ly the full meaning of
that word; and as undoubtedly the prophecy, as it stands in Isaiah,
pointed to an event to occur in the immediate future; yet it is clear,
from the further development of the prophecy by Isaiah, and especially
from the fourfold name given to the child in Isaiah ix. 6, and the
glorious dominion there foretold for Him, that Isaiah conceives of Him
as the Messiah. And, since any 'fulfilment' of the glowing prophecies
attached to the Child were, in Isaiah's time, but poor and partial, the
great Messianic hope was necessarily trained to look further down the
stream of time. He who should fill the _role_ set forth was yet to come.
Matthew believed that it was completely filled by Jesus, and we know
that he was right. The fulfilment does not depend on the question
whether or not the idea of Virginity is contained in the Hebrew word,
but on the correspondence between the figure seen by the prophet in the
golden haze of his divinely quickened imagination, and the person to be
described in the gospel, and we know that the correspondence is
complete. The name Immanuel, to be given to the prophetic child,
breathed the certainty that in 'God with us' Israel would find the
secret of its charmed existence, even while an Ahaz was on the throne.
The name takes on a deeper meaning when applied to Him to whom alone it
in fullest truth belongs. It proclaims that in Jesus God dwells among
us, and it lays bare the ground of the historical name Jesus, for only
by a man who is one of ourselves, and in whom God is with us, can we be
saved from our sins. The one Name is the deep, solid foundation, the
other is the fortress refuge built upon it. He is Jesus, because He is
Immanuel.

How different the world and his own life looked to Joseph when he woke!
Hesitations and agonising doubts of his betrothed's purity had vanished
with the night, and, instead of the dread that her child would be the
offspring of shame, had come a divinely given certainty that it was 'a
holy thing.' In the rush of the sudden revulsion, all that was involved
would not be clear, but the duty that lay nearest him was clear, and his
obedience was as swift as it was glad. He believed, and his faith took
the burden off him, and brought back the sweet relations which had
seemed to be rent for ever. The Birth was foretold by the angel in a
single clause, it is recorded by the evangelist in another. In both
cases, Mary's part and Joseph's are set side by si