"ASK, AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU." the terrible penalty of retaliation: God will judge the judger by his own usurped rule of judging his neighbor. opened to you. For every one that ask Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be Naturally Jesus follows on to a warning against the other extreme, that of wasting our true and affectionate zeal upon those who are totally incapable of profiting by it: "Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you." eth, receiveth: and he that seeketh, findeth and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or what man is there among you, of whom if his son shall ask bread, will he reach him a stone? Or if he shall ask him a fish, will he reach him a serpent? If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good gifts to them that ask him. Upon which He returns to the efficacy of prayer, and six different times in succession (as if the incredible revelation could not be too emphatically taught) He repeats one of His most marvellous promises: "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." But, we may inquire, what is here referred to what gift, what lost treasure, what door is meant? Many a one asks for deliverance from affliction, little knowing that it is placed as a condition of his salvation. Some would save a child from death, little understanding the future downfall if the child grows to manhood. Some, again, are incessantly striving to substitute daily and petty miracles for the ordinary providence of the "Good measure, pressed down, shaken to gether, and running over." Heavenly Father. Hence in every prayer for temporal favors or for spiritual luxuries, our Lord would have us wholly submissive to the good pleasure of the Father. Only one prayer can and must be peremptory—that for the salvation of the soul and the necessary means of securing it. "Or what man is there among you, of whom if his son shall ask bread, will he reach him a stone?" CHAPTER XXIII.-Concluded. 7. THE Golden RULE. THE NARROW AND THE BROAD WAY.-FALSE PROPHETS. THEN follows the Golden Rule, the brief summary of all religious relationship between man and man— a most heroic rule, all the more because so simple, so accessible, so practical. As a commentary on it one would be justified in offering the entire body of Christian teaching: "All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you also to them, for this is the law and the prophets." If this seems to narrow the empire of self-will down to painful self-forgetfulness, well and good, let it be so; but consider what it leads to, all the more quickly and directly because so painfully strait. "Enter ye in at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are that go in thereat. How narrow is the gate "Enter ye in at the narrow gate." THE GOLDEN RULE. All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth to life, and few there are that find it. and strait is the way that leadeth to life, and few there are that find it!" It is not in loitering through wide and level plains full of flowers and pleasant groves that the limbs are developed and the lungs enlarged, but in climbing steep paths and conquering rocky heights. So by self conquest alone may one grow to be a stalwart disciple of Jesus Christ. Not only are these principles to be put into practice by Christ's followers generally, but especially so by Christian teachers. The people were to watch whether or not a teacher of new theories offered evidence of a practical sort: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them." A fatal test if applied to ritualistic Judaism, an axe at its very root. For, instead of love and harmony and inner spiritual life, its fruits were hatred and contention among brethren and formalism in religious worship. Jesus thus ended His great discourse. The simple beauty of the Sermon on the Mount outshines the masterpieces of orators as the noon-day sun a penny candle. Its precepts and its counsels are the essence of the New Law, a law of love for God and man, a system of precepts and counsels rightly called by St. James the "perfect law of liberty." The Gospel, epitomized in this Sermon, is a code whose majesty of authority and whose stimulus to personal liberty are inextricably blended. The concluding words are a direct claim on Jesus' part to be the Divine Legislator Himself-this New Law is His word. Coupled with this is His preference of a virtuous life-built on His teaching as a house on a rockover even supernatural gifts. On the contrary, a life of outward profession and even of inward belief but fruitless of inward and outward charity, is like a splendid building badly founded-the crevices that gape in its walls from top to bottom and the threatening lean of its towers turn into mockery its rich materials and its graceful adornments. "Not every "Strait is the way that leadeth to life." "BY THEIR FRUITS YOU SHALL KNOW THEM." Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity. Every one therefore that heareth these my words, and doeth them, shall be likened to a wise man who digged deep and built his house upon a rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these my words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand without a foundation. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and immediately it fell, and great was the fall thereof. one that saith to me, Lord! Lord! shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." "Every one, therefore, that heareth these My words and doeth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock." Who but the equal of God could so loftily speak of His own words? What wonder, then, that with all His mildness, it was His awful dignity that gave the final echo of His discourse in the minds of His hear ers. The Pharisees laid particular claim to authority. Compared with Jesus, authority was the conspicuous lack in all their teaching. He alone could say, My Words are stronger than the storms of life and death, and are the immovable and eternal basis And it came to pass when Jesus had fully of all joy. "And it came to pass ended these words, the people were in admiration at his doctrine. For he was teaching them as one having power, and not as their scribes and Pharisees. And when he was come down from the mountain great multitudes followed him. when Jesus had fully ended these not as their Scribes and Pharisees." CHAPTER XXIV. HEALING THE CENTURION'S SERVANT. THE TWO BLIND MEN. THE DUMB DEvil. Matt. viii. 5-13, and ix. 27-34; Mark iii. 20-22; "HE loveth our nation and hath built us a synagogue." This praise of an upright and kindly centurion was spoken to Jesus upon His return to Capharnaum by a deputation of Jewish elders. Their errand was to beg Jesus to cure the Roman officer's servant. This was a favorite and well-loved dependent of his master, whose heart was heavy with fear of his impending death. So was the heart of our Saviour very tender towards that imperial race. which was to know Him as its only master, and to give its name to His Church in abdicating in its favor the empire of the world. Jesus gladly went with the elders. The Roman united to the high quality of religious generosity that of personal humility. He sent another message, as he saw the approach of the multitude, and his message has become the world-wide expression of humble confidence upon the lips of Christians when receiving Jesus in Communion. It is the Domine, non sum dignus: "Lord, trouble not Thyself, for I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof. For "LORD, I AM NOT WORTHY THAT THOU SHOULDST ENTER UNDER MY ROOF." And when he had finished all his words in the hearing of the people, he entered into Capharnaum. The servant of a certain centurion, who was dear to him, being sick, was ready to die. And when he had heard of Jesus he sent to him the ancients of the Jews, desiring him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus they besought him earnestly, saying to him: He is worthy that thou shouldst do this for him, for he loveth our nation and he hath built us a synagogue. And Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent his friends to him, saying: Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof. For which cause neither did I think myself worthy to come to thee: but say the word and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a subject to authority, having under me goeth; and to another: Come! and he soldiers; and I say to one: Go! and he man cometh; and to my servant: Do this! and he doth it. Which Jesus hearing, marvelled, and turning about to the multitude that followed him, he said: Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith not even in Israel. And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said to the centurion : Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee. And the servant was healed at the same hour. And they who were sent, being returned to the house, found the servant whole, who had been sick. |