contrast. The striking contrasts between the Divine work in creating and in renewing are (a) In the one case there is the calling into being what had no existence before, whilst in the other there is the restoring an order and beauty that had been lost. (b) In the one case there is the absence of all obstruction, whilst in the other the hindrances are only overcome by Divine Sacrifice. Is not the deep and satisfying impression produced on our hearts by the declaration in this sentence this;-Christ's royalty is the pledge of human regeneration? The Saviour is not here a Suppliant struggling, but a King reigning. Man's future does not depend upon the uncertain destiny of a sword, but the triumphant sway of a sceptre. The Lamb slain is on the throne: the purposes of His sacrifice are certain of fulfilment. EDITOR. Matthew xv. 21-28. (For Sexagesima Sunday.) WHETHER we solve the difficulty that the conduct of Jesus here presents, by the supposition either that He was designedly testing the woman's faith, or that in His human experiences He "increased in wisdom" from this contact with her needs and faith, and, therefore, granted a blessing He did not at first intend to give, matters not for the view we now intend to take of the narrative. We regard it as a record of Persistent Faith, and notice L-PERSISTENT FAITH FOUND IN UNEXPECTED CIRCUMSTANCES. Tyre and Sidon were Pagan regions, yet there the Lord finds a faith He often sought in vain in Jerusalem, the home of sacred men, and the site of sacred buildings, and the shrine of sacred memories. How did this woman know about Jesus, or how did she become possessed with this faith? We cannot tell. But we know there are daily modern analogues of this case. For in regions, in classes, in families, where it would have been least expected, are there being discerned the signs of simple faith and of lofty consecration to God. Here is II. PERSISTENT FAITH SEVERELY TESTED. The faith of this heathenness, as St. Mark describing her religion meant to imply she was, had to undergo a severe testing. It is tested (1) By the silence of Jesus. "He answered her never a word." Can it be the ear of unwearying pity has grown heavy: that the lips of infinite tenderness are smitten dumb? If that fountain of love is sealed, where can any healing stream be sought? Whatever the cause of His silence, we can un D derstand how it must have shocked and stunned her. But her faith is also tested (2) By the conduct of the disciples. There is a strange want of chivalry in their harsh cry, "Send her away." And she must have felt, Can it be that this clamour of theirs is the interpretation of the strange unwonted silence of this Great Healer? Yet again her faith is tested (3) By the statement of some perplexing religious theories. Christ's words to the disciples plainly said He was not sent but to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel." And this limited, and shall we reverently say earlier, view of His is enunciated in her hearing. Then He repeats to her a proverb that till that hour seemed to be a maxim, that the bread was for the children, that is, that religion was for the Jew, not for the dogs, that is, not for the heathen. O bewildering words; how the broken-hearted mother must have been distracted by them. But her faith held fast, for we have III. PERSISTENT FAITH DEVELOPING THE WHOLE HUMAN CHARACTER. This woman endured Christ's silence, and withstood His discouraging word, because she had faith that God could and would help her, and that God was eminently (she probably did not know how wholly) in Jesus of Nazareth. This faith working in her did, as it always does, great things for the character. (1) It nerved her courage. (2) It intensified her reality in worship. (3) It expanded her conception of Divine provision and blessing. IV. PERSISTENT FAITH GLORIOUSLY BLESSED. (1) It is blessed in the commendation of Jesus. What a wreath of honour His gracious hand puts on this mother's worn brow, this believer's trustful forehead. (2) It is blessed in realizing its request. "Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." EDITOR. The Children of Light. indeed striking. The thought expressed by the apostle may be translated thus: ye Christians, children of light, sons of truth, be for society what light is for the material world. "FOR YE WERE SOMETIMES DARKNESS, BUT NOW YE ARE LIGHT IN THE LORD: WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT."-Eph. vi. 8. THESE words, addressed by the apostle to the converted Ephesians, are not exaggerated. The contrast they establish between their former state and their actual condition is I. LIGHT ILLUMINES. Let your life, in the first place, serve to illuminc. We are not all called to aid the cause of truth by our science or our eloquence, but we are all called to aid it by our life. We marvel sometimes at the slow progress of truth in the midst of humanity; and why does it advance so languidly? Is it not because our piety is so feeble; because there is such an immense distance between our convictions and our life? That the Christian life may be a light, it must be serious and real. That such may spread, it must become a part of our life, nay, life itself. So long as it remains petrified under the power of ideas, it resembles a motionless glacier whose contact produces a deadly chill. But let the warmth of life penetrate these ideas, let the ice melt under the influence of a burning sun, and immediately a river gushes forth whose salutary waters flowing through the plain bring with them wealth and activity. IL-LIGHT PURIFIES. Nothing is purer than light. It descends from heaven, and when it reaches our earth it touches all its impurities, but without blending with them or losing aught of its brightness. Not only does it ever remain pure, but it purifies all things. See that wretched hovel, that damp and obscure haunt, long deprived of the light of day, it seems as though a curse were attached to it; an unwholesome vegetation has found in it its congenial soil; it is filled with pestilential exhalations; it has become the abode of the most hideous creeping things; but let a stream of light enter and all these soon disappear, driven away by its beneficial action. Light is the cure because it is purity. Evil flees from it, it hides itself, it is driven back. Children of light, such must be your influence in this degraded world. Be holy and it will be yours to impart a sanctifying virtue. There is one word in the text to which I would draw attention; it is the word walk. "Walk as children of light." Light is never stationary, its very essence is to penetrate everywhere, to be ever active. March on then, draw near to so many of your fellow-men who are living in the darkness of sin. III.