IT is important that we should intelligently understand the place of this Manifesto in the work of Jesus. We will therefore consider its occasion, its method, and its nature as revealed in these words; "And seeing the multitudes He went up 'into the mountain; and when He had sat down, His disciples came unto Him; and He opened His mouth and taught them." Its occasion was Christ's vision of the multitudes. Its method was that of the enunciation of the laws of His Kingdom, not to the multitudes, but to His own disciples. Its nature was that of revealing to them the first value of the Kingdom as being spiritual, and its ultimate expression as being material.

The occasion-"Seeing the multitudes." This is a very familiar phrase. Jesus had commenced His ministry. The days of privacy were for ever over. He had emerged from the quietness and seclusion of Nazareth, and had commenced to tread the pathway upon which there beats a fiercer light than ever falls upon a throne-the pathway of the public teacher. As He began there was a strange and wonderful attractiveness in Him, and 'the multitudes gathered round Him. The unfit people of all the countryside were attracted to Him. Probably the people in that district had no idea how many unfit and incompetent people there were in their midst until Jesus, moving through the towns and villages, drew them round Himself. We cannot too often read these words or too solemnly consider them and catch their meaning-"They brought unto Him all that were sick, holden with divers diseases and torments, possessed with devils, and epileptic, and palsied, and He healed them." What a gathering of unfit people! But not merely such. They crowded after Him, from Decapolis, from Galilee, from Jerusalem, from Judaea and beyond Jordan.

The people attracted by Jesus were not a people of one class or of one caste. He attracted to Himself all sorts and conditions of men; and as the King passed through that region, all kinds of people came out after Him, crowded after Him; many of them to see His works,-the curious crowd, always attracted by something out of the ordinary, the weakest part of the crowd, always the most difficult to deal with. Other men were attracted to Him not so much by His works as by His words. But whatever the motive, they came, all sorts and conditions of men. People jostled each other who had never done so before; Pharisees side by side with publicans; ritualists side by side with harlots, and sinners; men of light and leading, and the scholarly men of the age, side by side with the illiterate, the degraded, the depraved. The presence of Jesus meant the massing of humanity without any reference whatever to the mere accidentals of birth, and caste, and position. Pharisees dropped their quibbling for a little to listen. Publicans quitted their seats of custom to hear Him. Men forgot everything about their divisions. Caste never lives for five minutes in the presence of Jesus Christ. He burns it up with His coming. He is never attracted to a man because of the breadth of his phylactery, or the enlargement of the border of his garment. He is never repelled from a man-blessed be God!-by his rags. Underneath the rags and the phylactery He sees the man, and He is after the man, not his clothes. And men know it, and they are always attracted by a man who is after men; so they gather to Him. That, then, was the occasion "Seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain"-leaving the multitudes in the valley.

They did not stay there; they followed Him, and there is no doubt they heard a great deal of this Manifesto. But He did not address it to them; the Manifesto was not for the mixed multitude. It is not for the mixed multitude to-day. "Seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain, and when He had sat down His disciples came unto Him, and He opened His mouth and taught them-the disciples, not the multitudes. You ask; Do you mean to say Jesus did not intend this enunciation of laws for the multitude? Do you mean to say He left the multitude, abandoned the multitude, had no care for the multitude, and gave His teaching to a handful? Yes; but He left the multitude in order that He might get back to the multitude. He left the multitude in order that He might equip the men who would obey His law, and then show the multitude what that law really meant in life. He left the multitude in order that He might begin the training of that company of men who should return to the multitude and bless the multitude.

The method of Jesus is manifested in this. The multitude cannot appreciate this law; cannot obey it; will not be attracted by it; will rather be affrighted by it. He must give the law to some souls who can appreciate it, obey it, and then manifest it. He must give His law, not to the promiscuous mob, which is curious merely, but to the selected souls who are loyal. That is the principle. Do not forget that the multitude is in His vision and in His heart. It is that He may get back to them, that He leaves them, and enunciates the ethic of His Kingdom to the few. He saw the multitudes. How think you, He saw them? He saw them as they were, and He saw them as they might have been. Christ's vision of the crowd is a vision of the crowd as it is, in comparison with the crowd as it might be. He saw their ruin, but He saw the possibility lying behind the ruin. He saw God's order. He was God's King. He knew what God's Kingdom meant in an individual life, for He was living therein Himself. He knew what God's government meant in a social order. He knew that if God's Kingdom were established among the multitudes, there would be none of the class bitterness and caste distinction driving man from man, brother from brother. He knew that if God's Kingdom were established among the multitudes there would follow the true social order; that humanity in the Kingdom of God would not be an aggregation of individuals fighting for individual existence, but a great community of men, in which every man should make his contribution to the commonwealth. He saw the possibility of a great communism. Do not be afraid of great words because they have been abused. Jesus Christ's was the real socialism, the communism of humanity, the great brotherhood of men. He knew these things could only be realized as men were related to the throne of God. He knew that socialism is not anarchy. First there must be the relation of all men to the throne of God, and then their necessary and consequent interrelation among each other. And as Jesus Christ looked out over the multitudes He saw them scattered as sheep without a shepherd; no one to fold them, no one to feed them, no one to lead them, no one to govern them. And seeing the multitudes, and knowing that they needed supremely the Kingdom of God set up, He left them and took a few men with Him, and unfolded to them the laws of the Kingdom, and began the work of coming back to the multitude with the revelation of that Kingdom.

He saw the multitudes. One loves to read those words, for here we see the King, God's King, our King, the King of tie whole world, looking at the disorderly multitudes, the disorganized multitudes, and we see burning in His heart the primal passion of a King. God's kings are always shepherds, and shepherds feed the flock, rather than are fed by the flock. Shepherds fold the flock, rather than expect the flock to fold them. And the primal passion of the King is burning here. Here are the people, spoiled, disorganized, because they have lost their relation to the throne of God; and seeing them, seeing the multitudes, the great heart of the King yearning over His people, He went up into the mountain.

That leads us by a necessary sequence to the second matter-the method of the Master as He sets Himself toward reaching the multitudes with the Kingdom of God. "His disciples came unto Him, and He opened His mouth and taught them." Here we must pause carefully, for an understanding of that principle, and this method will help us through the study of this Manifesto.

Who are these men to whom He is speaking? Souls loyal to His Kingdom. Jesus never gives the law of His Kingdom to any save to those in His Kingdom. No man can have the benefits of this Kingdom until he has kissed the sceptre of the King. When a man has bowed to the King then he has an obligation to the King and must obey the law of the King.

The late Archbishop Magee once said that it was impossible to conduct the affairs of the English nation on the basis of the Sermon on the Mount, and there was a great commotion among the" religious and irreligious papers, and he was criticized from Dan to Beersheba. But Archbishop Magee was quite right. You cannot govern the English nation on the basis of the Sermon on the Mount-because the nation is not loyal to the King. If you have any doubt, all you have to do in these interesting days is to get a seat in the legislative chambers and endeavour to introduce half a dozen principles from the Sermon on the Mount in a short bill, and see if you can get them carried. You will find that to be the surest test of the accuracy of what the Archbishop said. You cannot do it, because you are not dealing with a people prepared to obey.

Let not this be misunderstood for a single moment. Has a Christian man nothing to do with Government? He has everything to do with it, or ought to have. We are to dictate the terms of righteousness to every Government. The Church of God needs to shake herself free from all complicity with every political party in the State, and then she will be able to dictate the terms of righteousness on behalf of humanity and God. That is her business.

It is quite impossible to take the Sermon on the Mount and try to get men to obey it until they are themselves obedient to the King. Think of some of the things He said: "Ye are the salt of the earth. . . Ye are the light of the world." Do you suppose He meant the mixed multitude when He said that? And every benefit that He speaks of is a benefit belonging to the man who is in the Kingdom, and not to the man outside. A man conies and asks if we will not treat him as Jesus has taught us to do in the Sermon on the Mount. Certainly we will. But when a man in rebellion against the laws of Jesus asks us to give him our coat, we decline. Let him enter the Kingdom, and as God shall help us we will try and help him, suffer with him, rejoice with him. We have no right to take these benefits of the Kingdom and scatter them before a people who are still rebelling against the King. He begins by enunciating the law to the disciples.

