» J. W. Shepard.
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Opportunity and Eesponsibility. i. The Value of Sacrifice.
Christ had looked on the woman who, with her heart bowed in desolation and sorrow, had given her all to God, and He declared that, small as that was in itself, it was the truest and greatest offering that could be made. Here we find a great principle. The greatness of the outward act of surrender is nothing, — the perfectness of the inner spirit is alone of value in the eye of God. This is a truth which we seldom fully realise, and yet it is one which, if realised, would transform our whole life. We are perpetually prone to measure sacrifice by the outward appearance, while Christ points to the least act which is done with the surrender of the heart's life as the greatest sacrifice of all. Doubtless this is partly because the external greatness of a sacrifice gratifies our self -glorying spirit — we like to do a thing which seems to be a great dedication, and which flatters our self-love by its greatness. Or it is partly- because it is far easier to us to do a great thing which does not necessitate self-surrender than to do a small thing which demands it. We call it a great thing, and rightly so, to spend a life in toilsome service, to give up home and friends and live in strange lands, forgetting that this may not involve more sacrifice than patiently to bear our lot, wherever it may be, than to perform the constant but unnoticed self-denials of an obscure life, and accept without murmuring the unknown and unrewarded toils of each day. This tendency pervades all our judgments. We judge men's acts by their outward forms rather than by the spirit which impelled them — we are so apt to regard only the great Temple stones. The principle uttered by Christ with regard to the widow's gift reverses our common notions ; before it, our distinctions between great and small vanish. It is the all — the very heart of the offerer that God asks for, the outward form of the sacrifice is of little worth. There are many unknown heroes and silent martyrs now whom the world passes by. It is not the great outward act, but the
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perfect yielding of the soul, that constitutes the sacrifice which God will not despise.
In the worship described in the vision in the Apocalypse " the four-and-twenty elders fall down before him that sat upon the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne "(Eev. iv. 10). They lay their crowns, the symbol of their attainments, at the feet of Him that sitteth upon the throne ; and while these glorified saints are thus offering themselves in delighted homage in heaven amidst surroundings that tell of perfect joy and peace, some poor struggling Christian upon earth has broken away with tears and an aching heart from what he loves most, that he may do more thoroughly what he believes to be the will of God. The principle that moves both is the same — sacrifice and self -oblation ; only here the will is being purified and cleansed, loosening itself with pain from the creatures to which it clings inordinately, that in faith, and often with little sensible love, it may give itself to God. There, in that picture in heaven, we see the result; there is no more need of struggle or effort, the will is free, bound for ever into the will of God, and it is the joy of the soul for eternity to cast itself and all it possesses at the feet of its Creator.
"What can I spare?" we say: "Ah, this and this, From mine array I am not like to miss: And here are crumbs to feed some hungry one: They do but grow a cumbrance on my shelf": — And yet, one reads, our Father gave His Son, Our Master gave Himself.^
ii. The Sacrifice of our Substance.
St. Paul says, " We are not our own, we are bought with a price " ; therefore, strictly speaking, we have nothing to give, and yet it is true that Christ, who gives us all, condescends to receive back our gifts. Observe, however, how our Lord receives them, observe how He passes judgment on those who cast their gifts into His treasury. He does not condemn the rich who * Frederick Langbridge.
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that day brought their offerings. He does not say how much they ought to have given, whether or not they ought to have given more ; but He makes no honourable mention of them. One of the evils of our day is an ostentatious parade of what rich persons give for charitable and religious purposes. This kind of parade is in direct opposition to our Lord's conduct on the occasion before us. He did not call the attention of the disciples to what He saw till this poor widow had cast in her two mites. The sums which the rich men gave are not named at all. How unlike is this precious passage in New Testament history to what is too common in modern reports, where the larger sums, with their donors' names, are specified first, and then the lesser ones are massed in one amount under the head of STnall sums !