Joy Upon Joy, with Charles Spurgeon預覽
The long-expected Messiah is about to appear. He, for whom prophets and princes waited long, is now about to come—to be born of the virgin of Nazareth. Truly there was never a subject of sweeter song than this—the stooping down of Godhead to the feebleness of manhood! When God manifested His power in the works of His hands, the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy; but when God manifests Himself, what music shall suffice for the grand psalm of adoring wonder? When wisdom and power are seen, these are but attributes; but in the incarnation, it is the divine person that is revealed, wrapped in a veil of our inferior clay—well might Mary sing, when earth and heaven even now are wondering at the condescending grace! Worthy of peerless music is the fact that, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). We can no more think that God sits on high, indifferent to the needs and woes of men—for God has visited us, and come down to the lowliness of our estate. We no longer need bemoan that we can never participate in the moral glory and purity of God, for if God in glory can come down to His sinful creature, it is certainly less difficult to bear that creature, blood-washed and purified, up that starry way, that the redeemed one may sit down forever on His throne.
Let us dream no longer in somber sadness that we cannot draw near to God so that He will really hear our prayers and pity our necessities, seeing that Jesus has become bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh! He was born a baby as we are born, living a man as we must live, bearing the same infirmities and sorrows, and bowing His head to the same death. The manger of Bethlehem was big with God’s glory; in the incarnation was wrapped up all the blessedness by which a soul, snatched from the depths of sin, is lifted up to the heights of glory. Shall not our clearer knowledge lead us to heights of song which angelic guesses could not reach?