CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mark 4:21. “We lose much of the significance, if we think of the modern candle and candlestick carried about in the hand. On the contrary, it is the lamp of the house put upon the lampstand, or candelabrum, which is so elevated that any lamp upon it can lighten up all the interior.”
Mark 4:22. Which shall not be manifested.—But that it should be manifested. To be read in close connexion with Mark 4:11-12, on which these words shed a flood of light. God’s purposes are always merciful; His hidings are revealings in disguise.
Mark 4:24. Take heed what ye hear.—There is a discipline of ear, as well as of tongue, hand, etc. Men are held responsible for the opportunities to hear good that they neglect, and for the voluntary exposure of their minds to evil influences. With what measure ye mete.—According to the attention bestowed in hearing the truth, and the diligence used in obeying its behests, will be the profit derived from it. Or there may be a special reference to the duty of handing on to others the spiritual knowledge we have acquired ourselves, and the clearer insight that the instructor himself gains while so doing. The last clause of the verse should probably read simply, And more shall be given to you: God is ever a liberal paymaster. “If ye diligently endeavour to do all the good you can, and teach it to others, the mercy of God will come in to give you both in the present life a sense to take in higher things and a will to do better things, and will add for the future an everlasting reward.”
Mark 4:25. The principle enunciated here is one that applies to every department of life. Nothing succeeds like success, or fails like failure. One thing leads the way to another of the same kind, whether it be triumph or defeat, gain or loss, etc. In the spiritual sphere, in particular, he who possesses the hearing ear and the understanding heart, will find them improve by use; while he who does not cultivate them is in danger of losing them altogether.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Mark 4:21-25
(PARALLEL:Luke 8:16-18.)
Mark 4:22. The manifestation of hidden things.—This is a proverbial saying, applied in various senses, according to the occasion. Before treating it in a general way, we may glance at it in connexion with the particular occasions on which we find it employed in Scripture.
1. Matthew 10:26. Our Lord is there warning His apostles of the enmity and persecution which they must expect to encounter in the discharge of their duty. “My doctrine,” He seems to say, “must by all means, and in spite of all attempts to suppress it, be proclaimed abroad. There is nothing now hid which shall not be revealed; nor has there anything passed in secret between us which shall not be generally made known. Fear not, therefore, but proceed to execute the task assigned you, not by the method of private communication, which is suited only to the instruction of a few confidential disciples, but in whatever way may best serve to spread the gospel abroad.”
2. Luke 12:2. A warning against dissimulation. There will come a day when all hypocrisy will be laid bare, and every man will appear in his true character.
3. The text. As a candle is meant to be elevated on a candlestick, so Christians should not lead a life of seclusion and retirement, but rather let their light shine before men.
I. Perhaps the first case which occurs to one, on hearing this saying, is that of great and atrocious crimes, of which the perpetrators are unknown; acts of violence or wanton mischief, committed under cover of night or remote from observation. A short time usually brings to light the deed; but the author and the circumstances remain a mystery. Such is the case of “an uncertain murder,” for which the Mosaic Law made a remarkable provision (Deuteronomy 21:1-9). Even in this world it is wonderful how things come to light, often with the result of bringing the guilt home to the right door. But for the complete fulfilment of the text we must wait till the Day of Judgment, when no darkness will hide the evil-doer, and there will be no need of pursuers to track him to his hiding-place; “his own iniquities,” etc. (Proverbs 5:22). Then it will be useless for one of the party to come forward and betray his accomplices; for whatsoever the conspirators of mischief “have spoken in darkness,” etc. (Luke 12:3). A necessary consequence of the exposure of guilt will be the manifestation of innocence. Now, in our ignorance of the real offender, suspicions fall upon many innocent persons, who, if they cannot perfectly clear themselves, continue under a cloud all their lives. This is a sore trial; but the Day of Judgment will set it right. See Isaiah 58:8; Psalms 37:6.
