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THE INFANT JESUS.

Preface

These papers, now presented in book form, were published through a period of years in the Christian Union newspaper. Although based upon the International Sunday School Lessons, they were not intended especially for the use of the class room, but rather for the household. No attempt has been made in their arrangement to carry out exact chronological order, but only a general sequence of leading events, and study of the Scripture itself (as indicated in the table of contents) is always taken for granted.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Saviour-King. Luke i, 5-56 11

II. A Song in the Night. Luke ii, 8-21 15

Chapter I. The Saviour-king

Our precious Bible which God has given us is in two parts. The part which he gave us first we call the Old Testament, and the part which he gave us after our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world we call the New Testament. The beautiful stories of Abraham and Jacob and Joseph and Moses are in the Old Testament. It tells us also how God took care of his people through the long years that they were in the wilderness, and how he brought them at last into the land of Canaan. It tells the story of their kings — David and Solomon and all the rest — and the prophets and the teachers God sent them that they might not forget to watch for the Saviour who was some day coming to save the people of Israel and all the nations of the earth.

In the garden of Eden God had told the first man and woman about this Saviour-King, and all through the years he had repeated the promise. David sang about him in his beautiful songs, and Isaiah and the other prophets had been allowed to look away down the years and see where the King should be born and how he should live. But even these prophets did not understand much about the Saviour-King, and so it was not very strange that the people forgot all about his saving them from sin, and truly thought that the King who was coming would deliver them from their enemies who had conquered them and make them a great and powerful nation. They thought he would reign in Jerusalem in a splendid palace and fill all the city with his riches, as Solomon had done. Most of the people had even forgotten to watch for him, but some remembered the promise, and were praying and hoping, and sure that the time must be very near.

It was to soine of these watchers that by and by a message was sent to tell them that the world's Saviour was coming. A message was sent to a good old priest named Zacharias, and his wife Elizabeth, that a little son was to be born to them who should be the herald of the Saviour-King, to tell people he was coming and prepare them to receive him. And another messenger was sent to Mary, the cousin of Elizabeth, to tell her the wonderful news that this King who had been so long waited and watched for was to be her own little son, given her by the great Lord of life, a precious, holy gift. A glorious angel brought the message, and he told her this divine child was to be called Jesus, because he should save his people from their sins.

When Isaiah w^'ote of the coming of the Saviour-King he said those that were watching for his coming should sing together, and that even the hills and the waste places should break forth into joy. And so Mary, when she went to tell her cousin Elizabeth of the good tidings the angel had brought her, sang a song of gladness. She only thought of her own joy and of praising God for bestowing upon her this great honor, that she should be the mother of the Saviour for whom her people had been looking for hundreds of years. But Mary's song

THE SAVIOUR-KING. 1 3

has been preserved for us, because it is a part of the story of Jesus, and since that day thousands of people in lands that had never been dreamed of in Mary's day have sung its sweet words of praise. Is it not a beautiful thought that this young Jewish girl, in a humble Jewish home, just singing the gladness of her own heart, should have started a psalm of thanksgiving that has gone on ever since, drawing new voices to join in its music?

Mary was only a sweet, true-hearted woman, no wiser than other women, and she may very likely have thought the humble home, where she expected to live with Joseph the carpenter, who was to be her husband, was a very poor place for the home of a king. But her boy w^as to be born in a much more lowly place than this. . Just before he was born the great Roman emperor, whose servants all the Jewish people were, sent out a command that they should all be taxed, so that he might have more money in his treasury. And to save his officers trouble the people had to come, each man to his native city, to have his name written on the books and pay his tax to the collector. So from all over the land, sometimes a very long distance, whole families came traveling to the towns and cities where they were to be taxed. Joseph and Mary came from Nazareth, away in the north of Palestine, to the little town of Bethlehem, near Jerusalem, the very Bethlehem where David lived when he was a shepherd boy. A great many other people came also, and the town was so full that there was not room for all the visitors at the inn or among their friends. Some of them were lodged in the stable, but we need not think of this as any hardship, for people in that country were often so lodged. Probably Joseph and Mary were very glad to get so comfortable a place after their long jour-

