A SERMON. MATTHEW xxiii. 8-10. Be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth for one is your Father, who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. SUCH is Christ's charter of his Church's liberties. Such is Christ's constitution for his kingdom of heaven upon earth :-Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood: the equal brotherhood of a common spiritual nature, common rights, common duties, common hopes, common relations to one Father, even God, and one Master, even Christ; a brotherhood that admits, indeed, of distinctions-distinctions of elder and younger, teacher and taught, giver and receiver-but not of any such distinction as imports command on the one side and obedience on the other. In Christ's kingdom, all are brethren; fellow-heirs and fellow-servants and no man can judge his fellow-servant-he may help him, advise him, teach him, but not command, not judge him-for the very reason that he is a fellow-servant, and has his own master to whom he standeth or falleth. |