Matthew 19 Biblical Illustrator

Man not left in doubt as to the good

Very likely the question involved a mass of confusions. The young man thought, perhaps, that heaven was to be won by external actions and quantitative merit. He did not understand that we must enter into heaven by being, not by doing. He held perhaps the vulgar notion that eternal only means endless, so that eternity becomes the infinitude of time instead of its antithesis. He very likely did not know that every holy soul has entered already into eternal life; that to all who are in Christ it is now as the invisible bright air they breathe. He certainly did not realize that "this is life eternal, to know Thee, the only God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." But yet, because the question was sincere and noble, and did not spring from Pharisaism — the one thing which the Lord detested most — but from the Divine dissatisfaction of a struggling soul which God alone can fill, Christ answered it.

(F. W. Farrar, D. D.)

The first step towards righteousness

"Why dost thou ask Me about the good?" that seems to have been our Lord's answer, not "Why askest thou Me?" as it is often read — for whom else should the young man ask? but "Why dost thou ask Me about the good?" Has God left you in any doubt as to what is good? Have you in your heart no voice of conscience? Has duty never uplifted within you that naked law of right, so imperial in its majesty, so eternal in its origin, which you know that you ought to follow even unto death? If not, and if experience has had no lessons for you, and history no teaching, was there no Sinai? Do not the cherubim of your temple veil with their golden wings the tablets — alas! the shattered tablets of your moral law? And there Jesus might have stopped. But, being unlike us, being infinitely patient with man's irritating spiritual stupidity, not loving, as we do, to be cautious and reticent, and "to steer through the channel of no meaning between the Scylla and Charybdis of yes and no," He added," but, if thou wouldst enter into life, keep the commandments."

(F. W. Farrar, D. D.)

The commandment regarded as ordinary

Christ did not begin with the injunction, "Go, sell all that thou hast." He began very much lower; He said, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Let us learn to flutter as sparrows, before it is worth considering whether we ought also to soar as eagles. Let us cease to be very guilty before we can be righteous. Let us be righteous before we can attain to the greatness of good men. Let us be but ordinary good men before we ask Christ for His counsels of perfection, or attempt to attain to the stature of His saints. Christ knew this well. We come to Him, and say, "O Saviour, whom I love, tell me what I must do to inherit eternal life." And so long as we are all standing ankle-deep, chin-deep, in the world's mire, would it be of any use for Him to point to some shining cloud in the deep blue, and say, "You must stand there"? Ah, no! He says to you, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Until you have learnt to plant firm feet on the green lower slopes, how can you breathe the difficult and eager air, or stand in the glory of the sunrise on the splendour of the snowy heights?

(F. W. Farrar, D. D.)

The young ruler, not being so familiar as we are with those accumulated cobwebs of two thousand years which priests, and churches, and sects, and theologians, and theorists, and system-mongers, and schoolmen, have spun over wellnigh every simple word of Christ; the young ruler, whose natural instincts were not crushed under hundreds of ponderous folios of human doctrines and commandments of men, which, with inconceivable arrogance and a bitterness which has become universally proverbial, would fain palm themselves off as infallible theology; the young ruler, hearing the answer from the lips of Jesus, in all its bare, naked, unqualified, unmistakable simplicity, was quite frankly amazed. He was like the child Charoba in the poem, who, having been talked to about the majestic glory of the sea, and being led to the shore, innocently exclaimed, "Is that the mighty ocean? Is that all?" "Keep the commandments." Is that all that Jesus has to tell him? Surely there must be some mistake! It did not need a prophet to tell us that! This youth had gone to Christ seeking for some great thing to do, and secret thing to know. The great Teacher could not mean anything so commonplace, so elementary, so extremely ordinary, as those old ten words which He had learned to lisp, ever so many years ago, when He was a little child, at His mother's knee?

(F. W. Farrar, D. D.)

Self-satisfaction

Pulpit Germs., J. P. Lange, D. D.

This young man thought himself somewhat beforehand, and that God, perchance, was in his debt. Truly, many nowadays grow crooked and aged with over-good opinions of themselves, and can hardly ever be set right again. They stand upon their comparisons — "I am as good as thou; " nay, upon their disparisons, "I am not as this publican." No, for thou art worse; yea, for this, because thou thinkest thyself better. This arrogant youth makes good that of Aristotle, who, differencing between age and youth, makes it a property of young men to think they know all things, and to affirm lustily their own placits.

(John Trapp.)

What lack I?

I. EXAMINE HIS BOAST. His obedience was:

1. Exact.

2. Extensive.

3. Constant.

II. SHOW HIS DEFICIENCIES.

1. A sense of guilt.

2. Faith in Christ.

3. A new heart.

4. Self-denial.

(Pulpit Germs.)This query must not be regarded as an expression of satisfied self-righteousness, as if it implied, "In that case I lack nothing." It is, indeed, true that the young man was still self-righteous. He had no conception of the spirituality, the depth, or the height of the commandments of God. Taking only the letter of the law, he considered himself blameless, and perhaps even righteous, before God. Yet his heart misgave him, and he felt that he still lacked something. Under this sense of want, he put the question to the Saviour, as if he would have said, "What is it then that I yet lack? All these things have not given me peace of mind."

(J. P. Lange, D. D.)

Self-righteousness

J. P. Lange, D. D.

The various forms of self-righteousness.

1. Of the head and of the heart (of doctrine and of sentiment); or, Pharisees in the strictest sense.

2. Self-righteousness of the heart with orthodoxy of the head, as in the case of some in the Church who seem to be zealous for soundness of doctrine.

3. Self-righteousness of the head, combined with a deep sense of spiritual need, although its grounds may not be fully understood, as in the case of this young man and of many Christian legalists.

(J. P. Lange, D. D.)

Why wealth is to be renounced

W. Rudder, D. D.

What did our Lord mean by this reply? Did he mean that the mere giving up his wealth to the poor would make this man acceptable with God? Certainly not. The cattle on a thousand hills are His. He asks no sacrifice from human hands. Man can give Him nothing that is not His already. This, therefore, could not have been His meaning. Did He, then, mean that the voluntary poverty caused by this distribution of his wealth would render him meritorious with God? Poverty in itself is no more a merit than riches. To this question, therefore, we must say, as to the other, certainly not. Well, then, what did He mean? Evidently this: that whatever may be our moral excellence; however exactly we may fulfil the law toward our neighbour; unless there is, besides this and behind all this and originating all this, an ardent love of God — a love fulfilling the first and great commandment, and fastening upon God with all the heart and soul and mind; a love born of faith, and yet increasing faith — unless there is such a love as this seated on the very throne of our being, originating all our motives and our acts; making our purpose not expediency, but the glory of God; causing us to be ready if need be to sell all that we have — unless there is such a love ruling in our hearts, our moral excellences, however great, are, in the sight of God, of no account. This unquestionably was His meaning; this was the doctrine which He designed to teach.

(W. Rudder, D. D.)

The true spirit of renunciation

Bishop H. C. Potter.