The nature of this Manifesto is revealed in the words, "He taught them." Now the need of a Kingdom was common consciousness in the days of Jesus Christ. The very crowd who crucified Him were sighing after the setting up of a Kingdom. There was no question in the mind as to the value which would have accrued if this Kingdom could have been set up in some way. That is true to-day. Men are everywhere acknowledging the need of some new social order. Jesus had to teach in order to show that the ideal of the Kingdom in their mind was a degraded ideal. The ideal of the Kingdom, popular in the days of Jesus, was that of a Kingdom material in its conception and exclusive in its application.

We need not follow the subject further than to say that we have only to watch the disciples themselves to see how degraded their ideal was. Notwithstanding the teaching, it was a long time before the vision of the Kingdom broke upon them! After His resurrection they came back with the same old question: "Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" It was purely a material question. They expected a king with an earthly policy, an earthly government, an earthly army and retainers, setting up a kingdom of the earth. That is what men were looking for. Even men outside the circle of His followers had hoped that Jesus Christ had come to break the power of Rome, to be the divider amongst them as to property. And Christ had to teach these men that He was not proposing to begin His government thus. The Christ does not begin in the material realm; He came to teach men that character is before conduct. He came to teach them that the spiritual relation underlies the material manifestation. He came to teach them, as we shall see, that He does not say a word about policy, not a word about the government of property, not a single word about any of these things; but He gets down under the surface, and He corrects man in the realm of his character. He says "Blessed," but never a single blessing does He pronounce upon having anything or doing anything; every blessing is pronounced upon being.

When Jesus came to set up a Kingdom, the first thing He said was; It is not a question of what you have, or what you do, save in a secondary sense; it is a question of what you are. And that abides until this hour in all national affairs. We are bound to go on legislating in this country, of course. The Legislature must meet and do some good or harm, as the case may be. They must go on. But the true imperialist is the Christian man who recognizes that Jesus was right when He said: Deal with men as to what they are first, then you can touch all the other things. Everybody else who has tried to lift the world has tried to purify a stream. He passes back to the fountain source and purifies it there. Character is supreme. The spiritual is the fundamental. These things being set right, everything else will be set right. And so Jesus left the world without a political programme uttered, without the constitution of a State given to men in detail. And yet He left having uttered the one and only political programme, the one and only State constitution-He left the world, leaving behind Him the revelation of the fact that being is more than having or doing; that the spiritual fact is the fundamental fact in all life.

The occasion of the Manifesto, then, was Christ's vision of the multitudes, and their need, and His determination to reach them. Retiring from them, He took time to instruct a few loyal souls concerning His Kingdom in order that through them the multitudes might see the breadth and beauty and beneficence of the Kingdom of God.

His method was that of gathering loyal souls around Him, giving them the law of the Kingdom because they had yielded to the claim of the King.

Finally, the nature of the Manifesto is an unfolding of principle, a teaching of men, which corrects the mistaken notions of national greatness and reveals the things which are supreme.

IN considering the first two verses of this chapter, we dwelt upon the fact that the ultimate purpose in the mind of the King was that of bringing the multitudes into the Kingdom of God; but that in order to do so it was necessary for Him to gather round Him a nucleus of such as were actually submitted to His Kingship, in order to unfold to them the meaning of that Kingdom by an enunciation of its laws.

Perhaps the best name for this enunciation is that given to it by Dr. Oswald Dykes, "The Manifesto of the King." That exactly expresses the truth concerning the nature of this great utterance of law.

In these opening Beatitudes, the King revealed the truth concerning the essential nature of His Kingdom, as He made plain this one, simple, and all inclusive fact, that the Kingdom of Heaven has first of all to do with character. How strange these words of Jesus must have sounded in the ears of His disciples, if, peradventure, they were expecting Him to give them a Manifesto of the Kingdom. They had heard the herald say, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Repent." They had heard Jesus say, "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," but in all probability so far they only looked upon Him as another teacher, preparing the way, and leading them on toward the coming King.

But, supposing for a. single moment, that they understood the fact that He was indeed God's anointed King, and supposing that in their submission to Him there was an intelligent submission to the Kingdom of God, focussed, and manifested, and demonstrated in a Person; then if they had climbed that mountain to listen to Him as King, they must have been strangely startled with His first words. There is not a word in these Beatitudes which appears to have anything to do with a kingdom, according to popular conceptions of what kingdoms are, and in what the greatness of kingdoms consists.

Human ideas of a kingdom gather round thoughts of race power, of military prowess, of material pomp. Even to-day we hear people, largely void of the Christian spirit, boasting of such things, imagining that greatness consists in armaments. Our ideals of a kingdom are still somehow strangely mixed with trust in military prowess. But they are false ideals if we understand the deep meaning of righteousness. We still think of pomp, and glitter, and tinsel, as signs of greatness. Our ideas of a kingdom are still very much what they were in olden days. Slowly, very slowly, there is dawning on the common consciousness of man the conception that national greatness is the greatness of character.

This, however, forms the first stage in the teaching of the Manifesto of God's great King. Both in His Person, and in His teaching, He ignored popular conceptions concerning the ideas of government, and, by ignoring, denied them. When He ascended the mountain it was with no fanfare of trumpets, with no pomp, and no pageantry. This King, sublime in the simplicity of His Manhood, ascended a mountain, gathered around Him a few loyal souls, who did not perfectly understand Him, and taught them that nothing is of greater importance than the making of character. Thus He taught them; and the first things He said were the fundamental things of the Kingdom; but there is not a word about race power, or military prowess, or material pomp, from beginning to end.

Let us, then, consider the words; and in doing so, we will attempt first of all to indicate the general principles; and then we will endeavour to see the particular revelation of character granted.

In looking at the general principles, we notice the first word that fell from the lips of the King when He commenced the enunciation of the laws of the Kingdom-"Blessed"

This word reveals God's will for man, and so reveals the purpose of the King in the establishment of His Kingdom. How strange a thing, and yet how gracious a thing it is! The word in the original is translated in our Authorized Version as "blessed" forty-three times, and as "happy" six times. There is a general consensus of opinion that the word most accurately expressing the meaning here is the word "happy" rather than "blessed." There is no doubt that the finer and fuller word is "blessed," always providing we understand it in its true meaning, as indicating a consciousness and a condition, rather than as referring to bestowment from without. It is true that the blessing is bestowed, but the word "blessed" here, refers to a condition, and therefore to a consciousness. But the word "happy" more easily suggests the simple thought of the Greek word in its common use. "Blessed" is correct if we understand it in the sense in which we use it of God in the phrase-"The glorious Gospel of the blessed God." Yet that may be translated with equal accuracy, and perhaps with a finer sense of its real meaning, "The Gospel of the glory of the happy God."

"Blessed" is therefore a condition-such a condition as to create a consciousness, which is the consciousness of a perfect peace, and a perfect joy, and a perfect rest. All these things are included in the condition of Happiness! That is God's will for man. That is the Divine intention for human life. Sorrow and sighing are to flee away; He will wipe away all tears. Happiness and joy are never to flee away; He will never banish merriment and laughter.

"Happy" is the first word of the Manifesto. It is a word full of sunshine, thrilling with music, brimming over with just what man is seeking after in a thousand false ways. The Manifesto is not formal and documentary. It does not begin "Whereas," but "Happy." That was the first word of the King as He sat upon the mountain, surrounded by His disciples. But ah! His own heart was unhappy, wrung with a great anguish, moved with an infinite compassion. But why His sorrow, why His unhappiness, why the melting, moving, thrilling compassion? Because He saw all the tragedy of human sorrow. From the centre of that sorrow He said, "Happy;" and thus revealed the Divine purpose for men.

