bore it. We find that one of the early Christians had it; and it
comes upon us with almost a shock when we read that 'Jesus, called
Justus,' was the name of one of the friends of the Apostle Paul (Col.
iv. 11). But, through reverence on the part of Christians, and
through horror on the part of Jews, the name ceased to be a common
one; and its disappearance from familiar use has hid from us the fact
of its common employment at the time when our Lord bore it. Though it
was given to Him as indicative of His office of saving His people
from their sins, yet none of all the crowds who knew Him as Jesus of
Nazareth supposed that in His name there was any greater significance
than in those of the 'Simons,' 'Johns,' and 'Judahs' in the circle of
His disciples.

Now the use of Jesus as the proper name of our Lord is very
noticeable. In the Gospels, as a rule, it stands alone hundreds of
times, whilst in combination with any other of the titles it is rare.
'Jesus Christ,' for instance, only occurs, if I count aright, twice
in Matthew, once in Mark, twice in John. But if you turn to the
Epistles and the latter books of the Scriptures, the proportions are
reversed. There you have a number of instances of the occurrence of
such combinations as 'Jesus Christ,' 'Christ Jesus,' 'The Lord
Jesus,' 'Christ the Lord,' and more rarely the full solemn title,
'The Lord Jesus Christ,' but the occurrence of the proper name
'Jesus' alone is the exception. So far as I know, there are only some
thirty or forty instances of its use singly in the whole of the books
of the New Testament outside of the four Evangelists. The occasions
where it is used are all of them occasions in which one may see that
the writer's intention is to put strong emphasis, for some reason or
other, on the Manhood of our Lord Jesus, and to assert, as broadly as
may be, His entire participation with us in the common conditions of