II. Another great heap of hidden things, one day to be revealed, are the thoughts of men’s hearts, and the secret springs of their actions. At present everything connected with the inner working of the mind is a mystery. Of all covered things none is so close and impenetrable as the heart of man (Jeremiah 17:9). But, happily, “all things are naked,” etc. (Hebrews 4:13). God is able to unlock the doors of this cabinet, and expose all the secret drawers, recesses, and hiding-places contained in it. And when we see the multifarious furniture of a single heart—thoughts, desires, motives, passions, and affections—ransacked and sifted before the eyes of the universe, we shall perceive an additional propriety in the text. What a disclosure! Who could have imagined that those who preserved so amiable and sanctified an exterior should in their hearts be proud, covetous, sensual, devilish? But where gross hypocrisy is not chargeable, yet what a miserable figure will the very best and purest exertions of human virtue make, when manifested, with all their blemishes, in the searching light of God’s countenance! Which of us will then appear to have “walked before Him and been perfect”? to have loved Him “with all our heart,” etc.? to have set up no idols, no rebellious wills, no carnal affections?
Mark 4:24. How to hear sermons.—“Take heed what ye hear” really means “Take heed how ye hear,” in what spirit ye hear, with what attention, with what profit, as appears from the words which follow.
I. Ways in which men bring upon themselves spiritual hurt and loss by their manner of hearing God’s Word.—
1. If they hear without attention or feeling or desire, then they become so used to the words by hearing them often, they so harden their hearts by their careless, godless practice, that they become like the hard-beaten road from which the devil catches away the seed directly it has fallen. They have this of not attending, that they cannot attend; of closing their ears, that they lose the power of hearing even when they would listen; and often they go down to the grave deaf to God’s warnings, deaf to the sound of preacher or angel or the voice of Christ, to be awakened from that deafness by the voice of the archangel, and by the trump of God calling to judgment.
2. Men hear and pay attention; they are moved by what is said or by what they read: but they rise up and forget; or they begin to act and leave off with failing zeal and sinking interest; or their sins or the world choke the seed, and it becometh unfruitful.
3. God withdraws His Spirit from those who neglect His grace; and without that Spirit no man can draw near to Him.
II. The great danger of not heeding how we hear in respect to sermons.—
1. It will avail a man nothing to listen in a judging, criticising spirit. On the contrary, it will make the service an exercise of pride to him instead of humility: he will learn nothing, because he has not the spirit of a learner, but the feeling of a teacher, a judge, and a superior.
2. It will serve a man nothing if he listens to a sermon without applying it to himself.
3. If any person delights in the manner or words of a sermon, or in the preacher of it, rather than in the matter, the thing preached will profit him nothing. Such an one loses the kernel in admiring the shell.
4. A man who talks much about a sermon after it is over is not one most likely to profit by it. It has been well said that the best sermon is that which sends a congregation away not talking, but thinking. Those who feel most speak least. St. Augustine went to preach to some barbarous people in order to persuade them to abandon a cruel custom to which they were used. “I preached mightily,” he says, “to the best of my power to pluck out so cruel and unchristian a custom from their hearts and minds, and to banish it by my exhorting. I did not think, however, that I had accomplished anything when I heard them applauding, but when I saw them weeping. For they shewed by their applause that they were instructed and pleased, but by their tears that they were turned.”
5. Many people think that they require a sermon several times a week to keep them in the right way, and to fill them with heavenly thoughts. They are mistaken; they require no more preaching than they can hear upon the Lord’s Day, except at particular seasons and for particular instruction. But what they do require is thought. It is want of thought that makes sermons useless, and afflictions useless, and warnings useless.—W. E. Heygate,.
