remembrance this slaughter of the infants, shows us that the holy men who wrote the Prayer Book of the Church of England, understood that in this happy band of spirits in glory, were the souls of the babes of Bethlehem who were taken away from this sinful world before guile had been found in their mouth, or they had been able to commit sin. Happy children, redeemed by the blood of the blessed Saviour for whom their blood was shed!

In the verses of this chapter in the Book of Revelation from which the epistle is taken, it is said, that the number of these happy spirits is very great, thousands and thousands more than the number of the babes killed in the village of Bethlehem could have been, therefore we may believe that the souls of all infants are in that happy band. Oh, what a comfort to all who see the little coffin carry out from their homes the darling babe who has been the joy and delight of their lives, to think that while the laughing eyes are closed in death, and the playful voice is hushed, those eyes yet see the Saviour, that voice is singing the new song; for the bright spirit which for a while lived in the baby's form, is without fault before the throne of God. It is gone there as a first-fruit to tell of the harvest that will follow; and the day will come when even the beloved body which we now lay in the grave, though sown as a seed, in weakness, shall itself arise in glory, more beautiful than when we held it so fondly in our arms, and grieved to see it grow pale and die.

Prayer.

O God, we thank thee that as Herod could not harm thy holy child Jesus, so neither can the power of man hurt thy true religion. We bless thee, that not all the malice of Satan can hinder the kingdom of God; and that though man by his rage and cruelty may kill the body, if thou dost so permit it, he cannot hurt the soul, but that death is changed into life for thy redeemed. O grant to us, that in our lives and in our deaths

we may glorify thee, and be ever ready to give up at thy call all we love best on earth, believing that we shall receive happiness a thousand-fold in the kingdom of Heaven, through thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lived and died for our salvation. Amen.

XIV.

A few months after king Herod had, in the way I have told you, killed the babes in Bethlehem, a dreadful punishment fell upon him.

Old as he was, he did not die of old age, but of a terrible and disgusting disease, which filled his body with racking pain, and made it scarcely possible for any one to come near him. He became loathsome to himself and to every body about him, but he did not repent. The last thing he did, which we know, not from the Bible, but from the books in which the history of his life is written, was to order one of his remaining sons, -who people supposed was to be king after him—to be put to death. Poor wretched man! if he could have carried his crown with him when he died, what good would it have done him, in that outer darkness where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, which is prepared for the devil and his angels; and for all who like them, have refused the good, and have chosen the evil, and so have become the enemies of God and man?*

The Lord God, from whom come life and death, as soon as Herod was dead, sent his angel, who appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,

* History is so clear on the subject of the death of King Herod, that the fear that he died without repentance, nay more, that he died full of rage and fury against God and men, is forced upon our minds.

66

Verses 19-23. 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 he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judæa, in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the paris of Galilee : and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.”

Joseph immediately obeyed the command brought him by the angel, and at once set out on his journey back again with the precious child and his mother. But as soon as he had reached his own country, he heard that a son of the cruel Herod had been made ruler of that part of it to which his family belonged. He was afraid the son might be as wicked as the father, and that if he found that the child, who had been so much feared, was still alive, he might try to destroy him. For this reason he would not return to his home, and while he was thinking what be ought to do, God let him know by a dream that he was to go into a part of the country called Galilee. So he went there, and he lived in one of the cities of Galilee, named Nazareth.

Now there was a reason for the home of the Lord Jesus in his childhood being fixed at Nazareth, a town of Galilee. All the rest of the Jews hated and despised the people who lived in Galilee; they thought them quite below themselves, and would have nothing to do with them. I do not know what was the reason of this, but it was so, and they would not believe that any body worth listening to could come out of Galilee at all, but especially out of Nazareth, which they thought was the very worst part of it.

All along it had been written in the Old Testament, that the Lord Jesus when he came into the world would be despised by every body, that they would reject him ;-that is, that they would refuse to have any thing to do with him, or to believe a word that he said, and that they would say all sorts of scornful things about him. This had been written by the prophets of old, and by his being sent, while yet a child, to live in a place every body despised, it was already beginning to be made true. If you remember this, as you go on reading the life of our blessed Lord, you will understand why so many people laughed and mocked at the very thoughts of being told to listen to the teaching of a man who had come from Nazareth, and why even good men asked in surprise if it was possible that He could be the Christ when He had come out of Nazareth?

Men have just such fancies now, and this is what we call prejudice, it is bad at all times, and prevents us from clearly seeing what is right and what is wrong, but it is most grievous when it is allowed to meddle with matters of religion. How often do we see one set of people think ill of another set, quite as religious as themselves, because they do not like the name by which they are called. Children of one Father, even God; saved by one Redeemer, even Christ; with one hope and one calling, they yet live divided among themselves, and even when they do not despise each other, yet ask with surprise, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" for there is in most men's minds a Nazareth; some sect, or some country, or some family of which they think so ill, that their first feeling is dislike for all belonging to it.

Let each one of us stop here and consider what is our Nazareth, what is the place, or name, or party against which we are prejudiced let us bring the light of God's word to bear upon it, and remember that very often the despised of men is most precious to God.

There is no child of God who would, if he but put away his prejudices, feel a dislike to another who loved and served the

same God and Saviour as he does. Yet even good men very often feel and act unfairly by other good men from nothing but prejudice; that is, they are so determined to think them wrong, that they will not believe them right even when they are; indeed they cannot see that they do well, because they have so strong a feeling against them. We should be afraid of all such feelings when we remember that men would not listen to the Lord Jesus" because he was a Nazarene."*

Prayer.

O Lord God, we pray thee for thy dear Son's sake, to give us thy Holy Spirit, to teach us to value what is written in thy holy word, that we may take it alone for our rule of life. Give us grace to love all who love thee, and to care for nothing but for the power of serving thee. If we are little thought of by our fellow-men, let us remember that our Lord Jesus Christ was sent by thee to pass his childhood at Nazareth, on purpose that he might be despised; and so may we find strength and comfort in the thought that he was tempted in all points like as we are tempted; and for his sake give us thy help to pass through the time of our trial, with hearts wholly given to thee. Amen.

XV.

There is very little said in the word of God about the child

* Nothing will perhaps give us a better idea of prejudice, and the difference our prejudices make, than looking through a bit of coloured glass. If you look through a bit of blue glass, even trees in full leaf look like winter covered with frost and snow, but if you look through yellow glass, the same things seem to be in the brightest summer and sunshine, and so on-the things are always the same, but they seem quite different from the colour of the glass through which they are looked at. It is just so with our prejudices-we do not see things as they really are, when we have a strong feeling either for or against them.