precious stones on the breast-plates of the sons of Aaron revealed mysterious truths. The huge stones, and rafters, and pavements, and golden gates, and superb front were there, but that sublime and pure devotion that consecrates a barn and fights up an upper room with heavenly splendour, was gone. Bowed heads were there, but few bowed hearts. Gorgeous robes were there, but clean hands and humble spirits were few and far between. Sacrifice was there, but mercy was a stranger. The thorns that pierced his brow, and the nails that tore his hands on the cross, were not so painful as the sorrows that rent his holy heart as He stood in the midst of what was once his Father's house.

He taught the occupants of the Temple by asking and answering questions. The scene He witnessed must have suggested the questions He put—each question pregnant, suggestive, and full of wisdom :

"Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"

"There was a certain creditor which had two debtors; the one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty, and when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both, Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most!"

"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

"How readest thou? What say the Scriptures?"

"What think ye of Christ ?"

These are some of the questions which He proposed in the course of his public ministry, and are no doubt specimens of those which He asked the doctors in the Temple.

Nor of a truth were his answers to their questions less marvellous, if one may judge from his answers to the vain, frivolous, and tempting queries that were so often addressed to Him in his ministry. It appears, to do the doctors justice, that they saw nothing

in this young Galilean pretentious or assuming. Hillel, and Shammai, and Jonathan, were no doubt astonished and overwhelmed as they listened and marvelled where He had learned so much wisdom, and what were the antecedents of one whose was so great depth of thought, so profound and varied an acquaintance with mysteries they had failed to sound, such precocity at so early an age. Had his early and home education any share in this? or was it from the deep springs of infinite truth that He asked and answered questions? It was the Lord of the Temple who was present. It was the Sun of Righteousness who was rising on the benighted Temple and its more benighted inmates. The great Teacher had entered the school, and the pupils knew it not.

Having found Jesus, Mary and Joseph could only marvel at the spectacle they could not explain. The foster-father falls back, and Mary's loving lips utter a rebuke for once: "Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing.' His answer sounds more mysterious still: "How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" The earthly relationship thus pales before the heavenly, and Mary begins to pass into the Shadow of the Son of God.

She must henceforth decrease. The glory that could not be hid by the veil of mortality that overlaid it, begins to break forth even at this early age, and Mary seems to have recognized it, for she "kept all these things in her heart," understanding the mystery which rabbis and doctors could not penetrate, and worshipping with ardent love one who was and yet was not her child. The Saviour enters on his Father's business. He was sent into the world to do his will and work. It was his meat and drink to do it. Mary learned this. May we not forget it!

Christ Baptized by John.

Matthew iii. 13-17. Mark i. 9-11. Luke iii. 21-23.

OHN the Baptist, the son of Zacharias, the preacher of the desert, clothed in coarse raiment and living on the fruit of the carob-tree, or locust-tree, came forth at length and announced the approach of the kingdom of God. He was the preacher of a kingdom of which Christ alone was the founder, calling attention to a new era, and to Him especially who was its Alpha and its Omega. At thirty years of age Jesus applied to John for baptism-an application that seemed to the Baptist uncalled for.

We read in Matthew, "Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered Him. And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him. And, lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

In many respects this baptism is neither like ours nor a precedent for it. If baptism be administered to us in order, as some erroneously allege, to regenerate the heart, the holy Redeemer needed not the end, and therefore needed not the means. If baptism be

administered now because the subject of it is regenerate, it was inapplicable to Jesus, because He was born perfectly holy, and could not be "born again." Our baptism was instituted by Him after his resurrection and previous to his ascension. The Saviour's baptism was his solemn anointing and inauguration for that work on which He now publicly entered. When John hesitated to perform this rite, Jesus authorized him in words full of significance, "Suffer it now ;" that is, I need neither repentance, nor regeneration, nor forgiveness, but as I received circumcision, as I was ritually redeemed in the accustomed way, as the first-born, though myself the Redeemer, so it is necessary to comply with this last, and thus fulfil all righteousness.

Our baptism, as an obligatory ordinance, implies our duty to fulfil all righteousness. It is our visible enlistment in the army of God, our public consecration to a service that continues in heaven. It is not giving a name, but associating a name already given with this solemn sacrament, so that our name becomes sacred, and our bearing it is suggestive of a holy association, and therefore it reminds us that our use of it in writing must be just, and righteous, and honest. Baptism is not of necessity regeneration, thousands of the baptized are not regenerated. You may be sprinkled or immersed, baptized in infancy or in manhood, and yet not be "born again of the Spirit of God."

Without entering on controversy, or asserting the nature of the apostolic form of administering baptism, it is remarkable that in the catacombs or subterranean quarries of Rome there is a picture, as old as the second century, of the baptism of Jesus, scratched on the walls. It represents the Saviour standing in the Jordan, the water reaching to his knees, and John the Baptist pouring water from a cup on his head.

About outward ceremonies at least, or their forms, Christians differ. It is a blessed thought that there is an increasing unanimity