-LIGHT CHEERS. It brings with it consolation and joy. Nothing in nature is more beautiful or more soothing than light. It reveals to us the outward world, and this under a thousand different aspects, each of which has its own particular charm. How oft has the light of the outer world chased sorrow and gloom from our soul! This experience is general. Question the prisoner: speak to that sick man who has lain so long upon a bed of anguish, he will tell you how many peaceful and reassuring thoughts have filled his soul at sight of a single little star. Yes, light is the element of joy, the emblem of felicity. Christians, that is your symbol! But notice one important thing. The salutary action of light, however wide its sphere, is exercised in silence. It must be so with ours. We must do good without sounding the trumpet before or after us. The manner of doing good often gladdens the heart more than even the good done. I have endeavoured to show you that to be a child of light is to act upon society as light acts upon the exterior world. It is to enlighten, to purify, to cheer. I have followed in this the apostle's thought. He himself tells us that the fruits of light are goodness, righteousness, and truth. In fact, it is truth that enlightens, righteousness that purifies, goodness that comforts and cheers. Goodness, justice, righteousness, all the Gospel is here. On one side all the doctrine, on the other all the morals, joined and mingled in the one Divine ray, as light and warmth in the light of the sun. If we walk on earth as children of light, we shall hereafter be the heirs of light in glory. A. DECOPPET, B.D. "The sun is by the firmament surrounded with gorgeous service, tempered by mediatorial ministries; by the firmament of clouds the temple is built for his presence to fill with light at noon; by the firmament of clouds the purple veil is closed at evening round the sanctuary of his rest; by the mists of the firmament his inplacable light is divided, and its separated fierceness appeased into the soft blue that fills the depth of distance with its bloom, and the flush with which the mountains turn as they drink the overflowing of the dayspring. And in this tabernacling of the unendurable sun with men through the shadow of the firmament, God would seem to set forth the stooping of His own majesty to men, upon the throne of the firmament. As the Creator of all the world, and the Inhabiter of Eternity. we cannot behold Him; but, as the Judge of the earth and the Preserver of men, those heavens are indeed His dwelling place. And all those passings to and fro of fruitful showers and grateful shade, and all those visions of silver palaces built about the horizon, and voices of moaning winds and threatening thunders, and glories of coloured robe and cloven ray, are but to deepen in our hearts the acceptance and distinctness and dearness of the simple words, "Our Father, which art in heaven." RUSKIN. Breviaries. The Fourth Beatitude. "BLESSED ARE THEY WHO DO HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS, FOR THEY SHALL BE FILLED.-Matthew v. 6. I. THE VASTNESS AND INTENSITY OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. It is hunger and thirst. (1) Here is a suggestion of the vastness. Hunger and thirst are the primitive appetites; they cover life, and all developments are from these. (2) In the same way we perceive the intensity of the religious life. Hunger and thirst are, after all, the intensest of our natural desires ; everything will finally give way to them. Starvation and thirst will obtain quicker and more universal sympathy than any other misfortunes that may befal us. But with the same intensity do we long for God? "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God." The agonies of remorse and of an outraged conscience are far worse than those of starvation. II.-The GLORY of the religious life. In our physical life we assimilate the strength and power of what we feed on its nature is absorbed into ours. In our activity we give forth again the strength and power we have received. In the same way do our spirits live upon God: He inspires us: He sustains our souls. The nature of God becomes our nature, and we become children of God: partakers of His life: heirs of His immortality. The Holy Spirit of God lives in us the full perennial glory of His life begins to shine in us. III-The PROGRESSIVENESS of the religious life. Our text says, blessed are they who hunger and thirst, not blessed are they who are full and satisfied: blessed are they who are yearning and desiring, not blessed are they who are quiet and contented. No one who has had a vision of the glory of God can be satisfied with a mere life on earth. The glory of God is infinite; the glory we have attained to is very finite. There is always something above us. There is a sense in which we never rest. The soul that is seeking after God has always a feeling of dissatisfaction. O that our souls may know a Divine disquietude; O that an angel from God may trouble our spirits, for blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. IV. The SATISFACTION of the religious life. "They shall be filled." At our best and highest moments, when we have the clearest vision of God's infinite righteousness and purity, how impossible this seems! There is a sense in which we may easily see the truth of our Lord's words. Probably exhaustion and death from hunger and thirst were more frequent |
