The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 194

2. Ilia iocorrupt1ble fidelity to the work committed to hie charge (eh. iii. 15, 16) 3. Hie fearlPBs, holy courage--a courage which was based on a sense of God'H nearneHB to him 11ml hie Divine faithfulness toward him; a courage manifested in public (eh. iii. 7-i}), and, what is more and what is worthier, shown in private also in an inter- view with one strong man who held his earthly destiny in his hand (eh. iii. 19). 4. His rare magnanimity. Not merely accepting without resentment the fact that he was to be supplanted by another, but going beyol'.ld that point in spiritual excellence, e.nd positively rejoicing in the elevation of that other Teacher; stepping down and giving place gladly to one younger but greater than himself (John iii. 29). We are not surprised that he "who knew what was in man," who knew the strength and the wee.knees of our human nature, said concerning John," Among those that are born of women," etc. (ver. 28). II. HIB INFERIORITY IN RESPECT OF PRIVILEGE. " But be that is least in the kingrlom of God is greater than he." We must take the word "greater" as signifying more privileged: it will not bear any other meaning. Most assuredly Jesus did not mean to se.y that the man who, being within his kingdom, was lowest in moral worth, stood higher in the favour of God than John. Such a sentiment is quite inconceivable, perfectly incredible. But our Lord may very well have meant that any one, however humble his position in the kingdom of grace, who yet stands within that kingdom, of which John stood outside, has a distinct advantage over the great prophet. To know what we, with all our obscurity and incapacity, do know; to understand and enter into, as we may do, the glorious purpose of God in Jesus Christ; to comprehend that, by that death of shame upon the cross, the Redeemer of the world is drawing all men unto him; and not only to understand all this, but to enter into it by a personal, living sympathy e.nd co-operation ;-this is to stand on a height to which even John, though he came in sight of it (John i. 36), did not attain. 1. We are the children of privilege; we are "the heirs of all the ages" of thought, of revealed truth. If we will read reverently, and inquire diligently and devoutly, we may know the mind of God con- cerning us as the greatest of all the prophets did not know it. 2. Let us take care that we are the children of God; returned from the far country of estrangement and indifference; dwelling in the home of the Father's favour; walking with God daily; finding a filial joy in doing and bearing his holy will ; entering by sympathy and effort into his holy purpose.-C. Vera. 31-34.-0hristian abstinence and participation. These •• children sitting in the market-place" very well illustrate the perverse and contradictory of all generations. Many are they, here and everywhere, who will neither dance at the we<lding nor mourn e.t the funeral, who will work neither along one line nor yet along its opposite, to whom-all ways are objectionable because their own spirit is out of tune with every- thing. But the special folly which these children are brought forward to condemn is that of objecting to John hecause he was abstemious, and to Jesus because he partici- pated in the good gifts of God. The right conrse to take is not that of objecting tu both, but rather that of accepting an<l honuuring both. We shall find, if we care to look for it- I. CHRISTIAN ABSTEMIOUSNESS. John came "neither eating nor drinking." He acted, no doubt, under Divine direction in so doing. But John was not our e:xemplar. We are_ not called to follow John, but Christ; and Christ came eating and drinking. Is aLstmence, then, a Christian course? It is so; it is justified by the language of our Lord and by that of his apostles. He said that there were some celibates "for the kingdom of h~av~n•s sake" (Matt. xix. 12). And he urged upon men that they shoul'1 pluck out their right eye, or cut off their right hand, rather than perish In iniquity (Matt. v. 29, 30). Hi8 apostle wrote that men should neither eat meat nor drink wine, !f ?Y so d~ing they put a stumbling-block in the way of another (Rom. xiv. 21). And at~- certam that we are acting in a strictly and, indeed, an emphatically Christian spmt when we: 1. Abstain because indulgence would be perilous to ourselves. This may relate to food or drink, or to any kind of amusement or occupation, to anything of any kmd in which we find ourselves under a strona tempti1tion to e:xcess if we once begin.. 2. Abstain because our abstinence will mnk: the path of virtue or piety m,,re acoess1Lle to others. Anything we can <lo, any privation we may accept, a,; habi,  HI THE GOSrEL AOCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [ou. vu. 1-50.