And, behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do?
Formal obedience insufficient
It is certainly the doctrine of Scripture that moral integrity alone can never benefit us with God; that even the offering of our prayers is accounted worthless except as it is perfumed with love. Evidently, then, his confidence is false and dangerous indeed who, because he keeps unbroken the great laws of social morality, imagines his claim to mercy and salvation secure. Besides being unscriptural, such a theory is not rational.
I. It ignores the very design of man’s creation, viz., the glory of God. Social morality is at best a very inferior virtue. It is only the submission of one part of man’s nature to an inferior series of God’s laws. If this world were all, that might be enough. Man is endowed with faculties which can only be exercised toward the unseen world. As well might the planet, obeying the one law of its propulsion around the earth, break away from the other which binds it to the sun, and yet hope to escape, as he who, fulfilling his duty to man, neglects his duty to God.
II. It is founded on a false idea of religion. God seeks not mere abject obedience, but the devotion of the heart. Without a distinct movement of the will and affections towards Him, all religious observances are worse than naught. They are the casket without the diamond-the body without the sustaining, invigorating, glorifying life.
III. It makes the sacrifice of Christ an unnecessary thing. If man by being honest and upright and humane and gentle could merit heaven, no need for Calvary. Yet Jesus laid aside the robes of His Deity and came to earth, and offered Himself a sacrifice on the cross. To rely for salvation on natural morality is, then, to mock Christ in His sufferings; it is to go up, as it were, upon the blood-stained slopes of Calvary, and, beholding Him in His agony, to cry aloud, “We need not Thy blood, we despise Thine aid!” (W. Rudder, D. D.)
Coming to Jesus
A right thing to come to Jesus, in a right way, for a right thing, in a right spirit. This last element of coming rightly was here left out.
I. How he came.
1. Publicly.
2. Eagerly-“running.”
3. Humbly-“kneeling.”
4. Respectfully-“good Master.”
II. Why he came: “inherit eternal life.”
1. Belief in a future state.
2. Concern to obtain it; in this he differed from many.
3. Thought something must be done; many think not of this, and
consequently do nothing.
4. Thought he was willing and able to do anything needful; but did not know himself; had not counted the cost.
III. Learn-
1. Salvation not by works.
2. Works an evidence, not a cause of grace. (The Hive.)
The rich youth’s application to Christ
I. The character and pretensions of the youthful applicant who approached our Lord. Something in his character exceedingly favourable, interesting external appearance, air of sweetness about his address, correct in morals, of ample means, fair reputation, he entertained proper views of our Lord; he had serious regard for religion. But-
1. He was ignorant of his moral inability.
2. He displays an ignorance of his actual guilt.
3. He was ignorant of the prevailing disposition of his heart.
II. THE manner in which the application was diet.
1. Our Lord repels his adulatory address.
2. Our Lord shows the imperfection of his obedience.
3. The youth went away sorrowful.
III. Those important lessons which naturally arise out of this interesting case.
1. Learn the danger and prevalence of self-deception.
2. The great responsibility which the ministerial office involves.
3. The dangerous situation which the rich occupy. The subject guards us against the following: Low thoughts of God, high thoughts of ourselves, slight thoughts of sin, and mean thoughts of Christ. (J. Thorp.)
Men’s persuasions of their own obedience
Whence this ariseth.
1. Ignorance of the total, deep, and universal pollution of our natures.
2. Ignorance of the spiritual exactness and obligation of the law.
3. Attention only to the negative commandments.
4. Not understanding either positive or negative precepts in their comprehensive sense.
5. Neglecting self-reflection and self-examination.
6. From the abominable self-love, and self-flattery, which cleaveth to every man.
7. Fear of guilt makes men hoodwink their eyes that they may neither look into the law, nor into their hearts.
8. Ignorance of regeneration and the necessity for being born again.
9. The devil hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts.
10. Every man is naturally destitute of the Spirit, without which we are all devoid of light and life. (Anthony Burgess.)
The rich young ruler
I. Examine the young man’s roast. He boasted that his obedience was:
1. Extensive.
2. Exact.
3. Constant.
II. Answer his question. He lacked:
1. A new heart.
2. A sense of guilt and sin.
3. Faith in Christ.
4. Spirituality and self-denial. (G. Brooks.)
I. How entirely even an intelligent man may misapprehend his own spiritual attainment.
II. And his willingness to attain.
III. Between our present attainment and perfection there may be a sacrifice equivalent to cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a right eye.
IV. The one thing essential, if we are to attain perfection, is the following of Christ.
V. Other things may also be lacking, as, for example, determination to be holy. Conclusion: The lack of one thing may make all other attainments useless. (M. Dods, D.D.)
The young ruler
I. A hopeful meeting. It was-
1. A young man-special promises to the young.
2. A meeting with Christ-patient and physician.
3. One who was in earnest. Mark says, “he came running.”
4. One who had many rare qualities. “Jesus loved him.”
5. One who was bold (compare Nicodemus); yet reverent, for he “kneeled.”
II. An important conversation. It reveals:
1. Our simpleness-unable to keep the law.
2. Our pride-trusting to our own works.
3. Our idolatry-loving other things better than Christ.
4. Our only hope of salvation-willing to leave all, take the cross and follow Christ.
III. A sorrowful parting.
1. It was parting with Christ, therefore no hope.
2. It was a deliberate parting-not a sudden step.
3. It was a final parting.
IV. Important lessons. How far some may advance and yet not be saved. Abandon at once that which keeps us from Christ. (D. Macmillan.)
Morality made a snare
Take heed that thy morality be not thy snare. The young man in the gospel might have been a better man if he had not been so good. (Gurnall.)
Youth’s obstructions in their way to Christ and eternal life
I. Self-conceit, This young man thought that he had kept all the law. Young people with a smattering of knowledge soon imagine themselves competent judges of all truth and conduct. They have righteousness to recommend themselves to God’s favour.
II. The pleasures and vanities of youth; especially when they are fed by great possessions. These unreasonable sordid pleasures are not to be compared with the exalted substantial delights that are to be found in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
III. A false prejudice, as if the ways of Christ were nought and melancholy. Thus the young man thought when Christ told him to take up his cross and follow Him. Grace would give new tastes and make the burden easy. Christ will never let you be a loser by Him.
IV. An inconsiderate, heedless temper. To be heedless about small matters is a blemish; about essential, a reproach without excuse.
V. A presumptuous, daring rashness of spirit. Young persons are most sanguine, even to foolhardiness.
VI. The companions of youth.
VII. An apprehension of long life, They have a long day before them and can put away the thought of death. (John Guyse, D.D.)
A sorrowful departure
1. He was sorry at the thought of giving up those large possessions of which he was naturally proud.
2. He was also grieved at the idea of losing heaven.
3. Thus opened to the young man’s mind some of the difficulty which there always is in the attainment of everything which is really worth having.