Then we notice that happiness is declared by the King to depend, not on doing, not on possessing, but on being. "Blessed are the poor." "Blessed are they that mourn." "Blessed are the meek." "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst." "Blessed are the merciful." "Blessed are the pure in heart." "Blessed are the peacemakers." Not a single word about doing or possessing. It is what a man is that matters.

An evangelical value runs through these "Blesseds;" for the King declared happiness for such as, through sin, lack true happiness. "The poor in spirit." Apart from the King's Beatitude, this is the description of a condition which popular conception looks upon as unhappy. "Poor" is a word which does not suggest happiness. "Poor" means lack, lack means sorrow; and yet the King said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." That is the recognition of a lack, but it is also a recognition of something that supplies the lack; and so sounding through the Manifesto we hear the music of the great evangel. There was in the mind of the King the consciousness of a great need, a great provision, and the possibility of a great result.

Once again, notice the peculiar form of the Beatitudes. "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." "Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted," and so throughout. "Blessed are . . . for." Character creates conditions which result in happiness.

Take the first, by way of illustration. Poverty of spirit results in realization of the Kingdom of God. That is happiness. Jesus does not say that the Kingdom shall be given to the man that is poor in spirit. He does not say that if a man is poor in spirit, He will give him the Kingdom to make him happy. The poor in spirit is happy because he has the Kingdom of 'God. The happiness of the Kingdom is a natural sequence, not an arbitrary reward. The King does not bestow gifts to make men happy. He creates a condition within the man, which enables him to find happiness everywhere. He does not create happiness by new surroundings. He creates new surroundings by happiness. He takes a man and makes him happy by reason of his character, and then immediately this man puts his hand on everything that lies about him, changing his environment by himself being changed. Happiness begins within the man, never without.

There are thousands of illustrations of this to-day. Some one stands outside certain circumstances of life, saying;-Oh, if only I were in those circumstances I would be happy. The King does not begin there. "Blessed" is a condition consequent upon character. Happiness has its root, not in outward circumstances, but in inward condition of character.

But in order that these things may be more clearly revealed, let us pass to a particular examination of the particular character in the Kingdom which the King revealed. First, let us take the characteristics, remembering that a characteristic is always a smaller matter than a character. Character is the sum and substance of characteristics. It is very difficult to describe a character. Character may defy our perfect analysis. It does not defy the perfect analysis of the King. He thus described the characteristics. Poor in spirit; they that mourn; the meek; They that hunger and thirst; the merciful; the pure in heart; the peacemakers. These are the characteristics that go to make the perfect character, upon which the Kingdom of God is to be based.

There are two sets of characteristics in the seven Beatitudes. The eighth, which is a double Beatitude, has to do with the process and not with the character. But in the first seven you have a set of four which are passive, and a set of three which are active. The poor in spirit; the mourners; the meek; they that hunger and thirst; these are the passive characteristics of the character. Merciful; pure and pure here means infinitely more than clean, it means undivided, wholehearted peacemakers; these are the active qualities in character.

Let us consider the passive characteristics. "Poor in spirit," It means truly subject. The man who is poor in spirit is the man who is willing to be governed. The man who is not poor in spirit is rebellious, troublesome, creating discord within the Kingdom. This is the first thing. It is very simple! It is very sublime J If this life of mine is willing to be ruled, it is ruled. If this life of mine is willing to be governed, it is governed. If I will but take this life of mine and surrender it wholly to the King, the King will take charge of it and administer it, and I shall be in myself, when every one else is excluded, a Kingdom of God; and I shall be in myself, when all others are included, a part of the Kingdom of God. "Poor in spirit"-theirs is the Kingdom of God. We never know the breadth and beauty and beneficence of God's humanity by looking at it from without. The poor in spirit are those in whom the pride of the will, and the pride of the intellect, and the pride of the heart, are alike bent to the royalty of the King. We obtain the Kingdom when we submit in poverty of spirit to the King.

But again, "They that mourn." And here the evangelistic value is at once manifest. The first matter is initial. The man poor in spirit is so because he has learned his own incompetence, his own unworthiness; because he is conscious of his own failure, conscious that he cannot of himself take hold upon all the ideals that are being represented to him by the King. This man mourns over his own sin, over his own failure. This is the mourning intended. Jesus says, "They shall be comforted." The great word "comforted" is related to the word that Jesus used when He promised the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Comforter disannuls orphanage, takes hold of a man in his sorrow and assuages it, heals it. The poor in spirit, submitting to the Throne, and to the government of the King, is troubled immediately; he mourns over sin, and incompetence, and failure. That soul is comforted with the comfort of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the very life and soul of the Kingdom.

"Blessed are the meek" The meek are those who are obedient to the rule of the King; meekness is the submissive spirit, the spirit of true humility, which is unconscious of humility; the spirit that rejoices in the Kingdom already established, on account of the comfort already given, and waits for orders, and does not obtrude itself. As we read these words, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth," we seem to hear those other words, "Come unto Me . . . for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." The men, poor in spirit, mourning over failure, comforted by the One great Comforter, are meek; and "they shall inherit the earth," for they have partaken of the very spirit of the King Himself.

And yet again. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness." This seems to be a retrogression, a going back. But it is a progression, a going forward. Who is the man that hungers and thirsts after righteousness but the man who himself is meek and possesses the earth, who has mourned and has been comforted, who is poor in spirit and has submitted to rule? What is hunger and thirst after righteousness? It is Divine discontent with everything unlike God. Do not make this a small and narrow personal experience. It is that, but it is infinitely more. It is the passion for the setting up of the Kingdom of God amongst men. It is the thing that makes you-if you are a Christly soul-hot, and restless, and angry, and discontented, in the presence of all the mal-administration of the affairs of men, which results in the ruin and sorrow of men on every hand. "They that hunger and thirst after righteousness . . . shall be filled," they shall fee satisfied, there shall come to such all that for which they hunger and thirst. Perchance not to-day, perchance not To-morrow;

These, then, are the passive characteristics of the character of the Kingdom; poverty of spirit, which submits to government and possesses the Kingdom; mourning over declension, which is comforted with the great comfort of God; meekness which is unconscious humility and willingness to submit, which possesses the earth; hunger and thirst after righteousness-a great passion for the Kingdom of God, which is filled in hope and at last shall be filled in actual realization.

Then immediately the characteristics pass from the passive into the active. "The merciful." That is, those who give and those who serve. It is the activity of life toward the suffering. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

"Pure in heart." And here, as has been already noticed, we have more than cleanness; we have wholeness, the undivided heart, the heart that is utterly and absolutely loyal. This is the expression toward the King of the mercifulness described. "They shall see God."

And this again merges into yet another description "The peacemakers." This is the propagative character, the man who, being all the rest, therefore brings peace wherever he comes. And the great word concerning the peacemakers is, "They shall be called sons of God," for in that they manifest the nature of the Father and the likeness of the Father more than in anything else-making peace among the sons of men.

This description of character is a growth. Poverty of spirit issues in mourning for sin, and the twofold primary condition is answered by the Kingdom bestowed, and comfort given.

Then meekness of spirit is submission to the will of God. Hunger and thirst evidence passion for the will of God, and the twofold answer to those who have submitted to His will in meekness is a present contentment. "They shall inherit the earth;" and to those in whom there burns the passion for the final setting up of His Kingdom, and the accomplishment of His will, there is a promise of the ultimate satisfaction"-They shall be filled."

Then upon the basis of that growth there follow the virtues of Christian life. Mercifulness-indicating service; purity of heart indicating the inward condition; peacemaking indicating the effect produced on others.

Then crowning all, there is the great Beatitude which illuminates the process of pain, and suffering, and persecution, through which men pass into this great character.

This is not merely a growth, it is a unity. We can take any one of the rewards and use it after any one of the conditions, and find no lack of harmony. We may say, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall be comforted." It is perfectly true. "Blessed are the merciful, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." That is equally correct. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall inherit the earth." That is a great philosophy. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall be satisfied." That is equally true. We may transpose all these answers of happiness to all these conditions. The King gave us an analysis of one character rather than a description of different characters. All these virtues and values are to be found in the one type of character which lies at the foundation of this Kingdom.

