THE ANGELS' SONG. 

 ALEXANDER STRAHAN148 _Strand_, London178 _Grand Street_, New York

 THE ANGELS' SONG

 BY THOMAS GUTHRIE, D. D. 

 AUTHOR OF "MAN AND THE GOSPEL, " ETC. 

 [Illustration: Publisher's device]

 ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER LONDON AND NEW YORK 1866

CONTENTS. 

 PAGE

PART I. , 5

 I. THAT REDEMPTION YIELDS THE HIGHEST GLORY TO GOD, 14

PART II. , 23

 II. REDEMPTION GLORIFIES GOD IN THE SIGHT OF HOLY ANGELS, 30

 III. REDEMPTION GLORIFIES GOD THROUGHOUT ALL THE UNIVERSE, 35

 IV. THE REDEEMER AND REDEMPTION ARE WORTHY OF OUR HIGHEST PRAISE, 40

PART III. , 47

 V. THEY WERE MEN OF A PEACEFUL CALLING, 55

 VI. THEY WERE MEN OF HUMBLE RANK, 60

 VII. THEY WERE MEN ENGAGED IN COMMON DUTIES, 65

PART IV. , 69

 VIII. JESUS RESTORES PEACE BETWEEN GOD AND MAN, 80

PART V. , 93

 IX. JESUS BRINGS PEACE TO THE SOUL, 102

 X. JESUS SHALL BRING PEACE TO THE WORLD, 110

PART VI. , 117

 XI. THE PERSONS TO WHOM GOOD WILL IS EXPRESSED, 126

 XII. THE PERSON WHO EXPRESSES "GOOD WILL, " 134

_PART I. _

The birth of an heir to the throne is usually accompanied bycircumstances befitting so great an event. No place is deemed worthyof it but a royal palace; and there, at the approach of the expectedhour, high nobles and the great officers of state assemble, while thewhole country, big with hope, waits to welcome a successor to its longline of kings. Cannons announce the event; seaward, landward, gunsflash and roar from floating batteries and rocky battlements; bonfiresblaze on hill-tops; steeples ring out the news in merry peals; thenation holds holiday, giving itself up to banqueting and enjoyments, while public prayers and thanksgivings rise to Him by whom kings reignand princes decree justice. With such pomp and parade do the heirs ofearthly thrones enter on the stage of life! So came not He who is theKing of kings and Lord of lords. On the eve of His birth the worldwent on its usual round. None were moved for His coming; nor was thereany preparation for the event--a chamber, or anything else. No fruitof unhallowed love, no houseless beggar's child enters life moreobscurely than the Son of God. The very tokens by which the shepherdswere taught to recognise Him were not the majesty but the extrememeanness of his condition: "This shall be a sign unto you; Ye shallfind the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. " Infact, the Lord of heaven was to be recognised by his humiliation, asits heirs are by their humility. Yet, as we have seen a black andlowering cloud have its edges touched with living gold by the sunbehind it, so all the darkest scenes of our Lord's life appear more orless irradiated with the splendours of a strange glory. Take thatnight on Galilee when a storm roared over land and lake, enough towake all but the dead. The boat with Jesus and His disciples tearsthrough the waves, now whirling on their foaming crests, now plunginginto their yawning hollows; the winds rave in His ear; the spray fallsin cold showers on His naked face; but He sleeps. I have read of asoldier boy who was found buried in sleep beneath his gun, amid thecries and carnage of the battle; and the powers of nature in our Lordseem to be equally exhausted. His strength is spent with toil; andwith wan face and wasted form He lies stretched out on some rudeboards--the picture of one whose candle is burning away all too fast, and whom excess of zeal is hurrying into premature old age and anuntimely grave. Was the sight such as to suggest the question, Whereis now thy God?--how soon it changed into a scene of magnificence andomnipotent power! He wakes--as a mother, whom louder sounds would notstir, to her infant's feeblest wail, He wakes to the cry of Hisalarmed disciples; and standing up, with the lightning flashillumining His calm, divine face, He looks out on the terrific war ofelements. He speaks; and all is hushed. Obedient to His will, thewinds fold their wings, the waves sink to rest; and there is a greatcalm. "Glory to God in the highest!" How may His people catch up andcontinue the strain which falls from angels' lips? In disciplesplucked from the very jaws of death, and pulling their boat shorewardwith strong hands and happy hearts over a moonlit glassy sea, Jesusshows us how He will make good these sayings, "Fear not, for I am withthee; be not afraid, for I am thy God"--"I have given unto themeternal 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 aloftagain, soaring into the blue skies of her native heavens, our Lordnever descends into the abasement of His meanest circumstances withoutsome act which bespeaks divinity, and bears Him up before our eyesinto the regions of Godhead. The grave, where He weeps like a woman, gives up its prisoner at His word. Athirst by Jacob's well, like anyother wayfaring, way-worn traveller, He begs a draught of water froma woman there, but tells her all she ever did. Houseless and poor, Hisbanquet hall is the open air, His table the green grass, His feastfive barley loaves and a few fishes from the neighbouring lake, yetthis scanty fare supplies the wants of five thousand guests. His birthand life and death, His whole history, in fact, resembles one of thosetreasure-chests which double locks secure; for as that iron safeyields its hoards of gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones to nonebut Him who brings to each lock its own appropriate key, so the richesof divine truth, redeeming love, and saving mercy are open only tosuch 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 onlybegotten, well beloved, and eternal Son of God. 

Now this mingling of divine and human characters distinguishedChrist's birth as much as His death. The halo of glory that surroundedHis dying, crowned His infant head. His sun rose, as it afterwardsset, behind a heavy bank of clouds; but the divinity they screened, touched their edges alike with burning gold; so that He at whose deaththe rocks were rent, and the sun eclipsed, and graves deserted oftheir dead, no more entered than He left our world as a common son ofAdam. Not that a world which was to reject Him went out to meet itsKing with homage and royal honours. Omen of coming events, it receivedHim in sullen silence. But the heavens declared His glory, the skiessent out a sound; and the tokens of His first advent--unlike thethunders which shall rend the skies when He comes the second time tojudgment--were all in beautiful harmony with its object. It was loveand saving mercy; there were light, music, and angel forms. With thisobject all things indeed were in perfect keeping, --the serenenight--the shining stars--the pearly dews glistening on thegrass--snowy flocks safely pasturing--and the shepherds themselves, towhom the annunciation was made; men who, whether going before theircharge, or carrying the lambs in their arms, or gently leading thosethat were with young, or standing bravely between their flocks and theroaring lion, were the choicest emblems and types of Him who, dying tosave us, gave His life for the sheep. To them there suddenly appeareda multitude of the heavenly host, turning night into day, and sheddingon the soft hills around a bright but gentle radiance. As guard ofhonour, they had swept in their downward flight by many a sun andstar, escorting the Son of God to our nether world. And now--ere theyleft Him to tread the wine-press alone, and returned on upward wingsto their native heavens, and their service before the throne ofGod--these celestials bent their loving eyes on the stable; and inanticipation of Jesus' triumphs, of men saved, death conquered, gravesspoiled, and Satan crushed, they sang "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. "

This hymn, sung perhaps in parts by different bands of these heavenlychoristers consists of three parts; and we now proceed to theillustration of these. 

I. 

THAT REDEMPTION YIELDS THE HIGHEST GLORY TO GOD. 

I say the highest; for though His _absolute_ glory, like His eternalbeing and infinite perfections, admits of no degrees, and is affectedby no circumstances whatever, it is otherwise with His _declarative_glory, as old theologians called it. This, which I speak of, and whichangels sung of, consists in the manifestation of His attributes. Whatever it be, though only the drop of water, which appears a worldof wonders to the eyes of a man of science, any work is glorious whichreflects the divine character in any measure, and still more gloriousor glorifying which exhibits it in a greater measure. God's gloryexpands and unfolds itself as we rise upward in the study of Hisworks--from inanimate to living objects; from plants to animals; fromanimals to man; from man to angels; from these to archangels, upwardand still upward, to the Being who, bathed in the full blaze of divineeffulgence, tops the pyramid, and stands on the highest pinnacle ofCreation. That Being is God manifest in the flesh, our Lord JesusChrist--the redemption which He wrought for us, through blood andsuffering and death, being the work which reveals God most fully toour eyes, and forming a looking-glass, so to speak, to reflect thewhole measure of divinity. This will appear if we look at--

The Redeemer. --One of His many titles is the _Wonderful_. Anticipatingthe royal birth at Bethlehem, and speaking of Christ in terms which noother 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 governmentshall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince ofPeace. " With pencils of sunlight God paints the rose; by arts of adivine chemistry He turns foul decay into the snow-white purity andfragrant odours of a lily; He fashions the infant in the darkness ofthe mother's womb; He inspires dead matter with the active principleof life; in man He unites an ethereal spirit to a lump ofclay--wonders these which have perplexed the wisest men, and remain asincomprehensible to philosophers as to fools. Yet, as if there was nomystery in these but what our understanding could fathom--as if therewas nothing in these to teach proud man humility and rouse hisadmiration--as if there was indeed no wonder but Christ himself in allthis great and glorious universe, He is called by way of eminence the_Wonderful_. And why? Because, as the stars cease to shine in presenceof the sun, quenched by the effulgence, and drowned in the flood ofhis brighter beams, these lose all their wonders beside this littleChild. To a meditative man it is curious to stand over any cradlewhere an infant sleeps; and, as we look on the face so calm, and thelittle arms gently folded on the placid breast, to think of the mightypowers and passions which are slumbering there; to think that thisfeeble nursling has heaven or hell before it; that an immortal in amortal form is allied to angels; that the life which it has begunshall last when the sun is quenched, enduring throughout all eternity. Much more wonderful the spectacle the manger offers, where shepherdsbend their knees, and angels bend their eyes! Here is present, not theimmortal, but the eternal; here is not one kind of matter united toanother, or a spiritual to an earthly element, but the Creator to acreature, divine Omnipotence to human weakness, the Ancient of Days tothe infant of a day. What deep secrets of divine wisdom, power, andlove lie here, wrapped up in these poor swaddling-clothes! Mary holdsin her arms, in this manger with its straw, what draws the wonderingeyes, and inspires the loftiest songs of angels. If that be not God'sgreatest, and therefore most glorifying work, where are we to seekit? in what else is it found? "The depth saith, It is not in me; andthe sea saith, It is not in me!" Were we to range the vast universe tofind its rival, we should return, like the dove to its ark, to thestable-door, and the swaddled babe, there to mingle human voices withthe heavenly choir--singing, Glory to God in the highest!

