ages as Mt 18^'"'", or the directions given before the first mission (10'''-^) ; but in these nothing is more noticeable than the utter absence of all abstractions, and all provisions for distant contin- gencies, every idea being expressed in concrete form, and in immediate connexion with the conditions of the work in hand. And yet in all this there is no mere j)articularisin. Each single fact on which He looked was seen by Him in its real relations to all else, and in the ligiit of the highest and widest principles. There is true insight into human needs in the saying that ' little thoughts do not suit with little duties. It is in the fulfilment of simple routine that Ave need more than anywhere the quickening of the highest thoughts' (Westcott). With Jesus that was instinctive. Any fact in His sight Avas serious, Avas sacred ; for it Avas not merely an illustration of a Avider truth, rather it Avas an actual embodiment of eternal reality. He looked on the ' floAver in the crannied Avall ' — no more— and saAV it Avitli such penetrating insight that to Him it Avas eloquent of ' Avliat God and man is.' He shoAved just the same intuitive recognition of truth in His estimate of a man, or His grasp of a religious principle. Whether it Avere the purpose and use of the Tem2)le, or the religious customs and conventions of the day, or practical problems iuA'olving conflicting considerations, like that set to Peter by the question, ' Doth not your Master pay the half-shekel?' (17-^), or inquiries on the outer confines of human thought, such as those concerning eschatology and the life beyond death, the Lord Jesus ahvays looked into the very heart of the facts before Him, so that all accessories and accidents seemed to drop aAvaj' and leave the truth in its naked simplicity under His ej-es. He com- pletelj- disregarded the things Avhich for most minds overlie and confuse the essential issues, and fixed His gaze on those positive points round Avhich all the rest Avas accretion. His mind therefore con- cerned itself but little Avith negatives in any case. One most important consequence of this Avas that He ahvays saAv Avhatever good there Avas in any man, and paid comiiaratively little heed to the evil Avhicli might be there also. He did not stay to combat or correct the latter, but freed and rein- forced the former so that it greAv till no place Avas left for the eA'il, and it A\-as expelled. In His hands all the old negative commandments Avere trans- formed into positive ideals ; and all Avere summed up in the one great ideal of loAing God and one's neighbour (]\Ik 12^'^'), Avhicli was itself set forth in no loAver form than the very highest, ' Ye shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect ' (Mt 5'*^). And in full accordance A\-ith this habit of mind, the judgments Avhich from time to time He passed on men about Him Avere determined rather by Avhat moral Avorth they had or lacked, than by Avhat faults Avere in them. The most unsparing condemnation fell upon the Pharisees, Avliose lives Avere strict and reputable, and free from the gross and careless Adces of the multitude. He denounced their Avhole moral and religious actiA-ity as an ' hypocrisy,' because it Avas one great negation. They Avere not ' sinners ' ; but Avith all the opportunities for good Avliich more than others they possessed, their hearts and lives Avere empty. He portrayed them, and shoAved tlie futility of their Avhole religious method, by describ- ing a man out of Avhom the unclean sjiirit has been driA-en, and Avliose house is then cleaned and left A-acant. The cleaning out is not disputed, but all the more surely does the vacancy inA'ite neAv tenants ; and if no good sjjirit occupies the house fortliAvith, ' the last state of that man becometh Avorse than the first' (Lk 11-^). So in His pictures of God's final judgment the condemnation falls not usually on those against Avhoni crimes maj' be
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alleged (though these find mention, e.g. Mk 12", Mt •22"), but on the thoughtless maids found with- out oil ; on the servant -who took good care of his talent but never used it ; on the guest ■without a Avedding garment ; on those to whom it is said, ' I was an hungered, and ye gave me no food ; I was tiiirsty, and ye gave me no drink ; I wa* a stranger, and ye took me not in ; naked, and ye clothed me not ; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not' (Mt 25^-'-). The whole jDoint of view of Jesus in this is in strong contrast with that of the Judaism of His age, which aimed at attaining holiness by an earnest and elaborate endeavour to eliminate unholiness and defend the shrine of the soul from trespass.
One aspect of these last -mentioned characteristics may he summed up in a word, hy saying that the make of Jesus' mind was that which is found in the greatest poets. Thej- all combine, as lesser men cannot, the realist and the idealist. Their ideas are concrete, not abstract. Their minds work by intuition, not by argument. Their interests and thoughts are positive ; and they are all more or less insistent that —