The World's Great Sermons, Volume 07: Hale to Farrar
Religion
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 07: Hale to Farrar
Sermons
is just, and no more, wins our praise for his integrity, but not
our regard for his liberality. There are some men who would on no
account have their measures in the slightest degree too small, but
would be quite as careful not to have them too large. There is no
reason why justice should not be combined with charity, and a strict
regard for the legal demands which are made upon us with the excess
out of a free heart which will make our justice beautiful. I saw in
a fine country town a tall, graceful tree which cast its pleasant
shade upon the path, and I marked that men had fastened upon it an
iron frame which held a lamp that gave out its light upon the path.
The tree was not the less a tree that it added the light, and the
lamp was not less a lamp because it belonged to the tree. I came
afterward and found that the bark of the tree had grown up around
the iron where it was fastened to it, till the frame and lamp were
fairly incorporated in the tree itself. It is easy thus to enlarge
our life, adding beauty to strength, giving what our heart desires
to give to that which Sheba asks at our hands. This thought is
strongly expressed by St. Paul, "Scarcely for a righteous man," the
man who does exactly what he ought to do, and nothing more, "will
one die." Yet peradventure, for a good man, who does all he ought
to do, and adds something because he wants to do it, some would
even give their life. This man appeals to our heart which is ready
to respond. The best things are indeed only to be given in this
way. They can not be bought. They can not be had for the asking;
such things as confidence, and friendship, and courtesy, which no
statute can demand, but which the royal heart delights to give; and
there is a like royalty which is able to receive and prize the gift.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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