^| It was in the course of these sermons delivered at Venice, and in the cities of Venetia, that Bernardine's zeal for the propagation of devotion to the holy name of Jesus tiist began openly to assert
1 Aulrey L. Moore. >\>me Aspeett of Sin.
ST. MATTHEW i. 21 15
itself. This devotion, which may be said to date back to the Pauline saying, In nomine Jesu omne genu Jlectatur, had been specially fostered by the Franciscan order. We find St. Francis of Assisi making it the theme of many pious exhortations, while the holy name never crossed his lips without his voice faltering as though he were inwardly entranced by a heavenly melody. Nor was his example lost on St. Bonaventure, the author of a leaflet, De laude melliflui nomini Jesu. Bernardino was, there- fore, no innovator in striving to rekindle popular fervour towards a devotion which, though heretofore greatly in vogue, had, in his day, been cast somewhat into the shade. In his sermons our saiut was for ever extolling the beauty and majesty, the mystery and efficacy of the name of Jesus, and, in order outwardly to embody the sentiments of piety he sought to instil into their hearts, we find him calling upon his hearers to inscribe the holy Name or one of its customary abbreviations on the walls alike of public buildings and of private houses. He himself had adopted the monogram I.H.S., which he loved to see surrounded by a circle of golden rays. And the adoption of this symbol he deemed particularly opportune in a land so overrun by paganism, since he hoped to see the same substituted for the Guelf and Ghibelline emblems with which the walls then literally swarmed, and so to set an outward seal on inward peace of heart. And the practice was adopted, and spread like wildfire throughout Venetia, where both officials and private individuals vied with one another in every- where printing or carving the sacred monogram, encircled by rays, until it finally became significant of Bernardine's passage and of the popular assent to his word.1
'P. Thureau-Dangin, Saint Bernardine of Siena (trans, by Baroness G. von Hugel), 66.
The Magi.
ST. MATT.
Literature.
Aitken(W. B. M. H.), The Revealer Revealed, 17. Alexander (W.), The Leading Ideas of the Gospels, 49. Brooke (S. A.), The Early Life of Jesus, 26. Bun-ell (D. J.), The Religion of the Future, 97.
„ „ The Wondrous Cross, 124.
Daviea (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, i. 403. Eames (J.), The Shattered Temple, 69. Hall (C. R.), Advent to Whit-Sunday, 54. Holland (H. S.), Vital Values, 24. Hort (F. J. A.), Cambridge and other Sermons, 25. Hunt (A. N.), Sermons for the Christian Year, i. 56. Jones (J. C), Studies in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, 27. Liddon (H. P.), Christmastide Sermons, 348. Maclaren (A.), Expositions : St. Matthew i.-viii., 19. Morgan (G. C), The Crises of the Christ, 74. Muraell (W. A.), Sermons on Special Occasions, 107. Parker (J.), City Temple Pulpit, v. 2. Robertson (F. W.), Sermons, ii. 17. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xvi. (1870), No. 967;
xxix. (1883), No. 1698. Tipple (S. A.), The Admiring Quest, 60. Wilberforce (B.), The Hope that is in Me, 52. Christian Age, xli. 36 (T. de W. Talniage) ; xlvi. 386 (P. Brooke). Christian World Pulpit, xlix. 40 (A. G. Brown) ; lvii. 33 (H. S.
Holland) ; Ixxii. 580 (A. H. Siine) ; lxxiv. 403 (L. A. Crandall). Churchman's Pulpit : The Epiphany, iii. 226 (F. Field). Homilelic Review, hi. 460 (F. W. Luce).
The Magi.
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying-, Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? for we saw his star in the east, and are come to worship him.— Matt. ii. i, 2.
In the visit of the Magi we have an incident of surpassing imaginative beauty. All through the ages it has been glorified by pencil and song. Yet, singular to say, the Epiphany is the only scene in the sublime opening of the drama of the life of Jesus for which St. Matthew claims no prophecy whatever. We are tempted to think that he might have referred to Balaam's language (Num. xxiv. 17). The Church in her Epiphany services has seen the bending forms of kings in the dim magnificence of the language of psalmist and seer (Fs. lxxii. 10-15 ; Isa. lx. 6). Still the fact remains that over the Epiphany alone in these two chapters St. Matthew makes us hear no joy-bells of prophecy filling the air. If he had foreseen that he would be accused of translating a picture of prophecy into the language of fact, he could scarcely have taken a more effectual way of defending himself than by omitting between vv. 11 and 12 of chap. ii. his familiar formula, " that it might be fulfilled."
T| The Christians in the second century, discontented with the extreme plainness of the story in the Gospels, embellished it largely. We are told that the star sparkled more brilliantly than all the others in the sky. It was a strange and wondrous sight, for the moon and all the stars formed, as if in homage, a choir around it as it moved.
Later on the wise men are represented as princes, then as kings. They symbolize the Trinity. They are the lords of the three races of men. Their gifts have spiritual, then doctrinal, meanings. They are supplied with names and are made the patron saints of travellers. As the legend grew, and Art took it up, they arrive at Bethlehem attended by a great crowd of followers, splendidly dressed, and riding on horses and camels and