SECTION VIII.

THE SERMON ON (THE TOP OR SUMMIT OF) THE MOUNT; OR, THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS AND OUTLINES OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE TRUE KINGDOM OF CHRIST, AS THE TRUE DEVELOPMENT AND FULFILLMENT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT LAW, IN CONTRAST TO ITS FALSE DEVELOPMENT IN THE MAXIMS OF THE DEGENERATE OLD TESTAMENT ECONOMY, IN THE THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CORRUPTIONS OF IT BY THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES.

(Matt. v.-vii.)

When the people began to follow our Lord in multitudes, and when signs of their devoted reverence were shown more strongly, His disciples might well imagine, that now their Master would soon begin to found the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord, therefore, now found it necessary to give them a definite explanation regarding the institution of His kingdom. It was necessary for them to know wherein the peculiarity of His kingdom, and especially of His doctrine of salvation, consisted. As devout Israelites, they required to be fully satisfied that His institution did not seek to set itself in opposition to the law of Moses, but that it rather presented the fulfilment and completion of that law. It was also necessary that they should know clearly that its doctrine and righteousness are most definitely distinguished from the false, perverted development of the Old Testament divine institution, as exhibited in the hierarchy, in the righteousness (in the doctrine and lives) of the scribes and Pharisees. There was the more need of their knowing this, as many among the people who followed Him expected Him to found a kingdom of God in the sense of the scribes and Pharisees, as even in these multitudes he was again encountered by the popular Pharisee spirit, although in a weaker form, and decidedly outweighed by the better frame and tendency of the poor in spirit, who formed the kernel of this multitude.

From this latter ground Jesus also found it advisable to withdraw from the people pressing upon Him, and to retire to the solitude of a mountain-top with His more intimate disciples. Here He gave them in a confidential manner an explanation of His doctrine, which He could not yet have given to the whole people. Hence the proper or longer Sermon on the Mount, which He pronounced upon its summit, is to be distinguished from the shorter Sermon on the Mount, which He delivered to the multitude on one of its lower plateaus. (See Book II. iv. 12.) But although this sermon has thus an esoteric cast, it is not intended to remain esoteric. These doctrines were designed to be afterwards communicated to the whole people. Hence our Lord gave the people also the essential purport of this sermon after He had come down to them. The state of the people, the nearness of the Israelite year of jubilee, and the theocratic signification of that mysterious institution, gave Him occasion to begin with a view of the true year of jubilee, the reinstating* of the poor in their inheritance. This view exercised an essential influence on the form of His address. We see eternal retributive righteousness ruling; we see how the truly poor (the poor in spirit) are raised up into the inheritance of heaven, how the falsely rich (those who think themselves rich in spirit) are set low by their sinking themselves into an abyss of poverty and disgrace.

Christ's Sermon on the Mount forms a contrast to God's former Sermon on the Mount, the giving of the law on Sinai. This contrast manifests itself distinctly. There, a law was given in the number ten, the number of civil arrangement in the world; here, a law in the number seven, the number of the Church's spiritual condition. There, a law of the very letter in demands, followed by threatenings of the curse; here, a Law of life, which more than law is the gift of life, and is therefore preceded by promises of blessing. There, Jehovah is concealed in unapproachable majesty even from the mediator of the law, and this mediator stands between God (represented by angels) and the people as different parties; here, the glory of God appears in the face of Jesus Christ in familiar nearness to the disciples, and the God of heaven is one with the God in the human nature of Christ — the foundation of the reconciliation is established. There, the voice of Jehovah is heard amid thunder and lightning; here, as human voice proceeding from the heart, and pronounced by the lips of Jesus. There, the people dare not approach the awful mount; here, the people stood on the declivity of the mount, and were probably ranged in groups up to its summit. There appear the majesty of law, terror, fear, and tremors of death; here, the majesty of grace, revival, tremors of love, wondrous presentiments and hopes of a new life, of a new world. The contrast between the giving of the law on Sinai and this Sermon on the Mount could not be stronger, and yet it is a harmonious contrast. We see plainly, that without the law from Sinai there could have been no Sermon on the Mount by Christ: He begins where Moses left off. The poor in spirit are the pure product of the Old Testament economy. It is the beginning of the life in the spirit, to which the Spirit had led, which lightened around and breathed upon the letter of the law, and gave it its force in the conscience of the upright. Or rather, the positive pure product is Christ Himself. In Him the law has become life, living righteousness. In Him the will of God and the human heart, the word of God and the human mouth, have become absolutely one. And for this very reason the poor in spirit meet Him with matured receptivity, for the fulfilling of the law must unfold itself in this contrast of positive and of negative righteousness.

