THE CHURCH.

"Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."-Eph. ii. 20.

FEBRUARY, 1856.

THE VISIT OF THE MAGI TO BETHLEHEM.

BY THE REV. EDWARD white.

Notes on Matthew ii. 1-11.

The history of Herod is given in fearful detail by Josephus in the fourteenth and fifteenth books of his Antiquities. He obtained the kingdom from Mark Antony, on a visit to Rome, in his thirty-fifth year. After receiving it, he returned to Palestine; assaulted Antigonus, the last of the Asmoneans; besieged Jerusalem with his mercenaries, and took it with tremendous slaughter; established himself on the throne; married Mariamne, the Asmonean princess, the most beautiful woman of her time; made her brother Alexander high priest at the age of nineteen built a magnificent palace, with groves and gardens, on Mount Zion rebuilt the temple; erected the castle of "Antonía, at its northern extremity; and fortified the whole country, from Dan to Beersheba. His reign of nearly forty years was a long succession of the most atrocious crimes. His character seems to have been a compound of that of Nero and of Henry VIII. He put to death Mariamne and her children, and married six wives in succession. He sat upon the throne of Judah like the vicegerent of Satan himself, casting the black shadow of his wickedness over the whole territory which groaned beneath his sway.

It was almost at the end of his reign, when Herod was an old man, his face scarred and reddened with the passions of a wicked lifetime, that the Magi arrived from the distant east at Jerusalem, with the spirit-stirring news that they had seen the star of the long-expected Jewish Messiah hovering in the western sky, and had come to worship him. A star had of old been used as the symbol of a king and a god, both in the Egyptian hieroglyphics and in the poetry of Asia. It had been so employed also in the Hebrew prophecies which foretold the birth of David's Son, and,, indeed, was the fittest emblem to denote his presence on the earth, who was "the bright and morning Star," descended from heaven to irradiate the dark abodes of night and death below. Ignatius tells us, as a tradition, in one of his epistles, that this star was "exceedingly brilliant, its light was inexpressible,”—shining like a splinter of the sun, rather than with pale beams from the distant sky. In the east the Magi had seen it, and, moved by God, had departed on a pilgrimage to visit in his cradle the future Lord of Asia and the World. Other objects besides business or amusement may well move men to distant journeying: to visit the seats of ancient wisdom, or the places consecrated by the residence of departed greatness, much more to form an acquaintance with living wisdom and living greatness. The queen of Sheba shall "rise up in the

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judgment" to condemn those for whom every walk is too long which leads them only to worship or instruction, and no journey too remote which promises an idle pastime at the end.

The hoary tyrant was frightened at the sound of his Rival's Name,a rival not of his family,—and his immediate thought was to assist the Magi in ascertaining his birth-place, in order that he might kill him. With this view he assembled at once the statesmen and divines of Jerusalem in his palace on Zion, where, years before, Mariamne had walked in her pride. We can imagine the aged demon-king enthroned under a canopy of state, with crimson visage, and anxious, wicked eye, surrounded by his guards; before him the Jewish high priests and learned scribes, adorned in their long robes and phylacteries, while the monarch proposes to them the momentous question, WHERE THE MESSIAH SHOULD BE BORN? Some of the wise men of our own times would have answered him, that all prophecy is unintelligible before the event. But they answered, and rightly, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for thus it is written by the prophet." Places are truly famous or great according to the quality of the men that inhabit them, or who have been born there. A great man's residence or memory glorifies a locality. Bethlehem was "great in the eyes of the Lord," because out of it should come the Ruler of all the thousands of Israel. Territorial magnitude sinks down as a claim to distinction before the magnitude of illustrious events. Thus, then, is this "little world" the Bethlehem of the universe, a village in creation, yet the birth-place of the King of Glory. The greatest events do not occur in the largest worlds.

Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, enquired of them diligently (accurately) what time the star appeared. These vehement attempts of Herod to get at the truth of the facts of Christianity, in order that he might found thereon his murderous endeavours, offer to us a lesson of at least equal diligence with a better aim. Bad men, for their own ends, endeavour to penetrate the secrecy of God, who, nevertheless, .hides the true light within impenetrable clouds. He wraps it in darkness as a swaddling-band, and suffers its beams to shine only where he pleases. See here the different degrees of knowledge as to what was passing on the earth. The Angels knew most, then Joseph and Mary, then the Shepherds, then the Magi, and then Herod.

When they heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. The broken thread of divine communication is always restored for the friends of truth. Here were, first, the star seen in the east, which had led them to Palestine, and then disappeared; secondly, at Jerusalem the prophecy respecting Bethlehem had been rightly inter preted; and now, thirdly, the star appeared again as they travelled to the sacred home of the Incarnate Word. It stood directly over the place where the young child was. Thus God never leaves his church without witness. Guiding stars are given that God's elect shall never lose their way, and clearest lights to those who take the longest journeys in the search for love divine.

