ST. LUKE'S PICTURE.
MRADITION says that St. Luke was a painter. St. Paul, 1 who knew and loved him, tells us that he was a doctor. The scholars of to-day believe him to have been a Greek slave, and all who read his Gospel know that he was a poet. Whether the tradition which puts a brush into the hand of the Greek physician is trustworthy or not, SL Luke as a word- painter is unsurpassed in the history of letters. The great Italian masters read him aright. The first two chapters of his Gospel resolve themselves into a picture which represents a group of persons surrounding a child. The outstanding figure is, of course, "the blessed maid," in her arms the child who was born in a stable, yet who came of " the root and off- spring of David." Joseph the carpenter we hardly see. From Matthew we know that he was a just man and a merciful, but St. Luke does not even sketch his character. The priest from " the hill country," with Elisabeth his wife, stand near the Virgin, and the "just and devout" man who dwelt in Jerusalem is not far off. With him, but only just indicated, is one Anna, the friend of " all them that looked for redemption." 111 the background are shepherds abiding in the field.
Roman Catholicism has deified the mother of our Lord without, as Protestants think, due warrant. Those to whom the Roman doctrine savours of paganism exclaim with constant reiteration that we know nothing about her. But if we look at St. Luke's portrait we may certainly learn some- thing. We see a woman whose soul is imbued with the traditions- of her people, inspired by their great ideals, and mindful of their sad history, a Jewish woman for whom patriotism and Godliness are not divisible, the dream of whose youth is motherhood, and to whom it has been revealed that the son she has born " shall be called the Son of the Highest." St. Luke has thrown around her shoulders the prophetic mantle—a mantle she is not the first woman of her race to wear—and in a burst of song which has never lost its charm for the Churches she declares to Elisabeth that she holds herself to be blessed among the women of all time • in that she has been chosen to bear the Redeemer. Looking back across the ages, she sees from generation to generation the mercy of God shown to the faithful. The proud and the mighty cannot resist His arm, He scatters them in the imagination of their hearts, He feeds the hungry, He exalts the meek, He will never forsake the seed of David His servant. The heart of Zacharias is revealed to us after the same manner. It is very plain that in this picture all the portraits are drawn by one hand, but in profane literature and in profane art such a fact has never been considered to destroy the truth of the likeness. It is evident to the critic that Shakespeare drew both Henry V. and Richard II. ; none the less does he thiow a light upon their characters. All Van Dyck's portraits proclaim the painter ; none the less does each reveal his model. The thoughts of St. Luke's priest are centred upon the Messiah,—his only ambition for his late-born and much- longed-for son is that he should prepare His way: He looks for One who shall deliver Israel out of the hands of her
enemies, who shall bring a light to her in the darkness, who shall forgive her sins and guide her feet into the way of peace. One more face is clearly drawn. It is that of Simeon the religious Jew, who has been "waiting for the consolation of Israel." His life is bound up in the Messian'l hope, and when it is revealed to him that the child of Mary is in very truth He of whom the prophets spoke, he desires nothing but to depart in peace. Has he not seen the salvation of the Lord? But St. Luke does not paint all men alike. Simeon's outlook is not bounded by his race. Like Isaiah, he sees further. The light which has come will lighten the Gentiles, he is sure. Dimly, too, he forecasts a redemption which by pain and sacrifice will enlarge the sympathies of a race-bound, though a God-inspired, creed. " A sword shall pierce thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed," he foretells, as he looks upon the woman in whom the great prophecies of the past are fulfilled. Outside Jerusalem, and outside the hamlets round, St. Luke depicts a pastoral scene. The shepherds watch their flocks far from temples and priests. To these men who pursue their calling and worship God under the blue sky and the stars comes a direct revelation, accompanied, Luke tells us, by a vision of the Heavenly Host. It is a revelation of the good- will of God to men to be proclaimed in the city of David by a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.
Of the Kings of the East, with their treasures and their wisdom, we hear nothing, nor yet of the wonderful star. These stories did not appeal to St. Luke, who drew with a purpose, and whose picture is unified by a single thought. He wanted to show what sort of men and women are "great in the sight of the Lord," and he included none who might be considered great in the eight of men. Paul and the beloved physician were men of far wider cultiva- tion than the immediate Disciples of Christ. They knew another world than that of Palestine, a world which put its trust in philosophy, in money, and in men-at-arms; but both believed with a God-given assurance that salvation would be brought about by none of these things. Against the power of the Spirit the Roman legions and the Roman logic would stand, they knew, in vain, and St. Paul, as he "reaped his teeming brain" and cast his sheaves before the world bound up in bands of paradox, declared that " God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world
to confound the things which are mighty yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought 'things that are." This is the key to St. Luke's Christmas picture. With regard to the world-wide nature of Christ's message he was in ardent acquiescence with his hero St. Paul. It is be who reported the Sermon on Mars Hill, he who deprecates the narrower conception of the saints at Jerusalem ; but sincere believer though he was in Paul's theology, he believed yet more surely in Christ's religion. It must have been as plain to him as it is to us that the little group chosen to pro- tect the infancy of the Incarnate Word were not chosen for their political or theological clearness of vision. But it is the pure in heart who see God, however mistaken their theories-of the cosmos. The babe whom his joyful mother imagined upon the throne of David was to hang in obedience to the will of God upon a Roman cross. The deliverer whom Zacharias pictured performing the oath of Jehovah and saving the Jews from their enemies was destined to save the Gentiles from their sins, while of the temple of Jehovah not one stone remained upon another. alb shepherds who meditated upon
the divine goodwill littl ought that Jerusalem alone would ignore the things that belonged to her peace. Any Roman soldier, any Greek philosopher, any materialist in the Empire, might have laughed at the folly of "these feeble Jews." Yet it pleased God to call • His Son out of the midst of such a people as these, a people full, not of worldly knowledge nor of worldly strength, bat of aspire Lion and ideal faith and hope, full, indeed, " of the Holy Ghost," to whom belongs, according to the Christian creed, all might, majesty, dominion, and power.
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