3 1822024640450 1822 02464 0450 HARD SAYINGS OF JESUS CHRIST BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE WORD AND THE WAY Crown 8vo. Price 6s. MACMILLAN AND CO. HARD SAYINGS OF JESUS CHRIST ." A STUDY IN THE MIND AND METHOD OF THE MASTER BY LEIGHTON GRANE, M.A. PREBENDARY OF CHICHESTER, FORMERLY RECTOR OF BEXHILL-ON-SEA AUTHOR OF " THE WORD AND THE WAY" A Hard Saying, who can hear it? The Words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are Life SECOND EDITION lion Don MACMILLAN AND CO, LIMITED NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY IQOI All rights reserved First Edition printed 1899. Second Edition 1901. PREFACE IN a former volume the present writer has endeavoured to define the principles upon which a reasonable faith in the Inspiration of Holy Scripture may securely rest. As one of these principles it was recognised that a difference of weight and value attaches to different parts of the Library we call the Bible. Now one of these parts is plainly of para- mount importance. For few will fail to find the very heart and soul of the biblical body in the words of "The Word of God" Himself. By this, the core of Christianity, its claim on the hearts and lives of men must finally be judged. But in order to judge it is neces- sary to understand. Therefore before all things it seems necessary to set the Words vi PREFACE of Jesus in their own proper historical light in order to arrive at the meaning they conveyed to those who first heard them, for this alone can safely be accounted the primary meaning of their Speaker. Amid much unbridled controversy on matters intrinsically trivial, it is at least a hopeful sign in the religious outlook of to-day that the thoughtful of every school seem more than ever disposed to turn for guidance and relief to a study of the Mind of Christ. And surely the Master's Message is for all. To the disciples of Reason it is He Who cries, "Which of you convicteth Me of sin? If I say Truth, why do ye not believe Me ? " To the bewildered seekers after Authority it is He Who declares, " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." And this, the most astounding claim imagin- able on the lips of an outcast Teacher, the Centuries have justified, so justified one would have thought as clearly to indicate even to bewildered seekers, the true seat of Authority in matters of Religion. PREFACE vii Among the authoritative and reason-com- pelling Words of Jesus Christ, however, some undoubtedly cause trouble to thinking minds. Appearing on a shallow acquaintance either impracticable or reasonless, they not only fail of authority but sow the seeds of doubt. The object, therefore, of this book is the lessening of such perplexities by setting forth the prin- ciples which seem to elucidate the Teaching of the Master. It is an attempt to construe the meaning of some of the more striking of Christ's "hard sayings." Others, here un- touched, might no doubt easily be cited. But the aim of the writer has not been to exhaust the verbal difficulties in the recorded utter- ances of our Lord. He has rather sought to examine the Master's method, and to illustrate its underlying principles by a num- ber of examples perhaps sufficient to enable the reader to apply those principles in solving other problems for himself. THE RECTORY, BEXHILL-ON-SEA, September, 1899. NOTE TO SECOND EDITION A SECOND issue of this Book has been under- taken in response to the welcome accorded to the first both by the Public and the Press. The Discourse on " The Friendship of Mammon," which seemed somewhat lacking in clearness, has been almost entirely re-written. And the next following Essay, on " The Parable of Lazarus and Dives," is now in- cluded for the first time. NORXEV, NEAR GODALMING, March, 1901. CONTENTS THE PROPHET'S GOAD ST. JOHN vii. 46 " Never man spake like this Man." Common distrust of the precepts of Jesus Abuses of Criticism The value of "hard sayings" and the futility of platitude How only any speaker out of the past can be understood How only distorted Truth can be restored to proportion The method of advocate, artist, and poet Great teachers do not avoid paradox Tennyson and Browning Carlyle as a prophet St. Paul and St. James Every prophet to be judged in the light of his surroundings Even the One Master limited by the limitations of His hearers To recall its occasion is often to remove the difficulty of an utterance of Christ The verdict of Reason and the conviction of Faith. Pages I 1 8 A TOUCHSTONE ST. MARK iv. n, 12 " Unto them that are without all things are done in parables .... lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them." The hardest of Christ's "hard sayings" Considered in relation to the Speaker's character and doctrine Why the surface meaning is not the true one Clue supplied by parallel accounts Isaiah and Christ Voluntary hardening grows into involuntary hardness " Our acts our angels are" Unto him that hath shall be given Opposite effects of Truth on different natures The common expe- rience of the Prophet Mazzini and others Neither Seed nor Sower at fault but the Soil " Take heed how ye hear." Pages 1936 CONTENTS A COMPARISON ST. MATTHEW xi. 1 1 "He that is but little in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he? The moral grandeur of John the Baptist The acme of his greatness The vantage ground of the Kingdom of Heaven Its meaning The Church of Christ Its visibility Outward Society and Inward Spirit Danger of forgetting either Futility of wholesale schemes of regeneration Christ as a Reformer His care for the Unit The heritage of the Kingdom's citizens The responsibility of privilege A fundamental obligation The law of growth and progress. Paps 3752 CHARACTER READING ST. LUKE ix. 57-62 "Let the dead bury their dead . ... No man looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God" Three candidates for discipleship and their greeting M. Renan as a literalist Christ's distrust of emotionalism His insight into character His method a specific for the individual case Eastern customs of burial and of mourning A probable solution of the verbal difficulty Firmness, a virtue in any good physician, not to be accounted harshness Pages 53 68 THE WINNOWING FAN ST. LUKE xiv. 25, 26 " If any man hate not his father a mother . ... he cannot be my disciple." Strange words addressed to the multitude The winnowing of the curious and the selfish Are men required to hate those whom it is their prime duty to love? Does Jesus "trample under foot everything that is human : blood and love and country ? " The apparent not the real difficulty in this hard saying The form and the substance The absolutism of Christ Its evidential value Testimony of reason and experience Pages 69 76 CONTENTS xi THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS ST. MATTHEW v. 38-42 "'Resist not him that is evil" &e. Opposing hyperboles The lesson of their contradiction Christ deals in principles not rules His words are as sown Seed capable of endless development An instance in point The necessity of such a method for the permanence of Christianity Two equip- ments of the Twelve contrasted Folly of confounding rules with principles The speech of Jesus explained by His own conduct The essence of the doctrine of non-resistance ... Pages 77 86 AGAINST ANXIETY ST. MATTHEW vi. 31-34 " Be not therefore anxious .... but seek ye first Gods kingdom and righteousness" " Taking thought " What it means The standpoint of Jesus His central doctrine of the Fatherhood of God Why difficult of acceptance " On the earth the broken arcs " Christ's own Faith in the Father His secret and method against Anxiety Our neglect of both Compatibility of Faith and Foresight Example of birds and insects Over-carefulness contemptible The ideal of Jesus The witness of St. Paul Pages 87 100 THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON ST. LUKE xvi. 8-12 "His lord commended the unrighteous steward because he had done wisely. . . . And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the Mammon of Un- righteousness." Statement of the difficulty Possible solutions The true clue Only leading features of any Parable contain the moral What these are How specially applicable to two sections of the audience The secular and the religious joined by the Law of Character A Rabbinic parallel Judas and St. Stephen The lesson for the Disciples and the .lesson for the Pharisees The least faithful often the most pitiless Responsibility of the Nation, the Church, the Man Stewardship universal Pages 101 116 xii CONTENTS PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES ST. LUKE xvi. 19-31. Why considered in this Book Our Lord's use of idea? and phrases familiar to His audience No argument against His originality as a Teacher Framework of Parable represents current thought But establishes no eschatological doctrine The details are purely parabolic Their origin Familiarity of scene heightens effect of dramatic climax Shocked susceptibilities The pith of the Story Its purpose for us What passes and what lasts Eternal Face " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and be mulcted in his Life ?" Pages 117 129 THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD ST. MARK x. 29-31 " There is no man that hath left house or brethren ..... for My sake and the Gospel's sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this present time" The previous question The rich young ruler's refusal St. Peter improves the occasion : ' ' What then shall we have ? " Letter and spirit of Christ's reply Effect on the disciples of current ideas "Now in this present time" Character necessarily determines nature of reward A monstrous criticism St. Peter's growth in grace Loss and gain in the lives of the Twelve St. Paul before Agrippa Is the disinterestedness of virtue compatible with the reward of the virtuous? " Profitable" godliness The Christian's "crown" Page:> 130 146 SPIRITUAL SUICIDE ST. MARK iii. 29 " He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness" Popular misconceptions The true reading The circumstances of the utterance A Satanic stratagem Pharisees wilfully confound- ing Good and Evil Consequence inevitable from the nature of the case Therefore the clearest warning the most kind A travesty of the truth The real key of the position Overt act distinguished from mental attitude " Honest doubt" The safety of the con- scientious and the peril of the self-complacent Conscience the organ of the Holy Ghost "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." Pages 147164 CONTENTS xiii GEHENNA ST. MATTHEW v. 22 " Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danget of Hell fire." The great value of the Revised Version Revisers inconsistent in treating certain words Tartarus, Hades, and Gehenna Popular meaning of Hell Real meaning of Gehenna Christ " fulfilling" the Law by insisting on obedience to its Spirit His Law of Anger Three grades of sin demand corresponding grades of punishment An argument from the lack of proportion The Jewish Courts, local and metropolitan The intended lesson " Without a parable spake He not unto them " Pages 165 175 FIGURE AND FACT ST. MARK ix. 43, 47, 48 " Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." The text of the passage The questions raised The Valley of Hinnom Other imagery in the Gospels for the fate of the wicked The inevitable inference from its variety A ghastly misconcep- tion How generally accepted King Josiah's reformation of Tophet Mediaeval mistakes call for similar treatment Things shaken to be removed (Hebrews xii. 27) The unshaken certainty of Retribution remains The revelation of God confirmed by the reason and conscience of mankind Pages 176 191 FUTURE RETRIBUTION ST. MATTHEW xxv. 46 " These shall go away into eternal punishment." The meaning of aldvios Its use in the New Testament Evangelists and Apostles deliberately rejected three other words which would have connoted "endless" References to the Intermediate state A gleam from St. Peter Speculation discouraged by our Lord The promised supremacy of Goodness implies the destruction or conversion of evil beings These alternatives considered Uni- versalism in relation to Free-will Conscience reinstated is judg- ment passed Hell is the loss of Heaven realised Reward and Punishment not an arbitrary arrangement, but an inevitable out- growth Pages 192 208 CONTENTS LIFE ETERNAL ST. JOHN v. 54" He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath Eternal life." "A hard saying, who can hear it?" Christ in the Synagogue at Capernaum Sign-seeking External religionism ''How can this man give us His flesh to eat ? " The Master's reply Its legiti- mate application distinct from its interpretation What it cannot mean and why The truth of it Faith and Superstition The end to be distinguished from the means thereto The communication of Christ the "life" of the Christian A wonder-working Trio: Faith, Obedience, Love The perennial blunder of Materialism Conclusion Pages 209 224. EVERY ONE WHICH HEARETH THESE WORDS OF MINE, AND DOETH THEM, SHALL BE LIKENED UNTO A WISE MAN, WHICH BUILT HIS HOUSE UPON THE ROCK : AND THE RAIN DESCENDED, AND THE FLOODS CAME, AND THE WINDS BLEW, AND BEAT UPON THAT HOUSE, AND IT FELL NOT : FOR IT WAS FOUNDED UPON THE ROCK. Jesus Christ. THIS (THE WORD OF THE FATHER) is HE WHO WAS FROM THE BEGINNING, WHO APPEARED AS NEW, AND WAS FOUND TO BE OLD, AND IS BORN AT ALL TIMES IN THE HEARTS OF THE HOLY .... THOU SHALT LEARN TO KNOW THOSE THINGS WHICH THE WORD DISCOURSES, BY WHAT MEANS HE CHOOSES, AT WHAT TIME HE WILLS. Greek Writer of the Second Century. THE PROPHET'S GOAD " Never man spake like This Jlfan." ST. JOHN vii. 46 IT is one of the great evils which have come upon modern thought, partly induced and perhaps to some extent excused by the com- plex and multiform life of the time, that a kind of distrust has become felt, even where it is not exactly expressed in words, in the precepts left to us by Jesus Christ and in many of the principles of Christianity as commonly under- stood and commonly interpreted. Thus, while the Christian Religion professes to harmonise the diversity which exists among the excellent aims of men, and so to settle for us the standard of conduct; on the other hand we are told that this claim is indefensible, and B "7 2 THE PROPHET'S GOAD we hear the most glaring incongruity between Christian precept and Christian practice boldly excused on the ground that Christian life is nowadays perfectly impracticable. The exi- gencies of modern life, it is said, are quite incompatible with regard for Christ's precepts, unless indeed for those who may be willing to withdraw out of the larger world of men and live in a little circle of their own, apart from the struggle for existence and the babel of the strife of tongues. Some press this view to further issues, and maintain that sundry commands which come to us with the sanction of our Lord would not, even if practised, tend to the formation of a noble character. It is asserted, for instance, that all the prominence given in Christianity to altruistic duty is not really elevating and fruitful, but rather ignoble and injurious. It is urged that to bear one another's burdens and exercise the instinct of pity and benevolence is a practical mistake, that every one should rather live out his own life and look first after himself, and that such a course will in the long run best enable him to be useful to society, while it permits and provides those personal gratifica- tions which each is fully entitled to claim if THE PROPHET'S GOAD 3 he can, and which God intended men to enjoy. Such arguments are perhaps backed by what are supposed to be illustrations in point. Christian precepts are rudely handled, Christian positions in fact mis-stated or only half stated, or else exaggerated, till the desired end appears in sight, which amounts to this, that Jesus Christ instead of being the Revealer of God's Will and the Light of the world, was merely a narrow enthusiast belonging only to a remote age Who has no gospel for the nineteenth century. It is the aim of this book to show that this position is a false one, and that even as re- gards those words of Christ which may be called " Hard Sayings " there is no justification in fact for the notion that His teaching has become outworn, or that the possession of His spirit has ceased to be the noblest attainment open to human ambition in the domain of morals. If, indeed, this were not so, if Christian doctrine be suitable only for the use of ages now bygone, if the moral standard of Jesus can no longer be regarded by reasonable men as an ideal even to be aimed at, then we Christians are in sorry plight. For as we pass the waves of this troublesome world, we are as men clinging to some derelict which is a B 2 4 THE PROPHET'S GOAD ship no more. Driven before every gale of passion, sucked along by each current which happens for the nonce to be strongest, we can but toss and drift, drift and toss, with neither helm to use nor haven to make, till storm or starvation make an end. Thus our fate is not merely to be inconsistent, which is bad ; but to be inconsistent on principle because in real doubt, which is infinitely worse. But as matter of fact, no one except through wilful blindness is shut up to this fate. The principles of Jesus only appear worn out, or impracticable, or useless, when they are misunderstood and misinterpreted. Hostile critics of Christianity would never dream of abusing any other book or playing fast and loose with any other author in the way they treat the gospels and the words of Christ. To take at random some highly figurative or in- tensely concentrated sentence, and proceed to apply it without a thought as to its original import or the special circumstances of its utter- ance ; to persist in forgetting the obvious truth that a principle of life is one thing, and the application of that principle in totally different times and surroundings is quite another ; this sort of thing is the most utterly unscientific THE PROPHET'S GOAD 5 misuse of letters that ever masqueraded in the name of literary criticism. Whether it be ignorance, or whether it be injustice, it is equally scandalous. Yet this is what they do who snatch away some phrase of Jesus from its proper setting, and then declare that, be- cause they cannot apply such and such precept literally, therefore the whole fabric of Chris- tianity is an effete superstition and its ethical conceptions utterly unadapted to the needs of modern life. Now there is not the least reason to deny that there are among the precepts of Jesus what may fairly be called "hard sayings." Were it not so, perhaps His teaching would not now be paramount, nineteen centuries after it was given. If Christ had been content with platitudes, no doubt He would not have been crucified ; but then He could never have claimed for His words that " they are spirit and they are life," nor would the ages have agreed that " never man spake like This Man." If Christ had been content with platitudes, perhaps the dry-as-dust dullard for whom no sin is mortal but the flash of genius, or the prosaic literalist who can forgive everything but the picturesque, might have been satisfied ; 6 THE PROPHET'S GOAD but no purifying flame of enthusiasm would then have kindled the light of Christendom in the world, and no Christian Church would have been alive to-day to justify that word, " I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me," and to echo back over the centuries the old re- sponse, " Lord, to Whom shall we go ? THOU hast the words of Eternal Life." It is thus that " Wisdom is justified by the works of her children." And, therefore, our wisdom seems clearly to lie in thankfully taking the sayings of Jesus, whether they look difficult or not, and in reverently trying to understand and make our own their spirit. But there are two great qualifications in par- ticular without which no one who speaks to us moral and spiritual truth, especially if he speaks to us out of the past, can ever be understood. The first qualification is a certain degree of sympathy. Our thoughts must to some extent work in the same plane, our desires must in some degree be set upon the holy end for which the teacher speaks, even as Christ Himself im- plied when He said, " He that wills to do the righteous will shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." And the second condition springs from the fact that every great teacher primarily THE PROPHET'S addresses the men of his own age. Therefore the modern disciple must add to his sympathy a certain degree of historical imagination. He must be willing to make the best effort possible to set the teaching he would understand in its own proper historical light. Thus we can- not expect to interpret fairly the precepts of Christ without remembering that at the time He spoke there were many truths which had been sadly understated, and some which were entirely ignored. Hence it had become before all things necessary to restore the balance of truth, and the emphatic language alone suitable for this purpose might, under other conditions and if regarded apart from its specific intention, be very likely to look like exaggeration or one- sidedness. Indeed the recollection of this alone will very often suffice to explain what at first seems difficult in some of the utterances of Jesus. Even your own experience in the art of per- suasion will probably be enough to make this clear. You can understand Christ's method by your own. You know how, in argument with one who holds a contrary opinion, in order to put the view you wish to emphasise in the most telling light, you try to state it so that it S TttE PROPHET'S GOAD will strike and stick. You instinctively feel that a view which has been underrated or dis- torted is to be restored to its right position by the accumulation of statement upon statement, until the underrated or distorted proposition at last stands out in bold relief and full proportion, and you speak accordingly. Every one again is familiar with this method in Art. The painter who desires forcibly to present some particular idea will isolate the figure or face by which he would portray it. He will deliberately subordinate by light and unfinished treatment all that is merely comple- mentary, in order to fix your eye and rivet your attention upon what he wants you particularly to notice. It is the best possible method for the end in view, and therefore it was freely used by Jesus Christ. The gospels teem with ex- amples. It was the way in which the Master constantly spoke, throwing His truths out in burning phrases, in parable and paradox which seize the imagination and score the tablets of the mind. Thus we frequently find the neg- lected side of human life taken up and clothed, decked out with bright colour, touched with poet's skill and prophet's fire ; and we note the insight of Him Who " knew what was in man " THE PROPHET'S ClOAf) 9 leading Him deliberately to ignore other sides to a question, in order that His hearers might seize intensely upon the one side which they had forgotten or had trampled under foot. It has always been and always will be one of the notes of the great teacher, as distinguished from the small, that he is never afraid of appa- rent inconsistencies and contradictions. We see this constantly in the teaching of wise men of our own time. Every reader of Tennyson remembers how the tone and aim of the old and the new " Locksley Hall " are poles apart. Robert Browning again is full of hard sayings. But as some one said of a certain writer that he was better worth reading when he was wrong than most others when they are right, so it may be said of Browning that his obscurities are better worth studying than many another man's lucidity. No one takes less pains to avoid contradictions than that master of Eng- lish prose, John Ruskin, but none can charge his teaching with the slightest ambiguity. Or take, for further and fuller illustration, another of the prophets Carlyle. There are still some who find in his message only sound and fury, signifying nothing. But this is not the verdict which has gathered the best consent id THE PROPHET'S GOAft . during the years which have passed since his death. In spite of many sayings that must be counted harsh or reckless, in spite of the almost total lack of that " sweet reasonableness " so invaluable to the teacher of every time and place, and notwithstanding other grave defects of temper and disposition, yet who can deny this man a place among the prophets ? Up to a certain point, and always as far as his own personal conviction justified, he boldly and faithfully spoke out his message. He was always on the side of God as against the world, the flesh and the devil. He was always on the side of duty as against selfishness. Ever an Apostle of Work, with a killing contempt for idleness, he never lost himself in the barren desert of utilitarianism. Ever an Apostle of Thought, crying constantly to the thoughtless and the shallow " Let us strive to think well," yet he never made a god of mere intellect, but continually affirmed the spiritual nature of man and the supernatural character of his destiny. Who can doubt that such a one, so convinced of the reality of a God-implanted conscience, so sure of the capacity of man to travel upwards if only he would keep the spiritual end in view, so superior to the vulgarities of luxury and wealth, THE PROPHET'S GOAD ii so alive to the imperativeness of social duties and to the hollowness of all class distinctions not based on reason and justice, who can doubt, I say, that such a man was truly en- trusted with a message for his time and was highly qualified to deliver it ? Why then and here is the question which concerns our argument why has so much that he has written been declared mere rhetoric and rhodomontade ? Was it not precisely because the reason for much of a great teacher's method and language is hidden until we grasp the nature and prevalence of the opposing forces against which it was hurled, until we set it in its own proper historical light ? During Carlyle's life, wealth and manufac- tures were making the most gigantic and extraordinary strides. The seer saw men growing intoxicated with the triumphs of material success. He stood appalled. How could he deal out pretty speeches when the out- look was so black ? Revolutions are not made with rose-water. And Carlyle set himself to work the most difficult of revolutions, a revolu- tion of thought. He wrote to influence an age which scoffed at things spiritual because it had lost sight of them, and which had lost sight of l fiJE PROPHET'S GOAD them because it had come to regard the world as" nothing but "a large cooking-range." It was necessary to talk strongly if such people were to be made to listen. And as the reformer saw the idolatry of money ever absorbing more and more of the thoughts and lives of men, what wonder if he poured the vials of his scorn upon the notion that society could be bound together by the slender nexus of "cash payment." As he saw Mill and his utilitarian contemporaries growing more and more sceptical and starting many on the downward track, or at least chaining them to the material mundane round of measuring up the yarn without a thought for the mill hands who produced it, what wonder at the heat with which he thunders out " the Everlasting No " of a deeper insight, and proclaims "the Everlasting Yea" of a higher faith. This much is surely clear, that it is only in proportion as we realise the moral atmosphere in which a prophet's lot is cast, and remember his own origin and place therein, that we shall become qualified to judge rightly of " the why and the wherefore " of his scalding speech. Sometimes in our study of some great teacher it will not be so much the apparently THE PROPHET'S GOAD 13 exaggerated strength of his language, but its seeming contradictoriness, which makes him, as St. Peter said of St. Paul, "hard to be understood." St. Paul indeed is a very good example of this particular cause of misunder- standing. The " antinomies," as I believe they are technically called, of the great apostle have served to fill heavy tomes with barren discussion. And immense ingenuity has been expended in laboured attempts to harmonise his words with what looks at first sight to be contrary teaching from the lips of St. James. Yet most of this toil might have been saved by the use of a single key to the whole set of difficulties. This master-key is simply the understanding and keeping in mind those errors or exaggerations of truth, which both apostles were equally engaged in correcting, and which in some of the Churches had assumed this form and in others that ; calling, therefore, here for strong statement on one side and there for plain speaking on another. The recollection of this common method of the world's teachers clears the way for a fair consideration of those utterances of our BJessed Lord which have presented difficulty to men's minds and provoked their hostile criticism. 14 THE PROPHET'S GOAD For it must be remembered that however incomparable the One Master may appear, yet no Teacher, however Divine, is free from limitations when he has to deal with humanity. He is obviously limited to those methods and forms of speech which are calculated to effect his purpose with the men whom he addresses. He has to arrest their attention ; he has to make his message understood, and suitable to its immediate hearers. The occasion and the circumstances of the address must therefore determine its form. It is these which will call here for the scathing of pachydermatous hypocrisy, " O generation of vipers, how can ye escape the judgment of Gehenna ! " and there for such surpassing tenderness of Infinite Purity as could kindle afresh the dying embers of a soul's life, " Neither do I condemn thee ; go, and sin no more." The sayings of our Lord are continually being turned into stumbling-blocks because critics persist in ignoring the occasion and circumstances which explain and justify their utterance. It is hard to kick against the Prophet's goad. Why not try to understand it ? Why not recognise that the use of parable and paradox is part of the regular method of THE PROPHET'S GOAD 15 the wise, and that "hard sayings" may be spoken, not to confuse and confound, but to stimulate and guide ? " Cast not your pearls before swine " is cited, for example, as an in- stance of purely harsh exclusiveness. But what of the wisdom of such reticence in face of invincible ignorance and prejudice ? And what of the exceeding rarity of the Master's use of it ? How seldom it is said, " He answered nothing," or "He wrote upon the ground," or " He went unto another city." On the other hand how frequent, how constantly recurring is the picture of the Good Shepherd seeking some wandering sheep " until He find it," of the patient Husbandman producing flowers of surpassing beauty from soil of smallest promise. Some would have us believe it better to have refrained from withering a fig tree than to illustrate a nation's fate and quicken the faith which might avert the doom. To others again, the release of a human spirit from the bands of a living death counts for nothing in view of the loss of some swine. But to those who see with other eyes, who see a unique career filled with "greater things than these," - things which make the Life of Christ the 16 THE PROPHET'S GOAD most beautiful the world has seen such laboured magnifying of the comparatively trivial argues only a striking want of moral perspective in the critic, and a singular lack of material for criticism. Such cavillers are fond of appealing to Reason. But reason is precisely the faculty which revolts at such light attempts to dis- credit the beneficence which " went about doing good," to discount the "gracious words" which were the " wonder" of a multitude, and to decry the authoritative doctrine which drew from enemies the confession "never man spake like This Man." Reason it is which looks to facts and weighs them. When the license of a Magdalene is exchanged for chaste devotion, when the cupidity of a Zaccheus proffers four- fold restitution, when even political antagonism and animosity sink out of sight, and Simon the Home Rule agitator, " Simon the Zealot," makes common cause with such an embodiment of alien oppression as Matthew the publican, then it is Reason which exclaims, "What stransre doctrine is this ! What manner of Man o is This ? " to which and to Whom such varied victory falls. Reason, again, looks on at the tragedy of the Cross, and watches whether, in so supreme THE PROPHET'S GOAD 17 a trial, wisdom will be justified by its works. Reason overhears the last words of the Crucified Christ, the prayer for His torturers' pardon the care for others' needs in the midst of per- sonal anguish, the royal welcome of the last poor prodigal who has "come to himself." Reason considers what sort of character it is which can face the uttermost depths of desola- tion and yet rise out of them to rest in the Everlasting arms ; she estimates the moral force which "effects a dying brigand's penitence and inspires the matchless venture of his prayer ; she observes the absence of fanaticism which speaks out the human cry "I thirst"; she marks the quenchless love which " hopeth all things " and despairs not, even then and even there, of finding in the human nature gathered at a public execution some redeeming ruth ; she feels the power which draws pity from hearts inured to pain, from men by pro- fession pitiless, and she notes the soldier's posca moistening lips sealed to every anodyne but that of sympathy. Reason, I say, remarks these things : and it is the voice of reason, not that of sentiment or superstition, which speaks in the Centurion's verdict, " Truly this man was a Son of God," and which urges the timid discipleship of c i8 THE PROPHET'S GOAD Nicodemus out of the stage of secret conviction into that of open confession. Then since the influence of Jesus, instead of dying with Him, began thenceforth its wider, larger and im- mortal life let us finally observe that the conversion of St. Paul is the sort of fact which appeals to reason more strongly than a score of captious or microscopic criticisms. Reason finds here a solid beam of more value than many chips. She watches the typical Jewish bigot setting out from Jerusalem determined to crush Christianity, the trusted emissary of Judaism armed with " authority to bind all that called on Christ's name." 1 And presently she overhears, from the mouth of this estwhile persecutor transformed into a Christian apostle, the astounding confession, " I am ready not to be bound only but to die, for the name of the Lord Jesus." 1 Is it not an eminently sane conclusion that He Whose influence wrought such marvels spoke with unique authority ? amply justified the wisdom of His teaching, nay, even made good His own extraordinary claim, " The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." 3 1 Acts ix. 14. 2 Acts xxi. 13. 3 St. John vi. 63. A TOUCHSTONE " Unto you is given the mystery of the Kingdom of God: but unto them that are without all things are done in parables : that seeing they may see, and not perceive ; and hearing they may hear, and not understand ; lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them."-' ST. MARK, iv. n, 12. OF all the hard sayings of the Prophet of Nazareth this one is at first sight the most incomprehensible. We are inclined to exclaim in amazement against the possibility of Jesus Christ having ever spoken thus. We are dis- posed to fancy that here at least the reporters of our Lord must be at fault, that possibly their own narrow and exclusive thoughts may have coloured the words they here attribute to the Master and produced a tone foreign to the Speaker's original intention. At all events we feel prepared to maintain that the intention must have been something quite distinct from the surface meaning of the text. c 2 i A TOUCHSTONE We call up the vision of the Speaker's actual character. We remember the descrip- tion He Himself has given us of His Mission to mankind. We know that this is He Whose "gracious" speech was the constant wonder of His hearers, Who came not to destroy men's lives but to save them, Who would not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. We know that this is He in the accents of Whose voice, heard even now across the ages, sound evermore the chords of an infinite compassion and of a love without limit and without rest. We know that this is a Teacher Who lived on earth but to restore our wander- ing race into the way of Truth, revealing to mankind the nature of that God Who con- tinually showered the tokens of His Father- hood upon the evil and the good. We know that this Teacher is also the Redeemer Who felt Himself "straitened" till His saving work was done, and Who, amid the bitter disappoint- ments of His life, consoled Himself with a sublime confidence in the issue of His last resource, " I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." But how, then, are we to understand the apparent total contradiction between such a A TOUCHSTONE 21 character, such words, and such a life all instinct with the spirit, "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out " and this passage which seems to state simply enough that "to them that are without" the inner circle of Christ's followers His teaching was veiled in mystery and parable in order " that seeing they may see, and not perceive ; and hearing they may hear, and not understand ; lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them " ? Now the first thing we may be certain of is this : that if the surface meaning of a single utterance is entirely at variance with the general trend and tenor of the same speaker's doctrine, and is evidently out of harmony with his habitual attitude of mind, then the apparent meaning at first sight is not the true one, and we must patiently dig below the surface in order to reach the truth. The next thing we ought to recollect about any utterance of our Lord recorded in the Gospels is that fresh light on its significance may often be gathered from the parallel pas- sage in the record of one or more of the other evangelists. Let us, then, proceed to use these two con- 22 A TOUCHSTONE siderations in the case of our present difficulty. Turning first to the parallel accounts, we find that comparison with the words of St. Luke (ch. viii. 10) will not help us. It is true that he omits the last clause " lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them," but otherwise the words are practically identical with our text. But the moment we return to St. Matthew (ch. xiii. 13-15) the result is very different. St. Matthew here evidently gives the full report, of which St. Mark and St. Luke give only the essence in a form so concentrated and condensed that the reader is much more liable to mistake the intention of the words. St. Matthew occupies more than three times the space used by the other two synoptists in reporting this particular part of our Lord's speech. His words run thus: "Therefore speak I to them in parables, because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And unto them is ful- filled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand ; and seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive : for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull A TOUCHSTONE 23 of hearing, and their eyes have they closed ; lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should turn again, and I should heal them." Thus from comparison with St. Matthew, who is characteristically interested in every citation from the older Scriptures, we learn (i) that the words, which seem so impossible to understand as the direct expression of our Lord's intention to mystify His hearers, were in fact a kind of shorthand report of the gist of a considerable quotation from the book of the prophet Isaiah. And we also learn (2) what indeed we might have guessed, that the true sense of the passage is not a statement by our Lord of His own purpose toward them " that are without " (as the curtailed report of St. Mark appears to suggest), but is rather the simple statement of a fact and of a law which the Speaker has been forced, however regret- fully, to recognise : " Therefore speak I to them in parables, because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." Thus the truth emerges, not that Jesus Christ ever in the least intended to veil Him- 24 A TOUCHSTONE self from any soul among the multitudes around Him, but that He had come to recognise how few of those who listened to his words them- selves intended ever to remove the veil of unbelief or prejudice, of hypocrisy or selfish- ness, which, until they chose to tear it from their hearts, would turn his own most element- ary lessons into enigmas hopelessly insoluble. It -is not to Christ, but to those whom He addressed, that the difficulty of the passage must be charged. In their true sense the words carry nothing more than the sorrowful recognition by the Speaker of the inevitable result of human perversity and wilfulness. To " them that are without," the truths of the Gospel must remain wrapt in mystery and paradox, not because Christ spoke in parables in order to hide His meaning, but because of such folk it is in every age so calamitously true that " seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they (wish to) under- stand." "This is the judgment, that the Light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light." It is an observation much in point that the method used by Jesus of teaching by parables " automatically adapts itself to the spiritual A TOUCHSTONE 25 capacity of the hearers. Our Lord thus avoided the danger of casting before swine the pearls of divine truth. The sacred mysteries were mercifully guarded from those who had no more sense than to trample them under their feet, whilst they were placed within the grasp of those who had the capacity to assimilate and apply them. Those who lacked the moral and spiritual capacity to receive the revelation of God heard only the earthly story of the parable. With this they stored their memory until perchance they arrived, at some future time, at the perception of a higher meaning in it. Those, on the other hand, who had the will and the capacity to know and act upon the truth, could not rest for an hour satisfied with the mere husk of the narrative, but demand without delay its inner meaning, asking of their Lord, ' Declare unto us this Parable.' Thus the Parables implicity pre- sented an automatic test of the capacity of those to whom they were addressed. The earthly-minded heard in them an earthly story ; the spiritually-minded found in them the re- velation of spiritual light." 1 Those who do not will to obey can never 1 Unpublished sermon by Prebendary Allen Whitwortf), 26 A TOUCHSTONE comprehend the doctrine which remains mysterious always to the disobedient soul. While to the sympathy of the true disciple "the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven" readily reveal themselves. " Blessed are your eyes, for they see ; and your ears, for they hear." These are they who have the talisman to turn all further gifts to good account, there- fore unto them shall more be given, and they shall have abundance ; while from him that hath not, from him who is wilfully blind and refuses to receive and act upon the truth he knows, shall be taken away even that which he hath. In other words, there is an irrevocable law in the moral world that the disobedience and blindness that are wilful shall be followed by the blindness and the incapacity which are not an arbitrary penalty, but an inevitable consequence. The classical example in the Bible of the outworking of this law is the case of the Pharaoh of the Exodus. The King of Egypt was forced, by signs which he could not gain- say, to believe in the power of Jehovah, but no moral impression was produced upon his mind by the marvels of Moses ; his heart was never reached. The impenetrable armour of A TOUCHSTONE 27 his selfishness was proof against every appeal either to mercy or justice. This nation of slaves was uncommonly convenient for the work of the country. Why should he lose this advantage ? He would not. " Pharaoh hard- ened his heart, and would not let the children of Israel go." And this hardening process has always these two stages. The earlier, in which the man's free will chooses the wrong course ; the later, in which the wrong course thus freely chosen becomes familiar and habitual, and the grieved Spirit of Goodness gradually withdraws. The voluntary harden- ing becomes involuntary hardness ; and the opposition to right, allowed and encouraged, issues in an obstinacy which is at once the natural fruit and the penal consequence of the sin. It can only be of a heart whose owner has chosen to shut and seal it against every softening touch or warning stroke that it can ever, in any sense, be said, " God hardened " that heart ; and even then the phrase ought not to be understood to signify anything beyond the ratification of the law expressed by Fletcher in the lines " Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still, " 28 A TOUCHSTONE For God is against no man while the long "day of his visitation" lasts; He is ever " more ready to hear than we to pray," full of grace as well as full of truth, yearning over us as Christ yearned over the Jerusalem He loved, that City whose inevitable doom even the tears of the Son of God could not avert, because the things men will not see, when they may, must at length become " hidden from their eyes." Then all that is left even for Incarnate Love is this : " How often would I have gathered thee, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not." The opportunity neglected, the moral talent buried, pass entirely away from the stubborn and the slothful, by the very same law which blesses the facile and the industrious with an increase of the powers they have learnt to use aright. Evermore, not Christ only, but reiter- ated experience ring the warning in our ears, " Take from him the pound," the precious chance that he has wasted. Take it away from him that will never do anything with it, and "give it to him that hath ten pounds," to the man who has proved his capacity to use what is entrusted to his keeping for his own and others' good. A TOUCHSTONE 29 Returning now to the passage before us, we find that it is this great truth on one side so happy, and on the other so awful which Isaiah announces as part of his own experience as a spiritual teacher. And the old prophet's words are quoted both by Jesus and by St. Paul as stating a principle, of which their ministry in a later age affords still further illustration. Moreover, this principle has been similarly recognised by every great moral teacher and Reformer in all time. Sooner or later, with whatever pain and grief, one and all have come to see that the effect produced upon large num- bers of people by the preaching to them of the truth has been not the quickening, but the deadening of the spiritual faculties. From the days of Noah and Lot to those of Carlyle, Ruskin and Tolstoi, the preachers of righteous- ness have been mortified by this same issue of their mission. Some have been 'consumed by chagrin and disappointment ; other have re- fused to cast their pearls before swine, and taken refuge in silence and dismay. Some have persevered to the end, despite obloquy and opposition, daily turning evil into good. Enduring "as seeing Him Who is invisible," they have gone on " sowing in tears," whether 30 A TOUCHSTONE they shall ever " reap in joy " or not. But the experience which has borne these various fruits has been a similar experience. Every prophet has had to drink of this same cup. He has had to see the truth for which he was content to live or die, not only received or rejected, but producing entirely opposite effects upon dif- ferent natures, here "a savour of life, unto life ; there a savour of death, unto death." It would perhaps be hard to find a more dramatic representation of this than is supplied by Mazzini's description of the first stage in his career. It appears that, while the leader's first efforts for the liberty of Italy materialised the greater number of those whom Mazzini had stirred to embark upon it, the failure and conse- quent defection only served to strip this heroic soul of the last rags of selfishness, and consecrate it more utterly to the will of God and the duty that lay before it. Says the Italian patriot, " It was the tempest of doubt which I believe all who devote their lives to a great enterprise yet have retained a loving heart, are doomed, once at least, to battle through During these fatal months there darkened round me such a hurricane of sorrow, disillusion and deception, as to bring before my eyes, in all its ghastly A TOUCHSTONE 31 nakedness, a foreshadowing of the old age of my soul, solitary in a desert world. It was not only the overthrow for an indefinite period of every Italian hope, .... it was the falling to pieces of that moral edifice of faith and love from which alone I derived strength for the combat I drew back in terror at the void before me. Perhaps I was wrong after all, and the world right. Perhaps my idea was indeed a dream ? . . . . One morning I awoke to find my mind tranquil and my spirit calmed, as one who has passed through a great danger. .... I saw Duty as Life's highest Law. And I swore to myself that nothing in this world should again make me doubt or forsake it. .... Whether the sun shine with the serene splen- dour of an Italian noon, or the leaden hue of the northern mist be above us, I cannot see that it changes our duty. God dwells above the earthly heaven, and the holy stars of faith and the future still shine within our souls, even though their light consume itself unreflected as the sepulchral lamp." l Now this glimpse into the heart of the Italian prophet may help us in some small degree to enter into the heart's experience of those great 1 Cited by Adam Smith : Commentary on Isaiah, vol. i. p. 85. 