^ The character, the Divine grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, has so affected our eyes that they cannot at first sight catch the condescension, ay, the humiliation, ay, the even forbidding aspect of this office which He fills. His poverty hath made all things about it so rich that, looked at in His presence, they shine with supernatural splendour. But wait till the first soiled foot comes in sight, and the office of the servant is asked at your hand, and the moment to strip and gird with the towel is come. And then, be it but to wait in the house to let another out ; to lose some pleasure to help somebody else ; to speak cheerfully in the morn- ing or when others enter the room ; to be gracious, pitiful, courteous — be it but to help a child with his lessons, or hold an infant so that it will not cry ; to give a weak one an arm to lean on, a struggling one a hand to hold, a fighting one a cheer to inspire — be it but to pick a stone out of somebody's path; to remove by self-denial the temptation that will lead another to fall, the occasion that will bring an angry word ; to mention to a friend » J. E. Hellier, Life of David Hill, 98.
270 THE LIBERALITY OF CHRIST
his fault by himself — be it but to go two steps with him who asks us to go one ; to spend ourselves for those whose company we gain little from ; to instil a little music into one whose existence is a monotone ; to visit somebody who is lonely, or sit by somebody who is sick — be it but to stand by one who is despised ; or quietly company with an outcast — be it but evening by evening to wash with gentle hands the dust and toil of the day from one another's soul — be it but to give some one a happy half-hour to enrich his life or lighten his burden — ah, how hard it is, but how blessed ! What humble work, but how fit for Apostles, how fit for Christ ! ^ 1 R. W. Barbour, Thoughts, 10.
The Captivity of Thought.
•7«
Literature.
Archibald (M. G.), Sundays at the Royal Military College, 171.
Banks (L. A.), The Great Promises of the Bible, 172.
Dawson (W. J.), The Comrade-Christ, 207.
Howatt (J. R.), The Children's Pulpit, 246.
Illingworth (J. R.), University and Cathedral Sermons, 144.
Jenkins (E. E.), Life and Christ, 17.
Jowett (J. H.), From Strength to Strength, 99.
Liddon (H. P.), University Sermons, 165.
Little (W. J. K.), The Outlook of the Soul, 70.
Rutherford (S.), Quaint Sermons, 323.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxv. (1879), No. 1473.
Wright (D.), The Power of an Endless Life, 207.
Christian World Pulpit, xvii. 282 (W. J. Woods) ; xxxii. 348 (J.
Brierley) ; xliv. 245 (N. Smyth) ; Ixvii. 122 (C. S. Home). Church of England Magazine, Ixii. 40 (C. Jenkyns). Homiletic Review, New Ser., xliv. 128 (D. Gregg). Nalio7ial Preacher^ xvii. 1 (R. Anderson) ; xxiv. 173 (S. M. Worcester).
art
The Captivity of Thought.
Rringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.— 2 Cor. X. S.
These words form part of a highly-figurative description of the Apostle's employment as a minister of Christ. He compares himself to a warrior attacking some strongly fortified place, overcoming all opposition, making captives of all who were in it, and enforcing their obedience to the commander under whom he fought. The stronghold which he represents himself as attacking is the mind of man, which is naturally strong in error and pre- judice and full of hostility to God. The weapons which the Apostle tells us he employed in this warfare were not carnal. The nature of the enemy shows that they could not be such as soldiers commonly use, neither were they such as men are apt to rely on who seek to convince and persuade — not winning manners or eloquence or philosophy; but, since the Apostle represents them as " mighty before God to the casting down of strong holds " ; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and " bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ," these weapons must be spiritual, owing all their efficiency to the Spirit of God. The completeness of their success is marked by the wonderful result described in the text ; every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
^ It has been urged that the recent history of Cilicia itself may have well suggested this language to St. Paul. The Apostle's native country had been the scene of some very fierce struggles in the wars against Mithridates and the pirates; and we are told that the latter war was ended, not sixty years before the Apostle's birth, only by the reduction of one hundred and twenty strong- holds and the capture of more than ten thousand prisoners. The dismantled ruins may have easily and naturally impressed the boyish imagination of Saul of Tarsus with a vivid sense of the
2 COR. & GAL. — 1 8
274 THE CAPTIVITY OF THOUGHT
destructive energy of the military power of Kome; but the Apostle of the nations remembers these earlier impressions only to give them a spiritual application. The weapons of his warfare are not carnal ; the standard under which he fights is a more sacred sign than that of the Cfesar; the operations which he projects are to be carried out in a territory more difficult of conquest than any which kept the conquerors of the world at bay. He is invading the region of human thought, and as he fights for God, he is sternly resolved upon conquest.^