III.
The Choice.
(1. "He went away sorrowful." The completeness and im- mediateness of the collapse are noticeable. The young man seems to speak no word, and to take no time for reflection. He stands for a moment, as if stunned. The eager look passes from his face and the shadow of a great disappointment darkens his 1 F. W. Robertson, Sermons, ii. 289.
ST. MATTHEW xix. 16 373
brow. For the first time he found his resources insufficient to secure the object of his desire. He discovered that there were some things which money, however plentiful, could not buy ; that there were possessions which could not be inherited, but must be earned. He turned away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. The great testing had come, the clouds which portended a great storm had already gathered, and soon the placid bosom of the lake would be heaving and swelling under the stress and strain of a mighty tempest. He would never be the same man again. The depths of his nature had at last been stirred, and the effect of the storm must give him a deeper peace than he had ever known before, or intensify the unrest which he had already experienced.
2. He loved his comforts and his position better than he loved Christ. That is the whole state of the case. He did not oppose Christ. He was willing to consult Him. He was prepared to follow His advice to a certain extent. He recognized that He was a Teacher whom it would never do to argue with or scoff at. He owned Him a Teacher of the truth, but he could not obey Him ; he did not love enough to follow Him ; he was not fasci- nated by Christ. It is needless to say that, wherever such a comparative estimate of things spiritual and things worldly exists, the result must always be the same. Wherever a man is more concerned about his profits and his possessions than about his character, this will one day disastrously appear. Wherever love of Christ unsuccessfully competes with something inferior, this must one day show itself by the man cleaving to the inferior thing, and preferring to go with it.
T| Tolstoy, the Russian socialist, has said that " the rich are willing to do anything and everything for the poor, except get off their backs!" Through a similar bat universal perversity, the unconverted man is willing, more or less, to do anything and everything toward God that might lie in his power — heathen-like — except to yield Him real heart-friendship ! 1
3. Henceforward he disappears from the gospel history ; yet we are not forbidden to hope that the Saviour who loved him may have again repeated to him His command, " Follow me." The sorrow which he felt was, no doubt, real ; and it may have been
1 G. E. Faber.
374 ETERNAL LIFE
bo lasting aB to make him reconsider the wisdom of his choice. And the times were coming when his nation waB to pass through bitter trials, and when the wealth of many who trusted in riches was suddenly taken from them. In the ordinary course of nature this young man would have lived to see thi6 time of great calamity for the Jewish people, and it may well have been that he who would not, of his own accord, give up all for Christ, may afterwards have suffered the loss of all things, and yet have found that it was love that sent the trial, and that the Lord was making good His promise to him of treasure in heaven.
In Dante's great poem there is a lost spirit without a name of whom he says, " I looked and saw the shade of him who through cowardice made the great refusal." And he places him among those whom he calls " hateful alike to God and to God's enemies." But was there not in that sorrowful and grieved departure a proof of nobleness ? How many rich men of to-day, if summarily bidden to sell all their goods and give to the poor, would go away grieved and sorrowful ? Would they not rather go away, like Naaman, in a rage, scornful that any could make so outrageous a proposal, and talking angrily about the importance of class distinctions? Was not that sorrow most of all at his own failure ; at finding his own weakness ? We can follow him in thought to a happier destiny than Dante has depicted. It may well be that he went up to the Passover, and there again saw the Christ of whom he thought so much — saw Him accursed and crucified. And, strengthened by that great example, he may have given to his risen Lord that service which he had shrunk from before. We can think of him as foremost among those of whom we read, " As many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet."
"What lack you yet? A pathway, do you want, Of noble struggle after perfect good ? A chance I give you: leave your cherished sphere Of virtuous deeds ; sell all and follow Me."
Think not this test a trial hard and stern, Coldly applied by Christ to shame his pride : No, 'twas a genuine offer, not bestowed On many. Men were often sent away: