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THE EXCLUSION OF WISDOM. \J>*>}
OFFENCES IN CHRIST.

TWO SERMONS,

BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,

PUBLISHED by

REQUEST OF THE VICE-CHANCELLOR.

REV. T. D. BERNARD, M.A.
EXETER COLLEGE,
VICAK OS TERLING, ESSEX, AND OKE OE IHE SELECT PKEAOHEBS BEFORE
THE UNIVERSITY.

LONDON :
THOMAS HATCHARD, 187, PICCADILLY.
JOHN HENRY & JAMES PARKER, OXFORD.
1856.

TWO SERMONS.

THE EXCLUSION OF WISDOM.
OFFENCES IN CHRIST.

TWO SERMONS,

BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,

PUBLISHED BY

REQUEST OF THE VICE-CHANCELLOR.

REV. T. D. BERNARD, M.A.
EXEIEE COLLEGE,
VICAK OE TERLINO, ESSEX, AND ONE OS THE SELECT PREACHERS BEFORE
THE UNIVERSITY.

LONDON :
THOMAS HATCHARD, 187, PICCADILLY.
JOHN HENRY & JAMES PARKER, OXFORD.
1856.

LONDON :
ix. J. PALMER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

The first of the following Sermons was preached on
Quinquagesima Sunday, 1856, being a Sermon ap
pointed to be preached on that day from one of a
number of selected texts bearing on the subject of
Humility ; and the second, on the third Sunday in
Advent, 1855, in one of the Author's turns as Select
Preacher, and is founded on the Gospel for the day.
The Author would not have thought himself justified
in publishing them if he had not been authorised by an
official request ; but he wishes to explain that that
request originally referred only to the first of these
Sermons, and that the second has been added (not
without approbation from the same quarter) under the
idea that its subject, and the line of thought pursued in
it, made it a suitable companion to the other.
May Almighty God, who granted to His Apostles
grace truly to believe and to preach His Word, grant
unto His Church now to love that Word which they
believed, and both to preach and to receive the same,
through Jesus Christ our Lord !

THE EXCLUSION OF WISDOM.

1 Coe. i. 20, 21.
" Where is the wise ? where is the scribe f where is the
disputer of this world ? Hath not God made foolish
the wisdom of this world ?
" For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolish
ness of preaching to save them that believe."
If the preacher of this morn^g is not left to his own
unrestricted choice of text and topic, he has no reason
to complain, while the subject confided to him is one
which lies at the foundation of Christian life, and on
which his own deepest convictions would of themselves
incline him to dwell. The selected texts permit him to
treat of the spirit of humility in many of its different
relations as a feature of practical Christian character,
but they are chiefly such as direct him to regard it as
preliminary to our being Christians at all, as the secu
rity of thought, the condition of faith, and the key to
the kingdom of Heaven.

2 The Exclusion of Wisdom.
Intellectual activity has its own dangers, and those
so much the greater as they lie nearer to the springs of
life. In a place separated to the purposes of intel
lectual life, where so many minds are forming them
selves before they pass into active duty, and so many
others are engaged in the further prosecution of inquiry
and development of thought, it is especially fit, that he
who speaks in the name of the Lord should give warn
ing of those dangers, and witness to that temper of
mind, which is the only security against them.
But if the place suggest the fitness of such a witness
much more strongly does the time. There is not a
more common topic of observation than the visible ten
dency of our day to glorify the human intellect, to ex
aggerate its capacities, extend its dominion, and deliver
all things to its mercy. We can perceive this tendency,
not only in the language held by those who dwell in the
kingdom of ideas, but in the tone of popular literature,
in the spirit diffused among the masses, and in the
principles on which the movements of our age proceed ;
while it is obvious that the current of our legislation
and the remoulding of our national institutions combine,
with their just and necessary changes, new impulses in
the same direction. I should be sorry for this pulpit to
resound with the cheap maledictions of a Papal Allocu
tion against the character of the age and the course of
events, but we are not to stand as unobservant watch
men, and to accept all human tendencies as if by this
time drained of their corruption. We are bound to
oppose to rising dangers Scriptures which cannot be

The Exclusion of Wisdom. 3
broken, and if we see ourselves verging towards a state
in which the spirit of the world will claim to judge all
things, yea, the deep things of God, it is our duty to
encounter it with the words, wherewith God himself has
fenced around His own gifts, and secured them from
the intrusions of that wisdom, which is ever ready to
boast, within another's line, of things made ready to its
hand. Of immense value in this respect are the two open
ing chapters of the first epistle to the Corinthians,
where the Apostle has raised barriers which can never
recede, against the encroachments of human intellect,
and has done it with a vigour of thought and force of
language, which bewray his own marvellous powers of
intellect and oratory in the very words which disclaim
their worth.
In the text we see the Apostle, looking round on the
circle of the truth which it was given him to publish,
and asking for the contributions which the wisdom of
man has made to it ; sweeping with his eye the whole
history of its introduction and successes, and asking for
the part which the wisdom of man performs in it.
" Where is the wise % where is the scribe 1 where is the
disputer of this world V It is not to be said that the
" wise " who is here excluded, is only the sophist — the
discreditable representative of the later Greek philoso
phy, whom St. Paul might personally encounter, who
had lost among logical subtleties and an artificial rhe
toric, all sense of the seriousness of words and the
responsibility of thought — that the "scribe" is the
B 2

4 The Exclusion of Wisdom.
narrow-minded student of the mere letter of antecedent
doctrine, developing cabalistic absurdities from its un
fruitful husk — that the disputer of this world is (what
to some minds our own translation may suggest) the
disputatious spirit, the reckless arguer for victory. It
is true that these characters abounded in the Apostle's
sight, and that these developments — or if you will, these
aberrations of human wisdom — are included in his esti
mate of its whole career. But he does not thus limit
his words — he speaks of the " wisdom of man " in its
fulness, including its best as well as its worst examples
— of the " princes of this world," meaning its leading
minds as well as its ruling powers — of the " natural
man " as opposed to the " spiritual," — of the light
given by the " spirit of the world " as opposed to that
imparted by the " Spirit of God." He draws through
out that strong line of distinction which it is the
aim of a recent philosophy to obliterate. We are
bound to recognize the intention of the writer, as in
cluding in the " wise " the man of far reaching thought ;
— in the " scribe " the man of profound learning ; —
in the " disputer of this world " the real inquirer,
drawing out truth by converse with others and with
self — in short, we find ourselves here concerned, not
merely with the frivolous and the worthless, but with
the luminaries of human thought and the ornaments
of human history.
" Where then is the wise ? where is the scribe 1
where is the disputer of this world V We are at no
loss for an answer. He is among the kings of men : he

The Exclusion of Wisdom. 5
sits beside the secret fountains of opinion, and their
streams have received their colouring from his thoughts
and their direction from his hand before they emerge
into the day. He may live in books, which enlarge the
minds of successive generations ; in institutions, whose
history is associated with his influence ; or in schools
of thought, which bear his likeness or cherish his name.
He may have contributed an element to the character
of a nation, and added something to the dignity of
man. But such answers are beside the question. We are
not asked what is the position and what are the achieve
ments of the wisdom of man in regard to this present
world. St. Paul is standing in the midst of another
sphere of thought and action when he announces its
vanity, its folly, and its exclusion. Let us follow him
to his own standing point, for surely that is the object
of our assembling within these walls.
The Bible is the record of a vast scheme for the re
covery of human ruin. Slowly does it bring that
scheme to light, in sundry parts and in divers manners.
The Old Testament proves its necessity, by the history
of man in his relations to God ; intimates its existence,
by advancing prophecy ; and prepares its way, by the
education of special teaching and immediate govern
ment. The Gospels disclose the person in whom, and
the acts by which, that scheme is accomplished. The
Epistles develop the meaning and virtue of those acts,
together with the effects of the truths thus unfolded on
the human heart and on human life. The. Apocalypse,

