Speaker 1: Joy born at Bethlehem by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, And the
Angel said, unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring
you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to
all people. For unto you is born this day in
the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign. Unto you, ye shall
find the Babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a
manger Luke two ten to twelve. We have no superstitious
regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe
in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas, first because we
do not believe in the Mass at all, but abhor it,
whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English.
And secondly because we find no scriptural warrant whatever for
observing any day as the birthday of the Savior, and
consequently its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority.
Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Saviour's birth,
although there is no possibility of discovering when it occurred.
Fabricius gives a catalog of one hundred thirty six different
learned opinions upon the matter, and various divines invent weighty
arguments for advocating a date in every month of the year.
It was not till the middle of the third century
that any part of the Church celebrated the Nativity of
Our Lord, and it was not till very long after
the Western Church had set the example that the Eastern
adopted it. Because the day is not known, therefore superstition
has fixed it. While since the day of the death
of Our Savior might be determined with much certainty, therefore
superstition shifts the date of its observance every year. Where
is the method in the madness of the superstitious? Probably
the fact is that the holy days were arranged to
fit in with heathen festivals. We venture to assert that
if there be any day in the year of which
we may be pretty sure that it was not the
day on which the Savior was born, it is the
twenty fifth of December. Nevertheless, since the current of men's
thoughts is led this way just now, and I see
no evil in the current itself, I shall launch the
bark of our discourse upon that stream, and make use
of the fact which I shall neither justify nor condemn
by endeavoring to lead your thoughts in the same direction.
Since it is lawful and even laudable to meditate upon
the incarnation of the Lord upon any day in the year,
it cannot be in the power of other men's superstitions
to render such a meditation improper for today, Regarding not
the day, let us nevertheless give God thanks for the
gift of his dear son. In our text, we have
before us the sermon of the first evangelist. Under the
Gospel dispensation. The preacher was an angel, and it was
meet It should be so, for the grandest and last
of all evangels will be proclaimed by an angel, when
he shall sound the trumpet of the Resurrection, and the
children of the Regeneration shall rise into the fullness of
their joy. The keynote of this angelic gospel is joy.
I bring unto you good tidings of great joy. Nature fears.
Speaker 2: In the presence of God.
Speaker 1: The shepherds were sore afraid. The Law itself served to
deepen this natural feeling of dismay, Seeing men were sinful,
and the Law came into the world to reveal sin.
Its tendency was to make men fear and tremble under
any and every divine revelation. The Jews unanimously believed that
if any man beheld supernatural appearances, he would be sure
to die, so that what nature dictated the law in
the general beliefs of those under it also abetted.
Speaker 2: But the first word of.
Speaker 1: The Gospel ended all this, for the angelic evangelist said,
fear not behold, I bring you good tidings. Henceforth it
is to be no dreadful thing for man to approach
his maker. Redeemed man is not to fear when God
unveils the splendor of his majesty, since he appears no
more a judge upon the throne of terror, but a
father unbending in sacred familiarity before his own beloved children.
Speaker 2: The joy which this first Gospel preacher.
Speaker 1: Spoke of was no mean one, for he said, I
bring you good tidings that alone were joy, and not
good tidings of joy only, but good tidings.
Speaker 2: Of great joy.
Speaker 1: Every word is emphatic, as if to show that the
Gospel is, above all things, intended to promote and will
most abundantly create the greatest possible joy in the human heart.
Wherever it is received, man is like a harp unstrung,
and the music of his soul's living strings is discordant.
His whole nature wails with sorrow. But the Son of David,
that mighty harper, has come to restore the harmony of humanity.
And where his gracious fingers move among the strings, the
touch of the fingers of an incarnate God brings forth
music sweet as that of the spheres, and melody rich
as a seraph's cant Gal would God that all men
felt that divine hand in trying to open up this
angelic discourse this morning, we shall note three things, the
joy which is spoken of, next the persons to whom
this joy comes, and then thirdly the sign, which is
to us a sign as well as to these shepherds,
the sign of the birth and source of joy. One first,
then the joy which is mentioned in our text. Whence
comes it? And what is it? We have already said
it is a great joy, good tidings of great joy.
