The chief characteristic of Luke's Gospel which dis- tinguishes it from those of the other synoptists, espe- cially Matthew, is its universality. The message he delivers is not, as it has sometimes been mistakenly de- scribed, for the Gentiles as such, as distinguished from the Jews, but for mm. As we read his record, we seem to see him anticipating the time when all nations should hear the Gospel message, when all distinctions of race or class should be done away, and all claims based on a fancied self-righteousness annulled, and the glad tidings should be heard and received by all who were united in the bonds of a common humanity, and felt their need of a common Saviour, " the light to lighten the Gen- tiles, af d the glory of his people Israel." It is this character which has given it a right to the title of the Pauline Gospel, and enables us to understand why Mar- ciou selected it as the only true exponent of Christ's Gospel. This universalism, however, is rather inter- woven with the gospel than to be specified in definite instances; and yet we cannot but feel how completely it is in accordance with it that Luke records the enrol- ment of the Saviour of the world as a citizen of the world-embracing Roman empire — tliat he traces his genealogy back to the head of the human race — that his first recorded sermon (iv, 16-27) gives proof of God's wide-reaching mercy, as displayed in the widow of Sa- repta and Naaman — that in the mission of the twelve, the limitation to the " cities of Israel" should have no place, while he alone records the mission of the seventy (a number sj-mbolical of the Gentile world) — that in the sermon on the -nount all references to the law should be omitted, while all claims to superior holiness or national prerogative ar ; cut away by his gracious dealings with, and kindly irention of, the despised Samaritans (ix, 52 sq. ; X, 30 sr^. ; xvii, 11 sq.).
As vi'ith the race in general, so with its individual members. Luke delights to bear witness that none are sliut out from God's mercy — nay, that the outcast and the lost are the special objects of his care and search. As proofs of this, we may refer to the narratives of the woman that was a sinner, the Samaritan leper, Zacchie- us, and the penitent thief; and the parables of the lost sheep and lost silver, the Pharisee and publican, the rich man and Lazarus, and, above all, to that "which has probably exercised most influence on the mind of Christendom in all periods" (Maurice, Unity of the Gos- pel, p. 274), the ])ro(ligal son.
Most naturally also in Luke we find the most fre- quent alhisions to that which has been one of the most striking <listinctions between the old and modern world — tlie position of woman as a fellow-heir of the king- dom of heaven, sharing in the same responsibilities and hopes, and that woman comes forward most ])rominent- ly (the Syroptia'uician, as already noticed, is a single marked exception) as the object of our Lord's Jsympathv and love. Conniiencing wi<h tlic Virgin IMary as a type of the purity and lowly obedience wliich is the true glory of womanhood, we meet in succession with Anna the prophetess, the pattern of holy widowhood (comp. 1 Tim. v, 5) ; the woman that was a sinner; the
widow of Nain; the ministering women (viii, 2, 3); jNIary and jNIartha ; the " daughter of Abraham" (xiii, 11) ; and close the list with the words of exquisite ten- derness and sympathy to the " daughters of Jerusalem" (xxiii, 28).
This universal character is one, the roots of which lie deep in Luke's conception of the nature and work of Christ. With him, more than in the other gospels, Je- sus is " the second man, the Lord from heaven" (Lange) ; and if in his pages we see more of his divine nature, and have in the more detailed reports of his conceptioa and ascension clearer proofs that he was indeed the Son of the Highest, it is here too, in '' the life-giving sympa- thy and intercourse with the inner man, in the human fellowship grounded on not denying the divine conde- scension and compassion" (^Maurice, u. s.), that we rec- ognise the perfect ideal man.
Luke, it has been truly remarked, is the gospel of con- trasts. Starting with the contrast between the doubt of Zacharias and the trustful obedience of Mary, we find in almost every page proofs of the twofold power of Christ's word and work foretold by Simeon (ii, 34). To select a few of the more striking examples : He alone presents to our view Simon and the sinful woman, Mar- tha and Mary, the thankful and thankless lepers, the tears and hosannas on the brow of Olivet; he alone adds the " woes" to the " blessings" in the sermon on the mount, and carries on in the parables of the rich man and Lazarus, the Pharisee and publican, and the good Samaritan, that series of strong contrasts which finds so appropriate a close in the penitent and blasphemhig malefactors.
Once more, Luke is the hymn-writer of the New Tes- tament. "Taught by thee, the Church prolongs her hymns of high thanksgiving still" (Keble, Christian Yeai-). But for his record the Magnijicat, Benedictus, and Nunc Dimittis would have been lost to us ; and it is he who has preserved to us the A ve j\Iaria, identified with the religious life of so large a part of Christendom, and the Gloria in Excelsis, which forms the culminating point of its most solemn ritual.