the Son of the Highest. This is the great destiny he sees for this babe of eight days old. This is the faith in which the father will train his child. So ought we to train up our children in the way they should go; bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Zacharias believes. the prophets. He sees in his child the herald whom Isaiah had foretold. Observe too how he testifies the Gospel of the grace of God, and preaches the remission of sins. Jesus with him is Lord and Christ. To Him he applies the language of the ancient prophets,5 describing Him as the dayspring from on high; heavenly light dawning upon benighted travellers, who need no longer sit down despairingly in that darkness which is the shadow of death, but walk in the at length discovered path of peace. And now in a single sentence we have sketched out for us the bodily and spiritual progress, the development in person and in character of this favoured child. We are told too where his education was carried on; not in the city, but in the country. Bereft of his parents, probably at an early age, the young Nazarite cherished in congenial retirement the gift that was in him. There for thirty years he was content to dwell, till the time came, and God called him forth, like a jewel from the mine. What a check to that presumptuous spirit which will not abide God's time in its eagerness to exhibit immature talents! XVI. JOSEPH'S DREAM. St. Matthew i. 18-21. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a pub 1 v. 32 above. 2 In the original it is a diminutive. 3 Is. xl. 3, 5. 4 Acts ii. 36. lick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. The custom among the Jews was that persons were betrothed, or solemnly engaged either to the other, sometimes long before being actually married. When this holy maiden returned from Judæa to Galilee, her affianced husband was not a little perplexed, knowing little or nothing of that Divine vision, which even when known was full of mystery. He was, we are told, a just man, and so was unwilling to conclude such a marriage; but he was also lenient and tender, and therefore wished to put the supposed offender to as little shame as possible. Happily however he was not an impatient, impetuous man, and so wisely considered the matter. While in this state of suspense, the Angel, the same Angel probably,' appeared to him in a dream, addressing him as the son of David, in whose line the Saviour should be born; informing him of the innocence of his affianced wife, and of the miracle and mystery wrought by the Holy Ghost; and bidding him give the promised child that name of our salvation for He, as another Joshua,2 should be the saviour of His people; saving them from their worst enemies, that is from their sins; and leading them to a better country, that is an heavenly. XVII. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Matthew i. 22-25. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin 2 The Hebrew equivalent of the Greek Jesus. 1 St. Luke i. 26. us. shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS. The sacred writer refers us to the famous prophecy of Isaiah, made seven hundred years before the event. What God so long before had spoken by the mouth of His Prophet, He had now fulfilled. Behold here too that seed of the woman, which it was foretold from the first should bruise the serpent's head.1 "When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." In scripture phrase, "to be called" is the same thing as "to be." When Christ came into the world, He became our Emmanuel. The Son of Mary was that which this title signified." Joseph, that just and gentle man, his suspicions banished by this vision and revelation of the Lord, hesitates no longer. With courage he hastens to conclude the marriage, to accept the singular honour of becoming the protector of this innocent Maiden and her Divine Infant; to whom he gives in due time the prescribed name, which is still music in the ear of penitents, assuring sinners of salvation. There are several points full of instruction in this passage of the history. To "lie under undeserved blame," to "be tried with distressing and startling doubts:"3 here are two of the greatest trials which can occur to man or woman; and they occurred severally to an innocent woman and to an upright man; but those who with holy Mary keep a good conscience, may trust God with the keeping of their good name. From the conduct of Joseph we learn to do nothing rashly, but to consider always, in a patient and charitable spirit, what should be done. This 4 have a resolution from Heaven, or some of its ministers, if we have recourse thither for a guide."-Bp. 2 St. John i. 14. Dwelt, literally Taylor: Life of Christ, ad. Sect. ii. tabernacled. Rev. xxi. 3. 3 Bp. Trower on the Holy Gospels. Henry. "And in all our doubts we shall See also the first warning in the Communion Office: "Therefore if there be any of you, &c." dream we must note is no warrant for our fancies, sleeping or waking. That was the age of which it was foretold, “Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." Joseph, like the Patriarch of that name, has now a dream, and God speaks to him in a vision. "This dream, no doubt, carried its own evidence along with it that it was of God." 2 XVIII. THE NATIVITY. St. Luke ii. 1-5. And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David :) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. "At length the moment is come which is to give a Son to the Virgin, a Saviour to the world."3 "As by a woman Death had been conveyed to all mankind, so was a woman now made the blessed instrument whereby He who is our Life came into the world."4 The first Eve was taken out of the first Adam 5 here, in the regained Paradise of God, things are reversed, and the second Adam is taken out of this second Eve." The Lord's birth in this was like His burial. He who was born of a Virgin Mother, lay in a Virgin grave; and it is a Joseph who surrenders each. The Emperor who then, in the accustomed phrase, ruled the world, had decreed, for his own purposes, that his subjects. should be enrolled or registered; that a census in fact should be taken. In order to this census, all persons were required to repair from any place to which business might have taken them, to the place to which they actually belonged; as we should say, each to his own parish. So Joseph went, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the town of Nazareth in the country called Galilee, to the town of Bethlehem in the country called Judæa. For this "town of Bethlehem, where David was," ,"3 was also the town of Joseph. He belonged not only to the same family tree to which of old David belonged, but to that particular branch of it which began with David. This carpenter was the lineal descendant of a King. Had our Lord been, "as was supposed," and as His enemies twitted Him with being, "the carpenter's son," what would this have proved but that He was, what Pilate afterwards to their annoyance styled Him, "the King of the Jews"? ΧΙΧ. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Luke ii. 6, 7. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. With what touching simplicity is the tale told us of our Saviour's birth. It was in the stable of the Village Inn. 1 St. Matt. xxvii. 59; St. Luke xxiii. 53. 2 The chronological question, into which it is impossible here to enter, is fully discussed in Bp. Wordsworth's Greek Testament and elsewhere. 3 St. John vii. 42. 4 Is. xi. 1. 5 St. Luke iii. 23. |