INCARNATE WISDOM AND INDIVIDUAL REASON 59
in, we will not trust what we cannot see, we will not believe
what we cannot trace. Then it is all up with my dis-
cipleship. The great word of Jesus to His disciples is
" Abandon." When God has brought me into the relation
ship of a disciple, I have to venture on His word, to trust
entirely to Him and watch that when He brings me to
the venture, I take it.
Jesus sums up common sense carefulness in a person
indwelt by the Spirit of God as infidelity. After you have
received the Spirit and you try and put other things first
instead of God, you will find confusion. The Holy Spirit
presses through and says Where does God come in in
this new relationship ? in this mapped-out holiday? in
these new books you are buying ? The Holy Spirit always
presses that point until we learn to make concentration
on God the first consideration. It is not only wrong to
worry, it is real infidelity because it means I do not think
God can look after the little practical details of my life,
it is never anything else that worries us. Notice what
Jesus said would choke the word He puts in the devil ?
No, the cares of this world. That is how infidelity begins.
It is the little foxes that spoil the vines, the little worries
always. The great cure for infidelity is obedience to the
Spirit of God. Refuse to be swamped by the cares of
this world, cut out non-essentials and continually revise
your relationship to God and see that you are concentrated
absolutely on Him. The man who trusts Jesus in a definite
practical way is freer than anyone else to do his work in
the world, free from fret and worry, he can go with absolute
certainty into the daily life because the responsibility of
his life is off him and on God. Once I realise the revelation
Jesus gives that God is my Father and that I can never
think of anything He will forget, then worry is impossible.
60 STUDIES IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
(d) Concentrated Consecration, w. 33-34.
" Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all these things shall be added unto you." " Seek ye
first the Kingdom of God " " But, supposing I do, what
about this thing and that ? who is going to look after me ?
I would like to obey God, but don t ask me to take a step
in the dark." We enthrone our common sense as almighty
God and treat Jesus Christ as a spiritual appendage to it.
Jesus Christ hits desperately hard at every one of the
institutions we bank all our faith in naturally. The
sense of property and of insurance is one of the greatest
hindrances to development in the spiritual life. You
cannot lay up for a rainy day if you are trusting Jesus
Christ.
Our Lord teaches that the one great secret of the spiritual
life is concentration on God and His purposes. We talk
a lot about consecration, but it ends in sentimentalism
because there is nothing definite about it. Consecration
ought to mean my definite yielding of myself over as a
saved soul to Jesus and concentrating on that. There are
things in actual life that lead to perplexity, and I say I am
in a quandary and I don t know which way to take.
" Be renewed in the spirit of your mind," says Paul,
concentrate on God, so that you make out what is His will.
Concentration on God is of more value than personal holi
ness. God can do what He likes with the man who is aban
doned to Him. God saves us and sanctifies us, then He
expects us to concentrate on Him in every circumstance we
are in. " Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood."
When in doubt, haul yourself up short and concentrate
on God, and every time you do, you will find that God
engineers your circumstances and opens the way perfectly
INCARNATE WISDOM AND INDIVIDUAL REASON 61
securely, the condition on your part is that you con
centrate on God.
" Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteous
ness ; and all these things shall be added unto you." At
the bar of common sense Jesus Christ s statements are
those of a fool ; but bring them to the bar of faith and the
word of God, and you begin to find with awestruck spirit
that they are the words of God.
STUDY No. 4.
CHARACTER AND CONDUCT.
Matthew VII. 1-12,
(1) CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS, w. 1-5.
(a) The Uncritical Temper, v. 1.
(b) The Undeviating Test. v. 2.
(c) The Undesirable Truth Teller, w. 3-5.
(2) CHRISTIAN CONSIDERATENESS. vv. 6-11.
(a) The Need to Discriminate, v. 6.
(b) The Notion of Divine Control, vv. 7-10.
(c) The Necessity for Discernment, v. 11.
(3) CHRISTIAN COMPREHENSIVENESS.
(a) The Positive Margin of Righteousness.
(b) The Proverbial Maxim of Reasonableness. > v. 12.