4. Part of his sorrow was the discovery which he was making at that moment of his own heart.
5. But he was most sorrowful of all in the wretched sense he had of his own guilty hesitation and inexcusable weakness. Many worldly people are sorrowful in the midst of their worldliness; it indicates life and struggle. In any state of life the characteristic of the Christian is self-renunciation. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Jesus’ answer to the young ruler’s address
I. What we may infer from our Lord’s question.
1. That our Master was not fond of flattering titles.
2. The language affords a remarkable instance of our Lord’s modesty and humility.
3. Our Lord’s question contains a proof of His reverence for His Father.
II. Explain and enforce our Lord’s answer.
1. There is none good in comparison of God; and consequently, our sentiments of regard and devotion should not stop short of Him.
2. God alone is absolutely good. His goodness is from Himself, independently of all others.
Application-
1. Our Lord hath set us an example for our imitation.
2. Our Lord will not finally approve of any pretended reverence and respect paid to Himself which in the least lessens the glory due to His Father. (Thomas Twining.)
The way to happiness
I. We have the example of one who was solicitous and inquisitive after his future condition, and desirous to know upon what terms he might hope for happiness,
II. We have the ordinary way to happiness marked out to us.
III. In some extraordinary cases God does require some extraordinary things of particular men, which are not generally necessary to the salvation of all men.
IV. We have the sad example of one that went far towards happiness, and yet fell short. (Samuel Johnson.)
W/mr are the senses in which none is good but God?-
I. God is the only necessarily good being.
II. God is the only originally good being.
III. God is the only self-subsistently good being.
IV. God is the only immutably good being.
1. If God is alone supremely good, He alone is to be glorified and adored.
2. If He alone is supremely good, it is sin, and the very essence of it, not to glorify Him. (Dr. Shedd.)
What he lacked
1. A sense of guilt. He was self-complacent. He had obedience, self-respect, morality. He rested in these and boasted of them. He did not know the estimate which heaven places upon the righteousness which is of the law. He was under condemnation, and thought himself justified.
2. Faith in Christ. As the only Saviour. He did not know that Christ was the end of the law for righteousness.
3. A new heart. An essential. He loved the world, etc. This shows the old heart.
4. Self-denial. He loved ease and riches. He had no heart to give these up for Christ. He had much to give up, and the surrender would be hard; but a Christian spirit is willing to give up all; even life if needs be for Christ, and the “needs be” is Christ’s word. (Anon.)
A new year’s personal inquiry
I. There may be many excellences, and much that is amiable in man, without true religion. Morality, benevolent and social virtues, orthodoxy, reverence for Divine ordinances, etc.
II. There are various evils which keep men from being entirely the Saviour’s. Self-complacency, favour of the world, attachment to riches, unwillingness to deny self, etc.
III. The inquiry of the text is one which is worthy of personal consideration. Ask the question as in Christ’s presence, with all possible seriousness, with perfect deference to God’s word, in the spirit of prayer and with a resolution to obey the answer. (J. Burns, LL. D.)
Good things to do
Sidney Smith tells us that he cut the following from a newspaper, and preserved it for himself: “When you rise in the morning, say that you will make the day blessed to a fellow-creature. It is easily done; a left-off garment to the man who needs it; a kind word to the sorrowful; an encouraging expression to the starving-trifles as light as air-will do at least for the twenty-four hours. And if you are young, depend upon it, it will tell when you are old; and, if you are old, rest assured it will send you gently and happily down the stream of tiptoe to eternity. By the most simple arithmetical sum, look at the result. If you send one person away happily through the day, that is three hundred and sixty-five in the course of a year. And, suppose you live forty years only after you commence that course of medicine, you have made fourteen thousand six hundred persons happy-at all events, for a time.”
Heaven won by being, not doing
Very likely the question involved a mass of confusions. The young man thought, perhaps, that heaven was to be won by external actions and quantitative merit. He did not understand that we must enter into heaven by being, not by doing. He held perhaps the vulgar notion that eternal only means endless, so that eternity becomes the infinitude of time instead of its antithesis. He very likely did not know that every holy soul has entered already into eternal life; that to all who are in Christ it is now as the invisible bright air they breathe. He certainly did not realize that “this is life eternal, to know Thee, the only God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” But yet, because the question was sincere and noble, and did not spring from Pharisaism-the one thing which the Lord detested most-but from the Divine dissatisfaction of a struggling soul which God alone can fill, Christ answered it. (F. W. Farrar, D. D.)
Man not left in doubt as to the good
“Why dost thou ask Me about the good?” that seems to have been our Lord’s answer, not “Why askest thou Me?” as it is often read-for whom else should the young man ask? but “Why dost thou ask Me about the good?” Has God left you in any doubt as to what is good? Have you in your heart no voice of conscience? Has duty never uplifted within you that naked law of right, so imperial in its majesty, so eternal in its origin, which you know that you ought to follow even unto death? If not, and if experience has had no lessons for you, and history no teaching, was there no Sinai? Do not the cherubim of your temple veil with their golden wings the tablets-alas! the shattered tablets of your moral law? And there Jesus might have stopped. But, being unlike us, being infinitely patient with man’s irritating spiritual stupidity, not loving, as we do, to be cautious and reticent, and “to steer through the channel of no meaning between the Scylla and Charybdis of yes and no,” He added,” but, if thou wouldst enter into life, keep the commandments.” (F. W. Farrar, D. D.)
The first step towards righteousness
Christ did not begin with the injunction, “Go, sell all that thou hast.” He began very much lower; He said, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Let us learn to flutter as sparrows, before it is worth considering whether we ought also to soar as eagles. Let us cease to be very guilty before we can be righteous. Let us be righteous before we can attain to the greatness of good men. Let us be but ordinary good men before we ask Christ for His counsels of perfection, or attempt to attain to the stature of His saints. Christ knew this well. We come to Him, and say, “O Saviour, whom I love, tell me what I must do to inherit eternal life.” And so long as we are all standing ankle-deep, chin-deep, in the world’s mire, would it be of any use for Him to point to some shining cloud in the deep blue, and say, “You must stand there”? Ah, no! He says to you, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Until you have learnt to plant firm feet on the green lower slopes, how can you breathe the difficult and eager air, or stand in the glory of the sunrise on the splendour of the snowy heights? (F. W. Farrar, D. D.)
