created him, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all and in all." a At the manger of Bethlehem, we may dare to look forward, in some coming time, to that union of human lives, of human hearts, of which the noblest of our race again and again have dreamt; to a brotherhood which has sometimes been recommended by abstract arguments, sometimes dictated by revolutionary terrorism, but which to be genuine must be the perfectly free movement of hearts drawn towards each other by a supreme attraction. That attraction we find in the Divine Child of Bethlehem, born that He might redeem and regenerate the world. And all the courtesies and kindnesses of this happy season between members of families, and members of households, and members of the same parish; between the rich and the poor, and the old and the young, and the so-called great and the so-called insignificant, are rightly done in His honour, Who by coming to reveal to us what we may be in Him and through Him, came also to bind us to each other by uniting us to Himself. If still as heretofore the ideal is only too far from being realized; if we hear of sombre jealousies between classes, and of rumours of wars between powerful countries, and of much else at home and abroad that is in opposition to the work which He came to do; let us look to it that, however humble be our place in the scale of moral and spiritual agents, while we linger on this passing scene, we be found among those who have heard to some purpose the angel-song in the meadows of Bethlehem-"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in whom God is well pleased."

a Col. iii. II.

" b

b St. Luke ii. 14, év åv0púπois evdorías (Tisch., App. crit. ed., 8vo).

SERMON IX.

THE INCARNATE GOD WITH MEN.

(SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS.)

REV. XXI. 3.

And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of

HE

God is with men.

ERE we have, first, the announcement of a fact, that God has entered into associations of some kind with man of an intimate and special character; more intimate, apparently, than any which exist between Him and the other creatures of His Hand. And secondly, we have here an exclamation of wonder: "The tabernacle of God is with men." The unnamed speaker is probably one of the highest intelligences in Heaven. Angels, greater than we in power and resources, who have never fallen from their first estate, and have freely offered to God through long ages a perfect service, behold God in His unfathomable condescension passing them by, as He bends to help and ennoble the inferior and fallen race of man. They are too pure, these lofty spirits, to harbour the slightest feeling of envy or resentment; but they desire reverently to look into this new revelation of the infinitude of the attributes of their King; they wonder at a condescension a I St. Pet. i. 12.

which must be right, but which they cannot understand. "Behold, the tabernacle of God is," not with angels, but " with men !"

And "the tabernacle of God" is itself an expression which may well arrest our attention. It seems to imply a limit to the Illimitable, a local habitation for the Omnipresent. Solomon exclaimed at the dedication of the Temple, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the Heaven and the Heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded!" a Certainly, when we transfer an expression like this from the associations of our human and finite life to the life of the Divine and Illimitable Being, we must do so with serious reservations, which need hardly be insisted on. To the Arab of the desert, his tent is his covering, his shelter, his home. When a tabernacle is said to be God's, something must be meant which corresponds in some way to our human associations with the expression; but something also widely different from that to which it corresponds. To the Omnipresent, a tabernacle cannot be a covering; it cannot be a shelter to Him Who fills all in all. The expression is of itself startling and paradoxical; and yet it does contain a truth which is not the less worth attention because we may have some difficulty in apprehending it.

Let us, then, reflect on the power which we men have of making our presence emphatic and felt. We know how a man may sit among his fellows, giving little or no token of intelligence and sympathy, watching what passes, hearing what is said, yet making no sign, no intimation of sympathy or even of recognition. And we know how possible is the very reverse of all this; how thought and feeling and resolve may flash forth in couna 1 Kings viii. 27. b Eph. i. 23.

tenance and in speech, and may profoundly impress, win, subdue, all who come within the limits of a striking human personality. This means that we have the power of accentuating our presence among our fellow-men at will. We do not cease to be present, in our limited way, when we do not thus accentuate it, when we find ourselves in company which throws us back upon our own thoughts, as distinct from company which provokes an expression of what we think and feel. Well, brethren, we are made in God's Image, and therefore it is not irreverent, making all due allowance for the interval which separates the finite from the Infinite, to presume something analogous in Him. He is the Omnipresent: "If I go up into Heaven, Thou art there; if I go down into hell, Thou art there also; if I take the wings of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there also shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." Yes, He is the Omnipresent; but He may surely, if He wills, emphasize His Presence by connecting either its manifestations or its blessings with particular spots, or persons, or actions, or incidents, or edifices, or ordinances. He is the Almighty, and who shall say Him nay? For us His creatures, the only reasonable question can be whether there is reason to think that He has done so. And we do not forget the essential conditions of His Being, because we attribute to Him the exercise of a power which, in an immeasurably lesser degree, He has not denied to ourselves.

"The tabernacle of God," then, is an expression which implies, not that the Presence of the Omnipresent can be limited, but that it can be, for certain purposes, determined and emphasized in a particular direction. And by "the tabernacle of God," St. John here means, imme

a Ps. cxxxix. 7-9.

d

b

C

diately, the New or Heavenly Jerusalem. In the course of his great vision, the Last Judgment is now over. Earth and Heaven have fled away from the Face of Him That sitteth on the Throne. In their place is displayed a new Heaven and a new earth. Out of this new Heaven, "the holy city, new Jerusalem, comes down from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." The Church triumphant is thus called a city, just as our Lord had termed the Church of the Apostles "a city set on a hill;" just as the Church triumphant is said in the Epistle to the Hebrews to be "a city that hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God," and a continuing city which we have not here, but seek as yet to come. As St. John sees this city descending from Heaven; he hears a great voice out of the Throne, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men!" This tabernacle, then, is the Heavenly Jerusalem itself, the gathered millions of the redeemed in the realms of glory. But lest the metaphor should mislead, and make us think of material architecture instead of spiritual essences, the triumphant Church is also compared to a bride adorned for her husband. Within the precincts of this sacred city,-to the heart of this immaculate spouse,-God deigns to discover and manifest His essential Being with an unparalleled splendour. He vouchsafes to establish a transcendent relation between Himself and His servants now perfected in glory, of which our poor human language about the tabernacle which protects and enshrines a manifestation of the Sacred Presence affords some distant hint. And thus, as the millions of the glorified adoringly throng around, the words have become true," Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men!"

a Rev. xxi. 2.

c Heb. xi. 10.

b St. Matt. v. 14.

a Ib. xiii. 14.