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referred to Jesus in consequence of the subsequent matrimonial connection between Joseph and Mary.

2. In the same chapter it is further recorded that Mary, having been apprized by the angel of the promise made to Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias the Priest, that she should have a son in her old age, went to her on a visit, and related to them the joyful news she also had received of the angel; and that when John, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, was born, and sent as the forerunner of the Messiah, to prepare his way before him, his father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying according to Luke i. 68, 69, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David." These latter words deserve the reader's serious attention, as bearing directly upon the present subject. Zacharias blesses God for the fulfilment of his promises to send the Messiah so long foretold, and so long looked for by the devout Israelites. He calls this Messiah "an horn of salvation," and says of him, that the Lord God has raised him up, "in the house of his servant David." He was not alluding to the birth of his own son,

for he was not of the house of David, but a Priest of the house of Aaron, and so was his wife Elizabeth a daughter of Aaron; and therefore his son belonged to the same family.

And, besides, of his own son he speaks distinctly afterwards, in the 76th verse: "And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways." This Lord, before whose face his son was to go to prepare his way, must again be understood of the "horn of salvation," that was raised up "in the house of David," and evidently refers to the son of Mary that was soon to be born. This is clear from the whole history and context, and from the remarks of his wife Elizabeth, when she prophesied, as in verses 42-45; and particularly in the 43rd verse, where she says of Mary, "And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come unto me?" And in the 45th verse, "And blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord." But if he does allude to the son promised to Mary, and to none other can his words refer, we are compelled to say, that Zacharias believed, and we must believe with him, that Mary was of the house of David, and that con

sequently her son Jesus is a lineal descendant of David, according to the flesh.

3. In the second chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, we are informed that, in consequence of an imperial edict by Cæsar Augustus, the then Roman Emperor, all the world should be taxed, which meant that the name of every Jew should be enrolled in a public register, for the purpose of being taxed individually. This edict was given because King Herod had fallen in disgrace, and the Emperor ordered him to be deposed, and his kingdom to be reduced to a Roman province. As, however, the King found means to pacify the Emperor, the edict was not fully carried out till some years after, in the reign of his son Archelaus, and then only with reference to his dominions-the tetrarchy of Judea. When this edict was first published in Palestine, many Jews went every one to his own city, to which they belonged, and where the family register was kept, in order that they might be taxed. And hence we read in the 4th verse, "And Joseph went also up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house and lineage of David), to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child." When

this journey was undertaken, in obedience to the imperial edict, Mary had already become the wife of Joseph, but it was not on account of her union with Joseph that she had to go to the city of David. She herself also had to be taxed in the place of her ancestors, and as this place was the royal city, it is a clear indication that she was of the house and lineage of David as well as her husband. And by her going just at this time, without any further intention than simply to yield obedience to the powers that be, we see in it the hand of the Lord, in bringing all this about in the leading of his divine providence. Mary would probably have remained at Nazareth, the place of her abode, but the prophet Micah had foretold, more than 700 years before, that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. He said (chap. v. 2), "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." And in consequence of this prediction, while Mary might not have had the remotest idea of going to Bethlehem, the Lord obliged her to go, by the publication of the imperial edict, which not only was the cause of the fulfilment of a

beautiful prophecy, but points out the lineage of Mary, and that her son also, born of her in Bethlehem, was the son of David.

4. In the third chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, from the 23rd verse, the genealogy of Mary is recorded, and as her pedigree is there traced through all her ancestors up to David, it is beyond all doubt that she was a lineal descendant from this patriarch. As, however, the name of Mary itself does not occur in this genealogy, but the name of Joseph, it may appear to be an account of his pedigree, and not of Mary's. The absence of her name, therefore, presents at first sight a difficulty, and may be laid hold of by a caviller, or a prejudiced mind; but it is, notwithstanding, the genealogy of Mary, as will be seen by considering candidly the following reasons.

First of all it is evident from the great differences between the two genealogies in Matthew and Luke, that they cannot both be the real genealogies of Joseph, although they are both ascribed to him. The differences consist not only in the number of names, or generationsMatthew giving from David to Joseph twentysix generations, and Luke as many as forty-one -but also in the names themselves; as in Matthew the father of Joseph is called Jacob, and the

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