The commandment regarded as ordinary
The young ruler, not being so familiar as we are with those accumulated cobwebs of two thousand years which priests, and churches, and sects, and theologians, and theorists, and system-mongers, and schoolmen, have spun over wellnigh every simple word of Christ; the young ruler, whose natural instincts were not crushed under hundreds of ponderous folios of human doctrines and commandments of men, which, with inconceivable arrogance and a bitterness which has become universally proverbial, would fain palm themselves off as infallible theology; the young ruler, hearing the answer from the lips of Jesus, in all its bare, naked, unqualified, unmistakable simplicity, was quite frankly amazed. He was like the child Charoba in the poem, who, having been talked to about the majestic glory of the sea, and being led to the shore, innocently exclaimed, “Is that the mighty ocean? Is that all?” “Keep the commandments.” Is that all that Jesus has to tell him? Surely there must be some mistake! It did not need a prophet to tell us that! This youth had gone to Christ seeking for some great thing to do, and secret thing to know. The great Teacher could not mean anything so commonplace, so elementary, so extremely ordinary, as those old ten words which He had learned to lisp, ever so many years ago, when He was a little child, at His mother’s knee? (F. W. Farrar, D. D.)
Self-satisfaction
This young man thought himself somewhat beforehand, and that God, perchance, was in his debt. Truly, many nowadays grow crooked and aged with over-good opinions of themselves, and can hardly ever be set right again. They stand upon their comparisons-“I am as good as thou; “ nay, upon their disparisons, “I am not as this publican.” No, for thou art worse; yea, for this, because thou thinkest thyself better. This arrogant youth makes good that of Aristotle, who, differencing between age and youth, makes it a property of young men to think they know all things, and to affirm lustily their own placits. (John Trapp.)
What lack I?-
I. Examine his boast. His obedience was:
1. Exact.
2. Extensive.
3. Constant.
II. Show his deficiencies.
1. A sense of guilt.
2. Faith in Christ.
3. A new heart.
4. Self-denial. (Pulpit Germs.)
This query must not be regarded as an expression of satisfied self-righteousness, as if it implied, “In that case I lack nothing.” It is, indeed, true that the young man was still self-righteous. He had no conception of the spirituality, the depth, or the height of the commandments of God. Taking only the letter of the law, he considered himself blameless, and perhaps even righteous, before God. Yet his heart misgave him, and he felt that he still lacked something. Under this sense of want, he put the question to the Saviour, as if he would have said, “What is it then that I yet lack? All these things have not given me peace of mind.” (J. P. Lange, D. D.)
Self-righteousness
The various forms of self-righteousness.
1. Of the head and of the heart (of doctrine and of sentiment); or, Pharisees in the strictest sense.
2. Self-righteousness of the heart with orthodoxy of the head, as in the case of some in the Church who seem to be zealous for soundness of doctrine.
3. Self-righteousness of the head, combined with a deep sense of spiritual need, although its grounds may not be fully understood, as in the case of this young man and of many Christian legalists. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)
Why wealth is to be renounced
What did our Lord mean by this reply? Did he mean that the mere giving up his wealth to the poor would make this man acceptable with God? Certainly not. The cattle on a thousand hills are His. He asks no sacrifice from human hands. Man can give Him nothing that is not His already. This, therefore, could not have been His meaning. Did He, then, mean that the voluntary poverty caused by this distribution of his wealth would render him meritorious with God? Poverty in itself is no more a merit than riches. To this question, therefore, we must say, as to the other, certainly not. Well, then, what did He mean? Evidently this: that whatever may be our moral excellence; however exactly we may fulfil the law toward our neighbour; unless there is, besides this and behind all this and originating all this, an ardent love of God-a love fulfilling the first and great commandment, and fastening upon God with all the heart and soul and mind; a love born of faith, and yet increasing faith-unless there is such a love as this seated on the very throne of our being, originating all our motives and our acts; making our purpose not expediency, but the glory of God; causing us to be ready if need be to sell all that we have-unless there is such a love ruling in our hearts, our moral excellences, however great, are, in the sight of God, of no account. This unquestionably was His meaning; this was the doctrine which He designed to teach. (W. Rudder, D. D.)
The true spirit of renunciation
To the question “What lack I yet?” Christ answers in substance, “This: the temper that counts property worthless beside true life. You come to me with your money, with)’our sense of complacency, of consequence, of power, and you want to bring these with you into the kingdom of God. You are not indeed satisfied with things as they are. How can you be, so long as you are vainly striving to feed your immortal nature upon husks and chaff? You want to be enlarged into a life nobler, fuller, worthier of your better self. But you would come as Dives, not as Lazarus. What you have, you think, ought to be reckoned in with what you are. You and your estate are in your own conception too entirely identified to be separated. Believe me, my young brother, the kingdom of Jesus can not know you upon any such terms. It is not necessary that you should be stripped bare of all your belongings in order to enter it. But you should be willing to be stripped bare. You must come to look upon what you call yours as though it mattered not, when you set your face toward the kingdom of God, whether it were yours or no. The spirit of renunciation must be so deep in you that you must be ready to give up all for Christ. And this not from any arbitrary reason, but simply because a human heart is not large enough to hold two thrones. If Christ is to be in it at all, He must be king of the whole domain; and if He is to be king, the money power, the sense power, the brain power must go to the rear. There will be a place for each of these in every sanctified life, but it must be a subordinate place. “Go,” or at least, if it be a question between your securities and your Saviour, be ready to go, “and sell all that thou hast, and follow Me!” (Bishop H. C. Potter.)
Obedience to this command not necessarily literal
It is not to be hastily concluded from this, that the rich man is to give all that he has to the poor. If, in deference to any narrow and superficial interpretation of Christ’s language, a man should take his wealth and distribute the whole of it in largesses to the poor to-morrow, he would be doing the poor an incalculable evil and not a benefit. Men ask, “Why do not you, as a believer in Jesus Christ and the Sermon on the Mount, make common cause in the things of this world with the destitute around you, and trust for the needful food and raiment to Him who feeds the birds and clothes the lillies?” Why not, indeed! Is it merely because such an act would be fanatical and enthusiastic, or because political economy forbids it? Or, because, whatever else I ought or ought not to do, I ought not to do my brother man a wrong? Is anybody ignorant of the fact that every human life needs the discipline of forethought and self-denial, of responsibility and self-help; and that if I by my ill-judged kindness enable another to escape things, I am degrading and hurting him as well as abusing my own power? What would be the effect of the announcement that half a dozen rich men had disinherited themselves, and that to-morrow morning fifty millions of dollars would be distributed to the poor? Does anybody care to contemplate the pandemonium that New York would become-the idleness, the licentiousness, the fierce hatreds, the bitter discords, the mad license that would be engendered: and ought a Christian man to do an act that would make his brother men incalculably worse instead of better? (Bishop H. C. Potter.)
