CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 7:19.—The message sent by John the Baptist to Jesus has been the subject of much discussion. Though in form questions, his words are virtually an appeal to Christ to declare Himself and to hasten His kingdom. The fact that John was dissatisfied with the character of the work in which Jesus was engaged and wished to suggest a new departure indicates a defective faith. In view of the words in Luke 7:23 we can scarcely doubt that some measure of blame attached to the Baptist for failing to appreciate the work of Christ at its true value. Still, this was but a temporary lapse from faith. John’s was not a fickle and wavering character, as Christ Himself here declares (Luke 7:24). The depression of spirits caused by his imprisonment must be taken into account in extenuation of his doubts and fears. He that should come.—I.e. the expected Messiah, a kind of title (cf. Hebrews 10:37).
Luke 7:21.—Omit “same,” which should have been in italics, as there is no word in the original corresponding to it. Plagues.—Lit. scourges.
Luke 7:22.—The description given of the works done by Christ is taken from Isaiah 61:1; Isaiah 35:5-6, with the exception of the detail, “the dead are raised.” This last had special significance in view of the raising of the widow’s son from the dead, and was perhaps suggested by that miracle. Christ’s reply is virtually that He is the Messiah, and is engaged in the work which it had been foretold that the Messiah would do.
Luke 7:23. Offended.—I.e. caused to stumble (see R.V.).
Luke 7:24.—Depreciatory thoughts of the Baptist might have been excited in the minds of those present by the words of Christ, and therefore our Lord proceeds to set the character and work of His forerunner in their true light and to lay stress upon that in them which was great and unique. The question in this verse might be taken to mean, “It was not to see some trifling thing, such as the reeds, that you went out into the wilderness.” The expression “shaken by the wind,” however, seems to indicate that the words are metaphorical—that the stern, unbending character of the Baptist is suggested by contrast with the reeds.
Luke 7:25. Soft raiment.—Contrast with this the Baptist’s actual dress (Matthew 3:4).
Luke 7:26. More than a prophet.—Namely, an actual, personal herald and forerunner; the angel or messenger of Malachi 3:1, and so the only prophet who had himself been announced by prophecy.
Luke 7:27. Before Thy face.—In Malachi 3:1 it is Jehovah who speaks, and His words are, “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me.” Here, as well as in Matthew 11:10 and Mark 1:2, we have the quotation given us, “before Thee, before Thy face.” In other words, that which is said by Jehovah of Himself is applied by Christ to Himself—a very striking indication of Christ’s eternal and co-equal Godhead.
Luke 7:28. A greater prophet.—The best MSS. omit “prophet”; omitted in R.V. It is probably a gloss explaining and limiting the use of “greater,” i.e. as a prophet. He that is least.—“Rather, ‘he that is less,’ i.e. inferior to John, in gifts and power, yet being ‘in the kingdom’ is in a higher state. He that holds but a small place in the Christian Church is greater as regards his office than he who prepared the way for its founding. This is said not of the personal merits but of the official position of the two” (Speaker’s Commentary).
Luke 7:29-30 are evidently a parenthetical description of the impression produced by our Lord’s words upon those who heard them, and not a continuation of His discourse. This seems to have been understood at a very early time, as we can see from the insertion of the gloss in Luke 7:31, “And the Lord said,” which was intended to indicate our Lord’s resumption of His discourse.
Luke 7:29. Justified God.—I.e. declared their belief in the wisdom of God’s procedure, or acknowledged and commended the purpose of God in calling them to repentance by John.
Luke 7:30. Rejected.—Rather, “frustrated,” or “made of none effect.” Against themselves.—Rather, “for themselves” (R.V.), or, “with reference to themselves.”
Luke 7:31. And the Lord said.—These words are absent from all the best MSS., and are rejected by modern editors. See above. It is possible that they may have got into the text from a Lectionary; but even if this were so, the historical character of Luke 7:29-30 is sufficiently marked to distinguish them from Christ’s own words.
Luke 7:31-35.—The general meaning of this passage may be given as follows: “Those who pipe are the Jews condemning the asceticism of John, and complaining that he will not respond to their demand of a more lax mode of life. Those who mourn are the same Jews complaining of our Lord as not exhibiting the severity of life befitting a prophet. But in both cases alike wisdom is justified of her children; the foolish children are discontented with both; the children of wisdom acknowledge the Divine wisdom manifest in both, their different modes of life befitting their different missions. The simile is taken from children imitating in games a marriage or a funeral, with the accompaniments of merry or mournful music” (Speaker’s Commentary).
