The more closely I am identified with JESUS and Mary, the more I must expect suffering. The training for the kingdom is the same, whether for Wise Men or Babes. The Wise Men learnt from the child on Mary's knee to view suffering in a new light, and they went back to their country prepared to sacrifice all for the Child and His Mother, shrinking from nothing till they laid down their lives for Him Whose star they had so diligently followed. So Simeon's sword is piercing; the Cross is already showing that the followers of the Babe are to be victims too--all is getting clearer and clearer to Mary, and as she wonders her heart is enlarged. _Colloquy_ with Mary. _Resolution._ To follow the generosity of the Wise Men and the Babes. _Spiritual Bouquet._ "Mater Dolorosa, Consolatrix afflictorum, Regina Martyrum, ora pro nobis." Egypt "_That it might be fulfilled which the Lord spake by the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I called My Son._" (St Matt. ii. 15.) _1st Prelude._ Picture of JESUS, Mary, and Joseph. _2nd Prelude._ Grace to believe that no circumstances in which GOD has placed me can hinder my spiritual life. _Point I._--THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT Only one child escaped the cruel sword of Herod, and that one was Mary's Son. He was safe in the arms of His Mother, who was fleeing with Him into Egypt, with an anguish of heart so great that it constituted the _Second Dolour_. But no design of Herod, however powerful and clever, could touch that life before His hour was come. The child knew it, and His Mother knew it--yet they fled from those who sought His life; for in all things Mary's Son must be made like unto His brethren. He could have protected Himself, had He so wished, without giving so much trouble and anxiety to His parents. He heard "Rachel bewailing her children"; He heard the cry of each one of those little Innocents, who was giving his life for Him--yet He did not raise a finger to prevent all the misery, because He had come to do His Father's Will, and He left all in His Hands; and also because He is our model, and He was showing us how to act. He wants us to have a perfect acquiescence in GOD'S Will, a boundless confidence, a profound peace, and even _joy_, in the midst of the most trying and perplexing circumstances. He wants us to lie quiet in GOD'S arms, as He lay in His Mother's, content to know nothing except that GOD'S will is being done.