Earth's joy is small, her mirth is trivial. But Heaven
has sent us joy immeasurable fit for immortal minds. Inasmuch
as no note of time is appended, and no intimation
is given, that the message will ever be reversed. We
may say that it is a lasting joy, a joy
which will ring all down the ages, the echoes of
which shall be heard until the trumpet brings the resurrection. Aye,
and onward forever and forever. For when God sent forth
the Angel in his brightness to say, I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which be to all people,
he did as much as say, from this time forth
it will be joy to the sons of men. There
shall be peace to the human race, and good will
towards men forever and forever, as long as there is
glory to God in the Highest, Oh, blessed thought, the
star of Bethlehem shall never set Jesus, the fairest among
ten thousand, the most lovely among the beautiful, is a
joy forever. Since this joy is expressly associated with the
glory of God by the words glory to God in
the Highest, we may be quite clear that it is
a pure and holy joy. No other would an angel
have proclaimed, and indeed no other joy is joy. The
wine pressed from the grapes of Sodom may sparkle and foam,
but it is bitterness in the end, and the dregs
thereof are death. Only that which comes from the clusters
of Eshkol is the true wine of the Kingdom, making
glad the heart of God and man. Holy joy is
the joy of heaven, and that, be ye sure, is
the very cream of joy. The joy of sin is
a fire fountain, having its source in the burning soil
of hell, maddening and consuming those who drink its fire water.
Of such delights we desire not to drink it, were
to be worse than damned to be happy in sin,
since it is the beginning of grace to be wretched
in sin, and the consummation of grace to be wholly
escaped from sin, and to shudder even at the thought
of it. It is hell to live in sin and misery.
It is a deep lower still when men could fashion
a joy in sin. God save us from unholy peace
and from unholy joy. The joy announced by the Angel
of the Nativity is as pure as it is lasting,
as holy as it is great. Let us then, always
believe concerning the Christian religion, that it has its joy
within itself, and holds its feasts within its own pure
precincts of feast, whose vians all grow on holy ground.
There are those who tomorrow will pretend to exhibit joy
in the remembrance of our Saviour's birth, But they will
not seek their pleasure in the Savior. They will need
many additions to the feast before they can be satisfied
in Emmanuel. Would be a poor sort of mirth to them.
In this country. Too often, if one were unaware of
the name, one might believe the Christmas festival to be
a feast.
Speaker 2: Of Bacchus or of Sarees.
Speaker 1: Certainly not a commemoration of the divine birth. Yet is
there cause enough for holy joy in the Lord himself,
and reasons for ecstasy in his birth?
Speaker 2: Among men?
Speaker 1: It is to be feared that most men imagine that
in Christ there is only seriousness and solemnity, and to
them consequently weariness, gloom, and discontent. Therefore they look out
of and beyond what Christ allows to snatch from the
tables of Satan, the delicacies with which to adorn the
banquet held in honor of a savior. Let it not
be so among you. The joy which the Gospel brings
is not borrowed, but blooms in its own garden. We
may truly say, in the language of one of our
sweetest hymns. I need not go abroad for joy. I
have a feast at home. My sighs are turned into songs.
My heart has ceased to roam down from above. The
blessed dove has come into my breast to witness his
eternal love and give my spirit rest. Let our joy
be living water from those sacred wells which the Lord
himself has digged. May his joy abide in us, that
our joy may be full of Christ's joy. We cannot
have too much, no fear of running to excess when
His love is the wine we drink. Oh to be
plunged in this pure stream of spiritual delights. But why
is it that the coming of Christ into the world
is the occasion of joy? The answer is as follows. First,
because it is evermore a joyous fact that God should
be an alliance with man, especially when the alliance is
so near, that God should, in very deed take our
man into union with His Godhead, so that God and
Man should constitute one divine, mysterious person. Sin had separated
between God and man, but the incarnation bridges the separation.
It is a prelude to the atoning sacrifice.
Speaker 2: But it is a prelude full of the richest hope.