6 The Exclusion of Wisdom^
connecting itself with a mass of previous predictions,
conducts the great drama to its close, and leaves a re
generated race in a scene where there is no more curse,
and where God has made all things new. Thus the
whole scheme has gradually emerged to view, as a
mountain might rise from subsiding waters, disclosing
the mass which could not be measured, and the form
which could not be conceived by those who first rested
on its island summit, then a depth beneath dark waters,
now a height standing in the light of day.
In contemplating the completed Gospel as it stands
before us now, we perceive that it presents itself to us,
not merely as a body of information concerning the
nature of God or our own duty, but in that character
which has been already attributed to it, of a scheme for
the repair of human ruin. That; ruin was apparent to
every eye, but whether it were fundamental or super
ficial might be still a question. I mean that it was a
matter to be settled by experience, whether fallen man
did or did not possess, in his remaining moral sense and
powers of reason, resources which could prove sufficient
for his own restoration. It was, no doubt, (amongst
other reasons inscrutable to us) for the purpose of
giving time for that experiment, of allowing human
righteousness and human wisdom to show what the one
could attain to, and what the other could devise, that
the divine scheme, ordained from the foundation of the
world, delayed its disclosure so long, so limited the inti
mations of its approach, and so wrapped in types and
earthly forms the preliminary works which prepared

The Exclusion of Wisdom. 7
its way. Then, when 4,000 years had demonstrated
the impotence of man, the mystery which had been hid
from ages and from generations, was manifested in
these last times for us. " After that in the wisdom of
God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe." He fulfilled the announcement of His own
efficient intervention, which He had long before made
to self-confident, yet impotent, man . " Hearken unto
me ye stout-hearted that are far from righteousness : I
bring near my righteousness ; it shall not be far off,
and my salvation shall not tarry ; and I will place sal
vation in Zion for Israel my glory."
The divine scheme, thus brought to light, is found to
have acomplished itself without the co-operation of
human power, and to have disclosed itself without the
participation of human wisdom. The work itself has
been done for us ; an atoning, reconciling, redeeming
work, to which we contribute nothing save the faith
which receives and rests- upon it as already perfect.
(Though in regard to this also we must add, " and that
not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.") Thus it comes
to pass that it is by a preaching (or let us dismiss for a
moment the now ambiguous word, with all its confusing
associations), by the proclamation of a Person in whom,
and of acts by which the work is already done, that it
pleases God to save them that believe. But St. Paul
says, not only by the proclamation, but by the foolish
ness of the proclamation, pursuing the thought to
which he had just given utterance of the exclusion from

8 The Exclusion of Wisdom.
the matter of the wisdom of this world, and it is with
this second feature of the Divine scheme that we are
now more particularly concerned.
Let us, therefore, for a moment review the facts, in
conformity with which the Apostle declares that the
wisdom of this world is excluded, and that God has
made it foolishness.
In the wonderfully pregnant and suggestive story of
the Pall of man, we find it stated that the main cause
of his renunciation of his primitive state was an impa
tience of it, as being (what we should call) childish and
dependent. He was not satisfied that his own spirit
should be simply informed and guided by the Spirit of
God, under measures and restraints imposed in the way
of discipline. He would discover and judge, would
know and choose for himself, and feel himself an en
lightened, independent being. It was a tree of know
ledge — " a tree to be desired to make one wise." " God
doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil." Where pride rises faith withdraws,
and the covenant of dependence was renounced. "They
ate and their eyes were opened, and they knew ;" but
the nature of that first knowledge was not encouraging,
it seemed a token that the truest discovery of man's
opened eyes would be that of his own destitution. It
was not to be thought that the same spirit which had
been the cause of the ruin could become the cause also
of the restoration ; or that those intellectual faculties
which man's choice had substituted for the guidance of

The Exclusion of Wisdom. 9
the Spirit of God (sharpened, as I have no doubt they
were, by the Fall), could ever prove the instruments of
recovery. Time, however, and opportunity for the
attempt were largely given them, but with results which
most naturally suggest the question, " Hath not God
made foolish the wisdom of this world V
It is notorious that there are two views of human
history in respect of the knowledge of God : one which
represents mankind in general as plunged at first in
total darkness, and gradually emerging out of it by
increasing intelligence, so as to form ideas approximat
ing more and more to the truth ; the other which
regards them as having fallen from a knowledge which
they once possessed, and descended into grosser forms
of error ; even the most civilised and cultivated races,
amid their more graceful forms and " fair humanities of
old religion," losing the very essence of religion itself
in a still deeper decay of seriousness and faith. I am
not now concerned to support by other arguments
(which lie ready to our hand), a view which appears
on the face of the Old Testament history, and which
St. Paul (keenest student of the Gentile world) has so
plainly asserted. " When they knew God they glori
fied Him not as God, neither were thankful ; but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was
darkened. Professing themselves to be wise they
became fools, and changed the glory of the incorrupti
ble God into an image made like to corruptible man,
and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping
things. Wherefore God also gave them up to unclean-

10 The Exclusion of Wisdom.
ness. * * * And even as they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a
reprobate mind."
It is sufficient to our purpose to observe the actual
religious phenomena of historic times — those, for in
stance, which the days of St. Paul beheld — manifold
forms of superstition divorced from all connection with
holiness and truth ; traditional rites which those who
celebrated them could no longer explain ; confusion
and incertitude of thought, resulting in utterances of
conscious ignorance where thought was deepest, and
the common voice asking, " What is Truth V without
care to get an answer, or supposition that one could be
given. Whatever there was that could in any sense
be called knowledge of God, was no gift of philosophy
to men, no product of intellectual processes, but the
faint intuition of the common conscience and the frag
mentary deposit of perishing traditions. Well might
St. Paul declare, that, in regard to anything which could
heal the wounds of human nature, repair its inward
ruin, and bring back man to God, the wisdom of the
world had contributed nothing but the demonstration
of its own impotence. " Where is the wise, where is
the scribe, where is the disputer of this world ? Hath
not God made foolish the wisdom of this world ? For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom
knew not God ; it pleased God by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe."
In the one country, where the wisdom of man was
placed under different conditions, where it was in con-

The Exclusion of Wisdom. 1 1
tact with advancing revelation, and therefore was
supplied with materials ready to its hand, its achieve
ments were scarcely more solid. It made no advance
on the disclosures of inspiration. All accessions were
due to the prophet, none to the scribe. The scribe
could define and arrange ; he could also misunderstand
and perplex the tr,uth placed in his hand ; but he could
make no addition to it. When the Gospel came, and
placed itself on the old foundations, it swept away all
with which he had encumbered and concealed them.
And one who then looked at the completed body of
truth would naturally ask the question, " And where
is the scribe V
But it may be said that the wise and the scribe are
to be recognised in the prophets and apostles them
selves ; that the revelations of God were simple facts ;
that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, were
themselves the Gospel ; and that the meaning and
virtue of those facts (i. e., the doctrines concerning
them), were the product of the reflections and reason
ings of those who published them. Of course such a
view separates the Epistles from the Canon (if there
be any Canon left), and places them merely in the van
of other human commentaries, to be judged on their
own merits, and by the natural capacities and oppor
tunities of the writer. It is sufficient to remark, in
regard to it, that such a view is contradictory, not only
to the convictions and witness of the universal Church,
but to the account of their teaching given by the
writers themselves. According to that account the