And yet that must not be misunderstood, for there is a great sequence. Experimentally no man enters into any of these, save in the order indicated. First, the poverty of spirit, which ends rebellion, and, submissive to the King, kisses His sceptre; then the mourning that follows; then the meekness that ensues; then the passion that flames; then the service that is merciful; then the purity of heart that enables a man to see God; and then the great, sweet, strong, influence of peace, and man becomes a peacemaker.

The proportion in which men realize this character is the proportion in which they realize happiness. But the realization of such character in the midst of all the conditions of worldly life which are contradictory to that character, will stir up opposition. How correct a picture of worldly life we have in this passage if before each promise or blessing the word not were added! Theirs is not the Kingdom of Heaven; they are not comforted; they shall not inherit the earth; they shall be hungry and thirsty, yet they shall not be filled; their hearts are corrupt, they cannot see God.

IT is at once evident that these words were addressed, not to the promiscuous multitude, but to the inner circle of disciples. Having declared that the supreme matter in His Kingdom is character, and having described that character in the Beatitudes; the King showed that the purpose of the realization of character, in the subjects of the Kingdom, is that they may exercise an influence upon those who are outside the Kingdom, and revealed the nature of that influence.

Influence is His ultimate intention in His present government of, and relation to, His Kingdom. To recognize this is again to be brought face to face with that fundamental truth, that, although He spoke to His own, the multitudes were ever in His sight, and on His heart. The law of the Kingdom is for such as have submitted to the King; but they are to be governed by that law in order that they may become the means of blessing to the multitudes beyond. As the Shepherd King leaves the multitudes, for the saints, that He may instruct them, it is not for their sakes merely. He loves the people, the vast unheeding multitudes; and if He blesses us, it is that we may bless them. If He conditions our life, it is that we may exert among them an influence that shall be for their healing and for their uplifting.

Christ's estimate of the needs of the multitude is revealed by His description of the influence His people are to exert. The influence is to be that of salt and light. Salt is needed where there is corruption. Light is needed where there is darkness. Jesus, looking out over the multitudes of His day, saw the corruption, the disintegration of life at every point-its break-up, its spoliation; and, because of His love of the multitudes, He knew that the thing they needed most was salt in order that the corruption should be arrested. He saw them also wrapped in gloom, sitting in darkness, groping amid mists and fogs. He knew that they needed, above everything else, the irradiation of the pathway, the illumination of all things; that they needed light.

This is Christ's estimate of the need of the multitude of to-day, for His words were not for a day or an age, for a geographical position, a coast limitation, or a national boundary; His words were words for all ages. He did not deal with the accidentals of human life, but with the essentials. As Jesus looks out over the vast multitudes, for whom we are responsible, He knows their need, and that need is still expressed in the two thoughts suggested by the description of influence; they are in circumstances of corruption and darkness.

With these preliminary positions in mind, let us consider the passage before us in three ways. First, the character of the influence which Jesus declares will be exerted by such as are in His Kingdom; secondly, the influence of character; thirdly, the solemn, and earnest, and urgent teaching of Jesus concerning the responsibility of the subjects of the Kingdom with relation to the exertion of such influence.

First, then, the character of the influence which is to be exerted.

According to the teaching of Jesus, the character of the influence is the influence of character. "Ye are salt," "Ye are light;" not, Ye have salt, or, Ye have light. Much less does He say, Ye dispense the salt, or, Ye dispense the light. There is all the difference between a living influence and a dead, official, attempt at influence. If Christ had said, Ye dispense the salt, then we might have looked upon our position as official. There is no such thought. The King began with the fundamental necessity of human nature, and He said, "Ye are." It is only as a man is salt in his character that he can exercise the influence of salt in his age. It is only as a man is light in himself that he can scatter light upon the pathway of others. Jesus always takes hold of human nature as it is according to Divine intention, and bases His whole philosophy of life and influence upon the first Divine thought in the creation of man! The influence you exert is always the influence of what you are. No man exerts upon other people any influence by what he says to them, save only as what he says is the outcome of what he is in the deepest fact of his being.

As the father of a family, the influence you exert upon your boys and girls, is the influence of what you are, and not of what you tell them they ought to be. It is the influence of your own personality in its deepest fibre that is going to make or mar your bairns. There is no escape from this. We" may tell our boys to be good; and, if we are bad, by the grace of God they may be good-some other hand may mould them, some other life may win them-but if we are going to win our boys for goodness, we must be good. Our influence comes out of what we are. "Ye are salt," and if you are not salt, you lack the power to exercise the aseptic function.

"Ye are the light of the world," and if we are not light we cannot shine.

As one studies the teaching of our Lord, one is more and more impressed with the fact that He never tarried upon the surface of things, but that He got down to the depths. We shall never exercise the influence of salt, or the influence of light in our family, in our church, or in our city or nation, unless we are right ourselves. One of the most damnable heresies that has ever been foisted upon the thinking of any age is that a man may be pure in public influence if impure in private life. He cannot be. What we are, determines the character of our influence in the world, whether we will or no. Thus the character of the influence to be exerted by those who are in the Kingdom, is the influence of character.

Secondly, what is this influence of character? The Lord made use of two figures, "salt" and "light." Here, again, He was careful with the infinite care of an infinite wisdom, and He made application of each figure in a natural sphere, and not carelessly. He did not say, Ye are the salt of the world. He did not say, Ye are the light of the earth. He said, "Ye are the salt of the earth," "Ye are the light of the world."

We will look in each case at the property described, and at the sphere of its activity.

First, salt and its sphere-the earth; secondly, light and its sphere-the world.

"Ye are the salt of the earth." The one value of salt is aseptic. In the presence o the fact of corruption, it prevents its spread. Salt never changes corruption into incorruption; it has no power to do so, but it prevents it spreading; moreover it reveals soundness, and creates the opportunity for its continuance.

There is not a believing man, woman, or child, who is able to take hold of any corrupt man and make him pure. That is not our work; we are not equal to it. Thank God, the Master is equal to it. Thank God, the King at the wicket-gate of the Kingdom can take hold of the vilest man and make him pure as He is pure. Our influence is of another value. Salt takes hold of that which is not yet corrupt, and prevents its becoming corrupted; it holds back the corrupting forces, and creates the opportunity for the exercise of goodness, and the continuity of soundness. Jesus never made a mistake in His figures. The intellectual supremacy of Jesus is such as to enable us to take the smallest figure He made use of, and base on it a whole philosophy that is suggested by its use. "Salt" we are to be, men and women, who by our life and presence in the world check the spread of corruption and give goodness its opportunity.

Do not forget that the Beatitudes closed with the affirmation of persecution. Do not be surprised at that. But we want "salt" men and women in the stores, in the offices; we want men and women everywhere, who, by their living, check corruption-young men in whose presence no man dare tell a questionable story; young women to whom other young women in their sin will come, and ask for help and advice, that the good desire that has been hindered by evil power may blossom into beauty.

Now let us notice the sphere in which salt operates. "Ye are the salt of the earth" The word which Jesus made use of here marks the distinctly material side of things-the earth, literally the standing place; primarily the soil. It is a purely material word. But, of course, here it is used with reference to the people, the people viewed as of the earth. Men and women are of the earth. It is impossible for us to escape from the material, while we are in the material, and of the material; and we need have no desire to escape from it. But Jesus said you are to be the salt of the earth. You are to live in the midst of men and women who live in earthly conditions, and are material, in order to influence that side of things with an aseptic influence. You are to save men, render possible their salvation by hindering corruption on that side of their nature that is distinctly of the earth.

To go back to the first of the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Now, look at those people poor in spirit. Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. The government of heaven, the touch of heaven, is upon their life, dominating, thrilling, and impulsing. Ye are the people who have the Kingdom of Heaven; ye are the salt of the earth, the medium through which the heavenly government shall operate in material things. The earth divorced from heaven is corrupt. Live in it as heavenly people, and check the spread of the corruption. The earth divorced from heaven has in it unrealized capacities. Realize in it the heavenly order, so that the capacities may be realized.

