Herod's disturbance was all for nothing, and his wicked precautions, had they succeeded, would have been not only a crime, but a blunder. His rival was, indeed, to be king of the Jews, but his kingdom was not to be of this world. He would have reigned without depriving Herod of his crown. Nay, had Herod deferred to the will of God, and done that which he acknowledged with his own mouth to be his duty when he said to the Magi "I will come and worship him also," it might have been the beginning of the conversion of that proud stubborn will; it might have kept the temporal crown on the head of his posterity; at least, it would have secured for himself an unfading crown in heaven.

Not only a crime, but a blunder; nay, we should think it sheer madness in Herod, recognising the Child of Bethlehem as the subject of the prophecies, to suppose that he could hinder the accomplishment of the counsels of God; but that all who sin are similarly blind, when, knowing the will of God, they strive against it, and think to get any good in spite of Him. It is not without reason that the Scripture speaks of sin as folly and madness also, and true wisdom as synonymous with holiness.

CHAPTER XI.

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.

HE providence of God watches over all of us, and special providences probably occur to all of us sometimes. We should expect that special providences, even miracles perhaps, would attend every step of the life of Jesus. And in fact the history so far has been a series of marvels. Though we observe that while the supernatural has preceded the birth of the holy child and surrounded his cradle, nothing supernatural has manifested itself in the child himself. He is a natural human child, reposing peacefully in the midst of angel choirs and human worshippers, apparently unconscious of it all. We are not surprised, therefore, when we are told that while a dream warned the Magi not to return to Herod, another dream bade Joseph "arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seck the young child to destroy him. When he arose he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt" (Matt. ii. 13).

Or, if we are surprised, it is that we should have expected some striking judgment would befall the wicked king, or that some miracle would turn aside the swords of his soldiers. Whereas what really happened was that Jesus fled to save his life from Herod. We gather, in passing, this lesson for ourselves, that the prudent evasion of danger is one of God's providential ways of delivering us from danger, as our industry and foresight are one of His ways of providing for our needs.

Again, when we look forward to the subsequent life of Christ, we see and note the remarkable fact that no miracle was ever wrought on his behalf. He could have commanded the stones of the wilderness to become bread, he could have prayed and his father would have sent him more than twelve legions of angels in the garden, but did not. And we realise the truth that he came to work miracles on behalf of others, but not to have miracles wrought on his behalf, "he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister"; he came to live the ordinary human life, under its ordinary conditions of weakness, danger, suffering, and sorrow. So now when he is in danger he flees from it.

The Evangelist draws our attention to the fact that this fulfilled the prophecy of Hosca (xi. 1). "Out of Egypt have I called my son." Hosea's direct allusion is to Israel's deliverance from Egypt,

and the Evangelist's quotation of his words points out to us the remarkable historical analogy between the life of God's people and the life of Jesus. As Israel was driven by famine out of Canaan to seek refuge in Egypt, and returned out of Egypt to dwell in the Promised Land, so our Lord was driven by Herod's persecution to seek safety in Egypt and returned to dwell at Nazareth.

For "when Herod was dead behold an angel of the Lord appeared again in a dream to Joseph, in Egypt, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother and go into the land of Israel for they are dead which sought the young child's life."

And Joseph obeyed the intimation. It would seem to have been his intention to return to Judea, probably to Bethlehem. But "when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither,"-Archelaus was known to be of a cruel disposition; and he showed. it by putting to death 3,000 Jews in the Temple, soon after his accession,-" and being warned by God in another " dream, he turned aside and went into Galilee," which was under the rule of the milder Antipas, and took up his abode again at Nazareth.

CHAPTER XII.

THE HOLY CHILDHOOD.

FTER the return from Egypt we have seen

A

that Joseph was turned from his intention.

of settling in Judea, and returned with Mary and the Holy Child to their former home in the little mountain village of Nazareth; there the childhood and youth of our blessed Lord were passed.

All that is told us of that "wondrous childhood" is contained in one brief sentence :—

"The child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled1 with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him” (Luke ii. 40).

He grew physically in body, and the immaterial part of his human nature, his human spirit, also developed vigorously. This is not so difficult to understand, it seems merely to declare the natural healthy growth of the child of Mary.

But the next sentence makes us aware of the difficulties which really lay hidden in the former sentence. He grew in wisdom, ie. in knowledge and

1 The word in the original is in the present tense, and implies gradual growth in fulness of wisdom.