Unseen realities around us. (Poem). 261 Wrought into gold.

199 ZINC-PATCH and the Crimean war...
281 Zoroaster's forecast of a Saviour

THE GOSPEL

ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW.

CHAPTER I.

1. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2. Abraham begat I'sǎac; and I'sǎac begat Jā'cob; and Jā'cob begat Jū'dăs and his brethren;

3. And Jū'dǎs begat Phā'rēs and Zără of Tha'măr; and Pha'rēs begat Es'rom; and Es'rŏm begat A'răm;

4. And A'răm begat Amin'ădăb; and Amin'ădăb begat Nä'ǎsson; and Nã'ǎsson begat Săl'mon;

THE HUMAN ANCESTORS

OF JESUS.

5. And Sǎl'mon begat Bō'oz of Rã'(c)hăb; and Bō'oz begat Oběd of Ruth; and O'běd begat Jěs'sě;

6. And Jěs'sě begat Da'vid the king; and Dā'vĭd the king begat Sŏl'ŏmon of her that had been the wife of Uri'ǎs;

7. And Sŏl'omŏn begat Rōbō'ăm; and Rōbō'ăm begat Abi'ă; and Abi'ă begat A'să;

8. And A'să begat Jõs'ăphăt; and Jõs'ăphăt begat Jō'răm; and Jo'răm begat Ozi'ǎs;

THE GOSPEL,-evayyéhɩov (ev, well, as in well done, and ǎyyɛλos, messenger, whence our word angel). It "signifies originally a present given in return for joyful news. Thus Homer makes Ulysses say to Eumæus, 'Let this reward, evayyehov, be given me for my good news (Od. xiv. 152). Later it comes to mean the good news itself—the joyful tidings of Messiah's kingdom."-Prof. Marvin R. Vincent, D.D.

Gospel.

Our English word Gospel is compounded either of good and spell (story, news) "the good news"; or God (which is short for good) and spell, "God's story, or word." It is good news from God or the story about God, what He has done to bless and save men.

THE NAMES in this list are the Greek forms of Hebrew names as ordinarily used by the people who first read the gospels, just as we say Leghorn for the Italian city of Livorno, or New York for the latín Novum Eboracum, or William for Gulielmus.

7, 8. ROBOAM, ABIA, ASA, JOSAPHAT.-"I find the genealogy of my Saviour strangely checkered with four remarkable changes in four immediate generations.

9. And Ozi'ǎs begat Jo'ăthăm; and Jo'ăthăm begat A'(c)hăz; and A'(c)hăz begat Ez'ěki'ǎs;

10. And Ez'ěki'ǎs begat Mănăs'sēs; and Mănăs'sēs begat A'mon; and A'mon begat Jōsiǎs;

11. And Jōsi'ǎs begat Jěch'õni'ăs and his brethern, about the time they were carried away to Băb'ÿlon.

12. And after they were brought to Băb'ylon, Jěc'honi'ăs begat Sălă'thiel; and Sălă'thiěl begat Zōr'ŏbăběl;

13. And Zōr ́ŏbăběl begat Ābi'ŭd; and Ãbî'ŭd begat Ēli'ăkĭm; and Ēli'ǎkim begat

A'zor;

14. And Ã'zŏr begat Sã’doc; and Sã’dŏc begat Ã'chỉm; and Ã'chim begat Ēli'ŭd; I5. And Eliüd begat Elēāzăr; and Elēāzăr begat Măt thăn; and Măt thăn begat Jā'cob;

16. And Ja'cob begat Jō'sěph the husband of Mary; of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

(1) Roboam begat Abia; that is, a bad father begat a bad son. (2) Abia begat Asa; that is, a bad father a good son. (3) Asa begat Jehoshaphat; that is, a good father a of Character. good son.

Inheritance

(4) Josophat begat Joram; that is, a good father a bad son.

I see from hence that my father's piety cannot be entailed; that is bad news for me. But I see, also, that actual impiety is not always hereditary; that is good news for my son."

-Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times.

Value of a

Pedigree.

