Luke 10

1. AFTER these things, the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and 2 two before his face into every city, and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. 3, 4 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, 5 nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye 6 enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace 7 shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. 8 And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set 9 before you. And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of 10 God is come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you 11 not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding, be ye sure of 12 this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. 13 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago 14 repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and 15 Sidon at the judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to 16 heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.

THIS is the great abiding lesson that the employment of the seventy by Jesus carries with it—that it is not to ministers or ordained officers of the Church alone that the duty pertains of spreading abroad among those around them the knowledge of Christ. To the whole Church of the living God, to each individual member thereof, the great commission comes, “Go thou and make the Saviour known.” As the Father sent him, Jesus sends all who own and love him on the same errand of mercy. Originally the Church of Christ was one large company of missionaries of the cross, each member feeling that to him a portion of the great task of evangelizing the world was committed: and it will be just in proportion as the community of the faithful, through all its parts, in all its members, comes to recognize this to be its function, and attempts to execute it, that the expansive power that once belonged to it will return again; and not so much by organized societies or the work of paid deputies, as by the living power of individual pity, sympathy, and love, spirit after spirit will be drawn into the fold of our Redeemer, and his kingdom be enlarged upon the earth. H.

1. Other seventy also.** Rather, “others (also in number), 70;” probably with allusion to the seventy elders of Israel on whom the Spirit descended in the wilderness (Num. 11: 24, 25). The mission, unlike that of the twelve, was evidently temporary. All the instructions are in keeping with a brief and hasty pioneering mission, intended to supply what of general preparation for coming events the Lord’s own visit afterward to the same “cities and places” would not, from want of time, suffice to accomplish: whereas the instructions to the twelve, besides embracing all those to the seventy, contemplate world-wide and permanent effects. Accordingly, after their return from this single missionary tour, we never again read of the seventy. B.—The time had come for seeking rather than shunning publicity—for letting all men know, not only that the kingdom had come, but that he, the head of that kingdom, the Christ, the Son of David, the King of Israel, was in the midst of them. Before his departure from among them, the Israelitish nation was to have this proclaimed through all its borders. This was to be the peculiar distinction of his last journeyings toward the Holy City—that all along upon their course his Messianic character should be publicly proclaimed, that so a last opportunity for receiving or rejecting him might be afforded. And how could this have been better effected than by the mission of the seventy? H.

The seventy were to go to every city and place, whither our Lord himself would come. Not throughout Galilee; for Jesus apparently never returned to that province; and besides, both himself and the twelve had already preached in all the towns and villages. Not in Samaria; for he merely passes through that district without making any delay. Possibly into some parts of Judea, whither our Lord himself afterward came; but more probably along the great valley of the Jordan and throughout the populous region of Perea, which our Lord traversed and where he taught after the festival of Dedication, and as he for the last time went up to Jerusalem. In accordance with this view, the return of the seventy took place in Jerusalem or Judea, not long before the festival of Dedication; immediately after which festival Jesus withdrew into Perea to follow up their labors. R.—That the chief scene of the labors of the seventy was in Perea, is apparent. This province was under the jurisdiction of Herod, and here was offered the same freedom of action that Jesus had had up to this time in Galilee. It was also a part of the country that he had but little visited, and the road along the Jordan was a much-travelled thoroughfare to Jerusalem. Andrews.

2-12. As the seventy are distinct from the twelve, so is the instruction which is communicated to both distinct. The gift bestowed on the twelve of working miracles is far more extended than that which is here bestowed (in verse 9) on the seventy. Of the persecutions which he foretells the twelve, and of the extraordinary help of the Holy Spirit which he promises them after the day of Pentecost, the seventy, in entering upon their momentary and soon-accomplished work, have communicated to them not a word. On the other hand, the remarkable injunction given to the seventy alone, to salute no man on the way, appears doubly congruous, as the Saviour sees his public life hurrying to an end. Such differences are as far from being unimportant as accidental, but have sprung rather from the different nature of the persons and facts. The twelve had to return upon the traces of Jesus, in order to gather in the harvest of that which he had sown. The seventy must go before his face, in order to prepare a way for him. Van O. (See Sections 63, 64.)

4. Salute no man.** There is such an amount of insincerity, flattery, and falsehood in the terms of salutation prescribed by etiquette, that our Lord, who is truth itself, desired his representatives to dispense with them as far as possible, perhaps tacitly to rebuke them. These “instructions” were also intended to reprove another propensity which an Oriental can scarcely resist, no matter how urgent his business. If he meets an acquaintance, he must stop and make an endless number of inquiries, and answer as many. The command of our Saviour strictly forbade all such loiterings. W. M. T.

