Glory to God in the highest,
    And on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased.

This chorus first ascribes glory to God, for all things good and beautiful come from him and express his glory, as all rays of daylight shoot from the sun and are its splintered splendor.  The gift of Christ manifests the glory of God in that it displays the divine wisdom in devising the plan of salvation, the divine power in executing it, and the divine love as its mighty motive.  The glory of God, that streams through the heavens as through a dome of many-colored glass, is concentrated and burns with the interest brightness in the person of his Son.

The chorus next pronounces peace upon men.  Divine glory and human good will are related as cause and effect.  When men get right with God they at once get right with one another, as the center of a circle, when truly located, pulls every point on the circumference into its proper place in the curve; but when men are at variance with God they are at enmity among themselves.  Divine glory is the sun shining in the heavens; human good will is a garden and orchard all abloom with flowers and laden with fruit.  As the glory of the sun is transformed into rosy buds and sweet fruit, so is the glory of God transformed into human good will.  The glory of God and the peace of men are never in antagonism, but are always complementary and harmonious, they are the two sides of the same gospel, two parts of the same song.  They cannot be separated and must go together; in glorifying God we make peace among men, and in making peace among men we glorify God.

XIII.  The First Visitors to Bethlehem

The angels’ song died away in the solemn silence, and the shepherds were left alone.  It was a critical hour with them.  Would they follow this vision and turn it into victory, or would they let it vanish with the last echo of the song and relapse into the old dull routine?  No, they did not let it pass, and life was never the same to them again.  “Let us now go,” they said, “even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.”  They translated vision into action and presently were climbing the rocky slope to Bethlehem.  Had these shepherds not followed up the message their knowledge of their Messiah would have immediately been cut short.  We hear divine messages and see heavenly visions enough, but too often we let them fade into forgetfulness and pass into nothingness.  A message does us no good until it becomes action, the grandest vision that ever swept through our brain or illuminated our sky leaves no vestige of worth unless it is turned into conduct and character.  “Let us now go and see this thing.”  We do not know Christ until we see him as our Saviour.  Seeing is believing, this is the simplicity of faith, and when we see Christ through the direct vision and personal experience of faith and obedience we are transfigured into his likeness.