A Wonderful Night By JAMES H. SNOWDEN Decorations byMaud and Miska Petersham * * * * * Nights differ as much as days. Some nights have witnessed great eventsand been charged with ethical significance in the history of the world. One such night stands forth crowned with supreme distinction, the nightthat heard angels sing, and was starred with the Birth of Bethlehem. This book treats the various events and steps that led to the centralwonder and interprets the story in terms of its significance today andinvests it with poetic light. * * * * * THE MACMILLAN COMPANYPUBLISHERS :: NEW YORK [Transcriber's note: The above text is taken from the front flap of thedust jacket. ] A Wonderful Night THE MACMILLAN COMPANYNEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICHAGO · DALLASATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO. , LIMITEDLONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTAMELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO [Illustration] A WonderfulNight An Interpretation ofChristmas By James H. Snowden Decorations by Maud andMiska Petersham [Illustration] The Macmillan CompanyPublishers MCMXIX Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1919. Contents CHAPTER I. An Age of Wonders II. Preparation for the Event III. A Wonderful Fulfillment of Prophecy IV. An Historical Event V. Simplicity of the Narrative VI. The Town of Bethlehem VII. The Wonderful Night Draws Near VIII. The Birth IX. No Room in the Inn X. Angel Ministry XI. Angels and Shepherds XII. The Concert in a Sheep Pasture XIII. The First Visitors to Bethlehem XIV. The Star and the Wise Men XV. A Frightened King XVI. An Impotent Destroyer XVII. Splendid Gifts XVIII. Was a Child the Best Christmas Gift to the World? XIX. A World Without Christmas XX. Has the Christmas Song Survived the World War? XXI. The Light of the World O Little town of Bethleham, How still we see thee lie!Above thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by:Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting Light;The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee to-night. --Phillips Brooks. [Illustration: A Wonderful Night] [Illustration: A Wonderful Night] I. An Age of Wonders [Transcriber's note: The first letter of each chapter is in the form ofan illustrated dropped capital. ] We live in an age of wonders. Great discoveries and startling eventscrowd upon us so fast that we have scarcely recovered from thebewildering effects of one before another comes, and we are thus kept ina constant whirl of excitement. The heavens are full of shooting stars, and while watching one we are distracted by another. So frequent is thisexperience that our nerves almost refuse to respond to the shock of anew sensation. We are no longer surprised at surprises. The marveloushas become the commonplace, and the unexpected is what we now expect. Yet we are not to suppose that our age is the only one that has had itswonders. Other times had theirs also, only these old-time wonders havebecome familiar to us and ceased to be wonderful; but in their day theywere marvelous, and some of them equalled if they did not surpass anywonders we have witnessed. The Great War was the most cataclysmiceruption that has ever convulsed the world, but it was not morerevolutionary and sensational in the twentieth century than the FrenchRevolution was in the eighteenth and the Reformation was in thesixteenth century. The discovery of America in the fifteenth centurycreated immense excitement and was relatively a more colossal andstartling occurrence than anything that has happened since. The telescope and the Copernican theory were as great achievements intheir day as the spectroscope and the nebular hypothesis are in our day. The most useful inventions and the most marvelous products of the humanbrain are not the railway and telegraph after all. The art of printing, which infinitely multiplies thought and sows it in the very air andevery morning photographs the world anew, is a more useful invention andin its day was a great wonder. Still farther back, hidden in the mistsof antiquity, lies the invention of the alphabet that is even moreuseful and marvelous. It is when we get back to the oldest tools, thehammer and plough and loom, that we come to inventions of the greatestfundamental utility, and we could better afford to give up all ourmodern magic machines than to part with these. The oldest literature is ever the ripest, richest and best, and Homerand Shakespeare overtop all our modern writers as the Alps overshadowthe hills lying around their feet. What modern preacher can compare ineloquence and power with Paul and Isaiah? Nature is ever full of newwonders, and yet the grass was as green and the mountains as grand andthe golden nets and silver fringes of the clouds were as resplendent inthe days of Abraham as they are to-day. We are the heirs of the ages, but wonder and wisdom were not born with us, and with us they will notdie. Where must we go to find the greatest wonder? Not to the scientist'sdiscoveries and the inventor's cunning devices: the greatest marvel isnot material but spiritual; and to find it we must not look into thepresent or future, but go back to the first Christmas morning. On thatmorning the Judean shepherds had a story to tell which all they thatheard it wondered at and which is still the wonder and song of theworld. The birth of Jesus is absolutely the greatest event of all time. Whatever view is taken of him he has become the Master of the world. Christ has created Christendom, silently lifting its moral level asmountains are heaved up against the sky from beneath. The coming of sucha unique and powerful personality into the world is an infinitelygreater wonder than the discovery of a new continent or the blazing outof a new star in the sky. II. Preparation for the Event Near events may have remote causes. The river that sweeps by us cannotbe explained without going far back to hidden springs in distant hills. The huge wave that breaks upon the ocean shore may have had its originin a submarine upheaval five thousand miles away. A wide circle of causes converged towards this birth; all the spokes ofthe ancient world ran into this hub. When Abraham started west as anemigrant out of Babylonia, "not knowing whither he went, " he wasunconsciously traveling towards Bethlehem. Jewish history for centuriesheaded towards this culmination; this was the matchless blossom thatbloomed out of all that growth from Abraham to Joseph and Mary. Priestand prophet, tabernacle and temple, gorgeous ritual and streaming altar, sacrifice and psalm, kingdom and captivity, triumph and tragedy were allso many roots to this tree. These were the education and discipline ofthe chosen people, preparing them as soil out of which the Messiah couldspring. The great ideas of the unity and sovereignty, spirituality andrighteousness of God, the sinfulness of sin and the need of anatonement were in flaming picture language emblazoned before the peopleand burnt into their conscience. Christ could do nothing until theseideas were rooted in the world. Pagan achievements, also, "the glory that was Greece and the grandeurthat was Rome, " were roots to this same tree of preparation for thecoming of Christ, though they knew it not. Greece with all the gloriesof its philosophy and art showed that the world never could be saved byits own wisdom; and all the laws and legions of Rome were equallyimpotent to lift it out of the ditch of sin. Neither a brilliant brainnor a mailed fist can save a lost world. Yet both Greece and Rome madepositive contributions to the preparation for Christ. Greece fashioned amarvelous instrument for propagating the gospel in its highly flexibleand expressive language, and Rome reduced the world to order and hushedit into peace and thus turned it into a vast amphitheater in which thegospel could be heard. Greece also contributed philosophy that threwlight on the gospel, and Rome gave it a rich inheritance of law. God thus set this event in a mighty framework of preparation. He got theworld ready for Christ before he brought Christ to the world. He was inno haste and took plenty of time before he struck the great hour. Theharvest must lie out in the showers and sunshine for weeks and monthsbefore it can ripen into golden wheat, and the meteor must shoot throughmillions of invisible miles for one brief flash of splendor. Thecenturies seemed slow-footed during that long and dreary stretch fromAbraham to Mary, "but when the fulness of time was come, God sent forthhis Son. " III. A Wonderful Fulfillment of Prophecy This birth was a wonderful fulfillment of prophecy. The Jews hadcherished the hope of the promised Messiah