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Mckenzie
THE ROYAL BOUNTY
VII―14
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
AiiEXANDEB MoKenzds was bom at New Bedford, Maas., in 1830, and graduated from Harvard in 1859. Since 1867 he has been paator of the First Congregational Ghnreh, Cambridge, Mass. BSs voice is rich, full and sympathetic, and his pulpit style that of one man talking earnestly and directly to another, there being no at tempt at oratorical effect. He is to-day probably the most acceptable preacher at Harvud, and the leading Congregational minister in New England. The dueourse reprinted here is from his volume ''A Door Opened,'' and has been noted as one of the greatest sermons of the century.
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Born in 1830 THE ROYAL BOUNTY*
And King Sotomon gave to the Queen of 8heka ell her deeire, whatsoever she asked, besides that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. 80 she turned and went to her own land, she and her servants. ―1 Kings x^ 18.
THE Queen of Sheba came from the utter most part of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. She was amazed at all that she had heard, and delighted with all that she saw, and confest that after the generous rumors that had reached her in her distant home the half had not been told her. She brought her present to him, as was the custom of the times ; and when she went away she asked a gift of him, and history says that the king gave her all that she desired; and that, having given her everything of which she had thought, he added something more of his own thought. He gave her this, not because she had desired it, but because he had desired it ; not for her heart's seeking, but out of his heart's wishing to bestow, l^is is the simple
* Reprinted by permisfdon of Dr. Alexander IfcKen zie and the publiBhen, Houghton, Mifflin Co.
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record: "And King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, besides that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty.'' Thes6 last words describe the added gift, and this was doubtless the best of all ; that upon which she would think with the greatest pleasure, and of which she would speak with the greatest pride. The word ** royal" is well chosen, for we think of some thing which is great when we apply this term to it, as we speak of a royal deed, royal mag nificence, royal benevolence, royal bounty. We readily approve the action of the king, for it is this excess of giving, beyond that which is demanded of us, which makes the real gener osity. We are in the habit ourselves, so far as we are generous at all, of reaching beyond the real necessities and requests of our friends, and giving out of the largeness of our hearts. It is this excess which commands the high price. It is the added, extraordinary beauty of a paint ing which enhances its worth. Some pictures are sold by the square yard, and some by the inch. It is that which genius adds which is the royid bounty. It marks the difference between genius^ and talent. To be what we must, and to do what we must, is narrow and uninterest ing. The man who is just, and no more, wins our praise for his integrity, but not our re gard for his liberality. There are some men who would on no account have their measures in the slightest degree too sm^][^ Jt^ijliji^^be
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quite as careful not to have them too large. There is no reason why justice should not be combined with charity, and a strict regard for the legal demands which are made upon us with the excess out of a free heart which will make our justice beautiful. I saw in a fine country town a tall, graceful tree which cast its pleasant shade upon the path, and I marked that men had fastened upon it an iron frame which held a lamp that gave out its light upon the path. The tree was not the less a tree that it added the light, and the lamp was not less a lamp because it her longed to the tree. I came afterward and found that the bark of the tree had grown up aroimd the iron where it was fastened to it, till the frame and lamp were fairly incorpo rated in the tree itself. It is easy thus to enlarge our life, adding beauty to strength, giving what our heart desires to give to that which Sheba asks at our hands. This tnought is strongly expressed by St. Paul, ** Scarcely for a righteous man,'' the man who does ex actly what he ought to do, and nothing more, **will one die.'* Yet peradventure, for a good man, who does all he ought to do, and adds something because he wants to do it, some would even give their life. This man appeals to our heart which is ready to respond. The best things are indeed only to be given in this way. They can not be bought. They can not be had for the asking; such things as con
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fidenee, and friendship, and courteEor, which no statute can demand, but which tiie royal heart delights to give ; and there is a like roy alty which is able to receive and prize the gift
This is Ood's way, to whom all life is but the expression of his heart. We rejoice con tinually in his bountiful goodness. What is the need of flowers? He could have made a strong and honest earth which would take in the 8^ and give it out in harvest, and thus we could live; but when He had made the eiffth substantial, useful as it is, He added flowers, because He widied to give them, was delighted to look upon them, and knew how happy we should be who saw them blossom by the roadside. There is no need of birds. The world would go its way, the seasons would f oUow one another, the sun would rise and set, the forest trees would reach up toward the clouds, without them. God made all this, and then filled the quiet woods with forms of beauty, and changed silence into songs. Even heaven itself has more than we should have looked for or asked for. We might have had a good delightful heaven, without pain or sorrow or sighing, without death, and such a heav^i we have. But in the vision of the Apocalypse, which only dimly sees the heav enly reality, its streets are covered with gold, as it were transparent glass; its gates are pearl, and the strong walk, which can not be
