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CONVERSATIONS 



OF 



JESUS CHRIST 



REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



1JY WILLIAM ADAMS, D.D., 

PASTOR OF MADISON SQTJABE CHURCH, N. Y. 
NEVER MAN SPAKE LIKE THIS MAN. JOHN 7 :46. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 
AMERICAN TEACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STKEET, NEW YOKE, 
la 



y& 



2,43 c 



NOTE 



In the preparation of the several chapters of this 
volume, use has been made of the best commentators, 
ancient and modern, on the sacred text. To have made 
reference in every case, to the author consulted, would 
have been greatly to encumber the page. His one 
purpose being to interpret the Worct in the simplest 
and most practical manner, the author takes this 
method of acknowledging in general terms his obli- 
gations to all those critical helps which it is^the habit 
and privilege of every student of the Scriptures to con- 
sult. 



By Bxcha;. 
Army And Navy Club 
iff. 13,1928 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 
the American Tract Society, in the Clerk's Office of the District 
Court of the United States for the Southern District of Xew York. 



CONTENTS. 

» i 

I. Nicodemus: Tlie Eationalist page 7 

II. The Woman of Samaria : The Obtuse Sensualist 35 

III. The Young Euler : The Moralist 63 

IV. The Intelligent Scribe : Not far from the Kingdom of 

God - 91 

V. Zaccheus : A True Convert - 115 

VI. The Centurion of Capernaum : The Modest Man of 

Faith - 149 

VII. Martha of Bethany : The Mourner --- 179 

VIII. Pilate : The Vacillating Man of the World - - 205 

IX. Mary Magdalene : Love Kewarded 237 

X. Peter: The Eestored Penitent 2C5 



, 



There is this advantage in studying the personal 
conversations of our Lord : that we are sure of the 
directness and appropriateness of his words. As 
the several persons with whom he conversed may 
be considered as the representatives of as many 
different classes, it is the same for us as if we, in 
the variety of our own characters, had enjoyed the 
privilege of a private interview with the Son of 
Gocl. 

In an animated conversation, how. much of mean- 
ing is there in look, and tones, and pauses even, 
which never can be printed. In reporting or inter- 
preting a conversation, it is important that we 
understand, so far as possible, these unwritten 
expressions; and this must be done by a careful 
study of the different parties, and the circum- 
stances in which their conversation was conducted. 

There is a general impression produced by a 
conversation, which is not fairly represented by 
any one or two of its expressions. Though it be 
true that any one of the assertions which fell from 
the lips of Christ in any one of his recorded con- 
versations contains thought enough for volumes; 
yet sometimes it is well, instead of isolating such 



6 PEEFACE. 

remarks, to study their connection, and observe 
how each is related to the total impression which 
is left by the whole interview. 

In every conversation of Christ, there is some 
one point which must be considered as the key to 
the whole. Particular expressions may be hard to 
understand; certain words may have a depth of 
meaning beyond our power to fathom; .neverthe- 
less, in the connection in which they were used, 
they contribute to a general impression which it is 
impossible to evade. 



CONVERSATION OF CHRIST 



WITH 



NICODEMUS: 

The Rationalist 



JOHN 3:1-21. 



I. 

NICODEMUS: 

The Rationalist. 

This conversation of Christ with Nicode- 
mus presents the whole of revelation in minia- 
ture; and if we believe and conduct according 
to the words which are here uttered by our 
Lord, we shall not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life. 

Christ came to Jerusalem to observe the 
Passover, the first after his public entrance 
upon his ministry. This was the time at 
which this conversation was held. "Now 
when he was in Jerusalem, at the Passover, 
on the feast-day, many believed in his name, 
when they saw the miracles which he did." 
What miracles these were, we are not inform- 
ed. They must have been of a notable char- 
acter, for they made a great impression ; nev- 
ertheless, the account of them has not been 
transmitted. Yet one thing quite remarka- 

1* 



10 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

ble is recorded of those who at this time were 
greatly affected by the miracles of Christ — 
"Many believed in his name 77 because of 
them ; but ' ' Jesus did not commit himself 
unto them,' 7 because he knew them all, and 
all that was in them. This describes them as 
believers of a certain kind. They were not 
true, cordial, and earnest believers, for it is 
expressly said that Jesus did not treat them 
as such. Our Lord never held himself at 
a distance from a sincere believer ; but here 
were some who believed only to a certain 
degree, and who, therefore, did not reach at 
once the recognition of full discipleship. 

Imagine, now, one of this general class 
going to his home after he had himself seen 
some of these miracles of Christ. He is a 
Pharisee — a ruler of the Jews. He is in the 
highest official position, a "teacher of the 
law, 77 and as we may suppose, quite advanced in 
years. He is no trifler, and no mocker. Oth- 
ers of his order may have curled the lip or 
shot out the tongue in disbelief and derision 
of the whole affair ; but what he had seen had 
taken too strong a hold upon him to be 



NICODEMUS. 11 

disposed of in this manner. The wonderful 
works of Christ certainly transcend nature 
and man. Moreover, the person who had 
performed them had assumed a most author- 
itative mien, actually driving out from the 
temple, which he called "his Father's house,'' 
the buyers and sellers and money-changers, 
which no other authority had ever interfered 
with ; and strange sayings had he nttered 
before the people, of a most incomprehensible 
meaning. 

' Who is this person ? To what order of 
beings does he belong? He discourses of 
religion. His words and his works all appear 
to be related in some way to the coming king- 
dom of God. Who can he be ?' So is it that 
Nicodemus ponders the matter as he walks 
thoughtfully to his house ; and when the shad- 
ows of night had fallen, he makes a resolve 
to seek out Jesus, and inquire what all these 
things import. He is not decided enough to 
go by day, encountering the " world's dread 
laugh f yet timidity in him differs every way 
from timidity on our part, after accumulated 
evidence ; for he was curious to ascertain the 



12 CONVEBSATIONS OF CHKIST. 

truth, not wishing to involve himself in a mis- 
• take. This mental condition of Nicodemus is 
of more importance to "be borne in mind than 
his outward description ; because the words 
of Christ, as of one who "knew what was in 
man," were addressed directly to his interior 
consciousness ; and if we clo not understand 
this aright, we fail to catch the pertinency of 
what was said to him, and in Christ's conver- 
sation there will be many an ellipsis which 
we cannot supply. 

Behold, then, this man coining to Christ by 
night! Thoughtful, but cautious, revolving 
how much he should admit, and how much 
hold in reserve ; yet a teacher himself, and 
bent on searching the matter from his ration- 
alistic position. This quality of rationalism — 
this desire and purpose to know and judge of 
every thing according to his own understand- 
ing — is the characteristic of Nicodemus, and 
so the key to the entire conversation. He 
believes more than he is willing to avow. He 
begins his salutation with an admission, and 
closes it with a most "cautious inconsistency." 
He is very far from being the miserable "time- 



NICODEMUS. 13 

server ;; which some have supposed ; yet before 
the conversation closes, he is reproached by 
our Lord for not giving more of expression to 
his honest convictions. He is quite in earnest, 
and honest in his way ; but it is just such 
a combination of rationalism and materialism 
as we might suppose would characterize a 
thoughtful Pharisee, which describes the man 
who, in the darkness of night, now seeks out 
our Lord. He was already a believer, but 
not a believer of the right sort. The mira- 
cles of Christ had carried the outposts of the 
citadel, but the whole man had not assented. 
Every thing which is said by our Lord through- 
out the whole interview is adapted to meet 
this semi-persuaded rationalistic condition of 
mind, by the presentation of truths which were 
designed to test the counter-quality of faith. 
u How?" "how?" is the interrogatory of the 
ruler. "Believe" "believe" is the response 
of Christ. By his own admission of being 
convinced by miracles, Nicodemus puts him- 
self in a position where it was right and wise 
that he should be pressed with this duty of 
faith as a logical necessity. If he confessed, 



14 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

as he did, that the person with whom he 
talked acted with Divine sanction and power 
in his indisputable miracles, then nothing could 
be more consistent or appropriate to this con- 
fession than that he should believe the testi- 
mony of the Being whose words were corrob- 
orated by such preternatural wonders. This 
is the point, as we shall see, to which he is 
pressed by every word which was uttered by 
Christ : belief in Christ himself, as the most 
rational deduction from belief in his miracles. 
There is no talking at random. There is noth- 
ing here which is loose and disjointed. From 
the beginning to the end of the conversation, 
the design of. our Lord is to develop a simple 
faith in his own person, on the part of a man 
who admits that his convictions were carried 
by the miracles he had seen. If so much, why 
not more ? Miracles admitted, faith is the 
most rational sequence that can be conceived. 
Therefore is it that our Lord at every utter- 
ance holds up those great objects of faith 
which together form the Christian creed and 
the Christian life. 

Let us suppose that Nicodemus, as he drew 



NICODEMUS. 15 

near to the place where Christ was — we know 
not where it was, whether in doors or with- 
out — is seriously revolving what he shall say, 
what apology he shall make for seeking the 
interview, how much he shall admit concern- 
ing the claims of the Man he is about to visit, 
and how much he shall hold in reserve, through 
fear of committing himself too far. 

At length he stands in the presence of 
Christ. His salutation is respectful, cour- 
teous: "Rabbi, we know" — we know ; would 
he conceal his personal convictions and inten- 
tions behind a general admission, as though he 
represented - his ecclesiastical order ? — " that 
thou art a Teacher come from God." 

Every word is guarded and well weighed. 
" Come from God ;" the expression in the 
original is very significant ; it is used only, 
in regard to the Messiah. That He is the 
Messiah, he does not assert; yet the thing 
which he intends to ascertain is, what are the 
relations of this Man to the Messiah ship and 
to the Kingdom of God. John the Baptist had 
announced him to be the Sent of God. He 
touches the outer border of the subject ; he 



16 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

cannot bring himself to admit more — than 
" Teacher" — -''for no man can do these mira- 
cles which thou doest, except — except — God 
be with him." Every thing is shaded off and 
toned down to the extreme of caution. Noth- 
ing here like the round and hearty admission 
of Nathanael: "Rabbi, thou art the Son of 
God." There is inconsistency ; there is res- 
ervation; there is. mental timidity. "Rabbi, 
we know that thou art a Teacher ;" is this all 
which he can admit of one who asserts himself 
to be the Messiah? "a Teacher come from 
God ; for no man can do the miracles which 
thou doest, except God be with him.' 7 

This salutation accomplished, this cau- 
tious admission made, the doctor of the law 
stands not altogether at his ease under the 
calm and solemn eye of the young Rabbi. 
Let us remember what we are advised of in 
the preface of the narrative, that " He knew 
what was in man," and we shall perceive that 
there was nothing abrupt or inappropriate in 
the words which first were uttered by our 
Lord. "Jesus answered and said unto him, 
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a 



NICODEMUS. 17 

man be born again, lie cannot see the king- 
dom of God." We wonder at first why Christ 
should have said this rather than any thing 
besides. But nothing could have been more 
pertinent to the state of mind of the man by 
whom he .was accosted. Half-convinced that 
Jesus was the Messiah, yet not brave enough 
to admit it, his secret intention was, to ascer- 
tain His relations to the coming kingdom of 
which he himself, as a Pharisee, was in some 
sort an official representative and agent. 
Nothing that ever fell from the lips of man 
could have been more pertinent than this re- 
ply of Christ: "You have addressed me as a 
Teacher related to the divine kingdom ; then 
verily, verily, I say unto you: You have said 
that no man can do these miracles, except God be 
with him ; let me say that no man can see the 
kingdom of God, except he be born again.' 7 
How many of the very words which Nicode- 
mus used are turned upon him with a point and 
emphasis which went to the very heart of things. 
Nicodemus begins with a complimentary ac- 
knowledgment concerning Christ. Christ re- 
plies in words which send the thoughts of the 



18 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

Pharisee to himself, into his very heart. 'If 
you would know who I am, and what I am to 
teach, and what I am to do, the first essential 
thing is within thyself. We must not invert the 
alphabet, and begin at omega — at results and 
conclusions ; the kingdom of God which I came 
to establish is not external, but interior and 
spiritual, consisting of gracious dispositions, of 
love, and joy in the Holy Ghost ; and if one is to 
share in it at all, he must be brought into affin- 
ity with it by a change in himself.' Nothing 
is wanting here to make the connection and 
complete the sense. The divine Teacher — - 
recognized as such, addressed as such — asserts 
a lesson which is at once the simplest and the 
sublimest. Nicodemus is acquainted only with 
an external kingdom of God ; so that the first 
words of Christ reverse all his old habits of 
thought. ' My teaching and my testimony are 
not about visible wonders,* but interior affec- 
tions ; not so much about what I can do and 
have done, as what you are, and you, in your 
own soul, must become.' "Yerily, verily, I 
say unto you, except a man be born again, 
he cannot see the kingdom of God." 



NICODEMUS. 19 

It is in the use of figurative language that 
our Lord begins, and out of it he emerges 
gradually into a simpler teaching. ' ' Born " — 
"born again/ 7 or "born from above' 7 — it mat- 
ters not which idea we adopt in the use of 
the word awQev — " born afresh/ 7 says Nicode- 
mus, What can this import? " Row can a 
man be born when he is old? Can he be 
born a second time as he was born at the 
first? 77 Whatever may have been the real 
thought and feeling of Nicodemus on the sub- 
ject, his words imply that he understood this 
language of Christ in its literal sense, as 
descriptive of some physical birth. It is the 
rationalistic, materialistic spirit which moves 
his lips. " Verily, verily/ 7 is the rejoinder of 
Christ, "except a man be born of water and 
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king- 
dom of God. 77 'Except he have that interior 
birth, which is symbolized by baptism and 
realized by the Divine Spirit, he has no part 
in the kingdom of God. 7 Here is an advance 
in the words of the great Teacher. He de- 
fines the sense of the figurative expression 
of birth before used, so that it may not be left 



20 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHKIST. 

to inference. "That which is born of the 
flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of the 
Spirit, is spirit." ' That which is begotten and 
born carries within itself the nature of that 
from which its being was derived. Flesh is 
born of flesh ; spirit is born of spirit. I speak 
not of being born again of the flesh. The body 
is born but once ; but my words intend another 
birth, which is produced by the Divine Spirit/ 
So far our Lord goes in the way of explana- 
tion. " How can a man be born?" asked the 
rationalist. How wisely our divine Master 
leads him on to that boundary of knowledge, 
where faith will be absolutely requisite. He 
explains the meaning of his figurative terms, 
"born again." He intends a moral and spir- 
itual regeneration which corresponds to the 
spiritual forces by which it is engendered. 
Spirit is born of spirit ; and so Christ teaches 
a birth which is by and of the Spirit; and 
then, as if the very word suggests an illustra- 
tion which prescribes the limit to all marvel- 
ling and cavilling — the same word in the 
Greek meaning spirit and wind — he refers the 
listener to a most admirable analogy. ; Hark ! 



NICODEMUS. 21 

the night- wind is sighing around us ; the leaves 
of the trees and the tendrils of the vine are 
tremulous before its breath ; yet these effects 
of the wind are all that you can see ; the wind 
itself is invisible, but its work is evident.' 
' ' The wind bloweth where it listeth ; and thou 
nearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh nor whither it goeth ; so is 
every one that is born of the Spirit." Our 
Lord would help the faith of the ruler by a 
very simple analogy. Having defined his own- 
words, just what he meant by the new birth, 
a regeneration of the human soul by the 
Divine Spirit, he teaches him that concerning 
this invisible Power, its rise and its method, 
we know nothing, judging of it only by its 
visible effects. 

Here was the place for Nicodemus to 
give his assent ; but his rationalism takes 
on a shade of arrogance which draws from 
Christ a gentle reprimand. "Nicodemus an- 
swered and said unto him, l How can these 
things be V 11 This was but the repetition 
of the question which had been already an- 
swered, and which therefore should not have 



22 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

been asked again. Having answered it be- 
fore as it could only be answered, our Lord 
does not pursue the topic farther, having 
informed the ruler, in answer to his "How" 
that the mode was mysterious and incompre- 
hensible. But "how" is the question of Nic- 
odemus again. "Jesus answered and said 
unto him, ' Art thou a master of Israel, and 
knowest not these things? 7 " This is not a 
taunt ; but it is just such a reproof, just such 
a turn of words as prepares for the heart- 
thrust which follows: "You are a master, a 
teacher in Israel, the representative of that 
order which presides over the national reli- 
gion ; and you have come to me as a Teacher, 
and you acknowledge me as such ; ' ' Yerily, 
verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do 
know, and testify that we have seen, and ye re- 
ceive not our witness.*' Recall the admission 
which was made by Nicodemus in the very 
first words which he uttered in this interview : 
•Rabbi, we know that thou art a Teacher 
come from God ; for no man can do these mira- 
cles that thou doest, except Grocl be with 
him." This admission is now turned upon 



NICODEMUS. 23 

him with the greatest force : ' If you acknowl- 
edge me as a teacher having a Divine commis- 
sion, then you should accept my testimony, 
instead of pressing your inquiries into the do- 
main of mystery which by a familiar analogy I 
have shown you to be withdrawn from your 
understanding ; you ought rather to give it 
your assent on the simple ground of my affir- 
mation and my testimony, as an accredited 
witness come from Gocl. Men are believed 
when they are acknowledged as competent 
witnesses ; give me your faith in regard to 
that which I have affirmed, though you do 
not yet understand the mode of its working.' 
Faith is demanded of the Pharisee as a logical 
result of his own premises. What is incom- 
prehensible and unseen by him, is known and 
seen by Christ ; and it is right that he should 
trust in His testimony as the only one compe- 
tent to testify concerning these spiritual mys- 
teries. 

A new subject is now introduced, and press- 
ed most earnestly and cogently to the close 
of the interview. Nothing more is said about 
the new birth ; enough has been said upon 



24 CONVERSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

that subject — all that could be said. It has 
been affirmed to be necessary ; it is explained 
to be of a spiritual nature, wrought by the 
Spirit in a manner which to us is invisible. 
This, is enough. ' This is the point where, so 
far as regards what is beyond our own senses 
and understanding, faith in a divinely-com- 
missioned teacher is both necessary and rea- 
sonable. When, therefore, a rationalistic mind 
urges its "how," " Jwiv can it be," giving rein 
to its own marvellings and unbelief, it is right 
that it should be met with the charge of unbe- 
lief together with its own guilty tendency. Just 
this is what such a mind should understand. 
There is a point where it should believe. There 
is a boundary to the understanding, and when it 
is reached, faith is the continuation of rea- 
son. This is the subject which, coining in so 
naturally, so necessarily, is now held up to the 
end of the conversation. This, nothing but 
this : simple faith in the personal testimony of 
Jesus Christ as the only one who has come 
down from heaven to inform the world of those 
things which are beyond all earthly knowl- 
edge. And this language of Christ is so for- 



NICODEMUS. 25 

cible, so earnest, so reasonable, that there is 
no reply from Nicodeinus ; so that some crit- 
ics hare been in doubt where the conversation 
with the man ends, whether with the 13th or 
the 21st verse. Eather would we understand 
that Mcodemus was so impressed with these 
words that he could do nothing but listen, 
and so these several utterances of Christ are 
continuous and uninterrupted to the 21st verse, 
all in one strain, converging to one point, with 
a stress and an emphasis which increase to a 
most tremendous application. The beginning 
is a reproof of unbelief; and it is concerning 
believing and disbelieving the testimony of 
Jesus Christ concerning himself, that the 
whole of the remaining words find their true 
explication. 

' It is not your knowing, your understand- 
ing, but your receiving in true faith what is 
affirmed by myself, the Christ of God, com- 
missioned and accredited to teach and redeem 
the world.' With this key in hand, nothing is* 
necessary but to read the words which follow, 
since they interpret themselves : "Verily, ver- 
ily, I say unto thee, I speak that which I 

Con. of Christ. 2 



26 CONYEESATIONS OF CHKIST. 

do know, and testify that I have seen, and ye 
receive not my witness. If I have told you 
earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall 
ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ?" 
Sometimes we are disposed to render this ex- 
pression, " earthly things" as referring to these 
analogies of birth and the viind ; common occur- 
rences, which nevertheless imply so much 
which is mysterious and invisible and incom- 
prehensible as to rebuke rationalistic incre- 
dulity ; but whether we refer the words to 
these natural objects, or to that side and aspect 
of regeneration which comes into view and 
has it occurrence here upon the earth, the 
force is the same — since the contrast is between 
things which occur on earth and things which 
belong exclusively to heaven, of which no 
knowledge could be derived by any process 
save the testimony of the living Person who, 
as a witness, is now discredited by the skep- 
tical Nicodemus. • No man hath ascended up 
to heaven with power to see and testify of its 
arcana but He that came down from heaven, 
even the Son of man, which is in heaven. 7 
From this point all centres in this personality 



NLCODEMUS. 27 

of the witness. " And as Moses lifted up the 
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the 
Son of man be lifted up ; that whosoever heliev- 
eth in him should not perish, but have eternal 
life. For God so loved the world, that he 
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
helieveth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life. For God sent not his Son 
into the world to condemn the world, but 
that the world through him might be saved. 
He that helieveth on him " — mark how this act 
of faith is magnified as the great necessity of 
our condition and being — " is not condemned : 
but he that belie veth not is condemned already, 
because he hath not believed in the name of the 
only begotten Son of God." No positive act 
of retributive penalty is necessary to curse a 
soul that is without faith ; it is cursed already, 
by its own suicidal exclusion from blessings 
which are as free and ample as the light of 
heaven. "This is the condemnation, that 
light is come into the world." Think not 
that these words are disconnected. "Rabbi, 
we know that thou art a Teacher come from 
God," so the interview began ; and thus it 



28 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

closes: "This is the condemnation'' — 'At the 
beginning I said that a man's love — his heart 
mnst be changed to have affinity with the 
kingdom of God ' — "that light is come into the 
world; and men loved darkness rather than light, 
because their deeds were evil." A psychological 
explanation of which is subjoined : " For every 
one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither 
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be 
reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh 
to the light, that his deeds may be made mani- 
fest, that they are wrought in God." Was it 
so, as our Lord gave this last and inimitable 
description of the nature, causes, and doom 
of unbelief, that the two walked together, out 
into the darkness of the night, and so, as 
from the wind, the simplest and most natural 
illustration was furnished ? Nothing to height- 
en the dramatic effect of the scene is appended ; 
but, as we have seen, the train of conversation 
is continuous, closing with an application which 
must have grappled the soul of Nicodemus 
with a power which he could not resist. 

The workings of his mind as he returned 
to his home are not described. The effect of 



NICODEMUS. 29 

the conversation, for the best of reasons, is not 
recorded. We incline to the hopeful opinion ; 
and the deep, perhaps saving impression made 
by this conversation with Christ is proved by 
the two occasions, the only two mentioned, 
when Mcodemus made a sort of confession in 
honor of Christ ; the one before his own class, 
the Pharisees, when he took the part of Christ 
then absent: "Doth our law judge any man 
before it hear him, and know what he doeth?" 
subjecting himself to the taunting retort that 
he too must be a contemptible Galilean ; and 
the other when, as the companion of Joseph of 
Arimathea- — again was it secretly with both 
of them — he brought his hundred weight of 
myrrh and aloes, to embalm the crucified body 
of Jesus. May we not hope that tender tears 
fell upon that sacred body as he was engaged 
in the gentle and pious act. 

Is not our assertion verified, that this con- 
versation contains a miniature representation 
of the whole Christian revelation — all that 
we must do, and all that we must believe? 
First of all is it required that there should be 



30 CONVERSATIONS OF CHBIST. 

a thorough change of affection in every one 
who would be personally related to the king- 
dom of God ; that no external observance or 
privilege can be substituted for this ; for if 
our Lord had intended by the new birth only 
a reformation of the outward life, he asserted 
nothing which was not already known to Nic- 
odemus, and even to the wiser heathen ; noth- 
ing, surely, which could have caused surprise 
or excited incredulity. There is nothing ob- 
scure, nothing which calls for the special exer- 
cise of faith in a requirement so obvious and 
so reasonable. But there is a point where that 
which is obvious shades off into that which is 
obscure ; where the understanding reaches its 
own horizon, and faith must come into vigor- 
ous exercise. But faith is not an unreasoning 
credulity. It has for its basis the evidence of 
the advent of one who came from heaven for the 
very purpose of testifying, informing, reveal- 
ing, redeeming, and saving ; and trust in him 
is the perfection of reason. 

This controversy between faith and philos- 
ophy, as conducted in scholastic debate, has 
been long and able and spirited. The great 



NICODEMUS. 31 

metaphysician of Scotland, Sir Wm. Hamil- 
ton, whose consummate learning and unri- 
valled acuteness will be disputed by no man, 
whether his opinions are embraced or rejected, 
denying our ability to acquire any positive 
knowledge of the infinite and the absolute, has 
made faith the basis of philosophy as well as 
religion. He and his disciples have asserted 
the necessary limitations of human thought. 
We do not enter here upon that scholastic 
discussion ; but plain enough, faith is the very 
life of our religion. This religion concerns 
itself with objects which are above and beyond 
our knowledge. It discloses the very heart 
of God. It reveals those heavenly mysteries 
which no wit o f man ever could reach. Heights 
inaccessible, depths unfathomable, distances 
immeasurable, extending into infinity and 
eternity, are all revealed to us by Him wno 
came down from heaven to be the light and 
the life of man. Not without credentials did 
he come. Never did he demand the faith of 
men without giving them proof of his Divine 
authority. This given, weighed, and accepted, 
faith, simple, childlike faith in his every word, 



32 CONVEESATIONS OF CHRIST. 

becomes our wisdom and our necessity. Thus 
is it that in our religion every thing arranges 
itself about the living form of the Son of God. 
Having disclosed to us why He came, what He 
has done, and what He will yet do, faith in 
Him is the dictate of reason, the one necessity 
of our being, our only wisdom and safety. We 
cannot work our way through this life, in con- 
tact with the commonest objects and the most 
familiar occurrences, births and deaths, winds 
and tides, light and darkness, without encoun- 
tering mysteries which demand our faith. 
That faith is the first lesson which childhood 
learns, and it is the last and highest which age 
and experience ever acquire. Plain enough, 
our destiny for eternity depends upon a sim- 
ple belief in Him who came clown from 
heights which we cannot scale, and across 
ocean-depths which we cannot traverse. ' Say 
not, who shall go up into heaven, or who shall 
go over the sea to find out knowledge V for the 
Revealer has come; "the word is nigh thee, 
in thy mouth and in thy heart, that if thou 
wilt believe in Jesus Christ, thou shalt be 
saved," So simple, so necessary, so rational 



NICODEMUS. 33 

is this faith, that where it is wanting, there 
must be some moral obliquity which causes the 
defect. Come not under the condemnation of 
loving darkness rather than light. The only 
qualification for knowing divine things is to 
love them. For knowing the sciences and 
arts of men, many other things are requisite ; 
but to know Christ, and to see the light of his 
revelation, we have only to aspire after a filial 
temper. What a condemnation this for an 
immortal man, not to believe in Him who is 
the incarnation of truth and love, and who 
came for the sole purpose of conferring upon 
us infinite favors ! 

Surely we cannot be skeptical as to the 
fact that such a Saviour was born into the 
world, and that he gave such proofs of his 
Divine commission ; for the world is full of 
the monuments and evidences of his advent. 
Then let us give him our faith, fuller and heart- 
ier than we ever gave to any friend on earth. 
Take his outstretched hand, and trust him ; 
believe his words ; believe his doctrines ; obey 
his directions ; follow where he leads ; com- 
mit vcur soul to him* while you live, for that 
* 2* 



34 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

soul's peace, even as you must commit it to 
him wheu it is, going out from the body into 
an unseen and unknown futurity; for in that 
mystery of eternity there is no light save that 
which shines from the face of Christ, and no 
object about which your thoughts can gather, 
on which your heart can rest, save the Son 
of G-od, before whom you stand to-day, whose 
words you now hear, urging you to give him 
your confidence, that you may be saved. 



CONVERSATION OF CHRIST 



WITH 



THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA 

The Obtuse Sensualist. 



JOHN 4:1-42. 



II. 

THE WOMAN OF SAMAKIA: 

The Obtuse Sensualist, 

While all the personal conversations of 
our Lord with different individuals deserve 
our careful study, this interview with the 
woman of Samaria commends itself to our 
notice for many and peculiar reasons. When 
He commissioned his apostles, on their first 
itinerancy, he limited their range to the house 
of Israel. With this conversation of his own 
begin the religious labors and influence of 
Christ outside of that original boundary, 
giving us our first conception of the univer- 
sality ,of his religion, as adapted to every 
nation and tribe and person of the human 
family. 

Before we listen to the conversation itself, 
conducted with such skill and success on the 
part of our Lord, a few things should be pre- 
mised of a general import and instruction. 



38 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

The very first thing which we are led to 
notice is, the ease and naturalness with which 
our Lord introduced the conversation. There 
was nothing about it mechanical. It is the 
speech of one intent on doing good at every 
opportunity ; and the words flow from his full 
he^rt as waters run from a full fountain. 
There is a perfunctory method of entering 
upon religious conversation which promises 
but little good. It is the discharge of a duty, 
rather than the utterance of the heart. It is 
said to be the prerogative of poetic genius to 
associate analogies with common objects. It 
is the higher prerogative of religion, to use 
familiar objects and common occasions for 
lighting up and enforcing the sublimest spir- 
i tual truths. Let the heart be replenished with 
religious conviction and experience, and it will 
be easy for men to converse on the thjngs of 
God, without so much as one prompting from 
the mere sense of duty. 

Another thing suggested by the cursory 
perusal of this chapter is, the satisfaction 
which a religious soul is sure to derive from 
every attempt to persuade and benefit others. 



THE WOMAN OF SAMAKIA. 39 

Before this conversation began, our Lord sat 
by the well, weary and faint in the sultry noon. 
His disciples had gone to the village to buy 
meat. Such were the refreshment and vigor 
which he received in the act of imparting truth 
and life to a human soul, that when his disciples 
returned from their errand, and pressed him 
to eat, he declared to them that he had meat 
to eat which they knew not of. Interpreting 
the words in a literal sense, they supposed that 
during their absence some one had brought 
him food. Not only was he without bread, 
but it does not appear from the narrative that 
even the request which he made for water to 
drink had been complied with. Nevertheless 
he was, in body and soul, as one invigorated 
and satisfied with meat and drink ; and his 
own explanation is, "My meat is to do the 
will of him that sent me, and to finish his 
work." Activity in the kingdom of God aug- 
ments the power of spiritual life, and deepens 
the consciousness of religious realities. The 
expression of Christian sentiments invigorates 
the experience, and imparts a pleasure which 
exceeds all physical refreshment. 



40 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

Another lesson arrests the eye in its most 
superficial glance over this narrative. - 

To a faithful soul, the opportunities of 
well-doing are always present and immediate. 
It is the sluggish spirit which would defer the 
present occasion to some remote season. At 
the time when our Lord had this conversa- 
tion, the grain in the fields was in the blade, 
four months intervening till it would be ripe 
for the harvest. The spiritual harvest is 
always ready. Pointing to the crowds of 
people who were hastening to see him after 
the report of the woman with whom he had 
talked, our Lord assured his disciples that 
there was no occasion for waiting, since the 
fields were white already for the harvest. 
Wherever there are living men, especially 
such as are disposed to listen or inquire, there 
are opportunities and inducements for religious 
speech ; and one may thrust in his sickle, and 
bind his sheaves, and rejoice over a harvest. 

What results often follow a single conversa- 
tion, is an additional thought suggested by these 
incidents. The woman with whom Christ spoke 
made such a report as stirred the whole town, 



THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 41 

and induced them to entreat Christ to abide 
with them some days; which he did. It is 
reserved for a future disclosure to acquaint 
us with all the results of the visits and con- 
versations of those memorable days. Nor does 
the matter terminate here. In the book of the 
Acts, when the apostles began their march, we 
find the region of Samaria prepared for signal 
scenes, which filled it with joy. Christ, in 
this early interview with one person, was the 
Sower scattering seed, which other hands in 
other times should reap in golden harvests. 
From this incident let us learn that a wise 
word is a prolific power ; what is said in the 
ear of one may make thousands think ; an 
imperial power, widening its circles over the 
surface of life, of most blessed promise for the 
future. A sermon preached to a thousand 
people ought to be preached at least a thou- 
sand times, every hearer becoming himself a 
preacher, and repeating and applying the 
truth to others. 

