Into the night I breathed a prayer like a soaring fire ; — So to the wind-swept cliff the resonant rocket streams,
And it struck its mark, I know ; for I felt my flying desire Strain, like a rope drawn home, and catch in the land of dreams.
What was the answer? This — the horrible depth of night. And deeper, as ever I peer, the huge cliff's mountainous shade, While the frail boat cracks and grinds, and never a star in sight, And the seething waves smite fiercer ; — and yet I am not afraid. ^
^ A. C. Benson.
The Two Commandments.
••s
Literature,
Brooks (P.), Sermons in English Churches, 2%
Channing (W. E.), The Perfect Life, 3.
Cox (S.), Expositions, 4th Ser,, 88.
Davies (J. LI.), Spiritual Apprehension, 64.
Dykes (J. 0.), The Law of the Ten Words, ,35, 207.
„ Sermons, 123.
Gibson (J. M.), The Glory of Life on Earth, 21. Qoulburn (E. M.), The Pursuit of Holiness, 72. Holland (H. S.), Logic and Life, 199. Home (C. S.), The Bock of Ages, 113. Horton (R. F.), The Commandments of Jesus, 63. Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, 4th Ser., 582. Lewis (H. Elvet), The Unescapeable Christ, 234. Lockyer (T. F.), The Lispirations of the Christian Life, 35. Mackenzie (W. L.), Pure Religion, 38. Manning (H. E.), Sermons, iv. 285. Pattison (M.), Sermons, 3. Pentecost (Q. F.), Bible Studies : Mark, 119. Eobertson (F. W.), Sermons, 4th Ser., 261. Selby (T. G.), The Alienated Crown, 138. Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, iii. No. 162. Thorn (J. H.), A Spiritual Faith, 93.
„ Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, 2nd Ser., 330.
Vaughan (C. J.), Family Prayer and Sermon Book, i. 568. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xii. No. 879. Wilberforce (B.), Feeling after Him, 121. Wilson (J. M.), Rochdale Sermons, 210. Christian World Pulpit, viii. 200 (Mackennal) ; xxiv. 157 (Jackson),
402 (Beecher) ; xxviii. 232 (Rawnsley) ; xxxi. 165 (White) ;
xxxviii. 38 (Rawnsley) ; xli. 298 (Armstrong) ; xliv. 358
(Barnett) ; xlvi. 340 (Bartlett) ; Iviii. 54, 149 (Stalker) ; Ixiv.
257 (Davidson), 276 (Henson). Church of England Pulpit, xxxvii. 292 (Silvester) ; Ivi. 194 (Davidson). Church Pulpit Year Book, iv. Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., viii. 159 (Proctor). Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., vi. 321 (Paget) ; x. 298 (Vaughan). Homiletic Review, xxxii. 35 (Biirrell). Sunday School Times, xxxiii. 273.
■96
The Two Commandments.
The first is, Hear, O Israel ; The Lord our God, the Lord is one : and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.— xii. 29-31.
1. Jesus was surrounded by His enemies, who were determined to get some advantage over Him. They had challenged His authority and been worsted by His counter-question in reference to John the Baptist, and put to confusion by His parable of the Vineyard and the Husbandmen. They next sent some expert lawyers, hoping to entangle Him in a matter of politics, and were again brought to confusion by the unexampled discrimination of His answer. Then the Sadduceea came forward with a speculative question concerning the future state and the relations existing there between man and wife, and they, in turn, were utterly routed by the deep discernment of the true nature of human relations in respect both to earth and heaven. Among the number of those who had come out to join with His enemies in bringing about His defeat, or, at least, to enjoy His discomfiture, was a scribe who, if an enemy, was at least a more candid one than his confederates. He had evidently been impressed with the singular mastery Jesus had shown over all the questions which had been put to Him, and His superior ability in all matters of casuistry ; and especially was he surprised and pleased with His clear insight into the spiritual nature of things, as brought out in response to the ques- tion touching divorce as practised by the Jews and countenanced by Moses, and as to the future state of the dead. More candid than the rest, and compelled into a respectful attitude towards Jesus, he asked a question. It was not a captious one,
298 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
as had been the others, but was asked with sincere int.ent. They, his companions, had challenged His authority ; this scribe would now test His wisdom, for he perceived that there was more in Jesus than was to be found in a mere usurper and pretender. There can be no final authority where there is not final wisdom. So the scribe reasoned, and went straight to the question at issue, not by seeking minute interpretations of secondary duties, but by challenging Him on the one point which would bring out from Him an answer that would reveal the depth or shallowness of His authority as a teacher and commander of the people. " What commandment," he asked, " is the first of all ? "
2. It is not difficult to see why an honest and earnest teacher of the Law, as this man evidently was, should be anxious for an authoritative answer to this question. The Law was large and complex. It branched out into such innumerable details that it was clearly impossible for any one to follow it in every particular. If, then, salvation was to be had by obedience to the Law, which was the prevailing opinion of the time, it could only be by a fair average obedience ; in which case it would be a vital question which part of the Law should be most insisted on. It was the function of the scribes and lawyers to explain the Law, and settle questions of conscience ; and seeing no one could be expected to keep it all, it was eminently desirable that they should be able to say what was most essential, so that their disciples might make sure of so much, and then the risk of being rejected for not keeping the rest would be greatly reduced. If one could only be sure of, say, a single commandment which clearly took precedence of all the rest, one might make a special 'point of seeing to it, and content oneself with doing the best one could with the others. For surely it would be a terrible thing if some punctilious devotee who had tithed his mint and anise and cummin, and vexed his soul about a thousand little things, should find at the last that all was in vain because he had overlooked the first and great commandment.