate in synagogues and 
 in the streets, in Galilee and in Jerusalem. The Son of 
 God was in all His acts and words to glorify His Father 
 and deny Himself — in all His acts and words to vindicate 
 for those whom He was not ashamed to call His brethren 
 the right to call His Father their Father. He was to 
 manifest the Spirit of trust, of obedience, of love, of 
 peace, in opposition to the spirit of self-will, of division, 
 of hatred. 
 . (11) We are told, that 'when the devil had ended all his
 
 THE TEMPTATION OF THE KIXG. 59 
 
 temptation, he departed from Mm for a season.' Such 
 seasons of rest, of freedom from doubt, of joyful confidence, 
 are, I suppose, vouchsafed to the soldiers of Christ after 
 periods of terrible conflict, as they were to the chief 
 Captain, But the inward battle was to prepare Him, as 
 well as them, for battles in the world. The enemy in the 
 wilderness must be encountered there. We read : — 
 
 'And Jesus returned in the poivcr of the Spirit into 
 Oalilee : and there went out a fame of him through all the 
 region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, 
 being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where he 
 had been brought up : and, as his custom was, he went into 
 the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 
 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet 
 Esaiccs. And when he had opened the book, he found the 
 place where it was ivritten, The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
 me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the 
 poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to j^reach 
 deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, 
 to set at liberty tJiem that are bruised, to preach the acccjjtable 
 year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it 
 again to tlie minister, and sat dotvn. And the eyes of all 
 them that were in the synagogiie were fastened on him. And 
 he began to say unto them. This day is this scripture fid filled 
 in your ears. And all bare him loitness, and wondered at 
 the gracious vjords which proceeded out of his mouth. And 
 they said. Is not this Joseph's son ? And he said unto tlicm, 
 Ye will surely say unto me this proverb. Physician, heal thy- 
 self: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also 
 here in thy country. And lie said, Verily I say unto you. 
 No prophet is accepted in his oum country. But I tell you 
 of a truth, many widows were in Israel in tlic days of Elias,
 
 60 LECTURE V. 
 
 wJien the lieaven was shut up three years and six months, 
 when great famine was throughout all tlie land ; hut unto 
 none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of 
 Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers 
 were in Israel in the time of Eliseus tlu prophet ; and no^/ie 
 of tliem ivas cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all 
 they in the synagogue, when they heard tJiese things, were 
 filled ivith wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the 
 city, and led him unto the hrow of the hill whereon their city 
 was huilt, that they might cast him down headlong. But he 
 passing through the midst of them went his ivay, and came 
 down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them mi 
 the sahhath days.' 
 
 (12) It is in tlie power of the Spirit that He went into 
 the desert ; it is in the power of the Spirit that He goes 
 into Galilee. It is of the Spirit which is upon Him that 
 He speaks to the Nazarenes. The story of His visit to 
 their synagogue occurs only in St. Luke. It is consistent 
 with all that we have read in His Gospel hitherto. It 
 prepares us for what we are to read hereafter. The writer 
 of the Acts of the Gospel must tell us of a kingdom 
 which conquers by spiritual might. He must tell us 
 of a kingdom which is to set captives free. And he 
 must warn us that the news of such a kingdom^ uttered 
 through Prophets, through Apostles, through the Son of 
 Man, will be rejected precisely because it does address 
 itself to spirits, and brings spiritual evidence of its 
 reality. 'Is not this the carpenter's son?' 'Ai-e not 
 his sisters all with us?' will be one form — one chief 
 form — of the arguments by which its claims are resisted. 
 They are those which have especial weight among the 
 .kiusmen and neighbours of the Prophet or the King.
 
 THE TEMPTATION OF THE KING. 61 
 
 Among them, He has the first keen taste of the bitterness 
 of the work which is to carry such blessings, which testifies 
 of such love. The acceptable year, the divine jubilee, must 
 be inaugurated by the effort of the subjects of the King 
 to cast Him headlong from the brow of the hill on which 
 their city was built.
 
 LECTUEE VL 
 
 THE KING CASTING OUT EVIL SPIKITS. 
 
 St. Luke IV. 33, 34. 
 
 And in the synagogue there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil, 
 and cried out with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone ; what have we to 
 do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth ? art thou come to destroy us ? I know 
 thee who thou art ; the Holy One of God. 
 
 The superstition which connects demons with a wilderness 
 has been used, as I told you last Sunday, to explain our 
 Lord's temptation. I showed you that the explanation 
 had nothing to do with the story which is given us by the 
 Evangelists. They speak of no demons in the desert. 
 They describe the encounter of the spirit of Christ with 
 the spirit of evil; the test of their veracity lies in the 
 experience of human beings in cities as much as deserts, 
 in one period as much as another. 
 
 But the subject of demons is, as I intimated, one which 
 comes before us in the Gospels, as soon as our Lord enters 
 upon His ministry. Not in deserts, but in places of con- 
 course, in the synagogues, we hear of them. We cannot 
 evade them. Casting out the demons is connected with 
 all our Lord's acts of power. It takes precedence of all 
 His other acts. If we follow the order of the Evangelists, 
 we must not first inquire into the nature of His signs 
 generally and then treat of these as having a peculiar and
 
 THE KING CASTING OUT EVIL SPIRITS. 63 
 
 exceptional character. We must begin with them. If we 
 can arrive at any light respecting them, we may hope that 
 that light will guide us in the investigation of the purpose 
 and character of His ordinary work. 
 
 Certainly there is no title which Christians so ha- 
 bitually claim for Jesus, as that of Kedeemer. When 
 we cease to acknowledge Him as a Eedeemer, we cease 
 to care for Him at all : His Gospel becomes no Gospel. 
 We listen to any other tidings with more interest and 
 more hope. 
 
 But if the New Testament is the history of a Eedeemer 
 and a redemption, how shall the Eedeemer manifest Him- 
 self ; what is there to be redeemed ? The Evangelist 
 assumes that the spirit of man has fallen into bondage ; 
 that if this be not delivered from bondage, he himself 
 will remain in it ; that if this is delivered from bondage, 
 then highest of all must be the Deliverer. One who is 
 above the man must speak to him, must awaken him, 
 must stretch out help to him ; he must answer the voice, 
 he must obey the signal, he must grasp the help. It 
 must be unseen aid, spiritual aid, through M'hatever audible 
 voice or visible hands it is afforded. Such is the principle 
 of the whole book. In every different stage of the reve- 
 lation it is the same. A Divine Euler discovers Himself 
 to the creature which is formed to know and recognise its 
 ruler ; trust in that ruler is the act of recognition, is the 
 mightiest, and yet the humblest, exercise of the subject's 
 energy. 
 
 But is this a general abstract doctrine ? Are we to talk 
 of a redemption — a human redemption — and not to see 
 any individual instances of it, any illustrations of the 
 principle and the power ? If Jesus was, as modern critics
 
 64! LECTUEE VI. 
 
 say, an idealist, one who had a certain dream of benefiting 
 his countrymen and the human race, but had not power to 
 benefit them, it is reasonable to be content with fine words, 
 with what is described as a " delicious morality." His acts 
 we must account for as those writers account for them. 
 He must have been subject to accesses of gross delusion ; 
 when He had deluded Himself, He will have practised on the 
 ■credulity of those who surrounded Him. That is one view 
 of His life ; supposing we do not adopt it, we ought to be 
 consistent in maintaining the other. Supposing we call Jesus 
 a Eedeemer, we are bound to expect that He would give 
 some tokens of redeeming power. We are bound severely 
 to question those who record His acts, whether He did, and 
 if He did what those tokens were. If the Evangelists can 
 tell us of no such tokens, they are mocking us ; if the 
 tokens are not such as concern human beings, they are not 
 tokens for us. 
 
 The Evangelists at least make a distinct answer to these 
 demands, whether it is a satisfactory one or not. They fix 
 our minds upon people who, like this man at Capernaum, 
 had a spirit of an unclean demon. What kind of person can 
 this have been ? I can only gather what he was from the 
 hints which are given me here and in corresponding pas- 
 sages of the Gospels. He had evidently no command of 
 himself His words were not his own ; his thoughts were 
 not his own. His words were foul and fierce ; his thoughts 
 were foul and fierce. You ask if these were phenomena 
 peculiar to Galilee, peculiar to that age ? I cannot imagine 
 that they were. I think we all know that they were not. 
 The language which I have used is that which we should 
 naturally adopt to describe cases which most of us have 
 seen. They may take various shapes, but surely they are
 
 THE KING CASTING OUT EVIL SPIEITS. 65 
 
 to be foimd everywhere ; the report of them is to be heard 
 in every time. And in every place and in every time this 
 calamity has been felt as in tlie deepest sense the sub- 
 version of the human being ; the most awful, the most un- 
 utterable fall which any creature can suffer — a fall which 
 no involuntary creature can suffer. If there could be a 
 deliverance of a spirit from this abyss, that would be a 
 sign, indeed, of the presence of One who was above the 
 man, and who knew what was in the man ; that would 
 be a pledge of the overthrow of man's oppressors, such 
 as could not be afforded in any other way conceivable 
 by us. 
 
 The form of speech which I have used at once brings 
 us to the part of the subject from which we often shrink. 
 Has man oppressors ? That is not a question which we 
 ask the Evangelist : we ask facts ; we ask the experience 
 and language of every people under heaven. The beautiful 
 things which God has given a man oppress him. All the 
 powers of nature oppress him. He is oppressed by his 
 fellows ; he is oppressed by himself Is that the last word 
 we have to speak ? How then do you account for those 
 cases to which I have just referred ? How do you account 
 for that desire in men to shake off a power which they 
 declare that they cannot shake off? Does this power 
 dwell in some visible thing? Is it not an invisible in- 
 fluence ? Does it address itself to the senses ? or to the 
 reason, to the will — to that which the senses and all the 
 energies of the body should obey ? You know that this 
 influence, this power — call it by any name you like — is 
 actually felt and confessed. Well, this from which the 
 man needs to be delivered that he may be a rational, will- 
 ing being, and may do the behests of his Creator, is here 
 
 F
 
 io6 LECTUEE VI. 
 
 called ' an unclean spirit.' Is that a vague term ? Cer- 
 tainly not more vague than our term ' power ' or ' influence.' 
 On the whole, rather more definite ; perhaps more nearly- 
 representing the facts of the case. For that which speaks 
 to the spirit of man must, one would suppose, be spiritual ; 
 that which controls him must have some affinity with him. 
 But was not the old world tormented by superstitions about 
 demons ? Was not the sense of their dominion a main 
 cause of some of its coarsest, most material, supersti- 
 tions ? I cannot doubt it for a moment ; and therefore 
 I require this as a necessary token of the true King 
 of Men, that He should reclaim men from the service of 
 such demons, that He should assert His own fellow- 
 ship with the victims, that He should adopt them as 
 children of His Father. I can think of no redemption 
 which is more wonderful than this — and also more prac- 
 tical — more completely overthrowing the charms and en- 
 chantments by which human creatures, in that day, tried 
 to buy off what they felt a real, however inexplicable, 
 tyranny ; more fatal to the pretensions of all who should 
 play and trifle with the great diseases of humanity in the 
 times to come. 
 
 It is exactly in this form that St. Luke rej^resents the 
 deliverance which was effected for the man in the syna- 
 gogue. I cannot change his words without weakening 
 them. The unclean spirit confesses One who is mightier 
 than itself; the Holy One, the Son of God. That Holy 
 One, that Son of God vindicates the poor helpless slave 
 as His ; bids his tyrant depart. The words sound strange, 
 I know. I am coward enough to cast about for some way 
 of avoiding the strangeness. I cannot find it. Let us 
 fly from superstitions, says the critic. I long to do so.
 
 THE KING CASTING OUT EVIL SPIRITS. 67 
 
 For I am in the midst of them. We do not hear less of 
 spirits, less of spiritual communications, in this day than in 
 former days. They do not assume less vulgar or less frivo- 
 lous shapes. I do not perceive that cultivated men, even 
 that scientific men, can point out a deliverance from such 
 superstitions to their fellows ; not a few succumb to the 
 superstitions themselves. This language is very prevalent, 
 ' How little we know ! there may be some communications 
 ' with the unseen world ; who can tell ? if there are, why not 
 ' these as well as any others.' My friends, an old Hebrew 
 said, 3000 years ago, ' I have hated them whicJihold of super- 
 stitious vanities, hut tny trust is in the Lord God.' He held 
 no parley with superstitions ; he loathed them ; they were 
 all connected in his mind with visible idolatry, with a 
 religion of distrust. He believed in the invisible God. He 
 trusted in the righteous and unchangeable God : so he rose 
 out of them. I believe we shall rise out of our delusions, 
 if we can say to every man, ' There is a communication with 
 ' the unseen world. The Son of God has established it for 
 ' ever in Himself Therefore thou art not the servant of 
 ' demons or spirits of the air. Therefore thou art not to 
 ' play tricks with that which should be to thee awful, won- 
 ' derful, blessed. Seek fellowship with the imseen in Him 
 ' who is the Head of both worlds. Leave other roads to those 
 ' who do not own the glory of man, his relation to God.' 
 
 It seems to me, tlien, most reasonable, not only for the 
 sake of anything which may have been peculiar to tliat 
 time, but for the sake of eveiy time, that the Evangelist 
 should give these victories over demons a prominent place 
 in the history of Eedemptiou. The imi)ression produced 
 in the synagogue of Capernaum is llie simplest testimony 
 to the nature of such a sign. ' What a icord is this,' they 
 
 f2
 
 fi8 LECTUEE VI. 
 
 said. There was the sense of One who did not charm 
 away evils by a look or a touch. The calm divine energy 
 with which He declared that the Kingdom of God was 
 indeed among men — that God's power was manifesting 
 itself as of old, in breaking fetters, in setting the captives 
 free — tliis came forth in the command that the unclean 
 spirit should depart. The evil spirit was not the man's 
 lord. The kingdoms of the world and the glory of them 
 were not his. Holiness was mightier. 
 
 II. The emancipation of man's spirit from these tyrants 
 is then the first and highest manifestation of the Divine 
 King. Were their bodies indifferent to Him ? Did 
 He care nothing for the plagues and torments which 
 vexed them ? 'And he arose out of the synagogue, and 
 entered into Simon'' s Jwuse. And Simon's wife's mother icas 
 taken with a great fever / and they 'besought him for her. 
 And he stood over her, and rehuked the fever : and it left 
 her ; and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.' 
 
 The accomplished author of that ' Life of Jesus ' to 
 which I have referred before, made a curious mistake in 
 associating the Gospel exorcism with the wilderness. That 
 is said to have been performed in public places, in the 
 synagogues to which the Jews most resorted. But this 
 writer draws our attention to an important point in the 
 history of our Lord's acts of healing. He says that they 
 are, strangely enough, said to have taken place in private, 
 when there were very few to examine or report them. 
 Very strange indeed that circumstance must seem both 
 to him and to those who most differ with him — the 
 collectors of Christian evidences who suppose that these 
 wonders were chiefly done to confute deniers, and con- 
 vince the crowd. But if Jesus was indeed a Eedeemer —
 
 THE KING CASTING OUT EVIL SPIRITS. 69 
 
 if these acts were acts of Redemption — we may under- 
 stand that they were done for the sake of those who 
 had need of the Eedemption. We may believe that the 
 King cared for His subjects, for the lowest and meanest 
 of them, and did not care to use certain of them as 
 examples of what He was not doing for the rest. Which 
 kind of proceeding would be most like Him whom we read 
 of in these books ? The narrative of such manifestations 
 of secret grace, known chiefly to those who were blessed by 
 them, has little force as an argument. But it has told all 
 generations of a King reigning then and ever. Such evidence 
 would have been wanting if these acts had been devised to 
 make an impression upon bystanders. 
 
 This subject will come before us again next Sunday ; 
 but there is in this chapter a linking together of incidents 
 which I cannot overlook. The passage from the synagogue 
 to the house of Simon, illustrates the change from the 
 public to the private revelation of the Kingdom of Heaven ; 
 as the cure of the fever succeeds the casting out of the 
 spirit. Finally, that we may not fancy any partiality 
 to have been shown to a disciple, that we may not sup- 
 pose the King ever to lose sight of the people, w^e read 
 these words : — ' Now ichen the sun ivas scttmg, all they 
 that had any sick with divers diseases hroicght them unto 
 him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and 
 healed them. And devils also came out of many, crying 
 out, and saying. Thou art Christ, the son of God. And 
 he rehulcing them suffered them not to speak : for they knew 
 that lie ivas Christ. And lohcn it was day he departed and 
 went into a desert place : and the people sought him, and 
 came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart 
 from them. And lie said unto them, I must preach the king-
 
 70 LECTURE VI. 
 
 dom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent. And 
 he preached in the synagogues of Galilee! 
 
 You may have asked yourselves sometimes in the course 
 of this sermon, ' But if this is so, may there not have heen 
 exorcisms in later days? ' I trust so indeed. If the King who 
 was declared then lives now, I cannot conceive how He can 
 ever cease to put forth this power, or we to be the better for 
 it. ' But were not exorcisms in the middle ages — are they 
 not now, associated with, fraud and priestcraft ? ' Then cer- 
 tainly there is the mightiest need that that spirit should 
 be cast out. The spirit of religious trickery, of priestly 
 imposture, is the most unclean, the most devilish of all. 
 And it is a spirit which the force of laws, the sanctions 
 of civil judges, cannot reach. It goes beneath laws ; it 
 makes the judges impotent, or corrupts them. It flourishes 
 wherever the belief of a present Spirit of Truth has 
 lost its power. It never can be shattered by a scep- 
 ticism which supposes anything to be possible because 
 it holds nothing to be true. In the presence of a 
 testimony to a real Kingdom of Heaven, it trembles and 
 grows pale. When Christ baptizes the nations with 
 His fire, every mask which the spirit of lies has put 
 on must be consumed. That will be the great final 
 exorcism. But let each for himself long and pray that 
 the evil spirits which have had dominion over him may 
 be cast out now. Let us ask that we may become exor- 
 cists ourselves. For is not every true and loving man 
 and woman an exorcist ? Is not every one who will 
 yield himself to be Christ's servant, permitted to deliver 
 his brother from some spirit which has enslaved him? 
 Have not the weakest compelled dark spirits to cry out that 
 there is a Holy One of God from whose light they must fly ?
 
 LECTURE YIL 
 
 POWERS AND SIGNS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 St. Luke V. 6. 
 
 And when they had this done, tJiey inclosed a great multitude of fishes : and 
 
 their net brake. 
 
 This chapter records a series of those acts which the 
 Evangelists describe as signs or powers of the Kingdom 
 of Heaven, wliich we commonly speak of as miracles or 
 portents. Before we can know whether their title or ours 
 is the best — which, at least, answers best to the narratives 
 themselves — we should examine those narratives one 
 by one. 
 
 (1) Tlie first is known as the story of ' the miraculous 
 draught of fishes.' I do not suppose any of us can be 
 quite satisfied with this account of it. St. Luke brings an 
 actual scene before us. There are two fishing-boats stand- 
 ing by the lake of Gennesareth. The fishermen are gone 
 out of them, and are washing their nets. Jesus is on the 
 shore. The people are pressing upon Him to hear the word 
 of God. He enters one of the boats, and desires Simon, tlie 
 owner of it, to thrust it a little way from the land. He 
 sits down and speaks to the people from the boat. Then 
 He says, ' Launch out into tlie deep, and let doivn your nets 
 for a draufjht! Simon Peter says, ' Master, we have toiled all
 
 72 LECTURE VII. 
 
 night, and caught nothing ; nevertheless, at thy word, I will 
 let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed 
 a great nndtitude of fishes, and their net brake. And they 
 hecJconed to their partners in the other ship, that they should 
 come and help them. And they came and filled hoth the ships, 
 so that they hegan to sink.' 
 
 ' This/ you exclaim, ' was a miracle ; a startling event ; 
 ' a break in tlie ordinary laws of the universe. Some One 
 'was in' that ship who could do what had never been done 
 ' before.' I do not think that was Simon Peter's feeling, if 
 he did what Luke says he did. ' He fell at Jesus' knees, 
 saying. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord! 
 He feels that the Person who has caused that net to be 
 filled with the fishes is not One who is there for the first 
 time. He is his judge, his lawgiver; One who knows what 
 is in him; One before whom he trembles. The Power which 
 had enabled him in other days to fulfil his craft, who had 
 made his craft successful, is there. He stands revealed 
 to him. The sense of a Divine Presence which was 
 not of that moment, but of all moments, is awakened in 
 the heart of the poor Galilsean. He who has been speaking 
 the word of God out of the ship — He who has been 
 bearing witness of a Kingdom of God that is near them all — 
 He who has been calling them to repent because that king- 
 dom is at hand — He has given this sign and proof of His 
 dominion. He rules the lake, but oh, more wonderful 
 power ! He rules the man who has been plying his trade on 
 the lake. That man is face to face with his Lord. And 
 then is heard the sentence so reviving, and yet so awful : — 
 ' Fear not ; from henceforth thou shall catch men.' ' I am 
 ' that Lord whom thou takest me to be. I have been with 
 ' thee in thy common work, I am going to send thee forth
 
 POWEES AND SIGNS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 73 
 
 'onahiglierwork. Tliou art to declare to men that gracious 
 ' kingdom over their business, over their bodies, over their 
 'spirits, which I have awakened thee, by tliis token, to 
 ' confess.' 
 
 In this instance I think the Evangelist justifies his own 
 nomenclature. He proves that it is far simpler, far more 
 significant, far more distinct, far more comprehensive, than 
 that which we have substituted for it. The fisherman who 
 would have merely stared at a prodigy, who w^ould have 
 derived from it a transitory reverence for a certain human 
 person, is awed, humbled, raised to another level by this 
 indication of a Divine oversight of his work and of him. 
 The draught of fishes becomes an education for him. It 
 becomes an education for every fisherman, for every crafts- 
 man of every kind, in after days. It converts every failure 
 and every success in his ordinary business into a sign 
 which he may turn to his profit and to the strengthening 
 of his faith. It becomes an evidence of the Gospel indeed 
 — an evidence that it is from Him and concerning Him 
 who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 
 
 (2) The next narrative refers to a leper. I shall read it 
 to you, often as you have heard it. The manner of relating 
 these stories has to do with the nature and substance of 
 them. By changing them a little, and clothing them in 
 modern phraseology, we can easily make them appear just 
 like the reports of portents in the writers who give us 
 most of such reports. If wc take them as they stand, 
 the contrast, I think, must strike all. 
 
 ' A nd it came to pass, when he ivas in a certain city, 
 heliold a man full of leprosy :' who seeing Jesus fell on his 
 face, and besought him, saying. Lord, if thou ivilt, thou canst 
 make me clean. And he put forth his hand, and touched
 
 74 LECTURE VII. 
 
 him, saying, I will : he tJiou clean. And immediately the 
 leprosy departed from hhn. And he charged hiin to tell no 
 man : hut go and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for 
 thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testi- 
 mmiy unto them.' 
 
 Now consider tliese- facts. The law regarding leprosy 
 formed one of the longest and most elaborate chapters in 
 the code of the Israelite. He believed that the Lord God 
 had cared to preserve him and his people from the peril of 
 this disease ; that He had appointed the priests to watch 
 over those who had been overtaken by it ; that He had 
 taught them the signs of its approach, the proofs tliat it 
 had become dangerous, the rules for excluding the infected 
 man from the congregation and from the society of his 
 fellow citizens, the time when he might safely mix with 
 them again. A man undergoing the penalties which this 
 law had prescribed approaches Christ as One whom he 
 may dare to approach, notwithstanding its decrees; he 
 expresses his confidence that He can do for him what 
 none else can do. Here is an occasion for claiming that 
 kind of power which sets all ordinary laws at defiance. 
 He does respond to the petition of the leper in the most 
 direct, the most authoritative manner : — ' / will ; he thou 
 clean.' But this exercise of will, instead of overreaching 
 law, pays the greatest homage to it. The man is to go and 
 show himself to the priest. He is to give evidence that he 
 is inwardly healed by the outward tokens which the law 
 has ordained. He is to offer the gifts which accompanied 
 those cures that had taken place by the slowest, most 
 customary process. And he is not to proclaim aloud that 
 which has been done to him. He is to be silently thankful 
 for it. Does not the Evangelist in this case vindicate most
 
 POWEES AND SIGNS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 75 
 
 strikingly his own mode of considering our Lord's acts ? 
 Is there one of the characteristics of the doer of strange 
 irregular wonders here ? Are w^e not reminded at every 
 step of Him who said, that He did not come to destroy the 
 law, but to fulfil it? that He came to do His Father's 
 will ? Was He not fulfilling the law by restoring the 
 ordinary health, about which it had been so solicitous ? 
 Was He not doing His Father's will by banishing the dis- 
 eases which had interrupted the order of His Creation ? 
 
 Before I pass to the next miracle, I must call your atten- 
 tion for a moment to the fifteenth and sixteenth verses, in 
 their relation to each other. In spite of His command the 
 fame of Him spreads abroad : vitdtihcdes come together to hear 
 and to he healed of their diseases. He retires into the wilder- 
 ness and prays. Those words, ' / will, he thou clean,' did not 
 then import an assertion of independence. He had dis- 
 claimed that when the Devil had tempted Him to show 
 what He could do by making stones bread and by casting 
 Himself from the pinnacle of the Temple. His will was 
 still the trusting, dependent, praying will. It was mighty 
 to heal and restore, because it was in entire harmony with 
 the will of Him from whom He came. 
 
 That reflection will be the best possible preparation for 
 the story of the palsied man. 
 
 (3) And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was 
 teaching, that there vxre Pharisees and doctors of the law 
 sitting hy, lohich were come out of every town of Galilee and 
 Judea and Jer^isalem: and the poiver of tlie Lord was present 
 to heal them. And hchold, men hrought in a hed a man which 
 was taken with a palsy ; and they sought means to hring 
 him in, and to lay him hefore him. And wJien they could not 
 find hy ichat v:ay they might hring him in hccause of the
 
 76 LECTURE VII. 
 
 multitude, they went ^ipon the housetop, and let him down 
 through the tiling with his couch into the midst hefore Jesus. 
 And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy 
 sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees hegan 
 to reason, saying, Who is this tvhich speaheth hlasphemies ? 
 Who can forgive sins, hut God alone ? And ivhen Jesus 
 perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them. What 
 reason ye in your hearts ? Whether is it easier to say, Thy 
 sins he forgiven thee ; or to say. Rise up and walk 1 But 
 that ye may know that the 8on of Man hath power upon 
 earth to forgive sins, he said unto the sick of the palsy, I 
 say unto thee. Arise, take up thy hed, and go into thine 
 house. And immediately he rose up hefore them and took 
 up that ivhereon he lay, and departed to his own house, 
 glorifying God.' 
 
 Here we are not, as in the last case, occupied chiefly 
 with the sufferer himself. There is a crowd about Jesus ; 
 among them are those who are observing and criticizing 
 His acts. The palsied man is brought unexpectedly among 
 them. His friends are desiring a cure for him. The Phari- 
 sees and doctors are watching what the Teacher, to whom 
 such powers are ascribed, will say or do. What He says 
 is altogether different from the anticipation of the friends 
 — altogether startling and shocking to the learned men. 
 Man, thy sins he forgiven thee. What sins ? Who knew 
 that he had committed any, or that they were troubling 
 him ? Those words must have been addressed to the man 
 himself, to the conscience within him ; if they met nothing 
 there, they were wasted. If they did meet something 
 there, they came from One who knew what was in man, 
 who could tell what this particular man needed, who was 
 in direct communication with the secrets of his heart.
 
 POWEKS AND SIGNS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 77 
 
 This would be a sign of the Kingdom of Heaven, the sign 
 of that dominion over human beings, of that fellowship 
 with human spirits, which our Lord was announcing in all 
 His discourses. Accordingly it is this speech which pro- 
 vokes the indignation of the scribes. Who is this that 
 speaketh blasphemies ? Who can forgive sins, but God 
 alone ? The whole question between Him and them was 
 gathered up into these words : ' Is there a Son of Man ? 
 ' Is there One who unites man to God ? Is there One in 
 ' whom God is seeking man — seeking to reconcile man to 
 ' Himself ? ' The Scribes believed there was no such Person. 
 They thought there was a God, a very terrible God, who 
 might, perhaps, be induced to forgive the sins of some who 
 could find out the right method of influencing Him. And 
 this forgiveness, what was it ? Not the removal of a curse 
 which was crushing the spirit and separating it from good- 
 ness and truth, but simply the escape from a certain 
 amount of punishment which it had been decreed should 
 be the recompense for a certain amount of evil doing. 
 Forgiveness in any real sense — in any sense which it bears 
 in the mind of a true father among men, who wins back 
 his child to his home, and puts away out of his thoughts 
 that which has set tliem at war — this the scribe did not 
 recognise. And therefore he could not practically recognise 
 it in his relations with his fellow-men. Forgiveness 
 towards them meant only the allowing them to escape 
 punishment. Was, then, the act of enabling the palsied 
 man to rise and walk an exceptional act of power, done to 
 show how Christ had broken through the laws of the 
 universe ? According to the Evangelist, it was tlie vindi- 
 cation of an eternal law of the universe, of a principle in 
 wliich all human beings, throughout all generations, would
 
 V8 LECTUEE VII. 
 
 be interested. ^That ye may know that the Son of Man 
 hath poiocr on earth to forgive sins, he said to the sick of the 
 palsy, Arise, and go into thine house.' That they may know 
 there is a Euler over their spirits and over their bodies — 
 a giver of peace and life to both ; that they may under- 
 stand He is bringing them a message of reconciliation and 
 forgiveness from His Father ; that He is Himself the bond 
 of this reconciliation and forgiveness ; therefore is this 
 man made a sound creature again. A grand Gospel to 
 humanity, if that is so ; a deliverance from all the plots 
 and contrivances for purchasing forgiveness of sins which 
 men have devised, and which have been welcomed by 
 sin-sick consciences, not for their relief but for the in- 
 crease of their torment. And I will add, my friends, 
 a warning to ourselves, whenever we are tempted to use 
 the formula, ' Who is this that speaketh blasphemies ? ' It 
 was used, so the Evangelists tell us, by the most approved 
 doctors of the day against the Son of Man. It was used 
 to condemn the thought that He really expresses the 
 will of His Father towards men. It was used as an 
 excuse for putting Him to death. Let us have an intense 
 dread of blasphemy ; but let us keep these things in 
 recollection when we are in haste to charge any brother 
 with it. 
 
 In treating these different works of our Lord as mani- 
 festations of an abiding invisible power, which is never 
 exerted irregularly, which is always exerted by a Father 
 for the well-being of His children, I have had only to 
 recover those exact New Testament expressions which we 
 have carelessly or wilfully deserted for others far feebler, 
 it seems to me, and suggesting often an opposite sense. 
 But I am also vindicating the common faith of simple
 
 POWEES A^B SIGNS OF THE KmGDOM OF HEAVEN. 79 
 
 people ; that which has been continually making itself 
 heard above onr noisy arguments. These stories of 
 the draught of the fishes, of the leper, of the palsied 
 man, have been appropriated to their own use by people 
 of every age and country in various circumstances and 
 extremities. They have broken through all opinions and 
 traditions which said that these were peculiar events from 
 which no precedent could be drawn, and which had nothing 
 corresponding to them in ordinary human experience. 
 A true and divine instinct — the instinct of workers and 
 sufferers — has perceived in all these instances the signs 
 of a Son of ]^.Ian, the witnesses of His presence with them 
 just as much as with those who were gathered about the 
 boats on the lake of Gennesareth, or were met in the room 
 the tiling of which was broken to let down the bed. 
 
 (4) The next words will illustrate my meaning. ' And 
 after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named 
 Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom : and lie said unto him, 
 Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him* 
 How does our Liturgy treat this event ? ' Almighty 
 Ood,' we thus pray in the Collect for the 21st Septem- 
 ber, 'who hy thy Messed Son didst call Matthew from the 
 receipt of custom to he an Apostle and Evangelist ; Grant 
 us grace to forsake all covetous desires, and inordinate love of 
 riches, and to follow the same thy Son Jesus Christ, who 
 liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, 
 world without end.' Tliis is not, in the cant language some- 
 times adopted by preachers — a language curiously com- 
 bining vulgarity with profaneness — improving the story of 
 Levi or IMattliew to our use. It is grounded on the assump- 
 tion that the Lord of Matthew is our Lord ; that the Lord 
 who called jMatthew is calling us ; that we have the same
 
 80 LECTUEE VII. 
 
 temptations as Le had ; tliat by trust in that Lord we can 
 resist them as he did. The principle applies in all cases. 
 He showed forth to Matthew the power which He exerts 
 regularly and habitually over human wills, just as He 
 showed forth to the leper and the palsied the power which 
 He exerts regularly and habitually over human bodies. 
 
 (5) It will scarcely be questioned that in the next para- 
 graph He announced an unchanging law of His kingdom. 
 The new disciple invited Him to a feast. He ate and drank 
 with publicans and sinners. The Scribes and Pharisees 
 murmured. ' They that are whole,' He said, ' need not a i^hy- 
 sician ; hut they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, 
 hut sinners to repentance! The objection belongs to all times ; 
 for the Pharisaic temper reappears in all. It can coin 
 new phrases, and seem to discard — even contemptuously to 
 discard — old ones. But essentially it never changes. And 
 the answer to its arguments is equally unchangeable. ISTone 
 can be invented which is so complete as this, which is not 
 involved in this. There is none which is so cutting and 
 so comprehensive. 
 
 (6) We want some name, if we could find one, to gather 
 up these different lessons ; to tell us what that Person was 
 who wielded all these different powers. Before we finish 
 the chapter the name is uttered. The doubt had arisen 
 why our Lord's disciples did not fast like those of John 
 and of the Pharisees. The answer is, The Bridegroom is 
 with them. That expression contains all that we have 
 been learning, or trying to learn, from the records of our 
 Lord's work on earth. The Bridegroom of Humanity had 
 come forth. He was entering into its sorrows and joys, 
 taking upon Himself all its burdens, that He might purify 
 it, and exalt it, and give it a share of His glory. The
 
 POWERS AND SIGXS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 81 
 
 cliildren of the Briclecliamber, those who were told of the 
 great marriage, and were to bear the tidings of it to all 
 kindreds and people, could not fast while they had the 
 discovery of His presence. There might come times, 
 very dark times, when He would seem to be liidden from 
 them, and from the universe. They would have reason for 
 fasting in those days. But even in those days they would 
 be reminded by outward changes in their discipline and 
 mode of life, that what former ages looked for had come 
 to pass ; that He who revealed God by His sympathy with 
 man had appeared. His appearing would be the consum- 
 mation of an old age, the beginning of a new. The ves- 
 tures of the old time would not be suitable for that which 
 was at hand ; it must have a vesture of its own. The old 
 vessels would not be adapted to the new wine ; it would 
 require vessels of its own. Is the coming Kingdom then 
 to trample upon the past ? Is it not that eternal Kingdom 
 in which the past and the present and the future are 
 united ? Is not tliis the Kingdom which Christ declared 
 by His words and His deeds ? Is it not of this Kingdom 
 that we have been made heirs ? Oh that God may teach 
 us what our inheritance is, that He may enable us fully to 
 enter upon it ! 
 
 a
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 THE LORD OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 St. Luke VL 5. 
 And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. 
 
 There is one topic which each of the four Evangelists 
 dwells upon ; it would not be easy to say which dwells 
 upon it most emphatically. That topic is the Sabbath 
 Day. Evidently they regard our Lord's words respecting 
 it as illustrating the whole course of His teaching and 
 of His life. His difference with the Pharisees respecting 
 it was not an external superficial difference. It did not 
 concern certain cases which might be taken out of a 
 general rule. It was radical and essential. If they were 
 right in their maxims respecting the Sabbath, He was 
 utterly wrong ; He was a subverter of God's law, a blas- 
 phemer of His name. If He was right, they were not 
 can-ying a true principle to excess. Their principle was 
 false. And it infected their whole conduct ; it compelled 
 them to reject the Son of Man ; to deny that a Son of 
 Man could be the Son of God. 
 
 There can be no doubt that this issue was involved in these 
 controversies. All the Evangelists force it upon us. Eead 
 the report of the transactions which are recorded in this 
 chapter as it is given in the twelfth chapter of St. Matthew,
 
 THE LOKD OF THE SABBATH. 83 
 
 in the second and third chapters of St. Mark ; read above 
 all the fifth chapter and the ninth chapter of St. John ; 
 and you will feel, I am sure, that the battle was, in the 
 judgment of the narrators, one of life and of death. So 
 St. Luke tells us in the eleventh verse of this chapter, 
 'And tliey were filled with madness; and communed one 
 with another what they might do to Jesus! On the other 
 hand, St. Mark records that when Jesus healed the man 
 with the withered hand, ' He looked round about them with 
 anger, hein/j grieved for the hardness of their hearts.' There 
 is no sentence exactly like that in all the gospels. Ee- 
 member that Christ's anger was caused by the objections 
 which were raised against Him for breaking the Sabbath, 
 and then consider whether the whole subject must not de- 
 mand the most serious attention which we can give to it. 
 The particular errors of the Pharisees may not be ours. 
 The particular acts which Christ justified against tliem 
 may not be acts with which we should find fault. But if 
 it is a question of eternal truth, and of rebellion against 
 that truth, we may be sure that the circumstances of our 
 times will illustrate both the one and the other as much as 
 the circumstances of that time. 
 
 The words which I have chosen are the words upon 
 which the whole controversy turns. The Pharisees stood 
 upon what seemed to them impregnable ground. ' God 
 ' has given us a law. By that law He has established an 
 ' institution. He has allowed us six days in which we 
 ' may do our own works. He has chiimed one day for 
 ' Himself On that day He has commanded us to abstain 
 ' from our works. On that day our services are due ex^ 
 ' pressly and exclusively to Him.' It mms tints tliat they 
 translated the words, ' Remember the sabbath day, to keep it 
 
 a 2
 
 84 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy ivork : 
 hut the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God : 
 in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor 
 thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy 
 cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates! Was it 
 not a most plausible interpretation ? Will it not occur to 
 some of us that there could not be any other ? We niif^ht 
 say so if another had not been given ; if that other did 
 not form a substantive part of the law itself; if that other 
 was not the divine interpretation ; if that other did not, 
 in letter and in spirit, contradict the interpretation of 
 the scribes. * For %n six days the Lord made heaven and 
 earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the 
 seventh day ; vjherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and 
 halloivcd it! What difference did these words make 1 
 They declared (1) that work was divine as well as rest. 
 They declared (2) that work was appointed for man by 
 God just as rest was appointed for man by God. They 
 declared (3) that human work was the image of God's 
 work, as human rest was the image of God's rest. They 
 said to the Israelite, (4) The Sabbath day is the Sabbath of 
 the Lord thy God, because He desires the manservant and 
 the maidservant and the stranger in the gates to rest as 
 well as to work ; in other words, not to be excluded from 
 any part of His blessedness. Set one of these statements 
 against the other. Contemplate them in all possible lights, 
 and see whether there can be two so utterly and absolutely 
 contrasted in their meaning and in their effect. But yet 
 observe how very naturally, how very easily, this amazing 
 contrast may be obliterated ; how confidently the words, 
 * It is the sablath of the Lord thy God,' might be appealed to 
 as establishing the doctrine that God insisted upon that day
 
 THE LORD OF THE SABBATH. 85 
 
 for His use ; how certainly this doctrine would drive out 
 every other when men had made a God after their likeness 
 — had supposed that He was as self-seeking as they were. 
 !N"o doubt there had been many divine precautions 
 against this abuse. In the book of Deuteronomy another 
 sentence is substituted for the one respecting the six days 
 of creation and the seventh day, ' A7id remember that thou 
 wast a servant in the land of Egijpt, and that the Lord thy 
 God hrought thee out thence through a mighty hand and hy a 
 stretched out arm.: therefore the Lord thy God commanded 
 thee to keep tlu sabbath day. Here the redemption of the 
 Israelite from a hard and cruel bondage to taskmasters who 
 cared nothing for those upon whom they inflicted it, is 
 directly connected with the institution. It is not only 
 a sign to him that he is made in the image of the 
 Creator; it is a sign that the Creator is, what He is pro- 
 claimed to be in the preamble to the commandments, 
 the Deliverer. The Sabbath, so said the Divine lawgiver, 
 is a witness of my will to make the nation and all the 
 members of it free, to break off a yoke from their necks. 
 The Pharisee simply reversed the maxim of his sacred books. 
 He converted the Sabbath into a sign of bondage. A 
 taskmaster more cruel and powerful than Pharaoh had 
 imposed it under tremendous penalties upon His subjects. 
 And it was therefore esteemed a great gift and mercy that 
 for six days they might be exempt from the service of 
 such a taskmaster. On those they might be their own 
 masters or have the comfort of being only uutler the 
 dominion of earthly masters. This had become — there 
 can be no doubt of it — the Pharisaic habit of mind. 
 The Lord Clod, said that school, has enjoined upon us 
 certain services, which must be punctually rendered. It
 
 86 LECTURE viri. 
 
 is at our peril that we neglect them. The Sabbath day 
 stands foremost in the list of obligations. It enters into the 
 commandments themselves. Other duties may be desirable. 
 We may gain many rewards by performing them. But 
 this belongs to the whole land. This must be enforced 
 upon every Israelite. 
 
 I. The question how it should be enforced, of course 
 introduced a multitude of regulations, refinements, inevit- 
 able yet dishonest indulgences. There might be debates 
 without end about what was to be tolerated and what 
 was to be prohibited ; debates most tormenting and at the 
 same time most enervating to the conscience, drawing 
 the man at every step further from the service of the 
 Lord God. Who could break this yoke ? It was far 
 more galling, far more destructive of the true Jewish 
 life, far more fatal to the true Jewish worship, than the 
 government of the Eomans. Can we wonder that the 
 Christ, who came to set at liberty them that were bound, 
 should at tlie very commencement of His ministry and 
 throughout it wage war with this form of oppression ? 
 
 The first case recorded in this chapter brings out one 
 of tlie Pharisaical rules for keeping the Sabbath day. 
 His disciples are walking through the cornfields. As they 
 walk they pluck the ears of corn and rub them in their 
 hands. They are asked how they can do that which is 
 unlawful on the Sabbath day. The answer comes in 
 the form of an example from their own history. ' Have ye 
 not read so much as this, vAat David did, when himself was 
 an hungred and they that were with him ; hoiv he vjent 
 into the house of God, and did take and eat the sheivhread, 
 4ind gave also to them that were with him / which it is 
 not lawful to eat hit for the priests alone! To be confronted
 
 THE LOllD OF THE SABBATH. 87 
 
 by an act of David was startling to the worshippers of 
 precedent. The precedent too had a wide application. The 
 institution of the shewbread had a purpose. One who knew 
 its purpose could dare to break through any mere formalities 
 relating to the observance of it. The hunger of David's 
 soldiers was a more sacred thing, in David's judgment, than 
 a rule about the priests. Did he not show that he was a 
 man after God's own heart by acting as if it were ? Did 
 not the Pharisees show that they were not men after God's 
 own heart, by putting the institution of the Sabbath 
 between man and God, when it was intended by God for 
 man ? The Sabbath, Jesus says in another gospel, was made 
 for man, not man for the Sabbath. Here He affirms the 
 same doctrine as broadly in the words, ' The Son of man 
 is Lord also of the sahhatJi.' We must not alter this 
 expression, or substitute for it any seeming equivalent of 
 our own. He does not say, ' I, being the Lord of all, the Son 
 ' of God, can do what I like ; I can make laws bend to my 
 ' pleasure.' He says the ver}^ contrary of this. He says, ' 1 
 ' am the Son of Man, and as such — in that character — I 
 ' claim the Sabbath as mine. I claim it for man. So 
 ' doing, I am not destroying the fourth commandment, but 
 ' fulfilling it. I am asserting in act that relation between 
 ' God and man which it asserts in letters. I, the Son of 
 ' Man, am claiming the Sabbath day as a divine ordinance 
 ' for the deliverance of men, for the protection of men. I 
 ' say that if it is used against men, as a mere arbitrary rule 
 ' which they are to observe, its purpose is frustrated ; it is 
 ' turned from a blessing into a curse.' 
 
 We might have thought the complaint against rubbing 
 the ears of corn a harmless folly — tlie superstitious exag- 
 geration of a right feeling. He who knew what was in
 
 88 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 man perceived that it involved a direct denial of the very- 
 letter and sense of the commandment — an inhumanity 
 which was sure to discover itself in other and more palp- 
 able forms. We have great reason to be thankful that 
 the record of this walk through the cornfields has been 
 preserved. If we had merely heard that Christ healed on 
 the Sabbath day, it might have been said, ' No doubt 
 ' He made an exception for these cases. He authorized 
 
 * them on the Sabbath day by His example. But He cer- 
 ' tainly would not have sanctioned any indifferent acts, offen- 
 ' sive to the religious feelings of His countrymen, which 
 ' might have been avoided by a little vigilance. He would 
 
 * not have been displeased at any rules which enjoined the 
 ' more rigid and careful observance of the holy day.' He 
 did, directly, solemnly, with all the weight of His autho- 
 rity, denounce one of these rules. He treated it as incom- 
 patible with any right apprehension of the divine law — 
 with the freedom claimed by the true servants of God — 
 with the confession of the Son of Man as Lord of the Sab- 
 bath day. 
 
 II. The next case, that of the withered hand, may show us 
 why He dealt so severely with the other objection. 'It 
 came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the 
 synagogue and taught : and there was a man whose right hand 
 was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, 
 whether he would heal on the sabbath day ; that they might 
 find an accusation against him. But he kneiv their thoughts, 
 and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, 
 and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. 
 Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing ; Is it 
 lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil ? to save 
 life, or to destroy it ? And looking round about upon them
 
 THE LOED OF THE SABBATH. 89 
 
 all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he 
 did so : and his hand was restored whole as the other' 
 
 The Pharisees are looking with keen hungry eyes upon 
 one whom they have marked as their victim. To cherish 
 these feelings, to be plotting murder, was not in their 
 judgment at all unsabbatical. Their reverence for the law 
 of God led them, so they believed, into this state of mind. 
 Then comes forth the command to the sick man, to arise ; 
 the life-giving power which restores his body to its proper 
 orderly state. Here is surely a sign of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven ; a sign of its nature ; a sign that it was the fulfil- 
 ment of the Law. And then the searching question follows, 
 ' Which is lawful — which is in conformity with the law of 
 ' God — with the law of the day of rest — the exercise of the 
 ' killing power, or of the renovating power ? Am I keeping 
 
 * the Sabbath, or are you ? ' No inquiry could be more 
 exasperating. It must either have brought them to the 
 feet of the Sou of Man, or have led them to commune 
 among themselves how best they could accomplish their 
 design of putting Him to death. St. Luke recurs to this sub- 
 j ect in his thirteenth and fourteenth chapters. I shall speak 
 of those passages when they come before us in their order. 
 They exhibit the Pharisaical character in another aspect ; 
 they belong to a later stage in the divine history. Mean- 
 time there are some very deep lessons — lessons, it seems 
 to me, specially needful for our times — which lie in the 
 verses I have already considered. 
 
 III. (1) The first is this. Many say ' The Sabbath is an 
 ' essentially divine institution. It rests on a divine com- 
 ' mandment ; therefore it is of universal obligation.' Many 
 say, ' It is a national institution. It belonged to the Jews. 
 
 • If we adopt it, we do so out of deference to an old
 
 90 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 ' tradition or to our experience of its advantages, not to 
 ' God's appointment.' 
 
 There is much in each of these statements which com- 
 mends itself to the conscience of Christian men. There is 
 something in each of them which their conscience, I think, 
 rejects. In tlie best state of our minds we cling most 
 to divine commands. To appeal from man's decrees to the 
 judgment of the Eighteous God is an elevation and eman- 
 cipation of the spirit. Those who have been crushed under 
 the opinions of their own age, under the traditions of 
 other ages, under the burden of some dogmatist who prac- 
 tically or theoretically claims infallibility, feel the infinite 
 blessing, the absolute necessity, of turning to the everlast- 
 ing God ; if He has not spoken, if He does not speak 
 still as He spoke of old, they cannot breathe ; they have 
 no hope. 
 
 The Sabbath is a strong instance. See how it seizes the 
 very principles on which the universe stands ! How it 
 connects work and rest with the nature of God, with the 
 nature of man ! How it harmonises the ideas of a resting 
 God and a working God, which all mythologies, all philo- 
 sophies, have rent in twain ! How it associates these ideas 
 with the common life of the vulgarest people ! How it 
 claims the highest blessings for the poorest man ! Is there 
 not divinity here ? Can this be the device of imperial or 
 priestly legislators ? Can it be meant only for one period 
 or one people ? 
 
 And yet who can deny that the Sabbath was an institu- 
 tion for a certain people ; that traces of the week are very 
 faintly discoverable among any nations except the Jews, 
 or those who have learnt from them ; that great teachers 
 of the Church denounced the Jewish sabbatising ; that
 
 THE LORD OF THE SABBATH. 91 
 
 Jesus came to unite the nations, and that every struggle 
 of the Jews to maintain their exclusiveness was in fact a 
 struggle against Him ? 
 
 If we suppose that He came to establish that Kingdom 
 of Heaven for which the Law and Prophets were a pre- 
 paration, and that we are living under this Kingdom, there 
 is no contradiction in these opinions. We are then not 
 more out of the range of the divine commandments than 
 the men of old. The voice of God is speaking more 
 directly to those who are born after the Incarnation than 
 to those who were horn before it. Therefore we have a 
 right to claim this order of the week — the day of rest, and 
 the days of work — as a revelation of God — a revelation of 
 His purpose in creating the world, of His purpose towards 
 the race which He has created in His image. We have a 
 right to tell all men, ' It is no longer confined to one nation. 
 ' It is a sign to you,' And by speaking so, we protest in 
 the name of God Himself — of the God of Abraham, and 
 Isaac, and Jacob — against the tyranny of those who would 
 abuse the Sabbath day as the Pharisees abused it. We 
 say, ' The words to which you appeal are your refutation. 
 ' Because the commandment is holy and permanent, all 
 ' efforts to make the Sabbath a bondage are acts of treason 
 ' against the King whom we obey.' 
 
 (2) Again, it is often said, ' There is a distinction be- 
 tween moral principles and positive institutions. The 
 ' first are unchangeable, the latter are transitory. This 
 ' distinction must be applied to the commandments, for it 
 ' is grounded in the nature of things. The law concerning 
 'the Sabbath must have a different worth from the laws 
 ' against murder and adultery.' 
 
 It is said on the other side, ' How can you draw a
 
 92 LECTUEE VIII. 
 
 ' line between God's own precepts ! How can you deter- 
 ' mine which is entitled to the greatest weight ! Give up 
 ' all or accept all. Do not let your distinctions overrule 
 ' His wisdom.' Here, again, there is that in our consciences 
 which responds to each of these arguments — that which 
 rebels against each. And again, I think it is the Gospel 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven which vindicates the truth 
 of both, and removes the confusion Avhich is mingled with 
 both. 
 
 The Gospel not only asserts in terms, but makes us 
 feel practically, the truth of the difference between mere 
 decrees which may be suitable for one time, unsuitable for 
 another, and the eternal principles which belong to the 
 nature of God and His relations with man. The distinc- 
 tion of the moral and the positive is brought out with a 
 fulness and practical strength in the New Testament which 
 the mere verbal divisions of schoolmen, however useful, 
 cannot approach. 
 
 But an institution may be a discovery of the nature of 
 God, a discovery of His permanent relation to man, even 
 more than any precept can be. I have tried to show you 
 that the institution of the day of rest and of the days of work 
 is such a discovery. The law against murder reveals the 
 care of God for life ; the law against adultery reveals the 
 care of God for the marriage bond. We perceive the morality 
 of these laws in the benefit which they confer on men, in 
 the mischief which comes from the violation of them. 
 But when Christ draws forth their meaning, their essen- 
 tial morality, it is found that they point to a likeness 
 in loving-kindness, in purity of heart, between the child 
 on earth and the Father in Heaven. This likeness is 
 set forth in the institution which the fourth command-
 
 TPIE LOKD OF THE S.VEBxVTH. 93 
 
 ment speaks of. It has, therefore, besides the practical 
 benefits which are its test, as they are the test of the 
 other commandments, an inward moral significance. That 
 is expressed in the reason given for the Sabbath. And 
 the failure to perceive that moral significance was the 
 cause of all the Pharisaical scrupulosity — all the Phari- 
 saical cruelty. We need not, then, divide the command- 
 ments, or set up our judgments of their respective value, 
 in order to maintain this fundamental distinction of the 
 positive and the moral. We shall realize it in the effort 
 to keep them. We shall find that when we forget it we 
 do not keep them. W"e substitute our own maxims for 
 them. We subvert them. 
 
 (3) Tlie last remark leads me to notice another conflict 
 of opinions by which many are perplexed. ' You cannot 
 ' refer to the Ten Commandments,' it is said on one side, 
 ' as the authority for your Sabbath. If you adhere to them 
 ' you must follow them strictly. But you keep the first 
 ' day, not the seventh. Por that change you must urge some 
 ' Church or State authority, or some long custom. Prac- 
 ' tically, therefore, that Church or State authority, or that 
 
 * long custom, is the warrant for the day, not the words 
 ' spoken on Sinai.' It is said in answer, ' The principle 
 ' of the institution is best preserved by the commemo- 
 ' ration of the day on which Christ rose. Therefore we 
 
 * may claim for that day all the sacrcdness which be- 
 ' longed to the other day. We may learn the conduct which 
 
 * is fitting on the first day from the conduct which was 
 ' fitting on the seventh.' 
 
 I recognise a justice — and I think the consciences of Eng- 
 lishmen generally recognise a justice — in these opposing 
 statements. And I seek the reconciliation of them where
 
 94 LECTUEE vin. 
 
 I sought the reconciliation of the others. If the Law was 
 leading on to a Kingdom of God — if in that only is 
 the fulfilment of the Law — we may expect to find some 
 sign of the transition from one to the other ; some wit- 
 ness of an imperfection in that which was awaiting the 
 full discovery of its own meaning. We have such a sign 
 in the change of this day. This change has affected the 
 order of life in the most civilized nations of the globe. 
 You cannot account for it by any words of Apostles, by any 
 regulations of Emperors, by any votes of Councils. You 
 are obliged to give these a force which they do not possess ; 
 to put a violent strain upon sentences or hints of sentences ; 
 after all, to assume a divine purpose as indicated or im- 
 plied in them which must have given them their efficiency. 
 If you believed in a Kingdom of God — if you thought that 
 the New Testament was the declaration of such a Kingdom 
 — you would have no difficulty in saying, ' I confess here 
 ' the divine government working in the course of human life 
 ' and history, as it works in the course of ISTature, silently, 
 ' unobtrusively, through agents known or unknown ; but 
 'accomplishing its purpose, making it manifest in due 
 ' time, fashioning human wills by no sudden effort into 
 ' conformity with it.' 
 
 And therefore I entirely accord with those who plead 
 the reason and principle of the fourth commandment 
 as explaining the transgression of its letter. I see in 
 that fact, as they do, the clearest witness of its divine 
 origin, and of its divine preservation. But then if they 
 take up that ground, I must ask them to maintain it con- 
 sistently. Having once appealed to the reason of the 
 commandment, they must not fall back upon the notion 
 that it is the arbitrary institution of an arbitrary Being who
 
 THE LOED OF THE SABBATH, 95 
 
 commands without a reason, and would have us obey with- 
 out a reason. I cannot appeal to the New Testament as a 
 justification of the first day without accepting all the lessons 
 and warnings of the New Testament respecting the seventh 
 day. Those lessons and warnings are written with sun- 
 beams on its pages. They cannot belong to one time only ; 
 they must be meant for all times. They cannot furnish 
 us with an excuse for casting stones at the Pharisees, or 
 judging the Pharisees. They must strike at a Pharisaic 
 temper, which is our temptation as much as it was the 
 temptation of those who lived under the old covenant. 
 Close to the real Sabbath, the divine Sabbath which carries 
 a message to menservants and maidservants of the watch- 
 fulness of their Father in Heaven over them, of His desire 
 that they should enter into the rest of which His creation 
 speaks, and should take their places as free sons and 
 daughters in His household — lies the spurious Sabbath, 
 which speaks not of a Father but of an oj)pressor, which 
 shuts out the calmness and beauty of the creation, which 
 substitutes the condition of the slave for that of the adopted 
 child. Beside that Sabbath of which the Son of Man is 
 the Lord, which testifies of His life-giving acts for His 
 suffering brethren, lies the inhuman Sabbath of the rulers 
 of the synagogue — the Sabbath which leads men to regard 
 the six days as the blessed days, because they are not 
 God's days. Yes ; every good gift of the good God is 
 dogged by some counterfeit, often undistinguishable from 
 it in its outward shape ; eternally opposed to it in its 
 inward spirit. No man has a right to say to liis brother, 
 ' Thou art keeping the evil Sabbath, and not the good.' 
 Every one may say, and ought to say, ' Son of Man, Lord of 
 ' the Sabbath, teach me to choose the good and to hate the
 
 96 . LECTUEE VIII. 
 
 ' evil ; to deligiit in the one which will bind me more 
 ' closely to Thee and to Thy Father, and to those whose 
 ' nature Thou hast taken. Teach me to eschew the one 
 * which led men of my flesh and hlood to trample on Thy 
 ' flock, to deny Thy Father, to plot Thy death.'
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 THE KING CHOOSma HIS MINISTERS. 
 
 St. Luke VI. 13. 
 
 A lid lohen it was day he called unto Mm his disciples ; and out of them he 
 chose twelve, whom also he iw/med Apostles. 
 
 We are keeping to-day the festival of him whom we call the 
 last of the Apostles. The passage at which we have arrived 
 in St. Luke concerns the calling of the twelve Apostles. 
 I shall not, therefore, interrupt the order of my discourses 
 that I may speak of St. John. We may discover what he 
 was by considering what the function of an Apostle was. 
 His words and acts may in turn be the greatest helps in 
 explaining that function to us. 
 
 (1) The words, 'when it was day,' recall the preceding 
 verse : ' It came to pass in those days, that he went out into a 
 mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God! 
 I have spoken already of the prayers of Christ in connexion 
 with His works. When the work most expressed His 
 authority, when the healing act was preceded by an 
 ' / will^ He was still renouncing all independence. Every 
 prayer is a renunciation of independence. Every prayer 
 says, ' We can do nothing without Thee.' As His prayer 
 were the essentially true prayers, they must have had this 
 meaning perfectly, without any reservation. St. John's 
 Gospel is here, as elsewhere, the interpreter of that wliich 
 
 H
 
 98 LECTURE IX. 
 
 is implied in the others. It is he who repeats to us those 
 words of Christ, ' The Son can do nothing of himself, hit 
 what he secth the Father do : for what things soever he 
 doeth, these also doeth the Son lilcevnse.' 
 
 How necessary is this recollection, if we would under- 
 stand the calling and choice of the Apostles, we shall see 
 presently. I would remark here, tliat when we describe 
 Jesus as the Messiah, we mean that He was the Apostle of 
 God. That title the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 gives Him in a very memorable passage : ' Wherefore, holy 
 hrethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the 
 Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; 
 who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses 
 was faithful in all his house.' He goes on : For ' Moses verily 
 was faithful in all his house, as a servant . . . hut Christ, 
 as a son over his own house.' The faithfulness and obedience 
 of the son is not less than the faithfulness and obedience 
 of the servant — but greater. The filial submission is the 
 perfect submission ; the servant's is only a foretaste of it, 
 an aspiration after it. And if we follow the Creed we shall 
 remember, that the Son of God did not acquire obedience 
 by taking upon Him our nature. Obedience was His divine 
 nature. He endowed ours with it. He showed forth in 
 human life, under the pressure of human temptations, that 
 loving surrender of His whole being to His Father, wherein 
 consisted His eternal delight. 
 
