M. The more you know of our blessed Saviour, as He is made known to us in His own word, the more you will be astonished by His exceeding kindness and compassion to all who came to Him for help; by His pity for their sins and infirmities, and His tender regard for their feelings. In the beautiful chapter before us we learn, to our great encouragement and comfort, that He is ever ready to instruct sincere inquirers, and to teach them Himself in the way of salvation. Not one upbraiding word did He speak to Nicodemus! Shall not this encourage us to go to Christ for wisdom? To Him who, as the Apostle saith, “giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not?" Therefore if any of us desire heavenly wisdom, we must ask of Him, for He " has compassion on the ignorant," and on them who have not found the way of life. He will make the rough and difficult paths of divine knowledge smooth and easy; the crooked and perplexing plain and straight: He will bear with our dulness, pity our weakness, and everlastingly reward and satisfy our desires after Him.

See John iii. 1–21.

TWELFTH SUNDAY EVENING.

CHRIST RETURNS THROUGH SAMARIA.

E. I have been wishing very much to know, Mamma, whether, after his conversation with our Saviour, Nicodemus did not become one of His disciples.

M. It is to be hoped that he profited at once by

what he heard, and presented himself at that baptism, which our Lord now began in Judea, where He staid for that very purpose. We do not indeed hear any more of Nicodemus for some time to come; but we shall meet with him again, and find most clearly, that our Lord did not bestow so much pains on him in vain. At present let us follow our blessed Redeemer himself into Judea, where He came with His disciples, immediately after this interview with Nicodemus. In Judea we are told that He tarried with them, and baptized, and that He now made and baptized more disciples than John. All who wished to be His disciples, were thus openly to acknowledge Him, and thus to receive the promises of his kingdom. This was the appointed gate of entrance into His family; at which the highest, as well as the lowest, were to seek admission; and happy those who were thus baptized; not with water only, but with the Holy Ghost, whose Almighty power creating us anew can alone make us capable of salvation, and enable us to lead a spiritual life. Happy are they still who are thus "baptized unto Christ;" and on the other hand most miserable those who, having been baptized in His name, fall away from Him, and, neglecting His great salvation, draw back, to the everlasting ruin of their souls.

When our blessed Lord began thus publicly to teach, He set aside the baptism of John, which was soon after discontinued; just as the stars disappear at the approach of day. St. John indeed knew that, as Christ increased, he must decrease. Nor did he grieve at this result, but rejoiced greatly, as a faithful servant rejoices in the coming of the master, whose approach he has been sent to announce; or as the friend of one

newly married, as was the custom among the Jews, prepared diligently for his reception, looked with eager expectation for his arrival, and at length rejoiced greatly to hear the voice of the bridegroom bringing home his bride. This was the joy which St. John had all along proposed to himself, and it was now fulfilled. All he had desired was that others should also receive the testimony of Jesus; should believe that He came from heaven, and knew how to lead men there; that He spoke the words of God and was full of His Spirit: That He was in very deed the Son of God, and Lord of all things; whom to receive was life eternal, but to reject eternal ruin.

E. What became of John the Baptist, Mamma, when he left off baptizing, and teaching the people himself? Did he also follow Christ?

M. No, his course upon earth was nearly ended, and the remainder of it was marked by much suffering. His had been no easy life from the beginning, but full, as we have seen, of hardship, self-denial, and toil; nor did the path he had to tread become less rough towards its close. We read, in the Gospel according to St. Luke, that Herod the Tetrarch of Galilee shut John up in prison. This Herod, like the one we read of at the time of our Saviour's birth, appears to have been a wicked man; and John the Baptist, like a faithful servant of God, had boldly found fault with him for his many sins. Amongst his other bad actions, Herod had lately taken away Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and married her himself, thus breaking most openly one of God's commands; and John, at the risk of his displeasure, dared to tell him of this sin.

In consequence of this interruption in his wickedness, and interference with his actions, Herod shut up John in prison. Then indeed was fulfilled what John had said of himself, that he must decrease, as his heavenly Master increased. Our Lord heard this, and knew also how jealously He Himself was watched by the Pharisees, and how angry they were at the success which His preaching had already met with, He would not, therefore, at this time, remain any longer at Jerusalem, but left Judea altogether, and went into Galilee.

E. I should like to ask you, Mamma, before you go any further, what Herod this was who shut John up in prison, and why he is called the Tetrarch of Galilee? I know it was not the same Herod who put the little innocents to death; for he died before Joseph and Mary came back from Egypt.

M. No, that Herod was called Herod the Great, and was the first Jewish king of that name. He had many descendants, and all of them were called Herod, although they had other names besides this general one. You remember that Joseph and Mary, after their return from Egypt, were afraid to go into Judea, because they heard that Archelaus was reigning in the place of his father. He was called Herod Archelaus; but, although he governed Judea, he was not its king. Herod the Great had indeed left him almost all his dominions; but the Roman Emperor Augustus Cæsar did not approve of this, and would only allow him to be governor of Judea, Idumea, and Samaria. It was not then either Herod the Great, or Herod Archelaus, that shut up John in prison, but a brother of his, called Herod Antipas. He is also

called Herod the Tetrarch, or the Tetrarch of Galilee, because he had a fourth part of the dominions of Herod the Great his father, being chief governor of Peræa and Galilee: the word Tetrarch literally meaning the ruler of a fourth part of a state, province, or kingdom.

Let us now follow our Redeemer's steps again, and accompany Him in His journey into Galilee. You can tell me, I dare say, what part of the country He must pass through on His way thither?

E. Yes, Mamma, He must have passed through Samaria; for that country lies exactly between Judea and Galilee.

M. You are quite right; Judea is on one side to the south, and Galilee on the other, to the north of that part of the Holy Land which was called Samaria ; and our Lord could not reach Galilee without passing through it, unless, as you will see on the map, he had gone a long way round, to the eastward of the river Jordan.

E. The people of Samaria were not exactly the same as the Jews, were they, Mamma? I remember how they teased and interrupted the Jews when they were rebuilding the temple; but I do not quite recollect their history.

M. I do not wonder that you have partly forgotten it; as it is a long time now since we last spoke of them. If you wish to know more of them, you must carry your thoughts back to the time of the captivity, when Shalmaneser king of Assyria was permitted to destroy the kingdom of Israel, and to take the city of Samaria, which was the chief city in that kingdom. The tribes of Israel, you know, he carried away into