Now as soon as the writer of the first gospel heard the story of Joseph's dream, especially that part of it about the naming of the child, he was intensely interested. He immediately said: "That is a fulGlment of prophecy." For prophecy was his favourite' subject. If you have read the Gospel of Matthew carefully you must have noticed that hho never missed a chance of tracing an event back to a prophecy. He was a collector of prophecies just some people we know today are lector' of stamps or coins or autophs, But there was a reason for his interest in prophecy.
His Gospel was written for Jews, and he thought that the best way to impress them would be by showing that Jesus fulfilled prophecy. And when you and I would have said: "That reminds me of something that was said long ago," Matthew always said: "This happened in order to fulfil an ancient prophecy." You might get the impression that ho rather over-emphasized that aspect of the matter; as though the fulfiling of a prophecy were more important than the saving of men. Have you noticed how he expresses it? He does not say: "Now all this ig come to pass in order that men might be saved." No, what he says is: "Now all this is come to pass that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet." If you have a pot theory it is wonderful how everything you hear and yead seems to support it. And s0, a8 soon as ever he heard that, story of Joseph's dream, he said: "I must make note of that; T must add that to my collection; that is a fulfilment of prophecy."
The Mission of Isaiah Now what was that prophecy that was brought back to the mind of Matthew? It is recorded in the seventh chapter of Isaiah and it had reference to an incident in the history of ancient Judah. Lot us recall it in the simplest and briefest out-Vine. Tu the year 735 B.C. the kings of Syria' and of Ephraim combined against King Ahaz with a view to Placing a nominee of their own upon the throne at Jerusalem. The pro-Phot Isaiah went to King Ahaz to advise him what to do in the matter. He suid to him something like this: "That hostile alliance. has stability. Don't be afraid of it and don't be brow beaten into doing what they desire." And, adds Isaiah, will give you a sign to prove the soundness of my advice, before long young woman will have such faith in the righteousness of our cause that she will nonic her child "Im-
Now we have already referred to. prophecy as the favourite subject of the writer of this Gospel and so we fly understand that us soon as Joseph's dream about the naming of Jesus and thought of it in the light of the life and death and triumph of Jesus, he said: "This is fulfilment of Isaiah's pro-Nothing ever happened in those distant days to realize the expectation of those words that can be in any way compared with what happened through the coming of Jesus. Any earlier fulfilment of bygone centuries was but a poor affair compared with the full and perfect prerence of God in the person of Jesus. Jesus was the true Immanuel. And a result of the insight of Matthew, "Immanuel" came to be one of the titles borne by Jesus, And if that. name was an appropriate one for Jesus, we may draw three inferences from it 1, To start with, it means that God is near. He is "with us." Many of the ancient Israelites thought of God as dwelling only in the high and lofty place. Or they came to think, of Him as making His abode in some particular mountain, such as Sinai. Or they thought of Him as confined to the Ark of the Covenant, the course of ti }was thought of as Bfount Zion, where the ark was placed. It follows that during the various captivities the bitterest part of their sufferings was the thought that they were removed to a long distance from God, for the distance from Zion was the measure of their distance from God. The prosperous worldings among them took advantage of that idea. "God is absent," they said. "He will not jinterfore." And they taunted the pious and distressed people by asking them "Where is your God?" And the cruel taunt filled the devout disappointment and sorrow.
But Jesus taught men thal God world was the Father's house and He was living and moving in every part of it. To the woman of Samaria, who asked in which of the two local sacred mountains God was located, He said that God was not limited to this mountain, or to that or any particular place, but that wherever men and women lifted their hearts in aspiration, there-God waz. Now we not say that it was Jesus who brought God near. He was near all the time, but people did not recognize His nearness. What Jesus did was to make plain what had always been true, but what people would never have discovered s0 clearly without Him, Not Hostility, but Friendship mansel," which means "God is with us." In thus linking the name of hor child with current events that 2. But further the title imp! that God is friendly "God is swith us." Now that is an idea that had
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.