The Angels" Song.
by Thomas Guthrie.
PART I.
The birth of an heir to the throne is usually accompanied by circ.u.mstances befitting so great an event. No place is deemed worthy of it but a royal palace; and there, at the approach of the expected hour, high n.o.bles and the great officers of state a.s.semble, while the whole country, big with hope, waits to welcome a successor to its long line of kings. Cannons announce the event; seaward, landward, guns flash and roar from floating batteries and rocky battlements; bonfires blaze on hill-tops; steeples ring out the news in merry peals; the nation holds holiday, giving itself up to banqueting and enjoyments, while public prayers and thanksgivings rise to Him by whom kings reign and princes decree justice. With such pomp and parade do the heirs of earthly thrones enter on the stage of life! So came not He who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. On the eve of His birth the world went on its usual round. None were moved for His coming; nor was there any preparation for the event--a chamber, or anything else. No fruit of unhallowed love, no houseless beggar"s child enters life more obscurely than the Son of G.o.d. The very tokens by which the shepherds were taught to recognise Him were not the majesty but the extreme meanness of his condition: "This shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." In fact, the Lord of heaven was to be recognised by his humiliation, as its heirs are by their humility. Yet, as we have seen a black and lowering cloud have its edges touched with living gold by the sun behind it, so all the darkest scenes of our Lord"s life appear more or less irradiated with the splendours of a strange glory. Take that night on Galilee when a storm roared over land and lake, enough to wake all but the dead. The boat with Jesus and His disciples tears through the waves, now whirling on their foaming crests, now plunging into their yawning hollows; the winds rave in His ear; the spray falls in cold showers on His naked face; but He sleeps. I have read of a soldier boy who was found buried in sleep beneath his gun, amid the cries and carnage of the battle; and the powers of nature in our Lord seem to be equally exhausted. His strength is spent with toil; and with wan face and wasted form He lies stretched out on some rude boards--the picture of one whose candle is burning away all too fast, and whom excess of zeal is hurrying into premature old age and an untimely grave. Was the sight such as to suggest the question, Where is now thy G.o.d?--how soon it changed into a scene of magnificence and omnipotent power! He wakes--as a mother, whom louder sounds would not stir, to her infant"s feeblest wail, He wakes to the cry of His alarmed disciples; and standing up, with the lightning flash illumining His calm, divine face, He looks out on the terrific war of elements. He speaks; and all is hushed. Obedient to His will, the winds fold their wings, the waves sink to rest; and there is a great calm. "Glory to G.o.d in the highest!" How may His people catch up and continue the strain which falls from angels" lips? In disciples plucked from the very jaws of death, and pulling their boat sh.o.r.eward with strong hands and happy hearts over a moonlit gla.s.sy sea, Jesus shows us how He will make good these sayings, "Fear not, for I am with thee; be not afraid, for I am thy G.o.d"--"I have given unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish."
The divine glory of that scene is not peculiar to it. For as an eagle, so soon as she has stooped from her realm to the ground, mounts aloft again, soaring into the blue skies of her native heavens, our Lord never descends into the abas.e.m.e.nt of His meanest circ.u.mstances without some act which bespeaks divinity, and bears Him up before our eyes into the regions of G.o.dhead. The grave, where He weeps like a woman, gives up its prisoner at His word. Athirst by Jacob"s well, like any other wayfaring, way-worn traveller, He begs a draught of water from a woman there, but tells her all she ever did. Houseless and poor, His banquet hall is the open air, His table the green gra.s.s, His feast five barley loaves and a few fishes from the neighbouring lake, yet this scanty fare supplies the wants of five thousand guests. His birth and life and death, His whole history, in fact, resembles one of those treasure-chests which double locks secure; for as that iron safe yields its h.o.a.rds of gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones to none but Him who brings to each lock its own appropriate key, so the riches of divine truth, redeeming love, and saving mercy are open only to such as come to Jesus with a belief in His divinity on the one hand, and a belief in His humanity on the other;--who behold in the child, whose birth was sung by angels, the son of Mary, and worship the only begotten, well beloved, and eternal Son of G.o.d.