To the question "What lack I yet?" Christ answers in substance, "This: the temper that counts property worthless beside true life. You come to me with your money, with)'our sense of complacency, of consequence, of power, and you want to bring these with you into the kingdom of God. You are not indeed satisfied with things as they are. How can you be, so long as you are vainly striving to feed your immortal nature upon husks and chaff? You want to be enlarged into a life nobler, fuller, worthier of your better self. But you would come as Dives, not as Lazarus. What you have, you think, ought to be reckoned in with what you are. You and your estate are in your own conception too entirely identified to be separated. Believe me, my young brother, the kingdom of Jesus can not know you upon any such terms. It is not necessary that you should be stripped bare of all your belongings in order to enter it. But you should be willing to be stripped bare. You must come to look upon what you call yours as though it mattered not, when you set your face toward the kingdom of God, whether it were yours or no. The spirit of renunciation must be so deep in you that you must be ready to give up all for Christ. And this not from any arbitrary reason, but simply because a human heart is not large enough to hold two thrones. If Christ is to be in it at all, He must be king of the whole domain; and if He is to be king, the money power, the sense power, the brain power must go to the rear. There will be a place for each of these in every sanctified life, but it must be a subordinate place. "Go," or at least, if it be a question between your securities and your Saviour, be ready to go, "and sell all that thou hast, and follow Me!"

(Bishop H. C. Potter.)

Obedience to this command not necessarily literal

Bishop H. C. Potter.

It is not to be hastily concluded from this, that the rich man is to give all that he has to the poor. If, in deference to any narrow and superficial interpretation of Christ's language, a man should take his wealth and distribute the whole of it in largesses to the poor to-morrow, he would be doing the poor an incalculable evil and not a benefit. Men ask, "Why do not you, as a believer in Jesus Christ and the Sermon on the Mount, make common cause in the things of this world with the destitute around you, and trust for the needful food and raiment to Him who feeds the birds and clothes the lillies?" Why not, indeed! Is it merely because such an act would be fanatical and enthusiastic, or because political economy forbids it? Or, because, whatever else I ought or ought not to do, I ought not to do my brother man a wrong? Is anybody ignorant of the fact that every human life needs the discipline of forethought and self. denial, of responsibility and self-help; and that if I by my ill-judged kindness enable another to escape things, I am degrading and hurting him as well as abusing my own power? What would be the effect of the announcement that half a dozen rich men had disinherited themselves, and that to-morrow morning fifty millions of dollars would be distributed to the poor? Does anybody care to contemplate the pandemonium that New York would become — the idleness, the licentiousness, the fierce hatreds, the bitter discords, the mad license that would be engendered: and ought a Christian man to do an act that would make his brother men incalculably worse instead of better?

(Bishop H. C. Potter.)

Great possessions a hindrance in the way to heaven

Salter.

How nimbly does that little lark mount up, singing, towards heaven in a right line! whereas the hawk, which is stronger of body and swifter of wing, towers up by many gradual compasses to his highest pitch. That bulk of body and length of wing hinder a direct ascent, and require the help both of air and scope to advance his flight; while the small bird cuts the air without resistance, and needs no outward furtherance of her motion. It is no otherwise with the souls of men in flying up to their heaven. Some are hindered by those powers which would seem helps to their soaring up thither: great wit, deep judgment, quick apprehension, send about men with no small labour, for the recovery of their own incumbrance; while the good affections of plain and simple souls raise them up immediately to the fruition of God. Why should we be proud of that which may slacken our way to glory? Why should we be disheartened with the small measure of that, the very want whereof may (as the heart may be affected) facilitate our way to happiness?

(Salter.)

The worth of heaven

Deteriorating influence of riches

Far beyond the treasures of Egypt, which yet is called Rahab because of the riches, power, and pride thereof. Oh! get a patriarch's eye to see the wealth and worth of heaven, and then we shall soon make Moses's choice. In the year of grace 759, certain Persian magicians fell into that madness, that they persuaded themselves and sundry, others that if they sold all they had and gave it to the poor, and then afterwards threw themselves naked from off the walls into the river, they should presently be admitted into heaven. Many were cast away by this mad enterprise. How much better (if without superstition and opinion of merit) Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, who being asked by certain ambassadors that came to his court what hounds he had, for they desired to see them, showed them next day a pack of poor people feeding at his table, and said, "These are the hounds wherewith I hunt after heaven."

(John Trapp.)

F. W. Robertson, M. A.

Many a Christian do you find among the rich and the titled, who, as a less encumbered man, might have been a resolute soldier of the cross; but he is now only a realization of the old Pagan fable — a spiritual giant buried under a mountain of gold. Oh! many, many such we meet in our higher classes, pining with a nameless want, pressed by a heavy sense of the weariness of existence, strengthless in the midst of affluence, and incapable even of tasting the profusion of comfort which is heaped around them.

(F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

The danger and misery of self-deception

E. Cooper.

I. THE STATE AND CHARACTER OF THE PERSON WHO HERE ADDRESSES THE LORD.

1. We discover many circumstances which are calculated at first sight to impress us with very favourable sentiments of his state and character. He was young; engaging manners; amiable disposition. He exhibits a pleasing combination of many attractive qualities.

2. How inadequate his conception of the corruption of his own heart. What "good" thing can he do?

3. The defective views which he entertains of his own guilt.

4. He is not better acquainted with the secret bias of his affections than with his depravity and guilt.

II. THE CONDUCT OF OUR LORD ON THIS OCCASION.

1. He does not promote the self-deception and thus augment the danger. He does not compliment the young man on his moral attainments. He acts the part of a true Physician and Friend; palliatives will only increase the disorder.

2. Compassionate regard.

3. Admirably suited to the peculiar circumstances of his case. Christ mentions the law as a corrective to his pride and self-sufficiency.

4. Eminently calculated to prove in the highest degree beneficial to his most important interests.

(1)The misery of a state of self-deception.

(2)That in removing the specious covering which self-deceit imposes, and in disclosing the sinner to himself, consists one important part of the duty of a minister.

(3)Reflect on that disposition of heart which Christ requires of His people. Follow Me.

(E. Cooper.)

The Christian's life-long work after confirmation

J. H. Norton, D. D.

"What lack I yet?"

1. A thorough devotion to God's service.

2. A spirit of prayer.

3. A due appreciation of the work that God has appointed you to do.

4. You may lack patience.

5. You require to be incited to perseverance.

(J. H. Norton, D. D.)

The great question answered

J. W. Holt.

The path a soul treads when it comes to Christ is one of beauty. To come to Jesus is a noble and manly act. It is a soul drawn by the good; rising above sinful forces which have enslaved it; of special interest to see the young come to Christ. The conditions necessary to such an approach are illustrated in the young man —

1. He believed that the character of this life determines that to come.

2. He believed that obedience to God was the first principle of religion.

3. He desired to exhaust his powers in perfecting his character.

4. He had faith that Christ would show him the way of salvation. "What lack I yet?"

I. SELF-RENUNCIATION. "Sell that thou hast." This embraces a recognition of the supreme right of God over the soul. God gave all; this leads to an abandonment of selfish pursuits. Why religion makes this demand.

1. Selfishness is deceitful and delusive; it does not see man's real interests; it does not comprehend the Divine relations of man;it looks only at things seen.

2. Selfishness and self-love dwarf manhood; narrow the thought and corrupt the affections; they shut out noble sentiment which leads men to deeds of daring.

3. There must be this self-abandonment to allow a higher ideal of life to possess the soul. That man who is full of himself can contain nothing beside. He must forget himself who would live after the pattern shown him on the mount.

II. Religion demands CHRIST CONSECRATION.

1. Supreme affection for Christ. The heart must be first given to Him.

2. The purposes of the heart must be turned to Christ's cause.

3. The influence must be for God.

4. Human passions must be at God's disposal. Is the demand too rigorous, and does it embrace too much?It may encourage us to yield full submission to call to mind a few precious facts.

