When the ceremony of Presentation was over, an aged man advanced towards the little group, and took the Infant Jesus out of His Mother's arms. Sweetly he smiled upon the Child, and then looking up to Heaven he thanked God for having given him the privilege of seeing that happy day on which, in the Temple of the Lord, he saw the Lord of the Temple Himself presented to His Eternal Father. Now he was content to depart in peace; for this foretaste of Heaven made earth and earthly things grievous and wearisome to him. Has the presence of Jesus the same effect of making me dissatisfied with aught else than Him?

How long Simeon had been waiting for that day! Long years before. God had revealed to him that he should not die until he had seen the Lord's Christ. But year after year had passed, and he had almost begun to wonder whether he had been deceiving himself in thinking that such a promise had been made him. So we have often to wait long before God fulfills His promises to us. Yet if we wait a little longer He will give us what we desire in rich abundance, even beyond what He promised.

It must have appeared very strange to those who listened to him that the holy man should speak of this little Child in what must have seemed to them such extravagant terms. They saw in Him nothing so wonderful. His father and mother were ordinary sort of people, of the lower class. It is the old story; the natural man judging by appearances; the spiritual man endowed with a clearer vision, and judging in accordance with the Truth of God.