The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 15

lI. THAT NOTHING BETTER BEFITS THE DAY OF THE LoRD than doina the distinctive work of the Lord. Jesus Christ completely disposed of the carping anll censorious criticism of the ruler. If it was right, on the sabbath day, to discharge a kindly offico of no very great value and at some considerable trouble to a brute beast how much more rnu_st it be right to re~der _an invaluable service, by the momentary e~ercise of a stroniz w1ll, t-0 & poor suffering sister-woman who was one of the children of Abraham, and one of the people of God? And how can we better spend the hours which are sacred, not only to bodily rest, but to spiritual advancement, than by doina work which is re~uliarly and_ ei:iiphatically Divine-~y helping the helpless; by ~elieving the sufl:ermg; by ennchmg the poor; by enhghtemng those who are in darkness• by extricating those who are in trouble; by lifting up them that are bowed down? w'hen on the sabbath day, we forget our own exertions in our earnest desire to comfort or t~ relieve, or to deliver, we may be quite sure that the Lord of the sabbath will not remember them a~ainst us, but only to say to us," Well done." III. THAT A FORMAL PIETY WILL NOT PRESERVE US FROM THE BADDEST SINS. This ruler was probably regarded as & very devout man, because his ceremonialism was comple~. ?3ut his routine observances did ~ot save him from. ~&king a cowardly, because md1rect, attack upon a beneficent Hea,er; nor from committmg an act of gross inhumanity-assailing the woman he should have been the first to rejoice with; nor from falling into an utter misconception of the mind of God, thinking that evil which was divinely good. We may hold high positions in the Church of Christ, may habitu- ally take very sacred words into our lips, may flash out into great indignation against supposed religious enormities, and yet may be obnoxious to the severe rebuke of the final Judge, and may stand quite outside and even far off the kingdom of heaven. Let us be sure of our own position before we undertake the office of the accuser; let us beware lest over our outward righteousness Divine 'l'ruth will at last inscribe that terrible word "hypocrisy." Formal piety proves nothing; the only thing we ca.n be sure about is the love of God in the heart manifesting itself in the love of men.-0. Vers. 18, 19.-The growth of the kingdom of God. When we think of it we cannot fail to be impressed with tbe confidence, amounting even to the sublime, which Jesus Christ cherished in the triumph of his sacred ea.use. For consider- !. THE UTTER INSIGNIFICANCE of "the kingdom" at its commencement. At first it was represented by one Jewish Carpenter, a young Man born of very humble pa.rents, unlearned and untravelled, without any pecuniary resources whatever, regarded with disfavour by the social and the ecclesiastical authorities of his time, teaching doctrines that were either above popular apprehension or that ran counter to popular prejudices, unable to find a single man who thoroughly sympathized with him in his great design, moving steadily and fearlessly on toward persecution, betrayal. an ignominious and early death. Here was a grain indeed, something which, to the eye of man, was utterly insignificant and destined to perish in & very short time. Had we lived then and exercised our judgment upon the prospects of the D.ll8cent faith called by its Founder " the kingdom of God," we should certainly have concluded that in fifty years at the utmost it would have disappeared as a living power, and would only have remained, if it survived in any form at all, as a traditiou of the past. But let us glance at- IL lTs MARVELLOUS GROWTH. Truly the least of all seeds has become the greatest of all herbs; the grain ha.s grown and become a "great tree." In spite of (1) the determined opposition of other faiths, which resented and resisted its claim to sup- plant them; (2) the sanguinary violence of the civil power, which e.lmost everywhere strove to drown it in the blood of its adherents; (3) the hostility of the human heart, which has opposed itself continually to its purity, its spirituality, its unselfish- ness; (4) the deadly injury done to it by the inconsistency, the unfaithfulness, the dissensions of its own disciples ;-it spread with wonderful rapidity. In three centuries it triumphed over the paganism of the known world ; it has become the accepted faith of Europe and of (the greater part ol) America, and of many "islands of the sea;" it has gained a firm foothold in the other continents, in the midst of the most venerable systems of religious error. Since the purification of its creed and the awakening of its members to their high privilegea. it has made an immense advance on. xm. 1-36.) THE GOSPETJ ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 17