 (2) That night in which He was not alone, because the 
 Father was with Him, prepared Him to come down amidst 
 the disciples whom He had gathered about Him. He had 
 gathered them ; they knew it. Each of them had heard 
 a voice, more or less distinctly, bidding him come. Each 
 had yielded to One who, he felt, had a right to command
 
 THE KING CHOOSING HIS MINISTErxS. 99 
 
 him. The disciples had not picked out a leader from the 
 number that were then offering themselves to their choice. 
 They had not said, ' We prefer this Nazarene Teacher to 
 ' that Pharisee who has come out of Judaea, to that 
 ' Herodian, to that Sadducee.' They had not said, ' We 
 prefer Him to that insurgent chief who is saying that he 
 * has a commission to overthrow the Eomans and restore 
 ' the kingdom of David.' None of these fishermen would 
 have used that language. They had been drawn to this 
 Person. Why He has brought them together, what they 
 are to do, they cannot yet tell. They are following a 
 Master. He will show them in due time what work He 
 intends for them. And now He takes twelve out of their 
 number. Are these to be the special servants of the 
 King ? Ave they in time to fight for Him ? Are they to 
 have the chief offices in His palace ? He does not say. 
 But He calls them Apostles. They are to be sent forth. 
 That is clear, whatever else is hidden. Where they are 
 to go, what they are to speak, what acts are to accompany 
 the speech — on these points He will not surely leave them 
 ignorant. But at first their separation from the rest of 
 those who followed Christ — what it signified, what kind 
 of eminence or dignity it conferred upon them — will have 
 occupied them chiefly. 
 
 (3) Clearly they ^vere distinguished from the other 
 members of the little flock. What had caused the differ- 
 ence ? Did He merely like them better than the rest ? 
 Had they merited some greater honour at His hands ? 
 Had He discovered some peculiar capacity in them ? 
 All such questions would occur to these poor fisliermen ; 
 would occur to them not less because they were poor 
 fishermen. They are human thoughts — thoughts that do 
 
 h2
 
 100 LECTUEE :X. 
 
 not belong to one class of men more tlian another. With 
 them wonld of course come such as these : ' We twelve 
 ' cannot be all alike in His estimation. His choice must 
 ' be the reward of desert. Some of us must have higher 
 ' merits than the rest. When all is arranged, when He 
 ' can finally apportion His dignities, which of us will 
 ' be the greatest ? ' We do not imagine the existence of 
 these jealousies. They are carefully reported to us by the 
 Evangelists. No effort is made to disguise the unsuitable- 
 ness of the times at which they broke out. St. Luke will 
 tell us that the Last Supper was one of these. And it is 
 St. John who tells us that, at that Last Supper, Jesus took 
 a towel and girded Himself, and stooped down and washed 
 His Apostles' feet, and said unto them, 'What I have 
 ' done ye know not now, but shall know hereafter. As I 
 ' have washed your feet, so are ye to wash one another's 
 feet! It is St. John who tells us that at that Supper Jesus 
 said, ' Ye have not chosen me, hut I have chosen you, and 
 ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and 
 that your fruit should remain : that whatsoever ye shall ask 
 of the Father in my name, he may give it you! Here are the 
 opposing explanations of the nature and grounds of the 
 Apostolical calling. Meditate on them carefully. Meditate 
 on them to-day especially. We have been told recently 
 that St. John spent the last years of his stay on earth 
 in putting together accounts of his Master's doings, for 
 the express purpose of exalting himself above the other 
 Apostles, of proving himself to be the favourite of Jesus, 
 of confounding the earlier Evangelists who had not gratified 
 his vanity sufficiently. I need not tell you, that the man 
 who could do this must have been of all who ever dwelt 
 on this earth the basest and the falsest. Every year of
 
 THE KING CHOOSING HIS MINISTEES. 101 
 
 his long pilgrimage this horrible conceit must have heen 
 ripening in him; every year it must have heen making 
 him capable of profounder dissimulation and treachery. 
 Christendom has been for eighteen centuries drawing 
 lessons from him concerning love and truth. Dying men 
 and women have been sustained by his lessons. Churches 
 have felt them to be stinging reproofs of their untruth 
 and selfishness. And these have all proceeded from a 
 man who surrendered himself to a habit of mind which 
 we should pronounce execrable in any neighbour, or in 
 any fictitious character ; whose language must have been 
 most hypocritical when it was most elevated. Those who 
 can believe this may believe it. The supposition makes 
 a more tremendous demand on my credulity than all the 
 miracles which have ever been palmed on the world since 
 it was created. But I do not allude to such a calumny 
 for its own sake. I allude to it because I wish you to see 
 how very natural such an hypothesis is, if we assume the 
 Apostle to have been merely following the bent of his own 
 inclinations. He might have sunk to this deep moral 
 degradation. Any of the Apostles might have sunk into 
 it. Judas actually fell into it. The self-exalting, covetous 
 spirit which was working in all, became master of him. 
 He gave himself up to it. He betrayed his Master — not so 
 foully as St. -John would have betrayed Him, if he had 
 acted as these critics say that he acted — but so that all 
 manldnd have regarded him with trembling and horror. 
 The other Apostles learnt that the Son of God was mani- 
 fested that this devil might be cast out of them. They 
 learnt that, as the Father had sent Him forth, so they 
 were sent forth to bear witness by word and deed that 
 love is mightier than selfishness ; that Christ revealed
 
 102 LECTUEE IX. 
 
 His Father as the unselfish Being, as the Author and 
 Example of all sacrifice ; that Christ chose them from no 
 partial affection, but as witnesses of His Truth and 
 Love to all mankind. And the one who was nearest to 
 Him, and received most of His love into his heart, was 
 the one whom He called to show forth most fully the 
 love with which He loved the Universe in giving Himself 
 for it. 
 
 (4) The number which our Lord fixed upon for His 
 Apostles of course reminded them of the tribes into which 
 their nation was divided. They could not suppose that 
 He had adopted that number carelessly, or without refer- 
 ence to their history. In their early work, there was much 
 to confirm this impression. They were not to enter into 
 any village of the Gentiles or of the Samaritans. They 
 were to preach to the lost sheep of the house of Israel of 
 the kingdom which Israelites had been so long expecting. 
 Was it different in after times ? St. Peter felt — so St. Luke 
 tells us in his other treatise — that the place of Judas must 
 be supplied before the promise that they should receive 
 power from on high to testify of their Lord's resurrection 
 could be fulfilled. When the door of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven was opened to the Gentiles, the charm of the 
 number might seem to be dissolved. St. Paul and St. 
 Barnabas were called Apostles. St. Paul in terms asserted 
 the title against those who would have denied it to him. 
 No one vindicated his right to it more practically. No 
 one so distinctly perceived what was involved in the 
 command, ' Go ye, and preach the gospel to every creature.' 
 If any formality about the difference between twelve or 
 thirteen or fourteen stood in the way of such an object, it 
 was to be treated with contempt. Wisdom would be justi-
 
 THE KIXG CHOOSING HIS MIISriSTERS. 103 
 
 fied in breaking through its own rules. The principle 
 of the shewbread would be applicable in another case. 
 What is given for men must not be used against men. If 
 St. Paul had not declared with vehemence that one called by 
 Christ in heaven was as really an Apostle as those whom 
 He called upon earth, the message of the Apostles of the 
 circumcision would have been enfeebled, not less than his 
 own. It would not have been the testimony to an actual 
 kingdom, to a living Christ. 
 
 Nevertheless, when we read the Epistle of St. James, 
 and observe to whom it is addressed ; when we read the 
 Epistle of St. Peter to those who were dispersed through 
 the different provinces of the Eoman and Parthian empires ; 
 above all, when we read the book from which our second 
 lesson has been taken this morning, and compare it with 
 the few records that remain to us of St. John's life ; we 
 must feel that the twelve tribes of Israel had still a 
 mighty significance for the world, and that the relation 
 of the twelve Apostles to them liad been deeply, inefface- 
 ably impressed upon the minds of those Apostles. The 
 twelve tribes represented to St. John the sealed witnesses 
 of God upon earth. It was when he had contemplated 
 these most earnestly, that he became aware of the truth 
 that a ' w.ultitude, which no man could number, of all 
 nations, and kindreds, and "peoiple, and tongues, stood before 
 the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and 
 palms in their hands ; and cried with a loud voice, saying, 
 Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
 the Lamh.' And so, in his last chapter but one, we read : 
 * And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high 
 mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, 
 descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God :
 
 i04 LECTURE IX. 
 
 and her light ivas like unto a stone most precious, even like 
 a jasper stone, clear as crystal ; and had a wall great and 
 high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates tvjelve angels, 
 and names luritten thereon, which are the names of the twelve 
 tribes of the children of Israel. . . . And the wall of the city 
 had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the TWELVE 
 Apostles of the Lamb.' 
 
 I believe this vision was presented to the mind of the 
 prophet when the old Jerusalem had disappeared or was 
 about to disappear. If it vanished from the earth, only 
 leaving the Eoman Emj)ire, its conqueror, to exult in its 
 ruin, an Apostle would have groaned over such a con- 
 tradiction of all the divine promises. He believed that 
 its overthrow was the fulfilment of the divine promises, 
 that it would be the revelation of that kingdom whereof 
 the twelve tribes had borne witness by their original con- 
 stitution, by their strange preservation, by their incapacity 
 to maintain their unity, by their passionate eagerness to 
 assert it ; that kingdom of which the twelve Apostles had 
 borne witness, declaring its unity to stand not in any 
 fleshly election, but in the union of God with man, of 
 the Father with the Son. Such a kingdom could not be 
 shaken by any earthquake. It could not be limited by 
 any measures of time and space. Death could not divide 
 the members of it from each other. It would exist from 
 generation to generation in its living Head — the conqueror 
 of death. Its nature might be misunderstood, its prin- 
 ciples might be set at nought, by those who were adopted 
 into it. But it would go on manifesting itself more and 
 more, till all its enemies were put under Christ's feet. Yet 
 in its full manifestation, in its most perfect glory, its 
 ancient walls would only look clearer, brighter, firmer.
 
 THE KING CHOOSING HIS MINISTERS. 105 
 
 The names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and of the twelve 
 Apostles of the Lamb would be visible in the city which 
 needed no temple, and no sun to lighten it. 
 
 (5) St. John's day has tempted me to connect these pas- 
 sages from the Apocalypse with that simple narrative which 
 we read in the chapter from St. Luke. But I do not think 
 I could have illustrated that narrative better from any 
 other source. For the more we remember that the Apostles 
 were Jews, that they were sent forth as Jews to bless all the 
 families of the earth, the better we shall understand their 
 institution, in its growth, in its completion ; the less we 
 shall wonder when we hear of a final Apostle — of one who 
 tarried till the Lord came. To a very respectable and very 
 earnest body of men in our day it has been a great offence 
 that the Apostolical order should have ceased in the 
 Church. They are sure that it must have been removed 
 as the punislmient of some great sin ; they are sure that, 
 however long we have been without it, there must be a 
 restoration of it. If it had the especial fitness which 
 I have supposed to the Jewish economy — if the whole 
 formation of it denoted it as a Jewish order — if it existed 
 to tell Jews of a Kingdom of Heaven, for which their 
 national institutions had been preparing, and which would 
 be revealed as they expired ; one can understand why there 
 should be an Apostle to announce this consummation, and 
 why there should be no other to take his place. He saw 
 the night torches go out ; he saw the Sun rising. He 
 needed no successor to bear his name. He left the world 
 with the assurance that the kingdoms of the world were 
 the kingdoms of God and His Christ, and that tliey would 
 be shown to be so. The old forms would be changed ; 
 there would be new bottles prepared for the new wine ;
 
 106 LECTUEE IX. 
 
 but the law and the prophets would not perish ; the Old 
 Testament and the New would live on ; the walls of the 
 city would still have the names of the twelve tribes ; the 
 deeper foundations of the city would still have the names 
 of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. 
 
 (6) But while I cannot see why we should wish the 
 order of God's universe altered, or any return to one which 
 has done its work and passed away, I do feel that we have 
 a heavier sin to confess than the sin of beincr no longer 
 directed by a body of twelve Apostles. It is the sin of 
 pretending to believe the message of the twelve Apostles, 
 and not really believing it ; the sin of supposing that they 
 were divine and inspired men, and yet that they pre- 
 varicated when they said that a Kingdom of Heaven was at 
 hand, and that it would actually be revealed in their day ; 
 the sin of keeping Christmas Day, and of not owning 
 that God has indeed given His only begotten Son to take 
 our nature upon Him, that we, being regenerated and 
 made His children by adoption and grace, might daily 
 be renewed by His Holy Spirit. If we believed that 
 this union and reconciliation of heaven and earth had 
 taken place — if we held that our baptism into the name 
 of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost was not a 
 delusion — we should also believe that the sacred writer 
 was sincere in saying, ' Ye are not come unto the mount 
 that might he touched, and that hurned with fire, nor 2mto 
 blackness, and darkness, and tempest. . . . But ye are come 
 unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerahle company of 
 angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, 
 which are written in heaven, and to Ood the Judge of 
 all . . . and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.
 
 THE KING CHOOSING HIS MINISTERS. 107 
 
 and to the blood of sprinkling, ivhich sinaketli letter things 
 than that of AheL' The tidings of this city of God 
 were those which the Apostles carried first to their own 
 nation, then to the different tribes of the earth. A 
 Christendom rose to the sound ; a modern world appeared 
 out of the ruins of the ancient world. We have ceased to 
 believe in such a city. There were Apostles, inspired men, 
 1800 years ago. We spell out with difficulty some of their 
 words, and call them divine. W^e fancy that there has 
 been a feeble transmission of their authority from genera- 
 tion to generation among ourselves. And people in other 
 lands tell us that except we own an Apostle who was 
 crucified on a Eoman hill as the head of the Universal 
 Church, we can never know who our Father in heaven 
 is ; we can never really be one family in His Son ; we can 
 never really be baptized by His Spirit. 
 
 To all these doctrines I would oppose the doctrine of 
 that Apostle whom we remember to-day. If we have not 
 yet learnt to regard him as a self-seeking, self-glorifying 
 deceiver, let us accept the other — I believe the only other 
 — alternative. Let us recognise him as the teacher throuo-h 
 whom those bright beams of light were shed upon the 
 Church, which illumined it in the hour when the old 
 world was passing away with a great noise, which shall be 
 shed upon it again when its divisions, and hatreds, and 
 falsehoods are bringing back the darkness and chaos out 
 of which it arose. 
 
 ' 3famj other sigiis,' he says in his Gospel, ' truly did 
 Jesus in the presence of his diseijyles, which are not written 
 in this hook: hut these are im-itteu that ye might believe 
 that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that 
 believing ye might have life through his name' Thus ho
 
 108 LECTURE IX. 
 
 defines tlie office and work of an Evangelist, tlie end of 
 all Scripture ; not to fix our thoughts upon the letters of 
 a book, but to direct us to that Son who died, and rose, 
 and liveth for evermore. 
 
 ' That which was from the heginning,' so he writes in his 
 Epistle, ' that which we have heard, ivhich we have seen with 
 our eyes, which we have looked tcpon, and our hands have 
 handled, of the Word of life ; {for the life ivas manifested, 
 and loe have seen it, and hear witness, and shew unto you 
 that eternal life, which was vnth the Father, and was mani- 
 fested unto us ;) that ivhich we have seen and heard declare 
 we unto you . . . and truly our fellowship is loith the Father, 
 and with his Son Jesus Christ. . . . This then is the message 
 ivhich we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that 
 God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If ive 
 say that we have fellowship with him,, and walk in dark- 
 ness, we lie, and do not the truth : hut if ^oe walk in the 
 light, as he is in the light, toe have fellowship one with 
 another, and the hlood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us 
 from all sin.' There is the theology, there is the morality 
 of an Apostle ; a theology and a morality, as I think, fresh 
 and young for all times, striking at the root of our denials 
 and our self-deceptions, showing us why we cannot believe 
 i-n ourselves, or our notions, and theories ; showing us in 
 whom we may believe, who is able to deliver us from all 
 our darkness and enmities, who is able to bring us into 
 His perfect light and love. 
 
 And if we pass from the Gospel and the Epistle to 
 that book which is rightly called the Eevelation, or un- 
 veiling of Jesus Christ, we find the old Apostle, the last 
 of the Apostles, telling of Him which is, and which was, 
 and which is to come ; of the seven spirits before His
 
 THE KING CHOOSING HIS MINISTERS. 109 
 
 throne ; of Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first 
 begotten from the dead, the Prince of all the kings of 
 the earth. He is telling ns of the kingdom under which 
 we are living, of the Name with which we are sealed. 
 He looks back to the past, claiming his own kinsmen after 
 the flesh, his own beloved nation of Israel, as heirs of 
 promises which must be fulfilled. He looks onward to 
 the future, claiming all nations as intended to walk in the 
 divine light, to bring their treasures into the divine city. 
 In that city may be found the names not of one but of all 
 the Apostles. For all testified of the truth which St. Peter 
 declared in express w^ords, ' Wlierefore also it is contained 
 in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, 
 elect, and precious : and he that helieveth on Him shall not 
 he confounded.'
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 THE SUBJECTS AND LAWS OF THE KINGDOM. 
 
 St. Luke VL 20. 
 
 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor, for 
 yours is the kingdow. of God. 
 
 So begins a discourse wlaicli has often been said to contain 
 a code of very high morality for those who forsake the low 
 level of the crowd, and aim at a specially elevated standard 
 of excellence. The previous sentence explains to whom 
 the discourse was addressed. 'And lie came down with 
 them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, 
 and a great midtitude of people out of all Judea and Jeru- 
 salem, and from the sea-coast of Tyre and Sidon, lohich came 
 to hear him, and to he healed of their diseases'. Those were 
 the people who heard Christ say : ' Blessed are ye poor, for 
 yours is the kingdom of heaven.' 
 
 (1) We are wont to mitigate the force of this sentence 
 by referring to the one in St. Matthew's Gospel, which 
 most resembles it. For ' poor ' we say, the other EvangeKst 
 gives us ' poor in spirit.' Is not that the sense in which 
 we must understand the words here ? I am most thankful 
 for the expression in St. Matthew, and am quite willing 
 to use it for the illustration of the discourse in which it 
 occurs. We may find it a great help hereafter in under- 
 standing St. Luke. But I must take his language as it
 
 THE SUBJECTS AND LAWS OF THE KINGDOM. Ill 
 
 stands. He says tliat our Lord lifted up His eyes on a 
 miscellaneous crowd. He cannot have expected that crowd 
 to introduce any spiritual qualification into the words, 
 * Yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.' What, then, did 
 those words import ? Might they be addressed to a mul- 
 titude similarly composed in London ? 
 
 It seems to me, my friends, that the answer to these 
 questions must depend entirely upon the meaning which 
 we attach to the phrase. Kingdom, of Heaven. How im- 
 portant that phrase is for the understanding of the Gospels 
 we have seen already. The Kingdom of Heaven is the 
 subject of the Gospel. The acts of Christ in healing the 
 sick and casting out devils were signs of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven. The Apostles were the ministers of the Kingdom 
 of Heaven. They had just been selected out of a body of 
 fishermen and tax-gatherers, that they might go and preach 
 the Kingdom of Heaven — whilst their Master was upon 
 earth, to their own countrymen, when He had left the 
 earth, to all nations. And now, with these Apostles so 
 chosen. He comes down to some table-land upon the moun- 
 tain, and He says to the poor — the actual poor — about 
 Him, ' Yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.' Suppose those 
 words were limited to the disciples who were close to Him 
 — suppose, even, they were limited to the twelve. Still 
 we know upon their own authority that the twelve were 
 not yet poor in spirit ; that they were continually giving 
 evidence of being proud in spirit, the best as well as the 
 worst of them. In what sense, then, was theirs the King- 
 dom of Heaven ? 
 
 Surely, in tliis very simple and direct sense. Our Lord 
 had come to tell them who was governing them — under 
 whose authority they were living. Who had they fancied
 
 112 LECTURE X. 
 
 was sovernincr them ? One who regarded the ricli with 
 affection ; who had bestowed great advantages upon them ; 
 who had given them an earnest here of what He might do for 
 them hereafter. It was most natural for poor men to put this 
 interpretation upon that which they saw, and that which 
 they felt. It was dif&cult for them to find any other inter- 
 pretation. It was not more difficult for the people who dwelt 
 about the coasts of Tyre and Sidon than for the people who 
 dwell in the courts and alleys of London. The difficulty 
 is the same precisely in kind. The degree of it must be 
 greater on some accounts for the dwellers in a crowded 
 modern city than for those who breathed the fresh air of 
 Galilee. The difficulty was not diminished for the latter 
 (I mean for the Galileans) by anything which they heard 
 from their religious teachers. It was enormously increased. 
 God was said to demand of these poor people religious ser- 
 vices which they could not render ; an amount of know- 
 ledge about His law which they could not possess. His 
 prizes and blessings here and hereafter were said to 
 be contingent upon their performing these services — 
 upon their having that knowledge. Whichever way they 
 turned — to their present condition — to the forefathers, to 
 whose errors or sins they must in great part attribute that 
 condition — to the future, in which they must expect the 
 fun fruit of the misery and evil into which they had fallen 
 — all looked equally dark and hopeless. 
 
 Startling indeed, then, were the tidings, ' Yours is the 
 Kingdom of Heaven.^ Most startling, when they were 
 translated into these, ' You have a Father in Heaven who 
 ' is seeking after you, watching over you, whom you may 
 ' trust entirely. He ruled over your forefathers. He pro- 
 ' mised that He would show forth his dominion fully and
 
 THE SUBJECTS AND LAWS OF THE KINGDOM. 113 
 
 '' perfectly in tlie generations to come. I am come to tell 
 ' you of Him ; to tell you how He rules over you, and how 
 ' you may be in very deed His subjects. I am come that 
 ' you and your children may be citizens in God's own city ; 
 ' that the Lord God Himself may reign over you.' I cannot 
 render the phrase into any equivalents that are simpler, 
 more obvious, than these. And if they were true, must 
 they not have been true for all that crowd, for every thief 
 and harlot in it ? Was not this the very message of John, 
 delivered by Him who could not only call to repentance 
 but give repentance 1 
 
 (2) ' Yes,' it may be answered — ' That might be so, if 
 ' the language only declared to the poor that there was a 
 ' Heavenly Father who cared for them no less than He 
 ' cared for the rich ; but the sentences which follow give 
 ' them a positive advantage : it would appear as if the 
 ' blessing on the poor involved a curse on the rich. "WTiat 
 ' other force can you put on such sentences as these? "Blessed 
 ' are ye that huiiger nmv, for ye shall he filled. Blessed arc 
 
 * ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh. But woe imto you 
 
 * that are rich, for ye have received your consolation. Woe 
 
 * unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger. Woe unto 
 ' you tJiat laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep." ' 
 
 Language so explicit as this cannot be evaded. And I 
 hohl it is greatly for the interest of all of us who are lead- 
 ing easy and comfortable lives in the world, that it should 
 not be evaded. If any amount of riches, greater or smaller, 
 docs give us consolation, it is well for us to understand 
 that there is a woe upon those riches. They were not 
 meant to give consolation ; we were not meant to find it 
 in them. If any laughter of ours does make us incapable 
 of weeping, incapable of entering into the sorrow of the 
 
 I
 
 114 LECTURE X. 
 
 world in which we are dwelling, we ought to feel that 
 there is misery and death in that laughter. Our Lord 
 does not speak against laughter ; He sets it forth as a 
 blessing. He does denounce all that laughter which is an 
 exultation in our own prosperity, and in the calamities of 
 others. He does promise that those who are indulging 
 that sort of laughter shall weep. I use the word promise 
 advisedly. It is a promise, not a threatening ; or, if you 
 please, a threat which contains a promise. It is the proof 
 that we are under a Kingdoni of Heaven ; that God does 
 not allow such laughter to go on ; that He stops it ; that 
 He gives the blessing of sorrow in place of it. And thus 
 all alike are taught that they are under this fatherly 
 government. All are shown that the Father in Heaven is 
 aware of the discipline which they need, and will appor- 
 tion it. All may be brought to take their places with 
 their brethren in this Kingdom. All may be taught that 
 the common blessings — the blessings from which one can- 
 not exclude another — are the highest blessings. All may 
 be brought to know that this one fact, that they have a 
 Father in Heaven, is worth all others. And so that poverty of 
 spirit, which is only another name for childlike dependence 
 upon One who is above us, and is all good, because we have 
 found we cannot depend upon ourselves, may be wrought 
 by Him with whom we have to do in poor and rich equally. 
 The heavenly treasures may be revealed to both which 
 moth and rust cannot corrupt — which thieves cannot break 
 through and steal. , 
 
 (3) Thus far, assuredly, the tendency of this discourse of 
 our Lord's has been to level, not to exalt. The Kingdom 
 of Heaven has not been a prize for those who are unlike 
 their feUows, but for those who wiU take their stand by
 
 THE SUBJECTS AND LAWS OF THE KINGDOM. 115 
 
 them — who will set up no exclusive pretensions of their 
 own. But what shall we say of this benediction ? ' Blessed 
 are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate 
 you from their company, and shall reproach you, and shall 
 cast out your name as evil, for tlie Son of Han's sake. Re- 
 joice ye in that day, and leap for joy, for, hehold, your reward 
 is great in heaven : for in the like manner did their fathers 
 unto tlie propliets.' And again of this woe ? ' Woe unto you, 
 when all men shall speak tvell of you, for so did their fathers 
 unto the false ptrophets.' Is there not here a glorification 
 of the little minority which is persecuted ; a denunciation 
 of the majority which persecutes ? 
 
 The comment on the language is in the actual history. 
 Why was St. Stephen, whom we have been remembering 
 lately, cast out of the city of Jerusalem and stoned ? Be- 
 cause he was accused of breaking down the barriers which 
 separated the chosen people from the surrounding nations. 
 Why was the young man at whose feet the witnesses 
 against Stephen laid down their clothes afterwards de- 
 nounced in the same city as one who ought not to live ? 
 Because he said that he was sent with a message of peace 
 and reconciliation to the Gentiles. What was it that sus- 
 tained and comforted Stephen in the hour when his coun- 
 trymen were gnashing upon him with their teeth ? The 
 sight of the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God ; 
 the Saviour and King, not of him and his brother dis- 
 ciples, but of mankind. What was St. Paul's deepest sor- 
 row, and how was it that in the midst of that sorrow he 
 could always rejoice ? His sorrow was that his kinsmen 
 after the flesh were to be cut off, because they were enemies 
 to God, and contrary to aU men. His joy was in the 
 thouuht that ' all Israel should be saved ;' that ' God had 
 
 l2
 
 116 LECTURE X. 
 
 ' concluded all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon 
 ' all.' This, then, was the witness of the little band of the 
 persecuted, that God is the Father of all ; that His King- 
 dom is over all. And the determination of that powerful 
 majority of persecutors was to keep the favour of God and 
 the Kingdom of Heaven to themselves. Those of whom 
 all men speak well are those who flatter their exclusive- 
 ness ; who lead them to think that they are better than 
 others, and that they shall have mercies which are denied 
 to others. The comfort of the persecuted, which the per- 
 secutor could not have, was the comfort of believing that 
 God would conquer all obstacles ; that the Son of Man, for 
 w^hose sake they loved not their lives, would be shown in 
 very deed to be King of kings and Lord of lords — all 
 human wills being subjected to His will. 
 
 (4) And so you perceive how the next precepts, which 
 we often read as if they were mere isolated maxims, are 
 connected with these blessings and these woes. 'But I 
 say unto you which hear' — unto you, that is, whom I have 
 told that men shall separate you from their company, and 
 cast out your persons as evil, — ' Love your enemies ; do good 
 to them which persecute you. Bless them that curse you, and 
 pray for them which despitcfully use you. And unto him 
 that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other ; and 
 him that taketh away thy cloke forhid not to take thy coat 
 also. Give to every man that asketh of thee ; and of him 
 that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye 
 would that men should do to you, do ye also to tJiem likewise. 
 For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye ? for 
 sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to 
 them which do good to you, vjliat thank have ye ? for sinners 
 also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope
 
 THE SUBJECTS A:^D LAWS OF THE KINGDOM. 117 
 
 to receive, ivhat thank have ye ? for sinners also lend to sin^ 
 ners, to reeeive as much again. But love ye your enemies^ 
 and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again. And ye 
 shall he the children of the Highest : for he is kind unto the 
 unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as 
 your Father in heaven is merciful! 
 
 In these passages is contained the sum of what Ave have 
 been used to call the peculiar Christian morality. It is 
 supposed to be very admirable, but far too fine for common 
 use. He who aims at following it is to be counted a high 
 saint. He claims a state immensely above the ordinary 
 level of humanity. He even discards the maxims by which 
 civil society is governed — those which the statesman con- 
 siders necessary for his objects. No doubt, it is said, this 
 transcendent doctrine has had a certain influence upon the 
 nations in which it is promulgated. It has modified some 
 of the thoughts and feelings which are most adverse to it. 
 The beauty of it is confessed by many who never dream 
 of practising it. There are some unbelievers who try to 
 practise it, and say, that if this part of Christianity could 
 be separated from its mysterious part, they could not 
 reverence it too highly. But though this is true, we have 
 proofs, it is said, every day and hour, that this love to 
 enemies, this blessing them that curse, this turning the 
 one cheek to him who smites the other, is altogether con^ 
 trary to the habits and tempers of the world. 
 
 My friends, the evidence goes much further than that. 
 We need not derive our proofs that the natural heart re- 
 volts against these precepts from what is called the World, 
 The records of the Church will furnish that demonstration 
 much more perfectly. Hatred of those wliom they have 
 counted their enemies, — this has been the too characteristic
 
 118 LECTURE X, 
 
 sign of men who have called themselves Christ's servants 
 and soldiers. Curses have been their favourite weapons. 
 No Church can bring that charge against anotlier without 
 laying itself open to retaliation. And it cannot be pleaded, 
 ' Oh, there is a corrupt unbelieving leaven in every Chris- 
 tian society.' The habit I speak of has come forth often 
 most flagrantly in those who were denouncing this leaven, 
 who were seeking to cast it out. I am not saying that they 
 were not good men. The case is all the stronger if they 
 were. I am not saying that a genuine zeal for truth w"as 
 not at the root of their rage, and did not mingle with the 
 most outrageous acts of it. Of all this, God will be the 
 Judge. We are not wise to anticipate His decisions. But 
 such facts, Avhich are notorious, and are repeated in every 
 age and in every country, show the absurdity of the theory 
 that what our Lord lays down as the Laws of the Kingdom 
 of Heaven, are intended for the use of a particular class 
 of persons who aspire to outstrip their fellows, and win 
 higher prizes than the rest of mankind. They lead us 
 to suspect that those who have aimed at such distinctions 
 and pursued such objects have not been able to submit to 
 His government — have assumed a position which was 
 essentially rebellious. They lead us back to the levelling 
 sentence with which the discourse opens, and which must 
 be accepted as the key to the whole of it. What business 
 has any citizen of a kingdom to talk of a certain standard 
 which is meant for him and not for all the subjects of it ? 
 What is that but adopting the maxim which the Roman 
 poet unfairly ascribed to the Greek hero, that ' laws were 
 not born for him ? ' 
 
 How reasonable on the other hand — how perfectly con- 
 sistent — is our Lord's language, if we suppose Him to be
 
 THE SUBJECTS AI^TD LAWS OF THE KINGDOM. 119 
 
 revealing the laws under whicli God Las constituted human 
 beings, the laws which are the expression of His own Divine 
 Nature, the laws which were perfectly fulfilled in His Son, 
 the laws which His Spirit is seeking to write on all hearts ! 
 What signifies it to the reality of such laws that this or 
 that man transgresses them ; that he who transgresses them 
 calls himself Churchman or Dissenter, Catholic or Pro- 
 testant, believer or infidel ? If they are true they must 
 stand in spite of such transgressions ; they will make their 
 power manifest through such transgressions. There will 
 be a witness on behalf of them, such as we see there is in 
 all human consciences ; there will be a resistance to them, 
 such as we see there is, in all human wills. Our belief in 
 their ultimate triumph over that which opposes them must 
 depend on our belief in Him who is the Author of the 
 Law. If we think that He is our Father in Heaven, and 
 that His Law of Forgiveness has been fully accomplished 
 in Christ, and that His Spirit is stronger than the Evil 
 Spirit, every sign of the victory of Love over striving and 
 hating wills must be a pledge how the battle is to termi- 
 nate ; no success of bitterness, and wrath, and malice, how- 
 ever it may shake our minds, can be anything but a proof 
 that less than Almighty Love, less than a Divine Sacrifice, 
 would have been unable to subdue such adversaries. But 
 if we think this discourse to be the announcement of a 
 refined ethical system, not the proclamation of a Kingdom 
 of Heaven, as it professes to be, we may well complain 
 how feeble and ineffective it is and must always be. We 
 may say that its power can never be recognised beyond 
 a circle of rare exceptional persons. And we may find 
 that these rare exceptional persons are always supplied 
 Avith a set of evasions, equivocations, and apologies, for
 
 120 LECTURE X. 
 
 violating every one of its principles, especially in those 
 acts which they consider most religious and meritorious. 
 
 Those who confine this discourse to saints speedily 
 contradict themselves. When they bring forth evidences 
 of Christianity, or evidences of the influence of the 
 Catholic Church, they appeal to the power which the 
 Cross, with its proclamation of divine forgiveness to 
 enemies, has exercised over the wild warring tribes that 
 have fashioned modern Europe. They ask whether the 
 conscience of those tribes, in the midst of all their bloody 
 feuds and acts of personal vengeance, did not stoop to the 
 authority of a Prince of Peace ; whether it did not confess 
 Him as King of kings and Lord of lords ; whether it did 
 not acknowledge those as especially His ministers who, 
 in bodily weakness — in defiance of the physically strong 
 — showed forth the loving-kindness which, they said was 
 His, and claimed the serf and the noble as alike His 
 subjects and His brethren. The facts cannot be gainsaid. 
 They are written in sunbeams on all the darkest pages of 
 modern history. What do they prove ? Surely that our 
 Lord was not proclaiming a code wliich was at variance with 
 civil order and obedience — a transcendental morality — but 
 principles which were the foundation of civil order and 
 obedience ; principles which were to undermine and uproot 
 the very evils which all national codes are endeavouring to 
 counteract. The national code — the most exalted, the most 
 divine code — can only forbid, only counteract. If it aspires 
 to do more ; if it strives to extirpate vices instead of to 
 punish crimes ; if it enjoins virtues instead of demanding 
 simple submission to its decrees ; it proves its own impotence. 
 It is always asking for help to do that which it cannot do. 
 It wants a power to make the obedience which it needs
 
 THE SUBJECTS AND LAWS OF THE KINGDOM. 121 
 
 voluntary ; to kindle the patriotism without which it will 
 only be directed to a herd of animals, not a race of men. 
 Wherever there has been voluntary obedience, wherever 
 there has been a ]3atriotism which has made men willing to 
 die that their land might not be in the possession of 
 strangers, there has been faith in an unseen Ruler ; there 
 has been a confidence that He wills men to be free. The 
 Jewish history interprets other history. It shows what 
 has been the source of law and freedom ; what has been 
 the destruction of both ; what has been the preservation of 
 both. This discourse, because it proclaims a more universal 
 principle than the Jewish or national principle, is sup- 
 posed to set that aside, I accept our Lord's words, ' I come 
 not to destroy, but to fulfil,' as true in every case. He 
 does not destroy the fundamental maxim, that God is 
 the Author of the commandments. He fulfils it by pro- 
 claiming the mind of His Father in Heaven as the ground 
 of all the acts of His children. He does not destroy one 
 sacrifice which any patriot had made for his people's free- 
 dom. He fulfils it in His perfect sacrifice to God and 
 for us. He does not destroy any one precept of duty to 
 God or to our neighbour. He fulfils it by baptizing with 
 His Spirit ; by making duty to God the surrender of 
 man's will to His Will which is working in us ; that Will 
 binding men to each other as members of the same body ; 
 that Will fighting with aU the selfish impulses which tear 
 us asunder. There is no opposition between the Kingdom 
 of Heaven and any kingdom of earth, except what is pro- 
 duced by this selfishness, which is the enemy of both. If 
 the civil ruler sanctions one law for the rich and one for 
 the poor, he offends against the maxims of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven : but then he also introduces a confusion into his
 
 122 LECTURE X. 
 
 own. If lie prefers war to peace, gambling to honesty, 
 bondage to freedom, and if he seeks religions sanctions to 
 uphold him in these tastes, he offends against the maxims 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven, and he is preparing ruin for 
 his own state. If the ecclesiastic proclaims one law for 
 the saint and another for the common man, he overthrows 
 the common order and morality of nations ; but he sins 
 still more directly against the laws which Christ proclaimed 
 on the Mount. If he sets up the priest against the magis- 
 trate, he disturbs the peace of civil communities ; but he 
 also exalts the priest into the place of God, and so commits 
 treason against the Kingdom of Heaven, If he assume 
 the office of a judge of His brethren, he may do much 
 mischief on earth which the ruler on earth cannot hinder. 
 But he falls under this sentence : — ' Judge not, and ye 
 shall not he judged ; condemn not, and ye shall not he con- 
 demned ; forgive, and ye shall he forgiven.' 
 
 These laws of the Kingdom of Heaven seem very hard to 
 
 keep. See what hinders us from keeping them. It is not 
 
 some incapacity. It is our determination to assume a place 
 
 which is not ours. Each of us is continually setting up 
 
 himself to be a God. Each is seizing the judgment throne 
 
 of the universe. We know that it is so. And from this 
 
 throne we must come down. We must confess that we are 
 
 not gods ; not able to pronounce on the condition of our 
 
 fellows, needing forgiveness every day from our Father, and 
 
 from each other, permitted to dispense what He sends us. 
 
 The lesson is a simple one. Yet every other is contained 
 
 in it. If we do, in very deed, come to the light, our 
 
 deeds may be made manifest ; if we ask to be judged — if 
 
 we ask our Father in Heaven to make us His ministers and 
 
 not His rivals — we shall be able to enter into the wonderful
 
 THE SUBJECTS AND LAWS OF THE KINGDOM. 123 
 
 precept that follows (v. 38) : ' Give, and it shall he given 
 unto you ; good measure, i^rcssed down and shaken together, 
 and running over, shall men give into your hosom. For with 
 the same measure that ye mete withal it shall he measured to 
 you again.' They had been told before that they were ' to 
 do good and lend, hoping for nothing again.' How is it that 
 we are encouraged to hope here that if we give it shall he 
 given to us ? The tw^o passages explain each other ; expe- 
 rience confirms them both. 07ily the man who gives, hoping 
 for nothing again, who gives freely without calculation out 
 of the fulness of his heart, ever can find his love returned 
 to him. He may win hatred as well as love ; but love 
 does come in measures that he never could dream of. We 
 see it every day ; and every day, perhaps, we may be dis- 
 appointed at finding some favours which we thought were 
 well laid out bringing back no recompense. They were 
 bestowed with the hope of something again. 
 
 Yes, friends ; most truly are these the unchangeable 
 Laws of the Kingdom of Heaven. That which we measure 
 is measured to us again ; selfishness for selfishness, love 
 for love. It may not be clear to us now that it is so. 
 We shall be sure of it one day — in that day which shall 
 show Him who spoke this discourse to be indeed the King 
 of kings and Lord of lords. For, as His next words tell 
 us, this has been the great inversion of order : ' llie hlind 
 have heen leading the Mind ; the disciples have heen setting 
 themselves above their Master.' We have been laying down 
 our own maxims and codes of morality. Each one has 
 been saying to his brother, 'Brother, let me pull out the 
 mote out of thine eye.' We have had such a clear discern- 
 ment of these motes ! And all the while none of us has
 
 124 LECTUEE X. 
 
 been aware of tlie beam in his own eye. And how can 
 any of us become aware of it ; how can we escape the 
 charge of hypocrisy which our consciences own to be so 
 well deserved ? Only if there is a King and Judge over 
 us who detects the beam ; who makes us feel that it is 
 there ; who Himself undertakes to cast it out. To that 
 point we must always return. We may boast of this 
 morality as something to glorify saints. We may call 
 it 'delicious/ as a modern French critic calls it. Only, 
 when it actually confronts us, as the word of a King 
 who is speaking to us, and convicting us of our depar- 
 tures from it — only then shall we discover that it is for 
 sinners, not saints ; that it is terrible, not dehcious. But 
 only then shall we know what the blessedness is of being 
 claimed as children of this Kingdom ; only then shall 
 we begin to apprehend the glory of which we are in- 
 heritors. For we then shall understand that there is a 
 selfish evil nature in every man, let him call himself 
 Churchman or man of the world, believer or unbeliever, 
 which cannot bring forth good fruit — which is utterly 
 damnable ; and that there is a Divine root of humanity, 
 a Son of Man, whence all the good in Churchman or man 
 of the world, in believer or unbeliever, springs — whence 
 nothing but good can spring. If we exalt ourselves upon 
 our privileges as Christians or saints, the King will say 
 to us, * JVJhij call ye me Lord, and do 7iot the things which 
 I say ? ' If we submit to His Spirit we may bring forth 
 now the fruits of good works which are to His glory ; we 
 may look for the day when every Law of His Kingdom 
 shall be fulfilled, when all shall know Him from the least 
 to the greatest. And Churches, in the sense of their own
 
 THE SUBJECTS AND LAWS OF THE KINGDOM. 125 
 
 nothingness, may seek after the foundation which God has 
 laid, and which will endure the shock of all winds and 
 waves. And Churches which rest upon their own decrees 
 and traditions and holiness will be like the man ^ vjIw 
 wWiout a foundation huilt an house upon the earth, against 
 lohich the stream did heat vehemently, and immediately i 
 fell ; and the ruin of that house was great*
 
 LECTURE XL 
 
 THE KING CALLING FOKTH THE FAITH OF HIS SUBJECTS. 
 
 St. Luke VII. 50. 
 And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. 
 
 The Epipliany, or Manifestation of Clirist to the wise men 
 who came from the East, is the introduction to a number 
 of Epiphanies or Manifestations which are commemorated 
 in the Epistles and Gospels for these Sundays. All the 
 acts of Christ upon earth — though there are other aspects 
 of them to which our minds are directed at other seasons 
 — may be most fittingly contemplated under this aspect. 
 I shall, I think, be doing my best to illustrate the different 
 topics which are brought before us in the 7th chapter of 
 St. Luke, if I trace this thread through them all. I have 
 chosen the last verse of the chapter as my text, not only 
 for its own sake, but because it bears upon all the previous 
 manifestations of which the Evangelist has been speaking. 
 
 They were addressed not to the eye but to the faith of 
 those who received them. That is the characteristic of an 
 Epiphany in the sense in which the Church uses it. The 
 wise men have been asking the stars to tell them if there 
 is any King of men, any one mightier over human hearts 
 than the lights which shine in the firmament can be.
 
 THE KING CALLING FORTH THE FAITH OF HIS SUBJECTS. 127 
 
 They are led to Bethlehem. They see only a child lying 
 in a cradle. A glory within that child reveals itself not to 
 their sight, but to their spirits. A circle of legends forms 
 itself about this story. The glory becomes an outward, 
 "vdsible glory. The craving for wonders is gratified by 
 imaginations of what these magicians may have been, and 
 wliat must have convinced them that the King was there. 
 The passages which we read on Wednesday from Isaiah 
 and St. Paul drew away our thoughts from tiu incident 
 to the universal principle which it illustrates and embodies. 
 The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven to the nations can 
 only be described as the arising and shining of a light upon 
 the consciences and hearts of those who were sitting in 
 darkness. God revealed to those consciences and hearts 
 their true King. A Church rises up to bear witness of 
 His Name and of His dominion to the human race. 
 
 (1) The first story which comes before us in this chapter 
 is in direct connexion with the illumination to the Gentile 
 sages. The hero of it, indeed, is not a sage. He is a 
 simple Eoman centurion ; one who had been bred in the 
 camp ; one whose experiences had been all derived from 
 the camp. ' He is a man under authority. He has 
 soldiers under him. He sai/s to one, Go, and he goeth ; 
 to another, Come, and he cometh ; to his servant. Do this, 
 and he doeth it.' Very obvious facts these; what could 
 they bo worth? What could they have to do with his 
 acknowledgment of Jesus as One who could heal his ser- 
 vant, even if He only spoke a word ? Tliese simple lessons 
 about obedience and authority — about the might of words 
 spoken by a weak man in governing a number of strong 
 men — had been of quite unspeakable worth to this Eoman. 
 They had been, in the strictest sense, a Divine education to
 
 "128 LECTURE XI. 
 
 him. They had prepared him to believe that the highest 
 power of all has nothing to do with force. They had led 
 him practically, insensibly, through no arguments of reli- 
 gion or philosophy, to confess a Divine Word from whom 
 a governing, restoring power might go forth. They had 
 taught him to own such a "Word as speaking in the lowly 
 man whom he besought, through others, to heal his servant ; 
 whom he did not think himself worthy to receive under his 
 roof. Faithful to his vocation as a soldier, as the wise men 
 were faithful to their vocation as students ; profiting by the 
 Eoman discipline, as they profited by their oriental dis- 
 cipline ; he was ready, as they were, for the manifestation 
 of the Light which had risen upon the earth, let the out- 
 ward medium through which it came to him seem ever so 
 poor. And so it is written : ' When Jesus heard these things, 
 he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto 
 the 2^(^(yple that followed Him, I say unto you, I have not 
 found so great faith, no, not in Israel.' He had found men 
 in Israel who were astonished at the strangeness of His 
 acts, who thought that He must be endued with rare and 
 wonderful j)Owers. He had not found any who, with the 
 frankness and simplicity of this centurion, bowed before a 
 power which had been exerted over him and his soldiers 
 and his general ; before that Word of God who had been 
 always enlightening, ruling, quickening. This faith — faith 
 rising above the present and the visible — faith taking hold 
 of the eternal — came forth in a Gentile who had not known 
 the letter of Scripture, but who had been instructed by the 
 Living Teacher — the source of all the wisdom which Scrip- 
 ture imparts. 
 
 (2) The raising of the child of the widow of Nain — which 
 is the subject of the verses from the 11th to the 18th — is
 
 THE KING CALLING FOETH THE FAITH OF HIS SUBJECTS. 129 
 
 th€ next of the manifestations that I desired to bring under 
 your notice. In what sense did this act reveal Christ's 
 nature and Christ's power ? Undoubtedly the compassion 
 to the mother, which was expressed in His countenance, 
 would have brought to her the sense of a divine compassion 
 — thoroughly divine, and therefore thoroughly human — of 
 which she might have dreamed before, but which she had 
 never realized. I do not overlook that influence. I con- 
 sider it all-important. The instinct which has fixed on 
 the collateral incidents of this story and of similar stories 
 in the Gospels, and has prized them above all the formal 
 arguments which apologists have built upon them, is a 
 true and holy instinct. Still I cannot help perceiving 
 another and deeper purpose in the minds of the Evangelists, 
 when they record so naturaUy, with so little effort and 
 pomp, the words of Christ to this young man, to the 
 daughter of Jairus, to His friend Lazarus. I find in those 
 words a clear and distinct proclamation that the man was 
 then as much within the Kingdom of the Son of Man — 
 within the reach of His voice — as while his breath dwelt 
 in his body, whilst his friends could look into his face, and 
 he could smile upon them. It is not to the eye or the ear 
 in us that Christ has spoken here. It is not the closing 
 of the eye or the ear which will hinder Him from mani- 
 festing Himself to any human spirit. That spirit can 
 understand Him, and respond to Him, at all times, and in 
 all places. If we would earnestly meditate on that truth 
 which the Evangelists so distinctly assert, these narratives 
 would be signs to us indeed. We should never dream of 
 limiting their meaning to that country or that generation. 
 We should close the eyes of those we have loved best on 
 earth in sure and certain hope that He who is the liesur- 
 
 K
 
 130 LECTURE XI. 
 
 rection and Life is calling them not to die but to arise 
 out of death. We should not have need to ask curiously, 
 however we may long to know, what is the condition of 
 those whose dust we commit to the dust. We know who 
 He is that came into the world to seek them — that He died 
 and rose again. Are they not in His hands ? Will He 
 not deal righteously with them, so as to fulfil His Father's 
 divine purpose towards them ? Can we not trust them to 
 His keeping ? Are we afraid to say that He in His great 
 mercy has taken them to Himself ? Have we been such 
 faithful stewards of our brothers' souls that we suppose 
 they would be safer if they were trusted any longer to us ? 
 There is, I know, a notion in some of us that faith 
 ceases and sight begins for those who have fallen asleep. 
 A strange fancy, surely ! Are we not learning slowly to 
 believe during our earthly pilgrimage ? Is not our contest 
 with all the impressions which our senses make upon us ? 
 Are we not practising — awkwardly, and as little children 
 — the use of our spirits ? Is all this to be changed, and 
 are we to fall back into the condition out of which we have 
 been so painfully growing under God's gracious guidance ? 
 Was this what St. Paul meant when he said that the 
 tongues and prophecies which belonged to the time of 
 our pupillage will pass away in the fulness of manhood, 
 and then added, ' But now abideth foMli, lio-pe, charity .? ' 
 Did he not mean that these were the permanent and sub- 
 stantial blessings wliich would not pass away, which would 
 be ripest in the noblest condition that human creatures would 
 ever attain? And if this faith comes, as we are told, hy 
 hearing, and hearing hy the Word of God, am I not justified 
 in saying that the Divine Word manifested Himself to the 
 spirit of the young man who was on his bier at Nain, and
 
 THE KING CALLING FORTH THE FAITH OF HIS SUBJECTS. 131 
 
 that his faith, just as much as the faith of the Eoman cen- 
 turion, confessed its rightful Lord ? 
 
 (3) The next incident in the chapter is directly and 
 obviously connected with faith. * The discijjles of John 
 shewed him of cdl these things. Aiid John calling unto 
 him tvjo of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art iliou 
 he that shoidd come .? or look ive for another V The disciples 
 came. 'And in that same hour he cured many of their 
 infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits ; and unto many 
 that vxre Mind he gave sight. Then Jesus ansiuering said 
 unto them. Go your ivay, and tell John what things ye have 
 seen and heard ; how that the Mind see, the lame walk, the 
 lepers are clearised, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to 
 the 'poor the Gospel is preached. And Messed is he, whoso- 
 ever shall not he offended in me.' John, as it is written, 
 did no miracle. He bore witness of the Light which was 
 about all men. He bade them turn to this Light. He gave 
 the sign that the sins which had been brought home to 
 their consciences by that Light, and which they had con- 
 fessed, were put away. He said that One should come 
 after him who would do what he could not do ; Avho should 
 baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Was the 
 Person wlio, as he heard, was performing so many cures, 
 indeed this baptizer with the Spirit, as he had once sup- 
 posed ? Did not these miracles rather create a suspicion 
 that He might not be completing John's mission ; that He 
 might not be bringing men to repentance ; that He might 
 only be one of the pretenders to rare powers, of which 
 there had been many in aU ages, and were many then ? 
 His disciples would tell him that Jesus and His disciples 
 were wholly unlike them in their discipline and mode of 
 beha\dour. They might suggest the thought to him that 
 
 k2
 
 132 LECTTJKE XI. 
 
 if Christ had such powers, it was wonderful they were not 
 used to deliver a great prophet out of the hands of Herod, 
 I apprehend many doubts, many contradictory impressions, 
 were stru^cfgling in his own mind — were unsettling the 
 minds of those to whom he had done good. Let them 
 go and see for themselves what this teacher was, and what 
 He was really doing. They are present at those acts which 
 make them suspicious. Are these acts done for display ? 
 Or are they parts of a Gospel to the poor ? Did they not 
 proclaim to them John's own message, ' The Kingdom of 
 Heaven is at hand ? ' Did they not show that there was 
 really such a Kingdom, that it was at work upon the 
 humblest Israelite, for the humblest Israelite ? The dis- 
 ciples of John saw and heard these things. But the seeing 
 and hearing were not of themselves convincing. John had 
 not taught them to set any store by mere appearances. He 
 had warned them against appearances. They might ex- 
 plain these miracles as the Pharisees did. Jesus might be 
 casting out demons by the help of Beelzebub, the prince 
 of the demons. Unless these acts spoke to their con- 
 sciences — unless they were to them manifestations of a 
 divine Prince and Deliverer — the mere sight of them would 
 not convince the sch61ar — the report of them would have 
 no effect on the master. That report was accompanied with 
 a message which can have been clearly understood by none 
 but him who received it. ' Blessed is he whosoever shall not 
 he offended in me! It was a message to the heart of that 
 imprisoned prophet ; it has reached the hearts of a number 
 of imprisoned prophets, and of sufferers who had no claim 
 to be called prophets, in aU periods : ' Thou criest bitterly, 
 ' How long, oh Lord, how long ? When shall this oppres- 
 ' sion which is on me and on Thy earth end ? When shall
 
 THE KING CALLING FOETH THE FAITH OF HTS SUBJECTS. 133 
 
 'the Deliverer come? Cry, and cease not. But it is a 
 ' blessing for thee, for every man, not to be offended while 
 ' the waiting lasts. Take the signs which are given thee, 
 ' that God's purposes are accomplishing themselves ; that 
 
 • He is beating down the enemies of men — the enemies of 
 ' their bodies, the enemies of their spirits. Believe that He 
 ' who has begun the work wiU complete it. If the battle 
 ' is long the victory shall come. Hold fast that faith. As 
 ' you hold it fast you will know that you are one with all 
 ' the seers of old who have fainted and been weary but 
 ' whose strength has been renewed, with all to whom the 
 ' Word of God has come in their hours of gloom, and who 
 
 * have been assured that His brightness will one day fill 
 ' the whole earth.' 
 
 (4) The discourse respecting John which followed the 
 departure of the messengers refers, first, to the kind of 
 power which he exercised. He drew crowds into the 
 wilderness. By what attraction? There was nothing to 
 entice them in the sight of reeds shaking with the winds. 
 Had he the habits and acts of a prince ? Or did they go 
 to him because they felt that he was a prophet — one not 
 speaking liis own words — one with a message to them from 
 the Searcher of Hearts ? That, then, was his power. He 
 called them to repent, and they felt God was calling them 
 to repent, and was showing them what they had to repent 
 of. Yes ! John was a prophet, tlie most remarkable of 
 all the prophets, more than a prophet — the messenger 
 who told that the King of Heaven was Himself asserting 
 His dominion of men — that He was about to be mani- 
 fested. Thus the power which addresses itself to the 
 conscience is magnified above all other powers — is shown 
 to be that which is widest as well as deepest in its operation.
 
 134 , LECTUKE XL 
 
 But it is said, secondly, that though the messenger of the 
 Kingdom of Heaven is greater than all that went before, 
 the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. 
 The man, however insignificant in himself, however feeble 
 his speech, who can say, ' The Father has redeemed men 
 by His Son, has baptized men with His Spirit,' has a 
 mightier responsibility, a larger knowledge, a greater power 
 of calling men out of darkness to light than John had. 
 Thirdly, He explains by whom such prophets as John 
 are welcomed, by whom they are rejected. The people — 
 the publicans and sinners — however bewildered in their 
 impressions, however open to impositions — still justified 
 the man who told them of a deliverance from burdens 
 which actually oppressed them, from the evil which waS' 
 close to them and which they could not shake off. But 
 Pharisees and lawyers, satisfied with themselves, asked for 
 no deliverance. The command of God to repent had for 
 them no practical signification, Eepentance was good for 
 the wicked ; how could it be needful for the righteous ? 
 And therefore He goes on to say, that people of this sort 
 will find cause of complaint against all who disturbed their 
 self-complacency, though the complaints might be of the 
 most contradictory kind. The man who came with a 
 leathern girdle about his loins would be in their eves a. 
 morose madman. He who mixed with men, eating at their 
 feasts, would be a 'gluttonous man and a winehihhcr, a friend 
 of publicans and sinners. But wisdom,^ He adds, ' is justified 
 of all her children! These opposite methods approve them- 
 selves to the consciences of those who are really craving 
 for light and guidance. They meet the different wants of 
 their minds at different periods. An inner harmony is 
 recognised under their superficial disagreement. HerQ
 
 THE KING GALLING FOKTH THE FAITH OF HIS SUBJECTS. 135 
 
 then, as everywhere, our Lord appeals to a faith which 
 alone can receive what the hard dogmatist scorns. To 
 that He manifests Himself; to the faith which seeks a 
 divine refuge from the misery and torment of seK-indul- 
 gence, self-wiU, self-glorification. 
 
 (5) So we come naturally and in order to the last and 
 most striking passage of this chapter. It is the story of 
 the sinful woman who came to the entrance of the house 
 of the Pharisee, Simon, in which Jesus had been sitting at 
 meat. The consistency of such a story with oriental 
 habits is attested by the writer who rejects most rigidly 
 aU. that he considers supernatural in the records of our 
 Lord's life. To me nothing seems more supernatural than 
 this story in which he discovers truth as well as grace. 
 Two figures are brought distinctly before us, — Simon, 
 wondering that Jesus should not be able to discern a 
 woman that is a sinner, certain that if He be a prophet, 
 He must have that power ; the woman, thinking little of 
 the difference which separates her from all respectable 
 people, not afraid to approach Him who is most unlike 
 her, casting herseK before Him, washing His feet with her 
 tears, and wiping them with the hair of her head. All 
 of us know the picture well. And all know the story 
 by which our Lord explained the coldness of the host, 
 the fervent devotion of the sinner. A creditor has two 
 debtors ; one owes five-hundred pence, the other fifty. He 
 forgives both. Which of them loves him most ? A light 
 had burst in upon the woman's conscience, discovering to 
 her an infinite evil. That same light had discovered an 
 infinite goodness. She must escape from the one. She 
 might escape to the other. She knew that she might. 
 She heard that same voice which bade the widow's son rise
 
 136 LECTURE XL 
 
 out of his death calling her to rise out of her death. 
 The Light had shone upon Simon also, but it had not 
 penetrated far. It had shown him some little faults which 
 might easily be corrected, which did not, in any serious 
 sense, demand forgiveness. By various religious acts he 
 might hope to avert the punishment of them. To cast 
 them off — to cast off himself — he felt no necessity for that. 
 And, therefore, according to the eternal law, each found what 
 each sought. The woman could not be content with indul- 
 gence or with remission of penalty. She needed a remission 
 of sins. There was One who could give her that. The 
 words, ' Thy sins be forgiven thee,' had that sense for her. 
 She rose up another person. She believed in a righteous 
 almighty Friend. She might believe in Him always. Her 
 faith had saved her from herself; she could go in peace. 
 Here, then, was another Epiphany, the greatest of all ; the 
 Epiphany of the God in whom there is mercy that He may 
 be feared, who seeks to bring men out of their falsehoods 
 that they may be partakers of His truth. Thus it was to 
 the faith of men in all cases that Christ revealed Himself 
 on earth. To their faith He reveals Himself now. The 
 faith to which He speaks is not one which will content 
 itself with the letters of a book, or the authority of a priest. 
 If it hears of a revelation in a book, it asks whether that 
 book speaks of a living Person ; if it hears of the authority 
 of a priest, it asks whether he can tell of a living Person 
 who knows what is in us, and who is able to send us 
 away saved from ourselves, at peace with Him. If we 
 substitute the book, or the priest, for the Son of Man, He 
 will confound us in His final and perfect Epiphany.
 
 LECTURE XII. 
 
 THE PAEABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 St. Ltjke VIII. 9. 
 And his disci2}lcs asked him, saying, What might this parable be? 
 
 This chapter contains the first parable which St. Luke has 
 reported. That parable may be called in one sense the 
 parable of parables. St. Matthew and St. Mark both put 
 it before the others ; both connect it with a special expla- 
 nation, and with the reason which our Lord gives for 
 teaching by parables generally. Our thoughts are therefore 
 naturally drawn to this subject, and I shall keep it before 
 me throughout this lecture. 
 
