Be thou there until I bring thee word.—God, you observe, keeps his people in a state of continual dependence upon him, and makes it their duty to await, and comply with, the indications of his will. With respect to our station in life, or any other circumstances of our lot, though we may desire a change, yet let us wait God's pleasure. Let us follow what may at least commend itself to our conscience and our sober judgment as the leading of Divine Providence. "Be thou there until I bring thee word."

Flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word.-How often we may observe that God does not work miracles, when ordinary means, sufficient for the accomplishment of a purpose, are at hand. He employs his miraculous and extraordinary power only in cases in which it may be required for some wise, benevolent, or necessary end, which could not be otherwise attained. Or rather, perhaps, I should say, God works miGod works miracles, not when man may choose to expect or to desire them, but according to the good pleasure of his own most perfect will. Will not God, in order to protect the infant Jesus, cut off Herod by a sudden

death? Will he not smite with blindness those who shall be sent to slay him? No. Christ himself must flee into Egypt. God does not see fit to put forth that kind of power, or to give that kind of testimony, which a different set of circumstances might have called forth. "He doeth all things well."

When he arose, he departed into Egypt.-Here is a beautiful example of faith and obedience. Unbelief might have suggested that such a flight could not be needed in favour of such an infant;—or it might have whispered,-If this flight be indeed necessary, then perhaps the infant is not that wonderful One whom you have supposed him to be. But no. Joseph and Mary believed the word which had been spoken,-and were strong in faith, giving glory to God; and their faith issued in a prompt, unhesitating obedience. When he arose-without delay-even before daybreak Joseph took the young child and his mother, and departed into Egypt.-When our instructions are clear, let our obedience be prompt and cheerful.

He took the young child and his mother by night.—Yes;-privately and cautiously, notwithstanding his conviction that the power of God was engaged on behalf of the infant. He acted in the spirit of that injunction, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Promises of safety and deliverance must not make us rash or presumptuous. We must expect the fulfilment of such promises in the use of means, not in the neglect of them.

blem of the effectual care and vigilance of Almighty God on behalf of his whole church-of all his faithful people in the hour of danger and alarm. Let every believer confide in the divine protection; and say thankfully, but humbly, with David of old, "In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the

secret of his tabernacle shall he hide

me; he shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me; therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; 1 will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the

Lord." Ps. xxvii. 5.

PSALM XCVII.

Jehovah reigns! let all the earth

In his just government rejoice; Let all the isles, with sacred mirth,

In his applause unite their voice! Thou, Lord of all, art seated high, Above earth's potentates enthron'd! Thou, Lord, unrivall'd in the sky, Supreme by heavenly hosts art own'd.

Ye, who to serve the Lord aspire,

Abhor what's ill, and truth esteem; He'll keep his servants' souls entire, And them from wicked hands redeem.

Rejoice, ye righteous, in the Lord!

Memorials of his holiness Deep in your faithful breasts record, And with your thankful tongues express.

§ VIII.

CHAP. II. 16-18.

Herod slayeth the children.

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.

17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by "Jeremy the prophet, saying,

18 In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

n Jer. xxxi., 15.

Reader. This is a dark passage in the history of human ungodliness and crime. And, as a dispensation of Divine Providence, it would be mysterious and difficult to our apprehension, did we not consider how absolutely the lives of all men are in the hands of God,-how completely they have been forfeited by sin,and that it is more than probable that God, in his mercy, made the cruelty of Herod towards these infants minister to their speedy and eternal benefit.

Theophilus. This massacre is, I

think, one of the most inhuman transactions of which I have ever read. The account of it is painful in the extreme; and, if it did not rest upon high authority, would be almost incredible.

Reader. The narrative, considered in itself, is indeed equally mournful and astonishing. But here again we have an incidental confirmation of the truth and accuracy of Scripture history. Although this murder, not having had a bearing upon any political change or movement, is not recorded by common historians; yet it is in perfect accordance with the character and proceedings of Herod in many matters which, being of a political character, did come within the range of their observations. Macrobius indeed (Saturn. ii. 4), records a jest of Augustus, to the effect that it was better to be Herod's hog than his son,-which some persons suppose to have had reference to the slaughter of the inno

cents.

But be this as it may, there are abundant examples which serve to show that this horrid piece of cruelty is no more than might have been expected at the hands of Herod.-Read a passage which I have marked in the book that lies before you, containing an enumeration of some of this tyrant's atrocities.

Theophilus. "Aristobulus, brother of his wife Mariamne, was murdered by his directions at eighteen years of age, because the people of Jerusalem had shown some affection for his son. In the seventh year of his reign he put to death Hyrcanus, grandfather of Mariamne, then eighty

per

years of age, and who had formerly saved Herod's life; a man who, in every revolution of fortune, had shown a mild and peaceable disposition. His beloved and beautiful wife Mariamne was publicly executed; and her mother Alexandra followed soon after. Alexander and Aristobulus, his two sons by Mariamne, were strangled in prison by his orders, upon groundless suspicions, when they were at man's estate, were married, and had children. In his last sickness, he sent orders throughout Judea, requiring the presence of all the chief men of the nation at Jericho. When they were come, he caused them all to be shut up in the circus; and, calling for his sister Salome and her husband Alexas, he said to them, 'My life is now short; I know the Jewish people, and that nothing will please them better than my death. You have them now in your custody. As soon as the breath is out of my body, and before my death can be known, do you let in the soldiers upon them, and kill them. All Judea then, and every family, will, though unwillingly, mourn at my death.' Surely there could be no cruelty which such a man was not capable of perpetrating."

