The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 255

supreme holiness or Christ, the powerful attraction of his gracious love. IIe owned in his heart that to be near to Christ the Lord, to follow him, to live in close communion with him, was a. privilege exceeding precious, a. privilege not too dearly bought at the oost of all earthly riches, 11.ll earthly comforts. He knew that the Lord had not asked too much; bis heart told him so; but he ha,d not the strength, the courage. He could not part with his 111.rge possessions; he could not take up the cross (Mark x. 21). He wae sad a.t that saying, "Take up the cross." It was a strange and dreadful word· even the 11.postles could not recoocile themselves to it. And he went away sorrowful, :axed with himself; he had made the grMt refusal, and he felt that he done a. weak and cowardly thing. He had judged himself unworthy of that eternal life which he had sought, and he despised himself. He knew that those riches for which he had turned away from Christ could not compensate him for the tremendous loss. He was not blinded. He felt the value of the love of Christ, and the unutterable preciousness of eternal life. He knew that these great possessions of his were as nothing in comparison with that priceless treasure which Christ had offered him. He sinned against light, and he was miserable. Perhaps his misery brought him afterwards to a better mind. We hope it was so. We cannot but feel a very deep and real interest in a character so touching, so engaging, in one whom the Lord Jesus Christ loved. We are not all called to make the sacrifice which was required of the young ruler. The Lord did not say the like to Nicodemus or to Joseph of Arimathma. But all true Christian men must be'willincr t.o do so if need be. "Not my will, but thine be done" was the Lord's own prayer i~ his agony. " Thy will be done " is the Christian's daily, it should be his hourly, prayer. And that prayer pledges ue to the spirit of ready self-sacrifice for Christ's sake. We must be ready to give freely, liberally, in proportion to our means, for all holy works. We must be ready to take up our cross; for the Lord says that without the cross we cannot be his disciples. It is not enough to have the word often in our mouths, to ha,e the picture of the cross upon our walls, or to wear the cross for an ornament. The mark of the Christian is the real cross, the inner spiritual cross; and that means self-denial for Christ's sake, self-denial which is real, which is painful, which is hard to bear; even as the cross which the Lord bore for ue was hard and heavy and painful exceedingly. But the cross leadeth to the crown. The conditions of eternal life are unvarying; they are the same now, in their real spiritual meaning, as they were when they were presented by the Lord himself to the young ruler in Perea. ll. THE LoRD's co:r..-vEnBATI0N WITH THE APOSTLES. 1. The warning. "A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." It is a hard thing, and his temptations are so great; there is so much to draw him to the world. Indeed, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven as a rich man; he must become poor, that he may be rich indeed. He must become poor in spirit, poor in the willingness to conse- crate a.II hie wealth to the service of Christ; he must give largely, denying himself in many things that he may give the more; learning to do God's will, not his own; and regarding himself simply as the steward of what really belongs to God. For other- wise his danger is exceeding great. The gate of eternal life is always strait; it becomes like the eye of a needle to the rich.man who stands before it; burdened with his riches, like a heavily loaded camel. "They that trust in riches" (see Mark x. 24, though the reading is somewhat doubtful)" cannot enter in i " and it is very hard for a rich man to cast off his trust in his riches. Yet the strait gate shall be thrown open wide to them that overcome-to the poor who are rich in faith, and to the rich who a.re poor in spirit, true disciples of him who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor. 2. The amazement of the apostles. They were startled, almost terror-stricken; it seemed so hard a saying; it seemed to make salvation so very difficult to attain. Perhaps St. Peter was thinking of it when long afterwards he wrote, "If the righteous sC/1,rcely be saved" (1 Pet. iv. 18). "Who then can be saved?" they said in their astonishment. All men, they knew, share the like peril; it is not only the rich who are in danger of trusting in riches. The poor often care for money quite as much as the rich. The fault lies, not in the fact of having great possessions, but in the trust reposed in them; and there are poor men who trust in their little sto!e quite as much as scme rich men trust in their great wealth. " The love of money 1s the root of a.11 evil," e.r,d that love is a c(,mmon temptation to all, rich and poor alike, "Who theu. OH. ux. 1-30.] TBE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 2:,9