loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord.
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2. Never before had such an one come to Jesus. That he should come at all was much ; that he should come at such a time was very much ; that he should come at such a time aud in such a way was a splendid proof of independence, of courage, and of earnestness. It was utterly unlike those about him. A man whose religion was not a cloak for all kinds of self-indulgence ; whose wealth was not a thing that possessed and enslaved him; who had not learned to put the anise and cummin in place of justice and mercy ; who did not go priding himself on his long robes, or his long prayers, or his trumpeted alms — free alike from hypocrisy or pride, simple and sincere. Nor was it any sudden outburst of emotion kindled by the sight of that face, by His words of wisdom, or by the tokens of His tenderness. No shallow-ground hearer of the Word was this, receiving it with joy, and then when the sun was up withering away. There was the fixed habit of goodness in him. A blameless youth had led up to a generous and noble manhood. So sincere, so brave, so earnest, no wonder that Jesus beholding him loved him. The look, the tone, the manner of Jesus told how His heart went forth to him.
Tj It may be instructive to set this young man beside that other ruler who came to Jesus. Nicodemus came at the very outset of the Saviour's ministry, when as yet men had not made up their minds as to His authority, and when at any rate there was neither peril nor social sacritice in recognizing Him. And yet Nicodemus came by night, under cover of the darkness. He came when Jesus was alone, or when only John was with Him. But now Jesus is excommunicated ; He is denounced and con- demned, and the authorities have already Bought to stone Him. On every side there are those who watch Him with a hatred that only His death will satisfy. To honour Him in any way is to incur their suspicion and denunciation. Yet this young ruler comes openly before all the people. And more than that, there is an enthusiasm in his coming, an ardent admiration for Jesus Christ that no other rich man ever showed. He came running — that was a startling enough thing amidst the leisurely strut of the Pharisee and the languid indifference of the rich. Such enthu- siasm has always been regarded as vulgar by the well-to-do ; and to be vulgar is with them worse than to be wicked. He came with a respect and reverence that acknowledged alike the great- ness and the goodness of the blessed Lord. He kneeled at the
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feet of the Saviour, and asked Him, as the great authority, "Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life ? " »
I.
The Question.
1. By " eternal life " we must understand not merely continued existence, but continued happy existence, than which there can be no higher good. Many people are happy here — at times, and for times. But the old saying, "No one is always happy," shows how constant is man's experience of the mutability of happiness. And many men wonder why this is so. The trutli is — though few people see it at first — that nothing is, or is real, but what is in harmony with the mind and will of God. He alone can create. What man seems to create, as apart from God, can last only so long as man's illusion lasts ; for it is illusion alone that gives such " works " apparent reality. As in the case of the house founded on the sand, a little time and those natural forces which can overthrow anything illusory will distinguish the apparent from the real. The illusion will vanish like a burst bubble ; and what is real — that is, what is in harmony with the mind and will of God — will alone endure. Therefore eternal life can mean only a life (desires, tastes, workings, productions) that is in harmony with the mind and will of God. All else is folly, vanity, empti- ness, illusion, which, like the state of childhood, can last its time, and then must pass away.
T| In the complex, of vivid, operative convictions connected with Eternal Life there is, first, a keen yet double sense of Abidingness — an absolute Abidingness, pure Simultaneity, Eternity, in God ; and a relative abidingness, a quasi-eternity, Duration, in man (qua personality). And the Eternity is always experienced by man only within, together with, and in contrast to, the Duration. And both Eternity and Duration stand out, in man's deepest consciousness, with even painful contrast, against all mere Succession, all sheer flux and change. Here the special value lies in the double sense that we are indeed actually touched, penetrated, and supported by the purely Eternal ; and yet that we ourselves shall never, either here or hereafter, be more than
1 M. G. Pearse.
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quasi-eternal, durational. For only this double sense will save us from the perilous alternatives of an uncreaturely sheer fixity and an animal mere flux and change. We thus gain a perennial source of continuity and calm. There is, next, the keen sense of Other- ness in Likeness. We are genuinely like, and we are genuinely unlike, God, the Realized Perfection. Hence there is ever a certain tension, a feeling of limitation or of emptiness, a looking for a centre outside of, or other than, our own selves. Here again this double sense will be profoundly helpful in our troubles. For thus we are never free to lose reverence for the deepest of what we are, since it is like God, and actually harbours God. And yet we may never lose humility and a thirst for purification, since even the deepest and best of ourselves never is, never will be, God.1