The manifestation came to certain shepherds watching their flocks in the fields about Bethlehem; simple men, quite unable to take in the meaning of what they see and hear.  One cannot help thinking of what it would have meant in the way of an intellectual revolution if to some Greek or Roman philosopher, speculating on the destiny of humanity, the truth could have come that the future of the world was not in the court of Augustus, that it was not dependent on the Roman armies or Greek learning, but that it was bound up in the career and teaching of a Baby that night born in a stable in an obscure village in Judea.  As we imagine such a case we see in the concrete the meaning of the revolution set in motion by this single event; and we are led to adore the ways of God in that He has chosen for the final approach to man for the purpose of redemption, this way of simplicity and humbleness.  Man would not have thought of this as the best path for God to follow in this purpose of rescue, but we can be wise after the event and see that this Child born in poverty and obscurity would have fewer entanglements to break through, fewer obstacles to overcome.

But these thoughts are far away from the night in Bethlehem.  In the stable there where a Baby is lying in Mary’s arms and Joseph stands looking on, there is no speculation about the world-consequences of the event.  There is rather the splendour of love:  the love of the mother in the new found mystery of this her Child; the love of God who has given her the Child.  And all is a part of the great mystery of love, of the love wherewith God loves the world.  “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”  Here is the Son, lying in Mary’s arms, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and Mary looks into His face as any human mother looks into the face of her child.  But through the eyes that smile up into Mary’s face, God is looking out on a world of sorrow and pain and sin that He has come to redeem, and for which, in redeeming it, to die.  Presently, the shepherds come in and complete the group, the representatives of universal humanity at the birth of their King, We have the whole world-problem in small, but here there is no consciousness of it.  No echo of world-politics or of movements of thought break in here.  But we know that here is the beginning of that which will set at naught world-politics and revolutionise movements of thought, that here is the centre about which humanity will move in the coming time.  Here is that which is fundamental and abiding because here is the one invincible power of the universe—­love.  All else will fail:  prophecies, systems of philosophy, religions, political and social structures; each in the time of its flourishing, proclaiming itself the last word of human wisdom,—­these in bewildering succession have arisen and passed away.  But love has survived them all.  Love never faileth; through the slow succession of the centuries it is winning the world to God.