accept the teaching which tells us that in that Word made flesh and
dwelling among us, we behold 'God manifest in the flesh,' and 'in Christ
reconciling the world unto Himself.'

The name guards us, too, from that very common error of thinking of
Christ as if He were more our Saviour than God is. We are not without
need of this warning. Christ does not bend the divine will to love, is
not more tender than our Father God.

2. The Salvation brought by Jesus is in its nature the loftiest.

It is with strong emphasis that the angel defines the sphere of
salvation as being 'their sins.' The Messianic expectation had been
degraded as it flowed through the generations, as some pure stream loses
its early sparkle, and gathers scum on its surface from filth flung into
it by men. Mere deliverance from the Roman yoke was all the salvation
that the mass wanted or expected, and the tragedy of the Cross was
foreshadowed in this prophecy which declares an inward emancipation from
sin as the true work of Mary's unborn Son.

We can discern the Jewish error in externalising and materialising the
conception of salvation, but many of us repeat it in essence. What is
the difference between the Jew who thought that salvation was
deliverance from Rome, and the 'Christian' who thinks that it is
deliverance not from sin but from its punishment?

We have to think of a liberation from sin itself, not merely from its
penalties. This thought has been often obscured by preachers, and often
neglected by Christians, in whom selfishness and an imperfect
understanding of the gospel have too often made salvation appear as
merely a means of escape from impending suffering. All deep knowledge of
what _Sin_ is teaches us that it is its own punishment, and that the
hell of hell is to be under the dominion of evil.

3. God's people are His people.

Israel was _God's_ portion--and Joshua was but their leader for a time.
But the people of God are the people of Christ.

The way by which we become the people of Jesus is simply by faith in
Him.

III. The usage of the name.

It was a common Jewish name, but seems to have been almost abandoned
since then by Jews from abhorrence, by Christians from reverence.

The Jewish fanatic who during the siege stalked through Jerusalem
shrieking, 'Woe to the city', and, as he fell mortally wounded, added,
'and to myself also,' was a Jesus. There is a Jesus in Colossians.

We find it as the usual appellation in the