164 MEXTAL CHARACTERISTICS
MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
and often serves a verj' useful purjiose ; but it is always a second-hand way of winning truth. The trulj- creative mind does not need it, and does not use it, but reaches truth by direct intuition, or makes it spontaneously. He did so.
5. The last observation leads on to the mention of three mental characteristics -which can hardly be separated, and which are all inwoven in the very fabric of Jesus' mind. His thoughts were alwaj's concrete, not absti'act ; His intellectual })rocesse3 were intuitive, not argumentative ; His ^■iews were ever positive, not negative. It has been very truly pointed out that ' onlj- the widest generalizations and concrete facts are definite ' (Hort) ; whatever lies between these extremes is more or less indefinite. Most minds are occupied mainly with this intermediate region, adding some degree of generalization to each fact of experience, and qualifying the largest generaliza- tions by some accommodation to groups of facts observed. And to this is due not a little of the indefiniteness of most men's tlioughts. But it was otlierwise with tlie Lord Jesus. If He dealt Avith generalizations at all, He generalized out and out, dropping all half-way descriptions and limitations. He did not, therefore, shrink from inculcating prin- ciples wliich have often since been questioned on the groiind tliat they are not of universal applica- tion. E.g. 'Give to him that asketh of thee' (Mt 5"*-), — though experience sliows too sui-eh' how much moral mischief may be done bj' indiscrimin- ate charity ; ' Ask, and it shall be given you ' (""), — though prayers by no means always win what has been prayed for ; ' It is easier for a camel to go tlirough a needle's ej^e than for a rich man to enter into tlie kingdom of God' (Mk 10-^), — though wealth used worthilj- is no such bar to entry, and must itself be regarded as a 'loan from tlie Lord.' There is a definiteness in these unrestricted duties which could not have been attained by any care- fully qualified rules of conduct. But more often the Lord Jesus adhered to concrete facts, and did not generalize at all. So, when any ca.se came before Him, He dealt with thnt, and did not treat it as a precedent to govern others generally similar. Thus He told the rich young ruler to ' sell all he liad and give to the poor, and follow him' (10-^). He certainlj- meant this to be done literally and at once; but it would be ruinous to turn this counsel into a command binding upon all rich men. It was never so intended, but was the particular remedy for the 'one thing lacking' in that one young man. No rule is to be directly drawn from the Lord's treatment of the woman in the Temple, or of Zaccha?us, or of Judas Iscariot, which would apply to all adulteresses, or renegades, or traitors : each was dealt with as the particular need required.
This was one leading reason why the use of parables was such a very characteristic feature in Jesus' teaching ; thej- have been said, in fact, and not wthout reason, to be the most characteristic of the Lord's recorded sayings. They enabled Him to put the lesson He desired in the concrete instead of the abstract. So, when asked, ' Who is my neighbour? ' He gave no general answer, but an actual instance occurring on the road (Lk lOSOfl".). p^o. bably the scribe to whom this was first spoken never found himself in circumstances that were similar ; but if he gained the higher standpoint which this storv gave him, and saw into the very heart of truth in that one case, he would be able, like thousands of others who have heard the storv since, the better to answer his own question in his own circumstances.
It was a consequence of this love of the concrete, and avoidance of that vagueness which belongs to all that lies short of the widest generalization, that Jesus never gave definitions. Instead, He fixed the type in some particular fact or instance. In His teaching there was no theorizing, no abstract discussion, no systematic theologv. Nor was there any care to lay down i)rinciples "for the organiza- tion or policy of His Church in times to come. The nearest approach to this last is in such pass-