Part 10 (1/2)
The greatness of John the Baptist shone out in conspicuous beauty in his meek confession of inferiority. It is always a sign of the greatest knowledge, when its possessor confesses himself to be as a child picking up sh.e.l.ls on the sh.o.r.es of a boundless ocean. And the Baptist's greatness was revealed in the lowliness of his self-estimate.
When the Lord Jesus summarized his own character He said, ”I am meek and lowly in heart.” In doing so He expressed the character of G.o.d; for He was the Revealer of G.o.d, ”the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.” He was ”G.o.d manifested in flesh.” He was not only the Son of G.o.d, He was G.o.d the Son: ”He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. I and the Father are one.” The greatness of John was proved in this, that like his Lord he was meek and lowly in heart. Neither before nor since has a son of Adam lived in whom these divine qualities were more evident. No sublimer, no more G.o.d-like utterance ever pa.s.sed the lips of man than John's answer to his disciples: ”A man can receive nothing except it have been given him from heaven. He must increase, but I must decrease” (see the whole pa.s.sage, John iii. 27-36). The very same spirit of meekness was speaking in John as acted in his Lord, when, knowing that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself baptized not, but his disciples), ”He left Judea and departed into Galilee.” What divisions might have been avoided in the Church had his people followed his example! But there was no man, not even the apostle John or Paul, whose spirit accorded more exactly with the Master's than his faithful and self-effacing herald and forerunner, John the Baptist. It might well be said, that of them that were born of women there had not arisen a greater than he.
But what was in our Lord's thought when He made the reservation, ”_Yet he that is but little in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he_”?
It has been suggested that the Lord was speaking of John not only as a man, but as a prophet, and that this declaration applies more particularly to John as a prophet. The words of the evangelist Luke are noticeable--”There hath not risen a greater prophet than John the Baptist”: because to balance the sentence it seems needful to supply the word _prophet_ in the second clause--”The least prophet in the Kingdom of heaven is a greater prophet than he.” John could say, ”Behold the Lamb of G.o.d”; but the least of those who, being scattered abroad, went everywhere proclaiming the word of the Kingdom, preached ”Jesus and the resurrection.”
But there is another way of interpreting Christ's words. John ushered in the Kingdom, but was not in it. He proclaimed a condition of blessedness in which he was not permitted to have a part. And the Lord says that to be in that Kingdom gives the opportunity of attaining to a greatness which the great souls outside its precincts cannot lay claim to. There is a greatness which comes from nature, and another greatness from circ.u.mstances. The child on the mountain is higher than the giant in the valley. The boy in our village schools knows more on certain subjects than Socrates or Confucius, the greatest sages of the world. The least instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is privileged to see and hear the things which prophets and kings longed and waited for in vain. The least in the higher dispensation may know and understand more than the loftiest souls of the dispensations that have preceded.
And may there not be even more than this? The character of John was strong, grand in its wild magnificence--like some Alpine crag, with the pines on its slopes and the deep dark lake at its foot; he had courage, resolution, an iron will, a loftiness of soul that could hold commerce with the unseen and eternal. He was a man capable of vast heights and depths. He could hold fellows.h.i.+p with the eternal G.o.d as a man speaks with his friend, and could suffer unutterable agonies in self-questioning and depression. But is this the loftiest ideal of character? Is it the most desirable and blessed? a.s.suredly not; and this may have been in the Saviour's mind when He made his notable reservation. To come neither eating nor drinking; to be stern, reserved, and lonely; to live apart from the homes of men, to be the severe and unflinching rebuker of other men's sins--this was not the loftiest pattern of human character.
There was something better, as is manifest in our Lord's own perfect manhood. The balance of quality; the power to converse with G.o.d, mated with the tenderness that enters the homes of men, wipes the tears of those that mourn, and gathers little children to its side; that has an ear for every complaint, and a balm of comfort for every heart-break; that pities and soothes, teaches and leads; that is able not only to commune with G.o.d alone in the desert, but brings Him into the lowliest deeds and commonplaces of human life--this is the type of character which is characteristic of the Kingdom of heaven. It is described best in those inimitable beat.i.tudes which canonize, not the stern and rugged, but the sweet and tender, the humble and meek; and stamp Heaven's tenderest smile on virtues which had hardly found a place in the strong and gritty character of the Baptist.
Yes, there is more to be had by the humble heart than John possessed or taught. The pa.s.sive as well as the active; the glen equally with the bare mountain peak; the feminine with the masculine; the power to wait and be still, combined with the swift rush to capture the position; the cross of shame as well as the throne of power. And if thou art the least in the Kingdom of G.o.d, all this may be thine, by the Holy Spirit, who introduces the very nature of the Son of Man into the heart that loves Him truly. ”He that is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
XIII.
A Burning and s.h.i.+ning Lamp.
(JOHN V. 35.)
”Men as men Can reach no higher than the Son of G.o.d, The Perfect Head and Pattern of Mankind.
