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THE GOSPEL
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ST. MARK :

I REV.
J.D.JONES,MA£>X).
./OTIONAL
:QMMEATTARY;
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LIBRIS

ILLIAM D.

LRAY

DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF

GEORGE M. MURRAY '17
FPJOM THE LIBRARY OF
WILLIAM D. MURRAY '80

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME.
GENESIS (Three Volumes).
By the REV. W. H. GRIFFITH THOMAS, D.D.
EXODUS (Two Volumes).
By the REV. F. B. MEYER, B.A., D.D.
RUTH. By the late REV. SAMUEL COX, D.D.
ESTHER. By the REV. J. ELDER CUMMING, D.D.
THE PSALMS (Three Volumes).
By the REV. J. ELDER CUMMING, D.D.
ROMANS (Three Volumes).
By the REV. W. H. GRIFFITH THOMAS, D.D.
GALATIANS. By the REV. CANON R. B. GIRDLESTONE, M.A.
EPHESIANS By the REV. CHARLES BROWN, D.D.
PHILIPPIANS. By the REV. F. B. MEYER, B.A., D.D.
I. THESSALONIANS. By the REV. A. R. BUCKLAND, M.A.
II. THESSALONIANS. By the REV. A. R. BUCKLAND, M.A.
I. TIMOTHY. By the REV. T. A. GURNEY, M.A.
II. TIMOTHY. By the BISHOP of DURHAM.
PHILEMON. By the REV. A. H. DRYSDALE, D.D.
HEBREWS. By the BISHOP of DERRY and RAPHOE.
JAMES. By the REV. CHARLES BROWN, D.D.
I. JOHN. By the REV. G. S. BARRETT, D.D.
MARK. .
By the REV. J. D. JONES, M.A., D.D
Volume I.— Mark I. -VI. 6.

A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY
Edited by the Rev. A. R, BUCKLAND, M.A

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST MARK
VL 7-X. 3J
A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY
By the
Rev. J. D. JONES, M.A., D.D.
Author of " Elims of Life," " The Way into the Kingrdom," etc.

%

LONDON
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
4 BOUVERIE STREET and 6s ST PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, E.C.
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CONTENTS PAGE
The Sending of the Twelve . . .11
Markvi. 7-13.
II.
Herod and John the Baptist . . .25
Mark vi. 14-29.
III.
The Return of the Twelve . 38
Mark vi. 30-33.
IV.
The Feeding oe the Five Thousand . , 50
Mark vi. 34-44.
V.
The Storm ...... 62
Mark vi. 45-52.
VI.
The Things that Defile . . . .74
Mark vi. 53-vii. 23.
7

Contents PAGE
VII.
He Who Could not be Hid . . .86
Mark vii. 24.
VIII.
The Syro-Phcenician Woman . . .92
Mark vii. 25-30.
IX.
The Healing of the Deaf and Dumb . 110
Mark vii. 31-33.
X.
The Deaf and Dumb Man . . . 122
Mark vii. 34-37.
XI.
The Leaven of the Pharisees . . . 131
Mark viii. 1-21.
XII.
The Healing of the Blind Man at Bethsaida 144
Mark viii. 22-26.
XIII.
Questions and Answers .... 156
Mark viii. 27-30.
XIV.
Pointing to the Cross .... 167
Mark viii. 31-33.
8

Contents PAGE
XV.
DlSCIPLESHIP AND THE CROSS. . . .177
Mark viii. 34-ix. 1.
XVI.
The Transfiguration : The Transfigured . 189
Mark ix. 2-8.
XVII.
The Transfiguration : The Witnesses . 200
Mark ix. 2-8.
XVIII.
The Descent from the Hill . . . 209
Mark ix. 9-13.
XIX.
The Disciples' Failure . . . .219
Mark ix. 14-30.
XX.
The Training of the Twelve . . . 231
Mark ix. 30-37.
XXI.
A Lesson in Charity . . . .240
Mark ix. 38-40.
XXII.
Offences .... 248
Mark ix. 41-48.
9

Contents

PAGE

XXIII.
Salted with Fire . . . . 258
Mark ix. 49, 50.
XXIV.
Divorce ....... 266
Mark x. 1-12.
XXV.
Christ and the Children . . . 276
Mark x. 13-16.
XXVI.
The Rich Young Ruler . . . .287
Mark x. 17-22.
XXVII.
Christ's Teaching about Wealth . . 296
Mark x. 23-27.
XXVIII.
The Hundredfold ..... 306
Mark x. 28-31.

10

I
THE SENDING OF THE
TWELVE
" And He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them
forth by two and two ; and gave them power over unclean spirits;
And commanded them that they should take nothing for their
journey, save a staff only ; no scrip, no bread, no money in their
purse : But be shod with sandals ; and not put on two coats.
And He said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an
house, there abide till ye depart from that place. And whosoever
shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake
off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily
I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and
Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. And they
went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast
out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and
healed them. "— Makk vi. 7-13.
We resume the thread of the Gospel narrative at Mark vi.
the mission of the twelve Apostles. Jesus must 7_I3-
have had a heavy heart when He took His leave of Nazlreth.
Nazareth. It seemed as if rejection was to be His
invariable lot. For His rejection at the hands of
the dwellers in Decapolis had been swiftly followed
by this rejection at the hands of His own townsmen.
At the one place they had begged Him to depart
out of their borders; at the other they were
scandalised in Him. And yet, as Bishop Chadwick
says, we read of no statement of His labours. Men,
11

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi; after a hard and bitter experience, are apt to be
7-I3- discouraged and depressed. Elijah, seeing the
apparent failure of his work in Israel, wished that
he might die. But Jesus never gave way to these
fits of despair. He never for one moment laid
aside His work. "When they, persecute you in
this city," He said to His disciples, "flee ye into
another" (Matt. x. 23).
A New ^na* was exactly the principle on which the Lord
Sphere : in Himself acted. Rejected at Nazareth, Jesus did
1 ages' not abandon His work in high dudgeon. He simply
changed the sphere of it. When the Nazarenes
refused to listen to Him, " He went round about
the villages teaching " (ver. 6). " Round about the
villages ! " What an illustration this is of the
condescension of Jesus ! When you next read that
verse (Matt. xi. 29) in which He says, "I am meek
and lowly in heart," put down in the margin this
verse 6 as illustration and proof of the claim.
A Lesson in "He went round about the villages teaching."
ow mess, rj,^ yjjjages j ^e townsfolk sometimes talk of the
village with just a touch of scorn. And when it
comes to being a village preacher, we think of him
with a kind of superior pity. We talk of the village
preacher as an " obscure " person, or say that a
man of gifts is " buried " in a village. There is not
a student leaving college who does not think
himself too good for the village. Too good for the
village ? We may all of us well go to school to
Christ, to learn the lesson of lowliness ; to be taught
to be willing to take the small opportunity, and to
serve Him in a humble place. 12

The Sending of the Twelve
I remember reading about a very prominent Mark vi.
minister who one day announced from his pulpit 7"I3-
that he would not give a sermon at his week-night ^C^1^
1 i , Cnnst as
service unless at least a hundred were present to our Teacher.
hear him. It was not worth his while, he safd, to
preach to fewer than a hundred. And as I read, I
could not help contrasting the conduct of his
Master. Souls were of such priceless worth to
Him that, if there was not a crowd, He was ready
to preach to one. And I thought of Him speaking
by night to Nicodemus, and then preaching that
wonderful sermon to the Samaritan woman at the
well ! Christ never despised the small opportunity,
and He never despised the humble place. He was
" meek and lowly in heart." " He went round
about the villages teaching." He cared not for
the towns only, but for the villages also. He was
a village preacher. And the brave, self-sacrificing
men who, in quiet places, often amid great poverty
and hardship, are preaching and teaching the
Gospel may comfort themselves with this thought
— that they are doing to-day the work the Lord
Himself thought it worth His while to do nineteen
centuries ago.
" He went round about the villages teaching." The
When I piece together the Gospel narratives, and Advantage
supplement what I find here by the fuller account
which Matthew gives, I gather that He met in the
villages with a very different reception from that
which He had experienced in Nazareth. The
villager, as a rule, is less sophisticated than the
townsman. He is of a simple and more open
13

St Mark vi. 7 — x. 31
Mark vi. nature. He finds it easier to believe, and is therefore
7ml3- more susceptible to spiritual influences. And so it
comes about that things which are hidden " from the
wise and prudent " are often revealed to babes.
Their Ready Take Christ's own preaching. It was in the
esponse. countrv Christ won His triumphs; not in the
towns. Look at His list of disciples ; they are all
countrymen, provincials ! Not a Pharisee, not a
ruler, is to be found amongst them. The people of
the capital looked coldly on Jesus ; it was in
the country that He most readily found responsive
souls ; and even in countrified Galilee — and the
more rural the district the readier the response.
So, while Nazareth was scandalised in Him, the
villages received Him with open arms. Christ
found a glorious field in the villages. "The
harvest," He explained to His disciples, as He
noted how willing and eager these villagers were to
listen — "the harvest truly is plenteous, but the
labourers are few" (Matt. ix. 37). A ready and
responsive country-side Christ saw, waiting to hear
the Gospel, and only Himself to preach it.
The Great "Pray ye therefore," He said further to them,
Opportunity. «the Lord of the naryegt> that He wiu 8end forth
labourers into His harvest " (ver. 38). Christ felt
Himself unequal to cope with the great opportunity
that offered. He was very much in the same
position as our missionaries in China are to-day,
with new fields opening, endless opportunities
offering, and the forces actually available hopelessly
inadequate to overtake the work. "Send," they
make appeal in every letter, "more labourers."
14

The Sending of the Twelve
That is exactly how Jesus felt. Personally He Mark vi.
could not overtake the work ; He could not preach 7_I3-
in every village that was willing to hear. He
wanted " more labourers " ; assistants, helpers,
colleagues. And it was just this sense of the vastness of the —And the
work, and the inability of coping with it alone, Great Need-
that led our Lord to send forth the Twelve on
their first mission tour. He multiplied Himself
by sending them forth to preach, and so the good
news of the Kingdom was carried into many a
village and hamlet which otherwise might not have
heard it.
" And He called unto Him the Twelve, and The Sending
began to send them forth by two and two" (ver. 7). Twelve
This sentence sends me back to another in which
the first calling of the Twelve is described. In
chap. iii. 14 I read this, "And He appointed
Twelve, that they might be with Him, and that
He might send them forth to preach." That
was the object Christ had in view in the calling
of the Twelve — that in course of time He might
send them forth to preach. And now He proceeded
to put His project into execution. "He began
to send them forth." He had called these twelve
men that they might be "with Him." He had
invited them to come to school to Himself; and,
that they might learn the lessons He had to teach
them more thoroughly, He bestowed upon them
the inestimable privilege of living in closest in
timacy and friendship with Himself. He wanted
them to witness His miraculous works, to hear
15

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. His doctrine of the Kingdom, to behold His glory,
7_I3- to learn from Him how to pray and how to live.
of Help0n ^ut these great privileges were not bestowed
upon them for their own sake merely. Christ saw
the people as sheep not having a shepherd — all
for lack of that Gospel which He had to proclaim.
And He had those wandering and stricken people
in His mind when He summoned Peter and James
and John and the rest to come and live with Him
as His friends. " He appointed Twelve that they
might be with Him, and that He might send them
forth." He bade them come and learn, that in due
time they might be fitted to teach. He bade them
come and receive, that in due time they might be
fitted to impart. He made them His apprentices
— shall I say ?— that in course of time they might
themselves become workmen needing not to be
ashamed. He made them His disciples, that in
course of time they might become apostles. And
that time now seemed to have arrived. " And He
called unto Him the Twelve, and began to send
them forth by two and two." He began to send
them forth to tell what they had heard, to teach
what they had learned, to testify what they had
seen. They had been listeners up to this point;
now Christ sends them forth to make their first
attempts as preachers.
The Master's To pass, for a moment, from exposition, let me
forD?sriples. Point out that we nave nere an lustration of the
progress through which the Lord Jesus would
have every one of His followers pass. First the
school, then the field ; first learn then teach : first
16

The Sending of the Twelve
disciples, then apostles. " Learn of Me, for I am Mark vi.
meek and lowly in heart," that is the first call. 7"I3-
Christ would have us be "with Him," that He
may unfold His mind and will to us, that we may
learn His purposes and imbibe His Spirit. We
cannot teach others unless we have first learned
of the Master ourselves ; and the longer we have
been learning the more competent we are to teach.
Some young and eager spirits are eager to skip
this " disciple " stage. " I do not want to waste
my years in college," one young fellow wrote to me,
not long ago. " I want to get out into the work."
He forgot that Christ calls His workers to be
"with Him," before He sends them forth to
preach. But while it behoves us to remember that we —And its
cannot teach unless we have first learned, yet the urP°se>
lesson which we perhaps need to have more clearly
brought home to mind and conscience is this — that
we learn in order to teach ; that we are made
disciples in order that we may become apostles;
that we are called to be with Him in order that
in due course He may send us forth. " Oh, teach
me, Lord," we sing in our familiar hymn. And
what is the purpose of the prayer ? " That I may
teach the precious things Thou wouldest impart."
That is it ; our privileges are all for service ; our
personal blessings are all meant to serve the
common good; what we know of Jesus is meant
for the enlightenment of the world.
Have we ourselves reached this second stage? Questions for
Many of us have been learners for years ; have we Ourselves.
b 17

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
NMark vi. become teachers yet ? We have been disciples
7"I3- for a lifetime ; have we started work as apostles ?
We have enjoyed the most delightful times with
the Master ; but have we as yet begun to go forth
and preach ? Of course, there is no suggestion in
all this that we should all turn teachers or preachers
in the technical sense ; but, short of that, have we,
as opportunity is given, begun to tell to others, and
to share with others, what we know of Christ ?
Witness- I am persuaded that here lies the main reason
theOuf lifica- ^or *ne s^ow Pr°gress °f *ne Christian faith — that
tion for it. Christian men have been too content to remain
in school all their days, instead of going forth
to teach ; they have been receivers, not givers,
listeners, not tellers. They need to hear our Lord's
second command, "Go forth." And if someone
tells me that they do not feel fitted for the work of
preaching and witnessing, I answer, neither were
these twelve. They had very much to learn — you
know what blundering scholars they were. But
there were certain things they already knew. They
knew that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand ;
they felt sure that Jesus was about to inaugurate
that Kingdom ; and they went and preached every
where that, in view of the approach of the Kingdom,
men should repent. That is what Christ expects
of us. We feel, no doubt, that we have a great
deal to learn; indeed, while life lasts we shall
never finish our learning. But in the meantime we
know something. We know that Jesus brings
God near. We know that He breaks the power
of sin. We know that He imparts peace and
18

The Sending of the Twelve
harmony into this life. Will you tell of that ? Mark vi.
Speak of what you know ; testify of what you 7_I3*
have seen. The multitudes are still as sheep not
having a shepherd, all for lack of that knowledge
you possess. The world is waiting for it, longing
for it, dying for it. The harvest is plenteous, the
labourers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest
to send forth more labourers, and offer yourself as
one. " Here am I, send me."
This sending of the Twelve is the beginning The
of Christ's great missionary enterprise. You re- Enterprise^
member Ezekiel's vision of the river (Ezek. xlvii.
1-5) ? He saw the river, as he puts it, coming out
from under the threshold of the house eastward.
At its beginning it was but a tiny trickling stream.
You could have turned its course with the hand.
But a thousand cubits lower down the stream had
grown, and the waters were up to the ankles ; and
a thousand cubits further on still, the water had
grown still further, and reached up to the knees ;
and a thousand cubits further still, and they were
up to the loins ; and a thousand further still, and
it was a river the prophet could not pass through.
For the waters were risen ; waters to swim in, a
river that could not be passed through. And
everything lived wheresoever this river went.
" And He began to send them forth two by The Begin-
two " ; this is the tiny and insignificant beginning q"^,^ a
of the stream. Six couples of preachers went Stream.
through the towns and villages of Galilee, saying,
" Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
There was nothing to create a stir or to attract
19

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. notice. But every mission the centuries have
7_I3- known has sprung from this one. This is the tiny
seed from which grew Paul's vast labours among
the Gentiles of the ancient world; Columba's
apostolic labours in Scotland ; Francis' labours in
Italy ; Xavier's devoted toil in the Far East ; John
Eliot's and David Brainerd's self-sacrificing work
amongst the Red Indians ; William Carey's service
in India ; John Williams' work in the South Seas ;
David Livingstone's in Central Africa ; Han-
nington's labours in Uganda ; James Chalmers'
in New Guinea ; the pioneering work of that
splendid old man J. G. Paton in the New
Hebrides, and the labours of many more of whom
time would fail to tell. The great missionary
enterprise began with the sending forth of thefse
twelve men ; but how vast is the multitude of the
preachers ! It began with the one small sphere of
Galilee ; but now the heralds of the Cross have
gone into every land. From north to south, from east
to west, preaching the good news of the Kingdom.
The tiny trickling stream of these verses has grown
into a great river to-day ; and wherever the river
flows it gives life. Thank God, the stream is still
flowing, the waters are still rising, and rise they
will until the knowledge of the Lord shall cover
the earth as the waters cover the sea.
A Ministry We can see how in this first enterprise the
the^Bodyas ministry to the body goes hand in hand with the
the Soul. ministry of the soul. One of the most striking
developments of the modern missionary enterprise
is the emphasis laid on medical missionary work.
20

The Sending of the Twelve
We feel the appeal of physical suffering in these Mark vi.
days more keenly than in any previous age. And 7_I3-
so, side by side with the evangelist, we send the
healer. It is worth while to send the doctor out
for the physical good that he can do. The
work of healing sickness, alleviating pain, saving
life, is worth doing for its own sake. But, as
a matter of fact and experience, it is found that,
by rainistering to the body our medical men get
rare opportunities of ministering to the soul as
well. And this development of medical missions
is no innovation. We are but following the best
of all precedents. The Master Himself was
Evangelist and Healer all in one. And the first
missionaries were evangelists and healers too.
For Jesus not only sent them forth to preach ; He
also gave them authority over the unclean spirits,
and, as is obvious from the last sentence of the
paragraph, power to cure sickness too.
He sent them forth " by two and two " ; not Missionary
singly, but in couples. That is just an illustra- Instructions :
. , „ , , . , , , , „ Compamon-
tion, not simply or the considerateness, but also of ship.
the wisdom of Jesus. "It is not good that the
man should be alone " ; it is a principle that has
many and various applications. "Two are better
than one." Yes, and two together are better than
two men separate from one another. Two men
working individually are not so good, and cannot
accomplish so much, as two men working in
partnership. And this is specially so in Christian
work. There are tasks impossible to the single
w srker that become feasible when two are working
21

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. side by side. And more than that. In face of the
i"1^' discouragements and difficulties inseparable from
missionary work, it is essential that there should
be companionship, that each may be strengthening
the other's faith in God. And so two and two
these men went forth : Peter and John, James and
Andrew, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and
Thomas, and so on. The same wise and excellent
rule prevailed in later days; Barnabas and Paul,
and later Barnabas and Mark, and Paul and Silas,
taking the journeys together. Perhaps, as Dr
Chadwick says, our modern missionaries lose more
in energy than is gained in area by neglecting so
human a precedent, andforfeiting thespecial presence
vouchsafed to the common worship of two or three.
Two The Master has other instructions to give these
MeEajre« *™* missi°naries- At every autumnal gathering
we have a valedictory missionary service, and some
of our wisest and ablest ministers address a few
words of counsel to those who are about to set out
for heathen lands. This is our Lord's valedictory
address. Think on every clause and line in it, for
every clause and every line is pregnant with in
struction for life and service to-day. But I will
sum it all up in the two words which, as Dr Bruce
says, give us the soul and marrow of our Christ's
farewell speech. These are the two, " Care not,"
" Fear not.'; I dare say the disciples felt timid and
distrustful, as they set forth to their new toil.
They had never parted from Jesus before. It was
with these brave and high words Christ sent them
forth, "Care not," "Fear not."
22

The Sending of the Twelve
" Care not." That is the essential meaning of Mark vi.
these counsels about taking nothing for the 7_I3-
journey, no bread, no wallet, no money in the "Care Not.'
purse. Some commentators tell us that this in
sistence upon the necessity of going unencumbered
is an indication of the urgency of the errand. The
Romans called an army's baggage impedimenta —
hindrances. And all unnecessary personal luggage
would have been so much hindrance in the way
of these missionaries. No doubt there is truth in
this suggestion. Others again, like Dr Glover,
see in all this a lesson of trust in man. The
evangelists are to believe that there are good men
in the world, who will provide them with shelter
and food in return for the good news they bring.
And this also I dare say is true. But primarily
and principally the lesson is not of trust in man,
but of trust in God. " Care not," says Jesus. For
God cares. Take no money in your purse — your
Father will provide. Go to your work without
anxiety — God is with you, God shall supply all
your need.
And "Fear not." Mark does not say much " Fear Not."
about this, but Matthew gives the message in more
detail. They were going as sheep in the midst of
wolves. They knew how Jesus Himself had been
treated ; very likely the same treatment would be
measured out to them. "Fear not," said Jesus,
God will protect, keep, and save you.
" Care not." " Fear not." They are still Christ's Messages
brave and cheerful words to His workers. " Care stlJ| S,pok|n
not"; your Father cares. "Fear not"; your
23

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. Father watches. And men have gone forth in
7_I3- simple trust in those brave words of the Lord.
When Carey set sail for India, the society that sent
him had only £13 in hand — £13! But Carey
went. He heard his Master saying, " Care not."
Robert Morrison went alone to China. " Do you
think you are going to convert those millions
of Chinese?" "No," he replied, "but God can."
" Fear not." " Care not." They are the Master's
words to every Christian disciple. Life is full of
anxieties and troubles. " Cafe not," He says ; your
Father knoweth. Yes ; life is full of haunting terrors,
and the worst terror of all waits for us at the last.
" Fear not," says our Lord. No one can snatch you
out of the Father's hand. Neither death, nor
life,, nor things present, nor things to come, shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. viii, 38, 39).
Oh for a simpler faith in the loving, keeping
care of God ! " Care not," " fear not," Jesus says !
And as I hear Him speak I feel I can say back to
Him, "I will both lay me down in peace, and
sleep : for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in
safety " (Psa. iv. 8).

24

II.
HEROD AND JOHN THE
BAPTIST

"And king Herod heard of him; (for his name was spread
abroad :) and he said, That John the Baptist was risen from the
dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in
him. Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it
is a prophet, or as one of the prophets. But when Herod heard
thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded : he is risen from
the dead. Fpr Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon
John, and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother
Philip's wife : for he had married her. For John had said unto
Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.
Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have
killed him ; but she could not : For Herod feared John, know
ing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him ; and
when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.
And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birth
day made a supper to his lords, high ¦ captains, and chief estates
of Galilee ; And when the daughter of the said Herodias came
in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him,
the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt,
and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever
thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my
kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What
shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. And
she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked,
saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head
of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry ; yet for
his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would
not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner,
and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and
25

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
beheaded him in the prison, And brought his head in a charger,
and gave it to the damsel : and the damsel gave it to her mother.
And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his
corpse, and laid it in a tomb." — Mark vi. 14-29.
Mark vi. The mission of the Twelve and the excitement
14-29. caused by the works of power wrought through
Good News their hands (to which we find a reference in the
closing sentence of the preceding paragraph)
naturally spread abroad the name and fame of
Jesus. For we may be sure that the Apostles
made it clear to the people, as Peter and John did
at a later day, that it was not by their own wisdom,
or skill, or power, that they accomplished these
wonderful cures, but in the name of "Jesus of
Nazareth." And thus all Galilee rang with talk
about this Jesus, so that at last it reached the
palace and the ears of the King. "King Herod
heard thereof."
—Amongst The report about Jesus was, I imagine, good
the People. news j0 the mass of the people of Galilee. If any
were sick or had dear ones sick, the report about
this Man who could cleanse the leper, cast out
devils, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf,
and life to the dead, must have opened a door of
hope for them. And, quite apart from sickness,
the advent of a One in whom such mighty works
manifested themselves must have made the people
at large realise that God had come near them. For
when they heard of Jesus, they said, "This is
Elijah," and others, "He is a prophet even as one
of the prophets" — that is to say, as true a prophet as
Isaiah or Jeremiah, or Amos or Hosea, or any one
26

Herod and John the. Baptist
of the recognised order of prophets, of whom they Mark vi.
boasted, and in whom they took such great pride. I4"29«
They did not, it is true, rise to the great faith that
Jesus was Messiah Himself. But the report of His
doings filled them with a solemn joy ; they felt the
Kingdom of God had come near to them.
"And King Herod heard thereof " ; but it was —And
no good tidings to him. The report about Jesus Kfng6S the
fell upon him like a clap of doom. It terrified him.
It flung him into a perfect panic of fear. When he
heard about Jesus and His wonderful works, his
knees shook and his faee blanched. He saw
ghosts, and he gasped out, "John, whom I
beheaded — he is risen from the dead ! " Thereupon
the Evangelist proceeds to tell us why it was that
Jesus suggested John, and why it was that the
thought of John filled this King Herodfe heart with
mortal terror.
It is a ghastly story. You know it well, and I Well-justi-
scarcely need repeat it. Herod's shameful andfiedAIarm"
incestuous union with Herodias, his brother
Philip's wife ; John the Baptist's plain and un- "
varnished rebuke of the monarch's sin ; his con
sequent imprisonment in the castle of Machaerus ;
Herod's birthday feast; Salome's degrading and
lascivious dance ; the King's drunken vow to the
girl who had so disgraced her sex ; her demand for
John the Baptist's head, and the murder of the
prophet to glut a woman's hate — these are the steps
in the lurid and awful story.
It was a story Herod was for ever trying to forget, a Haunting
For he had been rushed into a crime he loathed by Crirae-
27

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. the stronger will of his wicked and cruel wife. He
4"29- knew John for a just man and a holy. He
reverenced him. He heard him gladly. The
suggestion that he would ever imbrue his hands in
the Baptist's blood would have shocked Herod.
" Is thy servant a (Jog ," he would have said, " that
he should do this thing ? " But he had done it.
Driven by false shame and false pride, and the
stronger will of the malignant Herodias, he had
done the very thing he loathed. And ever since
he had done it he had been trying to forget it.
He had been trying to bury the ghastly crime out of
sight. But it would not be buried. Here we see
the wretched king confronted by his terrible sin.
The report about Jesus did this for Herod — it
conjured up the ghost of the murdered John.
" John ! " he cried, and you can almost hear the
sentence come in jerky gasps from his ashen lips —
"John, whom I beheaded, — he is risen from the
dead."
An Unwill- When I read this sordid and awful story, I can
ing Criminal. gn(j jt in my heart to be sorry for Herod. For this
very paragraph, which tells us of his wickednes
and shame, is not without indications that under
happier home conditions Herod might have been a
very different man. His treatment of John the
Baptist shows this much — that he was not in
susceptible to the appeal of goodness and purity.
Herodias hated, with a hate as cruel as the grave,
the plain-spoken Baptist. From the first she set
herself against him and desired to kill him. But,
however pliable Herod might be in the hands of
28

Herod and John the Baptist
his wicked queen in other respects, he obstinately Mark vi.
refused to yield to her wishes in this. " She could r4-29'
not," the Evangelist says, i.e. she could not kill
him; "for Herod feared John, knowing that he
was a righteous man and a holy, and kept him
safe." Now all this, as the commentators tell us, is an The
illustration of the supremacy of character. It is a of^haracter.
testimony to the essential greatness of John. The
king and his prisoner seemed to have changed
places. It is not the prisoner who fears the king,
it is the king who fears the prisoner. "Herod
feared John, knowing that he was a righteous man
and a holy." But if you look at that sentence for a
moment, you will begin to see in it more than a
tribute to the kingliness of John's character — as the
commentators point — you will begin to see that to
a certain extent it is a testimony to Herod himself.
Whatever Herod became in later days — and it
was something terrible enough, seeing that he was
able without a qualm to make a mock of Christ
Himself — at this stage in his career his case was
not hopeless. He was sensitive to goodness. He
could feel the appeal of the beauty of holiness.
When we think of Herod we are apt to think of Herod as a
him as a man utterly and wholly wicked. The an-
black in our mental picture of him is unrelieved by
any single touch of white. But that is not at
all the Bible picture of him. Even this paragraph
is not all black. There are glimmerings and
suggestions of white. There was something in
him that responded to John's appeals. He had
29

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. done much to smother the power of goodness in
4"29» him and over him by his shameful union with
Herodias. But he had not utterly stifled and
extirpated it. I have read of a sufferer whose skin,
through the effect of some serious malady, had lost
all its sensitiveness. Hands, limbs, body, all had
been deprived of the sense of feeling. Only one
tiny spot on the cheek responded to the touch.
And by touching that spot friends could communi
cate with the imprisoned soul within. Herod
had hardened his heart and seared his conscience
by his sin with Herodias, but there was still a
tender spot left, and John touched it. "He
was much perplexed ; and he heard him gladly."
Goodness was making its final struggle in the
soul of Herod during those days when he had
listened to John. And when, later on, I see the
king all eagerness to listen to his prisoner — it
looks as if Herod might yet repent and turn to
God. Indeed, that might have been the issue of
the conflict going on in Herod's soul. But for
Herodias' cruel craft, this Herod, who ended by
making a mock of Christ, might have repented of
his sin, and have taken a place at last amongst
those saints, arrayed in the white robes, who stand
before the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Herod's I can very easily believe that John himself had
Failure. his hopes of the king. I can believe that he may
have begun to comfort himself with the thought
that his imprisonment was, after all, going to turn
out a blessing in disguise ; that he had been taken
away from his work amongst the multitude in
30

Herod and John the Baptist
order to bring about the conversion of the king. Mark vi.
But the story does not end with a converted I4"29-
king ; it ends, as you know, with a murdered
prophet. How came it about that the monarch
who reverenced John so much, who, indeed, was
almost a convert to his teaching, became John's
murderer ?
Looking at the narrative, I think that the real —Its Causes.
root reason is to be found in Herod's weak and
vacillating will. In a sense Herod was not a
deliberately wicked man, but he was a weak man,
and, through his weakness, he allowed himself to
be swept into this awful wickedness. He is in
the New Testament what Ahab is in the Old
Testament. Both of them were weak and sensual
men. Neither, however, if left to himself, would
have steeped his hands in blood. But they both
had queens of masterful will. Driven by this
stronger will of their queens, both these weak
men committed great and awful wickedness.
Look at that expression, " He was much per- The King's
plexed" (ver.20,R.V.). The whole secret of Herod's Smffifr.
tragic failure is there. It gives us a picture of a
weak and irresolute man. He could not make up
his mind what to do. Between the Baptist and his
own conscience on the one side, and his wicked
queen upon the other, "he was much per
plexed." He was torn by conflicting impulses.
And so he temporised and procrastinated until
that shameful day came when Herodias' cunning
trapped him with the crime which in his sober
moments he had steadfastly refused to commit.
31

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. Yes, at the root of Herod's awful and tragic lapse
14-29. i;es his weakness and timidity and cowardice.
Herod had not the strength of will to do the right
thing in scorn of consequences. He could not
rise above what the old Bodk calls "the fear of
men." That was Herod's curse all his life through.
He was weak-willed — was swept into crime he
abhorred by wicked associates of stronger will
than himself.
Herod as a Herod is a type of multitudes still. Timidity,
' which takes the form of false pride, is accountable
for the moral failure of thousands. Herod's story
is being repeated every week in all our centres of
population. We hear heart-breaking stories of
moral lapses, amongst, for example, our young
people in shops. I will venture to say that in
nine cases out of ten the cause of the failure is
not so much wickedness as weakness. They come
into the town from country homes. They find
themselves amongst evil associates, who laugh at
them and make fun of them and dare them. Then,
through a false shame and a silly pride, they allow
themselves to be swept into sins they loathe* " For
the sake of them that sat at meat," in fear of his
companions and associates, fear of their scornful
comments, Herod became a murderer ; and for the
same reason men sacrifice their innocence and
honour still.
The Will and One condition of salvation is a resolute and
Salvation!* steadfast will. I am not so sure that we do not
talk too much and depend too much in our religious
life about feeling, and too little about "willing."
32

Herod and John the Baptist
Because after all it is on willing, not feeling, that Mark vi.
our salvation depends. That is to say, it costs J4"29'
effort and strong resolutions to enter the straight
gate and to tread the narrow way. For men do
not slip or glide or drift into it on the flood of
some kindly and altogether admirable emotion.
Listen : " Agonise to enter in by the strait gate."
That is our Lord's warning. If it had depended
on emotion, Herod would have been secure, for his
feelings were all that could be desired. But he
perished for lack of that strength of will which
would have set Herodias and Salome and all the
courtiers at defiance, and would simply and bravely
have done the right. Do you remember John
Bunyan's picture of the crowd outside the palace,
the moral of which is that a man must be resolute
and bold who would be a Christian ? Let me
remind you of it. " Then the interpreter took
Christian and led him up toward the door of the
palace, and behold, at the door stood a great
company of men, as desirous to go in, but durst not.
There also sat a man at a little distance from the
door at a table-side, with a book and his inkhorn
before him, to take the name of him who should
enter therein. He saw also that in the doorway
stood many men in armour to keep it, being resolved
to do the men that would enter what hurt and
mischief they could. Now was Christian somewhat
in a maze. At last, when every man started back
for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man of
a very stout countenance come up to the man that
sat there to write, saying, 'Set down my nanjey-
O 33

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. sir ' ; the which when he had done he saw the man
I4"29« draw his sword, and put an helmet upon his head,
and rush toward the door upon the armed men,
who laid upon him with deadly force ; but the man,
not at all discouraged, fell to cutting and hacking
most fiercely. So after he had received and given
many wouiids to those that attempted to keep him
out, he cuts his way through them all, and pressed
forward into the palace ; at which there was a
pleasant voice heard from those that were within,
even of those that walked upon the top of the
palace, saying,
' Come in, come in ; eternal glory thou shalt win.1 "
The Strife of That is but a parable of the effort and courage it
would enter needs to force one's way into the Kingdom of God.
"»• Herod would fain have entered it, but between him
and the gate stood his enemies in the shape of
Herodias and his courtiers ; and he had not the
courage to force his way through them all, and say
to the man with the inkhorn, " Set down my name,
sir." He drew back into perdition. Between
men and the gate of the palace there still stand
many fierce foes — our own foolish appetites and
sinful lusts, wicked companions and friends ; and
sometimes our worst foes are those of our own
household. It needs courage to break from them
all and through them all and say, " Set down my
name, sir." If any man hateth not his own father,
and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren,
and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be
My disciple." There is some hacking and cutting
34

Herod and John the Baptist
to be done. But if we have, the courage to do it, Mark vi.
the strength of will to do to face the world for the I4_29-
right and the truth, we too shall hear the pleasant
voice from the palace roof, " Come in, come in ;
eternal glory thou shalt win."
We cannot here pass without thought or comment Herod's
Herod's Fate. His promise and his failure are a e'
in this paragraph. His fate you may read for your
selves in Luke xxiii., when it is said, " And Herod
with his soldiers set Him {i.e. Jesus) at nought, and
mocked Him." Contrast these two facts, Herod
feared John — Herod set Jesus at nought and
mocked Him. In the contrast you see the
calamitous issue of sin. This chapter is full of
the most tremendous teaching about sin. The
way in which it breeds — for all this tragedy
sprang from Herod's unholy passion for Herodias.
The way in which it haunts the conscience, as
illustrated in Herod's terror-stricken outcry. The
solemn fact of personal responsibility, "John, whom
/ beheaded." And the tragic doom of sin, " The
wages of sin is death." It is no empty threat. It
is no theological bogey. It is the inexorable law.
See it working itself out. He feared John'; but in
a few months he had become so dead to purity and
holiness that he could make a mock of Christ.
You remember the sequence Paul traces in sin's
Romans i. — lusts of the heart, vile passions, a Penalty-
reprobate mind. It is illustrated in Herod's case.
That was his doom, his fate, a reprobate mind.
There is no whittling sin away, or minimising its
awful consequence. We make mistakes when we
35

alone."

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. even postpone the punishment of sin to some
14-29. future judgment. The punishment takes place
here and now. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
The worst and most dreadful punishment of sin
is the havoc it works in character — the loss of
sensitiveness, the seared and hardened conscience.
When faith is lost and honour dies, the man is
dead. It came to that with Herod. He began by
neglecting John; he ended by mocking Christ.
He refused to have God in his knowledge, and this
was the tragic result. God gave him up to a
reprobate mind.
'Let him That is the final and dread issue of persistent
neglect of conscience and repeated sin — a deadened
conscience, a reprobate mind. The most terrible
punishment of sin is that man ceases to feel it is
sin. "Ephraim is turned to his idols," says God
by the lips of one of His prophets. " Let him
alone," " Let him alone ! " What a sentence of
dread and doom and despair that is ! There is
no hope left when God despairs, when the Lord
says, " Let him alone." It has not come to that
with any one of us. But do not neglect the
warning ; a neglected conscience is a seared con
science, a life of sin may issue in the reprobate
mind. Therefore, if you hear the call, do not put
it off or procrastinate. But listen to it and obey it.
If Herod had only listened to John, what
a different life-story his might have been ! For
though he had committed a terrible and awful sin,
it was not an unpardonable sin. David, the man
after God's own heart, had committed a sin every
36

Herod and John the"! Baptist
whit as black. But David, when Nathan rebuked Mark vi.
him, and brought his sin to his remembrance, x4_29-
listened, and humbled himself, and repented in
dust and ashes, and cried, " Be merciful to me, 0
God." And Herod might have been where David
is ; he might have sat at the same King's table as
David does ; he might have worn the white robe
which David does ; he might have joined in the
song which David sings ; he might have been called
" a man after God's own heart," as David is — if only
he had listened to John and humbled himself and
repented. But though he listened and was much
perplexed, he failed to repent, and so he makes his
bed in hell. With Herod's fate before me, I
proclaim the old message, "Now is the accepted
time, now is the day of salvation." And I issue the
old appeal, "To-day, if ye will hear My voice,
harden not your hearts."

37

Ill
THE RETURN OF THE
TWELVE
' ' And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus,
and told Him all things, both what they had done, and what they
had taught. And He said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart
into a desert place, and rest a while : for there were many coming
and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And
they departed into a desert place by ship privately. And the
people saw them departing, and many knew Him, and ran afoot
thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together
unto Him." — Mark vi. 30-33.
Mark vi. Wb may almost regard vers. 14-29 as an
30-33- interpolation in the sequence of the narrative. At
Apostles and anv rate ver 39 links itself naturally to ver. 13.
The paragraph that extends from ver. 7 to ver. 13
tells the story of the sending of the Twelve. This
paragraph tells the story of their return.
"And the Apostles gather themselves together
unto Jesus " (ver. 30). This is the only place in
which Mark gives this official title of " Apostles "
to the Twelve. But there is a special fitness and
appropriateness in its use in this particular
connection. For what does the word " Apostle "
mean ? It means literally, " one who is sent forth;
a messenger." Now glance back at verse 7.
What do we read? "And He called unto Him
38

The Return of the Twelve
the twelve, and began to send them forth by two Mark vi.
and two." The men who came back to Jesus were 3°"33-
Apostles, because they were men who had been
" sent forth " on the errands of the King. But for
the rest Mark never applies the title to them, for
the simple reason that this is the only instance of
" sending forth " of which he tells us. All through
the rest of the Gospel they are not Apostles —
" men sent forth," messengers, preachers ; they are
disciples, students, learners. So apparently in
Mark's Gospel the title " Apostle " is not used as a
title of rank ; it is the name of an office, and only
when they actually discharged the functions of that
office is the title applied to them. "And the
Apostles gather themselves together (i.e. from the
various towns and villages whither they had gone
to preach) unto Jesus ; and they told Him all
things, whatsoever they had done, and whatsoever
they had taught " (ver. 30).
The sending forth of the Twelve had been more The Revision
or less of an experiment. They had by no means faster
reached the end of the disciple stage. . They were
far from fully understanding Christ's mind and
entering into His purposes. It was simply the
pressure of an urgent need, the vision of the
plenteous harvest waiting for labourers, that in
duced Jesus to thrust forth these twelve men, raw
and immature as they were, to try their prentice
hands at the work of evangelism. Now the mission
tour is over, and the Twelve are all eagerness to
tell their Master how they got on in their first
attempts at preaching; they relate to Him their
39

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. experiences ; they tell Him " all things, whatsoever
30-33' they had done, and whatsoever they had taught."
For their mission had that twofold aspect — they
were sent forth to do something, and to proclaim
something. Christ gave them authority to heal the
sick and cast out devils, and He bade them proclaim
whithersoever they went that the Kingdom of
Heaven was at hand. Dr Host, in his book
Eccksia, says that this twofold function is char
acteristic of the Apostle. Teaching and healing
constituted his double duty. And so now these
Apostles, on their return from their first missionary
tour, present their report to Jesus under these two
heads — " they told Him whatsoever they had done,
and whatsoever they had taught." They told Him
of the cures they had wrought, and the sermons
they had preached, and the reception their preach
ing had met with.
The Full They told Him " all things." They kept nothing
Report. back from their Master. Every little detail of their
tour they submitted to Jesus for His criticism and
judgment. I am sure that the Master saw mis
takes and blunders in the story of what they had
done. Indeed, one of the Evangelists suggests
that He saw and had gently but firmly to rebuke a
certain boastfulness they showed in their possession
of miraculous powers. But if they did make
mistakes, they took the very best means of correct
ing and avoiding them, for they told Jesus "all
things." And somehow, in the mere telling of their
story to Him, they became conscious of what was
wrong and faulty in their work. Whatever was
40

The Return of the Twelve
amiss in their service revealed itself in the presence Mark vi.
of Jesus. I do not think that Jesus needed to 30-33-
point out their mistakes to them, and say, " you
blundered here and there." When they came into
touch with Him, when they looked at their work in
the light of His countenance, they instinctively
recognised what it was they had said or done
amiss. "They told Him all things." , That
was — shall I say?— the Apostolic safeguard.
This was how they discovered their faults and
mistakes, and made themselves the great preachers
they afterwards became — they told Him all
things. With the example of these twelve Apostles before —Of Things
us, let me declare the duty and the inestimable one"
advantage of telling Jesus all things. It would be
for our eternal profit, if periodically, say, at the
close of each day, we reported all our doings to
the Lord Jesus Christ. I am persuaded that many
people are making the most ghastly mistakes, that,
indeed, they are going far towards making wreck and
ruin j[of their lives, all because they do not cultivate
this habit of telling Jesus " all things. " For there are
many things which at present we practise which we
should feel constrained for ever to abandon, if we
reported them to Jesus Christ. In His presence we
should discover their essential unworthiness, not
to say wickedness. For things that pass muster by
the standards of human society, and seem all right
when looked at in the crowd, seem all wrong when
we speak about them to Jesus. And so, to save
us from poor, base and ignoble living, to save us
41

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. from those tragic mistakes that lay life waste, I
30-33- urge you to tell Jesus all things.
The Practice In other words, we must practise what the
of Recollec- Roman Catholics call the habit of recollection.
" Recollection," according to Faber, " is a double
attention which we pay first to God, and then to
ourselves." It is the realisation of the presence of
God, and then the scrutiny in our own hearts and
lives in that presence. It is the looking at all things
whatsoever we have done in the light of God's
countenance. I know all that can be said about
morbid and unhealthy introspection. I know that
there is danger in introspection, carried to an
extreme. But I know also that without intro
spection, without this practice of looking at every
thing in the presence of Jesus, the Christian life is
not possible at all. I read of one of the ancient
Stoics, that it was part of his spiritual and moral
discipline each night quietly to review the events
of the day, and to note where he had gone astray,
and to make resolutions of amendment. That is
the discipline I commend to you ; only instead of
talking over the day's doings just with ourselves, I
invite you to talk them over with Jesus.
—How it Do you not think that it would make a great
may help us. difference to us if we did this? Supposing, for
instance, the business man, when the day's work
was finished, told Jesus all things whatsoever he
had done, submitted his business books to His
perusal. Do you not think that possibly he might
see a necessity for amending some of his business
methods ? Supposing a serving man or maid, when
42

The Return of the Twelve
the day's work was completed, told Jesus all things Mark vi.
whatsoever he or she had done ? Do you not think 30-33-
that each might possibly see things to be ashamed
of ? And supposing you and I, when the day was
drawing to its close, reported all its doings to the
Lord. Do you not think that we might see evil
thoughts, foolish words, petty and malicious gossip,
pride and envy and jealousy, of which we ought to
repent in dust and ashes ? I know that to be made
to recognise our own faults and failures is a very
painful discipline ; but it is a very salutary one.
To recognise our shortcomings is the first step to
wards amendment. Repentance is the condition
of entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. And so,
in the interests of your own souls, make a habit of
telling Jesus "all things" whatsoever you have
done. " All things, whatsover they had done, and what- The Report
soever they had taught." They told Jesus not only °^tilinss
about the cures they had wrought ; they told Him
also about the sermons they had preached. They
submitted their sermons to Him, for criticism and
judgment. I am filled with admiration for the
wisdom of the Twelve in so doing. What an
example to us preachers ! I am sometimes tempted
to think that we are in danger of submitting our
preaching to the judgment of the wrong authorities.
I do not think that many are guilty of the baseness
of preaching to please their congregation. In spite
of the often repeated charge made in our news
papers, and sometimes repeated by those who
themselves ought to know better, I do not for one
43

St Mark vi. 7— x, 31
Mark vi. minute believe that we are guilty of the crime of
30-33- believing one thing and preaching another; of
reserving the truth we really accept, and only giving
forth what we know congregations like to hear.
But I do sometimes think that ministers and
preachers go a great deal too much in fear of the
Press, and the person who calls himself the " modern
thinker." After all, the great concern of a preacher
is not whether the reporter approves his words, or
whether the man of modern mind says that at last
he has found a religion that is rational. The great
question is, whether Jesus Christ approves. And
it would be our salvation as preachers if we carried
our sermons, not into the limelight of public judg
ment, but into the pure light of the presence of our
Lord. We shall never go far astray if we tell Him
all things, whatsoever we teach.
Anticipating " And they told Him all things, whatsoever they
nrartDav na(* ^one> an(* whatsoever they had taught." Thus
they anticipated the Judgment Day. For that is
the judgment, when the soul reviews its doings and
sayings in the presence of Jesus. The Lord, Paul
says, " will both bring to light the hidden things of
darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the
hearts " (1 Cor. iv. 5). " There is nothing hid," said
Jesus Himself, " that shall not be manifested; neither
was anything kept secret, but that it should come
abroad "(Mark iv. 22). That is to say, however
painful the discipline may be, there is coming a time
when we shall have to tell Jesus all things. But
what a day it will be, if we have only a record of
tragic mistakes and failure to tell! Happy they
44

The Return of the Twelve
who deem every day a Judgment Day ; who make Mark vi.
a practice day by day of telling Jesus all things ; 30-33-
who receive His gentle corrections, and find grace
to amend their sinful lives ! For such the other
Judgment Day has no terrors — each man shall
receive his praise from God.
" They told Him all things." In what conditions The Need of
were these twelve men, now that they had returned RePose-
from their tour ? They were tired, and they were
excited. They were in great need of quiet rest —
not simply rest from physical exertion, but quiet
ness for fellowship with their Master, which never
failed to soothe and refresh their souls. And Jesus
was quick to note thei^ need. " Come ye yourselves
apart," He said to these tired and excited men, " into
a desert place, and rest a while. For there were
many coming and going, and they had no leisure so
much as to eat " (ver, 31). Mr David Smith, in
his recent Life of Christ, finds the reason for this
retreat across the lake in Jesus Himself. There
was a plot on foot among the people, he suggests,
to force Christ's hand, and make Him declare Him
self King ; and the disciples were privy to it. The
ringleaders were intent on the business, and Jesus
observed them going to and fro, so eagerly that they
had not leisure so much as to eat. And it was to
escape this zeal, which was not according to know
ledge, that Jesus took Himself and His disciples
away from the excitement of Capernaum to the
quietness of the uninhabited lake. But, though it
is quite likely there was some such excitement as
Mr Smith describes, his version does not tally with
45

St Mark vi. 7— -x. 31
Mark vi. the Evangelist's story. It was not for His own
30-33- sake, but for His disciples' sake that Jesus with
drew to a desert place apart. He was thinking,
not of Himself, but of them, and so now I get
another illustration of that quality so characteristic
of Jesus — His tender consideration for others.
The Tender " Christ pleased not Himself " (Rom. xv. 3), the
F°nSf on t Apostle says- His concern was never for Himself,
but for others. He forgot His own great grief
and heavy burdens in His compassion for the griefs
and burdens of others. " Weep not for Me," He
said to the women of Jerusalem, as He toiled along
up Calvary's slope with the cross upon His back,
"but weep for yourselves, and for your children"
(Luke xxiii. 28). Indeed, Christ's life might be
summed up from first to last in that little
phrase, " for others. " For Bethlehem was for
others; and Nazareth was for others; the labours
of Galilee were for others, and the cross of Calvary
was for others. Now, at the right hand of the
throne on high, He is still busy interceding for
others. And that is what we see here : Jesus
forgetting Himself in His tender care for others.
He had just received news of the death of His
kinsman and forerunner, John the Baptist. In
itself that would have been a deep and piercing
sorrow. Yet His own unfathomable grief did
not make Him insensible to the lesser need of
others. He saw these disciples of His tired and
excited. He forgot His own sorrow in care
for them. " Come ye yourselves apart, and
rest a while." " Have this mind in you," says
46

The Return of the Twelve
the Apostle, " which was also in Christ Jesus " (Phil. Mark vi.
ii. 5). It is the unselfish mind. We, too, should 30-33-
think about others and care for others. We are
in the footsteps of Jesus when we cultivate
" A heart at leisure from itself
To soothe and sympathise."
" Come ye yourselves apart, and rest a while." The Costli-
In that call of Christ I get a hint of the costliness °ess of
of service. In a sense these twelve men were
used to hard work. The majority of them were
horny-handed fishermen. They knew what it was
to battle with the gale, to fight grim fights with
wind and wave. They knew what it was to
labour all through the long dark nigfyt. In some
respects, I suppose, there is no task physically
more wearying and toilsome than the fisherinank
But they had discovered that, toilsome and
fatiguing though it was to catch fish, the work of
catching men was more toilsome and fatiguing
still. The one cost them physical energy and
sweat, this latter made a drain upon soul and
spirit. Their missionary tour left them spent and
worn and exhausted. So spiritual service always
costs. It exacts its toil from the man who renders
it. There may be easy posts and places in life ;
I do not know — but there are no easy places in
Christ's service. Fishing for souls is an exhausting
business. For prayer is no mere form of words
glibly repeated ; prayer is a wrestle, an agony.
Teaching is no easy performance ; it is a pouring
forth of the soul ; it makes a drain upon the vital
energies ; it costs blood and tears. Think of
47

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. Jesus Himself; how His teaching drained Him of
30-33- strength, and left Him spent. Look at Him falling
into a sleep in the stern of the boat — a sleep so
deep that not even the roar of the storm eould
wake Him. That is only an illustration of the
costliness of service. And these disciples were
suffering in their measure from the same weariness
and exhaustion. Their preaching tour had cost
them nothing in money, but it had made vast
demands upon their emotions and sympathies and
spiritual energies.
The Provi- " Come ye," said Jesus to these tired men,
sion for Re- " yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest
men . a -while." Here is our Lord's provision for the
refreshing and renewal of these tired men. " Come
apart into a desert place, and rest." The body
needs periodic rest to recoup and refresh itself.
God draws the curtain of night. He gives us the
boon of sleep, and in the quiet restfulness of our
sleeping hours Nature repairs the physical losses
caused by the labours of the day. And the soul
too needs rest. Indeed, by so much as soul work
is more costly and exhausting, by so much is the
soul's need of rest and quietness the more urgent.
And so Christ calls to us still to come aside and
rest. The Christian life has a double aspect. It
is a life of service, and of communion. Com
munion that does not end in service is unhealthy,
but service without communion is sterile and
barren, and in the long run impossible. It is the
communion I am anxious about. I am not afraid
of lack of activity, but do we give the soul its
48

The' Return of the Twelve
quiet times ? Is our ineffectiveness due to the Mark vi.
fact that our spiritual energies are exhausted ? 30-33-
We must pay more regard to the soul's quiet
times. ..." Enter thou into thy chambers, and
shut thy doors about thee" (Isa. xxvi. 20). We
shall emerge with new stores of power. " They
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength" (Isa. xl. 31).