Speaker 1: From henceforth, when God looks upon man, he will remember
that his own son is a man. From this day forth,
when he beholds the sinner, if his wrath should burn,
he will remember that his own son, as man, stood
in the sinner's place and bore the sinner's doom. As
in the case of war, the feud is ended when
the opposing parties enter Mary. So there is no more
war between God and man, because God has taken man
into intimate union with himself. Herein then there was cause
for joy. But there was more than that, for the
shepherds were aware that there had been promises men of old,
which had been the hope and comfort of believers in
all ages, and these were now to be fulfilled. There
was that ancient promise made on the threshold of Eden
to the first sinners of our race, that the seed
of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Another promise
made to the Father of the faithful, that in his
seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed.
And promises uttered by the mouths of prophets and of saints,
since the world began now. The announcement of the Angel
of the Lord to the shepherds was a declaration that
the Covenant was fulfilled, that now, in the fullness of time,
God would redeem his word, and the Messiah, who was
to be Israel's glory in the world's hope, was now
really calm. Be glad ye heavens, and be joyful o Earth.
For the Lord hath done it, and in mercy hath
he visited his people. The Lord hath not suffered his
word to fail, but hath fulfilled unto his people his promises.
The time to favor zion Yea. The set time is come,
now that the scepter is departed from Judah. Behold, the
Shiloh comes. The Messenger of the Covenant suddenly appears in
his temple. But the angel's song had in it yet
fuller reason for joy. For our Lord, who was born
in Bethlehem, came as a savior. Unto you is born
this day a savior. God had come to earth before,
but not as a savior. Remember that terrible coming when
there went three angels into Sodom at nightfall. For the
Lord said, I will go now and see whether it
be altogether according to the cry thereof, He had come
as a spy to witness human sin, and as an
avenger to lift his hand to heaven and bid the
red fire descend and burn up the accursed cities of
the plain. Horror to the world When God thus descends,
If sin I smokes, when the laws proclaimed, the earth
itself shall melt when the breeches of the law are punished.
But now not as an angel of vengeance, but as
a man in mercy. God has come not to spy
out our sin, but to remove it, not to punish.
Speaker 2: Guilt, but to forgive it.
Speaker 1: The Lord might have come with thunderbolts in both his hands.
He might have come like Elias to call fire from heaven.
But no, his hands are full of gifts of love,
and his presence is the guarantee of grace. The babe
born in the manger might have been another prophet of tears,
or another son of thunder, but he was not. So
he came in gentleness. His glory and his thunder alike
laid aside, twas mercy filled the throne, and wrath stood
silent by. When christ On the kind Errant came to
sinners doomed to die. Rejoice, ye who feel that ye
are lost. Your Savior comes to seek and save you.
Speaker 2: Be of good.
Speaker 1: Cheer ye who are in prison, for he comes to
set you free. Ye who are famished and ready to die,
Rejoice that He has consecrated for you a Bethlehem, a
house of bread, and he has come to be the
bread of life to your souls. Rejoice, o, sinners everywhere,
for the restorer of the castaways, the savior of the
fallen is born. Join in the joy, ye saints. For
he is the preserver of the saved ones, delivering them
from innumerable perils. And he is the sure perfector of
such as he preserves. Jesus is no partial savior, beginning
a work in not concluding it, but restoring and upholding.
He also perfects and presents the saved ones without spot
or wrinkle or any such thing before his father's throne.
Rejoice aloud, all, ye people, Let your hills and valleys
ring with joy, for a savior who is mighty to
save is.
Speaker 2: Born among you.
Speaker 1: Nor was this all the holy mirth, For the next
word has also in it a fullness of joy.
Speaker 2: A savior who is Christ.
Speaker 1: Or the anointed our Lord is not an amateur savior
who has come down from heaven upon an unauthorized mission.
But he was chosen, ordained, and anointed of God. He
could truly say, the spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord hath anointed me. Here is great comfort
for all such as need a savior. It is to
them no mean consolation that God has himself authorized Christ
to save. There can be no fear of a jar
between the mediator and the judge, no peril of a
non acceptance of our savior's work, because God has commissioned
Christ to do what he has done, and in saving sinners,
he is only executing his father's own will. Christ is
here called the anointed. All his people are anointed, and
there were priests after the order of Erin who were anointed.
