Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vols. 13–63

Verse 1. Take heed that you do not do your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in Heavei.. The motive which leads a man to give will form the true estimate of what he does. If he gives to be seen of men, then when he is seen of men he has the reward he sought for—and he will never have any other. Let us never do our alms or good works before men, to be seen of them.

2-5. Therefore when you do your alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when you do alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does, that your alms may be in secret: and your Father which sees in secret, shall Himself reward you openly. And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward I have heard very great commendation given to certain Easterns, because at the hour of the rising of the sun, or the hour when the sound is heard from the summit of the mosque, wherever they may be, they put themselves in the posture of prayer. God forbid I should rob them of any credit they deserve, but far be it from us ever to imitate them! We are not to be ashamed of our prayers, but they are not things for the public street! They are intended for God's eyes and God's ears, only.

6, 7. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret; and your Father, which sees in secret, shall reward you openly. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. It is not very easy to repeat the same words often without it becoming a vain repetition. A repetition, however, is not forbidden, but a "vain" repetition. And how greatly do they err who measure prayers by the yard! They think they have prayed so much because they have prayed so long, whereas it is the work of the heart—the true pouring out of the desire before God—that is the thing to be looked at. Quality not quantity! Truth, not length. Oftentimes the shortest prayers have the most prayer in them.

8, 9. Be not you, therefore, like they: for your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him. After this manner therefore pray you.And then He gives us a model of prayer which never can be excelled—containing all the parts of devotion. They do well who model their prayers upon this.

9-13 OurFather which are in Heaven, Hallowedbe Yourname. Yourkingdom come. Your willbe done in earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. Our Savior now makes a remark upon this prayer and on one particular part of it which has stumbled a great many.

14, 15. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. There are some who have altered this and pray in this fashion, "Forgive us our debts as we desire to forgive our debtors." It will not do! You will have to desire God to forgive you, and desire in vain if you pray in that fashion! It must come to this point of literal, immediate, completed forgiveness of every offense committed against you if you expect God to forgive you. There is no wriggling out of it. The man who refuses to forgive, refuses to be forgiven! God grant that we may, none of us, tolerate malice in our hearts. Anger glances in the bosom of wise men—it only burns in the heart of the foolish. May we quench it and feel that we do freely, fully and heartily forgive, knowing that we are forgiven!

16. Moreover when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.Simpletons praise them—think much of them—and they plume themselves thereon and think themselves the very best of men. They have their reward.

17, 18. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that you appear not unto men to fast, but unto your Father which is in secret, and your Father, which sees in secret, shall reward you openly. Yet have I heard persons speak of certain emaciated ecclesiastics as being such wonderfully holy men. "How they must have fasted! They look like it. You can see it in their faces." Probably much more likely produced by a fault in their digestion, than by anything else! And if not—if we are to suppose that the skinniness of a man, his person, is to be the token of his holiness—then the living skeleton was a saint to perfection! But we are not beguiled by such follies as these. The Christian fasts but he takes care that no one shall know it. He wears no ring or token even when his heart is heavy. Full often he puts on a cheerful air, lest by any means he should communicate unnecessary sorrow to others! And he will be cheerful and happy in the midst of company, to prevent their being sad, for it is enough for him to be sad, himself, and sad before his Father's face.

19-21. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. There is many a way of sending your treasure before you to Heaven. God's poor are His money-boxes—His bankers. You can pass your treasure over to Heaven by their means. And the work of evangelizing the world by the labors of God's servants in the ministry of the Gospel—you can help this, also. There is much need for your plenty. Thus also you can pass your treasure over into the King's bank and your heart will follow it! I have heard of one who said his religion did not cost him a shilling a year— and it was remarked that very probably it would have been expensive at the price. You will find people form a pretty accurate estimate of the value of their own religion by the proportion which they are prepared to sacrifice for it.

22. The light of the body is the eye. If, therefore, your eye is single. If your motive is single—if you have only one motive—and that a right one—the master one of glorifying God—if your eye is single.

22, 23. Your whole body shall be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness/When a man's highest motive is himself, what a dark and selfish nature he has! But when his highest motive is his God, what brightness of light will shine upon all.