Mark 4:25. How progress is possible.—The law laid down is this: that when we use powers and faculties, we gain more power and more faculty; that when we neglect to use them, they decrease, and at last perish. Such is the case with bodily organs, but such is still more the case with mental organs. Practice makes perfect, it is said. But notice this: it is not undirected practice, or the random use of any power, but it is the carefully arranged practice which improves it. In other words, it is practice directed towards an end. Robert Houdon, the celebrated French juggler, tells us how he acquired one element of his power, an extreme quickness and accuracy of observation. His father took him through one of the boulevards of Paris, crowded with people, and led him slowly past a shop window, in which were exhibited a great multitude of different articles, and then made him tell how many he had been able to notice and recollect. This practice so strengthened and quickened the perceptive powers, that at last he became able to recollect every article in a large shop window by only walking past it a single time. The more he exercised the faculty, the easier it became. The more he had of this quickness of observation, the more was given to him. In the same way acrobats and gymnasts, by careful and systematic training, develop herculean strength of limb and power of equipoise. As one improves any power by careful training, he gets more. He has much, and more is given him. But if we neglect to exercise our powers, they degenerate, and at last disappear. The fishes in the Mammoth Cave have lost their eyes by not using them in that Egyptian darkness. So if men do not employ any power, they at last become incapable of using it. The gland which does not secrete diminishes in bulk; the nerve that does not transmit impressions wastes away; the muscle which does not contract withers. The intellectual and moral organs, like the physical, are liable to atrophy, from disease. If a person does not take pains to observe, and to remember what he observes, the power of seeing and remembering gradually decays. He who does not think seriously on anything will become frivolous, and not be able to apply his mind at all. To him who hath knowledge more shall be given, and he shall have abundance. Knowledge in the mind is such a vital and vitalising power, that it makes the intellect active to see, to learn, to remember. Whoever travels with an empty, untaught mind comes back nearly as ignorant as he went; but the geologist, the artist, the man who has read geography and history, or who knows well any industry or manufacture or art, is able to see something new wherever he goes. Just as the merchant must send out some freight in his vessel in order to bring back a cargo, the traveller must take some knowledge with him abroad if he wishes to bring any with him home. We have heard of persons who have stayed in their house and avoided society until it became impossible for them to leave their home or the room. We owe something to society; we all can be of use to others by some kindly, cheerful companion ship; but these people have buried their talent in the earth, until at last it is taken from them. Solitary confinement, when inflicted as a punishment, is considered a very severe one; but these persons inflict it on themselves—living for years alone, and at last unable to go out, even if they wish to do so. So people who do not give lose at last the power of giving. Let us never forget the epitaph on a tombstone, which teaches the true law on this subject: “What I spent, I had; what I kept, I lost; what I gave, I have still.” So likewise those who do not care to see the truth lose at last the power of seeing it. I have known lawyers to whom justice and truth were supreme—honourable, high-minded men, who never condescended to any low cunning, but only used those arguments to convince others which were convincing to themselves. Such men, as they grow older, grow wiser, stronger, greater. They love truth, and truth is given to them, and they have abundance. But we have known others, members of this same grand profession, whose only object was to win their cause, and that in any way. They said, not what they believed true, but what they thought they might make seem true to others. Their object was, not to convince; but to deceive, to confuse, to bewilder, to mislead, to win their cause by appeals to prejudice, to ignorance, to passion. And so at last they confuse their own sense, and lose the power of distinguishing between truth and falsehood, right and wrong. They have buried their talent in the earth, and it is taken from them. We may state the law thus: “Any habitual course of conduct changes voluntary actions into automatic or involuntary actions.” This can be illustrated by the physical constitution of man. Some of our bodily acts are voluntary, some involuntary; some, partly one and partly the other. The heart beats seventy or eighty times a minute all our life long, without any will of ours. The lungs, in the same way, perpetually inhale and exhale breath, whether we intend it or not; and if the lungs should suspend their action, we should die. But we can exercise a little volition over the action of the lungs; we can breathe voluntarily, taking long breaths. Thus the action of the lungs is partly automatic and partly voluntary, while the mechanical action of the heart is wholly automatic, and the chemical