23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and forth a son, and || they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

23. "Emmanuel "-"Emmanu with us [is] El God."

shall bring

Is. vii. 14.

Or, his name shall be called.

"A virgin;" rather, "the virgin," the article being expressed in the Greek, as also in

העלמה,the Hebrew

must always be an outward thing, covering beneath it what is unseemly, but He in saving us imparts to us a life, a portion of His own Life, and life must be the innermost thing of all, and must remove our sin rather than cover it.

And in the matter of sin, let us not hide ourselves in generalities. Sin is not a formula, a word, an abstract thing. It is always an act, a very secret act of the soul it may be, but always an act. "Sin is the transgression of the law: " so that, if Jesus saves us from sin, He saves us from both loving and doing this, that, or the other evil thing. He saves the hateful man from his malice, the quarrelsome man from his strife and bitterness. He saves the dishonest man from his fraud, the covetous man from his evil desire. He saves the godless man from his forgetfulness of God, the proud man from his self-sufficiency, the impure man from his uncleanness; and if there be any other form of evil which separates the soul from God, in virtue of His Name, He saves us from it. 21. "He shall save his people." Here is one of the plainest proofs of His Divine Nature and Dignity. For God's property in any human beings, so that they can be properly called His people, arises wholly from His being God. The expression "My people," throughout the Old Testament, expresses the peculiar property of God, and of God alone, in Israel. Now if there be any people who are worthy to be called the people of God, it is those who are saved from sin. The truest people of God then are the people of Jesus, and this can only be because, through His oneness with the Father in His Divine Nature, He can say, "All mine are thine, and thine are mine and I am glorified in them."

22. "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold a virgin [or rather, the Virgin] shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son." In other words, that the purpose of God, conceived in eternity, and made known to the prophets in past time might be accomplished. "Known unto God are all his works from the foundation

24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife.

of the world," and that some of them might be known to be His works, brought about by His special providence, in furtherance of His special designs in the matter of Redemption, He has, at various times, made known what was to come to pass; and He has made these things known before they came to pass, so that when they did come to pass they should be recognized as taking place by His special will: for He has caused His prophets to make known the secret, and, in some cases, the minute circumstances attending the future event which no human sagacity could possibly forecast.

23. "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall," &c.

This is undoubtedly a place of much difficulty, but the whole difficulty attaches, not to its citation by St. Matthew, as referring to the Incarnation, but to its original meaning in the prophecy of Isaiah, and to the application of the thing there related to his own times. The words, 66 a virgin shall conceive," &c., are quoted by the Evangelist as referring to Christ, and to Him alone: their application to certain circumstances in the reign of Ahaz being put altogether out of sight. The prophecy in Isaiah, and its attendant circumstances, are very hard to understand: indeed, we may say that we have never seen anything approaching to an adequate explanation of them, as referring to the times of Isaiah. But the agreement of the words of the prophet with the evangelical narrative is as plain as possible. The Virgin did conceive. The Virgin did bear a son, and that Son is, in the highest conceivable sense, Emmanuel, God with us as dwelling amongst us, God with us as partaking of our nature, God with us as being in us.

It was a great thing indeed that God should dwell amongst men. Solomon asked, "Will God indeed dwell with men ?" and if abiding in His own Divine Nature He had continually been seen of them and conversed with them, it would have been far beyond their hopes. But He was with us in a far more intimate way, by partaking of our nature in all its sinless infirmities. He was "with us as a brother, making our flesh and blood, our soul and spirit, a part of His very self, so that, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same:" so that we have a sympathizing High Priest, "Who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

66

25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.,

a Ex. xiii. 2. Luke ii. 7, 21.

25. "Her firstborn son." So C., D., E., K., L., M., other later Uncials, most Cursives, some old Latin, Vulg., Syriac, Arm., Eth.; but N, B., a few Cursives (1, 33), most old Latin (a, b, c, g, k), Sah., Copt. read, " a son."

But by the Incarnation the Son of God comes yet closer to us. By the Incarnation that astonishing state of things is made possible whereby He dwells in us and we in Him; for He has Himself said, "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him" (John vi.).

