ftpoorypho.1 book, known or unknown. (2) leaely suft'or at the hands of the Jews ;-he St. Luke is here quoting from the similar looked on to the state of Israel growing pnssage in Bt. Matthew'& Gospel, which, worBe and worse, till the doy when the storm when he was compiling his Gospel, lay of Di vine anger at le.et burst over J eruealern, before him, and alludes to the earlier memoir and overwhelmed the oity and the temple as "The Wisdom of God." Age.inst this and the nation. That terrible day came in we have no proof that St. Luke ever saw lees than forty years. St. Matthew's Gospel, bnt e. stronp: proba- Ver. 51.-l'rom the blood of Abel unto bility exists to the contrary; besides which, the blood of Zaahariaa, whioh perished the expression is never used by an apostolio between the altar and the temple. The writer in suoh e. sense, (3) A reference is reason, probably, why theBe two are selected hnre intended to the Book of Proverbs, which out of the long red list of the noble a.rmy, in the early Church was known by the title must be sought for in the special position of "'l'he Wisdom of God," and the passage which the recite.I of these two deaths occu- referred to is eh. i. 20 and 31. Putting pies in the J ewieb canon of Seri pture ; the aMide all these, it seems best to consider the death of Ahel being relRted in Genesis, tlie expression simply as a solemn utterance of first book of the canon, that of Za.cha.rias in the Lord, in which he identities himself the Second Book of Chronicles, which occu- with the "Wisdom of God." And this pies the last place in the sacred volume (in certainly is home out by a comparison with the Jewish canon). They were simply two the report of St. Mntthow of e. similar an- martyrdoms of illustrious men at the begin- nouncement made by Jesus on another ning and a.t the clo,e of the long many- occasion (Matt. xxiii. 34). There we read coloured story of the chosen raoe. 'fhere is that the l\Iaster said, "Behold, I send unto no doubt that the Ze.charias here alluded you prophets," eto. The I is emphatio, to was Zechariah, the son of J ehoiada the and betrays the Dirine self-consciousness high priest-a prophet and preacher of of Jesus. For a moment the poor R,ibbi righteousness, who at the commandment of of Galilee is forgotten, and in his lofty the king was stoned in the court of the indignation, in his profound sorrow over house of the Lord. This is related in lhe stubborn heart of lsra.el, on both the 2 Chron. xxiv. 20-22, in the same paseng" occasions in which be is reported to have which we..;, evidently in the Lord'~ mind spoken these words of awful propheoy, the when he pronounced the Bwful woe upon Redeemer identifies Himself with God. St. the generation then living. This ma.rtyr- Matthew, " Wherefore, behold, I seDll unto dom of Zacharias wRs to his Jewish listeners you prophets," etc. ; St. Luke, " Therefore a very familia.r e.nd pai11ful memory. It e.lso said ths Wisdom of God, I will send evidently ranked among the most terrible them prophets," eto. The form of the pre- crimes committed by their fathers, and was diction and the original thought were both, the subjeot of some wild stmngu legends in no doubt, derived by Jesus from the solemn the Talmud. The martyr's blood would not pai!Sage in 2 Ohron. xxiv. 19, "Yet he dry up; it was still bubbling when Nebu- sent prophets to them, to bring them again ohe.,\nezzar and the Chaldea.ns took the unto the Lord; . . . but they would not temple. No sacrifices availed to stop the give ear," eto. This wus followed imme- awful flow. Tradition assigns one of the diately by the acoount of the preaching of four great sepulchral monwnents t\t the foot Zechariah (the instance ohosen here by the of Oli vet, alluded to above, to the murdered Lord, ver. 51), and how the faithful witness Zacharias. was stoned by the people in the court of Ver. 52.-Woe unto yon, lawyers! for ye the house of the Lord (2 Chron. xxiv. have taken a.way the key of knowledge: ye 20, 21). And apostles, and some of them entered not in yourselves, and them that were they shall slay and perseoute. The title entering in ye hindered. The Talmud gives " apostle" is joined here with the well- us the clue to the Master's words of bitter known title of "prophet." The earthly reproach here. There were very many, in reward that these his servants, the apostles, that restless age of inquiry, waiting for the will meet with at the hands of the people oonsolation of Israel, who longed to enter of Isro.el will be the same as that meted into the real mooning of p:,alm and pro- out to those old martyr-prophets, viz. per- phecy; but the scribe, the lawyer, and the 11,·cution and death. doctor, with their strange and unreal inter- Ver. 50.-That the blood of all the pro- pretations, their wild and fantastic legends, phets, which we.a shed from the foundation their own ofteu meaningless a<l<li tions, effec- of the world, may be required of this gene- tually hindered all real study of tlie Divine ration. He looked on to bis own bloody oracles. The Talmud-in the form we now dor1th; to the day of the last witness of possess it-well represents the teaching of 15tephen nm! of J amoe; to the long series of the~e schools liO bittorly cunaure<l by the 11erHocutione which hie servl\nls would cease- Lolll, 310 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [en. u. 1---M.
Ver. 5::1.-And BI! he aaid these thinga unto tl,e Galil..ian TBl\cher, whose worda Juel them. The ohler ftnthoritics here, inst<,R<l ~po ken had pll blioly shown the estimation "f the,,e words, reftd, a,1d tDhen he w1t11 gone in whioh he hehl the great sohoole of reli- olJI from thenoe. Thus, afier uttering the gious thought which then in great measure last "wne,'' Jesus appoon abruptly to bftve guided public Jewish opinion. From hence- risen nod le~ the house of his Pharisee forth there oould be on'ly one end to the entertRin .. n. A orowd of angry men, oom- unequal combat. The bold outspoken poeed of soribee and lswyers and friends of TMCher must, at all hazards, be put out '1le Pharisee party, appear to hsve followed of the way.