tnii> -]'ii it iif ;j iiipss in him ; but the good must
take form in some actual warring with the world's
evils, some earnest attempt to remedy the miseries, sufferings, diseases, afHictions, sorrows, or jwverty of men. This is the vital test applied in the great parable of the Judgment (Mt 2o"''^-)- The Son of IMan there asks no question as to spiritual apprehension, or intellectual convictions, or ecclesi- astical obedience. ' The kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world ' — from the moment of the birth of mankind— is for those who saw and setved the King in brethren who were hungry, thirsty, outcasts, naked, sick, or in prison. Christ sanctions the popular judgment of what consti- tutes a good man, — that ettectiveness in well-doing which moves steadily and lovingly towards the ultimate conquest of the world, that social message of the gospel which is the enthusiasm of true goodness, and is able to ' overcome evil with good ' (Ro 12-'). But all such doing rests on being. It is intimately connected with each man's own spiritual rision and condition, for it is the rudi- mentary realization of the Kingdom of heaven ; it issues from that Kingdom which is 'within' (Lk 17-'), where 'glory, honour, and peace' are the blessings which come ' to every one that worketh good ' (Ro 2'")— a Kingdom which a man may never have explored, but which is the ground from which gi-ows all the practical good he does (Mt 1'2'*). If the tree is good, the fruit is good (v.^), and when the whole being of a man is awake to the inflow- ing of the Divine Goodness, he becomes the more keenly sensitive to Righteousness, Truth, Love, and the Brotherhood, and finds increasingly St. Peter's utterance at the Transfiguration to be his own: 'Lord, it is good for us to be here' (j\It 17* II :Mk 9= ! Lk tp). The Good enters imperceptibly ; it is not born of the law, nor of any ethical analysis ; and in the unexpectedness of its joy the disciple is conscious of ha\'ing reached the highest heaven, of having found that delight in whatever is good wiiich helps him to understand the true end of life, ' to glorify God and to enjoi/ Him for ever.' Edc.\R Daplyn.
i\s resignation is the ideal of the Buddhist, and valour of the Mohammedan, so the essence of Christianity is goodness. Its Founder was the absolute personification of this character- istic quality. Nothing short of this could have so inspired the Apostles and Evangelists. Veiled within the few imperishable pages of the Gospels, and perhaps seen only by the meditating mind, is the figure of a perfect goodness once realized u]ion earth. It is not the novelty of His teaching that has attracted men, nor His deep sympathy with humanity, nor any spiritual utterances to the Father (which are all too rarely recorded). Behind the words and deeds of the four biographies stands a shining personality, a living type of goodnes.s— - One of whom they could speak as being ' without sin.' The Evangelists knew nothing of the dog- matic spirit, and could probably have given no clear definition and explanation of the sinlessness of Christ. To them He was the human expression of the Di\-ine Goodness, and it mattered little whether a man should say that the Goodness was from eternity, .so that by its nature sin had never been a moment's possibilitv, or that at birth Christ had been uniquely endowed with a passion for goodness that turned naturallj- from everj-- thing selfish, injurious to others, or sinful either to God or man ; or that at His bapti.sm He had been set aside to that brief ministry (which is nearly all men know of His earthly life), when the voice from heaven was heard .saying, ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mt ;!'"). However its genesis might be spoken of, tin- ' sin lessness' of Christ is the utterance of the ineasuii' of His goodness as it atl'ecte*! the disciples.
GOODNESS
GOSPEL
659
Throughout the Sermon on the Mount they woukl hear that note of liuman tenderness blended with unhesitating virtue wliich constitutes goodness. This alone could be the source of that merciful utterance which is perhaps His only new doctrine — ' Love your enemies.'
In His message of the Divine Fatherhood they would behold that goodness sending ' rain upon the just and the unjust ' (Mt 5^^), forgiving the penitent us the father forgives the prodigal son (Lk 15"^')> and even forgiving those whose repentance is yet to come (23'*). Such conceptions would be born of the goodness within Himself, that breathed out in the intense sympathy of the story of the woman taken in sin (Jn T'^^-S"), or the defence of Mary Magdalene in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Lk •jseff.)^ or in the parable of the Good Samaritan (10"°*')- The same spirit marks the greater num- ber of the miracles. None could be considered as entirely separated from human interest and influ- ence, and the great majority (thirty-one out of thii'ty-seven recorded) were Avrought openly and intentionally for the good of others. The blind, the deaf, the jialsied, the lame, the lepers, the lunatic, the hungry crowd, the timid fishermen, the mourners for the dead, — all shared in the effective power of the innate goodness of our Lord. It was as though, in His purity and sinlessness, the very forces of nature became obedient to His transparent will, — the one will that sin has never overcome, the one luminous purity in which sin has found no vitalizing atmosijliere. He had been tried at the beginning of His mission, but the temirtations of the desert had ended in triumph. The goodness that was the breath of His being rose instinctively above the low promptings of a selfish wonder-working, or the presumption of pride, or the vanity of power, even though over ' all the kingdoms of the earth ' (Mt 4' || Lk 4', Mk 1"). He spoke harshly to the Tempter, for good- ness does not always win by mild passivity against evil. He who knows that God is the beginning and the end of all goodness will waste little time in diplomatic iiailcy with the powers of darkness. Victory will dftni'lii' in swift attack. So the goodness of Christ is iini lisscned by His fierce handling of the nKiucy-ciiaiixcr.s and traders within the Temple (Mt 'Jl'-"', Jn 2'^"-). for He knows that lower ideas of God and goodness will unconsciously prevail if the house of God becomes a place for barter and bargain. It is part of the same zeal that had kept Him about His ' Father's business ' in the days of His boyhood (Lk 2-'»), though it takes the more vigorous form we might expect in man- hood. The inward knowledge of the simplicity and holiness of His motives makes fear not only impossible, but non-existent ; and this is the spirit that inspires every true missionary. He also, as his Master, would show the winning charm of the visibly good — the goodness embodied in a life rather than in doctrines only — that which in Christ could say to the world, 'I am the bread of life' (Jn 6==-^), 'I am ll,e why. the trull,, and the life' (14«), and 'I am the li.^hl <.l Ihe worM' (8^= 9'), the witness of w liirh is .l.'^ci ilw.l liy St. Paul, when he says that tlie fniil of the li;jrit is in all good- ness and righteousness and truth' (Kph 5^).