34 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT

child is Jesus. Although the little baby is only a few weeks old, He has had a strange
life, and it will be stranger still before it is ended. Young as He is, there are already some
who hate Him, as well as some who love Him. Look back at the short life He has lived.
He was born, as we have been often told, not in a house, but in a stable. The inn in the
village of Bethlehem, to which His mother had come with Joseph for their names to be
enrolled in a-census book, was full. There was no room for these poor tired peasants,
except in the out-house where the asses and cattle were put for the night. It was what, .
we call Christmas Eve when they arrived, and early the next morning the little baby was
born to Whom the angel had given the beautiful name of Jesus. Some visitors came
to see Him that day, when He was lying in the manger on the straw—for there was no
cradle to put Him in—a few shepherds who had left their flocks on the mountain-side, and
had come to look for Him. They had been awakened out of their sleep by angels, who
had told them a child was born that morning Who was the Saviour of the World.
Startled by the news and the song of the angel host, they had made -haste, and: found, as
they had been told, Mary and Joseph and-the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying
in a manger.

 

But some days after, a very strange thing happened, which threw Bethlehem and all
the village into a state of excitement. Some strange visitors arrived in search of the new-
born child, not this time poor shepherds, but rich men with slaves and camels loaded with
precious treasures. Their dress and language told that they had come from the far-off
East, Persia or Arabia. They had passed through the village until they came to the
humble cottage to which the child had been taken by his mother from the stable of the
inn. They knew the house by a star which shone out brightly in the dark sky, for it was
late when they arrived. “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young
child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshipped Him: and when they had
opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts ; gold and frankincense and myrrh.”

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