no
HEART
HEART
6") ; and the idea is to be found running througli all His teaching.
2. The dispositions and motives of the heart as determining the reliqioits value of actions. — Jesus unfailingly taught tliat the test of a man's worth before God was not the outward propriety of his conduct, but the heart-inclinations and purposes by which he was swayed (Lk 16'^). Even a cor- rectly decorous Pharisee like Simon did not stand so high in the Divine estimation as the frail woman who had erred sadly, because, while he was proud and self-satisfied in liis moral respectability, she, amid all her failings, was melted into heartfelt penitence and gratitude (7^""'). A man's con- duct may be free from all formal commission of impurity, but if he lust after a woman in his heart, the stain of impurity is already incurred (Mt 5^). Many things outwardly right and proper were done by the religionists of His day — seasons of prayer duly observed, alms given, etc. — which yet He pronounced to be of little moral value because done from a false motive, the desire for social credit, ' to be seen of men ' (6-' ^). On the other hand, humble and obscure actions, like the widow's offering and the publican's supplication, He declared to be of inestimable worth in the eye of Heaven, by reason of the genuine heart-feeling from which they sprang (Mk 12^'-", Lk IS"-"). And in the great Judgment-picture (Mt 25^'"''^), He made it clear that it is the frank, unaffected gene- rosity of the heart, finding expression in deeds of simple dutifulness, that ranks high in the Father's sight and secures the reward of immortal blessed- ness. Always and everywhere He pierced below surface appearances, and demanded inner rectitude as the criterion of worth.
3. The regeneration of the heart as essential both to a right relation to God and to true happiness. — The repentance Jesus preached meant a change of heart (Mt 4" 9>3, Lk 13') ; the conversion He urged as a necessity was a turning of the heart to God as the source of life and grace (Mt 13'*, Mk 4'=, Jn 12*'), a restoration of the childlike spirit (Mt IS^), a new birth within, apart from which it is impos- sible to enjoy the blessings of the heavenly King- dom ( Jn 3'"').
iii. Evils counteracted by Christ's teach- ing. — Of these, four at lea.st may be specially noted :
1. A pretentious ecclesiasticism. — Men's minds were drawn away from dependence on the mere institutional aspects of religion, and confronted with the absolute necessity of internal righteous- ness. When orthodox Jews took a stand on their connexion with an ancient religious organization with its high covenanted privileges, and boasted of being children of Abraham, Christ flatly challenged their right to such a title, because of the vile pur- poses they cherished in their hearts, which proved that they did not possess Abraham's spirit (Jn 8'"). He avowed that a scorned publican like Zacchreus, who was outside the pale of ecclesiastical recogni- tion, was more truly a son of Abraham, in -virtue of the higher dispositions which had been stirred in his heart, and which placed hira in the line of moral and spiritual descent (Lk 19'). Again, in face of the arrogant presumption that restricted Divine blessing and salvation to those within the bounds of Judaism and its religious system. He lield up the kind services of a generous heart as sufficient to raise even a Samaritan to a level of equal worth before God (l(p-»').
2. An external ceremonialism. — Jesus attacked, sometimes with fiery indignation, the superficiality of that righteousness which was based on a punc- tilious attention to certain prescribed observances, — the tithing of mint and cummin, when justice, mercy, and the faith of the heart were neglected
(Mt 23=3, Lk 11"); the fastings which had no genuine penitence behind them (Mt 6"- ") ; the careful washing of hands, while the heart was inwardly defiled (IS^-^). It was His dominant idea that on the disposition of the heart the spiritual value of worship depends (Jn 4^"), and He had strong warnings to utter against the offerings at the altar when sinister feelings were nur.sed within (Mt 5=3), and the .ascription of honour to God with the lips wliile the lieart was far from Him (15'). With scathing rebukes He exposed the pretensions of those who claimed peculiar sanctity on the ground of their ceremonial scrupulousness, characterizing them as whited sepulchres, out- wardly fair, but inwardly full of uncleanness (23='). Thus He represented all external acts of righteous- ness which do not spring out of an upright, pious heart as a mere hypocritical show, and not real righteousness (S'"").
3. A legalistic moralism. — In view of the fact that the great spiritual ideas inculcated by the prophets had been hardened into fixed laws and rules, in formal obedience to which righteousness was made to consist, Christ's endeavour to recall men to the supreme importance of inner motive was calculated to exert a powerful effect. The confidence which many had in their moral re- spectability was necessarily shaken when they found themselves forced to look within, and judge themselves by something higher than a legal standard; as, e.g., in the case of the young man who had great possessions, and whose conduct outwardly was without reproach (Mt 19'*"==). And there can be little dotibt that the uneasiness and irritation created among the professedly religious classes by Christ's teaching was largely due to the consciousness it wakened in them of the in- sufficiency of the grounds on which their claim to righteousness was based. In the light of the stress He laid on the hidden springs of action in the heart, their moral regularity of life, founded on mere conformity to laws and rules, was bound to appear unsatisfactory and poor.