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Most religious leaders have given important writings to their followers — the Law, the Koran. The reformers, Wiclif, Luther, Calvin, etc., wielded as much power by their pen as by their tongue. But the only writing ascribed to Jesus is that of the text, and now doubt is thrown even upon that. Consider the significance of this. It could not be to discourage literature, because —

1. Christ was a great teacher, and dealt with ideas as well as conduct.

2. His disciples wrote under His commission. What, then, may we learn from the literary silence of Christ?

I. CHRIST WAS CARELESS OF FAME. It came, but unsought. Among those Galilean hills Jesus spoke words which make the most brilliant sayings of the Greek philosophers and poets look commonplace. Yet He had no thought of attracting the world's admiration. His words are like wild flowers. We set our plants in conspicuous beds in trim gardens where our friends can admire them. God scatters His flowers in pathless woods, on lonely moors, etc. They bloom in the wilderness, but fade in the city. Consider how some of the best of Christ's words were spoken to one individual — to Nicodemus, the woman of Samaria, Martha, etc. True they have been reported; but —

1. There is no reason to suppose that Jesus thought of any record being made of them.

2. He must have said many other similarly great and beautiful things of which there is no report (John 21:25). Learn simplicity, humility, and self-forgetfulness from this literary silence. Let it silence the pretensions of literary vanity.

II. CHRIST WAS MORE CONCERNED WITH THE SUBSTANCE THAN WITH THE FORM OF HIS TEACHING. He did not only speak for the benefit of His contemporaries; He entrusted His teaching to apostles. No doubt memory was stronger then than now we have injured it by the use of memoranda. Moreover, Christ promised the Spirit to help the memories of His apostles. Nevertheless, they did not report their Master's sayings with that absolute verbal accuracy which would have marked His writing of them. This is proved by differences in the records. Hence learn —

1. That Christ condemns worship of the letter. "The letter killeth."

2. That the method of studying Scripture by means of the minute pedantic analysis of texts and the building of ponderous arguments on small phrases — unstable as inverted pyramids — is wrong. We should seek rather for the broad lessons of a passage.

3. That distress and doubt, occasioned by various readings, changes in the Revised Version, alternative marginal renderings, etc., are due to a mistaken idea of Scripture. In the essence of revelation no vital truth is shaken by these variations.

III. THE PERSON OF CHRIST IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HIS WORDS. People say the Press is crushing the pulpit. The work of Christ is the greatest proof of the power of a living personal presence. Some men put their best selves in their books; but it is better to be loved by one friend than admired by ten thousand readers. Jesus was loved best by those who knew Him most. His influence is still powerful because personal.

1. We have to note in the Gospels not merely the words of Christ, but His whole life, death, resurrection; and for us the words are chiefly valuable as revealing the soul of speaker.

2. We have a living Christ, unseen but present.

IV. THE WORK OF CHRIST IS GREATER THAN HIS TEACHING. Christ's claims are essentially different in kind as well as degree from those of Socrates. He is the grandest of Teachers, but He is more; He is the Saviour of the world and the King of the new heavenly kingdom. His chief mission lay not in His preaching, but in His doing the work of the kingdom of God. It does not centre in the Sermon on the Mount, but in the death on Calvary.

V. THE TRAINING OF MEN IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PUBLICATION OF IDEAS. Socrates resembles Christ in writing nothing and being chiefly concerned with the work of training the characters of disciples.

1. All Christian work must have this practical aim. In the mission, the Church, the Sunday school, the kind of teaching must be the training of souls. The teacher who simply propagates ideas is as sounding brass.

2. Christ's work in us is personal and spiritual. We may study His sayings, but we shall be no Christians till our lives are quickened by His life.

(W. F. Adeney, M. A.)

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KJV: And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

WEB: The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the midst,