Great possessions a hindrance in the way to heaven
How nimbly does that little lark mount up, singing, towards heaven in a right line! whereas the hawk, which is stronger of body and swifter of wing, towers up by many gradual compasses to his highest pitch. That bulk of body and length of wing hinder a direct ascent, and require the help both of air and scope to advance his flight; while the small bird cuts the air without resistance, and needs no outward furtherance of her motion. It is no otherwise with the souls of men in flying up to their heaven. Some are hindered by those powers which would seem helps to their soaring up thither: great wit, deep judgment, quick apprehension, send about men with no small labour, for the recovery of their own incumbrance; while the good affections of plain and simple souls raise them up immediately to the fruition of God. Why should we be proud of that which may slacken our way to glory? Why should we be disheartened with the small measure of that, the very want whereof may (as the heart may be affected) facilitate our way to happiness? (Salter.)
The worth of heaven
Far beyond the treasures of Egypt, which yet is called Rahab because of the riches, power, and pride thereof. Oh! get a patriarch’s eye to see the wealth and worth of heaven, and then we shall soon make Moses’s choice. In the year of grace 759, certain Persian magicians fell into that madness, that they persuaded themselves and sundry, others that if they sold all they had and gave it to the poor, and then afterwards threw themselves naked from off the walls into the river, they should presently be admitted into heaven. Many were cast away by this mad enterprise. How much better (if without superstition and opinion of merit) Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, who being asked by certain ambassadors that came to his court what hounds he had, for they desired to see them, showed them next day a pack of poor people feeding at his table, and said, “These are the hounds wherewith I hunt after heaven.” (John Trapp.)
Deteriorating influence of riches
Many a Christian do you find among the rich and the titled, who, as a less encumbered man, might have been a resolute soldier of the cross; but he is now only a realization of the old Pagan fable-a spiritual giant buried under a mountain of gold. Oh! many, many such we meet in our higher classes, pining with a nameless want, pressed by a heavy sense of the weariness of existence, strengthless in the midst of affluence, and incapable even of tasting the profusion of comfort which is heaped around them. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
The danger and misery of self-deception
I. The state and character of the person who here addresses the Lord.
1. We discover many circumstances which are calculated at first sight to impress us with very favourable sentiments of his state and character. He was young; engaging manners; amiable disposition. He exhibits a pleasing combination of many attractive qualities.
2. How inadequate his conception of the corruption of his own heart. What “good” thing can he do?
3. The defective views which he entertains of his own guilt.
4. He is not better acquainted with the secret bias of his affections than with his depravity and guilt.
II. The conduct of our Lord on this occasion.
1. He does not promote the self-deception and thus augment the danger. He does not compliment the young man on his moral attainments. He acts the part of a true Physician and Friend; palliatives will only increase the disorder.
2. Compassionate regard.
3. Admirably suited to the peculiar circumstances of his case. Christ mentions the law as a corrective to his pride and self-sufficiency.
4. Eminently calculated to prove in the highest degree beneficial to his most important interests.
(1) The misery of a state of self-deception.
(2) That in removing the specious covering which self-deceit imposes, and in disclosing the sinner to himself, consists one important part of the duty of a minister.
(3) Reflect on that disposition of heart which Christ requires of His people. Follow Me. (E. Cooper.)
The Christian’s life-long work after confirmation
“What lack I yet?”
1. A thorough devotion to God’s service.
2. A spirit of prayer.
3. A due appreciation of the work that God has appointed you to do.
4. You may lack patience.
5. You require to be incited to perseverance. (J. H. Norton, D. D.)
The great question answered
The path a soul treads when it comes to Christ is one of beauty. To come to Jesus is a noble and manly act. It is a soul drawn by the good; rising above sinful forces which have enslaved it; of special interest to see the young come to Christ. The conditions necessary to such an approach are illustrated in the young man-
1. He believed that the character of this life determines that to come.
2. He believed that obedience to God was the first principle of religion.
3. He desired to exhaust his powers in perfecting his character.
4. He had faith that Christ would show him the way of salvation. “What lack I yet?”
I. Self-renunciation. “Sell that thou hast.” This embraces a recognition of the supreme right of God over the soul. God gave all; this leads to an abandonment of selfish pursuits. Why religion makes this demand.
1. Selfishness is deceitful and delusive; it does not see man’s real interests; it does not comprehend the Divine relations of man;it looks only at things seen.
2. Selfishness and self-love dwarf manhood; narrow the thought and corrupt the affections; they shut out noble sentiment which leads men to deeds of daring.
3. There must be this self-abandonment to allow a higher ideal of life to possess the soul. That man who is full of himself can contain nothing beside. He must forget himself who would live after the pattern shown him on the mount.
II. Religion demands Christ consecration.
1. Supreme affection for Christ. The heart must be first given to Him.
2. The purposes of the heart must be turned to Christ’s cause.
3. The influence must be for God.
4. Human passions must be at God’s disposal. Is the demand too rigorous, and does it embrace too much?
It may encourage us to yield full submission to call to mind a few precious facts.
1. It assimilates us to a likeness of Christ. His soul exceeded all bounds and barriers, and poured out its life an immortal benediction upon His enemies. The widowed mother, whose midnight toil earns bread and raiment for her darling ones, is embalmed in poetry and song; the artist weaves a crown of glory” about her brow. But such labour and consecration is yet only that of a true heart and human impulses. But he who is consecrated to Christ is Godlike.
2. It brings peace to the heart. Men who are vacillating are unhappy. No soul rests so perfectly at ease as that one which has its home on God’s altar.
3. It centralizes and makes the man strong. Scattered men are weak. A consecrated man is a felt man.
4. It enlivens and sets the life on fire. Men go to sleep and are frozen, as the fairy city celebrated in story. God breathes on the powers of the man consecrated; he is set on fire by the breath of Jehovah. Such a life will have given back to it from God, in its new realm, a better being. The curtains are now withdrawing. See, yonder the field is fairer and the sward is all green! There that life runs on and on and on for ever! It gathers to itself all that was of possible value on earth in the years of its pilgrimage, and, having yielded obedience to the conditions of its noble being, enters upon that higher life of love and joy for which it has been fitted by a faithful stewardship. (J. W. Holt.)
Christ and good people
The gospel indicates three particulars in regard to their mutual relations.
I. There is a point which attracts them to each other. A noble young man; although surrounded by great wealth, he has not yielded himself to youthful frivolities, but has kept his spirit intent on higher aims than earthly qualifications. He is modest enough to be conscious of imperfection, and to make inquiry where there is an opportunity to learn. He retains enthusiasm, and the object of his enthusiasm is no inferior one. Such people must feel the attraction of the person of Jesus Christ. They love the good, and Christ is the good One. All their ideals are realized in Jesus. The rich young man felt this. But this attraction was mutual. Jesus came to seek the lost and to save the sinner; much more would the purity of this naturally noble heart receive His recognition. Neither is this mutual attraction for a moment merely; the attraction remains, though the discipline required is hard to understand; an inner impulse draws us to Him.