 It Avould be a great mistake, however, to overlook the 
 words with which this chapter opens if we wish to under- 
 stand this method of instruction. ' And it came to pass 
 afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, 
 preaching and shevnng the glad tidings of the Tcingdom of 
 God: and the tioelve were vnth him, and certain women, 
 which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary 
 called Magdalene, out of whom vjcnt seven devils, and Joanna, 
 tlie vnfe of Chuza Herod's steivard, and Susanna, and many 
 others, which ministered unto him of their substance.' 
 
 We have found this message, ' The Icingdom of heaven is 
 at hand,' to be the message of the Gospels. It came to the
 
 138 LECTURE XII. 
 
 Jews as a message which they expected. It came as a 
 perplexing overthrow of their expectations. They wanted 
 a kingdom in which a Jewish emperor should crush the 
 nations as a Latin emperor did crush them. They were 
 told of a Son of David who was in the midst of them — 
 that Son of David spoke of God as His Father. It 
 was His Father's kingdom which He said was at hand. 
 Into that the poor in goods and the poor in spirit might 
 enter. It was, no doubt, a kingdom that was to come. 
 The glad tidings pointed to a future for those who were 
 on earth, to a future for those who should leave the earth. 
 But the kingdom was over those to whom our Lord and 
 His disciples preached. They might feel the powers of it. 
 Those powers had come forth to do them good. 
 
 The message of such a kingdom, I said, contradicted 
 some expectations wliich the people of Palestine were 
 cherishing. But it fulfilled a number of expectations. 
 The 107th Psalm, for instance, which must have been con- 
 tinually heard in their synagogues, sets forth the character 
 and acts of the Lord God of Israel. You will remember liow 
 it sets forth that character and those acts. The dangers 
 of the man who goes down to the sea in ships, the blight 
 and mildew of the land, the commonest calamities which 
 men bring on themselves by their folly and wilfulness, are 
 recorded as occasions which ' show forth the goodness of 
 ' the Lord, and His wonderful works to the children of 
 ' men.' That is the Psalmist's phrase, children of men. They 
 are human pursuits, human troubles, human wrong-doings, 
 on which he dwells. The purpose and the dominion of 
 the Lord God who had brought their fathers out of the 
 house of bondage is shown from generation to generation, 
 in breaking asunder the bonds of men generally, of those
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 139 
 
 especially who had transgressed His laws, and so had 
 reduced themselves into misery. 
 
 The acts of Christ were manifestations to all who read and 
 understood this Psalm and their other Scriptures, of Him 
 in whom they had believed. If He were revealing Him- 
 self as the King of kings and Lord of lords, these ought 
 to be the signs of His kingdom. The more humble the 
 people were who felt the plagues — the more the plagues 
 were the ordinary visitations of the children of men in all 
 countries — the more these plagues were the effects of their 
 own moral evils — the more would they be discoveries of 
 such a kingdom, of such a Heavenly Father, as Christ was 
 proclaiming. I do not care to inquire what the seven 
 demons were which are said to have gone out of Mary 
 Magdalene. Any one who has leisure for such speculations 
 may amuse himself with them. I am content to believe that 
 she was fast bound in misery and iron of some kind ; I 
 do not doubt that she had become, in some way, the 
 slave in body and spirit of oppressors whom she could not 
 shake off. I think that those who have felt their own. 
 spirits or bodies mastered and enchained by evil inclina- 
 tions, tempers, habits which they could not overcome, 
 have been right to look upon her as the type of their 
 condition, whether or not they could tell exactly the 
 nature of her tormentors. They have not been deceived 
 in turning to the same Lord whom she and the Galilean 
 women recognised as their friend and helper, to whom 
 they ministered of their substance ; not deceived in 
 supposing that the virtue which went forth from Him to 
 deliver ]Mary Magdalene was only a specimen of what is 
 going forth from Him every day and hour for the relief of 
 human Avoes.
 
 140 LECTUEE XII. 
 
 I have no wisli, therefore, to divide those acts which we 
 call miracles, from those wm^ds which we call parables. 
 They are as distinct as words must always be from acts. 
 They are illustrations of the same divine dominion. Tliey 
 are parts of the glad tidings of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 A writer, to whom I have several times alluded in these 
 Lectures as the enemy of everything which assumes to be 
 supernatural in our Lord's history, dwells with much 
 earnestness and beauty on the natural character of His 
 illustrations, upon the contrast between the life in them 
 and the hard dogmatism or the artificial rhetoric of those 
 who call themselves preachers of His Gospel. Such obser- 
 vations are of gTcat worth, and should be laid earnestly to 
 heart by us. If the supernatural means that which is im- 
 natural — if it has any the least affinity with school notions 
 and formulas — I am satisfied that it will never retain its 
 hold on living men ; elaborate reasonings are not needed 
 to expel it ; let in the fresh air upon it and it will drop to 
 pieces like any other corpse. What I believe is, that 
 Nature itself becomes such a corpse, a mere collection of 
 dry bones or atoms, if there is not a breath from heaven, 
 a higher spirit, to quicken it. That spirit I find in our 
 Lord's parables. They are, indeed, most natural. That 
 which is apt to become utterly flat and unmeaning in 
 Nature they renovate by connecting it with the life of 
 man, with the relations of God to man. The familiar 
 things of earth which we have passed over in our search 
 for the strange and rare start into significance, because 
 they are associated with the Kingdom of Heaven. We 
 understand how much we have to do with the world 
 around us, because a light falls upon it from the world 
 above us, and because we are assured of our relation to
 
 THE PAEABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 141 
 
 that. Every fact in nature becomes a fact of humanity, a 
 fact of divinity. We have the solemnest protest from Him 
 whom we beheve to be the Creator of both worlds, against 
 any disparagement of either and against any attempt to 
 sunder them. There is a discovery to us of an unfathom- 
 able meaning and mystery in their union, a meaning and 
 mystery to which the peasant has as much access as the 
 doctor. The Kingdom of Heaven is shown to be at hand — 
 to be presenting itself to the spirit of a man as the trees 
 which his fathers planted as the firmament under which he 
 walks present themselves to his eye. 
 
 Nowhere is there more of this revelation than in the 
 parable of the sower. ' What might this he ? ' asked the 
 disciples with some impatience. To what does it point? 
 What does it tell us of the heavenly kingdom which Thou 
 art making known to us ? Before they had the answer, 
 they surely had learnt something which it much con- 
 cerned them to know. There might be a mystery hencath 
 the sowing of the seed. But there was a mystery in that. 
 They were dwelling amidst mysteries. Look what the 
 sower in that field is about. AVhat a simple business he 
 is engaged in ! Only scattering a few tiny seeds over the 
 ground. How often you have watched him vacantly — how 
 often you have been drawn away from the sight of him 
 by any passing trifle, which seemed worthier of obser- 
 vation because it was extraordinary. But might not you 
 thmk a little of those seeds ; why they are cast there, 
 what is likely to become of them? What, for instance, 
 will happen to those which have dropped by the wayside ? 
 The birds already have got sight of them, in a few moments 
 they will be gone. Will it fare the same with those which 
 have fallen on the soil that is so near the rock ? No, there
 
 142 LECTUKE XII. 
 
 will be a promise in them, the blade will coine up qiiicMy. 
 But do not expect anything from it. When the sun is 
 strong it will wither. And that which is fallen among 
 briars or weeds ; what of that ? Both will grow up 
 together ; the wheat will be choked ; there will be no 
 produce. But think again of the process which the seed 
 will have to go through that does spring up and bear 
 fruit. How long it will remain under ground. "When it 
 appears, how imlike it will be that which was put in. 
 Yet it will be the same. And it will come at the regular 
 season, according to a fixed order. And it will give bread 
 to the eater, fresh seed to the sower for the next year. 
 
 Here you have, assuredly, the very reverse of dogmatic 
 teaching. It is emphatically teaching about facts, about 
 common facts, about the facts of the outward world. It 
 awakens the mind of the hearer to observation and re- 
 flection. ' Is this so indeed ? Have all these wonders been 
 ' surrounding me and I knew them not ? He has taught 
 ' me to think of them. To thinh of them ? And what are 
 ' these thoughts ? They have more to do Avith me than 
 ' these seeds, though they have so much to do with me, 
 ' though my whole existence would be so different if there 
 'was not this sowing, this growing, this reaping, this 
 ' turning the corn into bread. Is there any one to command 
 ' these thoughts ? Can I know what the source of them is ? 
 Can I know whence 1 came ? who is Lord over me ? Can 
 ' any one tell me that ? ' One who has begun to ask these 
 questions has passed from the mysteries of the kingdom 
 of earth to the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 He is puzzled about them. He wants an interpreter of 
 them. This the disciples did. And to them came the 
 answer. ' To you it is given to hnoiv the mysteries of the
 
 THE PAEABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 143 
 
 hingdovi of God.' You, who want to learn what there is 
 in you that answers to these processes in the ground ; who 
 is directing these processes : what there is that answers to 
 the seed which is sown in the ground ; who is the sower : 
 you can learn, poor men, ignorant fishermen, as you are. 
 But to others who do not care to know this, who are not 
 feeling their need of one to sow and plough the soil which 
 is in them, all these things are in parables. They see the 
 images. They do not see that which the images represent. 
 They hear all the messages which nature is bringing to 
 them, all the thousand voices which are sounding through 
 the world, but they do not understand. 
 
 I do not derive this explanation of our Lord's sentence 
 from the commentators, to whom it has caused extreme 
 perplexity, but from His own answer to the disciples 
 respecting the Parable of the Sower, It was a likeness of 
 the Kingdom of Heaven. Where, then, is this kingdom? 
 ' The seed is the word of God. Those hy the ivayside are they 
 that hear / then cometh the devil, and taketh away tJie word 
 out OF THEIR HEARTS, lest they should believe and be saved.' 
 The heart of man then is the kingdom with which we are 
 now occupied. The living powers and influences which act 
 upon that ; who is directing the processes which go on in 
 it ; these are the facts we require to be instructed in. We 
 are not for a moment left in doubt what are the powers 
 and influences, and who is exercising them. Words are to 
 the man what seeds are to the ground. He whose word 
 bade the earth appear, and bear seed and bring forth fruit, 
 He whose word has been sustaining the life in the earth 
 and in the seed, and has made it fruitful ever since. He by 
 that word is speaking to us. By it He is cultivating the 
 mind and heart of the creatures whom He has formed in
 
 144 LECTUKE xn. 
 
 His image. And this creature — being formed in His image, 
 having the divine faculty of Will — can reject, can receive 
 that which is sown in it. The word may fall on the 
 unretentive ear, from which the spirit of vanity will catch 
 it quickly away ; may be welcomed as mere pleasant or 
 exciting news, not as a reforming principle and power — 
 may soon therefore be thrown off' through weariness, or 
 cowardice, or disgust ; may mix with the myriad cares 
 which distract or with the pleasures which enervate the 
 spirit, and be stifled by them ; may penetrate into a will 
 which has been prepared and purified for its entertain- 
 ment, and so may appear at the appointed season in noble 
 thoughts and deeds. 
 
 These verses have given occasion to a multitude of 
 discourses. Preachers have delighted to dwell on the way- 
 side hearers, and the hearers who listen for awhile and 
 then fall away, and the hearers who are bewildered by 
 the troubles and delights of earth, and the hearers who 
 show tokens of a heavenly culture. So they explain their 
 own ill or good success. Often, no doubt, their explana- 
 tions call forth a witness and response in those to whom 
 they are ofi'ered. Yet I wish we had adhered more closely 
 to our Lord's explanation. I wish we had supposed the 
 seed to be the Word of God, not the words which fall 
 from our lips. There may be other causes besides the 
 neglect, or shallowness, or occupation of our hearers which 
 make them unproductive. We need to ask ourselves care- 
 fully what causes ; whether there are no waysides, no stones, 
 no thorns in our hearts which have destroyed their force 
 in their passage through us to other men. The warning 
 which our Lord gives applies at least as much to us as to 
 you. His seeds may fall into your hearts through our
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 145 
 
 ministry. But the Word who gives us power to hear, to 
 think, to speak, is never far from any of us. If we 
 darken His counsel. He will speak to you, and to us also, 
 out of the whirlwind, or by that still small voice which 
 makes its way to the heart when He is not felt to he in 
 the whirlwind. It is of this Sower, of the Son of Man, of 
 the eternal Word of God, that the parable bears witness. 
 Woe to us if we contract and enfeeble it by our self- 
 conceit. The message may come through any human voice ; 
 through the parent, the wife, the child. It may rise out of 
 the tombs from those who loved us, or from those whom we 
 have wronged. It may reach us through the letters of a 
 book, or through music, or through a picture. It may be 
 brought to us by the glory of a sunset, or the darkness of 
 . a night. It may come by fervent expectations or by bitter 
 disappointments, by calm joy or by intense anguish of 
 body or soul. But the source is ever the same living 
 Word of God. Every word that enters any man's heart 
 is from Him. Every word that does not lie dead in a 
 man's heart derives its quickening energy from Him. 
 
 And what if it does lie in vain? That question is 
 suggested by the parable. Perhaps it is the one which 
 comes most home to us. Often we stammer in answering 
 it. We say, and say truly, that the grace of God is directed 
 to the will of man ; that it comes with no force like that 
 which might move a stone ; that it can, therefore, be re- 
 sisted. Such assertions are confirmed by our own expe- 
 rience, and the experience of aU men. The parable obliges 
 us to consider them. It obliges us to say, ' The fault is 
 not in the sower, or in the seed, but in the soil' If that 
 were aU, would not the conclusion be a despairing one ? 
 Who is to rectify the soil ? The soil ; what soil ? Do 
 
 L
 
 146 LECTUEE XII. 
 
 we not find in our own hearts all the obstructions which 
 we denounce in the most indifferent, the most unbelieving ? 
 If so, we must ask, for our own sakes, ' Was it not 
 ' promised of the Son of Man, that He should baptize 
 * with the Spirit ? Does He merely sow the seed ? Does 
 ' He not also fit the ground to receive it, to entertain it, to 
 ' return it, not as it was taken in, but in the richness and 
 ' pregnancy which it owes to the divine rain and sunshine?* 
 Are we then to despair because Christ's word has been 
 ever so much checked by that which it has met with in 
 us ? Is it not part of the revelation of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven, that the word shall accomplish at last that for 
 which it is sent ; that if our wills be ever so untractable, 
 there are resources in the divine "Will by which it can 
 subdue them to itself ? 
 
 That lesson I derive from the words which follow in 
 obvious connexion with the parable. ' No man, when he 
 hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it 
 under a led ; hut setteth it on a candlestick, that they which 
 enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret, that shall 
 not he made manifest ; neither anything hid, that shall not 
 he known and come abroad! I give these sentences the 
 most awful meaning that has ever been given them. I 
 believe them to say, that thoughts of good or evil will 
 not lie for ever in the recesses of the heart ; that they 
 will come forth in acts which men will bless or curse. 
 And therefore the admonition in the next verse is a 
 searching one. ' Take heed therefore how ye hear : for 
 whosoever hath, to him shall he given; and whosoever hath 
 not, from him shall he taken even that vnhich he seemeth to 
 have.' But we do not weaken this warning if we suppose 
 our Lord to say, ' God Himself has kindled a light within
 
 THE PAEABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN". 147 
 
 ' you. He wishes it to shine forth upon your fellows. His 
 ' light can overcome the darkness which is opposed to it. 
 ' Whilst, therefore, you are most careful to cherish all seeds 
 ' of good — most afraid lest you should lose all that have 
 ' been planted in you if you do not cultivate them — have 
 ' confidence that His purpose will not be frustrated. Ask 
 ' that, by the means which may seem to Him best, it may 
 ' be brought to effect in you and in all men.' 
 
 It is, therefore, the might of the Divine "Word as a living 
 and life-gi\dng power which is the subject of the parable. 
 The sense of that might in the Evangelist's mind led him, 
 I conceive, to introduce in this place the story of Christ's 
 answer to His mother and brethen. 'And it was told Mm 
 hy certain which said, Thy mother and thy Irethren stand 
 without, desiring to see thee. And he answered and said 
 unto them. My mother and my brethren are these which 
 hear the word of Ood, and do it.' This is a striking, even 
 a startling, sentence. Like that spoken by our Lord in 
 the Temple in His twelfth year, it appears as if it were 
 inserted to warn the ages to come against any theories or 
 any acts of devotion which should put the earthly mother 
 between the Son of God and the Eternal Father, between 
 the Son of Man and those whose nature He had taken. 
 We cannot explain the harshness of the language till we 
 discover the permanent necessity of it. If we would assert 
 the Incarnation not as a tenet merely, but as a fact and 
 as a principle, Christ must teach us how to think of His 
 mother and of those who do His word. 
 
 I have spoken so recently of the signs of the Kingdom 
 of Heaven, that I have no excuse for dwelling on the 
 passage which follows. Still, I would have you read it 
 carefully, and meditate upon it, as a living illustration of 
 
 L 2
 
 148 LECTUEE XII. 
 
 the calm dominion of the Son of Man over nature, and of 
 His appeal to the faith of those who are in peril by sea 
 or land. It commends itself to every sailor now, as much 
 as to the disciples on the lake of Gennesareth. ' Now 
 it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship 
 with his disciples : and he said unto them, Let us go over unto 
 the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. But as 
 they sailed he fell asleejy : and tJiere came down a storm of 
 wind on the lake ; and they were filled with water, and were 
 in jeopardy. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, 
 Master, master, we perish. Tlien he arose, and rebuked the 
 wind and the raging of the water : and they ceased, and there 
 was a calm. And he said unto them, Where is your faith ? 
 And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, 
 What manlier of man is this ! for he commandeth even the 
 winds and water, and they obey him.* 
 
 The story of the demoniac and liis exorcism, bears a 
 similar witness to the King and Deliverer of the human 
 spirit. On that subject, also, I have said all that I need 
 to say. You will see how poorly and feebly I said it, and 
 what the simplicity and grandeur of the testimony of the 
 Evangelist is, if you will study the verses from the 26th to 
 the 41st, Do they not tell of Him who preserves the 
 sanity of the sane, no less than of Him who rescues those 
 who have fallen into madness and despair ? 
 
 The stories of the daughter of Jairus, and of the woman 
 who had spent all her living on the physicians, neither 
 could be healed of any, are intertwined. You cannot feel 
 either to be a repetition of any you have heard before ; 
 each has its own incidents, its own scenery. For they 
 are not artificial proofs of a mission ; they are manifes- 
 tations of a life, they are the acts of a Life-giver. Each
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 149 
 
 sick woman finds herself in the poor creature who sought 
 to touch the hem of Christ's garment. Every parent enters 
 into the impatience of the ruler of the synagogue as the 
 crowd stops the way to the bed on which the child is 
 dying, hears the noise and the scoffs of the minstrels, 
 wonders at the words, ' Maid, I say unto thee arise! That 
 effect proceeds from no art in the writer. It is the witness 
 of the human spirit that sickness and death cannot be the 
 lords of us or of our children. There must be a mightier 
 than they. 
 
 I do not think that these stories tempt us to forget our 
 main subject. They rather lead us to feel how all events 
 are parables of the Kingdom of Heaven. When we one 
 day give thanks for a birth, when another day we are 
 present at a marriage feast, when on the third we stand 
 beside a grave, the thought arises in our minds, ' What 
 a parable is this human existence; what can it mean?' 
 He who was born, and went to the marriage feast, and 
 died and rose again, has interpreted it. Birth is sacred, 
 for the child has come into His world ; marriage is sacred, 
 for He unites hands and hearts ; death is sacred, for them 
 that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with Him.
 
 LECTURE XIII. 
 
 THE GLORY AND HUMILIATION OF THE KING. 
 
 St. Luke IX. 26, 27. 
 
 For wliosoever shall he ashamed of me and of my words, of Mm shall the 
 Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his oitm glory, and in his 
 Father's, and of the holy angels. But I tell yoic of a truth, there he some 
 standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 In every one of the three Gospels which record the 
 Transfiguration, these words, or words nearly identical 
 with these, introduce the narrative of it. We should not 
 forget them if we wish to know how the Evangelists 
 regarded that event. But they are equally important for 
 the illustration of every other passage in this chapter; 
 how important they are for the life of each one of us — of 
 each minister of Christ especially — may He enable us to 
 consider. 
 
 We have seen how closely the Kingdom of God is con- 
 nected in the New Testament with an Epiphany or mani- 
 festation of the divine glory in human weakness. The 
 Son of Man in His cradle, the Son of Man in His baptism, 
 the Son of Man in all His acts of healing power, was 
 showing forth, through the veil of His flesh, His glory and 
 His Father's, and the glory of the holy angels. He was 
 showing that glory not to be destructive, but life-giving 
 and restoring. What He says here is, that a time would
 
 THE GLOKY AND HUMILIATION OF THE KING. 151 
 
 come when this glory, which was discovering itself here and 
 there to a few Galilean fishermen, or to a few poor lepers 
 and lunatics, wonld be revealed to the universe. Here on 
 earth there should be authentic proofs that this Kingdom 
 of God was mightier than all which opposed it. Some 
 were present who should not taste of death till they had 
 evidence of its triumph. 
 
 St. Luke certainly does not intimate to us, nor do any 
 of the Evangelists, that this promise was fulfilled in the 
 Transfiguration. That they represent as transitory. The 
 cloud was lifted for a moment to show what was behind it. 
 Then it descended again. But the voice which came out 
 of the cloud, 'This is my beloved Son,' was the same 
 that had been heard at the beginning. That did not 
 pass away ; that was to be the hidden strength of the 
 Apostles while they were fulfilling their Master's com- 
 mission here ; that was to be their conscious strength 
 hereafter. If we go through the different incidents of 
 the chapter, we shall see how they were learning the 
 lesson ; how difficult it was ; how one side of it seemed 
 to clash with another; how necessary it was that they 
 should have glimpses and foretastes of the glory ; how 
 necessary it was that they should be led to it through 
 ever fresh humiliation, 
 
 (1) The opening of their work as Apostles is grand. It 
 is spoken of in the first verse of this chapter. ' He gave 
 them power and authority over all devils, and to cure 
 diseases.' I have told you that I am obliged to take the 
 language literally, that I cannot explain it away. I think 
 the whole Gospel is the news of a battle of the Spirit of 
 good against the spirits of evil, of man's Deliverer against 
 man's tormentors. These poor Galileans were to enter
 
 152 LECTURE XIII. 
 
 into that battle, to bear arms in it. If they could not 
 contend with invisible foes, they had no work to do at all. 
 They had no weapons against visible oppressors. If these 
 are all that disturb the peace of men's minds or the health 
 of their bodies, the message which the Apostles carried 
 was, from first to last, a mockery ; the power which that 
 message has exerted over mankind has been the power 
 of a lie. That there was no magic in them to encounter 
 diseases or death, their preaching proved. They preached 
 of the Kingdom of God. They declared that the God of 
 Abraham was delivering the children of Abraham from 
 plagues which tormented them. The Apostles were wit- 
 nesses of His presence, of His care for those who had 
 most excuse for fancying that He had forgotten them or 
 that He hated them. 
 
 But along with these great powers were the tokens of 
 their poverty. They were to go forth taking nothing for 
 their journey, neither staves nor scrip, neither bread, neither 
 money ; they were not to have two coats apiece. Visible 
 insignificance accompanied invisible energy. And yet 
 that invisible energy was not to make them in the least 
 independent of ordinary mortal support ; it was not to 
 make them independent even of the persons to whom they 
 ministered. Those who received them would give them 
 what they needed ; they were to trust their fellow-creatures 
 as well as God. But they were to abide in the house 
 into which they went at first, not seeking better entertain- 
 ment elsewhere; if they were rejected in any city, they 
 were to bear witness, in the ordinary Jewish way, that a 
 divine blessing had been proclaimed and offered to its 
 inhabitants, and that they would not have the blessing. 
 
 (2) This message concerning a kingdom, and these exer-
 
 THE GLORY AND HUMILIATION OF THE KING. 153 
 
 cises of royal power to attest it, could not be indifferent 
 to the rulers who were reigning in Palestine as creatures 
 of the Eoman Empire, by its appointment and authority. 
 Herod hears strange tidings of one who, as the people 
 suppose, may be a reappearance of John the Baptist lately 
 beheaded, who may be Elijah, who may be some other of 
 the prophets. He is puzzled ; all these opinions are possi- 
 ble ; perhaps the supposed king may be less formidable 
 in actual presence than in a vague report. Herod desires 
 to see Him. The curiosity is not gratified at that time. 
 When the Apostles return from their mission, Jesus takes 
 them into a desert place, near the city which is called 
 Bethsaida. Men who have been doing any unusual work 
 need retirement. In the crowd these poor peasants might 
 have spoken of the great things they could do, how much 
 mightier they were than Herod. Quietness with their 
 Master may restore the balance of their minds. 
 
 (3) Eetirement is good, but not as a luxury. The people 
 pursue Jesus ; He speaks to them of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven. He heals those that have need of healing. Then 
 follows the story of His feeding the five thousand men 
 with the five loaves and fishes. All four Evangelists 
 speak of it. From St. John's narrative we discover that 
 this act made a kind of impression on the multitude which 
 the cures had not made. They wished to take Jesus by 
 force and make Him a king. They were reminded of the 
 manna which had fallen upon the Jewish camp. This man 
 must have some power of dispensing gifts from heaven — 
 not upon one here and there but upon great bodies of men. 
 Was not this the Monarch they were looking for ? St. Luke 
 does not report the discourse which took off the edge of 
 this admiration. The message concerning One who could
 
 154 LECTURE XIII. 
 
 give them better bread than the bread that perisheth, 
 who would give His flesh for the life of the world, concerns 
 the purpose of St. John's Gospel. It would have been 
 out of place here. But St. Luke does relate a conversa- 
 tion with the disciples, which seems to have been sug- 
 gested by the remarks of the people who had been eating 
 of the loaves. Like the discourse reported by the other 
 Evangelist, it raised and yet depressed their thoughts and 
 hopes respecting His kingdom. 
 
 (4) ' A ncl it came to pass as he was alone praying, his 
 disciples were with him : and lie asked them, saying. Whom 
 say the people that 1 am ? ' They had heard the surmises 
 which perplexed Herod, and which were common, no doubt, 
 in Galilee. The spirit of some old prophet had passed 
 into Him ; of which prophet, there were different opinions. 
 ' He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am ? Peter 
 answering said, The Christ of God.' 
 
 ' It is not the spirit of some prophet which has taken 
 ' possession of Thee. It is the Spirit of God Himself. He 
 ' has anointed Thee.' That is involved in the very name 
 Christ, even if we do not join to it the words which 
 St. Matthew ascribes to St. Peter, ' The Son of the living 
 God! The fact that ' He had been praying,' which St. Luke 
 gives us, may have added strength to the conviction. There 
 may have been an illumination in the countenance at that 
 moment which will have come to the fishermen with the 
 force of a revelation. That it was a revelation — not an 
 outward one, even if there were some sign which fixed and 
 attracted the Apostle as the burning bush did the old 
 lawgiver — our Lord Himself, according to St. Matthew, 
 declared. 'Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, 
 hut my Father which is in heaven! The Spirit who is in
 
 THE GLORY AND HUMILIATION OF THE KING. 155 
 
 the Christ has taught thee of Him. The Father has brought 
 thee to confess the Son. 
 
 (5) But then comes the other aspect, the reverse side, of 
 the discovery. 'And he straitly charged them, and com- 
 manded them to tell no man that thing ; saying, The Son of 
 man must suffer many things, and he rejected of the elders 
 and chief priests and scribes, and he slain, and he raised the 
 third day.' The glory of the Christ, the Son of God, could 
 not be manifested in the most august words. It could only 
 come forth in suffering. Only the Cross could make it 
 known. Only in enduring death and overcoming death 
 could He show what His oneness with God was ; only so 
 could it be shown what His oneness with men was, 
 
 (6) Here is the foundation of Christian theology, here 
 is the foundation of Christian morality. My friends, a 
 frightful attempt has been made in our days to put asunder 
 what God has joined inseparably, eternally together. It 
 has been said that the sacrifice of Christ to His Father 
 has nothing to do with our sacrifice of ourselves. It has 
 been said that to bring the thoughts together is little short 
 of blasphemy. But our Lord Himself brings them together 
 here and everywhere. He makes His sacrifice the very 
 ground of all other sacrifices, the only power in which 
 they can be offered, that which alone interprets and blesses 
 them. 'And he said to them all. If any man will come 
 after me, let him deny himself, and take tip his cross daily, 
 andfolMv me. For whosoever will save his life (or his soul) 
 shall lose it : but whosoever will lose his life (or his soul) 
 for my sake, the same shall save it.' The absolute giving 
 up of Himself — His life or soul — to His Father on the 
 Cross, is declared to be the consummate act of the Christ, 
 the Son of the living God. And those who would follow
 
 156 LECTUEE XIII. 
 
 Him are told that tliey must do the same. They must not 
 seek to save their lives or souls. They must give them up to 
 Him. The Son of Man, not their own souls, must be the 
 object which they set before tliem if they v\^ould really 
 have His salvation. 
 
 A mighty paradox, surely ! yet one which every day and 
 hour of human experience establishes as a fundamental 
 truth. The self-seeker must lose his heart, soul, all his 
 faculties, in that base pursuit. He who loses himself rises 
 to a higher life. You repeat the lesson continually. You 
 cannot help reverencing the man who gives himself for his 
 family, his country, his convictions. You cannot help 
 despising the man who gives up his family, his country, 
 his convictions, to save himself. You are sure the one 
 attains the blessings which he seems to abandon, that the 
 other abandons the blessing which he seems to attain. 
 Alas ! alas ! it has been supposed that in our religious 
 life the doctrine is reversed. There, it is said, we are to 
 be self-seekers. Everything is to give way to the object 
 of saving ourselves. Men even dare to plead our Lord's 
 authority in this very passage for that contradiction of His 
 example. They quote the question, ' What is a man advari- 
 taged if he shall gain the whole world and lose himself, or 
 he cast away.' They tear it from its context. They refuse 
 to read it by the light of the sentence which has imme- 
 diately preceded. They deny what has just been solemnly 
 declared, that every man must lose himself who would be 
 saved. My friends ! Christ does not set aside the verdict 
 which He has taught our consciences to give respecting 
 every instance of self-sacrifice. He ratifies it. He shows 
 the true principle of it. We are created to give up our- 
 selves for the Son of Man, the Head and King of our race.
 
 THK GLOEY AND HUMILIATION OF THE KING. 157 
 
 It is our privilege to lose in Him these miserable selves 
 which have been our torments, which have always divided 
 us from each other, which have always come between us 
 and every high object. And therefore the words of my text 
 have this blessed and this terrible signification. ' Whoso- 
 ' ever seeks something for himself, and not that salvation 
 ' which I the Son of Man have revealed to mankind, shall 
 ' not know what my glory is, the glory of the Father, the 
 ' glory of His holy angels. But those who seek me shall, 
 ' even before they die, have a vision of my Kingdom. They 
 * shall know that I am the Lord of the whole earth.' 
 
 (7) To sustain them in the expectation of this future 
 revelation, to show them that the glory was real, although 
 their eyes could not bear the sight of it, was surely a 
 reason — if we might dare to assign a reason — for that 
 vision upon Tabor, which so soon passed away. It is 
 described in a few simple words. The anxiety of the 
 Evangelists seems not to fix our minds upon it, but to show 
 that it could not stay. He who said, 'It is good for us to he 
 here, and let us make three tabernacles' ' knew not what he 
 said.' And yet the Transfiguration has lived on through 
 ages, and has shed its light upon all ages. It has brought 
 the past into union with the present. Moses and Elijah 
 have been felt to be not dead forms, but living men, because 
 the Son of God and the Son of Man lives. The decease 
 which he should accomplish at Jerusalem has been owned 
 as the bond of fellowship between those who walk the 
 earth, and suffer in it, and those who are departed from it. 
 In the light of that countenance ivhich was altered, of that 
 raiment which was white and glistering, all human coun- 
 tenances have acquired a brightness, all common things 
 have been transfigured. A glimpse of the divine beauty
 
 158 LECTURE XIII, 
 
 has broken through the darkness, and has cheered the 
 humblest pilgrims. They have been unable to pierce the 
 gloom of their own destinies, perhaps to shake off the 
 coil of their own unbelief. But they have had a sense of 
 a Son of Man who was higher than they ; who could see 
 further than they saw ; who could unravel all threads ; 
 who could discover beneath all that appeared most hope- 
 less, the glory of Himself and His Father and the holy 
 angels. 
 
 (8) Greatly has this impression been deepened by the 
 story of the boy in epilepsy, which follows so immediately 
 upon the Tabor vision. The spirit which rent and tore him, 
 the crowd of spectators, the questioning of the scribes, the 
 impotency of the disciples, the agony of the father — 
 who would not hold these to be the most flagrant contrasts 
 to the brightness, stillness, awfulness of the scene above 1 
 Thanks be to God ! such contrasts form the harmony of the 
 Gospel. Thanks be to God, the ugliest facts are never in 
 that Gospel softened or kept out of sight, that there may 
 be more room for celestial contemplation. Tlianks be to 
 God, those ugly facts are never, while that Gospel lasts, 
 able to conceal the divine love, but are penetrated by it, 
 are the means of discovering it to poor men. For we have 
 not here the picture of a lazy benevolence, looking down 
 from a serene region of enjoyment upon a world of 
 misery and wishing it well. We have the history of 
 a divine descent into the misery to wrestle with it, to 
 bring back the victims of it into the home of peace from 
 which they had wandered. 
 
 (9) ' And they were all amazed at the mighty power of 
 Ood. But, while they wondered every one at all things which 
 Jesus did, he said unto his disciples, Let these sayings sink
 
 THE GLOEY AND HUMILIATION OF THE KING. 159 
 
 down into your ears : for the Son of mail shall he delivered 
 into the hands of men.' He whom they had seen in that 
 glory. He who had done these works at which they were 
 amazed, would be given up in weakness and helplessness 
 into the power of men, to be scorned and crucified. Was 
 it wonderful that they understood not this saying, and it 
 ivas hid from, them, that they perceived it not, and they 
 feared to ask him of that saying ? 
 
 (10) They had something to learn before that saying could 
 become intelligible to them. ' Then there arose a reason- 
 ing among them, which of them should he greatest. And 
 Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, 
 and set him hy him, and said unto them. Whosoever shall 
 receive this child in my name receiveth me : and whosoever 
 shall receive me receiveth Mm that sent me : for he that is 
 least among you all, the same shall he great.' While the 
 dispute who should be the greatest went on among them, 
 they could not enter into the humiliation of the Son 
 of Man ; therefore they could not enter into His glory. 
 When they saw Him in every little child, they would 
 begin to have some apprehension of His royalty and 
 Divinity. But that they might receive Him and His 
 Father in the little child, they must cease to be proud 
 men.
 
 LECTURE XIV. 
 
 THE ETERNAL LIFE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 St. Luke X. 25—28. 
 
 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood tip, and tempted him, saying, Master, 
 tvhat shall I do to inlicrit eternal life? He said unto him. What is 
 written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou 
 shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy sotil, and 
 with all thy strength, and with all thy mind ; and thy neighbour as thy- 
 self. A nd he said unto him, Thou hast answered right : this do, and 
 thou shalt live. 
 
 There is no one of the Apostles who dwells so much upon 
 this commandment as St. John. He dwells upon it in that 
 character. He does not speak of love to God or our neigh- 
 bour as raising us above commandments. It is His com- 
 mandment — the commandment — that we should love. In 
 this commandment, he says, there is life ; it carries with it 
 the power of fulfilling it, because it proceeds from the 
 Almighty Father — because it comes to us through Him 
 who has fulfilled it. 
 
 (1) The passage which immediately follows that at which 
 I paused last Sunday, tells us something of the discipline 
 by which St. John was led to these conclusions. We fancy 
 him of a particularly gentle tender nature. He is exhibited 
 to us in the Gospels in quite another aspect. ' Master,' he 
 says, ' ive saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we 
 forbad him, hecatise he followeth not with us.' He had 
 taken up the place of a fierce partisan of Christ. When
 
 THE ETERNAL LIFE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEA\T:N. 161 
 
 his Master had told them that they must receive little 
 children in His Name if they received Him, there was a 
 pricking in the Apostle's conscience. That sentence had 
 nothing, apparently, to do with his prohibition. But it struck 
 him that one was not quite in harmony with the other. 
 Perhaps if they were to receive children in Christ's name, 
 they need not have rebuked this man for using Christ's 
 name. His suspicion was well founded. His Master's 
 answer condemned that act of judgment, and a series of 
 similar acts which should be done in the ages to come. 
 'Forbid him not; for he that is not against us is for us' 
 
 The son of Zebedee was not cured by this admonition. 
 The next story exhibits him again as the fierce fanatical 
 partisan, pleading, as fanatics in all times have pleaded, 
 the precedents of Scripture for their own designs. St. Luke 
 seems to mark the crisis as an important one. Jesus 
 had steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. He in- 
 timates that He was going there for the last time ; at least I 
 know not what other signification we can put upon the sin- 
 gular expression, ' When the time was come that he sJiould he 
 received xvp'. It certainly seems as if all the discourses and 
 acts which are recorded between this verse and the 28th 
 verse of the nineteenth chapter, occurred in this journey 
 to Jerusalem. Be that as it may, He was entering into a 
 village of the Samaritans, and the inhabitants, seeing 
 whither He was bound, refused to receive Him. "Which, 
 when ' His disciples James and John saw, they said, Lord, 
 wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, 
 and consume them, even as Elias did? ' What could be a 
 more venerable example ? What could be more applicable ? 
 Had they not conversed with Moses and Elias on the 
 
 mount of Transfiguration ? Had not Moses and EHas 
 
 M
 
 162 LECTUEE XIV. 
 
 done liomage to their Master ? Why might He not put 
 forth powers as great as theirs ? Why not, indeed ! And 
 what, then, are the great powers ? John and James could 
 have no doubt. Powers of destruction, of course. To call 
 down fire upon a city, what can be so wonderful as that ? 
 They thought so. Churchmen have thought so in all times 
 since. Very much they have grieved that they could not 
 do like Elijah. Very often they have tried, or feigned, to 
 do, exactly like him. Our Lord vindicated the real object 
 of those acts which were done in the old time, by showing 
 forth clearly and brightly what was the object of His acts. 
 The deeds of all Prophets, if they were ever so terrible, 
 were witnesses against destructive Gods, for the living 
 God, the Creator. His true Image, His perfect Son, came 
 not to destroy men's lives, but to save. So He did His 
 Father's will. Whoever has any other purpose than 
 that, be he Saint, Apostle, what he may, is not doing 
 God's will, but a will opposed to God's. By such lessons, 
 hard to be taken in, needing often to be repeated, very 
 humbling to his self-conceit, disagreeable to that nature 
 which we have flattered so much and which he does 
 not flatter at all, St. John was converted not into a 
 weak sentimental enemy of all that is strong and stern, 
 Ijut into a resolute asserter of the doctrines, ' Whosoever 
 hateth his brother is a murderer ;' ' If a man say, I love 
 God, and hateth his hrother, he is a liar.' 
 
 (2) The verses which follow to the end of the chapter I 
 will not leave without notice, because it is more honest to 
 say that I do not clearly understand them. The first sentence 
 was evidently addressed to an over-confident disciple, who 
 had not counted the cost of his intention and needed to be 
 told what it might involve ; the second, to one who was
 
 THE ETEEXAL LIFE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEISr. 163 
 
 finding plausible excuses for not doing wliat he yet thought 
 he was bound to do ; the third, to one who was inclining to 
 withdraw from a work on which he had already entered. 
 So much we can easily perceive ; and if we believe that 
 the same Searcher of hearts who discovered the false zeal 
 or false excuses of those men is detecting ours, is bringing 
 them home to our consciences, we shall draw the best 
 possible lesson from the narrative. But I do not pretend 
 to know the precise signification of the words, 'Let the 
 dead hury their dead' I am only sure that they did not 
 mean anything which was at variance with the mind of 
 Him who denounced the Pharisees for setting aside God's 
 commandment, ' Honour thy father and mother,' by their 
 tradition. I am only sure that those who attribute any such 
 sense to our Lord's words are perverting the New Testa- 
 ment as the two Apostles perverted the Old, the example of 
 the Son of Man as they perverted the example of Elijah. 
 
 (3) But there is one remark which is suggested by all 
 these words of our Lord. He speaks to His disciples as one 
 who has authority to tell them where they shall go, and 
 what they shall do. He speaks as one who has called 
 them to be the ministers in a divine kingdom ; only in 
 thnt sense to be the preachers of a doctrine. I must speak 
 to weariness of this characteristic of the Gospel history, 
 because we are so apt to forget it, and because a long 
 familiarity with the phrase, ' Kingdom of Heaven,' blinds 
 us to its great significance. Give it the force it had in 
 St. Luke's mind, and the passage which follows respect- 
 ing the mission of the seventy, whom the Lord sent into 
 every city and village whither He Himself should come, 
 will all bear the impress of a royal discourse. The com- 
 mands resemble those which were given, to the Apostles. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 LECTUKE XIV. 
 
 St. Luke evidently dwells upon them not so much for 
 any peculiarities in the directions themselves, as because 
 they signified that there were other ministers besides the 
 twelve, who were ordained by Christ Himself to preach 
 the Kingdom of Heaven and to exercise the powers of it. 
 St. Luke looked upon the kingdom as at hand then, which 
 he was proclaiming as established in the ascended Lord. 
 He felt that his ow^n office was good for nothing if he were 
 not as much sent forth by the Son of Man as any one of 
 the twelve. He is speaking of One who would be the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and for ever ; of a kingdom which was 
 to have no end. Whilst, then, he repeated these com- 
 mands which were specially adapted to the wants of men 
 who were going only amidst the sheep of the House of 
 Israel ; he will have felt that the same voice, issuing com- 
 mands as real, as binding, 'would go forth through all 
 lands ; that all who should presume to preach in Christ's 
 name in any time or country, must listen to that voice, 
 must try to learn from it the message which men were to 
 receive, and how the message should be delivered. 
 
 (4) Nor can I think that St. Luke anticipated any less 
 effect, or any different effect, from the proclamation in one 
 time than in another. There would be always those to whom 
 the news of a Kingdom of Heaven would be the best news 
 conceivable, just what they had been waiting and wanting 
 to hear. There would be always those to whom it would 
 be indifferent or incredible. There would be always those 
 who would refuse it, because they regarded the universe as 
 the subjects of that kingdom wliich Christ's Kingdom was 
 to overthrow. Tlie Apostles and the seventy disciples were 
 to heal sickness and cast out evil spirits. They were to 
 act as deliverers ; they were to be witnesses of God as the
 
 THE ETEENAL LIFE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 165 
 
 Deliverer from bodily sufferings, and from the worse evils, 
 which degrade and destroy the spirit. The mind of the 
 Jewish people — the mind of the Jewish rulers especially 
 — was more and more beginning to regard God as the 
 Destroyer, not as the Deliverer ; to think that bodily evils 
 were signs of His disposition towards His creatures ; to 
 think that here and hereafter He would use these bodily 
 calamities, not as instruments of raising them out of their 
 moral and spiritual misery, but as instruments by which 
 He would avenge it and perpetuate it. 
 
 This habit of belief, or unbelief, prevailed among men who 
 counted it their highest glory to possess commandments, the 
 first of which told them that they should worship no God but 
 the Deliverer from bondage — to possess Scriptures which 
 proclaimed Him in every line to be the God of Salvation. 
 
 I have just told you how our Lord rebuked those 
 Apostles w]io would have called down fire from heaven 
 to destroy a village of the Samaritans. How, then, are 
 we to explain those denunciations of the cities of Galilee 
 which occur in the midst of the charge to the seventy 
 disciples ? — ' Woe unto thee, CJiorazin ! woe unto thee, Bethr- 
 saida ! foi' if the mighty works had heen done in Tyre and 
 Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great ivhilc 
 ago repented, sitting in saelccloth and ashes. But it shall he 
 more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the jiidgment, than for 
 you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, 
 shall be thrust down to hell. He that heareth you heareth 
 me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that 
 despiseth me despiseth him that sent me! How, I ask, are 
 these words consistent with those — * The Son of man is not 
 come to destroy men's lives, but to save V If the message of 
 the seventy was, as the words of St. Luke show that it
 
 166 LECTUKE XIV. 
 
 was, a message concerning a God who was not destroying 
 men's lives but saving them, — and if the people of Chora- 
 zin and Bethsaida and Capernaum turned away from that 
 message because they worshipped a God who was not a 
 Saviour, but a Destroyer, — the fulfilment to the very letter 
 of this prophecy would surely confirm, and not annul, the 
 language which was addressed to John and James. They 
 were sharing the evil notions of their countrymen ; they 
 would see whither those evil notions were leading a land 
 which God had called out to be a blessing to all lands. It 
 refused to be such a blessing ; it had become a curse to 
 all lands. It spoke of a God who wished to curse all 
 lands. The judgment which it had anticipated for the 
 rest of the world was coming upon it ; the darkest, the 
 most terrible judgment that can come upon any nation or 
 city of men — the judgment of being permitted to have 
 its own way; the judgment of being left to fight against 
 the Will which is to do only good ; the judgment of suffer- 
 ing the exclusion to which it has consigned all but itself. 
 That judgment the cities of Palestine would have to 
 undergo in a sense in which the corrupt heathen cities 
 of Tyre and Sidon had not undergone it, and would not 
 undergo it. Our Lord, who knew what was in man, testi- 
 fied that if Tyre and Sidon had heard what Chorazin 
 and Bethsaida were hearing, they would have repented 
 long ago. My friends, how many sentences which we have 
 passed in our wisdom upon the heathen world, even upon 
 the darkest parts of it, are reversed by that sentence ! 
 How many hopes are awakened by it, that even the worst 
 inhabitants of that world shall hear the Voice which must 
 sound through the whole creation — that they shall turn to 
 it and live !
 
 THE ETERNAL LIFE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 167 
 
 (5) 'And the seventy returned again ivith joy, saying, 
 Lord, even the devils arc subject unto us through thy name.' 
 A warrant for joy, surely, for those men, and for the 
 successors of those men, in all times to come, if they 
 see physical evil and moral evil giving way before the 
 name of Christ — if they feel that even their weak 
 words bear witness of Him that sent them, in whom all 
 power dwells in earth and in heaven. But yet the sense 
 of power — even of such power — is dangerous. It passes 
 soon into the feeling, ' In Thy name we can do some- 
 thing;' the delight in saving power soon mingles with 
 the lust to use destructive power. ' Lord, the devils are 
 subject to us,' has meant, in the dialects of Christendom, 
 ' Lord, we can excommunicate, we can consign men to evil 
 ' spirits, as enemies of Thee.' Wherefore Jesus said to 
 them, in the full foresight of the final triumph of good 
 over evil, ' I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven'. 
 Then, because men were to be fellow-workers with Him 
 in winning that triumph, because men in all different ages 
 would receive strength from Him, in one way or another, 
 to overcome the powers of nature and deliver the world 
 from its tormentors. He added, ' Behold, I give unto you 
 power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the 
 power of the enemy : and nothing shall by any means hurt 
 you.' But, He added, finally, ' Notivitlistanding in this 
 rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you ; hut rather 
 rejoice, hecatcse your names are written in heaven.' An 
 exhortation which cannot signify, as we sometimes take 
 it to signify, ' Eejoice that you are secure of going to 
 heaven, from which other people will be rejected.' Those 
 who were sent to preach the Kingdom of Heaven would 
 have felt such language utterly incongruous with their
 
 168 LECTUEE XIV. 
 
 mission. They must have understood Him to say, ' Ee- 
 ' joice that you are chosen to do a heavenly work, to be 
 ' heralds of the Father in heaven to His children. Eejoice 
 ' that you have your names in the roll of those who did 
 ' in the generations of old, who shall in the generations 
 ' to come, testify for light against darkness, for heaven 
 ' against hell.' 
 
 (6) We cannot be mistaken about the nature of this joy, 
 for it is written, ' In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and 
 said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that 
 thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and 
 hast revealed them unto hates : even so, Father ; for so it 
 seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me of 
 my Father : and no man knoweth who the Son is, hut the 
 Father; and who the Father is, hut the Son, and lie to whom 
 the Son vnll reveal him.' This was the joy of Christ, the 
 joy of Him whom we call the Man of Sorrows — a joy 
 coming out at that moment in some unwonted radiance 
 of countenance, but really pervading His spirit at all 
 times, sustaining it in all anguish ; the joy of a Son in 
 doing a Father's will, in giving up His own ; the joy of 
 a Son in seeing that will revealing itself silently, gradually, 
 not to those who would boast of it as their own, but to the 
 ignorant and the feeble who would cast themselves upon it 
 to illumine in them that which was dark, to raise and 
 support that in them which was low ; that so God's ways 
 might be justified to the universe, that good and only 
 good might be shown to come from Him, men's works to be 
 good so far as they are His works. 
 
 (7) Most fitly do the words, which He spoke privately to 
 His disciples, follow that wonderful thanksgiving — ' Blessed 
 are the eyes which see the things that ye see : for I tell you, that
 
 THE ETERNAL LIFE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 169 
 
 many prophets and Icings have desired to see those things 
 which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those 
 things which ye hear, and have not heard them! The poor 
 fishermen had that revelation of the Father which kings 
 and prophets longed for. They had entered upon this 
 great inheritance ; they were to call other men, babes like 
 themselves, to share in the inheritance. 
 
 (8) A lawyer came in to give them some help in under- 
 standing the nature and the worth of this inheritance. He 
 stood up and tempted Christ, saying, ' Master, what shall I 
 do to inherit eternal life I ' Eternal life ! Yes, that must 
 be the highest of all gifts. How could it be earned ? What 
 sacrifices could be costly enough to win it ? Had not Jesus 
 some special rules for obtaining it ? No, apparently none. 
 He refers the lawyer to his own books. What is written 
 there ? The student and interpreter of the Scriptures con- 
 siders. Some very remarkable words occur to his mind in 
 the Book of Deuteronomy, words about loving the Lord 
 God with all the heart and soul and strength, words about 
 loving one's neighbour as oneself. Perhaps those were the 
 words in the Law which Jesus meant. Perhaps the lawyer 
 had heard that He often referred to those words. Yes, the 
 quotation was an apposite one. He had found out the 
 way to eternal life. ' This do, and thou shalt live! Had 
 he done this, then ? The question was a painful one to 
 the lawyer's conscience. There was a \^'ay out of it. The 
 law did not define the neighbour — who is he ? 
 
 (9) You know what story was the answer to this question. 
 We call it the story of the Good Samaritan. We could 
 not, perhaps, give it a better name. But why was the 
 Samaritan good ? Did his country give him some advan- 
 tage over the Levite and the priest ? Did his faith ? Did
 
 170 LECTUEE XIV. 
 
 sometliing specially blessed in his own individual nature ? 
 If bis goodness could be referred to any one of these 
 causes, he was no example to the Jew — the lawyer could 
 not be fairly bidden to 'go and do liheioise! No ! But 
 that commandment which the lawyer found in the Book 
 of Deuteronomy — that law of loving the neighbour as 
 himself — had been "written in the heart of the Samaritan. 
 He confessed that he was bound by it. Therefore he took 
 account of the man who was by the wayside, though he 
 had come from Jerusalem to Jericho, though he was of an 
 alien and hostile race, though those of his own race did 
 not esteem him their neighbour. Therefore he sat him 
 upon his own beast ; therefore he poured oil and wine into 
 his wounds ; therefore he took care of him. He made no 
 pretence to exalted virtue ; he did not ask for any reward. 
 He did the things which a voice within him bade him do. 
 He yielded to a law, but it was a law of love, a law of 
 liberty, and in that law there was life. 
 
 The lesson is keen and pointed ; it strikes its roots 
 deeply ; they spread themselves far. The Samaritan heretic 
 obeys the divine law in its largest sense ; the strict Jew 
 breaks it in its most limited and narrow sense. But it is 
 a law to one as much as the other. The notion of love or 
 charity as a self-indulgence, as the mere following of a 
 kindly impulse, is as foreign to the New Testament as to 
 the Old. God commands, man only obeys ; this is equally 
 the doctrine of both. But from what God does the command 
 come ? How is it to be obeyed ? Christ shows forth in Him- 
 self what the God is from wdiom the command comes — 
 how it is to be obeyed. The Son does what the Father 
 wills to be done. All the acts of the Son are acts of 
 wilhng self-sacrifice — acts of service to mankind. These
 
 THE ETERNAL LIFE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 171 
 
 are the acts by which He pays homage to His Father, in 
 which He reveals His Father. To be moulded into con- 
 formity with His will, to have the Spirit of the Father 
 and the Son who alone can mould us — this is the blessing 
 of all blessings. This is that wdiich prophets and kings 
 longed for. To have this gift is the privilege of all, for 
 Christ has died and risen and ascended ; to accept it and 
 live under the law of love — this is what we shall find to 
 be the true, the eternal life, when we have been stripped 
 of all our ow^n pretensions, when we are content to receive 
 aU thini{s from the Son of Man. This life is not a reward 
 for keeping the commandment. In keeping the command- 
 ment you will possess it, you will enjoy it. If we did love 
 God with all our hearts and soul and strength and mind, if 
 we did love our neighbour as ourselves, we should have the 
 divine, perfect life, the life of the eternal God. We should 
 want nothing more, we could have nothing more. Oh, my 
 friends, let us think of this as we kneel at God's altar to- 
 day. The infinite eternal charity of which the Epistle has 
 spoken to us,* is all gathered up in the sacrifice which Christ 
 made for the world. The eternal life is shown forth in His 
 death. We are permitted, we are invited, to partake of that 
 Sacrifice, to eat the flesh and blood. We are permitted then, 
 we are invited, to lay hold of eternal life. We do lay hold 
 of it if we obey those commandments which the Samaritan, 
 who had so little of ovir light, obeyed when he treated his 
 enemy, the Jew, as his brother. For then we confess that 
 a God of charity rules us and rules the universe ; then we 
 ask Him to forgive us aU our breaches of charity, and to 
 fiU us with His charity, since we have none of our own. 
 
 * On Quinquagesima Sunday.
 
 LECTURE XV. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE KING AND OF THE JEWISH RULERS.' 
 
 St. Luke XL 39, 40. 
 
 And the Lord said unto him, Noio do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of 
 the cup and the platter ; hut your inward part is full of ravening and 
 wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that 2vhich is without inakc 
 that which is within also ? 
 
 The last chapter closes with a simple domestic picture 
 which has fixed itself on the heart of all Christian nations. 
 Jesus in the house of Martha and Mary, served diligently 
 by the one, listened to by the other — this story has been 
 felt to be true for that time, true for all times. Such 
 diversities of character, such impatience of the busy spirit 
 against the thouGjhtful one, there must have been in the 
 villages of Palestine, because they are to be found in the 
 villages of Endand. And it has been felt that the love 
 which binds together tempers so naturally at variance, 
 which enables them to work together in their own ways, 
 for the same end, must dwell in One above themselves. 
 There must be a hidden guest in every family group, who 
 appoints the special tastes of its members, who gives them 
 a common centre ; without such a guest the father, the 
 mother, the brother, would only confuse them by their 
 opposing counsels and hasty judgments. 
 
 The chapter which follows — that of which I am especially 
 to speak this morning — ends with a very different feast from
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE KING AND OF THE JEWISH KULEES. 173 
 
 that witli these women. Jesus is in the house of a Pharisee. 
 He pours forth there one of those terrible denunciations of 
 the Pharisaic mind and temper which have been thought 
 so unlike His language to His disciples. Was all this 
 burning wrath, it has been asked, working in Him who 
 said, '' Love your enemies, jpray for them that hate you and 
 despitcfully use you ' — in Him who had compassion upon 
 the crowd that was hungry, and the woman that was a 
 sinner ? 
 
 I purposely bring together the story of IMartha and 
 Mary with these sentences of indignation, that you may 
 feel the force of the contrast. Till we feel it, I do not 
 think we can enter into the Ptevelation of the Son of Man 
 and the Son of God. If in the voice of the Saviour we do 
 not hear the voice of the Judge, we shall not confess Him 
 to be indeed the Saviour. If in the voice of the Judge we 
 do not hear the voice of the Saviour, we shall not confess 
 Him to be indeed the Judge, We may divide these 
 characters in our minds, clinging to the one, turning away 
 from the other ; but our delight in the first will prove to 
 be a weak, maudlin, ineffectual one ; our dread of the 
 second will lead us to cherish all the habits of mind which 
 are most alien from the mind of Christ, from His true 
 gentleness. 
 
 If wc follow the incidents of the eleventh chapter, I 
 tliink you will see how this lesson rises out of them all. 
 
 (1) The disciples, we are told, on a certain occasion 
 asked Jesus to teach them to pray, as John also taught his 
 disciples. He does teach them. They may have wondered 
 as they f(jund that most of the petitions were not new. 
 They had heard them from other lips. The hallowing of 
 the Name, the coming of the Kingdom, the doing of the
 
 174 LECTUEE XV. 
 
 Will, these prayers gathered up the strongest expressions 
 of the old Psalms, of the prayers with which they were 
 most familiar. To ask for bread enough for their daily 
 wants, this was surely nothing new. Could there he any 
 prayer in which the thought of forgiveness did not mingle 
 — any which was not a refuge from temptation — any which 
 was not a cry for deliverance from evil ? Had they learnt 
 anything which they did not know before ? Had Jesus 
 given them the help which John gave his disciples ? 
 
 For twelve centuries this prayer has been used in this 
 land, in every church of it, in every corner of it. We have 
 repeated it several times this morning. Can we then 
 answer this question? Why is it the Lord's Prayer? 
 What is it that Jesus taught which only He could teach ? 
 
 I should answer, my friends, our Lord taught His 
 disciples, and teaches us, precisely what makes this form 
 of words a prayer ; precisely that which had made any 
 words that had ever been spoken in any age, in any 
 country, b)^ any man, a prayer. When He bade them say, 
 ' Our Father,' He explained the nature of prayer, the pos- 
 sibility of prayer, the necessity of prayer. If there had 
 not been in men the sense of a Father, the impulse to pray 
 would never have been awakened in them. The sky, the 
 sun, the earth, would not have created that impulse. 
 Because they had the yearnings of children, they could 
 turn to every object in creation in hopes of finding what 
 they wanted there. They could dream that He might be 
 in the grandest objects which they admired, or in the 
 meanest things which did them good. Every one who 
 left the world might be invoked, for he might know the 
 secret ; it might be in the invisible region, if the visible did 
 not contain it. Against the worship of all these created
 
 THE SPIEIT OF THE KING AISTD OF THE JEWISH EULEES. 175 
 
 things the Jew had borne witness. For the worship of 
 One who created them all he had borne witness. His 
 negative protest was still vigorous and fierce. His positive 
 testimony was perishing. He worshipped a God who was 
 not in the sky, the sea, or tlie earth ; who was not like 
 animals, or like human forms. What was He then ? Just 
 or unjust ? Light or dark ? The Friend of man or the 
 Destroyer of men ? The Jew hesitated ; he could not tell. 
 And therefore, practically, he arrived at a very decisive 
 judgment. The God whom he worshipped tvas the De- 
 stroyer. He was the dark Fate that was plotting against 
 the peace and life of the Universe. He was the invisible 
 Power which Heathens had concealed from themselves 
 behind forms of nature and conceptions of art ; which had 
 only now and then forced itself upon them in its full 
 terror ; which they thought might possibly be propitiated 
 by costly sacrifices, or diverted from its deadly purpose 
 by the influence of the more benevolent divinities. Was it 
 the Name of such a Being as this that the Jews wished 
 to hallow? Was it His kingdom that they wished to 
 come ? Was it His AVill that they desired to be done ? 
 Did He care to give any bread ? Could He forgive ? Was 
 not every temptation of His devising ? AVas not Evil that 
 which He desired and designed for His creatures? See, 
 then, how those words, " Our Father," endorsed and in- 
 terpreted every hope that man had ever cherished, in the 
 Gentile world as well as the Jewish ! See how they 
 scattered the horrible fictions of both ! See how they 
 translated petitions which, in the mouths of Pharisees, were 
 imprecations upon mankind, and even upon themselves, 
 into entreaties for the greatest blessings that could come 
 upon both ! For would not the real hallowing of a Father's
 
 176 LECTUEE XV. 
 
 name, the coming of a Father's kingdom, the doing of a 
 Father's will, be a blessing to the Pharisee as well as the 
 Heathen, such as neither had ever dreamed of? 
 
