was called His son.

Words fail us, and we

are lost in wonder, when we try to think of God the Son, Who was in the beginning with the Father, and one with Him, taking our nature upon Him, so as to have a soul and body like ours. Our joy is, after all, but a little more than that of the shepherds, who heard of Him from the Angels, and went and saw the new-born Babe, Who they knew was to be their Saviour. We know more of Him, but do not understand what we know; it is too great for us. As God's ways are above man's ways, and His thoughts above man's thoughts, so is this great mystery more than we can shape to ourselves in our minds. Yet we know that it is good, and we rejoice in it. For if He had not come to save us, surely He would not have so become one of us and one with us. If He had not meant to bring "peace on earth and good will toward men," He had come in some other way, and not as Man, not as born of a woman.

a

It is true we do not yet see all things as we would. This world is still a world of sorrow, and, what is worse, a world of sin. Though children of God are freed from the power of sin, so that they are no longer its

» S. Luke ii. 14.

servants, still they are sometimes assaulted and hurt, and at all times grieved by sin around them, and living, though conquered, in them.

But the Birth of our Blessed Lord is a pledge that this painful strife shall end well. God cannot mean His own children to remain always in this sad state; and sad though it is, in many ways, they may well "rejoice in the Lord," Who is come indeed to deliver them from it, and not only to deliver them from it, but to be with them and to comfort them in it.

b

C

They may rejoice, because the Word of God is gone forth, and they know that His "Word shall not return unto Him void, but shall accomplish that which He pleases." They need not wait to see how, for He has the power, and knows the way. All they have to do is to keep with Him, to take and use the means He gives them, and the end is sure.

Let every one, then, who is truly willing to be on God's side, to fight against the world and the devil without, and the flesh within, now, and the rest of his time here, and to take for his portion what God esteems good—let every such person go to work

Philip. iv. 4.

c Is. lv. 11.

cheerfully, whatever may be his difficulties, and troubles, and hindrances, knowing that his Saviour is Almighty, and yet is touched with a feeling of his infirmities, knowing that He is come on earth to fulfil the eternal counsel of the Father, Who knew before the worlds were made what would be the depth of our fall, and Who purposed, before the worlds were made, to send One mighty to save.

d

Thus, long before the mysteries of His Incarnation and His Passion were made known, did Abraham "rejoice to see His day." He knew that God had a way of salvation for man, and he saw that way set forth in shadows, and heard the Voice of God declaring that it should be accomplished, and accomplished through his own seed; and he rejoiced, though as yet he saw but little, because he looked upon Almighty God, and saw that there must be, hidden in the depths of His Wisdom and Love, more glorious and blessed things than he could think of; even as a child, looking on his father's face, and meeting his eye full of love and of cheerfulness, is assured that all is well, and often is glad only because he sees that his father knows there is good in store for him.

a S. John viii. 56.

.

Now every one whose mind is made up to seek after God and to obey Him to the best of his power, may share in this joy. The confirmed and steadfast believer alone indeed has ground for full confidence, but the trembling and broken-hearted penitent has that which may really cheer and comfort him in this thought. And he does well to dwell much upon it, for it is no vain confidence or delusive hope that it gives. Let him think again and again that God has truly sent His own Son to be the Saviour of the world, and that there is certainly a sufficient and an open way of salvation. If he is not saved at last, it will not be for want of a way, but for want of the will to walk in it. God has taken the matter in hand, and that not lightly and after the manner of men, but with "mighty hand and outstretched arm." The seas shall be parted, and the waters. stand as a wall, the Heavens shall be opened, and rain down Angels' food, sooner than His people shall not be saved.

When the master does not stand by and give orders only, but strips to the work himself, and bears, with his labourers, the burden and heat of the day, we are sure at least that he is in earnest, and anxious

• Deut. v. 15.

e

for the work to be done. And when He by Whom God made the worlds lays aside His unutterable Majesty, and undertakes, as Man, the first place in the work of our salvation, who shall doubt that He wills it accomplished? Who shall doubt that what He wills is what will be done?

What mean we, then, that we stand trifling, as though there were no great thing for us to do, as though to-day's work might be done to-morrow, and to-morrow's the day after? The Captain of our salvation has come and done His work on earth without lingering or flinching. In a few short years He did and suffered all that was needed, on His part, for our sakes. He spared not Himself, He grudged not to become as one of no account, He abhorred not the Virgin's womb, He overcame the sharpness of death. He then, for His part, is seriously engaged in the work, and will not fail, and in this we rejoice, and will rejoice, let our enemies do their worst. And the Church does well to keep this day of joy and thanksgiving, in memory of His Birth, the first open pledge of His having undertaken so much. Let him who most distrusts himself dwell on this thought at least to-day, and take courage. Let this memorial come as a kind word from