% The sun sets on the 24th of December on the low roofs of Bethlehem, and gleams with wan gold on the steep of its stony ridge. The stars come out one by one. Time itself, as if sentient,
1 Ruth R. Chadwiok.
254 SHILOH
seems to get eager, as though the hand of its augel shook as it draws on towards midnight. Bethlehem is at that moment the veritable centre of God's creation. How silently the stars drift down the steep of the midnight sky ! Yet a few moments, and the Eternal Word will come.^
like silver lamps in a distant shrine,
The stars are sparkling bright; The bells of the city of Grod ring out,
For the Son of Mary was born to-night; The gloom is past, and the morn at last
Is coming with orient light.
Never fell melodies half so sweet As those which are filling the skies;
And never a palace shone half so fair
As the manger bed where our Saviour lies;
No night in the year is half so dear As this which has ended our sighs.
U. The Purpose of the Coming.
The ultimate purpose of His coming is expressed by St. Paul in two sentences, one of which is found in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the other in the companion Epistle to the Colossians.
1. It is God's purpose, says the Apostle, to " gather together in one all things in Christ " (Eph. i. 10). This corresponds with the Authorized translation of our text: "Unto him shall the gathering of the people be." Christ is the centre. God will exalt Him. The world may despise Him. In Psalm Ixii we read, " They only consult to cast him down " ; and in Psalm ii., "The kings of the earth and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed." But Jehovah has said, " My purpose shall stand, and I will fulfil all my pleasure." Though earth and hell conspire to prevent it, " Unto him " — the Christ of God — " shall the gathering of the people be."
^ This is a gathering together of scattered things, simdered things, things which ought to be living in fruitful harmony, but which are rioting in alienation and revolt. It is the gathering together of distracted and wasteful members round about the governance of a common head. It implies the ending of a riotous
' F. W. Faber.
GENESIS xLix. lo 255
independence, and of sluggish and selfish apathy, and a welding together of many members into a blessed and prosperous unity. How is the gathering together effected ? Let me illustrate. You take a handful of steel filings and scatter them over the surface of a sheet of paper. There they lie, severed and apart, each one by itself, having no communion with the others. Now take a strong magnet and draw it beneath the under surface of the paper. What happens ? Each of the steel filings stands erect, and the whole company moves across the page in orderly and co-operative movement. Each item was first of all pervaded by the common power of the magnet, and then in the strength of the common pervasion all the items moved in fellowship.*
^ It is most essential to heaven, that the material universe should be brought into perfect harmony with it ; and it is just as essential to the peace and glory of the material universe that it should become harmonious with heaven. Neither can be complete without the other. " As it is in heaven, so on earth." Is not this sweet equilibrium between the material and the spiritual, and between both and God, precisely the mystery of His will " which from everlasting he purposed in himself " ? *
2. The second sentence is found in Col. I 18, " That in all things he might have the pre-eminence." This corresponds with the translation of our text which has been adopted in the fore- going exposition : " Until he shall come whose it (the kingdom or dominion) is." Our lives are failures if we give not Christ the first place. He is the beginning and the ending. If we fail to exalt Him and give Him the pre-eminence, work must be barren, souls must be famished, all must come to naught ; if we are not one with God in this great purpose, we must be defeated. But oh, how blessed when, by the gracious leading of the Holy Ghost we are in communion, in sympathy with the Father, and we let Him whom He will exalt take the first place.
^ Christ is King and Lawgiver. To Him all government rightly belongs. He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. He came once in humility and weakness ; He will come again " with power and great glory." He is gone away, like the king in His own parable, "to receive for himself a kingdom and to return." The blessing of God rests on the nation or family in which Jesus Christ reigns supreme. If His empire is established in a family, then nothing else matters ; no trials or bereavements or losses are of any real importance if we can truly » J. H. Jowett. " J. Pulsford.
256 SHILOH
say, " Jesus Christ is the real Master in this house." And what is true of the family is true of the individual souL If Christ is reigning in the soul, nothing else matters; so the practical question for each of us is just this, Does Jesus Christ reign in my heart ? If Christ were to come again this month, this week, or this very day, whom would He find occupying the throne of my heart? Would He find every thought brought under His obedience ? If we cannot say as much as this, can we truly say that we are aiming at this ideal, that we are struggling towards it, that we are beating back pride and worldUness and lust, and striving to keep our imagination and thoughts in check, owning as Hia loyal subjects the empire of Jesus Christ in the soul ? ^