First, we are reminded that though this life must ever be a life of toil and effort, yet that, properly speaking, we have not to seek our highest good. It is found, it is brought near us, in the descent of the Son of GOD from His FATHER'S bosom to this world. It is stored up among us on earth. No longer need men of ardent minds weary themselves in the pursuit of what they fancy may be chief goods; no longer have they to wander about and encounter peril in quest of that unknown blessedness to which their hearts naturally aspire, as they did in heathen times. The text speaks to them as to all, "Unto you," it says, "is born this day in the city of David a SAVIOUR, which is CHRIST the LORD."

Nor again need we go in quest of any of those things which this vain world calls great and noble. CHRIST has altogether dishonoured what the world esteems, when He took on HIMSELF a rank and station which the world despises. No lot could be more humble and more ordinary than that which the Son of GOD chose for HIMSELF.

So that we have on the Feast of the Nativity these two lessons; instead of anxiety within and despondence without, instead of a weary search after great things, to be cheerful and joyful; and again, to be so in the midst of those obscure and ordinary circumstances of life which the world passes over and thinks scorn of. Let us consider this more at length, as contained in the gracious narrative of which the text is part.

1. First, what do we read just before the text? that there were certain shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, and Angels appeared to them. Why should the heavenly hosts appear to these shepherds? What was it in them which attracted the attention of the Angels and the LORD of Angels? Were these shepherds learned, distinguished, or powerful? Were they especially known for piety and gifts? Nothing is said to make us think so. Faith, we may safely say, they had, or some of them, for to him that hath more shall be given; but there is nothing to show that they were holier and more enlightened than other good men of the time, who waited for the consolation of Israel. Nay, there is no reason to suppose that they were better than the common run of men in their circumstances, simple, and fearing GOD, but without any great advances in piety, or any very formed habits of religion. Why then were they chosen?

for their poverty's sake and obscurity. ALMIGHTY GOD looks with a sort of especial love, or (as we may term it) affection upon the lowly. Perhaps it is that man, a fallen, dependent, and destitute creature, is more in his proper place when he is in lowly circumstances, and that power and riches, though unavoidable in the case of some, are unnatural appendages to man, as such. Just as there are trades and callings which are unbecoming, though requisite; and while we profit by them, and honour those the more who engage in them, yet we feel we are glad that they are not ours; as we feel grateful and respectful towards a soldier's profession, yet do not affect it; so in GoD's sight greatness is less acceptable than obscurity. It becomes us less.

The shepherds, then, were chosen on account of their lowliness, to be the first to hear of the LORD's nativity, a secret which none of the princes of this world knew.

And what a contrast is presented to us when we take into account who were our LORD's messengers to them! The Angels who excel in strength, these did His bidding towards the shepherds. Here the highest and the lowest of God's rational creatures are brought together. A set of poor men, engaged in a life of hardship, exposed at that very time to the cold and darkness of the night, watching their flocks, with the view of scaring away beasts of prey or robbers; they, when they are thinking of nothing but earthly things, counting over the tale of their sheep, keeping their dogs by their side, and listening to the noises over the plain, considering the weather and watching for the day, suddenly are met by far other visitants than they conceived. We know the contracted range of thought, the minute and ordinary objects, or rather the one or two objects, to and fro again and again without variety, which engage the minds of men exposed to such a life of heat, cold, and wet, hunger and nakedness, hardship and servitude. They cease to care much for any thing, but go on in a sort of mechanical way, without heart, and still more without reflection.

To men so circumstanced the Angel appeared, to open their minds, and to teach them not to be downcast and in bondage because they were low in the world. He appeared as if to show them that God had chosen the poor in this world to be heirs of His kingdom, and so to do honour to their lot. "Fear not," he

said, "for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a SAVIOUR, which is CHRIST the LORD.”