32 A TOUCHSTONE ones who have in every age borne their witness, and fulfilled their mission, whether men would hear or whether they would forbear, choosing evermore to obey God rather than men, reso- lute to serve their fellows regardless of them- selves. It is a tragic thought to recollect the terrible solitariness of these noble lives. Job and Elijah, John the Baptist and St. Paul in days of yore ; Dante and Savonarola, Mazzini and Gordon in days less dim and distant ; and a goodly fellowship of prophets all along the stream of time have had the same cross to bear ; not one of them but felt the "hurricane of sorrow, disillusion and decep- tion " darken round them : all knew the bitter- ness of that " distrust detected even in those most dear to them," and whose unwavering confidence might have given them the very best support. And when we turn to Him Who was not only a Prophet of the Truth, but the very Truth Incarnate, and overhear the question asked even of the least faithless who were nearest to His heart, " Will ye also go away ? " or listen to the declaration, " Verily I say unto you, one of you shall betray Me," then we know that even this Prophet also shared the A TOUCHSTONE 33 terrible experience of the rest. The gall of misunderstanding, of suspicion, of rejection, we cannot fail to recognise welling up in the mind even of the Master, now in the pathetic lament, " How often would I .... but ye would not ; " or now in the regretful sentence, sealing the self-chosen doom of the Temple and the city that He loved, "There shall not be left in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation ; " or yet again in the dictum of the passage before us, " All these things are parables dark and para- doxical ; for the hearts of those to whom I speak are waxed gross, their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest haply they should turn again and I might heal them." In every case, the cause of this effect of the witness borne to Truth is to be found not in the Truth itself, nor in the sometimes stam- mering tongue of the speaker, but in the atti- tude of mind of those that hear. In the case of Jesus Christ, to represent Him Who was called the Friend of publicans and sinners as the piti- less enemy of bewildered seekers after truth would be a monstrous conclusion indeed. In the language of the particular parable to which D 34 A TOUCHSTONE the text originally refers, not the seed nor the Sower is at fault, but the soil. If spiritual seed is to spring up and bear good fruit, the ground on which it falls must be " good ground." St. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians (2 Cor. iii. 14 1 6), has nearly paralleled the statement here. Speaking sorrowfully enough of the blindness of his own countrymen, he says, "Their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the Old Covenant the veil remaineth unlifted ; which veil is done away in Christ. But whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their hearts. But whensoever any shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away." This, then, is the great practical lesson from such warnings, for all hearers in every age : " Take heed how ye hear." You are re- sponsible for this, as truly as the preacher is responsible for his message. Even the preach- ing of Christ Himself could have no other issue than the division between sheep and goats, between those that heard in order to learn and those that heard only to cavil or to scoff. The same " gracious words " which, falling upon the willing heart as a savour of life, laid the foundation of the Christian Church A TOUCHSTONE 35 in lives devoted to the Kingdom of Heaven, falling at the same time on hearts trodden hard in the round of a lifeless religionism, or choked with the stones and briars of reckless- ness or sensuality, could do nothing but stir in such souls the spirit of enmity against the purer ideal. It was inevitable that even the words of " the Word of God " Himself, " provoking some to love and to good works," should rouse in others only the bitter antagonism of " hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness," which ended in the tragedy of the Cross. The main lesson of this passage then is the lesson of our responsibility. If you would believe in God you must live so that you need God to exist. If you would know of the doctrine whether it be of God, you must will to do the will of God ; or the doctrine even as taught by Jesus Himself will evermore be "foolishness" or " a stumbling-block," as it always has been to "them that are without" and who determine to remain so. Take heed what ye hear is often a necessary caution, for there are teachers who are but blind leaders of the blind ; but " Take heed how ye hear " is always necessary, for unless this caution be attended to, voices of angels, whispers of the very Spirit of God, pleadings of D 2 36 A TOUCHSTONE the Christ Himself, can have no other effect upon the careless or the callous than to harden further, till change and amendment grow day by day and year by year less likely because more difficult. On the whole perhaps it would be hard to find a better summary of the practical bearing of such passages as this which we have been con- sidering, than is supplied by the continual burden of the Epistle to the Hebrews : " They to whom the good tidings were before preached failed to profit because of disobedience and be- cause of unbelief. We then ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them .... Let us fear therefore, lest haply a promise being left to us, any of you should seem to come short of it." A COMPARISON " Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist ; yet he that is but little in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he." ST. MATTHEW xi. IT. AFTER listening to Christ's panegyric upon the work and character of John the Baptist which occupies the preceding verses, the re- markable climax of the text strikes with tre- mendous force. In what respect, we are compelled to ask, is "he that is little" in the Kingdom of Heaven greater than the last and greatest of the prophets ? Plainly, if the comparison intended were one of individual character as between man and man, there is none, with the exception of the Speaker Him- self, who could be cited in its justification. The personality of John the Baptist will in the matter of moral grandeur hold its own with that of any Christian hero, as completely as on the witness of Jesus it stands pre-eminent among 38 A COMPARISON the seers and prophets of the preceding dis- pensation. Our Lord's eulogy of the Baptist is evidently calculated and arranged to throw into relief the transcendent spiritual privilege of those even the least of those whose happy lot it is to live in the light of that Kingdom of Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost, for which so many kings and prophets of old time had waited with a^ watchful hope. The last of these watchers, the immediate Fore-runner of the King, the veritable Elijah of the Advent, had the joy of changing the note of longing and expectancy for that of introduc- tion and fulfilment. " There cometh He that is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose." " He must increase, but I must decrease." That moment when the always self-effacing prophet " looked upon Jesus as he walked " and declared Him the Saviour of the world, marked the summit of his career and the end of his mission. John indeed was never greater than when he realised the limits of the work assigned to him. Many men in almost every age have had the power to draw crowds to listen to their preach- ing, some men have had the far greater gift of A COMPARISON 39 arousing in their listeners the desire to obey. But the supreme honour of the Baptist and the hour he would have counted his greatest, was not when "Jerusalem and all Judaea and all the region round about Jordan" hung upon his words, nor even when every class of that conscience-struck community plied him with the question, " What then must we do ? " The acme of his triumph was reached when he was able to point his disciples to the actual presence among them of the Desire of all nations, and cry, " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." When we think of the insight displayed in that triumphant proclamation, of the faith then required to make it, and of the way the words have since been verified, our hearts go out to- ward that great seer who stands a moment on the brink of the river whose streams were destined to gladden the world, and leaves the world to drink thereof, while he himself is borne away to the dungeon and the martyr- dom so often the crown of those of whom the world is not worthy. We know well that we shall search in vain for a nobler record or for a grander man than this ; and yet the Master tells us that " he that is little in the 40 A COMPARISON Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he." What is the meaning of this verdict ? Clearly we are to seek the explanation in some new vantage ground of spiritual privilege which belongs to those described as being " in the Kingdom of Heaven," as compared with men, even good and great men, who could not be counted as its subjects. What then, pre- cisely, is this Kingdom of Heaven ? And what are the privileges of its members ? Now the Kingdom of Heaven was un- questionably the accepted Hebrew formula for the long-expected golden age in which a per- fected Society would rejoice over the triumph of truth, justice and peace, and the banish- ment of misery and wrong. The phrase was the popular symbol for a divine reign, which was to be recognised, permanent and uni- versal. Every Jew looked sadly back to the time when Jehovah was regarded as the King of Israel ; but in the time of Christ all true Jews were downcast, because this reign of God had become so largely a thing of the past. They felt that Greek and Roman princi- ples and modes of thought were now ascendant, and that the face of the Invisible King was ' turned away A COMPARISON 41 Then it was that the Baptist's cry rang like a clarion through the land, proclaiming, " The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Moreover Christ Himself took up this message and had it so constantly upon His lips that nearly thirty times in a single Gospel the phrase, or its equivalent, occurs. What did Christ mean by the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, or His Kingdom ? for He sometimes spoke of it as His own. First of all, it was clearly a present King- dom. Jesus spoke of something which could be recognised. No mere invisible fiction, no mere glorious ideal, but a visible body of believers who had accepted Christ as Leader and Saviour and Lord. Though it was a Kingdom " not of this world," because in- stinct with a heavenly spirit, yet its aim and object were to promote the life of Heaven upon earth, to realise the reign of Righteous- ness and Peace, not in some far off Utopia, but there and then. Before that generation passed this Kingdom was to be established in the world. And it was so. The narrow and exclusive policy of Judaea shrivelled at the touch of Imperial Rome. With the fall of Jerusalem 42 A COMPARISON came "the end of theworld," the "consummation of the age." And then a new age dawned which presently saw the Empire itself crumble under the disintegrating forces of its own corruption and of the secret leaven of the expanding Christian Church publicly proclaimed on the first Whitsun-day. The Kingdom of God was in fact the Church of Christ. And the Church of Christ to-day, so far as it is true to the in- tention of its Founder, is still a Society organ- ised for the glory of God, and therefore for the well-being of man, by the promotion of right doing and good living here and now. The importance of this fact of the Visibility of the Father's Kingdom is clear enough, inas- much as the very first necessity for one who will live for the Kingdom of Heaven is a solemn conviction that it is here, and therefore to be lived for. This is the conviction which will best prevent those mistakes which have laid some Christians open to the charge of " other- worldliness." This view of the Kingdom as a Society is the best preventive, too, of that tendency to over-individualise the truths of the Faith which has dwarfed and stunted so much of the religious thought of many truly pious men, and driven others in recoil from it A COMPARISON 43 notably the saintly Faber to break away from their natural fold and join a Church which seemed to them more Catholic because less individualist. But though the whole social aspect of Christianity has been too much neglected, we must never, in the natural reaction of our thoughts, allow ourselves to ignore the other view, upon which the Master laid at least equal stress: "Behold," He says, "the Kingdom of God is within you." Jesus Christ never gave ground for the mistake into which some Reformers of to-day have fallen, the mistake of imagining that you can regenerate mankind in the mass, or in any way otherwise than through the regeneration of individual character. Your modern philanthropist is too often impatient of this method. Moved at the sight of many evils, he hastens to construct a sort of parliamentary "lift," whose planks are local government, village councils, shorter work hours, free education, allotments, teetotalism, appropriating and sharing out some one else's property, or some other panacea ; and he seems to think that all which remains to be done is to invite or to compel the ignorant, the poor, the drunken, and the dissolute to stand on the 44 A COMPARISON machine, and, with one turn of the legislative crank, they shall be lifted, if not into the Kingdom of Heaven, at least into a region where ignorance and poverty and vice are known no more. But, unfortunately, history and experience tell us that, however helpful they may be, all such wholesale schemes do not really go deep enough to satisfy the needs of the case, and that the mass can only be thoroughly and permanently raised by raising the individuals of which it is composed. Surely in this, as in all else, it is our wisdom to learn from the method of Jesus Christ. He, the greatest Reformer this poor world will ever see, habitually regarded Society through the individual. He founds a Society ; He will establish a spiritual Commonwealth ; but He never loses sight of the fact that this Church of His will be an aggregate of individual hearts, and that it is there in the heart that the foundation must be laid. " Be not led astray," says the Master, "one may say, ' It is here ' ; another, ' It is there ' ; but let no such voices distract you from this certainty, Lo ! the Kingdom of God is within you." " Personal repentance, the kindling of pure and productive affections, must precede and usher in the reign A COMPARISON 45 of God on earth." The wider rule of the Kingdom over the race grows by the gradual and secret working of the leaven through the lump ; by the restoration here of a straying sheep, there of a missing coin, by the return here of a penitent prodigal and there of a mechanical externalist, over whose souls the glory of the Sun of Righteousness has risen with healing, purifying power. There, in the inward spirit of those who have " come to themselves," so as to desire before all things the life which is Service, the service which is Life, there, in the hearts of those who recognise the God within them, is the centre whence the peace of the Kingdom shall never cease to radiate till the world and the Church are one. And the privilege of those who are citizens of this Kingdom of Heaven upon earth the vantage ground they occupy in comparison with the heritage of even the greatest of the sons of the past What shall we say of this? You remember how in the dawn of history there came a voice to Abram which said, " Get thee out from thy father's house into a land of which I shall tell thee ; and I will make of thee 46 A COMPARISON a great nation, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Ages after there was heard in Palestine a voice proclaiming, " There is no man that hath given up father or mother or house or children or lands for My sake and the Gospel's but he shall receive an hundred- fold more in this present life, and in the world to come life everlasting." It has been justly remarked that while the two calls resemble each other in sound, in substance and meaning they are exactly parallel. " The object of both was to create a new Society which would stand in a peculiar relation to God, and which should have a legislation different from and higher than that which springs up in secular States. And from both such a Society sprang : from the first, the ancient Jewish theocracy ; from the second, the Christian Church." l The public inauguration of this Divine Society, the birthday of the Church, was the great day of Pentecost, when after a new fashion the Holy Spirit came into the world to be the Presence and Power and Life of God Himself in the hearts of the children of the Kingdom. But the twofold idea of the outward Society and the inward individual inspiration is to be traced 1 Ecce Home, p. 41. A COMPARISON 47 in every coming of the Kingdom, Past, Present or Future. " All who desired enrolment were taught to understand that they began life anew, as truly as if they had been actually born again. And lest the Divine Society, in its contempt for material boundaries, should lose its distinctness altogether, and degenerate into a theory or a sentiment or a devout imagination, the initiatory rite of baptism, with its outward publicity and formality, was declared as indis- pensable to membership as that inward spiritual Life which is membership itself." The essential point of our Lord's comparison lies in this mystery of a new and heavenly Life which is the privilege of incorporation into the Divine Society of the Kingdom. John the Baptist inferior to none born of women is still less than the least of those born of that birth " from above," which is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. John, near as he was to the King and the Kingdom, standing even on the very threshold, yet fell far short of the fortune of those who could say with St. Paul, " our citizenship is in Heaven." John truly was the friend of the Bridegroom ; but what was that to the lot even of some weak and unworthy soul who is so united to Christ as to become part of His Body, who is made "a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven?" It is this position which Christ extols so highly in the text. The comparison is between the position of the best and greatest under the old covenant and the position of the humblest disciple under the new covenant. As the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it, comparing the terrors of Sinai with the blessings of Zion, "Ye Christians are not come unto a Mount that might be touched, that burned with fire and with blackness and darkness and tempest . . . but ye are come unto Mount Zion, unto the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem ... to the general assem- bly and church of the first-born who are en- rolled in Heaven, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of a new Covenant." Now privilege of whatever kind means always responsibility. No Christian will expect his charter to be exempt from such a rule. He will rather seek to know how he may hope to fulfil its obligations. Assured that closer to him here in this Christian land Christ's King- dom could not be ; conscious of the strength A COMPARISON 49 of its Righteousness, the calm of its Peace, the inspiration of its Joy, he will feel bound by these blessings to enlarge the number of hearts that share them. Such a citizen will recall the King's own method. He will repeat the old watchword, " Repent change the inner man and believe the good news." He will seek the race as Christ did, through the individual. He will be suspicious of wholesale schemes. Such means as force or display he will entirely repudiate. For he knows that the Kingdom which " cometh not with observation" is founded ever upon inward conviction and established in the enthusiasm of united affections and a common aim. Such a citizen, again, will acknowledge one Law only as supreme the Law of Love. Therefore he will refuse to accept those false and conventional standards of Society which are ready to rot the heart out of religion, and which make the " All ye are brethren " of the Master a mere meaningless mockery. Besides this rejection of social or religious exclusiveness and prejudice, there will follow, from this same supremacy of love which " hopeth all things, E 50 A COMPARISON believeth all things," the willingness to recog- nise the good, however little, which lies in the hearts of all ; the faith that within every soul there must exist among the things it loves and venerates " some rough idea of duty, some light mist of disinterested love a broken fringe of holy light, whence a divine life may be begun and radiate." It was in this spirit that the ever spreading Kingdom of God on earth began its march, and won the sway it holds. Here a little and there a little it moved on, conquering single hearts, and leaving there a garrison of truth and love before advancing to newer victories. And precisely because of this slow but sure and thorough method, it came to pass that " before the word and work of Christ the craft of hierarchies, the force of governments, and the weight of a massive civilisation gave way. And while thousands of State projects on the vastest scale have been conceived, executed, and for- gotten, while on the field of history the repeated tramp of armies has been heard to approach, to pass by, to die away ; while the noise of shifting nations, and the shriek of revolutions, have gone up from earth to heaven and left silence A COMPARISON 51 once more behind this meek power triumphs over all." And those who live and work on the same quiet unobtrusive lines will succeed to-day in advancing that same Kingdom. Even the poorest and weakest and most obscure of its true citizens can help in this great endeavour. The Kingdom of Heaven is as a grain of mustard seed, and we can sow it ; it is as a foam-globe of leaven, and we can mingle it. But every citizen's success will be only in proportion as he is himself possessed by the life and spirit of the Kingdom. Often and often will he need to pray on behalf of that world within his own heart, " Put down in me, O Father, all that exalts and magnifies itself against Thy rule. Mortify and kill all vices in me, all corrupt desires, all rebel murmurings, all proud, malicious, or resentful thoughts ; and do Thou ever strengthen and confirm within the spiritual kingdom of Thy love." Without this nothing. For though the Kingdom of God be an everlasting kingdom, destined to embrace the world ; though the traces of its wider sway already flush the hills with gathering light ; yet if any one is to share E 2 52 A COMPARISON the splendour of its Triumph and enter into the joy of its Peace, lo ! the light of the King- dom must be within. In the conscience the voice of its Law, in the will the energy of its Righteousness, and in the heart the love of its Truth must reign supreme. CHARACTER READING " And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto Him, Lord, I will follow thee whither- soever Thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests ; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head. And He said unto another, Follow Me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead : but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow Thee ; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." ST. LUKE ix. 57-62. WE have already seen that in order to under- stand the language of any great and original teacher we must bring to the task certain qualifications for success. Thought is necessary, for essential truth does not always lie upon the surface. Sym- pathy is necessary, for the mind and will must work in harmony with the main object of our teacher. We must have moreover sufficient historical imagination to place ourselves at the 54 CHARACTER READING time and amid the circumstances of the teach- ing we desire to understand. Let us try to bring these qualifications to bear upon this passage, and see how they help us to its interpretation. We find here three different applicants for discipleship : each met with a chilling answer calculated to discourage and deter, while in one case apparently the harshness of the reply is unnatural if not posi- tively cruel. The sceptic of course has an easy method with such passages as these. M. Renan may serve as a type. "In such fits of severity," he writes, " Jesus went so far as to abolish all natural ties. Despising the healthy limits of man's nature, He demanded that he should exist only for Him, that he should love Him alone .... We should almost say that, in these moments of conflict with the most legit- imate cravings of the heart, Jesus had for- gotten the pleasure of living, of loving, of seeing, and of feeling .... He boldly preached war against nature ; and total severance from ties of blood." l Thus does M. Renan illustrate for us the saying that " extremes meet." For here is a 1 Trubner's Trans., p. 222. CHARACTER READING 55 i man gifted, as plenty of his writing proves, with the poetical instinct, with artistic feeling and with an exuberant imagination, talking like the most mechanical literalist who ever murdered a metaphor or cudgelled a paradox. This is so far convenient that to answer the one will be at the same time to answer the other ; for the objection of the sceptic and the difficulty of the literalist are founded on the same mis- understanding. These utterances of our Lord unmistakably (one would have thought) belong to that class of sayings which are enigmatical in form, which, taking a proverbial turn, do not diffuse their meaning as a flower its scent ; but from which the truth, like the juice of certain kinds of fruit, can only be taken by breaking through the outer rind or shell which hides while it pre- serves it. In this light they should be ex- amined, for so only will they deliver up to us their treasures of wisdom and knowledge. First comes the eager volunteer : " Lord, I will follow Thee withersoever Thou goest ; " and Jesus said to him, " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." The difficulty here is comparatively small. It 56 CHARACTER READING consists solely in the fact that a would-be dis- ciple who has expressed his aspiration in terms of enthusiasm, instead of being encouraged, is deliberately repelled. But there is nothing very strange in this. Those sudden transports and ebullitions of feeling, which with some modern religionists count for so much, counted with Jesus Christ for very little. He never re- gards them as evidences of a character upon which He can depend. The characteristic of this scribe (for so St. Matthew calls him, ch. viii. 19) was impulsiveness. And in the answer he received we have but another ex- ample of that "mistrust of emotional fervour" which our Lord uniformly shows. The woman who cried, " Blessed is the womb that bear Thee," the scribe in the case before us, and St. Peter when he said, " I am ready to go with Thee to prison and to death," all are answered by our Lord in the same tone of repression. 1 But perhaps you still feel that, after all, the reply has a tone of harshness which is out of keeping with the graciousness of Jesus Christ towards the children of men ? Then I ask you to remember what those even who doubt the Divinity of Jesus have never denied, His 1 Pastor Pastorum, p. 376. CHARACTER READING 57 extraordinary insight into character. These are the words of One Who beyond all others " knew what was in man." What if Christ saw hidden in the heart of this wonderfully eager volunteer the ruling motive of self-interest ? What if, when he came to Christ, his mind was full of the belief: this is the promised Messiah, I will throw in my lot with His, and then all the wealth and splendour of his Messianic days I too shall share? If now this be the key to the character of the man, then what utterance could be more necessary than this warning against any false assumption ? What more entirely kind than to state in picturesque sim- plicity the naked truth ? I who come indeed as the Messiah of the Jew come not in the joy of David, nor in the magnificence of Solomon, but as a " Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." Indeed I have no home on earth which I can even call my own. "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." The next instance is more difficult. "Jesus said unto another, Follow Me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead : but go thou and preach the Kingdom 5 8 CHARACTER READING of God." On the face of it this sounds indeed "a hard saying." Has Christ, we ask, no reverence for the dead, that He thus tramples upon the common instinct of humanity? Is the natural affection naught to Him which in the presence of death bids us lay aside for the time all other interests and duties till we have borne to their last resting-place the dear forms that we still love, though they have fallen asleep? But to argue so were surely inconsistent with all else we know of Jesus Christ. Is not this He who was moved even to tears over the fate of the city that He loved ? who showed the tenderest compassion to the bereaved mother at the gate of Nain ; and who, at the grave of His own friend, " groaned in spirit and was troubled," even though He was about to rifle the tomb and rescue its spoil ? Yet here is this same Christ apparently preventing a son from paying the last offices of filial duty, and for- bidding him to attend the funeral of his father ! Such is the conclusion of the literalist, for such must appear to be the surface meaning of the words. In the search for some deeper and truer meaning than that which appears at first sight according to the letter, we need not, however, fly to the opposite extreme, with CHARACTER READING 59 Theophylact and others, and understand that the father here being, perhaps, in extreme age, the son asked to be allowed to stay with him till he died. For this is not to explain what is written, but to explain it away. On the other hand we are bound to read the words in the light of the time when they were spoken. Thus we ought to recall the fact that the Jews buried within twenty-four hours of a death, and that for a son to be seen in public during this short interval between the death and burial of his father would have been considered highly indecent, and is therefore highly improbable. Accustomed as we are to a considerably longer interval between death and burial, it has been commonly assumed that this man's father was lying dead at home when our Lord met him. But Eastern usage both pre- cludes this idea, and at the same time makes it very likely " that the completion of the ten days of strict mourning was regarded as part of the obsequies, and that the word ' bury ' applies to this. The father might have been laid in the ground, but the ten days not having expired, the funeral solemnities were not considered to be past." 1 1 Pastor Pastorum, p. 378. 60 CHARACTER READING These I take to have been the actual circum- stances, first because they best accord with the facts judged in their proper historical light, and next because they remove from our Lord's utterance an excessive severity which is foreign to all that elsewhere falls from His lips when dealing with similar cases. But allowing this view to be correct, and accepting the explana- tion that the request made related rather to the fulfilment of additional rites beyond the literal interment of the body ; though we have re- moved a needless exaggeration of the difficulty by ceasing to encumber ourselves with a false notion based on our own modern and Western usage, yet the harsh inflexibility of the tone and spirit of the answer still remains, and calls for further comment. But do we not all know the type of character to which this very tone administers the precise tonic that is needed ? Have we not ourselves experienced the mood of mind and heart in which an imperative command calling us to immediate action is the only specific for our case ? There is an old tradition that the speaker here was afterwards the Apostle Thomas. Whether this be so or not, his gloomy and desponding temperament is very CHARACTER READING 61 common in the world. It is next to impossible for some people to look on the bright side of things. They are ingenious even to subtlety in shutting out the sunlight. Now these are they whose mournful turn of mind exposes them to peril. Out of such material grows all too easily either the hard and miserable cynic, who is near to crying with the devil himself "Evil, be thou my good!" or else the maudlin sentimentalist to whom all life is one long funeral, and tombs and monu- ments the cherished tryst of morbid feelings and despairing thoughts. Now the best pos- sible medicine for a malady like this is an authoritative call to immediate, wholesome, bracing work. Sensitive, distrustful, sad, "quail- ing under a nerve-storm," the morbid man who hesitates is lost, and yet by himself he is too weak to act. A foreign will must come to his help, and take the place of that which is failing. But such a will can hold no parley with excuses or delay, for every moment spent in lingering increases the hold of what is really a disease. Therefore, in the peremptory tone of the com- mand lies the hope of its effecting a cure. Now, this is exactly the treatment which is followed here. "Jesus saith unto another, Fol- 62 CHARACTER READING low Me." Your man of mournful and doubting temperament is no eager volunteer like the last. He needs the word of actual invitation. Even then his gloomy disposition rises into evidence. " Yes, I will follow Thee," he seems to say ; " but there are still those sad obsequies to be wound up. Life is not worth living, yet I will follow Thee : let me but bury all my old love, and then what matters ? " And the Master of the lives and thoughts of men checks that unhealthy outlook upon life, chills that poor re- gretful barren sentimentalism, dashes it aside with a strong dose of common sense. " The duties," He seems to say, " which are owed to the dead are sacred duties ; but think rather of the duties you owe to the living, think of the work that cries out to be done. Sentiment is ever easier than sacrifice ; yet to be and to do are more important than to feel." Do we not all of us, at times, need this lesson ? Is there not a sort of luxury of sorrow and disappointment and regret? Is it not posi- tively nice sometimes to be miserable ? These are dangerous times, which call for strong measures and strong words. The unfaltering hand of one who is stronger than we must lift us, even by force, out of the mire and clay of CHARACTER READING 63 our perverted imagination, and set our feet upon the rock of truth and fact. Our hope is in obeying the exhortation of the poet who echoes the words of the text : " Trust no Future howe'er pleasant, Let the dead Past bury its dead, Act, act, in the living Present, Heart within, and God o'erhead." This then is the everlasting message : Be- ware lest any tender regrets of heart and life should veil from you more obvious duties. Take heed lest, in the remembrance of those duties toward the dead, you forget your higher duties toward the living. Better it is to give bread to the hungry body, better far to satisfy the hungry soul, than to brood over the dead in any luxury of woe. " Go thou rather and publish abroad the Kingdom of God." The third case in this passage need not long detain us, because much of what has been just said is again applicable. "Another also said, Lord, I will follow Thee, but let me first go and bid them farewell which are at home at my house." What could be more reasonable ? For better for worse, the man will follow. One thing only he asks, one little favour : may he but go home first to take leave of those that he loves, 64 CHARACTER READING and explain to them his intended absence ? But the Master, Who has insight into the nature and disposition of this man, sees where his weakness lies, and takes the opportunity to warn him : " No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God." Christ never forbade that farewell. But He does admonish the speaker and through him every one of us according to our need. Duty to God is a paramount duty, with which nothing else can be allowed to compete. In order to do it faithfully there will be times when even innocent pleasures must be forgone, when " they that have wives must be as those that have none, and they that possess as though they possessed not." The Christ Who provided for His own Mother amid the torture of the Cross does not frown on this proposal, but He teaches that even the most right and natural human tenderness for the claims of kindred and of home must never be allowed to interfere with obligations that are divine, or lower the standard of what men owe to God. Do you say that the call to waive such claims as these is a " counsel of perfection," a summons to " wind ourselves too high for mortal man CHARACTER READING 65 beneath the sky ? " A little thought will re- mind us that, in every walk of life, the path is barred against the man who has not the power to put aside the ties of affection when they cross the line of duty. If the tradesman and mechanic, if the soldier and the statesman, the lawyer and the doctor, the artist and the philosopher, must learn to accept the spirit of the couplet, " I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not honour more," shall not this same truth be true in the sphere of religion ? It surely needs no argument to convince us that life would not be so difficult if our tempta- tions sprang only from what is plainly wrong. It is often in the crucifixion of self in regard to matters intrinsically harmless, that in the process of spiritual evolution Christ leads us from the lower to the higher. When He deals with those who aspire to fellowship with Him, He passes beyond any question of obvious sin into a rarer and loftier air, and we seem to hear Him say, 'What is wanted in the true fol- lower is a loyal determination to let go what- ever interferes with the demands of the highest right.' And is not the man of amiability and kindli- ness and warm affection, the man full of friend- F 66 CHARACTER READING liness and hospitable feeling, just the kind of man to be in danger of forgetting the necessity for this high and strenuous endeavour ? Surely it is he above all who will be tempted to rest satisfied with the aroma of kindliness which pervades his home. Such an one, we may well think, was he to whom the Master, not in harsh- ness but in wisdom and in love, says, "If you allow anything, however innocent in itself, to distract you from the duty which God has given you to do, you are forsaking the vocation wherewith you are called, forsaking the highest that you know, and you stand in danger of lowering not only your line of conduct, but the character which is daily being formed by your actions." Remember, then, when the claims of " other things," even lawful and desirable things, clash with allegiance to Christ, remember that " no man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Now the most striking thing about these three instances, the thing in fact which prob- ably led to their being placed together in the narrative is the difference of treatment by our Lord of cases outwardly similar. One is repelled who volunteers to follow forthwith, while two others who crave but a slight delay are impera- tively told to come at all costs at once. CHARACTER READING 67 Why is this ? A comparison of this passage with the nearly parallel one in St. Matthew viii. makes it probable that the occasion of the second and third colloquies was different from that of the first, and therefore the exigencies of the hour may partly have dictated the diversity of treatment. But, apart from this, is it not most reasonable to suppose that the sufficient explanation lies in the simple fact that He Who could say with a fulness no other Shep- herd ever could, " I know my sheep," adapted His method to the real condition of each separate case ? How can we doubt that to our Lord's eye every human being had a moral and spiritual physiognomy of his own ? And if He, thus " needing not that any should tell Him," held the key of each man's character, how could He do otherwise than vary His method with the differing needs of each ? What becomes, then of the "hardness" of these sayings ? Must we not allow it to have disappeared ? In taking the wisest was not the Master also taking the kindest course with these three men ? The impulse of merely evanescent eagerness, or of calculating self- interest, whichever was the leading note of the first character, was it not better stopped at once ? The tendency to brooding melancholy F 2 68 CHARACTER READING and to exaggerated sentiment, or the leaning toward the idols of home and an immoderate appreciation of domestic joys, what more wholesome medicine for such weaknesses than the positive, inflexible summons to immediate active service in the cause of God and of man- kind? The passage we have been reviewing affords in short an example of that method which the great teachers of the world have always freely used in .order to make their listeners reflect. Sometimes Christ spoke with transparent simplicity, with no other object than to convey His meaning as widely and as plainly as possible. But at other times, as in many of His parables, the Master wrapt His lesson in some striking figure or phrase intended to arrest the attention, and to call out his hearers' own capacity for thought. He uses the Hard Saying as a goad. It is thus that Christ speaks here. The object seems on the surface to be only to discourage and deter. It is in fact to make men think ; to force them to look below "the letter which killeth," till they find the spirit wherein alone and evermore is "life." THE WINNOWING FAN " And "there went great multitudes with Him : and He turned, and said unto them, If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." ST. LUKE xiv. 25, 26. THESE words were spoken, not like those we have been considering, to meet the case of certain individual characters, but to the multi- tude at large. Loosely attached crowds, moved chiefly by curiosity, often followed in the train of Christ. But for the purpose He had in view, this casual adherence was a hindrance rather than a help. It would excite the sus- picious hostility of the authorities, and give occasion to Christ's enemies, without in any way consolidating that spiritual kingdom " not of this world," which He came to inaugurate on earth. For this work they only who are " called and chosen and faithful " will serve, and it was 70 THE WINNOWING FAN necessary to winnow these from the merely wonder-struck throng. Christ knew that this mere crowding after Him had little enough in common with true discipleship. We are not surprised, then, to find the Master " turning to the multitude " with words evidently chosen to repress and repel. The difficulty is not to find the motive, but to justify the terms of Christ's address. " Take them literally, and," as Arch- bishop Trench remarks, " they stand in direct contradiction to the whole teaching of the rest of Scripture, and of our Lord Himself else- where. They enjoin an immorality. They require of men to hate those whom it is their prime duty to love." Now in the first place, much that has been already said concerning the " hard sayings " of the ninth chapter of this Gospel applies also to these words. Christ desires enthusiasm, but He desires also thoughtfulness. By an ex- pression so astonishingly harsh and stern, He would undoubtedly sift that miscellaneous crowd, but He would also arouse His hearers to thought. If they really intended disciple- ship, let them realise what it meant. As in all other affairs of life, the cost must be counted. As he who sets about to build must count his THE WINNOWING FAN 71 capital, or bring himself to bankruptcy ; as he who prepares a military expedition must care- fully reckon his resources, or else court defeat ; so must they, who, either without consideration or from unworthy motives, flock after Christ, count the cost of real discipleship. But besides the curious in that mixed multitude we may be sure there were the selfish also, people who calculated, indeed, but without knowledge. These would be cherishing the chance that it might be " good business," as we say, for their " own life," and also for their families and friends, if this Jesus of Nazareth turned out to be the true Messiah, and came into His rights of privilege and power. Now Christ would have no man follow Him on a misunderstanding. He would never, like some who would enlist recruits for earthly war, deny or minimise the trials and perils of fellow- ship with Him. He will rather go to the opposite extreme, and therefore He states His terms in the most uncompromising form : " Whoso hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, cannot be My disciple." These multitudes had no idea of the ordeal 72 THE WINNOWING FAN of suffering involved in really following Christ. They naturally clung to their own life ; but, if they became His disciples, they might be called even to die for His sake. Are they prepared for this sacrifice ? Are they ready to regard as an enemy that natural love of life which at such a crisis would tempt them to forsake Him? Still further, are they ready to regard as an enemy that natural affection which might tempt them to violate their fidelity to Him ? which indeed would surely do so in those coming days, which Christ foresaw, when "a man's foes shall be they of his own household." Thus we see that our Lord would actually have been screening the truth, and deceiving the people, if He had not taught, as plainly as He did, the full measure of the claim He made on their allegiance : " Whoso loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me." For in this quotation from St. Matthew we have in fact the essence of the teaching of our text. Here in St. Luke the lesson is conveyed in bolder paradox, in terms which provoke attention, and compel either admission or re- jection at the chambers of the mind. Yet no one, save the too learned M. Renan, or some dear, bungling literalist, need find in this word THE WINNOWING FAN 73 "hate" any real difficulty. No one else will ever think of Jesus Christ as deliberately " trampling under foot everything that is human blood, and love and country." What the common sense of most will and must see is rather what the Master intended : that no terms, however strange, however striking, can too vividly set forth the absolute supremacy of His claim upon the affections and the lives of men. The actual form of this oriental aphorism is not, after all, the really surprising thing. We may be sure that what made that listening crowd catch their breath in astonishment was not the " hatred " called for by the letter of this phrase, but the absolutism of its tone and spirit. Though indeed Christ's hearers might not grasp exactly what He positively meant by so startling a paradox, they knew quite enough about the Speaker to understand what He did not mean. The common folk, who heard so gladly the prophet of Galilee, would have smiled at M. Renan and the mad conclusions of his learned doubt. They had Christ's whole life and teaching for a witness that He would never make light of the sacred ties of natural affection or despise the claims of kindred, or compound with that spirit of hatred which He taught men to regard as the essence of murder 74 THE WINNOWING FAN itself. I cannot believe for a moment that those who heard this saying actually fall from the lips of Jesus were ever troubled by mis- taking His intent. They would clearly realise that One whose whole teaching hinged upon the Divine Fatherhood, One who gathered up all human duty into Love for God and Love for Man, could never mean them to "hate" those whom they were most bound to love on earth. 