Now this mingling of divine and human characters distinguished Christ"s birth as much as His death. The halo of glory that surrounded His dying, crowned His infant head. His sun rose, as it afterwards set, behind a heavy bank of clouds; but the divinity they screened, touched their edges alike with burning gold; so that He at whose death the rocks were rent, and the sun eclipsed, and graves deserted of their dead, no more entered than He left our world as a common son of Adam. Not that a world which was to reject Him went out to meet its King with homage and royal honours. Omen of coming events, it received Him in sullen silence. But the heavens declared His glory, the skies sent out a sound; and the tokens of His first advent--unlike the thunders which shall rend the skies when He comes the second time to judgment--were all in beautiful harmony with its object. It was love and saving mercy; there were light, music, and angel forms. With this object all things indeed were in perfect keeping,--the serene night--the shining stars--the pearly dews glistening on the gra.s.s--snowy flocks safely pasturing--and the shepherds themselves, to whom the annunciation was made; men who, whether going before their charge, or carrying the lambs in their arms, or gently leading those that were with young, or standing bravely between their flocks and the roaring lion, were the choicest emblems and types of Him who, dying to save us, gave His life for the sheep. To them there suddenly appeared a mult.i.tude of the heavenly host, turning night into day, and shedding on the soft hills around a bright but gentle radiance. As guard of honour, they had swept in their downward flight by many a sun and star, escorting the Son of G.o.d to our nether world. And now--ere they left Him to tread the wine-press alone, and returned on upward wings to their native heavens, and their service before the throne of G.o.d--these celestials bent their loving eyes on the stable; and in antic.i.p.ation of Jesus" triumphs, of men saved, death conquered, graves spoiled, and Satan crushed, they sang "Glory to G.o.d in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
This hymn, sung perhaps in parts by different bands of these heavenly choristers consists of three parts; and we now proceed to the ill.u.s.tration of these.
I.
THAT REDEMPTION YIELDS THE HIGHEST GLORY TO G.o.d.
I say the highest; for though His _absolute_ glory, like His eternal being and infinite perfections, admits of no degrees, and is affected by no circ.u.mstances whatever, it is otherwise with His _declarative_ glory, as old theologians called it. This, which I speak of, and which angels sung of, consists in the manifestation of His attributes.
Whatever it be, though only the drop of water, which appears a world of wonders to the eyes of a man of science, any work is glorious which reflects the divine character in any measure, and still more glorious or glorifying which exhibits it in a greater measure. G.o.d"s glory expands and unfolds itself as we rise upward in the study of His works--from inanimate to living objects; from plants to animals; from animals to man; from man to angels; from these to archangels, upward and still upward, to the Being who, bathed in the full blaze of divine effulgence, tops the pyramid, and stands on the highest pinnacle of Creation. That Being is G.o.d manifest in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ--the redemption which He wrought for us, through blood and suffering and death, being the work which reveals G.o.d most fully to our eyes, and forming a looking-gla.s.s, so to speak, to reflect the whole measure of divinity. This will appear if we look at--
The Redeemer.--One of His many t.i.tles is the _Wonderful_. Antic.i.p.ating the royal birth at Bethlehem, and speaking of Christ in terms which no other key can open but the doctrine of His divinity, Isaiah says, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty G.o.d, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." With pencils of sunlight G.o.d paints the rose; by arts of a divine chemistry He turns foul decay into the snow-white purity and fragrant odours of a lily; He fashions the infant in the darkness of the mother"s womb; He inspires dead matter with the active principle of life; in man He unites an ethereal spirit to a lump of clay--wonders these which have perplexed the wisest men, and remain as incomprehensible to philosophers as to fools. Yet, as if there was no mystery in these but what our understanding could fathom--as if there was nothing in these to teach proud man humility and rouse his admiration--as if there was indeed no wonder but Christ himself in all this great and glorious universe, He is called by way of eminence the _Wonderful_. And why? Because, as the stars cease to shine in presence of the sun, quenched by the effulgence, and drowned in the flood of his brighter beams, these lose all their wonders beside this little Child. To a meditative man it is curious to stand over any cradle where an infant sleeps; and, as we look on the face so calm, and the little arms gently folded on the placid breast, to think of the mighty powers and pa.s.sions which are slumbering there; to think that this feeble nursling has heaven or h.e.l.l before it; that an immortal in a mortal form is allied to angels; that the life which it has begun shall last when the sun is quenched, enduring throughout all eternity.
