and inwardly digest them,' seeing they thus furnish the chief weapon of our warfare, "the sword of the Spirit," without which, therefore, we are defenceless! For example, many there are who but for their having been rendered thus conspicuous would not have been aware of—and even now, I fear, unless directed by the marginal references, would be unable to say whence our Lord took those passages by which He replied to these several temptations: and, How shall they be prepared to resist the assaults of that Tempter, who, as we here see, can himself search the Scriptures to find arguments wherewith to deceive? how be enabled with our Lord to answer to each passage he may thus pervert, "It is written again ?" In Conclusion-Are we walking and living so as to need and to have the sympathy of Christ in our Temptations, that is, "walking in the Spirit ?" For, (be it again distinctly stated), with those who "walk after the flesh" or with the temptations to evil from its sinful desires, He neither has nor can have any sympathy. And, What a fearful thought-to walk through this world, exposed to all the power and all the assaults of that Wicked One who is its God and Prince, without the sympathy of Christ! But, Are we following His steps and making common cause with Him as His faithful subjects and servants? Then have we both His sympathy and succour; and this in every trial: for "He was tempted (or tried) in all points as we are"-not as men are, but “ as we are;" as the believing and the spiritual: and therefore, as the Apostle exhorts, "Let us go boldly "to the throne of that we grace may obtain mercy (through His Cross) "and find grace to help in every "time of need" (through His sympathy with our infirmities); in the review of this and the foregoing events of His history and of the benefits we derive from each, taking up the petitions of our Liturgy, and saying with, I trust, an enlarged sense of their import 'By the Mystery of Thy holy Incarnation : THE LIFE OF CHRIST. IX. HE DECLARES HIS MISSION. 66 66 ST. LUKE iv. 16-21. "And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the sabbath-day, "and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the "book of the prophet Esaias: and when He had opened the book, He "found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon 'me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; "he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to "the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty "them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were "fastened on Him. And He began to say unto them, This day is this "scripture fulfilled in your ears." 66 66 THIS passage, (as was observed on a recent occasion), is remarkable as the record of our Lord's first public announcement of Himself as "THE MESSIAH" or "CHRIST," that is, "THE ANOINTED of Jehovah:" and also for the plain and full exposition it affords of that Title in the Prophecy here quoted and applied by Him-both of the means whereby and the end for which He was so anointed. The former of thesethe means whereby "The Christ" was anointed-we then considered, namely, as here stated, by "the Spirit of Jehovah;" the antitype of that holy oil wherewith His types, the Prophets, Priests, and Kings of old, had been consecrated to their offices; which event, moreover we saw, occurred on the occasion of His Baptism when, as we read in the preceding chapter, iii. ver. 22, "The Holy Ghost "descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, "and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well-pleased:" whereby the seal of God was formally and visibly set to His appointment as Saviour, and to the Mission on which He came into the world. But the end for which He was so manifested as "The Christ of God "-the objects or purposes of His Mission so accredited, are not less necessary to be apprehended by us if we would see the full import of this His Title and Office: and these it is now proposed to notice as enumerated in this same Prophecy, which may be regarded as a summary of His Ministry and of that large portion of His history which in the present Series it were impossible to treat more in detail. To proceed then,-We have here a catalogue of miseries and mercies of which it is difficult to say whether it sets forth most fully the wretchedness of fallen man, or the value, sufficiency, and love of Him who undertakes to relieve it. And, I. First," He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor." "Poor" all men are by nature, as having forfeited the inheritance to which man was originally heir— the children, as it were, of a bankrupt, without any real good in present possession, and without a hope for the future. But the Scriptures by the term intend rather those that feel and acknowledge themselves "poor" than those that are so. For of too many it may be said, in the words of the rebuke to the Church of Laodicea, that they imagine themselves "rich and increased with goods and having need of "nothing: and know not that they are wretched, and "miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." They are unconscious of spiritual destitution-of their want of eternal life owing to sin of which the wages is death: and, it may be "having," or at least seeking, "their portion in this life," care for nothing beyond it. For which reason in other parallel passages we find the expression "poor in spirit" for "poor;" as in Matt. v. 3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;" which in Luke vi. 20, is simply "Blessed be ye poor:" and so in the original of this Prophecy, Isa. Ixi. 1, the |