Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, December 24th, 1871, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is
born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in
swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."–Luke 2:10-12.
WE HAVE NO superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do
not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas:
first, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it,
whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English; and, secondly,
because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as
the birthday of the Saviour; and, consequently, its observance is a
superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition has fixed
most positively the day of our Saviour's birth, although there is no
possibility of discovering when it occurred. Fabricius gives a
catalogue of 136 different learned opinions upon the matter; and
various divines invent weighty arguments for advocating a date in every
month in the year. It was not till the middle of the third century that
any part of the church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and it was
not till very long after the Western church had set the example, that
the Eastern adopted it. Because the day is not known, therefore
superstition has fixed it; while, since the day of the death of our
Saviour might be determined with much certainty, therefore superstition
shifts the date of its observance every year. Where is the method in
the madness of the superstitious? Probably the fact is that the holy
days were arranged to fit in with heathen festivals. We venture to
assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty
sure that it was not the day on which the Saviour was born, it is the
twenty-fifth of December. Nevertheless since, the current of men's
thoughts is led this way just now, and I see no evil in the current
itself, I shall launch the bark of our discourse upon that stream, and
make use of the fact, which I shall neither justify nor condemn, by
endeavoring to lead your thoughts in the same direction. Since it is
lawful, and even laudable, to meditate upon the incarnation of the Lord
upon any day in the year, it cannot be in the power of other men's
superstitions to render such a meditation improper for to-day.
Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanks for the
gift of his dear son.
In our text we have before us the sermon of the first evangelist under
the gospel dispensation. The preacher was an angel, and it was meet it
should be so, for the grandest and last of all evangels will be
proclaimed by an angel when he shall sound the trumpet of the
resurrection, and the children of the regeneration shall rise into the
fullness of their joy. The key-note of this angelic gospel is joy–"I
bring unto you good tidings of great joy." Nature fears in the presence
of God–the shepherds were sore afraid. The law itself served to deepen
this natural feeling of dismay; seeing men were sinful, and the law
came into the world to reveal sin, its tendency was to make men fear
and tremble under any and every divine revelation. The Jews unanimously
believed that if any man beheld supernatural appearances, he would be
sure to die, so that what nature dictated, the law and the general
beliefs of those under it also abetted. But the first word of the
gospel ended all this, for the angelic evangelist said, "Fear not,
behold I bring you good tidings." Henceforth, it is to be no dreadful
thing for man to approach his Maker; redeemed man is not to fear when
God unveils the splendor of his majesty, since he appears no more a
judge upon his throne of terror, but a Father unbending in sacred
familiarity before his own beloved children.
The joy which this first gospel preacher spoke of was no mean one, for
he said, "I bring you good tidings"–that alone were joy: and not good
tidings of joy only, but "good tidings of great joy." Every word is
emphatic, as if to show that the gospel is above all things intended to
promote, and will most abundantly create the greatest possible joy in
the human heart wherever it is received. Man is like a harp unstrung,
and the music of his soul's living strings is discordant, his whole
nature wails with sorrow; but the son of David, that mighty harper, has
come to restore the harmony of humanity, and where his gracious fingers
move among the strings, the touch of the fingers of an incarnate God
brings forth music sweet as that of the spheres, and melody rich as a
seraph's canticle. Would God that all men felt that divine hand.
In trying to open up this angelic discourse this morning, we shall note
three things: the joy which is spoken of; next, the persons to whom
this joy comes; and then, thirdly, the sign, which is to us a sign as
well as to these shepherds–a sign of the birth and source of joy.
I. First, then, THE JOY, which is mentioned in our text–whence comes
it, and what is it?
We have already said it is a "great joy"–"good tidings of great joy."
