A

A PROPHETIC BIOGRAPHY OF

JESUS CHRIST.

S a rule, the biography of a person is not written till after his death, seldom during his

life-time, and never before his birth. But wonderful to relate, the life-story of Jesus Christ has been minutely told hundreds of years before He was born of the ever Blessed Virgin Mary. The Old Testament contains the biography of the promised Redeemer. These prophecies, depicting His life and work, were read not only by the descendants of Abraham, but even by the educated people among the Gentiles; for it is an historical fact that under the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, these inspired books were translated into Greek about the year 270 before the coming of Christ. This translation, called the Septuagint, was read and studied by many of the learned men among the Gentiles. The Israelites read portions of the Old Testament in their synagogues.

Having used the Holy Bible for years as my meditation book and aided by the study of theology, I could not help noticing some of the most telling

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prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world. These I mean to quote and enlarge upon in the following paragraphs.

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A Redeemer Promised.

HEN God walked through the garden of pleasure in the afternoon air and finally stood among the trees of Paradise to hurl a curse upon the whole earth on account of the first sin, seeing our first parents remorseful and contrite, He tempered his woeful sentence of punishment with the promise of a future Redeemer and, pointing to the serpent, said: "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." Gen. 3:15. The woman of promise shall bring forth a son who is to destroy the power of Satan; this is evidently the meaning of God's consoling promise tendered to our first parents on their first day of sin and misery. The first prophecy concerning the Redeemer hails from Paradise. A reminiscence of this promise has been preserved among all the various offspring of Adam and Eve unto this very day.

When God called Abram, He said to him: "Go forth out of thy country and from thy kindred, and of thy father's house, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. And I will make of thee a

"And in thy

Gen. 22:18.

great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and IN THEE shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed." Gen. 12:1-3. After Abraham attempted to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac, God said to him: seed shall all the nations be blessed." The same promise was made to Isaac, the son of Abraham: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Gen. 26:4. When Jacob, the son of Isaac, had rested his weary head upon a stone and slept, whilst night overtook him on his journey to Haran, he saw in a vision the angels of God ascending and descending by a ladder which touched high heaven, and then the promise came to him: "IN THEE and thy seed all the tribes of the earth SHALL BE BLESSED." Gen. 28:14. Joseph, the son of Jacob, heard this prophecy from the lips of his dying father: "The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills should come." Gen. 49:26. These and similar prophecies do not only foretell the coming of a Savior, in whom the nations shall be blessed, but they indicate and mark the direct line of his human ancestors.

St. Matthew gives the Savior's genealogy, and thus by enumerating His ancestors, verifies the promise made to Isaac: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," and clearly points out the Woman of Promise. He writes: "The book of the

generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac. And Isaac begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Judas and his brethren. And Judas begot Phares and Zara of Thamar. And Phares begot Esron. And Esron begot Aram. And Aram begot Aminadab. And Aminadab begot Naason. And Naason begot Salmon. And Salmon begot Booz of Rahab. And Booz begot Obed of Ruth. And Obed begot Jesse. And Jesse begot David the king. And David the king begot Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias. And Solomon begot Roboam. And Roboam begot Abia. And Abia begot Asa. And Asa begot Josaphat. And Josaphat begot Joram. And Joram begot Ozias. And Ozias begot Joatham. And Joatham begot Achaz. And Achaz begot Ezechias. And Ezechias begot Manasses. And Manasses begot Amon. And Amon begot Josias. And Josias begot Jechonias and his brethren in the transmigration of Babylon. And after the transmigration of Babylon, Jechonias begot Salathiel. And Salathiel begot Zorobabel. And Zorobabel begot Abiud. And Abiud begot Eliacim. And Eliacim begot Azor. And Azor begot Sadoc. And Sadoc begot Achim. And Achim begot Eliud.

And Eliud be

got Eleazar. And Eleazar begot Mathan. And Mathan begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ." St. Matthew 1:1-16.

The Time Limit Indicated.

HE venerable old patriarch Jacob was lying on his death bed surrounded by his twelve

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sons and some of their children. The spirit of prophecy unfolded the future before his dim eyes. Whilst his feeble hand rested upon the head of his son Juda, Jacob uttered the following prophecy: "The scepter shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations." Gen. 49:10. The literal signification of this prediction, as generally understood, is that Juda's descendants shall be rulers; and after they will have been deprived of the scepter, the symbol of power, the Savior, the expectation of nations, is to come. When Jesus was born, the scepter had passed from Juda, and the lofty eagle on the public buildings indicated that the Jews were under the sway of the Roman empire.

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The Time More Exactly Specified.

ANIEL, one of the great prophets, had just finished a long and humble prayer, when God favored him with a vision concerning which he writes: "Now while I was yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sins, and the sins of my people of Israel, and presenting my supplications in the sight of my God, for the holy moun