24. No man can serve two masters. He can serve two persons very readily. For that matter, he can serve twenty, but not two masters. There cannot be two master principles in a man's heart, or master passions in a man's soul. "No man can serve two masters."

24. For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammoi.. Though some men's lives are a long experiment of how far they can serve the two.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-16

Verse 1. AndI, brethren, couldnot speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ The Church at Corinth consisted of persons of large education and great abilities. It was one of those churches that had given up the one-man system, where everybody talked as he liked—a very knowing Church, and a Church of Christians, too. But for all that, Christian babies! And though they thought themselves to be so great, yet the Apostle says that he never spoke to them as to spiritual men—he kept to the simple elements—regarding the carnal part as being too much in them as yet to be able to drink down spiritual things.

2. Ihave fed you with milk, andnot with meat: for up to nowyou were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you abl. How grateful we ought to be that there is milk and that this milk does feed the soul—that the simplest Truths of Christianity contain in them all that the soul needs—just as milk is a diet upon which the body could be sustained without anything else. Yet how we ought to desire to grow that we may not always be upon a milk diet but that we may be able to digest the strong meat—the high Doctrine of the deep things of God. These are for men, not for babes. Let the babes be thankful for the milk, but let us aspire to be strong men that we may feed on meat.

3. For you are yet carnal: for where as there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal and walk as men? A united Church, you may conclude, is a growing Church—perhaps a grown Church! But a disunited Church, split up into factions where every man is seeking position and trying to be noted—such a Church is a Church of babes. They are carnal and walk as men.

4. For while one says, I am of Paul: and another, I am of Apollos, are you not carnalllnstead of that, they should all have striven together for the defense of the common faith of Jesus Christ. No greater symptom of mere infancy in true religion than the setting up of the names of leaders or the preference for this or that peculiar form of Doctrine, instead of endeavoring to grasp the whole of the Truth of God wherever one can find it.

5. 6. Who, then, is Paul? And who is Apollos but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lordgave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered: but God gave the increase. Let God, then, have all the glory! Be grateful for the planter and grateful for the waterer, yes, and grateful to them as well. But still, let the stress of your gratitude be given to Him without whom watering and planting would be in vain!

7, 8. So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters, but God that gives the increase. Now he that plants and he that waters are one.They are pursuing the same design! And Apollos and Paul were one in heart. They were true servants of one Master.

8, 9. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God: you are God's husbandry, you are God's building. The Church is built up. God is He who builds it up—the Master of the work, but He employs His ministers under Him to be builders.

10-13. According to the Grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, Ihave laid the foundation, and another builds thereon. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every mans work, of what sort it isIt is very easy to build up a Church quickly. It is very easy to make a great excitement in religion and become very famous as a soul-winner. Very easy. But time tries everything! If there were no other fire than the mere fire of time, it would suffice to test a man's work. And when a church crumbles away almost as soon as it is got together—when a church declines from the Doctrines which it professed to hold, when the teaching of the eminent teacher is proved, after all, to have been fallacious and to have been erroneous in practical results, then what he has built comes to nothing! Oh, dear Friends, what little we do, we ought to aspire to do for eternity. If you shall never lay the brush to the canvas but once, make an indelible stroke with it! If only one work of sort shall come from the statuary's workshop, let it be something that will live all down the ages! But we are in such a mighty hurry—we make a lot of things that die with us—transient results. We are not careful enough as to what we build with. May God grant that this truth may sink into our minds! Let us remember that if it is hard building with gold and silver, and harder still building with precious stones, yet what is built will stand the fire! It is easy building with wood—and still easier with hay and stubble—but then there will be only a handful of ashes left of a whole lifework if we build with these.

14-15. If any man's work abides which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. If he meant right—if he endeavored to serve God as a worker, though he may have uttered many errors and have been mistaken—(and which of us has not been?)— he shall be saved, though his work must be burnt.

16. Know you not that you are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?Do you know it? He says, "Know you not?" but I might leave out the, "not," and say, "Know you that you are the Temple of God?" What a wonderful fact it is! Within the body of the saint, God dwells, as in a Temple. How some men injure their bodies or utterly despise them, though they would not so do if they understood that they are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in them.