not we have the sensation, enjoym ent, and benefit of the light? Let us, therefore, take
care, lest, by placing, as it were, the lamp in a vault, the light in us be really only
darkness.54 On the other hand, if by means of a good eye the light is transmitted
through the whole system - if it is not turned into darkness, like a lamp that is put into a
vault or under a bushel, instead of being set up to spread light through the house - then
shall we be wholly full of light. And this, finally, explains the reception or rejection of
Christ: how, in the words of an Apostle, the same Gospel would be both a savour of life
unto life, and of death unto death.
51. St. Luke xi. 33-36.
52. St. Matt. v. 15; vi. 22, 23.
53. See above, page 199 &c.
54. In some measure like the demon who returned to find his house empty, swept and
garnished.
It was a blessed lesson with which to close His Discourse, and one full of light, if only
they had not put it into the vault of their darkened hearts. Yet presently would it shine
forth again, and give light to those whose eyes were opened to receive it; for, according
to the Divine rule and spiritual order, to him that hath shall be given, and from him that
hath not shall be taken away even that he hath.
Book IV
THE DESCENT: FROM THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION INTO THE VALLEY
OF HUMILIATION AND DEATH.
CHAPTER 12
THE MORNING-MEAL IN THE PHARISEE'S HOUSE
MEALS AND FEASTS AMONG THE JEWS
CHRIST'S LAST PERAEAN WARNING TO PHARISAISM
(St. Luke 11:37-54.)
BITTER as was the enmity of the Pharisaic party against Jesus, it had not yet so far
spread, nor become so avowed, as in every place to supersede the ordinary rules of
courtesy. It is thus that we explain that invitation of a Pharisee to the morning -meal,
which furnished the occasion for the second recorded P e r ę n Discourse of Christ. Alike
a
in substance and tone, it is a continuation of His former address to the Pharisees. And it
is probably here inserted in order to mark the further development of Christ's anti -
Pharisaic teaching. It is the last address to the Pharisees, recorded in the Gospel of St.
Luke.1 A similar last appeal is recorded in a much later portion of St. Matthew's Gospel,2
only that St. Luke reports that spoken in Perę , St. Matthew that made in Jerusalem.
a
This may also partly account for the similarity of language in the two Discourses. Not
only were the circumstances parallel, but the language held at the end 3 may naturally
have recurred to the writer, when reporting the last controversial Discourse in Perę .
a
Thus it may well have been, that Christ said substantially the same things on both
occasions, and yet that, in the report of them, some of the later modes of expression
may have been transferred to the earlier occasion. And because the later both