The just and holy Simeon, by an impulse of the Holy Ghost, saluted the child, when presented in the temple, as the light for the illumination of the Gentiles and the glory of the people Israel; as One who was set up for the fall and resurrection of many in Israel.

Anne, who was also present on this occasion and moved by a similar impulse, gave praise to the Lord, and proclaimed His coming to all those who were waiting the redemption of Israel.1

The voice of the prophet had not been heard since the days of Malachy,' but the coming of the spring was ample reward for this dreary 400 years. He appeared on earth whose name is "Wonderful," and songs of gladness broke forth on every side. The Angel Gabriel, the Blessed Virgin, Zachary and Elizabeth, the angels in the heavens, and Simeon and Anne in the temple, all with one accord proclaimed to the world the blessings in store for it—all participated in the graces of salvation that descend from Heaven to earth. Heaven itself came down with the Savior, and the hearts of the sons of earth were gladdened.

§ 35. On the So-called Development of Jesus.

Very little has reached us concerning the early life of Jesus. We know, indeed, that in order to escape from the power and suspicions of the cruel Herod, who considered Him a rival and sought to compass His death, Mary and Joseph bore Him away to Egypt. Here they remained with him for some time, till, having received warning from Heaven, they brought Him back to Nazareth,3 thus verifying in its fullest sense the prophecy of Oseas, "Out of Egypt I have called My Son." When Jesus was in His twelfth year, He graciously permitted a faint gleam of the light of His divine wisdom to be seen by the astonished Doctors.5 In His desire to sanctify every duty

1 Luke ii. 25-38.

4

2 Conf. Stolberg, pt. V., pp. 46, 47.

3 Matt. ii. 19, 20.

4 Oseas xi. 1, 3.

5 Luke ii. 46, 47.

and station of life by His own example, He, the Son of God, gave the most perfect obedience to His parents,' and, according to a very ancient tradition, aided His foster-father by working with him in the carpenter-shop.2

History tells us nothing of the years which intervened between this period and the opening of His public life.

Some have endeavored to account for the divine wisdom, the elevation of character, and holiness of life that distinguished Him at a later date by attributing the last to the influence of His mother, and the others to the learning of Pharisees, Sadducees,3 and Essenians, or to the culture introduced among the Jews from Alexandria.

4

The historical account representing Christ as the Son of God was in this way entirely misconceived, and all attempts to explain away the miracles of His life only contributed to make any satisfactory solution of it more difficult. For what Jew or Pagan has ever given evidence of such wisdom, purity of soul, and majesty of character as belonged to the life of Jesus? Christian painters, whose minds were more in harmony with facts, correctly represented the child Jesus surrounded by a halo of light, whose rays shed their glory upon all surrounding objects; and the Fathers of the Church," with equal truthfulness, affirmed that the accounts which tell us that Jesus grew in age and wisdom and grace, are but evidences that these attributes became more and more manifest as He increased in years and bodily strength.7

6

§ 36. St. John the Baptist-His Mission.s

When the time for the coming of the Messiah had drawn near, an angel announced to the blameless and holy priest,

1Luke ii. 51.

2 Mark vi. 3.

3 Against this, John vii. 15.

* Conf. Hug, Introd. into the N. T., Vol. I., p. 102-105. 3 ed.

5Lieber on the growth of Jesus in wisdom. Ratisbon, 1850. Compare, on the other hand, Mattes in the Hildesheim Theolog. Monthly, July and August numbers of 1850.

6 Luke ii. 40, 52.

Conf. Luke ii. 46 and 47.

8 Mack, John the Baptist's latter fate. (Tübg. Quarterly, 1838, p. 256 sq.)

Zachary, that his wife Elizabeth, a cousin of Mary's, though barren, should, by the power of God, bring forth a son, who should be great before the Lord, and whose name should be John (13-Johanan-grace of God); that he should be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb, and convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and that he should go before Him (the Savior of the world) in the spirit and power of Elias, to prepare for the Lord a perfect people.1

Inspired by a holy enthusiasm, Elizabeth saluted Mary as Mother of God, and the latter replied in the sublime words of the Magnificat, in which she exultingly foretells the glories of the Kingdom of the Son of God, "From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." 2

4

There was an almost universal belief among the Jews, founded upon an ancient prophecy,3 that before the coming of the Messiah, Elias would return to prepare the way before Him. This prophecy was fulfilled in John, who, as the Precursor of the Messiah, went before Him in the spirit and power of Elias. When John was thirty years of age, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, he appeared, according to a Jewish custom, as a teacher of the people.