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ney ; but here in this lonely stable the Saviour-King was born, as if to show that his coming was to be a blessing not only to the poor, but even to the dumb beasts for whom he taught us our Father cares. There were no royal robes for the little King to wear ; he was dressed just as all young babies were in that day, by wrapping him from head to foot in long strips of linen, called swaddling bands, and he was laid in the stone manger where the cattle were fed. In the inn perhaps a few people knew that a little baby was born out in the stable, but none of them thought that a greater king than Solomon had come to set up his kingdom among them. It was only in heaven that the wonderful event was really understood, and the first song of welcome and rejoicing was sung by the heavenly host.

A SONG IN THE NIGHT. 1 5

Chapter II. A Song In The Night

Only a few persons had been told the wonderful news that the time had come fbr the birth of the Saviour. They were none of them great people ; and when at last he was born, in Bethlehem of Judea, the angel who brought the good tidings was not sent to the king or to the high priest, but to some shepherds who were watching their flocks by night in the fields near the little town.

We do not know the names of these shepherds, or anything about them ; but God's messages come to those who are waiting to hear and ready to receive them ; so we can be quite sure that they were men who thought about the promised Saviour and were watching for his coming. In these very fields David used to tend his sheep ; it was here that the lion and the bear came and took the lamb from his flock ; and here, in the starlit nights, he may have sung his song beginning, " The heavens declare the glory of God." What would these shepherds do as they lay there, wrapped in their garments of camel's hair ? Perhaps they would sing some of those very songs of David that were still chanted in the temple, or talk about a wonderful story that some one had brought from the hill country of a child who had been born to an old priest, who was said to be the messenger sent to prepare the way of the Lord.

Suddenly, while they were singing or talking, or silently watching, a great light shone round about them ;

not a light like the sun or the moon, but more splendid than either, for this was the glory of the Lord, and in it they saw an angel standing by them, and they were " sore afraid." The angel may have been there before ; Gojd's angels may often be about us, as we know that God himself is ; but our eyes cannot see them, and so we forget them. VVe speak words and do deeds that would make us tremble with shame and fear if we could see the holy faces looking upon us. And sometimes, when we kneel and say " Our Father," as if we really believed God was in the room and listening to our words, we are thinking of other things — of our work or our play or our plans. What if, all at once, as if a curtain were drawn away, the glory of God should shine out and we should hear him say, " I am here ; I am listening ? " Even if we were quite honest and sincere we should probably be as the shepherds were, sore afraid.

The first words of the angel were, " Fear not." The message is one of love ; it is good tidings of great joy, the very best news that ever was told to man ; the news that the Saviour was here, born that day, in the city of David : good news for all people ; for this Saviour is not a king of the Jews, but Christ the Lord, who comes with the tidings that it is all the world which God so loved as to send them salvation.

The angel told them where they should find the babe and how he would be dressed, and then, as if they could keep silence no longer, a multitude of the heavenly host were with the messenger, praising God and saying, " Glory to God in the highest ; and on earth peace, good will toward men." David had never sung any such song as that ; no such song had ever been sung on earth before : good will from God to everybody ; not anger, but love ; not punishment, but help ; not wrath, but mercy ; not war, but peace — good tidings of great joy to all people.

When the angels went away the shepherds did not wait, but went with haste to Bethlehem. They did not say, '' Let us go and see if it is so," but, " Let us go and see this thing which has come to pass;" they hastened because they believed. Just as they expected, they found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger, and when they had seen him they went about telling to everyone the wonderful things the angel had told them about the child. They told Mary also, and, while other people only wondered, Mary treasured up the words in her heart, and thought about them, and did not forget them when the shepherds had gone back again to their flocks.

