Vers. 31-34.-God's concealing ldndness, etc. The clear prevision which the Lord Jesus Christ had of the future which was before him may suggest to us the thought- !. GoD'S KINDNESS IN CONCEALMENT. We often try to forecast the future and sometimes wish that we could do so less imperfectly than we can. But, our' very inability to do this is to us a valuable shield that saves us from great unhappiness. For who of us would care to proceed at all if he knew all the sorrowful experiences throuO'h which his path would lie? We sometimes feel a humane satisfaction that the sheep a;d cattle that browse so contentedly to-day in the field have not their short enjoyment marred by any expectation of tho slau~hter-house they are to enter to-morrow. And we may well be thankful that so thick a veil hangs over our future, that we cannot possibly tell what are the troubles that will befall us, or where our life will be darkened with its deeper shadows. Even when, as with Paul, we know that "bonds and afflic- tions abide us," still, like him, we do "not know the things that will befall us" then. And whilst, on the one hand, we very commonly have enough of premonition to make desirable preparation for coming evil, on the other hand our life is so ordered that we go happily and hopefully on our way, untroubled by the evils which are in front of us but which are mercifully hidden from our view. II. OUR LORD'S LEADERSHIP IN THE EXPERIENCE OF APPREHENSION. Our happy inability to anticipate the future is not the whole of the truth, though it is a large part of it. It remains true that there is a considerable amount of apprehension in the struc- tnre of our life. There are times when we clearly foresee some trial ahead of us. We may not know precisely the time of its arrival, nor the elements of which it will be composed. But we can tell that " our hour is coming." Before us, at no great dis- tance, is suffering, is separation, is loss, is loneliness, is heart-ache. The road we are travelling along will soon descend, and we shall go down into the darkly shaded valley. Of that we have no doubt; and our spirit trembles, our heart is full of foreboding and, perchance, misgiving. How shall we pass through that dark valley? How bravely or how weakly, how worthily or how unbecomingly, shall we undergo that experience when it comes? There are many sources of encouragement to which we might resort. But this passage speaks to us of one of the best of them. Christ has gone this way before us-this way of keen and anxious apprehension. He knew that the most trying . experiences were only a little way in front of him. He knew that the last extremity of human hatred and of human cruelty would be visited upon him. The Jews would condemn him with all their malignity, and the Gentiles would maltreat him with all, their disdainful and powerful heartlessness. The sad and shameful future immediately before him stood clear to his sight, clearer far than any coming sorrow can shape itself to us. Therefore we may feel that : I. We are treading in the footsteps of our Lord, and it is enough for the disciple to be as his Master. 2. We may be confident of his tenderest and fullest sympathy. He has suffered just what we are suffering now. 3. He will help us in our time of need. As he himself sought of man the succour he did not fin<l, and was glad to receive from heaven the comfort he did not ask (Mark xiv. 3.Jc, 37; and eh. xxii. 43), we may be well assured that he will not refuse us all the aid we need and ask of him when the trial-hour of our experience shall have come. III. THE DIFFICULTY OF DISCIPLESHIP-TO LEARN UNWELCOME TRUTH. There was no inherent incomprehensibleness in the words Christ here employed; yet " they under- stood none of these things." Why did they not comprehend such intelligible language? Because the truth conveyed was so exceedingly unwelcome. It cut across all their cherished hopes respecting the Messiah ; it dashed their natural expectations to the ground; and it went sorely against all that their affection prompted them to believe and cherish. "It could not, must not, did not mean that," they said in their hearts. It is not the strangeness nor the profundity of truth which is too much for us ; it is its nnnoteness from that on which we have set our heart. We do not understand that which clashes with our prejudices, or our passions, or our affections. The apostles of Christ would have saved theIIlSelves from many hours of awful sorrow and abject hopelessness and painful incredulity, if their feelings had allowed them to understand the truth which their Master put so plainly and so repeatedly before them (Matt. xvi. 21; :I.Vii. 22; xx. 17). Can it b(' that Jesus Christ is saying something to us which we ought to understand, but Jo not bec11us11 it is unwelcome to our hearts, or because it is at LUKE.-II. K 130 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [cH. xvm. 1-43.
variance with all our old and strong habits of thought? Is it possible that be is cn\ling us to repent.ance, to self-smTender, to a foll confession of our faitl> to a nobler life to 1,orne field of active work, and we do not understand what he is saying to us? Where his own apostles so greatly failed, may not we be found at fault? Shall we lee.Te it to future darkness and a great surprise and a mortifying discovery of error to set ua straight? Or shall we not rather recognize in time our liability to mistake• seek to have an open mind to receive all his holy will concerning us; nsk God to h~lp us to remove th~ bandages of prejudice and of earthly att3:c~ments from the eyes of our understand mg; seek by doc1hty and devoutness of spmt to be such disciples of the Master that, when he speaks even unwelcome truth to us, we shall understand him and obey ?-C.