This "place" was no longer the stable, for it was "two years " since the star had first appeared. Joseph was no doubt working as a carpenter in Bethlehem, and had settled there under the impression that it was to be his permanent abode. The place then which the Magi with their burdens visited we may rightly conceive to have been a cottage, a humble peasant's home, on the white slope on which the Village stands. They enter-not a little to the surprise of the inmates. The house, bearing perhaps many traces of the craft and skill of its master, is pervaded by

an air of order and sanctity. The working man who lives here is no mere drunken, swearing, infidel operative; but beneath the mechanic's+ coat there dwells a princely soul. He is the lineal descendant of kings and righteous men. There, too, is Mary, a young woman, not destitute of the indelible traces of high descent in mien and aspect,-yet withal a peasant, and a peasant's wife. But it is "the Holy Child" whom they have come to visit. May we venture to imagine HIM? Jesus was now two years old. Not yet "the man of sorrows," and "marred more than any man." He sits enthroned on Mary's knee, in the bloom and beauty of earliest childhood. The curly hair, the broken speech of infancy, are here, as everywhere; but the eye, the forehead, and the expression of the sinless countenance, must have been peculiar to him. Here, then, the young disguised King of men and angels receives unconsciously the homage of the eastern sages,-"Wise men" to seek after and to follow every trace of a divine revelation to this miserable earth; "wise" to discern the beauty of the Rose of Sharon, even when folded and hidden in the bud of infancy; and "wise" to pour out the homage of devout and learned souls at the feet of that eternal Lord, before whom, so shortly, millions will cast their crowns upon the sapphire pavement, while the heaven of heavens resounds with cries of "Worthy is the Lamb!" Tribute from Asia they offer at his feet, as the outward expression of inward reverence and thankfulness, the gold and frankincense of the wealthy oriental world. And who can doubt that Mary, who "laid up in her heart" the sayings of the temple-saints, and the report of the shepherds concerning the descent of heaven itself in splendour and in songs on the surrounding hills at his birth-night, would lay up also in her most secret cabinet these Gentile offerings from the distant east, which were rendered while as yet Israel knew him not?

What high and holy communion in few words they held with Mary over the holy child we do not know. Their conference with Herod shows that they understood the language of the country sufficiently to hold communication,-and doubtless they would express to Mary their viewsof her honour and blessedness, as the mother of the great predicted KING, whom Asia and the isles should one day all obey. And shall we pronounce that such expressions were of a sinful or idolatrous character, unfitted to be uttered by them, or to be received by her? With what wonder must they have looked upon her! with how much more wonder, in her more conscious hours, must she have thought upon herself! To this young mother, not long ago, the angel Gabriel, clothed in heaven's glory, had appeared at Nazareth, with the first AVE MARIA, “Hail! highly favoured! Blessed art thou among women!" - And, though clothed✨ herself with humility and maidenly reserve, from her own lips had burst the inspired loud-exulting Magnificat, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour! He hath beholden the low estate of his handmaiden; for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed!"

With this divine and angelic sanction, can we wonder if succeeding ages have looked back upon her memory with a holy, mingled feeling of gratulation and delight? With the growth of the church's understanding of the majesty of Christ, has grown the understanding of her blessedness. But, standing among the Magi at Bethlehem, gazing upon her humble countenance, irradiated by so divine a gleam of awe and thankfulness, who could have foretold her subsequent history? What is it? Pass on in thought a thousand or twelve hundred years, and read with wonder that history of the Nazarene maiden. To all Christendom she had become the Queen of Heaven! She was conceived of as seated beside the throne

of Jehovah on high. All Europe and its scattered colonies worshipped her, as, in fact, the chief and most availing mediator between God and man. The calendar still flashes forth the lustre of her name in our "Lady's-day." From the Atlantic to the remotest bounds of Christendom cathedrals and parish churches without number became the seats of her adoration, while lamps in millions have burned through centuries before her shrines. To beseech her patronage and intercession in heaven ten thousand choirs pour forth their loftiest harmonies. Before her statues and pictures the living multitudes bend in silent or vocal worship. To her flies the pope as to his Queen, his loving Mother, his Rock, and his Refuge. To her scarlet cardinals direct their prayers. To her uncounted thousands of learned priests from every land address their morning and their evening song. In her honour the peasants on the Swiss lakes chant at nightfall their Ave Santissima, and the veiled nun repeats her solemn lay. To portray her imagined features the art of a thousand years Breathes forth on canvas its glowing inspirations, and suborns the pencils of Raffaelle and Murillo. And, finally, to exalt her to the highest pinacle of greatness, at length, in our own day, a Roman council in solemn Session declares that she was sinless, a spotless lily blooming in the wilderness of this sinful world!

