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offerings of gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. In this way, we, like the wise men, may open our treasures, and give, according to our power, to our poorer brethren. And we too may worship Him;--not indeed, as these favoured philosophers did, by bowing ourselves at his sacred feet; but we can worship Him in spirit and in truth; we can, by His grace, give Him our hearts and all our best affections. These are offerings which He still requires, and will not despise. The holy Psalmist says, in speaking of Christ, "He shall live, and unto Him shall be given of the gold of Arabia; prayer shall be made ever unto Him, and daily shall He be praised:" so that what the Magi only began, we and all nations must continue even to the end of time, and, beyond time, through all eternity.

To this end we must be as earnest in our inquiries after Christ as the Magi were; as anxious to find Him; and when by His grace we have found Him, as we may in His word, in His house, and in all those precious means of grace which He has given us, and in which He makes Himself known to His people, then we may rejoice as the wise men of the East rejoiced, "with exceeding great joy." It will not do to say, "I am not wise, I am not rich, and therefore I have nothing to give to Christ:" for we have all hearts to give Him. Nor must any one say in excuse, “I have a heart, but it is unfit for Him, all dark, and sinful, and out of order." Such indeed are all our hearts by nature; but we must give them to Him, and He will take them, and make them better, far better, than all the myrrh, and frankincense, and gold, of the East; He will make them quite different from what they [Second Series.]

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are now, and we shall never made a gift of them to Him.

be sorry that we have He will frame them like

His own; and, in return, He will give Himself to us, and be ours for ever and ever.

See Luke ii. 22-38. Matt. ii. 1-11.

FIFTH SUNDAY EVENING.

THE INFANTS AT BETHLEHEM.

M. The subject of our conversation, my dear child, the last time we met for this purpose was a very pleasant one. We found both Jew and Gentile rejoicing in the birth of the Redeemer. But whilst good men were hailing with delight this great event, there were others who regarded it with far different feelings. You have heard already, when the Magi proceeded to Jerusalem, and there made inquiries respecting the newborn king of the Jews, how Herod was troubled, and not only Herod, but all Jerusalem with him. The news, which should have filled them with joy and gladness, was to them only an occasion of terror and alarm: so little did the Chief Priests and Scribes, whom Herod consulted on the occasion, understand the true meaning of those prophecies which related to their expected Messiah or Christ; although they ought to have been well acquainted with the revealed will of God, it being the especial office of these persons to instruct the Jewish people in the Holy Scriptures. In vain, however, did Herod apply to them, in hopes of ob

taining relief for his troubled mind. They told him indeed, out of the books of the Prophets, that Christ was to be born at Bethlehem; but they quite misunderstood the nature of His kingdom. They thought He would come as a great earthly prince, to deliver their nation from the Roman yoke, and make the kingdom of David once more famous in the world as it had been in former times. No wonder, then, that, with his mind full of such ideas, Herod should be troubled, when he heard the Magi inquire for one newly-born to be king of the Jews.

E. Will you let me interrupt you a moment, Mamma, just to ask who this Herod was? I want to know whether he was the same that we have heard of before, who was made king of the Jews by the Romans, and whom you said they called Herod the Great?

M. The very same, my dear boy; he was a man remarkable for his cruel temper, and being troubled when he heard of the birth of Jesus, he immediately resolved to destroy Him, waiting only till the Magi should bring him full information respecting the child, on which he should proceed with certainty to the execution of his wicked purpose. But God, who knows all things, even the inmost thoughts of our hearts, saw the evil designs of Herod. He managed, indeed, to conceal them from men, by pretending to be as eager as the others were to go and worship the newborn king; but he could not hide them from God. Accordingly, in a dream, the Almighty warned the wise men not to return to Herod as he had requested, but to go back to their own country another way. Thus was Herod interrupted in his cruel purpose, for

whilst he was waiting for the return of the Magi, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise and take the young child and His mother, and flee into Egypt; and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him. And when Joseph arose, he took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt; and was there until the death of Herod."

You know full well, my child, where Egypt is. In the history of the Old Testament we have often had occasion to mention that country. There, we know, Israel went down out of Canaan, and there he dwelt for a time, until God was pleased to call him out thence again: and indeed in this part of his history, what happened to Israel, God's adopted child, may be looked upon as a sort of type or figure of what afterwards befel the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. By one of the prophets God was pleased to speak these words, "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt:" words true indeed in some sense of the people Israel, but in their full sense true only of Him, who is distinguished by the title of God's "beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased." In His love to the child Jesus, God caused Him to be taken into Egypt; until the time should come, when He could be called back again in safety. Thus was the life of Jesus not only preserved from the wicked designs of Herod, but preserved in that very land which prophecy had pointed out beforehand as a place of refuge for His childhood.

E. How angry Herod must have been, Mamma,

when he found out that the wise men had deceived him, and gone back to their own land another way!

M. Great indeed was his rage, when he found himself thus mocked by those very persons from whom he had expected to learn all particulars respecting Christ; and now, not knowing exactly where Jesus was to be found, or of what age precisely He was, he sent and slew all the little children who were not more than two years old, not only in Bethlehem, but in all its neighbourhood. What a dreadful act of cruelty was this! What grief and anguish must it have occasioned! like that, and that only, described by the prophet Jeremiah, when he said, "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel, weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not." Never indeed had these words been as fully verified as now; this was their great fulfilment. For when were ever so many mothers so cruelly and at once deprived of their tender infants? and it is worthy of being remarked, that the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, where Rachel's tomb was, was after her called Rachel: the whole land of Rachel was weeping and would not be comforted. And yet had the mothers of those babes known in whose cause their blood was shed, they would perhaps have found some comfort in the thought, that they were the first martyrs for Christ; that is, the first who died for His sake, and that He who came on purpose to give up His life for them, would never suffer them to die for Him in vain. Could these sorrowing parents have known, how tenderly this blessed Saviour would afterwards gather little children to Him and bless them, they would not have wept so

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