s' desert hunger and temptation; and the
giving of the law from Sinai, to the Sermon on the Mount, which contains
the new law for the kingdom of God. Without supposing that the
evangelist moulded his Gospel on the plan of the Pentateuch, we cannot
but see that there is a real parallel between the beginnings of the
national life of Israel and the commencement of the life of Christ. Our
present text brings this parallel into great prominence. It is divided
into three sections, each of which has for its centre an Old Testament
prophecy.

I. We have first the flight into Egypt and the prophecy fulfilled
therein. The appearance of the angel seems to have followed immediately
on the departure of the Magi. They were succeeded by a loftier visitor
from a more distant land, coming to lay richer gifts and a more absolute
homage at the infant's feet. The angel of the Lord, who had already
eased Joseph's honest and troubled heart by disclosing the secret of
Mary's child, comes again. To Mary he had appeared waking; her meek eyes
could look on him, and her obedient ears hear his voice. But Joseph, who
stood on a lower spiritual level, needed the lower form of revelation by
dream, which betokens less susceptibility in the recipient and less
importance in the communication. It is the only form appropriate to his
power of receiving, and four times it is mentioned as granted to him.
The warning to the wise men was also conveyed in a dream. We can
scarcely help recalling the similar prominence of dreams in the history
of the earlier Joseph, whose life was moulded in order to bring Israel
into Egypt.

The angel speaks of 'the young child and His mother,' reversing the
order of nature, as if he bowed before the infant, 'Lord of men as well
as angels,' and would deepen the lesson which so many signs gathering
round the cradle were teaching the silent Joseph,--that Mary and he were
but humble ministers of the child's. The partial instruction given, and
the darkness left lying over the future, are in accordance with the
methods of God's leading, which always gives light enough for the next
duty, and never for the one after that. The prompt and precise obedience
of Joseph to the heavenly vision is emphatically expressed by the verbal
repetition of the command in the account of its fulfilment. There was no
hesitation, no reluctance, no delay. On the very night, as it appears,
of the dream, he rose up; the simple preparations were quickly made;