Much more wonderful the spectacle the manger offers, where shepherds bend their knees, and angels bend their eyes! Here is present, not the immortal, but the eternal; here is not one kind of matter united to another, or a spiritual to an earthly element, but the Creator to a creature, divine Omnipotence to human weakness, the Ancient of Days to the infant of a day. What deep secrets of divine wisdom, power, and love lie here, wrapped up in these poor swaddling-clothes! Mary holds in her arms, in this manger with its straw, what draws the wondering eyes, and inspires the loftiest songs of angels. If that be not G.o.d"s greatest, and therefore most glorifying work, where are we to seek it? in what else is it found? "The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not in me!" Were we to range the vast universe to find its rival, we should return, like the dove to its ark, to the stable-door, and the swaddled babe, there to mingle human voices with the heavenly choir--singing, Glory to G.o.d in the highest!
The fact that redemption yields G.o.d the highest glory will appear also if we look at--
The Redeemed.--It is in them, in sinners saved, not in the happy and holy angels, that G.o.d stands out fully revealed as in a mirror; long and broad enough, if I may say so, to show forth all His attributes.
To vary the figure; the cross of Christ is the focus in which all the beams of divinity, all the attributes of the G.o.dhead, are gathered into one bright, burning spot, with power to warm the coldest and melt the stoniest heart. No man hath seen G.o.d at any time, otherwise than in His works; and though created things are immeasurably inferior to their Creator, they may still help us to form some conception of His character. A drop of water is an ocean, a spark of fire is a sun, every grain of sand on the sea-sh.o.r.e is a world, in miniature; and as those who have never seen ocean, or sun, or world, may form some idea of their appearance by magnifying these their miniatures millions of millions of times, so, by immensely magnifying the age, the power, the wisdom, the holiness of an angel, we could form some dim conception of G.o.d. Not that we would not have still to ask, "Who can by searching find out G.o.d? who can find out the Almighty to perfection?"--not that when we had exclaimed, in the sublime words of Job, "h.e.l.l is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth on nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds. He holdeth back the face of his throne. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. He divideth the sea with his power. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens;"--we would not have to add with the patriarch, "These are parts of his ways; but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?"
Study Him, for example, in the angels who sung this birth-song! They are holy, and we may conclude that their Maker is infinitely holy; they are wise, and He who made them must possess infinite wisdom; they are powerful, and He must be omnipotent; the G.o.d of good angels must be infinitely good, as the avenger of sin and evil ones must be infinitely just. This is sound reasoning--for, as David says, "He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?" Still, however lofty and worthy were the conceptions which we thus formed of G.o.d, He had never been discovered in the full glory of His gracious character by this or any corresponding process. Unspeakable honour to man and unspeakable grace in G.o.d, the fulness of His character is revealed, not by seraphs but by saints--in redeemed and ransomed sinners. And so Mary Magdalene, as reflecting His attributes more fully than angels, wears in heaven a brighter glory than crowns their unfallen heads. She, and all with her, who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, are trophies of free, saving mercy; monuments of that love which, when stern justice had dragged us to the mouth of the pit, and angels, who had seen their fellows punished by one awful act of vengeance, stood in dread and silent expectation of another, graciously interposed, saying, "Deliver from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom."
Then, blessed Son of G.o.d, thou didst step forward to say, And I am that ransom! From that day heaven was happier. It found a new joy.
Angels tuned their golden harps to higher strains; and now, these blessed spirits, above the mean jealousies of earth"s elder brothers, whenever they see Christ born anew in a soul--a sinner born again, called, converted, apparelled in Jesus" righteousness, rejoicing in His arms, or even weeping at His feet, wake up the old, grand birth-song, singing, "Glory to G.o.d in the highest!" "There is joy,"
said Jesus, "in the presence of the angels of G.o.d over one sinner that repenteth--joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance."
_PART II._
No man hath seen G.o.d at any time; so saith the Scriptures. He who is confined to no bounds of s.p.a.ce cannot in the nature of things have any visible form. G.o.d has however occasionally made revelations of Himself; and such are described in language which seems opposed alike to the declarations of Scripture and the deductions of reason. It is said, for instance, of Moses and Aaron, when they ascended Mount Sinai, that "they saw the G.o.d of Israel;" and Isaiah tells how he "saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple." Believing with the Jews that if any man saw G.o.d he could not survive, but would die as by a flash of lightning, the prophet was struck with terror, and cried, in expectation of immediate death, "I am undone; for mine eyes have seen the Lord of hosts."
