The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 46

enemies and all that hate the pc-ople or the Lord. In other words, the inspired priest looks and longe for a flational deliverance. And the true pattiot can long for nothing les11. 'l'he blessing which he prail!OII God for on hi1 own account, he desires for all his race. At the same time, it is to be noticed that it is piom parents who are to realize the mercy-parents "who had hoped for the blessing of their seed, and had mourned ovor t.he misery of their posterity." 1 Such were hoping always on the covenant-pro- mises, and n,,w they were to have them fulfilled. But it ie to be further noticed that t.he national delil'erance expected is a means, not an end. It is only that the theocratio idea may be carried out by the emancip.'l.ted people, and God served by them without foor in holiness and righteousness before him all their days. It is here that the great difference between worldly aspirations and spiritual ones is to be appreciated. If people hope for blessing that they may the better serve and please themselves, then they are simply worldly and selfish; but if they seek blessing to fit them to serve God, they are entering into the nobihty of his kingdom. It is the reign of God within us and around us which we should al.ways hope for and try to promotQ. 2. The priest's apostrophe to hi.8 littk child. In the father's address to little John we see the spirituality which underlay his hope. His boy is to be a prophet of the Most High, something superadded to the priestly pri"ileges which belonged to the family by right of birth. By word of mouth, therefore, is he to prepare his Lord's way. Bnt his message is to be in the first instance about " remission of sins." In other words, the reformation hoped for is to be moral. Beginning in pardon and penitence, it will indeed be the dawn of a better day to many who have been sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, and the "guiding light" into the way of peace. John is thWI to be the herald of the dawn. The Messiah is the "Sun of Righteousness," whose prese11ce constitutes the day, He enables us to say," The Lord is my Light and my Salvation; whom shall I fear?" (Ps. xxvii. 1). John is to b& the voice in the desert to apprise the wandering and stumbling "caraYan" of the approach of dawn and its guidance into peaceful paths. And, as we shall see, the moral reformation under John became national, so that before Messiah's baptism" all the people were baptized" (eh. iii. 21). IIL Co1>'TEMPL&TE THE LITTLE CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT. (Vers. 66, 80.) 'l'he result of such prophecies connected with the circumcision of the child was the growth of a w bolcsome " fotr" throughout all the hill-country of J udaia. The people began to hope for important cl,anges. And their hopes were so far coufirmed by the development of John. In the first place," the hand of the Lord," i.e. Diviue power and grace, "was with him." He grew up a spiritually minded boy. All who saw the priest's son concluded that God was with him in his grace and love. There are children who grow up with the stamp of heaven upon their whole lives. The Spirit of God is manifestly moving them along the true path. In the second place, he bad due physical devel-Op- ment. "He grew." A dedicated boy, a Nazarite from his youth, he grew up robustly on his plain le.re, physically fit for the life of toil which was before him. In the third place, "he waud strong in spirit." His whole inward man more than kept pace with his outward growth. He was not only a good and growing lad, but also heroic in his mental progress. The inspired boy was getting strength to become one of God's heroes. In the last p!B.ce, he betook himself Co the desert, until such times as be was manifested to lsraeL It was to be a development amid the solitude of the desert down towards the Dead Sea which John was to realize. God was his Teacher. Even the poor Essenes, who lived a life of asceticism in the neighbourhood. must have kept John at a distance, a:ud so made his loneliness the more intense. And yet it may be safely said that no one has ever done much for God who has not been much alone wilh him. It is the communion of the lowly spirit with the Supreme which fits for high service. A desert, and not a garden of Eden, mu.y often he the fittest environment for the consecrated soul, seeirig that he is thereby thrown more completely upon God. Like Moses _and Elijah, John has hie long season of solitude with God, and then he comes forth radiant for the work he has to do m lsraeL May such a development as John's be realized by many I -B.. M. E. • OC. Weiss's' Leben Jeau,' erster band, 1. 233, on. n. 1-52.] TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. LUKE. 87