priestly baptism? Are you labouring to be a king without the Divine
anointing? Beware!



IV.

_From Infancy to Manhood_.


Birth implies the weakness, the dependence, the ignorance of infancy. But
it implies, also, the promise of growth, of increase, of advance from
infancy to manhood. Thus it is with man generally. So it was with the Son
of Man. First, He was "wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a
manger." Presently He goes forth in His mother's arms into Egypt, and back
to Nazareth. By and by it is written that "the Child grew and waxed strong
in spirit, and the grace of God was upon Him." Then He is found in the
Temple, asking that wonderful question about His Father's business, and at
last we find Him "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God
and man."

We know, also, that He was found in fashion as a servant, and was obedient
unto death; that He was tempted of the Devil, and that "He learned
obedience by the things that He suffered." In fact, a very slight
acquaintance with the history of His life reveals the truth that in some
wonderful way He steadily grew in wisdom and grace; in the power to love
and to serve, and in strength to grapple with sin and death--all the while
He journeyed from the cradle to the grave and the victory beyond.

His life was a discipline, in the very highest sense of the word. Many of