It appears from the Lord’s sending of the seventy that all personal efforts and public movements for extending truth and increasing righteousness in the world are really parts of his work, and are dependent on his spiritual power. Christendom everywhere is full of beneficent activities. They are philanthropic, educational, sanitary, reformatory, missionary. Sometimes they scarcely recognize, and oftener they fail to praise, with explicit and conscious gratitude, the great fountain from which they spring, and the ever-present leader who inspires and sends them. So much the worse for their vitality and their honor if they do. But none the less are they the merciful emanations of the one great central, mighty, and missionary Heart which has brought the love of heaven into the dwellings of men. No matter where you find them, or what human agents started them, or what particular form of good they aim at, they are none the less, in their first origin, products of the one great healing and loving plan. The benefactions of this late age, half-blind though they may be, or forgetful of their Author, were born at Bethlehem, and grew in stature at Nazareth, and conquered their enemies—selfishness and pride and wrath—at Calvary, and went out among the nations with the apostles. If we had seen one of the seventy walking in some by-way of Jericho or Bethany, we might have seen no badge of Christ upon him, and wondered at his eager gait or absorbed expression. But he was going where the Master sent him, and the Master’s mantle was on him, and the Master’s secret in his soul. Thither, after him, the Master himself would come—to reaffirm and fulfil His words—to deepen, sanction, complete His work. Large or small, these forerunners run over the earth. One Sender sends them. One Reaper and Ingatherer and Finisher follows them. He is the Alpha, beginning them—the Omega who will end them. They began in his charity. They will end in his righteousness. His grace conceived them—every one. His mediation holds them up. His glory will crown them, in his own good time. F. D. H.

13 15. See Section 45.

Section 83.—Final Departure from Galilee. Not received by Samaritans. Ten Lepers.

17. AND the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject 18 unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall 19 from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, 20 and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Not- withstanding, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather re- joice, because your names are written in heaven. 21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed 22 them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. 23 And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which 24 see the things that ye see. For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. 25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall 26 I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how 27 readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy 28 neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29, 30 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering, said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, 31 leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; 32 and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when 33 he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had 34 compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when 36 I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neigh- 37 bour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

BEAUTIFUL as is this parable when taken simply according to the letter, and full of incentives to active mercy and love, bidding us to be kind and tender-hearted, yet how much lovelier still when we trace in it a deeper meaning still, and see the work of the merciful Son of man himself portrayed to us here! Inasmuch as Christ himself in its largest extent fulfilled it, showed how we ought to love and whom; and inasmuch as it is his example, or rather faith in his love toward us, which is alone really effectual in causing us to “love one another with a pure heart fervently,” he might well propose himself and his act in succoring the perishing humanity, as the everlasting pattern of self-denying and self- forgetting love.

The traveller then is the personified human nature, or Adam as he is the representative and head of the race. He has left Jerusalem, the heavenly city, the city of the vision of peace, and is travelling toward Jericho; he is going down toward it, the profane city, the city which was under a curse (Josh. 6 : 26 ; 1 Kings 16 : 34). But no sooner has he forsaken the holy city and the presence of his God, than he falls under the power of him who is at once a robber and a murderer, is stripped of the robe of his original righteousness, and left full of wounds and almost mortal strokes. His case is desperate as concerns his own power to restore himself, but not desperate, if taken in hand by an almighty and all-merciful Physician. And who else but such a divine Physician shall give him back what he has lost, shall heal and bind up the bleeding hurts of his soul? Can the law do it? The apostle answers, it could not; “if there had been a law which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.” Patriarch and prophet and priest passed by, helpless both in will and deed, for they themselves also lay wounded in that wounded man. Only that true Samaritan beholding was moved with compassion, as he is all compassion, and poured oil into the wounds, that is, himself into the hearts, purifying all hearts by faith. T.

WHILE he was still in Jerusalem and its neighborhood, the seventy, having fulfilled their mission, made their way back to him. Like the twelve, they returned in great joy at their success, and reported that even the devils had been subject to them, through their Master’s name, though they had received no special power over them, such as he had given to the twelve. It was a moment of calm triumph to Jesus, as the sure anticipation of infinitely greater results hereafter. G.

17,18. The word rendered “devils” is always used for those spiritual agents employed in demoniacal possessions; never for the ordinary agency of Satan in rational man. When therefore the seventy say “the demons are subject to us” and Jesus replies “mine eye was beholding Satan falling,” it is plain that he meant to raise their minds not only from the particular to the general, but from a very temporary form of Satanic operation to the entire kingdom of evil. A.—Already he beheld the whole idol-worship of the heathen world, whereof Satan was the soul and informing principle (1 Cor. 10 : 20), giving way, its splendor departing, its temples forsaken. This and much more of the same kind, the putting down of many of the enormous wickednesses of the world, of many strongholds of evil, was implied in the power which his disciples put forth. T.—As Christ had previously designated the cure of demoniacs wrought by himself as a sign that the kingdom of God had come upon the earth, so now he considered what the disciples reported as a token of the conquering power of that kingdom. Before the intuitive glance of his spirit lay open the results which were to flow from his redemptive work after his ascension into heaven; he saw, in spirit, the kingdom of God advancing in triumph over the kingdom of Satan. And, therefore (verse 19), he promises that in their coming labors they should do still greater things. They were to trample the power of the enemy under foot; they were to walk unharmed over every obstacle that opposed the kingdom of God.

