HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 62, 4 July 1874, Page 13

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

By the Abbe J. E. Dakkas. (Translated from the French for the Nkw Zealand Tablkt.) I—Death1 — Death of St. Joseph.

Pbofajje history thus introduces upon the scene of Judea, tlie future perpetrators of a delude. At this period, St. Joseph, the virginal spouse of Mary, the foster father of Jesus, the humble artisun of Nazareth, had eqded his mortal life. Like the patriarch, whose name he bore, he had distributed bread to the true Israel, Q) the child oi Bethlehem, powerful enough to struggle, in the name of fallen humanity, against the justice of God. Egypt had seen him, as formerly his ancestor, lend the support of hi; arm to the true King of the world. Of old, the son of Jacob had 1 passed out of life in a strange land, St. Joseph also dies on the threshold of Gospel history, before the redemption of the world is consummated. Moses, when quitting Egypt, at the head of the Hebrews set free from bondage, piously carried away with him the remains of the former minister of Pharaoh ; Josue deposited them on the soil of the Promised Land. Thus Jesus Christ, conqueror of death, introduced, into the Kingdom of his Heavenly Father, the bo* loved and holy soul of him who was his adopted father on earth ; and! the vice-royalty which the son of Jacob exercised in Egypt, St. Joseph will exercise in heaven, beside the throne of Mary, sharing in a pro* portionate degree, the powerful intercession of the Virgin-mother. St. Joseph is the link which unites the patriarchal world and the Old Testament, with the Christian world and the New Testament Th« Gospel, without informing us of the precise time of his death, show* us clearly that it happened before the years of the Saviour's public life. Ii a decisive proof were wanting, it would be found in the very words employed by the Jews, in enumerating the entire kindred of Jesus : " We have," they say, " amongst us, his mother, his brothers, and his sisters." Evidently, if Joseph had been still living, he would not have been omitted in this enumeration. His memory alone is recalled. The Jews, astonished at the wonders wrought by the ManGod, express all their surprise at seeing these wondors effected by him whom they call " the son of Joseph the artisan." Glorious name given to the spouse of the Virgin Mary ! Joseph was in effect the artisan, in a certain measure, of the salvation of the world. He co-operated with admirable docility, in the work of Redemption. The Heavenly Father transmitted to him his orders, throngh the voice of angels, and the humble artisan, inheritor, under Herod, of the acknowledged rights of David, had the glory of representing the Father in the ter reetrial trinity of the Holy Family. When he died in the arms of Jesus and his mother, and that he had been gathered to his forefathers, the term ordained for the silence and hidden life of the Incarnate Word was accomplished. The work of Joseph was completed ; he had faithfully guarded the two deposits confided to his vigilant tenderneflß the childhood of the son of God and the virginity »f Mary. (2). The public work of Jesus Christ was about to begin, and already the precursor John the Baptist, the new Klias, was preparing the way for the Eedeemer of the world.