(1) " Good " and " goodness " are used in different senses. We say that fruit is good, when it is agreeable to the sense of taste. An article of husbandry is good, when it is happily adapted to the purposes for which it was constructed. Goodness, as existing in the Deity, embraces that principle which leads the Divine Being 1 Archbishop Ttmple.
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to bestow blessings upon His creatures. Goodness, as applied to man, must be taken in a restricted sense; it refers to the moral qualities of his heart. It consists in the possession of the Christian graces. The Apostle has enumerated, " Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance ; and to temperance patience ; and to patience godli- ness ; and to godliness brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness charity." The supposed possession of any one grace gives us no right to profess Christian goodness. The Apostle says, " Add," lead up, alluding to the chorus in the Grecian dance, where they danced with joined hands. The allusion is a beauti- ful one, showing the intimate connexion existing between the graces of the Spirit. Where one truly exists, they all exist, and nearly in the same strength and maturity. Christian goodness is necessarily associated with Christian holiness. It implies not merely a state in which the sympathies of human nature are easily excited, and lead to acts of kindness towards the bereaved and distressed, but a state in which fruit is shown unto holiness, and the end eternal life. It is not a mere negative state, in which there is no marked development of unsanctified nature, but the good man, like Barnabas, is full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. When the work of creation was completed, from the beauty and harmony of the parts, and their perfect adaptation to accomplish the Divine purposes, everything was pronounced to be very good. No higher appellation could be given. And man now becomes good only so far as, by the renewal of the Holy Ghost, he bears the impress of his original nature.
Tf In a letter to his youngest boy, James Hinton wrote : " If you haven't been perfect, you must not be discouraged, but must only try again and the more. And remember, the art is to do at once ; delay is the great enemy. If you do at once what you are told, you can hardly imagine how beautifully everything will go. Only think of your ship ; you see as soon as ever the wind says to it go, it goes at once. It doesn't wait a moment ; and if it did, would it get on well, do you think ? You know it wouldn't. Why, it would topple over, and its friend, the wind, in its very help, would only hurt. Now we ought to be like ships before the wind, and the wind should be love, moving us at once. Do you know, the Spirit, God's own Spirit, is called by the same word that means the wind ? And I dare say one reason is that He iills the
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sails, and that they yield freely and happily to Him, like ships before a favouring breeze." 1
(2) In our ordinary interpretations of this parable, we are in some danger of laying the emphasis on power rather than on character. We say, " The servant made the best of his power, and the result was correspondingly large." We draw the practical lesson, " The more faithfully you use your talents, the more you will accomplish." We perhaps tend to forget that it is the moral quality of the user that gives character to the result; that a smaller result, as the outcome of faithfulness, is more in God's eyes than a larger one without it ; that to God there is no large result, no good result, without goodness ; that God demands interest on character no less than on endowment, and that interest on endowment counts for nothing without interest on character ; that quality fixes the rate of interest on quantity. We may go into the other world with the reputation of great or brilliant or efficient men. It will count for nothing if we are not also good men.
T| We have heard of the Eoman who, to show that he could not be dispirited by fear, or intimidated by suffering, calmly placed his right hand upon the burning altar, and there steadily held it, without emotion, until it was consumed. We have heard also of the distinguished martyr of whom it was said, " In an unguarded and unhappy hour he had subscribed to doctrines which he did not believe ; an act which he afterward deeply repented of, as the greatest miscarriage of his life. And when he was subsequently led to the stake, he stretched out the hand which had been the instrument in this false and discreditable subscription, and, without betraying, either by his countenance or motions, the least sign of weakness, or even of feeling, he held it in the flames till it was entirely consumed." In the one case we admire the man, in the other the moral principles of his heart Though the acts were similar, the one showed the martial man, the other the good man.2