20. But rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.** Wonderful works in the future were not to be the source of their joy. “Your great deeds are to be as nothing in comparison to the grace given you, the pardon of your sins, and life everlasting.” N.—Rejoice not, then, in any outward or selfish success—not even that the spirits are subject unto you, but that your names are written in heaven, with the name of your Saviour. Seats of honor, on the right hand and the left, are not promised—but to drink of the Master’s cup, and to be baptized with the same baptism. Patiently and persistently, again and again, by all figures and comparisons, now by this image and now by that, Christ strives to bear up the minds of his followers above every material and earthly impression, to the realization of the blessed and unspeakable fellowship between the believing heart and himself: showing us the water of such secret satisfaction that he who tastes it never thirsts again; meat to eat that the world knows nothing of; the single inward eye lighting the whole body; the Shepherd calling his own sheep by name—by name—leading them out, and they knowing his voice. F. D. H.

21. The hiding and revealing are recognized by him as alike his Father’s work, and the judgment and the grace alike matters for which he renders thanks. This new victory of the kingdom of light over the kingdom of darkness was a matter of the greater joy, that it was these “babes” by whom this victory had been won: they of the household were dividing the spoil. T.—The hiding from the wise and the revealing unto babes are closely connected together; it required childlike submission and devotion to receive the communications of the higher source, and therefore none could receive it but such as, like children, in need of higher light, yielded themselves up to the divine illumination; and for the same reason, those whose imagined wisdom satisfied them, because they were devoid of childlike submission, could not receive the divine communications. N.

Rejoiced in spirit. Out of the grief that he endured for the sinful world he came to save, there broke a joy—the purest, the sublimest, the most blissful—that felt by him when he saw that the great ends of his mission were being accomplished, and that the things belonging to their eternal peace were being revealed to the souls of men. Once before Jesus had offered up the same thanksgiving, in the same words, to the Father. From the very repetition of it learn how fixed the order is, and how grateful we should be—that it is to the simple, the humble, the teachable, the childlike in heart and spirit, that the blessed revelation cometh. H.—Christ is never said to have laughed, and yet he never produces the impression of austerity, moroseness, sadness, or even of being unhappy. On the contrary, he is described as one that appears to be commonly filled with a sacred joy; “rejoicing in spirit,” and leaving to his disciples, in the hour of his departure, the bequest of his joy—“that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” There is somewhere in him an ocean of deep joy, and we see that he is, in fact, only burdened with his sympathy for us to such a degree, that his mighty life is overcast and oppressed by the charge he has undertaken. H. B.

The wise and prudent. The greatest philosopher and the humblest mind stand upon common and equal ground as respects the requirements of the heart and conscience, and the everlastingly momentous questions of sin and duty, with the whence and the whither of the soul of man. God meets all men here on the same grand level, and Christ returned special thanks for this, that he revealed himself not to “the wise and prudent,” that is, not to them as such, but unto babes. If human wisdom has the grace, for the time, to forget itself and to commune reverently with the sense of spiritual need, side by side with common humanity, it will find the presence of a God of life and love as readily as the most unlearned, and then no union on earth or in heaven can be nobler than that of the lofty intellect and lowly heart, fearing no path of inquiry, and rejoicing everywhere to find the footsteps of God. Let us but take him into our heart, and how sweet shall all “the words of knowledge be unto our taste!” A break will appear in the clouds of darkest doubt, a new light on sea and shore, and the door of death be changed into the gate of a glorious temple where study and adoration walk side by side, and angels who know clasp hands with angels who burn. Ker.

22. With what approach to truth or to propriety could language like this be used by any human, any created being? So it is continually here and there along the track of his earthly sojourn, the hidden glory bursts through the veil that covers it, and in the full majesty of the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-judging, all-directing One—Jesus of Nazareth presents himself to the eye of faith.

25. A lawyer stood up.** Something more than mere curiosity, or a desire to test the extent of Christ’s knowledge, appears to have prompted his question. It is not presented in an abstract form. It is not, “Master, what should be done that eternal life be inherited?” but, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” It looks as if it came from one feeling a true, deep, and personal interest in the inquiry. The manner in which our Lord entertained it confirms this impression. H.

26. Our Lord’s reply is as much as to say: The answer is contained in the words of that very law, of which you profess to be a searcher and expounder. What is written there concerning this great question? “How readest thou?” T.—

27. It is remarkable that in answer to a question which admitted of such various replies, this man should at once have laid his hand upon two texts, standing far apart from each other—the first in Deuteronomy, the second in Leviticus—texts which are nowhere brought into juxtaposition; the two very texts which, on an after-occasion in answer to another scribe, our Lord himself cited as the two upon which all the law and the prophets hung. The man who, overlooking the whole mass of ceremonial ordinances as being of altogether inferior consideration, so readily and confidently selected these two commandments as containing the substance of the whole, gave good proof how true his reading of the law was. H.

