The law of safety for Christian workers.
It is a law which regulates their own conduct. "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Living creatures are recognized figures of moral qualities. How the serpent comes to be the figure of wisdom, with the peculiar characteristic of subtlety, is a subject for dispute. Yah Lennep, writing concerning Asia Minor, says, "The serpent has not the reputation of being ' cunning' or ' wise,' nor are such characteristics suggested or sustained by any facts known in Western Asia. Nevertheless, its subtlety has passed into a proverb, doubtless by reason of the Mosaic account of the fall of our first parents, and this is now as generally current among both Christians and Moslems as it was among the Hebrews in the days of our Lord." There is a kind of paradox in thus associating the serpent and the dove, which is designed to be suggestive and inspirational.
I. OUR SAFETY DEPENDS UPON OUR GUILEFULNESS. This sounds bad. Guilefulness, in the sense of "hypocrisy," receives Christ's most withering denunciations. No such guilefulness can be commended here. But there is a guilefulness which is really "prudence," and this may very naturally be suggested by the quiet, gliding motion of the serpent. There is a simplicity which is foolishness. There is a simplicity which is prudent, watchful of occasions, skilful of adjustments, knows when to act and when to refrain, when to speak and when to keep silence. That "guilefulness" is the practical skill of ordering wisely our life. A company of hermits discussed which of the virtues was most necessary to perfection. One said chastity, another humility, another justice. St. Anthony said, "The virtue most necessary to perfection is prudence; for the most virtuous actions of men, unless governed and directed by prudence, are neither pleasing to God, nor serviceable to others, nor profitable to ourselves." in doing God's work opposition is often needlessly provoked by our imprudence.
II. OUR SAFETY DEPENDS UPON OUR GUILELESSNESS. The dove is the emblem of innocence, artlessness. It has no schemes, no under-intentions, no reserve. What it is you know. All its ways are transparent. If the apostles acted so as to produce the impression that they had ends of their own to serve, they would have set people on the watch lest the apostles should take advantage of them. St. Paul says, "We seek not yours, but you." Prudence and simplicity, guilefulness and guilelessness, can therefore go together, hand-in-hand.—R.T.