"Take heed that ye do not your righteousness
before men, to be seen of them."
Matthew 6:1, margin .
The words of Christ on the mount were an expression
of that which had been the unspoken
teaching of His life, but which the people had
failed to comprehend. They could not understand
how, having such great power, He neglected to use
it in securing what they regarded as the chief good.
Their spirit and motives and methods were the
opposite of His. While they claimed to be very jealous
for the honor of the law, self-glory was the real object
which they sought; and Christ would make it manifest
to them that the lover of self is a transgressor of
the law.
But the principles cherished by the Pharisees are
such as are characteristic of humanity in all ages. The
spirit of Pharisaism is the spirit of human nature; and
as the Saviour showed the contrast between His own
spirit and methods and those of the rabbis, His teaching
is equally applicable to the people of all time.
In the days of Christ the Pharisees were continually
trying to earn the favor of Heaven in order to
secure the worldly honor and prosperity which they
regarded as the reward of virtue. At the same time
they paraded their acts of charity before the people
in order to attract their attention and gain a reputation
for sanctity.
Jesus rebuked their ostentation, declaring that God
does not recognize such service and that the flattery
and admiration of the people, which they so eagerly
sought, was the only reward they would ever receive.
"When thou doest alms," He said, "let not thy left
hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine
alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth
in secret Himself shall reward thee openly."
In these words Jesus did not teach that acts of
kindness should always be kept secret. Paul the apostle,
writing by the Holy Spirit, did not conceal the
generous self-sacrifice of the Macedonian Christians,
but told of the grace that Christ had wrought in them,
and thus others were imbued with the same spirit. He
also wrote to the church at Corinth and said, "Your
zeal hath stirred up very many." 2 Corinthians 9:2,
R.V.
Christ's own words make His meaning plain, that
in acts of charity the aim should not be to secure
praise and honor from men. Real godliness never
prompts an effort at display. Those who desire words
of praise and flattery, and feed upon them as a sweet
morsel, are Christians in name only.
By their good works, Christ's followers are to bring
glory, not to themselves, but to Him through whose
grace and power they have wrought. It is through
the Holy Spirit that every good work is accomplished,
and the Spirit is given to glorify, not the receiver, but
the Giver. When the light of Christ is shining in the
soul, the lips will be filled with praise and
thanksgiving to God. Your prayers, your performance of
duty, your benevolence, your self-denial, will not be
the theme of your thought or conversation. Jesus will
be magnified, self will be hidden, and Christ will
appear as all in all.
We are to give in sincerity, not to make a show of
our good deeds, but from pity and love to the suffering
ones. Sincerity of purpose, real kindness of heart,
is the motive that Heaven values. The soul that is
sincere in its love, wholehearted in its devotion, God
regards as more precious than the golden wedge of
Ophir.
We are not to think of reward, but of service; yet
kindness shown in this spirit will not fail of its
recompense. "Thy Father which seeth in secret Himself
shall reward thee openly." While it is true that God
Himself is the great Reward, that embraces every
other, the soul receives and enjoys Him only as it
becomes assimilated to Him in character. Only like
can appreciate like. It is as we give ourselves to God
for the service of humanity that He gives Himself
to us.
No one can give place in his own heart and life
for the stream of God's blessing to flow to others,
without receiving in himself a rich reward. The hillsides
and plains that furnish a channel for the mountain
streams to reach the sea suffer no loss thereby. That
which they give is repaid a hundredfold. For the
stream that goes singing on its way leaves behind
its gift of verdure and fruitfulness. The grass on its
banks is a fresher green, the trees have a richer verdure,
the flowers are more abundant. When the earth
lies bare and brown under the summer's parching
heat, a line of verdure marks the river's course; and
the plain that opened her bosom to bear the mountain's
treasure to the sea is clothed with freshness and
beauty, a witness to the recompense that God's grace
imparts to all who give themselves as a channel for its
outflow to the world.
