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He has helped Israel his servant, and remembered his mercy as he said to our fathers, to Abraham and his posterity forever."

After this MARY stayed with Elizabeth three months, until just before the birth of John, and then returned to her own home in Nazareth.

Birth of John.

Elizabeth's full time came, and she was the mother of a son. Her relatives and neighbors collected to congratulate her. On the eighth day, according to Jewish law, the child was to be circumcised. Some near relative seems to have attempted to officiate in the place of Zacharias, who was still dumb. He gave him his father's name, but the mother interposed and said, "No; but he shall be called JOHN," a name not belonging to her husband's family, but known in the house of Levi and among the Maccabæan princes. The friends remonstrated with Elizabeth, and appealed to Zacharias, who surprised the company by writing upon his tablets, "His name is JOHN." Immediately his dumbness left him, and he broke forth into a canticle, which the Christian church has since preserved under the name of the Benedictus.

The Benedictus.

"Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people, and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant, as He said by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old; a salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform His mercy with our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father, to grant us without fear, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, to serve Him in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.

“And you, little child, shall be called a prophet of the Most High; for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give a knowledge of salvation to His people, with a forgiveness of sins, on account of the compassionate mercies of our God, by which a morning from on high has visited us, to illuminate those sitting in darkness and the shade of death, to direct our feet in the way of peace."

The extraordinary circumstances attending the birth of John

• We shall come often on the word translated "forever." In our English dictionaries and philosophical books we write it on. The Greek is awr, and signifies a life-time of anything the space of time in which anything exists. "Through the æon" means while that

thing or that state of affairs exists. Here it means as long as the posterity of Abraham exists. It does not involve the idea of absolute endlessness. E't rov ai va may be translated "perpetu ally."

John's early history.

produced a profound impression upon all who saw and heard. The fame of these things spread throughout the land, and deepened the conviction of the people that their nation was on the eve of great events, and quickened their hopes of speedy deliverance from the Roman yoke. The age of the prophets seemed to be rolled back. Perhaps this was Elijah; he might even be the Messiah. And thus the very birth of John was a harbinger of JESUS.

The boy grew in physical and mental vigor, in virtue and moral energy. As he approached manhood he separated himself from his worldly countrymen and hid himself in the deserts of Judea, a thinly peopled region west of the Dead Sea, where he gave himself to a life of asceticism and religious study until the time of his entrance upon his public ministry.

CHAPTER II.

BIRTH OF JESUS: ITS DATE.

Matt. i.

THE birth of JESUS occurred under the following circumstances: Joseph, to whom Mary was espoused, was a devout Jew. He knew nothing of the announcement which had been made to her by the angel. After her return from the visit to Elizabeth it became apparent that she was about to become a mether. Shocked at the discovery, Joseph thought of making an example of her. But his love was not wholly destroyed by her supposed misconduct, and he was minded to put her away privily, which was a milder course, as it saved her from the shame of public exposure. Pondering these things in his troubled and affectionate heart, he had a dream, in which the angel said, "Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto you Mary, your wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost; and she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins." Joseph seems to have been addressed by the title, "Son of David," as if the angel would assure him that though he came of royal blood, there should be no humiliation to him by taking Mary to wife.

Joseph's dream.

Joseph rose from his sleep next day and did as he had been bidden in the dream, taking his bride to his own home and awaiting the unfolding of events.

In due time the great event occurred. Jesus was born.

The date and the place of this Great Birth are important and intimately connected. Before other things let us strive to settle, as nearly as we may, the question of the time of the advent of Jesus to the world.

Examination of the chronology.

Can we ascertain the year, the month, the day? Christmas has been celebrated in the Latin Church, as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, on the 25th of December, and the year has been marked as the 754th after the founding of the city