05. Satan and Demons
whereas the Greek idea, according to Hesiod, was that demons were the spirits of the men of the Golden Age, the New Testament teaches that they are angelic spirits who have lost their first estate, and fallen from their first habitation.
May not these myths and legends of a Golden Age have this element of truth, that they refer to that age of the earth before the catastrophe, when angels were the inhabitants; and because they kept not their first estate, were cast down from their proper habitation. We may find very much of light in what we call paganism, in proportion as we understand that God has never wholly abandoned man to darkness in the midst of probationary life.
A reference to dispossession is the only kind recorded from the lips of our Lord respecting demons. There are two exceptions: first when He quoted the opinion of the multitude concerning John, "He hath a demon"; and secondly the declaration He made concerning Himself, "I have not a demon." These are the only exceptions to the rule laid down, that whenever He spoke of demons it was in connection with exorcism. The only relation He had with this under-world of evil beings was that of conflict with them, freeing men from their power, and casting out those that possessed humanity.
There are two defining terms of which He made use in connection with demons. He called them spirits. In describing the condition of a man from whom they were cast out, He said "the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and finding it not." In addressing them He said, "Come forth, thou unclean spirit"; "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him." In speaking of the rejoicing of the Seventy, He said, "In this rejoice not; that the spirits are subject unto you." In that word there is a revelation of the nature of these fallen ones.
1 Matt. xii. 43-45.
In the last mention He made of them, in the great prophecy of His ultimate victory, as recorded by Matthew, He called them angels, messengers; and revealed the fact that they were under the authority of Satan in the words "age-abiding fire, reserved for the devil and his angels."¹
This teaching reveals our enemies in the spiritual world, as it sets before us the fact of one personality, the archon, the ruler, who is prince of this world; and reveals to us multitudes of spiritual beings under his control, following his command, coöperating with him in a persistent fight against the Kingdom of God, against righteousness, and holiness, and love. It is this unveiling which most evidently was in the mind of the apostle when he said, "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."²
But this teaching reveals something more, and it is the something more which comes to the heart as a message of hope and of courage. If there were nothing but this unveiling of these hosts of wickedness, how we should be filled with fear. But the teaching reveals the Master as perfectly knowing them, persistently opposing them, and constantly triumphing over them. In the days of His flesh, after that hour of supreme temptation as a man in the wilderness, we never find our Lord entering into any discussion with evil spirits, but always addressing them in terms of perfect mastery and perfect command; triumphing over them through all the pathway of His teaching, until at last He triumphed over them in His Cross, putting them off from Him, making a show of them openly in the universe of God.
Therefore we fight under a Master Who has perfectly won the victory, and under Whose control we also may be more than conquerors.
¹ Matt xxv. 41.
² Eph. vi. 12.
"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
"Again it is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
"It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."—Matthew iv. 4, 7, 10.
"The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."—vi. 22-24.
"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?"—vii. 11.
"And be not afraid of them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."—x. 28.
"Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man; but that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth the man. . . . Perceive ye not, that whatsoever goeth into the mouth passeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings: these are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not the man."—xv. 11, 17-20.
"For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?"—xvi. 26.
"Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven."—xviii. 3.
"I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."—xxii. 32.
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hangeth the whole law, and the prophets."—xxii. 37-40.
"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. . . . Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."—*John iii. 3, 5.*
"No man can come to Me, except the Father which sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up in the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto Me. . . . And He said, For this cause have I said unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it be given unto him of the Father."—*vi. 44, 45, 65.*
VI
MAN
"THE Word became flesh," to declare the Father and to manifest man. These are John's own words. The prologue to his Gospel concludes with this statement: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."² The introduction to his first epistle affirms that "the Life was manifested,"³ in that which the disciples saw with their eyes, beheld, and which their hands handled. Thus in the one Person, we hear the full and final declaration of God; and see the manifestation of man, according to the will of God.
By His persistent use of the title, "Son of Man," for Himself, our Lord marked His identification with humanity, and suggested the truth that the final understanding of human nature must result from a knowledge of Himself. In considering His teaching about God, we declared that the final teaching is not to be found in His words, but in Himself as the Word. So here, also, His final teaching about man is not to be found in the words, but in Himself, as the Word made flesh. We sing with perfect accuracy,
"Would we view God's brightest glory,
We must look in Jesu's face."
We may sing with equal accuracy,
"Would we know man's highest glory,
We must look in Jesu's face."
¹ John i. 14.
² Ibid., i. 18.
³ 1 John i. 2.
Turning now to the actual words of the Master concerning man, we at once recognize that there is a sense in which everything He said has a bearing on our subject, because His mission in the world as the Sent of the Father had to do with man primarily, and fundamentally; though its ultimate meaning could not be measured. The words of Jesus then, now under consideration, are only those which reveal His conception of human nature, and these fall into two groups: first, those which reveal man ideally, or essentially, that is, according to a Divine purpose; and secondly, those revealing man actually or experimentally, that is, as Jesus found him. The words of Jesus which reveal His view of the essential facts of human nature are taken from the Gospel of Matthew, and the references in the other Gospels are only indicated in passing. These passages follow each other in consecutive and chronological order, and throw light upon man in five matters: first, his relation to God; secondly, the unity of his being; thirdly, the inter-relationship of the physical and the spiritual; fourthly, the continuity of personality beyond that which we describe as death; and finally, the perfect law of probationary life.
