I

THE MADONNA AND CHILD

About two thousand years ago a babe was born in the little Judaean village of Bethlehem whose life was to change all history.  His name was Jesus, and every Christian country now takes his birth as a standard from which to reckon time.  When we speak of the year 1900, we are counting the number of years that have passed since that event.[3] To make this clear we sometimes add the initials A.D., standing for the Latin words, Anno Domini, meaning in the year of our Lord.  To go still farther back we speak of an event as so many years B.C. or Before Christ.

[Footnote 3:  To be perfectly exact we must always add four years to a date to get the full length of time passed since the birth of Christ, as a mistake has been made in the calculation.]

The infant Jesus came to his mother Mary as a peculiar treasure.  Before his birth she had had a vision of an angel telling her that her son was to reign over a great kingdom.  She felt that there was a great and solemn mystery in his life.

At the time he was born, Bethlehem happened to be crowded with people who had come there to pay their taxes.  When Mary and her husband Joseph went to the inn, there was no room for them, and the baby was laid in a manger used to feed cattle.  This was a humble cradle for one destined to be a king; but the mother did not think too much of outward things.  Her confidence in her son’s greatness was not to be shaken by trifles like this.

The new-born babe was soon sought out.  First came some shepherds asking to see him, because, while watching their sheep at night, they had had a vision of angels telling them that a Saviour was born in Bethlehem.  Still stranger visitors were some wise men from the East, who said they had seen a star which signified to them the birth of a king.  They brought the babe royal gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh, and returned on their way well pleased with the success of their journey.

When the babe was about a month old he was carried up to the great city of Jerusalem, where, according to the religious custom of the Jews, he was to be offered or presented to the Lord, in the temple.  Here a saintly old man named Simeon took him in his arms, with some strange words of prophecy of the salvation which this child was to bring to the world.

All these things made a deep impression upon Mary, and she was a proud and devoted mother.  Day by day she watched her child grow “strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him.”  It is said that

    “All mothers worship little feet,
    And kiss the very ground they’ve trod,”

and this mother had special cause for child worship.

[Illustration:  MADONNA AND CHILD. National Museum, Florence.]

The Italians always refer to the mother of Jesus as the Madonna, which is the old Italian way of addressing a lady.  This representation of the Madonna and Child makes us understand better what the two were to each other.  The confiding way in which the boy leans against his mother’s knee shows the love between them.  The mother looks like a queen; on her well-poised head she wears a headdress something like a crown.  As the mother of a prince she bears her honors proudly.