The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 49

Ver. 12,-Lying JI a manger. Thie wBe Good will toward men. A be.re mojority of to be the sign. On that night there would, the old authorities read here, "On eRrtb perhBps, be no other ohi!Jren born in the peace among mon of good will; " in other Dell1lehem village: oertainly the shepherds words, among men who are the ohject.; or would find no other newly born infant God's good will and kindness. But the orudlod in a mBngcr. Greek text, from which our Authorizer! Ver. 13.-With the angel a multitude of Version was made, bas the support of 81) the heavenly host. "The troop of angels many of the older manuscripts Rnd ancient Issues forth from the depths of that invi- ve111ione, tltat it is among scholars an open sible world which surrounds us on every side" qnestion whether or not the text followed (Godet). Ono of the glorious. titles by in the Authorized Version should not in whioh the eternal King we.a known among this plRC0 be adhered to. the ohoeen people was " Lord of se.baoth," Ver. 17.-And when they bad seen it, equivalent to " Lord of hosts." In severe.I they me.de known abroad the Hying which passages of the Scriptures is the enormous we.a told them concerning this Child. Th us multitude of these heavenly beings noticed; these men, at tLe bottom of the social scale for instance, Pa. lxviii. 17, where the He- in Isr ..el, were chosen as the first preachers brew is much more expressive than the of the new-born King. Gradually tl:e English rendering ; Dan, vii. 10, " Ten strange story got noised abroad in the city. thousand times ten thonse.nd stood before The vision of Zacharias, the story of Mary, him" (see, too, the Te.rgum of Po.Jestine on the two strange births, the marvellons ex- Dent. xxxiii., " And with him ten thousand perience of the shepherds. Following upon times ten thousand holy angels;" and "The e.11 this was the arrive.I of the Magi, and their crown of the Law is bis [Moses'], because inquiries after a new-born Messi><b, whom he brought it from the beRvens above, when they had been directed by no ee.rtLly voices there was revealed to him the glory of the to seek after in the neighbourhood of Jern- Lord's Sheohinah, with two thousand myriads salem. It we.e then that the jealous fears of of angels, and forty and two thousand Herod were iu good earnest aroused, and chariots of fire," etc.). the result we.a that he gave immediate direc- Ver. 14.-0n earth peaoe. At that juno- tions for the massacre of the innocants in tnre, strange to say, the Roman empire was Bethlehem, of which St. Matthew writes. at peace with all the world, and, e.e was ever Ver. 19.-l!ut Mary kept e.11 these things, the oe.se in these brief rare moments of pro• and pondered them in her heart. Such a found peace, the gates of the temple of note as this could only have been me.de by Janus at Rome were closed, there being, ae Mary herself. She knew her Child was in they supposed, no need for the presence of some mysterious sense the Son of God. A the god to guide and lead their conquering glorious being not of earth had told her armies. Not a few have supposed that the that her Boy would be the Saviour of Lre.el. angel choir in these words hymned this The visit of the rongh shepherds to her in earthly peace. Bo Milton in his ' Ode to the crowded oe.re.ve.nserai, an,! their strange he Nativity'- but quiet and circumstantial story of the angel's visit to them, was only another link " No war or battle's sound in the wondrous chain of events which waa We.a heard the world around; day by day influencing her young pure The idle spear 1md shield were high uphung: life. She could not as yet grasp it e.11, per- The hooked chariot stood haps she never did in its mighty gr"cious Unstained with hostile blood, fulnees ; but, e.e at the first, wi,en Gabriel The trumpet spe.ke not to the armed throng; the angel spoke to her, so at each new And kings eat still with awful eye phe.ee of her life, she bowed herself in quiet Ae if they surely knew their souvran Lord trwtful faith, and waited and thought, was by." writing down, we dare to believe, the record But the angels sang of something more of all that was passing, ond this record, we renl and enduring than this tempornry lull. think, she showed to Luke or Paul. The go.tee of Janus were only too quickly Vers. 21-40.-Circumcision and preeellla- thrown open agnin. Some seventy years Ucm of the Child Je1JUJ1. later, within sight of the spot where the Ver. 21.-For the ciroumcising of the shepherds beheld the multitude of the Child. These ancient ritos-oiroumcision heavenly host, the awful conflagration which and purifiootion-enjoiued in the Mosaio accompanied the so.ck of the holy city and Law were intended as perpetual witnessea temple could have been pie.inly econ, and to the deadly to.int of imperfection and sin the shrieks and cries of the countleBB victims inherited by every child of man. In the of the closing scenes of one of the most cnses of Mory and her Child these rites were terrible we.re which disfigure the red pages not necessary; but the mother devoutly sub- of history could almost have beon heard. mitted herself and her Babe to the auciont  40 THE GOSPEL Acconm~G TO ST. LUKE. [CII. D. 1-52.