His teaching as to the relation of man to God is revealed most remarkably in the story of the temptation. The supreme revelation of man in that story is not to be found in anything Jesus said, but rather in the Man Himself. We constantly read the story giving our attention to its first and preëminent value, that namely of its revelation of temptation, and of the secret of victory over it. While that is perfectly natural, and accurate, it is true also that through the mists and the darkness of the experience of temptation, forgetting for the moment as far as possible the assault upon the soul of the man, we have a revelation of the essential facts concerning human nature. There are ways in which man is seen more clearly in that wilderness experience than
Man on any other page in the New Testament. There, while He was under the assault of the foe, the essential truth concerning man was revealed. The first temptation was directed against the physical life: "Command that these stones become bread."¹ The second temptation was directed against the spiritual life: "Cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee."² The last temptation was directed, not against the instrument in itself, but against the vocation: "All these"—the kingdoms of the world—"will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."³ There is man, physical, spiritual; the supreme glory and meaning of his existence being the fact that he is created for a purpose.
Looking then upon that remarkable unveiling of truth concerning humanity, the words that fell from the lips of this Man, as He answered temptation, constitute a clear revelation of His conception of the relation of man to God within the Divine purpose and economy. The first word "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,"⁴ reveals the true sustenance of human life. The second word "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,"⁵ while a negative one, reveals positively the true principle of human life. The final word, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve,"⁶ reveals the true object of human life.
The word as to the sustenance of life was spoken in answer to the temptation against the physical. The suggestion of evil is that all a man needs for the sustenance of his life is bread; that a man is material only; that if there be physical hunger unmet and unsatisfied, the man will perish. The answer of the perfect man is that in these matters also the spiritual is supreme. If, in obedience to the Word of God,
¹ Matt. iv. 3.
² Ibid., iv. 6.
³ Ibid., iv. 9.
⁴ Ibid., iv. 4.
⁵ Ibid., iv. 7.
⁶ Ibid., iv. 10.
the material must suffer hunger, then the true sustenance of life is that of the spiritual by obedience to the word or will of God. What a revolution would be wrought in our lives if we once grasped that tremendous conception of our humanity; that a man is to live by the Word of God, obey the Word of God, conform his life to the Divine purpose, recognize that in essence he is not dust but spirit; and that the supreme fact in life is the spiritual.
In the second word "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God," we have a revelation of the true principle of human life. It is that of such perfect confidence in God as declines to make experiments to see whether He will take care of a man or not. The temptation, which appeared to be an appeal to the highest instinct of trust, was really an appeal to doubt, as it suggested that He should prove His faith by an unwarranted, unordained experiment. The answer of Christ in effect was, The quiet calm of My confidence in God is such that I have no need to make an experiment to prove the thing I know to be true. That is the master-principle of life; the continuous and active relationship of confidence in God which enables a man to abide quietly in the place of the Divine appointment.
The final word, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve," is so wonderful that if there could be full exposition of it, it would be seen to flame with glory, and flash with splendour, making the soul burn with all high enthusiasm, and capturing the imagination of young and old alike. It is a description of the true fulfillment of the meaning of every human life. As the first speaks of the immediate and central relation; and the second speaks of the continuous and active relation; this describes the ultimate and glorious relation of every human life to God: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." This does not merely mean,—and
Man these negative expositions seem sometimes out of place, and yet perhaps are important,—that on the first day of the week we are to assemble together, and sing His praise, and bow before Him in prayer; but rather that the whole life shall become worship, and the whole life shall be service. The whole life is worship only when every power God created is, at its fullest and best, open to Him; and pouring itself out in service to His name. Flowers worship God in being what He meant them to be, in the unfolding of their possibilities of life; in all the splendour and delicate perfection of their being they utter forth His praise, and serve Him by ministering to the sense of beauty which He has placed within the heart of humanity. How then is man to worship God and serve Him? By the full realization of life, by the discovery of all the powers of the being as He has placed them within man's personality; and by the development of them through processes of training and exercise, with the will always set in the direction of the Divine glory. When this is done, what beauty and what glory result! The song that is in us will find expression; the vision that we have seen will be reproduced upon the canvas; the music that we hear will be repeated that other men may hear it; the word that burns like fire will be uttered that other men may be ennobled by it. I worship when I preach. You worship when you paint, when you follow your profession, and in it abide with God. It is the fulfillment of life to glorify God by the realization of all His great and gracious purposes. What a vision of man! The immediate and central relationship, living by the word of God; the continuous and active relationship, confidence and perfect peace; the ultimate and glorious relationship, worshipping Him by being what He made him to be, and doing what He meant him to do!
From that first glance, through the simplest and yet sublimest words, we turn to the word in which Jesus revealed the unity of man's being. He said, "The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness!"¹
All that seems to have very little connection with our theme; but it is important because those are the words that prepare for, and lead up to these: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."²
In the words, "The lamp of the body is the eye," the eye is used figuratively for man's outlook upon life; for the way in which a man sees things affects the way in which he acts, and affects therefore the very nature and character of the man. Closely connected with that, our Lord referred to the response that a man makes to his outlook; he serves, and he serves either God or mammon. Now turning from the direct teaching of these words, it is evident that our Lord looked upon man as unified within his own personality.
We shall turn presently to another Scripture in which we shall find that He recognized the dual fact in every man's life; but this is the deeper word. This was spoken, not of a man as one of a fallen race; but of a man according to the Divine ideal. Yes, we shall meet with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde presently; but this is the deeper teaching, and involves the fact that either Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde becomes master; that ultimately no man can be divided within himself; that in the processes of what seem to be conflicting forces there is an underlying unity of personality from which no man can escape. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." A man may attempt to do so for some time. It may seem as though he were doing so, but all the while, in the deepest
¹ Matt. vi. 22-23.
² Ibid., vi. 24.
