The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 16

toward the goal of e. complete triumph; it has proved itself to be a benign anrl oleve.ting power wherever it has been planted; it is the refuge, the strength, the hope, of the human world. What are- 111, 1TB rnOBPEOTB? 1. It has numerouR enemies who predict that it will decline and die, They regard it as a spent force that must give place to other powers. But this prediction ha.a been often ma.de before, and it has been falsified by the event. 2. Its friends are more numerous, and they are more intelligent, and they are morn energetic e.nd self-denying than they ever were at any former period in its history. 3. It holds truth which ministers to the wants of the human world-its sorrows, its sins, its aspirations-such as no other doctrine can pretend to. There is but one Jesus Christ in the history of the human race; but one Saviour from sin, one unfailing- Refuge and Friend in life and in death. 4. God is with us in our work of faith and our labour of love. The crucified Lord will "draw a.11 men unto him," and his salva- tion shall cover the earth, because the power which prevails against all finite forces is on its side. "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations," etc. (Matt. xxviii. 18, 19).-C. Vere. 20, 21.-The peaceableness and diffusiveness of Christian truth. The words of Christ may properly suggest to us- I. 'l'HE QUIET PEACEABLENESS OF THE CHRISTIAN METHOD, The starting and the' spreading of " the kingdom of God" is like a. woman taking and hiding leaven in some meal. How impossible to imagine any of the founders o[ the kingdoms or empires of this world thus describing the course of their procedure! The forces they employed were forces that shone, dazzled, smote, shattered; that excited wonder and struck terror; that crushed and clanged and conquered. Those which the Son of man employed were such as fittingly reminded of a woman hiding leaven in some meal-silently but effectually penetrating to the depth; quietly, peaceably spreading on every hand. He did not "strive nor cry," etc.; his gospel "came not with observation," with heat of drum, with dramatic display; shunning rather than seeking celebrity, he lived, taught, suffered, witnessed, died, leaving behind a penetrating power for good that should renew and regenerate the race. '!'here may be occasion, now and then, to say and do that which astonishes or alarms or otherwise arouses; but that is not the Christian method. 'rhe influence which steals into the soul, which insinuates itself into the whole body, which noiselessly communicates a right spirit and diffuses itself without ostentatiou or pretence from centre to circumference,-that is the method of the Master. II. THE DIFFUSIVENESS OF DIVINE TBUT.11 FROM WITHIN OUTWARDS. "Leaven, which a woman ... hid;" not spread over the surface, but put into, placed in the heart of it, there to spread, to permeate, working from the centre towards the surface. This is the method of the gospel a.s distinguished from that of the Law. The Law exerts its power in the opposite direction-from without inwards; it acts directly on behaviour, leaving behaviour t-0 become habit and habit to become principle. 1. Jesus Christ places the leaven of Divine truth in the mind, in the understanding, teaching us how to think of God and of ourselves, of sin and of righteousness, of the present and the future. 2. 'l'hen Divine truth affects our feelings, producing awe, reverence, fear, hope, trust, love. 3. 'rhence it determines the desires and convictions, leading to choice, decision, full and final determination. 4. And thence, moving towards the surface, it decides behaviour and ends in rectitude of action, excellency of life; so "the whole man," the complete nature, is leavened. Similarly, Divine truth is placed in the heart of the community, and, once there, it communicates itself from man to man, from home to home, from circle to circle, until "the whole" nation is leavened. But a man may ask, How is my entire nature to be thoroughly leavened with Christian principle- perfectly sweetoned, purified, renovated, as it is not now? Have we enough of the sacred leaven hidden within us, It is true that "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," hut there is a quantity, less than which is insufficient for the work. Have we enough of the truth of Christ lodged in our minds for this great and high purpose ? Are we thinking, as Christ meant us to think, of our Divine Father, of our human spirit, of our human life, o[ foe needs and claims of our neighbour, about giving and about forgiving, and about eternal life? Is our Master's thought on these great, decisive, determining themes hidden in our liearts, doing its sweetening and renewing LUKE.-II. U 18 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [on. xm. 1-35.