But the harmony which obtains in the contrast between Christ's Sermon on the Mount and the law of Moses, is not greater than the polemic character of the contrast in which Christ's sermon stands to the maxims of the Jewish hierarchy. This latter contrast is a mutual contradiction. Christ announces at the outset, in the fundamental law of His kingdom, the great conflict between the spirit of His righteousness and the entire system of the scribes and Pharisees.

Nay, the law of His kingdom contradicts all the false suppositions of the world in general, while it brings fulfilment to all the expectations of the better aspirations of mankind in the olden time. In both aspects, the Sermon on the Mount appears as the new revelation. This is proclaimed by the very locality. Christ delivers His address to mankind not from the seat of Moses and the prophets, not from the lofty seat of the scribes and Pharisees, and still less from a prince's throne. He sits upon the grass among trees; His law goes forth from the solitude of a lofty mountain; He is supported by no worldly authority of any kind; His authority lies in Himself, who harmoniously bears the character of Christ, of God, and of man. The new character of this haw is revealed by the perfect, divine peace with which it is given forth. In divine repose, seated on the top of the mountain surrounded by His trusted ones, our Lord speaks the word which is destined to fill and bless the world. What a contrast is this to the proclamation of human ordinances with the sound of trumpet and drum, or even the thunder of cannon! Jesus knows well that the calm, gentle whisper is the strongest operation of the human lip, when blessedly moved by God. But this New Testament character lies also in the tenor of the revelation itself which Jesus utters. The perfect revelation of the doctrine of salvation, the Gospel in its full form, was now first proclaimed. The Evangelist had a deep feeling of this, when saying that Jesus opened His mouth and taught. Man is the mouth of creation, and Christ is the mouth of mankind. The mouth of Christ was opened in the most proper sense in the Sermon on the Mount, in order to reveal with full clearness the great secret of the right path of salvation.

Christ's discourse is called the Sermon on the Mount in the historical sense, but it may also be so called in symbolical signification. Christ stands on the summit of essential righteousness, and all the blessings of holy life fill his heart. To this summit He calls His people to ascend; nay, He draws them up by the power of His word. For His word is creative, — not merely the law of the new kingdom of heaven, or the doctrine concerning it, but a deed of His spirit by which He calls it into existence. As God's word, 'Let there be light,' called the light into life, so Christ's word concerning the blessedness of the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, &c., calls God's people into existence in these forms. Thus a living mountain of the Lord is formed of souls who have been laid hold of by Him, a mountain which rises up in terraces from the depths of poverty in spirit to the height of perfect and blessed life in God.

The righteousness of those who have part in Christ's kingdom of heaven, in contrast to the righteousness of the corrupt hierarchical Old Testament economy, is the leading thought of the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord first shows the path of the righteousness of His kingdom, as He raises it up from the fathomless depth of poverty in spirit to the height of blessed life, v. 1-16. Then He exhibits in contrast to this path, the path of the righteousness of the false theocracy, as it descends precipitously from the supposed height of the most exact fulfilment of the law unto the depth of utter destruction and shame (v, 17-vii. 6). Our Lord, finally, describes the holy method, the way according to which we have to choose the right path and to void the wrong (vii. 7-29).

