God, I thank thee . . .—We cannot say that the formula, as a formula, was wrong. We are bound to thank God that we have been kept from sins. But all devout minds, and all rightly- constructed liturgies, have recognised the truth that confession must come first, and that without it thanksgiving is merely the utterance of a serene self-satisfaction in outward comforts, or, as hereof spiritual pride.
That I am not as other men.—Here, as before,
the rest of mankind.
This was the first false step. He did not compare his own imperfections with the infinite perfections of the Eternal, but with the imagined greater imperfections of his fellowmen, and so
he
stood as one who had gained the shore, and looked with pride, but not with pity, on those who were still struggling in the deep waters.
Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, . . .—The first word was aptly chosen, and was obviously suggested by the presence of the other supplicant. Six publicans and half-a-dozen extortioners had become a proverb and the offensive epithet, if not meant to be heard by the publican, was, at any rate, mentally directed at him. In actual life, as our Lord teaches, there was afar worse, because a more hypocritical, extortion practised generally by the Pharisees themselves
(
Matthew 23:25
; Luke 11:39
). The other words are more generally put, but they were obviously spoken with side glances at this or that bystander. The language of Cromwell in dissolving the Long Parliament, saying to one
“Thou art an adulterer and to another Thou art a drunkard and a glutton to a third and thou an extortioner offers a curious instance of unconscious parallelism (Hume’s
History of
England,
chap. 60).
Or even as this publican.—This was the climax of all. He saw the man smiting on his breast in anguish, and no touch of pity, no desire to say a word of comfort, rises in his soul. The penitent is only a foil to the lustre of his own virtues, and gives the zest of contrast to his own insatiable vanity. The very pronoun has the ring of scorn in it.
Share with your friends: |
