special case will be determined by the needs of that case. As we think
along these lines we reach the conclusion that what we call the
supernatural is not the unnatural or the abnormal, but is a higher mode
of the natural.

We are not surprised therefore to find that those whose spiritual
development was such as to make it possible for God to choose them to
fulfil special offices in relation to the Incarnation; who could be
chosen to be, in the one case, the Mother of God-incarnate, and in the
other, to be the guardian of the divine Child and His Blessed Mother,
have the divine will in regard to the details of the trust committed to
them, imparted to them in vision and in dream. So far from such vision
and dream suggesting to us "a mythical element" in the Gospel
narratives, they rather confirm our faith in that they harmonize with
our instinctive conclusions as to what would be natural under the
circumstances. We are prepared to be told that at this crisis in the
Holy Child's life "the angel of the Lord appeareth 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. When he arose, he took the young child
and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt."

Thus early in our Lord's life is the element of tragedy introduced. The
Incarnation of God stirs the diabolic powers, the rulers of "this
darkness" to excited activity. The companion picture of the Nativity, of
the Holy Child lying in Mary's arms, of the wondering shepherds, of the
Magi from a far country,--the shadow of all this idyllic beauty is the
massacre of the Innocents, the wailing of Rachel for her children. It
is, as it were, the opening of a new stage in the world-old conflict
where the powers of evil appear to have the advantage and can show the
bodies of murdered infants as the trophies of their victory.

But are we to think of the death of a child as a disaster? Has any
actual victory redounded to the Prince of Power of the Air? One
understands of course the grief and sense of loss that attends the death
of any child, the breaking of the dreams which had gathered about its
future. What the father and the mother dreamed over the cradle and
planned for the future does not come to pass--all that is true. But in a
consideration of the broader interests involved, does not the death of a
baby have a meaning far deeper th