The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 308

sense is asking without seeking, Prayer and work are far too often divorced. Note, then- I. SEEKING LOOKS LIKE HONESTY ; SHOWS SINCERITY j PROVllS REALITY j ADDS TO FA.ITH, AS SURELY AS DILIGEN0E SOOUTS DOUBTj WAKES BLEEPING POWERSj PREVENTS THEM FALLING ASLEEP AGAIN; AND AOQUIRES FRESH FORCE. Whatever advantage genuinely belongs to the real observing of practical work in our worldly life, is the merest shadow of that which any one may find who shall heartily, lovingly take to it in the conduct of his Christian life. II. SoME THINGS ARE IN THEIR VERY NATURE TO DE HAD MORE REALLY IN SEEK• ING '.HAN_ IN ASKING, THOUGH . E~N T!'lE ASKING DE OF GoD. '!'he great thing, sanct1ficatJon as compared with Just1ficat1on, may illustrate this. The latter is to be had, from that first solemn moment which finds us, with all the deepest anguished desir~ of a_ sin:convicted conscience and soul, begging, crying, or "asking" for it. But sanct1ficatwn 1s not to be had for the mere asking for it, any more than that "increase of faith" which the disciples so ignorantly, yet so innocently, "asked" from Christ. But sanctification needs a long, patient, earnest "seeking" for. How many are fatally faulty in this very matter I They wish for forgiveness, beg for pardon, cry for mercy; and these got, or supposed to be so, they do not continuously and with holy perseverance and patience seek sanctification. Other, perhaps we should rather say all, Christian graces demand the same earnest practical suking; certainly those that follow on that root of all graces, faith-as, for instance, hope and love. We "seek" these by using them, doing the works of them, trying their strength. III. SPECIAL PROMISES ARE MADE TO SEEKING. How wide is the range of these even through the Old Testament 1 "They that seek me early shall find me;" "Blessed are they that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways;" "Seek good and not evil, that ye may live, saith the Lord; yea, seek ye me ; " " Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad ; " " He is the Reward er of them that diligently seek him;" "To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life." Whatever best things diligent and honourable earthly seeking has found, as lesson and encourage- ment by the way, what are they all by the side of the things given to the seeking of what i.s contained in three such words as those, "glory, honour, immortality" I It is surely this kind of" seeking" to which Christ here gives the sanction of his emphatic invitation. It is to this matter of seeking, to these objects of seeking, that an illimit- able prospect of supply opens. For these none can seek too early, too perseveringly, too earne~tly, too long. The seeker is blessed because he seeks, blessed all the while he seeks, and blessed in the entire escape assured to him, from illusion now or dis- appointment herea.fter, in respect of the fact and the habit of seeking, which mark him.-B. Ver. 7 (third clause).-The challenge of the closed door. This clause marks the climactic challenge of the three which the verse contaius. It certainly equally bespeaks t::. . .: climactic stage in the inner experience of many a timid, or doubting, or unbelieving, or disbelieving soul. After many askings of mere words, their accents betraying distrust; after wayward and intermittent seeking, that scarcely earned its name, at length strife and confiict have wrought themselves up to the crucial point, the task_ of one distinct effort. Upon that one distinct effort close has come the answer, and with this answer content and peace, progress and happiness, have come. In this third part of the triplet of reviving impulse offered by the language of Christ, the preacher may bring up the subject, make general and comprehensive observation of the working of human nature, as baulked by the difficulties incident to individual peculiarities of character (legion by name), to the petty and untractable tyrannies of habit, and to the confrontings of the events and circumstances of (that element, which acts BO largely on human nature) the outer world, with all its cotemporary history, looming large now, and now diminishing to the deceptively trivial. 'l'he insta.nces of the places and the manners, the concealed, unconscious motives, and the manifest determining impulses of the resurrections of the soul's life and health, a.re as boundlessly interesting as they are various and innumerable. And they show for how much misery and ruin the pale features of hesitation aud indecision are answerable. Against all thist like the sound of BOm@ cu. vu. 1-29.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 303