I. This revelation was made to an old man who had waited on God continually in the Temple service, cherishing in his secret heart the promise given to the first fathers of his race, renewed from time to time by the mouth of God's holy prophets, and at length by one of them defined as to the time of its fulfilment, and brought within the limits of a certain expectation and hope. Simeon's prayers and meditations, his converse with men like-minded, his observations of passing events, possibly his knowledge of the words of certain wise men who had lately arrived at Jerusalem enquiring for a King that was to be born, had at length convinced him that the time was at hand; and it pleased God to confirm his hope by an inward revelation of the Spirit. "It was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, till he had seen the Lord's Christ.
II. Who ever saw a Christian man or woman die in faith, but heard them almost say old Simeon's words, "Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation?" And whence comes this strength of salvation to the eyes of dying men? Whence comes it but through that Child whom Simeon held in his arms as he prophesied the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and the piercing of the soul of the Virgin Mother with the sword of grief. No life but that which Jesus Christ endured on earth, no death but that which He died on Mount Calvary, could ever establish the truth of the Gospel to the poor. All the wisdom and learning that could have been brought to bear, all the worldly power, even power to command stones to become bread all this would have been in vain. No sign could have convinced a poor man so effectually of God's sympathy with him in his low estate as the birth of his Saviour of a poor Jewish maiden, and the manifestation of the Gospel in a person so humble. And to those who view human life in all its bearings it is obvious at once that no system of religion could be true which does not imply this at its basis, that the poor, the vast multitude of men, are the chief consideration. Educate as you will; legislate as you will; double by chemical science and skilfulness of labour the productiveness of the earth; bind yourself together in associations to provide against all contingencies of evil; there will still be the poor. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only Gospel that reaches the needs of the poor. When Jesus Christ humbled Himself, and took on Him the form of a servant, when He dwelt at Nazareth with His parents, and was subject unto them in a low estate, He ennobled the state of poverty for ever.
Bishop Claughton, Penny Pulpit,new series, No. 620.
References: Luke 2:26. Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament,p. 43.Luke 2:28-30. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxiv., No. 1417.