THE LIFE OF CHRIST.


Nearly three years before the commencement of our era, [14:1] Jesus
Christ was born. The Holy Child was introduced into the world under
circumstances extremely humiliating. A decree had gone forth from Caesar
Augustus that all the Roman Empire should be taxed, and the Jews, as a
conquered people, were obliged to submit to an arrangement which
proclaimed their national degradation. The reputed parents of Jesus
resided at Nazareth, a town of Galilee; but, as they were "of the house
and lineage of David," they were obliged to repair to Bethlehem, a
village about six miles south of Jerusalem, to be entered in their
proper place in the imperial registry. "And so it was, that, while they
were there, the days were accomplished that Mary should be delivered,
and she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling
clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in
the inn." [14:2]

This child of poverty and of a despised race, born in the stable of the
lodging-house of an insignificant town belonging to a conquered
province, did not enter upon life surrounded by associations which
betokened a career of earthly prosperity. But intimations were not
wanting that the Son of Mary was regarded with the deepest interest by
the inhabitants of heaven. An angel had appeared to announce the
conception of the individual who was to be the herald of his ministry;
[15:1] and another angel had been sent to give notice of the incarnation
of this Great Deliverer. [15:2] When He was born, the angel of the Lord
communicated the tidings to shepherds in the plains of Bethlehem; "and
suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying--Glory to God in the highest, and on earth