1 1 was not this sharp, strong word that staggered them. Not in this lay the "hardness" of the saying. They knew that suicide was no more enjoined in the clause about hating one's own life, than was literal hatred of near relations meant in the other clauses. But what undoubtedly did astound them, and was intended so to do, was the essence and spirit of the words. For, when all legitimate allowance is made for Eastern hyperbole, what an amazing claim remains ! What mere man- however great, however good dare claim the like for an instant, without expecting and de- serving to be called insane? It is fashionable to-day to asperse the doctrine of Christ's Divinity. Books have great vogue which deny all miracles but one the miracle of the sinless life of a flawless Teacher. Such writers des- cant on the beauty of the one and on the wisdom THE WINNOWING FAN 75 of the other. But after they have explained away the passages which directly declare the Oneness of Christ with God Himself, there still remains the very strongest evidence for the Divinity of Jesus in what is said quite incidentally, as for example in the claims made in the concluding part of the Sermon on the Mount, where Christ speaks of His own authority interchangeably with that of the Su- preme, or in such a passage as that now before us, where the absolute subordination of all other interests and affections, however desirable, however innocent, is unreservedly called for. On the part of any less than the greatest, lower than the highest, the demand would un- doubtedly involve an unanswerable charge either of consummate folly or of boundless pre- sumption. Yet here, as Archbishop Trench 1 has aptly observed, the claim is made " not in the name of Another, whose messenger the speaker is, but in His own, setting forth Him- self as the object to whom all this measureless devotion is justly due and who, claiming it all, claims nothing but that which is His own by right." This extraordinary absolutism, then, I take to be the really staggering thing about this 1 Studies in the Gospels, p. 254. 76 THE WINNOWING FAN passage. But it presents no difficulty in theory, whatever it may do in practice, to the humble believer in the Incarnation. Such an one hears the just demands of the One Master, with sorrow indeed at the heavy debt of unfulfilled allegiance which he is conscious of having accumulated, but without surprise and without recoil. Reason and experience, moreover, come to strengthen his wavering fidelity, for they remind a man how often natural affection, if it be gratified without regard to moral duty, becomes corrupted in the process and turns to loathing and to disappointment. Thus too he grows to realise how even pure family ties and duties, blessed as they usually are, must not be turned into idols or suffered to hamper the " clear spirit" in its ascent to God. And finally he begins to understand how " the strongest and truest love is that which is capable of the courage and self-sacrifice in- volved in the infliction of necessary pain." l And, therefore, just as he who " hateth his life in this world " really " keeps it unto life eternal," so he, who according to Christ's paradox " hates" his friends, really loves them with a deeper, more abiding, and more unselfish affection. 1 T. C. Finlayson, Expositor, vol. ix. p. 430. THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth : but I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil: but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away" ST. MATTHEW v. 38-42 (cf. ST. LUKE vi. 2 9> 3)- THE difficulty here is precisely opposite in kind from that of the other instances we haye been considering. Hitherto we have been con- fronted by an apparently excessive severity and harshness. Now Christ seems to recommend a tenderness indistinguishable from weakness, and to proclaim absolutely the duty of non- resistance to injuries. But the fact that the tenor of these hard sayings is antagonistic, that while some seem to overshoot the mark in one direction, others do so in a direction which is precisely opposite, this fact should put us in the way of finding an invaluable clue not only to these particular 7 8 THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS problems, but to a score of other difficulties which have been used as arguments against the truth and wisdom of Christianity. If we found that the thrust and bearing of all that is difficult to understand in the speech of Christ went in one direction, then it might be otherwise ; but as it is, ordinary common sense suggests what further inquiry proves to demonstration, that, in these strikingly picturesque and forceful sayings, our Lord was not enunciating precise rules of conduct to be literally followed in detail ; but was rather declaring broad general principles, which swept now this way and now that. Christ and Christianity deal in principles, not rules. His words are as sown seed capable of endless growth. Keep this in mind, and you have the clue to everything. The mistakes that people make in interpreting the doctrine of Jesus come, nearly all of them, from not realising that it was His invariable method to avoid laying down rules which time and circumstances would soon make obsolete, and to proclaim principles capable of eternal appli- cation. Suppose, for instance, that our Lord had adjudicated the question of inheritance which THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS 79 two family disputants brought to Him for settlement, endless confusion would have re- sulted from the judgment. " We should have had an isolated case of the law of inheritance, on which an irreversible decision had been pronounced. Every code framed for Christian lands would have had to accept and embody this. Endless guesses at the special circum- stances of the case would have been made, and every one who contested a distribution of property would have endeavoured to show that this ruling" of Christ covered his own claims." ] o In refusing here to become " a ruler and a divider," Jesus followed His invariable custom ; He constantly asserted the principles of love, unselfishness, order, which would decide all questions, but the questions themselves He would not decide. He would lay down a broad political principle, " Render unto Caesar the things that be Ceesar's, and unto God the things which are God's." But he would not determine whether a particular tax was due to Csesar or not. So also Christ lays down a great social law : " Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal." But to say how much is just and equal, Christianity leaves to each 1 Pastor Pastorum, p. 405, So THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS master and to each age of society to determine. So again, Christianity binds up men in a holy brotherhood ; but what are the best institutions and surest means for arriving at this brother- hood it has not said. Whether, for instance, competition or co-operation will best conduce to its realisation in the community ; whether a merely national patriotism, or a transfigured form thereof embracing mankind, presents that pure ideal which may at last bring " Peace on earth to men of goodwill " ; such issues are left to the growing experience and the developing Conscience of Humanity to work out. The purview of the child is not that of the full-grown man. And there is a childhood of the race as well as of the individual. What is condoned in one age is scouted by another. Within the covers of the Bible itself the progressive growth of moral and spiritual perception is plain to read. And the subse- quent history of social evolution tells the same tale. Even the conscience of Christendom is sensitised by slow degrees, and the great conscience of Humanity more slowly still. Hence we see the wisdom, the necessity, of Christ's method of enlightening the world. THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS 81 Thus alone it comes to pass that Christianity is the Eternal Religion which can never become obsolete, just because it commits itself only to eternal principles. And the Founder of our Faith shows Himself so resolute on this point that it seems exceedingly probable that He cast so much of what He had to communicate into the startling and paradoxical forms which so puzzle the literalist, precisely in order to prevent His hearers making of them . rules when He intended only to deliver principles, the application of which He purposely left to their own common sense. There is an instance in the Gospels which goes to show that even when a saying of Christ has all the appearance of a regular rule, it was not our Lord's purpose that it should be taken otherwise than as a principle. In St. Luke xxii. 35, Jesus refers back to the first missionary journey of the Twelve. They were, He had told them (St. Matthew x. 9, 10), to set out with practically nothing but a staff in their hands, no money, no provisions, no change of clothes casting themselves wholly on the kind- ness of men and the Providence of God. There was no doubt a wise object in this order : it was the best to effect the immediate purpose. G 82 THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS Now suppose you take this as a literal rule to be followed by ministers for all time, you not only expose the words of Christ to ridicule and contempt, but you actually insist on retaining a rule which He Himself repealed. For at the close of Christ's Ministry, in view of dark and troublous days, .He said to the Twelve again, " But now, he that hath a purse let him take it, and likewise his scrip ; and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." Now it is plainly quite impossible that we should render a literal obedience to both these rules. And what is almost equally clear is that even the Twelve never attempted literally to obey the latter. For example, common sense forbids us to suppose that Christ meant the Apostles to leave the table at which they had just eaten the Last Supper and go out and buy swords, or that He ever intended swords to be wielded in His service. Indeed, but a few hours after, St. Peter did strike at Malchus with his sword, and only received a rebuke for his pains. Is it not clear then that by these deliberate admonitions which look like rules, but are really statements embodying principles of set purpose so framed as -to prevent their being THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS 83 taken literally, is it not clear that the great object of our Lord in this picturesque and para- doxical language was to drive us to look beneath the actual words until we find the principles those words enshrine ? If now we go back to our text with these considerations clearly in mind, how entirely plain it grows that this turning of the smitten to the smiter, this offering fresh opportunity to the would-be thief, this indiscriminate giving to every beggar and lending to every one who seeks a loan, were simply so many vivid pictures to enforce attention to a most fruitful and profitable, though generally neglected, principle. Pictures they are in fact purposely painted in glaring colours, figures indeed of a most valuable truth, but left almost grotesquely out of drawing precisely in order to cut off the possibility of their being taken as patterns for literal obedience. The actual example of our Lord is quite sufficient proof in itself that He could never have intended His followers to turn these start- ling illustrations into maxims for literal imita- tion. For the practice of the Master Whose whole Life incomparably exhibits the principle here taught, none the less plainly contradicts G 2 84 THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS the letter He uses to convey its spirit to our minds. We know that from those who, from unworthy motives, asked of Jesus treasures more precious than silver or gold, He did "turn away"; and bade His disciples use dis- cretion lest they cast their pearls before swine. We remember how Christ deliberately did "resist evil," when, whip in hand, He chased the traffickers from the Temple. And we recall how, when on the occasion of His trial an apparitor struck Him on the cheek, Jesus did not "turn to him the other also," but rebuked the smiter for the cowardly blow. But such instances need not be multiplied, a single one of them is proof enough of the point I am urging, that this passage was never intended to supply a series of rules, but to claim attention and obedience to a great and glorious principle capable of innumerable applications. And though no single sentence could easily be framed to define it, this principle is surely comprehensible enough. Christ preaches not the non-resistance which involves being over- come of evil, but that which "overcomes evil with good," which disarms hostility by the ex- hibition of a generous spirit, which by gentle- ness turns away wrath and retaliating only with THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS 85 kindness heaps " coals of fire" on the head of the malicious. The Christian is never bidden to open his door to the burglar, or his pocket to the thief. When he meets either the un- scrupulous speculator who swallows the living of the orphan and the widow, or the murderous landlord who refuses sanitary conditions to his tenants, he not only may but ought to "be angry and sin not." And his commission to the sturdy beggar who seeks to live upon the toil of others, is neither to give nor to lend, but to tell him, in the words of St. Paul, that "if a man will not work, neither should he eat." In short, Christianity calls no man to ineptitude and imbecility, but to exercise a " sound mind " in sober, righteous, and godly living. The principle of this particular passage is the principle of the power of good. Christ in- culcates a habit of life formed on the belief that " in the long run good is stronger than evil, kindness than cruelty, love than law." Thus the Christian is summoned to exhibit in all the affairs of life a spirit of consideration, of kind- liness, of generosity. In the cultivation and practice of this spirit the words of Christ will be obeyed. We really do His will, " not when we refuse to take a legal oath, but when we 86 THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS cultivate a truthful spirit : not when we turn the other cheek to the smiter, but when we conquer anger and violence with meekness and love : not when we give or lend to every one that asks of us, but when we cherish a charit- able spirit." Everywhere, and by all means the Christian disciple is called to be a servant not of the letter but of the spirit. He who so "learns Christ " alone will ever understand with what a breadth and depth of truth the Master spoke when He said, "It is the spirit which maketh alive. The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life." AGAINST ANXIETY " Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat ? or, What shall we drink ? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed"} for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first His Kingdom and His righteousness : and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious for the mor- rmv : for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" ST. MATTHEW vi. 31-34. THE difficulty here lies rather with ourselves than with the actual words of the Master. " Take no thought " is the old English equi- valent for "Be not anxious," as the Revised Version reminds us. There is therefore nothing subtle or mysterious in the exhortation. It is magnificently simple. Yet who is there among us who has not often found it a " hard say- ing"? In an earlier age perhaps, when the speed and pressure of life were less, for the dwellers in some pastoral Eden of a bygone day, possibly even now for some exceptional people the happy few endowed with perfect 88 AGAINST ANXIETY health and ample means the doctrine might seem suitable. But for the mass of mankind at the end of the nineteenth century, hardly bestead in the battle for subsistence, for men immersed in bitter business competition, for tillers of the soil who can grow little to any profit ; in short, for the immense majority of the race, how can we regard this exhortation against anxiety except as unreasonable and extravagant ? First, however, we have to remember that no saying of any man's can be rightly inter- preted apart from the recognised standpoint of the speaker. We know that here that stand- point is not far to seek. For the fundamental principle of the doctrine of Jesus was the fact of the FATHERHOOD of God. The Boy of twelve must be about His Father's business. In that He found His meat and drink until the end, when we hear Him add to the ancient prayer of commendation from the Psalms He loved, this characteristic touch " Father," " Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit." And as at the beginning and the end, so it was throughout. When Jesus described the circle of religious thought, He stated it in AGAINST ANXIETY 89 terms of the Fatherhood. Repentance was a return to the Father : "I will arise and go to my Father." When ye pray, say, " Our Father, Which art in Heaven." The type of character was the Father ; " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." The principle of all life was the Will of the Father. Providence is the mindful over- sight of a Father : " Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." One of the few rays of light Jesus cast on the future showed the Father's dwelling-place : "In my Father's house are many mansions." It has been truly said that the effect of such passages and they could be multiplied in- definitely is cumulative and irresistible. They are no mere proof texts for a dogma ; they are an atmosphere in which religion lives and moves and has its being. Now it is this doctrine of the Fatherhood Divine which is the key of the problem now before us. Every questioning of doubt, every protest we may urge as to the importance of these physical necessities, every plausible ex- cuse we may contrive for worrying about them, is conclusively met with the simple statement, " Your heavenly Father knoweth, knoweth 90 AGAINST ANXIETY that ye have need of all these things." And when Christ said, "Your Father knows," His whole argument implies also " Your Father cares." And even more specifically He con- tinues, " All these things shall be added unto you," these temporal needs shall be fulfilled, if only ye seek first the Father's kingdom and His righteousness. If, that is, you put the needs of the spirit before those of the body, and concentrate your energies, first not on amassing material gain, but on the attainment of spiritual character, thinking more of what you may become than of anything you may be able to get then your Father in Heaven will not fail you. Thus we see that the difficulty of Jesus' teaching on this subject of worldly anxiety re- solves itself, in fact, into the difficulty of firmly believing His foundation doctrine of God's paternal care. When we hear Jesus discoursing of repose on Providence, our temptation to explain the whole thing away as an idyll or a dream gathers force from the doubts we entertain as to whether God is after all soli- citous of His creatures' welfare. If we really believed that the Almighty does not know and love and care, then these precepts against AGAINST ANXIETY 91 anxiety about our worldly concerns would seem to us no longer difficult. It is because we doubt that truth, which alone makes Christ's bidding a reasonable command, that we find ourselves so impotent to obey it. Moreover, there is considerable ground for hesitation. The Fatherly cares of God appear at times to admit of the very strangest mis- fortunes. Though Christ and Christ's Church declare that He " ordereth all things in heaven and earth ; " though the Psalmist asserts that "all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth " to the obedient ; and an Apostle repeats that " all things work together for good to them that love God ; " yet we have after all a feeling, irrepressibly recurrent, that experi- ence contradicts revelation in this matter. As we pass in review the horrors of war, the hideousness of slavery, the indescribable misery and squalor which disgrace the purlieus of the finest cities of the world, the terrible suffer- ings which by no means only dog the steps of sin, the triumphs of evil and the frequent ill-success of good ; as the daily press pours out its awful tale of shipwreck and accident, of famine and suicide, we stand appalled at the lurid picture. These, we say, are facts. 92 AGAINST ANXIETY How are we to reconcile them with the beauti- ful dreams of the great Galilean Teacher ? Surely it is only left to us, as we look earth- ward, to exclaim with the ancient pessimist, " Behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit ; " or, looking heavenward, to cry with the prophet of old, ' Verily, Thou art a God that hidest Thyself." " We see not our signs," and so we practically disbelieve in the paternal government of God ; and disbelieving, it be- comes utterly impossible to fulfil the word of Christ, which bids us cease from personal anxiety and care. Now Jesus, Who always discouraged specu- lative thought, never solved for us the mystery of evil in the world, and it is probable therefore that it will remain unsolved until the Day of God. But Jesus did give to the world both teaching and facts which enable us, despite that mystery, to believe in the power, wisdom, and love of the Eternal. By his teaching of Immortality He lifts the believer out of the untenable position in which he would otherwise find himself in face of the problems of life. To all these things we can now say, The end is not yet. It is not for this world only we have the heritage of Hope in Christ. AGAINST ANXIETY 93 " Traversed heart must tell its story uncommented on : no less, Mine results in ' Only grant a second life, I acquiesce In this present life as failure, count misfortune's worst assaults Triumph not defeat ; assured that loss so much the more exalts Gain about to be. ' " We know that God has not finished with any of us when we go down to the grave, least of all with those whose earthly opportunities have been the fewest, whose chances have been the worst, whose time here has been cut off pre- maturely. Our great difficulty always and necessarily is to see things in their proper proportion and perspective. We scale everything by this little earth-life, and our measure is the measure of a man. But the scale of God is infinite, His counsels are from all eternity, and require eternity for their completion. " There shall never be one lost good ! What was shall live as before ; The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound ; On the earth the broken arcs ; in Heaven the perfect round." Human wisdom, therefore, consists largely in recognising its limitations. But what is pos- sible to human wisdom does not end with this, or we might crown the Agnostic with the laurels of the wise. And this can never be, since the Great Father, " Whom to know is everlasting life," has freely offered to man's 94 AGAINST ANXIETY reason all help necessary to peace of mind and freedom of faith, though it suffice not to the satisfaction of his curiosity. The teaching and the life of Jesus Christ crown the revelation of the Father. The only begotten Son, "He hath declared Him." And as the spirit of Jesus rises in our hearts, " the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father, "- we are no longer given over to despair, or doubt of the eternal love. " I say the acknowledgment of God in Christ, Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee All questions in the earth and out of it." In our moments of darkness, when we read Christ's teaching about the lilies and the birds and the Universal Father, and are tempted to contrast the beauteous idyll with some ugly and untoward fact, we have only to turn from the teaching to the Teacher, and faith and hope revive again. We may argue the teaching optimistic, but with the record of His life before us, it is not open to conclude that Jesus was wrong. "He drank the bitterest cup; He suffered the shamefullest death ; and yet reconciled the incalculable tragedy of His life with the love of His Father." When upon the Cross Jesus said, "Father," "it may have AGAINST ANXIETY 95 been," as has been remarked, "a pathetic de- lusion, but it was the delusion of Him Who of all the race knew God best." II. In this insistence on the Divine Father- hood Jesus Christ gives us the Secret which makes reasonable that entire trustfulness which otherwise would seem to us impossible. But there is a second great principle, upon which Jesus was constantly dwelling, which shows us the Method by means of which we are to over- come the temptation to anxiety. We learn that in the mind of Christ the physical and material were always subordinated to the spiritual. Your living is one thing, your life is another. " A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of possessions." " Man doth not live by bread alone." " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." This kind of speech was constantly on Jesus' lips. And the way in which strenuousness in spiritual endeavour is here coupled and con- trasted with uncarefulness in temporal matters goes to indicate that the way to avoid anxiety in the lower is by absorption in the higher. The Method, then, for the attainment of a quiet mind in temporal things is to estimate truly their unimportance compared with things 96 AGAINST ANXIETY eternal. "What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, only to be mulcted of his life?" And is it not just by neglect of this Method of Jesus that we fail so constantly in obedience to His word ? Do not many of us deliberately invert the Christian aim ? Are we not full of care because we strain first and mainly after physical good, and at best are only willing that the spiritual blessings of the Kingdom should be added thereto ? Yes : the animal and the earthly grasp us with the power of their near- ness and of their coarse reality. The spiritual and the divine sing to us with angel sweetness from the invisible world. But these voices sound so faint and seem to come so far, that though we can distinguish their message of grace, contentment, trust and duty, it requires more of an effort than we are disposed to make, sometimes even to listen, much less to obey. And so it comes to be that men are keener on the things that pass than on those that abide. Wealth, success, reputation, rank,--- " these be thy gods, O Israel." To make a coup of some sort political, social, even com- mercial this is worthy of careful thought, of anxious scheming, of well laid preparation. AGAINST ANXIETY 97 The vagaries of fashion, the amplitude of the wardrobe, even the pleasures of the table, anything, everything, material and mundane will engross the thought, and assume far greater importance in our worldly view than, for ex- ample, the conquest of temper, the contempt of gossip, the forgiveness of injuries, the exercise of generosity and love, in short, the attain- ment of character. Yet we can recognise the beauty of this call of Christ. And since, in the sphere of human duty, to discern an excellence is to receive a trust, it follows that by this which we morally admire we are practically bound. We know perfectly well that, rightly understood, the com- mand is reasonable and wise. We know that in Christ's thought, to live like the lilies or the birds never meant an idle standing still, to subsist on what the heavens might send. These fowls of the air, says Jesus, " God feedeth them."- Yet they are never found, regardless of the changing year, hanging always on a miracle. On the contrary, that which God giveth them " they gather." Christ never con- demns foresight, for foresight is perfectly com- patible with Faith. He condemns the restless anxiety which is born of avarice and selfishness. 98 AGAINST ANXIETY While birds and insects continually provide for their needs, they do not worry about them. Perfectly guided by instinct, they are excellent examples of that unconsciousness which is the mark of perfection in the exercise of the func- tions of life. Moreover, according to the method of Christ the fulfilment of each part of His command helps obedience to the rest. The more a man is engrossed about the higher, the less power over him will the lower have. And on the other hand the nearer any one approaches unconsciousness, "taking no thought" for the lower things necessary alike to all animal crea- tion, the freer will he be for that strenuous "taking thought" for those higher things which are the proper and peculiar privilege of Mankind. In ordinary experience we are accustomed to connect plain living with high thinking, simple tastes with moral worth. This is so much evidence for the wisdom of Christ's teaching here. Determined striving after truth or good- ness leads inevitably to a certain carelessness, or rather unconsciousness, about the things that perish in the using. And this is the ideal con- dition of mental and moral welfare. It is thus AGAINST ANXIETY 99 the injunction is fulfilled, " Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which en- dureth unto life eternal." In flagrant instances, over-carefulness in material things is at once recognised as con- temptible. We suspect the health of a man who is for ever consulting his digestion. The valetudinarian stands confessed an invalid. The epicure spoils his appetite by " taking thought " for it. The dress of the dandy and the money of the miser illustrate the same truth. So far, therefore, from regarding this saying of Jesus as a piece of pious extravagance, we ought to recognise its entire accord with the dictates of reason and with our common ex- perience of life. In listening to the Master's protest, we are not called to " wind ourselves too high for mortal man beneath the sky," but we are called to watch lest the material side of life too deeply engage and engross us. It is only by the diligent use of this Method of Christ, at first perhaps with distinct and conscious effort, that we can hope gradually to learn and at length habitually to feel that the life is more than food, as the body is more than raiment. But as long as we persist in lending H 2 ioo AGAINST ANXIETY the whole weight of divinely implanted powers to join in the selfish scramble of scheming competition, or to make provision for the gratification of the flesh, we shall surely miss the mark and degrade our human nature. For, however true it be that man lives by bread, it is at least equally true, and even more eternally important, that man cannot live by bread alone. The realisation of this ideal, the possession of this secret and the practice of this method have distinguished the Saints of God in every age and place, as their language and their lives abundantly show. Let the words of one bear witness for all. Hear a man who had as deep an experience of the labours, trials, and vicissi- tudes of life as it is possible to imagine falling to any human lot. Hear St. Paul, from his Roman prison, writing to his beloved Philip- pians, " Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice. Be careful for nothing in nothing be anxious but in everything let your requests be made known unto God. And (then) the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON " And his lord commended the unrighteous steward because he had done wisely : for the sons of this world are for their own generation wiser than the sons of the light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the Mammon of unrighteousness ; that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles. He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much : and he that is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon, who will commit to your trust the true richest And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own ? " ST. LUKE xvi. 8-12. THE Kingdom of Heaven we are accus- tomed to regard as a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom " not of this world." We think of its great ones as the "servants of all," an aristocracy neither of rank nor of wealth, but of goodness. We picture its honours bestowed on virtue, not lavished on success. There is no room in fact for even a momentary .102 THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON confusion in our mind between the spiritual nature of the beatitude which Christ passes upon the meek, the loving and the pure, the sons of light ; and those tangible satisfactions, coveted by the children of the age, which so often crown the efforts of worldly wisdom. What then are we to understand by this enigmatic saying with which Christ concludes the Story of the Steward, "I say unto you" you, My disciples "make to yourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles " ? Is the saying ironical ? intended to point the absurdity of imagining that any mere worldly astuteness can commend itself to the Lord of the spirits of all flesh ? Is it a satire upon the notion that the gift of God can be purchased with money ? Are we to read it as a vial of scorn poured upon the thought that admission to " the eternal tabernacles " can be " arranged " by that politic paltering with truth, or smart commercial double dealing, which is so often for a time successful in merely temporal affairs ? This would seem to be a possible explana- tion. But on the other hand it is improbable, THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON 103 for our Lord seldom indulged in irony at all, and never, except on one single occasion, in addressing His own disciples. So that it will be safer here to take the words as a serious instruction. In order to arrive at the true import of the passage we must first of all remember that the illustrative stories used by Jesus Christ were never intended to have a moral hung upon every minor detail. The cloud of dust raised by commentators in their hapless endeavour to do this has never been more blinding than in their treatment of the present and next following Parable. Meanings have in each case been foisted upon the drapery of the story which would have been as far from the understanding of the original hearers as they certainly were from the intention of the original Speaker. If on the other hand we are content to place ourselves among the actual audience of our Lord, and inquire what are the salient features in the story of the Steward which would strike that audience, we shall put ourselves in the way of finding the lessons He mainly desired to convey. Now the salient features of this Parable are 104 THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON two. We are struck first by the Stewards worldly wisdom. And that this is intentional on the part of the Speaker is clear from verse 8, the summary toward which all that precedes is made to converge : "His lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely : for the sons of this world are for their own generation wiser than the sons of the light. And I say unto you, make to yourselves friends by means of the Mammon of unrighteousness," &c. But we cannot help feeling that any lesson of Christian prudence which may underlie the worldly wisdom here commended might easily have been taught without coupling it with injustice. Therefore the second point in the story which fastens itself upon our attention is that the Steward was unfaithful to his trust. And that the Speaker intended this also to arrest His hearers is clear from His proceeding at once to enlarge upon the importance of absolute fidelity : " If ye have not been faith- ful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own ? " The leading features of the Parable then I take to be these two characteristics of the Steward. His wisdom and foresight in refer- THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON 105 ence to this world are qualities which Christ's disciples are enjoined to cultivate in reference to heavenly things. His unfaithfulness in a position of privilege and trust holds up to reprobation a notable failing of the Pharisees, many of whom were listening while Jesus spoke more immediately to His own disciples. It was habitual with our Lord to use stories in this way. " Without a parable spake He not unto them." It was quite consistent with His desire to make men think, that a story should contain features each specially, or indeed only, applicable to separate classes among His hearers. And He Who "knew what was in man " knew that the conscience of each could be trusted to drive home the application of the intended moral. Had we been among the Pharisee bystanders we should have been pricked by the point of the Steward's unfaith- fulness, a thought which is developed further in the next Parable of Lazarus and Dives, spoken directly to the Jewish hierarchy. While the other point, about the possibility of making even the Mammon of unrighteous- ness minister to our spiritual good, would have come home to us had we been of that group of disciples to whom but lately purely mundane io6 THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON concerns were all engrossing, and upon whom the close connection between things temporal and things eternal was only beginning to dawn. We should have understood, moreover, that it was the wisdom of the Steward, and not his worldliness, which we were called to emulate. We should have seen that the Master wished us as the sons of light to copy the Steward's zeal and foresight, not for our advantage as regards this world or to meet the contingencies of time, but in our spiritual preparation for eternity. As Edersheim justly observes, "The lesson is the more practical because those primarily addressed had hitherto been among these men of the world. Let them learn from the serpent its wisdom and from the dove its harmlessness, from the children of this world their prudence as regards their generation, while, as children of the new light, they must remember the higher aim for which that prudence was to be employed." The Master, in fact, is giving a lesson upon the most important of all matters to the Christian pilgrim how to pass through things temporal so as not finally to lose the things eternal. And He shows how the two are THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON 107 interdependent. If, He seems to say, If your ordinary man of the world is always careful to look forward, if he surmounts the difficulties of life by shrewdness and tact, providing against misfortune by securing friends who may be ready to repay him in the evil day ; so may the ordinary transactions of his daily round furnish forth the means to the man of God of laying up treasure in heaven, of deep- ening and purifying that spiritual nature, whose tenderest associations, whose deepest friend- ships, whose true home, are in the eternal tabernacles of the world to come. The pronouncement " He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much ; he that is unrighteous in a very little is un- righteous also in much," becomes thus intensely significant. He who is faithful in mere Mammon matters, in that common intercourse of life which is material and transitory, he alone will be faithful in the hidden things of the spirit which are deep and real and lasting, and to him only can therefore be entrusted the " true riches " of the spiritual life. While, on the other hand, he who is unfaithful in the stewardship of those outward and tangible things which are merely accidental io8 THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON lent with the lease of life such an one is bound to fail in dealing with that which is spiritual and essential, and can alone be properly styled " his own," since Character is the true soul and self whether of a man or of a nation. It is in fact this Law of Character which everywhere connects the " very little " and the "much," the secular and the spiritual, the temporal and the eternal. Those little words and thoughts and acts of every day may in themselves be trifles ; but the moral character each thought and word and deed is slowly and surely building up that is no trine. Not time only, but eternity is involved. Hence the attempt to separate between the secular and the religious in the affairs of life is a foolish and impossible attempt. Nothing may be accounted trivial on the ground of its being secular, because the secular and the spiritual, the little and the great, the transient and the abiding are indissolubly joined by the law of character. Therefore Christ teaches those disciples of His, some of whom as tax-collectors and business men were possibly inclined to chafe at the unspiritual nature of their work, that THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON 109 their faithfulness in the little would prove in reality to be faithfulness in much. By means of their good stewardship in things mundane, they would become entitled to that which is their own, they would win possession of them- selves and form that Character which is the only "true riches," and to which alone "the eternal tabernacles " will afford an everlasting refuge. The Jewish Midrash had a saying which is an apt comment on the words of Christ. "The Holy One, blessed be His Name, does not give great things to a man until he has been tried in a small matter " ; a principle which is thereupon illustrated by the history of Moses and of David, who were both called to rule the people after faithful apprenticeship as shepherds. Moreover, in the Christian dispensation instances abound. Judas Iscariot, chosen, no doubt, for a certain business capacity, to be the chancellor of the apostolic band we know how he handled the Mammon of unrighteousness, and we recall his miserable end. Stephen the deacon supplies an ideal contrast. Similarly chosen for secular work in order to relieve the clergy of the primitive Church, this man "full of faith and of the no THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON Holy Ghost " is lifted from the scene of his fidelity in that which is least to the highest pinnacle of honour. As the Proto-martyr of Christianity his name is immortal. As he lays down his stewardship, the gates of heaven open to his dying gaze, and the form of that Friend Who sticketh closer than a brother stands ready to admit him to everlasting habitations. We take it, then, that Christ here intends to teach that by the faithful use of "a very little," even by means of unrighteous Mammon a deceitful thing, unworthy to be regarded as an end in itself a character may be formed, and virtues and graces won, which will befriend us for ever. It is thus that the Mammon which certainly " faileth " may provide us with spiritual treasure which faileth not. It is thus that we may " make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness," and by these means that good management of passing and temporal opportunities may become eternal gain. Such would seem to have been the moral of the story of the Steward, for those to whom it was immediately addressed the disciples of Jesus. And for us Christians of to-day this application is of all others perhaps the most THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON in directly practical, warning us against regarding anything as common or unclean, reminding us that nothing is really secular but what is sinful, and assuring us how the most insignificant duty faithfully discharged as unto the Lord is fraught with issues of eternal and spiritual importance. But this moral does not exhaust the teaching of the story. Though seemingly addressed to His own disciples, it is impossible to exclude the conviction that the Speaker had the bystanders in His mind, and among these especially the Pharisees. To shame the selfish exclusiveness of the Pharisee, Christ had spoken the matchless parables of the preceding chapter. And immediately after this Story of the Steward, St. Luke reports how " the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they scoffed turned up their noses at Him." But Jesus answered, " Ye are they which justify yourselves in the sight of men," just as the astute Steward had commended himself to that man of the world who was his master in the story nevertheless, " that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God." H2 THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON And then the Master shows what is working in His mind about the unfaithfulness of Pharisaic stewardship by continuing, "The Law and the Prophets were until John : from that time the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is preached, and every man presses into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one tittle of the law to fail" He puts His finger here on that playing fast and loose with the Law which was a sin of the Pharisees precisely analogous to that of the Steward in the story. In their doctrine of Corban else- where scathingly denounced, and in their notorious laxity in the matter of divorce which is the point here cited, the Pharisees by these devices, "indulgences" in the truest sense of the word, had no doubt won friend- ship with the world, but they had done so by bidding men consider their full debt of a hundred measures of wheat or of oil dis- charged by writing down fifty or fourscore. It is surely a noteworthy thing that this should have been a failing of those very men who were so shamefully relentless against the outcast classes. The immediate sequel drives this home. The very next parable shows up the exclusiveness of the Pharisee in the person THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON 113 of the Rich Man who, having all the heart could wish in the way of religious privilege, yet refused to the heathen and the publican even the crumbs of his sumptuous fare. This however has always been the way of the world. Those satirised by Samuel Butler, who " Compound for sins they are inclined to, By damning those they have no mind to," if they have modern representatives had also progenitors from of old. It is in fact precisely what one would expect of Pharisees, for they were emphatically children of the age, the " religious world" of their own day. Success- fully justifying themselves before men, their word had greater weight with the Jewish public than that of king or priest. What they approved was, for the people, properly ac- credited : what they banned was disallowed. They might have used this immense influence for untold good. They might have drawn men by their faithfulness in the small matters of external discipline and ritual to attend to great things upon which depended their eternal peace. But they did not. Like the Steward in the story, they secured a continuance of their own personal prestige, but like him also they 114 THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON paltered with the trust committed to their keeping. And being thus found faithless in that which was least, in their administration of the letter of the Law, they showed themselves a fortiori unfit to deal with its deep and holy spirit. To the Pharisee there was no virtue but of a legal and external kind. The result at best could only be a poor, perfunctory, mechanical obedience, ever on the watch for some loophole of escape into paths perhaps not forbidden by the letter of any specific command, yet plainly contrary to the spirit of God's will. There- fore, says Jesus, this external Pharisaic right- eousness is a hollow affair which may for a time ingratiate the children of this world, but which can never serve as a standard for the children of the kingdom of God. To sum up this second great lesson of the story let us simply say, "It is required of stewards that a man be found faithful." And rightly viewed, all life in every age is steward- ship. This English nation is a steward with responsibilities perhaps vaster even than those of the Chosen People. Let her see to it that she does not lower the standard of the national conscience by putting fifty measures of oil and THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON 115 fourscore of wheat for the hundred, in the administration of justice, goodness and truth, whether at home or abroad. Not the Jewish Church only, but the Catholic Church is a steward : let her see to it that she does not waste her strength in binding on men's con- sciences burdens either utterly intolerable or absolutely insignificant, while other matters of moment are disparaged or ignored. But the Church, like the Nation, of any and every age is but an aggregate of units. Not individual Jews only, or individual Christians of Christ's day alone, but you and I and every man are Stewards of all that appertains to us, whether our place be high or low, whether our trust seem great or small. If we exploit our position, or abuse our privilege for selfish ends ; if we lower the standard of our conduct from that befitting sons of light to that which may commend us to the children of the world ; then, even though the shelter and the friend- ships we have planned for our convenience may possibly not fail us here, it is certain that no eternal home will offer us a welcome for the long hereafter. The salt of the earth and the light of the world, in whatever age their lot is cast, are the I 2 ii6 THE FRIENDSHIP OF MAMMON obedient and the true, and theirs is the King- dom of Heaven. Stewards now perhaps only of "a very little," on them shall surely fall the Master's benison, " Well done, good and faith- ful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over* many things : enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord." THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES ST. LUKE xvi. 19-31. PROBABLY no parable of our Lord has suffered more than this from the common form of misinterpretation which confuses parabolic imagery with doctrinal statement. Certainly no parable is less patient of a mistake against which it has been one object of this book to protest ; and therefore it seems suitable to in- clude in the present edition some remarks upon the real significance of the story. We may begin by recollecting the frequent habit of the Master to illustrate His teaching, not only by sights and sounds either present or familiar to the senses of His audience, but also by thoughts and sayings present or familiar to their minds. Indeed, so common was this practice that shallow critics have found in it a pretext for impugning the originality of Jesus. As if originality did not quite as much, and often more usefully, consist in quickening old u8 THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES words and old ideas with new force and new meaning, as in the invention of new phrases. To collect a pile of passages from earlier speakers which embody precepts inculcated by Christ, is to effect little or nothing in disproof of the distinctiveness of the Christian system. As Mr. Lecky no partisan witness has ob- served, " The true originality of a system of moral teaching depends not so much upon the elements of which it is composed, as upon the manner in which they are fused into a sym- metrical whole, upon the proportionate value that is attached to different qualities, or, to state the same thing by a single word, upon the type of character that is formed. Now it is quite certain that the Christian type differs not only in degree but in kind from the heathen type." | In like manner, we may add, it differs from the traditional Jewish type. The prophets who foreshadowed Christ's work, and whose words He often employed and endorsed were not Christ's masters. On occasion He quotes them only to deepen or to supersede their teaching. " By them of old time it was said (so and so), but I say unto you (thus and thus)." 