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thou art highly favoured! The Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying;" "And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found favour with God. And behold, thou shalt bring forth a Son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the highest; And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, "How shall this be?" And the angel said unto her, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall

overshadow thee; therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." Soon after this message of the angel, Mary went up from: Nazareth, where she dwelt, to Bethlehem, the city of David, with Joseph her betrothed husband, to be enrolled according to a decree of Cæsar Augustus, Emperor of Rome; and "so it was that the days were accomplished that she should be delivered; and she brought forth her first-born, and wrapt Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

CHAP. II. Of the events which took place soon after the birth of our Saviour. Luke ii.

"And there were in the

And

same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. the angel said unto them. Fear not: for, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a. sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swad-. dling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there. was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest,

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and on earth peace, goodwill towards men." and the shepherds came and found as it had been told them, and returned and glorified God for all the things which they had heard and seen.

CHAP. III. The same subject
continued, Matt, ii.

THE birth of Jesus was publickly made known at Jerusalem by the arrival of wise men from the East, who had seen "His Star" in their own country, and had come under Divine direction, to worship Him. The star conducted them to the place where Jesus was, and they worshipped Him, and presented unto Him gifts of "gold, frankincense, and myrrh." Herod, who was at that time king of Judea, thinking that

the child, whose birth was attended with these wonderful circumstances, was likely to prove a great temporal prince, such as the Jews at that time éxpected their Messiah to be; and so fearing that Jesus might deprive him or his family of his kingdom, sought to destroy Him, by ordering all the children of Bethlehem, under two years of age, to be put to death. But the "angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there, until I bring thee word." So he arose and departed into Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod; whereupon he came into the

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