(4) “This,” our Lord says, “is the law and the prophets,” that is, this is the principle in which the true spirit of the Old Testament culminates. There was, of course, much in the Old Testament narrower than this and on a lower level; and, as we have seen, our Lord occupied a large part of this sermon in showing us those points in which the Christian law is to supersede the legislation of the Old Testament. But the Old Testament represents throughout a process of growth; and this is the point towards which it tends and in which it culminates. As St. Paul says,“If there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended”—summed up, or accomplished—“in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”[85]
CHAPTER X
FINAL WARNINGS
OUR Lord concludes the Sermon on the Mount with three emphatic and striking warnings. We may paraphrase them thus:—There are two ways in life, the easy way of self-pleasing and the hard way of self-denial. Many are found to seek the first, few to tread the second. But they lead directly away from one another: and the first is the way to death, the second is the way to life.
There are many voices of teachers in the world, speaking fair-sounding words. But not by their words, nor by the results they seem to win, shall men be judged by the Son of Man, but by their characters.
There are many spiritual fabrics which men are raising. They seem the one very much as good as the other; but the test lies in their capacity to last. And no spiritual fabric that is built on anythingelse than the teaching of the Son of Man can endure the strain and stress which will come upon it before the end.
Let us direct our attention to each of these three warnings in turn.
THE TWO WAYS
“Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.”
This is the “doctrine of the two ways.” Human instinct has seized on the metaphor in many parts of the world; the easy way of self-pleasing, the difficult way of duty. It speaks home to every heart, to every intelligence, and nothing needs to be said about it. But I would ask your attention to one question which in our time arises instantly as we read these words—Are we to suppose that our Lord is here saying that at the last issue many will be “lost” and few “saved”? Is this the meaning of “Few be they that find it”?