Luke 7:34. Eating and drinking.—A reference to our Lord’s practice of attending entertainments and feasts, e.g. the marriage at Cana, the feast in the house of Levi, etc. This incident is not identical with that recorded in Matthew 26:6-7; Mark 14:3, and John 12:3—the anointing at Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper. “The two occurrences have little in common but the name of the host (Simon) and the anointing. In this case the woman was ‘a sinner,’ showing her penitence, in the other a pious, loving disciple, preparing Him for burial; here the feet are anointed, there the head; here the objection arose from the woman’s character, there from the waste; here the host objects, there Judas, while the lessons our Lord deduces are altogether different” (Popular Commentary).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 7:18-35
John’s Doubt of Jesus, and Jesus’ Praise of John.—In the first part of this paragraph we have an account of the faltering faith of the great witness, and of Christ’s gentle treatment of the waverer; in the second, the witness of Christ to John, exuberant in recognition, notwithstanding his momentary hesitation.
I. John’s doubts.—It is quite improbable that this message was sent for the sake of strengthening his disciples’ faith in Jesus as Messiah, or as a hint to Jesus to declare Himself. The question is John’s. The answer is sent to him; it is he who is to ponder the things which the messenger saw, and to answer his own question thereby. It would have been wiser if commentators, instead of trying to save John’s credit at the cost of straining the narrative, had recognised the psychological truth of the plain story of his wavering conviction, and had learned its lessons of self-distrust. There is only one Man with whom it was always high-water; all others have ebbs and flows in their religious life and in their grasp of truth. John seems to have wondered if after all he had been premature in his recognition of Jesus as Messiah. Perhaps this Jesus was but a precursor, as he himself was, of the Messiah. Evidently he continues firm in the conviction of Christ’s being sent from God; but he is puzzled by the contrariety between Jesus’ deeds and his own expectations. He asks, “Art Thou He that cometh,”—a well-known name for the Messiah,—“or are we to expect another?” and it should be noted that the word for “another” means not merely a second, but a different kind of person, who should present the aspects of the Messiah as revealed in prophecy, and as embodied in John’s own preaching, which Jesus had left unfulfilled. We may well take to heart the lesson of the fluctuations possible to the firmest faith, and pray to be enabled to hold fast that we have. We may learn, too, the danger to right conceptions of Christ, of separating the two elements of mercy and judgment in His character and work. John was wrong in stumbling at the gentleness, just as many to-day, who go to the opposite extreme, are wrong in stumbling at the judicial side of His work. Both halves are needed to make the full-orbed character. Our Lord does not answer Yes or No. To do so might have stilled, but would not have removed, John’s misconception. A more thorough cure is needed. So Christ attacks it in its roots by referring him back for answer to the very deeds which had excited his doubt. He points to prophetic writings which foretell the character of His work. It is as if He had said, “Have you forgotten that the very prophets whose words have fed your hopes, and now seem to minister to your doubts, have said this and this about the Messiah?” It is not Christ’s work which is wanting in conformity to the Divine idea; it is John’s conceptions of that idea that need enlarging. A wide principle is taught us here. The very points in Christ’s work which may occasion difficulty will, when we stand at the right point of view, become evidences of His claims. What were stumbling-blocks become stepping-stones. Further, we are taught here that what Christ does is the best answer to the question who He is. Still He is doing these works among us. We look for no second Christ, but we look for that same Jesus to come the second time to be the Judge of the world of which He is the Saviour. The benediction on him who finds none occasion of stumbling in Christ is at once a beatitude and a warning. It rebukes in the gentlest fashion John’s temper, which found difficulty in even the perfect personality of Jesus, and made that which should have been the “sure foundation” of his spirit a stone of stumbling. Our Lord knows that “there is none occasion of stumbling in Him,” and that whoever finds any brings it or makes it. He knows and warns us that all blessedness lies for us in recognising Him for what He is—God’s sure foundation of our hopes, our peace, our thoughts, our lives.