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moved, glisten with jewels. So it might have been with the arrangement of this world. We might have had men to care for us, women to nurture us, fathers to work for us, a society whose process might move on with industry and safety from year to year. But God has added the richer delights of love and sym pathy, of all that we name friend and friend ship. It is in the same way that He frames His ordinances for us. We could have had all days alike, but when He had made six good days He added a seventh which should be wearied by no work, wherein the soul should be at leisure to live with itself in quietaess, and worship Gk)d. He might have supplied all our wants in tiie course of nature, bringing His gifts to our door with regularity, and we should have lived our appointed time ; but He does more than this. He lets us thank Him when we take our daily bread, and blesses the bread with the love which gives it. He even lets us tell Him what we wish, and to our wishes He gives patient heed. He might have left us to conscience and experience, in the light of nature to frame our character and our hope, but to these He has added the thought of other men, the revelation of His wisdom by His saints, the gift of His spirit to our spirit, to be in us a continual light.
There is a very good expression of God's way of dealing with us in a line of the twenty third Psalm^ "My cup runneth over." This
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seems unnecessary. To have the cup full, or a little less than full, is enough for us, and more convenient. For us, but not for God, who delights in filling it; and when we bid Him stay His hand, He keeps on pouring, and the water flows, till, presently, the cup is overflowing, but not because we thought to have it so, but because of His great delight in giving; until it would seem as if He could not stop, or content Himself with that which He has already bestowed upon us. Let this stand a& a simple expression of His way with us.
When we come upon anything that all good men approve, we may be very certain that we have found something which Qod Himself ap proves, and which is the method of His life. We like, among ourselves, this principle of the cup that runneth over. Our liking for it we have inherited from Qod. We might expect, therefore, that when the Son of God has His life in the world He will live by this rule, which is of heaven and of earth ; and it is even so. His first miracle would seem unnecessary. There have been people who blindly but hon estily wished that He had never wrought it. Why did He do it if there was no need of it, if it were even possible that it should be wrested from its meaning t He had gone as a guest to a wedding, perhaps because the bride was his friend, and there came that grave calamity which would mar the feast ; for presently it was whispered to Him, "They
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have iio wine." Surely they could have a wedding without wine. Not that wedding. Not in the custom of that time. He knew that the bride, if she lived to be old, would never recover from the shame of her wedding-day, whose beauty was lost. Here was a necessity, in love,* in kindness; and that the cheeks of this girl might not redden with shame, He reddened the water into wine.
He was at Capernaum. They brought to Him a sick man with the palsy. They broke up the roof, and lowered him to the feet of Jesus, who knew well what they wanted. He passed over the little thing which they sought, and, governed by His own feeling, not by theirs, he said, **Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are sent away from thee.** That was enough. In a few dayB, the mau would be able to walk without His help. Death comes to the succor of cripples, llie man gave no sign of discontent, but Jesus found that the friends were unsatisfied, and He thought with-, in Himself, **You brought him here that he might be raised up, and be made able to carry his bed home. I have done a greater thing for him, but I will add this which you want.'* ** Arise,** He said, *'take up your bed and go your way.** He did the greater work which made the soul strong, and for the lesser work, ―^well, He threw that in. It was the royal bounty. There was a time later than that, after His resurrection, when some of His
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disciples had toiled all the night upon the sea, and had taken nothing. He could not have it a f roitless night for them. In the morning He was their risen Savior, who might well bestow some spiritual g^ft becoming to the resurrection. This He did, but He said, ''Cast your net on the right side of the ship, and you will find what you have been seek ing. '* They cast it, therefore, and drew it in, full of fishes, a hundred and fifty and three. This is the record of a fisherman, who wrote that the fish were large ; and of an old man, who remembered the number of them. They drew their net to shore, and there was a fire of coiUs, and fish laid thereon, another fish. When they had enough, one that was better than all was added. Have you not sometimes wished that you could have had that hundred and fifty-fourth fishf This was Christ's way all the while, and is His way still. He fills the net as full as it will hold, tiiat our life may be sustained, and then He adds more, that His love may be gratified, and that which He adds is the **royal bounty."