The law does not say, Thou shalt love the Lord with an angel’s fervor or strength; but with all thy heart: it exacts of the creature no more than the creature can be expected to give. To love our neighbor as ourselves—not more than ourselves; Christ alone could do that; not less than ourselves, but just as we love ourselves—ready to share with him in all things, to wish him the same good that we wish ourselves. B.

29. Who is my neighbor?** The very question, like Peter’s, “How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” was itself a wrong question, involving a wrong condition of mind. He who asked, “Whom shall I love?” proved that he understood nothing of that love, whose essence is, that it has no limit except in its own inability to proceed further—that it is a debt which we must be content to be ever paying, and not the less still to owe. Especially wonderful is the reply, in its adaptation to him to whom it was addressed, leading him to take off his eye from the object to which love is to be shown, and to turn it back and inward upon him who is to show the love; for this is the key to the following parable, and with this aim it was spoken. T.

30. A certain man.** Our Lord’s first design, in relating this parable, was to prove to the person with whom he was discoursing, that true charity required more than he imagined. His other and main intention was, to teach all persons the nature and extent of benevolence and brotherly love. In this, as in other of our Lord’s discourses, may be observed a masterly way of gaining a controverted point, by setting examples and facts before prejudiced or doubting persons, and making them draw the conclusions themselves. Jortin.

From Jerusalem to Jericho. If we might conceive of the ocean as being suddenly congealed and petrified when its waves are tossed mountain-high, and dashing in wild confusion against each other, we should then have some idea of the aspect of the desert in which the Saviour has placed so truthfully the parable of the good Samaritan. The ravines, the almost inaccessible cliffs, the caverns furnish admirable lurking places for robbers. H. B. H.—The road from Jerusalem to Jericho passes through the heart of the eastern division of the wilderness of Judea, and runs for a considerable space along the abrupt and winding sides of a deep and rocky ravine, offering the greatest facilities for concealment and attack. From the number of robberies and murders committed in it, Jews of old called it “the Bloody Road,” and it retains its character still. We travelled it, guarded by a dozen Arabs, who told of an English party that the year before had been attacked and plundered and stripped; and we were kept in constant alarm by the scouts sent out beforehand announcing the distant sight of dangerous-looking Bedouins. All the way from Bethany to the plain of the Jordan is utter solitude. H.

Jericho was a city of priests, as well as a city of publicans. The Talmudists tell us that there were almost as many priests there as at Jerusalem itself; so that it is a stroke from the life to introduce in the parable of the good Samaritan the priest and the Levite, as passing exactly along that road which led from one of these cities where they dwelt to the other where their duties lay. T.

30-32. In its way from the holy city to the city of the world, human nature was encountered by the arch-thief, Satan, and was stripped of its original righteousness, and was left half dead. The priesthood came by, and the law came by, and cast a transitory glance upon it; but they only showed its misery and evinced their own inability to heal it, by leaving it where it was and passing by it on the other side. W.—Leaving him half dead. A more striking case could hardly be imagined; and if their notions were such as could steel their hearts when so much misery called for their relief, there needed no other argument to expose their inhumanity. Herring.—A priest . . . a Levite passed by. Thus did they, who were the express interpreters of that law that twice had said, “Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass, or his ox, fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them; thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again.”

33-35. While the priest and Levite—marked out as those who should have been foremost in showing pity—were forgetful of the commonest duties of humanity, it was left to the excommunicated Samaritan, whose very name was a by-word of contempt among the Jews, to show what love was. T.—Christ, the good Samaritan, came from heaven on a blessed journey, and saw mankind lying helpless in the road of this world, stripped and naked, full of bruises and putrefying sores. He bound up its wounds, and poured in the oil and wine of his own cleansing and sanctifying blood, and lifted it up from the ground and put it on his own beast. He himself bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He brought us to the inn and has given us to the keeping of the host, with a charge to take care of us; and at his departure he provided for us, and he has promised to come again and demand an account of our treatment. W.

35. Two pence.** The denarius or penny of the New Testament was, in purchasing value then, an equivalent of the American dollar; and, wherever referred to, represents a fair return for the service it recompenses. J. G. B.

36. It is difficult enough to admire the divine wisdom with which the Saviour, having brought to an end this affecting parable, reverses the question of the lawyer. He had asked, “Who is the neighbor to whom I am bound to show the service of love?” But the Lord asks, “Who is a neighbor, he who shows love, or he who shows it not?” The parable is a reply, not to the question, but to the spirit out of which the question proceeded. It says, “You ask who is your neighbor? I will show you a man who asked not that question, and then your own heart shall be judge between you and him, which had most of the mind of God, which was most truly the doer of his will, the imitator of his perfections.” T.

