In these addresses I have sought earnestly and, I trust, in dependence on Him without whom nothing is strong, no thing is holy, to set before my hearers the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, as He is presented in the Gospel of Luke; and as I believe each gospel was intended of God to depict Him in various aspects and glories, so I have sought, in preaching on this portion of Scripture, to give prominence and distinctness to Himself as Son of man displaying the power of Jehovah in grace in the midst of men; that being, as I believe, the special aspect of His glory which characterizes Luke’s account of our Lord.
That there should be found in the New Testament four coincident testimonies to our Lord Jesus Christ, distinct in character and purpose, is not surprising to that faith which receives the scriptures as the very Word of God, testifying of Him of whom it is rightly said, that “our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.” That which, therefore, marks these blessed gospel histories for faith, is fulness and variety.
It has been to the preacher an unspeakable delight to dwell upon some of the perfections and glories of his precious Savior and Master and Lord, as here unfolded. A sentence or two from a pen that is now at rest will best convey what the heart has found in this ministry:
If I open the Old Testament anywhere, or the gospels, or the epistles, what different atmospheres I find myself in at once! In the Old, ways, dealings, government, man—though man and the world governed by God; piety no doubt, but piety in that scene; and even in the gospels and epistles the difference is quite as great, in certain respects more important. In the epistles (so the Acts), one active to gather; souls devoted to Christ; valuing Him and His work above all; power shown more than in Christ on earth, as He promised—it is gathering, then caring power. I get back—though now in the power of the Holy Ghost, and grace in a saving, gathering way—to man; but it soon fails. But in the gospels I find a Center where my mind reposes, which is Itself always Itself, and nothing like It; moves through a discordant scene, attracting to Itself through grace (what no apostle did or could do), and shining in Its own perfection, unaltered and unalterable in all circumstances. It is the thing about which all service is occupied as its point of departure, and to which all under divine influence is attracted, for it is God.
These are precious words, conveying what the heart has here so really found. May those who now read these addresses, as well as those who heard them delivered, be through them more filled with His own blessed company for the “little while” that yet remains.
47, Upper Grosvenor Road, Tunbridge Wells
W. T. T.