But in what sense can God be well pleased with men ? He cannot be well pleased with their sins, or even with their folly. \J No ! He is well pleased with men in so far as they are capable of salvation in Christ, are capable, that is to say, of being made Christlike. On the other hand, as He declared at the baptism of Christ in the Jordan, He is well pleased with Christ as being actually and already all that He intended every man to be when He declared, on tKe sixth day of the creation, that man, the final outcome and masterpiece of the evolution of the world, was " very good " (Gen. i. 31). In a word, Christ is actually what every man is potentially. Christ is the new Head of humanity, " the last Adam " (1 Cor. xv. 45). Christ realizes the Divine ideal of man. He is the proof and pledge of what every man may yet become. When the sculptor sees the rough, unhewn marble, he is " well pleased " with it, not because it is shapeless and rough and ugly, and for immediate purposes useless, but because it is capable of being chiselled into forms of enduring beauty and service. The incarna- tion of the Eternal Word is the definite, concrete, decisive evidence of what human nature can become when sin is eliminated.
^ Jesus of Nazareth was God and man, not because His physical birth and death took place under conditions impossible to the normal human organization, but on the contrary because, having the normal human organization, in its entirety, He realized in and through it His absolute union with God, and became in actual fact what all men have it in them potentially to become. This divinization of humanity, this " incarnation," took place in
^Letters of Thomas Erskinc of LinlatJien, ii. 163.
ST. LUKE II. 13, 14 61
Him at a certain time and place, under special historical conditions, which the gospel narrative enables us partially, but only partially, to reconstruct. The incarnation is not completed, the truth which Jesus proclaimed is not fully revealed, until the whole of mankind and the whole of nature become a perfect vehicle for the life which lived in Him.^
^ Not long ago a gentle Christian lady went to a house of infamy in London to see a fallen girl whom she hoped to rescue. The door of that house was opened by one of those ferocious bullies who are employed in such establishments to negotiate between the victims and their clients. For a moment she was terrified at the fiendish appearance of this monster of iniquity. It was a low neighbourhood ; she was far from home ; she was alone. But, inspired of God, she resolved to appeal to the better self even of that foul and savage man. Taking her well-filled purse out of her pocket, she suddenly placed it in his hands and said, " I do not like to take my purse about here, will you please keep it for me until I return ? " The man was speechless with amazement ; a tear burst from his eye. She passed on. In that vestibule of hell she found the girl and arranged for her delivery. After some interval the lady returned to the door, and there was the man where she left him, with her well-filled purse in his hand. He restored it to her, not a single penny had been taken from it. For the first time in his life, probably, he found himself trusted by a lady. It appealed to all the courtesy and nobility that was left, or that was undeveloped, in his nature. He responded at once to that appeal, and proved worthy of that confidence.^
^ E. L. Nettleship, Memoir of Thomas Hill Green^ 48, ' H. P. Hughes, Essential Ghristianityy 284,
A Touchstone of Character.
Literature.
Bernard (T. D.), The Songs oftJie Holy Nativity, 139. Brooke (S. A.), The Early Life of Jesus, 37. Carter (T. T.), Meditations on the Hidden Life of our Lord, i. 80. Cox (S.), Expositions, iv. 16. Edgar (R. M.), The Philosophy of the Cross, 35. Griffin (E. D.), Plain Practical Sermons, 449. Gurney (T. A.), Nunc Dimittis, 132. Hall (E. H.), Discourses, 213.
Hutchings (W. H.), in Sermons for the People, ii. 131. Lawlor (H. J.), Thoughts on Belief and Life, 31. Liddon (H. P.), Advent in St. PaiiVs, 245. Mantle (J. G.), The Way of the Cross, 19. Peabody (F. G.), Sunday Evenings in the College Chapel, 19. Potts (A. W.), School Sermons, 185. Tholuck (A.), Light from the Cross, 9. Tymms (T. V.), The Private Relationships of Christ, 12. Vaughan (C. J.), Christ the Light of the World, 43.
Christian World Pulpit, xlviii. 40 (A. M. Fairbairn) ; Iviii. 5 (A. Connell) j Ixiv. 413 (S. 0. Tattersall) ; Ixv. 154 (F. Y. Leggatt).
A Touchstone of Character.
Behold, this child is set for the falling and rising up of many in Israel ; and for a sign which is spoken against ; yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul ; that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed. —Luke ii. 34, 35.
1. There are choice spirits selected by God, when the times are changing, to stand upon the ridge between two worlds, and to unite in themselves, so to speak, the best promise of the age that is passing by and the first gladness of the age that is coming. Now Simeon the Prophet was one of these men. It was his proud privilege to see the ancient prophecies fulfilled. It was his pathetic privilege to bid the new era welcome, and then himself to depart in peace. He saw the morning clouds crimsoning, and he told his generation what he saw. It was not given him to see the glorious noontide. But for one sublime moment he stood upon the mountain top. And it is well for us, even in this wise age, to know something of what he saw.