BEING LESSONS FROM THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.

CHAPTER V. (Continued from page 179, Vol. XII.)

The seven beatitudes which are connected with I character are followed now by two which are connected with the opposition of the world to those who have this. For the world is in active opposition to God, and so to those who resemble Him, or remind it of Him. This opposition is indeed disguised more or less in many ways, and so that those who exhibit it may be themselves unconscious that they are doing this; nay, unconscious that they are of such a spirit. For few indeed would own even to themselves a condition so terrible as this. Hence have come in the false gods which have been invented to satisfy the religious principle in man, and yet allow him to follow his lusts and passions with as little check as possible, or even with the approbation of a misguided conscience. And hence even under the form of Christianity people can picture a God after their own heart, and serve him with quite unconscious heathenism.

The persecution of which the Lord speaks here is of two different kinds, – for righteousness, or for His Name's sake. In the first case, it is for character; but it is to be noticed that it is represented as less violent and radical than the latter is. Correspondingly, the blessing pronounced is here the greater.

With righteous conduct there may not be linked the open testimony which brings out opposition; and, if it be without personal claim on the beholder, it may even be admired, or at least approved, by him. It is another thing when it does make this claim; when the honesty of a servant, for instance, interferes with his employer's profit. Then he may have to suffer:and this is so common a case that it calls for little remark.

When suffering is for Christ's sake, it is because testimony for Christ presses His claim upon the conscience, and it is felt, however little admitted, that one has to do with Him. As often said, a man who will smile at a Mohammedan may curse a Christian ; and he who will quietly enough discuss the Koran grows hot and angry in disputing against Scripture. Truth has sufficiently its own evidence with it to make this difference; which is therefore but unwitting homage paid to it by those who mean nothing less than this, "Blessed are ye." He turns from the mere abstract "they" in the former case, to speak as it were directly into the hearts of these sufferers,- "Blessed are ye when men shall revile and persecute you, and say every evil thing against you, falsely, for My sake." With this comes the fuller recompense:"Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven:for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you. "

This "reward in heaven," addressed, as few realize it to have been, to Jewish saints whose portion as such would be earthly,- and so the Lord has applied before the language of the thirty-seventh psalm,- and in immediate expectation of the kingdom being set up on earth,-is really stranger than it looks to those who contemplate it from a Christian standpoint. Our portion is recognized rightly as being in heaven; and it is so much the accustomed thing to think of the saint as dying and going there, that we have largely lost sight of the meek inheriting the earth, or else injuriously misapply it. For it is certainly not the rule with the meek now, and in seeking to make it such they would lose their character.

But the Lord, with all Israel's blessings in His hand, offering Himself to them as Messiah to bring them in for them, naturally speaks according to the scriptures which have in view the time in which He will be received, and they will be blessed under Him upon earth. According to this view, it is the "reward in heaven" which becomes more exceptional and difficult to understand.

But these blessings-millennial, as we call them,- being then lost to them through unbelief, belong in their primary sense to the future yet; to a remnant brought to God in a time of trial such as has never yet been known, and who will have to pass through it to enjoy their promises. Of these many will be persecuted even to death, and thus lose what we may call their proper portion. They will thus receive, in the goodness of God, the higher blessing of which the Lord here speaks. Deprived of earthly, they will enter into heavenly blessing, and so are seen in the book of Revelation (20:4-6) as a special company of martyrs, added to the saints of the first resurrection, already upon their thrones.

For us there is, of course, no difficulty in an application, which is as true for us as if there were no others who had concern in it. The prophets, of whom our Lord speaks in this connection, dealt with men by the word of God which was given to them to communicate, "and which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute?"

The apostle Peter speaks similarly of these two causes of persecution (i Pet. 3:14; 4:14), and with corresponding emphasis of blessing for those "reproached for the name of Christ." With him it is present, however:"the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you":but who can measure what is implied in this ?

Such treatment at the world's hand involves also in itself a place of privilege and responsibility from God which the Lord now sets before us, and which is twofold, answering to this twofold rejection. First, "ye are the salt of the earth." Salt is that which resists corruption; there being in it also a special powerful diffusion which makes it a suited image of active and aggressive power. Mere passivity is, in fact, inconsistent with righteousness itself; even what we call "passive resistance" is more than this. There is the government of a moral principle, in obedience to which the whole man braces himself up, if but to endure. Example also becomes precept, and that of the most effectual kind:words may be merely words, and light as the breath that forms them. The willing sufferer is so truly the witness, that the old word for witness has come to belong to him. The "martyr" is pre-eminently the "witness."

But this leads on to the second thing, which is just, testimony. "Ye are the light of the world:a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel; but on a candlestick:and it giveth light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

From "let men see your good works," people often imagine that these are the light itself, and thus make the two things that we are considering practically one. Indeed they are made for one another:separate them, and there is at once a fatal deficiency in each. What testimony to Christ can there be without the life-giving evidence ? But then, again, what evidence in the life, if the lips are silent as to Christ ? Nay, this may be construed in such a way as to make the truth of no consequence.

"For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight:
He can't be wrong whose life is in the right."

But it is truth which sanctifies; and the life cannot be right, that is not governed by it. But this is still the most serious effort of the enemy, where Scripture has place. "For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light," says the apostle:"therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed into the ministers of righteousness; whose end," he nevertheless adds, "shall be according to their works." (2 Cor. 11:14, 15.) Here these "ministers of righteousness "press the life, to deny the truth; and as no more successful argument is found than the evil lives of its professors, so, next to this, and in the same line with it, the good deeds of those who are without it or deny it, is Satan's wisest one.

Thus it needs the light to shine upon the good works, that they may be seen as such, and "glorify your Father which is in heaven." Apart from this, they may glorify humanity, or glorify any lie under the sun. Christ is He with whom, in the full reality of it, "light is come into the world," and if "men love darkness rather than light," it is, as He Himself says, "because their deeds are evil." (John 3:19.) We must not be afraid to say this after Him. Did any of us come to Christ because we were good enough without Him ? or because we were good at all? And if all have need of Him, why have they need of Him ?

There are some, thank God, who are yet profoundly conscious that in His light alone they have seen light, and that there is no light for the world but only in Him. Thus, if they are the light of the world, they can only be so by reflecting Him. Let us remember, then, the responsibility we have of bold confession of Him. It is not even righteous to hide from men in need what He has done for us, and what He is ready to do for every one in need. No; the light is not for the bushel, but for the candlestick:it is not for ourselves that the light is lighted:the world has right to it, and can produce its right, under the broad seal of Christ's commission.

One may perhaps object:"But my good works! Alas, this is just my difficulty. With all my inconsistency, I fear that it would more dishonor Christ than honor Him, for me to confess Him." One can understand such language; one can even respect the motive; and yet it involves an essential mistake. We are never called to show our good works, or even to be conscious of them. The Lord's lesson as to almsgiving perfectly illustrates the rule as to all such things:"let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." He is not here, we may be sure, teaching something contradictory of this. He takes for granted that there will be good works, indeed:true faith in Him will surely have its fruits; but faith is the very opposite of self-occupation, and still more of self-satisfaction.

If it be Christ that occupies us, the sense of His perfection will give us true self-judgment:it will be as impossible to be careless of evil as it will be to be pretentious. We shall "boast in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." This will make the confession of Him both sweet and safe. We shall let our light shine before men, and, poor as we shall ever be in our own account, there will be fruit seen in us which shall glorify our Father. This joy in Christ itself will be the best evidence to commend Him to others. F. W. G.
(To be continued.)