But he is the anointed, anointed with the oil of
gladness above his fellows, so plenteously anointed, that, like the
unction upon aaron's head, the sacred anointing of the head
of the Church distills in copious streams, until we, who
are like the skirts of his garments, are made sweet
with the rich perfume. He is the anointed in a
threefold sense. As prophet to preach the Gospel, with power,
as priest, to offer sacrifice, as king, to rule and reign.
In each of these he is pre eminent. He is
such a teacher, priest and ruler as was never seen before.
In him was a rare conjunction of glorious offices. For
never did prophet, priest and king meet in one person
before among the sons of men, Nor shall it ever
be so again. Triple is the anointing of him who
is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, a prophet
like unto Moses, and a king of whose dominion there
is no end. In the name of Christ. The Holy
Ghost is glorified by being seen as anointing the incarnate God. Truly,
dear brethren, if we did but understand all this and
receive it into our hearts, our souls would leap for
joy on this Sabbath day to think that there is
born unto us a savior who is anointed of the Lord.
One more note, and this the loudest. Let us sound
it well and hear it well. Which is Christ the Lord.
Now the word Lord or curios here used is tatamount
to Jehovah. We cannot doubt that, because it is the
same word used twice in the ninth verse, and in
the ninth verse, none can question that it means Jehovah.
Hear it, and lo, the Angel of the Lord came
upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round
about them. And if this be not enough, read the
twenty third verse. As it is written in the Law
of the Lord. Every male that openeth the womb shall
be called wholly to the Lord. Now, the word Lord
here assuredly refers to Jehovah, the One God, and so
it must do.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: Our Savior is Christ God Jehovah. No testimony to his
divinity could be plainer. It is indisputable. And what joy
there is in this. For suppose an angel had been
our savior, he would not have been able to bear
the load.
Speaker 2: Of my sin or yours.
Speaker 1: Or if anything less than God had been set up
as the ground of our salvation, it might have been
found too frail a foundation. But if he who undertakes
to save is none other than the Infinite and the Almighty,
then the load of our guilt can be carried upon
such show. The stupendous labor of our salvation can be
achieved by such a worker, and that with ease, For
all things are possible with God, and he is able
to save to the uttermost them that come unto God
by him. Ye, sons of men, perceive ye here the
subject of your joy. The God who made you and
against whom you have offended, has come down from heaven
and taken upon himself your nature that he might save you.
He has come in the fullness of his glory and
the infinity of his mercy, that.
Speaker 2: He might redeem you. Do you not welcome this news?
Speaker 1: What will not your hearts be thankful for this? Does
this matchless love awaken no gratitude. Were it not for
this divine Savior, your life here would have been wretchedness,
and your future existence would have been endless woe. Oh,
I pray you adore the incarnate God and trust in him.
Then will you bless the Lord for delivering you from
the wrath to come? And as you lay hold of
Jesus and find salvation in his name, you will tune
your songs to his praise and exult with sacred joy.
So much concerning this joy, Two follow me while I
briefly speak of the people to whom this joy comes.
Observe how the Angel begins. Behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, For unto you is born this day.
So then the joy began with the first who heard it,
the shepherds. To you, saith he, For unto you is born,
beloved hearer, shall the joy begin with you to day?
For it little avails you that Christ was born, or
that Christ died. Unless unto you a child is born.
And for you Jesus bled a personal interest is the
main point. But I am poor, saith one. So were
the shepherds, O ye poor, to you, this mysterious child
is born. The poor have the gospel preached unto them.
He shall judge the poor and needy, and break in
pieces the oppressor. But I am obscure and unknown, saith one.
So were the watchers on the midnight plain, who knew
the men who endured hard toil and kept their flocks
by night. But you, unknown of men, are known to God.
Shall it not be said that unto you a child
is born. The Lord regardeth not the greatness of men,
but hath respect unto the lowly. But you are illiterate,
You say you cannot understand much be it so, but
unto the shepherds, Christ was born, and their simplicity did
not hinder their receiving Him, but even helped them to it.
Be it so, with yourself received gladly the simple truth,
as it is in Jesus, the Lord hath exalted, one
chosen out of the people. Nor aristocratic Christ. Have I
to preach to you, But the Savior of the people,
the friend of publicans and sinners, Jesus is the true
poor man's friend. He is a covenant for the people,
given to be a leader and a commander to the people.