12 The Exclusion of Wisdom.
facts of the Gospel were transacted before their eyes,
and they understood them not. The meaning of the
wonderful history which they witnessed, the nature of
the work which the Lord was performing, and of the
relation which his birth, death, resurrection, and ascen
sion, bore to the Divine scheme for the repair of human
ruin, was hid from their eyes. They could not even
grasp the preparatory explanations of prophecy, which
they actually possessed. These were partly opened to
them by the mouth of the Lord himself, after His
resurrection ; but for the doctrine they were to preach
they were not sent to reflection and reasoning, but
commanded to " wait for the promise of the Father."
That promise was not the gradual increase of their
own exercised perceptions attaining fresh light in con
formity with the common rule of Divine teaching,, but
a special and definite gift of the Spirit, as the Paraclete,
to glorify Christ, and take of the things which were
His and show them to them ; to teach them all things,
and guide them into all truth. He came with the
rushing mighty wind and tongues of fire ; till then
they had continued in prayer and supplication, but
made no attempt to teach. From that moment they
were the teachers of men, and spake the word of God
with boldness. With them it was all "the word of
God ;" not merely the history of the facts which they
had seen and heard, but the light in which those facts
were to be regarded, their meaning, and relation to the
salvation of man. Where it became necessary to assert
the Divine authority of the doctrine, it was asserted :

The Exclusion of Wisdom. 13
" I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was
preached of me was not after man, for I neither
received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the
revelation of Jesus Christ." No lower consciousness
could have inspired or justified the words, " Though we
or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto
you than that we have preached unto you, let him
be accursed." Nor is it possible to restrict the word
Gospel in these passages te the historical facts of the
life of Christ about which the Galatians were as fully
satisfied as they ever had been, or as the Apostle was
himself : the doctrines concerning them, the inferences
to be drawn from them were alone in question.
The Gospel then was regarded by St. Paul as the
publication of the Divine scheme for the repair of
human ruin, a work towards which human power had
contributed no effort, and human wisdom had devised
no means. In respect of this mighty problem, ex
perience had simply proved the impotence of the one
and the folly of the other. From these convicted
sources, the Gospel which he preached derived no con
tributions : it was the proclamation of a work accom
plished for us by the eternal Son, and of a doctrine
concerning it revealed to us by the eternal Spirit.
Man has no more made the doctrine than he has per
formed the acts. All that remains for him is the
humility, thankfulness, and faith, by which he re-enters
in the name of Jesus that covenant of dependence
which was lost beneath the tree of knowledge.
This temper of mind is henceforth the only security

lft The Exclusion of Wisdom.
for thought. The introduction of that body of truth
which itself owed nothing to the discoveries of human
intellect, which is " not of man, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ" has acted upon thought, not as a check,
but as a stimulus. It was meant to do so. The new
information presented to man, with its multitude of
attendant questions, has necessarily called his intellec
tual faculties • into action in a thousand various ways.
Theology, in the form of a science, with its varied
history and endless conflicts, employing the anxious
thoughts and deep researches of the strongest minds,
and filling vast libraries with the products of mental
toil, is a sufficient witness of the fact. While, beyond
its professed sphere, every serious thinker has, in some
way or other, to take into account its subjects and
assertions ; for, whatever be his line of inquiry, it will
have its own points of contact with the revelation of
God. What then % The wise and the scribe are come
back upon us again ! Certainly they are, and they are
welcome — but they have to learn their position, their
powers, and their dangers. They must go forth into
the wide field of reasoning and inquiry, with the
remembrance that the most important part of it is
already occupied by that which powers of reasoning
did not build, and which therefore powers of reasoning
cannot measure. On that very region of thought,
which was before only covered by shreds of incoherent
systems which fell to pieces of themselves, stand now,
solid works not made with hands, which it is a duty to

The Exclusion of Wisdom. 15
study, a folly to judge, and a crime to disturb. Human
thoughts now carry on their searchings and their
labours in presence of manifested thoughts of God, and
the first principle of their security is this. " The
things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God."
Let me quote the words of Chrysostom in his com
mentary on the text, not merely because they are words
of Chrysostom, but because they are words of good
sense in regard to the relation in which human wisdom
now stands to things revealed.
" Towards receiving the Evangelical proclamation,
neither is the wise profited at all by wisdom, nor the
unlearned injured at all by ignorance. But, if one may
speak somewhat even wonderful, ignorance rather than
wisdom is a condition suitable to that impression, and
more easily dealt with. For the shepherd and the
rustic will more quickly receive this, once for all repress
ing all doubting thoughts, and delivering himself to the
Lord. In this way then He hath destroyed wisdom.
For since she first cast herself down, she is ever after
useful for nothing. Thus, when she ought to have dis
played her proper powers, and by the works to have
known the Lord — (he means, when she had her own
opportunity before the Gospel, for showing what she
could or would do— and her own data, in the visible
manifestations of God, to reason upon, which was a
work within her own proper powers) — when she ought
to have displayed her proper powers, and by the works
to have seen the Lord — she would not. Wherefore
though she were now willing to introduce herself she is

16 The Exclusion of Wisdom.
not able. For the matter is not of that kind: this way
of knowing God being far greater than the other.
You see then, faith and simplicity are needed, and this
we should seek everywhere and prefer it before the
wisdom which is from without : for ' God,' saith he,
' hath made wisdom foolish.' Since men prided them
selves upon it He lost no time in exposing it. For
what sort of wisdom is it which cannot discover the
chief of things that are good 1 He caused her there
fore to appear foolish after she had first convicted
herself. For if, when discoveries might have been
made by reasoning, she proved nothing ; now when
things proceed on a large scale, how will she be able to
accomplish ought? now, when there is need of faith
alone and not of acuteness 1"
It appears to me that these observations are very
valuable. " Though she were now willing to introduce
herself, she is not able — for the matter is not of that
kind — things proceed upon a larger scale, how will she
be able to accomplish ought V No, " the matter is not
of that kind" which proposes itself to the processes of
reasoning. In the region of natural religion, the matter
is, to a certain extent, of that kind. God by his works
supplies man with the premises and leaves him to
develop the conclusions. But faculties, which utterly
failed in regard to simpler and more introductory dis
coveries, can no longer be waited for, when "things
proceed upon a larger scale." On a larger scale indeed.
The relations of created spirits to the creating Spirit,
the laws of spiritual being, the nature of moral evil by

The Exclusion of Wisdom. 17
which those laws are disturbed and violated ; the degree
to which such violation may extend, and the results
which will ultimately ensue in the way of natural
consequence; the possibility of means for averting
those consequences, and restoring these disordered re
lations and broken laws; the nature, virtue, and
efficacy of such means if they exist ; these and
such as these are the seas of thought, (or rather
relatively to us) these are the seas of ignorance, on
which our reasonings must launch, if the scheme for the
repair of human ruin submit itself to our reasonings ; if
it only offer us premises from which we are left to de
rive the conclusions which they contain. Natural re
ligion, as I have said, gives us only premises, the outward
world in connexion with our own self-consciousness.
The real question is, Does revealed religion do the same,
giving us only new premises in the facts of the historical
manifestation of Christ in connexion with the same self-
consciousness 1 Men have asserted it, and assert it
now — others, who would not assert it, behave as if they
did ; reasoning on the nature of sin and extent of its
effects, on the means used to obviate those effects, on
the work of Christ and the virtue of His death, as if
we were left to form our conclusions on these subjects
and shape our language for ourselves. Oh ! if it were
really so, how would the ground beneath us seem to
tremble, and gulfs to yawn before our feet ! how would
the voice of the Preacher falter, feeling that he had
no Gospel to preach ! The wise and the scribe might
please themselves in their own theories, but the common
c

