deepened by the facts that the early church habitually converted the chief heathen festivals into Christian holidays, and that December 25th, when the sun perceptibly begins his annual meridional ascent (Dies natalis solis invincti, Birthday of the unconquered sun), closed the week of the Roman Saturnalia. But Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have become consecrated by a millennium and a half of observance, are adorned by beautiful myths and customs, and hallowed by charming and precious associations of childhood.

"Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And then, they say, no sprite can walk abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is that time."

This tradition of the day and hour when the Christchild was born is fixed in the minds and hearts of millions, it has gathered into itself the purest sweets of love and joy, and Christendom will never consent to remold the exquisite crystallization.

It is, however, well worth noting that, although throughout Christendom every official document registered Anno Domini, and every printed sheet and every letter dated by the hand of man, recognizes this eventful epoch in history, still the uncertainties involved providentially hinder its excessive veneration. Moreover, the extreme humility of the nativity in all its human aspects, together with the bare simplicity of the subsequent life in utter disregard of all pomp and circumstance, indicates disapprobation of ceremonial display in Christian observance as obscuring and demeaning its sublime spirituality.

IV

THE RECEPTION

EFORE sunset of Christmas day Joseph secured in some home in Bethlehem a more suitable retreat for his virgin wife and her babe. On the eighth day was the circumcision, a rite at once national and religious, of which the mother of the babe born under the law might say, Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness."

Mary in tears, holding her babe in her lap, is the first to be sprinkled with his blood. The officiating priest, a typical Jew, wipes his knife and washes his hands, unwilling that even his robe should be stained with that blood. "As the eastern sky catches at sunset the color of the reddened west, so Bethlehem is a prelude to Calvary, and even the infant's cradle is tinged with a reflection from the redeemer's cross."

"He, who with heaven's heraldry whilere

Entered the world, now bleeds to give us ease;
Alas, how soon our sin sore doth begin

His infancy to seize,

And seals obedience first, with wounding smart,
This day;
but oh, ere long, huge pangs and strong
Shall pierce more near his heart."

According to the instruction of the angel to Mary at the annunciation, and to Joseph in his dream, the babe was named Jesus. This is the Hebrew name Hoshea, meaning salvation, or Joshua, meaning whose salvation is Jehovah, modified through the Greek into the Latin

and English form, Jesus. In those days it was quite a common name, but though Joshua is still common, the name Jesus has become sacredly peculiar.

The forty days required for legal purification having passed, the Holy Family go to the Holy City of Jerusalem, "Taking the Lord of the Temple into the Temple of the Lord," to offer at the altar two turtle-doves, the sacrifice appointed to the poor.

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There was then in Jerusalem an old man, Simeon by name, very devout, to whom it had been promised by the Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. He was moved to come into the temple at this time, met the Holy Family, took the child Jesus in his arms, and lifting his eyes to heaven, said: "Now dost thou let thy slave, O Master, depart in peace."

Thus begins the Nunc Dimittis, in which psalm, Simeon is the first to proclaim Jesus to be the Messiah of prophecy, and a light for the unveiling of the Gentiles. Then, after blessing the parents, he told Mary that her child was set for a test of character among men, and added:

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Yea, and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul."

The sorrows of the joyful mother were not at end.

In the same hour came Anna, a prophetess, a widow of great age, who made her home in the temple and engaged in continual worship. Looking on the Christchild, she recognized him, gave thanks to God, and then published, to all who looked for the redemption of Jerusalem from the Romans, the glad tidings; whereby she became the third evangelist.

Thus, by the voice of man and woman, the new-born King was greeted with welcome to his palace.

"His throne, thy bosom blest,

O Mother undefiled;

That throne, if aught beneath the skies,

Beseems the sinless child."

The law in all righteousness being fulfilled, the family returned to the temporary home in Bethlehem.

At this time, as already stated, Herod the Great, socalled by the historian Josephus, was king at Jerusalem over all Palestine. Herod was the son of Antipater, an Idumean. The Idumeans were descendents of Esau, and dwelt south of the Dead Sea. In the year 130 B. C. they accepted Judaism as their religion, and otherwise sought to affiliate with the Jews. After the battle of Pharsalia, 48 B. C., Julius Cæsar made Antipater, who was a man of ability, procurator of Judea and a Roman citizen. Antipater appointed Herod to be governor of Galilee, who, although quite young, soon distinguished himself by the energy of his government conducted in defiance of all Jewish law and authority, and by the exercise of a ruthless severity which gave presage of his later cruelties. He gained the favor of Anthony, the triumvir of Rome, who, after the death of Antipater, made him tetrarch of Palestine. Forced to abandon Judea by the revolting Jewish Asmonean dynasty aided by the Parthians, he fled to Rome, was well received by Anthony and Octavius, and decreed by the senate King of Judea. Returning with an army, he stormed Jerusalem with great slaughter in the year 37 B. C., and reigned there for thirtythree years, a usurper of the throne of David.

Herod was a man of consummate address. Immediately after the battle of Actium, 31 B. C., wherein Anthony, his friend and ally, was defeated by Octavius, he hastened to Rhodes, and presented himself before the victor. He had not miscalculated his personal influence over the young Octavius. Instead of apologizing for his faithful adherence to Anthony, he adroitly urged it as a proof of the constancy to himself which the conqueror might expect. He returned to Judea invested anew with the diadem, and honored with marks of personal favor. It is said that next after Agrippa, the lifelong friend, counsellor and prime minister of Augustus, he, the Emperor, held Herod in highest esteem.

The confirmed king sought to ingratiate himself with his Jewish subjects in various ways, but especially by lavish expenditure on public works, in imitation of his Roman masters. He built on the coast the splendid city Cæsarea, and furnished it with a vast artificial harbor. He rebuilt the city Samaria, naming it Sebaste, the Greek for Augustus, and restored the demolished Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim. He constructed aqueducts for Jerusalem, and many other works; as, the Antonia, a fortress adjoining the temple, named from his friend Anthony, then three impregnable towers on the western wall of the city, also a magnificent palace for himself near by the towers, besides a fortified palace and a mausoleum, the Herodium, about twelve miles southeast of the city. His most famous work was the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem on a magnificent scale to vie with that of Solomon. This great work, though unfinished at the time of his death, is known in history as Herod's Temple. But along with these and other large and liberal schemes, there was a constant effort to Romanize, to liberalize and