49

IV
THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE
THOUSAND
" And Jesus, when He came out, saw much people, and was
moved with compassion toward them, because they were as
sheep not having a shepherd : and He began to teach them many
things. And when the day was now far spent, His disciples
came unto Him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the
time is far passed : Send them away, that they may go into the
country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves
bread : for they have nothing to eat. He answered and said
unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto Him,
Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and
give them to eat ? He saith unto them, How many loaves have
ye ? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and
two fishes. And He commanded them to make all sit down
by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in
ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. And when He had taken
the five loaves and the two fishes, He looked up to heaven, and
blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to His disciples
to set before them ; and the two fishes divided He among them
all. And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up
twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. And
they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men."
— Makk vi. 34-44.
Mark vi. You will remember the events that led up to this
34-44. great wilderness feast. The Apostles had just
The Search returned from their first missionary journey, tired
ment. and excited by their attempts at preaching. Jesus
Himself had been pierced to the quick by the
50

The Feeding of the Five Thousand
murder of John the Baptist in Machaerus. Both Mark vi.
the Master and the disciples were in sore need of 34*44-
quietness and rest — quietness and rest which they
could not possibly secure in Capernaum, where it
was all bustle and excitement, and where there
were so many coming and going that they had no
leisure so much as to eat. Jesus accordingly pro
posed to the disciples that they should escape
out of the tumult and excitement of Capernaum,
by taking ship and crossing over to the quiet
uplands on the other side of the lake. And so,
with what privacy they could, they made their
way down to the boat, and set sail for a desert
place, apparently near the other Bethsaida, known
as Bethsaida Julias.
But Jesus was the hero of the hour. As the a Baffled
result of His wonderful works He was the object Quest.
just now of a perfervid enthusiasm. The people
never allowed Him out of their presence. And so
it came to pass that He could not steal away to
that quiet place to which He had invited His
disciples unobserved. Some eyes were upon Him
as He and His, perhaps in the gathering dusk,
launched out upon the bosom of the lake. The
news soon spread that He was gone, and in their
eager enthusiasm the people began to crowd out
of Capernaum, and hurried along the shores of the
lake in the direction in which they had seen Him
go. The number of people who did this is an
index to the excitement earned by Christ's teach
ing and miracles — for all the evangelists agree that
there were 5000 men, besides women and children.
51

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. This vast number of people trudged it along the
34-44- shore, "running all the way," says Dr Bruce, with
the result that when Jesus and His disciples
reached the spot they were aiming for, instead of
finding the quiet they desired, they found this
excited and eager crowd there waiting for them.
" And He came forth and saw a great multitude "
(ver. 34). And so our Lord's quest for privacy
was baffled. The quiet He sought He could not
get. In the desert uplands of Bethsaida Julias,
just as much as in the crowded streets of Caper
naum, the multitude was ever with Him.
The Trial of There is nothing so trying, as Dr Chadwick
Interrup- gavgj « ag tne WOrld's remorseless intrusion upon
one's privacy." Supposing that you and I had
been in Christ's place. Supposing that we had
set out to gain quiet, and, instead of quietness,
found a crowd, the very crowd we were trying
to avoid. How should we feel ? Supposing that
you or I were the subject of this paragraph, how
would it read : " And He came forth and saw a
great multitude " ? Yes ; what would be the next
sentence, if you and I had been the subject of it ?
Would it read like this : " And He was angry,
and would not land. He was sore vexed, and
returned back again " ? For we get petulant and
annoyed when our best-laid plans and cherished
purposes are frustrated by the intrusion of other
people. When I have promised myself half an
hour or an hour's quiet reading — and the very
rarity of the opportunity makes it the more wel
come when it comes — I know how easily and
52

The Feeding of the Five fjThousand
quickly I become impatient, when a ring at the Mark vi.
telephone or a knock at the door tells me that I 34_44-
have to surrender my promised quiet to attend to
other people's affairs. But how different it was with
Jesus ! He sorely needed quiet — quiet to talk to
His disciples, quiet to talk with God, for His own
heart was well-nigh breaking with sorrow. And
yet, when He came forth and saw the multitude,
and realised that there was after all to be no
quiet for Him, there is no suggestion of petulance
in His voice, as there was no shade of anger in
His soul.
" And He came forth and saw a great multitude, The Lord's
and He had compassion on them" (ver. 34). Compassion.
What an exquisite touch this is 1 And what a
beautiful light it throws on the character of Jesus !
It is just another illustration of that wonderful
love that never sought its own, but always forgot
its own needs and worries and sorrows in sympathy
and care for the burdens and sorrows of other
people. That was the feeling the sight of the
crowd stirred in Jesus — not annoyance or vexation,
but a deep compassion.
And this was what excited His compassion — The
" because they were as sheep not having a shepherd " Multitude ^
(ver. 34). Just think of the figure for a moment.
You can scarcely conceive of a more pitiable object
than an Eastern sheep without a shepherd to care
for it. For, to begin with, pasture grounds were
not easily found. It was part of the shepherd's
duty to lead his flock into the green pastures and
by the still waters. But a shepherdless sheep in
53

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. a land of such partial and scanty pasturage might
34-44. Very easily perish for lack of sustenance. Then, in
the second place, not only was pasturage scanty, but
wild beasts were plentiful. A shepherdless sheep
might easily fall victim to some prowling savage
beast. And when Jesus looked out on that vast
crowd, His heart was stirred within Him, for to
Him they seemed just like poor shepherdless sheep.
He saw before Him starving souls. You remem
ber John Milton's line, "The hungry sheep look
up, and are not fed." That is exactly how it was
with these people. They had their pastors and
teachers. But these never led them into the green
pastures of God's Word or broke to them the bread
of life. They talked to them about the traditions
of the elders, and neglected mercy and truth.
And so the people's souls were well-nigh perished
with hunger. But He saw not only famishing souls
— He saw also wandering souls, lost souls, souls
in very imminent peril, because of those enemies
that lie in wait to destroy. For scribes and elders
were but blind leaders of the blind, and did
nothing to guide their feet into ways of godliness
and truth. He saw souls lost and out of the way,
because there was no one to guide them and care
for them. And as He looked at this great multi
tude of shepherdless sheep, famished and lost, the
Lord had compassion on them and "began to
teach them many things." "He began to teach
them many things," i.e. He Himself shepherded
these shepherdless souls. " He taught them many
things." He led them into the green pastures
54

The Feeding of the Five Thousand
of the Word. He spoke to them those words Mark vi.
which were spirit and life. And how eagerly they 34-44-
listened ! "The common people heard Him gladly."
The hungry and famished sheep were being fed.
But He not only fed the hungry, He went —And the
after the wandering and the lost. He had always sfJeoherd
some word of hope and entreaty and appeal for the
sinner. He followed them out into the wilderness
of their sin. And He rescued many. Matthew
the publican, the woman who was a sinner,
Zacchaeus, the Samaritan woman — these are just
specimens of lost sheep whom Jesus brought back
into the safety of the fold. " And He taught them
many things." Tired and weary though He was,
He went on teaching the whole day. He spent
Himself in the work. It was not a mistake ; nor is it
for us. It is worth any sacrifice to feed a faint
ing soul, to save a lost soul. It is worth our while
to become all things to all men, if by all means we
can save some.
But Jesus did more than teach them that day. The
He fed them too. He provided a meal out there in Mea7.e °US
the wilderness for this vast crowd, and provided so
bountifully that not only did all eat and were filled, .
but there were gathered up of broken fragments
after the feast was done twelve baskets full.
Now, avoiding more familiar ground, let me call
your attention to a point that perhaps is not often
thought about by us; I mean the motive of the
miracle. For, as Dr A. B. Bruce points out, this
miracle appears to be a miracle without a sufficient
reason. It cannot be said to have been urgently
55

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. called for by the necessities of the multitude.
34-44. There is that difference between the feeding of
the four thousand and the feeding of the five
thousand. The feeding of the four thousand was
an act of, shall I say, necessity? The multitude
had been with Jesus three days, and had nothing
to eat, and if He had sent them away fasting, they
would have fainted by the way, for some of them
had come from far. But there was no such
necessity in the case of the feeding of the five
thousand. The people had only been with Him
a few hours. There were villages near by, where,
as the disciples suggested, the people could buy for
themselves. Or, if worst came to worst, the dis
ciples had sufficient money in the common purse
to buy some £40 of bread ; so that at any rate
every one could have a little. There was clearly no
necessity for the miracle. Why, then, did our Lord
perform it? For, as Mr David Smith puts it, it
was never His wont to exert His miraculous power
unless it was needed, and there was no other way.
—A Fore- It is not enough to answer that it did not need
of theCrofs ^re necessity to stir our Lord's compassion into
and Passion, exercise. As a matter of fact, except in this case
He was a severe economist in the exercise of
- power. What, then, is the reason for this diverg
ence? I think that Mr David Smith and Dr
Bruce suggest to us the right answer. The real
explanation of the miracle is to be found in the
great discourse that in the Fourth Gospel succeeds
it (John vi.). That discourse on the bread of life,
and on eating the flesh and drinking the blood of
56

The Feeding of the Five /Thousand
the Son of Man, has always been considered to Mark vi.
throw light upon the sacrament of the Lord^ 34"44-
Supper. But at its delivery it was a discourse on
this miraculous feast. Its applicability also to the
Last Supper is due to this fact — that this desert
meal in a very deep and real fashion foreshadowed
the Communion Feast of the Upper Boom. Let
us call to mind again the mental and spiritual
condition of our Lord on the day on which the
miracle took place. He had just heard of the
death of John the Baptist. And the news of the
tragic end of His forerunner had made Him realise
afresh that He too was marching straight to a
cruel death. The cross rose stark and naked and
cruel before His vision. And His soul was sore
troubled within Him. It was because the thought
of His own great sacrifice was filling His mind ; it
was because He was realising with fresh vividness
that He could only save the world by giving
Himself for it, that He performed this miracle. It
was an anticipation of that other feast, when He1*
took the bread, and blessed and brake, and gave to
the Twelve in the Upper Room, and it was meant
to teach exactly the same lesson. The succeed
ing discourse shows that all this was in Jesus'
mind. And there is a little touch in John's account
of the miracle itself that points the same way.
John gives a note of time, "The passover was
at hand " (John vi. 4). Now that is not a note
of time simply. It is meant as a clue to the
meaning of the whole incident. This is how
Dr Bruce puts it: "It was Passover time, and
57

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. Jesus was thinking of it, though He went not up
34-44- to the feast that season." He thought of the
paschal lamb, and how He, the true Paschal Lamb,
would soon be slain for the life of the world ; and
He gave expression to these thoughts that were in
Hjs soul in the incident we are considering.
Yes, this feast was prophetic of our Lord's cross
and passion. By it He said to the multitudes, " I,
the Son of God, am the Bread of life. What this
bread which I break and give you is to your
bodies that I am to your souls. " Except ye eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and, drink His blood,
ye have not life in you " (John vi. 53). If any
man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever ; and
the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will
give for the life of the world " (John vi. 51).
, s., . By the very fact that the feast had this mystical
Incident. and sacramental significance, it became a means of
testing and sifting that vast crowd that participated
in it. There were some casually-minded people
who saw in the feast nothing but bread and fish,
and in Jesus no more than one who could
minister to their material needs. The feast stirred
their casual and worldly ambitions, and they were
all for making Christ King instead of Herod.
They saw no hint of its spiritual meaning. They
discerned not the Lord's body. But there were
some, just a few, who saw its deeper meaning,
and who welcomed it as a sign and seal of the
Saviour's saving grace. The next day the sifting
became visible. For when Jesus explained it all,
and talked to them about eating His flesh and
58

The Feeding of the Five Thousand
drinking His blood, many of them " went back, Mark vi.
and walked no more with Him " (John vi. 66). 34"44-
And the abandonment of this materialistic and
casual crowd left Jesus with just the few who were
in spiritual sympathy with Him. " Will ye also go
away ? " He said to His disciples. " Lord," said
Peter, "to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life" (ver. 68). That is the
significance of this volunteered miracle4 It is an
anticipation of the Last Supper. It is a fore
shadowing of the cross. The broken bread was
just the sign and symbol of Christ's body broken
and given for the life of the world.
And now, out of the many points in the narrative
of the miracle itself that suggest themselves for our
notice, I mean to confine myself to just one.
" Give ye them to eat," said Jesus to His The
disciples, and pointing to the vast erowd before ^ j$ lca"
them. And the disciples were staggered by the Resources.
command. It would take at least £40 worth of
bread, they protest, to feed that host. " How
many loaves have ye ? " said Jesus. And they
come back and say, "Five, and two fishes." And
without sending to Bethsaida for the £40 worth of
bread; He bids them feed the crowd with the
scanty provision they had. Five loaves and two
fishes, and a crowd of 5000 men to be fed ! It
looked absurd, did it not ? But, after Christ had
blessed them, those loaves and fishes multiplied in
the giving, so that all had enough, and there were
twelve baskets full of fragments left over ; 5000
men fed on those loaves and fishes, and more
59

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. was left at the end than there Was at the
34"44- beginning.
Duty ndt Bushnell has a great sermon on that phrase,
Humanedby "Give ye them to eaV which he entitled, "Duty
Ability. not measured by Ability." Christ is always bidding
us do impossibilities. He commands us to do
things which are quite obviously beyond our power.
But the marvel is, they get done. " Give ye them
to eat " ; it sounded foolish, but it was done.
No; "duty is not measured by ability." Christ
can empower us to do the seemingly impossible
things. But there is another word also to be
added. Duty is not measured by ability, but
ability is not measured by the sum-total of our
resources. It was not with five loaves and two
fishes that the disciples fed the crowd, but with
five loaves and two fishes blessed and multiplied
The Power by Christ. The blessing and multiplying Christ is
still with us. with us still, ready to make our scanty resources
equal to any task to which He summons us.
There are no impossibilities to men or churches,
however weak, who have with them the blessing
and multiplying Christ. We have giant tasks con
fronting us — unbelief and sin at home, the vast
millions of paganism abroad; and we sometimes
compare our resources with the tasks, and we grow
faint-hearted and despairing sometimes. But why
should we ? We have the blessing and multiplying
Christ. When the modern missionary movement
started with William Carey and £13, it did look
absurd, did it not ? No wonder sceptics laughed.
But look at what has actually happened. The
60

The Feeding of the Five Thousand
movement so begun bids fair to evangelise the Mark vi.
world. Christ multiplied our poor loaves and 34-44-
fishes. Let us have faith in our Lord. Let us
tru^t His power. There are no tasks impossible to
us. " With three shillings Theresa can do nothing •
but with Jesus and three shillings there is nothing
Theresa cannot do." And let us bring our own
poor resources for Him to bless and multiply —
small gifts, scarcely the one talent. But in His
hands what may they not accomplish ! He may
do much with you aud me. For all through the
ages we have been using weak instruments to do
impossible things. " God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world, to confound the wise ; and God
hath chosen the weak things of the world, to con
found the things which are mighty " (1 Cor. i. 27).

61

THE STORM
' And straightway He constrained His disciples to get into
he ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida,
while He sent away the people. And when He had sent them
away, He departed into a mountain to pray. And when even was
come, the ship was in the midst of the sea , and He alone on the
land. And He saw them toiling in rowing ; for the wind was
contrary unto them ; and about the fourth watch of the night
He cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have
passed by them. But when they saw Him walking upon the sea,
they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out : For they all
saw Him, and were troubled. And immediately He talked with
them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer ; it is I ; be not
afraid. And He went up unto them into the ship ; and the
wind ceased : and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond
measure, and wondered. For they considered not the miracle
of the loaves : for their heart was hardened." — Maek vi. 45-52.
Mark vi. And " straightway," that is, as soon as ever the
45"52- great feast was over, "He constrained His dis-
ofPlanhange °ip^es *° en*er m*° *ne boat " (ver. 45). Now why
did our Lord do this? It seems a complete
reversal of all His plans. He had Himself invited
His disciples to cross over with Him to this spot,
in order that they might have a little respite
from toil, and opportunity to talk quietly together
over their preaching experiences. Why, then, did
He send them away? The natural and obvious
62

The Storm
thing would have been for Jesus to dismiss the Mark vi.
multitude, and then for Him and the Twelve to 45"52-
enjoy the quietness they had come to seek. And it
is quite clear the disciples did not want to go.
Christ had to exercise pressure, to exert His
authority. " Straightway He constrained His dis
ciples to enter into the boat." What, is the reason
for this seemingly contradictory action of Jesus ?
The reason may be found in a sentence in John's Its Cause.
account. "Jesus therefore perceived that they
would come and take Him by force, to make Him
a King" (John vi. 15). That explains everything.
The miracle of the great feast had stirred the
people to a wild and dangerous enthusiasm-
Herod's castle was not very far off, and they were
for marching on to it, deposing that blood-stained
monarch, and installing Christ as King in his stead.
Even the disciples were infected with the same
spirit. Their dreams still were of thrones and an
earthly dominion. They were quite ready to join
hands with these excited but worldly-minded
enthusiasts from Capernaum, and inaugurate there
and then a political revolution. They were very far
from understanding that Christ's Kingdom was not
of this world, and that He was marching not to a
crown, but a cross. It was to get them out of this
excited atmosphere, and to dissipate the carnal
hopes that they had already begun to cherish, that
Christ constrained, compelled, forced the disciples
to go before Him unto the other side, to Bethsaida.
They went unwillingly. I should not be sur- —Its
prised to hear that they went resentfully. It must ecePtlon-
63

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. have seemed to them like throwing the chance of
45_52- a life-time away. Here was the crowd ready to
follow Him anywhere, and to risk everything for
Him. Why did He not seize His opportunity, and
win the promised throne ? Perhaps the beginning
of Judas' treachery dates back to this night. What
was the use of following a Master who would not
take the kingdom when it was within His grasp ?
It was all a mystery and a folly to these disciples.
Christ's ways were not their ways, nor His thoughts
their thoughts. They were a discontented, sullen
company, as Christ constrained them to enter into
the boat and to go before Him unto the other side.
The Does it not happen sometimes still that Christ
Cmfstaaint constrams us to walk along paths which, left to
ourselves, we should never dream of taking ? Does
He not sometimes constrain us to walk the way
of suffering, to enter the wilderness of tempta
tion, to face tempests of trial ? I wonder some
times whether St Paul wanted to take that last
journey to Jerusalem. Friends tried to dissuade
him. He himself knew that bonds and imprison
ment awaited him. Still, on he went. And the
reason for it was, he was under constraint, he was
" bound in the spirit ! " When Christ constrains ub,
let us implicitly obey. Even though we cannot
understand His reason, let us obey. Even though
we see it means trouble and distress, let us obey.
After events will justify our obedience, for they will
show our Lord knew best. Paul never regretted
that, " bound in the spirit," he set his face to go4to
Jerusalem- All the troubles that befel him as the
64

The Storm
result of that journey turned out in the long run for Mark vi.
the furtherance of the Gospel. Nor shall we ever 45"52-
regret our obedience. Christ's ways are love.
"Though they transcend
Our feeble range of sight,
They wind through darkness to their end,
In everlasting light."
" He constrained His disciples to enter into the The Praying
boat, and to go before Him unto the other side " Chnst-
(ver. 43), but He Himself, after He had taken leave
of the multitude, "departed into the mountain to
pray " (ver. 46). You will have remarked how that
Jesus met every crisis of His life by prayer. He
was at a great crisis — perhaps the supreme crisis —
of His life just now. At the moment He was the
popular hero; on the morrow He was going to
destroy His popularity and deliberately choose to
become the despised and rejected of men. It does
not need any great subtlety to see the crisis which
confronted Jesus now.
We sometimes make the mistake of thinking that In the Face
the temptations of Jesus were concentrated into yonrempta"
those forty days He spent in the wilderness. But
they were not. As if, indeed, to guard us against
forming any such mistaken notion, the Evangelist
tells us that the devil only departed from Him " for
a season " (Luke iv. 13). For a season ! He re
turned again and again to the assault. He returned
to the assault on the day of the feeding of the
5000. You remember that the second temptation
wherewith he assailed the soul of Christ in the
wilderness was that of the offer of the kingdoms
e 65

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. of the world and the glory of them, if Jesus would
45*52- only fall down and worship him. A short cut to
the power that had been promised Him — a short
cut that would avoid the garden and the cross;
that was the bait Satan held out before the mind
of Jesus.
It was with precisely the same temptation he
assailed Him now. The people wanted to come
and take Jesus by force and make Him King.
Power was in His grasp. The kingdom, in the
earthly sense, was being thrust upon Him, " all the
kingdoms of the earth, and the glory of" them."
The dazzling offer was being pressed upon Him
afresh. We do no honour to our Master by say
ing this temptation could have had no sort of
appeal to Him. It could. It did. Here was
an opportunity of securing at once many things
on which He had set His heart. His very passion
for doing good lent force to the temptation.
And, besides, it promised escape from so much.
Yes, Jesus felt it. It was just because He felt it
so much that He departed into the mountains to
pray. And it was wrestling, agonizing prayer in
which our Lord engaged that night. He faced the
issues. A throne without trouble, or rejection,
shame and death — the world's way, or God's way.
He anticipated the agony of the garden on the hill
top that night. But He won His fight.
The Victory Once again the devil had to depart foiled and
n" beaten. Christ rejected the glittering offer of the
crown, and deliberately chose the Via Dolorosa of
the cross. " The cup which the Father hath given
66

The Storm
Me, shall I not drink it " ? (John xviii. 11). And the Mark vi.
very next day He let the crowd know that, if they 45'52-
were thinking of a throne, He Himself was thinking
of a cross. He spoke to them of sacrifice and death.
" The bread which I will give is My flesh, which I
will give for the life of the world" (John vi. 51).
It shattered His popularity on the instant. "Upon
this many of His disciples went back, and walked
no more with Him " (John vi. 66). He became from
this time onward "the despised and rejected of
men." But while the Master was fighting out His The
great fight on the summit of the hill, the disciples Disciples.
were having a great struggle for life against the fury
of wind and wave. The Lake of Galilee is notorious
for the suddenness of its storms. What is a placid
smiling lake one hour may be a seething, furious
cauldron the next. One of these wild and sudden
tempests overtook the disciples on this particular
night. They had launched their boat about sunset ;
but they had not got very far, not more than half
way across, when they found themselves in the
clutches of the gale. With that gale they fought
hour after hour. Not until the fourth watch did
succour come to them; that is to say, not until
towards daybreak — between three and four o'clock
in the morning. For all those weary hours the
disciples only barely held their own against wind
and wave. And as hour after hour passed, and hope
began to give place to despair, it may be that they
thought hard things of Jesus. Why had He con
strained them to get into the boat? If He had
67

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark vi.
45-52-

The
Watchful Master.

only allowed them to remain with Him, as they
wished, they would all have been safe and sound
on the shore. Why, if He felt they ought to cross
over, had not He Himself come with them ? Some
such thoughts, I have no doubt, passed through the
minds of the disciples ; possibly even some such
remarks they may, in the bitterness of their souls,
have made one to another. When troubles assail
us it is hard not to throw the blame on God. We
are all tempted to murmur and complain. We can
understand Job's wife when, embittered by the
trouble, she said, " Renounce God, and die " (Job ii.
9, R.V.).
Yet the disciples were not the neglected and
forgotten people they bitterly imagined themselves
to be. Look at ver. 47 : " And when even was
come, the boat was in the midst of the sea, and
He alone on the land." The boat on the sea,
Jesus on the hill ; the disciples in the storm,
Jesus in God's secret place. They are far apart.
There seems to be no connection between them.
But read on : " And seeing them distressed in
rowing, . . . about the fourth watch of the night He
cometh unto them" (ver. 48). There was a very
close and intimate connection after all. Jesus on
the hill was watching His disciples on the sea.
The disciples on the sea were safe, because Jesus
was watching on the hill. Let me give you
almost a companion picture. Down in the valley
Israel and Amalek had met in the clash and shock
of battle. Away yonder on the hill there was
an old man, with his hands uplifted in prayer.
68

The Storm
They stand far apart. There seems to be no Mark vi.
connection between them. But as a matter of45"52-
fact the connection was most close and intimate.
Moses on the hill was watching the course of
battle in the plain. Israel down in the valley
proved victorious because Moses held up his hands
in prayer for them on the hill. And so now, Jesus
was watching the disciples in their struggles, and
seeing them distressed in rowing, " about the fourth
watch of the night He cometh unto them, walking
on the sea " (ver. 48).
Here is a truth of quite infinite comfort. Jesus —His
sees, and Jesus knows. We are often tempted, as A?'?? S H'
these disciples were, when the storms of trouble Own.
buffet us and press heavily upon us, to think that
our Saviour does not see, and cannot care. If
He saw and cared, He would surely hasten to
our succour. We forget that the very storm may
have its work to do ; we forget that whom the
Lord loveth He chasteneth; we forget that in
battling against storms we knit thews and sinews
of strength in our souls. And so we cry that our
way is hid from the Lord, and our judgment is
passed over by our God. But that is a faithless
cry. Our way is not hidden from Him. Our
judgment is not passed over by Him. He sees,
and He cares. And though because He sees it
may be well for us He delays His coming, you
may depend upon it that at the right hour He
will come with help and succour. Seeing them
distressed, He came to them. Their extremity
was His opportunity. He would not allow them
69

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. to be tried more than they were able. Seeing
45"S2- them distressed, He came to them, and the wind
ceased. And so He will come to us and bring us
deliverance. " He shall bring forth thy righteous
ness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon
day " (Psalm xxxvii. 6).
"Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gently clears thy way;
Wait thou His time, so shall this night
Soon end in joyous day."
The Lesson All the commentators agree that this miracle,
to Faith. like the last, was symbolic of spiritual truth. Mr
David Smith, for instance, thinks that, as the
feeding of the 5000 with the broken bread was
symbolic of Christ's death, the breaking of His
body to give bread to the world, so this miracle,
with its story of Christ's walking upon the water,
was symbolic and prophetic of the Resurrection,
when Christ would be possessed of a body raised
above the laws which govern these earthly and
material bodies of ours. The suggestion seems
to me a little far-fetched. But I can see another
truth, which I am quite sure this incident was
meant to teach. It was meant to impress upon
the disciples this fact — that they were in Christ's
keeping, even when physically He was absent from
them. I do not think they would have feared
the tempest very much, if Jesus had been with
—Safety them. For after the great experience of the
with Christ. previoug 8torm recorded for us in chap, iv., they
must have felt that " with Christ in the vessel,"
70

The Storm
as our old hymn puts it, they could " smile at Mark vi.
the storm." The trouble on this occasion was — 45"52-
as John's account explicitly states — "it was now
dark, and Jesus was not come to them" (John
vi. 17). The lesson they needed to learn was,
that they were just as much in His keeping when
He was hidden from their eyes as they were when
He was with them in the boat.
That was the great lesson this incident taught —Whether
them. In a few months Jesus would be leaving prlgeirt
them altogether. They would have Him no more
for their daily companion. They would have to
face their difficulties and temptations apparently
alone. But Jesus assured them that though their
eyes could not see Him He would yet be with
them always unto the end of the world. With
them always ! And they believed the promise.
They remembered how on this night of storm and
peril the unseen Christ was watching over them
and guarding them. And so they went to their
work, and braved their manifold dangers with the
joyful faith that their Lord was with them, and
was keeping them, and that nothing could separate
them from the love of God which was in Christ
Jesus their Lord. Even so He is with us always.
Our eyes have never seen Him : our hands have
never touched Him; but He is with us always.
We are safe in His keeping. No one can pluck us
out of His hand.
Let us notice, however, the reception the The
disciples gave to Jesus when He did appear for ^j^Christ.
their succour. When they saw Him walking on
71

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark vi.
45-S2-

The Slow
Scholars.

the sea, they supposed that it was an apparition,
and they cried out, for they were troubled. In
their terror they did not recognise Jesus, and so
they were afraid of Him. It is always because
men do not know Christ, because they do not
recognise Him, that they fear Him and reject Him.
It is always some unreal Christ, some caricature
Christ, that men repudiate and renounce. The
real Christ is never unwelcome. When the Lord
saw the disciples' panic He said, "Be of good
cheer : it is I ; be not afraid " (ver. 50). And when
they heard His voice, when they heard Him speak
fbr Himself, they were glad enough to welcome
Him into their boat. When Christ is allowed to
speak for Himself, men will gladly receive Him.
Only let them hear Him who spake as never man
spake, and they will gladly welcome Him.
And when they received Jesus, the wind ceased,
and they were sore amazed in themselves, "for,"
says the evangelist, commenting upon this amaze
ment, " they understood not concerning the loaves,
but their heart was hardened" (vers. 51, 52).
Why should they have been amazed? Had not
Christ demonstrated His power only the day
before? The amazement of the disciples was
evidence of the hardness of their hearts and their
slowness to believe. They were poor scholars.
The lesson of the previous day had been practically
in vain. Are we, too, not slow scholars? Is it
not a fact that we, too, fail to understand ? Are
not our hearts often hardened? Ought not the
marvellous deliverance of past days to teach us to
72

The Storm
expect great deliverances for all the days to come ? Mark vi.
Our panics of fear, our transports of surprise, are 45*52-
alike evidences of weak faith. Let the great
things which our Lord has done for us have their
due effect upon us, and teach us to ask great things
of God, and to expect great things from God.

73

VI
THE THINGS THAT DEFILE
' ' And when they had passed over, they came into the land of
Gennesaret, and drew to the shore. And when they were come
out of the ship, straightway they knew Him, And ran through
that whole region round ahout, and began to carry about in beds
those that were sick, where they heard He was. And whitherso
ever He entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the
sick in the streets, and besought .Him that they might touch if it
were but the.border of His garment : and as many as touched Him
were made whole. Then came together unto Him the Pharisees,
and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And
when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with denied, that
is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the
Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat
not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come
from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many
other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the
washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. Then
the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why walk not Thy disciples
according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with
unwashen hands ? He answered and said unto them, Well hath
Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people
honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of
God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and
cups : and many other such like things ye do. And He said unto
them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may
keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father
and thy mother ; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die
the death : But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother,
74

The Things That Defile
It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest
be profited by me ; he shall be free. And ye suffer Him no more
to do ought for his father or his mother ; Making the word of
God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered :
and many such like things do ye. And when He had called all
the people unto Him, He said unto them, Hearken unto Me
every one of you, and understand : There is nothing from with
out a man, that entering into him can defile him : but the things
which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any
man have ears to hear, let him hear. And when He was entered
into the house from the people, His disciples asked Him concerning
the parable. And He saith unto them, Are ye so without under
standing also ! Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from
without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him ; Because it
entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into
the draught, purging all meats ? And He said, That which cometh
out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the
heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness : All these evil things
come from within, and defile the man." — Mark, vi. 53 — vii. 23.
The brief verses at the close of chapter vi. form a Mark vi,
connecting link between the wonderful story of the 53— v" - 23-
walking upon the sea and that of our Lord's contro- The Lapsed
versy with the Pharisees about the washing of hands.
We know as a matter of fact that this incident did
not follow immediately upon the miracle. For John
tells us that on the day following the night of storm
Jesus preached the wonderful sermon in which
He announced Himself to be the Bread of life, and
said that only by eating His flesh and drinking His
blood could men gain eternal life. The result of
that sermon was that Christ's popularity was
shattered, and the multitudes who up to this point
had been enthusiastic in His cause "went back,
and walked no more with Him" (John vi. 66).
75

Multitude.

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. Indeed, Christ found Himself practically reduced to
53-vii. 23. jjjg twelve disciples as the only followers in whose
devotion He could trust, and upon whose loyalty
He could rely. After the crisis He appears to have
v^, left Capernaum, and visited Gennesaret.
—And their. But though the people had turned their backs on
for^aterfal His teaching, they had by no means lost faith in His
Benefits. power. So His coming to Gennesaret converted the
I place into a kind of field hospital ; for the people
" ran round about that whole region, and began to
carry about on their beds those that were sick,
where they heard He was. And wheresoever He
entered into villages, or into cities, or into the
country, they laid the sick in the market-places, and
besought Him that they might touch if it were but
the border of His garment : and as many as touched
Him were made whole " (Mark vi. 55, 56). You
notice that, if these people were not prepared to
accept the spiritual truths Christ taught, they were
only too eager to profit by the material blessings
He bestowed. If they were not ready to take upon
their necks His easy yoke, they were quite ready to
fly to Him to get healing for their sicknesses and cure
for their diseases. It is a curious phenomenon,
this repudiation of Christ's authority, combined with
willingness to make a convenience of Him. But it
is by no means a rare phenomenon. There are
plenty of people who refuse to obey Christ, and still
fly to Him to help them in their troubles. - There
are plenty of people who turn their backs on Him
when He speaks to them about eating His flesh and
drinking His blood, who yet appeal to Him when
76

The Things That Defile
they are in distress. This making a convenience of Mark vi.
Christ — wanting His gifts, but not wanting Him — is 53~v"- 23-
a pitiful business.
But the marvel is that Christ responds to the cry The Breadth
even of those who have refused to obey Him. " He Love *
is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil " (Luke
vi. 35). For see what happened in this case.
These people were amongst those who " went back,
and walked no more with Him." And yet, when
they came seeking Christ's help, this is what I read,
" As many as touched Him were made whole " (ver.
56). He did not withhold His help because they
had refused their obedience. " As many as touched
Him were made whole." And He is the same
compassionate and loving Christ still. We are
often unthankful and disobedient. But when
trouble drives us to Him, He does not cast our un-
thankfulness and disobedience in our teeth. He
hurries to us with help and succour. '
"Unwearied in forgiveness still,
His heart can only love."
Now it was about Passover time, as John tells Hostility at
us, that the miracle of the feeding of the 5000, and Work-
the incident of the storm, and the subsequent crisis
amongst Christ's followers took place. Perhaps,
as Mr David Smith suggests, the rulers had expected
that He would come up to Jerusalem for the
feast, and that they wTould be able to compass His
overthrow. Disappointed in this, they seem to
have sent down from Jerusalem a deputation of
Scribes and Pharisees, to co-operate with the local
77

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark vi.
53-vii. 23.

The Charge
against

Jesus.

The Law and
Tradition.

authorities of Capernaum in scrutinising the actions
of Christ — lying in wait for opportunities of bringing
Him to book.
It was not very long before they found ground for
complaint. As in their previous accusation against
Him with reference to the Sabbath, it was
apparently the conduct of the disciples, rather than
that of Jesus Himself, that was at fault But
probably they argued — and they were perfectly right
in so arguing — that the conduct of the disciples in a
measure reflected the teaching of their Master, and
that, if they neglected a certain ritual observance,
it was because Jesus had made them feel that the
observance in question was trivial and unimportant.
Now the particular thing that scandalised these
spying Pharisees and Scribes was the fact that
the disciples ate bread with defiled — i.e. unwashen
hands. And then Mark proceeds to explain to the
Gentile readers how it was that a trumpery
omission of this kind could be construed into a
mortal offence. " For," he says, " the Pharisees,
and all the Jews, except they wash their hands
diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the
elders : and when they come from the market-place,
except they wash themselves, they eat not : and
many other things there be, which they have received
to hold, washings of cups, and pots, and brasen
vessels " (vers. 3, 4).
Moses had, as Dr Glover says, very freely
commanded washing. Partly for sanitary reasons,
and partly also to emphasize the separateness
of the chosen race, the Law required ablution
78

The Things That Defile
on certain occasions. But these occasions, the Mark vi.
"tradition of the elders" had, indefinitely 53~vii- 23.
multiplied. They not only washed in cases
of actual defilement, as Moses commanded ;
but they washed, for fear of possible and un
conscious defilement. And so, for instance, as
Mark here mentions, when they came home from
market they washed, lest in the market they
should have contracted defilement by unconscious
contact with a Gentile. And a multitude of
similar puerile rules tradition formulated, until life
became a veritable slavery. And any breach of
these rules was counted a heinous sin, to be
punished by excommunication. This was the
charge these Scribes and Pharisees brought against
the disciples. " Why walk not Thy disciples ac
cording to the tradition of the elders, but eat their
bread with defiled hands ? " (ver. 5). They had
committed the monstrous crime of breaking one
of the multitudinous trumpery rules with which
Rabbinism had burdened and encumbered human
life. What had Jesus Christ to say in answer to this The Charge
charge ? If it would be right to use the epithet e "
" scornful " of Jesus, I believe it would be right to
use it of Him here. There is a kind of splendid
scorn of the blind folly that could exalt the
washing of the hands into an article of religion.
His answer to the charge is to brand those who
made it as hypocrites. "Well did Isaiah prophesy
of you hypocrites." And what is a hypocrite ?
Well, literally, he is a man who plays a part on
79

St Mark vii 7— x. 31
Markvi. the stage. That was what these Scribes and
53-vii. 23. Pharisees, with their insistence upon petty and
trumpery rules, were — mere play-actors, men who
wore a mask of religion. They paid outward
deference to God, but their heart was far from
Him. What they had was not really a religion,
but a ritual ; and, as Isaiah reminded the Jews long
before, you may have the ritual withput the
religion. " To what purpose is the multitude of
your sacrifices unto Me? saith the Lord. . . . Your
new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth;
... I am weary to bear them" (Isa. i. 11, 14).
It was a case of ritual without religion. It was
the publican, and not the Pharisee who boasted
of his punctiliousness in the observance of religious
duties, who went down to his house justified.
God had no pleasure in the Pharisee and his
prayers. They meant ritual without religion.
Ritual It was so in the case of these Scribes and
Religion. Pharisees in our paragraph. They were scrupulous
about ablutions, they held up their hands in pious
horror at the bare thought of eating bread with
unwashen hands, but they were careless about
mercy and love and truth. Jesus calls them
"hypocrites" — mummers, play-actors. Their punc
tiliousness was but ritual without religion. And
I may go further, for not only may ritual exist
without religion, but emphasized ritual is a dan
gerous enemy to religion. Laying undue im
portance upon the outward forms, you obscure
the importance of the inner spirit. Once you
exaggerate the importance of external rules, you
80

The Things That Defile
minimise the importance of faith and love. Once Mark vi.
ceremonialism comes in by the door, genuine S3_V11- 23-
religion has a way of flying out by the window.
Palestine in our Lord's day is an illustration of An Example
the truth of this. Religion had been smothered ?nf^s Work-
beneath ritual. Washing the hands counted for
more than the devotion of the heart. They were
careful of petty rules, and careless of the great
commands of God. Take the glaring and monstrous
case which Jesus cast up against them. The fifth
commandment in the Decalogue was this : " Honour
thy father and thy mother." And by honouring
them is meant not simply outward deference, but
obedience in youth, and assistance, if required, in
age. This filial duty is not only commanded by
God, but it is ratified by the instinct of universal
human nature. But Jewish casuistry had invented
a way by which greedy and selfish men could evade
that plain and obvious duty, and do so in the name
of religion. Whatever was vowed to God was
sacred to the uses of religion. It was corban —
an offering — and must pass into the hands of the
priests. It need not, and often was not paid at
once ; the money so dedicated was often employed
by the owner during life, and only actually passed
into the Temple treasury at his death. But the fact
that it was corban placed it beyond the reach of
ordinary claims; for they held it sacrilegious to-
apply to other uses what had once been dedicated
to God. Now wicked and shameless men used this
tradition about corban to evade some of their
plain and primary responsibilities. Selfish sons, for
f 81

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. instance, played this trick upon needy parents, and
53-vu. 23. answered their piteous appeals for help by this very
formula which our Lord here quotes, " That where
with thou mightest have been profited by me is
corban" (ver. 11). The peculiar odiousness of it
lay in the circumstance that it was done in the
name of God. Religion was used to justify selfish
ness and greed ; or rather, devotion to ritual was
allowed to stifle and destroy religion; "making
void," said Jesus, " the word of God by your tradi
tion, which ye have delivered " (ver. 13).
A Modem Now, has all this any message for us ? Has it
Penl- any pertinency to our time ? I am persuaded that
it has. These are days of developed ritualism.
But let us never forget that ritual is not religion.
The one can never take the place of the other.
Religion is not a posture of the body; it is an
attitude of the heart. God is a Spirit, and they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and
truth. In so far as ritual tends to emphasize the
external rather than the internal, the form rather
than the spirit, it is to be jealously guarded against,
rather than fostered and encouraged. For you can
not magnify the little external things of religion,
without thereby minimising the great and vital
things.
Defilement— All this talk about externalism had arisen from
Vital™91 and*ne complaint made by the Scribes and Pharisees
about the " unwashen " hands of the disciples. It
was only outward defilement that they seemed to
have any notion of. Christ proceeds now to show
what the true sources of defilement are. It was a
82

The Things That Defile
lesson that not only these spying enemies of His, Mark vi.
but the whole body of people, needed to be taught. 53~v11- 23-
So He called to Him the multitude, and said to
them, "Hear Me all of you, and understand : there
is nothing from without the man, that going into
him can defile him : but the things which proceed
out of the man are those that defile the man " (ver.
15). It was one of those great sweeping truths that
Christ delighted to utter. It went right beyond
ceremonial conditions to moral verities — beyond
the outward to the inward. By this one word He
swept away all those multitudes of regulations that
tradition had accumulated, and indeed struck at the
artificial distinction which the Mosaic law made
between things clean and unclean — a regulation
which had perhaps been useful in its day, but
had served its time.
The disciples realised that it was a broad and The
sweeping statement, whose bearings they did not Distinction
all at once take in. And so when they were alone Difference.
in the house they asked Him as to the parable.
He, with some words implying rebuke, condescends
patiently to explain it to them. And the gist of
His explanation comes to this that, as Dr Glover
puts it, defilement arises not from food, but from
faults. The centre of pollution is the evil heart.
" Out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed,
fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, coverings,
wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye,
railing, pride, foolishness : all these evil things pro
ceed from within, and defile the man " (vers. 21, 23).
" This He said," remarks the Evangelist, " making
83

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vi. all meats clean" (ver. 19). Yes, He did that; but
53-v«, 23. jje did much more. He revolutionised the whole
notion of defilement. In the deepest sense there
is no defilement, save moral and spiritual defile
ment. The only thing that really pollutes a man
is an unclean heart.
A Personal Have we learned the lesson ? I wonder whether
Application, even m Christian England there are not a great
many people who are far more troubled about
dirty hands than they are about a dirty soul !
I wonder whether even to this day Society at
large does not lay a great deal more stress upon
correct behaviour than it does upon a clean heart !
But, at any rate, let us be under no delusion.
Our Lord " looketh upon the heart." He tests
and measures everything by what He sees there.
A man is clean or defiled according as his heart is
clean or defiled ; and what defiles the heart is the
evil thought. Go through this list, and examine
yourself by it. Perhaps we can honestly say that
some of the things that are in this terrible list are
not in our hearts — fornication, thefts, murders,
adulteries. But what about coverings? And
what about deceit? And what about the evil
and envious eye ? And what about pride ? Are
none of them there ? And none of them enter the
heart without leaving a black and ugly smudge
upon it. When I think of it all, I am tempted to
cry out, like the leper, " Unclean ! unclean ! " For,
like John Bunyan, I feel that sin and corruption
do as naturally bubble out of my heart as water
bubbles out of a fountain, until, like him, at the
84

The Things That Defile
sight of my own vileness I fall deeply into despair. Mark vi.
But there is One who can make my defiled heart 53-v11- 23-'
clean again. No external cleansing can wash
away the stains that evil thoiights make. " Though
thou wash thee with lye, and take thee much soap,
yet thine iniquity is marked before Me, saith
the Lord God" (Jer. ii. 22). "And the blood of
Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin"
(1 John i. 7)- And so I turn to Him with the
prayer, " Create in me a clean heart, O God, and
renew a right spirit within me."

85

VII

Mark vii.
24. The Limits
of Christ's
Ministry.

