I. Childhood is exposed to imminent dangers. “Herod sought the young child’s life.” Evil is never so active or persistent as when it seeks the ruin of the young.
II. On what conditions the safety of childhood depends.
1. The first of these is parental love. See the love and fidelity of Joseph and Mary. Nothing more natural than that parental love should seek at any cost the safety of a child.
2. Parental love wisely directed. The parents of Jesus did not trust to their own wisdom.
3. The Divine direction given to parents respecting their children is to be followed in obedience and faith. Joseph and Mary obeyed the will of God. (Monday Club Sermons.)
The truth of God and the trials of its friends
I. The truth of God.
1. Earth’s opposition to the truth.
2. Heaven’s interest in the truth.
3. Man’s guardianship of the truth.
II. The trial of its friends. (Dr. Thomas.)
Obedience and Divine guidance
I. That God can use not only the extraordinary, but even the trivial events of life in the rescue and guidance of his people. “In a dream.”
1. He puts Joseph on his guard.
2. He keeps His eye on Herod.
3. He points out a place of safety.
II. That at all times, especially in peril and perplexity, it is the duty and privilege of God’s children to obey. Obedience may call for-
1. Prompt action, “Flee.”
2. It may call for sacrifice of friends and home-“Into Egypt.”
3. It sometimes calls for patient waiting-“Be thou there.”
4. It always brings God’s further direction and blessing-“I bring thee word.” (T. Kelly)
The flight into Egypt
1.That when God brings forth good, evil is sure to oppose.
2. God permits wicked and lawless tyrants to be supreme for a time.
3. That cross-handed providences often bring our greatest mercies.
4. That while self is always in a hurry to display itself, real greatness is content to wait its time. (W. P. Balfern.)
The flight into Egypt
I. The flight into Egypt.
II. The massacre of the infant children at Bethlehem. Herod may be considered as an example of the infatuating influence of sin and its power to stultify the most obvious conclusions of a rational intelligence. Herod never thought of our Lord as a human opponent, but as the Messiah. He did not disbelieve the star or the prophecies interpreted by the priests and scribes. He was fighting against God; He thought the prophecies might fail at the last.
III. The recall of the holy family. Egypt has often been the asylum of persecuted goodness; Abraham, Joseph, Jacob. (D. Moore, M. A.)
God takes care of little children
Iremember reading a story of a baby-a wee child-that travelled by railroad. Away whirled the coach very fast; but it soon knocked against something, and all were thrown cut-men, women, mothers and babes. Some were pitched here, some there; heads were broken, hands cut off. In the midst of the confusion, a voice was heard crying-“Where is my baby? Oh l my dear baby! I cannot find him anywhere. Did nobody see my sweet baby? What shall I do? “ One man lost his leg; another his hand; another his eye; but the mother did not mind them, but was going about, wringing her hands, and crying-“Where is my baby?” After much search for it, and for a great while in vain, at length a man went over to a place where was a bandbox. He took up the bandbox, and what do you think he found under it? The baby, fast asleep! Now, if God takes care of common babies, surely He would take care of His own child, Jesus. (J. Gregg.)
The efforts of a mother for the safety of her child
A slave-mother who had been faithful under the very worst usage remained so until told that her child was to be severed from her and sold in New Orleans. It was midwinter, yet at midnight she started for the Ohio, determined to live and, if need be, die with her child. As she reached the bank no boat was near, and along the water masses of broken ice drifted. Trusting to heaven, she put her feet on the treacherous element, and, with it bending and breaking beneath her, she boldly pushed on from cake to cake until she safely landed on the Ohio shore. Five minutes sooner, and she must have perished; two minutes later, and she would have met with a watery grave, for, before she had proceeded twenty steps, the ice behind her on the Kentucky side had broken, and was scattered ere she reached the river. “Thank God, you and your child are safe!” exclaimed the hard-hearted master, rejoicing that he had escaped the responsibility of their death. “Brave woman,” said a Kentuckian, who had witnessed her escape, “you have won your freedom, and you shall have it.” The mother and child were kept together in liberty and love, and in a humble but happy home.