Our Lord shows the way to the height of blessed life in the seven beatitudes. That the beatitudes are in reality only seven, is plain from the following consideration: — Poverty in spirit represents the fundamental condition of attaining to bliss all throughout, a spiritual state which extends through all stages of blessedness (comp. Luke vi. 20); or, in other words, it is not only the first beatitude, but represents in germ the seven beatitudes. But this germ exhibits the double form which every germ possesses — the tendency to strike root and the tendency to form stem and fruit. True, it is a poverty, but it is a poverty in spirit. The mourners then form an evident contrast to the meek. Mourning is the first unfolding of piety striking root, and bears reference to God; meekness is its first unfolding in the way of bearing fruit, and bears reference to our neighbour. The same contrast appears a second time in the relation of those who hunger and thirst after righteousness to the merciful: in the first is exhibited the right and proper conduct Godward, and in the second the same towards our neighbour. Thirdly, it appears again in the same manner in those who, in relation to God, are pure in heart, and appear to men as peacemakers. These, then, are the explicit stages of true righteousness. They are all comprehended again in the eighth and ninth beatitudes, in which the whole once more appears in a developed form. In them, from poverty of spirit has arisen holy suffering for the sake of walking in the Spirit; and that in two forms: in its common religious form as a suffering for righteousness' sake — in its historically religious form as a suffering for Christ's sake, who Himself is the essential historically-manifested righteousness. This view not only shows that the number of the beatitudes is seven, but also sketches their inward and living organism. Hence is explained also why it is of these righteous ones at the end, as in the beginning, that theirs is the kingdom of heaven, namely, because their latter state is in germ contained in their first and fundamental determination. Hence also it is evident that Christ and His righteousness is the leading thought of all the stages of this piety; for the relation of the life of the truly pious to Christ, which comes to light in its full historical distinctness at the final development of that life, has of necessity been from the first and all along the main feature of that life.

We have thus before us a living organism, a holy and also a living ladder: holy, inasmuch as we cannot reach the top except by beginning at the lowest step, and at every step realizing its life in ourselves. No step can here be left untrod. That this ascent is a living ascent, is shown, first, in that we begin at once with life in the Spirit, but all that is yet contained in this life is at best only propaideutic Christianity, legality, symbol-service; — secondly, in that we always take the life of each step up with us into the higher life, keeping it for eternity; poverty in spirit is preserved in humility, mourning in solemn remembrance, holy hungering and thirsting in the consciousness of absolute dependence upon God; — thirdly and lastly, in that we must be more deeply rooted in God in proportion as our piety is more unfolded towards men, and vice versa. The development is organic throughout: the branch does not grow at the expense of the root, nor the root at the expense of the branch — the one grows with and through the other.

Notwitlistanding this livingness, the Ladder is a perfect hidder. This is shown, first, in the characteristic distinctiveness of each step; and further, in that each step has its own peculiar difficulty; and lastly, in that on each step there is a resting-place, a particular end attained. But, above all, it is shown in the fact that the godly man is drawn and upborne by divine strength, so that, spite of all difficulties, he can mount all these steps.

How exactly do these forms fit into one another — the mourners and the meek, the hungering and thirsting after righteousness and the merciful, the pure in heart and the peacemakers! Moreover, when we separate the members of these contrasts, and arrange them in their cognate relations to God on the one hand, and to our neighbour on the other, the inner unity of all these forms is made all the more plain. The mourners, the hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and the pure in heart (in which full renunciation is included), have all the common characteristic of poverty before God, which is fully glorified in the holy sufferings of the martyrs, who suffer for righteousness' sake. But the meek, the merciful, and the peacemakers have in common the characteristic of walking in the Spirit before men, which celebrates its completion in the love of Christ, in proclaiming His name and suffering for His sake. But the order in which Christ sets these characteristics is the right order of succession, and corresponds with the organic development of the life. According to this order, holy poverty alternates with holy riches in ever new forms consonant to a life of piety; for in proportion as a man is poor in spirit before God, he becomes rich in spiritual blessings for his neighbour.

With equal distinctness is the difficulty of each step set forth, which makes all who tread this path appear in the first instance as most unfortunate. Poverty in spirit is at least a feeling of absolute poverty. The mourners distinctively are those who mourn in the deepest sense. The meek have to sustain the world's wrath and hard-heartedness. Hunger and thirst after righteousness cannot be less severely felt than hunger and thirst in an earthly sense, but are much more so; for that desire of nourishment and refreshment makes itself felt in the depth of the soul's life. The merciful have to deal with the sorrows, the sins, and the sufferings of bruised humanity. The pure in heart have to exercise continual self-renunciation, — they bear on their breast the sign of the cross or of the white rose. Finally, the peace-makers must, in order to pacify the contention and strife of the world, enter in among it as into a hell. That these are men full of sufferings, is specially shown when they have reached the highest stage of their development in time. For righteousness' sake, for Christ's sake, they are persecuted and covered with reproach. They appear to be of all men the most unfortunate, and yet their continuing steadfast in this path displays the high courage of virtuous conduct. Hence it seems at first sight to be the strongest paradox that Christ calls such men blessed.