II. The witness of Christ to John.—Such a eulogium at such a time is a wonderful instance of loving forbearance with a true-hearted follower’s weakness, and of a desire, which, in a man, we should call magnanimous, to shield John’s character from depreciation on account of his message. The world praises a man to his face, and speaks of his faults behind his back. Christ does the opposite. “When the messengers were departed,” He begins to speak of John
1. He praises John’s great personal character. He recalls the scenes of popular enthusiasm when all Israel streamed out to see and hear him. A small man could not have made such an upheaval. What had given him such attractive power? His heroic firmness, and his manifest indifference to material ease. John was the same man then as they had known him to be.
2. Our Lord next speaks of John’s great office. He was a prophet. The dim recognition that God spoke in his fiery words had drawn the crowds, weary of teachers in whose endless jangle and jargon of casuistry was no inspiration. The voice of a man who gets his message at first hand from God has a ring in it which even dull ears detect as something genuine.
3. Jesus goes on to declare that John is more than a prophet, because He is His messenger before His face—that is, immediately preceding Himself. Nearness to Jesus makes greatness. The closer the relation to Him, the higher the honour.
4. Next we have the limitations of the forerunner and his relative inferiority to the least in the kingdom of heaven. Another standard of greatness is here from that of the world. In Christ’s eyes greatness is nearness to Him and understanding of Him and His work. Neither natural faculty nor worth is in question, but simply relation to the kingdom and the King. He who had only to preach of Him who should come after him, and had but a partial apprehension of Christ and His work, stood on a lower level than the least who has to look to a Christ who has come and has opened the gates of the kingdom to the humblest believer. The truths which were hid from ages, and but visible as in morning twilight to John are clear as day to us. What a place, then, does Christ claim! Our relation to Him determines greatness. To recognise Him is to be in the kingdom of heaven, Union with Him brings the fulfilment of the ideal of human nature; and this is life, to know and trust Him, the King.—Maclaren.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 7:18-35
Luke 7:18-35. The Messengers of John.—The King’s forerunner was in perplexity, because Christ did not set up an earthly kingdom.
I. The message of the servant to the King.—
1. When, and why sent?
2. How answered.
II. The testimony of the King to the servant.—
1. His character strong, self-denying.
2. His office.
3. His position.
4. His work. These words were a sort of funeral sermon for the Baptist.—Spence.
Luke 7:19. Christ the Great Counsellor.—John was in perplexity, and sent to Christ to ask about his doubts. So should we carry our perplexities straight to Jesus. Jesus understands all, and understands us all. Tell Jesus then. Leave all in His hands, that He may manage, unravel, clear it up for us. It is not easy. The taking it to Jesus is easy. Leaving it is the hardest part. But faith not only takes to Jesus, but leaves with Him. Thus only do we find peace.—Miller.
John’s Misconception of Christ’s Work.—The Baptist had heard in his prison of the works of Christ, and was perplexed by them, since they were not of the kind he had expected them to be. He had spoken of the Coming One as having a fan in His hand with which to purge His threshing-floor, and of the axe being laid at the root of the tree. Nothing Christ had yet done corresponded with these anticipations and prophecies. His preconceived ideas hindered him from understanding Christ’s procedure. This is still a most fruitful cause of spiritual ignorance and misconception. Those whose minds are under the influence of prejudice fail to understand the truth, since they seek not so much to be instructed as to justify the beliefs and opinions which they at present hold. John for the time occupied the position of those scribes and Pharisees who approached Christ as critics and not as learners. The question revealed a measure of impatience. “It seemed, no doubt, hard to him that his Master should let him lie so long in prison for his fidelity—useless to his Master’s cause, and a comparative stranger to His proceedings—after having been honoured to announce and introduce Him to His work to the people. And since the wonders He wrought seemed only to increase in glory as He advanced, and it could not but be easy for Him who preached deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound, to put it into the heart of Herod to set him at liberty, or to effect his liberty in spite of Herod, he at length determines to see if, through a message from the prison by his disciples, he cannot get Jesus to speak out His mind, and at least set his own at rest” (Brown).
“He that should come,” etc.—The Jews expected more than one Divine messenger—Elijah, “that prophet” (Deuteronomy 18:15), and the Messiah.
Alternations of Mood.—These alternations of moods of wonderful elevation and of sudden and deep depression are to be traced in all the men of the Old Testament—raised for a moment above themselves, but not being transformed in spirit, they quickly fall back to their natural level.—Godet.
