THE STAFF AND THE SACRIFICE. I45 



He himself lost the virtue which he thus communicated 

 to the system of the child ; for we find that, chilled by 

 contact with the cold corpse, he rose from the bed and 

 walked to and fro in the room, as if to recover by exer- 

 cise the warmth that had passed from him. And thus 

 putting himself as far as possible in the room of the 

 dead, taking all the evil to himself, feeling the sorrow of 

 the bereaved mother as though it were his own sorrow, 

 by God's power and grace he succeeded in gradually 

 bringing the child to life, and had the infinite happiness 

 of restoring him to his rejoicing mother. And how sig- 

 nificant is all this of the Divine method of restoring the 

 dead body of humanity through the life and death of 

 Christ. Does not the stretching of the prophet upon 

 the dead child each member of his own body being 

 applied to the corresponding member of the lifeless 

 corpse, and by this sympathetic contact imparting his 

 own vitality to it, and ultimately raising it to life figure 

 forth in the most beautiful and suggestive manner the 

 incarnation of God, by which He brought His infinitude 

 within the limitations of human nature and human exist- 

 ence, touching it at every sympathetic point, and so 

 raised it from a death in sin to newness of life in 

 Himself? What does each joyful Christmas morning 

 proclaim ? Is it not the wonderful fact that the Eternal 

 God incarnated Himself in the body of a little child ; 

 was born in Bethlehem, lay as a helpless babe on a 

 mother's breast, grew in wisdom as in stature, and lived 

 in humble dependence upon and submission to earthly 

 parents in a human home in Nazareth ? Does it not tell 



