him King of kings, true God, and mortal man. The first fruits of the election of the Gentiles were consecrated in those who hastened to Christ in Bethlehem from Saba, and from other nations scattered through the world. Being warned by an angel in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed, rejoicing, into their own country another way.

When the days of her purification were accomplished, the holy Virgin Mother presented herself in the temple, and, offering the child to God his Father, Simeon, that just and devout man, took him up in his arms. Although bowed with age, he rejoiced in God, because he had now before his eyes the long-expected Saviour of the nations, revealed to him by the Holy Ghost; he took him in his hands, announced to the people that he was the Master of life and death, and blessed him before the admiring multitude who leaped for joy.

Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, came into the temple at that moment rejoicing; this widow, endowed with every virtue, knew that Christ was there, and announced to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem, that the Saviour was come. His parents offered for him the sacrifice of a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons, a figure of the spotless purity and the gentle simplicity of the church.2

Behold, then, how not only the angels in heaven, but also mortals of every age and of both sexes, gave their testimony to the Lord born in the flesh. The Virgin Mary, conceived by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, brought forth her child, suckled him, and, by his aid, effectually ministered to all his wants. John, leaping for joy in his mother's womb, saluted the Lord, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke three times in prophetic language of the Messiah and his mother. The angels glorified God who had become incarnate for the redemption of man, rejoicing to see us redeemed and added to their number. The shepherds, instructed by the angelic visitation, hasten to Bethlehem and search in a stable for the living bread which comes down from heaven; they find Him who rules the heavens,

Matt. ii. 1-12.

1

2 Luke ii. 22-38.

an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes. The hearts of the shepherds, when they heard from the heralds the tidings of Christ, were filled with joy and wonder. Zacharias and Simeon, both righteous men, at the end of their earthly career, confess their belief in Christ, and predict his future history; and the blessed Anna, bending with years, partakes of their love of Christ.1

But, while the righteous were rejoicing with exceeding great joy, the impious Herod, hearing strange rumours, was troubled, and commanded that all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, should be slain. When, therefore, Joseph had taken Jesus and his immaculate mother into Egypt, the fury of Herod vented itself in the massacre of the infants, and the fields of Bethlehem were watered with the blood of the innocents.2 But Christ received into his own mansions those who were slain in his stead, where they enjoy everlasting felicity.

CHAPTER III.

Christ's baptism.

OUR Saviour dwelt on the earth thirty-two years and three months, but he was without sin, and spake no guile; and he alone among the dead was found free from guilt. At the beginning of his thirtieth year, he went down to the river Jordan, received the sacrament of baptism at the hands of John, and by so doing, sanctified the waters, and set his disciples an example of the most perfect humility. While Jesus was praying after his baptism, the heavens were opened unto him, and the Holy Ghost was seen to descend upon him in a bodily shape like a dove, and the voice of his Father was heard from heaven: 66 This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' John indeed deserves the first place among them that are born of women, for Christ placed himself in his hands to be bap

1 Luke i. 41-80; ii. 25-40.

2 Matt. ii. 3—18. Matt. iii. 13, 16, 17; Mark i. 9—11; Luke iii. 21, 22; John i. 29-33.

tized, the invisible Spirit showed itself to him in a visible shape, and God the Father proclaimed from heaven his Son to him. Thus the mystery of the Trinity was manifested to the blessed forerunner in our Saviour's baptism.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the twelfth year of his age, was found in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, not teaching them, but asking them questions. He was baptized at the age of thirty, and thenceforth proved his divine mission by miracles. During the space of three years He performed miracles and taught his disciples. This triennial period shadows forth the sacrament of our baptism, by means of faith in the Holy Trinity, and the operation of the legal decalogue. Our divine Lawgiver also teaches men, by his example, that they should not venture to speak in public or preach at too early an age, or eagerly covet preferment; but be content to wait humbly for the proper and appointed time for their admission to the priesthood, or the office of teaching.

CHAPTER IV.

Chronology of Christ's ministry.

Ir is now my purpose to examine the series of our Lord's miracles recorded in the four gospels, giving a faithful compendium which may serve easily to recall them to the mind. I shall trace the succession of events as the four evangelists have related them, and, by His help who makes eloquent the tongues of infants, I hope to sum them up in a short account. As I have determined to give a correct chronography, it is right that I should begin with endeavouring diligently to fix exact dates, as the holy evangelists, and other historians, long ago supplied them in their writings.

