The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 280

and so delightful to the awakened and renewed; holding mysterice insoluble to humBn learning, and yet intelligible and instructive from Genesis to RevelBtion to the enmeet inquirer after truth and life; valueless in the market, and yet precious beyond all price to all who want to know how to live and how to die. As Christ and the two learnerA ,miked and talked, new light shone on the old pe.ssages, and the way was too short nnd the time too soon gone for their interest and their eagerness to be expended. 3. Meet- ,:ng the living Lord at his table. (Ver. 30.) This was not, strictly speaking, a "sacra- mental" meal to which they sa.t down. It was not the" Lord's Supper" of"which they partook. But there was about it so much of reverence, of religious earnestness, of holy communion, of sacred joy, that it may well suggest to us that most excellent way of spending some part of" the Lord's day." III. THE WORTH OF ALL TRUE CHRISTIAN LABOUR. Possibly those who teach may sometimes ask themselves whether it is worth their while to conduct so small a class, to preach to so poor a congregation. Here is the answer to that questioning. If the risen Lord of glory thought it worth his while to walk seven miles and spend two hours in enlightening the minds and comforting the hearts of two humble and obscure dis- ciples ; if he was content to spend a good part of his first sabba.th in ta.king a. class of two, and pouring from the rich treasury of his truth into their minds, we may not think it nnworthy of us to spend time in enlightening or comforting one human heart tha.t craves the succour it is in our power to give. The disciple is not above his Master. IV. THE SECRET OF SPIRITUAL INTEREST. Do we devoutly wish that we knew more of that sacred gladness of which these disciples were so happily conscious as he .. talked with them by the way, and opened to them the Scriptures" (ver. 32)? Then: 1. Let ns see tha.t we a.re, as they were, earnestly desirous of knowing more of Jesus Christ. Let us go to our Bible and go up to the house of the Lord with that end di.stindly and prominently in view. 2. Let us seek and gain the same Divine illumina- tion. It is still to be had, though that voice is not now heard in our ear. The" Spirit of truth •• is with us still, waiting to illumine and to enlarge our hearts; if we seek his aid and open our miuds to his entrance, he will "guide us into all the truth" (John xvi. 13).-C. Ver. 29.-.The e:cigency of old age. The disciples "constrained" our Lord to abide with them; for, they said, "It is toward evening, and the day is far spent." This act of theirs and their words taken together are suggestive of the truth that those whose life is fast waning-with whom it is "toward evening," whose day is "far spent "-have urgent need that J esns Christ should "abide with" them. We have before us the special spiritual necessities of old age. It ha&- L 1TB SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY. We look to advanced religious experience to set us a particularly blameless example, to show us most clearly the spirit and the complexion of a distinctly Christian life, to lead us in the direction of spirituality end purity. For this high service the near presence of the Saviour is needed, and the constant exercise of his gracious power. IL 1TB SPECIAL TEHPrATION. The temptation of age is to querulousness, to an illiberal criticism of the present and to an nndue and partial preference of the past, to an unjllllt and unwise severity in judging the eccentricities and irregularities of the young, to a dissatisfaction with the comparative obscurity to which it is itself descend- ing. To prevail against this temptation, and· to preserve equanimity, sweetness, cheer- fulness of spirit and hopefulness of heart, age has urgent need of a constant renewal from above. Ill. !Te SPECIAL PBIVA TIONB. There are a few who live to a "good old age" with- out any or without much consciousness of lose. But these are only a few. With old e.ge usually comes privation. In respect of sight, of hearing, of pow~r of locomot!on, of facility in speaking, of memory, of intellectual grasp, the aged are pamfully conscious that "they are not what they were; they speak with diminished fire, they act with a lessened force." Their life is lower, is narrowed; they are less to their contomporaries than they used to be. They need comfort nnder the sense of loss; they need another source of sati.d'action and of joy. In whom, in what, shall they find it, but in the Person and the presence of the Divine Friend and Saviour? IV. ITS SPECIAL LONELINESS. Age is often lonely. It misses the companions of OH, xx1v. 1-53.] THE GOSPEJ, ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 291