Man secret shrine of sacred and awful individuality, either the service of mammon, or the service of God is hypocrisy; that there is a central fact in human personality which dominates everything else, and which presently will express itself through everything else. If thine eye be dark, then the light that is in thee is darkness. If thine eye be single, then the light that is in thee is glorious. Man is not dual, but one; and either this or that, commanding him, realizes itself within him; and he ultimately partakes of the nature of that to which he yields himself, whether God or mammon.
Our next word is one revealing His estimate of the relative values of the physical and the spiritual. "Be not afraid of them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna."¹ With the latter part of that statement we are not now dealing; for we are considering, not the full teaching of the text, but its implication.
Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the life. We at once see how revolutionary that word is! Men live to-day as though the killing of the body were the supreme and most awful matter. Christ treats it as an incident merely, something about which a man need not be careful under certain circumstances. "Be not afraid of them which kill the body, and after that have no more they can do."²
Thus at once we see His estimate of the relative values of the physical and the spiritual.
There are two other words of our Lord, in which He revealed the same principle in a relative application. The first is that solemn enquiry, "What shall a man be profited, if he gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?"³ This clearly reveals the central truth of His conception, that life is not ultimately physical; that there is an essential life to which the whole
¹ Matt. x. 28.
² Luke xii. 4.
³ Matt. xvi. 26.
material world cannot minister. The other word is that which Luke alone chronicled: "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."¹
The next word is that containing His teaching concerning the continuity of personality, or the immortality of man. Speaking in answer to the Sadducees, who had asked Him a captious question concerning resurrection, He quoted the word of God to Moses, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;" and continuing, He affirmed, "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."²
To the Sadducees the question of the resurrection of a body was of little moment. They denied the immortality of the spirit, and therefore our Lord's answer to them went behind their question as to bodily resurrection, and dealt with the philosophy which prompted it. He said to them in effect, The question you ask about bodily resurrection is a very small one in comparison with the difficulty you raise concerning the spiritual nature of man. He then appealed to their Scriptures. God had said to Moses, when commissioning him for his great work, "I am . . . the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;"³ and at that time, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead, their graves being known. But, said Jesus, "God is not the God of the dead." They were even then alive. God is the God of the living. By that word He affirmed the continuity of human personality beyond that which we call death, and affirmed that of which we sometimes speak, with more or less of accuracy, as the immortality of the soul.
The final word in this first group is that in which He uttered the perfect law of probationary life; and this again in answer to a questioner, who asked which was the greater commandment. To him He said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
¹ Luke xii. 15.
² Matt. xxii. 32.
³ Exod. iii. 6.
Man with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second like unto it is this, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hangeth the whole law, and the prophets.'¹
That, Christ said, is the law which is absolutely sufficient for man in his probationary life, in that period through which he must pass in order to be perfected and prepared for the larger and more splendid existence that lies beyond the present. First, he must love God; that is, there must be the complete response of all his being to God as God; and in that, the true recognition of the unity of his own being, and the unification of that being around God. The love of God is the master-law of life. In Mark's account of this incident he tells us that Christ introduced that word of the commandment by using the word with which it is introduced in the Old Testament Scripture, "Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord." Man is one, essentially; and his unity of being is to be realized and maintained by conformity to the unity of Deity. Then man must love God. The second part of this law is the sequence of the first, the proof of the first, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."² In the love of God there is the unification of self. In the love of neighbour there is the expression of self at its highest and best. If a man love God, he loves his neighbour, and cannot help it. If a man love God, he expresses himself in his love to his neighbour, and so fulfills the full and perfect law of life. Our Lord carried out this thought in exposition as He said, "On these two commandments hangeth the whole law, and the prophets." So that if this human being, who is of such Divine relation, and of such unity, and in whom the spiritual is the supreme, and who persists beyond the article of death; if he, during the period of probation, loves God, and loves his neighbour;
¹ Matt. xxii. 37-40.
² Mark xii. 29, 31.
there is no law that he will break, there is no prophetic word to which he will be disobedient.
The references to man according to human experience are briefer. All those which we have considered may be used of Jesus Himself. But those to which we are now about to refer could not have been spoken of Him. The other references dealt with essential humanity. These deal with humanity as He found it.
The first to which I refer is that in which He said, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children."¹ That was a flash of light upon the men in the midst of whom He stood. Notice carefully the two things He said: first, "being evil"; and secondly, "know how to give good gifts unto your children."
The phrase "being evil" described an influence exerted, rather than a condition; but yet it postulated a condition. He looked at these men, and He described them as evil, men exerting an evil influence; but that was because they were evil in heart. And yet He said,—and notice this carefully,—that they "knew how to give good gifts unto their children"; thus recognizing that even in these men, whom He described as evil, there persisted a capacity for the highest. They were evil, they were hurtful and harmful in their attitude towards men; but there was a region in their consciousness which was different. Towards their own children they were conscious of another aspect of desire, intention, and influence. They would give good gifts to them. Thus our Lord recognized that in the men who were persecuting Him to the very death, there was this dual fact; evil mastering them, and yet a capacity for goodness that was demonstrated and expressed in the very love they bore to their children, and in the way they knew how to give them good gifts. This man of evil, watch him with
¹ Matt. vii. 11.
Man his children! His goodness to his child does not change the fact of his evil nature and influence; but it does demonstrate a capacity for the highest. Our Lord recognized these two things.
Then we turn to that terrible word, in which He spoke of the defilement of human nature, "Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man" ¹; and the point of our Lord's teaching is not that a man is defiled by the things that come out therefrom, but that he is proved defiled by the things that come out therefrom. "Evil thoughts, murders, adulteries"; all evil things proceeding from the mouth, demonstrate the defilement of the life at its centre and core.