(c) The Principal Meaning of Revelation. J
" And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith
virtue, . . ." Peter is writing to those who are the
children of God, those who have been born from above,
and he says Add, give diligence, concentrate. " Add "
means all that character means. No man is born with
character ; we make our own character. When a man is
born from above he has a new disposition given to him,
not character; neither naturally nor supernaturally are
62
CHARACTER AND CONDUCT 63
we born with character. Character is what a man makes
out of his disposition as it comes in contact with external
things. A man s character cannot be summed up by what
he does in spots, but only by what he is in the main trend
of his existence. When we describe a man we fix on the
exceptional things, but it is the steady trend of the man s
life that tells. Character is that which steadily prevails,
not something that occasionally manifests itself. What we
do steadily and persistently makes character, not what is
exceptional or spasmodic, that is something God mourns
over " thy goodness is as a morning cloud," He says.
In Matthew VII. Our Lord is dealing with the need to make
character.
(1) CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS, vv. 1-5.
(a) The Uncritical Temper, v. 1.
" Judge not, that ye be not judged." Criticism is
part of the ordinary faculty of a man, he has a sense of
humour, i.e., a sense of proportion, and he sees where
things are wrong and pulls the other fellow to bits ; but
Jesus says, as a disciple, cultivate the uncritical temper.
In the spiritual domain, criticism is love gone sour. There
is no room for criticism in a wholesome spiritual life. The
critical faculty is an intellectual one, not a moral one. If
criticism becomes a habit it will destroy the moral energy
of the life and paralyse spiritual force. The only Person
who can criticise human beings is the Holy Spirit. No
human being dare criticise another human being, because
immediately he does he puts himself in a superior position
to the one he criticises. A critic must be removed from
what he criticises. Before a man can criticise a work of
art or piece of music, his information must be complete,
64 STUDIES IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
he must stand away from what he criticises as superior to
it. No human being can ever take that attitude to another
human being, if he does he puts himself in the wrong
position and grieves the Holy Spirit. If a man is con
tinually criticised, he becomes good for nothing, the effect
of the criticism is to knock all the gumption and power
out of him. Criticism is deadly in its effect because it
divides a man s powers and prevents his being a force for
anything. That is never the work of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost alone is in the true position of a critic,
He is able to show what is wrong without wounding and
hurting.
The temper of mind that makes me lynx-eyed to see
where others are wrong does not do them any good, because
the effect of my criticism is to paralyse their powers, which
proves that the criticism did not come from the Holy
Ghost. I have put myself into the position of a superior
person. Jesus says a disciple can never stand off from
another life and criticise it, therefore He advocates an
uncritical temper, " Judge not." Beware of anything that
puts you in the superior person s place.
The counsel of Jesus is to abstain from judging. This
sounds strange at first because the characteristic of the
Holy Spirit in a Christian is to reveal the things that are
wrong, but the strangeness is only on the surface. The
Holy Spirit does reveal what is wrong in others, but His
discernment is never for purposes of criticism, but for
purposes of intercession. When the Holy Spirit reveals
something of the nature of sin and unbelief in another,
His purpose is not to make me feel the smug satisfaction of
a critical spectator Well, thank God, I am not like that ;
but to make me so lay hold of God for that one that God
enables him to turn away from the wrong thing. Never
CHARACTER AND CONDUCT 65
ask God for discernment, because discernment increases
your responsibility terrifically ; and you cannot get out of
it by talking, but only by bearing the life up in inter
cession before God until God puts him right. " If any
man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he
shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not
unto death." (1 John V. 16.) Our Lord makes no room
for criticism in the spiritual life, but He does make room
for discernment and discrimination.
If we let these searchlights go straight down to the root
of our spiritual life we will see why Jesus says Don t
judge, we won t have time to. The whole of the life is to be
lived in the power of God so that He can pour through the
rivers of living water to others. Some of us are so con
cerned about the outflow, that it dries up. We continually
ask Am I of any use ? Jesus tells us how to be of use
Believe in Me, and out of you will flow rivers of living
water.
" Judge not, that ye be not judged." If we let that
maxim of Our Lord s sink into our heart we will find
how it hauls us up. " Judge not " why we are always at
it ! The average Christian is the most penetratingly
critical individual, there is nothing of the likeness of Jesus
about him. A critical temper is a contradiction to all
Our Lord s teaching. Jesus says of criticism, apply it to
yourself, never to anyone else. " Why dost thou judge