to do right; and that if able to read story-books and to talk, they are also able to read their Bibles and pray. Let them remember, that they are accountable to God, even while they are yet young, and that it is written that God "heard the voice of a lad." (Gen. xxi. 17.) Happy indeed are those families in which the children" seek the Lord early," and cost their parents no tears. Happy are those parents who can say of their boys and girls, when absent from them, "I can trust my children that they will not wilfully run into sin."

Let us, in the last place, draw from this passage, an example for all true Christians. We have it in the solemn words which our Lord addressed to His mother Mary, when she said to Him, "Son, why hast thou dealt with us thus ?"-"Wist ye not," was the reply, "that I must be about my father's business." A mild reproof was evidently implied in that reply. It was meant to remind His mother, that He was no common person, and had come into the world to do no common work. was a hint, that she was insensibly forgetting that He had come into the world in no ordinary way, and that she could not expect Him to be ever dwelling quietly at Nazareth. It was a solemn remembrancer that, as God, He had a Father in heaven, and that this heavenly Father's work demanded His first attention.

It

The expression is one that ought to sink down deeply into the hearts of all Christ's people. It should supply them with a mark at which they should aim in daily life, and a test by which they should try their habits and conversation. It should quicken them when they begin to be slothful. It should check them when they feel

G

inclined to go back to the world. "Are we about our Father's business? Are we walking in the steps of Jesus Christ ?"-Such questions will often prove very humbling, and make us ashamed of ourselves. But such questions are eminently useful to our souls. Never is a Church in so healthy a condition as when its believing members aim high, and strive in all things to be like Christ.

NOTES. LUKE II. 41–52.

42.-[Twelve years old.] This age appears to have been regarded by the Jews as a kind of turning point out of the state of childhood. Lightfoot quotes a saying from one of the Rabbinical writers: 66 Let a man deal gently with his son, till he comes to be twelve years old; but from that time let him descend with him into his way of living, that is, let him diligently keep him close to that way, rule, and act, by which he may get his living."

44. [Company] The word so translated is only used in this place. It specially means a company of persons on a journey.

[Supposing...went a day's journey.] An explanation of this is given by Bede, in a passage quoted by Corderius. He says it was the custom in going to and returning from Jewish feasts, for the men to walk by themselves, and the women by themselves. In this way Joseph might easily "suppose" that Jesus was with Mary, and Mary "suppose" that He was with Joseph. 46.-[After three days.] Bishop Hall remarks, "Where wert thou, O blessed Jesus, for the space of these three days? Where didst thou bestow thyself, or who tended thee, while thou wert thus alone in Jerusalem ?-Whether it pleased thee to exercise thyself thus early with the difficulties of a stranger, or to provide miraculously for thyself, I inquire not, since thou revealest not. Only this I know, that hereby thou intendest to teach thy parents that thou couldest live without them, and that not out of any indigency, but out of a gracious dispensation, thou wouldest ordinarily depend upon their care."

[Sitting in...midst of...doctors, &c.] The common expression, "Christ disputing with the doctors," is utterly destitute of foundation in this passage. It conveys an improper and incorrect idea, and ought to be discouraged among Christians. There is not the slightest trace in the account before us of any "dispute" at all.

48.-[Why hast thou dealt with us thus.] There is evidence of infirmity in this language of the Virgin Mary to our Lord. She seems here, as on other occasions, to have shown herself to be like other holy women,-a being who needed a Saviour herself, and therefore unable to save others.

49.—[About my Father's business.] These words so translated would admit of being rendered, "in my Father's house," and many commentators are strongly in favour of that sense being given to them. But, on the whole, our own English translation seems the best and most comprehensive. The proposed translation cramps and limits our Lord's words, by confining their application to one thing, "my father's house." The translation "my father's business" embraces a far wider range of thought, and is more in keeping with the general depth and fulness of our Lord's sayings.

51.-[was subject.] The words imply a continual habit during His residence at Nazareth, and not a single isolated act, 52. [Increased in wisdom and stature.] A sentence from Poole's Annotations on this subject, is worth reading: "If any ask how He who was the eternal wisdom of the Father, who is the only one God, increased in wisdom, they must know that all things in Scripture which are spoken of Christ, are not spoken with respect to His entire Person, but with respect to the one or other nature united in that Person. He increased in wisdom, as He did in age or stature, with respect to His human, not His divine nature. And as God daily magnified His grace and favour towards Him, so He gained Him favour with the unrighteous and people of Galilee."

LUKE III. 1-6.

1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judæa, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituræa and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,

2 Annas and Caiaphas being the High Priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

3 And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of

sins.

4 As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;

6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

THESE verses describe the beginning of the Gospel of Christ. It began with the preaching of John the Baptist.

The Jews could never say, that when Messiah came, He came without notice or preparation. He graciously sent a mighty forerunner before His face, by whose ministry the attention of the whole nation was awakened.

Let us notice first, in this passage, the wickedness of the times when Christ's Gospel was brought into the world. The opening verses of the chapter tell us the names of some who were rulers and governors in the earth, when the ministry of John the Baptist began. It is a melancholy list, and full of instruction. There is hardly a name in it which is not infamous for wickedness. Tiberius, and Pontius Pilate, and Herod, and his brother, and Annas, and Caiaphas, were men of whom we know little or nothing but evil. The earth seemed given into the hands of the wicked. (Job ix. 24.) When such were the rulers, what must the people have been ?-Such was the state of things when Christ's forerunner was commissioned to begin preaching. Such were the times when the first foundation of Christ's church was brought out and laid. We may truly say, that God's ways are not our ways.

Let us learn never to despair about the cause of God's truth, however black and unfavourable its prospects may appear. At the very time when things seem hopeless, God may be preparing a mighty deliverance. At the very season when Satan's kingdom seems to be triumphing, the "little stone, cut without hands," may be on the point of crushing it to pieces. The darkest hour of the night is often that which just precedes the day.

Let us beware of slacking our hands from any work of God, because of the wickedness of the times, or the number and power of our adversaries. "He that observ

eth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." (Eccles. xi. 4.) Let us work on, and believe that help will come from heaven, when it is most wanted. In the very hour when a Roman emperor, and ignorant priests, seemed to have everything at their feet, the Lamb of God was about to come forth from Nazareth, and set up the beginnings of His kingdom. What He has done once, He can do again. In a moment He can turn His church's midnight into the blaze of noon day.

Let us notice, secondly, in this passage, the account which St. Luke gives of the calling of John the Baptist into the ministry. We are told that, "the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias." He received a special call from God to begin preaching and baptizing. A message from heaven was sent to his heart, and under the impulse of that message, he undertook his marvellous work.

There is something in this account which throws great light on the office of all ministers of the Gospel. It is an office which no man has a right to take up, unless he has an inward call from God, as well as an outward call from man. Visions and revelations from heaven, of course we have no right to expect. Fanatical claims to special gifts of the Spirit must always be checked and discouraged. But an inward call a man must have, before he puts his hand to the work of the ministry. The word of God must "come to him," as really and truly as it came to John the Baptist, before he undertakes to "come to the word." In short, he must be able to profess with a good conscience, that he is "inwardly moved by