is overpowered with the conviction of sin. His only refuge is the mercy of the Eternal. "I tell you" (ver. 14), concludes Christ, "this man is manifested to be one of God's elect. He, not the other, returns to his house the one accepted a.nd justified." 'l'ha parable is most suggestive. l. IT IS THE EXPOSURE OF SPIRITUAL PRIDE m ITS ROOT AND FRIDT. Its root, the measurement of self by "other men." God is not in the thought. The song of the seraphim, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts," sounds faintly in the ear. The mind is not occupied with him and his holiness. It looks around rather than above. The standard is a social one. There is "a zeal for the Law, but not according to knowledge." Having settled the constituents of righteousness, and having in conduct realized these constituents, it looks from the legal vantage-ground on others. And, seeing the many below the elected level, it whispers within itself, "I thank thee that I am not as they." The I struts abroad with a distinct sense of superiority. This pride is the parasite of religiosity. And religiosity is the whole religion of many. Reli- giosity means the performance, punctilious and sincere, of acts and offices, functions and services. It may comprehend a wide area of the existence. It may fill up much of time and much of thought, and he who a.hounds in it is held to be a religious man. But it is a morality untouched by the emotion of the broken and contrite spirit. There is no distinctively evangelical motive force. On an earlier occasion, the contrast between the routine religiosity and the warm religion of the heart was presented at the dinner-table where Simon the Pharisee presided, and the woman washed the Lord's feet with her tears. Of her he said," She hath loved much." Here the Pharisee is in opposition to the publican, who had the inner spirit of poverty. Now, one who has the religiosity, not the religion, is apt to rest on the duties which he dis- charges, on the zeal which he manifests. He trusts in himself as being righteous, and, wherever there is this trust, there creeps around it a feeling of superiority. "I am not as other men are." It engenders the separatist's haughty spirit. It brings in the sentiment of a caste. The" I" belongs to the religious world, "others" are without. Let us beware lest we rest satisfied with a righteousness like that of the Pharisee, lest we substitute the outward for the inward-what we do for what we are. Let us beware of that which always develops with this tendency-the habit of comparison of self with others on levels lower than our own, instead of realizing "the vision splendid" of that righteousness which demands the entire self. It is this trust, this self-elevation, this pride of righteousness, which vitiates the sacrifice of many who go up to the temple to pray. II. It is the COMMENDATION OF HUMILITY, m 1TB ESSENTIAL NATURE AND BLESSED- NESS. What is humility? It is not BO much a self-consciousness as a God-conscious- ness; not Bo much a mean thinking of ourselves as a thrilling, penetrating consciousness of him who is perfect holiness and truth. There is a self-abhorrence, but that follows the seeing of God with the opened inner eye. The Pharisee had no conviction of siu, because he had no real discernment of the Eternal. His god was the property of his caste, one on whom he had a claim because of his belonging to the caste and doing what was required by it. The publican felt God at his heart; and the sight awoke the longing to be holy as God is, and the longing to be holy called out the sense of wrong- ness. Oh, how he had offended I how selfish and grasping and wicked he had been ! All else fades into indistinctness; in that temple there are to him but the two presences, God and his soul, and the soul cries, " God be merciful I" It is the first cry of the soul which God has appropriated. There is no real prayer until that cry. A genuine earnest pleading is evoked. The beginning of all prayer, Christ reminds us, is the taking of the sinner's place, and the simple appeal to mercy. And as it is the first, so it is the cry ever pulsing through prayer. It is never wanting from the justi- fied. The pardon has been received. The blood cleanses from all sin; but not the less, all the more, is the knowledge of sin and the need of the ever-renewed application of mercy. This is humility-sinful self cast on Divine mercy, and, forgiven much, loving much. There is no measurement with other men, for God is the all in all And this is blessed. 'l'he Pharisee returns-his pride more deeply written into his nature, its blight and curse; no spring in the heart, no visitation of a_ny day-spring from on high. Remaining in his pride, he was truly abased. The publican returns- a burden rolled off from his heart, a new elasticity in his step, a new light in hia 118 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [on. nm. 1-4.3.
countenance. " The winter is past, . . . the flowers appear on the earth." He is at peace with God, justified, sanctified, righteous in the communion of the Righteous One. " I, yet not I, for he lives in me." In his humility he was exalted,