The shepherds did go back again to the fields, though they praised God as they went and thanked him for what they had seen and heard. Why should we not be as glad as they were at the good tidings of great joy? The news is just as true and just as sure to-day as if each one of us had received it from the angel host, and we are to do exactly what the shepherds did :

Listen to the message.

Believe it.

Go just as we are bidden to find the Saviour for ourselves.

Tell the good news to others.

Go about our daily work praising and glorifying God.

If we do this we are taking up the song the angels sang, and spreading over the world the blessed tidings of God's love and good will to all people.

THE BABE IN JERUSALEM. I9

Chapter III. The Babe In Jerusalem

The crowds that filled the town of Bethlehem have gone back to their homes, and it is once more a quiet little village, with room enough in the inn for travelers. But in some one of its humble homes one family that came from a long distance still stays. Joseph is there, with Mary his wife, and the babe Jesus ; for when this child is forty days old he must be taken to the temple at Jerusalem and given to the Lord. Every first-born son belonged to God ; but, instead of becoming a priest and serving in the temple, the parents could give a sum of money to redeem the child, and so receive him back again. Perhaps, too, Joseph and Mary did not mean to go back to Nazareth. They would not forget what promises had been made about this child, or what a wonderful story the shepherds had told of angels who called him " Christ the Lord." Would they not be quite likely to think that right here in the city of David, near by Jerusalem, was the best place for the royal child to be brought up ?

But now the babe is forty days old, and Joseph and Mary go up with him to Jerusalem, to offer their sacrifice and to present him to the Lord. Let us go with them, for they will probably walk along the narrow, hilly road, Joseph with his staff, and Mary carrying the baby wrapped in the veil that is thrown over her head and shoulders.

In the city of Jerusalem they must buy their offering; if they were rich it would be a lamb and a dove, but as they are poor it will be a pair of doves — turtledoves, with their purplish-gray feathers and great soft eyes, such as the dealers sell in the courts of the temple for a few cents. The offering is bought, and now Joseph and Mary go reverently toward the priest who is waiting to receive it. The mother never forgets what things have been foretold of this child ; she ponders them in her heart, and is always expecting to hear more. She wonders now if the priest will think this is no more than a common baby. Others are in the temple. It is the hour when they may come to pray in this holy place, and there at this very moment comes old Simeon. Everybody knows the devout old man, w^hose life has been full of goodness, and whose heart is so true and pure that God's Spirit fills it like light. He is growing feeble, and people who see him going up to the temple say he will not live much longer. But there is one thing Simeon is waiting for ; he wants to see the Saviour of the world before he dies, and for years he has just been waiting for that, because God has promised him that he shall see him, and so he is always watching. He sees this little child that the mother is bringing to the priest, and the Spirit tells him, ''This is he."

How glad old Simeon is ! He does not ask any questions, but just takes the child in his arms and blesses God, and says, *' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word : for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people ; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel."

The priest and the people who stand by look won-

THE BABE IN JERUSALEM.

deringly on, and do not understand what old Sinneon means. They only expect a king who shall save them ; they never think of God's sending salvation to all peoples, or that their glory must be in carrying the light to nations that sit in darkness.

But here comes another saint to whom God has spoken, Anna, the prophetess, a very old woman, whose whole life is spent in prayer and in talking with friends who, like her, are w^atching for the time when God shall save his people. She, too, knows that this is the promised one, and she thanks God also, and hastens to tell the news to those who have watched with her.

Deeper grows the w^onder in Mary's heart and in Joseph's. Simeon tells them plainly of the work this child is sent to do, but for the first time they hear of something besides joy and triumph. This King is going to be spoken against ; the Jews are not going to receive him ; they are going to show out the evil of their thoughts and wishes and desires, and only by being humbled are they to be lifted up. The old man has a message, too, for Mary ; she has been glad and proud that she has been made the mother of this blessed babe, but Simeon tells her that sorrow like a sword will pierce through her heart, and now she has one more thing to hide away and ponder.