37. Do thou likewise.** Our Lord elicits the answer in an inverted form to bring out a strong contrast by putting the hated and despised Samaritan in the active position, and thus to reflect back the “likewise” more pointedly. A.—We ought to account every man our neighbor, though a stranger, an enemy, a sinner, or one of a different sect and persuasion. Let him be what he will, he is a human creature; and, as such, he is entitled to humanity and courtesy in common intercourse, to direction and instruction if he asks it and stands in need of it, and to relief and assistance if he is in distress. Jortin.

Go and do. The good Samaritan wasted no needless sympathy, he shed no idle tears. There are wounds that may be dressed—he puts forth his own hand to the dressing of them. There is a life that may be saved—he sets himself to use every method by which it may be saved. He gives more than time, more than money: he gives personal service. And that is the true human charity that shows itself in prompt, efficient, self-forgetful, self-sacrificing help. It is not those who will weep the readiest over the sorrow who will do the most to relieve it. Tears will fill the eye—should fill the eye—but the hand of active help will brush them away, that the eye may see more clearly what the hand has to do. H.—What new fountains of charity has not this matchless teaching opened up in the human spirit—rivers in the wilderness, streams in the desert! what noble Christian institutions have not such words founded, all undreamed of till that wondrous one came to bless this heartless world of ours with his incomparable love! B.

The Christian must be sound at the heart; and he must also be just, pure, and benevolent in life. The Church must abide in Christ as the branch in the vine; but the branch must also bear fruit, or it will be taken away for the burning. Piety must have the good Samaritan character. That which is only of the priest and Levite has no credentials acceptable in heaven. It avails little to recite the catechism without the faith which is proved by its works. They give slender evidence of regeneration whose charity can only say to the needy, “Depart in peace; be ye warmed and filled.” Two great commands, and one of them looks toward men, express the love which is the fulfilling of the law. Thurston.

—Our Redeemer came to establish another and closer bond of brotherhood than the earth before had known, to knit all true believers in the pure fellowship of a common faith, a common hope, a common heirship of eternal life through him. But he would have us from the beginning know that this bond, so new, so sacred, so divine, was never meant to thwart or violate that other broader universal tie that binds the whole family of our race together, that makes each man the neighbor of every other man that tenants this earthly globe. Of all influences that have ever descended upon our earth, none has ever done so much as Christianity to break down the walls of separation that differences of country, language, race, religion, have raised between man and man, and to diffuse the spirit of that brotherly love which overleaps all temporary fences, which diffuses itself everywhere over the broad field of humanity—tempering all, uniting all, brightening all, smoothing asperities, harmonizing discords, pouring a healing balm into all the rankling sores of life. H.

Section 90.—Martha and Mary. How to pray.

Bethany.

38. Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman, named Martha, received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered, and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

1. And it came to pass, that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed 3 be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give 4 us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. 5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at 6 midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his

7 journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him: and he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me 8 in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. 9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, 10 and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that 11 seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he 12 for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

CONTEMPLATIVE souls like Mary may find their highest pleasures at times in quiet reflection; but let them, like Mary, avoid the by-path of fanatical inactivity; let them never forget that these beautiful, festal hours of still contemplation become a selfish enjoyment when they do not serve to strengthen them for active life, to inspire them to fulfil, more and more faithfully, their earthly calling. Those souls, however, who, like Martha, never enjoy life, and are never in their element if they cannot work and manage in vigorous activity, need not relieve themselves of their unwearied labor in outward life; but let the consciousness everywhere accompany them which Martha, indeed, lost only for the moment—that they walk before God’s countenance; let them studiously nourish and strengthen this consciousness out of the living fountain, in earnest, holy contemplation, that their activity may neither be perverted into an empty superficial, nor into an unquiet and passionate pursuit. J. Muller.

We ought to be Martha and Mary in one; we should do much service and have much communion at the same time. For this we need great grace. It is easier to serve than to commune. Joshua never grew weary in fighting the Amalekites; but Moses, on the top of the mountain in prayer, needed two helpers to sustain his hands. See to it that sitting at the Saviour’s feet is not neglected, even though it be under the specious pretext of doing him service. The first thing for our soul’s health, the first thing for his glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness, is to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus, and to see that the vital spirituality of our religion is maintained over and above everything else in the world. Spurgeon.

THE three months from the feast of Tabernacles to that of Dedication (September to December) were spent in or near Jerusalem. During this period we are first introduced to the family of Bethany, where Jesus found the most restful and home-like tarrying-place that he seems ever to have enjoyed. Situated on the eastward slope of the Mount of Olives, in distance scarcely three-quarters of an hour’s walk from Jerusalem, it offered a convenient and agreeable place of occasional quiet retreat from all other human companionship, even that of his disciples. This Bethany cottage on the eastern slope of Olivet, and the more familiar garden of Gethsemane on the western, were his two chief resting-places near Jerusalem, now and hereafter. J. G. B. (Section 86, second note.)

