Luke xviii. 9-14.

(Eleventh Sunday after Trinity.) PARABLE OF THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN.

IF If we ask why the publican "went down to his house justified rather than the other other" (the Pharisee), we have to take into our consideration, before we reach the actual answer, (1) That in some respects the two men stand on the same ground: both are free from (elsewhere) prevalent idolatry; both feel the duty and appreciate the privilege of prayer; both worship in the same building and address the one true object of devotion. (2) That in some respects the Pharisee seems to have the advantage: he has (a) the respect of the religious public; (b) the more blameless life; (c) the more religious reputation. (3) That the terms of their respective prayers are not decisive of their reception by God. (a) A truly humble worshipper might offer the Pharisee's prayer; it is right to thank God for preserving us from immorality, and for being led in the path of piety: (b) a thoroughly formal worshipper might offer the publican's prayer; how often, since then, have these words been taken into irreverent lips! how often been the unacceptable utterance of proud and

pretensious hearts! A very wise teacher of our own times (the late T. T. Lynch) has represented these men going up again to the temple, the Pharisee mending his prayer by using the Publican's words, the Publican giving God thanks for his altered life, but again the former is rejected, and the latter justified.—

"The Lord again his offering took,

Still spurned the Pharisee's, For sometimes tears and sometimes thanks,

But only truth can please."

The answer to our question is found in the facts

I. THAT THE PHARISEE HAD FORMED A RADICALLY FALSE ESTIMATE OF HIS CHARACTER, AND THE PUBLICAN A TRUE ONE. The one thought that he was all that God required him to be, and in this he was wholly wrong: he failed to understand that external ordinances and proprieties of behaviour are nothing without the spirit of reverence and of love, that the kernel is nothing without the fruit. The other believed that he was very far from the favour of God, and in this he was entirely right: his unrighteousness and immorality made him verily guilty before God, and brought down the Divine displeasure.

II. THAT THE PHARISEE'S

TRUE ESTIMATE ΤΟ HUMILITY.

Under cover of gratitude the one was complimenting himself and hardening himself into a state of ruinous complacency. In simple terms the other acknowledged, both to his own heart and to his Maker, his great guilt.

III. THAT GOD REJECTS THE PROUD AND HONOURS THE HUMBLE HEARTED. Of this doctrine both Testaments are full. The first public words of our Lord indicate that it is the key-truth of His Kingdom. (Matt. v. 3.) There are two classes of men to whom this parable should come home; (a) Those who are satisfied with their spiritual state and have no right to be so: for the Pharisee comes up to the Christian sanctuary, and uses very evangelical phraseology; (b) those who are burdened with a sense of guilt and need not remain so. Acknowledgement of our sin (see Psalm xxxii.), the turning of the heart to the Divine Saviour, this must be attended with "the remission of sins," and every humble and believing spirit may "go down to his house" with the blessed consciousness of reconciliation filling and flooding his heart with purest heavenly joy.

WILLIAM CLARKSON, B. A.

BRISTOL.

Mark vii. 37.

(Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.)

"HE HATH DONE ALL THINGS WELL: HE MAKETH BOTH THE DEAF TO HEAR AND THE DUMB TO SPEAK."

THE exclamation which this miracle (vv. 32-35) called forth from the admiring multitude was a spontaneous and therefore a high tribute to the power and goodness of our Lord. The words in which their admiration found utterance suggest the double element in the Divine bestowal and in the human response. I.-THE TWO-FOLD GIFT OF GOD. God bestows in us the receptive and the communicative faculties. One would be essentially incomplete without the

other.

He enables us to hear and to speak, to appropriate aud appreciate all that is around us, and, in response, to utter our thought and exert our influence. This He does (a) in the realm of the natural: The new-born babe cannot distinguish sounds and cannot utter words; but he is provided by his Maker with native capacities and with helpful surroundings, by means of which the finest sounds and the most perfect harmonies may be perceived and be enjoyed, by means of which every conceivable thought and feeling may may be exactly and powerfully expressed:

(b) in the realm of the miraculous: this is the primary significance of the text; it has a close and interesting analogy in these curative processes by which, in the providence and under the hand of God, the blind are still made to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the dumb to speak: (c) in the realm of the spiritual here the greatest and kindest of Divine energies are put forth. By the healing truth of the Renewing Spirit the ear of the spiritually deaf is unstopped, and the tongue of the spiritually dumb unloosed; the voice of heavenly truth is heard once more in the inner chambers of the soul, and lips long sealed by sin pour forth the praises of God and breathe the very spirit of holiness and love.

