Luke 14:12-14 Then said he also to him that bade him, When you make a dinner or a supper, call not your friends, nor your brothers… A recent advertisement on our city walls struck me as singularly suggestive; it contained the words, "God and the poor." Such a conjunction of words is most remarkable: the highest and the lowest, He who owns all things, and they who own nothing: it is a conjunction of extremes, and though it looked very extraordinary on a placard, yet if you examine the Old and New Testaments the idea will be discovered almost more frequently than any other. I. THE RELATION OF GOD TO THE POOR. There is a strange mingling of terror and tenderness in God's language in relation to the poor; terror towards their oppressors tenderness towards themselves. Take the former (Proverbs 17:5; Isaiah 10:2; Jeremiah 22:13; Amos 5:11; etc.). Such are some of the sentences of fire in which God speaks of the oppressor of the poor. We now turn from terror to tenderness. We shall hear how God speaks of the poor themselves. The lips that spoke in fire now quiver with messages set to music (Isaiah 58:6, 7). There is an extract which I must give from God's ancient legislation, and as I read you will be able to say whether ever Act of Parliament was so beautiful (Deuteronomy 24:19-21). And why this beneficial arrangement? A memorial act; to keep the doers in grateful remembrance of God's mighty interposition on their behalf. When men draw their gratitude from their memory, their hand will be opened in perpetual benefaction. II. THE RELATION OF THE POOR TO THE CHURCH. "The poor ye have always with you." For what purpose? As a perpetual appeal to our deepest sympathy; as an abiding memorial of our Saviour's own condition while upon earth; as an excitement to our most practical gratitude. The poor are given into the charge of the Church, with the most loving commendation Of Christ their companion and Saviour. 1. The poor require physical blessing. Christ helped man's bodily nature. The Church devotes itself more to the spirit than to the flesh. This is right: yet we are in danger of forgetting that Christianity has a mission to the body as well as to the soul. The body is the entrance to the soul And is there no reward? Will the Lord who remembers the poor forget the poet's benefactor? Truly not! (Psalm 41:1). 2. The poor require physical blessing; but still more do they require spiritual blessing. The harvest is great, the labourers are few. Do you inquire as to recompense? It is infinite! "They cannot recompense thee, but thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." And yet they can recompense thee! Every look of the gleaming eye is a recompense! Every tone of thankfulness is a repayment. God is not unrighteous to forget our work of faith. If we do good unto "one of the least of His brethren," Christ will receive the good as though offered to Himself. Terrible is the recompense of the wicked! "Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard." Much is being said about Charity. .They have carved her image in marble; they have enclosed her in gorgeously coloured glass; they have placed on her lofty brow the wreath of immortal amaranth; poesy has turned her name into rhythm, and music has chanted her praise. All this is well. All this is beautiful. It is all next to the best thing; but still the best thing is to incorporate charity in the daily life, to breathe it as our native air, and to express it in all the actions of our hand. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." You will then be one with God! "Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?" Then do not contemn the poor. "He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity." (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. |
    |