is the fairest of all flowers.* The most beautiful of all the things said of Him before His coming, was by the prophet Isaias: "A Child is born to us, and a Son is given to us; and the government is upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace."+

But before this Divine Child was born, one was sent to prepare the way for Him, to preach about Him, and to tell men that they must make ready for His coming. This messenger, or forerunner, was one of the greatest Saints of the old law, St. John the Baptist. His mother, St. Elizabeth, was a cousin of our Blessed Lady, of the family of Aaron. She was married to St. Zachary, who was one of the Jewish priests, and a very holy man. They were very old, and had no children. The priests took it by turns to offer incense in the temple, and while they went in, the people remained praying outside in the court of the temple. One day when St. Zachary went, as usual, to offer incense, a very wonderful thing happened to him:

"There appeared to him an Angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

And Zachary seeing him, was troubled; and fear fell upon him: But the Angel said to him: Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard: and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son; and thou shall call his name John;

And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth:

For he shall be great before the Lord; and shall drink no wine nor strong drink: and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb:

And he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God:

And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias; that he may turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare for the Lord a perfect people.

* "Thou art fairer than the children of men." These same expressions, as will be obvious to all, are also used of our Blessed Lady. It is not unusual to find the same words applied to our Lord, His Blessed Mother, and the Church.

Isaias ix. 6.

t

And Zachary said to the Angel: Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.

And the Angel answering, said to him: I am Gabriel* who stand before God; and am sent to speak to thee, and to bring thee these good tidings.

And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be able to speak until the day wherein these things shall come to pass; because thou hast not believed my words, which shall be fulfilled in their time.

And the people were waiting for Zachary: and they wondered that he staid so long in the temple.

And when he came out, he could not speak to them: and they understood that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he made signs to them, and remained dumb.

And it came to pass, after the days of his office were accomplished, that he departed to his own house.-(St. Luke i.)

Very soon afterwards he knew that he and St. Elizabeth would have a son.

And then there was a much greater miracle still. When we say the Rosary, and are going to begin the joyful mysteries, the first that comes is the Annunciation. The Angel Gabriel came to Our Lady, and said: "Hail! full of grace. He came into her little room at Nazareth to tell her that she was to be the Mother of God. Up to the age of thirteen she had lived in the Temple, where she gave herself up to the service of God and His priests. She was then espoused to her cousin St. Joseph, and went to live with him at Nazareth, though she always kept her vow of virginity. They were both, though very poor and unknown, of the royal family of David, and through Booz and Ruth were descended from Abraham. This is why Our Lady is so often called "the Rod of Jesse,"† who was the father of David. St. Joseph was a carpenter and blacksmith‡at Nazareth, and he took Our Lady to live there, probably because it was the humblest and most despised city of the Holy Land. We can easily picture to ourselves the little house of Nazareth, and the beautiful Angel suddenly appearing in Mary's room, when she

This Archangel seems to have had a particular charge over the Jewish nation.
Jesse, or Isai.
A worker in iron, as a passage in St. Ambrose declares.

was praying, or while at work, uniting her soul to God by holy thoughts. This was six months after the same Angel had appeared to St. Zachary.

grace,

To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the name of the virgin was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said to her: Hail, full of the Lord is with thee: Blessed art thou among women. And when she had heard, she was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the Angel said to her: Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found grace with God:

Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son; and thou shalt call His Name Jesus.

He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father: and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever,

And of His kingdom there shall be no end.

And Mary said to the Angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man?

And the Angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee; and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.

And, behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren:

Because no word shall be impossible with God.

And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word. And the Angel departed from her. (St. Luke i.)

Nine months passed away after this, and that wonderful and beautiful feast, the Nativity of Our Lord, which we celebrate at Christmas with the utmost joy, and for which we prepare by the holy season of Advent, was now at hand. Every year, during Advent, the Church calls upon us to "look up and lift up our heads, for our redemption draweth nigh." In the most beautiful and touching of her antiphons, or anthems, she draws our attention to the approaching Saviour; to the almost incredible fact of the Creator contained within the womb of His creature, and to the unspeakable love which brought about the stupendous mystery of the Incarnation. "Let the earth open, and let the Saviour spring forth!" "Beholding from afar off, lo! I see the power of God coming and touching the whole earth. Go before Him, and say: Declare unto us if Thou art He Who should reign over the people Israel. Whoever is of the earth, and a child of man, at once both rich and poor, go before Him and say: Thou, Who rulest Israel, hear; Who leadest Joseph like a flock, declare to us if Thou art He. Take away your gates, O princes, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in; Who should reign over the people Israel."

When God looked down upon the world from His Throne in Heaven, at this time, He beheld the vast heathen Empire of Rome stretching over the greater part of the known world. It had been made an Empire by Julius Cæsar fifty-five years before,

and his successor was named Augustus Cæsar, in whose reign Jesus was born. The Romans had conquered the Holy Land, and sent a Roman Governor there, named Pontius Pilate. They had also made a stranger, an Idumean, Herod the Great, king; so that the Jews were quite subject and oppressed. The prophets had foretold that when they were so, the Messias would come.

They knew this, but they scarcely thought of Him. They loved money, and fine things, and pleasure; and when they did wish for the Messias, they thought of Him as an earthly King, not as their Redeemer and Saviour.

All the rest of the world was sunk in sin. Every day when the sun rose, it shone upon men quarrelling, fighting, hating, and killing one another. Here they were disputing about money, there about who should be the greatest. In one place they were drinking and gambling, in another offering incense to their false gods, or honouring them by shameful practices of sin. From sunrise to sunset no one thought about God; no one served Him; no one loved Him. For four thousand years He had borne with the world, and now instead of destroying and burning it up, He sent His Only Begotten Son to die for it.

The Emperor, Augustus Cæsar, ordered all the Jews to go to register their names in different towns of Judea, according to the families to which they belonged; Mary and Joseph went among the rest. This took them from Nazareth to Bethlehem, to which they belonged, and there Our Lord was born.

"And it came to pass that in those days there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled. And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; because he was of the house and family of David, To be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, who was with child.

And it came to pass, that when they were there her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her First-born Son, and wrapped Him up in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.-(St. Luke ii.)