To you is Jesus given, Oh, that each heart might
truly say to me, is Jesus born? For it I
truly believe in Jesus. Unto me, Christ is born, And
I may be as sure of it as if an
angel announced it, since the scripture tells me that if
I believe in Jesus, he is mine. After the Angel
had said to you, he went on to say, it
shall be to all people. But our translation is not accurate.
The Greek is, and it shall be to all the people.
This refers most assuredly to the Jewish nation. There can
be no question about that. If anyone looks at the original,
he will not find so large and wide an expression
as that given by art translators. It should be rendered
to all the people. And here let us speak a
word for the Jews. How long and how sinfully has
the Christian Church despised the most honorable amongst the nations.
How barbarously has Israel been handled by the so called church.
I felt my spirit burn indignantly within me in Rome
when I stood in the Jews Quarter and heard of
the cruel indignities which popery has heaped upon the Jews,
even until recently. At this hour, there stands in the
Jews quarter a church built right in front of the
entrance to it. And into this the unhappy Jews were
driven forcibly on certain occasions to this church. They were
compelled to subscribe. Subscribe, mark you, as worshippers of the
one Invisible God, to the support of a system which
is leprous with idolatry, as were the king whom the
Lord abhorred. Paganism is not more degrading than Romanism. Over
the door of this church is placed in their own
tongue in the Hebrew these words. All day long have
I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying generation.
How by such an insult as that could they hope
to convert the Jew. The Jews saw everywhere idols which
his soul abhorred, and he loathed the name of Christ
because he associated it with idle worship. And I do
not wonder that he did. I praise the Jew that
he could not give up his own simple theism and
worship of the True God for such a base, degrading
superstition as that which Rome presented to him. Instead of
thinking it a wonder of unbelief that the Jew is
not a Christian, I honor him for his faith and
his courageous resistance of a fascinating heathenism. If Romanism be Christianity,
I am not, neither could I be a Christian. It
were a more manly thing to be a simple believer
in one God, or even an honest doubter upon all religion,
than worship such crowds of gods and goddesses as popery
has set up, and to bow as she does before
rotten bones and dead men's winding sheets. Let the true
Christian Church think lovingly of the Jew and with respectful
earnestness tell him the true Gospel, let her sweep away superstition,
and set before him the one gracious God in the
trinity of his divine unity. And the days shall yet
come when the Jews, who were the first apostles to
the Gentiles, the first missionaries to us who were afar off,
shall be gathered in again. Until that shall be the
fullness of the Church's glory can never come matchless benefits
to the world are bound up with the restoration of Israel.
Their gathering in shall be as life from them the dead.
Jesus the Savior is the joy of all nations. But
let not the chosen race be denied their peculiar share
of whatever promise Holy writ has recorded with a special
view to them. The woes which their sins brought upon
them have fallen thick and heavily, And even so let
the richest blessings distill upon them. Although our translation is
not literally correct, it nevertheless expresses a great truth taught
plainly in the context. And therefore we will advance another step.
The coming of Christ is a joy to all people.
It is so for the fourteenth verse says on earth peace,
which is a wide and even unlimited expression it adds
good will towards not Jews, but men, all men. The
word is the generic name of the entire race. And
there is no doubt that the coming of Christ does
bring joy to all sorts of people. It brings a
measure of joy, even to those who are not Christians.
Christ does not bless them in the highest and truest sense,
but the influence of His teaching imparts benefits of an
inferior sort, such as they are capable of receiving. For
wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, it is no small blessing
to all the population.
Speaker 2: Note this fact.
Speaker 1: There is no land beneath the sun where there is
an open Bible and a preached Gospel where a tyrant
lung can hold his place. It matters not who he be,
whether pope or king. Let the pulpit be used properly
for the preaching of Christ crucified. Let the Bible be
opened to be read by all men, and no tyrant
can long rule in peace. England owes her freedom to
the Bible, and France will never possess liberty lasting and
well established till she comes to reverence the Gospel, which
too long she has rejected. There is joy to all mankind.