II. There is a point which separates them from each other. At the very point where the Lord exerts the strongest power of attraction upon the naturally noble, their separation begins. It is a necessity of the case. Our Lord’s word about the “good,” and the mention of the commandments, had been designed to awaken distrust of self. Then comes the unheard-of demand, “Sell all,” etc. He was touched in his heart’s core. Christ exposes the point in which this good person was not good. Christ wants complete persons for His followers; it takes a complete person to win the prize of eternal life. If you want to be perfect you must renounce the secret reservations you oppose to the rigour of the Divine commands, put away the lusts which hamper the inner man. Renew your heart; put a new object in its centre. But for the sake of one thing you will turn away from your Saviour, in spite of all your noble efforts and ideal endowments.
III. This separation must be realized in order truly to find the Lord. When the physician performs an operation, it is because he wants to heal; and when our Lord seems to discourage nearer approach it is because He wants to deepen the reason for it, so that after they unite nothing shall be able to separate them. Hence we believe this young man’s separation was not final. He will return, no longer fiery and with a surplus of power; for with God all things are possible. It was necessary that he should be impressed with the requirements of Christ, for as long as he can say, “All these things have I kept,” a Redeemer is superfluous-a Moses or a Socrates would suffice. But when he learns to despair of his own strength, then he arrives before the gate of salvation and stretches imploring hands for a Redeemer. Therefore Christ first destroys this young man’s merit; and this is the more difficult from his high virtue. In the light of Jesus little sins becomes great. To sacrifice for Him for love is to lose nothing. His yoke is easy. (E. Dryander, D. D.)
“What lack I yet?”
This young man was hungry for improvement; that was all right. But there were other things for which he had a stronger hunger. Morality is the endeavour according to a man’s power to obey laws, and I will divide moralities into five different kinds.
1. We call that physical morality which consists in the knowledge of men, and of those physical laws which surround them. Thus a man is immoral who violates law in eating and drinking and sleeping.
2. Next is social morality. Men are obliged to obey those laws which connect them with their fellow men; also as members of the household; as neighbours.
3. Next comes civil morality. Men are organized into states and nations.
4. Business morality.
What is the relation of obedience in these different spheres to the nature and character of men?
1. All these observances are external. They are not in their nature internal at all. They leave out entirely the vital question of character. A man may be obedient to physical law, and yet be proud. Man is a creature of two worlds; so that when he is called to the other sphere the physical elements which he has accumulated here drop off. The spiritual only he carries with him.
2. This lower morality leaves out of view the higher human relations to God. A man may be an atheist and yet good in lower respects; but it is not fair to measure his genial qualities by his atheism as he has been brought up amidst Christian influences. A man has an immortal self as distinguished from his physical, social, and civil self; what about that part of him which is to live for ever? Are there no laws higher than those which belong to secular affairs, which apply to the higher reason and the moral sense. Are there no laws for faith, imagination in its dealings with religion, which connect a man with the invisible, universal, and infinite? Is there no morality which reaches beyond the earthly sphere? Morality is not complete without religion. There are practical uses in the inferior forms of morality; from them we learn the typical forms of the higher religion. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar,” etc. The lower moralities are schools, as it were; it is a great preparation for religion. Generally speaking the higher you go the more difficult is the achievement. Few men are competent to be eminent artists. In realizing the higher conceptions of religion there are inherent difficulties: but some make it harder than they need. The sun may shine on a slate roof for ever, and yet the garret beneath it may be dark; but make the roof of glass and the sun Will shine through. Let your higher life have the best care. (H. W. Beecher.)
The centred principle of character
There are multitudes of men who live moral lives, generous lives, lives that are good in a thousand respects; but it does not come to this, that their whole being is centred in God and spiritual things. It is centred, rather, in the possession of wealth. (H. W. Beecher.)
Selfishness may be associated with many virtues
I remember watching, last summer, spiders that burrowed in the crevicess of a trellis where the wind had borne much dust. I noticed that the hole where they lay lurking looked dark and ugly. I also noticed, as I sat one day watching, a vagrant spider taking a morning glory, in full blossom, and spin his web over the mouth of it. And there never was a prettier nest in this world-a nest more richly gemmed with beauty-than this was. But, after all, it was the same spider, whether he lay in the dark hole at the corner of the trellis, or in the blossom of that exquisite flower. Now, selfishness may weave its web in the dusky places, or in the hideous-looking recesses of a man’s disposition, or about the mouths and graces of sweet affections; but it is the same selfishness after all. The place is changed, and the appearance of the surroundings is changed, but the spider is not changed. So, the point to be remembered is that in every man there is a centre around about which his life really swings. There is a balance-point, and it preponderates one way or the other. The great influences of life weigh down toward the flesh, or else they go toward the spiritual. You may change the circumstances of a man’s life, and it may be modified one way or the other; but after all there is a predominant force in his character, and that controls all the minor forces. (H. W. Beecher.)
Morality not to be despised
Again, a selfish-centred man, clothing himself with all manner of Christian graces and aspirations, is not to be condemned as if these graces and aspirations were of no account. Here is a point where ministers have trouble in preaching to men. When we see men embowered under external moralities, and attempt to teach that morality is not enough, the impression arises that we undervalue morals. I do not undervalue morals any more than the taxcollector undervalues a hundred dollars, when I go to pay my taxes, and offer him that amount, when my bill is five hundred. He says: “I will not take it. It is not enough.” He does not despise the hundred dollars. He merely says: “You must put more with it.” And I do net despise morality because I say that it does not rise high enough. It is good as far up as it goes. So is a grape-vine good as far up as it goes, when it is two or three feet high: but it does not arrive at what it was planted for until it reaches that point where it has blossoms and clusters. It is the cluster that determines its value. (H. W. Beecher.)
Refined selfishness
A man may love poetry and music, and have generous impulses which draw him toward a higher range of life; but after all, it is only a polished form of selfishness, or selfness that is manifesting itself in him. It is self that is at the bottom. I do not say that it is not better that a man should be refinedly selfish than coarsely selfish. It is a great deal better. It is better that man should be intellectually selfish than coarsely selfish. It makes social intercourse easier. It makes it easier for men to get along with each other. And if the centre of a man’s disposition is selfish, and at the same time he has aspirations and refinements, and generosities and kindnesses, I do not say that he is no better for having these things: I say that as a member of society he is a great deal better. He energizes society. He adds something to those elements which take away attrition and harshness and rudeness from society. But he is not inwardly better; for nothing makes a man better within until the centre of his life and character are changed. Every blossom that you put upon a man who is radically selfish, and is going to be selfish, the worse you make it for him. The prettier you make a man’s selfishness, the more music there is that accompanies it, the more flowers there are that decorate it, the more balm there is along with it, the more sunlight there is shed upon it, the more it is painted with glowing colours, the better is it for society; but the worse it is for him, because these things delude; because they are satisfying; because they bide the mischief; because they do not let him see what an unforgiveable and what a demoralizing quality selfishness is. (H. W. Beecher.)