These lessons are too valuable to be left 
ungathered, but they are only prefatory to the 
conversation itself, to which we now turn. 



42 CONVEKSATIONS OF OHEIST. 

Leaving Jiidea for a season, for the com- 
parative qniet of Galilee, our Lord takes the 
direct route which led through Samaria. His 
journey was accomplished on foot. At the 
sixth hour, corresponding to our twelfth, just 
at noon, he comes to the well which tradition 
assigns to the patriarch Jacob. He is wea- 
ried by the heat and the length of the dusty 
road, and seats himself by the curb of the well. 
Resting here alone, for his disciples had left 
him for a season, a woman from the town comes 
to draw water. He immediately accosts her 
with the request to give him to drink from the 
utensil which she had brought. Detecting by 
his dress and the softness of his dialect that 
he was a Jew, and not a Samaritan, she ex- 
pressed surprise that he could or would make 
such a request of her ; for the animosity and 
the contempt of the Jews for the Samaritans 
was a notorious feature of the times. Sub- 
limely indifferent, as we should be also, to all 
such national distinctions, conscious only that 
he was to deal with a human soul, and mainly 
desirous of acquainting that soul with its own 
wants and leading it to himself, our Lord does 



THE WOMAN OF SAMAEIA. 43 

not even notice the topic which the woman 
had introduced ; but giving a personal force 
to his words, immediately replied: "If thou 
knewest the gift of God, and who it is that 
saith to thee, Give me to drink ; thou wouldest 
have asked of him, and he would have given 
thee living water. 77 

Though the sublimest truths were convey- 
ed in this figurative language, the woman had 
not the most remote idea of their import. She 
understood them in the most literal sense. She 
supposed that they referred to spring-water, 
cool and fresh and sparkling, such as she had 
come to draw from the well. She looks at the 
stranger who had a moment before asked her 
for a draught of water, and who now assures 
her that if she had only asked of him, he 
would give her an abundance of water. ' ' Why, 
sir, I see you have nothing to draw with ; you 
have neither rope nor pitcher, and the well 
is very deep, how could you give me fresh 
water? Have you a better well than this, 
which our father Jacob gave us, of which he 
and his children and his cattle were accus- 
tomed to drink ? 77 There does not appear to 



44: CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

have entered her mind the least shadow of 
the spiritual meaning of the words spoken by 
Christ. She thought of nothing but well-water, 
and some more convenient or expeditious 
method of drawing it up than she had used. 
She judged of every tiling by her senses. She 
comprehends nothing, imagines nothing be 
yoncl. 

Intending to lead her on, if possible, to a 
perception of his meaning, our patient Master 
answered and said: "Whosoever drinketh of 
this water, shall thirst again: but whosoever 
drinketh of the water that I shall give him 
shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall 
give him shall be in him a well of water spring- 
ing up into everlasting life." Truths are here, 
at once the very simplest and the very sub- 
limest. Surely it is not possible that any one 
could misinterpret such language ; yet so ob- 
tuse, earthly, and sensual is this person, that 
she attaches no other ideas to this promise 
than that which belongs to the use of common 
water. Verily she understood this stranger 
to speak of water which, once taken, would 
prevent all future thirst, and so save her from 



THE WOMAN OF SAMAKIA. 45 

the troublesome task of coming every day to 
the well. She said unto him, "Sir, give me 
this water, that I thirst not, neither come 
hither to draw." 

Though it seems impossible to penetrate 
this vulgar mind with spiritual truth, yet our 
Lord does not terminate the conversation ab- 
ruptly and impatiently. With a kind and 
lenient condescension which looks hopefully at 
one issue, he immediately changes his method 
of approach. Though in this case, as with 
his conversations with his disciples and with 
Nicodemus, he dropped germinant words, after- 
wards to be recalled and made plain and po- 
tent, yet now he does not pursue his spiritual 
discourse, but employs a new and different 
mode of startling her dormant soul. It is a 
profound truth in human psychology, that the 
conscience, that faculty or act of the mind by 
which it judges of the right or the wrong of 
our own deeds, is the only power by which 
you can quicken a sense of the spiritual, not 
merely in the obtuse and unthinking, but even 
in many others of a more delicate organization. 
The conscience belongs to the spirit, and not 



46 CONVERSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

to sense. It touches not the plane of the vis- 
ible and the tangible, but the ideas of God, 
and duty, and accountability, and demerit, 
and retribution ; and these are all of the spirit. 
He who enters the soul by this door of the 
conscience, may pass on through all its halls 
and chambers, from one spiritual truth to 
another. Of what avail was it for the Son of 
G-od to discourse of Himself as giving living 
water unto the world, if there was no thirst- 
ing in the soul which would desire it, or appro- 
priate it, or relish it ? To excite this thirst, to 
suggest to this ignorant and obtuse woman her 
own guilt and want, Christ lays his hand at 
once upon her conscience. Ceasing from all 
imagery and parallelisms, our Lord directs 
her to go and call her husband. She replies 
that she has no husband. The words which 
follow were like a spark falling into a maga- 
zine. This woman was living in shameful 
sin. Jesus informed her that* he was well 
acquainted with her whole life. He knew the 
history of her former marriages and divorces, 
and the character of her present connection : 
■ Thou hast had five husbands, who are sepa- 



THE WOMAN OF SAMAKIA, 47 

rated from you either by death or divorce, 
and he whom thou now hast is not thy hus- 
band.' It was as when the sun strikes full 
and strong on the face of an obelisk thickly 
inscribed with dusky and illegible characters, 
each word, each letter made to confront the 
blazing eye of day. The woman saw that all 
the secrets of her life were disclosed. Her 
conscience was roused from slumber ; her dead 
soul felt the first sense of vitality in the form 
of self-reproof. She found herself under the 
eye and within the power of One who arraigned 
her before God. There was no misunder- 
standing of what Christ said now. Neither 
was there any hiding of herself from the charge 
which, as by one stroke of lightning, lighted 
up all the darkness of her soul. " Sir, I per- 
ceive that thou art a prophet." There must 
have been a pause and silence ensuing upon 
these words. Our Lord did not break it, but 
allowed what he had said to do its work most 
thoroughly. No other word from him inter- 
fered with the activity of conscience in this 
miserable woman as she stood there abashed 
and convicted in the presence of One who. 



48 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

with preternatural eye, read the whole of her 
heart and life. 

When the silence was broken, it was by 
the woman herself, in words which have been 
variously interpreted : ' ' Our fathers worship- 
ped in this mountain — Grerizim — and ye, the 
Jews, say, that in Jerusalem is the place where 
men ought to worship." Most expositors inter- 
pret this affirmation as an act of dexterity, a 
woman's tact, in diverting the conversation 
from a subject which had become painful to 
herself. Stung with a sense of shame, she 
•breaks off the topic of remark which had so 
unexpectedly cut into her heart, and adroitly 
alludes to a politico-theological* question as 
the means of extricating herself from embar- 
rassment. This may be so. If it were so, it 
would agree with the habit of some when 
touched in the quick by the sharp fidelities of 
truth. But I cannot bring myself to believe 
that this was the true attitude and intention 
of her mind. Had her purpose been mere 
evasion and diversion, we cannot su]jpose that 
Christ would have answered her as he did ; 
for he proceeds to speak as he would to one 



THE WOMAN OF SAMAKIA. 49 

inquisitive for the truth, and not one attempt- 
ing to trifle with it or escape from it. What 
hinders us from believing that this reference 
of the woman to the hereditary religion of her 
fathers, in contrast with the worship of the 
Jews, was the incipient act of a repenting soul, 
following immediately upon the consciousness 
of her shame ? Is this the first incitement of 
the thirst which shall lead her to Christ, and 
enable her to understand what he has already 
uttered concerning living and exhaustless wa- 
ters? This was a Jewish Prophet, who had 
read and exposed her heart ; and if she was 
moved by a right spirit, the most natural thing 
that could be conceived would be for her — allu- 
ding to notorious differences of opinion by 
which she was likely to be distracted ; to ask 
for the right way, the place, and the mode in 
which she might find those waters of life. That 
this was the undertone of her mind and words 
would appear from the reply of Christ, who, 
instead of reproving her for her levity and 
garrulousness, with an increase of condescen- 
sion and gentle earnestness, proceeds at once 
with the utterance which is pertinent to a 

Con. of Christ. 3 



50 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

thoughtful, uot a superficial mind. Reproved 
by a Jewish prophet, she is secretly revolving, 
we may suppose, whether it will be necessary 
for her, in search of the help she needs, to 
leave the religion of her fathers, and go over 
to that of the Jews. He whose words were 
so sublime before, takes this uninformed, but 
now awakened mind, to a point of perspective 
which is far above all earthly politics and dis- 
putes, where she and we may learn the per- 
sonal relations of the soul to God: "Jesus 
saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour 
cometh, when ye shall neither in this moun- 
tain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 
Ye worship ye know not what : we know what 
we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But 
the hour cometh, and now is, when the true 
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit 
and in truth : for the Father seeketh such to 
worship him. God is a Spirit : and they that 
worship him must worship him in spirit and 
in truth." 

Mark, there is here no relaxing of the 
truth concerning the way of salvation. In 
the very act of instructing a now sensitive 



THE WOMAN OF SAMAKIA. 51 

and inquiring mind in its critical acts, teach- 
ing it a sublime indifference to the mere exter- 
nals of place and form, Jesus still insists on the 
divine superiority of the religion which was 
committed to the Jews, the salvation which 
was to be unfolded through his own Messiah- 
ship. There is nothing here akin to the "abso- 
lute religion" of which the modern rationalist 
prates, discarding all definite belief, and dis- 
solving all distinctions into a universal haze. 
In the very act of demolishing partitions-walls 
between things external and formal, our Lord 
holds the mind steadfast to the one form of 
faith which is revealed of God, which concen- 
trates all upon his own person, as the only 
means of introducing the soul of man to the 
life of the spirit — the life of God. Worship, 
the external act of a religious observance, 
may be so indefinite and uninformed as to be 
of no value; but "salvation is of the Jews." 
Salvation! a most pregnant word, indicative 
of the revelation which gleamed on the eye of 
the dying Jacob ; the perspective point which 
commands and interprets the whole of the Old 
Testament, and which unfolds itself in that 



52 CONVEKSATIQNS OF CHEIST. 

gospel which is designed for all the world. 
Let us not fail to observe, that in the very act 
of asserting independence of all matters of 
mere form and place, our Lord affirms most 
explicitly the exclusive divinity of that reve- 
lation which, committed at first to the hands 
of Israel, was destined to expand itself into a 
redemption spiritual and universal. 

How little our divine Teacher depends 
upon mere " intellectualism" the "aristocracy 
of culture,' 7 is evident from the manner in 
which he applies the sublimest of all truths to 
this uneducated woman. The highest of all 
truths are also the simplest. Epic poems are 
but the arrangement of alphabetic characters 
in new forms. The substance of all knowledge 
is here. Here is the alphabet with which 
we must begin, capable of being compounded 
and combined in endle'ss progress. True reli- 
gion is not external worship in any place or 
any form ; it is the approach of the soul to 
God, spirit to spirit, in the way which God 
himself has revealed through Jesus Christ. 
We can see a deeper meaning in those pellu- 
cid words of Christ than was reached by the 



THE WOMAN OP SAMAEIA. 53 

eye of this ignorant Samaritan, for subsequent 
revelations have reflected a stronger light on 
those great sayings; yet even she knew for 
certainty that something great and marvellous 
was promised, for the fulfilment of which she 
looked to the coming of the Messiah as a solu- 
tion and a relief. When Christ declared, with- 
out any reserve or qualification, " I that speak 
unto thee am he," he intended to bring this 
mind, and ours also, to faith in himself as the 
medium of approach to the true knowledge 
of the true God. It is not needful that you 
should go to Jerusalem to worship, nor yet to 
abide at Gerizim ; the true religion, if indeed 
you inquire for it, is independent of place ; it 
is the life of the individual soul ; and it has 
these two distinctive properties — it is per- 
sonal, and it is universal. That this act should 
be one of the heart, performed sincerely and 
truthfully, is the first requisite ; but even this 
does not exhaust the full meaning of the words, 
ivorslivp him in spirit and in truth; for the 
antithesis of these terms, spiritually and truth- 
fully, is over against those ideas of locality 
and symbolism by which even the true reli- 



54 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

gion was once distinguished. The time was 
when the only Divine revelation was confined 
to certain places and certain forms. Even 
then there were worshippers who called on 
God sincerely and truthfully. But now that 
Christ has come, the old ideas of place and 
form and rite disappear. Christ is the Way, 
the Truth, the Life ; and through him, the sum 
and substance of all revelation, the soul of any 
man, whenever, wherever he lives, may have 
the knowledge and fellowship of the Eternal 
Spirit. The true Holy Place is the soul itself. 
All other religions before conducted man with- 
out; this leads him within, and thus reveals 
God through Jesus Christ. Here, as in all 
New Testament teachings, the essential thing- 
is the one Person, the Messiah, the Saviour of 
the world. As he began with a reference to 
himself as one that would bestow living waters 
to every thirsty soul, so he ends by disclosing 
himself as the only true salvation, jjhe Restorer 
of the guilty soul to God. 

The result of this conversation, let us hope, 
was the saving of this benighted and miserable 
woman. So full of wonder and joy was she at 



THE WOMAN OF SAMAKIA. 55 

what she heard, that she left her water-pot at 
the well, and hastened to the city, and report- 
ed to the people, that she had encountered a 
stranger — was he not the Christ? — who had 
told her all things which ever she did ; and 
many of them believed on him ; and yet many 
more in the city, where he continued awhile. 
So may we hope that this woman, going forth 
at noon, frivolous", obtuse, ignorant, and guilty, 
did indeed, ere the day had. gone, begin to 
drink of living waters ; for she had found u the 
Christ, the Saviour of the world." 11 

We drop the narrative at this point, and 
concern ourselves now with the weighty truths 
which it conveys in such a spirited form. As 
well might we occupy ourselves with criti- 
cism upon any old Greek manuscript as on 
the correct reading of the passage before us, 
if we did not believe that the latter contains 
what is essential to our own personal salva- 
tion. 

" If any man* thirst, let him come unto me 
and drink/ 7 said the Son of God in the temple 
court on the last great day of the feast ; and 
here he affirms, "The water that I shall give 



56 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

him shall be in him a well of water, spring- 
ing up into everlasting life." Divested of all 
that is tropical, the truthful sentiment is, that 
Jesns Christ, and He alone, can give to the 
human soul all the relief which it needs, and 
that which alone can satisfy it for ever. 

Have you that thirst already which would 
dispose you to come to the cooling waters ? 
Perhaps you are suffering already from those 
compunctions of. conscience which our divine 
Lord, with such exquisite skill, quickened 
to life in the soul of this unhappy woman. 
So it may be that some whom I how address 
suffer many things in their own minds from 
the memory of their own sins. Perhaps it 
is so that He who, in his intercourse with 
men centuries ago, gave such proof of his 
power over the human conscience ; by a word, 
by a look, by silence even, putting in motion 
the alarm-clock in the chamber of the sleep- 
ing soul, has employed some agency of his 
own — a sermon, an affliction, the death of a 
friend, a disappointment in business — to arouse 
your conscience, and remind you of your guilt, 
incurring the judgments of God. Or it may be 



THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 57 

otherwise. Perhaps there is some sin on your 
conscience with which you have grown famil- 
iar, and to which you have become wonted, as 
one becomes accustomed to a deformity or a 
dull pain, but which operates to blind the eye 
and deaden the sense to the glorious truth of 
Christ. You wonder why you have not a 
clearer perception of the spiritualities of reli- 
gion. May there not be some personal sin 
which is like a veil over your soul while we 
discourse of living waters ? Is there not some- 
thing in your business which you know to be 
wrong? Possibly you have in your posses- 
sion property which belongs to others. It 
may be so that the real reason which keeps 
you from a most thirsty and refreshing par- 
taking of Christian promises, is the knowledge 
on your part of some wrong which you have 
not the courage to confess or the magnanimity 
to repair. So it may be with some who are 
living now ; that there are secret sins which 
blunt the sensibility of the soul to that degree 
that they cannot comprehend when Christ him- 
self speaks of the river of the water of life, 
and of the bread which came down from heav- 



58 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHUIST. 

en, and who have need to be warned of their 
guilt, just as the words of Christ sent convic- 
tion and shame to the heart of this Samaritan. 
Or, more likely still, have not these words 
been read by some who have been conscious 
of unrest and dissatisfaction in the midst of 
worldly life ? They have been reputed as 
prosperous among men ; they have pursued 
wealth, and obtained it ; followed after prizes, 
and grasped them ; devoted thejnselves to 
pleasure, and been counted as her happiest 
votaries ; but the very successes which have 
crowned their life have taught them, as noth- 
ing else could, the hollowness of a heart which 
holds every thing but Christ. Riches have 
been proved to canker the soul with cares. In 
the midst of mirth, the confession has been 
extorted, It is mad ; and the fruit, so ruddy 
and tempting to the eye, has turned to ashes 
in the hand. Desire is never satisfied by such 
objects ; and their only effect is, to exasperate 
thirst into a more restless fever. Then comes 
disappointment itself : reverses, losses, thorns, 
bereavements — a dusky train, sent, not to mock 
our misery, but to incite that sense of want 



* THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 59 

which shall lead the wounded and thirsty soul 
to living waters. 

What is werse than all, can it be that 
there are souls so dead as to be conscious of 
no desire after any thing better than they 
have in this world? Above all who walk 
the earth, pity not the afflicted, ■ and disap- 
pointed, and sorrowful, who yearn and thirst 
for divine consolation; but pity those who are 
content with their husks, and whose hearts 
ache not for their Father's house, with its am- 
ple contentment. Pity most profoundly all 
such as are satisfied with the "pleasures of 
sin, which are for a season," with no longing- 
after what is invisible and imperishable. That 
soul is lost for ever whom God leaves to trust 
to its own cisterns ; discovering, in the hour 
of extremest-need, that they are broken and 
waterless. 

To all these varied classes Christ says now, 
" If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it 
is that talketh with thee, thou wouldest have 
asked of him, and he would have given thee 
living water." We wonder at the stupidity 
of this uneducated mind, which could not catch 



60 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST: 

the clew put into her hands, nor avail herself 
of the auspicious opportunity thrown in her 
way ; but what was her obtuseness, compared 
with that of many now, who fail to recognize 
the voice of Christ when he knocks at the door 
of the soul, and offers his presence, his aid, 
and his salvation ? The woman of Samaria 
was not the only one with whom Christ con- 
versed on themes of highest import. He ac- 
costs every one of us ; and all are invited to 
partake of his fulness. That fountain of which 
the Hebrew Prophet spoke is sparkling at our 
feet. Our path is not through arid deserts, 
our feet blistered by hot sands, and our tongues 
parched for want of water, distant and inac- 
cessible. This is the day when "living waters 
go forth from Jerusalem ; :? "in summer and 
in winter shall it be." Xo frost conceals it ; 
no drought exhausts it ; perpetual verdure 
is all around it ; and you may come and kneel, 
and drink, and thirst no more. This is the 
only thing in the universe of which it is true, 
that there is no place for moderating desire, 
and no possibility of disappointment. Every 
thing else decays, dwindles, disappears. This 



THE WOMAN OF SAMAEIA. 61 

deepens and extends the farther you go — the 
waters rising from the ankle to the knee, to the 
loins, to the neck, deep enough in which to 
swim ; an ocean, an element inexhaustible and 
eternal. 

Take counsel of such as, hearing the voice 
of Christ, have found p eace - Consider such 
as, believing his word, have testified, when 
death was disparting them from all below, 
that the best existence was before them — an 
inheritance which fadeth not away. Think 
of those who, betaking themselves in the hour 
of need to the Son of God, have been taken 
by him to that world where they repose in 
green pastures and beside still waters, in per- 
petual peace, contentment, and satisfaction. 
' ' Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
giva him, shall never thirst ; but the water 
that I shall give him shall be in him a well of 
water, springing up into everlasting life. 77 

Thirsty, weary, dissatisfied in this sultry 
life, come as you are ; come at once ; come 
because you are invited ; as you would not 
do affront to infinite Generosity, come and 
drink, and live for ever. 



CONVERSATION OF CHRfST 



WITH 



THE YOUNG RULER 

The Moralist- 



MATT. 19:16-22 
MARK 10:17-22. 
LUKE 18:18-24. 



Ill, 

THE YOUNG RULER: 

The Moralist. 

It would be difficult to find, in all the 
evangelists, a passage which demands a more 
cautious discrimination in its interpretation 
than those which record the personal conver- 
sation of our Lord with the moralist, who was 
honestly depending upon his good works as 
the means of securing eternal life. If we 
ascertain the right point of perspective, every 
thing is plain and consistent. If we mistake 
our point of view, we are sure to be em- 
barrassed by multiform perplexities. Some 
superficial readers have been inclined to re- 
gard the terms of Christian discipleship here 
proposed as hard, severe, and impractica- 
ble — assuming that it is Christian discipleship 
which is here described and enjoined. Oth- 
ers, misunderstanding the spirit and intent of 



66 CONVEESATIONS OF CHKIST. 

the man who seeks this interview with Christ, 
regard the answer given by Christ as pro- 
posing a method of salvation just the opposite 
from that which is disclosed in other parts of 
the New Testament — assuming, on their part, 
that it is a method of salvation, distinctively 
so called, which is here propounded. Is mo- 
rality of no account in the Christian economy ? 
Did it not, in this instance, provoke the admi- 
ration of the Son of God ? But how is this to 
be reconciled with the notion that all our right- 
eousness is worthless in His sight who justi- 
fies freely by his grace through faith in the 
Redeemer, and not by works and merit of our 
own? All these and other similar questions 
most readily adjust themselves in perfect 
harmony and consistency when once we have 
found the right position from which to survey 
and interpret the whole conversation. The 
same words may bear very different significa- 
tions, according to the circumstances in which 
they were spoken. 

Our first object therefore must be, to ascer- 
tain those facts which are the key to the inter- 
view. 



THE MOEALIST. 67 

Our Lord was now on his way to Jerusa- 
lem for the fourth and last Passover. No 
sooner had he gone out into the road to pros- 
ecute his journey, than one was seen running 
towards him as if in great eagerness to meet 
him before he should pass out of the town. 
His manner indicates the utmost reverence. 
He kneels before our Lord with most respect- 
ful salutation. He is a young man of the very 
highest social position. He is, we are informed, 
very wealthy, a ruler, of a most exemplary 
refinement of character. He was a rare spe- 
cimen of humanity, in whom met all the qual- 
ities of a correct life and official status and 
large possessions, which made him to the last 
degree winning and attractive. Scarcely had 
he risen from his knees, ere he put the ques- 
tion which, introducing the conversation, re- 
veals the attitude of his own mind, and so 
explains all which follows. " Good Master, 
what good thing shall / do that I may inherit 
eternal life V 1 Every word helps us to inter- 
pret the character and intention of the man. 
He is no malicious quibble r, seeking to entan- 
gle Christ in his words. Neither does he 



68 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

resemble the other person with whom he is 
often confounded, who came to question our 
Lord in respect to the commandments, and to 
whom Christ said, " Thou art not far from the 
kingdom of God." The two were in very dif- 
ferent states of mind, and represent different 
classes of men. He was evidently a most ear- 
nest and honest man. His mind was not upon 
any thing trivial, but upon the attainment of 
eternal life. He evidently wished and intended 
to make sure of this noblest end of existence. 
Regarding this as of the highest importance, 
as every posture and expression and act indi- 
cate, he puts the question which shows at once 
that he was altogether at fault as to the pro- 
cess of its attainment. This is not the lan- 
guage of the jailor of Philippi — stricken by his 
conscience — "What shall I do to be saved?" 
not the importunate cry of the men to whom 
Peter preached on the day of Pentecost — 
"Men and brethren, what shall we do?" but 
it is the inquiry of a man who had set out in 
the pursuit of eternal life in his own way, 
which was not the right way, and who asked 
for further directions along the same line of 



THE MOBALIST. 69 

exertion. Noble in disposition, elevated in 
purpose, lie has set himself the task of win- 
ning the highest of all prizes, a crown of life, 
in the way of legal perfection ; and his wish 
and expectation most evidently were, that 
Christ would assign him new tasks and new 
achievements, by which he might be impelled 
yet farther and higher in his heavenward 
career. 

The possibility of his doing every thing 
which insures his perfection he assumes, sim- 
ply inquiring what other thing, he should add 
to that which he had done already : ' - What 
good thing shall I do?" He looked for the) 
mention of some laudable act which would 
impart new lustre to his ornate character, and 
stimulate his ambition and his pride and his 
s-elf-esteem. ' I do not mean that this young 
ruler exhibited that form of self-esteem which 
was the usual characteristic of Jewish Phari- 
seeism, and which was so unlovely and repul- 
sive ; for surely, if he had, Christ could not 
have looked upon him with any regard or 
admiration. He was no dissembler, but an 
honest and zealous religionist — whose zeal and 



70 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

honesty, nevertheless, were expended upon a 
false assumption: that assumption was, that 
he could do in the way of personal obedience — 
'he himself— whatever was needful to complete 
his claim to eternal life. The ideas of imper- 
fection and sin, forcing him to look about for 
some other method of securing his end do not 
appear to have entered his mind. He does 
not ask, what we are accustomed to expect, 
directions which shall inform us how, as sin- 
ners, we may be saved ; but what meritorious 
thing he could do which should advance him 
to a higher promotion as one without sin, so 
that he should lay his hand upon eternal life 
as his own rightful inheritance. It is very 
essential that we understand most accurately 
this attitude of mind on the part of the yoijng 
ruler ; for if we mistake here, we misinterpret 
altogether the intention of our Lord in what 
he replied, and start ourselves off in a wrong 
direction. TTe have, then, the portraiture of 
a man who is to the last degree refined, ac- 
complished, attractive, who wishes yet further 
to refine and adorn and perfect himself, so 
that he may be a splendid specimen of piety, 



THE MORALIST. 71 

heaping up new honors for himself as an un- 
blemished moralist, and entering the kingdom 
of God at last, like a ship under a great show 
and press of sail, with a most magnificent ova- 
tion. 

How, then, should we have supposed that 
our Lord would reply to a person who accosted 
him with the spirit and language which we 
have now explained. Those wiio resolve the 
gospel of Jesus Christ into a mere system of 
morality have a somewhat difficult task to 
explain what follows in this conversation con- 
sistently with their premises. They must hold 
that Christ proposed terms which were very 
exacting and unreasonable, even that this 
young man should impoverish himself utterly, 
that he might win the evidences and rewards of 
Christian discipleship. Such surely was not 
the design of Christ. This was, to convince 
this moralist that he was radically wrong in 
all his methods and expectations of moral per- 
fection. The evident intention of Christ was, 
to satisfy him that he could, not inherit eternal 
life by his good-doing, and that it was neces- 
sary for him to change his ground, and insert 



72 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

a new and very different element into all his 
exertions and expectations. The method in 
which this instruction was conveyed is the 
most adroit that could be imagined. It is not 
in the way of dogmatic assertion. It is not by 
answering in didactic formula, that all human 
goodness is imperfect, and needs a supply of 
mercy and forgiveness — which is the substance 
of the Christian doctrine. The method chosen 
by Christ to carry the conviction of the truth 
into the very centre of the living heart then 
throbbing before him is superlatively skilful 
and successful. 

1 ' Good Master, what good thing shall I 
do, that I may inherit eternal life?" "And 
Jesus said unto him. Why callest thou me 
good? there is none good but one, that is, 
GodP 

This verse has sometimes been quoted as 
a disclaimer on the part of Christ of divine 
attributes and qualities. This comes from 
taking a particular expression out of its origi- 
nal connection, and so putting upon it a sense 
which it was never intended to bear. Dis- 
claim his own goodness ! deny his own divin- 



THE MORALIST. 73 

ity! How would that be pertinent to the 
occasion? How would that prove an appro- 
priate answer to the question proposed? Be- 
sides, what will they do with the dilemma 
which stares those in the face who construe 
this remark of Christ as a disclaimer of any 
kind? 

Put in syllogistic form, it would be pre- 
sented thus: "None is good but God" — 
" Christ is good;" therefore "Christ is God." 
Or, ' ' None is good but God ; Christ is not God, " 
therefore — shall we give the conclusion an 
utterance? u Christ is not good."* We mis- 
take if we suppose that this first response of 
Christ was intended either as an assertion or 
a disclaimer of any quality or claim of his 
own ; it was intended to touch the very heart 
of that subject which had been introduced by 
the first question of the ruler: "Good Mas- 
ter, what good thing shall I do to inherit eter- 
nal life ?" - 

This man had an idea of goodness and 
good-doing which was defective and false. 
This Christ intended that he should see. Thai 
* Vide Stier, I, 283, note. 

Con. of Christ. \ 



74 CONVERSATIONS OF CHBIST. 

idea was humanitarian only — from the plane 
of sense, and not according to the true notion, 
which is divine. The design of Christ was, to 
transfer the mind of the questioner from the 
one idea to the other ; to insert into his mind 
the true, the only true notion of goodness as 
represented by God himself. There is no 
evidence that this young man regarded Jesus 
Christ as any thing more than a human 
teacher — a prophet sent from God. He ad- 
dresses him with a form of language common 
towards such ; and his form of salutation, 
kneeling, was not designed as religious wor- 
ship, but as the ordinary method of profound 
respect : " Good Master, what good thing shall 
I do?" The first thing needed is that this 
mind, misled by a false judgment concerning 
goodness, its own now in possession, its own 
as purposed to be in future attainments, 
should be corrected as to this idea of what 
goodness is. So the reply of Christ is in- 
tended most obviously to lift the mind from 
its humanitarian level to the loftiness of divine 
perfection: '''Goodness? what good thing 
shall I do V What do you mean, my friend, 



THE MOKALIST. 75 

by good? by being good? by doing good? 
You use the word quite frequently. You used 
it in the salutation with which you have com- 
plimented me ; you used it in your first ques- 
tion. If you have started off with the expec- 
tation of winning eternal life by your own 
goodness, it is well to cast an eye before you, 
and see what goodness actually is." So he 
directs him at the very outset to the Being 
who is the only absolute goodness, whom we 
must resemble if we expect eternal life by 
affinity of nature, for the purpose of awaken- 
ing in his mind the conviction that he could 
not inherit the life and glory of heaven in this 
method of being good, since our goodness does 
not extend to God. It is imperfect, and God 
only is the One absolute perfection. 

Here was one who had no true idea of 
the nature of goodness ; and yet, forsooth, he 
intended to glorify himself by doing good. 
" GoooZ Master," said he, "what good thing 
shall I do?" and the very phrase which he 
uses in a complimentary epithet and in his 
introductory question is turned upon him with 
an emphasis which is intensified to the end of 



76 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHKIST. 

the conversation. If goodness is to be the 
method of inheriting eternal life, then be sure 
that you have in you the genuine quality ; not 
that which passes muster in human compli- 
ments and human relations, but that which is 
displayed in the Being and the commandments 
of the good God — the whole in the way of 
correcting the mistakes of the mind with which 
he was dealing, diminishing the self-confidence 
of him who was misled, and of introducing into 
his religion an element of repentance in view 
of defects which needed forgiveness, instead of 
leaving it in its low and earthly judgments, 
which were untrue. 