But their state is not a legally punitive one, their suffering not penance, and their good not an exercise of virtue in isolated human strength. Rather, from the very commencement they are raised up and supported by the promise of blessing and the foretaste of all the seven stages of blessedness. The power of God, the attractive force of the righteousness of Christ, has laid hold of them; and if we do but observe closely, we can explain each one of their trying states of mind from the germ of a new blessedness in their heart. They are, for example, poor in spirit, because they have begun to live in spirit, and their mourning for the lost higher life is more blessed than all worldly pleasure. And this shows that a special rest on each of these stages is granted to the godly man. At the very outset he gains the assurance of the whole kingdom of heaven, and at the end it receives him in its unveiled form. At the beginning the kingdom of heaven comes into his heart in the assurance of grace; at the end he comes into the kingdom of heaven as a citizen comes into a new land among a new people. But on the path of development the gift of the kingdom of heaven is revealed to him in all its individual forms, as these correspond to his inward state. The mourners, as such, are cheered with the absolute comfort, with perfect and enlivening refreshment; the meek become heirs in possession of the earth, their spirits having the greatest influence and sway. They who hunger and thirst after righteousness are filled, gain absolute peace. The merciful fall into the arms of mercy. The pure in heart, the men who renounce the world entirely, find again in the contemplation of God the true and living riches. The peacemakers are called children of God; they are acknowledged as the proper princes and judges of mankind in the realm of essential life (in contrast to the realm of law and symbols). And when the righteous are persecuted to the utmost for righteousness' sake, repelled and rejected by the world, heaven receives them as citizens; as the fellow-sufferers of Christ, they enter into the family of the martyrs and prophets; in the midst of their sorrow they can rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is their reward in heaven. Thus the new world issues from the blessedness of the righteous. We may, therefore, compare the seven beatitudes of Christ with God's works each day at the first creation. Christ's beatitudes continue to work with creative effect until the end of the world.

'Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you!'

After our Lord had thus described the path to the height of blessed life in His righteousness, He makes an application, from which it appears that He sees in His disciples the first germs of this walk in the Spirit. He calls them the salt of the earth, and encourages them by showing that salt cannot turn insipid — cannot become unsalt, otherwise there would no longer be any material to salt with; and bad salt must therefore be cast out as useless matter, and trodden under foot of men. He next calls them the light of the world. They are destined, as bearers of His light, to work on the world. As a city set on a hill is seen from afar, so they are to exhibit themselves to the world in their higher destination. And as a candle is not lighted to be put under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may give light to all that are in the house, they are to occupy a similar position towards the world. 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.'

Our Lord had shown the disciples that the path to the summit of bliss is, in its outward form, a path of suffering, and must always be so. He had thereby mediately announced His own sufferings to the disciples. He had, at the same time, made them sensible of the conflict between the direction He took and that of the world, including the Jewish world. This announcement necessarily appeared more or less strange to them, with the suppositions they had been accustomed to make. He therefore explained to them the conflict between the world and that to which they were appointed. The world is not as it should be. It is sick, faint, and insipid, on the verge of putrefaction, and therefore has need of salt. It is darkened, and has need of light. And they are called to become the organs of His life, to counteract in both respects the corruption of the world. They therefore must first, like a pungent salt, give the world pain. And this will be the very thing which draws upon them the world's hatred and persecution; and for this reason they must benefit the world like a far-shining light, and by their good works men will at last be gained over to glorify their Father in heaven.

By describing this conflict, our Lord had signified that He could not go hand in hand with the spirit of His people, and especially in the direction taken by the scribes and Pharisees, But this might cause the thought to arise in the mind of the disciples, that He intended to lead them aside from the path of true Israelite faith, Jesus obviates this error by declaring that He represented the fulfilment of the Old Testament, and by intimating that it was precisely the Pharisees and scribes who made void the commandments of God. 'Think not,' said He, 'that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall he called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.'

He thus expresses the perfect consciousness that He, in His life and doctrine, presented the perfect fulfilment of the whole Old Testament (both the law and the prophets); that there was no divine reference, however slight, in the Old Covenant, which could not be found, in its essential, spiritual form, in the spirit of His life. Nay, He represents Himself as the fulfilment not only of the Old Testament, but also as the fulfilment of all genuine human prophecies and types in general. And once for all He lays down, in respect to historical faithfulness, the principle, that those men who break the very least item of the law of God in order to exhibit a spirit of free life, are the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he who does and teaches the law, who exhibits it in life, and glorifies it in spirit, is great in the kingdom of heaven. In this respect it is He Himself who is in the absolute sense the Great One in the kingdom of heaven; because He has taken into His life the whole contents of the Old Covenant, and has in His person transformed it into the New Covenant.