It was in view of these conceptions that He uttered the word to His own disciples about entrance to the Kingdom. When they asked about greatness in His Kingdom, He took them back to the wicket gate, and He said, "Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." ² In view of these conceptions He declared to Nicodemus the necessity for new birth.³ In the one case He indicated a human responsibility, the turning back to childhood; and in the other case He indicated a Divine action, the birth anew into childhood. Standing in the midst of humanity, He declared that man, although of such wonderful capacity in the economy of God, was yet of such defilement in the actuality of his life, that there was no hope for his realization of the Divine intention save by the mystic touch of a new birth, and the communication of a new life.
The final word which we quote concerning man was that in which He declared the opportunity for human restoration. He said, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which sent Me draw him," ⁴ and was careful to explain
¹ Matt. xv. 11, 17-20.
² Ibid., xviii. 3.
³ John iii. 3, 5.
⁴ Ibid., vi. 44.
that every man is drawn of the Father sooner or later in some way. He quoted from the ancient prophets, saying, "It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God."¹ When we turn to the prophecies in Isaiah and Jeremiah from which He quoted these words, we find that in each case the declaration was made when the prophet was singing of the restoration of the lost order, "And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children."² Continuing, our Lord revealed human responsibility in the words "Every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto Me." When men are drawn of the Father, not all who hear will come; but all who hear and learn will come. The movement which issues in the restoration of a man from his degradation must come from God, and from Him alone; but every man is so appealed to, every man is so drawn of the Father; and human responsibility is that not of hearing alone, but of learning, and obeying, and answering.
This meditation reveals the splendour of humanity according to the Divine ideal as revealed in the teaching of Christ. It also reveals His clear understanding of the calamity of human experience as He faced it. But finally it reveals the glory of the possible restoration as He declared it.
If we set our lives in the light of His teaching, we shall think highly of our own possibility in the economy of God; we shall think with sorrow and contrition of all our failure in the light of the high ideal; and we shall think with hope of the possibility of restoration by the way of His great and gracious mission.
¹ John vi. 45.
² Isa. liv. 13. Jer. xxxi. 34.
"The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins."—Matthew ix. 6.
"Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is shed for many unto remission of sins."—xxvi. 27, 28.
"Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin."—Mark iii. 29.
"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem."—Luke xxiv. 40. 47.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin."—John viii. 34.
"If ye were blind, ye would have no sin: but now ye say, We see: your sin remaineth."—ix. 41.
"If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin. He that hateth Me hateth My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father."—xv. 22-24.
"And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin. . . . Of sin, because they believe not on Me."—xvi. 8, 9.
i
SIN
THE subject of sin is arresting, absorbing, and abstruse
In the broadest sense sin may be defined in the words of
Kant as that which ought not to be.
Dr. Orr opens his volume on "Sin as a Problem of Today," with an illuminative paragraph, which I venture to quote:
"What we name sin is, from the religious point of view, he tragedy of God's universe. What it is, how it came, why it is permitted to develop itself into the havoc and ruin it surely entails, what is to be the end of it, above all, how its presence and working are to be reconciled with goodness, holiness, love, in the God Who has permitted it—these are the crushing questions that press upon the spirit of every one who thinks deeply on the subject. In its very conception sin is that which ought not to be; which ought never to have been. How, then, or why, is it here, this awful, glaring, deadly, omnipresent reality in human history and experience?
For sin is here: this, conscience and universal experience attest. The evidences of its presence are not slight or intermittent. Men may belittle it, try to forget it, treat it as a superstition or disease of imagination—there are no lack of such attempts in the thinking of to-day—but the grim reality asserts itself in the dullest consciousness, and compels acknowledgment of its existence and hateful power. Drug conscience as deeply as you may, a time comes when it awakes. Turn in what direction one will, sin confronts one as a fact in human life—an experience of the heart, a development in history, a crimson thread in literature, a problem for science, an enigma for philosophy."
In view of this, we turn with reverent interest and expectation to the teaching of Christ; and recognize at once that there is nothing in His teaching in the nature of an attempt to solve for us such problems as are suggested by the paragraph quoted. Sent of the Father, He came into the midst of conditions which He recognized, and with which He proceeded to deal. There is abounding evidence in these Gospel narratives of His keen and clear consciousness of the fact of sin. It is equally evident that the deepest meaning of His presence in the world was that of grappling with this fact of sin, both in itself and in its results. As in previous studies, so also in this, even in the absence of clear definition, we are able to apprehend His conception of the subject under consideration by His references to it. In the course of His teaching, moreover, we discover certain outstanding declarations which reveal man's relation to sin, and his responsibility concerning it.
Then let us consider first, the revelation of His references to this fact of sin; and secondly the teaching of certain outstanding declarations which enable us to understand our relation to, and responsibility concerning sin.
First, then, as to the revelation of the references. There is no subject for which the Bible uses a larger number of descriptive terms than this of sin. The Old Testament has at least eleven entirely distinct and separate words by which to describe it; and of these words Canon Girdlestone has said, "The pictorial power of the Hebrew language is seldom exhibited more clearly than in connection with the various aspects of evil. Every word is a piece of philosophy; nay, it is a revelation."
When we turn to the New Testament we find an equal
¹ "Old Testament Synonyms," p. 76.
