PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. Luke
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 253,509 words · 356 reading sections
The Lord That Healeth Thee'
There is first the awful power that evil once done has over us of repeating itself on and on. There is nothing more dreadful to a reflective mind than the damning influence of habit. The man that has done some wrong thing once is a _rara avis_ indeed. If once, then twice; if twice, then onward and onward through all th…
697 wordsSECTION 122The Lord That Healeth Thee'
Now, if these things that I have been saying do fairly represent the gravity of the problem which has to be dealt with in order to heal the sicknesses of the world, then there is no need to dwell upon the thought of how absolutely confined to Jesus Christ is the power of thus dealing. God forbid that I should not give …
850 wordsSECTION 123The Lord That Healeth Thee'
I say, second, if you do not feel that you are ill you will not take the medicine. A man crippled with lameness, or tortured with fever, or groping in the daylight and blind, or deaf to all the sounds of this sweet world, could not but know that he was a subject for the healing. But the awful thing about our disease is…
353 wordsSECTION 124Christ'S Cross And Ours
'And it came to pass, as He was alone praying, His disciples were with Him; and He asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am I 19. They answering, said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again. 20. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Pet…
735 wordsSECTION 125Christ'S Cross And Ours
It does not contain more than Nathanael had said at the beginning, but here it is spoken, not as Peter's private belief, but he is the mouthpiece of all. 'Whether it were I or they, so we' believe. This confession summed up the previous development of the disciples, and so marked the end of one stage and the beginning …
811 wordsSECTION 126Christ'S Cross And Ours
Verse 25 urges obedience to the precept, by an appeal to reasonable self-regard and common-sense. The abnegation enjoined does not require that we should be indifferent to our own well-being. It is right to consider what will 'profit,' and to act accordingly. The commercial view of life, if rightly taken, with regard t…
562 wordsSECTION 127Prayer And Transfiguration
'And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered.'--LUKE ix. 29. This Evangelist is especially careful to record the instances of our Lord's prayers. That is in accordance with the emphasis which he places on Christ's manhood. In this narrative of the Transfiguration it is to Luke that we owe our knowled…
803 wordsSECTION 128Prayer And Transfiguration
And for the rest it is not impossible to have real communion with God in the midst of anxious cares and absorbing duties; it is possible to be like the nightingales, that sing loudest in the trees by the dusty roadsides, possible to be in the very midst of anxiety and worldly work, and yet to keep our hearts in heaven …
741 wordsSECTION 129Prayer And Transfiguration
Now there is a test for our Christianity. Does my religion alter me? If it does not, what right or reason have I to believe that it is genuine at all? Is there a process of purifying going on in my inward nature? Am I getting any more like Jesus Christ than I was ten years ago? I say I live with Him and by Him. If I do…
696 wordsSECTION 130Prayer And Transfiguration
Alas! why is it that so little of this radiance caught from heaven shines from us? There is but one answer. It is because our communion with God in Christ is so infrequent, hurried, and superficial. We should be like those luminous boxes which we sometimes see, shining in the dark with light absorbed from the day; but,…
380 wordsSECTION 131'In The Holy Mount'
'And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias: 31. Who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.'--LUKE ix. 30, 31. The mysterious incident which is commonly called the Transfiguration contained three distinct portions, each having its own special…
863 wordsSECTION 132'In The Holy Mount'
And now it is to be noticed that the words which our Evangelist employs are remarkable, and one of them, at least, is all but unique. The expression translated in my text 'decease' is the same Greek word which, untranslated, names the second book of the Old Testament--_Exodus_. And it literally means neither more nor l…
853 wordsSECTION 133'In The Holy Mount'
Now, dear friends, let me say one word here before I pass on. There is a great deal being said nowadays about the position of the Old Testament, the origin of its ritual, and other critical, and, to some extent, historical, questions. I have no doubt that we have much to learn upon these subjects; but what I would now …
810 wordsSECTION 134'In The Holy Mount'
Moses and Elias were the 'first-fruits of them that slept,' and there were others, when the bodies of the saints rose from the grave and appeared in the Holy City unto many. And their presence, and the presence of these two there, typified for us the great fact that the Cross of Christ is the redemption of pre-Christia…
484 wordsSECTION 135Christ Hastening To The Cross