The fact that redemption yields God the highest glory will appear alsoif we look at--

The Redeemed. --It is in them, in sinners saved, not in the happy andholy angels, that God stands out fully revealed as in a mirror; longand 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 thebeams of divinity, all the attributes of the Godhead, are gatheredinto one bright, burning spot, with power to warm the coldest and meltthe stoniest heart. No man hath seen God at any time, otherwise thanin His works; and though created things are immeasurably inferior totheir Creator, they may still help us to form some conception of Hischaracter. A drop of water is an ocean, a spark of fire is a sun, every grain of sand on the sea-shore is a world, in miniature; and asthose who have never seen ocean, or sun, or world, may form some ideaof their appearance by magnifying these their miniatures millions ofmillions of times, so, by immensely magnifying the age, the power, thewisdom, the holiness of an angel, we could form some dim conception ofGod. Not that we would not have still to ask, "Who can by searchingfind out God? who can find out the Almighty to perfection?"--not thatwhen we had exclaimed, in the sublime words of Job, "Hell is nakedbefore him, and destruction hath no covering. He stretcheth out thenorth over the empty place, and hangeth the earth on nothing. Hebindeth up the waters in his thick clouds. He holdeth back the face ofhis throne. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at hisreproof. He divideth the sea with his power. By his spirit he hathgarnished the heavens;"--we would not have to add with the patriarch, "These are parts of his ways; but how little a portion is heard ofhim? but the thunder of his power who can understand?"

Study Him, for example, in the angels who sung this birth-song! Theyare holy, and we may conclude that their Maker is infinitely holy;they are wise, and He who made them must possess infinite wisdom; theyare powerful, and He must be omnipotent; the God of good angels mustbe infinitely good, as the avenger of sin and evil ones must beinfinitely just. This is sound reasoning--for, as David says, "He thatplanted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall henot see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? He thatteacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?" Still, however lofty andworthy were the conceptions which we thus formed of God, He had neverbeen discovered in the full glory of His gracious character by this orany corresponding process. Unspeakable honour to man and unspeakablegrace in God, the fulness of His character is revealed, not by seraphsbut by saints--in redeemed and ransomed sinners. And so MaryMagdalene, as reflecting His attributes more fully than angels, wearsin heaven a brighter glory than crowns their unfallen heads. She, andall with her, who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, are trophies of free, saving mercy; monuments of that love which, whenstern justice had dragged us to the mouth of the pit, and angels, whohad seen their fellows punished by one awful act of vengeance, stoodin 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 God, thou didst step forward to say, And I amthat ransom! From that day heaven was happier. It found a new joy. Angels tuned their golden harps to higher strains; and now, theseblessed 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 inHis arms, or even weeping at His feet, wake up the old, grandbirth-song, singing, "Glory to God in the highest!" "There is joy, "said Jesus, "in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner thatrepenteth--joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, morethan over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. "

_PART II. _

No man hath seen God at any time; so saith the Scriptures. He who isconfined to no bounds of space cannot in the nature of things have anyvisible form. God has however occasionally made revelations ofHimself; and such are described in language which seems opposed aliketo the declarations of Scripture and the deductions of reason. It issaid, for instance, of Moses and Aaron, when they ascended MountSinai, that "they saw the God of Israel;" and Isaiah tells how he "sawthe Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his trainfilled the temple. " Believing with the Jews that if any man saw God hecould not survive, but would die as by a flash of lightning, theprophet was struck with terror, and cried, in expectation of immediatedeath, "I am undone; for mine eyes have seen the Lord of hosts. "

The object seen in these and also other cases was no doubt theSchekinah--that holy and mysterious flame whereby God made Hispresence known in the days of old. We know little concerning it beyondthis, that it was of the nature of light. The fairest, purest, oldestof created things, passing untainted through pollution, turning gloomynight into day, and imparting their varied beauties to earth and airand ocean, this of all material elements was the fittest symbol ofGod. A circumstance this to which we probably owe the ancient practiceof worshipping the Divinity by fire, and certainly such figures asthese: "God is light;" "He clothes himself with light as with agarment;" "He dwelleth in light that is inaccessible and full ofglory. " This light, said to have been intensely luminous, brighterthan a hundred suns, was not always nor even usually visible;although, like a lamp placed behind a curtain, it may have usuallyimparted 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 alleyes, and convincing sceptics that this cloud, now resting on thetabernacle, and now, signal for the host to march, floating upward inthe morning air, was not akin to such as are born of swamps or sea;and which, as emblems of our mortality, after changing from rosybeauty into leaden dullness, melt into air, leaving the place thatonce knew them to know them no more for ever. This symbol and token ofthe Divine presence was of all the types and figures of Jesus Christin some respects both the most apposite and glorious: a cloud with Godwithin, and speaking from it--going before to guide the host--placingHimself for their protection between them and their enemies--by daytheir grateful shade from scorching heat, by night their sun amidsurrounding darkness. 

It was one, and not the least singular of its aspects, that this cloudalways grew light when the world grew dark--the cloudy pillar of theday blazing forth at night as a pillar of fire. So shone the divinityin Him who was "Emmanuel, God with us, " His darkest circumstances, Hisdeepest humiliations, being the occasions of His greatest glory. Hewas buried, and being so, was greatly humbled; but angels attended Hisfuneral, and guarded His tomb. He was crucified, condemned to thedeath of the vilest criminal, and being so, was greatly humbled; butthose heavens and earth which are as little moved by the death of thegreatest monarch as by the fall of a withered leaf, expressed theirsympathy with the august Sufferer--the sun hid his face, and went intomourning, the earth trembled with horror at the deed. He was born, andin like manner He was greatly humbled, and had been, though His birthhad happened in a palace and His mother had been a queen; but with apoor woman for His mother, a stable for His birthplace, a manger forHis cradle, and straw for His bed, these meannesses, like its spots onthe face of the sun, were lost in a blaze of glory. Earth did notcelebrate His advent, but Heaven did. Illumining her skies, she sentherald angels to proclaim the news, and lighted up a new star to guidethe feet which sought the place where man's best hopes were cradled. The most joyful birth that ever happened, it was meet that it shouldbe sung by angel lips, --and all the more because, redemption glorifiesGod in the sight of holy angels. 

II. 

REDEMPTION GLORIFIES GOD IN THE SIGHT OF HOLY ANGELS. 

They take a lively interest in the affairs of our world, as theScriptures show, and as Jacob saw in his vision; for what else meansthat ladder where they appeared to his dreaming eye ascending anddescending between earth and heaven? To the care of John our dyingLord committed his mother; but God, when He sent His Son into theworld, committed Him to their care, --"He hath given his angels chargeover thee, that thou dash not thy foot against a stone. " The carewhich their Head enjoyed is extended to all the members. How happy arethe people that are in such a case! Think of the poor saint who hasnone to wait on him, or the pious domestic who serves a table, andhumbly waits on others, having angels to wait on her! Are they notsaid in Scripture to be "ministering spirits sent forth to minister tothem 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 nobles deem it anhonour to wait on the princes of the blood, accepting and solicitingoffices at court, the angels are happy to serve such as, through theirunion with His incarnate Son, stand nearer the throne of God thanthemselves. Unseen by him, these celestials guard the good man's bed;watch his progress; wait on his person; guide his steps; and ward offmany a blow the devil aims at his head and heart. They are the nursesof Christ's babes; the tutors and teachers of His children. A beliefin guardian saints is a silly Popish superstition; but we have goodauthority in Scripture for believing that in this our state ofpupilage and probation, along all the way to Sion, in the conflictswith temptation, and amid the thick of battle, God commits His saintsto angels' care; and that, as it is in their loving arms that the soulof an aged saint is borne away to glory, every child of God has itsown celestial guardian, and sleeps in its little cradle beneath thefeathers of an angel's wing. What said our Lord? On setting a childbefore 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 Fatherwhich is in heaven. "

But whether we are, or are not, the happier for angels, there is noquestion that they are the happier for us. They always loved God; butsince man's redemption they love Him more, and employ higher strainsand loftier raptures to praise His wisdom, power, holiness, justice, and love. It has disclosed to them new views of God, and opened up inheaven new springs of pleasure. Heaven has grown more heavenly, andthough they might have deemed it impossible to add one drop to theirhappiness, they are holier and happier angels. There is joy among theangels of heaven over every sinner that repenteth; and to the joyfulcry, My son that was dead is alive again, they respond, as theyreceive the returned penitent from the Father's arms into their own, My brother that was dead is alive again, that was lost is found! Neverfrom surf-beaten shore or rocky headland do spectators watch with suchanxious interest the life-boat, as, now seen and now lost, nowbreasting the waves and now hurled back on the foaming crest of agiant billow, she makes for the wreck, as they watch those who, withthe Bible in their hearts and hands, go forth to save the lost. Andwhen the poor perishing sinner throws himself into Jesus' arms, whatgratulations among these happy spirits! "There is joy in heaven overone sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine justpersons. " 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 Lordhath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth intosinging, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lordhath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel!" And the heavensdo sing. While the saints, descending from their thrones, cast theirsparkling crowns at Jesus' feet, and ten times ten thousand harpssound, and ten times ten thousand angels sing, "Worthy is the Lambthat was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. "

III. 

REDEMPTION GLORIFIES GOD THROUGHOUT ALL THE UNIVERSE. 

With a small band of fishermen at His side, and no place on earthwhere to lay His head, Jesus pointed to the sun, riding high in heavenor 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 iscoming, however distant it appears, when the tidings of salvationcarried to the ends of the earth, and Jesus worshipped of all nations, shall justify the speech; and the wishes shall be gratified, and theprayers answered, and the prophecies fulfilled, so beautifullyexpressed 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 everand deeply interesting as the scene of redemption, just as to patriotsis the barest moor where a people fought and conquered for theirfreedom, our earth holds in other respects but a very insignificantplace in creation. In a space of the sky no larger than a tenth partof 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 asif they were sprinkled with gold-dust; and probably there are as manysuns and worlds in the universe as there are leaves in a forest, orrather, sands on the ocean shore. 

