and myrrh, the choicest fruits and flowers, all the viands of the rich man's table, are only products of the dust. So likewise the topaz, the emerald, and the onyx :-even the diamond, the brightest jewel in king's crowns, is but a charcoal. But the gifts of the Wise Men were a sacrifice of adoring love: they presented gold as to a King, frankincense as to God, and myrrh for an offering to Man1 by nature subject to death, as it were intimating that He was to be embalmed with myrrh for His burial, And from the Divinity that resided within Him they received an abundant return in the grace of the Spirit ;-" they rejoiced with exceeding great joy." Having accomplished the object of their pilgrimage, they were warned by God in a dream not to return to the court of Herod: so "they departed into their own country another way."

1 See Williams's Gospel Narrative of our Lord's Nativity, pp. 136, 137; Barradius, vol. i. lib. ix. cap. x. p. 520; Chemnitius, vol. i. pp. 112, 113; and Maldonatus, Matt. ii. 11, for the various symbolical meanings attached to these gifts by the fathers.

"Per tria hæc munera jam velut per ænigma significata est ineffabilis in divinitate Trinitas Patris, Filii, et Spiritûs sancti; simulque uno hoc puerulo comprehendi humanitatem, divinitatem, et regalem dignitatem ei convenientem et humanitatis et divinitatis ratione. Aurum enim regi competit. Thus Deo. Myrrha homini morituro: nam Judæi suos mortuos myrrhâ sepeliunt, ut corpus maneat incorruptum."-Jansenius Gandavensis, Commentarii in Concordiam Evangelicam, cap. ix. p. 73. See Cyprian De Stellâ et Magis. Op., p. 428. "Offerunt aurum, quod convenit regia dignitati; quia Christus rex erat, Jer. xxiii. Offerunt thus, signantes illum esse Deum; nam thus in sacrificio Dei ponitur, et est unum de libamentis sacrificii, Num. xv. Etiam quotidie sacerdos cremebat thus in altari thymiamatum intra templum, Exod. iii. Mirrham offerunt ad significandum Christum moriturum, et esse verum hominem; nam mirrha ponitur corporibus mortuorum, ne putrifient." Tostatus in Matt. ii. Quæst. xlvi. "Ecce reges fide quærunt Salvatorem, veruntamen offerunt aurum, thus, et myrrham: dona et opera sunt hæc, non sola nuda fides, sed quæ per charitatem operatur." Joan. Soarez, Com. in Ev. Matt., p. 33.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT-THE MASSACRE of the iNNOCENTS -THE RETURN TO NAZARETH-JESUS AMIDST THE DOCTORS IN THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM.

Matt. ii. 13-23. Luke, ii. 39-52.

BETHLEHEM was no longer a place of safety for the Holy Child. The angel of the Lord revealed from Heaven, that danger threatened Him. Moreover, according to ancient Scripture He was to visit Egypt; "When Israel was a child, then I loved Him, and called my son out of Egypt?" "Arise [said the angel of the Lord to Joseph in a dream] and take

1 Hos. xi. 1. It is thought by many of the fathers that the words of Isaiah, xix. 1, have reference to this visit, "Behold the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence. "They [the Holy Family] made their first abode in Hermopolis, in the country of Thebais, whither when they first arrived, the Child Jesus being by design, or providence, carried into a Temple, all the statues of the idol gods fell down, like Dagon at the presence of the Ark, and suffered their timely and just dissolution and dishonour, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, Behold, the Lord shall come into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence.'"-Jeremy Taylor's History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus, Part I. Sec. v. with references to Eusebius, St. Athanasius, and Palladius, in confirmation. Barradius quotes several other writers of the same opinion, vol. i. lib. x. cap. viii. p. 555. But Jansenius Gandavensis says, "Quæ dicuntur de simulacris Ægypti collapsis ad corporalem ingressum Christi, aliisque miraculis a Christo in Egypto editis, fabulosa planè videntur, ex loci hujus [Isaiæ xix. 1.] malo intellectu desumpta." Jansenius Gandavensis, cap. xi. p. 84. It may be classed among the many legends regarding our Lord's infancy and youth. The words of Isaiah seem to have a spiritual meaning, and to foretell the power of the Gospel in rooting out the idolatries of the heathen world. See Catena Aurea, vol. i. pp. 80, 81. At this time many Jews were settled at Heliopolis in Egypt, where a great Jewish temple had been built by Onias the High Priest, who had fled from Jerusalem in the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. Josephus, Antiq., xiii. lib. i. § 3. Bell. Jud., i. lib. i. § 1.

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.' When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt." We know not by what difficult ways they travelled through the desert to their appointed refuge. But waste and desolate places, or the dangers of the wilderness, could be no hindrance. Hagar, the outcast Egyptian maid, was visited by an angel at Shur in the rocky wilds of the desert: the children of Israel for forty years were kept in safety through all their wanderings: and we may believe that angels had charge over the Divine Infant.

Meanwhile Bethlehem and the places round about were filled with anguish and terror: for "Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the Wise Men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, 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 enquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 'In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." The tomb of Rachel was near to Bethlehem ; and if (as it is supposed) there was a town called Rama in those "coasts," there also the children were slain. Thus Jeremiah, predicting the tragical event, gives forcible expression to the agony of the Jewish mothers, under the poetic image of Rachel's voice from the tomb echoing back their lamentations. There was a general cry of woe: "the sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished."

