Yes—­you must remember who it was that John the Baptist came to bear record of, and to manifest or show to the Jews.  The Angels on the first Christmas Eve told us—­they said it was The Lord, ’Unto you,’ they said, ‘is born a Saviour, who is Christ, The Lord.’

John the Baptist told you and all mankind who it was—­that it was The Lord.  ’The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord!’

The Lord.  What Lord—­Which Lord?  John the Baptist knew.  Simeon, Anna, Nathaniel, all righteous and faithful hearts who waited for the salvation of the Lord, knew.  The Pharisees and Sadducees did not know.  The men who wrote our Creeds, our Prayer Book, our Church Catechism, knew.  The Pharisees and the Sadducees in our day, who fancy themselves wiser than the Creeds, and the Prayer Book, and the Church Catechism, do not know.  May God grant that we may all know, not only with our lips, but with our hearts, our faith, our love, our lives, who The Lord is.

Jesus Christ, the babe of Bethlehem, is The Lord.  But who is He?  The Bible tells us; when we have heard what the Bible tells us we shall be able better to understand the text.  The Lord is He of whom it is written, ’And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’  And who is God’s image and God’s likeness?  The New Testament tells us—­Jesus Christ.  In Him man was made.  He is the Son of Man, who is in heaven—­the true perfect pattern of man:  but He is also the image and likeness of God, the brightness of His Father’s glory, and the express image of His person.  He is The Lord.  He is the Lord who instituted marriage, and said, ’It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help-meet for him.’  He is the Lord who said to man, ’Be fruitful and multiply:  fill the earth and subdue it.’  He is the Lord who said to the first murderer, ‘Thy brother’s blood crieth against thee from the ground.’  He is the Lord who talked with Abraham face to face as a man talks with his friend; who blest him by giving him a son in his old age, that he might be the father of many nations.  He is the Lord who, on Mount Sinai, gave those Ten Commandments, the foundation of all law and right order between man and God, between man and man:—­’Thou shalt honour thy father and thy mother.  Thou shalt do no murder.  Thou shalt not commit adultery.  Thou shalt not steal.  Thou shalt not bear false witness in courts of law or elsewhere.  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s property.’

This is The Lord.  Not a God far away from men; who does not feel for them, nor feel with them; not a God who despises men, or has an ill-will to men, and must be won over to change his mind, and have mercy on them, by many supplications and tears, and fear and trembling, and superstitious ceremonies.  But this is The Lord, this is the babe of Bethlehem, this is He whose way John the Baptist came to prepare—­even