blessed to give than to receive (Ac 20*^). To ask to our feasts only those who can invite us in return is no manifestation of love — is but a bid for earthly recompense. To obtain God's blessing we must invite tiie poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, who can give nought in return (Lk 14^^"^^). The presupposition of our Lord's teaching, then, is this, that love is its own reward, that to lose one's life for love"s sake is to find it (Mt 10=*" || 16^, Mk 8^, Lk 9'^). The true servant of the Kingdom, there- fore, must be ever ready to give unstintingly and ungrudgingly of all that he has and is ; and even to those who would take from him by violence he must oiler no resistance (Mt 5*""*^).
It follows naturallj" that the Christian must be as readj^ to forgive as to give. When a brother seeks forgiveness, it must be granted gladly, even unto seventy times seven (Mt 18-' || Lk 17*-^). There can be no refusal of pardon to the penitent, for so the Heavenly Father treats His erring chil- dren (cf. the parable of the Prodigal Son, Lk lo"*'^-). To refuse to remit the offences of others means to remain unpardoned by God ; for the Heavenly Father cannot forgive His children if they will not in turn forgive their brethren, who also are His I children : for thus they cut themselves oft' from the
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family of God, exclude themselves fiom His love (Mt 6*1- 18^). The hatred of a brother becomes a sin which cannot be jjardoned except it be rejjented of, except the hatred be wiped out and love re- stored. Tlie universal Fatherhood of God is thus once more tlie basis of the argument (1 Jn ■I-'"- -* 5^). And not only towaids those who are fellow-subjects of the Kingdom is love inculcated : it must extend even to those wiio are our enemies and the enemies of God (Lk 6^-**) ; for Christ came to seek and to save the lost, and the Christian must follow in his Master's steps. Yet, on the other hand, forgive- ness must in no case How from mere weak benevo- lence which foregoes revenge for injury, and leaves the matter there. An entrance must be won for pardon into the heart of the oft'ender before the Christian's work is done ; for pardon must be acce])ted as well as gi-anted. It is not for his own but for his brother's sake that a man must for- give ; and forgiveness is sijiritually useless to the offender unless he repent of his offence. To win souls for God's Kingdom is the Christian's noblest work, and it is to that end that his whole treat- ment of his neighbour must be directed (Mt IS''). Keproof, therefore, must not be wanting. The offence must be pointed out, and the sinner urged to amendment. In Mt IS^^'-^ ( i Lk IT^"^") a course of treatment is prescribed for the impenitent. He is to be dealt with privatelj' as a first step ; if that fails, in the presence of witnesses ; and as a last step the Clnu-ch is to be called in to aid in effecting a reconciliation. Onlj' when all has jiroved vain is he to be regarded as a heathen man and a publican. But even then loves offices may not cease. The publican and the heathen still remain the Christian's care, are still sharers in the love of God. Love must still strive with him, bj- return- ing good for evil, by heaping coals of fire upon his head, to win him back to God and love (Mt 5^, Ro 12-0). When all else has failed, tliere still remains the duty of prayer to God, who in His providence may find a way to penitence.
It follows from the humble self-forgetting atti- tude which this implies, that all loveless judgment of tlie weaknesses and sins of others is wholly for- bidden. To judge is to usurp the prerogative of God, and to bring upon ourselves His condemna- tion of our lovelessness (Mt 7^--). Yet men are not to close their eyes to the characters of those about them. They must certainly seek to find the best that is in everj- man, and to draw it to the liglit even as Christ did ; bat to treat the notori- ously wirked man as if he were good and upright is to make him a cause of off'ence to otiiers, and at the same time to tempt the man himself to greater wickedness. To act thus is to cast pearls before swine (Mt 7^). There is no more grievous sin against love than to disregard or to play upon the weaknesses of others. We must know others' weaknesses that we may avoid offending them and causing them to stumble. But that we may be able to do this — to help the weak brother and to save him from his defects — it is first needful that Me should be conscious of our own. If our own eyes are blinded by the beam of self -righteousness and pride, we cannot see clearly to cast out tlie mote out of our brother's eye (Mt 7^"' Lk 6^^ Gal 6'). In tiie verj' strongest terms our Lord warns against the giving of offence to others, even to the least. It were better. He says, to suffer the most ; miserable death than so to endanger the salvation of another, and sin against God's love (Mt IS*"- '• '"). In 1 Co 8 St. Paul treats of the matter in reference to a particular instance, pointing out that even Christian liberty must be willinglj* laid aside if it in anj' way tends to hurt the conscience of a weaker brother. Love for souls is so absolutely the law of tlie Christian life that it makes right wrong VOL. II. — 16