f This is the sovereign remedy : to believe utterly in the Heavenly Father's love and wisdom and make His Kingdom and His righteousness the supreme concerns, leaving all lesser interests in His hands. " Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness ; and all these things shall be added unto you." Here is the secret of a quiet heart. " Nothing," says St. Chrysostom, " makes men light-hearted like deliverance from care and anxiety, especially when they may be delivered therefrom without suffering any disadvantage, forasmuch as God is with them and stands them in lieu of all." 2
1 George Eliot, Epilogue to Romola.
a David Smith, The Days of His Flesh, 295.
176 THE FIRST THINGS FIRST
Oh, if we draw a circle premature,
Heedless of far gain, Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure
Bad is our bargain ! Was it not great ? did not he throw on God,
(He loves the burthen) — God's task to make the heavenly period
Perfect the earthen? Did not he magnify the mind, show clear
Just what it all meant ? He would not discount life, as fools do here,
Paid by instalment! He ventured neck or nothing — Heaven's success
Found, or earth's failure : " Wilt thou trust death or not ? " He answered " Yes
Hence with life's pale lure ! " l
1 Browning, A Grammarian's Funeral,
The Golden Bole.
ST. MATT. — I?
Literature.
Balmforth (R.), The New Testament in the Light of the Higher Criticism,
108. Bonar (H.), God's Way of Holiness, 104. Chadwick (W. E.), Christ and Everyday Life, 103. Davies (J. LI.), Social Questions, 97. Fox (W. J.), Collected Works, iii. 155. Goodwin (H.), Parish Sermons, iv. 196. Home (C. S.), Tlie Model Citizen, 136. Meyer (F. B.), The Directory of the Devout Life, 179. Pearson (A.), Christus Magister, 249. Rutherford (J. S.), The Seriousness of Life, 97. Sadler (T.), Sermons for Children, 93. Seeker (T.), Sermons, vii. 243. Smith (W. C), The Sermon on the Mount, 292. Snell (H. H.), Through Study Windows, 27. Swing (D.), Trutlisfor To-Day, i. 31. Talniage (T. de W.), Sermons, v. 144. Christian World Pulpit, xiii. 12 (E. W. Shalders) ; xliv. 329 (E. A.
Lawrence). Church of England Pulpit, xlviii. 13 (J. Reid). Churchman's Pulpit : Sermons to the Young, xvi. 472 (C. E. Kenna-
way). Twentieth-Century Pastor, xxxii. (1912-13) 130 (N. D. Hillis).
.78
The Golden Rule.
All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them : for this is the law and the prophets.— Matt. vii. 12.
1. Perhaps no days have been more ingenious and industrious than our own in the endeavour to discover working principles and methods for everyday conduct. One that aroused much interest was contained in the phrase, " What would Jesus do ? " It is a noble question, but its defect for the purpose for which it is devised is that the answer is not always either easy or obvious. It is an old instruction in dealing with your neighbour to put yourself in his place. It is a less easy thing, if you come to think of it, to put somebody else in your place. And when that somebody else is one no less august and unique than the Lord Christ Himself, the problem is not simplified. It seems sometimes as if this eagerness for a new formula of conduct springs from despair of the old. But perhaps it would be truer and fairer to say that it springs from ignorance of the old, springs from failure really to grasp and clearly to investigate the content of the old. There is no need to discover any new formula for the regulation of conduct. All legal and prophetic, all casuistical and spiritual wisdom still stands summarized and complete in the Golden Kule. It is the pith and marrow of all ethics; and obedience to it is the final achievement of all religion.
2. The word " therefore " in the text would seem to give it a connexion with what precedes, and it will be instructive to inquire the meaning of this connexion. Now if we look at the context, we shall find that at the seventh verse of the chapter the Lord com- menced a new division of His sermon, of which division the text is the conclusion. He is speaking of prayer. He says, " Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be
'79
i8o THE GOLDEN RULE
opened unto you " ; and then He goes on to enforce the duty of prayer by reference to our own conduct towards our children, draw- ing the very plain conclusion that, if we with all our infirmities still answer our children's prayers, much more will our Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him : up to this point all is clear and easy, but then follow apparently somewhat abruptly the words of the text, " All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them : for this is the law and the prophets." How do these words hang on to the preceding part of the discourse ? We shall understand this if we observe that in the exhortation to prayer in the context our Lord is in reality only taking up a point in the former part of His sermon ; it is in the preceding chapter that He first introduces the subject of prayer, and in it He not only gives directions concerning prayer in general, but utters that parfcLwltt form of prayer which has been used by His disciples ever since, known as the Lord's Prayer. Now if we look to this prayer, and then regard the clause of which the text forms the last verse as a recurrence to the same subject, we shall be able to understand why Christ began His Golden Rule with a " therefore," and so made it to hang upon what He had already said : for our Lord teaches us in His prayer to make our own conduct towards our brethren the measure of the grace which we venture to ask of God : " forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us," — forgive us so, and only so — and this being the ground upon which we ask for forgiveness of sins, it is not to be much wondered at that He who taught us thus to pray should also teach us to be careful, lest our own conduct should condemn us and prevent our prayers from being heard ; in fact, if we pray to God to deal with us as we deal with others, it is a necessary caution that we should be taught to deal with our neighbours as we would wish them to deal with us.