Matt. iii, 5, 6. Asceticism fraught with Perils. Matt. xiii, 33. of manners, freedom from the entanglements of society and the elaborate artifices of a complicated civilization. It also gave him self-reliance, fortitude, courage. An ascetic life is ever apt to make what in some respects is a grand character. It was the secret of John's famous power when, in the day of his shewing to Israel, Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, went out unto him, to be baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Yet an ascetic life is fraught with perils. It tempts to self-righteousness, morbid gloom, and fanaticism. We only need recall the abominable vices of the medieval monks-their indolence, avarice, hypocrisy, and sensuality-to be certified that monasticism has no just place in the Christian economy. Happy the day for those European countries when the monasteries were suppressed! No, man was made for man. He may escape society; but in escaping society, he disowns duty. The leaven of the kingdom must be put into the meal of the world. Viewed in this light, monasMilton's "Areo- ticism is both selfish and cowardly. "I can not praise," said John Milton, "a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversaries, but slinks out of the race, where the immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat." The asceticism which Jesus Christ, alike by word and by example, demands is self-denial, not for selfdenial's own sake, but for the sake of others. The gallant Sir Philip Sidney, fatally wounded on the field of Zutphen, and calling in his fever for drink, pagitica." and then observing a wounded comrade, and bidding the bottle to be carried to him, saying, "Thy necessity is greater than mine," is an exquisite instance of the true asceticism. Christian selfdenial means vicarious self-sacrifice. not John, our Model. Col. ii, 23. And the Divine Man is here as everywhere Jesus, else our blessed model. He was in the world, but he was not of the world; and as he was, so we are John xvii, 16. to be. Asceticism is not a form; but a spirit: not a will-worship, and willful humiliation, and severity to the body; but a mortification of our evil passions. It is easier to follow John the Hermit than to follow Jesus the Comrade. And so he that is Matt. xi, 11. least in the kingdom of the Son is greater than John the Baptizer. After all, the followers of Jesus are the true "Knights of St. John," and this because they are the true "Order of Jesuits." Almighty God, by whose providence thy servant John Collect. Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of thy Son our Saviour, by preaching repentance; Make us so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and after his example constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth's sake: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. THE ANNUNCIATION TO JOSEPH. MATTHEW i, 18-25. The name which is above every name. Philippians ii, 9. |