By tracing out the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees from the height of external faithfulness to the law to the depth of corruption. He shows that the law may be destroyed not only by negation, but also by false positive precepts, and that this false positive breaking of the law inevitably produces at last the negative also.

These forms in which the law is made void, do not come forth at once in distinct shapes, but at first only as corruptions — general, old, and prevalent corruptions in doctrine. But from these proceed forms of hypocrisy, always becoming more and more definite and distinct. Corruptions in doctrine grow imperceptibly through unspirituality (non-conformity to the spirit of the law), which manifests itself partly as spiritual sloth, and partly as fanaticism, and checks the true development of the law by producing a false, rank development of it.

This wrong method of dealing with the law first shows itself in perverting it. It was a perversion of the law when to the commandment, 'Thou shalt not kill,' the Jews annexed by way of explanation the following gloss: 'And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.' In contrast to this perversion, our Lord shows the whole inward strictness requisite for the fulfilment of the commandment. 'But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the j judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire.' He next shows the necessity of a spirit of reconciliation towards brethren. The work of reconciliation is far more urgent than that of offering gifts in the temple: 'Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Nay, even if on the way to the judge with thine adversary, thou shalt,' continues our Lord, 'while yet on the way, seek to have the strife settled in a friendly manner; lest at any time,' He remarks warningly, 'the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.'

It was, moreover, a perversion when the Jews stuck merely by the letter of the law, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' Their externalized way of repesenting the law made the very law an error. Therefore, for the fulfilling of the law, Christ observes, 'But I say unto you. That whosoever shall look upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.' He adds, in expressive allegorical language: 'And if thy right eye (that in which thou most delightest) offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand (the companionship thou most cordially seekest) offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.'

But this perversion has grown into gross misinterpretation and distorting of the law when it is said in a light sense, 'Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give a writing of divorcement.' True, Moses had given the letter of this, but in a quite opposite Sense to that in which it was glibly repeated in Christ's time, Moses sought by this ordinance to check divorces, which he could not abolish; the scribes, on the contrary, made it a regulation favourable to divorce. Christ therefore remarks against this misinterpretation of the law of Moses while fulfilling its letter: 'But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery.'

It was also misinterpreting the law to use its ordinance, 'Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths,' for justifying the employing of oaths in the sense of ungodly asseverations. Jesus, on the contrary, guides us to the true fulfilling of the law regarding oaths by declaring, 'But I say unto you. Swear not at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea. Nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these (what is more than this pure assertion goes beyond swearing by God Himself) cometh of evil.'

There was still a grosser misinterpretation in the false application made of individual ordinances by transferring them from the domain of public law to that of private right. Thus the lex talionis, eye for eye and tooth for tooth, which was designed for preventing revenge, was made by the Jews an excuse for private revenge. Therefore, when Jesus encourages the utmost compliance in private life, He only urges the fulfilment of that law in its true sense. He seeks to promote solicitude for the purest and highest recompense, and thus are His words to be understood when He declares, 'But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.'

But traditionalism defaced the law of the Lord most of all when it applied in evil and outward literality the commandment, 'Thou shaft love thy neighbour,' merely to the Jews, or finally to their own friends of the party of the Pharisees, and from this limitation drew the venomous inference, 'And (thou shalt) hate thine enemy.' Pharisaic fanaticism made it even a duty for the Jews to hate the heathen, the Samaritan, the publican and sinner (the excommunicated person), and, in general, the opponent of the system of the Pharisees; and that, as it supposed, for God's sake. But the false development of the Old Covenant in this direction culminated in the Jewish hierarchy which mirrored forth corrupt Pharisaism. But here also our Lord tells us how the precept, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour,' is truly fulfilled, by declaring, 'But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.'

Finally, He makes them feel how like to publicans and heathens they would make themselves if they hated them as the scribes and Pharisees did, dreaming that thereby they drew the most marked distinction between themselves and them. 'For if ye love them who love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not the publicans so? 'He concludes His exhortation thus: 'Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,' that is, not in the same style as the Pharisees, who imagine they are perfect.