This is the blessing of those who show mercy to
the poor. The prophet Isaiah says, "Is it not to deal
thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor
that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the
naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not
thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light
break forth as the morning, and thine health shall
spring forth speedily. . . . And the Lord shall guide
thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought: . . .
and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a
spring of water, whose waters fail not." Isaiah 58:7-11.
The work of beneficence is twice blessed. While
he that gives to the needy blesses others, he himself
is blessed in a still greater degree. The grace of Christ
in the soul is developing traits of character that are
the opposite of selfishness,-traits that will refine,
ennoble, and enrich the life. Acts of kindness performed
in secret will bind hearts together, and will draw them
closer to the heart of Him from whom every generous
impulse springs. The little attentions, the small acts
of love and self-sacrifice, that flow out from the life
as quietly as the fragrance from a flower--these constitute
no small share of the blessings and happiness
of life. And it will be found at last that the denial
of self for the good and happiness of others, however
humble and uncommended here, is recognized
in heaven as the token of our union with Him, the
King of glory, who was rich, yet for our sake became
poor.
The deeds of kindness may have been done in
secret, but the result upon the character of the doer
cannot be hidden. If we work with wholehearted
interest as a follower of Christ, the heart will be in
close sympathy with God, and the Spirit of God,
moving upon our spirit, will call forth the sacred
harmonies of the soul in answer to the divine touch.
He who gives increased talents to those who have
made a wise improvement of the gifts entrusted to
them is pleased to acknowledge the service of His
believing people in the Beloved, through whose grace
and strength they have wrought. Those who have
sought for the development and perfection of Christian
character by exercising their faculties in good
works, will, in the world to come, reap that which
they have sown. The work begun upon earth will
reach its consummation in that higher and holier life
to endure throughout eternity.
"When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as
the hypocrites are." Matthew 6:5 .
The Pharisees had stated hours for prayer; and
when, as often came to pass, they were abroad at the
appointed time, they would pause wherever they
might be-perhaps in the street or the market place,
amid the hurrying throngs of men-and there in a
loud voice rehearse their formal prayers. Such
worship, offered merely for self-glorification, called
forth
unsparing rebuke from Jesus. He did not, however,
discountenance public prayer, for He Himself prayed
with His disciples and in the presence of the multitude.
But He teaches that private prayer is not to be
made public. In secret devotion our prayers are to
reach the ears of none but the prayer-hearing God.
No curious ear is to receive the burden of such
petitions.
"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet." Have
a place for secret prayer. Jesus had select places
for communion with God, and so should we. We
need often to retire to some spot, however humble,
where we can be alone with God.
"Pray to thy Father which is in secret." In the name
of Jesus we may come into God's presence with the
confidence of a child. No man is needed to act as a
mediator. Through Jesus we may open our hearts to
God as to one who knows and loves us.
In the secret place of prayer, where no eye but
God's can see, no ear but His can hear, we may pour
out our most hidden desires and longings to the Father
of infinite pity, and in the hush and silence of the
soul that voice which never fails to answer the cry of
human need will speak to our hearts.
"The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."
James 5:11. He waits with unwearied love to hear the
confessions of the wayward and to accept their penitence.
He watches for some return of gratitude from
us, as the mother watches for the smile of recognition
from her beloved child. He would have us understand
how earnestly and tenderly His heart yearns over us.
He invites us to take our trials to His sympathy, our
sorrows to His love, our wounds to His healing, our
weakness to His strength, our emptiness to His fullness.
Never has one been disappointed who came
unto Him. "They looked unto Him, and were lightened:
and their faces were not ashamed." Psalm 34:5.
Those who seek God in secret telling the Lord
their needs and pleading for help, will not plead in
vain. "Thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall
reward thee openly." As we make Christ our daily
companion we shall feel that the powers of an unseen
world are all around us; and by looking unto
Jesus we shall become assimilated to His image. By
beholding we become changed. The character is
softened, refined, and ennobled for the heavenly
kingdom. The sure result of our intercourse and
fellowship with our Lord will be to increase piety, purity,
and fervor. There will be a growing intelligence in
prayer. We are receiving a divine education, and this
is illustrated in a life of diligence and zeal.
