C. H. Spurgeon. Luke 2:16-18 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.… This text seems to indicate four ways of serving God, four methods of executing holy work and exercising Christian thought. Each of the verses sets before us a different way of sacred service. I know not which of these four did God best service, but, I think, if we could combine all these mental emotions and outward exercises, we should be sure to praise God after a most godly and acceptable fashion. I. SOME PUBLISHED ABROAD THE NEWS. 1. They had something to rehearse in men's ears well worth the telling. They had found out the answer to the perpetual riddle. 2. That "something" had in it the inimitable blending which is the secret sign and royal mark of Divine authorship; a peerless marrying of sublimity and simplicity; angels singing! — singing to shepherds! Heaven bright with glory! — bright at midnight! God — a Babe! The Infinite — an Infant a span long! The Ancient of Days — born of a woman! What more simple than the inn, the manger, a carpenter, a carpenter's wife, a child? What more sublime than a multitude of the heavenly host waking the midnight with their joyous chorales, and God Himself in human flesh made manifest? 3. The shepherds needed no excuse for publishing their news, for what they told they had first received from heaven. When heaven entrusts a man with a merciful revelation, he is bound to deliver the good tidings to others. 4. They spoke of what they had seen below. They had, by observation, made those truths most surely their own which had first been spoken to them by revelation. No man can speak of the things of God with any success until the doctrine which he finds in the Book he finds also in his heart. II. SOME KEPT CHRISTMAS BY HOLY WONDER, ADMIRATION, AND ADORATION. III. ONE, AT LEAST, PONDERED, MEDITATED, THOUGHT UPON THESE THINGS. 1. An exercise of memory. 2. An exercise of the affections. 3. An exercise of the intellect. IV. OTHERS GLORIFIED GOD, AND GAVE HIM PRAISE. 1. They praised God for what they had heard. 2. They praised God for what they had seen. 3. They praised God for the agreement between what they had heard and what they had seen. (C. H. Spurgeon. .) Parallel Verses KJV: And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.WEB: They came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby was lying in the feeding trough. |
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