of the gospel story which is most exquisite in style
and most finished in form.

Yet Luke was not only a man of culture, he was also a Christian physician
and thus a man of wide and tender sympathies, and his narrative is
therefore characterized (2) by its absorbing human interest. It is a story
of real life; it is suffused with emotion; it is full of gladness and
sorrow, of songs and of tears; it is vocal with praise and with prayer.

It is the gospel of childhood. By its tender stories of the birth of John
and of Jesus, it places an unfading halo of glory about the brow of
infancy, and it alone preserves the precious picture of the boyhood of our
Lord. It is the gospel of womanhood. It sketches for us that immortal
group of women associated with the life of Jesus. We see Elisabeth and the
virgin mother and the aged Anna, the widow of Nain, the sisters at
Bethany, and the repentant sinner, the sufferer bowed down by Satan and
the stranger who congratulates Mary, the company that minister to Jesus on
his journeys and the "daughters of Jerusalem" weeping on the way to the
cross.

It is the gospel of the home. It gives us glimpses of the family life at
Nazareth, of the scene in the house of Simon, of the hospitality of Martha
and Mary, of the evening meal with the two disciples at Emmaus and the
picture in the parables of the importunate friend at midnight, of the
woman searching the room for the lost coin and of the prodigal turning
back to his father's house.

It is the gospel of the poor and the lowly; it warns against the perils of
wealth and expresses sympathy and hope for those who are oppressed by
poverty and want. This sympathy is sounded in the song of Mary, in the
first sermon of the Saviour, in the first Beatitude, "Blessed are ye
poor." Luke also records the parables of the Rich Fool and of the Rich Man
and Lazarus, and paints, with Mark, the picture of the widow offering to
the Lord her two mites.

It is also the gospel of praise and of prayer, expressions of the deepest
convictions and longings of the human heart. The Gospel opens with a scene
in the Temple at the hour of incense and with the "Magnificat" of Mary and
the songs of Zacharias and of the angels. It closes with the benediction
of the ascending Lord and the thanksgiving of his joyful disciples.

Luke, however, was not only a man of culture and a beloved physician; he
was also a companion of Paul and had traveled with the apostle over a
grea