II. OUR TWO-FOLD DUTY. (1) If we would hear what God is ready to reveal we must listen attentively when He speaks. How much He is saying that men do not hear! The secrets of the earth, the facts disclosed by all the sciences, the truths discovered to us by Jesus Christ and contained in His Word,-these are to be heard by those who intelligently and reverently listen; but only by them. It is only the "children of wisdom" that that recognize and honour their Lord; "only the good discern the good" he that

:

hath ears to hear, let him hear." (2) If we would speak what God teaches us to say we must strive to utter what we know. As the little child learns to speak by speaking as he can, so we shall learn to utter God's truth by making it known as best we can : at first inarticulately enough, imperfectly enough; by degrees intelligibly and appreciatively; at length forcibly and effectually. III. OUR TWO-FOLD PRIVILEGE. This is to work with the Divine Healer in His loving ministry to our race. So to live and to labour that we shall be (1) enabling men to hear the voice of the Lord addressing them, and (2) to speak His praise by their lips. and by their life. In the various means He employs to make the deaf hear and the dumb speak we may be His conscious, co-operating agents, enjoying His present favour, and anticipating His approval and reward in the day of His appearing.

BRISTOL.

WILLIAM CLARKSON, B.A.

Romans xvi.

(The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.) FOR many reasons this chapter is a fitting conclusion to such an epistle as that to the Romans. For (1) It indicates to us that doctrine is subservient to personal

piety. (2) That very sacred social ties should exist. between a pastor and his people. (3) That right relationship to Christ creates a right mutual relationship between men. An analysis of the chapter leads us to note

I. THE COMMENDATIONS AND GREETINGS OF THE APOSTLE. The commendation of Phoebe, who is as a sweet flower in the landscape where the apostle himself is a majestic oak,-and all the commendations and greetings that follow, lead us to look at true church fellowship, (1) In its variety. There are men and women of varied (a) stations, (b) characters, (c) services. There is the chamberlain and the slave; there is the active and passive temperament, there are the laborious and the hospitable. There are (2) The common elements of true Church Fellowship. (a) Common relationship"Our sister." (b) Common service-"Succourer of many." (c) Common principle.—" As it becometh saints."

II. THE CAUTIONS OF THE APOSTLE. The saddest fact in this, and in all these early letters, is the tone in which the apostle has to speak of many professed Christians. In his words of caution about one and another we notice (1) The mournfulness of the fact that professed Christians have to be so spoken of. (2) The dis

I. Obedience emphatically and repeatedly CLAIMED. Sometimes it is described simply as a call, sometimes we have the echo of our Lord's very words to them, "Follow Me," "Come." The tone is royal, not to say peremptory, and is again and again borne in upon them as the expression of a more than kingly claim, as the utterance of an unquestioned right on their loyalty and leal service. To men now, not less than then, the declaration is true, "Thy King cometh to thee." To

all hearts the trumpet message peals, "The Master is come and calleth for thee."

II. Obedience for which THEY WERE SPECIALLY PREPARED. It is clear that the understandings and hearts of those whom Christ thus called had been prepared by some views of what He would have them do when with Him, and where He might lead them. At first it might have seemed that they were to accompany Him from the banks of Jordan to Galilee. But they soon discovered how much more was intended. How they were to share His lot, how they were to imitate His conduct, how they were to share His spirit.

Following" came to mean walking in the blessed steps of His most holy and useful life. For all this they were more or less prepared, (a) By the current expectations of the Messiah. (2) By the teachings of Old Testament Scripture. (c) By the proclamations of John Baptist. (d) By whatever was already known of the life of Jesus. Similarly and even more variously men are now prepared for obedience to the call of Christ.

III. Obedience that IMPLIED IMPLICIT TRUST. There must have been much trust at first; and as we trace their lives we find it deepening from stage to stage, though sometimes, alas, it failed.

Paul's conception of the implicit trust implied in loyalty to Christ was that it is a military obedience. The Christian man is "a soldier of Jesus Christ," which means that he, and his companions, are towards Christ as the rank and file to a general.

"Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs but to do and die."

IV. Obedience in FACE OF

GREAT OBSTACLES. (1) They had to leave their fathers, and their fish, -a hint that Christian odedience must surmount obstacles of relationship and of property. (2) The infant Church was a poor itinerant company, a hint that Christian obedience must be ready to dare what seems strange, and what is changeful and unstable. (3) Their difficulties were heightened by scorn, persecution, cruelty they and their Leader had to endure,— a hint that the law of Christian obedience is "no cross, no crown."

V.-Obedience which FINDS ITS HIGHEST EMBODIMENT IN THE MASTER HIMSELF. God calls Christ "My Righteous Servant." Jesus 66 took upon Him the form of a servant." "He Himself learned obedience by the things which He suffered."

"Sharing His service every one Share, too, His Sonship may."

EDITOR.