T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliv- ef a??!e *° captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them 'hat are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Why did He stop here and say, “ This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears” ? Was it not because the “ day of vengeance” was a future day? When we read further in the prophecy we may expect to find things of intense interest concerning the future of Israel, and is that not what we do find? Let us now see what Jesus meant when He said, “ This day is this Scrip ture fulfilled.” For what was Jesus anointed by the Holy Spirit? (Luke 3:22) “And the Holy Ghost descended In a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thon art my beloved Son; In thee I am well pleased.” 1. To Preach Good Tidings unto the Meek (or poor) : This is a thought worth meditating upon— the Gospel for the poor. The temptation and tendency in the church today is exactly opposite. We are apt to try to reach the rich, the learned. Higher and higher education is demanded for the preachers, in order to work down through the rich and learned to the poor. But Christ’s method is the only method which has ever worked with the Gospel, from the poor upward. The bulk of the church today is composed, as it has always been, of the common people. (Mark 12:37; Matt. 11:5.) 2. To Bind Up the Broken-hearted. There are two things which break the heart: A sense of sin, which crushes the spirit; and a supreme bereavement, — the loss of loved ones, or failure in life: To all such Hs is every saying, “ Come unto me and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). 3. To Give Deliverance to the Cap tives. To those who are the slaves of evil habits and bound by the chains of sin, He brings deliverance as He did to the demon-possessed man at Gadara, to
1059 Peter unjustly imprisoned, to the black slaves of our own country, and— thank God— through thé Gospel, the prohibi tion laws have delivered many slaves from the curse of drink. (John 8:36) “If the Son therefore shall make yon free ye shall be free Indeed.” 4. To Give Sight to the Blind. This He did, and still often does, to the physically blind (Luke 7:21) and always to the spiritually blind, if they will obey His Word (2 Cor. 3:16). He will deliver from the god of this world who blinds the mind (2 Cor. 4 :4). This spiritual blindness is the worst of all,— to live in our land, where the Gospel is free to all, the remedy for sin is so simple and so plain, and where there is the same power that opened the eyes of the woman of Samaria and made her in one instant a .flaming evangelist (John 4:25-30, and yet be indifferent. 5. To “Preach the Acceptable Year of the Lord.” To proclaim the coming of the new era when He shall take the sceptre and reign— the millennial reign— the Day of all days! It has not yet come. The days are dark. After nearly 2000 years the old world still groans and travails in pain waiting for the day when Christ shall return and the believers shall have their redemption bodies and when the old earth itself shall be redeemed (Rom. 8:19-23) “For the earnest expectation o f the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God- For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature (or creation) itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, evçn we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, 'to wit, the redemption of our body.” This was the message of Christ in His home town — a foundation message^— covering His purposë and plan for this
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