favour with both God and man. Though He was the eternal Son of God, He was also true man, and His sinless human soul passed through all the stages of experience which are the appointed lot of those whose nature He had taken upon Him.

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In the fifteenth year of the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, Jesus now being about thirty years old, John Baptist was called from the deserts by the Spirit of God into the country round about the river Jordan. He came and preached to the Jews, who were, for the most part, sunk in utter licentiousness, bidding them do penance for their sins, and prepare for the coming of their long-expected Saviour, as it was written in the book of the words of Isaias the prophet: A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord: make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways plain. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. He said, therefore, to the multitudes that came forth to be baptised by him: Ye offspring of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of penance; and do not begin to say: We have Abraham for our father. For I say to you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire. He also baptised all who came to him in penitence, washing their bodies in water, as a token of the purification of heart to which he called them. His baptism, unlike the baptism afterwards instituted by Christ Himself, conveyed no regenerating grace to the soul; it was a token and enforcement of that inward purity which the holy law of God demands from all His creatures. His garb also was a type of the mortification of the spirit. He wore a camel's hide, fastened with a leathern girdle, and ate locusts and wild honey.

Multitudes of people crowded to the Baptist's preach

ing, and he instructed persons of every class of life in the duties especially belonging to their state.

At length Jesus Himself came to the Baptist, and bade him baptise Him. But John refused, saying: I ought to be baptised by Thee; and comest Thou to me? And Jesus answering, said to him: Suffer it now: for so it becometh us to fulfil all justice. Then he suffered Him. And Jesus, being baptised, went up presently out of the water and, behold, the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending, as a dove, and coming upon Him. And, behold, a voice from heaven, saying: This is Mv beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

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CHAP. VI. The Temptation of Jesus.

THE arch enemy of mankind now made his first great assault upon the seed of the woman, who was come into the world to crush his head. The Son of God commenced His ministry by enduring those attacks of the foul spirit which are the lot of all the children of Adam, in order both to teach us how to vanquish the devil, and -as St. Paul assures us-in order that He might personally experience the dreadful nature of Satanic temptations; and, in His boundless compassion, might bear in mind what He had Himself endured, when we should cry to Him for help hereafter to save us from our foes.

After His baptism He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, that there Satan might tempt Him to sin against God. For forty days and forty nights He fasted, His human nature sustained by Divine power. This prayer and fasting was His preparation for the temptation, and an example to us for our imitation. And as the devil frequently makes use of every means we take to resist him, and turns them into snares for our souls, so he took occasion from the hunger which followed the fast of Jesus, to tempt Him to disobey the will of God. It was the Divine pleasure that Jesus should not exert His miraculous powers in finding food

Therefore the tempter

This

for Himself at this moment. came, and defied Him to prove Himself the Son of God by making the stones before Him into bread. But Jesus said: It is written: Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him: If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down; for it is written That He hath given His angels charge of Thee; and in their hands shall they bear Thee up, lest, perhaps, Thou hurt Thy foot against a stone. would have been a tempting of God, by calling for a needless miracle; and Jesus replied to Satan: It is written again: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again the devil took Him up into a very high mountain, and shewed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. And he said: All these will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and adore me. The sight which the devil displayed to our Saviour was either a supernatural vision of the glories of the kingdoms of the earth, permitted to him by the will of God, or a glowing description of the fascinations of worldly power. But Jesus said: Begone, Satan: for it is written: The Lord thy God thou shalt adore, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left Him; and, behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

With what expectations Satan thus tempted our blessed Lord, the Scripture does not record. It seems certain, however, that the devil was ignorant of His true divinity; and perhaps he made these attempts upon Jesus Christ with a view to discover whether He really were the eternal Son of God. We must suppose that the temptation with which he tried Him was a real temptation; consisting in that same suggesting of evil thoughts to His mind which is the instrument by which he leads us into sin. On the immaculate soul of Jesus these unholy suggestions fell utterly powerless; because it was impossible that He should sin; being impeccable in His human nature, being also true God as well as true man, and, lastly, being filled with all the fulness

of the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless, we must believe that unspeakable anguish was caused to the spotless soul of our blessed Redeemer by the mere presentation of unlawful ideas to His mind; and thus it is that St. Paul says that ". we have not a high-priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities; but one who was tempted in all things as we are, but without sin.'

In the mean time messengers came from the rulers at Jerusalem to John, as he was baptising in Bethany, to ask him who he really was. And John answered, I am not the Christ. And they asked him: What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not: Art thou the prophet? And he answered: No. Then they said to him: Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaias said. And they that were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him: Why, then, dost thou baptise, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet? John answered them, saying: I baptise in water: but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not. The same is He that shall come after me, who is preferred before me; the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethania beyond the Jordan, where John was baptising. The next day John saw Jesus coming to him; and he said: Behold the Lamb of God; behold He who taketh away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said: After me cometh a man who is preferred before me, because He was before me. And I knew Him not: but that He may be made manifest in Israel, therefore am I come baptising in water. And John gave testimony, saying: I saw the Spirit coming down as a dove from heaven, and He remained upon Him. And I knew Him not but He who sent me to baptise in water said to me: He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, He it is that baptiseth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and I gave testimony, that this is the Son of God. Again the follow

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ing day, John stood, and two of his disciples. looking upon Jesus as He was walking, he said: Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak: and they followed Jesus.

Thus was the mission of the Baptist fulfilled. He pointed out the Lamb of God to all who came to him; and himself was soon hurried away to receive the crown of martyrdom. He roused the rage of Herod, the ruler of Judea, by reproving him for his adultery with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip; and the tyrant, who for a while had paid him a measure of respect and honour, seized him and cast him into prison. And when John was carried away, Jesus retired to the borders of the country which had formerly been the abode of the tribes of Zabulon and Nephthalim; and thus was accomplished the prophecy of Isaias: The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: the people that sat in darkness, saw great light and to them that sat in the region of the shadow of death, light is sprung up.

And from that time He began to preach, and called all men to do penance for their sins. Walking by the sea of Galilee, He called the first two of those who were afterwards His Apostles. He saw two brethren, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishers). And He saith to them: Come after Me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And they immediately leaving their nets, followed Him. And going on from thence, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets and He called them. And they immediately leaving their nets and their father, followed Him.

CHAP. VII. The Marriage at Cana. Jesus preaches in Galilee. THE first miracle which Jesus wrought, to shew to men that He was come with Divine power, was at a marriagefeast in Cana, a town of Galilee. He was there with