Chapter IV. The Visit Of The Wise Men

Away off in Persia, and Arabia, and in countries a long distance from Canaan there were people who knew that some day a wonderful child was to be born in Judea, in whom all the nations of the world were to be blessed. God has many ways of teaching people, and he speaks by his Spirit to those who really seek to understand and do his will. In some way these wise men as they read and studied and thought about what had been promised were so taught. They said to each other, " This is the time for that Saviour-King to be born ; we must be watching for him.'*

Then one night they saw in the heavens a great beautiful star, and they said, "This is his star; we will go to Judea and find him."

So they took rich gifts, as men did who went to the court of a king, and made the long journey across the desert until they came to the city of Jerusalem. They thought, of course, they should find the King there, but when they asked, " Where is he that is born King of the Jews?" no one knew anything about him. The Jews had a bad, cruel king named Herod, who had been set over them by their Roman conquerors.' They feared and hated him, and they were all hoping for a king who should be strong enough to deliver them from him. They were all excited over the coming of the wise men, and they went about asking, " Is it really true that the

LO, THE STAR WHICH THEY SAW IN THE EAST,

King is born ? Where is he ? Who is he ? " But they never dreamed that this little baby down in the manger at Bethlehem was the promised King.

Herod heard about the strangers, and he was greatly troubled. He, too, knew that a king had been promised and so he sent for the men who knew most about what the prophets had written, and asked them where the King was to be born. They told him that, more than seven hundred years before, the prophet Micahhad said that the King should be born in the little town of Bethlehem. When Herod heard this he said in his heart, '* I will send to Bethlehem and kill him ; he shall never be king."

But how could he be syre of finding him ? First he called these strangers and asked them at what time this strange star appeared, and after they told him he said, '' My wise men say that this child will be born in Bethlehem. Go to Bethlehem and find him, and then bring me word again, so that I may come and worship him too.'

Herod hoped to find the very child who had been born King of the Jews ; but if he could not find him he still felt sure of killing him, because he meant to kill all the little babies in the town.

The wise men started toward Bethlehem. Probably it was evening, and they wondered how they should know the house where the young child was ; but there in the sky they saw again the same star which they had seen away in the far east, and it moved on before them like a guide until it shone over the very spot where Jesus was. The wise men were very glad to see it; they knew God was leading them and that they could not go wrong. When they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, they knew

T?IE VISIT OF THE WISE MEN.

instantly that this was the King. They fell down and worshiped him, and brought out their precious gifts, and gave to him gold and sweet spices, such offerings as men give to kings and lay upon God's altar; for this was a heavenly king.

Herod was waiting for them at Jerusalem, but they did not come. God warned them in a dream not to go back to that bad man, so they went home to their own far country by another way. When they came they were asking, " Where is the King ? " But now they must have been rejoicing and saying, " We have found the King." But though they were very wise men they did not begin to understand what a precious gift God had sent into the world, or what a blessed King this was who should save Jiis people from their sins.

Chapter V. The Flight Into Egypt

Another warning. When the wise men fell down and worshiped the infant Jesus and called him a king and spread their rich gifts before him it seemed as if almost any day he might be sent for to come up to Jerusalem and be proclaimed king. But as soon as the wise men had received their warning from God and gone away to their own country a message came to Joseph also. In a dream an angel appeared to him and said, ''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 seek the young child to destroy him."

Egypt was more than three hundred miles away, and all the way the little Jesus must be carried in his mother's arms as she rode upon an ass. It Avas a very long, hard journey. Could not God take care of this King? Was he not stronger than Herod ?

Joseph did not wait to ask any questions. God had told him what to do, and as soon as he arose he took the young child and his mother and departed into Eg}'pt while it was yet night. They made the long journey safely, and somewhere in the l.ind of Egypt they found a home where they lived, perhaps among friends, waiting for God to tell them what to do next.