The object seen in these and also other cases was no doubt the Schekinah--that holy and mysterious flame whereby G.o.d made His presence known in the days of old. We know little concerning it beyond this, that it was of the nature of light. The fairest, purest, oldest of created things, pa.s.sing untainted through pollution, turning gloomy night into day, and imparting their varied beauties to earth and air and ocean, this of all material elements was the fittest symbol of G.o.d. A circ.u.mstance this to which we probably owe the ancient practice of worshipping the Divinity by fire, and certainly such figures as these: "G.o.d is light;" "He clothes himself with light as with a garment;" "He dwelleth in light that is inaccessible and full of glory." This light, said to have been intensely luminous, brighter than a hundred suns, was not always nor even usually visible; although, like a lamp placed behind a curtain, it may have usually imparted to the cloud which concealed it a tempered and dusky glow.
There were occasions when the veil of this temple was rent asunder; and then the light shone out with intense splendour--dazzling all eyes, and convincing sceptics that this cloud, now resting on the tabernacle, and now, signal for the host to march, floating upward in the morning air, was not akin to such as are born of swamps or sea; and which, as emblems of our mortality, after changing from rosy beauty into leaden dullness, melt into air, leaving the place that once knew them to know them no more for ever. This symbol and token of the Divine presence was of all the types and figures of Jesus Christ in some respects both the most apposite and glorious: a cloud with G.o.d within, and speaking from it--going before to guide the host--placing Himself for their protection between them and their enemies--by day their grateful shade from scorching heat, by night their sun amid surrounding darkness.
It was one, and not the least singular of its aspects, that this cloud always grew light when the world grew dark--the cloudy pillar of the day blazing forth at night as a pillar of fire. So shone the divinity in Him who was "Emmanuel, G.o.d with us," His darkest circ.u.mstances, His deepest humiliations, being the occasions of His greatest glory. He was buried, and being so, was greatly humbled; but angels attended His funeral, and guarded His tomb. He was crucified, condemned to the death of the vilest criminal, and being so, was greatly humbled; but those heavens and earth which are as little moved by the death of the greatest monarch as by the fall of a withered leaf, expressed their sympathy with the august Sufferer--the sun hid his face, and went into mourning, the earth trembled with horror at the deed. He was born, and in like manner He was greatly humbled, and had been, though His birth had happened in a palace and His mother had been a queen; but with a poor woman for His mother, a stable for His birthplace, a manger for His cradle, and straw for His bed, these meannesses, like its spots on the face of the sun, were lost in a blaze of glory. Earth did not celebrate His advent, but Heaven did. Illumining her skies, she sent herald angels to proclaim the news, and lighted up a new star to guide the feet which sought the place where man"s best hopes were cradled.
The most joyful birth that ever happened, it was meet that it should be sung by angel lips,--and all the more because, redemption glorifies G.o.d in the sight of holy angels.
II.
REDEMPTION GLORIFIES G.o.d IN THE SIGHT OF HOLY ANGELS.
They take a lively interest in the affairs of our world, as the Scriptures show, and as Jacob saw in his vision; for what else means that ladder where they appeared to his dreaming eye ascending and descending between earth and heaven? To the care of John our dying Lord committed his mother; but G.o.d, when He sent His Son into the world, committed Him to their care,--"He hath given his angels charge over thee, that thou dash not thy foot against a stone." The care which their Head enjoyed is extended to all the members. How happy are the people that are in such a case! Think of the poor saint who has none to wait on him, or the pious domestic who serves a table, and humbly waits on others, having angels to wait on her! Are they not said in Scripture to be "ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who are heirs of salvation?"--however the world may despise them, "this honour have all his saints." However lowly their earthly state, the saints are a kingly race; and as our highest n.o.bles deem it an honour to wait on the princes of the blood, accepting and soliciting offices at court, the angels are happy to serve such as, through their union with His incarnate Son, stand nearer the throne of G.o.d than themselves. Unseen by him, these celestials guard the good man"s bed; watch his progress; wait on his person; guide his steps; and ward off many a blow the devil aims at his head and heart. They are the nurses of Christ"s babes; the tutors and teachers of His children. A belief in guardian saints is a silly Popish superst.i.tion; but we have good authority in Scripture for believing that in this our state of pupilage and probation, along all the way to Sion, in the conflicts with temptation, and amid the thick of battle, G.o.d commits His saints to angels" care; and that, as it is in their loving arms that the soul of an aged saint is borne away to glory, every child of G.o.d has its own celestial guardian, and sleeps in its little cradle beneath the feathers of an angel"s wing. What said our Lord? On setting a child before the people as a pattern for them to copy, "Take heed," He said, "that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven."
