He turns to the virgin mother holding her infant in her arms in the attitude of presentation, and is unerringly and instantly led by the Spirit to recognize in the child the "desire of nations" and the "consolation of Israel." It is an idle question to ask in what manner Simeon became assured of this fact; for surely if the human architect who plans and builds a material structure is acquainted with its most hidden apartments, and knows all its exits and its entrances, how much more must He who made the human soul have modes of acting upon it of which we are ignorant, and know the way to its most secret springs?

It is of more importance to remark that the manner in which Simeon recognized the infant Redeemer affords a striking proof of the strength of his faith. He was not offended at his lowly circumstances, or stumbled by the absence of every outward mark of his divine royalty. If it be said that the supernatural impression under which he acted sufficiently accounts for this, it ought to be remembered that there have been men who, after receiving a divine communication and listening to a heavenly voice, have immediately asked for an additional sign in order to confirm their faith. We therefore account in great part for Simeon's prompt and unhesitating recognition of the Christ in this lowly child by the fact that he had long been so devout and diligent a student of the Old Testament Scriptures. There his mental "eye had been anointed with eye-salve," and he had been taught to look for a suffering Messiah; "for the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." These outward signs of humiliation had accordingly no effect in disturbing his faith or damping his joy. Yea, not content with seeing the holy child in the arms of his mother, in the fine exuberance and almost ecstasy of his gratitude, the aged saint takes the infant into his own withered arms, embraces him, presses him to his heart, and sends up an ascription of praise to God which the Church for eighteen hundred years has treasured as among the richest utterances of inspired worship.

The outward exercise was, in fact, a most beautiful reflection and expression of the inward sentiment-a kind of enacted faith. For what is saving faith but a recognition of Christ as the divinely-appointed and divine Saviour, and a grateful appropriation of him as our Saviour? Do not love to Christ and joy in him mingle with faith as its first-fruits? And out of the abundance of the heart does not the mouth speak in "thanks unto God for his unspeakable gift"?

III. Let us now meditate on the ascription by Simeon-" the swan-song of the seer of the old covenant," as it has been happily called.

And those who meditate upon it with intelligence will not fail to be struck with the enlarged conceptions which he had formed of the extent to which the benefits of the Messiah's kingdom were designed to reach. For it is worthy of particular remark that in the various divine songs and thanksgivings in connection with the Saviour's birth which came from hallowed lips that had been touched with celestial fire-the inspired hymns of the nativity, as they might be fitly called-there was a progressive expansion of the scope of vision. Thus Mary's own hymn dwelt mainly upon the personal blessings and honors which the advent of the Christ was to bring to herself. The song of Zacharias celebrated its benefits to Abraham's race. In what Simeon now says in this grand burst of praise he goes far beyond them, and rising to an elevation and a range of view which were only reached by the apostles themselves after their Lord's resurrection and ascension, speaks, in his holy rapture, of Christ as "God's salvation, prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel."

He was emphatically "the glory of his people Israel," inasmuch as in his human relation he was one of themselves, of the seed of Abraham and the family of David. And far above the fact that God had taken them for so many ages into covenant

with himself that they had received the law immediately from his hand amid the awful scenes and symbols of Sinai-that they had been the chosen guardians of the inspired oracles and custodians of the true worship-the apostle names it as the very climax and crown of their honor as a people that "of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ had come, who was over all, God blessed for ever."

And when Simeon further speaks of Jesus as "a light to lighten the Gentiles," he describes the true mission of his gospel as a world's religion, intended to drive away all error and superstition and idolatry and sin and misery from the earth, to bring men of every race and clime to the true knowledge of God, and to the enjoyment of happiness through the knowledge of himself.

His blessed words afford new evidence of the unwonted familiarity of Simeon with the lively oracles, for they echo back through the centuries those sublime words in which God had been prophetically represented as addressing the Messiah: "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." And they further prove to us that the narrow notions commonly entertained by the Jews of those times, as if the benefits of Christ's kingdom were to be restricted to their nation, were, in fact, a degeneracy from the true faith, and a selfish lapsing from the expansive and benignant hopes of the best men under the older economy.

That sight of the "salvation of God" more than reconciled Simeon to the thought of dying. It had been promised to him that he "should not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ," and this blessed hour had seen the promise fulfilled; but the very terms of the promise seemed also to indicate that the sight of Christ would mark the term of his continuance upon earth. And now that his arms at length embraced his Lord, he "could leave the world without a tear." It was enough for him

to have lived to witness this spectacle of the world's light and deliverer: "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." It is not a prayer for dismissal from the world, but a thankful utterance of belief that the hour of his departure is at hand, and a tranquil confidence that when that hour arrives, it will be a peaceful passing away from service to glory, honor and immortality. Even a pagan prince, in a day of great honor to his country, could exclaim, in a burst of patriotic gladness, "Satis est vixisse" ("It is sufficient for me to have lived to behold this"). Old Jacob, too, when his favorite son was restored to him after an interval of many checkered and sorrowful years in which he had believed him to be dead, had said with touching paternal tenderness, "Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive." But Simeon, in what he now said, had infinitely better warrant for his words. A believing sight of Christ is that which enables us to look the king of terrors in the face without dread. With him embraced in the arms of our faith, we have the sure pledge of heaven, for "he that hath the Son hath life."

We cannot tell with anything like definiteness how far Simeon was enlightened in reference to the great facts of the Saviour's earthly history which were to form the basis and root of the consolations of his gospel; but he knew in general that he was to deliver his people from all their spiritual enemies, and that of these enemies death was one of the most formidable and the last; and this confidence breathed a life of joy through all these exulting words. But Christians who look back upon Christ's completed earthly life may now take up Simeon's ascription and sing it with a louder, sweeter note than his, for in his death they behold the ransom-price of their redemption, and in his resurrection and ascension the divine assurance of their own immortality and heavenly reward. The valley of the shadow of death has been lighted up by him all through with the undying lamps of his

own exceeding great and precious promises; and when the dying saint passes from their light, it will be into the midst of the unspeakably brighter light of that "city which hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

"How dreary would old age be," said John Foster once, "without the doctrine of the atonement! The exclusion of this from Christianity would reduce me instantly to black despair." But the belief of this truth, and of all that it draws after it, transmutes the dismal grave into a bed of spices, and "dying" is seen to be but "going home." We do not wonder that the Christians of earlier ages treated the funeral of their brethren as a kind of triumphal procession, and that Christians in the East preferred planting over the graves of their holy kindred the triumphal palm rather than the gloomy cypress. Those who have visited the catacombs at Rome, and compared the inscriptions on the tombs of heathens and of Christians, have been struck with the contrast between the despair of the one and the calm joy of the other. Here is thick shadow; there settled light. The sight which Simeon now beheld produced and explained the difference, for "blessed are the dead which die in the Lord."

The words of the rapt seer filled Mary and her husband with astonishment, especially when they added to these the earlier testimonies that had been given respecting their child. But they thought far more than they spoke. They could not fully comprehend the meaning of such language; it shone before them. with an indistinct grandeur. They waited, therefore, the gradual interpretation of providential events, well assured that such utterances must be precursors of a most glorious history. But was there no danger, if this was all that was spoken, that our Lord's parents might be unduly elated by these revelations if they stood alone, or, at all events, that those sufferings of Jesus which were to precede the preaching of his gospel and the extension of his kingdom might disturb and even shake the Virgin's faith if she