_Poverty and friendlessness are often
found in company with a great heart_.
There was no home for Jesus in Bethlehem. There was no room for Him in the
inn. There was no cradle in the stable. There was no protector when Herod
arose to kill. What a strange world it is! Did ever babe open eyes on such
a topsy-turvy condition of affairs? The King of Glory had not where to lay
His head! Mary, it is true, was strong in faith, but both she and Joseph
must needs soon fly into Egypt with the Babe. Refused at the inn, soon
even the stable must cast them out!
He came to take all men into His heart, and they, ere ever they saw Him,
cast Him forth as an outlaw!
And we who know what it means to be loved of Him, what can we say? Our
hearts are bowed with something of shame and grief that He thus suffered,
and yet we have a secret joy because He suffered so well! For of all the
greatnesses of the Babe this is the greatest--the greatness of His heart.
"The Sacred Heart of Jesus," the Romanists call it. "The All-Conquering
Heart of Jesus," I prefer to name it. For it was His wealth of love that
really gave Him the victory.
Does one read these lines who is poor, who is cast out by those who are
dear, who is a stranger in a strange land, who is driven from "pillar to
post," who is harassed by open foes and wounded by secret enmity? Well, to
that one let me say, remember your Lord's poverty and friendlessness;
remember the tossings up and down of His infancy; the frugal cottage home
in Nazareth wherein His family was finally gathered--despite its bareness
and toil--was a place of peace and abundance, compared with the stable,
the flight into Egypt, and the sojourn among aliens there.
Are you, dear friend, tempted to complain of your narrow surroundings, of
your small opportunity to shine before others, or of a want of
appreciation of your service and gifts and powers by those who should know
you? Oh, remember the Babe, and the long years of His condescension to men
of low estate, to the cramped surroundings of the carpenter's shed, and
the sleepy Jewish village. Are you tried sometimes because you have to
suffer the hatred or jealousy, secret or open, of those for whom you feel
nothing but goodwill, and who perhaps once thought themselves happy in
your friendship? Well, in such hours, remember your Master, and the hatred
of Herod seeking to kill the Child. Try to call to mind something of the
secret, as well as the open, bitterness of men, religious and irreligious
alike, which began to hunt Him while yet in swaddling clothes, and which
hunted Him still all through His days.
But amidst it all, what a great heart of passionate love was His! Blessed
be His Name for ever! Whether the poverty and suffering and hatred were or
were not favourable to it, there it was--_the Great Heart of all the
world_. What about you? Can you ever be again the same since you
learned that He loved you? Can you ever be again content to remain little
and narrow, with interests and affections that are little and narrow also?
Will you not rise, as He rose, above the small ambitions of the spiritual
pigmies who meet you at every turn, determined to look beyond your own
tiny circle, and the low aims of those around you? Depend upon it, you
ought to do so. Depend upon it, the Holy Saviour can enable you to do so.
Depend upon it, the world's great need is "Great Hearts." Will you be one?