 (2) In this light, then,Ve must read the words of our Lord 
 which follow respecting importunity in prayer. ' The man,' 
 he says, ' does not rise from his bed when his friend asks 
 * him for the three loaves for a neighbour who has come to 
 ' see him ; but if he persists in his entreaty, he will rise 
 ' and give him as many as he needeth.' ' There,' it has been 
 said, ' you see how our Lord Himself encourages us to over- 
 'come the will of God by the urgency of our petitions ! ' 
 Does He so? Had He not just been teaching His disciples 
 to say, ' Thy will he done on earth as it is in heaven ? ' 
 Do you suppose, when He told them to be importunate 
 with His Father and their Father, that He meant them to 
 imitate those worshippers who cried from morning to 
 noon, ' Oh, Baal, hear us ! ' and showed their earnestness 
 by cutting themselves with stones ? To that importunity 
 the Bible says : — ' there loas no answer, neither was there 
 any that regarded! Our Lord supports His counsel of 
 importunity by these questions : — ' If a son shall ask 
 hread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a 
 stone ? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a 
 serpent ? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he ojfer him a 
 scorpion ? If ye then, being evil, know Jiovj to give good gifts 
 unto yonr children ; how much more shall your heavenly 
 Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him f ' As if 
 He had said, 'Vv'hat, then, will you merely repeat the 
 'prayer that God's name be hallowed? Are you not in 
 ' earnest that it should be hallowed — that all the false, 
 ' detestable names which have been substituted for the 
 ' true name of a Father, or become mingled with it, should
 
 THE SPIEIT OF THE KING AND OF THE JEWISH KTJLERS. 177 
 
 ' be separated from it ? Are you not really desirous that 
 ' His kingdom should overthrow all the tyrannies and 
 ' oppressions of the earth — that His perfectly good "Will 
 ' should triumph over your will and all other wills that are 
 ' striving against it ? ' If you are, will you not go on asking 
 your Father for these blessings, in the assurance that it is 
 His purpose, because He is your Father, to bestow them, 
 in the assurance that He is educating you to desire, what 
 He desires, to work with Him for the overthrow of that 
 which He hates? Will He not give you that without 
 which you cannot hallow His Name, seek His Kingdom, 
 do His Will — without which bread is nothing, forgiveness 
 a mere name, temptation irresistible — without which evil 
 must reign for ever ? Will He not give you His own Holy 
 Spirit ? Is it not this which such a Father would count 
 the good thing for His children ? Can you dream of any- 
 thing better ? And surely the more you receive it, the 
 more you will ask for it ; the more you find it, the more 
 you will seek for it. This importunity, then, is not the 
 Baal importunity. It is that which we demand in different 
 spheres of labour, from every scientific man, from every 
 artist, from every sincere student in every profession. We 
 say to all, ' Be not slothful, be not discouraged by a 
 ' thousand obstacles, by a thousand defeats. Onward, still 
 ' onward. The truth is there. It will reward your dihgence in 
 ' wrestling for it when it seems most to deny itself to you ; in 
 ' pursuing it, though the roads are most rugged' ' Seek, and 
 you shall find ; JcnocJc, and it shall be opened.' I say these 
 exhortations are sound and wholesome, because God is a God 
 of Truth, and because He is our Father, and because He 
 has promised His Spirit of Truth to those who know that 
 without it they shall sink ever deeper into falsehood. 
 
 N
 
 178 - 'lecture XV. 
 
 (3) There can be no better introduction than this prayer, 
 and the comment upon it, to the next passage of the 
 chapter — that in which Christ answers those who said, ' He 
 casteth out devils through Beelzebub, tlie chief of the devils! 
 ' Shall not your Father,' said Christ, ' give His Holy Spirit 
 to them that ask Him ? ' ' By an unholy Spirit,' said the 
 Pharisees, ' He casteth out these unclean and unholy spirits 
 that have got the dominion over you.' Here is the point of 
 that memorable answer of Christ : — ' Every kingdom divided 
 against itself is brought to desolation ; and a house divided 
 against a house falleth! Is it so, indeed ? — is there a battle 
 going on between the powers of evil 1 An ominous strife 
 it is for them ! They do not understand one another, 
 then ; they must destroy each other ! ' But if I with tlie 
 finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of Ood is 
 come upon you.' ' If these works are not the tricks of some 
 
 * mighty power of evil, but the works of the Holy God — the 
 'God of Eighteousness and Truth — do not doubt that you 
 
 * are standing before that God, that He is calling you to 
 ' account.' Thus He explains all His exercises of power ; to 
 this test He brings them. Do they manifest the good 
 Spirit in conflict with the evil spirit ? Do they testify that 
 the good must overcome the evil ? He intimates that by 
 this test the acts of all men must be tried. There were 
 men of repute among the Jews who tried to cure diseases 
 — perhaps who practised exorcism. "Were they working, as 
 He was said to be, in the service of an evil spirit ? Was 
 such a spirit enduing them with the powers which they 
 claimed ? 
 
 He does not conceal it. He had not come to make the 
 world quiet. He had come to disturb a strong man who 
 was keeping his palace, and whose goods were in peace.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE KING AND OF THE JEWISH RULEKS. 179 
 
 He had come to bind that strong man, and to take from him 
 all the armour wherein he trusted, and to spoil his goods 
 He invited all to work with Him in that conflict. Not to 
 engage with Him in it was to take part with the false 
 spirit ; not to join Him in gathering was to join with the 
 spirit who was seeking to divide and scatter. The Lord 
 told His 'disciples that those who were not against Him 
 were with Him. If they cared for the name of the true 
 God, though they might not assume His name, they were 
 on His side. Now He says, that those who were not with 
 Him in asserting the difference between the true God and 
 all false gods — the uniting Spirit and the dividing spirit 
 — ^were against Him. And then He goes on to describe, in 
 awful language, the state of a nation, or an age, or a man, 
 which has rid itself of one unclean spirit — the spirit, as 
 most have said, and I doubt not truly, of idolatry; the 
 spirit that tempts us to seek God in visible forms, but 
 which has not sought any nobler, purer, diviner Spirit to 
 replace what it has parted with ; which therefore feels 
 denuded of all the pictures and decorations that had filled 
 its chambers of imagery ; which goes wearily, restlessly 
 about, seeking for something to people the vacant niches ; 
 to adorn the house that is empty, swept, and garnished. 
 And then, in its dreariness and loneliness, the age or the 
 nation or the individual soul invites spirits far more evil 
 than the one of which it has been dispossessed. ' And 
 tliey came in and dwelt there, and the last state of that man 
 is worse than the first' 
 
 (4) ' And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain 
 woman of the company lifted iip her voice, and said unto 
 him. Blessed is the ivomh that hare thee, and the paps which 
 tlwu hast sucked. But he said. Yea, rather, Ucssed are they 
 
 n2
 
 180 LECTURE XV. 
 
 that hear the word of God, and keep it! Could this poor 
 woman understand the parable by which so many wise 
 men have been puzzled ? If she did understand it, must it 
 not have had a sound of terror for her rather than of 
 blessing ? She may, or may not have comprehended the 
 words. The face of the Speaker, the witness which it 
 bore of gentleness and of power, was more to her than any 
 language. It might be the most soothing or the most 
 tremendous ever spoken ; she had a certainty about the 
 heart from which it issued that no explanations could have 
 given or have taken away. Her words were the utterance 
 of a simple nature. It was a woman's thought about the 
 woman's blessedness in having such a Son. He turned her 
 to the blessedness of a diviner parentage, of that higher life 
 which comes from the Divine Word, when it has mastered 
 and governed the heart within. 
 
 (5) But the heart of the age was not governed by that Word, 
 rather was struggling with it. ' And when the people were 
 gathered thick together, he hegan to say, This is an evil 
 generation : they seek a sign ; and there shall no sign he 
 given it, hut the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas 
 was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man 
 he to this generation. The queen of the south shall rise up in 
 the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn 
 them : for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear 
 the wisdom of Solomon ; and, hehold, a greater than Solomon 
 is here. The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment 
 with this generation, and shall condemn it : for they repented 
 at the preaching of Jonas ; and, hehold, a greater than Jonas 
 is here.' Everything here points to the condition of a land 
 which had heard all Divine calls, which was hearing the 
 divinest of these calls then, and was shutting itself up in
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE KING AND OF THE JEWISH RULEES. 181 
 
 its pride and self-righteousness. All is pointing to the 
 Divine purpose and power which had been manifested in 
 past time, which would be manifested more wonderfully out 
 of stones to raise up children to Abraham. Did God care 
 only for the Jews ? Did not their earliest prophet testify 
 that He cared for the Ninevites ? Did not tlie Ninevites 
 hear when the prophet's own heart was hardened? Did God 
 bestow wisdom on Solomon only for the sake of Solomon's 
 countrymen ? Did not the Queen of Sheba come to hear it ? 
 Had the Ninevites, had the Queen of Sheba the same blessing 
 as the men of that generation ? No ! a greater than Jonas, 
 a greater than Solomon was among them. Yet they did 
 not repent. The highest wisdom seemed to them folly. 
 
 (6) 'No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth 
 it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, hut on a candle- 
 stick, that they which come in may see the light. The light 
 of the body is the eye: therefore wJien thine eye is single, 
 thy ivhole body also is full of light ; hit when thine eye is 
 evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore 
 that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy wJwle 
 body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole 
 shall he full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle 
 doth give thee light! Words like these we have heard 
 before, evidently with a somewhat different application. 
 Here they belong, it would seem, strictly to the Jewish 
 people. A light had been kindled on the earth ; it was 
 intended to shine forth on the world, not to be hid under a 
 bushel. All were to come in and see the light ; but alas ! 
 they had fancied that the light was in themselves. They 
 had boasted of having what others wanted. Oh, what 
 fear there was that the light so shut up, never rekindled 
 from its source, would become the most absolute darkness.
 
 182 LECTURE XV. 
 
 But if any of you will come to the liglit, and let it stream 
 into you, your whole bodies shall be full of it. There shall 
 be no place dark. 
 
 (7) This sentence is the proper introduction to the dis- 
 course from which I have taken my text. 
 
 'And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine 
 with him : and he went in, and sat down to meat. And 
 when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first 
 washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now 
 do ye Pharisees m,dke clean the outside of the cup and the 
 platter; hut your invmrd part is full of ravening and wicked- 
 ness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without 
 make that which is vjithin also ? Put rather give alms of 
 such things as ye have; and, hehold, all things are clean unto 
 you. But woe unto you, Pharisees ! for ye tithe mint and 
 rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the 
 love of God : these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the 
 other undone. Woe unto you, Pharisees ! for ye love the 
 uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the 
 markets. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! 
 for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that ivalk 
 over them are not aware of them.' 
 
 * What tremendous withering words ! ' exclaims the 
 modern critic. ' Can they have been really spoken at 
 ' the house of one who asked Jesus to dine with him ? 
 ' How His temper must have been changed ! What irri- 
 ' tation must have been awakened in Him by the hostility 
 ' which He encountered ! ' I admit at once that, if the 
 Pharisee were not abusing a trust which had been com- 
 mitted to him for the good of the nation, and if it was not 
 the King of the nation — his King — who was calling him 
 to answer for his trust, this language is wholly strange —
 
 THE SPIEIT OF THE KING AND OP THE JEWISH RULEES. 183 
 
 I can make no defence of it. If that were so, then I say 
 the more Jesus cared for the poorest, the most suffering, 
 the most sinful of the land — the more He had stooped 
 to them — the more might we expect Him to speak in 
 thunders to the consciences of those who were lifting up 
 themselves, of those who were making themselves gods 
 and hiding from the people the living and true God. If 
 it were the great disease of the Pharisee, that he made 
 all clean without and left all foul within, was our Lord 
 merciful or unmerciful for telling him to his face that it 
 was so ? Was it merciful or unmerciful to remind him 
 that the unseen God, the God of his fathers, demanded 
 truth in the inward parts, and was willing to give what 
 He demanded ? Was it better for him to know, or not 
 to know, that his money was not his to buy God's favour 
 with, but his to be used as the almoner of God's bounty 
 to His creatures ? Was it well that he should wake up 
 to discover in some dying hour, or when the land was 
 perishing, that he had substituted mint, anise, and cummin 
 for judgment and the love of God, or that the disguise 
 should be torn from his eyes whilst he was yet full of 
 ease and satisfaction ? Was it good that he should go on 
 receiving the greetings in the markets, and tliinking him- 
 self the best of men, or that he should for a moment be 
 discovered to himself in his rags and corruption ? Was 
 it well that more men should drop into the hollow graves 
 which looked so fair without, or that the owners of the 
 graves should be admonished to purify them from the 
 bones and pollutions within ? 
 
 (9) Did these words merely strike at the evils of a single 
 school or sect? Were they not meant to reach all the
 
 184 LECTUKE XV. 
 
 teachers of Israel — all who were busy witli commenting 
 on the laws and letters of the Holy Book ? 
 
 * Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him,, 
 Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. And he said, 
 Woe unto you also, ye laivyers! for ye lade men with burdens 
 grievous to he home, and ye yourselves touch not the hurdens 
 with one of your fingers. Woe unto you / for ye build the 
 sepulchres of the projohcts, and your fathers killed them. 
 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers : 
 for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. 
 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them 
 prophets and apostles, and some of them, they shall slay and 
 persecute : that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed 
 from the foundation of the world, may be required of this 
 generation ; from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacha- 
 rias, which perished between the altar and the temple : verily 
 I say unto you. It shall be required of this generation. Woe 
 unto you, lawyers ! for ye have taken away the key of know- 
 ledge : ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were enter- 
 ing in ye hindered.' 
 
 No sentence here is wasted. Each is aimed at some 
 special tendency of the time. Each is more intense than 
 the one that went before it. First, the infliction of hard 
 rules and practices, burdensome to the conscience of the 
 victim, not causing the least trouble to the imposer. Then 
 the complacent admiration for holy men who are safe out 
 of reach, who can no more utter the reproofs which en- 
 raged their contemporaries and brought death upon them- 
 selves, ' You joyfully build their sepulchres ; what would 
 you do if they stood up and confronted you ! ' Then 
 the fearful assurance that the age, instead of being free 
 from the guilt of previous ages, as it fancied, was gather-
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE KING AND OF THE JEWISH RULERS. 185 
 
 ing the guilt of them into itself, was cultivating all the 
 murderous tempers and habits which had been their 
 curse, was sowing wind to reap a whirlwind, such as 
 they had not reaped. And this because the teachers 
 of the divine law had that great master sin, — the sin 
 of priests and possessors of knowledge in all times. They 
 think that knowledge is given for their own use. They 
 think the people are to be kept away from it, and fed on 
 mere husks. So the key which might unlock divine 
 treasures becomes rusty in their hands, and cannot move 
 the lock. They cannot find their own way into the king- 
 dom of God, and those that are longing for it they keep 
 out. 
 
 Woes indeed these were — woes for the most grievous 
 of all sins, but woes contained in the sins themselvec. 
 These religious teachers were their own tormentors, as 
 well as the tormentors of the land. And this was their 
 sorest misery. They longed to silence the voice which 
 told them of their misery. They did not know that, in 
 ridding themselves of the Judge, they would be ridding 
 themselves of the Saviour. They did not know that He 
 could take from them their pride, their hypocrisy, their 
 hatred of Him and of His Father. Therefore, 'And as 
 he said these things unto them, the scribes a7id the Pharisees 
 began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to sjjeak of 
 7nany things : laying ivait for him, and seeking to catch some- 
 thing out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.' 
 
 Oh, my friends, may we take warning by that example ! 
 If we believe that He who sat in the Pharisee's house was 
 indeed the Eternal Son of God, may we open our ear to 
 hear what He is now saying to the Churches ! In the 
 cottage, where sisters are working and learning, may they
 
 186 LECTURE XV. 
 
 know Him as the Inspirer of tlieir work, as the Giver of 
 their knowledge ! May He teach us to pray, that we may 
 pray aright! May He conquer the spirit which is dividing 
 us by His uniting Spirit ! May that Spirit come and 
 dwell with us, that the evil spirit of pride and malice may 
 not enter into us and possess us ! May He enable us to 
 listen to all the warnings which heathens who have re- 
 pented at His call and profited by His Word send to us ! 
 And if our religion ever becomes one of show and not of 
 substance, of self-exaltation and not of humility, of death 
 and not of life, may the words that have been fulfilled to 
 other countries and ages ring in our ears and make us 
 tremble, that we may turn with all our hearts to Him who 
 can renew us by His grace, who can cause the light wliich 
 He has kindled in us to shine forth on the world !
 
 LECTUEE XVL 
 
 THE FIEE WHICH IS TO BAPTIZE THE NATION AND THE 
 
 KING. 
 
 St. Luke XII. 49, 50. 
 
 / am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it he already 
 kindled ? But I have a baptism to be baptized with ; and how am I 
 straitened till it be accomplished I 
 
 The words which were spoken in the house of the Pharisee 
 were an open declaration of war. It had begun before. 
 John the Baptist had denounced both the sects as genera- 
 tions of vipers. Jesus had provoked the wrath of this sect 
 by His acts on the Sabbath day. The suggestion, ' He cast- 
 eth out demons by Beelzebub, the Prince of tlie demons,' 
 proceeded most probably from them. But He had not till 
 now spoken to them directly of their habits of mind as those 
 which were bringing down curses upon the nation, and which 
 would destroy it. He had not before showed men who 
 assumed to be the worshippers of God — the teachers of the 
 people how they should worship Him, — tliat they were 
 essentially godless ; that they were undermining all godli- 
 ness in the land. Henceforth there can be no doubt of 
 His meaning. If the Gospel of His kingdom is true, their 
 scheme of divinity and their code of ethics are false. The 
 establishment of one must be the ruin of the other. 
 
 I. If we construe the words at the opening of the twelfth 
 chapter strictly, we must suppose that whilst he was talking
 
 188 LECTUEE XVI. 
 
 in the Pharisee's house, a great concourse of people had as- 
 sembled, waiting to hear Him. Before He speaks to them. 
 He must pour out the thoughts of which His heart is full 
 to His disciples. ' He began to say to them, first of all, 
 Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy' 
 He does not speak now as He had spoken when He was 
 face to face with the Pharisees and lawyers. Then He had 
 laid open their special evils — those which arose out of their 
 belief in their superiority to the rest of their countrymen. 
 He speaks of a leaven which was affecting the whole land, 
 of which His own little flock were in as much danger as 
 any others. That which was the disease of the Pharisee 
 was the disease of the time. He calls that disease hypocrisy. 
 We have a reasonable horror of the name. We consider 
 that it is applicable only to the worst men in the worst 
 times. There is good excuse for that opinion ; yet it may 
 rob us of the force of our Lord's warning — we may put it at 
 a dangerous distance from ourselves. The hypocrite is the 
 man who acts a part ; there is no more evil signification in 
 the word than that. And oh ! how easy it is to be a hypo- 
 crite, if that is his characteristic ; how difficult it is not to 
 be one ! Do you not know with what terrible quickness 
 a child becomes an actor or actress ? Do you not know 
 what we do to cultivate the acting talent, the acting habit in 
 them ? Do you not know what a number of social influences 
 and contrivances are at work to convince men and women 
 that it is their business to be masquers, that their skill is to 
 be shown in the devising of masks ? 
 
 To strike at the root of this hypocrisy, to point out the 
 remedy, this is the work which we ask from The King of 
 men, from Him who knows what is in man. Jesus struck 
 at the root of all social hypocrisy, of all personal hypocrisy.
 
 THE BAPTISM WITH FIEE. 189 
 
 in Palestine, when He traced it to the religion which pre- 
 vailed there. Then He pointed out the remedy in this 
 sentence of everlasting might : ' For there is nothing covered 
 that shall not he revealed, neither hid that shall not he 
 known.' The religion of the Pharisees consisted in a series 
 of attempts to please, flatter, and bribe the Euler of the 
 earth. If He could be persuaded not to look too curiously 
 into the acts of His servants, not to probe the secrets of 
 their hearts ; if He could be induced to accept a compensa- 
 tion for this evil, on certain conditions to tolerate that ; if 
 His commandments could be shown to bear different con- 
 structions for different persons ; if cases might be imagined 
 to which they did not apply, or applied with various quali- 
 fications and mitigations ; if the creature could succeed in 
 keeping the Creator at a distance from him, so that his 
 secrets should not be brought to the light ; their religion had 
 realized its liighest objects. Such a religion was leavening 
 the chosen people, as it was under other aspects, with the 
 most dissimilar professions under heathen forms of worship, 
 leavening the old Eoman Empire. The priests and lawyers 
 in Jerusalem, the Pontifex and the Augur in Pome were 
 alike acting a part. They rehearsed their parts in private ; 
 they performed them in public. The Pharisees were at 
 once the consummate practisers of the art, and the most 
 systematic instructors in it. 
 
 But what if the Puler of the earth could not be flattered 
 or bribed ? What if everythin(j that is covered must be re- 
 vealed, if everything that is hidden must be known ? AVhat 
 if the very act of the Creator is to reveal, if He is bringing 
 all things to light, if He hates darkness? There is the 
 whole question. Is it a God of light you serve, or a God 
 of darkness? Acting hypocrisy is an impossible kind of
 
 190 LECTURE XVI. 
 
 service with the first, the only suitable one with the 
 second. 
 
 The apostles of Christ would have need hereafter to re- 
 member this distinction, when the thought would be pre- 
 sented to them, as it had been to all teachers in the former 
 days, that there was a certain lore which was meant for 
 them, the initiated few, and quite another lore for the vulgar 
 many. That poisonous doctrine, in which all imposture 
 lurks, is scattered to the winds for all who believe the words, 
 ' Whatsoever ye have spoken in the darkness shall he heard in 
 the light ; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets 
 shall he i^roclaimed wpon the housetops' That is the maxim for 
 the ministers of a gospel. If they think the good news is 
 for themselves, and their little circle, it ceases to be crood 
 news for themselves and that little circle ; if the world is 
 cheated of it they will find that it changes its character, 
 and takes the form of a curse to those for whose special 
 comfort it is reserved. 
 
 A new topic appears to be introduced in the next verse. 
 It is one, I think, which comes most naturally out of the 
 preceding one. Those who convey a message to mankind will 
 not have the ease and security of those who confine their 
 lessons to the select band. The whole body of religious 
 masquers will be in arms against those who proclaim God's 
 revelation of Himself, God's discovery of the thoughts and 
 intents of the heart, as the highest of all blessings to His 
 creatures. The battle will be deadly. ' And I say unto 
 you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the tody, 
 and after that have no more that they can do. But I will 
 forewarn you whom ye shall fear : Fear him, which after he 
 hath killed hath power to cast into hell ; yea, I say unto you, 
 Fear him.' ' You will have all the power of those who have
 
 THE BAPTISM WITH FIRE. 191 
 
 ' been denounced by me arrayed against you, all tlie power 
 ' of those who are pursuing objects like theirs in every part 
 ' of the world. But what is that power ? What can it effect ? 
 
 * At the utmost it can kill your bodies. If that is all, you 
 need not fear it. But that spirit of hypocrisy of which I 
 
 ' am bidding you beware can do far more. Yield to that 
 ' spirit, and it will destroy heart and soul as well as body ; 
 ' he prompts the murderers of the body, and after he has 
 ' killed he has power to cast into hell. That, that is the 
 ' dreadful enemy ; you cannot regard that with too much 
 ' dread and horror. Where is the protection from him ? 
 " Are not Jive sjparroivs sold for tivo farthings, and not one of 
 
 * them is forgotten hefore God ? But even the very hairs of 
 ' your head are all nunibered. Fear not, therefore : ye are of 
 
 * more value than many sparrows." Utter absolute trust in 
 ' God, that is the refuge from the evil and destroying spirit. 
 ' Have you not a ground and warrant for such trust ? You 
 ' feel your own insigniiicance ; you can put forth no claim 
 ' of merit. But you are not more insignificant than the 
 ' birds, are you ? God cares for them. Whatever is their 
 ' worth in the market, they do not fall to the ground without 
 ' Him.' There is nothing in the argument to make the dis- 
 ciples think highly of themselves, nothing to exalt them 
 above other men. There is everything to remind them of 
 the prayer they have been taught to pray ; there is every- 
 thing to assure them that their Father in Heaven will give 
 them day by day what they need, and that His spirit is 
 stronger than the hypocritical and destroying spirit. 
 
 You must not confound the words which follow with 
 some words of similar sound, of whidi I spoke to you a 
 few Sundays ago. He said then, ' Whosoever shall he ashamed 
 of me and of my coords, of him shall the Son of man he
 
 192 LECTUEE XVI. 
 
 ashamed! Here we read, ' Also (or hut) I say unto you, 
 Whosoever shall confess me [rather confess in me) hefore men, 
 the Son of man will also confess him {or in him) hefore the 
 angels of Ood : But he that denieth me before men shall he 
 denied hefore the angels of God.' If the last clause stood 
 alone, we might treat the ' ashamed ' and the ' denial ' as 
 equivalent expressions. But the previous clause, which has 
 nothing that answers to it in the other passage, is the most 
 prominent one here, and is that which unites this sentence 
 to the rest of our Lord's discourse. That kind of trust in 
 God's continual care and love for them would indeed raise 
 them above the fear of their enemies. But how can a poor 
 man, in the very moment when he is most crushed by 
 those enemies, when the accusing spirit is tempting him 
 and mocking him, entertain it? That spirit whispers to 
 him continually that God has deserted him, that he has 
 forfeited all right to depend on Him by his transgressions 
 or his faithlessness. ' Confess in me,' says Christ. ' Assert 
 ' your union with me as the Son of man. Forget your own 
 ' nothingness in the recollection that you belong to the race 
 
 * of which I am the Head. And then the Son of man will 
 ' confess in you before the angels of God. He will show 
 
 * you that you are one with His family in heaven and earth. 
 ' It will be the denial of your fellowship with them, your 
 ' attempt to establish some ground of worth or security for 
 ' yourselves apart from Him, apart from your kind, which 
 ' will separate you from the invisible world as well as the 
 ' visible, from angels as well as men.' The courage to speak 
 their gospel to men, — the courage which would raise them 
 above the fear of men, would thus depend upon the degree 
 in which they identified themselves with man in their 
 common Lord and Saviour.
 
 THE BAPTISM WITH FIEE. 193 
 
 But tlie disciples of Christ might have turned these 
 words to a wrong sense ; they have been turned to such 
 a sense in later days and generations. They might have 
 said, ' See what worth He gives to the confession of Him. 
 ' Those who assert the truth of His mission, those who call 
 ' themselves by His Name, He will own hereafter. Those 
 ' who refuse Him He will cast out of His Father's presence.' 
 This was exactly the thought in another form which was 
 working in the minds of the Pharisees. They hoped that 
 God would reward them for accepting in great strictness a 
 religion which had His sanction ; that He would condemn 
 other people for not accepting that religion. The disciples 
 of Jesus might suppose that He had come to introduce a 
 religion under more terrible sanctions ; men would be 
 rewarded for accepting it, punished for not accepting it. 
 He adds immediately to the previous sentence respecting 
 the confession and denial of Him one which, at first, appears 
 to clash with it. ' And wJwsoever shall speak a word against 
 the Son of man, it shall he forgiven him ; tut unto him that 
 hlasjjhemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not he forgiven.' 
 All interpreters have felt that this language must have 
 some close relation to the words (with which it is directly 
 connected by St. Mark), ' He casteth out devils by Beelze- 
 bub, the Prince of the Devils.' In another Gospel it is 
 said that there shall be no forgiveness of this blasphemy, 
 ' neither in this ivorld, neither in the world to come.' Taking 
 this sentence with the rest of the passage, I cannot doubt 
 that it tells us what the sin of the Pharisees and of the 
 nation was ; why they were cast out of their steward- 
 ship in that age ; why the sentence upon them remains 
 still. We say, ' They rejected Jesus ; they would not 
 ' believe aU the evidence which He brought from pro- 
 
 o
 
 194 LECTURE XVI. 
 
 * phecies and miracles to attest His divine mission.' He 
 says, ' All words spoken against the Son of Man wiU be 
 forgiven ; ' but there is a blasphemy against the Spirit 
 of God — there is a confusion of good with evil, of light 
 with darkness — which goes down far deeper than this. 
 When a nation has lost the faculty of distinguishing hatred 
 from love, the spirit of hypocrisy and falsehood from the 
 spirit of truth, God from the devil, then its doom is pro- 
 nounced — then the decree must go forth against it. I 
 believe that is the natural sense of these awful words here 
 and elsewhere ; if we give them that sense we are delivered 
 from imaginations which have darkened the Gospel to a 
 number of souls, and the warning to ourselves becomes 
 much more tremendous. 
 
 Fear and hypocrisy have always worked together. The 
 dread of men's faces has been one great motive to hypo- 
 crisy ; the desire of their applause has been another. 
 The baptism with the Spirit of truth is the deliverance 
 from the spirit of hypocrisy. That same Spirit is the de- 
 liverer from the spirit of fear. ' And when they bring you 
 unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates and poioers, take 
 ye not thought (be not anxious or troubled) how or what 
 things ye shall answer, or what ye sJiall say. For the Holy 
 Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.' 
 The meaning and worth of that promise were to be ascer- 
 tained by later experience : only that experience could 
 enable the disciples to follow the windings of this discourse, 
 and to see how each part of it was adapted to some great 
 danger or necessity of theirs. One thing St. Luke knew, 
 and has helped us to know. This assurance of the Spirit's 
 presence did not cause those who depended on it most to 
 speak flighty words in the synagogues or before magistrates ;
 
 THE BAPTISM WITH FIRE. 195 
 
 rudely to defy them : to seize occasions of preaching to them. 
 Nothing can be more simple, business-like, respectful, 
 than the apologies of St. Paul. Must it not have been 
 so ? Are not our apologies liable to be quibbling, rhetori- 
 cal, passionate, just because we do twt believe that a Spirit 
 of love and power, and a sound Mind, is with us to guide the 
 thoughts of our hearts, to teach us what is manly and 
 healthy, what is the product of our own fancy and vanity ? 
 
 II. One principal poison which was working in the 
 veins of the Jewish commonwealth, and was hastening 
 its death, has been detected. Another was brought to 
 light by a question which appeared to interrupt the conver- 
 sation. 
 
 * And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to 
 my lirother, that he divide tlie inheritance with m£. And he 
 said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or divider over 
 you ? And he said unto them. Take heed, and heiuare of 
 covetousness : for a man's life consisteth not in tlie abundance 
 of the things which he possesseth.' 
 
 Hobbes has dwelt upon these words as a confession 
 by our Lord that He was merely a religious teacher, and 
 that He aspired to no control over ordinaiy human affairs. 
 Undoubtedly He declined to interfere in the case in which 
 He was asked to interfere. He woidd not determine how 
 much of the inheritance belonged to the complainant, how 
 much to his brother. But His discourse on covetousness, 
 it seems to me, is the discourse of One who is laying the 
 axe to the root of a polity — of one who is come to esta- 
 blish a kingdom. How much it differs from the language 
 of one who is laying down a religious or ethical code of 
 precepts, I think you will perceive, if you examine it 
 carefuUy. 
 
 2
 
 196 . LECTURE XVI. 
 
 (1) The primary maxim of it you have heard. A man's 
 LIFE consisteth not in the abundance of his possessions. 
 The contrast between life and possession goes through the 
 whole of it. 
 
 A story illustrates this contrast. 
 
 'And he spake a parable unto them, saying. The ground of 
 a certain rich man hrought forth plentifully. And he thought 
 within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no 
 room where to bestow my fruits ? And he said, This will I 
 do : I ivill pull down my barns, and build greater / and 
 there will I bcstoiv all my fruits and my goods. And 
 I vjill say to my soul. Soul, thou hast much goods laid up 
 for many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 
 But God said unto him. Thou fool, this night thy soul shall 
 be required of thee : then whose shall those things be, which 
 thou hast 'provided ? So is he that layeth up treaswe for 
 himself, and is not rich toward God.' 
 
 This story may be called a parable, merely because a 
 single instance is taken to liibit a general experience. 
 But I think you will iind as we proceed that there is 
 another justification of the word. There is a spiritual 
 covetousness as well as a material covetousness. Both 
 were characteristic of the Jewish people. The man who 
 has goods laid up for many years may be an example of 
 one habit as much as of the other. But the point to which 
 I would especially call your attention is this. Moral and 
 religious teachers say much of the transitoriness of life. 
 Our Lord speaks of the transitoriness of the things which a 
 man has, ' Then whose shall those things be which thou hast 
 provided 1 ' God is holding intercourse with the man him- 
 self. ' What art thou .? Do these things make thee better ? 
 Will they go along with thee ? '
 
 THE BAPTISM WITH FIRE. 197 
 
 (2) See how this remark hears upon the inference which 
 our Lord draws from the story. 
 
 ' And he said unto his disciples, Tlurefore I say unto yovJi, 
 Take no thought for your life, vjhat ye shall eat ; neither 
 for the hody, what ye shall 'put on. The life is more than 
 meat, and the hody is more than raiment. Consider the 
 ravens : for they 7ieither sow nor reap ; which neither have 
 storehouse nor ham ; and God. feedeth them : how much more 
 are ye hetter than the fowls ? And which of you with talcing 
 thought can add to his stature one cuhit ? If ye then he not 
 able to do that thing tvhich is least, ivhy take ye thought for 
 the rest ? Consider the lilies how they grotv : they toil not, 
 they spin not ; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all 
 his glory was not arrayed lihe one of these. If then God so 
 clothe the grass, tvhich is to-day in the. field, and to-morrow 
 is cast into the oven ; how much more will he clothe you, ye 
 of little faith ? And seek not ye what ye shall cat, or what 
 ye shall drink, neither he ye of doubtful mind. For all these 
 things do the nations of the world seek after : and your 
 Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather 
 seek ye the kingdom of God ; and all these things shall he 
 added unto you! 
 
 ' How contemptible a thing is the hody ! How poor a 
 ' thing is life ! And then think how God, by His infinite 
 ' power, can crush both in a moment.' Such have been 
 the arguments by which preachers in all ages have tried 
 to withdraw their hearers to religious reflections. Our 
 Lord takes the opposite course. ' How glorious is life ; how 
 * much grander than the mere meat which sustains it ! 
 ' How grand is the body ; how much nobler than the 
 ' raiment with which you clothe it ! And do you think 
 ' God is indifferent either to the food or the raiment of His
 
 198 LECTURE XVI. 
 
 ' creatures ? Does He not feed the ravens ? Does He not 
 ' clothe the lilies ? Are you afraid that He should ever grudge 
 ' you what you want ? ' Here is the ground of His denun- 
 ciation of the habits which He found prevailing among 
 the chosen people. They were heathenish habits. They 
 sprang out of distrust. The maxim of Solon, ' The Divinity 
 is an envious nature/ was at the root of them. The rest- 
 less, feverish pursuit of things to eat and drink, the doubt- 
 ful, miserable mind which accompanied that pursuit, would 
 cease if they once believed in the Lord God of their 
 fathers. Quiet, patient toil would then take the place of 
 craving for possession in the rich, of despair in the poor. 
 And here is His own Gospel. You have a Father. I 
 come to you, poor men, from Hini. It is His pleasure to 
 give you a kingdom. You can claim your places as His 
 sons and daughters. You can know His righteousness and 
 His love, and be partakers of it, and show it forth. Assert 
 those rights. Seek to be subjects of His kingdom. The 
 outward things which you need will come to you as you 
 need them. They will be added to you. 
 
 (3) The foundation of the Kingdom is laid, then, in the 
 Nature of God, in His will to bestow the freest and 
 largest of His gifts on His creatures. Those who claim 
 their privileges as His adopted children may share this 
 nature. His Spirit will work in them to distribute rather 
 than to accumulate the things which they hold for a time, 
 and to seek their treasure in the unchangeable things which 
 are in Him. So read the verses which follow : 
 
 ' Sell that ye, have, and give alms ; provide yourselves hags 
 vjhicli wax not old, a treasure in the heavens thatfaileth not, 
 where no thief approaeheth, neither moth corrupteth. For 
 where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let
 
 THE BAPTISM ^Y1T^H. FIRE. 199 
 
 your loins he girded about, and your lights burning ; and 
 ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he 
 ivill return from the wedding ; that when he eometh and 
 knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are 
 those servants, whom the lord when he eometh shall find 
 uutehing : verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, 
 and make th-em to sit down to meat, and will come forth and 
 serve them. And if he shall come in the second wateh, or 
 come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those 
 servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house 
 had known what hour the thief would come, he would have 
 watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 
 Be ye therefore ready also : for the Son of man comMh at an 
 hour when ye think not! 
 
 How the precept, 'Sell that ye have, and give alms,' 
 
 was acted upon by the disciples after the day of Pentecost, 
 
 we know from St. Luke's other treatise. I pointed out 
 
 to you, when I was speaking of the beginnings of the 
 
 Church in Jerusalem, how entirely spontaneous the acts 
 
 of selling and distributing were which the historian records ; 
 
 how careful the Apostles were to tell their little flock, 
 
 that the things which they had ' were in their own power,' 
 
 and might be kept or parted with as they chose ; how 
 
 dangerous the practice became when, as in the case of 
 
 Ananias, it was thought to carry some merit with it, or be 
 
 demanded by public opinion. Then it gave birth to the 
 
 subtlest hypocrisy. A divine principle was exhibited in 
 
 a particular and transitory form at that time — a principle 
 
 which can never perish, and which must always find 
 
 some form to express itself in, so long as the Church 
 
 lasts. The principle is, that God is the ungrudging 
 
 bestower of blessings, and that men are His stewards to
 
 200 LECTUKE XVI. 
 
 distribute these blessings. So far as they enter into His 
 mind, the delight will be in spreading abroad, not in 
 accumulating. Their reward will be a continually grow- 
 ing knowledge of His character and purposes. Their trea- 
 sure will be in whatever things are good, pure, true ; their 
 heart will be occupied with these. Here is warrant and 
 encouragement for the servants. The Kino;, the Bride- 
 groom of your race, has set you your tasks. You are to 
 watch over those to whom He has united Himself. You 
 are to make them partakers of His gifts earthly and 
 heavenly ; those which are needed for their bodies, those 
 which are needed for their spirits. And you are to remember 
 that He Himself is at hand. These to whom you are 
 ministering are not yours but His. He is Himself their 
 chief minister. He has been so ; He will be so. He will 
 minister to you if you minister to Him. The sense of the 
 nearness of the Son of man, of this great Bridegroom, is 
 what must keep you watchful and earnest in your vocation. 
 Lose that ; think He is not near you, that He may not at 
 any moment make you know how near He is ; forget that 
 He is the Son of man ; and your house will be broken 
 through. The spirit of covetousness will enter in and 
 pillage it of all that is best and most precious within it. 
 
 (4) Peter knew, by this time, that he was to be the 
 minister in a kingdom, however imperfectly he might 
 understand the nature of that ministry or of that kingdom. 
 He saw that these exhortations must apply to him and his 
 brother Apostles. He wished to knovv whether they had 
 any further application. He said, * Lord, speakest thou this 
 parable unto us, or even to all ? And the Lord said, Who 
 then is that faithful and loise steward, whom his lord shall 
 make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of
 
 THE BAPTISM WITH FIKE. 201 
 
 meat, in due season ? Blessed is that servant, ivhom his lord 
 ichen he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto 
 you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But 
 and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his 
 coming, and shall begin to heat the menservants and maidens, 
 and to eat and drink, and to he drunken, the lord of that 
 servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and 
 at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, 
 and vjill appoint him his portion with the nnhelievers. And 
 that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not 
 himself neither did according to his ivill, shall he heaten vnth 
 many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things 
 worthy of stripes, shall he heaten ivith feio stripes. For unto 
 wlwmsoe'cer much is given, of him shall he much required: 
 and to lohom men have committed much, of him they will ask 
 the more! 
 
 The answer is very distinct. ' Wherever in any age or in 
 ' any country men shall profess to belong to my kingdom, 
 * or shall call themselves my ministers, there may be that 
 ' faithful stewardship of wliich I have spoken, there will be 
 ' also the blessings of it. And in every such age and such 
 ' country there will be the temptation to say, " My Lord 
 ' delayeth his coming." There will be the temptation in 
 ' the ministers to act independently of their Master ; to 
 ' suppose that He has left them to do tlieir own pleasure, 
 ' to proclaim their own decrees, to tyrannise over tliose 
 ' whom He came to deliver from tyranny. In every age 
 ' and country those who call themselves His ministers, and 
 ' claim to be entrusted with His treasures, will be the 
 ' worst and cruellest oppressors of all, if they banish the 
 ' Spirit of the Son of Man, and allow tlic simit of covetous- 
 ' ness to enter into them and possess them. But He will
 
 202 LECTURE XVI. 
 
 * show that He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He will 
 ' come to those ministers who have so exalted themselves, 
 ' so sold themselves to His enemy, in an hour when they 
 ' look not for Him. He will treat them as what they are — 
 ' unbelievers. He will visit them with stripes which those 
 ' who have had less committed to them can never suffer, of 
 ' which they cannot even dream.' The language is terrible, 
 No words of ours can heighten or strengthen it. To us it 
 is spoken, and to all who bear our responsibilities. May 
 we meditate upon it in silence. And then the words which 
 come next will not be only fearful. There will be a pro- 
 mise at the root of them. 
 
 III. ' / am come to send Jire on the earth, and ivhat will 
 /, if it he already kindled ? ' I said in speaking of the 
 announcement of Christ by His forerunner that none 
 could answer to that name who did not baptize with fire. 
 We have seen a little of the need of this fire. The 
 vices of h}^ocrisy and covetousness had penetrated into 
 the very heart of the nation. No outward discipline could 
 suffice for the removal of them. The Spirit of the Son of 
 man must contend with these evil spirits. The battle 
 would be, as the prophet had said, with burning and 
 fuel of fire. That fire was already kindled which was 
 never to be quenched on the earth, which would encounter 
 the same foes in each new period — which would find 
 them most fierce and ram'pant in communities bound 
 together in the most holy names, professing the greatest 
 devotion. The nation was in the beginning of that fiery 
 struggle where it was to perish. But before its agony and 
 death were accomplished, there must be another agony, 
 another death. ' / have a baptism to he haptized with, and 
 how am I straitened till it he accomplished I' 'I shall send
 
 THE BAPTISM WITH FIEE. 203 
 
 no fire on earth which I do not myself pass through.' The 
 people cannot suffer apart from the King. Whatever 
 pains He inflicts are pains to Himself. This is indeed the 
 deepest of all mysteries. But it is the Christian mystery 
 — ^the mystery of the divine charity. Take it away, and 
 the Gospel ceases to be a Gospel. Men cannot enter into 
 the Kingdom of Heaven ; there is no Kingdom of Heaven 
 for them to enter.
 
 LECTURE XVIL 
 
 THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 
 
 St. Luke XIII. 34, 35. 
 
 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them tJiat 
 are sent unto thee; Jiow often would I have gathered thy children together, 
 as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not ! 
 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, 
 Ye shall not see me, until the time come tvhen ye shall say, Blessed is he 
 that Cometh in the name of the Lord. 
 
 I. I SPOKE last week of the fire which Christ came to kindle 
 on the earth, and of the baptism with which He was 
 Himself to be baptized. Words which He spoke at the 
 same time, but which I reserved for this morning, tell us 
 something of the nature of that fire and of that Baptism. 
 
 " Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth ? I 
 tell you, Nay ; hut rather division : For from henceforth 
 tliere shall he five in one house divided, three against two, and 
 tioo against three. The father shall he divided against the 
 son, and tlie son against the father / the mother against the 
 daughter, and the daughter against the mother ; the mother- 
 in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law 
 against her mother-in-law y 
 
 We try to soften this terrible prophecy by our comments. 
 As if we could explain away facts which are notorious to 
 every reader of history, to even one who has any expe- 
 rience of what is passing in his own time ! As if we could 
 convince any reasonable persons that there have not been, 
 that there are not, these strifes in families ; that the
 
 THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 205 
 
 Gospel of Christ has not provoked them, and does not 
 provoke them still ! Or as if our Lord, supposing He is the 
 Prince of Peace, as we say He is, wanted our help to vin- 
 dicate Him from the charge of being the Author of war ! 
 Surely we may trust Him with Plis own character. All 
 that is required of us is, that we should let His words 
 come to us in the fulness of their power and their con- 
 demnation. Goodness and gentleness do stir up what is 
 opposed to them in us ; we know that they do. Our 
 sectarian animosities are kindled by the message of God's 
 goodwill to men ; we know that they are. Can we not 
 understand then, how, coming among a set of hostile fac- 
 tions, which abhorred one another, but observed a conven- 
 tional decency in their strife, Christ stirred up their rage to 
 its very depths ? Cannot we understand how the fury of 
 both burned for awhile against Him — a hollow truce being 
 established between them by the presence of a common 
 enemy ? Did it not revenge itself for that restraint after- 
 wards ? Did not every hearth and household become a 
 battle-field in that war ? This was the state of Jerusalem, 
 as its own historian describes it in the latter days. He 
 can give us the narrative calmly, Jew though he was. 
 Wlien Jesus looked forward to it. He was straitened with 
 agony. He felt in every fibre of His own being what was 
 coming upon His land. There may have been moments 
 when the evil spirit thrust the thought full upon Him : 
 ' Would it not be better to shrink from Thy task ? If this 
 
 * is the effect of the Peace which Thou proclaimest, why not 
 ' let them welter on without any announcement of God's 
 
 * kingdom ? ' Such suggestions have been continually made 
 to His followers, when they have spoken of peace, and 
 wlien those to whom they have spoken have made them
 
 206 LECTURE XVII. 
 
 ready for the battle. If He was tempted in all points like 
 them, He cannot have been free from this kind of anguish. 
 Nor will He have overcome the tempter with any other 
 weapons than those with which He has furnished them. 
 He must have said, for Himself and for them, ' My work 
 ' is with the Lord, and my judgments with my God. In His 
 ' own time my Father will accomplish His purpose. The 
 ' hollow alliances of sects will end in more fierce and 
 ' frantic war. But through that war will come, the discovery 
 ' of the peace which passeth understanding, the peace 
 ' which lasts in the midst of the world's tribulations ; that 
 ' peace will be established through the whole creation.' 
 
 II. Truly it did not require a prophet's eye to discern 
 what was passing among the chosen people at that time. 
 
 ' Aiid he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise 
 
 out of the west, straightioay ye say, There co^neth a shmver; 
 
 and so it is. And when ye see the south wind Now, ye say, 
 
 There will he heat ; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye 
 
 can discern the face of the sky and of the earth ; hut how is 
 
 it that ye do n/)t discern this time ? Yea, and why even of 
 
 yourselves judge ye not what is right f ' ' "What, are the 
 
 ' prognostics of the weather indeed so credible and trust- 
 
 ' worthy ? Have you faculties for discovering these, and can 
 
 ' you make nothing of the signs which shew whither this 
 
 ' age is tending — whither the country, of which you are 
 
 ' citizens, is tending ? Cannot you even discern the facts 
 
 ' which are going on within yourselves ? Oh, believe it, the 
 
 ^ ' clouds do not portend rain, or the south wind heat, half so 
 
 ' certainly as the accusing spirit who speaks in your con- 
 
 ' science warns you of storms which are approaching you.' 
 
 Of this adversary, this accuser within. He speaks awfully 
 
 in the next verse. ' When thou goest with thine adversary
 
 THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 207 
 
 to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that 
 thou mayest he delivered from him ; lest he hale thee to the 
 judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer 
 cast thee into prison.' When you hear a voice within you 
 warning you of evils done by you, of evils that are coming 
 upon you, oh, let him not speak again, once, twice, thrice ! 
 Agree with him quickly, whilst thou art in the way with 
 him. Confess the wrong. Ask to be set right. Tell God 
 of thy terrors. Ask Him to take them from thee. Else thy 
 spirit will become more rivetted in that evil, more and 
 more possessed by that terror. The Judge will deliver thee 
 to the officer, the officer will cast thee into prison. And 
 oh, that prison ! the prison of the spirit, the spirit of the 
 man himself ! My friends, if we know anything of what 
 that is, we shall enter into the force of the last words ; we 
 shall confess their intense truth : " / tell thee, thou shall not 
 depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite! Yes, 
 the very last mite ; till thou hast wholly, utterly given up 
 thyself. There is no redemption but in that. 
 
 III. Wliilst He was speaking of these signs, which foretold 
 the downfall of the Jewish commonwealth — of those signs 
 which each member of that commonwealth might discover 
 in his own heart — ' there were present some who told Him of 
 the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their 
 sacrifices.' It was an event, no doubt, which had occurred 
 recently ; the minds of the people must have been full of 
 it. There could be no more ghastly exhibition of a Roman's 
 contempt for the rites which were most sacred in their 
 eyes; contempt mingled, as it generally is, with cruelty. 
 It was of a piece with much of Pilate's administration ; he 
 had already done acts which shewed that, in his scorn of 
 the Jewish worship, he could forget the prudence of a
 
 208 LECTURE XVII. 
 
 ruler, and transgress the maxims of toleration which the 
 Caesars ordinarily recognised. Here, then, was a sign of 
 the times. Here was a warning of the desolation which 
 was coming upon city and Temple. But those who could 
 read the signs in the heavens so skilfully, could not dis- 
 cover the meaning of this sign. They supposed that the 
 Galilseans who had suffered these things were sinners above 
 all the Galilseans. God had given them over to the malice 
 of the Governor for some special enormities of which they 
 had been guilty. ' / tell you nay,' said our Lord ; ' hut 
 exce'pt y& repent, ye shall all likeivise perish.' Understand, 
 from this event, the kind of punishment which is threat- 
 ening you all. Understand, that unless you turn to Him 
 who has called you to know Him, and to be the witnesses of 
 Him to the world — unless you confess your abuse of that 
 calling — the sacrifices will be taken from you, and in the 
 most tremendous sense your blood will be mingled with 
 them. He went on to speak of another sign which had 
 been similarly explained. The tower of Siloam had fallen. 
 It had crushed eighteen men. Those eighteen had been 
 suspected of having drawn the sentence upon them because 
 they were sinners above all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 
 Eather let all the inhabitants of Jerusalem see in that fall 
 a message from God, telling them that the towers of their 
 city would fall, that the whole nation would be crushed, if 
 it did not fly from its Mammon and Moloch worship to the 
 God of Abraham. 
 
 I do not in the least under\'alue the lesson which is 
 commonly deduced from this passage against rash conclu- 
 sions respecting those who are the subjects of any unusual 
 calamity. The lesson is there ; it ought to be enforced ; 
 but I believe it will be much more strongly and usefully
 
 THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 209 
 
 enforced, if we do not overlook the more prominent lesson 
 which connects these words with all that went before, and 
 with all that follow them. For St. Luke says, ' He spake 
 also this parable ;' evidently meaning us to understand it as 
 bearing upon the topic of which He had just been speaking. 
 ' A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard ; and 
 he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then 
 said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three 
 years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none : 
 cut it down ; why cumber eth it the ground ? And he an- 
 swering said unto him. Lord, let it alone this year also, till 
 I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: 
 and if not, then after that thou shall cut it down.' No 
 reader of the Old Testament could misunderstand the gene- 
 ral scope of this parable. The nation's life had been asso- 
 ciated again and again by the Psalmists and Prophets with 
 the life of trees, of the fig-tree and the vine especially. 
 The nation was asked why it did not bring forth such 
 fruits as bore witness of a divine root, as answered to a 
 divine tillage ; why it brought forth wild fruits sucli as 
 grew out of an evil — selfish root, or such as had received 
 no benefit from tillage. Our Lord adopts the old language. 
 He explains the divine discipline upon human wills, upon 
 the springs and sources of human action, by the discipline 
 which is bestowed upon natural things. He teaches that 
 we are to refer the preservation of societies and the renova- 
 tion of societies to a divine process, as we are to see in the 
 degeneracy of societies and their dissolution the resistance 
 to that process. The Jewish nation was becoming sapless ; 
 there was corruption at the core of it. Still it was very- 
 dear to Him, who had watched over it in all generations, 
 who had come to look after it now. It was dear to Him, 
 
 p
 
 210 LECTUBE XVII. 
 
 for He had the mind of the great Husbandman, the 
 Father from whom He had been sent. He must make new 
 experiments upon it. He must see whether it would still 
 reject all His appeals to it. Such language may clash with 
 our theories of Omnipotence ; but it is the language of the 
 Bible throughout. The whole of it is false, if it is false 
 that God shows His might, not in crushing wills but in 
 educating them ; that His punishments are themselves the 
 expressions of His tenderness for the works of His own 
 hand, of His determination not to cast aside the clay till 
 He has shaped it into some vessel for His use. That this 
 vessel, this chosen race, would be cast aside, is becoming 
 all too evident. St. Luke could bear to recite the parable 
 which pointed to that catastrophe, for he had entered into 
 the language of his friend, the Hebrew of the Hebrews 
 who had wished himself accursed for Christ for the sake of 
 his kinsmen after the flesh. ' / say then, Have they stumbled 
 that they should fall ? Ood fm-bid : but rather through their 
 fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to 
 jealousy. Now if the fall of them be tlie riches of the world 
 and tlie diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles ; how 
 much more their fulness ? \ 
 
 But what were the proofs that the fig-tree had become 
 sapless, that there was decay at its root ? Here is one 
 proof : — ^ And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the 
 sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit 
 of infirmity eighteen years, and loas bowed together, and could 
 in no wise lift up herself. Andtvhen Jesus saw her, he called 
 her to him, and said unto her. Woman, thou art loosed from 
 thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her : and imme- 
 diately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the 
 ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because
 
 THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 211 
 
 that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the 
 people, There are six days in which tnen ought to work : in 
 them therefore come and he healed, and not on the sahhath 
 day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thoit hypo- 
 crite, doth not each one of you on tJie sahhath loose his ox or 
 his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering ? And 
 ought not this woman, heing a daughter of Ahraham, whom 
 Satan hath hound, lo, these eighteen years, he loosed from this 
 hond on the sahhath day ? And when he had said these 
 things, all his adversaries ivere ashamed : and all the 
 people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done 
 hy him.' 
 
 In that act of Jesus came forth the tenderness and love 
 which had cared for the man-servant and the maid-servant, 
 which had ordained that man should rest because God 
 rested, that man should work because God worked. In 
 that speech of the Euler of the Synagogue came forth that 
 denial of a God of goodness and loving-kindness, that wor- 
 ship of a God who grudges blessings to His creatures, who 
 insists upon one day for Himself and leaves His creatures to 
 enjoy six days without Him — which had been accumulating 
 in the nation for many ages, and was now reaching its 
 climax. And Christ's awful exposure of the man who had 
 no scruple about saving his property on the Sabbath Day, 
 but had the greatest scruple about benefiting a fellow 
 creature, showed to what god this ruler of the Synagogue 
 had transferred his allegiance, what god was becoming the 
 object of his countrymen's service. There was still a 
 protest in the heart of the people against that service, a 
 recognition of the invincible logic which confounded the 
 ruler. ' The people rejoiced for the glorious things that 
 were done hy Him.' Tlie fig-tree was not yet dead. The 
 
 p 2
 
 212 LECTURE XVII. 
 
 Dresser of the vinej^ard was still digging about it and 
 dunging it. 
 
 And there was a profounder consolation, an infinite joy, 
 in remembering that -the divine seed was working, and 
 tliat if that tree was dying, another tree which would spread 
 its branches far more widely was springing up. 
 
 ' Then said he, Unto lohat is the kingdom of God like ? 
 and whereunto shall I resemble it .? It is like a grain of 
 mustard seed, lohich a man took, and cast into his garden ; 
 and it greiv, and waxed a great tree ; and the fowls of the. 
 air lodged in the branches of it.' 
 
 Out of the perishing nation would arise the Universal 
 Church ; it would rise at the message of the Kingdom 
 of Heaven delivered by fishermen ; that would be the 
 tiny seed from which it w^ould grow. Even an liumbler 
 comparison (none could be too humble) might attest the 
 mysterious working of the divine Word in the hearts of 
 men. 'And again he said, -Whereunto shall I liken the 
 kingdom of God ? It is like leaven, which a woman took and 
 hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.' 
 
 He goes onwards, still moving towards Jerusalem. At 
 each step of the journey there has been an announcement of 
 some great woe impending over the land — impending over 
 those priests and rulers who might seem safe, whatever befel 
 the rest of their countrymen. ' TJien said one unto him. 
 Lord, are there few that he saved ? ' The question was a very- 
 natural one. It must have often been in their hearts, if 
 it had not risen to their lips. What exactly it meant we 
 cannot know, for probably he who asked it did not know. 
 He had a vague terror of some great danger which might 
 overtake him and all that were dear to him. It might be 
 a danger to the body, it might be a danger to the spirit.
 
 THE CITY OP THE GEEAT KING. 213 
 
 The scene of it might be in this world or in some other 
 world to which men would go after death. It might be tem- 
 porary. It might be endless. It might come from the Son 
 of Man. He might be the Saviour out of it. All possibilities 
 were there ; Christ's words had awakened the conscience to 
 activity ; it gave its own force and sense to those words. Our 
 Lord's answer enabled the inquirer to know his own mean- 
 ing as he did not know it before. And He said unto them : — 
 ' Strive to enter in at the strait gate : for many, I say unto 
 you, will seek to enter in, and sludl not he able. When once 
 the master of the Jiouse is risen up, and hath shut to the door, 
 and ye legin to stand without, and to knock at tlie door, say- 
 ing. Lord, Lord, open unto us ; and 1u shall answer and say 
 unto you, I know you not ivhence ye are : TJien shall ye begin 
 to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy 2>rese7ice, and thou 
 hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I 
 know you not ivhence ye are ; depart from me, all ye workers 
 of iniquity. There shall be tveeping a7id gnashing of teeth, 
 when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all 
 the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust 
 out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, 
 and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down 
 in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which 
 shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.' 
 
 If we took the last words of this passage first, we should 
 say at once, ' There is a direct answer to the demand, Are 
 * there /w that be saved? Does He not say. They shall 
 ' come from the east and the west, and from the north and 
 ' the south, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God ? ' 
 But this language would not have explained itself to the 
 mind or conscience of those who heard it, or of us who read 
 it, if it had stood alone.
 
 214 LECTURE XVII. 
 
 He had warned them of active moral corruptions which 
 were destroying the land and infecting the hearts of all 
 its members. He had told them that against these he was 
 waging war. Salvation from these was what they wanted. 
 Let them remember what he had said of the leaven 
 of hypocrisy, of that covetousness which was taking so 
 many forms, putting on such religious disguises. Let 
 them strive then to enter in at the strait gate — the gate 
 of sincerity and trust which was so hard to find, which so 
 many were missing. Let them understand that the Master 
 of the house, the Lord of their hearts and spirits, was 
 speaking to them there — was calling them to confess His 
 government, to abandon the service of other lords for His. 
 There might come a day when that voice would be heard 
 no more — when the door through which He was calling 
 them to enter would be shut. There would be then a con- 
 fession in many hearts. ' He was our true Lord. These 
 cheats and self-deceptions to which we have given up 
 ' our souls are dying out ; there is no help in them. 
 ' These possessions, where are they going ? are our rever- 
 ' sions worth anything ? Lord, Lord, let us have Thee 
 'now, since these have failed.' But He from within, 
 that secret Lord of the heart and reins, shall answer, 
 'I know you not whence you are. You have never 
 ' desired righteousness ; you have never hungered and 
 ' thirsted after truth. What have I in common with 
 ' you ? ' And then comes the effort to gather comfort from 
 the thought of all the religious duties they have performed 
 — of all the privileges which they possessed and others 
 were without : ' Can it be that Thou who didst preach to 
 'publicans and sinners hast no word for us who did so 
 ' many things to make ourselves acceptable to our Maker ? '
 
 THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 215 
 
 But it avails not. The Voice sounds clear in the conscience : 
 * You have been workers of iniquity. These acts and ser- 
 ' vices have not made you truer or better men. I tell 
 ' you I know you not whence you are.' 
 