18 The Exclusion of Wisdom.
mind, which has its own sense of the limits and uncer
tainties of the human intellect, would know, inwardly,
that it had nothing to depend upon, and would feel no
interest, because it could know no trust. But, blessed
be God, " the matter is not of that kind — things proceed
on a larger scale" than to allow of it ; and revealed
religion differs from natural, not only in having different
premises, but in having, also, its conclusions from God,
not only in having divine acts to explain, but in having,
also, the divine explanations of them.
It is true that those conclusions and explanations are
conveyed in human language, and are therefore at
tended with a certain amount of imperfection and un
certainty — though only such an amount as naturally
attaches to the medium employed, and such as has its
own connexion with human responsibility in the way of
probation and discipline. But even here we must re
member that it is not any accidental language which is
employed ; but that these truths are developed through
a medium expressly and manifestly prepared for the
purpose. " The law went forth from Sion and the word
of the Lord from Jerusalem ;" where a typical dispen
sation, ordained of God, had long prepared the imagery,
and fixed the ideas, which were to form the vehicles
for communicating the realities of salvation to the
world. When we watch the careful and elaborate pre
paration of these images and ideas, and the amount of
dignity and authority accumulated around them, com
mon fairness of thought compels us to believe that they
must form a just representation of those spiritual

The Exclusion of Wisdom. 19
realities, and are, in fact, the nearest possible expres
sion of them which human language could be fashioned
to supply. If the Epistle to the Hebrews did not exist,
it would be impossible not to recognise the Temple, with
its whole system of sacrifice and priesthood, as the in
tended example and shadow of heavenly things. To
refuse the ideas of atonement, and propitiation, and
purification by blood, and effectual mediation, on the
plea of making allowance for Jewish habits of thought,
is to refuse the very language which God has Himself
provided to express the means of our peace and cove
nant with Him. We are not Jews. True ; but the
Jews were formed before our eyes, in order to fix and
authorise to our minds the very ideas which we should
thus reject, ideas which we have no pretence for leav
ing as part of an abandoned Jewish residuum, since
these are parts of the old system which the new employs,
and the lights which it borrows from it, and which it
thus shows to have been pre-arranged for its own use.
If the observations which have now been made are
in accordance with the views of St. Paul, in the passage
on which they are founded, they still only touch, as it
were, the subject, opening the way to further questions
upon the relations of the human intellect to the Gospel,
and the rules and restraints which are thus imposed
upon the wise and the scribe, or rather, I should say,
upon every thinking and inquiring mind. I pass them
by. The true and only effectual casuist in the matter is
the humble spirit of the believer, on whom abides " the
anointing which teacheth us all things." c 2

20 The Exclusion of Wisdom.
One true prayer for that Spirit will do more for us
than all argument and all research. If the Gospel pre
sents to us the thoughts of God, let us treat them
as such — not merely by abstaining from unpermitted
judgments, and preserving them in the security of
creeds, but by meeting them in that temper of mind,
and with the use of those means, through which alone
they can be received to the salvation of our own souls.
" As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
thoughts higher than your thoughts." " The things of
God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God, neither can he know them, because they are spi
ritually discerned." Seeing, then, that the truths which
save so far transcend our own natural thoughts, are dis
closed only by the Spirit of God, and can be appre
hended only through the same Spirit, it is for us to
approach them in conformity with these conditions ;
not as the wise, not as the scribe, not as if our natural
intelligence and powers of judgment were sufficient
here, as they may be in other spheres of thought. We
know who has said, " Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes."
" Verily I sayunto you, whosoever shall not receive the
kingdom of God as a little child shall in nowise enter
therein." So he spake, who " shuts and no man opens."
Nothing, therefore, remains for me but the spirit of a
little child, the heart humbly opened to divine teaching,
the voice which cries in solitude for the light which
comes from above, the mind which receives " the word

The Exclusion of Wisdom. 21
of truth, the Gospel of Salvation, not as the word of
man, but as it is in truth, the word of God which effec
tually worketh also in them that believe."
But is this position to be assumed as of necessity,
as an enforced thing, a matter of positive command %
Or does not rather the inward sentiment of truth, if it
have arisen in my heart, itself enjoin and compel it %
Is not this my true position % Are not truthfulness
and lowliness one \ With names and doctrines and
verbal forms of things I can deal at my ease, as critic
or eclectic, opponent or approver. But when I am no
longer in presence of words or ideas, but of Him with
whom I have to do,— when my state, my salvation, and
the means of it are become a question between me and
the living God, I hardly need to be told in what spirit
I should meet and hear Him. In my natural mind
there are high things which exalt themselves against
the knowledge of Christ, but before that personal
living presence they are brought down. " Speak,
Lord, for thy servant heareth." Now the Gospel is
not a subject for discussion, — it is good tidings of great
joy ; — the announcement of Christ crucified is a word
of reconciliation which saves those who believe. Here
the soul reposes upon truths, not wrought out by rea
soning, and therefore not attended by the uncertainties
which its processes involve ; and, whatever work the
mind may have to do around and beyond its dwelling
place, — whatever excursions it may make abroad, it
still returns to an unshaken home. Those labours so
often fruitless, those excursions so often disappointing,

22 The Exclusion of Wisdom.
make the return ever more sweet. What a comfort
for him who has taken God at His word, and by faith
abides in Christ, to feel that, whatever may fail, what
ever may be doubtful, one thing is secure : he has
found rest unto his soul — his relations with God are
fixed, and fixed on a basis which combines the truth of
guilt in himself with the truth of love in God. What
a comfort, too, to feel, in reference to others, that here
at last we find the ground of a true equality ! " The
small and the great are here, and the servant is free
from his master." " All are one in Christ Jesus."
There is a falsehood about intellectual distinctions
(though a falsehood less vulgar than attaches to those
of mere outward accidents), but these, too, are external
to the real man, have nothing to do with the Spirit,
or the position of the immortal being. Here, thank
God ! we leave them, and all the little pride and con
tempt of others which they may have engendered.
They belonged to the spirit of the world ; here is the
school of the Spirit of God. The wise man and the
scribe, the common understanding and unlettered mind
are ranged side by side. " All thy saints are in thy
hand, they sit down at thy feet."
Nor is it only the sense of truth and reality in all
our relations which blesses the heart obedient to the
Gospel. There is a sense of having found the secret of
power and wisdom too.
In one thing certainly human reasoning and the
pride of intellect has been made foolish, in that it has
proved morally feeble. It has never furnished to man

The Exclusion of Wisdom. 23
his strong, enduring, and triumphant motives, however
well it may have proved that he ought to have them.
These have come from deeper sources which reasoning
never opened, and, when it touched them, has often
damaged. And still, as a matter of fact and frequent
observation, in proportion as men decline from a reli
gion of revelation to a religion of reasoning, the springs
of action are found to be weakened, and motive power
fails. In this, as in many other ways, God has made
foolish the wisdom of this world, when proposing itself
as the guide of life. And in this respect, also, as in
many others, He has sustained the wisdom of His own
word, by manifesting its power. What Christian faith
has done in the world, — what it is doing now in the
lives of men, is apparent to every eye. In new motives
awakened in the heart, in love, in zeal, in courage, in
self-denial and self-devotion, in labours for others, in
victory over the world, Christ has proved to the simple
believer a " power of God " — a " sign " to himself and
to others, better and more worthy of God than those
which Jews required.
Nor less is there felt to be in Him a wisdom higher
and more true than Greeks sought after. Vast views
of eternal realities, high disclosures of thoughts of God,
attend the manifestation of the eternal Word, and open
from His cross on the inward eye. While Greek and
Jew range about, still seeking, still requiring, the
humble and childlike believer has ever in his own
experience fresh reason to repeat to himself, " Christ
crucified, to some a stumbling-block, and to others

24 The Exclusion of Wisdom.
foolishness, but to us which are saved (whatever our
natural tendencies and characters) Christ the power of
God and the wisdom of God."
Thus wisdom springs from acknowledged foolishness,
and power from weakness confessed, and the restora
tion of our ruin from the abandonment of our own
attempts, and the lowly and childlike spirit becomes
the spirit of elevation and glory, for " before honour is
humility."