As had been predicted, the austere prophet came clad in a garment of camel's hair, and feeding upon locusts and wild honey, and going into the desert of Judea, near the Jordan, he preached the baptism of penance, saying: "Do penance, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. There is One in the midst of you whom you know not. He comes after me, but

6

Science, poetry, and art vied with each other in celebrating the glories of the stern preacher of penance. See Rousseau's "Purple Violets of the Saints," Vol. V., p. 88–123.

1 Luke i. 5-17.

2 Luke i. 39-56.

3 Malachy iv. 5, 6.

* Matt. xvii. 10; Mark ix. 10; Luke i. 17; John i. 21.

5 Luke i. 17.

6 Matt. iii. 2.

VOL. I-10

He was before me, and is greater than I am." And again: "Now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that yieldeth not good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire."

John, in order to introduce the Jews by easy steps into the kingdom of the Lord, baptized them with water, thus giving to the rite of lustration, with which they were perfectly acquainted, a symbolical significance. This baptism,1 as John explained to them, was typical of that interior purity of heart and soul necessary to the whole people before they could fully appreciate the meaning of the kingdom of God. The baptism was of a piece with his preaching. It was ßantiopòs βαπτισμὸς μετανοίας.

The kingdom of God announced by John was not, as the great bulk of the people had expected, one whose object would be temporal power and greatness, but, on the contrary, one whose aim was distinctly moral and religious.

He announced that a change of heart, and not descent from Abraham, would avail to participate in the blessings of this kingdom. "Think not," he said, "to say within yourselves that we have Abraham for our father, for I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham." 2

Although such speech may have greatly astonished the Jews of that age, still the divine mission with which he was charged, and which he proved by the power and truth of his words, gained him great influence among the people and insured a full recognition of his authority.

His humility, however, prevented him from putting too high an estimate upon the dignity of his office, and served to point out more definitely Him who had been before him, the

1At an earlier period, Buxtorf, in his lexicon Talmud. p. 408; Lightfoot, Schoettgen, Wetstein, and others, in their comment. on St. Matthew, 3, 6, pretended that this baptism of St. John had been an imitation of the baptism of the Jewish proselytes. More recently, doubts have arisen relative to the great antiquity of the baptism of the proselytes. Conf. Döllinger, the Jew and the Gentile, p. 807.

2 Matt. iii. 9, 10.

Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world,' who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire,2 the latchet of whose shoes he was not worthy to loose.3

3

Even Jesus came to receive baptism at his hands, and the miraculous circumstance which accompanied the event gave John the fullest assurance that This was the Messiah whom he had announced. The Eternal Father, too, by a voice from Heaven, recognized Him as His Well-beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit peacefully descended upon Him in the form of a dove; and thus the Holy Trinity was proclaimed to man.1 John also unhesitatingly declared that henceforth he must decrease as the morning star fades and disappears before the rising sun.5

John, in his character of representative of God, dealt out even-handed justice, and was an entire stranger to all human respect. He severely reproached the hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees: "Ye brood of vipers, who hath showed you to flee from the wrath to come?" and also the tetrarch Herod: "It is not lawful for thee to have the wife of thy brother." 99 7

He was a burning and a shining lamp, in whose light many desired to walk without being willing to make the necessary change of mind; he was not a reed shaken by the wind, and could not, therefore, sanction the fickle humors of certain classes, or those who represented them. Christ Himself declared that he was the greatest of those born of women, the last of the prophets; 10 he, however, unlike them, did not put off to an indefinite future the amelioration which he promised, but

1 John ii. 29.

2 Matt. iii. 11; Luke iii. 16.

3 John i. 27.

4 Matt. iii. 13–17.

5 John iii. 30.

6 Matt. iii. 7.

7 Matt. xiv. 4.

8 John v. 35.

9 Matt. xi. 11.

10 Matt. xi. 9.

9