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And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule My people Israel." So clearly had the words of the prophet Micah fixed the place wherein the Messiah should be born. And upon this Herod took false and crafty counsel against the Lord and against His Anointed: he had zeal on his lips, but hate in his heart: he professed to seek to worship, in truth he sought but to slay. "Then Herod, when he had privily called. the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found Him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship Him also." Surely there is no sight, on this side of the grave, more awful than that of a bad man making religion a cloak for his sinful purposes. Such was Herod, weakly and wickedly thinking by human craft or human power to set aside the eternal purpose of Almighty God, to frustrate that which a long line of God's prophets had borne witness to, and the earnest expectation of the faithful in all ages had looked for. "When they had 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." Thus did Almighty God by miracle guide them who sought their infant Saviour with true and faithful hearts. "And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary His mother, and fell down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.” And as God had thus revealed to them His Son, so did He forbid them to make Him known unto Herod. "And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way." And Almighty God straightway withdrew from the power of Herod Him whom he sought to slay. Doubtless Almighty God (had He so thought fit) might, by a word, have restrained the rage of the king; but God was pleased in this, as in other of His purposes, to work by human means. And the rage of Herod, which sought to frustrate the prophecies which went before of Christ, did but cause them to be brought to pass, even in the very letter. "And when they were departed, behold, the angel of

the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him. Then he arose, and took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt: and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My Son." Thus God withdrew from the jealous wrath of Herod the one object of his fear; and the deed of cruelty which followed was as vain as it was wanton. In the words of this day's gospel, "Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." So great was the wailing of the bereaved mothers, when this cruel order took

effect, that now was fulfilled wholly, what had been but in part fulfilled in the times of the captivity. Rama was a village in the tribe of Benjamin (the son of Rachel), not far from Bethlehem, and, as the massacre extended not only to Bethlehem, but also to the coasts thereof, it may have extended even to Rama, and so Rachel might well be said to weep for her own children, thus cruelly slain in the city near which her own body was buried; and, as she had been a type of the sorrowing Hebrew mothers in the times of the captivity, so might she well be a type of the sorrow of the bereaved mothers now, upon whom the blow must have fallen alike sudden and unexpected. They wept for their children thus cut off by the sword in their very sight, and they wept with natural sorrow, such as God pardons, and man may not condemn. And yet, so far as they wept for their children, their tears had no just cause: God took them unto Himself, and so took them away from the evil to come; before they could know actual sin, He set His seal upon them as His own, holy and blessed, albeit all-unconscious, martyrs for His Son. How happy such a death, to die for Christ, and in the place of Christ, even when yet too young to know Christ, or to call

upon His Name. They were not of age to confess Christ, yet they were of age to die for Christ. And the same merciful Saviour who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven: and He took them up in His arms, laid His hands upon them, and blessed them :" the same, we may not doubt, received and blessed these His first martyrs, "embraced them with the arms of His mercy, gave unto them the blessing of eternal life, and made them partakers of His everlasting kingdom." Even as in the latter days of His ministry He despised not, He rejected not the witness of the "children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David,” yea, rather, He blessed it, and sanctioned it, and pointed to it, as the fulfilment of ancient prophecy, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise." He unto whom "all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein," He unto whom "cherubim and seraphim continually do cry," He put not from Him the lisping voice, the broken words of childhood: how then may we not much more believe that He regarded with His special and tender love the sufferings of infants, called by His providence and grace,

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