the place where the young child was—­he who was born King of kings.  They had travelled many a long and weary mile; “and what had they come for to see?” Instead of a sumptuous palace, a mean and lowly dwelling; in place of a monarch surrounded by his guards and ministers and all the terrors of his state, an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid upon his mother’s knee, between the ox and the ass.  They had come, perhaps, from some far-distant savage land, or from some nation calling itself civilized, where innocence had never been accounted sacred, where society had as yet taken no heed of the defenceless woman, no care for the helpless child; where the one was enslaved, and the other perverted:  and here, under the form of womanhood and childhood, they were called upon to worship the promise of that brighter future, when peace should inherit the earth, and righteousness prevail over deceit, and gentleness with wisdom reign for ever and ever!  How must they have been amazed!  How must they have wondered in their souls at such a revelation!—­yet such was the faith of these wise men and excellent kings, that they at once prostrated themselves, confessing in the glorious Innocent who smiled upon them from his mother’s knee, a greater than themselves—­the image of a truer divinity than they had ever yet acknowledged.  And having bowed themselves down—­first, as was most fit, offering themselves,—­they made offering of their treasure, as it had been written in ancient times, “The kings of Tarshish and the isles shall bring presents, and the kings of Sheba shall offer gifts.”  And what were these gifts?  Gold, frankincense, and myrrh; by which symbolical oblation they protested a threefold faith;—­by gold, that he was king; by incense, that he was God; by myrrh, that he was man, and doomed to death.  In return for their gifts, the Saviour bestowed upon them others of more matchless price.  For their gold he gave them charity and spiritual riches; for their incense, perfect faith; and for their myrrh, perfect truth and meekness:  and the Virgin, his mother, also bestowed on them a precious gift and memorial, namely, one of those linen bands in which she had wrapped the Saviour, for which they thanked her with great humility, and laid it up amongst their treasures.  When they had performed their devotions and made their offerings, being warned in a dream to avoid Herod, they turned back again to their own dominions; and the star which had formerly guided them to the west, now went before them towards the east, and led them safely home.  When they were arrived there, they laid down their earthly state; and in emulation of the poverty and humility in which they had found the Lord of all power and might, they distributed their goods and possessions to the poor, and went about in mean attire, preaching to their people the new king of heaven and earth, the CHILD-KING, the Prince of Peace.  We are not told what was the success of their mission; neither is it anywhere