1 Rationalism in Europe, vol. i. p. 338. THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES 119 The originality of Jesus is in fact never more conspicuous than in the reality and life with which He lighted up the language used by His precursors with the flame of new or of forgotten truth. Moreover, in using this method, our Lord did not confine Himself to materials supplied by ancient prophecy. It is plain from the Parable before us that, in ad- dressing Pharisees, He turned to account the current notions of Rabbinic lore, in order that by means of familiar phrases He might the more effectively introduce a revolution of thought. To make men think, and think rightly ; to flash the lightning of eternal Fact across the conventional world of appearance which men had come to regard as all ; this is Christ's purpose. But to imagine that here, in ad- dressing Pharisees, our Lord breaks through the studied reticence on the subject of eschato- logy which He pointedly preserved even when directly appealed to by His own disciples is intrinsically incredible, and, when the sources and character of His language are considered, may be said to be demonstrably false. It seems an extraordinary error to seek in the borrowed figures which compose the frame- work of this story, a new and divine revelation 120 THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES concerning the invisible world, instead of find- ing there a simple picture of the current views and ideas thereon. To press metaphor into fact, poetry into prose, oriental colouring into logical statement, can never elsewhere in the New Testament be more clearly seen to lead to the incredible and the absurd. Are we prepared to believe in a heaven and a hell separated by a fixed and impassable gulf, yet so near that converse between them is easy ? Do men in hell still care and plead for their kinsfolk on earth, while the beatified are indifferent to the fate of the lost ? Nay, are there some among the glorified who would bridge the chasm if they could, while the God of the spirits of all flesh is bereft of the Pity which had once devised the Incarnation ? Or, again, on what reason- able system of interpretation are we to under- stand " Abraham's bosom " as a poetical figure, but Dives's description of being " tormented in this flame," as a literal statement of prosaic fact? Is it not plain to demonstration that no parable of Christ is more evidently in every detail parabolic ? Is there any other instance in which the endeavour to make history out of parabolic detail lands the interpreter more THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES 121 unmistakably in the region of the grotesque ? On what ground are we required to mistake our Lord's adoption of familiar language in draping a story for an endorsement of ideas which Jewish Rabbis may, or may not, have read into it ? These borrowed tropes are not essential, but accidental, a familiar and con- venient vehicle for new and startling Truth. As the correctness of this view so largely turns upon the fact that the figurative language used is the language of the Jewish tradition of the day, it may be wel Ito emphasise this still further, though there can be no doubt upon the point in the mind of any one who recalls the frequency of similar pictures in that mass of traditional lore, first oral then written, by means of which the old Rabbis sought to elucidate, but often buried, alike the language and the meaning of Holy Writ. No one can fail to be reminded of the present Parable when these masters in Israel describe the Paradise whence the righteous are permitted to enhance their joy by a sight of the fate of the wicked ; or refer to the place of doom whence these wicked behold "afar off" the joy of the beatified with an increase of anguish. Here and there the very phrase " Abraham's bosom " will be met with. We 122 THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES are told of one who had died impenitent, mur- muring at the bliss of a once boon companion, whose present position is then explained by his having repented before death. We over- hear conversations between those who have entered the future state ; while the torment of the wicked, especially of thirst, is repeatedly described. In fact the old fable of Tantalus lives again in Jewish dress, as the righteous Pharisee is disclosed at rest beside refreshing streams, while the wicked Publican appears with parched tongue at the brink of a river whose waters are constantly receding out of his reach. Such instances suffice to show how familiar the setting of Christ's Parable would be to His immediate audience : though perhaps we can but faintly appreciate the shock with which its really essential features would electrify their self-complacency. Nothing could be better calculated to enhance the surprising effect of the real point of the Parable than the custom- ary character of the scenery through which the dramatic climax is reached. The extremes of earthly wealth and woe, of heavenly bliss and hell's lament, are pictured as the Pharisee was wont to think of them ; then, amid these familiar scenes, the unexpected truth is ex- THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES 123 ploded before them. They are made vividly to see how much that is highly esteemed among men is mere abomination in the sight of God. They are made to realise that the estimates of earth are by no means certain to be ratified in Heaven ; that sometimes, indeed, they are liable to absolute reversal ; that God will be found to have blessed what Pharisees have banned, and to have beatified what they have only thought fit for Gehenna. We must remember that, despite the book of Job, the idea still survived among the Jews that prosperity in this world was the hall-mark of Divine approval. Whence, as mere matter of course, it followed that the approved in this world would be the blest in the world to come. Across the blossom of these comfortable cur- rent thoughts sweeps, like some cutting wintry blast, the essential spirit of Christ's story. Before a class of men described by St. Luke as " lovers of money," the new Rabbi unfolds the revolutionary doctrine that unless they have been at the pains to make to themselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, when it fails they will be left outcasts from the ever- lasting tabernacles. Before these men of posi- tion, learning, and spiritual privilege favourite children of Abraham as they considered 124 THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES Christ raises the spectre of an outcast here to whom had been denied even the crumbs of their religious banquet. And lo ! it is this wretched Lazarus, the destitute and the de- spised, who is set in the place they regarded as peculiarly their own, the bosom of the Father of the Faithful, while they, in the person of their once haughty representative, languish "afar off" in irremediable torment. How utterly beside the mark must appear all ill-considered building of elaborate systems on shadowy hints and allusions, when the effect of the story as a whole brings out its pith and point so unmistakably. If once we realise the shock with which this must have struck upon the ears and hearts of these Pharisees we shall have understood the purpose for which the Parable was spoken. It was intended neither to traverse nor to endorse current views of eschatology, still less to gratify unwholesome curiosity, but to shatter self-complacency, to startle conscience, to awaken conviction and inquiry. "It is a flash of lightning in the night, which lightens up a familiar landscape under an unfamiliar aspect, and awakens in the spec- tator unfamiliar feelings. It is a glimpse of the world of human life, in which reality bursts through appearance with the crash of doom, in THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES 125 which the tremendous possibilities that lie hid under cover of some superficial class distinc- tions overturn those distinctions, and by the suddenness and violence with which they do it force from us the question, Is there not in- deed something besides appearance " l some- thing much greater and truer, and much deeper and more lasting than the things we are so apt to count as all ? None can doubt that the world of to-day, in the twentieth Christian century, still needs this message. Are there not among us still the men whose minds are solely occupied with the tem- porary, the superficial, and the fictitious distinc- tions of life ? When it is said, so and so is " worth " so much, is not the estimate usually based on what he has rather than on what he is, on his means rather than upon his character ? though even here language itself records a pro- test by refusing to allow us to speak of " a man of worth " except in reference, not to what he has, but to what he is. And yet Society will condone inanity and even vice, if only its votaries are " smart," The hat continues of more importance than the head, heresy in the coat remains less pardonable than hardness in the heart it covers, and contempt of custom 1 Salvation Here and ffereqfter, by Dr. John Service, p. 3. 126 THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES and conventionality is accounted more disre- putable than to follow the multitude to do evil. Now and again some modern seer sets himself to shake his generation out of their "clothes-philosophy." But the world's fashion and habit are too strong and too contagious to allow of any but the slowest permeation of the truth and fact of things. Carlyle and Ruskin may preach and Tennyson and Browning sing, but "the world" wags on its way, as it did when the very voice of Christ spoke in parables like this one. The distinctions men persist in marking most are still differences not of inward but of outward estate. We court Dives and account him happy ; we shun Lazarus and think him wretched. And so we fall into the fancy that what we see upon the surface the out- ward, the accidental, the adventitious is the whole of life and everlasting, instead of its seeming to us what it is, a very small and ephemeral part of it. " This is the wonder of wonders, that it scarcely quickens our breath To think that the world is a bubble, but God is real, and death. " Therefore to us also this Parable is spoken. It is meant to carry our thoughts by storm and put us once for all in the way of rightly regarding life. It is for this that we are made to see the rich man and the beggar parted as THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES 127 our ordinary thoughts part them in this world of outward seeming, and parted indeed also in the world of reality beyond the grave, but placed there by Him Who seeth not as man seeth, but trieth the very hearts and reins. This dramatic reversal of current thinking, this putting into heaven what we put in hell, this dooming what we court and covet most, is it not Christ's challenge to our worldliness ? Is it not His way of crashing through our pre- judices and forcing us down upon the heart of things ? Does not the story hold us in its grip, while Conscience works : " Can such things be ? Is it thus things really are ? so different from what they seem. If there is reality, and heaven and hell belong to it, were it not wise to seek it ? " Nor is it far to seek. Eternal Fact is hidden from us only while we persist in the worship of the Golden Calf, while we refuse to take God's standard of great and small, of right and wrong, in place of the fanciful and hollow estimates current in the world. And it is eternal Fact with which this Parable is concerned. Joining with the one voice of all Scripture and of all Experience, it inveighs against judgment based on outward seeming, and proclaims how indissolubly the good and 128 THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES evil of inward disposition and character are bound up with the issues of life and death, with the possibilities of that good which we call Heaven and of that evil which we call Hell. It reminds us how a beggar in virtue of his character may be enviable, how " having nothing he may yet possess all things." It tells us how a rich man in spite of his purple and fine linen may be an object of pity, how though he have all that can make this life easy, yet in the Bank of Eternity he may be written down a pauper. When Christ walked this earth he met the men we know so well to-day, whose minds are wholly occupied with the temporary and the superficial distinctions of life. He saw men envying the rich more than the good, shrink- ing from the beggar's unsavoury doom more than from their own meanness and selfishness. Therefore He sought to brand upon their minds the truth He was continually preaching, that Life (in God's view) consists not in what we have or have not, but in what we are and on what we are becoming. " Labour not," this story cries to us, " for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto Life eternal." It is the old but ever-needed lesson : " The Kingdom of Heaven is not meat and drink, THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND DIVES 129 but righteousness" righteousness as God and not Pharisees understand it, righteousness "out of which are the issues of Life," "the Life which is life indeed," the Life we, here and now, are either winning or losing by the deeds we do, by the friends we choose, by the books we read, by the aims we follow, by the character we form. What shall it profit to have fared sumptuously every day ? if every day brings nearer the inevitable hour when " a good digestion and a bad heart " cease to qualify either for happiness or success, when neither the shows of the world amuse, nor the forms of religion satisfy. What shall it profit ? to have had our purple and fine linen, or to have been called " Rabbi, Rabbi," if our spiritual nature has been squandered for the sake of temporal gain, if the mere outsides, the husks and shells, and not the soul of things, be all that we have cared for, all that we have under- stood. What shall it profit ? when the stripping of all this, as we pass from the world which seems to the world which is, leaves us only the tormenting vision of what might have been. "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and be mulcted in his Life ? " K THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD " Peter began to say unto Him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed Thee. Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for My sake, and for the Gospel's sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions ; and in the world to come eternal life. But many that are first shall be last ; and the last first." ST. MARK x. 29, 3. 3 1 - SOON after our Lord had entered upon His last public journey to Jerusalem, teaching and preaching as He went, we are told that " a certain ruler " threw himself at Jesus' feet with the question, " What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ? " J The road to life, replies the Master, is obedience to the com- mandments. " All these," returns the ques- tioner, " have I observed from my youth." It was no idle boast, the man was perfectly sincere, " And Jesus, looking upon him, loved 1 St. Mark x. 17. THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD 131 him." Christ recognised a nobility of mind opening the loftiest possibilities to this young life, if only it could be rescued from the cloying circumstances which now oppressed the better soul within. Between the lines of the scant report we can read the gist of the colloquy : ' There is indeed a Service which is perfect freedom,' but the price of its liberty is greater than any mere punctilious keeping of the law's letter. There is a Life which is 'life indeed,' but it outruns the guidance of any mere code of rules. You seek to win that Liberty, you desire to live that Life. ' One thing thou lackest.' The letter killeth : it is the spirit that maketh alive. The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life. Now that you have learned the lesson of the letter, let us go on to counsels of perfection. Obedience, truly, is better than any sacrifice ceremonial, but there are sacrifices which are greater even than Obedience. They transcend because they more utterly fulfil. " Go, sell whatever thou hast . . . and come, follow Me." But " his countenance fell at the say- ing, and he went away sorrowful : for he was one that had great possessions." 1 1 St. Mark x. 17-22. K 2 132 THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD Now it is to be observed that when the lawyer consulted Jesus as to the first and great commandment, and when Zaccheus, some of whose wealth had come by question- able means, applied to Jesus for spiritual direction, no rule of poverty was imposed : nor upon Christ's disciples generally was any such injunction laid. Why then in this par- ticular case of the young ruler ? Because, it would seem, his case combined an exceptional spiritual capacity with an exceptional weight of material hindrance to its development. " He rode a horse with wings, that would have flown But that his heavy rider kept him down." If the spirit is to be set free to attain perfec- tion, the down-dragging weight, whatever it may happen to be, must be cast off. In this case it was a superfluity of worldly wealth. The young ruler was, in fact, an illustration of the quaint warning of old Sir Thomas Browne, " As a man maketh his train longer, he maketh his wings shorter." For an immediate and total break, however, not merely with possessions, but with the position and power they conferred, this eager inquirer was not prepared. He made the great refusal. But he did so with a heavy heart : and though for the moment the yearn- THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD 133 ing love of Christ was disappointed, we can easily believe that by and by what was denied to impulse may have been yielded to consider- ation. As the Master presently took occasion to remind the ardent Peter, " Many that are first shall be last, and the last first." It would not therefore be surprising to find this young man, a little later, among the number of those who after Pentecost sold the lands or houses they possessed, and laid the prices at the Apostles' feet. 1 But for the present the inci- dent is closed, and all we are told is that the failure of so promising a candidate to pass the appointed test caused Jesus to exclaim, " How hardly shall they that trust in riches enter into the Kingdom of God ! " It was a cry not of denunciation, but rather of pity and regret, of pity, as the Master thought of the Temptations created and multiplied by wealth; of regret, as He remembered "the deceitfulness of riches," and how easily they " become not only the care, but the torment, of those that possess them." On the departure of the young ruler, St. Peter is impelled to improve the occasion. Spokesman, as usual, for the rest, he cries, " Lo ! we have left all and followed Thee." It was a very crude remark, but the fathomless 1 Acts iv. 35. 134 THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD forbearance of the Master ignores the fatuity of the implied comparison between the fisher- men's sacrifice of scanty means and a preca- rious livelihood and the denied devotion of fortune and position. And he vouchsafes an answer couched in terms at once simple and profound. The spiritual neophyte might con- sole himself with its letter, while its spirit might minister to the aspirations of a deeper insight. " Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for My sake and for the Gospel's sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecu- tions, and in the world to come eternal life." At first we may fancy that in this reply the sceptic finds some justification for the common cavil that the Christian motive is " purely selfish." If, for all that is surrendered, "a hundredfold " is to be returned, the following of Christ appears to promise well from a com- mercial point of view, and the ancient taunt " Doth Job fear God for nought ? " seems still to find a pretext. But when we observe those two fateful words recorded by St. Mark, " with persecutions," any material advantages which THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD 135 the rest of the promise might be supposed to offer seem to be entirely discounted. This little clause is quite sufficient to dash with disappointment any worldly hopes which a too literal interpretation of enhanced family affection, multiplied houses, or extended acres, might have raised. In days of persecution, the greater a man's property and the more abund- ant his kindred, by so many the more avenues could he be attacked, and so much the more easily victimised. It is probable that some such considerations, dimly realised, account for the silence with which Christ's double-edged forecast was received. There is a marked absence of eagerness to discuss in further detail this singular " hundredfold " reward. We know, indeed, that later on, to the early Christians there was given an exultation of soul which, despite persecution, preserved them in unspeakable and constant gladness, even as their Master before them had " rejoiced in spirit " with Gethsemane and Calvary in view. But nothing of this kind could then have been understood even by the chosen few. It may indeed be doubted whether at this period they would have found the least diffi- culty in accepting the most unqualified promise of mundane reward. The Rabbinic teaching of 136 THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD the day revelled in what to us appear the most childish pictures of the good time coming when the Messiah should really arrive. The very walls of His capital were to be of " silver, gold and gems, while all kinds of jewels would be strewed about the streets, of which every Israelite was at liberty to take The land would spontaneously produce the best dresses and the finest cakes." 1 And there is nothing in what fell from the lips of Christ's disciples at this time to lead us to suppose them in advance of the current ideas. Their pride and self-seeking, their indignant repudiation of every hint concerning the suffering and death of their Lord, their perpetual thought of pre- cedence and requests for posts of honour in the new kingdom, their frequent mistaking and materialising of the Master's metaphors, all point to a low stage of spiritual perception. Now even a Divine Teacher could lead such men but slowly, " as they were able to bear it." If then, during this process of education, Jesus is found to give a material cast and colour to His teaching on the subject of reward, the necessity of penetrating minds still occupied with childish things would explain and justify His method. It seems, however, open to doubt whether 1 Edersheim, _/?.$.? the Messiah, book v., p. 458. THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD 137 the text should be regarded as in any sense an example of the argumentwn ad hominem. The repetition in describing the reward of the exact terms which previously describe the renuncia- tion may be used simply to emphasise the notion of equivalence, and to illustrate how all that is given up for Christ becomes more truly and closely our own, how all that we lay up with Him will be returned again with usury. And one can better sympathise with those who feel that this is not in fact the case, " now in this present time," than with those who cavil at the form in which the promise is stated. The solution of this difficulty is really a question of character. One man will regard as a " hundredfold " reward what another is unable to appreciate at all. It is all a matter of standpoint and of character. We all know how it was with the Speaker of these words. He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor. He was so immersed in His Mission that ties of earthly kindred sank into insignificance : " They that hear the word of God and keep it, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." For the Gospel's sake He had "emptied Him- self" of His glory, but His home was still " My Father's House," and He was ever, even while on earth, " the Son of man who is in heaven." 138 Now the real guerdon of such a soul as this defies express definition. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor mind conceived it to the full. Glimpses of " the joy set before Him " reach us in those wonderful chapters (xiii. xvii.) of the Fourth Gospel which bare the inner life of Jesus. Hints escape the Master's lips at other times. They occur constantly in the Sermon on the Mount. We may well believe that verily He had His reward, even in that "present time" of trouble and persecution. His was the perfect knowledge denied to all but the perfectly obedient, His the absolute faith which banished care, His too the supreme love which turned devotion to delight. With Jesus, " Eternal Life " consists in " knowing God," and this inclusive epitome of the Christian's inheritance is a present gift as well as a future blessing. It belongs to the life that now is and to that which is to come. The manifold reward of the righteous may at times in Scripture be described in terms of current thought, but it is monstrous to imagine that the end and aim of such a life as Christ lived, and such doctrine as He taught, could be anything "purely selfish." Such criticism is palpably absurd, if only for the reason that precisely in proportion to any Christian's 139 faithfulness to the Spirit of Christ, in that degree would any "purely selfish" reward be unattractive and repellent From the lips of this same Apostle, renewed, "converted," 1 "begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead " ; from the St. Peter of his First Epistle, "put to grief in many trials," yet " rejoicing greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory " ; 2 no such infantile question as that of the text was likely to have fallen. It is therefore idle to speculate upon the possibly different terms our Lord might have used in teaching one who at this later period had practically become another man. Since some of us even to-day are in our spiritual childhood, and none are quite full-grown, let us rather examine the truth here actually taught. And surely it is a very practical and wholesome truth. If, for conscience' sake, a man is called to break with friend or kinsfolk, if he must sacrifice his wealth or a large part of it, is there not in fact a gain awaiting the acceptance of the loss ? Goods are given for our good ; relatives and friends, that we and they may mutually minister to each other's welfare. If these ends are better served by renunciation of 1 St. Luke xxii. 32. 2 St. Peter i. 3-8. 140 THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD either, then in that directer reaching of the spiritual end is found the compensation for the sacrifice. Take the lives of the Twelve for example, and watch them gradually gaining those very ends of moral and spiritual culture to promote which kinship and possessions are conferred upon men. Who can doubt that they had their "hundredfold" even in this life, though to win the blessing they gave up for a time their home and livelihood and the joys of family affection ? Did not each of them wonderfully realise the meaning of the lines ' ' Hearts have I found of sister and of brother, Quick en the earth or hidden in the sod. Lo ! every one awaiteth me ; another Friend in the blameless family of God." And is it not true also generally that to the Christian there fall corresponding yet superior relationships and possessions to those resigned for Christ's sake? "Houses and lands," observes Mr. Cox, 1 "kinsfolk and friends are express types of higher kinships which are open to us, and of more enduring riches. From the father of our flesh we derive our first and best conception of the Father of our spirits. Human love helps us to apprehend the love of Christ. The corruptible treasure on earth speaks to us of the incorruptible treasure in heaven. And if 1 Expository Essays, p. 209. THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD 141 we leave, or lose, any of these typical relation- ships and possessions for Christ's sake, we gain that which they typify, a house not made with hands, treasure which moth cannot corrupt, the family in heaven and in earth, the Father of an infinite Majesty, the Friend Who sticketh closer than a brother. Do men lose by such exchanges as this ? Do they not rather infinitely gain ? " The promise, then, is fulfilled in fact to all who fulfil its conditions. Was not St. Paul absolutely in earnest and absolutely sincere, when he stood up amid the luxurious splendour of Agrippa's court and said, " I would to God that not thou only, but also all that hear me this day might become such as I am, except these bonds " ? Despite his chain the glorious Apostle was the freest of them all, despite his voluntary poverty the richest. As a rule, no doubt, the literal forsaking of all they have and all they love for Christ's sake is not men's duty. More often they are called to use all for their own and others' good those that buy, however, being ever as though they possessed not, and those that use this world as not abusing it, 1 a by no means easy line of conduct, yet one to which reward belongs pre- cisely corresponding to our faithfulness in keep- 1 I Cor. vii. 30. 142 THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD ing it. For, what the author of the " Imitatio " has said is certainly true : " It is almost im- possible to estimate what peace a man brings to others and what joy to himself by managing himself aright." Such an one, and he alone, has the root of the matter in him. If he has wealth, he will not be high minded nor "trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." l If he is poor, he may nevertheless " have all things and abound." " Lord of himself, though not of lands, Who having nothing, yet hath all." Even " with persecutions " he will know how to win his soul in patience, like them of old time who " took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had their own selves for a better possession and an abiding one." : A difficulty must always seem to attach to the general question of Reward, because that question involves two principles, which, how- ever generally accepted, are not at first sight easy of harmonious adjustment. While on the one hand all men acknowledge that virtue should be disinterested, yet, on the other, that virtue should be rewarded undoubtedly appeals to a sense of fitness which is universally felt. 1 i Tim. vL 17. 2 Hebrews x. 34. THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD 143 Now both these principles are recognised in The Teaching of Jesus. " Do good and lend, hoping for nothing again." l " When you have done all that is commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants who have but fulfilled our duty." "Whosoever would save his life shall lose it ; and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel's shall save it." 3 In such and in manifold similar language, the dis- interestedness of virtue is enforced. But the picture of the relation between man and God cannot be complete without reference to the other principle involved. It does not follow, because from the servant's point of view reward is the last thing to be thought of, that there- fore the gracious Master must deny the reward of His "good pleasure." "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching : verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them." 4 At first sight, the disinterestedness which is of the essence of goodness may seem incom- patible with the promise of reward. But the meeting point of toil and pleasure, of duty and delight, is no fiction. 1 $(:. Luke vi, 35, 2 St. Luke xvii. 10. 3 gt Mark viij. 35, 4 St. Luke xii. 37. 144 THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD " It was my duty to have loved the highest : It surely was my profit had I known : It would have been my pleasure had I seen." Is not the lost chord of the harmony found in the nature of the Christian's recompense ? The question has too often been treated as though God rewarded spiritual qualities by the be- stowal of material good. But it is not so. He does not give His children sugar plums for telling the truth, nor increase their bankers' balance in order to recompense their integrity. And if some Christians have, in modern days, merited the charge of " other- worldliness," they are as wrong as any could have been in the past who sought to win heaven by making earth a hell. But such mistakes need not make us hesitate to hold that " the wise and virtuous life, not the wicked and self-indulgent, will be the truly happy life, and that sin is the real self-sacrifice." No doubt the instinct is true and right which tells us that the sphere of religion is one alto- gether separate from the sphere of profit and loss. And we may feel the question of St. Peter, 1 " What then shall we have ? " seeing we have done so and so, to be unworthy of a fully instructed follower of Christ. For we 1 St. Matt. xix. 27. THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD 145 know that if the practice of righteousness were repaid in material reward, goodness and gain would soon become convertible terms, and covetousness be indistinguishable from piety. But we need never find in the New Testament those grounds of irritation we feel in hearing or reading some modern exponents of popular religion. When, for example, St. Paul asserts that " Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come," l we know well, with the Apostle's own career before us, that he does not mean "profitable" in a commercial sense but in a spiritual sense. No other could have been thought of by one whom elsewhere we overhear on this wise, " Now behold I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing what shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth that in every city bonds and afflictions abide me ; but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." When such a man as this looks for- ward to the " crown laid up for him in heaven," 1 I Tim. iv. 8. 2 Acts xx. 22-24. L I 4 6 THE HUNDREDFOLD REWARD we know that it is no golden circlet which he covets, but, in his own language, a " crown of Righteousness," l the priceless boon of a perfected character completely victorious over sin. Similarly, when Paul's Master tells of the unspeakable gain which is theirs who have made sacrifices for His sake, we are very sure that here also the reward is not translatable into terms of land or lucre, but that its currency belongs to that hidden kingdom within, where the Father Who seeth in secret realises by His Spirit to those that love Him what eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor heart con- ceived. Such account of the disciple's recompense as words can partially convey, Christ Himself did give to St. Jude, when He said, 2 " If a man love Me, he will keep My word : and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode with him ; " a reward which only the injustice of unreasoning malice could stigmatise as " selfish," and one as unlikely to corrupt the disciple as to excite the cupidity of the world. 1 2 Tim. iv. 8. - St. John xiv. 23. SPIRITUAL SUICIDE " Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme : but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." St. MARK iii. 28, 29. A.V. THIS passage and its parallel in St. Matthew (ch. xii. 22-27) are credibly reported to have driven more people to despair, and to have urged a larger number of victims into that saddest of all forms of insanity known as re- ligious mania, than any others in the Bible. And yet they are recorded as the words of the holiest and the tenderest Who ever spake on earth, of that Son of Man Who never broke the bruised reed or quenched the smoking flax, Who willeth all men to be saved, Who died to draw all men unto God ; and Whom an Apostle describes as "the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe." What is the meaning of it all ? Before, however, we can arrive at our Lord's L 2 148 SPIRITUAL SUICIDE meaning, we must first know what were the words He actually used. Years ago no one could see what those words really were, unless they were familiar with the Greek Testament. Now, fortunately, every one can see this by simply turning to the Revised Version. The first of the two verses reads practically the same in both Versions, but the changes made by the revisers in the last clause of the 2Qth verse are among the most necessary and valu- able of any for which we have to thank them. Since 1881, those who could not refer to the original have been aware that Christ never used the phrase " but is in danger of eternal damnation," and that what He did say was, " but is guilty of an eternal sin." In the parallel in St. Matthew, this clause does not appear at all, and there is a slight difference in the form of the preceding sentence. Whereas St. Matthew reports, " Whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in that which is to come ; " St. Mark, with his love of brevity and terseness, is content to say, " hath never forgiveness." Thus we notice here what appears also in other places just the slight differences which are so valuable as clearly SPIRITUAL SUICIDE 149 showing the independence of the narrators along with the obvious oneness of their narrative. Taking then the most difficult of these state- ments of our Lord's Teaching, we ask first what the sin is which He so tremendously denounces as to say it "hath never forgiveness"? and we have next to make clear the justice and inevitableness of the doom declared. For not until we understand that the judgment given is the necessary consequence from the nature of the sin itself, will this saying, instead of appear- ing hard and dark, begin to radiate with Pity and Love. Now, inasmuch as no word of our Lord or of any other Teacher can ever be rightly under- stood apart from the circumstances under which it was spoken, we must turn to the incident which called forth this warning. We find that the specially religious world of our Lord's day refused to acknowledge His inspiration and authority. As, however, they could not deny His power, they descended to the Satanic stratagem of ascribing Christ's beneficent wonders to the powers of Evil, instead of to the Spirit of Good. " He casteth out devils," said the Pharisees, "by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." Those pedants who, rather ISO SPIRITUAL SUICIDE than give up their pedantry, thus chose to con- found the Spirit of Truth with the Father of lies, and either to point their sneer or excuse their contempt, would smirch the garments even of God's Messiah with the mire of hell, these arch-confounders of Good and Evil it was who drew from the lips of the Saviour of men the most terrible and tremendous warning that He ever uttered upon earth. Let us thoroughly realise the special horror and peril of their sin. It was bad enough to be proud and prejudiced, to be bigoted and blind ; it was worse to have rejected the Christ and abused the motives of His Divine compassion ; but even this might be forgiven, for to speak against the Son of Man was not necessarily to bar the door of repentance. But these men had gone further than that. They had begun to descend the ladder whose foot is lost in the abyss. They had entered on a course the pursuit of which necessarily excluded every ray of heavenly light. The Spirit of Truth might correct men's errors, but for those who refuse to recognise the plainest proofs of His Presence no hope remains, simply because for them there exists no Holy Spirit. Good has grown evil, the Holy has become unclean. SPIRITUAL SUICIDE 151 Such then was the position of these Pharisees to whom the Master spoke. The light which lighteth every man had come into the world in a new way. It was burning in upon their con- sciences through the words and deeds of Jesus the Christ. They felt His power. In their hearts they knew that His words were true words, that His works were good works. But " Christ humbled their vanity. Christ exposed their insincerity. Hence they hated Him; and, blinded by their hatred, they affirmed words which they felt were true to be untrue, and ascribed works which they felt to be good to the power and craft of the devil." They saw the light, and knew that it was light, and yet they loved darkness more than light, because their deeds were evil. In a word, they were " speaking against the Holy Ghost," the Spirit of all truth and goodness ; and so long as they did that, there was no hope for them. They were wil- fully closing the heavenward window of the soul, and so long as they did that, how could any light from heaven shine into their souls? Hence Jesus, "knowing their thoughts," knowing too the desperate condition out of which such thoughts arose, simply warned them that it was desperate, 152 SPIRITUAL SUICIDE Nothing indeed could be kinder, nothing more merciful, than this seemingly "hard say- ing," since it was spoken to men thus guilty of that most perilous of all forms of folly a wilful, obstinate confounding of good and evil. Any less vehement condemnation could only have concealed the certain issue of persistent blindness, and would have pitilessly left these men to eat of the fruit of their doings, until for the possibility of change it was too late. Such language, instead of staggering our minds, becomes natural and necessary, the moment we see how the occasion called for it. Nothing is expressed but the naked truth which it had been cruelty to hide that under whatever dispensation men live, in whatever world their lot is cast, they are self-excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven by the one crime which, in the nature of things, "hath never forgiveness," and thus may become " liable to eternal sin." On reflection it seems difficult to imagine any more compassionate and tender course which could have been followed, with men whom the Saviour saw hurrying blindfold toward the edge of the most awful moral abyss, than to utter such a warning as might SPIRITUAL SUICIDE 153 best arouse them to realise their peril, ere by their deliberate continuance in evil they had strangled their own capacity to repent, and with it the possibility of pardon. Let any man be sufficiently persuaded of the reality of the danger in which his fellow stands, and surely the strength of the language of his warning may fairly be regarded as a measure of his love. Where then were the Pity of the Christ, if, seeing what He saw and knowing what He knew, He had not blown this terrible trumpet-blast ? These Pharisee fanatics in refusing Christ's words were indeed sinning against the Light ; but, in ascribing His power to the Lord of Evil instead of to the God of Good, they were actually quenching that Light. The Master saw them wilfully putting out their own eyes lest they might see the Truth, riveting fetters on their own limbs lest they might move along the path of duty, stifling the one Voice within their souls which alone could always give them Light and Leading, always show them Truth and Duty. And where were the Love of Him Who died to prove the Love of God to an un- believing world, if, knowing the consequence 154 SPIRITUAL SUICIDE of this "blaspheming against the Holy Spirit," He had not declared in plainest terms what must be its inevitable issue in utter incapacity to do anything but despise all that is most worshipful, or to admire aught but what are justly objects of contempt ? When Christ saw men outwardly religious men, even teachers and leaders of the people deliberately follow- ing an inverted Ideal, saying, in effect if not in words, " Evil, be thou my good ; "- when He saw that by no arbitrary fiat of Omnipo- tence, but by the very nature of the chosen sin, such a character as they were forming, such an attitude of mind as they were foster- ing, neither had nor could have forgiveness ; what would Christ's love for humanity have been worth if He had not cried aloud to such men about their danger ? Knowing how the Angel of Forgiveness can- not dwell with Impenitence and Pride, know- ing that Repentance is in the nature of things impossible to the mind so perverted that Evil has become its Good and Good its Evil, Christ saw these men before Him in the very way leading to destruction, because in the way of becoming so inured to evil, so at home with perverted notions of right and wrong, as to SPIRITUAL SUICIDE 155 be upon the brink of the commission of that " eternal sin " which forfeits the possibility because it crushes the desire of forgiveness. This being so, where were the Love or Truth of Christ, I say, if indeed He had not thus plainly stated the inevitable fate of men choos- ing to commit spiritual suicide by burning all bridges of repentance ? Let us then at once and for ever put far from us the hideous imagination which denies to God our Father the property " ever to have mercy and to forgive " every sin which does not of its own nature and essence preclude the possibility of pardon. It is absolutely appalling to find people who are the heirs of centuries of Christian teaching, who have the Gospel of Jesus in their hands and the story of His Life and Death at their finger ends, capable of conceiving the Almighty as a Being so diametrically different from the Father Whom Christ revealed that He will not forgive us sins which we did not mean to commit, even though when we fear that we have committed them we are bowed down in sorrow and repent- ance. Surely we can see what an utter travesty of the truth it is which has maddened so many 156 SPIRITUAL SUICIDE souls with fear lest, in some unknown and un- intentional way, they may have fallen into a certain