#104. Prelude.#--This is largely angelic in character. To Zacharias comes the message of the birth of the forerunner. Then follows the angelic annunciation to Mary herself. This in turn is followed by the angelic message to the shepherds and the heavenly chorus on Bethlehem's plain. Heaven stoops to earth to announce its glad tidings. A new creation is heralded, better and grander even than that of the opening chapters of Genesis. One or two events are then recorded in the early life of the Holy Child, and then there is silence for thirty years. It is as though the prelude should end all. But no, the story will not end with mere prelude. It will go on its course till the very last act. #105. First Period.#--_From John to Jesus._ Suddenly John the Baptist breaks on our vision, for his short but decisive part. His message is twofold, and is comprised in the words "Repent," "Prepare." For six short months this fiery preacher calls the nation to prepare for what God has in store for it. Multitudes gather and hearken. Then comes Jesus from Nazareth, and John almost in one breath calls him "Son of God" and "Lamb of God." Two apparently irreconcilable titles, for the one means power and exaltation, and the other sacrifice and humiliation. How these two titles were to blend in one character will be seen in the following acts of the Divine dealing with men. #106. Second Period.#--_From Jordan to the Mount of Olives._ Three and a half years was this in duration. Short as compared with any one of the Old Testament stories, but far more significant, and more full of the Divine revelation of God's mercy and justice. Now miracles multiply as never before, for now, as never before, the Divine comes down to man and holds communion with him. Now truth is made clear as no patriarch or prophet ever saw it. Truly in this period, "Great was the mystery of godliness; he who was manifested in the flesh." With this period we shall deal more in detail later on in these lessons, so we make but brief allusion to it in this place. Suffice it to say that not in all the history of this world were there ever three years and a half so filled with benediction for mankind as were these of the second period.