Earth's joy is small, her mirth is trivial, but heaven has sent us joy
immeasurable, fit for immortal minds. Inasmuch as no note of time is
appended, and no intimation is given that the message will ever be
reversed, we may say that it is a lasting joy, a joy which will ring
all down the ages, the echoes of which shall be heard until the trumpet
brings the resurrection; aye, and onward for ever and for ever. For
when God sent forth the angel in his brightness to say, "I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which be to all people," he did as much as
say, "From this time forth it shall be joy to the sons of men; there
shall be peace to the human race, and goodwill towards men for ever and
for ever, as long as there is glory to God in the highest." O blessed
thought! the Star of Bethlehem shall never set. Jesus, the fairest
among ten thousand, the most lovely among the beautiful, is a joy for
ever.
Since this joy is expressly associated with the glory of God, by the
Words, "Glory to God in the highest," we may be quite clear that it is
a pure and holy joy. No other would an angel have proclaimed, and,
indeed, no other joy is joy. The wine pressed from the grapes of Sodom
may sparkle and foam, but it is bitterness in the end, and the dregs
thereof are death; only that which comes from the clusters of Eschol is
the true wine of the kingdom, making glad the heart of God and man.
Holy joy is the joy of heaven, and that, be ye sure, is the very cream
of joy. The joy of sin is a fire-fountain, having its source in the
burning soil of hell, maddening and consuming those who drink its
fire-water; of such delights we desire not to drink. It were to be
worse than damned to be happy in sin, since it is the beginning of
grace to be wretched in sin, and the consummation of grace to be wholly
escaped from sin, and to shudder even at the thought of it. It is hell
to live in sin and misery, it is a deep lower still when men could
fashion a joy in sin. God save us from unholy peace and from unholy
joy! The joy announced by the angel of the nativity is as pure as it is
lasting, as holy as it is great. Let us then always believe concerning
the Christian religion that it has its joy within itself, and holds its
feasts within its own pure precincts, a feast whose viands all grow on
holy ground. There are those who, to-morrow, will pretend to exhibit
joy in the remembrance of our Saviour's birth, but they will not seek
their pleasure in the Saviour: they will need many additions to the
feast before they can be satisfied. Joy in Immanuel would be a poor
sort of mirth to them. In this country, too often, if one were unaware
of the name, one might believe the Christmas festival to be a feast of
Bacchus, or of Ceres, certainly not a commemoration of the Divine
birth. Yet is there cause enough for holy joy in the Lord himself, and
reasons for ecstasy in his birth among men. It is to be feared that
most men imagine that in Christ there is only seriousness and
solemnity, and to them consequently weariness, gloom, and discontent;
therefore, they look out of and beyond what Christ allows, to snatch
from the tables of Satan the delicacies with which to adorn the banquet
held in honor of a Saviour. Let it not be so among you. The joy which
the gospel brings is not borrowed but blooms in its own garden. We may
truly say in the language of one of our sweetest hymns–
"I need not go abroad for joy,
I have a feast at home,
My sighs are turned into songs,
My heart has ceased to roam.
Down from above the Blessed Dove
Has come into my breast,
To witness his eternal love,
And give my spirit rest."
Let our joy be living water from those sacred wells which the Lord
himself has digged; may his joy abide in us, that our joy may be full.
Of Christ's joy we cannot have too much; no fear of running to excess
when his love is the wine we drink. Oh to be plunged in this pure
stream of spiritual delights!
But why is it that the coming of Christ into the world is the occasion
of joy? The answer is as follows:–First, because it is evermore a
joyous fact that God should be in alliance with man, especially when
the alliance is so near that God should in very deed take our manhood
into union with his godhead; so that God and man should constitute one
divine, mysterious person. Sin had separated between God and man; but
the incarnation bridges the separation: it is a prelude to the atoning
sacrifice, but it is a prelude full of the richest hope. From
henceforth, when God looks upon man, he will remember that his own Son
is a man. From this day forth, when he beholds the sinner, if his wrath
should burn, he will remember that his own Son, as man, stood in the
sinner's place, and bore the sinner's doom. As in the case of war, the
feud is ended when the opposing parties intermarry, so there is no more
war between God and man, because God has taken man into intimate union
with himself. Herein, then, there was cause for joy.