2. And now comes a second lesson, which I have said may be gained from the Festival. The Angel honoured a humble lot by his very appearing to the shepherds; next he taught it to be joyful by his message. He disclosed good tidings so much above this world as to equalize high and low, rich and poor, one with another. He said, "Fear not." This is a mode of address frequent in Scripture, as you may have observed, as if man needed some such assurance to support him, especially in God's presence. The Angel said, "Fear not," when he saw the alarm which his presence caused among the shepherds. Even a lesser wonder would have reasonably startled them. Therefore the Angel said, "Fear not." We are naturally afraid of any messenger from the other world, for we have an uneasy conscience when left to ourselves, and think that his coming forebodes evil. Besides, we so little realize the unseen world, that were Angel or spirit to present himself before us, we should be startled even from our unbelief, a truth being brought home to our minds which we never apprehended before. So for one or other reason the shepherds were sore afraid when the glory of the LORD shone around about them. And the Angel said, "Fear not." A little religion makes us afraid; when a little light is poured in upon the conscience, there is a darkness visible; nothing but sights of woe and terror; the glory of GoD alarms while it shines around. His holiness, the range and difficulties of His commandments, the greatness of His power, the faithfulness of His word, frighten the sinner, and men seeing him afraid, think religion has made him so, whereas he is not yet religious at all. They call him religious, when he is merely conscience-stricken. But religion itself, far from inculcating alarm and terror, says, in the words of the Angel, "Fear not;" for such is His mercy, while ALMIGHTY GOD has poured about us His glory, yet it is a consolatory glory, for it is the light of His glory in the face of JESUS CHRIST'. Thus the heavenly herald tempered the too dazzling brightness of the Gospel on that first Christmas. The glory of GoD at first alarmed the

2 2 Cor. iv. 6.

shepherds, so he added the tidings of good, to work in them a more wholesome and happy temper. Then they rejoiced.

"Fear not," said the Angel, "for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a SAVIOUR, which is CHRIST the LORD." And then, when he had finished his announcement, "suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising GOD and saying, Glory to GoD in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." Such were the words which the blessed spirits who minister to CHRIST and His Saints, spoke on that gracious night to the shepherds, to rouse them out of their cold and famished mood into great joy; to teach them that they were objects of God's love as much as the greatest of men on earth; nay more so, for to them first He had imparted the news of what that night was happening. His Son was then born into the world. Such events are told to friends and intimates, to those whom us, not to strangers. cious, and show His favour more impressively to the lowly and the friendless, than by hastening (if I may use the term) to confide the great, the joyful secret, to the shepherds keeping watch over their sheep by night?

we love, to those who will sympathise with How could ALMIGHTY GOD be more gra

The Angel then gave the first lesson of mingled humility and joyfulness; but an infinitely greater one was behind in the event itself, to which he directed the shepherds, in that birth itself of the Holy Child JESUS. This he intimated in these words: "Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Doubtless when they heard the LORD'S CHRIST was born into the world, they would look for HIM in kings' palaces. They would not be able to fancy that He had become one of themselves, or that they might approach HIM; therefore the angel thus warned them where to find HIм, not only as a sign, but as a lesson also.

"The shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the LORD hath made known to us." Let us too go with them, to contemplate that second and greater miracle to which the angel directed them, the Nativity of CHRIST. St. Luke says of the Blessed Virgin, "She brought forth her first-born Son, and

wrapped HIM in swaddling clothes, and laid HIM in a manger." What a wonderful sign is this to all the world, and therefore the Angel repeated it to the shepherds: "Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." The GOD of heaven and earth, the Divine WORD, who had been in glory with the Eternal FATHER from the beginning, HE was at this time born into this world of sin as a little infant. HE, as at this time, lay in His mother's arms, to all appearance helpless and powerless, and was wrapped by Mary in an infant's bands, and laid to sleep in a manger. The Son of GOD Most High, who created the worlds, became flesh, though remaining what He was before. He became flesh as truly as if He had ceased to be what He was, and had actually been changed into flesh. He submitted to be HE the offspring of Mary, to be taken up in the hands of a mortal, to have a mother's eye fixed upon HIM, and to be cherished in a mother's bosom. A daughter of man became the mother of GoD -to her, indeed, an unspeakable gift of grace; but in HIM what condescension! What an emptying of His glory to become man! and not only an helpless infant, though that were humiliation enough, but to inherit all the infirmities and imperfections of our nature which were possible to a sinless soul. What were His thoughts, if we may venture to use such language or admit such a reflection concerning the Infinite, when human feelings, human sorrows, human wants, first became His? What a mys

tery is there from first to last in the Son of GOD becoming man! Yet in proportion to the mystery is the grace and mercy of it; and as is the grace, so is the greatness of the fruit of it. Let us steadily contemplate the mystery, and say whether any consequence is too great to follow from so marvellous a dispensation; any mystery so great, any grace so overpowering, as that which is already manifested in the incarnation and death of the Eternal SON. Were we told that the effect of it would be to make us as seraphim, that we were to ascend as high as He descended lowwould that startle us after the Angels' news to the shepherds? And this indeed is the effect of it, so far as such words may be spoken without impiety. Men we remain, but not mere men, but gifted with a measure of all those perfections which CHRIST has in fulness, partaking each in his own degree of His divine nature so fully, that the only reason (so to speak) why His saints