But again, "Ye are the light of the world." Here our Lord takes another figure, with a different note. The value of light is illumination, and that is at once a positive principle of life, and the condition for intelligent activity. Light is a revelation of how life ought to be lived, and wherever you get a revelation of how life ought to be lived, there is in the revelation that which begins to help men to live it. Example is not enough to save a man, but example is a great force in the growth of the man who is saved. It is a great force also in luring a man toward salvation. We are not called upon in any sense to save men. We are called upon to shine on men, revealing to them the truth concerning human life, the possibilities of human life, the principles that underlie human life, giving them to see what life may be; we are called upon to be light.

Now, notice the sphere of its operation-the world. "Ye are the light of the world," not the age, but the world, the cosmos. A great word, which includes not merely the life, but the whole created order. Here Jesus declares that His people are to illuminate other men as to their relation to the whole order, of which they form a part, and as to the necessary laws which govern it. All about us are men and women living not merely on the earth, but having relation to the infinite spaces, having relation to all created things, and therefore having necessary, even if unconfessed, relation to the Christ Himself. The cosmos is a word which speaks of the infinite order, and presupposes the intelligence which caused and controls the infinite order. Every man loyal to the law of Jesus Christ, and living in His Kingdom, is in himself a revelation of the unity of the universe of God, of the perfection of the harmony of all its parts, and of that unity and harmony as consisting in relationship to the Throne of God.

To live on Christian principles is to show men what would result if all the world were obedient to the whisper of the Throne of the Most High. Every truly Christian life, every life submitted to the King, in loyal surrender, lights up the order of the universe; and from such life light will flash which will help men who are groping in darkness, and trying to find out secrets. The "Riddle of the Universe" will never be solved by examining the protoplasmic germ, or by careful examination of natural phenomena. Men living in the will of God are the light of the world.

But notice two things here. We are not to try to illuminate the universe; we are to live in loyalty to Christ; that is all. It is not by effort after illumination of the problem; but by quiet simple abiding in His will in the world, that character will flash its light abroad.

But, then, do not forget another matter. We hear a great deal about reflected light. We have heard it said that Jesus is the infinite Sun, and that we take the place of the moon. True, the great allegorical passage in the Song of Solomon says "she is fair as a moon," but it also says she is "clear as the sun," and she will only be fair as the silver moon, which kisses the night with softness and beauty, as she is clear as the sun. It is not reflected light merely; it is the light of our own life, communicated to us from the Essential Light. When we received the Essential Light it was not merely that we might reflect it; it was that it might ignite us and burn in us. It is only when Christian men are burning, as well as shining lights, that the world knows they are the light of the world.

Finally, what did Jesus say about the responsibility of the subjects of the Kingdom as to being the salt of the earth? "If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men." This has nothing to do with the question of a man's ultimate salvation. It has everything to do with the question of a man's present influence. We have no right to take things out of the context and say that Jesus says, if Christian people do not exercise the Christian influence of salt He will cast them out and they will be lost. This is a question of influence. The Master says, "If the salt have lost its savour." It is difficult to find a word that seems to catch and carry the real value of this word "savour." Of course, there is a simpler translation, "If the salt have lost its taste."

In a little pamphlet containing the Gospel of Matthew in broad Scotch, the reading is "The saut o

As to the other responsibility for light, the King declared that there is a twofold influence of light-a city, and a lamp. "A city cannot be hid on the top of a mountain lying." Take out the affirmation that it cannot be hidden, and observe the description, "A city on the top of a mountain lying." That is the element of the Church influence of light. No individual Christian can exert that One may be a beacon on the top of a mountain, but one cannot be a city. By the way of those who are in the Kingdom there will be the illumination of vast expanses. A city on a mountain lying, is seen from all the distant valleys; its flaming glory is caught from peaks far off and near. This is the picture of an influence that the Church has almost entirely lost; it is the picture of the Church's social order flashing its light upon the age. This is no careless figure. A city in which God is the Governor; a city in which there is nothing that defileth, nor worketh an abomination, nor maketh a lie; a city in which all things of beauty, and order, and light, and delight, are gathered; all that, the Church ought to be, and consequently she should guard the gates of entrance against all likely to corrupt and harm her. And when the city is that, when within her borders there is the realization of the social ideal, so that when one weeps, others weep; and when one laughs, others laugh; when to the poor saint there is given of the world's substance, and to the needy, of spiritual help ; and when no man says anything belongs to him, but they have all things common-when that is realized, then the Church is the " city on the top of the mountain lying," flashing her light over far places of the earth.

That is not all. "A lamp." The King passes from the city to the house. "A lamp that shineth unto all that are in the house." If the figure of the city illustrates the light as illuminating vast expanses, the figure of the lamp illustrates the light as irradiating private places. One cannot be a city lying on a mountain, but one can be a lamp in the house. That is the other exercise of the influence, so that all the family order is illumined by the presence of one Christian soul, one lamp burning for Jesus in the house. "Neither do men light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but on the stand, and it shineth unto all that are in the house." Do not forget this negative application. The exposition of Dr. Alexander Maclaren makes others unnecessary. He says, "No man lighteth a lamp and puts it tinder the bushel; but supposing he does, what will happen? One of two things: Either the bushel will put the lamp out, or the lamp will set fire to the bushel."

Lastly, the King said, "Let your light shine before men that they may . . . glorify your Father." And thus He summarized, employing in the final utterance the last part of His figure the whole truth, that in His Kingdom, character counts, because it exerts influence.

HAVING thus declared the necessity for character; and indicated its issue in influence; the King prefaced His enunciation of laws, by a prologue on the general subject of law.

Let us carefully examine this prologue. Let us first analyze it, that we may discover its revelation of the relation of the King to the law; and the relation of His subjects to the law; and, secondly, let us notice two great principles, which are all-inclusive, and must be understood and remembered as we proceed to consider the law as He enunciated it.

When He said, "Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets," what did He mean by "the law" and "the prophets"? What did the phrase mean to the men who heard it? If we can put ourselves in their place, and find that out, we shall have the true thought.

They were men born in Hebraism, brought up in the atmosphere of the Hebrew economy; and there can be no doubt that they understood Him to refer to the Scriptures of the Old Testament. These consisted of three sections-the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, or Writings. These men, therefore, certainly understood Him to say: I have not come to destroy the ethical code under which you have been living; I have not come to minimize morality; I have not come to loosen bonds which are intended to hold you to everything that is high and true and pure and noble; I have not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill. These men thought of the law and the prophets as giving the economy which conditioned their life in the minutest particular and detail. They were governed by the law and the prophets; or they knew they ought to be governed by the law and the prophets; and that the measure in which they were sinning men, was the measure in which they were breaking the law, and disobeying the voice of the prophets.

The King ruthlessly swept away all the traditions of the elders; denying, by ignoring, the method of the Pharisee, the tithing of mint and anise and rue and cummin, the constant washing of hands. All this is of no value; the matters of importance are, the law, a Divine conditioning of life; and the prophets, a Divine call to obedience. Thus He brought these men face to face with the ethical requirement, and declared, "Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets"-I have not come to minimize morality; within the sphere of My government there will be no license; none of these laws will be destroyed in My Kingdom; nothing will be abrogated by My coming-"I came not to destroy, but to fulfill."

There are various interpretations of the King's meaning when He said He had come to fulfill the law. All of them may be correct, but most of them are partial. In my own study of these wonderful sayings of Jesus, I am more and more impressed that one of the surest methods of true interpretation is to get back and stand with the men who heard them.