That which passes as good among men is 
one thing. Quite another thing is the good- 
ness which is perfect and divine, and which is 
expressed in the law of G-ocl. tt you would 
do good, God, who alone is absolutely good, 
must be your Teacher, and his teachings are 
expressed in his statutes. We perceive the 
intention of this heart -reading and divine 
instruction, which was to convince this young 
man that he had no correct idea of the spirit- 
ual nature of goodness, or of that law by which 



THE MORALIST. 77 

it was expressed ; but that he was satisfied 
with garnishing his outward life with those 
moralities which men call goodness. How 
pertinent and congruous the whole from this 
point of view : ' ' Good Master, what good thing 
shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" 
And Jesus said unto him, "Why callest thou 
me good ? there is none good but one, that is, 
God : but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the 
commandments." The commandments are the 
reflection and expression of the Being who 
gave them; and the fulfilling of them is the 
highest and greatest of all things. "Keep 
the commandments !" This falls upon the ear 
of the young man as the very thing for which 
he had been asking — a new task ; expecting, 
of course, that some new injunction was to 
be specified, by which his morality would be 
proved and advanced. "Commandments! 
which, what are they?" " TJie command- 
ments," replied our Lord ; "thou knowest the 
commandments, the decalogue, the moral law : 
1 Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not com- 
mit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt 
not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy 



78 CONVEKSATIONS OF OHEIST. 

father and thy mother ; and, thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself.' " As Christ rehearsed the 
several precejats of the second table of the 
law — and what follows shows ns why these 
were specified rather than those of the first 
table — he appended that which was the spirit 
and the substance of the whole code, "Thou 

SHALT LOYE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF." But 

this appendix, designed to explain the import 
of the several commandments, does not seem 
to have made much impression on the young 
man, who was quite pleased as this new 
Teacher repeated those several precepts which 
fell so familiarly upon his ear, and he -answer- 
ed quickly and promptly, ' ' Master, all these 
things have I observed from my youth : what 
lack I yet ? ;; Great was his cheerfulness and 
satisfaction when he could conscientiously 
assert that he had abstained from every vice 
and immorality condemned in the decalogue. 
While he could make his boast of this in all 
honesty — he being by the very terms of the 
description externally moral to the last touch 
and finish of art — it is certain that he was 
spiritually blind to the real import of the com- 



THE MORALIST. 79 

mandments. Scarcely did he hear the closing 
of the catalogue, " Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself," which was designed to show 
that the true keeping of the commandments 
was in a disposition of the heart, and not in 
the observance of the letter. The command 
of the one good God is fulfilled only by that 
sincere and disinterested and masterly love 
which is the only true goodness. As the young 
magistrate, in the consciousness of his untar- 
nished morality, put the question, "What lack 
I yet ?" the Master turned upon him — not with 
frowns and indignation, but with a gentler ex- 
pression of mingled love and pity. "Then 
Jesus, beholding him, loved him." 

If the narrative and the conversation had 
stopped just at "this point, we might have con- 
cluded that, in the judgment of Jesus Christ, 
there was one who was fitted to grace the 
kingdom of God by his most admirable moral- 
ity. But the interview was destined to have 
a very different termination, as it was de- 
signed to convey a very different lesson. The 
smile of the Saviour's pitiful admiration con- 
veys with it an emphasis ; for it shows how 



80 CONVEESATIONS OF CHRIST. 

thoroughly moral, according to his own esti- 
mate of morality, this young man was, and 
how attractive he was in his personal accom- 
plishments and deportment, in contrast with 
the rude and dissolute and vicious transgres- 
sor. Even Christ testifies to the beauty and 
loveliness of this extraordinary morality, 
which had in it no defect to the eye, that the 
lesson of the whole incident might be the more 
pointed and impressive. It was an uncommon 
specimen of what would be called among men 
a good life. " What lack I yet ?" said he, and 
that honestly. That one look of love from the 
face of Christ is the highest reward and enco- 
mium which the moralist could reach; but 
that was only preparatory for the sequel. A 
question has been asked of the true Master 
which demands a true answer; and that an- 
swer will lay open the heart to its very core : 
"Yet one thing thou lackest: if thou wilt be 
perfect, go thy way, 'and sell whatsoever thou 
hast, and give to the poor, and come, take up 
the cross, &ndfottoiv me." 

Mark, Christ does not say, "Thou lackest 
only one thing " — but one thing thou lackest, 



THE MORALIST. 81 

and that is the whole. Good enough, admi- 
rable enough, so far as it goes, measured on 
your humanitarian and visible plane, is your 
law-keeping ; but in the eye which reads the 
heart and inspects the invisible dispositions 
there is a defect which vitiates the whole. 
You are utterly wanting in that love which 
is the keeping of the whole law. To convince 
him that it was so — for this purpose only — 
our Lord presents to him a test. He did not 
assail him with severe charges ; he did not tell 
him that in heart he was an idolater ; but 
he proposed to him that he should do a cer- 
tain thing — had he not asked what he should 
do to inherit eternal life ? — which he could not 
do if he was wanting in that love for his neigh- 
bor which is equal to the love of one's self; 
and this proposal was made for the very pur- 
pose of satisfying him that there was in his 
heart a radical defect. Say not that the terms 
of Christian discipleship are severe. These 
are not the terms of Christian discipleship. 
Christ does not demand that every man who 
becomes his disciple should sell all that he has, 
and reduce himself to poverty. You say that 

4* 



82 CONVEESATIONS OF CHKIST. 

it was very natural that this proposal should 
excite grief, and would be disposed of just as 
it was in this case. Granted ; just what we 
believe. This would be the natural, the com- 
mon mode of disposing of such an exaction. 
Just what our Lord intended to convey to this 
inquirer. This man had wished to make him- 
self or prove himself perfect. To prove to him 
that his goodness was not perfect, according to 
the spirit of the commandment, he gave him a 
direction such as could be obeyed only by a 
perfect love. You affirm that you would cer- 
tainly have reluctated at such a proposal. 
Undoubtedly you would, because you know 
that your love is not perfect, and so not equal 
to the sacrifice. God's goodness is infinite, 
because his love is infinite ; and the Son of 
God made sacrifices for man such as could 
have been made by love only. 

Say not then that Christ puts a hard yoke 
and binds a heavy burden on his disciples ; 
it is the man himself who has come under the 
pressure, by undertaking to accomplish and 
demonstrate his own perfection. To convince 
him that he is not perfect, and that of himself 



THE MORALIST. 83 

lie cannot do all which is implied in perfect 
obedience to the law of love, he is bidden to 
do what he feels himself nneqnal to perform ; 
and all this that he might change his ground 
and his endeavor, and assume a place in the 
cliscipleship of Christ : " Come andfoUoiv me. 11 
When the young man heard these words, his 
countenance fell; he was very sorrowful, sad 
at heart, for he had great wealth. Had the 
probe touched the heart ? Had he discovered 
that he loved himself more than his neighbor ? 
Was he convinced for the first time that be- 
tween him and that perfection which is de- 
manded in the law ther.e was an immense 
chasm? If he had just now and here, when 
the kind fidelity of Christ had thus disclosed 
himself to himself — if he had only confessed 
and acknowledged the defect of his legal obe- 
dience, and asked for forgiveness, a new ele- 
ment would have entered into his life, which 
would have insured salvation upon Christian 
terms, in distinction from that legality which 
he had prescribed for himself. He turned, sad 
and depressed, and went away. The issue of 
the case is veiled from our eye. Did he sub- 



84: CONVEESATIONS OF CHRIST. 

sequently; under these new teachings, con- 
scious of imperfection, return to God with 
penitential prayer, and* so prove himself a 
disciple of the Saviour? We know nothing 
of his history after this; but as the eye of 
Christ followed him as he went away, he 
turned to his disciples — who, as the sequel 
shows, were in danger of mistaking the inci- 
dent — and gave them a most impressive teach- 
ing concerning the idolatry of wealth. 

But this is a new subject, and quite a dif- 
erent phase from that which we have now 
contemplated. Let us then follow up the re- 
sults of this conversation in one lesson. That 
lesson is, that no man can inherit eternal life 
on the basis of a legal obedience. We are 
not to be promoted to celestial honor and 
blessedness because of our personal and meri- 
torious goodness. That goodness, to consti- 
tute a claim by inheritance to eternal life, must 
be not only honest and cordial, but absolutely 
perfect. It must come up to the full standard 
of the commandment. The moment you attach 
to it the quality of imperfection, of defect, how- 
ever slight, that moment you introduce into 



THE MOKALIST. 85 

your religion a new idea, a new element, which 
must be met with its own correlative of for- 
giveness ; but this is the Christian method, in 
distinction from legality. 

Shall we then conclude that morality — 
understanding by the term this unblemished 
and attractive exterior of life — is valueless? 
or that a thorough obedience to law is not to 
be prosecuted by every Christian disciple with 
a most noble emulation ? This is the worst of 
all infatuations. Two extremes have been* of 
common occurrence : to undervalue morality, 
however earnest, on the plea of Christian 
faith ; and to exalt and honor secular morality 
at the expense and in contempt of Christian 
faith. 

"It is what they see of the laxity, the 
imbecility, the instability of many religionists, 
which indurates secular men in their impi- 
ety, and leads them, with an avowed con- 
tempt of religious principles, to rest the mo- 
tives of their conduct upon the lower ground 
of expediency, utility, honor, and a regard to 
reputation. On the other hand, the lax reli- 
gionist, seeing as he does that secular princi- 



88 CONVERSATIONS OP CHRIST. 

pies often produce a sort of consistency and 
virtue of which he knows himself to be en- 
tirely destitute, and finding that his doctrine 
of faith, in Ms case, has no efficiency of a sim- 
ilar kind, arrives tacitly at the conclusion that 
the honor, truth, integrity, candor, ingenuous- 
ness, and self-command in which some worldly 
men excel are nothing better than '* worldly 
virtues' or false semblances of goodness with 
which a ' spiritual man ' should have little or 
nothing to do."* 

A Christian well instructed in the New 
Testament holds to a golden mean which 
involves no contradiction or inconsistency. 
Morality is not the precedent condition of 
saving faith, but it is always the result, the 
fruit, and the evidence of Christian faith. 

Propose the question, "What shall I do 
to inherit eternal life ?" in the spirit of this 
Jewish ruler, with the purpose and expecta- 
tion of achieving your own immortal honor, 
without the ideas of defect and forgiveness and 
faith in a Saviour, and a greater task "is before 
you than to tread the zodiac of the universe — 
* Sat. Evg., p. 168. 



THE MOKALIST. 87 

even to travel the star-paved highway which 
leads on and on and upward to the absolute 
perfection which exists in the Supreme. And 
this must be without one deflection or diver- 
sion or weariness or halting or mistake. Con- 
scious that we cannot establish our perfect 
goodness after this manner, we acknowledge 
our imperfection, and so are bidden to trust, 
as sinners, in the grace of the Redeemer. 

What now ? Is this Christian faith an ex- 
emption from all morality and a license for all 
sins ? Is the act of believing in the Saviour the 
paralysis of virtue ? or the power which stim- 
ulates it to a greater vitality, supplying it 
with a more potent force? We cannot mis- 
take our answer to this question. Saddened 
by the honest conviction that we cannot stand 
the criterion of an unmixed and Divine per- 
fection, we take our place, as grateful peni- 
tents, in the discipleship of that Master who 
forgives freely, whose yoke is easy and whose 
burden is light ; and because forgiven and re- 
enforced by new motives and helps beyond all 
that can be found in ourselves, we go forth to 
a new obedience, to the careful practice of all 



88 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

Christian virtues. We aim to obey the higher 
injunctions, not that we may be promoted as 
those who are without sin, but because we are 
forgiven as sinners, and faith in the Redeemer 
has admitted us to a new domain of freedom 
and gratitude and love. Eternal life does not 
depend upon our perfection; but because it 
does depend upon the grace of Christ and the 
love of the Spirit, that love shall prompt us 
to emulate perfection. 

"Come and follow me," says Christ. All 
his conversations with men terminate with 
proposing his own person as the object of 
faith. We do not put ourselves before Christ, 
but after him. We do not stand in prece- 
dency of the Saviour, but follow in his steps, 
as those who at once trust in his help and 
imitate his life. 

The review of this conversation of our Lord 
with an accomplished moralist will greatly in- 
struct us if we are reminded of this revealed 
certainty, " that by the deeds of the law no 
flesh living shall be justified" — that we are 
justified freely by the grace of Christ : and 
because of this we are impelled, prompted, en- 



THE MORALIST. 89 

couraged to follow that holiness which shines 
upon us down through those gates of Paradise 
which are opened — to the weeping eye of 
penitence — by the hand of the Eedeemer. 
" Come and follow me," says Christ. Yes, 
we will — not as those who are proved to be 
perfect ; but that forgiven and blessed we 
may go on unto perfection. ' ' Come and fol- 
low me/' says Christ. Yes, we will, for thou 
hast bought us with a 'price, and we are not 
our own. 

" Talk they of morals ? Oh, thou bleeding Lamb, 
The grand morality is love of thee." 



CONVERSATION OF CHRIST 



WITH 



THE INTELLIGENT SCRIBE : 

Not far from the Kingdom of 



God. 


. 


MATT. 22:34 


-40. 


MARK 12:28- 


-34. 



IV. 
THE INTELLIGENT SCEIBE: 

Not far from the Kingdom of 
God. 

In the New Testament we have not only a 
series of precepts, but a moving panorama of 
living characters, who come in contact with 
Jesns Christ, propose their questions, receive 
their answers, and pass along, giving place to 
others ; but their questions and answers do 
not pass away with them ; they remain for ever, 
the record of spiritual truths in a living form. 

Here was a man who was pronounced by 
our Lord to be " not far from the kingdom of 
God." If, then, we shall be able to under- 
stand the very posture of the mind here intro- 
duced and described, we shall very readily 
solve the question whether we ourselves are 
near to or remote from the kingdom of heaven. 

The individual here referred to was a 



94 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

scribe, an ecclesiastical lawyer, learned in all 
questions pertaining to the religion of his coun- 
try. As it appears from the narrative itself — ■ 
and the method of procuring the true stereo- 
scopic impression of the whole scene is, to col- 
late the language of the several evangelists 
who have recorded it — he was a listener to 
what had occurred in Christ's conversation 
with other persons. The Herodians, designing 
to entrap our Lord, had just asked him a ques- 
tion concerning the payment of tribute to the 
Roman government. Immediately after this, 
the Sadducees proposed to him another ques- 
tion concerning the resurrection. Both par- 
ties received an answer — but an answer so 
smooth, so adroit, so discreet, that they were 
transfixed on their own dilemmas. They were 
baffled and silenced, so that they did not dare 
to ask him any more questions. The scribe, 
who next appears in view, a spectator of the 
scene, seems to have been struck wij:h the 
peculiarly neat, wise, and unanswerable lan- 
guage of our Lord. It evinced an accurate 
knowledge of the Scriptures. "Wishing to 
ascertain more of this extraordinary stranger, 



THE INTELLIGENT SCRIBE. 95 

and to improve the opportunity for solving 
certain matters which had long been upon his 
own mind, he now steps forward and proposes 
a question to our Lord for himself. His pur- 
pose in so doing, we must believe, was honest : 
his disposition was good. Matthew, indeed, 
says, that the lawyer asked the question 
u tempting him." But a very slight acquaint- 
ance with the language of. the New Testament 
satisfies one that the word thus rendered is 
used in a good sense as well as a bad. If in 
some instances it obviously imports a malig- 
nant design, such as solicitation to evil, or 
ensnaring one in mischief; in others it is used 
just as obviously in the general sense of prov- 
ing one for the purpose of ascertaining his 
opinions and character. Beyond all ques- 
tion this was the intention of the individual 
now before us. There was no malign pur- 
pose in his heart; for had there been, our 
Lord never would have said that he was near 
to the kingdom of God. Convinced that the 
person who, in his hearing, had just before 
refuted the Herodians and the Sadducees so 
cleverly must have still further knowledge of 



96 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

the Scriptures, and wishing himself to obtain 
information pertinent to his own profession, 
he also asked a question which was intended 
to develop the character of the man in whose 
presence he stood. The question proposed 
was this: "Master, which is the first com- 
mandment of all?" To redeem this inquiry 
from the appearance of frivolity, it should be 
borne in mind that this was a point long 
mooted by the Jewish teachers, whether the 
law of sacrifice, or the law of circumcision, or 
the law of the Sabbath, or the law of the phy- 
lacteries should have the precedence. Our 
Lord answered the question thus proposed by 
reciting sentences which were written in the 
phylacteries themselves — the compendium of 
the moral law. Taking no notice whatever of 
those disputed questions concerning the cere- 
monial law, he rehearsed at once the substance 
of the divine statute which epitomizes all mor- 
als : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy Grocl with 
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This 
is the first commandment." And the scribe 
exclaimed : "Master, thou hast answered well" 



THE INTELLIGENT SCEIBE. 97 

Our English word well does not exhaust 
the meaning of the Greek mfc>s — beautifully, 
excellently — conveying the high satisfaction 
which was felt with that reply. It was an 
answer which corresponded to his own judg- 
ment. What are forms and ritualisms, burnt- 
offerings and sacrifices, in comparison with the 
temper of the heart, the right quality of the 
affections? When our Lord perceived the 
heartiness, intelligence, and discretion with 
which the scribe responded to his own saying, 
he said unto him, " Thou art not far from the 
kingdom of God J 1 He affirmed not that this 
man was in the kingdom, but that he was near 
to it — far nearer than if his manner, his dis- 
position, his opinions had been other than they 
were. Few words need be expended in prov- 
ing that the expression, "kingdom of God," 
signifies, in this connection, that state of bless- 
ed security which is revealed and proffered to 
us in the gospel. It indicates that condition 
of things which is by Jesus Christ, insuring 
man's highest welfare for this life and for the 
life which is to come. Whether the person 
here conversing with Christ actually entered 

Con. or Christ. 5 



98 CONVEESATIONS OF CHEIST. 

within the kingdom, receiving the gospel and 
the salvation of his sonl. we are not informed. 
No farther mention is made of his case ; he is 
not introduced again in the sacred annals ; 
the cnrtain drops jnst at this time and place ; 
so that we cannot even conjecture whether, 
improving 'his advantages, he passed on yet 
farther, even within the precincts of safety, or, 
withdrawing his foot, retreated to a greater 
distance from the kingdom of God. The point 
of greatest interest to ns is, that which is dis- 
closed in this one interview and conversation. 
If this individual evinced a condition of char- 
acter which brought him into a critical near- 
ness to the kingdom of heaven, it is of great 
concern to each and all to know what that 
condition was, that we may measure our own 
relations to the redemption of the Son of God.* 
Our wisdom therefore is to ascertain, if it 
be possible, what there was peculiar to the 
individual thus described, which drew forth 
this judgment from our Lord, "Thou art not 
far from the kingdom of God." The only 
source of knowledge which is open to us in 
reference to this inquiry is, the narrative itself. 



THE INTELLIGENT SCKIBE. 99 

The first thing of a hopeful character in 
the state of this individual was, that he was 
disposed to press an honest and earnest inquiry 
after truth. 

We are constrained to believe that this 
was the case from all the attendant circum- 
stances. He was not a skeptic, he was not 
stupidly indifferent, he was not a crafty oppo- 
nent, but he was disposed to inquire after the 
truth. This was decidedly auspicious and 
hopeful. The first thing which the truth of 
G-od demands is, a mind open and attentive 
to receive it. The greatest censure which 
Scripture and observation compel us to pass 
upon multitudes of men is, that though the 
light shines, they will not receive it. The 
doors and the windows are barred closely 
against it. The mind has no interest in the 
truth ; is profoundly insensible to its existence. 
A disposition to ask for the truth, to inquire 
for instruction, is the first sign of spiritual 
vitality. Inasmuch as the truth of God is 
nigh to us, flowing around us like the air, 
shining about us like the sun, the opening of 
the mind to receive it advances one immedi- 



100 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

ately into the most auspicious proximity to its 

■ 

blessings. 

This thoughtful teacher of the law was 
favored with the opportunity of a personal 
conversation with Christ. That is denied to 
us ; but we possess what is better and greater. 
The kingdom of God has had a fuller disclo- 
sure since that day when the Son of man held 
these memorable conversations in Jerusalem. 
The redemption which is by Jesus Christ is 
amply revealed ; and that revelation is given 
to us in a written form. Eemote from all the 
benefits of the gospel are all they who feel not 
interest enough therein to consult the pages of 
inspiration with a candid and earnest spirit. 
Their faces are actually averted from the light ; 
their backs are turned upon the kingdom of 
God. 

The first step — and that step advances one 
farther than may be supposed — is, when he 
begins with personal interest to ask for the 
way of truth. That way is so plain and infal- 
lible, that to inquire for it is to find it. Show 
me the man who, roused out of apathy, is 
inquisitive after the way of the Lord ; who is 



THE INTELLIGENT SCRIBE. 101 

earnest for the solution of those questions 
which have agitated his soul ; who daily seeks 
for light and truth out of the oracles of God, 
even as he would have hung upon the lips of 
Christ in the days of his flesh ; who is alert to 
improve every o*pportunity and help within 
his reach for acquiring that knowledge which 
is eternal life : and I will show you the 
very man who is not far from the kingdom of 
God. The only thing which separates one 
from the abundant blessings which are in 
Christ is, that opaque, inert condition of mind 
and heart which is likened unto death. To 
give heed, to inquire, to be candid, honest, 
earnest in seeking, at the words of Christ, 
what is needful for us to know, is to begin to 
live. Deepen this spirit of earnest inquisi- 
tiveness, and you bring one nearer and nearer 
to the kingdom of God. Eyes that are shut 
cannot see the light. Let them be opened, 
and we may hope for the spiritual discernment 
which brings salvation. 

Indispensable as is this earnest action of 
the mind, it is only initiatory. That which 
shows a more decided advance towards- the 



102 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST, 

kingdom of God is, a correct judgment as to 
the import of the divine law. The gospel of 
Jesus Christ is designed to be remedial of all 
those defects which are under the law. The 
consciousness of those defects must spring from 
a knowledge of the law itself. That which was 
the most hopeful of all things in the condition 
of this scribe was, that he had a true discern- 
ment of the spiritual nature of the divine com- 
mandment. In his judgment, holocausts, obla- 
tions, forms, rites were of no account compared 
with that supreme love which is the one essen- 
tial law of our being. He who has reached this 
conviction will be likely to reach the convic- 
tion, also, that by that law of judgment he 
is impeached of a vast deficiency ; and for this 
there is no remedy but in the grace of the Son 
of God. The law is the schoolmaster who 
leads us to Christ. Not far from the kingdom 
of heaven is he who beholds himself in the 
perfect law of his Maker ; while the gospel 
will be an enigma and a stumbling-block to 
all such as discern not the spirituality of the 
divine statute. 

To illustrate the many mistakes of men in 



THE INTELLIGENT SCRIBE. 103 

reference to this vital subject, the New Tes- 
tament presents us with several tableaux of 
living personages. One resembles, as to the 
outward appearance, the scribe introduced 
into this narrative. He was a magistrate, in 
the prime of life, of great wealth, and alto- 
gether, as to position and character, one of 
the elite of the land.* He too displayed an. 
unusual earnestness in his interview with our 
Lord. Seeing him approach, he ran, fell on 
his knees before him, saying, "Master, good 
Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may 
inherit eternal life V 7 However mistaken and 
impertinent the answer which we may give to 
such a question, our Lord never misjudged 
the character of individuals. The question 
proposed by this ornate moralist gives us the 
first glimpse of his character. " What good 
thing shall I do, that I may inherit eteriM 
life?" "If you are resolute in your deter- 
mination," says Christ, "at legal perfection, the 
category of duty is briefly summed : Keep the 

* Vide preceding chapter. The persons introduced 
on these several occasions, often confounded, are obvi- 
ously distinct. 



104 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

commandments." "What commandments?" 
was the quick and eager inquiry. " Those, of* 
'course, which compose the moral law: Thou 
shalt do no murder; thou shalt not commit 
adultery ; thou shalt not steal ; honor thy fa- 
ther and thy mother; all of which may be 
summed up in the one comprehensive require- 
ment — Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
self." With the utmost promptness and decis- 
ion, the young man replied : " Why, all these 
I have kept from my childhood. What lack I 
yet ?» 

Our Lord looked at him steadfastly, 
his calm eye reading that soul through and 
through ; when, breaking the silence of that 
prolonged gaze, he said: "One thing thou 
lackest — if thou wilt be perfect — if thou wilt 
establish thy claim to a legal obedience which 
hath no flaw — go sell all thy possessions, give 
to the poor, and come take up thy cross and 
follow me, and thou shalt have treasure in 
heaven." No one who is not disposed to cavil 
at the letter can misunderstand the meaning 
of this direction. He would only display his 
own petulancy and folly who should complain 



THE INTELLIGENT SCRIBE. 105 

that this was an unreasonable demand made 
by Christ of all his disciples ; and that this, 
indeed, was a hard saying, that every man 
must part with all hrs worldly estate before 
he can prove himself entitled to the kingdom 
of heaven. The passage contains no such sen- 
timent, and the gospel presents no such condi- 
tion. Here was a man who, by his own words, 
declared a wish and expectation to inherit 
eternal life on the ground of perfect obedience. 
Upon that ground, the ground which he had 
chosen, our Lord meets him ; and for the pur- 
pose of convincing him that his legal obedi- 
ence was fatally defective, he proposes a test 
which was explosive of his hopes. The truth 
was, that beneath all that fair and fascinating 
exterior there was a heart of idolatry. This 
man loved his money more than he loved his 
God. The finger of the Physician was laid 
upon the very tenderness and soreness of the 
disease. He had asked what he did lack, and 
the answer came with such a look and empha- 
sis as convinced him that he lacked every thing. 
The bolt hit the conscience in the core. He went 
away grieved. Trusting in his own obedience, 

5* 



106 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

he had asked how to inherit eternal life, and 
he had received a response which proved that 
no obedience of his had been commensurate 
with the holy law of God, which requires a 
love which is cordial, a love which is univer- 
sal, a love which is supreme. The probe did 
its office ; and this very man, who a few min- 
utes before embraced the knees of Christ with 
fervid emotion, now turned away from Him 
with sadness, because the words which He had 
uttered proved to his own consciousness that 
he loved his riches more than he loved his 
God — more than he loved his fellow-man, It 
is not said of this man that he was near the 
kingdom of God. Whether he ever aban- 
doned his ideas of legal perfection and ac- 
cepted the grace of his Eedeemer we know 
not ; but this we know, that an honest admis- 
sion of what the divine law is and what it re- 
quires is a prerequisite to salvation through 
the Son of God. 

As if to make this one point clear beyond 
all doubt, a third person is introduced on a 
third occasion, and he also was a lawyer of 
the church. The cast of his mind differed 



THE INTELLIGENT SCKIBE. 107 

from those which we have considered already. 
He too inquired, "Master, what shall I do to 
inherit eternal life?" And Christ answered 
him : ■ ' What is written in the law ? how read- 
est thou?" And he answering said: "Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, 
and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as 
thyself." And He said unto him : " Thou hast 
answered right ; this do, and thou shalt live." 
But this inquirer, addicted to a literal and 
superficial construction, was willing to justify 
himself, and asked, "Who is my. neighbor ?" 
Then followed the parable of the good Samar- 
itan, the full meaning of which is not under- 
stood, except we bear in mind the man and 
the circumstances which called it forth. It 
may seem to us like a beautiful painting, but 
it was like one of those pictures in the Inter- 
preter's House, which gleamed terror on the 
soul of the Pilgrim, making him to tremble 
like an aspen-leaf. Both of these incidents 
had a common design — to convince the men 
here described that their obedience to the law 
of God was altogether defective, the one hav- 



108 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

ing no love for his Maker, the other no love 
of the right quality for his fellow-man. 

These interpretations of law are interpre- 
tations of ourselves ; and no man is near to 
the kingdom of God, as that expression is 
used by Jesus Christ — salvation through re- 
deeming grace, without merit of our own — 
whose self-complacency has never been dissi- 
pated by a right discernment of the law. The 
law never can save us ; and he is the nearest 
to the forgiveness of the gospel who, with a 
contrite heart, discerns most clearly and feels 
most profoundly that perfection of the divine 
statute which impeaches and condemns us. 
The publican, standing afar olff from the throng 
of worshippers, was already within the king- 
dom of God ; while the conceited Pharisee, 
pressing up to the chief places of the temple- 
courts and foremost in his religious histrion- 
ism, was far removed from the grace of the 
Redeemer. 

We intend something more than the anal- 
ysis of a historic incident. The instance which 
is here recorded concerns every living soul. 
Would you compute aright your own rela- 



THE INTELLIGENT SOEIBE. 109 

tions to the kingdom of God, measuring your 
own proximity to those incomparable benefits 
in the gift of the Kedeemer,- answer to yourself 
whether there has been any change as to the 
interest you feel for the wise provision of your 
immortal spirit. The time was, it may be, 
when you were conscious of a most profound 
indifference to the love which passeth knowl- 
edge, and to the wrath to come. Is it so, that 
by influences which you can neither control 
nor describe, you have come to feel a want 
that has never been met, and to inquire for a 
good which never yet has been found ? Does 
it seem as if a veil had been withdrawn from 
before your mind, so that in hours of deep and 
earnest thinking objects, which you never be- 
lieved before, seem to start out from the shad- 
ows as if just created? 

Have you begun to knock at those gates 
of wisdom where you never knocked before ? 
Have you begun to pray for divine help in the 
solution of those spiritual mysteries which agi- 
tate you ? Have you felt that your pride was 
melting clown into a meek and gentle desire to 
know the way of the Lord more perfectly ? 



110 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

Are you a candid, diligent reader of the Scrip- 
tures ? and do you ask that your soul may be 
illuminated, quickened, and inclined aright ? 

Have you been conscious of some new dis- 
cernment of the divine law, admiring it as the 
expression, not of grievous severity, but of 
God's infinite benignity, clear as crystal and 
glorious as the firmament? and does there 
gleam across your mind, at times, the thought 
of what you are when judged by that perfect 
commandment ? — times in which the truth will 
grapple with you as a mighty wrestler — that if 
you love any thing in the universe more than 
your Maker, then indeed you are an idolater, 
whether that object of preference be hideous 
as a hydra or fascinating as a syren? Are 
you ever startled by the thought of what the 
issue must be, if your self-assertion should 
never bow itself in happy submission to God, 
and your soul with such a purpose should be 
set free amid the powers of a changeless eter- 
nity? Does the conviction — sometimes clear 
and strong, amid all your gains and profits — 
plough through your deepest consciousness, 
that you need out of yourself just that which 



THE INTELLIGENT SCRIBE. Ill 

the Christ of God offers to give you — pardon, 
hope, peace, suretyship, salvation? 

My dear friend, amid all these agitations, 
self-judgments, depressions, inquiries, gro- 
pings, if you did but know it, you are not far 
from the kingdom of God. You may be ready 
to judge yourself at a hopeless distance • but 
your condition is a thousand-fold more hope- 
ful than it was before you awoke to this con- 
scious sensibility. You feel that you are sick, 
and lo, the physician is at your bedside ; the 
wound pains you, the balsam is nigh at hand. 
You have discovered that you are in want, 
and hard by is all the fulness of God. 

It is a great thing to be near the kingdom 
of God, because it is such a great thing actu- 
ally to be within it. All that is not within is 
without. It is not enough to be near salva- 
tion — we must be saved. I need not inform the 
intelligent reader that the condition described 
is peculiarly critical In that immediate vicinity 
to the help which he needs, he stands balan- 
cing himself on the question, whether he will 
advance or retreat ; whether he will press on 



112 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

and cross the threshold, or turn back, and 
prove himself not fit for the kingdom of God. 
To remember that once we were near the 
salvation of Christ, so near that our right hand 
might have touched and taken it, and after all 
that hand was withheld, this is a memory 
which will enhance remorse for ever. The 
recollection of former nearness to it will "bite 
like a serpent and sting like an adder. ;; We 
can all recall seasons in our lives when, in a 
special sense, we were near to the salvation 
of God ; affliction had mellowed us ; truth had 
stolen into our hearts ; we were inclined to an 
unusual sobriety ; parental faithfulness melted 
us ; but let us never forget, that to be almost 
persuaded to be a Christian is not the same as 
being a Christian.; to walk around the city of 
God is not the same as to enter it ; to discern 
our need, great as that is, is not precisely the 
same thing as to receive what that need re- 
quires. Oui? subject therefore pleads with all 
to press into the kingdom of God. Now, when 
you are so near to its security ; now, when its 
gates stand open wide ; now, when you can 
look in upon the brightness of the celestial 



THE INTELLIGENT SCRIBE. 113 

metropolis, and hear the gladness of its music ; 
now, when invitations come forth from the 
Spirit and the Bride to take the water of 
life freely; now, when opportunities are so 
favorable, when the breath of prayer seems to 
waft you upwards ; now, while God waits to 
be gracious ; now, while He who calls himself 
your Redeemer, Saviour, Friend, Physician, 
Helper, is so nigh, avail yourself of his offices, 
and live for ever. 