Boldly venturing out into the regions of speculation, some havethought that, if sin defile any of these worlds, its inhabitants mayshare 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 Messiahcame, may, as well as we, find a Saviour by faith in Jesus; and thatfor this end the work of redemption has perhaps been revealed to suchas, removed from our earth many millions of miles, never even saw theplanet that was its theatre and scene. There may be nothing in this. Idare not say it is impossible; but these speculations touch the deepthings of God, and we would not attempt to be wise above that which iswritten. Still, Scripture affords ground for believing, for hoping, atleast, that the story of redemption has been told in other worlds thanours, and that the love of God in Christ--that fairest, fullestmanifestation of our Father's heart--links all parts of creationtogether, and links all more closely to the throne of God. "He thathath seen me, Philip, " said our Lord to that disciple, "hath seen theFather also;" and as I believe that He who delights to bless all Hisunfallen creatures would not withhold from the inhabitants of otherspheres the happiness of knowing Him in His most adorable, gracious, and glorious character, I can fancy them eagerly searching theirskies for a sight of our world, --the scene of that story which hasconveyed to them the fullest knowledge of Him they love, their deepestsense of His ineffable holiness and unspeakable mercy. Not from poleto pole, but from planet to planet, and from star to star, the love ofChrist deserves to be proclaimed; and it is a thought as grand as itis probable, that the story of Calvary, not yet translated into allthe tongues of earth, is told in the ten times ten thousand tongues ofother worlds, and that the Name which is above every name--the blessedName which dwells in life in a believer's heart and trembles in deathon his lips--is known in spheres which his foot never trod and his eyenever 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 apoet, while calling for praise from kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges, young men and children, rise to a loftierflight, exclaiming: "Praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, all yeangels: 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 thestable. Heard above the champing of bits, the stroke of hoofs, therattling of chains, and the lowing of oxen, the feeble wail of aninfant turns our steps to a particular stall: here a woman liesstretched on a bed of straw, and her new-born child, hastily wrappedin some part of her dress, finds a cradle in the manger. A pitifulsight!--such a fortune as occasionally befalls the Arabs ofsociety--such an incident as may occur in the history of one of thosevagrant, vagabond, outcast families who, their country's shame, tentin woods and sleep under hedges, when no barn or stable offers acovering to their houseless heads. Yet princes on their way to thecrown, brides on their way to the marriage, bannered armies on theirway to the battle, and highest angels in their flight from star tostar, 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 samestall, and fed at the same manger, the lion shall eat straw with theox. Here is a greater wonder! This stable is the house of God, thevery gate of heaven: under this dusty roof, inside those narrow walls, He lodges whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain: the tenant ofthis manger is the Son, who, leaving the bosom of His Father to saveus, here pillows His head on straw; of this feeble babe the hands areto hurl Satan from his throne, and wrench asunder the strong bars ofdeath; this one tender life, this single corn-seed is to become theprolific parent of a thousand harvests, and fill the garners of glorywith the fruits of salvation. Mean as it looks, yet more splendidthan marble palaces, --more sacred than the most venerable and hallowedtemples, here the Son of God was born, and with Him were born Faith, Hope, and Charity--our Peace, our Liberty, and our Eternal Life. HadHe not been born, we had never been born again; had He not lain in amanger, we had never lain in Abraham's bosom; had He not been wrappedin swaddling-clothes, we had been wrapped in everlasting flames; hadHis head in infancy not been pillowed on straw, and in death onthorns, 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 hadbrought no change, and death no relief, and the grave no rest. "Gloryto God in the highest" that He was born: we had otherwise been liftingup our eyes in torment with this unavailing, endless cry, "O that mymother had been my grave! Cursed be the day wherein I was born?"

If language cannot express the love and gratitude we owe to theSaviour, let our lives do so. Shallow streams run brawling over theirpebbly beds, but the broad, deep river pursues its course in silenceto the sea; and so is it with our strongest, deepest feelings. Greatjoy like great sorrow, great gladness like great grief, greatadmiration like great detestation, take breath and speech away. Onfirst seeing Mont Blanc as the sun rose to light up his summit andirradiate another and another snow-clad pinnacle, I remember thesilent group who had left their couches to witness and watch theglorious scene: before its majesty and magnificence all were forawhile dumb, opening not the mouth. I have read, when travellersreached the crest of the hill, and first looked down onJerusalem, --the scene of our Saviour's sorrow, the garden that heardHis groans, the city that led Him out to die, the soil that wasbedewed with His tears and crimsoned with His blood, --how their heartswere too full for utterance. If a sight of the city where He died soaffects Christians, as the scenes of His last hours rush on theirmemory and rise vividly to their imagination, how will they look onthat scene where, surrounded by ten times ten thousand saints andthousands of angels, He reigns in glory! I can fancy the saint who hasshut 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 hiseye, and the thought of what he owes to Jesus his heart, --I can fancyhim laying the crown, which he has received from his Saviour's hands, in silent gratitude at His feet; and as he recovers speech, and seeshell and its torments beneath him, earth and its sorrows behind him, an eternity of unchequered, unchanging bliss, before him, --I can fancythe first words that break from his grateful lips will be, "Glory toGod, glory to God in the highest!" Never till then, nowhere but there, will our praise be worthy of Jesus and His redemption. Meanwhile, letHim who demonstrates God's highest glory and fills heaven's highestthrone, hold the highest place in our hearts. Let us surround Hisname with the highest honours; and, laying our time and talents, ourfaculties and our affections, our wealth, and fame, and fortunes atHis feet, crown Him Lord of all. 

_PART III. _

Some years ago the question which agitated the heart of Europe was, Peace or War? The interests of commerce, the lives of thousands, thefate of kingdoms, trembled in the balance. Navies rode at anchor, andopposing armies, like two black thunder-clouds, waited for statesmento issue from the council-chamber, bearing the sword or theolive-branch. Esteeming the arbitrament of battle one which necessityonly could justify, Britain longed for peace; but, with ships ready toslip their cables, and soldiers standing by their guns, she was grimlyprepared for war. Had ambassadors from the nation with which we wereready to join issue approached our shores at this crisis, what eagercrowds would have attended their advent, and how impatiently wouldthey have waited the course of events! And had peace been the resultof the conference, how would the tidings, as they passed from mouthto mouth, and were flashed by the telegraph from town to town, havefilled and moved the land! The pale student would have forgot hisbooks, the anxious merchant his speculations, the trader his shop, thetradesman his craft, tired labour her toils, happy children theirtoys, and even the bereaved their griefs; and like the whirlpool, which sucks straws and sea-weed, boats and gallant ships--all things, big or small--into its mighty vortex, the news would have absorbed allother subjects. The one topic of conversation at churches andtheatres, at marriages and funerals, in halls and cottages, in crowdedcities and in lonely glens; ministers had carried it in their sermonsto the pulpit, and devout Christians in their thanksgivings to theThrone of Grace. 

In a much greater crisis, where the stakes were deeper, the questionbeing not one of peace or war between man and man, but between man andGod, an embassy from heaven reached the borders of our world. UnlikeElijah, rough in dress, of aspect stern and speech severe, whoseappearance struck Ahab with terror, and wrung from the pale lips ofthe conscience-stricken king the cry, "Hast thou found me, O mineenemy?"--unlike Jonah as he walked the wondering streets, and woketheir echoes with his doleful cry, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shallbe destroyed, "--the ambassadors were "a multitude of shining angels. "Leaving the gates of heaven, they winged their flight down the starrysky to descend and hover above the fields of Bethlehem, and in theform of a song, as became such joyful tidings, to proclaim news ofPeace--their song, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good-will toward men. " Nothing presents a more remarkable example of"much in little" than these few but weighty words. In small crystals, that coat, as with shining frost-work, the sides of a vessel, we haveall the salts which give perpetual freshness to the ocean, their lifeto the weeds that clothe its rocks, and to the fish that swim itsdepths and shallows. In some drops of oil distilled from rose-leavesof Indian lands, and valued at many times their weight in gold, wehave enclosed within one small phial the perfume of a whole field ofroses--that which, diffused through ten thousand leaves, gave everyflower its fragrance. Essences, as they are called, present, in aconcentrated form, the peculiar properties of leaves or flowers orfruits, of the animal, vegetable, or earthly bodies from which theyare extracted; and, like these, this hymn presents the whole gospel ina single sentence. Here is the Bible, the scheme of redeeming love, that grand work which saved a lost world, gladdened angels in heaven, confounded devils in hell, and engaged the highest attributes of theGodhead, summed up in one short, glorious, glowing paragraph. For whatso much as the gospel, what, indeed, but the gospel, yields Jehovahthe highest glory, blesses our earth with peace, and expressesHeaven's good-will to the sons of men? Such were the ambassadors, andsuch the embassage!

When the king of Babylon, hearing how the shadow had travelled backten degrees on the dial of Ahaz, sent ambassadors to Hezekiah toinquire about this strange phenomenon, Hezekiah received them with thegreatest respect; paid them honours, indeed, which cost both him andhis country dear. The news of an embassy having come to Joshua spreadlike wildfire among the Israelites, moving the whole camp. Seized witheager curiosity, all ran to hear what the strangers had to say, andgaze with wonder on their soiled and ragged dress, their clouted shoesand mouldy bread. The herald angels, though arrayed in heavenlysplendours, and bringing glad tidings of peace, were received with nosuch honours, excited no such interest. Strange and sad omen of theindifference with which many would hear the gospel! While angels sung, the world slept; and none but some wakeful watchers heard their voicesor beheld this splendid vision. They were humble shepherds, to whomthe ambassadors of heaven delivered their message; and it may be wellto pause and look at those who were privileged and honoured to hearit. We do not pretend to know certainly the reasons why God, whogiveth no account of His ways, conferred an honour so distinguished onthem rather than on others. But we may guess; and in any case may findthe employment profitable and instructive, if we are wise enough tofind "sermons in stones, books in the running brooks, and good ineverything. "

V. 

THEY WERE MEN OF A PEACEFUL CALLING. 

The highest view of the profession of arms is, that the soldier, deterring evil-doers and maintaining order at home, on the one hand, and prepared, on the other, to resist hostile invasion, is in reality, notwithstanding his deadly weapons and warlike garb, an officer orinstrument of peace. A day is coming--alas! with the roar of cannonbooming across the ocean, how far distant it seems!--when Christianityshall exert a paramount influence throughout all the world: then, tyrants having ceased to reign, and slaves to groan, and nations tosuffer from the lust of gold or power, this beautiful picture of theprophet shall become a reality: "The whole earth, " said the seer, "isat rest, and is quiet; they break forth into singing. " Till then, paradoxical though it appears, the cause of peace may be pled withmost effect by the mouths of cannon. Fitness for war is often thestrongest security for peace; and a nation whose wishes and interestsboth run in the direction of peace, may find no way of warningrestless and unprincipled and ambitious neighbours that it is not tobe touched with impunity, but by showing itself, thistle-like, allbristling over with bayonets. "Necessity, " said Paul, "is laid on meto preach. " It may be laid on a people to fight. Nor, when the swordhas been drawn in a good cause, has God refused His sanction to thatlast, terrible resort. It was He who imparted strength to the armbefore whose resistless sweep the Philistines fell in swathes, likegrass to the mower's scythe. It was He who guided the stone that, shotfrom David's sling, buried itself in the giant's brow. It was He whogave its earthquake-power to the blast of the horns which levelled thewalls of Jericho with the ground. And when night came down to coverthe retreat of the Amorites and their allies, it was He whointerposed to secure the bloody fruits of victory--saying, aseloquently put by a rustic preacher, "'Fight on, my servant Joshua, and I will hold the lights;' and 'the sun stood still on Gibeon, andthe moon in the valley of Ajalon. '" Admitting war to be an awfulscourge, these cases show that the duties of a soldier are notinconsistent with the calling of a Christian. 

Yet it was over no battle-field, the most sacred to truth and liberty, these angels hovered; no blazing homesteads nor burning cities shedtheir lurid gleam on the skies they made radiant with light; nor wasit where their sweet voices strangely mingled with the clash of armsand the shouts of charging squadrons that they sang of glory, good-will, and peace. This had been out of keeping with the congruitywhich characterises all God's works of nature, and which will be foundequally characteristic of His works of providence and grace. As wasmeet, the glad tidings of peace were announced to men who were engagedin an eminently peaceful occupation; who passed tranquil lives amidthe quietness of the solemn hills, far removed alike from theambitious strife of cities and the bloody spectacles of war. Lyingamid the solitudes of the mountains, where no sounds fall on the earbut the bleating of flocks, the lowing of cattle, the hum of bees, thebaying of a watch-dog from the lonely homestead, the murmur of hiddenrills, the everlasting rush of the waterfall as it plunges flashinginto its dark, foaming pool, pastoral are eminently peaceful scenes. Indeed, the best emblem of peace which a great painter has been ableto present he owes to them--it is a picture of a quiet glen, with alamb licking the rusty lips of a dismounted gun, while the flocksaround crop the grass that waves above the slain. 