Where Christ comes. The religion of Jesus makes men think,
and to make men think is always dangerous to a
despot's power. The religion of Jesus Christ sets a man
free from superstition. When he believes in Jesus, what cares
he for papal excommunications or whether priests give or withhold
their absolution. The man no longer cringes and bows down.
He is no more willing like a beast to be
led by the nose, but learning to think for himself
and becoming a man, he disdains the childish fears which
once held him in slavery. Hence, where Jesus comes. Even
if men do not receive Him as the Savior, and
so miss the fullest joy, yet they get a measure
of benefit. And I pray God that everywhere his gospel
may be so proclaimed, and that so many may be
actuated by the spirit of it, that it may be
better for us all mankind. If men receive Christ, there
will be no more oppression. The true Christian does to
others as he would that they should do to him,
and there is no more contention of classes, nor grinding
of the faces of the poor. Slavery must go down
where Christianity rules, and mark you. If Romanism be once destroyed,
and pure Christianity shall govern all nations, war itself must
come to an end. For if there be anything which
this book denounces and counts the hugest of all crimes,
it is the crime of war. Put up thy sword
into thy sheath. For hath not he said, thou shalt
not kill? And he meant not that it was a
sin to kill one, but a glory to kill a million.
But he meant that bloodshed on the smallest or largest
scale was sinfull. Let Christ govern, and men shall break
the bow and cut the spear in sunder, and burn
the cherry in the fire. It is joy to all
nations that Christ is born, the Prince of peace, the
king who rules in righteousness, but beloved. The greatest joy
is to those who know Christ as a savior. Here
the song rises to a higher and sublimer note. Unto us, indeed,
a child is born if we can say that he
is our savior. Who is Christ the Lord? Let me
ask each of you a few personal questions. Are your
sins forgiven you for his name's sake? Is the head
of the serpent bruised in your soul. Does the seed
of the Woman reign in sanctifying power over your nature. Oh,
then you have the joy that is to all the people,
in the truest form of it. And dear brother, dear sister,
the further you submit yourself to Christ the Lord, the
more completely you know him and are like him, the
fuller will your happiness be. Calme surface joy is to
those who live where the Savior is preached. But the
great deeps, the great, fathomless deeps of solemn joy, which
glisten and sparkle with delight, are for such as know
the Savior, obey the anointed One, and have communion with
the Lord himself. He is the most joyful man, who
is the most christly man. I wish that some Christians
were more truly Christians. They are Christians and something else.
It were much better if they were altogether Christians. Perhaps
you know the legend or perhaps true history of the
awakening of Saint Augustine. He dreamed that he died and
went to the gates of heaven, and the keeper of
the gates said to him, who are you? And he answered, Christianus,
sum I am a Christian. But the porter replied, no,
you are not a Christian. You are a Ciceronian. For
your thoughts and studies were most of all directed to
the works of Cicero and the Classics, and you neglected
the teaching of Jesus.
Speaker 2: We judge men.
Speaker 1: Here by that which most engrossed their thoughts, and you
are judged not to be a Christian, but a Ciceronian.
When Augustine awoke, he put aside the classics which he
had studied, and the eloquence at which he had aimed,
and he said, I will be a Christian and a Theologian.
And from that time he devoted his thoughts to the
word of God, and his pen and his tongue to
the instruction of others in the truth. Oh, I would
not have it said of any of you, Well, he
may be somewhat Christian, but he is far more a
keen money getting tradesman. I would not have it said, Well,
he may be a believer in Christ, but he is
a good deal more a politician. Perhaps he is a Christian,
but he is most at home when he is talking
about science, farming, engineering, horses, mining, navigation, or pleasure taking. No, No,
you will never know the fullness of the joy which
Jesus as brings to the soul, unless, under the power
of the Holy Spirit, you take the Lord your Master
to be your all in all, and make him the
fountain of your intensest delight. He is my Savior, my Christ,
my Lord. Be this your loudest boast. Then will you
know the joy which the Angel song predicts for men.
Speaker 2: Three. But I must pass on.
Speaker 1: The last thing in the text is the sign. The
shepherds did not ask for a sign, but one was
graciously given. Sometimes it is sinful for us to require
as an evidence what God's tenderness may nevertheless see fit
to give us as an aid to faith. Wilful unbelief
shall have no sign, but weak faith shall have compassionate aid.
