The germ so begotten in the soul St. James calls "the inborn word." He proceeds to the development of this germ of good in man. Having called the germ of good an inborn word, he naturally uses the image of listening: we must listen patiently to catch the faint voice within, avoiding all that would drown the gentle sound.

Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the inborn word.

Had the essay stopped here, the impression would have been left that only passive attention was necessary. The author goes on to the thought that what is heard must be translated into action: we must be doers of the word, and not hearers only. The image changes to that of a mirror :

If any one is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

He will

But what of him who doeth as well as heareth? behold his action reflected in the mirror of the law. But St. James adds his favourite idea: it must be "the perfect law, the law of liberty." The essay ends with a contrast between word religion, and the religion of unspotted thought and charitable action.

In its form then The Epistle of St. James is a reversion to the miscellany of wisdom literature in its earliest stage. In its matter we see human life, whether in its details of action or mysteries of faith, as life was leavened by the spirit of Christianity.

Wisdom applied to the Life of Christ

The Gospel of St. Matthew

It would be an imperfect description of St. Matthew's gospel to speak of it as wisdom literature. Yet its distinctiveness from the other gospels is brought out if we regard it as the spirit of wisdom applying itself to the supreme topic, the life and work of Jesus Christ. To realise this description we must here, as elsewhere, keep distinct the two functions of wisdom: wise reflections on various aspects of human life, and again, the comprehension in a single view of the whole providential government of God.

St. Matthew's gospel, it is obvious, abounds with wise proverbs of humanity and life. There is surely nothing derogatory to higher claims of Jesus if we say that he must be included in the inner circle of the world's literary authors: what Homer is in epic poetry, what Shakespeare is among dramatists, that Jesus of Nazareth is as a sayer of sayings. Nor is there any need to inquire curiously, as some have done, how far the familiar sayings of Jesus have been anticipated by his predecessors. Originality has no place in wisdom literature: in regard to Ecclesiasticus or Ecclesiastes, it is impossible to determine which sayings of these books were 'pondered' by their authors, and which 'sought out' and added to their collections. Proverbs are commonplaces: wisdom appears in the selection of what sayings are to be made prominent as the true interpretation of life. It is hardly necessary to use illustrations at this point. Let the dead bury their dead - They that are whole need not a physician, but

they that are sick Men put not new wine into old wine-skins I came not to send peace but a sword upon earth - Wisdom hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed unto babes - The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence He that saveth his life shall lose it — He that hath to him shall be given - Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's these paradoxes are amongst the profoundest of life's principles. Yet these are among the slighter sayings of Jesus. What literature associates mainly with his name are the wonderful parables: children love them, they are grasped at once by the unlettered; yet the deep thinker, the more he thinks, sees more and more a whole philosophy of life standing out clear from a story of halfa-dozen lines.

Such sayings and parables are recorded in all the gospels more of them by St. Matthew than by the other evangelists. But of the first gospel there is a further distinctiveness in the way in which such sayings are brought together into a system of wisdom. What tradition calls The Sermon on the Mount' is no sermon, as we understand the term. The characteristic teaching of Jesus in the earlier part of his career is here massed together and made a symmetrical whole: the teaching is the teaching of Jesus, the arrangement—as comparison with other gospels shows-is the arrangement of St. Matthew. In accordance with the usage of the term elsewhere this Sermon on the Mount would be fitly entitled 'The Wisdom of Jesus.'

For the form given to Christ's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount St. Matthew has gone to Old Testament wisdom. When properly printed its structure will be

seen to be founded on the 'maxim': the saying which is made up of a proverb text and an expansion in prose. Six divisions of the discourse are maxims of this kind; it is in keeping with all wisdom literature that the seventh division should be found to be a string of shorter sayings and maxims. Such considerations of form have a bearing upon interpretation. Thus, the opening of the Sermon on the Mount is known as 'The Beatitudes,' and it is customary to reckon them as eight in number. We should rather say that there is but one beatitude: what follows is its sevenfold expansion.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

The opening couplet gives the keynote of Christ's work among men: the centre of gravity of human life has been shifted, what before was great has become small, . the small has become great. Those who read eight beatitudes have some difficulty in deciding exactly what is the

1 It is so printed in the St. Matthew volume of The Modern Reader's Bible.

distinctive meaning of the term 'poor in spirit.' But for the meaning of this we must look to the seven sentences that expand it. Who are are the poor in spirit? The mourners the thought of the Preacher1 is echoed, that it is better to go into the house of mourning than into the house of feasting, how there is a deeper wisdom in sorrow than in joy. Who are the poor in spirit? The meek those whom once Eliphaz contrasted with lords of great inheritance :

Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink,
And thou hast withholden bread from the hungry;
But as for the mighty man, he had the land,
And the honourable man, he dwelt in it:

Thou hast sent widows away empty,

And the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

Now this is reversed; it is the meek who are the magnates of the new kingdom. Who are the poor in spirit? They that hunger and thirst after righteousness: not the Pharisees, whose broad phylacteries, and alms done before men, and prayers in the corners of the streets, proclaim that they have attained, but the publican smiting his breast with a sense of emptiness of all spiritual attainment. Who are the poor in spirit? The pure in heart: the fifteenth psalm has sung the purification of life and humility of heart which might fit him who should sojourn in God's tabernacle; more blessed now the pure shall see God himself. Who are the poor in spirit? The merciful and not the oppressor; the peacemaker, in contrast with the warrior who has received the homage of men hitherto. Seventhly and lastly, who are the poor in spirit? The curtain of the far past and future is lifted, 1 Ecclesiastes vii, 2,