Octavianus Cæsar Augustus, nephew of Caius Julius Cæsar by his sister Octavia, succeeded his uncle as the second emperor of Rome, and reigned fifty-six years and six

1 Luke ii. 42, 46; iii. 23.

months;' in the forty-second year of whose reign Christ was born. Tiberius Cæsar, the step-son of Augustus, being the son of his wife Livia by a former husband, reigned twentythree years; in his eighteenth year Christ redeemed the world by suffering on the cross. After the death of Herod, the son of Antipater of Ascalon, who for twenty-four years usurped the throne of Judea, his son Archelaus exercised his tyrannical authority over the Jews for the space of ten years; St. Matthew tells us that Joseph, after his return from Egypt in obedience to the commands of the angel, being afraid of Archelaus, turned aside into Galilee with the child and his mother, and dwelt at Nazareth. But Archelaus, on account of his intolerable cruelty, being accused by the Jews before Augustus, was deprived of power and banished for life to Vienne, a town of Gaul, where he died." In order to weaken the kingdom of Judea, Augustus divided it into tetrarchates for the brothers of Archelaus. Moreover, Pilate, in the twelfth year of the reign of Tiberius, was sent into Judea, to undertake the government of that country; he remained there for ten consecutive years until about the time of the death of the emperor. Herod, Philip, and Lysanias, as St. Luke relates, shared the government of Judea with Pilate; they were the sons of the elder Herod, during whose reign the Lord came into the world.5

The whole period of our Lord's teaching on earth was confined within the space of four years. During that time, as Josephus tells us, after Annas was deposed, the following Jewish high priests succeeded each other: Ismaël, son of Baffus; Eleazar, son of the high priest Ananias; Simon, son

1 Augustus only reigned in reality from the time of the battle of Actium (Sept. 2, A.U.C. 723) until his death (Aug. 19, 767). The general opinion is, that we ought to place the birth of Jesus Christ in 749, and consequently in the 27th year of this reign.

2 Tiberius reigned twenty-two years and about seven months (17 Aug. 14-16 March, 37). The death of Jesus Christ happened in the spring of A.D. 33, and consequently in the nineteenth year of this reign.

3 Matt. ii. 22, 23.

Herod the Great was born at Ascalon in Judea, in the year 71, B.C.; he reigned thirty-seven years after he was raised to the throne by the Senate, and died at the age of sixty-eight. Archelaus reigned from A.U.C. 750 until 759.

5 Luke iii. 1.

of Canufus; and Joseph Caiaphas, who prophesied that Jesus "should die for the people." Eusebius of Cæsarea, reckoning from the sixth year of the reign of Darius, who succeeded Cyrus and Cambyses, when the works of the temple were finished, until the period of Herod and Augustus, finds in Daniel seven and forty-two weeks, which make 483 years to the time when Christus, that is to say, Hircanus, the last high priest of the family of the Maccabees, was killed by Herod, and the succession of the high priests, according to the law, ceased. But St. Hippolytus reckons 230 years as the time that the kingdom of the Persians lasted, and 300 years as the duration of that of the Macedonians, and then thirty years until Christ; that is to say, he computes 560 years from the commencement of the reign of Cyrus, king of the Persians, until the advent of our Lord. Enlightened by these researches on the succession of ages, the studious reader will understand that the Sun of Righteousness rose in the sixth age, at the first hour of the century. I shall, therefore, begin my intended work with the history of our Lord, in whose almighty goodness I put my whole confidence, invoking his assistance in faith, that what I have begun I may finish worthily to his praise.

CHAPTER V.

Christ's temptation.

JESUS, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan into Galilee, and there, on the third day, he and his disciples were called to the marriage in Cana. When they wanted wine, at the request of his mother, he ordered six water-pots to be filled with water, and when he had turned this water into wine, he commanded the

1 John xviii. 14. "Neither the names nor dates are given correctly. Ismaël, son of Fabi, not of Baffus; Eleazar, son of Annas or Ananus; and Simon, son of Camith, not Canufe, were high priests in the years 23, 24, and 25 of Jesus Christ. Joseph Caïphas succeeded them in the 25th year; consequently it was during his pontificate only that the gospel was reached."-Le Prévost.