Joy to the world,--the Lord is come,
Let earth receive her King,
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing.
With these words of exultation would I greet you on this festival
morn. Joy to the world, the Lord is come; the King, Messiah, after
weeks of preparation, is making His triumphal entry into the
habitation of men. Indeed, the long expected guest, with whom our
thoughts, songs, and services in the past season of Advent were
occupied, has at length arrived. How shall we receive Him? When He
first came, nineteen hundred and ---- years ago, in Bethlehem's
town, there was a stir and commotion. Wise men suspended their
studies and speculations and followed the sign in the firmament
which conducted them to the place where the young Child lay; an
angel from heaven was sent as a herald to proclaim the glad tidings
of great joy, while the multitude of the heavenly host eagerly
descended to congratulate men and made the celestial heights resound
with their seraphic acclamation: "Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, good will toward men." And, taking up that chant:
"Our heart from very joy doth leap, our lips no more can silence
keep." Dull like the ground he walks upon must be the man who,
amongst the holy demonstration that is upon the social world, the
cheerful merrymaking that is in earth's homes, the radiations of
festivities and greetings of cordiality and good will, will not feel
a pulsation of that cheer and brightness in his own heart. How this
fact of our Christian faith, our Savior's birth, God's assumption of
mutual flesh, the coming of the Most High to tabernacle among men,
has been more than any other an occasion of universal rejoicing,
the center of earth's noblest and holiest joy in family and in
the sanctuary! Is it not fitting that it should be so? Merry
Christmas, happy Christmas, blessed Christmas, we bid thee welcome!
We rejoice that in the rounds of the calendar it has come again.
And how shall we observe it? How receive its spiritual and highest
blessedness unto ourselves? By lighting up a few candles on our
trees? Decorating our windows and walls with some sprigs of garlands
and green? By attending a few services during which we are present
in body, but largely absent in spirit? The quiet contemplation,
the sinking of our minds into the great mystery of godliness: God
manifested in the flesh, the realization as it comes from pious
meditation of what it all means to us and to all mankind, and that
when the external glamor and motion shall have passed over, it shall
have left us benefited and blessed in soul, beloved, is not this,
after all, for us Christians, the true significance of this holiday
time? And it is in harmony with this, that we would bring to our
minds the words of the text. Let us devoutly, with concentrated and
holy thoughts, regard God's gift, for thus reads the text: "Thanks
be unto God for His unspeakable Gift."
I. _Which is this gift?_ II. _Note what is said about it._ III.
_Our conduct respecting it._
Which is it? God, my beloved hearers, is always good. His very name,
God, which means good, bespeaks that. Continually is He bestowing
gifts and favors upon us. "His constant mercies," declares the
psalmist, "are new to us every morning." What is there which we
possess that He has not given us?--clothing and shoes, meat and
drink, house and home, wife and children, fields, cattle, and all my
goods. But there is one gift that excels and outstrips them all.
Our children, in the course of the year, are being constantly
provided with all that they need to support their bodies and lives,
articles of food and dress and mind, and yet the best donations we
afford them, those which cause their youthful hearts to skip as the
lambs, are invariably given in the days of Christmas festivity. So
with the beneficent Parent on high,--always good and gracious, yet
His foremost and most excellent gift He bestows at this time. And
which is it? Yonder, in Bethlehem's manger, it lies. Insignificant
enough as you gaze upon it with outward eyes: how tiny,
unpretentious, judged by the standard of men; what lowly quarters,
what unfavorable circumstances, what socially unassuming people;
that woman watching over the Child, those shepherds hastening
thither from their humble toil,--certainly nothing there to impress
one. And this is Heaven's foremost and precious gift, the gift of
all gifts. Is that the best that God can give us? Yes.
For various reasons. In determining the value of earthly donations,
different considerations weigh and prevail. For once, it is the
sentiment that prompted that gift; it frequently is not so much
the mercantile value of the gift as it is the considerations, the
spirit, the sentiment, and affection that go along with it; and
there, after all, rests its real power and beauty. Regard God's
Christmas gift. The Apostle calls it "unspeakable"; he declares that
it towers in its value and majesty beyond the reach of language
and beyond the power of human expression. 'Tis truly so. What
sentiment prompted it? "God so _loved_ the world that He gave His
only-begotten Son." There we have the motive, His love. And why
did He love man? Because he was so lovable? Nay, man had rebelled
against Him, had raised himself up in disobedience against Him and
His holy commandments and was at enmity with Him, and still God
loved him, loved the child that had forsaken and sinned against
Him, and so loved him that He spared not His dearest and His best,
but delivered Him up for us all. Oh! the greatness of that charity,
that love divine, all love excelling, love that passed all knowledge
and understanding and expression too,--that supplied the Gift
unspeakable, says the Apostle.
Again, when we are the recipients of gifts, we examine them, we give
them careful scrutiny, we desire to know: What is that which we have
received? Apply that to God's Christmas gift. What is it? He tells
us: "Unto you is born this day a Savior, which is Christ, the Lord."
Not a star, not a world, not any created thing, but Christ, the Lord.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail th' incarnate Deity.
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
O the mystery, the impenetrable mystery of the gift! As you sit
down and meditate upon it, as you reflect and gaze upon that divine
Child, reason is confounded, thought is pushed to confusion, faith
stands in profound contemplation on the brink of this sea, too
deep for human intelligence to fathom, too broad for man's mind to
encircle, and yet, let us not stagger at the wonderful fact. We
are standing to-day, my beloved, in the presence of the greatest
miracle of time. We behold here no ordinary child. It's Deity in
humanity, Divinity in infancy. In this little body is bound up
God's immensity, in this Babe's weakness is enclosed heaven's
almightiness. This child resting at His mother's breast (who can
grasp it?) is the Lord of glory, the worshipful Creator of the
universe, God blest forevermore.