The soul that turns to God for its help, its support,
its power, by daily, earnest prayer, will have noble
aspirations, clear perceptions of truth and duty, lofty
purposes of action, and a continual hungering and
thirsting after righteousness. By maintaining a connection
with God, we shall be enabled to diffuse to
others, through our association with them, the light,
the peace, the serenity, that rule in our hearts. The
strength acquired in prayer to God, united with
persevering effort in training the mind in thoughtfulness
and care-taking, prepares one for daily duties and
keeps the spirit in peace under all circumstances.
If we draw near to God, He will put a word in
our mouth to speak for Him, even praise unto His
name. He will teach us a strain from the song of the
angels, even thanksgiving to our heavenly Father. In
every act of life, the light and love of an indwelling
Saviour will be revealed. Outward troubles cannot
reach the life that is lived by faith in the Son of God.
"When ye pray, use not vain repetitions,
as the heathen do." Matthew 6:7 .
The heathen looked upon their prayers as having
in themselves merit to atone for sin. Hence the longer
the prayer the greater the merit. If they could become
holy by their own efforts they would have something
in themselves in which to rejoice, some ground for
boasting. This idea of prayer is an outworking of
the principle of self-expiation which lies at the
foundation of all systems of false religion. The Pharisees
had adopted this pagan idea of prayer, and it is by
no means extinct in our day, even among those who
profess to be Christians. The repetition of set,
customary phrases, when the heart feels no need of God,
is of the same character as the "vain repetitions" of
the heathen.
Prayer is not an expiation for sin; it has no virtue
or merit of itself. All the flowery words at our command
are not equivalent to one holy desire. The most
eloquent prayers are but idle words if they do not
express the true sentiments of the heart. But the
prayer that comes from an earnest heart, when the
simple wants of the soul are expressed, as we would
ask an earthly friend for a favor, expecting it to be
granted--this is the prayer of faith. God does not
desire our ceremonial compliments, but the unspoken
cry of the heart broken and subdued with a sense of
its sin and utter weakness finds its way to the Father
of all mercy.
"When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites."
Matthew 6:16 .
The fasting which the word of God enjoins is something
more than a form. It does not consist merely
in refusing food, in wearing sackcloth, in sprinkling
ashes upon the head. He who fasts in real sorrow for
sin will never court display.
The object of the fast which God calls upon us to
keep is not to afflict the body for the sin of the soul,
but to aid us in perceiving the grievous character of
sin, in humbling the heart before God and receiving
His pardoning grace. His command to Israel was,
"Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn
unto the Lord your God." Joel 2:13.
It will avail nothing for us to do penance or to
flatter ourselves that by our own works we shall merit
or purchase an inheritance among the saints. When
the question was asked Christ, "What shall we do,
that we might work the works of God?" He answered,
"This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him
whom He hath sent." John 6:28, 29. Repentance is
turning from self to Christ; and when we receive
Christ so that through faith He can live His life in
us, good works will be manifest.
Jesus said, "When thou fastest, anoint thine head,
and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to
fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret." Matthew
6:17, 18. Whatever is done to the glory of God
is to be done with cheerfulness, not with sadness and
gloom. There is nothing gloomy in the religion of
Jesus. If Christians give the impression by a mournful
attitude that they have been disappointed in their
Lord, they misrepresent His character and put arguments
into the mouth of His enemies. Though in words
they may claim God as their Father, yet in gloom and
sorrow they present to the world the aspect of orphans.
Christ desires us to make His service appear attractive,
as it really is. Let the self-denials and the secret
heart trials be revealed to the compassionate Saviour.
Let the burdens be left at the foot of the cross, and
go on your way rejoicing in His love who first loved
you. Men may never know of the work going on
secretly between the soul and God, but the result of
the Spirit's work upon the heart will be manifest to
all, for He "which seeth in secret, shall reward thee
openly."
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth." Matthew 6:19 .
