SERMON XIII.

ON ALMSGIVING.

MATTHEW Vi. 1.

"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven."

EVERY reader of the Gospels must have observed that the sin against which our blessed Lord most frequently warned His disciples, and those who attended His preaching, was that of hypocrisy. So frequently were certain particular classes of His countrymen charged with this offence, that the very term of "Scribe" or "Pharisee" is almost synonymous in our minds with that of hypocrite. The most painful pictures are set before us of the conduct of these persons; how they sounded a trumpet before them when about to bestow their alms; how they stood praying in the corners of the streets in order to be seen of men; how, for a pretence, they made long prayers even while they were devouring widows'

houses; how the matter of their prayers was full of a spirit of exclusiveness and presumption; how, when they fasted, they disfigured their faces in order to attract observation; how they perverted the truth with subtle casuistry, and endeavoured to confound the laws of right and wrong, teaching that to swear by the temple was nothing, but that he who swore by the gold of the temple was a debtor; how, under professions of religion, they excused themselves from supporting their parents; how they made the Word of God of none effect, and rejected His commandment that they might keep their own traditions; how they made clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within were full of extortion and excess; and how they paid tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, but omitted the weighter matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.

It is impossible to read the description of such characters without shame and indignation, and without a hope that, bad as they were, their numbers, as compared with the great body of their countrymen, were very limited. It may have been so, but yet it is quite evident that there was danger of hypocrisy, and no slight danger, in the case of all to whom our Lord addressed Himself; or else we should not read that "when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they

trode one upon another," the blessed Jesus "began to say unto His disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy :" nor again, at that sermon on the Mount, when He was surrounded by "great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan," would He have spoken so strongly against hypocrisy in prayer, in almsgiving, and in fasting, unless He had known that such admonitions were much needed, seeing that His discourse on that occasion was confined to a simple exposition of the duties of daily life, adapted to the cases and understandings of all classes of hearers.

It is evident, therefore, from this fact, that hypocrisy was not a rare sin in the days of our blessed Lord; and since human nature is very much the same at all times and under all circumstances, it may be presumed, that this vice, which we can scarce mention without loathing and repugnance, is not so uncommon, as we may be disposed to imagine, among ourselves. And if we are inclined to deny the fact, it can only be because we have taken up some false notion of the meaning of the term "hypocrisy."

What, then, is a hypocrite? Simply one who pretends to be something which he is not, who calls

himself one thing while he is another, whose practice is different from his profession.

Now if this be the true meaning of the term, and I know no other, it is quite clear that in so far as we are walking unworthy of our Christian calling, we are, one and all of us, hypocrites.—What a fearful consideration is this, when we reflect that our Lord Himself, the future Judge of quick and dead,—has spoken of that place "where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," where there is "weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth," as "the portion of the hypocrites!" What an argument it is against allowing ourselves to make high professions, that every profession so made may, in the end, only serve to increase our condemnation! What an inducement ought it to be to us to be diligent in self-examination, and in tracing our motives to their source, when we consider that, in order to constitute a hypocrite, it by no means follows that a person should be conscious that his professions and his practice are at variance. For aught we can see, the Pharisees and Scribes were not aware that they were inconsistent; they seem to have deceived themselves as well as others, and not to have known that they were hypocrites!

Now, without entering at present more fully into this charge of hypocrisy, as applicable in a greater or less degree to all who call themselves Christians, but