for thousands of years. Through all their national vicissitudes, enslavement in Egypt, wanderings in, the wilderness, establishment and growth in the promisedland, internal division and external captivity in Babylon, restoration, and final subjection to the Romans, this hope burned on the horizon oftheir future as a fixed star. It was this that ever led them on and heldthem together and made it impossible to break or subdue their spirit. This was the dawn that filled all their dark and bitter days with therosy glow of hope. Yet the Messiah came not, and as the centuries slowly rolled along theymust have grown weary and at times have doubted. Sceptics scoffed, "Where is the sign of his coming?" But the great heart of the nationremained true to its trust, while prophets caught glimpses of the comingglory and white-headed, trembling old saints prayed that they might livea little longer and not die before he came. Perhaps this hope was neverat a lower ebb than when the Roman power was ruthlessly grinding thenation down into the dust. But suddenly at this darkest hour a blindinglight burnt through the floor of heaven and shepherds ran aboutannouncing that the Messiah was born! Who can imagine the surprise, thewonder, the overwhelming amazement this news created? How many wereeager to go to Bethlehem and see this thing which had come to pass! Andwhen it was found to be true, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy andold men blessed God and said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servantsdepart in peace. " Yet why should they have wondered at God's faithfulness in keeping hispromise, as though he could ever have forgotten it or failed to bring itto pass? Why should we ever wonder at the faithfulness of God? Doubtlessin some degree because of our human infirmity. Our sense of unity withGod and trust in him have been weakened by sin until we are ready todoubt him as though he were one of ourselves. His promises also are sofar-reaching and great, splendid and blessed, they so far surpass ourthoughts of wisdom and mercy, that, even though they have been repeatedto us until we are familiar with them, when they are fulfilled we wonderat the faithfulness that will bring so great things to pass. IV. An Historical Event The story starts with the place and time of the Saviour's birth. Jesuswas born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king. There aremany myths and legends floating through the world that are oftenbeautiful and useful, but they hang like gorgeous clouds in the air andare ever changing their shape and place. They are growths of theimagination and lack historic roots and reality. They are chary of namesand dates and hide their origin in far-away mists. However powerfullyand pathetically they may reflect the needs and hopes of the humanheart, they are unsubstantial as dreams and afford no foundation onwhich to build our faith. Heathen religions are generally woven of thislegendary stuff. The Greek and Roman divinities were all mythical. Butthe scientific spirit has swept these imaginary deities out of our skyand rendered belief in them impossible. Our religion must be rooted inreality and cannot live in clouds, however beautifully they may becolored. We refuse hospitality to anything but fact. Give us names anddates, is our demand. The Bible responds to this requirement. Christianity is an historicalreligion. The gospel narrative begins with no such indefinite statementas "Once upon a time, " but it starts in Bethlehem of Judea. The town isthere and we can stand on the very spot where Jesus was born. Thenarrative places the time of his birth, in the days of Herod the king. History knows Herod; there is nothing mythical about this monster ofiniquity. These statements are facts that no keenest critic or scholarlyunbeliever can plausibly dispute. So the gospel sets its record in therigid frame of history; it roots its origin down in the rocky ledge ofJudea. Christ was not born in a dream, but in Bethlehem. We are not, then, building our faith on a myth, but on immovable matters of fact. This thing was not done in a corner, but in the broad day, and it is notafraid of the geographer's map and the historian's pen. The Christmasstory is not another beautiful legend in the world's gallery of myths, but is sober and solid reality; its story is history. Our religion istruth, and we will worship at no other altar. V. Simplicity of the Narrative Though surcharged with such tremendous meaning, carrying a heavierburden of news than was ever before committed to human language, yet thesimplicity with which the story is told is one of the literary marvelsof the gospels. This event has inspired poets and painters and has beenembroidered and illuminated with an immense amount of ornamentation. Genius has poured its splendors upon it and tried to give us some worthyconception of the scene. But the evangelists had no such purpose orthought, and their story is told with that charming artlessness that isperfect art. They were not men of genius, but plain men, mostly taxcollectors and fishermen untrained in the schools, with no thought ofskill or literary art. Yet all the stylists and artists of the worldstand in wonder before their unconscious effort and supremeachievement. No attempt at rhetoric disfigures their record, not a wordis written for effect, but the simple facts are allowed to tell theirown eloquent and marvelous tale. The inspired writers mixed noimagination with their verities, for they had no other thought than totell the plain truth; and this gives us confidence in thetrustworthiness of their narrative. These men did not follow cunninglydevised fables when they made known unto us the power and coming of ourLord Jesus Christ, for they were eye-witnesses of his glory. VI. The Town of Bethlehem The land of Palestine is divided from north to south by a central rangeof mountains which runs up through this narrow strip of country like aspinal column. About five miles south of Jerusalem a ridge or spurshoots off from the central range towards the east. On the terminalbluff of this ridge lies the town of Bethlehem. On the west it is shutin by the plateau, and on the east the ridge breaks steeply down intothe plain. Vineyards cover the hillsides with green and purple, andwheatfields wave in the valleys. In the distant east, across the DeadSea, the mountains of Moab are penciled in dark blue against the sky. At the present time the town has eight thousand inhabitants. Itsflat-roofed houses are well built and its narrow streets are clean. Itis a busy place, its chief industry being the manufacture of souvenirsof olive wood which are sold throughout the Christian world. Itsprincipal church is the Church of the Nativity, which is built over acave that is one of the most sacred and memorable spots on the globe. Itis believed that this cave is the place where Christ was born, and asilver star inlaid in the stone floor is intended to mark the exactspot. It was then used as the stable of the adjoining inn, and in itsstone manger the infant Jesus may have been laid. At the time of this event Bethlehem was a mere village of a few hundredpeople. It might have been thought that Jerusalem, the historicmetropolis and proud capital of the country, the chosen city of God andseat of the temple and center of worship, a city beautiful forsituation, magnificent in its architecture, sacred in its associationsand world-wide and splendid in its fame, should have been honored withthis supreme event in the history of the Jews. But an ancient prophet, while noting its comparative insignificance, had yet put his finger onthis tiny point on the map and pronounced upon it a blessing that causedit to blaze out like a star amidst its rural hills. "But thou, BethlehemEphratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out ofthee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whosegoings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. " And so proudJerusalem was passed by, and this supreme honor was bestowed upon thehumble village. Great men, as a rule, are not born in cities. They come up out ofobscure villages and hidden nooks and corners. They originate closer tonature than city-born men and seem to spring from the very soil. Themost noted birthplace in Scotland is that of Burns: it is a humblecottage with a thatched roof and a stable in one end of it. The mostcelebrated birthplace in England is that of Shakespeare, and again it isa plain cottage in a country village. Lincoln was born in a log hut inthe wilds of Kentucky, Mohammed was the son of a camel driver, andConfucius the son of a soldier. The city must go to the country for itsmasters, and the world