But whoso shall offend one of these little ones.
The claimers of the young upon the Church
1. In presenting these claims I would remind you of the peculiar tenderness which our Lord Himself manifested in relation to children.
2. I would urge the claims of the children upon the care of the Church by reminding you of their peculiar susceptibility to influence, whether for good or for evil.
3. Their claims are strong when we remember that upon them the Church depends for its future workers.
4. They will not always remain “little ones.” (F. Wagstaff.)
The crime of degrading men
I. Parents are frequently the cause of many of the faults which grow into great depravities in their children.
II. Our pride and inconsideration may, and often do, result in a train of evils to the character of our servants, of our clerks, and of the working men that are under our care.
III. By the inconsiderate use of our liberty we are in danger of causing men to offend, and of essentially damaging human nature.
IV. Men deteriorate their fellow-men, and weaken society, by such conduct as puts men in their commercial intercourse into very tempting relations to each other.
V. Avarice-and that, too, in its rues: ignoble forms-is continually tempting so-called good men to the injury of their fellow-men.
VI. Great damage is done by men professing godliness, as well as men professing honesty, though not avowedly Christian, by the injustice which lurks, and is almost inherent, in their vanity. (H. W. Beecher.)
Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee.
Renouncing things that hinder
The every-sided development of all our faculties, the inferior, as well as the more elevated, is certainly to be regarded as the highest attainment, yet he who finds by experience that he cannot cultivate certain faculties-the artistic for example-without injury to his holiest feelings, must renounce their cultivation, and make it his first business, with painstaking fidelity, to preserve entire the innermost life of his soul, that higher life imparted to him by Christ, and which, by the dividing and distracting of his thoughts, might easily be lost, nor must it give him any disturbance, if some subordinate faculty be thus wholly sacrificed by him. Assuredly, however, we must add, that this loss is only in appearance, for, in the development of man’s higher life, everything of a subordinate kind which he had sacrificed is again restored with increase of power. (Olshausen.)
Better suffer than sin
It is not merely that we should abstain from actual wrong-doing. That of course. It is not even that we should shun the avenues of sin; but, whatever the pain or loss involved, we are utterly to renounce that which we find to be the occasion of sin. The merely literal and outward is not the thing to dwell open. A man might cut off both hands, or pluck out both eyes, and yet leave the root of sin untouched. What Christ summons to is the surrender of everything, however pleasant, or dear, or seemingly necessary for the present life, and whatever suffering there may be in the surrender, rather than sin against God. The boldly figurative language well expresses the intensity of the change. (Dr. Culross.)
Moral surgery
I. That the sinner’s sin is his own-a part of himself. “Thy right hand.” Few people admit the ownership of their sins.
II. That deliverance from sin can be effected only through the sinner”s own act. “Cut it off’.”
1. Painful. “Cut it off.”
2. Promptness. “Cut “ with a determined stroke.
3. Persistent. “Cut it off.”
III. That heroically, in order to make reformation a permanent blessing, must the sinner abandon his sin. “Cast it from thee.”
1. This figure is suggestive of danger. The last resort.
2. The great Physician Himself urges the operation.
3. Every consideration, past, present, and future calls upon the sinner to decide. “It is profitable for thee.”
4. The fearful consequences of neglect. “Cast into hell.” (J. Kelly.)
Self-discipline
The Rev. R. Cecil possessed remarkable decision of character. When he went to Cambridge he made a resolution of restricting himself to a quarter of an hour daily in playing the violin-on which instrument he greatly excelled, and of which he was extravagantly fond; but, on finding it impracticable to adhere to his determination he cut the strings, and never afterwards replaced them. He had studied for a painter; and retained through a life a fondness and taste for the art. He was once called to visit a sick lady, in whose room there was a painting which so strongly attracted his notice, that he found his attention diverted from the sick person and absorbed by the painting; from that moment he formed the resolution of mortifying a taste which he found so intrusive, and so obstructive to him in his nobler pursuits and determined never again to frequent the exhibition.
Self-mortification
This is the circumcision of the heart, the mortifications of earthly members, which is no less hard to be done than for a man with one hand to cut off the other, or to pull out his own eyes, and then rake in the holes where they grew. And yet, hard or not hard, it must be done; for otherwise we are utterly undone for ever. Hypocrites, as artificial jugglers, seem to wound themselves, but do not: as stage-players, they seem to thrust themselves through their bodies, whereas the sword passeth only through their clothes. But the truly religious lets out the life-blood of his beloved lusts, lays them all dead at his feet, and burns their bones to lime, as the king of Moab did the king of Edom (Amos 2:1). As Joshua put down all the Canaanites, so doth grace all corruptions. As Asa deposed his own mother, so doth this, the mother of sin. It destroys them not by halves, as Saul; but hews them in pieces before the Lord, as Samuel. (John Trapp.)