3. Some admired hut did not adore. Perhaps this is all that these men of the DecapoHs meant when they said, "He hath done all things well." " It may be no more," says Hort, " than a rather unmeaning kind of applause, such as might have been given almost as readily to a conjuror as to the Saviour of men." This was certainly the way with the Galileans who were fed with the loaves and fishes. They became intensely interested in Jesus, ran after Him, and lavishly Eabbi'd Him. But for what ? " Ye seek me," He told them, " because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled." They looked at what He did ; they did not ask who He was. Here was a bright particular star before them, but they did not, like the child, say, " How I wonder what you are ! "
The people of the Decapolis were really astonished ; they were overcome with genuine admiration, but they did not surrender themselves to Him. They did not accept Him as Lord. For if they had, they would have obeyed Him. But when He charged them that they should tell no man about the miracle which He had just performed, " the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it." And it became a sore grief and serious embarrassment to Him. For He was not here on earth merely to heal a few sick and then » E. W. Barbour, Thoughts, 102. » J. Wood.
192 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
pass away, leaving the world with its diseases and its sorrows much as He found it. He was not among them only to shed a fleeting gleam of pity over their miseries, and then to withdraw and leave behind Him the darkness more visible by the lost light that had for one brief hour crossed it. He was here to foimd an everlasting kingdom that should hold stored in it the enduring vitality by which to war against disease and death so long as the world should last.
^ We cannot measure the sorrow of the tragic loneliness in which He had stood amid the crowd which was so eager to praise Him, while their very praise was a witness how little they had the power to enter into His inner spirit or to understand what He purposed in His heart. Alone, quite alone. He nursed His great hope, though all the world might be praising Him for the things He did so well.^
4. But some adored. They faced the alternative. The alternative was that He cast out demons either by the help of the prince of the demons or else by the finger of God. Well, then, said some, by the finger of God ; and they knew the Kingdom of God and its King were come nigh unto them. The alternative was that He is either a blasphemer or God. For it was true, as they said, that no one could forgive sins but God only. He claimed to forgive sins. And some accepted the conclusion : He is God. Or, again, the alternative was. He is God or He is not good. " Why callest thou me good ? None is good save one, that is, God." And some accepted it. He is good ; He is God.
Is it possible to pass from wonder through admiration to adoration ? It is quite possible and quite common. The boundary, says Matheson, between spiritual death and spiritual hfe is admiration. Between seeing the beauty without desiring it and seeing the beauty with desire there seems but a thin line, but it is the line of infinitude ; it is the difference between the almost and the altogether. Admiration of Christ's beauty is the lowest step of the ladder, but it is a step. It may exisfe where the deeds of life are not yet in harmony with its ideal, but it is the prophecy of the future perfection, the pledge of good things to come.^
* Canou Suott Holland. - Moments on the Mount, 171.
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Even Liddon, who is emphatic on the difference between admiration and adoration, says, " Certainly admiration may lead up to adoration ; but then real admiration dies away when its object is seen to be entitled to something higher than and dis- tinct from it. Admiration ceases when it has perceived that its Object altogether transcends any standard of excellence or beauty with which man can compare Him. Admiration may be the ladder by which we mount to adoration ; but it is useless, or rather it is an impertinence, when adoration has been reached. Every man of intelligence and modesty meets in life with many *" objects which call for his free and sincere admiration, and he himself gains both morally and intellectually by answering to such a call. But while the objects of human admiration are as various as the minds and tastes of men,
' Denique non omnes eadem mirantur amantque,'
One Only Being can be rightfully adored. To ' admire ' God would involve an irreverence equal only to the impiety of adoring a fellow-creature." ^
^ While working at my house on Aniwa, I required some nails and tools. Lifting a piece of planed wood, I pencilled a few words on it, and requested our old chief to carry it to Mrs. Baton, and she would send what I wanted. In blank wonder he innocently stared at me, and said, " But what do you want ? " I replied, " The wood will tell her." He looked rather angry, thinking that I befooled him, and retorted, " Who ever heard of wood speaking ? " By hard pleading I succeeded in persuading him to go. He was amazed to see her looking at the wood, and then fetching the needed articles. He brought back the bit of wood and made signs for explanation. Chiefly in broken Tannese I read to him the words, and informed him that in the same way God spoke to us through His book.*