draws its best blood and brains from the farm. Itwas in accordance with this principle that the Saviour of the worldshould be born, not in a city and palace, but in a country village, andthat his first bed should be, not a downy couch, but a slab of stone. VII. The Wonderful Night Draws Near "Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from CęsarAugustus, that all the world should be enrolled. " This is the point atwhich the orderly and scholarly Luke opens his account of the birth ofour Lord. It seems like going a long way off from and around to the endin view. But there are no isolated facts and forces in the world and allthings work together. When we see providence start in we never can tellwhere it is going to come out. If God is about to bless us, he may startthe chain of causation that shall at length reach us in some far-offplace or land; or if he is about to save a soul in China he may startwith one of us in the contribution we make to foreign missions. CęsarAugustus, master of the world, from time to time ordered a census to betaken of the empire that he might know its resources and reap from it aricher harvest of taxes. It was probably between the months of Decemberand March, B. C. 5-4, that such a census was being taken in the provinceof Syria. In accordance with ancient Jewish usage, all citizens repaired to thetribe and village from which they were descended, and were thereenrolled. In the town of Nazareth in the north lived Joseph, a villagecarpenter, and Mary, his espoused wife, who though a virgin was greatwith child, having been overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and the mysteryhaving been revealed to her and her betrothed husband. They were bothdescended from the royal line of David, and therefore to Bethlehem theymust go. With us such a journey of eighty miles would mean no more thanstepping on a railway car at nine o'clock in the morning and steppingoff at noon. But with them it meant a toilsome journey on foot ofseveral days. Slowly they wended their way southward, led on by theirresistible hand of Cęsar, far away on his throne. The ancient Hebrewprophecy of Micah and the imperial decree of Cęsar thus marvelouslyfitted into each other and worked together. Mary must have known of thisprophecy, and we know not with what a sense of mystery and fear and joyshe drew near to the predicted place where the Messiah was to be born. Bethlehem sits like a crown on its rocky ridge. At length its walls andtowers loomed in the distance, and then presently up the steep roadclimbed the carpenter and his espoused wife and passed through the gateinto the village. When they came to the inn, it was already crowded withvisitors, driven thither by the decree of Cęsar that had set allPalestine in commotion. In connection with the inn, generally thecentral space of its four-square inclosure, but probably in this case acave in the limestone rock, was a stable, or place for the camels andhorses and cattle of the guests. Among these oriental people it was (andis) no uncommon thing for travelers, when the chambers of the inn werefully occupied, to make a bed of straw and spend the night in thisplace. In this stable, possibly the very cave where now stands theChurch of the Nativity, Mary and Joseph found lodgings for the night. Itwas not a mark of degradation or social inferiority for them to do this, though it was an indication of their meager means, as wealthy visitorswould doubtless have found better accommodations. VIII. The Birth In that cave Mary brought forth her first-born son; and as there appearsto have been no woman's hand there to minister to her, she herselfwrapped the new-born babe in swaddling clothes; and as there was noother cradle or bed to receive it, she laid the child in the trough fromwhich the camels were fed. This is all we know of what took place onthat memorable night from which the history of the Christian world isnow dated. The apocryphal gospels, legends that afterwards grew up, fillthe chamber with supernal light so that visitors had to shade their eyesfrom the splendor of the child; and the painters portray the holy childand mother with halos of glory around their heads. But this is allimagination and myth. Jesus was born as other human beings are born, andlooked just like a human child. No one seeing him could have guessedthat a unique birth had ruptured the continuity of nature and brought adivine Man into the world. There was no glory streaming from his person, and no spectacular display of pageantry and pomp such as attended thebirth of a Cęsar. The Son of Man did not come with observation, butstole into the world silently and unseen. If we could have gazed uponthe Christ-child as it lay in its manger, we would have beendisappointed and thought that nothing extraordinary had happened. But agreat event rarely seems great at the time; long centuries may elapsebefore it looms into view and is seen in its central place as the axisof history. Outward size and circumstance do not measure inward powerand possibility. God brought only a child into the world that night, butin that Child were sheathed omnipotent wisdom and mercy and might tosave the world. IX. No Room in the Inn "There was no room for them in the inn. " And so Jesus came into a worldwhere there was no room for him in the habitations of men. After allthis preparation through which the centuries grew into readiness for hiscoming, after all these types and prophecies, sacrifices and symbols, after all this weary waiting and passionate hope and all these goldendreams, when the promised One came there was no room for him and he wasnot wanted! "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. " Wasthere ever a greater and sadder anticlimax and a more crueldisappointment? Let us admit that there may have been no fault in thismatter, no lack of hospitality in the keeper or the guests of the inn, as the village was overcrowded, and the fact that these late arrivalswere compelled to put up with a place out in the enclosure, possibly acave, where the animals were kept, was no intended incivility oruncommon hardship. Nevertheless, whatever may have been the reason, thefact was that there was no room for Jesus in that inn the first night hespent in this world, and this fact was sadly prophetic of his receptionin the world he came to save. There were few places where he did find welcome: generally there was noroom for him even in places where he had the most reason and right toexpect it. And if it was no lack of hospitality that kept him out ofthis inn, it certainly was the lack of this grace and the positivepresence of hostility that in after life excluded him from many placeswhere he wanted to be. Jesus was not wanted in his own country: Herod tried to leave no roomfor him there. He was not wanted in his own town: his neighbors triedto hurl him down a cliff to his death. He was not wanted in his ownchurch: its ministers and doctors of divinity fell upon him in malignantfury and at last crucified him. Even his own family found it hard tomake room for him in their inner circle. Small room was there in thisevil world for this pure and lowly spirit. Then why did he come to it?Because he so loved it that he gave himself for it. Small room do westill leave for Jesus as we crowd him out of our hearts and lives andout of our social order and civilization with our selfishness and sin. Is it a discouraging fact that there is so little room for Christ in theworld? Then let us note the fact that there is more room for him to-daythan ever before, and this room is ever widening. How much that inn missed by not having room for this mother and herbabe! Its finest apartment lost a glory that fell upon the manger outof which the cattle were fed. How much shall we miss if we do not haveroom for Christ? There is one world where there is room for Jesus andwhere he is wanted: heaven. And all who are like him shall find roomwith him in its many mansions. X. Angel Ministry Jerusalem and Rome knew nothing of this event. The High Priest offeredthe evening sacrifice unaware that it was rendered obsolete by thecoming of the true Sacrifice, and Cęsar slept that night without a dreamthat a Rival had been born who would uproot his empire and erect aworldwide kingdom. Earth was unconscious of this birth, but heaven knewit. There was holy ecstacy in all the shining ranks above, and "angelsseem, as birds new-come in spring, to have flown hither and thither, insongful mood, dipping their white wings into our atmosphere, justtouching the earth or glancing along its surface, as sea birds skim thesurface of the sea. " Around all the events of the birth and ministry of Christ there are theflutter and flash