comes to reveal the Father to each of us, and to make us feel the
presence of the Divine creative Spirit in every separate human life; and
till we feel this personal illumination we have not realised the
manifestation of the Son of God. But the Pharisee with his continual
reference to tradition, his multiplication of external observances, and
elaborate ritual, his reliance upon usage and external authority, knows
little or nothing of the personal illumination by the direct influence of
the Spirit of God upon our spirit. Hence this absolute and fundamental
contrast between Jesus and the Pharisees. They represent two opposing
principles in life. And it is this that gives such intensity to the
words He addressed to them: "Ye have made the word of God of none effect
through your traditions"; and it is a universal warning--never out of
date.

If the spirit of traditional usage and influence holds the citadel of a
man's life, the spirit of Christian progress cannot gain an entrance.

That is the lesson which the Saviour presses upon our attention by His
denunciation of the Pharisaic usage, habit, and attitude, and it is
hardly possible to overestimate the importance of the lesson, because
this same spirit of Pharisaic tradition is constantly laying its hand
upon every human institution, and it has contributed to every abuse or
perversion that has taken possession of the Christian Church.

Our life is, in fact, a continuous struggle between the two principles
here represented. Which is to prevail in it, and fix its character--
traditional custom, or personal inspiration? Are we to follow the world
with its conventions and laws, or to live in personal communion with God?
The tendency of our life will be determined in one direction or the other
according as we surrender our will to the rule of traditional notions and