tacked to their names, his greatness consisted mainly in supreme
wickedness. Fierce, lustful, cunning, he had ruled without mercy; and
now he was passing through the last stages of an old age without love,
and ringed round by the fears born of his misdeeds. He trembles for his
throne, as well he may, when he hears of these strangers. Probably he
does not suppose them mixed up with any attempt to unseat him, or he
would have made short work of them; unless, indeed, his craft led him to
dissemble until he had sucked them dry and had used them to lead him to
the infant rival, after which he may have meant to murder them too. But
he recognises in their question the familiar tones of the Messianic
hope, which he knew was ever lying like glowing embers in the breast of
the nation, ready to be blown into a flame. His creatures in the capital
might disown it, but he knew in his secret heart that he was a usurper,
and that at any moment that smouldering hatred and hope might burn up
him and his upstart monarchy. An evil conscience is full of fears, and
shrinks from the good news that the King of all is at hand. His coming
should be joy, as is that of the bursting spring or the rosy dawn; but
our own sin makes the day of the Lord darkness and not light, and sends
us cowering into our corners to escape these searching eyes.

Nor less tragic and perverted is the trouble which 'all Jerusalem'
shared with Herod. The Magi had naturally made straight for the capital,
expecting to find the new-born King there, and His city jubilant at His
birth. But they traverse its streets only to meet none who know anything
about Him. They must have felt like men who see, gleaming from far on
some hill-side, a brightness which has all vanished when they reach the
spot, or like some of our mission converts brought to our 'Christian
country,' and seeing how little our people care for the Christ whom they
have learned to know. Their question indicates utter bewilderment at the
contrast between what they had seen in the East and what they found in
Jerusalem. They must have been still more perplexed if they observed the
effect of their question. Nobody in Jerusalem knew anything about their
King. That was strange enough. But nobody wanted Him. That was stranger
still. A prophet had long ago called on 'Zion' to 'rejoice greatly'
because 'thy King cometh'; but now anxiety and terror cloud all faces.
It was partly because self-interest bound many to Herod, a