We have, in these verses, the story of a birth,–the birth of the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every birth of a living child is a marvellous event. It brings into being a soul that will never die. But never since the world began was a birth so marvellous as the birth of Christ. In itself it was a miracle,–“God was manifest in the flesh.” (1 Tim. 3:16) The blessings it brought into the world were unspeakable:–it opened to man the door of everlasting life.

In reading these verses, let us first notice the times when Christ was born. It was in the days when Augustus, the first Roman emperor, made “a decree that all the world should be taxed.”