But there was more than that, for the shepherds were aware that there
had been promises made of old which had been the hope and comfort of
believers in all ages, and these were now to be fulfilled. There was
that ancient promise made on the threshold of Eden to the first sinners
of our race, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's
head; another promise made to the Father of the faithful that in his
seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed, and promises
uttered by the mouths of prophets and of saints since the world began.
Now, the announcement of the angel of the Lord to the shepherds was a
declaration that the covenant was fulfilled, that now in the fullness
oftime God would redeem his word, and the Messiah, who was to be
Israel's glory and the world's hope; was now really come. Be glad ye
heavens, and be joyful O earth, for the Lord hath done it, and in mercy
hath he visited his people. The Lord hath not suffered his word to
fail, but hath fulfilled unto his people his promises. The time to
favor Zion, yea the set time, is come. Now that the scepter is departed
from Judah, behold the Shiloh comes, the Messenger of the covenant
suddenly appears in his temple!
But the angel's song had in it yet fuller reason for joy; for our Lord
who was born in Bethlehem came as a Saviour. "Unto you is born this day
a Saviour." God had come to earth before, but not as a Saviour.
Remember that terrible coming when there went three angels into Sodom
at night-fall, for the Lord said, "I will go now and see whether it be
altogether according to the cry thereof." He had come as a spy to
witness human sin, and as an avenger to lift his hand to heaven, and
bid the red fire descend and burn up the accursed cities of the plain.
Horror to the world when God thus descends. If Sinai smokes when the
law is proclaimed, the earth itself shall melt when the breaches of the
law are punished. But now not as an angel of vengeance, but as a man in
mercy God has come; not to spy out our sin, but to remove it; not to
punish guilt, but to forgive it. The Lord might have come with
thunderbolts in both his hands he might have come like Elias to call
fire from heaven; but no, his hands are full of gifts of love, and his
presence is the guarantee of grace. The babe born in the manger might
have been another prophet of tears, or another son of thunder, but he
was not so: he came in gentleness, his glory and his thunder alike laid
aside.
"Twas mercy filled the throne,
And wrath stood silent by,
When Christ on the kind errand came
To sinners doomed to die."
Rejoice, ye who feel that ye are lost; your Saviour comes to seek and
save you. Be of good cheer ye who are in prison, for be comes to set
you free. Ye who are famished and ready to die, rejoice that he has
consecrated for you a Bethlehem, a house of bread, and he has come to
be the bread of life to your souls. Rejoice, O sinners, everywhere for
the restorer of the castaways, the Saviour of the fallen is born. Join
in the joy, ye saints, for he is the preserver of the saved ones,
delivering them from innumerable perils, and he is the sure prefecter
of such as he preserves. Jesus is no partial Saviour, beginning a work
and not concluding it; but, restoring and upholding, he also prefects
and presents the saved ones without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing
before his Father's throne. Rejoice aloud all ye people, let your hills
and valleys ring with joy, for a Saviour who is mighty to save is born
among you.
Nor was this all the holy mirth, for the next word has also in it a
fullness of joy:–"a Saviour, who is Christ," or the Anointed. Our Lord
was not an amateur Saviour who came down from heaven upon an
unauthorized mission; but he was chosen, ordained, and anointed of God;
he could truly say, "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the
Lord hath anointed me." Here is great comfort for all such as need a
Saviour; it is to them no mean consolation that God has himself
authorized Christ to save. There can be no fear of a jar between the
mediator and the judge, no peril of a nonacceptance of our Saviour's
work; because God has commissioned Christ to do what he has done, and
in saving sinners he is only executing his Fathers own will. Christ is
here called "the anointed." All his people are anointed, and there were
priests after the order of Aaron who were anointed, but he is the
anointed, "anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows;" so
plenteously anointed that, like the unction upon Aaron's head, the
sacred anointing of the Head of the church distils in copious streams,
till we who are like the skirts of his garments are made sweet with the
rich perfume. He is "the anointed" in a threefold sense: as prophet to
preach the gospel with power; as priest to offer sacrifice; as king to
rule and reign. In each of these he is preeminent; he is such a
teacher, priest, and ruler as was never seen before. In him was a rare
conjunction of glorious offices, for never did prophet, priest, and
king meet in one person before among the sons of men, nor shall it ever
be so again. Triple is the anointing of him who is a priest after the
order of Melchisedec, a prophet like unto Moses, and a king of whose
dominion there is no end. In the name of Christ, the Holy Ghost is
glorified, by being seen as anointing the incarnate God. Truly, dear
brethren, if we did but understand all this, and receive it into our
hearts, our souls would leap for joy on this Sabbath day, to think that
there is born unto us a Saviour who is anointed of the Lord.