Apt scholars of the devil, wicked men have used Holy Scripture tojustify the most impious crimes. Others, with more fancy thanjudgment, have drawn the most absurd conclusions from its facts; butwe seem warranted to conclude, that by selecting shepherds to receivethe first tidings of Jesus' birth, apart from the circumstance thatthey were Christ's own favourite types of Himself, God intended toconfer special honour on the cause, and encourage the lovers andadvocates of peace. Deer are furnished by nature with horns, dogs withteeth, eagles with talons, serpents with poison, and bees with stings;but men have no weapons of offence. Yet, acting under the dominion oftheir lusts, men have a passion for fighting, and, easily fired withthe spirit, and dazzled with the glory of war, are ready to abandonarguments for blows; and I cannot but think that He who would notpermit David, the man after His own heart, to build Him a housebecause he had been a man of blood, conferred this honour on thesehumble shepherds because they were men of peace. Whether it be withHimself or our own consciences, in the midst of our families, amongour neighbours, or between nation and nation, He enjoins us tocultivate peace: in His own emphatic words, we are to "seek peace andpursue it. "

VI. 

THEY WERE MEN OF HUMBLE RANK. 

Many in humble, as well as in more coveted circumstances, arediscontented with their position. They repine at their lot, and murmuragainst the Providence which has assigned it. This is not only wickedbut absurd, since true happiness lies much less in changing ourcondition than in making the best of it, whatever it be. Besides, Godsays, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man thanthe golden wedge of Ophir;" and the estimate which He forms of usturns in no respect whatever on the place we fill. One artist paints agrand, another a common, or even a mean, subject; but we settle theircomparative merits, praising this one and condemning that, not by thesubjects they paint, but by the way they paint them. To borrow anillustration from the stage, (as Paul did from heathen games, ) oneplayer, tricked out in regal state, with robes, and crown, andsceptre, performs the part of a king, and another that only of acommon soldier or country boor; yet the applause of the audience isnot given to the parts the actors play, but to the way they play them. Even so, it is not the place that man fills, whether high or humble, but the way he fills it to which God has, and we should have, mostregard. 

Not that we would reduce the inequalities of society any more thanthose of the earth, with its varied features of swelling hill andlovely dale, to one dull, long, common level. Death, the great grimleveller, does that office both for cottagers and kings. Let it beleft to the sexton's spade. The mountains which give shelter to thevalleys, and gather the rains that fill their rivers and fertilisetheir pastures, have important uses in nature, and so have thecorresponding heights of rank and wealth and power in society. Setting our affections on things above, let us be content to wait forthe honours and rest of heaven; let us seek to be good rather thangreat; to be rich in faith rather than in wealth; to stand high inGod's esteem rather than in man's; saying, with Paul, "I have learnedin whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content;"--or singing withthe boy in the "Pilgrim's Progress, " who, meanly clad, but with "afresh and well-favoured countenance, " fed his father's sheep, --

 "He that is down needs fear no fall; He that is low, no pride; He that is humble ever shall Have God to be his guide. 

 "I am content with what I have, Little be it or much; And, Lord, contentment still I crave, Because thou savest such. "

"Do you hear him?" said the guide. "I will dare to say that this boylives a merrier life, and wears more of that herb called heart's-easein his bosom, than he that is clad in silk and velvet. "

Why should a man blush for his humble origin? The Saviour's mother wasa poor woman; and no head ever lay in a meaner cradle than the mangerwhere Mary laid her first-born--the Son of the Most High God. Whyshould any be ashamed of honest poverty? Men of immortal names, theapostles, were called from the lowest ranks, and went forth to conquerand convert the world without a penny in their purse. Was not our Lordhimself poor? He earned His bread, and ate it, with the sweat of Hisbrow, while others lay luxuriously on down; He had often no other roofthan the open sky, or warmer bed than the dewy ground; and never hadelse to entertain His guests than the coarsest and most commonfare--barley-loaves and a few small fishes. Though rich in the wealthof Godhead, with the resources of heaven and of earth at His sovereigncommand, poverty attended His steps like His shadow, along the wayfrom a humble cradle to a bloody grave. He made Himself poor that Hemight make us rich; and it seemed meet that to poor rather than torich men God should reveal the advent of Him who came to enrich thepoor, whether kings or beggars, peers or peasants. As if to censurethe respect paid to rank apart from merit, or to wealth apart fromworth, He who has no respect for persons honoured in these shepherdshonest poverty and humble virtue. They received ambassadors notaccredited to sovereigns; as cottages, not palaces, housed Him whomthe heavens have received, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain. 

VII. 

THEY WERE MEN ENGAGED IN COMMON DUTIES. 

Mothers cumbered with a load of domestic cares, merchants worried withbusiness, statesmen charged with their country's affairs, andthousands who have a daily fight to keep the wolf from the door, fancythat, if they enjoyed the leisure some have, and could bestow moretime on divine things, they would be more religious than they are, and, rising to higher, calmer elevations of thought and temper, wouldmaintain a nearer communion with God. It may reconcile such to theirduties to observe how the men were employed on whom God bestowed thisunexpected and exalted honour. They were engaged in the ordinarybusiness of their earthly calling; of a hard and humble one. Types ofHim to whose care His people owe their safety amid the temptations, and their support amid the trials of life, these shepherds werewatching their flocks; peering through the gloom of night; listeningfor the stealthy step of the robber; ready, starting to their feet, tobeat off the sneaking wolf, or bravely battle with the roaring lion. 

He whose sun shines as brightly on the lowliest as on the stateliestflower, regards with complacency the humblest man who wins his dailybread, and discharges the duties of his station, whatever they be, insuch a way as to glorify God and be of advantage to hisfellow-creatures. Heaven, as this case brilliantly illustrates, isnever nearer men, nor are they ever nearer it, than in those fields orworkshops, where, with honest purpose and a good conscience, they arediligently pursuing their ordinary avocations. No doubt--for God doesnot cast His pearls before swine--these shepherds were pious men. Onepassing a night in their humble dwellings would have seen the fatherwith reverent mien gather his household to prayer; and one passingthese uplands, where they held their watch, might have heard theirvoices swaying on the midnight air, as they sang together the psalmsof David amid the very scenes where he tuned his harp and fed hisfather's flocks. But people are too apt to suppose that religion liesmainly, if not exclusively, in prayers, reading the Bible, listeningto sermons, and attending on sacraments; in time spent, or work done, or offerings made, or sacrifices endured, for what are called, incommon language, religious objects. These are the means, not the end. He who rises from his knees to his daily task, and, with an eye not somuch to please men as God, does it well, carries divine worship to theworkshop, and throws a sacred halo around the ordinary secularities oflife. That, indeed, may be the highest expression of religion; just asit is the highest expression of devoted loyalty to leave the precinctsof the court and the presence of the sovereign, to endure thehardships of a campaign, and stand in soiled and tattered regimentalsby the king's colours amid the deadly hail of battle. He who goes tocommon duties in a devout and Christian spirit proves his loyalty toGod; and, as this case proves, is of all men the most likely to befavoured with tokens of the Divine presence--communications of gracewhich will sustain his patience under a life of toil, and fit him forthe rest that remaineth for the people of God. 

_PART IV. _

Mingled with its rattling shingle, the sea-beach bears hazel-nuts andfir-tops--things which once belonged to the blue hills that rise farinland on the horizon. Dropped into the brooks of bosky glens, theyhave been swept into the river, to arrive, after many windings andlong wanderings, at the ocean; to be afterwards washed ashore withshells and wreck and sea-weed. The Gulf Stream, whose waters by abeautiful arrangement of Providence bring the heat of southernlatitudes to temper the wintry rigour of the north, throws objects onthe western coasts of Europe which have performed longervoyages--fruits and forest-trees that have travelled the breadth ofthe Atlantic, casting the productions of the New World on the shoresof the Old. 

Like these, the record of events which happened in the earliest agesof the world has been carried along the course of time, and spread bythe diverging streams of population over the whole surface of theglobe. The facts are, as was to be expected, always more or lesschanged, and often, indeed, fragmentary. Still, like old coins, whichretain traces of their original effigies and inscriptions, thesetraditions possess a high historic value. Their remarkablecorrespondence with the statements of the Bible confirms our faith inits divinity; and their being common to nations of habits the mostdiverse, and of habitations separated from each other by the wholebreadth of the earth, proves the unity of our race. If they cannot beregarded as pillars, they are buttresses of the truth; beinginexplicable on any theory but that which infidelity has so often, butalways vainly, assailed, namely, that all Scripture is given byinspiration of God, and that He has made of one blood all the nationsof the earth. 

To take some examples. Look, for instance, at a custom common amongthe Red Indians, ages before white men had crossed the sea and carriedthe Bible to their shores! At the birth of a child, as Humboldtrelates, a fire was kindled on the floor of the hut, and a vessel ofwater placed beside it; but not with the murderous intent of thosesavage tribes who practise infanticide, and, pressed by hunger, destroy their children to save their food. The infant here was firstplunged into the water--buried, as we should say, in baptism; andafterwards swept rapidly and unharmed through the flaming fire. A veryremarkable rite; and one that, as we read the story, recalled to mindthis double baptism, "He shall baptize you, " said Jesus, "with theHoly Ghost and with fire;" "Except a man be born of water and of theSpirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. " Its administration toinfants, to such as had committed no sin, nor knew, indeed, theirright hand from their left, implied a belief in the presence, not ofacquired, but of original impurity. It is based on that; and withoutit this rite is not only mysterious, but meaningless. Blind is the eyewhich does not see in this old pagan ceremony a tradition of theprimeval Fall, and dull the ear which does not hear in its voice nofaint echo of these words, "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin didmy mother conceive me. .. . Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renewa right spirit within me. "

Like the Fall, the Flood also was an event which, though it may haveworn no channel in the rocks, has left indelible traces of itspresence on the memory of mankind. The Greeks had strange traditionsof this awful judgment; so had the Romans; and so had almost all theheathen nations of antiquity--strange legends, to which the Biblesupplies the only key. Its account of the Deluge explains thetraditions, and the traditions corroborate it; and by their generalmutual correspondence we are confirmed in our belief that its authorswere holy men of old, who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. To evade this argument, infidels may trace these legends to Jews, who, led captive of the heathen, related to them the Mosaic story, and tookadvantage of man's love of the marvellous to practise on hiscredulity. The attempt is vain; since, on turning from the Old Worldto the New, we find the very same traditions there; and there, longages before Jew or Christian knew of its existence, or had landed onits shores. Those paintings which were to Mexicans and Peruvianssubstitutes for history, for a written or printed language, embody thestory of the Flood. One of these pictures, for example, shows us a manafloat with his family in a rude boat on a shoreless sea; in another, the raven of Bible story is cleaving on black wing the murky sky; in athird, the heads of the hills appear in the background like islandsemerging from the waste of waters, while, with such confusion as isinseparable from traditionary lore, the raven is substituted for thedove, and appears making its way to the lone tenants of the boat withevidence of the subsidence of the waters--a fir-cone in its bloodybeak. Rolled down the long stream of ages, the true history is more orless changed, and even fragmentary, like a water-worn stone. Still, between these traditionary records and Bible story there is aremarkable agreement. They sound like its echo. In them pagan voicesproclaim the holiness of God. Lest we also should perish with thosewho, looking on the placid sea and starry sky of the Old World's lastnight, asked, "Where is the promise of His coming?" they warn us toflee from wrath to come. 

