applying remedies, et-0. Dr. Hobart quotes Galen, • Metb. Med.,' ix. •• and other well-known Greek medioal writers in support of this. As we Bhould expect from the physician-evangelist, in the acoounts of tlie miracles of healing medical language is carefully employed. In many pa.ra.llel pa.sea.gee St. Luke will be found to-use a. term striotly rned.ica.l, the other evangelists one less precise, the terms chosen by St. Luke bc1 ing words all of which were in common use with the Greek physicians. In Sllch important sections, for instance, a.s in the account of the agony in the garden, described by all the three synoptists, St. Luke's relation, different from the other two, possesses a.11 the characteristics of medical writing, detailing carefully, in medical language, the prostration of strength, and the outward and visible effect on his human frame of the inner a.nguit!h of our Lord. 1 It is a. very probable hypothesis to a.scribe the conneotion of the two friends, Paul and Luke, in the first instance, to help given to the great apostle in one of those many and grave illnesses to whioh, from many casual references in his writings, we know the apostle was subjeot. VI. CONCLUSION. With the e:xception of (1) the direct but casual notices in the Epistles of St. Paul, and the indirect allusions to himself in the later chapters of the Acts above referred to, where in the narrative the third person is changt>d for the first; (2) the universal tradition of the early Church that Luke, the oorupauion of Panl, was the author of the Third Gospel; (3) the internal evidence contained in the Gospel and in the Acts, which plainly shows that the writer was a physician ;-with these exceptions nothing further definite or trustworthy is known respecting l uke. Epipha.nius and others mention that he was one of the seventy di1:1cip 1es; Theophyla.ct believes that he was one of the two disciples who met '1·ith the risen Jesus on their walk to Emmaus. These suppositions may be t1 ue, but they are uncertain. The well-known tradition that Luke was also a painter, and painted portraits of the blessed Virgin and of the chief apostles, and even of the Lord himself, rests only on the statement of KicephoruR, of the menology of the Emperor B:J.Bil, drawn up in A.D. 980, and of other late writers, but none of them are of historical authority.' After St. Paul's martyrdom (A.D. 67-68) our knowledge of St. Lnke is only vague, and rests on uncertain tradition. Epiphanius (' Contr. Heres.,' lib. ii. voL ii. 464, edit. Dindorf) tells us that, after the death of bis master, he preached in Dalmatia, Italy, Macedonia, and Gallia. Gregory Nazianzen mentions that St. Luke was among the martyrs. Nicephorus relates the manner of his martyrdom-how that, whilst work- ing for the cause in Greece, he was hanged upon an olive-tree. 1 Hoban, • The Medical Language of St. Luke,' pt. iL sect. 1,i. p. 80. • Arohbiahop Thomaon, • Introduction to St. Luke,' p. :di TTTE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. EXPOSITION. the Lord Jellllll, apoken and done when io CHAPTER I. their midst. THE origin of the Gospels-the four histories That some such early authoritative sum- which rein.ta in detail the circumstances of mo.ry existed among the first preachers o( the foundation of Christinnity-will ever be the faith we mA.y positively assume, (1) o.n interesting study. Here we shnll never from the gen<!1'al hnrmony of the fe.ct.i e.nd know the cxo.ct truth of the compilatiou of teaching of the first three Gospels; (2) these writings, the foundation-stones of all from the almost tote.I absence of any other our hopes and feo.rs; a reverent, scholarly traditional so.yings e.nd doings of the great speculation is o.11 that can be offered to the Me.s ter besides those cou te.ined in the fonr student of the Divine memoirs. The specu- Gospels. lation, however, probably in this case comes Some twebe traditional sayings be~des very nco.r the truth. those related by the four, e.nd those of no After the Ascension and the events of the great importance, a.re e.11 that we possess ; first Pentecost, which quickly followed their no record of other miracles of any descrip- Master's return to heaven, the twelve e.nd a tion h11ve come down to us. few others who had walked in the company Years pa.seed on. The precious treasure of which followed Jesus during the years of his the apostolic records, the simple memoriea public ministry no doubt often met together of his words and acts preserved, and no and talked over the teaching and the acts doubt e.rre.nged in some order, were enough of their risen and now glorified Master. As for the first preachers and teachen of the time passed on, a certain number of these faith of Jesus of N e.zareth. acts, a certain number of tbo public and There were, no doubt, many rough at- private discourses in the apostolic cumpnny, tempts to write these down on the part of beco.me adopted as the usual texts or sub- a.pasties e.nd their pupils. These a.re most jects of the teaching and preaching in probably the writings to which St. Luke the assemblies large and small go.thered eJiudrs, without disparaging them, in his together by the followers of Jesus in Jeru- preface to his Gospel, iu the words, " Fore.8- snlem o.nd the neighbouring towns aud much e.s mo.ny have t11ken in hand to set villnges, subsequently in other parts of the forth in order a decle.ra tion of those things Holy Lo.nd, in Syri11, and in more distant which a.re most surely believed among us." countries-in Afrioo and Italy. We muy But something more acourate in the WRY e.~sume tho.t the Holy Spirit o.idcd the com- of written memoirs we.s necesso.ry for the position of those e.postolio summ11ries by Church, I\B the number of believers mul- bringing to the memory of these holy men tipliod, e.nd the origiue.l friends of the the moro im porto.u t of the words e.nd nots of M11stcr were one by one taken from their LUlrn, II 2 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [en. 1. 1-80.