Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-03-27
REVIEW OF THE QUARTER
LESSON XIII, FIRST QUARTER, IN
TERNATlONAL SERIES, MARCH 30.

The Peculiarities of the Quarters Teach
ing and of st. Luke's Gospel-some Ele-
mentary Principles as to the Nature and
Methods of Revelation.
The lessons of the quarter Just closed deal
with all the early part Of Christ's life on earth
and much of the middle part they deal, be
it particularly noted, with His acts rather
than His teachings, and therefore the gospel
according to St Luke is chiefly relied On To
see the importance of this the reader needs,
perhaps, to have his attention called to some
salient points in the nature and methods of
revelation.
"God works by means" is profound and
important truth The clouds and the winds,
the beauties of nature and forces of the ele-
ments do not change their nature or laws
particle because God occasionally employs
them in specific manifestations of His holy
will; and man, as part of nature, is subject
to the same divine law. Matthew is just as
thoroughly an Israelite and Luke as much an
expert in Greek, David is a poet and war
rior and Isaiah fervent, flaming exhorter
to patriotism when God speaks through them
as at any other time. And this is the peren-
nial charm of biblical style; the writer Of
each book of the Bible preserves his indi-
viduality as distinct from any other as Taci-
tus from Livy or Bancroft from Macaulay;
yet Gods spirit is ever present in each writer
from Moses to st. John. Matthew, having
the spirit and yet acting as an individual,
naturally set forth the teachings of our Say
iour as they seemed best adapted to win over
the Jews, and John, similarly, as an indi-
vidual addressed the church of his time; but
Luke, the scholar, traveller and man Of sci
entific attainments, as naturally became
historian.
Matthew concerned himself only with his
brethren after the flesh, the Jews of Pales-
tine, and quite naturally, therefore, only
gave thread of narrative sufficient to string
Christ's teachings upon, and at each point
preferred the teaching most nearly connected
with the Old Testament, which the Jews ac-
cepted; Luke, as naturally, felt inclined to
crowd into his narrative as many as possible
of those incidents which would strike the at
tention of Gentiles The position of Mat
thew may be likened to that of a native of
New England writing on the history Of his
section and connecting it by constant refer
ence with the American Revolution and
adoption of the constitution; the position of
Luke to that of highly educated German
or FrenChman pointing out to his country
men the brilliant achievements of the Amer
leans as a whole and urging the adoption
of the American system.
In the primitive church the opinion was
almost universal that Matthew first composed
his gospel in the popular language of Pales-
tine-Syro-Chaldaic-o perhaps in Hebrew,
and this but five years after the crucilixion.
In modern times that belief was abandoned,
and it was generally maintained that the
Greek form Of the gospel was the first. FL
nally, however, these two opinions were re-
concied to this extent: that Matthew did
compile q sort of memorabilia" Of Christ's
teachings, and that this lin the popular Ian
guage) was the only gospel for near thirty
years, after which Matthew compiled the
complete Greek composition which we have.
No such question could arise as to St Luke;
he was physician, the companion and fel-
low laborer Of st. Paul, and doubtless mas
ter of the Greek language, in which he wrote
this gospel and the Acts Of the Apostles So
far there is no dispute, but as to his home and
country very little is known. The earliest of
the apostolic fathers confess that he ''wrote
not of himself, and that they are ignorant
of what he was before his conversion. They
believed, however, that he was native Of
Antioch and was an early convert-one of
the seventy. They also agree that he labored
diligently to the last of his life, dying at the
age of 81 His gospel was universally ac-
cepted as authentic by the fathers, and
Iren@us, Tertullian and others add that he
receive the facts directly from st. Paul.
The readers of the lessons just passed over
cannot have failed to note the extreme clear
ness, simplicity and positive directness with
which Luke relates the hcalngs of leprosy
and other Diseases tie casting out of DEVILS
the raising of the dead and the effective re-
plies to impertinent or sneering questions
He does not say that 1t seemed thus or so, but
that it was SO; he never intimates that the
possessed" was merely lunatic or that the
bystanders merely supposed that he was pos
sessedn-he says with emphatic simplicity
that the demons were there, that they spoke
and acknowledged the divine power and came
out at the command of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To st. Luke the existence of power for evil
was an awful reality, and with it the fact
that some individuals were "given over to sin
and sold wholly to Satan" In these lessons
the truth is emphasized in detail that a part
of Christs mission was to break the power Of
Satan over the bodies as well as the souls of
men.
Observe also the charm of the few refer
ences to the childhood of Jesus Very little
is said-just enough to show that as to His
earthly or human nature He was child to
grow and wax strong like any other healthy
chile but every word is golden. Who would
be HIthout that exquisite passage which re-
lrtes his remaining behind at the Feast of
the Passover and being found in the temple
conversing with the doctors Of the law A
| curious fact in this connection is that the
| early Christians often showed an inordnate
| desire to learn more of Christ's early life on
EARTH and one result was that spurious ac-
counts were written to meet the demand.
Skeptics have had much to say of these and
other Rejected Manuscripts ~ but surely no
better cure for their poison could be found
than mere perusal OF such works. Any one
with an intellect not utterly vitiated by
prejudice and obstinate unbelief who will
read the so called 'Childhood of Jesus and
compare its pueriliaies with the sublime sim
plicity Of Luke must rise with renewed con
fideuce in the divine inspiration of this gos-
pei