Did He mean He had come to establish that great Kingdom wherein the law would be realized and obeyed? Yes, He meant that. But when the men heard Hun, what did they understand Him to mean? On the eastern sky, so long grey and dark, the glory of a new morning was flashing. These men who had lived so long in the cold winter-tide heard "the voice of the turtle in the land," and felt that springtime was coming whenever He spoke. Their hope was for the coming of the golden age, the dawning of the great day, of which the Psalmist sang, and which the prophets foretold. When He said, "I came not to destroy, but to fulfill," He meant: I have come to realize all that the law attempted to realize. It is not likely that they saw the Cross in His programme; although He knew it to be so. What they understood Him to mean was that He had come to fulfill the law personally, communicatively, universally.

And yet again. This was not merely the declaration of a personal determination; it was an official proclamation. "For I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law till all things be accomplished." Here again one is tempted to ask, What did our Lord mean; "Till heaven and earth pass away"? The answer which comes most easily is that this was a figure of speech; that it was an indefinite way of saying that the law can never pass away. But it was not so. It is a most matter-of-fact utterance on the part of Jesus. When He said those words, it is as though He stood at the centre of the cosmos; of Heaven, which was ever the supreme place with Him; of Earth, the things which are patent to the senses ; and said : The law cannot fail in the tiniest accent, in the minutest matter; it cannot be set aside, it cannot be abrogated, it cannot be trifled with as non-important while these things last as they are; "Till heaven and earth pass away; . . . till all be accomplished."

If we interpret the words by the constant law of Scripture we shall find that the words were not carelessly chosen. Is heaven to pass away? Yes, He says so; "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Is the material order in the midst of which the Son of God and Son of Man stood, in the midst of which we live, to pass away? He says so. The law, which is the statement in words of God's ideal, cannot pass, cannot be done away, cannot be abrogated in one jot or tittle, until heaven and earth pass. It must last while the cosmos as it is, lasts.

But when heaven and earth pass, does the law pass into non-existence? Until righteousness, the ultimate of law, be realized, law cannot pass; and that will not be till the heaven and earth pass. But beyond the heaven and earth that shall pass away, Peter saw "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2Pe 3:13). Then righteousness will be unhindered, dynamical, masterful. Then the law will pass. It will not then be destroyed; it will have passed from word into spirit, from the cold letter which affrights us, into the warm life which energizes. That is what we are living for, and working toward. If you want to know how God is getting on, do not look around you to-day. Fight today, but look on to the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Do not let us read these words of Jesus as though they were merely human rhetoric! I have not come to destroy law. I have not come to destroy the prophets. I am come to fulfill them. The law will abide; the prophets will remain until this sin-scarred earth and sullied heaven pass; and there come the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. That is the King's official declaration. Underneath that declaration, and in the presence of that manifesto, we who have seen Him and love Him are to live and fight and serve, God helping us.

Now, what does Jesus say of the relation of His subjects to law? I am not referring to the law of Moses-the ten commandments; but to the underlying principles which the law of Moses and the ten commandments imperfectly portrayed. We need not attempt to discover the relation between the Mosaic economy and that of the King; all that He will presently explain. He will show us how far the law of Moses is binding on us still. It is a deeper, profounder matter with which He was now dealing-"Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of heaven." This was a word of warning for the men inside the Kingdom. Notice carefully, "break" and "teach." You never find a man teaching that any commandment of God is unimportant, but that behind his teaching is the fact that he himself is breaking that commandment. "Whosoever shall break, and teach men so." That is a close connection, and the issue for that man is that he is to be least in the Kingdom. It is not a question of being cast out of the Kingdom; it is a question of his losing the honours and the rewards; the sense that he is co-operating in the building of the city, and the bringing in of the new heaven and the new earth.

But mark also the other side, in which the same philosophy is manifest-"Whosoever shall do and teach them." The only power of teaching is that of the doing which precedes it. No man ever teaches a commandment with power, if he is breaking it in his own life.

This is the relation of His disciples to law. Break the commandment, and teach men so, and you are least in the Kingdom. Do the commandment and teach men so, and you are great in the Kingdom.

Now from this analysis let us gather out the principles revealed.

The summary of all is in this last word of Jesus-"I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."

The conflict with the Scribes and Pharisees was beginning. It continued as He exhibited the benefits of the Kingdom; and when He enforced the claims thereof, it became more acute, until there came a day when He stood face to face with Scribes and Pharisees in constant conflict. In order to understand what He says here, we must turn to chapter xxiii., "Then spake Jesus to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying, The Scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; all things therefore whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe." Have you ever noticed that Jesus said that these men were to obey the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees? His quarrel is not with their teaching, in the measure in which it is an interpretation of law. He sweeps ruthlessly aside, as we shall see again and again, their whole teaching, when it becomes traditional merely. In so far as they sat on Moses' seat, men were to do and observe all they told them. "But," He continued, "do not ye after their works; for they say, and do not."

That is the whole story. At last He unmasked them. He warned His disciples, however, at the beginning, that their righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. When at last the time came to expose them, He explained the inner meaning of their failure. He began His preaching with the manifesto and the eight Beatitudes. He closed it for the public, by hurling eight woes upon the heads of the Pharisees. "They say and do not." That was the trouble with them. "They bind and bear not." "They do to be seen of men." "They love the chief seats . . . and the salutations." All the rest is a growth. The root is-"they say and do not." Jesus declared that in His Kingdom the prime necessity is that there must be a righteousness which exceeds that.

What is the righteousness that exceeds? He that "shall do and teach," the same shall be great. You are to do and say; you are to be and teach; you are to do to be seen of God; you are to be poor and meek and merciful. Briefly, the righteousness of the Pharisees was the righteousness that conditioned externalities only. The righteousness that the King demands is one that conditions the hidden and the internal, and so conditions the externalities. The righteousness of the Pharisees is the righteousness which expresses itself in the correct garment, and the wide phylactery on which quotations from law are written; something wholly for the eyes of men.

Here is a point at which to pause, lest we misunderstand. The righteousness which exceeds is not the righteousness which is careless of testimony; but it begins farther back. The Pharisee is careful about the platter and the cup, the tithing of mint and anise and rue and cummin. The righteousness that exceeds is not careless about the platter and the cup; the righteousness that exceeds is not careless about the tithing of the small, the minute; but it does not begin there. The righteousness that exceeds is the righteousness that is anxious about righteousness, judgment, mercy, truth, the weightier matters of the law. The ethic of Jesus is far more severe than the ethic of Moses.

One other word. "I came to fulfill." Is not that a stern word? Oh to say it as it ought to be said! He says to these men standing about Him: Do not imagine that I have come to make things easy; I have not; do not imagine that I am going to let you loose from obligation; do not imagine for a single moment that I am going to destroy law or prophetic interpretation of law; I have come to fulfill. These multitudes would give anything to be let loose from obligation to law; I have not come to do that.

It is Christ's word to this hour. There is to be no license for passion. Here in My Kingdom, says Christ, you are not to be permitted the indulgence of sin if you pay pence; you are not to be excused from moral obligation and ethical exactitude, because you have high ideals.

"I came not to destroy . . . but to fulfill," and as the King utters the words, the flaming splendour of the law bursts upon us and the white searchlight of the Divine holiness lays bare our inner sin. Do not imagine that if you give yourself to Christ and crown Him King; He is going to minimize moral obligation. Do not imagine for a single moment that because you trust in this great, wounded, stricken, dying Redeemer; you are going to be allowed to nurse your sin, and refuse to confess it, and go on insulting His holiness. "I am come to fulfill." As He speaks one is affrighted. And yet, oh sinning heart, behold the Man Who speaks. While you see the white light of Divine holiness gleam from His eyes; see also the tender, God-like compassion of those eyes; and know this, that ere He has finished the prophecy of that word, "I came not to destroy but to fulfill,"

He will in some mystery of death and pain have taken hold of paralysis, and replaced it by empowerment. So that the King says; If you are going to follow Me, you must be pure, and you can. I will make you pure. You must fulfill law, and I will enable you to do it; I have come to fulfill. It is a great word; the last cry of the dying agony of the Son of God is in it.

