Expositions of Holy Scripture : St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIIIMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture : St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible -- Commentaries; Bible. Matthew IX-XXVIII -- Commentaries
And that is what it ought to do to-day, and will do, if Christian
men are true to themselves and to their Lord. Do you not think that
there would be a ferment if Christian principles were applied, say,
for instance, to national politics? Do you not think there would be
a ferment if Christian principles were brought to bear upon all the
transactions on the Exchange? Is there any region of life into which
the introduction of the plain precepts of Christianity as the
supreme law would not revolutionise it? We talk about England as a
Christian country. Is it? A Christian country is a country of
Christians, and Christians are not people that only say 'I have
faith in Jesus Christ.' but people that do His will. That is the
leaven that is to change, and yet not to change, the whole mass; to
change it by lightening it, by putting a new spirit into it, leaving
the substance apparently unaffected except in so far as the
substance has been corrupted by the evil spirit that rules.
Brethren, if we as Christians were doing our duty, it would be true
of us as it was of the early preachers of the Cross, that we are men
who turn the world upside down.
But there is one more point on which I touch. I have already
anticipated some of what I would say upon it, but I must dwell upon
it for a little longer; and that is, the manner in which the leaven
is to work.
Here is a morsel of barm in the middle of a lump of dough. It works
by contact, touches the particles nearest it, and transforms them
into vehicles for the further transmission of influence. Each
particle touched by the ferment becomes itself a ferment, and so the
process goes on, outwards and ever outwards, till it permeates the
whole mass. That is to say, the individual is to become the
transmitter of the influence to him who is next him. The
individuality of the influence, and the track in which it is to
work, viz. upon those in immediate contiguity to the transformed
particle which is turned from dough into leaven, are taught us here
in this wonderful simile.
Now that carries a very serious and solemn lesson for us all. If you
have received, you are able, and you are bound, to transmit this
quickening, assimilating, transforming, lightening influence, and
you need never complain of a want of objects upon which to exercise
it, for the man or woman that is next you is the person that you
ought to affect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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