of angel wings, and this story would lose much of itsmusic and charm if it were stripped of its angel ministration. The Bibleis full of angels. They appear to Zacharias the mother of John theBaptist, and they find Mary the virgin mother, as a beam of morninglight finds a white-leafed flower, and reveal the mystery that has comeupon her. No sooner is the infant Jesus laid in his manger than the doorof heaven opens and there comes trooping forth a radiant throng, fillingthe midnight sky with splendor and proclaiming to earth the gladtidings. Angels ministered to Jesus in the wilderness and strengthenedhim in the garden. More than twelve legions of angels waited to do hisbidding when he was arrested. Angels rolled away the stone from his tomband sat by the empty grave, announcing his resurrection as they hadannounced his birth; and as they thronged the skies at his coming, sothey hovered in the air at his going; and when he comes again he shallcome in his glory with all the holy angels with him. These angels are still in the world as the ministers of God, thoughinvisible to mortal eyes. We see the firefly only through the littleluminous section of its flight, but it still flies on after it ceases tobe visible. So we see these angels only through that shining section oftheir path in which they waited on Jesus; but they are still flyingthrough the world as invisible spirits. The angels of little ones arealways before the face of their Father in heaven, and as they bore thespirit of Lazarus to Abraham's bosom, so they still may bear departingspirits up the shining stairway of the stars to the eternal home. Weknow not in what wide ways they minister to us; how there is a rush ofangel wings to the cradle of every new-born babe; how they constantlypitch their tents around us in the viewless fields of air; and how oftenthey bear us up lest we dash our feet against a stone. How little we know of the world in which we live! We weigh its rocks andgrind them up and melt them in our crucibles; we fling our nets throughall space and catch the stars; and when we can find nothing more tomeasure and analyze we think we have found and explained all. But thefinest and best things cannot be grasped by these coarse processes. Sunbeams cannot be weighed on hay-scales, and gorgeously-colored bits ofcloud cannot be caught in a crucible. We can weigh the new-born baby, but not the mother's love for her child. A telescope cannot see anangel, though millions of them may be flying across its field of vision. There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in ourphilosophy. In our blind materialism we need to have our eyes openedthat we may know that this universe, which often seems so empty and darkto us, is a blazing sea of spiritual splendor in which burning sunsfloat as black specks and which is thronged with troops of angels thatdo the will of God and wait on us. XI. Angels and Shepherds The Christ-child was born, and now the problem was to get the wonderfulnews out into the world. There were no newspapers to announce it instartling headlines and cry it out upon the morning air, and, if therehad been, their reporters would not have been keen enough to discover itand probably would have had no interest in it. God used other means. Anangel came from heaven to proclaim the great event to earth. Where shallhe begin, what human ears shall first have the privilege of hearing theglad tidings? Let the angel go to Jerusalem, we would have said, andcall upon the High Priest and first take him into his confidence, andthen let him go to the Temple and stand amidst the splendors of thatholy sanctuary and announce to the assembled priests and scribes thatprophecy had been fulfilled and their long-expected Messiah had come. Shall not some respect be paid to official places and persons? Has notGod ordained priests and presbyters through whom he dispenses his graceand administers his kingdom? Yet history witnesses that at times few men stand in God's way more thanecclesiastics. They are rarely the men that earliest hear a new message:God must usually tell it to some one else first. One of the moststartling things in the Bible is the fact that the announcement of thebirth of Christ was made, not to priests, but to shepherds, and thegospel was first preached, not in a church, but in a pasture field wherethere were more sheep than men to hear. What a rebuke is this to our ecclesiastical pretension and pride! Godcan easily dispense with us, and may pass us by to speak to some humblersoul. The great people up in the Temple have no monopoly of his grace, and it may break out in some wholly unexpected place. The gospel is norespecter of places and persons. It may be preached in a costly churchor stately cathedral, but it is equally at home in a country schoolhouse, or in a wooden tabernacle, or in a sheep pasture. In simplicityand catholicity it is adapted to all classes and conditions of life. Ithas the same message for priest and people, prince and peasant, scholarand shepherd, and all receive from it an equal welcome and blessing. XII. The Concert in a Sheep Pasture In the night of the Nativity the shepherds were in the field keepingwatch over their flocks, for those faithfully engaged in the lowliestduties may receive a splendid visitation from heaven. The night did notseem different from other nights. The skies were as serene and the starsburned as calm as in all the past. The shepherds were as unconscious ofany coming wonder as the sleeping sheep that lay like drifted snow onthe ridges. Yet the heavens were strained tense with expectation andwere on the point of being shattered into song. Flocks of angels wereflying downward from the stars, and as their white wings struck earth'satmosphere they kindled it into radiance with heavenly glory, and fromthe gallery of the skies they chanted their song, accompanied with allthe golden harps and deep-toned organ pipes of the celestial choir. Never before or since was such a concert heard in this world, and yetonly shepherds and sheep were present to hear it. The encircling hillswere the grand amphitheater in which it was rendered, the grassy slopeswere the only seats, and there were no tickets of admission, but, likethe gospel itself, it was given without money and without price. Musicalartists are often sensitive and critical and exclusive people, chary ofa free exercise of their gifts and particular as to their audience, butangels will sing for anybody. The simple-minded shepherds were sore afraid at this outburst ofheavenly music, as wiser people would have been. An angel voice sang thesolo: Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger. "Be not afraid!" Sin has wrought such disorder in this world that thethought of spirit visitors frightens us and heaven itself must not cometoo near. There are great reasons for fear in this darkened world, butthe coming of Jesus into it is not one of them. His only mission is torelease us from the bondage and bitterness of sin and let us out intothe glorious liberty and joy of the sons of God. And Christ has in amarvelous degree cast fear out of the world and poured joy through allits channels, as the sun disperses the night and spills its splendorover hills and vales. The good tidings announced the birth of a Saviour, and this is the bestnews this sin-stricken world can hear, for sin is the root of all ourfear and misery. Back of every bitter tear lies a guilty thought ordeed. This connection is often visible upon the surface and stabs us inthe face, and then it may lie hidden under many generations, but it isalways there. Sin is the disease that poisons all our blood and blightsour physical and moral and spiritual health and happiness. Cut this uglytree up by the roots and all its scarlet fruits and poisonous leaveswill wither; cure this disease and our human world will be transformedinto a new Paradise of God. A Saviour is the supreme need of the world, and his birth was news good enough to bring singing angels to earth andfill all the centuries with song. Definite directions were given for finding the new-born Saviour in thecity of David, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger. Theangelic message was not simply a song in the air, a halo of celestiallight, a splendid but fading vision, but it bound itself down todefinite places and circumstances and left something solid. Again wenote that this thing, was not done in a corner and is not afraid offacts. Jesus was a true human child and took upon him our form down tohis infant clothes. The Christ is a great wonder in his divinepersonality, ever transcending our utmost comprehension, but we canunderstand his swaddling bands. Christianity is not all