t purpose, they were allowed to fall asunder, as
being of no further use.

Here is a case in which the question of a self-righteous Jew elicits and
gives shape to the subsequent discourse of the Lord; here, accordingly,
the meaning of the discourse depends, in a great measure, on the history
in which it grows. At some pause in the Lord's discourse, while the
multitude still remained on the spot expecting further instruction, a
certain lawyer who was watching his opportunity, interposed with the
demand, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"[61] The
question was not put in simplicity, with a view to obtain information,
it was employed knowingly as an experiment and a test.

[61] "How eagerly would the critics seize on this passage, and
pronounce the question of a certain lawyer to be identical with the
narrative contained in Matt. xix. 16, only differently reported--if
St. Luke had not himself subsequently narrated that second incident
(xviii. 18)! This once more shows that many things could naturally,
and would necessarily, occur more than once in the life of
Jesus."--_Stier_.

Very many such questions were addressed to the Lord Jesus during the
period of his public ministry by different persons, and with different
motives. We may safely gather from the whole spirit of the narrative
that this example, as to the character and motive of the questioner, was
neither one of the best nor one of the worst. This scribe was not, on
the one hand, like Nicodemus, a meek receptive disciple, prepared to
drink the sincere milk of the word that he might grow thereby, nor was
he like some, both of the Pharisaic and Sadducean parties, who came with
cunning questions to ensnare and destroy. This man seems to have been
from his own view point sincere and fair: his tempting aimed not to
catch and betray, but simply to put the skill of the new Nazarene
prophet to the test. The man was full, not of conscious malice against
Jesus, but of ignorant confidence in himself.

The scribe's question is cast in the mould of the most unmitigated
self-righteousness: "What shall _I do_ that _I may inherit_?" &c. No
glimpse had he ever gotten of his own sinfulness, no conception did he
ever entertain of the publican's prayer, "God be merciful to me a
sinner."

Taking the man on his own terms, and meeting him on his own path, the
Lord replies by the question, "What is written? and refers him to the
law." The lawyer, a profes