CONVERSATION OF CHRIST 



WITH 



ZACCHEUS : 

A True Convert 



LUKE 19:1-10. 



ZACOHEUS: 

fc True Convert. 

In this passage we have the conversation 
of onr Lord with a true convert, a penitent 
sinner. It presents a phase of character 
the very opposite of that demonstrated by 
the moralist, in the person of the young ruler. 
This might not appear to one whose eye merely 
glances over the record. Indeed, a superfi- 
cial reader might receive a very different im- 
pression — even that this was a man inclined 
to boast of his own good deeds, a self-right- 
eous act which it would be hard to reconcile 
with the blessing pronounced upon him by 
the Saviour. The evangelists make frequent 
use of ellipses in their narratives. They touch 
only the main points. They give the substance 
in outline, rather than in a finished picture. 
By collating all the several incidents, fre- 



118 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

quently minute, we are sure to receive the 
right impression. Whatever is omitted is of 
small consequence ; that only is recorded which 
is essential to the subject-matter. This visit 
of Christ to Zaccheus, when we have compiled 
all the facts of the case, will impress us as an 
anti-Pharisaic demonstration, which resulted 
in conversion and salvation. By this time we 
must be convinced of the immense advantage of 
this method of inspired instruction through the 
medium of living persons — tableaux, as it were, 
of various characters in personal interviews 
with Christ — above all that could be conveyed 
by simple dogmatic assertion. 

Few things can interest us more than the 
action of a mind in the very process of its 
religious conversion. Elsewhere we watch a 
soul through the struggles and conflicts and 
victories of its sanctification, and rejoice our- 
selves in the reflected joy of a ransomed spirit 
entering upon the security and blessedness of 
the heavenly city. Here is the beginning of 
that which is destined to reach such a con- 
summation. We feel a profound concern to 
understand the very posture and act of the 



A TRUE CONVERT. 119 

man who, a sinner before, becomes a disciple 
of Christ, with the promise of such a magnifi- 
cent futurity. Let us seek, then, to know the 
truth concerning this person, of whom Christ 
said at a particular time — a memorable epoch 
it was in that man's life — " This day is salva- 
tion come to this house." 

It is not always possible to fix with ac- 
curacy the birthtime of religious purposes; 
yet when the process of change is defined 
and marked, it possesses a special interest 
for all thoughtful minds. We refer with 
utmost satisfaction to every act of Luther's 
mind at the epoch when light first broke 
upon him, during his monastic life* at Er- 
furth. A memorable time is that when an 
earthly life begins ; more important by far 
the time when, born again of the Spirit of 
God, we commence a career which for ever 
and ever advances us nearer to God himself. 
In depicting, accurately as we can, the condi- 
tion of this mind on the occasion here de- 
scribed, we would not countenance the opin- 
ion that its action is a model pattern for every 
other mind in its conversion to God ; for all 



120 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

other persons may not be of the same habit 
and disposition with Zaccheus at the time 
when their conversion occurs. Nevertheless, 
every instance of conversion which the Holy 
Ghost has chosen to put on record is worthy 
of our study, and is, to say the least, the rep- 
resentative each of its own class. 

The scene of the narrative is the city of 
Jericho, that ancient city, large and strong 
before the Israelites took possession of Ca- 
naan. Its distance from Jerusalem is not 
great, and thither our Lord was now going 
for the last time. As his public ministry is 
drawing to a close, every thing pertaining 
thereto* attracts the greater attention and a 
concentrated interest. His miracles, his teach- 
ings, his theocratic claims had given him a 
widening fame, and as the end approached, 
his every movement excited public notice and 
discussion. 

In the suburbs of Jericho there resided a f 
man by the name of Zaccheus, of Jewish ex- 
traction, as the name indicates. He was a 
publican, an officer of the revenue ; and as 
the place was quite notorious for the extent 



A TRUE CONVERT. 121 

of its trade in dates and balsam, by the manage- 
ment of the imposts he had found his position 
lucrative, and had become very rich. It is 
hardly necessary to remind the reader of the 
social condition and the general estimate of 
the class of men to which Zaccheus belonged. 
While the farmers of the revenue, of the first 
class, were Roman knights of considerable 
rank and dignity, their agents, the common 
collectors of tribute, were regarded by the Jews 
with the utmost contempt and odium. This 
was owing not only to the fact that the Jews 
thought it unlawful to pay tribute to a hea- 
then power, but more especially to the fact 
that the publicans, having a certain share in 
the tribute which they collected, were gener- 
ally noted for imposition, rapine, and extor- 
tion. The Jew who accepted the office of pub- 
lican was execrated by his own countrymen. 
He was not allowed to enter the synagogues, 
and his presents for the temple were not ac- 
cepted, being regarded as wicked and offen- 
sive. "Let him be unto thee as a heathen 
man and a publican," is only one of the many 
expressions in the New Testament which indi- 

Cod. of Christ. 6 



122 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

cate the general detestation in which all belong- 
ing to the order were held. It is nowhere af- 
firmed that every man attached to the profes- 
sion partook of the character usually associa- 
ted with the order. Matthew, one of the apos- 
tles of Christ, and the first in order of the 
evangelists, was a publican at the^ port of Ca- 
pernaum, or on the high road to Damascus, at 
the time when he was called to follow the Mas- 
ter. Neither is it affirmed that Zaccheus was 
particularly notorious for his dishonesty and 
exactions. Still he was not altogether clear 
of the imputations which belonged to his class. 
He was by no means immaculate, as his own 
confession betrays before this interview with 
Christ is closed. There were other things 
upon him besides the social ban which distin- 
guished his profession. "For the Son of man 
is come to seek and to save that which was 
lost" These are the words which last fell 
from the lips of Christ — terminating the con- 
versation, and explanatory of the whole trans- 
action. Zaccheus, therefore, was one of the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel. He occu- 
pies the opposite pole to that where stood the 



A TRUE CONVERT. 123 

young ruler, in the halo of his spotless moral- 
ity. Not only did he belong to another class 
socially, but in point of character also. The 
one was scrupulously honest and upright, de- 
frauding not and stealing not ; the other, we 
are forced to admit, by the purpose of restitu- 
tion which he afterwards avowed, had defraud- 
ed, perhaps often. Instead of being classi- 
fied with Pharisaic legalists, with ornate mor- 
alists, with scrupulous religionists, we must 
assign him a place in the general category of 
publicans and sinners ; one who would have 
been found wanting, if weighed in the balances 
of common honesty. We shall lose the point of 
the whole conversation, if we mistake at the 
beginning the character of this man. We need 
not impute to him any thing extraordinary in 
the way of crime ; but from4hese several ex- 
pressions — the judgment of his neighbors — 
' ' He was gone to be guest with a man that is 
a sinner ;" and his own admission, "Wherein 
I have taken any thing from any man by false 
accusation /■ and Christ's final explanation, 
"For the Son of man is come to seek and to 
save that which was lost" — we are forced to 



124 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHKIST. 

conclude that this rich publican of Jericho 
was open to the charge of dishonesty and 
immorality. 

But we are more interested in knowing 
what this man becomes, than what he was. 
Indeed, what he was is of no account, save 
as it indicates the greatness of the change 
which is here wrought, and the restoring 
power of that grace by which it is accom- 
plished. We have described his character. 
What was the attitude of his mind at the very 
time when this interview with Christ com- 
menced ? We are not without materials "for 
forming a judgment. 

The person of Christ, as he passed through 
the city, was surrounded by a great crowd, 
composed chiefly of his avowed disciples and 
such as had beea impressed by his miracles. 
If, as the narrative of Luke would lead us to 
believe, the miracle performed on blind Bar- 
timeus was when Christ entered the city, all 
the people who saw it or who heard of it 
thronged around him, giving praise to God. 
To say the least, Zaccheus betrayed a great 
curiosity to see this extraordinary person of 



A TBUE CONVEKT. 125 

whom lie had heard so much. Small of stat- 
ure, unable because of the crowd to see Jesus, 
he ran in advance, and climbed up on the 
boughs of a sycamore-tree which stood by 
the way along which Christ was about to 
pass. What ensues will not allow us to 
hold that the only motive he had was what 
we call an "idle curiosity. 11 He was some- 
thing more than a stupid starer. Curiosity, 
however, is better than stolid indifference or 
supercilious contempt. "I will turn aside and 
see what this thing is" — when God kindles a 
burning bush, or creates a stir in human souls 
by the visit of his Spirit — is a purpose which 
indicates a more hopeful condition of mind 
than unthinking and unnoticing stupidity. 

We are not at liberty to suppose that this 
was the first time that Zaccheus had heard of 
Christ. Bethany was not so far distant that 
he was not likely to catch the flying rumor 
concerning Lazarus and the miracle at his 
grave. Most of the mighty works of Christ 
were already finished ; most of his public dis- 
courses had already been uttered — for this 
visit to Jericho was within a few days of his 



126 CONVEESATIONS OF CHKIST. 

crucifixion — and perhaps Zaccheus had heard 
of the parable of the publican and the Phari- 
see, or some other weighty saying of Christ 
had put his thoughts in motion, and excited 
an intense desire, on his own account, to see 
this most remarkable personage. However 
plausible such suppositions may be, we will 
not trench in the least upon mere hypothesis, 
but will confine ourselves rigidly to such evi- 
dence as is furnished in the few touches of 
the inspired pen. There certainly is great 
earnestness in the man ; and what is more, no 
disposition to conceal it. He has none of 
that caution which the rationalist Xicodemus 
showed when coming by night to converse 
with Jesus. Whatever the motives which im- 
pel him, whatever the emotions which strug- 
gle in his soul, Zaccheus, the rich man of Jer- 
icho, is not ashamed to put himself, in broad 
daylight, in a most conspicuous place, before 
all the people, where concealment was impos- 
sible. 

During his second general ministry in 
Galilee, our Lord was invited by a certain 
Pharisee to dine at his house. That Pharisee 



A TRUE # CONVERT. 127 

thought that he was conferring a great honor 
upon Christ by this invitation ; and though 
Christ accepted it for the purpose of adminis- 
tering the lessons which he did to the Phari- 
saic guests, yet he pronounced no blessing upon 
that house, for it was the abode of pride and 
arrogance. How different was the temper of 
Zaccheus. He did not presume to invite Christ 
to his house ; but when Christ himself pro- 
posed to be his guest, Zaccheus shows by 
every expression that he regarded it as the 
greatest honor. He must have had a poor 
opinion of himself, which is the best definition 
of true humility. There was nothing like pride 
or arrogance or superciliousness about the 
man, but a most hearty sense of his own 
unworthiness ; for the alacrity he displays in 
accepting the visit which Christ proposes is 
a proof that he considers it as an honor and 
a blessing. Nor do I see any thing to for- 
bid the belief that his heart had often been 
touched by the sense of his misery and guilt, 
and that this may have been one among 
other reasons why he did not obtrude himself 
through the crowd with his own voluntary 



128 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

invitations to the Son of man. One thing is 
certain, Jesus Christ never assorted with sin- 
ners from any affinity of tastes, but solely be- 
cause his gospel proffers the only relief from 
guilt and misery; and He who "needeth not 
that any should testify of man, since he him- 
self knew what was in man," saw in the heart 
of Zaccheus a disposition which was favorable 
to the reception of the gospel ; and what this 
disposition is, we are most abundantly in- 
formed in other portions of the New Testament. 
"They that are whole need not a physician, 
but they that are sick f and, "Christ came not 
to call the righteous, but sinners to repent- 
ance.' 7 The pith of the entire narrative lies 
in this, that Christ went in as a guest with a 
sinner, in whom there was that very sense of 
conscious humiliation on account of sin, which 
fitted him to receive the grace, the life, the 
hope which the Son of God only could give. 

As the Saviour approaches the place which 
Zaccheus had chosen, we observe an act upon 
His part which interests us most of all. It was 
by no accident that His eye was directed to the 
spot. Seeing Zaccheus, He might have passed 



A TRUE CONVERT. 129 

him without remark. Bat He is about to give 
a new illustration of his aim in coming into 
the world. He who, at the beginning of his 
ministry, had astonished Nathanael by a ref- 
erence to his habits of retirement beneath a 
fig-tree, does not mistake the name or dispo- 
sition of the man perched among the branches 
of the sycamore. The reading of men's 
thoughts by Christ, so many instances of 
which are recorded in his life, was not an 
act of mere sagacity, an inference from words 
and looks and manners, but an actual knowl- 
edge of what was passing in the heart, and 
so must ever serve as an encouragement to 
all who would still approach him for spiritual 
medication. 

Here we should notice that conjunction of 
agencies and events which illustrates the man- 
ner in which Providence ministers to the Spirit 
in effecting the revolution of souls and clesti- * 
nies. Christ finds that for which he was seek- 
ing, the lost sinner ; the sinner finds what he 
had sought to find, a condescending Saviour. 
This was the last time that Christ was to visit 
Jericho. If Zaccheus had not been alert now, 

6* 



130 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

he would have failed of his only opportunity. 
That is always a memorable time in any man's 
history, when, through a book, a letter, a per- 
sonal interview, a sermon, a special provi- 
dence, he is brought into contact with that 
spiritual power which arrests his wayward- 
ness and changes the whole current of his be- 
ing. This is a thought which should impart 
activity, and caution to an improvement of 
occasions, inasmuch as we have so many proofs 
that the Divine Spirit is not indisposed to meet 
our advances. 

In the present instance, the advance is 
altogether on the part of the Eedeemer. 
Calling to Zaccheus by name. He bids him 
descend without delay, for that He intended 
to abide at his house. The conspicuous posi- 
tion of the man crave sreat publicity to these 
words, as our Lord intended — he being about 
* to demonstrate anew most forcibly the whole 
aim and scope of his mission. Xothing pre- 
vented Zaccheus — no diffidence, no sense of 
unworthiness ; no shame — from responding in- 
stantly to the condescending words by which 
he felt himself to be so highly honored. He 



A TKUE CONVERT. 131 

hastens to come down, and received Christ 
most joyfully. And the people murmured 
when they saw that Christ had gone to be 
guest with a man that was a sinner. 

What passed between our Lord and Zac- 
cheus while the former was resting in the house 
of the latter we are not informed. The result, 
not the process, is given. That the interview 
was protracted for a considerable time seems 
to be implied in the very words employed by 
Christ when proposing the visit. Some high 
critical authorities affirm that Christ probably 
remained with Zaccheus through the night. 
Whether it was for an hour or several hours, 
or until the next day, it is certain that our 
Lord w r as domesticated for a considerable 
time with this publican of Jericho ; that the 
time was not spent in silence ; that when we 
next hear Zaccheus speak, it is in terms which 
indicate the greatest of changes. We cannot 
suppose that the words uttered by Zaccheus — 
" Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to 
the poor ; and if I have taken any thing from 
any man by false accusation, I restore him four- 
fold" — were the first words with which he 



132 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

began the conversation; rather are they the 
determination with which it closes ; the ex- 
pression of a purpose which indicates and 
proves the reality of his repentance. Be- 
ceive them as the words with which he first 
accosted Christ — as it were introducing him- 
self— : and they convey the idea of self-com- 
mendation ; you cannot avoid the conclusion 
that they contain a touch of Phariseeisro, and 
that Christ gave him a blessing because he 
was so charitable and so superlatively equita- 
ble. Surely this cannot be the meaning or 
aim of the conversation. Besides, if the words 
are understood to refer to a past habit of his 
life, a most singular .person would he prove 
himself to have been, as claiming the benedic- 
tion of Christ, mixing up his charitable gifts 
and his false accusations, his frauds and his 
restitutions, in one compound. 

We must conclude that there was an inter- 
val of time here — an ellipsis extending as long 
as Christ abode with Zaccheus ; and that what 
is reported here, from the lips of the publican, 
is the issue, the result of the interview, em- 
bodied in the form of a penitent purpose. He 



A TKUE CONVEKT. I 133 

comes into our view as a sinner ; he passes out 
of our view as one who is changed and con- 
verted by the grace of Christ; a lost one, 
whom Christ had sought and saved ; to whose 
house salvation that day had come, with a 
blessing from the Eedeemer. What is quite 
an important item in the transaction is, this 
avowal of purpose on the part of Zaccheus was 
public ; it was heard by others, as the elev- 
enth verse informs us, and so it assumes the 
character of an open vow, demonstrative of an 
entire change in the character of the man. 

"And Zaccheus stood forth" This was 
after we know not what words of confession 
and inquiry on his part, and instruction and 
promise on the part of Christ ; but now 
Zaccheus stands forth before all the people, 
and makes declaration of this purpose, in proof 
of his repentance : " Behold, Lord, the half of 
my goods I give to the poor ; and whatever I 
have taken" — a more accurate translation is 
this, than the use of an "if" as implying a con- 
dition, an uncertainty, or a possibility — "what- 
ever I have extorted from others by false 
charges or any maladministration of office, I 



134 * CONVEESATIONS OF CHRIST. 

will restore it fourfold." A new man is this, 
a converted man, a Christianized publican ; 
and in all these purposes which he avows there 
is an air of honesty, a whole-heartedness, which 
proves that the change is thorough and worthy 
to be recorded. "And Jesus said unto him, 
This day is salvation come to this house ; 
forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham " — 
not only a lineal descendant, however much 
his Pharisaic neighbors might disown and dis- 
card him, but recovered and confirmed in a 
higher sense and by a better title — "for the 
Son of man is come to seek and to save that 
which was lost.' 7 

Assuming, as we must, that this language 
of Zaccheus, followed by such a benediction 
from Christ, is the expression of a penitential 
purpose, the fruit and evidence of the greatest 
of changes in his character, we linger for an 
instant upon the two things by which the sin- 
cerity of his repentance was demonstrated. 
Christian penitence is something more than a 
thought or an emotion or a tear ; it is action : 
"Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give 
to the poor." This is not the boast of self- 



A TKUE CONVEET. 135 

commendation, but the purpose of a new life. 
Conversing with the moralist who prided him- 
self on his perfection, our Lord, to convince 
him of his imperfection, even that his love did 
not reach the standard of the law, bade him 
sell all that he had and give to the poor. 
That direction was given as a means of con- 
viction, and not as a ladder by which to climb 
to a higher morality. Here, in this picture of 
the publican — the pendant of the picture of the 
moralist — no such direction is give$ by our 
Lord ; but there is a spontaneous expression. of 
Christian feeling on the part of the true con- 
vert which proves the genuineness of the 
change wrought in his heart. Instead of a 
wish to enrich himself as before, at the ex- 
pense of others, there is now the new emotion 
and purpose of charity. He does not make 
this avowal in the spirit of a self-righteous 
Pharisee ; it is the free act of a grateful and 
penitent sinner ; it is the evidence of a new 
affection. It is no act of a moralist, settirg 
himself a task ; it is the cheerful resolution of 
a man who has come to see how much he owes 
to that mercy by which he is forgiven and 



136 CONVEESATIONS OF CHEIST. 

saved ; and who, in the expression of Ids 
novel Christian disposition, would evince his 
love for his fellow-men. The legalist con- 
fessed with sorrow that his love, even that of 
which he boasted, was not equal to the sacri- 
fice of his idolized wealth ; the penitent, con- 
verted publican, of his own accord, proposes 
to distribute largely of his goods to the poor, 
in proof of that new love to God and man 
which the grace of Christ has just enkindled. 
This is always the way in which the reality 
of. Christian conversion evidences itself. It 
makes the selfish man charitable ; the churl- 
ish, liberal ; and implants in the soul which 
hitherto has cared only for the things belong- 
ing to himself, a disposition to seek also the 
things of others. The law of God requiring 
us to love our neighbor as ourselves is not 
repealed or modified; while we cannot look 
to it for hope, or for the proof of our perfec- 
tion, strange would it be if, forgiven and saved 
as those that were lost, we should show no 
sign of a wish or a purpose to conform to that 
celestial statute. 

The other proof of genuine conversion 



A. TRUE CONVERT. 137 

evinced by Zaccheus was, in his purpose to 
make ample restitution unto those whom he 
had wronged. The Jewish law prescribed 
several things in regard to the restitution of 
property obtained fraudulently. In case of 
voluntary confession, without detection and 
without trial, the person implicated was re- 
quired only to return what had been stolen, 
with the addition of one-fifth of its value. In 
case of judicial conviction, a much larger sum 
was enjoined. In all cases the implication 
was, that there could be no genuine repent- 
ance unaccompanied by restitution. To be 
sorry for having extorted property from an- 
other, and still retain that property in pos- 
session, would be more incongruous than for 
sweet water and bitter to flow from the same 
fountain. Zaccheus seems to throw his con- 
stitutional earnestness into the purpose of 
making restitution unto all whom he had 
wronged. There is nothing halfway in his 
resolution. Of his own accord, without any 
detection or trial or conviction or compulsion, 
he determines to restore fourfold — far, far 
beyond all which law ever prescribed ; more 



138 CONVEESATIONS OF CHKIST. 

than principal, more than interest, largely in 
advance of all legal claims. He is determined 
to make thorough work of his penitence and 
his reform. Allowing that only a small frac- 
tion of his property had been acquired by dis- 
honest means ; if he gave half of all he pos- 
sessed to the poor, and then restored fourfold 
upon all he had purloined, it is evident that 
very little was retained for himself, and that 
he was determined that hfs new Christian hon- 
esty should go to the very root of the matter. 
Restitution is an indispensable part'of true 
repentance. To right, so far as possible, those 
we have wronged, is essential to a genuine 
Christian conversion. That repentance which 
expresses itself merely in words and down- 
cast looks and regrets and confessions and 
sighs and tears, while the wrong is not re- 
dressed, and the hand still clutches what be- 
longs to another, is of that sort which deceives 
no one so much as the party himself. It may 
be that the person who has most of all suffered 
injury, either in property or reputation or 
wounded affections, is gone from the earth, 
beyond the reach of redress and confession 



A TRUE CONVERT. 139 

and penitential restitution. When this is so, 
the penitent has a lifelong sorrow which is 
very bitter and very hard to bear, because 
unrelieved by the forgiveness of those he has 
wronged. Often will he wish that the injured 
one might return to hear his confession, ac- 
cept his reparation, and permit his honorable 
amends. When death has thus interposed 
between the injured and the injurer, the true 
penitent will certainly discover some act or 
some method of expressing the honesty and 
thoroughness of his sorrow. The charities 
which have been founded, the churches which 
have been reared, throughout the Old World, 
in memory of wrongs to be redressed, provi- 
ded there is no confounding of penance and 
penitence, are monuments of a most Christian 
sentiment. 

Upon this subject of restitution as an essen- 
tial part and sign of repentance, it should be 
said that it relates not merely to what was 
purloined by downright stealing, by out-and- 
out vulgar fraud, but quite as much to acts of 
finesse and dexterity which may have even the 
color and pretext of law for their exculpation. 



140 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHKIST. 

The original expression in the text is very 
significant: "If I have taken any thing by 
false accusation." All that is intended by 
these several words in English is expressed by 
one word in the Greek — kovKo$avrrioa — referring 
originally to the act of informing against those 
who were engaged in the contraband trade of 
figs. It is the etymon of our English word 
sycophant, shading gradually clown from a 
fig-informer to a general tale-bearer, and then 
into the modern usage of flatterer, one who 
courts favor and carries his ends by crafty, 
yet genteel dissimulation ; so that the true 
sense of the word used by Zaccheus in his 
penitent purpose covers a very large class of 
transactions not unknown to a commercial 
community; none so much as those which 
have been performed with a most smooth and 
oily blade, with an art and address and dex- 
terity which elude the letter of the law and. 
expose to no judicial indictment. May we 
not go far in advance of this, holding that 
many things are done in strictly legal pro- 
cesses, under cover of statutes designed to 
afford relief to the unfortunate, by which some 



A TKUE CONVEKT. 141 

are "put through," as the phrase is, on terms 
which cannot be justified in the forum of the 
conscience, this inward and unbribed judge 
pronouncing a verdict against the retaining 
of that which honestly belongs to another? 
There are wrongs besides those which are 
perpetrated by coarse villany ; there are 
plasters besides those which are made of flies 
and caustic. Hezekiah had a lump of figs laid 
upon the boil. Two days before he died, 
when in the very acme of his power and glory, 
Mohammed went for the last time into the 
mosque, and asked if he had injured any man ; 
if he owed any man : a voice answered, " Yes, 
me three drachms/' borrowed on such an oc- 
casion. Mohammed ordered them to be paid. 
" Better be in shame now," said he, " than at 
the day of judgment." "Let his own back 
bear the stripes." Mr. Carlyle quotes the 
incident as an act of heroism.* "Better," 
says the Son of God, " to enter into life with 
one eye, or one foot, or one hand, than having 
two eyes, and two feet, and two hands to be 
cast into hell-fire." Better to be poor, with 

* Heroes, p. 90. 



142 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

Christian and magnanimous repentance, than 
to be rich, with a self-reproving, stinging, rest- 
less conscience. Eestitntion — principal and 
interest, simple, compound, fourfold — spring- 
ing from a Christian purpose secures a smooth 
pillow for life, in death, and a crown of honor 
for a head that shall be lifted up without shame 
in the kingdom of God. "This day is salva- 
tion come to this house," said Jesus Christ to 
the true penitent; "for the Son of man has 
come to seek and to save that which was lost." 
Salvation is the key to the whole Christian 
revelation ; and the way for us to obtain ad- 
mittance to the kingdom of God is, by the 
acknowledgment of sin and the purpose of 
repentance. In unfolding and applying the 
gospel, there need be no charge or suspicion 
of crime and immorality. Nevertheless, we 
are all under the implication of guilt, for sin 
is the transgression of law ; and the law by 
which character is judged in the sight of God 
is that which requires a constant, faultless, 
supreme, and perfect love. And Christ comes 
to bring us forgiveness and salvation and eter- 
nal life, on other and easier terms. 



A TRUE CONVERT. 143 

Better to have Christ for a visitor than 
any of the princes of the earth. One hour 
from him, in his gentle offices as a Saviour, is 
more than to stand for a lifetime before kings. 

Ask not, as if suggestive of doubt, whether 
he would be willing to honor you with his pres- 
ence. He waits not to be urged by your im- 
portunity, but proposes himself to visit you. 
The advance is altogether and ■ always on his 
part. Before you can doubt this, you must 
tear out from the New Testament this narra- 
tive of the penitent publican, the parable of 
the lost sheep, and- every invitation which 
gives significancy to the advent of the Son of 
Man. Before you can question, with any show 
of reason, this readiness on the part of Christ 
to visit and to save any and all, you should 
reconstruct the whole volume of Revelation ; in- 
stead of the predictions which sparkle through 
the night of ages, heralding the coming of the 
Saviour, there should be nothing but gloomy 
and portentous menaces ; instead of the Psalms, 
which carol out the gladness and praise which 
His advent awakens, there should be dirges 
moaning the laments of the lost and forsaken ; 



144 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

instead of the angelic hymn which welcomed 
His birth for the joy of the world, there should 
have been silence, and fear, and wondering, 
and concern, as at a dark mystery ; instead of 
the promises, the invitations, the assurances 
from the lips of Christ, which lie all over the 
pages of the New Testament, for grace and 
sparkle and number like, the drops of the 
morning dew, there should have been reserve 
and caution, as if the glorious gospel of the 
blessed G-od were designed only for some 
favored few, and hence every reason to sup- 
pose that you were not of the class ; nay, you 
must suspend this preaching of the gospel to 
every creature, limit its phrases of welcome, 
and whisper out its doubtful and contingent 
terms ; instead of shouting aloud and to all, 
" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
waters ;" you must forget every thing you know 
as to the joy which there is in heaven for ev- 
ery sinner that repenteth ; all you ever heard 
of the multitudes who, believing in Christ, 
have found peace, living under his smile and 
dying on his bosom, and who are now reclining 
on the banks of the river of the water of life, 



A TEUE CONVERT. 145 

and making the temple of God to resound with 
the songs of their.eeaseless gratitude. 

There is nothing sure in nature, nothing true 
in morals, nothing certain in revelation, if it 
be not this — that Jesus Christ is willing, is de- 
sirous to visit us, and visit all, with his great 
salvation. To each of us he says at this hour, 
"Make haste and come, for to-day I would 
abide at thy house." The question with us is, 
not whether we can persuade this Prince of 
all the earth to honor us with his presence, 
but whether we are willing to receive him as 
a guest, who asks that he may enter to sup 
with us. 

"Morning, noon, and midnight watches, 
List, thy bosom-door ! 
How it knocketh, knocketh, knocketh, 
Knocketh evermore. 

"Say not 'tis thy pulse's beating; 
'T is thy heart of sin ; 
'T is thy Saviour knocks, and crieth, 
' Rise and let me in.' " 

No length of time is needed to mature your 
purposes when called to decide whether you 
will admit the best Friend you have in the 
universe. Imitate the alacrity of this Jewish 



146 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

publican. Make haste and receive this divine 
Guest most joyfully. That v^ery day Zaccheus 
avowed his penitent purpose ; that very day 
salvation was pronounced on his house. You 
may not have anticipated such a blessing when 
you began to read this narrative ; you may 
not have thought what changes and whose 
blessings were before you this day, any more 
than Zaccheus, when he went forth that morn- 
ing into the streets of Jericho ; but before the 
day was gone, the greatest of all events had 
occurred in his history ; and it would have 
been absurd — nay, he would have lost the 
divine favor — if he had asked for weeks, or 
days, or*even hours, for consideration whether 
he would receive the Saviour as a visitor ! 

I do not say it with any qualified sense, 
with any reserved meaning, but in the most 
literal and truthful meaning of the words ; nay, 
I do not say it at all ; it is Christ himself who 
says, what we only repeat, that " whosoever 
cometh unto him shall in no wise be cast out f 
and that to-day, if you will hear his voice — 
to-day, if you will but receive him who has 
long waited to be gracious — to-day, if you will 






A TRUE CONVERT. 147 

go to your closet, and breathe out from a bro- 
ken heart your confession of sin, and leave 
your vow of honest repentance, then to-day 
Christ will say, "Salvation is come to this 
house;' 7 and this day. you shall begin a new 
life, the life everlasting. 



CONVERSATION OF CHRIST 



WfH 



THE CENTURION OF CAPERNAUM 

The Modest A/Lan of Faith. 



MATT. 8:5-13. 
LUKE 7:1-10. 



VI. 
THE CENTURION OF CAPERNAUM: 

The Modest Man of Faith. 

This interview between our Lord and the 
centurion of Capernaum will help us to under- 
stand the nature and power of that simple 
trust which is the distinctive element of the 
Christian life. I speak of this as a personal 
interview between Christ .and the centurion. 
Following the record of Matthew, we should 
never imagine any thing besides the personal 
presence and request of the Roman captain. 
Turning to Luke, we receive the impression 
that the request was preferred, not in person, 
but through the elders of Capernaum, who had 
received great favors at his hand. Whether 
the conversation was conducted with the cen- 
turion in person, or through those whom he 
had requested to act in his name, is of no con- 
sequence whatever in reference to the main 



152 CONVEESATIONS.OF CHKIST. 

teacliing of the passage ; this remains unaf- 
fected by either mode of statement. It is an 
old rule in law and in common life, that he 
who acts through and by another acts for him- 
self. What forbids that, collating the narra- 
tives of the two evangelists, we should unite 
them both in the supposition that the centu- 
rion at first, in his great distress, sends his 
friends once and again to Christ, and after- 
wards comes himself? 

