Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

"all things are not expedient," "all things edify not." The world has too much craft to thrust upon us at first the offer of forbidden things. Soft things and fair, things harmless and without blame, come first and smooth the way for more subtil allurements. There is but one safeguard for Christ's servants; to be like Him in whom the prince of this world in the hour of temptation had nothing he could make his own. Our safety is not so much where as what we are.

SERMON XIV.

ON MIXING IN THE WORLD, AND ITS SAFEGUARDS.

ST. MATT. xi. 18, 19.

"John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath

a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners."

THERE is a remarkable contrast between the examples of St. John Baptist and of our Lord. St. Luke tells us of St. John, that "the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel:" but of our Lord he says, that He went down "to Nazareth, and was subject" to the Blessed Virgin and Joseph, and that He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." There was a difference in them even from childhood. John lived apart from men, a severe, ascetic life, in hardship and solitude. Jesus dwelt in a house, among

1 St. Luke i. 80; ii. 52.

991

the habitations, trades, and cares of men: for thirty years His was a life such as ours, in all outward things unnoticed and commonplace. And so they both grew up; and in full manhood they came forth, the one a preacher of repentance in the wilderness, having "his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey." The other a preacher of repentance in the world, sitting at meat in the houses of Pharisees and Scribes, and at the table of Levi and Zaccheus the publicans; going, when bidden, even to marriage-feasts, mixing in life, and seeming to partake of the habits and courtesies of men. In a word, John lived out of the world, and our Lord lived in it. And that is the truth which His enemies distorted against Him. "John came neither eating nor drinking:" he was severe, mortified, unbending, isolated; and they cast him out as a demoniac, saying, "He hath a devil." The Son of man came eating and drinking :" pitiful, tender, compassionate, stooping to the weakness and burdens of common life; and they reviled Him as lax, self-indulgent, and dissolute, "a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans," and a partaker in the revelling of sinners.

66

Now, of the many subjects naturally arising out

1 St. Matt. iii. 4.

of these words, there is one to which we shall do well to confine our attention: I mean, the lawfulness of intercourse with the world, and the limitations within which it should be restrained. This is a very difficult question in practice, and often involves painful doubts and misgivings. We hear it much talked of, and by some in a very confident and sweeping way; which, however, for the most part, turns out to be only words after all. Nevertheless, there is a grave matter of Christian duty here at stake; and it is of great moment that we should come both to some clear understanding of it, and to some fixed and tenable principles on which to determine our own conduct. It is not to be denied, that our Lord's example, as contrasted with that of St. John, does warrant, as a general principle, our entering into the world. But there are some points to be considered which will reduce the apparent breadth of that warrant to a much narrower measure. We must remember, then, first of all, why He did so. It was not for His own sake, or for any of those motives and inducements which it would be an irreverence even to speak of. He went for the sake of others; He was "come to seek and to save that which was lost:" as He told Zaccheus, giving the reason of His making Himself his guest. That day salvation was come to the publican's house.*

[blocks in formation]

For the same cause, He laid Himself open to the reproach, "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them;" and suffered also the woman which was a sinner to wash his feet with her tears. It was, therefore, plainly in the discharge of His ministry of salvation that He mixed at large among all men. The world was the field of His toil; it was the wilderness where His lost sheep were scattered abroad, and He therefore went out into the world to seek them.

And we must not forget Who He was that so adventured Himself: it was He who had overcome the tempter in the wilderness; the same in whom, when the prince of this world came to Him, he had no share nor title. It was safe for Him who was without sin to pass to and fro through all perils of contamination. He could no more be sullied than the light of day. this reason that, while prophets and seers, even to John, the greatest of all, had lived apart in watchfulness and mortification, our blessed Lord mixed among men, entered their homes, sat at their tables, and partook of their common habits, their food, and feasts, and social life.

Perhaps it was for

These two considerations, however, while they remind us that both His work and His spotless sanctity made laws for Him which are not necessarily laws for us, do not take away the force of His

« ÎnapoiContinuă »