rve that _have_ means _have received in full_, and note the emphasis
of that _their_. It is all the reward that they will ever get, and all
that they are capable of. The pure and lasting crown, which is a fuller
possession of God Himself, has no charms for them, and could not be
given. And what a poor thing it is which they seek--the praise of men, a
breath, as unsubstantial and short-lived as the blast of the trumpet
which they blew before their selfish benevolence. Their charity was no
charity, for what they did was not to give, but to buy. Their gift was a
speculation. They invested in charity, and looked for a profit of
praise. How can they get God's reward? True benevolence will even hide
the giving right hand from the idle left, and, as far as may be, will
dismiss the deed from the doer's consciousness. Such alms, given wholly
out of pity and desire to be like the all-giving Father, can be
rewarded, and will be, with that richer acquaintance with Him and more
complete victory over self, which is the heaven of heaven and the
foretaste of it now.

In its coarsest forms, this ostentation is out and out hypocrisy, which
consciously assumes a virtue which it has not. But far more common and
dangerous is the subtle, unconscious mingling of it with real
charity--the eye wandering from the poor, whom the hand is helping, to
the bystanders--and it is this mingling which we have therefore to take
most heed to avoid. One drop of this sour stuff will curdle whole
gallons of the milk of human kindness. The hypocrisy which hoodwinks
ourselves is more common and perilous than that which blinds others.

II. We need not dwell at length on the second application of the general
warning--to prayer; as the words are almost, and the thoughts entirely,
identical with those of the former verses. If there be any action of the
spirit which requires the complete exclusion of thoughts of men, it is
prayer, which is the communion of the soul alone with God. It is as
impossible to pray, and at the same time to think of men, as to look up
and down at once. If we think of prayer, as formalists in all times have
done, as so many words, then it will not seem incongruous to choose the
places where men are thickest for 'saying our prayers,' and we shall do
it with all the more spirit if we have spectators. That accounts for a
great deal of the 'devotion' in Mohammedan and Roman Catholic countries
which travellers with no love for Protestant Christia