Trait 22.
TRAIT 22.
The engaging condescension of his humble charity.
CHARITY avoids all appearance of haughtiness, and is never seen to act in an unbecoming manner. On the contrary, full of courtesy, she fears lest she should give offence to any; and, full of benevolence, she labours for the edification of all. Here the charitable pastor cannot act otherwise than with a holy condescension toward all men, and especially toward the ignorant and poor, with whom the ministers of the present age will scarcely deign to converse: and, without ever slipping his foot into the pit of error, he sometimes approaches it with a happy mixture of compassion and prudence, for the relief of those who are unable to extricate themselves from it. “Though I am free from all men,” writes St. Paul, “yet I have made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews: to them that are without law, as without law, that I might gain them that are without a written law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the Gospel’s sake,” 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. “All things are lawful for me,” continues he, “but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not,” 1 Corinthians 10:23. “When ye sin against the brethren by wounding their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend,” 1 Corinthians 8:12,
13. “Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved,” 1 Corinthians 10:32, 33.
Behold that sweet prudence of charity which our Lord recommended to his disciples, when he pointed out the folly of putting new wine into such bottles as were unable to resist the force of the fermenting liquor. And of this affectionate discretion he himself gave them a striking example, when he said, “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” If this condescending carriage was lovely in the blessed Jesus, it will ever appear amiable in his humble imitators, who can say, with the Apostle Paul, to the weaker members of the Church, “We have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it,” 1 Corinthians 3:2.
Special care is, however, to be taken that this charitable condescension may never betray the interests of truth and virtue. “Abstain,” saith St. Paul, “from all appearance of evil,” 1 Thessalonians 5:22. “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ,” 1 Corinthians 11:1. For “herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men,” Acts 24:16. And “our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward,” among whom we have laboured in the Gospel, 2 Corinthians 1:12.
If there exist pastors who lack this condescension toward the poor, or who are destitute of that humble charity which can familiarize itself with the most ignorant for their edification and comfort: if there are ministers to be found who are ever meanly complaisant to the rich, and who are void of holy resolution in the presence of the great, instead of conducting themselves with that mingled humility and dignity which are suitable to the character they sustain,—may the one and the other be convinced of the grievous error into which they are fallen, while they contemplate this opposite trait in the character of St. Paul.
Upon what consideration is founded the humiliating distinction which is generally made between the rich and the poor? Was Christ manifested in a state of earthly grandeur? Did he not chiefly associate with the poor? Far from flattering the rich, did he not insinuate that they would, with the utmost difficulty, enter into the kingdom of God? Did he not affirm it were better for a man to be cast into the sea with a millstone about his neck, than to offend the poorest believer? Did he not declare that he would consider the regard shown to the meanest of his followers as though he himself had been the immediate object of it? When St. James assures us that “he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way,” performs the best of all possible good works, because, by preventing a multitude of sins, he places the soul in the road to every virtue,—can this declaration be supposed to lose any of its force when applied to the soul of a poor man? Are not the lowest of men immortal as the most elevated? Did not Christ humble himself to the death of the cross for the poor as well as the rich? “Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom?” And, finally, were the angels less ready to convey the soul of perishing Lazarus to paradise than that of wealthy Abraham? Perish then for ever that unchristian prejudice which dishonours the poor, nourishes the pride of the rich, and leads us to the violation of that great command, by which we become as guilty as though we had transgressed the whole law, the spirit of which is love. And let us remember it is only out of the ruins of so despicable a partiality, that the engaging condescension, of which St. Paul has left us so lovely an example, can possibly be produced.