The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 331

<lemnocl by Joeus Christ; nor even the to w~ar " lire away in toilit1g fnr lo•s than vrowing richer. Among the so.inte of God whet God simply gat1a to ruv"n and to lily? ID both 'l'eeto.mente are many noto.ble rich Buch wo.a the Master's argum,•nt, adorned, men, whose poeeeseione eecm to have helped we may well conceive, with nil the beauty ro.tbcr than binrl,·red their journey to the and force ofEo.atem illustration. We posBess, oily of Gorl. The lesson which lies on the after oil, but a ecant rt',wmi of lheae Di vine forofront of this po.ro.ble-story is the especial senoons. To apostle a.nd chosen mieaionu.ry clo.nger which riches ever bring of gmctually hie worde hau a peculiar interest. He clelldening the heart and rendering it im- ba.cle them, in coming d!l.ys of poverty and pervious to any feeling of love either for abo.ndonmont, never to lose heart. They God or mo.n. would remember then their loved Teacher's words that da.y when he spoke of the fate The directions which immecl!ately followed of one whose life bacl been wasted in filling upon this po.ro.ble were aclclreseed to the bis storehouses and his barns; would re- inner circle of d isci pies. The general in- member how he turued from the foolish, struction, it will he seen, belongs to a.II who toiling rich man, and told them ol lhc hirdo and flowers, and how God tender! y cared in any age wish to be "of his Church;" even for auch soulless thinga. Did they but severo.1 of the particulo.r charges cannot think he would e,er lose sight of them, he pressed as general commands, being bis chosen servants? They might surely addressed to men whose work o.ncl office reckon on the loving care of that Master were unique. to whose cause they were giving their life- service. Yet have these and other like Ver. 22.-And he said unto his disciples, worcls of the great Teo.cher been often mis- Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought understoocl; and St. Paol's earnest an,l for your life, what ye shall eat ; neither repeated exhortations to his convert.-i-not for the body, what ye shall put on. A better to neglect honest toil, but by it to win rendering for "Take no thought" is Be bread for themselves, and something withal not a11:i:ious about. This, too, suggests a to Le generous with to those poorer than more pructioal lesson. " What ye shall they-were his protest against taking the eat." How repeatedly in the Master's lliastcr's words in too literal a sense, o.nd sermons do we find the reminder against using them as a pretext for a drearuy aud the being careful about eating I We know idle life. Paul's teaching, and perhaps st:11 ftom pago.n writers in this age how gluttony, more Paul's lifa-tho.t life of brave, simple in its coar.er ancl more refined forms, was toil for himself and otlters-were his com- among the more notorious evils of Roman ment upon this pa.rt of the Master's sermon. society in Italy and in the provinces. This The liliea. It is a little doubt!'ul wh, tlier passion for the table more or less affected our Lord meant to speak of the red a.newoue, all clusses in the empire. a very common hnt bea.ntiful flower, wi,h Vere. 24-27.-Consider the ravens: for which the meadows throughout e.11 Pales- they neither sow nor rea.p ; whioh neither tine are enamelled (Anemone coronaria), or have storehouse nor bam ; and God feedeth the great white lily (Lilium candidum), or them. . . . Consider the lilies . . . they toil the exquisite red lily ( Lilium rubrum); these not, they spin not : and yet I say unto yon, latter are more rare. The Saviour, prol,o.bly, that Solomon in all his glory was not ar- had each of these and other specimens uC rayed like one of these. What a contrast tbe flora of Palestine in his ruind, when he between the life of the rich and prosperous spuke of the inimitable beauty and the landowner jmt related, whose whole heart watchlc.s splendour of these flowers of a.ad soul were concentrated on a toil which G0d. should procure him dainty food and costly Ver. 29.-And eeek not ye what ye shall raiment, a11d these fowls fed by Goel so eat, or wl:tat ye shall drink. A;.:ain, artcr a.bu11cl11,ntly, and those flowers clothed by the moving, touching words we have been God so royally I The ravens knew nothing commenting on, does the Lord return to the of the anxious ea.re a.ad the restless toil of pressing injunction with which he began the rich ma.a in the n,iclst of which lte died, his lessons to his disciples upoo the parnble and yL"t tb,:y lived. The lilies simply grew, of the " rich fool." Trouble not 'l"oursel vcs ,rnd God's hand pa.intecl the rich and a.bout your eating and drinking. This g-org-eons clothing for e11.ch golden-jewelled repeated insistenee of the Master upon thia flowor; S0!01non, tho splendid Jewi.h kiug, point in the future lives of his disciples b!l-:1 tho example of a.II that was mognifioent, evidently a. deeper significo.nce than a rne,·e wns never urrnyed, men knew, like one of injunction to cast all their co.re 011 him, th,·su lilies. Wilh snob a God above them, and not to be over-anxious about their l"'or who sur,•ly loved cnch one 11s ho never earthly maioten11.nce. This was, of course, lovc-d 11, l,ir,I or ilo11 or, we..s it worth w hilo foe ilrst ltalsuu thuy liad to le,,ru frow Lhese  336 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [en. xn. 1-59