mysterious sin called ''the sin against the Holy Ghost," which shuts them from all hope of pardon. Surely we can see upon how barbarous and blasphemous a misconception of the God and Father of us all such baseless fear is founded. May the God of all righteous- ness in pity pardon those who are responsible for allowing men to fancy that He could ever doom a single soul beyond reprieve for some indefinite and undefined transgression into which unawares it might have slipped. Why, this would be tantamount to thinking our Father in Heaven capable of setting traps for our feet and snaring men to their own per- dition ! Such a Deity would deserve the name of Devil, and to conceive the God Whose Name is Love guilty of such diabolic dealings is itself so grievous a confusion of light and darkness, good and evil, as to come perilously near the very plain and definite wrong which in this passage men are mercifully warned against committing. To us at least our Heavenly Father, Whom the Incarnate Son revealed to man in all the beauty of His Holiness, will never so appear. SPIRITUAL SUICIDE 157 We shall not stand in any danger of confound- ing His merciful warnings against the inevitable issue of persistent blindness and folly, with a desire on His part to withhold forgiveness from any soul whatever, willing and desirous to accept it. As we read these burning words we shall see behind them evermore the Figure of Him Who wept over the impending fate of the wilful City, and cried with that pathetic lament of mingled reproach and love, " O that thou hadst known, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes. . . . How often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wing, but ye would not." " Ye would not." Those words are the key of the whole position. It is not God Who excludes, but man who rejects ; and, rejecting, excludes himself. That Jesus Christ, realising whither this abuse of free-will must lead, should warn the Pharisees, that He should warn us, how even He cannot save men who deliberately refuse to be saved ; cannot give the light of life to those who wilfully close their hearts against it, this is perfectly in accordance with all we know of His mercy and of His truth. In the letters of St. Paul we find the same note 158 SPIRITUAL SUICIDE struck : " Grieve not the Spirit." " Quench not the Spirit." These passages, like the text, are warnings plain to read against the pre- sumptuous abuse of spiritual faculties, oppor- tunities and gifts. They urge us against being false to truth and duty, on the ground that to be untrue to any truth is to resist the spirit of all truth, that to be unfaithful to any duty is to resist, and may be to quench, the Spirit of all grace. It will help us to understand the real sig- nificance of our Lord's words if we bear in mind the distinction He appears to draw be- tween overt acts of transgression which may be forgiven on repentance, and the inward attitude and state of mind which bars forgiveness by precluding penitence. The sin which Christ deliberately contrasts with that which is unpardonable is the sin of speaking against Himself, the gracious Son of Man. Now, to speak against the Son of Man is to speak against, to reject, or to deny the revelation of God's Truth, Will, and Love made in and through Him. We know that there are those who do this to-day, denying a mani- festation of God in "God 1 Manifest in the 1 Whether O2 or 0EO2 be the true reading (i Tim. iii. 16) the sense of the passage remains the same. SPIRITUAL SUICIDE 159 flesh." And some of these are good as well as learned men, and to denounce such men as wilful and notorious sinners, or to assume that they are impelled to their wrong views by base motives or evil deeds, is as much a crime against reason as against charity. No doubt for any to take upon themselves to reject the Christian revelation without due examination of evidence, without due consideration of its claims, must ever be an act of sinful pre- sumption ; yet is it also one which none but God can judge, for to all else lie hidden those intellectual prepossessions and that inherited bent of mind which may very possibly ex- tenuate the fault. If, as we sometimes confess, there lives more faith in honest doubt than in half our creeds, we shall be loth to condemn men who honestly doubt ; driven to it often through the fault of those who, by darkening counsel with words without knowledge, have made intelligent faith well-nigh impossible. And if this be our own feeling, prompted by the most ordinary con- siderations of justice, can we imagine it other- wise with God ? We shall recall the case of that chosen vessel among the Apostles, more abundant in labour and suffering than any 160 SPIRITUAL SUICIDE other in the cause of Christ, who once, as Saul of Tarsus, " thinking to do God service," blasphemed and persecuted the Son of Man, for Whom, after the light had come, it was Paul's one ambition to live and to die. And we shall learn to draw the distinction here drawn by the Master Himself between sins of ignorance which forgiveness ever waits upon, and that other and quite different state of wil- ful, stubborn, hostile sinfulness which can never be forgiven while men cleave to it. This is that " eternal sin " which adds a damning guilt to every other, making salvation necessarily impossible, because it consists in conscious, deliberate, and persistent opposition to the voices of Reason and Conscience, practically, that is, to the voice of God within the soul. Thus at length we come to see what this terrible state is which in this passage is so mercifully denounced. It is the state of the man who has, may be for years, not been honest in his doubts and denials, who besides sinning against the God without him seeking to reveal Himself in Jesus, has also sinned against the God within him. It is the state of him who, when Conscience said " This is true, and you ought to believe it," or " That is duty, SPIRITUAL SUICIDE 161 and you ought to do it," has habitually and of set purpose refused to accept the truth or do the duty, though he felt them call him with Divine authority. In a word, it is the state of him who has added the sin against the Holy Ghost to the sin against the Son of Man. If, now, such a one pass out of this world in this condition, impenitent and unchanged, how can anything else be true of him but the doom of the text ? Has he not persisted in placing himself outside the pale of forgiveness by making forgiveness impossible ? What God may have in store for such in that other future world we cannot tell, for we are not told. We can but cherish the hope that in " the almost sacrament of death," or in the possibly fresh conditions of that " bourne whence no traveller returns," new moral forces may take effect, and the scales fall from those eyes of the soul which here were sealed. We may cherish this hope, I say, but all we can be sure of is that so long as any man deliberately shuts out the light, the light cannot reach him, either here or there ; that so long as he refuses to part with his sin, he cannot be saved therefrom. I have spoken of this " aeonian sin " which M 162 SPIRITUAL SUICIDE " hath never forgiveness " as a state of sinful- ness, and so it plainly is, for no single act of sin could ever justify the epithet " eternal." The question of most practical moment for all of us arising out of this passage is clearly this. What are the steps by which this perilous condition of mind is reached? How may we learn with certainty never to take those steps ? In the first place it is perfectly clear that any who are suffering from anxiety about their own condition may be freely assured that they, at all events, are not in the way of this sin. For, in whatever degree they feel a godly fear about it, by that very fear are they totally removed from that indifferent and callous, or actively hostile, state of soul here in question. The perilous state is theirs who have no qualms, no doubts, but are completely blinded by their pride and self-complacency. It is the men who are ever occupied in shutting upon others the gates of a Repentance of which they feel no need themselves these are the Pharisees for ever liable to the judgment of this passage. Moreover, the warning they so pre-eminently need is in some degree needed by all. For which of us does not sin against the light of SPIRITUAL SUICIDE 163 Conscience which is the organ of the Voice of God, and therefore against the Holy Spirit? Which of us has not often one foot at least upon " the primrose path " which leads to " the everlasting bonfire" of all that is purest and noblest and most worth keeping ? Which of us can be too careful lest we so familiarise our- selves with evil that it grows to us less evil than it is, lest we build ourselves into that dungeon of delusion where darkness appears as light, and light is loathed? No, there is not one of us can be too watchfully on guard lest we consciously and wilfully resist the Spirit of Truth and Goodness. Whenever a man has seen a truth and refused to accept and act on it because it cuts his prejudices against the grain, or imperils his worldly interests ; then that man is going the road which, if he persists in following it, will bring him into the condemnation of the text. For whenever men resist the God within them, and so long as they refuse to hear and obey what they acknowledge to be His voice, what hope is there for them in any age, in any world, or under any dispensation ? Better, it seems to me, would be the state of the agnostic, so he walk faithfully though M 2 164 SPIRITUAL SUICIDE sorrowfully under the burden of life, with no heaven above to shed down strength and consolation, and no hope of immortality to brighten the path of duty, than that of the orthodox believer, glib of tongue in shibboleths, who is nevertheless faithless to Conscience and to Duty which all the while he knows to be speaking with the authority of God Him- self. Since it is from God's Holy Spirit that all true thoughts proceed, can we not see that to close our eyes to any truth or duty whether religious, scientific, political, social, or com- mercial means far more than the mere im- poverishment of the tone of our life. It means also the resistance or neglect of that pure and gracious Spirit by Whom we are made one with the Father and the Son : it is to impair the very channel by which truth comes to us, and to cripple the very faculty by which we are enabled for all dutiful and worthy enterprise. To " as many as are led by the Spirit of God " all things are possible, but without that leading whither shall we drift? Well, therefore, may an Apostle entreat, " Grieve not the Spirit," " Quench not the Spirit." And well may the least disloyal pray with bated breath, " Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. GEHENNA " Whosoever shall say ' Thou fooV shall be in danger of Hell fire" ST. MATTHEW v. 22. EVERY student of the Bible, and especially those who depend for their understanding of it upon the English text, should feel deeply grateful to the company of scholars who gave us the Revised Version. Scores of instances might be cited in which the meaning of the original writers here appears in English for the first time in a form at once accessible and authoritative, while in hundreds of other cases obscurities and inaccuracies have been cleared away. It is, however, impossible not to regret that the Revisers were inconsistent in their render- ing of the Greek words which in the old Version were all alike translated " hell." The three words in the New Testament, to all of which King James's translators gave the one rendering " hell," are really proper names ; a fact noted in the margin of the Revised Version 166 GEHENNA by the use of a large initial letter in each case. Tartarus occurs once only, in the form of a verb, in 2 Peter ii. 4, where the context con- clusively refers it to a temporary and not an endless state. Tartarus was first a mytho- logical magnate of ancient Greece. But as far back as the Iliad of Homer, the name stands for a subterranean realm as far below Hades as Heaven is above the earth ; while later poets describe Tartarus as the place of punishment in the lower world where the wicked expiate their crimes. Hades is first of all identical with Pluto, the lord of the infernal regions. In Homer the word never occurs but as a synonym for this god, but later it also was used for his abode or kingdom, so as to become a common and general title for the under-world, covering the intermediate state of bad and good alike, where they await the final separation of the Judgment Day. It is thus five times used in the New Testament. In St. Matthew xvi. 18, where it is declared that " the gates of Hades shall not prevail against the Church." In St. Luke xvi. to describe the position of the rich man, in the parable of Lazarus and Dives. In Acts ii. 27, "Thou shalt not leave my soul in Hades nor suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption." GEHENNA 167 More metaphorically the word occurs in the Woe pronounced upon Capernaum, in the par- allel accounts of St. Matthew l and St. Luke. 2 In each of these cases the Revisers have placed the actual word Hades in the text, instead of perpetuating the wrong translation, which un- fortunately still remains in the Prayer Book version of the Apostles' Creed. Having treated the word Hades in this simplest and wisest of ways, it is the more surprising that the third word in question, Gehenna, equally with the others a proper name, has been relegated to the margin, while "hell" or "the hell of fire" appears in the text. The consistent thing would certainly seem to have been to follow the course adopted in the similar case of Hades, and place Gehenna in the text as it stands, instead of using the word hell at all. Much good would have re- sulted, because the ordinary reader, meeting this strange word, would have been led to ascertain that our Lord thus referred to the well-known Valley of Hinnom, on the south side of Jerusalem, where the offal of the city was cast out, and were fires were kept per- petually burning to consume it. And whereas the retention of the word Gehenna used by our 1 Ch. xi. 23. ' 2 Ch. x. 15. 168 GEHENNA Lord would have thus put the reader on the right road of interpretation, the substitution of " the hell of fire " for the " Gehenna of fire " is almost certain to mislead. For, though the word " hell " in itself simply means a hollow place, so that, in Old English, tilers (as coverers in of a hollow) were called " helliers," yet, because in mediaeval times this harmless meaning became quite obscured by the gross accretions natural to a coarse and cruel age, the word should have been avoided. Hell in the middle ages came to mean a place full of fire and brimstone, in which souls were literally burned, and the mediaeval imagination revelled in description of the fiends and tor- ments there abounding. These revolting as- sociations l will for ever cling to the word " hell," so firmly are they rooted in the. popular mind, and therefore it would have been better to substitute the word actually used by the New Testament speakers in each case. In its too commonly accepted sense, " hell " is no more a translation of Gehenna than it is of Hades. In order to understand the solemn warnings against sin which our Lord uttered several times in the Gospels, the main thing to be grasped is the meaning which His words would 1 See pp. 182-187. GEHENNA 169 convey to the Jews who first heard them. The reader may realise this by the simple process of picturing what might have easily happened in more primitive times on any waste land adjacent to his home. He has only to imagine the town refuse conveyed thither, and fires kept perpet- ually burning to destroy the offal and purify the air in order to have a fair illustration on a small scale of what was actually and continually going on in the Ge Hinnom outside the city of Jerusalem in the day of Christ. To earlier inhabitants of Bexhill, for instance, the once dismal swamp called Polegrove Marsh sup- posing it to have been used as described- might well have become a symbol, in its filth and horror, of the fate of sin-bound, God- rejecting souls. And had some prophet then come and warned the obstinate and godless that if they continued in that evil way they would grow only fit for, and therefore in danger of, Polegrove Marsh, every local man would have understood that this prophet was speaking symbolically. So it was with the Jew of our Lord's day. When Christ told any that they were in danger of the valley of Hinnom, His hearers would un- derstand that Christ spoke symbolicallyalthough with none the less force. And if further (as in 1 70 GEHENNA Mark ix. 33, 34) Christ alluded to the " worm" and the "fire" of the Valley of Hinnom, the Jew would understand that he referred to the end of persistent sin, under the images of the rotting garbage of the Valley of Hinnom and of the fire kindled there to consume it. This being so, I venture to endorse the remark of the Bishop of Manchester that " it is a very great pity that the New Version relegated to the margin the word Gehenna," which tells this story. "It should have been in the text, and the misleading word ' hell ' should have been excluded." But to return to our passage : what are we to understand Christ to mean when He declares that " Whosoever shall say to his fellow, ' thou fool,' shall be in danger of > the Gehenna of fire " ? The context shows that our Lord was at the moment engaged in illustrating the far-reaching and deeply rooted character of the morality He taught. He came not to destroy but to fulfil, not to weaken or abolish the sanctions of the old law, but rather to strengthen and enforce them by demanding obedience not to their letter only but to their spirit. In His new kingdom the kingdom of Heaven, the Chris- tian society there must be found more than the external righteousness of Scribes and GEHENNA 171 Pharisees. The sixth commandment, for ex- ample, was not fully kept, according to the laws of the new kingdom, by any mere avoidance of murder. This fulfilment of the letter might indeed suffice for an earlier age, but now the time had come for a deeper and holier under- standing of the underlying spirit of that "who- soever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment." " I say unto you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment ; and whosoever shall say to his brother ' Raca ' shall be in danger of the Council ; and whosoever shall say ' Thou fool ' shall be in danger of Gehenna." The general sense of this passage is clear enough. We are taught that whereas Moses condemned the specific act of murder, Christ condemns the angry passion at its root. The hot emotion in which potential murder lurks is incipient murder by the law of Christ, just as the lustful look is incipient adultery, And if the angry feeling found vent in wounding and malicious words, this in Christ's view was a heavier crime calling for severer punishment, Such, plainly, is the general drift. There are three sins mentioned : first, the feeling of anger ; next, the expression of that anger in the contemptuous "Raca," ("coxcomb" or 172 GEHENNA " good for nothing," meaning an empty worth- less fellow), and finally the expression of anger in the harsher and more opprobrious " Fool." And as matching these three sins, there are cited three punishments, which are illustrated by reference to Jewish Courts of Justice. The judgment of the Local Court found in every Jewish city stands for the penalty of the first ; the condemnation of the Supreme Council, the Sanhedrim, stands for that of the second ; while for the third sin the liability is declared to be nothing less than the Gehenna of fire. Now between the three offences cited there is a gradual fall And we naturally look for a corresponding gradation in the liability of the offenders. But in the last two cases no sort of proportion is kept, if he who in a moment of heat lets slip the word " Fool " is liable to be damned to that everlasting torment which popular thought now connects with the word hell, while the angry use of a less obnoxious word is simply liable to the sentence of the Sanhedrim. But the fact is that we do not bring this passage into harmony with the character of the Speaker by simply explaining what is meant by Gehenna, and by understanding how different that meaning is from the mediaeval conception GEHENNA 173 of hell. After this first step much surely remains to be taken into account before this hard saying is cleared in the tribunal of con- science from a harshness and severity which are neither Christian nor Christlike. Who does not feel that the " sweet reason- ableness" of Jesus lies impugned, if these startling parabolic statements are to be taken in all the baldness of cold prose ? But why should they be ? May we not say here, as of some other sayings of our Lord, that they are purposely framed in this highly technical and figurative form so as to prevent as far as possible the chance of this treatment at the hands of the literalist ? In every Jewish city were Local Courts of justice having, till within forty years of the Destruction of Jerusalem, the power of life and death ; but the ignominious death of stoning and the far greater ignominy of being cast after death into the foul valley of Hinnom, these penalties could only be inflicted by the Supreme Council sitting at Jerusalem. Christ is speak- ing as an Oriental to Orientals. He uses their national customs, and above all that national sentiment stronger even than with ourselves which revolted against forfeiture of decent burial, to drive home in striking parable the spiritual 174 GEHENNA lesson that the essential sin of murder lies deeper than any mere act of violence. He shows, by strong metaphor which no Easterns would mis- construe, because metaphor was their natural mode of speech, that angry thought as well as angry speech and murderous act were all to be held in abhorrence. But Christ never imagined that men guilty of angry thoughts or of hasty expletives would ever in fact be haled before actual courts, and condemned to literal penalties at once utterly unsuitable and totally disproportionate. No such use of courts of justice, whether Jewish or Christian, has ever been heard of : and to fancy Christ seriously proposing this unheard-of practice is to deny Him ordinary common sense. Moreover, to picture Him as literally recommending judg- ments, such as no monster who ever disgraced his ermine would have consented to pronounce, is to do despite to the Saviour's grace. What Christ Himself would have us do is something very different, and something which commends itself instantly to every man's sense of what is right. He warns us to beware of the "little foxes" that spoil the vines. He reminds us of the fatal importance of the be- ginnings of evil, and of the fatal connection between the slight and slender source, and GEHENNA 175 the resistless torrent to which it may grow. He throws into strong relief the fact, elsewhere insisted upon, that "out of the heart of man" proceed the things that defile. He declares that " in God's sight the murderous wish, scheme, bent, is murder : and that every utter- ance of it, whether in word or deed, will entail severer punishment." " Be angry," we seem to hear Christ say, " be angry, and you will suffer for it ; let your anger amount to utter- ance, and you will suffer the more : every new access and expression of evil passion will plunge you still deeper in sin and misery." "Without a parable," we are told, "Jesus spake not unto them." The parable here at least is plain to read, and the " hardness " of the saying once it is seen to be parabolic pre- sents no difficulty to our understanding, and only troubles our conscience by the height of the moral standard it maintains. It is teaching such as this, from the lips of a Teacher such as Jesus Christ, which makes the best of men ready to cry, " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord," though all the while he feels that no other prophet anywhere proclaims with such magnetic power "the words of Eternal Life." FIGURE AND FACT " If thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. . . and if thine eye cause thee to stumble, cast it out: it is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." ST. MARK ix. 43, 47, 48. ALMOST the only change made by the Revisers in this passage is the omission from the text of verses 44 and 46 of the authorised version, which are identical with verse 48. The best i Manuscript authority is entirely against the words " where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched " occurring three times, and in favour of their appearance once only as here placed. Whether the clause was or was not repeated three times when our Lord originally spoke is not an important matter. If He said the words once, that is sufficient, and it behoves us to inquire what He meant by them. FIGURE AND FACT 177 Are they, or are they not, words which sup- port the popular conception of hell as a place in which the souls of the wicked suffer interminable torment ? Do they, or do they not, " seem to show, how spirits lost in endless woe, may undecay- ing live? " Have they, or have they not, any bearing upon the question whether our human lot and especially that of the impenitent is finally and irrevocably fixed at death for all eternity ? To each of these questions every unbiased student of Christ's actual words must return a most emphatic negative. What He says is that to " enter into the Kingdom of God," or as He describes the same thing in a previous verse, to "enter into life," is so great a privilege that no earthly sacrifice of a material kind is to be regarded as too great in order to secure the blessing. The figures used-are of the strongest. Every one must dread disablement of hand, or foot, or eye. Yet to sacrifice even these all-im- portant members is a small thing, says Jesus, compared with forfeiting " the Life which is life indeed," and being left outside the gates of the " kingdom of God." And then He reminds His hearers of the N 178 FIGURE AND FACT alternative. If men permit temptation to lead them astray : if they surrender to the glamour of the world, the seductions of the flesh, the wiles of the devil, instead of " resisting unto blood, striving against sin," then their moral nature will deteriorate, and they will go from bad to worse, until they become fit at last for nothing but that well-known end of the worth- less and reprobate, the "Gehenna, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." Of Gehenna I have already had occasion to speak, and these additional words will raise no difficulty for those who have before their minds a picture of that to which our Lord actually refers. Worms would be the natural and in- evitable accompaniment of the rotting carcases of the Valley of Hinnom. And as fresh garbage was constantly being supplied, the worms need never die for want of a continual feast. But the putrefaction in which they flourished would have soon become intolerable to the inhabitants of the adjacent city, and therefore the lighting of perpetual fires was found necessary to purify the air. Gehenna, then, was a spot given over to the destruction of what was worthless and offen- FIGURE AND FACT 179 sive, and the worm and the fire were the natural means by which that destruction was effected. While the offal of the city continued to be cast there, the worms would never die, and the fires would never be quenched. Such was the use of the Valley of Hinnom in the day of Christ, and such was the plain and obvious meaning which His words would con- vey to the Jews whom He addressed. Not one of them but would understand, accustomed as all Easterns were to the language of metaphor, that Jesus was setting forth, in the strongest possible symbols, the contrast between the blessed estate of those who, by accepting His authority and obeying His words, entered the kingdom of God which He came to establish upon earth, and the miserable plight of those, who, refusing His message and following the devices and desires of their own evil hearts, would come at last to be cast out into the outer darkness where would be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. It is to be noted that the phrases of the text are by no means the only ones in which are set forth the future lot of the wicked. The very way in which the imagery changes upon the Master's lips, appearing now in one form and N 2 i8o FIGURE AND FACT now in another, is sufficient to make clear that in every case He speaks in parable. For ex- ample, in St. Matthew xiii. 42, as the end of the tares is to be burned, so the fate of the wicked is represented in a figure as being cast into a furnace of fire. In St. Matthew xxiv. 51, where the conduct of the sinner is likened to that of a disobedient slave, the punishment accords with the comparison : his master shall " cut him asunder," or, as the margin has it, " scourge him severely," casting him into the dungeon where there is " the weeping and gnashing of teeth." At the opening of the next chapter, the fate of the foolish virgins is the symbol for the rejection of the wicked. We see them excluded from light and joy, and shut out into the outer darkness. Similarly in the parable of the Talents, spoken about the same time, the churlish and slothful servant is also represented as cast into the " outer dark- ness," where, as before, is " the weeping and gnashing of teeth." This variety of representation is in itself positive proof that they are wrong who fix upon some one image, and then interpret it as though it announced nothing but actual fact. For if so, what becomes of the other figures ? The FIGURE AND FACT 181 scourging, the outer darkness, the Valley of Foulness, the burning weeds, it is plain that they cannot all represent the literal fact. Therefore let us confess that each and all are metaphors of the most forcible sort, intended to produce in us an infinite abhorrence of courses that inevitably lead to the fate for which they stand. From the one symbol which is most constantly recurring, and which is made more emphatic in the Revised Version by the proper translation of the definite article, we learn that the great reality which underlies them all is Sorrow and Despair. These remarks and this conclusion may appear so entirely obvious as to be actually uncalled for, but nevertheless you know that this is not the case. Men separated from one another as the poles asunder upon other matters have united to interpret the oriental symbolism of the Bible as though it were the prose of a legal document. And in the doctrine now specially under consideration they have insisted, with a terrible persistence and a ghastly particu- larity, that the hell which they hold to be the portion of the wicked consists of physical torment in material flame. Arminian and Calvinist, Roman and Anglican have here joined hands. 182 FIGURE AND FACT " What sort of a place is hell ? " asks the Catechism of the Wesleyan Methodists. " Hell is a dark and bottomless pit, full of fire and brimstone." " How will the wicked be punished there?" "The wicked will be punished in hell by having their bodies tormented with fire, and their souls by a sense of the wrath of God." And the great Baptist Minister, who was the infallible pope of thousands of ultra- Protestants to the day of his recent death, has thus written of the future of the unsaved: "When thou diest thy soul will be tormented alone ; that will be a hell for it : but at the day of Judg- ment thy body will join thy soul, and then thou wilt have twin hells ; thy soul sweating drops of blood, and thy body suffused with agony. In fire exactly like that which we have on earth thy body will lie asbestos- like, for ever unconsumed ; all thy veins roads for the feet of pain to travel on, every nerve a string on which the devil shall for ever play his diabolical tune of hell's unutterable lament." Here again is the dictum of Jonathan Edwards, whose teaching, though he died long ago, is still circulated in tracts, to the delight of all who love to watch the spread of infidelity : FIGURE AND FACT 183 " The pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive the wicked : the flames do now rage and glow. The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much in the same way as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. ..." Now we cannot think that such blasphemous coarseness from the context of which I have suppressed the worst is the monopoly of an ignorant sectarianism. For Catholic teachers Roman and Anglican alike, have vied with its ghastly realism. A Spanish Jesuit of two centuries ago scrupled not to write, " We are amazed at the inhumanity of Phalaris, who roasted men in his brazen bull ; but this is joy in respect of hell, which penetrates the very entrails without consuming them." And in one of the commonest current books of Roman Catholic devotion the reader is exhorted thus : " Let us fancy we see hell, and imagine what is worst to behold, a horrible cavern full of black flame. Sulphur, devils, dragons, fire, sword, arrows, and innumerable damned who roar in despair. Imagine the worst you can ; and then say, all [this is nothing compared to hell." 1 84 FIGURE AND FACT Similar, though less violent statements, come from our own communion. These are the words of a famous former Dean of Gloucester : " The cup of wrath your hands must take, your mouth must drink. But you can never drain it. There is no last drop. Infinite vengeance ever fills it to the brim. Eternal wrath is ever bringing more. What is the curse ? It is the endless accumulation of all the miseries which God's resources can command and God's power can inflict. It is the fiery torrent of the lake of fire." Again : " Salted with fire, they seem to show How spirits lost in endless woe May undecaying live. Oh ! sickening thought ! yet hold it fast." What pathos there is here. The popular conception shocks and sickens the pure soul of the Poet of the Christian Year, but it clings to it with the desperation of a loyalty which sees no alternative. These lines reveal the effect of these gross views of hell upon the refined and tender feelings of an imaginative and gifted man. But he is an exception. For the most part, the material view has been held without thought by those who have no imagi- nation, and doubted and disbelieved by those FIGURE AND FACT 185 who have. The fact is that it is scarcely too much to say that these coarse and cruel views elaborated in the middle ages, which have kept back from loving allegiance to our Father in Heaven a greater number than ever they have deterred from sin, need to be dismissed for good and all as abominable travesties of the doctrine of the Gospel. These grotesque and horrible misrepresentations may not unfairly be compared with the actual misuse of the Valley of Hinnom itself by idolatrous Jews, after the worship of the fire-gods was introduced by King Ahaz. In the Gehenna of that day Hebrew parents had given their own children to the flames in sacrifice to heathen deities. And so great grew this scandal that among the reforms effected by Josiah, we read how the pious king " defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech." ] Signs are not wanting that an awakened moral sense in the Christian Church is disposed to subject the mediaeval con- ceptions of Gehenna to a similar salutary pro- cess. No language seems better calculated to "defile" and finally to destroy these fancies 1 2 Kings xxiii. 10. 186 FIGURE AND FACT than that of those who uphold them. And it is only with this object in view that any such language has been cited in these pages. It is surely now high time that the children of Light should finally repudiate and reject, as a blot upon the name of the God revealed in Jesus Christ, such dark conceptions as are fairly com- parable in atrocity to the heathen practices which even the prae-Christian moral sense of King Josiah was constrained to sweep away. Mary Tudor is said to have argued that, inasmuch as it was God's will to burn the bodies of heretics for ever hereafter, it must assuredly be pleasing to Him that she should burn as many as possible of them now. When we listen to such reasoning ; still more when we read what some have written on the subject of the fate of the impenitent, the fact stands out in bold relief that in spite of all the ridiculous travesties of the truth concerning future retri- bution, men have seldom ridiculed the idea of retribution itself. But this is no mystery, for the simple reason that, while conscience revolts at the pictures of hell drawn by human imagination, conscience at the same time proclaims the Hell of Divine Law to be one of the most stupendous facts in FIGURE AND FACT 187 the domain of morals. It is thus that God intends " the removing of those things that are shaken, that the things which are not shaken may remain." 1 Men may and men do dream of an escape from that which their moral sense repudiates, but the reasonableness and the in- evitableness of Retribution cannot be disposed of in this way. When the Wise Man asserts that the wicked "shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices ; " when Isaiah denounces, " Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him ; for the reward of his hands shall be given him ; " when St. Paul declares, " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap " ; this constant burden of the Scriptures, that we cannot escape the consequences of our own conduct, instantly commends itself to our conscience and our understanding. We see how the evil-doer is continually engaged in preparing the Gehenna which in literal truth will be "his own place." The real essence and horror of ' ' damnation " is separation from God and goodness. " Ephraim is joined to idols, Let him alone," is the worst sentence that God's violated majesty is able to inflict, and we should feel it to be so if we saw 1 Hebrews xii. 27. i88 FIGURE AND FACT as God sees. This is the " outer darkness " indeed, and it is simply the issue and conse- quence of the heart's own obstinacy. For God destroys no man. Each one simply reaps what he has sown. W.hen, sixty or seventy years ago, the famous Caspar Hauser appeared in the streets of Nuremberg, released from a dungeon in which he had been confined from infancy, seeing no human face, hearing no human voice, nor ever seeing the full light of day, a distinguished German lawyer wrote a legal history of the case, which he called, A Crime Against the Life of a Soul. It was a fitting title. But it is even more accurately descrip- tive of the process to which so many voluntar- ily subject their own spiritual nature. Men muffle the voice of conscience, and next time its warning falls weak and muffled upon the will. And the weakness of remonstrance and the ease of resistance grow with every repetition of this wilfulness. Impulses of reverence are drowned in a sea of triviality : men walk by sight until the faculty of faith languishes and dies. Time and the petty concerns of this life so engross us that the intuitions of Immortality lose their force, and Eternity fades into nothing- FIGURE AND FACT 189 ness. Paralysis sets in, not of the body perhaps, but (still more to be dreaded) of the soul, paralysis which can have no other end than spiritual death. "Is that all?" does some one say. For indeed there are those who breathe God's air and reap His benefits and live under the embrace of His Redemption, who are yet so dead as not to feel one whit moved at the thought of separation from Him in Whom alone is LIFE. And it is for this very reason men have found it hard to believe that any- thing which they do not now regard as painful can be really hell. They forget that what a being likes depends upon what that being is, that corruption, for example, is no less corrup- tion in our view, because worms like it. Nor is sin (and the love of sin) less damnation in God's view because men are so miserably earthy as to like it. God saves us from hell, saves us from damnation, because He saves us from SIN : saves us through that growing know- ledge of Himself which is the unspeakable reward of the obedient, Yet, lest men should think that therefore sin is not the awful thing it is, God in mercy has united through the world these two, and igo FIGURE AND FACT ordained that suffering shall follow sin as harvest follows sowing. On all hands the warning greets us. In the physical world : the headache which follows the drunken revel ; the fever and pestilence which grow out of the violation of God's laws of purity and health ; the soured and miserable old age following a selfish and dissipated manhood ; all these attest the truth. The same law is at work in the social relationships of men. If one sins against the moral instincts of society, he meets with exclusion or disgrace ; treachery is punished with scorn, cowardice with contempt ; a liar by the loss of trust ; pride fails at last of sympathy ; selfishness reaps its own isolation. What a man sows that shall he also reap. The verification of this law is everywhere. The poverty which results from indolence ; the mistakes which are made by ignorance ; the apathy and then disgust which follow on the indulgence of worldliness and sensuality ; all these are everyday facts. Appropriate penalty attends all manner of transgression. "God is not mocked." " The reward of a man's hands, lo ! that is given him." Now the retribution which thus dogs the evil- doer, and which we can verify for ourselves as FIGURE AND FACT 191 far as this world is concerned, is identical in character with that proclaimed by the prophets. Divine revelation and human experience coin- cide, and the teaching of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospels confirms both. The imprisonment of the debtor who has imprisoned his fellow ; the exclusion of those who have made needless excuses ; the want of the prodigal ; the forfeiture of everything by the slothful servant ; the dismissal from the presence of Christ of those who have refused to acknow- ledge His Presence in the needy sons of men ; Dives craving a drop of water from the beggar to whom he grudged his crumbs, such are some examples out of many illustrating a uniform principle. The Sin is directly the parent of the Suffering. Men " eat of the fruit of their own doings." The inevitable end of sinful and godless courses is Sorrow and Despair. And it is an instructive fact that in spite of the incredible caricatures of the doctrine of future retribution which popular religion has made prevalent the reason and conscience of mankind, though every day more widely rejecting the travesty, have never been disposed to repudiate the truth. FUTURE RETRIBUTION "And these shall go away into eternal punishment." ST. MATTHEW xxv. 46. IN the old version the words run : " These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." But in the Greek, as in the Revised Version, the same identical epithet is applied both to " punish- ment" and to "life." This word alwvios is frequent in the New Testament, and is a favourite word with St. John. It is an adjective patient of two legitimate and distinct meanings at least, but " everlasting" is not one of them, and the Revisers have therefore invariably substituted for this mistranslation the word "eternal." Eternal is related to the Latin aetas, an age, exactly as the Greek alwvios is related to alwv, an age. This rendering therefore reproduces faithfully the indefiniteness and ambiguity of the original. For the original word cannot possibly be shut up to mean that which is without beginning FUTURE RETRIBUTION 193 and without end. A word which a " Father of fathers " could use to describe an interval must be a poor expression for time without end. A word which St. Paul could twice use * in alluding to occurrences " before times eternal " cannot be taken to describe that which had no beginning. The plain meaning of "eternal " in such passages is aeonian, agelong, dispensa- tional, referring to ages which had their truth to realise, which realised it and then passed away. The Apostle simply declares that God's promise and God's purpose existed before all the times, cycles, ages, which as they pass gradually and partially realise His will. But besides this first meaning of the word eternal aeonian, agelong, cyclical there is another sense in which it is used. It may mean that which is by nature related to the abiding, that which is real and spiritual, as opposed to that which is apparent and material. King James's translators recognised this sense of the word, or they would not have rendered "the life which is life indeed " 2 by the phrase " eternal life." This could only have been given as an equivalent to the Greek by men who perceived that the "eternal" might mean the "real," just as the temporal may mean 1 2 Timothy i. 9, and Titus i. 2. 