Treasure laid up on earth will not endure; thieves
break through and steal; moth and rust corrupt; fire
and storm sweep away your possessions. And "where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Treasure
laid up on the earth will engross the mind to the
exclusion of heavenly things.
The love of money was the ruling passion in the
Jewish age. Worldliness usurped the place of God
and religion in the soul. So it is now. Avaricious greed
for wealth exerts such a fascinating, bewitching influence
over the life that it results in perverting the
nobility and corrupting the humanity of men until
they are drowned in perdition. The service of Satan
is full of care, perplexity, and wearing labor, and the
treasure men toil to accumulate on earth is only for
a season.
Jesus said, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
The instruction is to "lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven." It is for your own interest to secure heavenly
riches. These alone, of all that you possess, are
really yours. The treasure laid up in heaven is
imperishable. No fire or flood can destroy it, no thief
despoil it, no moth or rust corrupt it; for it is in the
keeping of God.
This treasure, which Christ esteems as precious
above all estimate, is "the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints." Ephesians 1:18. The disciples
of Christ are called His jewels, His precious
and peculiar treasure. He says, "They shall be as the
stones of a crown." "I will make a man more precious
than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of
Ophir." Zechariah 9:16; Isaiah 13:12. Christ looks
upon His people in their purity and perfection as the
reward of all His sufferings, His humiliation, and His
love, and the supplement of His glory--Christ, the
great Center, from whom radiates all glory.
And we are permitted to unite with Him in the
great work of redemption and to be sharers with Him
in the riches which His death and suffering have won.
The apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians:
"What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are
not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ
at His coming? for ye are our glory and joy."
1 Thessalonians 2:19, 20. This is the treasure for which
Christ bids us labor. Character is the great harvest
of life. And every word or deed that through the
grace of Christ shall kindle in one soul an impulse
that reaches heavenward, every effort that tends to
the formation of a Christlike character, is laying up
treasure in heaven.
Where the treasure is, there the heart will be. In
every effort to benefit others, we benefit ourselves.
He who gives money or time for spreading the gospel
enlists his own interest and prayers for the work, and
for the souls to be reached through it; his affections
go out to others, and he is stimulated to greater devotion
to God, that he may be enabled to do them the
greatest good.
And at the final day, when the wealth of earth shall
perish, he who has laid up treasure in heaven will
behold that which his life has gained. If we have
given heed to the words of Christ, then, as we gather
around the great white throne, we shall see souls who
have been saved through our agency, and shall know
that one has saved others, and these still others--a
large company brought into the haven of rest as the
result of our labors, there to lay their crowns at Jesus'
feet, and praise Him through the ceaseless ages of
eternity. With what joy will the worker for Christ
behold these redeemed ones, who share the glory of
the Redeemer! How precious will heaven be to those
who have been faithful in the work of saving souls!
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God." Colossians 3:1.
"If . . . thine eye be single, thy whole
body shall be full of light."
Matthew 6:22 .
Singleness of purpose, wholehearted devotion to
God, is the condition pointed out by the Saviour's
words. Let the purpose be sincere and unwavering
to discern the truth and to obey it at whatever cost,
and you will receive divine enlightenment. Real piety
begins when all compromise with sin is at an end.
Then the language of the heart will be that of the
apostle Paul: "This one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto
those things which are before, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus." "I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom
I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count
them but dung, that I may win Christ." Philippians
3:13, 14, 8.
But when the eye is blinded by the love of self,
there is only darkness. "If thine eye be evil, thy
whole body shall be full of darkness." It was this
fearful darkness that wrapped the Jews in stubborn
unbelief, making it impossible for them to appreciate
the character and mission of Him who came to save
them from their sins.
Yielding to temptation begins in permitting the
mind to waver, to be inconstant in your trust in God.
If we do not choose to give ourselves fully to God then
we are in darkness. When we make any reserve we
are leaving open a door through which Satan can
enter to lead us astray by his temptations. He knows
that if he can obscure our vision, so that the eye of
faith cannot see God, there will be no barrier against
sin.