action of the digestive organs is the same. But some acts, voluntary at first, become, by habit, automatic. A child beginning to walk takes every single step by a separate act of will; beginning to read, he looks at every single letter. After a while he walks and reads by a habit, which has become involuntary. So also it is with man’s moral and spiritual nature. By practice he forms habits, and habitual action is automatic action, requiring no exercise of will except at the beginning of the series of acts. The law of association does the rest. So to him who hath shall be given. As voluntary acts are transformed into automatic, the will is set free to devote itself to higher efforts and larger attainments. If it were not for some such law of accumulation as this, the work of life would have to be begun for ever anew. Formation of character would be impossible. We should be incapable of progress, our whole strength being always employed in battling with our first enemies, learning evermore anew our earliest lessons. But, by our present constitution, he who has taken one step can take another, and life may become a perpetual advance from good to better. This is the one and sufficient reward of all virtue, the one sufficient punishment of all wrongdoing, that right actions and wrong actions gradually harden into character. The reward of the good man is, that having chosen truth and pursued it, it becomes at last a part of his own nature, a happy companion of all his life. The condemnation of the bad man is, that when light has come into the world he has chosen darkness, and so the light within him becomes darkness. Do not envy the bad man’s triumphs and worldly successes. Every one of them is a rivet fastening him to evil, making it more difficult for him to return to good, making it impossible but for the redeeming power of God, which has become incarnate in Christ, in order to seek and save the lost. The highest graces of all—faith, hope, and love—obey the same law. By trusting in God when we hardly see Him at all, we come at last to realise, as by another sense, His Divine presence in all things. Faith in God, at first an effort, at last becomes automatic and instinctive. Thus, too, faith in immortality solidifies into an instinct. As we live from and for infinite, Divine, eternal realities, these become a part of our knowledge. Socrates did not convince himself of his immortality much by his arguments. But by spending a long life in intimate converse with the highest truths and noblest ends, he at last reached the point where he could not help believing in immortality. The moral of all this is evident. Every man, every woman, every child, has some talent, some power, some opportunity, of getting good and doing good. Each day offers us some occasion of using this talent. As we use it, it gradually increases, improves, becomes native to the character. As we neglect it, it dwindles, withers, and disappears. This is the stern but benign law by which we live. This makes character real and enduring; this makes progress possible; this turns men into angels and virtue into goodness.—J. F. Clarke.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mark 4:21-22. Christian life.—
I. As a revelation.—
1. It is to be luminous.
2. It is to be properly placed in the midst of society. The gospel is a great revealing power. In all truth there is power of exposure and judgment; how much more in the highest truth of all!
II. As a responsibility.—
1. Stewardship in doctrine.
2. Stewardship in action.
III. As a law.—
1. Usefulness is productiveness.
2. Indolence is ruin. The kingdom of Christ is thus shewn to be founded on law. Man never becomes more than a subject: Christ never less than a king.—J. Parker, D.D.
Mark 4:21. Usefulness.—The duty which no one can disclaim, the test which no one may evade, and the praise which no one will despise are all included in the homely word “usefulness.”
I. The inevitableness of usefulness for every one who is in spirit, as well as profession, a true disciple of Christ. The use of light, as well as its function, is to shine. So a Christian is a Christian, not merely for the personal object of his individual salvation, but that he may glorify God in saving others. True, he must divest himself of self-consciousness. Also, he must be constantly on his guard against religious priggishness. But he is to shine as a light in the world, if he would not be missing one of the chief ends of his salvation.
II. The scope of a Christian’s usefulness is very wide. “Before men,” Christ said, His disciples were to make their light shine. But there are several spheres of usefulness, in their order of importance and necessity, more or less open to us all.
1. Wherever else we may or may not be useful, let us, above all things, endeavour to be useful at home. Our first duties are with those who are nearest and dearest to us.
2. In society we can be very useful, if we are only earnestly bent on it, and cultivate tact, modesty, and self-effacement.
III. The method of usefulness.—
1. All our usefulness, whatever it may be, must depend on our character. Christ in the heart must precede Christ on the lips.
2. The discharge of our daily duty will immensely affect our influence with others.
3. Friendship gives another scope for usefulness.
4. For each one, if he cares to trust it and to use it, Christ offers some special service, according to capacity, age, and gift.—Bishop Thorold.
