SERMON XXXVIII.

A CHRISTIAN FEAST.

PREACHED AT EASTER FESTIVAL.

Luke, xiv., 13-14.-When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

To our thanksgivings for the resurrection of Christ we should unite the performance of such works as shall have recompense at the resurrection of the just.-In our text, also, the resurrection and charity are joined.

Narrate the history of these words.-Our Lord had been reflected on for eating with publicans.-Now he accepts the invitation of one of the chief Pharisees-they watched hir -the bait likely to take was healing a dropsy-but it was the Sabbath. Jesus asked them, "Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath-day?" but they could not answer him.

Now, though they had spoiled the grace of the entertainment by making his table a snare, &c., yet he would turn it to a spiritual entertainment; not forbidding their feasts, but regulating them. When he marked how "they chose out the chief rooms," he took occasion to inculcate a lesson of humility: "When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; and he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place: and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit

at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Having preached humility, he goes on to show a still more excellent way—charity. Observing the guests to be friends, relatives, and rich neighbours, he tells his host (not forbidding this mutual kindness between relatives, but reminding him that there may be no virtue, no charity in this), instead of the rich, call the poor; instead of kindred, call the needy strangers; instead of friends and neighbours who do not need a meal from thee, and can afford thee as good cheer in return-instead of these, "call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind;" such as cannot repay thee! That is hospitality of the noblest kind: it is perfect charity, and shall be "recompensed at the resurrection of the just."

(To-morrow is the feast-day of "Thanksgiving," and this evening is the preparation. "Provide those things necessa ry, and give something to the poor." (The first you have already done.) See how our Lord again connects these two things in the text.-But have I said this in reference to to-morrow? To-morrow is not thine! "What thou doest, do quickly.")

I. A general precept for almsdeeds: "A charge to them that are rich"-spoken to all through the Master of the house.

II. The precept is mixed with counsel and advice as to the manner, measure, rules of proportion, and decency in alms-with our own hands, diligently, cheerfully, plentifully-openly sometimes, secretly at others and with condescending kindness; such good nature as is implied in, " When thou makest a feast," &c.

III. The objects-the poor indeed-the really helpless. IV. The inducement and motive: "At the resurrection of the just."

I. A general precept for almsdeeds.

The providence of God expects that you shall look from your high and slippery places on those who, lying at your

feet, can fall no lower. So varied are God's dispensations, that " many a hired servant in our Father's house has bread enough, and to spare," while many a son, and he not always a prodigal, is ready to perish with hunger. And though David "never saw the righteous forsaken, or his seed begging their bread," yet many are very abject; for an equality of condition can never be expected in this world: "The poor shall never cease out of the land." God has herein provided you, I will not say with hewers of wood, but with means of spiritual improvement; for, "Whensoever ye will, ye may do them good." Yet a little while, and many of these Lazaruses will be received into the heavenly mansion, though here "no man cared for their souls." If the beggar act his part well on this great stage, he shall go off with as loud a plaudit as Lazarus; and if the poor be not the pious man, yet God makes us his instruments of relief.

Nor is this left to our choice; it is a command: "Charge them that are rich in this world that they be ready to give, glad to distribute; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life."

Hence among the Jews the form of asking relief was, "Give me, as God has appointed or bidden you to do." Although it may not mean we are to do this at all times, yet it means much.

First. Our Lord would have us get the habit of charity; and this can only be attained by frequent acts of benevolence. If we give not willingly, constantly, or, at least, very frequently, we have still to learn and seek this habit of charity; for a habit is when we have gained the point upon ourselves, to work as we ought with little or no difficulty.

Secondly. Some extraordinary object of compassion may lie so heavily on the conscience, as to destroy the vital principle of grace if we turn our face away from its call. The priest and Levite were both condemned by Jesus, as if they had been accessories in killing the wounded man: nay, principals also.

Thirdly. A vehement affectuous setting the heart on earth is a state of sin and death; and though conscience may

plead not guilty to any gross wickedness, yet it is adjudged that, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also!" What is enough, then, to bestow, if there be danger in doing little? All you can spare from your own requirements? That will not advance us one step; it is only raising another objection. What is a superabundance to some is scarcely a competence to others in different circumstances. No bounds can be assigned. * ** Christian prudence; that is, well-guided piety or conscience wisely directed. Paul goes not much farther: he would have set times for pious uses, and these so near together as to keep the trade of charity active. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him." When he comes to specify the sum, he says not one tenth or one twentieth, but "as God hath prospered you."

If it should be said this duty is so ill defined that it is dif ficult to know when our righteousness exceeds that of those who "shall by no means enter into the kingdom," instead of disputing, fall to practising and abounding in the work of the Lord; this is to take the safe and high way to heaven.*

II. The precept is mixed with counsel and advice as to the manner, measure, rules of proportion, and decency in alms, &e.

This differs much from that other saying, "Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor." But it is plain that this was never proposed by Christ to but one, and his case was singular. Our Lord saw that he was as worldly as he was wealthy, and that it was necessary for his salvation to part him and his great possessions. Good amends would have been made him—the privilege of becoming a peculiar follower of Jesus, and, perhaps, the power of working miracles. But the generality of mankind are left free. He who lied to the Holy Ghost was told, "The land was in thine own power." And of those who sold all it was said, "Great grace was on them all."

In the text our Lord does not limit the Pharisee in this matter, but implies that it is lawful for him to keep so much * Trapp, on “Charge them," &c.

as would leave him in a condition of sometimes making a feast. I impose not on you the Formian law, which permitted the citizens of Rome, in the most flourishing state of their empire, to spend no more than a certain sum at a feast; or the Sempronian law, which allowed no more for a marriage feast than would amount to a crown of the sun in the modern coin. But though it is not said, "Hitherto shalt thou go, and no farther"—for abundantly enough and to spare is allowed at a feast, as may be inferred from our Lord's own practice when He treated the multitude, and "they gathered up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full" yet there is danger when the rich only feast one another; else the caution, "When thou shalt have eaten, and art full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord," never would have been given.-None are less likely to remember God than those who lie down upon beds of ivory. first great festival we read of was when "Abraham made a great feast, the same day that Isaac was weaned"-no better man-no juster occasion-for it arose from gratitude to God-yet it ended in Abraham's sorrow and Ishmael's banishment.

The

If God declared by the prophet Isaiah that he was displeased with the fasts of the Jews because they did not join alms with them, much more our feasts. Our Saviour indicates the way: "When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind;" that is, make one sometimes on purpose to solace and relieve them. We have here implied,

1. A seasonable advice to those who have not the generosity to give, so long as they have the power to keep anything, but talk of bequeathing much when it is no longer their own; thus tempting others to pray for their death.

Jesus would have us do this before there is nothing left for us to do but to feast the worms. It is safer to have giv en without power of revocation-(Mrs. Graham gave one tenth)-safer to distribute with your own hands than to trust to others greater consolation to see the effects with your own eyes, "Grow not weary:" this implies always labour. ing at it-this is sowing-and sowing plentifully—it is lay