Spirituality and poetry are connected in the most intimate way, and the remembrance that Jesus was a poet may lead us past many futile controversies and into many illuminative interpretations. Two results may be selected as of very special value to the understanding of the mind of Christ.
1. His use of hyperbole. —Both His laws and His gospel have sufi'ered many things at the hands of prosaic literalists. There are few things, for in- stance, which have been more confusing and harm- ful of late years than the perversions of Christianity which literalists have extracted from the Sermon on the Mount. Even to those who are willing to ac- cept the doctrine thus presented in its naked literal - ness, it becomes but a counsel of perfection, and life in every act of Christian service leads down a blind alley, until the discouragement of constant and inevitable failure becomes altogether intolerable. But on those who are repelled by the doctrine, the
effect is even more serious. To them Christ ap- pears a doctrinaire teacher, whose precepts have created an impossible situation ; and they turn, not from the doctrines only, but from Him.
The fact is that the poet's exaggeration is the only way in which many truths can be expressed at all. Life is far too complex for any words that men have found in which to describe it. Spiritual things have no adequate language which corre- sponds to them ; and the only way in which such truths can be communicated is by stating one side of them with such startling strength and vividness that that phase of truth at least shall never be for- gotten. Oi this fact Christ took the most fearle.ss and unquestioning advantage, trusting wholly to the sympathetic intelligence of His hearers. Even in trifles He acted thus. The seed of the mustard plant is not the smallest of all seeds (Mt 13^-), and there is no necessity for the zeal of commentators who would search for some unheard-of variety of mustard whose seeds are smaller than the spore of ferns. No one would have been more amazed at such defence of His veracity than He who spoke the words. In the same way is to be understood the saying, 'This is my body' (Lk 22'" etc.) ; and if Luther had allowed himself to perceive this most obvious of truths, what a world of unnecessary con- troversy would have been spared to the Church ! Such licence is demanded, not for poetry only, but for the very continuance of human intercourse, which otherwise would at once become a mere interchange of pedantries. In the same way are to be interpreted such passages as that about the hatred of father and mother (14^^), and many of those commands about property, non-resistance (Mt 5^8 etc.), etc., which have been so grievous and so unwarrantable a stumbling-block to faith in modern times.
2. These considerations reach their highest value when we remember that in the teaching of Jesus there is the sj>iritual idealism of the poet. The incident of His praise of Mary rather than of Martha (Lk 10^"^) has not unjustly claimed His sympathies for the dreamers and the mystics whose world is that of the ideal truth. At times this spiritual exaltation showed itself in physical effects which were recognized by onlookers. As He walked, they were amazed and afraid (Mk 10^-). It explains many of His wonderful sayings. Without it, that strange journey of the disciples would be wholly unintelligible, Avhen they were to provide neither scrip, nor money, nor even shoes, nor any posses- sions but their i^eace (Mt 10""- )• Similarly must be regarded the command to take no thought for the morrow, neither for food nor for clothes (6^^). These are ideal descriptions, not meant for the ears of literalists, but describing that world of spiritual conceptions in which His spirit dwelt. With these Tnay be compared the exacting spirituality of His doctrine of marriage (19''"-). wliich He Himself sup- plemented by the further statement that in the next world the life of the angels .supersedes maiTiage altogether (Lk 20=*"), and which leads on to St. Paul's association of the marriage bond with the union of Christ and His Church (Eph 5^^ etc.). Such doctrine. He Himself declares, is for them that can receive it (Mt 19"- 1^). And indeed the whole of Christianity introduces men into an ideal world which does not at all correspond to the actual -vvorld of public life, and towards which the indi- vidual Christian is but now feeling his way in isolated jjoints of character. It is a life to lead with one's soul commanding and guiding the body. That is, if one has a soul ; for Christ (in His poetic fashion) refuses to take it for granted that a man necessarily has a soul because he is a man, and reminds us that each man's soul has to be won (Lk 2V^). But for those who have souls, and
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are willing to live lives corresponding to them ratiier than to the tiesh, Christ constructs an ideal world in which all things have suti'ered a "change into something rich and strange." The heaven is God's throne, and the earth His footstool (Mt 5^ ^|. The body is a temple where the spirit dwells (Jn 2'*). The life is sustained by spiritual food which even the closest friends know not of (4^-**J. To live that life is to l)e citizens of the Kingdom which is within (Lk 17-' i and of the other world (Jn 18^), and which cometh not witli observation (Lk 17^) —the Kingdom of the tnitli (Jn 18^). The worship of such souls is in spirit and in truth (4^), and their work is to l^lieve (6'^).