Of all these venerable legends painted in colours or embalmed inverse, written in story or sculptured on stone, none are moreremarkable than those where the serpent appears. Old divines imaginedthat the creature whose shape Satan borrowed for the temptation hadoriginally no malignant aspect; neither the poisoned fangs, nor eyesof fire, nor cold, scaly, wriggling form which man and beast recoilfrom with instinctive horror. They fancied that the curse, "Upon thybelly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat, " was followed by asudden metamorphosis, and that till then the appearance of the serpentwas as lovely as it is now loathsome. They gave the words of thecurse a literal interpretation. They bear a deeper meaning, no doubt;yet the fancy of these old divines may have approached nearer to factthan many perhaps suppose. Science reads the history of remote ages asshe finds it inscribed on the rocks; and, on turning over these stonyleaves, we find that the earliest form of the serpent was differentfrom that which, as it crawls and wriggles along the ground, soforcibly recalls the very words of the curse. Though they have nowonly such powers of motion as belong to the meanest worm, thoseskeletons which the rocks entomb show that the serpent tribe had oncefeet to walk with, and even wings to spurn the ground and cleave theair. Such is the testimony of the rocks! And, taking the words ofScripture in their literal sense, there is, to say the least of it, avery curious coincidence between the voices of the rocks and the voiceof revelation. But, be that as it may, what else but fragmentarytraditions of Eden and the Fall are the forms of serpent worship amongthe heathen, who acted, as they still often act, on the principle ofpropitiating the powers of evil, the many old monuments on which itsfigure is sculptured, and the many old legends in which it plays aconspicuous part? What else was the belief of our pagan fathers, thatwithin a dark cave in the bowels of the earth there sat a great scalydragon, brooding on gold? What else was the fabled garden of theHesperides, where the trees, guarded by a fierce and formidableserpent, bore apples of gold? What else was the tragic story of afather and his sons dying by the bites and crushed within the scalyfolds of a coil of serpents; and on which, as touchingly representedin the sculptured marble, we have never looked without recalling thefate of Adam and his unhappy offspring? And what else is the oldlegend of him who with rash hand sowed serpent's teeth, and saw springfrom the soil, not clustering vines, or feathery palms, or stalks ofwaving corn, but a crop of swords, and spears, and armed men? Readthat fable by the light of the Bible, and the wild legend stands outthe record of an awful fact. To the serpent the world owes it wars, and discords, and the sin which is their source. Disguised in itsform, Satan brought in sin; and when sin entered on the scene, peacedeparted--peace between God and man, peace between man and man, peacebetween man and himself--the peace which, with all its blessings, Hedescended from heaven to restore who is our Peace, and whom angelsushered on the scene of His toils and triumphs, of His atoning deathand glorious victory, with songs of "Glory to God in the highest, andon earth peace, good-will toward men. "

VIII. 

JESUS RESTORES PEACE BETWEEN GOD AND MAN. 

There are things which God cannot do--which it were not to honour butdishonour Him to believe He could. He can neither tempt, nor betempted, to sin. The sinner He may love, but not his sin; that isimpossible; as the prophet expresses it, "Thou art of purer eyes thanto behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. " Indeed, I would assoon believe that God could condemn a holy spirit to the pains ofhell, as admit a guilty one, unjustified and unsanctified, to the joysof heaven. In that terrible indictment which God thunders out againstIsrael by the mouth of Ezekiel, He says, "Thou art the land which isnot cleansed. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolvesravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to getdishonest gain. Her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken. Thepeople of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, andhave vexed the poor and needy; therefore have I poured out mineindignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath:their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord. " Sohe arraigns this and the other class. And how of the priests? "Herpriests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: theyhave put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have theyshowed difference between the unclean and the clean. " He censures Hisservants for not separating between the clean and unclean; and itinsults Him to suppose that He could do in His own practice what Hecondemns in theirs. Events, such as old murders brought to light, everand anon occur to show that God's mill, as runs the proverb, thoughit grinds slow, grinds sure; yet because He does not execute judgmentspeedily on workers of iniquity--giving them space to repent; becauseHe often seems, like one far remote from earth, to treat its crimesand virtues with equal indifference, men have not believed thesesolemn words, "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. " Butlet the wicked hear His words, and take the warning, "Thou hatestinstruction; thou castest My words behind thee. When thou sawest athief, then thou consentedst with him. Thou hast been partaker withadulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue practisethdeceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderestthine own mother's son. These things hast thou done, and I keptsilence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself:but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, andthere be none to deliver. "

The universal conscience of mankind is stricken with a sense ofguilt. Alarmed by an instinctive sense of danger, men have felt theneed of reconciliation; and, under a sense of His displeasure, haveeverywhere, and in all ages, sought to make their peace with God. Forthis end altars were raised and temples built; sacrifices offered, andpenances endured. If the colossal structures of Egypt, and the lovelytemples of Greece and Rome, were erected, as well to adorn the stateas to please the gods, it was less to please approving, than toappease angry divinities, that their courts resounded with the criesof victims, and smoking altars ran red with blood. So much did theheathen feel their need of peace, such store did they set by it, thatmany of them sought it at any price. They would buy peace at any cost;nor did they shrink from giving all their fortune, even the fruit oftheir body, for the sin of their souls. For peace with God the Hindoowalked to his distant temples in sandals that, set with spikes, pierced his flesh at every step, and marked all the long, slow, painful journey with a track of blood; for peace with God the Syrianled his sweet boy up to the fires of Moloch, and, unmoved in purposeby cries, or curses, or passionate entreaties, cast him shrieking onthe burning pile; for peace with God the Indian mother approached theriver's brink with streaming tears and trembling steps, and, tearingthe suckling from her bursting heart, kissed it, to turn away hereyes, and fling it into the flood. We pity their ignorance. But how dothey rebuke the indifference of many; their unwillingness to submit toany sacrifice whatever for the honour of Jesus and the interests oftheir souls? These heathens may pity thousands whom they shall rise upin judgment to condemn. Neglecting the great salvation, preferring thepleasures of sin, what a contrast do these offer to a poor Hindoo, who, hearing a missionary tell of the blood of Christ, sprang from theground, and, loosing his bloody sandals, flung them away to exclaim, "Now, now I have found what I want!"

The peace which he found all men want, and shall find in Jesus, ifthey seek it honestly, earnestly. God has no pleasure in the death ofthe wicked. He never had. We pronounce him an unnatural father, who, on a breach occurring between him and his child, though he is theinjured and not the injurer, does not long to be reconciled--is notthe first to make advances and overtures of peace. In this feature ofthe parental character God has stamped upon our hearts the beautifulimage of His own. Yearning over them as the kind old man over hiswayward prodigal, his exiled child, God was willing to receive backsinners to His arms; to reinstate them in His family, and restore themto His favour. But how was this to be done?--done without dishonour toHis holy law, and with due regard to His character as a God of truth. He had said, "The soul that sinneth shall die;" nor could peace berestored between Him and man but on such terms as maintained Histruth. A father or mother punishes one child, and allows another, guilty of the same offence, to go free. But had God cast fallen angelsinto hell, and, without any regard to His word, admitted fallen mento heaven, what had angels, what had devils, what had men themselvesthought of a God who conducted his government with suchcaprice--playing fast and loose with His most solemn words? "The wayof the Lord, " said ancient Israel, "is not equal;" and in such a casethere had been ground for the charge, and none for the indignationwith which He repels it, saying, "Hear now, O Israel, is not my wayequal? are not yours unequal?"

There was only one way of restoring peace; but it involved a sacrificeon God's part which the most sanguine had never dared to hope for. Ifthe Lord of heaven and earth, veiling His glory, would assume ournature, would take the form of a servant, would stoop to the work of asubject, would die the death of a sinner, we might be saved--nototherwise; if He would leave heaven, we might enter it--not otherwise;if He would die, we might live--not otherwise; if He would enter thegrave its captor, we might leave it its conquerors--not otherwise; ifHe, as our substitute, would fulfil the requirements of the law, bothin doing our work and discharging our debt, both obeying and sufferingin our stead, peace could be restored--not otherwise. For these endsGod did not spare His Son, but gave Him up to death, "that whosoeverbelieveth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life;" and the"set time" having come at length, Jesus descended on our world, tomake peace through the blood of His cross--His angel-train, ere theyreturned to heaven, holding a concert in the skies. 

Dying, the just for the unjust, He has made peace; and these are theeasy terms, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt besaved. " How gladly should we accept them? If men reject peace, whatchance for them in war? "Hast thou an arm like God? Canst thou thunderwith a voice like him?" "Let the potsherds strive with the potsherdsof the earth; but woe to the man who striveth with his Maker!" He hasproclaimed a truce--granting a suspension of arms, and offering mostgenerous proposals of peace. How should men improve the pause, andaccept the overtures!--as eagerly seizing salvation through the crossof Christ as a drowning man life through the rope some kind handflings within his reach. In warfare patriots have stood up gallantlyagainst overwhelming odds, and, closing their broken ranks, have said, "Better fall on the field, better lose life than honour;" but whensinners, dropping the weapons of rebellion, yield themselves up toGod, honour is not lost, but won, in a crown that fadeth not away. Brave men have said, "Better fight to the last, die with our swords inour hands, than become captives to pine away a weary, ignoble lifewithin the walls of a prison;" but when the sinner gives himself up toGod, he goes not to exile but home; not to chains and a dungeon, butto glorious freedom, a palace, and a throne. God asks you to give upyour sins that they, not you, may be slain. It is of them, not of you, He says, "But those mine enemies which would not that I should reignover them, bring hither, and slay them before me!"