Christ’s methods in revelation.—He is the person that lights the candle or the lamp; and in explanation of His teaching by parables He says in effect: “Do not think that I would be so foolish as to defeat and counterwork My own purpose, by bringing any arbitrary or needless obscurities into My teaching. I do not light My lamp of revelation, and then put it away under a bushel of dark sayings, which might have been made light and clear.” But the parable, which is a veiling of the light—which is, if not a putting it under a bushel, at least putting a bit of coloured glass between you and it—the parable is given for the distinct purpose, not that the light that streams through it may be hidden, but that the light may be manifested. If there is any darkness, be sure that it is darkness which is intended to help the spread of the light. And if there be obscurities, they are meant, by stimulating thought to search, by arresting attention, and by a hundred other effects on us to whom the revelation comes, to make us more vigorous in our pursuit after the truth; and on God’s side are adopted, not in order that He may ensnare us and give Himself excuses for punishing, but that He may temper the light to the weak eye, and so make it capable of becoming strong enough to bear more light.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
The guiding light.—What does a man light a candle for? That it may give light. What has God given me my conscience and my power of spiritual perception for, but in order that it may be the guiding light of my whole nature, not that it may be put under a bushel or under a bed? The light which is in us falls under the same laws as the light without us in the revelation of Jesus Christ. Nay, more, the light which is in the Christian soul is Christ. For it is the conscience illuminated by His indwelling, and the spirit made capable of perceiving the truth because it possesses Christ within, of which He is here speaking. And what He says is this: “I kindled the light in your heart and mind and conscience, not that it might be quenched and darkened, but that it might be your guiding star and perpetual inspiration.” And you falsify and contradict the very purpose for which Christ has come to you, unless you let the light of His will burning in your will, and the light of His truth flaming in your understanding, and the light of his righteousness illuminating your conscience, be your supreme and sovereign guides.—Ibid.
Hidden lights.—Some Christian men darken and obscure the light of Christ within them by their carefulness about earthly necessities, possessions, and treasures, which are represented by the bushel of commerce; and some of them do the same thing by sheer slothfulness and indifference in the religious life, which are represented by the bed on which men stretch themselves at ease for sleep.—Ibid.
Mark 4:22. The day of manifestation.—Though now it is often hard or impossible to distinguish between those in whom the good seed is springing up freely and healthfully, and those in whom its growth is checked and stunted, or trodden out; yet remember a time is coming when all shall be made plain and manifest, when man’s responsibility shall be fully acknowledged, and his shortcomings shall be fearfully avenged. Then shall the reckoning be. Then shall it be clearly seen and brought to light how the good seed has been plenteously and continually sown in many a heart, and scarcely sown before lost for ever, how opportunities and calls have been neglected, graces and mercies slighted, warnings and examples lightly put aside; in a word, the man’s struggle against grace through a whole lifetime shall be laid bare, step by step, and feature by feature, then, when the time of grace shall be no more.—Dean Butler.
Mark 4:24. “Take heed what ye hear.”—Never was this warning more needed than now. Men think themselves free to follow any teacher, especially if he be eloquent, to read any book, if only it be in demand, and to discuss any theory, provided it be fashionable, while perfectly well aware that they are neither earnest inquirers after truth, nor qualified champions against its assailants. For what, then, do they read and hear? For the pleasure of a rounded phrase, or to augment the prattle of conceited ignorance in a drawing-room. Do we wonder when these players with edged tools injure themselves, and become perverts or agnostics? A rash and uninstructed exposure of our intellects to evil influences is meting to God with an unjust measure, as really as a wilful plunge into any other temptation, since we are bidden to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the spirit as well as of the flesh.—Dean Chadwick.
