The name is absent

206 The First and Great Commandment

produces is not rendered, the life is obstructing God even
though it may claim freedom from vice. Condemnation
comes not only upon the evil actively done, but also upon
the life which leaves the good undone; which is unprofitable
and accomplishes no service.

Here he stands, the servant who is trusted with his oppor-
tunity; and then he comes, as he must come before his
Master, but empty-handed and empty-hearted, even though
he felt himself supplied and safe amidst his so-called secur-
ities. There the traveler is stricken down by the evil-doers;
but the priest and the Levite who stand and look down upon
him in his pain and want, and leave that business not at-
tended to as not theirs, will wake soon or late to aching
memories and be haunted by the ghosts of good deeds not
done. In another parable there figures the man who was
richly clad and fared sumptuously; and while aggressive
evil is not recorded of him and he probably did not grudge
the crumbs that fell to the beggar, still he was self-centered;
love and service were not his watchwords; and he fell upon
emptiness and want.

Not only is there required the loyalty that does not dis-
obey, but likewise the loyalty which is at one with the
Father; which sees into the Father’s heart and sympathizes
with Him, and shares in His character of love and compas-
sion and generosity. With wonderful power is this illus-
trated by the parable in which one son goes into the far
country of sin; and the elder son, even though remaining in
the Father’s house and not alien by direct transgression, is
still in the far country of spiritual unlikeness to the Father.

To be saved does not signify merely rescue from penalty,
nor mere bestowal of blessings to be accounted precious in
the degree in which they can be held in selfish enjoyment;
but salvation must include such expansion of character as

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