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 ]