human nature were infused into it by reason of the hypostatic union, whereby two natures were made to coalesce in the single personality of Our Saviour. But the possession of wisdom and grace is one thing and their practical application quite another; and so Our Lord may be said to have advanced in wisdom and grace according as He began to bring more and more into use the knowledge and virtues He previously enjoyed in abstract contemplation. " In Him," says St. Paul, " were hidden all the treasures of wisdom." In Him, in fact, was hidden the author of wisdom and sanctity, and His progress was His gradual manifestation to the world of His divinity. Not that there was any subjective change in Him, the change was entirely objective— on the part of the observers. The rising sun, for example, gives but a feeble light and little heat; higher still it becomes brighter and warmer; until from the zenith it sends down its most brilliant and scorching rays. It is ever the same sun, throwing off the same amount of light and heat, that rises in the east, that crosses the meridian, and disappears in the west. The change is in us — due to our change of position. So too, it was with the Sun of truth and justice, Christ Jesus our Lord. Ever the same, He still, at His conception, suffused with His truth and love only Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and John. He is born, and the illumined circle widens beyond the shepherds on the hillside. Brighter still, until even decrepit Simeon sees the light to the revelation of the Gentiles. Higher and brighter, until the Gentiles walk in His light and the kings in the
