If sin be in the heart.
If peace be in the heart, The wildest winter storm is full of solemn beauty, The midnight lightning flash but shows the path of duty,
^ John Bannister Tabb, The Playmates.
452 A DEFINITION OF THE KINGDOM
Each living creature tells some new and joyous story, The very trees and stones all catch a ray of glory, If peace be in the heart.^
4 Jesus names to us a striking peculiarity about the joy of the righteous : " Your joy no man taketh from you." No thief of accident or circumstance can steal it ! If we find the joy of our life merely in entertainment or amusement, in the club or in the ball-room, there is many a thief can take it away from us. Poverty may dry up our resources in a day. Sickness may throw us upon ourselves, and make a wide gulf between us and our joys. We are called to a joy compared with which all other joys are very insipid and tame, the joy of being a friend of Christ, joy in the Holy Ghost.
If once such joy had filled thine heart,
Earth's hatred or earth's scorn Would seem but as a moment's smart,
Forgot as soon as borne. Nay, thou in pain, or shame, or loss,
Christ's fellowship wouldst see, And with thine heart embrace the cross
On which He hung for thee.
'O
Wouldst count it blest to live, to die,
Where He is all in all; Where rapt, earth unperceived goes by
And from ourselves we fall. Till, from His secret place below,
To mansions fair above, He leads thee, there to make thee know
The perfect joys of love.
^ Charles Francis Eicliardsou, Peace,
The Privilege of the Strong.
4S3
Literature.
Allon (H.), The Indwelling Christ, 249, Burrell (D. J.), The Unaccountable Man, 77. Caird (J.), University Sermons, 154. Church (R. W.), Village Sermons, ii. 263. Darlow (T, H.), The Upward Calling, 235. Daviea (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, iii. 216. Doney (C. G.), The Throne-Boom of the Soul, 149. Jowett (J. H.), The School of Calvary, 63. Ker (J.), Sermons, i. 197.
Martineau (J.), Endeavours after the Christian Life, 426. Paget (F.), The Spirit of Discipline, 244. Kaleigh (A.), The Little Sanctuary, 176. Robertson (F. W.), Sermons, iv. 297. Selby (T. G.), The Divine Craftsman, 274, Tipple (S. A.), Sunday Mornings at Norwood, 250, Wileon (S. L.), Helpful Words for Daily Life, 212. Christian World Pulpit, xxix. 184 (Brooke) ; xli. 200 (Brooke). .Churchman's Pulpit, v, (Pt. 1), 66 (Littledale).
454
The Privilege of the Strong.
We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.— Rom. xv. i.
1. It was essential that men whose prejudices and instincts were different should live in the same church and eat at the same love feast. Formerly, as in Syria and Palestine, it was the Jews who occupied the position of vantage in the Christian communities, and were not disposed to tolerate the ways of the Gentiles. Now the tables are turned, and the Gentiles are in the majority. And the danger is that those whose instincts are Gentile should bear hardly upon the minority whose prejudices are more or less Jewish. This, St. Paul anticipates, or knows from Priscilla and Aquila, will be the danger among the Eoman Christians. To be told he must not use his normal liberty, must not eat his usual meal or drink his usual cup of wine, because it might scandalize some Christian with the ascetic prejudices of an Essene, or even induce him to do the same against his own conscience — to be told this was annoying to a man who held the " strong " Christian conviction that all kinds of food were indifferently allowable. The weak scruple of his brother Christian had become an annoy- ing burden of self-denial and self-restraint laid on himself.
" We " — who are the " we " ? Christians ; but among Christians, the strong. It is very noticeable that the Apostle has no corre- sponding exhortation to the weak. One would expect that he who writes to servants and masters, to wives and husbands, at the same time, would, in a connection like this, address also the weak while speaking to the strong. But it is not so. One reason may be that he foresaw that very few would be willing to accept that term as descriptive of themselves and their state — that for one who would go and stand under the inscription, " the weak," there would be ten ready to stand under the name and title of " the strong." They might hold those particular opinions and pre-
455
456 THE PRIVILEGE OF THE STRONG
judices regarding meats, and regarding the Mosaic law, which the Apostle here expressly declares to be characteristic of " the weak," in fact, to constitute the weakness, yet they themselves would be the last to allow or to perceive this. They would rather be disposed to think themselves strong, and firm, and faithful, holding on to truth and Divine commandment amid general defection. The same difficulty would be found now in getting any considerable number of people in a community to acknow- ledge themselves "weak" in any matter of Christian faith or intelligence. Therefore we do not need an exhortation to the weak. It is the strong that we are to urge not to please them- selves.