The sign that the joy of the world had come
was this. They were to go to the manger to
find the Christ in it, and he was to be
the sign. Every circumstance is there for instructive. The babe
was found wrapped in swaddling clothes. Now observe as you
look at this infant, that there is not the remotest
appearance of temporal power. Here mark the two little puny
arms of a little babe that must be carried if
it go Alas the nations of the earth look for
joy and military power, by what means can we make
a nation of soldiers? The Prussian method is admirable. We
must have thousands upon thousands of armed men and big
cannon and ironclad vessels to kill and destroy by wholesale.
Is it not a nation's pride to be gigantic in arms?
What pride flushes the patriot's cheek when he remembers that
his nation can murder faster than any other people? Ah,
foolish generation. Ye are groping in the flames of hell
to find your heaven, raking amid blood and bones for
the foul thing which ye call glory. A nation's joy
can never lie in the misery of others. Killing is
not the path to prosperity. Huge armaments are a curse
to the nation itself, as well as to its neighbors.
The joy of a nation is a golden sand over
which no stream of blood has ever rippled. It is
only found in that river. The streams whereof make glad
the city of God. The weakness of submissive gentleness is
true power. Jesus founds his eternal empire, not on force.
Speaker 2: But on love.
Speaker 1: Here o, ye people, see your hope. The mild pacific prince,
whose glory is his self sacrifice, is our true benefactor.
But look again, and you shall observe no pomp to
dazzle you.
Speaker 2: Is the child wrapped in purple.
Speaker 1: And fine linen. Ah No sleeps he in a cradle
of gold. The manger alone is his shelter. No crown
is upon the babe's head. Neither does a ronnette surround
the mother's brow. A simple maiden of galilee, and a
little child in ordinary swaddling bands.
Speaker 2: It is all you see.
Speaker 1: Bask not in courtly bower or sun bright hall of power.
Pass babel quick and seek the Holy land from robes
of tyrene and dye. Turn with undazzled eye to Bethlehem's glade,
and by the manger stand alas the nations are dazzled
with a vain shaw. The pomp of empires, the pageants
of kings are their delight.
Speaker 2: How can they admire those.
Speaker 1: Gaudy courts in which too often glorious apparel, decorations and
rank stand in the stead of virtue, chastity, and truth.
When will the people cease to be children. Must they
forever crave for martial music which stimulates to violence, and
delight in a lavish expenditure which burdens them with taxation.
These make not a nation great or joy bah. How
has the bubble burst across yon Narrow Sea? A bubble
empire has collapsed? Ten thousand bayonets and millions of gold
proved but a sandy foundation for a babel throne. Vain
are the men who look for joy and pomp. It
lies in truth and righteousness, in peace and salvation, of
which yonder newborn prince in the garments of a peasant
child is the true symbol. Neither was their wealth to
be seen at Bethlehem. Here in this quiet island, the
bulk of men are comfortably seeking to acquire their thousands
by commerce and manufacturers. We are the sensible people who
follow the main chance and are not to be deluded
by ideas of glory. We are making all the money
we can, and wondering that other nations waste so much
in fight. The main prop and pillar of England's joy
is to be found, as some tell us in the
three Percents, in the possession of colonies, in the progress
of machinery, in steadily increasing our capital is not Mammon
a smiling deity. But here, in the cradle of the
world's hope, at Bethlehem, I see far more of poverty
than wealth. I perceive no glitter of gold or spangle
of silver. I perceive only a poor babe, so poor,
so very poor, that he is in a manger laid.
And his mother is a mechanic's wife, a woman who
wears neither silk nor jam. Not in your gold, O, Britons,
will ever lie your joy, But in the Gospel enjoyed
by all classes. The Gospel freely preached and joyfully received. Jesus,
by raising us to spiritual wealth, redeems us from the
chains of Mammon, and in that liberty gives us joy.
And here too I see no superstition. I know the
artist paints angels in the skies and surrounds the scene
with the mysterious light of which tradition's tongue of falsehood
has said that it made midnight as bright as noon.
