prepared men for real relations with the greatest
Reality--with God. So that Jesus boldly said: "Blessed are ye poor";
"Blessed are ye that hunger now"; "Blessed are ye that weep now"
(Luke 6:20, 21); but he had no idea that they were always to weep.
If it was his to care for men's hunger, it was not likely that he
would have no comfort for their tears--"Ye shall find rest unto your
souls" (Matt. 11:29)--"They shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4).

It was in large part upon the happiness which he was to bring to the
poor that Jesus based his claim to be heard. There is little
reasonable ground for doubt that he healed diseases. Of course we
cannot definitely pronounce upon any individual case reported; the
diagnosis might be too hasty, and the trouble other than was
supposed; but it is well known that such healings do occur--and that
they occurred in Jesus' ministry, we can well believe. So when he
was challenged as to his credentials, he pointed to misery relieved;
and the culmination of everything, the crowning feature of his work,
he found in his "good news for the poor." The phrase he borrowed
from Isaiah (61:1), but he made it his own--the splendid promises in
Isaiah for "the poor, the broken-hearted, captives, blind and
bruised," appealed to him. Time has laid its hand upon his word, and
dulled its freshness. "Gospel" and "evangelical" are no longer words
of sheer happiness like Jesus' "good news"--they are technical
terms, used in handbooks and in controversy; while for Jesus the
"good news for the poor" was a new word of delight and inspiration.

The centre in all the thoughts of Jesus, as we have to remind
ourselves again and again, is God. If, as Dr. D. S. Cairns puts it,
"Jesus Christ is the great believer in man," it is--if we are
reading him aright at all--because God believes in man. Let us
remind ourselves often of that. "Thou hast made us for Thyself,"
said Augustine in the famous sentence, of which we are apt to
emphasize the latter half, "and our heart knows no rest till it
rests in Thee" (Confessions, i. 1). Jesus would have us emphasize
the former clause as well, and believe it. The keynote of his whole
story is God's love; the Father is a real father--strange that one
should have to write the small f to get the meaning! All that Jesus
has taught us of God, we must bring to bear on man. For it is hard
to believe in man--"What is man that thou shouldest magnify him? and
that thou shouldest set thine hea