'And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be received up, He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.'--LUKE ix. 51. There are some difficulties, with which I need not trouble you here, as to bringing the section of this Gospel to which these words are the introduction, into its proper chronolog…
710 wordsSECTION 136Christ Hastening To The Cross
Now, there is another thing to be noticed. That vision of the certain end which here fills His mind and impels His conduct, was by no means new with Him. Modern unbelieving commentators and critics upon the Gospels have tried their best to represent Christ's life as, at a certain point in it, being modified by His reco…
676 wordsSECTION 137Christ Hastening To The Cross
We honour and love men who crush down their own sorrows in order to help their fellows. We wonder with almost reverence when we see some martyr, in sight of the faggots, pause to do a kindness to some weeping heart in the crowd, or to speak a cheering word. We admire the leisure and calm of spirit which he displays. Bu…
850 wordsSECTION 138Christ Hastening To The Cross
And, then, take another circumstance. If you will look carefully at the Scripture narrative, you will find that from about this point in His life onwards there comes a distinct change in one very important respect. Before this He shunned publicity; after this He courted it. Before this, when He spoke in veiled words of…
781 wordsSECTION 139Christ Hastening To The Cross
But at all events, whatever you may think of such an exposition as that, the great principle which my text illustrates for us at an earlier stage is, at least, irrefragably established--that our dear Lord, when He died, died, because He _willed_ to do so. He was man and therefore He _could_ die; but He was not man in s…
653 wordsSECTION 140Christ Hastening To The Cross
And now, if you will take along with that the other thought that I suggested at the beginning of these remarks, and remember that this shrinking must have been as continuous as the vision, and that this overcoming of it must have been as persistent and permanent as the resolve, I think we get a point of view from which…
780 wordsSECTION 141Christ'S Messengers: Their Equipment And Work
And as, from afar, we look on that great sight, let His love melt our hearts to an answering fervour, and His fixed will give us, too, strength to delight in obedience, to set our faces like a flint. Let the power of His sacrifice, and the influence of His example which that sacrifice commends to our loving copy, and t…
967 wordsSECTION 142Christ'S Messengers: Their Equipment And Work
Energetic pursuit of their work, unimpeded by distractions of social intercourse, is meant by the prohibition of saluting by the way. That does not mean churlish isolation, but any one who has ever seen two Easterns 'saluting' knows what a long-drawn-out affair it is. How far along the road one might have travelled whi…
721 wordsSECTION 143Christ'S Messengers: Their Equipment And Work
The return of the Seventy soon followed their being sent forth. They came back with a childish, surprised joy, and almost seem to have thought that Jesus would be as much astonished and excited as they were with the proof of the power of His name. They had found that they could not only heal the sick, but cast out demo…
266 wordsSECTION 144Neighbours Far Off
'And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted Him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26. He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27. And he, answering, said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, …
727 wordsSECTION 145Neighbours Far Off
'Neighbourhood,' in his judgment, implied 'nearness,' and he wished to know how far off the boundaries of the region included in the command lay. There are a great many of us like him, who think that the obligation is a matter of geography, and that love, like force, is inversely as the square of the distance. A good d…
666 wordsSECTION 146Neighbours Far Off
The various acts are enumerated as showing the genius of true love. We notice the swift, cool-headed deftness of the man, his having at hand the appliances needed, the business-like way in which he goes about his kindness, his readiness to expend his wine and oil, his willingness to do the surgeon's work, his cheerful …
644 wordsSECTION 147How To Pray
'And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught His disciples. 2. And He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as …
738 wordsSECTION 148How To Pray
The broad lesson drawn from the order of requests is the second point to be noticed. If we have the child's spirit, we shall put the Father's honour first, and absolutely subordinate our own interests to it. So the first half of the prayer, like the first half of the Decalogue, deals with God's name and its glory. Alas…
758 wordsSECTION 149How To Pray
In the parable two points are to be specially noted--the persistent suppliant pleads not for himself so much as for the hungry traveller, and the man addressed gives without any kindliness, from the mere wish to be left at peace. As to both points, an _a fortiori_ argument is implied. If a man can so persevere when ple…
665 wordsSECTION 150The Praying Christ
