The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 271

life? He is not in the form In which we expect him. Sometimes he hides himself, that he may get the more fully into our hearts. He is with us, wanting the halo, want- ing all that would at once declare him, that he may be more intimately our Friend, "familiar, patient, condescending, free." And we miss or mistake him, because we can- not see beneath the form, because our minds are self-occnpied, or, when intent on higher things, are wanting in the elevation, in the pure sweet light, of the spiritual mind. Only when the spiritual eyes are opened do we know who has been and is with us. But he is with us as we toil on our toilsome way, bearing the heat and burden of the afternoon. It is he who is touching the springs or our thought and action. It is he who is speak- ing to us. Fear not, thou weary and heart-sore disciple; when thy comforts seem to be gone, he, the Comforter, is close to thee. Thy tears are falling; he is nigh with his 11 Why weepest thou?" Thou art seeking thy God, but thy soul is unresting, because it cannot find the Rock; he is nigh with his "Whom seekest thou?" 'l'hou hast left the city's din behind thee, and art alone with thyself; he is nigh, assuring thee that the fairest vineyards are those which are received from the valley of troubling. Thou art in communion with some kindred spirit, exchanging the fears and joys of the mind that turns to heaven; he is nigh, rejoicing to add himself to the two or three. Th8 story of Emmaus is indeed a figure of the life-pilgrimage. Bear from it the pledg8 tha.t whosoever is true to the light, is, though halting and uncertain may be his steps, the neighbour to Jesus Christ-Jesus himself near and in fellowship with all com- muning and reasoning. II. And how? TEACHING, ALTHOUGH PERSONALLY tJNRECOGNIZED. What Christ was in his dealing with the two, he has been in his dealing with his Church. During the past centuries he has been "teaching and expounding the things concerning him- self." Did he not promise that the Holy Ghost would be the Guide into all truth, through the glorifying of him, the receiving of his and showing it to his own? What is the witness for the fulfilment of this office? It is the history of the past eigb teen centuries. The text from which the Holy Ghost has been preaching is that which Jesus sounded (ver. 26); and the way of the sermon is the very way of lJhrist (ver. 27). Moses and the prophets, apprehended in New Testament light, have, for these centuries, been read, opened up, as the treasury of the things of Christ. Thought and culture, devotion e.nd obedience, stand to-day where they stood yesterday-before the mighty "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" Is there not progressiveness in the teaching of the Holy Ghost? Thero is developmeut in Christianity. It has its permanent, but it has its progressive, element also. lt is only by little and little that the higher truth of the kingdom enters the hearts of men. Precept must be on precept, line on line, until the dispensation of the opening, when the Church, gathered fully into the house of the Lord, will receive from the pierced hand the bre!ld of the eternal life. So in personal history e.nd experience. 'l'here is On8 teaching us, even when we do not recognize -who he is. Life is the school in which th8 Holy Ghost is the Instructor. Christ and' Christ's love, and the meaning of our existence as interpreted in Christ's cross, is the lesson in which we are taught. We pass from standard up to standard, the book which regulates all the teaching being th8 Scriptures. Many are the forms which the Holy Ghost, the Teacher, assumes; many are the agencies through which he draws near. But if, with receptive minds, we ar8 yielded to him, he is taking us step by step along the path of the manifold education meant for the disciple of Jesus; expounding as we are able to bear, stooping to our immaturities and weaknesses; a presence in us rather than external to us, stimulating thought and desire, enkindliag into fuller flame the smoking flax; so that by-and-by we are able to say, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?" (ver. 32). 11!. Behold CHRIST REVEALED A.ND RECOGNIZED. 'l'he village is reached. Must the delightful companionship end? Courteously saluting them, the Stranger apparently i~ going on. Nay, the sun is about to set; they entreat him not to leave them (ver. 29). H8 would have gone on if there had been no prayer. The personal desire is essential to the to.rrying. But that desire never pleads in vain. How many never plead for th8 tarrying-indeed, do not want it I For the drawing near and journeying with us, no desire from us is needed. Christ does that of his own will. But the tarrying is another matter. He cannot force an entrance; he will be forced. "They constrained  282 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [en. xxrv.1.-53.