Sin number of words; indeed, it would seem as though every Hebrew word has its equivalent in the Greek language of the New Testament; and of this fact Canon Girdlestone further remarks, "With regard to all these words, it is to be noticed that the New Testament leans upon the Old Testament, and that the vivid teaching of that latter is taken for granted as authoritative by the writers of the Christian Scriptures."¹ Approaching the study of these words of the New Testament, Archbishop Trench declares, "A mournfully numerous group of words. . . . Nor is it hard to see why. For sin . . . may be regarded under an infinite number of aspects, and in all languages has been so regarded; and as the diagnosis of it belongs most of all to the Scriptures, nowhere else are we likely to find it contemplated on so many sides, set forth under such various images."²
In the course of His teaching our Lord made use of seven different words when referring to sin; two of them constantly, the other five incidentally, and only on two or three occasions in each case. In the first two of these words we discover His conception of the essential nature of sin; and in the other five we have revelation of certain aspects of sin.
But our words are inadequate, and constantly cause trouble in our thinking; and a criticism like that is warranted by the fact that the one so criticizing is face to face with a difficulty. We speak of evil and take up our Bible and read, "I"—the Lord—"create evil";³ and are conscious almost of a shock, which is caused by the fact that we forget that the word evil may stand for a great deal more than is intended in any one use of it. That may be the reason for the variety of words employed in the Bible—at least twenty-two different words, eleven in each language—and
¹ "Old Testament Synonyms," p. 86.
² "Synonyms of the New Testament," pp. 239, 240.
³ Isa. xlv. 7.
of the fact that our Lord described this appalling and awe-inspiring fact by different words, two of them constantly recurring in the course of His ministry.
The first is poneros, which is commonly translated evil. The root idea of the word is that which is hurtful. The first essential meaning of the root from which the word comes is that of pain; and the word itself suggests pain and that which causes pain; that is, hurtful or harmful. The use of the word has reference to that which causes trouble, and to the trouble which is caused. It describes the active principle producing all calamity, material, mental, and moral; and it is also used of the calamity which is thus produced. In the case of the statement already quoted, "I"...the Lord..."create evil," we should be more accurate if instead of the word evil we substituted the word calamity; only we must interpret it by the context, which shows that it refers to calamity falling upon a guilty city. It is simply a declaration of the sovereignty of Jehovah over the working of evil, so that it must, within the realm of the Divine overruling and government, issue in calamity.
This word Christ constantly used, certainly over forty times, and it suggests the active principle which produces calamity, whether material or mental or moral; and refers to the calamity so caused. When we group the occasions upon which our Lord is recorded to have used the word, we find that He used it as descriptive of Satan, of demons, of men individually, of the age in the midst of which He wrought His work; and upon occasion, in the abstract sense. By His employment of this word certain facts are made perfectly clear. He recognized the existence of a force contrary to the good and perfect and acceptable will of God. He referred to this force, as having its fountainhead in a person, Satan. He recognized that other spiritual beings, that man, that the age itself, had passed under the influence
Sin of this force, and were mastered by it. By repeated reference He made clear His understanding of the fact that this force was in itself corrupt, and in its influence was corrupting; that it marred the handiwork of God, prevented the realization of His purpose, was against His holiness, and contrary to the deepest intentions of His love. He gave no single word of explanation as to the genesis of this force in the universe.
The second term, hamartia, is the most common word in the New Testament for sin; and is usually so translated. The root of the word is quite uncertain. There are two suggestions. The first is that of a failure to grasp; the second that of missing possession. But if we are in doubt as to the root signification of this word which we translate by sin, we have no doubt as to its significance as we observe its use. It is a word that signifies failure, or quite simply, the missing of a mark. In material things the word is used in classic Greek of the missing of a mark, as when a man flings a spear, and it does not strike its intended target. In the mental realm, with regard to art, music and literature, the word is used of the artist, also of the musician, or the writer, who fails of the highest. Gradually, even in Greek literature, the word gained a moral significance, and was used of the man whose character and whose conduct were lower than the highest. The idea is that of failure.
This, then, was a common Greek word which New Testament writers appropriated, and used only in the moral sphere.
The Lord's use of the word was invariably ethical, and such as to imply responsibility. There is not a single instance in which our Lord made use of this word so as to suggest that it was a disease apart from a personal and immediate moral responsibility. And another matter is equally noticeable and is full of gracious light, that Christ's principal use of the word was in connection with the central purpose of His mission, that of forgiving sin. There were occasions when He used the term apart from such reference; but in the majority of cases His references to sin were related to the thought of forgiveness. He uttered stern denunciation of those who refused this forgiveness; but in the view of Christ, sin was moral failure with which He had power to deal, so as to forgive the sinner. The glory of the redemption of the Cross shines through the references that Christ made to sin, even though some of them were of the nature of the sternest denunciation.
From this survey of His references to evil and sin I make these brief deductions. Our Lord's outlook upon evil was that He considered it to be a principle at work in the universe, antagonistic to God and to goodness. Sin, according to the conception of Christ, is the volitional act of rebellion against God in submission to this principle of evil; and consequently it is failure, the missing of the mark, the falling short of the highest.
Now for a brief and yet more hurried glance at the five other words of which our Lord made use. He employed a word, paraptoma, commonly translated trespass in our New Testament. It describes the fact of falling where one ought to have stood. It admits the possibility of the fall being non-volitional, but nevertheless recognizes it as a fall. A trespass is a fall, whether the man intended to fall or not. It is failure and imperfection in the sight of God; and that is why the saint can never cease using the prayer for forgiveness of trespasses to the end of the pilgrimage. I may be delivered from volitional sinning, but in the light of heaven's unsullied purity there is no hour in which I do not come short of the highest; and in the light of the eternal holiness I am a trespasser, and need the infinite grace of His mercy and His forbearance.