But the child often mistakes, and thinks that stones are bread, serpents fish, and scorpions eggs. So God often has to deny the letter of our petitions, in order not to give us poison. Luke's version of the closing promise, in which 'the Holy Spirit' stands instead of Matthew's 'good things,' sets the whole matter in t…
737 wordsSECTION 151The Praying Christ
Another point that may be suggested is, that the highest, holiest life needs specific acts and times of prayer. A certain fantastical and overstrained spirituality is not rare, which professes to have got beyond the need of such beggarly elements. Some tinge of this colours the habits of many people who are scarcely co…
651 wordsSECTION 152The Praying Christ
In the same way we find Him seeking the same repose after another period of much exertion and strain on body and mind. He had withdrawn Himself and His disciples from the bustle which Mark describes so graphically. 'There were many coming and going, and they had no leisure, so much as to eat.' So, seeking quiet, He tak…
685 wordsSECTION 153The Praying Christ
Thus He teaches us where and how we may get the clear insight into circumstances and men that may guide us aright. Bring your plans, your purposes to God's throne. Test them by praying about them. Do nothing large or new--nothing small or old either, for that matter--till you have asked there, in the silence of the sec…
683 wordsSECTION 154The Rich Fool
As we look upon that agony and these tearful prayers, let us not only look with thankfulness, but let that kneeling Saviour teach us that in prayer alone can we be forearmed against our lesser sorrows; that strength to bear flows into the heart that is opened in supplication; and that a sorrow which we are made able to…
652 wordsSECTION 155The Rich Fool
Christ's answer is intentionally abrupt and short. It deals with part only of the man's error, the rest of which, being an error to which we are all exposed, and which was the root of the part special to him, is dealt with in the parable that follows. Because the man was covetous, he could see in Jesus nothing more tha…
693 wordsSECTION 156The Rich Fool
The story of the rich fool is not a parable in the narrower meaning of that word--that is, a description of some event or thing in the natural sphere, transferred by analogy to the spiritual--but an imaginary narrative exemplifying in a concrete instance the characteristics of the class of covetous men. The first point…
655 wordsSECTION 157Anxious About Earth, Or Earnest About The Kingdom
'And He said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. 24. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn;…
663 wordsSECTION 158Anxious About Earth, Or Earnest About The Kingdom
The second reason bids us look with attention at examples of unanxious lives abundantly fed. Perhaps Elijah's feathered providers, or the words of the Psalmist (Ps. cxlvii. 9), were in Christ's mind. The raven was one of the 'unclean' birds, and of ill omen, from Noah's days, and yet had its meat in due season, though …
680 wordsSECTION 159Anxious About Earth, Or Earnest About The Kingdom
Verse 29 adds to the reference to clothing a repeated prohibition as to the other half of our anxieties, and thus rounds off the whole with the same double warning as in verse 22. But it gives a striking metaphor in the new command against 'being of doubtful mind.' The word so rendered means to be lifted on high, and t…
759 wordsSECTION 160Stillness In Storm
Mark, too, the tenderness of that 'little flock.' They might fear when they contrasted their numbers with the crowds of worldly men; but, being a flock, they have a shepherd, and that is enough to quiet anxiety. Seeking and courage are to be crowned by surrender of outward good and the use of earthly wealth in such ma…
744 wordsSECTION 161Stillness In Storm
"quite forget to rave, While birds of peace sit brooding on the charmed wave."' The objection is sound after a fashion. Change there must be, and fluctuation of feeling. But there is such a thing as 'peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.' You may remember the attempt that was made some years ago to buil…
663 wordsSECTION 162Stillness In Storm
The one man is just the other turned inside out. When he is rich and has got plenty of outward goods, he has no anxiety, because he thinks that they are supreme and all-sufficient. When he is poor and has not got enough of them, he has no rest, because he thinks that they are supreme and all-sufficient. Anxious care an…
722 wordsSECTION 163Stillness In Storm
So be not tossed about by these secularities, for the root of them all is heathenish distrust of your Father in heaven. Then, finally, we have the cure for all agitation. Christ here puts in our own hands, in that thought, 'Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things,' the one weapon with which we can conque…
771 wordsSECTION 164The Equipment Of The Servants
Sometimes, too, we shall have to try the other tack, and run _before_ the storm, which again will give us the minimum of commotion. That, being translated, is, 'Let the winds and the waves sometimes have their way.' Yield to them in the sweetness of submission and the strength of resignation. Even when all the stormy w…
676 wordsSECTION 165The Equipment Of The Servants