 Fearful words, surely ; as fearful as ever were spoken, 
 because they go to the very root of things — because they 
 repeat a colloquy of the spirit in man with its Euler, when 
 all the disguises by which it has hidden itself from Him 
 have been swept away. Therefore have they sounded in 
 ever deepening tones through the ages ; therefore must 
 every one of us say, * I am meant to heed them.' 
 
 But they did refer to that age, as the next verse proves. 
 They pointed to the wailing and gnashing of teeth with 
 which the exclusive, self-satisfied child of Abraham would 
 regard the entrance of outcasts and idolaters into that 
 Kingdom of God from which he was shut out. He might 
 have still the external law, the Scriptures, whatever he 
 had exulted in, as the proof of his distinction from the rest 
 of mankind. He might have outward treasures, which 
 would make him envied — and tormented. But the king- 
 dom of the Living God, the eternal kingdom, under the 
 shadow of which, in the hope of which, Abraham and 
 Isaac and Jacob had dwelt, which they were sure would 
 reveal itself more and more fully to the world — which they 
 would rejoice in, after they had left the world — where 
 was that ? Gentiles would give thanks that the Lord was 
 King, be the earth ever so unruly ; that He sat upon the 
 water-floods, let the people be never so unquiet. Gentiles 
 would expect a manifestation of His brightness and glory 
 to the whole universe. And the brethren of the Psalmists 
 and Prophets, the rightful inheritors of all their grand 
 possessions and expectations, must be left to the anguish
 
 216 LECTUEE XVII. 
 
 of feeling themselves under capricious, tyrannical, human 
 rulers — of dreading, instead of longing, that God should 
 appear and that all things should be made subject to 
 Him. 
 
 To the Kingdom of God, then, we are brought back. 
 Shall only a few see that ? Very many ; more than you 
 dream of; men of every nation, and kindred, and tongue. 
 ' But there are last which shall he first, and first which shall 
 he last! How does that sentence strike at the judgments 
 of Jew and of Gentile ; of the chosen nation and of the 
 Catholic Church ! How does it encourage us to believe 
 that those whom we have siipposed to be out of the pale 
 of salvation may be claimed as His by the Son of man 
 How does it force each of us to say, ' Mighty Lord ! Master 
 ' of the house ! wilt Thou not save me from the pride 
 ' and the scorn which have divided me from Thy brethren 
 ' and from Thee ! ' 
 
 'Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. There were 
 rulers in Galilee who knew that their kingdom was not a 
 Kingdom of Heaven at all, and who did not like to hear 
 of one. ' The same day there came certain of the Pharisee 
 saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence : for Herod 
 will kill thee! These Pharisees were, doubtless, not sorry 
 to show the disciples of Jesus that there were kings who 
 exercised a power before which their King must bow. He 
 neither bowed before it, nor resisted it, nor fled from it. 
 ' And he said unto them. Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I 
 cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the 
 third day I shall he perfected. Nevertheless I must walk 
 to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following : for it can- 
 not he that a pro'phet perish out of Jerusalem! Cunning 
 was the weapon of the Tetrarch ; it was not His. He
 
 THE CITY OF THE GKEAT KING. 217 
 
 had a work to do ; He should do it openly. He must 
 heal sicknesses ; He must cast out devils. In a day or 
 two His task in that region would be accomplished. For- 
 ward He must go. Herod would do Him no harm. He 
 was indeed to die ; but not by that hand, in that place. 
 A prophet could not perish except in Jerusalem. Thither 
 His thoughts, as well as His steps, were tending ; the city 
 of David, the city of murderers, was dear to Him above 
 all others — had been dear to Him long before He came to 
 it in that lowly guise with that troop of fishermen. 
 
 ' 0, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which Jcillest the prophets, and 
 stonest them that are sent unto thee ; how often would I have 
 gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood 
 under her wings, and ye would not / Behold, your house is 
 left unto you desolate : and verily I say unto you. Ye shall 
 not see me, imtil the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is 
 he that cometh in the name of the Lord.' 
 
 There you see the King. Yes, do not fear to say it — 
 the patriot King. He loves the world ; He has come to 
 gather in the nations. But that city had been chosen as 
 the witness to all nations. Over that He had watched. 
 Its kings had been raised up to show forth the righteous 
 King of kings. Its prophets had been sent to declare that 
 He reigns, let those who reign under Him be ever so 
 unrighteous. They had been stoned and killed for that 
 testimony. And still He had sought to gather together 
 that broken, divided people. ' But ye would not.' You have 
 refused the Reconciler ; you have preferred strife and hatred 
 to Him. And therefore the desolation must come. The 
 Holy city, the Temple which is the sign of its holiness 
 and unity, must be deserted of the divine Presence. 
 
 AVhat I for ever ? He points us to a time when this
 
 218 LECTURE XVII. 
 
 fallen people should say, ' Blessed is He that cometh in 
 the name of the Lord ; ' when the King and Deliverer 
 should indeed be revealed to them. Is there anything hope- 
 less in the counsels of the everlasting King? Are His 
 purposes of grace and love finally defeated by the self- 
 will of the creature? Let us trust that they will not 
 be defeated. Else what is in reserve for you and me ; 
 for those who have resisted greater manifestations of divine 
 Love, a larger and grander history of divine Patience than 
 any which Jerusalem knew in its earlier days, or in that 
 day?
 
 LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 THE FEAST OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 St. Luke XIV. 34, 35. 
 
 Salt is good ; hut if the, salt have lost its savour, toherewith shall it be 
 seasoned ? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill ; hut men 
 cast it Old. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 
 
 This 14tli chapter opens with another act of healing on 
 the Sabbath Day. "When I was preaching on the sixth 
 chapter, I considered these acts generally. I inquired why 
 they assume such prominence in the Gospels, why our 
 Lord attached such solemn importance to them, why they 
 awakened such bitter hostility against Him. There is a 
 difference, I think, between His treatment of those earlier 
 indications of the Pharisaic temper, and of those which 
 are presented to us in the chapter I considered last Sunday, 
 and in this. No doubt the principle which is enunciated 
 in the sixth chapter governs these cases as well as the 
 previous cases. ' The sahhath was made for man, not man 
 for the sahhath : Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of 
 the sahhath' — that was the grand assertion of the true 
 humanity of the fourth commandment, that was the divine 
 exposure of all attempts to make the Godhead inhuman. 
 But in both these recent disputes with the Pharisees, the 
 argument takes this form : ' Whieh of you ivho shall have a7i 
 ass or an ox fallen into a pit, ivill not straightway pull him out
 
 220 LECTUEE XVIII. 
 
 on the sabbath day ? ' The repetition of this appeal, which 
 the Pharisees could not answer, shows, it seems to me, 
 what temper of mind our Lord was especially designing to 
 lay bare at this time. A self-seeking religion was under- 
 mining the nation. The habit of measuring acts by their 
 profit and loss, was the characteristic habit of the Pharisee. 
 Jesus detects it in this instance ; He shows how little 
 what' they held to be the law of God interfered with any 
 question of property ; how stern it became when only the 
 health or life of a fellow-creature was at stake. If we 
 follow the windings of this chapter, I believe we shall find 
 that He is setting forth different illustrations of the self- 
 seeking spirit, and of the contrast between it and the mind 
 of the gracious God. 
 
 I. Jesus is at a feast. He sees the guests choosing out 
 the chief rooms. He puts forth, the Evangelist says, a 
 parable to them. We do not, at first, perceive why His 
 discourse should have that name. It reads like a simple 
 admonition applicable to those who frequented that feast 
 or any feast. ' When thou art hidden of any man to a 
 vjedding, sit not down in the highest room ; lest a more 
 honourable man than thou be bidden of him' And when 
 we go on to the next passage, we might easily say, ' Here 
 ' is a sanction for calculations of worldly prudence. The 
 ' conduct prohibited is treated as inconsistent with this.' 
 ' Lest he that bade thee and him eome and say to thee, Give 
 this man place ; and thou begin with shame to take the 
 lowest room. But ivhen thou art hidden, go and sit down in 
 the lowest room ; that when he that bade thee cometh, he m.ay 
 say unto thee, Friend, go up higher : then shalt thou have vjor- 
 ship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.' My 
 friends, I do not in the least wish you to forget that our
 
 THE FEAST OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN". 221 
 
 Lord does announce this as the probable result of these 
 two courses. I believe experience may have led many to 
 the same conclusion, may perhaps have led some to aim at 
 the hmnility which He enjoins. If it be so, must not 
 these sagacious foreseeing men have gained a glimpse of 
 some law which proves the eager longing for promotion — 
 the natural desire for overtopping others — to be a mistake ? 
 What is that law ? Our Lord proclaims it in the fullest, 
 most distinct words : ' WJwsoever exalteth liimself shall he 
 abased, and he that hitmhleth himself shall he exalted.' 
 This is God's law, the law of God's kingdom. And there- 
 fore it discovers itself in all cases, in the least as well as 
 the greatest. The commonest human feast is an illus- 
 tration of it. The principle must reach that, or it is not 
 a principle. It must be meant to govern a man's acts in 
 all his relations, in all his circumstances. Some may 
 recognize it in the higher regions of spiritual life and for- 
 get it in the lower ; then they will always be in danger of 
 losing it where they do confess its application. Some may 
 learn the truth of the maxim in ordinary affairs, and 
 then may trace it to its divine Source. They wiU be most 
 likely to do so when they have obeyed the law instinc- 
 tively ; having always felt that they were deserving of the 
 lower rather than of a high place. Those who have 
 speculated on the advantage of seeming to be humble, may 
 possibly get a reward from their hosts at earthly feasts ; 
 He who reads the heart will not say to such, * Friends, 
 come up hirjher' at His feast. You will see, then, that our 
 Lord did, on this occasion, speak a parable in the truest 
 sense of the word. We might even learn from this 
 instance what a parable is, liow wide its range is. Our 
 Lord would open our eyes to read in all the processes of
 
 222 LECTUEE XVIII. 
 
 nature witli which we are most familiar, in all the earthly 
 things with which we have most to do, in all our inter- 
 course with our fellows, indications and expositions of 
 the eternal Government. When the poet said that the law 
 which guides the planets in their course is that very law 
 wliich moulds a tear and bids it trickle from its source, we 
 may he startled with the violence of the contrast. But he 
 uttered an unquestionable truth, and one which has more 
 practical force when it is referred to the mysteries of the 
 spiritual world than to those of the physical, 
 
 II. Here, then, was one hint of the way in which the 
 self-seeking, self-exalting spirit might work in little acts 
 as in great ; how it had to be encountered in the little that 
 it might not usurp dominion over the greatest. And He 
 whose teachings were a continuous methodical education, 
 who passed by insensible steps from one topic to another, 
 always speaking to that which He knew was in His hearers 
 — forcing nothing upon them — went on from this discourse 
 concerning the choice of the chief room at feasts to speak 
 of the highest hospitality, of that which is most in 
 harmony with the spirit of the universal Benefactor. 
 ' Then said he, also to him that hade him, When thou mahest 
 a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy hrethren, 
 neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich ncighhours ; lest they also 
 hid thee again, and a recompenee he made thee. But when 
 thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the 
 hlind : and thou shall he hlessed / for they cannot recompense 
 thee : for thou shall he recompensed at the resurrection of the 
 just! The privilege of doing good, of conferring blessings 
 without the hope of a return, this He set before them, this 
 He sets before us, as the grand privilege of all. We avail 
 ourselves of it very seldom. The notion of giving in the
 
 THE FEAST OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, 223 
 
 expectation of receiving as much again, though a very 
 sordid one, is apt to displace even in those who not only 
 affect generosity but are generous the one which surely 
 commends itself to our consciences and reason as the 
 nobler. And there is a darker and sadder contradiction 
 mixed with this. Our Lord's promise of a recompence at 
 the resurrection of the just has been translated into the 
 dialect of the money-market. He has been supposed to say, 
 ' Make the sacrifice of giving feasts to the poor, and halt, 
 ' and blind here, and God will pay you for it hereafter.' 
 And so that hope of waking up after God's likeness and 
 being satisfied with it, which has cheered and sustained 
 all those who have really worked under the inspiration of 
 God's Spirit for their fellow men, is quite set aside. 
 The resurrection of the just is not the rising out of our- 
 selves into fellowship with the divine Love ; it is the 
 prolongation and ratification of the great curse which has 
 divided us from each other and made the earth miserable. 
 Oh my friends ! there is no language so pure and divine 
 that men have not power to transmute it and wrench it 
 into a justification of the sins which it denounces. If 
 the Word of God were confined by the letters of Scripture, 
 there would be no witness against our perversion of those 
 letters. If God did not really baptize men with His Spirit 
 and fire, but only gave us a holy book, the holy book 
 woiild not only miss its interpretation ; it would be made 
 into an apology for the most unholy deeds. But in every 
 generation the truth of the book has been confirmed by 
 the divine power which has appeared to deliver the Church 
 from those who have patronized it, worshipped it, trampled 
 upon it. 
 
 III. ' An(l when one of them that sat at meat with him
 
 224 LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall 
 eat bread in the kingdom of God.' The thought of an age, 
 of a state of society, in which men should really call the 
 poor, the halt, the blind to their feasts, struck on this 
 man's heart, and called forth in it wonder and hope. ' Yes ! 
 ' that will be indeed a heavenly kingdom. One would like 
 'to be a citizen of that.' The rejoinder comes in a parable 
 with which we are all familiar. ' You think it would be a 
 'great privilege to eat bread in the Kingdom of God. 
 ' Listen then to a story.' 
 
 ' Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great 
 supper, and hade many : and sent his servant at supper time 
 to say to them that were hidden. Come ; for all things are 
 now ready! 
 
 In St. Matthew's Gospel the feast is one at a wedding. I 
 believe the context of his narrative obliges us to think of 
 this characteristic. It is the central point of the story ; the 
 accompanying particulars cannot be understood without it. 
 St. Luke, by omitting it, shows me that he is directing our 
 minds to another aspect of the subject. The nature of the 
 feast is less in question than the freeness of the invitations 
 to it and the temper in which those invitations are re- 
 ceived. We must always remember, however, that it is 
 a feast. Those who are called, are called to receive a 
 blessing, to enter into an enjoyment. ' And they all with 
 one consent hegan to make excuse! They do not excuse 
 themselves from toil. They have no dislike to that. Toil 
 is itself their excuse. ' The first said unto him, I have 
 hought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it : 
 I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have 
 hought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prone them : I pray 
 thee have me excused! These are all honourable and useful
 
 THE FEAST OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 225 
 
 occupations. And the third, who says, ' / have married a 
 wife, and therefore I cannot come,' evidently does not plead 
 pleasure as his reason. Marriage he regards as part of 
 the business and routine of existence, which gives him 
 no leisure to take part in what might be a fit entertainment 
 for a man with fewer cares. 
 
 Preachers who have partly perceived that this parable 
 vfas not aimed at the dislike of work and preference for 
 delight, by which some, especially in youth, are character- 
 ized, have evaded its force by describing the occupations 
 which our Lord speaks of as belonging to the present 
 world. ' He invites them to engage in religious duties — 
 ' duties having reference to a future world.' 1 cannot see 
 this distinction in the story. The man might be devoting 
 himseK to his piece of land or his oxen, on a calculation 
 of what would be best for him in the time to come. He 
 might be restraining himself from present gratifications for 
 distant objects. The man who had married a wife might 
 have* a becoming sense of the obligation in both of them 
 to frequent the synagogue. The worldliness I admit, but 
 not a worldliness which was the least incompatible with a 
 very punctual pursuit of what are called religious duties. 
 Men who were busy with those duties, who carefully 
 enjoined them on others, whose piece of ground or oxen or 
 marriage would not have hindered them from making lonji 
 prayers or going daily to the Temple, were especially the 
 persons to whom this invitation was addressed, and ' who 
 would not come.' Theii\ religious duties were one of the 
 strongest reasons which they alleged for their absence. 
 And why ? The call was to rejoice in a God who cared 
 for His creatures, who had entered into fellowship with 
 them, who would have them enter into fellowship with
 
 22 fi LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 Him, who would have them share His blessedness — the 
 blessedness of distributing liberally, the blessedness of 
 raising those that were fallen. This was the feast of the 
 Kingdom of Heaven which the teachers and examples of 
 religion to the nation scornfully refused. 
 
 'So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. 
 Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, 
 Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and 
 hring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and 
 the blind.' 
 
 Our Lord had urged rich men to call such as these to 
 their feasts. He now says that they were called and 
 would be called. He had blessed the poor. He had 
 Himself preached the Kingdom of Heaven to the outcasts 
 of the land. For this He had been described as evil, 
 a friend of publicans and sinners. Only men who had 
 nothing to boast of, who were needing a shepherd, who 
 did not count it a misery to them that others should be 
 blessed with them, heard His voice. They were willing 
 to be receivers, to take a gift from the Highest of all 
 not to insist that they had earned it. 
 
 'And the servant said. Lord, it is done as thou hast 
 commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said 
 iinto the servant. Go out into the highways and hedges, 
 and comjpel them to come in, that my house may be filled! 
 All interpreters have been inclined to treat this passage 
 as an announcement of the Gospel to the Gentile w^orld — 
 the Gospel that since the Son of God had been born of a 
 woman, men of all kindreds and tribes might receive the 
 adoption of sons ; that God sealed them by baptism with His 
 own name ; that He fed them with the flesh which was given 
 for the life of the world. That this sense must be in
 
 THE FEAST OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 227 
 
 the words, the fearful sentence which follows is proof 
 sufficient : ' For I say unto you, That none of those men 
 lohich were Mclden shall taste of my swp'perl Here is 
 that rejection of a self-seeking, exclusive nation — which 
 would not receive benefits freely from God's hands, which 
 would not he His instruments in imparting them — whereof 
 our Lord has been speaking ever since He set His face to 
 go to Jerusalem. Surely we lose nothing of the power 
 and terror of the words for ourselves when we construe 
 them in that literal and obvious way. Is not the 
 Jewish habit of mind that to which every one of us is 
 prone ? Does it not grow upon us, become deeper in us, 
 through our familiarity with religious ordinances, through 
 the repetition of the call to come and taste of God's 
 feast? Think of what it must have been to men who 
 had believed God to be their enemy, to hear the news ; 
 ' He invites you to His feast. He desires communion 
 ' with you. He would have you read His mind to 
 'you in the food of every day.' What an Eucharistical 
 song must have risen from all creation — from the world 
 seen and unseen ! And we speak of the Eucharist as a 
 religious duty which must be performed if we would 
 escape perdition — not as the celebration of a wedding 
 which the Son of God has made with our race ! Is 
 not the temper which led the Jews to hate the feast, 
 working in us Gentiles who seem to exult in it as our 
 highest distinction ? Alas ! we do exult in it as our 
 distinction — as the badge of our difference from otlier 
 men, not as the witness of our union with all. \Vhilst 
 it is so, can we really taste of the supper ? 
 
 And we can turn the words of the New Testament 
 upside down, as the Jews turned the words of the Old 
 
 q2
 
 228 LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 Testament upside down. What lessons liave not Christians 
 drawn, sometimes in theory, continually in practice, from 
 the command, ' Compel them to come in?' ' Surely it must 
 ' be good to make men Christians by force, if there is no 
 ' other way.' Yes ! if you can. Persecute them by all means, 
 if persecution will make them partakers of the divine feast; 
 if it is not shown by all evidence to be the best means of 
 making them partakers of the feast of devils. ' They shall he 
 willing in the day of my power ; ' that was the faith in 
 which Apostles preached. That was the compulsion which 
 prevailed over the forces of the legions. Emperors, priests, 
 mobs, have tried the other kind of compulsion : with what 
 effect the records of God's judgments written in history 
 have shown imperfectly, the judgment of the last day will 
 declare completely. 
 
 IV. Jesus had preached of His kingdom to crowds, and 
 had said that men of all kinds would be drawn into it. 
 Now He seems to change His tone. ' And there went great 
 multitudes with him : and he turned, and said unto them, 
 If any rhan come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, 
 and wife, and children, and Irethren, and sisters, yea, and 
 his own life also, he cannot he my disciple. And lohosoever 
 doth not hear his cross, and come after me, cannot he my 
 disciple.' How "are we to explain such a passage as 
 this ? I believe it will explain itself better than we can 
 explain it ; if we want further help, we shall find it in the 
 records of Christendom. There have been two facts which 
 those records have brought prominently before us. In 
 obedience, as they supposed, to this exhortation, men have 
 abandoned human ties — father, mother, wife, children, 
 brethren, and sisters — that they might do what? That 
 they might save their own souls. In so doing, they
 
 THE FEAST OF THE KI^^GDOM OF HEAVEN. 229 
 
 have directly set at nought our Lord's command. I do 
 not say they have exaggerated it, I say they have denied 
 both the letter and spirit of it. That to which they have 
 sacrificed all these human ties is precisely that which 
 Christ commands them to sacrifice. They must hate all 
 these, and their own souls. Our translators have taken 
 here, as in another place, some pains to avoid the offence 
 which would have been given by the use of the word 
 ' soul.' They have changed it into ' life.' But when we 
 are studying our Lord's meaning, we must adhere to His 
 phraseology. It is clear, then, that monks and nuns can- 
 not be our guides in the interpretation of this passage. 
 ThcT/ have discovered no principle which reconciles it 
 with Christ's stern condemnation of those who made a 
 gift to the treasury and so excused themselves from 
 obeying God's command to honour their father and 
 mother. 
 
 But another fact has been also made evident by the 
 experience of ages as well as of individuals. It has been 
 found that, as men may relinquish the love of father 
 and mother for the sake of themselves, so they .may 
 try to build the love of father and mother upon the 
 ground of self. This love does not last. For love is the 
 antagonist of selfishness. ' Therefore,' says Christ, ' If 
 ' you would follow Me, abandon this experiment. Two 
 * powers are fighting for your allegiance — Self and the Son 
 ' of man. Self, the enemy of all human affections, of all 
 ' the bonds of human fellowship ; the Son of man, the 
 ' Author and Sustainer of tliom all. Give up to j\Ic, 
 ' and for Me, all that has a selfish root. Plant your 
 ' affections upon the divine root, so they will live and 
 ' grow.' Such language may sound refined to divines who
 
 230 LECTUKE XVIIL 
 
 can indulge, in all scholastical subtleties ; to devotees who 
 think there is one law for . them and another for mankind. 
 It has not appeared strange or refined to humble men and 
 women who have really taken up their cross and followed 
 Christ in all lowly services — specially in services to the 
 members of their own households. They have shown in 
 their daily lives how, by giving up their souls to Him 
 and not thinking of themselves, they were able to be true 
 children and brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers. 
 Their minds may have been exercised by this precept of 
 their Lord, just as a student's mind is exercised by any 
 problem in nature. But the exercise has been profitable 
 in both cases. The reason and the will have been strength- 
 ened by the difficulty which they have had to master. In 
 seeking they have acquired a power which they would not 
 have had if the secret had been discovered to them with- 
 out seeking. Our Lord gives two illustrations of His 
 meaning. 
 
 ' For which of you, intending to huild a tower, sitteth not 
 down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have svfiicient 
 to finish it ? Lest haply, after he hath laid the fou7idation, 
 and is not able to finish it, all that hehold it begin to mock 
 him, saying. This man began to build, and was not able to 
 finish. Or ivhat king, going to make war against another 
 king, sitteth not dotvn first, and consulteth whether he be able 
 with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with 
 twenty thousand .? Or else, while the other is yet a great way 
 off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 
 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that 
 he hath, he cannot be my disciple.' 
 
 This seems a hard test of discipleship, ' he must forsake 
 all that he hath^ May it not be just the blessing, if
 
 THE FEAST OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 231 
 
 we knew it, which we are all craving for ? We have set 
 about building many goodly towers, many gorgeous palaces. 
 How they have all dissolved ! How our grand designs 
 have mocked us ! Why ? Because there was always 
 some selfish scheme beneath, which made the foundation 
 weak, which showed itself in the feebleness and inco- 
 herency of the superstructure. There has been a mighty 
 battle going on within us between two kings, the spirit 
 and the flesh. The evil power has his twenty thousand. 
 There appear but a poor ten thousand — troops ill-guided and 
 disorderly — to oppose him. If we could give up ourselves, 
 the Captain of the Host would descend to help us, the 
 stars of heaven would fight against our foe. But we 
 struggle to keep something of our own, something apart 
 from Him. So the terrible twenty thousand win the day. 
 Sealed as Christ's servants and soldiers, we are not His 
 disciples, for we glorify self above Him who gave up 
 Himself. 
 
 V. We have seen these various exemplifications of that 
 
 self-seeking spirit which was destroying the chosen people. 
 
 The moral is gathered up into the memorable sentence, 
 
 * Salt is good : hut if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith 
 
 shall it he seasoned ? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet 
 
 for the dunghill ; hut men cast it out' The Lord of the 
 
 earth had called out the seed of Abraham, to be the salt of 
 
 His earth, to preserve it from decay and putrefaction. The 
 
 salt was good ; it had the divine principle and power in it. 
 
 But if tliis principle and power departed from it, if it 
 
 acquired all the worst qualities of that which it was to 
 
 purify, what could be done with it ? The land gained 
 
 nothing from it ; the dunghill was not enriched by it. 1 or 
 
 the pui-pose which it was to serve, it had become useless.
 
 232 LECTURE XVIII. 
 
 Nay, was it not miscliievous ; was it not ministering to all 
 the corruption which it was intended to counteract ? 
 
 Therefore the house of Israel was cast out ; it was treated 
 as refuse, for it had become refuse. But the earth was 
 not left without salt. A wider earth was brought into 
 cultivation. The Catholic Church was the salt — so we 
 have believed — which God appointed to purify that wider 
 earth. Has this salt kept its savour? Is it doing its 
 work ? Has it not contracted the foulness of that which it 
 was to regenerate ? Has it not exhibited that foulness in 
 its most concentrated form? Is the example of the past 
 nothing to us? Are the words of Christ nothing? 'He 
 that hath cars to hear, let him hear.'
 
 LECTURE XIX. 
 
 THE JOY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 St. Luke XV. 31, 32, 
 
 Ami he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is 
 thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and he glad ; for this 
 thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found. 
 
 I SHOULD pay no homage to Passion Week if I chose 
 another subject than that which comes before us this 
 morning in the course of our readings in St. Luke. The 
 Collect for the Sunday before Easter might have been 
 formed upon the parable of the Prodigal Son ; there is no 
 sufficient commentary upon that parable but the Cross 
 itself. 
 
 The words I have taken are addressed to the elder 
 brother in the story. Who he was, what his dignity and 
 his privileges were, how he cast them aside, we may 
 learn from the last chapter. We must not forget what 
 has gone before — what a contrast has been presented to 
 us in all the discourses and acts of our Lord which the 
 Evangelist has recorded. 
 
 Every step in the narrative has been a mor(> full revela- 
 tion to us of the mind of the nation which Gotl bad chosen 
 as His witnesses to the families of the eartli. Every step 
 in the narrative has been a revelation of the mind of Him 
 who chose tl)em ; of the princi]ih? and ]uirpose of His 
 government. The self-seeking spirit in its different aspects
 
 234 LECTUEE XIX, 
 
 was that which we considered last Sunday. A glimpse 
 was given us of the opposition between that spirit and 
 the spirit of Him who gave the feast to those who dwelt 
 in the streets and lanes of the city, in the highways and 
 hedges. But the difference was to be fully discovered 
 when all the publicans and sinners d,rew near unto Christ 
 to hear Him. They had not been attracted by any flatter- 
 ing promises. They had been told that unless they gave 
 up all that they had they could not be His disciples. But 
 there was a charm in those seemingly repulsive words. 
 Each of them carried a burden. That burden was him- 
 self. He was invited to cast it away ; to trust in another ; 
 to find the life which he had lost, in Him. There was that 
 in His look, His voice, His acts, His whole being, which 
 invited them to make this venture ; in very deed to trust 
 Him. ' And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, 
 This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them! There 
 was the offence. No objection could have been made 
 to mere teaching. The Scribes and Pharisees were them- 
 selves teachers of the people. There is no reason to sup- 
 pose that they would have repulsed a tax-gatherer, even 
 an acknowledged evildoer, who came humbly and respect- 
 fully to learn what acts of penitence he might perform 
 for his previous misdoings, how he might hope to recover 
 God's favour, or some portion of it in the time to come. 
 But ' this man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them! 
 He puts Himself on their level. He identifies Himself 
 with them. He behaves to them not as His pupils, but as 
 His kinsmen. It was another mode of treatment altogether. 
 It must have arisen from another, nay, from a directly 
 opposite feeling and purpose. The difference He explained 
 by an instance.
 
 THE JOY OF THE KIXGDOM OF HEAVEN. 235 
 
 I. ' What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose 
 one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in tlu wilder- 
 Tiess, and go after that which is lost, until he find it ? ... And 
 when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neigh- 
 lours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me ; for I have found my 
 sheepivhich was lost' We have heard how in his reasonings on 
 the Sabbath day He contrasted the care which possessors felt 
 for their property in the ox and the ass that had fallen into 
 the pit, with their indignation at Him for helping a human 
 sufferer. There is in this parable, I conceive, a hint of the 
 same kind. ' What man of you would not take trouble to 
 'recover even a small loss? ' But it is only a hint. The scribes 
 read and studied the holy books. The character and office 
 of the shepherd appeared in every one of those books. The 
 great Lawgiver learnt his first lessons in the care of sheep ; 
 the great King had the same training. They were taught 
 to feel for their flocks ; to feel for each silly member of the 
 flocks. So they came to apprehend a little of the feelings 
 of the Lord of all to the nation of Israel, and to each indi- 
 vidual of that nation ; so one was fitted to be His instru- 
 ment in guiding them through the wilderness — the other 
 in governing them when they were settled in the promised 
 land. The relation of the shepherd to his sheep was not that 
 of one who was calculating their value. They were dear to 
 him ; his rod and his staff directed them ; he kept them 
 together ; he knew each one ; he missed each straggler ; 
 he would go any distance, into any dangers, in search of 
 it. The parable was, therefore, an old one. But it could 
 never become an obsolete one. And now it came forth 
 with a power which had never been in it before. ' You ask 
 
 * me why I eat and drink with publicans and sinners ? Are 
 
 * they not my sheep ? Are not they all a portion of that
 
 236 LECTURE XIX. 
 
 ' flock which from generation to generation I have watched 
 * over ? Can any of them be indifferent to me ? ' 
 
 Evidently words of this kind suggested much more 
 than they expressed. 'Why, He is actually claiming to 
 ' be that Shejjherd of Israel whom the prophets spoke of ! 
 ' Does he really mean that ? What is He making Him- 
 ' self ? ' And presently His language becomes loftier still. 
 He tells us what the thoughts and feelings of the 
 heavenly Host are. ' / say unto you, that likewise 
 joy shall he in heaven over one sinner that rejjenteth, more 
 than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no 
 repentance.' He speaks confidently, as one who knows. 
 And how entirely He reverses the conceptions of Heaven 
 which those whom He was addressing entertained ! The 
 highest joy they could think of was the joy of faring better 
 than others — of winning prizes which others failed to win. 
 The joy. He says, in heaven, is the joy of winning back 
 those who have wandered ; of recovering those who have 
 chosen the wrong way. There is no joy. He intimates, 
 so heavenly, so much partaking of the divine Nature, 
 as this. 
 
 II. Once more the very lowest earthly symbol is used to 
 explain the highest rapture of blessed spirits. 'Either 
 what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, 
 doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek dili- 
 gently till she find it f And wlien she hath found it, she 
 calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice 
 with me ; for I have found the ptiece which I had lost' 
 Can it be ? Can you imagine that the pleasure produced 
 by such a cause as this, awakened in the heart of a common 
 housewife, has anything in it that resembles the joy of 
 angels ? Our Lord says so. ' Likewise, I say unto you,
 
 THE JOY OF THE laNGDOM OF HEAVEN. 237 
 
 there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one 
 sinner that repenteth! Their joy is like hers. It is the 
 joy of those who have sought after a treasure. It is the 
 joy of recovery. It is the joy of those who cannot keep 
 their happiness to themselves — who must call upon others 
 to partake of it. Is not all joy of this quality ? Are not 
 these its characteristics ? Taken in the form which seems 
 meanest, it must have this elevation. Try to conceive the 
 most selfish motive for it, still it only becomes joy by 
 bursting the bonds of self. 
 
 T\Tiy is this so ? Our Lord in effect answers, ' Because 
 ' He who has given that woman her joy, who gives the angels 
 ' their joy, finds His own in regaining hearts that have been 
 ' lost, those that have counted Him their enemy ; because He 
 ' cannot joy alone ; He must call on all spirits to enter into 
 ' His joy.' It was a strange overthrow of the notions which 
 the Pharisees had formed, which we form (oh ! how readily, 
 how naturally), of an Omnipotent ruler, of a supremely 
 happy Being. But how it harmonises with all the previous 
 revelations of His care for the stiffnecked and the rebel- 
 lious ; with all the visions of prophets ; with all the human 
 acts and feelings that had been recognised as most godlike ! 
 How it bears witness of its worth to our consciences and 
 hearts and reasons when it most shatters our vulo-ar — 
 what we often regard as our sublime — conceptions of the 
 majesty and the felicity of the divine nature ! 
 
 It has been said, and I think most truly, that one of 
 these parables fills up something that was M'anting in the 
 other. There is more, doubtless, of tenderness and humanity 
 in the yearning of a shepherd over his sheep than in tlie 
 longing of a woman to find her piece of money. But the 
 sheep could bleat ; it could signif}' where it was ; it might
 
 238 LECTURE XIX. 
 
 try to escape from its thicket, even find the track by which 
 it had left the fold. So we might say that some movements 
 on the part of men, some cries, or prayers, or sacrifices, 
 disposed the mind of God to be merciful. The piece of 
 money suggests no such thoughts. All in that story must 
 depend on the zeal and patience of the seeker — upon her 
 determination to remove the dust and rubbish, whatever 
 was hiding the treasure from her. ISTothing can urge her to 
 her task but her own will. That is sufficient to make her 
 spare no toil, however little the prize may seem to deserve 
 it, or to requite it. 
 
 III. But both these parables are leading on to the third. 
 It needs them to make its full sense intelligible, to prevent 
 us from thinking, as we are very apt to think, more of the 
 prodigal than of the father. Let us try to recall the dif- 
 ferent points in it, avoiding, as far as we can, any loose 
 and vague sentimentalism, which is altogether unworthy 
 of its simplicity and grandeur. 
 
 ' A certain man had two sons : And the younger of them 
 said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that 
 falleth to me. And he divided mito them his living' When 
 these two sons are taken, as they generally are by inter- 
 preters, to signify the Jewish and Gentile divisions of 
 mankind, there is a kind of revolt in the minds of earnest 
 and aff'ectionate readers of the Gospel. A scheme of the 
 world's history seems a cold substitute for those family 
 associations, those deep personal sorrows, which have linked 
 themselves with this story in all periods. Such protests of 
 the heart and conscience always deserve the most serious 
 attention. If they cannot determine the sense of a passage, 
 they may correct many of our imperfect judgments about 
 it. The context of the Gospel seems to me altogether in
 
 THE JOY OP THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 239 
 
 favour of the opinion tliat the elder son does represent the 
 Jewish people. And if so, nothing would seem more 
 natural and reasonable than that he who asked for the 
 portion of goods that fell to him should represent those 
 who were not brought under the yoke of a covenant — who 
 were allowed to seek after God, if haply they might find 
 Him — to ask the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and 
 the abyss below, w^hether He, or some form of Him, or 
 some portion of His nature, was not in them. The Gospel 
 to the outcasts of the Jewish race has already, in the 
 parable I spoke of last Sunday, been hinted at as opening 
 the way to a wider message still. The argument for mixing 
 with publicans and sinners justified a message to the other 
 sheep who were not of that fold. The appearance of this 
 parable exclusively in the Gospel of St. Luke would be 
 itself decisive evidence to me that the instinct of com- 
 mentators on this point has not been a mistaken one. 
 
 But it will prove quite a mistaken one if the other 
 instinct to which I have alluded does not work freely 
 by the side of it. St. Paul's message to the idolatrous 
 Athenians was, 'You see what your own poet has told 
 ' you, that you are the offspring of God ; therefore you 
 'are not to conceive the Godhead in the likeness of art 
 'or man's device.' St. Paul told tlu; Galatians that the 
 Father had sent forth His only-begotten Son to emancipate 
 and adopt them ; therefore they were not to be in slavery to 
 the elements of the world. We may talk ever so learnedly 
 about the calling of the Gentiles, but we destroy its force, 
 we give another account of it than the Apostles give, unless 
 we connect it with these passages. And if we do con- 
 nect it with them, the parable may retain its beautiful 
 domestic and human character — yes, and all its application
 
 240 LECTURE XIX. 
 
 to individuals — whilst we treat it as unfolding the divine 
 method to the world. The Gentile races are sons who go 
 out of their father's house, each seeming to follow an inde- 
 pendent course, each seeming to choose its own gods and 
 its own ways of drawing nigh to those gods. Still their 
 means of living, all their faculties, energies, impulses to 
 thought and to worship, are gifts from their Father. He 
 has bestowed these upon the younger son, however that 
 son may use them, as he has bestowed other gifts upon 
 the elder of which he must give account. 
 
 'And not many days after the younger son gathered all 
 together, and took his journey into a far country, and there 
 wasted his substance with riotous living.' Tliese words 
 have had infinite applications ; every one, perhaps, who 
 has heard them, has applied them in many different 
 ways. No one need contradict the other ; those who 
 have learnt the meaning from their own experience 
 have understood it best. How the sense of an eternal 
 home, of a Father's house, is awake in childhood ; how it 
 dies out as the youth begins to gather all together — to make 
 a world for himself; how he travels further and further 
 from the remembrance of home ; how the divine treasures 
 of affection, hope, intellect, health, become dissipated; 
 how he loses himself in the intoxications of the senses : 
 here you have a story which is repeated again and again, 
 and always finds mournful facts in us and in our fellows 
 to illustrate and enforce it. And so the records of Gentile 
 mythology and Gentile history explain themselves to us. 
 We see what the cause of moral declension in the nations 
 of the old world was ; how the feeling of the invisible 
 lost itself in visible worship ; how the sense of unity broke 
 into a number of objects of terror or of beauty ; how the
 
 THE JOY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 241 
 
 fear of a destroyer struggled with the hope of a deliverer ; 
 how the first overpowered the second ; how the belief in 
 justice contended with the dread of a Power which could 
 overpower justice ; how the lusts of the man darkened 
 the images of the gods whom he adored ; how he sought, 
 by vile expedients, to avert the wrath before which he 
 trembled ; how superstitions grew to be more fearful ; how 
 moral corruptions always gained strength along with 
 them ; how protests against both mixed with an unbelief 
 in those truths which the superstitions counterfeited, in 
 the righteousness which the corruptions defied. 
 
 'Aiid ivhen he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine 
 in that land ; and he hegan to he in ivant! The sense of 
 a hunger, of an infinite want, oh my friends, in individuals 
 and in nations, there are times when this becomes intoler- 
 able ! Outward calamities may produce it ; sometimes it 
 comes only from discontent with the spiritual nourishment 
 which is offered to the man or the people. So we may 
 understand a little of those periods in the old world when 
 men tried new religions, sought auguries about the future, 
 tried to hold communications with the world which they 
 could not see ; all leading on to this mournful issue : 
 'And he went and joified himself to a citizen of that 
 country ; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And 
 he would fain have filled his hdly with tlie husJcs that the 
 swine did cat : and no man gave unto him.'' Tlie stye, the 
 almost utter transformation of the man into the swine, — 
 that would be the last scene of tliis sad eventful history 
 if it were only a history of man's dealings. Thank God, 
 it is not so. It is the history of a Father's dealings with a 
 child whom He has created to desire other food than that 
 of swine, whom He will not suffer to be fdled with that
 
 242 LECTURE XIX. 
 
 or with anything that man can give. Therefore, in the 
 crisis of famine and of despair, begins that agony which 
 our Lord describes as the process of the prodigal coming 
 to himself. And with the arousing of self-consciousness, — 
 with the terrible recollection, ' I exist,' — comes a sadder, 
 deeper, more blessed recollection, ' Hoio many hired ser- 
 vants of my father's have tread enviigh and to spare, and 
 I perish loith hunger I ' Yes ! the dream of a father's 
 house, of a home somewhere, is once again stirring in 
 him. ' Those cattle on the hills, how peacefully they 
 ' graze ; these trees, how they put forth their leaves in 
 'spring; these streams, how they break their ice-chains 
 ' and flow freely as if they would flow for ever. Are not all 
 ' these my father's ? Does not he sustain their life ? And 
 ' I perish with hunger.' To hundreds of thousands of men 
 and women in Christian Europe have these words revealed 
 what was passing in them. Do they not tell what must 
 have passed in the minds of the Samaritans, Ephesians, 
 Thessalonians, of whom we read' when the good news, 
 ' Children, you have a father,' burst upon them, and when 
 any one of them formed that wonderful resolution, which 
 has echoed through all ages, 'I loill arise and go to my 
 father, and will say unto him. Father, I am no more worthy 
 to he called thy son : make me as one of thy hired servants ? ' 
 Then follow the passages to which all else in the parable 
 is subordinate. 'And he arose, and came to his father. But 
 vjhen he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had 
 compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 
 And the son said unto him, I have sinned against heaven, 
 and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to he called thy 
 son. But the father said unto his servants, Bring forth the 
 lest robe, and put it on him ; and put a ring on his hand,
 
 THE JOT OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 243 
 
 and shoes on Ms feet : and bring hither the fatted calf and 
 kill it; and let us eat, and he merry : for this my son was 
 dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And 
 they began to he merry. 
 
 This infinite joy in the father's heart seems to us 
 appalling when we read of it, and try to believe that it is 
 an actual revelation of the Divine mind. It is high, we 
 cannot attain to it ; that is our natural language. And 
 yet all Christendom is but an expression of this truth. 
 What does the message of Christ's full and perfect sacri- 
 fice mean ? — what do the Sacraments mean, — if it is not 
 this ? Are they not manifestations of One who of His 
 tender love to mankind gave his only-begotten Son to take 
 our nature upon Him, and to sujBfer death upon the cross. 
 As I said at the beginning of my sermon, Passion Week is 
 either a dream, or it is a translation into fact of this parable. 
 It is a witness that the parable applies equally to both 
 the sons of the father ; to those who are near, and to those 
 who are afar off. 
 
 rV. And so we come to the last part of it, wliich 
 recalls the occasion that suggested it. The elder son 
 is in the field. He hears music and dancing. He asks 
 what it means. He is told that his brother is come, 
 and that his father has killed for him the fatted calf. 
 ' And he was angry, and would 7iot go in ; therefore came 
 Ms father out, and entreated him. And he answering said 
 to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither 
 transgressed I at any time thy commandment ; and yet thou 
 never gavest me a Jcid, that I might make merry with my 
 friends : hut as soon as this thy son ivas come, which hath 
 devoured thy living loith harlots, thou hast killed for him the 
 fatted calf 
 
 R 2
 
 24)4 LECrUEE XIX. 
 
 How plausible this reasoning sounds ! How perfectly- 
 invincible it must have seemed to this dutiful son ! And 
 yet, if we examine it, what does it come to but this ? * I 
 ' have been obedient, and I ought to be paid for my 
 ' obedience. My brother has been disobedient. Why art 
 * thou glad that he has ceased to be disobedient ? I see no 
 ' cause for satisfaction in that. It causes me no delight.' 
 Here is that flagrant opposition between the Divine purpose 
 and the purpose of those who had been called to be the 
 ministers of His will and purpose, which our Lord has 
 been detecting in all His dealings with the scribes and 
 Pharisees. ' The Father's joy is in the restoration of the 
 ' lost. You have no such joy. You think the removal of 
 ' their curse, of their sin, is an injury to you.' 
 
 But is this consistent with the words, ' Son, thou art euer 
 with me, and all that I have is thine ? ' Thoroughly con- 
 sistent. Eor what do those words signify but this : ' Son, 
 ' I have called thee to know my goodness and loving- 
 ' kindness. I have called thee to be a dispenser of that 
 ' knowledge to the children of men. I can give thee no 
 ' greater treasure. I can make thee partaker of no higher 
 ' bliss than my own. Thou wilt not have that ? Thou 
 ' wishest for another kind of joy than mine ? Well, if 
 ' thou choosest it thou must have it. Thou must try what 
 ' that selfish joy is worth ; whether it satisfies thee better 
 ' than the husks which the swine eat have satisfied thy 
 ' brother. But before thou formest that terrible resolu- 
 ' tion I will come out and entreat thee. I will urge thee 
 ' to partake of my festival. I will vindicate thy right 
 ' to it. I will conjure thee to enter into thy Father's 
 ' blessedness. Thou dost enter it when thou ownest the 
 ' outcast for thy brother, when thou makest merry and art
 
 THE JOY OF THE KIXGDOM OF HEAVEN. 245 
 
 * glad because he was dead and is aKve again, he was lost 
 
 * and is found.' 
 
 So pleaded the Eternal Father by the mouth of Jesus 
 with His Jewish people. So pleads He with us in this 
 Passion Week. Do you want wages for your virtue, for 
 your faith, for your superiority to the rest of mankind? 
 You must ask the devil for those wages ; for the service of 
 pride he will give you strictly and punctually the wages of 
 death. Do you desire the delight of the Father who so 
 loved the world as to give His only begotten Son for it ? 
 Do you want the delight of the Son who poured out His 
 blood for all men, who is the Saviour of all men ? Do you 
 want the delight of the Spirit, who is seeking to bring all 
 to repentance and the knowledge of the truth ? ' 8on, tJiou 
 art ever with me, and all tluvt I have is thine.' Thou 
 mayest possess my own character. Thou mayest declare 
 my purpose to those who have lost themselves. Thou 
 mayest be my instrument in finding them. And if they 
 never hear thy feeble voice, thou needest not doubt that 
 they will hear the voice of the Son of Man; that by 
 hunger and misery He will remind them of their Father's 
 house ; that they will arise and go to Him ; that He will 
 meet them when they are a great way off ; that He will 
 embrace them and bring them to His banquet ; that His 
 Spirit will enable them to feed on the perfect Sacrifice, 
 and to offer themselves acceptable sacrifices to Him.
 
 LECTURE XX. 
 
 THE KING DISMISSING HIS STEWARD. 
 
 St, Luke XVL 10, 11. 
 
 He that isfaithftd in that which is least, is faithful also in much ; and he 
 that is U7ijust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have 
 not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your 
 trust the true riches ? 
 
 Theee are no parables which, appear so unlike each other 
 as those which we call the parables of the Prodigal Son 
 and of the Unjust Steward. Yet the Evangelist who re- 
 ports them to us, evidently discovered some close relation 
 between them. One would gather from his narrative that 
 they were spoken at the same time. If you remember 
 how the first of these parables arose out of our Lord's 
 discoveries of the moral diseases of the Jewish nation and 
 its rulers, you will see more clearly how the story of the 
 Steward and that of Dives and Lazarus carry on its 
 lessons. I looked upon the parables in the last chapter as 
 exhibiting, in the liveliest and fullest form, the contrast 
 between the mind of the chosen people and of Him who 
 had chosen them. He was a shepherd seeking after any 
 one sheep which had wandered from His fold ; He was 
 as earnest to reclaim a human heart, as a woman to find 
 a piece of money which she had lost ; finally, He was 
 a Father looking upon the outcast who had wandered 
 furthest from his home as a child, rejoicing to welcome
 
 THE KING DISMISSING HIS STEWARD. 247 
 
 him back. And tlie Jewish people, as represented hy 
 their scribes, their priests, their most religious men, held 
 it a crime to receive sinners and eat with them. Their 
 godliness consisted in avoiding those whom God was 
 regarding with tender affection, whom He was making the 
 mightiest sacrifice to deliver and to regenerate. 
 
 No explanation of the parable of the Prodigal was more 
 consistent with this view of its object than that which has 
 been ordinarily adopted. If the younger son who took his 
 portion of goods with him into a far country reminded 
 us of the world beyond the Jewish pale, the elder son who 
 heard the music and dancing at his brother's return and 
 refused to come in, showed exactly that temper of mind 
 which our Lord had been detecting and exposing in the 
 Jew himself His privileges were not underrated. He 
 had been admitted to know the will and purpose of God. 
 All that his Father had was his. But if he believed liis 
 covenant, he believed that God's will was to bless all the 
 families of the earth. That was the revelation of God 
 which had been made to Abraham and his descendants. 
 That was the call of Abraham and his descendants to 
 work as God's ministers. They showed that they had no 
 desire to see the families of the earth blessed. The bles- 
 sing of others was an injury to them, a derogation from their 
 rights. Their inheritance as the firstborn Avas put in peril. 
 
 I. What more natural than a transition from a story of 
 this kind, to one which reminded the Jew that he was not 
 a possessor of divine gifts at all, but merely a steward of 
 them, that his honour as the elder brother was to assist in 
 the distribution of his father's treasures, that if he looked 
 upon his position in any other light, the position would be 
 taken from him, the treasures would cease to be his ?
 
 248 LECTURE XX. 
 
 Here we have what is at once the most obvious, and, I 
 think also the deepest meaning of the parable of the 
 Steward. Before we notice any particulars in it, let 
 us fix our minds upon that name. For the Jew to 
 believe that he was a steward — for us to believe that we 
 are stewards — is the great necessity, the amazing difficulty. 
 No other, we may depend upon it, is practically so serious, 
 so profound, as that. Commentators have exercised their 
 faculties laboriously upon one and another aspect of this 
 story. They may have seen each others' mistakes ; one 
 may have had a glimpse of our Lord's meaning which 
 was hidden from another. But if they forgot the subject 
 of the parable, or did not bring that home to their readers, 
 their ingenuity in handling special points can have been 
 of little avail. 
 
 On the other hand, if we take firm hold of the thought 
 that we are studying the acts, punishments, resources of a 
 steward, many perplexities of detail in the story disappear, 
 and many opposing notions of it are harmonized. What 
 goods, we ask, are these, which the steward was accused of 
 wasting ? Were they spiritual or material goods ? Was 
 it that knowledge of the Divine mind and purpose which 
 had been imparted to the sons of Abraham ; was it the 
 gold and silver which they might share in and traffic with 
 like the other nations ? The passage I took for my text 
 gives the answer. The same law applies to both. 'He 
 that is faithful in that ivhich is least is faithful also in 
 much : and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in 
 much! The second clause defines more clearly the doctrine 
 of the first. ' If therefore ye have not been faithful in the 
 unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true 
 riches ? ' The covetousness of the Pharisees extended from
 
 THE KING DISMISSING HIS STEWAED. 249 
 
 the lowest things to the highest ; from the desire for present 
 pelf to a calculation about the prizes after death which 
 might be secured by a prudent investment of a certain 
 amount of time and fortune here in religious duties and 
 sacrifices. It could not be otherwise. The whole mind 
 must be governed at last by the principle which has 
 dominion over one part of it. This is what our Lord has 
 affirmed so strongly elsewhere, and repeats in connexion 
 with the words I have just read to you. ' No servant can 
 serve two masters : for either he will hate the one, and love 
 the other; or else he ivill hold to the one, and despise tJie 
 other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.' Mammon 
 must be the lord of both worlds, if he is the lord of either. 
 If we admit him to make our earth for us, he will also 
 make our heaven. The spirit of covetousness will be 
 content with no half service, no divided allegiance. And 
 in like manner our Lord teaches that the Spirit of love will 
 be content with no half service, no divided allegiance. He 
 asks for the little and the much ; He asks to be owned as 
 giving us our stewardship both in the unrighteous mammon 
 and in the true riches, in all tangible as well as in all 
 unseen treasures. Do not, then, let us try to separate in 
 Christ's parables worlds which it is the very purpose of a 
 parable to show us must be joined together. The outward 
 and visible is always the sign of the inward and spiritual, 
 whether grace or ungraciousness. The steward had wasted 
 goods of both kinds ; he had claimed them both as his 
 own. 
 
 But the owner was not so far off as the steward sup- 
 posed. He demanded an account of the goods. The steward 
 knew that he was about to be dismissed. What was he 
 to do ? Could he become an independent man ? Was
 
 250 LECTURE XX. 
 
 he capable of standing on liis own ground without any 
 master? He knows that he was not. He cannot dig. 
 Should he then tell his master that he had failed ? Should 
 he make a full confession ? '^o\ ' to hcg he is ashamed.' 
 But there was another course open. Hitherto he had made 
 no friends among his master's tenants. He had stood aloof 
 from tliem ; he had assumed the airs of one in his lord's 
 confidence, having interests altogether apart from theirs. 
 Now he felt the need of their help. When he had quar- 
 relled with his employer, they might receive him into their 
 houses. The method looks simple when it is once devised. 
 He could earn their favour by reducing their debts. He 
 could set them comparatively at ease. ' Hotv much Devest 
 thou unto my lord ? And he said, An hundred measures 
 of oil. Aoid he said unto him, Take thy hill, and sit down 
 quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how 
 much owest thou? And he said. An hundred meas2ires of 
 wheat. And he said unto him. Take thy hill, and write 
 fourscore! 
 
 This was exactly what the Jewish nation did for the 
 nations of the earth when it had lost its sense of a heavenly 
 calling, when it ceased to feel itself a steward for mankind. 
 Jews won themselves friends among heathen men who 
 were weary of their own confusions, who were asking for 
 some clearer light. But it was not by scattering the con- 
 fusions, by pointing them to the light that lighteth every 
 man. It was by lowering the standard which they had 
 already; it was by substituting an easy atheism for a 
 restless idolatry. For the hundred measures of oil they 
 wrote fifty, for the hundred measures of wheat fourscore. 
 It was the way to get friends ; not an unsuccessful way, in 
 that time or any other.
 
 THE KING DISMISSING HIS STEWAED. 251 
 
 But this instinct of seeking friends our Lord says is a 
 right instinct. He would cultivate it in His disciples. He 
 would use the steward's example to show how the blessing 
 is to he won. The steward had done wisely. Having 
 given himself to mammon he had served mammon 
 thoroughly. Having set before himself the object of 
 wirming men's favour, he had given himself up, soul and 
 body, to that object. Could not they do the like? Might 
 not they surrender themselves as heartily to the Spirit of 
 love, as he had surrendered himself to the rival spirit? 
 Could they not buy an everlasting home in men's hearts 
 by showing them the truth, by delivering them from lies, 
 as he had won a temporary home in their houses by dis- 
 guising from them the truth, by encouraging them in lies ? 
 jMight they not compel the god whom he worshipped, 
 the unrighteous mammon, to be an instrument in their 
 service ? 
 
 There is, as I said in speaking of the Prodigal Son, a 
 prevalent jealousy of all interpretations wliich give the 
 parables a national sense, lest we should lose the personal 
 sense which we are sure must be in them. I justified that 
 feeling in the instance to which I referred then. I justify 
 it in this instance. The same observation applies to both. 
 This parable did not speak less livingly, less tremendously, 
 to any individual Jew, because it described the condition 
 of his people. Every individual Jew had a stewardship 
 for which he must give an account. So neither does its 
 fulfilment to them in the least weaken its force for us. 
 Is the Church Catholic less a steward than the posterity 
 Qf Abraham ? Is the English nation less a stcM'ard than 
 the Jewish nation ? Is any of us in his vocation less a 
 steward than any one of them ? Are we less prone than
 
 252 LECTURE XX. 
 
 they were to use our Master's goods as if they were our 
 own ? Are we less prone in our daily intercourse with 
 each other, in our intercourse with the tribes of the earth, 
 to lower the standard of justice, goodness, truth, which 
 God has established in their consciences, — to put the fifty 
 measures of oil, the fourscore of wheat, for the hundred ? 
 Might we not, if we would, be making friends of the other 
 pattern, according to the opposite maxim, both among 
 Christian men and among the men who have never heard 
 of Christ or who disbeheve Him, by awakening them to 
 nobler hopes, by setting before them a nobler life ? 
 
 II. The sentences which connect this Parable of the 
 Steward with the one of Dives and Lazarus are intelligible 
 enough if they are viewed in this' light, and are as much a 
 comment upon one as an introduction to the other ; other- 
 wise they look like sentences thrown in by accident, not in 
 the ' order ' which St. Luke promised to observe. That we 
 should be reminded just in this place of the covetousness 
 of the Pharisees, and that that covetousness should be 
 given as the reason for their deriding our Lord's words 
 about the steward, is surely just what one might have 
 expected, if the whole story turns upon a selfish attempt 
 to appropriate blessings which were meant to be dispensed. 
 That Christ should say to them, ' Te are they which justify 
 yourselves hefore men : hut God hnoweth your hearts : for 
 that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination 
 in the sight of God' was consistent with the discovery He 
 had just been making of a scheme of religion which was 
 grounded upon self-seeking and ended in self-seeking, 
 while the God whom the cultivators of that religion pro- 
 fessed to worship was sending His own Son to seek after 
 His creatures.
 
 THE KING DISMISSING HIS STEWAED. 253 
 
 And the words which follow these, were not less du-ectly 
 addressed to their consciences and need not miss any of 
 their force for ours. The Law and the Prophets had 
 been sounding in the ears of the Jewish people ; they 
 boasted of the Law which their fathers transgressed ; they 
 gloried in the prophets whom their fathers killed. Then 
 John came preaching, ' Eepent, for the kingdom of heaven 
 is at hand.' Since then there had been an eager crying for 
 a kingdom of heaven. Numbers were pressing into it, 
 dreaming that they should find in it some relaxation of the 
 standard which Law and Prophets had set forth. But no ! 
 Heaven and earth would pass away before one tittle of the 
 eternal law which bound heaven and earth together could 
 fail. Jesus had come not to destroy the Law but to fulfil. 
 For one example, which went very directly home to the 
 Pharisee. He had come to make the bond which bound 
 husband to wife more close and sacred. Those who 
 worshipped the mere name of the Law, finding that it 
 permitted — wisely permitted — letters of divorcement, were 
 continually brealdng loose from the obligations of wedlock, 
 all the time pleading the authority of Moses, and fancying 
 that they were obeying the Divine command. He who 
 came to establish an inward righteousness which the Law 
 could not establish, and so to fulfil the intent of the Law, 
 could proclaim that there was a real moral adultery in such 
 separations ; that marriage was not dissolved except by a 
 moral crime ; that the man who sought the letter of divorce 
 on any gi'ound but that was making an adulteress of the 
 woman whom he put away. This was an instance, a 
 typical instance, of the way in which the Jewish rulers 
 were using the Divine statutes to undermine 'the principle 
 which they were created to enforce ; an instance of the way
 
 254 LECTURE XX. 
 
 in whicli they were using their knowledge of Scripture to 
 weaken the conscience in their own people and in the people 
 of other lands. Frequent as divorces were at this time in 
 Eome, we have the testimony of the Jewish historian that 
 they were at least as frequent in Jerusalem, and that the 
 crime which our Lord said that they would foster did con- 
 tinually disturb the peace of families and the order of the 
 State. It is our Lord who traces this result to the Pharisaical 
 denial of any morality which was not legal and external, to 
 that Pharisaical selfishness with which wedded love is in- 
 compatible. 
 
 III. All readers speak naturally of the 'parable' of 
 Dives and Lazarus ; all nevertheless seem inclined to 
 regard it as an actual narrative of a rich and a poor man. 
 "We may now perhaps perceive why it is not safe to reject 
 either of these convictions,, why the parable must contain 
 more than a mere story that it may vindicate its claim to 
 be a story. In speaking to you on the Parable of the 
 Sower, I maintained that it was an education — a divine 
 education — for poor men or rich men if their minds were 
 only awakened to the most obvious facts of nature. They 
 knew the worth of that education when they began to 
 connect nature with themselves, to regard the same Divine 
 government as exercised in analogous methods over both. 
 So here. I accept this story in its most literal sense as an 
 example of facts which are occurring continually in this 
 world, and as a revelation of what passes in the world 
 after death. I cannot value it too highly in that character. 
 But if it were only this, it would seem to me a loose frag- 
 ment occurring in the midst of a continuous discourse. It 
 would have no reference to the main subject of that dis- 
 course. I hold that it has a direct reference to that subject.
 