The need of an inner spiritual change
What is that change? It does not consist in doing a few more things, or in adding a few more excellences, as the young man thought it did. “Good Master, what new thing shall I do? What new prayer shall I say? What extra morality shall I take on? What other charities and bounties shall I bestow for man’s relief? I should be glad to add to my stock of excellences.” That was the purport of the young man’s inquiry. The Master said to him, in substance: “Your whole character is wrapped up in your position. You are rich, you have large estates, and you know it and you stand centred in them. And now, with this centre, you want to add various excellences. Go sell all these, give them away, and take up)our cross and follow Me.” That brought him to a decision instantly. Choosing between the higher and the lower, he took the lower, and went away sad and grieved. And Christ everywhere brought men to this choice. If you are to be Christians, Christianity does not mean having some few things on a selfish basis. You must change the foundation of your life. You must pass over from the animal, up from the lower, away from the predominantly self-seeking life that is in all of us by nature. You must come into the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of love. Beneficent love, love for others, and not for yourself, must be the predominant, the governing tendency. (H. W. Beecher.)
Religion more than an outward addition
Being possessed of all that could gratify his senses, he did not mean to be over-indulgent in it, but he did not want to give it up. Being in this position, he wanted, not to exchange it for anything else, but simply to have sprouting up around about him, over-arching him, and embowering him, flowers of spiritual and poetical aspirations, and all manner of Divine feelings, so that he should have both things-his feet rooted in this earth, and his head placed in the other life. He wanted to take this world first, and then superadd the kingdom of God as a polish to it. He wanted all spiritual excellence to sit, as it were, in the clouds above him, like an orchestra, and play sweet music to him, while he sat below, on a level with the earth, sensuous, and indulging himself selfishly. (H. W. Beecher.)
The spiritual must supplant the physical life
Men have wanted, in every age, to have both worlds-a thing which Christ said was impossible. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Our Saviour taught this young man that the spiritual life must supplant the physical life. The two can co-exist; but the spiritual life must be in the ascendency, and must control the lower physical life. Our Saviour taught all the way through His life that spirituality cannot be simply the complement of secularity. It cannot be a parasite growing on the boughs of worldly prosperity. If a man is to have the kingdom of God, he must make that first, and that must be supreme. Or, to change it to a more psychological statement, if a man is to be truly a Christian, his spiritual nature must predominate and bear rule over everything else that is in him. You cannot have the temporal, lower nature strongest, and then expect the spiritual nature to please it and play down to it. And yet, that is what men are attempting to bring about everywhere. Every person has some dominant point. There is no uncentred character anywhere. There is a point in every man’s character which rules, and to which everything is brought for comparison and settlement. This point often seems to shift and change; but, after all, there is some point in a man’s character which you may say is the dominant point, and before which all things above it and below it have to come into judgment. It is this that gives character to a man, and determines whether he is high or low, good or bad.
Religious impressions soon shaken off
After a shower in the night, if you go out in the morning, it is scarcely safe for you to go near a bush or a tree, because if you touch it, there will rain down such multitudes of drops on you. I sometimes think this church is like a tree that has stood out in the open air, and collected the dew. Every leaf is covered with it. If you shake the tree, down comes a shower of drops. I see you moved to tears every Sunday. I know that you follow and enjoy the service of prayer and of song and of preaching. You have much deep religious feeling, and a great deal of thought. The pews are full of young men and young women who are going to Christ and saying: “Master, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” And Christ says, by me, to-day, to every one of you, “It is not adding one good thing to another that you need but that you should rise from the centre of selfishness, and go over to the centre of true Divine benevolence, by the power of the Holy Ghost, without which power no man can rise to the higher level.” (H. W. Beecher.)
The price of a great ambition
Yours is a great ambition, and, withal, a very noble ambition: are you prepared to pay the price for your great ambition? You are a man of the very finest impulses, but you live in a fine house and know nothing of hardship, and while these things may do for your old life, the new to which you aspire demands sacrifice and surrender. Sell up all, and let us know how much is due to an impulsive temperament and how much to inherent nobility. If it be due to that no change of circumstances will matter. It was a Spartan-like call to duty, but did he not look, like a Spartan youth, equal to it? (J. W. Thew.)
Nobility worthy of the highest culture
I apprehend that here lay the chief reason of our Saviour’s great demand upon him. Is it not precisely because he is so good that that demand is so great? Is it venturesome to say the Master would not have made such a demand upon an inferior mind to his? That was not simply because, being a young man, he was better able to bear it: it was because, standing already, as he does, so high, occupying such a vantage ground-shall I put it this way-the Master’s ambitions are fired, He sees him on such a level, and He would have him, at one grand stride, take the highest level of all. As when you have a lad at school of more than ordinary promise, you keep him longer there, you say the lad shows signs of genius, and the opportunity of becoming a genius shall not be wanting. Here are signs of uncommon goodness and greatness, and the opportunity should be afforded for accomplishing good. This view is borne out by the story. “Sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor,” is not given in answer to the question, “What good thing shall I do?” but in answer to the question, “What lack I yet?” It is not, “If thou wouldst be saved, sell all that thou hast;” it is, “If thou wouldst be perfect.” It is not merely a question of eternal life, but of eternal distinction. It is not a mere matter of getting through the curriculum, but of getting through it with honours. (J. W. Thew.)
The whole surrender
I. There is a certain spurious sort of religion which because it is not complete (or perfect) is useless. A vessel may look very well, but if it have a hole in the bottom, it will hold nothing-useless for want of being perfect.
II. The whole surrender. The decisive act which consecrates all to the kingdom:-must be done by the man himself. Not even God can do it for you. It was useless for Christ to say “Follow Me” as He was, for his body only could have followed, his anxieties would still have been with his possessions. It was also a prudent provision against approaching persecution.
III. How can I go and sell? By a full consecration to God. Like the whole burnt-offering, every portion must be consumed on the altar.
IV. It is an awful consideration that the word of life itself is powerless to persuade a covetous will, (W. I. Keay.)
On being right in the main.
1. He displayed a degree of moral earnestness.
2. He employed the language of veneration.
3. He was well instructed in Biblical ethics.
4. He was inordinately attached to worldly possessions.
Christ’s conduct showed:
1. That He compels men to look at the logical consequences of their own admissions.
2. That personal regard may be entertained where full moral approbation cannot be expressed.
I. The necessary limitations of the most careful religious training.
II. That the final attainment of education is the conquest of the heart.
1. That Christ-following involves self-abnegation.
2. That Christ-following must be the expression of the soul’s supreme love.
3. That Christ-following means self-giving.
III. That lack of one thing may be lack of everything.
IV. That the sincerity of men must be tested according to their peculiar circumstances. What is a test to one man may be no test to another. A man must be prepared to surrender what he values most. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The lack of one thing the lack of all
The garden is beautifully laid out: the straight lines and the curves are exact; the terraces are arranged with artistic taste; but no seed is sown,-and the summer says, “One thing thou lackest.” The machinery is perfect: cylinder, piston, valve, are in excellent order; no flaw is in the wheel, no obstruction in the flue; finer engine never stood on the iron way; everything is there but steam,-and the intending traveller says, “One thing thou lackest.” The watch has a golden case, the dial is exquisitely traced and figured, the hands are delicate and well-fixed; everything is there but the mainspring-and he who inquires the time says, “One thing thou lackest.” (J. Parker, D. D.)