Sin
Another word, *anomia*, of which our Lord made use is commonly translated *iniquity*, but more accurately *lawlessness*. It does not describe the condition of a man who has never had the law, but rather the attitude of the man who refuses to obey the law. In the use of that word our Lord revealed His recognition of the principle upon which a man acts in the committal of sin. Sin is a missing of the mark, a failure, and it is iniquity or lawlessness when it is the result of refusal to walk in the light, and to obey law. Therein is revealed the active principle of sin in the life of the individual, which indicates responsibility.
Another word, *kakia*, is generally rendered *malice*. To understand this translation we have to remember how constantly words change in use; and in that consideration we see the necessity for passing beyond the Authorized Version to the Revised Version, and presently abandoning the Revised for a yet more modern rendering. Our word malice is used to-day almost exclusively in the realm of emotional life. But the first meaning of malice is badness, and that is the suggestion of the word of which it is a translation in the New Testament. The Greek word so translated means badness, whether it be material, mental, or moral. It is a word describing evil in itself; not so much the suffering produced, but the principle of evil which results in suffering. It is a searching word. Our Lord is only reported to have used it once, and that in somewhat remarkable application; but the value it suggests must be borne in mind when we face this fact of sin according to the teaching of Christ.
Another word, *adikia*, is commonly translated *unrighteousness*. It literally means *out of the straight*. It reveals sin in its relation to holiness and righteousness; holiness being rectitude of character, and righteousness rectitude of conduct. Sin is the opposite in character, and in conduct. It is life and activity out of the straight.
One other word, phaulos, He used, only once or twice, but upon supreme occasions. It is translated evil, and yet it is a word with which we have not already dealt. It describes the condition of good-for-nothingness, and constitutes one of the most appalling revelations of sin and evil. It is evil as that out of which good can never come; and thus the word reveals the unutterable hopelessness and corruption of sin in itself.
In these words we are brought face to face with the thought of Christ about evil and sin. To understand that thought we need to turn to the references themselves; and observe our Lord in the midst of a world in which this principle of evil was at work, confronted and surrounded by sinning men; we need to hear what He said to them, to observe His method with them, to catch these words as they pass His lips. Only by such careful consideration shall we be able to discover His conception of evil, and find His outlook upon sin. He has given us no explanation of the problem; there is no word in all His teaching which declares what the ultimate is to be, either in the case of the individual, or in the case of the race, or in the case of the universe. He uttered great words that show results, harvests, and inevitable sequences; and words which reveal His conception of the appalling nature of sin and evil. To accept His view as revealed in these words, will be to be delivered from any superficial thinking about sin; and will more and more make us tremble in its presence, and fear it with all the heart and soul and mind.
We pass in the second place to the consideration of four declarations He made; quite simple, and yet most sublime; incidentally uttered, and yet bringing men face to face with their own relation to sin, and demanding our careful consideration. These words do not deal with evil in the wider sense, but with sin in human life.
Sin
The first passages contain His words recognizing the element of personal responsibility in sin.
For example, to the Pharisees:
"If ye were blind, ye would have no sin: but now ye say, We see; your sin remaineth."¹
Again, not to the Pharisees, but to His disciples about the Pharisees, and those who had rejected Him:
"If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He that hateth Me hateth My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father."²
Of course there are many values in these words of Christ with which we are not now dealing, in which we are not now interested. We take them now simply to draw attention to what He taught concerning the element of responsibility in sin. He declared directly to the Pharisees that sin is disobedience to light. He declared to His disciples when interpreting the fact of sin in the case of the Pharisees that He Himself had come into the world as light, that in His presence men saw; and that sin therefore consisted in their disobedience to the light which He granted them. No man can believe in the infallibility of the teaching of Jesus and declare that man is not morally responsible. Christ declared that man is not morally responsible if he has had no vision; but He declared that the moment there is vision and sight and understanding, moral responsibility is created; that such a man stands in the light, in the presence of good and of evil, and his sin consists in his refusal to answer the sight of his eyes when the light has broken upon him. We may speak of degrees of light, and indeed we must so speak. To imagine that vast multitudes of the heathen are to be consigned to everlasting punishment because they have not
¹ John ix. 41.
² Ibid., xv. 22-24.
obeyed the Gospel which we have never preached to them, is blasphemy of the worst kind. The measure of heathen responsibility is the measure of heathen light. Light creates responsibility. Sin is disobedience to light.
The next passage contains His words revealing the element of bondage in sin.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin."¹ The choice creates the compulsion. A man stands, seeing clearly. That is his opportunity. If he disobey the light, and turn to the evil thing, then that evil thing, gaining a victory over him, becomes his master, and he is the slave of that which he chooses. There is no need for illustration. A man yielding to some vulgar passion becomes the slave of that passion, and no matter how he strive he cannot break its power.
The next passages contain His words of warning as to the element of fixity in sin.
"Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin."²
I choose for definite purposes of illumination to put that passage into immediate connection with another. Our Lord was referring to the Holy Spirit, and He said:
"And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin. . . . Of sin, because they believe not on Me."³
In the first of these passages our Lord warned men of the tendency of sin to become fixed. It is a terrible word. It is not strange that men tremble when they read it. "Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty" of perpetuity of sin, fixity in sin, age-abiding sin. The men to whom He was speaking at the moment had not committed that sin. He saw that they were in danger of it, for they were attempting to account for His work by attributing His power to the
¹ John viii. 34.
² Mark iii. 29.
³ John xvi. 8, 9.
Sin devil; and in a flash He revealed to them that the last method of God lay beyond the hour of His own ministry. He said in effect, You can say anything against Me, and it will be forgiven you, but there is another age beyond this, that of the dispensation of the Spirit: "He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin"; of sin because they do not obey the light of My presence. If you refuse that spiritual interpretation which is yet to come, then sin will become fixed, an age-abiding sin; and an age-abiding sin involves an age-abiding nemesis and punishment. It is the most awful peril of sin which our Lord revealed in these words.
