have no worldly glory. We have not to look at Christ through a gold cloak, nor to see the dazzle of epaulettes or swords; we have not to wait till he has put off the robes of state, before we see him. There is nothing between us and his beautiful character. We have not to ask whether it is the pure water that is so sweet, or the cup out of which we are drinking it, that makes it taste so good. How little did Christ borrow of earth in order to make men love and admire him! We do not know whether he was tall or short. We do not know the colour of his hair, the dress that he wore, the expression of his face; we do not know anything about him, except that he came here and was found in a manger, with no heart but that of Mary to thrill at his birth. He would be loved-not for what he had of earth, not for the glory of a throne, nor the honours which he bestowed on others, but loved for his own sake; for what he was, and is, and ever will be.

2. He came by the way of the lowly cradle, to show the poor what they can be and do.

The parents of Christ were very poor. The pictures all make Joseph to be walking beside Mary on an ass with the babe in her arms, as they fled to go down into Egypt; but I am not sure that it was so. I do not know but that they walked, and carried the infant in their arms. They were poor,—and when they brought their little son into the temple, they brought the poor man's offering,-a pair of doves; thus showing us that the poor man may bring his little child

to God and dedicate it to him, and that he will be just as acceptable as the man who has uncounted gold. Sometimes poor people say they cannot go and worship God on the Sabbath, because they have no clothes; and poor children sometimes say that they cannot go to the Sundayschool, because they have not clothes good enough. This is not a right feeling. This is not like Christ. The clothes in which he was wrapped in the manger were, perhaps, of a very common kind; and when he was brought to the temple to be dedicated to God, he was not dressed in gay clothing. Nothing of this kind was needed to recommend him to God. And let me assure my little reader, that, if he has fine clothes. and a beautiful home, and nobody trying to kill him, he is better off than Christ was, but he has no reason to feel proud. If he is poor, and has poor clothing and lives in a poor home, let him remember that it was just so with Christ, and yet his parents gave him to God, and from his very birth they held him as something consecrated to God.

3. Christ came to us by the way of the lowly cradle, to show us that we need be ashamed of nothing but sin.

Christ was a poor man's child; and he was not ashamed of that. Joseph was a mechanic, and that was no disgrace. Christ was born in a stable and cradled in a manger, and that was no disgrace. He was persecuted in infancy,-driven away from home; he had to flee out of his country, was hunted by the king and his soldiers, and that was

no disgrace to him. There is no disgrace in poverty, or in trouble, or in anything but sin. "He knew no sin."

How differently do we sometimes feel! We think that it is a disgrace to be poor-to have no home, no friends! It may be so; if it was sin that made us poor, if it was sin that made us lose our friends, we ought to feel ashamed of sin and crime; but not of anything else. Those who will be clothed with shame and everlasting contempt are the wicked. Those of whom Christ will be ashamed are the wicked. Those who will be shut out from his presence and glory for ever are those who are wicked. Now, my little children, you may know whether you ought to feel ashamed. If you use bad, low, wicked words; if you are rude, unkind, cruel, and headstrong; if you are proud, vain, and overbearing; if you are selfish, covetous, envious or jealous of others; if you are profane or vulgar in manners or behaviour; if you are unkind to your brothers or sisters, or disobedient to your parents, then you have something to be ashamed of. Sin, in every shape and degree, is shameful; and it is the only thing that is so. Children, will you not learn a lesson from the lowly cradle?

II. THE LOST CHILD.

"As they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.

And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him."-LUKE ii. 43-45.

The fountain-The hill of Nazareth-The city of David-The mother's search for her lost child-Her anxiety-Mystery and sorrow-The friend of little children-No tidings for the weary mother-God will take care of the child.

SOME sixty or seventy miles north of Jerusalem is a long, beautiful hill. Before the hill is a small, but quiet and most charming valley. Let us go up to the top of that hill. Now, children, let us look around us. On the side of the hill is a village, and a little on one side of that, a fountain of water gushes out, and drops into a marble basin. To this fountain all the women of the village come to get water. Let us look beyond the village. Yonder, between the mountains, and beyond the little valley which lies just at the foot of the hill, on the left hand, is a great beautiful plain,-the most beautiful in all the land. It used to be called the Plain of Esdraelon. That round-topped mountain at the left is Mount Tabor; and there, over the hills, you can just see the heads of little Hermon and Gilboa. And that beautiful mountain, stretching along till it dips its feet in yonder distant waters, is Mount Carmel.

Look now directly west,

gleaming in the sun You can see them on

and those waters so brightly are the Mediterranean Sea. both the right and left of Mount Carmel. On the north is another beautiful plain; and away on, on

beyond, seems to be a sea of mountains, with one mountain rising up higher than all, with its head covered with ice. That is old Hermon! What a beautiful prospect from this hill! Where are we?

This hill is the hill of Nazareth, and that village on its west side is Nazareth. Here once lived a little boy. I suppose he often drank at that running fountain. I suppose his feet often trod this hill. I suppose his eyes often gazed upon these hills and mountains and valleys. His name was Jesus.

His parents lived in that village, and they were poor, but humble and pious people. Every year they all went up to the great city Jerusalem, where the temple was, that they might worship God according as he had commanded. On the return of the feast of the Passover,-so called, because, when the angel of God killed so many of the Egyptians, (Exodus xii. 27,) he passed over the Israelites and did not kill one of them,-this family all went up to Jerusalem. When the feast was over, they, and all the villagers who had gone with them, set out to return home to Nazareth. They probably went on foot,-unless there were some who were too old or too feeble, and they would ride on asses.

As the large company wound along the footpath, among the hills where the vineyards were hanging their ripe fruits, where the flowers were breathing out their sweetness, where the fields were waving with grain, where the beautiful oleander gleamed with its load of richest blossoms, and the roses of Sharon tempted the children to stop and pluck them, where the dove sat on the boughs of the