XXII. THE FAVORITE TEXTS OF JESUS. Luke iv. 17: "HE OPENED THE BOOK, AND FOUND THE PLACE." WHEN you read an interesting book, it becomes more interesting if you find that some one whom you love and respect has read it before you, and has marked, here and there, any favorite passages. The first time I read Spenser's "Fairy Queen," it was in Kentucky, and in a copy which had belonged to the poet John Keats. It was marked all through with his pen at those places which especially interested and pleased him. I enjoyed the book all the more for those marks. The pleasure you find in this, arises, I think, from the fact that you are reading two minds at the same time, -the mind of the author, and that of the previous reader. You seem to look into the heart and thought of him who has gone. before you; and, whenever you come to his pencilmark, you say, "Why was he interested in this?” and you stop a moment to read in your friend's mind what his thought was about the author. ई Now, suppose that we could have the very copy of the Hebrew Scriptures which was used by Jesus when a child, a boy, a man, at Nazareth, the very rolls, marked in the margin with his hand at his favorite passages: could any thing be more interesting than this? Would it not let us into the mind of Christ to see what texts he loved the most in all the volume ? How very interesting, how deeply affecting, would it be to see the Bible which our Lord used! I was interested in John Keats's marks in "Spenser," because he was a poet too. A poet reading a poet seems to be a good guide; but Jesus, the prophetic soul, reading the books of the great prophetic souls who went before him, interprets them to us best of all. We have not the Bible that Jesus used; but we have almost the same thing: we have his favorite passages in the Old Testament given to us in another way. We have his quotations from it preserved for in us the New Testament. All may not be preserved; but we have about forty passages, quoted by Jesus from the different Jewish Scriptures. I have thought it might be interesting and useful to look at these, or at some of them, and so get a glimpse into the mind of Jesus through this little window. Jesus has quoted about thirty-nine passages from eleven books of the Old Testament. From each of the five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, fifteen passages; nine passages from the Psalms; seven from Isaiah; eight from Jeremiah, Hosea, Malachi, and Zechariah. He has quoted nothing from the historical books, from Joshua to Esther inclusive; nothing from Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, or the Song of Solomon; nothing from twelve of the prophets, including Ezekiel and Daniel. Let me remark, before proceeding further, that, in quoting from the Old Testament, our Lord thinks more of the spirit than of the letter. He quotes sometimes from the Hebrew, and sometimes from the Septua gint Greek translation; and of some passages it is hard to say whence they are quoted. Sometimes he puts together two texts from different places, as when he says, "It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations; but ye have made it a den of thieves." The first half is from Isaiah, the last from Jeremiah. Therefore he has not any idea of using these passages logically as proof-texts, or controversially as arguments adapted to convince doubters; for, in such a case, it would have been necessary for his purpose to quote with precision. The object for which he adduces these passages is moral and spiritual, for which no such accuracy is needed. CHRIST FULFILLING SCRIPTURE. He sometimes spoke of himself as fulfilling these Scriptures. I think we often have a false idea of what is meant by this. We suppose that it means to adduce a prediction which is literally accomplished by a fact. We suppose that Jesus did certain things merely to fulfil the predictions of Scripture. Thus we might suppose that Jesus healed diseases to fulfil one prophecy of Isaiah; that he kept silence about himself to fulfil another; and spoke in parables to fulfil a third.* But this is not the Scripture meaning of " fulfil.” Such a fulfilment of prophecy as this would have no value, and reflect no honor on prophecy. When an astronomer predicts an eclipse to take place on a certain day, at a particular hour and minute, and it does happen at that very time, we see in it a proof of knowledge on his part; but if God should interfere, and cause an eclipse to happen then, merely to confirm the astronomer's prediction, it would not be any proof of his science. So, if Jesus worked miracles. or spoke parables merely because it had been predicted that he would do so, it would not redound to the credit of the prophecy. If you predict, that, on a certain day, I shall preach a sermon on a certain text, and I select that text in order to fulfil your prophecy, do you not see that it would not give any one faith in your prophetic talent? There is another sense in which the word "fulfilled" is used in the New Testament. Jesus fulfilled Scripture in another way. To " fulfil," in the Scripture sense, is "to carry out perfectly:" it is to develop a principle or truth to its ultimate result. * The usual formula on these occasions is, "All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet," &c. Thus "love is the fulfilling of the law;" that is, it carries law out to its last results. "Fulfil ye my joy;" that is, carry it fully out. "He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him;" that is, give them all they desire. "It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness;" i.e., carry it all out perfectly. Thus the law is fulfilled, obedience is fulfilled, joy is fulfilled, in this way, by being carried to perfection. Jesus fulfils all things in the law and the prophets by carrying each thing fully out to its perfection. "I came not to destroy, but to fulfil." He sees a germ of good in all things: he comes to fulfil it. He destroys nothing. He does not destroy any thing in nature or in man, or in human life, or in the religions of the world: he fulfils them all. Thus it was that Jesus did not destroy, but fulfil, the Hebrew law. He took up its essence into his own doctrine, and dropped its accidental form. He fulfilled its morality by a higher morality. The law written on stone was fulfilled by a law written in the heart. He changed it from a law of negation and prohibition into one of attraction, of positive good. Thus, when the law said, "Do not murder," Christ fulfilled it by saying, "Love your enemy." MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. One of his favorite passages-which he quotes, indeed, twice, and in reference to two different matters is from Hos. vi. 6: "I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than |