Christ's teaching as to worldly good is par- ticularly revealed in the parable of the Unjust Steward (Lk 16''=). There He calls the command of wealth and natural advantage by the name of ' the unrighteous mammon,' thus pointin" to its seductive power and contrasting it with tne true spiritual good. He calls it also ' that which is another man's ' in distinction to ' that which is your own. ' Of earthly good we are but the stewards. Wealth is never reaSly our own. We may use it or abuse it, but sooner or later we must resign its control. The spiritual gifts of God are of a nature totally different. They become truly ours, a part of our true self. Yet the unrighteous mammon can be so employed as to win us spiritual ad- vantage. By its means we can make us friends who will receive us into everlasting habitations. As the unjust steward employed liis power to his own worldly advantage, so must we with the wisdom of light use to our highest advantage the worldly power which is ours which is always one with the service of God.
There is a remarkable passage in Mk 10^'- (cf. Mt 19» and Lk IS^*), which promises that earthly loss suffered for Christ's sake and the gospel s shall receive an hundredfold reward ' now in this time ' in the .same kind in which the loss was suttered. That the Christian in his profession and practice of love to all men must have the familjr ties strengthened and extended an hundredfold, is readily to be understood ; but the promise of lands is not so simple. To the mind of the present writer it suggests the great truth, which Christ's own life exemplified, that only the child of God is capable of the pure and perfect enjoyment of all that God has made. Only to the eyes of him whnse he.irt is lillcl with tlip Fnthpr's love, is all t\H- 1.1'ant.v of II,.- Cu'^itiir-^ M.,rK displayed. As on.' wiih ilic l';iiliri I luuiiijli ( 111 1 I . as sharing the IMiipi.-cs of (;...!. .■!> Iiilmldiii;.; tiir Hivine plan and subiiiitlin" tu and workiii" lor it, the Christian
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possesses tlie world in a sense in which no other can. It is his to rejoice in and to use for God's glory. (Cf. Expositor 1st ser. iv. [1876] 256 ft'.).
To sum up the whole, we may say that there are two great ideas which underlie all Christ's teacli- ing : — (1) The inestimable value of the liuinan soul (Mt 16=«, Mk S^<-, hk 9-5), to the salvatiuii of which all must be subordinated, for the saki> of which all things, if necessary, must be renounced : the Gospel, therefore, whicii gives this salvation is all -important, and its service must have no rival ; and (2) the recognition of common life and daily toil, with all that these terms include, as the ordinances of a loving Father by whose Providence they are designed to be the chiefest elements in fitting men for citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven. He who uses well the talents which God gives, in the sphere in which his lot is cast, who is faithful in a little, shall have his reward hereafter in the obtaining of a larger sphere wherein to exercise for God's glory tliose very
Dualities, purified and ennobled, which his eartlily iligence has made his own (Mt 2.5""", Lk 19"-'). Work that is the expression of love to God and man is always noble ; and there is no work on earth that may not be performed to God's glory.
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S. :Milleu.
COHHUNION.— It is surprisinj,' tliat neither the substantive {Kotvoifia) nor the verb (Kotpui'dii), wliich represent the concept of ' communion ' in NT, is to be found in any of our four Gos])els. It would, however, be unsafe, and indeed untrue to fact, to as.sume on this account that the idea of communion is wanting. Wliile there is an absence of thewor.U concerned, there is no absence of the conce]itiiiii itself. A careful study of the Gospels, on the (•(ui trary, not only reveals a plain recognition of tliU vital a.spect of the religious life, but also (ami especially in the records of our Lord's teaching preserved by St. John) presents tlie conception to us with a certain clear, if unobtrusi^'e, pro- minence.
The subject contains three distinct parts, which will naturally be considered separately: (1) The communion of Christ with the Father; (2) our communion with God ; (3) our communion one with another.
1. The rommunion of Christ with the Father. — The more conspicuous aspect of our Lord's com- inunion with the Father as reflected in the Gospels, is that which characterized His earthly ministry. But it is not the only aspect presented. Christ Himself clearly claimed to have enjoyed pre- existent communion with His Father (Jn 17=-^), and the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel in three or four weighty clauses conliiius the claim. This pre- existent communion included both unity of essence and life, and fellowship in work, (a) The Word was irpis t6v 0i6v (,Tn 1'), realizing His very person- ality ' in active intercourse with and in perfect communion with God' (Westcott, in. loe.). His nature was the nature of Deity (Kal ffeis fii> 6 Xii7os, ib.). His Sonship is unique' (v.": and for the uniqueness of tlie rchitionsliip cf. tin- imiinrtant Synoptic pass,ni;r, Mi i r-^ |.|, iii\ l|, i, the