The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 257

wore life." Human life, as its Divine Anthor regards it, means very much more than this. And, taught of Christ, we underdtand the.t we then e.ttain to our true life when we livo unto God, in his holy service, and for the good of those whom be bas committed to our care. 'l'be thoughts of sinful men concerning life are ntterly false; they are the exact contrary of the truth. Men imagine that juRt as they go.in that which will minister to their own enjoyment, and keep tbe.t which, if parted with, would benefit other people, they make much of their life. This is not even a caricature of the truth• it is its contradiction. '!'he fact is that just aa we lose onrselves in the love of G~ and just as we expend our powers and posRessions in the ea.use of mankind, we enter upon e.nd enjoy that which is the "life indeed." For all that l11 beet and highest lives, not to gain, but to give. As we pass from the lowest of the brute creation up an ascend- ing line until we reach the Divine Father himself, we find that the nobler being exists, not to appropriate to himself, but to minister to others; when in our thought we reach the Divine, we see that God himself is receiving the least and is giving the most. He finds his heavenly life in giving freely and constantly of his resources to all beings in his universe. This is the supreme point that we can attain; we surrender ourselves entirely to God, to be possessed and employed by him; we enter upon and we realize the noble, the angelic, the true life. Whosoever will save his life by retaining his own will and withholding his powers from his Redeemer, by that very act loses it; but who- soever will freely surrender his life to God and man will, by that very act, find it. To Ii ve is not to get and to keep; it is to love and to lose ourselves in loving service. II. 'l'nAT THE FOLL SERVICE OF CHRIST MEANS HABITUAL SELF-DENIAL. L Ii me&Jl8 the abandonment of all that is vicious; i.e. of all that is positively hurtful to ourselves or others, and that, as such, is condemned of God as sinful. 2. It means the avoidance of that which is not unlawful jn itself, but which would be a hindrance to 118efulness and the service of love (see Rom. xiv.). Of the rightness and desirableness of this, every man must be a judge for himself, and no man may" judge his brother." That life must be a narrow one which does not afford scope for the frequent forfeiture of good which might lawfully be taken, but which, for Christ's sake, is declined. 3. It involves struggle and sacrifice at the first, but the sense of personal loss is continua.lly declining, 11.nd the consciousness of Divine approval is a counterbalancing gain. III. THAT TO SECURE ETERNAL BLESSEDNESS IT ll!AY BE NECESSABY TO LAY DOWlf OUR MORTAL LIFE. Many are they who have been called upon to put the most literal interpretation on the twenty-fourth verse; who have had to choose between parting with everything human and earthly on the one hand, and sacrificing their fidelity to Christ and their eternal hopes on the other hand. For that hour of solemn crisis the Lord has granted abounding grace, and from every lnnd and age a noble army of martyrs have made the better choice, and now wear the crown of life in the better land.-C. Ver. 25.-The priceless. Our Lord has taught us as no other teacher ever bas- I. THE TllANSCENnENT WOllTH OF OUR HOMAN NATURE. When be came that WU held in very small esteem. Men showed what they thought of human nature by the use they me.de of it, and of human life by the readiness with which they threw it away. 'l'here was no thought of the inviolable sacredness of a human spirit. Jesus Christ has taught us to think of it as precious beyond all price. Man's body is only the vesture of his mind; man, like God, is spirit, but he is spirit clothed in flesh. He is a spirit (1) accountable to God for all he thinks and feels, as well as for aJ.l he says and does; (~) capable of forming a beautiful and noble character resembling that of the Divine Father himself; (3) capable of living a life which, in its sphere, is a reproduction of the life God is living in heaven; (4) coming into close contact and fellowship with God; (5) inteniled to share God's own immortality. II. 'l'HE TE.lt:PTATION TO LOBE SIGHT OF THIS GREAT TBUTH. There are two things that often have such a ,leteriorating effect upon us that it is practically era.sed from the tablet of our soul. 1. The love of pleasure; whether this be induL,ence in unholy pleasure, or the practical surrender of ourselves to mere enjoyment, to the neglect of all that is best and highest. 2. The eager pursuit of gain. Not that there is any radical inconsistency between profitable trading and holy living; not that a Christian mun may not exemplify his piety by the way in which he conducts his business; but tba.1 there are often found to be terribly strong temptations to untruthfulness, or dishonca•y, LUKE. II  !68 THE GOSrEI, ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [CB, 11:, 1-02 ----- - ----------------------------- or hanlnMs, or unjust '\ilhl_llllJment, or II culpable auJ injurious absorption in business, And under the <lestruct1ve mfluence of one of these two forcee the soul withera or diee, III. THE CALAIITl'OUB MISTAKE THAT IS SOMETIMES MADE, It is not only II grievous ~in, but a disastro_us error to gain worldly ~ea.Ith, and, in the act of ga.iuiug it, to loae the soul. That 1s the wor~t of all possible bargaiua. 'l'he man who makes many thousands of pounds, and who loses conscientiousness, truthfulne,,a spirituality all care for what God thinks of him and feels about him, sensitiveneBB ~f spirit-in fact him.•elf, Is a man over whom Heaven weeps; he has made a supreme mistake. Gold° 11ilv~r, precious ston~ are of limited worth. There are many of the most important services we want which they have no power to render; and the hour is daily drawing near when they will have no value to us whatever, But the soul is of immeawrable worth; no sum of money that can be expressed in figures will indicate its value; that is something which absolutely transoends expression; and time, instead of diminishing, enhances its importance-it becomes of more and more account" as our days go by," as our life draw~ toward its close. Jesus Christ not only put this thought into worda, -the words of the text--he pm it into action. He let us see that, in his estimation, the human soul was worth suffering and dying /or--worth suffering for o.s he suffered in Gethsemane, worth dying for as he died at Calvary. Then do we wisely enter into bis thought concerning it when we seek salvation at his crosa, when, by knowing him 8.'I our Divine Redeemer, we enter into eternal life.--0.