In the annunciations of the birth of John the Baptist and of Jesus, the angels were the messengers of God, as they so frequently were when they appeared in the Old Testament. That angels are attendant on Christ is taught in the declaration of St. Matthew that “the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels.” And again, “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him.” That angels are deputed to perform such acts as make for the accomplishment of Christ’s mission is shown in Acts v., 19, when an angel liberated the Apostles from prison, and commanded them to “speak in the temple to the people all the words of life.” When writing to the Romans, St. Paul speaks of angels, principalities, and powers, thus enumerating the different orders of angels, and declares their inability to separate us from the love of God, thus implying that they can do nothing that does not accord with the will of the Almighty,--that they have no power in themselves. Again, in writing to the Colossians, St. Paul speaks of things “visible and invisible,” and enumerates thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, while to the Ephesians he declares that God has placed Christ above all these orders of celestial beings. After the annunciations to Zacharias and the Virgin Mary, an angel next appears, in the New Testament story, to instruct Joseph concerning the miraculous conception of Jesus. The appearance to the shepherds follows, of which I have spoken in connection with the subject of angelic choirs. Again, Joseph was warned by an angel to flee into Egypt with Mary and the young Child, to escape the anger of Herod. In ancient series of pictures illustrating the life of St. Joseph, this scene was curiously portrayed, and but one modern painter, so far as I know, has been moved to represent it. In the Belvedere, in Vienna, there is an admirable Dream of Joseph, by Anton Raphael Mengs. Pictures of St. John the Baptist in the wilderness are variously treated, and when he is represented as very young, he is attended by ministering angels. This treatment is warranted by the legend which teaches that he was a mere child of seven or eight years, and is supported by the word of St. Luke in the last verse of the first chapter of his Gospel, “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.”