Sins as great possessions
There are sins so rooted, so riveted in men, so incorporated, so consubstantiated in the soul, by habitual custom, as that those sins have contracted the nature of ancient possessions. As men call manners by their names, so sins have taken names from men, and from places; Simon Magus gave the name to a sin, so did Gehazi, and Sodom did so. There are sins that run in names, in families, in blood; hereditary sins, entailed sins; and men do almost prove their “ gentry “ by those sins, and are scarcely believed to be rightly borne, if they have not those sins. These are great possessions, and men do much more easily part with Christ than with these sins. But then there are less sins, light sins, vanities; and yet even these come to possess us, and separate us from Christ. How many men neglect this ordinary means of their salvation, the coming to these exercises, not because their undoing lies on it, or their discountenancing, but merely out of levity, of vanity, of nothing, they know not what to do else, and yet do not this. You hear of one man that was drowned in a vessel of wine, but how many thousands ill ordinary water! And he was no more drowned in that precious liquor than the)-in that common water. A gad of steel does no more choke a man than a feather or a hair. Men perish with whispering sins, nay with silent sins, sins that never tell the conscience they are sins, as often as with crying sins. And in hell there shall meet as many men that never thought what was sin, as that spent all their thoughts in compassing sin; as many who, in a slack inconsideration, never cast a thought upon that place, as that by searing their conscience, overcame the sense and fear of that place. Great sins are great possessions, but levities and vanities possess us too; and men had rather part with Christ than with any possessions. (J. Donate.)
Estimate of the ruler
He was not a spiritual man; there was really nothing spiritually good and loveable in him: nothing truly gracious, as a Puritan divine would call it. He was but a natural man after all-a beautiful specimen of the natural man, as Dr. Chalmers said of some one, but still only a natural man. Nature had indeed done much for him, all it could for him; it had endowed him with riches, power, a high moral nature, an amiable, warm, frank, loving, loveable disposition. See here what nature can do; she can raise her favourites very high in the scale of humanity, so as to compel the homage even of the Saviour’s love and admiration. See here what nature cannot do; she cannot carry any one across the boundary that separates the kingdom of God from the world; she can bring him to the very threshold, but there she leaves him; there she is powerless; there her weakness is made known. (A. L. R. Foote.)
Giving up all for Christ
The words are terribly clear, sharp, and stern. Francis of Assisi heard them once. Straying into a church, they were in the lesson for the day which was read. The words seized on his conscience; they haunted him, they tormented him. He sold everything but the bare garment which clothed him. Still the obedience seemed to fall short of the Saviour’s command. So he stripped himself even of his poor raiment; and they clothed him there in the church, for very shame, in a peasant’s tunic, which he wore on till death. (J. B. Brown.)
Human perfectibility
It is as if our Lord had said, “Thou aimest at perfection and on the footing of this thou art looking for eternal life; thou indulgest the dream of human perfectibility. Well, I will put thee here to the test: sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor. What! dost thou hesitate? What, then, becomes of thy favourite doctrine of perfectionism? Ah! thy fond idol is dashed to pieces, and by thine own hand, too; and wilt thou still indulge in such a golden dream? Is this all the length thy doctrine of human perfectibility can carry thee?” If-an important qualification this-if thou wouldst be perfect! Who can fail to see a delicate yet severe irony here? The Saviour is not teaching the doctrine of perfection in any sense, but is trying to wean him from a theory which was deeply rooted in his mind, and which was exercising so prejudicial an influence over him. (A. L. R. Foote.)
Possessions that possess
Every man hath some such possessions as possess him, some such affections as weigh down Christ Jesus, and separate him from Him, rather than from those affections, those possessions. (Dr. Dotage.)
Not wise to go from God
That no man that ever went from Him went by good way or came to good end. There is none good but God; there is centrical, visceral, gremial gold, goodness in the root, in the tree of goodness, God. (Dr. Dotage.)
The regulation of conduct
Conduct may be regulated in two ways:-
1. By the hand.
2. By the heart: as with a watch so with the life. The face of the watch may be made to represent the truth by simply altering the hands, or it may be corrected by touching the interior works. Here is a young man who says, “What shall I do to make my watch tell the hour accurately?” He is answered, “Thou knowest the great clocks by which time is kept in the city.” He replies, “All these have I observed.” He is then told to open his watch and correct the regulator. So is it with human life: many seek to correct it by the outside; they search for models, they inquire for foot-prints; but they neglect the life-spring within, and consequently never get beyond the affectation of artificialism, or the stiffness of Pharisaic conceit. (Dr. Parker.)
But how is this spiritual lack to be supplied?
How is this hiatus in human character to be filled up? How shall the fountain of holy and filial affection towards God be made to gush up into everlasting life, within your now unloving and hostile heart? There is no answer to this question of questions, but in the person and work of the Holy Ghost. If God shall shed abroad His love in your heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto you, you will know the blessedness of a new affection, and will be able to say with Peter, “Thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.” You are shut up to this method and this influence. To generate within yourself this new spiritual emotion which you have never yet felt is utterly impossible. Yet you must get it, or religion is impossible, and immortal life is impossible. (W. G. T. Shedd, D. D.)
The remorse occasioned by enlightened reason on the rejection of Christ
There is no misery comparable to that which follows after a near access to happiness; nor any sorrow so quick and pungent as that which succeeds a preconceived, but disappointed joy. Neither was the proposal unreasonable, because usually practised, even by the most worldly, it being frequent with men to sell an estate in one place to buy another in a more convenient. We may observe in this passage these four things considerable-
1. The person making the address to Christ, who was one whose reason was enlightened to a solicitous consideration of his estate in another world.
2. The thing sought for in this address, viz., eternal life.
3. The condition upon which it was proposed, and upon which refused; viz., the sale and relinquishment of his temporal estate.
4. His behaviour upon this refusal. He that deliberately parts with Christ, though for the greatest and most suitable worldly enjoyment, if but his natural reason is awakened, does it with much secret sting and remorse.