One more note, and this the loudest, let us sound it well and hear it
well– "which is Christ the Lord." Now the word Lord, or Kurios, here
used is tantamount to Jehovah. We cannot doubt that, because it is the
same word used twice in the ninth verse, and in the ninth verse none
can question that it means Jehovah. Hear it, "And, lo, the angel of the
Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them."
And if this be not enough, read the 23rd verse, "As it is written in
the law of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called
holy to the Lord." Now the word Lord here assuredly refers to Jehovah,
the one God, and so it must do here. Our Saviour is Christ, God,
Jehovah. No testimony to his divinity could be plainer; it is
indisputable. And what joy there is in this; for suppose an angel had
been our Saviour, he would not have been able to bear the load of my
sin or yours; or if anything less than God had been set up as the
ground of our salvation, it might have been found too frail a
foundation. But if he who undertakes to save is none other than the
Infinite and the Almighty, then the load of our guilt can be carried
upon such shoulders, the stupendous labor of our salvation can be
achieved by such a worker, and that with ease: for all things are
possible with God, and he is able to save to the uttermost them that
come unto God by him. Ye sons of men perceive ye here the subject of
your joy. The God who made you, and against whom you have offended, has
come down from heaven and taken upon himself your nature that he might
save you. He has come in the fullness of his glory and the infinity of
his mercy that he might redeem you. Do you not welcome this news? What!
will not your hearts be thankful for this? Does this matchless love
awaken no gratitude? Were it not for this divine Saviour, your life
here would have been wretchedness, and your future existence would have
been endless woe. Oh, I pray you adore the incarnate God, and trust in
him. Then will you bless the Lord for delivering you from the wrath to
come, and as you lay hold of Jesus and find salvation in his name, you
will tune your songs to his praise, and exult with sacred joy. So much
concerning this joy.
II. Follow me while I briefly speak of THE PEOPLE to whom this joy
comes. Observe how the angel begins, "Behold, I bring you good tidings
of great joy, for unto you is born this day." So, then, the joy began
with the first who heard it, the shepherds. "To you," saith he; "for
unto you is born." Beloved hearer, shall the joy begin with you
to-day?–for it little avails you that Christ was born, or that Christ
died, unless unto you a child is born, and for you Jesus bled. A
personal interest is the main point. "But I am poor," saith one. So
were the shepherds. O ye poor, to you this mysterious child is born.
"The poor have the gospel preached unto them." "He shall judge the poor
and needy, and break in pieces the oppressor." But I am obscure and
unknown," saith one. So were the watchers on the midnight plain. Who
knew the men who endured hard toil, and kept their flocks by night? But
you, unknown of men, are known to God: shall it not be said, that "unto
you a child is born?" The Lord regardeth not the greatness of men, but
hath respect unto the lowly. But you are illiterate you say, you cannot
understand much. Be it so, but unto the shepherds Christ was born, and
their simplicity did not hinder their receiving him, but even helped
them to it. Be it so with yourself: receive gladly the simple truth as
it is in Jesus. The Lord hath exalted one chosen out of the people. No
aristocratic Christ have I to preach to you, but the Saviour of the
people, the friend of publicans and sinners. Jesus is the true "poor
men's friend;" he is "a covenant for the people," given to be "a leader
and commander to the people." To you is Jesus given. O that each heart
might truly say, to me is Jesus born; for it I truly believe in Jesus,
unto me Christ is born, and I may be as sure of it as if an angel
announced it, since the Scripture tells me that if I believe in Jesus
He is mine.