17

25. "Knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son [or a son]. If the reading, "firstborn," be correct, it by no means implies that she had other children. The "brethren of the Lord" have been held by some to have been children of Joseph by a former marriage, but by most Catholics and with far greater probability to have been our Lord's cousins or other near relatives. The particle "till," either in the Old Testament or the New, by no means implies that what did not take place till a particular period in question, took place afterwards. When God, for instance, says to Jacob, "I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of," it does not imply that there was, after that, any danger of Jacob's being forsaken by God. Again, when God says to the ascended Christ, "Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool," it does not imply that after the enemies were all subdued Christ should cease to sit at the right hand of God. Olshausen has a very good note: "It is evident that after what he had passed through, Joseph might think that his marriage with Mary had another purpose than that of begetting children. Perhaps the words of the Evangelist are framed purposely thus, in order to prevent any inference that might be drawn from these events against the sanctity of the marriage; but nevertheless it seems in the order of nature that the last female descendant of David, in the family of which the Messiah was born, closed her family with this last and eternal scion."

"He called his name JESUS."

What an honour put by the Almighty upon this good man that he should first be the instrument through which God bestowed on His Son the "Name that is above every name," and then that he should for years foster and protect Him! Well has one asked, "Unto which of the angels gave He at any time so great a trust?"

N°

CHAP. II.

OW when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men 'from the east to Jerusalem.

a Luke ii. 4, 6, 7.

b Gen. x. 30.

& xxv. 6.

I Kings iv. 30.

1. "Wise men," rather, "Magi," should be left untranslated, as in Vulgate and Syriac.

1. "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod the king," i.e., about four years before the common

era.

When so many persons about us are saying that all that is supernatural in the Gospel history is mythical, and insinuate that it was formed and grew into its present shape like other myths, such as those of the Greek or Hindoo religions, in barbarous, unhistorical, and unknown periods, we must assert that this is absurd and impossible, for Jesus was born, not at a remote period of which nothing is known, but in an age as historical as the present. The history of that age is far better known than that of many subsequent periods. It was a highly civilized period, and withal a sceptical one. It was a time of much communication between Rome, the mistress of the world, and her dependencies. It was also a literary age: Cicero, Virgil, and Horace all died a few years before the birth of Christ; Tacitus a few years after; Livy was His contemporary. The country in which our Lord was born and lived was not a rude, remote, barbarous region. It was at the meeting of two continents. It was close to the great high road of the world from the East to the West. It was bordered by Greek civilization on the north and Alexandrian on the south. Being the seat of a wide-spread religion, its chief city was a metropolis, to which Jews of all countries, speaking all languages, many of them acquainted with Gentile literature and philosophies, resorted yearly from all parts of the world. It was not, then, an age in which myths could spring and grow to maturity; impostures might spring up at any time and spread from any centre, but not myths.

"In Bethlehem," literally the "house of bread," and very fitting the name, seeing that there the Flesh which was to be given for the

с

2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are

come to worship him.

c Luke ii. 11.

d Num. xxiv.

17. Is. lx. 3.

3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

life of the world was first manifested, seen, and handled. "Happy the country, but more happy the heart in which Jesus Christ is born. One city alone had this privilege, but every soul may have it."-Quesnel.

"There came wise men [Magi] from the east."

Most probably from Persia, seeing that they are called Magi, the priestly caste of the Zoroastrian religion. They were not idolaters, but worshippers of the true God under the emblem of fire. The fire and brightness of the meteor which appeared to them had probably more to do with their journey than the study of astrology. Their seeing in the star, or meteor, or whatever it was, a call to seek Jesus, at Jerusalem, could only be by inspiration or guidance from above. It was God drawing the Gentiles to His Son's light, and kings to the brightness of His rising. In it the Church has ever seen the prelude to the fulfilment of the prophecy: "The kings of Tharsis and of the Isles shall give presents: the kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts. All kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall do him service." The significance of the event is similar to that of the inquiry of certain Greeks who “would see Jesus," of which when He heard, He exclaimed, "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified."

2. "Born King of the Jews." It has been said that Jesus was the only one who ever lived who was "born a King." Many have in early youth attained to kingship, but He was born a King, and from the moment of His birth demanded the homage of His people.

"We have seen his star in the east." No doubt a supernatural appearance, or, if brought about by natural means (which is to me, taking all circumstances into consideration, hardly conceivable), an appearance which must have been to them, to all intents and purposes, supernatural, for they must have learnt its signification by supernatural means, i.e., by direct inspiration.

To what intent did it appear? To what intent were they led by it to Jerusalem? "To reprove the Jews for their insensibility, and to cut off from them all occasion of excuse for their wilful ignorance.