That

1 Vox in excelso audita est lamentationis, luctus et fletus Rachel, plorantis filios suos, et nolentis consolari, quia non sunt. Ubi nomine Rachel audiuntur matres Bethleemitica tot millium insontium puerorum, Herodis inaudita crudelitate occisorum; quia Rachel apud eas sepulta dormiret." Jacobus Faber Stapulensis, Commentarii in Quat. Evang., fol. 1541, p. 17.

2 "Rachael's grave was betwixt Bethlehem and Ramah, or at least not far distant from either of them. Gen. xxxv. 16-20; 1 Sam. x. 2. The Holy Ghost, therefore, doth elegantly set forth this lamentation, by personating Rachel sorrowing for her sons and daughters that were thus massacred.”Lightfoot, vol. i. p. 404. See Beausobre, Introd. to Matt., pp. 200, 201, Ed. London, 1788. 3 Ezek. xxi. 28.

there might be no possibility of the Child's escape through any mistake of age, Herod commanded all to be put to death from two years old and under.1 But God "disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise." The tyrant strove in vain against the Highest: his intended victim had been already delivered, “as a bird out of the snare of the fowler."

According to St. Matthew, the Holy Family remained in Egypt "until the death of Herod," which happened about a year after the Birth of Christ:3 and "when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, ' Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young Child's life.'" Meanwhile great changes had taken place in the government of the country. Upon the death of Herod, his kingdom had been divided between three of his sons. The provinces of Judæa and Samaria were given by Augustus to Archelaus the eldest Galilee and Peræa to Antipas, and a small territory, including Ituræa and Trachonitis, to Philip. Archelaus, inheriting the disposition of his father, was afterwards deposed and banished

"Herodes fecit occidi omnes pueros, qui erant infra bimatum usque ad puerum unius noctis, propter duo. Primò propter superabundantem cautelam, ne accideret aliquis error, per quem ille puer evaderet. Quia licèt ille [non] esset in bimatu, vel quasi, cùm nimis desideraret Herodes occidere illum, potius voluit peccare ex superabundantia, quàm propter malam vel non diligentem considerationem circa ætatem, ne puer iste posset evadere. Secundò potest dici, et verisimilius, quòd ista occisio puerorum facta fuit subitaneè, et non poterant ministri immorari circa singulos pueros considerando de eorum ætate, an essent in bimatu constituti, vel parùm plus, aut minus, ideo occiderunt omnes de quibus poterat dubitari." Tostatus in Matt., cap. ii. Quæst. 71. "O parvuli beati, modo nati, nondum luctati, jam coronati. Nunquam prophanus hostis beatis parvulis tantum prodesse potuisset obsequio, quantum profuit odio. Nam quantum contra eos iniquitas abundavit; tantum gratia divinæ benedictionis effulsit." Ludolphus, Vita Christi, p. 69. 2 Job, v. 12.

Lightfoot says, some three or four months after the Massacre; vol. i. p. 444. Greswell assigns it to the middle of March, about the Passover, in the year of Rome, 751. Harmony, vol. i. pp. 273. 282. 303. See Dr. Mill, Christian Advocate, p. 341.

4" Cæsar gave one-half of Herod's kingdom to Archelaus, by the name of Ethnarch; and promised also to make him king, if he rendered himself worthy of that higher dignity. The other half he divided into two Tetrarchies; and gave them to two other sons of Herod: the one to Philip, and the other to Antipas. Whiston's Josephus, Jewish War, lib. ii. c. 6, 3.

for his cruelties:1 but at this time Judæa was under his oppressive rule, and Joseph was afraid to place the Holy Child within his power. "Notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside" into the province of Galilee, and came again to Nazareth; "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, 'He shall be called a Nazarene:””—probably in allusion to the word "Nezer," a BRANCH, (from which Nazareth also is derived), used by Isaiah in his prophecy of the Messiah's Kingdom (xi. 1);2 and to the synonymous Title ascribed to Him by this, and other prophets. It may further refer to the contempt and reproach which should be cast upon Him. The Jews lightly esteemed all Galileans, and the Galileans themselves thought meanly of the inhabitants of Nazareth: thus it would seem that to be called a Nazarene was a term of reproach; and as our Lord dwelt in retirement at Nazareth until He was thirty years old, the Jews did not believe that His real birth-place was the royal city of Bethlehem in Judæa, where, according to the prophets, the expected Christ was to be born. This was one reason why they rejected the idea of his being the true Messias; they persisted in calling Him "Jesus of Nazareth."

From the time of His return out of Egypt until twelve years of age, HE Who was the "Light of the World" veiled His brightness from the public eye. We cannot tell what might be the personal discipline or employments of His early youth, or the gradual expanding of His human intellect, nor what evidences He may have given of His Divine nature; for we have no record of those years of His mysterious seclusion. We only know, that "the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him." This would apply to His natural growth in stature,

'Josephus, Bell Jud., lib. ii. c. 7, 3.

2 See Dr. Mill, Christian Advocate, pp. 419-424. Elsner, Com. in Matt., vol. i. p. 65. Lamy, Comment in Harm., p. 56. See especially Hengstenberg's Christology, 2nd ed. vol. ii. pp. 106-112.

3 Isai. iv. 2. Jerem xxiii. 5; xxx. 15. Zech. iii. 8; vi. 12.

* Maldonatus, Matt. ii. 23.

Theophylact says, "Not as receiving wisdom is He said to be strengthened in spirit; for that which is most perfect in the beginning, how can that become any more perfect?" And also Bede, "Wisdom truly,' For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,' Col. ii. 9; but grace, because it was in great