 THE KING DISMISSING HIS STEWAED. 255 
 
 The more carefully we examine it in all its details, the 
 more shall we find that it concerns the steward of whom 
 we have just been hearing, the elder son of whom we 
 heard last Sunday. 
 
 (1) ' There was a certain rich man, lohich was clothed in 
 purjple and fine linen, and fared sum'ptuo'iisly every day : 
 and tlure was a certain Icggar named Lazarus, which was 
 laid at his gate,fidl of sores, and desiring to he fed with the 
 crumbs ivliich fell from the rich man's table : moreover the 
 dogs came and licked his sores.' Any rich man might 
 certainly be clothed in purple and fine linen. But for the 
 purposes of a parable, there would be a peculiar fitness 
 in such vestures for a nation which is described in the 
 Scriptures as one of kings and priests. The sumptuous 
 fare may represent the luxury of any individual man. 
 But these words occur in a song, which every Israelite 
 knew by heart, which confessedly referred to the blessings 
 of the race, which gave the form to the thoughts and 
 language of a number of Psalms. ' Re made him ride on 
 the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase 
 of the fields ; and he made him to such honey out of the 
 rock, and oil out of the fiinty rock ; butter of kine, and 
 milk of sheep, uiith fat of lambs, and rams of the breed 
 of Bashan, and goats, ivith the fat of kidneys of wheat : 
 and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.' Evidently 
 whatever sense we give to the words of this song, the same we 
 may reasonably give to the ' sumptuous fare ' of the parable, 
 the only difference being that as our Lord spoke at a time 
 when the nation had lost its civil freedom, the treasures 
 which it possessed must be those which St. Paul enumerated 
 when he said, ' ^Yho arc Israelites; to ichom pertaincth (lie 
 adoption, and the glwy, and the covenants, and the giving of
 
 256 LECTURE XX. 
 
 the Law, and the service of God, and the promises ; whose are 
 the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, 
 who is over all, God blessed for ever.'' 
 
 (2) And if the people wlio were chosen to know the one 
 God of all the families of the earth, the God who executeth 
 justice and righteousness on the earth, the God who is a 
 Creator and a Eedeemer, are represented by the rich man — 
 the beggar at the gate 'must be the image of those tribes 
 that were bowing to gods who disliked some families of the 
 earth, to gods who were not just and righteous but spiteful 
 and malicious, to gods some of whom desired to enslave and 
 kill, some of whom were more gracious and merciful, but 
 were controlled by a power higher than all, which seemed 
 at times merely absorbed in its own happiness, at times 
 to be the envious beholder and the destined destroyer of 
 what men loved, of all their momentary gratifications, of 
 all their distant hopes. No mythology, no philosophy had 
 ever been able to cure these speculations, for they came 
 from sores in the conscience, from a sense of inward war, 
 from a prophecy that there must be a Eighteous Being, 
 One who desired that men should be righteous, — if haply 
 they could feel after Him and find Him. But Lazarus had 
 never been so full of sores — at least the sores had never 
 been so obvious and so painful — as in that age of unbelief, of 
 moral corruption, of eager craving for signs and enchant- 
 ments, of hopeless slavery, upon which the world, ruled by 
 the Caesars, had now entered. There was, indeed, in that 
 time, a longing for any crumbs of consolation or infor- 
 mation which might be found anywhere. We have proofs 
 enough that the Eoman masters, much as they may have 
 despised the Jews, did ask for those crumbs at their hands, 
 did try to understand their lore, did listen to the false
 
 THE KING DISMISSING HIS STEWARD. 257 
 
 prophets wlio abused that lore and traded with the wisdom 
 which it gave them. 'Moreover the dogs came and lichcd his 
 sores' The animals and outward nature whispered to him 
 the news which those who were trusted with it did not tell 
 ' He who made these creatures and thee, does not forget 
 ' them and will not forget thee.' 
 
 (3) ' And it came to 'pass, that the heggar died, and was car- 
 ried hythe angels into Ahraham's hosom : the rich man also 
 died, and was huried ; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being 
 in torments, and seeth Ahraham a/ar off, and Lazarus in his 
 hosom' Tlie beggar lies at the gate of the rich man no 
 more. The blessing to Abraham becomes his blessing. He 
 is carried into the very heart of that divine covenant 
 which was given to one family for the sake of all the 
 families of the earth. Is not this a faithful exhibition of 
 the facts? Heathen nations have believed the God of 
 Abraham to be their God ; have confessed Jesus the seed 
 of Abraham to be their Lord and King ; have said that He 
 came to adopt them into His Father's family, to make them 
 sons of God in Him. The language is at least consistent 
 with the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, as the Apostles 
 proclaimed it to the world. 
 
 (4) Does the account of the death and burial of the rich 
 man answer less to the facts of history ? Does it answer 
 less to the previous passages of St. Luke's narrative ? Is 
 not that narrative (or rather the discourses which it records) 
 declaring to us the sjinptoms of an expiring nation, the 
 nature and source of the diseases whicli must at last 
 extinguish it ? Wlien the sentence went forth against it, 
 what was it l)ut putting into a grave that which had be- 
 come putrid and was infecting tlie air? 
 
 (5) But life is not extinct when this burial has taken place. 
 
 s
 
 '258 LECTURE XX. 
 
 There is a life in death. The torment which the bef^CTar 
 endured has become the rich man's. He has the frightful 
 sores of conscience. He has the sense of being without 
 God, of not knowing what His purposes are ; whether He 
 is not an enemy, whether He does not desire the misery 
 of His creatures, whether Jehovah the Eedeemer, or Mam- 
 mon the Enslaver, is indeed the Lord of all. He has the 
 feeling that a strange reverse has taken place in his con- 
 dition ; that he has fallen by some dire destiny ; that 
 others who were in an immeasurably lower state than his 
 have ascended into a higher. 
 
 (6) Eecollection of the past has not departed. At first 
 it seems only to aggravate the misery of the loss. 
 
 ' Aoid he cried and said, Father' Ahraham, have mercy on 
 me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger 
 in water, and cool my tongue ; for I am tormented in this 
 flame. But Ahraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy 
 lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likeivise Lazarus evil 
 things : hut noio he is comforted, and thou art tormented.. 
 And hcside all this, hetween us and you there is a great gulf 
 fixed : so that they which would pass from hence to you can- 
 not ; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.' 
 
 This craving for something to cool the tongue, if it were 
 only a slight taste of outward civil rights, has character- 
 ised the Jewish race during ages of ignominy and cruel 
 persecution at Christian hands. And all the while there 
 has been a wish — I count it a noble wish — to receive the 
 blessing from father Abraham — I mean to claim it as 
 due to a people having a grand ancestry and glorious 
 traditions, rather than to take it from the mercy of the 
 Gentiles even if it must come through their hands. But 
 Ahraham can only answer by pointing to the advantages
 
 THE KING DISMISSING HIS STEWAED. 259 
 
 which they had and which they have lost — can only speak 
 of the wide and impassable gulf which separates the 
 present from the past. Till they can look beyond their 
 ancestry to the Ancient of Days — till they can invoke not 
 Abraham, but the God of Abraham, that sad answer is the 
 only one which can reach them. 
 
 But there is another scene in the drama. 
 
 (7) ' Then he said, I p^ay thee therefore, father, that thou 
 ivouldest send him to my father^ s house : for I have five 
 brethren ; that he inay testify unto them, lest they also come 
 into this place of torment.'' 
 
 I can find no key to the meaning of this sentence like 
 that which is supplied by some grand lessons which St. 
 Paul addresses to the Gentiles at Eome, in a passage from 
 wliich I have quoted on a former occasion. 
 
 ' Boast not against the hi^anches. But if thou hoast, thou 
 leai'est not the root, hut the root thee. Thou wilt say then. 
 The hranches toere hroJcen off, that I might he graffed in. 
 Well ; hecause of unhelief they tvere hvken off, and thoii 
 standest hy faith. Be not high-minded, hut fear : for if 
 God spared not the natural branches, talce heed lest he also 
 sjjare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of 
 God : on them which fell, severity ; hut toward thee, goodness, 
 if thou continue in his goodness : otherwise thoic also shall he 
 cut ojl. A ad they also, if they abide not still in unhelief, shall 
 he graffed in : for God is ahle to graff them in again.' 
 
 The nations have been carried into Abraham's bosom. 
 They have become the fortunate brethren of the rich man ; 
 the successors to the stewardship which lie has forfeited. 
 May not they fall from that honour as he lias fallen? 
 AVill they not take warning from his fall? Abraham 
 makes answer, 'They have Moses and the Fropluts, let them 
 
 s2
 
 260 LECTTJEE XX. 
 
 hear them! Moses and the Prophets will tell them what 
 comes of exulting in great privileges ; that men who had 
 the revelation of the righteous God might turn to the 
 vilest idols. Moses and the Prophets will tell them that 
 they can only live by faith in God; that if they once 
 begin to trust in themselves they must perish. He who 
 had Moses and the Prophets, and did not hear them, replies, 
 ' Nay, father Abraham: hit if one went unto them from the 
 dead, they will repent' The news of a Eesurrection ; the 
 voice of one who had risen, that must prevail ! Is there no 
 conscience in us — in the beggars who have become princes — 
 in the countries of idolaters which now form a Christen- 
 (iom — that responds to the fearful sentence, ' If they hear 
 not Moses and the prophets, neither ivill they he persuaded, 
 though one rose from the dead ? ' 
 
 (8) I have endeavoured to follow our Lord's words step 
 by step, and, instead of inventing a sense for them, to take 
 that which is suggested by the context, that which asso- 
 ciates them at once with the history of the time and with 
 the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven. But, as I said 
 before, no interpretation of this kind, however much 
 justified by evidence internal and collateral, can warrant 
 us in throwing aside the most palpable, most individual, 
 meaning which has been ever found for the parable. If I 
 tliought I was weakening one application of it which has 
 been made to any rich man clotlied with purple and fine 
 linen, to any beggar at his gate, 1 should distrust my 
 apprehension of it altogether. But as I have shown 
 in former cases, there can be no fear that a law wliich 
 strikes at selfishness in spiritual treasures wiU not strike 
 at selfishness in the case of material treasures. For men's 
 unfaithfulness in little things corresponds to their unfaith-
 
 THE KING DISMISSING HIS STEWAED. 261 
 
 fulness in great. And God's government is orderly and 
 uniform. His dealings with nations must, as tlie Bible 
 teaclies us they do, proceed on the same principles and 
 point to the same objects as His dealing with every human 
 soul. 
 
 The relation between the past and future of the Jewish 
 nation may be most fittingly set forth in the past and future 
 of a man, by his condition here, and his condition after 
 death. I assume that that is the most fit illustration of it, 
 because it is our Lord's. And I assume that as He tells us 
 of facts just as they are here, so He tells us of facts just as 
 they are there. If He represents the selfish man as feeling 
 the torment when he passes out of the world which was 
 concealed from him in a great measure here, I take it for 
 granted that it is even so. If He says that an utterly selfish 
 man, who only cared for himself here, who at first only cares 
 for the flames which are tormenting himself there, may be 
 brought, through this discipline, to think of his brethren 
 and care for them, I cannot reject the assurance of so mighty 
 a moral change, merely because, without such an authority, 
 I could not have conceived it. If I take our Lord Jesus 
 Christ as my guide through mysteries which I cannot 
 penetrate, if I suppose that He knows more than we know, 
 I must conclude that a man who has been proof against 
 all loving influences here, who had appeared to grow 
 harder and more cruel under those very influences, may 
 yet find the fatherly chastisement which will break his 
 stubbornness and lead him to contrition. He who began 
 to cry earnestly that those whom he had left behind 
 him might not come into that place of torment, might 
 have still a gulf separating him from Abraham. V>\\i 
 that gulf must have been beginning to close \\\) ; he was
 
 262 LECTURE XX. 
 
 nearer in heart and mind to Abraham than he had ever 
 been in the days when he was receiving his good things. 
 
 It is not, my friends, by quenching this hope for any 
 individual man, or for any fallen nation, that we shall 
 make ourselves purer, or shall deepen the awe of. our 
 minds. We may believe, we ought to believe, that punish- 
 ment is inseparable from evil, that God will never with- 
 hold His punishments while evil lasts. Israel cannot be 
 saved till it is saved from its distrust and hatred of God. 
 When St. Paul says 'AH Israel shall be saved,' he 
 expresses his conviction that it will one day be brought 
 to own that the perfect friend of man is the true image of 
 God. The assurance that its disobedience will be at last 
 overcome, cannot make it safe for the Christian Church 
 to imitate the sin of Israel, and so to come into its tor- 
 ments. The trust that no sin, no selfishness, shall at last 
 be found stronger than the divine love, cannot lead any 
 man to cultivate that which is to be vanquished, or defy 
 that which must prevail. Despair is the devil's instru- 
 ment, not God's. He is the God of Hope.
 
 LECTUEE XXI. 
 
 HOAV THE KINGDOAI OF GOD COMES. 
 
 St. Luke XVII. 20, 21. 
 
 And when kewas demanded of the Pliainsees, when the Jcingdom of God should 
 come, he answered them and said. The kingdom, of God cometh not with 
 ob^iervation : neither shall they say, Lo here I or, Lo there ! for, behold, 
 the kingdom of God is loithin you. 
 
 I. Any one who reflects on the parables of the steward, 
 and of the rich man, or on any of the facts of Jewish 
 history which illustrate them, may exclaim in sadness and 
 in bitterness, ' So then all things which seem blessings 
 
 * are really occasions of falling. Those who have most 
 
 * advantages of any kind are the greatest offenders. They 
 ' stumble themselves — they cause others to stumble.' 
 
 He who knew what was in man — He who felt in Him- 
 self all the doubts and perplexities which could arise in 
 any of us — anticipated these thoughts. His own spirit 
 sounded the depth of them. 
 
 ' Then said he unto the disciples. It is impossible hut that 
 offences ivill come : hut woe unto him, through whom they 
 come I It were hetter for him that a millstone were hanged 
 ahaut his neck, and lie cast into the sea, than tlmt lie should 
 offend one of tlicse little ones! 
 
 As if He had said, Yes ! All these scandals which the 
 children of Abraham are causing to each other and to the
 
 264 LECTURE XXL 
 
 heathen world are indeed very terrible. How terrible they 
 are you cannot measure. But you do yourselves no good 
 by complaining that you are exposed to them. Prepare for 
 them as for enemies that must meet you, that you cannot 
 escape. And then consider, * The evil is not in receiving 
 ' an offence, but in giving it. The woe is to him through 
 ' whom the offence cometh. Think of that.' 
 
 II. My friends, here is indeed a maxim of the Kingdom 
 of Heaven. There cannot be a simpler, there cannot be a 
 deeper or a more practical one. Accept offences or scan- 
 dals that meet you as inevitable. Take care, each one of 
 you, that you are not the author of an offence or scandal. 
 Is it said then that you can have no control over those 
 which others cause, that you can do nothing to hinder 
 them ? Hear what you may do if you observe the first rule. 
 * Take heed to yourselves : If thy brother trespass against 
 thee, rebuke him ; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he 
 trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in 
 a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent ; thou shalt forgive 
 him! 
 
 Avoid giving offences, then you will forgive those who 
 offend you. Forgiveness is your weapon against scandals. 
 Your temptation will always be to confound the evil which 
 is done with the injury which it inflicts upon you. Separate 
 them by forgiving that injury ; so you lead the man to ask 
 how the evil whence the injury came may be taken away- 
 He rises from your forgiveness to the apprehension of a 
 forgiving God. He perceives that there is one who desires 
 to send away sins. It seems to me that our Lord struck 
 here at the very root of the Pharisaical doctrine — of that 
 doctrine which was always producing scandals, and could 
 do nothing to abate them. Forgiveness in any real sense
 
 HOW THE KINGDOM OF GOD COMES. 265 
 
 of the word was not a part of their practice. It therefore 
 was not, and could not be, in any real sense, a part of 
 their creed. Forgiveness meant to them the indulging in 
 certain cases those who had offended. Up to a certain 
 point that might be a duty. It was a hard duty. After 
 •a certain number of experiments they might assure them- 
 selves that God was satisfied. They had done all that 
 He required. Therefore forgiveness, when it was asked of 
 Him, meant the same kind of indulgence — a mere remis- 
 sion of punishment for injuries which He had incurred at 
 their hands. The dream of a God who delighted to for- 
 give ; who reclaimed by forgiving ; who sent away not 
 punishment but sins ; who made the hearts and consciences 
 of His subjects free from guilt ; this did not enter into 
 their theology, as that which corresponded to it had no 
 place in their ethical code. But to reveal such a God 
 and His Kingdom was the work of Christ. His code of 
 morality is formed by His theology. 
 
 III. Wlien the disciples heard the precept so new to their 
 ears, yet bearing such a witness of its truth to their con- 
 sciences, that they should forgive their brother if he turned 
 to them seven times a day, and said, ' I repent,' they uttered 
 a very natural cry, ' Lord, increase our faith.' The words 
 expressed more than they knew of their own want. It 
 was exactly faith which they needed — faith in God's for- 
 giveness ; then forgiveness in its most inward sense, the 
 forgiveness from the heart, would be possible for them. 
 But there was a confusion in their minds which man-ed this 
 simple petition. They had thouglit of faith as a possession 
 or gtock, which might be increased as a sura of money may 
 be increased by a present or a bequest. I judge that they 
 had this thought, partly from their language, partly because
 
 "266 LECTURE XXI. 
 
 we all of us have it ; still more from the answer which our 
 Lord made them. 
 
 IV. ' And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of 
 mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree. Be thou 
 plucked up hy the root, and he thou planted in the sea ; and 
 it should obey you. But which of you, having a servant 
 plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him hy and hy, wlun 
 he is come from the field, Go and sit down to m^eat ? And 
 will not rather say unto him, Mahe ready wherewith I may 
 sup, and gird thyself, and serve me till I have eaten and 
 drunken ; and afterward thou shall eat and drink 1 Both 
 he thank that servant hecause he did the things that ivere 
 commanded him ? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye 
 shall have done all those things which are commanded you, 
 say. We are unprofitable servants : we have done that which 
 was our duty to do.' 
 
 The grain of mustard seed, the tiniest of seeds, illustrates 
 the nature of faith better than an accumulating heap. It 
 is the greatest when it is least. The man feels that he 
 has nothing, and can do nothing ; therefore he relies on One 
 who has all, and can enable to do what He wills him to 
 do. Once let him think that he has any power of his own 
 — call it faith, or what you please — the reliance vanishes ; 
 the essence of faith is gone. While the man really depends 
 on a strength which is not his own, he can bid sycamine- 
 trees move into the sea ; mountains will be no hindrance 
 to him. 
 
 Is that not a justification of all miracle workers ? What 
 power have they ever pretended to which was so great as 
 this ? To none which was half or a thousandth part so great. 
 For they have pretended to exhibit their own great feats, 
 their superiority to other men, the difference between them
 
 now THE KINGDOM OF GOD COMES. 267 
 
 and their fellows. Therefore they have not been able to 
 remove real hindrances, ]3l^ysical or moral, as those have 
 done who have worked simply and obediently as the 
 ministers of God's order. Such is our Lord's own cor- 
 rection of the tendencies which were sure to appear in 
 His disciples, and to connect themselves with the efforts 
 and the triumphs of faith. AVhat was their faith given them 
 for ? That they might indulge themselves with it ? That 
 they might sit down to meat and enjoy themselves on tlie 
 strength of it ? I trow not. They were simply labourers 
 ploughing and feeding cattle for a master. Their faith was 
 given them to serve Him with, that they might do His 
 work. They would have what was wanted that they 
 might do what was their duty to do ; no more. In the 
 performance of that duty difficulties that appeared quite 
 insurmountable would disappear ; nothing would be im- 
 possible to them. But if they began to be proud of them- 
 selves ; to think tliat they could do something more than 
 was their duty; that they might turn their faith into a 
 luxury or an occasion of display : they would soon be 
 reminded of their own insignificance ; they wo\dd be 
 brought back to dependence and faith by severe lessons. 
 The words, ' We are unprofitable servants ; we have done 
 'that which is our duty to do,' nre uf'ti'ii quoted by the 
 champions of the Eeformation against those who plead for 
 works of supererogation. They have, no doubt, great 
 point in this application ; but let us remember that tlie 
 roots of that tenet of supererogation lie deep in all our 
 natures, that they may send up shoots of varitjus kinds. 
 Those who speak of the efficacy of fjuth for justification 
 may exhibit many of those shoots; the Protestant soil is 
 not less favourable to the growth of them than the Ilomish,
 
 268 LECTUKE XXI. 
 
 Those wlio glorify themselves on their faith come even 
 more directly within the scope of our Lord's animadversion 
 in this passage than those who glorify themselves on their 
 works. And it is only by remembering that faith is the 
 power by w^hich God enables us to do what He wills us to 
 do that we can escape either temptation. 
 
 V. I have inferred from the express words of St. Luke in 
 the ninth chapter that all these discourses were delivered 
 during our Lord's last journey to Jerusalem. You have 
 seen how often our attention is called to the place whither 
 His steps are directed ; how every woe, every expression of 
 sorrow and anguish, every parable, has had some reference 
 to it. We are reminded of it again in the eleventh verse. 
 The incident which is recorded immediately after suggests 
 another hint respecting the condition of the chosen people, 
 another comparison between them and those whom they 
 supposed to be enemies of God. 
 
 ' And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he 
 passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as 
 he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that 
 were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted tip their 
 voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when 
 he saw them, he said unto them. Go shew yourselves unto the 
 priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were 
 cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, 
 turned hack, and ivith a loud voice glorified God, and fell 
 down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks : and he was 
 a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said. Were there not 
 ten cleansed ? hut where are the nine ? There are not found 
 that returned to give glory to God save this stranger. And 
 he said unto him, Arise, go thy way : thy faith hath made 
 thee whole^
 
 HOW THE KINGDOM OF GOD COMES. 269 
 
 Tlie Jew dwelt much on the original crime of the ten 
 tribes ; on the mixture of Assyrian worship with the wor- 
 ship of Jehovah in those who had been settled in the 
 land after the captivity of those tribes ; on the opposition 
 which they ojffered to the building of the temple at Jeru- 
 salem ; on the carefulness of Ezra and Nehemiah to pre- 
 serve the purity of blood in their race ; on the schismatical 
 temple at Gerizim. Not by arguments in confutation of 
 this exclusiveness, but by living practical instances, is 
 the way prepared for a message first to Samaritans, then 
 to all who had no descent from the Patriarchs. How an 
 habitual traditional faith may pass into a, loss of all faith, 
 how the formal acknowledgment of God may harden into 
 Atheism ; this was the fearful discovery which Christ was 
 making to those who had inherited all blessings, • who 
 were exulting in their orthodoxy. How God may prepare 
 ' strangers ' to see Him in His acts, to confess Him, to give 
 Him thanks for that which the others received as common 
 things ; this was the consolatory lesson which accompanied 
 that melancholy one. The suddenness of their cure — 
 what we call its miraculous character — had not the slightest 
 effect in startling the nine Israelite lepers out of their 
 moral torpor. They were glad to be freed from a plague, 
 however the advantage might come. But there was no 
 divine message to them in the deliverance. Tlie hard 
 trading temper of the rulers and the scribes had become 
 theirs ; they wanted certain things of the Most High ; it 
 might be freedom from punishment here or hereafter ; it 
 might be the acquisition of certain good things here or 
 hereafter. They did not care to know Him. The Sama- 
 ritan was overwhelmed by the blessing which was granted 
 liim ; he had no right to it ; what had he done to deserve
 
 270 LECTURE XXT. 
 
 it ? TLe gift must have come from the Source of health, 
 and life, and gladness. It had come through a man wlio 
 felt with him in his sorrow, who had healed him, it 
 would seem, by some mighty power of sympathy. Surely 
 this must be his ruler, the Lord of his spirit. And the 
 God who spoke by this man could be no distant ruler in 
 the clouds. Was it not He who taught Abraham to trust 
 Him for himself and his seed after him ? The removal of 
 the leprosy was to this man a revelation of God. His 
 faith, the faith which was as a grain of mustard seed, did 
 not glorify itself, but God who had saved him. He liad 
 been raised out of himself — he had become a new man. 
 
 VI. It is by no accident, I conceive, but in the most 
 strict ' order,' that the words which we read next succeed 
 to this story. 
 
 'And ivhen he was demanded of the Pharisees, tvhen the 
 kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said. 
 The Tcingdom of God cometh not ivith ohservation : neither 
 shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, lehold, the kingdom 
 of God is within you! 
 
 The Pharisees had heard Him speak much of the King- 
 dom of God as being at hand. They would like much to 
 know when it was to appear. It seemed to be long in 
 coming. The sneer was one in which they were sure to 
 indulge ; it could not be without its effect on the disciples. 
 We may hear and repeat the answer, not attaching much 
 sense to it. The Samaritan leper had found the sense of 
 it. The Kingdom of God had revealed itself to him. It 
 had not come visibly, with observation. His spirit had 
 bowed to it — had become its subject. And thou hard 
 material Pharisee! thou must learn what this Kingdom 
 of God is as the Samaritan leper learned it, or thou wilt
 
 HOW THE KINGDOM OF GOD COMES. 271 
 
 never perceive it at all, though it be about thee, though 
 thou livest under the shadow of it, though thou art called 
 as he is to enter into it, and be governed by it. If thou 
 art looking for it in this place or that place, in the city or 
 the desert, or the secret chamber, thou wilt not see it. 
 Thou mayst calculate times and seasons accurately. Thou 
 mayst guess from the sacred book what are the signs which 
 shall herald the grand apparition. Thou mayst be picturing 
 to thyself all the pomp and procession which shall wel- 
 come the Monarch, and the gifts and the punishments 
 which He will dispense. But thou wilt know nothing of 
 its nature till thou, like this stranger, this outcast, cryest for 
 deliverance from a tyrant who is oppressing thee, and till 
 tliou thank God as thy Deliverer. 
 
 VII. Then He turned to the disciples, who needed 
 counsel on this subject as much as the Pharisees. They 
 had clung to Him ; they had heard Him call Himself 
 the Son of Man ; they had entered in some slight degree 
 into the force of that name ; they had believed that the 
 Kingdom of God Avould be His kingdom — would be a 
 human ' kingdom — a kingdom for men. ' But the clays 
 will come ivhen ye shall desire to see one of the days of 
 the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.'' That form 
 which they had looked upon would be visible no more. 
 Nay, it would seem to them as if they had lost Him 
 — as if all signs of His presence were gone — as if tlie 
 world were left — as if they were left — more desolate of 
 Him than before. That would be a time of fearful 
 temptation. They would hear voices saying to tliem, 
 'See here, or see there.' Impostures would beset them 
 on all hands. They woukl be told, ' The Son of Man is 
 ' revealing Himself to this seer, to this circle of initiated
 
 272 LECTUEE XXI. 
 
 ' disciples.' Neither he nor they can teach you how to recog- 
 nise your Lord. ' But go not after them, nor follow them. 
 For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under 
 heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven ; so shall the 
 Son of man he in his day' 
 
 YIII. Hard it must have been for the disciples to under- 
 stand that saying, even when they were preaching of the Son 
 of Man as the risen and ascended Lord of men and angels. 
 Hard it must have been to believe : ' Our words, the 
 ' words which go forth from the mouths of fishermen 
 ' and tentmakers, shall spread like the lightning from one 
 ' part of the heaven to the other part of it ; shall reach 
 ' nations we never dreamed of ; shall bring them to confess 
 ' the Son of Man.' If they did grasp the conviction, it 
 could only have been through faith in tlie purpose of the 
 eternal God to establish the kingdom of His Son, for 
 neither then nor before will it have come with observa- 
 tion. They had to remember continually what He had 
 said when He was speaking of His triumph. ' But first 
 must he suffer many things, and he rejected of this generation.' 
 A rejection not terminating with His death, only beginning 
 with it. The message of the Cross, the message of the 
 Eesurrection, would be more scouted than He had been in 
 the days of His flesh. The rejection would come from the 
 same persons ; from the religious teachers and rulers of the 
 chosen nation first and chiefly ; then from the kings and 
 emperors of the world. 
 
 IX. 'And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it he also in 
 the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they 
 married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day 
 that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and de- 
 stroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot ;
 
 HOW THE KINGDOM OF GOD COMES. 273 
 
 they did cat, they drank, they hougJit, they sold, they planted, 
 they huildecl ; hut the same day that Lot went out of Sodom 
 it rained fire and lyrimstone from heaven, and destroyed them 
 all. Even thus shall it he in the day when the Son of man 
 is revealed. In that day, he which shall he upon the house- 
 stop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come doivn to take 
 it aivay : and he that is in the field, let him likewise not 
 return hack.' 
 
 That the words, ' days of the Son of Man,' point to 
 some crisis which would affect the condition of mankind, 
 no one who acknowledges the authority of the Speaker 
 can doubt. Those who do not acknowledge His authority 
 suppose that He expected such a crisis, or that His disciples 
 expected it or beKeved that it had occurred, and therefore 
 ascribed this language to Him, There is a perplexity in 
 the minds of those who resort to the fraud or exaggerations 
 of the Apostles or of the later Church for the explanation 
 of these announcements. If what He said corresponds 
 with some exactness to the events whicli happened when 
 Jerusalem fell, they determine that it was a prophecy 
 after the fact. But since they assume the prediction to 
 be only satisfied liy a destruction of the universe, they fall 
 back upon the ignorance and simplicity of Him or His 
 reporters, and suppose that their expressions prove them to 
 have looked childishly forward to a catastrophe which never 
 occurred, not to look back on one which did occur. We 
 have a right, assuredly, to ask tluit they will determine 
 whicli of these solutions they adopt, and will adhere to 
 that ; not mix them loosely together, seeing that they are 
 incompatible. But before we make that demand we must 
 clear our own minds of a confusion which renders us often 
 as irreverent to Christ, as inattentive to His express 
 
 T
 
 274 LECTUEE XXI. 
 
 language, as those who deem Him and the Evangelists 
 to be impostors. Were the warnings derived from the state 
 of men in ISToah's age and in Lot's meant to warn the dis- 
 ciples of a calamity which was impending over them ? Can 
 you read any single sentence of the passage which I have 
 read to you, or of the passage which follows it, and doubt 
 that they were ? Must not every one of those who listened 
 to Him have supposed that they were? Leave for a 
 moment the words respecting the past and consider these : — ■ 
 
 X. ' In that day, he which shall he upon the housetop, and 
 his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away : 
 and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return hack. 
 Remember Lofs %oife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life 
 shall lose it / and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve 
 it. I tell you, in that night there shall he two men in one hed ; 
 the one shall he taken, and the other shall he left. Two ivomen 
 shall he grinding together ; the one shall he taken, and the 
 other left. Two men shall he in the field ; the one shall he 
 taken, and the other left.' 
 
 Can any warnings be less vague, more distinct ? They 
 point to the field, the mill, the house, the house-stuff, the 
 l)ed. Yet it is not the distinctness of one who had lived 
 during a siege, and could relate some of the stirring and 
 frightful incidents which had taken place in it ; no stich 
 signs either of foresight or of deception are here. What 
 we do observe, is a purpose to avoid the grand imagery 
 of a falling universe, such as the analogies of the burning 
 mountain might have supplied, and to fix the thoughts of 
 the hearers upon minute and individual circumstances 
 which might affect their own conduct. 
 
 But why then speak of Noah or of Lot ? Ask Christ 
 to tell you why He does not dwell as we might, if we
 
 HOW THE KINGDOM OF GOD COMES. 275 
 
 wanted to impress our hearers with a coming day of 
 judgment, upon the universality of the dehige, so far 
 as hills or valleys were concerned in it. He speaks 
 of the condition of the people whom it overtook. He 
 passes therefore naturally, and without an effort, to a 
 single city of the Plain, as if that contained precisely the 
 same lesson. In each case there is a revelation of God's 
 purpose to put down evil and to vindicate right. In each 
 case there is a stupor, indifference, hardness, lasting to the 
 very instant when the overthrow came. Now, these cha- 
 racteristics of former crises or judgments were strictly 
 verified in the one which befell that age. There M^as the 
 same incapacity of believing that the holy city could fall, 
 in its inhabitants, as there was that the city of the Plain 
 could fall, in its inhabitants. The Lord of David, they said, 
 could not mean that David's conquest should be won by 
 sacrilegious Eomans. All our Lord's warnings have been 
 directed to remove this expectation from His disciples' 
 minds. God would not prove Himself to be the Lord of the 
 city by such an interference. He would Himself be its 
 Judge. He would call His steward to give an account of 
 liis stewardship. Tie would manifest His Kingdom of 
 Heaven by putting down that kingdom on earth which 
 was most directly setting at nought all His purposes. 
 The downfall of the city, the casting out of llic Jewish 
 nation, would be in the strictest sense a revelation of tlic 
 Son of ^lan. It would fulfil the pui-pose oi' all juHivious 
 judgments. It would declare God's eternal war with 
 unrighteousness in whomsoever unrighteousness might be 
 found. It would declare His pur])ose to regenerate and 
 restore the human race, and to sweep away whatever 
 opposes its regeneration and restoration. It would be like 
 
 T 2
 
 276 LECTURE XXL 
 
 all previous days of the Lord — a day of thick darkness, a 
 day of glorious light coming forth from the darkness. 
 
 But can we afford, my friends, to rob ourselves of these 
 divine predictions, that we may give all the terror of them 
 to the Jews ? We cannot, indeed ! It is the very cheat, 
 the very robbery which we have practised upon ourselves. 
 The vague conception of some distant universal judgment, 
 which we may describe in grand rhetorical phrases, has 
 hidden from us those direct practical hints respecting a 
 judgment, which might have helped the inhabitants of every 
 city whereon any judgment has fallen, in Europe or in 
 Asia, in tlie nineteenth century or in the first ; which have 
 actually verified themselves in every one. We have lost 
 the special, the minute warnings which might have profited 
 and consoled individuals so much, and shown them their 
 position in the world's history. We have equally lost sight 
 of the universal and the eternal. We have put the dream of 
 a grand assize which merely appeals to the fancy, for the 
 revelation of a Son of Man which speaks to every human 
 conscience. We have forgotten that the trial day which the 
 Jewish Nation passed through must come to the Universal 
 Church. Does not this sentence apply to both ? 
 
 'And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? 
 And he said unto them, Wheresoever the hody is, thither ivill 
 the eagles he (/aiheixd together.'
 
 LECTURE XXII. 
 
 WHO CAN ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 St. Luke XVIII. 16. 
 
 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come 
 unto me, and. forhid them not : for of such is the kingdom of God. 
 
 If the disciples had dreamed that the Kingdom of God 
 
 was to come with a pomp and glory which men would 
 
 observe, the last discourse of our Lord must have greatly 
 
 shaken that expectation. If they had siipposed the day of 
 
 the Son of Man was to be one of mere brightness to them, 
 
 however dark it might be to those who were not disciples, 
 
 that comfort must have been overthrown. Calamities were 
 
 coming upon their country in that generation. They would 
 
 have their full share in these calamities. The danger could 
 
 not ])C escaped anywhere. Their nation was scattered abroad 
 
 in different parts of the world. It was perishing. WluMovcr 
 
 any part of tlie body was, there would the eagles be found 
 
 descending upon it. They miglit well faint at such tidings. 
 
 I. ' He spake a parable to them to this end, that men ought 
 
 alv'ays to pra}j,and not to faint.' The parable is of a widow 
 
 oppressed by a very powerful enemy. It is a case of the 
 
 weak against the strong. But the case is a very aggi'a\;ilcd 
 
 one, for the law whicli sliould protect the weak against the 
 
 strong is in the worst possible hands. An unjust judge is
 
 278 LECTURE XXII. 
 
 administering it. ISTevertlieless, the widow cries. There 
 is what should be a seat of justice in her city. She will 
 invoke it. The adversary goads her. She must appeal to 
 . the tribunal, if it is ever so deaf And the appeal is not 
 fruitless. The judge calculates that it is less troublesome 
 to do right than to be tormented with perpetual cries for 
 redress of WTong. The widow is avenged of her adversary 
 at last. 
 
 ' Hear,' says our Lord, ' what the unjust judge saith. And 
 shall not God' — shall not He, who is all just — 'avenge his 
 own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he hear 
 long with them ? ' Cannot you trust Him to avenge you of 
 your adversary, who Himself has called you to seek Him, 
 who is Himself awakening the cry for help ? ' / tell you 
 that He ivill avenge them speedily.' Long as the time may 
 seem to the weary waiter, it will not really be long. He 
 will wonder afterwards how short the struggle was. 'Never- 
 theless, when the Son of Man cometh,' — when there is that 
 revelation of which I have spoken, that discovery of the 
 true Friend of Man — 'shall he find faith on earth f ' Will 
 He be hailed in that character even by those whom He has 
 chosen to be His witnesses ? 
 
 The history of Christendom has, I think, answered this 
 question. What does its existence mean, but this, that a 
 Son of Man has come, not merely by being born in a 
 manger, by dying on a cross, but in great power, by rising 
 from the dead, by ascending on high, by sending Hie 
 Spirit, by casting out the nation which had rejected Him 
 because He claimed to be the Head of all nations ? But 
 where has been the faith that He has actually established 
 the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, that He has actually 
 avenged the widow who cried to Him of her adversary ?
 
 WHO CAN ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 279 
 
 The Churcli lias believed to a certain extent in Jesus as its 
 own King, Has it believed in Him as a Son of Man — as 
 the King of Men ? And what kind of unity has it been 
 able to maintain under Him as its own King, whilst it has 
 lost sight of Him as the universal King ? Inevitably, it 
 has set up a mortal king as a substitute for Him, or has 
 been rent into a multitude of sects, with no real Head at 
 all. The Son of Man has come, and has not found faith 
 on the earth. 
 
 II. The next parable helps us to understand why that 
 faith has been so partial, and who have cherished it. 
 
 'And he spake this parable unto certain ivhich trusted in 
 themselves that they were righteous, and despised others : Two 
 men went up into the temple top^ay ; the one a Pharisee, and 
 the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and 23rayed thus 
 with himself, God, I thank thee, that 1 am not as other men 
 are, extoi^tioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 
 I fast tunce in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 
 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so 
 much as his eyes unto heaven, hut smote iqjon his breast, 
 saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 1 tell you this man 
 went doion to his house justified rather than the other : for 
 every one that exalleth himself shall be abased ; and lie tha 
 humbleth himself shall be exalted.' 
 
 No new sense can be found for this story or parable. 
 The old sense is the true one. The Pharisee is he who 
 is satisfied with himself, who thinks himself above his 
 fellows. The publican is he who is dissatisfied with him- 
 self, who thinks himself below his fellows. The Pharisee 
 has no bonds from which he needs to be delivered ; he 
 thanks God for what he is. The })ublican finds his sins a 
 heavy burden; he cries for mercy to free him. The one
 
 280 LECTUEE XXIL 
 
 goes empty away. The one who wants mercy finds it. 
 Nothing can be added to this common, generally admitted, 
 interpretation. But we may gain much by connecting this 
 parable with the passage which precedes it and that which 
 follows it. The Pharisee cannot put faith in a Son of Man, 
 for he wishes to be separated from men. He cannot see 
 that the Son of Man is his avenger ; of what adversary is 
 he to be avenged ? There is an Avenger for the publican, 
 he sees that his own sin is his enemy. He goes down to his 
 house justified, because he has had a glimpse of a Son of 
 I^Ian who is on his side, who is stronger than his enemy. 
 When the Son of Man is manifested to the world, this 
 conscious sinner can hail Him — can say, ' Here is the Lord 
 I have waited for.' This parable shows at least one main 
 part of the reason why the Son of Man has not found faith 
 on earth, and sets before us one class of persons who have 
 clung to Him in all periods. 
 
 III. But it has been found possible to change the publican 
 into the Pharisee. Incredible as it seems, we may become 
 proud of our consciousness that we are sinners. We may 
 thank God that we are not as other men, who have not 
 that consciousness. We may use it to destroy faith in the 
 Son of Man. ' He has come to save tis who feel our sin, 
 ' who cry " Be merciful to us." We are in His kingdom ; 
 ' over the rest He does not reign.' Of all kinds of exclusive- 
 ness and unbelief this has been, and is, the subtlest. It 
 has assumed the most various shapes, adapting itself to 
 tlie different modes of thought which have j)revailed in 
 Christendom ; nowhere has it been absent ; it has been 
 most rampant after strong awakenings of men to the sense 
 of guilt, after fervent confessions of the need of One who 
 can save to the uttermost. When that tide begins to ebb
 
 WHO CAN ENTEK THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 281 
 
 the deposit is this pride of the publican, this self-satisfac- 
 tion in the discovery which was made to us, that we have 
 nothing of our own, that we can only exist by giving up 
 ourselves. 
 
 The next incident which is recorded was at the time, 
 and has been in all ages since, the most effectual protest 
 against this denial of Christ's dominion. 
 
 'And they hrouglit unto him also infants, that he loould 
 touch them : hut ivhen his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 
 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little chil- 
 dren to come unto me, and forhid them n/)t ; for of such is the 
 kingdoin of God. Verily I say unto you, WJwsoever shall 
 not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no 
 wise enter therein.' 
 
 The disciples might have a reasonable excuse for re- 
 pulsing the mothers of these children. They knew perhaps 
 that it was the habit of women in that land to bring infants 
 to an enchanter, that he might, by his word, or his touch, 
 work a charm on them, which would drive off some disease, 
 or secure them against disease. Their Master was no such 
 enchanter ; let not these ignorant people fancy that He was. 
 So far well. A desire to honour the truthfulness of Jesus 
 may have been mixed with their severity. But there mixed 
 with it another element ; one of pride in themselves, not 
 of reverence to Him. ' We are men ; we can understand His 
 ' parables ; we can listen to His commands ; what can these 
 ' infants do ? ' Here is that vanity of consciousness to which 
 I referred just now ; the secret thought — ' He is our King 
 ' because we are capable of choosing Him as our King. He 
 ' has come to save us who are so good or so fortunate as to 
 ' accept Him.' Bring out the thought clearly, and the 
 conscience of those wlio confess a Christ shrinks from
 
 282 LECTUEE XXII. 
 
 it ; but it is not brought out clearly ; it puts on cunning 
 disguises. The simple words, ' Suffer little children to come 
 unto Tne, and forhid them not, for of such is the kingdom of 
 God,' have done more to strip off the disguises than all 
 arguments. They have been owned as royal words. ' These 
 ' children are Mine. Whatever you may think of them, 
 ' I claim them. For your faith does not make Me your 
 ' Lord. You do not elect me to be a Sovereimi. If I am 
 ' not King over children, I am not King over men. If you 
 ' do not receive Me as children, because you are weak, 
 ' because you cannot depend on yourselves, your faith is a 
 
 * contradiction. You do not mean what you say when you 
 
 * ask me to be merciful to you as sinners. That prayer is 
 
 * a petition to be treated as children ; to be guided by the 
 ' Divine Spirit because you cannot guide yourselves.' It is 
 on this ground, my friends, and not on any school reason- 
 ings, that the Church rests her Infant Baptism. Those who 
 object to us for treating it as a charm should be listened 
 to with all respect. That is a great offence against Christ. 
 But this Baptism has been a witness for the Son of 
 Man and the universality of His kingdom, like no other. 
 It has taught parents that to bring children into the world 
 is not a horrible crime. It has led them to see Christ and 
 His redemption of humanity through all the mists of our 
 teachings and our qualifications. It has explained the 
 nature of His Kingdom to the hearts of the poorest. Christ 
 has preached at the fonts, when we have been darkening 
 counsel in pulpits. On that subject the next story is a 
 lucid commentary. 
 
 IV. ' And a certain ruler ashed him, saying, Good Master, 
 what shall I d^ to inherit eternal life ? And Jesus said unto 
 him, Wliy callcst thou me good ? none is good, save one, that
 
 WHO CAN ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 283 
 
 is, God. Thou knoivest the commandments, Bo not commit 
 adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal. Do not hear false ivitness. 
 Honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All 
 these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus 
 heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lacJcest thou one 
 thing : sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, 
 and thou shall have treasure in heaven : and come, follow me. 
 And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful : for he was 
 very rich.' 
 
 This young ruler has heard that Jesus is proclaiming 
 eternal life to His disciples. That is what he wants. He 
 could make great sacrifices to obtain that. He is stopped 
 at the threshold of his inquiry. He has called Jesus 
 ' Good Master.' Mere ordinary words ; a civil salutation. 
 Is that word ' good ' an ordinary word ? May it be used 
 in a mere civil salutation ? Good — does not that describe 
 God Himself. Is there any one good but He ? A wonder- 
 ful thought to be suggested to an ardent young man 
 trained in Jewish lore, looking hither and thither for 
 eternal life ! What ! has not God spoken to your fathers ? 
 Is not He the Good ? Is there any life eternal but His 
 life? 
 
 The lesson is pursued. Has not this good God given 
 you a law — that in which Psalmists and Prophets delighted 
 to meditate ? Has not He told you not to commit adultery, 
 not to kill, not to steal ? "What humiliating doctrine ! AVhy, 
 these commands the young man has kept from his youth up : 
 these the most ordinary people might keep. That obedience 
 cannot purchase the transcendent blessing he is in search 
 of. "Well ! let him try this course then. Let him sell all that 
 he has, give to the poor and follow Christ. Is he willing to 
 do that ? Not quite. Have the words, then, no effect ? Yes,
 
 284 LECTURE XXII. 
 
 a very great effect. He goes away sorrowful. What is so 
 good for liim or for any man as to be found out ; to be 
 shown what his professions are worth ; to understand what 
 he is clinging to and cannot part with. This young man 
 may have been one of the disciples who did afterwards sell 
 all that they had, and distribute to those who had need. 
 But before he could do that he had to learn what treasure 
 in heaven meant, and what keeping the commandments 
 meant. That the one is not a selfish prize, but a common 
 inheritance; that dutiful, thankful obedience to a good 
 God who watches over the life of His creatures, their 
 marriage bonds, their property, is not an easy or igno- 
 minious service, but one involving the highest blessing — a 
 participation in His J^ature. Giving to the poor ! that 
 would no doubt have been a great thing if he could have 
 done it. But whilst he was exulting in the thought of his 
 difference from the poor, whilst he was wishing to bargain 
 for God's treasures— giving much, though not all, to secure 
 them — what was his giving worth ? He was a rich man ; 
 he had not yet discovered that to be a man was more than 
 to be rich. Is not that the explanation of the next passage, 
 which caused so much astonishment to the disciples, and 
 has caused so much to all ages since ? 
 
 V. ' And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrovjfid, he 
 said, Hoio hardly shall they that have riches enter into the 
 kingdom of God ! For it is easier for a camel to go through 
 a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom 
 
 of God: 
 
 Our Lord does not say that it is hard for a rich man to 
 be religious, or to jD^rsue the rewards of a future state 
 though that construction has often been put upon the 
 sentence. He says it is hard for him to enter into the
 
 WHO CAN ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 285 
 
 Kingdom of God ; hard for him to take his station among 
 other men ; hard for him not to value himself on those 
 things which lift him above his fellows ; hard for him to 
 become like the publican or the little child ; hard for him 
 to think not of what he has or may have, but of Him who 
 is, and how he may know Him and be like Him. This is 
 that passage of the camel through the eye of the needle, 
 that entrance of the giant into the dwarf's cave, which is 
 so difficult. And yet how can the Son of Man be acknow- 
 ledsed, how can the King of Men be seen in Him who 
 humbled himself to the lowest estate, if the rich man does 
 not feel himself on the level of the poorest, if his humanity 
 is not that which is most precious to him ? 
 
 VI. ' And they that heard it said, Who then can he saved ? ' 
 Surely a most natural question, full of profound interest 
 and admitting but of one answer — that being, however, an 
 all-sufficient answer. 'And he said, The things which are 
 impossible ivith men are possible with God! To be saved 
 from this self-exaltation, this inhumanity, is indeed impos- 
 sible by any efforts of men, by any precepts of men, by 
 any conventions of society. But God, who has appointed 
 riches for men, who has intended that one man should 
 have what another is without, who has organized Society 
 on the law of mutual dependency and charity, does not 
 leave rich men, any more than poor men, to be the victims 
 of their circumstances. He awakens a hunger and thirst 
 in them which nothing but His righteousness will appease. 
 By a thousand methods of gracious discipline He makes 
 them feel that the sorrows which cause the beggar's heart 
 to ache are those which cause the rich man's heart io ache ; 
 that the sky and the air whicli they and the poorest share 
 tof^ether are more than what they possess and the other
 
 286 LECTUEE XXII. 
 
 wants ; that the trees which their fathers planted were not 
 planted for them ; that tlie country which their fathers 
 fought for and died for is worth more than any other in- 
 heritance they have bequeathed ; that God is the peasant's 
 God as well as theirs. So the camel is made to pass 
 through the needle's eye ; the rich man does enter into the 
 Kingdom of God. 
 
 VII. The words, ' Who then can be saved ? ' indicated awe 
 and humility on the part of the poor fishermen. But soon 
 came the reaction of pride ; their sense of being better than 
 other men. ' Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all and fol- 
 lowed thee.' We do not need the blunt question which is 
 given by another Evangelist, ' What shall we have, there- 
 fore,' to perceive that the bargaining spirit of the ruler 
 was working in the Apostle ; that he thought the service 
 of his Master was one which entitled him to large pay ; that 
 according to his notion of justice the amount of the reward 
 should be proportioned to the amount of the sacrifice. 
 This sense of justice, be it never so rude, never so mixed 
 with the feelings of a hireling, never so inconsistent with 
 the cry, ' Be merciful to me a sinner,' is not repulsed by 
 Christ. Peter is not exaggerating the blessings to which 
 he has been called, the blessings which are to compensate 
 the loss of his nets and his trade ; he is greatly underrating 
 them. 
 
 * And he, said unto them, Verily I say unto you. There is 
 no man that hath left house, or 2)ccrents, or hrethren, or loife, 
 or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not 
 receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world 
 to come life everlasting.' 
 
 To know what the Kingdom of God was, to be the herald 
 of it to the world, was to learn the very meaning of kins-
 
 WHO CAN ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 287 
 
 folk and country, to have a glimpse of the glories of God's 
 universe, to see the earth with clearer, brighter eyes. There 
 was ' manifold more ' in this present time. And that be- 
 cause above all, and beneath all, was the Eternal Life, the 
 Life of Him who is, and was, and is to come — the Life 
 which depended on no circumstances, which was affected 
 by no changes, which would reveal itself fully in the 
 world or age to come. 
 
 VIII. But then follows the correction of Peter's selfish 
 calculations. 
 
 ' Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, 
 Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, anU all things that are 
 written hy the prophets concerning the Son of man shall he 
 accomplished. Far he shall he delivered unto the Gentiles, 
 and shall he mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted- 
 on : And they shall scourge him, and put him to death : and 
 the third day he shall rise again.' 
 
 We are going up to Jerusalem. Now, then, is the 
 moment in which you think you may have the rewards 
 of your service. Now you expect that the Son of David 
 will take His crown and dispense His honours. Hear 
 what that crown will be ; what honours are likely to await 
 His ministers. All that you have read in the Prophets of 
 the sufferings wliich they underwent in their day \\ill 
 be gathered up in the Son of INIan whom they longed for. 
 It is not only your countrymen who will heap scorn on 
 their native ruler. They will call in the Gentiles to 
 help them. He will be scourged. Yes ! and He will die. 
 There will be no heavenly powers to deliver Him. 
 But He M'ill rise out of death. It is the way tu His 
 Kingdom. 
 
 IX. Strange comfort this for men who had left all and
 
 288 LEGTUKE XXII. 
 
 followed Christ, and were woDdering how much better they 
 should fare than the rich man for having done so ! 'And 
 they understood none of these things : and this saying was hid 
 from them, neither knew they the things whieh luere s'pohen. 
 And it came to "pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, 
 a certain hlind man sat hy the wayside hcgging : andj hearing 
 the multitude pass hy, lie ashed ivhat it meant. And they 
 told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth hy. And he cried, 
 saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And 
 they which went hcfore rebuked him, that he shoidd hold his 
 Ijeaee : hut he cried so miLch the more, Thou son of David, 
 have mercy on me. And Jesus stood, and commanded him 
 to he h"otight unto him, : and when he was come near, he asked 
 him, saying, 'What wilt thou that I shcdl do unto thee ? And 
 he said. Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said 
 unto him,. Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee. And 
 immediately he received his sight, and folloived him, glorify- 
 ing God : and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise 
 unto God." 
 
 Here was a practical lesson. This blind beggar dis- 
 covered what a Son of David, a true King of Men, must 
 be ; one who can feel with His subjects, suffer with them, 
 deliver them out of their plagues and torments. He had 
 an adversary which hindered him from exercising the 
 powers and privileges of a man. He had cried, and had 
 found the avenger, the friend of His race — the one who 
 could help the meanest member of it. Thus in that age, 
 thus in every age, has the Son of Man been revealed to 
 those whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren. 
 Thus do publicans, children, beggars, find out His signs, 
 and are led by Him to the Father from whom He has 
 come, while the rich, who wish to buy the treasures of the
 
 WHO CAN ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, 289 
 
 Kingdom of Heaven, go away sorrowful — whilst His dis- 
 ciples, looking for the pay of hirelings, understand nothing 
 of His death or His resurrection. The ricli ruler and the 
 proud disciples, if they were brought to the level of the 
 publican, the children, the beggar, might claim His Death 
 and Eesurrection with them — might enter into the same 
 Eternal Life.
 
 LECTUEE XXIII. 
 
 THE KING ENTEEING HIS CAPITAL. 
 
 St. Lttke XIX. 41. 
 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it. 
 
 I. How the Son of David was discovered by tlie blind 
 Bartimeeus ; how He was invoked by that name to heal 
 a wayside beggar, we considered last week. As He enters 
 into Jericho, we hear of a rich man who bows before Him 
 as the poor man had bowed. But Zaccheeus, though rich, 
 is a tax-gatherer. All the odium of his class belongs to 
 him. Probably he has deserved it. The complaint, ' He is, 
 gone to he guest with a man that is a sinner' taken in con- 
 nexion with his own words, has struck most readers as 
 implying more than that Zacchseus had gained his wealth 
 in an unpopular occupation. But if it was so, there had 
 been awakened in him a craving for that which riches, well 
 or ill-gotten, could not buy ; yes, for a deliverance from 
 that which they had bought. The money-getter climbs 
 into a sycamore-tree, that he may get sight of one who, he 
 is told, is a Galilean Peasant. There is a witness in his 
 heart that this Peasant can do for him what no one 
 else can do. His King speaks to him in that Peasant. 
 ' Zacclucus, make Jmste and come down, for to-day I must 
 abide in thy house." He does not ask, as Bartim?eus did, 
 that he may receive his sight ; but scales fall from his
 
 THE KING ENTERING HIS CAPITAL. 291 
 
 inward eyes. The curse of riches and the use of riches 
 are revealed to him. He starts from a money-getter and 
 a money-worshipper into a man. He does not repent of 
 some vague general sin. He repents of that which has 
 been besetting him. He casts that off in the strength of 
 the friend whom he has found so near to him. ' Behold' he 
 says, ' Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if 
 I have taken anything from o/tiy man ly false accusation, I 
 restore him fourfold! Is he answered, ' Yes ; that resolution, 
 ' if it is w^ell kept, will procure the pardon of thy sins ; 
 ' that surrender of thy goods may buy heaven for thee in 
 'spite of thy past wrong-doings? ' No; but he hears 
 words immeasurably more assuring and elevating than 
 those. ' This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch 
 as he also is a son of Abraham.' To be saved out of 
 that money-worship which has degraded thee, enslaved 
 thee, made thee incapable of entering into the glory of thy 
 race, into thy citizenship as an Israelite, this is the highest 
 gift whicli thy Prince can confer on thee. Now thou 
 mayst walk the earth and look up to the heavens as a 
 freeman. To give that freedom, I have come into the 
 world. * The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that 
 ivhich was lost.' 
 
 II. They are approaching Jerusalem. There is a strange 
 awe on the minds of the disciples. All these acts of royalty 
 done on behalf of men who lie (juite out of the path of 
 ordinary teachers, whom the religious men of the land 
 utterly scorn, increase their feeling that a revolution is at 
 hand; that tlie Kingdom of God is about to displace the 
 kingdom of the Sanhedrim and the kingdom of the 
 Eomans. Therefore we are told, lie added and spake a 
 parable to them. 
 
 u 2
 
 292 LECTURE XXIIL 
 
 * He said, A certain nobleman ivent into a fai' countrij 
 to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.' The case 
 miglit have occurred recently. It Was one which they all 
 knew had occurred, and was likelv to occur, A member 
 of the Herodian family, unable to maintain himself in 
 the tetrarchy or kingdom which had been committed to 
 him against his refractory subjects, travels to Eome 
 that he may obtain a confirmation of it from the Cajsar, 
 may strengthen and establish himself in it. He is a 
 ruler, then, already. He leaves behind him a number of 
 persons who acknowledge his authority, and wait for his 
 return. To these he entrusts a certain treasure, bidding 
 them make the most of it, and give him an account when- 
 ever he should call for it. The incidents which concern this 
 kingdom cannot be detached from the parable ; they belong 
 to the very essence of it. The disciples had thought that the 
 Kingdom of God would immediately appear. Our Lord does 
 not say now — He did not say before — It will not appear. 
 He had said to the Pharisees, 'The kingdom of God 
 Cometh not with observation' He illustrates those words to 
 the disciples in reference to their own conduct. They 
 would be shortly called to tell the House of Israel that the 
 Son of David had come ; that God had established Him on 
 His throne. But there would be no appearance of a throne. 
 The King would seem to be away in a far country. His 
 citizens would seem to have effectually banished Him. 
 They who acknowledged His dominion would learn its 
 reality by a deposit which He would entrust to them. It 
 would not be a dead deposit, a treasure to be hoarded. It 
 must be used ; it must be traded with. He would expect 
 to find when He called for it, that they had laid it out to 
 advantage. If it was kept hidden in a napkin ; He would
 
 THE KING' ENTERING HIS CAPITAL. 293 
 
 know that tliey were not faithful to Him ; that they did 
 not really care for Him ; that their loyalty was the loyalty 
 of fear, not of trust. 
 