The work of our Lord was not merely in meeting the wants of men, but in creating the wants; not in gratifying their great de sires^ but in making their desires great. His own work in the world was twofold : to teach men how much more there was which they could en^oy, and how much more there was which He was eager to impart. The greater
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the desire, the surer it was that it would be met by His desire. Indeed, a lai^ desire is necessary to wealth. We mnst look out toward that wherein our riches lie. *'He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must send ont the wealth of the Indies.'' To him whose desires are allowed liberty there comes the answer of fulfillment from *'the unsearch able riches of Christ/' In all His life and in all His teachings we see vastly more than men ever asked, much more than they are willing to take even to-day. It has often been, as it was at the first, that **he came unto his own, and his own received him not"; but to those who received Him He gave all they wished, and more than they had thought; He gave the right to become the sons of Qod. They would have been content with a greater prophet, a bolder leader, a stronger king, a Messiah who should enthrone Israel and bring the nations in homage to its feet. He came bringing Qod to the world, giving an eternal liberty, erecting an everlasting kingdom. They wanted manna; He gave the bread of life. They wanted wells of water; He gave the well that should be within them, springing up for evermore. They wanted a leader; He gave a Savior. They wanted man; and He was God. This has continued even to our time. Many admire Christ because He was a teacher, neglecting that wherein He was in«finitely more than teacher. They are glad of
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an example ; He was that, but, far beyond it. He was the life whereby righteousness became possible. There are those who would be con tent with His beautiful spirit, His blameless life. His deeds of charity, His patience. His submission. His consent to a death which He could not avoid. He offers to the world the spirit of the Eternal, the life of God to be lived upon the earth ; He lays down tiie life which no man could take from Him; and, with all the roads leading from Jerusalem open before Him, walks with determined step to Calvary and the cross. Beyond that which has contented many in the world. He gave Himself, the world's Redeemer, the Lailib of Qod, the Qood Shepherd giving His life for the sheep.
It is veiy, very sad to mark how ready we are to measure Christ's gifts to us by our nar row wants and limited desires; not by the greatness of His love, not by His exhai^ess riches, not by the fulness of the grace of the Eternal, who is the Father and friend of all men. If ever we shall pass beyond the grati fying of ourselves, and allow Christ to gratify Himself in blessing us, we shall find in a glad experience what tbe simple words mean, ^'I am come that they might have life"―oh, friends, do not stop there, finish the sentence, ―**I am come that they might have life, and that 1;hey might have it more abundantly." We ask life of Him, and He gives. us life, and
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offers length of days forever and forever. We pray that we may live ; and we set up a goal at seventy or ninety years, when He draws no line across our path. **I give eternal life," He says. We pray for help that we may live ; He off ers more than that in the unrivaled sen tence, ''Because I live, ye shall live also." We think of life as being, and are content. We use existence as a synonym of living, but He said, **This is eternal life, to know God, and me,"
So for ourselves; we are to live as His disciples. We wish to be true, useful, and generous. We wish to do in small measure such things as He did, ―^in His name to give the cup of water, and the healing of the sick. He grants all that we desire, then speaks out of His own heart, and His desire, "The works that I do shall ye do, and greater works than these"; for the miracles which attract us or baffle us, which draw us to His love, or possibly turn us from His word, which are only miracles because they are strange to us, are to be exceeded in the things which we do, when by our teaching we open the eyes of men that they may see God, and lift them up to the ways of holy living, and raise them from being into life. Our visions of heaven in our reverent imagination, even in the exultant words of the Revelation, are not equal to the simple truths which He taught, and men learned to repeat after Him. For what ard"^
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golden streets and jeweled walls beside that which He meant, ''In my Father's house are many mansions." ''I go to prepare a place for you/' "Ye shall behold my glory/' "Ye shall be loved as I am loved." The thought of Christ far outruns the aspiration of the world, as it comes to us from the lips of that diseiple whom Jesus loved, "We shall be like him, for we shall see him even as he is."