16. OF WHOM WAS BORN JESUS.-"What is the use of this dry list of hard names-this long ancestral pedigree? Vast fortunes often depend on tracing one's ancestry. Such fortunes are even now waiting in England. And there are other and better inheritances. For example, there sits upon the throne of Great Britain Queen Victoria, who was the daughter of the Duke of Kent. But how came she to be heir to England's throne? The answer is only obtained by just such a detailed tracing of her genealogical line as is found in the genealogical records of our Saviour's ancestry. Thus:

"Queen Victoria is the niece of William IV., who was the brother of George IV., who was the son of George III., who was the grandson of George II., who was the son of George I., who was the cousin of Anne, who was the sister-in-law of William III., who was the sonin-law of James II., who was the brother of Charles II., who was the

17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

THE HUMAN ANCESTRY OF JESUS.

son of Charles I., who was the son of James I., who was the cousin of Elizabeth, who was the sister of Mary, who was the sister of Edward VI., who was the son of Henry VIII.'”

FOUR WOMEN are named in this genealogy,-Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. It has been noticed that two of these were of heathen descent, and three had some scandal connected with their youth. It is not so often noticed that they all became good and faithful, and that there were many more bad men than women. So men often find the poison in the flower and forget the honey; see the fly in the precious ointment and fail to perceive its perfume; note the caterpillar and do not notice its change into the butterfly; remember the tree in its wild state and forget the blessed change of fruit from the new grafts.

Seeing the Evil rather

than the

Good.

17. FOURTEEN GENERATIONS are given in each period, and the periods mark epochs in the history-the three great stages of development. The fourteen names are not all that are in the line, but only the principal ones, just as in travelling over a country we stop at only the chief places and take no note of the small towns through which the train passes. Every one has to learn "the art of forgetting."

THE HUMAN ANCESTRY OF JESUS includes "all classes and conditions of men." He is "the heir of all the ages." Everything good and bad that belongs to human nature were among the influences that affected him. He belongs to the race. Thus he can be "the son of man." Compare the making of England and of America from the union of various races, a focus of many rays.

Victor Hugo

on the

'FOR four hundred years," says Victor Hugo, "the human race has not made a step but what has left its plain vestige behind. We enter now upon great centuries. The sixteenth century will be known as the age of painters, the seventeenth will be termed the age of writers, the eighteenth the age of philosophers, the nineteenth the age of apostles and prophets.

Past in the

Present.

18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

19. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

20. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

"To satisfy the nineteenth century it is necessary to be the painter of the sixteenth, the writer of the seventeenth, the philosopher of the eighteenth."

"WE INHERIT from thousands, from hundreds of

thousands of ancestors.

and tribes and races is

The blood of many families
mingled in our veins. . . .

There are many potential men in every man, and which

Choosing

from Our

Ancestry.

of them is to emerge he chooses for himself by a thousand silent moral preferences."-Henry Van Dyke, D.D.

G. Stanley

Hall on

Ancestry.

President G. Stanley Hall in a recent lecture said that, calculating in geometrical ratio-two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents-he had 20,000,000 ancestors, counting back to the time of William the Conqueror. The best of all is that we have God himself for our ancestor, as Luke says, "The son of Adam, the son of God." We can choose what, of all we inherit, we will follow and strengthen. Jesus chose the good and rejected the bad in his inheritance from his human past.

LIBRARY.-"The Gospel for an Age of Doubt," Liberty, Henry Van Dyke, D.D.; "Heredity and Christian Problems," Amory H. Bradford, D.D.

18. WITH CHild of the HOLY GHOST.-Expressing his divine origin as told more fully in Luke i. 35. "God said to him, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee" (Ps. ii. 7; Heb. i. 5). Thus Jesus was both God and man, God in man. We cannot explain how this can be, but we can prove that it is possible and reasonable by a similar mystery in ourselves. For each God in Man. One person. of us is a union of body and soul in one person. This is a fact, but before it became a fact it would seem contradictory and unthinkable, that the immaterial spirit should unite with matter, that the two should be distinct, and yet form one person. Every diffi