 You know that there are two different forms in which 
 this parable is told in the Evangelists. In St. ]\Iatthew, 
 various sums are given to the stewards. One has five 
 talents, another two, another one. Here all have the same. 
 I believe the observation of this diversity is very instruc- 
 tive and very helpful to the understanding of our Lord's 
 purpose. AVlien we read the Acts of the Apostles, we 
 find the gift of the Spirit described as the great gift to the 
 Church, the witness of the dominion of the Son of Man, 
 the power by which His Apostles could show forth His 
 Eesurrection and His final triumph over His enemies. "We 
 also hear of gifts of the Spirit distributed variously to men 
 according to the good pleasure of His will : the word of 
 wisdom being entrusted to one, the word of knowledge to 
 another, powers of healing to a third. The parable in St. 
 Matthew, I apprehend, points to these last, and to the use 
 which is made of them ; the parable before us to the 
 Divine Spirit itself, the endowment upon which all the 
 others depended, which must be represented as one though 
 its manifestations are manifold. AVhen this Spirit came 
 upon the Apostles, they spoke witli undoubted confidence 
 of a Divine kingdom. They knew that they were the 
 subjects of one. They could call every man to confess 
 himself a subject of the same. Eveiy power and faculty 
 within them was aroustd, that they might fdl (Itcir po- 
 sition. That which was torpid became active ; that w liich 
 liad l)een boiuid with the ice of winter felt the breath and 
 warmth of spring. Those wlio yielded to the stimngs of 
 this life were raised out of themselves. It cam^ forth in
 
 294 LECTUEE XXIII. 
 
 human sympathies. It drew their hearts to the Son of 
 Man, from whom it was derived. To think of snch a 
 talent as intended to lie idle in a miser's chest was to 
 deny its nature. It was made to grow, to become greater 
 Iby exercise, to send its virtue abroad. The cultivation of 
 it would be different. In one the pound would increase 
 to ten pounds. Tliere would be such an unfolding of 
 spiritual energies, such a vigorous concentration and 
 application of all the forces within, that every day 
 would multiply them and the benefits accruing from 
 them. In another, the results would be weaker ; still there 
 would be the expansion which betokens the presence of 
 life. In each case, the reward would be proportionate to 
 the power which had been acquired. For the reward is 
 not repose, but fresh work, a larger sphere of usefulness 
 and influence. The command over ten cities is given to the 
 man whose pound had grown to ten pounds ; the command 
 of five cities to the man whose pound had grown to five 
 pounds. The faculty of doing good, by an eternal law, 
 is multiplied and magnified according to the use which is 
 made of it. And then follows the deepest and most solemn 
 moral of the story. Whenever this gift is not stirred up 
 in the man, whenever it goes to waste, the cause is this. 
 He suspects the Giver. He thinks of Him as 'a hard 
 master, reaping lohcre he has not sown, gathering where he 
 has not straioecl! The heathens called the Divine nature 
 an envious nature. They supposed that the powers above 
 grudged the prosperity of men below. This is a more 
 subtle form of the same falsehood. The man who has 
 been taught that God has bestowed His Spirit upon him 
 dwells not on the grandeur of the trust, nor on the love 
 of Him who has called him to be His fellow-worker, but
 
 THE KING ENTERING HIS CAPITAL. 295 
 
 on the peril of offending a Judge whom it is impossible 
 to satisfy, who may crush him to atoms if he fails. All 
 the time a voice, speaking to his conscience, is reminding 
 him of his inconsistency. ' If thou hast such an inexorable 
 ' Master, why dost thou not work more diligently to con- 
 ' tent Him ? ' He cannot ; his limbs are palsied. Some 
 power must move them, and the power is wanting, for 
 trust is wantincp, love is wantinGr. 
 
 The parable is two-edged. Those Jews who said, ' "VYe 
 will not have the Son of Man to reign over us,' were 
 themselves exhibiting the temper which our Lord attri- 
 butes to the man who hid his talent in a napkin. They 
 would not use the mighty trust which God had committed 
 to them for the good of the nations, because they thought 
 of God as a hard IVTaster. They first persuaded themselves 
 that He frowned on the world, and only smiled on them. 
 Then, by a just retribution, His smiles to them had the 
 effect of terrible frowns. They felt lliat they ought to be 
 doing something which they were not doing. They thought 
 Him more hard and exacting to them than to the rest of 
 the world, though that was doomed to perdition. 
 
 But this story was especially to remind the disciples 
 that this temper M'ould appear in tJicm, the stewards of 
 His more perfect covenant, of His highest treasure. The 
 cause would be the same ; the result would be the same. 
 They would tliink of God as a hard Master first to man- 
 kind, then to themselves ; consequently they would let the 
 divine gift rust. They would suppose it a dead tiling, to be 
 returned to the owner, as if lb- had only endowed them 
 with some words written in stones or in a book, not with 
 a living Spirit capable of continually receiving fresh life, 
 and of communicating it.
 
 296 LECTUEE XXIII. 
 
 Ill both these applications the words which follow are 
 very awful. ' For I say unto you, That unto every one wJiicli 
 hath shall he given; and from him that hath not, even 
 that he hath shall he taken away from hi7n' They are 
 translated for the Jewish people into these. 'But those 
 7nine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, 
 hring hither, and slay them hefore me.' They were left to 
 their enemies because they would not believe in a friend ; 
 they found the hardest of all masters because they would 
 not serve the most gracious. It is added significantly, 
 'And lohen he had thus spoken, he went hefore, aseending up 
 to Jerusalem! For now the time was approaching wdieu 
 there should be a formal declaration in that city. ' This is 
 ' not the King we choose ; we want one as nearly as possible 
 ' the reverse of him.' 
 
 III. ' And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bcth- 
 phage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, 
 he sent tivo of his disciples, saying, Go ye i^ito the village over 
 against you y in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt 
 tied whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and hring him hither. 
 And if any man ask you. Why do ye loose him 1 thus shall 
 ye say unto him. Because the Lord hath need of him. And 
 they that were sent went their ivay, and found even as he had 
 said unto them. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners 
 thereof said unto them. Why loose ye the colt ? And they said, 
 The Lord hath need of him. And they hrought him to Jesus : 
 and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they sat 
 Jesus tliereon. And as he went, they spread their clothes in 
 the way. And when he was come nigh, even now at the 
 descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the 
 disciples hegan to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice 
 for all the mighty works that they had see7i ; saying, Blessed
 
 THE KING ENTEKING HIS CAPITAL. 297 
 
 he the King that cometh in the name of the Lord : jpcaee in 
 heaven, and glory in the highest! 
 
 In every one of the Gospels the descent from the Mount 
 of Olives, and the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, is re- 
 corded as if it were a critical point in the narrative. Clearly 
 it could not be so if the object of the Evangelists had been 
 to present Him primarily as a Teacher or a Prophet. There 
 is nothing in the circumstances of that act which is cha- 
 racteristic of the Prophet ; you cannot conceive Elijah, 
 Isaiah, or Ezekiel taking that method of asserting his mis- 
 sion, if it had been ever so much denied. It recalls at once 
 the Judge or the Monarch. The command to fetch the 
 ass, ' Tlie Lord hath need of him' ]ias a special air of 
 authority and royalty. The people could not have raised 
 any ciy but ' Blessed he the King that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord,^ or, ' Hosanna to the Son of David.' 
 The garments spread in the way, however simple an 
 expression of reverence, could have but one signification. 
 If the shouts were from feeble voices, they were yet 
 felt by the Pharisees to be ominous of a new dynasty. 
 They said, ' Rebuke thy disciples' And Ilis answer, ' / tell 
 you that, if tliese should hold their peace, the stones vjould 
 immediately cry out,' was an emphatic declaration that when 
 there were none left to be witnesses of the real Head of 
 the city, the Corner-stone of the living temple, llic iiiiif ciial 
 stones would be found to have no cohesion ; the\ ^\ uuld 
 fall to pieces. 
 
 This thought was surely in His mind as He looked 
 down upon that dear and venerable city, and wipl oNcr it. 
 Preachers have chosen to })ara})lirasc tlie words, and to 
 talk of the ' lledeemer s tears over lost souls.' AVhcn Jesus 
 speaks of the Son of man as coming to seek and save
 
 298 LECTURE XXIII. 
 
 that wliicli was lost, I adhere to His language ; I take it 
 to be the best. When it is said, ' He heheld the city, and 
 wept over it' I understand that the City is meant, and not 
 something else. If it seems to us an unworthy subject of 
 Christ's sorrow, that a divine polity which had lasted so 
 many generations — which God, and not man, had set up — 
 which had been the witness to the world that it is God, and 
 not man, who binds the societies of men into one, should 
 be about to pass away with its temple, its sacrifices, 
 all the outward signs of what it was within, — I think we 
 can have read sacred history to very little purpose. See 
 whether every page of the Old Testament is not setting 
 forth to us the glory of national life. See whether it was 
 not through their national life that patriarchs and prophets 
 were led to believe in Him who is, and was, and is to 
 come — who would be with the children as He had been 
 with the fathers — who would reveal Himself more to each 
 generation, till at last the earth should be filled -with His 
 glory. And now the Jew was deliberately casting aside 
 this marvellous education. He was exalting a Mammon 
 God into the throne of Jehovah. His religion was be- 
 coming another name for a selfish calculation of his indi- 
 vidual interests. Sects were rending the commonwealth 
 in pieces. Do we want more than this to account for 
 Christ's tears, and for the words, ' If thou hadst hnoivn, even 
 thou, at least in this thy day, the things which hclong unto 
 thy fcace'. ' Oh ! that you would have owned Him, who 
 ' would have healed your savage religious strifes, who would 
 ' have bound you into one family, who would have shown 
 ' you that the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, is as 
 ' truly your God as He was theirs.' ' But now these things, 
 are hid from thine eyes' A thick impenetrable blindness is
 
 THE KING ENTERING HIS CAPITAL. 299 
 
 coming upon yon. You are cut off from the vision of the 
 past. The brightness of the ages to come will be lost upon 
 you. For when God's light is changed into darkness, when 
 your desire is to conceal yourselves from Him, what else 
 can look beautiful to you — what is there for you but ever- 
 deepening gloom over heaven and over earth ? 
 
 IV. * For the days sludl come upon thee, that thine enemies 
 shall cast a trench ahout thee, and compass thee round, and 
 Jceep thee in on every side, and shall lay tliee even vjith the 
 ground, and thy children ivithin thee ; and they shall not 
 leave in thee one stone upon another; hecause thou Jcneivest 
 not the time of thy visitation.' 
 
 Surely these are direct words ; they cannot be reduced 
 into figures. We cannot talk of castincj a trench about 
 * lost souls,' or laying them even with the ground. The 
 language belongs, if there is any truth in it, to a city and a 
 temple. And therefore we read immediately after : 
 
 ' And he went into the temple, and heyan to cast out them 
 that sold therein, and them that hought ; saying imto them, 
 It is written. My house is the house of prayer : hut ye have 
 made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. 
 But the chief priests and the scribes, and the chief of the 
 'people sought to destroy him, and could nx)t find what they 
 might do : for all tJie people were very attentive to hear him.' 
 
 So Christ carried the war with Mammon into the very 
 place where he was affronting the majesty of the Father. 
 So He testified, that if Mammon was not cast out, God 
 would depart from that place and leave it desolate. 
 
 The chief priests and the Diarisees felt that the battle 
 was to be a deadly one. The Galilean was confronting 
 them in their own capital. If He was the King He liad 
 found them out ; He was calling them to answer for their
 
 300 LECTUKE XXIII. 
 
 government over tlie people. He might destroy them. First 
 they would try if they could not destroy Him. The experi- 
 ment must be made cautiously. ' The 2Kople ivere very, 
 attentive to hear him! Their influence was tremblinoj. 
 There might be an insurrection. Who could say where 
 it would end ? 
 
 Oh, my friends ! we cannot afford to divert this history 
 from its direct purpose. Is not England a nation which 
 Christ has cared for as much as He ever cared for Pales- 
 tine ? Is not London a city which He may weep over as 
 much as He wept over Jerusalem ? Have we known the 
 things that belong to our peace ? Have we asked Him to 
 put down our factions, to give us His love for our hatred ? 
 Are there none that sell and buy in our temples ? Must not 
 'they be purged ?
 
 LECTUEE XXIV. 
 
 THE KING AMIDST THE PRIESTS AND SCRIBES. 
 
 St. Luke XX. 1, 2. . 
 
 And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the 'people in the 
 temple, and preached the Gospel, the chief priests and tJie scribes came 
 upon him with the elders, and spake unto him,, saying. Tell us, by what 
 authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave tJiee this 
 authority ? 
 
 I. ' The peojjle were very attentive to hear him.' Tlicse were 
 the last words which we heard in the 1 9th chapter. ' He 
 VMS teaching the 'peo'pU in the temple, and preaching the gospel.' 
 These are the words which meet us when we open this 
 chapter. The people are full of eagerness for a Kingdom 
 of God. What it is they do not know. Something very 
 different it must be from the kingdom of tlie j)riests ; 
 something very different from the kingdom of tlic Cresars. 
 Of such a kingdom Jesus, the Prophet of Galilee, is speak- 
 ing in the very heart of the capital — in the temple itself. 
 The news sounds like good news. Crowds listen to it. 
 . Til ere comes a grave procession of chief priests, and 
 scribes, and elders. All the dignity of the Jewish religion 
 and the Jewish nation is there ; all that can awe the new 
 Teacher. They have heard that He is talking of a kingdom ; 
 they have heard that He has assumed a right to purge the 
 temple. They would lik(> to know 1)y what authority He 
 did these things. AVhence did ]\o, derive i( ? 'Ami Ik 
 answered and said uiito them, I will also ash you one thing ;
 
 302 LECTURE XXIV. 
 
 and answer me ; The baptism of John, was it from heaven, 
 or of men f ' Jolin had come amongst them apparently 
 without any authority ; he had wrought no miracle to 
 prove that he had a right to be heard. Had he a right to 
 be heard? He spoke of Eepentance. He spoke of a 
 Kingdom of God. The people went out to him. Ouglit 
 they to have gone ? Was his message an earthly or 
 heavenly one ? ' And they reasoned with themselves, saying, 
 If we shall say, From heaven ; he loill say, Wliy then believed 
 ye him not ? But and if we say. Of men ; all the people will 
 stone us : fur they be persuaded that John was a prophet' 
 It was a calculation with them in all cases what answer 
 would be a safe one ; what the consequence would be of 
 saying ' Yes ' or ' No.' On the whole, their reply came as 
 near the truth as a reply of theirs could come. The mes- 
 senger might have been a heavenly one ; they could not 
 positively say that he was not. Though he wanted the 
 proper signs of one, the people had an instinct that he 
 knew secrets which none but a divine teacher could know. 
 The true man, they thought, was sent by the true God. 
 The chief priests and scribes hated the people, and feared 
 what they hated. If the multitude grew violent, what 
 might it not do? They might be its first victims. It 
 was better to avow ignorance, though that was unpleasant 
 and might weaken their influence, than to incur this 
 peril, 'And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by 
 %6hat authority I do these things' You cannot find out 
 whence came the power of the man who called you to 
 repent. You cannot find out mine. My authority, like 
 John's, must prove itself. If it does not prove itself to 
 you, you will never know what it is, 
 
 II. And it did prove itself to them, ' Then began lie to
 
 THE KING A^HIDST THE PEIESTS AXD SCKIBES. 303 
 
 speak to tJie people this parable ; A certain man planted a 
 vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into afar 
 country for a long time. And at the season he sent a servant 
 to the husbandmen, that they shoidd give him of the fruit of 
 the vineyard : hit the husbandmen beat him, and se7it him 
 away empty. And again he sent another servant : and they 
 beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent Mm 
 away empty. A nd again he sent a third : and they ivounded 
 him also, and cast him out. Then said the lord of the vine- 
 yard. What shall I do 1 I will send my beloved son : it may 
 be they vnll reverence him when they see him. But when the 
 husbamdmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying. 
 This is the heir : come, let us kill him, that the inheritance 
 may be our's. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and 
 killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard 
 do unto them ? He shall come and destroy these husband- 
 men, and shall give tJie vineyard to others. And when they 
 heard it, they said, God forbid! The parable took the old 
 form. To the readers of the divine book it recalled the song 
 in Tsaiali ' To my well-beloved, concerning his vineyard.' 
 To those who dwelt among vineyards, and knew how 
 vineyards were leased out, it was the liveliest instance 
 of an actual trust which had been violated — of actual 
 profits that were demanded, and refused. It recalled 
 the past lii.story of tlie land, interpreting the messages 
 of the prophets — the treatment of the prophets. It 
 brought distinctly before them their state of mind at that 
 time. They did hate Him who was speaking to them. 
 Was it the same kind of hatred wliicli their fathers liad 
 for the prophets ? Was it not more intense ? Why ? A 
 flash of liglit came into their consciences. WAS it a Son 
 of the great Husbandman wlio liad been sent to them ?
 
 304 LECTUKE xxrv. 
 
 Such flashes come and go. They provoke a momentary 
 terror which soon passes into bitterer wrath. The cry, 
 ' God forbid/ or ' Let it not be/ was the natural utterance of 
 the terror. Oh, let us not be cast out of the vineyard ! 
 Let not our house be left desolate. 
 
 ' And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is 
 vjritten. The stone which the builders rejected, the same is 
 become the head of the corner ? Whosoever shall fall upon 
 that stone shall be brohcn ; but on whomsoever it shall fall, 
 it ivill grind him to powder. And the chief priests and the 
 scribes the same Jiour sought to lay hands on him ; and they 
 feared the people : for they perceived that he had spoken this 
 farable against them! Is it not the Heir you are rejecting ? 
 Have not your proj^hets spoken of a corner-stone of the 
 nation, of one who alone could bind it together ? Are you 
 not trying to build up your nation without that corner- 
 stone ? Do you not think it will prove itself stronger 
 than any one who dashes himself against it ? Do you not 
 think that if it falls upon your poor fabric the whole will 
 be ground to powder ? In those words we read the great 
 Gospel to humanit}^ ; the announcement of the living Centre 
 which was to unite all its arches, to knit its loose frag- 
 ments into a whole. The chief priests and scribes read in 
 it their sentence, which they must avert, if possible, by 
 laying hands on the Eeprover. 
 
 III. But there was a gospel also for nations ; a gospel 
 concerning the cause of national slavery ; the true means 
 of national emancipation. Thus was it preached : — 
 
 ' And they watched him, and sent forth sjnes, ivhich should 
 feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his 
 words, that so they might deliver him unto the poiver and 
 authority of the governor. And they asked him, saying.
 
 THE KING AMDST THE PEIESTS AND SCRIBES. 305 
 
 Mctster, ive hioiv that thou safest and teachest rightly, neither 
 acceptest thou the person of any, hut teachest the way of God 
 truly : Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Cesar, or no ? 
 But he p)erceived their craftiness, aiid said unto them. Why 
 tempt ye me ? Sheiv me a penny. Whose image and super- 
 scription hath it ? They answered and said, Cesar's. And 
 he said unto them, Mender therefore imto Cesar the things 
 which he Cesar'' s, and unto God the things which he God's. 
 And they could not take hold of his words hefore the people : 
 and 'they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace! 
 
 One can well understand the calculation which led to 
 tills plot. ' He speaks of a Kingdom of God. The people 
 ' suppose that He means freedom to the land ; freedom from 
 ' Rome. Will He dare to avow that He does ? If not, His 
 ' influence with the multitude is gone. Or else we have a 
 ' direct charge to bring before Pilate.' The plot itself is well 
 laid. The messengers have a case of conscience. They do 
 not quite see their duty. Ought they to comply with the 
 demands of the tax-gatherer or. to resist ? Of course He 
 will tell them frankly ; He is not afraid of any man. The 
 answer of our Lord is often represented as a kind of skilful 
 evasion. An evasion would have been fatal. The spies 
 were armed against that danger. They might evade. He 
 would, they were sure, make a direct answer. He met 
 them with defiance. He denounced them as hypocrites. 
 They had not come with a case of conscience. They knew 
 they had not. They had come to entrap Him. 
 
 But their cpiestion shoidd be answered nevertheless. They 
 wished to know whether they were to pay tribute to the 
 emperor. What tribute did they pay ? Coins ? Let Him see 
 one of the coins. There is an image upon it. AVhose image ? 
 The emperor's. There is a superscription upon it. Whoso 
 
 X
 
 306 LECTUKE XXIV. 
 
 superscription? The emperor's. Eender to him by all 
 means that which is his. Your money is stamped by him. 
 Your dealings go on under his sanction. Do not withdraw 
 that from him. You cannot. He has proved his claim to 
 it. But render to God the things that are God's. Has 
 not He stamped His image anywhere ? Is not His super- 
 scription to be discovered anywhere ? Think where they 
 ouo'ht to be ; be sure that is His. 
 
 Here is the very principle of the Kingdom of Heaven ; 
 here is the proof that Christ did come to emancipate slaves 
 from the yoke of a tyrant, not to discourse about a religion. 
 The yoke of the Eoman was upon the Jewish heart. That 
 was doing homage to the purple. That was coveting a king 
 just like the Cesars. And therefore they fancied that the 
 great bondage was the necessity of paying tribute. They 
 grudged their money. They yielded up themselves. While 
 this was so, there might be per]3etual insurrections ; there 
 would be no freedom. They would be ' slaves by their 
 own compulsion.' They would lose the protection and 
 security of the Eoman government ; they would bring 
 down its iron hand upon them. But they would not 
 recover their manhood ; they would not rise to be a nation. 
 The words have been heard through ages of Christian his- 
 tory. They have been perverted to various uses. They 
 have been turned into apologies for tyranny. They have 
 been turned into excuses for rebellion. The Cesar has 
 been taken disloyally and unpatriotically to represent a 
 native sovereign ruling according to law. God has been 
 blasphemously confounded with the ecclesiastical power — 
 often when it was most flagrantly violating justice, and 
 setting aside the maxims of Christ. But the grand truth 
 enunciated in the dialogue has asserted itself through all
 
 THE KING AMIDST THE PEIESTS AND SCKIBES. 307 
 
 tliese misrepresentations. Tribute is not the cause of a 
 nation's bondage, only the outward sign of it. While it is 
 debased, while it is confessing gold or outward power as 
 its god, it cannot better itself by shaking off that badge 
 of subjection ; it becomes worse, more anarchical, liable to 
 fall under a grosser tyranny than that which it casts away. 
 When the spirit is freed, when it bows to the God who 
 sets free, the fetters fall from the hands. 
 
 IV. Both sects of the Jews were now to try whether they 
 could not withdraw the people from the common enemy. 
 The Sadducees might seem to have few resources for this 
 purpose. They obviously despised the multitude and its 
 faith ; their lore was professedly for the refined. But 
 surely they were not wrong in thinking that they had 
 arguments which would appeal very directly to the animal 
 instincts of a crowd — to their broad notions of what was 
 likely or unlikely. 
 
 ' Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny 
 that there is any resurrection; and they asked him, saying, 
 Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's hr other die, having 
 a wife, and he die vjithout children, that his hrothcr should 
 take his wife, and raise up seed unto his hrothcr. There ivere 
 therefore seven brethren : and the first took a urife, and died 
 vjithout children. And the second took her to wife, and he 
 died childless. And the third took her ; and in like manner 
 the seven also : and they hft no children, and died. Last of 
 all the ivoman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose 
 wife of them is she ? for seven had her to urifc.' 
 
 So far as this argument was drawn from Jewish customs 
 and the Mosaic law, it was very suitable for its innnediate 
 pvu'pose. The principle of it is the one which has affected, 
 and does affect, the minds of all men, Jews, Ileathens, 
 
 x2
 
 308 LECTUEE XXIV. 
 
 Christians, wlien they think of a life after death. ' Why 
 ' should I not continue ? ' asks Butler. ' Are you not bound 
 ' to show why the event you call death should break the 
 ' thread of my individual existence ? ' ' Continue ; how ? ' 
 says the objector. 'Do you mean that all our relations, 
 'with the persons and things we see, are to continue? 
 ' Whose loife then shall she he of the seven ? ' that is the 
 natural shape in which the doubt presents itself. 
 
 ' And Jesus answering said unto them, Tlie children of 
 this world marry, and are given in marriage : hut they whieh 
 shall he accounted wortlcy to ohtain that world, and the resur- 
 rection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in mar- 
 riage : neither can they die any more : for they are equal 
 unto the angels; and are the children of God, hcing the 
 children of the resurrection.' 
 
 When we first consider this reply, it has, I tliink, a 
 mournful sound. We accept the inference which so many 
 have drawn from it. We practically throw off Butler's 
 doctrine of continuance. The future world is to be alto- 
 gether unlike the present. All that has been most dear, 
 most necessary, most human here, is to be wanting there. 
 Then, as a maxim of practical conduct, are not those right 
 who say, 'The more we can detach ourselves from the 
 ' relations which are to terminate so soon the better. The 
 ' hermit's life is the safe life.' Before we quite adopt that 
 opinion, let us listen to our Lord's concluding words. 
 ' JS^ow that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at tlie 
 hush, when he callcth tlie Lord the Ood of Ahraha7n, and 
 the God of Isaac, and the God of Jaeoh. For he is not a 
 God of the dead, hut of the living : for all live unto him! 
 
 The God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob ! Was 
 ever a greater honour put upon human relationships — upon
 
 THE KING AMIDST THE PRIESTS AND SCRIBES. 309 
 
 this special relationship of father to son — than that ? "Was 
 ever so distinct an assertion of the permanence of this 
 relationship ? We actually learn from it the very truth of 
 immortality ; we acquire from it the sense of our own con- 
 tinuance. The hermit cuts himself off from this evidence ; 
 his isolation from the present, his determination to be alone 
 here, darkens his vision of the future. So we are brought 
 to the secret of our Lord's words, to that which makes 
 them a real confutation of the Sadducees' doubt, and of our 
 doubt — a real message to the people, as well as to the earnest 
 thinker. The Pharisee had the dogma of a Eesurrection. 
 Christ will not separate the Eesurrection from God. The 
 children of the Eesurrection are the children of God. They 
 live because He lives. Man continues because He con- 
 tinues. He has ordained the relations of men. Cannot 
 they leave Him to take care of them — Him to maintain 
 His own order ? What have the accidents of tliose rela- 
 tionships here, what have the outward regulations con- 
 cerning them, to do witli their true nature as He sees 
 it? Poor man! Do you fear that the wife or child that 
 was bound to your heart here, will be torn from yow 
 there? That is a dream of death. That belongs to a 
 death world. Is He not the living God ? Is not the living 
 God, the God of the living? Is He not the God of the 
 fathers, and of the children ? 
 
 ' Then certain of the scribes ansiucring said, Master, thou 
 hast vmU said.' It might be merely the triumph of school- 
 men feeling that their adversaries had been confuted by 
 a few simple words — by the most familiar of all sentences. 
 It might be the genuine witness of human hearts. 'Yes ; 
 ' that is, indeed, the Gospel of a Eesurrection. We never 
 ' believed it before, often as we have argued about it.'
 
 310 LECTUEE XXIV. 
 
 Eitlier feeling is compatible with the kind of awe expressed 
 in the next verse. ' And after that they durst not ash him 
 any question at all.' 
 
 V. But He asked them a question ; the most searching 
 that had perhaps ever been presented to them. 
 
 ' And he said unto them, How say they that Christ is 
 David's son? And David himself saith in the hook of 
 Psalms, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right 
 hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David there- 
 fore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son f ' 
 
 If our Lord met doubts fairly and fully, even when they 
 were raised by the most captious of His enemies — political 
 doubts, such as that concerning the tribute, religious doubts, 
 such as that concerning the resurrection — He also Himself 
 provoked doubts. He led His disciples, and the scribes 
 and the people, to compare passages in the Scripture which 
 looked as if they were contradictory; to face the difficulties 
 from which they would have been most inclined to shrink 
 as perilous to the security of their faitli. For faith in His 
 teaching never means acquiescence. In the child it is not 
 that, but trust from a sense ©f feebleness. In the man it 
 scarcely begins till acquiescence and security end. Those 
 who are comfortable and satisfied in themselves do not 
 care to look beyond themselves. 
 
 N"o doubt is really so deep, so fundamental as tliis : 
 ' How can David's son be David's Lord ? ' If the Jew 
 had honestly grappled with it — if he had said, ' There must 
 ' be a solution of it somewhere, or my Scriptures are false ; 
 ' there must be a solution of it somewhere, or the testi- 
 ' monies in my conscience are false ; since otherwise my 
 ' Lord is not my brother ' — if he had spoken thus with him- 
 self, he would have perceived that the puzzle was not a
 
 THE KING AJVriDST THE PEIESTS AND SCRIBES. 311 
 
 verbal one, and tliat no words could remove it. The Person 
 in whom he discovered most of human sympathy, most of 
 lowliness, would then have been recognised as having most 
 Divine power — HE would have been the explanation of 
 the riddle. But there was a reason why they could not 
 accept this explanation. AVhat was the reason ? Was it 
 that they did not read their sacred books ? that they did not 
 pore over the prophecies contained in them ? The scribes, 
 who did this most, who were always reading the sacred 
 books, always brmgiug forth interpretations of them, were 
 those in whom this unbelief was the strongest, who re- 
 volted with the greatest horror from the notion that the 
 Galilean peasant could be the Son of God. Is not the 
 reason given here ? — ' Then in the audience of all the people 
 he said unto his disciples, Beware of the scribes, ivhich desire 
 to walk in Iwig robes, and love greetings in the markets, and 
 the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at 
 feasts ; ivhich devour widows' houses, and for a shew make 
 long prayers : the same shall receive greater damnation.' 
 
 Those who loved to exalt themselves above other men 
 could not confess Him as royal, as Divine, who stooped 
 to be the servant of all. Those who devoured widows' 
 houses could not accept a King ^\'ho came to answer the 
 ciy of the widow and deliver her from tlie tormentors who 
 assumed His authority. Those who craved to be seen of 
 men could not abide the eye of the Judge who pierced 
 through all veils into the secret heart. Therefore, upon 
 that age of religious profession and self-glorification was 
 condng gi'cater damnation than luid fallen u^ion all that 
 had gone before it.
 
 LECTURE XXV. 
 
 THE FALL OF THE TEMPLE THE SIGN THAT THE KINGDOM 
 OF HEAVEN WAS AT HAND.* 
 
 St. Luke XXL 31. 
 
 So liJceivise ye, ivhen ye see these things come to pass, knoio ye that the 
 kingdom of God is nigh at hand,. 
 
 Tpie event which "Whitsuntide commemorates has so many 
 aspects, that it is not wonderful if even an important 
 aspect should be overlooked. But it. is strange that we 
 scarcely ever advert to the one which St. Peter puts most 
 prominently forward in his discourse on the day of Pente- 
 cost. An old prophet — the oldest, probably, of those whose 
 writings have come down to us — had spoken of an out- 
 pouring of the Spirit on all flesh, before a great and terrible 
 day of the Lord should come. St. Peter's mind is evidently 
 filled with the anticipation of such a day. The gift which 
 he and his brother-fishermen had received, the powers 
 which they were to exercise, had been expressly bestowed 
 to prepare them and their countrymen for such a day. Its 
 meaning and nature might still be obscure to them. The 
 Holy Spirit would gradually remove the obscurity. He 
 would show them what brightness and glory lay behind 
 the gloom which was thickening and which must at last 
 cover the land. If this be so, there can be scarcely a fitter 
 chapter for Whitsuntide than the one which comes next 
 under our notice. And Whitsuntide, in turn, will be the 
 best interpreter of it. 
 
 * Preached on Whitsunday,
 
 THE FALL OF THE TEMPLE A SIGN. 313 
 
 There is much iu it which recalls the latter part of the 
 seventeenth chapter. Why should they have been sepa- 
 rated ? What need to repeat warnings that seem to have 
 been given already ? 
 
 I am very anxious that you should observe how much 
 the coming of the Son of man, the downfall of the old 
 polity, the discovery of the Kingdom of Heaven, is the 
 subject of the whole Gospel, from the moment that the 
 preacher in the wilderness spoke of an axe which w^as laid 
 to the root of the trees, till Christ was lifted up. You per- 
 ceive the order of the Gospels — of this Gospel especially — 
 just in projjortion as that fact becomes evident to you. 
 But you will not forget that the former words were spoken 
 as He went up to Jerusalem, because He was asked 
 whether the Kingdom of God would immediately appear. 
 They were suggested by an approach to the city. These 
 are spoken wdiile He is sitting by the Temple. You have 
 heard that He began His work in Jerusalem by purging 
 the Temple ; that aU His preaching has been in the 
 Temple. The very first words in the chapter have reference 
 to it : — 
 
 (1) ' And he loohcd up, and saiv tJie rich men casting 
 their gifts into the treasury. And he saio also a certain jfoor 
 widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a 
 truth I say unto yon, that this poor widow hath cast in more 
 than they all : For all tlicse have of their ahiindance cast in 
 unto the offerings of God : hut she of her penury hath cast 
 in all the living that she luid.' 
 
 I do not doul)t that the real charity of the widow was 
 contrasted, as we have all supposed, with the ostentatious 
 charity of those who gave alms to be seen of men. ]>ut 
 I think her real reverence for tlic gloiy of the Temple,
 
 o 
 
 14 LECTURE XXV. 
 
 for the place in which God's presence dwelt, is also con- 
 trasted with the ostentatious care of the rich Jews to adorn 
 the outside of the Temple with their goodly gifts. To 
 these His attention is now drawn ; these give the occasion 
 to all the subsequent discourse. ' And as some spake 
 of the temple, lioiv it was adorned with goodly stones and 
 gifts, he said, As for these things which ye behold, the days 
 loill come, in the which there shall not he left one stone upon 
 another, that shall not he thrown down.' The sentence had 
 a very awful sound indeed. The eager question that fol- 
 lows shows how awful it seemed to the disciples. 'And 
 they asked him, saying. Master, hut when shall these things 
 he ? and what sign will there he ivhen these things shall come 
 to pass ? ' Had not they heard this before ? Was it new 
 to them ? They had been prepared for a great crisis, for a 
 day of the Lord ; but the destruction of the Temple, of the 
 building which had borne witness for the God of Abraham, 
 and Isaac, and Jacob, of the barrier, as it seemed, between 
 idolatrous worship and the true worship, that was some- 
 thing altogether wonderful. Could the Kingdom of God be 
 introduced by such a sign as that ? Would it not be the 
 sign that the Kingdom of God was utterly perishing from 
 the earth ? 
 
 (2) So assuredly it would be felt. And to this the warning 
 in these verses refer. And he said, Take heed that ye he not 
 deceived : for many shall come in m,y name, saying, I am 
 Christ ; and the time draweth near : go ye not therefore after 
 them. But when ye shall hear of loars and commotions, he 
 not terrified : for these things must first come to p)ass ; hut 
 the end is not hy and hy! When the city was threatened, 
 thdre would be an expectation of some Deliverer, some 
 Anointed One from heaven, to drive away the hosts of the
 
 THE FALL DF THE TEMPLE A SIGN. 315 
 
 heathen. ' He surely must come to save the Temple. God 
 cannot let that perish.' The disciples would he open to 
 these deceptions as well as others. They expected the 
 revelation of a kingdom more than any. When they heard 
 of wars in Palestine, of commotions elsewhere, they could 
 not doubt that these were announcements of it. Their 
 Master might he descending Himself to deliver His Father's 
 House, and to make it the centre of the earth. He might he 
 sending some angelic messenger to do that work. Wlio could 
 say whether this or that man might not have the authority 
 which he boasted, which he probably believed, that He 
 had ? The words, ' Go not after them nor follow them,' which 
 had been spoken before, might well, therefore, be re^jeated. 
 The Christs who appeared because the Temple was falling 
 would be deceivers like the rest. It was not to be saved. 
 Till it fell, the end of the age had not come, however 
 many preparations there might be for it. To these prepa- 
 rations He directs their thoughts. 
 
 (3) ' Then said he unto tlum, Nation shall rise against na- 
 tion, and kingdom against kingdom : And great earthquakes 
 shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and 
 fearful sights ami great signs shall there he from Jieaven.'' The 
 time between the day on whicli our Lord spoke these words 
 beside the Temple, and that in which the Temple fell, has 
 been described by a dull Jewish historian and by the most 
 profound of Pioman historians. If the former tells of the 
 bloody and fruitless encounters ol' liis countrymen against 
 the forces of the empire, the other tells ns df tin' C(juvu1- 
 sions in the empire itself, of the ruin which was threat- 
 ening it from its own defenders, of the German race whicli 
 it could not subdue and which might at last subdue it. 
 Both alike testify of the physical calamities which make
 
 316 LECTURE XXV. 
 
 a guilty and infidel, and therefore superstitious age, tremble 
 more than any political trials ; which seem to come more 
 directly from the powers above. The warnings in this 
 discourse point to much more general and grand events 
 than tliose in the seventeenth chapter, which alluded to 
 the stuff in the house, to the women grinding at the mill. 
 By those who have the opportunity of comparing what 
 Josephus and Tacitus have written with this passage in the 
 Gospel, and who are eager to build some argument upon 
 their likeness, surprising coincidences will be discovered. 
 These will, of course, be turned the other way by writers 
 who think that a Galilean peasant could have no rare gift 
 of insight or foresight. They will see everywhere the fraud 
 of disciples who change known facts into predictions. What 
 I said before applies here. I can find no such coincidences 
 between the events and the discourse as an inventor would 
 have cared to introduce. No special incidents are thrust 
 in which might make the imposture credible. But I do not 
 expect this observation to have the least weight with those 
 who deny that there is any supernatural order in the uni- 
 verse. They must endure improbabilities rather than accept 
 what seems to them impossible as the solution of them. 
 My appeal would be here, as before, to those who reverence 
 the authority of Jesus, who believe Him to be indeed the 
 King and Prophet of the universe. Do they want to 
 strengthen their own faith in Him, by finding confirmations 
 of it from Jewish or Gentile historians ? Surely that can- 
 not be. Do they want then to make others believe in Him 
 by refening to those historians ? But our way of appealing 
 to them has the opposite effect. We suggest the notion 
 that language which, read by itself, would sound broad and 
 simple, has been the result of the deepest artifice.
 
 THE FALL OF THE TEMPLE A SIGN. 317 
 
 How, then, may we use the Eoman and Je^vish historians ? 
 Thoughtfully studied, they will show us what a crisis was 
 betokened by the facts which they are making known to 
 us ; how much more wonderful a one than we have ever 
 fancied it to be ; how completely it was the shaking of an 
 old order ; the announcement that some other must take 
 its place. And if we say to om'selves, ' But how was it 
 ' this, seeing that the Eoman world did not pass away then 
 ' — seeing that the Germans did not for many centuries 
 'trample it down? ' the answer seems to me this. The con- 
 vulsion was in the heart of the body politic. Its helief was 
 shaken. The Temples which had expressed the relation 
 between the visible and the invisible world, were totterincr. 
 This was the proof that a revolution had begun which all 
 the subsequent ages would develope, which would not 
 cease to work till the fabric of the polity, as well as of 
 the w^orship, of the world was thrown down. Suppose, 
 then, with these thoughts on our mind, we go back 
 to this discourse about the Jewish Temple and its fall ; 
 we may find in it not a superficial likeness between 
 the records which we have been reading elsewhere, but 
 the very key to those records, that which makes them 
 coherent and intelligible. If the fall of the Jewish Temple 
 was indeed the manifestation of the Son of ]\Iau, the un- 
 veiling of Hiin who was the Head of the nations, the living 
 Bond between lieave]i and earth, we can understand why 
 all lands should have participated in the shock of that 
 time ; that the events of it, however disjointed tlicy may 
 have seemed to contemporaries, and may seem to us, 
 were all conspiring to exhil)it the true centre of the divine 
 and liuman order ; that the departure of tlic apparent 
 centre of that order was the sign in which the disciples
 
 318 LECTUKE XXV. 
 
 were to recognise, and we are to recognise, tlie end of an 
 age, tlie beginning of that for which it had been the 
 preparation. 
 
 (4) ' But Icforc all these, they shall lay their hands on 
 you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the syna- 
 gogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and 
 rulers for my name's sake. And it shall turn to you for a 
 testimony.' 
 
 The Apostles in after days must often have been puzzled 
 to connect their words — words spoken in fear and trembling 
 by such weak lips — with the doings of the great world, 
 with the earthquakes, political or physical, of which they 
 heard reports. Their enemies did not suffer them to forget 
 the connexion. Was not the traitorous sect which preached 
 salvation to the Gentiles when all Jewish patriots were 
 praying God to destroy the Gentiles, the cause of the 
 calamities that had overtaken the holy land ? Were not 
 the tribulations of the empire owing to those who turned 
 away men from the service of the gods ? These cries would 
 reach the Cesars, and in spite of their tolerant maxims and 
 their contempt, would induce them — that they might con- 
 ciliate their Jewish or Gentile subjects — to interfere with 
 the preachers of the Kingdom of Heaven. A time would 
 come when it would openly confront the kingdom of the 
 Cesar, and be recognised as its antagonist. But even 
 in this generation the Apostles would be brought not 
 cnly before synagogues, but before kings and rulers for 
 His Name's sake. Their trials would ' turn to them for 
 a testimony ' of the grandeur of the work in which they 
 were engaged, of the strength in which they were to 
 perform it. 
 
 (5) ' Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before
 
 THE FALL OF THE TEMPLE A SIGN. 319 
 
 what ye shall answer : For I will give you a mouth and 
 wisdom, ivhich all your adversaries shall not he aUe to yain- 
 say nor resist! Here is the Pentecostal promise ; the 
 assurance that the Spirit with whom their IVIaster had 
 been baptized should be with them ; the warning to trust 
 in His calm wisdom, utterly to distrust the rash and vain 
 suo-crestions of their own fancies ; to seek the true zeal 
 which God inspires instead of that zeal which is often 
 inspired by the devil. They would need this strength, for 
 ' Ye shall he hetraycd hoth hy parents, and hrethren, and 
 kinsfolks, and friends; and some of y oil shall they cause to 
 he 2mt to death.' To be put to death — that might be borne ; 
 but to be betrayed by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, 
 who could help them to bear that? Only He who was 
 shortly to say to His own dear circle, ' One of you shall 
 hctray me.' 
 
 (6) 'And ye shall he hated of all men for my name's saJce. 
 But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your 
 patience possess ye your soids.' Hated they would be by all 
 kinds of men, by Gentiles as much as Jews ; hated by 
 both for declaring that they were one in Christ ; hated, 
 therefore, expressly for His name's sake. But how could 
 it be that not a hair of their heads sliDuld perish if some of 
 them wer5 to be put to death ? That paradox could only 
 be explained if their Master's words were fuHillod ; if He 
 was given up to death ; if He rose from the dcaii because 
 death could not hold Him. Supposing thoy had, iiulocd, a 
 Prince of Life, One mightier than the grave and hell, thoy 
 might trust their bodies as well as their spirits In Ilini. 
 And so they might in patience possess their souls, 
 waiting fur their own redemption, waiting for the world's 
 redemption.
 
 320 LECTURE XXV. 
 
 (7) ' And when yc shall see Jerusalem cojnjmssed with 
 armies, thenknotv that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let 
 them which are in Judea fiee to the mountain's ; and let them 
 which are in the midst of it depart out ; and let not them 
 that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these he the 
 days of vengeance, that all things tahieh are written may he 
 fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to 
 them that give such, in those days ! for there shall he great 
 distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And tliey 
 shall fall hy the edge of the sword, and shall he led away 
 captive into all nations : and Jerusalem shall he trodden 
 down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles he 
 fulfilled!' We have here only the more distinct announce- 
 ment of that which has been told so often before ; that 
 which it was so hard and so necessary for the disciples to 
 understand and to believe. That Jerusalem should be 
 trodden down of the Gentiles, could that be ? We read 
 the words lightly ; we turn them merely into some com- 
 monplace lamentation over Jewish unbelief, some not more 
 serious expression of thanksgiving for our blessings. But 
 have we ever thought what it was that a lieathen empire 
 should tread down the city which had for generations de- 
 clared that the God of Eighteousness, the God of Salvation, 
 is the Lord of the whole earth —that there is none other 
 God but He — that men cannot make gods for themselves ? 
 Was there nothing tremendous in that? No shaking of 
 heaven as well as earth ? And may there not be some- 
 thing more than we have dreamed of in the words, 
 ' Until the times of the Gentiles he fulfilled ? ' If you 
 ask me what is in it, I would reply, ' Let us meditate 
 ' earnestly on what the Gentiles have gained by that 
 ' overthrow of the Jewish Temple — what it signified to
 
 THE FALL OF THE TEMPLE A SIGN, 321 
 
 ' them and to mankind.' Then we may learn the import 
 of these words, as no preacher or commentator could 
 represent it to us. That you may pursue this meditation 
 successfully, and under the highest guidance, studj; these 
 words : — 
 
 (8) 'And there shall be signs in the sun, and in tlw moon, 
 and in the stars ; and uiwn the earth distress of nations, 
 with jper'plexity ; the sea and the, waves roaring ; men's hearts 
 failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which 
 are coming on the earth : fm' the powers of heaven shall be 
 shaken. And then shall they see the Son of inan coming in 
 a cloud with poiver and great glory. And luhcn these things 
 begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads ; 
 for your redemption draweth nigh. And he spake to them a 
 p)arahle ; Behold the fig-tree, and all the trees ; lohen they 
 nmo shoot forth, ye see and know of your oivn selves that 
 sunwier is noio nigh at hand. So likeivise ye, ivhen ye see 
 these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God 
 is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you. This generation 
 shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth 
 shall pass away : but my ivords shall not 2J<'^ss away.' 
 "When you hear these words read to you on the Second 
 Sunday in Advent, does not the thought sometimes strike 
 you, ' Oh, no doubt tliat is to happen some day. We 
 ' suppose the Son of man will come in a cloud with power 
 ' and great glory. But the news is very vague — the coming 
 ' is a long way off. Divines have not settled the when and 
 ' the how. Tlioy are always disputing about some point 
 ' connected with the Advent of Christ. Till they have 
 'arrived at some agreement among themselves, they can- 
 
 * not expect us to he much moved by the tidings, even 
 
 * though they are uttered by such lips, — though they are 
 
 Y
 
 322 LECTUKE XXV, 
 
 ' accompanied by sucli solemn declarations that the words 
 ' cannot pass away.' 
 
 My friends, these things are said, and will be said, till 
 we have courage to face the question, ' And did not the 
 ' Son of man come as He says that He would in that 
 ' generation ? ' Were not the signs in the sun and moon, 
 the distress of the earth with perplexity, the failing of 
 men's hearts for fear, the vague looking into the future, 
 the wailings after Him, — was not the breakiug vip of 
 the Temple, with its goodly stones, — the witness that, 
 however hidden by clouds from mortal eyes. He was 
 there in power and great glory ? If so, the disciples had 
 a right to say, ' Our redemption is drawing nigh. This 
 ' is the token that He, whose glory Isaiah saw in the 
 ' Temple, who preached to us in the Temple, is Himself 
 ' coming forth as the living human Temple of the Eternal 
 * God. As surely as the shooting forth of leaves in 
 ' trees that had been dried and bare betoken the ap- 
 ' proaching summer, so surely do these Churches of Jews 
 ' and Gentiles, rising out of a dying age, and exhibiting 
 ' all the energies and fruits of youth, testify that the 
 ' Kingdom is establishing itself in our earth ; that it will 
 ' survive whatever perishes ; that of it there can be no 
 ' end.' If so, Christ's words were fulfilled in that genera- 
 tion, as He said they would be. If so, they will not pass 
 away, though heaven and earth should pass away. If so, 
 we are living in the days of the Son of man, and every 
 crisis that has befallen Christendom has been an unveiling 
 of Him whom it had forgotten. If so, there may come a 
 day when the times of this Christendom shall be fulfilled, 
 when its temples and all the outward establishments which 
 have testified of the living God and the Son of man, and
 
 THE FALL OF THE TEMPLE A SIGN. 323 
 
 have often been used to hide Him from the hearts of men, 
 shall pass away with a great noise, that tlie Divine Temple 
 may stand forth in its glory. 
 
 (9) My friends, Whitsuntide has been testifying to us 
 from year to year of that Eevelation of the Spirit of God — 
 of that indwelling of the Spirit in human temples, which 
 was to prepare the way for the fall of the Temple made 
 with hands. It has been telling, year by year, of a 
 Church composed of men of all kindreds and tongues 
 which rose out of the Jewish nation at the voice of the 
 Spirit. It has been telling us that we are members of this 
 Church — that we are Temples of the living God. The 
 disciples of the first age were in danger of forgetting that 
 they had been brouglit unto this glorious state, that they 
 had been made members of this Universal and Eternal 
 Kingdom ; that they were witnesses of it to mankind. 
 Those who, we should have supposed, were continually re- 
 minded by persecution of their calling, had yet need to 
 liear these words : — ' And take heed to yourselves, lest at any 
 time your hearts he overcharged with surfeiting, and drunk- 
 enness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you 
 unawares. For as a snare shall it come on cdl them that 
 dwell on the face of the wlwle earth. Watch ye therefore, and 
 pray always, that ye may he accounted loorthy to escape all 
 these things that shall come to pass, and to stand hefore the 
 Son of man.' Do we not need these warnings — we who 
 live in a world not less luxurious than that of tlie 
 early Ctusars, not less exposed to religious self-exalta- 
 tion and religious strife than that ol' the Jews in the days 
 when the Temple was falling? AVe have both perils to 
 encounter at once. May the Spirit of God enable us to 
 encounter them ! May lie make us worthy to stand beforo 
 
 the Son of man ! 
 
 Y 2
 
 LECTURE XXYI. 
 
 THE KING IN HIS AGONY.* 
 
 St. Luke XXII. 41, 42. 
 
 And he was withdravm from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled donm 
 and prayed, saying, Father, if thoti be willing, remove this cup from me : 
 nevertheless not my will, hit thine, be done. 
 
 Theke was a time when divines fancied that they could 
 maintain the doctrine of the Trinity by quoting separate 
 texts of Scripture in support of it. That Name, into 
 which generations of men and women and childi^en have 
 been baptized — that Name which, if it means anything, 
 must denote Him in whom we are living and moving and 
 having our being, — was supposed to rest on some passages 
 of the Holy Book, or rather upon our interpretation of 
 those passages. Such a habit of mind favoured all irreve- 
 rence and all unreality. God confounded it. The text 
 on which controversialists relied most was found to be 
 a spurious one. They fought for it as long as they could ; 
 at last they were compelled to abandon it. 
 
 The loss of such a feeble buttress has proved' an in- 
 estimable blessing to us. We are suspecting — as yet it 
 is only a suspicion — that awe and worship may have more 
 to do with our faith than disputation. As we have been 
 less able to follow the Fathers of the Church in punishing 
 or denouncing those who dissent from our opinions, we have 
 learnt a little more of what they meant when they spoke 
 * Preaclied on Triuity Sunday.
 
 THE KING IN HIS AGONY. 325 
 
 in their most rapturous devotions, on their dying beds or 
 at the stake, of the Trinity as the infinite, all-embracing 
 charity, to know which, to dwell on which, is the reward 
 of the spirits in glory, the ground of all trust and hope 
 for sinners upon earth. 
 
 ' Father, if it be possible, let this cup |:»a5s /ro??t me, yet not 
 as I will, but as thou vjilt.' There is a revelation of the 
 distinction of Persons, of the unity of substance in the 
 Godhead, which we may dwell upon in silence. My fear 
 is, that I should weaken the force and emphasis of this 
 record by discoursing of it. I shall avoid that danger 
 best if I use these words as a key to the events of the last 
 Passover. I shall take the story exactly as it is set down 
 by St. Luke. I should wish you hereafter to compare him 
 with the other Evangelists, and not to evade any of the 
 difficulties which the comparison will suggest. But you 
 will make the comparison most fairly, if you have first 
 pondered thoughtfully on one narrative : you will then 
 look into points of detail seriously, but without exagge- 
 rating their importance. And you will find that the great 
 principles wliich St. John unfolds in those discourses at 
 the Last Supper which he alone reports, are the necessary 
 iuteip)retation of the acts that are recorded here. 
 
 I. The people still flocked to the Temple. Each morning 
 Jesus came from the Mount of Olives and spoke of the 
 Kingdom. Was lie preparing them for the festival that 
 celebrated the deliverance from Pharaoh ? Would that be 
 the signal for His revolt ? The priests must liave feared 
 it. Vaguely, perhaps, the people may have hoped it. 
 Would it be better to arrest llim before the day came ? 
 Might not they increase the danger if they made the 
 attempt openly before the multitude ?
 
 o 
 
 26 LECTUEE XXYl. 
 
 ■ IT. ' Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, 
 heing of the number of the twelve.' That is all we are told ; 
 it is all we need to be told. The tempter may have pre- 
 sented this thought to the man once and again : ' You 
 'could give up your Master; the priests would pay you 
 * well if you did.' He may have driven back the sug- 
 gestion. It may have been enforced by many arguments : 
 'Is this Kingdom of God ever to come? Has Jesus the 
 ' powers for which you have given Him credit ? If He 
 ' ca7i save Himself He will. May not the priests know 
 'more about what is right than you ignorant peasants?' 
 Whatever the voice of the evil spirit said, whatever 
 answers were made to that voice, he prevailed. The man 
 sacrificed himself The dark power became his master. 
 ' Aoid he went Ms way, and communed with the chief 
 priests and captains, how he might hetray him unto them. 
 And they tvere glad, and covenanted to give hitn money. 
 And he promised, and sought opportunity to hetray him 
 unto them in the absence of the multitude.' That was the 
 great object. The priests lived in the dread of a people 
 whom they did not love, as they lived in the dread of a 
 God whom they did not love. It was soon to be proved that 
 the multitude was far less dangerous than they had supposed. 
 Th&t enemy might be brought over to be their servant. 
 
 III. ' Then came the day of unleavened bread, ivhen the 
 passover must be killed.' The disciples of Jesus must have 
 anticipated that feast with a mixture of fear and hope. 
 They could not doubt it would be a crisis in their lives. 
 But what would come of it ? "Would they be established 
 as the ministers of a great King ? Would the King Him- 
 self, according to the strange prediction which they had 
 heard, not understood, be given up to the Gentiles ?
 
 THE KING IX HIS AGONY. 327 
 
 * And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and ^prepare us 
 the passaver, that toe may eat. And they said unto him, 
 Where wilt thoti that ive prepare ? And he said unto them, 
 Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man 
 meet you, hearing a fitcher of ivater ; follow him into the 
 house inhere he enter eth in. And ye shall say unto the 
 goodman of the house. The Master saith unto thee. Where is 
 the guestchamher, lohere I shall eat the passover vnth my 
 disciples ? And he shall sheio you a large dipper room 
 furnished: there make ready. And they went, and found 
 as he had said unto them : and they made ready the pass- 
 over.' 
 
 The command to prepare the feast is the command of 
 a Master. But it is addressed to friends. It does not 
 sound like a royal edict, or as if He meant to arouse the 
 multitude. He is withdrawing from His preaching in the 
 Temple into an inner circle. At the same time He is 
 illustrating the spirit of the original commandment in 
 Exodus. If the Passover was to he a national feast, it 
 was also to he a family feast. Each household was to 
 prepare the lamh and to eat of it together. The nation 
 had lost its freedom : it had lost its unity. What was the 
 source of its freedom, the centre of its unity, this little 
 hand was to learn and to proclaim. The ])roclamation, 
 as we hold, has gone forth into all lands. An illustrious 
 historian of our day, writing with im theological interest, 
 only hearing witness to facts, hids us coinjiare the great 
 feast at the l)eginning of the French Eevolution which 
 was to iuauLjurate the new aw of fratcniitv, with this 
 festival in the upper chamher at Jerusalem. I know not 
 a deeper or more pregnant suggestion. It seems to inc 
 worth whole volumes of Christian evidences. But if we
 
 328 LECTUEE XXVI. 
 
 use it rightly, we shall not turn it into an argument for 
 the confutation of objectors. We are the infidels who 
 need to be persuaded that the Elder Brother of the race 
 has appeared, that He has established a real fraternity for 
 men. We have lived as if He had offered His sacrifice 
 that we might be less of a family, that we might be more 
 of enemies, than Jews or heathens. 
 
 IV. ' And when the hour ivas come, he sat down, and the 
 twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, With desire 
 I have desired to eat this passover with you hefore I suffer ; for 
 I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, tmtil it he 
 fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and 
 gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among your- 
 selves : for I say unto you, I ivill not drink of the fruit 
 of the vine, until the kingdo7ii of God shall come! 
 
 That intense longing to hold this feast with His dis- 
 ciples, shall we call it a mere human longing ? Or shall 
 we separate it, as some do, from the craving for fellowship 
 which is experienced by every peasant, and which has 
 been felt, certainly with not less strength, by those leaders 
 and teachers who have seemed most to dwell apart ? Shall 
 we say that it is profane to associate the thoughts and 
 conflicts of Christ wath our thoughts and conflicts? We 
 must adopt one of these alternatives, if we do not believe 
 that the human is the perfect image of the Divine ; that 
 Jesus possessed the very mind of Him who had been 
 in all ages seeking for communion with the sons of 
 men, whose very nature excludes the notion of solitude ; 
 that He felt, in its depth and fulness, the need which 
 human beings have of communion with each other. What 
 was the Passover but the witness that the Hicfhest of 
 all had seen the affliction of His people, had heard their
 
 THE KING IN HIS AGONY. 329 
 
 ciy, and liacl come down to deliver tliem? What was 
 it but the witness that He had established an intercourse 
 with them from age to age? What was the Paschal 
 sacrifice but the bond of this union between the redeemed 
 nation and Him who had stooped to it — but its acceptance 
 of Him as its King and Lord, instead of the Egyptian 
 ruler ? For Christ to desire that He might keep the feast 
 of that union, of that dedication, once more with those 
 whom He had chosen to be the witnesses of the Divine 
 kingdom to His countrymen — was not this in the liighest 
 sense to do the will of the Eternal Father ? Was it 
 not to justify all ties by which the Most High had 
 bound together His creatures — to give society its true 
 consecration ? 
 
 V. 'And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and 
 gave unto them, saying. This is my body tvhich is given for 
 you : this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup 
 after supper, saying. This cup is the new testament in my 
 blood, vjhich is shed for yoic' 
 
 He desired to eat the Passover before He suffered, not 
 because it was to be abolished, but because it was to be 
 fulfilled in tlie Kingdom of God. The maxim of His 
 early discourse has never been forgotten. No tittle of the 
 law is to perish. No tittle of the family covenant is to 
 perish. He has come, not to destroy, but to fulfil. Here 
 is the point of the transition. The nation which He had 
 redeemed out of the house of bondage is sinking into 
 a worse bondage, must sink into death. But the symbols 
 of the national redemption are translated into tlu; symbols 
 of human redemption. The ])ui[i<ise of the calling out 
 of the family of Abraham will be manifested. All tlie 
 families of the earth will be claimed as God's family.
 
 330 LECTURE XXVI. 
 
 And if the nation is to die, the King of it is to die. If 
 the sacrifice tliat commemorated the conservation of the 
 nation in its first-born is disappearing, it is only because 
 tlw Sacrifice — tlie Sacrifice of the Firstborn — is about to 
 be accomplished. If the body and blood of Jesus do 
 unite God to man, Heaven to earth — if they have been 
 presented by a Son to a Father — if the Spirit of the Son 
 and Father teaches our spirits to remember that recon- 
 ciliation and to partake of it, then indeed the unleavened 
 bread and the Paschal wine have been fulfilled in the 
 Kingdom of God — then the New Testament has taken the 
 place of the Old — then the Lord's Supper has been a true 
 message to men of all peoples and tongues. The disciples 
 in the upper chamber could not tell what the Avords meant 
 for themselves till they could say to Jews, Greeks, and 
 Latins, ' They are for you.' 
 
 VI. Then comes the sudden cry : ' But, hcliold, the hand 
 of him that hetrayeth me is with tnc on the, table. And 
 tridy the Son of man goeth, as it was determined : hut %voe 
 unto that man hy tuhom lu is hetrayed ! ' ' Yes ! the traitor 
 ' is amongst us, in the little flock itself We have not left 
 ' him in the crowd at the Temple ; he is here in the upper 
 ' chamber. He has stretched his hand to receive the bread 
 ' and the wine.' A witness, surely — the witness — that by 
 no narrowing of circles, by no fencing of tables, can you 
 exclude the most false disciple or apostle. Is there not 
 more in these words ? Is not the deepest problem of the 
 universe in them ? ' The Son of man goeth, as %uas deter- 
 mined.' Could you bear to think otherwise ? Was that 
 which we believe to be the most blessed event in the 
 world's history not intended, not appointed, by the Father 
 of all ? Was He not the Author of the sacrifice ? Was
 
 THE KING IN HIS AGONY. 331 
 
 it not, in the highest sense, the fulfilment of His will ? — 
 ' But woe to that man by whom the Son of man is hetrayed.' 
 Could you bear to think otherwise? Could you believe 
 that the man was merely the agent of the Divine purpose 
 — that his sin was not an act of his will ? You must 
 maintain both these propositions, however hard you find 
 it to reconcile them. Perhaps, if we read these words 
 more strictly — perhaps, if we thoroughly believed in our 
 Lord's death and resurrection — we should see how the 
 gracious determinations of God are to prevail over the 
 stubborn resistance of the human will. I used to think 
 that Judas only was the betrayer, that he is the man of 
 whom it is said, ' He had better never have been born.' 
 The words now come to me in a more terrible, yet in 
 a more hopeful, sense. The covetous man, I think, dwells 
 in each one of us — is the enemy of the Son of man in 
 each man. Good were it for each one of us, good were 
 it for humanity, if that traitor had never been born. But 
 may he not die ? May not God's purpose triumph ? j\Iay 
 not the Son of man have all enemies at last put under 
 His feet ? 
 