Loss of Faith.—The temporary loss of a bright faith. It was natural, but unnecessary. Do not many Christian people get more despairing over the loss of a few pounds, or over a little pain, than John did in his great trials? And yet how unnecessary was John’s doubt. Jesus was indeed the Messiah. John’s active work was now done. So needless, too, is all anxiety of Christian people in their times of darkness. The true way is never to doubt Jesus. Though there are clouds, the sun shines behind them undimmed.—Miller.
Luke 7:21. “He cured many of their infirmities.”—The mistake into which John had fallen was in not seeing that the beneficent works done by Christ were precisely those ascribed to Him by the prophets who foresaw His coming. Cf. Isaiah 35:4-6; Isaiah 61:1 ff.
Luke 7:22. “Tell John what things ye have seen.”—The reply to John was a significant narrative of what Jesus had been heard and seen to say and do, and not a bare “Yes” or “No.” The legend of Tarquinius Superbus and the messenger from Sextus supplies us with a similar mode of reply. “Sextus sent a messenger to his father for further instructions. On his arrival it happened that the king was walking in his garden. To the inquiries of the envoy the king made no reply, but continued striking off the heads of the tallest poppies with his stick, and then bade the messenger relate to his son what he had seen him do. Sextus comprehended his father’s meaning. On false charges he either banished or put to death all the principal men of the city,” etc.
Christ’s Miracles Emblematical.—The works of bodily healing, beneficent as they were in themselves, were also emblematical of Christ’s power to heal the souls of men—to give spiritual sight, vigour, cleansing, etc., to those blinded, weakened, and defiled by error and sin. It is therefore appropriate for the spiritual side of His work to be mentioned in connection with these miracles: “to the poor the gospel [or good tidings] is preached.” There can scarcely be said to be a climax in the works enumerated; but the last of them is that which is specially characteristic of the Messiah (according to Isaiah 61:1). “That which made this feature in our Lord’s ministry so remarkable was the contemptuous manner in which the Jewish doctors had been wont to treat the humbler sort of people (cf. John 7:49; John 9:34). By ‘poverty,’ however, doubtless the same thing is intended in this as in other places in the Gospel—namely, that condition of heart which is usually found to belong to persons endued with a very slender portion of this world’s goods” (Burgon).
Luke 7:23. “Blessed is he,” etc.—Rara felicitas.—Bengel.
Christ an Occasion of Stumbling—The same prophet to whose predictions Christ had just referred had foretold that some would find occasion of stumbling in Him. “And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Isaiah 8:14). Jesus warns both John and those who now hear Him of this danger.
The Difference between the Spirit of the Old Testament and of the New.—It is a striking argument for the great difference between the Old and the New Testament that even the greatest of the prophets can, at the beginning, accommodate himself only with difficulty to the Saviour’s way of working. Among all those lofty and brilliant expectations which had been excited by the prophetic word, the meek, still spirit of the gospel could only gradually break a way for itself. John must continually take secret offence against Jesus before he had become in spirit a disciple of the best Master.—Lange.
Luke 7:24-27. “Began to speak unto the people.”—Jesus replies to the thoughts of the crowd. They might imagine from St. John’s message and the words in which it was delivered that the Baptist wavered in his faith, and that his imprisonment had shaken his constancy. Our Lord, therefore, reminds them of what John was, how he had acted, and how they themselves had behaved to him. “What went ye out for to see? Not an inconstant and vacillating man; not a reed shaken by the wind; but a man of inflexible resolution and invincible courage. What went ye out into the wilderness to see? Not a man of effeminate temper; not a sycophant who would flatter any for hope of gain. No; his rigorous fare, his simple garb, the very place in which you found him, refute this notion. If he had been such, he would have been in the court, and not in the desert. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet; yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet: and He then refers to their own Scripture for the true character and office of John.—Wordsworth.
“What went ye out … to see?”—There is a climax in the words
(1) a reed,
(2) a man,
(3) a prophet. It was something great and wonderful in the person and mission of John the Baptist that drew the multitudes to him; but it was a spiritual and not a worldly greatness. Worldly greatness does not come into conflict with the opinions of the world, but bows before them: it seeks to dazzle the eye, and to impress the imagination of spectators.