HE WHO COULD NOT BE HID
"And from thence He arose, and went into the borders of
Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no
man know it : but He could not be hid." — Mark vii. 24.
Jbsxjs for the most part confined Himself to His
own people. In Matthew's account of this incident
the Lord says that He was not sent save to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. xv. 24).
This does not mean that His sympathies were
limited to those of His own race. They ran out
to those other sheep which were not of the Jewish
fold ; and never in all His life was He so moved as
when He was notified of the desire of those Greeks
who came to Philip, saying, "Sir, we would see
Jesus." It was in the interests of His work that
Christ confined Himself to Palestine. For the
future of Christianity it was infinitely better that
He should concentrate His energies upon a limited
number, and impress them deeply, radically, vitally,
than that He should dissipate Himself over larger
numbers, and leave only a weak and ineffectual
impression upon any. By concentrating His ener
gies upon Palestine, and specially upon His twelve
disciples, Jesus produced so deep and profound an
impression that, even though He went, it was
86

He Who could not be Hid
absolutely certain that the Christian faith would Mark vii.
remain. But, all the same, I am glad He did not 24-
absolutely and entirely limit Himself to Israel.
Once at least Christ crossed the border and The Visit to
sojourned amongst the Gentiles. Here we reach oemcia-
the story of that visit to those who were strangers
and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.
"And from thence He arose," says Mark, "and
went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon"
(ver. 24). What was it that impelled our Lord to
take this long and tedious journey into pagan
Phoenicia ? What was it made Him break His —Its Cause.
rule of confining Himself to Palestine ? I think it
was His desire for solitude and quietness. You
remember how, after the return of the Twelve from
their first evangelising tour, He had invited them
to come apart into a desert place to rest awhile.
He saw they needed rest after the excitements of
their missionary labours, and He had Himself many
things to say to them about the future which it was
necessary they should hear and understand. But
the rest they sought on the other side of the sea
they did not find. Instead of a solitude, they
found a multitude. Instead of quietness, they had
passed ever since from one excitement to another.
First, the feeding of the 5000 ; then the storm at
sea ; then the crisis in Capernaum and the deser
tion of the crowds ; and, finally, the controversy
with the Jerusalem Scribes and Pharisees about
ablutions. The opportunity for quiet talk with His disciples I" Search of
which Christ had so much wanted had never come. e remen ¦
87

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vii. And yet every day that passed showed more and
24- more clearly how urgently necessary such a time of
quietness was. Even in the controversy about
ablutions the slowness of the disciples had dis
tressed Jesus. " Are ye so without understanding
also ? " He said. It became obvious to Jesus that
if the disciples were to be ready for that time when
He would be taken from them, He must somehow
gain quietness and leisure to teach and train them.
But the quietness He wanted it seemed hopeless
to expect anywhere in Palestine. Experience had
taught Him that, no matter where He went, the
multitude was sure to follow. And so He turned
His eyes to the land that lay to the north-west of
Galilee. The people of that country were the descendants
of the ancient Canaanites, whom the Israelites had
dispossessed on their entrance into the Land of
Promise. They had once been the foremost mari
time people in the world, though now fallen from
their high estate. But to the Jew the land was
an unclean and abhorred land, because of the
loathsome and licentious idolatry practised by its
inhabitants. To this country Jesus now bends His
steps. Its very loathsomeness to the Jew seemed
to promise to Him the quietness and retirement He
desired. He went away into the borders of Tyre
and Sidon, hoping to be able to sojourn there un
recognised and undisturbed. But once again the
rest had to be set aside.
" But He " He entered into a house, and would have no
could not be man know jtj» says j^k . « alld He could not be
88

He Who could not be Hid
hid " (ver. 24). " He could not be hid ! " That is Mark vii.
one of the penalties of greatness — privacy becomes 24-
impossible. Let our king travel abroad, and he
cannot be hid. He may travel incognito, as we
term it, but the ubiquitous newspaper man is ever
on his heels, watching his every act, and his every
movement is proclaimed to the world. And Jesus
could not be hid. Not that the newspaper man
existed, as we know him, in those far-off days.
But His sayings and doings had set all Palestine in
a ferment. He was the subject of conversation
wherever men did congregate. Phoenician visitors
who had heard of His wonderful works, and
perhaps witnessed some of them, had carried His
name and fame beyond the confines of His own
land, and had astonished their own countrymen
with the report of what they had seen and heard.
Doubtless, in many a home in pagan Phoenicia,
and especially in many a sick home, the name and
power of Christ had been eagerly canvassed.
Christ's fame had preceded Him into the borders
of Tyre and Sidon.
Quite apart from what report had done for Him, The Power
I believe there was something in the very aspect °f His ..
of Jesus that made people feel that here was no
ordinary man. "Her very walk proclaimed her a
goddess," says Virgil, about one of the characters
in his AVneid. And so there was something about
the appearance, the manner, the speech of Jesus
that proclaimed the secret He fain would hide. I
was once discussing with my Bible Class the passage
in which John tells how the officers of the Temple,
89

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark vii.
24.

The Self-
evidentChristianity.

who had been sent to seize Christ, returned with their
errand unfulfilled, giving as their excuse, "Never
man so spake." And I asked my class what they
thought it was about Jesus that had so impressed
and subdued these Temple officials. And one of
them replied, "I think it must have been some
thing in His very face." Technically, the answer
was not the right one. But, all the same, I think
it was profoundly true. I think there was some
thing in the very face of Jesus, a nobility and a
graciousness about Him, that stirred unwonted
emotions in every heart. No, Jesus " could not be
hid." Face, speech, manner, all published abroad
who and what He was. You may build, as some
one has said, a high wall around your rose garden ;
yet you cannot hide the existence of the roses.
Over the highest wall ever built the roses will waft
their fragrance, and men as they pass will say,
" There are roses near." And Jesus was the Rose
of Sharon. Fragrant, gladdening, sweetening in
fluences flowed forth from Him. Instinctively,
men recognised that the Rose was in their midst.
Jesus needed no trumpet to sound before Him,
no herald to proclaim His coming. Men found
Him out. He had not been an hour amongst
these pagan strangers in Phoenicia before they
knew that He was no ordinary man. "He could
not be hid."
Nor, suffer me to say in passing, can the true
Christian either. If a man is able to hide his
Christianity, it is probably because there is no
Christianity to hide. When a man is a true
90

He Who could not be Hid
Christian, all the world knows it. A genuine Mark vii.
faith always proclaims itself by the influences it 24-
emits and the qualities it begets. "They took
knowledge of them that they had been with
Jesus." The men who have really been with
Jesus " cannot be hid."

91

VIII
THE SYRO-PHOZNICIAN WOMAN
" For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean
spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell at His feet : The
woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation ; and she
besought Him that He would cast forth the devil out of her
daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be
filled : for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast
it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes,
Lord : yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way ; the devil is
gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her
house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon
the bed."— Mark vii. 25-30.
Mark vii. The s*ory *na* foll°ws ig a story full of difficulties,
25-30. difficulties arising mainly from our Lord's conduct.
The Dr Vaughan, of Kensington, had a sermon on the
Unexpected Qur8ing 0f the Barren Fig Tree, and this is how he
always began it : " Curse a fig-tree ! My Master
curse a fig-tree ! 'Tisn't like Him." And so, when
I read of our Lord's treatment of this Canaanitish
woman, I am tempted to say, "What! Turn a
deaf ear to a cry for help? What! Mock at
sorrow's appeal? What! My Master speak
roughly to a woman? 'Tisn't like Him." No,
it isn't like Him. And that is exactly the difficulty.
92

The Syro-Phcenician Woman
For at first sight His treatment of this poor woman Mark vii.
seems absolutely contrary to His custom. So much 25_3°-
so, that some have found no incident in our Lord's
earthly ministry more puzzling than this.
The difficulty is twofold. There is, first of all, —And its
the difficulty of His reluctance to take any notice Dlfficulties-
of the woman at all ; and there is, secondly, the
difficulty of His seeming harshness and cruelty.
Let us deal with the matter of our Lord's reluct- The
ance first. It is the lesser of the two difficulties, Jf Christ's
and can, I think, easily be explained. Mark does Reluctance.
not refer to it It is in the fuller account of
Matthew that we find it recorded. Let me give it
you as Matthew narrates it "And behold, a
Canaanitish woman came out from those borders,
and cried, saying, Have mercy on me, 0 Lord,
Thou Son of David ; my daughter is grievously
vexed with a devil. But He answered her not a
word. And His disciples came and besought Him,
saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
But He answered and said, I was not sent but
unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel " (xv. 22-
24). Now that isn't like Him, is it? — to turn a
deaf ear to a cry for help ? It is a strange thing to
find the disciples more forward than the Master.
The Jesus we read about in the other pages of the
Gospel never needed to be begged and urged and
entreated to do a kindness. He was "swift to
bless." Did the leper cry to Him, and say, "If
Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean?" His
answer came swift as a flash. " I will ; be thou
clean." Indeed, in case after case, Our Lord never
93

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark vii.
25-30.

He did not
deny Gentiles.

needed to be asked at all. He did not need to be
asked to feed the 5000 in the wilderness. He had
compassion on them, because they were as sheep
not having a shepherd. He broke the bread for
them of His own accord. He did not need to be
asked to heal the impotent man at the pool of
Bethesda. The sight of the man in his misery was
enough for Jesus, and He Himself made the offer
of healing, " Wilt thou be made whole ? " He did
not need to be asked to raise the dead son of the
widow of Nain to life again. He was so moved
with pity for her sorrow that of His own accord
He bade the bearers' be still, and summoned the
dead man back to life. That is the Jesus we most
often read about in the Gospels — a Jesus who
never needed to be asked twice, who turned
away from nobody's call, who often anticipated
men's prayers and appeals, who was " swift to
bless." It staggers one, therefore, to read that, when this
Canaanitish woman came with her piteous plea, He
answered her not a word ; that even His disciples
showed more compassion and pity than He. How
was it ? Most commentators explain it all on the
ground that Christ's mission was first of all to
the Jews, and that He was not called upon to
confer His gifts upon the Gentiles. But the
explanation is not satisfactory ; for, as a matter of
fact, Christ never hesitated to confer blessing upon
Gentiles when they crossed His path, as, e.g., in the
case of the Roman centurion. No, I think the
explanation is a much simpler one. I believe that
94

The Syro-Phcenician Woman
Jesus was genuinely reluctant to perform any Mark vii.
wonder in these borders of Tyre and Sidon. 25-30.
But it was not at all because the woman who But He
entreated Him was a Gentile. It was because the Retirement.
performance of a great work of healing would
defeat the very object for which He had journeyed
thither. He had left Galilee and made His way to
pagan Phoenicia for quietness and rest, — quietness
to teach His disciples, and to give them that train
ing which they needed, in view of His coming
departure. To perform a miracle would make
impossible the quietness He and they so sorely
needed. So, to quote Mr David Smith, it was
with a feeling of dismay that He observed the
approach of a suppliant. He foresaw the conse
quences of granting her petition. The fame of the
miracle would go abroad, and He would soon be
surrounded by a crowd — sufferers craving relief,
and others who came only to gaze and admire.
And that is exactly the result this miracle brought
about. The report of it was spread abroad, and
Jesus had to seek elsewhere the seclusion denied
to Him in the borders of Tyre and Sidon.
But the difficulty of, our Lord's reluctance is not The
nearly so great as the difficulty caused by our JfQ^^a
Lord's seemingly harsh and even cruel speech. Words.
Let me remind you of the conversation that took
place between Him and this broken-hearted woman.
No doubt the woman overheard our Lord's answer
to the disciples, that He was not sent except to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. That in itself
was enough to quench the woman's hope. But
95

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

A Strange
Contrast.

Mark vii. love for her daughter lent her importunity, and she
25_30- followed the Master and His disciples until they-
came into the house. When they took their places
at table she fell at Christ's feet with the pathetic
prayer, " Lord, help me." He took notice of her
now, and answered her — But what an answer !
"It is not meet," He said, "to take the children's
bread, and cast it to the dogs " (ver. 26). It was
not only refusal. It looked like refusal with insult.
That is not like Him, is it ?
When I turn over the pages of the Gospels, and
read of His dealings with other grief-stricken souls,
it is the Lord's tenderness and gentleness that
strike me. He comforted the woman who was a
sinner with the gift of peace. He called the
timid woman who had got her blessing by stealth,
"Daughter." Even for the woman who was de
tected in sin and shame, He had only a solemn but
infinitely tender rebuke. " A bruised reed shall He
not break, and the smoking flax shall He not
quench " (Isa. xlii. 3). All the more staggering is
it, therefore, to read of Him giving an answer like
this : " It is not meet to take the children's bread,
and cast it to the dogs " (ver. 27). ^What explana
tion can we give of it ? For it is impossible that
our Lord could be really harsh or cruel.
Explained. The common, favourite explanation is to say that
our Lord's roughness was all assumed. It was
designed only to try the woman's faith, and possibly
to show His disciples what even a heathen woman
was capable of. And perhaps there is truth in all
this, and we must judge the whole episode in the
96

The Syro-Phcenician Woman
light of the boon bestowed and the blessing pro- Mark vii.
nounced at the end. But, in addition to that broad 25"3°-
and general explanation, a closer study of our
Lord's words will mitigate somewhat their first
impression of harshness. " Let the children first
be filled," He said. It looks at first like a blank
refusal. But a closer scrutiny reveals hope in what
seems at first a flat denial. Look at that word
"first." " Let the children first be filled." Surely
there was a world of encouragement in it — en
couragement which this quick-witted woman would
not fail to grasp. First, it implied that her time
would come, and that it was only a question of
time. And that very word " dog i: in the original
is not nearly so harsh as it is in our English ver
sion. The form of the word which our Lord uses
is the diminutive — and it may well be a diminutive
of endearment. " Doggies," our Lord's word might
be rendered. He does not use a word which would
be suitable for those fierce and unclean beasts that
prowl the streets and act as scavengers. He uses
rather a term that would be applicable to little
house-dogs, the household pets which played about
the table at meal-time, and got occasional scraps
from their masters. And so this very word which
at first looks like mere and sheer insult, may itself
have kindled hope in the woman's heart. There
is no edge of cruelty ; and, as Dr Chadwick says,
" It domesticated the Gentile world." It gave this
woman a place, even though a humble and lowly
place, in the household of God.
Then Mr David Smith suggests that both the
G 97

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vii. answer of our Lord and the retort of the woman
25"30- are proverbial — that it was something like a contest
wSs"teSt °f ol? wits between them, and that in dealing thus
with this Gentile woman Jesus only showed His
incomparable insight into the human character.
With a nimble and quick-witted Greek it was the
very way to deal. " Truth, Lord. I am not better
than a poor pet-dog; but then I am not asking
much. I wish not more than scraps." Then I
like to think that these words are to be always
read, taking Christ's tone and look into account.
A difference of tone will make all the difference
between ugly insult and innocent raillery.
It depends upon the " look" whether an answer
is to be taken as a refusal, or as a challenge, to
bolder confidence. This woman saw the looks and
heard the tones of the Lord. And that took all the
harshness and cruelty out of the words. There was
a gentleness in His voice, and when she looked into
His face she saw there such pity and grace, that
this answer which we are so apt to regard as harsh,
became to her just an encouragement to hope on,
and so she returned her great answer, " Yea, Lord :
even the dogs under the table eat of the children's
crumbs " (ver. 28).
Sorrow and But now as to some of the main truths taught by
e Saviour, ^is story. And first, of the way in which sorrow
brings people to the Saviour. " He could not be
hid," says Mark. "But straightway a woman,
whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having
heard of Him, came and fell at His feet " (vers. 24,
25). You notice who it was that discovered Christ
98

The Syro-Phoenician Woman
— it was a woman in trouble. Do you ask me how Mark vii.
it was she found Him out ? I cannot tell. How 25"3°.
does the bee discover the flower in which the
honey is hidden ? Instinct, you say. Well, I say
it was the instinct of need that discovered where
help could be found. The comfortable and pros
perous people of Tyre would never have discovered
Jesus. He might have spent His days in their
borders undisturbed and unrecognised, as far as
they were concerned. But misery has a keen
scent and sure instinct for a helper. Probably
this woman had heard reports of Christ's healing
power. She had heard how He healed the sick,
gave cleansing to the leper, and sight to the blind,
and cast out devils. I can believe that again and
again she had wished the Lord would come her
way — for she had a little daughter plagued with an
unclean spirit. And when she heard of this Jewish
Stranger, accompanied by a band of disciples, who
had come to sojourn at a neighbour's house ; when
she heard the description of Him her neighbours
gave, with that wonderful intuitibn that women
often possess — and especially women whose char
acters have been refined by trouble — she jumped
to the conclusion that the great Healer of whom
she had so often heard was at her very doors.
And this was the result, "straightway . . .
having heard of Him," she "came and fell down
at His feet."
I find here an illustration of the ministry of The Ministry
trouble. "By these things," i.e. by troubles and of Trouble.
difficulties, says the prophet, "men live, and
99

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vii. wholly therein is the life of my spirit " (Isa. xxxviii.
25-30. 16). There is no truth that human experience
more fully and richly verifies. Affliction and
trouble have been the means of bringing to men
some of their very choicest gifts.
The Sorely- See what they did for the woman of this story.
tried Mother, ^hen epilepsy or insanity — whichever it was —
claimed the little child as its victim, this mother's
heart well-nigh broke. I should gather from the
tone of the narrative that this little daughter was
the woman's only child. And, from the absence of
all reference to a husband and father, I should
conclude also that she was a widow. This little
child was all she had in the world; so that her
grief when the little one was stricken down was all
the more bitter. You remember how Luke, to
emphasize the sadness of that funeral which Christ
met coming out of the gates of Nain, says of the
young man who was being carried out to burial that
he was " the only son of his mother, and she was a
widow." This Syro-Phcenician woman's trouble
was every whit as deep and bitter. For this little
girl was also the only child of her mother, and she
a widow. And though it was not a case of death,
I am not at all sure it was not something worse
than death. For reason had been dethroned, and
her innocent little child had become possessed of
an "unclean spirit." In face of all this you can
understand that it was a heart-breaking sorrow,
and that the poor woman's soul often rebelled
and grew bitter whenever she gazed upon her
daughter. And yet the greatest blessing of her
100

The Syro-Phcenician Woman
life came to her through the ministry of this Mark vii.
sorrow. 25"3°-
I will say nothing at this point about what —Tried and
the sorrow did in softening and refining her own Refined-
character. Though I can well believe that through
the sickness of her little daughter she gained a
new tenderness and sympathy. There was an old
Scottish saint who had for a crest a palm-tree with
weights depending from its branches, and beneath
the crest these words written : Sub pondere cresco
— " I grow beneath a burden." There was a belief
that the weighted palm grew straightest and
fairest, and the old saint had discovered that
character grows most fair when it too has loads to
bear and griefs to carry. And I can readily believe
that this woman's character developed and grew
beneath her heavy burden of her daughter's
sickness. I pass that by with the bare mention, because —Wounded
one might fairly object that it is all a matter of and brought
. ° j • • .• ™ . .1 • totheHealer
conjecture and imagination. But there is one
blessing this sorrow conferred upon her — and it is
the greatest blessing of all, which is no matter of
guess or conjecture, but is plain, historic fact — it
brought her to Jesus Christ. Had she had no little
daughter ill, Jesus might have come and gone, and
she would never have sought His face. It was
trouble that brought her to the Lord's feet. And
in after days, when she found out Who and what
Jesus was, when she found out that He met every
need and craving of her soul, when she found
out, as Paul did, that having Him she had all
101

were.

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vii. things and abounded, I think she would come to
25"30. thank God for the great sorrow that crushed and
embittered her life. For her sorrow brought her to
her Saviour, and gave her rest to her soul. This is
almost a parable of life. When men are in trouble
— at their wits' end, as the Psalmist puts it — then
they cry unto the Lord. God has many angels who
do His errands and summon men to Him, says
Archer Butler; but the angel that has gathered
most to the Saviour's feet is the Angel, of Sorrow.
And that is literally true.
—As Others Think of the people who came to Jesus in the
days of His flesh. What brought the lepers
crowding to Jesus ? Sorrow brought them. What
brought the blind and the lame and the dumb
wherever men said He was ? Sorrow brought
them. What brought the woman with the issue of
blood to touch His garment, and the woman who
was a sinner to wash His feet? Sorrow brought
them. What brought the father of the demoniac
lad to seek His help ? What brought the proud
Jairus as a suppliant to His feet ? Sorrow brought
them. I question very much whether any of these
would have sought Christ out, had all been well
with them, but the Angel of Sorrow gathered them
all in. And it is so still.
—As Others In our days of health and happiness and pros
perity we have no sense of want or need, and
therefore we do not seek our Lord's help. But
when health fails or the home is darkened, we want
help and sympathy. When the strong waters come
up against our souls, we need a mighty Arm to save
102

are.

The Syro-Phoenician Woman
us, and then we cry as this woman did, " Have Mark vii.
mercy on me, Thou Son of David." It is perfectly 25"3°-
true still that, "The hungry He hath filled with
good things; and the rich He hath sent empty
away " (Luke i. 53). And when the man impover
ished by sorrow and trouble finds himself enriched
with all the comfort and grace of Christ, he will
learn to bless God, even for the sorrow that drove
him into the Lord's arms. And so there are
compensations for sorrow, and there are great
enrichments in trouble.
"Is it raining, little flower?
Be glad of rain ;
Too much sun would wither thee,
'Twill shine again ;
The sky is very black, 'tis true,
But just behind it shines the blue.
Art thou weary, tender heart?
Be glad of pain ;
In sorrow sweetest things will grow,
As flowers in rain.
God watches, and thou wilt have sun,
When clouds their perfect work have done.''
Any trouble is worth bearing if it brings us
into the arms of our blessed Lord, for He is all we
need. Again, this story is a story of Christ's com- The Saviour
passion to a heathen and an alien. Mark is *"? the
careful to emphasize this fact about the woman,
she "was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by race,"
he says (vers. 26). She was not only a Gentile,
103

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark vii.
2S-30.

A Great
Precedent
and a
Glorious Promise.

but she belonged to that race which was held in
peculiar abhorrence by the Jews, not simply
because they were the descendants of their ancient
enemies, but also because of the loathsome char
acter of their idolatries. It was upon a woman
of this abhorrent and accursed race that Christ
exercised His compassion. Is there no signifi
cance in that ? Is not the universal mission of
Christianity here, in symbol and figure? There
is no race outside the love and compassion of
that Christ Who stooped to heal and bless and
save the most outcast and degraded races in the
world. " The history of the Acts of the Apostles is here
in spirit," is Bishop Chadwick's last word on this
incident. So it is. Peter, when he went to preach
the Gospel to Cornelius, the Latin centurion, thought
he was doing an unheard-of thing, that he was
introducing a serious innovation, and so he made
an elaborate defence of his conduct. He might
have spared himself the trouble. All the defence
he needed to make was to point to his Master
going to the borders of Tyre and Sidon and there
extending His mercy to a Canaanitish woman.
Peter's preaching to Cornelius, Philip's preaching
to the eunuch, the preaching of those unknown
missionaries to the Greeks at Antioch, Paul's
superb and world-embracing missionary labours,
they are all here in spirit. Christ broke down all
distinction of class and race. His love embraces
the world. His propitiation avails for the world.
There are multitudes which no man can number
104

The Syro- Phoenician Woman
around the throne clothed in white robes and with Mark vii.
palms in their hands, of all people and tribes and 2S_3°- '
kindreds and tongues, and of that vast multitude
this alien woman is the sign and the pledge. She
was the "first-fruit of the Gentiles." And Christ's
compassion still runs out towards the circle of the
earth. His face is still set towards the borders of
the Tyre and Sidon of our own times — to the
outcast, alien, degraded, sunken folk of the world.
And amongst these alien, sunken, degraded folk
there are many like this woman, who have sorrows
and griefs to bear that only the Great Physician
can heal. There are the multitudes of stricken
souls longing for the Saviour— here is the Saviour
longing to heal and bless them. Shall we not
bring the sufferers and the Healer together ?
But the central thing in the whole incident is The
the woman's strong, persistent and ultimately p"?™1*11 of
triumphant faith — faith in the sense of trust in
the goodness of God and His willingness to bless.
It was " faith " of some sort that brought this
woman in the first instance to Jesus. The story
tells us how her faith was tried. The seemingly
harsh answers and refusal of our Lord put that
faith of hers to the test. And it showed itself a
strong faith — a faith that could persist and hold
on, a faith that would not let the Lord go until
He had blessed her. You and I — have we got
faith ? Probably most of us have, of a sort. But
what sort of a faith is it ? Is it a faith that will
stand the test of trial ? For often our Lord deals
with us as He dealt with this woman. We come
105

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vii. to Him with our troubles and appeals, and He
25_3°- seems to take no notice. "Lord," was the message
the sisters of Bethany sent to Jesus, " he whom
Thou lovest is sick." It was an appeal, a cry, an
urgent entreaty. " Hurry to our help," it said, in
effect. And Jesus seemed to take no notice of it.
For, instead of hurrying off to Bethany, " He abode
at that itime two days in the place where He was "
(John xi. 6). 1 I wonder what became of the sisters'
faith in that interval ? Judging by the way they
greeted our Lord when at last He did come, I
should say there was not much faith left. And
that is how the Lord often treats us. He delays
His coming ; He answers us not a word.
Is the Trial The faith of many is being tried in this way.
urs Does ^e f^fa hold out? Does it persist, in spite
of trials like this woman's ? Let me remind you
of a passage in St Peter about faith and its trials.
"Wherein," he says, referring to the hope of
salvation, "ye greatly rejoice, though now for a
little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief
in manifold • temptations, that the proof of your
faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth
though it is proved by fire, might be found unto
praise and glory and honour at the revelation of
Jesus Christ : whom not having seen, ye love ; on
whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing,
ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of
glory : receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls" (1 Pet. i. 6-9). That is a
passage about faith in the trial. And the Apostle
says practically two things about faith in the trial.
106

The Syro-Phcenician Woman
He says that a faith that endures and persists Mark vii.
through trial brings glory and honour to Christ. 25"3°-
And he says, further, that a faith that so endures
shall win its great reward in the blessing of
salvation. Consider those two points for a moment — a faith The Glory of
that persists through trial and difficulty brings Endurance.
honour and praise to Christ. It is — shall I say ? —
a compliment to the Lord. What a splendid
tribute this woman paid to Jesus ! She believed
in His power. She believed in His love. Nothing
could shake her belief that Jesus both could and
would. And there was gratitude as well as
admiration in our Lord's comment, " 0 woman,
great is thy faith." Nothing exalts our Master
like an unshaken trust in Him. What a compli
ment it was that David Livingstone paid to Jesus !
He was in a position of great difficulty, but he
never lost, heart, because he knew he was in his
Master's hands. And he had faith in his Master.
"My Master," he said, "is a perfect gentleman.
He will never break His word." Does our un
shaken faith in times of difficulty and trial bring
glory and honour to our Master ? Or do we by
our complaints and murmurs at the first onset of
trial lead the world to believe that we are dis
appointed in our Master, and that He is not to be
trusted ? Nothing would sooner beget a belief
in Christ than a persistent and cheerful faith on
our part.
In the second place, not only does faith bring
glory to Christ, but in the long run it always
107

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vii. brings blessing to ourselves. Faith is never finally
25-30. disappointed. It is always richly justified and
The Reward rewarded. Look at this woman. Faith persisted,
Endurance, and what a blessing it brought her. " O woman,"
said our Lord (Matt. xv. 28), " great is thy faith ; be
it done unto thee'even as thou wilt." And she went
away, and found her child laid upon the bed, and
the devil gone out. " He that endureth to the
end, the same shall be saved," said Jesus. And
the faith that endures and persists shall win the
blessing. I am tempted to tell you a story of
the mission field — it illustrates my point. The
American Board established a mission among one
of the many tribes of India. And for years and
years the missionaries laboured without result.
Ten, twenty years passed, and no convert was
made, and by and by this mission came to be
known throughout the States as the Lone Star
Mission. The Board at home took the case of
the mission into consideration. Many thought it
ought to be abandoned. They determined at last
to write, and ask the missionaries in this trying
field what they thought ought to be done. This
was the reply that came back to the Board : " We
are going on. With God nothing is impossible."
Not long after their faith was abundantly justified.
The blessing came. Thousands upon thousands
accepted Christ ; five thousand were baptised in
one year, and the Lone Star Mission is quoted
now, not as an example of missionary failure,
but as a Bhining illustration of the triumph of
faith. That is the kind of faith we want. PeT-
108

The Syro-Phoenician Woman
sistent faith is always in the long run triumphant Mark vii.
faith. 25"30.
Spite of all the delays and disappointments, the —A Sure
blessing will come. I do not say that the blessing Reward-
will come in the exact form you ask; but it will
always so come as to reveal to you the wealth of
God's goodness and grace, for the end of your faith
will be the salvation of your souls. And where
shall you gain this faith ? Where shall you gain
this "Courage, your fainting heart to keep, and
trust Him, though He slay " ? I know of no
place where faith can be gained save at the cross
of our Lord. There we can believe that all things
must work together for good ; there we can believe
that God who did not keep back His only Son,
but freely gave Him up for us all, will also with
Him freely give us all things. There we can
believe that God is Love, and believing that, we
can rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him,
assured that He will fulfil our heart's desires.

109

IX

THE HEALING OF THE DEAF
AND DUMB

Mark vii.
31-33-
A Ministry
to Gentiles.

" And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre anc(. Sidon, He
came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of
Decapolis. And they bring unto Him one that was deaf, and
had an impediment in his speech ; and they beseech Him to put
His hands upon him. And He took him aside from the multitude,
and put His fingers into his ears, and He spit, and touched
His tongue."— Make vii. 31-33.
The healing of the Syro-Phosnician's sick
daughter had just that untoward effect that Jesus
feared. It put an end to all His hopes of quiet
ness and seclusion. It spread His name and fame
abroad. But our Lord was so " full of grace," as
John puts it, that no shade of resentment ever
invaded His breast, even when His cherished plans
were frustrated by the importunity of the people.
When, instead of solitude, He found on the other
side of the lake a multitude, His feeling was not one
of annoyance ; He was moved with compassion,
because they were as sheep not having a shepherd.
And so now in Phoenicia, when His identity became
known, and the crowds began to gather, instead of
being vexed and hurrying off to some other
place for the quiet He had come to seek, apparently
110

The Healing of the Deaf and Dumb
He stayed for a little time to preach to them and Mark vii.
minister to their needs. Just as He availed Himself S1^-
of the opening made for Him at Sychar by His con
versation with the woman at the well, and seeing the
fields white already with the harvest, remained there
two days, so now, seeing a " great and effectual "
door opened to Him amongst these pagan people
of Phoenicia, He tarried there some time, preaching
the good news of the Kingdom of God. He visited
Tyre, and then travelled northward along the shore
of the Mediterranean to Sidon, and there, taking a
circuit round, along the southern slopes of
Lebanon and Hermon, He made His way along
the east bank of the Jordan through the midst of the
borders of Decapolis, until at length He came to
Galilee again. It must have been a memorable
journey, and it rejoices one to think that Jesus
Himself preached to Gentiles and to heathens. No
record of the preaching has been preserved for us,
and yet there are hints that it met with abundant
success, for in after days Jesus quoted the reception
given to Him in Tyre and Sidon as a melancholy
and damning contrast to the unbelief of the cities of
Galilee. It was apparently not in Galilee, but in the At
borders of Decapolis, that our Lord performed the ecaP°
miracle we now are to consider. It was not by any
means the only miracle He performed on His way
back. Matthew tells us that " there came unto Him
great multitudes, having with them the lame, blind,
dumb, maimed, and many others, and they cast
them down at His feet ; and He healed them : inso-
111

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vii. much that the multitude wondered, when they saw
31-33- the dumb speaking, the maimed whole, and the lame
walking, and the blind seeing : and they glorified
the God of Israel " (Matt. xv. 30, 31). You notice
that last phrase, " they glorified the God of Israel"
It implies that many of those present were heathens.
It is the confession forced from pagan lips and pagan
hearts by the sight of the Lord's mighty works that
the God of Israel was the King above all gods.
And it exactly suits such a half heathen region as
we know Decapolis to have been.
A Striking Now the fact that such multitudes crowded upon
Change. Christ in Decapolis is very significant. It argues
such a change of temper and feeling. For Christ
had been into the borders of Decapolis before. In
Mark v. we have His visit to Gerasa, which He
signalised by restoring to his right mind the man
who had the legion. But the story of that visit ends
with these words, " they began to beseech Him to
depart from their borders " (ver. 17). They were
eager to get rid of Christ. They were impatient to
see the last of Him. But it was a very different
reception He met with on this second passing visit.
There was immense excitement and enthusiasm.
Wherever He went the crowds followed. And all
that they saw constrained them to glorify God.
Its Cause. Now what accounts for this startling and radical
change of manner ? What is the reason for this so-
different reception? I think I have discovered the
reason for it. When Jesus was saying " good-bye "
to Gerasa, the healed demoniac wanted, you re
member, to go with Him. But Jesus would not
112

The Healing of the Deaf and Dumb
permit him, but said to him, " Go to thy house unto Mark vii.
thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord 31-33
hath done for thee, and how He had mercy on thee.
And he went hisway,"I read, "andbeganto publish in
Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him ;
and all men did marvel " (vers. 19, 20). You notice,
the healed man did not confine his witness to his own
house and his own friends. He took a wider circuit.
He published his wonderful news throughout the
whole district of Decapolis. Into every one of the
ten cities he went. And everywhere he told the same
marvellous story. He told them how Jesus had
found him a naked and untameable maniac, a terror
to the whole country-side, and how by a word He
had reinstated wisdom on her throne, and made a
man out of a mere wreck. He spoke, that is, of the
healing and saving power of Christ, and clinched and
proved his speech by saying, " He healed and saved
me." The result was, all Decapolis was on tip-toe
of expectation. All Decapolis, especially the sick
and maimed and the distressed of Decapolis, longed
that Jesus would visit them. And so it came to pass
that when Jesus took Decapolis on His way back to
Galilee, the first intimation of His approach brought
the crowd into His presence. The healed demoniac
had been a most effective preacher. His witness to
the healing and saving power of Christ made others
eager to try Christ too.
In all of this there is an obvious lesson for The Need of
us. We complain oftentimes of the indifference Witnessing.
of our time. People nowadays do not seem to
care for Christ. They show no eagerness to
h 113

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vii. come to Him. They do not seem to think He
331*33- can do anything for them. I wonder whether the
indifference may not largely be our fault. Have
we borne our witness to Christ's healing and saving
power ? Have we told them what great things the
Lord hath done for us, and how He had mercy
on us ? Have we told them how He brought us
pardon, peace, joy, and immortal hope? The
witness of Christian people does infinitely more
for the truth than any amount of preaching. Only
the life must confirm the witness. That is to say,
when you bear your witness that Christ has brought
you pardon and peace and joy and hope, your lives
must obviously be seen to be full of the pardon,
peace, and joy of which you speak.
Are we Do we bear that witness ? Do we rejoice to
tell people what Christ has done? And do out
lives show that they are great things which He
has done ? Do you think, if men really knew that
Jesus bestowed these great gifts they would remain
indifferent and unconcerned ? As a matter of fact,
these are just the gifts men most deeply crave.
For men are burdened by sin, they are harassed by
fear, and they want forgiveness, peace, a settled
hope. If only they saw that we obviously possessed
these things, if they only saw that Christ really had
bestowed them upon us, they too would turn to the
Lord with eager hearts, saying, " Be merciful to me,
and bless me also, Thou Son of God." The healed
demoniac turned hundreds to the Lord. There is
nothing still so potent to make men seek the
Saviour as the testimony of the saved man.
114

witnesses ?

The Healing of the Deaf and Dumb
Now, out of this multitude of acts of grace done Mark vii.
upon the sick and the suffering of Decapolis Mark 31-33-
selects one for full and detailed description. It J^Dumb
was the case of a deaf-stammerer. And I suppose Man.
that the reason why Mark picks out this particular
miracle for detailed treatment is, as Archbishop
Trench says, because it was signalised by some
incidents which had not occurred on any previous
occasion. It is really the conduct of Jesus Christ
that the Evangelist wishes to emphasise. The
miracle is not recorded — if I may so put it —
because it was such a wonderful miracle. Christ
did many a deed far more startling and amazing
than that. The healing of this deaf and partially
dumb man, from the point of mere wonderfulness,
was not to be compared with the stilling of the
storm or the feeding of the 5000, or the raising of
Jairus' daughter from the dead. No ; this miracle
is recorded, not for the greatness of the act itself
so much as for the conduct of Jesus. That is what
has stamped itself indelibly upon the memory of
Peter. He can recall every detail of what happened.
He can remember how Christ took the man aside
privately ; how He put His fingers in his deaf ears ;
how He spat and touched his tongue; how He
looked up to heaven, and then groaned in
spirit, and how finally He spoke that word
of command, Ephphatha, "Be opened;" and how
as a result the man's " ears were opened, and the
bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake
plain." Now, if it be true, as it probably is, that this
115

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark vii.
31-33-
Different
Cases, DifferentTreatment.

incident has been preserved for us because of a
certain peculiarity in Christ's treatment of this deaf
and dumb man, then that very fact has a lesson of
quite infinite importance to teach, viz., this : dif
ferent men require different treatment. Christ
Himself was never tied down to one stereotyped
method. The friends of this deaf and dumb man
take upon themselves to suggest a method to Jesus.
They beseech Him that " He would lay His hand
upon him." That — shall I say ? — was the regula
tion and usual method of conveying visible power.
Christ Himself occasionally employed it. " He laid
His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them "
(vi. 5). But this time Jesus will not adopt that
method. There was something about this man that
required different treatment. I suppose, if, like
Jesus Himself, we knew what was in man, we
should see the reason why He employed varieties
of methods in dealing with different persons — why,
for instance, the woman with the issue of blood was
healed in the crowd, and made to declare herself
before the crowd ; while this deaf and dumb man
was taken aside privately to be healed ; why the
nobleman's servant was healed at a distance and by
a word, while He laid His hand upon the leper and
touched him ; why He volunteered help in the
case of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda,
and in the case of the Syro-Phcenician woman had
to be appealed to again and again ; why in the
majority of cases He employed nothing but word or
touch, while in the case of the man born blind He
sent him to the pool of Siloam to wash, and in the
116

The Healing of the Deaf and Dumb
case of this deaf and dumb man He touched his Mark vii.
tongue with His own saliva/ 3I_33-
If, I say, we knew everything about man, we — Wlth Sood
should know why Jesus used a particular method
in any particular case. For we may be quite sure
of this — that the particular method was adopted
not through whim or caprice, but because in some
deep way it met the special need of the particular
case. We may think we see the reason in this
case and that; we may think we know why He
volunteered help to the impotent man ; we may
think we know why He made the shrinking woman
declare herself; we may think we know why He
" touched " the leper. But whether we know or
do not know the reason, we are sure there was
one. We are quite sure, if we knew everything,
we should see in the special method adopted in
each particular case evidence of the wisdom of
God. But the main point for us to notice is that The Lord's
Christ has not one stereotyped method of bringing of operation.
His gifts of healing and grace to men. He has
diversities of operation. He adapts His method
to the special case. He studies the individual
soul. I wonder sometimes whether we do not
forget this simple truth. In some quarters there
is a tendency to limit and narrow the workings
of Christ, to say that only in this way and that
can He approach the soul. There are those who
seem to think that Christ can only confer His
blessing through one particular Christian com
munion ; that He has only one " channel of
117

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vii. grace " ; and that only through that one channel
3I_33- can His healing and saving power be conveyed
to the individual soul. So also there are those
who seem to think that Christ has only one par
ticular method of saving souls — that a man must
have a kind of volcanic experience, a sudden
upheaval of the whole nature, such as, let us say,
Paul had on the way to Damascus, or the jailor
had in Philippi, or Colonel Gardiner had in Paris,
or the multitudes had who listened to John
Wesley's and George Whitefield's preaching. They
are inclined to doubt the reality of the salvation
of the man who had never had any such revolu
tionising experience, who, as Dr Campbell Morgan
once said, cannot remember having been born
again.
—But the What we need to learn is, that Christ has more
same Spirit. than one method of dealing with souls. There
are twelve gates into the Kingdom — three on the
north, three on the south, three on the east, three
on the west, and by differing paths men may meet
at last in the same beautiful city of God. To
forget this, and to deny this, is to limit the Holy
One of Israel. Christ, we may be sure, is just as
much at home, and can confer His saving grace
just as truly in the Salvation Army barracks, or
the Quakers' meeting-house, as in a stately cathe
dral. Christ can save the soul just as surely by
the gracious ministries of the home, as by the
tumultuous or subduing experiences of a revival
meeting. There are diversities of operations ; but
it will be well for us when we recognise that in
118

The Healing of the Deaf and Dumb
and through them all worketh one of the same Mark vii.
Spirit. If we are ourselves to deal wisely and 3I_33-
successfully with men, we must, like our Lord, ^he .
adapt our method to the special requirements of be followed.
the case. We are fishers of men. And any man
who wishes to become an expert fisherman must,
according to Isaak Walton, " study his fish." We,
too, must study men, if we are to catch men.
All men are not to be won in the same way.
What appeals to one does not appeal to another.
Well-intentioned but tactless dealing may often
repel instead of winning souls. That is what
gave Henry Drummond his marvellous power over
the students in Edinburgh. He knew student
nature. He touched just those chords he knew
would respond in every young student's heart, and
so he turned hundreds to righteousness. That is
the reason why in these days men are beginning
to study boy and child nature in connection with
our Sunday Schools. They are beginning to realise
that the man's way is not the child's way — that if
the child's soul is to be won, they must find the
right avenue, and tread it. We need to be wise
to win souls, to be expert in the human heart.
And if we say such wisdom is not ours, if we ask,
God will give it liberally to us.
And now note two points in Christ's special Christ's
treatment of this case. "And He took him aside Treatment.
from the multitude privately, and put His fingers
into his ears, and He spat, and touched his tongue "
(ver. 33). There are two points to notice — (1) The
privacy, and (2) our Lord's symbolic actions. Let
119

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark vii.
31-33- The
Symbolic
Actions.

The Privacy.

— And its
Value.

us take that second point first, as it can be dis
missed in a word or two. Why did our Lord put
His fingers in this man's ears, and then touch his
tongue with the moisture from His own mouth ?
To quicken and arouse faith. This was the only
way Christ could communicate with the man.
Deaf as the man was, our Lord could only speak
to him by signs. And so He put His fingers
into his ears, as if to bore through any obstacle
there might be to hearing ; and then touched his
tongue, as if to convey to it the faculty of His
own. And so He quickened expectation and
faith, which was an indispensable condition of
His every act of power.
And why did He withdraw him from the
crowd? Not to avoid observation, as some sug
gest. Not that He Himself might be the more
free to pray, as others say; but, as Archbishop
Trench says, that the man himself might be more
receptive of deep and lasting impressions. This
leads me to say that Jesus takes us aside for the
very same purpose still. In the din and clamour
of the crowded street Christ cannot speak to us :
the rush and pressure of life are prone to obliterate
and efface the impressions of religion — indeed,
often prevent any impression being made at all.
And so sometimes our Lord takes us aside into
the sick-room, into which the tumult of the world
cannot come; into the loneliness and solitude of
bereavement, into the wilderness of sorrow, in
order that He may speak His words of healing
and life to us. We shrink from being taken aside
120

The Healing of the Deaf and Dumb
like that ; but it is worth while being laid aside Mark vii.
from the rush and toil of life, if our ears become 3I_33-
opened to heavenly harmonies, and we see the
King in His beauty. Sorrow often leaves its
blessing behind, in a healed and saved soul. In
the meantime let us not wait for sickness or
sorrow to draw us aside. Day by day let us
draw aside of our own accord, that every day
our souls may be refreshed, so that renewed we
may go from strength to strength.

121

THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN
"And looking up to heaveD, He sighed, and saith unto him,
Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were
opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake
plain. And He charged them that they should tell no man : but
the more He charged them, so much the more a great deal they
published it ; And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He
hath done all things well : He maketh both the deaf to hear, and
the dumb to speak." — Make vii. 34-37.
Mark vii. These two points already dealt with do not
34"37- exhaust the details of our Lord's action in the
case of this miracle. The Evangelist — deriving,
no doubt, his information from Peter — says that
before He performed the very act of healing our
Lord looked up to heaven, and then He sighed, or
rather groaned, and then He spoke the word of
power, "Ephphatha," "Be opened." Dr Maclaren
has made these details of our Lord's action the
basis of one of his most exquisite sermons, and it
is almost impossible to say anything about them
without following, however imperfectly, in his
steps. But, at the risk of unfavourable com
parison, let me say something about these details
of our Lord's conduct, the light they throw upon
His character, and the permanent lessons they
have to teach us. 122

The Deaf and Dumb Man
The first thing Jesus did after He had taken the Mark vii.
man aside, and by His symbolic action stirred 34-37/
hope within his breast, was this, " He looked up ^ne
to heaven." It was not the only time that Jesus Look.
looked up to heaven before performing an act of
power. I turn back to the account of the feeding
of the five thousand, and read, " He took the five
loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven,
He blessed, and brake the loaves " (Mark vi. 41).
Now why did Jesus look up to heaven ? And
what did He do when He looked up to heaven ?
I think the answer is plain and unmistakeable.
He looked up to heaven because it was the source
of His power, and what He did when He looked
up was to pray.
What a lesson there is in all this for us ! The The Secret
heavenward look is still the secret of power. In ° ower"
other words, we can only do our work and win
our triumphs in conscious dependence upon God.
It is upon Him we must wait. It is to Him we
must call. "As the eyes of servants look unto
the hand of their master, ... so our eyes look
unto the Lord our God " (Psa. cxxiii. 2) ; for apart ..
from Him we can do nothing. Prayer is the
thermometer of the Church, people are very fond
of saying. It is much more than that — it is the
power-gauge of the Church. "This kind," the
kind of ills the Church has to fight against and
expel, " cometh forth by nothing save by prayer."
Do we cultivate this heavenward look ? In what —And some
is it that we put our trust ? To what is it that we fo" £' u es
look for power and success ? I wonder sometimes
123

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vii. whether we do not put our trust overmuch, in these
34-37- days, in mere mechanical and human devices. I
think of some of the methods Churches use to
win the crowds — advertisements, music, popular
lectures, socials, and the rest. They are, no
doubt, all right in their way and place. But
conquering power does not come that way. "My
soul, wait thou only upon God, from Him cometh
my salvation." Notice the sequence in our para
graph : Jesus looked up to heaven, and saith unto
him, " Ephphatha " (ver. 34). j The heavenward
look issued in the word of power. And still the
Church that "looks up" shall be able to speak
the word of power: it shall be able to free the
prisoner, to cleanse the leper, to save the sinner, to
quicken the dead, and nothing shall be impossible
to it.
The Groan. "Looking up to heaven, He sighed." What is
the meaning of this sigh, or rather groan, that
escaped the lips of Jesus ? It is surely a strange
thing that, at the very moment our Lord was about
to exercise His triumphant power, He should sigh.
Some commentators explain it by saying that it
was the deep voice of the prayer in which He was
at that moment engaged. And others, again, say
that what He sighed for was the unbelief of the
multitude, upon whom every work of power seemed
to be wasted, in that it failed to convince them.
Others, again, hold that He sighed at the thought
of those deeper ills of the soul which could not be
healed by a word, as physical deafness could. And,
yet again, Stier ingeniously suggests that Jesus
124

The Deaf and Dumb Man
sighed because He realised that the gifts of speech Mark vii.
and hearing were so often abused, and might be 34"37-
abused by the very man on whom He was about to
confer them — He sighed because He knew that
"the gift of hearing is so doubtful a blessing, and
the faculty of speech is so apt to be perverted."
But the simplest explanation is the truest and —And its
the best. The " groan " expressed, as Dr Salmond Meanine-
puts it, "Christ's deep, pained sympathy." Our
Lord was touched with the feeling of all our
infirmities. He was full of the deepest and keenest
sympathy. He was " moved with compassion " at
every sight of sorrow. His eyes had been lifted up
to heaven the moment before — the land where
there is no sickness, no suffering, no pain. And
now they are fixed upon an example of the woes
and miseries of earth ; and possibly the contrast
between heaven, with its happiness and perfect
health, and earth, with its suffering and pain,
called forth this "groan." Our Lord "groaned"
over this poor creature before Him, deaf and
partially dumb, the mere wreck and ruin of a man.
This was not man as God had made him. God
looked on all that He had made, and behold it was
"very good." This maimed and marred being was
man as sin had damaged, defaced and disfigured
him. And our Lord " groaned " at the thought of
the ravages sin had made in God's fair world.
There is another illustration of the same kind —Not a
of thing in the story of the raising of Lazarus. ?oIjar?
When our Lord saw the sisters weeping, and the
Jews who had come to comfort them also weeping,
125

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark vii.
34-37-

The Pitiful-
ness of
Christ.