While Joseph and Mary and Jesus were traveling day after day along the road to Egypt, Herod was growing

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. 2/

impatient because the wise men did not come back to tell him where the King was born. He waited until he was sure they had gone home, and then he was in a great rage. He was angry because they had not done as he had bade them, and he was furious to think that perhaps, after all, this new King might escape him and take his kingdom. He called his soldiers and told them to kill every little boy that was -under two years old in the town and all around in that part of the country. Poor, foolish, cruel Herod ! He had done so many wicked things that his heart was too hard to be sorry for the little innocent babies or their broken-hearted fathers and mothers. He did not care at all that the land was filled with weeping, and he went on doing dreadful deeds, until one day God touched him and he died. There was not one to mourn for him ; even his own children were glad, for he had killed three of them and might have killed the others if he had lived any longer. His son, Archelaus, was made king.

When Herod was dead the angel came again to Joseph and bade him go back again to the land of Israel, and Joseph obeyed. God did not tell him just where he was to live, and he started for Bethlehem in Judea. But as he got nearer and began to meet friends and acquaintances and talk with them about the new King he was troubled by what he heard. They said, "Archelaus is king; he is even worse than his father — more bloody and selfish and cruel." So Joseph was afraid to go into Judea.

God chose for Joseph. He whispered to him, " Go back into Galilee, to your old home at Nazareth there. Nazareth is the very town where so many years ago Isaiah said the Saviour-King should live."

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They went to Nazareth, and there for twelve years Jesus, our Lord, Hved in the humble home of Joseph and Mary, obeying them in all things, and growing so pure and beautiful and gracious day by day that he won the love of all who saw him. None of the people about him ever thought that he was a king, or that he was any different from the other children of the town. He was always good, but they did not wonder very much about that. The Bible says he grew and was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him, and he grew in favor with God and man ; but for many years he served God by obedience to his parents, like any common child.

The wise men in their far country heard nothing more about the King that had been born. The shepherds that heard the angels sing did not know what had become of the little baby they saw in the manger. The old saints, Simeon and Anna, who were so glad when the child Jesus was brought into the temple, had died and gone to heaven without seeing him again. But all the time Jesus was about his Father's business just as much as when he began to teach and to cast out evil spirits.

JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 29

Chapter VI. Jesus In The Temple

If anyone could tell us the true story of the childhood of Jesus we should be interested in every day and hour of his life and everything he said or did. But all that we know of his first twelve years is summed up in one short verse, *' And the child grew, and Avaxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom ; and the grace of God was upon him." There could be no more beautiful story of a child's life than that, to grow healthfully in body and mind; to be filled with the wisdom and to be ruled and guided by the grace of God, that would make a perfect life that would move on so smoothly that perhaps others would never notice it to think how wonderful it was.

Mary may have thought about it, because she kept in her heart the memory of the strange things that had jDcen told her about her boy, and, as she taught him the commandments and the words of the law and the things that every Jewish lad must learn before he was twelve years old, she must have often been astonished at this wisdom with which he was filled. But we can only guess how that might have been, for the next thing we are told is of his first visit to the temple, made when Jesus was twelve years old. It was the feast of the passover, and from all over the land little companies of friends and neighbors journeyed together to Jerusalem, resting under the palm trees by the way or camping at night where there was a well from which they could draw.

As they came nearer to Jerusalem other little companies would join them, and before they entered the city there would be a long procession, singing songs of praise and thanksgiving for the deliverance from death which came to their people so many years before in the land of Egypt, when they were the slaves of Pharaoh.

It was a great event for every Jewish boy when, at the age of twelve years, he was taken to the temple and himself took part in the solemn ceremonies. From that time he was considered not a child, but a man, and must begin to learn some trade or business by which he could make a living. Probably there were other lads with Jesus, his companions and relatives, and they may all have gone to the temple together and been questioned by the wise old priests to see how well they had been taught and what they understood about the law.