1. It assimilates us to a likeness of Christ. His soul exceeded all bounds and barriers, and poured out its life an immortal benediction upon His enemies. The widowed mother, whose midnight toil earns bread and raiment for her darling ones, is embalmed in poetry and song; the artist weaves a crown of glory" about her brow. But such labour and consecration is yet only that of a true heart and human impulses. But he who is consecrated to Christ is Godlike.

2. It brings peace to the heart. Men who are vacillating are unhappy. No soul rests so perfectly at ease as that one which has its home on God's altar.

3. It centralizes and makes the man strong. Scattered men are weak. A consecrated man is a felt man.

4. It enlivens and sets the life on fire. Men go to sleep and are frozen, as the fairy city celebrated in story. God breathes on the powers of the man consecrated; he is set on fire by the breath of Jehovah. Such a life will have given back to it from God, in its new realm, a better being. The curtains are now withdrawing. See, yonder the field is fairer and the sward is all green! There that life runs on and on and on for ever! It gathers to itself all that was of possible value on earth in the years of its pilgrimage, and, having yielded obedience to the conditions of its noble being, enters upon that higher life of love and joy for which it has been fitted by a faithful stewardship.

(J. W. Holt.)

Christ and good people

E. Dryander, D. D.

The gospel indicates three particulars in regard to their mutual relations.

I. THERE IS A POINT WHICH ATTRACTS THEM TO EACH OTHER. A noble young man; although surrounded by great wealth, he has not yielded himself to youthful frivolities, but has kept his spirit intent on higher aims than earthly qualifications. He is modest enough to be conscious of imperfection, and to make inquiry where there is an opportunity to learn. He retains enthusiasm, and the object of his enthusiasm is no inferior one. Such people must feel the attraction of the person of Jesus Christ. They love the good, and Christ is the good One. All their ideals are realized in Jesus. The rich young man felt this. But this attraction was mutual. Jesus came to seek the lost and to save the sinner; much more would the purity of this naturally noble heart receive His recognition. Neither is this mutual attraction for a moment merely; the attraction remains, though the discipline required is hard to understand; an inner impulse draws us to Him.

II. THERE IS A POINT WHICH SEPARATES THEM FROM EACH OTHER. At the very point where the Lord exerts the strongest power of attraction upon the naturally noble, their separation begins. It is a necessity of the case. Our Lord's word about the "good," and the mention of the commandments, had been designed to awaken distrust of self. Then comes the unheard-of demand, "Sell all," etc. He was touched in his heart's core. Christ exposes the point in which this good person was not good. Christ wants complete persons for His followers; it takes a complete person to win the prize of eternal life. If you want to be perfect you must renounce the secret reservations you oppose to the rigour of the Divine commands, put away the lusts which hamper the inner man. Renew your heart; put a new object in its centre. But for the sake of one thing you will turn away from your Saviour, in spite of all your noble efforts and ideal endowments.

III. THIS SEPARATION MUST BE REALIZED IN ORDER TRULY TO FIND THE LORD. When the physician performs an operation, it is because he wants to heal; and when our Lord seems to discourage nearer approach it is because He wants to deepen the reason for it, so that after they unite nothing shall be able to separate them. Hence we believe this young man's separation was not final. He will return, no longer fiery and with a surplus of power; for with God all things are possible. It was necessary that he should be impressed with the requirements of Christ, for as long as he can say, "All these things have I kept," a Redeemer is superfluous — a Moses or a Socrates would suffice. But when he learns to despair of his own strength, then he arrives before the gate of salvation and stretches imploring hands for a Redeemer. Therefore Christ first destroys this young man's merit; and this is the more difficult from his high virtue. In the light of Jesus little sins becomes great. To sacrifice for Him for love is to lose nothing. His yoke is easy.

(E. Dryander, D. D.)

"What lack I yet

The centred principle of character

This young man was hungry for improvement; that was all right. But there were other things for which he had a stronger hunger. Morality is the endeavour according to a man's power to obey laws, and I will divide moralities into five different kinds.

1. We call that physical morality which consists in the knowledge of men, and of those physical laws which surround them. Thus a man is immoral who violates law in eating and drinking and sleeping.

2. Next is social morality. Men are obliged to obey those laws which connect them with their fellow men; also as members of the household; as neighbours.

3. Next comes civil morality. Men are organized into states and nations.

4. Business morality.What is the relation of obedience in these different spheres to the nature and character of men?

1. All these observances are external. They are not in their nature internal at all. They leave out entirely the vital question of character. A man may be obedient to physical law, and yet be proud. Man is a creature of two worlds; so that when he is called to the other sphere the physical elements which he has accumulated here drop off. The spiritual only he carries with him.

2. This lower morality leaves out of view the higher human relations to God. A man may be an atheist and yet good in lower respects; but it is not fair to measure his genial qualities by his atheism as he has been brought up amidst Christian influences. A man has an immortal self as distinguished from his physical, social, and civil self; what about that part of him which is to live for ever? Are there no laws higher than those which belong to secular affairs, which apply to the higher reason and the moral sense. Are there no laws for faith, imagination in its dealings with religion, which connect a man with the invisible, universal, and infinite? Is there no morality which reaches beyond the earthly sphere? Morality is not complete without religion. There are practical uses in the inferior forms of morality; from them we learn the typical forms of the higher religion. "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar," etc. The lower moralities are schools, as it were; it is a great preparation for religion. Generally speaking the higher you go the more difficult is the achievement. Few men are competent to be eminent artists. In realizing the higher conceptions of religion there are inherent difficulties: but some make it harder than they need. The sun may shine on a slate roof for ever, and yet the garret beneath it may be dark; but make the roof of glass and the sun Will shine through. Let your higher life have the best care.

(H. W. Beecher.)

Selfishness may be associated with many virtues

There are multitudes of men who live moral lives, generous lives, lives that are good in a thousand respects; but it does not come to this, that their whole being is centred in God and spiritual things. It is centred, rather, in the possession of wealth.

(H. W. Beecher.)

Morality not to be despised

I remember watching, last summer, spiders that burrowed in the crevicess of a trellis where the wind had borne much dust. I noticed that the hole where they lay lurking looked dark and ugly. I also noticed, as I sat one day watching, a vagrant spider taking a morning glory, in full blossom, and spin his web over the mouth of it. And there never was a prettier nest in this world — a nest more richly gemmed with beauty — than this was. But, after all, it was the same spider, whether he lay in the dark hole at the corner of the trellis, or in the blossom of that exquisite flower. Now, selfishness may weave its web in the dusky places, or in the hideous-looking recesses of a man's disposition, or about the mouths and graces of sweet affections; but it is the same selfishness after all. The place is changed, and the appearance of the surroundings is changed, but the spider is not changed. So, the point to be remembered is. that in every man there is a centre around about which his life really swings. There is a balance-point, and it preponderates one way or the other. The great influences of life weigh down toward the flesh, or else they go toward the spiritual. You may change the circumstances of a man's life, and it may be modified one way or the other; but after all there is a predominant force in his character, and that controls all the minor forces.

(H. W. Beecher.)

