The childhood of Jesus was attended by remarkable recognitions of His
Divinity. At His birth, at His dedication, in Herod's instant resolve to
kill Him, in the Temple with the fathers, by many clear tokens men
confessed and acknowledged that He was the Son of God. If He is being
formed in you there will be equally definite and not very dissimilar signs
of recognition.
First, before all else, you will know, with Mary, that the new life
entrusted to you is Divine; that God has entered into your heart to make
all things new. It is just the absence of this assurance which stamps so
much of the Christianity of the present day as--in effect--a religion
without God. Its professors have no certainty. They seek, but they do not
find; they ask, but they do not receive; they have no sure foundation in
the sanction of their own consciousness to the indwelling Person; they
have no revelation; they have, in short, no God. How far--even as the east
is from the west--is this from the glorious confidence with which Mary
sang, and in which you can join, if, indeed, your Christ is come: "My soul
doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced _in God my
Saviour_."
Salvation is of the Lord, and so is the assurance of it. Where there is
the life of God, there will be His witness, even in the heart of the
weakest and slowest servant of all His household. If you are not clear
about this first evidence of your Lord's coming, let me counsel you that
there is something wrong. _If Christ be formed in you, you will
assuredly know it beyond the power of men or devils to make you doubt_.
But others than Mary also acknowledge this appearance of God "manifest in
the flesh." The shepherds and the Wise Men, Holy Simeon, and Herod the
king, each in his own way adds his own tribute to the New Life that had
come down to man.
The shepherds and the strangers from afar bow down and worship. Strangers,
perhaps, were more ready to rejoice with you than your own kith and kin
when first Christ came to you.
Simeon, who had so desired to see the salvation of God, sees and is
satisfied. Perhaps some Simeon had thus watched and waited and wept for
you, and when the Lord came to His temple, he saw it, and was ready to
depart with joy.
Herod the king sought to kill the Child. So it is even now. Don't be
deceived; where Christ comes, storms come. The world of selfishness and
power and wealth will kill the Divine Thing in you, if it can. Between the
prince of this world and the Prince of the world to come no truce was
possible long ago in quiet Judea, and no truce is possible now. The spirit
of the world is still the spirit of murder. It is called by other names
to-day, and, under its influence, men will tell you that the life of God
in you is not to take those forms of violent opposition to wrong, and of
passionate devotion to right, and of burning zeal and self-denial for the
lost, which they took in Jesus. The real meaning of their tale is that
they are seeking to kill the Child.
But do not be dismayed. Remember Mary's flight into Egypt. The great peril
of her Son made her regardless of her friends, of her reputation, of her
home, of her life. She must guard that precious Life at any cost, at any
risk, at any loss. Is there not a lesson in her example? Let nothing, let
not all the sum total of this world's pleasures and possessions lead you
to risk the Life of God in your soul. Listen to no voices that counsel
friendship, or parley, or compromise with the world--_the spirit of
Herod is in it_. If you cannot preserve that Indwelling without
flying--from somewhere, or something, or some one--then fly. If you cannot
guard that Presence without losing all, then let all be lost, and in
losing all you shall find more than all.