In these circumstances, oh for the wisdom of her who showed herself onthe city walls in the thick of the assault, crying to Joab, "Hear, hear, come near hither, I pray you, that I may speak with thee!" Awoman's figure there, her voice sounding above the thunder of thecaptains and the shouting, suspends the attack. Assailants andassailed alike rest on their arms; and as one marked as a leader byhis plume and bearing, covered with the dust and blood of battle, steps forward, she bends over the battlements to ask, "Art thou Joab?""I am he, " is the reply. "Then hear the words of thy handmaid, " shecries; "I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel:thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel!" He solemnlyrepudiates the charge. "Far be it from me, " he answers, "that I shouldswallow up and destroy. The matter is not so: but a man of MountEphraim, Sheba, the son of Bichri, hath lifted up his hand againstthe king, against David: deliver him only, and I will depart from thecity. " She accepts the terms; and saying "Behold, his head shall bethrown to thee over the wall"--vanishes. Prompt in action as wise incounsel, she goes to the people, deals with them, sways the multitudeto her will; and ere the last hour of the brief truce has closed, abloody head goes bounding over the wall. It rolls like a ball to thefeet of Joab; and in its grim and ghastly features they recognise theface of the son of Bichri. So Joab blows the trumpet, and the hostretires from the walls, every man to his own tent. So let men dealwith their sins. Let them die with the son of Bichri: they have"lifted up their hand against the King. " Why should we spare them, andlose our souls? By His precious blood Jesus has opened up a way topeace. He has come, but not "to swallow up and destroy. " Blessed Lord, He came to save, not to destroy. "O earth, earth, earth, " cried theprophet, "hear the word of the Lord;" and be it known to the world'sutmost bounds that God willeth not the death of the sinner, butrather that he would turn to Him and live. With her flaming sword, redwith the blood of men and angels, Justice holds to us no otherlanguage but that of Joab, "Deliver up your sins only, and I willdepart!" and, inspired of God with the wisdom that chooseth the betterpart, and maketh wise unto salvation, let us say, "Better my sins diethan I; better Satan be cast, than Jesus be kept out of it; betterstrike off the heads of a thousand sins that have lifted up theirhands against the King, than that I should fall--sparing my sins tolose my soul!"

_PART V. _

Ahab and Jezebel, two of the worst characters in sacred story, had ason; and with such blood as theirs in his veins, no wonder that Joram, on succeeding to the throne of one parent, exhibited the vices ofboth. His mother does not seem to have had a drop of human-kindness inher breast. Yet he was not altogether dead to humanity, as appears byan incident which occurred during the siege that reduced his capitalto the direst extremities. The ghastly aspect of a famished woman whothrows herself in his way with a wild, impassioned, wailing cry of"Help, my lord, O king!" touches him; and he asks, "What aileth thee?"Stretching out a skinny arm to one pale and haggard as herself, shereplies, with hollow voice, "This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow. So weboiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him; and she hath hid her son. " Struckwith horror at the story, Joram rent his clothes. He had pity, but nopiety. 

"Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will but revolt more andmore. " Never were these words, never was the fact that unsanctifiedafflictions have the same hardening effect on men which fire, thatmelts gold, has on clay, more strikingly illustrated than on thisoccasion. So far from rending his heart with his garment, and humblinghimself before the Lord, Joram flares up into fiercer rebellion; andturning from these victims of the famine to his courtiers, he grindshis teeth to profane God's name and vow vengeance on his prophet, saying, "God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the sonof Shaphat shall stand on him this day. " Impotent rage against theonly man who could have weathered the storm, and saved the state! Theprophet's head stood on his shoulders when that of this son of amurderer--as Elisha called him--lay low in death in the dust ofNaboth's vineyard. The day arrives which sees the cup of Joram'siniquity full, and that of God's patience empty--drained to the lastdrop. The chief officers of the army are sitting outside theirbarrack, when one wearing a prophet's livery approaches them. Singlingout Jehu from the group, he says, I have an errand to thee, O captain!The captain rises; they pass in alone; the door is shut; and now thisstrange, unknown man, drawing a horn of oil from his shaggy cloak, pours it on Jehu's head. As if it had fallen on fire, it kindled uphis smouldering ambition--so soon at least as this speech interpretedthe act, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed thee kingover the people of this land. Thou shall smite the house of Ahab thymaster; dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and thereshall be none to bury her. " Having spoken so, the stranger opens thedoor, and flies. But faster flies God's vengeance. Ere his feet haveborne the servant to Elisha's door, the banner of revolt is up, unfurled; troops are gathering to the sound of trumpets; and soldiers, eager for change and plunder, are making the air ring to the cry, Jehuis king!

Launched like a thunderbolt at the house of Ahab, Jehu makes right forJezreel with impetuous, impatient speed. A watchman on the palacetower catches afar the dust of the advancing cavalcade, and cries, Isee a company! Guilt, which sleeps uneasy even on downy pillows, awakens, on the circumstance being reported to him, the monarch'sfears. A horseman is quickly despatched with the question, Is itpeace? Thus, pulling up his steed, he accosts the leader of thecompany, who, drawing no rein, replies, in a tone neither to bechallenged nor disobeyed, What hast thou to do with peace? Get theebehind me! Failing the first's return, a second horseman gallops forthto carry the same question and meet the same reception. Sweeping onlike a hurricane, the band is now near enough for the watchman totell, "He came near unto them, and cometh not again;" and also toadd, as he marks how their leader is shaking the reins and lashing thesteeds of his bounding chariot, "The driving is like the driving ofJehu, the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously. " Displaying acourage that seemed his only redeeming quality, or bereaved of sense, according to the saying, Whom God intends to destroy He first makesmad, Joram instantly throws himself into his chariot, advances to meetthe band, and demands of its leader, Is it peace, Jehu? What peace, isthe other's answer, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother and herwitchcrafts are so many? With the words that leave his lips an arrowleaves his bow to transfix the flying king--entering in at his backand passing out at his breast; and when he is cast, a bloody corpse, into Naboth's vineyard, and dogs are crunching his mother's bones, andJehu has climbed the throne, and Elisha walks abroad with his headsafe on his shoulders, and the curtain falls on the stage of thesetragic and righteous scenes, it was a time for the few pious men ofthat guilty land to sing, "Lo thine enemies, O Lord, lo thine enemiesshall perish; but the righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree:they shall grow like a cedar of Lebanon. "

Such was the mission of Jehu, the son of Nimshi. How different that ofJesus, the Son of God! They might have been identical; presented atleast grounds of comparison rather than grounds of striking contrast. Yet so remarkable is the contrast that Jehu's mission--and thereforehave we related the story--forms as effective a background toChrist's, as the black rain-cloud to the bright bow which spans it. The cause of the difference lies in God's free, gracious, sovereignmercy--in nothing else; for had mankind, at the tidings that the Sonof God, attended by a train of holy angels, was approaching, met Himon the confines of our world with Joram's question, "Is it peace?"that question might justly have met with Jehu's answer, "What hastthou to do with peace?"--what have you done to obtain it, or todeserve it? Yet, glory be to God in the highest, it is peace--peacemore plainly and fully announced in these most gracious words, "Itpleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, havingmade peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile allthings to himself, whether they be things on earth, or things inheaven. "

IX. 

JESUS BRINGS PEACE TO THE SOUL. 

Having reconciled us to God by the blood of His cross, Christ is "ourPeace, " as the apostle says. He is called so, first, because Herestores us to a state of friendship with God; and, secondly, becausea sense of that fills the whole soul with a peace which passethunderstanding. So, speaking of the righteousness which Christ wroughtout for us, the prophet says, "The work of righteousness ispeace"--His righteousness being the root, and our peace thefruit--that the spring, and this the stream. To describe for thecomfort of the Church the constancy of the last and the fulness of thefirst, another prophet borrows two of nature's grandest images, "Thypeace shall be like a river, and thy righteousness like the waves ofthe sea"--the believer's peace flowing like a broad, deep stream, withlife in its waters and smiling verdure on its banks; and a Saviour'srighteousness covering all his sins, as the waves do the countlesssands of their shore, when, burying them out of sight, the tideconverts the whole reach of dull, dreary sand into a broad liquidmirror, to reflect the light of the sky and the beams of the sun. 

Christ's imputed righteousness is bestowed equally on allbelievers--none, the least any more than the greatest sinner, beingmore justified than another. Feeling assured or not of theirsalvation, all His are equally safe--"those whom Thou hast given me Ihave kept, and none of them are lost. " There is no such equalenjoyment among believers of peace in believing; some walking alltheir days under a cloud, and some who walk in darkness and have nolight, only reaching heaven, like a blind man guided homewards by thehand of his child, by their hold of the promise, Who is he thatfeareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walkethin darkness and hath no light; let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay himself in his God. But where there is peace springing from asense of forgiveness, of all the fruits of the Spirit that grow inChrist's fair garden, this is sweetest. Among the blessings enjoyed onearth, it has no superior, or rival even. It passeth understanding, says an apostle. Nor did David regard any as happy but those whoenjoyed it--pronouncing "blessed, " not the great, or rich, or noble, or famous, but "the man, " whatever his condition, "whose transgressionis forgiven, whose sin is covered. " And so he might. With this peacethe believer regards death as the gate of life: enters the grave as aquiet anchorage from seas and storms; and looks forward to the sceneof final judgment as a prince to his coronation, or a happy bride toher marriage day. A sense of forgiveness lays the sick head on apillow softer than downs; lightens sorrow's heaviest burdens; makespoverty rich beyond the wealth of banks; spoils death of his sting;arms the child of God against the ills of life; and, lifting him upabove its trials, makes him like some lofty mountain, at whose feetthe lake may be lashed into foaming billows, and adown whose seamedand rugged sides clouds may fall in gloomy folds, but whose head, shooting up into the calm blue heavens, reposes in unbroken peace, rejoices in perpetual sunshine. 

Happy such as obtain a firm hold of Christ, and, having made theircalling and election sure, enjoy unclouded peace! Feeling that thereis now no more condemnation for them, because they believe in Jesus, and walk not after the flesh but after the spirit, they see a changecome on objects such as imparts pleasure and surprise in what arecalled dissolving views. Where death, with grim and grisly aspect, stood by the mouth of an open grave, shaking his fatal dart, we see anangel form opening with one hand the gate of heaven, and holding inthe other a shining crown--from the face of God we see the featuresof an angry, stern, inexorable judge melt all away, and in room of anobject of terror we behold the face and form of a kind, loving, forgiving Father, with open arms hastening to embrace us. The God ofhope give you joy and peace in believing, is the prayer of theapostle--a prayer in many cases so fully answered that the dying sainthas been borne away from all his earthly moorings; and, ready to partfrom wife and children, has exclaimed with Simeon when he held theinfant Saviour in his joyful arms, "Now, Lord, lettest thou thyservant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. "

"Be at peace among yourselves, " is a blessed injunction which anapostle lays on families, on friends, and on churches. In happycontrast to the storm which, hurtling through the troubled air, andshaking doors and windows, goes raving round every corner of thehouse, let peace reign on the domestic hearth, and also within thechurch, when, like the ark of old, she drifts on the billows of ashoreless sea--God only at the helm. 