But whether we are, or are not, the happier for angels, there is no question that they are the happier for us. They always loved G.o.d; but since man"s redemption they love Him more, and employ higher strains and loftier raptures to praise His wisdom, power, holiness, justice, and love. It has disclosed to them new views of G.o.d, and opened up in heaven new springs of pleasure. Heaven has grown more heavenly, and though they might have deemed it impossible to add one drop to their happiness, they are holier and happier angels. There is joy among the angels of heaven over every sinner that repenteth; and to the joyful cry, My son that was dead is alive again, they respond, as they receive the returned penitent from the Father"s arms into their own, My brother that was dead is alive again, that was lost is found! Never from surf-beaten sh.o.r.e or rocky headland do spectators watch with such anxious interest the life-boat, as, now seen and now lost, now breasting the waves and now hurled back on the foaming crest of a giant billow, she makes for the wreck, as they watch those who, with the Bible in their hearts and hands, go forth to save the lost. And when the poor perishing sinner throws himself into Jesus" arms, what gratulations among these happy spirits! "There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons." The event is one which I can fancy was in the prophet"s eye, when, fired with rapture, he cried, "Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel!" And the heavens do sing. While the saints, descending from their thrones, cast their sparkling crowns at Jesus" feet, and ten times ten thousand harps sound, and ten times ten thousand angels sing, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."
III.
REDEMPTION GLORIFIES G.o.d THROUGHOUT ALL THE UNIVERSE.
With a small band of fishermen at His side, and no place on earth where to lay His head, Jesus pointed to the sun, riding high in heaven or rising over the hill-tops to bathe the scene in golden splendour, and said, "I am the Light of the world." A bold saying; yet the day is coming, however distant it appears, when the tidings of salvation carried to the ends of the earth, and Jesus worshipped of all nations, shall justify the speech; and the wishes shall be gratified, and the prayers answered, and the prophecies fulfilled, so beautifully expressed in these lines of Heber:
"Waft, waft, ye winds, His story, And you, ye waters, roll, Till, like a sea of glory, It spreads from pole to pole."
But shall our world be the limits of the wondrous tale? Though ever and deeply interesting as the scene of redemption, just as to patriots is the barest moor where a people fought and conquered for their freedom, our earth holds in other respects but a very insignificant place in creation. In a s.p.a.ce of the sky no larger than a tenth part of the moon"s disc, the telescope discovers many thousands of stars, each a sun, attended probably by a group of planets like our own: their number indeed is such that many parts of the heavens appear as if they were sprinkled with gold-dust; and probably there are as many suns and worlds in the universe as there are leaves in a forest, or rather, sands on the ocean sh.o.r.e.
Boldly venturing out into the regions of speculation, some have thought that, if sin defile any of these worlds, its inhabitants may share in the benefits of the atonement which Christ offered in ours; and that beings further removed than we from the scenes of Calvary, and differing more from us than we from the Jews of whom the Messiah came, may, as well as we, find a Saviour by faith in Jesus; and that for this end the work of redemption has perhaps been revealed to such as, removed from our earth many millions of miles, never even saw the planet that was its theatre and scene. There may be nothing in this. I dare not say it is impossible; but these speculations touch the deep things of G.o.d, and we would not attempt to be wise above that which is written. Still, Scripture affords ground for believing, for hoping, at least, that the story of redemption has been told in other worlds than ours, and that the love of G.o.d in Christ--that fairest, fullest manifestation of our Father"s heart--links all parts of creation together, and links all more closely to the throne of G.o.d. "He that hath seen me, Philip," said our Lord to that disciple, "hath seen the Father also;" and as I believe that He who delights to bless all His unfallen creatures would not withhold from the inhabitants of other spheres the happiness of knowing Him in His most adorable, gracious, and glorious character, I can fancy them eagerly searching their skies for a sight of our world,--the scene of that story which has conveyed to them the fullest knowledge of Him they love, their deepest sense of His ineffable holiness and unspeakable mercy. Not from pole to pole, but from planet to planet, and from star to star, the love of Christ deserves to be proclaimed; and it is a thought as grand as it is probable, that the story of Calvary, not yet translated into all the tongues of earth, is told in the ten times ten thousand tongues of other worlds, and that the Name which is above every name--the blessed Name which dwells in life in a believer"s heart and trembles in death on his lips--is known in spheres which his foot never trod and his eye never saw. Such honours crown the head man once crowned with thorns; and therefore did David, with the eye of a seer and the fire of a poet, while calling for praise from kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges, young men and children, rise to a loftier flight, exclaiming: "Praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, all ye angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts. Praise ye Him, sun and moon: praise Him, all ye stars of light."