25

OFFENCES W CHRIST.

Matthew xi. 6.
" Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me!'
This significant warning has fallen on our ears to
day. What can the preacher do better, in the midst of
a congregation of his brethren that receive it from the
Redeemer's lips, and endeavour to interpret and apply
it for himself and them. Light may be found for its
interpretation, and suggestions for its application, in
the occasion on which it was delivered.
It is part of the message sent to the Baptist as he
lay in the prison of Machserus ; nay, it is the point and
substance of the message, for the preceding words were
only the rehearsal of facts which he already knew. It
was strange that such a warning should be addressed to
one who was himself " sent to bear witness of the light
that all men through him might believe," and who
had borne his witness with the certainty of inspired
knowledge and the constancy of devoted zeal. But at
least, this fact must secure for the message itself

26 Offences in Christ.
our own personal attention. What member, what
minister of the Church of Christ can say within himself,
I have no need of a warning which was required by
that steadfast servant of God, that burning and shining
light, that type and leader of the ministers and stewards
of the Divine mysteries 1
It might seem, indeed, that though no personal con
siderations could be alleged, yet altered circum
stances, the fuller development of the Divine scheme
and the completed circle of Christian evidence have
rendered the warning but little appropriate to ourselves.
No doubt the danger of actual rejection and positive
unbelief is comparatively small, but the mental tenden
cies to which the words are addressed lie deep in
human nature ; they are confined to no particular
stage of the dispensations of God ; they live through
altered circumstances, and survive the production of all
imaginable evidence. But we shall be better situated
for appreciating the general need of the warning, when
we have estimated its meaning and force on the par
ticular occasion which drew it forth.
" When John had heard in the prison the works of
Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
" And said unto Him, Art thou He that should come ?
or do we look for another 1
" Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show
John again those things which ye do hear and see.
" The blind receive their sight and the lame walk.
"The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, — the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel
preached to them.

Offences in Christ. 27
" And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended
in me."
I will dismiss at once the supposition that this
inquiry was made by John for the mere purpose of con
vincing and detaching from himself to Jesus the dis
ciples who were unwilling to leave him. It appears to
me that the whole character of the passage forbids it.
I feel no less compelled to dismiss the idea that actual
doubt had fastened itself on the mind of the Baptist.
We know, indeed, the changes and the falls to which
man at his best estate is liable ; and that liability is
the subject of the warning in the text. But there is
not the slightest intimation that such a change had
actually occurred. All our grounds for judging of the
state of his convictions, consist in his distinct revela
tions, his unwavering witness which only increased in
decision as the time of his own eclipse impended, and
that firmness and constancy of character to the remem
brance of which the Lord immediately appealed as if
purposely to forbid the idea of change. But least of
all can we admit the idea, when we observe that the
occasion of sending the message was the arrival of
tidings fitted, not to shake the believer, but to convince
the doubtful. It was when John had heard in the
prison the works op Cheist that he called unto Him
two of his disciples. These works we see from the
history included the most stupendous acts of Divine
power, especially the miracle at the gates of Nain,
which St. Luke narrates in immediate connexion with
the passage before us, as if he intended us to regard it

28 Offences in Christ.
as the crowning act which determined the proceeding
of the Baptist. St. Matthew, moreover (it has been
observed), changes in this place his usual language, and
(instead of using the personal name of Jesus which he
everywhere else employs), adopts in this single place
the expression " the works of Cheist," intimating
thereby the character which those works bore in the
view of him to whom they were related.
It was then on occasion of his hearing of these works,
which were so truly the works of the Christ, that he
deputed two messengers to make in his name the
public inquiry, " Art thou He that cometh, or look we
for another 1" It seemed to him to be time — to be
more than time — that the Lord should declare Himself,
that the Christ, who had sufficiently proved His power,
should proclaim His character, and by an announce
ment from His own lips bring to a close the doubts and
discussions which prevailed concerning Him. John
had himself prepared His way. He had cried that
" the kingdom of heaven was at hand," that " every
valley should be exalted, and every mountain and hill
be made low ;" that " the glory of the Lord should be
revealed, and all flesh should see it together." The
witness had met with almost a national reception.
Multitudes came not only to hear, but to be baptized
as candidates for the approaching kingdom. All men
were in expectation, and slow-moving authority itself
had sent a commission of priests and Levites from
Jerusalem with the question, " Art thou the Christ V
Then he had delivered his distinct testimony, and Jesus

Offences in Christ. 29
had appeared upon the scene. Nothing seemed to
remain, but that He should assume the place prepared
for Him, and proceed with the revelation of His glory
and the establishment of His kingdom.
But how had He proceeded % He had made His
public appearance in Jerusalem at the next Passover,
and by an act of authority had cleared the courts of the
Temple, claiming it as His Father's house ; but, when
questioned on the character which He assumed, and
asked for a convincing sign, He had only replied by
words, which, however profound in their spiritual mean
ing, and marvellous in their adaptation to the occasion,
were wholly enigmatical to those who heard them. At
the same time the great disposition which there was to
follow Him was sensibly checked by the reserve with
which He received the advances of " many who believed
in His name, but to whom He did not commit Himself,
because He knew all men." Then, for a time, He esta
blished Himself in the land of Judaea, and commenced
baptising into the opening kingdom. But the rising
tide of public acknowledgment was soon checked. John
was cast into prison ; but, beyond all doubt, he hoped
to watch through its loopholes the mighty changes
which he had been commissioned to predict, as even
then commencing — the sinking mountains, the revela
tion of the glory, the victories of the kingdom of God.
Most strange to his feelings must have been the reports
which reached him. No sooner was John cast into
prison, and the Pharisees encouraged thereby to show
their own hostility against Him who made and baptised

30 Offences in Christ.
more disciples than John — than Jesus seemed to yield
to the rising storm : — " He left Judaea and departed to
go into Galilee." The centre and home of the nation,
the seat of authority, the fountain of influence, was ex
changed for provincial towns and villages, where a ruder
population seemed to offer more humble opportunities.
Here was retreat instead of advance ; as if the moun
tains would not sink, and the glory could only be re
vealed in the shadow of obscurity and security of dis
tance. A year had passed and brought no change.
A short visit to Jerusalem (recorded in John v.) had
provoked discussions which served only to aggravate
the hatred and strengthen the hands of the opposing
powers. He returned to the shores of the Galilean
lake, and though His works seemed to increase in displays
of divine power, they bore only the character of acts of
pity to private misfortune. No announcements were
made, and men, left to judge from what they saw and
heard, began to complain of perplexity, and to ask, How
long He would make them to doubt 1 Devils were not
suffered to speak because they knew Him ; persons
healed were forbidden to tell it to any in the town ; the
disciples were charged to tell no man that He was Jesus
the Christ ; crowds were avoided, and public excite
ment damped ; and the whole ministry, open as it was
to all, was yet marked by so retiring a character, as to
remind those who observed it, of the words of the
Prophet : " He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall
any man hear His voice in the streets."
To our eyes, no doubt, the reasons for this course

