PRIVILEGE AND OBLIGATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2591, 9 June 1923, Page 1

PRIVILEGE AND OBLIGATION.

BY REV. J. H. JOWETT, D.D

“T forgave l tlice all that debt . . shouldest not thou also have had mercy on thy fellow-servant, even as T had mercy on thee? —Matt, xviii. 32.

The ‘‘ought.’’ emerges in the track of a grace. A great favour has been conferred, and in the favour there should have been born an obligation. The pity of the Master ought to have begotten a corresponding pity in the heart of the servant. Every benefit which the Lord confers upon us entails 'the responsibility of becoming a benefactor. If He creates springs, the springs must be the birthplace of rivers. If He lights our lamps, the lamps must be used for the light of the world. If He grants to us the cordial of a heavenly comfort, we are comforted in order that we may comfort others with the bounties of the same grace. If we are redeemed from destruction, the redeemed life must be consecrated to the redemption of others. “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”

And so we must examine our blessings if we would recognise our obligations. They grow together, and it is a strangely perverted sight if we see the one and are blind to the other. “I forgave thee all that debt; oughlest thou not therefore . . . . .” The divine forgiveness is to reveal itself again in human forgiveness. What flowed into life on the divine side is to flow out again on the human side. The divine forgiveness is not to be an imprisoned and exclusive lake; it is to have a larger influence as an emancipating river. When the Lord has loosed our souls by the grace of forgiveness our deliverance is to charge us with the sacred obligation of becoming consecrated crusaders ivho will go forth to loosen the moral bonds of others, and set the prisoners free.

Here is another line of obligation: “I gave thee all that joy; oughtest thou not . . .” George Meredith denounces people who enjoy without any corresponding sense of obligation, and indeed he offers this divorce of delight and obligation as the characteristic of cheap and deadly sentimentalism. Anti how common it is! How frequently we use our joy as we use the genial lire on our hearthstone, and not as a torch wherewith we may light the fires of others! And yet it is the obligation of those who have received the joy of the Lord to go forth lighting fires of holy joy on every side. The joy of the Lord is to be our strength for service. And hero is another line of obligation. “I gave thee all that light; oughtest thou not . . I lit up thy soul; oughtest thou not to have taken the kindly light to the souls of others? “Ho man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushel!” And yet we are doing it every day. We do not make a public use of our endowment. Our light is a comforting little (lame in our own chamber, when it ought to be as a street lamp to guide the wayfarer borne. “This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I love you.”