After the angel had said "to you," he went on to say, "it shall be to
all people." But our translation is not accurate, the Greek is, "it
shall be to all the people." This refers most assuredly to the Jewish
nation; there can be no question about that; if any one looks at the
original, he will not find so large and wide an expression as that
given by our translators. It should be rendered "to all the people."
And here let us speak a word for the Jews. How long and how sinfully
has the Christian church despised the most honorable amongst the
nations! How barbarously has Israel been handled by the so-called
church! I felt my spirit burn indignantly within me in Rome when I
stood in the Jew's quarter, and heard of the cruel indignities which
Popery has heaped upon the Jews, even until recently. At this hour
there stands in the Jew's quarter a church built right in front of the
entrance to it, and into this the unhappy Jews were driven forcibly on
certain occasions. To this church they were compelled to
subscribe–subscribe, mark you, as worshippers of the one invisible
God, to the support of a system which is as leprous with idolatry as
were the Canaanites whom the Lord abhorred. Paganism is not more
degrading than Romanism. Over the door of this church is placed, in
their own tongue in the Hebrew, these words: –"All day long have I
stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying generation;"
how, by such an insult as that, could they hope to convert the Jew. The
Jew saw everywhere idols which his soul abhorred, and he loathed the
name of Christ, because he associated it with idol worship, and I do
not wonder that he did. I praise the Jew that he could not give up his
own simple theism, and the worship of the true God, for such a base,
degrading superstition as that which Rome presented to him. Instead of
thinking it a wonder of unbelief that the Jew is not a Christian, I
honor him for his faith and his courageous resistance of a fascinating
heathenism. If Romanism be Christianity I am not, neither could I be, a
Christian. It were a more manly thing to be a simple believer in one
God, or even an honest doubter upon all religion, than worship such
crowds of gods and goddesses as Popery has set up, and to bow, as she
does, before rotten bones and dead men's winding sheets. Let the true
Christian church think lovingly of the Jew, and with respectful
earnestness tell him the true gospel; let her sweep away superstition,
and set before him the one gracious God in the Trinity of his divine
Unity; and the day shall yet come when the Jews, who were the first
apostles to the Gentiles, the first missionaries to us who were afar
off; shall be gathered in again. Until that shall be, the fullness of
the church's glory can never come. Matchless benefits to the world are
bound up with the restoration of Israel; their gathering in shall be as
life from the dead. Jesus the Saviour is the joy of all nations, but
let not the chosen race be denied their peculiar share of whatever
promise holy writ has recorded with a special view to them. The woes
which their sins brought upon them have fallen thick and heavily; and
even so let the richest blessings distil upon them.
Although our translation is not literally correct, it, nevertheless,
expresses a great truth, taught plainly in the context; and, therefore,
we will advance another step. The coming of Christ is a joy to all
people. It is so, for the fourteenth verse says: "On earth peace,"
which is a wide and even unlimited expression. It adds, "Good will
towards"–not Jews, but "men" –all men. The word is the generic name
of the entire race, and there is no doubt that the coming of Christ
does bring joy to all sorts of people. It brings a measure of joy even
to those who are not Christians. Christ does not bless them in the
highest and truest sense, but the influence of his teaching imparts
benefits of an inferior sort, such as they are capable of receiving;
for wherever the gospel is proclaimed, it is no small blessing to all
the population. Note this fact: there is no land beneath the sun where
there is an open Bible and a preached gospel, where a tyrant long can
hold his place. It matters not who he be, whether pope or king; let the
pulpit be used properly for the preaching of Christ crucified, let the
Bible be opened to be read by all men, and no tyrant can long rule in
peace. England owes her freedom to the Bible; and France will never
possess liberty, lasting and well-established, till she comes to
reverence the gospel, which too long she has rejected. There is joy to
all mankind where Christ comes. The religion of Jesus makes men think,
