The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 272

which at length hie eervante, when they the life of our Lord is well br,mght ont in, should have learned the true ueo and the that touching legend which we find in the reeietleee power of that glorious Nnme of spurious lett~r of P. Lentnlue to the BPnnte, hie, should win over the rostleea enemy of that he wept often, but that no one ban ever the soule of men, seen him smile. The.t thou h~at hid theee Ver. 19.-Behold, I give unto you power things from the wise and prudent, and he.et to tread on serpents and aoorpione, and ovar r~vee.led them unto ba~ee. Looking npnn all the power of the enemy. The olcler hie servants after their return from their authorities read here, "I have given." The successful mission, a group made up cer- only recorded instance of a literal fulfilment tainly for the most part of poor untutored of this promise was in the case of Paul at men-fishers, artisans, and the like, chil,Iren Melita, after the shipwreck(Acts xxiv. 3-5), of the people, without rank or position- A similar promise was made during the Jesus thnnks the Father tl,at, in the peraons "forty do.ye" (Mark xvi. 17, 18). It seems, of the men chosen to be the instruments of however, beet, in the case of this pecnliar his work, he has looked away from a.II the promise, to interpret the Lord's words as ordinary machinery of human influence. referring to spiritual powers of evil, taking As he gazes upon the hand of snc~,;,:ssfol the serpent and scorpion as symbols of these. missionaries, J eaus thanks the Father tl, at It should be remembered that the subject of henceforth hie servants, if they would be oonvereation between the Master and his successful, must owe the powers which gave servants wa.e the conflict with and victory them success entirely to his training, and over these awful powers restlessly hontile to not to the world's. Even so, Father; for so the human race (see Ps. xci. 13). it seemed good bi thy sight. This is " the Ver. 20.-Bnt rather rejoioe, beoauseyour only record, outside St. John's Goepel, of names a.re written in heaven. "After a.II," a prayer like that which we find in John went on the wise and loving Me.eter, "though xvii. For the most part, we may believe, you have made the glad discovery of the those prayers were offered apart, on the power you possess, if, as my eerva.n ts, you lonely hillside, in the darkness of ni::;ht; use a.right my Name, after a.II, your real or, it may be, the disciples eh.rank in their reason for joy is, not the possession of a. reverence, or perhaps in the consciousness new, mighty power, but the fa.et of your of their want of capacity, from attempting name having been written in the book of to record what was so unspeakably s-acred. life as one of my servants commissioned to Bat it is noteworthy that in this excep- do my work." Many commentators here tional instance we find, both in the prayer cautiously point out that even this legitimate and the teaching that follows it in St.. joy should be tempered with fear and trem- Matthew and St. Luke, turns of thought bling, for even this true title to honour might and phrase almost absolutely identical with be blotted out of that golden book of heaven what is most characteristic of St. John. U (see Exod. xxxii. 33; Jer. xvii. 13; Pe. lxix. is as though this isolated fragment of a. 28; Rev. xxii. 19), In this deep legitimate higher teaching had been preservt>d by joy men and women of a.11 callings, who them as a witness that there was a. region try to follow the Master, in every age, may upon which they scarcely dared to enter, share. but into which men were t.o be led after- Ver. 21.-In that hour 1esus rejoioed in wards by the beloved disciple, to whom the spirit. More than "rejoiced; " the Greek Spirit gave power to recall what had been word rather signifies "exulted." Very above the reach of the other reporters of hill rarely in the holy story of the li fa of Ii ves Master's tenching" (Dean Plnmptre). is a hint given us of any gl~am of 12:ladness Ver. 22.-All things are delivered to me or of joy irradiating the spirit of the llfan of my Father. These words. epokeu late of sorrows. The exultation of the Blessed in the publio ministry, evidently refer to here was based upon his conviction that this the Almighty power possessed and fre- first success of his own was but the cain- quently exercised by the ineurna.tc Son of mencement of a long and weary, but yet, in God. During the days of bis hnmili:1tiou, the end, of a triumpho.nt co.mpo.igu against Jesus Christ exercised the power of Creo.tor, the spirits of sin and evil. What these, in Lord of the elements, Lord of the secrets their mortal weflkness by the aid of their of health and disease, Lord of life and poor imperfect faith in his Ne.me, had been death. Dean Mansel, corupnring this able to a.ccompli~h, was an earnest, a pledge, statement, recorded both by SS. Mutthew of the migbty work whioh his followers and Luke, with tbe languuge of St. J uhn, would, in the power of the same No.me, be remarks " that there is no eubstantiul uif- enabled to effect in the oomiug ages. In ference between the different evo.ng,·list• i11 that solemn hour did M-ossiah see, in the far their views of our Lor::"s Person anu u,1.ture, future, of "the tmva.il of his soul," and was and that the Gospel of St. John, far frooa Mu.tisfied. The absence of all sign of joy in htling the representative of a. later tl:eolu~y, LUIIl!l, T  274 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKK [en. x. 1-42,