There is another requirement, or perhaps rather another side of the same, expressed in the figure. One reason why a man tucked up his robe around his waist, when he had anything to do that needed all his might, was that it might not catch upon the things that protruded, and so keep him back. Concentration, and what I m…
713 wordsSECTION 166The Equipment Of The Servants
II. Further, there are to be the burning lamps. If we follow the analogy of Scripture symbolism, significance belongs to that emblem, making it quite worthy to stand by the side of the former one. You remember Christ's first exhortation in the Sermon on the Mount immediately following the Beatitudes: 'Ye are the salt …
650 wordsSECTION 167The Equipment Of The Servants
The reason why such an immense and miserable proportion of professing Christians are all unbraced and loose-girt, and their lamps giving such smoky and foul-smelling and coarse radiance, is because they look little back to the Cross, and less forward to the Great White Throne. But these two solemn and sister sights are…
295 wordsSECTION 168The Servant-Lord
Verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth, and serve them.--LUKE xii. 37. No one would have dared to say that except Jesus Christ. For surely, manifold and wonderful as are the glimpses that we get in the New Testament of the relation of perfect souls i…
810 wordsSECTION 169The Servant-Lord
I need not remind you, I suppose, how in this same wonderful picture of the Servant-Lord there is taught the perpetual--if we may so say, the increased--lowliness of the crowned Christ. When He was here on earth, He was meek and holy; exalted in the heavens, He is, were it possible, meeker and more lowly still, because…
732 wordsSECTION 170The Servant-Lord
The picture in the text brings with it all festal ideas of light, society, gladness, and the like, on which I need not dwell. But let me just remind you of one contrast. The ministry of Christ, when He was a servant here upon earth, was symbolised by His washing His disciples' feet, an act which was part of the prepara…
859 wordsSECTION 171Servants And Stewards Here And Hereafter
'Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching: Verily I shall say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing. 44. Of a truth I say unto you,…
668 wordsSECTION 172Servants And Stewards Here And Hereafter
'The baseless fabric of a dream, If but a cock shall crow,' so the men who are conscious only of this present life and of the things that are seen, though they pride themselves on being wide awake, are, in the deepest of their being, fast asleep, and are dealing with illusions which will pass and leave nought behind,…
715 wordsSECTION 173Servants And Stewards Here And Hereafter
But, then, look at the second of the aspects of Christian duty which is presented here, that watchfulness is to lead on to diligent work. The temptation for any one who is much occupied with the hope of some great change and betterment in the near future is to be restless and unable to settle down to his work, and to …
692 wordsSECTION 174Servants And Stewards Here And Hereafter
But modern popular presentations of the future life have far too predominantly dwelt upon that side of it. It is a wonderful confession of 'the weariness, the fever, and the fret,' the hunger and loneliness of earthly experience, that the thought of heaven as the opposite of all these things should have almost swallowe…
295 wordsSECTION 175Fire On Earth
'I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled!'--LUKE xii. 49. We have here one of the rare glimpses which our Lord gives us into His inmost heart, His thought of His mission, and His feelings about it. If familiarity had not weakened the impression, and dulled the edge, of these wor…
816 wordsSECTION 176Fire On Earth
So, then, my text opens out into thoughts of the many-sided applications of this symbol. What hopes for the world and ourselves are suggested by that fire? Let us stick to the symbol closely, and we shall then best understand the many-sided blessings that flash and coruscate in the gift of the Spirit. It is the gift o…
747 wordsSECTION 177Fire On Earth
So I think if you take these plain teachings of this symbol you learn something of the operations of that Divine Spirit to which our Lord pointed in the great words of my text. II. And now I have a second thought to suggest--viz., what Christ had to do before His longing could be satisfied. He longed, but the longing…
767 wordsSECTION 178Fire On Earth
And they that do _not_ believe upon Him--what of them? The fire is of no advantage to them. Some of you do as people in Swiss villages do where there is a conflagration--you cover over your houses with incombustible felts or other materials, and deluge them with water, in the hope that no spark may light on you. There …
291 wordsSECTION 179Contents
VOLUME II: ST. LUKE _Chaps. XIII to XXIV_ TRUE SABBATH OBSERVANCE (Luke xiii. 10-17) THE STRAIT GATE (Luke xiii. 22-30). CHRIST'S MESSAGE TO HEROD (Luke xiii. 32, 33) THE LESSONS OF A FEAST (Luke xiv. 1-14) EXCUSES NOT REASONS (Luke xiv. 18) THE RASH BUILDER (Luke xiv. 28) THAT WHICH WAS LOST (Luke xv. 4, 8, 11)…
362 wordsSECTION 180True Sabbath Observance
'And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. 12. And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infi…
803 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.