II. 'l'HE HOUB AND ACT OF SPIRITUAL SURRENDER. When does the human spirit return to God, and by what act? That hour and that act, we reply, are not found at t.he time of any intellectual apprehension of the truth. A man may understand but little of Christian doctrine, and yet may be within the kingrlom of heaven; or, on the other hand, he may know much, and yet remnin outside that kingdom. Nor at the time of l,een sensibility; for it is possible to be moved to deep and to fervent feelin'.!, Rnd yet to withhold the heart and life from the Supreme. Nor at the time of associa- tion with the visible Church of Ghrist. It is the hour at which and the act by which the soul cordially sui-renders itself to God. When, in recognition of the paramount cle.ims of God the Divine ~'ather, the gracious Saviour of mankind, we yielu ourselves to God, that for e.11 the future he may lead and guide us, may employ us in his holy service; when we have it in our heart to say, "Henceforth thy will, not ours, he done; "-then do we retum unto the Lord our God, and then does he collllt us among the number of his own. IH. 'l'HE HIGHEST ATTAINME!!\"T OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR. When do we reach our highest point? Not when we have fought our fiercest battle, or have done our most fruitful work, or he.ve gained our clearest and brightest vision of Divine truth; but when we have ree.ched the point in which we can most cheerfully and most habitually say, after Christ our Lord, "Not my will, but thine, be done;" when un,ier serious discouragement or even sad defeat, when after oxhausting pain or before terribi., suffering, when under hee.vy loss or in long-continued loneliness, or in prospect of early death, we nre perfectly willing that God should do with us as his own wisdom and love direct.-C.
Vcrs. 47-52, 63.-Christianity and violence. The use of the sword by Peter, an,l the presence of "swords and staves" in the hands of the officers, suggest to us the con- nection between Jesus Christ (e.nd his disciples) and the employment of violence; and this both by them e.nd against them. !. THE UNSEEMLINESS OF VIOLENCE USED AGAINST JESUS CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. It is true that there was ~omething worse than the weapons of violence in that garden; the traitor's kiss was very much worse. We may be sure that Jesus was conscious of a far keener wound from those false lips of Judas than he would have been from the hands of those armed men had they struck him with their strength. The subtle schemes and the soft but treacherous suggestions of false friends e.re deadlier in their issue, if not in their aim, than the hard blows of open adversaries. But: 1. HO\v unseemly was open violence shown to Jesus Ghrist I To come with sword and stick against the Gentle One from heaven; aii;ainst him who never used his omnipotence to he.rm a sing\., adverse.ry; e.gainst him who" would not break the bruised reed" among the children of men; e.gainst him who had been dnily employing his power to relieve from pain, to raise from wee.knees, to remove privation, to restore from death! 2. Huw unseemly is such violence shown to Ghrisfs true disciples! His true disciples, those who are loyal and obedient to their Lord, are men e.nd womon in whom e. patient and loving spirit is prevailing; they are peace-rne.kers among tbeir brothers and sisters; they have "put awe.y bitterness, wre.th, anger, clamour, railing;" they walk in love: they seek to win by e. gentle manifestation and by a gracious utterance of the truth. How entirely ine.ppropriate and unseemly is violence shuwn to them! And it may be added, how useless is such violenco employed age.inst the cause they advocate! It has never biippened yet that sword and stave he.ve crushed the living truth. Tbey h,we smitten its champions to the ground, but they he.ve only brought out into the lii;::ht LUKE.-ll. Q 226 THE GOSPEL .ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE, [en. xxn.1-71.
the heroic courage and noble unselfishness which that truth inRr ires. 11 So that those things [those persecutions] have fallen out rather unto the furth.oranco of the go~1iel," Cruelty strikes at its enemy, and smites itself. II. 'l'HE UNLAWFUL?IESS OF VIOLElWE EMPLOYF:D ON BEHALF OF CoRISTIANPrY, How vain and how foolish the act of" smiting with the sword" (ver. 40) I It was an act of intemperate and ill-considered zeal; it was c.1lculatcd to do much more harm than g__ood. Its effects had to be undone by the calm in~rposit!on and the healing power of Chnst. (ver. 51). It was rebuked by the Master lll decided terms (Matt. xxvi. 62). And from that hour to the end of apcstolic history the use of physical violence dis- appears. ,ven would it ha'l'e been for the cause and kingdom of our Lord if it had never been revived. The sword and the stave have no place in the Christian armoury, The ~capons of _its warfare are n_ot carnal. Such instruments do not, they cannot, serve 1t; they garn a momentary victory at the sad and great expense of entirely mis- representing the spirit and the method of Jesus Christ. Compulsion is. utterly out of place in connection with the Church of Christ; it loses immeasurably more than it gains by that resource. Let the disciples of Christ be assured that (1) the utterance of Divine truth, especially the truth that relates to the redeeming love of the Saviour himself; (2) living a life of blamelessness and beauty, of integrity and kindness; (3) dependence on the aid of the Divine Spirit to make the spoken Word and the living induence effectual and mighty ;-that these are the weapons which will conquer the enemies of Christ, and will place him upon the throne of the world.-O.