Luke 9:13
This narrative suggests and illustrates the following important
principle: that men are often, and properly, put under obligation to
do that for which they have, in themselves, no present ability.
I. To begin at the very lowest point of the subject: it is the nature
of human strength and... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 9:23
It is not more certain that without holiness no man can serve God than
that without self-denial no man can be holy. And so it must be, from
the nature of mankind and the nature of Christ's service; for what is
man's nature but sinful flesh, and what his service but a sharp
corrective? No... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 9:26
False Shame.
Consider:
I. What is there in Christ and His words of which men are ashamed? (1)
Their reason is perplexed by the mystery of His Person; (2) their
pride is humbled by the nature of His work.
II. How men may show that they are ashamed of Christ. (1) The shame of
some is see... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 9:28
I. The Transfiguration throws light on the meaning of Christ's
Passion. It shows that glory was His natural state, according to His
own thought: "Now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self with
the glory which I had with Thee before the world was."
II. Evidently, one object of th... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 9:29
The Re-appearance of the Departed.
I. The Church, perfected and triumphant; the Church, expectant still,
in their quiet resting-places; and the Church travailing, conflicting
here, in the battlefield of this lower world were all one upon that
holy mount. And they all gathered round the s... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 9:55
The Spirit of Christ and of Elijah.
No one can have failed to notice the marked difference between the
stern spirit of Elijah and the gentle spirit of Christ. Of all the
prophets of the Old Dispensation Elijah is the grandest and least
civilised. Rénan tells us that in the pictures of th... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 9:59
Our Lord's words in the text seem at first sight harsh and severe.
They are regarded by many as breathing the very spirit of those
religious movements and institutions which dissolve the nearest and
most sacred ties of natural kinship and affection for the interests of
the Church and for... [ Continue Reading ]