Offences in Christ. 31
may be apparent. We are familiarised with that aspect
of the kingdom of God— (strange and inconceivable to
those who first beheld it)— but which belongs to it in
that stage of its development which then commenced,
and which continues still. We see that it presents itself
to men with no other glory than that of grace and
truth ; — that its claims are supported only by its rights,
and by no arms of visible power, human or divine ; —
that from the first it was intended to suffer violence,
but not to use it, and deliver itself to men, that they
might do unto it whatsoever they listed. We can see
not only the beauty and the majesty, but the necessity
of this system, and we can see that, if it was to be
maintained, that method of conducting the affairs of
the kingdom to which we have referred, the method of
comparative retreat and reserve, was dictated by the
highest wisdom ; — that hereby the Lord avoided preci
pitating the inevitable result, and provided time for that
accumulation of evidence, that development of doctrine,
that education of His Apostles, and that manifestation
of Himself, in which we now recognise the foundations
of the Church.
We can see the wisdom of that course, which by
avoiding proclamations and demonstrations, repelled
from His side the elements of party spirit, and prevented
the contagion of a false enthusiasm. We can understand
the methods by which He exposed and rejected the
faith that was unspiritual, and therefore unreal, and
thus continually sifted and thinned the ranks of His
followers. We can perceive the harmony with human

32 Offences in Christ.
responsibility, which He observed, in leaving to men's
own minds the duty of judgment concerning Him from
the evidence of the prophecies which went before, and
of the works which His Father had given Him to finish.
We can own the kindness which retired from Jerusalem
to manifest in Galilee that what is rejected by autho
rity and disowned by a nation, remains for individual
souls, and which associated its consoling instructions
with private and personal life. Finally, we can read in
those outward works of Christ, not merely the evidences
of His mission, but the certain pledges and living repre
sentatives of those greater things which are transacted
still — the spiritual enlightening of the blind, and cleans
ing of the leper, and healing of the maimed, and raising
of the dead, and gladdening of the poor, which consti
tute the true works of Christ, and the adequate end of
His coming, the real apprehension of which puts an end
for ever to the question, "Art thou He that should
come, or look we for another 1"
But, if we have been taught by so many centuries
experience of the kingdom of God in its spiritual
aspect, and in that stage of its development which
" cometh not with observation," we must not attribute
the ideas (even by us so imperfectly received) to those
who, with entirely different expectations, beheld the
preparations and commencements of the dispensation.
Perplexities which would be unreasonable, misapprehen
sions which would be unpardonable now, were in some
sense inevitable then ; and exposed those, who watched
with sympathy and confidence the first unfolding of the

Offences in Christ. 33
kingdom, to peculiar dangers of spiritual offence. If
this was the case with the disciples of Jesus, who were
prepared for the shock of their expectations by the
gradual teaching of their Master, and sustained under
it by so full and near a manifestation of His spiritual
glory, much more must it have been the case with John,
as he lay in his prison, comparing the prophetic pros
pects with the actual reports which reached him.
Nor could he avoid perceiving that the perplexities,
which his own unshaken soul confessed, were telling
with very different effect on his less enlightened disci
ples, and still more on the mass of the nation, which
was little capable of using spiritual discernment, and
demanded the obvious and the tangible, strong asser
tions, signs from heaven, and a kingdom for Israel.
With these considerations before us, I think we can
be at no loss to interpret the question of John. His
own preconceived ideas not being (as indeed they could
not be) in entire harmony with those which presided
over the development of the kingdom of God, he was
disappointed at the course which things were taking,
and unable to understand its reasons or to discern its
tendencies. He hoped for a change of system ; he
thought that a public proclamation of the Lord by his
own lips would inaugurate such a change ; he thought
that the works of Christ now reported to him must be
held sufficient to support such a declaration ; and that
it could belong to no one more properly than to himself
to ask for and obtain it.
But it is not to be obtained. " Go and tell John

34 Offences in Christ.
again the things which ye do hear and see. The blind
receive their sight, and the lame walk ; the lepers are
cleansed, and the deaf hear ; the dead are raised up,
and the poor have the Gospel preached to them." The
answer condensed in one short statement, the witness
of prophecy and the witness of works, the united
evidence on which the Lord had offered himself, and ,
would continue to offer himself, to men. It was evi
dence complete and unanswerable ; but it was no more
than John and the world possessed already. It seemed
to say, " The course of a Divine dispensation cannot be
altered to meet the misapprehensions of its friends.
The kingdom of God advances, shining with the light
of unanswerable evidence, but attended by a cloud of
difficulties which are as much a part of its system as
the light itself. He who demands their removal dic
tates upon a subject which he does not understand ; for
he cannot know, either what are the necessities arising
for the nature of the case, or what is the discipline
which his own mind requires. When a man has seen
enough to convince him who it is that claims his faith,
it then only remains for him to accept what is pre
sented to him, not as he wishes it to be, or as he thinks
it ought to be, but as it is. He has to acquiesce in
things which perplex him, and to wait for the time of
their solution ; he has to seek that solution (as far as
it can now be attained), not by shaping the truths or
the facts to his own ideas, but by conforming his own
ideas to the truth and the fact. If in the case before
us the Baptist had not acted thus ; if he had so clung

Offences in Christ. 35
to his own idea of what the progress and character of
the kingdom ought to be, as not to be able to acquiesce
in, what it was, the natural consequence would have
been, that his mind would have ceased to go along with
the actual progress of the manifestation of Christ. He
would have found a difficulty which he could not get
over, and as his mind continued to dwell upon those
things which perplexed his thoughts and disappointed
his expectations, he would have become less sensible of
the value of the actual evidence, and the glory of the
actual disclosures. His faith would have been weakened
and his attachment impaired ; he would have been
offended in Christ.
Because there was the germ of all this in the pro
ceeding which he had adopted, — because it indicated
what was working in his mind, and the difficulty which
he felt, on arriving at that point where the course of
the manifestation of Christ no longer coincided with
his own expectations, — therefore the answer was not
complete without the addition of the words, "And
blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me."
For thus the Lord replied, not only to his verbal ques
tion, but to the secret questions of his heart, of the
nature and danger of which he was himself but little
aware. Often did our Master thus combine with the
answer to the words of a question an answer to the
spirit which prompted it ; as, for instance, when Peter's
words, " Lo, we have forsaken all and followed Thee ;
what shall we have therefore V received their answer,
not only in the assurance of the hundred-fold reward,
D 2

36 Offences in Christ.
but in the parable of the Arrogant Labourers, and the
warning, " Many that are first shall be last, and the
last first."
" He needed not that any should testify of man, for
He knew what was in man." Our hearts confess it,
as we hear His words addressed to men's unspoken
thoughts, and find that they still surprise and detect
the same unspoken thoughts lurking unacknowledged
in ourselves. How often may His warnings interpret
to us the processes of our own minds, reveal their cha
racter and tendencies, and awaken us to dangers unper-
ceived before. Oh ! what an awful mysterious thing is
the inward history of man ! Those secret processes
ever going on, modifying, changing, forming, ripening
the character of the immortal being ! Those influences,
various and innumerable, still telling on the mind, when
their power cannot be calculated, or when their very
presence eludes observation ! Those times of crisis in
the spiritual life, which sometimes shake the whole soul
with inward conflicts, sometimes pass in silence or dis
guise, leaving the man unconscious of change ! That
solemn presence of moral responsibility in all this world
of inward life, accompanying every influence as it ap
proaches, mingling with every process as it occurs !
That dependence of one step upon another, still stretch
ing forward in a line which the eye cannot trace, but
which is seen to prolong itself into the region of the
Everlasting ! Oh ! what vast interests are pending,
what tremendous transactions are proceeding, within
each of us who look one another in the face ! And