But these are matters which pertain alto- 
gether to the letter. Christ is now return- 
ing to Capernaum from a tour of instruction 
throughout Galilee, which had been extended 
through the greater part of the summer. Ta- 
king his seat upon the declivity of a mountain 
near the town, he delivered to a great mul- 
titude that most impressive discourse which 
passes by the name of "The Sermon on the 
Mount," which presents to us Christianity in 
the form of ' ' Judaism spiritualized and trans- 
figured ; and so is the transition from the law 
to the gospel."* 

No sooner had Christ reached Capernaum 

* Neancler. 



THE MODEST MAN OF FAITH. 153 

itself, than his aid was besought in behalf of 
a sufferer. It seems that there resided at this 
post a detachment of the Roman army, under 
command of a centurion. He was of course a 
Gentile. There is no proof that he was a 
proselyte to the Jewish religion. If he had 
been, the fact doubtless would have been men- 
tioned by his Jewish friends and neighbors as 
a special claim upon the kindness of Christ. 
The faith which he exhibits appears the more 
extraordinary because of his heathen origin and 
education, being in contrast with that which 
might reasonably have been expected from 
"theocratic Israel." And this man, who ap- 
pears to have been remarkably humane and 
liberal, had a servant to whom he was greatly 
attached, and who was now grievously ill — 
paralyzed as to power of motion, yet exceed- 
ingly sensitive to pain. Hearing that Christ 
had returned to Capernaum, the centurion 
sent to him with the utmost confidence that he 
should receive assistance and relief in this 
hour of extremity. What had led him to this 
confidence we do not know. Undoubtedly he 
had heard of the fame of Christ. Perhaps, 

7* 



151 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

nothing more probable, he was the neighbor of 
that nobleman whose son, at the word of Christ, 
had been healed here at Capernaum. It will 
be remembered that, during our Lord's first 
general ministry in Galilee, when he was at 
Cana, a man belonging to the court of Herod 
Antipas came to him and begged him to go 
down to Capernaum, where his son was lying 
dangerously ill. Christ did not accompany 
this distressed father to the place, but he 
assured him that his son would recover. Re- 
pairing to his home in Capernaum, which he 
reached the next day, he was met by his ser- 
vants on the road with the joyful news that, 
at the very hour of the preceding day when 
Christ had spoken the word, his sick boy was 
entirely restored. The seat of this miracle, 
accomplished by the Saviour when absent in 
person, was this very city of Capernaum, where 
the centurion now entreats the interposition of 
Christ in behalf of his servant. His generos- 
ity had secured him many friends in the place, 
and the principal men, the elders of the Jews, 
readily acceded to his request to represent the 
case to our Lord. His true modesty appears 



THE MODEST MAN OF FAITH. 155 

at the beginning. He does not venture to ap- 
proach Christ directly, but only through the 
mediation of others. So the elders came, and 
stating the extreme illness of this humble man, 
besought him to come down to the house and 
heal him. To add force to the plea, they bore 
testimony to the excellent character of the per- 
son in whose behalf they preferred the request. 
They assured Christ that this centurion was 
worthy of this favor. Though he was a Gen- 
tile, yet he was a worshipper of the true God, 
and had shown great love for the Jewish na- 
tion ; indeed, he had carried his generosity so 
far as, out of his own means, to x build them a 
synagogue for divine worship. And Jesus 
said, "I will come and heal him. 7 ' So he 
turned to go to the house of the centurion 
with his attendants. Seeing him approach, 
the centurion sent out other friends, and pres- 
ently went forth himself, saying to Christ, 
"Trouble not thyself to come farther; for I 
am not worthy that thou shouldst come under 
my roof. Indeed, I did not presume to intrude 
upon you myself at all ; neither thought I my- 
self worthy to come unto thee. All that I ask 



156 CONVEESATIONS OF CHRIST. 

is, that, without putting yourself to further in- 
convenience, you would speak the word only, 
and my servant shall be healed. I know what 
is meant by power and authority. I am a sol- 
dier, having those who are under my com- 
mand. My will is law to such. They are 
moved and governed by my word. I say to 
one, Go, and he goeth ; and to another, Come, 
and he cometh ; and to my servant, Do this, 
and he doeth it. And I believe that you 
have as complete a power over the most des- 
perate diseases as I have over my soldiers and 
servants ; that the simple expression of your 
will is all-sufficient ; and if, without going a step 
farther, or entering that dwelling which would 
only be too much honored by your condescen- 
sion, you would here, even here in the road, 
issue your authoritative mandate, disease 
would flee away, and my poor servant would 
be well." 

When Jesus heard this, he -turned to the 
people who followed him, marvelling at the 
modesty, the humility, the faith of the man, 
and said to them, " Yerily I say unto you, I 
have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel ; 



THE MODEST MAN OE EAITH. 157 

not even there, where I might have most rea- 
sonably expected it ; among the descendants 
of the very man who won the august title, 
Prince of God, because of the wrestling power 
of his faith — the progeny of that illustrious 
ancestor, who was called throughout all the na- 
tions of the East "the father of the faithful" — 
among them all, never," said Christ, "have I 
found such simplicity and power of faith as in 
this modest and humble soldier from Rome." 

The sequel of the narrative is familiar to 
all. The authoritative word from the lips of 
Christ was uttered, and without the necessity 
of touch or putting forth of the hand, the sick 
servant was instantly restored to health. 

As this was probably the first heathen 
whose relation to the kingdom of Christ was 
thus infallibly announced by our Lord, the fit- 
ting occasion was presented for alluding to the 
greatest of changes which were afterwards to 
occur in reference to the Gentile world. "I 
say unto you," says Christ, " that many shall 
come from the east and west, and shall sit 
down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
in the kingdom of heaven ; but the children 



158 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer 
darkness : there shall be weeping and gnash- 
ing of teeth. 77 

For what use was this historic incident 
furnished with a place in the inspired annals? 
Precisely what is the lesson which it conveys ? 
Something more, surely, than the compassion- 
ate regard felt by our Lord for the sick and 
suffering ; something more than his power to 
befriend and help and restore. In the dispen- 
sation of his mercy and power there was a dif- 
ference. His miraculous interjDOsitions were 
not in behalf of all, without discrimination. 
We are expressly informed that in certain 
places, and in regard to certain persons, he 
could not do many wonderful works, because 
of their unbelief; while in other instances faith, 
instead of being summoned into existence by 
miracles, itself summons miracles which, with- 
out it, never would have been performed. 
Observe what it is which elicits the panegyric 
of Christ in regard to this man, whose portrait 
is here presented in such vivid colors. Our 
Lord does not praise this centurion for his 
amiable care of his servants, nor for his gen- 



THE MODEST MAN OF FAITH. 159 

erosity to the Jews, nor for his public spirit, 
nor for his humility — a trait so unwonted in a 
Eoman soldier. To none of these acts or qual- 
ities does Christ direct our attention, but sim- 
ply and directly to his faith. This faith is 
eulogized as surpassing all that he had seen 
among the Jews. He directs attention to it 
as being so great faith. He is said himself to 
have marvelled at this faith, as being some- 
thing so extraordinary, both in quality and 
quantity. It would seem that this pagan, un- 
educated in the Jewish notions of the Messi- 
ahship, had reached a point — which is set forth 
for our emulation — where he reposed in simple 
trust in the superhuman power of Jesus Christ. 
Let us dwell on that faith which is here 
illustrated in the words and acts of the centu- 
rion, and embalmed in the eulogium of our 
Redeemer. Not a child, whose eye is famil- 
iar with the pages of the New Testament, who 
does not know how much is made of this one 
word, faith. It is sprinkled over the whole 
surface of Revelation. It lies imbedded in all 
duties and doctrines. We know how much is 
made to depend upon it : even our personal re- 



160 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

lation to Jesus Christ in this life and in the life 
to come. It is a subject concerning which all 
would wish to have the simplest and clearest 
conceptions. There is reason to believe that 
many suffer themselves to be confused in re- 
gard to the promise and power of a principle 
on which such immense consequences are made 
to depend ; while it is certain that in practice 
none reach the full measure of their privilege 
in regard to Christian faith. 

The thing which first arrests our notice in 
this recorded and panegyrized instance of faith 
is, its extreme simplicity. It is faith, and noth- 
ing but faith. It is denuded of all adjuncts 
and accretions. There is here no analysis of 
faith, and no definition of it. It seems to be 
assumed by Christ and his evangelists that all 
would understand what faith is. The thing is 
enacted, not described. Nothing is said of its 
pedigree, how it is produced, from what it 
springs. To dissect living flesh, and to scrape 
the bones with a scalpel, is no way to promote 
health. Faith is not engendered by scholastic 
definitions of its nature. Our libraries are full 
of theological disquisitions upon the subject, 



THE MODEST MAN OF FAITH. 161 

and yet in general practice something appears 
to be wanting. That which is illustrated in 
this incident, and which we all have need to 
practise, is a simple trust in a personal Re- 
deemer. If we can by any means increase 
this temper of the soul, or hope to say any 
thing which will tend to foster in any one 
more of this habit of mind which was so em- 
phatically eulogized by our Eecleemer, we 
shall be sure of success in the way which lead- 
eth to everlasting life. 

The word which we have chosen is, trust. 
Its synonym, faith, is so often used as a theo- 
logical term, that some have come to regard 
it as denoting what is arbitrary or incompre- 
hensible — outside the circle of human experi- 
ence. What we are most concerned about is, 
the thing, not the word. The rind is of no 
consequence ; we would get at that disposition 
of the heart in this centurion which won the 
kind words and offices of Christ. 

This is something more than lelief. Belief 
is the more generic word, which includes the 
specific act of trust. Belief does not always 
imply trust, though trust implies the prece- 



162 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

cling act of belief. Belief is the act of the 
understanding; trust is an act of the heart. 
The latter carries with it the whole man. It 
has come to pass that too many in religious 
circles occupy themselves exclusively with the 
former, the act of the intellect ; and so we have 
any amount of discussions and controversies 
and theses concerning articles of belief, rather 
than the practice of trust in what is already 
known to be true, which is of the largest prom- 
ise for our present and future wellbeing. It 
cannot be forgotten that our Lord, on one oc- 
casion, gave thanks to his heavenly Father 
because that which was hidden from the wise 
and the prudent was revealed unto babes. 
Had what we call faith been a work of the 
intellect, that work by which we sift evidence 
and weigh proof and accumulate knowledge, 
how would it be possible that the wise and 
the prudent should not have the advantage 
over those of inferior culture and capacity? 
In all matters of science, the intellectual have 
the precedency. Newton and Locke and Leib- 
nitz and Boyle surely had a discernment of 
astronomy and of the structure of the human 



THE MODEST MAN OF FAITH. 163 

mind which no uneducated and ignorant rus- 
tic could attain. But this was not the quality 
which gives eminence in the kingdom of God. 
It is a fact implied in the words of Christ, and 
confirmed by thousands of instances, that men 
of the highest intellectual culture, the wise 
and the prudent, proficients in earthly scien- 
ces, are oftentimes wanting — as they them- 
selves confess sometimes most plaintively — in 
all trustful repose of the heart. They philos- 
ophize about religion ; they are very learned 
in the dialectics of theology ;, they have sharp- 
ened their intellects to the utmost keenness by 
all manner of reasoning processes ; but they 
are still restless at heart, tossed to and fro, 
without any satisfaction. While others, who 
deserve, according to any scale of intellectual 
measurement, to be classed as "babes," take 
Christ into their hearts with unquestioning 
trust, acknowledging him and loving him with 
a most honest affection. That which assimi- 
lates all classes — the rich and the poor, the 
learned and the ignorant — is not knowledge ; 
for this creates dissimilarity, and so causes 
contrasts and divisions ; but that • affection of 



164 CONVEESATIONS OF CHBIST. 

trust which is an act of the heart, with no dis- 
tinction whatever. What could he the mean- 
ing of the apostle when addressing Greeks, 
who delighted in philosophic discussion, he 
abjured the wisdom of words, lest he should 
make of none effect what was the chief end of 
his ministry ? If his purpose was to convince 
the understanding merely, why was not the 
wisdom of words the means, the only means, 
fitted to accomplish it? Surely that Spirit 
which challenges us to grow in knowledge as 
well as grace does not involve us in inconsist- 
ency nor entangle us with enigmas ; but this 
is true, that with the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness ; that trust is more than belief ; 
that confiding is more than knowing ; and 
that they who take the "Phantom of Sense" 
or the light of the understanding for their 
guide and law, will find, to their incurable 
sorrow, that they are working against their 
own peace, and accumulating difficulties in 
the way of that trusting affection and habit of 
the soul which alone gives repose. 

How often are we, in our full-grown 
strength and pride, sent to little children for 



THE MODEST MAN OF FAITH. 165 

the highest of all lessons. Childhood lies in 
trust, as a bird in its nest. He who loses 
early in life this habit of trust in parental 
superiority parts with the secret of happiness, 
and sets forth in a career which carries him 
farther and farther from peace, making it 
harder and harder to exercise true faith in 
his Grod and Redeemer. He is pronounced 
the highest in the kingdom of .God who is most 
like a little child. He is a truly great man, 
the greatest of his species, who, after all his 
studies and attainments, after all the experi- 
ments which have put Nature into the cruci- 
ble, forcing her to answer with explosive 
sparks ; after pushing his understanding to its 
utmost vigor, comes back, in the temper of his 
heart, to the point where stood this centurion 
in his modesty and humility and undoubting 
trust. 

We are authorized to hold up this exam- 
ple of perfect confidence in the power of Christ 
as a thing to be imitated. Should we inquire of 
each individual for information as to the causes 
which operate to keep him from a full reli- 
gious satisfaction, we should be told of a legion 



166 CONVERSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

of doubts and objections which have assailed 
the understanding. Some would confess that 
they are not yet satisfied as to the complex 
nature of Jesus Christ. There are so many 
mysteries pertaining to his being, that they are 
baffled and perplexed. There are man}-' things 
in the Scriptures which are hard to understand, 
and they find themselves addicted to the habit 
of revolving them, endeavoring to harmonize 
and comprehend them. These difficulties all 
belong to the sphere of the intellect. Let us 
propose a method which is curative of these 
perplexities. You have need to practise — I 
say to practise — more of trust ; not a trust 
which is eyeless, groping about in the dark 
void, but a trust in this very Being — the Lord 
Jesus Christ. Surely you know enough, you 
believe enough, concerning him to warrant your 
confidence in him as your Friend and Helper 
and Saviour. Just how much this centurion 
knew concerning Jesus of Nazareth, what 
judgments he had formed of his nature and 
prerogatives, we do not know; but he had 
seen and heard and known enough to justify 
that entire confidence which he exemplified. 



THE MODEST MAN OF FAITH. 167 

Surely this is true of every oue who reads 
these lines. You believe enough concerning 
the Lord Jesus Christ to make it right for you 
to repose in him the utmost confidence. In 
your hands is the Book which informs you of 
his names, offices, purposes, intentions, and 
promises. You are assured that he has all 
power both in heaven and on earth ; and he 
has bidden you to come to him, to look to 
him, that you may be saved. We will not 
now utter another word concerning his claims 
and character, but ask you whether, with the 
amount of knowledge, belief, and conviction 
which you now have as to this one Being, this 
unique Person, this living Redeemer, you could 
do a wiser or more rational thing than to exer- 
cise that very trust in him which was once ex- 
hibited by this soldier of Capernaum ? I say, 
exercise it — not merely admit that it is reason- 
able ; not merely that you should define it and 
comprehend it, but that you should practise 
it, with the conviction that the more it is prac- 
tised the stronger it will grow, and the hap- 
pier you will be. We propose this to you just 
as you are, amid the cares, and mysteries, and 



168 CONVEESATIONS OF CHEIST. 

sorrows, and sins of life, and the anticipations 
of your approaching death. Is there a better 
thing which you can do than to try — not in 
the way of skeptical experiment, but with a 
most honest practice — what virtue there is in 
a simple trust in Him whose authoritative word 
can give life and health to the palsy of the 
soul? What effect would probably be pro- 
duced if, dropping all the ' questions of the 
schools, and letting go your hold of all con- 
fidences of the flesh, you should act awhile on 
the principle of a simple, filial trust in this 
personal Saviour? You have been taught to 
acknowledge him ; you know that he lives : 
now put away your pride, your intellectual 
inquests ; and beseech him that, though you 
are unworthy that he should come under your 
roof, he would speak the word which shall 
send health to your soul ; addressing him 
awhile in the spirit of those who pressed 
through crowds to touch the hem of his gar- 
ment, or who importuned him in their blind- 
ness to put his finger upon their sightless eyes. 
Men do in regard to Christ almost every thing 
in the range of possibility : philosophize about 



THE MODEST MAN OP FAITH. 169 

Mm, study about him. reason about him, every 
thing save trusting in him. Trusting, I mean, 
after the simple method which impelled this 
centurion to implore his help. Trust is not an 
inert passivity. It is at once the most act- 
ive and the most quiet of all qualities. " The 
just shall live by faith." We are initiated into 
the best form of life through modest trust in 
Christ. 

Let this subject meet you just as you are. 
Perhaps you are in trouble ; clouds dense and 
dark have rolled over you ; you are strangely 
depressed by outward afflictions and by inward 
fears ; life has suddenly changed with you, and 
you are afraid as you enter into the cloud. 
What will you do ? Will you set your under- 
standing to the task of explaining these events 
to your perfect satisfaction, so that you will 
be submissive to them because of your abil- 
ity to harmonize means with ends ? Can you 
comprehend why a child was taken from your 
arms by death, or why an estate was lost after 
all your honesty and industry? Do you oc- 
cupy such a high position in the universe that 
you can see how apparent inconsistencies and 

Con. of Christ. ft 



170 CONVEESATIONS OF CHKIST. 

contradictions result in a happy issue ? Never. 
Your consolation is not through your under- 
standing, but your trust. It is all mystery, 
it is all gloom ; but one thing you know — you 
are in the hands of One who reveals himself 
under the endearing name of Saviour, and you 
must trust. It is all that you pan do. You 
must not proudly push away the hand which 
would support your infant steps ; you must 
take it, and confide in its strength, when you 
cannot utter a word. * 

" Therefore, whatsoe'er betideth, 

Night or day, 
Know his love for thee provideth 

Good alway. 
Crown of sorrow gladly take; 
Grateful wear it for His sake, 
Sweetly bending to his will, 

Lying still. 

A To his own thy Saviour giveth 

Daily strength; 
To each troubled soul that liveth, 

Peace at length. 
Weakest lambs have largest share 
Of this tender Shepherd's care. 
Ask him not, then, ' When ?' or ' How ?' 

Only bow." 



THE MODEST MAN OF EAITH. 171 

Then this great mystery of sin. Its en- 
trance into the world. Its permitted invasion 
and hereditary descent. How many theories 
which have attempted its explanation. What 
a task is assumed if yon are to adjust all the 
facts pertaining thereto to the satisfaction of 
your understanding. 

Then the atonement made for sin through 
the death of the Redeemer. Men have sepa- 
rated themselves into different schools by the 
modes in which they have philosophized about 
the atonement; but the essence of the thing 
is this: "Jesus Christ came into the world to 
save sinners." Men of all schools and theo- 
ries — men of learning and men unlearned — at 
last must meet in this, whether they can ex- 
plain the mode or not ; trusting in the power 
of Him who taketh away the sin of the world. 
Committing — it is the last and completest act of 
trust — our own soul, pierced, wounded, bleed- 
ing with the sense of its sins, unto Him who is 
able to save even to the uttermost. Is your 
own heart palsied with sin? betake yourself, 
with unfaltering trust, to this Redeemer — 
humility always goes with trust — and say, 



172 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

"I am not worthy that thou shouldest coine 
under my roof; but speak the word only — 
say as of old, 'Be of good cheer; thy sins 
be forgiven'" — continue in this trust — and 
thou shalt be saved. 

Then there is before us another mystery, 
greater still, and one which cannot be evaded — 
the necessity of dying. Let me suppose that 
it is nigh at hand. To-day you are in health ; 
to-morrow you are in your sick-chamber. The 
curtains are drawn which separate you from 
the world. One tie after another is detached, 
and you cannot avoid the belief that your last 
sickness has come, and you are about to go 
into eternity. What can you do ? Must you 
summon Reason to your side, to propound 
some theory about dissolution and the physiol- 
ogy of a future life, and bid your Understand- 
ing to hold the light and play the .guide while 
your eyes are growing dim, and your feet 
are stumbling on the dark mountains of death ? 
Nothing — nothing of the sort. You can only 
look to Jesus Christ, and trust Helpless, 
dissolving, alone, you can clo nothing but 
look to Him who died once and rose again, 



THE MODEST MAN OF FAITH. 173 

and in the language of simple trust, and noth- 
ing but trust, say to him, "Lord Jesus, into 
thy hands I commend my spirit. 77 There is 
nothing more instructive or more touching 
than to see the men who, by learning and 
genius, have taken a place among the great 
ones of the earth, when coming to die, putting 
aside all in which once they gloried, and, like 
little children falling to sleep in the dark, end- 
ing life in simplest trust. In the philosoph- 
ical revolutions of Europe, no man has acted 
a more conspicuous part than Henry Jacobi. 
A man of high sensibilities, and an anxious 
and persevering inquirer after truth, he la- 
bored under the common difficulty of philo- 
sophical inquirers: he sought it with a tele- 
scope, in the boundless space of the universe, 
instead of finding it nigh unto him, in his 
mouth and in his heart. At one time he 
writes thus to a friend: "There is a singular 
religious commotion throughout Europe, espe- 
cially in Germany. I hear much respecting it 
from travellers who visit me. There must be 
something higher and nobler, and capable of 
being apprehended and possessed by men, or it 



174 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

is not worth while that a theologian or philoso- 
pher should open his mouth and talk. I hear 
inquiries made on every side after this some- 
thing, but I cannot find it. I am swimming 
between two oceans of heterogeneous elements. 
They will not unite to support me in common. 
As the one raises me up, so the other carries 
me down again into the deep." As his dying 
hour approached, when the lecture-room and 
books and speculation were all parted with, 
Jacobi prayed like a little child, and found 
what he never could find from travellers, from 
philosophy, in Christian trust ; and he died 
with thanks upon his lips that at last he was 
permitted to pray, and enabled to pray with 
simple confidence in the grace of the Lord 
Jesus Christ.* 

In September, 1860, the writer was walk- 
ing, morning and evening, beneath the mag- 
nificent trees of the university of Bonn, on the 
banks of the Ehine. The leaves were begin- 
ning to fade and to fall ; and hard by, Mr. 
Bunsen, who had long occupied the highest 
positions in the diplomacy of Europe, and at 
* The Spirit of the Pilgrims, 1830, p. 64, 



THE MODEST MAN OF FAITH. 175 

the same time in literary and theological la- 
bors, was slowly declining to the grave, and 
a few days after was born£ by his sons to his 
burial. In his last waning days of life he 
said: " In spite of all my failings and imper- 
fections, I have desired, I have sought, what 
is noble here below. But my richest experi- 
ence is in having known Jesus Christ. How 
good it is to contemplate life from this eleva- 
tion. This is the kingdom of God. Oh, my 
God, how beautiful are thy tabernacles!" As 
his attention was directed to a beautiful sun- 
set, " Yes," said he in English, " that is beau- 
tiful ; the love of God in every thing." " May 
God bless you," he added in French. u het 
us depart in Jesus Christ." Afterwards in 
Latin: " Christus recognoscitur victor ; Chris- 
tus est, est Christus victor." And then in Ger- 
man: "Christ must become all in all." "I 
desire nothing theatrical • but I wish to say a 
few words in the midst of my children and 
friends. I am going to die, and I long to die. 
I offer my blessing, the blessing of an old man, 
to any one that desires it. To belong to a 
church or a denomination is nothing. I see 



176 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

clearly that we are all sinners. We are safe 
only as we are in Jesus Christ. All the rest 
is nothing — nothing," So life ebbed away in 
a loving, peaceful trust. 

This is the whole. The life which we now 
live is by faith in the Son of God. What the 
centurion had not, we have : the positive assu- 
rance and promise of the Eedeemer. This has 
been verified by ages of human experience. 
Every man who has died in peace, looking 
unto Jesus, is an irrefutable argument for the 
wisdom of faith. We know enough, we believe 
enough concerning the Lord Jesus 'Christ, to 
warrant our implicit confidence. Let not the 
faith of a heathen soldier put us to shame. 
While others come from the east and the west, 
from the north and the south, to share in the 
blessedness of the kingdom, let not the chil- 
dren of the kingdom be excluded by their un- 
belief. The simpler our trust in Christ for all 
things, the surer is our peace. There is a 
firm substance for the hand to 'grasp. Lay 
hold upon it, and turn your eye to Jesus 
Christ, and find repose by the confession of 
your confidence in him. 



THE MODEST MAN OF FAITH. 177 

"Trust his saying love and power; 
Trust him every day and hour: 
Trust him as the only light 
In the darkest hour of night. 
Trust in sickness, trust in health, 
Trust in poverty and wealth; 
Trust in joy, and trust in grief; 
Trust his promise for relief. 
Trust his blood to cleanse your soul; 
Trust his grace to make you whole. 
Trust him living, dying too; 
Trust him all your journey through 5 
Trust him till your feet shall be 
Planted on the crystal sea," 



S* 



CONVERSATION OF CHRIST 



WITH 









MARTHA OF BETHANY 

The Mourner. 



JOHN 11:17-27. 



VII. 
MARTHA: 

The Mourner-. 

Here have we the conversation of Jesus 
Christ with a mourner. Elsewhere we have his 
wise words with the rationalist, the skeptic, the 
formalist, the sensualist, the thoughtful inqui- 
rer ; but here is the record of what he said to 
one whom death had bereaved, and who was 
yet in all the freshness of her inconsolable 
sorrow. 

What a memorable time is that when death 
invades a family and fells his first victim. 
"In the year that King Uzziah died" — so is 
it that Isaiah begins one of his prophetic 
records. He dates from an epoch that was 
sure to be remembered. There is no anni- 
versary in our domestic annals which is more 
certain to be borne in mind than that which 
marks the doings of death. "It is so many 



182 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

years since father died." " It was in the very 
year that mother died." "It was so many 
days, or weeks, or months since husband, wife, 
brother, sister, child was buried." These are 
the common measurements of time in house- 
hold chronicles, which remind us what an im- 
portant event in our personal history is the 
death of a friend. 

Four days had elapsed since Lazarus was 
laid in the grave. How slowly, how heavily 
those days had passed. The first day after 
the death of a friend, how it drags itself along, 
giving the mourner ample time to drain the 
cup of bitterness to the dregs. The first wak- 
ing of the first morning after we were left 
alone ; the vague sense of a great evil ; the 
heavy weight at the heart before one is fully 
roused to consciousness ; and then the unmit- 
igated feeling of the whole truth, when one is 
completely awake — who that ever has experi- 
enced all this will ever forget it? The funeral 
of Lazarus was all over. Is there ever a time 
when the sense of desolation caused by death 
rolls over one so like a flood as when return- 
ing from the grave to a lonely home ? It is a 



THE MOURNER. 183 

most kindly arrangement on the part of Divine 
Providence for our benefit, that even then the 
necessities of duty will not suffer us to lie 
prostrate in self-abandonment, but lay their 
demands upon us for the occupancy of our 
thoughts and our hands. The poor — or rather, 
those who are under the necessity of personal 
employment and exertion — have in this regard 
the advantage over those with whom leisure is 
only the ampler opportunity for sorrow. So 
long as the remains of a friend are uninterred, 
we feel that we still retain a hold upon them. 
Then is it that one is much occupied with the 
necessary arrangements preliminary to the final 
disposition of the body ; and then there is the 
stunning and bewildering effect of a novel ex- 
perience, and the grateful sense of real sym- 
pathy on the part of friends who come around 
us as they never came before. But when the 
funeral-day has passed, and the first wild 
bursts o-f grief have given place to a more 
gentle sorrow — now is the time above all oth- 
ers most propitious for religious consolation. 
The time which Jesus chose for his interview 
with Martha and Mary, setting aside its rela- 



184 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

tion to the miracle lie was to perform, was far 
better for their religious instruction than the 
first or second hour after their bereavement. 

Many were the friends of these bereaved 
sisters, as we are informed, who filled their 
house, to comfort them concerning their broth- 
er. In regard to mourners, we should care- 
fully avoid the two extremes of neglect and 
inordinate intrusion. Now is the time for true 
and cordial sympathy. It is one of the advan- 
tages of sorrow, that it brings to the surface 
all the kindly sentiments, and none other, of 
our friends and acquaintances. Many have 
expressed surprise, when passing through a 
great affliction, at the number of real friends 
who appear to have been called into life by 
the event, and the expressions of genuine 
sympathy which have fallen from their lips. 
The custom of publishing in the daily newspa- 
pers the names of those who die, not to speak 
of it as a salutary memento mori, is of great 
advantage, by infusing a most gentle element 
into social intercourse. Survivors, who go 
into the street with the dress of mourners, 
have often expressed surprise at the many 



THE MOUENER. 185 

tokens of tender and respectful regard which 
they have received. Persons with whom they 
were only partially acquainted, have seemed 
to take special pains to recognize them with 
1 some most affectionate salutation. Even when 
acquaintanceship was not intimate, it was not 
felt to be rudeness if the hand was extended 
with a most significant pressure. This is all 
as it should be. Sorrow widens the circle of 
sympathy, and you take into your hearts, 
through the fellowship of suffering, very many 
you would not have presumed to know in the 
common experience of joyous prosperity. If 
it be not the only, it is certainly the chief 
argument for the common custom of wearing 
mourning for the dead, that it shields those 
who wear it from unconscious and unintend- 
ed improprieties, insuring in their behalf all 
those nameless acts of Christian consideration 
which spring from the rule of our faith, to 
11 weep with those who weep." Should there 
be any whom you neglect, let it not be those 
who mourn. If so be that your sympathy is 
sincere, you may even presume a little beyond 
the claims and freedom of personal intimacy, 



186 CONYEESATIONS OF CHEIST. 

and by.a visit, an inquiry, a message, a note — 
a speechless, but most expressive salutation — 
make some proof of your feeling towards those 
who have just entered the great brotherhood 
of mourners. 

On the other hand, avoid in the house of 
mourning every thing approaching to imperti- 
nent formalism. The sick and dying are often 
disturbed by the intrusive inquisitiveness 
of visitors and the uncontrolled emotion of 
friends. So with mourners, nothing can be 
more annoying than visits of form, and the 
coming of many merely because they must. 
" As vinegar upon nitre," so are words which 
are cold, superficial, and heartless to those 
who are heavy at heart. Better to sit down 
by the side of a mourner and open not your 
mouth, than to say any thing which is not ap- 
propriate and laden with gentle love. 

When we read that "many Jews came to 
Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning 
their brother," we are reminded of the various 
expedients which are employed by men to 
comfort those who mourn. There are some 
people, excellent in their way, who are alto- 






THE MOURNER. 187 

gether unfitted for the office of consolation, 
because inexperienced in sorrow themselves. 
Through no defect of their own, they are 
wanting in complete sympathy ; for sympathy 
means fellow-feeling, and implies equality of 
experience ; but they never knew what it was 
to be bereft of an intimate friend. They utter 
good things. They intend well, but express 
themselves only in general platitudes and inap- 
propriate commonplace. As. well speak to 
the wind as to real sorrow, unless you begin 
your consolation with a most genuine condo- 
lence. There is no likelihood that one will 
succeed as a consoler who appears to begin 
his office by the vain endeavor to lessen the 
sense of loss.- You cannot, you ought not con- 
vince a mourner that he has no occasion to 
mourn. To forbid grief is only putting a clam 
across a stream, throwing the water back and 
deepening its volume. You jnust suffer it to 
flow, and then infuse into it an apt and con- 
soling quality. Christ himself, as the great 
Consoler of our race, was made perfect for the 
office through personal suffering; and it was 
with weeping that he approached the grave 



188 CONVEESATIONS OF CHEIST. 

where he wrought his most wonderful miracle 
and uttered his most sublime teachings. 