Again, a selfish-centred man, clothing himself with all manner of Christian graces and aspirations, is not to be condemned as if these graces and aspirations were of no account. Here is a point where ministers have trouble in preaching to men. When we see men embowered under external moralities, and attempt to teach that morality is not enough, the impression arises that we undervalue morals. I do not undervalue morals any more than the taxcollector undervalues a hundred dollars, when I go to pay my taxes, and offer him that amount, when my bill is five hundred. He says: "I will not take it. It is not enough." He does not despise the hundred dollars. He merely says: "You must put more with it." And I do net despise morality because I say that it does not rise high enough. It is good as far up as it goes. So is a grape-vine good as far up as it goes, when it is two or three feet high: but it does not arrive at what it was planted for until it reaches that point where it has blossoms and clusters. It is the cluster that determines its value.

(H. W. Beecher.)

Refined selfishness

The need of an inner spiritual change

A man may love poetry and music, and have generous impulses which draw him toward a higher range of life; but after all, it is only a polished form of selfishness, or selfness that is manifesting itself in him. It is self that is at the bottom. I do not say that it is not better that a man should be refinedly selfish than coarsely selfish. It is a great deal better. It is better that man should be intellectually selfish than coarsely selfish. It makes social intercourse easier. It makes it easier for men to get along with each other. And if the centre of a man's disposition is selfish, and at the same time he has aspirations and refinements, and generosities and kindnesses, I do not say that he is no better for having these things: I say that as a member of society he is a great deal better. He energizes society. He adds something to those elements which take away attrition and harshness and rudeness from society. But he is not inwardly better; for nothing makes a man better within until the centre of his life and character are changed. Every blossom that you put upon a man who is radically selfish, and is going to be selfish, the worse you make it for him. The prettier you make a man's selfishness, the more music there is that accompanies it, the more flowers there are that decorate it, the more balm there is along with it, the more sunlight there is shed upon it, the more it is painted with glowing colours, the better is it for society; but the worse it is for him, because these things delude; because they are satisfying; because they bide the mischief; because they do not let him see what an unforgiveable and what a demoralizing quality selfishness is.

(H. W. Beecher.)

Religion more than an outward addition

What is that change? It does not consist in doing a few more things, or in adding a few more excellences, as the young man thought it did. "Good Master, what new thing shall I do? What new prayer shall I say? What extra morality shall I take on? What other charities and bounties shall I bestow for man's relief? I should be glad to add to my stock of excellences." That was the purport of the young man's inquiry. The Master said to him, in substance: "Your whole character is wrapped up in your position. You are rich, you have large estates, and you know it. and you stand centred in them. And now, with this centre, you want to add various excellences. Go sell all these, give them away, and take up)our cross and follow Me." That brought him to a decision instantly. Choosing between the higher and the lower, he took the lower, and went away sad and grieved. And Christ everywhere brought men to this choice. If you are to be Christians, Christianity does not mean having some few things on a selfish basis. You must change the foundation of your life. You must pass over from the animal, up from the lower, away from the predominantly self-seeking life that is in all of us by nature. You must come into the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of love. Beneficent love, love for others, and not for yourself, must be the predominant, the governing tendency.

(H. W. Beecher.)

The spiritual must supplant the physical life

Being possessed of all that could gratify his senses, he did not mean to be over-indulgent in it, but he did not want to give it up. Being in this position, he wanted, not to exchange it for anything else, but simply to have sprouting up around about him, over-arching him, and embowering him, flowers of spiritual and poetical aspirations, and all manner of Divine feelings, so that he should have both things — his feet rooted in this earth, and his head placed in the other life. He wanted to take this world first, and then superadd the kingdom of God as a polish to it. He wanted all spiritual excellence to sit, as it were, in the clouds above him, like an orchestra, and play sweet music to him, while he sat below, on a level with the earth, sensuous, and indulging himself selfishly.

(H. W. Beecher.)

Men have wanted, in every age, to have both worlds — a thing which Christ said was impossible. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Our Saviour taught this young man that the spiritual life must supplant the physical life. The two can co-exist; but the spiritual life must be in the ascendency, and must control the lower physical life. Our Saviour taught all the way through His life that spirituality cannot be simply the complement of secularity. It cannot be a parasite growing on the boughs of worldly prosperity. If a man is to have the kingdom of God, he must make that first, and that must be supreme. Or, to change it to a more psychological statement, if a man is to be truly a Christian, his spiritual nature must predominate and bear rule over everything else that is in him. You cannot have the temporal, lower nature strongest, and then expect the spiritual nature to please it and play down to it. And yet, that is what men are attempting to bring about everywhere. Every person has some dominant point. There is no uncentred character anywhere. There is a point in every man's character which rules, and to which everything is brought for comparison and settlement. This point often seems to shift and change; but, after all, there is some point in a man's character which you may say is the dominant point, and before which all things above it and below it have to come into judgment. It is this that gives character to a man, and determines whether he is high or low, good or bad.

Religious impressions soon shaken off

The price of a great ambition

After a shower in the night, if you go out in the morning, it is scarcely safe for you to go near a bush or a tree, because if you touch it, there will rain down such multitudes of drops on you. I sometimes think this church is like a tree that has stood out in the open air, and collected the dew. Every leaf is covered with it. If you shake the tree, down comes a shower of drops. I see you moved to tears every Sunday. I know that you follow and enjoy the service of prayer and of song and of preaching. You have much deep religious feeling, and a great deal of thought. The pews are full of young men and young women who are going to Christ and saying: "Master, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" And Christ says, by me, to-day, to every one of you, "It is not adding one good thing to another that you need. but that you should rise from the centre of selfishness, and go over to the centre of true Divine benevolence, by the power of the Holy Ghost, without which power no man can rise to the higher level."

(H. W. Beecher.)

J. W. Thew.

Yours is a great ambition, and, withal, a very noble ambition: are you prepared to pay the price for your great ambition? You are a man of the very finest impulses, but you live in a fine house and know nothing of hardship, and while these things may do for your old life, the new to which you aspire demands sacrifice and surrender. Sell up all, and let us know how much is due to an impulsive temperament and how much to inherent nobility. If it be due to that no change of circumstances will matter. It was a Spartan-like call to duty, but did he not look, like a Spartan youth, equal to it?

(J. W. Thew.)

Nobility worthy of the highest culture

J. W. Thew.

I apprehend that here lay the chief reason of our Saviour's great demand upon him. Is it not precisely because he is so good that that demand is so great? Is it venturesome to say the Master would not have made such a demand upon an inferior mind to his? That was not simply because, being a young man, he was better able to bear it: it was because, standing already, as he does, so high, occupying such a vantage ground — shall I put it this way — the Master's ambitions are fired, He sees him on such a level, and He would have him, at one grand stride, take the highest level of all. As when you have a lad at school of more than ordinary promise, you keep him longer there, you say the lad shows signs of genius, and the opportunity of becoming a genius shall not be wanting. Here are signs of uncommon goodness and greatness, and the opportunity should be afforded for accomplishing good. This view is borne out by the story. "Sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor," is not given in answer to the question, "What good thing shall I do?" but in answer to the question, "What lack I yet?" It is not, "If thou wouldst be saved, sell all that thou hast;" it is, "If thou wouldst be perfect." It is not merely a question of eternal life, but of eternal distinction. It is not a mere matter of getting through the curriculum, but of getting through it with honours.

(J. W. Thew.)

The whole surrender

W. I. Keay.

I. THERE IS A CERTAIN SPURIOUS SORT OF RELIGION WHICH BECAUSE IT IS NOT COMPLETE (OR PERFECT) IS USELESS. A vessel may look very well, but if it have a hole in the bottom, it will hold nothing — useless for want of being perfect.