Offences in Christ. 37
with what shades are they covered ! Shades not to be
wholly dispersed till we meet the only eye that can
penetrate, till we hear the only voice that can pronounce
— " till the Lord come, who both will bring to light the
hidden things of darkness and make manifest the coun
sels of the hearts !"
Thoughtfully, thankfully, should we give heed to
every guiding, every warning word which His mercy
has in the mean time provided for our help.
The word before us refers to a crisis in this inward
history. Our considerations on the occasion when it was
uttered, and the person to whom it was addressed, throw
light enough upon its meaning. It is a warning, not to
the hostile, not to the careless, but to the mind which is in
some stage or other of seeking or of following Christ.
The offence, the stumbling block, lies in the path. The
man must have entered the path before he encounters it.
The word is ever thus employed : " If thy hand or thy
foot offend thee " is spoken to disciples who are being
instructed in the life which they are supposed to havq
commenced. " When persecution ariseth because of
the Word by and bye they are offended," is spoken of
those who have received the Word with joy, and fol
lowed its leading, until it brings them in contact with
an obstacle. " Then shall many be offended " is spoken
of those superficial believers whom the troubles of the
last times would shock and overthrow. " All ye shall
be offended in me this night," was addressed to the
faithful few who had continued with the Lord in His
temptations, but were then to behold events so irre-

38 Offences in Christ.
concileable with their previous ideas that it was hardly
possible for their faith to survive the shock. And so,
(as we have seen,) " Blessed is he whosoever shall not
be offended in me," is a message in the first instance to
the holy Baptist, watching in faith, following in hope,
the manifestation of Christ, but arrived at a moment
when that manifestation had assumed a form at vari
ance with his own ideas. And if it were a message
to him, then much more was it, and still is it, a mes
sage to all others, who, with spiritual sight less clear,
and faith less strong than his, find that there are in
Christ things which they know not how to accept,
which bring them to a stand, which check the sym
pathies, and counteract the convictions to which they
had seemed ready to yield themselves before.
And are there such things in Christ % Certainly
there are. Prophecy proclaimed it. The foundation of
God, the tried corner-stone was to be also for a stone
of stumbling and a rock of offence ; and in the words of
the text, the Lord alluded to His predicted character,
not less distinctly than in those former words, in which
He had rehearsed His works in the language of Isaiah.
The account of prophecy has been verified by facts ;
by a national rejection ; by the falling away as His
manifestation proceeded, of many disciples, who, count
ing his deeper teaching as "hard sayings" which they
" could not hear," went back and walked no more with
Him ; by the difficulties which even they felt, who clung
to Him still, and the critical times of perplexity and
conflict through which they had to pass ; by the expe-

Offences in Christ. 39
rience of the Apostles, who found that, if some outward
offences were removed by the completion of the reve
lation, others of deeper kind were actually created by
it ; that the doctrine of the Cross itself was an offence
to large masses of men, and that the method of " being
justified freely by the grace of God, through the re
demption which is in Christ Jesus," was an insurmount
able hindrance to those who, " going about to establish
their own righteousness, could not submit themselves to
the righteousness of God : for they stumbled at that
stumbling stone." And the experience of the first
age has been the experience of the ages succeeding.
Those who preach Christ still feel that they lay in
Zion a stone on which men may rest, but a stone on
which they may also fall ; and those who receive
Christ still feel that they have had to accept some
things which perplex their natural understanding, some
things which contradict their cherished ideas, some
things which are unwelcome to their natural temper ;
so that the mind which has advanoed into the full ap
prehension of Christ, can scarcely be ignorant of in
ward conflicts. And this results not merely from
human accretions to the truth, but from the nature of
the truth itself in its relation to the nature of man ; so
that he who proposes to relieve the Gospel of all that
offends proposes in fact to relieve us of the Gospel itself.
Occasions of offence are inseparable from the truth —
inherent in Christ — so that it is not said, Blessed is he
who shall not be offended at my disciples, at what is
reported of me, at the circumstances which surround
me, but "Blessed is he who shall not be offended in me."

40 Offences in Christ.
That this should be so is inevitable from the nature
of the case. We speak not of truth absolutely, but in
its relation to fallen man. If our thoughts were as
God's thoughts, if our spiritual sight were undimmed,
if we were placed at a point of view from which we
could sweep with our eye the whole course and all the
relations of things, if our natural temper were in full
conformity with the holy, there would certainly be in
Christ no occasion of offence. But as the contrary of
these propositions is true, it follows as a most probable,
if not a necessary, consequence, that in certain stages
of our acquaintance with the Gospel, we shall find in it
that which is intellectually perplexing, and that which
is morally unwelcome. Yes, let us own it, but let us
meet it with the words, " Blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me."
These difficulties and repulsions are felt by different
minds in different degrees, and arising from different
quarters. " The Jews require a sign — the Greeks seek
after wisdom," but both find a collision with their own
ideas. I cannot enumerate the various forms in which
the offence may strike upon the mind, but its prominent
character will be either intellectual or moral ; though
both will of course be, in some degree, commingled ;
and intellectual difficulty and moral repulsion will
mutually increase each other. An instance of the
intellectual offence we find in those who went back
because of the hard sayings ; an instance of the moral
in the people of Nazareth, with whom the gracious
words and mighty works could not outweigh the feel-

Offences in Christ. 41
ings about Joseph's Son. In either case the difficulty
was real ; that it should be felt wafc inevitable : that it
should be yielded to was folly, guilt, and ruin. To
secure a more practical application of the subject, let
us take a case of each kind, as it might occur among
ourselves. As an example of intellectual offence, I will take
a case that bears some analogy to those particular
difficulties, in reference to which the text was uttered,
— one where the temptation arises from the present
aspect of the kingdom of God. A man looks upon it,
and says, " Does it meet my expectations 1 — the expec
tations which it seems to me I was warranted in form
ing — those higher and better desires for mankind
which God's own Word has fostered in my heart 1 I
find the history of the Gospel in the world — of its
effects upon men — perplexing, disappointing. There I
see a vast system, which, in attempting to realise a
certain conception of the kingdom, has changed its
doctrines, looked up its records, resorted to means
which wound the human conscience, and become the
legitimate parent of obvious social evils. Here I be
hold divisions infinite ; partial, broken representations
of the kingdom of God ; systems which have but little
power over the world ; feebleness, doubts, debates.
The truth seems delivered unto men in such a way
that they may mistake it, misrepresent it, trample it
under foot, do unto it whatsoever they list. Then where
are the sinking mountains, and the glory of the Lord
revealed, for all flesh to see it together 1 I behold

42 Offences in Christ.
continents unconquered after so many centuries, and
the body of the human race in darkness still. On
nations, authorities, and the high places of the earth,
the manifestations of Divine power in the Gospel
appear not at all, or glance with a faint unsteady
lustre ; they haunt Galilean retirements, and shine
amid the sorrows of the poor. Oh, Lord, why are
these things so 1 Why didst thou not establish a
system less capable of being mistaken — more fitted
to compel assent and obedience ? Might there not
have been signs from heaven, and a kingdom for
Israel 1 At least might there not have been less left
to human judgment and human will 1"
Such thoughts dwelling on the mind, such question
ings indulged, become causes of offence to the soul.
The actual evidence begins to be overlooked, the actual
works to be undervalued, and the whole nature of the
present dispensation to be misunderstood. Then, with
a greater or a less mixture of dissatisfaction und unbe
lief, the question forms itself in the heart, " Art thou
He that should come, or look we for another 1" Ah !
there is no new answer — the Divine economy will not
shape itself by the ideas of men. " Go tell John, again,
the things which ye have seen and heard. The blind
receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and
the poor have the Gospel preached to them ; and
blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me."
Enough is given to satisfy the soul as to the Person
who claims our trust, the nature of the kingdom as at

