od in Christ--that fairest, fullest
manifestation of our Father's heart--links all parts of creation
together, and links all more closely to the throne of God. "He that
hath seen me, Philip," said our Lord to that disciple, "hath seen the
Father also;" and as I believe that He who delights to bless all His
unfallen creatures would not withhold from the inhabitants of other
spheres the happiness of knowing Him in His most adorable, gracious,
and glorious character, I can fancy them eagerly searching their
skies for a sight of our world,--the scene of that story which has
conveyed to them the fullest knowledge of Him they love, their deepest
sense of His ineffable holiness and unspeakable mercy. Not from pole
to pole, but from planet to planet, and from star to star, the love of
Christ deserves to be proclaimed; and it is a thought as grand as it
is probable, that the story of Calvary, not yet translated into all
the tongues of earth, is told in the ten times ten thousand tongues of
other worlds, and that the Name which is above every name--the blessed
Name which dwells in life in a believer's heart and trembles in death
on his lips--is known in spheres which his foot never trod and his eye
never saw. Such honours crown the head man once crowned with thorns;
and therefore did David, with the eye of a seer and the fire of a
poet, while calling for praise from kings of the earth and all people,
princes and all judges, young men and children, rise to a loftier
flight, exclaiming: "Praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, all ye
angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts. Praise ye Him, sun and moon:
praise Him, all ye stars of light."

IV.

THE REDEEMER AND REDEMPTION ARE WORTHY OF OUR HIGHEST PRAISE.

Let us bend the head, and, in company of the shepherds, enter the
stable. Heard above the champing of bits, the stroke of hoofs, the
rattling of chains, and the lowing of oxen, the feeble wail of an
infant turns our steps to a particular stall: here a woman lies
stretched on a bed of straw, and her new-born child, hastily wrapped
in some part of her dress, finds a cradle in the manger. A pitiful
sight!--such a fortune as occasionally befalls the Arabs of
society--such an incident as may occur in the history of one of those
vagrant, vagabond, outcast families who, their country's shame, tent
in woods and sleep under hedges, when no barn or stable offers a
covering to their houseless heads. Yet princes on their way to the