Luke 7:26. “Much more than a prophet.”—John’s superiority consists in the facts,
(1) that he was himself the subject of prophecy (Malachi 3:1);
(2) that he both saw and pointed out the fulfilment of his predictions;
(3) that he was “the porter” who opened the door for the Shepherd of the sheep (John 10:3).
Luke 7:27. “I send My messenger.”—The exceptional greatness of John arose from his connection with Christ, the true source of all spiritual greatness.
Luke 7:28. “Born of women.”—As distinguished from those who are born of God—born again of water and of the Spirit (John 1:12-13; John 3:5; Titus 3:5).
The Old Order and the New.—“The old order of things and the new are divided from each other by such a deep gulf that he who is least in the latter occupies a higher place than John himself. The most feeble disciple has a more spiritual insight into Divine things than had the forerunner. He enjoys in Jesus the privilege of sonship, while John is still only a servant. The humblest believer is one with that Son whom John announced” (Godet). This reflection is not given to depreciate the Baptist, but to explain and excuse his lapse from faith or his being offended in Christ.
Luke 7:30. “Rejected the counsel of God.”—I.e. rejected for themselves the counsel of God. Men cannot overthrow God’s purpose, but they can defeat it or make it of none effect in their own case.
Unbelief, a Thwarting God’s Purpose.
I. I remark, first, that the sole purpose which God has in view in speaking to us men is our blessing.—I need not point out to you that “counsel” here does not mean advice, but intention. In regard of the manner immediately in hand, God’s purpose or counsel in sending the forerunner was, first of all, to produce in the minds of the people a true consciousness of their own sinfulness and need of cleansing, and so to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, who should bring the inward gift which they needed, and so secure their salvation. The intention was, first, to bring to repentance, but that is a preparation for bringing to them full forgiveness and cleansing. Now, by the gospel, which, as I say, thus has one single design in the Divine mind, I mean, what I think the New Testament means, the whole body of truths which underlie and flow from the fact of Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, which are these in brief: man’s sin, man’s helplessness, the incarnation of the Son of God, the death of Christ as the sacrifice for the world’s sin; faith, as the hand by which we grasp the blessing, and the gift of a Divine Spirit which follows upon our faith, and bestows upon us sonship and likeness to God, purity of life and character, and heaven at last. That, as I take it, is in the barest outline what is meant by the gospel of Jesus Christ. God meant His word to save your soul. Has it done so? It is a question that any man can answer if he will be honest with himself. We shall never understand the universality of Christianity until we have appreciated the individuality of its message to each of us. God does not lose thee in the crowd: do not thou lose thyself in it, nor fail to apprehend that thou art personally meant by its broadest declarations. Then, further, God is verily seeking to accomplish this purpose even now, by my lips, in so far as I am true to my Master and my message.
II. Secondly, this single Divine purpose, or “counsel,” may be thwarted.—“They frustrated the counsel of God.” Of all the mysteries of this inexplicable world, the deepest of all is, that, given an infinite will and a creature, the creature can thwart the Infinite. Now I said that there was only one thought in the Divine heart when God sent His Son, and that was to save you and me and all of us. But that thought cannot but be frustrated, and made of none effect, as far as the individual is concerned, by unbelief. For there is no way by which any human being can become participant of the spiritual blessings which are included in that great word “salvation,” except by simple trust in Jesus Christ. How can any man get any good out of a medicine if he locks his teeth and will not take it? How can any truth that I refuse to believe produce any effect upon me? And so I remind you that the thwarting of God’s counsel is the awful prerogative of unbelief. Then note that, in accordance with the context, you do not need to put yourselves to much effort in order to bring to naught God’s gracious intention about you. “They thwarted the counsel of God, being not baptized of him.” They did not do anything. They simply did nothing. And that was enough. There is no need for violent antagonism to the counsel. Fold your hands in your lap, and the gift will not come into them. Further, the people that are in most danger of frustrating God’s gracious purpose are not men and women steeped to the eyebrows in the stagnant pool of sensuous sin, but the clean, respectable, church-and-chapel-going, sermon-hearing, doctrine-criticising Pharisees.
