THE KING’ S BUSINESS
1108
The prominent doctrine in the Old Testa ment is the transcendence o f God. In the New Testament it is different—if is the imminence o f God. The great essential doctrine o f Christianity lies in these few words, “ His name shall be called Immanuel —that is, God'with us.” Not only was He with us for those thirty-three and a half years, but He is with us now. Christ was born amid the music o f heaven. It must never be forgotten that when Christianity has entered into the heart a new song has been put into the mouth o f the believer. Christianity in the heart means music in the life. A religion with out joy is a landscape without sun. Chris tianity has given to the world more songs, hymns, anthems, and manifold utterances o f joy and triumph than any other influence which has touched mankind. The incarnation was a coming o f God to man and in man. Not that God had not come to man before or that He had been an absentee. In many and various ways God had always been with His people. The incarnation is more than an approach to God, more than a speaking o f God to man, for He had done that before; in the voice in the soul, in conscience, in nature, through prophets and great men. But those who had listened most to these voices were the ones who longed for a yet clearer voice and were most ready to welcome some more tangible and reliable voice, speaking not only to but in humanity. And this is what we find in the incarnation. OUTLINES fluence today g than when angels first announced it. I. The Announcement of the Birth of the Saviour. 1. By whom the announcement was made.
Why do we celebrate the birthdays o f great men? Is it not because all that they were and did seems to be gathered up into that critical moment when the life first was present as a true, real fact among the lives o f men? . — 1------ The person o f Christ is the central truth o f Christianity. Around that pivotal fact gather and revolve all the beliefs peculiar to our holy, religion. Christianity'is belief in a Person. It is a life. It is an experience. “ Names and sects and parties fall, But Thou, O Christ, art all in all.” History exhibits other heroes as strong for destroying. He who can encircle a nation with blazing towns and villages and make the roadway to a capital to be red with blood has had his name written on the shining rolls o f earth’s great ones. But Christmas comes enthroning Him who is mighty, not to destroy, but to save. Jesus Christ is the only man' known in history who was born with specific refer ence to the sins o f the human family. He did not come with a small program. Others had done that, and the world had become sick and tired with them. Jesus took His stand at the heart o f the world’s sin. I thank God for all the moralists, philoso phers, and philanthropists, and for all they have done for my soul; but they are in sufficient, and I shall stand aside and make room for One who ean take away my sin. There is a fire o f sin in my bones burning up my life. JVho can put it out? There is a poison in my blood. Who has the antidote? -
SERMON
Theme: The Birth of Christ. T ext : Luke 2. I ntroduction .
Twenty centuries ago in an obscure town in Palestine,, in a stable, a child was born o f lowly parents^ yet around that natal hour the life, the love, and aspiration of millions have, from that day to this, been centered. That birth is more o f an in-
By angels. What more fitting accompaniment could there be to such an august event?
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