God alone, by saying, in substance, how is it ye knew not where to come and find Me? The temple is My Father's house, and did ye not know that I must be there, occupied in its concerns, and delighting in its pleasures ?" This exposition, I confess, has dwelt with me through life; and when I once read, in the work of an ancient English priest, that beautiful accommodation of the canticles which makes the spouse searching her Beloved a symbol of the Virgin seeking the Child Jesus, it struck me with new vividness and force. Such use of the ancient Scriptures is sanctioned by the example of the Apostles and of Christ Himself; and perhaps no association more profitable to ordinary minds, can be given to the high poetry of Solomon's song. Thus Ældred puts into the mouth of St. Mary, seeking her Holy Child, many of those passionate exclamations of love, which we commonly misunderstand: "In the streets and in the broadways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me; to whom I said, Saw you him whom my soul loveth? . . . My beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone... I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer. What is thy beloved more than another beloved, oh thou fairest among women? . . . My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand!" Such a use of prophetic and poetical Scriptures may not be critically correct, but by the instinct of the Catholic Church it has been deemed lawful, and is thought to render fragrant the closer interpretations of the wisest and most careful divines. 3. On the question how Jesus increased in wisdom and in favour with God, we were more successful. The Athanasian Creed has been most unhappily omitted from the American prayer-book, and therefore many indistinct views of the Trinity and the Incarnation are apt to spring up in the minds of children, which neither their prayer-books, nor their parents, are able to correct without extraordinary painstaking. But my pastor had procured some printed cards, containing this Creed, and had accustomed us to chant it in our cathechisings. I therefore instantly remembered a sentence which I had often chanted without any perception of its sense, and so perceived its use. "Inferior to the Father, as touching His Manhood," said I to myself; and I was able, child as I was, to draw the inference which I gave as my reply, in a child's language, "it means that He was a perfect boy before He was a perfect man." "Very true," said my grandfather; and he added, "with reverence be it spoken; for on this fact, that He was God before He was born, and while he hanged yet upon His mother's breast,' and while He increased in human stature and human wisdom, and consequently, in the divine favour as a child. of man, there turn some of the most important principles of our holy religion." Yet I have since learned to like quite as well that single explanation of St. Bernard, who remarks, “this was said not so much of what He was, as of what He seemed, for the Child Jesus, according to His own pleasure, disposed the display of His eternal wisdom, and when He chose, and before whom He chose, appeared wise, or wiser, or most wise, while all the time He was all-wise, and never less." Perhaps these remembrances of my twelfth-day visit at Hedgehill may be of further interest to my British reader, if he will reflect upon the proof which they furnish of the Communion of Saints. How far away from English homes and firesides these scenes occurred, and yet in many respects how like they were to scenes which at the same moment were beheld among the families of England! A common faith thus binds together all the Christian homes in the world, and makes all the members of the Holy Catholic Church a great family, with a common interest in festivals and fasts, and all the concerns of the kingdom of heaven. And thus He who was called "the carpenter's Son," has become "great unto the ends of the earth," and the bond of peace among differing nations, and races, and peoples of mankind. The Epiphany of the holy Child has shined throughout the world, and gladdened the utmost isles; and He, who is found no more among His kinsfolk and acquaintance, the Jewish people, is found in every Christian temple, by those whom He has declared to be unto Him as brother, and sister, and mother. Let us not forget to pray that the veil may be removed from the eyes of the sons of Abraham and Jacob also, that they may see in the Son of Mary their long-promised Messiah, and so at last with Turks, infidels, and all unbelievers, may be made, with us, one fold under one Shepherd, the same Jesus Christ our Lord. P.S. It is with pleasure we state that this and some other Tracts of this Number are the offerings of brethren of the American Church. JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON. Tracts for the Christian Seasons. SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY. Christian Unity. PROPER LESSONS: Morning, Isaiah li.; Evening, Isaiah liii. We may observe in the Gospel for this day, some points which seem to connect it with that for the Sunday preceding. In the temple, the holy Jesus had intimated His mission from His Father, but at Cana He began in the fullest sense to be about His Father's business. In the one case He shewed His blessed mother the time when He must cease to be subject unto her; in the other He reminded her that the time had come, and that the hour in which a sword should pierce through her soul, was not far distant. And as at the one time He displayed His wisdom, yet submitted Himself to the service of His parents; so in the other He speaks of the hour in which He must become obedient unto the death of the cross, while He begins His miracles and manifests His glory. But this Gospel doubtless presents an emblem, |