SERMON III.

THE NAME OF JESUS.

ST. MATT. i. 21.

"Thou shalt call His name Jesus."

HESE words were spoken in vision by the

TH

angel of God to Joseph. They are a part of the divine message which revealed to him the mystery of the Incarnation. Strange things were in the thoughts of his heart, but stranger still were those made known from heaven. He was himself included in the great ministry of divine power and love. Second only to Mary, who was chosen to be the Mother of our Lord, is he who was elected to be her betrothed husband, and the foster-father of the Son of God. "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." What a charge was here committed to him-to watch over the Mother and the Son; to be the guardian of

the Word made flesh. Unto which of the angels gave He at any time so great a trust? They ministered to Him; but Joseph was invested with a father's sway; he fostered Him in His childhood; wrought for Him, nurtured Him, bare Him as a protector and a guide.

And when the angel had given this great commission, he revealed also the Name of the divine Child. "Thou shalt call His name Jesus." The Name had been chosen in heaven. It was already known in the heavenly court. Angels worshipped it when they adored the Eternal Son Incarnate from the foundation of the world.

Why, it may be asked, was so great care taken to choose and to reveal a name? Because names are realities-what they express is no mere sound, but a living truth. The Father is the Father, not because He is called so, but He is called so because He is the Father. The

cause He is called the

Son is the Son, not beSon, but He is called so

because He is the Son. and persons are living and true realities. This we know even in earthly names; they represent to us persons, with all their complex associations of character and feature. As persons kindle our affections, and waken our sympathies, so names take up the sympathies and affections which cling to persons. When present, persons are the objects

Names stand for persons;

of our hearts; when absent, names come into their place. And names call up the liveliest and fondest memories. When we hear them, we see before us forms and countenances, with their expression and character; we hear the tones and accents, the laugh and footstep of the past. Names are to us what persons are, dear or indifferent, moving or powerless, just as they for whom they stand. Who does not know what is the power of the name of father or mother, sister or brother? What visions they bring back upon us: what a stream of memories; of years long passed away, of careless childhood, bright mornings, lingering twilights, the early dawn, the evening star, and all the long-vanished world of happy, unanxious thoughts, with the loves, hopes, smiles, and tenderness of days gone by. Who does not know what visions of maturer life come and go with the sound of a name, of one familiar word-the symbol of a whole order now no more? The greater part of our consciousness is summed up in memory; the present is but a moment, ever flowing, past almost as soon as come. Our life is either behind us or before; the future in hope and expectation, the past in trial and remembrance. Our life to come is little realised as yet; we have some dim outlines of things unseen, forecastings of realities behind the veil, and objects of faith beyond the grave; but

all this is too divine and high. We can hardly conceive it; at best faintly, often not at all. Our chief consciousness of life is in the past, which yet hangs about us as an atmosphere peopled with forms and memories. They live for us now in names, beloved and blessed.

So is it with this Name chosen of God. "Thou shalt call His name Jesus." It stands to us as the witness of peace and bliss. What visions are called up by it! The Child at Nazareth, or sitting in the temple; the Healer of sorrows at the gate of Nain, or weeping by the grave in Bethany; the Cleanser of sin; the Lord of compassion, breaking bread in the wilderness; the good Shepherd; the Friend of Sinners; the Absolver of penitents; the Companion of the lonely, as they walk by the way of life and are sad; and now, in the heavenly kingdom, the Redeemer, pitiful, loving, compassionate; stooping over us, with a countenance of light, meek and patient, divine in tenderness, our Lord and our God. All this rises up at the sound of this sacred Name. Let us see why it reveals all this to our faith.

1. First, because the name Jesus is the name Saviour. When Isaiah, in the spirit of prophecy, spake of Him, he gave His heavenly titles, His divine name. "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The ever

lasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

But the

angel brought to us His earthly title, the human name which He should take as the Son of man. "Thou shalt call His name Jesus." And then he reveals the reason: "For He shall save His people from their sins."

It expresses His office as our Saviour. He is our salvation. The whole mystery of His person and of His work is revealed in the name Jesus; for He first saved our nature by taking it upon Himself. He took to Himself our manhood of the substance of our fallen humanity, and made it sinless and deathless. In our nature, though without sin, He suffered death, that He might save us from sin and death. Therefore He is the Saviour both of our nature and of ourselves. And His name is a healing name, pledging to us the salvation He has made perfect in His own immortal flesh. We may draw from this word the whole baptismal faith. It brings before us the Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; the divine image in which we were created; the abyss into which we fell and died. It reveals to us the mystery of the eternal Son made Man, suffering and dying for us, His life of contradiction, His death of agony. "He is our peace." And His name reveals to us the reconciliation of God and

1 Isaiah ix. 6.

2 Ephes. ii. 14.