V. 10
c
THE GREAT TEXTS-II OF THE BIBLE
RDTTED BY THE REV.
JAxMES HASTINGS, D.D.
EDITOR OF "THE EXPOSITORY TIMES" "THE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE'
"THE DICTIONARY OF CHRIST AND THE GOSPELS" AND
"THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS "
ST. LUKE
NEW YORK
CHARLES SGRIBNER'S SONS EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLARK
PRINTED IN GRKAT HRITAIN BY MORRISON AND GIBB LTD., LONDON AND EDINBURGH
CONTENTS
TOPICS.
PAOB
No Room ......,,, 1
Good Tidings of Great Joy
23
The Song op the Heavenly Host
41
A Touchstone of Character .
, 63
The Growth of the Child Jesus
81
Always at Home.
103
Always at Work
. 123
The Baptism op Jesus
143
Grayer and Choice
163
Forgiveness
179
The Good Samaritan
196
The One Thing Needful
217
The Gift of the Holy Spirit .
235
A Man's True Life
255
The Narrow Door
273
The Return to the Father .
287
Faithfulness in Little Things
305
Ingratitude
319
The Coming of the Kingdom .
337
The Kingdom that is Within .
359
Cur Deus Homo .
383
The Impenitent City
395
The Winning of the Soul
413
In Remembrance .
429
Sifted as Wheat ....
> 1
449
An Open Bible and a I
Burning Hear
T
,
1
469
VI
CONTIiNTS
TEXTS.
St. Luke.
II.
7
.
II.
10,
11
II.
13,
14
II.
34,
35
II.
40
II.
49 (R.V.)
II.
49
(A.V.)
III.
21,
22
VI.
12,
13
VII.
50
X.
37
X.
42
XI.
13
XII.
16
XIII.
24
XV.
17-20
XVI.
10
XVII.
17
XVII.
20,
21
XVII.
20,
21
XIX.
10
XIX.
41,
42
XXI.
19
XXII
19
XXII XXIV
31, . 32
32
43 65 83
105 125 146 165 181 197 219 237 257 275 289 307 321 339 361 385 397 416 431 451 471
No Room.
ST. LUKE — I
Literature.
Askew (E. A.), The Service of Perfect Freedom, 37.
Bourdillon (F.), Short Sermons, 139,
Brooke (S. A.), The Early Life of Jesus, 12.
Bushnell (H,), Christ and His Salvation, 1.
Butler (W. A.), Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, 254.
Carter (T. T.), Meditations on the Hidden Life of our Lord, i. ?>9.
Clayton (J. W.), The Genius of God, 136.
Collins (W. E.), Hours of Insight, 112.
Goulburn (E. M.), The Pursuit of Holiness, 279.
Gregory (J. R.), Scripture Truths made Simple, 53.
Hart (H. M.), A Preacher's Legacy, 1.
Hiley (R. W.), A Year's Sermons, ii. 360.
Hodgson (A. P.), Thoughts for the King's Children, 215.
Jordan (W. G.), The Crown of Individuality, 24.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year : Christmas and Epiphany, 97
Low (G. D.), The New Heart, 67.
Lucas (H.), At the Parting of the Ways, 79.
Nicoll (W. E,.), Sunday Evening, 401.
Norton (J. N.), Old Paths, 54.
Oosterzee (J.J. van), The Year of Salvation, i. 62.
Paget (F. E.), Plain Village Sermons, i. 30.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, viii. (1862), No. 485.
British Congregationalist, Dec. 5, 1912 (J. H. Jowett).
Christian World Pulpit, Ixxiv. 412 (J. E. Rankin).
Church Pulpit Year Book, 1905, p. 315.
Churchman's Pulpit : Christmas Day, ii. 103 (C. P. Eden) ; First Sunday after Christmas, iii. 76 (J. W. Burgon).
Clerical Library : Outlines for Special Occasions, 16 (J. G. Rogers).
Homiletic Review, xlviii. 454 (J. E. Rankin) ; Ixiv. 478 (A. C. Welch).
Literary Churchman, xxviii. (1882) 516 (E. C. Lefroy) ; xxxiii. (1887) 530 (J. B. C. Murphy) ; xxxiv. (1888) 529 (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton).
Methodist Times, Dec. 21, 1908 (P. C. Ainsworth).
No Room.
And she brought forth her firstborn son ; and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. — Luke ii. 7.
There are not many texts in the Bible with which Christians, from the highest to the lowest, from the very aged to the young child who can but just speak, are more familiar than they are with this. We learn more or less about our Lord's cradle almost as soon as we are out of our own cradles. That one part of the gospel history we know, even when the rest has quite slipped out of our minds.
Christ's mother and Joseph had been living at their home at Nazareth when, according to St. Luke's Gospel, orders were given for one of those censuses, or enrolments of the people, which were sometimes used in ancient days as a basis for the imposition of a poll-tax. In such cases, people were enrolled according to their ancestry and the region from which they originally came ; and thus it was that " Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judsea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David; to enrol himself with Mary who was betrothed to him, being great with child."
The little town — it was no more than what we should call a village — was crowded with people, many of whom had come for the same purpose and claimed the same exalted lineage ; the inn or guest-chamber — there was rarely more than one in such small places — was already crowded ; this carpenter and his young bride were people of no particular importance and needed no special consideration, still less did the unborn Child ; and so, as there was no room for them among the human guests, they had to find shelter in the stable hard by, among the beasts.