They were children of the same year, Christ and John. On this day the barren mother brought forth the great prophet John, who is praised in these words by the mouth of Christ, "Among the children of men there hath not arisen a greater man than is John the Baptist." On the mass-day of midwinter the holy maiden Mary brought forth the Heavenly Prince, who is not numbered with the children of men, because he is the Son of God in his Godhead, and the Son of God and of a maiden by his human nature. John fled from the presence of people in his youth, and in the waste, with austere life-course, avoided sin. Jesus continued among the sinful pure from every sin. The crier inclined, at that time, a great body of the people of Israel to their Creator by his announcement. The Lord daily inclines souls without number of all nations to his faith, through enlightening of the Holy Ghost. The holy gospel says of the Baptist, that he preceded Jesus in spirit and in power of the prophet Elias; because he was his forerunner at his first advent, as Elias will be at the second against Antichrist. It is not without signification that the birth of the crier was completed on the day when the worldly day is waning, and that it is waxing on the birth-tide of the Lord. This signification the same John revealed in these words, "It is befitting Christ that he wax, and me that I be waning." John was sooner known to men, through his illustrious life-course, than Christ was, for He manifested not his divine power, ere that he had been thirty years in human nature. Then it seemed to the people that he was a prophet, and that John was Christ. But Christ manifested himself by many great miracles, and his fame waxed through all the world, that he was true God, who before that had seemed a prophet. But John was waning in his fame, for he was {359} acknowledged a prophet, and the proclaimer of the Heavenly Prince, who a little before had by uncertain supposition been accounted Christ. The waning day of his birth-tide betokens this waning, and the increasing day of the birth of Jesus signifies his increasing power according to his human nature.