The time is short, and thus sufficeth us To live and die by; and in Him again We see the same first starry attribute, '_Perfect through suffering_,' our salvation's seal, Set in the front of His humanity....”
MRS. HAMILTON KING.
The Rest-Day--The Light of Life--s.h.i.+ning, because Burning--”Let your Light s.h.i.+ne”--A Light in the Darkness
Our Master, Christ, was on his trial. He was challenged by the religious leaders of the people because He had dared to heal a man and to command him to carry his bed--his straw pallet--on the Sabbath day.
He was therefore accused, and, so to speak, put in his defence.
Of course we must not for a moment think that our Lord was lax in his observance of the Sabbath, but simply that He desired to emanc.i.p.ate the day from the intolerable burdens and restrictions with which the Jewish leaders had surrounded it. It was his desire to show, for all after time, that the Sabbath was made for useful purposes, and specially for deeds of mercy, beneficence, and gentle kindness. The Lord Jesus was maligned and persecuted because He was the Emanc.i.p.ator of the Sabbath day from foolish and mistaken notions of sanct.i.ty.
It is of the greatest importance that we should do what we may to conserve one rest-day in seven to our country and our world; and I cannot help noticing in the story of the life of the great statesman and Christian, who recently pa.s.sed from us, how careful he was to guard the day from unnecessary intrusion. It has been attested by those who knew him well, that physically, intellectually, and spiritually, the Lord's day to him was a priceless blessing. Let your rest on the one rest-day consist, not in lolling idly and carelessly, but in turning your faculties in some other direction; because the truest rest is to be found, not in luxurious ease, but in using the fresh vigour of your life in other compartments of the brain than those which have been worn by the demands of the six days. Then, fresh from the Sunday-school cla.s.s, the wors.h.i.+p of the church, and the sermon, you will return to the desk or office, or whatever may be your toil, with new and rejuvenated strength.
There is a great distinction between s.h.i.+ning and burning: s.h.i.+ning is the light-giving, the illuminating, that comes forth from the enkindled wick; but it cannot s.h.i.+ne unless it burns. The candle that gives light wastes inch by inch as it gives it. The very wick of your lamp, that conducts the oil to the flame, chars, and you have to cut it off bit by bit until the longest coil is at length exhausted. We must never forget that, if we would s.h.i.+ne, we must burn. Too many of us want to s.h.i.+ne, but are not prepared to pay the cost that must be faced by every true man that wants to illuminate his time. We must burn down until there is but an eighth of an inch left in the candlestick, till the light flickers a little and drops, makes one more eager effort, and then ceases to s.h.i.+ne--”a burning and s.h.i.+ning light.”
Obviously, then, we have first _the comparison between John and the candle, or lamp_; then we have _the necessary expenditure, burning to s.h.i.+ne_; and, thirdly, we have _the misuse that people may make of their opportunities_.
I. THE LORD'S COMPARISON.--”John was a burning and s.h.i.+ning lamp.” In the original a great contrast is suggested between _lamp_, as it is given in the Revised Version, and _light_. The Old Version put it thus: ”He was a burning and s.h.i.+ning light”; but the Revised Version puts it thus: ”He was a burning and s.h.i.+ning lamp”; and there is a considerable difference between the two. In the first chapter of the Gospel, the apostle John tells us, speaking of the Baptist, that he was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light, that all men through him [John] might believe. ”That was the True Light, which lighteth every man coming into the world.”
Jesus Christ is the Light of the World; and I believe that in every age He has been waiting to illumine the hearts and spirits of men, reminding us of the expression in the Book of Proverbs--and it is wonderfully significant--”The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.”
Here is a candle, yonder is the wick; but it gives no light. The air may be full of luminousness, but as yet it has found no point on which to kindle and from which to irradiate. But, see, of a sudden the light gathers to the candle-wick, which had stood helpless and useless, touches it, and it begins to s.h.i.+ne with a light not its own. It is borrowed light, caught from some burning cone of flame.
Men are born into the world like so many unlighted candles. They may stand in chaste candlesticks, all of gold or silver, of common tin or porcelain. But all are by nature unlit. On the other hand, Jesus Christ, the Light of men, waits with yearning desire, and, as each successive generation pa.s.ses across the stage of human life, He is prepared to illumine the spirits which are intended to be the candles of the Lord. In these ages He illumines us with the Gospel; but I believe that all moral intuitions, all instincts of immortality, all cravings after G.o.d, all gropings in the dark for the true Light, all helpful moral revolutions which have swept over mankind, have been the result of his influence, who, as the true Light, lighteth every man coming into the world. Whenever and wherever a man has flamed up with unusual fervour and spiritual power, with a desire to help his fellows, and has shone like a torch, we must believe that he was illumined by the Son of G.o.d, the Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, whom he may not have known, but whom he would recognise as soon as he crossed the portal of the New Jerusalem. He lighteth every man; He is willing to illumine every man that comes into the world.