"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there
shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to
order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from
henceforth even for ever."--ISAIAH ix. 6, 7.
It is now more than three thousand years ago that God made to Abraham the
promise, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."
Again the promise was renewed to Moses when he was commanded to tell the
Jews, "a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me.
Hear ye him . . ." In David's Psalms, again, this same strange person
was spoken of who was already, and yet who was to come. David calls him
the Son of God, the King of kings. Again, in the Prophets, in many
strange and mysterious words, is this same being spoken of as a virgin's
child--"Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall
be called Emmanuel, God with us;" and again, "Unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the Mighty God--the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
And again, "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him,--the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And with righteousness shall He
judge the poor," &c.
And again, "Thou Bethlehem, though thou be little among the princes of
Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth He that is to be ruler in Israel,
whose goings forth have been from everlasting. And He shall be great
unto the ends of the earth."
But time would fail me if I tried to repeat to you half the passages
wherein the old Jewish prophets foretold Him who was to come, and in whom
all the nations of the earth should be blessed, more and more clearly as
the time drew nigh.
Well, my friends, surely you know of whom I have been speaking--of whom
Moses and the prophets spoke--of Him who was born of a village maiden,
laid in a manger, proclaimed of angels to the shepherds, worshipped with
hymns of glory by the heavenly host on the first Christmas day eighteen
hundred and seventy-eight years ago, as we count time. Aye, strange as
it may seem, _He is come_, and in Him all the nations of the earth are
blessed. _He is come_--the Conqueror of Evil--the desire of all
nations--the Law-giver--the Lamb which was to suffer for our sins--the
King of kings--the Light which should lighten the heathen--the Virgin's
child, of wondrous wisdom, whose name should be God as well as man--whom
all the heathens, amid strange darkness and mad confusions, had still
been fearing and looking for.
_He is come_--He came on that first Christmas-tide. And we here on each
Christmas-tide can thank God for His coming, and say before men and
angels, "Unto us a child is born--the Prince of Peace is _ours_--to His
kingdom we belong--He has borne about on Him a man's body, a man's soul
and spirit--He was born like us--like us He grew--like us He rejoiced and
sorrowed--tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin--able to
the uttermost to understand and help all who come to God by Him. He has
bruised the serpent's head--He has delivered us from the power of
darkness, and brought us into _His_ kingdom. Through His blood we have
redemption and forgiveness--yes! through Him who, though He was laid in a
manger, was yet the image of the unseen God. And by Him, and for
Him--that Babe of Bethlehem--were all things created in heaven and
earth--and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. All
heaven and earth, and all the powers therein, are held together by Him.
For it pleased the Father that in _Him_ should all fulness dwell; and
having made peace through the blood of His cross, to reconcile by that
child all things unto Himself--all things in heaven--all things in
earth."
This should be our boast--this should be our glory--for this do we meet
together every Christmas day.
But what is all this to us if that Blessed Man be gone away from us? Our
souls want more than I have told you yet. Our souls want more than a
beautiful and wonderful story _about_ Christ. They want Christ Himself.
Preaching is blessed and useful if it speaks of Christ. Our own thoughts
are blessed and useful if we think of Christ. The Bible is most blessed
and useful containing all things necessary to salvation, for it speaks of
Christ. Our prayers are blessed and useful if in them we call and cry
earnestly to Christ. But neither preaching, nor thinking, nor praying
are enough. In them we think about Him and speak to Him. _But we want
Him to speak to us_. We want not merely a man to say, your sins _may_ be
forgiven you; we want Christ Himself to say, "Your sins _are_ forgiven
you." We want not merely a wise book to tell us that the good men of old
belonged to Christ's kingdom--we want Christ Himself to tell us that we
belong to His kingdom. We want not merely a book that tells us that He
promised always to be with us--we want Him Himself to tell us that He is
really now with us. We want not merely a promise from a prophet of old
that in Him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, but a sign
from Christ Himself that this nation of England is really now blest in
Him. In short, we want not words, however true words, however fine
words, _about_ Christ. We want Christ Himself to forgive us our sins--to
give peace and freedom to our hearts--to come to us unseen, and fill us
with thoughts and longings such as our fallen nature cannot give us--such
thoughts and feelings as we cannot explain in words, for they are too
deep and blessed to be talked about--but thoughts which say to us, as if
the blessed Jesus Himself spoke to us in the depths of our hearts, "Poor,
struggling, sinful brother! _thou art mine_. For thee I was born--for
thee I died--thee I will teach--I will guide thee and inform thee with
mine eye--I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."
Well--you want _Him_--and you want a sign of Him--a sign of His own
giving that _He is among you this day_--a sign of His own giving that He
has taken you into His kingdom--a sign of His own giving that He died for
you--that He will feed and strengthen your souls in you with His own life
and His own body.
Then--there is a sign--there is the sign which has stood stedfast and
sure to you--and to your fathers--and your forefathers before them--back
for eighteen hundred years, over half the world. There is the bread of
which He said, "Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you."
There is the wine of which He said, "This cup is the New Covenant in my
blood, which is shed for you, and for many, for the forgiveness of sins."
There is His sign. Don't ask _how_. Don't try to explain it away, and
fancy that you can find fitter, and soberer, and safer, and more gospel-
sounding words than Jesus Christ's own, by which to speak of His own
Sacrament. But say, with the great Queen Elizabeth of old, when men
tried too curiously to enquire into her opinion concerning this blessed
mystery--
"Christ made the Word and spake it,
He took the bread and brake it,
And what His Word did make it,
That I believe, and take it."
He said, "This bread is my body which was broken for you." He said,
"This cup is the New Testament in my blood." Is it? or is it not? And
if it is, is not Christ among us now, indeed? Is not that something
better than all the preaching in the world? Jesus Christ, the King of
kings--the Saviour--the Deliverer--the Lamb of God--the Everlasting
Son--the Word--the Light--the Life--is here among us ready to feed our
souls in the Holy Sacrament of His body and blood, as surely as that
bread and wine will feed our bodies--yea--to feed our souls and bodies to
everlasting life. "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters
and drink. Come, buy wine without money and without price."