II. THE WHOLE SURRENDER. The decisive act which consecrates all to the kingdom: — MUST BE DONE BY THE MAN HIMSELF. Not even God can do it for you. It was useless for Christ to say "Follow Me" as He was, for his body only could have followed, his anxieties would still have been with his possessions. It was also a prudent provision against approaching persecution.

III. How CAN I GO AND SELL? By a full consecration to God. Like the whole burnt-offering, every portion must be consumed on the altar.

IV. IT IS AN AWFUL CONSIDERATION THAT THE WORD OF LIFE ITSELF IS POWERLESS TO PERSUADE A COVETOUS WILL,

(W. I. Keay.)

On being right in the main

J. Parker, D. D.

1. He displayed a degree of moral earnestness.

2. He employed the language of veneration.

3. He was well instructed in Biblical ethics.

4. He was inordinately attached to worldly possessions.Christ's conduct showed:

1. That He compels men to look at the logical consequences of their own admissions.

2. That personal regard may be entertained where full moral approbation cannot be expressed.

I. THE NECESSARY LIMITATIONS OF THE MOST CAREFUL RELIGIOUS TRAINING.

II. THAT THE FINAL ATTAINMENT OF EDUCATION IS THE CONQUEST OF THE HEART.

1. That Christ-following involves self-abnegation.

2. That Christ-following must be the expression of the soul's supreme love.

3. That Christ-following means self-giving.

III. THAT LACK OF ONE THING MAY BE LACK OF EVERYTHING.

IV. THAT THE SINCERITY OF MEN MUST BE TESTED ACCORDING TO THEIR PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES. What is a test to one man may be no test to another. A man must be prepared to surrender what he values most.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

The lack of one thing the lack of all

J. Parker, D. D.

The garden is beautifully laid out: the straight lines and the curves are exact; the terraces are arranged with artistic taste; but no seed is sown, — and the summer says, "One thing thou lackest." The machinery is perfect: cylinder, piston, valve, are in excellent order; no flaw is in the wheel, no obstruction in the flue; finer engine never stood on the iron way; everything is there but steam, — and the intending traveller says, "One thing thou lackest." The watch has a golden case, the dial is exquisitely traced and figured, the hands are delicate and well-fixed; everything is there but the mainspring — and he who inquires the time says, "One thing thou lackest."

(J. Parker, D. D.)

Sins as great possessions

J. Donate.

There are sins so rooted, so riveted in men, so incorporated, so consubstantiated in the soul, by habitual custom, as that those sins have contracted the nature of ancient possessions. As men call manners by their names, so sins have taken names from men, and from places; Simon Magus gave the name to a sin, so did Gehazi, and Sodom did so. There are sins that run in names, in families, in blood; hereditary sins, entailed sins; and men do almost prove their " gentry " by those sins, and are scarcely believed to be rightly borne, if they have not those sins. These are great possessions, and men do much more easily part with Christ than with these sins. But then there are less sins, light sins, vanities; and yet even these come to possess us, and separate us from Christ. How many men neglect this ordinary means of their salvation, the coming to these exercises, not because their undoing lies on it, or their discountenancing, but merely out of levity, of vanity, of nothing, they know not what to do else, and yet do not this. You hear of one man that was drowned in a vessel of wine, but how many thousands ill ordinary water! And he was no more drowned in that precious liquor than the)-in that common water. A gad of steel does no more choke a man than a feather or a hair. Men perish with whispering sins, nay with silent sins, sins that never tell the conscience they are sins, as often as with crying sins. And in hell there shall meet as many men that never thought what was sin, as that spent all their thoughts in compassing sin; as many who, in a slack inconsideration, never cast a thought upon that place, as that by searing their conscience, overcame the sense and fear of that place. Great sins are great possessions, but levities and vanities possess us too; and men had rather part with Christ than with any possessions.

(J. Donate.)

Estimate of the ruler

A. L. R. Foote.

He was not a spiritual man; there was really nothing spiritually good and loveable in him: nothing truly gracious, as a Puritan divine would call it. He was but a natural man after all — a beautiful specimen of the natural man, as Dr. Chalmers said of some one, but still only a natural man. Nature had indeed done much for him, all it could for him; it had endowed him with riches, power, a high moral nature, an amiable, warm, frank. loving, loveable disposition. See here what nature can do; she can raise her favourites very high in the scale of humanity, so as to compel the homage even of the Saviour's love and admiration. See here what nature cannot do; she cannot carry any one across the boundary that separates the kingdom of God from the world; she can bring him to the very threshold, but there she leaves him; there she is powerless; there her weakness is made known.

(A. L. R. Foote.)

Giving up all for Christ

J. B. Brown.

The words are terribly clear, sharp, and stern. heard them once. Straying into a church, they were in the lesson for the day which was read. The words seized on his conscience; they haunted him, they tormented him. He sold everything but the bare garment which clothed him. Still the obedience seemed to fall short of the Saviour's command. So he stripped himself even of his poor raiment; and they clothed him there in the church, for very shame, in a peasant's tunic, which he wore on till death.

(J. B. Brown.)

Human perfectibility

A. L. R. Foote.

It is as if our Lord had said, "Thou aimest at perfection. and on the footing of this thou art looking for eternal life; thou indulgest the dream of human perfectibility. Well, I will put thee here to the test: sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor. What! dost thou hesitate? What, then, becomes of thy favourite doctrine of perfectionism? Ah! thy fond idol is dashed to pieces, and by thine own hand, too; and wilt thou still indulge in such a golden dream? Is this all the length thy doctrine of human perfectibility can carry thee?" If — an important qualification this — if thou wouldst be perfect! Who can fail to see a delicate yet severe irony here? The Saviour is not teaching the doctrine of perfection in any sense, but is trying to wean him from a theory which was deeply rooted in his mind, and which was exercising so prejudicial an influence over him.

(A. L. R. Foote.)

Possessions that possess

Dr. Dotage.

Every man hath some such possessions as possess him, some such affections as weigh down Christ Jesus, and separate him from Him, rather than from those affections, those possessions.

(Dr. Dotage.)

Not wise to go from God

Dr. Dotage.

That no man that ever went from Him went by good way or came to good end. There is none good but God; there is centrical, visceral, gremial gold, goodness in the root, in the tree of goodness, God.

(Dr. Dotage.)

The regulation of conduct

Dr. Parker.

Conduct may be regulated in two ways: —

1. By the hand.

2. By the heart: as with a watch so with the life. The face of the watch may be made to represent the truth by simply altering the hands, or it may be corrected by touching the interior works. Here is a young man who says, "What shall I do to make my watch tell the hour accurately?" He is answered, "Thou knowest the great clocks by which time is kept in the city." He replies, "All these have I observed." He is then told to open his watch and correct the regulator. So is it with human life: many seek to correct it by the outside; they search for models, they inquire for foot-prints; but they neglect the life-spring within, and consequently never get beyond the affectation of artificialism, or the stiffness of Pharisaic conceit.

(Dr. Parker.)

But how is this spiritual lack to be supplied

W. G. T. Shedd, D. D.

How is this hiatus in human character to be filled up? How shall the fountain of holy and filial affection towards God be made to gush up into everlasting life, within your now unloving and hostile heart? There is no answer to this question of questions, but in the person and work of the Holy Ghost. If God shall shed abroad His love in your heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto you, you will know the blessedness of a new affection, and will be able to say with Peter, "Thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee." You are shut up to this method and this influence. To generate within yourself this new spiritual emotion which you have never yet felt is utterly impossible. Yet you must get it, or religion is impossible, and immortal life is impossible.

