manifested His amiable charity to men as when God was made man."
But what still more evinces the depth of the Divine love towards the human race is, that the Son of God should come in search of him, whilst man was fleeing away from Him. This the Apostle declares in the words, Nowhere doth He take hold of the Angels; but of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold. [Heb. 2:16] On which St. John Chrysostom thus comments: "He says not, He received, but He seized hold of; from the figure of those who are in pursuit of fugitives, that they may effect their capture." Thus God came from Heaven to arrest, as it were, ungrateful man in his flight from Him. It is as if He had said, "O man! behold, it is nothing but the love of thee that has brought me on earth to seek after thee. Why wilt thou flee from Me? Stay with Me, love Me do not avoid Me, for I greatly love thee."
God came, then, to seek lost man ; and that man might the more easily comprehend the love of this his God for him, and might surrender his love in return to one who so deeply loved him, he willed, the first time of his appearance under a visible form, to show himself as a tender infant, laid upon straw. "O blessed straw, fairer than roses or lilies," exclaims St. Peter Chrysologus, "what favored land produced you? Oh, what an en viable lot is yours, to serve as a bed for the King of Heaven! But, alas!" continues the saint, "alas! you are but cold for Jesus ; for you know not how to warm him in that damp cavern, where he is now shivering with