As for those who prescribe diversion of 
mind as the cure for the wounds made by 
death, they only prove themselves sciolists in 
the treatment of sorrow. " As he that taketh 
away a garment in cold weather, so is he who 
singeth songs to a heavy heart." By nothing 
is the mind more distressed than incongruity 
and opposition, of elements. The wounded 
spirit courts whatever is congenial, never 
what is antagonistic, creating effervescence ' 
by the meeting of contrary qualities. There 
is a time when it is wise to suggest to a 
mourner to go forth into the light and warmth 
and air of heaven, and avail himself, for the 
health of body and mind, of all which God 
has spared for our happiness. But even this 
transition must be gentle, and not violent; 
and the change must be accomplished so qui- 
etly, that one is aware of it only by the sense 
of refreshment. But as for forcible diversion, 
for words and scenes and acts which would 
compel a smile, it is an empiricism which ag- 
gravates symptoms and exasperates the hurt. 



THE MOURNER. 189 

As for those who intrude into the presence 
of mourners with stoical counsel, couched in 
such expressions as these — "We must bear 
what we cannot help f " We must expect our 
turn with the rest;' 7 " It is better to be brave 
and manly than to give way to grief" — we 
despatch them all with the words of Job, in 
reply to advisers of the like quality : "I have 
heard many such things ; miserable comforters 
are ye all. Shall vain words have no end ? 
I also could speak as ye do, if your soul were 
in my soul's stead. I could heap up words 
against you. Though I speak, my grief is not 
assuaged ; though I forbear, what am I eased?" 

Perhaps these prefatory remarks concern- 
ing the condition of those whom death has be- 
reaved, and the several expedients resorted 
to by mistaken friendship, will help us the 
better to understand the conversation which 
ensues between a true mourner and our divine 
Lord. It is a great art to know when, and how, 
and what to speak to such as mourn ; and 
blessed are they who go forth in the time of 
sorrow to meet and converse with Christ. 

The time had come in the cottage of Laz- 



190 CONVERSATIONS OF CHKIST. 

arus and his sisters when they were in sore 
need of sympathy and friendship. There is 
no time when our wilted strength confesses its 
need of friendly help so much as when extreme 
illness has come, with all its fearful apprehen- 
sions and forecasting shadows. How Martha 
and Mary longed that Jesus should come unto 
them when Lazarus was sick ! They sent one 
to find him, and to ask him that he would 
hasten to Bethany. Not understanding the 
reasons of his delay, they looked for him as 
one looks for a physician in whose skill he has 
implicit faith. Time hastened by, and Laza- 
rus died and was buried. Three days after, 
Martha heard that Jesus was coming, and she 
hastened to meet him. The first words were 
uttered by the mourner herself. Generally, 
it is well that it should be so. Our Lord uses 
no superfluous words ; never those which are 
inappropriate. Let the heart that is stricken 
make utterance of itself; then will you know 
how to adapt your own speech. "Then said 
Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been 
here, my brother had not died." That Mary, 
who at this time appears not to have been in- 






THE MOURNER. 191 

formed of the arrival of the Master, should, 
when she heard of it, address him in precisely 
the same words, shows how much they had 
talked together on the same subject ever since 
their brother had died. In this they were 
like all mourners, who are apt to indulge in 
vain regrets, upbraiding either themselves or 
others, and imagining if this or that had been 
otherwise, death might have been averted. 
With good reason did these mourners cherish 
regret for the absence of Christ, for they had 
seen his miracles, and were heartily convinced 
of his power to rebuke disease and heal all 
manner of sicknesses ; and well did they 
reason that, if he had been present, he would 
not have suffered his own friend to die. There 
is no reproach, as some have thought, in these 
words. Martha does not upbraid him for his 
delay ; she speaks no word of reprimand ; she 
asks for no explanation ; and if the expression 
of regret for his absence seems to imply any 
thing but her most hearty faith in the power 
of Christ, that all disappears at once when she 
subjoins in explicit terms, "But I know that 
even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, 



192 CONVEBSATIONS OF CHKIST. 

G-od will give it thee." That at this time she 
had any determinate notion that Christ would 
raise her brother from the dead does not ap- 
pear ; rather the contrary ; for when, later in 
the day, they went to the grave, and Christ 
commanded the stone at its mouth to be re- 
moved, Martha reluctated that there should 
be an exposure of the face and form, on which 
" decay's effacing fingers" had already begun 
their loathsome work ; nor does she appear to 
think of the possibility that her brother should 
be brought back to life. # So far as we can in- 
terpret the state of her mind at the beginning 
of the interview, it was one of unfaltering faith 
in Jesus, making utterance of itself in words 
which are vague, as if she hardly knew herself 
what she was saying. Her mind is so full of 
faith in this great Friend, that death itself 
could not shake it — as evinced in the words, 
" even now/ 7 but as to what she was to expect 
would be done — if there were undefined hopes 
and fleeting presentiments, these were coun- 
terbalanced by misgivings ; so that her mind 
was in a condition hard to be explained to 
itself, beyond this, that it held to an unshaken 



THE MOURNER. 193 

confidence in onr Lord. That confidence was 
to be advanced to its highest quantity : " And 
Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise 
again ; ?; the first words that he uttered on this 
occasion. Fit are they, as we now interpret 
them, to be carved on the face of every grave- 
stone. But what did they import as used on 
this occasion? It is not necessary to limit 
their meaning to the act of resuscitation which 
our Lord was about to accomplish ; they are 
simply future, declarative of that which was 
designed to develop and strengthen yet more 
that faith which had already been confessed. 
How Martha understood the words, appears 
from her response : "She saith unto him, I know 
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at 
the last day." What varieties of thought 
and feeling are expressed in these few words. 
Christ had said, "Thy brother shall rise again.' 7 
Rise again! the assurance is unqualified and 
strong, and therefore she connects it, of course, 
with the final consummation, with the last day. 
But there is an air of despondency even in this 
admission. That day is too remote. Long 
before it should come, the weary mourner 



Con. of Christ. 



194 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

would herself be laid by the side of her de- 
parted brother. She had hoped for something, 
she knew not what, more consolatory, because 
more immediate. She could not find in that 
promise of an ultimate resurrection all the 
comfort which her heart then craved; so she 
said, "Yes, I know that he shall rise then," 
as if she were but imperfectly satisfied with 
the admission of this general announcement. 
The wounded spirit of every mourner needs 
an immediate consolation ; something nearer 
and warmer and more real than can be drawn 
from an event to occur we know not how many 
centuries from this. This our Lord proceeds 
now to give. The words which follow are the 
gist of the whole conversation ; nay, of the 
whole narrative ; for the miracle which was 
afterwards wrought was only designed to give 
confirmation of the central truth which is here 
uttered. Had our Lord at this point distinctly 
informed Martha what he was about to do on 
that very day, in her wild and tumultuous joy, 
she might not have paused to reflect that, after 
all, this would be only a temporary relief and 
respite. The destroyer, compelled to release 



THE MOURNER. 195 

his victim now, after a season would return, 
and the scene of sickness and death through 
which they had just passed would be reenacted 
at some other time. Were divine power to 
meet us at every grave which we visit on our 
way to our own, and restore our dead friends 
to life, this would be felt to be true, (and so 
far diminishing all the joy which their return 
would occasion,) that they are mortal still, and 
both they and we must ere long be subject to 
the grim foe which has been so unrelenting, 
and will be so to the last. Now it was to meet 
this state of things, by a few words which 
should stand for ever the grand consolation 
for all mourners to the end of the world, that 
our Lord, when he next speaks, addresses 
himself— assuring this sister, bereaved of her 
brother, that he and she were now, and always 
should be united one to the other in a form of 
life which was absolutely imperishable. "I 
know," said Mariha, " that he shall rise again 
in the resurrection at the last day." " Jesus 
said unto her, I am the resurrection and the 
life : he that believeth in me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth, 



196 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

and belie veth in me, shall never die." Some- 
thing very different from a belief in a remote 
resurrection is here. Something which is pres- 
ent and immediate . Something which was em - 
bodied in his own living form. Have you 
marked the transition? So gently, so skil- 
fully, yet so naturally in easy consequence 
upon what had been said before, that a su- 
perficial eye might not notice it. The tran- 
sition of thought is from the dead Lazarus to 
the living Saviour ; just that which we should 
always endeavor to make when administering 
solace to the bereaved — from the departed 
friend to the Friend who never dies, and in 
whom those who have died and those who still 
live to mourn may have a life which death 
itself can never touch or wound. The abso- 
lute form in which the announcement is made, 
"I am the resurrection and the life" proves that 
far more is intended by the expression than 
the mere promise that he would so exert his 
power as to cause those who are dead to rise 
again; for, indeed, we can see in the language 
no promise of the resurrection of the body, 
save as that is included as a part or as a con- 



THE MOURNER. 197 

sequence of a larger truth : that Christ himself 
is in such a sense the life of men, that all 
who believe in him shall share in that life 
which is superior to all changes of the body — 
an element of imperishable and endless joy. 
11 He that believeth in me, though he were 
dead, his body entombed, still lives, and shall 
live for ever ; for there is another life than that 
of the body. And whoever there be who is 
now alive on the earth, and believeth in me, 
shall never die." What ! shall he never meet 
the gloomy necessity of death and decay? 
Does Christ exempt any from the universal 
condition of mortality ? None at all. Some- 
thing better than this is here revealed ; and 
the skilful manner in which it is affirmed should 
not escape our grateful notice ; for nothing 
could be more emphatic in all the evolutions 
of human speech. There is no mention made 
at all, in the concluding clause, of the death of 
the body — as though it were not worthy of con- 
sideration. It is an incident not to be taken 
into the account. It is an inferior fact, which 
does not interfere with the grander truth which 
is here so sublimely announced. There is only 



198 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

one allusion in the two verses to the death of 
the body, and that is in the first. ' ' He that 
believeth in me, though he were dead." He 
refers, of course, to the death of the body. 
Beyond this, there is no more allusion to this 
kind of death, that being treated as an incon- 
siderable and unimportant incident ; a thing 
not to be mentioned or regarded at all in 
comparison with that immeasurable evil which 
alone deserves the name of death ; out of which 
every one that believeth is sure to be deliv- 
ered. Christ is speaking to a mourner — one 
who was lamenting a dead brother ; and his 
words are these : "Faith in me is the source of 
true life, now and for ever. They who have 
it, whether their bodies are in the grave or 
living upon the earth, have life, a life that 
never dies f so that the death of the body is 
overlooked and disregarded and unmentioned, 
as something which is comparatively of small 
consequence ; the only death which is to be 
deplored and dreaded is that out of which we 
are sure to be delivered by believing in the 
Son of God. Yastly more emphatic is this 
form of teaching than it would have been if 






THE MOURNER. 199 

our Lord had dwelt in many words upon the 
death of the body, which was the thing then 
uppermost in the thoughts of the weeping- 
Martha. He lifts the mourner at once to a 
region of thought so lofty that the dying or 
the living of the body is to be treated as a 
thing indifferent, of momentary consequence : 
the main thing being this, that the true con- 
sciousness of the Christian believer lives ; it 
lives now ; it will live for ever ; for it is united 
by faith to Him who is abstractly and abso- 
lutely the Life. Just before, Martha had con- 
fessed her belief that her brother would rise 
again in the resurrection at the last day — 
and that was a great thing to believe, in com- 
parison with the blank and dreary creed of 
paganism ; but when our Lord asserted what 
I have now explained, which was something far 
in advance of her first confession, he turned 
to her and said: " Believest thou this? 11 And 
she said : " Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art 
the Christ, the Son of God, which should come 
into the world." How much this admission 
implied in her case we need not pause to dis- 
cuss. Even if she did not rise to the full 



200 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

comprehension of those spiritual truths which 
Christ had just uttered, her faith in Christ 
was vindicated and confirmed : and this was 
before she saw her brother come forth from 
the tomb. But greater things than these have 
been said and done since by our Lord himself; 
so that those words which were first uttered 
to Martha at Bethany are to be interpreted 
by us in the reflected light of later disclosures : 
the personal resurrection of Christ from the 
grave, and the distinctive promise which he 
gave, and gives now, that all who believe in 
him shall surely live for ever. 

Here then have we our model and our 
rule in administering consolation to those that 
mourn. Grief is always entitled to our respect ; 
but grief should never be made a religion. 

Nature must and will have its own expres- 
sion. Let the mourner weep. Let him recall 
all that was good in the qualities and life of 
the departed. Enter with a most generous 
sympathy into every grief ; listen to all which 
its sobbing voice would utter : and then, re- 
membering that divine truth is anterior and 
superior to every thing besides, and that now 



THE MOUENEE. 201 

the heart is mellowed by sorrow, susceptible 
to impression as it never was before and never 
may be again, turning away from all the empty 
consolations of the world, direct the eye always 
to Him who is the true life of men ; speak of 
Him who himself tasted death, and who has 
abolished death ; extracting its sting by the 
remission of sin. Now is the time to press 
the question, " Believest thou this?" * 

You need not be apprehensive of mistake 
in concentrating thought on the person of 
Jesus Christ. This was what Christ himself 
did. He who was ever zealous for the honG* 
of. God, faltered not in directing the eye and 
heart of the living and the dying immediately 
to himself. It is by such acts on his part that 
he has furnished proof of his divinity beyond 
all words of positive assertion. He bids our 
dying race to look to him, and trust in him as 
the Resurrection and the Life. We need not 
speculate why it is and how it is ; enough that 
so it is ; that Christian believers, in the hour 
of greatest need, in the depths of sorrow, and 
amid the waters of death, always find them- 
selves turning with a trustful look to that per- 

9* 



202 CONVEESATIONS OF CHEIST. 

sonal Redeemer to whom the dying Stephen 
exclaimed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," 
At such times it is not enough to have a gen- 
eral faith in an Infinite Spirit, pervading all 
time and space ; it is not enough to reason out 
some conviction concerning the immortality of 
the soul, or to question physiology and natural 
religion as to the probability and modes of a 
future existence ; the only thing appropriate 
and adequate is, a belief in Him who bore our 
own nature, entering into complete sympathy 
with man, and who, in the form of a man, so 
presents himself at the side of suffering that 
ignorance may comprehend and utmost infirm- 
ity may grasp his aid. 

What do we know about the world unseen ? 
What reasonings, what curiosity, what misgiv- 
ings there have been concerning that impene- 
trable mystery! Out of this mystery and 
vagueness and vastness comes the human form 
of the divine Redeemer. He assures us that 
there is an unmixed and endless life, and that 
all which we need to secure it is, to trust our- 
selves to Him who came to declare it and to 
confer it. It comforts us beyond all power of 






THE MOURNER. 203 

expression to know that those who - lived . a 
life of faith upon the earth, and whom death 
has taken from our arms, are partakers now of 
a life of joy. We recall what they said in 
their last hours concerning the preciousness of 
Christ. Up to the very latest moment that 
they were with us, they spoke calmly but 
gratefully of the great Shepherd who was 
with them in the dark valley ; a moment 
more, they had ceased to breathe, but not to 
live ; for Christ is the Life, and he has said, 
"He that believeth in me,- though he were 
dead, yet shall he live ;" and those who have 
gone from our sight still trusting in him, are 
full to-day of conscious thought and feeling 
and life — of life, and nothing but life. But 
He who has promised this for our consolation, 
has affirmed also what is more important as it 
concerns ourselves: "He that liveth and be- 
lieveth shall never die." We are yet alive, 
but do we believe ? In our ears has Christ 
announced his own attributes and offices, and 
turning to each of us he says: "Believest 
thou this ?" There is a resurrection of the 
dead soul which takes place here on the earth. 



204 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

There is a life imparted to such, as were dead. 
And the whole of this is confirmed in that act 
of the soul by wiiich it believes ; thinking of 
Him, trusting in Him, following Him who is 
the Hope, the Light, the Life of men. "I am 
the resurrection and the life," says Christ of 
himself. Convinced of your own guilt and 
helplessness and mortality, look to Him and 
say: "I know whom I have believed, and 
that he is able to keep that which I have com- 
mitted unto him against that day. 77 



CONVERSATION OF CHRIST 



WITH 



PILATE : 



The Vacillating Man of the 
World. 



MATT. 27. 
MARK 15. 
LUKE 23. 
JOHN 18: 19. 



VIII. 
PILATE: 



The Vacillating Man of th 



ORLD 



Jesus Christ, the Son of God, arraigned 
before a mortal man for judgment to be passed 
upon his claims and character! An eventful 
thing was it, in the life of any man, to come 
into personal contact with that mysterious 
Being, who could read the secret thoughts, 
and whose- every word seemed to have a pro- 
phetic relation to future destiny. But it was 
not peculiar to the days when he was in the 
flesh for this same divine Person to present 
himself before men, demanding a verdict upon 
his own assertions. The prsetorium at Jeru- 
salem was not the only place where Jesus 
Christ has stood to be judged of men. Every 
day, every Sabbath, every communion he pre- 
sents himself to human hearts, stirring their 



208 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

hopes, their fears, their faith, their doubts, 
their love, their hate, according as they are 
affected towards him. 

It is of Pilate, his character and his con- 
duct — the working and decision of his vacil- 
lating mind in regard to Christ the mystic 
King — that I am now to speak. Because he 
is immediately associated with that most tragic 
and atrocious act, the crucifixion of our Lord, 
it is common to think of him as a paragon of 
sanguinary cruelty. The description given of 
him by Josephus must be received with some 
allowance. Josephus was a Jew, and was 
never suspected of leniency or impartiality in 
giving the portraits of the heathen officials 
who ruled over his subject -country. The 
facts as they are recorded by the evangelists 
will not allow us to classify Pilate with men 
of monstrous and unmixed crime ; for he was 
disturbed by many fears, by activities of con- 
science, by misgivings, even when he yielded 
to outward pressure, and by many suscepti- 
bilities to a just and truthful impression. Cer- 
tainly he was the prototype of a large class 
still living upon the earth. 



PILATE. 209 

Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of 
Judea under the imperialism of Tiberius Caesar. 
The testimony of Tacitus, the Roman annalist, 
on this point, is very important, for it fixes 
beyond all question the time when the historic 
life of our religion began. His words are, 
"The author of that name (a sect of Christ) who 
was capitally punished in the reign of Tiberius 
by Pontius Pilate." Pilate was no instigator 
of the violent act which hurried our Lord to 
death, but soon became involuntarily involved 
in it. It was the chief-priests and Pharisees 
and rulers of the Jews by whom the Saviour 
was arrested and arraigned. They dragged 
him before Annas and Caiaphas the high- 
priests and the council, or Sanhedrim, and 
there, upon the charge of blasphemy, in assert- 
ing that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, 
he was by that ecclesiastical court condemned 
to death. But this sentence the Jews had no 
power to execute. About forty years before 
the destruction of Jerusalem, as the Jewish 
historian informs us, this power of inflicting 
capital punishment was taken away from the 
now provincial people, and was vested in the 



210 CONYEKSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

imperial power only. It was the policy of the 
Roman government to leave the laws and reli- 
gion of the countries which they conquered in 
force, but the power of life and death it re- 
served in its own hands. Believing that they 
had their victim at last completely in their 
power, the priests and scribes, after their ec- 
clesiastical sentence, now resort to the praeto- 
rium of Pilate, for permission to execute their 
purpose upon the person of our Lord. There 
was not in all Jerusalem a place more hateful 
to the Jew than this Gentile palace, the ob- 
trusive sign and seat of heathen domination. 
Sanctimonious to the last degree, they would 
not, even on such an errand, enter the judg- 
ment-hall, the pra3torium itself, but stood 
around the judgment-bench, which was with- 
out. In the early hour of the morning Pilate 
comes out to meet them. How he was sum- 
moned, what were his first impressions and 
sentiments, we .know not. He comes for the 
first time before us, as he steps out, at this 
unusual hour, on this extraordinary occasion. 
Let us judge of what is passing in his mind by 
his own words. He sees before him the whole 



PILATE. 211 

council of the Jews and a great crowd highly 
excited, holding a prisoner who was bound in 
their hands. The treatment he had received 
through that long and eventful night, without 
sleep, without food, buffeted and spit upon as 
he had been, must have had its effect upon the 
pale face of Christ. Is it unnatural to suppose 
that the heart of Pilate was touched with pity 
as his eye first fell upon our Lord ? ' ' What 
accusation. bring ye against this man?" Such 
were his first words. Some commentators see 
more in this question than it will bear. Lu- 
ther, paraphrases it in this manner: "It is 
marvellous that ye can have any thing to say 
against a man so celebrated for goodness." 
We are not informed that Pilate knew any 
thing of Christ, or had ever seen his person 
before ; and yet the answer which was imme- 
diately given by the Jews, " If he were not a 
malefactor, we would not have delivered him 
up unto thee," implies that there must have 
been somewhat in the tone, the expression, 
the manner of Pilate, when he put the ques- 
tion, "What accusation bring ye against this 
man ?" which conveyed the impression that he 



212 CONVERSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

was not unmoved by the spectacle before him, 
nor indisposed to believe that the person in 
whom he saw so much that was dignified mixed 
with so much of suffering, might be innocent. 
This was the first movement of his mind in 
regard to the Person with whom he is now 
brought into contact. " If he were not a mal- 
efactor, we would not have delivered him up 
unto thee.' 7 ''Take ye him and judge him 
according to your law/' was the taunting an- 
swer of the governor. Be sure this was not 
the authoritative disposal of the question ; it 
was a shaft of keenest irony aimed at the Jews, 
and intended to humiliate them by reminding 
them of their impotence. He intended they 
should feel that he was something more than 
the passive instrument of their will : If you 
judge and condemn a man alone, execute the 
sentence, if you can. The arrow hit the mark ; 
for the confession was immediately extorted 
from the Jews, whose humiliation was com- 
plete, "It is not lawful for us to put any man 
to death." And here have we one of those 
unconscious fulfillings of prophecy which, like 
the smooth working of intricate machinery, 



PILATE. 213 

one part fitting into another at the right time 
and the right place, demonstrate the presi- 
dency of one designing mind. "This said 
they," interprets the inspired evangelist, "that 
the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which 
he spake signifying by what death he should 
die." Christ had long before said that he 
should be delivered up to the Gentiles, and 
that he should be lifted up upon the cross. 
Had he been put to death by the Jews, nei- 
ther of these purposes would have been ac- 
complished. Crucifixion was a Roman pun- 
ishment. The Jews put to death by stoning. 
Had our Lord been surrendered up into their 
hands, his sacred person would have been 
crushed, and instead of being laid in the sep- 
ulchre without a bone being broken, it would 
have been but a mass of bloody fragments. 

Finding that Pilate was not disposed to 
give them permission without inquiring into 
the case, the Jews announce their accusation. 
Had the governor been the cruel and sanguin- 
ary person which some suppose, he would 
have despatched the matter summarily, and 
allowed the people to execute their fell intent ; 



214 CONVEESATIONS OF CHBIST. 

but he seems to be impressed with the fact 
that he has some responsibility in the prem- 
ises, and that he must act the part of a court 
of revision and appeal. Of great importance 
is it, for the satisfaction of Christian faith for 
all time, that the several steps of that process 
by which the Eedeemer of the world was 
brought to death should all be put upon the 
record, so that never should it be affirmed, 
and never imagined, that any stain of a just 
and well-founded accusation, even from his 
enemies, was left upon his sacred and adora- 
ble name. 

The accusation now made by the Jews 
was (Luke 23:2), that Christ had perverted 
the nation, and forbidden "to*give tribute to 
Cassar, saying that he himself is Christ, a 
king." Determined to investigate the matter 
for himself, Pilate retires into the prgetorium, 
and sends for Jesus to come to him. This is 
something different from judicial publicity. 
Behold our divine Lord in private conversa- 
tion with this Gentile governor ! ' ' Art thou 
the King of the Jews ?" It is not necessary 
to put mockery into this question, as if Pilate 



PILATE. 215 

intended to insult Jesus: "Art thou then 
the King of the Jews V 1 Bather let us under- 
stand it as a simple and honest inquiry — " Art 
thou then the King of the Jews ?" If our Lord 
had simply answered " Yes" or "No" there 
would have been ground for misapprehension. 
He might appear to protect himself under an 
ambiguity of words. Our Lord therefore re- 
plied in the form of a counter-question ; and 
it must have interested and astonished Pilate 
to find that this prisoner under examination 
had the power of probing the heart of his ex- 
aminer. Jesus answered him: " Sayest thou 
this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee 
of me ?" Every word in the question has its 
meaning. First of all our Lord intended that 
there should be no place for evasion, for am- 
biguity. He would have Pilate explain in 
what sense his question was to be understood. 
"Do you mean to ask whether I am a king in 
your own sense of the word, from your point 
of view as a Roman governor, or do you intend 
to ask whether I am a king in the theocratic 
sense, according to the Jewish theology? Ex- 
plain your own language, and we will then 



216 CONVEESATIONS OF CHEIST. 

come to an understanding." More than this 
is implied in the question of Christ. He re- 
veals Pilate to himself. He touches his con- 
science. He would have him to see and de- 
cide whether he has any honest convictions 
and purposes of his own, or whether he is 
under the influence of external and unworthy 
power. If Pilate had answered the question 
honestly, when the surgeon's hand touched his 
pulse, how different might have been the issue 
of his case. When Christ comes too close, he 
shrinks and draws back. As the flesh recoils 
from fire and sharp edges, so did Pilate with- 
draw himself from the faithful touch of Christ. 
He tosses off the hand which holds the probe. 
In lofty scorn he says, " Am la Jew ?" What 
do I know or care about your theological dis- 
tinctions, your Jewish Messiahship ? You are 
accused by your own people of asserting your- 
self to be a king ; what does this mean ? what 
hast thou clone ?" The way is now prepared 
for our Lord to affirm the truth concerning 
himself. He does not disavow the name of 
King, but claims it with explanation of its 
meaning. He is not a king of this world, with 



PILATE. 217 

swords and armies and revenues at his control. 
He is no rival of Caesar in regard to an earthly 
monarchy. He has never refused to acknowl- 
edge the civil power. He and his disciples 
have paid tribute to the ruling dynasty. 
Every accusation which would make him an 
usurper or a rebel by setting up an earthly 
kingdom is false. The frequent use of the 
word kingdom in this disclaimer prompts Pilate 
to put the direct question, "Art thou a king 
then? 11 "Yes," said Christ, "I am a King. 
That word which you have said is true. Not 
a king to fight, but to witness for the truth. 
My kingdom is not of this world. It is spir- 
itual, but none the less a real kingdom. I 
wish for no evasion ; I ask for no concealment. 
I do not wish to be acquitted through any 
ambiguity of language. You shall know the 
whole of that which your question implies. 
This is the whole import of my birth, my res- 
idence in the world. You have asked me 
what I have done, and what is the cause of all 
these Jewish accusations against me. This is 
my whole offence : I have revealed truth ; I 
have testified to the truth ; this is my kingly 

Cod. of Christ. 10 



218 CONVEESATIONS OF CHEIST. 

office. I reign in the realm of truth. Let 
monarchs wear the trappings of robes and 
sceptres and crowns ; my insignia of power 
are the words of truth which I have announced, 
and my supremacy is oyer the minds and the 
hearts of men." Disabusing the mind of Pilate 
of all these ideas of external and political 
power, defining the nature of his spiritual 
kingdom, with its kingly assertions of truth, 
Christ brings the governor and examiner be- 
fore whom he stands to a critical decision. He' 
informs him that every one who is of the truth 
hears his voice. "What an application is here. 
Be sure there was an expression of the eye, 
an intonation of the voice, which gave it an 
irresistible meaning. "My kingdom is of the 
truth, and every man who is of the truth hear- 
eth me." Pilate, what an eventful moment in 
your history is here ! Whoever desires him- 
self to know that truth is sure to find it. And 
here and now, if thou wouldst but know it, in 
this meek, majestic Person, stands the truth, 
who could inform you of all things. 

A second time the conscience of Pilate 
shrinks from the touch, and we pass the second 



PILATE. 219 

stage in his downward progress. ' ' Pilate saith 
unto him, What is truth V 1 Every thing depends 
upon the tone and emphasis with which these 
words are uttered. That they were not used 
by Pilate in an honest sense, as one desirous 
of knowing the truth, is very plain from the 
sequel ; for he does not even wait for an an- 
swer. Had he, with an earnest and candid 
spirit, put the question to Christ, " What is 
truth ?" what revelations would have been made 
to him ! But he was frivolous. He was skep- 
tical. He was indifferent. And yet it is hard 
not to admit that there was something like 
despondency and sadness in the tone and 
spirit of the words — "Truth! what is it?" 
It is the thorough man of the world who 
speaks. He has no interest in moral distinc- 
tions, and is very impatient under all matters 
w^hich probe his conscience. No sooner were 
the words uttered, than he steps forth to the 
people, and assures them that he finds no fault 
at all in the man whom they had accused. 
So shall it stand for ever, out of the mouth of 
this Eoman governor, that no impeachment 
rested on the character of Christ. What now 



220 CONVERSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

shall he do ? Instead of following his convic- 
tions of what is right, he resorts to an expe- 
dient by which probably he would evade the 
whole matter. He remembers the old Jewish 
custom of releasing some state prisoner at ev- 
ery annual return of the Passover. There 
was a man then in confinement for notorious 
crime. He was accused of robbery and mur- 
der. This man Barabbas was under arrest for 
participation in a most frightful insurrection. 
Xow, thought Pilate, I will propose the alter- 
native to the people to release Barabbas, or 
Jesus. Surely they cannot hesitate what to 
do ; they will not prefer that this blood-stained 
culprit should be let loose on the city rather 
than this quiet and well-behaved Person, whose 
only offence is, that he has excited the ill-will 
of the priests by some new claim or assertion 
in regard to their religion. Little did Pilate 
know the men with whom he was dealing. 
He was foiled in this attempt to deliver Jesus 
out of their hands. Immediately and clamor- 
ously they demanded the release of Barabbas ; 
so that Pilate, most unexpectedly and greatly 
to his perplexity, found that the case of Jesus 



PILATE. 221 

was still in his hands, and in some way was to 
be disposed of. That perplexity was in no wise 
diminished by a message which was brought 
to him from his wife, begging him to have noth- 
ing whatever to do with this man, for she had 
suffered much in a dream concerning him. 
What strange presentiments, what wild and 
mysterious warnings agitate the soul of this 
vacillating Pilate while fighting against his 
own convictions. 

Again the Jews repeat their charge against 
Christ, that he had stirred up the people 
throughout Judea, beginning from Galilee and 
passing on to Jerusalem. " What, v said Pilate, 
" is he a Galilean V Ascertaining that he was, 
a new expedient for evading responsibility sug- 
gests itself to this worried and restless man. 
"A Galilean; then he belongs to Herod's 
jurisdiction ; and luckily, Herod is now in 
Jerusalem ; I will send him to Herod, and so 
rid myself of all action in the matter."* Upon 
this suggestion, Jesus is swept away to con- 

* As to the question whether the sending to Herod 
did not precede the offer to release Barabbas, see 
Olshausen, vol. 3, pp. 72, 73. 



222 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

front this sensual, corrupt, brutal prince. 
Right glad was Herod to see the man of 
whose fame he had heard, and by whose mir- 
acles he hoped to be amused, as by a mounte- 
bank. Christ, knowing the man, maintains 
the dignity of silence. Not a word does he 
utter in that presence. Mocking him, putting 
him to derision, dressing him ujd in some cari- 
cature resemblance of royalty : after this in- 
genious and cruel sport, Herod and his men of 
war summarily terminate their connection with 
the affair by sending Jesus back to Pilate. 

