scholars, and anxiously inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They replied that according to the prophets, he was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea. Then Herod called the wise men to him privately, to learn the exact time that the star appeared. He commanded them to go to Bethlehem and search out the young child and when they have found the child to bring him word. The reason the king gave was, "That I may also come and worship him."

Having heard the king they went away and the star, which they had seen from the East, went before them until it stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star they rejoiced exceedingly. They entered the house and when they saw the young child and Mary his mother, they prostrated themselves and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Being warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

After they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and warned him that Herod would seek the young child's life and that he must take him and the mother and flee into Egypt, and remain there until he was sent word. That same night Joseph took the child and his mother and started for Egypt and was there until the death of Herod.

When Herod learned that the wise men had trifled with him, he was furiously angry. He reckoned from the time that he had learned of the wise men that the star had appeared, and gave orders that all children under two years of age, that could be found in Bethlehem and vicinity, should be killed.

After Herod was dead, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, telling him of the death and directing him to bring the child and his mother back. When Joseph heard that Archelaus, the son of Herod, was reigning over Judea, and being warned in a dream, he was afraid to return there and, instead, went to Galilee and dwelt

in the town of Nazareth. And there the child

grew strong and wise and the blessing of Sovereign Love was evidently upon him.

T was the custom of his parents to go up to

IT

Jerusalem every year to the Feast of the Passover and when Jesus was twelve years of age they took him with them. When the festivities were ended and they were returning, Jesus staid behind in Jerusalem without his parents being aware of it. They supposed that he was somewhere in the company and they made a day's journey before they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but being unable to find him they returned to Jerusalem.

On the third day they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening and asking them questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

Luke 2: 40-52.

When the father and mother saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, "My boy, why have you done this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." Jesus said to her, "But why did you search for me, mother? Didn't you know that I would be here in my Father's house?"

He returned with them to Nazareth and was an obedient child. They did not always understand the things he said to them, but his mother treasured them in her heart, and, as he increased in stature and wisdom, he also increased in the favor of his fellow men and of Sovereign Love.

M

CHAPTER TWO.

OPENING EVENTS.

EANWHILE, John, the son of Zechariah

and Elizabeth, was growing up in the seclusion of the wilderness. He dressed in camel's hair with a leathern girdle and lived on locust pods and wild honey. In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod of Galilee and his brother Philip of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the call of Sovereign Love came to him.

He went into the Jordan Valley and began to preach and to baptize. The burden of his message was, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!" Those that heeded his words, he baptized as a sign of the remission of their sin.

Matthew 3: 1-12; Mark 1: 1-8; Luke 3: 1-20.