Their nation was grievously pressed down by foreign despotism. Their people were scattered through the world. The time was exceedingly dark, and the promises of the old prophets served by contrast to make their present distress yet darker. We are not surprised, therefore, to find the first portion of Zacharias's chant sensitively recognizing the degradations and sufferings of his people:

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel;

For he hath visited and redeemed his people,
And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us
In the house of his servant David

(As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets,
Which have been since the world began);

That we should be saved from our enemies,

And from the hand of all that hate us;

To perform the mercy promised to our fathers,

And to remember his holy covenant,

The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

That he would grant unto us,

That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies

Might serve him without fear,

In holiness and righteousness before him,

All the days of our life."

Then, as if seized with a spirit of prophecy, and beholding the relations and offices of his son, in language as poetically beautiful as it is spiritually triumphant he exclaims:

"And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest:
For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;

To give knowledge of salvation unto his people

By the remission of their sins,

Through the tender mercy of our God;

Whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us,

To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace."

Even in his childhood John manifested that fulness of nature and that earnestness which afterwards fitted him for his mission. He "waxed strong in spirit." He did not mingle in the ordinary pursuits of men. As one who bears a sensitive conscience and refuses to mingle in the throng of men of low morality, he stood apart and was solitary. He "was in the deserts until the day of his showing unto Israel."

Mary had returned to Nazareth. Although Joseph, to whom she was betrothed, was descended from David, every sign of

royalty had died out. He earned his livelihood by working in wood, probably as a carpenter, though the word applied to his trade admits of much larger application. Tradition has uniformly represented him as a carpenter, and art has conformed to tradition. He appears but on the threshold of the history. He goes to Egypt, returns to Nazareth, and is faintly recognized as present when Jesus was twelve years of age. But nothing more is heard of him. If alive when his reputed son entered upon public ministry, there is no sign of it. And as Mary is often mentioned in the history of the Lord's mission, it is probable that Joseph died before Jesus entered upon his public life. He is called a just man, and we know that he was humane. For when he perceived the condition of his betrothed wife, instead of pressing to its full rigor the Jewish law against her, he meant quietly and without harm to set her aside. When in a vision he learned the truth, he took Mary as his wife.

In the thousand pictures of the Holy Family, Joseph is represented as a venerable man, standing a little apart, lost in contemplation, while Mary and Elisabeth caress the child Jesus. In this respect, Christian art has, it is probable, rightly represented the character of Joseph. He was but a shadow on the canvas. Such men are found in every community, - gentle, blameless, mildly active, but exerting no positive influence. Except in one or two vague implications, he early disappears from sight. No mention is made of his death, though he must have deceased long before Mary, who in all our Lord's ministry appears alone. He reappears in the ecclesiastical calendar as St. Joseph, simply because he was the husband of Mary, - a harmless saint, mild and silent. An imperial order having issued for the taxing of the whole nation, it became necessary for every one, according to the custom of the Jews, to repair to the city where he belonged, for registration.1

It is needless to consider the difficulty to which this passage has given rise. Josephus states that Quirinius (Cyrenius) became governor of Judæa after the death of Archelaus, Herod's son and heir, and so some eight or ten years after the birth of Christ. How then could that taxing have brought Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem? The immense ingenuity which has been employed to solve this difficulty will scarcely add to the value of hypothetical historical reasoning. Especially when now, at length, it is ascertained upon grounds almost certain, that Quirinius was twice governor of Syria. See Schaff's note to Lange's Com. (Luke, pp. 32, 33), and the more full discussion in Smith's Bible Dictionary, Art. "Cyrenius."

From Nazareth to Bethlehem was about eighty miles. Travelling slowly, as the condition of Mary required, they would probably occupy about four days in reaching their destination. Already the place was crowded with others brought thither on the same errand. They probably sought shelter in a cottage, for "the inn was full," and there Mary gave birth to her child.

It is said by Luke that the child was laid in a manger, from which it has been inferred that his parents had taken refuge in a stable. But tradition asserts that it was a cave, such as abound in the limestone rock of that region, and are used both for sheltering herds and, sometimes, for human residences. The precipitous sides of the rock are often pierced in such a way that a cottage built near might easily convert an adjoining cave to the uses of an outbuilding.

Caves are not rare in Palestine, as with us. On the contrary, the whole land seems to be honeycombed with them. They are, and have been for ages, used for almost every purpose which architecture supplies in other lands, as dwellings for the living and sepulchres for the dead, as shelter for the household and for cattle and herds, as hidden retreats for robbers, and as defensive positions or rock-castles for soldiers. Travellers make them a refuge when no better inn is at hand. They are shaped into reservoirs for water, or, if dry, they are employed as granaries. The limestone of the region is so porous and soft, that but a little labor is required to enlarge, refashion, and adapt caves to any desirable purpose.

Of the "manger," or "crib," Thomson, long a missionary in Palestine, says: "It is common to find two sides of the one room, where the native farmer resides with his cattle, fitted up with these mangers, and the remainder elevated about two feet higher for the accommodation of the family. The mangers are built of small stones and mortar, in the shape of a box, or, rather, of a kneading-trough, and when cleaned up and whitewashed, as they often are in summer, they do very well to lay little babes in. Indeed, our own children have slept there in our rude summer retreats on the mountains."1

The laying of the little babe in the manger is not to be regarded then as an extraordinary thing, or a positive hardship.

1 Thomson's The Land and the Book, Vol. II. p. 98.