IV.
THE REDEEMER AND REDEMPTION ARE WORTHY OF OUR HIGHEST PRAISE.
Let us bend the head, and, in company of the shepherds, enter the stable. Heard above the champing of bits, the stroke of hoofs, the rattling of chains, and the lowing of oxen, the feeble wail of an infant turns our steps to a particular stall: here a woman lies stretched on a bed of straw, and her new-born child, hastily wrapped in some part of her dress, finds a cradle in the manger. A pitiful sight!--such a fortune as occasionally befalls the Arabs of society--such an incident as may occur in the history of one of those vagrant, vagabond, outcast families who, their country"s shame, tent in woods and sleep under hedges, when no barn or stable offers a covering to their houseless heads. Yet princes on their way to the crown, brides on their way to the marriage, bannered armies on their way to the battle, and highest angels in their flight from star to star, might stop to say of this sight, as Moses of the burning bush, "Let me turn aside, and see this great sight!"
The prophet foretells a time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and, bound in the same stall, and fed at the same manger, the lion shall eat straw with the ox. Here is a greater wonder! This stable is the house of G.o.d, the very gate of heaven: under this dusty roof, inside those narrow walls, He lodges whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain: the tenant of this manger is the Son, who, leaving the bosom of His Father to save us, here pillows His head on straw; of this feeble babe the hands are to hurl Satan from his throne, and wrench asunder the strong bars of death; this one tender life, this single corn-seed is to become the prolific parent of a thousand harvests, and fill the garners of glory with the fruits of salvation. Mean as it looks, yet more splendid than marble palaces,--more sacred than the most venerable and hallowed temples, here the Son of G.o.d was born, and with Him were born Faith, Hope, and Charity--our Peace, our Liberty, and our Eternal Life. Had He not been born, we had never been born again; had He not lain in a manger, we had never lain in Abraham"s bosom; had He not been wrapped in swaddling-clothes, we had been wrapped in everlasting flames; had His head in infancy not been pillowed on straw, and in death on thorns, ours had never been crowned in glory. But that He was born, better we had never been; life had been a misfortune to which time had brought no change, and death no relief, and the grave no rest. "Glory to G.o.d in the highest" that He was born: we had otherwise been lifting up our eyes in torment with this unavailing, endless cry, "O that my mother had been my grave! Cursed be the day wherein I was born?"
If language cannot express the love and grat.i.tude we owe to the Saviour, let our lives do so. Shallow streams run brawling over their pebbly beds, but the broad, deep river pursues its course in silence to the sea; and so is it with our strongest, deepest feelings. Great joy like great sorrow, great gladness like great grief, great admiration like great detestation, take breath and speech away. On first seeing Mont Blanc as the sun rose to light up his summit and irradiate another and another snow-clad pinnacle, I remember the silent group who had left their couches to witness and watch the glorious scene: before its majesty and magnificence all were for awhile dumb, opening not the mouth. I have read, when travellers reached the crest of the hill, and first looked down on Jerusalem,--the scene of our Saviour"s sorrow, the garden that heard His groans, the city that led Him out to die, the soil that was bedewed with His tears and crimsoned with His blood,--how their hearts were too full for utterance. If a sight of the city where He died so affects Christians, as the scenes of His last hours rush on their memory and rise vividly to their imagination, how will they look on that scene where, surrounded by ten times ten thousand saints and thousands of angels, He reigns in glory! I can fancy the saint who has shut his eyes on earth to open them in heaven, standing speechless; and as the flood of music fills his ear, and the blaze of glory his eye, and the thought of what he owes to Jesus his heart,--I can fancy him laying the crown, which he has received from his Saviour"s hands, in silent grat.i.tude at His feet; and as he recovers speech, and sees h.e.l.l and its torments beneath him, earth and its sorrows behind him, an eternity of unchequered, unchanging bliss, before him,--I can fancy the first words that break from his grateful lips will be, "Glory to G.o.d, glory to G.o.d in the highest!" Never till then, nowhere but there, will our praise be worthy of Jesus and His redemption. Meanwhile, let Him who demonstrates G.o.d"s highest glory and fills heaven"s highest throne, hold the highest place in our hearts. Let us surround His name with the highest honours; and, laying our time and talents, our faculties and our affections, our wealth, and fame, and fortunes at His feet, crown Him Lord of all.
_PART III._