Saviour. For He hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden for behold from henceforth all generations. shall call me Blessed."

On the eighth day the child Jesus was circumcised, according to the terms of the covenant with Abraham. And on the fortieth he was presented in the Temple, according to the law of Moses, which directed that every first-born child, if a son, should be called holy to the Lord. A sacrifice was offered-two turtle-doves or two young pigeons. The law required that a lamb should be offered for a burnt-offering, and a pigeon or a dove for a sin-offering; but where, as in this case, the parents were poor, two doves would be accepted. And thus, amid the crowd of the devotees who were in the Temple, the mother of Jesus owned her poverty, but vindicated her devotion, as a daughter of the royal line, to the law, and to the Author of that law, the God of her fathers. Again the people wondered, and again Mary received a theme for pondering in her heart. Simeon, known in Jerusalem for a just man and a devout, who waited for the Consolation of Israel, promised in the Messiah, and to whom it had been revealed that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ, came by the Holy Ghost into the Temple. He took the child in his arms, and blessed God and said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen. thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people: a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." Joseph and the child's mother

marvelled at these things which were spoken of him. Announced by Gabriel, and his birth heralded by angels, prophets now added their testimony: for Anna followed Simeon, and spake unto the people who looked for redemption in Jerusalem, giving thanks unto the Lord for the fulfilment of the promises. And Simeon added to his thanksgiving a warning, as he blessed the parents, and said to Mary, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against: (yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."

Retiring from the Temple with the wonderful child, the parents were next astonished by a visit from the Wise Men, who had seen his star in the East, and came to worship him. They inquired for him who was born King of the Jews, and following the course of this world and the presumptions of men, they sought him in Jerusalem, among the magnates and the courtiers. Thus Herod heard of their visit; and his jealous tyranny was awake to seize upon the child to whom men looked as to one who should have dominion. He thought to defeat the prophecies which had caused this universal expectancy; and to slay him to whom God had led the Magi by the miraculous guiding of a star. He deceived the Wise Men with hypocritical professions. He summoned the chief priests and scribes, and having learned from them where Christ should be born, bade them search diligently for the young child, and when they had found him to bring him word that

he might worship also. Again the star which the Wise Men had seen in the East appeared, and guided them to the place where the young child abode. They presented their gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh, but, warned in a dream against the treachery of Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And Joseph, by admonition of an angel, took the infant and his mother and fled into Egypt, and there abode until the death of Herod. The Lord said by his prophet, "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." Israel was an eminent figure of Christ-for in Christ are the promises to Israel fulfilled; and the Evangelist Matthew adopts what was said of Israel, as referring to the Saviour, and declares it verified in Him.

The disappointment of the tyrant in reference to the child Jesus led to a crime, which in another man would have been celebrated for its enormity. He sent and slew "all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time that he had diligently inquired of the Wise Men." The murderer of the brother, the grandfather, and the mother of his wife; of that wife herself, and of his own children; and the conspirator, on his death-bed, against the lives of all the chief men of Judea, might easily, where his jealous fears were enlisted, cause the slaughter of infants, that haply he might slay among them him that was born King of the Jews. God took charge of His Son, and the son of Mary was beyond the reach of the murderers. Profane historians record the other crimes of

the wicked monarch. On the sacred page the Innocents are commemorated, after the example of Him who declared of such are the kingdom of Heaven.

Mindful of these, the first-fruits sweet,

Borne by the suffering Church her Lord to greet;

Bless'd Jesus ever loved to trace

The "innocent brightness" of an infant's face.

He raised them in His holy arms,

He bless'd them from the world, and all its harms:
Heirs though they were of sin and shame,

He bless'd them in His own, and in His Father's name.

III.

The Divine Child.

The child, born in a manger, but declared the Saviour who is Christ the Lord, was to owe to no earthly alliance or influence his authority and the glory of his power. It was prophesied of him that he was to be despised and rejected of men, and the Evangelist sums all in a sentence when he says that Jesus was nurtured in a city of Galilee called Nazareth, that he might be called a Nazarene.

The child grew, and "the grace of God was upon him." In the humble village of Nazareth, he that was given for our example, illustrated the virtues and the graces which belong to the period of infancy. He dwelt with his parents and was subject unto them. All men were required to present themselves three times a year at Jerusalem. This requirement did not under the law include women, though the devout not uncommonly accompanied their husbands to the holy city. We are told that the father and mother of Jesus went up every year to Jerusalem at the Passover. Whether they were accompanied by the infant Saviour every year is not recorded. But the age of twelve was that at which the sons of the Jews were removed from the maternal eye. It was the year in which they were first permitted to stand in the congregation, and to assume the place which the men of the elect nation inherited as the