III. Lastly, this thwarting brings self-inflicted harm.—A little skiff of a boat comes athwart the bows of a powerful steamer. What will become of the skiff, do you think? You can thwart God’s purpose about yourself, but the great purpose goes on and on. And “who hath hardened himself against Him and prospered”? You can thwart the purpose, but it is kicking against the pricks. Consider what you lose when you will have nothing to do with that Divine counsel of salvation! Consider not only what you lose, but what you bring upon yourself, how you bind your sin upon your hearts.—Maclaren.
Luke 7:31-34. Children at Play.—The bearing of their contemporaries towards the Baptist and Christ had been childish and petulant. The ascetic life of the first had offended them; the gracious social deportment of Jesus was equally unwelcome. The illustration employed gives point to Christ’s comparison. The generation which surrounded our Saviour were like ill-humoured children who would neither play at marriage nor funeral. Nothing pleased them. Though a pleasant comparison, it was a sharp rebuke. To be childlike is good: it is evil to be childish. This childish unreason often repeats itself. Put the matter as you will, many will find fault with Christ and Christianity. The gospel is too hard or too easy. Prejudice can always find some objection. Christians also are complained of. They are too unsocial or too social, too gloomy or too happy, too cautious or too bold. Be not disconcerted or discouraged by such criticisms. Bear yourselves as becomes disciples of the criticised Christ.—Fraser.
The Humour of the Illustration.—As we scrutinise these words the humour of our Lord breaks out like rippling light over the page. Broadly regarded, how delicious is the taking down of the Rabbis and other dignitaries of the synagogue by the likening them to a parcel of little children! It could not fail to be infra dig. to these super-exalted representatives of official Judaism to have their conduct illustrated and reprimanded by the capricious changeableness of children.—Grosart.
Luke 7:31. “Whereunto then shall I liken?”—The double question seems to imply a difficulty in finding an appropriate figure to represent the unbelief and waywardness which found excuses for rejecting two messengers from God whose modes of procedure differed so widely from each other as did those of Jesus and John the Baptist. Conduct so unreasonable and perverse can scarcely find any parallel in the ordinary actions of men: only the folly and peevishness of children can supply an adequate simile for it. “You were angry with John because he would not dance to your piping, and with me because I will not weep to your dirge. Yet the children of wisdom, the truly wise, approve all the various methods of Divine wisdom, and profit by them, and press into the kingdom of heaven.”
Severity and Graciousness.—John the Baptist is regarded as a type of the law, which brought men to Christ, and prepared His way accordingly. There were natures which neither the severity of the law nor the graciousness of the gospel could win over. Yet had Christ (Wisdom) His faithful children—His true disciples—under either dispensation.—Burgon.
Remarkable Circumstances in connection with John.—A number of very remarkable facts concerning John the Baptist are given in the Gospels, which no inventor of legendary matter would have thought of fabricating.
1. One would have expected the ministry of the Baptist to come to an end when Christ began His; but as a matter of fact both continued for some time the same work of preaching and baptizing.
2. After the declaration of John (John 3:25-36) one would have thought that all his disciples would have immediately attached themselves to Christ; but they kept separate for some time, and only after the death of John seem, as a body, to have joined Christ.
3. It is remarkable that Jesus sent no message to John during His imprisonment, and that this reply to the question put by the Baptist should have contained no personal matter.
4. And even when tidings are brought to Jesus of John’s violent death He utters not a word upon the subject.—Brown.
Luke 7:35. “Wisdom is justified of all her children.”—Our Lord’s saying grows naturally out of the comparison which He has just made. The children sitting in the world’s market-place suggest to Him another sort of children, the children of Wisdom. Wisdom is represented as a parent; a certain number of human beings are children of Wisdom; and children, as a rule, may be expected to understand their parents, and to do them justice, when the world at large finds fault with them. A child, it may be presumed, is more or less like his parent. He has a sympathy with him, arising out of common character and mental constitution, which enables him to understand what his parent means. He is familiar, from long association and habit, with his parent’s ways of looking at things. He is in the secret of his parent’s mind. He can anticipate with confidence where to others all is dark or meaningless. Then, our Lord says, if Wisdom is misunderstood by men at large, there is no such misunderstanding in Wisdom’s family circle; there, at least, the dull and ill-natured world is shut out, while bright and loving faces gaze upon the parent’s countenance with a certainty that all is well. The true children of the eternal Wisdom were not even in those days shocked because John the Baptist came as an ascetic, or because the Son of man came “eating and drinking.”—Liddon.