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The Forgotten Man of Christmas ( Continued from Page 461)
Commander, nor so busy winning souls that they lost affection for the Saviour of souls. Eagerly they peered into that eastern window and impatiently besought Him to return. - The Lord is just as eager to see and be with His purchased and divinely ordained Bride as she is to be with Him. He responds to her longing: "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Rev. 22:12). That Other Christmas ' Let us turn our eyes toward the eastern window and look toward the sunrising—“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and Our-Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Like the fisher men of old, we are tossed upon the troubled waters of a stormy sea. Despondency and feâr grip our hearts. Cold, Worn, and depressed, we must frequently drive ourselves into Christian activity; we toil all night and the catch is pitifully small. - Dear friends, “the night is far spent, the day is at hand” ! -Lift up. your heads, for “ that other Christmas” is- not far distant. Every furious billow that surges around us, every hour of patient toil, every fervent prayer Of faith -bring us nearer the day when we shall see Him who, during all the dark hours of the night, has been standing upon the shore, with anxious eyes upon His own. That will be our great liberation day when all the shad ows, all the “light afflictions which are but for a mo ment” will vanish forever, and we shall stand in the pres ence of His glory, faultless, and with exceeding joy. “That other Christmas”—what a day! On the first Christmas He came in obscurity to die in shame and sor row, hut this time He w ill come in splendor “to be glori fied in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day” (2 Thess. 1:10). For all unbelievers that will be a time of terror when they shall suffer swift destruc tion, from His presence,- but this is not the chief purpose of His coming nor is this a matter in which Christ will -find satisfaction. He will rejoice only in them that believe. " : “That other Christmas!” It will mean our glorifica tion: “We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Then shall we be rid forever of all inward corruption which now dishonors Christ’s name and discredits His Gospèl. Then shall we outsoar the annoying limits of the body. What a day when the dawn of eternity bursts upon us and from the four corners of the earth we shall be gathered Home for “ that other Christmas” ! It is stated that in the battle of Agincourt, Henry the Fifth figured prominently. After the battle was glori ously won, he wanted to acknowledge divine aid, so he ordered his chaplain to read a Psalm of David. When in the reading, the verse was reached: “ Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory . . .,” the king, :with his officers and men, dismounted, and threw themselves upon their faces. On “that other Christmas,” angels will gather about the throne of God, and at thé sight of Christ and His blood-washed Bride, w ill prostrate themselves before Him (Rev. 7:11). And we, at the sound of the victorious trum pet* shall gather on those eternal shores, and, as we catch the first glimpse of our Beloved, we shall fall upon our faces,, crying, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen” (Rev. 1:5,6). “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20). Hasten “that other Christmas” day!
corn of wheat falling into the earth, first of all, refers to Jesus Himself. Before life, there must be death. The primary application of these words of Jesus is to His death on the Cross. These Greeks had to see Calvary to have that prayer granted: “Sir, we would see Jesus.” The only Jesus worth seeing is the Christ of Calvary. You may talk of Jesus the prophet, Jesus the way-shower, Jesus the martyr, Jesus the teacher, Jesus the great ex ample, but if you see no more than that, you have not yet really seen Jesus. One must behold Him as the Christ of the Cross, for, apart from His death, He is no more able to save sinners than are you or any other human being. “ Except a corn of wheat fall in the earth and die, it abideth alone.” Unless Jesus dies, He abides alone but if He dies, He brings forth much fruit. The figure is clear and simple. One grain of wheat cannot satisfy a hungry man, much less save a starving man from death. The only way that one grain can feed a multitude is for it to fa ll into the ground and die. One grain is planted, decays in the earth, and from that planting spring one hundred other grains of wheat. Plant those, and there are ten thousand. The ten thou- rsand are planted and there is a bushel. The bushel produces a wagonload; the wagonload a carload; th e . carload planted is sufficient to feed a multitude. A ll of this vast yield began when one'grain alone fell into the ground and gave its life. The whole harvest was in the death of that one seed. Jesus is the corn of wheat. By His life alone no one is saved; His birth was not enough. Christmas is empty without Calvary. We need a dying Saviour, not an example, but a substitute. By His death He became “The Bread of Life.” So we look to Calvàrÿ, td the bleed ing, dying Lamb of God. There we seg tpe real Jesus. No man has ever seen Jesus until he has seen Him on the Cross for his sin. I had heard of Jesus from my earliest days, yet I never really saw Him until twenty years ago, when, as a lost and godless practicing physician, I came face to face with Calvary and took Him as my Saviour. T learned of Him from mother’s lips; at my mother’s knee. I heard pf Him from my father. I was taught about Him in the Sunday school, in the catechism class, in the church and the home. But I never really saw \ Jesus until I was stricken down by sin. Facing hell, I •iSaw Him as my Saviour. “I saw one hanging on a tree, In agony and blood, He fixed His languid eyes on me As by His Cross I stood” And it was there I saw Jesus, and cried out, “Oh, can it be upon the tree My Saviour died for me! My soul was thrilled, my.heart was filled; To think He died for me.” “We would see Jesus.” W ill you see Him this Christmas season? What is our great concern during these pre-Christmas days? Is it what we are going to have for Christmas dinner? Or what presents to send to whom? Are we all adither about the decorations in our churches for our Christmas programs? Perhaps a preacher is worried about what he should f preach bn that day because the story of Christmas is so \ familiar. Let me give you a tip: Preach a sermon on \ the Cross on Christmas day! Let us make “The Forgotten Man of Christmas” the most remembered One this holiday season; and every dav of our lives, for time and for eternity.
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