John tells us, " He groaned in the spirit and was
troubled." And again when He came to the grave
He groaned in Himself. In the Greek word there
is a suggestion of anger and indignation. He
groaned with indignant emotion. What was it that
stirred this emotion within Him ? He groaned
with indignant emotion at the disorder of the
world, at the pain and suffering and sorrow and
death that sin had brought into the world. And
so in this deaf and dumb man He saw an illustra
tion of the work of the devil, of the ravage and
havoc wrought by sin, and He " groaned " ; He
sighed — not so much with indignation this time
(for the Greek word is not identical with that in
John), but with pity and sympathy.
In this " sigh " you have our Lord's pitifulness
for all needy, suffering, sin-burdened men. He did
not walk through life with unheeding eyes and an
unfeeling heart. He had eyes to see and a heart
to feel. Sorrow always stirred His sympathies.
He was " full of compassion." And we too need
the pitiful heart, if we are to do Christ's work in
the world. The world is full to-day of the^ sick
and the poor and the suffering and the sinful. We
ought not to be able to walk along life's ways
with unmoved compassion. We want a " heart
at leisure from itself, to soothe and sympathise."
" A heart of compassion " is the first thing Paul
mentions in that list of the shining garments of the
new man. " Put on therefore, as God's elect,
holy and beloved, a heart of compassion " (Col. iii.
12). For we can do nothing towards the redemp-
126

The Deaf and Dumb Man
tion of the world unless we have the pitiful Mark vii
soul. 34-37-
It is worth noticing that the " sigh " or " groan " The Groan
of our Lord came immediately after the heaven- uL^-Jd
ward look. As Dr Morison beautifully puts it, Look.
" The deepest sympathy for man springs from the
loftiest communion with God." The fact is, we
shall only learn to pity as we look up. It is only
as we think of God that we learn something of
His purpose with reference to man ; it is only as
we see man as he was meant to be, that we shall
pity man as he is. I can conceive of one, who
never lifts his eyes above earth and its things,
having the springs of pity dried up within him.
Here, for instance, is a man who writes, " This
world is the best possible of worlds ; man as he
is, is as good as he can be ; sin and misery are
essentially human." We have only to hold a
creed like that, and pity will die within us. But
if we " look up," and see man as God meant him
to be, we shall be filled with deep and unutterable
pity for man as he is. Pity springiug from com
munion with God is like a stream which, having its
source high up in the eternal snows, flows cool and
full, bringing refreshing verdure to the parched
fields in the hottest days of summer.
Then again, as Dr Maclaren suggests, the The Look
heavenward look is necessary to guard us from Despair?"1
the pit of despair. If we look simply and only
at this world and its miseries, we may easily fall
into despair. There is a profound pity in the
heart of some of our great Pessimists. Thomas
127

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark vii.
34-37-

Christ's Word.

Hardy, for instance, has a deep concern for the
sorrows and sadnesses of this world, which with
such terrible realism he describes for us in his
Wessex novels. It is such a hopeless pity; he
sees no remedy or cure. But the heavenward look
flashes the gleam of hope into the very eye of pity.
" Jesus groaned " ; He sighed over the plight of
this deaf and dumb man ; but it was not a hope
less sigh, for He knew at the very moment that
God would enable Him to repair the ravages
which sin had made. And so exactly will it be
with us ; the sight of the world's sin and pain
ought always to stir us to deepest and tenderest
pity ; but if we look up to God it will never stir us
to despair, for we shall know then that God can
save to the uttermost, that He can undo and
'repair the ravages of sin, that He can set
the most broken and marked perfect before His
throne. Then, following the heavenward look and the sigh,
came the word of power. " Looking up to heaven,
He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is,
Be opened " (ver. 34). You notice that in this case,
as in that of the daughter of Jairus, the very
Aramaic word that Jesus spoke has stamped itself
upon Peter's memory and is reproduced here.
There is a close connection between the word of
power and the sigh and the heavenward look that
preceded it. It was the pity of His heart that
prompted the desire to help. It was His union
with God that gave Him the power to help. Look
ing up to heaven, "He sighed, and saith, Ephphatha,
128

The Deaf and Dumb Man
that is, Be opened. And his ears were opened, and Mark vii.
the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake 34_37-
plain." The lesson of all this for us is obvious. Pitifulness Pitifulness,
and prayerful ness are the conditions of power. For nef/an
without pitifulness we shall not have the wish to Power.
save the burdened and sin-stained all about us ;
and without prayer we shall not have the power.
But supposing we have the pitifulness, and suppos
ing we have the prayerfulness, supposing we have
the sensitive heart and the expectant faith, then we
too shall be able to speak the word of power, and
we too shall see God's saving and restoring grace
exercised through and by us. Do you not long to
see the Church of Jesus Christ speaking the word of
power ? Do you not long to see it declaring its
Gospel with such authoritativeness that men would
be convinced and converted by it ? Do you not
long to see blind eyes opened, deaf ears unstopped,
dead hearts quickened ? Here are the conditions —
a great pity and a great faith. A Church that has
great pity for men, and great faith in God, shall
have great and irresistible power. And when, once
the Church of Christ shows that it possesses that'
power, men will cease to scoff at it and think lightly
of it.
Notice what happened as a result of the deed of —And Results
mercy Christ performed on this deaf and dumb man.
" And they were beyond measure astonished, saying,
He hath done all things well : He maketh even the
deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak " (ver. 37). The
sight of our Lord's redeeming power extorted praise
i 129

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark vii. from the people, and quickened faith amongst them.
34*37- "He hath done all things well," they said. And
Matthew adds, "And they glorified the God of
Israel." Praise and faith on the part of the people
will always be the result, when the effects of Christ's
redeeming power are seen. It is only an impotent
Church that men scoff at. It is only because the
Church has to some extent lost its power of working
moral miracles that men treat God with indiffer
ence, and speak as if there was nothing in the
Christian faith.

130

XI
THE LEAVEN OF THE
PHARISEES
"In those days the multitude being very great, and having
nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples unto Him, and saith unto
them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now
been with me three days, and have nothing to eat : And if I send
them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the
way : for divers of them came from far. And His disciples
answered Him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with
bread here in the wilderness ? And He asked them, How many
loaves have ye ? And they said, Seven. ' And He commanded the
people to sit down on the ground : and He took the seven loaves,
and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to His disciples to set
before them ; and they did set them before the people. And
they had a few small fishes : and He blessed, and commanded
to set them also before them. So they did eat, and were filled :
and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.
And they that had eaten were about four thousand : and He sent
them away. And straightway He entered into a ship with His
disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha. And the
Pharisees came forth, and began to question with Him, seeking
of Him a sign from heaven, tempting Him. And He sighed
deeply in His spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek
after a sign ? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given
unto this generation. And He left them, and entering into the
ship again departed to the other side. Now the disciples had
forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them
more than one loaf. And He charged them, saying, Take heed,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we
131

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
have no bread. And when Jesus knew it, He saith unto
them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread ? perceive ye not
yet, neither understand ? have ye your heart yet hardened ?
Having eyes, see ye not ? and having ears, hear ye not ? and do
ye not remember ? When I brake the five loaves among five thou
sand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up ? They say
unto Him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand,
how many baskets full of fragments took ye up ? And they said
Seven. And He said unto them, How is it that ye do not
understand ? " — Make viii. 1-21.

Mark viii,
I-2I. TheFeeding
of the Four
Thousand.

RetirementSought.

I am going to omit any extended treatment of the
paragraph which describes the feeding of the 4000.
The outstanding lessons are mainly identical with
those suggested by the feeding of the 5000 (see pp.
50-61). The only noticeable point of difference is this
— that, while the feeding of the 5000 was not a work
of necessity, but was deliberately performed by our
Lord to symbolise His dying and the giving of His
flesh to be the food of the world, this later wilderness
feast was provided in order to meet an urgent
necessity. It found its motive, not in any truth
Jesus wished to teach, but in His pitifulness and
compassion. The crowd had been with Him
three days, and had had nothing to eat, and He
would not send them away fasting to their homes,
lest they should faint by the way, for many of
them had come from far. The presence of 4000
people with Him in the wilderness would seem
to show that the popularity lost by the sermon
on the Bread of life had to a large extent been
recovered. But Christ was more in love with quietness than
popularity. What He wanted most was oppor-
132

The Leaven of the Pharisees
tunity for quiet talk with His disciples. And so, Mark viii.
when the great feast was over, He entered into I-2I.
the boat with His disciples, and came into the
parts of Dalmanutha. Where Dalmanutha was, it
is impossible to say, for this is the only place
where the name is mentioned. " He came,"
Matthew says, " into the borders of Magadan "
(Matt. xv. 39). But that does not help us, as
Magadan is as impossible to locate as Dalmanutha,
Matthew's account being the only place where the
name occurs. Travellers and geographers have
suggested identifications with various sites, one
or other of which may possibly have been the
Dalmanutha mentioned here, though it is by
no means certain. The fact seems to be that
Dalmanutha and Magadan — whether they are two
names for one place, or two places adjacent to
each other — were very obscure places. And it
was their obscurity that constituted their attrac
tiveness to our Lord. He made His way to these
hidden, out-of-the-way spots, whose very location
has passed out of the recollection of men, because
they seemed to promise Him an undisturbed
retreat, where at length He could enjoy that
opportunity for quiet speech with His disciples
about Himself and the shameful end He knew
was in store for Him — an opportunity which
hitherto He had sought in vain.
He was, however, again disappointed in His
hope. When He passed northwards into the
borders of Phoenicia, He could not be hid — need,
misery discovered Him. Now, when He pro-
133

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. ceeded eastward to these obscure villages, He could
1-21. not be hid — hate discovered Him.
Enemies "And the Pharisees came forth," says Mark —
Matthew tells us that some Sadducees were also
with them — a fact we should have gathered from
Christ's subsequent conversation with His disciples,
even if Matthew had not told us so explicitly.
Pharisees and Sadducees were, as a rule, at
daggers drawn. They were separated from one
another by deep religious and political differences.
The Pharisee stood for the strictest orthodoxy;
the Sadducee was more or less of a rationalist.
The Pharisee was politically an enthusiastic, not
to say fanatical, nationalist; the Sadducee was
willing to accept foreign rule, and, indeed, to
identify the Messianic anticipations of Israel with
the Herodian dynasty. But for the time Phari
sees and Sadducees had forgotten their mutual
antagonism in a common hate of Jesus. They
had thwarted and opposed Him before, as we
have already seen. Perhaps, when they saw the
crowds desert Him after His sermon on the Bread
of life, and discovered that He had gone north
wards into Phoenicia, they may have flattered
themselves that they had finally got rid of Him.
But His return, and the crowding out of so many
thousands into the wilderness to hear Him, stirred
them to renewed activity. He had scarcely
reached His retreat before they were on the scene.
They had probably come forth from Capernaum, and
their object was to ply Christ with captious ques
tions, and, if possible, to "catch Him in His words."
134

The Leaven of the Pharisees
They began their policy of entangling questions, Mark viii.
by reiterating their demand for a " sign." This I"2X-
was a strange demand, was it not? For our ^ Sign
Lord's career as a Teacher had been marked by an
abundance of "signs." That is what all of our
Lord's miracles were — they were "signs." That
is John's comment, after the first of them, "This
beginning of His signs did Jesus in Cana of
Galilee, and manifested His glory" (John ii. 11).
And ever since that first sign, signs the most
wonderful and subduing had continued to mark
our Lord's course. Wherever He went He left
behind Him some monument of His power and
grace. When Eleanor, the wife of King Edward I.,
died at Harby, they brought her body to West
minster for burial, and in every town at which her
body rested for a night they built a cross ; you Monuments
can trace the route of that funeral procession by |een.ercy
the crosses that still remain. So you could trace
Christ's progress through Palestine by the healed
men and women to be found in every place,
monuments to His compassion and love. He
went to Jerusalem, and He left His monument
there in the person of the impotent man whom
He restored to health and strength. He went to
Cana, and He left His monument there in the
person of the nobleman's son rescued from the
very jaws of death. He went to Decapolis, and
He left His monument there in him who had had
the legion but was clothed and in his right mind.
He went into the borders of Phoenicia, and left
His monument there in the person of the daughter
135

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. of the Canaanitish woman, whom He delivered
1-21. from the tyranny of an unclean spirit He went
to Jericho, and He left His monument there in
the person of blind Bartimasus restored to sight.
He went to Bethany, and He left His monument
there in the person of dead Lazarus called back
again to life. And as for Capernaum, from which
place these carping Pharisees had come, He had
done so many signs in Capernaum that, if He had
done the like in Tyre and Sidon, they would have
repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
—And yet And yet, in spite of all this, these Pharisees and
ignored. Sadducees came to Him asking for a sign. Other
people were awed and subdued, and convinced by
what they saw. Nicddemus declared that no one
could do such mighty works except God were with
him ; the multitudes, when they saw the palsied man
restored, glorified God, saying, " We never saw it on
this fashion " ; even the half pagan people of
Decapolis, when they saw the deaf and dumb man
able to hear and able to speak> declared, " He hath
done all things well," and glorified the God of
Israel. But these Pharisees and Sadducees affected
to be still in doubt ; — they insinuated that there was
room in all these signs for illusion and delusion, and
so they come to Him clamouring for a sign about
which there should be no controversy or dispute —
they seek of Him a sign from heaven.
A Sign from From heaven, because heaven was supposed to
sought1 ^e a place where Satan had no power. < In their
bitterness and malice they had not hesitated to
suggest that some of our Lord's miracles were done
136

The Leaven of the Pharisees
by Satan's help and power. But a sign from Mark viii.
heaven would prove past dispute the Divineness of I_21*
Christ's mission. They do not specify what precise
sign they want ; " that He should stop the sun or
rein in the moon, or hurl down thunder or the like,"
says Chrysostom. Probably they had in mind the
manna sent down from heaven in answer to the
prayer of Moses, or the fire called down by Elijah,
or the thunder and rain called down by Samuel ;
at any rate, some sign from heaven, that they might
see and believe.
And when He heard this request our Lord " sighed The Sorrow
deeply in His spirit," or rather, groaned deeply. ° Jesus>
What evoked this deep groan from the spirit of
Jesus? We saw before that His sigh over the deaf
and dumb man was a sigh wrung from Him by the
thought of the havoc sin had made in a world which
God made " very good." This deep and vehement
groan is a groan over sin itself. If it had been
weak faith crying out for succour and confirmation,
our Lord, you may depend upon it, would have done
or said something to meet its need. But this
demand for a sign was not the cry of weak faith. It
was the final evidence of callousness and obduracy
of heart. Christ had already given signs more
than sufficient to men of open and honest heart.
But these were men who did not want to believe.
Their request for a sign from heaven was made, not
in the interests of belief, but as an excuse for
unbelief. And that was why Christ groaned deeply.
Here were men hardening their hearts against the
evidences of God's grace, doing despite to the Holy
137

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. Spirit of God, deliberately sinning against the light.
T--2I. n was over this that Christ sighed. I find that
scarcely anything stirred Christ to deeper emotion
than the thought of the people's unbelief. It was
one of the things over which He is said to have
" marvelled." And when He burst into that passion
of tears and grief over Jerusalem, the cause lay in
the obduracy and unbelief of the people.
A Personal All of this suggests the question whether Christ
Question. nag aQy occagjon t0 sjgh over us. For confessedly
He accomplishes in our midst the most wonderful
" mighty works." He restores the morally blind,
He heals the morally leprous, He quickens the
morally dead. His Divine Commission would seem
to be sufficiently attested ; yet multitudes refuse to
believe on Him. And their obduracy causes infinite
pain and sorrow to His heart. He sighs deeply in
His spirit. Does He sigh over us ?
The Refusal The reply of Jesus to the demand was, " Why
of the Sign. ^^ ^jg generation seek a sign ? verily I say
unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this
generation " (ver. 12). Now, why did Jesus refuse
these people a sign ? Various reasons have been
suggested, and there is probably something in every
one of them. (1) To begin with, the motive that
prompted the request was wholly wrong. As I
said, it was not confirmation of a struggling faith
that these people wanted, but rather an excuse for
unbelief. (2) Then again, as some commentators
suggest, even a sign from heaven would have been
wasted upon these people. You remember what
our Lord said in the parable of Dives and Lazarus,
138

The Leaven of the Pharisees
" If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither Mark viii.
will they be persuaded, if one rise from the dead " I_21-
(Luke xvi. 31). An extraordinary preacher, says
Jesus, would produce no effect upon men who
could remain unmoved under the preaching of
Moses and the prophets. And the same principle
held good with reference to these Pharisees and
Sadducees. Men who could remain untouched
and unpersuaded< — who could convince themselves
there was nothing Divine in the healing of the
palsied, the feeding of the 5000, the raising of
Jairus' daughter — would not be persuaded though
Christ should give them a sign from heaven. They
would try to explain even that away. They did
try to explain it away. For when the voice from
heaven came saying, "I have both glorified it, and
will glorify it again," those who stood by said it
was only thunder.
But I think there were other and deeper reasons The Reason
why Christ refused this " sign from heaven." First for RefusaL
of all, as far as I can make out from a study
of the Gospels, Christ never performed any miracle
from motives of mere display. They were never
done for spectacular effect. He never performed
a miracle, as far as I can discover, to prove His
Deity, or to constrain people to believe on Him.
The result of His miracles often was that people
did believe on Him, because through them they
beheld His glory. But that was never the
motive. The motive was always our Lord's pity
and kindness and desire to do good. He never
performed a useless miracle. He never displayed
139

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. His power for display's sake. His works were
I-2I« always a revelation of His grace. But such a
"sign" as these Pharisees asked for would have
been contrary to our Lord's whole method. Every
element of mercy, humanity, and instruction would
have been banished from it. It would have reduced
Christ to the level of the magician, the mere
wonder-worker, and He refused to do it. (3) And
there is this further fact. Christ, as Mr Latham
points out in his Pastor Pastorwm, never over
whelmed the human mind and will by His miracles.
Their evidence was never irresistible. That is to
say, if men wished to find a loophole for doubt,
they could generally find one. It had of necessity
to be so ; otherwise religion would, as Mr Latham
says, be not a faith, but a science ; trust in Christ
would cease to be a moral act. There is no moral
quality about our belief that two and two make
four; we are so made that we must believe it.
You can see that if the " signs " which Christ did
proved His Divinity in the same mathematical and
irresistible way, faith in Him as the Divine Saviour
would be as void of moral quality as our belief
to-day that two and two make four. It seems a
paradox, but in reality it is sober truth to say,
that before a genuine faith can be exercised, there
must be room for question and doubt. For there
is always an element of the venturesome in faith.
People crave for certitude. They have a hankering
after mathematical proof in the realm of religion.
They are hankering after the impossible. The law
of religion is, " we walk by faith, not by sight." If
140

The Leaven of the Pharisees
Christ had given an absolutely irresistible " sign Mark viii.
from heaven " — such a sign as left men powerless I"21-
to disbelieve — He would not have created faith, He
would have destroyed it. He would have over
whelmed the mind, He would not have convinced
it. So He declined this final and irresistible sign.
He left room for the exercise of " faith." He has
given us "signs" enough to persuade the honest and
sincere heart. If men refuse to be persuaded, it is
because they have an evil heart of unbelief. And
so a man's faith or unfaith becomes an index to his
moral nature.
" There shall no sign be given unto this genera- The Leaven
tion," Christ said. And having said that He left Pharisees.
them, and again entering into the boat, departed to
the other side. But though He left them, He could
not forget them. While His disciples were busy
attending to the boat, Christ brooded over the
obduracy and blindness and malignant hate of these
people He had just left. And then, as Dr A. B.
Bruce says, " Abruptly, and as one waking out of
a reverie, He uttered this solemn warning to His
disciples, " Take heed, beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and the leaven of Herod " (ver. 15). I
need not refer to the stupid literalism of the
disciples, who actually thought at first Christ was
warning them against purchasing bread that came
from the hands of the Pharisees and Herodians.
Their colossal misunderstanding only shows how
urgent was their need of that special training Christ
was eager to give, how far as yet $hey were from
appreciating the spiritual character of the Kingdom.
141

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

— Formal
ism.

Mark viii. But I pass all that by. They understood at length,
I-21- as Matthew puts it, that He "bade them not
beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching
of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (Matt. xvi. 12).
Now what was there in the teaching of the Pharisees
and Sadducees that made Christ warn His diciples
thus solemnly against it ?
—Hypocrisy. The Pharisees are again and again denounced
by Christ as "hypocrites." They made a great
show of religion ; but it was a case of much cry and
little wool. The form was there, without the power.
They paid tithes of mint and anise and cummin, and
neglected mercy and righteousness and truth.
Formality was the besetting sin of the Pharisees.
That was the "leaven" against which Christ
warned the disciples. For " formalism " is ever the
foe of true religion. The man who magnifies the out
ward and mechanical is always in danger of minim
ising and neglecting the inward and the spiritual.
Formalism in Palestine nineteen centuries ago was
so much the foe of religion that it nailed the Lord of
life to the tree. And if formalism was the leaven of
the Pharisees, materialism was the leaven of Herod.
For the Herodians — who were mainly Sadducees —
were people who abandoned their national hopes
and ideals, attached themselves to the usurping and
half-pagan Herodian dynasty, for the sake of present
' material advantage. And materialism again is the
deadly foe of religion. It is the antithesis, denial of
religion. "Love of the world is enmity against
God." "Beware," said Jesus, " of these two things."
They had stifled out the religion in the hearts of
142

— Material
ism.

The Leaven of the Pharisees
these Pharisees and Herodians. They would stifle Mark viii.
out the religion in their hearts, if allowed to enter. J"21-
Has the warning any pertinency for our day?
Surely, my brethren, it has. These are the two
most menacing perils of our own day — formalism
and materialism, the leaven of the Pharisees and
the leaven of Herod.
These are not ancient perils. They are perils of Take Heed I
to-day. There is no warning more needed by us
than this — " Take heed, beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." Beware of
formalism, the leaven of the Pharisees. God is a
Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth. Beware of materialism —
the leaven of Herod. " Love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world. If any man love
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For
all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life, is not of
the Father, but is of the world. And the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that
doeth the will of God abideth for ever " (1 John ii.
15-17).

143

XII
THE HEALING OF THE BLIND
MAN AT BETHSAIDA
"And He eometh to Bethsaida ; and they hring a blind man
unto Him, and besought Him to touch him. And He took the
blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town ; and when
He had spit on his eyes, and put His hands upon him, He asked
him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as
trees, walking. After that He put His hand again upon his eyes,
and made him look up : and he was restored, and saw every
man clearly. And He sent him away to his house, sayingi Neither
go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town." — Mark viii.
22-26.
Mark viii. The clue to our Lord's movements at thiB stage
22-26. 0f His career is that desire for quietness, and the
Christ and opportunity for speech and conyerse with His
disciples which quietness would afford, to which I
have already referred more than once. How
urgent was the need for instructing and teaching the
Twelve the conversation about leaven that took
place as they crossed the sea only too plainly
revealed. There is a sense of disappointment in
Christ's word to them, " Why reason ye, because ye
have no bread ? do ye not yet perceive, neither under
stand ? . . . Having eyes, see ye not ? and having ears,
hear ye not? and do ye not remember ? " (ver. 17,
18). It was saddening to Jesus that, in spite of
all their associations with Him, when He talked of
the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of
144

The Healing of the Blind Man
Herod, they should think that He was talking of Mark viii.
bread. It was disheartening that, in spite of the 22-26.
miracle of the 5000, and the subsequent miracle of
the 4000, these disciples should get into something
like a panic, because they had only with them one
loaf. And these were the men upon whom would
rest the whole burden of the work when He was
gone, and upon whose zeal and understanding
(humanly speaking) the future of the Kingdom
would depend. In view of all this, you can under
stand our Lord's anxiety for quietness, wherein to
devote Himself to the instruction and the discipline
of these disciples. Indeed, it is not too much to
say that from this time forth this was the work
upon which Christ concentrated His energies. In
the first part of His career He gave Himself up to
the work of public preaching ; in the second part
of His career He gave Himself specially to the work
of "training the Twelve." In His desire for quiet,
in order to be able to undertake this "training"
work, He had gone from place to place. But
always something intervened. He had gone to the
borders of Phoenicia, and the woman with a sick
daughter had found Him out ; and after that there
was no privacy for Him. He had come down into
the coasts of Decapolis ; but His fame had preceded
Him, until soon there was a crowd of 4000 men hang
ing on His lips for days at a time in the wilderness.
He escaped to Dalmanutha ; but even in that
obscure and out-of-the-way place hate discovered
Him, and the Pharisees and Herodians dogged His
steps. So once again Jesus moved on.
k 145

St Mark vi. 7 — x. 31
Mark viii. Leaving Dalmanutha He took ship, sailed to the
22-26. other side, and came to BethsaMa. This is not the
B* .. Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, situated
near Capernaum, and so frequently referred to in the
Gospel story. This is Bethsaida Julias, once a mere
village, but now raised by one of the Herods to
the rank of a city, situated on the north-eastern
corner of the Sea of Galilee, near the river Jordan.
Jesus was really on His way to the coasts of
Cassarea Philippi, in the north, for it seemed hope
less to expect privacy anywhere in Galilee. He
visited Bethsaida Julias only because it was on His
route. But, passing visit though it was, someone
recognised Him, and soon He was confronted by a
little company of people who brought to Him a man
who was blind, and besought Him to touch him.
And the five verses that follow tell us of the
miracle Christ wrought upon this particular sufferer.
I have said that Christ wherever He went left
His monument behind Him, in the shape of a
household blessed, or a man or woman or child
healed. He was only passing through this city
,of Bethsaida Julias, and yet He left His monu
ment there too, in the person of this blind man
restored to sight. It was a case of goodness by the
way. Now this miracle, like that of the healing of the
deaf and dumb man which we have already studied
together, is peculiar to St Mark. And in several of
their details the two are very much alike, and
suggest very much the same reflections and lessons.
Upon these similarities I shall only very lightly
146

The Healing of the Blind Man
touch, in order that I may have time to emphasize Mark viii.
the one or two lessons that are special and peculiar 22-26.
to this narrative.
" And they bring to Him a blind man " (ver. 22). The Blind
There is no deprivation more pitiable than that of
blindness, and in the East, especially in Egypt and
Syria, there is none more common. The conditions
of climate and life, the glare of the sun, the dust,
account for this. One-tenth of the population of
Joppa suffer from ophthalmia. In Cairo, out of
a quarter of a million of people, there are 4000
blind. Sightless, blear-eyed, fly-infected, miserable
men and women confront travellers in every Syrian
town and village to-day, and make one of the most
distressing spectacles of Eastern life. I suppose
it was the prevalence of this terrible affliction that
made the prophet anticipate, as one of the blessings
that Messiah would bring with Him, that, "the
eyes of the blind shall be opened." So, when John
the Baptist sent from prison to ask Jesus if He
really were the long-expected Messiah, Jesus bade
the messengers go back, and tell John what they
had seen and heard, and amongst other things this,
that "the blind receive their sight."
It was one of this sorry, afflicted class that was— Led to
brought to Jesus as He passed through Bethsaida. Jesus-
Some preachers have made a great deal of the
word " bring " — " they bring to Him a blind man."
They have pressed the word, to suggest that the
desire and faith were all in the friends of the
sufferer, and not in the sufferer himself; some
going so far as to make out that the patient was a
147

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. passive and even unwilling subject. And on this
22-26. exegesis they have built homilies about the duty
of our bringing our friends to Jesus for help and
healing. The lesson they teach is admirable
enough ; the highest service one friend can render
to another is to introduce him to Jesus, but the
exegesis upon which in this particular instance it
is based is quite unwarranted. The word " bring "
in this case carries with it no implication of un
willingness ; it has reference solely and simply to
the man's blindness. Just because he was blind,
he had to be brought, led to Jesus. And then
Jesus does two things to this blind man, similar to
two things He had done in the case of the deaf and
dumb man.
Privacy First of all, the miracle is performed in privacy.
Sought «He took aold of tbe blind man by the nandj
and brought him out of the village" (ver. 23).
He Himself led him out, upon which Bengel
makes the remark, " wondrous humility ! " Yea,
so it is, but not rare or uncommon in the case
of Jesus. That is what He was always doing.
Jesus was not like an Eastern monarch, haughty,
inaccessible, dispensing favours from a throne.
He stooped to become a friend of the poorest.
Indeed, this is what He did for the whole race
when He took flesh. He took hold upon the seed
of Abraham. He took our fallen, guilty, sin-stained
race by the hand. He took this blind man by the
hand, and I do not think it is fanciful to suppose
that there would be something in the warm pressure
of our Lord's hand that would assure the sufferer that
148

The Healing of the Blind Man
he was in the company of a friend. Had he been Mark viii.
able to look into the Master's face, he would have 22-26.
seen love and kindness shining there;' the hand
clasp was meant to assure him of the love he could
not see. " He took hold of the blind man by the
hand, and brought him out of the village " (ver. 23).
He took him aside from the staring and gaping
crowd. Partly, no doubt, for the man's oWn sake.
For Christ's best lessons are taught when He can
get a man alone. But partly also, as the narrative
makes abundantly clear, for His own sake. Jesus
was in search of privacy. A great wonder
wrought before the eyes of a great crowd would
entirely have defeated His object. It would have
brought the multitudes about Him. It would
have created a dangerous enthusiasm. So He did
His act of beneficence by stealth. He took the
blind man out of the village, and when He had
accomplished His act of healing, He sent him away
to his home, saying, " Do not even enter into the
village " (ver. 26).
And secondly, in this case, as in the case of the Symbolic
deaf and dumb man, He used symbolic action. Action Used-
"When He had spit on his eyes, ... He laid His
hands upon him '' (ver. 23). Now saliva was
supposed to have some healing medicinal quality.
And the object Christ had in anointing the blind
man's eyes with His saliva was — as in the case of
boring the deaf man's ears — to quicken a spirit of
expectancy and faith within him. All of which,
says Dr Alexander Maclaren, is the way in which
Christ stoops to the use of material helps, in order
149

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. to minister to sense-bound natures. The ordin-
22-26. ances of worship, the Sacraments, they are great
means of grace ; but from one point of view they
are accommodations to our human weakness. The
pure spirits in heaven need no such aids for their
worship. "I saw no temple therein." But, com
posed as we are of flesh and spirit, an absolute
and naked spirituality of worship is impossible to
us ; we need the sacred day and the sacred place,
and the sacred symbols of bread and wine. Only
let us always remember this — that, just as the
healing power was not in this saliva with which
Jesus anointed the blind man's eyes, but in the
Lord Himself, in His will and commanding word,
so the grace is not in the ordinance, or in the
place, or in the symbols, but in the present living
Christ. The holy place is visited in vain, and the
worship is shared in in vain, and the bread and
wine are partaken of in vain, unless we come into
direct and immediate contact with the saving and
redeeming Christ.
But now I pass on from these points of
similarity, to points which are special and peculiar
to this particular miracle.
The Gradual And the first point I want you to notice is that
Illumination. of tne gradualness of the cure. Usually in the
record of our Lord's miracles, the sick man,
whatever his disease might be, was cured at once
by a word. But in this case the man was healed
not at once, but at twice. After spitting on his
eyes and laying His hands on them, Jesus asked
the blind man if he could see anything. " And
150

The Healing of the Blind Man
he looked up, and said, I see men ; for I behold Mark viii.
them as trees, walking " (ver. 24). That is to say, 22_26.
he could discern large objects in motion ; and
though they looked like trees, he concluded that
they were men, for the simple reason that they
were walking about. So again Jesus "laid His
hands upon his eyes ; and he looked steadfastly, and
was restored, and saw all things clearly " (ver. 25).
The commentators make a great deal of the fact The Lord's
that all this is in closest accord with later scientific sohks.W1
discovery. But I confess it is not its truth to
scientific discovery, but the broad fact of the
gradual nature of the cure, that interests me. For
it seems to me that we have in this miracle a
symbol, a parable of the way in which Christ
works in the matter of the illumination of the
soul. Take it on the broadest platform, to begin
with. What is the Bible ? It is the story of the
progressive revelation of God to the human race.
But there is a vast difference between the first be
ginnings of revelation, as we have them in Genesis,
let us say, and the full and perfect revelation
given to us in Jesus Christ. God, we are assured,
spoke "unto the fathers in the prophets by
divers portions and in divers manners " (Heb. i. 1).
He revealed Himself, the verse seems to suggest,
in fragments. These patriarchs of our race saw
God, they were vividly and intensely conscious of
Him ; but you cannot read the Old Testament
books without seeing that they did not see God
clearly. There is much of error and mistake in
their ideas about God. But their knowledge grew
151

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. from more and more, until at length it was granted
22-26. unj.0 men t0 see tne full light of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
Progressive Take it on the narrower platform of the indi-
vfsionUal vidual life, and there again it is true that our
spiritual vision is progressive. We do not see
everything clearly at the first touch of Christ.
The whole teaching of the New Testament insists
upon progression in our apprehension of Christian
truth. When Christ first opens our eyes to
eternal things, all does not at once become clear.
We see things dimly, darkly, indistinctly. The
heights and depths of Christian truth are not
revealed to us. The lengths and breadths of God's
love are not comprehended by us. The meaning
and power of the cross of Christ, for instance —
that is not something that breaks upon us in a
flash; it grows upon us more and more. I suppose
my own experience is but a sample of that of
thousands of others. It was but a poor and im
perfect vision of the cross of Christ I had when I
started my Christian life. But it has become
clearer and clearer to me as the years have rolled
by. My study of God's Word, my experience of
life, my better acquaintance with the sins and
wants of my own heart, all these things have
helped me to fuller understanding of the great
mystery of Christ's death and passion. I do not
say that "I see clearly" even yet; but I see heights
and depths, glories and mercies in the cross of
Christ to-day that were hidden from me twenty
years ago. And this is only an example. The
125

The Healing of the Blind Man
same truth could be illustrated in the matter of Mark viii.
prayer and providence, and the person of Christ. 22-26.
We do not see all or know all at once. The
knowledge is progressive. And vision grows in
clearness as we receive "grace for grace," un
ceasingly renewed, and enter into the secret of the
Lord which is with them that fear Him.
But notice that a man may have been really —But
touched by Christ, even though his vision may be Christ? W1
vague and dim. "I see men," said this sufferer,
"for I behold them as trees walking." And yet
he had really experienced the touch of Christ.
And so there are men and women whose notions
of truth may be very crude and ignorant, who yet
have come into that direct and immediate contact
with Christ which really constitutes the salvation
of the soul.
But while the story teaches the truth that spiritual The Perfect
illumination is gradual, it also brings us the assur- Vlslon-
ance that Christ will not leave His work till He
has given us perfect vision. He was not content
to leave this man in that condition of imperfect
aud uncertain sight when men appeared to him as
trees walking. Our Lord touched his eyes again,
and he was restored, and saw all things clearly. And
this is just a parable of what Christ will do for the
soul. Before He has finished with us, we too shall
see all things clearly. " The path of the righteous
is as the shining light, that shineth more and more
unto the perfect day " (Prov. iv. 18). Light, the
"shining light." And you have perhaps watched
the light of dawn. You have seen it first touch
153

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. the hills, while the valley lay shrouded in darkness
22-26. and night ; and then gradually creep down the
hill-side, sweeping the night before it, until at
length it has invaded every nook and cranny, and
filled them with sunshine and brightness. The
path of the just shall be like that ; it shall lead
him into fuller and fuller light, until at length it is
"perfect day" with him — perfect day. I know
how hard it is to bear the dim twilight of the
dawn. I know how fiercely some of us long to see
and to know. How we chafe at the limitations of
our vision ! I had a letter only a few days ago
from a father who had just lost a daughter of
fifteen. How that father wants to know! He
wrote to me pathetically, asking me questions that
are as much hidden from me as from him. But
Christ will not leave us for ever in the twilight,
with only a groping and uncertain knowledge. He
will bring us into the "perfect day." I do not
know that the " perfect day " will ever be ours in
this life. The skies will grow brighter for us, and
the vision clearer year by year, if we really follow
on to know the Lord ; yet to the end there will be
many things that are not plain. But as to the life
beyond, " there shall be no night there," no shred
of darkness left, sacred high eternal noon, the
"perfect day." And then at length we shall "see
clearly."
—To be There were two stages in this man's experience.
He saw men as trees, the stage of imperfect vision^
He saw all things clearly, the stage of perfect sight.
There are two similar stages in our experience.
154

attained at
the Last.

The Healing of the Blind Man
This is how Paul states them : " Now we see in a Mark viii.
mirror darkly ; but then face to face : now 1 22_26.
know in part ; but then shall I know even as also
I have been known" (1 Cor. xiii. 12). Let us
live in hope. Christ will in His own good time
complete the work He has begun. He who is the
Author is also the Finisher of our faith. He will
not leave us in the night; He will bring us at
length into the perfect day, when we shall see all
things clearly.

155

XIII
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
"And Jesus went out, and His disciples, into the towns of
Csesarea Philippi : and by the way He asked His disciples, say
ing unto them, Whom do men say that I am ? And they
answered, John the Baptist : hut some say, Elias ; and others,
One of the prophets. And He saith unto them, But whom say
ye that I am ? And Peter answereth and .saith unto Him, Thou
art the Christ. And He charged them that they should tell no
man of Him." — Mark viii. 27-30.
Mark viii. We come now to what is in many respects the
27"30- most critical episode in the life of our Lord. I
ToCajsarea have emphasized the fact that at this particular
-iippi- stage in His career Christ tried to escape the
crowds, in order to find opportunity for quiet
speech with His disciples. In view of the cross,
which He could plainly see looming up on His
horizon, He urgently desired to speak with His
chosen Twelve about Himself, and about His
passion. For this reason He sets His face north
wards, to a remote and retired part of the country
which He had not yet visited in the course of His
ministry. "Jesus went forth, and His disciples,
into the villages of Caesarea Philippi " (ver. 27).
—A Pagan This Cassarea Philippi lay some five-and-twenty
City- miles to the north of the Sea of Galilee. It
was named Cassarea in honour of the Roman
156

Questions and Answers
Emperor Augustus, and it was called Csesarea Mark viii.
Philippi, " Philip's Caesaria," after the Herod who 27-3°-
had rebuilt it, and made it splendid, and to dis
tinguish it from that other Caesarea on the sea-
coast, where Paul was afterwards imprisoned. This
Caesarea was situated in the grandest and most
romantic part of Palestine. Planted on a terrace
about 1100 feet above sea-level, at the foot of
Lebanon, surrounded by groves of oaks and poplars,
with fertile plains stretching westwards, and the
snowy mass of Hermon to the north-east, it had a
beauty beyond any other town in the land. It
was a pagan city. Indeed, its ancient name was
Paneas, and it was so called from the Pancivir, a
sanctuary of the god Pan, in a deep cavern in the
neighbourhood. As showing the hold this pagan cult had of the
district, it is interesting to note that the old name
gradually asserted itself, and survives to this day
in the name Panias. It was to this pagan and to
a large extent foreign city that Jesus now travelled
with His disciples. Though apparently even here
Jesus did not venture into the city itself. In
Caesarea some one would have been sure to recog
nise Him. He kept Himself outside, in the country
districts. " He went forth, and His disciples, into
the villages of Caesarea Philippi." And there at
length He seems to have gained the quietness He
needed, and opportunity to speak with the Twelve
about the things that lay so near His heart.
It is one of the conversations that took place A Critical
between Our Lord and His disciples that we are Dlscourse-
157

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. to consider now. I gather myself, from a study of
27"3°- the various narratives, that our Lord regarded this
conversation as a critical and vital one. For from
Luke's account we learn that before He asked the
question with which the conversation started He
spent some time in solitary prayer. That was our
Lord's habit, when any specially difficult or delicate
task lay before Him. Before, for instance, He
went on His first preaching journey through
Galilee, He rose up a great while before day, and
departed into a desert place, and there prayed.
Before He engaged in the delicate and all-important
task of choosing His twelve Apostles, He con
tinued all night in prayer to God. And apparently
the conversation which He was now about to hold
was of such solemn moment and of such vital con
sequence that our Lord felt constrained to prepare
for it by earnest and continued prayer. And what
was the subject of this conversation to which our
Lord attached such extraordinary importance ? In
a word, it was a conversation about His own
Person.
The Place of And here I pause just for a moment, to say that
Christ in evidently Christ attached immense importance to
y. wjjaj. men th0Ughi about Himself. Men are very
apt in these days to say it does not matter very
much what views we hold about Jesus, so long as
we accept His teaching, and obey it. And they
dismiss all attempts at defining the Person of
Christ, as metaphysical and theological subtleties,
which are of no importance for daily life. All I
have to say is, that that is not what Jesus Himself
158

Questions and Answers
thought He attached the most tremendous im- Mark viii.
portance to the account people gave of Him ; the 27-30-
whole future of the Gospel depended in some vital
way upon what men thought of Him. Yes, let us
be under no delusion. Our Lord regarded the
future of Christianity as bound up with a right
understanding of His person. Those who tell us it
does not matter much what views we hold, and who ,
make that the excuse for holding inadequate and
unworthy views, misread the entire Gospel. They
reduce the Gospel to a new teaching, a new philo
sophy, a mere code of morals. But if there is one
thing the New Testament makes abundantly clear,
it is this — that the Christian Gospel is not a teach
ing merely, or a philosophy merely, or a morality
merely ; it is, as Dr Van Dyke says, the Gospel of
a Person. It centres not simply in what Jesus
says, but in what He was and did. Indeed, that
is what differentiates Jesus from every other teachey
and prophet the world has ever seen. He insists
upon Himself. It sounds very plausible to say,
"Let theologians quarrel about the Person of
Christ ; let us be content to obey His teaching ; "
but, as a matter of fact, in the light of an incident
like this, and the whole trend of the Gospel narra
tive, there is only one thing to be said about this
Christianity without Christ— -it is another Gospel,
which is not another.
Now, passing from that broad and primary The Popular
lesson of the significance of Christ's Person, I want Verdlct
you to notice the first question Jesus put to His
disciples, and their answer. It was this, " Whom do
159

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. men say that I am?" (ver. 27). Or, perhaps, in
27-3°- order to bring out the exact shade of meaning, the
question might be rendered thus, "Who do the
people say that I am ? " Jesus did not ask what the
rulers and the Pharisees thought of Him. They
had only too plainly shown what they thought
They had called Him a glutton, a drunkard, a friend
of publicans and sinners, an agent of Beelzebub.
What Christ wanted to know was the opinion of
the people at large. For He knew that in every
market and at every fireside they had discussed
Him, and He wanted to know what the effect of His
teaching and wonderful works had upon them, and
who they said He was.
—A Favour- The disciples answer quite frankly, and say,
able One. " John the Baptist ; and others, Elijah ; but others,
One of the prophets " (ver. 28). Now you will
notice from this answer that, as Dr A. B. Bruce says,
"the opinions prevalent among the masses con
cerning Jesus were in the main favourable." They
did not make the calamitous mistake prejudiced
Scribes and Pharisees did, of writing Jesus down as
an emissary of Satan. There is nothing like pre
judice for distorting the vision and perverting the
judgment. The mass of the people, with simple
and guileless hearts, recognised that, to say the least,
Jesus was a specially inspired man. They felt that
no one could speak as He spoke, and no one could
do the work that He did, except God were with
Him. They did not recognise His essential glory.
They did not identify Him as their promised
Messiah. And perhaps there is some excuse for
160

Questions and Answers
them, inasmuch as Jesus was so unlike the Messiah Mark viii.
they had been taught to expect. But they did 27"3°-
recognise that Christ was inspired of God in an
altogether unique way, and so they classed Him
with the great prophets who were the glory and
pride of their race. They said that He was John
the Baptist, or Elijah, or One of the prophets.
Will you notice further, as that same great scholar Christ and
and thinker points out, that the very variety of the Pr°Phets-
opinion about Jesus — the fact that one saw John
the Baptist in Him, another Elijah, and another
Jeremiah, and another this prophet or that — is in
itself proof that Jesus was greater than any of the
prophets to whom they compared Him ? I dare
say the people themselves did not feel the force
of this, but quite obviously it is so. Each of the
prophets was identified in the popular mind with
some one striking and predominant quality. John
was remembered for his stern and strenuous call
to repentance ; Jeremiah was remembered for his
melting tenderness and compassion. Ezekiel and
Daniel for their parabolic discourses. But here
was some One far greater than John, greater than
Jeremiah, greater than Ezekiel, greater than Daniel ;
for He united John and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and
Daniel, all in Hims&lf. I think I could construct
an argument for the Divinity of Christ out of the
opinions of the multitude, confessedly imperfect
though they are. The. very diversity of them, when
you think of it, is proof that Jesus was more than
man. But possibly, as some commentators suggest, the
l 161

St Mark vi. 7 — x. 31

Mark viii. first question was only asked in order to open the

27-30.

The DisciplesFaith.

Peter's
Answer.

conversation. The second was the all-important
one. " But who say ye that I am ? " Jesus asked (ver.
29). It is not the opinion of the crowd He is
asking about now, but the faith of these twelve men
whom He had called to be with Him, whom He
had admitted to His closest intimacy, who had seen
Him at close quarters. "Ye, my chosen ones,
who say ye that I am ? " I need not point out to
any of my readers how absolutely critical this
question was. For on the answer to it depended
the success or failure of His work. To a large
extent He had failed with the populace. Not one
of them had recognised the glory. If He had failed
also with the Twelve, if He were no more than
a prophet to them, then He had failed utterly.
Humanly speaking, if these disciples had not
recognised His Messiahship, there would never have
been a Christian faith or a Christendom.
But Simon's answer soon dispelled all fears. In
the name of the Twelve, without hesitation or
doubt, Simon replied, " Thou art thejChfiBt" These
disciples were very slow scholars, as we have had
occasion to note over and over again. They had
their mistakes and their misunderstandings. But
let us do them fair play and bare justice, and let
this be set down to their infinite credit — that, while
Pharisees and Scribes denounoed Jesus as having a
devil, and the populace in their most exalted
guesses never thought of Him as more than a great
m!an, these humble Galileans " beheld His glory,"
162

Questions and Answers
and beneath His lowly state recognised the majesty Mark viii.
of the only begotten Son of God. " Thou art the 27"30. -
Christ," says Peter. God hid the glorious truth from
the wise and prudent, and revealed it unto babes.
I do not say that this is a confession of the Divinity The Force
of Christ, in the sense in which the Nicene Creed is. ^j^
But again, as Dr A. B. Bruce puts it, it is a clear
recognition that Jesus was more than man. " Thou
art the Messiah, God's anointed One " ; that is what
Peter said. That is to say, he recognised in his
Master that Great One who was the hope of the
Jewish nation, of whom the prophets had spoken
and psalmists had sung. He applied to Jesus all
the splendid predictions of the Old Testament.
Jesus was a prophet like unto Moses ; the
promised Deliverer who would set at liberty them
that are bruised, and preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. He was Wonderful, Counsellor, the
Mighty God, the Prince of Perce. He was the
King whose kingdom was to be an everlasting
kingdom, and whose name was to endure through
out all generations. All these magnificent and
glowing prophecies pointed to Jesus, and found
their fulfilment in Jesus. " Thou art the Christ,"
said Peter. It was a noble confession. Christ had
not failed. His words, His miracles, His life had
not been wasted upon these disciples. This answer
is the proof of it. They beheld His glory, glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth.
And Jesus was satisfied with their confession. —And its
With characteristic modesty, Peter omits from his Reception.
163

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. account the great eulogy which our Lord, in the
27"30- overflowing gratitude of His soul, pronounced
upon him. But the other Evangelists have pre
served it for us. " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-
Jonah : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And
I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my Church ; and the gates of
Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matt. xvi. 17,
18). Here let us note — (1) that with any con
fession falling short of this great confession of
Peter, our Lord is not satisfied. The popular
The verdict classed Jesus with the prophets, with the
Sf fj?lficance very greatest of them. It put Him on a level
Episode. with the most inspired and gifted of men. It
ranked Him with Elijah, Jeremiah, John the
Baptist. But Jesus declined to be so classed.
He claimed a higher place. He was not Elijah's
or John's or Jeremiah's equal. He was their
Lord. This has its special pertinency for our own
day. The Person of Christ has once again become
the subject of debate. And I do not think I am
doing the "new theology" movement any injustice
when I say that it is the view of the populace it
gives as to the person of Christ, and not the belief
of Peter. It is numbering Jesus Christ once more
among the " prophets." It is whittling away the
difference between Jesus and the rest of humanity,
and assuring us that we are all "potential Christs."
All I have to say about it is, that Christ repudi
ates the classification. He is not satisfied to be
greeted as Teacher, Prophet, not even as the
164

Questions and Answers
greatest of Teachers, and the greatest of Prophets. Mark viii.
He is in a class by Himself. He is unapproached, 27-30.
unapproachable. Jesus is not the fine flower of
the race. He is the gift of God. And no View of
His Person satisfies Him until, like Peter, we are
ready to say, not " One of the prophets," but,
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living
God." But (2), after all, the important question is the A Personal
personal one. I do not make light of the views
and opinions the people at large hold about
Christ. They are most of them hopelessly inade
quate. Just at present the favourite view seems
to be that Christ was principally a Social Re
former. But the important and vital question for
you and me is, not what the people think, but our
own answer to the Lord's question. There must
be no hesitation about our reply. There are some
beliefs held and cherished by our fathers which
we can, perhaps, surrender without loss. But
belief in the Divinity of Christ is of the very
essence of our faith. Degrade Him to a "prophet,"
and you destroy the Gospel. Count Him simply
as one amongst others, and upon a faith, or rather
want of faith, like that Christ cannot build His
Church. And so I am glad that we are con
fronted with this question, "Whom say ye that I
am?" For my own part, I am ready with my answer.
Are you ready with yours ? And will it be such
an answer as will fill Him with confidence about %
the future of His Church ? My prayer is that our
165

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. studies in the life of Christ may help to stablish
27_30- our faith, so that, amid all the present upheaval
and distress, we may answer with quiet and settled
confidence, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
Living God."

