The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 215

Ise.. vi. 10, the active h1trrp'1/,o,aw is used three times, the pe.ssive npa~,-tT•• once. God sometimes comme.nds his people, "Turn ye even to me with all your hearts·" and sometimes we pray to God, "Turn thou us unto thee, 0 Lord, and we shall he turned." There e.re two aspects of the great change-the human and the Divine. Both are real and true; neither excludes the other. What wo need is the actual knowledge of that blessed change from our own inward experience; if we have that, we need not distress ourselves about the deep things of God, the relations between the human and the Divine, between the sovereignty of God and the free-will of man. We must tum with all our hearts unto the Lord, praying earnestly and humbly, "Turn thou us, 0 Lord." The apostles must turn, the Lord said, from their earthly ambition, from their rivalries and jealousies. We must turn, each one, from bis besetting sin, or we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. We must all tum away from the world to God, away from self to Christ. We n1ust look, not to the things which are seen, but to the things which are not seen; the line of vision, so to speak, must be changed; the eye of the soul must be directed, not to the earth, but to heaven. The circumstances of this great change vary in different individuals; in some it is sudden, in others slow and gradual. Some, like St. Paul, can point to a great startling crisis in their spiritual life; some few, like Samuel, have lived from childhood in the felt presence of God, growing continually in grace,-not without many·sins, not without continual repentance, but without any strong boundary-line marking the decisive change from evil to good. But in some form or other, in some way or other, that change must take place in every true Christian life. We may not be able to describe it exactly, to fix its exact moment, its circumstances. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth." But the change must be felt in its results(" thou hearest the sound thereof"), if we cannot define its action. We must be conscious that our heart is turned towards God, that our thoughts, desires, motives, hopes, point towards heavenly things. li we have that happy consciousness, we may humbly hope that he which hatb begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. lfwe have it not, let us not rest until by God's grace we gain it; for, except we be converted, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven; and oh! what must be the misery of those who lose that great reward ! (2) The necessity of childlike humility. There is no true con- version without humility; a man whose thoughta are filled with self cannot tum to (..,'hriet. Pride concentrates the regards of the soul on self; and while the soul is occupied with self it cannot see the surpassing beauty of the Lord, it cannot turn to him. Those who would follow Christ must become as little children; they must be like the little ones in their simplicity, their trustfulness, their humility. The little child is simple; it shows its true nature; it has no hypocrisy, no desire to.seem other than it is; it is humble and modest; it does not aim at display and show; it is full of affectionate trustfulness in those whom it loves. And, the Lord Jesus says, they shall be greater than others, they shall have the higher places in the kingdom of heaven, who humble themselves as that little child who then lay in hie arms was humble; that is, with an unaffected humility, with a simple and genuine lowliness. Then the Christian must not set his heart upon gaining the high places of life; if God puts him there he must do his duty simply and humbly ; if others are set above him he must be willing to take the lowest place, content and happy, remembering the blessed Master's words. IL Tm: DIGNITY OF CRBIBT's Ll'ITLE ONES. 1. The blessing of receiving them. Christ loved the little children ; he proposes their character to hie followers as a model for imitation. His words shed a new dignity, a new glory, on innocent childhood. He was thinking probably not only of children in years, but also of the childlike in heart and mind. He deigns to regard such as, in some sense, representatives of himself. Those who care for little children because Christ cared for them, in his name and for his sake, care for Christ. 'l'hese words give a very holy meaning to single-hearted work iii Sunday schools ; they shed a blessing upon orphanages, upon all Christian work done for children's sake, all Christian love 9:nd th?ufht for little. ch~dren. ~nd th~y pro- nounce a blessing upon all those who 1n Chrut s name receive mto -their ·affections or into their homes true Christian men who have learned of Chri11t the childlike simplicity and lowliness which he exalts so highlr, Th01e who receive such receive Christ, oa oa. xvm. 1-36.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 219