_THE LORD OF WORKING MEN_
LUKE ii. 8-20.
And so the good news was told to shepherds, to working men who were
toiling in the fields. The coming King would hallow the common work of
man, and in His love and grace all the problems of labour would find a
solution.
The Lord of the Christmas-tide throws a halo over common toil. Even
Christian people have not all learnt the significance of the angels' visit
to the lonely shepherds. Some of us can see the light resting upon a
bishop's crosier, but we cannot see the radiance on the ordinary
shepherd's staff. We can discern the hallowedness of a priest's vocation,
but we see no sanctity in the calling of the grocer, or of the scavenger
in the street. We can see the nimbus on the few, but not on the crowd; on
the unusual, but not upon the commonplace. But the very birth-hour of
Christianity irradiated the humble doings of humble people. When the
angels went to the shepherds, common work was encircled with an immortal
crown.
And it is in the Lord Jesus that all labour troubles are to be put to
rest. If we work from any other centre we shall arrive at confusion
confounded. "I have the keys."