December 1927
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
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God would proceed. He came to His own, they that were His own, and He found them degenerate, blind, deaf; they did not recognize Him. “They received Him not.” Nobody made room for that mother and Child, even in the hour of her supreme agony. She had to find refuge somewhere else. Oh the shame of it! But the shame of His being born in that stall for cattle was not His. No location could degrade Him. The shame was humanity’s. Pass, again to the human side—the shame of it that any baby, to say nothing of this, God-Man Child, should thus be born. There He represents every baby to the end of time. The moment we are conscious of the shame that He should be so born, unless we miss His meaning alto gether, we recognize the shame that any child should ever be so born. . . Every baby ought to be welcomed into this world with awe, with anthems. The mystery of every baby new born is the mystery of humanity.: Bishop South, when he looked at the horror and the terror of the slum areas of London,' and then thought of the babies born there, said __and I am not concerned to argue about the theology of his argument, but I am in sympathy with the heart of the Bishop—“These children are more damned than born into‘the world.” . . . . M Every baby born should be received with awe. Every baby in the world mirrors humanity’s understanding of the deepest mystery of life. I learn all that by looking at that manger and seeing in it that Child, the God-Child. That Child represented every baby born to the end of time, and through all the pro-creative processes, until the culmination of what God has in His mind for-human ity. If we are filled with shame when we think that He was so born, our. sense of shame inevitably goes out in the. presence of other children so born. T h e G lory O f I t Once more, there was no room. Oh the glory of it! The glory of it ! First, in that He came at all. The Word became flesh. Oh the glory of it! Everybody loves George Meredith’s poem to the Baby. Go back and look into that manger and at that Baby. As I said before—I make no apology for repeating it—just a baby, the same little fingers, the same little toes, the same little eyes, and we say with George Meredith, “Where did you come from, baby dear?” , , We have often used the next line, but the only baby of whom'it is absolutely true for all time is that Baby— “Out of the everywhere into here.” Oh the glory of it that He came, and that in coming He passed all palaces, passed all human habitations, and pitched Plis tent outside even the “kataluma,” the inn ! He came so low in His coming, that to the end of time every homeless baby might be His companion. The baby born in the hedgerow, the baby born in hiding, no home! So this Baby came, stooping, stooping, bending. Oh, this was no accident. There are no accidents in the high kingdom of heaven. His coming was fore ordained and pre-arranged, and for the glorifying of humanity by Divine wisdom He came, choosing so to come. He came so low, I repeat, that every homeless baby might be His companion to the end of time. There fore no baby so born is degraded. If there be degrada tion, it is the degradation of the people that allow such a thing to be. The child is not degraded. I learn at His crib that every baby born is possible of the glory that you see when you behold God incarnate in a manger crib.
He Stooped So Low B y P. D ouglas B ird He stooped so low! and love Divine Touch’d ev’.ry earthly thing: He knew life’s temptings, fought the fight, A glorious Savior-King. He stooped so low! love’s golden chains ' He bound about us then, To lift us high up unto God. Poor, sinful sons of men. He stooped so low! equal with God Yet one with us He came, ' , A trav’ler on earth’s lonesome way, And bearing Jesus’ name. He stooped so low! yet without sin®ig He did not suffer loss When our poor ruthless hands did nail His body to the Cross. He stooped so low! dear Jesus, friend, To know Him as we should, He stooped so low, and lifted us- To holy brotherhood. (Dedicated to Dr. John M. Maclnnis, the writer of an article, entitled “He Stooped So Low,” published in K ing ’ s B usiness , Dec. 1926.)
to be born, the inn in reality, could not have contained Him either as God or man. T h e S hame O f I t The shame of i t ! The shame of it on the Divine side. In the great prologue of the Gospel according to John, he says, “He came to His own.” The reference is to the material creation. Some translators suggest that the reference is to His own city, or His own land. To me the statement is a bigger .one than that, referring to His own earth! Keep the statement in relation with the context: “The Same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made that hath been made.” The material order ! He came to His own, His own earth. Then the words “His own” in the next sentence refer to His own people. This is a reference to the Jewish people; undoubtedly, but surely more—to His own humanity. They that were His own—Plis kith and kin in human nature—received Him not. He came to His own planet which He had planned and created with all its magnificence, and in all its detail— and there was no room for Him. He came to His own people, to His own humanity, that strange mystery of our being, in which I think angels have ever been interested, to understand whereunto the majesty and the meaning of
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