The prevalence of a sinful desire shows the delusion
of the soul. Every indulgence of that desire
strengthens the soul's aversion to God. In following
the path of Satan's choosing, we are encompassed by
the shadows of evil, and every step leads into deeper
darkness and increases the blindness of the heart.
The same law obtains in the spiritual as in the
natural world. He who abides in darkness will at
last lose the power of vision. He is shut in by a deeper
than midnight blackness; and to him the brightest
noontide can bring no light. He "walketh in darkness,
and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness
hath blinded his eyes." 1 John 2:11. Through
persistently cherishing evil, willfully disregarding the
pleadings of divine love, the sinner loses the love for
good, the desire for God, the very capacity to receive
the light of heaven. The invitation of mercy is still
full of love, the light is shining as brightly as when it
first dawned upon his soul; but the voice falls on
deaf ears, the light on blinded eyes.
No soul is ever finally deserted of God, given up
to his own ways, so long as there is any hope of his
salvation. "Man turns from God, not God from him."
Our heavenly Father follows us with appeals and
warnings and assurances of compassion, until further
opportunities and privileges would be wholly in vain.
The responsibility rests with the sinner. By resisting
the Spirit of God today, he prepares the way for a
second resistance of light when it comes with mightier
power. Thus he passes on from one stage of resistance
to another, until at last the light will fail to
impress, and he will cease to respond in any measure
to the Spirit of God. Then even "the light that is in
thee" has become darkness. The very truth we do
know has become so perverted as to increase the
blindness of the soul.
"No man can serve two masters." Matthew 6:24 .
Christ does not say that man will not or shall not
serve two masters, but that he cannot . The interests
of God and the interests of mammon have no union
or sympathy. Just where the conscience of the Christian
warns him to forbear, to deny himself, to stop,
just there the worldling steps over the line, to indulge
his selfish propensities. On one side of the line is the
self-denying follower of Christ; on the other side is
the self-indulgent world lover, pandering to fashion,
engaging in frivolity, and pampering himself in forbidden
pleasure. On that side of the line the Christian
cannot go.
No one can occupy a neutral position; there is no
middle class, who neither love God nor serve the
enemy of righteousness. Christ is to live in His
human agents and work through their faculties and
act through their capabilities. Their will must be
submitted to His will; they must act with His Spirit. Then
it is no more they that live, but Christ that lives in
them. He who does not give himself wholly to God
is under the control of another power, listening to another
voice, whose suggestions are of an entirely different
character. Half-and-half service places the
human agent on the side of the enemy as a successful
ally of the hosts of darkness. When men who claim
to be soldiers of Christ engage with the confederacy
of Satan, and help along his side, they prove themselves
enemies of Christ. They betray sacred trusts.
They form a link between Satan and the true soldiers,
so that through these agencies the enemy is constantly
working to steal away the hearts of Christ's soldiers.
The strongest bulwark of vice in our world is not
the iniquitous life of the abandoned sinner or the
degraded outcast; it is that life which otherwise appears
virtuous, honorable, and noble, but in which
one sin is fostered, one vice indulged. To the soul
that is struggling in secret against some giant temptation,
trembling upon the very verge of the precipice,
such an example is one of the most powerful
enticements to sin. He who, endowed with high
conceptions of life and truth and honor, does yet willfully
transgress one precept of God's holy law, has
perverted His noble gifts into a lure to sin. Genius,
talent, sympathy, even generous and kindly deeds,
may become decoys of Satan to entice other souls
over the precipice of ruin for this life and the life
to come.
"Love not the world, neither the things that are
in the world. If any man love the world, the love of
the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."
1 John 2:15, 16.
"Be not anxious." Matthew 6:25, R.V .
He who has given you life knows your need of
food to sustain it. He who created the body is not
unmindful of your need of raiment. Will not He
who has bestowed the greater gift bestow also what
is needed to make it complete?
Jesus pointed His hearers to the birds as they
warbled their carols of praise, unencumbered with
thoughts of care, for "they sow not, neither do they
reap;" and yet the great Father provides for their
needs. And He asks, "Are not ye of much more value
than they?" R.V.