ST. MATTHEW xix. 16 375
Not the relinquishment of outward wealth
The chief thing Christ required ; but that the man,
Set free from earthly things, should then begin
A loftier career, beside Himself.
Think what this offer meant. Christ saw in him
High capabilities : His heart went out
To that young man. But it was not to be:
His weakness was revealed ; before his eyes
Rose the heroic vision, and he saw
Tt was beyond his power. The record ends
"With his discomfiture. He went away,
A sadder, wiser man. We know no more.
The Ministering Master.
Literature.
Anderson (W. F.), in Drew Sermons on the Golden Texts for 1910, 199. Banks (L. A.), Sermons which have Won Souls, 365. Barry (A.), The Atonement of Christ, 39. Benson (R. M.), 27k Final Passover, i. 50. Black (H.), Christ's Service of Love, 23. Burrows (H. W.), Parochial Sermons, 12. Hackett (W. S.), 27k Land of Your Sqjournings, 121. Hall (E. H.), Discourses, 14. Hallock (G. B. F.), The Teaching of Jesus, 145. Holland (H. S.), Logic and Life, 225. Hughes (H. P.), Ethical Christianity, 95. MacDonald (G.), A Dish of Orts, 298. Maclaren (A.), Christ's Musts, 55. Marsh (F. E.), Christ's Atonement, 73. Murray (W. H.), 27k Fruits of the Spirit, 441. Rashdall (H.), Doctrine and Development, 128. Ridgeway (C. T.), 27k King and His Kingdom, 60. Robertson (A. T.), Keywords in the Teaching of Jesus, 41. Smith (G. S.), Victory over Sin and Death, 28. Wells (J.), Christ in the Present Age, 171. Williams (W. W.), Resources and Responsibilities, 71. Christian World Pulpit, xvii. 339 (A. Scott) ; xxiii. 82 (H. W. Beecher) ; xlix. 226 (L. Abbott) ; lii. 285 (C. J. Ridgeway).
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The Ministering Master.
Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. — Matt xx. 28.
The whole scope of the teaching and example of Jesus from the beginning went to show that greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven is a different thing from that which is accounted greatness among men. The pagan ideal of life, the semi-barbaric and old Eoraan conception, finds the dignity and serviceableness of life in the influence of one man over another. From the days of Nimrod it has crowned the men of strong will. As Jesus said, They that wield authority over the nations have been hailed as their bene- factors. In the form of military or physical mastership, or in the less brutal form of intellectual rule, rule by law, or the assertion of brain-power over feebler races and feebler men, this ideal of human life has played a great part in history and is destined still to play a great part. The ages of " blood and iron," of the domination of the strong over the weak, and of ruling over subject peoples, are not yet done.
The Christian ideal is the precise contrast. Christ came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister; not to enrich Himself, either with nobler or with baser wealth, but to impoverish Himself that He might make many rich. With Him first, and with His followers in proportion as they actually do follow Him, self is subordinated into a minister to others ; while the good of others and the honour of God in others' good become the end, the centre, the dominant and rewarding goal, towards which, in labour or in endurance, the whole life tends.
Tj Louis xiv., in his spirit of tyranny, could say, " I am the state." This was the pagan view. Frederick the Great, of Prussia, gave fine expression to the modern and Christian view in that noble utterance, " It is the business of the king to be the chief of the servants of the state ! " This is the new standard, and has taken firm hold of the thought and life of Christian civilization, and to-
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380 THE MINISTERING MASTER
day, without argument, he is conceded to be the greatest who is greatest in service to the cause of human progress and the advancement of the Kingdom of God.1
The Pattern of Service.
"The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister."
1. The Master here finds occasion to teach His disciples the profound lesson that the way to spiritual greatness is by service. It seemed an inversion of the ordinary rule by which princes exercise dominion and the world's great men exercise authority. For here it is the opposite — " whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister ; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." He takes Himself as an illustration of the law ; for even the Son of Man " came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." The lesson is that we should follow in His steps, and make our religion not merely a getting but a giving, the service of Christ and of the brethren.
^| The notion of rank in the world is like a pyramid ; the higher you go up, the fewer there are who have to serve those above them, and who are served more than those underneath them. All who are under serve those who are above, until you come to the apex, and there stands some one who has to do no service, but whom all the others have to serve. Something like that is the notion of position, of social standing and rank. And if it be so in an intellectual way, — to say nothing of mere bodily service — if any man works to a position that others shall all look up to him and that he may have to look up to nobody, he has just put himself precisely into the same condition as the people of whom our Lord speaks, — as those who exercise dominion and authority, — and really he thinks it a fine thing to be served. But it is not so in the Kingdom of Heaven. The figure there is entirely reversed. As you may see a pyramid reflected in the water, just so, in a reversed way altogether, is the thing to be found in the Kingdom of God. It is in this way : the Son of Man lies at the inverted apex of the pyramid ; He upholds, and serves, and ministers unto all, and they who would be high in His