Unprofitable hearers.—Some can be content to hear all pleasant things, as the promises and mercies of God; but judgments and reproofs, threats and checks, these they cannot brook; like unto those who, in medicine, care only for a pleasant smell or appearance in the remedy, as pills rolled in gold, but have no regard for the efficacy of the physic. Some can willingly hear that which concerns other men and their sins, their lives and manners, but nothing touching themselves or their own sins; as men can willingly abide to hear of other men’s deaths, but cannot abide to think of their own.—R. Stock.
“With what measure ye mete.”—His hearers would at once understand the allusion. When grain is brought in quantities, it is brought in bags which are always measured again by a person whose trade it is to do this. Squatting cross-legged on the ground, he fills the grain with his hands into a “tinneh,” which he shakes when it is full, to make the contents solid. He then refills it, twists it round scientifically, and makes a second settling of the grain, afterwards refilling it. He then presses down the whole with his hands, and at last, when he cannot make it hold more, raises as high a cone as possible on the top; only this being thought “good measure.”—C. Geikie, D.D.
The law of compensation.—At present you have, as men say, the law in your own hands. You can do nearly as you will. There is no compulsion laid upon you. You can measure out to God what measure you will. If you choose to profit, to let His words sink into your hearts, to bring forth fruit to His glory, it is, through His grace, in your power to do so. Under the influence of that life-giving Word the rocky soil may become deep, rich, staple; the roadside shall no more be trodden; the thorns shall be rooted out. Not even deep sin can hinder it. “The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose: it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.” Such is its marvellous efficacy within the heart that gives itself to its control, that the publican becomes an apostle, the shameless sinner a deeply-loving penitent. Therefore you are now the meters. You may, as you will, refuse or accept, i.e. develop or utterly stifle the results of the heavenly sowing. Only remember, that as you deal now with God, in this measure will you be dealt with hereafter.—Dean Butler.
The nature of Christ’s teaching is such as that, if a man, with sharpened ear and attentive spirit, listens and takes into his heart what he does understand, and lives thereby, the amount of what he understands is sure to grow, and endless progress in the apprehension of the light that lives in the thickest apparent darkness will be his. Just as when we step out of a gaudily lighted room, and look up into the depths of the heavens above us, all seems obscured. But, as we gaze, the focus of the eye changes, and we see sparkling points which we shall one day know to be magnificent suns in the far-off vault, which at first seemed unrelieved darkness. So, because the lamp is not hid under the bushel, take heed what you hear, and recognise in the very form of the revelation of God’s love and will in Jesus Christ a provision for the certain progress in knowledge and perception of every faithful, listening soul, and a provision for the as certain darkening into unrelieved blackness and midnight obscurity of the glimmering light neglected.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mark 4:25. Christian attainment.—According to the interest, the attention, the practical purpose, the sympathy with truth which you bring to the hearing will be the gifts which your Teacher will bestow, and the accessions which you will carry away; and every such accession will be itself a foundation for higher attainment, for “he that hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.” What importance is thus added to every measure of Christian attainment! It is no longer to be estimated by itself, but in relation to ulterior progress, as a qualification for the further steps by which we may “grow up into Him in all things who is our Head, even Christ.” Valuable and blessed as every such attainment is in itself, that value and blessedness will be largely increased by what we may call the tendencies and potentialities which belong to it, and which show themselves as new opportunities arise. A man has a certain interest in the things of God: it is well; but we are chiefly thankful for it because it will dispose him to hear, to inquire, to consider, and so to profit by the teaching which the providence of God may present to him. He has certain convictions: we rejoice, but most because these convictions decide him to break with things that were hurtful, and to throw himself among things that are profitable to his salvation, taking his place among those who would learn of the heavenly wisdom, “watching daily at her gates, waiting at the posts of her doors.” He has a certain knowledge of Divine truth, and what he knows will interpret to him what he knows not, enabling him, when he hears a higher teaching, to apprehend and appreciate instructions which, to those less advanced, are “done in parables.” He has a certain experience in the spiritual life, and that experience qualifies him to pass with increasing profit through subsequent dispensations which might else have perplexed or offended or crushed him. Till the time shall come which will enlighten the obscure histories of human life, none can say to what a degree this system of sequence is maintained and administered in the kingdom of God. Enough of it is declared, and enough is visible, to solemnise our view of passing things, and to make us feel how neglect or refusal of what is offered us at one period may propagate its fatal influence through successive stages of spiritual loss, or how a firm hold laid upon some gift of grace may prove to have put us in possession of ever-accumulating treasures.—J. D. Burns.