38,39. Martha, Mary.** We see from the gospels that they were a family in easy circumstances, and of sufficient dignity and position to excite considerable attention not only in their own little village of Bethany, but even in Jerusalem. F.

—Received him. Blessed is that home whither Christ comes that he may bring blessing. Thrice blessed that home where he loves to come for the congenial fellowship of loving hearts which it affords him. L. A.

40-42. The rebuke administered to Martha showed that he would rather have Mary listening to what could not profit him but would profit her, than Martha serving what would profit him but could not profit her. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. J. C.—An imperfect soul, seeing what is good and great and true, but very often failing in the attempt to attain to it, is apt to be very hard in its judgments on the shortcomings of others. But a divine and sovereign soul—a soul that has more nearly attained to the stature of the perfect man—takes a calmer and gentler, because a larger-hearted, view of those little weaknesses which it cannot but daily see. And so the answer of Jesus, if it were a reproof, was an infinitely gentle and tender one, one which would purify but would not pain the faithful heart of the busy, loving matron to whom it was addressed. F.

Martha we know as one of those peculiar, strong characters which appear to be destined for a restless activity and employment in outward life. Still, lonely contemplation, continuous thought, are not for her. Quick, often somewhat precipitate, the thought ripens into the word, the resolve into the act; and every impulse, every impression which she receives from without at once becomes for her a stimulus to react upon the outward world. Mary, on the contrary, seems to us to be one of those lovely souls which hide in themselves a rich, inner world, with which they love to busy themselves in still thought, and for which they seek to gain a new enrichment by every contact with the outward world. If their knowledge is of narrow compass, its connections are still closer; are they sparing of words, yet their whole nature expresses deep, strong feeling; are they slow, unskilful in action, yet there manifests itself in their actions that thoughtful earnestness which often exerts the greatest power over other souls, without themselves being conscious of it. J. Muller.—Both were true-hearted disciples; but the one was absorbed in the higher, the other in the lower of two ways of honoring their common Lord. Yet neither despised, or would willingly neglect, the other’s occupation. The one represents the contemplative, the other the active style of the Christian character. B.—In every soul there should be the sisters of Bethany, active effort and quiet thought, and both agreeing in mutual love and help. Ker.

1. One thing which surprised the Pharisees was that Christ did not lay stress upon outward prayers. He had not, like John the Baptist, prescribed forms of prayer for his disciples. In this respect, as well as others, their religious life was to develop itself from within. From intercourse with Christ, and intuition of his life, they were to learn how to pray. The mind which he imparted was to make prayer indispensable to them, and to teach them how to pray aright. N.

2-4. As the ten commandments are a sum of all duty, or what is to be done, so this prayer is a sum of all things to be desired. As the ten commandments contain our duty toward God and toward our neighbor, so in this prayer are petitions for God’s honor, for ourselves, and for others. He gave both the commandments and the prayer that we might see our duty, and pray for ability to perform it. The ten commandments were twice rehearsed, and so this prayer was twice delivered, first in the Sermon on the Mount, and afterward in this text, about a year later. J. L.—There is no ambiguity, no expansion, no repetition here. It is throughout the direct expression of desire, that desire clothing itself in the simplest, compactest forms of speech. It divides itself into two equal parts, each embracing three petitions. In the former part the thoughts and desires of the petitioner are engrossed with the name, the kingdom, the will of the great Being addressed; in the latter with his own wants, and sins, and trials. It is not to God as the Omnipotent, Omnipresent Creator and Lord of all; not to him as the Moral Governor of the Universe, that it invites us to come. But to him as a Father regarding us with infinite pity, loving us with an everlasting love, willing and waiting to bestow, able and ready to help us. H.

In the mingled love and reverence with which it teaches us to approach our Father in heaven—in the spirituality with which it leads us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness—in the spirit of universal charity and forgiveness which it inculcates—in that plural form throughout it, which is meant to show us that selfishness must be absolutely and forever excluded from our petitions, and that no man can come to God as his Father without acknowledging that his worst enemies are also God’s children—in the fact that, of its seven petitions, one only is for any earthly blessing, and even that one is only for earthly blessings in their simplest form—in the manner in which it discountenances all the vain repetitions and extravagant self-tortures with which so many fanatic worshippers have believed that God could be propitiated—even in that exquisite brevity which shows us how little God desires that prayer should be made a burden and weariness—it is indeed the pearl of prayers. F.