(W. G. T. Shedd, D. D.)

The remorse occasioned by enlightened reason on the rejec

R. South, D. D.

tion of Christ: — There is no misery comparable to that which follows after a near access to happiness; nor any sorrow so quick and pungent as that which succeeds a preconceived, but disappointed joy. Neither was the proposal unreasonable, because usually practised, even by the most worldly, it being frequent with men to sell an estate in one place to buy another in a more convenient. We may observe in this passage these four things considerable —

1. The person making the address to Christ, who was one whose reason was enlightened to a solicitous consideration of his estate in another world.

2. The thing sought for in this address, viz., eternal life.

3. The condition upon which it was proposed, and upon which refused; viz., the sale and relinquishment of his temporal estate.

4. His behaviour upon this refusal. He that deliberately parts with Christ, though for the greatest and most suitable worldly enjoyment, if but his natural reason is awakened, does it with much secret sting and remorse.

I. I SHALL SHOW WHENCE IT IS THAT A MAN ACTUATED BY AN ENLIGHTENED REASON FINDS SUCH RELUCTANCY AND REGRET UPON HIS REJECTION OF CHRIST. It may proceed from these causes —

1. The first may be taken from the nature of conscience, that is apt to recoil upon any error, either in our actions or our choice. After a good action, though never so difficult, so grim, and unpleasant in the onset, yet what a lightsome, refreshing complacency does it leave upon the mind! What a fragrancy, what a cheerfulness, upon the spirits! So, on the contrary, an action morally evil and irregular. A man no sooner displeases God but he presently displeases himself. No sooner is the action past but conscience makes the report. As soon as David cut off a piece of Saul's robe how quickly did his heart smite him! An impure heart, like a foul gun, never vents itself in any sinful commissions but it recoils. It is impossible to sequester and divide sin from sorrow. That which defiles will as certainly disturb the soul. As when mud and filth is cast into a pure fountain, it is not so much said to pollute, as to trouble the waters. And. do you think that this young man had not the experience of this? He departed indeed, but it was sorrowful, his conscience ringing him many sad peals within, hitting him in the teeth with the murder of his soul; that he had foolishly and irrationally bartered away eternity for a trifle, and lost a never-returning opportunity, in its improvement invaluable, and in its refusal irrecoverable.

2. The second cause of this trouble and reluctancy that men find in the very instant of their rejecting Christ is taken from the usual course of God's judicial proceeding in this matter, which is to clarify the eye of reason to a clearer sight of the beauties and excellences of Christ in the very moment and critical instant of his departure. God can affect it with a sudden, instantaneous view of a good. It is like a sudden lightning that flashes in the face, but alters not the complexion; it is rather vision than persuasion; it struck his apprehension, but never changed his resolution. This is another cause that whets the sting, that enhances the vexation, and sends him away sorrowful.

3. The third and last cause of the anxiety that a sinner feels upon his relinquishment of Christ, if his reason be enlightened, is because there is that in Christ and in the gospel, even as they stand in opposition to the best of such enjoyments, that answers the most natural and generous discourses of reason. For the proof of which I shall produce two known principles of reason into which the most severe, harsh, and mortifying commands of the gospel are by clear and genuine consequence resolved.(1) The first is that the greatest calamity is to be endured rather than the least sin to be committed.(2) A second principle is this, that a less good is to be forsaken for a greater — an aphorism attested to by the natural, untaught, universal judgment of reason. Now to reduce this principle to the case in hand we are to demonstrate two things. 1st. That the good promised by our Saviour to the young man was really greater than that which was to be forsaken for it. Christ opposed eternal life to the young man's possessions, and what comparison is there between these upon terms of bare reason? 2nd. The second thing to be demonstrated is that the good promised by our Saviour was not only greater in itself, but also proposed as such with sufficient clearness of evidence, and upon sure, undeniable grounds.

II. To show THE CAUSES THAT, NOTWITHSTANDING ALL THIS REMORSE OF CONSCIENCE, THE SOUL IS NOT BROUGHT IN THE ISSUE TO REJECT AND SHAKE HANDS WITH CHRIST.

1. The first cause is from this, that the perceptions of sense overbear the discourses of reason. The young man desired eternal life; but he had no notion of the pleasure of it, what kind of thing it was; but he knew and found the sweetness of an estate, so that the sensible impressions of this quickly overcame and swallowed up the weak and languid conceptions that he had of the other.

2. The second cause or reason of this final rejection of Christ is from the prevailing opposition of some corrupt affection, which being predominant in the soul, commands the will and blears the eye of the judgment, showing it all things in its own colour by a false and partial representation. Come to the sensual and voluptuous person and convince him that there is a necessity of his bidding farewell to all inordinate pleasure in order to his future happiness; perhaps you gain his reason, and in some measure insinuate into his will; but then his sensual desire interposes and outvotes and unravels all his convictions. As when by much ado a vessel is forced and rowed some pretty way contrary to the tide, presently a gust of wind comes and beats it further back than it was before.

3. The third cause, inducing men to relinquish Christ contrary to the judgment of their conscience, is the force and tyranny of the custom of the world. And amongst other dissuasives from following Christ the young man could not but be assaulted with such as these: "What! part with all for a new notion of another world? Sell land to buy hope, be preached out of my estate, and worded out of such fair farms and rich possessions? " He would do like the world though he perished with it; swim with the stream, though he was drowned in it; rather go sociably to hell than in the uncomfortable solitude of precise singularity to heaven — the jollity of the company made him overlook the broadness and danger of the way. Now the inferences and deductions from the words thus discussed are these:(1) We gather hence the great criterion and art of trying our sincerity, which is by the test of such precepts as directly reach our peculiar corruptions.(2) The issue of the whole action in the young man's not closing with Christ's proposals about eternal life, and his sorrowful departure thereupon, lays before us a full account of that misery which attends a final dereliction of Christ.(a) Of that which is eternal.(b) But it bereaves even of temporal happiness also, even that which it promises, and which only it designs, and for the retaining of which it brings a man to part with his hopes of that which is future and eternal.

(R. South, D. D.)

Man ruled by his affections

R. South, D. D., R. South, D. D.

In sum, the economy of the soul in this case is like a public council sitting under an armed force; let them consult and vote what they will, yet they must act as the army and the tumult will have them. In this sense every soldier is a commander. In like manner, let both the judgment and the will be for Christ, yet the tumult of the affections will carry it; and when they cannot out-reason the conscience, they will out-cry it.

(R. South, D. D.)If Christ ever wins the fort of the soul, the conquest must begin here: for the understanding and will seem to be like a castle or fortified place; there is strength indeed in them, but the affections are the soldiers who manage those holds, the opposition is from these: and if the soldiers surrender, the place itself, though never so strong, cannot resist.

(R. South, D. D.)

The evil temper varied

R. South, D. D.

Now, as in a tree, it is the same sap and juice that spreads itself into all that variety of branches: some straight, some crooked, some of this figure, some of that: so it is the same stock and furniture of natural corruption that shoot forth into that great diversity of vices, that exert such different operations in different tempers. And as it is the grand office of judgment to separate and distinguish, and so to proportion its applications; so herein is the great spiritual art of a prudent ministry, first to learn a man's proper distemper, and then to encounter it by a peculiar and suitable address. Reprehensions that are promiscuous are always ineffectual.

(R. South, D. D.)

