Mackenzie (W. L.), Pure Religion, 127.
Neville (W. G.), Sermons, 300.
Paget (E. C), Silence, 139.
Potts (A. W.), School Sermons, 228.
Reynolds (H. R.), Light and Peace, 55.
Westcott (B. F.), Peterborough Sermons, 383.
Christian World Pulpit, xx. 156 (M'Cree) ; xxxix. 99 (Jones).
168
The Beatitude of the Giver.
In all things I gave you an example, how that so labouring ye ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. — Acts xx. 35.
This is a golden saying of our Lord's, snatched for us from oblivion (for it is not found anywhere in the Gospels) by the inspired Apostle, and handed down by him for the use of the Church in every age, " It is more blessed to give than to receive." Very honestly St. Paul could press it on the regard of the Ephesian elders; for his own life, his whole apostolic life, had been an exemplification of it. And it was well that it was so. For, so contrary is the saying to the practice at least — the whole spirit and practical judgments — of men, that when a public teacher declares that he is more happy in giving than in receiving, the question is apt to arise in the minds of his hearers, Does he really believe it ?
I.
The Example of St. Paul.
1. The interest with which we study the text attaches chiefly to the saying of Jesus which St. Paul quotes; but we might notice first the remarkable immediate use or application of it by the Apostle. "We are told elsewhere that he had learned a craft, that of tent-making, and had worked at it for his living at Corinth. But the most noticeable point in his reference to this fact is not merely that he had thus supported himself, but that he had thereby ministered to those that were with him ; and he tells the elders of Ephesus that so labouring they also ought to support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, " It is more blessed to give than to receive."
2. It is true that of worldly goods the Apostle had but little
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170 THE BEATITUDE OF THE GIVER
to give. But his very poverty was only a nobler exemplification of the saying. And as to all other kinds of giving, his whole apostolic life was spent in the spirit of those words. For example : " I will not be burdensome to you, for I seek not yours, but you ; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children." "So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us." " Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." Surely that was giving. " And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. I coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I gave you an example in all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive."
T| The Eabbinical law required that every Jew should be taught a trade. St. Paul, therefore, being able to support him- self by his own labour, did not ask for material reward, and was free to turn the main stream of his energy into the channel of service. His life is our assurance that true happiness does not lie in anything outside the man. It has been the common aim of every pure religion, and of every great teacher in the world, to undermine practical materialism, and to warn us that only in the soul itself is the secret of content. It may be questioned whether we have learnt the lesson. We still catch at the imaginary delights with which life tries to cheat us; we still dream of a happiness which, if not now, can never be ours; we still find something paradoxical in St. Paul's saying, though it is in fact as simply true as the converse saying of Socrates, that he who commits an injustice does harm only to himself. It is a simple truth, verified by common experience, and, like every fundamental truth of Christianity, rooted in a psychological law. Imagine a man, comparatively poor and friendless, inheriting or gradually winning a magnificent estate. Does he add to his pleasure in life? Alas ! he adds absolutely nothing. His conservatories with their wealth of flowers will never charm him more than " the yellow primrose " which was the passion of his youth ; the great library
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with its store of books will never give him the exquisite relish of those few tattered volumes which first stirred his intellectual thirst. He may have added to his opportunities of pleasure ; he may have changed the objects of his pleasure ; he may have found roads to new pleasures, once unknown ; but his capacity for pleasure he cannot change. That is a constant force. It is the same, though in another sphere. What he gains here, he loses there. In everything there is compensation. He wins a high position — good; but then, with the position comes a responsibility from which he was free before. He attains great wealth ; but wealth also has its responsibilities. The higher he rises, the more delicate and difficult, as a rule, his work becomes ; and while he secures more honour, he rarely wins more peace.1