Yet that is not the final thing. The triumphant shout of the risen Christ is in it. From that moment until this, He has taken men who come to Him to fulfill law in them, and so make law unnecessary. We do not want any ten commandments now, because His word is written in our hearts. We want no external standard to show how short we come, for we have the eternal dynamic that shows how great we may become in Jesus Christ.

Thus the King sets forth the value of law. It is a guide to righteousness in the sense of being a text-book revealing its expression. Law is not, nor can it ever be, the dynamic of righteousness. The law is a revelation of righteousness, and as a revelation of requirement cannot become obsolete until the righteousness described is realized. That righteousness exceeds that of Scribes and Pharisees.

The King will next proceed to describe it by example. The prelude may well affright us; it is a flaming sword; but let us follow the King, and we shall find that the great message of law is the evangel of grace.

I SAY unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven."

"Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

The first of these verses constitutes the concluding statement in the prologue on law. In that statement the inspirational principle of obedience is declared to be passion for a righteousness which exceeds that of Scribes and Pharisees. In the giving of the laws of the Kingdom there was neither the abrogation of existing laws, nor the utterance of any which are to replace them. In other words, Jesus lays down no rules for the government of human lives. He rather enunciates principles and communicates a life, which life in itself is at once pattern and power, a revelation of purpose, and a dynamic for the realization thereof. No soul living in His Kingdom is governed by anything external to himself or to herself. We are not governed by a law of carnal ordinances; we are not governed by anything which Jesus said from without; we are governed by the living Christ Who dwells within, and interprets His will to us by the Holy Spirit. And yet speaking to these men who were to form the nucleus of His Kingdom He illustrated the ethic and illuminated the righteousness which exceeds, by reference to the Mosaic law.

This He did first with regard to human inter-relationships.

He first quoted two illustrative commandments from the Decalogue (Mat 5:21-32).

He then laid down two bases of wider social relationship by quotations from other of the writings of Moses (Mat 5:33-42).

He finally declared that in His Kingdom the new attitude of men toward all other men, and especially toward enemies, is to be that of a great love (Mat 5:43-48).

In each case, after making quotations from the old economy, He interpreted their true meaning, and showed that He was not destroying but fulfilling. Making use of words they had been accustomed to, which had been interpreted by Scribes and Pharisees as to external obligation, He showed that these external requirements could only be fulfilled according to the mind of God, as men acted from an inner life which was pure. From the decalogue He selected the words which deal with the foundations of life the laws of murder and marriage; the organism and its organization-"Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not commit adultery;" the one conditioning life as to the rights of personal being, the other conditioning that social system into which life is to be built tip.

He then made selections from what we have sometimes called the minor laws of Moses, and in doing so He laid two bases of a wider social application, and dealt with the twofold spirit which is to actuate men in their relationship to one another-truth and justice. He conditioned their converse, banishing the oath, and establishing the simplicity of undeviating truth; and then showed them that justice is to be ensured between man and man, not from the centre of personal insistence, upon rights, but from the new centre of making a man supremely anxious to do something more for his neighbour than his neighbour has any right to expect him to do.

He then rose to the final and supreme word of love. He did not insist upon love among neighbours and friends. That, with a tender and beautiful scorn, He treated as of small value-"If ye love them that love you, what reward have ye?"T here is nothing which exceeds about that. It is not wrong to love the man that loves you. It is not wrong to love your friend and neighbour, but there is no particular virtue in it; there is none of the righteousness which exceeds. Scribes do it, Pharisees do it, Publicans do it, sinners do it. So He began with the impossible-"Love your enemies."

Here is a threefold process, moving out from the lower to the higher. In the individual man we first have laws conditioning physical life; then laws which condition mental attitudes; and, finally, one law conditioning spiritual being. From the basis of the body, through the superstructure of the mind, we come to the crowning glory of the spirit. Such is the line of development in man. So also in society comes first that which is physical-life and its culture; then that which is mental-the tone, the temper, truth, and justice; and then that which is spiritual-love. Not that the lowest is divorced from the highest, for all the truth concerning life and the marriage relationship is smitten through with the crowning glory of a spiritual love; and the underlying inspiration of truth and justice is the love which He insists upon at last. Into the warm light of the infinite Love-the crowning glory-are lifted all the lower relationships. It is a harmony, a great unity. The Master Lawgiver touches life in every one of its relationships.

Take, first, the illustrative commandments from the decalogue. "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not commit adultery." These are the foundation laws of social relationship. You cannot build up a new society except as these fundamental facts and requirements are perpetually borne in mind.

First, the sacredness of life, and therefore the sternest possible dealing with anything which might issue in the destruction of life. "Thou shalt not kill." That is the first law of social life-individual life. Life is so sacred a thing, received from God, that it must not be interfered with or destroyed by any other living being. That is fundamental. There are a thousand ways of killing; you do not merely kill a man when you shoot him or stab him. This word of the Sinaitic requirement is a word which safeguards, as with a flaming sword, every life from harm, wrought by any other life. "Thou shalt not kill."

Then, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Here is a recognition of the sacredness of marriage, through which the race is to be propagated and trained. God's first circle of society is not the Church, it is the family. Races are to be made or unmade as the family is made or unmade. Nations are to rise to progress, to power; or to pass, to perish, in proportion as they obey or break this Divine law.

Thus with delicate touch the King takes out of the Decalogue the fundamental things when He would illustrate the righteousness which is to exceed.

What does He say about the first? He gives us the picture of Jewish legal proceedings. "In danger of the judgment;" "In danger of the Council," "In danger of Gehenna." These phrases are purely Jewish. There was a court which dealt with minor matters, things of which, if a man were guilty, he was "in danger of the judgment"-the lower court. There were other matters that could not be dealt with in the lower court, things in which it had no jurisdiction; they must be submitted to the Council, the Sanhedrin, the higher court. And finally there was the valley of Hinnom, where the bodies of criminals were thrown, where they cast all the refuse of the city, and the heaps were set on fire for their utter destruction. Jesus, and those whom He addressed, were perfectly familiar with these things. When He said "judgment," nobody understood Him to mean the final day of assize; He meant this first tribunal, which dealt with minor matters. When He said "the Council," every one knew He meant the higher court, the Sanhedrin. And when He said "Gehenna," the hell of fire, they knew He meant that rubbish heap outside the city into which all its refuse was poured, and where fires were perpetually burning for its destruction; the rubbish heap on to which they cast the dead bodies of malefactors. Because this is a Jewish figure it does not lose its force. In the figurative the fact is always of greater force than the figure.

Now let us hear the King. He says, If you are angry with your brother, you are "in danger of the judgment." He is not now dealing with the actual Jewish judgment; that is the figure. The fact is His own judgment. You are in danger of having to stand before a tribunal, which is the tribunal of the criminal. Anger in the heart creates the condition of the criminal. This is the law inside the Kingdom. Not if you are angry with your brother "without a cause." Mark well the omission. We like these words, we would like to keep them. We can always find a cause if we want to be angry with our brother. Practically there is no doubt that the words "without a cause" are an interpolation, and do not occur in the original manuscripts; and their omission by the Revisers is the result of most careful examination, and a correct conclusion. If you are angry with your brother, He does not say you will appear for judgment, but you are in danger of it. You are on the path of peril that may lead you there.

But if you say to your brother, "Raca!" A great deal of time has been spent over this word, as to what it signifies, but this much is perfectly certain, it is a term of contempt. Address your brother with contempt, call him "Raca," and you are "in danger of the Council." The offense is more heinous, it will take a higher court to deal with you, because your sin is subtler, and more pronounced.

But if you shall call your brother, "Thou fool," which is a term of insult, then you are in danger of the ultimate punishment, of the casting out, of being counted fit only for the rubbish heap, which is outside the Kingdom of God, and shares neither its benefits nor its privileges.

When you are angry, when you hold a man in contempt, when you insult him, you are in danger of the Judgment, of the Council, of Gehenna. There is not a word about murder here. And there is not a word about killing here. There is no need. Jesus Christ does not begin to insist upon His penal code when a man has murdered; He arrests him before that. Murder in the making is arrested; and no man was ever murdered yet, whether by cool and calculating forethought, or in the heat of passion, but that at the back of it was the spirit that insults, the spirit of contempt, the spirit that is angry.