mystery, but italso comes down close around us and embodies itself in many plain factsand duties. "Ye shall find the babe. " The shepherds were not left towander around in uncertainty, but sent direct to the place. Christ isnot hidden from us, clear directions point out the place where he is, and every soul that seeks him shall find him. The angel solo broke out into a heavenly chorus which gave a broadinterpretation of the meaning of the birth of Christ: Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased. This chorus first ascribes glory to God, for all things good andbeautiful come from him and express his glory, as all rays of daylightshoot from the sun and are its splintered splendor. The gift of Christmanifests the glory of God in that it displays the divine wisdom indevising the plan of salvation, the divine power in executing it, andthe divine love as its mighty motive. The glory of God, that streamsthrough the heavens as through a dome of many-colored glass, isconcentrated and burns with the interest brightness in the person of hisSon. The chorus next pronounces peace upon men. Divine glory and human goodwill are related as cause and effect. When men get right with God theyat once get right with one another, as the center of a circle, whentruly located, pulls every point on the circumference into its properplace in the curve; but when men are at variance with God they are atenmity among themselves. Divine glory is the sun shining in the heavens;human good will is a garden and orchard all abloom with flowers andladen with fruit. As the glory of the sun is transformed into rosy budsand sweet fruit, so is the glory of God transformed into human goodwill. The glory of God and the peace of men are never in antagonism, butare always complementary and harmonious, they are the two sides of thesame gospel, two parts of the same song. They cannot be separated andmust go together; in glorifying God we make peace among men, and inmaking peace among men we glorify God. XIII. The First Visitors to Bethlehem The angels' song died away in the solemn silence, and the shepherds wereleft alone. It was a critical hour with them. Would they follow thisvision and turn it into victory, or would they let it vanish with thelast echo of the song and relapse into the old dull routine? No, theydid not let it pass, and life was never the same to them again. "Let usnow go, " they said, "even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which iscome to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. " They translatedvision into action and presently were climbing the rocky slope toBethlehem. Had these shepherds not followed up the message theirknowledge of their Messiah would have immediately been cut short. Wehear divine messages and see heavenly visions enough, but too often welet them fade into forgetfulness and pass into nothingness. A messagedoes us no good until it becomes action, the grandest vision that everswept through our brain or illuminated our sky leaves no vestige ofworth unless it is turned into conduct and character. "Let us now go andsee this thing. " We do not know Christ until we see him as our Saviour. Seeing is believing, this is the simplicity of faith, and when we seeChrist through the direct vision and personal experience of faith andobedience we are transfigured into his likeness. "And they came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the babelying in the manger. " Were they disappointed at the humble mother, wifeof a workingman, and at the manger cradle? These did not match thedesire and expectation of the Jews. They had long cherished thepassionate hope of an earthly prince who would come wearing purplerobes and marshaling armies to trample hated oppressors under feet andmake Jerusalem the mistress of the world. They would have said that theChrist should be born in a palace and laid on softest down and coveredwith silken robes. What a surprise was this manger to their thoughts andshock to their feelings. Were ever deep-seated, long-cherished hopestreated with more cruel irony? But God's ways are not as our ways. Christ was brought into the world at the very point where he could getthe deepest strongest hold upon it and most powerfully swing it starwardfrom the dust. He was born among neither the very rich nor the verypoor, but in the great middle class at the center of gravity ofhumanity, by lifting which he would lift the world. Had he come as apampered child of wealth he would never have got hold of the great heartof humanity; but he came as one of the people, knitting himself intohumble relations, growing up among plain folk of the countryside andtoiling as a common workingman. And so when he began to preach thecommon people heard him gladly. Promise was exactly matched by fulfillment. "Ye shall find a babe, " wasthe promise of the angel, and now the record reads, "And they found thebabe. " When did God ever lead us to expect anything and then disappointus? He gave us thirst that urges us to find water, and matching thisneed he has created bubbling springs and sparkling streams. He gave ushunger that seeks bread, and it finds fields of golden grain andorchards of rosy fruit. He gave us minds that seek truth, and they findit; he gave us a craving for love, and heart matches heart. He seteternity in our hearts and gave us deep instincts that reach after theInfinite, hearts that cry, "Shew, us the Father and it sufficeth us. "Shall all lower needs be satisfied and this supreme search and cry ofthe soul be disappointed and mocked? "And they found the babe, " is theanswer to this need and promise. God sends us with all our deep needsand mysterious longings to that cradle in Bethlehem, where they will beexactly and fully matched and satisfied. He that hath seen this Childhath seen the Father. The shepherds, having seen for themselves, immediately began to makeknown abroad the saying which was told them concerning the Child. Thegospel is a social and expansive blessing and cannot be shut up in theindividual heart. We are saved to serve, we are told the good news thatwe may tell it to others, we get it that we may give it. And the more wegive it the more we get it, for this bread multiplies in our own handsas we share it with others, as did the loaves beside the Galilean sea. Great souls have ever grown rich by the lavish prodigality with whichthey bestowed their gifts on others, and because Jesus gave himself Godhath highly exalted him. First angels and then shepherds: how startling the contrast. Jesus hasdeep affinities with both: on his divine side he is related to heaven, and on his human side he is related to earth. And the first men he drewto his side were shepherds, representatives of the common people. He didnot come as a member of any special class, especially of the upperclass. No one can ever save the world by winning over the rich and thegreat. Society cannot be lifted from the top. Whoever would raise thelevel of society must get his lever under its foundation stones. Takinghold of the carved cornice will tear the roof off and lift it away fromthe building, but raising the lowest stone will also push up thespire's gilded point. He who elevates the peasant will also in timeelevate the prince. Jesus did not begin with Cęsar, but with shepherds, and then in three hundred years a Christian Cęsar sat on the throne. The gospel still works from beneath; going down into the slums ofChristian cities; working among the poor and degraded of heathen lands;and seeking the lowest tribes of men from whom have been defaced almostthe last vestige of humanity and restoring them to the image of God. Christ is saving the world as a whole. He is not slicing the loaf ofsociety horizontally, cutting off the upper crust, but he is slicing itvertically from top to bottom. How wonderful is the simplicity and beauty of this gospel that shepherdsare drawn by it. It takes some brain to read Plato. Shepherds would notget much out of Sir Isaac Newton, or a child out of Shakespeare, or asorrowing heart out of Emerson. But every one can get milk and honey forhis soul out of the gospel of Jesus. His wonderful words of life havethe same sweetness and saving power for shepherd and scholar, peasantand prince. However lowly and unlettered one may be there is wide roomfor him around the manger of this Child. XIV. The Star and the Wise Men The birth of Jesus created a new center for the world and set heaven andearth revolving around his cradle. All things began to gravitate towardshim as by a new and more powerful attraction. Angels sang, shepherdswondered, a new star glittered upon the blazing curtain of the night, and wise men came from afar to worship him. These wise