Thus we are to put before men what they are capable of appreciating. Not by any merits of ours, God has given us admission to His fellowship; He has given us great things and small things. We are not to be selfish misers, we are to be anxious to communicate all; but we are to be discriminating. Kindness, self-sacrifice, care for their interests, and their whole life—that all men can appreciate, and we are to give it to all. But we are not to shriek the highesttruths of religion at the street corner. We are to wait till people show a desire for the deepest things before we offer them religion. There is to be reserve in communicating religious privileges and religious truths.
Such was the method of the early Church. It went out into the world. It let all the world see the beauty of its life, the glory of its brotherhood, the splendour of its liberality. It made men feel that Christians were the friends of God. But it did not teach them the secrets of its life—its Creed, its Eucharist, its Prayer—till they were ready for them, and showed their readiness at least by inquiry. The Church would explain herself in apologies and dissipate misconceptions, but it was not her way to press her innermost truths upon the indifferent.
At the same time the Church has not an esoteric system, like the Pagan mysteries, or the schools of Gnosticism. These Gnostics would have only the intellectual admitted to the mysteries of God. That was not the Church’s way; her way was to teach every man (who would come with faith), that she might present everyman perfectly initiated in Jesus Christ.[83] The Church believed that nothing was necessary for the highest union with God but a simple sense of sin and faith in God, in His Son, in His Spirit. Nothing was necessary but these qualities of wanting and trusting, which are possible to all men. Her cry was—“Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” Only, let them come thirsty!
And surely that method which belonged to the early Church—although no doubt it was capable of being abused—is yet the true and best method. Let the Church show her compassion and goodness and geniality to all men, but not press upon them the mysteries of God until, under her discipline and teaching, they begin to show some disposition to receive them. This is a principle which admits of very different applications in a heathen country, in preaching religion among nominal Christians, and in the social intercourse of individuals; but it admits of some application everywhere. And above all let us take care that the Church appears before men’s eyes as offering provision of spiritual privileges not forthose who can pay for them, but for those who have some measure of spiritual appetite.
IMPARTIAL CONSIDERATENESS
The Christian is to be discriminating, but not niggardly. On the contrary, recognizing the readiness of God to give in response to human prayer and effort, he will exhibit a like impartial benevolence towards all men. This is the last of the three characteristics of the Christian character which our Lord enjoins: impartial benevolence proceeding from its own experience and knowledge of the divine character.
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? 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? All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
As reported by St. Luke, our Lord gives a commentary on “Knock, and it shallbe opened unto you.” For He gives us the parable of one who comes at an inconveniently late hour, and knocks at the door of a neighbour’s house, and demands food for a friend who has unexpectedly arrived. And our Lord represents how the owner of the house is at last unwillingly overcome by the importunity of the applicant, and consents to rise and give his neighbour what he wants.
Our Lord then in His proverbial way lays down the general principle that importunity—asking, seeking, knocking—at last overcomes all obstacles and obtains what it wants. And we notice that our Lord first arouses attention by the indiscriminate assertion of this general principle. Having done that, when the attention of men was arrested, He on different occasions—for those who had ears to hear—modified it, or gave it its more definite meaning.
Such modifications or exacter definitions are the following: “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them and ye shall have them” (St. Mark xi. 24). “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall bedone unto you” (St. John xv. 7). “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive” (St. John xvi. 24). It is not too much to say that all these three statements are in effect identical. To ask in Christ’s name is to ask in accordance with Christ’s will, and this brings the third statement into identity with the second. We can only, as intelligent sons of our Father, “believe that we have received” requests which we know to be in accordance with His mind. Thus the first statement, in common with the other two, makes the effective prayer the prayer which rises in intelligent correspondence with the revealed will and character of God.