Ver. 1.-Tm, Christian law of giving. In this second part of the sermon our Lord teaches his disciples how they should stand related to the recognized and usual expres- sions of religious life. In those days everybody who professed to be religious sought to show people their religion by giving alms, praying, and fasting. But Jesus taught that character, motive, spirit, were the things of supreme importance; and so here he virtually says, " Take care of the motives that inspire religious acts. They win the praise of men, and you may be doing them for the sake of that praise." Our Lord did but state the universal fact when he said, "Ye have the poor always with you." War, limited trade, inefficiently treated disease, and bad governments, have always tended to make a large proportion of Eastern people indigent and beggars. In every religious system the duty of caring for them has been commended. I. ALMSGIVING IN ITS SOOIETY FORM, For, apart from all religious considerations, the sympathetic care of the poor is a society duty. And it should be seen that the poor among us have their mission to society, as truly as society has its mission to them. The poor bless us aa well as receive a blessing from us. 1. They culture the hallowing sentiment of the "brotherhood of humanity," by calling for brotherly help. 2. They nurture the finer graces of human character; sympathy, gentleness, charity. It is the dark side of civilization that it has so changed our relation to the poor. Hospitality and personal service were the virtues of the simple East. Family isolation, and delegation of service, are the weaknesses of the guileful West. Modern society- relations seem to multiply the poor, so that they get beyond society-control. There are the poor (1) by bodily disability; (2) by unfortunate birth-associations; (3) by exigencies of trade; (4) by temporary distress; (5) by the wrong-doing of others. Alrusgiving is still a great society claim and duty. II. AutsGIVING IN 1TB CHRISTIAN FORM. Then it is seen as service directly rendered to Christ. It is a part of the way in which we do his work in the world; and, in doing It, express our love to him. But the loyalty to Christ makes the Christian wholly indifferent to the opinion of men concerning his almsgiving. It leads him (1) to e~timate his means so that he may bo ~hie to give; (2) to carefully consider the claima )l'.A'I'l'HBW, T 2.U THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [oH, vt, 1--34.
presented, so that he may give wisely; (3) to strive to make hie gifts a help to moral character, and a witness for his Lord; and (4) to cherish a holy indifference to men's praise or blr.me.-R. T.
Ver. 2.-0haracw shown in reUgiow d'IJ,ties, There is no certain evidence of euoh n custom as our Lord here refers to, Rich men sometimes had a certain day on which they di~tributed their alms. Then they may have sent round with a trumpet to call the poor people together. "I~ some cities Saturday is beggars' day, and every mer- chant, shopkeeper, and housewife lays by a store of coppers and remnants of food." Probably our Lord only used a figure, such as we employ when we speak of the "flouri~h of trumpets" by the boastful man, The chests in the temple to receive alms were trumpet-shaped, and were called trumpets; and no doubt some almsgivers would fling their coins into these trumpets so as to make a ringing noise, and call public attention to their benevolence. The point our Lord presents is this: alms- giving, as a recognized religious duty, finds expression for character-and it cultures the character through finding it expression-but let us be very careful that our charity finds expression for Christian character. L NATURAL CHARAOTEB FINDING NATURAL EXPBEBBION, There is such a thing ail the "milk of human kindness." Some people are born with amiable, sympathetic, charitable dispositions. Doing kind things is simply natural to them. It costs no effort. It involves no self-denial. They give freely. They give so pleasantly that we do not realize how little the giving costs them. We may thank God for the "charitably disposed" among us, and accept thank.fully their help toward the per- fecting of the human brotherhood. II. DETEBIOBATED OHABACTEB FINDING REPRESENTATIVE EXPBE8SION. Thie is the case which Christ presents as a warning. Guileful persons, with lowered characters, will make their charity serve their selfish ends, You will see, by the way in which the gift is made, the publicity of it; the anxiety about a suitable report being made of it; the mean advantage taken of the recipient of it; and the continuous after-brag about it; that a very deteriorated character, with very low and poor motives ruling it, was at the back of the gift, If we accept- the gift, we cannot approve the giver. • III. SANCTIFIED OHABA.CTEB l"INDING PIOUS EXPRESSION. Our Lord puts the pious expression into these forms. The disciple with the qualities indicated in the Beati- tudes (1) keeps his giving secret from other people; (2) he even keeps it a secret from himself, and tries not to think about it (ver. 3); and (3) he does his kindness for hie heavenly Father's sake, and because he wants to be a worthy child of him who is continually doing good.-R. T. Ver. 4.-The Father's open rewards. "Shall reward thee openly." This turn of the sentence somewhat surprises us. It ie not precisely what we expected. Making so much of giving in secret, and the Father seeing in secret, we expect to read, "shall reward thee in secret ways." Probably the "open reward" is promised because the man who makes e. show of religion does so in order to get open and public fame. (It should, however, be duly noticed that the best manuscripts and most modern editors omit the word "openly.") Plumptre thinks the addition of the word "openly" weakens and lowers the force of the truth asserted. The difficulty of dealing with the word is clearly seen in the notion of some writers that "openly" must mean "before men and angels at the resurrection of the just," about which, at the time, our Lord was neither speaking nor thinking. .A good point, and one which is practically important, is this: sincere and humble piety, finding gracious expression in kindly, thoughtful, generous, and self-denying service, will be sure to gain open and public recognition. C.:hristian goodness is no violet "bom to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air." Men want that Christian goodness in all the life-spheres; and they ara quick enough at recognizing it when they see it. I. CmusTLY-TONED CJIABITIEB WIN HEN'S ADMBATION. We are all keen enough to discern the differences in gifts. We qualify our admiration when we recognize giving on mere impulse; or to get credit; or to outdo others; or to bring business. We keep our highest admiration for evident casee of self-denial, simple benevolence, on, vt.1-34.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 275