With what chagrin and dismay did Pilate 
behold the concourse once more approaching his 
judgment-hall ! Instead of escaping responsi- 
bility, he found himself becoming inextricably 
involved in it, beyond all power of evasion. 
Again he resorts to expedients, rather than 
do the right. Finding no fault in Christ, and 
inclined to save his life, but at the same time, 
in his weakness, disposed in some degree to 
gratify the maddened people, he gave direc- 
tion that Jesus might be scourged. Undoubt- 
edly he intended this as a means of pacifying 
the Jews, substituting. this as a more lenient 



PILATE. 223 

sentence than death. It would seem that Pi- 
late was not a spectator of this cruel punish- 
ment, but that for decency's sake he withdrew 
for a season. During this interval the sol- 
diery indulge their hate in all manner of mock- 
ery. Little knowing what they did, they 
platted a crown of thorns — a symbolism most 
sublime and memorable — and put it on his 
head. Finding that this act of scourging, 
instead of pacifying the accusers of Christ, 
only exasperated them, Pilate goes out to the 
people, and assures them again that he finds 
no fault at all with Christ. Standing in their 
presence, and interposing himself as a break- 
water to the foaming madness, the door from 
the court is opened, and Christ is presented 
to their sight, the blood trickling from the 
wounds made by the thorns on his head, the 
marks of the scourge on his back, and a pur- 
ple robe about his person. There stands the 
man whose condition might well move the 
pity of all. "Ecce homo/"—" Behold the 
man !" says Pilate. It is incredible that these 
words were uttered in anything like mockery 
and derision. Bather let us understand them 



224 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

as intended to convey and excite a real sym- 
pathy and compassion. It is very ]3lain that 
Pilate, in all his indifference about questions 
of religion, had become profoundly concerned 
in finding himself entangled with a matter 
from which* he would gladly be rid, especially 
as he acknowledged the mysterious power 
which this unknown person appeared to exert 
over his own movements — ''Behold the man!*' 
Instead of pity, the sight inflamed the mad- 
ness of the concourse, who thirsted for the 
blood of Christ, and shouted, " Crucify him! 
crucify him!' 7 Well, said Pilate — determined 
to shuffle off all responsibility to the last — 
well, "Take ye him and crucify him, for 
I find no fault in him." But this empha- 
sis did not suit the Jews ; for if they should 
assume all the responsibility, and crucify 
their victim, they might be called to an 
account for it, and suffer the consequences. 
Determined to obtain permission from Pilate 
in due form to execute their purpose, they 
answered him: " We have a law, and by our 
law he ought to die, because he made himself 
the Son of God:' Like a bolt from heaven fell 



PILATE. 225 

these words on the ear of Pilate. Here is 
something new and strange and inexplicable. 
Before, they had accused the prisoner of usurp- 
ing political power, of exciting insurrection, 
of being a King ; but now they say that this 
same person ought to die, because he called 
himself the Son of God. Deeper and deeper 
grows the mystery. Pilate turns and looks 
at Christ — that bleeding, pale, bound, derided, 
yet meek and patient prisoner. He call him- 
self the Son of God ! He knows nothing, he 
cares nothing about the definitions of Judaistic 
theology ; but in that raiment of mockery and 
in that state of suffering helplessness the Ro- 
man magistrate acknowledges that there is 
something in this claim of divinity which awes 
his own mind ; gets hold of him, and masters 
him. He was afraid. When Pilate heard 
that new word, Son of God, "he was more 
afraid." He looks, he wonders. The very 
indenniteness and vagueness of the expres- 
sion increase his alarm. He withdraws into 
his house, directs Jesus to be brought to him 
again ; and once more, and once only, he is 
confronted with our Lord in a private inter- 
10* . 



226 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

view. Pilate and Christ together again, and 
alone ; and Pilate, with this fear and dread 
in his heart, quickly asked, with white lips, 
" Whence art thou?" The question relates to 
the words just uttered. That he was born in 
Galilee, he had ascertained before ; but now 
he would touch the mystery of this new and 
incomprehensible word, "the Son of God.'' 
"Whence art thou?" And Jesus spake not a 
word. Silence was an answer. In that im- 
pressive stillness, was not the Sufferer preach- 
ing to the heart and conscience o.f Pilate ? 
That is the one great question for all time for 
all men: "Who is Christ?" "Whence art 
thou ?" We have seen all along how the con- 
science of Pilate shrunk from every touch of 
truth. He had gone too far in this jDerilous 
process to expect now any satisfaction . or 
relief through a question which is prompted 
only by fear. Had he not before been told 
by Christ that he was King in the realm of 
truth, and that every one who loved truth 
would acknowledge himself a subject ? Pilate 
had written out his own condemnation before, 
as one that disliked truth, and hated the light ; 



PILATE. 227 

for great was the violence which he had done 
to his own convictions, as stirred already by 
the words and person of Jesus. Therefore, 
when a strange curiosity, impelled by per- 
sonal fear, prompted the question, "Whence 
art thou ?" our. Lord was silent. At first Pilate 
wondered. But that silence continued, his 
condition became awkward and embarrassing. 
Wonder gave place to wounded pride, and 
he was forced to break the silence himself: 
"Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou 
not that I have power to crucify thee, and 
have power to release thee?" Then Jesus 
answered: "Thou couldest have no power at 
all against me, except it were given thee from 
above." The haughty presumption of this Gen- 
tile governor is brought at once unwillingly 
before the almightiness of God. Be sure this 
from above has no reference to higher earthly 
magistracy ; it connects the transaction imme-" 
diately and inseparably with the ideas of God 
and supremacy and accountability. The gov- 
ernor was mastered, and himself put to silence. 
The prisoner, by a few smooth and quiet words, 
had tamed his restless pride, without reliev- 



228 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

ing hiro of his fear. From that moment Pilate 
was determined that he would release Jesus. 
But he Jiad begun to slide when he practised 
his firet delay, his first irresolution, his first 
violence to conscience : and there was no stop- 
page to his slippery descent. He went to the 
people, and announced his purpose. But they 
knew his weakness, and were determined to 
avail themselves of his vacillation. The Jews 
cried out : "If thou let this man go, thou art 
not Caesar's friend : whosoever maketh himself 
a king speaketh against Caesar." They touched 
the man in his weakest point. Accusations 
against him for maladministration had already 
gone up to Rome, and he was afraid, if the Jews 
repeated the charge to his imperial master, 
he would be called to account, and displaced 
from office. This new jealousy for the rights 
of Caesar on the part of the Jews, who ordina- 
rily made no secret of their intense hatred for 
the Eoman authority, he did not pause to 
Aveigh. He himself was influenced by the 
meanest of all motives, the fear of losing an 
office, rather than do what he knew to be right. 
Yielding to this worldly suggestion, the last 



PILATE. 229 

struggle was over, and he went down before 
the rushing tide. The stern, unrelenting big- 
otry of the Jews pressed him on with resist- 
less power. If he had hitherto any honest 
purpose to do what was right, that purpose 
was swept away by the fear of personal dis- 
advantage. To the honor of Christ, and to 
his own shame, by a most impressive symbol- 
ism, washing his hands before the people, 
Pilate assured them that he found no fault in 
Jesus Christ; and after all these several at- 
tempts to evade responsibility by expedients 
of various kinds, he yielded up the person of 
our Lord, and gave his consent to the cruci- 
fixion. 

In dismissing the evangelical narrative at 
this point, it is not impertinent to add what 
we derive from other sources. I make no 
reference to what is questionable ; there were 
Acta Pilati, spurious productions, which we 
pass unnoticed ■ and there is no doubt that 
Pilate made a report of this case to the em- 
peror at Rome, though it is lost ; but from 
other and reliable sources we learn that, as 
Judas failed even in his reward, so Pilate 



230 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

found that the last motive by which he was 
foiled proved too weak to help him. He was 
recalled ; he was exiled in disgrace from Rome 
into Gaul ; and the traveller who now de- 
scends the Rhone sees, in the south of France, 
still standing the very tower from which, as 
tradition says, Pilate precipitated himself to 
the dreadful end of the suicide. 

The character of Pilate is briefly summed, 
ie was a thorough man of the world, des- 
titute of all high principle, and sacrificing 
conscience to circumstances. Inclined to do 
right, when to do wrong worked against his 
advantage : aspiring for the honor and power 
which come from man ; indifferent and skep- 
tical as to the rewards which come from Grod. 
He has a conscience, but dares not to follow 
it. He has perceptions of what is right — ■ 
impulses, misgivings, fears, susceptibilities ; 
but every thing that was good was superfi- 
cial, while within all was weak, and waver- 
ing, and vacillating. The best opportunities 
ever enjoyed by a mortal for knowing the 
truth were his. in personal intercourse with 
Christ ; but for want of earnestness and sin- 



PILATE. 231 

cerity and candor, all these served only to 
exhibit his folly and enhance his guilt. 

What an effect, think you, was produced 
on Pilate when he heard that the man whom 
he had suffered to be crucified had risen from 
the dead? Suppose you he was a party or a 
dupe to the fraud invented by the priests, that 
the body of Christ had been stolen, while his 
Roman guards, at the known peril of their 
lives, had slept ? While the story was told to 
the credulous; did not Pilate and his wife, as 
with a sword in their hearts, talk together 
about their connection with this strange mys- 
tery which, when they thought it past, returns 
with a deeper shadow and a more dreadful 
warning ? 

Think not that we have here a mere his- 
toric tableau for intellectual entertainment. 
The scene is directly related to ourselves. 
Christ, the Son of God, still lives ; and he 
presents himself before the minds of men with 
a degree and power of evidence which sur- 
pass all that he exhibited when here in the 
flesh ; and before every man he awaits a ver- 
dict. He comes not as a prisoner, in bonds, 



232 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

his glory under eclipse ; nor vet as a Judge, 
in the terrors of omnipotence : but in the atti- 
tude and offices of love. The head which 
drooped upon the cross wears a crown. He 
asserts a kindly claim over our hearts and 
lives ; asking for our faith, our gratitude, our 
loyalty, our devotion to him ; and necessity is 
laid upon us to make a choice, and to express it. 
In your misapprehension, you may wish that 
you could evade the responsibility of making 
that decision; but this is impossible. Rival 
claimants for your heart necessitate a choice. 
"Is it this Man, or Barabbas?" Shall it be 
for Christ, or against him? You have tried 
delays, you have practised evasion, you have 
employed expedients, you have manifested 
indifference : but Christ is before you again, 
and you must give your verdict. You need 
no dreams, no mysterious warnings to con- 
vince you that this divine Claimant is related 
inevitably to your eternal destiny. Your 
life, your immortal life, is somehow woven in 
and dependent on his. Presentiments shall 
I call them? convictions rather, clear and 
strong and rational, if you would allow them air 



PILATE. 233 

and voice, are in your soul, concerning the 
name and power and jurisdiction of Jesus 
Christ. " If I had not come and spoken unto 
them, they had not had sin; but now have 
they no cloak for their sin. 7 ' According to 
this equitable rule, is not our guilt greater 
than was that of Pilate, if we withhold our 
earnest convictions from Him. whose life and 
offices and truth are before us, with stronger 
light and more resistless evidence? "What 
is truth ?"' " Whence art thou V 1 What op. 
portunities and auspices are those in which we 
can propose these cardinal questions. If we 
will but urge them with all candor and ear- 
nestness and sincerity, how sure it is that He 
will reveal himself in us, so that we shall bend 
before him in most grateful cliscipleship. Our 
great peril is in Pilatical vacillation ; in that 
weakness which seeks delay and evasion and 
indifference, instead of acting promptly ac- 
cording to the convictions which are already 
in the soul. To-day Christ, in a certain sense, 
is on trial before us all. In these living hearts, 
in every one to-day, there will be a judgment 
of some sort passed upon his sacred person.. 



234 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

" Every one that is of the truth heareth his 
voice. ?? If you would prove these blessed 
affinities with Christ, yield yourselves to the 
truth which he has announced, and follow him 
most trustfully and obediently. 

Be not content with concealed and reserved 
convictions ; give them utterance in open court. 
Be prompt, be open, be resolute, be decided ; 
and of this be sure, the time is at hand when 
you will have no reason to be ashamed of 
that verdict which numbers you with the dis- 
ciples of the Son of God, 

Long ago Pilate has stood to be judged 
himself in the presence of the glorified Re- 
deemer. In that presence we too shall stand. 
Pilate was afraid when he heard these words, 
the Son of God. You too have your secret 
fears and misgivings, when your thoughts fly 
onward to the judgment-seat of Christ. We 
shall all be there, either on the right hand or 
the left of the Judge. Where do we hope to 
be ? where should we wish to be ? where do we 
intend to be ? with those who denied Christ, 
of whom he will be ashamed, or with those 
who confessed him, whom he also will confess? 



PILATE. 235 

This process of assortment has begun, and 
will go on for ever. Behold the communion- 
table, where Christ comes to us. Behold the 
judgment-seat, where we shall stand before 
him. "Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast 
the words of eternal life, and we believe and 
are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God." We lay hold of the skirts of 
our great High Priest, and prefer any thing 
to the act of disbelieving, denying, forsaking, 
despising, rejecting the Eedeemer of our souls ! 



CONVERSATION OF CHRIST 



WITH 



MAET MAGDALENE; 

Love Rewarded. 



JOHN 20;1-18. 



IX. 
MART MAGDALENE 

Love Rewarded. 






The scene before us is the interview be- 
tween Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, at 
the sepulchre from which he had just risen. 
Such an interview was never before or since. 
She the first person of all the human family 
to whom our Lord revealed himself after his 
resurrection, and these the first words which 
he uttered after the silence of the tomb. 

It was at three o'clock in the afternoon of 
Friday that Christ bowed his head and expired. 
The time when a friend dies is the last to be 
forgotten in our domestic annals. It was such 
a year, such a month, such a day, such an 
hour, and such a minute. That Christ actu- 
ally died— that fact so essential — is confirmed 
alike by friends and enemies. The Jewish 
law expressly forbade the exposure of cruci 
fied bodies upon the Sabbath ; and as the Sab- 
bath now at hand, the first after the Passover, 



240 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

was a "great day," one of unusual sacredness ; 
the Jews sent to Pilate the request that he 
would direct the Roman guards to expedite 
the death of the three then suspended upon 
the cross, as otherwise they might have lin- 
gered for days ; and so their bodies might be 
taken away before the going clown of the sun. 
The order was issued, and the soldiers broke 
the legs of the two malefactors. Proceeding 
to the body of Christ, to their surprise they 
found that he was dead already. There was 
no need of further violence. When, a little 
later in the afternoon, Joseph of Arimathea 
went in to Pilate and asked that the body of 
Christ might be given to him, Pilate marvelled 
if he were already dead, knowing how linger- 
ing this method of execution was ; so he sends 
for the centurion who was in command that 
clay, from whom he receives the official report 
that death had actually taken place. Physi- 
ologists have conjectured, if not demonstrated, 
that Christ died of a broken heart, the actual 
rupture of this vital organ. Though they broke 
not . his legs — unconsciously fulfilling, in the 
person of the Pa'schal Lamb, the ancient Scrip- 



MARY MAGDALENE. 241 

ture, " A bone of him shall not be broken 77 — 
one thing was done which the apostle John 
himself saw, and which he records with an 
emphatic affirmation of its truth, as an eye- 
witness. A soldier pierced the side of Christ 
with a lance, inflicting a wound which of itself 
would have been mortal, out of which came 
blood and water, and which was the last proof 
that life was extinct. The resurrection, there- 
fore, was not resuscitation frQm a swoon, it 
was restoration to life after a real and com- 
plete death. 

The evening was drawing on, at which 
time — the appearance of the stars — the Sab- 
bath began, when Joseph, assisted by Nico- 
demus, took the body of our Lord, and pre- 
pared it for its burial. Those who had been 
his avowed disciples took no part in the trans- 
action. Stricken with terror, they had fled 
early in the day. It could never be said by 
any who should be disposed to question the 
reality of his resurrection, that there was any 
collusion on the part of the eleven disciples 
with a feigned and histrionic death. Time 
did not allow the final embalmment of the 

Con. of Christ. 11 



242 CONVEESATIONS OF CHKIST. 

body, so it was simply wrapped in clean linen, 
with a mixture of spices, and then was it borne 
to a sepulchre hewn out of a rock in an adja- 
cent garden, which Joseph had prepared for 
his own family, and in which no man as yet 
had ever been laid. And these two men, 
when they had finished their reverent act, 
together rolled a great stone to the door of 
the sepulchre, and then withdrew. And Mary 
Magdalene and the other women who had loved 
Christ and ministered to him sat in the garden 
over against the sepulchre, beholding where 
and how his body was laid. So the night 
wore on. On the day following — our Satur- 
day — the Jewish Sabbath, the chief priests, 
the instigators of the crucifixion, reminded of 
what " the deceiver'' had frequently said as 
to his rising again, plied Pilate for additional 
securities over the sepulchre. The mandate 
was given, " Ye have a watch, .... make it 
as sure as ye can." So they went and sealed 
the stone ; and when all was made secure, 
they ordered a detachment of soldiers for a 
guard. 

All these incidents — the number of per- 



MAEY MAGDALENE. 243 

sons implicated, the minute details of Christ's 
crucifixion and interment — go to corroborate 
the record concerning the reality of his death. 
A memorable day was that Sabbath in Je- 
rusalem ! Who can surmise all that was felt 
by the disciples when, they thought of him as 
a mangled and buried corpse, who, as they had 
trusted, was to redeem Israel? Mary the 
mother of Jesus, and the other women, and 
John and Peter, had no voice for song in the 
worship of that Sabbath. If the scribes and 
priests felt that their malice was gratified, it 
was not manifested by loud exultation, for 
there had been too many portents and mys- 
teries to allow of that ; rather were there mis- 
givings and tremors. The sun never went 
clown on heavier hearts or more afflicted 
mourners. Truly this was "the power of 
darkness." Never did Death hold such a vic- 
tim before ; and never was his gloomy pow- 
er more effectually expressed by stones, and 
seals, and guards, and silence. 

The very night when the women whom we 
have already named returned from the garden 
of Joseph, they made preparations of spices 



244 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

for a more complete embalming of the body 
of Christ; and so they rested on the Sabbath- 
day. 

The Sabbath passed. While it was yet 
dark, just in the early dawn, they went forth 
with the courage of love to perform their pious 
office. The foremost in the group was Mary 
Magdalene ; so called from Magdala. the town 
in Galilee in which she lived. The utmost 
wrong has been done to her name by the gen- 
eral belief that she was once a woman of dis- 
reputable life. There is not a word in the 
Xew Testament to countenance such an opin- 
ion. There is no reason whatever for infer- 
ring that she was the woman who crept into 
the house of the Pharisee to anoint and kiss 
the feet of Christ. That woman was a peni- 
tent outcast : loving much because forgiven 
much. Let her not be identified without 
proof with Mary Magdalene. The first we 
know of the latter is upon the occasion of her 
being relieved of demoniacal possessions by 
the word of Jesus. A mysterious affliction 
was that, but surelv nothing; which involves 
the idea of a dissolute life. Her associates 



MAEY MAGDALENE. 245 

were of the most respectable class ; one of 
her companions is the wife of a man holding 
an important office in the king's household ; 
and they all appear to have been possessed 
of sufficient substance out of which to minister 
to their Friend and ours, Jesus of Nazareth. 
Wretched as she had been on account of her 
physical or mental sufferings, grateful as she 
w T as for relief, it is most unfortunate that her 
name, the Magdalen, should have been ap- 
propriated, in all modern languages and art, 
to that particular class who have been res- 
cued from a life of infamy. 

While these grateful, loving, and pious 
mourners were wending their way out of the 
city and along the unfrequented road in the 
dusk of the morning twilight, an event had 
occurred within the garden for which nei- 
ther they nor the w 7 orld were prepared. The 
guards were pacing before the sepulchre or 
reclining at their posts, when there was a 
great earthquake, and an angel from heaven 
descended, and rolled away the stone from 
the door of the sepulchre, and sat upon it. 
He uttered not a word. His silent calmness 



246 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

displays the consciousness of power. His 
countenance was like lightning ; and for fear 
of him the keepers did shake, and became as 
dead men. When they had recovered their 
senses, they fled away with utmost haste. 

Had this narrative been of human origin, 
doubtless we should have had at this point a 
high-wrought description of the reappearance 
of our Lord anions: the livino\ such as we find 
ill works of fiction when dealing with the mar- 
vellous : instead of which, we are not apprized 
of the exact time when our Lord issued from 
the sepulchre. Nothing is said of his dignity, 
his mien, his sublime force. Just where art 
and fable would have been most elaborate, 
truth is most simple and reserved, even while 
recording a marvel such as no pen had de- 
scribed before. 

"While they were pursuing their way with- 
out the city through the suburban vineyards, 
the women were wondering -how they should 
succeed in gaining access to the sepulchre. 
Some of them had seen the size of the stone, 
and the Strength which was requisite in roll- 
ing it against the door, and how should they 



MARY MAGDALENE. 247 

alone be able to roll it away. While they 
were conversing abont this perplexity, Mary 
Magdalene, who appears on all occasions to 
be a person of great ardor and earnestness, 
presses on in advance, and to her astonish- 
ment sees that the stone is removed, and the 
door of the sepulchre is wide open. JSTo other 
thought appears to be in her mind than would 
be in yours when approaching the tomb where, 
two days before, a friend had been deposited, 
and finding most unexpectedly that it had 
been disturbed. Her first thought must have 
been, that the sepulchre was opened for no 
good purpose, but for some new indignity on 
the. part of those who had most cruelly put 
her friend to death. She had not so much as 
an imagination as to his restoration to life. 
She is possessed by one thought — the grave 
has been rifled, and for some evil purpose the 
resting-place of the dead has been invaded. 
What could have been done within that tomb 
which she had herself seen so effectually se- 
cured ! Without pausing to investigate or 
reflect, she sweeps by her companions, flees 
back to the city, finds Peter and John, and 



248 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

informs them what she had seen. Excitement 
is too intense for talking. We have no rec- 
ord of what these disciples said ; only of what 
they did. They ran, without any delay or 
order, to the garden. John, the youngest, 
reaches the sepulchre first, and his first glance 
confirms the report of Mary Magdalene. While 
he stands without, stooping down and looking 
within, Peter arrives, and with, his usual im- 
pulsiveness, went into the sejmlchre, where 
John followed him. They are wondering what 
could have become of the body. As yet, ac- 
cording to John's recorded confession, they 
knew not the Scripture, that he must rise 
again from the dead. One thing arrests their 
attention. All appears to be decent and or- 
derly. There are no signs of ruffianism. The 
linen clothes had not been stolen ; neither 
were they torn or ruffled. They were dis- 
posed most decorously, and the napkin which 
had been around his head was- carefully folded 
and placed by itself. All this does not look 
like violence or haste such as might have been 
expected from enemies ; yet who but enemies 
would or could have invaded that sanctity? 



MAEY MAGDALENE. 249 

Did Joseph know any thing of the occurrence ? 
Could Mcodemus give them any information ? 
Could they discover any thing about it in the 
city? In a tumult of emotion, they hasten 
back to the city, and Mary Magdalene is 
left alone at the sepulchre. She stood with- 
out, weeping. All her tumultuous emotions 
of grief and love and wonder find expres- 
sion in tears and sobs. Many a stricken heart 
before and since, like Mary, has mourned 
at the grave. She could only see the vacant 
niche where the body of her Friend had been 
laid. She stoops down, and gazes on the spot. 
Presently the tomb grows bright, and two 
forms are seen, white and resplendent, the 
one at the head and the other at the feet 
where the body had been. "And they say 
unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She 
saith unto them, They have taken away my 
Lord r and I know not where they have laid 
him.' 7 She is denied the sad satisfaction of 
paying the last offices of friendship to the 
sacred form which, beyond a doubt, is subject 
to slier knows not what neglect and indignity. 
While she is thus replying, she is conscious 
11* 



250 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

that some one is approaching behind her, for 
she hears his step ; and casting her eyes back- 
ward, sees his form distinctly as she could 
through her flowing tears. She did not recog- 
nize who it was, and supposed, as we after- 
wards learn, that it was the gardener. But 
it was Jesus. She was listless as to who it 
v^as at first, her whole soul intent on one thing. 
And Jesus saith unto her, in a tone which she 
did not recognize: "Woman, why weepest 
thou? whom seekest thou?" The fast words 
uttered by our Lord after his resurrection, 
but destined to be repeated in a higher sense, 
with a better import, as the grand consolation 
of the world to the end of time. "Why weep- 
est thou ?" Occupied with one regret, per- 
plexed by one marvel, supposing that he w T as 
the keeper of the garden, a ray of hope gleam- 
ing upon her mind that now the mystery of 
the morning would be explained, not repeat- 
ing her reply just made to the angels, but com- 
pleting it, as if what she had already said to 
them must have been overheard also by the 
person who now accosts her, she says ••*• Sir, 
if thou have borne him hence, tell me where 



MAEY MAGDALENE. 251 

thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.' 7 
What a gentle confession of sincere love is 
here! She would save every one else from 
trouble, if she could only find the object of 
her search. She would protect it from all 
indignity, and see that it was interred most 
decently and affectionately. The time has 
come when, in a manner the most natural, the 
most simple and proper, our divine Lord is to 
manifest himself to the first one who greets 
him after his resurrection. Not the last, 
blessed be God, to whom he reveals himself 
as a loving Saviour ; not the only one 5 for 
others too shall wait and weep, and seek and 
love, to whom, through all centuries of time, 
Christ will show himself as he who was dead, 
and is alive for evermore ! Happy art thou, 
Mary of Magdala, for thy patient, sincere love — 
ministering to Christ all the way from Galilee, 
standing by his cross, braving a cruel and 
insulting heathen soldiery, and weeping for 
him who wept not for himself, waiting now 
so long at his empty tomb — this thy love 
shall not go unblessed. "Sir, if thou have 
borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid 



252 CONVERSATIONS OF CHKIST. 

hhn, and I will take him away. Jesus saith 
unto her, Mary!" That voice she has heard 
before. That intonation she cannot mistake : 
"Mary!" She turns herself fully round. One 
word only breaks from her lips — " Rdbboni!" 
"My dear Master! 7 ' — as she falls at his feet. 
There, we may suppose, she lies in a most 
passionate expression of her gratitude and 
love and joy. This was an act of artless im- 
pulse. Afterwards, when he showed himself 
to the other women, they held him by the feet 
in fervid embrace, and worshipped him. So 
Mary would have held him, in her sudden 
revulsion of feeling, as if to satisfy every doubt, 
express every delight, and detain him from a 
second departure. Then Jesus saith unto 
her, "Touch me not: for lam not yet as- 
cended to my Father: but go to my breth- 
ren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my 
Father and your Father, and to my God and 
your God.' 7 

It would not be for edification to em- 
ploy time with the detail of the various inter- 
pretations which have been put upon these 
words — " luucli me not" — some of them plau- 



MAKY MAGDALENE. 253 

sible, and some ingenious and subtle. We 
incline to that which is the most simple and nat- 
ural. The principal thing in the verse is very 
plain, namely, the announcement that he was, 
at a time not very remote, to ascend from the 
earth to heaven and to God. That which is 
plain is to be the interpreter of that which is 
obscure ; that which is paramount must ex- 
plain what is subordinate. The main thing, 
concerning which there can be no difference 
of opinion, is, that Mary was to inform the 
disciples of Christ of the event, not yet accom- 
plished, but next to ensue, in the sublime pro- 
gramme of redemption, his ascension to the 
skies. All that is intermediate is of small ac- 
count. Her commission includes, of course, 
the announcement of his resurrection. She 
had seen him, aiid he had told her, and through 
her all his brethren, what was next to occur 
in the completion of his great work. Keeping 
this in mind, it is of very small consequence 
which meaning we attach to the phrase, Touch 
me not, if we only avoid what is farfetched, 
and adopt what is most in keeping with the 
facts and the occasion. There she lies, cling- 



25i CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

ing to his feet, in an ecstacy of joy. And 
there she would have remained, we know not 
how long, as varied emotions were surging 
through her soul. Is she afraid that he will 
again disappear from her sight? would she 
detain him by her fond embrace ? would she 
satisfy herself by a continuous touch that in- 
deed it was her Master, and she was subject 
to no illusion of her senses ? was she content 
with expressing her unspeakable joy by these 
natural methods of clinging to his person and 
kissing his feet ? How pertinent would it be 
for our Lord, in either of these shades of feel- 
ing, after allowing the first impulse of her 
wondering joy, to direct her to stay there no 
longer ; to pass no more time in these acts ; 
for he was not yet parted from the world ; he 
should remain yet longer befoi'e his ascension ; 
both she and his brethren would see him again 
before that event should occur which now was 
the most important of all, as they should un- 
derstand the consummation and success of his 
redemption, his ascension to that God and 
Father who, in a new sense, becomes our God 
and Father, through that new relation which 



MAEY MAGDALENE. 255 

we sustain to Him who is not ashamed to call 
us "brethren." 

Leaving what ensued in other manifesta- 
tions which Christ made of himself before his 
ascension to heayen, we recur to the event 
authenticated in this interview with Mary, as 
the most momentous which ever occurred upon 
the earth. 

Like Mary, let us visit the sepulchre, stoop 
clown, and gaze within it. I do not mean the 
sepulchre of Christ, but the resting-place of 
man, the entombment of the human body, the 
end of life — and I was almost committed to 
the venturesome act of asking you for one 
moment to put out of mind what is now so 
familiar, the resurrection of Christ, and all 
the hopeful consequences of that great event. 
Mary Magdalene was not the first of our race 
who went to the grave to weep. What a dark, 
cold, narrow, lonely place it is! Here we 
bring one friend after another, never, never 
more to return. "Dust to dust 5 ashes to 
ashes." Here we shall at length be brought 
ourselves. Here we shall be for ever exclu- 
ded from all which is done under the sun, as 



256 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

much as if we never had existed. The noise 
of the world will keep on, but we shall not 
heed it. Xo voice, no motion, no life ; buried 
beneath the ground. "If a man die, shall 
he live again ?" A tree is cut down ; but the 
vital sap is in the root, and straightway it 
sendeth up its new and thrifty shoots. Will 
the dead ever revive ? Is this the end of him 
who was the sublunary lord of creation — cor- 
ruption and the worm? Is there another life? 
What are its conditions? How shall it be at- 
tained ? Weep, mourner, weep at the sepul- 
chre, both for the dead and the living. Knock 
at the barred door of the tomb, whence comes 
back no sound but the sullen echo of thy grief, 
and wonder. and fear. 

