2. It is because Christ is this sermon, not because He preached it, that the prophet could preach it, and that we can preach it now. The Cross of Christ looks before and after. One arm stretches backward and gives this prophet the right to preach a sermon he has no power himself to fulfil ; the other stretches forward and gives the same right to us. For the Spirit of the Lord is not straitened by time or circumstance. As the prophet spoke, the Cross of Christ was already raised in His sight, and it stands erected in His sight to-day.
Thus the preacher can say, " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach glad tidings to the meek." This is his work. It is a special work; Like every work for which one is anointed, it is honourable and glorious. He has been chosen to accomplish it. And because he has been chosen to accomplish this work, the Spirit of the Lord will be with him as long as he gives himself to its accomplishment.
IF The question very naturally arises, if one of the offices of Christ was that of physician, and He healed the sick and made the lame to walk, and gave sight to the blind, will He not do these same things to-day ? In other words, it is asked, have we not here Scripture which supports the theory known as Divine
^ J. Vaughan, Sermons, viii., No. 729.
46o THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
healing, or faith cure ? Christ undoubtedly could heal the sick to- day, and give sight to the blind, just as much as when He was here upon earth, for He has the same power now that He had then. " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." But what He can do and what He will do are two different things, and while many would willingly concede that He could do these things, yet most Christians believe that He will not now work miracles of physical restoration.
The reason for this is that such miracles are not needed. God could inspire men to prophecy, but the probability is that He will not. Simply because Christ has come, the acme of all prophecy has been fulfilled, and the necessity does not now exist. So God could inspire men to write a Bible, for He has the same power as when He spoke to Isaiah, and Paul, and James ; but the proba- bility is that He will not thus inspire men to-day, for we have a Bible, and such inspired writings are not needed. On the same basis do we believe that Divine healing is not to be expected in present times. The purpose of Christ's physical miracles was to support His authority as a spiritual healer. He restored the sight of the blind that the world might be more easily convinced that He had the power to heal spiritual blindness. He bound up the broken-hearted that people might be taught to trust Him as the physician of the soul.
The Lords Remembrancers.
Literature.
Daviea (T.), SerTnons, ii. 154.
Dewhurst (E. M.), The King and His Servants, 239.
Jerdan (C), For the Lambs of the Flock, 103.
Ingrain (A. F. W.), Banners of the Christian Faith, 76.
Maclaren (A.), Sermons, 2nd Ser., 19.
Moss (R. W.), The Discipline of the Soul, 153.
Murray (A.), The Ministry of Intercession, 31, 169.
Randolph (B. W.), Tlie Threshold of the Sanctuary, 99.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxxvii., No. 2189.
Christian World Pulpit, xvi. 276 (Mayers) ; liii. 58 (Cobb) ; Ivi. 181
(Briscoe) ; Ixv. 292 (Hartley). Church Pulpit Year Book, vi. 24.
The LORD'S Remembrancers.
Ye that are the Lord's remembrancers, take ye no rest, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.— Ixii. 6, 7.
The second half of Isaiah's prophecies forms one great whole,
which might be called " The Book of the Servant of the Lord."
One majestic figure stands forth on its pages with ever-growing
clearness of outline and form. The language in which He is
described fluctuates at first between the collective Israel and the
one Person who is to be all that the nation had failed to attain.
But even near the beginning of the prophecy we read of " My
servant whom I uphold," whose voice is to be low and soft, and
whose meek persistence is not to fail till He have set judgment
in the earth. And as we advance the reference to the nation
becomes less and less possible, and the recognition of the person
more and more imperative. At first the music of the prophetic
song seems to move uncertainly amid sweet sounds, from which
the true theme by degrees emerges, and thenceforward recurs
over and over again with deeper, louder harmonies clustering
about it, till it swells into the grandeur of the choral close.
In the chapter before our text we read, " The Spirit of the
Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek." Throughout the remainder
of the prophecy, with the exception of one section which contains
the prayer of the desolate Israel, this same person continues to
speak ; and who he is was taught in the synagogue of Nazareth.