Reader. And it is worthy of remark, that the Evangelist does not make any comment upon the bad character of this wretched tyrant. It is the usual custom of the sacred writers to give a simple narrative of facts, without stopping to express admiration, or any other sentiment, at the circumstances which they re

cord; or to dilate upon the character and motives of the actors. This speaks greatly in favour of their credibility as historians; and, in fact, it points us to that fountain of truth and purity from which they derived inspiration and guidance. It may serve also to suggest to us a religious duty;-namely, not to speak evil of other men, except when necessary; and, even then, not to take pleasure in casting blame or discredit upon them.

Theophilus. Perhaps you will be kind enough to explain to us the application of the prophecy to which the Evangelist here refers.

Reader. These words of Jeremiah (xxxi. 15) referred primarily to the lamentations which were heard in the neighbourhood of Ramah when Nebuzar-adan collected in that place the captives from Judah and Benjamin whom he was about to carry away to Babylon. See Jer. xl. 1. Ramah was in the tribe of Benjamin; and the mother of that tribe is most elegantly represented as bewailing the calamity of her descendants.-Now Bethlehem was situate at the distance of about twelve miles from Ramah, and lay in the tribe of Judah; but Rachel's tomb was there; and hence the prophecy of Jeremiah is to be regarded as receiving a second and farther accomplishment in the slaughter of the infants, over whose death, with equal propriety and beauty, Rachel may be represented as weeping-though not as the mother of the tribe, yet as having been buried in the neighbourhood. There is great beauty in the

figure of Rachel weeping over her children; it is a specimen of that genuine and exalted poetry with which the language of Scripture abounds. And, what is more, the second fulfilment of the words of Jeremiah, which no one, antecedently to the event of the application made by the inspired Evangelist, would have supposed to possess any farther reference or meaning,is a proof of the certainty of the divine foreknowledge, and the depths of divine revelation.

Other modes of explaining St. Matthew's application of the passage are, I think, less satisfactory.— Some say that, perhaps, the massacre extended to the territory of Ramah, which bordered on that of Bethlehem, and so the children of Rachel, literally speaking, were involved in the calamity.-One commentator remarks, it is "as if the Evangelist had said, Bethlehem at this time resembled Ramah; for, as Rachel might be said to weep over her children which were slaughtered, or gone into captivity; so, in Bethlehem, the mothers lamented bitterly their children, because they were slain."-Luther translates the words "in Ramah," supposing them to mean in "the hill country.”

Theophilus. The number of infants slain by Herod is, I suppose, uncertain.

Reader. Quite so. Bethlehem was not a large place; and, although the slaughter extended to the parts adjacent, or the neighbourhood some distance round,-which is meant by "all the coasts thereof" -- yet, all

things being considered, we may conclude that the number could not have been very large. Tradition, indeed, fixes the number at fourteen thousand! But this, as one commentator has well observed, is only an instance of the vanity of that most vain and deceitful guide; for even a populous city would not contain such a number of infants of two years old and under.

Theophilus. I see, more and more plainly, how vain and unprofitable it is, to attempt to become wise above what is written in matters of religion, and especially with reference to those matters of fact which are recorded in Holy Scripture.

READER. Let us endeavour to become wise, in a practical way, by that which has been written for our learning in the passage of Holy Scripture which has now been read.

Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth.-His crafty and dishonest policy having been defeated, he proceeded, in the next place, to acts of open enmity and violence. "Having played the fox before," says Burkitt, "he acts the lion now." And thus it often happens, that "when fraud and subtilty fail the enemies of the church, then they fall to open rage and barbarous inhumanity."

But this act of cruelty, great and monstrous as it was, was not effectual for its purpose. The child Jesus was not destroyed, as Herod intended and hoped. The Lord had the tyrant in derision. And it is

for our comfort to reflect that the "counsel of the Lord" shall always "stand," in opposition alike to the craft and the rage of his enemies. The promise of God to his faithful people is this," Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet." Ps. xci. 13.

Herod was exceeding wroth.-The word in the original is the same as that which the Septuagint employs

to

express the rage of Haman against Mordecai. Esth. iii. 5; v. 9. To what awful lengths of wickedness are men sometimes led by the indulgence of anger! Under the influence of this evil passion, if they yield to it, they are likely to commit sins of the deepest dye. "Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous." "He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding; but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly." Prov. xxvii. 4; xiv. 29.

Herod had already received a check in his iniquitous designs by the disappointment which he had suffered. Was not this enough to divert him from his purpose? from his purpose? It might well have spoken to his conscience; and it ought to have deterred him from his crime. But no. Even the rebukes of God address themselves in vain to the heart of a hardened sin