What do we need, thent To enlarge our desires ! Yes, but to consult to God 's desires. To wish for more, but to consent to be blest as Christ longs to bless us. We must know tiie methods of God, whose will to give is greater and more constant than our will to receive. We must adjust our life to God's desire. Faith is the compact of the soul with God, rather than with itsell "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it," is a promise ever old and ever new. We must be firm enough and aspiring enough to hold the cup after it has begun to overflow, and to let God's hand pour tbe water of life as long as He will, for this world and all the worlds that are to be. If we could desire more, if we could ascend to God's desire for us, life would be transfig ured.
"The balsam, the wine, of predestinate wills Is a jubilant longing and pining for God."
''God loves to be longed for, He loves to be sovgfat. For He sought us Himself, with such longing and
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We wish now to take this method for our own in all our dealing with Gk>d. Our sense of what is rights the voice of conscience, the commands of Scripture, call us to our duty. Let us do what they require till conscience is satisfied; but let us add to this more than a rigid obedience asks for, all that a loving heart, grateful and generous, wishes to bestow. The little questions of life, small matters of casuistry, minute affairs of conduct, would be quite reiadily determined if we would live by this rule, wherewith God blesses us. That question which with tmusual urgency now presses upon us, how we shall regard the Sab bath day, would not be difficult if it were our delight to remember it, and to keep it holy be cause it is our delight to please Him who has given to us its sacredness and blessedness. It is pitiful when we find ourselves questioning how much of the day idiould be holy; how much of it should be given to the thought of Qod and the divine life ; how much of it we should yield to the holy spirit of truth; how many of the hours we should keep in the re membrance of Him whose resurrection gives to the Sabbath its greater meaning. We should keep the Sabbath holy as if we desired to keep it holy. All its hours should be sacred. They need not be less joyous, less friendly, for being holy ; and we can not be gratified with the spirit in which we find ourselves trying to divide the time. Keep twenty-four hours for
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God, and if by any means yon can make the time overflow add a twenty-fifth hour.
We question again about money. What pro portion of our property should we devote to Qodi The Jews said one-tenth. Can we do no better, after so long a timet Let us give the whole, and if by any means we can com pass it, let us add another tenth, simply to show what a delight it is to give all things to Him, and to let Him make the allotment m His care for us, and for our household, and for the Church, and for the wide world that we are living in. There are many who do this, and they learn how true is that word of Christ that is called to mind among the Acts of the Apostles, *'It is more blessed to give than to receive. '*
Thus, in all things let us make the way of Qod our own, become His children entirely, re ceive the love of Christ in its fulness, make up our own life in His name, according to the largeness of His thought. If we will consent to it, we can be great and rich and strong. It seems strange to say that we are not ready to be blest, but of many it is true. They are not willing to be greatly blest, to have the cup run over. They are willing to be usef iil, but not veiy useful. They ask to be set in His service, but when He takes their word and breathes His own desire into it, they shrink back. It is a very serious thing, if we are able to perceive it, to consent that God should bless
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us as He pleases, should have His own estimate of our character, His own measure of our pow ers, His own vision of our accomplishment, and should call us to greater service, to di viner employment, than we have ever dreamed of. It was a wise woman who said, **I have had to face my own prayers." We face our prayers when God gives His own wish to our words, and makes them large enough to hold His thoughts. It is one of the hardest things to believe, but one to which, in humbleness of mind and in a faith which will not falter, we should consent, ―^that high word of calling and consecration which Christ gave more than once, ―*^Ab the Father hath sent me into the world, even so send I you." Not our thought but His thought makes our calling, and the thought of God is the summons and the guid ance of our life. Even so, even according to Thy greatness, and Thy gentleness which makes men great; Thine infinite purposes, and Thine eternal grace ; even so, O Lord of mercy and of truth, send us into the world I
As we close these thoughts, let us remember that promise which comes at the close of the Old Testament, which almost seems to reverse the promise at the beginning of the Old Testa ment, **I will never open the windows of heaven and pour out a flood again"; for the last of the prophets brings to us the word of God, that He will open the windows of heaven, and pour out a flood again. It shall not come
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to destroy, but to preserve ; it shall create life ; it shall enlarge life, but it shall be after the measure of His will, not ours. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove me now herewith, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Not drops here and there, but showers of blessing. Not running brooks, but broad rivers. Not pools of water, but a shoreless sea ; deep, deep waters, when, looking up into the infinite Love, and consenting to be blest of Qod as God would bless us, we bring all the tithes into tiie storehouse and the remainder of the tithes, if any have been left. **I will pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.** Not room enough to receive it ; that is the royal bounty.
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