It is good to be at peace with our brethren, but to be at peace withone's-self is better. At peace with conscience, one can afford, if Godwill have it so, to be at war with all men. It is painful, when wecannot be at peace with all men--to have enemies without; but his caseis infinitely worse who lodges an enemy in his own breast--in aguilty, uneasy conscience, in self-reproaches, in terror of death, inthe knowledge that God and he are not friends, nor can be so, so longas he cherishes his sins. There is no peace, saith my God, to thewicked. There cannot be. Drugged with narcotics, you may sleep asquietly on a bed of thorns as of roses. Drugged with narcotics, youmay lie down on the cold pavement, and fancy as you throw your armsaround the curbstone that it is the wife of your bosom. Drugged withnarcotics, you may go to sleep in a cell with visions of home playinground the head that shall be capped for hanging to-morrow. But no morethan I call these peaceful sights, can I apply the name of peace tothe insensibility of a conscience seared by sin; to the calmness, orrather callousness of one who has allowed the devil to persuade himthat God is too merciful to reckon with us for our transgressions. Thepeace we are to seek, and, seeking to pursue, is not that of death, but life, --not that the lake presents in winter, when no life appearson its shores, nor sound breaks the silence of its frozen waters; butthat of a lake which, protected from tempests by lofty mountains, carries life in its waters, beauty on its banks, and heaven mirroredin its unruffled bosom. Being justified by faith we have peace withGod through our Lord Jesus Christ. Such is the peace which we are toseek--a peace which, springing from a sense of reconciliation throughthe blood of the Lamb and wrought within the soul by the in-dwellingof the Holy Spirit, has so raised the saint above all fears of death, and shed such a flood of glory around his dying head, that wicked menhave turned from the scene to exclaim, May I die the death of therighteous, and may my last end be like his!

X. 

JESUS SHALL BRING PEACE TO THE WORLD. 

How many pages of history are written with the point of the sword--notwith ink, but tears and blood? It is chiefly taken up with the recitalof wars. What age has not been the era, what country the scene ofbloody strifes? What soil does not hold the dust of thousands thathave fallen by brothers' hands? Our glebes have been fattened with thebodies of the slain? On those fields where, with the lark carollingoverhead, the peasant drives his ploughshare, other steel than thesickle has glanced, and other shouts have risen than those of happyreapers bearing some blushing, sun-browned maid on their broadshoulders at the Harvest Home. The tall gray stones, the hoary cairns, tell how on other days these quiet scenes were disturbed by the roarof battle, and lay red with another dye than that of heath or purplewild flowers. Go wherever our foot may wander, we find tokens of war;and select what age soever we may, since Abel fell beneath a brother'shand, we find in man's first death, and the earth's first lone grave, a bloody omen of future and frequent crimes. What a commentary ishuman history on these words of Holy Scripture, "The whole creationgroaneth, and travaileth in pain till now!--nor shall it cease togroan, or hail the day of its redemption, till the Prince of Peace isenthroned in the heart of all nations, and the labours of missionarieshave extended that kingdom to the ends of the earth, whose triumphsare bloodless--whose walls are Salvation and her gates Praise. "

Without disparagement to the happy influence of education, theextension of commerce, and the efforts of benevolent men, the realPeace Society is the Church of God; the olive branch which the Spirit, dove-like, is bearing on blessed wing to a troubled world, is theWord of God; and the gospel's is the voice which, like Christ's onGalilee's waves, shall speak peace to a distracted earth, and changeits wildest passions into a holy calm. Till all nations receive theBible in its integrity and own it as their only rule of policy, tillkings reign for Christ and lay their crowns at His feet, a lastingpeace is an idle dream. Treaties will no more bind nations that lieunder the influence of unsanctified passions, that chains him whodwelt among the tombs, and within whom dwelt a legion of devils. Tillother and better days come, the best cemented peace is only a pause--atruce--an armistice; the breathing-time of exhausted combatants. Alas, that it should be so: yet true it is, that that nation dooms itself todisaster, if not destruction, which, pursuing only the arts of peace, leaves its swords to rust, and its navies to rot, and forts with emptyembrasures to moulder into ruins. The trumpet of the world's Jubileehas not yet sounded, nor have all the vials of the Apocalypse beenemptied of the wrath of God. And so, till the nations have emergedfrom spiritual darkness; till God's Word is an open book, and dulyhonoured in all lands; till immorality has ceased to weaken the bondsof social happiness, discontent to rankle in the bosom of the people, and ambition to fire the breasts of kings, the world may expect everand anon to hear the voice of Joel sounding out this trumpet call, "Prepare ye war; wake up the mighty men; let all the men of war drawnear--beat your ploughshares into swords and your pruning-hooks intospears--put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. "

Better days are coming--some think near at hand. Turning a seer's eye onfuturity, Isaiah descried them in the far distance--saw the reign of thePrince of Peace--Jesus crowned King of kings and Lord of lords--swordsbeaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks--every man, whether at hall or cottage door, sitting under the shade of his vineand fig-tree--the whole earth quiet, and at rest. And glad is theChurch, as, weary of strife and sin and sorrow, she looks up into thedarksome sky, and cries, Watchman, what of the night? to get a hopefulresponse, --to catch any sign, in break, or blush, or gray gleam howeverfeeble, that seems to reply, The morning cometh! Come blessed morn, come Prince of Peace--come Lord Jesus--come quickly! Let wars ceaseunto the ends of the earth! Scatter Thou the people that delight in war. 

The vision tarries, but come it shall. In answer to the cry of bloodthat rises to heaven with a different voice from that of Abel's, peaceshall reign and wars shall cease. By the hands that men nailed to across God will break the bow, the battle, and the spear--burning thechariot in the fire. And though any peace which our age may enjoyshould be only a breathing-time, but a pause in the roar of the bloodytempest, let us improve it to remedy all wrongs at home; to educateour ignorant and neglected masses; to eradicate the vices thatdisgrace and degrade our nation; to build up the Church wherever itlies in ruins; to extend not so much Britain's empire as Christ'skingdom abroad, and so hasten forward the happy time when the Song ofthe Angels shall be echoed from every land, and the voices of theskies of Bethlehem shall be lost in the grander, fuller, nobler chorusof all nations, singing, Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will toward men!

_PART VI. _

Though the last to be dropped into its place, the keystone is of allthe stones of an arch the first in importance; the others span noflood, carry no weight, are of no value, without it. It gives unity tothe separate parts, and locking all together, makes them one. Of suchconsequence to the other parts of the Angels' Song is its last clause. It was not simply Glory to God, nor peace on earth, but good willtoward men, which made the angels messengers of mercy, and the newsthey brought tidings of great joy. Glory to God! Amid the rush of thewaters that drowned the world, and the roar of the flames that laidSodom in ashes, they sang glory to God. God is glorious in acts ofjudgment as well as in acts of mercy--"the God of Glory thundereth. "So on shores strewn with the corpses of the dead, beside a sea whichopened its gates for the escape of Israel and closed them on Egypt, burying king and bannered host beneath its whirling waves, Moses andMiriam cried, Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously;the horse and his rider hath He cast into the sea! Then the deeplifted up its voice, and all the waves of the sea sang Glory to God!as, bearing the dead in on their foaming crests, they laid them atMoses' feet. And when that judgment comes to which these are but asthe big drops that prepare us for a burst of thunder and the rushingrain, when the great white throne is set, and the books are opened, and the Judge rises in awful majesty to pronounce words of doom, thevoices of ten times ten thousand saints shall add, Amen; and in anoutburst of praise that drowns the wail of the lost, the whole host ofangels shall sing, Glory to God! With such ascription of praiseChrist's heralds would have announced His advent, had He come not tosave, but to destroy. 

"Glory to God, " the first clause of this song, does not, therefore, necessarily involve good will towards men; and no more does thesecond, "peace on earth. " Peace! Peace was in the valley where theprophet stood with the grim wrecks of war around him, --friend and foesleeping side by side, skeletons silently turning to dust, and swordsto rust. Peace is in the battle-field when the last gun is fired, and, the last of the dying having groaned out his soul in a gush of blood, the heaving mass is still. Peace was on the sea and the storm suddenlybecame a calm, when the waves leaping up against the flying shipobtained their prey, and from the deck where he stood summoned by thevoice, Arise, O thou that sleepest, and call upon thy God, Jonah wasflung into the jaws of death. Peace was in that land he had ravaged ofwhom men said, "He made a solitude, and called it peace, "--all itshomesteads lay in ashes, and its cities stood in silent ruins. Peacewas in Israel, when, provoked by their sins, God cast His people out:swept them all into captivity. The land had its Sabbaths then. TheAngels' Song might have announced a similar, but greater, judgment--that, as a landlord clears his estate of turbulent, lawless, bankrupt tenants, God, who had repented long ago that He had made man, was at length coming to clear the earth of his guilty presence, andmake room for better tenants; a purer, holier race. It is the lastclause of this hymn, therefore, that gives it an aspect of mercy--therevenue of glory which God was to receive, and the peace which earthwas to enjoy, flowing from that fountain of redeeming love which hadits spring in God's good will. Of this Christ was the divineexpression, and angels were the happy messengers. 

Happy messengers indeed! No wonder they hastened their flight toearth, and having announced the good tidings, lingered over the fieldsof Bethlehem, singing as they hovered on the wing. To announce badnews is the unenviable office often imposed on ministers of thegospel; and recollecting with what slow, reluctant steps my feetapproached the house where I had to break to a mother the tidings ofthe wreck, and how her sailor boy with all hands had perished; or, inthe news of a husband's sudden death, I had to plant a dagger in theheart of a young, bright, happy wife. I never have read the story ofAbsalom's tragic end, without wondering at the race between Ahimaazand Cushi who should first carry the tidings to David. It had beeneasier, I think, to look the foe in the face and hear the roar ofbattle than see the old man's grief, and hear that heart-broken cry, "O Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee, OAbsalom, my son, my son!" I can enter into the feelings of the twoMarys, when, to quote the words of Holy Scripture, "they departedquickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, and did run tobring the disciples word. " I see them, as, regardless of appearances, and saluting no one, they press on, along the road, through thestreets, with panting breath and gleaming eye and streaming hair andflying feet, striving who shall be first to proclaim the resurrection, and burst in on the disciples with the glad tidings, crying, "The Lordis risen!" Teaching the Churches how to strive, their only rivalry whoshall first carry the tidings of salvation to heathen lands, I dare tosay those holy women never took such bounding steps, nor sped on theirway with such haste before. And never, I fancy, did angels leave thegates of heaven so fast behind them, pass suns and stars in downwardflight on such rapid wing, as when they hasted to earth with thetidings of great joy. May we be as eager to accept salvation as theywere to announce it! May the love of God find a responsive echo withinour bosoms! Would that our wishes for His glory corresponded to Hisfor our good, and that His good will toward us awoke a correspondinggood will toward Him--felt in hearts glowing with zeal for Christ'scause, and expressed in lives wholly consecrated to His service. 

In studying this, we shall now consider the persons to whom good willis expressed. 

XI. 

THE PERSONS TO WHOM GOOD WILL IS EXPRESSED. 

It is expressed to men--to all men; so that if we are finally lost, the blame as well as the bane is ours. God has no ill will to us, orto any. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked; nor is Hewilling that any should perish, but that all should come to Him, andlive. His good will embraces the world. 

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon andthe stars which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindfulof him? and the Son of man, that thou visitest him?" So said the royalpsalmist. And, in a sense, time should only have deepened theastonishment which this question expresses. For man's ideas of themagnificence of the heavens have grown with the course of ages; andthough the stars in the transparent atmosphere of Palestine shone witha brilliancy unknown to us, our conceptions of the heavens are granderand more true than David's--thanks to the discoveries of modernscience. As navigators, so soon as by help of the mariner's compassthey could push their bold prows into untravelled seas, were everadding new continents to the land and new islands to the ocean, so, since the invention of the telescope, science has been discovering newstars in the heavens; filling up their empty spaces with stellarsystems, and vastly enlarging the limits of creation. And since everynew orb has added to the lustre of Jehovah's glory, another world toHis kingdom, another jewel to His crown, these discoveries, byexalting God still higher, have added point and power to the oldquestion, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the Son ofman, that thou visitest him?"

