the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there
shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to
order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from
henceforth even for ever."--ISAIAH ix. 6, 7.

It is now more than three thousand years ago that God made to Abraham the
promise, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."
Again the promise was renewed to Moses when he was commanded to tell the
Jews, "a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me.
Hear ye him . . ." In David's Psalms, again, this same strange person
was spoken of who was already, and yet who was to come. David calls him
the Son of God, the King of kings. Again, in the Prophets, in many
strange and mysterious words, is this same being spoken of as a virgin's
child--"Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall
be called Emmanuel, God with us;" and again, "Unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the Mighty God--the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
And again, "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him,--the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And with righteousness shall He
judge the poor," &c.

And again, "Thou Bethlehem, though thou be little among the princes of
Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth He that is to be ruler in Israel,
whose goings forth have been from everlasting. And He shall be great
unto the ends of the earth."

But time would fail me if I tried to repeat to you half the passages
wherein the old Jewish prophets foretold Him who was to come, and in whom
all the nations of the earth should be blessed, more and more clearly as
the time drew nigh.

Well, my friends, surely you know of whom I have been speaking--of whom
Moses and the prophets spoke--of Him who was born of a village maiden,
laid in a manger, proclaimed of angels to the shepherds, worshipped with
hymns of glory by the heavenly host on the first Christmas day eighteen
hundred and seventy-eight years ago, as we count time. Aye, strange as
it may seem, _He is come_, and in Him all the nat