hom men said, "He made a solitude, and called it peace,"--all its
homesteads lay in ashes, and its cities stood in silent ruins. Peace
was in Israel, when, provoked by their sins, God cast His people out:
swept them all into captivity. The land had its Sabbaths then. The
Angels' Song might have announced a similar, but greater,
judgment--that, as a landlord clears his estate of turbulent, lawless,
bankrupt tenants, God, who had repented long ago that He had made man,
was at length coming to clear the earth of his guilty presence, and
make room for better tenants; a purer, holier race. It is the last
clause of this hymn, therefore, that gives it an aspect of mercy--the
revenue of glory which God was to receive, and the peace which earth
was to enjoy, flowing from that fountain of redeeming love which had
its spring in God's good will. Of this Christ was the divine
expression, and angels were the happy messengers.

Happy messengers indeed! No wonder they hastened their flight to
earth, and having announced the good tidings, lingered over the fields
of Bethlehem, singing as they hovered on the wing. To announce bad
news is the unenviable office often imposed on ministers of the
gospel; and recollecting with what slow, reluctant steps my feet
approached the house where I had to break to a mother the tidings of
the wreck, and how her sailor boy with all hands had perished; or, in
the news of a husband's sudden death, I had to plant a dagger in the
heart of a young, bright, happy wife. I never have read the story of
Absalom's tragic end, without wondering at the race between Ahimaaz
and Cushi who should first carry the tidings to David. It had been
easier, I think, to look the foe in the face and hear the roar of
battle than see the old man's grief, and hear that heart-broken cry,
"O Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee, O
Absalom, my son, my son!" I can enter into the feelings of the two
Marys, when, to quote the words of Holy Scripture, "they departed
quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, and did run to
bring the disciples word." I see them, as, regardless of appearances,
and saluting no one, they press on, along the road, through the
streets, with panting breath and gleaming eye and streaming hair and
flying feet, striving who shall be first to proclaim the resurrection,
and burst in on the disciples with the glad tidings, crying, "The Lord
is risen!" Teaching the Churches how to str