should bind him at a later day, to be led to death by cruel executioners). "God suffers Himself," says a certain author, "to be bound up in swaddling-bands, because He had come to unbind the world from its debts." "Behold Him during the whole course of His after-life obeying with ready submission a simple Virgin and man: He was subject to them." [Luke 2:51] Look at Him as a servant in the poor cottage at Nazareth, employed by Mary and Joseph at one time in smoothing the wood to be worked upon by Joseph in his trade; at another time in collecting the scattered shavings for fuel; then in sweeping the house, in fetching water from the well, in opening or closing the shop; in fine, says St. Basil, as Mary and Joseph were poor, and obliged to earn a livelihood by the work of their hands, Jesus Christ, in order to practise obedience, and to show towards them that reverence which as to Superiors He owed them, endeavored to render them all the services which lay in His power as man. "In His early age Jesus was subject to His parents, and obediently underwent every kind of bodily fatigue; for, as they were poor, they necessarily were obliged to labor. But Jesus showed His obedience by His submission to them by undergoing every kind of labor." What! a God to serve! a God to sweep the house! a God to work! Ah how the mere thought of this should inflame us all, and make us burn with love!
Subsequently, when our Saviour went forth to preach, He made Himself the servant of all, declaring that He had come not to be served, but to serve all others: The