This thought forms the transition to speaking of corruptions in life which go hand in hand with those corruptions of doctrine. These corruptions of life first show themselves in a positive form in this, that piety degenerates in every respect — first into legal service by works, then into love of show, and lastly into decided hypocrisy. First, in respect to our neighbour. The love of a man of perverted piety to his neighbour has always more and more a tendency to go off into ritualistic beneficence, and this more and more into the desire of seeing his neighbour in the form of a beggar, and of keeping him so, in order to glorify itself by splendid deeds of almsgiving towards him. Therefore Christ says, 'Take heed that ye do nor your alms before men to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you. They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret, Himself shall reward thee openly.'

This depraved piety of those who build on outward works, shows itself in relation to God by the manner in which they pray. Christ continues thus: 'And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you. They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.'

Our Lord now, by teaching His disciples the Lord's prayer, shows them how an infinite fulness of request can be comprehended in a few plain words of prayer. In this point of view, this prayer is here in its right place. It expresses in the most compact, simple, and pure form, every possible request of a petitioner, a whole world of holy wants; and so it may be compared to a pearl in which the whole light of heaven is mirrored. It expresses at once, and in the most concentrated form, all divine promises, all human wants and aspirations, all Christian emotions and priestly consecrations of life, arranged in equally expressive order of the several parts.

The invocation indicates the enlightened Theism which knows and has God in heaven as Father. The position of the first three petitions with respect to the following, shows that man is not to seek to draw in God into the service of his own egoism, but to seek well-being by thrice devoting himself to God, in seeking first what is God's. 'Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.'

One thing should be hallowed above all others: not the vessels, not the days or the hands, but the name of God Himself, the demonstration of Him in the spirits, religions, and hearts of men; then with the hallowing of God's name all things will be hallowed. One thing should come before all other things: not bright days, brilliant appearances, or worldly greatness, but the kingdom of God, whereby God is enthroned in the heart, ruling and disposing it, and from it acting on the world. One thing should be done before every other thing: not what human hopes, ideals, and desires would give expression to, but God's will, so purely and absolutely as to include in it every human will, making all resistance and contradiction disappear in presence of its heavenly majesty.

When man has thus cared for that which pertains to God, he has at the same time purified his personal requests in God. For he is not as pietist to put his own concerns before that which pertains to God, nor yet as mystic to seek to sink or merge himself in what pertains to God; hut he is in his own distinctive character to merge himself in God in order to attain in Him to the true resurrection, while still retaining his own speciality. And thus he can, in view of his need for the present, pray, 'Give us this day our daily bread; 'and in view of the past, 'And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; 'and lastly, in view of the future, 'And lead us not (in the tragic course of the curse which proceeds from guilt) into temptation, but deliver us (drawing us out of it by the mighty, heaven-attracting power of redemption) from evil.'

These are the seven consecrations of inward life by which the Christian rises from earth to heaven; while he who uses vain repetitions in his prayers exhibits himself and his religiosity to the world in the streets or in places of worship. Therefore the Christian reposes rejoicingly in the contemplation of the glory of God, uttering the words, 'For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever;' while the hypocrite is concerned about self-glorification or the glorifying of an outward temple-service. And while the Christian can seal his prayer with an Amen of divine certainty, the hypocrite prays himself more and more into the confirmed doubt which can pronounce the Amen at best only as a magic formula.

Our Lord next gives in special an explanation of the meaning of the solemn addition, 'As we forgive our debtors,' by continuing, 'For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.'

The third corruption of degenerate piety shows itself _ by the manner in which the hypocrite presents to view his abstemiousness or the consecration of his own life (askesis). 'When ye fast,' says Christ, 'be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance; for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you. They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.'

With these corruptions in piety, which at last become always more and more manifest as false renunciation of the world, and assume a gloomy, ascetic, monkish character, a passionate although disguised worldliness is alway closely connected, and increasingly breaks out into corruptions of the outward life in those who build upon works and make a show of their piety.

