angry with thy brother without a cause—when no real cffence was offered and no insul¢ intended? Hast thou never indulged the angry feeling till it formed itself in the con- temptuous expression? Hast thou never said to thy brother, “ Raca?” Hast thou never permitted thine anger to proceed still further, till it vented itself in terms of deepest guilt? Hast thou never said to thy brother, “ Thou fool”? If so—if thy heart be thus pure, thy tongue innocent, and thy hand without stain of thy brother’s blood—then in regard to this commandment thou mayest say, “ What lack I yet?” But we may take one other example. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” This is another requirement of God’s Law, and another branch of duty towards man. Here the young ruler again declares his innocence: “This also have I kept.” Here again we must take him to task and catechize him. Is it, O young man, the exterval act merely of which you plead not guilty, or do you include what God’s Law includes, the impure thought ana the wanton imagination? Do you include the secret desire of the heart, the lascivioug look of the eye, and the indelicate utterance of the lips? Or have you never read of “eyes full of adultery,” of evil concupiscence, and of filthy communication proceeding out of the mouth? Have you never listened to or taken part in the lewd song, or the foul anecdote, or the equivocal innuendo, or the expression of double reunine® Have you ever regarded the vengeance of Heaven as due to every wanton affection, and every unchaste desire, and every roving glance, and every lustful look, and every lascivious gesture, and every impure word? Has your observance of this requirement always been thus severe, strict, and spiritual? If so, then mayest thou say with regard to this commandment also, “What lack I yet?” 9. The Scripture standard of morality. Oh, how exceeding broad and deep, pure and spiritual, are the commandments of an infinitely pure and holy God! In his sight the bright and beautiful sky above us is not pure, and in his presence the angels themselves—those pure spirits whose nature is like fiery flame, and who minister the high behests of the Eternal—are not unim- peachable with folly. Morality of outward action is highly commendable, and may pass current in sight of men like ourselves; but who can boast of his obedience, inward as well as outward, to all God’s commandments, in the sight of that God whom the prophet in vision saw sitting on a throne high and lifted up, before whom holy seraphic intelligences veiled their faces in deepest homage and holiest reverence, while the burden of those seraphim’s song was a just acknowledgment of his infinite holiness, saying, “ Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his giucy ” ? Who, in the sight of that God who “searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts,” can, like this young ruler, ask proudly, or even boast- fully, “ What lack I yet?”
Ill. His mmperrection Provep. 1. The great defect. “One thing thou lackest” was our Lord’s declaration. But that one thing was the most important, the most needful, and the most indispensable of all. He was outwardly moral, but a stranger to spiritual religion; he had a form of godliness, but wanted the power. The one thing he lacked was love, and love which manifests itself in entire self-surrender to God and in self-denial for man. After our Lord had reminded him of the commandments and of the duties required by God’s Law, he stated a general principle that included them all, saying, as St. Matthew records it, “ ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” In fact, the whole Law, including the commandments of both tables, is fulfilled in that one word “love ”—love to God and love to man; for “ love is the fulfilling of the Law.” And now he brings the principle just stated to a practical test, and puts the young ruler to the proof. “One thing thou lackest ”—one thing, without which no obedience can be really beautiful before men or truly acceptable to God; one thing, without which obedience is neither real nor reliable, neither permanent nor performed consistently and efficiently ; one thing, without which obedience is merely mechanical, and nothing more than a whitening of the outside of the sepulchre, while the inside is dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. That one thing was the principle of love, which is the moving spring of all gospel obedience. This principle of love is the great impulse to all genuine morality ; it is the essential element in all holiness, By this principle our Lord tested the young ruler, and in this practical way,—You profess entire obedience to God’s Law ; now, the sum and substance of that law is love—love to God and love to man, and this love must be supreme. You must love the Lord your God with all your mind, and soul, and strength, and heart; and your fellow-man as yourself. Go,
108 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [cun. x. 1—62,
then, and act out that great principle by selling all that you have, and distributing it to relieve the necessities of your poorer brethren of mankind, and to maintain and promote the service of God. The test was found too severe for the young man’s morality ; his love was more of outward observance than of spiritual obedience, more of profession than of practice, more of the lip than of the life. He was not prepared to subordinate all, to surrender all, to sacrifice all, and to suffer all, if necessary, in fulfilment of that Law, the whole of which is contained in that one word “love.” This one thing he lacked; weighed in the balance, he was found wanting. He needed another to fulfil the Law in his stead ; he required a better righteousness than his own,