men were Persianpriests, scholars, scientists, astrologers, students of the stars. Rumors of a coming King or Saviour were widespread in the ancient worldand doubtless had reached these worshipers of the sun to whom the starswere embodiments of deity. A new star in their sky, whatever it may havebeen, would instantly attract their attention and receive from them areligious interpretation. The celestial messenger was a fulfillment oftheir hope and a guide to their feet. They were obedient to the heavenlyvision, and across long burning stretches of desert sand they came andappeared in Jerusalem with their inquiry concerning the new-born King ofthe Jews. They were therefore broad-minded men whose horizon was wider than theirown deserts, or they never would have overleaped their national pietyand patriotism and prejudice into search and reverence for a Jewishking. But something told them that the new King, though born a Jew, wasof universal interest and was more than human; they forefelt hisdivinity. Therefore they were come to the King, not to gratify theircuriosity, not to speculate and debate and frame a new creed, but toworship him. There was no war between the science and the theology ofthese wise men. Their science did not kill their religion, and theirreligion did not strangle their science. The stars, according to theirsimple-minded way of thinking, did not crowd God out of his universe. Knowledge and reverence made one music in their minds as both scienceand faith grew from more to more. A religion that could not stand the most searching and pitiless light ofscholarship could not live. Science kills pagan faiths as with a strokeof lightning. But the gospel lives, because wise men go to Bethlehem andfind there, not fiction, but fact. It welcomes and inspires theprofoundest science and philosophy. God in his Word is not afraid of Godin his works. The tallest intellects in all these centuries have bowedat the side of this manger. XV. A Frightened King The inquiry of the wise men startled Jerusalem and frightened Herod. Theproud metropolis had not yet heard the news. The immortal honor ofhaving given birth to the Christ had been denied to her haughty brow andhad become humble Bethlehem's imperishable crown. The very name of kinggave Herod a terrible shock. He was a usurper steeped in crime and wasever trembling on his throne. No hunted, white-faced, Russian Czar everfeared nihilist's bomb more than he feared rebellion's revolt andassassin's knife. Rebel after rebel he had crushed into spattered brainsand blood, and here was rumor of another Rival born under the shadow ofhis throne. Herod was troubled and his terror sent a strange wave andshudder of fear through the city. So the same gospel that made angelssing and wise men worship and started good news out over the world, created consternation and trouble up in Herod's palace and in his city. Christ came to give peace and joy, but his gospel is a sword to some. The good man's presence is always the bad man's condemnation and stirshatred in his heart. Every good influence that falls upon us, accordingas we use it, brings either more joy or trouble, and the gospel itselfis either a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. XVI. An Impotent Destroyer Herod took swift and thorough measures, as he thought, to crush his newrival. He called the priests into his counsel and demanded to know wherethe Christ should be born. Too often has the priest been subject to thebeck and call of the king. Bad men will use the church for their ownevil purposes when they can, and will then grow condescending andcomplaisant towards the minister and liberal in their gifts. We must beready to receive and help any man, but we must beware of men that pushtheir way into the church for sinister ends. The church is no man'stool, and when it is thus prostituted its power and glory are gone. The priests knew their Bibles and, in answer to Herod's question, puttheir finger on the very text and town. They knew where Christ was to beborn, but they did not know Christ when he was born. We may have anexhaustive knowledge of the letter of the Bible and yet not know itsspirit; we may know many things about Christ and yet not know Christ. Herod, having gained knowledge of Christ, immediately turned it againstChrist. He sent searchers after the child, falsely and wickedlypretending that he also wanted to come and worship him. There is notruth, or means of good, or gift of God so holy and blessed that menwill not turn it to evil ends. Afterward Herod, in blind but impotentrage, sent soldiers and thrust a sword through every cradle inBethlehem; but the Child, sheathed in omnipotence, had escaped, andHerod could sooner have crushed the earth flat than have hurt a hair ofhis head. Herod was the forerunner of a long line of enemies who have endeavoredto kill this Child. Pagan Rome poured the fires of ten dreadfulpersecutions on the heads of his followers, but they could notextinguish his name in fire and blood. Often have the fires of martyrdombeen kindled around his disciples, but they have stood faithful to him. Skeptical scholarship has tried to reduce his gospel to a fable and evento resolve Jesus himself into a myth, but as soon could it dissolve therocky ledge of Bethlehem into vapor and cloud. And did not Voltaireprophecy in 1760 that ere the end of the eighteenth century Christianitywould disappear from the earth? Many are the authors and books thathave thought to make an end of Jesus, but he still lives the sameyesterday and to-day. And does not unbelief and unfaithfulness in ourhearts also try to strangle this Child? Every evil thought we cherishand every evil deed we do are so many swords we thrust into his cradle. Herod has a long and numerous progeny, and we may find them close to ourown door and even in our own hearts. The star appears to have been invisible to the wise men while they werein Jerusalem--in that guilty city, which in its pride thought it had amonopoly of divine favor, the stars of faith were eclipsed by a worldlyspirit--but when they emerged from the city the star once more led themon and stood over where the young Child was. God has put many stars inour sky to lead us on to Christ. The stars themselves are as vocal withdivine messages as though every one of them were a golden bell hung inthe dome of the night to ring out some good news from God. The Bible isa great constellation in which every promise and precept is a star, andall its stars stand over Christ. All the Christian centuries are starredwith events and achievements that point to Christ as King. XVII. Splendid Gifts "And they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary hismother; and they fell down and worshipped him; and opening theirtreasures they offered unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. "Is there anything more beautiful in the Bible, or in all literature? Theimagination of painter or poet may well kindle at the scene. There arethe wondering mother, the worshiping wise men bowing down, the shiningfragrant gifts, and in the midst, as the center and glory of it all, theyoung Child. This Child, which even in its infancy subordinates motherand wise men and gold to itself, is indeed a King. Worship is theexpression of reverence, and reverence is the root of all worth anddivineness in life. The human soul is a poor and pitiful fragment untilit is completed and crowned with worship, a lost child until it findsits Father. The wise men found a King to worship; they were notfollowing a false guide across weary wastes into nothingness. Ourinstinct of worship is not false, but is true and is matched with itsappropriate satisfaction. Christ completes our human childhood withdivine Fatherhood. He that hath seen him hath seen the father. These Persian scholars were forerunners of other wise men going toBethlehem. Through all the Christian centuries men of genius have beenlaying their most precious gifts at the feet of Christ. Columbus had nosooner set foot on a new shore than he named it San Salvador, HolySaviour; and thus he laid his great discovery, America, at the feet ofJesus. Leonardo da Vinci swept the golden goblets from the table of his"Last Supper" because he feared their splendor would distract attentionfrom and dim the glory of the Master himself. The hand that rounded St. Peter's dome reared it in adoration to Christ, and Raphael in paintingthe Transfiguration laid his masterpiece at the feet of this Child. Mozart there laid his symphonies, and Beethoven the works of hiscolossal genius. Shakespeare, "with the best brain in six thousandyears, " who has poured the many-colored splendors of his imaginationover all our life, wrote in his