and to make men think is always dangerous to a despot's power. The
religion of Jesus Christ sets a man free from superstition; when he
believes in Jesus, what cares he for Papal excommunications, or whether
priests give or withhold their absolution? The man no longer cringes
and bows down; he is no more willing, like a beast, to be led by the
nose; but, learning to think for himself and becoming a man, he
disdains the childish fears which once held him in slavery. Hence,
where Jesus comes, even if men do not receive him as the Saviour, and
so miss the fullest joy, yet they get a measure of benefit; and I pray
God that everywhere his gospel may be so proclaimed, and that so many
may be actuated by the spirit of it, that it may be better for all
mankind. If men receive Christ, there will be no more oppression: the
true Christian does to others as he would that they should do to him,
and there is no more contention of classes, nor grinding of the faces
of the poor. Slavery must go down where Christianity rules, and mark
you, if Romanism be once destroyed, and pure Christianity shall govern
all nations, war itself must come to an end; for if there be anything
which this book denounces and counts the hugest of all crimes, it is
the crime of war. Put up thy sword into thy sheath, for hath not he
said, "Thou shalt not kill," and he meant not that it was a sin to kill
one but a glory to kill a million, but he meant that bloodshed on the
smallest or largest scale was sinful. Let Christ govern, and men shall
break the bow and cut the spear in sunder, and burn the chariot in the
fire. It is joy to all nations that Christ is born, the Prince of
Peace, the King who rules in righteousness.
But, beloved, the greatest joy is to those who know Christ as a
Saviour. Here the song rises to a higher and sublimer note. Unto us
indeed a child is born, if we can say that he is our "Saviour who is
Christ the Lord." Let me ask each of you a few personal questions. Are
your sins forgiven you for his name's sake? Is the head of the serpent
bruised in your soul? Does the seed of the woman reign in sanctifying
power over your nature? Oh then, you have the joy that is to all the
people in the truest form of it; and, dear brother, dear sister, the
further you submit yourself to Christ the Lord, the more completely you
know him, and are like him, the fuller will your happiness become.
Surface joy is to those who live where the Saviour is preached; but the
great deeps, the great fathomless deeps of solemn joy which glisten and
sparkle with delight, are for such as know the Saviour, obey the
anointed one, and have communion with the Lord himself. He is the most
joyful man who is the most Christly man. I wish that some Christians
were more truly Christians: they are Christians and something else; it
were much better if they were altogether Christians. Perhaps you know
the legend, or perhaps true history of the awakening of St. Augustine.
He dreamed that he died, and went to the gates of heaven, and the
keeper of the gates said to him, "Who are you?" And he answered,
"Christianus sum," I am a Christian. But the porter replied, "No, you
are not a Christian, you are a Ciceronian, for your thoughts and
studies were most of all directed to the works of Cicero and the
classics, and you neglected the teaching of Jesus. We judge men here by
that which most engrossed their thoughts, and you are judged not to be
a Christian but a Ciceronian." When Augustine awoke, he put aside the
classics which he had studied, and the eloquence at which he had aimed,
and he said, "I will be a Christian and a theologian;" and from that
time he devoted his thoughts to the word of God, and his pen and his
tongue to the instruction of others in the truth. Oh I would not have
it said of any of you, "Well, he may be somewhat Christian, but he is
far more a keen money-getting tradesman." I would not have it said,
"Well, he may be a believer in Christ, but he is a good deal more a
politician." Perhaps he is a Christian, but he is most at home when he
is talking about science, farming, engineering, horses, mining,
navigation, or pleasure-taking. No, no, you will never know the
fullness of the joy which Jesus brings to the soul, unless under the
power of the Holy Spirit you take the Lord your Master to be your All
in all, and make him the fountain of your intensest delight. "He is my
Saviour, my Christ, my Lord," be this your loudest boast. Then will you
know the joy which the angel's song predicts for men.
III. But I must pass on. The last thing in the text is The SIGN. The
shepherds did not ask for a sign, but one was graciously given.
