purpose; but in the narrower sense of purity it is worth
while to say that those who profess to find it 'impossible'
to lead a pure life might overcome their fault if they would
try to be Christlike altogether, instead of struggling with
that one fault separately. 'Sincerum est nisi vas,
quodcunque infundis acescit.' On the seventh--there are many
kinds of false peace, which Christ came to break up; but
fierce, relentless competition is an offence in a Christian
nation. The last shows what our reward is likely to be in
this world, if we follow these counsels. Where the
Christ-character is not welcomed, it is hated.
From the later sections a few characteristic comments may be given in an
abridged form.
We are apt to have rather free and easy notions of the
Divine fatherhood. To call God our Father, we must ourselves
be sons; and it is only those who are led by the Spirit of
God who are the sons of God.... Ask for great things, and
small things will be given to you. This is exactly the
spirit of the Lord's Prayer.... Act for God. Direct your
thoughts and intentions Godward, and your intelligence and
affections will gradually follow along the line of your
action.... You must put God first, or nowhere.... It is a
perilous error to say that we have only to follow our
conscience; we have to enlighten our conscience and keep it
enlightened.... There is no greater plague of our generation
than the nervous anxiety which characterises all its
efforts. We ought to be reasonably careful, and then go
boldly forward in the peace of God.... Our Lord did not
mean to make of His disciples a new kind of Pharisee.
....'Judge not,' means, Do not be critical. The condemnation
of one who is always finding fault carries no moral weight.
It is those who have the lowest and vaguest standards of
what is right who are often the most critical in judgment of
other people.... We ought so to limit our desires that what
we want for ourselves we can reasonably expect also for
others.... A man who wants to do his duty must always be
prepared to stand alone.... Christianity is not so much a
statement of the true end or ideal of human life, as a great
spiritual instrument for realising the end.
These extracts will be sufficient to show what are the characteristics
of these little commentaries. They exhibit extreme honesty of purpose,
fearless acceptance of Christ's teaching honestly interpreted, scorn of
unreality and empty words, and a determination never to allow preaching
to be divorced from practice. No more stimulating Christian teaching has
been given in our generation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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