166

XIV
POINTING TO THE CROSS
And He hegan to teach them, that the Son of man must
sutler many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the
chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days
rise again. And He spake that saying openly. And Peter
took Him, and began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned
about and looked on His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying,
Get thee behind me, Satan : for thou savourest not the things
that be, of God, but the things that be of men." — Mark viii,
31-33.Pbtek's confession led on to an announcement Mark viii.
by our Lord that filled His disciples' hearts with 31-33-
desolation and sorrow. " And He began to teach A Turning-
them that the Son of man must suffer many things,
and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests,
and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days
rise again" (vet*. 31). "And He began to teach
them" — this marks the occasion, as Dr Salmond
says, as being an important turning-point in Christ's
work. Hitherto our Lord had never spoken in
plain and unmistakable terms about His death.
Not that He was unaware that the cross lay at
the end of His earthly life. I differ in toto. from
those scholars and critics who tell us that it was
the failure of our Lord's work, as far as the leaders
of the nation were concerned, that first made Him
realise that a violent death would be the end of it
167

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. all. I believe Holman Hunt's picture is far nearer
3I_33- the truth. I believe that the "Shadow of the
Cross " lay over our Lord's life from the first He
knew all along that He must be delivered up into
the hands of men. But up to this point all His
~?,ro,m allusions to His death were more or less veiled.
Veiled Speech. They were of the nature of riddles, Dr Bruce
says, whose meaning became clear after the event,
but which at the time, although they may have
chilled the heart with a momentary fear, no one
clearly understood. He had spoken, for instance,
of a temple which was to be destroyed, and rebuilt
in three days ; He had said that, as the serpent
was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son
of man be lifted up ; He had forewarned His
disciples of a time when the Bridegroom would
be taken away from them, and when therefore
they might well weep and fast; He had spoken
in strange and mystic language about giving His
flesh for the life of the world. After our Lord's
Passion the disciples understood these things, but
at the time they were uttered, though they may
have created a passing vague alarm, their meaning
escaped them.
—To Plain But after Peter's confession our Lord dropped
the Passage^ nm*s anc* suggesti°lls an(l parables, and began to
speak of His approaching death in a perfectly
direct, matter-of-fact, unmistakable way. "He
spake the saying openly," He left them in no
manner of doubt. This was the end towards
which He was marching — rejection and death.
Now the Evangelist clearly wishes us to under-
168

Pointing to the Cross
stand that there is a connection between Peter's Mark viii.
confession and this first announcement of the cross. 3I"33-
It was because Peter, speaking in the name of the
Twelve, confessed Him as the Messiah, that Christ
" began to teach them, that He must suffer many
things . . . and be killed."
Can we see what the connection was ? Can we The Time
understand why it was Jesus took this occasion was come'
to speak the saying openly? I think we can.
(1) To begin with, no doubt, as Dr Bruce sug
gests, the circumstances were such as to make it
advisable to tell the disciples what the end would
be. For the signs were growing ominous. Storm-
clouds were gathering in our Lord's sky. In the
hate of the Pharisees there could be recognised
the first mutterings of that tempest that broke in
all its fury upon our Lord's head in the judgment
hall and on Calvary's hill. If Christ had allowed
His death to come upon Him without a word of
warning to His disciples, it would completely have
shattered their faith. Even as it was, it went far
towards doing it. But He told them all about it
before it came to pass, so that when it did come
to pass they might believe.
(2) It was not only natural, but Peter's con- The
fession also told Him that now it was safe. That R^dy"
is why it was at this precise point that Jesus began
to teach them that He must suffer many things.
Christ always reveals His truth to men as they
are able to bear it. It would not have been safe
to tell the disciples right away at the beginning
that the cross was going to be the end. They
169

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. ha4 been bred to believe that the Messiah's career
3I_33- was to end in a throne, so that if Jesus had spoken
of a cross at the very start, they would obstinately
have refused to believe He was the Messiah
at all. First, Jesus taught the disciples to believe
in Himself — then He spoke to them about His
end. First, He revealed to them the glory of
His Person ; then He began to speak about His
sacrificed Now that their faith in Him as God's
Christ was established; now that they were per
suaded He was the Son of the living God, our
Lord knew that they were prepared to bear the
announcement of the cross, that their faith would
stand the strain of it. And so He began to teach
them that the Son of man must suffer many things,
and be rejected, and be killed.
The Fact of (3) And I think there was yet another reason
Importance wnv jegug t00k this particular occasion to
announce His coming death and passion, and that
was because His Messiahship was intimately and
inseparably associated with the cross. He could
not have been God's Messiah to the world without
the cross. The idea most closely identified with
Messiahship was that of redemption and de
liverance. But the Jews interpreted these ideas
wrongly. The redemption they looked for was
redemption from political servitude; the deliver
ance they expected was national deliverance. And
so they looked for a Messiah who would wield a
sword, and march to a throne. But the redemp
tion God's Messiah came to accomplish was the
redemption of the soul; and the deliverance He
170

Pointing to the Cross
came to achieve was deliverance from sin. This Mark viii.
redemption could only be achieved by dying ; and 31-33-
this deliverance could only be effected through the
cross. And so when Peter said, "Thou art the
Christ," when he proclaimed Jesus as Messiah,
our Lord began to teach them that the Son of
man must suffer many things. As if to say, " You
are right, Peter ; I am the Messiah of God ; and
to accomplish My Messianic deliverance I must
suffer many things, be rejected, and die." It
was the Messiahship that necessitated the cross.
Christ might have evaded the cross, perhaps ; but
if He had done so He could not have been
Messiah. The two things — Messiahship and the suffering
of death — were inseparable. It behoved the
Christ to suffer. And that was why the confession
of His Messiahship was followed immediately by
the announcement of His passion.
" Peter answereth and saith unto Him, Thou The
art the Christ. . . . And He began to teach them, Sequence?
that the Son of man must suffer many things"
(vers. 29, 31). What a strange, and at first sight
disappointing and confusing, sequence that is ! It
is not at all what we should have expected. This
is the kind of reply they would have expected :
" Flesh and blood have not revealed this unto
thee, Simon, but My Father Who is in heaven ;
and because I am the Son of God, all My enemies
shall be confounded, priests and elders shall be put
to shame, and My cause shall prosper." But how
tragically different the sequence is ! " Thou art
171

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. the Christ," said Peter. " And Jesus began to
31-33- teach them, that He must suffer, and be killed."
As if He should say, " Yes, I am the Son of God,
and because I am" the Son of God I shall be slain."
The sequence, I repeat, is staggering. To the
disciples it was absolutely bewildering. And yet,
when you look at it a little more closely, how
pathetic, how beautiful, how subduing it is ! And
what a light it casts upon what is after all the
essential glory of God ! The attribute which was
most closely identified with the idea of God in the
minds of these djsciples was that of power. That
Jesus was the Son of God meant to them that He
would trample all His foes beneath His feet.
—And the But there are things infinitely more beautiful
Revelation. an(^ Divine than power, and they are, pity and
sympathy and love. And it is the pity and sym
pathy and love of God that shine forth in this
sequence. For the " must " in this sequence was
just the " must " of our Lord's pity and sympathy
and sacrificial love. He had power enough to avoid
the cross, had He wished. Did He not say to His
captors that at a word He could summon to His aid
ten thousand legions of angels? did He not tell Pilate
that He could have no power against Him, except
it was given from above ? But I love Christ the
more that He left His power unused, and for love
and pity's sake meekly consented to die. "If
Thou art the Son of God," said mocking and
taunting Jews, " come down from the cross "
(Matt, xxvii. 40). But He showed Himself Son
of God in far more effective fashion by refusing to
172

Pointing to the Cross
come down to save Himself, a/nd enduring it, that Mark viii.
He might save others. " And He began to teach 31-33-
them that He must suffer." It was a dis
appointing, almost a heart-breaking sequence to
the disciples at the time. But it has brought
infinite comfort to a sinning world. For it has
taught us to associate with our conception of God
the ideas of mercy and love and self-sacrifice. It
would have been human, if Jesus had used His
power to escape death. By this we know He was
the Son of God indeed — that having the power to
live, He yet for love's sake chose to die.
But to Peter and the rest the announcement was Peter
a bitter disappointment. Because Christ was the e "
Messiah, they had pictured a glowing future both
for Himself and them. They looked forward to a
day of splendid triumph, when Christ should sit on
His throne, and they too should sit on twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. They
never dreamed of associating ideas of suffering and
death with Messiah. And so when Jesus talked
about suffering, and rejection, and death, the thing
seemed absolutely monstrous to them. And Peter,
warm-hearted and impulsive Peter, took His
Master aside, and began to rebuke Him for cherish
ing any such notion, and said, " God forbid ; this
shall not be unto Thee." No doubt the remon
strance sprang from the Apostle's warm-hearted
affection for his Lord ; but it was presumptuous,
nevertheless. It was disrespectful and irreverent.
He tried to overbear and contradict and even bully
his Master into putting away from His mind these
173

St Mark vi. 7 — x. 31
Mark viii. gloomy forebodings of coming ill. And it was
31-33- punished by the sternest and most scathing rebuke
that ever fell from our Lord's lips. "Get thee
behind me, Satan : for thou mindest not the things
of God, but the things of men " (ver. 33). What
a swift and sudden change we have here ! The
most unstinted of eulogies is followed by the
sharpest of rebukes. The same man who a few
moments before was acclaimed by Jesus as speak
ing by inspiration of God, is now denounced as the
mouthpiece of Satan. The same man who was
declared by Jesus to be the rock on which He
would build His Church, is now stigmatised as a
stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. " Verily,"
said John Bunyan, " there is a way to hell from
the very gate of heaven " ; and this man Peter,
lifted to heaven by our Lord's eulogy, is brought
down to hell by our Lord's censure and rebuke.
y_ For " Get thee behind Me, Satan," said Jesus. And
Satan's ^e sa"* ** w*tn venemence, and almost with
Work. passion. It seems mercilessly severe. But the
rebuke was deserved, and even that hard word
Satan, which, as Dr Bruce says, is the sting of the
speech, is in its proper place. For that is exactly
what Peter was doing. He was doing Satan's
work for him. Luke says that when the devil left
Jesus in the wilderness, it was only for a season.
He came back again, Luke implies, and renewed
the temptation. And one of the times he came
back and renewed the temptation was this time,
when Peter rebuked the Lord at the bare mention
of the cross, and said, " God forbid ; this shall not
174

Pointing to the Cross
be unto Thee." For this was the wilderness over Mark viii.
again. Peter here tried to do for his Lord what 31-33-
the devil tried to do then. For, strip the struggle
in the wilderness of everything that is merely
incidental, and what did the temptation amount
to ? It was a temptation to take an easier way to
the throne than the way of the cross. "Why
tread that bitter way, when you can have the
world on easier terms ? " said Satan. Why sacrifice
yourself and die ? And Peter, the first and prince
of the Twelve, tempted his Lord now in exactly
the same way. And Jesus recognised his old
adversary. He thrust the temptation from Him
with horror, " Get thee behind Me, Satan."
And so one of Christ's fiercest temptations came An Unholy
from one of His nearest friends. " Satan fashion- °ffice-
eth himself," Paul says, " into an angel of fight "
(2 Cor. xi. 14). But he is most dangerous of all
when he appears in the guise of a friend. Peter
was a stumbling-block in his Master's way. He
made it hard for Jesus to do the will of God.
And still many a friend does the same unholy office
for another. When we bid our friends think more
of comfort than of duty; when we bid them
consider their own interests rather than God's call,
we are committing Peter's folly and sin over again,
Bobert Morrison's friends, for instance, tried every
device they knew to shake him out of his resolve
to go to China as a missionary. Do you remember
what Mr Worldly Wiseman said to Christian, when
he met him with the mud of the Slough of Despond
upon him. "Hear me," he said, "for I am older
175

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. than thou ; thou art like to meet with in the way
3I_33- which thou goest, wearisomeness, painfulness,
hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons,
darkness, and, in a word, death, and what not ! "
These things are certainly true. And why should
a man so carelessly cast himself away ? Peter was
Christ's Mr Worldly Wiseman. Why, said he, so
carelessly cast thyself away? And we, when we
dissuade our friends from the way of sacrifice and
the cross, are playing Mr Worldly Wiseman's
wicked part. And you remember Worldly Wise
man's doom. " It were well for him if a millstone
were hanged about his neck, and he were thrown
into the sea, rather than that he should cause one
of these little ones to stumble." Let us ask for
grace each to be not a Worldly Wiseman, but a
Great-heart

176

XV
DISCIPLESHIP AND THE
CROSS
"And when He had called the people unto Him with His
disciples also, He said unto them, Whosoever will come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it ; but whosoever
shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall
save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the
whole world, and lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul ? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed
of Mo and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation ;
of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh
in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. And He said
unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them
that stand here, ¦ which shall not taste of death, till they
have seen the kingdom Of God come with power."- — Make
viii. 34-ix. 1.
There is the closest and most vital connection Mark viii.
between these verses and those just preceding 34~ix- r-
them. It was Peter's protest against the intima- •CrofsAb^r"t
tion of the Passion that drew from our Lord for AH.
this solemn declaration that cross-bearing is the
universal and indispensable condition of disciple-
ship. "God forbid! " Peter had said, in his own
hot and impulsive way, " this — a violent death at
the hands of elders and priests and scribes — shall
never be unto Thee." " Say you so ? " Jesus replies
in effect (I quote Dr A. B. Bruce's paraphrase),
m 177

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. " I tell you that not only shall I, your Master, be
34-ix. I. crucified, but ye too, faithfully following Me, shall
certainly have your crosses to bear. If any man
would come after Me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow Me." To lend
emphasis to the announcement, to make it quite
clear that this was a universal law, Jesus did not
say this to the Twelve alone. "He called unto
Him the multitude with His disciples." This was
not a law for the Apostles merely, it was equally
binding upon the humblest believer; not for
teachers and leaders only, but for the least and
most insignificant of followers as well ; not a law
for the first Christians only, but for Christians of
every age. King Arthur insisted upon conditions
before a man could become a Knight of his Round
Table. Everyone had to swear to speak no slander,
no, nor listen to it; to live sweet lives in purest
chastity ; to ride abroad redressing human wrongs ;
to honour his own word as if his God's ; to break
the heathen, and to uphold the Christ But here
is a law insisted upon by a greater Captain than
King Arthur — the condition of entrance into a still
nobler order of chivalry — " If any man would come
after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow Me " (viii. 34).
Master and The first truth all this suggests to me is that of
Disciple. tbe correspondency that exists between the Master
and the disciple. Christ is not a solitary cross-
bearer ; every true Christian is a cross-bearer too.
Our Lord warned us that His lot and ours was
bound to be the same. "A disciple," He said,
178

Discipleship and the Cross
" is not above his master, nor a servant above his Mark viii.
lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as 34~*x- *•
his master, and the servant as his lord" (Matt.
x. 24, 25). There will be a correspondency, He
said, between your fate and Mine. And so it was.
As John puts it in his Epistle, " As He is, even
so are we in this world" (iv. 17). "So are we ; "
the lot of the Master was the lot of the disciple
also : in this respect among others, that the
disciple, like the Master, had to bear a cross.
But when I talk about the Lord bearing a cross, The
and the disciple also bearing a cross, I do not want c°0ggry
to be misunderstood. I do not say that the
Master's cross and the disciples' cross are one and
the same. There is a sense in which our Lord's
cross is solitary and unshared. In its redemptive
aspect Christ's cross stands alone. People talk
about a " continuous atonement." I do not know
what they mean by it. If they mean that Christ's
work on the cross needs to be completed and
perfected by some suffering or work of ours, I
answer, first, that nothing we can do can possibly
add to the atoning work of Jesus. We are sinful
men and women ; we cannot atone, we need
atoning for. And, in the second place, I answer
that Christ's sacrifice does not need completing.
It is complete. The sacrifice of the cross is a full,
perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satis
faction. "It is finished." Nothing remains to be
done. Christ did it all when He submitted Him
self to death and shame. As a redeeming sacrifice
the cross of Christ remains for ever unshared.
179

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. But while the cross from one point of view is a
34-ix. 1. redeeming sacrifice, from another point of view it
— And *e represents the sacrifice of self, and the pains and
of Suffering, penalties Christ endured because of His absolute
and complete devotion to the righteous will of
God. And in this respect we too must bear the
cross as well as Christ. In this respect there is a
strict correspondency between Master and disciple.
We must enter into the fellowship of His suffer
ings. "As He is, even so are we in this world."
For that is what the Christian life is on its practical
side ; it is a life of conscious devotion to the holy
will of God. And obedience to the will of God
inevitably means the cross ; for it means the hos
tility of the world, and the sacrifice of self. It
means outward trouble and inward conflict. See
what it meant for some of these disciples. If
tradition speaks truly, following Christ meant for
some of them not persecution only, but death.
It meant a scaffold in Jerusalem for James, a cross
in Rome for Peter. They drank of their Lord's
cup, and were baptised with their Lord's baptism.
They had literally to take up their cross and follow
Him. And though these killing times are past, it
remains true to this day that they who will live
godly must suffer persecution.
The The man who makes the will of God his law
Hostility of must make up his mind for the scorn and con
tempt of men. We can escape it only by
Cowardice and compromise. Many people refuse
to rank themselves among Christ's avowed fol
lowers because they are not prepared for this
180

Discipleship and the Cross
cross. " Nevertheless," says John, " even of the Mark viii.
rulers many believed on Him ; but because of the 34-ix- *•
Pharisees they did not confess it, lest they should
be put out of the synagogue" (John xii. 42). That
is it, they shrank from the cross. But there
can be no compromising between the world and
Christ. We must face the world, and defy the
world, and break with the world. We must let
the world do its worst If we want to go after
Christ, we must take up this cross, and follow
Him. And in addition to the hostility of the world, The
there is the sacrifice of self, the surrender of what- ofg^f der
ever there is in us which is contrary to the will of
God, the extermination of those unholy desires
and passions of the soul, so dear to the natural
man, so alien to the law of God. And what a
cross that is ! No man can tell what another
man's cross is. But we have all a cross of some
kind. You have yours. I have mine. They differ
from one another ; but there is not one of us who
does not know that there are things in us to be
fought, and repudiated, and torn up by the roots,
if we would follow Christ. Do not confine what I
am saying to what we speak of as the grosser sins.
We can see that the drunkard and the profligate
have to say good-bye to their evil habits before
they can follow Christ, and we know what agony
that means in many cases. But it is not to them
alone this demand applies; It applies also to us.
For there is not one of us who does not know
perfectly well that in our own hearts there are
181

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. things to be repudiated and put away, if we want
34-ix. I. t0 foUow Christ
A Real The putting away of these things, the denial of
ruci xion. gej£ an(j genge^ wnat a conflict it is, and what
agony it entails ! There was no punishment so
torturing as crucifixion. But what crucifixion was in
the physical realm, that the denial and repudiation
of self is in the spiritual. Indeed, crucifixion is the
very word Paul uses for the process. " I have been
crucified with Christ," he cries (Gal. ii. 20). "Our
old man," he says in another place, " was crucified
with Him" (Rom. vi. 6). "The world," he says in
yet a third place, "hath been crucified unto me,
and I unto the world " (Gal. vi. 14). While in
another place he states his own experience as a
general law, and in the very spirit of this text says,
" They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the
flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof"
(Gal. v. 24). " The flesh," their own flesh. It is
upon themselves they have executed this judg
ment. It is upon themselves they have inflicted
this agony. They have driven the nails through
their own quivering affections and lusts. In this
respect of the denial of self in obedience to the
holy will of God, Christ is but the first cross-
bearer of a great host That was the sign that a
Knight had entered for the Crusades, in olden
days — the cross upon the shoulder. This is the
sign that we have entered the service of Jesus —
the cross in the life, the marks, the stigmata, the
nail-prints of Jesus, in the heart. " If any
man would come after Me, let him deny
182

Discipleship and the Cross
himself, and take up his cross, and follow Mark viii.
Me "(ver. 34). 34-ix.'*-
Now I can imagine that, when the disciples Three
heard this law first laid down, many of them may ^Cross-
have said in their hearts, " This is a hard saying, bearing.
who can bear it ? " And perhaps some of them
may even have contemplated leaving Jesus, and
following no more after Him. He was making
the price of discipleship so costly. I believe Jesus
Himself realised that thoughts like these were
arising in their minds, that many listening to Him
were asking the question, " Is it worth while ? "
And so He proceeds to deal with that unexpressed
doubt. " It is a heavy price to pay," He says to
these doubting and hesitating folk, in effect, " but
it is worth while. Discipleship means the cross,
but it is worth the cost." And He proceeds to
enunciate three reasons, each one of them intro
duced by a " for," to show that it is worth while to
follow Him, even though it means the cross and
the daily self-denial. Let us glance briefly at each
of the reasons Christ adduces.
(1) This is the first — " Whosoever would save (i) The
his life shall lose it ; and whosoever shall lose his Losfne and
life for My sake and the Gospel's shall save it " Saving.
(viii. 35). To understand this paradox — a paradox
embodying so much of essential and vital truth
that our Lord repeated it on more than one
occasion — we must bear in mind that the word
"life" is used here in a double sense. In the one
connection it stands for mere life; in the other it
stands for the " good of life," life worthy of the
183

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. name. It is life on the lower and the higher
34-ix. I. plane. As Paul would put it, it is life " after the
flesh," and fife " after the Spirit." So that this
saying might be paraphrased thus, "Whosoever
will make it his first business to save or preserve
his natural life and worldly well-being, shall lose
the higher life, the life indeed ; and whosoever is
willing to lose his natural life for My sake, shall
find the true eternal life." And we know by
—And the experience that this is true. If we concentrate
price of our thought upon the lower self, upon comfort,
and wealth, and sensual indulgence, the higher life
suffers. Youl remember that grim verse in the
Psalms, "They lusted exceedingly in the wilder
ness, and tempted God in the desert " (Psa. cvi.
14, 15), lusted for mere material good, for the
flesh-pots of Egypt, "and He gave them their
request" — they got what they wanted. But at
what a price! for "He gave them their request ; but
sent leanness into their soul." That is a sequence
we see illustrated too sadly often before our very
eyes. We see men getting their desires, getting
comfort, ease and wealth ; we see them pampering
their lower self, and we see them paying for it in
leanness of soul. On the other hand, when a man
dies to self, when he crucifies his flesh, with the
affections and lusts thereof, he rises with Christ
into a new life, a rich life, an eternal life. Sacrifice
of some kind must be made. The only question
we have to settle is, which we will sacrifice, the
lower or the higher, what the world calls life, or
what He calls life. Here there is the first reason
184

Discipleship and the Cross
for obeying Christ's call, and bearing the cross, by Mark viii.
sacrificing self, by crucifying the flesh, by losing the 34~ix. I.
lower life, we gain the life which is life indeed.
(2) And here is the second reason — it follows (2) The
closely upon the first, and is indeed explanatory of l^ss s^n.
it — "For what doth it profit a man to gain the
whole world, and forfeit his life ? For what should
a man give in exchange for his life ? " (viii. 36, 37).
Here is our Lord's profit and loss sum. He puts
the lower life and the higher life in the scales, and
weighs them against each other. For the lower
life is just the "worldly" life, the life given up to
things of time and sense ; the life that seeks to
satisfy itself with creature comforts and sensual
joys. Supposing that a man gains the world,
enjoys everything the world can give, is rich and
increased with goods, and in need of nothing ; like
Dives, is clothed in purple and fine linen, and fares
sumptuously every day ; supposing that he gains
the whole world at the cost of the life of his soul,
he is a loser by the bargain. On the other hand,
the whole world is too small, an utterly inade
quate price to pay for the ransom of a soul once
lost. Christ's question remains still unanswered. We —An Ever-
are all of us confronted by this alternative, the Alternative.
world or the soul. And many of us are tempted
to sacrifice the soul to the world. That is specially
our peril in these materialistic days. But who
ever sacrifices his soul to the world makes a bad
bargain. For he is sacrificing the inward and
essential to the outward and accidental, the
185

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii, enduring to the transient, the eternal to the
31-ix. 1. temporal. Supposing a man gains the world, he
cannot keep it. "The world passeth away."
"The rich man died," that is his end. And the
man who has made the world his choice loses
everything. He is ushered into the next world,
poor and miserable and blind and naked. For a
man's genuine and permanent wealth does not
consist in cash, but in character, not in what he
possesses, but in what he is. I know the world
measures what a man is worth by the amount of
money he has ;, but the real worth of man is
measured by the amount of soul he has, by the
amount of faith and hope and love and purity
there is in him. And in face of this I want to
know what shall it profit a man to gain the world,
and lose his real life — his soul life ? Profit ! there
is no profit in it, only sheer and utter loss. Indeed,
that is the only person Christ describes as " lost,"
the man who has lost his soul. And supposing
a man has " lost " his soul, what can he give to
buy it back ? What shall a man give in exchange,
or rather as an exchange, for his soul ? Many a
man, coming to the end of his life, would give
anything and everything to get his lost soul back.
He has got his wealth, perhaps ; but face to face
with eternity he sees his wealth is mere dust and
dross compared to the soul, and he would give all
he has to buy it back. But " it cannot be gotten
for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the
price thereof" (Job xxviii. 15). It is in view of
all this that Christ urged men to crucify the world
186

Discipleship arid the Cross
to themselves, and themselves unto the world, to Mark viii.
deny themselves, and follow Him. It may mean 34-ix. I.
poverty, as far as this world is concerned, but they
shall be rich unto eternal life.
(3) And the third argument for cross-bearing is (3) The
drawn from the Second Advent. I am not going Reckoning.
just now to enter upon any discussion as to what
we are to understand by the specific references to
the Second Coming in the Gospel, and even in
this particular passage. There is no doubt the
disciples expected that coming to take place
speedily. Indeed, the words that follow this
verse, words which naturally belong to it (ix. 1),
seem to promise that it shall take place within
the lifetime of some who were then standing by
our Lord and listening to His words. It may be
that our Lord spoke of two comings, one near at
hand, and another at the end of the world, and
that these two got more or less confused in the
recollections of the disciples. But be that as it
may, one fact is quite clear : our Lord spoke of a
day of triumph, when He should appear invested
with the manifest glory of Messiah, and attended
with a mighty host of ministering spirits — His
reward for bearing His cross of ignominy and
shame. And in that day of the Lord's triumph
those who have borne the cross and followed Him
shall triumph too. Those who have suffered with
Him shall also be glorified together. Those who
have fought His battles shall wear the crown.
"For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of
My words in this adulterous and sinful generation,
187

St^Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark viii. the Son of Man also shall be ashamed of him, when
34-ix. 1. jje Cometh in the glory of His Father with the
holy angels" (viii. 38). In the great and awful
day of judgment and searching and sifting, the
one thing worth having will be the life-giving
recognition and smile of the Lord; but if we
have never enlisted in His army, if we do not
bear the " marks " of the cross, what can He say
but this, " I never knew you ; depart from Me, ye
that work iniquity ? "
A Searching " If any man would come after Me, let him deny
CaI1, himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me " ; it is
a stern and searching call. And yet it is a reason
able call. For, just as Jesus endured the cross and
despised the shame for the joy that was set before
Him, so too, if we remember the "joy " set before us,
we shall have strength to bear our cross. And let
us remember this, farther. When we bear our
cross we are in the blessed fellowship of Jesus.
He marches at the head with His great and heavy
cross. We follow after. And our crosses are light
compared with His. " Shall Jesus thus suffer, and
shall we refuse ? " " Who shall dream of shrinking,
by our Captain led?" "We will not shrink!"
" Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou
goest " (Matt. viii. 19).

188

XVI
THE TRANSFIGURATION :
THE TRANSFIGURED
" And after six days Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James,
and John, and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by
themselves : and He was transfigured before them. And His
raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow ; so as no fuller
on earth can white them. And there appeared unto them Elias
with Moses : and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter
answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here :
and let us make three tabernacles ; one for Thee, and one for
Moses, and one for Elias. For he wist not what to say ; for
they were sore afraid. And there was a cloud that overshadowed
them : and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My
beloved Son : hear Him. And suddenly, when they had looked
round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with
themselves." — Make ix. 2-8.
The great event that took place on one of the Mark ix.
slopes of Mount Hermon is, of course, to be 2"8-
regarded as a miraculous, supernatural occurrence. ^ Miracle
But it differs from every other miracle the Gospels
record for us. And the difference is this — in every
other miracle Christ is the Giver of grace ; in this He
is the Receiver of glory. The reason for every other
miracle is obvious and plain. Our Lord Himself
announced that He was come to preach good
tidings to the poor, to proclaim release to the
captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set
189

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. at liberty them that were bruised, and when He
2-8. went about doing good, healing the sick, cleansing
the leper, giving liberty to the devil-possesed, He
was doing the very work for which He was sent.
—Its But what good end was the Transfiguration
Purpose. meant to serve ? In whose interests and for whose
benefit did it take place ? These are questions that
inevitably suggest themselves, as we read how, on
this high and solitary and unnamed mountain the
Lord was transfigured, " and His garments became
glistering, exceeding white ; so as no fuller on earth
can whiten them " (ix. 3).
The Subject Now, in answering these questions we must
Witnesses, notice that there were two sets of participants in
this great and never-to-be-forgotten scene. There
was our Lord ; and there were the three disciples,
Peter and James and John. I leave out of account
the heavenly visitors, for quite clearly the Trans
figuration did not take place for their sakes ; they
appeared in it for the sake of the others. We need
to consider our Lord and the three disciples.
When I am asked for the sake of which of these
two sets did the Transfiguration take place, I
answer, for both. I believe that, primarily, the
Transfiguration took place for Jesus' sake. But not
for Jesus' sake only. You remember how John
tells of the voice from heaven which said, " I have
both glorified it, and will glorify it again " (John xii.
28). Jesus remarked, " This voice hath not come
for My sake, but for your sakes" (ver. 30). So
exactly the glory of the holy mount was not
exclusively for Jesus' sake ; it was also partly for
190

Transfiguration: The Transfigured
the sake of these three disciples, who, though heavy Mark ix.
with sleep, beheld the glory, and never afterwards 2"°v
forgot it. But here we will confine ourselves to a
consideration of the Transfiguration in relation to
Jesus. What end was it meant to serve, as far as
Jesus was concerned ? What was it meant to do
for Him?
The very first words of the narrative will help us The
to our answer to that question. All the Evangelists Jil^and the"
who give us an account of this wonderful incident Cross.
make a special point of the date. They are all
particular to mention that it took place about a
week after another event ; and the obvious inference
is that in the minds of the Evangelists these two
events were closely connected together. As Dr A. B.
Bruce puts it, this note of time is like a finger-post
pointing back to the previous paragraphs, and
saying, " If you want to understand what follows,
remember what went before." What is it that comes
before ? It was Christ's first announcement of the
cross; His first plain, direct, unmistakable declara
tion that His career on earth was not going to
end in a throne, as the disciples had fondly ima
gined, but in a cruel and shameful death. Now
that announcement produced something like dismay
and consternation in the apostolic band. Peter's
indignant but mistaken protest is just an index of
their recoil from the thought of a cross for their
Master. And it is no dishonour to our Lord
Himself to say, that the thought of the cross was
accompanied by a sense of repugnance in His own
soul. Remember the prayer at Gethsemane and the
191

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. agony (Matt. xxvi. 39, 42 ; Luke xxii. 42, 44). It
2"8* was this that lent such deadly force to the tempta
tion which Peter's mistaken affection put in His way.
That was the mood of Jesus and of His disciples
during the intervening week ; and we must realise
all this — the despair of the disciples, the grief and
shrinking of our Lord — if we want to realise the
meaning and purpose of this wonderful event that
took place upon Hermon. For the primary end
the Transfiguration was meant to serve was that of
encouragement ; the encouragement of the disciples,
whose faith had been well-nigh shattered by Christ's
announcement of His death, and the encouragement
of our blessed Lord Himself. What happened on
Hermon strengthened Him to bear the cross, and by
the grace of God to taste death for every man.
The Prayer. Luke alone of the three Evangelists recording
the Transfiguration says that Jesus went up into
the mountain "to, pray." He took His three
closest and dearest disciples with Him, as He
did subsequently in the garden, both for their
advantage, and because, true Man as He was,
He craved human sympathy, and appreciated to
the full the succour and encouragement which
human sympathy gives. "He went up into the
mountain to pray." Very likely to plead for His
disciples, that when the dreaded blow actually
fell, their faith might not utterly fail. But also
He went up this mountain that by communion
with God He might be strengthened to face and
bear it. Read the story of our Lord's prayer in
Gethsemane : " Father, if Thou be willing, remove
192

Transfiguration: The Transfigured
this cup from Me : nevertheless not My will, but Mark ix.
Thine, be done " (Luke xxii. 42). It was the same 2'8.
agonised prayer our Lord offered upon the holy
mount. He prayed for strength and courage to
drink the bitter cup to its dregs. And, just as— And the
, tt- j.i i i Response.
in answer to His prayer in the garden, an angel
appeared from heaven strengthening Him, so He
was heard for His strong crying and tears on the
holy mount. For, as Luke puts it, " As He was
praying, the fashion of His countenance was altered,
and His raiment became white and dazzling "
(Luke ix. 29). "As He was praying"; the
"miracle happened while our Lord was in the very
act of prayer. Before He called, His Father
answered ; and while He was yet speaking His
Father heard. The glory, the company of Moses
and Elijah, the heavenly voice, were all in answer
to prayer. " They that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength ; . . . they shall run, and not
be weary ; they shall walk, and not faint," says
the prophet (Isa. xl. 31). Our Lord waited upon
God; He too received His strength, and walked
without fainting straight to the bitter cross.
What an encouragement all this is to prayer ! Prayer and
What blessings descend upon the praying soul, y0rnl"s^gura"
and especially this — the transfiguration and trans
formation of character. " As He was praying, the
fashion of His countenance was altered " ; the
miracle happens still. There is nothing for trans
figuring face and character like communion. Moses
went up to the mount, and stayed there forty days, ,
and when he came down again there was such a
N 193

St Mark vi. 7 — x. 31
Mark ix. radiance in his face that the children of Israel
2"& dared not look upon him (Exod. xxxiv. 30 ; 2 Cor.
iii. 7). And that is no solitary experience. " They
looked unto Him," said the Psalmist, " and were
lightened" (Ps& xxxiv. 5). They were lit up.
Their faces shone like the sun for joy. David
begins one Psalm, "Out of the depths have I
cried unto Thee, O Lord " (Psa. cxxx. 1), but com
munion with God dispels the cloud, and soothes
the sorrow and trouble, and before the end the
fashion of his countenance is altered, and he is
saying, " 0 Israel, hope in the Lord ; for with the
Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous
redemption" (ver. 7). And the same transforma
tion takes place still.
Prayer leaves its mark on the character, on the
very face. The look of care, as Dr Glover says,
relaxes into peace; lines of anguish change into
those of joy. Dr J. G. PatOn mentions the rapt
look on his old father's face when he came out of
the tiny room where he held communion with God.
It was almost the very first thing that impressed
him with the reality of religion. And the trans
formation goes deeper than the face. It reaches
down to the very heart. I know of nothing that
so effectually removes all hateful things from the
soul, and begets love and hope and faith in it,
as prayer. As we behold Christ, and meditate
upon Him, we are changed into His image, from
glory to glory.
Prayer and But I must pass on. Our Lord received a rich
Sustaining an(j fun answer to His prayer. " Cast thy burden
Power. lg4

Transfiguration : The Transfigured
upon the Lord," says the Psalmist, " and He shall Mark ix.
sustain thee " (Psa. Iv. 22). It is not exactly the 2-8.
sequence we should expect. We should have
expected something like this, " Cast thy burden
on the Lord, and He will take it away." But
that is not God's method. It may be necessary
to bear the burden, as it was for Paul's good to
have his thorn in the flesh. What God does for
those who cast their burden upon Him, is what
He did for the great Apostle of the Gentiles.
He gives grace suflicient for the burden. That
was what He did for His beloved Son on the holy
mount. He did not take the bitter cup away from
His lips. He did not take the cruel and shameful
cross away ; but He so strengthened Christ's soul
that, after this great experience on Hermon, He
stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.
Three things happened on the mount to cheer The Glory
our Lord's heart, and thus to strengthen Him in figuratSifnS
His great redeeming purpose : The glory, the visit
of Moses and Elijah, and the ^heavenly voice.
First of all, there was the glory. " He was trans
figured before them," Mark says, "and His gar
ments became glistering, exceeding white; so as
no fuller on earth can whiten them" (vers. 2, 3).
Questions have been asked whether this glory was
a glory conferred upon Christ from without, or
whether it was His inner and essential glory
shining through. I do not know that the question
can ever be satisfactorily answered. The essential
point is, ^that for a brief space Christ was "in
glory." Some fanciful commentators have sug-
195

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix., gested that Christ could then and there have
2"°- stepped into glory without passing through the
pain and humiliation of the cross ; that when
Jesus left the holy mount with its heavenly
visitors, and came down again to the plain, He
humbled Himself a second time, as He had done
before, when He condescended to be born in
Bethlehem. But with all respect I venture to say
that is an entire misinterpretation of the narrative,
and a misunderstanding of the character of our
Lord. Christ's glory, according to the uniform
testimony of Scripture, springs out of His shame.
It is because He humbled Himself unto death that
He has received the name which is above every
name. The glory He enjoyed on the mount was a
foretaste of the glory that would be His after the
cross had been borne. John Bunyan, before he
brings Christian and Hopeful to the cold waters
of Jordan, takes them for a brief space to the land
of Beulah, whose air was very sweet and pleasant,
and where the sun shone night and day, and where
they had rapturous visions of the golden city
whither they were journeying, with the result
that the pilgrims were eager to cross the Jordan,
and be there. And in much the same way Jesus
enjoyed the glory of the holy mount and the
-converse of the shining ones before He tasted of
the shame of the judgment and the cross. "For
the joy that was set before Him," says the Apostle,
"He endured the cross, despising shame" (Heb.
xii. 2). And of that joy He had a foretaste in
the glory of the Transfiguration Mount.
196

Transfiguration: The Transfigured
The second encouragement was the visit and the Mark ix.
converse of Moses and Elijah. " There appeared 2"8-
unto them Elijah with Moses : and they were S6™,^
talking with Jesus " (ver. 4). Commentators have visitors.
speculated as to why these two Old Testament
saints in particular were sent to hold converse
with Jesus. The general opinion seems to be that
these two were the great representatives of the
Law and the Prophets, and as such had been the
great Forerunners of the Lord in preparing the
way for His Kingdom. Others suggest that these
two men were chosen because each of them had
borne a heavy cross, and each had achieved a
great deliverance. And yet others find the reason
for the choice of Moses and Elijah in the singularity
of their end. The one never had a shroud, the
other never had a grave.
But I am not half so concerned as to why these —Their
two particular saints were chosen, as I am about onverse-
the theme of the converse they held with our Lord.
" They were talking with Jesus," Mark says. And
what did they talk about ? It is Luke who
supplies the answer to that question, " they spake
of the decease which He was about to accomplish
at Jerusalem" (Luke ix. 31). His dying was the
subject of their converse. But it is quite a peculiar
word they use to describe His dying. Our English
version renders it " decease," but the Greek word
is "exodus." They talked of the exodus which
He was to accomplish at Jerusalem. Notice, the
cross is not presented as a death which Christ
endured, but as an exodus which He accomplished.
197

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. It was not something which He suffered ; it was
2_8. something which He achieved. What does the
very word exodus suggest ? It suggests emancipa
tion, redemption, deliverance. And that was what
the cross meant : emancipation, redemption, de
liverance for a world. Christ's disciples did not
understand this. The bare mention of death flung
them into a panic of despair. But the saints in
glory knew what the cross meant. It meant not
defeat, but deliverance. By dying Christ was to
accomplish an exodus. And they came and talked
with Jesus about it. Peter and the rest would
fain keep Jesus from the cross. To them it meant
the overthrow of all their hopes. Moses and
Elijah knew better. They came down to strengthen
Christ's hands in God. They talked about the
exodus — the great deliverance He was to accom
plish at Jerusalem.
The Thirdly, there was the Heavenly Voice. At
Heavenly every moment of His life and at every stage of
His career Christ had the Father's favour resting
upon Him. " I do always the things which please
Him." But on certain occasions He received for
His encouragement certain special and extraordinary
proofs of God's good pleasure. More than once in
His career a voice came from heaven. And the
significant thing is these voices came when Christ
in some special way accepted the shame and pain
of our sin. The voice came at the Baptism, when
Jesus by that act made our sin His own. It
came again on this Transfiguration Mount, when
the cross rose stark and cruel before Him, and He
198

Transfiguration: The Transfigured
accepted it as the price of man's redemption. It Mark ix.
came later, when with troubled soul at the thought
of death Jesus was yet able to say, " Father, glorify
Thy name." And if the Son's obedience gave the
Father pleasure, the Father's pleasure gave the Son
strength. " The cup which the Father hath given
Me, shall I not drink it ? " (John xviii. 11). What
did it matter though His foremost disciple should
protest and condemn, so long as God said of Him,
with His cross upon His back, "Thou art My
Beloved Son " ? And so the Transfiguration was
the answer to our Lord's urgent and believing
prayer. There is for every burden the necessary
strength. There is for every cross the needful
grace. There was even for His. The glory, the
heavenly visitors, the Father's good pleasure, so
nerved and confirmed our Lord's soul, that, " fore
knowing, choosing, feeling all," He did not shrink
" Until the perfect work was done,
And drunk the bitter cup of gall."

199

XVII
THE TRANSFIGURATION:
THE WITNESSES
" And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James,
and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by
themselves : and He was transfigured before them. And His.
raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow ; so as no fuller
on earth can white them. And there appeared unto them Elias
with Moses : and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter
answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here :
and let us make three tabernacles ; one for Thee, and one for
Moses, and one for Elias. For he wist not what to say ; foT
V they were sore afraid. And there was a cloud that overshadowed
them ; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My
beloved Son : hear Him. And suddenly, when they had looked
round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with
themselves," — Mark ix. 2-8.
Mark ix. Now as to the part the three disciples played at
2-8. the Transfiguration, and its effect upon them.
The Chosen « ^nd after six days," Mark says, " Jesus taketh
with Him Peter, and James, and John, and bringeth
them up into a high mountain apart by themselves :
and He was transfigured before them" (ver. 2).
Only three out of the twelve disciples went up with
Jesus to the holy mount. Why were Peter and
James and John specially chosen ? No doubt
because they were in some way nearer to Christ
than the rest. I do not mean to suggest that
200

The Transfiguration : The Witnesses
Christ had His favourites, though John is called Mark ix.
"the disciple whom Jesus loved." But there were 2"8-
degrees of faith and understanding and affection
among the Twelve. And these three were chosen
because on the whole we may well believe that
they understood Christ best, and sympathised with
Him most.
In ordinary and secular matters the order is — first
see, then believe. But the opposite is the order
in the spiritual realm — first faith, then vision. Seeing
does not lead to believing, but believing leads to
seeing. " He that loveth . . . knoweth." That is
why our Lord's choice fell upon Peter and James
and John, as it did once again, in the hour of His
mortal agony and conflict in Gethsemane — because
out of the circle of the Twelve these three clung to
Him most closely, and were nearest to their Master
in spirit. /
Those who cling closely to Jesus see some The
wonderful sights, and enjoy some unspeakable F^h,r s °
privileges. I do not deny that they have also to
bear some heavy crosses and to share in the fellow
ship of the Lord's suffering; to accompany their
Lord into Gethsemanes and up Calvaries. But now
and again they are taken up like these three were,
to the holy mount, when their enraptured eyes are
privileged to behold the very glory of the Lord.
" If I find Him, if I follow," we ask, in our familiar
and favourite hymn, " what His guerdon here " ?
And we answer our own question, " Many a conflict,
many a labour, many a tear." And that is true so
far as it goes. But it does not tell the whole story.
201

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. " What His guerdon here ? " Gethsemane ; yes, but
2~8- the holy mount also. Christ's guerdon is not simply
" many a conflict, many a labour, many a tear."
Along with the conflicts and labours and tears there
will certainly come many an hour of glorious vision
and high and holy fellowship. And the vision of the
holy mount always compensates for Gethsemane.
" I reckon," says St Paul, " that the sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory " (Rom. viii. 18).
Peter's Luke gives us to understand that Peter, James
roposa. an(j jonn jjjjj on ^ne mount exactly what they
afterwards did in the garden. While the Lord prayed
they slept. And apparently it was only when
Moses and Elijah were preparing to return to the
heaven which they had for a brief space left that
the glory broke upon their gaze. That is to say,
they might have enjoyed more of the glory than they
did, had they only watched, instead of sleeping.
But when at last the disciples were fully awake,
and they beheld the glorious vision, their souls were
clean ravished within them, and they desired above
all things that the glory might last. Peter was, as
usual, the first to speak; but by his words the
thoughts of the hearts of all three of them stand
revealed. " Rabbi," he said, " it is good for us to be
here, and let us make three tabernacles ; one for
Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah"
(ver. 5). Afterwards he realised that was a foolish
request to have made. And in the next verse you
have his apology for his rashness and foolishness
(for, though the Gospel is written by St Mark, I see
202

The Transfiguration : The Witnesses
no reason whatever for doubting the old tradition Mark ix.
that Mark got his material from St Peter). Here 2"&
is his apology, "For he wist not what to answer;
for they became sore afraid" (ver. 6).
Now, let us ask ourselves what Peter's proposal The Voice
amounted to. This, says Dr A. B. Bruce : he of Self<
wanted to enjoy the felicities of heaven without any
preliminary process of cross-bearing. Peter was
exactly in the same humour as when he took Jesus
aside, and presumed to rebuke Him because He
spoke of rejection and suffering and deatii. "Why
need we go down to face captious Pharisees and
plotting priests, why run the risk of rejection and
suffering and death at all ; why not remain in this
blessed company and on this holy hill ? This is
heaven begun, — why go back to earth, with its
sorrows and its sins ? " The glory without the
shame, the crown without the cross — that was what
Peter wanted. He knew afterwards it was a foolish
request. He came to realise that even for Jesus
humiliation was the way of exaltation ; that, if
Christ had shirked the cross, there would have
been no redemption for the world ; that it behoved
the Christ to suffer. But all that was in the future.
At present he feared and hated and loathed the
very idea of a cross. And once again in this speech
of his on the holy) mount he invited his Lord to
shirk and decline it. " He wist not what to say,"
— that is all the excuse that can be made for it. It
was the foolish appeal of an ignorant, worldly heart.
Moses and Elijah, who knew what the cross meant,
did not seek to dissuade our Lord from it. They
203

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. gpoke with Him of the exodus, the glorious eman-
2"°- cipation and redemption, He was to accomplish at
Jerusalem. And so the glory of the holy mount
could not detain Him. He stedfastly set His face
towards Jerusalem.
—And the That is the primary meaning of Peter's proposal.
Call of Duty. -guj. mos^ preachers widen the import, and say that
tie desired to prolong the time of rapture and
communion, at the expense of the time of labour and
conflict. And for practical purposes it may be
legitimate to give this wider interpretation to it.
One can understand Peter's wish for a prolongation
of the scene: What a blessed privilege it was to
be in such celestial company ! What a rapturous
joy it was to hear their high and holy converse ! I
can quite understand that this blessed communion
on the mount was more to Peter's taste than the
wrangle with the Pharisees, and the sights and
sounds of disease that were sure to meet them
again, as soon as ever they reached the foot. And
yet he learned afterwards that this wish too was a
foolish wish. Times of rapture are exceedingly
grateful and refreshing when they come ; but they
are not meant to last, they are sent to refresh and
strengthen us. We visit the mountain, not to
escape the toil and conflict of the plain, but to be
the better able to play our part in it. The Christian
life is not communion only, it is conflict as well.
It is not rapture only, it is service and labour also.
That is a notable sequence in Isaiah's prophecies.
" They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles ;
204

The Transfiguration : The Witnesses
they shall run, and not be weary ; they shall walk, Mark ix.
and not faint " (Isa. xl. 31). 2"8-
But as to Peter's first Words. " Rabbi," said he, The
"it is good for us to be here." What made him ^"K""^
say it? I daresay many things combined. But
perhaps the thing that weighed most with Peter
was the presence of Moses and Elijah. He thought
more, that is to say, of the ministering servants
than he did of the Lord. But it was the presence
of the Lord that made the mountain a holy place.
I think that even in these days we are inclined to
make. Peter's mistake — to think more of Moses
and Elijah than we do of the Lord, to attach
undue importance to secondary and subsidiary
things, and to forget that the one thing that really
matters is the presence of the Master.
But just because it was the presence of Jesus
that mattered, there was no need to remain on
the mountain-top. It was just as good to be
with Jesus in the valley fighting with disease; in
the Temple preaching the word of life, beyond
Jordan in exile, in Gethsemane; in the judgment
hall, upon the very cross. Wherever Jesus is, it
is good for us to be there. And before to-day
men have found it good to be afflicted ; they have
found it good to have burdens to bear ; they have
found it good to be passed through a very furnace
of trial, because there was with them in it One
like unto the Son of man. And I think that was
the lesson that was taught Peter and his fellow-
disciples on the mount. They were taught there
the all-importance of Christ. But they learned
205

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark ix.
2-8.
The All-
sufficiency
of Christ.