The earnest find that they grow; the triflers find that their powers rust and fade.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
God’s benefits come not alone, but one is the pledge of another. The grant of a mite is the assignment of a talent. A drop of dew from heaven is a prognostic of a gracious shower, of a flood, which nothing can draw dry, but ingratitude (James 1:5; James 4:6).—A. Farindon, D.D.
God’s dealings.—This verse represents God’s dealings in a very encouraging light. Many who wish to be true Christians despair of ever reaching such a lofty attainment; the distance seems too great, the path too difficult. Let them remember, for their comfort, that, no matter how far, it is only one step at a time, and, no matter how difficult, “to him that hath” the will “shall be given” the power; he shall go from strength to strength, and from grace to grace, till before the God of gods he appears in Zion.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Mark 4:21-22. The Christian’s light.—This statement of Christ’s is well illustrated by the story of the Calais lighthouse keeper, who, when boasting of the brilliancy of his lamp, was asked what would happen if it were allowed to go out, or if the reflectors became dim. “Impossible,” he replied, “for yonder, where nothing can be seen by us, there are ships sailing to every harbour of the sea; if to-night I failed in my duty, some one might be shipwrecked. No; I like to think that the eyes of the whole world are fixed on my light.” This man could appreciate what Christ taught His disciples when He said that they were to be like Safed, the city set upon a hill which could not be hid, and to remember that, inasmuch as they were the light of the world, they must shine before men.
Influence.—A man once said, “I have no more influence than a farthing rushlight.” “Well,” was the reply, “a farthing rushlight can do a good deal: it can set a haystack on fire; it can burn down a house—yea, more, it will enable a poor creature to read a chapter out of God’s Book. Go your way, friend; let your farthing rushlight so shine before men, that others, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
A good life.—Julius Drusus, a Roman tribune, had a house so situated that several of its apartments lay exposed to the view of the neighbourhood. A person came to him, and offered for five talents so to alter it as that it should not be liable to that inconvenience. “I will give thee ten talents,” said Drusus, “if thou canst make my house conspicuous in every room of it, so that all the city may behold in what manner I lead my life.”
Mark 4:22. Hidden, to be revealed.—Many things are concealed, both in nature and by art, though the concealment is by no means designed to be permanent. Look, e.g., at the almost measureless beds of coal, hidden for ages in the bowels of the earth, but designed by Providence to be revealed when necessity should arise. The precise time for the unveiling it is not always easy to decide, because man’s knowledge is finite, but we rest assured that it will coincide with the need for its use. It is a principle worth bearing in mind when human efforts fail; for it is encouraging to know that such a result may be due simply to the fact that we have tried unconsciously to anticipate the fore-appointed time.—Dean Luckock.
Mark 4:24. No loss by giving away.—During the summer a clergyman called on a lady who had a very fine collection of roses. She took him out to see them and began plucking right and left. Some bushes with but a single flower she despoiled. The clergyman remonstrated. “You are robbing yourself, dear madam.” “Ah,” she said, “do you not know that the way to make the rosebush bear is to pluck its flowers freely? I lose nothing by what I give away.” This is a universal law. We never lose anything by what we give away.
Influences of evil.—Sir Peter Lely made it a rule never to look at a bad picture, having found by experience that, whenever he did so, his pencil took a taint from it. “Apply this,” adds Bishop Horne, “to bad books and bad company.” Lord Collingwood, writing to a young friend, said, “Hold it as a maxim that you had better be alone than in mean company, for the worth of a man will always be ruled by that of his company.” The converse of course is only true, for nothing is of greater value than the influence of good surroundings and noble friends. The Persian poet Saadi has a lyric in which a clod of clay is asked how it has come to smell so sweet. The clay replies, “The sweetness is not in myself, but I have been lying in contact with a rose.”
