humble, and teachable mind. Accompany, in heart and spirit, the simple shepherds in their visit to Bethlehem, to see, (not what human philosophy has discovered, but) "what the Lord hath made known to us:" and when you approach, in imagination, the mighty Lord of all things, humbled, and become an infant lying in the manger, let this remind you (in the expression of the Apostle Peter) to " desire, as new-born babes, the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby:" that so at his second coming, to judge the world, you may be found an acceptable people in his sight.

"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only-wise God, be honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen."

L

NOTE TO PAGE 114.

It is usually taken for granted that the visit of the Shepherds, and that of the Magi, took place about the same time. And this idea is rendered familiar to our minds by pictures representing them both together, in the stable at Bethlehem. And undoubtedly such a supposition is favoured by the beginning (if we look to Matthew's Gospel above,) of the narrative-" when Jesus was born at Bethlehem ;" especially by the word "when," which does not correspond with any word in the original.

But when we look to Luke's Gospel, we find it distinctly stated that when Joseph and Mary had performed all the rites of the Law, they departed "to their own city, Nazareth :" while Matthew as distinctly says, that on the departure of the Magi, Joseph and Mary being supernaturally warned, fled suddenly into Egypt, and remained there till the death of Herod. And even then, it seems to be hinted that they were designing to return into Judea, and turned aside to Nazareth only through fear of Archelaus, who reigned in Judea.

It seems impossible to reconcile these two accounts unless we suppose two distinct departures from Bethlehem; the first, recorded by Luke, and the second, by Matthew and on that supposition the whole series of events may be explained.

It seems very natural that Joseph and Mary should have designed to take up their residence at Bethlehem, the city of David, and the birth-place of the extraordinary person who was, emphatically, the Son of David. But with such a design, it would be obviously requisite that they should first return home" to their own city, Nazareth," to dispose of their property there, and make arrangements for finally leaving it. In that case, they would have been likely to return to Bethlehem the following year.

Divine Providence, however, having decreed that He should be brought up, not there, but in the despised city of Nazareth, the holy family were compelled to fly first into Egypt, and thence to return into Galilee.

And the narrative even of Matthew favours the supposition that the visit of the Magi occurred in the second year of our Lord's age. For we are told that Herod "inquired diligently" of the Magi the time of the star's appearing; and afterwards slew all the children in Bethlehem "from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired," (Keißwoe, accurately ascertained) "from the Wise men." Now if he had ascertained that the object of his apprehensions was only a few days or a few weeks old, he would have had no occasion to extend the slaughter to children up to the age of two years, any more than to all the inhabitants. Scruples indeed of humanity, he had none; but it is plain he was acting not in the wantonness of pure gratuitous cruelty, but on some precise information which led him to fix on a particular age. And his procedure exactly tallies with the supposition that Jesus was then in his second year.

It is worth while here to notice another error which painters have fostered, by representing John the Baptist and Jesus as living together when children: whereas, they were brought up far apart; the one in Judea, the other in Galilee: John, in the midst of those who knew the extraordinary circumstances of his birth, and who, being thus prepared for his coming before the world as an extraordinary personage, readily flocked, with their friends and neighbours, to hear him, though "John did no miracle ;" while Jesus, on the contrary, grew up among those who were strangers to the circumstances of his birth; and accordingly was unnoticed till He was first pointed out by John as "the Lamb of God;" and afterwards, by working his first miracle, "manifested his power, and his disciples believed on Him."

SERMON VI.

ACTS XXVI. 22, 23.

I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come: that Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the People, and to the Gentiles.

THE Apostle Paul, in making his defence before the Roman governor, Festus, in which he more especially addresses himself to King Agrippa, (as being a Jew,) who was present at the trial, gives a brief, and, of course, but a brief, statement of the doctrines which he had been persecuted for teaching; it being impossible for him

to enter into a detailed account of the Christian faith. And, as this short summary of his preaching, which he delivers in a single sentence, must be supposed to contain, if not the most important points of his Religion, at least the first, and foremost, and foundation of the rest, it is the more interesting to examine it, and to observe what the Apostle considered as the first steps in the knowledge of the Gospel.

The fundamental points, then, of his preaching, which he here lays down, are:-The sufferings of Christ,-His resurrection from the dead,-His being the first to rise from the dead,-His giving light not only to the People (God's favoured people, Israel), but also to the Gentiles (the heathen nations), who had been supposed excluded from all share of God's favour, and, lastly, that all this was agreeable to what had been foretold concerning the Messiah, or Christ, by Moses and the other prophets; "Saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come that Christ should suffer, and should be the first that should rise from the dead, and