The Effect
on the
Disciples.

not only the all -importance, the supremacy of
Jesus, but also His all -sufficiency. " Suddenly
looking round about, they saw no one any more,
save Jesus only with themselves" (ver. 8). Was
there some shade of disappointment and regret
when they found Jesus only with themselves?1
Perhaps it was God's way of teaching them that
Jesus only was enough. Jesus only, as Dr Glover
says, was complete Law. Jesus only was complete
Prophecy. He did not need the help of Elijah to
declare the will of God. He did not need the
help of Moses and his sacrifices, to make an open
way for sinful men to the Presence of God. He
Himself was the Truth. He Himself offered the
one full and perfect oblation and sacrifice. They
had all they needed in Jesus. As St Paul puts it,
they were " complete in Him." Jesus only ! That
is where we are still. But Jesus is enough.
I have said that the Transfiguration was meant
for the encouragement of our Lord's soul in view
of the cross. It was also meant for the confirma
tion of the disciples' faith in view of that same
cross. The cross was bound to be a trial to them.
Bred up to believe that Messiah's destiny was to
be a throne, the sight of their Lord, "mocked,
insulted, beaten, bound," was certain to make
them doubt whether He was the Messiah at all.
So this great experience was given to them to
strengthen their faith, that it might not fail in
that day of bitter trial. For when they saw
Jesus hanging on the accursed tree, and heard
all Jerusalem railing at Him, they remembered
206

The Transfiguration : The Witnesses
they had seen His glory ; they remembered also Mark ix.
the voice which said, " This is My beloved Son." 2_8-
And so, though Jerusalem crucified Him as an
impostor and a malefactor, they held fast the
faith. During the dark days until Jesus was
declared to be the Son of God with power by
the Resurrection from the dead, the memory of
the holy mount, with its glory, and its celestial
visions and its heavenly voice, was their sheet-
anchor and their stay. Nothing could destroy
their conviction, then formed, that Jesus was the
Son of God.
That is one great and happy end our great Great
experiences are meant to serve. They keep faith sn^thei?"8
alive in days of stress and trial. Dark days Value.
come to us all. Days when faith almost falters.
What shall we do then ? Recall our great experi
ences. "Call to mind," says John Bunyan, "the
former days, and years of ancient times ; remember
also your songs in the night, and commune with
your own hearts. Have you never an' hill Mizar
to remember? Have you forgot the close, the
milk -house, the stable, the barn, and the like
where God did visit your souls?" Remember,
that is the Dreamer's advice, your hill of Trans
figuration. Recall the fact that you too have
seen the Lord's glory, that you too have heard
His voice, that you too have felt His power.
Through all your days of doubt and difficulty and
eclipse, hold fast to your experiences. Remember
the holy mount. And it shall happen to you, as
to these disciples, that the gloom and despair of
207

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. Passion Week will end in the joy and triumph of
2"8- the Resurrection morning, doubt shall give place
to joyous certainty. " Wait thou His time,
So shall thy night
Soon end in glorious day."

208

XVIII
THE DESCENT FROM THE
HILL
"And as they came down from the mountain, He charged
them that they should tell no man what things they had seen,
till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept
that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what
the rising, from the dead should mean. And they asked Him,
saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come ? And He
answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth
all things ; and how it is written of the Son of man, that He must
suffer many things, and be set at nought. But I say unto you,
That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him
whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him." — Mask ix.
9-13.
At first sight these five verses do not seem to Mark ix.
suggest much of practical profit. But Scripture is 9-13.
always surprising us by its unsuspected wealth. The Wealth
You remember the words of Job : " The stones scripture.
thereof are the place of sapphires, and it hath dust
of gold " (xxviii. 6). That verse always seems to
me to be an admirable description of the Bible. Its
very stony places turn out to be full of precious
gems; its very dust is dust of gold. We come
across what looks at first sight like a barren and
desert tract, but as we gaze at it and study it all
kinds of hidden beauties reveal themselves, until
what we thought desert . blossoms as the rose, and
o 209

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark ix.
9-I3-
The True
Order in
Service.

Is it
neglected ?

the wilderness becomes a veritable garden of the
Lord. And so it may be with this paragraph.
"And as they were coming down from the
mountain." So Peter's prayer that they might
make tents, and abide on the top of the mountain,
was not answered. They took their way down
from the holy hill to the toil and conflict of the
plain. And it was the same Lord, Who now led
them down, Who had a few hours before taken
them up. Here in a figure you get the two aspects
of Christian life. Christ bids us at one time go up
the mountain with Him,, for communion. And
then He bids us go down the mountain with Him
to service. It is of no use going down into the
valley to try to minister to the needs and wants of
men, unless we have first of all gone up. And
that is the peril of our own day. We believe in
going down in these days. That is to say, we
believe in service. There was never so much done
in the way of philanthropy. People were never
in all their history so busy as they are to-day.
And yet have you never been struck by the curious
ineffectiveness of much of our philanthropy ? We
were never busier in our ministry, and yet we
seem to do so little. Vice, temptation, sin —
all appear to grow no less. We seem quite im
potent to cast the evil spirit out. I wonder why
it is ? Is it that we have forgotten the path to the
hill ? Is it that we have gone down to the field
of service without first going up to the hill of
prayer? "Apart from Me," said Jesus to His
disciples, "ye can do nothing." Apart from the
210

The Descent from the Hill
Divine aid we can cast out no devils, we can Mark ix.
change no hearts, we can bring about no radical 9_I3-
reformations. Mere human philanthropies are
sterile and impotent. But when men go up first,
and then go down, what mighty power they wield !
That is the first call we need to hear still — the
call to come up. If we will follow our blessed
Lord, He will take us, as He did these three
disciples, up to some mountain apart to pray.
But He will not let us remain up. He takes us
up in order that later on He may lead us down
again. He carries us up into the blessed fellow
ship of the holy mount that subsequently He may
lead us down to the common levels of everyday
life, that there we may fight against sin and vice
and evil, and minister to the needs and wants of
our fellow-men. Labour apart from prayer is
ineffective: prayer that does not issue in toil is
a pretence and a sham. The genuine Christian
follows his Lord up and down, shares in the glory
of the mount, and the conflict of the plain.
" And as they were coming down from the The Profit
mountain " — they came down unwillingly, with a of ^om_
certain disappointment in their souls. And yet
they did not come down exactly as they went up.
They were not quite the same men after this great
experience as they were before. They never forgot
the glory. It established their faith. It made
them braver, stronger, truer men. The mountain
made a difference. It always does so. No man
ever comes down the hill exactly as he went up.
Moses went up an ordinary man. He came down
211

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark ix.
9-I3-

The Lord's
Charge.

a transfigured saint. And although no halo sur
rounds our heads as the result and issue of our
communion, the mountain never fails to leave its
mark upon us. " Strength and beauty," says the
Psalmist, "are in His sanctuary" (Psa. xcvi. 6).
Of the man who makes the Most High his refuge,
the Psalmist also says, "Thou shalt not be afraid
for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth
by day " (Psa. xci. 5). " The mountains shall bring
peace to the people " (Psa. lxxii. 3), says yet a
third Psalm. Strength for life's difficulties, calm
fearlessness, a quiet spirit, beauty of character,
these are the marks of the mountain. No man
can hold real fellowship without having his
faith quickened, his strength renewed, his love
confirmed. With what sort of feeling did the three disciples
come down from the mountain ? With feelings of
regret and disappointment that they were not per
mitted to remain and enjoy the glory longer, no
doubt ; but also with hearts and minds excited and
full of anticipations of triumph. Possibly the
vision of 'our Lord's glory revived again the hopes
which Christ's announcement of the cross had well-
nigh dashed to pieces. They began again to dream
of crowns and thrones. Our Lord's perception of
the kind of thoughts surging up in His disciples'
minds induced Him to lay the injunction upon
them that He did. They were bristling with
eagerness to tell their fellow-disciples what they
had seen on the mount ; but Jesus charged them
that they should tell no man what things they had
212

The Descent from^the Hill
seen. This was not at all an infrequent injunction Mark ix.
on the lips of Jesus. " Tell no man," He said to 9-*3>
the healed leper. " Tell no man," He said to the
deaf and dumb man. " Tell no man," He said to
Jairus and his wife. He lays here the same charge
upon the three disciples. As Dr Salmond puts it,
"The injunction to silence which had been laid on
others who would have proclaimed His miracles is
now laid upon the chosen three with regard to the
mighty work done on Himself."
Why did our Lord lay this embargo upon His Its Reason.
disciples ? First of all, because He did not wish
to stir up an undesirable excitement. The popula
tions of Galilee were in a very inflammable con
dition. Already, more than once, roused to
enthusiasm by our Lord's acts of power, they had
tried to take Him by force and make Him a King.
If this story of His glory on the mount had reached
them, and had won their credence, their enthusiasm
and excitement might have become uncontrollable,
and the purely spiritual nature of the Lord's King
dom might have been compromised. Jesus would
have no story told the populace that would for a
moment stir to dangerous activity their desire for
a worldly Messianic Kingdom. But, further, I
think that, as Bishop Chadwick suggests, our Lord
did not wish this experience of theirs to be exposed
to ridicule and cross-examination. For if they had
told the story immediately on their coming down
from the hill, there were plenty of people, like
Thomas, of a sceptical turn of mind, and others,
like the scribes, bitterly hostile to their Master,
213

St Mark vi. 7 — x. 31
Mark ix. who would not hesitate to say that they did not
9_I3- believe it. They would laugh at the story, and
say they had been dreaming. And indeed it was
a strange and wondrous story to ask the people to
accept. They would look at Jesus in His seamless
cloak — one of themselves in garb and manner and
speech — and the assertion of the three disciples that
a few hours before He had shone with heavenly
glory, and had Moses and Elijah to visit Him and
converse with Him, would seem wildly and hope
lessly incredible. And so Jesus bids them keep
silence about it, in order that "the impression of
this great experience might be forced back upon the
depths of their own spirits, and spread its roots
beneath the surface there " ; to tell no man, until
another event had taken place, which would make
the story of what happened on the holy mount a
natural and congruous story, which it would be no
longer difficult to believe, but which it would be
blameworthy to disbelieve. They were to tell no
man what things they had seen, save when the
Son of man should have risen from the dead.
They could venture to tell it then. The Resurrec
tion would make the Transfiguration believable.
Men would find no difficulty in believing that He
who was declared to be the Son of God with power
by the Resurrection from the dead, for one brief
hour shared on the mount in the glory which He
had with His Father before the world was.
The Central And this leads me to ask you to notice the central
RMmrec** an(* critical place which our Lord evidently assigns to
tion. His Resurrection. It is to throw light upon many
214

The Descent from the Hill
a mystery. It is to explain many a difficulty. It Mark ix.
is to make many a hard thing credible. In the old 9_I3-
days, sixty or a hundred years ago, the miracles of
our Lord were quoted as evidences of His deity.
But in the meantime there has grown up such a
sense of the invariable order of the universe, that
the miracles themselves, instead of becoming an
aid to faith, have become one of our present-day
stumbling-blocks and difficulties. But the miracles —Its rela-
cease to be difficulties, and become believable events, M^acles. ^
in the light of the Resurrection. It is with the
Resurrection we must start. In a sense it is the
one and only thing that matters. It is the key
stone of the whole arch. It is, as Dr Chadwick
says, " the centre of all the miraculous narratives,
the sun which keeps them all in their orbit." There
are certain wonderful events narrated in the Gospels
which would stagger belief, if they stood there
isolated and detached. But no wonderful deeds
are impossible to Him who rose again the third
day. Supernatural works are, shall I say it,
"natural" to such a supernatural person. The
Resurrection really carries every other miracle with
it. And the Resurrection is one of the best-attested
facts of human history. It has not only the witness
of the apostles and other disciples, it has the still
more striking and commanding witness of the
Church, and the whole history of the past nine
teen centuries, a history which if the Resurrection
is denied becomes absolutely irrational and inco
herent. The Resurrection is one of the great
certitudes of the faith, and every act and deed of
215

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. our Lord's life is to be considered in the light that
9-*3- streams from His open grave.
Elijah's « Risen again from the dead," said Jesus, and I
imagine that word would strike a chill to the three
disciples' hearts. They had just seen their Lord's
glory, and the vision of the glory had almost
banished from their minds the sad and solemn
words their Master had spoken a week before,
about rejection, and suffering, and death. In the
light of their experiences on the hill, they had
begun to dream once again about thrones. But
here is their Lord talking about "death" once
again. He will allow them to cherish no false or
misleading hopes. The cross was as visible as ever
to His undazzled eyes. He warns them once again
that it was to " death " He was marching. But it
was all an enigma to the disciples. They obstinately
refused to believe that in the bare and literal way
Christ could die. So on their way down, while
Jesus marched on in front, " they questioned among
themselves what the rising again from the dead
should mean " (ver. 10). They did not like to ask
Jesus Himself ; they had the timidity of men who
fear unpalatable truth, and so they forbore to
inquire. But there was one question they asked
their Lord. It was about Elijah. They had just
seen Elijah on the holy hill. The scribes, basing
themselves on a prophecy of Malachi, had taught
the people that before Messiah came Elijah would
reappear, to prepare the Lord's way. Was that
transient, fleeting appearance of Elijah on the
mount all that the prophet meant? And the
216

The Descent from the Hill
Master, in answer to their question, said, " Elijah Mark ix.
indeed cometh first, and restoreth- all things : and 9"I3-
how is it written of the Son of man, that He should
suffer many things and be set at nought ? " (ver. 12).
At first sight these two sentences appear to have
not the slightest connection with one another, and
a German commentator speaks of the latter sen
tence as one that has " vehemently harassed inter
preters." But really there is no difficulty. Our
Lord wishes the disciples to connect with the
prophecy about Elijah another prophecy about
Himself. The disciples — following the example of
their teachers — had been eclectics in their reading
of the Scriptures. They had picked and chosen.
They had made much of those passages that spoke
of Messiah's glory and reign. They had ignored
all those other passages that spoke of His suffering
and death.
"But I say unto you," Christ added, "that
Elijah is come, and they have also done unto him
whatsoever they listed, even as it is written of
him " (ver. 13). Elijah had come — and at that a
veil dropped from their eyes, and they recognised
that Jesus spoke of that lonely ascetic of the
wilderness whose cry had rung throughout the
land, " Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at A Past
hand," and who in that way had prepared the way Event-
t)f the Lord. John had come in the power and
spirit of Elijah ; but they did with him as they had
done with his prototype in the ancient days. They
did with him and to him whatsoever they listed.
They rejected him, and repudiated his message, and
217

Mark ix.
9-13-

— Fore
shadowingAnother.

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
allowed him, without protest, to be put to death
by a weak king at the bidding of an adulterous
queen. They knew not the day of their visitation.
They did not recognise Elijah when he came.
" They have also done unto him " — that little
word " also " is full of significance. It implies that
there was another whom they were treating in the
same way as John. And that other was John's
Lord. " The Son of man must suffer many things,
and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests,
and the scribes, and be killed" (viii. 31). John's
baptism was rejected : John's Lord was crucified.
They neither recognised the forerunner nor the
Messiah Himself. They did unto both whatsoever
they listed. The Lord still visits us, and proffers
Himself to us. Do you recognise the day of your
visitation ? Or do you do with Him whatsoever
you list ? " Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and
ye perish in the way, for His wrath will soon be
kindled. Blessed are all they that put their trust
in Him " (Psa. ii. 12).

218

XIX
THE DISCIPLES' FAILURE

" And when He came to His disciples, He saw a great multi
tude about them, and the scribes questioning with them. And
straightway all the people, when they beheld Him, were greatly
amazed, and running to Him saluted Him. And He asked the
scribes, What question ye with them ? And one of the multi
tude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto Thee my
son, which hath a dumb spirit ; And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him : and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth,
and pineth away : and I spake to Thy disciples that they should
cast him out ; and they could not. He answereth him, and
saith, 0 faithless generation, how long shall I be with you ? how
long shall I suffer you ? bring him unto Me. And they brought
him unto Him : and when He saw him, straightway the spirit
tare him ; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.
And He asked his father, How long is it ago since this came
unto him ? and he said, Of a child. And ofttimes it hath cast
him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him : but if
Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible
to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child
cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe ; help Thou mine
unbelief. When Jesus saw that the people came running together,
He rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and
deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more
into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came
out of him : and he was as one dead ; insomuch that many said,
He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him
up ; and he arose. And when He was come into the house, His
disciples asked Him privately, Why could not we cast him out ?
219

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
And He said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing,
but by prayer and fasting. And they departed thence, and
passed through Galilee ; and He would not that any man should
know it," — Makk ix. 14-30.
Mark ix. " Lord, it is good for us to be here," Peter had
14-30. said, when enjoying the glory of the holy mount.
The Need But as soon as he reached the foot of the hill, he
and the Call. mus^ a&ye felt that it would not have been " good "
if the Lord had remained longer on the mountain.
For here at the mountain's foot were people in sore
and urgent need of Him. Here was a poor lad
dehumanised almost by an evil spirit ; here was
a father agonised with concern and grief on his
account ; here were His disciples disappointed and
defeated, and at their wits' end ; and here was a
multitude bewildered by the disciples' failure, and
in danger, as a result, of losing what little faith they
had in Christ Himself. There was imperative need
for the presence of Jesus.
The At the foot of the hill there was a crowd about
Appeal the nine disciples, and scribes questioning with
them. Our Lord asked what all the excitement
was about. An answer was quickly forthcoming,
not from the disciples, nor yet from- the scribes,
but from an individual in the crowd. "Master,"
he cried, "I brought unto Thee my son, which
hath a dumb spirit ; and wheresoever it taketh
him, it dasheth him down : and he foameth, and
grindeth his teeth, and pineth away : and I spake
to Thy disciples that they should cast it out ; and
they were not able " (vers. 17-19).
Now how was it the disciples had failed ?, Was
220

The Disciples' Failure
it from first to last a case of presumption ? In Mark ix.
undertaking to cast the evil spirit out of this boy, I4_3°-
had they undertaken a task for which no authority Tfh^ Causes
or power had been conferred upon them ? No ;
that was not so. Jesus had conferred on them
certain authorities and powers, and amongst others
this, "He gave them authority over the unclean
spirits" (vi. 7). And this power was not con
ferred upon them in vain, for one of the things
over which the Twelve, and even the Seventy,
rejoiced most was this, "Even the devils," they
said, "are subject to us in Thy name." This,
then, was no case of undertaking a task for which
they had no authority.
Why, then, had they failed here ? Probably —Lowered
several reasons co-operated. Possibly they were ^P5J'"al
out of heart. Their Master was away. Their
three strongest companions were away. And
above everything else, the announcement of
Christ's approaching rejection and suffering and
death had stunned them, and well-nigh shattered
their faith. Only a week or so had elapsed sihce
that first announcement of the cross. Of that
week we have absolutely no record. Apparently
nothing was said, nothing was done. They spent
it, as Godet says, in a kind of stupor of bewilder
ment and grief. That was very much their
spiritual condition when this distracted father
brought to them his demented son, and besought
them to heal him. And their spiritual condition
to a large extent explains their failure. What a
person can give out depends upon what he has
221

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. within. The power he exerts depends upon the
I4"3°» power he possesses. Before a man can breathe
hope into another, he must have stores of hope
in himself. Before he can create faith in another,
he must have strong faith of his own. That is the
principle underlying our Lord's word, " According
to your faith it shall be unto you." Now, this
father brought his lad to the disciples when their
spiritual vitality was at its lowest ebb. They
could work no miracle, because they themselves
possessed no spiritual energy. They could do no
mighty work, because they themselves had no
faith. " 0 faithless generation," cried Jesus, " how
long shall I be with you ? how long shall I bear
with you ? " (ver. 19).
—Lack of If you ask why the disciples had no faith, you
Prayer. gn^ £ne reason in the reply Jesus gave to their
query, " Why could not we cast it out ? " " This
kind," answered Jesus, " can come out by nothing,
save by prayer " (ver. 29). That was the ultimate
cause of failure. Lack of prayer. Faith and
prayer stand almost in the relation of cause and
effect. You cannot neglect one, and retain the
other. You cannot omit prayer, and keep faith.
For what is prayer ? It is the meeting of spirit
with spirit. It is man communing with God.
It is •the mortal laying hold upon the eternal.
It is man talking with God ; yes, and God talking
with man. Now if anyone neglects prayer, if he
does not speak to God, and hear God speak to
him, God becomes vague, distant, unreal to him.
He loses his sense of God, his assurance of the
222

The Disciples' Failure
presence of God,, the resistless force and power Mark ix.
' the assurance of God's presence always brings. I4_3°.
And losing his hold of God, he becomes impotent
and paralysed.
The failure of the disciples exposed them and Failure and
their faith and their Lord to the scorn and mockery ReProach-
of an unbelieving crowd. When Jesus reached
His disciples He found the multitude surging around
them, and scribes questioning with them, " disputing
with them," the word might be translated. The
failure of the disciples caused exultation to the
scribes. They taunted the disciples with their
failure. Starting from this obvious and complete
failure, they threw doubt upon their possession
of any authority to cast out evil spirits. They
suggested that all their so-called successes were
impostures and make-believes. They managed even
to make the disciples' failure bring the Master Him
self into discredit. Our impotence and failure
always tend to bring the whole of religion into dis
credit, and to bring reproach on our Master Himself.
And is not that why in these very days of ours men
calmly suggest that Christianity is played out, and
the Lord Jesus has had His day ? They would not
say it if Christ's people were manifestly exerting
redeeming, regenerating power. It is our feebleness
and weakness which cause the enemy to blaspheme.
But, while the dispute was at its height, Jesus The Vindi-
arrived. "And straightway," Mark says, "all the catins Lord-
multitude, when they saw Him, were greatly
amazed, and running to Him saluted Him " (ver. 15).
Commentators have puzzled themselves over the
223

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark ix.
14.30.

The Father
of the
Sufferer.

reasons for the amazement which Mark here records.
Some of them say that Jesus, when He came down
from the- hill, retained in His face, like Moses, traces
of the shining glory. I prefer to think with Dr
Salmond that the cause was the suddenness and
opportuneness of the Lord's coming. The scribes
were just saying that Jesus Himself was an impostor,
and He appears to vindicate His claim. The
disciples were at their very wits' end. Their Lord
comes to their succour, to rescue them from their
trouble, and to stablish and confirm their faith.
And the Lord is always appearing like this, " in the
nick of time," for the confusion of His foes and the re
inforcement of His friends. In the eighteenth century
Bishop Butler says that people were so convinced
that Christianity was false and played out that they
did not even trouble to discuss it. Then the Lord
vindicated His cause, and strengthened the hearts
of His people by working the stupendous miracle of
the Evangelical Revival. It is always so. When
we are at our wits' end, our blessed Lord comes
and turns our defeat into victory. So let us be of
good cheer. Christ will always^ vindicate His own
cause. His arm is not shortened that it cannot
save. And in our days of despondency and despair
He will always confound His foes, and surprise
His friends by showing that He can save to the
uttermost those who come to God through Him.
So much for the disciples. But what of the
anxious father ? There are in effect in this paragaph
the stories of two miracles. The first and the most
obvious is our Lord's triumph over the evil spirit.
224

The Disciples' Failure
The second is not so obvious, but is in many ways Mark ix.
more wonderful still. Jesus not only drove the J4-3°.
evil spirit out of the boy^ but He won a triumph
for faith in the soul of his father. When He came
down from the hill it was to find His disciples in
the midst of a seething, excited crowd, and the
scribes engaged in a vehement dispute with them.
"What question ye with them?" He asked (ver. 16),.
A certain man of the multitude answered Him.
" Master," he said, " I brought unto Thee my son,
which hath a dumb spirit ; and wheresoever it taketh
him, it dasheth him down, and he foameth and
grindeth his teeth, and pineth away ; and I spake
to Tny disciples that they should cast it out ; and
they were not able " (vers. 17, 18).
Ah, the impetuous eagerness of love ! It may Love impels.
have been to His disciples, or to the questioning
scribes or to the excited multitude, that our Lord
addressed His question ; but it was the father who
replied. He could not wait while the scribes or the
disciples explained matters to the Master. He
himself without a moment's delay rushes in, so to
speak, and pours his sad story into the ears of the
Lordi It was, indeed, to Jesus the man really
meant to have brought his son. "I brought
unto Thee my son," he says. But Jesus was away
on the hill, so in his distress the father turned to
the nine disciples, and besought them that they
would cast the evil spirit out. And they tried, and
failed. That was the pitiful story this father had The
to tell. The recital was significant, For, as the ^r"its of
failure sprang from lack of faith, so its effect was to
p 225

St Mark vi. 7— -x. 31
Mark ix. weaken and destroy faith. The faith of this father
I4_3°- had suffered. Look at the title by which the man
addresses Christ. There is no sense of devotion in
it. There is no suggestion of personal trust. It is
not " Lord." It is not " Master." It is not " Son of
David." It is the cold title, "Teacher," which he em
ploys. He had started from home with some measure
of faith in his heart. But the failure of the disciples
had practically shattered it. He sees in Christ at this
point nothing but a " teacher." What wonder that
Christ broke out into the cry, " O faithless genera
tion, how long shall I be with you ? how long shall
I bear with you ? " (ver. 19).
The But a bruised reed our Lord never broke, and
Fafth°.rer ° smoking flax He never quenched. And so, instead
of treating with scorn and contempt this broken
and shattered faith, He set about rebuilding it,
revivifying it, restoring it. " Bring him unto Me,"
He said. "And they brought him unto Him."
But "when he saw Him, straightway the spirit
tare him grievously; and he fell on the ground,"
and wallowed foaming " (ver. 20). Now our Lord
was tender of heart, and " swift to bless." Now
what one might have expected in such a case as
this was an instantaneous cure. But while this
poor lad lay wallowing and screaming at His
feet, the Lord turned to the father, and said,
" How long time is it since this hath come unto
him? "(ver 21). Very likely the poor impatient
father thought Jesus might have cured his lad
first, and asked his questions afterwards. But
that was never our Lord's way. He never hurried.
226

The Disciples' Failure
The question was designed to reveal to the man Mark ix.
himself the moral state of his own heart. It 14-30.
brought all the belief and unbelief of the man to
the surface. " And he said, From a child," — it was
a stubborn and long-standing mischief. " And oft-
times it hath cast him both into the fire and into
the waters, to destroy him : but if Thou canst do
anything, have compassion on us, and help us "
(vers. 21, 22).
" If Thou canst I " To a large extent this a Type.
man, with more doubt than faith in him, to a
large extent represents the age in which we live.
There are some ages in the world's history which
deserve the title, " The Ages of Faith," because for
some reason or other the verities of the unseen and
external world were so near and real and vivid,
that men found it easy to believe. But our age
is not an age of faith. It is, as Dr Van Dyck
entitles it, " An Age of Doubt." It has not utterly
discarded Christ. But it wonders whether He
can really do anything to meet its sore and bitter
need. It is conscious of its misery and woe and
sin, as it never has been in all its history. And it
looks wistfully at Jesus. But it is not at all sure
that He can help. It is not confident that He can
heal. All it is capable of in the way of faith is a
timid, trembling, hesitating, "If Thou canst do
anything, have compassion on us, and help us."
John Bunyan, in his immortal dream, pictures
some men of sturdy and almost aggressive faith —
men like Great-Heart and Standfast, and Valiant-
for-Truth, and Hopeful and Faithful, and the rest.
227

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. But he also gives us the picture of men whose faith
14-30. js timid and trembling, who scarcely believe, in the
persons of Mr Little-Faith, Mr Fearing, and Mr
Feeble-Mind, and Mr Ready-to-Halt. And in this
age of ours there are a great many more Little-
Faiths and Fearings and Feeble-Minds than there
are Great-Hearts and Standfasts and Valiants-fdr-
Truth. We find the very temper of our time in
this Mr Fearing's word to Jesus, " If Thou canst do
anything, have compassion on us, and help us."
—How But see how our Lord deals with this doubtful
Our^Md7 an<^ distracted soul. To get the exact account,
you must follow the Revised rather than the
Authorised Version. Jesus did not answer, as
the A.V. represents, "If thou canst believe, all
things are possible to him that believeth." He
takes up the man's own phrase, " If thou canst ! "
He says — and He utters it, as Dr Salmond notes,
with a touch of compassionate rebuke — " If Thou
canst," thou sayest; but it is not a question of
My power, it is a question of thy faith — for "all
things are possible to him that believeth." Christ
rolls the responsibility back upon the man himself.
He thought it all depended on Jesus ; Jesus tells
him it depended upon himself. An overwhelming
consciousness of power breathes through this
answer. Christ will have no "if" applied to
Him. But He shows that the secret of success
and failure is in ourselves. We do not forget
that the excellency of the power is always of God,
and not of ourselves. But according to our faith
it is done unto us. And so, whenever we fail,
228

The Disciples' Failure
instead of casting the blame upon God, we had better Mark ix.
search our own hearts — for we may depend upon it I4"30-
that it is in ourselves the fault lies. We are never
straitened in God, we are only straitened in our
selves. If we are ever tempted to think that
" Christ does nothing for us," if we are honest
with ourselves, we shall always find it is not really
that Christ has failed ; it is because our .grip of
Him has loosened, it is because our vision of Him
has become dim.
The answer our Lord gave this poor agonised The Father's
father revealed to him that the first help he needed PraTer-
was help for himself, help for the faith which was
almost overborne and quenched by unfaith ; and so
the appeal for bodily relief for his son changes now
into a " contrite prayer for grace for himself."
"Lord, I believe," he cried; "help Thou mine
unbelief." Here, faced as we are by a stricken
world in sad and sore need of healing, is the best
prayer we can offer. Before we can be used of
God to save the world, God must be allowed to
have His own way with us. This contrite prayer
for " grace for ourselves " ; that is the first thing
we need. To win our own battles over our be
setting sins, to be effective in Christian service,
we ourselves want a strong grip of God, a firm
and confident trust in the Lord Jesus. So let us
take our doubting, distrustful hearts to Him, and
say, like this distressed and troubled father, " Lord,
I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." And what
mighty power there is in feeble faith ! " If ye
have faith as a grain of mustard-seed," said our
229

Mark ix.
14-30.

Faith and
Response.

St Mark vi. 7 — x. 31
Lord, "ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove
hence unto yonder place; and it shall remove;
and nothing shall be impossible unto you " (Matt.
xvii. 20).
As a grain of mustard - seed, weak, tiny,
infinitesimal. That is all this father had. But
look at the result. A mighty exercise of power
and a restored son. Even a small faith exercises
wondrous power. The Lord is wonderfully com
passionate. He hears and answers and blesses a
feeble cry like this. He gives even to Little Faith,
and Mr Fearing, and Mr Ready-to-Halt, the victory
and the abundant entrance. O tender and com
passionate Jesus, 0 pitiful, loving Jesus! Our
faith is feeble, overborne almost by misgivings and
fears. We can do little more than cry sometimes,
" Help mine unbelief." Yet He will not disregard
even that faltering prayer. When Sir James
Simpson, the greatest Scottish physician of his
time, lay adying, a friend said to him that, like
John the beloved disciple, he would soon be
resting on the bosom of Jesus. "I don't know
that I can quite do that," he said, " but I think I
have got hold of the hem of His garment." And
that is all that some of us have been able to do.
We have stretched out timid hands, and have just
touched the hem of His garment, and even that
has brought its unspeakable blessing. " As many
as touched Him were made whole."

230

XX
THE TRAINING OF THE
TWELVE
" And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee ; and
He would not that any man should know it. For He taught His
disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into
the hands of men, and they shall kill Him ; and after that He
is killed, He shall rise the third day. But they understood not
that saying, and were afraid to ask Him. And He came to
Capernaum : and being in the house He asked them, What was
it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way ? But they
held their peace : for by the way they had disputed among them
selves, who should be the greatest. And He sat d6wn, and called
the Twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first,
the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. And He took a
child, and set him in the midst of them : and when He had taken
him in His arms, He said unto them, Whosoever shall receive
one of such children in My name, receiveth Me : and whosoever
shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me."
—Mark ix. 30-37.
The twelve disciples, chosen by our Lord for the Mark ix.
purpose of continuing His work and extending His 30-37-
Kingdom, were as yet wholly unfitted for their A..N.eed of
appointed task. Left to themselves in their present
condition, the disciples would have been helpless.
For, as any can see who reads even this paragraph,
the disciples had so far neither the temper nor the
spiritual understanding necessary to enable them to
carry on Christ's work. They still hugged their
231

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. carnal conception of an earthly empire, and either
30-37- could not or would not understand Christ's purpose
of winning an empire of souls by way of suffering
and death. To the training of the Twelve the Lord
now principally devoted Himself. In the paragraph
before us we see how Jesus sought to train them
in the understanding of Christian truth, and in the
exercise of Christian temper.
Instruction And the first lesson of which our paragraph gives
Plan6 me record, is a lesson in the understanding of Christian
truth. " And they went forth from thence," says
Mark, i.e. from the foot of Mount Hermon, which
was the scene of the healing of the demoniac boy,
" and passed through Galilee " (ver. 30). It was
for the last time, and apparently they avoided the
highways, and followed quiet and secluded paths.
" He would not," says the Evangelist, " that any
man should know it." As a rule, Jesus frequented
the town and the busy street and the crowded
synagogue, for He had good tidings to proclaim,
which were to all people. But on this particular
journey it was privacy and quietness He wanted
most, for, says Mark, supplying the reason for this
secrecy and seclusion, " He taught His disciples,"
or rather, to translate the Greek quite literally,
" He was teaching His disciples." And this was
the subject of His teaching : " The Son of man is
delivered up into the hands of men, and they shall
kill Him ; and when He is killed, after three days
He shall rise again" (ver. 31). The Redeemer's
path led not through triumph to a throne, but
through rejection to a cross — that was the subject
232

The Training of the Twelve
of Christ's lesson. The disciples had been brought Mark ix.
up on Psalm Ixxii. ; Jesus reminded them of Isaiah 30-37-
liii. Their idea was that of a Jewish kingdom
founded on force ; Christ's was that of a spiritual
and universal kingdom founded on sacrificial love.
So He set Himself to make them realise that only
by His dying could redemption be achieved, and
that only by uttermost sacrifice could His King
dom be established. " The Son of man is delivered
up into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him "
(ver. 31). It was not the first time our Lord had
set Himself to teach the disciples this lesson. After
Peter's Great Confession, I find that " He began to
teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many
things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief
priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after
three days rise again " (viii. 31). That lesson, had
been given only some eight or nine days before.
Why does Jesus repeat it again so soon ? Because
the disciples failed to take it in. Indeed, they
utterly refused to believe that such a fate as death
could be in store for their Lord. That first lesson
of the cross had made no real impression. If the
announcement had made the disciples uneasy and
apprehensive for a little time, its effects soon passed.
And so Jesus repeats the lesson, "The Son of The Patience
man is delivered up into the hands of men," He said, Master.
" and they shall kill Him." Notice the patience of
Jesus. Like the prophet, He condescends ftp teach
men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a
little, and there a little. And He does not cast
off any ibecause they are slow to learn. He will
233

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix patiently repeat the lesson again and yet again.
30-37* And how much need these disciples had of the
Lord's patience ! They were dull scholars. They
were slow of heart to believe. They either could
not or would not see their Lord's meaning. " But
they understood not the saying, and were afraid to
ask Him." "They understood not the saying."
Their minds were so warped by prejudice that they
refused to take the words in their plain and obvious
meaning. What marvellous patience our Lord had !
Many a teacher would have dismissed these men as
hopelessly obtuse and dull. But Jesus does- not
dismiss them. The failure of the first lesson and
the failure of the second lesson only make Him
repeat the lesson once again.
-And with Jesus will be patient with us, though we too are
so slow to learn His lesson and catch His spirit. We
have been to school to Christ, some of us, for years ;
but we are poor scholars. We have scarcely
mastered the A B C of the Christian faith as yet.
We have not learnt the lesson of self-denial, we
have not learnt the lesson of forgiveness, we have
not learnt the lesson of love. Yet our patient Lord
bears with us, He repeats the old lessons again and
again. Verily, as Peter says, the long-suffering of
the Lord is our salvation. And as the patience of
Jesus with these disciples makes me able to believe
He will be patient with us, so what He made of
these dull and slow disciples makes me able to
believe He can do something with the dullest
and slowest of us. Peter and John and the rest of
them — they would have broken an ordinary teacher's
234

us, too.

The Training of the Twelve
heart — but Jesus bore with them. And His patience Mark ix.
met with its reward. Peter learned the lesson at 30-37-
last. And John penetrated deep into his Lord's
meaning and purpose at the last. And Thomas and
Philip learned to glory in the cross at the last.
Even so I can believe He will do equally great
things for us, and that that daring word of the
Apostle will become true of us, " We shall know
even as also we are known."
" But they understood not that saying, and were The Fear of
afraid to ask Him." "And were afraid to asktheTruth-
Him." Why ? " They had seen how Jesus could
rebuke even Peter, when he spoke rash words on a
former occasion," remarks Dr Salmond. But I do
not think that was what prevented their asking
Jesus. The alternative explanation given by the
Bame commentator comes far nearer the truth.
" The awe of His words made them shrink from a
closer acquaintance with their purport." That is
it exactly. They did not understand what Jesus
meant, but they felt He meant something sad,
something sorrowful, something tragic. And they
feared to^ask Him to explain, because they felt they
did not want to know the stern and grim reality.
They were afraid to ask Him, not because Jesus
might have rebuked them, but because they them
selves did not want to know. " It is a natural
impulse," says Bishop Chadwick, " not to want to
know the worst." Insolvent tradesmen leave their
books unbalanced. They do not examine into their
accounts, lest they should have to face the bitter
fact that they are bankrupt. And so the disciples
235

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. refused to ask what Jesus really meant, for fear the
30-37- truth should dash to fragments every hope they had
-ever cherished. They preferred not to know, that
they might continue to live in their world of make-
believe. It was a kind of moral cowardice by no
means unknown in these days of ours. There are
many things which we cover up and hide. We fear,
if we began to investigate and ask questions, what
we might discover would fill us with shame. For
instance, how few of us honestly ask ourselves how
we stand in face of death and the judgment?
When Falstaff in his last sickness began to talk of
God, " I bade him," says Dame Quickly, " not talk
of that." That exactly hits off the temper of our
day. We choke off all discussion on these solemn
themes. We will not let our souls dwell on the
thoughts of God and eternity.
A Futile It is a futile and suicidal policy. If a tradesman
Policy. jg losing ground, the sooner he faces the fact the
better, or else total business ruin may be his fate.
And if we are growing spiritually impoverished, the
sooner we know it the better. There is a chance
for the man who knows he is wrong and wants to
mend. There is none for the man who though he
is wrong persists in believing he is all right.
" Remember," is the Lord's advice to a bankrupt
Church, a Church that has become spiritually im
poverished, and had lost its first love, "whence
thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works."
Compare your past with your present, He says,
remember what you used to be, and what you used
to do. And retrace your steps. Resume your old
236

The Training of the Twelve
habits. Begin again your old practices. Do the Mark ix.
first works. And that is the counsel He would 3°"37-
give to you and me. " Remember whence you have
fallen." Make inquisition of your own heart and
life. See where you have fallen and failed. Face
the facts. The recognition of the tragic fact of
failure and loss is the very first step towards
moral and spiritual recovery.
And now let me pass on from our Lord's lesson A Lesson on
in Christian truth to the lesson He gave His disciples xlmper!Stian
upon the Christian temper and spirit. On the way
Jesus noticed that a discussion which developed
into a vehement dispute had taken place amongst
the disciples. And when they reached Capernaum
He asked them what it was all about. " What,"
said He, " were ye reasoning in the way ?" " But
they held their peace," says Mark : " for they had
disputed one with another in the way, who was the
greatest " (vers. 33, 34). What an amazing and
startling contrast we have here ! The Lord is in front,
absorbed in thoughts of His cross and passion,
thinking of the death He was to taste for every
man^ His disciples, following a little behind,
quarrel and wrangle about precedence and position.
This was a favourite bone of contention amongst
the disciples. Perhaps it was the fact that Peter,
James, and John had been chosen to accompany
the Lord up the mount, coupled with the fact of the
humiliation of the other nine by their failure to cast
out the evil spirit, that gave rise to the dispute at
this particular juncture. But whatever the cause,
there was the fact, while Christ was marching to
237

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark ix.
30-37-

Exaltationby Service,

His cross, these disciples were quarrelling about
places. " What were ye reasoning in the way ? "
said Jesus. " But they held their peace." There
was no answer from any one of them — not even
from Peter. Why ? They were ashamed. They
had advanced their own claims and asserted their
rights loudly enough amongst themselves ; but all
this eagerness for rank and place seemed paltry and
unworthy in the presence of Jesus. "They held
their peace." Things change their aspect when we
view them in worldly society, and in the presence
of Jesus. We too fret and fume, if we feel our
proper place is not given to us. We grow hot and
jealous about rank and position and the rest of it.
But how mean and petty it all looks when we bring
it into the presence of Jesus ! It would do us good
to bring our ambitions and desires and plans con
stantly into the presence of the lowly Jesus, and
test them there.
But they held their peace. But Jesus divined
what the dispute was all about, and calling them
to Him, He sat down, as the Jewish Rabbis were
wont to do when about to teach — because He was
about to deal with the matter as a teacher —
solemnly. And to the conscience - stricken and
humiliated Twelve He laid down the law of great
ness in His Kingdom. "If any man would be
first, he shall be last of all, and minister of all "
(ver. 35). T^ie condition of greatness in Christ's
Kingdom is humility, humility that glories in
service, the service not of a class, but of all
The Kingdom of Christ is not a kingdom of self-
238

The Training of the Twelve
seeking, but of self-sacrifice. And he is greatest Mark ix.
in it who loves best and serves most. "I serve," 30-37-
that is the motto of our Prince of Wales. That
is the way to becoming a prince in God's Kingdom,
by service. Christ stooped to death. He became
the minister of all. And all who would attain to
greatness in His Kingdom must follow in His
train. Are we on the way to this Divine and eternal Is this
greatness ? Do we live, not to be ministered unto, oJ"sSytry
but to minister ? Are we ready to stoop to humble
services? Do we go about doing good? We
may be among the weak things, and the despised
things, and the things that are not, of the earth.
But for the humblest of us a higher rank is open
than earthly potentates can ever bestow. We can
become great in the Kingdom. If we wear the
motto and live the motto " I serve," we shall
become kings and priests unto God. For here is
the one eternal law of greatness and true nobility
— " If any man would be first, he shall be last of
all, and minister of all."

239

XXI

A LESSON IN CHARITY

Mark ix.
38-40.The
Occasion.

"And John answered Him, saying, Master, we saw one
casting out devils in Thy name, and he followeth not us :
and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus
said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a
miracle in My name, that can lightly speak evil of Me. For
he that is not against us is on our part." — Mark ix. 38-40.
In these three verses our Lord is still engaged
with the training of the Twelve. He had just
taught them a lesson in humility ; now He teaches
them a lesson in tolerance. We must remember,
in discussing these various lessons which our Lord
taught His disciples, that they are not, as Dr A. B.
Bruce remarks, continuous and set discourses on
announced themes. For the most part they are
of the nature of Socratic dialogues, and are often
suggested by a remark made or a question asked
by one of the disciples. The immediate occasion
of this lesson in charity was John's account of a
meeting which he and his brother, or possibly all
the twelve, had with a man whp was casting out
devils in the name of Christ, but was not a follower
of the Master.
What was it that caused John to tell the story
at this particular juncture? Possibly it was an
240

A Lesson in Charity
attempt to change the subject, and to divert the Mark ix.
conversation into another channel. John smarted 38-40.
under the rebuke just administered to himself and
the other Apostles for their strife about places.
Perhaps the consciousness that he and his brother
aspired to the highest thrones in the kingdom
made him feel that the rebuke was almost specially
aimed at him. So he thought he would let the
Lord know that if he had certain ambitions for
himself, he was also active in his Master's service,
and jealous for His honour. But I prefer to think
that John recalled the incident because, in the
light of what Jesus had just said, it suddenly
dawned upon him that he had committed a great
mistake in seeking to stop the man at all. For
it was in Christ's name this exorcist had, been
doing his work. And, instead of " receiving " him,
as the Lord's words seemed to suggest he ought
to have done, he had denounced him, sought to
hinder him, repudiated him. Had he acted rightly
in so doing ? Up to that moment probably John
had been rather proud of his action. But, in view
of what Jesus said, he became doubtful and uneasy.
So, with a frankness and a candour that are alto
gether to his credit, he told his Master the whole
story, that He might pass judgment upon it.
Now what were the motives that lay behind the The Motives.
interdict which the Apostles sought to lay upon
this unrecognised worker? There may have been
in it a touch of jealousy for the Master's honour.
They may have felt that a man who did not openly
confess Christ by joining the circle of His avowed
Q 241

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix, disciples, had no right to use His name. And bo
38-40. they may have honestly thought they were de
fending and asserting the honour of Christ by
forbidding him any more to use Christ's name.
It is a good thing to be "very jealous of the
Lord," but we have need to be careful that we are
jealous after a godly sort. Some of the most
monstrous crimes this world has seen perpetrated
have been committed from a mistaken sense of
jealousy for the honour of God. But, from the
way in which the narrative is worded, one would
gather that jealousy for the honour of God was
not half so powerful a motive as personal pique,
A sense of wounded dignity breathes through the
very words, " We forbade him, because he followed
not us." They looked upon themselves as the only
accredited and authorised agents of the Lord
Jesus, and they were indignant that an outsider
should take to himself what they considered their
prerogatives.
The Act. But, whatever the motives that animated them,
the practical result was an act of exclusi veness, and
narrowness and intolerance. They ruled this man,
whom they ought to have received as a brother,
out of their communion ; they tried to stop his
work; they denied his right to work at all, and
all because he did not belong to their little circle.
They never stayed to inquire what kind of a man
he was; they paid no heed to the fact that he
must have had some kind of faith in Christ, or he
would never have used Christ's name ; they dis
regarded the fact that the man's ministry was
242

of Intoler
ance.

