Tf Christ's way with sinners was to love them, to believe in their recoverability. He tackled the outcasts as an object-lesson in the possibilities of a loved humanity. To preach His Gospel to men is to announce your faith in a Divine something in them which will respond to the Divine something you bring to them. It is this spirit which makes Christianity the most daring of optimisms ; which puts it into magnificent contrast with the fatalism of the East and the fatalism of the West. While Schopenhauer declares you can no more change the character of a bad man than the character of a tiger ; while Nietzsche sneers at the weak and exalts force and repression, the Gospel goes on hoping and goes on saving.1
1 J. Brierley, Religion and To-Day, 37.
The Ministry of Small Things.
»37
Literature.
Austin (G. B.), The Beauty of Goodness, 81.
Binney (T.), Money, 220.
Broughton (L. G.), Christianity and the Commonplace, 41.
Burrell (D. J.), The Unaccountable Man, 214.
Carter (T. T.), Meditations on the Public Life of Our Lord, i. 256.
Jeffrey (G.), The Believer's Privilege, 73.
Jones (J. M.), The Cup of Cold Water, 3.
Maclaren (A.), A Year's Ministry, ii. 331.
„ „ Expositions: St. Matthew ix.-xvii., 110.
Parker (J.), The Cavendish Pulpit, i., No. 10. Smellie (A.), In the Hour of Silence, 201. Wiseman (N.), CJiildren's Sermons, 136. Christian World Pulpit, lxxx. 122 (J. C. Owen). Examiner, April 27, 1905 (J. H. Jowett). Homiletic Review, New Ser., xx. 526 (G. M. Meachain).
The Ministry of Small Things.
And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.— Matt. x. 42.
In ordinary circumstances there is scarcely any act that can have less about it of self-denial and self-sacrifice than the gift to any one of a cup of cold water. The water is so abundant, and the gift of it involves so little cost or care, that it is bestowed without thought of obligation, rendered and received without thought of any gratitude being due. Here, however, our Lord brings into play a principle which dignifies and ennobles the simplest acts, and gives signal value to the smallest gifts. It is not the value of the gift in itself, but the end the giver had in view, and the spirit in which he gave it ; it is not the gift, but the motive that the Lord causes to stand out in broadest relief before our eye. The gift may be great in itself, and yet, in so far as the spirit and motive of the giver are concerned, may be valueless. And, on the other hand, the gift or deed may be insignificant in itself, yet when coupled with the spirit and motive may be worthy of special cognizance and honour. More than all this — for here, withdrawing our minds from all vain and selfish motives, striking a death-blow at all self-seeking Pharisaism and hypocrisy, measur- ing men's acts by the high standard of genuine love to Himself, as represented in the person of a disciple — our Lord leads us particularly to note that all acts are noble — are worthy of honour and reward — only as the motives of the actor are unselfish and loving, and spring out of regard to Christ Himself and respect to His name and glory. Thus, if we were to place in one scale of the balance what men should reckon the noblest deed or the noblest gift with only the love of self in it, and in the other scale the most insignificant act or gift with the love of Christ, and bestowed upon a disciple for His sake, that insignificant act or
24o THE MINISTRY OF SMALL THINGS
gift, thus freighted with love to Him, would immeasurably out- weigh the other. Not only so, but if we take the Saviour's estimate, He reckons the one as valueless, while He tells that the other shall not lack its reward.
Little Things.
1. Life's most perfect gifts, life's most perfect mercies, are little things. "A cup of cold water." We have sometimes become singularly blind. We set before ourselves as life's most perfect prizes, the summing up of life, the essence of its bliss, the things which the experience of every age has proved have no relation to genuine bliss at all. We strive and deny ourselves, become untrue to our divinest longings, strangle our noblest instincts in order to possess them, and they leave us hungry and haggard as ever. But it is common things, single things, that quench thirst ; not spiced wine, but the "cup of cold water." Health, work, genuine friendship, the caresses of little children, the love that set its hand in yours one beautiful morning five-and-twenty years ago, which has become deeper, richer, sweeter, as your head has grown grey. God's sweet, simple gifts ! A soul which is always young, which is as fresh in old age as when it came first from the hand of God. That is life's most precious wealth, life's most perfect gift — the " cup of cold water."
^j I saw a rich man's Bible a little while ago, and on the inside cover there was gummed a little message of goodwill from a poor man, and the rich man found refreshment in it daily. It is a delightful study to go through the Epistles of St. Paul and to discover how many obscure people ministered to the great Apostle's refreshment. " The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain." " I was refreshed by the coming of Fortunatus and Achaius." These were all subordinate people ; their names are linked with no great exploits ; but they gave cups of cold water to a mighty Apostle, and kept his spirit strong.1