The first form in which this appears is in their laying up for themselves treasures upon earth. With the avaricious layman, fasting and heaping up wealth work harmoniously together, although the one seems to contradict the other; and the priest who does penance becomes insensibly the treasure-collecting monk. But, with prophetic spirit, Christ gives the warning: 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal (where three destroying principles, the ethical, the animal-vegetable, and the chemical, always threaten to consume the perishable riches). But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.' That in such cases the loss is not confined to perishable riches, but that something nobler is lost, is shown by our Lord when He continues thus: 'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single (the outward sense in full accord with the calm consciousness), thy whole body shall be full of light (like the eye or the sun). But if thine eye be evil (wandering, forgetful of duty, not performing its office), thy whole body shall be full of darkness' (a wandering fragment of night). Our Lord now applies these principles to the inward life, 'If therefore the light that is in thee (the inward essential eye) be darkness, how great is that darkness' (of thy spiritual life in all its relations)! But such a darkening of the inward eye is to be seen in the covetous collector of treasures. This is shown by the word, 'No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.' That is, if the man loves the other (the false master), he begins to hate the true Master; but if he really holds to the latter, he will despise the former. If a man is unfaithful to the true Master, he hates Him, he cannot despise Him; but a man does not hate the false master, he despises him, if he holds to the true Master. Hence follows, 'Ye cannot serve God and mammon.' The Pharisees had, as they thought, most strictly excluded all heathen idolatry from their divine worship; but this one heathen idol mammon had, in the way they viewed things, imperceptibly become a mighty object of worship, and had in many respects darkened their knowledge of the true God Himself

The avarice of which we have been speaking is active worldliness, which stands in close reciprocity with passive worldliness, anxious care. Anxious care, such as is manifested by the Gentiles, is the second grand form in which the perverted pietist exhibits the corruption of his life. It is to be considered at bottom as the old witch, grey of head and sick of heart, of whom avarice is the lean and restless son. Our Lord therefore assails anxiety in order to demolish avarice.¹ The one corruption, indeed, constantly begets the other — avarice anxiety, and anxiety avarice — although they often seem to take different and hostile directions; and the more active, bold, and audacious devote themselves rather to avarice; the more slothful, timid, and weak, to anxious care. But b)' the form of His discourse, our Lord shows that He holds anxiety to be the root of avarice. He depicts anxiety to us in the most pressing exhortation to reliance on God. 'Therefore I say unto yon, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.' The anxious, with all the pains they take, go wrong in their calculations. Therefore our Lord teaches them to calculate better: 'Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 'As regards nourishment, He refers them to the way in which the fowls are fed: 'Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 'He adds, 'Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature '(length of life)? — in order to guide them to the conclusion, that life and provision for it are both measured with equal certainty. He nexts takes clothing into special consideration; and here, in order to shame the anxious, He descends for His example below the animal kingdom. The very plants must rebuke them: 'Consider (καταμάθετε) the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you. That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 'Then follows the exhortation: 'Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or. What, shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things do the Gentiles seek;) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.'

When the man of works is borne along by these powerful influences of worldliness, he doubtless has a dark feeling that the true life, the quiet, gentle glow of divine life, is wanting to him. Yet he will at any cost maintain the appearance of life. He seeks therefore to supply the place of constant warmth by flighty heats, and that of piety, which meditates day and night upon God, by the fanaticism which from time to time starts up in a hurry from its worldly schemes, vain conversations, and low delights, in order anew to gain confidence in itself through the odious practices of religious narrowness of head and heart. Thus, passing unloving judgment on our neighbour, especially on him whose opinions differ from our own, stands inclose connection with worldly anxiety. Our Lord now speaks of this. 'Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.' Nay, he whose heart inclines to harsh judgment, really is, without being aware of it, already entangled in something worse than anything which he is able to detect in another. Our Lord expresses this by the striking simile: 'And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye! 'A man who proceeds to judge in this way, manifests either boundless self-deceit, or an equal amount of effrontery; the former, if he does not observe the beam which is in his own eye, the latter, if, having observed it, he still seeks to see motes in his brother's eye. In reality, however, a man of this kind always finds himself oscillating between both. When looking outwards, he cannot altogether void observing the beam in his own eye, and he is equally unable to perceive it quite clearly, just because it is a beam in his eye. He is, in fact, in a state of self-deception, and under the reciprocal influence of blindness and baseness, makes himself more and more of a hypocrite.

But from the laxity, unspirituality, and forgetfulness of duty which he displays in his stewardship of the mysteries of God, it is evident that his apparent zeal for God's cause does not spring from devotedness to Him. This is indicated by our Lord's admonition, 'Give not that which is holy (the holy flesh of the sacrifice) unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls (like acorns) before swine.' In this manner the hypocrites deal with the true riches of the Church — the word, the sacrament, the communion. We may, with safety, always assume that fanaticism is just such a mask as this, a show of enthusiasm, behind which, positive, practical disrespect of God enacts its part. But this is the last stage, the very pit in which legalists perish. Punitive retribution overtakes them; the swine trample the pearls under their feet, and turn and rend the treacherous dealers with holy things, who are now given over to judgment. The canine element in the neglected masses seems well pleased at being presented with the holy flesh (the pleasant things of the sanctuary); but there is a wild swinish element which is provoked by the pearls cast to it, as if it had been pelted with pebbles. But how fearful is it, when the wild brutality in human nature must become the organ of the judgment which overtakes the unveiled emptiness and guilt in the supposed righteousness of the men of pharisaic observances!