A Lesson in Charity
obviously owned and blessed of God. They denied Mark ix.
the right of anyone outside their circle to work in 38-40.
the name of Christ at all ; they set themselves up
as the exclusive channels of Christ's grace, and the
sole dispensers of His power. " We forbade him,"
says John, not " because he followed not Thee " —
but " because he followed not us."
Is there any lesson for us in all this ? Has it The Spirit
any pertinency for our own day ? Our Lord, as we
shall see in a moment, utterly and wholly re
pudiated this exclusive and intolerant spirit. Did
His rebuke eradicate it for ever from the hearts of
His disciples ? Is this the first and last instance
of narrowness and intolerance we read of in the
Christian Church ? Alas, no ! In spite of this
rebuke and repudiation of our Lord, the hearts
of many of His disciples in every age have been
filled with this narrow and intolerant spirit. It has
resulted in crimes that bring the blush of shame
to the cheek. It developed into the faggot and
the fire. It substituted, as Hugh Black says, the
doctrine of the stake for the doctrine of the cross.
It set up the Inquisition in Spain. It kindled the
fires in Smithfield. It drove the Pilgrim Fathers
across the seas ; it silenced Richard Baxter ; it flung
John Bunyan for twelve years into Bedford Gaol;
it drove John Wesley from the pulpit to the fields.
And what about to-day ? Alas, the same spirit
prevails. You can trace much of the strife and
consequent weakness and shame of Christ's Church
back to it. We are all of us far too prone to think
our way is the only way. We are far too ready to
243

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark ix.
38-40.

Christ'sLesson in
Tolerance.

forbid other men, because they follow not us. And
we rend and paralyse and shame the Church of
Christ in consequence.
Now let us turn to our Lord's comment on John's
story. It was not for nothing John's conscience
had been uneasy. The answer Christ made con
firmed him in his fears that their action had been
unwarrantable and wrong. For the recital of the
story calls forth from our Lord's lips a short and
sharp rebuke. "Forbid him not," He said. They
had no right to place this man under an interdict,
or to try and stop him in his gracious work. Christ
will have none of their exclusiveness and in
tolerance. And He proceeds to give His reasons,
and in these reasons the voices of wisdom and
charity unite. The first reason is personal to the
particular man in question. "There is no man
which shall do a mighty work in My name, and be
able quickly to speak evil of Me " (ver. 39). They
had treated this man as if he were an enemy.
They could not have acted more harshly by him,
had he been an open and determined foe. But,
said Jesus, he clearly was not an enemy. Nor was
he likely easily to become one. His use of the
name of Christ to a certain degree committed
him to the cause of Christ. They ought to have
treated him, though outside their circle, as an
ally and a friend. "For there is no man which
shall do a mighty work in My name, and be able
quickly to speak evil of Me." The second reason
He casts into the form of a general truth. " For
he that is not against us is for us."
244

A Lesson in Charity
This maxim recalls another like it, and yet Mark ix.
unlike. In Matthew xii. 30 I find Jesus saying, 38-40.
"He that is not with Me is against Me." Now saying
the commentators all tell me that these two
sayings, though apparently contradictory, are really
not contradictory, but supplementary. And in all
kinds of ingenious ways they proceed to reconcile
the two. "The principle in both sayings is the
same," says Dr Salmond. "It is the simple
principle that we cannot be for and against, friend
and foe at the same time." "The two sayings,"
is Dr Brace's comment, "are harmonised by a
truth underlying both — that the cardinal matter in
spiritual character is the bias of the heart. If the
heart of a man be with me, then though by
ignorance and error, isolation from those who are
avowedly my friends, he may seem to be against me,
he is really for me. On the other hand, if a man
be not in heart with me (e.g. the Pharisees), then
though by his orthodoxy and zeal he may seem to
be on God's side, and therefore on mine, he is
really against me." The impossibility of neutrality
in the spiritual sphere — this, according to the
commentators, is the great truth that both sayings
are meant to emphasize. But, ingenious though
these explanations are, I do not think they really
meet the difficulty; for in the one passage, as
Dr Chadwick puts it, "seeming neutrality is
reckoned as friendship, while in the other it is
denounced as enmity."
Doubtless the true explanation is to be found — Recon-
in a closer examination of the two sayings. The cl e "
245

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. saying in Matthew refers exclusively to a man's
38-40. relations to Christ. "He that is not with Me is
against Me " ; and that is inevitably so. There can
be no such thing as a neutral attitude towards
Christ. The man who says that he simply is
indifferent to Christ, is unwittingly, perhaps, in
creasing the mass of opposition that has to be
overcome by Him. But in the saying we have
just now under consideration it is His disciples
rather than Himself that Christ has in mind. In
Luke's account, indeed, that is how the saying is
given, "He that is not against you is for you."
It is a warning to the disciples not to suppose
that loyalty to their organisation, although Christ
was with them, was the Bame thing as loyalty to
Him. It was quite possible for people to be out
side their circle — not " with them " or " of them,"
in that narrow and mechanical sense — and yet to
be in Christ and loyal to Him. And if a man was
" in Christ " and loyal to Him, even though he did
not belong to their circle, he was really "for
them" ; he was helping on their work and further
ing their cause. It was so with this unknown
worker. He was not " of them," in the sense that
he did not belong to their circle^ but inasmuch as
he was doing good and spreading Christ's name he
was really on their side.
A Warning And it is so still. The various denominations
to Ourselves. int0 which Christ's Church is divided are not
antagonists — if they only knew it, they are allies.
,Over our furious controversies, and our ugly in
tolerances, Christ whispers this word, " He that
246

A Lesson in Charity
is not against us is for us." When we consider Mark ix.
the great work which all Churches exist to further, 38-40.
people of other communions are seen to be not
against us, but for us. It is when we think only
of our particular organisations that those not
belonging to us seem against us. When we think
not of our Church, but of Christ, and Christ's
Kingdom, we see those who belong to other com
munions, and who worship and work in different
ways from ours are not against us, but for us.
There is nothing we need more than the increase
of the spirit of brotherhood, a frank and un
reserved recognition of our deep and real unity in
Christ our Lord.

247

XXII
OFFENCES
' ' For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in My
name, because ye' belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he
shall not lose his reward. And whosoever shall offend one of
these little ones that believe in Me, it is better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the
sea. And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for
thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go
into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched : Where
their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenchedr And if thy
foot offend thee, cut it off : it is better for thee to enter halt
into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire
that never shall be quenched : Where their worm dieth not,
and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee,
pluck it out : it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of
God with one eye, than having two eyes to be oast into hell fire :
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." —
Mask ix. 41-48.
Mark ix. It is with the sure and rich reward of all helpful
41-48. service that our Lord is concerned in the first verse
rfhHebfuiard °^ our Paragraph- " Whosoever shall give you a
Service. cup of water to drink, because ye are Christ's,
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his
reward "(ver. 41). Let me, if I can, make clear
what I conceive to be the sequence of thought.
Jesus has finished His comments on John's story
with the sentence, "He that is not against us is
for us." As if to say, "That man who was
248

Offences
casting out devils in My name was not a foe, he Mark ix.
was a friend. He was not to be denounced and 41-48.
hindered; he was to be encouraged. He was
really helping us." And then He goes on to say
that whoever helps His disciples, even though it
be only to the extent of a cup of cold water, he
shall by no means lose his reward. The sequence
iB perfectly natural and intelligible. You may say,
indeed, that this is the Lord's blessing upon that
interrupted and excommunicated stranger. John
and his companions had denounced him, and tried
to hinder him. The Master blessed him. The
disciples thought he was their enemy, and so they
forbade him : the Master saw he was their friend
and ally and helper, and so He said that that
unknown stranger should in no wise lose his
reward. But though I think that our Lord had
the interdicted man specially in mind when He
uttered this saying, He cast it into the form of a
general statement. "Whosoever shall give you a
cup of water to drink, because ye are Christ's,
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his
reward." Broadly speaking, you may say that is
an assertion of the sure reward of every helpful
Christian service. Looking a little more closely,
we shall find the saying suggestive of two or three
other truths beside that main and central one.
First of all, what a suggestion we get here as to Act and
the constitution of genuine Christian giving ! Chris- Motive-
tian giving is giving for Christ's sake. Christian
service is service in Christ's name. The giving of
a, cup of cold water was a service common enough
249

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark ix.
41-48.

The
Quality of
Service.

in a hot country like Palestine. What transfigured
that common act into a Christian act, was when
the cup of water was given to a disciple because
he was Christ's. In a word, it is the motive that
decides whether an act or a gift is Christian or no.
There is a great deal of giving in our world that is
not Christian. A great many give because it is
the fashion and custom to give. A subscription
list is started for the relief of distress, and we feel
we must for respectability's sake have our names
upon it. I do not know that giving prompted by
such motives counts for anything in Christ's sight.
Then there is a great deal of giving that springs
from humanitarian motives. Men are touched by
the thought of human misery, and give. That is
philanthropy. I do not say that is not admir
able. It is. But there is a higher plane to be
reached by us. Our giving becomes Christian
when we give for Christ's sake.
Then see how our Lord omits from His notice
not even the slightest and humblest service.
Nothing could be cheaper, in a sense, no service
could be simpler, than the gift of a cup of cold
water ; and yet the Lord notices that small service,
and of it He says it shall by no means lose its
reward. We sometimes deplore that the gifts we
can offer and the services we can render are so
small. This saying is for our special encourage
ment. Cups of cold water — it is only humble and
trivial services of that kind we seem capable of.
But it is not the quantity so much as the quality
of the work that decides its value in God's sight.
250

Offences
Go on giving your cups of cold water, rendering Mark ix.
your little kindnesses, speaking your simple words, 4I"48-
in the name and for the sake of Christ — go on
doing these things. Christ notices them. Verily
I say unto you, you shall in no wise lose your
reward. And now as to this certainty of reward. Is it The
true ? Yes. The man who does a kindness to of^^d,
another because he is Christ's, receives his reward
in an enlarged capacity for kindness, in spiritual
enrichment. Life somehow becomes richer and
deeper for him ; every little act of Christian service
seems to lift his own life on to higher levels. Of
course, in spite of all this, a man may allow his
baser instincts to get the mastery over him, and so
the reward may have been bestowed upon him in
vain. But there is no doubt about the reward.
"The deepening of spiritual capacity," as Bishop
Chadwick says, " is one exceeding great reward of
every act of loyalty to Christ." And that reward
never fails.
And this truth about the sure reward of every offences
act of Christian service suggests to our Lord the ?W*l"si
,»,..,, Little Ones.
converse and opposite truth of the inevitable
punishment of every offence. "Whosoever shall
cause one of these little ones that believe on Me
to stumble," He said, "it were better for him if
a great millstone were hanged about his neck, and
he were cast into the sea" (ver. 42). The com
mentators all say that Jesus had the little child
referred to in ver. 36 still in the midst, and that
it was the little child He had in mind when He
251

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark ix.
41-48.

Stumbling-blocks and
their Makers.

, spoke of " one of these little ones." That may be
so. But I am not at all sure that it was not that
interdicted and excommunicated exorcist He was
still thinking about. What had been the effect of
the harsh action of the disciples upon him ? Per
haps they had shattered the faith he had in Christ.
What if the harshness of the disciples had driven
him back ? What if they had quenched the flicker
ing wick of his faith ? They had done it thought
lessly. But what irreparable harm they might
have caused — the loss and shipwreck of faith, the
ruin of a soul ! And so our Lord issues this solemn
warning, and says it is better that a man should
lose his life, be sunk in the depth of the sea, rather
than that by his conduct he should cause one of
these little ones that believe on Him to stumble.
This is a solemn saying. The truth that supplies
its justification is the truth of the infinite and
supreme worth of the soul, the soul of even the
humblest and the weakest in the sight of God.
Far better, says our Lord, lose life than to destroy
a soul " It must needs be that offences come,"
said our Lord, on another occasion, "but woe to
that man through whom the offence cometh."
Our Lord becomes stern, severe, menacing, when
He thinks of those who put stumbling-blocks in
a brother's way. And yet there are amongst us
those who do it, who constantly and deliberately
do it. I think of those writers,, men and women,
who produce prurient and suggestive books ; who
flood our land with base literature which defiles
and pollutes the minds of our youth. I think of
252

Offences
the evil companions who at every corner lie await Mark ix.
to destroy, who tempt young men and women to 4I_48-
their ruin and shame. What a fate is theirs!
There are lost and ruined and blighted souls set
down to their account. They have robbed God
of some of His children. Good were it for such
men if they had never been born.
No one, I suppose, who reads this would Considera-
deliberately set a stumbling-block in a brother's V°fi,fo^the
¦«tt ni.i.-,, „ r. Little Ones.
way. We would shrink with horror from the
thought of luring, goading, tempting a soul into
sin. But it is possible even for us to be guilty
of causing a brother to stumble. I am constantly
being told by men and women that their greatest
stumbling-block is found in the inconsistencies of
Christian people. Remember there are "little
ones," weak ones, Little Faiths, Fearings, Ready-
to-Halts all about us. And some lapse, some
selfishness, some uncharitableness, as in the case
of these disciples, may easily cause them to
stumble. Look, therefore, carefully how you
walk — not as unwise, but as wise. For here is
this solemn word set for our warning. "Whoso
ever shall cause one of these little ones that
believe on Me to stumble, it were better for him
if a great millstone were hanged about his neck,
and he were cast into the sea."
Then the Lord again, by a perfectly natural Offences
transition, passes from the thought of offences^°s'
against a " little one " to offences against one's Soul.
own self. In a sense the two classes of offences
merge into one. For a man's sin against another
253

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. is always also a sin against his own soul. Still, it
41-48. i8 possible in thought to distinguish between the
two classes ; and in the remaining verses of our
paragraph our Lord is dealing with offences against
a man's own soul. " And if thy hand cause thee
to stumble," He says, "cut it off: it is good for
thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having
thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquench
able fire" (ver. 43). And He repeats the same
formula about the foot and the eye. Here we
must beware of a bald literalism. The truth He
is emphasizing is this — we must shrink from no
spiritual surgery to save the life of the soul. It
is not a physical mutilation our Lord is advocating
here. That would be to countenance the Manichean
heresy, that matter is essentially evil. And our
Lord knew that the ultimate source of sin was
not the members of the body, but the corrupt and
sinful will. Our Lord uses hand and foot and eye
here in a metaphorical and symbolic sense. Spiritual
hurt, as Dr Salmond says, may come from some
part of a man's nature which he has suffered to
become unsound. It is his wisdom, therefore, to
cut off the occasion, at whatever cost, and
wherever it may lie, whether in hand or foot or
eye.
Lines of But while it is spiritual surgery our Lord has
in His mind, and while hand and foot and eye
are not to be taken literally, they are most sugges
tive of various kinds of sin which enslave and
destroy the soul. The hand, this wonderful instru
ment, may, as Dr Chadwick suggests, stand for
254

Offences.

Offences
some harmless accomplishments that somehow or Mark ix.
other have become fraught with evil suggestive- 4I_48-
ness ; it may stand for a business, a livelihood that
is entangled with dishonest ways. And the foot
that carries us into our various fellowships and
companionships — it may well stand for some asso
ciation or friendship which corrodes and degrades
the soul. "Some walk in the counsel of the
ungodly." And the eye may stand for unholy
desire and passion. Through Eye-gate what
temptations assault men ! That was how the first
sin came into the world, according, to the old story.
" The woman saw that the tree was good for food,
and that it was a delight to the eyes " (Gen. iii. 6).
Now what our Lord says about all these things The Way of
is this, that they must ruthlessly be excised, if they uty*
injure the soul. If some accomplishment becomes
a snare, it must be surrendered. If business
cannot be carried on with a good conscience, it
must be given up. " If thy hand cause thee to
stumble, cut it off." And if any otherwise pleasant
companionship insensibly deadens the soul, takes
the edge off our sensitiveness, it must be aban
doned. " If thy foot cause thee to stumble, cut it
off." And if certain books you read, certain sights
you behold, bring evil desires into your heart, shut
the books, and shun the sights. "If thine eye
cause thee to stumble, cast it out." It is no new
doctrine. It is the doctrine of self-denial and self-
sacrifice that is taught on every page of the
Christian gospel. The Christian life is not an
easy life. There is much lopping and cutting and
255

St Mark vi. 7 — x. 31

Mark ix.
41-48,
Self- Preserva-
tion.

And the
Sacrifice
worth Making.

maiming to be done. There is agony to be endured,
and blood to be shed.
But two things are to be noticed. (1) The
sacrifice is not for sacrifice sake. The end of
sacrifice, as the philosophers say, is self-realisation.
The purpose of the surgery and the mutilation is to
preserve life. Some people tell us that every
instinct and desire of human nature is to be grati
fied. That is the so-called gospel of Naturalism.
It would be more truly and properly called the
cult of Animalism. But, as a matter of fact, you
cannot give the rein to the passions and instincts of
the lower nature without imperilling the higher.
You cannot live only to gratify the flesh, without
polluting and destroying the soul. And it is to
preserve that life of the soul that Jesus bids us use
the knife to those desires and lusts that threaten
it. " It is good for thee to enter into life maimed,
rather than having thy two hands to go into hell."
The surgery is all in the interests of life.
(2) And secondly, the life is worth the sacrifice.
Do you remember that wonderful conversation
about life and death in Lavengro, between Jasper
the gipsy and Lavengro himself? "Life is sweet,
brother," said Jasper. " Do you think so ? " replied
Lavengro. "Think so; there's night and day,
brother, both sweet things ; sun, moon, and stars,
brother, all sweet things ; there's likewise the wind
on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who
would wish to die?" "I would wish to die,"
replied Lavengro. " You talk like a fool," retorted
Jasper; "a gipsy would wish to live for ever."
256

Offences
" In sickness, Jasper ? " " There's the sun and Mark ix.
stars, brother." " In blindness, Jasper ? " " There's 4*-4&
the wind on the heath, brother ; if I could only
feel that, I would gladly live for ever." Life is the
supreme thing ; and the gipsy was ready to endure
and suffer anything for life. But there is a better
and nobler thing than the life of which he spoke.
It is the life of which Christ speaks here. For this
is soul life, divine life, eternal life. And that is
worth anything, everything. Life is very sweet,
and it is worth while to sacrifice hand, or foot, or
eye to secure life. It is worth while to live a
maimed, mutilated, darkened life down here, that
our souls may win the life eternal. It is worth
while to beat the body black and blue, to "crucify
the flesh with the passions and lusts thereof," if
only the soul may five for ever.

257

Mark ix.
49. 50.
Some
Difficulties.

XXIII
SALTED WITH FIRE
" For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice
shall be salted with salt. Salt is good : but if the salt have lost
his saltness, wherewith will, ye season it ? Have salt in your
selves, and have peace one with another." — Mark ix. 49, 50.
These two verses are obscure. In ver. 49 there
is scarcely a word that does not offer difficulty.
"For every one" seems to imply some causal
connection with what has gone before. What is
that connection ? To whom does the " every one "
refer ; to unbelievers or to disciples ? " Every
one shall be salted." Which of the two radically
different meanings of " salt " are we to accept as
correct? And what does "salting with fire"
mean ? No wonder that expositors lament over
this passage. "It is exceedingly difficult," says
Grain. " It is exceedingly vexed," says Wolf. " It
is exceedingly vexing," remarks another. " It has
put to the rack the ingenuity of many learned
men," says Grotius. While an English commentator
remarks, " There is perhaps no passage in the New
Testament which has so defied all efforts to assign
to it any certain interpretation." In face of all
that, it seems perhaps almost presumptuous to
attempt to expound it at all. But, accepting the
258

Salted with Fire
view Dr Morison suggests, I believe a sound and Mark ix.
perfectly intelligible account can be* given of this 49> 5°-
most difficult passage.
Let us begin by accepting the text as it stands The Text.
in the R.V., where the latter half of the verse is
omitted. The uncertainty about the correct read
ing is no doubt due to the fact that, from the very
beginning, the passage was felt to be difficult ; and
so in various MSS. the text was slightly altered,
and in some cases an additional sentence was
inserted, in the hope of making the meaning a
little more clear. That may account for the in
sertion of the phrase, "and every sacrifice shall be
salted with salt," which you find in the A.V. The
scribe probably thought that the old Levitical
custom of salting the sacrifice might throw light
upon the passage. But we may accept the R. V.
view, that Mark only wrote, "For every one shall
be salted with fire."
But what exactly does that mean ? To whom, The Persons
to begin with, does the phrase " every one " refer ? In<*lcated-
Some commentators confine the reference to the
unbelieving. But it is not to unbelieving men
that Christ has been speaking; it is to His own
disciples. It is not of unbelieving men He has
been speaking; it is of His own. He has been
warning them that they may find stumbling-blocks
in their own natures, and telling them that they
must practise unsparing spiritual energy ; that they
must cut off the hand and the foot and cast out the
eye rather than incur the doom of those who yield
to their fleshly lusts. "For," He says, l4 every one
259

St Mark vi. 7-^x. 31
Mark ix. shall be salted with fire." The " every one " clearly
49> 5°< refers to the people who have been the subject of
the preceding verses. In other words, this assertion
refers to believing men, to Christ's own disciples.
The Salt. What, then, does our Lord mean when He says
that every one of His disciples shall be salted with
fire ? " Salt " and " fire " must be used here, not
literally, but metaphorically ; otherwise, in the con
junction of salt and fire, we should get a conjunction
of two incongruous ideas — preservation and destruc
tion. Metaphorically considered, however, they are
perfectly congruous. The two ideas that are most
prominently associated with salt are those of season
ing and preservation from corruption. Here the
whole idea is that of preservation — preservation
from the worm which dieth not, and the fire which
is not quenched. It is, as Dr Morison says, " the
antiseptic property of salt " that the Saviour has in
His mind. So that, substituting for the actual
word the idea for which it stands, we might read
the sentence thus : " Every one of My disciples shall
be preserved from corruption by fire."
The Fire. Let us now pass on to the second term, "fire."
It is suggested, no doubt, by the reference to
"fire" in the preceding verse. But there is a
difference. The fire of Gehenna was destructive,
penal. It utterly consumed all the corruption and
filth and abominations that were cast into it. But
this fire is not destructive, it is cleansing ; it is not
penal, it is purifying. " Every one shall be pre
served from corruption by fire." For fire, as we
know, has this cleansing power. It purifies, for
260

Salted with Fire
instance, the metal cast into it. It cleanses it of Mark ix.
the dross mingled with it, so that it issues forth 49> 5°-
refined silver, pure gold, as the case may be. But
while the action of fire in this instance is meant to
be regarded as purifying rather than as penal, the
idea of pain is still associated with it. You cauterise
a wound ; it is a cleansing and healing, but it is
also a painful process. And so our Lord says that
every disciple of His will be preserved from corrup
tion by something which purifies, but which in the
process hurts and blisters and burns. What is
that something? The Holy Spirit, some com
mentators say. "Fire" is one of the symbols of
the Spirit. When He enters the heart, He flames
against all unrighteousness and sin ; He burns out
all that is unholy and base and foul. He is a Spirit
of burning. And that means that the Spirit's work
in the heart is often painful work. It is agonising
work, and we shrink from it in fear. " Who among
us," cried the prophet, " shall dwell with the de
vouring fire ? who among us shall dwell with ever
lasting burnings ? " (Isa. xxxiii. 14). We may say,
then, that the essential meaning of the passage is
this, " Every one of Christ's disciples is preserved
from corruption by the fire of an unsparing self-
sacrifice, kindled by the energies of the Spirit
of God."
Two practical truths are suggested by this ex- The Pain of
planation. (1) The Christian life involves pain and Sacrifice-
sacrifice. Here is a truth stamped on every page of
the New Testament. It is suggested by every
figure used to describe the Christian life. It is
261

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark ix.
49. 50.

—And its
Profit.

emphasized in every appeal to live the Christian life.
Christ calls His disciples, not to a velvet path, but
to a narrow way. He summons them, not to ease
and comfort, but to sacrifice. He promises them,
not a smooth and pleasant time, but suffering and a
cross. There is much of agonising, cutting,* maim
ing, burning to be done in the Christian life.
Everything great and good costs effort and sacrifice.
The greatest achievement of all is the attainment
of a Christian character. And as it is the greatest,
so is it also the costliest. There is no such thing
as being a Christian on the cheap. Discipleship
costs its price. "Every one shall be salted with
fire." (2) But the pain the Christian disciple undergoes
all tends to profit. "Burning" — it does not
suggest a pleasant process. It suggests agony,
torture. But the end of it all is, cleansing and
health. I cannot help thinking that there is between
verse 48 and 49 a deliberate and purposed antithesis.
The two verses present to us alternative fires. As
our old commentator puts it, " He sets one fire over
against another, the present one against the future."
There is the fire of Gehenna, of which the ceaseless
burnings of the Valley of Hinnom were the type
and symbol, and there is the cleansing fire of the
Spirit of God. And it looks as if Christ meant us
to understand that into one of these fires every
man must go. If he refuses to part with what is
corrupt and sinful, then there waits for him the
penal fire, into which everything corrupt and sinful
is cast. But if he submits himself to the cleansing
262

Salted with Fire
fire of the Spirit, that fire cleanses and purifies him Mark ix.
of all that is foul and base, and leaves nothing in 49> 5°«
him on which the penal fire of Gehenna could feed.
" Salmis good," our Lord goes on to say, " but if the The
salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season §!||j:less
it?" (ver. 50). The connection between this sentence
and the preceding one is verbal rather than logical.
I mean, that it was the mention of the word " salt "
that suggested this further remark to Jesus.
" Salt " is still in His mind the great preservative.
And as He uses the term here, He evidently means
byit "the spirit of Holiness, the Christian character";
that which, when men have it, makes them in turn
"the salt of the earth." But what if the salt has
lost its saltness ? What is the use, He asks, of a
profession out of which all the reality has gone, of
a nominal Christianity out of which the genuine
Christian spirit has evaporated? Is there such a
thing as "saltless salt" in the spiritual world?
Alas, yes, there is. I read, for instance, of a Church
which the Lord of the Church thus described, "Thou
hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead "
(Rev. iii. 1). There was a Church that was not fulfill
ing its function — " Saltless salt." I read of another
Church of which the Lord said, " I have this against
thee, that thou didst leave thy first love " (Rev.
ii. 4). The process was not complete, but the
degeneration had commenced. The salt was losing
its saltness. I read of some men in St Paul's second
letter to Timothy, "holding a form of godliness, but
having denied the power thereof" (iii. 5). There
was the profession without the substance; the
263

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark ix. appearance of salt, with none of its pungency and
49> 50- preserving power.
—Still to be Saltless salt — there is a great deal of it in the
world , atill ; profession without practice, name with
out deed, fire without life. I do not know but that
jf we began to examine our own consciences and
hearts we might have to confess that this degener
ating process has to some extent taken place in us.
The salt has begun to lose its saltness. We
exercise little preserving and purifying power on
the life of the world around us. " Salt is good,"
says our Lord. The genuine, vital, and uncom
promising Christian is a centre of healthful and
healing and purifying influence. By his mere
presence he arrests and stays corruption. Dr
Stalker tells about a young lad so transparently and
unmistakably Christian that, by his mere presence,
within a month he banished the foul speech for
which his office had been notorious. There is
nothing the world wants more than men and women
pf the same sincere and unashamed Christian
character. But why is it that we Christian folk
produce so little effect on the world ; that in spite
of our presence, evil and base and corrupt practices
flourish on every hand? Is it because the salt in us
has lost its saltness ? Is it because our Christianity
is so feeble and compromising and formal ? What
hope is there for the world, if Christianity fails it ?
" If the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will
ye season it ? " (ver. 50).
Holiness And so our Lord passes on to His practical
and Peace, conclusion. " Have salt in yourselves," He says,
264

Salted with Fire
" and be at peace one with another." Our Lord Mark ix.
here has a side reference to their interference with 49i 5°-
the man who had been casting out devils. It was
not their business to interfere with another man,
because he worked in what they considered to be
unorthodox fashion; it was their business to see
to it that they did their own duty in the world,
that their own Christian faith was real, that their
own lives were such that they would exercise a
cleansing and purifying influence upon the world.
And this they could only do as they had the spirit
of holiness and consecration within them. " And
be at peace one with another." For the disciples
had been quarrelling about places. They had been
disputing which of them was greatest. And their
disputes had threatened to break up the unity of
the apostolate, and to militate against the success
of their work. " Be at peace one with another,"
the Lord says. For real peace would inevitably
result, if they had "salt in themselves."
The wisdom which is from above is first pure, then —Things to
peaceable. Holiness and peace. Those are the be Desired-
things Christ desires for His disciples. Those are
the things that Christ's disciples need most still.
What a change would come over our world if
Christian people were only at peace one with
another, and gave to the world an example of
holy living ! A conquered world would be the
result. Let us pray for these two things— greater
holiness and mutual concord. The world will be
ours when we have salt in ourselves, and are at
peace one with another, 265

. XXIV
DIVORCE
"And He arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of
Judaea by the farther side of Jordan : and the people resort unto
Him again ; and, as He was wont, He taught them again. And
the Pharisees came to Him, and asked Him, Is it lawful for a
man to put away his wife ? tempting Him. And He answered
and said unto them, What did Moses command you ? And they
said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put
her away. And Jesus answered and fiaid unto them, For the
hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the
beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to
his wife ; And they twain shall be one flesh : so then they are no
more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder. And in the house His
disciples asked Him again of the same matter. And He saith
unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry
another, oommitteth adultery against her. And if a woman
shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she
oommitteth adultery." — Mark x. 1-12.
Mark x. Some interval of time elapsed between the conver-
I-I2. sation recorded in the last chapter and the con-
Bridging a versation we are now to consider. During that
ap- interval many things had happened. If we want
to "fill in" this gap which Mark leaves in his
story, we must turn to Luke and John. From a
comparison of these other Gospels we find that
in the meantime Jesus had sent out the seventy
266

Divorce
disciples ; He had gone up to Jerusalem to the Mark x.
feast of Pentecost ; He had retired from Jerusalem I_I2.
to Perea ; He had again gone up to Jerusalem to
the feast of Dedication ; and once again, to avoid
the murderous plots of the Jev^s, had gone away
beyond Jordan, to the place where John was at
the first baptising. It is probably just at this
point that the question as to divorce is to be
placed. From John's account it is clear that the preach- The Causes
ing of Jesus beyond Jordan was attended by more °J th^.
than ordinary success. It was probably, as Mr
David Smith suggests, the results of our Lord's
preaching that stirred His enemies once again to
activity. Perhaps they had flattered themselves
that, when they had driven Him out of Jerusalem,
^hey were finally rid of Him. But when they
heard that the crowds were resorting to Him
beyond Jordan, and that people in numbers were
believing on Him, they were greatly perturbed,
and it was not long before certain emissaries of
the Pharisees appeared on the scene, with the
deliberate object of thwarting Him in His work.
The method they adopted was that of bringing to
Christ a captious question, a question which would
put Him on the horns of a dilemma, and, however
He might answer it, might impair and imperil His
authority. The question chosen dealt with divorce.
"Is it lawful for a man," they asked, "to put
away his wife ? " i.e. at his pleasure, or, as it is
expressed in so many words in Matthew's account,
" for any cause ? " And this they said " tempting "
267

St Mark vi. 7 — x. 31

Mark x.
1-12.

The
Conditions as to
Divorce.

Him ; not because they really wanted guidance or
instruction, but because they wanted to ensnare
and trap Him in His speech.
Now, to understand the special difficulties con
nected with a question like this, we must know
something about the position of marriage and
divorce in our Lord's time. The Mosaic Law
had allowed divorce in case a husband found any
"unseemly thing" in his wife. The phrase "un
seemly thing" was ambiguous, and the Rabbis
quarrelled Violently amongst themselves as to its
true interpretation. One school took the stricter
and nobler view, that what the Law meant was
that a wife could only be put away for unfaithful
ness. Another held the meaning of the phrase to
be that, if for any reason the wife had become
distasteful to the husband, he could put her away,
"for any cause." And so, as Mr David Smith
says in his 'Life of Christ, Rabbis had arisen who
taught the people that if a husband for any reason
conceived a dislike to his wife, or if he saw any
other woman who seemed fairer in his eyes, or
even if her cooking did not quite please him, for
these and other reasons, equally trumpery, he was
at liberty to send his wife away. Now, a lax
doctrine of morals is always agreeable to the
natural man, and the second was the inter
pretation currently received. Jewish society was
accordingly disgraced by an appalling laxity in
this matter of divorce. Family life was imperilled
by it, and an intolerable wrong was done to
womankind. It made woman the slave of man,
268

Divorce
putting the wife at the husband's mercy. For Mark x.
while she could not for any cause divorce him, I_I2,
he might for no cause at all divorce her, and cast
her upon the world.
This, then, was the question the Pharisees The
brought to Jesus. " Is it lawful for a man to put.Stion
put away his wife?" i.e. for any cause, as popular
custom allowed. They made quite sure that
whether Jesus said "Yes" or "No," He would
lay Himself open to attack. For if He said
"Yes," they could at once represent Him to the
people as sanctioning a low morality, and holding
baser views about marriage than some of their own
teachers ; and that would have been the end of
our Lord's moral authority. On the other hand,
if He said "No," they could represent Him as
repudiating the authority of their own sacred Law,
by which divorce was expressly allowed, and as
thus in violent opposition to the popular sentiment.
For the Jews cherished this facility of divorce as
a signal privilege, accounting it a singular grace
vouchsafed to Israel, and withheld from the Gentiles.
Perhaps, too, they also hoped that, if He said " No,"
it would stir Herod to enmity. For Herod had
put away his own wife, and married Herodias,
his brother's wife, while that brother was still
alive. They remembered that Christ's Forerunner
had come to the dungeon and the block because
of his plain and faithful speech on this very
question. And they doubtless hoped that a plain
answer from Christ might arouse Herodias again
to fury, and so bring Christ to share in the Baptist's
269

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark x.
1-12.

The
Reply
Given.

The True
Ideal of
Marriage.

doom. All these calculations and hopes were in
the minds of these Pharisees. They asked their
question "tempting Him."
Our Lord in His answer first refers these plotting
Pharisees to the authority they themselves recog
nised. "What did Moses command you?" He
asks. They reply, "Moses suffered to write a
bill of divorcement, and to put her away." They
take care to say nothing about the causes and
reasons for which divorce was permitted. "For
your hardness of heart," returns our Lord, "he
wrote you this commandment." That is to say,
Moses could go no further than he did in the way
of regulating and restraining divorce, because the
moral condition of the people would not allow it.
All that Moses did was by way of putting a check
upon divorce. He made summary dismissal im
possible; he secured delay, by making a formal
bill of divorcement necessary, and so gained time
for reflection. It was a vast improvement over
the laxity common before his day. But it was
not a perfect law. It did not accomplish all
Moses himself desired; but it was the best pos
sible under the circumstances. Solon, the great
Athenian law-giver, once said that his laws were
not the best that could have been devised, but
they were the best the Athenians could receive.
And so Moses was compelled to adapt his marriage
legislation to the moral condition of the Israelites.
And then Christ proceeds to set forth the true
ideal of marriage — the Divine intention of the
marriage relation. No consideration of popularity
270

Divorce
or of personal safety weighs with Him. Boldly, Mark x.
frankly, plainly, He declares what the relations I-12-
between man and woman were meant to be. " From
the beginning of the creation," He said (quoting
the very words of Scripture), "male and female
made He them." That is to say, God made man
and woman complementary to each other, so that
only in union with its opposite does either find its
true perfection. There may be special reasons
calling certain men and certain women to celibacy.
But celibacy is not, as the Roman Church seems
to hold, a higher state than marriage. Our Lord's
plain teaching here is that God's plan and ideal
was that man should find his perfection in a holy
union with woman, and woman similarly in a holy
union with man. "From the beginning of the
creation, male and female made He them." "For
this cause," Jesus says, "shall a man leave his
father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife;
and the twain shall become one flesh : so that
they are no more twain, but one flesh " (vers. 6-8).
The union of man and woman in marriage is so
profound and vital, that husband and wife cease,
as it were, to be two separate and distinct indi
vidualities, and become so merged together that
they constitute one unit of being. Each becomes
part of the very existence of the other, " so that
they are no longer twain, but one flesh," " the two-
celled heart beating with one full stroke." This
union, down to the very foundations of being, and
instituted by God, is not to be at the mercy of
man's whims and caprices. Ideally and essentially,
271

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark X. marriage is a permanent and indissoluble relation.
1 -12.

affirmed,

"What therefore God hath joined together, let not
man put asunder " (ver. 9).
Re- < To those who heard it, this was a staggering
reply. What, no relief from the marriage bond,
even in case of insupportable incompatibilities ?
The disciples themselves were bewildered, and,
when they got into the house, pressed Jesus further
upon the point. They said (as Matthew tells us)
that if the bond of marriage was an indissoluble
bond, then it were better not to marry at all. But
their questions and protests only evoke from our
Lord another affirmation of the essential per
manence and indissolubleness of the marriage re
lation. " Whosoever shall put away his wife, and
marry another, oommitteth adultery against her; and
if she herself shall put away her husband, and marry
another, she committeth adultery" (vers. 11, 12).
The wanton breach of this holy bond, the putting
away of wife or husband for this and that reason,
was, our Lord said, a violation of the seventh
commandment. No "incompatibilities" suffice to
dissolve this union. There ought to be no " incom
patibilities." For marriage is not to be engaged
in rashly, thoughtlessly or lightly, but advisedly,
reverently, and in the fear of God. There is only
one thing, according to our Lord's teaching, that
can break the marriage bond, and that is the
awful sin that poisons married life at its source.
Short of that, marriage is indissoluble. " What
God hath joined together, let not man put
asunder." 272

Divorce
Here, apart from the main issue, let us remark Mark x.
how our Lord appears here as the defender of the I_I2-
weak. In the ancient world, no one suffered J?1?8*,88
crueller wrong and indignity than woman. And the Weak.
here our Lord appears as the defender of woman
and the lifter up of her head. Woman, according
to our Lord's teaching, is not man's slave or toy, to
be dismissed and cast off at the merest whim and
caprice ; she is man's complement and counterpart ;
and matrimony is a holy estate, in which woman
has equal rights with man. The emancipation of
womankind began with a declaration like that
which is contained in these verses. The honour,
respect, and chivalrous deference paid to woman
to-day she owes chiefly if not entirely to the
influence of Jesus.
Our Lord appears here also as the defender of— And of the
the family. In the long run the life of the nation, Fam"y-
yes, and the prosperity of the kingdom, depend
upon the life of the family. And the life of the
family, again, depends upon the sacredness and
sanctity of marriage. It needs no pointing out
from me that laxity of marriage law inflicts irrepar
able injury upon family life. I think sometimes of
what happens to the children when fathers and
mothers divorce one another, as they do in some
civilised countries to-day, for all sorts of flimsy and
ridiculous reasons. What becomes of the children ?
And with what kind of a conception of morality
are they likely to grow up ? In speaking as He
did, our Lord was safeguarding the interests of the
children, defending the family, preserving the home,
s 273

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark x. and so securing the very foundations on which the
J"12- fabric of society rests.
A Present- No subject needs to be more plainly and em-
ay eea. phatically spoken about in our day than that of
marriage. There is a growing tendency towards
laxity in views about it. Divorces become ever
more and more numerous. Legislatures are in
clined to multiply the reasons for which relief from
the marriage-bond can be obtained. Writers are
busy making attacks upon the whole system of
marriage. Novelists — and women novelists amongst
the most prominent — advocate temporary alliances,
or sing the praises of a promiscuous love which is
nothing but gross and naked animalism. A certain
school of social reformers repudiate marriage alto
gether. These are serious and menacing signs.
You threaten the very life of the state when you
relax tire ties of marriage and weaken the family
bond. There is nothing we want more than a new
grasp of our Lord's teaching— that there is but one
moral law, and that law the same for man and
woman. The sacredness of marriage ought to be
a subject upon which we have no doubts. On this
point it is well not to have an open, but a closed
and settled, mind. Let no specious and plausible
talk about " unhappy marriages " unsettle that con
viction. The remedy for "unhappy marriage" is
not greater facility of divorce, but increased thought
and seriousness in the contraction of marriage.
Laxity in this will mean rottenness sweeping in
like a flood. It is ours to maintain and assert
the more austere and exacting view of Christ.
274

Divorce
Marriage is an ordinance of God. It is meant Mark x.
for the perfecting of character. It is essentially 1_I2*
and ideally permanent and indissoluble. "What
. . . God hath joined together, let not man put
asunder."

275

XXV
CHRIST AND THE CHILDREN
"And they brought young children to Him, that He should
touch them : and His disciples rebuked those that brought them.
But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and said unto
them, Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid '
them not : for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily 1 say unto
you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little
child, he shall not enter therein. And He took them up in His
arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.". — Maek
x. 13-16.
Mark x. There is no hint in the narrative as to the exact
13-16. time or place where this blessing of the children
Th^ defence 0CCUrre(J. \ye are not to conclude that, because it
follows upon the account of our Lord's conversation
with the Pharisees about divorce, it must have
happened on the same day or about the same time.
All that we can say about it is, that it happened
during our Lord's last journey southwards, and
probably while He was still in Perea. But while I
do not think that the contiguity of this passage
about the children to the passage about divorce iB
meant to imply that both events happened the same
day, or even the same week, I think the Evangel
ist set them down here side by side with a purpose.
The connection between them is not chronological,
it is one of idea and point of view. They are put
276

Christ and the Children
down here the one after the other, because they Mark x.
both illustrate a certain aspect of our Lord's I3_I6-
character. I have said that in defending the cause of woman —A Defence
in the matter of divorce our Lord showed Himself oftheWeak-
the defender of the weak and the oppressed, guar
dian of the family and family life. This story of
the reception and blessing of the children sheds
further light upon that gracious aspect of our
Lord's character. Here too He appears as the
defender of the weak. For what so weak and
helpless as the little child, the babe ? And in that
cruel, ancient world, what so oppressed and abused
and ill-treated as the child ? You see a reflection
of the ancient world's estimate of the child in the
conduct of the disciples. The disciples " rebuked
those that brought them." Babes, they thought,
were beneath the notice of Christ. He could not
be troubled with them. But He who never broke
the bruised reed, who was always the defender of
the weak and the oppressed, said, " Suffer the little
children to come unto Me," and took them up in
His arms, and blessed them (ver. 14).
And here too He appears as the defender of— And a
the family. In the last paragraph He maintains 2ef??ce °,1
the rights of the wife. In this paragraph He main
tains the right of the child. Now there are three
parties to the family — husband, wife, child. The
place of the husband was sufficiently safeguarded
by the customs and laws of ancient society. But
the wife was subjected to cruel wrong, and the
child was often the subject of shameful neglect.
277

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark x. By His teaching on divorce our Lord gave the wife
13-16. her proper place in the family. By His love for
the children He redeemed childhood from neglect,
and made the little ones the object of loving regard
and care. And so our Lord defended and safe
guarded family life. The emphasis our Lord laid
upon the family deserves to be called "extra
ordinary," says a noted American professor. Not
only did He always express sympathy with domestic
life in all its phases ; not only did He display great
reverence for women and tenderness for children ;
not only did He adopt the terminology of the
family to express the relations between Himself and
His followers, and even the relations between man
and God, but the family was the only institution
upon which Jesus laid down any specific legislation.
The Family All this emphasis upon the importance of the
the Social family arose from our Lord's sense of the vast part
the family plays in the development of human char
acter. To Him, the family was the social unit, and
it was through the regenerated family that the
regeneration of the world was to be effected.
We need to learn of our Lord in all this. The home
is the strategic point. Decay of family life spells
ruin to the nation, and a stop to the1 progress of the
Kingdom of God. Therefore we must do all we
can to defend and safeguard it, to defend it against
the menace to its integrity by the slackening of the
marriage-tie, to defend it against the menace to its
happiness and usefulness, from the neglect of the
little child. The sanctified family is a pledge and
promise of the redeemed world.
278

Christ and the Children
And now, turning to the story itself, let us notice Mark x.
the part the parents played in this incident. " And I3_I6.
theybrought unto Him little children, that He should Su^Wfhole
touch them " (ver. 13). There can be no doubt Parents.
who the " they " refer to, viz., the parents of the '
children. I say "parents" deliberately, because
fathers as well as mothers were evidently concerned
in this. The fathers of these children have hardly
had fair play at our hands. I have seen many
pictures of this incident, but I cannot remember
one which depicts a father as taking any part in it.
But the narrative makes it plain that there were
fathers as well as mothers present, for the participle
in the Greek is in the masculine. Here, then, we
have fathers and mothers bringing their children to
Jesus, children young enough to be taken up in His
arms. And the word which is translated simply
" brought ¦" in our version really means "offered."
It is the word used of the " offering " of gold and
frankincense and myrrh by the wise men to the
infant Jesus. These fathers and mothers " offered "
their little children to Christ. It was a solemn act
of dedication and consecration. They "offered"
little children to Him.
And it was the parents of Perea who did this. —Duty
Now Perea, the geographers tell us, was part pagan, unexpected.
as well as part Jewish. I have no doubt its people
were despised and scorned by the proud Jews of
Jerusalem. But some at least of the parents of
Perea had sufficient insight to recognise that to be
blessed of Christ would be the choicest gift that
could fall to the lot of their children. It is worth
279

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark x.
13-16.

—A Duty
often Neglected.

noticing how the finest tribute to Christ, the finest
illustrations of faith and love, occur amongst pagan
and half-pagan people. It was the faith of the
centurion that made Jesus marvel at its strength ;
it was in a Syro-Phenician woman He found a
persistent love that would not be denied; it was
in Samaria He met with the swiftest and most
general response to His preaching ; and now amongst
those half-pagan people of Perea parents pay Him
the finest tribute all through His career — they
"offered" their children to Him, that He might
touch them. Here in parable we have the whole
duty of parents — to offer their children to the Lord ;
to consecrate them in their very infancy to Christ,
to do as Hannah did with young Samuel, to grant
them to the Lord all the days of their life.
It is just here, in this critical and all-important
duty, that many fond and loving parents fail. They
take every care of their children's health and edu
cation and manners. They do their level best to
further their worldly success. But many of them
take little account of their children's souls. And
yet that is really the supreme duty. You remember
Angel Charity's cross-examination of Christian. It
all gathered round this one point. Here are some
of her questions. " Why did you not bring your
children along with you ? Did you pray to God
that He would bless your counsel to them ? Did
you tell them of your own sorrow and fear of
destruction ? Did you not by your vain life damp
all that you by words used by way of persuasion to
bring them away with you ? " Charity never asked
280

Christ and the Children
Christian what he had done to promote his children's Mark x.
worldly prosperity. The crucial thing was, what 13" i6-
he had done for their souls. We, to whom the
charge of children has been given, may well take
this to heart. If we were half as anxious to offer
our children to the Lord as we are to educate
them well, to place them well, to marry them well,
there would be a different story to tell about some
of our homes than there is at present ; and the
world would be a far sweeter and better place than
it is. First things first ; and the first duty of a
parent to his child is this — to offer him to the
Lord. " They brought unto Him little children, that He The
should touch them : and the disciples rebuked Di"dplesS
them." And this in spite of the stern and solemn
warning about putting a stumbling-block in the
way of a little one. Why did they rebuke the
parents? Why did they try to hinder them from
coming to Christ? Out of concern, says Dr
Salmond, for the Master's dignity and ease.
Because, says Professor Warfield, the children did
not need healing, and could not receive instruction.
The disciples thought of Jesus as a Teacher sent
from God, and a Healer. As these little children —Their
had no sickness or disease, and were too young to Mistake.
profit by the Lord's teaching, they thought it was
putting Him to needless toil and trouble on their
behalf for His notice. So they rebuked those that
brought them, and rather roughly tried to thrust
them away.
You may wonder that any men, and especially —And Ours.
281

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark x.
13-16.