Sincerity tested

R. South, D. D., R. South, D. D.

Observe the excellent method that Christ took to convince this person. Had he tried him by a precept of temperance, chastity, or just dealing, He had never sounded the bottom of his heart: for the civility of his life would have afforded a fair and satisfactory reply to all these: but when He came close to him, and touched upon his heartstring, his beloved possessions, the man quickly shows himself, and discovers the temper of his spirit more by the love of one particular endeared sin, than by his forbearance of twenty, to which he stood indifferent.

(R. South, D. D.)Every man's sincerity is not to be tried in the same way. He that should conclude a man pious, because not covetous, would bring but a short argument; for perhaps he may be lustful or ambitious, and the stream be altogether as strong and violent, though it runs in a different channel.

(R. South, D. D.)

Sins of omission

Dr. Shedd.

When the archer shoots at the target, he as really fails to strike it if his arrow falls short of it, as when he shoots over and beyond it.

(Dr. Shedd.)

Honour thy father and thy mother.

Matthew 19:19

Honouring parents

A. Barnes, D. D.

Implies:

I. OBEDIENCE. Keep their commands (Colossians 3:20; Ephesians 6:1-3).

II. RESPECT, reverence.

III. REGARD THEIR OPINIONS. Do not despise them or ridicule them.

IV. RESPECT THEIR HABITS. May be different from ours, antiquated, etc.

V. PROVIDE FOR THEM. Deny ourselves to promote their welfare.

(A. Barnes, D. D.)

The duties of children

W. E. Channing, D. D.

I. You are required to view and treat your parents with RESPECT. Nothing is more unbecoming in you, nothing will render you more unpleasant in the eyes of others, than forward or contemptuous conduct towards your parents.

II. You should be GRATEFUL to your parents. Consider how much you owe them — every comfort, etc.

III. You must make it your study to OBEY your parents, to do what they command, and to do it cheerfully.

IV. Do all in your power to ASSIST AND OBLIGE your parents. You can very soon make some return for the kindness you receive.

V. Place your UNRESERVED CONFIDENCE in them. Be honest, sincere, and open-hearted.

VI. Attend seriously to their INSTRUCTIONS AND ADMONITIONS, and improve the advantages they afford you for becoming wise, useful, good, and happy for ever.

(W. E. Channing, D. D.)

And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Loving our neighbour

A. Barnes, D. D.

I. WHO IS OUR NEIGHBOUR?

II. THE DUTY OF LOVING OUR NEIGHBOUR.

1. This commandment evidently means — that we should not injure our neighbour in his person, property, or character; that we should seek to do him good; that in case of debt, difference, or debate, we should do what is right, regarding his interest as much as our own, that in order to benefit him we should practise self-denial, or do as we would wish him to do to us (Matthew 7:12).

2. It does not mean — that the love of ourselves, according to what we are, or according to truth, is improper; that I am to neglect my own business to take care of my neighbour's (1 Timothy 5:8; Titus 2:5).

(A. Barnes, D. D.)

Love thy neighbour

C. H. Spurgeon.

I. THE COMMAND.

1. Whom am I to love? Thy neighbour

(1)albeit that he be of a different religion;

(2)although he oppose thee in trade;

(3)though he offend thee with his sin.

2. What am I to do to my neighbour? It prohibits all rash temper. Then do not neglect him.

3. How we are to love our neighbour.

II. REASONS WHY WE SHOULD OBEY this command.

1. God commands it.

2. Selfishness itself would bid you love your neighbour. It is the short way to make yourself happy.

3. Because that will be the way to do good in the world.

4. The quiet of us all.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

Our neighbours

A gentleman once said to Dr. Skinner, who was asking aid for foreign missions, "I don't believe in foreign missions. I won't give anything except for home missions. I want what I give to benefit my neighbours." "Well," the doctor made reply, "whom do you regard as your neighbours? Why, those around me." "Do you mean those whose land joins yours? Yes." "Well," said Dr. Skinner, "how much land do you own? .... About five hundred acres," was the reply. "How far down do you own it?" inquired Dr. Skinner. "Why, I never thought of it before, but I suppose I am half way through? Exactly," said the doctor, "I suppose you do, and I want this money for the Chinese — the men whose land joins yours at the bottom." Every Christian should say in a higher sense than the heathen poet, "I am a man, and nothing human is foreign to me." To a believer in Christ all men are neighbours.

Selfness versus selfishness

Social evils not removed by outward means

1. Christ made change from selfishness to benevolence the very marrow of religion. Selfness is to become a mother and ministrant of true benevolence — "as thy self." He did not put His hand upon slavery, but if this principle could be secured all these evils would die away.

2. Religion, both in the individual and in the sects, as well as in theology, is to be tested by its power to develop benevolence.

3. All great schemes of reformation will fail which do not begin with releasing men from animal selfishness.

(H. W. Beecher.)

Social suffering arising from selfishness

Go out in early June, and with your scythe cut the May-weed that grows dense and malodorous along the sides of the road: and then let it come up again, not destroying root nor seed, simply cutting it off. That is Nihilism. It proposes to cut to the surface of the ground everything that has been developed out of human life and experience, but not to touch the root out of which they have selfishly and wrongfully developed. It leaves men just as they were, to destroy simply these accretions of oppression and wrong. Some good will be done, doubtless, in destroying multitudes of manners and customs, even by revolutionary evolutions — some good came from the red-hot ploughshare of the French Revolution; but, after all, as a philosophical method of correcting the evils of mankind and of the world, a child could have conceived something better than that. To destroy the outward forms of human society and to leave the inward causes of them, is to attempt to dry up a river, and let alone the springs from which it is fed. Nihilism is contemptible, except as a piteous exposition of men's suffering, and of their ignorance of how to remedy that suffering. It is not the king, it is not the prince, it is not the inexorable law; it is the vital selfishness of the individual and the collective heart, that makes the trouble in this world. It is the fact men treat each other as animals treat each other, and only to a limited degree have transformed self-seeking into form of benevolence toward others. Just in the proportion in which it is transformed men grow happier and happier in society, and the average condition is better.

(H. W. Beecher.)

The effective operation of the law of love in social life

The same is true of all the schemes of Fourier and Comte, and of all the social reconstructionists that are writing and planning to-day. They vitiate the result that they seek, by leaving out of consideration the prime factor of the mischiefs that they would exterminate. If a man takes a book that is being printed, and attempts to erase in each proof-sheet a misprinted or a blotted word, but does not correct the wrong types in the form, the errors will reproduce themselves just as fast as they are erased. All the forms of suffering in human society have causes that lie in the animal selfishness of the human race; and if you will correct them — except for a moment, as it were, making a temporary correction, others developing in the same way — you must teach men, being born again, how to make themselves the instruments, not of selfishness, but simply of benevolence and selfness. All the efforts which are, in our day, being made to do this by law — as if machinery would ever correct human nature — are ineffectual.

(H. W. Beecher.)

D. Jackson.

Faithful and uniform obedience to this royal law throughout the churches of Christ would. be of itself an evangelistic power, an aggressive spiritual energy far transcending all the revival meetings ever held. Just as the regular action of the tides does more to purify the ocean than the occasional storms that sweep over its surface, so would the constant operation of this law of love do for humanity more than the occasional excitements that sweep over the surface of society.

(D. Jackson.)

The ideal the true object of love

D. Jackson.

If my neighbour be an evil-living man, who is not subject to the law of Christ; or if he be a proud, overbearing man, caring only to further his own selfish interests, regardless how he may wound the feelings of others, and cause them to suffer wrong — if, I say, my neighbour be such a man, I cannot, and I ought not, it would be against the royal law, to love these things in him, just as it would be wrong to love them in myself.

