VI

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY1

SO SPEAK YE, AND SO DO, AS MEN THAT ARE TO BE JUDGED BY A LAW OF LIBERTY.—St. James ii. 12.

I. TURN back to the first chapter of this epistle, and you read these words: "BUT HE THAT LOOKETH INTO THE PERFECT LAW, THE LAW OF LIBERTY, AND SO CONTINUETH, BEING NOT A HEARER THAT FORGETTETH, BUT A DOER THAT WORKETH, THIS MAN SHALL BE BLESSED IN HIS DOING." Probably we may trace ST. JAMES'S language to his recollection of the Words of JESUS, spoken years before in that great discourse which we call "the Sermon on the Mount." "THINK NOT," said the LORD, “THAT I CAME TO DESTROY THE LAW OR THE PROPHETS : I CAME NOT TO DESTROY BUT TO FULFIL." At that time, and for long after, the BRETHREN OF

1 Preached in Durham Cathedral on Palm Sunday, April 16, 1916, at Evensong.

THE LORD," among whom was ST. JAMES, had been unbelievers in CHRIST'S Divine Mission, and we may be sure that their incredulity was mainly built on the repugnance which was provoked in their minds by the seemingly anarchic character and tendency of CHRIST'S Teaching. They were, we know, very devout Jews, devoted to the observances of their Fathers, and bred in the Pharisaic tradition. Even after his conversion ST. JAMES continued to live as a Jew, being constant in his attendance at the Temple services, and winning respect among his Jewish contemporaries by his formal piety. We can easily understand, therefore, how offensive to him must have been our SAVIOUR'S disregard of the Sabbath-law, HIS neglect of the rules which prohibited social intercourse with "PUBLICANS AND SINNERS," HIS severe strictures on the established modes of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Accordingly, this claim of CHRIST to have come "NOT TO DESTROY THE LAW OR THE PROPHETS" must have fastened itself in his memory very firmly, provoking at first indignation and resentment, then moving him to wonder and reflection, finally giving him the Key to CHRIST's whole Ministry and Teaching. The Gospel, he came to perceive, was not a doctrine of anarchy, as at first in his timorous

prejudice he had supposed, but "THE PERFECT LAW, THE LAW OF LIBERTY."

2. There was much in the Scriptures of his nation which would have assisted ST. JAMES to understand the LORD's Words. The punctilious ceremonial legalism of the SCRIBES AND PHARISEES" had really been disallowed in advance by the teaching of the Prophets and Psalmists, who had in many significant passages set in opposition the letter of Law, and its spirit, magnifying always the last, and prophesying of a coming time when it should render the letter superfluous. Thus JEREMIAH had spoken, while yet the Temple of Solomon stood on Mount Zion: "THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAITH THE LORD; I WILL PUT MY LAW IN THEIR INWARD PARTS, AND IN THEIR HEART WILL I WRITE IT; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE: AND THEY SHALL TEACH NO MORE EVERY MAN HIS NEIGHBOUR, AND EVERY MAN HIS BROTHER, SAYING, KNOW THE LORD: FOR THEY SHALL ALL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST OF THEM UNTO THE GREATEST OF THEM, SAITH THE LORD" (Jer. xxxi. 33, 34). The Psalmists, living often in circumstances which compelled them to see Religion severed from

its formal and time-honoured observances, had grasped the difference of literal and spiritual obedience to law, and gave frequent expression to it in their writings. Take for sufficient example the 119th Psalm, with its sustained note of exultant joy in obedience, of genuine love for the Divine Law: "I WILL WALK AT LIBERTY, FOR I HAVÉ SOUGHT THY STATUTES," and again, "OH HOW I LOVE THY LAW! IT IS MY MEDITATION ALL THE DAY." The Psalmist perceives that in willing obedience to law lies the attainment of true freedom: that he is able to obey in proportion to his possession of liberty: "I WILL RUN THE WAY OF THY COMMANDMENTS WHEN THOU HAST SET MY HEART AT LIBERTY." In a word, Religion had resolved itself for the Psalmists as for ST. JAMES into "THE PERFECT LAW, THE LAW OF LIBERTY." Obedience became for them a willing co-operation with the purpose for which the Law was enacted, a sympathetic insight into the Lawgiver's Mind, a conscious effort to express it. Accordingly, CHRIST, standing in the succession of the Prophets and Psalmists, and crowning their witness, demands, not a neglect of Law, but a higher kind of obedience. To exhibit, and to propagate, contempt for Law is, in the view of CHRIST, a grave sin. For Law in its essential

character as the expression of GOD'S Will is eternal and immutable; and positive laws, the symbols of that Divine Will, can claim from the Christian a measure of respect, even though they can no longer claim to be anything more than symbolic. See how the whole Teaching coheres: "THINK NOT THAT I CAME TO DESTROY THE LAW OR THE PROPHETS. I CAME NOT TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFIL. FOR VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS AWAY, ONE JOT OR ONE TITTLE SHALL IN NO WISE PASS AWAY FROM THE LAW TILL ALL THINGS BE ACCOMPLISHED. WHOSOEVER THEREFORE SHALL BREAK ONE OF THESE LEAST COMMANDMENTS, AND SHALL TEACH MEN SO, SHALL BE CALLED LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: BUT WHOSOEVER SHALL DO AND TEACH THEM, HE SHALL BE CALLED GREAT IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

FOR I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT EXCEPT YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL EXCEED THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES, YE SHALL IN NO WISE ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM HEAVEN."

OF

3. Some of the Fathers argued mechanically that, since Jews were required by the Law to give a tithe of their possessions to religion, Christians