 VII. There was a moment in which this thought of the 
 traitor within seems to have seized strongly on the minds of 
 the disciples. 'And they heyan to inquire among themselves 
 which of them it was that should do this thing' Could any 
 one say, ' I may not be the betrayer?' Blessed, inspired 
 suspicion ! From what sins, Avhat l^etrayal of Christ, might 
 we not each of us have been saved, if we had cherished it 
 instead of transferring our fears and our accusations to our 
 brethren ! "Were the Apostles, then, much more humble, less 
 ambitious, than men of later generations ? Hear : — 
 
 ' And there was also a strife among them, which of tltcm
 
 332 LECTUEE XXVI. 
 
 should he accounted the greatest.^ Wliat, there? at that 
 feast ? Yes, my friends, and aknost before their self- 
 questioning about the betrayal was over ! That cannot 
 have been invented. No compiler of a legend could have 
 brought such contradictions together. And no reader of 
 his own heart can doubt that they exist there ; that they 
 may appear in this rapid succession ; that one will spring 
 up in revenge for the other, as a kind of compensation 
 for what seems an injury we have done to ourselves. 
 ' Betrayers ! how can that be ? Has He not told us that 
 we are to have seats in His Kingdom ? ' 
 
 VIII. ' And lie said unto them. The kings of the Gentiles 
 exercise lordship over them ; and they that exercise authority 
 upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not he so : hut 
 lie that is greatest among you, let him he as tJie younger ; and 
 he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For ivhether is greater, 
 he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth ? is not he that sifteth 
 at ')n€at .? hut I am among you as he that serveth. Ye are 
 tliey which have continued loith me in my temptations. And 
 I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Fatlier hath appointed 
 unto me; tliat ye may eat and drink at my table in my 
 kingdom, and sit on thrones judgioig the tv)elve tribes of 
 IsraeV 
 
 Did our Lord arrest the quarrel of His disciples about 
 precedence by telling them that they had been wrong in 
 considering Him a King ; that He was not really a King ; 
 that His Kingdom of Heaven was only a figurative one, 
 or only one to be enjoyed after death ; that they must 
 dismiss the dream that they were officers of a kingdom, 
 for it would soon be scattered to the winds ? No ! in that 
 dreadful hour He did not unteach all His previous lessons. 
 He ratified them. He asserted that He had come to
 
 THE KING IN HIS AGONY. 33 
 
 o 
 
 establish a real Kingdom ; that it was appointed for Him ; 
 that He appointed it for them ; that they were to sit and 
 judge in it ; that the twelve tribes of Israel would be tried 
 by them. What, then, did He correct in them ? That 
 which He had always been correcting in them — the vulgar 
 notion, so natural to them and to us, that a kingdom is a 
 society in which men are enjoying honours and high places, 
 or contending for them. The Gentile monarchies, wherein 
 those who exercised authority were called benefactors, 
 were not the types of the Divine monarchy. There the 
 Chief of all stooped to be the Servant of all. They had 
 been called to share His temptations. He had passed 
 through the great temptation of being asked to take the 
 kingdoms of this world and the glory of them, instead of 
 waiting for the Kingdom which His Tather had appointed 
 for Him. If they remembered Him, and resisted as He 
 resisted, they would have power such as no rulers of men 
 had ever exercised. They would do the work which the 
 twelve tribes had been appointed to do. When the voice 
 of the twelve tribes was silent, they would bear witness 
 why the Kingdom had been taken from them, and how 
 permanent and universal it was. 
 
 IX. Those who have been with Him in His tempta- 
 tions were now to be sorely tempted themselves. 'And 
 the Lord said, Simon, Simon, hchold, Satan hath desired 
 to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: hat I have 
 jprayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou 
 art converted, strengthen thy hrcthrcn.' It was an tiicmy 
 that desired to sift the Apostle. It was Christ who 
 was on the tempted man's side, asking that the tcnijita- 
 tion might be for his strength, not his ruin. Think 
 of that lesson, my friends. Many dark passages in
 
 334 LECTURE xxvr. 
 
 our lives would become clear if we read them by that 
 liglit. 
 
 'And he said unto Mm, Lord, I am ready to go ivitli 
 thee, both into prison, and to death. And he said, I tell 
 thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, hefore that thou 
 shall thrice deny that thou hnoicest me.' 
 
 Peter had what a great man has called the ' fore-feeling 
 of his capabilities.' He had that in him which could and 
 would go to prison and death. He had also that in him 
 which would make him a denier.. The chaff must be 
 separated from the wheat. The Holy Spirit, not the Evil 
 Spirit, would conduct that sifting, burning process. The 
 man must be made to know what he is in himself, what 
 he is in union with the Son of man. So he would be able 
 to strenofthen his brethren. 
 
 X. I think the passage which follows would have been 
 far more intelligible to us if it had been taken along with 
 this. 'And he said unto tlum. When I sent you without 
 purse, and scri]), and shoes, lacked ye, any thing ? And 
 they said, Nothing. Then said he unto tliem. But now, he 
 that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip : 
 and he that hath no sword. Id him sell his garment, and 
 buy one. For I say unto you, that this that is written must 
 yet he accomplished in me. And he was reckoned, among the 
 transgressors : for the thhigs concerning me have an end. 
 And they said. Lord, behold, here arc two swords. And he 
 said unto tlicm. It is enough! 
 
 The Apostles had been sent forth to preach the Kingdom 
 of Heaven. They had the powers which could show what 
 the Kingdom was. TJiey had wanted nothing that was 
 necessary for their work. Did they fancy they should 
 have those powers or those supplies for their necessities
 
 THE KING IN HIS AGONY. 335 
 
 now 1 Let them not dream of it. They would have no 
 swords given them to overcome their enemies. Their 
 Master Himself would be numbered with the trans- 
 gressors. The end of all the plots of His enemies against 
 Him, of all the purposes of His Eather concerning Him, 
 was approaching. 
 
 This language would find its interpretation before many 
 hours were over. The disciples would know what the help- 
 lessness was which He told them of; how utterly changed 
 their condition was since that day when they went forth 
 in triumph as heralds of a kingdom, and found even the 
 spirits subject to them. At present their minds are only 
 fixed upon the words, ' He that hath no sword, let him sell 
 his garment and buy one.' They fancied He must mean 
 them to go forth on that Passover-night, when nothino- 
 could be bought, and procure swords. They produce two. 
 Might not these be enough ? He answers, probably with 
 a sad smile, ' Enough.' As if He had said, ' My poor 
 ' children ! do you really suppose that I want you to do 
 ' battle for me with those swords of yours ? You will soon 
 ' see what you have to encounter, and what you and your 
 ' swords are good for.' Wonderful things have been said 
 and sung about those two swords. They are, we are told, 
 the civil and ecclesiastical powers. I suppose the authors 
 of that interpretation wish us to understand how impotent 
 both have proved themselves whenever they have attempted 
 to establish the Kingdom of God and overthrow its enemies. 
 
 XI. Then follows the passage which I have regarded as 
 the central one of this history. 
 
 'And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the Mount 
 of Olives ; and his diseiples also followed him. And when 
 }ie was at the ]')lacc, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter
 
 336 LECTURE XXVI. 
 
 not into temptation. And he was withdraion from them 
 about a stone s east, and kneeled doiun, a7id prayed, saying, 
 Father, if thou he loilling, remove this cup from -me : never- 
 theless not my will, hut thine, he done. And there appeared 
 an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And 
 heing in an agony he prayed m.ore earnestly : and his sweat 
 was as it were great droits of Mood falling down to the 
 ground.' 
 
 The Passover-feast, wliicli He had desired with so great 
 a desire, is over. He has had a few hours of fellowship 
 with the twelve. There has been darkness in that room, 
 the sense of betrayal, the prospect of desertion. Still, He 
 had broken the bread and given it to them. He had told 
 them of a Father. He is now but a stone's cast from them, 
 yet He feels alone. These disciples cannot watch with 
 Him. The priests hate Him ; the people are losing trust 
 in Him. And is the Father there ? Is He not left to Him- 
 self ? ' Father, I cannot bear it ! Let this cup pass from 
 me.' That is the hour of real, though unfelt victory. 
 ' Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done.' The 
 agony is intense : the Angel from Heaven may soothe 
 the sufferer, but cannot save Him from the bloody sweat. 
 He arises, and bids the disciples pray that they may not 
 enter into temptation ; as if He who was always tempted 
 then knew for the first time the whole meaning of tempta- 
 tion ; as if He who was always praying then understood 
 the necessity, and yet almost the impossibility, of prayer. 
 My friends, have we not here what this day would teach 
 us ? If we think of the Son without the Father, we leave 
 Him in His agony ; if the Father is without the Son, what 
 is He but a phantom wrapped in His own greatness 
 standing aloof from all human sorrow? if there is no
 
 THE KING IX HIS AGONY. 337 
 
 Spirit uniting them, how was the Son sustained in His 
 hour of darkness, how can we be sustained in ours ? 
 
 XII. 'And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and. he 
 that was called Judas, one of the twelve, ivent hefore them, 
 and dreio near unto Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said unto 
 him, Judas, hetrayest thou the Son of Man loith a kiss ? ' It 
 is stiU the same language. Jesus speaks of Judas not as 
 betraying Him, the Master, the Friend, but ' the Son of 
 Man.' Judas was giving up the Man, the King of Men, 
 the source of all that had been manly in himself. The kiss, 
 the mockery of love, was the sign that he was cutting 
 himself off from his kind, declaring war with it, retreating 
 into his own outer darkness. ' When they which were about 
 him saio what ivoidd follow, they said mito him., Lord, shall 
 toe smite with the sword ? ' They did not wait for an 
 answer. They took it for granted. 'And one of them 
 smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his right 
 ear. And Jesus answered and said. Suffer ye thus far. 
 And he touched his ear, and healed him! So ended the 
 valour of the disciples — their grand attempt to defend 
 Christ's person, and establish His Kingdom with a 
 sword. It ended in the scorn of their enemies, in the 
 rebuke of their Master, in their own shame. Is there no 
 lesson for us tliere, my friends ? May the like scorn and 
 the like shame pursue every such experiment when it is 
 made by us ! The rebuke certainly will. 
 
 I am afraid, however, that the high priests and rulers 
 have been on the whole more frequent models for the 
 imitation of tlie Christian Church than the disciples. 
 ' Then Jcsm said unto the chief j^r tests, and captains of the 
 temple, and the elders, which were come to him. Be ye coim 
 out, as against a thief icith swords and staves ? Wh€n I 
 
 z
 
 338 LECTURE XXVI, 
 
 was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands 
 against me : hut this is your hour, and the power of dark- 
 ness. Tlien tooh they him, and led him, and brought him 
 into the high priest's house. And Peter followed afar off.' 
 Those to whom He spoke no doubt argued with them- 
 selves that one who disturbed the minds of the people 
 respecting a divine kingdom was far worse than any thief. 
 They believed that they Avere doing a high act of religion 
 in silencing Him, — an act of religious prudence in assaulting 
 Him at night, not amidst the crowd in the temple. And 
 those wlio judged of right by success must have thought 
 God w\as on their side. The thing they desired comes 
 to pass. The dreaded teacher does nothing to save him- 
 self. His followers prove cowards. There is no resistance 
 in the people. The worshippers of the god of darkness 
 they who thought him the lord of all, had their way. It 
 was their hour. 
 
 XIII. 'And when they had kindled a fire in the midst 
 of the hall, and were set doivn together, Peter sat down 
 among them. But a certain maid heheld him as he sat 
 hy the fire, and earnestly looked tipon him, and said, This 
 man tvas also with him. And he denied him, saying, 
 Woman, I know him not. And after a little while another 
 saw him, and said. Thou art also of them. And. Peter said, 
 Man, I am not. And about the space of one hour after, 
 another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow 
 also was vnth him : for he is a Galilean. A nd Peter said, 
 Man, I hioiv not vjhat thou sayest. And immediately, 
 while he yet spake, the coeh crew. And the Lord turned, 
 and looked upon Peter. And Peter rememhered the word of 
 the Lord, how he had said unto him. Before the cock crow, 
 thou shall deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept
 
 THE KING IN HIS AGONY. 339 
 
 littcrly' The story is told by eveiy Evangelist. iSTot one 
 felt that he had a right to suppress it, or that he could 
 bring out the full Gospel of the Divine King without it. 
 I think Christendom has confirmed their conviction. 
 Whilst it has in terms confessed St. Peter to be the rock 
 on which the Church stands, it has felt the immense 
 worth of this testimony to the absolute feebleness of the 
 highest Apostle when he was not resting upon another 
 rock than himself. AVho can tell the worth of it as an 
 education of St. Peter in his high calling to tell all men of 
 a rock on which they might build, and against which the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail ? By this story, as by the 
 Virgin's song, the Church Catholic in all ages has been 
 warned of some of her own greatest temptations. She 
 has carried a practical warning against them in her very 
 heart. Protestants can do little service to their Eomanist 
 brethren by denouncing any of their most confused con- 
 victions, by weakening their admiration of any person. 
 How much good might they do if they showed that they 
 only refused to acknowledge St. Peter as head of the 
 Church, lest they should set aside his confession and share 
 his denial, lest they should rend the Church in pieces 
 which he sought to unite in its true corner-stone ! 
 
 The special point in St. Lake's narrative is the memor- 
 able passage in which the Lord is described as loi-)king 
 upon Peter. I see no reason, from the description of the 
 place in which Peter was standing, why the actual eyes 
 of Him who was before the Sanhedrim may not have been 
 turned towards His discijile. Nevertheless, I cannot 
 doubt that he who, in any age, weeps bitterly over a 
 denial of Christ, does so because the eyes wliich are as 
 flaming fire, which read the thnughts and intents nf the 
 
 z2
 
 340 LECTURE XXVI. 
 
 heart, liave been fixed upon him, and liave brought him 
 to confession and repentance. 
 
 XIV. ' A7id the men that held Jesus mocked him, and 
 smote him. And ivhen they had hlindfolded him, they struck 
 Mm on the face, and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it 
 that smote thee? And many other things hlaspliemously 
 spake they against him' When we read such words as 
 these in a country Avhich has for centuries confessed Him 
 who was blindfokled as the King of kings, the King by 
 whom its kings reign, ought we not to ask ourselves 
 sometimes, 'What should we have done if we had been 
 ' living at a time when all the rulers of the land, all the 
 ' religious men of the land, counted Him an impostor 
 ' and a blasphemer ? ' Oh, my friends, if that question 
 leads us to some startling thoughts about ourselves, to 
 some fears lest we might have been among the mockers, 
 then let this be the use to which we turn that appre- 
 hension. Let us remember who said, — who will say, — 
 ' Inasmuch as ye did it to the least of these my brethren, 
 ' ye did it to me.' Let us ask that we may be preserved 
 from the spirit of scorn and mockery towards any 
 human creature, lest we should find that we are not 
 essentially unlike the men who struck Him on the face, 
 and said, ' Prophesy, who is it that smote thee ? ' 
 
 XV. Hitherto it has been night. The day has just dawned, 
 and this is the first spectacle which the light discloses to us. 
 ' And as soon as it tuas day, the elders of the people and the 
 chief priests, and the scribes, came together, and led Mm 
 into their council, saying. Art thou the Christ ? tell us. 
 And he said unto the7n. If I tell you, ye will not believe : 
 and if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go. 
 Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the
 
 THE KIXG IN HIS AGOXY. 341 
 
 poiccr of Gccl! The question is, Art thou the Christ ? He 
 had forbidden His Apostles to say that He was the Christ, 
 He does not care to use that name before the Sanhedrim. 
 For would they understand it ? Would they believe Him 
 if He told them what the Christ was — if He spoke of One 
 who baptized with the Spirit ? Or if He asked them to 
 tell Him what they meant by the Christ, would that avail 
 anything ? He falls back then upon the old name. He 
 affirms what He has been affirming by all His acts and 
 words, that there is a union between God and man. He 
 has been revealing God in the lowliness of the man. He 
 declares that the man shall sit on the right hand of God. 
 The Priests seize upon the sentence. It was not just what 
 they expected. They wished to convict Him of claiming 
 royal rights, as the Son of David ; that charge they will 
 renew when they go into Pilate's judgment hall. Now, 
 they perceive the opening for a more dreadful charge, one 
 of which the Sanhedrim can take cognizance. ' Then said 
 thcTj all, Art tlioii then the Son of God ? And he said unto 
 them, Ye say that I am. Atid they said. What need we any 
 farther ivitness ? for v;e ourselves have licard of his oirn 
 mouth! He had not of His own accord taken that awful 
 dignity. As always, He disclaimed glory for Himself 
 He emptied Himself of all titles ; when He spoke of His 
 Fatlier it was that He might say He could do nothing 
 of Himself. P^ut now that He is adjured to sjtcak, and 
 that to speak is to die. He accepts before men that name 
 which had been prochaimed in Ills baptism. Ilencefortli 
 it becomes inseparably linked witli tlic Passover night, 
 M'ith the agony, witli the Sacrifice, And that name, my 
 friends, will become dearer to us, the nion-. wo associate 
 it with tlie Divine agony ; tlie njore we tliink of tlie
 
 o 
 
 42 LECTURE XXVI. 
 
 Son and tlie Father going together to the great Sacrifice ; 
 the more we ask for the Spirit tliat we may offer ourselves 
 acceptable sacrifices. So we shall be able to confess the 
 glory of the Eternal Trinity, and in the jDower of the 
 Divine Majesty to worship the Unity.
 
 LECTUEE XXVII. 
 
 THE KING ON THE CROSS. 
 St. Luke XXIII. 38. 
 
 And a supeiscription also was ivriUcn over him in Utters of Greek, aiul 
 Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 
 
 That the Gospel is tlie Gospel of a Kingdom we have 
 been reminded at every turn of St. Luke's narrative. When 
 we come to the history of the Crucifixion we may be 
 tempted to forget that name ; we may even shrink from it. 
 Are we not to hear the cries of a Victim ? Should not 
 the Sacrifice be the prominent thought in our minds ? 
 Do we not, at least in the liour of darkness, lose sight of 
 the King ? 
 
 The Evangelist never does ; he will not suffer us to du 
 it. The superscription upon the Cross is for him tlie 
 simplest expres-sion of the truth wliich the Cross was pro- 
 claiming to the Jewish nation— to all nations, Greek and 
 Latin as well as Hebrew. He reads in tliat superscription 
 the meaning of previous history and of subsequent lii.'itory. 
 It does not distract his mind at all from the sufferings of 
 Jesus ; it explains His suflerings. It does not hide from 
 him the; nature or the worth of His Sacrifice. It shows 
 how real the Sacrifice was, and how it was accomplished. 
 If we observe the incidents recorded in this chapter as they 
 arise, we shall see how they all tend to this point.
 
 34*4 LECITJEE XXVII. 
 
 I. 'And the 'ivliole multitude of them arose, and led him 
 unto Pilate.' The Sanhedrim would rather, no doubt, have 
 enforced its own decree. Having declared Jesus guilty of 
 blasphemy, they would have inflicted the punishment for 
 blasphemy ; but either the Governor or the people might 
 have interfered, and the Passover was not the time for 
 incurring such a risk. It was far safer to quell their 
 Jewish pride, and ask the Gentile to destroy their enemy 
 as his own. 
 
 II. ' And they 'began to aeeuse hiin, saying, We found this 
 felloio perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to 
 Cesar, saying that he himself is Christ a Ki7ig.' This was to 
 be the charge. Let us remember distinctly that Pilate could 
 care for no other. They had the mortification of finding 
 that he did not care for that. This sudden zeal for Cesar, 
 this anxiety about his tribute, in men who were habitually 
 impatient of the foreign yoke, always expecting some 
 deliverer, must have struck a shrewd worldly man, used to 
 different forms of hypocrisy, familiar now with the special 
 forms of it which prevailed in Jerusalem, as very sus- 
 picious. His question, ' Art thou the King of the Jews ? ' 
 was equally contemptuous to the accused and the accusers, 
 * Art thou the Person before whom the Euler of the world 
 ' is to tremble ? ' What the answer implied, whether it was 
 or was not, a denial of the imputation, was nothing to 
 Pilate. The charge seemed to him ridiculous on the face 
 of it. He dismissed it at once with the sentence, ' I find 
 no fault in this man! I am not afraid lest he should over- 
 throw my authority or my master's. The priests felt the 
 rebuke ; it irritated them ; besides, they had no time to lose. 
 
 III. ' And they were the more fierce, saying. He stirreth 
 up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from.
 
 THE KING ON THE CEOSS. 345 
 
 Galilee to this 23lace' Pilate knew what it was to struggle 
 with men full of religious fury. He would avoid the battle 
 if possible. He caught at the word ' Galilee.' Perhaps he 
 might shift his task upon another. 'And as soon as he 
 knevj that he helongecl unto Herod' s jurisdiction, he sent him 
 to Herod, ivho himself also was at J&rusalem at that time.' 
 The men were very unlike. Pilate, merely indifferent — the 
 weary Eoman unbeliever of the age of Tiberius. Herod, 
 like the rest of his family, curious and speculative, with 
 an uneasy conscience and intellect, breaking through moral 
 laws — all the more eager to find out whether there was 
 any connexion between the visible and the invisible world, 
 what one or another man had to say about it. The 
 prophet of Eepentance he had listened to and silenced; 
 liis successor, it was said, exhibited wonders, real or pre- 
 tended, which it would be worth while to witness. ' And 
 ivhen Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad : for he was 
 desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard 
 many things of him ; a/iid he hoped to have seen some 
 miracle done hj him! It was mere disappointment. * Tlien 
 he questioned with him in many v:ords ; hid he answered, him 
 nothing.' 
 
 IV. 'And the cldcf ijricsts and scribes stood and vehemently 
 accused him.' The nature of the accusation is not stated ; 
 it was obviously the same as that before Pilate, other- 
 wise the mockeiy which followed would have had no 
 significance. 'And Herod, with his men of war set him at 
 nought, and mocked him, and arrayed, him in a gorgeous 
 robe, and sent him again to Pilate.' The absurdity of His 
 kingly pretensions struck Herod as it had struck Pilnto. A 
 prophet or an enchanter -would have been treated respect- 
 fully, perhaps half credited ; Ijut who could dream of such
 
 346 LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 ix person exalting Himself to a throne ? If He or any of 
 His followers had that madness, this, it seemed to Herod, 
 was the best method of curing it. So far the two Judges 
 were agreed, and their sympathy as to the right method of 
 treating the case, as well as Pilate's courtesy in deferring 
 to Herod's judgment, removed a long-standing grudge 
 between them. 
 
 V. It must have been almost in despair that the priests 
 came again before the Governor's judgment seat, and heard 
 him announce the sentence, ' Ye have hrouglit this man 
 unto me, as one that perverteth the people : and behold, I, 
 having examined him before you, have found no fault in this 
 man touching those things whereof ye aceuse him : No, nor 
 yet Herod : for I sent you to him : and lo, notliing worthy 
 of death is done unto him.' In other words, He is evidently 
 a fanatic, with no evil intention, capable of doing little 
 harm. ' I loill therefore chastise him, and release him.' He 
 believed, no doubt, that the people would be pleased, if the 
 priests were offended. They would accept the release of a 
 favourite teacher as a boon to them. If His teaching was 
 seditious — if He did, as was said, forbid them to pay 
 tribute — the indignity of the chastisement would check the 
 mischief better than any more violent punishment. The 
 Governor was seeking the alliance of those whom the 
 priests feared against them. In that critical moment the 
 thought seems to have been suggested to them — or perhaps 
 they had already kept the proposition in reserve if it 
 should be necessary — that they might wdn the favour of the 
 multitude to their side. 
 
 VI. ' And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with 
 this man, and release unto us Barahhas : ( Who for a certain 
 sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into
 
 THE KING ON THE CKOSS. 347 
 
 prison).' A brigand, a leader of insurrection, taken with 
 arms in liis hands, must surely be a greater witness for 
 the popular cause than One who liad quietly yielded to 
 the officers that were sent to seize Him. If the Governor 
 could be forced by their voices to give him up in homage 
 to the feast, would not that be the greatest of all triumphs ? 
 The priests had not been mistaken in their calculations. 
 The name of Barabbas once heard gave a direction to the 
 minds of the multitude, already more than half persuaded 
 that Jesus had not the power which they had ascribed 
 to Him. It was one of those impulses which so often 
 lead to the most sanguinary deeds. 
 
 A^II. 'Pilate, therefore, willing to release Jesus, spalce a (jain 
 to tliem. But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him.' 
 The words are often taken to indicate a serious wish iu 
 the people tliat Jesus should suffer the most cruel kind of 
 deatli. If we study the reports of tlie different Evangelists 
 I do not think that impression will remain on our minds. 
 ' Give us the man we want ; what becomes of the other we 
 ' do not care. Treat Him as you like ' — that was evidently 
 the sense of the popular cry. The cruelty was given to it 
 by the priestly instigators ; in the rest it was a dull, blind 
 instinct, whicli wants some object to care for, and which, 
 if it lights u^ion a worthless one, will, through mere 
 indifference, suffer any other, even the most beautiful, to 
 perish. That is the history of the process by which men 
 inspired with religious liatred can turn a people into a 
 mob, and divert passions wliich might be generous into 
 the instruments of all fury and malice. 
 
 YIII. The sense of justice and law, which ciuiid never 
 wholly forsake a lioman, if lie were indivicUially ever so 
 worthless, was aroused in Pilate. It was mi.xcd, no doubt,
 
 348 LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 Avitli intense contempt both for the Jewish rabble and 
 the Jewish priests. ' And he said unto them the third time, 
 Why, what evil hath he done ? I have found no cause of 
 death in him : I will therefore chastise him, and let him go.' 
 He was himself perplexed. Supposing Jesus had forbidden 
 to give tribute to Cesar, the ])coijle would not be likely to 
 demand His crucifixion for that offence ; if they were, they 
 would not be asking for Barabbas. Was it impossible to 
 make them consider for what crime they would inflict so 
 tremendous a punishment ? No I the time was passed for 
 any such consideration. The priests had taught the people 
 to shriek. Shrieks, they knew, would be the best argu- 
 ments with a Governor whose justice was a tradition, not 
 a principle, in whom it would always yield, at last, to 
 fear or policy, 
 
 IX. ' And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that 
 he might he crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief 
 priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that it should he 
 aS they required. And he released unto them him that for 
 sedition and murder was cast into prison, lohom they had 
 desired; hut he delivered Jesus to their ivill.' There are 
 many passages introduced into the story of the arraign- 
 ment before Pilate by the other Evangelists, especially by 
 St. John, which throw a clear light upon the incidents 
 that are recorded here. They all bear upon His claims to 
 be a King. When He said, in answer to the question of 
 Pilate, * Art thou the King of the Jews f ' ' My kingdom is 
 not of this luorld ; if my kingdom vjere of this world, then 
 would ray servants fight' — it has been supposed that He 
 disclaimed the title in any ordinary sense that could be 
 given to it. I apprehend that He said precisely what He 
 had been saying since He first went, in the power of the
 
 THE KING OX THE CROSS. 349 
 
 Spirit, into Galilee. He had couie to proclaim the King- 
 dom of God, not a Kingdom which stood by outward force, 
 not a tyranny civil or ecclesiastical ; just the opposite of 
 that : a Kingdom which was to emancipate, not enslave ; 
 a Kingdom, therefore, before which the kingdoms of the 
 world, civil and ecclesiastical, would have to bow. For 
 it did assume to be, in the strictest sense, a Kingdom over 
 the world, a Kingdom over the bodies as well as the spirits 
 of men ; a Kingdom over every region in which the tyrants 
 were exercising dominion. Whether this pretension was 
 true or false was now to be tried. The priests demanded 
 the test, Pilate granted it, Jesus accepted it. When the 
 Jews chose Barabbas instead of Jesus, were they rejecting 
 their King ? Were they destroying themselves as a people 
 and becoming a gang of murderers by that act ? 
 
 X. ' And as they led him away, they laid hold iqjon one 
 Simon, a Cyrenian, coming otct of the country, and on him 
 they laid tlie cross, that he might hear it after Jesus. And 
 there followed him a great company of people, and of women, 
 which also beivailcd and lamented him. Bid Jesus, turning 
 unto them, said. Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, hut 
 weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the 
 days are coining, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the 
 barren, and the vjombs that never hare, and the paps tvhich 
 never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the moun- 
 tains. Fall on us ; and to the hills, Cover us. For if tlicy do 
 these things in a green tree, what shall he done in the dry? ' 
 
 A mysterious worth has been perceived in the words 
 spoken on Calvary. Surely their dejith and uwfulness 
 cannot be mcasiired. The words spoken on the way to 
 Calvary deserve equal revcreiuie. r>ut I do not think they 
 have received it. They associate our Lord's death with
 
 350 LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 tlie miseries that were coming on the land. They clearly 
 represent His death as a prelude to the death of the 
 nation. Christian teacliers have shrunk from lanafuase 
 which seems to lower and to narrow the signification of 
 the event which they feel to be the grandest in the world's 
 history, the one which most concerns all hnman beings. 
 We may honour the sentiment ; but if we have followed 
 St. Luke carefully thus far, Ave cannot participate in it. 
 In his story Jerusalem has never been separated from any 
 of the Eevelations of the Son of Man. The hour when 
 Christ set His face to go to Jerusalem is the critical one 
 in his narrative. We have heard from him how Christ 
 declared that a prophet could not perish out of Jerusalem ; 
 how He wept over Jerusalem ; how He entered Jerusalem 
 as the heir of David's throne ; how He spoke of the 
 fall of Jerusalem as a day of destruction, and yet as a 
 day of Eedemption ; to be awaited with trembling, as the 
 darkest that had been known ; to be hailed with hope and 
 joy as the beginning of a new life to the world. Those 
 who feel the discourse to the daughters of Jerusalem out 
 of place amidst the records of the Passion, cannot look 
 upon the Passion as the Evangelists look upon it ; they 
 must separate it from all the other steps in the manifesta- 
 tion of the true King. 
 
 That King bids the daughters of the land in which 
 He has been revealing Himself not to weep for Him, but 
 for the people who have cast Him off. He speaks of a 
 judgment approaching them which shall make women 
 regard the curse of being childless as a blessing, in which 
 those who had counted God their champion and the foe of 
 other men, should ask the hills to hide them from Him. 
 He bids them understand that as yet there was sap in the
 
 THE KIXG OX THE CROSS. 351 
 
 tree, there were some in the land who could weep for its 
 sins. It would become utterly dry, all sorrow would he 
 staunched as well as joy ; only the hatred which was 
 working His death would remain. Oh, my friends, let 
 not that vision be exchanged in our minds for any vague 
 rhetoric such as preachers and writers concerning the 
 Crucifixion sometimes indulge in. The actual women, the 
 actual Cross, the actual hills and mountains, these have a 
 power w^hich belongs to no figures of speech. What our Lord 
 said as He turned to the women was fulfilled in the holy 
 city, has been once and again fulfilled in cities that have 
 been accounted very holy in Christendom. They are words 
 which cannot pass away. May He who spoke them enable 
 us to think of them, and to ask ourselves what lessons we 
 are to draw from them. If ever they should seem to be 
 coming near to our land, to our own very selves, may the 
 recollection of His Cross sustain us under the pressure 
 of them. 
 
 XI. 'And there were, also two others, malefactors, led with 
 him to he put to death. And when they locre come to the 
 place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the 
 malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. 
 Then said Jes2is, Father, forgive them ; for they know not 
 what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. 
 Arid the people stood ieholding. And the rulers also with 
 tliem derided him, saying. He saved others : let him- save h im- 
 self if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also 
 mocked him, coming to him, and ojfering him vinegar, and 
 saying. If tlwu he the king of the Jews, save thyself 
 
 It is not for us to speak of this record. It nnist speak 
 to us. It has spoken to all generations of men. And 
 beneath the message which it has brought to each separate
 
 352 LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 Iniman heart there has been this. Here is He who would 
 not make Himself a King, or use His power as a King, to 
 save Himself, because He ivas the King ; because all who 
 were mocking Him, soldiers and rulers, were His subjects ; 
 because He cared for them and therefore gave up Himself ; 
 because He cared that the forgiveness for which He asked 
 as a Son should be revealed and proclaimed to the uni- 
 verse. How little do we know yet of the force of that 
 prayer, ' Father, forgive ! ' But if we are Christians, w^e 
 believe that it was uttered by Him whom the Father 
 heareth always. We must believe that if any petition was 
 ever asked according to the will of G-od, it was that peti- 
 tion, offered up when He was fulfilling that Will to the 
 very utmost. 
 
 XII. ' And a superscription also loas written over him in 
 letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hehrciv, THIS IS THE 
 KING OF THE JEWS: You will feel, I think, now, that 
 I had some right to take this sentence as a central one ; as 
 one which explains the accusation and the condemnation 
 of Christ, as one without which the history of the Passion 
 would be imperfect and incoherent. It must seem a fiction 
 — it can seem nothing else — to those who separate Jesus 
 from the Christ. Instead of complaining of their denial, is 
 it not better for us who say that He is the Christ to accept 
 the testimony of the Eoman Governor, and really to believe 
 that the King whom the Jews rejected is the King of 
 Hebrews, Greeks, and Latins ? Must not we repent of our 
 desire to divide the crucified man from the Euler of the 
 world before we can hope to convince any others that they 
 have erred by their imitation of us ? 
 
 XIII. There was one, at least, St. Luke tells us, who 
 discovered the King upon the Cross. ' And one of the
 
 THE KING ON THE CROSS. 353 
 
 malefactors ivhich were hanged railed on him, saying, If 
 thou he Christ, save thyself and tis. But the other answering 
 rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou 
 art in the same condemnation ? And we indeed justly ; for 
 we receive tlie due reward of our deeds : hut this man hath 
 done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember 
 me when thou comest into thy Icingdom. And Jesus said 
 unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with 
 me in 'paradise! The evil-doer had been vanquished by 
 many a lust, had been a miserable slave. Often he had 
 heard a voice reproving him and recalling him. Whose 
 voice was it ? AVas there power in it ? Here he has learnt 
 the secret. This is He from whom the voice came. This 
 is the Deliverer, the Conqueror. He must reign. WuuUl 
 He refuse him, the outcast, as His subject ? ' Lord, re- 
 member me when thou comest into thy kingdom! Come into 
 it He would, some time or other. What says the answer ? 
 That very day the robber should be with Him in Paradise. 
 Where is tliiit ? What is that ? How can tlie man in 
 his agony debate such questions ? What need that he 
 should? Wliat can it signify? 'Thou shalt be iciih me. 
 ' Dost thou want more — in anguisli oi" in bliss, in darkness 
 ' or in light — than to find that I uia near thee, as I am 
 ' near thee now ? ' 
 
 XIV. In darkness it seemed, not in light. 'For it wn.s 
 idtiitif the sixth Jioitr, and there was a darkness over all (In- 
 earth until tlif ninth hour ; and the sun iva.'i darkened! 
 \'ou will read, in tlie margin (if your I'ildc, 'land' instead 
 of 'earth.' There can be no doubt, I conceive, tliat that 
 was the meaning of tlu; Evangelist. Iff li;i<l ni> dicani 
 of that universal darkness in whi(di Giblxm supposes that 
 Christians believe, and of which he says that some record 
 
 A A
 
 ;3o4 ■ LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 must have been preserved, at least by so great an observer 
 of natural phenomena as Pliny. We shall weaken, not 
 strengthen, the narrative, if we attribute that force to it. 
 If the darkness had been general, its significance would 
 have been less. The local, direct impression of it would 
 have been lost. And make the earth which it covered 
 as large as you will, it must have been limited to that 
 time. The darkness about the Cross over the region in 
 which the crime was perpetrated has been felt through- 
 out all a<::res, has been a witness to all. It has indicated 
 that sympathy of Nature with man which we are, at times, 
 compelled to recognise. It does not turn that sympathy 
 into a mere startling phenomenon, which makes us forget 
 the Light of the world in thinking of the natural sun. 
 
 XV. 'And the vail of the temple was rent in the midst. 
 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, 
 into thy hands I commend my spirit : and having said thus, 
 he gave up the ghost.' That the visible Temple would disap- 
 pear, that its destruction would be the sign of the Son of 
 Man's manifestation, this we have been led by former pas- 
 sages and by the whole context of the Gospel to believe. 
 It was for later times to read the meaning of this sign. St. 
 Luke merely announces it in the fewest possible words. 
 And the words which follow he did not dare to weaken by 
 any comments of his own. What that loud cry was of 
 which he speaks we learn from the other Evangelists, not 
 from him. But it is he who tells us what we especially 
 long to know, that the voice, ' My God, my God, tvhy hast 
 thou forsaken me ?■ ' ended in this : ' Father, into thy hands 
 I commend my spirit' If we confess Him as the King of 
 the Universe, how many spirits must He have commended 
 to the Father with His Spirit ? How many of those who
 
 THE KING ON THE CROSS. 355 
 
 have seemed to others and to themselves to be forsaken by 
 the Father ! 
 
 XVI. * Now when the centurion saw xvliat was done, he 
 glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man. 
 And all the people that came togeth€r to that sight, beholding 
 the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned. 
 And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him 
 from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things! Wliat a 
 Eoman soldier, what a few Galilean women said or 
 thought of the deed and the sufferer, St. Luke tells us. 
 He adds no comments. If we think of Christ as he 
 did, we shall be content that our words, like his, should 
 be few, 
 
 XVII. ' And, behold, there ivas a man named Joseph, a 
 counsellor ; and he was a good man, and a just : {The same 
 had not consented to the counsel and deed of them ;) he ivas 
 of Arimathea, a city of tJie Jews : who also himself waited for 
 the kingdom of God! ]\Iany legends have clustered round 
 the name of Joseph of Arimathea ; he is especially a British 
 saint, associated with trees and flowers that grow on our 
 soil. But which of these stories bring him as near to us as 
 the account of what he was and what he sought for in the 
 land of his fathers ? The just man who groaned under the 
 evil deeds which he saw sanctioned and done liy tliosc in 
 liigh places, by rulers of the Sanhedrim, by cliief priests of 
 God's own appointment; the man wlio would not consent 
 to a wicked deed because it was called religious ajid was 
 done to preserve religion; the man wlin waited Inr the 
 Kingdom of (Jod, in whicli tlcinal goodness and justice 
 should prevail ; — this, my friends, is the true British saint, 
 though he may have wrought im niiincics in Ghistonbury ; 
 in him we recognise a true human brother, because the 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 LECTURE XXVII. 
 
 Divine Spirit showed him what he needed, and what men 
 in all times and in all countries most need. ' This man 
 went unto Pilate, and hegged the hody of Jesus' That body 
 must be a sacred hody. If it was only the body of a 
 righteous man, as the 'Eoman centurion felt that He who 
 had died on the Cross certainly was, it was sacred, w^orthy to 
 be ' ivraijped in linen, and laid in a sepulchre that was hewn 
 in stone, wherein never manhefore was laid.' It must be that. 
 Might it not be more than that ? Might it not be the 
 body of that King of the Jews of wdiom the superscription 
 on the Cross bore witness ? If He was that King, was the 
 Kingdom of God, for which Joseph had waited, at an end ? 
 Had that death scattered the dream for ever? Joseph 
 would wait stiU. Others would wait too. The Passover, 
 wdiich spoke of a Eedemption, might even promise a 
 Eedemption of the body. The Sabbath, which spoke of 
 man's rest and God's rest, might point to a rest such as 
 there could not be in a tomb. 
 
 'And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath dreiv 
 on. And the women also, which came with Mm from Galilee, 
 followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his hody 
 was laid. A7id they returned, and prepared spices and 
 ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the 
 commandment!
 
 LECTURE XXVIII. 
 
 THE KING TRIUMPHANT, 
 
 St. Luke XXIV. 5, 
 
 And as (Iiey were afraid, and hmced dovm their foMs to the earth, they said 
 unto them,. Why seek ye the living among the dead ? 
 
 Joseph of Arimathea waited for tlie Kin"doin of God. 
 God, so he read, so he believed, is tlie Living God, the 
 Author of life to all things, the Eenewer of life day by- 
 day. God, so he read and believed, called out the seed of 
 Abraham to be the witnesses of Him against all dead gods 
 — all gods who cannot impart life, who can only be endued 
 with the semblance of life by those who worship them. 
 Yet Death had triumphed over the works of God's hands. 
 Death had triumphed over all men whom God luul made 
 in His image. There had come into the world One who 
 spoke of Life, Eternal Life ; One who said thnt God lind 
 sent Him to bestow tliis Life on men. And now Death 
 had laid hold of Him. In the darkest form it had come 
 to Him. He had not driven it back. He had cried out in 
 agony, ' My God, /'-/ii/ hast thou forsaken me ? ' He had 
 been taken down from the Cross. There coidd lie no doubt 
 that His Spirit had gone. His body was laiil in the tomb 
 hewn out of tlie rock. The waiting, therefore, had, to all 
 appearance, been in vain. There was a Kingdom of Death ; 
 tliat Avas universal. How co\d<l tliere be a Kingdom of 
 God, in the sense in wliich prophets liail spoken of it, in 
 which Jesus had borne witness of it ? The women who
 
 358 LECTURE XXVITI. 
 
 had watclied beside the Cross rested the Sabbath day 
 according to the commandment. Could it have been rest ? 
 Yes, the unrest of vague expectation was over. The death 
 which they thought must be averted, in which they could 
 not believe, had actually come. There is a kind of rest in 
 that necessity. The Sabbath, dull and leaden as it may 
 have looked, at least said .: ' The struggle is past. Nothing 
 that you can do will bring Him back.' If you say rest 
 without hope is impossible, that may be true also. I think 
 it is. The Sabbath spoke of God. While they kept the 
 commandment, there was a dim sense that He was still the 
 living God. If He was, there must be hope. 
 
 I. ' Nov:i upon the first day of the week, very early in the 
 morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices 
 which they had prepared , and certain others with them. And 
 they found the stone rolled aioay from the sepulchre. And 
 they entered in, and found not the tody of the Lord Jesus. 
 And it catne to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, 
 behold, two men stood by them in shining garments : and as 
 they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, 
 they said unto them. Why seek ye the living among the dead ? 
 He is not here, but is risen : remember ho^v he spake unto 
 you when he was yet in Galilee, saying. The Son of man 
 must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be cruci- 
 fied, and the third day rise again! 
 
 If this were true, if it could be true, the message of a 
 Kingdom of God might not be a mere dream ; the witness 
 which the Sabbath bore to a communion between man and 
 God, in rest and in work, might not have deceived them. 
 You think these poor women may not have known all the 
 reasons which have induced learned men to say that it 
 could not be true. Oh, my friends, does not every woman
 
 THE KING TEIUMPIIANT. 359 
 
 and every man carry within a sense of the power of death 
 which is stronger than all these arguments, which really 
 gives them their weight? Death does not want philoso- 
 phers to assist him in proving how invincible he is. He 
 makes the peasant understand that well enough. And if 
 either peasant or philosopher ever understands anything else 
 — if either peasant or philosopher is led to protest, ' Death 
 ' cannot be the Lord of this living universe — Death cannot 
 ' be, and shall not be, my Lord,' — it must be, I suspect, 
 because there are other voices besides his speaking to the 
 heart of every man, which he must listen to, even when he 
 is most inclined to turn away from them. 
 
 Did the voices come to these women only from those 
 two persons in shining garments who were sitting in the 
 tomb ? If the Eesurrection were a truth, it was no contra- 
 diction that such persons should speak to them, for then 
 the visible and the invisible world cannot be hopelessly 
 divided. But angel voices saying, * He is risen,' could not 
 of themselves break the strong spell of custom — could not 
 of themselves answer the cry of the heart, ' It cannot be. 
 ' The news is too good to be true. We dare not trust to it.' 
 No ! if this marvellous report of the women, told in such 
 plain words as these, urging no probabilities in its favour, 
 has defied the opposition of Jewish and of (Jentile scorn — 
 of all the power of Jewish and Gentile priests as well as 
 rulers — if it has established itself in the heart and con- 
 science of the most civilized countries of tli(> world — if 
 it has moulded their civilization, (lansfigured Iheir art, 
 changed the thought and tone of all books, won priests and 
 rulers to lend their very questionable, often their very mis- 
 chievous aid, in enforcing the belief which made its way 
 in defiance of those to whose functions tliev have sue-
 
 o 
 
 60 LECTURE XXVIII. 
 
 ceeded — if all this has come to pass, the echo of those angel 
 voices which spoke to the v/omen cannot be all that has 
 been ringing through these ages. Other messengers, whose 
 shining garments could not be seen, must have been holding 
 converse with the hearts and consciences of the sons of 
 earth. A man is sometimes heard ciying in his despair, 
 ' I am told that I must believe this news of a Eesurrection; 
 ' that men will' punish me here, that God will punish me 
 ' hereafter, if I do not. But I cannot. Milleniums of deaths, 
 ' the sights of daily corpses, prevail against all your argu- 
 'ments, all your terrors.' There comes to that man a 
 message : it may be brought by books or pictures, by sunset 
 or sunrise, by the spring that maketli all things new ; it 
 may be brought by the remembrance of mothers, by the 
 pressure of hands that are cold, by the conviction tliat 
 poverty and injustice cannot be for ever. But however it 
 reaches him, this is the tenour of it : ' Brother man, He is 
 ' risen. The God of Life does not force thee to think so by 
 ' threats of destruction. He sends thee the good news that 
 ' death and destruction have tried their power against the 
 ' Son of Man, thy Lord, and that they have not prevailed, 
 ' and shall not prevail.' Is not that an angel message, a 
 still small voice, but bearing a witness of its origin which 
 the storm and the earthquake do not bear ? 
 
 II. 'And they remembered liis words, and returned from 
 the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and 
 to all the rest. It ivas Mary 3Iagdalene, and Joanna, and, 
 Mary the mother of James, a7id other vjomen that were 
 with tliem, v:hich told these things imto the apostles. And 
 tJieir words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed 
 them not.' 
 
 The disciples describe themselves as incredulous. Modern
 
 THE KING TEIUMPHANT. 361 
 
 critics say that men such as they were must have been 
 credulous. ' Would they not have had the superstitions of 
 ' their country ? Did they not belong to the most ignorant 
 ' part of it ? Did they not think that their Master was 
 ' like no other man, and that all the laws of the universe 
 ' would be cast aside in His favour ? ' Assuredly they had 
 all the superstitions of their country ; an unspeakable 
 dread of death, a sense of the power of death and of 
 darkness would be the strongest of these superstitions. 
 A glimpse into the secrets of the unseen world, an appa- 
 rition coming from it, this they were not unlikely to accept. 
 This they tell us they did accept as possible when they saw 
 their Master. They had no doubt believed that their Master 
 was different from other men. They had thought that He 
 had saved others, and would certainly save Himself He 
 had not done it. There had been no exception in His 
 favour. Death had met Him as he meets other men, only 
 in a more ghastly form. AVhat is more, these Galileans, 
 with their partial notions of Him, w^ent forth, saying, 
 ' This Resurrection is not an exception in His favour. His 
 ' Resurrection is yours. He has overcome death and the 
 ' grave for you, Jews and Greeks, barbarians and Scythians, 
 ' bondsmen and freemen.' This was the Gospel which they 
 preached. With this they encountered the magicians, 
 enchanters, the death-worshippers of all kimls who were 
 spread through the Jewish ami (Jentilc worlds. Willi lliis 
 they became instruments in establishing the society of 
 modern Eurojie. ^lust they not be honest when they tell 
 us that the words which were the wmiaiits for such con- 
 victions, which led to such effects as "thesej seenu'd to 
 them at first as idle tales, that they believed tlicm not? 
 1 n. How, then, was the incredulity overcome ? St. Luke
 
 362 LECTURE XXVIII. 
 
 tells us a simple story wliich explains tlie alteration, which 
 I think, no arguments have ever explained : — 
 
 ' Aoid, behold, tivo of them imnt that same day to a milage 
 called Emmaiis, which was from Jerusalem, about threescore 
 furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which 
 had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they com- 
 muned together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and 
 went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should 
 not know him. And he said unto them. What manner of 
 communications are these that ye Iwbve one to another, as ye 
 walk, and are sad ? And the one of them, whose name was 
 Cleopas, answering said unto him. Art thou only a stranger 
 in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come 
 to pass there in these days ? And he said unto them. What 
 things? And they said unto him. Concerning Jesus of 
 Nazareth, which ivas a prophet mighty in deed and word 
 before God and all the -people: And how the chief priests and 
 our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and hare 
 crucified him. But toe trusted that it had been he luhich 
 shoidd have redeemed Israel : and beside all this, to day is 
 the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain 
 wome7i also of our company m.ade us astonished, which were 
 early at the sepulchre ; and lohen they found not his body, 
 they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, 
 ivhich said that he was alive. And certain of them which 
 were with us went to the septulchre, and found it even so as 
 the vjomen had said : but him they saw not.' 
 
 These two disciples had talked much with each other, 
 had tried to put facts together, had considered what 
 glimpses of hope the women's story afforded. No light 
 had come to their minds. It was all sadness and per- 
 plexity. The Stranger who joins them seems chiefly
 
 THE KING TRIUMPHANT. 363 
 
 anxious to draw out their thoughts, to let them express all 
 which is troubling them. But when He has done that, He 
 appears suddenly to assume the right of a reprover and a 
 Judge. 
 
 ' fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets 
 have spolcen I Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, 
 and to enter into his glory ? ' ' Did you think that He was to 
 ' redeem Israel, and that He was not to struggle with the 
 ' enemies who held Israel in slavery ? Did you think He 
 ' was to be a King, and that He was not to suffer with His 
 ' subjects ? Is not that the path which all the prophets 
 ' and kings have travelled ? Has not that been the way to 
 ' their triumph ? Did they not teach you that the King, 
 ' the Prophet, was to do and suffer perfectly what they 
 ' had done and suffered imperfectly ? ' 
 
 ' And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he ex- 
 pounded itnto them in all the scriptures the things concerning 
 himself. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they 
 went : and he made as though he would have gone furtJier. 
 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us : for it is 
 toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in 
 to tarry with them' 
 
 So the (load letters of Scripture which tliesc disciples 
 had mused on so often, which li;ul l)t't'ii interpreted to 
 them by so many scribes, started iiili> litV. What liad 
 been maxims, or dogmas, or allegories, became portions of 
 a human and divine history. A Person was tlie centre 
 of that history, One who as the Book said Iiad Ixth, and 
 was, and woiUd be. But where was lb; iiuw? Could the 
 Stranger tell them? To know that would be more than to 
 trace Him through all the records of other days. 
 
 ^ And it came to jjuss, as he sat at meat with them, he took
 
 3G4 LECTURE XXVIIT. 
 
 IreoA, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And 
 their eyes were opened, and they knevj him ; and he vanished 
 out of their sight. And they said one to another. Did not 
 our heart burn toithin us, lohile he talked with us by the way, 
 and while he opened to us the scriptures .? And they rose up 
 the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the 
 eleven gathered together, and them that were loith them, 
 saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. 
 And they told what things loere done in the way, and how he 
 was known of tliem in breaking of bread! Thus were these 
 disciples prepared to believe in a Kesnrrection. There was 
 a Christ. He ought to have suffered. That must be the 
 way to His Kingdom. And this Christ was with them. 
 They might know Him. He ate their bread. He blessed 
 it. Did He only while they saw Him? Did He not 
 bless their bread always ? Did not their hearts burn while 
 He told them how He had been the same throughout all 
 ages ? He could be no apparition. They might go and 
 tell the disciples at Jerusalem that He was among them, a 
 living Person in a living body. 
 
 IV. The Apostles, too, were beginning to believe. But 
 the feeling or dream of an apparition which might just for a 
 moment have looked upon them out of a world of shadows 
 still haunted their minds, still quenched the acknowledg- 
 ment of a substantial Presence. 
 
 ' And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst 
 of them, and saith unto them. Peace be unto you. But they 
 were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that tluy had seen 
 a spirit. And. he said unto tlum. Why are ye troubled ? 
 and why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? Behold my hands 
 and my feet, that it is I myself : handle 7ne, and see; for a 
 spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when
 
 THE KING TRIUMPHANT. 365 
 
 he had thus sjyohen, he showed them his hands and his feet. 
 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said 
 unto them, Have ye here any meat ? And they gave him a 
 piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, 
 and did eat before them! 
 
 ' They supposed they had seen a spirit.' How naturally 
 does St. Luke describe just the confused apprehensions 
 which have haunted men in all ages. They think they see 
 spirits. Every hour they are conversing with spiritual 
 beings. Every message of affection which reaches us is a 
 spiritual message. Every word which depresses or elevates 
 us comes not from a material, but from a spiritual source. 
 Our consciences and our reasons are ours, because we are 
 spiritual ; we address the conscience and reason of other 
 men because we own them to be spiritual. But what we 
 see are the lips that move, are the hands and the feet. Our 
 Lord teaches them that it is so with Himself. He stands 
 among them, and says, ' Peace be unto you! That was the 
 voice of a Spirit speaking to their spirits. But He says, 
 ' Handle me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, 
 as ye see me have! He li;ul an actual body. He had 
 brought it back from the grave. There was nothing 
 shadowy or fantastic in it. Now, as before, it could eat 
 the food wliich they ate. Nothing clears our minds of 
 the phantoms that are always iloating Ijclwci'ii cartli and 
 heaven — not really approaching either — liki; this tsinipkj 
 teaching. The Son of God speaks to the jjoorest men as 
 spiritual creatures to wliom He may declare tlie Kingdom 
 of Heaven, who are cai)able of entering into su<h a King- 
 dom, vvlio cannot exist witliout it. The; Son of Cod says 
 to the poorest man, ' Brother, cliiM of (lod, jujace be unto 
 thee.' But He shows His hands and feet, that it is He
 
 366 LECTUEE XXVIII. 
 
 Himself. He eats the broiled fish and the honeycomh. The 
 body is real as well as the spirit. The body is redeemed 
 from death as well as the spirit. 
 
 V. ' A ncl he said unto them, These are the words which 
 I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things 
 TYiust he fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and 
 in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning inc. Then 
 opened he their understanding, that they might understand 
 the scriptures, and said tmto them, Thus it is written, and 
 thus it hehoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the 
 third day : and that repentance and remission of sins should 
 he preached in his name among all nations, heginning at 
 Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.'' 
 
 It is for this that He has been preparing them through 
 the years of teaching and discipline that He has spent 
 with them on the Lakes of Galilee, in the streets, and in 
 the Temple of the Holy City, They were not chosen to 
 be His favourites. They were chosen to carry a message 
 to the Universe. All that had been written in the days 
 of old, all that He had spoken to them, was that they 
 might go forth and say to Jews, to Greeks, to men at the 
 farthest ends of the earth : ' Your Father is seeking ^ou. 
 ' You may turn to Him. He sends you deliverance from 
 ' your sins.' In Jerusalem, where the greatest of all sins had 
 been committed, where the King Himself had been slain, 
 they were to begin their work. They were to announce, 
 as the first token and pledge of the glorified King, that 
 those who had been guilty of that treason were pardoned, 
 that they might receive His highest gift, the gift of His 
 own Spirit. 
 
 VI. That gift they were themselves to wait for : ' Behold, 
 I send the promise of my Father upon you : hut tarry ye in
 
 THE KING TRIUMPHANT. 367 
 
 the city of Jerusalem, itntil ye he endued ivith power froin 
 on high! Every day as they went forth would show 
 them their need of that power. If they were not mes- 
 sengers from a Father in Heaven, if they could not declare 
 His ^dll to men, if He was not working in men to do it, 
 all they spoke would be ineffectual — their own words 
 would confound them. 
 
 VII. ^ And it came to 2^(^ss, vjhile he blessed them, he 
 was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And 
 they worship)ped him, and returned to Jerusalem with 
 great joy. And ivere continually in the temple, praising 
 and Messing God.' With great joy, though this Jesus, 
 from whom all their joy had sprung, was departed out of 
 their sight. With joy, because that Jesus had claimed 
 His right as the Christ, because He had shown that He 
 had come from a Father, and had done the will of His 
 Father. With joy, because Death and Hell were shown 
 to be His Father's enemies, and He had vanquished them. 
 With joy, because, being delivered from those enemies, 
 they could serve God without fear in holiness and right- 
 eousness all the days of their life. 
 
 That was the promise in the song of Zacharias which 
 we read in the first chapter of this Gospel. That is tlie 
 promise which we have seen unfolding itself to the last 
 words of the Gospel. I think you will see that it is wliat 
 it professes to be, the Gospel of tlie Kingdom of Ib-avcn. 
 If we have been enabled to trace together the steps of tln^ 
 King from the message which came to the Virgin in 
 Galilee to the time when lie sat down un His Falher's 
 throne, I am sure that every event wliich has iH-fallcn us 
 of sorrow and joy \\\\\ have been explaining the iu'ws to 
 us as no words can explain it, that it will have Imniglit
 
 368 LECTURE XXVIIT. 
 
 evidence to us of its veracity wliicli arguments cannot 
 bring. The acts of God are the true commentaries on His 
 Word. For He is with us to interpret both, who joined 
 the two disciples when they talked together and were sad. 
 He can make Himself known to us in the breakincr of 
 bread. He can enable us to praise and bless God through 
 Him whilst we are worshipping here, and in that city 
 where the Apostle saw no Temple, '/or tlic Lord God 
 Ahnighty and the Lamh are the temple of it.' 
 
 B. CLAY, SON, -•-ND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 23, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, 
 
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 THE LETTER AND THE 
 
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 LIST OF THEOLOGICAL WORKS. 
 
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 Late Archdeacon of Lewes and ChapIain-inOrdinary to the Queen. 
 
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 PHILOSOPHY OF THE 
 
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 MIDDLE AGES. By George Frederick Maclear, M.A. 
 Crown 8vo. cloth, los. 6d. 
 
 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 HISTORY of the BOOK of COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 With a Rationale of its Offices. By Francis Procter, M.A. 
 P'ifth Edition. 464 pp. (i860). Crown 8vo. cloth. 10s. 6d. 
 
 W^ben the present series of Manuals was projected, it did not appear 
 that any one of the existing volumes taken singly was available for the 
 desired object. In the course of the last twenty years the whole question 
 of Liturgical knowledge has been reopened with great learning and 
 accurate research, and it was mainly with the view of epitomizing the 
 extensive publications on the subject, and correcting by their help the 
 errors and misconceptions which had obtained currency, that the present 
 volume was published. The rapid sale of Four Editions may be taken 
 as a proof that this work has been found useful to students and general 
 readers. 
 
 "By far the best commentary extant .... As a manual of e.xtensive informa- 
 tion, historical and ritual, imbued with sound Church principles, we are entirely 
 satisfied with Mr. Procter's important volume." — Christian Retneinbrancer. 
 
 By the same Authoj; 
 
 ELEMENTARY HISTORY of the BOOK of COM- 
 MON PRAYER. For the Use of Schools and popular reading, 
 reading. i2mo. cloth. 2s. bd. 
 The Author having been frequently urged to give a popular abridge- 
 ment of his larger work in a form which should be suited for use in 
 Schools and general readers, has attempted in this book to trace the 
 Histoiy of the Prayer-Book, and to supply to the English reader the 
 general results which in the larger work are accompanied by elaborate 
 discussions and references to authorities indispensable to the student. 
 It is hoped that this book may forai a useful manual to assist people 
 generally to a more intelligent use of the Forms of our Common Prayer. 
 
 ^IrhiUii bji lonutyitn ^''^^'"^'^i ^i^Jntn Strut, Cainbrii^st. 
 
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