^ I asked an art critic why he did not consider a certain painting under observation a real work of art. He answered: It lacks enthusiasm. I think the artist who painted it was not enthusiastic and not positive enough. The result shows in a painting which just misses being good.^
4. She was simply one of a crowd, and as uninteresting and unpromising probably as are the members of any crowd ; but the fact that she was, outwardly at least, uninteresting, makes it interesting that Christ was interested in her, and it is one of the features of our Lord's character that He was impressed by unpromising people. Whoever it might be that He was deaHng with He seemed to feel that He had a good deal to go upon. No one, we should say, appeared to Him ordinary. We cannot fail to have been struck with what must have seemed to us the apparently haphazard way in which He selected His disciples. It would seem as though any one whom He ran across, as He was walking along the edge of the Sea of Galilee, would answer well enough for a disciple, and so for an apostle — not, be it understood, as a disparagement of the position which He selected
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them to fill, but as a recognition that even " common " men were so uncommon as to be inherently able to fill the position. He could doubtless have continued His walk along the seaside and have selected another twelve just as competent as the first twelve, if He had cared at that time to have so many. And certainly it is not venturing much to presume that He could have come into any of our cities and congregations, and have found a dozen people with natural qualifications that would have made them as capable as Peter, James, and John, and the rest, to lay, in co-operation with Himself, the foundations of the Christian Church.
The moon and the stars are commonplace things,
And the flower that blooms and the bird that sings ;
But dark were the world and sad our lot
If the flowers failed and the sun shone not;
And God, who studies each separate soul.
Out of commonplace lives makes His beautiful whole.*
The subject may conveniently be treated in two parts : I. Christ's Unerring Judgment. IL Opportunity and EesponsibilUy,
Christ's Unerring Judgment.
1. There is not so much difference between a bat's eye and an eagle's as there is between the insight, as we call it, of ordinary men and the insight of Jesus. The whole universe and every detail of it becomes changed to our eyes directly we catch a glimpse of any part from the standpoint of Jesus Christ How tawdry are the pomps and the magnificences which we admire, and how splendid are the lowly eternities which we
despise.
^ A public meeting was held at a certain English town in the interests of Foreign Missions. The chairman was reading out a list of donors. " Mr. So-and-So, a hundred guineas." Tremendous cheering. "Mr. So-and-So, £50." Great cheering. "Mr. So-
' Susan Coolidge.
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and-So, £20." Much cheering. "Mr. So-and-So, 6d." No cheering. Not being pleased at this cool reception of a gift which probably cost as much sacrifice, or possibly more than any of the foregoing, the chairman, amidst breathless silence, exclaimed : " Hush, I think I hear the clapping of the pierced hands." The audience keenly felt the rebuke.^
So with the Lord: He takes and He refuses, Finds Him ambassadors whom men deny.
Wise ones nor mighty for his saints He chooses, No, such as John or Gideon or I.
He as He wills shall solder and shall sunder, Slay in a day and quicken in an hour.
Tune Him a music from the Sons of Thunder, Forge and transform my passion into power.^
2. The beauty of the poor widow's act, commended by our Lord, lay in its entire unconsciousness of self, and of the moral value of what she was doing. We all see that both the moral and the aesthetic quality of her act would have sunk to a much lower level if she had known that the eyes of the promised Messiah of her race were upon her, or that her modest offering would be spoken of in distant climes and future ages wherever the story of man's redemption should be told. In that case the elements of cal- culation and of reward would have mingled with her motives.
^ It matters not what we seem to be to ourselves or others, but only how God looks upon us when we pray to Him. This you may take as the test and proof of anything you say, do, or think ; and of the real importance of any event that happens to you: What difference does it make when you come to appear before God in prayer ? Will it render you more acceptable or not ? Let any one notice each day — there can be no better rule or safeguard — what will render him in his hours of prayer most acceptable with God. There can be no better standard or measure of the real value of all things than this.
I thank Thee I am not my own, But have to live in Thee alone, Each passing day, each passing hour, To live in Thy great power. Whate'er to-day, to-morrow brings, 'Tis all Thine Hand, Thine orderings.*