_JESUS AND HIS FELLOW TOWNSMEN._

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his
custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up
for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet
Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was
written, '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
brokenhearted, 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.' And he closed the book, and he gave it
again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were
in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them,
'This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.'--_Luke_ iv. 14-21.


The Lord's sermon upon the mount seems such an enlargement of these
words of the prophet as might, but for the refusal of the men of
Nazareth to listen to him, have followed his reading of them here
recorded. That, as given by the evangelist, they correspond to neither
of the differing originals of the English and Greek versions, ought to
be enough in itself to do away with the spiritually vulgar notion of the
verbal inspiration of the Scriptures.

The point at which the Lord stops in his reading, is suggestive: he
closes the book, leaving the words 'and the day of vengeance of our
God,' or, as in the Septuagint, 'the day of recompense,' unread: God's
vengeance is as holy a thing as his love, yea, is love, for God is love