2 I Timothy vi. 19. O i 9 4 FUTURE RETRIBUTION the phenomenal, that which is seen being temporal, and that which is not seen being eternal. Moreover this use of the word has the sanction of the Master Himself, when our Lord says, 1 " This is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent." Thus we see that the two principal legitimate meanings of aluvios are " agelong " or " aeonian," and " real " in the sense of spiritual ; while the old equivalent "everlasting" is no translation of the word at all, but only a most hazardous interpretation of it rightly repudiated by the Revisers. It would have been more consistent if, thus refusing to paraphrase the adjective, they had also refused to paraphrase the noun from which it is derived. But here they have allowed the definite "for ever" to represent the indefinite " unto the ages," and have relegated the literal and only accurate translation to the margin. No doubt " for ever " is less cumbrous, but it is often less exact, as for instance in St. Luke i. 33, where it is said that our Lord shall rule over the house of Jacob " for ever," when plainly the meaning can only be that He will thus rule, as the Greek says, "unto the ages," 1 St. John xvii. 3. FUTURE RETRIBUTION 195 unto the ages, that is, during which distinc- tions of race and nationality last. It seems also very material to a right conclusion on this whole matter to remember that the sacred writers had at their disposal at least three Greek words airepavTos, atSios, are\evTos which would have unmistakably conveyed the meaning " endless," had they wished to convey it. Two of these words are actually used in the Epistles, 1 but never in connection either with the "life" of the righteous or with the "punishment" of the wicked. Moreover, by using the adjective "all " to characterise " the ages," as is done in the last verse of the Epistle of St. Jude where glory is ascribed to God "before all time, and now, and unto all the ages," the idea of time without beginning and without end could have been strictly expressed. But as this combina- tion never occurs in the New Testament in the connection now under review, we seem bound to conclude that writers who deliberately chose a different phrase designed to express a different idea. In using in the way they did the word alwv and its derivative, they must have meant to describe future retribution as "agelong" or "aeonian" if they are thinking 1 aiffpavros, I Timothy I, 4. atSios, Romans i. 20 ; Jude 6. O 2 196 FUTURE RETRIBUTION simply of duration ; or, if their thought is rather of its character, it may perhaps be fairly paraphrased by " the punishment which is punishment indeed." Driven from one stronghold by the discovery that punishment is nowhere in the New Testament said to be " endless," the upholders of this view have betaken themselves to a very sorry refuge. They argue that the fate of the impenitent is at death irrevocably and intermin- ably sealed, because forsooth Ecclesiastes ! says, "If the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth there shall it be." Such argument is almost as fool- ishly irrelevant as that which seeks to establish the exceeding fewness of the saved from the fact that one only was healed at the pool of Bethesda or from the supposition that out of sixty wives, eighty concubines, and numberless others, Solomon loved only one ! The truth is that the state between death and judgment receives in Holy Writ the very scantiest notice. Not more than two or three passages, even in the New Testament, have any direct bearing upon the question. And one of these, the Parable of Lazarus and Nimeusis, is so filled with Jewish imagery that very little 1 Ch. xi. 3. FUTURE RETRIBUTION 197 can be built upon it. We cannot however avoid remarking a distinct inprovement in the moral state of the departed Rich Man, who begins at least to evince an interest in the welfare of his brothers, a grace of which he showed no sign in this world. Then there are the well known sayings of St. Peter, 1 the older English version of the first of which left it possible to interpret the words as meaning that Christ went to the antediluvians now in prison when they lived on earth, and by His spirit, through the preaching of Noah, called them to repentance. But the Revised Version, by its more correct rendering, has made this interpretation impossible. Here flesh and spirit are so opposed that, as in the Greek, the word spirit must mean, not The Holy Spirit, but Our Saviour's human spirit, in which (not by which) He went and preached to the ante- diluvians in Hades. What conclusion is legitimate from this as- sertion ? First it seems to open the possibility of probation in the intermediate state between death and judgment. But secondly, the passage 1 Christ also suffered for sins .... being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit ; in -which also He -went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which aforetime were disobedient. I Peter iii. 19. Compare also ch. iv. 6, For unto this end was the gospel preached even to the dead, &c. 198 FUTURE RETRIBUTION only cites this extended probation with regard to a particular class of men, whose case can therefore serve only as an argument affecting analogous cases, and not to establish a rule applying universally. In other words, we may argue from this instance not the continued pro- bation of all men, but that only of those whose probation on earth, from whatever cause, has been incomplete. But this is all that right reason demands. We cannot doubt that any great natural catastrophe hurries thousands out of life, whose death cuts short and leaves in- complete their soul's moral trial. Any sudden accident must be liable to remove a man before his will has taken that decided action which fixes him " unto the ages " as either the friend or the enemy of God. And how can we believe that all the myriads of the heathen, or all the children of Christian lands who have been brought up by profligate parents, have come to an end of their moral probation when they suffer the natural accident of bodily death ? That God Who "was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself," and Who "declares His Almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity," will assuredly not leave any soul under a disadvantage in this thing. Indeed the actual words of Jesus Himself, in warning the FUTURE RETRIBUTION 199 Capernaites, positively assert that distinctions founded upon the higher responsibility of greater privilege and the contrary, will certainly be drawn : " Verily, I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for you." It should suffice for all of us simply to say regarding this whole matter, " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" But the passage in St. Peter, above cited, seems at least to give some light of revelation, be it only a gleam, to point out to us the means by which the uncovenanted mercy of God reaches its beneficent end. We cannot however too clearly keep in mind that our great concern is not with speculation, but with duty. There is no other answer now to be given to the question : " Lord, are there few that be saved ? " than the one reply vouch- safed of old by Him Who knew : " See that, in your questioning about others, you do not miss the way of life. Strive, agonise, yourselves to enter in. The path is narrow, and the gate is strait." In like manner, if you ask " How long shall last the inevitable eating of the fruit of evil ? " We can but say, As long as the sin, so long he punishment thereof : as long as men love 200 FUTURE RETRIBUTION darkness rather than light and self more than God, so long must they, eat of the fruit of their choice. Whether this will cease at last, " far off, at last, to all," God only knows. The most that we can do is to bound the lurid picture of a mis-spent life with the illimitable light of Divine Love. It is plain that the foretold days when death and hell shall be cast into the fiery lake, when evil shall be no more because God is all in all, can be reached in one of two ways only : either by the destruction, or by the conversion of evil beings. While any soul is capable of recovery to holiness we may be certain that that soul will be the object of God's merciful regard. But the words of Christ and His Apostles do seem undoubtedly to indicate that there may be some in whom the reign of evil has become so absolute and complete that they are irrecover- able ; and these warnings are supported by all we know of the Persistence of Force, evil as well as good. It seems impossible to conceive how after years, possibly ages, of wilfulness have made conversion more and more difficult, the human will can be brought back to right allegiance. But we must remember that our minds cannot now harmonise the seeming contradiction of human Free-will and divine FUTURE RETRIBUTION 201 Sovereignty. Yet we believe in both ; and we rest in the fact that what is impossible with man is nevertheless possible with God. - The absolute final Supremacy of Holiness, which is clearly promised, can only be reached by way of one or other of two alternatives. And either alternative may be strongly sup- ported out of Holy Scripture. On the one hand, there are passages which indicate that in the Divine Counsel there is devised a way by which even God's disobedient and banished ones may not finally be expelled from Him. On the other hand, it appears to be asserted that there is a persistent perversity of will which must inevitably lead to "destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." Our wisdom surely is to leave the matter where revelation leaves it, and not to be wise beyond what has been written for our learning. This is one of the secret things which belong unto the Lord our God. We are sure which alternative would seem to secure the most triumphant issue of Divine Grace. We may hope that this may be the dazzling truth, one of the many things held back because we cannot bear them now. But we may not inter- pret Scripture except in accordance with its 202 FUTURE RETRIBUTION general sense, and this cannot fairly be ascer- tained by fixing our attention solely upon one class of passages and ignoring others which have an opposing sense. Our late Laureate at the end of his Vision of Sin, seems to have taken us as far as revelation warrants. " At last I heard a voice upon the slope, Cry to the summit, ' Is there any hope ? ' To which an answer pealed from that high land, But in a tongue no man could understand ; And on a glimmering limit, for withdrawn, God made Himself an awful rose of dawn." But we know Who this God is Who thus reveals Himself. Even He Who is declared by St. Paul 1 to be "the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe." Is not the Christ His Incarnation?- the Good Shepherd Who seeks each wandering soul "until He find it," the great Apostle of those who have actually departed this life ignorant and out of the way, the mighty Herald of the evangel of Redemption to "spirits in prison" in the life grave. We know how the purpose of that Saviour's Mission was by His life and work so to enlarge all minds and change all hearts, that, reflecting His image and being transformed into His likeness, they might all be "summed up in Him." (Ephes. i. 10.) We know how the 1 I Timothy iv. 10. FUTURE RETRIBUTION . 203 largeness of His redeeming love is revealed in Romans v. 15, 19,* where instead of "many" which would imply the exclusion of some, the Revisers by translating "the many" have made it clear that St. Paul refers to all, to the multitude and mass of mankind. And we feel that such passages open to us a Vision of Redemption so vast that it can scarcely be said to have limits on earth or in heaven, in time or in eternity. We seem to see the uplifted Christ actually drawing "all men " to Himself. 2 We seem almost to hear " every tongue " willingly confessing true alle- giance. 3 The "sin of the world" seems in- deed to have been " taken away," 4 and the will of Him "Who willeth all men to be saved " 5 to be veritably accomplished in the "reconciliation of all things" unto God. 6 Pending further light let us at least thank God, Whose thoughts are deeper and higher than ours, that no inadequate human views, no hasty human speech, can ever hinder the fulfilment of the eternal purpose of His mind. 1 If by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the gift by the grace of the One Man Jesus Christ abound unto the many. . . . For as through the one man's disobedience the many -were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One shall the many be made righteous. 2 St. John xii. 32. 3 Phil. ii. 9-11. 4 St. John i. 29. 5 i Tim. Hi. 3, 4. 6 Col. i. 19, 20 204 FUTURE RETRIBUTION Of that purpose He has revealed enough to stir our energies and banish our despair. The Unity, the Peace, the Holiness of the Universe He has created will be accomplished in the day His will is done on earth as it is now in heaven. Till the fulness of time is come, let that suffice. Meanwhile, it can scarcely be the duty of finite intelligence to set human limits to the quickening, transforming power of the Sun of Righteousness. Nor need we, judging merely by the poor dawn of our own age, forecast the shadow of our feeble faith across the noontide glory of that future day when "God shall be all in all." But these considerations, intensely interest- ing as they may be, belong to the domain of speculative theology rather than to that of practical religion. For those " who do not will to be converted to God, for those who would but delay, for those who relapse after every conversion, and for those who believe they need no conversion at all," the warnings of the Bible are plain and clear. This present age is the " day of their visitation," " now is the accepted time," now the day of grace. Every hour's procrastination, every postponement of the great decision, increases the danger of that most moving of judicial sentences being spoken FUTURE RETRIBUTION 205 over the hesitating soul. "O that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes." Some men's sins go before to judgment ; but we know that this is not so always. Where con- science has been lulled to sleep, men may live oblivious of their plight, and practically un- conscious of what should be giving them great pain. Thus, as has often been pointed out, there are multitudes of godless people who seem to succeed in avoiding for the present the fruit of their doings. They are temperate, and are blessed with health. They are shrewd and economical, and amass wealth. They are prudent, and avoid disaster. They are worldly wise, and secure worldly prosperity. If there were nothing beyond, it is said, if there were no hereafter, these would seem to be the wisest. Now, in and for their own generation, judged simply by the world's standard, these children of the age are wise indeed. But judged by the law of Christ, their unwisdom is manifest even if this life were all. For what they enjoy bears no sort of comparison with what they lose, since no material gain can ever compensate for spiritual loss. " A man's Life consisteth not in 206 FUTURE RETRIBUTION the abundance of his possessions." And "what shall a man give in exchange for his Life ? " But as a matter of fact this present existence is not all. The wide judgment of the world is safe. The religious belief of three-fourths of the human race is one with the Catholic Faith in declaring that there is a hereafter. "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this judgment." Thus, for the successful man of the world, who does well for himself, and of whom all men speak well, quite as surely as for the debauchee whom the feet of retribution have already overtaken, judgment awaits. The reinstatement of conscience, hitherto resisted, insulted, dethroned, means for the men who have deliberately starved their souls, self-judgment and self-condemnation. And this is certain ; for, though conscience may sleep, conscience will not die. Moreover it is the prerogative of this undying conscience always to see as God sees. And all that is needed for the utter misery of any who now find content in loving what God hates and hating what God loves is simply to see as God sees. Disguises and delusions and excuses then will disappear ; reality and fact alone remain. Neither the justice nor the fact of retribution can be any longer doubted. Conscience will open out the FUTURE RETRIBUTION 207 nature of that God of Love Whom the godless have chosen to ignore. They will "see Him as He is," and the revelation of His loving kindness which ravishes the righteous, will consume them as with veritable " coals of fire." Memory will unfold its tale of mercies slighted and despised, of all the good which only "might have been," of unnumbered opportunities let slip. And this revelation of a wasted past, with all its side-issues of influence upon the lives of others, must become a thousandfold more poignant, viewed as it will then appear as the most perverse frustration of the purpose of Divine beneficence. To the man thus confronted with the gulf cleft by his own carelessness and sin, to the man face to face with that most awful of all losses, the lost presence of the Holy Spirit, what remains ? What but the exceeding bitter cry : " Which way I fly is hell, myself am hell, and in the lowest deep a lower deep, still threatening to devour me, opens wide, to which the hell I suffer seems a heaven." Future Retribution, then is as real and as certain as future Bliss. There is a hell as well as a heaven, though both the one and the other have been so grotesquely misrepresented that the terrors of the one and the joys of the other 208 FUTURE RETRIBUTION have come to be widely doubted. " The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." To realise the loss of heaven is to be in hell. And in the nature of this Perdition this Loss which is loss indeed lies the secret of its awful certainty. For thus we see how different it is from any mere arbitrary or objective penalty which might possibly be escaped. It is inevitable. Men are in eternal misery, and must be so, as long as they are sensual, covetous, proud and love- less. The worm of conscience awakened when the soul is delivered from the body of this death, the unquenchable fires of remorse, the hell of a man's own self cut off from the One Spirit of holiness which could save it from corruption, this Gehenna is no revengeful in- fliction of an unnatural punishment ; it is the natural outgrowth and fruition of a godless life. This is the fate from which God in mercy and His Christ have been continually warning men to fly, by the voices of history, of revelation, of experience and of conscience all down the ages. And therefore we must every one acknowledge that we are without excuse, if at the close of our life-history the Redeemer of mankind can only sorrowfully say of us "I would, but ye would not." LIFE ETERNAL "_ Verify, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have not life in yourselves. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh Afy blood hath Eternal Life." ST. JOHN vi. 53, 54. " THIS is a Hard Saying, who can hear it ? " Such was the comment originally passed upon the discourse of Christ which culminated in the words of the text. It expressed the view not only of the general public, but of the Master's own disciples. Our Lord had been trying all through this address to lift His hearers' minds out of the miserable mundane groove in which their thoughts were accustomed to run. These Jews had immensely appreciated the satisfaction of their bodily wants in the recent miracle of the loaves and fishes. Recollecting how Moses had fed their fathers in the desert, they seemed to think that if Jesus could but make His temporary provision continuous and regular, as the manna had been under Moses, then His p 2io LIFE ETERNAL claim to be a prophet sent from God might be at least equally great. A multitude accordingly had followed Christ from the other side of the Lake, and some of them had gathered before Him in the Capernaite synagogue. They press Christ for credentials. They were true repre- sentatives of "an evil and adulterous generation which ever seeketh a sign." They would believe after they had seen. As however the Sign of signs stood before them, not in the form of perishable Mosaic manna, but the very Bread of God in the highest sense that Bread which could sustain not the mere bodily existence but " the Life which is life indeed " of the eternal spirit and yet their eyes were holden ; Jesus could but sorrowfully say, " Ye have even seen ME, and yet believe not." This sign-seeking betrays the low level of these people's thought. It is always a poor affair when men cannot recognise Truth and accept it upon its own merits ; when the prophet is judged not by his message and his character but by his performance of miracle. " Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe " was a saying often on the lips of Jesus, and it was always said reproachfully. Even when in later days the faith of an Apostle was lowered LIFE ETERNAL 211 to depend upon external proofs, though the evidence was granted and St. Thomas was abundantly convinced, yet he won scant praise from the Master : " Because thou hast seen Me thou hast believed. Blessed are they which have not seen and yet have believed." To the men who lookjbr "signs" in their prophet rather than for truth, it is natural that religion should appear chiefly a matter of externals. " What must we do that we work the works of God ? " But Christ bids them learn the inwardness of true religion, and the useless- ness of works without the vitalizing principle of faith, " This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent." An answer, had it but been well weighed since by Christians as well as Jews, sufficient to have stilled waves which have often run mountains high on the troubled sea of theology. For here is faith declared to be the life of works, and works to be a necessity of faith. Again these men with an appetite for miracle and for whom religion was an entirely external thing, even though they say " Lord, evermore give us this bread," can penetrate no deeper into the nature of Christ's meaning than the hope of a physical boon. Christ stood waiting p i 212 LIFE ETERNAL to relieve the hunger of the soul : their thoughts could rise no higher than the satisfaction of the claims of the body. The Living Bread which came down from Heaven stood before them in the person of the Son of Man Who would give His flesh for the life of the world. But they saw only the peasant Jesus, the Nazarene mechanic, " whose father and mother we know." These men, whatever their orthodoxy, were really materialists : their own spiritual nature was still undiscovered. Hence for spiritual Bread they felt no relish, knew no need. In vain before such men are spread the treasures of Him Whose words are " spirit and life." Their whole mode of thought is carnal, and " the flesh profiteth nothing." There is a Bread of God the assimilation of which differentiates the truly living from those of the children of men who only seem to live. But the materialist can get no further than such cavil as " How can this man give us His flesh to eat ? " But Christ vouchsafes no answer save the solemn re-asser- tion of the fact, " Verily, verily I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." This is the culminating statement of the doctrine which seemed to our Lord's hearers a LIFE ETERNAL 213 saying impossible to understand. Nor can we be surprised when we consider that for nineteen centuries the flood of controversy thus opened has deluged the Christian Church. When to-day we ask what precisely it was which Christ intended to convey in this startling figure, we are first met by those who find here little more than a strong assertion of the para- mount importance of participation in the Holy Eucharist. The Gift, say they, is the gift of Christ's Body and Blood there verily taken and received by the faithful, for the strengthening and refreshing of the soul. In the use of this divinely appointed sacrament, the terms of the text are completely satisfied and fulfilled. And the implication follows that no other fulfil- ment needs to be considered. But with these interpreters I am unable to agree. The interpretation of a passage is one thing : the application of it is another. There may, therefore, be a plainly justifiable application of words, studied in the light of after events and later teaching, which would never- theless be quite inadmissible if put forward as their sole legitimate interpretation. That this present passage offers an instance in point, several considerations go to prove. 214 LIFE ETERNAL We find that while St. John often takes for granted the two great Sacraments, he nowhere directly refers to them as outward rites. Thus the view cited ill accords with the habit of the recorder of the words in question. Again, the statement made is unconditional and absolute, and this also is against the theory here opposed. For there is no sort of qualification, such as eating and drinking " worthily " or the like, which the purely sacramental interpretation would properly require. The actual phrase used is also against this idea. For, wherever else in Scripture the Holy Communion is spoken of, the terms used are " Body and Blood," while here we have the word "flesh" a term strictly proper to the doctrine of our Lord's humanity, and in that sense here peculiarly apt. But there is a final consideration which alone suffices to forbid this exclusive interpretation. For by its acceptance these words would be robbed of all sipfnifi- o cance at the time when they were uttered. And it is surely inconceivable that Christ could have spoken to His original audience in a sense which none of them, however spiritually minded, could possibly penetrate then and there. The truth is that the teaching here pierces LIFE ETERNAL 215 deeper, soars higher, and reaches wider than even the Sacrament itself. The doctrine reaches wider than any external act, for no external act can ever so include as to become a valid substitute for the spiritual verities which under- lie it. The doctrine is also deeper and higher, inasmuch as the end transcends the means thereto however precious and sacred. This position there now seems special reason very clearly to maintain. For certain move- ments of ecclesiastical thought in the present day unmistakably tend to confuse the delicate border line between faith and superstition. Intelligent faith demands that a clear distinction be drawn between the spiritual end for which Sacraments exist, and the outward means ordained for its attainment. To minimise this distinction is to voice superstition, not to glorify Faith. Yet, to judge by language frequently heard, much confusion on this point is prevalent. For do we not meet those who not content with proclaiming the value of the Holy Com- munion as divinely appointed to be a wonderful channel of blessing to " them that rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same "- incessantly urge " making Communions," as though this special outward act of obedience 216 LIFE ETERNAL were itself to be regarded as the supreme end of the religious life ? The attitude of mind which accepts this mis- take without demur unconscious of the radical importance of the distinction it obliterates has its source elsewhere than in faith. And the prevalence of this mistaken attitude has no doubt given currency to the notion that our Lord's language in the chapter before us refers primarily to the then uninstituted Eucharist, or is simply to be regarded as prophetic of that Sacrament. But, in rejecting a view which makes havoc alike of history and of interpretation, we need never appear to disregard the unique dignity of this truly " Divine Service." For all of us may find there offered, to our great and endless comfort, in concrete form, the very truth which Christ here states absolutely. And we cannot hesitate to aver that the Holy Communion is the very means best suited for the personal realisation of that truth. Nor can the conclusion be reasonably avoided that we have in the language of this chapter the best of all possible commentaries upon this venerable institution, and one infinitely to be preferred before any modern " Manual " whatsoever. Yet all this LIFE ETERNAL 217 is entirely consistent with the truth, so important to keep clear, that in this discourse at Capernaum Jesus Christ is dealing primarily not with the outward rite, but with the spiritual fact which underlies it. Surely the point needs no labouring that these wonderful words are intended to describe, both for Christ's first hearers and for us, the profound spiritual truth that the calling of the Christian disciple is to nothing lower than to become " partaker of the divine nature." The striking metaphor used is prepared for by the previous train of the discourse, and it sets forth with marvellous force that this is to be realised by means of the Christian's absolute identifi- cation with the "Son of Man." As Bishop Westcott puts it, " The Son of Man lived for us and died for us and communicates to us the effects of His life and death as perfect Man." Without this communication of Christ, men can have " no life in themselves." It is just this imparting of Christ Himself, so as to become in the recipient a spring of life within, which is the essential subject of this passage. It is a holy mystery which eludes prosaic definition. And even when it is described by Jesus Himself, it cannot but 2i8 LIFE ETERNAL appear a "hard saying" to men who have not or rather will not use the faculty of faith, to men who have not or rather will not use the will to understand and obey. There is a life- long school of God in which such a lesson as this may be learnt. But Faith and Obedience were ever in that school the twin conditions of knowledge, without which nothing. To the union of Faith and Obedience in any life is never denied the Gift of a wonder-work- ing child whose name is Love. To love is given the revelation of God. Love unseals the sight and wins the Truth which flesh and blood cannot reveal. Love may doubt about a method, like that of the Cross : " That be far from Thee, Lord." Love may doubt about a fact, like that of the Resurrection : but love clings to the person of Christ, identifies itself with His character, and all else may be forgiven. The final decision is safe : " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life " ; the final devotion is sure, " My Lord and My God ! " Into the Love thus born of Faith and of Obedience, Christ was ever leading His dis- ciples while He tabernacled among them in the flesh. It was to be the atmosphere in LIFE ETERNAL 219 which they lived and moved, it was to be the light in which all the mysteries of earth and heaven would grow clear. The story of the gospels shows how slow even good men may be in realising this ideal. And the theological history of the Church tells the same sad tale. The perfect Insight begotten of pure Love is still delayed ; even for those that profess and call themselves Christians the ideal of Christ remains a poet's dream : " I'm apt to think the man That could surround the sum of things and spy The heart of God, and secrets of His empire, Would speak but love : with him the bright result Would change the hue of intermediate scenes, And make one thing of all theology." That happy hour has not struck yet. We have still to wait for the complete fulfilment of the prophecy here cited by our Lord, " They shall all be taught of God " ; so it becomes us not to be too hard upon those inappreciative hearers of a Master whom we ourselves follow so far off. Our wisdom will be to notice care- fully how much in their attitude of thought reminds us of our own position. Is not our lack of faith rebuked as well as theirs by the assurance, "He that believeth on Me hath Life Eternal " ? May we not well tremble in 220 LIFE ETERNAL our disobedience at the restricted promise, "If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death " ? And what is it but our lovelessness that denies us the rich experience which dis- tinguishes the true disciple from the outside world? " If a man love Me he will keep my Word, and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him." It is nothing less than this which Christ is per- petually offering to all of us, and which He set before the Capernaites as a gift so much greater than loaves and fishes and manna. "/ am the Bread which cometh down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die ! " He offers us Himself, His Spirit, His way of looking at life and all its concerns, His revelation of the Father, His power over evil, His tireless energy for good. He stands at the door of the human heart and knocks, and with those that have the grace to open He abides. And the characters of those who receive Him and " practise His Presence " gradually shape them- selves after His likeness. For them that miracle is wrought for which St. Paul travailed with his converts : the Christ is formed within them. They and He are One. They live, yet not they, but rather Christ Who liveth in them. LIFE ETERNAL 221 They engage in manifold pursuits : they look like other people. But whether they make tents like St. Paul, or doctor bodies like St. Luke, or collect taxes like St. Matthew ; whether they are soldiers like Cornelius, or servants like Rhoda their Life is apart from all this, " their Life is hid with Christ in God." And the source and sustenance of all is the Christ Who communicates Himself to the believer, to the man who so believes as to identify himself with the Son of Man, with an identification so complete as to justify the startling figure " eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man," with a union so absolute as to bear comparison with the ineffable Unity between Christ and His Father. When Jesus says that He will give Himself to us so that His Life may become the life of our souls and His Death a veritable part of our spiritual experience, is it not plain that He is holding out to us that splendid possibility which the Saints of God in every age have all in their measure realised ? Up to the understanding of this truth, which is the very core of Christianity, the Master strove in this discourse gradually to lift the minds of those whom he addressed. For the majority then present He spoke in 222 LIFE ETERNAL vain. We have seen how this was. But we dare not forget how perpetually recurrent is the hindrance which kept them unblest. As in the day of Christ, so now, physical comfort, mechanical religionism, outward and visible signs, are the material things which engross the thoughts of the world. Moreover this materialism is always per- petrating the same blunders as of old. Other- wise indeed it could not continue to survive. The commonest mistake of materialism lies in the persistent use of the wrong instrument for its investigation. It is for ever crying out for " a sign," in order that it may " see and believe." But this demand is so utterly unscientific as to be positively stupid. It is only in its own sphere that sight is the instrument of knowledge. The scalpel has its uses, but there are more things in heaven and earth than ever can be laid on the dissecting table or brought within the walls of the laboratory. It is with these that Jesus Christ is concerned, and He offers you the only means by which these things are to be tested, when He tells you that you must believe and love and obey if you would know. It has been quite truly said that "Jesus insisted on Faith for the same reason that a mathema- LIFE ETERNAL 223 tician relies on the sense of numbers, or an artist on the sense of beauty : it was the one means of knowledge in His department. He was the Prophet of God, and must address the God faculty in man. Between Faith and God there was the same correspondence as between the eye and light. Faith proves God : God demands Faith." This, then, is the perennial blunder of the materialist. He persists in ignoring Faith and falling back on sight in the quest for God and His Truth. But God is a Spirit, and His Truth is Spiritual Truth. And you cannot see the spiritual, any more than you can see a sound or hear a lovely landscape. You must use the sense proper to the object in view, and not that suitable to a different object. It is of the Eternal things not seen that Jesus spoke, and to treat these as though they were things seen and temporal is to add perversity to dis- obedience. " Faith is the instinct of the spiritual world : it is the sixth sense the sense of the unseen." Apart from this power by which spiritual things are spiritually discerned, the teaching of Jesus could never be understood. To those of old who lacked this gift, the " Bread of Life " could mean nothing but anew 224 LIFE ETERNAL sort of manna, just as to their successors to-day it seems to present itself as almost a fit subject for chemical analysis. To those Jews who had it not the words of Christ provided nothing more than a fresh Rabbinic riddle, even as to- day men may be found to regard His Teaching mainly as an intellectual problem upon which they may exercise their ingenuity. But men of Faith, in whatever age they live, outgrow these thoughts. They come to understand how " the flesh profiteth nothing," for theirs is the talisman which transforms the Words of Christ from mere food for the brain into " spirit and life " for the soul. And though for a time some speech may seem obscure, they come to understand that no Saying of Jesus was ever yet so "hard" as to refuse its meaning to the Obedience of Faith and the In- sight of Love. And verily they have their reward, "now in this present time" and ever- more, for to these their Master's promise is day by day fulfilled : " He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life" ; and " He that believeth on Me hath Life Eternal." RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY. By the Same Author. Crown 8v0, 212 //. Macmillan and Co. Price $s. Second Edition. Now Ready. HARD SAYINGS OF JESUS CHRIST: IN THE MIND AND METHOD OF THE MASTER. PRESS NOTICES. THE SPECTATOR." We commend this book to the attention of our readers. . . . Mr. Grane grapples with the difficulties which these Sayings present frankly and courageously. He does not give easy answers compressed into half a dozen sentences. But he will not leave his readers merely to ' deorientalise ' these utterances of Christ, nor permit them to be relegated to the region of the unpractical as ' counsels of perfection.'" PALL MALL GAZETTE.' 1 Summer visitors to Bexhill have learned to expect at the parish .Church sermons of more than ordinary merit. Prebendary Grane brings to the task of preaching a wide know- ledge of books, and a shrewd understanding of what is passing in the lay mind. His most characteristic claim upon lay gratitude lies, however, in the fact that he refuses to abandon the common sense principles by which most of us interpret contemporary men and things when he enters upon the interpretation of the New Testament records." GUARDIAN. "This is a very suggestive book. . . throws light on many difficult texts." CHURCH TIMES." This book is one of marked ability, learned and thoughtful. It is in sermons such as these and the like that the power of the pulpit will be maintained. Sermon after sermon meets the average cultured layman on his own ground : the preacher, as it were, sits down by him, and point by point cuts away those difficulties which little know- kdge, prejudice, crude or erroneous teaching in the past have raised up. . . ." CHURCH GAZETTE. "Prebendary Grane is not an average preacher, but though original he keeps within the bounds of sober sense. He warns with admirable clearness against an undue literalism in in- terpreting our Lord's sweeping generalisations. . . . The whole sermon on the ' Might of Meekness ' is an excellent corrective to many an absurd caricature of the Gospel ideal. There is a powerful sermon on ' Spiritual Suicide,' from which we regret that we can only extract. . . . We wish, too, that we had space to give Mr. Crane's words in pp. 73, 74, on the [SEE OVER. "HARD SAYINGS OF JESUS CHRIST." PRESS NOTICES continued. ' Divinity of Christ.' The best sermon in the book, however, is that on 'Gehenna.' No previous writer, so far as we are aware, has put the true meaning of our Lord entirely lost for ages under a multitude of false glosses so clearly and forcibly as does Prebendary Grane. The splendid sermon on ' Future Retribution ' ought to be read in connection with it. ... This is a volume which should be in the hands of every clergyman who wishes to be in touch with the minds and hearis of laymen in the present generation." CHURCH OF ENGLAND PULPIT. "We cordially recommend this volume to our readers. They will find here the results of much read- ing, much pondering, much observation of men and things, wrought into shape by a particularly sane and trustworthy judgment, and set forth with considerable literary skill." CHICHESTER DIOCESAN GAZETTE. ". . . These terse sum- maries of critical and practical reflections might be multiplied ; but enough has been quoted to show the close relationship between the ' Hard Sayings ' and our everyday life, with which the affluence of our author's practical wisdom enables him to stimulate the interest of his readers from first to last." SCOTTISH GUARDIAN. "few sermons merit publication as much as these. . . . We readily perceive a vigorous and acute mind wrestling with the words of the Master, and laying bare with wonderful force and lucidity the reasonableness of His demands and the effectiveness of His method of teaching. . . . We can cordially recommend clergy to make use of this able and suggestive book." CHRISTIAN WORLD." Prebendary Grane works on sound princi- ples, and his writing should do much to remove the difficulties of intelli- gent readers of the Bible." EXPOSITORY TIMES. ". . . We build theological systems ; and there are sayings of Jesus Christ we have left lying about as stones which would not fit into our system. Sometimes we have fallen over them. Mr. Grane looks at them singly, measures them and finds them fit any building which has Christ for foundation." LIFE AND WORK."' A contribution of real value to the intelligent use of Holy Scripture. Any preacher would find this book helpful, and it is so little technical and so little indulges in a display of learning that it can be commended to every lover of the Bible." GREAT THOUGHTS. "This is 'a study in the mind and method of the Master' from which no one can well rise without illumination. The most puzzling of the paradoxes of our Lord are treated with a thorough- ness, an insight, and a candour which leave little to desire." MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, LONDON. Crown &vo, 30 1 //. Macmillan and Co. Price 6s. THE WORD AND THE WAY OR THE LIGHT OF THE AGES ON THE PATH OF TO-DAY. BY WILLIAM LEIGHTON GRANE, M.A. Prebendary of Chichester ; formerly Rector of Bexhill-on-Sea. PRESS NOTICES. THE SPECTATOR." The author sets forth in a series of sermons which constitutes an eminently logical and coherent whole the character of Revelation, the outlines of the Christian life in which this Revelation has its practical outcome, the difficulties and hindrances which are encountered in the effort to realise the ideals of this life, and the aids, individual or corporate, which the Christian may claim and appropriate. It is not the least of Mr. Crane's merits that it is not easy to determine to what school of churchmanship he belongs. . . . Every one will recognise the value of these discourses, their earnestness, their spirituality, the vigour of their style, and the richness of illustration which gives them distinction. ..." PALL MALL GAZETTE. -"The Rector of Bexhill is, if we mistake not, a new author. If he goes on as he has begun in this volume, we prophesy for him a career of great usefulness in the Church. His able discourses are candid, erudite, and spiritual. . . . We heartily welcome one who has the courage to follow truth. . . . The style of these sermons is excellent : earnest, controlled, and forcible." GUARDIAN. 11 The plan of this book has been well thought out . . . the writer is both faithful to the old truth and also shrewd enough to read beneath the surface of the age in which he lives. As a consequence, Mr. Crane's book is a valuable companion for those whose duty is to bring out of their treasures things new and old." CHURCH TIMES. 11 This volume sets forth excellently the inherent testimony to itself of Holy Scripture . . . ingenious, persuasive, and sound." [SEE OVER. THE WORD AND THE WA Y. PRESS NOTICES CHURCH QUARTERLY REVIEW. "This is a book of very distinct ability . . . the writer's object is to commend the old Faith of Christianity in ways that will appeal to the minds and consciences of the present day. . . . The tone and aim of the book are excellent." CHURCH BELLS, " We specially commend this very useful book to the thoughtful and the perplexed. . . . The treatment all thr .ugh is sound and helpful, and may appeal to some hitherto untouched by existing apologetics." LONDON QUARTERLY REVIEW. " A manly and pure ethical purpose is perhaps the chief characteristic of these wholesome sermons. . . They are rich in quotation, readable, and stimulating." CHICHESTER DIOCESAN GAZE TTE. "This book is an opportune contribution to sound religious teaching. From first to last it is thoroughly practical in its aim and in its method. Clear in statement, scholarly in style, distinct and conclusive in argument, it is the work of a well-informed and thoughtful wiiter, whose ear st and devout temper, everywhere apparent, adds authority to his words. . . . These sermons are an interesting and valuable contribution to ligious literature." BRITISH WEEKLY. "The subjects of Revelation and Inspiration are treated with knowledge and judgment." FREEMAN. "Fresh and striking; rich in the applicat i of old truths to new circumstances." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. "This volume is marked by a broad liberality of view, a sound common sense, and a transparent clearness which are truly refreshing . . . the sobriety and manliness of the writer's teaching are in harmony with the best traditions of the Church of which he is a minister." SCOTSMAN. "The author is evidently a well-equipped divine, as well as a man of culture and taste." LEEDS MERCURY.' 1 The thoughtfulness, vigour, and freshness of these sermons, and their scholarly style, will make them very generally acceptable." SUSSEX DAILY NEWS. " A noble exposition of the imperishable power of the Bible." SUSSEX EXPRESS." 'Applied Christianity' is what the world is waiting for. Here is the method of application pointed out, not in a dry, wearisome, dogmatic manner, but in a broad, cheering, and thoroughly original fashion." CHELTENHAM EXAMINER. "We cordially recommend this truly able and instructive volume . . . characterised by learning and good sense, by clearness and discrimination, and by a devout and Christian spirit." A Catalogue of Theological Works on V < published by Macmillan & Co., Ltd. St. Martin's Street London, W.C. CONTENTS THE BIBLE PAGE History of the Bible . 3 Biblical History . ... 3 The Old Testament ... . 4 The New Testament .... 7 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH . . . 13 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND .... 14 DEVOTIONAL BOOKS . . xg THE FATHERS . . I9 HVMNOLOGY . . . ' 20 RELIGIOUS TEACHING .... . . 2 o SERMONS, LECTURES, ADDRESSES, AND THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS 21 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE be Bible HISTORY OF THE BIBLE THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH. By Right Rev. Bishop WEST- COTT. loth Edition. Pott 8vo. 43. 6d. BIBLICAL HISTORY THE HOLY BIBLE. (Eversley Edition.) Arranged in Paragraphs, with an Introduction. ByJ. W. MACKAIL, M.A. Svols. Globe 8vo. 55. each. Vol. I. Genesis Numbers. II. Deuteronomy 2 Samuel. III. I Kings Esther. IV. Job Song of Solomon. V. Isaiah Lamentations. VI. Ezekiel Malachi. VII. Matthew John. VIII. Acts Revelation. THE MODERN READER'S BIBLE. A Series of Books from the Sacred Scriptures presented in Modern Literary Form. The Text is that of the Revised Version. It is used by special permission of the University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge. Edited by R. G. MOULTON, M.A. Pott 8vo. 2s. 6d. each volume. THE PROVERBS. ECCLESIASTICUS. ECCLESIASTES WISDOM OF SOLOMON. THE BOOK OF JOB. DEUTERONOMY. GENESIS. THE EXODUS. THE JUDGES. BIBLICAL IDYLLS SOLOMON'S SONG, RUTH, ESTHER, TOBIT. THE KINGS. THE CHRONICLES. ISAIAH. JEREMIAH. EZEKIEL. DANIEL. SELECT MASTERPIECES OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE. THE PSALMS AND LAMENTATIONS. 2 Vols. ST. MATTHEW AND ST. MARK, AND THE GENERAL EPISTLES. ST. LUKE AND ST. PAUL. 2 Vols. THE GOSPEL, EPISTLES, AND REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. BIBLE STORIES (Old Testament). BIBLE STORIES (New Testament). ST. /AMES'S GAZETTE." While the sacred text has in no way been tampered with, the books are presented in modern literary form and are furnished with an intro- duction and notes by Professor Richard G. Moulton. The notes are scholarly, and of real help to the student." BIBLE LESSONS. By Rev. E. A. ABBOTT, D.D. Crown 8vo. 45. 6d. SIDE-LIGHTS UPON BIBLE HISTORY. By Mrs. SYDNEY BUXTON. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 5s. STORIES FROM THE BIBLE. By Rev. A. J. CHUKCH. Illus- trated. Two Series. Crown 8vo. $s. 6d. each. BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS IN OLD ENGLISH PROSE WRITERS. By ALBERT S. COOK, Ph.D., Rutgers Professor of the English Language and Literature in Yale University. 8vo. 175. net. 4 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Biblical History continued. BIBLE READINGS SELECTED FROM THE PENTATEUCH AND THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. By Rev. J. A. CROSS. 2nd Edition. Globe 8vo. 2s. 6d. CHILDREN'S TREASURY OF BIBLE STORIES. By Mrs. H. GASKOIN. Pott 8vo. is. each. Part I. Old Testament ; II. New Testament ; III. Three Apostles. THE NATIONS AROUND ISRAEL. By A. KEARY. Cr. 8vo. 35. 6d. VILLAGE SERMONS. By Rev. F. J. A. HORT, D.D. 8vo. 6s. This Volume contains a Series of Sermons dealing in a popular way with the successive Books of which the Bible is made up. They form an admirable introduction to the subject. HISTORY, PROPHECY, AND THE MONUMENTS, OR, ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS. By Prof. J. F. M'CuRDY. 3 Vols. 8vo. 143. net each. Vol. I. To the Downfall of Samaria. Vol.11. To the Fall of Nineveh. Vol. III. Completing the Work. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW. "His method is to interweave the histories of the connected peoples in each period, to point out the historical presuppos- itions and moral principles in the prophetic writings, and to treat the social constitution in separate sections. This method has obvious advantages in the hands of a competent scholar and good writer, and is employed by Mr. M 'Curdy with excellent effect. His presentation of the material is admirable in arrangement ; his style, though somewhat formal and Gibbonesque, is clear and picturesque." TIMES. "A learned treatise on the ancient history of the Semitic peoples as interpreted by the new light obtained from the modern study of their monuments." EXPOSITORY TfMS."Thc work is very able and very welcome. ... It will take the place of all existing histories of these nations." A CLASS-BOOK OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. By Rev. Canon MACLEAR. With Four Maps. Pott 8vo. 45. 6d. A CLASS-BOOK OF NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. Includ- ing the connection of the Old and New Testament. By the same. Pott 8vo. 55. 6d. A SHILLING BOOK OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. By the same. Pott 8vo. is. A SHILLING BOOK OF NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. By the same. Pott 8vo. is. THE BIBLE FOR HOME READING. Edited, with Comments and Reflections for the use of Jewish Parents and Children, by C. G. MONTEFIORE. Part I. TO THE SECOND VlSIT OF NfiHEMIAH TO JERUSALEM. 2nd Edition. Extra Crown 8vo. 45. 6d. net. Part II. Containing Selections from the Wisdom Literature, the Prophets, and the Psalter, together with extracts from the Apocrypha. Extra Crown 8vo. 55. 6d. net. JEWISH CHRONICLE."^ this remarkable work Mr. Claude Montefiore has put the seal on his reputation. He has placed himself securely in the front rank of con- temporary teachers of religion. He has produced at once a most original, a most instructive, and almost spiritual treatise, which will long leave its ennobling mark on Jewish religious thought in England. . . . Though the term 'epoch-making' is often misapplied, we do not hesitate to apply it on this occasion. We cannot but believe that a new era may dawn in the interest shown by Jews in the Bible." THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES. By C. M. YONGE. Globe 8vo. is. 6d. each ; also with comments, THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 5 The Old Testament continued. y,. 