The
Welcoming Lord.

these men, could so misinterpret and misunder
stand the Christ. But let us not be too hard upon
them ? Do we not sometimes commit the same
tragic mistake ? Are not some tempted to deny
that the child can receive the Spirit of God ; to
think that children, while children, cannot come to
Christ ? If I am asked how soon children may
become susceptible to the operation of God's grace,
I must answer that I do not know at what time
they are not. Beware, then, of slighting the
spirituality of the child. Who are we, to say that
this or that child is too young to come to Christ,
seeing that this Holy Book tells us of a Jeremiah
who was sanctified, and a John the Baptist who
was filled with the Holy Ghost even from his
mother's womb ?
The disciples rebuked those that brought them,
and were for driving them and their children away ;
but when Jesus saw it He was moved with indigna
tion — He took it ill, as our old English commen
tator expresses it, that the Twelve should so
entirely misunderstand and ignore His teaching,
should act so entirely contrary to every principle
He had laid down — and " said unto them, Suffer,
permit, the little children to come unto Me ; forbid
them not ; for of such is the Kingdom of heaven."
" Suffer, permit, the little children to come." All
sorts of people had in their time made their
way into Christ's presence. As Dr Glover says,
Pharisees had come in their bitterness and hate to
catch Him in His words : strings of sufferers — the
blind, the deaf, the halt, the leprous — had come to
282

Christ and the Children
Him to be healed ; greedy people flocked out to Mark x.
Him because they ate of the loaves, and were filled ; 13ml6-
pious people pressed upon Him to hear His words
of spirit and life ; sinful people forced their way
into His presence, and fell at His feet, praying
that they might be forgiven. But no people ever
came into our Lord's presence who were so welcome
to Him as these little children. Suffer them to
come, He said. And He took them up in His
arms, laid His hands upon them, and blessed
them. Here is our Lord as the children's Friend. The ~pj*\e ,
little ones were dear to His heart. " Feed My Friend.
lambs " was the charge He laid upon the chief of
His Apostles. And when He took the little ones
up in His arms He took captive every parent's
heart. "Remember this, my boy," said Hood
Wilson's mother to him, on the day of his ordina
tion, "every time you lay your hand on a child's
head, you are laying it on a mother's heart."
There is no aspect of the Lord Jesus that appeals
with more constraining force to a parent's heart
to-day than the sight of Him with the children in
His arms.
" For of such is the Kingdom of heaven." What The
a word was this ! I have heard the charter of the charter?
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
spoken of sometimes as "the Children's Charter."
But this is the real Children's Charter. It is this
great word of Christ that has given ithe child his
royal place. Here is the child's spiritual rank and
heritage. " Of such is the Kingdom of heaven."
283

St Mark vi. 7 — x. 31

Mark x.
13-16.

The
Child and
Paganism.

The Child
in Chris
tianity.

"Heaven lies about us in our infancy," says
Wordsworth ; but that is not half so emphatic a
statement as this of our Lord — " Of such is the
Kingdohi of heaven." And this very dictum,
which asserted the child's spiritual prerogative,
has given him his earthly place of regard and
affection and love. When Jesus said, " Of such is
the Kingdom of God," He rescued the child from
the neglect and contempt with which he was
regarded in the ancient world.
Evidence abounds in the ancient writers to prove
how children were neglected and abused. Heathen
ism had no place in its thought or care for child
life. Exposure was a common practice ; infanticide
was counted no crime. Listen to just two or
three extracts from Latin writers. Stobacus says,
" The poor man raises his sons, but the daughters,
even if one is poor, we expose." Quintillian says
that "to kill a man is often held to be a crime,
but to kill one's own children is sometimes con
sidered a beautiful action among the Romans."
And Seneca writes thus: "Monstrous offspring
we destroy ; children, too, if weak and improperly
formed, we drown. It is not anger, but reason,
thus to separate the useless from the sound." In
those sentences you get the temper and spirit of
the ancient world.
But Jesus rescued the child, and set him upon
high ; made him the object of loving regard and
care, so that the very tenderest feelings of our
present day gather and cluster around our little
ones. And this He did by revealing the child's
284

Christ and the Children
spiritual prerogative. Just as He redeemed the Mark x.
humblest of men from contempt, and broke the I3"1^
shackles of the slave, by revealing the infinite
worth of the individual soul in the sight of God ;
just as He redeemed women from degradation, by
revealing her as being, in God's sight, the comple
ment and counterpart of man, so He redeemed the
child by saying of him, " Of such is the Kingdom
of God." The history of the past eighteen cen
turies has been a history of enlarging liberty and
social amelioration. And all these liberating and
ameliorative movements spring from spiritual sanc
tions. It is the new conception Christ gave of the
place of the woman and the child, and even the
slave, in the regard of God, that has gradually
wrought out their emancipation and redemption.
The child can never be neglected again. Here
is his charter, "Of such is the Kingdom of
heaven." Then our Lord, having vindicated the child's The Man
dignity, went on to lay down this law, that only as Child.
the childlike could enter the Kingdom at all.
"Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of
God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter
therein" (ver 15). It is not a case, as we think
sometimes, of the child waiting till he becomes a
man, it is a case of the man having to become a
child again. The reference may be to the child's
innocence ; or to the child's simplicity ; or to the
child's humility. Probably, however, the main
thought is the child's helplessness and utter
dependence. We must "receive" the Kingdom
285

Mark x.
13-16.

The
Restart.

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
of God as a little child. We are as helpless in
the matter as a child in its mother's arms. The
children of the Kingdom enter it infants for
whom all must be done, humbly receiving, and
doing nothing. "By grace have ye been saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is
the gift of God" (Eph. ii. 8). "The free gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"
(Rom. vi. 23).
"As a little child"; what regrets the very
phrase stirs within us ! What would we not give
to shake off the defilements, the evil knowledge,
the sinful entanglements the years have brought ?
Is it possible again to become as " a fittle child " ?
Yes, it is. " Ye must be born again," said Jesus,
and He never gave a command which was not
also half a promise. I read in the Old Book of
a leprous man who at the command of the prophet
of the Lord dipped seven times in Jordan, and his
flesh came again, like unto the flesh of a little
child. But there is a better fountain than Jordan,
in which you and I can wash away the defilements
of the years, and become again in soul and spirit
like "a little child." "The blood of Jesus Christ
His Son cleanseth us from all sin " (1 John i. 7).

286

XXVI
THE RICH YOUNG RULER
" And when He was gone forth into the way, there came one
running, and kneeled to Him, and asked Him, Good Master,
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ? And Jesus
said unto him, Why oallest thou Me good ? there is none good
but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do
not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear
false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.
And he answered and said unto Him, Master, all these have
I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved
him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest : go thy way,
sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt
have treasure in heaven : and come, take up the cross, and
follow Me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away
grieved : for he had great possessions." — Mark x. 17-22.
This rich young ruler had come into contact with Mark x.
Jesus before ; he must at any rate have heard Him 17-22.
preach, and have been profoundly impressed by The
Him. Mr David Smith suggests that he may have
been in the synagogue in Jericho, some three
months before, when a certain scribe stood up,
and, tempting Jesus, asked this very same ques
tion, " What shall I do to inherit eternal life ? "
He had heard our Lord's controversy with that
scribe; he had listened to that exquisite parable
of the Good Samaritan, and the arrow of con
viction had entered his soul. For three months
287

St Mark vi. 7-\x. 31
Mark x. he had been, as the old Puritans would say,
17-22. "under concern." For three months he had been
unhappy in his mind. He could bear the suspense
and unhappiness no longer, so when Jesus was
resuming His southward journey he ran forth and
kneeled to Him, and asked Him, "Good Master,
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ? "
(ver. 17).
—His Spirit. It was the very same question that the scribe
had asked in Jericho ; yet in what a different spirit
it was asked. The scribe did not ask the ques
tion because he really wanted to know ; he asked
simply because he thought that this question might
put Jesus in a corner. This young ruler asked it
because it was the one thing above everything else
he wanted to know, and felt he must know. You
know that difference of temper and spirit. It is
not unfamiliar in our own days.
_His AH this comes out in the minute little touches
Circum- 0f Jerk's narrative. To begin with, it needed a
stances. great deal of courage and resolution to make this
young ruler come at all. He was a man of some
wealth — all the Evangelists make a point of that ;
he was also, according to St Luke's account, a
"ruler," i.e. probably a ruler of the synagogue.
He was a young man, therefore, not simply of
wealth, but of official and acknowledged standing.
Now, I repeat, it was not easy for a young man of
such a position to come to Jesus at all. For the
wealth and officialism of Palestine had taken up an
attitude of hostility towards Jesus. " Publicans
and sinners" came together for to hear Him; it
288

The Rich Young Ruler
was comparatively easy for them. But this young Mark x.
ruler had to set his own class at defiance ; he had I7"22.
to brave the anger and scorn of the official world
to which he belonged.
There was intense eagerness in the manner of his —His
coming. He " ran " to Him. He felt the business fnadgerness
on which he came brooked no delay. It was Courage.
pressing, urgent, vital business. "As He was
going forth into the way, there ran one to Him "
(ver. 17). And when he reached the Lord, regard
less of all the proprieties, and careless of the scowls
and frowns of his friends, he flung himself upon his
knees in the dust before Him. " There ran one to
Him, and kneeled to Him." Other rich men who
felt the influence of Jesus, appear in frank and
open courage to come far behind this young man.
I cannot imagine Joseph of Arimathea bending the
knee to Jesus in a public place. Joseph thought
of his " honourable counsellorship," and kept his
discipleship secret, for fear of the Jews. I cannot
imagine Nicodemus doing this. Nicodemus believed
that Jesus was a teacher sent from God. But he
never said so openly. He too thought of his
position and his reputation. I cannot imagine
Nicodemus falling on his knees before Jesus in the
public street, and calling Him " Good Master " in
the ears of men. Nicodemus preferred to do his
homage to Christ "secretly by night." But this
young ruler cast all considerations of precedence to
the wind. He risked his reputation. He risked
the goodwill of his friends. It was vital that he
should know the secret of eternal life, so down in
T 289

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark x.
17-22.

His Sense
of Need.

Christ's Faithful
Dealing.

the dust he went at the Lord's feet, braving all the
shrugs and the jeers of the onlookers, crying out,
" Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life ? "
With all his courage and reverence for the Lord,
the young ruler had a passionate desire to have his
question answered, and to know the way of life.
He was conscious of his need. He was keenly
alive to the fact that he lacked something. He
had kept the commandments, as he subsequently
told Jesus. He had lived a blameless life. There
was not a smirch or stain upon his character.
Touching the righteousness which was in the law,
he was blameless. And yet he was unsatisfied ;
his soul had no rest. He was like Paul in his
Pharisee days, laboriously and punctiliously per
forming every legal duty, and yet finding out there
was no righteousness by the works of the law,
ready, although he had kept all the commandments
from his -youth, to cry, " Wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? "
All this sense of need, his dissatisfaction, his unrest,
the trouble of his soul, find expression in his urgent
and passionate cry, " Good Master, what shall I do
that I may inherit eternal life ? " If only men and
women in these days were half as concerned about
eternal life as this young ruler was, and had half
his courage in seeking out and confessing Christ !
Now, if I have rightly understood the character
of this young ruler, and accurately portrayed it,
he will seem just the kind of person to touch our
Lord's sympathy, and to win from Him a ready
290

The Rich Young Ruler
and gracious response. " A bruised reed," the Mark x.
Evangelist says of Him, "shall He not break, and *7-22.
smoking flax shall He not quench" (Matt. xii. 20).
But when I turn to the narrative I find Christ
dealing coldly, harshly, almost sternly with this
young ruler. Why was it? There is only one
answer. Christ had a way of encouraging the
weak and timid, and of checking the forward and
impulsive, by confronting them with the stern facts,
with the realism of the Christian life. As in the
case of the scribe who wanted to follow Christ, io
whom Christ said sharply almost, " Foxes have
holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son
of man hath not where to lay His head." And
perhaps there was something superficial and facile
about this young ruler ; at any rate, Christ Jesus
meets his impassioned inquiry with a preliminary
objection. He said, " Why callest Thou Me good ?
none is good save one, even God " (ver. 18).
Controversy has raged about this sentence. The The Young
Socinian interprets it to mean that Christ disclaims Questioned
the epithet "good," and argues from it that He
totally disclaims any idea of being put on an
equality with God. But that quite clearly cannot
be the meaning of the sentence. For, according
to that interpretation, it would amount to a denial
not simply of Christ's divinity, but of His goodness
as well. And, as we know from the whole tenor
of the Gospels, Christ knew Himself holy, harmless,
undefined. This is certainly no confession of im
perfection. Nor is it simply a rebuke to the young
ruler for using a word without meaning it. Appar-
291

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark x. ently the purpose of the question was to drive this
17-22. young ruler back upon his foundations, to make
him investigate his own half-formed beliefs, face
the issues of his own confession. "You have
called me ' good,' " He says. " Consider what
your language means. ' Good ' is a title which
belongs to God. You have given it to Me. Do
you really mean it ? " Far from being a repudia
tion of sinlessness, and a disclaimer of Divinity,
rightly interpreted this question becomes a chal
lenge and a claim.
The Young And then our Lord proceeds to answer the
answered. y°ung ruler's question. He refers him to the law
of Moses. "Thou knowest the commandments,
Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not
steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud,
Honour thy father and mother" (ver. 19). The
answer was a grievous disappointment to the
inquirer. For all these commandments he had
punctiliously and painfully obeyed, thinking thereby
to attain to peace. Sadly and wearily, therefore,
he replied, "All these things have I observed
from my youth. What lack I yet ? " (Matt. xix. 20).
He knew there was something lacking. Spite of
all his scrupulosity and punctiliousness, his heart
was a stranger to peace and joy. The eternal life,
the Divine life, the life he felt Jesus had, was not
his. " What," he cried, " lack I yet ? "
The And as the Lord looked at him, so earnest and
Demand?16 appealing, His heart was touched. "He loved
iV him," Mark says. Or it may possibly mean that
He "kissed him." This young man, with the
292

The Rich Young Ruler
clean record and the hungry heart, appealed to Mark x.
our Lord's sympathy and affection. " Jesus look- 17-22.
ing upon him, loved him." And then He set before
the young man the inexorable demand of the King
dom, the stringent condition of eternal life. " One
thing thou lackest ; go, sell whatsoever thou hast,
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure
in heaven : and come, follow Me" (ver. 21). Now
we must be careful in our interpretation of this
demand of our Lord. It does not mean that every
one who wants to lay hold on the eternal life must
sell all his goods and give to the poor ; it is not a
general condition, but a demand made to meet
the young ruler's case. Our Lord, like a skilful
physician, diagnosed the disease before prescribing
the remedy. He saw that this young ruler was
suffering from a " divided heart." It wavered
between love of God and love of gold. And there
is never any peace for a divided heart ; only war
and strife and misery. "Sell whatsoever thou
hast," Christ said to this young ruler, "and give
to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven." In other words, He asked him to sur
render to God an undivided heart.
That is what God asks of us — not the punctilious —Made of
observance of external rites and ceremonies, but us als0-
a surrendered heart. Thus alone are life and peace
to be gained ; not by the works of the law, but
by the surrendered heart. Have we learned the
lesson? I look around, and see much laboured
" keeping of the commandments " : a careful and
exact obedience given to the moral law : a punctilious"''
293

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark x.
17-22.

The Great
Refusal.

observance of the externals of religion. Yet people
are not at rest. No ; and they never will be along
those lines alone. The experience of this young
ruler, the experience of Paul himself, only illus-*
trates the truth of the Apostle's saying, " By the
works of the law shall no flesh be justified"
(Gal. ii. 16). Peace only comes by way of a
consecrated and surrendered heart.
" Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor,"
said our Lord. But the demand was too much for
the young ruler. He who, in his enthusiasm and
eagerness, came " running " to Christ, went away
with a face like a " lowering " sky, which forebodes
"foul weather"; for he had "great possessions,"
and for those "great possessions " he sacrificed his
Lord. Granted, it was a stringent demand. And
yet the demand carried its compensations along
with it. "Sell whatsoever thou hast, and give
to the poor," said Jesus, "and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven : and come, follow Me." The
compensation outbalanced the sacrifice, for there
was the blessed company of Jesus all the way ; the
inheritance incorruptible and undefined at the last.
But he clung to his gold, and sacrificed the com
pany of Jesus, and the internal inheritance. " He
went away sorrowful."
Some people find it hard to believe that so
promising a young man, whom Jesus "loved,"
could really make a final refusal. They point out
that he went away " sorrowful " ; and they choose to
think that, some time later, he chose the " better
part" which here he refused. That may be so,
294

The Rich Young Ruler
though his present refusal made it harder for him Mark x.
later to choose aright. But, as a matter of fact, I7_22.
Scripture says nothing about a later acceptance. vlewLaSt
As far as Scripture is concerned, that is the last
view we get of him. And many like him have thus
" gone away." They would have been glad to have
been Christians on easier terms, but this inexorable
demand for sacrifice was more than they could
bear, and they "went away." What about our
selves ? Christ asks still for a completely surren
dered heart. He demands still the expulsion of
everything that disputes the dominion with Him.
What will you do ? Will ye also go away ? God
give us grace to say with Peter, " Lord, to whom
shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life "
(John vi. 68).

295

XXVII
CHRIST'S TEACHING ABOUT
WEALTH
" And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto His disciples,
How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom
of God ! And the disciples were astonished at His words. But
Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard
is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of
God ! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,
than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God. And
they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves,
Who then can he saved ? And Jesus looking upon them saith,
With men it is impossible, but not with God : for with God all
things are possible." — Mark x. 23-27.
Mark x. The conversation here given followed immediately
23-2J. upon the incident of the rich young ruler, and was
Lesson16 as m^ee(l suggested by it. The departure of the
given. young ruler was the text, and these verses were
the sermon Christ preached upon it. Or, if you
like to put it in a slightly different way, in the
preceding paragraph you have the story ; in this
paragraph Christ points the moral. The departure
of the young ruler showed how fierce and strong
are the foes that come between a man and eternal
life. There is, as John Bunyan puts it, a crowd
barring, the way to the palace gate. And a man
needs to be not only of a stout countenance, but
296

Christ's Teaching about Wealth
also of a very brave heart, if he is to bid defiance Mark x.
to that armed throng, and say to the man with the 23-27.
inkhorn, " Set down my name, sir." We have all
to "agonise," if we would enter in by the strait
gate. And that is why, when the young ruler went
away, " Jesus looked round about, and saitii unto
His disciples, how hardly" — ie. with what diffi
culty— "shall they that have riches" — or rather,
" shall they that have the riches, the possessions of
the world" — "enter into the Kingdom of God ! "
(ver. 23).
" He looked round about " ; withdrawing His The Lord's
gaze from the retreating figure of the young ruler, words"
he turned it upon the Twelve. He knew that the
love of money, which had caused the young ruler
to make the " great refusal," was already doing its
deadly work in Judas' soul. And perhaps it was
on Judas' face the eyes of the Lord rested, as it
was to Judas' heart and conscience that He spoke,
when He said, How hardly — with what difficulty —
shall they who have the good things of life enter
into the Kingdom of God ?
"And the disciples," we read, "were amazed at The
His words " (ver. 24). They destroyed every notion A^alement
about wealth the disciples had ever cherished.
They had been brought up on the Old Testament ;
and there wealth is repeatedly spoken of as a sign
of God's favour. So the Wise Man says of wisdom,
" Length of days is in her right hand, and in her
left hand are riches and honour " (Prov. iii. 16).
Thus Christ's dictum overturned all their inherited
ideas. . They themselves were looking forward to
297

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark x.
23-27.

The Camel
and the
Needle's Eye.

material rewards — to princedoms and dominions
and thrones. And here Christ declares that that
very thing which they had been taught to desire,
and to regard as a proof of the Divine favour, was
not a blessing, but something like a curse ; not
a help, but a hindrance, an almost insurmount
able obstacle to the possession of the Kingdom.
And here I prefer the reading noted in the
Revised Version margin, which omits the words
"those that trust in riches." According to the
oldest MSS., what Jesus said when He saw the
bewilderment His first remark had caused, was
this, " Children, how hard it is to enter the King
dom of God!" He enlarges His field of vision.
He makes His first statement, "Children — you
notice the tenderness of His address — "I said a
moment ago, it is hard for the rich man to enter
the /Kingdom of God. It is hard for every one.
There are barriers in every one's way. It is a strait
gate and a narrow way for all But it is specially
hard for the rich. It is easier for a camel to go
through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter
into the Kingdom of God."
Attempts have been made to soften this figure
of the camel and the needle's eye. Some have
suggested that the word " camel " in the Greek is
a mistake for "cable." And others, accepting
"camel" as correct, have suggested that the
" needle's eye " is to be understood as a small
side-gate near the great gate in Jerusalem. But
the phrase must be accepted just as it stands. It
is exactly the kind of striking, hyperbolical figure
298

Christ's Teaching about Wealth
in which an Eastern speaker would delight. Mark x.
Southey caught its spirit when he wrote : — 23-27.
" I would ride the camel,
Yea, leap him flying, through the needle's eye,
As easily as such a pampered soul
Could pass the narrow gate."
It is a proverbial expression, meant to represent
vividly and memorably the extraordinary difficulty
of discharging the responsibilities and overcoming
the temptations of riches. So the Lord's answer to
the disciples' wonder was simply to emphasize His
former statement.
The Lord's repetition of His statement only The
intensified the disciples' amazement. " They were Qoje^"kes
astonished exceedingly," saying unto Him, " Then
who can be saved ? " They began to be dimly
conscious of difficulties of which they had never
before dreamed. Their minds had travelled beyond
the cares of the rich. A new conception of the
Kingdom began to dawn upon them. They began
to tremble about any one's salvation. " Who then
can be saved ? " they asked. And Jesus replied,
"With men it is impossible, but not with God"
(ver. 27). Jf it depended upon men themselves,
their own unaided efforts, their own righteousness,
they would never gain the Kingdom. But with
God all things are possible. With God to help,
the impossible may become actual, and man, yes,
even the rich man, may enter the Kingdom of
God. And now as to the light this passage throws
upon our Lord's teaching about wealth. Upon
299

Y"

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark x.
23-27. The
Legitimacy
of Wealth.

the general subject I will say but one or two
words. There is a school amongst us that asserts
that Jesus -condemned wealth altogether, and
that a rich Christian is therefore a contradic
tion in terms. I think, from my study of the
Gospels, that this school is quite wrong. Of course
ill-gotten wealth is absolutely debarred to the
Christian. Money made in dishonest ways, or
gained by oppression, by sweated labour, for
instance, is unchristian money. But I do not see
how anyone can read the Gospels without finding
that Jesus admits the legitimacy of wealth. It is
implied in the parables of the Talents and the
Pounds. It is implied here in this story of the
young ruler. Jesus does not deny the man's right
to his wealth. He only urges the surrender of
it as the way to perfection. That is to say, the
surrender of wealth is not an economic principle, it
is simply in this case a matter of moral choice.
Jesus does not enjoin the monkish vow of poverty
upon His followers. Anthony, who, on reading the
story of the young ruler, forthwith distributed to
the villagers his large fertile estates, inherited from
his father, sent his sister to be educated with a
society of pious virgins, and then settled down to
a rigidly ascetic fife, was imitating the letter, and
not the spirit of Scripture. And when Benan says
that the monk is in a sense the only true Christian,
he is repeating Anthony's mistake. Jesus nowhere
holds that every Christian must sacrifice his wealth,
and take the vow of poverty.
Not only so, but our Lord obviously teaches
300

Christ's Teaching about Wealth
that wealth may be made beneficent ; that it can Mark x.
minister not simply to the good of others, but also 23-27.
to the good of a man's own soul. That is surely the Tr*1"™*8
whole teaching of the parable of the Unrighteous
Steward. Men can make friends even of the un
righteous mammon. They can turn a thing so
pregnant with peril as wealth into a great means
of blessing. Surely we have seen illustrations of
all this in the cases of men — of whom our own days
supply many striking and familiar examples^whose
wealth has been employed in a gracious, helpful
and Christian ministry.
But, while Jesus admits the legitimacy of wealth, The Perils
and allows that money may be transfigured into a
minister of grace, no one can read the New Testa
ment with any attention without seeing that the
main point He emphasizes is, not its legitimacy,
nor its possibilities of gracious ministry, but its
perils — its menacing and deadly perils. Again and
again He bids men be on the watch against the
fascinations of wealth. He obviously regards
mammon as the chief rival and antagonist of
God in the affections of men. Again and again He -
bids men beware of covetousness. And perhaps His
insistence upon the perils of wealth reaches its
climax in the words, " It is easier for a camel to go
through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to
enter the Kingdom of God" (ver. 25).
Now can we discover what, according to our Men
Lord, are the perils of wealth that make Him so w!e°'£n!d in
insistent in His warnings against it ? I think we
can. (1) First of all, our Lord saw that wealth
301

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark x.
23-27.

Men trust
ing in
Wealth.

had a strange but fatal power of absorbing the
affections of the soul, and so becoming the rival
and antagonist of Gbd. That is what had happened
in the case of this young ruler. God claims the
first place in every soul. He will not take the
second place ; He will be loved best, or not at all.
I dare say the young ruler thought he loved God
best. But when the choice had to be made, it
was his gold he loved best. He did not possess
his riches, his riches possessed him. They had
monopolised God's place. Living as we do in a
materialistic age, we do not need any one to tell us
that there are multitudes of mammon-worshippers
all about us still, men who give to wealth the place
in their hearts that properly belongs to God.
(2) A second peril which Christ saw attached to
wealth was this — those who had great possessions
were always tempted to trust in them. Money has
not only the power of absorbing the heart, it has also
the power of satisfying it. Take the parable of the
Bich Fool as an illustration. His barns and store-
, houses were full ; he seemed quite immune against
trouble and distress. "Soul, thou hast much
goods," he said, " laid up for many years, eat, drink,
be merry." The fact that he had such abundant
wealth blinded him to his lack of spiritual things.
He thought himself rich and increased with goods,
and in need of nothing, and when he was ushered
into eternity that night, he went into it as a blind
and miserable and naked soul. This is no imaginary
peril. The possession of earthly wealth may blind
a man to his need of lasting riches. The man who
302

Christ's Teaching about Wealth
has much treasure on earth is in danger of not Mark x.
feeling the need of treasure in heaven. And so 23-27.
the possession of " uncertain riches" often spells the
ruin of the soul; and "great possessions" often
mean the sacrifice of the inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled. For the condition of receiving the
" eternal life " is a sense of need. " He hath filled
the hungry with good things." But those who have
this world's goods often feel no sense of need, and
so the rich go empty away. What profit is it for
a man to have all his treasures on earth, when
he himself is made for eternity? "Do you
know," said a man — I think to John Bright — " he
died worth a million." "Yes," replied Bright,
" and that was all he was worth." What unutter
able tragedy such a sentence hides ! " All he was
worth." And it had all to be left.
(3) Further, the possession of wealth is apt to Men the
beget a spirit of covetousness, and covetousness covetous-
is itself a sin, and the fruitful mother of sins. ness.
" Take heed," said our Lord, " and keep yourselves
from covetousness." Covetousness, He knew, was
one of the most deadly enemies of the soul. It
warps and shrivels and deadens the soul. It
makes it insensible to the higher and holier
appeals. Men grow in fortune, and get further
and further away from God. Their bank balances
increase, and their stock of sympathy and pity and
love diminishes. There is nothing like covetous
ness for stifling the religious life. It chokes the
Word, so that there is more hope for the drunkard
and the sensualist than for the man whom avarice
303

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark x.
23-27.

The
Christian's Duty.

holds in its grip. And not only is covetousness itself
a sin, but it begets sin. " The love of money is a
root of all kinds of, evil," says the Apostle (1 Tim.
vi. 10). It was so in the Lord's own day. Witness
the Pharisees devouring widows' houses, and the
priests turning the very Temple into a den of
thieves. It is so now. Think what greed is
doing in this land of ours. Most of the wrongs
from which we suffer spring from this one bitter
root. There would be scarcely any social problem
left, if only men's hearts were delivered from this
blighting and sinful love.
What, then, is the Christian man's attitude to
wards wealth? Wealth, remember, is a relative
term. I have known the small patrimony of the poor
as perilous to the soul as the mighty fortunes of
the rich. Covetousness is not necessarily a matter
of thousands or millions. Silas Marner with his
small store of gold coins was as much a victim to
it as any financier who is adding his thousand to
thousand. What, then, is the Christian's duty
towards his wealth, whether it be great or small ?
Must he deny himself of it ? Not necessarily. But
he must keep himself master of it. He must not
let it master him. I have a friend who said to me
that when he was about twenty-five years of age,
when money began to come to him, he found he
had to face the question whether he would be
master of his wealth, or would let his wealth
master him. He said that by God's grace he
would be master of his -wealth. It was no vain
resolve ; he holds his money with a loose grip ; it
304

Christ's Teaching about Wealth
is to him an agent for usefulness. He gives, as he Mark x.
puts it, pound for pound of his income to the Lord. 23-27-
He has made to himself friends of the mammon of
unrighteousness. That is the way to treat wealth,
whether large or small — be its master. And with
none of us must wealth be the aim of life. " Little
children, guard yourselves from idols " (1 John v. 21).
It is the last word of Scripture. And mammon
is the idol most of our people worship. But the
new earth would be here, if we seriously heeded
these words of Christ, " Be not therefore anxious,
saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we
drink ? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed ? . . .
But seek ye first His Kingdom and His righteous
ness "(Matt, vi. 31, 33).

305

XXVIII
THE HUNDREDFOLD

Mark x.
28-31.The
ImpulsivePeter.

His
Inquiry.

" Then Peter began to say unto Him, Lo, we have left all,
and have followed Thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I
say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for
My sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold
now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers,
and children, and lands, with persecutions ; and in the world to
come eternal life. But many that are first shall be last ; and
the last first."— Makk x. 28-31.
All the Evangelists notice that it was Peter
who said this. It was just the kind of remark
you would expect Peter to make. There were
things Peter said which, on calmer reflection, he
' would have wished unsaid. But this habit never
theless constitutes part of the charm of his character.
His hot-headedness and impulsiveness make him
the most open and transparent and human of the
Twelve. His question here arose directly out of the
incident of the rich young ruler. He had heard
our Lord demand of that young man that he should
sell his possessions, and follow Him. He had seen
the young ruler go away sorrowful. He had heard
the Lord's startling comment that it was easier for
a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich
306

The Hundredfold
man to enter the Kingdom of God. And though Mark x.
for a moment, like the rest of the disciples, staggered 28-31.
by that austere saying, he quickly recovered his
spirits, and with a great deal of self-satisfaction let
his mind dwell on the difference between the con
duct of the rich young ruler and that of himself and
his fellow disciples. " We," he thought to himself,
" have done the very thing which the Master asked
the rich young ruler to do. We have done that
hard thing ; we have left all, and followed Jesus.
Surely sacrifice so great and so difficult will win a
rich reward ? " The thought had no sooner formed
itself in Peter's mind than, with characteristic im
pulsiveness, he was giving it expression. " Lo," he
said to Jesus, " we (with an emphasis on the we :
we, in contrast to the rich young ruler who refused
to make the sacrifice), we have left all, and have
followed Thee " (ver. 28). And Peter did not stop
there, according to Matthew's account, for he went
on to ask, "What then shall we have?" (Matt.
xix. 27).
It is very easy to criticise this question of Peter. Peter's
For, when Peter asked, " What then shall we have?" Sacrifice
he spoke in the very tone and temper of the hired
servant. There is a touch of the sordid and the
mercenary about it. " No longer do I call you
servants," said Jesus on one occasion ; " but I
have called you friends/' (John xv. 15). But Peter
here does not speak as a " friend " ; he speaks as
one who only works for wages, a "hired servant,"
and as one eminently pleased with himself. But
when critics go on to object that Peter's all did not
307

Response.

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark x. amount to much, that in his case there was no such
28-31. sacrifice as was demanded in the case of the young
ruler, they take a very different view of the case
from that which Christ took. I do not find Christ
ridiculing or disparaging the sacrifice the disciples
had made, as scarcely worth mention. Christ never
measured anything by mere bulk ; He measures by
the love and sacrifice involved. And so He joy
fully acknowledged that these men had sacrificed
their all, and, with a "verily" that was full of
tender assurance, He promised them a reward
that outran their wildest dreams.
The To the Twelve themselves, according to Matthew's
Resnonse account, He promised that they should sit on twelve
thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Peter,
for the sacrifice of his boat and his nets, Matthew,
for the surrender of his tollbooth, was each to
receive a throne. And it was no delusive promise.
The throne Christ gave was not perhaps the kind
of throne the disciples expected. They wore none
of the trappings of royalty, but no king that ever sat
upon a throne wielded such sovereign authority as
do these twelve humble men, who first heard
Christ's call and followed Him. But Mark passes the
special reward of the apostles' sacrifice by without
notice, in order to lay stress on the reward Christ
promises to every one who makes sacrifices for
His sake. "Verily I say unto you," said our Lord,
"There is no man that hath left house, or brethren,
or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands,
for My sake, and for the gospel's sake, but he shall
receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and
308

The Hundredfold
brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, Mark x.
and lands, with persecutions ; and in the world to 28-31.
come eternal life " (vers. 29, 30).
In this overwhelming promise you will notice the The
Divine generosity of the reward. That is the way j?1™"6 t
in which the Lord blesses — a hundredfold. This
is the way in which He compensates for sacrifice —
a hundredfold. The very magnificence of the
reward has, as Dr Bruce says, a sobering effect
upon the mind. It tends to humble. For nobody,
no matter what sacrifices he has made, or what
devotion he has shown, can pretend that he
has earned the "hundredfold." All talk of merit
is out of the question here. When we have done
our best — if we are honest with ourselves — we
have to confess we have been unprofitable ser
vants. The reward is so obviously out of pro
portion, as to make us realize it is not of debt, but
of the Lord's mercy and grace. We do not earn
these blessings ; the free gift of God is eternal life.
There are those in these days who say that in The
theXlhristian life we ought not to think of reward ^f°^J^ds
at all. Christianity, we are told, ought to be
disinterested, and the man who is> always thinking
of the reward at the end is really turning his
religion into a kind of glorified selfishness. Now
there is an element of truth in this objection. If
people were Christian simply for the sake of the
reward, and not for love, they would not in any
true sense be Christians at all. I sometimes
wonder whether Peter was a real Christian, when
he asked, " What then shall we get ? " I am quite
309

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31

Mark x.
28-31.

The Reality
of the
Reward.

sure he was a real Christian when he said, " Lord,
Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I
love Thee." Our Lord Himself repudiated what I
may call mercenary discipleship, when He charged
the crowds with following Him only because they
ate of the loaves, and were filled. A Christian is
a man who follows Christ and obeys Christ and
gives Himself to Christ for love's sake. But Christ
never calls a man to an unreasonable service.
The life Christ calls a man to, is the best life and
the highest life, the rich fife. And that is what
the Christian doctrine of rewards amounts to; it
is the assertion of the supreme reasonableness of
the Christian life.
But now as to the reality of this reward. It is an
overwhelming promise — is it a true one? This
promise of a hundredfold now and eternal life
hereafter, is it a mocking mirage, or is it a reality ?
Let us examine the promise for a moment. It
falls into two parts. It promises reward now, and
in the world to come. Now as to the promise of
eternal life in the world to come, we have to take
that on trust. We believe, we gladly believe, that
for Christ's friends death does not bring life to an
end. But life enters upon a new stage. It be
comes larger, deeper, richer, fuller. It becomes
life in the very presence of God, a life of perfect
bliss. But that, as I say, we take on trust. As
far as that portion of the promise is concerned, we
walk by faith, not by sight.
But in so far as the Lord's promise deals with
this present world and this present life, we can
310

The Hundredfold
bring it to the test of facts and experience. What Mark x.
then of the hundredfold which they who make 28-31.
sacrifices for Christ are to receive in this time ? ^^eLife186
Does that get fulfilled ? In answering this question that now is.
we must beware of a bald literalism. A bald and
naked literalism will make nonsense of this gracious
word. Of course, Christ does not mean that for
every house we give up we shall get a hundred
houses given back to us. The promise essentially
means this — that discipleship means the immense
and untold enrichment of life even now. Is that . '
true? Absolutely and utterly true. It is true
even of material things. Religion tends to pros
perity. Godliness has the promise of the life
which now is. But it is not on that low and
rather sordid plane that I would argue the truth
of this promise. The hundredfold comes to the
disciple in other and better ways. "A hundred
fold in this time." Is it true ? Yes, says Dr Bruce,
if you take the long view ; and he bids us notice
how, through the sacrifices of Christian people,
the little one has become a thousand, and the
small one a strong nation, and the prophetic picture
of an ever-widening Christian dominion has been
to a large extent realised. But essentially the
promise is true, not simply of the centuries and
the generations ; it is true of the individual. The
Christian life means untold enlargement and en
richment. "All things are yours," cries Paul;
"whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the
world, or life, or death, or things present, or things
to come; all are yours, and ye are Christ's "(1 Cor.
311

St Mark vi. 7— x. 31
Mark x. iii. 22, 23). "I have all things, and abound,"
28-31. wrote the same great-hearted Apostle (Phil. iv.
18). He had stripped himself bare for Christ ;
he had stripped himself of home and friends and
reputation and prospects ; but Paul did not walk
through life like a beggar, he walked through it
with the proud step and light heart of one who
had inexhaustible and unsearchable riches. " I
have all things, and abound."
—With " With persecutions," the Lord adds. And we
Persecution. are no^ fa rea(j this phrase as if it were the bitter
put in to counterbalance the sweet. The Lord
means us to reckon persecutions as another item
added to the inventory of the disciple's blessings.
The hundredfold is realised, not in spite of per
secutions, but to a larger extent because of them.
The phrase carries us back' to that other striking
and memorable word, " Blessed are ye when men
shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all
manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad ; for great is your
reward in heaven" (Matt. v. 11, 12). "But,"
He added, " many that are first shall be last, and
the last first." A man's place in the Divine order
of precedence is not settled by length of service or
conspicuous service. These twelve were the first
in time, and the most conspicuous in position.
It did not follow that they were to be the first
in heaven. Judas by transgression fell, and went
to his own place — the first became last. The
persecuting and blaspheming Saul, though born
out of due time, came not a whit behind the
312

The Hundredfold
very chiefest of the Apostles — the last became first. Mark x.
In the external world every man finds his proper 28-31.
niche ; every man is appraised at his true value.
For God judges not by the outward appearance ;
He judges by the heart. Not by our conspicuous
station, or by our Church standing, but by the
amount of genuine love and sacrifice there is in
our discipleship. " Many that are first shall be
last " ; it is a word of solemn warning. It is well
we should examine our hearts, and ask ourselves
where, judged by that test, shall we stand —
amongst the first or amongst the last ?

A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY.
Bible students and Bible readers have long felt the necessity
for some Commentary which should aim simply and solely at
helping the spiritual life of those who use it. The Religious
Tract Society is now producing a series of volumes designed to
fill this gap. In every case the aim has been so to comment upon
the words of Holy Scripture as to help the spiritual life of the
reader. There has, of course, been some treatment of perplexing
passages and a steady attempt to draw out the general character as
well as the particular lessons of each book.
The Second Epistle to Timothy.
Short Devotional Studies on the Dying Letter
of St. Paul.
By the Right Rev. HANDLEY C. G. MOULE, D.D.,
Bishop of Durham.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.
"The Bishop of Durham has published several volumes of
studies on St. Paul's Epistles, but never, we think, one which
came so near his heart, or which his readers will find so moving
and absorbing as this." — The Record.
"We may say it is a work of no ordinary value, and Christians
will find in it a rich feast. It is needless, of course, to say that it
is the work of a scholar ; it is also the work of a whole-hearted
believer." — The English Churchman.
" It is well conceived, and written with Dr. Moule's usual care
and finish." — Glasgow Herald.
"No man writes with more insight, with a more thorough
appreciation of the conditions of his task, than Dr. Moule, when
he deals with devotional subjects." — Westminster Gazette.
The Book of Exodus.
By the Rev. F. B. MEYER, B.A., D.D.
Two Volumes. Vol. I., chaps, i.-xx. Vol. II., xxi.-xL
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s. each.
" The practical Christian will find in this book a rich pasture
wherein to feed, and numerous streams of living waters to refresh
his soul." — English Churchman.
" Discarding all critical and grammatical discussions, he ex
pounds the spiritual lessons of the book and applies them to the
life and need of the present time." — Methodist Times.
" Clearness of vision, keen insight, and knowledge of the deep
experience of Christian life and the need of to-day mark every
page." — Western Daily Mercury.
" Who but F. B. Meyer could have made the ' Exodus ' full of
nutriment for the spiritual life ? The work will not need to be
done again for this generation." — Aberdeen Free Press.
LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY.
The Epistle to the Philippians.
By the Rev. F. B. MEYER, B.A., D.D.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.
" This devotional commentary, by so well-known a writer, needs
little notice to commend it. It is replete with the earnestness,
extensive Christian experience, and spiritual insight that char
acterise Dr. Meyer's numerous writings." — The Rock.
" The text of the Epistle is broken up by Dr. Meyer into para
graphs, -upon each of which he comments at length. It is not too
much to say that Dr. Meyer has never in the course of his fruitful
labours done better work of its kind than appears in this volume.
His comments are marked by spiritual insight as well as by great
aptitude of practical application. The whole exposition is full of
thought and instinct with warm Christian feeling." — The Record.
I. & II. Thessalonians.
By the Rev. A. R. BUCKLAND, M.A.
Two volumes. Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s. each.
" Mr. Buckland's Commentary has uniformly interested and
delighted me." — The Bishop of Durham.
" There is nothing fanciful or forced about his exegesis ; it is
characterised by simplicity and naturalness." — Layman.
" It is simple, direct, and withal virile. It has a wide suggestive-
ness. ' ' — Standard.
" To those who wish a clear, terse, sympathetic treatment of
St. Paul's message, it will prove most helpful." — Scottish Review.
The Epistle of St. Paul to Philemon.
By the Rev. A. H. DRYSDALE, D.D.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.
" Dr. Drysdale's exposition is thorough and lucid, and is
eminently adapted for the instruction of the general reader as
well as for the thoughtful student of the Apostle's writings." —
Christian. " St. Paul's perfect little Epistle has scarcely ever had more
thorough or acceptable treatment." — Churchman.
" It may be recommended heartily to those who desire to under
stand the many exquisite touches in this unique specimen of the
private correspondence of St. Paul." — Guardian.
LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY.
The Epistle to the Hebrews.
By the Right Rev. G. A. CHADWICK, D.D.. Bishop of Derry.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.
"As a companion to the Epistle, this volume will take high
rank . " — Churchman .
"Clear exposition and readiness to welcome well-established
critical results, combined with complete loyalty to the spiritual
authority of Scripture." — Guardian:
" It is delightful reading, as stimulating to the mind as it is
refreshing to the spirit." — Methodist Recorder.
The General Epistle of James.
By the Rev. CHARLES BROWN, D.D.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.
"This little book is well arranged upon a plan calculated to
enhance its utility to ministers and teachers. We cordially recom
mend it." — Baptist.
" Will be found specially attractive by lovers of simplicity who
care less for criticism than for Bible teaching." — Sheffield Daily
Telegraph. " It is gracefully written, very clear and eminently suggestive."
— London Quarterly Review.
" Dr. Brown's practical application of the Apostle's message to
the varied phases of everyday life and common experience will
enlighten and strengthen, uplift and edify." — Christian.
The Epistle to the Ephesians.
By the Rev. CHARLES BROWN, D.D.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.
" What Dr. Brown has written bears all the marks of the
earnestness and practical wisdom which we ever associate with his
ministry. Every reader will find something to stimulate in the
comments. ' — United Methodist.
" Each chapter is simple and devout and quietly helpful, and
there is abundance of ' practical application ' in the best sense." —
Christian World.
"Dr. Brown's well-known expository gifts are admirably re
vealed in his treatment of this epistle .... What he has to say
by way of exposition and application tends to a profitable study of
the epistle, and imparts a fresh interest and meaning to the
Apostolic letter." — Life of Faith.
" The book is well balanced. It is written not from the critical
but from the devotional standpoint. But it is full of sound ethical
teaching." — Dublin Daily Express.
LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY.
The Book of Genesis.
By the Rev. W. H. GRIFFITH THOMAS. D.D.
Three volumes. Vol. I., i.-xxv. 10. Vol. II., xxv. 11-xxxvi. 8.
Vol. III., xxxvii.-l.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s. each.
" It will prove suggestive to Bible students as expounding this
part of Scripture in a spirit noticeably distinct from that in which
it is usually approached by modern theologians of the critical
sort." — Scotsman.
"We have tested this book from a teacher's standpoint and
found it to be a mine of suggestion." — Schoolmaster.
Romans.
By the Rev. W. H. GRIFFITH THOMAS, D.D.
Three volumes. Vol. I., i.-v. Vol. II., vi.-jri.
Vol. III., xii.-xvi.
Large crown Svo, cloth gilt, 2s. each.
"Dr. Thomas is one of the. ablest theologians and Biblical
exegetes of the day, a true and trusted evangelical teacher, whose
writings, although numerous, always bear evidence of careful
thought, wide reading, and, above all, earnest purpose." — Dublin
Daily Express.
"The entire volume is marked by clearness of exposition, care
ful arrangement of material and deep spiritual insight." — The
Christian Workers' Magazine.
" The work encourages devotional meditation in the reader by
valuable suggestiveness  We strongly recommend this
scholarly contribution. ' ' — English Churchman.
The Book of Ruth.
By the Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.
Large crown Svo, cloth gilt, 2s.
" A new and revised edition of a work of great charm, marked
by ripe scholarship and mature experience of life, sympathy, and
wisdom." — Aberdeen Free Press. I
"It is thoroughly appreciative of the plaintive history of Ruth,
the Moabitess, and from beginning to end supplies a rich pasture of
spiritual edification for the soul." — English Churchman.
" It is a very able commentary." — Life of Faith.
"Dr. Cox emphasises aspects of the book which are often
neglected by students." — Christian.
Surely no one ever handled the great writings with such sym
pathy and revelation for hard-worked preacher! as Dr. Cox."—
United Methodist.
LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY.
The Book of Esther;
Its Spiritual Teaching1.
By the Rev. J. ELDER CUMMING, D.D.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.
"Alike for scholarship and reverence the author's treatment
of this difficult book is all that could be desired by the devout
student of the inspired Word." — English Churchman.
"The subject is undoubtedly difficult, but Dr. Cumming has
treated it wisely and well. The problems of the book are fairly
faced and often disposed of, while the meditations are helpful and
suggestive." — Methodist Times.
"Dr, Cumming adopts the theory that the divine and spiritual
teaching was purposely concealed in order that the book might be
allowed to circulate in Persia. He then proceeds to draw out this
hidden meaning of the book, and in this he has been eminently
successful . " — Scotsman .
The Psalms :
Their Spiritual Teaching.
By the Rev. J. ELDER CUMMING, D.D.
In Three volumes. Vol. I., Psalms i.-xli. Vol. II., Psalms xlii,-
lxxxix. Vol. III., Psalms xc.-cl.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s. each.
" Dr. Elder Cumming's expositions are models of what such
expositions should be. Brief, lucid, and pervaded by fine spiritual
feeling, they will do more to bring the Psalms into heart and life
than many of the larger standard works." — The Scotsman.
" It stands out among the many books on the Psalms as the
commentary most adapted for busy men and women who wish to
grip, one by one in their daily devotions, the innermost teaching
of the Divine Songs." — The Presbyterian,
The First Epistle to Timothy.
By the Rev. T. A. GURNEY. M.A., LL.B.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.
" The exposition is spiritual and practical, and is based upon
sound scholarship. The thought is clear, and the style chaste and
animated." — Methodist Recorder.
"Mr. Gurney has made a very careful examination of the
language of the epistle, treating it with scholarly care and with
real insight." — Record.
" A book which can be read with edification, and in it the reader
is brought near to the very heart of Scripture." — Aberdeen Frea
Press. LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY.
The First Epistle of St. John.
By the Rev. G. S. BARRETT, D.D.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.
Dr. G. S. Barrett has caught something of the charm of ' the
beloved disciple ' who wrote this Epistle. Written at Ephesus
when St. John was an old man, it deals with the iniquities and
heresies prevalent in that city. Many of these are repeated in
our own time in our own country. For the evils of his time, as
for ours, the Apostle knew but one cure — the saving power of
Jesus Christ. And through all there breathes the spirit of love to
God and love to men. Dr. Barrett's treatment of these great
themes is worthy of his own high reputation, and will be
welcomed by every thoughtful readerV
St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians.
By the Rev. Canon R. B. GIRDLESTONE, M.A.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.
The treatment of St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians by Canon
R. B. Girdlestone is precisely such as the devotional student of
the Epistle would desire. The argument of the Epistle is lucidly
developed, and the line of the Apostle's reasoning everywhere
made plain. The foundation truths of the Gospel dealt with in
the Epistle are very clearly stated and discussed. The application
of St. Paul's words to the personal life of the reader, without
being strained, is everywhere direct and forcible. In addition to
the Commentary, Canon Girdlestone supplies a series of short
studies on the outstanding subjects of the Epistle.
The Gospel according: to St. Mark
I.— VI. 6.
By the Rev. J. D. JONES, M.A., B.D.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.
In this volume the Rev. J. D. Jones, of Bournemouth, draws
out with characteristic skill the personal lessons to be derived
from the Gospel. The message to the individual soul is ever
present to his mind, and his searching treatment never fails to
suggest thought. Alike on its expository and on its devotional
side, the work should be helpful to all who seek guidance and
stimulus for a life of faith and service. It is hoped to complete
the treatment of this Gospel in two volumes.
LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

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