The last passages to be quoted contain the words in which He declared the possibility of the forgiveness of sin.
The first is:
"The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins."¹
He had pronounced forgiveness upon a man who was sick of the palsy, and they criticized Him and said that He blasphemed; to which He replied, "Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven; or to say, Arise and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins (then saith He to the sick of the palsy), Arise, and take up thy bed, and go unto thy house."²
This is a wonderful picture, in which we see evil in the moral and material realms, the suffering resulting from the sin. Christ saw the connection. Then to the man He said, "Thy sins are forgiven"; and later, "Arise and walk." He never healed bodily affliction save upon the basis of removing spiritual malady. That is the meaning of the great utterance in which Matthew declared that when He healed all that were sick, He did so in fulfillment of the word of the prophet Isaiah, "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases."³ All His material healing was based upon His ability to deal with the spiritual and moral
¹ Matt. ix. 6.
² Ibid., ix. 4-6.
³ Ibid., viii. 17.
malady lying behind the material suffering. That was the authority to which He referred when He said, "The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins."
The next passage reads:
"Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is shed for many unto remission of sins." ¹
The setting of these words is perfectly familiar; the surroundings of the paschal board; the institution of the new memorial feast of Christianity; the Lord taking the fruit of the vine, and saying, with the sacred cup in His hand, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is shed for many unto remission of sins."
The final word was spoken after the Cross, and after resurrection:
"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." ²
Now mark the significance of these three words of Christ. First, He claimed authority to forgive sins; secondly, He revealed His way of forgiving sins; and finally, He claimed the accomplishment of His work.
This then is the ultimate word of Christ about sin. It is a word that declares His victory over it, and His power to forgive it; and that by the way of a Cross that defies man's ability to explore it to its depths, or to speak the final word about its hidden mystery of pain. Thus our Lord teaches us the awfulness of sin, and reveals to us our solemn responsibilities in the presence of the evil force in the universe; but He stands in the midst of all the malady,—material, mental, and moral,—and claims that by the mystery of His Cross, He is able to forgive sin; and to give to every man the new opportunity by way of moral reconstruction, which shall issue in the full realization of the good and perfect and acceptable will of God.
¹ Matt. xxvi. 27, 28.
² Luke xxiv. 46, 47.
"Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm? to save a life, or to destroy it?"—Luke vi. 9.
"Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace."—vii. 50.
"Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace."—viii. 48.
"Fear not; only believe, and she shall be made whole."—viii. 50.
"Arise, and go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole."—xvii. 19
"Receive thy sight: thy faith hath made thee whole."—xviii. 42.
"The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."—xix. 10.
II
SALVATION
THE title, Saviour, the abstract noun, salvation, and the verb, to save, have gained a peculiar sanctity by their Christian associations. These words have a common origin, coming to us from the Latin salvus, simply signifying safe. All the cognate words in the Latin language have equivalents in our language, of which we are perpetually making use in the realm of Christian truth. These words again have their exact equivalents in the language of which our New Testament is a translation, and all of them became current coin in the language of Christianity at a very early period.
The words Saviour, salvation, and save, are found in the writings of every one of the New Testament authors. In one form or another the thought runs through all the apostolic writings, and we are constantly confronted in our reading of the New Testament with the theme of salvation.
The original idea conveyed by these words is that of immunity from harm or danger. The verb to save, however, has acquired a new sense in Christian use. In ordinary use the verb to save means to preserve from danger. In the Christian sense to save is to deliver out of the danger, and to rescue from all the harm which has already been wrought. The substantive salvation in Christian speech refers at once to the activity which produces such safety, and to the state of safety which results from that activity. The title Saviour, in the New Testament, and in the sanctified and intelligent speech of the Christian Church has been reserved for the One Who saves in this great sense.
With these preliminary and technical definitions in mind, we turn to a consideration of Christ's teaching on the subject; distinctly recognizing that we are not now dealing with the method, but confining ourselves strictly to the idea conveyed. In subsequent chapters we shall further consider this great theme of salvation, considering other aspects; but now we are investigating the thought as revealed in our Lord's teaching on the subject.
What material have we at our disposal? We have no single recorded instance of our Lord's employment of the word Saviour, as applying to Himself. Only on two occasions do the Gospels record His having made use of the word salvation; once when talking to a Samaritan woman, He said to her, "salvation is from the Jews," by which He most evidently meant that in the Divine economy the Hebrew nation was that through which the Messiah Saviour should come; and once when He said to Zacchæus, "Today is salvation come to this house."
But while it is true that He never used the word Saviour, and that we only have the record of His use of the word salvation twice, the word to save He constantly employed, both in the material and moral realms. Our translations somewhat obscure this fact. Our versions report Him as having said, "Thy faith hath made thee whole," when the word is exactly the same, and we might with perfect accuracy translate: "Thy faith hath saved thee." Indeed the word is stamped upon the page in all the stories of the work and teaching of Jesus; He was constantly speaking of saving. It is however very suggestive that our Lord is never recorded as having used the word to save in any lower application than that of human life. We talk about saving property; He never did. He used the word only when referring to humanity, and to the physical, to the mental, or to the essential spiritual life. We shall con-
¹ John iv. 22.
² Luke xix. 9.
³ Ibid., viii. 48.
