709
T H E
K I N G ’ S
B U S I N E S S
December 1926
The Bells of Bethlehem REV. DAVID JAMES BURRELL, D.D., LL.D.
Second note. “His name Bhall be called Counsellor. That is to say, He shall answer the world’s need of counsel. And what do men want but to know the way—the way of truth and righteousness—the way back to God? If ever thou standest at the crossroads, unable to discern betwixt the worse and better reason, behold, thou shalt hear a Voice behind thee saying, “This Is the way, walk ye In It.” And If thou knowest not the Voice, remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Third note. “His name shall be called the Mighty God.” When Moses desired to see God’s glory he hid himself In a cleft of the rock and saw nothing, heard nothing but the rustle of a garment as the Lord passed by. Come now to Bethlehem and behold the hiding of His strength! Is proof demanded of the Godhead of Jesus? Leave that to the theologians. For us the breaking of the day requires no proof. It is enough that the Joy of the morning quivers in the air, that the time of the singing of birds is come, that the eastern sky is radiant with advancing light, that the world grows brighter under the Influence of the Sun of Righteousness with every passing day. Fourth note. “His name shall be called the Everlasting Father.” How then shall He be the only begotten Son? In the mystery of the ineffable Trinity there are not three Gods, but three persons In one; and Jesus is “the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” As Ulysses, returning from wars, unbuckled his armor that his children might know him, so the Father unveils Himself In the person of His Incarnate Son. “Show us the Father,” said Philip, “and It sufflceth us.” And Jesus said, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou then. Show us the Father? Believest thoq not that I am in the Father, and the Father In me?” Fifth note. “And his name shall be called the Prince pf Peace.” His Gospel Is the Gospel of Reconciliation; of reconciliation between God and man by the blotting out of sin, and of man with his fellow men by the Golden Rule which Is destined to bring In the Golden Age. How, then, after the lapse of nineteen centuries, Should the nations be now arrayed against each other? T ie day does not dawn with a sunburst. "In due time he that shall come will come and will make no tarrying." But the way to ultimate peace is over many a bloody field'. “I am come,” said Jesus, “not to bring peace but a sword”—a sword that shall ever leap from Its scabbard when the beacons of justice and humanity are kindled on the hills. Meanwhile progress is a fact, and history Is not a closed book. The royal standards onward go. II. The Anointing of the King The message of the prophetic bells Is followed by a Voice proclaiming the investiture of the Messiah with a threefold authority. First: “The government shall be upon his shoulder”. The picture Is of an Oriental sovereign bearing the key as the symbol of his rightful reign. The authority of Jesus is
HE Word Of the Lord la yea and amen. When He told Adam, who had been beguiled by the serpent, "that “the Seed of Woman” was to come In the -fullness of time to bruise .the serpent’s head, He meant It, But the years dragged their slow length along until centuries had passed, and still He came not. I. The Bells The shadows deepened Into an Egyptian night. Then Isaiah rang the chimes of prophecy with a gladsome sound, and hope revived. But Isaiah the bell-ringer could only foretell. The weary world must still be waiting while seven centuries drag their slow length along. Then the hands on God’s dial point to the hour, and the clock strikes. In Bethlehem of Judqa a woman Is crooning a lullaby to her child lying In a manger. God has not forgotten to be gracious. This Is the long-looked-for Messiah “whom kings and prophets longed to see and died without the sight. The song of the angels, “Glory to God In the highest, peace on earth and good will to men,” is but an articulation of the far-away bells of prophecy. The angel of the Annunciation had said to Mary, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins” ; and this was what they christened Him. And here again we observe the fulfilment of prophecy; for what is "Jesus” but all His ancestral names rolled Into one? Listen to the live reverberating strokes of Isaiah’s bells: First note. “He shall be called Wonderful.” Wonderful in birth; as It Is written, “Great is the mystery of godliness; God Is manifest In flesh; the angels desire to look Into it.” Who shall explain the Interweaving of Deity and humanity, as warp and woof, In the fabric of this Child wrapped In swaddling bands and lying in a manger? Yet upon those swaddling bands Is written Immanuel, God with us. Wonderful is His life—a life briefly comprehended in the monograph, “He went about doing good”—a life so blame less that He who lived It could challenge the world to lay anything to His charge—a life so Immortal that Its influ ence along the centuries shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Wonderful is His death; for never man died like this Man. He tested death not for Himself but for every man. He was innocent of sin, yet He bore the burden of the world’s Bin until His great heart broke under It. Wonderful is His resurrection; for by the power of His in-dwelling endless life He triumphed over the king of ter rors, and, ascending up on high, took captivity captive that He might forevermore give gifts unto men. Wonderful—most wonderful—Is His life after death; for now He sltteth upon His throne high and lifted up, directing the course of current events. “Is it not amazing,” said Napoleon, “that whereas the ambitious dreams of Caesar and Alexander and myBelf should have vanished Into thin air, a Judean peasant should be able to stretch a dead hand across the centuries add control the destinies of nations and the children of men?”
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