The Spirit of Christ and of Elijah.
No one can have failed to notice the marked difference between the stern spirit of Elijah and the gentle spirit of Christ. Of all the prophets of the Old Dispensation Elijah is the grandest and least civilised. Rénan tells us that in the pictures of the Greek Church Elijah is usually represented as surrounded by the decapitated heads of the Church's enemies. And Prescott tells us that in the sixteenth century the brutal inquisitors of Spain tried to justify their fiendish deeds by appealing to Elijah's act in calling down fire from heaven, and saying, "Lo, fire is the natural punishment of heretics." They did not understand or else they would not that that act of Elijah's was for ever condemned by One who was at once Elijah's Master and Elijah's God.
I. Elijah and the old heroes, doubtless, had not learnt to distinguish between the sinners and the sin. Doubtless they had not learnt to love the sinner, while they hated the sin. It was reserved for after-times to teach men that. It required a higher teaching than had yet been granted to mankind. It required the teaching of the Son of God Himself. The spirit of Elijah was a spirit of justice, a spirit of righteous retribution, a spirit of terrible vengeance: the spirit of Christ was a spirit of tenderness, a spirit of compassion, a spirit of love.
II. But because the religion of Christ is a religion of love, because it bids us be kind, patient, longsuffering, forgiving, do not fancy that therefore it is a religion of sentimentalism, fit only for weak women and effeminate men. It is nothing of the kind. It is a religion of mercy, but it is a religion of justice. It is a religion of charity and of intolerance of sin. It is a religion of love, but of hatred of oppression. If any man can see injustice and wrong done to those who cannot help themselves and see it done, too, with callousness and indifference then that man may be very wise and prudent in the eyes of a hollow society, but he has lost the spirit of justice, which is the spirit of Christ.
J. Vaughan, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xviii., p. 147.
References: Luke 9:56. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 132; H. Jones, Ibid.,vol. xxx., p. 101; W. Walters, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xii., p. 318. Luke 9:57. Ibid.,vol. v., p. 458. Luke 9:57; Luke 9:58. H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons,p. 244.Luke 9:57-62. H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol xvi., p. 404.