The Galilean Gospel (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1882. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. THE JOY OF FINDING THINGS LOST. ' I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner repenting, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance."--Luke Xv. 7. THIS thought, the last of the three which together constituted Christ's apology for loving the sinful, is the burden of all the parables in the fifteenth chapter of Luke's Gospel--those of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. In these parables Jesus made His crowning effort of self-defence, and gained a signal victory for gracious love, against the frigid criticism of ethical propriety. Noticable is the multiplication of parables in this instance, not merely as an index of creative wealth of mind, but as serving the purpose of the apologetic argument. Accumulation of instances suggested the thought that all mankind, in all positions and relations of life, knew and sympathised with the joy of finding things and persons lost. As one who took pleasure in finding morally-lost men, Jesus thereby ranged on His side the whole human race--men, women, rich and poor, shepherds, housewives, fathers, against His critics; so saying to them in effect--" Are ye not men, have ye not the feelings of ordinary humanity, that I should need to explain to you so simple a matter." Christ's defence of the generous interest He took in the moral recovery of the outcasts, as presented in these beautiful parables, is indeed most complete. Who, after hearing it, could any longer doubt that such interest, even in the case of the lowest and vilest, was rational and praiseworthy? The worst that could be said of those whom morally respectable persons shunned was that they were lost--lost to God, to righteousness, temperance, and wisdom, to all the chief ends and uses of life....