IIl, THis PRINCIPLE HAS UNEXPECTED APPLICATIONS. Success is not always what ft seems; nor apparent failure, ‘There will be great “reversals of human judgment ” (see Mozley’s fine sermon on this), “Those who begin early and do much are not always preferred.” Some show in the front early in life’s race, but fail of the goal. Others lag at first, and come out first in the end, Gain in power may be loss in time; or self-extension involve loss of intensity. ‘The great lesson is to live for the soul, for the inner and spiritual world, Everything gained then is gained for ever; and seem-~ ing loss and failure are converted into means of progress.—J.
om, x. 1—52.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 93 LLL LLL
‘1 Vite 32—34.— The coincidence of opposites. Once more the forecast of shame and eath.
I. MEN FLY IN THE FACE OF THEIR INTEREST, AND TREAT THEIR BENEFACTORS AS ENEMIns, Christ foresaw that the ruling party would be angry with him “ because he told them the truth.” And we partake of this guilt. We are blind to love in its disguise. We hate that which reproaches us. It is anerror of the understanding and of the heart,
Il. ProvipENck BRINGS GOOD OUT OF OUR EVIL, AND FURTHERS OUR SALVATION Df SPITE OF ouRsELVES. So limited is the power of passion, it gains but a momentary end, The patriot or the traitor falls by the hand of the assassin or the judicial murderer ; and his principle takes the deeper root, watered by his blood. hrist’s resurrection is the eternal type of all moral victories.—J.
Vers. 35—45.—Ambition. It is ambition for place and power that is here illustrated,
I. Ir m NATURAL IN THE SENSE IN WHICH ALL HUMAN INSTINCTS ARE NATURAL. 1. To be without ambition of some kind is a defect of organization; a negative, not a
itive; » weakness, not a virtue, Man is man because he aspires, He ceases from
is worth when he becomes content to remain what he is. Milton speake of the last “infirmity of noble minds.” It is an infirmity of which a man will be ashamed to be ashamed, though he will try to conceal it under that name from others, Shakespeare makes one of his characters exclaim, “If it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive.” 2. This passion reveals our social nature. We delight in the picture of others’ respect, love, obedience, esteem. Such pictures goad us to our noblest actions. 3. Vice lies not in the passion itself, but in the wrong direction of the will, the mistake of our proper objects, We are ambitious to govern when we are only fit to serve; to teach when we should still be learning; to act when we have need to be acted upon; to be artists when we are only fit for clay, to be moulded by the Divine Artist; to be assessors of Christ when our initiation into the ways of the
om has only just begun.
CuHRIST’s CORRECTION OF AMBITION, 1, By showing its ignorance of ita proper objects. There is a condition attached to every distinction. The price must be paid, Have we counted the cost? One illusion is that we separate the pleasure from the means to it in our thought. Another is that we represent to ourselves incompatible things, ¢.g. a high place with a satisfaction only to be obtained by working up from a low place. Crabb Robinson said that having read, as a young man, Mra, Barbauld’s essay on the vanity of inconsistent expectations, it had cured him for life of idle wishes, 2, By showing its impossibility. Places are reserved in Providence for those fit to fill them, In the kingdom of God there is no putting of wrong men into wrong places. The principle of spiritual selection unerringly prevails in the kingdom, and “the fittest survive.” The path of self-denial and suffering is open to all. It coincides at many points with that of duty for all; and it may be throughout coincident for some. It leads to blessing, but that blessing is internal. If we confound the inward blessing with the outward place, we deceive ourselves. If God gives us the higher, let us not envy those to whom he is pleased to allot the lower.
III. Cunist’s EXPOSURE OF THE UONSOCIAL CHABACTER OF AMBITION, 1, The other disciples were indignant when the failings of the brethren were brought to light. Onur secret vices never look so hideous as when we see them mirrored in another, For then the illusion of self-love has vanished, and we stand before the naked and ugly fact. 2. 'o desire to be above others ia not Christian. ‘To dominate and exact is the reverse of the Christian temper. It makes self the centre the world revolves around. To serve, to be useful, is the Christian temper; this makes human good the centre of every sphere of life—the family, the Church, the nation, 3, The example of Christ is the eternal light for conduct. His glory arises out of service, as in an immortal
e St. Paul teaches (Phil. ii). Without method there is nothing sound, We need a method of thought and life—to put the first before the second. ‘The whole {a before the part, humanity more than the individual; there must be giving in order to receiving ; and for the highest possible objects of our aspiration nothing less than the
whole life must be paid.—J. 1
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94 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [on. x. 1—52.
a
Vers. 46—52.—Blind Bartimeus. Viewed from the side of Christ, the incident may teach— ;
D THE OPENING OF THE EYES OF THE BLIND I8 THE MISSION OF CHRISTIANITY. If the physical boon be great, let it express for us the far greater spiritual boon. Ignorance is painfully felt by large numbers. Few who have not received @ good education but bitterly feel the lack at some period or other of their life. In spreading knowledge freely we follow the example of Christ.
II. Tue Mission OF CHRISTIANITY I8 PECULIARLY TO THE LOWLY AXD THE MEA. It is easier to be kind to our inferiors than to avoid jealousy among our equals. The gifts that bless both giver and receiver the most are worth much, though they cost little. From the side of Bartimaeus we may reflect—
TI. Lowe srrrm@ IN DARKNESS MAY PREPARE FOR THE WELOOMING OF THE LIGHT. Yet in the darkness the lamp of hope may be kept burning, as did Bartimaus. “In our griefs we find reliefs.” As every night gives place to morning, so the very consti- tution of nature prophesies the deliverance of mankind and of the individual. The memories of the dark hours of life mingle with attained joys. Life would not have its full significance without these mingled threads in the texture.
IV. PERSEVERANCE I8 EVER REWARDED. Faith proves itself by constancy, and is in fact the perseverance of the whole man towards his hope, the realization of his life in God. In the change of events, things will change for the better to him who endures, ‘ All things come round to him who waits.” “ Yet a little while, and he who is on the way shall come.” The tarrying of God is in our imagination. To gain one sight, to see God and the world in God,—this compensates for an age of waiting and watching, suffering and toil of the spirit.—J.