will: "I commend my soul into the handsof God my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the onlymerits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of lifeeverlasting. " Tennyson begins his In Memoriam, in the judgment of manythe superbest literary blossom of the nineteenth century, with theinvocation, "Strong Son of God, immortal Love. " Though Jesus wrote no book himself and never wrote any recorded thingexcept a few words in the sand which some passing breeze or foot quicklyobliterated, yet out of him have grown vast forests of literature. Itwould tear great gaps in the shelves of any library and leave theremaining volumes spotted with blank spaces if all the books about himand references to him were removed. A thousand books have been writtenabout Lincoln and eighty thousand about Napoleon, but if all the booksthat were ever written about Lincoln and Washington and Napoleon andCęsar were piled up in one heap it would look small beside the mountainof books that have been written about Jesus Christ. Not only have thewriters written about him above every other figure in history, but inlike degree the artists have painted him and the musicians have sungabout him. He is the most fertile theme of all literature and art, andthe gifts that genius have heaped about his feet are an incomparabletestimony to the adoration that is paid to him. About the first use to which any notable invention is put is to spreadthe gospel of Jesus. The very first book printed on a printing press wasthe Bible, and this wonderful and perhaps greatest human invention hasbeen busier printing this book than any other to this day and multipliesits copies by the hundred million over the world. The newspaper is amighty means of spreading his principles. The railway and steamshipcarry his gospel, and the airship gives wings to the same good news. Telegraph and telephone flash it, and wireless waves set the ether overwhole continents and oceans aquiver with the messages of Jesus Christ. The sewing machine sews for him, the typewriter writes for him, and evenbattle ships and bayonets may fight for him. Sooner or later everyinventor must lay his magic machine at his feet. For him the statesmanlegislates, the scientist investigates, the author writes, the artistpaints and the singer sings. In an increasing degree Jesus is drawingall men into his service, and they are laying their treasures at hisfeet. The gold of the wise men was only the first gleam of the shiningheaps of wealth that his followers are now piling on the altar of hisservice. This process will go on until the whole world will lie at hisfeet. Every generation sends a more numerous company to Bethlehem. With everycentury worshipers arrive from more distant lands. From every quarter ofthe circumference of the globe paths now run to the manger of thisChild, worn deep by millions of feet. The nations are beginning to come. By and by these converging paths will be crowded and all the ends of theearth shall bring their gold and shall worship at his feet. What is the explanation of the mighty, worldwide, attractive power ofthis Child? There is only one adequate explanation: "He shall save hispeople from their sins. " The world is tired of men who come to save itwith programmes only an inch long; who have nothing better to proposethan longer laws and cleaner sanitation; who, unmindful of theexperiment in Eden, would have us believe that if we were only placed ina pleasant garden where we had plenty to eat and little to do we wouldall be good. The weary world wants one who can go to the root of itsunrest, and it is finding out that this can be done by him who is mightyto save people from their sins. All who put their trust in him areblessed with purity and peace. In this great world, lost in sin andbeaten upon by infinite mystery, there is only one voice that comes likemusic across our life with power to cleanse and comfort us; and this isthe Voice whose infant cry was first heard in Bethlehem. Let us now goeven unto Bethlehem while the song is in the air and see this Child andworship at his feet. XVIII. Was a Child the Best Christmas Gift to the World? When we come to think of it, does not a child seem an insignificant anddisappointing gift for God to make to the world? After so longpreparation and so great promises and hopes, would we not have expectedsome greater and more wonderful gift? But a child is so common; millionsare born every month; there is nothing unique and wonderful about achild. Why did God not rather give some invention or discovery or pieceof knowledge that would revolutionize and bless the world? Would he nothave done enormously more for mankind if in the first century of our erahe had given them the printing press, or the steam engine, or theelectric light? May there not yet be waiting for us some invention orknowledge that will work wonders beyond anything we have dreamed andshower material comforts on the world? This thought grows out of our blind materialism which leads us to thinkthat matter is the master of mind, circumstance more important thancharacter and the things of the body than the things of the spirit. Butmaterial improvements do not necessarily improve men. The locomotive haslittle relation to character. It picks a man up at one point and dropshim at another the same man he was. If he is selfish and wicked at thebeginning of the journey, he is just as selfish and wicked at its end. It is a simple fact that all our material progress works littleimprovement in morals. At the hour Christ was born Rome had an amazingmaterial civilization, blazing with splendor, but all the more rapidlywas it rotting at the core. But a child has in it the possibility of growth and of impartingregenerating ideas and a new life to the world. Sir Isaac Newton did notgive any money or material gift to the world, but he gave it scientificideas and a scientific spirit, and in giving it this he raised theintellectual level of the world and gave it the power of making millionsof money. Shakespeare gave the world no new machine, but he opened theeyes of men to see heavenly visions and thus enriched them withtreasures above all the gold of the world. Martin Luther invented nosteam engine or sewing machine, but he taught men the rights ofconscience and created our modern liberties. No material thing, howeverpowerful and splendid, can make a better world: this work calls forbetter men. Therefore when God brings into the world a child endowedwith superior intellectual and moral power, though his gift is only ababe and seems insignificant and hardly worth counting among so many, yet he has sent one of the greatest gifts of which his omnipotence iscapable. An old German schoolmaster always took his hat off to each newboy that came into his school, never knowing what elements of geniusmight have been mixed in his newly molded brain. When Erasmus came outof that school his prophetic instinct was justified. Never despise achild, for in it sleeps some of the omnipotence and worth of God. But the Child which God gave the world as its Christmas gift was nomerely human child however richly endowed. This Child was human and wasborn in time, but he was also divine and came forth from eternity. Thepossibilities that were sleeping in this Child were foreseen by theprophet Isaiah in the names that were prophetically given him, everyname being a window through which we can look in upon his personalityand power, every title being one of his crowns: "His name shall becalled Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince ofPeace. " All these powers and possibilities are incarnated in this Child, and he is working them out in a redeemed world. God made no mistake, then, he gave us no small and common gift, but he did his best and gavethe world the greatest possible Christmas Gift when this Child was born. All the grass in the world came from one seed, all the roses from oneroot, and all the redeemed that shall at last populate heaven and fillit with praise throughout eternity shall be saved by the grace and cladin the beauty of this Child. XIX. A World Without Christmas What would be the effect of blotting Christmas out of the calendar ofthe world? Imagination would have to explore wide and deep in order totrace all the consequences. The gladdest holiday of the year would fadeinto a common day. The weeks that precede it would lose all theirinterest of preparation and expectation and would sink into dull days. The stores would not blossom out into brilliant bazars, cunning fingerswould not be busy in secret, there would be no making and buying andhiding gifts, and there would be nothing waiting to be disclosed onChristmas morning! The morning of