be found in some rich chamber, lying in a soft bed; but the angel told them that he was in a very different place in a manger. This was so strange, that the sign could not be mistaken. So they went in haste to the inn at Bethlehem; and when they came to the part of the inn which was used as a stable, they found the child, just as the angels had said. There was his mother Mary, and Joseph, and there, in a manger, was the blessed child Jesus. So the shepherds were certain that this child was the Saviour; and though it must have seemed a poor place in which he was lying, yet they were so glad to have found him, that they "returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen." ""

Now this is something else which I want you to think of the place, I mean, where the infant Saviour was lying. It was a manger. When Joseph and Mary came to lodge at Bethlehem, there was no room for them in the best part of the inn; and therefore, as they were poor, and could not pay for any better lodging, they were obliged to go to that part where the beasts of burden were kept; and there Jesus was born, and there his mother put him in a manger, which was the only cradle she could find for him. Not one of you was ever laid in so poor

a cradle as this. But do you suppose that God loved Jesus the less, because he was lying on straw ? No. Well, then, do you suppose that God loves any child the less, whose parents may be poor, and who may be obliged to sleep in a mean cradle or bed, and wear coarse clothes instead of fine ones? It is not possible, is it, that God should think riches of any consequence, when he suffered his wellbeloved son Jesus to be born in poverty, and to be laid in a manger? The glory of the Lord shone as brightly round about the shepherds, and the angels of heaven sung as gladly and sweetly, as if Jesus had been lying on down, and silk, and gold, instead of on straw. Let the manger of the infant Jesus, then, as it was a sign to the shepherds, be a sign to you also. Let it be a sign to you that God loves poor children just as well as those who are not poor; and that God's angels watch over the mean cradles of poor children, just as carefully as over the handsome and comfortable cradles of those who are not poor. And let the manger of Jesus be a sign to you, never to despise poor children, and never to look down upon them as if they were beneath you; for Jesus himself was poor. He was poor when he was a child; and though he grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man,

he never grew to be rich. He was always poor.

I

say then, let his manger be a sign to you not to despise the poor, and not to be proud of any of those things which money can buy. All that God loves and regards with favor, is goodness; and goodness is something which money cannot buy. Love and respect goodness, wherever you see it, whether in a poor child or a rich one. If a child is wicked, avoid him, or reprove him, whether he is rich or poor. But do not avoid him, or behave proudly to him, merely because he is poor. Christ, your Saviour, was poor. Let his manger be a sign to you of all those things of which I have told you.

Forty days after Jesus was born, his parents brought him to the temple at Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord, according to a Jewish custom; and while they were there, a good old man, by the name of Simeon, took the child in his arms, and thanked God, and said that he was now ready to die in peace, because he had seen the Saviour of the world. And an aged prophetess, by the name of Anna, who was there, spoke also to the same purpose.

After this, some wise men from a country east of Jerusalem, came to Bethlehem, guided by a star, to see the infant Jesus. And when they found him,

they paid him great reverence, and offered him costly presents. So you see that although Jesus was born in poverty, there were good and wise people who came to visit him, as well as simple shepherds. Poverty keeps away proud and showy people, but not those who are good and wise.

At this time the king of the Jews was a proud, bad man, named Herod. When he heard that a child was born, who was to be king of the Jews, he thought that an earthly king, like himself, was meant, and therefore he was afraid that this child might take away his kingdom from him, and he was resolved to have him killed. So he charged the wise men of the east to let him know when they had found the child; for he pretended that he wished to pay him reverence likewise. But the wise men went back to their own country, without letting Herod know what he wanted; and Herod was so angry at being thus disappointed, that he ordered all the little children of Bethlehem, who were under two years of age, to be killed, in order that Jesus might be slain among them. Oh, what weeping, and wailing, and dreadful misery there was among the distracted mothers of Bethlehem, on that dark day when their little innocent children were away from them by the order of that cruel

torn

king, and all killed!

How much sorrow and woe

have been caused in the world by pride and ambition! And yet, after all this bloodshed, Herod did not gain his point; for Joseph was warned of the danger in a dream, and he took the young child Jesus and his mother, by night, and fled with them into a country many miles to the south, called Egypt, where they staid in safety till Herod died.

You see by this, that the troubles of our Saviour began very early; for while he was a tender infant, he was forced to wander from his native country. He had enemies who wished to kill him, even when he was in his cradle.

But at last Herod died; and then Joseph took the child Jesus again, and Mary his mother, and brought them back to the land of Israel. They did not stay in Bethlehem; but went on to the northern part of the Holy Land, to a city called Nazareth, which was the city where Joseph and Mary had lived before. This was a quiet place, situated on the slope of a hill, with other hills rising up all around it. Here the holy family rested in peace; and here the holy child Jesus passed the time of his childhood, among the green and silent hills, without being troubled by bad kings, who had probably now forgotten all about him. It was a fit