Sometimes it is sinful for us to require as an evidence what God's
tenderness may nevertheless see fit to give as an aid to faith. Wilful
unbelief shall have no sign, but weak faith shall have compassionate
aid. The sign that the joy of the world had come was this,–they were
to go to the manger to find the Christ in it, and he was to be the
sign. Every circumstance is therefore instructive. The babe was found
"wrapped in swaddling clothes." Now, observe, as you look at this
infant, that there is not the remotest appearance of temporal power
here. Mark the two little puny arms of a little babe that must be
carried if it go. Alas, the nations of the earth look for joy in
military power. By what means can we make a nation of soldiers? The
Prussian method is admirable; we must have thousands upon thousands of
armed men and big cannon and ironclad vessels to kill and destroy by
wholesale. Is it not a nation's pride to be gigantic in arms? What
pride flushes the patriot's cheek when he remembers that his nation can
murder faster than any other people. Ah, foolish generation, ye are
groping in the flames of hell to find your heaven, raking amid blood
and bones for the foul thing which ye call glory. A nation's joy can
never lie in the misery of others. Killing is not the path to
prosperity; huge armaments are a curse to the nation itself as well as
to its neighbors. The joy of a nation is a golden sand over which no
stream of blood has ever rippled. It is only found in that river, the
streams whereof make glad the city of God. The weakness of submissive
gentleness is true power. Jesus founds his eternal empire not on force
but on love. Here, O ye people, see your hope; the mild pacific prince,
whose glory is his self-sacrifice, is our true benefactor.
But look again, and you shall observe no pomp to dazzle you. Is the
child wrapped in purple and fine linen? Ah, no. Sleeps he in a cradle
of gold? The manger alone is his shelter. No crown is upon the babe's
head, neither does a coronet surround the mother's brow. A simple
maiden of Galilee, and a little child in ordinary swaddling bands, it
is all you see.
"Bask not in courtly bower,
Or sunbright hall of power,
Pass Babel quick,
and seek the holy land.
From robes of Tyrian dye,
Turn with undazzled eye
To Bethlehem's glade, and by the manger stand."
Alas, the nations are dazzled with a vain show. The pomp of empires,
the pageants of kings are their delight. How can they admire those
gaudy courts, in which too often glorious apparel, decorations, and
rank stand in the stead of virtue, chastity, and truth. When will the
people cease to be children? Must they for ever crave for martial music
which stimulates to violence, and delight in a lavish expenditure which
burdens them with taxation? These make not a nation great or joyous.
Bah! how has the bubble burst across yon narrow sea. A bubble empire
has collapsed. Ten thousand bayonets and millions of gold proved but a
sandy foundation for a Babel throne. Vain are the men who look for joy
in pomp; it lies in truth and righteousness, in peace and salvation, of
which yonder new-born prince in the garments of a peasant child is the
true symbol.
Neither was there wealth to be seen at Bethlehem. Here in this quiet
island, the bulk of men are comfortably seeking to acquire their
thousands by commerce and manufactures. We are the sensible people who
follow the main chance, and are not to be deluded by ideas of glory; we
are making all the money we can, and wondering that other nations waste
so much in fight. The main prop and pillar of England's joy is to be
found, as some tell us, in the Three per Cents., in the possession of
colonies, in the progress of machinery, in steadily increasing our
capital. Is not Mammon a smiling deity? But, here, in the cradle of the
world's hope at Bethlehem, I see far more of poverty than wealth; I
perceive no glitter of gold, or spangle of silver. I perceive only a
poor babe, so poor, so very poor, that he is in a manger laid; and his
mother is a mechanic's wife, a woman who wears neither silk nor gem.
Not in your gold, O Britons, will ever lie your joy, but in the gospel
enjoyed by all classes, the gospel freely preached and joyfully
received. Jesus, by raising us to spiritual wealth, redeems us from the
chains of Mammon, and in that liberty gives us joy.