(D. Jackson.)

The law of self-love

The hindrances and temptations of the rich

It is very dangerous for a man to care for himself, and not for anybody else; and it is even more dangerous for a man to expend himself on other persons, and neglect or care nothing for himself. The danger is as great, and, if possible, greater, when the law of self is paralyzed, than when the law of benevolence itself is paralyzed. These two laws must work under mutual restraint. They are antithetical. They are counterparts. They are complements the one of the other. To care for yourself is an indispensable pre-requisite of caring for anybody else. If this be so, then, first, to rear up children to be cared for, and not to learn to care for themselves, is to make them self-indulgent, soft, worthless. Secondly. Any method of charity which weakens or destroys self-reliance is not charitable, but is cruel. Thirdly. It is therefore dangerous to interfere with the law of suffering. Suffering is as beneficent as enjoying. Indeed suffering is better than enjoying under certain circumstances. If a man have a diseased brain, and the whole world to him sparkles with fantastic visions of pleasure, and if, in order to restore him to a healthful and normal condition, it is necessary to put a blister on the nape of his neck, then in his case surgery, with all its attendant suffering, is better than the pleasing sights and sounds that he sees and hears. Charity should be so directed as that it shall inspire men to avoid the reasons of suffering, and as that it shall make suffering, when it cannot be avoided, educate men to bear it till they can get out of it. An easy relief of suffering not only is unwise as it relates to humanity, but it is contrary to the fundamental principles on which the globe has been organized. This leads me to say, fourthly, that the social tendencies and theories which are beginning to be preached are demoralizing and dangerous, and to no other part of the community so much as to those who are seeking to better their condition by promulgating them.

(H. W. Beecher.)

That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven:

Matthew 19:23, 24

John Wesley.

I. HINDRANCES.

1. Riches tend to obscure faith; to make one trust in them, instead of in God.

2. They encourage their possessor to love the world, and to withhold his heart from God.

3. They exclude disinterested love and goodwill toward others.

4. They hinder humility. People dare not tell a rich man of his faults, so he seldom gets an opportunity of mending them.

5. They prevent meekness.

6. They make a man hard and unyielding, difficult to convince of what is true, unwilling to be persuaded, or to submit m any way to others.

II. TEMPTATIONS.

1. To atheism. With riches a man seems dependent on no one. He thinks himself his own master.

2. To idolatry. From the worship of no God there is an easy transition to, the worship of false gods. He who loves not the Creator will certainly love the creature, e.g., the gratification of the outward senses. Not necessarily gluttony and drunkenness, destroying the body. A moderate sensuality, a regular kind of epicurism will be quite enough to keep the soul dead to God and all true religion.

3. To the gratification of the imagination — beautiful houses, elegant furniture, curious pictures, delightful gardens. Innocent in themselves, how do all these things draw off the mind from more serious pursuits!

4. To self-inflation.

5. Pride.

6. Salt-will.

7. Contempt of inferiors.

8. Fretfulness and peevishness. A gentleman of large fortune, while we were seriously conversing, ordered a servant to throw some coals on the fire. As he did so, a puff of smoke came out, on which the gentleman threw himself back in his chair and cried out, "Oh, Mr. Wesley, these are the crosses which I meet with every day!" I could not help asking, "Pray, Sir John, are these the heaviest crosses you meet with!" Surely these crosses would not have fretted him so much if he had had only fifty pounds a year, instead of five thousand.

(John Wesley.)

Danger of riches

C. H. Spurgeon.

It is hard to carry a full cup with a steady hand. High places are dizzy places, and full many have fallen to their eternal rain through climbing aloft without having grace to look up. Trailing robes raise a dust, and gather upon themselves all sorts of filthiness, besides being subjected to needless wear and tear. A man may have so much of this world that he misses the next. His long robe may trip him up in the race for the heavenly prize, and he may fall a victim to the wealth he idolized. Alas, for the poor rich! Faring sumptuously every day, and yet full often strangers to that deep and peerless joy which belongs to those who, in the deep waters of poverty, find a boundless bliss in trusting God. When the rich are saved they should count it a miracle of grace, and feel great gratitude to Him who enables a camel to go through the eye of a needle, notwithstanding his hump.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

Beware of growing covetous

C. H. Spurgeon.

for of all sins this is one of the most insidious. It is like the silting up of a river. As the stream comes down from the land it brings with it sand and earth, and deposits all these at its mouth, so that by degrees, unless the conservators catch it carefully, it will block itself up, and leave no channel for ships of great burden. By daily deposit it imperceptibly creates a bar which is dangerous to navigation. Many a man when he begins to accumulate wealth commences at the same moment to ruin his soul; and the more he acquires, the more closely he blocks up his liberality, which is, so to speak, the very mouth of spiritual life. Instead of doing more for God, he does less; the more he saves, the more he wants; and the more he wants of this world, the less he cares for the world to come.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

Salvation easier for humble rank

Pope Adrian VI. said that nothing befell him more unhappy in all his life than that he had been the head of the Church and monarch of the Christian commonwealth. Another pope said that when he first entered into orders he had some good hopes of his salvation; when he became a cardinal he doubted it; but since he was made pope he almost despaired of it.

Small threads best for the needle's eye

The tendency of wealth to produce moral insensibility

Let rich men often ruminate this terrible text, and take heed. Let them untwist their cables, that is, their heart, by humiliation (James 1:10; James 5:1), till it be made like small threads, as it must be, before they can enter into the eye of a needle, that is, eternal life.

(John Trapp.)

Bishop H. C. Potter.

When we read history, whether it be the history of Dives in the parable, or of Shylock in the play, we see how hard wealth can make men — how it can contract their vision and dwarf their aspirations and extinguish their sympathies. Nay, when we read the lives of our fellow-men, as they are lived alongside of us, we see how wealth can benumb the conscience and brutalize the moral sense, so that a rich man's career shall remind you of nothing so much as those buccaneers of the Spanish main with whom might made right, and who knew no law but the law of triumphant audacity. When one notes these things and sees what a power there is in the possession of wealth to stimulate the instincts of cruelty and a petty revenge, and to extinguish those finer traits which make life sweet and sunny — above all, when one sees how riches rear a dome of brass over so many human lives, and ,hake heaven and Christ and the life to come as unlonged-for and unappreciated as would be a lock of a dead child's hair to a pawnbroker — then one can at least understand why Christ should pronounce the solemn words which are recorded here.

(Bishop H. C. Potter.)

The difficulties in the way of salvation for a rich man are

A. Barnes, D. D.

I. THAT RICHES ENGROSS THE AFFECTIONS.

II. MEN CONSIDER WEALTH AS THE CHIEF GOOD, and when this is obtained think they have gained all.

III. They are PROUD OF THEIR WEALTH, and are unwilling to be numbered with the poor and despised followers of Jesus.

IV. RICHES ENGROSS THE TIME, fill the mind with cares and anxieties, and leave little for God.

V. They OFTEN PRODUCE LUXURY, dissipation, and vice.

VI. IT IS DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN WEALTH WITHOUT SIN, avarice, covetousness, fraud, and oppression (1 Timothy 6:9, 10, 17; James 5:1-5; Luke 12:16-21; Luke 16:19-31). All these may be overcome. God can give grace to do it. Though to men it may appear impossible, yet it is easy for God (ver. 26).

(A. Barnes, D. D.)

The pride of wealth