be.,•e their tesLimony to his nature or his mis8ion. At the ~ame time, he shows his sovereignty o'l'er them in dooming them to silence and solitude, at lulst so far as po~8es~ing men was concerned. V. OuR LORD SHOWS us HTR m1m OF RETIREMENT AFTER J,Anotm, AND ALSO WHAT Hrs GREAT COMMri;sro:K w As. (Vers. 42-44.) After these mighty works he feels the need nf retirement to commune with God. and keep his soul in proper tune fur further work. If Jesus felt the need of pre.yer, how presumptuous in minor minds to excuse themselves from it I They seem to have given him an invitation to settle in Capornaum. And if be had, he would have had a famous physician's practice, doors besieged from morning t.o night, :md no time for any other work. Hence he resolved to itinerate rather than settle down. His wandering from place to place secured him from overwork of a purely physical character, and enabled him to be the Missionary he was meant to be. It is an int.eresting question why he did not make Palestine a healthful land from end t.o end. He might have organized deputations and sought ont all the sick, and me.de the land free from all disease and suffering. But while he healed all who came or were brought to him, and sent disciples forth on similar erran,ls, he did not undertake this wholesale cure. And two answers may be given in the way of valid reason about it. In the first place, the people did not deserve such a blessing, and would not likely have been the better for it. A world of sinful men would not be improved if they were all made and kept healthy men. Health of soul and perfect health of body are to syn- chronize in the great future which lies before us. But secondly, if he had undertaken this physical work, he would have lost his opportunities of purely spirit'IJ,Q,l work, the preaching of the gospel, for which more especially he had come. Bence we must admire bis resolve to be an itinerant Missionary rather than a settled and famous Physician. Preaching is really the highest work of man, if it is done conscientiously. 'l'he sphere is spiritual, and t.hc results nre for evermore. It is well to magnify the office as magnified by the Master.-R. :M. E.
EXPOSITION. the youth of llll"o.el of their time, in a paa- CHAPTER V. sionate hope that the hour of the long-pro- When St. Luke compiled hi.a Gospel, many mised deliverance from the yoke of their ot the circumstances connected with the foreign oppressors was at hand, the four early relations of the leaders of Christianity became disoiples of the Baptist, and by him with their Founder were so well known, and they were referred to Jesus, who in mys- bad been so often repeated, that it seemed terious but exalted terms was pointed out by unnecessary t.o rehearse them afresh ; hence the great desert preacher, John, as "the to us the seeming abruptness of the intro- Lamb of God," the Glorious, the Expected duction of Simon (Peter), Jamee, and John One (John i 35-43). They joined the in the scene now a.bout t.o be related. In Master e.t the bidding of Jolin, and for a the preceding, the healing of Simon's time were associated with him. Still e.t wife's mother of e. great fever is rel.o.ted first they were only with him apparently at withont e.ny expl.o.nation, as though Simon times, leaving him and returning to their Peter's connection with the Lord was e. fact homes and occupations, waiting for some too well known to reqnire any comment or defiuite and imperative summons to join e:i:pl.e.na.tion. his cause permanently. The summons in The association of JeBW! and these chosen question is related in this chapter. The time men IIOelIIB to he.ve commenced as follows: was now come when the Lord deemed it Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew fitting the.t he should surround himself (sons of Jona), John and James (the sons of with a company of disciples or pupils who Zebedee e.nd Salome), belonged to fisher should be constant witnesses of his worka, families dwelling on the ban.ka of the Lake hearers of his words, and thus be trained of Gennese.ret. They seemed to have been up for the great task of continuing his fuat friends, at times even pe.rlner1 in their mission when he should have returned io occupation. Sharers with ma.ny othen of bi.a home in heaven. <111, T. 1-39.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 113