Our Father's Business. By Thomas Gathrie, D.D. (Strahan.)—In those discourses
Dr. Guthrie holds up our Lord to our constant imita- tion, and teaches us how we may ho truly engaged on our Father's business. The spirit of the work is practical, and the illustrations are telling, though sometimes too homely. It must provoke a smile, rather than a thought, to read that the fellow-townsmen of our Lord "never as much as fancied that the God of their worship was present in the synagogue ; that the Messiah, of whose glorious coming the preacher discoursed, in glowing colours, was there, in the meek, modest, gentle, unassuming man who sat by Mary, listening to the sermon." Much more- objectionable is the comparison of the finding in the Temple to a scene between mother and child witnessed by Dr. Guthrie, when a mother snatched up her child from under the very hoofs of advancing horses, and instead of bursting oat with tenderness, gave the child a good beat- ing. We do not think Mary's greeting in the Temple at all savours of harshness or displeasure, or is a sharp question. It always seemed to us instinct with true motherly love, and the same view is evidently taken by the painter, who has so lately given life to the incident.
Previous page