I. I shall show whence it is that a man actuated by an enlightened reason finds such reluctancy and regret upon his rejection of Christ. It may proceed from these causes-
1. The first may be taken from the nature of conscience, that is apt to recoil upon any error, either in our actions or our choice. After a good action, though never so difficult, so grim, and unpleasant in the onset, yet what a lightsome, refreshing complacency does it leave upon the mind! What a fragrancy, what a cheerfulness, upon the spirits! So, on the contrary, an action morally evil and irregular. A man no sooner displeases God but he presently displeases himself. No sooner is the action past but conscience makes the report. As soon as David cut off a piece of Saul’s robe how quickly did his heart smite him! An impure heart, like a foul gun, never vents itself in any sinful commissions but it recoils. It is impossible to sequester and divide sin from sorrow. That which defiles will as certainly disturb the soul. As when mud and filth is cast into a pure fountain, it is not so much said to pollute, as to trouble the waters. And do you think that this young man had not the experience of this? He departed indeed, but it was sorrowful, his conscience ringing him many sad peals within, hitting him in the teeth with the murder of his soul; that he had foolishly and irrationally bartered away eternity for a trifle, and lost a never-returning opportunity, in its improvement invaluable, and in its refusal irrecoverable.
2. The second cause of this trouble and reluctancy that men find in the very instant of their rejecting Christ is taken from the usual course of God’s judicial proceeding in this matter, which is to clarify the eye of reason to a clearer sight of the beauties and excellences of Christ in the very moment and critical instant of his departure. God can affect it with a sudden, instantaneous view of a good. It is like a sudden lightning that flashes in the face, but alters not the complexion; it is rather vision than persuasion; it struck his apprehension, but never changed his resolution. This is another cause that whets the sting, that enhances the vexation, and sends him away sorrowful.
3. The third and last cause of the anxiety that a sinner feels upon his relinquishment of Christ, if his reason be enlightened, is because there is that in Christ and in the gospel, even as they stand in opposition to the best of such enjoyments, that answers the most natural and generous discourses of reason. For the proof of which I shall produce two known principles of reason into which the most severe, harsh, and mortifying commands of the gospel are by clear and genuine consequence resolved.
(1) The first is that the greatest calamity is to be endured rather than the least sin to be committed.
(2) A second principle is this, that a less good is to be forsaken for a greater-an aphorism attested to by the natural, untaught, universal judgment of reason. Now to reduce this principle to the case in hand we are to demonstrate two things. 1st. That the good promised by our Saviour to the young man was really greater than that which was to be forsaken for it. Christ opposed eternal life to the young man’s possessions, and what comparison is there between these upon terms of bare reason? 2nd. The second thing to be demonstrated is that the good promised by our Saviour was not only greater in itself, but also proposed as such with sufficient clearness of evidence, and upon sure, undeniable grounds.
II. To show the causes that, notwithstanding all this remorse of conscience, the soul is not brought in the issue to reject and shake hands with Christ.
1. The first cause is from this, that the perceptions of sense overbear the discourses of reason. The young man desired eternal life; but he had no notion of the pleasure of it, what kind of thing it was; but he knew and found the sweetness of an estate, so that the sensible impressions of this quickly overcame and swallowed up the weak and languid conceptions that he had of the other.
2. The second cause or reason of this final rejection of Christ is from the prevailing opposition of some corrupt affection, which being predominant in the soul, commands the will and blears the eye of the judgment, showing it all things in its own colour by a false and partial representation. Come to the sensual and voluptuous person and convince him that there is a necessity of his bidding farewell to all inordinate pleasure in order to his future happiness; perhaps you gain his reason, and in some measure insinuate into his will; but then his sensual desire interposes and outvotes and unravels all his convictions. As when by much ado a vessel is forced and rowed some pretty way contrary to the tide, presently a gust of wind comes and beats it further back than it was before.
3. The third cause, inducing men to relinquish Christ contrary to the judgment of their conscience, is the force and tyranny of the custom of the world. And amongst other dissuasives from following Christ the young man could not but be assaulted with such as these: “What! part with all for a new notion of another world? Sell land to buy hope, be preached out of my estate, and worded out of such fair farms and rich possessions? “ He would do like the world though he perished with it; swim with the stream, though he was drowned in it; rather go sociably to hell than in the uncomfortable solitude of precise singularity to heaven-the jollity of the company made him overlook the broadness and danger of the way. Now the inferences and deductions from the words thus discussed are these:
(1) We gather hence the great criterion and art of trying our sincerity, which is by the test of such precepts as directly reach our peculiar corruptions.
(2) The issue of the whole action in the young man’s not closing with Christ’s proposals about eternal life, and his sorrowful departure thereupon, lays before us a full account of that misery which attends a final dereliction of Christ.
(a) Of that which is eternal.
(b) But it bereaves even of temporal happiness also, even that which it promises, and which only it designs, and for the retaining of which it brings a man to part with his hopes of that which is future and eternal. (R. South, D. D.)
Man ruled by his affections
In sum, the economy of the soul in this case is like a public council sitting under an armed force; let them consult and vote what they will, yet they must act as the army and the tumult will have them. In this sense every soldier is a commander. In like manner, let both the judgment and the will be for Christ, yet the tumult of the affections will carry it; and when they cannot out-reason the conscience, they will out-cry it. (R. South, D. D.)
If Christ ever wins the fort of the soul, the conquest must begin here: for the understanding and will seem to be like a castle or fortified place; there is strength indeed in them, but the affections are the soldiers who manage those holds, the opposition is from these: and if the soldiers surrender, the place itself, though never so strong, cannot resist. (R. South, D. D.)
The evil temper varied
Now, as in a tree, it is the same sap and juice that spreads itself into all that variety of branches: some straight, some crooked, some of this figure, some of that: so it is the same stock and furniture of natural corruption that shoot forth into that great diversity of vices, that exert such different operations in different tempers. And as it is the grand office of judgment to separate and distinguish, and so to proportion its applications; so herein is the great spiritual art of a prudent ministry, first to learn a man’s proper distemper, and then to encounter it by a peculiar and suitable address. Reprehensions that are promiscuous are always ineffectual. (R. South, D. D.)
Sincerity tested
Observe the excellent method that Christ took to convince this person. Had he tried him by a precept of temperance, chastity, or just dealing, He had never sounded the bottom of his heart: for the civility of his life would have afforded a fair and satisfactory reply to all these: but when He came close to him, and touched upon his heartstring, his beloved possessions, the man quickly shows himself, and discovers the temper of his spirit more by the love of one particular endeared sin, than by his forbearance of twenty, to which he stood indifferent. (R. South, D. D.)
Every man’s sincerity is not to be tried in the same way. He that should conclude a man pious, because not covetous, would bring but a short argument; for perhaps he may be lustful or ambitious, and the stream be altogether as strong and violent, though it runs in a different channel. (R. South, D. D.)
Sins of omission
When the archer shoots at the target, he as really fails to strike it if his arrow falls short of it, as when he shoots over and beyond it. (Dr. Shedd.)