He pictures poor Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, and the call- ing of the poor and maimed and halt and blind to the great supper. It is the gospel of the publican, the harlot, the prodi- gal, the penitent thief.
Luke’s is the gospel of womanhood. Woman comes promi- nently into view as discerning God’s promises. The songs of Mary and Elizabeth, and the testimony of Anna, are full of a clear spiritual perception, no less than of a living and simple faith. She appears as ministering to the Lord and as the subject of his ministries. Mary of Magdala, Joanna, Susan- na, Mary and Martha, with others, lavish upon him their ten- der care; while the daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound, the sorrowful mother at Nain, she who touched the hem of his garment, and the weeping daughters of Jerusalem on the road to Calvary knew the comfort of his words and the healing and life-giving virtue of his touch. The word yuv7, woman, occurs in Matthew and Mark together forty-nine times, and in Luke alone forty-three. “He alone,” says Canon Farrar, “preserves the narratives, treasured with delicate reserve and holy reticence in the hearts of the blessed Virgin and of the saintly Elizabeth—narratives which show in every line the pure and tender coloring of a woman’s thoughts.”
Luke’s is the prayer-gospel. To him we are indebted for the record of our Lord’s prayers at his baptism; after the cleansing of the leper; before the call of the twelve; at his transfigura- tion; and on the cross for his enemies. To him alone belong the prayer-parables of the Friend at Midnight, and the Unjust Judge. '
Luke’s is the gospel of song. He has been justly styled “the first Christian hymnologist.” To him we owe the Benedictus, the song of Zacharias; the Magnificat, the song of Mary; the Nunc Dimittis, the song of Simeon; the Ave Jfaria, or the angel’s salutation; and the Gloria m Excelsis, the song of the angels.
And, finally, Luke’s is the gospel of infancy. He alone tells the story of the birth of John the Baptist; he gives the mi- nuter details of the birth of Christ, and the accounts of his circumcision and presentation in the temple, his subjection to