"Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of GOD;"-how, when His disciples were disputing which should be greatest, He called "a little child, and set it in the midst, saying, "Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven;"-how He told them that the angels of ́little children” always behold the face of the "FATHER in Heaven."

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How often and often must our Blessed SAVIOUR have thought of those little children, those "Holy Innocents," none more than two years old, who were cruelly slaughtered for Him when He was a little childkilled for His sake, because it was to make sure of Him that Herod committed this atrocious wickedness. They glorified GOD, poor little innocents, by their deaths, and the ALMIGHTY's power was shown in rescuing His Son, by a miracle, from a massacre in which it is said fourteen thousand helpless babes were killed. For Herod, who was as crafty as he was wicked, using every means he could think of to secure JESUS, caused numbers of children to be gathered together in various places, and their loving and deceived mothers, supposing he only wanted their names and ages for what is called a census, willingly took them as required. So that though many children were traced to their own homes and killed, num

bers and numbers were slaughtered at once, in various places.

And so then indeed did come to pass what Jeremiah the prophet had foretold five hundred years before: "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they (Jer. xxxi. 15.)

were not.'

Ramah is a town in Benjamin, not far from Bethlehem in Judah, and is used here to express the country generally where this cruel event took place. And Rachel means, and is often used to signify, the Hebrew women in general, because she was the mother of the two great patriarchs Joseph and Benjamin. She died early, in giving birth to Benjamin, in this very neighbourhood, when travelling with her husband and his family on his return from Haran to his own country and he "buried her by the way." An English gentleman who has travelled there in late years says, that even now a pillar marks the spot where the beautiful mother of Israel sleeps."

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Are you surprised that "in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof," there should be bitter weeping" when all these innocent children were murdered?

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And you see all this dreadful wickedness did not answer its intended purpose. Our Infant SAVIOUR escaped, and you know how.

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The ALMIGHTY, before Herod had given his cruel orders, sent one of His bright and beautiful angels to Joseph, to say to him, Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word;" (S. Matt. ii. 13,) and, as you will read a few verses further on, another angel told Joseph when he might safely return with the Holy Child to Israel, for that Herod was dead.

So were these infants martyrs, not in will -for they were too young to know anything -but in DEED, for our LORD JESUS CHRIST; and therefore from the very first days of Christianity, by the holy fathers, according to the will of GOD, "the martyrdom of the Holy Innocents was commanded to be ever celebrated in the Church :" and very fittingly, and for more solemnity, close to the day of the birth of CHRIST; that birth having been the occasion of their deaths.

So these children " were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God, and to the LAMB. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of GOD."

"These, like ourselves, were born to sin and die, But e'er the poison root was grown,

GOD set His seal, and marked them for His own, Baptized in blood for JESUS' sake,

Now underneath the Cross their bed they make."

THE CIRCUMCISION OF OUR LORD

JESUS CHRIST.

JANUARY 1.

"Behold, the Virgin blest

Calls on her Babe to wake

From His sweet slumber on her breast:
How should her heart not ache ?
From her pure bosom, where all night
He softly slept, that maiden bright
Resigns her well-beloved at morn

To shed His blood; for therefore was He born."

THE Octave of a great festival, that is the eighth day following it, used at one time to be observed with almost as much solemnity as the day itself. In the Old Testament you will see that a solemn festival lasted eight days. So the first of January being the eighth day from the birth of CHRIST, was always very reverently kept on that account; but as being the day also of His Circumcision, it is observed with still more solemnity.

When GOD made a covenant with Abraham He required him to be circumcised, and enjoined that this rite should be observed by him, and by every male child born to him and his family through many succeeding ages, as a distinction between his descendants and the rest of mankind. Circumcision was a mark made on the person, not without pain, as a token that he entered into this covenant or agreement. So all Abraham's descendants were circumcised, to show that they were also bound by the agreement or covenant which their great forefather had made with GOD Almighty, Who ordained that this rite should always be fulfilled when the child was eight days old, and his name given to him at that time.

So Circumcision was to the Jews very like what Baptism is to us. They by it, on their part, entered into an agreement with the LORD GOD that "they would walk in His laws which He set before them," and GOD, on His part, promised to bring them safely into the land of Canaan, then inhabited and filled with strong, fierce, cruel heathens, and to give this then most beautiful country to them and their descendants. Circumcision was with them the token, the "outward visible sign," that they had entered into this covenant with GOD.

So, in Baptism, we enter into covenant with GOD, the new covenant, the covenant of grace;