Ver. 32.-0omparative guat: The main truth of the text, that the wei~ht of our guilt depends on the measure of our privilege, rests on the solid foundation of- I. MAN'S MORAL FREEDOM. However much character may he affected by circum- stance, it remains true that man is a free agent. When we condemn ourselves or others, as we continually do; when we distinguish between misfortune and sin, between calamity and crime; whenever we apply the word "ought" to our own or to another's b~ha.viour ;-we practically assent to the doctrine that man is spiritually free; otherwise such action on our part is unjust or illogical, such language improper. Bnt, in truth, a sense of our moral freedom is inwrought in our deepest convictions; we cannot extri- cate it from our nature, however much we try. II. OUR ACCOUNTABLENESS TO Goo FOR OUR CHARACTER AND LIFE. 1. God is requir- ing great things of us-thought, reverence, affection, submission, obedience. 2. Hti is marking at every moment the life we are living, the character we are forming; he is looking upon us and into us. 3. He is recording all our actions, including among these the thoughts of our mind, the feelings of our heart, the purposes of our will. 4. He will one day ea.II us to give a.n account of "all the things done in the fl.esh." UL A REVEALED PRINCIPLE OF DIVINE JUDGMENT. The men of Nineveh, the great Teacher tells us, will be a source of condemnation to those of J udrea, for with slighter privilege they repented, while the contempor!Lries of our Lord remained. impenitent at the preaching of Christ himself. 1. There is to be punishment iu the future. 2. This will be comparative-some guilty servants will be" beaten with few stripes," others with" many." 3. This, again, will depijnd on the degree of conclemnation, whether it will he less or mo~e severe. 4. And on what, then, will Gud's condemnation hang? Surely on two things. (1) On the guiltiness of the charact,-r and life; for of the condemned there will be those in whom there was the "some good thing," or ev, n many good things; and there will be those in whom there was no good thin,r toward God, but in whom were shameful tbin"S of many kinds. (2) On the character of Grd's requirement; for God will require ~uch less of some men than he will of otht rs. What he will roquire of 118 depends on the measure of spiritual capacity he has cou- ferre<I upon us, and also (and very largely) on the u1easL1re of the privi(e,i;e he has granted to us. From those to whom l:hrist had preached he would require far more th,1n from those to whom Jonah had delivcre,l his brief warning message. And if we rnject the gospel of the grace of God, how g11ilty shall we be in comp,irison with· t,he men of our Master's own time I Surely we slrnll be at least as gllllty :ts they. l•or though, indeed, wo do nut actually bcliold th() countenance of the ::iuu of :uan, nor h"ar 824 TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDIN"G TO ST. LUKE. [cu. ::u. 1--54.
the ton~~ of hia ,·oicc, yet we do" ~it at his feet;" we !\re h's disciples; we know the thoughts of his mind; we un,lersland his will; we are familiar with his overtnrE<e of lo,·e .. lnd~ed, we have certain "1'eat advantages which those to whom our Lord w,\s speaking did not possess. (a) We have the light that shines not only from the whole of his compkt.ed life, but al8o from his death and resurrection. (b) We have Christ's own commen!ar_l', through the writings of his inspired apostles, upon his life and death. (c) We have freedom from the national prepossessions which misguide,\ those, h_1s be11rers. (d) We have the accumulated experience of the Christian Church through eighteen ccntnnes. If we heed not his Word, and range not ourselves on his 8ide if •• gat.hering not" with him the sheaves of righteousness, we scatter abroad the se'cd~ of sin and death, who will there not be "to rise up in the judgment" aud coudamn lllll-C.