The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 191

Vere. 19-22.-Human goodness and the permanency of the gospel. We he.Te here- I. A CONSTANT OBARACTERISTT0 OF RUMAN GOODNESS. How came John to send this mess:i.ge? W1LS he really doubtful-be who had prepared the way of the Lord who had baptized him, who had recognized in him the Lamb of God? Even so: Many ingcnio~s tbeo~i~s account for it in sorn~ other way, but they do not satisfy, After all, was 1t surprismg that John should begm to doubt? He hall been lying in that lonely fortress by the Red Sea for some months; constitutionally active and ener- getic, be had been doomed to enforced idleoess, and had had nothing to do but to form judgments of other people-a very perilous position; what he heard about Jesus may very well have seemed strange and unsatisfactory to him. Our Lord's method was very different from hie own. He was living, as John had not done, in the very midst of the people; h~ was not drawing gr~t crowds whom he excited to tempestuous feeling, bui acting, with calm and deep wisdom, on smaller numbers; he was not living an ascetic life; he was not making any very great way according to ordinary human mea.surement; and John, writhing in captivity, and longing to be out and about in active work, allowed his mind to be affected, his belief to be disturbed, by what he heard and by what he did not bear. Nothing ,could be more natural, more human, This is human goodness all the world over. Nobility of spirit, self-sacrifice, devout- ness, zeal, and infirmity, the partial subsi<lence of his faith. Who that knows the history of human goodness can be surprised at this? We must take this into the account in our estimate of good men. Infirmity is a constant element of human cha- racter. Perfection among the aogels of God; perfection for ourselves further on among the glorified; meaotime we may bestow our heartiest affection and our unstinted admiration upon thae who are aspiring and endeavouring after the highest, but who sometimes fail to be all that they and we could wish that they were. II. THE BEST PROOFS oF THE DIVINE POWER AND VIRTUE. Christ adduced two powerful proofs that he was indeed the "Oue that should come." 1. The ezercise of benignant power. In ihat same hour he healed many that came to be cured, and he said to John's disciples, "Go and show your master what benignant power I am exer- cising; not smiting my enemies with blindness, but making the blind to see; not punishing the liar with lapro■y, but pitying the poor leper and makin~ him clean; not raining dowo fire from heaven on the obdurate, but calling back to life those who had entered the dark region of the dead; visiting the homes of men with health and life and joy." 2. Love/or the lowly. "Go and tell John that I am caring much for those for whom men have not ea.red at all, instructing in heavenly wisdom those whom other teachers have left untaught, liftiog up those whom other reformers have been content to leave upon the ground, me.king heirs of the outcast, making rich for ever the peoni- less and hopeless-say that' the blind receive their sight, and the deaf hear,' etc., and for!.!et not to add that ' to the poor the gospel is preached.' " As these disciples came to our Master, so do some approach us now: they come with serious, earnest questioning. "Is the Christian system which we preach the system for our agP,? is it still the word we want? Or is not the world awaiting another doctrine, another method, another kingdom? Is Jesus Christ the Teacher for us, or do we look for another?" What is our reply? 1. Look at the benignant power of the gospel of Jes'UlJ Chriat. Follow the broad, deep river of beneficence which took its rise at Bethlehem; see what it has been effecting through all these ages; consi<ler what it bas done, not only for the physical sufferer-for the blind, for the lame, for the leper, for the lunatio-blit what it has done for the poor, for the slave, for the prisoner, for the savage, for the ignorant, for the little child, for woman; consider what it has done for the sorrowful, and for those laden and crushed with a sense of guilt; what it has done for the dying; consider how it has been enlightening and uplifting and transforming the minds and the lives of men; what a blessed beneficen, power it bas bee11 exertiJlg a11d is 11,11 caIJable as ever of exerting. 2, Look at t/.e c:ar• on. vn. 1-60.] TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 189