this day would dawn gray and bleakjust like any other morning, and no red letter would distinguish it onthe calendar of the year. There would be no glad greetings with thefirst streak of light, no rush for gifts and joyous surprises, no homegatherings, no neighborhood festivities, no benefactions to the poor. The tide of life would not on this day rise higher and run fuller andtake on richer colors and sparkle with brighter joy, but it would remainat the old level and creep along in the same dull sluggish way. Deeper losses would result from blotting this day from the calendar. There would be no story to tell of that wondrous birth that took placeon the first Christmas morning and fixed the date from which all otherevents are dated. To blot Christmas out of the world we would have toblot nineteen Christian centuries from the history of the world; intruth, we would have to go farther back and dig up the roots of Hebrewhistory running through twenty centuries. We would have to go throughthe world and destroy every church and Christian institution: nearlyevery hospital would go down under this fell decree, and most of ourschools and colleges. Our Bibles would all have to be burned, and ourliterature would be perforated and ripped to pieces. Furthermore, wewould need to pull out of human character and life all the strands ofpurity and peace, of faith and love and hope, that have been woven intothe hearts and lives of men by the hand of Christ. We would have to stopall our preaching and praying and hush every Christian hymn and song. Wewould have no word of salvation from sin, no comfort in trouble, and nohope as we look out into the beyond. The world would lose its Light andbe wrapped in night. Do we want such a world? Can we believe that God would make such a worldand leave us as "infants crying in the night, infants crying for thelight, and with no language but a cry"? XX. Has the Christmas Song Survived the World War? But has not the Christmas star already been extinguished in such anight? Has the angels' song survived the World War? Have not its notesof glory to God in the highest and peace among men been utterly drownedand lost in the rattle of machine rifles and the mighty explosions ofmonster guns that shook Europe and reverberated around the world? Wasnot this war the flat denial and total annihilation of the message andspirit of Jesus, entirely silencing the angels' song that gladdened theearth at his birth? Can it even be heard after many months when angryvoices and the crash of falling wreckage still disturb the world? Theseominous questions are causing anxiety to many Christian souls and maywell give us pause. But the gentlest forces are ever the mightiest and last the longest. The sunlight is swallowed up in the storm and the very sun itself seemsblotted from the heavens, but presently the blackness breaks, the cloudsroll away, and the sun again smiles upon the scene, as, indeed, it hadnever ceased to smile. The song of the birds is hushed in the crash ofthunder and the rush and roar of wind and rain, but after the stormpasses their dulcet voices again sing out with fresh gladness in theirsong. A hammer can pound ice to powder, but every particle is stillunconquered ice, and only the gentle kiss of the sun can subdue and meltit into sweet water. High explosives and poisonous gas can devastate theearth, but only the balmy breath of the springtime can clothe it inverdure and cause it to burst into bud and bloom. The war has indeed enwrapped and in a degree wrecked the world, and thevoices of peace were little heard in the storm. But now that the gunsare silenced and the clouds are rolling away peace is again surging upin the heart of humanity as a passion and is at the work of clearingaway the wreckage and of rebuilding the new and better world that allmen hope is to emerge out of the ruins of the old. Alexander and Cęsarand Napoleon and the Kaiser--mark the anticlimax!--are gone, theirswords are rust, their dreams are dust, but Jesus Christ remains thesame yesterday, to-day and forever. His penetrating and persistent voicewas not really silenced even during the confusion of the war, rather washe then speaking in the thunderous tones of judgment; and now theChristmas angels are being heard again as birds are heard after thestorm. The hand of Christ has been shaping the course of the world, evenwhen convulsed in war, and is now remolding its plastic elements intoform. He has not been dethroned and discrowned in this world-cataclysmin which so many thrones and crowns have come tumbling down, but isstill the Prince of Peace. The Man of Nazareth is speaking with amajestic voice to-day to all these nations and asserting the waste andwickedness of war and the brotherhood of man as they were never assertedbefore, and urging them to build a league of peace that may be thegreatest outcome and blessing of the war. A new world may arise out ofthe ruins of the old that will be worth all the blood it cost and may bethe prelude of the fulfillment of all the dreams of prophets and poetsof a Parliament of Man under the rule of which "the kindly earth shallslumber, lapt in universal law. " Then shall the angels' Christmas songbreak from the gallery of the skies and fill all the world with itsnotes, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men inwhom he is well pleased. " XXI. The Light of the World Jesus was born into a dark world. Politically it was bound. Despotismconstricted and strangled it at the top, and at the bottom its millionswere shackled slaves. Intellectually it was decadent. Philosophy hadstopped and stagnated in Athens, and no fresh current of thought wasirrigating the world, no new light was breaking upon the human mind. Religiously its pagan faiths were outworn and dying or dead. Judaismitself had gone to seed and was only a dry husk. Morally the world wasterribly corrupt, from its lowest slums up to the palaces of the richwhere sensuality ran riot. As a consequence of these conditions, pessimism spread a dark pall over the world. Men everywhere were indespair. They entertained the darkest and bitterest views of life. Nothing seemed to them worth while. The world was all a muddle, and thehuman heart cried out that life Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. Into this dark world Jesus was born. He was only a babe, a single speckin the vast mass of humanity, but this Babe was luminous and shone withheavenly light. A star shed its radiance over his cradle--symbol andprophecy of his mission. As he grew in years he grew in luminosity untilhe lighted up Palestine and shot some rays across the borders of thatlittle land into the great world. Death could not quench his growinglight, but he rose to heaven, as the sun rises to its zenith, whence hislight now falls in increasing splendor over all the world. This Light has been shining nineteen hundred years and it has made awide and deep impression on the darkness. Open the map of the world, andits bright spaces correspond with and are largely caused by the shiningof this Light. The teachings and spirit and power and personality ofJesus are illuminating the world. Political despotism and slavery cannotlive under the light of his gospel of brotherhood and are fleeing fromhis presence. Intellectual light is flooding all Christian lands: has itnot been touched by his torch? Moral darkness is being penetrated anddissipated by the purity and peace of Christ. Pessimism meets its matchand victor in his mighty jubilant optimism. He clears the world of themuddle of its confusion and turns it into our Father's house. He liftslife up and makes it worth while in its great and grand meaning. As from the uplifted hand of the Statue of Liberty in New York harborthere shoots a sheaf of electric light that illuminates all the bay, sofrom the pierced hand of Christ there shines a blaze of light thatpenetrates and scatters the darkness of the world. We live in thisLight. This is the meaning and true blessing of Christmas time. This isthe real joy that breaks over the world on Christmas morning. All ourgifts derive their significance from this Gift; all our joys arescintillations of this Light. O thou Light of the world! In thy Light help us to see light. May sinnot wrap us in darkness, may not a worldly life breed in us a spirit ofbitterness and despair. Shine upon us with the light of thy truth andthy love. Light up the world for us so that we shall see it as ourFather's house. May thy presence put a deeper, richer, gladder meaninginto all our life and pour a new splendor over all the world. And maynations come to thy Light and kings to the brightness of thy rising. [Illustration] Printed in the United States of America