This means that the face of every man and woman and little child we pass in the street — sin-scarred or careworn or tear- stained — must be to us as the very face of Christ. Behind that marred countenance, under that brutalized, besotted husk, lies hidden a beautiful brother, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Dare we think cheaply and contemptuously of the vilest man whom Christ loves, for whom Christ died ? Since He is not ashamed to call them brethren, for His sake they are sacred
1 J. Stalker, The Christology of Jesus, 241. ' Christina G. Rossetti, Poetical Works, 148.
ST. MATTHEW xxv. 40 415
and dear. The touch of His nature, the blood of His sacrifice, make the whole world kin.
Tj The people we know personally, the men we work with, the women we mix among, our own companions, our own servants, our own neighbours, have this imperious claim for ministration, whenever we grow aware of their need. Often they will not, or cannot, seek us out; it is for us to seek them out. They are perhaps prisoners of pride or reserve or shyness, and our sympathy must penetrate to them. The people who most deserve help will hardly ever bring themselves to ask for it. But it is love's instinct and prerogative to anticipate Christ's necessities before ever He makes a request.
I was hungry, and Thou feddest me;
Yea, Thou gavest drink to slake my thirst : 0 Lord, what love gift can I offer Thee
Who hast loved me first ?
Feed My hungry brethren for My sake;
Give them drink, for love of them and Me : Love them as I loved thee, when Bread 1 brake
In pure love of thee.1
^| Edward Irving caused it to be engraved on the silver plate of his London church, that when the offerings of the people no longer sufficed for the wants of God's poor, the sacred vessels were to be melted down to supply the deficiency. He was right. It is the Master's mind. Christ has expressly transferred to the honest and suffering poor His own claim on the devotion of His people. Even while He was warmly defending the action of Mary of Bethany on that Saturday evening, He hinted that after He was taken away from the reach of our personal homage the poor would remain with us in His stead. He made this still more plain on the following Wednesday. When, in the majestic passage before us, He foretold with dramatic vividness the awful transactions of the judgment, He made it for ever unmistakable that the enthusiastic love of the Church for her absent and inaccessible Lord is now to pour itself out in deeds of practical beneficence, finding in the distressed a substitute for Him who was once the Man of Sorrows.2
^[ The saying, " The poor ye have always with you," was literally true with Lord Ashley, and it remained true to the end
1 T. H. Darlow, The Upward Calling, 218.
2 J. 0. Dykes, Plain Words on Great Themes, 160.
416 UNTO ME
of his life. The state of the weather, depression in trade, illness, bereavement, separation from children or friends — these and a hundred other things suggested to him no extraordinary cause of complaint as they affected himself personally, but they led him invariably to think how much more terrible similar circumstances must be to the poor and friendless. Nor did his sympathy exhaust itself in merely thinking about the poor and friendless. During the pauses in the greater labours which absorbed so much of his time, he would devise schemes for the relief of those within his reach, and would make the help he gave a thousandfold more acceptable by the manner in which he gave it. He was never too proud to grasp the hand of a poor honest man, or take up a sickly little child in his arms, or sit in the loathsome home of a poor starving needlewoman as she plied her needle. He never spoke down to their level, but sought to raise them up to his, and his kindly words were as helpful as his kindly deeds. The time had not yet come for that personal devotion to the welfare of the poor which distinguished his later years ; that was only at this period occasional which afterwards became continual, but the principle that inspired it was the same ; it was devotion to Him who had said, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me." To Lord Ashley, Christianity was nothing unless it was intensely practical.1
Look you to serve Me but above ?
Nay, rather serve Me here below ; Would you on Me heap out your love ?
On want and sin your love bestow; Have I not said it? What you do
To these, My poor, ye do to Me; Whatever here I take from you
Sevenfold returned to you shall be. Doubt not if I am here ; with eyes
Of mercy know Me, wan and pale. What ! hear you not My anguished cries,
My moans and sighs that never fail ! 2
3. Our Lord sets their true value upon the unconscious ser- vices that we render to our fellow-men. " Ye did it unto me," even when ye knew it not. There is a holy art of anonymity, the giving and doing for His sake and for His eye alone, which is as beautiful as it is rare, and which imparts to those who have