Salvation centrate our attention upon the story of Zacchæus as illustration and declaration. The whole story affords an illustration of our Lord's thought about salvation, for in the moment when Zacchæus stood and made his great confession of purposed restitution, our Lord said, "To-day is salvation come to this house."¹ That warrants us in using the story as an illustration of His conception of salvation. And immediately in connection therewith He made His great claim, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."² I propose therefore to concentrate upon that story; but I also propose to interpret, by our Lord's use of the verb to save, elsewhere what He meant thereby when He declared that He had come to save the lost.
The setting of this incident must be emphasized in order to make it plain that in this story we have a supreme illustration of the work of Christ as Saviour; and an exposition of the declaration that the purpose of His coming was that of seeking and of saving.
The story of Zacchæus is closely connected with the revelation of the hostility of Christ's enemies, which is more clearly marked in this Gospel than in either of the others. There is a development of it clearly manifest through the narrative. The fifteenth chapter is closely linked to the fourteenth. That is seen as we connect the last words of the fourteenth chapter with the first words of the fifteenth. They never ought to have been separated. Jesus was speaking, and He said: "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear"; and immediately the story runs on: "Now all the publicans and sinners were drawing near unto Him for to hear Him." That is a sequence, almost hidden by the division of our Bible into chapters. Then, still in unbroken continuity, the writer tells us, "And both the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners,
¹ Luke xix. 9.
² Ibid., xix. 10.
and eateth with them." Observe very carefully that their criticism of Him was due to the fact that He received sinners. If we would understand this, and get at the true meaning of it, we must set our minds free for the moment from the great values which we associate with the words, "This man receiveth sinners." We hear all the music of the evangel singing through them; but let them be read as they were spoken, as words of criticism. Then let us endeavour to see what these men saw which caused their difficulty. Christ came from the house of a Pharisee, where He had been entertained, and immediately made Himself, to all outward seeming, perfectly one with a great crowd of sinning men. His attitude towards them was not that of patronage, was not that of superiority; He took them to His heart; if I may say that which almost sounds irreverent, His attitude was that which would have been designated to-day as, "hail fellow well met," towards all the rabble gathered about. That was the astonishing thing, which perplexed the Pharisees, and made them afraid of Him. Technically and traditionally they were men of extreme purity of life. "He receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." This then is an outstanding illustration of the hostile atmosphere in which our Lord was doing His work. He answered their criticism by the parable of lost things which immediately follows; the one parable with its threefold value; the lost sheep, the lost silver, the lost son; the good shepherd, the seeking woman, and the rejoicing father; an interpretation, to those who had eyes to see, and hearts to understand, of the meaning of His familiarity with sinning men; an unfolding of the fact that He was there in the midst of sinners for the one purpose of saving them. The parable was not perfectly understood; and I follow the story on until I come to the eighteenth chapter, and there I see Him with His face set towards Jerusalem, and I hear these words, "He took
Salvation unto Him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written by the prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of Man. For He shall be delivered up unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and shamefully entreated, and spit upon: and they shall scourge and kill Him: and the third day He shall rise again. And they understood none of these things."¹ He was on the same pathway, the same mission was still the passion of His heart. His face was now set towards Jerusalem. He passed through Jericho, and there occurred the incident of Zacchæus.
In this sequence our story is seen to be a remarkable illustration of His own conception of His work; first we see His attitude criticized by the Pharisees; secondly, the passion that drove Him towards the Cross was declared to disciples who were unable to understand; until finally in concrete form came a revelation of His own conception of His work.
Let us first refresh our memories as to the actual facts of the incident. In spite of all the commentators and expositors, Zacchæus did not climb the sycamore tree because he was anxious to see Jesus. He climbed the sycamore tree because there was a crowd, and he wanted to see who was causing it. The crowd was passing that way, and he climbed, notice carefully the words: "He sought to see Jesus who He was."² The real fact was that this man was curious because of the crowd. Humanity is the same in London as in Jericho. If there is a crowd in London, men always want to know what is happening; and Zacchæus, suffering from the limitation of his stature, climbed the tree to do so. It is not that he knew Jesus, and was eager to look upon Him. Zacchæus was a Roman tax-gatherer, and he was rich. He was therefore a rogue. That needs no argument. There have been many attempts to whitewash
¹ Luke xviii. 31-34.
² Ibid., xix. 3.
this man, but it is impossible. He was not a rogue because he was rich, but because he was a tax-gatherer, and rich. When John the Baptist began his ministry, he said to the publicans: "Extort no more than that which is appointed you"; and those familiar with the method of this gathering of the Roman taxes know that the tax-gatherer farmed a district; and if he exacted no more than his due, he never became a rich man. But Zacchæus was a rich man, and therefore a rogue.
When Christ arrived beneath that tree, He halted, and looking up, He said, "Zacchæus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house." I am not quite sure which of two things may be more accurately suggested by that self-invitation of Jesus to the house of Zacchæus. Perhaps both are true. First it was a sign of perfect friendship and comradeship. How many houses are there in this country to which we can invite ourselves? That is the final sign of a perfect friendship, and in that view we find another instance of the familiarity with which Christ approached these men. He asked hospitality. Or was it the word of a great sovereignty; for the King ever informs those whose hospitality He is prepared to accept? Was it not rather supremely the evidence of a profound compassion, in which sovereignty and service merged and mingled? But be that as it may, to the surprise of the man, He asked his hospitality; and gladly and joyfully he came down and received Him. As they passed together into that home, the multitude murmured. It was the last wail of hopelessness, "He is gone in to lodge with a man that is a sinner."
What was the effect produced? We are told sometimes to-day that the revival we need is ethical. Here was an ethical revival. We do not know how long they were together in converse, or what Jesus said to him in the loneli-
¹ Luke iii. 13.
² Ibid., xix. 2.
³ Ibid., xix. 7.