It is not a prayer for any one period of life—for any one kind of character—for any one condition of things—for any one age. The penitent in the first hour of his return to God, the struggler in the thick of the spiritual conflict, the believer in the highest soarings of his faith and love, may use alike this prayer. The youngest, the oldest, the simplest, the wisest, the most sin-stained, the most saintly, can find nothing here unsuitable, unseasonable. It gathers up into one what they all can and should unite in saying as they bend in supplication before God. And from the day when first it was published on the mount, as our Lord’s own directory for prayer, down through all these eighteen centuries, it has been the single golden link running through the ages that has bound together in one the whole vast company of the prayerful. H.

2. The Holy One is to be acknowledged and worshipped by all, according to his holy nature and his holy name; not by a knowledge and confession thereof, but by a life allied to him. This “hallowing” of the name of God implies the “coming of his kingdom,” and this last is further developed in the prayer that “his will may be realized on earth, as it is in the communion of perfect spirits.” The kingdom will have come when the will of men is made perfectly at one with the will of God, and to accomplish this is the very aim of the atonement. Among all rational intelligences, the one common essence of the kingdom of God is the doing his will, and thus hallowing his name. N.—We are taught to pray first, “Thy will be done,” and then immediately thereafter, “Give us day by day our daily bread.” The bread is to be asked that by it the life may be preserved, and the life is to be preserved that it may be consecrated to the doing of God’s will. According to the tenor of the prayer and the connection of these two petitions, we are not at liberty to ask for the daily bread irrespective of the object to which the life which it prolongs and the strength it imparts are to be devoted.

3. Give us day by day our daily bread.

A natural and moderate request, yet not so easy to present in the spirit in which Jesus would have us offer it. Not so easy to feel our entire dependence on God for those very things that we are most tempted to think we have acquired by our own exertions, and secured to ourselves and our families by our own skill and prudence. Not so easy to pray for a competent portion of the things of this life, only that by the manner of our using and enjoying them the will of our heavenly Father may be carried out. Not so easy to limit thus our desires and efforts in this direction, and to be satisfied with whatever the portion be that God pleases to bestow. Not so easy to renew this petition, day by day, as conscious that all which comes each day comes direct from the hand of God—comes to those who have no right to claim it as their own—who should ask and receive it continually as a gift. Not so easy to narrow the petition to the day, leaving to-morrow in God’s hands. The simplest and easiest, though it seems at first, of all the six petitions, perhaps this one about our daily bread is one that we less frequently than any other present in the true spirit. It stands there in the very centre of the prayer—the only one bearing upon our earthly condition—preceded and followed by others, with whose spirit it must or ought to be impregnated—from which it cannot be detached. Secular in its first aspect, in this connection how spiritual does it appear! H.

4. “Lead us not into such situations as will form for us, in our weakness, incitements to sin;” thus laying it down as a rule of life for Christians not to put themselves, self-confidently, in such situations, but to avoid them as far as duty will allow. But everything depends upon deliverance from the

internal incitement to sin; and hence, necessarily, the concluding clause of the petition, “Deliver us from inward temptation by the power of the evil one.” Confiding, in the struggle with evil, upon the power of God, we need not fear such outward temptations as are unavoidable. Thus the prayer accurately defines the relation of the Christian to God. The disciple of Christ, ever called to struggle against evil, which finds a point of contact in his inward nature, cannot fight this battle in his own strength, but always stands in need of the assistance of the Holy Spirit. The prayer holds the fundamental truths of Christian faith before the religious consciousness, in their essential connection with each other—God, revealed in Christ, who redeems man, formed after his image, yet estranged from him by sin; who imparts to him that divine life which is to be led on by him to its consummation through manifold strifes against the power of evil. N.

Who can repeat the prayer, Lead us not into temptation, without insult and hypocrisy, if, having said it to the Most High, he goes to seek temptation, or lets his children seek it in unprincipled books, in dissolute companionships, or among any of the residences of guilt? I can never hear parents speak of sending their offspring purposely into perilous company, in order that they may see the world’s worst side early, without painful memories of horrors unutterable which that shallow maxim has sown, hopes it has broken to pieces, spiritual beauty it has disfigured, and the gray hairs it has brought down with sorrow to the grave. Let virtue have the vantage-ground of youth; let holy shapes of purity and love and truth preoccupy the soul, before the rabble of hateful tormentors rush in. The longer these blameless guests pitch their white tents on the unsullied field of the child’s heart, the more will we rejoice and thank the protecting God. Give the first delicate years to goodness; let right principles grow by exercise; let the habits of life learn to run in the even channels of piety and obedience, and it shall be harder by and by to break the blessed barriers down. But we want, it is said, a robust, an exposed, tried virtue, not a virtue feebly grown in solitude, and too sickly to bear the sun. Beyond all question we do. But they who think to find here an apology for commerce with sin, forget that there is just as much discipline and a far greater blessing in resisting the inclination to look at sin, as in resisting the increase of it after looking and listening have rooted it in the soul. The point where the first offenders were to learn how to strengthen their principles was in refusing to taste the forbidden fruit, not in seeing how they could escape it when its virus was once in their blood. It was enough that it was forbidden. The trial of obedience and of faith was there. F. D. H.

