trust, quarrelling over property, tyrannizing over men's consciences, giving precedence to the rich over the poor, and rivalling the rulers of this world in its cunning? Was it any use His calling men, and inviting them to carry His cross, if the only difference between the disciples of Christ and the children of this world be the profession of a creed which is divorced from obedience, and the practise of a Pharisaic holiness which stands rather in the washing of hands and the titheing of mint, than in a clean heart and the service of men.

ΧΙ

PRACTICAL OBEDIENCE THE CONDITION

IT

OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE

"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine."-St. John vii. 17.

T is startling to notice the class in the Jewish nation which was most perplexed by Jesus' teaching and the class which entered most kindly into His mind. As it happened, there was one audience which by its intellectual culture, its minute Biblical knowledge, its religious traditions, and its Church instincts, seemed to have been specially prepared for Jesus. And it also happened that He had another audience which, by its want of education, its ignorance of theology, its exclusion from the religious circle, and the burden of daily labour seemed to be incapacitated to receive His spiritual message. One would have predicted that the Scribes and Pharisees would have had an easy mastery of Jesus' doctrine, and that the common people would have

found it a foreign language; but it was the experts with all their advantages who failed, and the unlearned who succeeded in this new school. Although we are so accustomed to the Gospels, there are still times when one is utterly perplexed, because the religious circle of Jesus' day had not the remotest idea that He was the longexpected Messiah, or even that He was a perfectly convincing teacher of religion, but came to the conclusion that He was a dangerous heretic and a destroyer of faith. And one is also perplexed that the outside circle who were despised by the Pharisees and talked down to, just as outside people are judged and preached to by the religious circle to-day, should have responded to Jesus so quickly, and should have given Him such satisfaction. It was as if the recognized religious class of our day who address meetings, and ask people if they are converted, and talk of their neighbours as worldly, and are very keen about certain doctrines, should have denounced Jesus and persecuted Him when He came with His Sermon on the Mount, and His parables of the divine love, while a large number of quiet people who have never made any profession and have

never dared to consider themselves religious should have deeply appreciated Jesus and have become His faithful disciples. If you imagine this state of things you will understand how perplexing the situation is and must always be until we get its key.

Jesus Himself was not surprised, but declared that while there was no obstacle to the people understanding His doctrine, the Pharisees laboured under a hopeless disability. They considered it enough to judge Christ's words by the intellect, and did not feel it necessary to obey them in life, while the people who made no pretensions to expert knowledge forsook their sins, and so qualified themselves to receive Jesus' teaching. It was a question of method-how to understand -and since the Pharisees clung to their arid theology they made no progress, whilst the others accepted the ethics of Jesus and so attained. The Pharisees, notwithstanding their knowledge, which is not to be despised, failed to understand the evangel of Jesus, because, as He used to insist, they had the wrong temper of life. They received honour of men, contending for chief seats in the synagogue and upper places at feasts,

making much of traditional doctrine and social customs, being self-righteous about themselves and censorious about other people. The people, notwithstanding their ignorance, which is never to be made light of, received Christ's Gospel, because they had a humble idea of themselves, were penitent about their sins, did not stand at the corner of the streets offering public prayer, were anxious to do better and were willing to keep Christ's commandments. The Pharisees would not obey and so they could not know, the people did obey and so they came to know. It was a question of moral not intellectual disability; or, in other words, right living is the road in the spiritual world to true thinking.

As this is a very grave principle and has a most searching application, we ought to fix in our minds what exactly Jesus intended by His words when He speaks of knowing the doctrine and doing the will. By true thinking He does not mean being acquainted with the various dogmas which scientific religion has from time to time created and into whose mould the fluid idea. concerning spiritual truth has been run. Dogmas are the achievement of the intellect, and the