upon 11 1.jr.t. but npiin the organ of vision.
This is true cs]ic-ii:illy with respect to all judg- ments of \alue, all questions of right and wrong, of duty and religion. The possibilities of error increase not merely \\-ith the complexity of the subject-matter, but with the way in which our interests and convictions, our desires and predilec- tions, are bound up mth it. In the region of the moral and spiritual life not only must the intelltct be clear,--free from false theory, — but still more necessary is it that the heart 1)e pure .and the practice sound. To appreciate goodness a man must love goodness ; must be, if not <;oo<l, at any rate good in many ways. ' Every one,' said Jesus, 'that is of the tnith heareth my voice' (.Jn 18^). This does not, of cour.se, mean t^iat all moral anil religious errors are due simply to a depraved heart. Violent upholders of orthodoxy have been only too ready to assume that such is the case, and to
silence the heretic by declaring him a bad man. But it does mean that there is a moral aptitude for Christian discipleshij>. It was inevitable that men who had no enthusiasm for goodness should mis- understand Christ and reject Him. It was equally certain that His ' sheep ' would hear His voice and follow Him.
There are a few striking illustrations of these principles in the Gospels ^\hxc\\ demand our atten- tion.
1. The necessity for inward, moral clarity and simplicity is strongly insisted on by Jesus (Mt 6- ^, Lk n^-'^). ' We .so often talk as if we were only obliged to ' ' follow our conscience " ; as if no one could lay anything to oui' charge unless we were actin" against the present voice of conscience. But tliis IS very perilous error. We are also obliged to enlighten our conscience and keep it enlightened. It is as much liable to error as our iminstructed intelligence, as much liable to failure as our sight' (Gore, Xlie Sermon on the Mount, p. 146 f.). The thought is exine.ssed in other forms equally suggestive. Thus the ' pure heart ' is the condition of the vision of God ( JIt 5*). It is the ' honest and good heart ' whicli, having heard the word, keeps it (Lk 8'=). Heavenly truth is liid from the ■s\-ise and prudent, but revealed unto babes (Mt 11^). i'he disciples must be converted and tecome as little cliildren (Mt 18="=, Mk lO'^).
2. Our Lords method of dealing with the ignor- ant and erring is full of instniction. Take the case of the woman suffering from an is-sue of blood (Mt ^-^-, Mk 5^-^, Lk 8«-"). It would be hard to exaggerate the poor woman's ignorance. Her mind was full of erroneous thoughts of Jesus. At best she looks upon Him as a worker of majjic. She tliinks that she may be able to steal a bles.sing from Him in the crowd. But there was working, even in that darkness, the precious element of faith. She trusted Jesus as far as she understood Him, and that was enough for the Master. He knew that faith in Himself, even though it were only as a grain of mustard seed, would Ineak through the incumbent weight of error anil ignorance, and offer a free way for His grace : ' Dnnghter, be of good comfort : thy faith hath made thee whole ; go in peace.' Jesus adopted essentially the same method in dealing with persons like Zaccha'us, Mary Magdalene, the woman of Samaria, and the 'publicans and sinnere ' generally. These Wctims and slaves of pas-sion and ignorance were certainly not good. Their lives were stained by error and sin. The religious classes looked uixm them as moral outcasts. And yet there were those among them open to conviction. Their wilful and pas- sionate lives Iiad not destroyed in them a strange yearning for better things. And when purity drew near to them, adoi-ned -vrith such Divine graciousness as it was in the Person of Jesus, they became responsive to it and yearned after it. That was faith, and Jesus saw 'in it a power wliich would work for the redemption of the whole nature. His one endeavour was to call it forth into fullest exercise. Erroneous thoughts of God and life, of duty and religion, would all slowly dis.ajqiear under tlie influence of this new devotion to Himself. Btit, after all, those who responded to His in\'itetions (Mt 11=8*') were never numerous. The great mass of the people was untouched and uninfluenced. Sunk in stupid imorance, vice, and worldliness, tlie masses, at the best, followed Him for a time in gapin" wonder, thinking far more of ' the loaves and fishes ' than of the new life and truth He placed before them. Hence the sad words with which Jesus upbraided ' the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done' (Mt 11™"**).
3. The Pharisees and the other religious leaders. —At first it seems a strange thing that these men,
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on the wliole, fell into the appalling error of re- jecting Jesus. 'The ^'ospel did notlplace itself, directly and at the outset, in opposition to the errors of the Pharisees. . . . But the dividing gulf was none the less real, and would baffle every atteni])t to fathom or bridge it over' (Reuss, Christian ThcrjUirpj in the Apostolic Age, p. 227). A few reflexions on the lines of the previous re- marks will make this clear. The whole life and thought of the typical Pharisee was a closed