Mark 4:25. The law of compensation.—We see in some office two or three young men. They seem to be of equal abilities, but one has a small fortune bequeathed him. On this account, when a partnership is vacant, the opening is offered to him. By-and-by some public appointment is vacant; because this man is possessed of some wealth he is thought to be a responsible man, and so is chosen. “To him that hath shall be given.” This is the ordinary way in which things work in the world around us. But observe that the same rule exhibits its sway in the spiritual world. Here is a man with a very little knowledge of religion, who has been, perhaps, much neglected in his youth, but he has some idea of God’s greatness and power, and that it is his duty to go to church. In the house of God he comes under good influences, and his conscience is enlightened. He becomes a regular attendant, and then a communicant. “To him that hath shall be given.” Or let the other part of the saying be taken up. There is a child who gets some slight knowledge of the facts of Christianity in a Sunday-school class, but that knowledge is very slight, for the child is restless and careless, and disinclined to listen to anything which requires attention. Soon the lad goes to work for his bread, and thinks himself too much of a man to go any longer to Sunday school. The little learning he received soon fades away, and from want of practice even the half-learnt art of reading is lost. He goes now and then to church, but is ashamed to be unable to read as others do around. And so at length, though living in a Christian land, he becomes as ignorant and indifferent as a heathen. “From him that hath not,” etc. A young man begins to feel, as he grows up, the Divine life stirring within him. He wants to do something to help in efforts for good around him, to take his share in bearing burdens. But he goes into business or enters a profession or devotes himself to society, and by degrees all the pulses of Divine life beat more slowly; he loses an aspiration here—he loses a scruple there—he makes an excuse about that; and his life begins to dwindle, and, after a bit, he becomes like a bicycle going downhill—the law of accelerated motion asserts itself, and in the day of trial or of opportunity he is found wanting and useless. “From him that hath not,” etc. If only he had taken up some little bit of self-denying work, if only he had given himself to one thing in which he could help others, if only he had had the self-forgetting element within him, then in him too the law “to him that bath shall be given” would have asserted itself—he would have been saved in the truest sense.—R. Eyton.
Service no loss.—An eminent merchant of St. Petersburg supported, at his own expense, a number of missionaries in India. Some one asked him how he could afford to do so, to which he replied, “Before my conversion, when I served the world and self, I did it on a grand scale and at the most lavish expense; and when Christ called me out of darkness, I resolved that He should have more than I had ever given the world. At my conversion I promised I would give a certain percent of what my business brought me. Since that time it yields double as much.” So it is in our service for Christ. God never allows any capital to lay idle, and, if we do not use the talent given us, He takes it, and gives it to him who will use it. How often do we see poor, lean Christians fretting and fuming and praying for more faith and more strength, when they sit still and will not use what they have!
The treasure only for the pure.—There is an old church in Germany with which a singular legend is connected. In this church, at certain times, a mighty treasure is said to become visible to mortal eyes. Gold and silver vessels, of great magnificence and in great abundance, are disclosed; but only he who is free from sin can hope to secure the precious vessels. This legend shadows a great truth. In the temple of God, in the Word of God, are riches beyond gem or gold; but only the sincere, the pure in purpose, can hope to realise the Divine treasure. There must be in the truth-seeker a moral susceptibility and passion for the light.
Moral increase.—There is an Eastern allegory which teaches the same lesson as this parable. A merchant, going abroad for a time, gave respectively to two of his friends two sacks of wheat each, to take care of against his return. Years passed; he came back, and applied for them again. The first took him into his storehouse, and shewed them to him; but they were mildewed and worthless. The other led him out into the open country, and pointed out field after field of waving corn, the produce of the two sacks given him. Said the merchant, “You have been a faithful friend; give me two sacks of that wheat; the rest shall be thine.”