(For additional comment, see Section 38.)

5-13. Christ did not intend by “the Lord’s Prayer” to prescribe a standing form of prayer to his disciples, but to set vividly before their minds the peculiar nature of Christian prayer in opposition to heathen; and accordingly he followed it up by urging them to present their wants to their heavenly Father with the most undoubting confidence. N.—Not less divine were the earnest and simple words which followed, and which taught the disciples that men ought always to pray and not to faint, since, if importunity prevails over the selfishness of man, earnestness must be all-powerful with the righteousness of God. Jesus impressed upon them the lesson that, if human affection can be trusted to give only useful and kindly gifts, the love of the Father who loves us all will much more certainly give his best and highest gift—even the gift of the Holy Spirit—to all that ask him. F.

5. There is the same argument as in the parable of the Unjust Judge, one from the less to the greater, or, more accurately, from the worse to the better—but with this difference, that here the narrow-heartedness and selfishness of man is set against the liberality of God, while there it is his unrighteousness which is tacitly contrasted with the righteousness of God. The conclusion is, if selfish man can yet be won by prayer and importunity to give, and unjust man to do right, how much more certainly shall the bountiful Lord bestow, and the righteous Lord do justice! T.—We must remember that all reluctance on the part of God to answer our prayer is not real, but apparent only, and arises from deeper reasons working for our good; whereas the reluctance in these two parables is real, arising from selfishness and contempt of justice. 7. The door is shut, etc. An interesting fragment of domestic life is here given us. The door is barred, not only shut; there is the trouble of unbarring it; the father and children are in bed, and he cannot (i. e., will not, cannot from being overcome by reluctance) rise and give to him. A.

8. Because of his importunity.** Through this pertinacity he at length obtains, not merely the three which he asked, but “as many as he needeth”; like that Phenician woman from whom the Lord at first seemed to have shut up all his compassion, but to whom at last he opened the full treasure-house of his grace, and bid her to help herself, saying, “O woman, great is thy faith! be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” Augustine observes, “When sometimes God gives tardily, he commends his gifts, he does not deny them; and again, God for a time withholds his gifts, that thou mayest learn to desire great things greatly.” Faith, and patience, and humility, are all called into exercise by this temporary denial of a request. T.—“So,” it has been beautifully observed, “when the heart which has been away on a journey, suddenly at midnight (i. e., the time of greatest darkness and distress) returns home to us—that is, comes to itself and feels hunger—and we have nothing wherewith to satisfy it, God requires of us bold, importunate faith.” If such persistency conquers the reluctance of ungracious man, how much more shall it prevail with one who loves us better than we ourselves, and who is even more ready to hear than we to pray! F.—Man is hard-hearted even to his friends, when it must cost him something to assist them; because most commonly it is only either his own satisfaction, or his interest, which he loves in them. God does good to all, because he is goodness itself, because he communicates his good things without diminishing them, because he works in all things without being wearied, and because he loves without the least selfish interest. Q.

9,10. The three repetitions of the command are more than mere repetitions; since to seek is more than to ask, and to knock than to seek; and thus in this ascending scale of earnestness, an exhortation is given, not merely to prayer, but to increasing urgency in prayer even till the suppliant carry away the blessing he seeks. T.

11-13. God’s answers to our prayers consist of neither useless nor mischievous things, but of his best gift—his Holy Spirit—in all the various and fitting manifestations of his guidance, consolation, and teaching, in our lives. This is the bread of the parable; the father is our Father in heaven, with whom however the night is as the day, who never slumbers nor sleeps. A.—He who asks shall receive—of the very best. One promise without reserve, and only one, because it includes all, remains: the promise of the Holy Spirit to them who ask it. He who has the Spirit of God, God himself, in him, has the Life in him, possesses the final cure of all ill, has in himself the answer to all possible prayer. McD.

The supreme gift of the Holy Spirit, which includes all real good, to be appreciated, and so to be of any value, must come to a longing of the soul itself. The asking expresses dependence, gives reality to faith, brings us near to God, renders the blessing more precious, and renders us the more grateful in the enjoyment of it. Through prayer we have immediate access to the Fountain of spiritual life; and, since the will of God is our sanctification, if we fail to grow in grace, and to have spiritual power over the world, it is for lack of earnest, urgent, believing prayer. J. P. T.—Our progress heavenward need never be delayed, the fruits of holiness need never be blighted for lack of that heavenly influence. Ask then in faith, never doubting. God may not will your earthly prosperity, but your spiritual welfare is dearer to his heart than to your own, and nothing that contributes to it shall be wanting to the earnest supplicant. In every emergency, in every Christian work and effort, therefore, pray for the abundant grace of the Spirit, without which you can do nothing, with which you can do all things. C.

Section 91.—Imparts Sight to One born blind. The Jews’ Inquiry.

A Street of Jerusalem. The Temple.