not the cold indifference of men and the lack of wel come which made His coming a story of pathos. It was not that He was homeless down here, but that He had departed from the home over there. The adora tion of angels and praise of the heavenly hosts were His rightful portion in heaven; the adoration befitting His person down here was secondary. Clear thinking would bring us to know that the absence of heaven's glory only accentuated the gloom of the stable to which He had come. The tinge of tragedy which sur rounds His birth does not lie in that to which He came, but in that which He had left in heaven. Another View of Christmas To us the familiar scenes of Christmas are Bethlehem, an Inn, a stable, a manger, oxen and straw. Actually, these are incidental to His birth. They afford only one half of the story, and we lose its beauty when we dwell upon the earthly environment and attendant cir cumstances; these are but trifles. Since His home in heaven is the one to which every Believer is going, let us lift our eyes from the earthly to the heavenly scene -from Bethlehem to the home in heaven. We are not tourists looking at the sights of Bethlehem-we are pilgrims on the way to our heavenly home, and it is time to examine the other side of the Christmas story that heavenly home. What Does Scripture Say1 We are confined to the pages of Scripture for all the knowledge we have about heaven. Anything beyond the pages of Scripture is pure speculation, a fantasy. The facts are that Scripture does not have much to say on this engaging subject. If man had written the Bible -unaided by the Holy Spirit-he would have elaborated on this theme. As has been stated, "Man having said so much could not have said so little." The silence of Scripture on some subjects is as much a proof of its inspiration as what it does say. There is a reverent 4
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