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Now, whence all this world of worship offered to Mary the mother of Jesus"? Surely such an outpouring of world-wide passion bespeaks some sentiment of want deeply hidden in the human soul. Whence? since such honours were never mentioned in the prophecies,—since the New Testament utters not one word on her exaltation to the office of a mediator,-since, on the only occasion of her interference on earth, her Son rebuked her with, Woman, what have I to do with thee? How was it that Mary became the goddess of Greek and Roman Christendom? The answer is not far to seek. It sprang from a profound yearning wakened by Christianity itself in the world, the want of friendship and affection in the heavens,-a yearning after tenderness on high. The Human heart, breaking under the burdens of the outward sufferings of life and death, and still more agonized by the inward woes of a guilty conscience, and by dread of judgment to come, longs to find repose in some heavenly power that can "be touched with a feeling of its infirmities." When the revealed character of God in Christ was forgotten, as "the God of all grace," it was inevitable that some substitute should be found; and what thought more natural, when once the true doctrine of mediation was perverted, than that recourse should be had to her whose salvation was so certain, whose honour was so distinguished, and whose relationship to the ascended Redeemer was so near, to that mild and affectionate Madonna, who once knew what poverty and the most exquisite suffering were on earth, and who could now be depended on in the heavens for earnest advocacy there? "She, to whom nothing will be refused, will prevail upon her Son, who will prevail upon his Father, to grant mercy to sinners upon earth." It was not long after the apostles left the world before the two great truths which they had laboured to proclaim among all nations were obscured under the thickening clouds of superstition and religious terror. The first of these truths was on the nature of God, the second on the doctrine of mediation. They taught that in the One God reside all the attributes of tenderness and gentleness as well as of majesty and strength. They taught both the Fatherhood and the Motherhood of God-that great fact which all nature by its double constitution symbolizes. Adam was first formed, then Eve; but Eve as well as Adam came forth from God, and the two together reflected the Divine image. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. With God reside all

those qualities in one eternal essence, which are distributed and faintly reflected among all the creatures of his hand. With Him is "terrible majesty." "God thundereth marvellously with his voice." "The Lord is a Man of war." With Him all qualities of yearning affection and tenderest love. The Roman Catholics are accustomed to say to Protestant christians, "You have a Father, but you have no Mother." This witness is not true; for it is our God who says to us, "As ONE WHOM HIS MOTHER COMFORTETH, SO WILL I COMFORT YOU (Isaiah lxvi. 13). It is only the prevalence of a corrupt theology which conceals the real tenderness of God. Christ was his image. Every man deserving of the name has in him something of the delicacy and tenderness of woman; and every woman worthy of her sex something of the strength of the man. In Christ all that is admirable in both was conjoined. The language of his Spirit was, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." "I was gentle among you as a nurse. "He took the little children in his arms and blessed them. "How often," said he to Jerusalem, "would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.' There was that in Him which could find companionship in the humble affection of Mary and Martha, and of the women which "ministered unto him of their substance." This was "God manifest in the flesh." In Him the Divine majesty and might shone forth in power which abashed the proudest forms of evil, and in speech which struck the soldiers to the ground. But in Him also was all that is best in feminine delicacy, sympathy, and compassion. Never was a harp so finely strung. Never was a heart so profoundly touched by the spectacle of misery. Do we admire this in those "honourable women" who have moved like angels of mercy among the wounded at Scutari? See it in the Virgin's Son! Yes, this is the image of the invisible God. We need no gentler Mary in the heavens to mollify the heart of God, or sway the will of Christ to mercy. Jesus is already there, the " same yesterday, to day, and for ever," the "merciful and compassionate High Priest, who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities." There is no inexpressible yearning of the heart after heavenly sympathy felt by the Roman adorers of Mary, when they turn in their grief and weakness to the compassionate Madonna, which may not find all that it longs for in a right belief concerning the lovingkindness of God in Christ. "The hairs of your head are all numbered.' "In everything make known your requests unto God." "Pour out your hearts before Him ye people." "9 "God is a refuge for us." "When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." "Ye are not straitened in me, ye are straitened in your own affections," for "God is love, and he that loveth not knoweth not God." The Jesus that spent his life in acts of tenderness and in words of comfort, that wept over Jerusalem, and 66 99 wept at the grave of Lazarus his friend, the Jesus who "suffered, being tempted," and, amid strong cries and tears, and a baptism of blood, "learned obedience" and sympathy, has been "exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour," to "have compassion on the ignorant,' and to unite the irresistible power of omnipotence with all the softness of a mother's love.

But the world's recourse to Mary has been founded not only upon ignorance of the revealed character of Christ, but on a total and practical denial of the true doctrine of mediation with God. The mind of God never required an external inducement to be reconciled to sinners. The reconciliation has proceeded from Himself. Christ came forth from God. It is God who has "reconciled the world unto himself by Jesus Christ,' who by one offering hath "perfected for ever them that are sanctified." The