mockery; for" what is a man profited if be should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul-his life, himself?" (Matt. xvi. 26). II. RIGHTEOUSNESS LEADS TO BOUL-KEEPL'IG DY NATURAL LAWS. It is 8 matter of Divine ordering that obedience should be followed by life, disobedience by death. 'l'his we.s seen in the trial of .Adam (Gen. iii. 3). It lies at the root of the areat sanctions of the Mm;aic Law (Ezek. iii. 18). He who gave the commandments"' also gives life. Our life is in the hand of our Lawgiver. It is in bis power to withhold the life if we break the law. ~ut we mi1y look more closely into thiR proces~. God's commandments are not arbitrary. They follow the natural lines of spiritual health. His prohibitions are really the warnings against the course that leads naturally and inevitably to death . . Goodness_ is itself vitalitr, and bad?ess has a deadening effect on the soul. The faculties are quickened by use 1~ the service of what is right, and they are dwarfed, perverted, paralyzed, and :finally killed by reckless, lawleEs conduct. The profligate is a suicide. Ill. CHRISTIANITY HELPS US TO TRUE SOUL-KEEPING DY LEADING US TO RIGHTEOUS- NESS. Vve find ourselves in the unhappy condition of those who have not kept the comm!ndments. Therefore we. are in danger of death. We have "despised our ways. The law and the promise are not addressed to us as to new bein"s • but they meet us in our sin and on our road to ruin. r:i;herefore, if there were no go;pel, there would be no hope. Hence the need of a Saviour. But when we enter the realm of Christian truth we cannot tum our backs on the principles of the older economy. We cannot regard them as the laws of another planet, out of the reach of which we have escaped. They are eternal truths, and we are still within their range. Christ helps us, not by teaching us to despise moral considerations as though they were irrelevant to those who had entered into the covenant of grace, but by giving us his own righteousness to be in us as well as on us. He puts us in the way of obedience, while he cancels the consequences of the old disobedience. Thus he saves our souls by helping us to preserve them in a new fidelity to the ancient, eternal right. Ver. 17.-Lending unto the Lord. l. IN WHAT LENDING TO THE LORD OO~SISTS. It is having pity upon the poor. This is more than almsgiving. Doles of charity may be given to the needy from very mixed motives. Inasmuch as " the Lord looketh at the heart," the thoughts e.nd feelings that prompt our charity are of primary impor- tance with him. In the same way, also, sympathy is prized by our.suffering brethren on its own account, and the gifts that are flung from an unfeeling hand bring little comfort to the miserable. Therefore, both for God's sake and for the sake of our suffering brethren, the first requirement is to cultivate a spirit of sympathy with the helpless. When this spirit is attained, the application of practical remedies will require thought. It is easy to toss a sixpence to a beggar, but the inconsiderate act may work more harm than good. True sympathy will lead us to inquire into the unfortunate man's circumstances, and to see whether there may not be some wiser way of helping him. This is one of the most pressing problems of our complicated condition of society. It is not so easy to be wisely helpful to the poor as it was in the simpler circumstances of ancient times. A true Christian sympathy must lead us to study the deep, dark problem of poverty. How can the lowest classes be permanently raised? How can they be really saved? How can we help people to help themselves? II. How Tms co:MES TO BE LENDING TO THE Lonn. In the olden times people thought to offer to God in material, vi~ible sacrifices by slaying animals on the altar. Now money and service given to a Christian Church and to directly missionary a"encies for spreading the kingdom of heaven, and so glorifying God, are regarded as d;voted to God. Thus we are to see that we can serve him by ministering directly to the well-being of our fellow-men. 1. Men are God's children. He who helps the child pleases the father. 2. God has pity on the suffering. Therefore for us to have pity is to be like God, and so to please him; it is to do his will, to do the thing he would have us do, and so to render him service. 3. This is within our reach. The difficulty is to see how we can do anything to help the Almighty, or give anything to enrich the Owner of all things. The cattle upon a thousand hills are his. But the poor we have always with UR. Inasmuch as we do a kindness to one of the least of these, Christ's brethren, we do it unto him (Matt. xxv. 40). All real love to man is '!'HE PROV~RBS. 375
also love to God, The noblest liturgy Is the rninistry of human charity. "Pure religion ond undefiled befqre God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (Jas. i. 27). III. WHY THJB JS ONLY LENDING TO THE LORD. It is returned to the giver, Such a. thought seems to lower the tone of the subject, To give, hoping for no return, is Christ's method, and this lifts us to a. higher level. Love asks for no payment. The pity the.t calcula.tes its recompense is a. false and selfish sentiment. .Assuredly we must learn to love for love's sake, and to pity because we a.re moved with compassion, irrespective of returns. 1. Yet the fact that there i., a return remains. It may be well for.selfish men who refrain from showini!: sympathy for the needy to reflect on this. 'l'heir selfishness is short-sighted. 2. The return is spiritual. We are not to l_ook for our money back age.in. That would involve no real giving. The return is different in kind. It is of a higher character, and comes in peace of soul, in enlarge- ment of affection, in the satisfaction of seeing good results flowing from our sympathy.