We do not enter on the controversy as to whether that ‘till’ and the expression ‘first-born’ shut us up to the conclusion that Joseph and Mary had children.  The words are not decisive, and probably opinions will always differ on the point.  Mediaevally-minded persons will reject with horror the notion that Jesus had brethren in the proper sense of the word, while those who believe that the perfect woman is a happy wife and mother, will not feel that it detracts from Mary’s sacredness, nor from her purity, to believe that she had other children than ’her first-born Son’.

THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME

     ’...  Thou shalt call His name JESUS:  for He shall save His people
     from their sins’.—­MATT. 1. 21.

I. THE historical associations of the name.

It was a very common Jewish name, and of course was given in memory of the great leader who brought the hosts of Israel to rest in the promised land.

There is no sharper contrast conceivable than between Joshua and Jesus.  The contrast and the parallel are both most significant.

(a) The contrast.

Joshua is perhaps one of the least interesting of the Old Testament men; a mere soldier, fit for the fierce work which he had to do, rough and hard, ready and prompt, of an iron will and a brave heart.  The one exhortation given him when he comes to the leadership is ’be strong and of a good courage,’ and that seems to have been the main virtue of his character.  The task he had to do was a bloody one, and thoroughly he did it.  The difficulties that have been found in the extermination of the Canaanites may be met by considerations of the changed atmosphere between then and now, and of their moral putrescence.  But no explanation can make the deed other than terrible, or the man that did it other than fierce and stern.  No traits of chivalrous generosity are told of him, nothing that softens the dreadfulness of war.  He showed no touch of pity or compunction, no lofty, statesmanlike qualities, nothing constructive; he was simply a rough soldier, with an iron hand and an iron heel, who burned and slew and settled down his men in the land they had devastated.

The very sharpness of the contrast in character is intended to be felt by us.  Put by the side of this man the image of Jesus Christ, in all His meekness and gentleness.

Does not this speak to us of the profound change which He comes to establish among men?

The highest ideal of character is no longer the rough soldier, the strong man, but the man of meekness, and gentleness, and patience.

How far the world yet is from understanding all that is meant in the contrast between the first and the second bearers of the name!

We have done with force, and are come into the region of love.  There is no place in Christ’s kingdom for arms and vulgar warfare.

The strongest thing is love, armed with celestial armour.  ’Truth and meekness and righteousness’ are our keenest-edged weapons—­this is true for Christian morals; and for politics in a measure which the world has not yet learned.