"The angels join the singing."
Well, it is easy enough for them to sing when we give the tone, for
it is never too high for them. It is different when we are to join
when they lead the singing. Sometimes it is a little bit hard for us
children of dust--but we must learn it.
They sang that Christmas Eve: "Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good will toward men!"
The first part of it is easy for you to sing, for "the glory of
Christmas is God's above the highest sky." That's quite simple.
But when the angels then sing: "On earth peace, good will toward men!"
you stop short; you cannot sing that. The tone is too high for you.
When you look at your own life, it seems to be burdened much more with
strife and worry and trouble than lightened by peace. And what do the
heavenly hosts mean when they sing about good will toward yourself--O,
well, it isn't much!
Then if you look beyond the narrow confines of your own life and behold
the church of the Lord, where peace should be far more firmly rooted,
then--what then? "The eye sees strife and only strife," and the people
_speak_ about peace and tremble in the thunder of cannon. They _bleed_
and _scream pitifully_ on the battlefield because of their wounds--and
at home under the pressure of military budgets.
No, you cannot join in the singing!
But how, then, could the angels sing as they did that Christmas night?
Was not the world filled with war and disturbances in those days, too?
Was not the world full of souls in quest of lost peace? Yes, even so!
And the angels saw it. But _they saw something more_.
Amidst all the restlessness of a disturbed world they saw a little
Child on His mother's knee. In this child's eyes the sacred peace of
Heaven was reflected. So that was at least one human soul in all the
millions of mankind where perfect peace reigned on earth.
Toward this, the only one, the angels looked.
When, then, you seek peace on earth, look not in the direction of the
world, of the struggling masses, but look toward Jesus--not as He was
that night on His mother's knee in the inn near Bethlehem--for He is
there no more, but as He is in His church, in His word, and in His
institutions. His church on earth is that mother's knee upon which you
shall find Him, and where you, in a world filled with war and strife,
shall find peace and repose for your own soul.
The angels made no attempt whatever to penetrate into the strife of
the world or to unravel its troubles. Neither shall you so do. On the
other hand, they tried to look into the eye of the Saviour, and there
they beheld Peace--a heavenly Peace which they had not seen on earth
since that evening hour when Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden
of Eden, and when one of their own kind was placed on guard with a
flaming sword at the portals of Paradise. Then night fell upon earth.
But Christmas Eve the new day began to arise from out of the darkness.
Then they saw again a human being in the depth of whose soul reigned
the Peace of Heaven, and therefore they bore their good will.
_The peace and the good will, then, was in this one man_, and through
Him born into the millions of mankind. The angels had seen this one,
and therefore they could sing as they did.
Perhaps you say: Well, I can understand plainly enough why God the
Father and the holy angels should bear Him good will. But were I to
join in the singing, I must needs be convinced that the Father would
also bear me good will. That is what I need to be convinced about.
But here I stand telling myself: The best acts in my life, the purest
thoughts in my soul, are darkened by sin. What then?
Yes, that is true.
But, then, tell me: Have you not at times felt the nearness of Jesus?
Was not He your soul's refuge in the darkness? Was not He like a
luminous star in your life? Was He not yours--conceived within you in
the sacred moment of baptism, born into the world with pangs within
your soul--perhaps in the darkness of night? But then the Father in
Heaven does bear you good will. He does not look at the darkness of sin
within you--that, He knows, will be vanquished by the light of His son,
but He looks at His only begotten Son who is the luminous star of your
life--the only one, but splendid and bright.
Then you own in Him the Peace of Heaven and the good will of God our
Father--and then you can _join in the singing_.