And here, too, I see no superstition. I know the artist paints angels
in the skies, and surrounds the scene with a mysterious light, of which
tradition's tongue of falsehood has said that it made midnight as
bright as noon. This is fiction merely; there was nothing more there
than the stable, the straw the oxen ate, and perhaps the beasts
themselves, and the child in the plainest, simplest manner, wrapped as
other children are; the cherubs were invisible and of haloes there were
none. Around this birth of joy was no sign of superstition: that demon
dared not intrude its tricks and posturings into the sublime spectacle:
it would have been there as much out of place as a harlequin in the
holy of holies. A simple gospel, a plain gospel, as plain as that babe
wrapped in the commonest garments, is this day the only hope for men.
Be ye wise and believe in Jesus, and abhor all the lies of Rome, and
inventions of those who ape her detestable abominations.
Nor does the joy of the world lie in philosophy. You could not have
made a schoolmen's puzzle of Bethlehem if you had tried to do so; it
was just a child in the manger and a Jewish woman looking on and
nursing it, and a carpenter standing by. There was no metaphysical
difficulty there, of which men could say, "A doctor of divinity is
needed to explain it, and an assembly of divines must expound it." It
is true the wise men came there, but it was only to adore and offer
gifts; would that all the wise had been as wise as they. Alas, human
subtlety has disputed over the manger, and logic has darkened counsel
with its words. But this is one of man's many inventions; God's work
was sublimely simple. Here was "The Word made flesh" to dwell among us,
a mystery for faith, but not a football for argument. Mysterious, yet
the greatest simplicity that was ever spoken to human ears, and seen by
mortal eyes. And such is the gospel, in the preaching of which our
apostle said, "we use great plainness of speech." Away, away, away with
your learned sermons, and your fine talk, and your pretentious
philosophies; these never created a jot of happiness in this world.
Fine-spun theories are fair to gaze on, and to bewilder fools, but they
are of no use to practical men, they comfort not the sons of toil, nor
cheer the daughters of sorrow. The man of common sense, who feels the
daily rub and tear of this poor world, needs richer consolation than
your novel theologies, or neologies, can give him. In a simple Christ,
and in a simple faith in that Christ, there is a peace deep and
lasting; in a plain, poor man's gospel there is a joy and a bliss
unspeakable, of which thousands can speak, and speak with confidence,
too, for they declare what they do know, and testify what they have
seen.
I say, then, to you who would know the only true peace and lasting joy,
come ye to the babe of Bethlehem, in after days the Man of Sorrows, the
substitutionary sacrifice for sinners. Come, ye little children, ye
boys and girls, come ye; for he also was a boy. "The holy child Jesus"
is the children's Saviour, and saith still, "Suffer the little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not. Come hither, ye maidens, ye who
are still in the morning of your beauty, and, like Mary, rejoice in God
your Saviour. The virgin bore him on her bosom, so come ye and bear him
in your hearts, saying, "Unto us a child is born, onto us a son is
given." And you, ye men in the plenitude of your strength, remember how
Joseph cared for him, and watched with reverent solicitude his tender
years; be you to his cause as a Father and a helper; sanctify your
strength to his service. And ye women advanced in years, ye matrons and
widows, come like Anna and bless the Lord that you have seen the
salvation of Israel, and ye hoar heads, who like Simeon are ready to
depart, come ye and take the Saviour in your arms, adoring him as your
Saviour and your all. Ye shepherds, ye simple hearted, ye who toil for
your daily bread, come and adore the Saviour; and stand not back ye
wise men, ye who know by experience and who by meditation peer into
deep truth, come ye, and like the sages of the East bow low before his
presence, and make it your honor to pay honor to Christ the Lord. For
my own part, the incarnate God is all my hope and trust. I have seen
the world's religion at the fountain head, and my heart has sickened
within me; I come back to preach, by God's help, yet more earnestly the
gospel, the simple gospel of the Son of Man. Jesus, Master, I take thee
to be mine for ever! May all in this house, through the rich grace of
God, be led to do the same, and may they all be thine, great Son of
God, in the day of thine appearing, for thy love's sake. Amen.