Epistle of St. James and that of St. Jude; and the Apocalypse of St. John. The Gospels contain the Life of Jesus Christ, his doctrine, his miracles, his death, his resurrection and ascension. The Acts of the Apostles give the history of the Establishment of the Church; the Epistles contain maxims and instructions that the Apostles gave to the faithful; and the Apocalypse is a revelation made to St. John in the Island of Patmos.

THE ANNUNCIATION AND THE INCARNATION.

As soon as the time fixed by the Prophets was accomplished, the Angel Gabriel, who 500 years before had foretold to Daniel the coming of the Messiah, was chosen by God to announce to the world this great news. He appeared in the Temple to a Priest of the family of Aaron named Zachary, and declared to him that he should have a son that should be called John, that this son should be born of his wife, Elizabeth, who was barren, and that he should be the precursor of the Messiah. Six months after he appeared to Mary, spouse of Joseph, and after having saluted her, he proposed to her to become the mother of this Messiah without ceasing to be a virgin. The difference between the words of the angel to Zachary and those which he addressed to the Blessed Virgin deserve to be remarked: it is so striking in the gospel that the sacred historian seems to have wished to show us, by the respect that the angel gave to Mary, what we ought to pay to her ourselves. For when the angel speaks to Zachary, he frightens him by his surroundings of power and grandeur with which he makes himself known to him; when he announces the happy news, he reproaches him with incredulity and deprives him of speech. Instead of this, when he appears to Mary, his language is full of respect and veneration. "Hail," says he, "full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou

amongst women." Mary, it is true, was troubled by the praises which were addressed to her, but the angel reassured her immediately by telling her that she had found favour with the Lord, who had chosen her to be the mother of the Saviour of the world. He added that the Holy Spirit should come upon her to form in her chaste womb the body of the Son of God; he only left her after being assured of her consent. "Behold," said she, "the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word." At that instant the mystery of the Incarnation took place. The Son of God was made man in the chaste womb of the Blessed Virgin. Mary humbled herself before God, gave thanks to Him for having chosen her from amongst all His creatures to be the mother of His Son. She went afterwards to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, wife of Zachary, to congratulate her, because God had delivered her from the curse of barrenness. At the voice of Mary the child of Elizabeth leapt for joy, and was sanctified in the womb of his mother. Elizabeth knew the great thing that God had done in favour of her cousin and most highly extolled her. Mary received these praises with humility and gave glory to God in the Canticle:-"Magnificat anima mea Dominum."-" My soul doth magnify the Lord."

BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOUR.

The promised Messiah was born at Bethlehem, a little town of the tribe of Judah. God made use of the numbering of the people that the Emperor Augustus had ordered throughout the Roman Empire, to make the Holy Virgin come from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where the prophets had foretold that the Messiah should be born; for Joseph, being of this city, was obliged to go there and write his name in the public registry with that of Mary, his wife. No one gave them hospitality,

and the Man-God in coming into the world only found for His bed a manger, and for a palace, a stable. God immediately made known the birth of His Son, An angel came to announce it to the shepherds who were watching their flocks. They were surrounded by a divine light, and they heard a number of joyful spirits praising God, and singing "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will." These shepherds went immediately to Bethlehem, and they found the child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger, as the angel had said.

THE WISE MEN.

Eight days after His birth He was circumcised and received the name of Jesus. After this was accomplished the ceremony of the Purification in the Temple, when the holy old man, Simeon, prophesied to the Holy Virgin that a sword of grief should pierce her soul. Some time after the wise men, led by a wonderful star, came from the East to Jerusalem to inquire where the King of the Jews was born. Herod was troubled at this. He resolved to rid himself of the new King, and made the wise men promise to return to Jerusalem when they had found Him, under the pretext that he wished to adore Him himself. The wise men having learnt from the Chief Priests that He was to be born in Bethlehem, went there in haste and adored Him, and by the gold, incense, and myrrh that they offered to the new King, they acknowledged Him at once as King, God and Man. The wise men were preparing to fulfil the promise that they had given Herod, but having received orders from God not to go to Jerusalem, they returned to their country another way. Herod, transported with anger, caused all the children of Bethlehem and the neighbourhood to be massacred from two years old and under, so as not to miss. the one who had caused all the alarm; but God pre

served His Son from this massacre, by warning Joseph, in sleep, to take the child and his mother, and to flee into Egypt, where they remained until the death of Herod.

DEATH OF HEROD.

(Fourth Year before the Christian era.)

This crowned monster was now going to expiate his misdeeds. All looked for his death as a deliverance; some even could not wait for it. A sedition broke out in Jerusalem on account of Herod having had a golden eagle, (emblem of the power of Rome,) placed on the front gate of the Temple, in defiance of the law of Moses. Herod in a fury had the principal authors of this sedition burnt alive; but life was only a torment to him. "A slow fever, "says the historian Josephus, "consumed him to the marrow of his bones." He devoured voraciously dainty meats which no longer nourished him. Ulcers corrupted his inside, forcing from him cries of pain, and worms devoured him alive. The doctors who attended him were unanimous in proclaiming that divine vengeance had fallen upon him in punishment of his cruelties. Having heard that the people had rejoiced on receiving a false report of his death, he ordered all the members of the principal families to be assembled in one place, desiring his sister, Salome, to have all this multitude killed by his archers as soon as he had really breathed his last. "In order," said he, "that Judea may be forced to mourn at my death." He had his son, Antipater, murdered on this occasion also, because he had testified his joy on learning in prison the report (though false) of his father's death. Five days after this last execution Herod died. Salome hastened to make herself popular by giving liberty to all the unfortunate people whom the tyrant had ordered her to kill.

THE RETURN FROM EGYPT.

Herod being dead,* the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph during his sleep, and said to him, "Arise, and take the child and his mother and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead that sought the life of the child." Joseph immediately obeyed the order of the angel, but learning that Archelaus, son of Herod, was reigning in Judea, became afraid to go thither, and being warned in his sleep retired into Galilee, and dwelt in the city of Nazareth; thus was accomplished the prediction of the Prophets-" He shall be called a Nazarite."

THE SUCCESSORS OF HEROD.

The fears of St. Joseph were only too well justified. Great troubles followed the death of Herod. The Royal Will was submitted to the ratification of Augustus, and the states were thus divided: Archelaus, the eldest of the surviving sons of Herod, was appointed to reign over Judea and Samaria, with the title of King; Herod Antipas, a younger son of the same mother Mattheas, was to have Galilee and Perea, with the title of Tetrarch; Philip, son of Cleopatra, was to have, with the same title, Trachonitis, Gaulopites, and Batania; Salome, Herod's sister, and aunt of these princes, was to receive the cities of Samaria, of Azoth, and Phasadin. The first acts of Archelaus gained for him great popularity; but the people, wishing to profit by the good disposition which he showed, asked him to punish those who had counselled Herod to order the authors of the late sedi

Other calculations bring Herod's death to the year 3 before the Christian era; all depends on the exact date assigned to this era, which some place in the year 753 of Rome, others in 754. In all cases the death of Herod happened in the year 750 of Rome, in the year which followed the massacre of the Holy Innocents.