The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

Three points here stood out specially—^nay, stand
out still, and in all ages. Hence this criticism was
not only of special application to the Jews, but is
universal, we might almost say, prophetic. These
three high points are alms, prayer, and fasting —
or, to put the latter more generally, the relation of
the physical to the spiritual. These three are
^Aims^Yt successively presented, negatively and
positively.** But even so, this ^rjjBKw, ^Q^jj
hskve been but the external aspect of them. The
Kingdom of 18 *^* **" God carries all back to the
grand underlying ideas. What wefe this or that
mode of giving alms, unless the right idea be
apprehended, of what constitutes riches, and where
they should be sought ? This is indicated in verses
19 to 21. Again, as to prayer: what matters it if we
avoid the extemalism of the Pharisees, or even
catch the right form as set forth in the * Lord's
Prayer,' unless we realise what underlies prayer ?
It is to lay our inner man wholly open to the light
of God *«rT. ss,» in genuine, earnest simplicity, to
be quite shone through by Him.* It •▼T. t%-u is,
moreover, absolute and undivided self-dedication