Next follows the third and last part of the Sermon on the Mount —the instructions which Jesus gives for the choice of the right way, and the voidance of the wrong. He begins by presenting true prayer in opposition to false. It is characteristic of true prayer, that it always grows more and more urgent, passes more and more into fact, — that the seeking which flows from asking, becomes seeking pure and simple, seeking for the lost highest good, — and that the seeking by knocking gives rise to definite knocking at the definite door. An earnest seeking like this, must conduct to the goal, because it is from God. 'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.' This maxim is specially applicable in matters of religion, because it can be taken as a general maxim: 'For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.' This most encouraging comparison is added: 'Or what man is there of you, whom, if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him? 'Thus the prayer of faith is the right attitude towards God.

He next shows what is right conduct towards our neighbour, in opposition to that wrong conduct towards him which expresses itself in proud almsgiving to beggars. 'Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.' Christ then shows the proper behaviour of men towards themselves, the right askesis. It does not consist in wording this or that food, but in shunning the fellowship of the wicked. And this fellowship may appear in two very different forms. One way is to follow the lead of the multitude, the current of the so-called spirit of the age; that is, the spirit of the dominant illusions which form the characteristics of any particular age. Our Lord warns against this with the words: 'Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat (είσερχόμενοι); because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.' But as we should not let ourselves be carried away by the strong stream of the corrupt mass, so we should equally withstand the magic influence of false prophets. 'Beware of false prophets,' says Christ, 'who come to you in sheep's clothing (borrowed from sheep), but inwardly they are ravening wolves '(the mortal enemies of the flock in their greedy and destructive selfishness). He gives the marks by which they may be known, namely, their fruits. 'Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 'From the sour sloe of fanaticism we may infer the thorn, and from the sharp prickles of proselytism we may infer the thistle. But thorns and thistles are not trees of paradise; it is the curse which weighs upon the ground which brings them forth. Thus these men are noxious wildlings, who, by calling and confession, should stand forth as vines and figtrees (genuine fruit-bearers of the promised land). Their fruits testify what they are; for 'a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.' This mark is so striking that men always judge by it in arboriculture. 'Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.' In like manner, all false prophets go into condemnation. Oar Lord, therefore, supposes that it cannot be very difficult for the disciples to know by their fruits evil trees in a figurative sense.

It is evident that our Lord spoke here not of prophets in the narrower sense alone. All those are false prophets who do not live in the spirit of the true prophets, and especially the men of Pharisee traditionalism; for by the corrupt course which they take, they continually bring forth new errors. And undoubtedly our Lord referred also to false prophets of this kind.

At the close Christ intimates that the New Testament institution, as He has now announced it in contrast to the deranged Old Testament institution, would not in its outward form remain free from corruptions, and men making merely a show of godliness. He speaks first in respect to that transition period in which so many greeted Him with enthusiasm: 'Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but He who doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. He then speaks specially in respect to the members of His future Church in its advanced form. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name have done many wonderful works? Then will I profess unto them, 1 never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.' The Lord concluded His discourse (probably after He had delivered the second Sermon on the Mount) with a parable: 'Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man who built his house upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.'

The words of Christ, in their living form, are the rock upon which the truly wise of all times build, however spectral and unstable they may seem in their heavenly livingness. But the petrified ordinances of His opponents, the Pharisees, were sand, however like to rock they might look. The house which the wise built upon the word of Christ withstood the great tempest of visitation which came upon Judea, but not so did the edifice which unbelievers had erected upon the sand of human traditions. Their house fell, and great was its fall. There can be no doubt that Christ prophetically pointed to that historical fall. But the parable has a signification for all times, and holds good not only in the historical, but, above all, in the purely spiritual sense.

The Evangelist remarks at the close that the sayings of Jesus deeply moved the people. They felt that Jesus taught as one having authority, or spoke with the creative power of true and living words, and not as the scribes (with lifeless platitudes).

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