CHAPTER IV.

Mary becomes the Wife of Joseph.—Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem.-Jesus is born at Bethlehem.-The Shepherds and the Angels.-The Shepherds and the Infant Jesus.

Read St. Matthew i. 18-25; St. Luke ii. 1—21.

OON after Mary returned to Nazareth from visiting her cousin Elisabeth, the wife of Zacharias, the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream, and told him to take Mary to be his wife, and that her first-born child would be the Son of God; and, said the angel, "Thou shalt call His name JESUS, for He shall save His people from their sins."

Now at this time the strongest and bravest people in the world were the Romans, and they had conquered nearly every other people. The Romans were governed by a king called an emperor, and he ruled not only his own land, but all the conquered countries as well. All these countries together were called the Roman Empire, and the Emperor of the Romans was master over

the whole of it. He allowed some of the conquered countries to have their own kings, so long as they obeyed him. One of these under-kings reigned over the Jews: yet though the Jews had a king of their own, both they and their king had to do just what the Roman Emperor pleased.

At this time Augustus Cæsar, the Roman Emperor, ordered that all the people over whom he reigned should be numbered, that they might be taxed, or made to give money to the Emperor to pay his soldiers with, and the men who helped him to govern. They were told to obey this order of the Roman Emperor.

So every man went to the place to which he properly belonged to have his name written down, and to answer perhaps other questions.

Though Joseph was living at Nazareth he really belonged to Bethlehem, near Jerusalem, and to that town he now went for the reason I have told you. Mary went with her husband Joseph; and while they were at Bethlehem God sent Mary the Son He had promised her. Mary had no soft bed to put her Baby in, nor had she any servants to wait upon her; so with her own

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hands she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes-a long cloth used to wrap babies in-and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for Him in the inn.

Herod, called the Great, who reigned over the Jews at this time, was a very wicked king, and God did not send to tell him that Jesus the Son of God was born into the world. Nor did He tell any of the great people, for they cared only for a Saviour of their own choosing. They wanted their saviour to be a great king and a great conqueror. They would have been too proud to care about the little Babe in the manger at Bethlehem. So God passed them by, and sent His message to the humble and lowly.

On the downs near Bethlehem shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks in the still and dark night, when the Angel of the Lord came to them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. Then they feared greatly; but the Angel said to them, "Fear not: for I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David (Bethlehem) a Saviour, Christ

the Lord. And in this way you shall know Him: you shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host-thousands and thousands of bright angelspraising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward

men."

And when the Angels were gone away into heaven, the shepherds went quickly to Bethlehem, and there they found Mary and Joseph, and there they saw the Babe lying in a manger.

Then they rejoiced greatly, and praised God. And they told everyone of what they had seen, and what the Angel had said. All who heard the words of the shepherds were astonished; though perhaps they soon forgot them. But Mary never forgot them; and she thought of them continually; for St. Luke tells us that Mary "kept these things, and pondered them in her heart."

Jesus, we have seen, was born in a stable and cradled in a manger; but I must tell you that the stable was not exactly the kind of place we