Offences in Christ. 43
present administered, and the works with which he
who administers it is prepared to meet the necessities
of his creatures.
We at least cannot deny the works of the Gospel,
even if we wonder that they are wrought in Galilee.
What altered system — what other Jesus whom Paul
has not preached, has been ever found able to repair
the ruin of the Fall 1 to give life to the dead soul % to
gladden the poor with joy and peace in believing \
The Son given by the Father in love to the world, that
whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have
everlasting life, the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation
for sin, the Lord our righteousness, the head, repre
sentative, and substitute of man, the achiever of his
reconciliation to God — his healer, intercessor, friend —
this is the name which has proved the only power of
restoration to souls estranged from God. " His name,
through faith in His name, hath made these men strong
whom ye see and know ; yea the faith which is by
Him hath given them that perfect soundness in the
presence of you all." Let men go forth with any other
name, or with that name deprived of its atoning, justi
fying virtue, and they may form social organisations,
but they cannot restore a heart to God, — they may
preach with eloquence of words, but not with the Holy
Ghost sent down from heaven. Well, then, " Blessed
is he whosoever shall not be offended in me ;" blessed
is he who does not magnify difficulties into offences,
and perplexity into alienation, and so deprive himself
of participation in the actual virtue which goes forth

44 Offences in Christ.
from the Lord, and the present benefits of the spiritual
kingdom. There are intellectual difficulties ; there are
surprising things ; there is a course which we cannot
fully comprehend ; there are hard sayings (hard to our
natural intellect). We admit it all : but plainly the
course of right reason, as well as the course of blessing,
is that of Peter, with whom what he did see outweighed
what he did not. " Will ye also go away V " Lord,
to whom shall we go 1 Thou hast the words of
eternal life ; and we believe and are sure that thou
art the Christ the Son of the Living God."
I turn, in conclusion, to a case of more specifically
moral offence — one which finds its occasion less in any
definite intellectual perplexity, than in the general
spirit and prepossessions of the mind. The revelation
of Christ to the soul is in general a gradual process ;
and the real nature of Gospel truth, the demands
which it makes upon us, the effects it is to produce, its
character and tendencies as the ruling power of the
heart, are things that break upon us with new clearness
as we advance. I suppose that no one will maintain
that they generally break upon willing minds, whose
tastes, prepossessions, and mental habits are prepared
without hesitation to welcome these discoveries. Surely
I might appeal to any who are able to review their
own experience, whether as Christ discovered to them
more of Himself, His salvation, and His kingdom, they
did not find, united with that which .attracted them,
that also which repelled. I will suppose a case which
has occurred a thousand times within the venerable

Offences in Christ. 45
buildings which surround us — venerable from so many
causes, but most of all, as the seats where such multi
tudes of minds have passed that period of life, in which
the loose elements of character and opinion begin to
assume solidity, in which we become alive to the
solemn responsibilities of our mental state, and recog
nise at once something of the majesty and something
of the difficulties of Truth. If I should elsewhere
forget those tentative movements — those balancings
and searchings of heart of which I speak, I can never
forget them here.
The Spirit of God works in secret, and a mind ad
vances in seriousness of thought. There grows up
(perhaps unobserved beneath superficial follies) a sym
pathy with the good and an inquiry for the true. The
often-heard doctrines begin to wear the character of
personal proposals, and to urge their claims in earnest.
They are felt as the voice of the living Saviour appeal
ing to the soul which He has purchased with His own
blood. Shall the soul yield itself to them, and submit
itself without reserve to the opening course of heavenly
• teaching 1 Shall it honestly on the basis of the Gospel
commit itself into the hand of God 1 Here is a moment
ous question to be decided— one which is being decided
every day. Now I will not speak of the reluctance
that is caused by the holiness of the claims of the Gos
pel—and the opposition that is made by those princi
ples and habits which are undisguisedly of the flesh and
the world, by which so many minds allow their con
victions to be stifled, and their feet turned out of the

46 Offences in Christ.
way of peace. I speak of cases in which these obstacles
are passed, and the man is arrived at a point where
the Gospel defines more clearly to the mind the method
and conditions of the desired approach to God ; and
demands, in order to their reception, the subjuga
tion of imaginations, the conformity of mental habits,
and the obedience of the heart. Perhaps these de
mands may be felt to involve the sacrifice of a whole
world of prejudices and associations. But even if cir
cumstances and education have not nurtured these
opposing influences into any peculiar strength, there is
still something in the heart which strikes painfully
against those fundamental conditions which are in
scribed over the entrance of the school of Christ. " If
any man seem to be wise let him become a fool that
he may be wise. If any man seem to be righteous let
him become a sinner, that he may be righteous." The
one proposition is the language of the Apostle ; the
other is no less his sense. Both declare the renuncia
tion of self — the position into which the mind of the
disciple must descend, if he would be taught of God, if
he would be saved in Christ. Here is the first develop
ment of that profound saying of Bishop Butler, that
" Resignation is (in some sense) the whole of piety."
But such resignations are not easily made ; and per
haps by the refined and educated mind still less easily,
than by others, which may be more simply conscious
that, in regard to wisdom and righteousness, they have
nothing which they can even seem to resign. The
greater cultivation and development of the mind, while

Offences in Christ. 47
it increases some of the attractions of the Gospel, per
haps increases also some of its offences. However,
there is a spirit in man which does not readily accept
his true position ; he will not descend to it without a
struggle. Ah ! how often he will not descend to it at
all ! how often will he be offended in Christ through
this very cause ! and content himself in some form of
religious life and opinion which does not seem to put
him to that ordeal ! And there are many such : — yes,
and there is many a man now sounding on his perilous
way through the shoals of unsettled unsatisfying opinion,
because he could not become a fool that he might be wise.
And there is many a man now resting in a spiritual
state that is barren, joyless, lifeless, because he could
not become guilty, that he might be righteous ; because
he could not heartily close with the method of the
Gospel. When we cease to go along with the advancing
revelation of Christ, especially in its most central parts
and essential features, that revelation is clouded and its
springing blessings fade.
But " blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended
in me." He may, perchance, feel the full conflict between
the spirit of his own mind and the spirit of the Gospel ;
between his own ideas and those which he sees pre
sented to his acceptance. It may be with tears and with
the prayer of a hardly-won sincerity that he surrenders
himself to God : but he is " blessed." He has not been
separated from his Saviour's side. His mind is in har
mony with the course of God's truth and dealings — it
is so at least in spirit and in purpose, though all ques-

48 Offences in Christ.
tions may not yet be settled, and though the under
standing may not yet have embraced the whole. For
him the teaching of God, the manifestations of Christ
go forward ; and, as they go forward, the things
which once were stumbling-stones are seen to be neces
sary incidents to his own present condition or to the
present stage of the kingdom of God : or else they seem
to change their nature ; the difficulty which once per
plexed him, is seen to contain treasures of wisdom and
knowledge, or the temper of mind which he once found
it so hard to assume, is become the habit of his soul,
not only the condition of happiness, but a happiness in
itself. But we must leave it to the Lord Himself to deve-
lope the blessing which He has here pronounced. Its
fulfilment will not be completely understood till "the day
of the manifestation of the sons of God," and the glorious
revelation of that kingdom, which, in its present stage
of preparation, is subject to so much misunderstanding,
and, in its relation to man, is pregnant with so many
offences. When results are wrought out, and tendencies dis
closed in their full realisation, and we stand in the
brightness of the eternal day, then will the spiritual
history be really understood ; and we shall see, as we
cannot see till then, the need of the warning and the
truth of the blessing which are set before us here.
Light will stream back upon the course which we have
come. It will shine especially on our former difficulties
and offences, on the times of danger, on the crisis, the

Offences in Christ. 49
conflict, and the victory ; times, perhaps, but little
marked by outward circumstance, but which form the
true history of the soul. Then we shall know by full
experience, what it is to abide in Christ, and shall see
by a full illumination what it would have been to be
separated from Him — we shall comprehend the great
ness of what was endangered, the blessedness of what
was secured, and stand at last in full view of all that
lay before the eye of Jesus, while he said, " Blessed is
he whosoever shall not be offended in me."

LONDON t
a. J. rALMER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.