6d. each. First Series : GENESIS TO DEUTERONOMY. Second Series: JOSHUA TO SOLOMON. Third Series: KINGS AND THE PROPHETS. Fourth Series : THE GOSPEL TIMES. Fifth Series : APOSTOLIC TIMES. THE DIVINE LIBRARY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. Its Origin, Preservation, Inspiration, and Permanent Value. By Rev. A. F. KIRKPATRICK, B.D. Crown 8vo. 33. net. TIMES. "An eloquent and temperate plea for the critical study of the Scriptures." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. "An excellent introduction to the modern view of the Old Testament. . . . The learned author is a genuine critic. . . . He expounds clearly what has been recently called the ' Analytic ' treatment of the books of the Old Testament, and generally adopts its results. . . . The volume is admirably suited to fulfil its purpose of familiarising the minds of earnest Bible readers with the work which Biblical criticism is now doing." THE DOCTRINE OF THE PROPHETS. Warburtonian Lectures 1886-1890. By Rev. A. F. KIRKPATRICK, B.D. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. SCOTSMAN. "This volume gives us the result of ripe scholarship and competent learning in a very attractive form. It is written simply, clearly, and eloquently ; and it Invests the subject of which it treats with a vivid and vital interest which will commend it to the reader of general intelligence, as well as to those who are more especially occupied with such studies." GLASGOW HERALD." Professor Kirkpatrick's book will be found of great value for purposes of study.' BOOKMAN. "As a summary of the main results of recent investigation, and as a thoughtful appreciation of both the human and divine sides of the prophets' work and message, it is worth the attention of all Bible students." THE PATRIARCHS AND LAWGIVERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 33. 6d. THE PROPHETS AND KINGS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By the same. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 33. 6d. THE CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. An Essay on the Growth and Formation of the Hebrew Canon of Scripture. By The Right Rev. H. E. RYLE, Bishop of Exeter. 2nd Ed. Cr. 8vo. 6s. This edition has been carefully revised throughout, but orily two sub- stantial changes have been found necessary. An Appendix has been added to Chapter IV., dealing with the subject of the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch ; and Excursus C (dealing with the Hebrew Scriptures) has been completely re-written on the strength of valuable material kindly supplied to the author by Dr. Ginsburg. EXPOSITOR. "Scholars are indebted to Professor Ryle for having given them for the first time a complete and trustworthy history of the Old Testament Canon." EXPOSITORY TIMES. "He rightly claims that his book possesses that most English of virtues it may be read throughout. . . . An extensive and minute research lies concealed under a most fresh and flexible English style." THE MYTHS OF ISRAEL. THE ANCIENT BOOK OF GENESIS. WITH ANALYSIS AND EXPLANATION OF ITS COM- POSITION. By AMOS KIDDER FISKE, Author of " The Jewish Scriptures," etc. Crown 8vo. 6s. THE EARLY NARRATIVES OF GENESIS. By The Right Rev. H. E. RYLE, Bishop of Exeter. Cr. 8vo. 33. net. B 6 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S The Old Testament continued. PHILO AND HOLY SCRIPTURE, OR THE QUOTATIONS OF PHILO FROM THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. With Introd. and Notes by Bishop H. E. RYLE. Cr. 8vo. IDS. net. In the present work the attempt has been made to collect, arrange in order, and for the first time print in full all the actual quotations from the books of the Old Testament to be found in Philo's writings, and a few of his paraphrases. For the purpose of giving general assistance to students Dr. Ryle has added footnotes, dealing principally with the text of Philo's quotations compared with that of the Septuagint ; and in the introduction he has endeavoured to explain Philo's attitude towards Holy Scripture, and the character of the variations of his text from that of the Septuagint. TIMES. " This book will be found by students to be a very useful supplement and companion to the learned Dr. Drummond's important work, Philo Judau s." The Pentateuch AN HISTORICO-CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN AND COMPOSITION OF THE HEXATEUCH (PENTA- TEUCH AND BOOK OF JOSHUA). By Prof. A. KUENEN. Translated by PHILIP H. WICKSTEED, M.A. 8vo. 145. The Psalms THE PSALMS CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED. An Amended Version, with Historical Introductions and Explanatory Notes. By Four Friends. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 53. net. SPECTATOR. "One of the most instructive and valuable books that has been published for many years. It gives the Psalms a perfectly fresh setting, adds a new power of vision to the grandest poetry of nature ever produced, a new depth of lyrical pathos to the poetry of national joy, sorrow, and hope, and a new intensity of spiritual light to the divine subject of every ejaculation of praise and every invocation of want. We have given but imperfect illustrations of the new beauty and light which the trans- lators pour upon the most perfect devotional poetry of any day or nation, and which they pour on it in almost every page, by the scholarship and perfect taste with which they have executed their work. We can only say that their version deserves to live long and to pass through many editions." GOLDEN TREASURY PSALTER. The Student's Edition. Being an Edition with briefer Notes of "The Psalms Chrono- logically Arranged by Four Friends." Pott 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. THE PSALMS. With Introductions and Critical Notes. By A. C. JENNINGS, M.A., and W. H. LOWE, M.A. In 2 vols. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. IDS. 6d. each. THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Edited with Comments and Reflections for the Use of Jewish Parents and Children. By C. G. MONTE- FIORE. Crown 8vo. is. net. Isaiah ISAIAH XL. LXVI. With the Shorter Prophecies allied to it By MATTHEW ARNOLD. With Notes. Crown 8vo. 55. A BIBLE- READING FOR SCHOOLS. The Great Prophecy of Israel's Restoration (Isaiah xl.-lxvi. ) Arranged and Edited for Young Learners. By the same. 4th Edition. Pott 8vo. is. Zechariah THE HEBREW STUDENT'S COMMENTARY ON ZECH- ARIAII, Hebrew and LXX. By W. H. LOWE, M. A. 8vo. IDS. 6d. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 7 THE NEW TESTAMENT THE AKHMIM FRAGMENT OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPEL OF ST. PETER. By H. B. SWETE, D.D. 8vo. 55. net. THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE IN THE NEW TESTA- MENT : The Bampton Lectures, 1864. By THOMAS DEHANY BERNARD, M.A. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. A HANDBOOK OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF NEW TESTA- MENT. By F. G. KENYON, LittD., Assistant Keeper of Manu- scripts in the British Museum. 8vo. [/ the Press. THE RISE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By DAVID SAVILLE MUZZEY, B.D. Fcap. 8vo. 55. IMMANUEL KANT. " The Rise of the Bible as the people's book is the greatest blessing that the human race has ever experienced." THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By W. P. Du BOSE, M.A. Crown 8vo. 73. 6d. THE MESSAGES OF THE BOOKS. Being Discourses and Notes on the Books of the New Testament. By Dean FARRAR. 8vo. 145. ON A FRESH REVISION OF THE ENGLISH NEW TESTA- MENT. With an Appendix on the last Petition of the Lord's Prayer. By Bishop LIGHTFOOT. Crown 8vo. 73. 6d. DISSERTATIONS ON THE APOSTOLIC AGE. By Bishop LIGHTFOOT. 8vo. 143. BIBLICAL ESSAYS. By Bishop LIGHTFOOT. 8vo. I2s. THE UNITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By F. D. MAURICE. 2nd Edition. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 125. A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT DURING THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES. By Right Rev. Bishop WESTCOTT. 7th Edition. Crown 8vo. IDS. 6d. THE STUDENT'S LIFE OF JESUS. By G. H. GILBERT, Ph.D. Crown 8vo. 53. net. THE STUDENT'S LIFE OF PAUL. By G. H. GILBERT, Ph.D. Crown 8vo. 53. net. THE REVELATION OF JESUS : A Study of the Primary Sources of Christianity. By G. H. GILBERT, Ph.D. Crown 8vo. 5s.net. THE FIRST INTERPRETERS OF JESUS. By G. H. GILBERT, Ph.D. Crown 8vo. 5 s - ^ &<( - NEW TESTAMENT HANDBOOKS. Edited by SHAILER MATHEWS, Professor of New Test. Hist, at the University of Chicago. A HISTORY OF NEW TESTAMENT TIMES IN PALES- TINE (175 B.C.-70 A.D.). By SHAILER MATHEWS, A.M. Crown 8vo. 33. 6d. A HISTORY OF THE TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By MARVIN R. VINCENT, D.D. Crown 8vo. 33. 6d. THE BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTA- MENT. By EZRA P. GOULD, D.D. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. A HISTORY OF THE HIGHER CRITICISM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By Prof. H. S. NASH. 35. 6d. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT. By B. W. BACON, D.D. Crown 8vo. 33. 6d. 8 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S The New Testament continued. THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE ORIGINAL GREEK. The Text revised by Bishop WESTCOTT, D.D., and Prof. F. J. A. HORT, D.D. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. ids. 6d. each. Vol. I. Text ; II. Introduction and Appendix. Library Edition. 8vo. IDS. net. [Text in Macmillan Greek Type. School Edition. I2mo, cloth, 45. 6d. ; roan, 55. 6d. ; morocco, 6s. 6d. ; India Paper Edition, limp calf, 7s. 6d. net. GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON TO THE NEW TESTAMENT. By W. J. HICKIE, M.A. Pott 8vo. 35. ACADEMY. "We can cordially recommend this as a very handy little volume compiled on sound principles." GRAMMAR OF NEW TESTAMENT GREEK. By Prof. F. BLASS, University of Halle. Authorised English Translation. 8vo. 145. net. TIMES. "Will probably become the standard book of reference for those students who enter upon minute grammatical study of the language of the New Testament." THE GOSPELS- PHILOLOGY OF THE GOSPELS. By Prof. F. BLASS. Crown 8vo. 45. 6d. net. GUARDIAN. " On the whole, Professor Blass's new book seems to us an im- portant contribution to criticism. ... It will stimulate inquiry, and will open up fresh lines of thought to any serious student." THE SYRO-LATIN TEXT OF THE GOSPELS. By the Rev. FREDERIC HENRY CHASE, D.D. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net The sequel of an essay by Dr. Chase on the old Syriac element in the text of Codex Bezae. TIMES. "An important and scholarly contribution to New Testament criticism." THE COMMON TRADITION OF THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS, in the Text of the Revised Version. By Rev. E. A. ABBOTT and W. G. RUSHBROOKE. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. SYNOPTICON : An Exposition of the Common Matter of the Synop- tic Gospels. By W. G. RUSHBROOKE. Printed in Colours. 410. 355. net. Indispensable to a Theological Student. A SYNOPSIS OF THE GOSPELS IN GREEK AFTER THE WESTCOTT AND HORT TEXT. By Rev. ARTHUR WRIGHT, M.A. Demy 410. 6s. net. " Every such effort calls attention to facts which must not be overlooked, but yet to the scholar they are but as dust in the balance when weighed against such solid con- tributions as Rushbrooke's Synofiticon or Wright's Synopsis, which provide instruments for investigation apart from theories." Professor Armitage Robinson at Church Congress, Bradford, 1898. THE COMPOSITION OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. By Rev. ARTHUR WRIGHT. Crown 8vo. 55. CAMBRIDGE REVIEW. "The wonderful force and freshness which we find on every page of the book. There is no sign of hastiness. All seems to be the outcome of years of reverent thought, now brought to light in the clearest, most telling way. . . . The book will hardly go unchallenged by the different schools of thought, but all will agree in gratitude at least for its vigour and reality." INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. By Right Rev. Bishop WESTCOTT. 8th Ed. Cr. 8vo. ids. 6d. FOUR LECTURES ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE GOSPELS. By the Rev. J. H. WILKINSOX, M.A., Rector of Stock Gaylard, Dorset. Crown 8vo. 33. net. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 9 The Gospels contimied. THE LEADING IDEAS OF THE GOSPELS. By W. ALEX- ANDER, D.D. Oxon., LL.D. Dublin, D.C.L. Oxon., Archbishop of Armagh, and Lord Primate of All Ireland. New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Crown 8vo. 6s. BRITISH WEEKLY. "Really a new book. It sets before the reader with delicacy of thought and felicity of language the distinguishing characteristics of the several gospels. It is delightful reading. . . . Religious literature does not often furnish a book which may so confidently be recommended." TWO LECTURES ON THE GOSPELS. By F. CRAWFORD BURKITT, M.A. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. Gospel of St. Matthew THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. Greek Text as Revised by Bishop WESTCOTT and Dr. HORT. With Intro- duction and Notes by Rev. A. SLOMAN, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. MANCHESTER GUARDIAN."' It is sound and helpful, and the brief introduc- tion on Hellenistic Greek is particularly good." Gospel of St. Mark THE GREEK TEXT. With Introduction, Notes, and Indices. By Rev. H. B. SWETE, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. 8vo. 1 55. TIMES. "A learned and scholarly performance, up to date with the most recent advances in New Testament criticism." THE EARLIEST GOSPEL. A Historico-Critical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Mark, with Text, Translation, and In- troduction. By ALLAN MENZIES, Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism, St. Mary's College, St. Andrews. 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. SCHOOL READINGS IN THE GREEK TESTAMENT. Being the Outlines of the Life of our Lord as given by St. Mark, with additions from the Text of the other Evangelists. Edited, with Notes and Vocabulary, by Rev. A. CALVERT, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Gospel of St. Luke THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. The Greek Text as Revised by Bishop WESTCOTT and Dr. HORT. With Introduction and Notes by Rev. J. BOND, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. GLASGOW HERALD. "The notes are short and crisp suggestive rather than exhaustive." THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. A Course of Lectures on the Gospel of St. Luke. By F. D. MAURICE. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE IN GREEK, AFTER THE WESTCOTT AND HORT TEXT. Edited, with Parallels, Illustrations, Various Readings, and Notes, by the Rev. ARTHUR WRIGHT, M.A. Demy 4to. 7s. 6d. net. ST. LUKE THE PROPHET. By EDWARD CARUS SELWYN, D.D. Gospel of St. John \. In the Press - THE CENTRAL TEACHING OF CHRIST. Being a Study and Exposition of St. John, Chapters XIII. to XVII. By Rev. CANON BERNARD, M.A. Crown 8vo. 73. 6d. io MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Gospel of St. John continued. EXPOSITOR Y 7YJI/.E.S-." Quite rec( many call the greatest expositor living. But Canon Bernard's work is still the work that EXPOSITOR Y TIMES. "Quite recently we have had an exposition by him whom ay call the greatest expositor living. But Canon Bernard's work is still the work will help the preacher most." THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. By F.D.MAURICE. Cr.Svo. 33. 6d. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. ADDRESSES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By the late ARCHBISHOP BENSON. With an Introduction by ADELINE, DUCHESS OF BEDFORD. 8vo. [In the Press. THE CREDIBILITY OF THE BOOK OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. Being the Hulsean Lectures for 1900-1. By the Rev. Dr. CHASE, President of Queen's College, Cambridge. [/ the Press. THE OLD SYRIAC ELEMENT IN THE TEXT OF THE CODEX BEZAE. By F. H. CHASE, B.D. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES IN GREEK AND ENGLISH. With Notes by Rev. F. RENDAI.L, M.A. Cr. 8vo. gs. SATURDAY REVIEW. " Mr. Kendall has given us a very useful as well as a very scholarly book. " MANCHESTER GUARDIAN." Mr. Rendall is a careful scholar and a thought- ful writer, and the student may learn a good deal from his commentary." THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By F. D. MAURICE. Cr. 8vo. 33. 6d. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. Being the Greek Text as Revised by Bishop WESTCOTT and Dr. HORT. With Explanatory Notes by T. E. PAGE, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 33. 6d. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. The Authorised Version, with Intro- 'duction and Notes, by T. E. PAGE, M.A., and Rev. A. S. WALPOLE, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. BRITISH WEEKLY.'-'' Mr. Page's Notes on the Greek Text of the Acts are very well known, and are decidedly scholarly and individual. . . . Mr. Page has written an introduction which is brief, scholarly, and suggestive. THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST DAYS. THE CHURCH OF JERUSALEM. THE CHURCH OF THE GENTILES. THE CHURCH OF THE WORLD. Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles. By Very Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN. Crown 8vo. ios. 6d. THE EPISTLES of St. Paul ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. The Greek Text, with English Notes. By Very Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN. 7th Edition. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. A New Transla- tion by Rev. W. G. RUTHERFORD. 8vo. 33. 6d. net. PILOT. "Small as the volume is, it has very much to say, not only to professed students of the New Testament, but also to the ordinary reader of the Bible. . . . The layman who buys the book will be grateful to one who helps him to realise that this per- plexing Epistle ' was once a plain letter concerned with a theme which plain men might understand.'" PROLEGOMENA TO ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE ROMANS AND THE EPHESIANS. By Rev. F. J. A. HORT. Crown 8vo. 6s. Dr. MARCUS DODS in the Bookman. " Anything from the pen of Dr. Hort is sure to be informative and suggestive, and the present publication bears his mark. . . . There is an air of originality about the whole discussion ; the difficulties are candidly faced, and the explanations offered appeal to our sense of what is reasonable." THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 11 The Epistles of St. Paul continued. TIMES. " Will be welcomed by all theologians as ' an invaluable contribution to the study of those Epistles ' as the editor of the volume justly calls it." DAILY CHRONICLE. " The lectures are an important contribution to the study of the famous Epistles of which they treat." THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. An Essay on its Destination and Date. By E. H. ASKWITH, M.A. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. net. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. A Revised Text, with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations. By Bishop LIGHTFOOT. loth Edition. 8vo. 12s. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. Greek Text, with Introduction and Notes. By Canon J. ARMITAGE ROBINSON. 8vo. [Sn the Press. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. A Revised Text, with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations. By Bishop LIGHTFOOT. gth Edition. 8vo. 125. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. With transla- tion, Paraphrase, and Notes for English Readers. By Very Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN. Crown 8vo. 53. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE COLOSSIANS AND TO PHILEMON. A Revised Text, with Introductions, etc. By Bishop LIGHTFOOT. gth Edition. 8vo. 125. THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. Analysis and Ex- amination Notes. By Rev. G. W. GARROD. Crown 8vo. 33. net. THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. With Analysis and Notes by the Rev. G. W. GARROD, B.A. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. With Analysis and Notes by Rev. G. W. GARROD. Cr. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS, THE COLOSSIANS, AND PHILEMON. With Introductions and Notes. By Rev. J. LL. DAVIES. 2nd Edition. 8vo. 75. 6d. THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. For English Readers. Part I. con- taining the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. By Very Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN. 2nd Edition. 8vo. Sewed, is. 6d. NOTES ON EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL FROM UNPUBLISHED COMMENTARIES. By the late J. B. LIGHTFOOT, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Lord Bishop of Durham. 8vo. 123. THE LETTERS OF ST. PAUL TO SEVEN CHURCHES AND THREE FRIENDS. Translated by ARTHUR S. WAY, M.A. Crown Svo. 53. net. The Epistles of St. Peter THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PETER, I. I to II. 17. The Greek Text, with Introductory Lecture, Commentary, and additional Notes. By the late F. J. A. HORT, D.D.,D.C.L.,LL.D. Svo. 6s. THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PETER (Greek Text). By J. HOWARD B. MASTERMAN, Principal of the Midland Clergy College, Edgbaston, Birmingham. Crown Svo. 33. 6d. net. 12 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S The Epistle of St. James THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. The Greek Text, with Intro- duction and Notes. By Rev. JOSEPH B. MAYOR, M.A. 2nd Edition. 8vo. 145. net. EXPOSITORY TIMES. " The most complete edition of St. James in the English language, and the most serviceable for the student of Greek." BOOKMAN. " Professor Mayor's volume in every part of it gives proof that no time or labour has been grudged in mastering this mass of literature, and that in appraising it he has exercised the sound judgment of a thoroughly trained scholar and critic. . . . The notes are uniformly characterised by thorough scholarship and unfailing sense. The notes resemble rather those of Lightfoot than those of Ellicott. ... It is a pleasure to welcome a book which does credit to English learning, and which will take, and keep, a foremost place in Biblical literature." SCOTSMAN. " It is a work which sums up many others, and to any one who wishes to make a thorough study of the Epistle of St. James, it will prove indispensable." EXPOSITOR (Dr. MARCUS Dous). " Will long remain the commentary on St. James, a storehouse to which all subsequent students of the epistle must he indebted." The Epistles of St. John THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. By F. D. MAURICE. Crown 8vo. 33. 6d. THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. The Greek Text, with Notes. By Right Rev. Bishop WESTCOTT. 3rd Edition. 8vo. I2s. 6d. GUARDIA N. " It contains a new or rather revised text, with careful critical remarks and helps ; very copious footnotes on the text ; and after each of the chapters, longer and more elaborate notes in treatment of leading or difficult questions, whether in respect of reading or theology. . . . Dr. Westcott has accumulated round them so much matter that, if not new, was forgotten, or generally unobserved, and has thrown so much Hght upon their language, theology, and characteristics. . . . The notes, critical, illustrative, and exegetical, which are given beneath the text, are extraordinarily full and careful. . . . They exhibit the same minute analysis of every phrase and word, the same scrupulous weighing of every inflection and variation that characterised Dr. Westcott's commentary on the Gospel. . . . There is scarcely a syllable throughout the Epistles which is dismissed without having undergone the most anxious interrogation." SA TURD A Y REVIEW. " The more we examine this precious volume the more its exceeding richness in spiritual as well as in literary material grows upon the mind." The Epistle to the Hebrews THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS IN GREEK AND ENGLISH. With Notes. By Rev. F. RENDALL. Cr. 8vo. 6s. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. English Text, with Com- mentary. By the same. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. With Notes. By Very Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN. Crown 8vo. 73. 6d. TIMES. " The name and reputation of the Dean oT Llandaff are a better recom- mendation than we can give of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Greek text, with notes ; an edition which represents the results of more than thirty years' experience in the training of students for ordination." THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. The Greek Text, with Notes and Essays. By Right Rev. Bishop WESTCOTT. 8vo. 145. GUARDIAN. " In form this is a companion volume to that upon the Epistles of St. John. The type is excellent, the printing careful, the index thorough ; and the volume contains a full introduction, followed by the Greek text, with a running commentary, and a number of additional notes on verbal and doctrinal points which needed fuller discus- sion. . . . His conception of inspiration is further illustrated by the treatment of the Old Testament in the Epistle, and the additional notes that bear on this point deserve very careful study. The spirit in which the student should approach the perplexing questions of Old Testament criticism could not be better described than it is in the last essay." THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 13 The Book of Revelations THE APOCALYPSE. A Study. By the late ARCHBISHOP BEN- SON. 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE. By Rev. Prof. W. MILLIGAN. Crown 8vo. 53. DISCUSSIONS ON THE APOCALYPSE. By the same. Cr. 8vo. 55. SCOTSMAN. " These discussions give an interesting and valuable account and criticism of the present state of theological opinion and research in connection with their subject." SCOTTISH GUARDIAN." The great merit of the book is the patient and skilful way in which it has brought the whole discussion down to the present day. . . . The result is a volume which many will value highly, and which will not, we think, soon be superseded." LECTURES ON THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. By Very Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN. 5th Edition. Crown 8vo. ics. 6d. THE CHRISTIAN PROPHETS AND THE PROPHETIC APOCALYPSE. By EDWARD CARUS SELWYN, D.D. Crown 8vo. 6s. net. THE BIBLE WORD-BOOK. By W. ALOIS WRIGHT, Litt.D., LL.D. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 73. 6d. Cbristian Gburcb, 1bi0ton> of tbe Cheetham (Archdeacon). A HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DURING THE FIRST SIX CENTURIES. Cr. 8vo. los. 6d. TIMES. " A brief but authoritative summary of early ecclesiastical history." GLASGOW HERALD. "Particularly clear in its exposition, systematic in its dis- position and development, and as light and attractive in style as could reasonably be expected from the nature of the subject." Gwatkin (H. M.) SELECTIONS FROM EARLY WRITERS Illustrative of Church History to the Time of Constantine. 2nd Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Cr. 8vo. 43. 6d. net. To this edition have been prefixed short accounts of ihe writers from whom the passages are selected. Hardwick (Archdeacon). A HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Middle Age. Ed. by Bishop STUBBS. Cr. 8vo. los. 6d. A HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DURING THE REFORMATION. Revised by Bishop STUBBS. Cr. 8vo. los. 6d. Hort (Dr. F. J. A.) TWO DISSERTATIONS. I. On MONOFENHS 0EOS in Scripture and Tradition. II. On the " Constantinopolitan " Creed and other Eastern Creeds of the Fourth Century. 8vo. 7s. 6d. JUDAISTIC CHRISTIANITY. Crown 8vo. 6s. THE CHRISTIAN ECCLESIA. A Course of Lectures on the Early History and Early Conceptions of the Ecclesia, and Four Sermons. Crown Svo. 6s. C 14 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Kriiger (Dr. G.) HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. Cr. 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. Simpson (W.) AN EPITOME OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Fcap. Svo. 33. 6d. Sohm (Prof.) OUTLINES OF CHURCH HISTORY. Translated by Miss MAY SINCLAIR. With a Preface by Prof. H. M. GWATKIN, M.A. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. " It fully deserves the praise given to it by Pro- fessor Gwatkin (who contributes a preface to this translation) of being ' neither a meagre sketch nor a confused mass of facts, but a masterly outline,' and it really ' supplies a want,' as affording to the intelligent reader who has no time or interest in details, a con- nected general view of the whole vast field of ecclesiastical history." Vaughan (Very Rev. C. J., Dean of Llandaff). THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST DAYS. THE CHURCH OF JERUSALEM. THE CHURCH OF THE GENTILES. THE CHURCH OF THE WORLD. Crown 8vo. IDS. 6d: be Cburcb of Enslanfc Catechism of CATECHISM AND CONFIRMATION. By Rev. J. C. P. ALDOUS. Pott 8vo. is. net. THOSE HOLY MYSTERIES. By Rev. J. C. P. ALDOUS. Pott 8vo. is. net. A CLASS-BOOK OF THE CATECHISM OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. By Rev. Canon MACLEAR. Pott Svo. is. 6d. A FIRST GLASS-BOOK OF THE CATECHISM OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, with Scripture Proofs for Junior Classes and Schools. By the same. Pott Svo. 6d. THE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION, with Prayers and Devo- tions. By the Rev. Canon MACLEAR. 32mo. 6d. NOTES FOR LECTURES ON CONFIRMATION. By the Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN, D.D. Pott Svo. is. 6d. Disestablishment DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT. What are they? By Prof. E. A. FREEMAN. 4th Edition. Crown Svo. is. A DEFENCE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AGAINST DISESTABLISHMENT. By ROUNDELL, EARL OF SELBORNE. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. ANCIENT FACTS & FICTIONS CONCERNING CHURCHES AND TITHES. By the same. 2nd Edition. Crown Svo. 7s. 6d. A HANDBOOK ON WELSH CHURCH DEFENCE. By the Bishop of ST. ASAPH. 3rd Edition. Fcap. Svo. Sewed, 6d. Dissent in its Relation to DISSENT IN ITS RELATION TO THE CHURCH OF ENG- LAND. By Rev. G. II. CURTEIS. Bampton Lectures for 1871. Crown Svo. Js. 6d. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 15 History of HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Edited by the DEAN OF WINCHESTER. In Seven Volumes. Vol. I. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND PRIOR TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. By the Rev. W. HUNT, M.A. Cr. 8vo. Js. 6d. [Ready. Vol. II. THE ENGLISH CHURCH FROM THE NOR- MAN CONQUEST TO THE CLOSE OF THE THIR- TEENTH CENTURY. By the DEAN OF WINCHESTER. Cr. 8vo. 7s. 6d. [Ready. Vol. III. THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE FOUR- TEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES (1372-1486). By the Rev. CANON CAPES, sometime Reader of Ancient History in the University of Oxford. 75. 6d. [Ready. Other Volumes to follow. THE STATE AND THE CHURCH. By the Hon. ARTHUR ELLIOT. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY. Compiled from Original Sources by HENRY GEE, B.D., F.S.A., and W. J. HARDY, F.S.A. Cr. 8vo. IDS. 6d. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW." Will be welcomed alike by students and oy a much wider circle of readers interested in the history of the Church of England. For the benefit of the latter all the Latin pieces have been translated into English. . . . It fully deserves the hearty imprimatur of the Bishop of Oxford prefixed to it." DAILY CHRONICLE. " Students of the English Constitution as well as students of Church History will find this volume a valuable aid to their researches." SCOTTISH GUARDIAN." There is no book in existence that contains so much original material likely to prove valuable to those who wish to investigate ritual or historical questions affecting the English Church," Holy Communion THE COMMUNION SERVICE FROM THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, with Select Readings from the Writings of the Rev. F. D. MAURICE. Edited by Bishop COLENSO. 6th Edition. i6mo. 2s. 6d. , FIRST COMMUNION, with Prayers and Devotions for the newly Confirmed. By Rev. Canon MACLEAR. 32tno. 6d. A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION FOR CONFIRMATION AND FIRST COMMUNION, with Prayers and Devotions. By the same. 32010. 2s. Liturgy A COMPANION TO THE LECTIONARY. By Rev. W. BENHAM, B.D. Crown 8vo. 45. 6d. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CREEDS. By Rev. Canon MACLEAR. Pott 8vo. 35. 6d. CHURCH QUAR TERL Y REVIEW." Mr. Maclear's text-books of Bible history are so well known that to praise them is unnecessary. He has now added to them An Introduction to the Creeds, which we do not hesitate to call admirable. The book consists, first, of an historical introduction, occupying 53 pages, then an exposition of the twelve articles of the Creed extending to page 299, an appendix containing the texts of a considerable number of Creeds, and lastly, three indices which, as far as we have tested them, we must pronounce very good. . . . We may add that we know already that the book has been used with great advantage in ordinary parochial work." 16 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Liturgy continued. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. By Rev. G. F. MACLEAR, D.D., and Rev. W. W. WILLIAMS. Crown 8vo. IDS. 6d. The BISHOP OF SALISBURY at the Church Congress, spoke of this as " a book which will doubtless have, as it deserves, large circulation." ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE. "Theological students and others will find this com- prehensive yet concise volume most valuable." GLASGOW HERALD. " A valuable addition to the well-known series of Theo- logical Manuals published by Messrs. Macmillan." CHURCH TIMES. "Those who are in any way responsible for the training of candidates for Holy Orders must often have felt the want of such a book as Dr. Maclear, with the assistance of his colleague, Mr. Williams, has just published." NEW HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. With a rationale of its Offices on the basis of the former Work by FRANCIS PROCTER, M.A. Revised and re-written by WALTER HOWARD FRERE, M.A., Priest of the Community of the Resur- rection. Crown 8vo. I2S. 6d. AN ELEMENTARY INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. By Rev. F. PROCTER and Rev. Canon MACLEAR. Pott 8vo. 2s. 6d. TWELVE DISCOURSES ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE LITURGY AND WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. By Very Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN. 4th Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 6s. Historical and Biographical THE ECCLESIASTICAL EXPANSION OF ENGLAND IN THE GROWTH OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION. Hulsean Lectures, 1894-95. By ALFRED BARRY, D. D., D.C.L., formerly Bishop of Sydney and Primate of Australia and Tasmania. Crown 8vo. 6s. The author's preface says : " The one object of these lectures delivered on the Hulsean Foundation in 1894-95 is to make some slight contribu- tion to that awakening of interest in the extraordinary religious mission of England which seems happily characteristic of the present time. " DAILY NEWS. " These lectures are particularly interesting as containing the case for .the Christian missions at a time when there is a disposition to attack them in some quarters." LIVES OF THE ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. From St. Augustine to Juxon. By the Very Rev. WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D. , Dean of Chichester. Demy 8vo. The volumes sold separately as follows: Vol. I., 153. ; Vol. II., 155. ; Vol. V., 155. ; Vols. VI. and VII., 303. ; Vol. VIII., 153. ; Vol. X., 153. ; Vol. XL, 153. ; Vol. XII., 155. ATHENJEUM. "The most impartial, the most instructive, and the most interest- ing of histories." THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 17 Historical and Biographical continued. THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF THE VERY REV. WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D. By the Very Rev. W. R. W. STEPHENS, F.S.A., Dean of Winchester. Crown 8vo. 7th Edi- tion. With Portrait. 6s. LIFE AND LETTERS OF ARCHBISHOP BENSON. By his SON. Two Vols. 8vo. 363. net. Abridged Edition. In one Vol. 8s. 6d. net. LIFE AND LETTERS OF AMBROSE PHILLIPPS DE LISLE. By E. S. PURCELL. Two Vols. 8vo. 255. net. THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. Twelve Years, 1833-45. By DEAN CHURCH. Globe 8vo. 55. THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF R. W. CHURCH, late Dean of St. Paul's. Globe 8vo. 55. JAMES FRASER, SECOND BISHOP OF MANCHESTER. A Memoir. 1818-1885. By THOMAS HUGHES, Q.C. 2nd Ed. Crown 8vo. 6s. LIFE AND LETTERS OF FENTON JOHN ANTHONY HORT, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., sometime Hulsean Professor and Lady Margaret's Reader in Divinity in the University of Cambridge. By his Son, ARTHUR FENTON HORT, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In two Vols. With Portrait. Ex. Cr. 8vo. 1 7s. net. EXPOSITOR. " It is only just to publish the life of a scholar at once so well known and so little known as Dr. Hort. . . . But all who appreciate his work wish to know more, and the two fascinating volumes edited by his son give us the information we seek. They reveal to us a man the very antipodes of a dry-as-dust pedant, a man with many interests and enthusiasms, a lover of the arts and of nature, an athlete and one of the founders of the Alpine Club, a man of restless mind but always at leisure for the demands of friendship, and finding his truest joy in his own home and family." THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE. Chiefly told in his own letters. Edited by his Son, FREDERICK MAURICE. With Portraits. Two Vols. Crown 8vo. i6s. MEMORIALS (PART I.) FAMILY AND PERSONAL, 1766- 1865. By ROUNDELL, EARL OF SELBORNE. With Portraits and Illustrations. Two Vols. 8vo. 25s.net. (PART II.) PERSONAL AND POLITICAL, 1865-1895. Two Vols. 255. net. LIFE OF ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL TAIT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. By RANDALL THOMAS, Bishop of Winchester, and WILLIAM BENHAM, B.D., Hon. Canon of Canterbury. With Portraits. 3rd Edition. Two Vols. Crown 8vo. IDS. net. LIFE AND LETTERS OF WILLIAM JOHN BUTLER, late Dean of Lincoln, sometime Vicar of Wantage. 8vo. I2s. 6d. net. TIMES. " We have a graphic picture of a strong personality, and the example of a useful and laborious life. . . . Well put together and exceedingly interesting to Churchmen." IN THE COURT OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTER- BURY. Read and others z>. The Lord Bishop of Lincoln. Judgment, Nov. 21, 1890. 2nd Edition. 8vo. 2s. net. i8 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY ON RESERVATION OF THE SACRAMENT. Lambeth Palace, May I, 1900 8vo. Sewed, is. net. THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK ON RESERVATION OF SACRAMENT. Lambeth Palace, May I, 1900. 8vo. Sewed, is. net. JOURNAL OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. Quarterly. 35. net. (No. i, October 1899). Yearly Volumes. 145. net. CANTERBURY DIOCESAN GAZETTE. Monthly. 8vo. 2d. JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW. Edited by I. ABRAHAMS and C. G. MONTEFIORE. Demy 8vo. 33. 6d. Vols. 1-7, I2s. 6d. each. Vol. 8 onwards, 155. each. (Annual Subscription, us.) Devotional Books Cornish (J. F.) WEEK BY WEEK. Fcap. 8vo. 35. 6d. SPECTA TOR. "They are very terse and excellent verses, generally on the subject of either the Epistle or Gospel for the day, and are put with the kind of practical vigour which arrests attention and compels the conscience to face boldly some leading thought in the passage selected." SA TURD A Y REVIEW." The studied simplicity of Mr. Cornish's verse is al- together opposed to what most hymn -writers consider to be poetry. Nor is this the only merit of his unpretentious volume. There is a tonic character in the exhortation and admonition that characterise the hymns, and the prevailing sentiment is thoroughly manly and rousing." Eastlake (Lady). FELLOWSHIP: LETTERS ADDRESSED TO MY SISTER-MOURNERS. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. A THENjQL UM . "Tender and unobtrusive, and the author thoroughly realises the sorrow of those she addresses ; it may soothe mourning readers, and can by no means aggravate or jar upon their feelings." CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. "A very touching and at the same time a very sensible book. It breathes throughout the truest Christian spirit." NONCONFORMIST. "A beautiful little volume, written with genuine feeling, good taste, and a right appreciation of the teaching of Scripture relative to sorrow and suffering." IMITATIO CHRISTI, LIBRI IV. Printed in Borders after Holbein, Diirer, and other old Masters, containing Dances of Death, Acts of Mercy, Emblems, etc. Crown 8vo. 73. 6d. Keble (J.) THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. Edited by C. M. YONGE. Pott 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. Kingsley (Charles). OUT OF THE DEEP: WORDS FOR THE SORROWFUL. From the writings of CHARLES KINGSLEY. Extra fcap. Svo. 35. 6d. DAILY THOUGHTS. Selected from the Writings of CHARLES KINGSLEY. By his Wife. Crown Svo. 6s. FROM DEATH TO LIFE. Fragments of Teaching to a Village Congregation. With Letters on the "Life after Death." Edited by his Wife. Fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 19 Maclear (Rev. Canon). A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION FOR CONFIRMATION AND FIRST COMMUNION, WITH PRAYERS AND DEVOTIONS. 321110. 2s. THE HOUR OF SORROW; OR, THE OFFICE FOR THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 321110. 2s. Maurice (Frederick Denison). LESSONS OF HOPE. Readings from the Works of F. D. MAURICE. Selected by Rev. J. LL. DAVIES, M.A. Crown 8vo. 53. THE COMMUNION SERVICE. From the Book of Common Prayer, with select readings from the writings of the Rev. F. D. MAURICE, M.A. Edited by the Rev. JOHN WILLIAM COLENSO, D.D., Lord Bishop of Natal. i6mo. 2s. 6d. THE WORSHIP OF GOD, AND FELLOWSHIP AMONG MEN. By FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE and others. Fcap. 8vo. 33. 6d. RAYS OF SUNLIGHT FOR DARK DAYS. With a Preface by Very Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN, D.D. New Edition. Pott 8vo. 35. 6d. Welby-Gregory (The Hon. Lady). LINKS AND CLUES. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. Westcott (Rt. Rev. B. F., Bishop of Durham). THOUGHTS ON REVELATION AND LIFE. Selections from the Writings of Bishop WESTCOTT. Edited by Rev. S. PHILLIPS. Crown 8vo. 6s. jfatbers INDEX OF NOTEWORTHY WORDS AND PHRASES FOUND IN THE CLEMENTINE WRITINGS, COMMONLY CALLED THE HOMILIES OF CLEMENT. 8vo. 53. Benson (Archbishop). CYPRIAN : HIS LIFE, HIS TIMES, HIS WORK. By the late EDWARD WHITE BENSON, Archbishop of Canterbury. 8vo. 2is. net. TIMES. " In all essential respects, in sobriety of judgment and temperj in sym- pathetic insight into character, in firm grasp of historical and ecclesiastical issues, in scholarship and erudition, the finished work is worthy of its subject and worthy of its author. ... In its main outlines full of dramatic insight and force, and in its details full of the fruits of ripe learning, sound judgment, a lofty Christian temper, and a mature ecclesiastical wisdom." SATURDAY REVIEW. "On the whole, and with all reservations which can possibly be made, this weighty volume is a contribution to criticism and learning on which we can but congratulate the Anglican Church. We wish more of her bishops were capable or desirous of descending into that arena of pure intellect from which Dr. Benson returns with these posthumous laurels." Gwatkin (H. M.) SELECTIONS FROM EARLY WRITERS ILLUSTRATIVE OF CHURCH HISTORY TO THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 45. 6d. net. Hort (F. J. A.) SIX LECTURES ON THE ANTE-NICENE FATHERS. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. TIMES. " Though certainly popular in form and treatment they are so in the best sense of the words, and they bear throughout the impress of the ripe scholarship th rare critical acumen, and the lofty ethical temper which marked all Dr. Hort's work." 20 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Hort (F. J. A.) continued. CLEMENTINE RECOGNITIONS. Crown 8vo. [In the Press. BOOK VII. OF THE STROMATEIS OF CLEMENS ALEXAND- RINUS. 8vo. [In the Press. Kruger HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERA- TURE IN THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. Lightfoot (Bishop). THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. Part I. ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. Revised Texts, with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations, and Translations. 2 vols. 8vo. 323. THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. Part II. ST. IGNATIUS to ST. POLY- CARP. Revised Texts, with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations, and Translations. 3 vols. 2nd Edition. Demy 8vo. 485. THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. Abridged Edition. With Short Introductions, Greek Text, and English Translation. 8vo. i6s. MANCHESTER GUARDIAN." A conspectus of these early and intensely in- teresting Christian ' Documents ' such as had not hitherto been attainable, and thereby renders a priceless service to all serious students of Christian theology, and even of Roman history." NA TIONAL OBSERVER." From the account of its contents, the student may appreciate the value of this last work of a great scholar, and its helpfulness as an aid to an intelligent examination of the earliest post-Apostolic writers. The texts are con- structed on the most careful collation of all the existing sources. The introductions are brief, lucid, and thoroughly explanatory of the historical and critical questions related to the texts. The introduction to the Didache, and the translation of the ' Church Manual of Early Christianity,' are peculiarly interesting, as giving at once an admirable version of it, and the opinion of the first of English biblical critics on the latest discovery in patristic literature." Bernard (T. D.) THE SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY. Being Studies of the Benedictus, Magnificat, Gloria in Excelsis, and Nunc Dimittis. Crown 8vo. 55. Brooke (S. A.) CHRISTIAN HYMNS. Edited and arranged. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. Selborne (Roundell, Earl of) THE BOOK OF PRAISE. From the best English Hymn Writers. Pott 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. A HYMNAL. Chiefly from The Book of Praise. In various sizes. B. Pott 8vo, larger type. is. C. Same Edition, fine paper, is. 6d. An Edition with Music, Selected, Harmonised, and Composed by JOHN HULLAH. Pott 8vo. 33. 6d. Woods (M. A.) HYMNS FOR SCHOOL WORSHIP. Compiled by M. A. WOODS. Pott 8vo. is. 6d. IReligioua eacbin$ Bell (Rev. G. C.) RELIGIOUS TEACHING IN SECOND- ARY SCHOOLS. For Teachers and Parents. Suggestions as to Lessons on the Bible, Early Church History, Christian Evidences, etc. By the Rev. G. C. BELL, M.A., Master of Marlborough THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 21 College. 2nd Edition. With new chapter on Christian Ethic. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. GUARDIAN. "The hints and suggestions given are admirable, and, as far as Bible teaching or instruction in ' Christian Evidences ' is concerned, leave nothing to be desired. Much time and thought has evidently been devoted by the writer to the difficulties which confront the teacher of the Old Testament, and a large portion of the volume is taken up with the consideration of this branch of his subject." EDUCATIONAL REVIEW. -"For those teachers who are dissatisfied with the existing state of things, and who are striving after something better, this little handbook is invaluable. Its aim is ' to map out a course of instruction on practical lines, and to suggest methods and books which may point the way to a higher standpoint and a wider horizon.' For the carrying out of this, and also for his criticism of prevailing methods, all teachers owe Mr. Bell a debt of gratitude ; and if any are roused to a due sense of their responsibility in this matter, he will feel that his book has not been written in vain." Palmer (Florence U.) ONE YEAR OF SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. Adapted for use in the Youngest Classes. Pott 4to. 45. 