So was the tomb before Jesus himself en- 
tered it, to rise again. His resurrection has 
changed all the conditions of our being, pres- 
ent and future, and is the crowning proof of 
his divine mission; the last act which was 
necessary to authenticate and finish the re- 
demption of the human race. There is no 
other fact which implies and proves so much 
as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 



MARY MAGDALENE. 257 

dead. Early in Ms ministry, when the Jews 
sought of him a sign of his Divine authority, 
he said unto them: "Destroy this temple, and 
in three days I will raise it up." " He spake 
of the temple of his body ; and when he was 
risen from the dead, his disciples remembered 
that he had said this" — which seemed enigmat- 
ical to them at the time — "and they believed 
the Scriptures and the word which Jesus had 
said." Whether it was at the gate of the tem- 
ple, or on Mars Hill at Athens, or before Fes- 
tus at Cesarea, wherever the apostles preached, 
this was the fact and the doctrine which they 
announced — Jesus and his resurrection ; for 
this included and covered all other facts and 
truths which it is important for us to be- 
lieve. In the argument of the inspired 
apologist for the general resurrection of men 
[1. Cor. 15], the whole structure rests, as 
on a corner-stone, upon the fact that Jesus 
Christ himself rose from the dead. If Christ 
did not rise, then our faith is vain ; we 
have no revelation, no light, no Saviour. 
Then our deceased friends have utterly per- 
ished ; then we are in our sins, and nothing is 



258 CONVEESATIONS OF CHEIST. 

before us but gloom and extinction. But now 
is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits 
of them that slept. Slept — a new word in hu- 
man speech ; "for since by man came death, by 
man came also the resurrection of the dead." 
Come, let us visit the sepulchre again. Be 
not afraid, for we go to meet there our risen 
Lord ; and his words are gentle : " Why weep- 
est thou?" Propound your questions now, 
and renew those inquiries which came back 
so dolefully before, "If a man die, shall he 
live again?" Yes, "because I live, ye shall 
live also." "What, is not the tomb the end 
and extinction of man ?" No. " He that be- 
lieveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall 
he live:" "Is there another life beyond and 
besides that of the body ?"■' " I ascend to my 
Father and your Father, to my God and your 
God ; and where 1 am, there ye shall be also." 
But death is still before me, unavoidable, the 
disgust and abhorrence of my nature. ' ' Death 
is yours," says the great Conqueror, who has 
vanquished the destroyer, and proved himself 
the Lord of life. "The grave! the grave! it 
seems as dark and lonely as ever." " Say not 



MAKY MAGDALENE. 259 

so," replies lie who could not be liolden within 
its walls of stone ; who had power to lay down 
his life, and power to take it up again. What 
was safe for the Precursor is safer now for all 
his followers. Any question which fear, or 
grief, or helplessness may propose now at the 
sepulchre, shall have its answer of good cheer 
from Him who met and despoiled Death. 
How much is included in that one word, death! 
The progeny of sin, the dread agent of retri- 
bution. That one word which is the expres- 
sion of all that is terrific and i;epulsive and 
painful in any and every world. And Jesus 
Christ proves himself the Redeemer of the 
human race, in the act of enduring death him- 
self, and then rising victorious over it. This 
one event proves, by the majesty of facts, 
and not by uncertain reasoning, that the 
Being who invites our faith in himself has 
shown that Death is disarmed ; that there 
is a power superior to his dread and cold 
touch. We come to the sepulchre now, 
though it be with reverent step, sorrow bear- 
ing her burden there with a most becoming 
awe, yet it is with thanks to God, who giv- 



260 CONVEESATIONS OF CHKIST. 

eth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

On the Sabbath-day, for ever to commem- 
orate his resurrection, joy should return to 
the cheek which once was blanched with fear, 
and songs to the lips which before were mute 
with agony. The very disciples who were 
stricken with fear when the Lord was cruci- 
fied and buried, afterwards, when they saw 
him alive, returned to Jerusalem with great 
joy. What in the universe should occasion us 
gladness, if it be not this assurance — that Je- 
sus Christ was raised up from the dead by the 
glory of the Father, and that we too, conform- 
able unto his death, may be made partakers 
of his resurrection ? Come to the vacant sep- 
ulchre of Christ, and sing for joy. Death is 
abolished ; let us rejoice and be glad. Angels, 
those spirits of purity and love, hasten to meet 
us here with their message of joy. They too 
are interested in the redemption of Christ ; 
for they sung on the night of his advent ; they 
ministered to the sufferer in the garden of 
agony ; they rejoice over every sinner that 
repenteth; and they bear the spirits of the 



MARY MAGDALENE. 261 

righteous to the bosom of Gocl. Heaven and 
earth, angels and men, meet happily together 
at the open tomb of Christ. Sorrow may 
be for a night ; joy cometh in the morning. 
With grateful hearts, with a head lifted up, 
and with a full-toned voice should we ever 
repeat the great articles of our faith : "I be- 
lieve in Jesus Christ, who was crucified, who 
died, and was buried ; who rose again from 
the dead ; and who is now at the right hand 
of God : I believe in the forgiveness of sins, in 
the resurrection of the body, and the life ever- 
lasting." These are the few sublime facts 
which give dignity to existence, tranquillity to 
fear, and hope to futurity. Coming to take 
away the sin of the world, the Son of God 
takes aw^ay also all its consequences ; "through 
death, destroying him that had the power of 
death, and delivering those who, through fear 
of death, were all their lifetime subject 
to bondage." "Made like unto us," whom 
he calls his brethren, by taking upon him- 
self a nature which is subject to the humili- 
ating necessity of death, He is also our 
Divine Deliverer, the Restorer of that which 



262 CONVEESATIONS OF CHEIST. 

was lost, through the "power of an endless 
life." 

Amid all such assurances of joy, one thing 
alone demands our personal concern ; even 
that we become identified with Christ by acts 
of intelligent trust. His mediatory life does 
not avail for our advantage by the force of a 
natural law which consults not our will, but 
by a moral adaptation which requires our own 
choice and judgment and consent. "If ye 
then be risen with Christ," says the Scripture, 
"set your affection on things above. 7 ' "If 
ye be risen with Christ 77 — a condition of our 
present life : a condition which is indispensa- 
ble, if we would insure for ourselves the ben- 
efits which Christ conveys. As Christ rose 
from the dead, so we must now rise from spir- 
itual death, and live a new life. The greatest 
of all promises, all that is in God's gift for man, 
are made sure to those who believe on Him 
who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead ; 
who was delivered for our offences, and rose 
again for our justification. Do you ask why 
Mary Magdalene was the one chosen to whom 
first of all Christ showed himself after his res- 



MARY MAGDALENE. 263 

urrection ? This we know — she trusted in 
him, and she loved him ; she waited at his sep- 
ulchre ; she sought, she looked, she wept ; and 
if we would have Christ reveal himself to us, 
we too must seek, and wait, and long, and 
trust, and love. This is spiritual resuscita- 
tion. This is life in the best sense ; the quick- 
ening of thought, going forth to seek Christ ; 
the stirring of the soul's affections towards the 
great Object of confidence and love. To one 
so disposed, Christ will manifest himself as he 
does not to the world. To one so inclined to 
seek his favor, God will make known what is 
"the riches of the glory of this mystery, which 
is Christ in you, the hope of glory." 



CONVERSATION. OF CHRIST 



WITH 



PETER : 

The Restored Penitent. 

JOHN 21:15-22. 



Oon. of Christ • ~j_ ^ 



X. 
PETER: 

The Restored Penitent. 

This was the third time that Christ had 
shown himself to his disciples after his resur- 
rection. In his previous interviews with the 
apostolical group we have very little informa- 
tion concerning the attitude of their own minds. 
We have the words of Christ addressed to 
them ; very few of their words to him. It is 
natural to suppose that they were not yet fully 
at ease. They had not yet completed their 
self-adjustment in reference to those marvel- 
lous events through which they were then 
passing. They had received directions from 
Christ to return to Galilee, where he prom- 
ised to meet them. The scene of the inci- 
dents now to be described was that bright, 
deep inland sea which had been so often asso- 
ciated with the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 
Here it was that the principal personages in 



268 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

the company of disciples formerly pursued 
their occupation as fishermen. It was when 
they were in the act of casting their nets 
in this very lake that Peter and James and 
John had been called to the discijxleship of 
Christ. Here it was, when they were afraid 
in a violent squall, that Christ had stilled the 
waves and the winds to a perfect calm by the 
simple utterance of his command. Here it 
was that he was seen, through the gloom of 
night, walking upon the surface of the water, 
as if it had been a marble floor. It was in the 
villages and cities which looked down from the 
adjacent hills upon this sheet of water that 
most of the wonderful works of Christ had 
been performed. A fitting place, most surely, 
for our Lord again to meet his disciples ■ for 
every object reminded them of him. 

Precisely the posture of their minds when 
resorting to their old haunts we cannot define. 
There must have been a strange mixture of 
thoughts and emotions. They were like in- 
sects in the very act of transition from the 
chrysalis state. They might be compared to 
the animals on the sixth day of creation, some 



PETER. 269 

of whose limbs were free and agile, while oth- 
ers still adhered to the sod out of which they 
were summoned into life. Yet we cannot go 
so far as some, who detect a disposition on 
the part of the apostles to abandon the whole 
enterprise as a failure and delusion. We have 
heard of some interpreters who construe the 
words of Peter, when lingering on the shores 
of the sea of Galilee — " I go a fishing" — as a 
confession of disappointment ; as if he was 
ready to abandon all connection with the mys- 
terious person who now seemed to be the den- 
is- x 

izen of the air or parts unknown. Neverthe- 
less, we cannot believe that these seven men, 
as they swung that night in their boat, were 
altogether at ease in their minds. They were 
not over-talkative. Thomas must have re- 
proached himself for his incredulity, and Pe- 
ter must have felt an unusual heaviness at 
heart when he recalled his own perfidy and 
blasphemy and cowardice. An air of sadness 
must have been on all these fishermen through- 
out that long and weary night. The hours 
wore away, during which their toil was fruit- 
less. When the morning broke, they were 



270 CONVEESATIONS OF CHRIST. 

hailed by a stranger from the ehore : "Have 
you any fish ?" The answer was very curt 
and monosyllabic, as was natural: "No." 
"Cast your net on the right side of your 
boat, and you shall catch them." Without a 
thought who it was or why he gave the direc- 
tion, they did as they were bidden, and their 
net enclosed so many that they were not able 
to draw it in. Suddenly the truth flashes 
across the mind of John. The wonder is, 
that it did not occur to them all — to Peter 
and the other son of Zebedee — for it was a 
repetition of the very act which occurred, in 
the same place, about three years before, 
when they were first called to follow Jesus 
of Nazareth. The gentlest love has the quick- 
est instinct, and he who had leaned on Jesus' 
bosom at the supper, now pulling at the ropes 
of the net, said in a low voice to Peter, 
"This must be the Lord." The suggestion 
was enough ; coincident no doubt with the 
surmises stirring already in his own mind. 
Girding his coat about him, without further 
question or delay, Peter sprang into the sea 
and struck for the shore. Fast as their oars 



PETEE. 271 

could be plied, the whole of the boat's com- 
pany follow, dragging their net with them. 

Nothing is recorded of the first words 
which passed between these disciples and their 
Master. They seem to have been hushed with 
awe. Though they were now convinced that 
it was their Master, they did not presume to 
interrogate him as to his appearance, but 
waited for his own explanations. Soon as 
they had landed, they saw a fire of coals 
already kindled, in preparation for a meal. 
Why should we pause to discuss the proba- 
bilities of its origin? If left by some other 
party, that would be nothing strange. If pre- 
pared by our Lord himself, anticipating the 
wants of his wearied friends, this surely was 
in keeping with his character, and with the 
gentle, kind care which he always had exer- 
cised in behalf of his disciples ; nor is there 
any thing in the act, allowing it to have been 
miraculous, which should excite incredulity — 
the lesser fading in the power of the greater. 
If the meal of which they now partook to- 
gether there upon the shore was not passed 
in silence, the conversation is not reported; 



272 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

while it is affirmed that the astonished disci- 
ples did not feel at liberty to question their 
Lord as to his identity. All this, however, is 
introductory to what follows : that personal 
conversation with Peter which evidently is 
the main subject of the chapter. 

Nothing could have been more kind, more 
gentle, more skilful than the mode in which our 
Lord proceeds to deal with this now penitent 
disciple. We are not informed that any thing 
had ever passed between Jesus and Peter since 
the resurrection which could be regarded by 
the latter as his complete reinstatement in the 
favor of his Lord. It was true that, when Mary 
Magdalene and the other women were bidden, 
at the vacant tomb of Christ, to announce his 
resurrection to the disciples, a special mention 
is made of Peter: "Go tell his disciples and 
Peter" — as if without this specification the 
disciple who had disowned his Master might 
conclude that he was disowned now by him. 
and that he had no right to rejoice with oth- 
ers in view of the tidings which to them were 
full of joy. Twice, if not thrice, Christ had 
shown himself to this apostle since he rose 



PETER. 273 

from the dead. But as yet we hear not one 
word which had passed between them rela- 
tive to the painful subject of his defection. 
We cannot but think that Peter still had many 
misgivings as to what were to be his relations 
to that Master whom he had so grievously 
wronged. He had indeed been sorely afflict- 
ed because of his grievous sin. He had wept 
bitterly over it. Never could he forgive him- 
self on account of it. He had reason to ex- 
pect the sharpest upbraiding. Surely he was 
disposed to chide himself. So may we sup- 
pose his mind alternated between hope and 
fear, ill at ease with himself, and quite in sus- 
pense. And now for the first time there was 
to be a full understanding of th.e terms on 
which he was to stand with his Master. We, 
who are so often exhorted to restore the fallen 
in the spirit of meekness, will do well to study 
the whole scene for the inimitable method in 
which our Lord dealt with this honest disciple. 
The occasion itself was well chosen. It was 
not in the first wild burst of emotion conse- 
quent upon the flying ridings of the resurrec- 
tion morning, but when the mind had recov- 



274 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. ' 

ered a more sedate and tranquil condition. I 
am disposed to believe that the conversation 
was private. If not absolutely so, it was cer- 
tainly without that degree of publicity which 
would have entailed somewhat of mortification. 
The very same words, uttered in public and 
in private, would be susceptible of different 
intentions. John was a witness of the inter- 
view ; perhaps more ; perhaps all of the seven. 
If they were, faithfulness and gentleness were 
so skilfully mingled in the words that there 
was no needless opening of the wound ; noth- 
ing more than was necessary to insert the oil 
and the wine. 

It was after they had dined that Jesus said 
to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest 
thou me more than these V 1 In this question 
there is the very mildest form of reproof, re- 
duced to the very minimum, so that to a hasty 
eye it would not appear at all ; yet being there, 
it is just in the form and degree which were 
necessary to give completeness to the act of 
restoration. There could not be a full and 
satisfactory understanding between the par- 
ties, if there had been no allusion whatever 



PETER. 275 

to the past ; yet that allusion is made with all 
the delicacy conceivable ; an allusion by way 
of suggestion, rather than direct and positive 
charge. "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou 
me more than these ?" Here is no taunt, no 
upbraiding ; but there is just so much of refer- 
ence to what had occurred before as was neces- 
sary ; as if Christ foresaw the uneasiness which 
the reference would produce, and was desirous 
of mitigating it to the utmost. The secret 
cause of Peter's defection was, his self-confi- 
dence, his vain boasting. When he was told 
by his Lord that all the disciples would for- 
sake him, Peter exclaimed : " Though all men 
should deny thee, yet will not I." So had he 
expressed himself before the arrest of his Mas- 
ter. So loud and boastful were his words. 
Nevertheless, he was the first to deny his Lord. 
The storm of his passionate grief, excited by 
the mild eye of Christ turned upon him in the 
judgment -hall, has passed, and now Christ 
says : " Simon, .... lovest thou me more than 
these ?" Though it was so mild and gentle — 
the mildest and gentlest that reproof could 
be — the answer of Peter shows that he under- 



276 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHKIST, 

stood and felt it. He does not affirm that he 
loved his Master more than did the other dis- 
ciples. He is ashamed of his former rashness 
and self-confidence. He knows more of him- 
self now than he does of others. He begins 
to have somewhat of that lowliness of mind 
which esteems others better than one's self. 
He contents himself, therefore, with the hon- 
est asseveration of his love: "Lord, thon 
knowest that I love thee." A second time 
the same question was put ; a second time the 
same answer was returned. When for the 
third time the question was repeated, signifi- 
cantly, emphatically: "Simon, son of Jonas, 
lovest thou me ?" the disciple saw the intent 
of the triple interrogative. It was not to give 
an unnecessary pain, for the pain which was 
thus excited was needful, absolutely so — the 
touch of the probe on that wound which waited 
a cure. Three times had Peter denied Christ — 
over and over and over again — with cumula- 
tive stress. When he saw that his Master 
evidently intended by that triple repetition 
of the question to remind him of his triple de- 
nial, Peter was grieved. He remembered his 



PETEE. 277 

offence, over which he had wept before, and 
over which he weeps now again. " Perhaps," 
he soliloquized, "I shall never be restored to 
the confidence of my Lord again. Perhaps 
he sees other perils to which I am exposed, 
in which my weakness and dishonor will a 
second time be enacted. He foretold before 
my former temptation, that Satan had desired 
to have me, that he might sift me like wheat ; 
perhaps his eye foresees a second apostacy, 
and he distrusts me, as well he may." So the 
penitent renews his grief. He is not as one 
put upon the rack, whose bones are disjointed 
and broken, but as one in the hands of love, 
who is brought only into that form of sorrow 
which is the precursor of consolation and a 
cure— that kind of grief which has a blessing 
in it ; the child of truth and honesty, and lead- 
ing on to carefulness and sincerity and truth 
again. The reproof administered, the balm 
was not far removed. The question asked 
and answered once, the restorative direction 
was given immediately, to be repeated just as 
often as were the query and the reply. "Feed 
my lambs." 



278 CONVEESATIONS OF CHEIST. 

11 Lovest thou me?" This is the one test 
question of our religion ; for he that loveth 
is born of God. Careful criticism has no- 
ticed that, in the original Greek, two differ- 
ent words are used in the question and the 
answer, to represent what in our version ap- 
pears one and the same, love; "Lovest thou 
me ?" — vAyafiospe? it is the word which, through- 
out the New Testament, denotes the high rev- 
erential quality which defines the religious 
sentiment: God's love to man ; man's love to 
God. In making his reply, Peter does not 
adopt this word, but another, "cvoUag on <pac> <*?.» 
It is the word which expresses rather the sen- 
timent of a human affection. Is this a mere 
accident? Just at this moment Peter might 
have shrunk, through a sense of his own weak- 
ness, from making any demonstrative expres- 
sion of a high religious sentiment ; but this 
he could do with the fullest conviction of his 
own infirmities : assert, in all honesty, his per- 
sonal attachment to his Master. So he does, 
most heartily: "Lord, thou knowest that I 
love thee." Notwithstanding all which I did 
in the hour of peril, of my weakness and temp- 



PETEE. 279 

tation, " thou knowest that I love thee." The 
same the second time. In the third question, 
our Lord changes the word himself, adopting 
that which Peter had twice used — "+&£{ pe? 
Do you indeed have this strong affection for 
me ? The last answer of the disciple is inten- 
sified : "Lord, thou knowest all things" — not 
me only, as before — "thou knowest that I love 
thee." This honest, hearty expression of his* 
love — accompanying as it did three repeated 
allusions to his previous defection — was in- 
tended, and so was received, as the confession 
of his repentance. That confession reitera- 
ted, the word and the act of restoration ensue 
immediately. The two are always associated 
together in the Divine purpose, if not in hu- 
man consciousness — as light and its shadow. 
" I said, I will confess my transgressions unto 
the Lord ; and thou forgavest the iniquity 
of my sin ;" the confession and the pardon 
simultaneous and inseparable. "Feed my 
sheep." Had Christ merely informed his 
apostle that he forgave him, assigning him 
no office, no act by which his love could be 
expressed, his restoration would have been 



280 CONVERSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

incomplete. Men sometimes forgive in this 
imperfect manner. They will promise to for- 
give a past offence, but they will not trust the 
offender for time to come, True reconciliation 
leaves no such suspicion or distrust. It con- 
fides. It returns his sword to the warrior. 
It renews his commission to the man who 
repents of his disloyalty. Believing that his 
repentance was sincere and his attachment 
strong, Christ restored his disciple without 
any reserve, assigning him a post of duty, and 
intrusting to him, as to the other apostles, the 
great interests of his church. This is some- 
thing to be borne in mind for our imitation. 
Many a generous nature has been perma- 
nently and incurably injured by being denied 
the confidence which it craves. Parents harm 
their children through habitual distrust. Let 
us copy the wisdom of Christ, who, in forgiv- 
ing, prescribed, as in fullest confidence, the 
very mode in which he who was forgiven 
could make proof of his love. 

Nor was this the whole. Soldiers regard 
it always as the highest honor to be assigned 
to positions of the greatest peril. He who 



PETEK. 281 

is advanced to service at a most critical 
and important point, in the very face of 
.death, feels himself promoted by the solem- 
nity of the trust. Just this was what occurred 
on the occasion I am describing. Not only 
was Peter fully restored to office and duty, 
but he is distinctly informed of the suffer- 
ings which lie in that career, which is to 
be terminated by the honors of martyrdom. 
Christ does not invite his disciple to a life of 
ease and tranquillity. Neither Peter nor the 
sheep whom he was commissioned to feed were 
destined to repose in green pastures or beside 
still waters. Our Lord foretells in his hear- 
ing what will come to pass in his future life : 
"Yerily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou 
wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walk- 
edst whither thou wouldest; but when thou 
shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, 
and another shall gird thee, and carry thee 
whither thou wouldest not." We are not left 
to conjecture the meaning of this, for the evan- 
gelist immediately subjoins: "This spake he, 
signifying by what death he should glorify 
God." Our Lord — I will not say forewarns, 



282 CONVEKSATIONS OF CHEIST. 

for it is an honor and a promotion, not a shame 
and degradation, of which he speaks ; but he 
foretells to this earnest, cordial friend how 
much was implied in this protestation of at- 
tachment. He fully informs him of the cost 
at which his love will be attested. He de- 
scribes the old age which was before him — not 
one of liberty and serenity, but of duress and 
helplessness, to be closed with crucifixion. 
When young, you girded yourself, just as you 
have now done, when you sprung into the sea, 
going where you liked ; but the time will 
come when you shall be bound by the hands 
of an executioner, and your arms shall be ex- 
tended upon the cross, dying painfully in proof 
of your love. Wonder not that John, who 
survived Peter so long, and who wrote this 
gospel many years after the martyrdom of his 
brother apostle, should have had this part of 
the conversation recalled to his mind most 
vividly, embodying it in his record. The true- 
hearted Peter did not shrink from the test. 
Such was now the sincerity of his love, that 
he was willing to prove it, not merely by feed- 
ing the flock of Christ, but by facing death 



PETER. 283 

itself in its most terrific forms. And when 
Jesus had spoken this — with this explicit infor- 
mation of what was in certain prospect — he 
said to the penitent, restored, sincere, loving 
disciple, ' ' Follow me /" The same words which 
were uttered in his hearing at the beginning 
of his discipleship, years before, when sum- 
moned from his nets as a fisherman, to be 
prepared as a fisher of men, are repeated 
now, with how much greater significance ! 
Through death Christ had passed already ; 
unto death ; and through death the disciple 
was to be as his Master. This sublime com- 
mand, in prospect of danger and imprison- 
ment and martyrdom — " Follow me!" — opens 
the way to Peter to prove his love. He with- 
drew not his foot, he turned not back his eye, 
but lifted up that head which drooped once, 
once only, but which will droop no more, for 
his love is true and courageous as it is sincere. 
Tradition reports that when, at the end of 
his glorious apostleship, Peter came to the 
cross as a martyr, he made request that he 
might be crucified with his head downward, 
regarding it as too great an honor that he 



284- CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

should be permitted to die in the same man- 
ner as his blessed Master. 

One other thing was infused into this act 
of Peter's restoration, and his avowed pur- 
pose to follow the Eedeemer. Apprized of 
his own mode of glorifying God by painful 
martyrdom, he very innocently and naturally 
inquired what was to be the history of his 
friend and companion, his fellow-fisherman, 
and now his fellow-apostle, John. "Jesus 
saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I 
come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me? 11 
This remark, we are told, was misunderstood. 
The saying went abroad that John should not 
die at all. A good illustration of the origin 
of traditions, and of the little credit which 
should attach to them. This very tradition 
has had a wonderful longevity. Grave efforts 
have been made by men now living to prove 
that there must have been some truth in the 
old tradition of the. church that John did not 
die even when he was buried, but that the 
earth of his tomb actually heaved with his 
continuous breathing ; and so late as the time 
of Cromwell, there was a sect in England who 



PETER. 285 

professed to believe that John was still alive, 
and that he would be manifested as the pre- 
cursor of Jesus Christ at his final advent. 
The very letter of the passage proves the 
contrary of all this : ' ' Yet Jesus said not unto' 
him, He shall not die ; but, If I will that he 
tarry till I come." Frequently had our Lord 
referred to his coming at the destruction of 
Jerusalem, the event which John actually 
lived to see, surviving it several years. 

But we are wandering from the point. 
We cannot call it a vain and idle curiosity ; 
yet something of curiosity there was in the 
question of Peter concerning his brother dis- 
ciple ; and this was rebuked. He was bidden 
to observe that he who enters upon the march 
of duty must not be diverted by side-issues, 
by any thing irrelevant. Matters there may 
be which concern others which do not concern 
ourselves. The world is full of objects which 
are unrelated to our personal duty. He who 
enters upon the service of Christ under the 
impulse of love should understand, when ma- 
king the most of his life, that there may be ten 
thousand side-questions, of greater or lesser 



286 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

interest, which ought never to divert thought 
or purpose from the one great vocation of a 
Christian disciple. "What is that to thee ? Fol- 
low thou meP 1 Embarrass not your strength, 
weaken not your purpose, dilute not your 
power by entertaining questions which are in 
no wise related to your own duty; but make 
this intention to follow Christ one and indivis- 
ible, concentrating all the forces of existence 
into one decisive energy, and pressing on to its 
end, undiverted by trifles, undaunted by death. 
Gathering up the several words and inci- 
dents of this conversation, we are in posses- 
sion of a lesson most pertinent and valuable 
to ourselves. I have said already that we 
have here the test-question of our religion: 
■' Lovest thou me V Not only as the thought 
is expanded and reiterated by the same apos- 
tle in his subsequent epistles, that love is the 
essence of religion, but more than this, this 
love takes the form of personal attachment to 
the Redeemer, the living historic Person — 
unseen now, but not .unknown— rather than a 
vague sentiment for universal being, dissolving 
away into a pantheistic haze. Jesus Christ, 



PETEE. 287 

in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the god- 
head bodily, is the central form in our reli- 
gion ; and he who loveth Him who is the ex- 
pression of all love for us, is adopted into the 
family gf the redeemed. 

But how shall this love be demonstra- 
ted? After what method shall it be ex- 
pressed ? Not by secret musings alone ; not 
by the chanting of religious sonnets alone ; 
not by grateful remembrances of Him at his 
table only — but by deeds of love towards 
those who in a real sense represent him, 
because partakers of that nature, our com- 
mon humanity, which he condescended to 
assume. The Shepherd himself is invisible 
now, but we prove our affection for him by 
kindness to his flock. Jonathan is dead, but 
Mephibosheth liveth, whom, for his father's 
sake, we may visit with acts of fondest grati- 
tude. Whatever we do for man in Christ's 
name is as if it were done to Christ himself: 
" Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of 
these, ye did it unto me." "Lovest thou 
me?" "Feed my sheep." All around us, 
accessible to our living sympathies, with voice 



288 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

and hand, are the objects which remind us of 
our Lord — his very members and body ; and 
every act which is prompted by love towards 
them, will be regarded as a proof of love to 
him. Nor is this love an easy, unconscious 
emanation, as flowers diffuse an involuntary 
aroma ; it demands an effort ; and in its high- 
est expression, always manifests itself in sac- 
rifices and sufferings. It gives not only what 
costs nothing, but imitates the love of Christ 
for man, which cost him every thing. The 
eye of the penitent Peter, suffused with the 
tear of sorrow and glistening with the ardor 
of love, was directed to those heights of Chris- 
tian affection which he was permitted to scale 
through the honors of martyrdom. So com- 
pletely was self expelled from that love which 
now takes full possession of his soul. The 
cross, in the same literal sense, may not be in 
our path ; but this quality of love, that it is 
willing to deny itself, to suffer in itself for the 
good of its object, is universal. As Christ so 
loved us, in the same manner we are to show 
our love for him ; by deeds towards those who 
now represent him in actual life. 



PETEE. 289 

All other questions we may postpone. 
Whatever mere curiosity might suggest, we 
may defer. But at the close of the evange- 
lists, the sealing up of the record of what 
Christ said and did, the finale of revelation, 
this is the one all-inclusive and critical ques- 
tion, " Lovest thou me?" Grateful should we 
be for every opportunity in which we may 
give proof of our affirmative response. Spe- 
cially grateful should they be who, like this 
disciple, are conscious that they have hith- 
erto often denied their Master ; fallen into 
inconsistencies and defections most dishonor- 
able ; but who, like him, are also truly pen- 
itent, and ask for nothing so eagerly as to 
know the methods by which they may prove 
their newness of love ; specially grateful and 
emulous should they be for all occasions and 
modes for expressing their attachment to their 
most gentle and forgiving Master. - 

• ' Lovest thou me ?" All down through time, 
the question, in various ways, is presented 
to living souls. The human race is, and will 
be, divided by that one test. It will be uttered 
again from the throne of judgment, that throne 

Con. of Christ. 13 



290 CONVERSATIONS OF CHRIST. 

high and white, before which a disparted 
world shall pass to his right hand and his left. 
That throne will be occupied by the resplen- 
dent form of incarnate Love, and the destiny 
of every man will be, must be, as are his affin- 
ities in regard to Him. "Lovest thou me?" 
He that loveth is of God ; and they who are 
like God shall be gathered to his bosom; 
while all that is contrary thereto is repelled 
as an incongruous element : " Depart from me ; 
I never knew you." God grant, before that 
irrevocable decree, even now, often as the 
question meets us from our Lord, "Lovest 
thou me ?" that we may be able humbly and 
heartily to say: "Yea, Lord, thou knowest 
al] things ; thou knowest that we Iotc thee." 



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Narratives and Anecdotes of Stirring Inter 
est, and Largely Illustrated. 



Sketehes from Life. Series I. and Series II. A choice selec- 
tion of narratives illustrating almost every phase of Christian 
character, and the operations of the Spirit each volume, $1 25 

Elegant Narratives. Twenty-four choice Tracts beautifully 
printed and illustrated - - -$1 

A Pastor's Jotting's. Highly instructive and entertaining 
facts and reminiscences - $1 

Eloquent Preachers. Graphic and discriminating sketches 
of distinguished and successful gospel preachers of different de- 
nominations. Six steel portraits - --$1 

Anecdotes for the Family and Social Circle. Full of enter- 
tainment and instruction for all. Handsomely illustrated 75 

Temperance Volume. Twenty-five choice treatises, mostly 
narrative — - 70 

Pictorial Narratives. Twenty-four in number, finely illus- 
trated 60 

John Vine Hall. An autobiography of intense interest. 
Steel portrait. Instructive and cheering to the inebriate who 
would reform - 50 

Spirit of Popery. A calm and accurate description of its 
origin, character, and results, in a style adapted to all classes of 
readers. Twelve engravings - 60 

Haste to the Rescue. Noble and successful efforts of a lady 
to reclaim and bless five hundred working men 50 

Annals of the Poor. The three inimitable stories of Legh 
Richmond - 50 

Seamen's Narratives. Full of interest and finely illustra- 
ted - 40 

Five Years in the AHeghanies. Equal in interest to any 
work of the traveller in unexplored regions - 40 

The Dairyman's Daughter; 

The Young Cottager. In separate form and finely illus- 
•trated each 35 



STANDARD WOEKS ON INFIDELITY AND 
THE EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 



Paley's Natural Theology and Horse Paulinae. Illustra- 
tions on wood $1 25 

Paley's Horae Paulinae - 50 

God's Word Written : the Inspiration of Holy Scripture ex- 
plained and Enforced. Strong, clear, logical and conclusive SI 

Evidences of Christianity. By Bishop Mcllvaine. It has 

won many from infidelity to Christ 80 

Letters on Infidelity. By Olinthus Gregory, LL. D. It 
combines solid learning and argument with clearness of thought 

and illustration - 75 

Cause and Cure of Infidelity. By David Nelson, D. D. Steel 

portrait. It is full of interest and is greatly useful 70 

The Bible not of Man. By Bev. Dr. Spring - 70 

Astronomical Discourses. By Bev. Dr. Chalmers. Evan- 
gelical and eloquent -- 60 

Yolume on Infidelity. Arguments of Jenyns, Leslie, Lyttle- 

ton, Watson and West, unanswered and unanswerable - 60 

Universalisni not of God. Arguments from the word of God 

and from the Author's bitter experience- - - 40 

Bogue's Authenticity of the New Testament. Able, candid, 

conclusive - 40 

Bishop Watson's Reply to Paiue 35 

Morison's Counsels to Young Men on Modern Infidelity- 35 
Five Sermons on the Atonement. By Eminent Divines: 

Chalmers, Butler, Hall, Bishop, Baring, and Maclaurin 35 

Keith's Evidence of Prophecy - - 25 

Catholic Doctrine of a Trinity. A hundred short and clear 

arguments - 25 

Hawes' Letters on Universalisni 25 

TVhen were our Gospels Written? By Teschendorf 25 

Conversion of St. Paul. Lyttleton 20 

Saome Jenyns' Evidences 20 

The Bible True, and Infidelity Wicked. By Dr. Plumer--- 20 

Summary of Scripture Truth 25 

Bishop Porteus on the Evidences of Christianity. A pocket 

treatise of great value - - - 15 

The Truth of Scriptures. By Bev. Bichard Cecil 15 , 



