Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

viewed from more than one stand-point, the life of the Saviour by necessity presented more than a single aspect. He was to give His life a ransom for many; and on this account, one Gospel would not suffice. He was to die for Jew and Gentile; for those of the East, and for those of the West; for Christians of later time, as well as for those who first believed on His name. Variety of character and of circumstance in those who were to read the gospel-narrative, demanded variety of scope and of style in the narrators.

For those of Judea and Galilee was Matthew's Gospel designed. With an intelligent and manly boldness, therefore, he confronted those who sat in Moses' seat, and set forth the Prophet of Nazareth as "the Messiah ;" the Son of David; the descendant of Abraham; the King of the Jews; the Expounder of the law; the theme of Hebrew prophecy; One greater than the temple; One possessed of more authority than the Scribes; One who was sent, and who sent His messengers, to the lost sheep of the house of

Israel.

The Evangelist Mark, on the other hand, who barely alludes to the Jewish Scriptures, but often pauses to explain Jewish customs, was writing for quite another class of men. To the Gentile, who asked not of the Saviour's genealogy, he gives no table of human lineage, but dating the commencement of his record from the outset of the Great Prophet's public life, he exhibits him as the Lord;" shows Him to have been in all things clothed with the lionlike attributes of dignity and strength; and dwells at full length on His deeds of might, and on His wonderworking utterances. As the disciple and companion of Peter, so-like Peter-he studied to show that the truths of Christianity, which "made known the power and coming of the Lord Jesus," were no "cunninglydevised fables," since there were "eyewitnesses of His majesty."

Luke, writing likewise for the Gentiles, has how

ever a track marked out for him which leads his thoughts in another direction. It is his more peculiarly to describe Christ's works in their aspect of compassion, for it is his to display the Saviour as "the Son of Man;" the second Adam; the holy child; the man Christ Jesus, who in life and death was working man's salvation; the one Redeemer, in whom all who seek, may find the remission of their sins; the one Redeemer, who came to save the lost; One, who pardoned the guilty; One, who welcomed the penitent; One, who encouraged the cry, “I will arise, and go to my Father;" One, who pronounced a sure blessing on the contrite-hearted prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner;" One, from whom the devil-possessed Mary of Magdala, and a whole decade of lepers, received healing mercy; One, in whom the scorned outcast, and the notorious publican, alike found peace. physician, Luke would take interest in the cures which were wrought for the body; as the beloved physician, the Christian physician, he loved to rehearse the spiritual cures, of which the temporal healing was but a shadowy emblem. As he was the fellowtraveller of Paul, so-like Paul-he kept in mind “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” and noted down those instances of His goodness which might be “a pattern to them who should hereafter believe."

As a

John, with the eagle-eye of spiritual love, penetrates the veil of the Saviour's humanity, and scans the mysteries of the faith. In his gospel-whether supplemental or not, as some have thought it-there is not only a traceable, but an avowed design. "These things are written," he says, "that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." Such is his starting-point: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." It is his aim, throughout, to hold forth—in opposition to the heretics of his day-the Divinity of Christ's person, and the Divine spirituality of His teachings. He treasures up all those sayings in

which Christ vindicated to Himself oneness in being, and claimed for Himself oneness in honour, with the Father. He preserves those discourses which treat of spiritual worship, and of spiritual fellowship; as well as those which unveil the heaven-taught doctrines emblemed in the two Christian sacraments, and which inculcate the necessity of being born from above, and of being nourished by the bread that came down from heaven.

The more close our study of the Gospels, thus individually and discriminatingly examined, the more beauty and aptness we shall see in the chain of connexion by which each Evangelist links one fact with another. The string on which the gems are arranged, is not always the thread of time. Sometimes, indeed, the chronological order is observed; but there is no slavish or forced adherence to the

actual sequence of events. More attention is paid to the meaning than to the timing of an occurrence, save in those cases where the very timing was such as to cast a needful light upon the meaning itself.

Carefully, however, as we should look upon each Gospel as a separate whole, we must not forget that the four Gospels convey but one story; so that we have presented to us one and the same holy life, followed by one and the same death of the cross,that life and that death alike terminating in one and the same glorious result. The one story is given to us in fragmentary forms: but we may exercise ourselves to the fuller understanding of it, by seeking (so far as lies in our power) to obtain an impression of the whole in somewhat of its entireness. The documents lie before us. We compare them together, and we endeavour to combine their statements.

If we had before us a fourfold life of some great man—say, Michael Angelo-we should expect to find in the authors some diversity of special purpose; but, on the supposition that they were to be trusted for truthfulness, we should expect to find a general

concord on all important particulars. One of his biographers-if we may apply the word in so restricted a sense-might view him mainly as a painter, and narrate the commissions with which his pencil was intrusted. Another might enlarge on his talent as a sculptor, and dilate on the labours of his chisel. A third might describe his achievements as an architect; while a fourth might enumerate and analyze his productions as a poet. Necessarily, four such writers would now and then cross each other's path; at times they might run a parallel course; and again, at other times, they would widely diverge, and follow-each for himself an isolated line of thought. But amid their agreements and their differences, we could not fail, if they told their story well, to recognise in all the four the portraiture of the mighty artist, as well as to learn from them the chief occurrences which marked his not uneventful career. So in the case before us;-but in a higher degree, and with greater certainty, for we have the one story written by men who were inspired by the "One Spirit." It cannot but be that their testimony should "agree in one." Without sameness of outline, there is harmony of effect.

To study the Gospels aright, then, is to study them in their harmony as well as in their variety; and in their variety as well as in their harmony.

There are three methods of pondering the evangelic records. We may peruse them singly, and thus view each in its unity. Or, we may look at them as some have arranged them for us, in four parallel columnsa convenient method, whereby the eye can see at a glance which Gospel or Gospels narrate each given incident. On this plan, we best trace their variety. Thirdly, we may, with some little labour, compare one Evangelist with another (or, more easily, on the system just mentioned, one column with another) and thus get an idea of their harmony.

An IDEA of their harmony, be it remembered,

AND NO MORE. It has been well said by a recent writer on this subject, that "it is easier to construct a satisfactory harmony, than to show that it is the only possible one. Thus Dr. Robinson also admits that where there is "no definite note of time, we can proceed only upon conjecture, founded on a careful comparison of all the circumstances. In such cases," he adds, "the decision must depend very much upon the judgment and taste of the Harmonist; and what to one person may appear probable and appropriate, may seem less so to another."

The following pages, accordingly, can be offered only as an approximation to the truth. But as such, they may have their use. They collect together in one the varied circumstances, and phrases, and epithets, by which now one gospel-historian-and now anothersupplements, or fills up, or renders more vivid the statements of the rest. In regard to arrangement, the scheme of Dr. Robinson has for the most part been followed, the deviations from it being few and comparatively slight.

It will be observed as a peculiar feature in this work, that inverted commas and parentheses have been introduced, as they would have been in any ordinary book. This plan has not been adopted without due consideration of the difficulties involved in it. There is no room for the objection, that such is an unwarrantable interference with Holy Writ; for, in point of principle, it is doing no more to make the sense clear, than did our forefathers in introducing chapters and verses, commas and full stops. The punctuation of the received text is not inspired, and therefore not authoritative. To say truth, it is at times questionable, if not erroneous, in its present state. Yet it has manifest advantages; and, therefore, we retain it. In like manner, there are passages to be found, in which the use of inverted commas may

* Westcott's "Elements of the Gospel Harmony," p. 95, Note.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »