ripe for the birth of Christ thore wM no lack. The world had done as much as it was ever likely to do withcut the new influences Christ bronght into it. No government had cwr more et command for the regeneration of tho world than Ilome bad. If e11lightened policy, bold slatesman:;hip, ext~nsive dominion, could have abolished the world's woes, no more was required than Rome had given to the world. In Greece, culture liad done its best; in the further East, Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster, bad done all that human wisdom and purity could do to regulate the life and elevate the thcughts of men. The Jewish Law, Mos:iism in all its departments, wns also played out. It had yielded the utmost of benefit, and was now running to seed. A general feeling was stealing through many J:ind~ thnt the world needed holp from above. Note, too, the preparation for the gospel in the spread of the Jews throughout the commercial world, the general prevalence of the Greek bnguage, and the facility for intercourse afforded by the Roman go,·ernmcnt-. III. THE REASON OF THE LONG DELAY. At first sight one might suppose many good entls wonld have been served by Christ's appenring much earlier in the world's history. What prevented Christ from coming two thousand years before he did, and giving the world the advat1tage of two thousand yenrs' more enjoyment of the best form of religion? Had Christ come as soon a8 the promise was given, the world would have been found unprepared for the gift, and unablo to give it even that moderate welcome it afterwards found. The Law must first do its work, deepening the sense of dnty, stirring conl!Cicnce to an almost morbid activity, revealing the holiness of God, and showing men their lostness. The great gift of the Holy Spirit, the promise by pre• eminence, would not have been welcomed. God had to educato the world, as parents educate children, by alluring them onwards and by inconsiderable gifts teaching them gradually to long for the highest. He taught them to think of, to know, and to trust him by giving them what suited their condition and tastes; and so they learned -by degrees to prize what he most highly esteemed-inward, spiritu.-il prosperity. IV. In our Lord's genealogy there is THE ORDINARY PROPORTION OF GOOD AND BAD PARENTAGE. Individuals are mentioned who would do no honour to any pedigree. ,The pi,'le of birth which ma.ny of us feel would be abated were the whole ancestry from which we are sprung set down with biographies attached. We have only to go back far enough to find stain. Worse still, who can say what his own children shall be, and to what extent their disgrace is due to their inherited tendencies? Our Lord did not ~hun the contamination to which he was necesearily exposed by his true entrance into the human family. APPLICATION, 1. Grace not hereditary. Fuller says, "Lord, I find the genealogy of my Saviour strangely chequered wit,h four remarkable changes in four immediate generations. (1) Roboam begat Ahia: that is, a bad father begat a bad son •. (2) Ahia begat Asa: that is, a bad father a good son. (3) Asa begat Josaphat: that 1s, a good father a bad son. (4) Josaphat begat Joram: that is, a irootl father a good son. I see, Lnrd, from hence that my father's piety cannot be entailed: that is ~atl news for me. Ilut I see also that actual impiety is not always hereditary: that 1s good news for my son." 2. B,e7,ationahip to OhriBt. The honour of being connected with Christ after the flesh. Yet even after he was born and seen among men this honour was not felt as we might expect; and at all events no special saving influonce was e~er~d on the individuals composing his line of descent. Closer than every earthly tie 1s the spiritual relationship he announces in eh.' xii. 50.-D. Yers. 18-25.-Nativity of our Lord. I. SUPERNATURAL ORIGIN OF THE BUMAN !:ATURE OF OUR LonD. He who came to be a new Head and Source of life to humanity wuld scarcely be the product of the old stock. All other men have sprung from .A<hm; all that has apfl(.arcd in humanity is the evolutio~ of w~t was in th_e ~rllt man. No new blood haH been infu.5ed into the race. But m Chnst a new bcgmnmg is ruade. As a matter of fact he has never been accounted for by natural canscs. Hie distinctive character among dien requires an unusual, exceptional origin. "If by close historical scrutiny or critical q11eetioning we fail to resolve the miraculous character of Jesus-the ultimate fact of Christianity-into the common, known elements of our !Jumnn nature; if the Jaws of heredity prove insufficient to explain his generation; then the further question will a.t once arise whether there may not be other than cH, 1, 1-26.] TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 21
natural elements present ir:1 hume.n history which come to their perfect flower in Jesus of Ne.zsreth? whether we may not find in the laws e.nd forces of e. supernatural evolu- tion the sufficient exple.nation of his miraculous Person?" Expand by showing how