6d. Sermons, lectures, Bbbresses, anfc (See also ' Bible,' ' Church of England,' ' Fathers' 1 ) Abbey (Rev. C. J.) THE DIVINE LOVE: ITS STERN- NESS, BREADTH, AND TENDERNESS. Crown 8vo. 6s. GUARDIAN. "This is a book which, in our opinion, demands the most serious and earnest attention." Abbott (Rev. E. A.) CAMBRIDGE SERMONS. 8vo. 6s. OXFORD SERMONS. 8vo. 75. 6d. PHILOMYTHUS. An Antidote against Credulity. A discussion of Cardinal Newman's Essay on Ecclesiastical Miracles. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 33. 6d. THE SPIRIT ON THE WATERS, OR DIVINE EVOLU- TION AS THE BASIS OF CHRISTIAN BELIEF. 8vo. I2s. 6d. net. Abrahams (I.) Montefiore (C.G.) ASPECTS OF JUDAISM. Being Sixteen Sermons. 2nd Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 35. 6d. net. TIMES. " There is a great deal in them that does not appeal to Jews alone, for, especially in Mr. Montefiore's addresses, the doctrines advocated, with much charm of style, are often not by any means exclusively Jewish, but such as are shared and honoured by all who care for religion and morality as those terms are commonly under- stood in the western world." GLASGOW HERALD. "Both from the homiletic and what may be called the big-world point of view, this little volume is one of considerable interest. ' Ainger (Rev. Alfred, Master of the Temple). SERMONS PREACHED IN THE TEMPLE CHURCH. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. 22 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Askwith (E. H.). THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF HOLINESS. Crown 8vo. 6s. THE SPECTA TOR." A well-reasoned and really noble view of the essential pur- pose of the Christian revelation. . . . We hope that Mr. Askwith 's work will be widely read." Bather (Archdeacon). ON SOME MINISTERIAL DUTIES, CATECHISING, PREACHING, ETC. Edited, with a Preface, by Very Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN, D.D. Fcap. 8vo. 45. 6d. Beeching (Rev. H. C.). INNS OF COURT SERMONS. \In the Press- Benson (Archbishop) BOY-LIFE : its Trial, its Strength, its Fulness. Sundays in Wellington College, 1859-73. 4th Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. CHRIST AND HIS TIMES. Addressed to the Diocese of Canter- bury in his Second Visitation. Crown 8vo. 6s. FISHERS OF MEN. Addressed to the Diocese of Canterbury in his Third Visitation. Crown 8vo. 6s. GUARDIAN. "There is plenty of plain speaking in the addresses before us, and they contain many wise and thoughtful counsels on subjects of the day." TIMES. "With keen insight and sagacious counsel, the Archbishop surveys the condition and prospects of the church." ARCHBISHOP BENSON IN IRELAND. A record'of his Irish Sermons and Addresses. Edited by J. H. BERNARD. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. PALL MALL GAZETTE. "No words of mine could appreciate, or do justice to, the stately language and lofty thoughts of the late Primate ; they will appeal to every Churchman." ADDRESSES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 8vo. [In the Press. Bernard (Canon). THE SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIV- ITY CONSIDERED (i) AS RECORDED IN SCRIPTURE. (2) AS IN USE IN THE CHURCH. Crown 8vo. 55. To use the words of its author, this book is offered "to readers of Scripture as expository of a distinct portion of .the Holy Word ; to wor- shippers in the congregation as a devotional commentary on the hymns which they use ; to those keeping Christmas, as a contribution to the ever- welcome thoughts of that blessed season ; to all Christian people who, in the midst of the historical elaboration of Christianity, find it good to re- enter from time to time the clear atmosphere of its origin, and are fain in the heat of the day to recover some feeling of the freshness of dawn. " GLASGOW HERALD. " He conveys much useful information in a scholarly way." SCOTSMAN. " Their meaning and their relationships, the reasons why the Church has adopted them, and many other kindred points, are touched upon in the book with so well-explained a learning and with so much insight that the book will be highly valued by those interested in its subject." Boutflower (C. H., Chaplain to the Bishop of Durham). EIGHT AYSGARTH SCHOOL SERMONS. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Brooke (Rev. Stopford A.). SHORT SERMONS. Cr. 8vo. 6s. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 23 Brooks (Phillips, late Bishop of Massachusetts) THE CANDLE OF THE LORD, and other Sermons. Crown 8vo. 6s. SERMONS PREACHED IN ENGLISH CHURCHES. Crown 8vo. 6s. TWENTY SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Crown 8vo. 33. 6d. THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY. Crown 8vo. 6s. ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES, RELIGIOUS, LITERARY, AND SOCIAL. Edited by the Rev. JOHN COTTON BROOKS. Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. NEW STARTS IN LIFE, AND OTHER SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. WESTMINSTER GAZETTE. "All characterised by that fervent piety, catho- licity of spirit, and fine command of language for which the Bishop was famous." LIFE AND LETTERS OF PHILLIPS BROOKS. By A. V. G. ALLEN. 3 vols. 8vo. 305. net. Bninton (Sir T. Lauder). THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE, With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. IDS. 6d. Campbell (Dr. John M'Leod) THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT. 6th Ed. Cr. 8vo. 6s. REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. Edited with an Introductory Narrative, by his Son, DONALD CAMPBELL, M.A. Crown 8vo. Js. 6d. THOUGHTS ON REVELATION, and Edition. Crown 8 vo. 55. RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE. Compiled from Sermons preached at Row, in the years 1829-31. Crown 8vo. 53. Canterbury (Frederick, Archbishop of) SERMONS PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL OF RUGBY SCHOOL. Extra Fcap. 8vo. 45. 6d. SECOND SERIES. 3rd Ed. 6s. THIRD SERIES. 4th Edition. 6s. THE RELATIONS BETWEEN RELIGION AND SCIENCE. Bampton Lectures, 1884. 7th and Cheaper Ed. Cr. 8vo. 6s. CHARGE DELIVERED AT HIS FIRST VISITATION. 8vo. Sewed, is. net. (i) The Doctrine of the Eucharist; (2) The Practice of Confession; (3) Uniformity in Ceremonial ; (4) The Power of the Bishops. 24 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Carpenter (W. Boyd, Bishop of Ripon) TRUTH IN TALE. Addresses, chiefly to Children. Crown 8vo. 45. 6d. THE PERMANENT ELEMENTS OF RELIGION: Bampton Lectures, 1887. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. TWILIGHT DREAMS. Crown 8vo. 45. 6d. LECTURES ON PREACHING. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. net TIMES. "These Lectures on Preaching, delivered a year ago in the Divinity School at Cambridge, a_re an admirable analysis of the intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and rhetorical characteristics of the art of preaching. In six lectures the Bishop deals successfully with the preacher and his training, with the sermon and its structure, with the preacher and his age, and with the aim of the preacher. In each case he is practical, suggestive, eminently stimulating, and often eloquent, not with the mere splendour of rhetoric, but with the happy faculty of saying the right thing in well-chosen words." SOME THOUGHTS ON CHRISTIAN REUNION. Being a Charge to the Clergy. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. net. TIMES. " Dr. Boyd Carpenter treats this very difficult subject with moderation and good sense, and with a clear-headed perception of the limits which inexorably cir- cumscribe the natural aspirations of Christians of different churches and nationalities for a more intimate communion and fellowship." LEEDS MERCURY. "He discusses with characteristic vigour _ and felicity the claims which hinder reunion, and the true idea and scope of catholicity." Cheetham (Archdeacon). MYSTERIES, PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN. Being the Hulsean Lectures for 1896. Crown 8vo. 55. Church (Dean) HUMAN LIFE AND ITS CONDITIONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. THE GIFTS OF CIVILISATION, and other Sermons and Lectures. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 7 s - 6d. DISCIPLINE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER, and other Sermons. Crown 8vo. 43. 6d. ADVENT SERMONS. 1885. Crown 8vo. 43. 6A VILLAGE SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. VILLAGE SERMONS. Second Series. Crown 8vo. 6s. VILLAGE SERMONS. Third Series. Crown 8vo. 6s. TIMES. "In these sermons we see how a singularly gifted and cultivated mind was able to communicate its thoughts on the highest subjects to those with whom it might be supposed to have little in common. . . . His village sermons are not the by-work of one whose interests were elsewhere in higher matters. They are the outcome of his deepest interests and of the life of his choice. . . . These sermons are worth perusal, if only to show what preaching, even to the humble and unlearned hearers, may be made in really competent hands." CATHEDRAL AND UNIVERSITY SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. PASCAL AND OTHER SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. TIMES. "They are all eminently characteristic of one of the most saintly of modern divines, and one of the most scholarly of modern men of letters." THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 25 SPECTATOR, "Dean Church's seem to us the finest sermons published since Newman's, even Dr. Liddon's rich and eloquent discourses not excepted, and they breathe more of the spirit of perfect peace than even Newman's. They cannot be called High Church or Broad Church, much less Low Church sermons ; they are simply the sermons of a good scholar, a great thinker, and a firm and serene Christian." CLERGYMAN'S SELF-EXAMINATION CONCERNING THE APOSTLES' CREED. Extra fcap. 8vo. is. 6d. A CONFESSION OF FAITH. By an UNORTHODOX BELIEVER. Fcap. 8vo. 33. 6d. GRAPHIC. "The book not only abounds with spiritual charm and metaphysical insight, but it is an excellent specimen of good hard thinking and close reasoning, in which the reader will find plenty of capital exercise for the intellectual muscles." Congreve (Rev. John). HIGH HOPES AND PLEADINGS FOR A REASONABLE FAITH, NOBLER THOUGHTS, LARGER CHARITY. Crown 8vo. 55. Cooke (Josiah P.) THE CREDENTIALS OF SCIENCE, THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. Curteis (Rev. G. H.) THE SCIENTIFIC OBSTACLES TO CHRISTIAN BELIEF. The Boyle Lectures, 1884. Cr. 8vo. 6s. Davidson (R. T., Bishop of Winchester) A CHARGE DE- LIVERED TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF ROCHESTER, October 29, 30, 31, 1894. 8vo. Sewed. 2s. net. A CHARGE DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF WINCHESTER, Sept. 28, 30, Oct. 2, 3, 4, and 5, 1899. 8vo. Sewed. 2s. 6d. net. Davies (Rev. J. Llewelyn) THE GOSPEL AND MODERN LIFE. 2nd Edition, to which is added Morality according to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. SOCIAL QUESTIONS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, and Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. WARNINGS AGAINST SUPERSTITION. Extra fcap. 8vo. 2;,. 6d. THE CHRISTIAN CALLING. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. BAPTISM, CONFIRMATION, AND THE LORD'S SUPPER, as interpreted by their Outward Signs. Three Addresses. New Edition. Pott 8vo. is. ORDER AND GROWTH AS INVOLVED IN THE SPIRITUAL CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN SOCIETY. Crown 8vo. 33. 6cl. 26 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Davies (Rev. J. Llewelyn) continued. GLASGOW HERALD. "This is a wise and suggestive book, touching upon many of the more interesting questions of the present day. ... A book as full of hope as it is of ability." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. "fa says what he means, but never more than he means ; and hence his words carry weight with many to whom the ordinary sermon would appeal in vain. . . . The whole book is well worth study." ABERDEEN DAILY FREE PRESS." An able discussion of the true basis and aim of social progress." SCOTSMAN. "Thoughtful and suggestive." SPIRITUAL APPREHENSION: Sermons and Papers. Crown 8vo. 6s. Davies (W.) THE PILGRIM OF THE INFINITE. A Discourse addressed to Advanced Religious Thinkers on Christian Lines. By WM. DAVIES. Fcap. 8vo. 35. 6d. CHRISTIAN WORLD. " We hail this work as one which in an age of much mental unrest sounds a note of faith which appeals confidently to the highest intellect, inasmuch as it springs out of the clearest intuitions of the human spirit." Ellerton (Rev. John). THE HOLIEST MANHOOD, AND ITS LESSONS FOR BUSY LIVES. Crown 8vo. 6s. English Theological Library. Edited by Rev. FREDERIC RELTON. With General Introduction by the late LORD BISHOP OF LONDON. A Series of Texts Annotated for the Use of Students, Candidates for Ordination, etc. 8vo. I. HOOKER'S ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY, Book V., Edited by Rev. Ronald E. Bayne. [Ready Shortly. II. LAW'S SERIOUS CALL, Edited by Rev. Canon J. H. Overton. 8s. 6d. net. DAILY NEWS. "A well-executed reprint. . . . Canon Overton's notes are not numerous, and are as a rule very interesting and useful." CAMBRIDGE REVIEW. " A welcome reprint. ... All that it should be in paper and appearance, and the reputation of the editor is a guarantee for the accuracy and fairness of the notes." III. WILSON'S MAXIMS, Edited by Rev. F. Relton. 55. 6d. net. GUARDIAN. "Many readers will feel grateful to Mr. Relton for this edition of Bishop_ Wilson's ' Maxims." . . . Mr. Relton's edition will be found well worth posses- sing : it is pleasant to the eye, and bears legible marks of industry and study." EXPOSITORY TIMES." In an introduction of some twenty pages, he tells us all we need to know of Bishop Wilson and of his maxims. Then he gives us the maxims themselves in most perfect form, and schools himself to add at the bottom of the page such notes as are absolutely necessary to their understanding, and nothing more." IV. THE WORKS OF BISHOP BUTLER. Vol. I. Sermons, Charges, Fragments, and Correspondence. Vol. II. The Analogy of Religion, and two brief dissertations : I. Of Personal Identity. II. Of the Nature of Virtue. Edited by J. H. BERNARD, D.D. 7s. 6d. net each. THE PILOT. " One could hardly desire a better working edition than this which Dr. Bernard has given us. ... Sure to become the standard edition for students." THE SPECTATOR." An excellent piece of work." THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 27 English Theological Library continued. V. THE CONFERENCE BETWEEN WILLIAM LAUD AND MR. FISHER, THE JESUIT. Edited by Rev. C. H. SIMP- KINSON, M.A. Author of The Life of Archbishop Laud. [/ the Press. \0ther volumes are in preparation.'] EVIL AND EVOLUTION. An attempt to turn the Light of Modern Science on to the Ancient Mystery of Evil. By the author of The Social Horizon. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. net. EXPOSITOR y TIMES." The book is well worth the interest it is almost certain to excite." CHURCH TIMES. "There can be no question about the courage or the keen jogic and the lucid style of this fascinating treatment of a problem which is of pathetic interest to all of us. _. . . It deserves to be studied by all, and no one who reads it can fail to be struck by it." FAITH AND CONDUCT : An Essay on Verifiable Religion. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. Farrar (Very Rev. F. W., Dean of Canterbury) THE HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION. Being the Bampton Lectures, 1885. 8vo. i6s. Collected Edition of the Sermons, etc. Cr. 8vo. 33. 6d. each. SEEKERS AFTER GOD. ETERNAL HOPE. Sermons Preached in Westminster Abbey. THE FALL OF MAN, and other Sermons. THE WITNESS OF HISTORY TO CHRIST. Hulsean Lectures. THE SILENCE AND VOICES OF GOD. IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH. Sermons on Practical Subjects. SAINTLY WORKERS. Five Lenten Lectures. EPHPHATHA : or, The Amelioration of the World. MERCY AND JUDGMENT. A few words on Christian Eschatology. SERMONS AND ADDRESSES delivered in America. Fiske (John). MAN'S DESTINY VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF HIS ORIGIN. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. Foxell (W. J.) GOD'S GARDEN : Sunday Talks with Boys. With an Introduction by Dean FARRAR. Globe 8vo. 35. 6d. SPEAKER. "Deals with obvious problems of faith and conduct in a strain of vigorous simplicity, and with an evident knowledge of the needs, the moods, the diffi- culties of boy-life. It is the kind of book which instils lessons of courage, trust, patience, and forbearance ; and does so quite as much by example as by precept." IN A PLAIN PATH. Addresses to Boys. Globe 8vo. 33. 6d. SPEAKER. " He handles with admirable vigour, and real discernment of a boy's difficulties, such high themes as the use of time, noble revenge, the true gentleman, the noblest victory, and progress through failure. There is nothing childish in the method of treatment, and yet we feel sure that a man who spoke to a congregation of lads in this fashion would not talk over the head of the youngest, and yet find his way to the hearts of those who are just passing from the restraints of school to the responsibilities of life." Fraser (Bishop). UNIVERSITY SERMONS. Edited by Rev. JOHN W. DIGGLE. Crown 8vo. 6s. 28 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Furse (Archdeacon). A NATIONAL CHURCH. 8vo. 6d. Goodspeed(G. S.) ISRAEL'S MESSIANIC HOPE TO THE TIME OF JESUS : A Study in the Historical Development of the Foreshadowings of the Christ in the Old Testament and beyond. Crown 8vo. 6s. Grane (W. L.) THE WORD AND THE WAY: or, The Light of the Ages on the Path of To-Day. Crown 8vo. 6s. HARD SAYINGS OF JESUS CHRIST. A Study in the Mind and Method of the Master. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 53. Green (S. G.) THE CHRISTIAN CREED AND THE CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM. Seven Lectures delivered in 1898 at Regent's Park College. Crown 8vo. 6s. Harcourt (Sir W. V.). LAWLESSNESS IN THE NATIONAL CHURCH. 8vo. Sewed, is. net. Hardwick (Archdeacon). CHRIST AND OTHER MAS- TERS, 6th Edition. Crown 8vo. IDS. 6d. Hare (Julius Charles) THE, MISSION OF THE COM- FORTER. New Edition. Edited by Dean PLUMPTRE. Crown 8vo. 73. 6d. Harris (Rev. G. C.) SERMONS. With a Memoir by CHARLOTTE M. YONGE, and Portrait. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. Henson (Canon H. H.) SERMON ON THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN. 8vo. Sewed, is. net. Hillis (N. D.) THE INFLUENCE OF CHRIST IN MODERN LIFE. A Study of the New Problems of the Church in American Society. Crown 8vo. 6s. Hort (F. J. A.) THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE. Hulsean Lectures, 1871. Crown 8vo. 6s. CAMBRIDGE REVIEW. " Only to few is it given to scan the wide fields of truth with clear vision of near and far alike. To what an extraordinary degree the late Dr. Hort possessed this power is shown by the Hulsean Lectures just published. They carry us in the most wonderful way to the very centre of the Christian system ; no aspect of truth, no part of the world, seems to be left out of view ; while in every page we recog- nise the gathered fruits of a rare scholarship in the service of an unwearying thought." JUDAISTIC CHRISTIANITY. Crown 8vo. 6s. SCOTSMAN. "The great merit of Dr. Hort's lectures is that succinctly and yet fully, and in a clear and interesting and suggestive manner, they give us not only his own opinions, but whatever of worth has been advanced on the subject." GLASGOW HERALD. "Will receive a respectful welcome at the hands of all biblical scholars. ... A model of exact and patient scholarship, controlled by robust English sagacity, and it is safe to say that it will take a high place in the literature of the subject." VILLAGE SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. Selected from the Sermons preached by Professor HORT to his village congregation at St. Ippolyt's, and including a series of Sermons dealing in a broad and suggestive way with the successive books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelations. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 29 Hort (F. J. A.) continued. SERMONS ON THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE (selected from Village Sermons). Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. VILLAGE SERMONS IN OUTLINE. Crown 8vo. 6s. CONTENTS : I. The Prayer Book, 16 Sermons. II. Baptism, $ Sermons. III. Mutual Subjection the Rule of Life (Eph. v. 21), 6 Sermons. IV. The Sermon on the Mount (St. Matt. v. I ; yii. 29), 1 1 Sermons. V. Advent, 4 Sermons. VI. The Armour of the Cross. VII. The Resurrection, 7 Sermons. CAMBRIDGE AND OTHER SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. Hughes (T.) THE MANLINESS OF CHRIST. 2nd Ed. Fcap. 8vo. 33. 6d. GLOBE. " TJie Manliness of Christ is a species of lay sermon such as Judge Hughes is well qualified to deliver, seeing that manliness of thought and feeling has been the prevailing characteristic of all his literary products." BRITISH WEEKLY. " A new edition of a strong book." Button (R. H.) ESSAYS ON SOME OF THE MODERN GUIDES OF ENG- LISH THOUGHT IN MATTERS OF FAITH. Globe 8vo. 53. THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS. Globe 8vo. 53. ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. Selected from the Spectator, and edited by E. M. ROSCOE. Globe 8vo. 53. Hyde (W. DE W.) OUTLINES OF SOCIAL THEOLOGY. Crown 8vo. 6s. Dr. Hyde thus describes the object of his book : "This little book aims to point out the logical relations in which the doctrines of theology will stand to each other when the time shall come again for seeing Christian truth in the light of reason and Christian life as the embodiment of love." PRACTICAL IDEALISM. Globe 8vo. 53. net. Illingworth (Rev. J. R.) SERMONS PREACHED IN A COLLEGE CHAPEL. Crown 8vo. 53. UNIVERSITY AND CATHEDRAL SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 53. PERSONALITY, DIVINE AND HUMAN. Bampton Lectures, 1894. Crown 8vo. 6s. TIMES. " Will take high rank among the rare theological masterpieces produced by that celebrated foundation." EXPOSITOR. " It is difficult to convey an adequate impression of the freshness and strength of the whole argument. ... It is a book which no one can be satisfied with reading once ; it is to be studied." DIVINE IMMANENCE. An Essay on the Spiritual Significance of Matter. New Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s. CHURCH QUARTERLY REVIEW. " A very valuable book. . . . Divine Immanence is likely to prove of great service to Christian truth. It combines, to a remarkable extent, profound thought and clear expression. It is throughout written in an interesting style." GUARDIAN. "Altogether, we have rarely read a book of such philosophical earnestness in construing the Christian view of existence in terms of the thought and knowledge of these days, nor one more likely to bring home the knowledge of a Saviour to the modern man." 30 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Jacob (Rev. J. A.) BUILDING IN SILENCE, and other Sermons. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. James (Rev. Herbert). THE COUNTRY CLERGYMAN AND HIS WORK. Crown 8vo. 6s. RECORD. "The volume is one which should be in the hands of every candidate for Holy Orders and of every clergyman who is wishing to learn." Jayne (F. J., Bishop of Chester). THE VISITATION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese at his third Visitation, October 29, 1896. 6d. JeUett (Rev. Dr.) THE ELDER SON, and other Sermons. Crown 8vo. 6s. Joceline (E.) THE MOTHER'S LEGACIE TO HER UN- BORN CHILD. Cr. i6mo. 45. 6d. Jones (Jenkin Lloyd) JESS: BITS OF WAYSIDE GOSPEL. Crown 8vo. 6s. A SEARCH FOR AN INFIDEL: BITS OF WAYSIDE GOS- PEL. Second Series. Crown 8vo. 6s. Kellogg (Rev. S. H.) THE LIGHT OF ASIA AND THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Crown 8vo. 75. 6d. THE GENESIS AND GROWTH OF RELIGION. Cr. 8vo. 6s. SCOTSMAN. " Full of matter of an important kind, set forth with praiseworthy conciseness, and at the same time with admirable lucidity. . . . Dr. Kellogg has done the work allotted to him with great ability, and everywhere manifests a competent ac- quaintance with the subject with which he deals." King (Prof. H. C.) RECONSTRUCTION IN THEOLOGY. Crown 8vo. 6s. Kingsley (Charles) VILLAGE AND TOWN AND COUNTRY SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 33. 6d. THE WATER OF LIFE, and other Sermons. Crown Svo. 35. 6d. SERMONS ON NATIONAL SUBJECTS, AND THE KING OF THE EARTH. Crown Svo. 35. 6d. SERMONS FOR THE TIMES. Crown Svo. 35. 6d. GOOD NEWS OF GOD. Crown Svo. 33. 6d. THE GOSPEL OF THE PENTATEUCH, AND DAVID. Crown Svo. 35. 6d. DISCIPLINE, and other Sermons. Crown Svo. 35. 6d. WESTMINSTER SERMONS. Crown Svo. 35. 6d. ALL SAINTS' DAY, and other Sermons. Crown Svo. 33. 6d. ACADEMY. " We can imagine nothing more appropriate than this edition fora public, a school, or even a village library." Kirkpatrick(Prof. A. F.) THE DIVINE LIBRARY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. Its Origin, Preservation, Inspiration, and Permanent Value. Crown Svo. 35. net THE DOCTRINE OF THE PROPHETS. Warburtonian Lectures 1886-1890. Third Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 31 Knight (W. A.) ASPECTS OF THEISM. 8vo. 8s. 6d. LETTERS FROM HELL. Newly translated from the Danish. With an Introduction by Dr. GEORGE MACDONALD. Twenty-eighth Thousand. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. Lightfoot (Bishop) THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. Reprinted from Dissertations on the Apostolic A%e. Crown Svo. 35. net. LEADERS IN THE NORTHERN CHURCH : Sermons Preached in the Diocese of Durham. 2nd Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. ORDINATION ADDRESSES AND COUNSELS TO CLERGY. Crown Svo. 6s. CAMBRIDGE SERMONS. Crown Svo. 6s. SERMONS PREACHED IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. Crown Svo. 6s. SERMONS PREACHED ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS. Crown Svo. 6s. A CHARGE DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF DURHAM, 2$th Nov. 1886. Demy Svo. 2s. ESSAYS ON THE WORK ENTITLED "Supernatural Reli- gion." Svo. IDS. 6d. DISSERTATIONS ON THE APOSTOLIC AGE. Svo. 145. BIBLICAL ESSAYS. Svo. 125. TIMES. " As representing all that is now available of the Bishop's profound learning and consummate scholarship for the illustration of his great subject, the present volume and its successor will be warmly welcomed by all students of theology." Lillingston (Frank, M.A.) THE BRAMO SAMAJ AND ARYA SAMAJ IN THEIR BEARING UPON CHRIS- TIANITY. A Study in Indian Theism. Cr. Svo. 2s. 6d. net. Macmillan (Rev. Hugh) BIBLE TEACHINGS IN NATURE. 15* Ed. Globe Svo. 6s. THE TRUE VINE ; OR, THE ANALOGIES OF OUR LORD'S ALLEGORY. 5th Edition. Globe Svo. 6s. THE MINISTRY OF NATURE. 8th Edition. Globe Svo. 6s. THE SABBATH OF THE FIELDS. 6th Edition. Globe Svo. 6s. THE MARRIAGE IN CANA. Globe Svo. 6s. TWO WORLDS ARE OURS. 3rd Edition. Globe Svo. 6s. THE OLIVE LEAF. Globe Svo. 6s. ' THE GATE BEAUTIFUL AND OTHER BIBLE TEACHINGS FOR THE YOUNG. Crown Svo. 35. 6d. SPEA KER. "These addresses are, in fact, models of their kind wise, reverent, and not less imaginative than practical ; they abound in choice and apposite anecdotes and illustrations, and possess distinct literary merit." DAILY CHRONICLE. "The poetic touch that beautifies all Dr. Macmillan's writing is fresh in every one of these charming addresses. The volume is sure to meet with cordial appreciation far beyond the sphere of its origin." GLEANINGS IN HOLY FIELDS. Crown Svo. 35. 6d. THE CORN OF HEAVEN. Crown Svo. [In the Press. Mahaffy (Rev. Prof.) THE DECAY OF MODERN PREACH- ING : AN ESSAY. Crown Svo. 33. 6d. 32 MACMILLAN AND CO/S Marshall (H. Rutgers) INSTINCT AND REASON : An Essay with some Special Study of the Nature of Religion. 8vo. I2s. 6d. net. Mathews (S.). THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF JESUS. AN ESSAY IN CHRISTIAN SOCIOLOGY. Crown 8vo. 6s. Maurice (Frederick Denison) THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 3rd Ed. 2 Vols. Cr. 8vo. 7s. THE CONSCIENCE. Lectures on Casuistry. 3rd Ed. Cr.Svo. 45. 6d. DIALOGUES ON FAMILY WORSHIP. Crown 8vo. 45. 6d. THE DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE DEDUCED FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 6th Edition. Cr. 8vo. 43. 6d. ON THE SABBATH DAY; THE CHARACTER OF THE WARRIOR; AND ON THE INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. LEARNING AND WORKING. Crown 8vo. 45. 6d. THE LORD'S PRAYER, THE CREED, AND THE COM- MANDMENTS. Pott 8vo. is. Collected Works. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. each. SERMONS PREACHED IN LINCOLN'S INN CHAPEL. In Six Volumes. 33. 6d. each. CHRISTMAS DAY AND OTHER SERMONS. THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS. PROPHETS AND KINGS. PATRIARCHS AND LAWGIVERS. THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. FRIENDSHIP OF BOOKS. PRAYER BOOK AND LORD'S PRAYER. THE DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. CHURCH TIMES. "There is probably no writer of the present century to whom the English Church owes a deeper debt of gratitude. . . . Probably he did more to stop the stream of converts to Romanism which followed the secession of Newman than any other individual, by teaching English Churchmen to think out the reasonableness of their position." SPEAKER. "These sermons are marked in a conspicuous degree by high thinking and plain statement." TIMES. "A volume of sermons for which the memory of Maurice's unique personal influence ought to secure a cordial reception." SCOTSMAN. "They appear in a volume uniform with the recent collective edition of Maurice's works, and will be welcome to the many readers to whom that edition has brought home the teaching of the most popular among modern English divines." Medley (Rev. W.) CHRIST THE TRUTH. Being the Angus Lectures for the year 1900. Crown 8vo. 6s THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 33 Milligan (Rev. Prof. W.) THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 53. SPECTA TOR." The argument is put with brevity and force by Dr. Milligan, and every page bears witness that he has mastered the literature of the subject, and has made a special study of the more recent discussions on this aspect of the question. . . . The remaining lectures are more theological. They abound in striking views, in fresh and vigorous exegesis, and manifest a keen apprehension of the bearing of the fact of the Resurrection on many important questions of theology. The notes are able and scholarly, and elucidate the teaching of the text." THE ASCENSION AND HEAVENLY PRIESTHOOD OF OUR LORD. Baird Lectures, 1891. Crown 8vo. 75. 6d. Moorhouse (J., Bishop of Manchester) JACOB : Three Sermons. Extra fcap. 8vo. 35. 6d. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST. Its Conditions, Secret, and Results. Crown 8vo. 33. net. CHURCH WORK: ITS MEANS AND METHODS. Crown 8vo. 35. net. CHURCH TIMES. " It may almost be said to mark an epoch, and to inaugurate a new era in the history of Episcopal visitation." TIMES. "A series of diocesan addresses, full of practical counsel, by one of the most active and sagacious of modern prelates." GLOBE. "Throughout the volume we note the presence of the wisdom that comes from long and varied experience, from sympathy, and from the possession of a fair and tolerant mind." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN." Full of interest and instruction for all who take an interest in social and moral, to say nothing of ecclesiastical, reforms, and deserves to find careful students far beyond the limits of those to whom it was originally addressed." Myers (F. W. H.) SCIENCE AND A FUTURE LIFE. Gl. 8vo. 55. Nash (H. S.). GENESIS OF THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. THE RELATION BETWEEN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY IN EUROPE AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION. Crown 8vo. 6s. SCOTSMAN." The book is eloquently, and at times brilliantly, written. . . . But few readers could go through it without being inspired by its clever and animated hand- ling of philosophical ideas." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. " An interesting and suggestive little book." Pattison (Mark). SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. Peabody (Prof. F. G.) JESUS CHRIST AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION. Crown 8vo. 6s. PHILOCHRISTUS. Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord. 3rdEd. 8vo. 123. Pike (G. R.) THE DIVINE DRAMA THE DIVINE MANIFESTATION OF GOD IN THE UNIVERSE. Crown 8vo. 6s. Plumptre (Dean). MOVEMENTS IN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. Fcap. 8vo. 33. 6d. 34 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S PRO CHRISTO ET ECCLESIA. Crown 8vo. Gilt top. 45. 6d. net. BOOKMAN. "It is not .only its anonymity which suggests comparison with Ecce Homo. The subject is the same in both books the method and aim of Jesus though treated from quite different points of view ; and the level of thought is much the same ; the easy originality that cuts a new section through the life of Christ and shows us strata before unthought of; the classic severity of the style, the penetrating knowledge of human nature, the catholicity of treatment, all remind us of Professor Seeley's captivating work." Purchas (Rev. H. T., M.A.). JOHANNINE PROBLEMS AND MODERN NEEDS. Crown 8vo. [In the Press. Reichel (Bishop). SERMONS. With a Memoir. Crown 8vo. 6s. Kendall (Rev. F.) THE THEOLOGY OF THE HEBREW CHRISTIANS. Crown 8vo. 55. Ridding (George, Bishop of Southwell). THE REVEL AND THE BATTLE. Crown 8vo. 6s. TIMES." Singularly well worth reading." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN." Marked by dignity and force." Robinson (Prebendary H. G.) MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD, and other Sermons. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. Robinson (Canon J. A.) UNITY IN CHRIST AND OTHER SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. Rutherford (W. G., M.A., Headmaster of Westminster). THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE. Sermons preached to Westminster Boys in the Abbey. Crown 8vo. 6s. Seeley (Sir J. R.) ECCE HOMO : A Survey of the Life and Work of Jesus Christ. Globe 8vo. 55. NATURAL RELIGION. Globe 8vo. 53. A THENsEUM. " If it be the function of a genius to interpret the age to itself, this is a work of genius. It gives articulate expression to the higher strivings of the time. It puts plainly the problem of these latter days, and so far contributes to its solution ; a positive solution it scarcely claims to supply. No such important contribution to the question of the time has been published in England since the appearance in 1866 of Ecce Homo. . . . The author is a teacher whose words it is well to listen to ; his words are wise but sad ; it has not been given him to fire them with faith, but only to light them with reason. His readers may at least thank him for the intellectual illumination, if they cannot owe him gratitude for any added favour. ... A book which we assume will be read by most thinking Englishmen. "- MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. "The present issue is a compact, handy, well- printed edition of a thoughtful and remarkable, book. " Selborne (Roundell, Earl of). LETTERS TO HIS SON ON RELIGION. Globe 8vo. 35. 6d. THE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH. Globe 8vo. 3s. 6d. Service (Rev. John). SERMONS. With Portrait Crown 8vo. 6s. Stanley (Dean) THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING. Sermons preached in Westminster Abbey. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. Stewart (Prof. Balfour) and Tait (Prof. P. G.) THE UNSEEN UNIVERSE; OR, PHYSICAL SPECULATIONS ON A FUTURE STATE. I5th Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 35 Stubbs (Dean) CHRISTUS IMPERATOR. A Series of Lecture-Sermons on the Universal Empire of Christianity. Edited by Very Rev. C. W. STUBBS, D.D., Dean of Ely. Crown 8vo. 6s. The discourses included in. this volume were delivered in 1893 in the Chapel -of -Ease to the Parish Church of Wavertree at that time the centre of much excellent social work done by Mr. Stubbs, who had not yet been promoted to the Deanery of Ely. The following are the subjects and the preachers : The Supremacy of Christ in all Realms : by the Very Rev. Charles Stubbs, D.D., Dean of Ely. Christ in the Realm of History : by the Very Rev. G. W. Kitchin, D.D., Dean of Durham. Christ in the Realm of Philosophy : by the Rev. R. E. Bartlett, M. A., Bampton Lecturer in 1888. Christ in the Realm of Law: by the Rev. J. B. Heard, M.A., Hulsean Lecturer in 1893. Christ in the Realm of Art : by the Rev. Canon Rawnsley, M.A., Vicar of Crosthwaite. Christ in the Realm of Ethics : by the Rev. J. Llewelyn Davies, D.D., Vicar of Kirkby Lonsdale, and Chaplain to the Quee,n. Christ in the Realm of Politics : by the Rev. and Hon. W. H. Freemantle, M.A., Canon of Canterbury. Christ in the Realm of Science: by the Rev. Brooke Lambert, B.C.L., Vicar of Greenwich. Christ in the Realm of Sociology : by the Rev. S. A. Barnett, M.A., Warden of Toynbee Hall, and Canon of Bristol. Christ in the Realm of Poetry : by the Very Rev. Charles Stubbs, D.D., Dean of Ely. SCOTSMAN. " Their prelections will be found stimulating and instructive in a high degree. The volume deserves recognition as a courageous attempt to give to Christianity its rightful place and power in the lives of its professors." SURSUM CORDA : A DEFENCE OF IDEALISM. Fcap. 8vo. 35. 6d. . Talbot (Bishop). A CHARGE DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF ROCHESTER, October 24, 25, and 26, 1899. 8vo. Sewed. 2s. net. Temple (Archbishop). See Canterbury. Thackeray (H. St. John). THE RELATION OF ST. PAUL TO CONTEMPORARY JEWISH THOUGHT. Cr. 8vo. 6s. Trench (Archbishop). HULSEAN LECTURES. 8vo. 7s. 6d Van Dyke (Henry). THE GOSPEL FOR AN AGE OF DOUBT. The Yale Lectures on Preaching, 1896. Cr. 8vo. 8s. 6d. SCOTSMAN. "While the lectures are in no danger of being challenged as hetero- dox, the last charge that will be made against the author will be that he fails to discern the spirit of the age or the attitude of mind, and the outstanding reasons of that attitude, of multitudes of thoughtful and reverent people towards the teaching of the Churches." Vaughan (C. J., Dean of Llandaff) MEMORIALS OF HARROW SUNDAYS. 5th Edition. Crown 8vo. IDS. 6d. 36 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Vaughan (C. J., Dean of Llandaff ) continued. HEROES OF FAITH. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. LIFE'S WORK AND GOD'S DISCIPLINE. 3rd Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. THE WHOLESOME WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST. 2nd Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 33. 6d. FOES OF FAITH. 2nd Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 33. 6d. COUNSELS FOR YOUNG STUDENTS. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. THE TWO GREAT TEMPTATIONS. 2nd Ed. Fcap. 8vo. 35. 64 ADDRESSES FOR YOUNG CLERGYMEN. Extra fcap. 8vo. 43. 6d. " MY SON, GIVE ME THINE HEART." Extra fcap. 8vo. 55. TEMPLE SERMONS. Crown 8vo. IDS. 6d. AUTHORISED OR REVISED"? Sermons on some of the Texts in which the Revised Version differs from the Authorised. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. LESSONS OF THE CROSS AND PASSION. WORDS FROM THE CROSS. THE REIGN OF SIN. THE LORD'S PRAYER. Four Courses of Lent Lectures. Crown 8vo. IDS. 6d. UNIVERSITY SERMONS. NEW AND OLD. Cr. 8vo. IDS. 64 NOTES FOR LECTURES ON CONFIRMATION. Fcap. 8vo. is. 6d. THE PRAYERS OF JESUS CHRIST : a closing volume of Lent Lectures delivered in the Temple Church. Globe 8vo. 35. 6d. DONCASTER SERMONS. Lessons of Life and Godliness, and Words from the Gospels. Cr. 8vo. los. 6d. RESTFUL THOUGHTS IN RESTLESS TIMES. Cr. 8vo. 53. LAST WORDS IN THE TEMPLE CHURCH. Globe 8vo. 55. SATURDAY REVIEW. "These discourses in thought, in style, have so much that is permanent and fine about them that they will stand the ordeal of being read by any serious man, even though he never heard Dr. Vaughan speak." UNIVERSITY AND OTHER SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. TIMES. "As specimens of pure and rythmical English prose, rising here and there to flights of sober and chastened eloquence, yet withal breathing throughout an earnest and devotional spirit, these sermons would be hard to match." SCOTSMAN. "All are marked by the earnestness, scholarship, and strength of thought which invariably characterised the pulpit utterances of the preacher." Vaughan (Rev. D. J.) THE PRESENT TRIAL OF FAITH. Crown 8vo. 55. QUESTIONS OF THE DAY, SOCIAL, NATIONAL, AND RELIGIOUS. Crown 8vo. 55. NATIONAL OBSERVER. "In discussing Questions of tJtt Day Mr. D. J. Vaughan speaks with candour, ability, and common sense." THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 37 SCOTSMAN. " They form an altogether admirable collection of vigorous and thoughtful pronouncements on a variety of social, national, and religious topics." GLASGOW HERALD. "A volume such as this is the best reply to those friends of the people who are for ever complaining that the clergy waste their time preaching antiquated dogma and personal salvation, and neglect the weightier matters of the law." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. "He speaks boldly as well as thoughtfully, and what he has to say is always worthy of attention." EXPOSITOR Y TIMES." Most of them are social, and these are the most interest- ing. And one feature of peculiar interest is that in those sermons which were preached twenty years ago Canon Vaughan saw the questions of to-day, and suggested the remedies we are beginning to apply." Vaughan (Rev. E. T.) SOME REASONS OF OUR CHRIS- TIAN HOPE. Hulsean Lectures for 1875. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. Venn (Rev. John). ON SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF BELIEF, SCIENTIFIC AND RELIGIOUS. 8vo. 6s. 6d. Ward (W.) WITNESSES TO THE UNSEEN, AND OTHER ESSAYS. 8vo. zos. 6d. ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE." Mr. Ward's reputation as a philosophical thinker at once accurate, candid, and refined, and as the master of a literary style alike vigorous, scholarly, and popular, has been amply established by his previous works. That it is well worthy of his reputation, is enough to say in commendation of his new book." DAILY CHRONICLE. "His whole book recalls men to those witnesses for the unseen, which laboratories cannot analyse, yet which are abundantly rational." TIMES. " A series of brilliant and suggestive essays. . . . This pregnant and sug- gestive view of the larger intellectual tendencies of our own and other ages is enforced and illustrated by Mr. Ward with much speculative insight and great literary brilliancy." Welldon (Right Rev. J. E. C., Bishop of Calcutta). THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, and other Sermons. Crown 8vo. 6s. SCOTTISH LEA DER." In a strain of quiet, persuasive eloquence, Bishop Welldon treats impressively of various aspects of the higher life. His discourses cannot fail both to enrich the heart and stimulate the mind of the earnest reader." GLASGOW HERALD." They are cultured, reverent, and thoughtful produc- tions." Westcott (B. F., Bishop of Durham) ON THE RELIGIOUS OFFICE OF THE UNIVERSITIES. Sermons. Crown 8vo. 45. 6d. GIFTS FOR MINISTRY. Addresses to Candidates for Ordination. Crown 8vo. is. 6d. THE VICTORY OF THE CROSS. Sermons preached during Holy Week, 1888, in Hereford Cathedral. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH. Three Sermons (In Memoriam J. B. D.) Crown 8vo. 2s. THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD. Cr. 8vo. 6s. THE HISTORIC FAITH. 3rd Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION. 6th Ed. Cr. 8vo. 6s. THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER. Crown 8vo. 6s. CHRISTUS CONSUMMATOR. and Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE ORDINAL. Cr. 8vo. is. 6d. SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. Crown 8vo. 6s. 38 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S WestCOtt (Bishop) continued, ESSAYS IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN THE WEST. Globe 8vo. 55. THE GOSPEL OF LIFE. Crown Svo. 6s. THE INCARNATION AND COMMON LIFE. Crown Svo. gs. TIMES. "A collection of sermons which possess; among other merits, the rare one of actuality, reflecting, as they frequently do, the Bishop's well-known and eager interest in social problems of the day. " CHRISTIAN ASPECTS OF LIFE. Crown Svo. 75. 6d. CHURCH TIMES. " We heartily commend this volume to the notice of our readers. . . . The Church of England is not likely to lose touch with the people of this country so long as she is guided by Bishops who show such a truly large-hearted sympathy with everything human as is here manifested by the present occupier of the see of Durham." LITER A TURE. " A sermon of the national day of rest, and some attractive per- sonal reminiscences of school days under James Prince Lee, are among the choicest parts of the volume, if we are to single out any portions from a work of dignified and valuable utterance." DAILY NEWS. "Through every page . . . runs the same enlightened sympathy with the living world. One forgets the Bishop in the Man, the Ecclesiastic in the Citizen, the Churchman in the Christian." THE OBLIGATIONS OF EMPIRE. Cr. Svo. Sewed. 3d. net. LESSONS FROM WORK. CHARGES AND ADDRESSES. Crown Svo. 6s. White (A. D.) A HISTORY OF THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY IN CHRISTENDOM. In Two Vols. Svo. 2 is. net. TIMES. " Is certainly one of the most comprehensive, and, in our judgment, one of the most valuable historical works that have appeared for many years. . . . He has chosen a large subject, but it is at least one which has clear and definite limits, and he has treated it very fully and comprehensively in two moderate volumes. . . . His book appears to us to be based on much original research, on an enormous amount of careful, accurate, and varied reading, and his habit of appending to each section a list of the chief books, both ancient and modern, relating to it will be very useful to serious students. He has decided opinions, but he always writes temperately, and with transparent truth- fulness of intention." DAILY CHRONICLE. "The story of the struggle of searchers after truth with the organised forces of ignorance, bigotry, and superstition is the most inspiring chapter in the whole history of mankind. That story has never been better told than by the ex-President of Cornell University in these two volumes." Wickham (Very Rev. Dean). WELLINGTON COLLEGE SERMONS. Crown Svo. 6s. Wilkins (Prof. A. S.) THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD : an Essay. 2nd Edition. Crown Svo. 33. 6d. Wilson (J. M., Archdeacon of Manchester) SERMONS PREACHED IN CLIFTON COLLEGE CHAPEL. Second Series. 1888-90. Crown Svo. 6s. ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES. Crown Svo. 25. 6d. net. GUARDIAN. "We heartily welcome a new edition of Archdeacon Wilson's Essays and Addresses-" THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 39 Wilson (J. M., Archdeacon of Manchester) continued. SPEAKER. " We are glad to welcome a new edition of the Archdeacon of Manchester's Essays and Addresses, . . . These addresses are manly, straightforward, and sagacious ; and they are, moreover, pervaded with a deep sense of responsibility and unfailing enthusiasm." SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT OF OUR TIME. Crown Svo. 6s. THE GOSPEL OF THE ATONEMENT. Being the Hulsean Lectures for 1898. Crown Svo. 35. 6d. SPEAKER. "This volume deserves a cordial welcome, and will reward a careful study. It is marked by a candour and courage, a sincerity and liberality of spirit, which prove very attractive. " OXFORD MAGAZINE. "They contain a good deal of strong thought and delicate expression." SPECTA TOR." A notable pronouncement." TWO SERMONS ON THE MUTUAL INFLUENCES OF THEOLOGY AND THE NATURAL SCIENCES. Svo. Sewed. 6d. net. Wood(C.J.) SURVIVALS IN CHRISTIANITY. Cr. Svo. 6s. MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. 1 ' Striking, stimulating and suggestive lectures. . . . The author writes with the boldness and conviction of a mystic ; he brings wide reading to bear upon every branch of his subject, and his book is impressive and interesting throughout." Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh. 0.5. 10.01. University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. Illllll llll Hill Hill Hi'" IIW " . j A 4 r\