The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 167

~ er. 49.-The greatest rvin. "The ruin of that house was great.• Occasionally there occurs a panic in the commercial world. As the cause or, often enough, as the conse- quence of this, some great house is "broken;" its liabilities are too great for its resources; it cannot meet the claims that are falling due, And some morning it is found that when all other houses are open, its doors are closed-it has suspended pay- ment; it has fallen; and it may be said, seriously enougQ, that "the ruin of that house is great." Great is the fall and sad is the ruin of (1) a great human repnta- twn; or of (2) a great human hope. With the fall of either of these there is bitter sorrow, keen humiliation, a dark shadow cast, not on one heart and home only, but on many. For we stand, in human society, not like detached houses in large grouuds, but like houses that are close together, and when one falls it brings harm and injury to many that are connected with it. But the ruin, which is great indeed, comi,ared with which all others are but small, is the ruin of a human soul. L THE isouL IS ITSELF A BUILDING; it is the main, the chief building which we are rL"ariug. Wl.alever else we may be erecting-material, social, political-the one thing we do with which other things will not compare in seriousness and in consequence is to" build up ourselves" (see Jude 20), It is a daily, an hourly process; it proceeds with ernry thought we admit into our mind, with every feeling we cherish in our heart, with every purpose we form in our soul. That which we are to-day in the sigM of God is the whole n·snlt of all that we have been doing, of all our visible and invisible acts, up to the prei;ent hour. IL IT IS A BUILDING WHICB MAY BE OVEBTHBOWN. We all know the man who is the wreck and ruin of himself. What be once was he is no more. Instead of devotion is impiety; instead of purity is laxity; instead of the beauty of holiness is the unsightlineBB of sin ; it.:stead of honour is shame. The fair house of mar.al and i;piritual integrity is down; there is noLhiug left but the foundations; and the ruin of that hoW10 iis great indeed. ill THIS OVERTHROW IB BAD BEYOND EXPRESSION, For consider: 1. W7iat it cost to build. We do not mind if a hut or 11hanty is blown down; that represents no great loss. But if a mansion or cathedral is destroyed, we grieve ; for the result of incal- culable skill and toil is lai,l waste. And when a human soul is lost, what labour is thrown away, what experiences, what patience, what suffering, what discipline, what prayers and tears, both on the part of the man himself and of those who have loved him and watched over hirn aud striven for him I 2. How intrinsically precious a thing it iB. We do not know the absolute value of a human spirit; our language will not utter it; our minds cannot estimate it. God alone knows that, and the Son of God bas told us that it is worth more thau all the material world (Mark viii. 36). 3, How it draga do1J.m other, wi.th it. As one large "house" in a great city drags down others in itti f.all, &0 does the house of a human spirit. What is it to the family when the jathor or the mother is morally lost r for the neighbourhood when the minister or the magistrate sink.ll and perishes? We do not fall alone; we draw others down with us, &lld oft.en thOIIO whom we are most B&Credly Louud to uplift or to ewitain. n•. Tw:H 1B • WAY o, uoovDT. "It Lli not the will of our heavenly Father oe. VI, 1-49.] TIIE GOSPEL ACCOTIDTNG TO ST. LUKE. 1G5