Such is the nature of the gift--"unspeakable," as the Apostle
declares.
Again, we consider the purpose of the gift. There are every variety
and quality of gifts bestowed at this season: ornamental ones,
serving the purpose of decoration and embellishment, beautiful for
the eye to behold; useful ones, administering to the necessity
and the comforts of their recipients. How about God's Christmas
gift? Ah! for human lips to speak out its value. Again we lisp,
"Unspeakable." What illustrations might I employ? You lift up your
eyes and encounter the bright rays of the sun; what would this world
be without the light and warmth that comes from its radiant face?
You feel the drops of rain falling in gentle showers; what would the
soil be without these rivulets and streams that fructify its acres?
Yet all such illustrations are too improper to express what this
world would spiritually be without Christ. Said the angel: "Unto
you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior." In that word
you have the key of Christmas and the purpose of God's Christmas
gift. "A Savior"--what a chapter that opens before us! Back to
the days of Paradise does it conduct us, when man was dwelling in
innocence, fell and falling, carrying himself and all his posterity
to universal and eternal destruction. Sin, that most terrible of all
evils upon the soul, thorns and thistles upon the ground, misery and
sickness and death upon the body, the whole creation groaning and
travailing in pain,--this was the sorry consequence, and this is
the sad, sad story as it is read in the history of every man's life
and of the world at large. And whence was deliverance to come? From
man? Helpless, powerless, hopeless creature, how could he cancel
the curse that rested upon soul and body and ailing earth? A more
powerful one held him at his mercy; and what could he do to pluck
out the sting of death beneath whose dominion he had completely
fallen? A more dismal condition could never exist. What man needed
was a Savior, a Deliverer mightier than the forces that held him
bound, and such a one God had promised man. Adam and Eve, leaving
Paradise, were consoled by the prediction of the Seed of the Woman
that should bruise the head of the serpent--the Savior, Abraham,
Seth, Enoch, Noah, Isaac, and Jacob looked forward to that Deliverer
and were sustained by the hope: Ah, that the Savior soon would
come to break our bondage and lead us home! Succeeding saints and
prophets took up the pleading strain, and sang and prophesied of His
advent, and finally, when the fullness of time was come, He arrived;
and what did He bring?
The supply of man's foremost and chief requisite--what is that?
Wealth, affluence of estate? Support of body? Not so. This is not
man's foremost need. Education of mind, culture of intellect?
Neither that. What is it? Deliverance from sin, death, and the power
of the devil, and the salvation of man's immortal soul; for what is
a man profited though he should gain the whole world, and possess
all treasures and mines of knowledge, and possess not and know not
how to save his soul? Beloved, when you reflect what this world
would be without this divine Christmas gift, then we might well ask,
Would life be worth living without Him? It would, indeed, be a dark
chapter, a barren and gloomy prison cell. And so, having regarded
these various particulars, we almost instinctively give voice to
the Apostle's declaration: "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift." That brings us to the concluding part of our consideration.
A donation so transcendent calls for some corresponding attitude.
What would we think of a child accepting its holiday gifts without
showing appreciation, and speaking not a word of acknowledging
thanks? Nothing is more rude than ingratitude. That spoils it
all. Look at the interest the heavenly inhabitants took in that
unspeakable gift. They came down with gracious messages concerning
it. They were all present and sang their highest songs when the
Savior was born. Their conduct was just such as we may expect from
beings so pure, so intelligent, and yet it was not to them, nor for
them. "Unto us a Child is born, unto us this Son is given." It is
for us and for our salvation that the Lord of glory came and was
made man. Here is a thought that ought to stir us to a higher pitch
of emotion and gratitude. People have capacities to appreciate
favors, to acknowledge good, to feel the worth of help when great
and pressing need is upon them; why not over against this amazing
goodness of God? Oh! that any human heart should be found weighted
down by such leaden dullness that it should fail in its adoring
thankfulness to God for His unspeakable gift. Far better such had
never been born!
And thankfulness and rejoicing, if genuine, is never selfish.
Observe our children at this time. When they have received their
gifts, they do not selfishly hug them to themselves, place them in a
corner, and strive to keep others from seeing them; they run about
displaying what kindness has bestowed, shout and make commotion, nor
feel happier than when others--their playmates and companions--come
to share in their merriment. It is not different with God's
Christmas gift; it is designed to be the occasion of universal
joy. "I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all
people." "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son."
A certain ancient writer remarks: "Were some explorer to discover
the real elixir of life by which life and health and youth might
be made perpetual, with what shouts of triumph and songs of joy
would the discovery be heralded forth!" Friend would rush to bear
the glad tidings to friend, over hill and mountain; across valley
and plain would the joyful tidings roll, until there were no
solitary inhabitant, be his dwelling ever so remote or concealed,
but would have found it out. Beloved, here is the true elixir of
life, in Bethlehem's manger; there is the fountain of perpetual
health and youth. Let the glorious truth, then, receive universal
proclamation; let the tawny African in his dark jungle, the Eskimo
in his icy, squalid hut, the dweller in the most distant isle, and
the man, woman, and child that lives with you and next to you,--let
one and all hear the glad news that God's unspeakable gift has come
to earth. Yes, let this blessed truth spread till every sinful and
sorrowing brother may rejoice with us, and that from earth and sky
may echo forth in grateful refrain: "Thanks be unto God for His
unspeakable Gift," now on these present Christmas festivals, and
then when these earthly celebrations will have passed over into
the celebration of heaven, we shall see and adore Him who was once
a babe in Bethlehem, but now sitteth upon the throne, God blessed
forevermore. Amen.