Speaker 2: This is fiction.
Speaker 1: Merely there was nothing more there than the stable, the straw,
the oxenate, and perhaps the beasts themselves, and the child
in the plainest, simplest manner, rapped as other children are.
The cherubs were invisible, and of halos there were none around.
This birth of joy was no sign of superstition. That
demon dared not intrude its tricks and posturings into the
sublime spectacle. It would have been there as much out
of place as a harlequin in the Holy of Holies.
A simple gospel, a plain gospel, as plain as that
babe wrapped in the commonest garments.
Speaker 2: Is this day the only hope for men.
Speaker 1: Be ye wise and believe in Jesus, and abhor all
the lives of Rome and inventions of those who ape
her detestable abominations. Nor does the joy of the world
lie in philosophy. You could not have made a schoolman's
puzzle of Bethlehem if you had tried to do so.
It is just a child in the manger, and a
Jewish woman looking on and nursing it, and a carpenter
standing by. There was no metaphysical difficulty there of which
men could say. A doctor of divinity is needed to
explain it, and an assembly of divines must expound it.
It is true the wise men came there, but it
was only to adore and offer gifts. Would that all
the wise had been as wise as they Alas human
subtlety has disputed over the manger, and logic has darkened
counsel with its words. But this is one of man's
many inventions. God's work was sublimely simple. Here was the
Word made flesh to dwell among us, a mystery for faith,
but not a football for argument. Mysterious, Yet the greatest
simpleelicity that was ever spoken to human ears and seen
by mortal eyes. And such is the Gospel, in the
preaching of which our Apostle said, we use great plainness
of speech. Away Away with your learned sermons and your
fine talk, and your pretentious philosophies. These never created a
jot of happiness in this world. Fine spun theories are
fair to gaze on and to bewilder fools, but they
are of no use to practical men. They comfort not
the sons of toil, nor cheer the daughters of sorrow.
The man of common sense, who feels the daily rub
and tear of this poor world, needs richer consolation than
your novel theologies or neologies can give him. In a
simple christ and in a simple faith. In that Christ,
there is a peace, deep and lasting. In a plain,
poor man's gospel, there is a joy and a bliss unspeakable,
of which thousands can speak, and speak with confidence too,
for they declare what they do know, and testify what
they have seen. I say then, to ye who would
know the only true peace and lasting joy. Come ye
to the Babe of Bethlehem in after days, the man
of sorrows, the substitutionary sacrifice for sinners. Come ye, little children,
ye boys and girls, come.
Speaker 2: Ye, For he also was a boy. The Holy Child.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the children's Savior, and saith still suffer the
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.
Come hither, ye maidens, ye who are still in the
morning of your beauty, and like Mary, rejoice in God
your Savior. The Virgin bore him on her bosom. So
come ye and bear him in your hearts, saying, unto us,
a child is born, unto us, a son is given.
And you, ye men, in the plenitude of your strength,
remember how Joseph cared for him and watched with reverence
solicitude his tender years.
Speaker 2: Be you to his.
Speaker 1: Cause as a father and a helper, sanctify your strength
to his service. And ye women advanced in years, Ye
matrons and widows, come like Anna, and bless the Lord
that you have seen the salvation of Israel. And ye warheads,
who like Simeon are ready to depart, Come ye and
take the Savior in your arms, adoring him as your
Savior and your all. Ye shepherds, Ye simple hearted, ye
who toil for your daily bread, Come and adore your Savior,
and stand not back. Ye wise men, Ye who know
by experience and who by meditation peer into deep truth.
Come ye, and like the sages of the East, bow
low before his presence, and make it your honor to
pay honor to Christ the Lord. For my own part,
the Incarnate God is all my hope and trust. I
have seen the world religion at the fountain head, and
my heart has sickened within me. I come back to preach,
by God's help yet more earnestly the Gospel, the simple
Gospel of the Son of Man Jesus Master. I take
thee to be mine forever. May all in this house,
through the rich grace of God, be led to do
the same, And may they all be Thine Great Son
of God in the day of Thine, appearing for thy
love's sake.
Speaker 2: Amen and of Joy.
Speaker 1: Born at Bethlehem by Charles Spurgeon