So to come back to the first of these, the King says: If you are never angry you will never murder. I will make your anger penal, and thus save you from murder. Life is to be sacred, so sacred that there is not to be the remotest chance of your hurting or harming by killing, because you will never hurt in insult, or despise in contempt, or nurse in your own bosom the anger in which lies the making of the ultimate murder.

Jesus has not yet done with this. He goes still further. He now gives them a law by which they are to govern their own conduct. It is law by illustration rather than by rule "If therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee "-not that thou hast aught against thy brother; that is another thing which the Lord deals with elsewhere-"If therefore thou... rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee," if you have been angry with him, if you have called him Raca, or fool, if you have wronged him, what are you to do? Drop your gifts and leave them. You are first to be reconciled to your brother, "and then come and offer thy gift." So the King safeguards the altar of God from the unholy intrusion upon its steps, or the unholy pouring upon its fires, of gifts by men who have in their hearts something which is harmful to the community. That is the law. Obey it, and there will be no murder. Obey it, and life will become sacred; every man's life will become as sacred to every other man as is his own.

But the King goes further yet. "Agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art with him in the way; lest haply the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the last farthing." It would seem that Jesus is here passing behind the feeling that may be in a man's heart against his brother, and is dragging the arch-enemy into the light. Probably this term adversary refers here, as everywhere, to Satan. This is a figure of law. The adversary is the antagonist. It is strictly a legal word, and yet it is a curious fact that it occurs only four times in the New Testament, and every time it is used of an antagonist in law in a bad sense, and never in a good. It is the one word Peter uses concerning the great enemy, "Your adversary the devil." And the Greek word very bluntly translated means, "against right." It is the adversary in law, who is not on the side of righteousness.

But you say, Surely Jesus was not advising us to agree with the devil? Yes, exactly that. Let us follow it carefully. Here again in a flash He reveals the relation Satan bears to all such as are in His Kingdom. Satan is not powerful over such as put their trust in God. Jesus said on another occasion, "Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat." Now He says: If there is evil in your heart toward your brother, if you have wronged your brother, and he has that against you, then the adversary himself has a claim upon you; he can claim you to deliver you to punishment. His claim is established because of your wrongdoing. Haste from the altar, be reconciled to your brother; have the evil put away; agree with your brother; and so have done with the adversary that he may have no complaint. Remember Satan is the accuser of the brethren, the one who charges us with sin. So long as we are living in sin he has right over us, even though we be in God's Kingdom; we give him the right to lead us into the place of ultimate penalty. Thus the King safeguards human life.

Oh this ethic of Jesus, how it scorches! It was so easy a thing to do no murder. Through the accident of birth, or the accident of earlier surroundings we are devoid of a certain kind of animal courage, and so do not murder. But, oh my soul, when He says if I am angry and contemptuous I am in danger of Gehenna, there is only one thing for me to do-hurry to the Cross and its blood and its cleansing; to the Resurrection and its life and its dynamic. This ethic of Jesus, which does not express itself in small rules, but in great principles; not in a decalogue on stone, but in a requirement in the heart, is the severest thing that the world has ever had.

Again, how will He feel with this whole question of the marriage relationship and the first circle of human society? This is one of the things that Jesus, the Infinite Purity, knew must for evermore be handled with a touch of infinite delicacy, and yet with the grip of steel. There are no words wasted. There is no long description, satisfying the morbid curiosity of the unclean. There is one swift, burning, heart-searching flame. "Every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery." Let no man who begins to undervalue the sacredness of the marriage relationship ever dare to say that he is in any sense a Christian. Here speaks the flaming heart of the Infinite Purity, loving the bairns, taking care of succeeding generations. The sin that curses society is a sin of the heart. Though that which Moses forbade be never committed, if the evil thing is there, the King says that it is sin. Stern words! Surely with love He is thinking of the little children. He is thinking of home, and the family; He is talking in the interests of the boys and the girls, of what they are to be when they touch the larger life. But there is no need to attempt to scent the rose, or to paint the glow of an evening sky, or to add any lustre to Infinite Purity. Read it until it search you and burn you, and know for evermore that this is the ethic of purity in the Kingdom of the great King.

So we pass to the two bases of wider social reform.

First of all, truth. Here we need not tarry, for again the words are so beautifully simple. Jesus says oaths of any kind are unnecessary in His Kingdom. The new character will make the old oath superfluous. You need not swear by heaven or earth, by Jerusalem, or by your hair. You will say, Yea, and it will be yea. You will say, Nay, and it will be nay. Simple truth, profounder far in convincing men than all your laboured oaths. We know full well that an oath is always a revelation of a possibility of deceit. We know perfectly well when a man is talking to us, if he begins to say that he is prepared to take his oath, we begin to think he is a. liar. No man ever begins to offer to take an oath to prove a thing, but that one knows, that, even supposing this time he is true, the fact that he needs an oath to make one believe him, shows that at other times he is not true. Jesus says, Do not swear by heaven, for it is God's throne. Do not swear by Jerusalem, for it is His city, the "city of the Great King." Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Live in the consciousness of God, and you will not want to swear by things that are less than God. Do not swear by heaven, it is God's throne. Remember that, and you will always tell God's truth. The earth-green, beautiful is-God's earth. Remember that, and on its sward, and on its dust, and on its heaving billows you cannot lie. Remember that you are in the presence of God; that He clothes the earth with green; He is in the city, with its thrill, and throb, and pressure; that He is watching the silver of your hair; and then you will say, No, and every man will know that you mean No; you will say Yes, and the world will believe it ; because they have come to know you.

And, secondly, justice. Justice is to have a new centre, a new desire. It is to be secured to others by overplus of love. The old economy proceeded from the centre of personal rights, but the new proceeds from the centre of delight in undeserved and unnecessary generosity. The other cheek! The man who struck the one does not deserve the other. Thy cloak also! No man deserves your cloak if he has made you give your coat up. The second mile! No man deserves that we should go the second mile with him when he has compelled us to go one. Notice, it is not if you go with a man, but if he compel you to go one, you must go the second. You say impracticable for London? Yes, utterly, until London bends at the Cross. You will have truest justice from the man who does more than can be required, for the more always means the inclusion of everything which can be required. When one sees a man cheerfully tramping the second mile, justice is there in the first, but the demonstration of it is in the second. That is Christianity; that is the over-plusage. It is more than is required. The Christly soul, the man in the Kingdom is for evermore overfilling the measure, overstepping the necessity, doing that which no man had any right to expect from him. Justice becomes love-lit, and full, when He interprets it.

Finally, He says, love not your friends only, but your enemies. How does it culminate? "Ye therefore shall be perfect." And that is not the end of the Sermon on the Mount. There is a great deal more to be said after that. That commandment does not refer to anything except that which is set in close relation. Love your enemies, and so be like your Father. This is the ethic only, not the dynamic. Presently we shall have to say, Be like your Father, and so love your enemies. For the moment love is the law, the rule, the regulation, "the principle of life that crowns everything. Go back over all this chapter, and you will find it is so. If you love you will never be angry, or call your brother Raca, or call him fool. If you love there will be no breaking down of the holy enclosure of marriage relationship, and the family circle. If you really love you will tell the truth, for a liar cannot love. If you love, as we have seen, justice will always be satisfied. Love is everything. And so the whole law is fulfilled in the one word love.

Let us take these requirements of the King one by one, and by them let us test our lives. It is impossible for us to do so without being driven to the conclusion that, unless He does infinitely more for the world than give it a code of ethics, He has but mocked our impotence and revealed our weakness. Thank God that we know Him not only, or first, as Lawgiver; but first as our great Redeemer, blotting out the sin of the past by blood, communicating new power by resurrection, and coming with us through all these human interrelationships, enabling us to fulfill them.