in these but what our understanding could fathom--as if there
was nothing in these to teach proud man humility and rouse his
admiration--as if there was indeed no wonder but Christ himself in all
this great and glorious universe, He is called by way of eminence the
_Wonderful_. And why? Because, as the stars cease to shine in presence
of the sun, quenched by the effulgence, and drowned in the flood of
his brighter beams, these lose all their wonders beside this little
Child. To a meditative man it is curious to stand over any cradle
where an infant sleeps; and, as we look on the face so calm, and the
little arms gently folded on the placid breast, to think of the mighty
powers and passions which are slumbering there; to think that this
feeble nursling has heaven or hell before it; that an immortal in a
mortal form is allied to angels; that the life which it has begun
shall last when the sun is quenched, enduring throughout all eternity.
Much more wonderful the spectacle the manger offers, where shepherds
bend their knees, and angels bend their eyes! Here is present, not the
immortal, but the eternal; here is not one kind of matter united to
another, or a spiritual to an earthly element, but the Creator to a
creature, divine Omnipotence to human weakness, the Ancient of Days to
the infant of a day. What deep secrets of divine wisdom, power, and
love lie here, wrapped up in these poor swaddling-clothes! Mary holds
in her arms, in this manger with its straw, what draws the wondering
eyes, and inspires the loftiest songs of angels. If that be not God's
greatest, and therefore most glorifying work, where are we to seek
it? in what else is it found? "The depth saith, It is not in me; and
the sea saith, It is not in me!" Were we to range the vast universe to
find its rival, we should return, like the dove to its ark, to the
stable-door, and the swaddled babe, there to mingle human voices with
the heavenly choir--singing, Glory to God in the highest!

The fact that redemption yields God the highest glory will appear also
if we look at--

The Redeemed.--It is in them, in sinners saved, not in the happy and
holy angels, that God stands out fully revealed as in a mirror; long
and broad enough, if I may say so, to show forth all His attributes.
To vary the figure; the cross of Christ is the focus in which all the
beams of divinity, all the attributes of the Godhead, are gathered
into one bright, burning spot, with power to warm t