Yet, apart from man's sinfulness, I cannot feel that he is beneaththe regards of the Maker and Monarch of the starry heavens. I canfancy that an earthly sovereign who, dwelling apart from his people, is jealous of their intrusion within his palace gates, and sitsenthroned amid an exclusive though brilliant circle of proud andpowerful barons, may neither know nor care about the fortunes of lowlycottagers; but there could be no greater mistake than out of such aman's character to weave our conceptions of God, or fancy that becausewe are infinitely beneath His rank, we are therefore beneath Hisnotice. A glance at the meanest of His creatures refutes and rebukesthe unworthy thought. It needs no angels from heaven to inform us thatGod cherishes good will to all the creatures of His hand, nor deemsthe least of them beneath His kind regards. Look at bird, orbutterfly, or beetle! Observe the lavish beauty that adorns Hiscreatures, the bounty that supplies their wants, the care taken oftheir lives, the happiness, expressed in songs or merry gambols ormazy dances, which He has poured into their hearts. The whole earth isfull of the glory of God's infinite benignity and good will. Insignificant as I--a speck on earth, and earth itself but a speck increation--seem to myself when, standing below the starry vault, I lookup into the heavens, yet, apart from the thought that I am a sinner, Icannot say, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? How can I, whenI see Him mindful of the brood that sleep in their rocking nest, ofthe moth that flits by my face on muffled wing, of the fox that howlson the hill, of the owl that hoots to the pale moon from ivy tower orhollow tree? Are you not of more value than many sparrows? said ourLord. Fashioned originally after the divine image, with a souloutweighing in value the rude matter of a thousand worlds, able torise on the wings of contemplation above the highest stars and holdcommunion with God himself, man, apart from his sinfulness, was everyway worthy of divine good will; that God should be mindful of him. 

But we are sinners--sinners by nature as well as practice; polluted;unholy; so unclean that our emblem is that hideous form which, fromthe crown of the head to the soles of the feet, is wounds and bruisesand putrifying sores; and the news that God cherishes good will tosuch guilty creatures may well evoke the old, wondering cry, Hear, Oheavens; be astonished, O earth! On recalling the happy days of earlylife, when, a child, he lay in his father's arms; a boy, he sat on hisknee; a youth, he walked by his side--the tears that at partingstreamed over the old man's cheeks--his kind counsels, his tenderwarnings, his warm kisses, and how he had stood and watched hisdeparting steps till the brow of a hill or a turn of the road hid himfrom view, the poor prodigal ventured to hope that his father wouldnot turn him from his door; for the sake of the past and of his motherin the grave, would grant him at least a servant's place. Weighed downby a sense of guilt, his hopes rose to no higher flight--expectednothing beyond a menial's office. To be received with open arms, tobe welcomed back again like some youth who has gone abroad to win afortune or be crowned with laurels--that his should be the fairestrobe, the finest ring, the fatted calf--that instead of stealing inunder the cloud of night to be concealed from strangers' eyes, the oldhouse on his return should ring to the sound of music, and floorsshould shake to the dancers' feet, and the whole neighbourhood shouldbe called to rejoice with a father whose shame and sorrow he had been, was a turn of fortune he never dreamt of; never dared to hope for. Onthe part of that loving, forgiving father, what amazing good will! Buthow much more amazing this which God proclaimed by the lips of angels, and proved by the death of His beloved Son!

I have known fathers and mothers who were sorely tried by wayward, wicked children--I have seen their gray hairs go down with sorrow tothe grave. With hearts bleeding under wounds from the hands of onethey loved, I have seen them welcome the grave; saying as theydescended into its quiet rest, "the days of my mourning are ended. " Itis a horrid crime to wring tears from such eyes, to crush such hearts:but was ever patient, hoping, loving parent tried as we have tried ourFather in heaven? Not without reason does He ask, "If I be a father, where is mine honour? if I be a master, where is my fear?" And whothat thinks of his sins, their guilt, their number, and, as committedagainst infinite love and tender mercy, their unspeakable atrocity, but will acknowledge the truth of these words, "Because I am God, andnot man, therefore the children of men are not consumed"--just as itis because the ship rides by a cable, and not a cobweb, that, whensails are rent, and yards are gone, and breakers are foaming on thereef, she mounts the billows and survives the storm. That we are notsuffering the pains of hell, that we have hopes of heaven and evershall be there, we owe not to our good works, but to God's good will;to that only. Till converted, man does not desire this good will; andnever deserves it. We have no claim to it whatever. It is "not byworks of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercyGod saves us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of theHoly Ghost"--therefore His good will has no root in any good works ofours. A sacred mystery, we may apply to it the words which Job, contemplating the grand mysteries of nature, applied to our earthwhen, seeing this great globe floating in ethereal space, sustained byno pillars, nor suspended by any chain that linked it to the skies, hesaid, Thou hast hung it upon nothing!

XII. 

THE PERSON WHO EXPRESSES "GOOD WILL. "

The person is God--He who spake by holy men of old, speaking here bythe lips of angels. Where there is a will, there is a way, is a braveand admirable proverb. Yet, though comparatively true in most cases, to some it is altogether inapplicable. Look, for example, at the womenwho, when the men had turned cowards, boldly follow our Lord toCalvary, bewailing and lamenting Him! What tears they shed, what awail they raise, when the door opens, and, surrounded by armed guards, Jesus comes forth from the Judgment Hall, bleeding, bound, crownedwith thorns. When He sank down on the street under the weight of thecross, and His blessed head lay low in the dust, had there been achance of saving Him, how had they rushed to His help; and, givingtheir naked breasts to the Roman spears, burst through the circle torescue Him; to die with Him rather than desert Him. But they werehelpless. Their good will availed the loved object nothing--beyondthis, that the sympathy flowing in their tears and expressed in theirlooks, somewhat soothed the sorrows of His heart, and fell like balmdrops on His smarting wounds. 

Again, what good will did David bear to Jonathan! Did Jonathan loveDavid as his own soul? and under circumstances calculated to dissolveall common friendships, and work such change on the heart as winesuffers when it turns into vinegar, did Jonathan's sentiments continueunchanged, his affection unabated to the last? His love was strong asdeath; many waters could not quench it. But it was amply requited. David proved that with his harp; had he been present on that fatalfield where the bow of Jonathan was broken, he had proved it with hissword. With what a lion spring had he answered Jonathan's cry forhelp; how had he bestrode his fallen friend, covering him with hisbattered shield; mowing a way through the ranks of the Philistines, how had he borne him off to a place of safety, or falling in theattempt, left others to compose their elegy, and sing, They werepleasant in their lives, and in death they were not divided! God is avery present help in time of trouble; but there was no help forJonathan in David. Far away from that bloody field, his good willavailed Jonathan nothing--beyond embalming his rare virtues inimmortal song, and in an imperishable lament raising an imperishablemonument to the memory of a man whose love to him was wonderful, passing the love of women. 

Again, what good will in his father's heart to Esau? But the old man'shands are tied. Fresh from the chase, and ignorant of what hashappened in his absence, Esau approaches Isaac, saying, Let my fatherarise and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me! Whoart thou? says the blind old man--astonished that any should ask whathe has already given away. Recognising the beloved voice whichreplied, I am thy son, thy first-born Esau, and dreading some direcalamity, Isaac trembled exceedingly, crying, "Who? where is he thathath taken venison and brought it me; and I have eaten of all beforethou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. " Bythe basest, cruelest fraud, Jacob has possessed himself of theblessing; and if their mother, his own partner in guilt, was watchingthe issue of this perfidious plot, how had it pierced her heart tohear Esau, when the truth flashed on his mind and he saw the treasurestolen, cry, "with a great and exceeding bitter cry, Bless me, even mealso, O my father!" The strong man, the bold hardy hunter, lifted uphis voice and wept; seeking repentance, as the apostle says--to getIsaac to undo the deed--with tears but found it not. What availed hisfather's good will to him, his favourite son? What was done muststand. The blessing was gone; and Isaac, though he had the will, hadno way to recall it. 

But what need to ransack old history for examples? How often have ourhearts overflowed with good will, yet we could only weep with themthat wept--pity sorrows we could not soothe, wants we were powerlessto relieve? Tears we might give, but they could not clothe the naked, or feed the hungry, or save the dying, or recall the dead, or closethe wounds which death had made. In dying chambers how are we madepainfully, bitterly to feel that man's power is not commensurate withhis will? What good will, what tender affection toward some dear, beloved object! yet, as we hung over the dying couch, all we could dowas to moisten the speechless lips, to wipe the clammy sweat fromdeath's cold brow and watch the sinking pulses of life's ebbing tide. What would we not have done to meet the wishes of the eye that, whenspeech was gone, turned on us imploring, never-to-be-forgotten looks!Alas, our good will availed them nothing!

Such recollections, by the contrast which they present to God's goodwill, greatly enhance its preciousness. "His favour is life, hisloving-kindness is better than life. " Where God has a will, God alwayshas a way. At the throne of divine grace, none had ever to shed Esau'stears, or cry with him, Hast thou but one blessing, O my father? Ourfather in heaven is affluent in blessings, plenteous in redemption, abundant in goodness and in truth. Who ever turned an imploring eye onGod, and brought to prayer the earnestness of him that bends the kneeto yon blind old man, but became in time the happy object of God'sloving, saving mercy. Let men trust in the Lord. In the name of Christlet them throw themselves on His mercy. What though they cannot seeit? It is around them, like the invisible but ambient air on which theeagle, with an awful gulf below, throws herself from her rocky nest infearless freedom, and with expanded wings. So let men, trusting inGod's faithful word, spread out the wings of faith, and cast them onHis good will. Wrapping the world round in an atmosphere of mercy, itshall sustain their weight, and bear them aloft, till, ascending intothe calm regions of Christian hope, they bathe their eyes in the beamsof the Sun of Righteousness, and feel their feet firmly planted on theRock of Ages. 

But let one thing be remembered, this, namely, that God will not saveany against their will. Let us therefore seek, and seek till weobtain, a change of heart. He draws, not drives--will not force anyinto heaven--nor be served by the hands of a slave. If I would nothave a sullen, crouching slave wait at my table, work in my house, stand in my poor presence, much less He who says, Give me thy heart, my son! He makes His people willing in the day of His power. Softenedin the flames of Divine love, their stubborn wills yield to His, and, under the hand of His Holy Spirit and the hammer of His mighty word, take the fashion and form of His own. Thus, His will and their willsbeing brought into perfect harmony, His people feel their duty to betheir delight, and regard His holy service as no irksome bondage, butthe truest liberty and highest honour. 

THE END. 

_Ballantyne, Roberts, & Co. , Printers, Edinburgh. _

Transcriber's Note:

Minor printer errors (omitted letters or punctuation) have beencorrected without note. Any variations in spelling or hyphenation havebeen left as they appeared in the original.