e fact of His divine life with God long
before His human life with men. It is a plain historical fact that a
Christianity which has no place for a pre-existent Son in the bosom of
the Father has only a maimed Christ in reference to the needs of sinful
men. If our Christ were not the eternal Son of God, He will not be the
universal Saviour of men.

Nor is this truth less needful in its bearing on modern theories which
will have nothing to say to the supernatural, and in a fatalistic
fashion regard history as all the result of an orderly evolution in
which the importance of personal agents is minimised. To it Jesus, like
all other great men, is a product of His age, and the immediate result
of the conditions under which He appeared. But when we look far beyond
the manger of Bethlehem into the depths of Eternity and see God so
loving the world as to give His Son, we cannot but recognise that He has
intervened in the course of human history and that the mightiest force
in the development of man is the eternal Son whom He sent to save the
world.

II. The miracle of lowliness that came.

The Apostle goes on from describing the great fact which took place in
heaven to set forth the great fact which completed it on earth. The
sending of the Son took effect in the birth of Jesus, and the Apostle
puts it under two forms, both of which are plainly designed to present
Christ's manhood as His full identification of Himself with us. The Son
of God became the son of a woman; from His mother He drew a true and
complete humanity in body and soul. The humanity which He received was
sufficiently kindred with the divinity which received it to make it
possible that the one should dwell in the other and be one person. As
born of a woman the Son of God took upon Himself all human experiences,
became capable of sharing our pure emotions, wept our tears, partook in
our joys, hoped and feared as we do, was subject to our changes, grew as
we grow, and in everything but sin, was a man amongst men.

But the Son of God could not be as the sons of men. Him the Father
heard always. Even when He came down from Heaven and became the Son of
Man, He continued to be 'The Son of Man which is in Heaven.' Amid all
the distractions and limitations of His earthly life, the continuity and
depth of His communion with the Father were unbroken and the
completeness of His obedience undiminished. He was a Man, but He was
also the Man, the one realised ideal of hu