estament, He
never used its words without definite purpose. The Sword of the Spirit
in His hands was either turned against the Evil One, or brought
directly to bear with overwhelming force on some mistaken teaching
which had blinded the people to the true meaning of the Word of God.

The direct and yet simple way in which He reached the point, and once
and for all swept away the difficulty, amazed and confounded the
learned Jews.

An instance of this is found in His wonderful answer to the Sadducees,
who disbelieved in the Resurrection. '_As touching the Resurrection of
the dead,_' He said, '_have ye not read that which was spoken unto you
by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob?_' (Matthew xxii. 31, 32.) His hearers, of course, had
heard these words quoted from childhood, but not till the Saviour
explained their full significance--'_God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living_'--did they realize that in the first recorded words
spoken by God to Moses lay a proof of the Resurrection and of life
after death.

Let us take a look at the first time in which Christ publicly read and
explained the Scriptures. It is the Sabbath, and the synagogue of
Nazareth is full of people, serious and attentive, for they have met
together to hear the Word of God.

Now One stands up to read. The sacred Roll is in His hand; the Roll of
the Book of the prophet Isaiah. Listen:--

'_The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to
preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the
broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,_

'_To preach the acceptable year of the Lord._' (Luke iv. 18, 19.)

He closes the Book and sits down.

From the dim ages of the past those words had been read; in the long,
long ages to come they will yet be read, until the World shall cease to
exist, and time itself be known no more.

But never before and never again could there be so heart-searching or
sacred a reading as this, when the Son of God read from His Father's
Book in the simple village meeting in Galilee.

And yet His listeners did not understand the reading. Even after His
explanation of the words they fell upon deaf ears and raised only anger
and surprise. It was then that the first attempt was made to destroy
Him. (Verse 29.)

To His own Apostles, enlightened as they were,