TI We should mark and know of a very truth that all manner of virtue and goodness, and even that Eternal Good which is God Himself, can never make a man virtuous, good, or happy, so long as it is outside the soul. Therefore although it be good and profitable that we should ask and learn and know what good and holy men have wrought and suffered, and how God hath dealt with them, and what He hath wrought in and through them, yet it were a thousand times better that we should in ourselves learn and perceive and understand who we are, how and what our own life is, what God is and is doing in us, what He will have from us, and to what ends He will or will not make use of us. Further we should learn that eternal blessedness lieth in one thing alone, and in nought else. And if ever man or the soul is to be made blessed, that one thing alone must be in the soul. Now some might ask, " But what is that one thing? " I answer, it is goodness, or that which has been made good, and yet neither this good nor that, which we can name, or perceive or show; but it is all and above all good things. . . . All the great works and wonders that God has ever wrought or shall ever work in or through the creatures, or even God Himself with all His goodness, so far as these things exist or are done outside of me, can never make me blessed, but only in so far as they exist and are done and loved, known, tasted and felt within me.1
5. The ruler also forgot that goodness is not a thing to be done, or an attribute of actions, but an element of character in the prrson who performs the actions. There is no more common
1 Theologia Germanica, chap. ix.
ST. MATTHEW xix. 16 367
mistake in religion and ethics than this, and scarcely any mistake more fatal. It shifts the centre of gravity in religion from the centre to the circumference, from the soul to the outward act. The form of his question, " What good thing shall I do ? " reveals the short-coming of his apprehension as to how the case really stands. He puts the question much as one might ask,/" What premium must I pay to insure my life for a thousand pounds V\ The premium is paid, not from the love of paying it, but as the' only way of procuring a good we desire to obtain. Note how our Lord, in His reply, at once tries to shift the question to a different, and higher, ground. The question is, " What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life ? " The answer is, " If thou wilt enter into life." Eternal life is not a thing you can have, as you have an estate, or a balance in the bank. It must have you : you must enter into it. A man and his estate are two, and can be separated : a man and his eternal life are one, and cannot be separated.
% The young ruler is in the position of a man who comes to his medical adviser complaining of a slight uneasiness which he supposed a tonic or a change of air may remove, and is told that he has heart disease or cancer. Or he is in the position of a sanguine inventor, who has spent the best years of his life on a machine and at last puts it into the hands of a practical man merely to get the fittings adjusted and steam applied, and is told that the whole thing is wrong in conception and can never by any possibility be made to work.1
6. The man was thus under an entire misapprehension as to his own spiritual condition. Exemplary in conduct, very much the model of what a wealthy young man ought to be, he had naturally some self-complacency. He had become a ruler of the synagogue, and was probably a man of influence, of large charity and much good feeling, so that the people who saw him come to consult Jesus would suppose that it was something of a conde- scension on his part. He was not perfectly satisfied, however, about his spiritual condition, but he thought a very little addition to his present attainments would set him above suspicion. He was well enough as he was, but he wished, as any young man with anything in him does wish, to be perfect. He was of an ardent, aspiring temper, and would leave nothing undone that he could
1 Marcus Dods.
368 ETERNAL LIFE
measure his human nature and strength with, so he came to Jesus, not to be taught the mere rudiments, but to receive the finishing touches of a religious education.
^f In Cleon Browning pictures man perfectly civilized, having left the lower aud unconscious forms of life and grown to the only life, the life of culture, the pleasure house.
Watch-tower and treasure-fortress of the soul, Which whole surrounding flats of natural life Seemed only fit to yield subsistence to; A tower that crowns a country.
It is a magnificent conception of the educated, refined, civilized man. And then comes the awful awakening to its utter unsatis- factoriness.