First angels and then shepherds:  how startling the contrast.  Jesus has deep affinities with both:  on his divine side he is related to heaven, and on his human side he is related to earth.  And the first men he drew to his side were shepherds, representatives of the common people.  He did not come as a member of any special class, especially of the upper class.  No one can ever save the world by winning over the rich and the great.  Society cannot be lifted from the top.  Whoever would raise the level of society must get his lever under its foundation stones.  Taking hold of the carved cornice will tear the roof off and lift it away from the building, but raising the lowest stone will also push up the spire’s gilded point.  He who elevates the peasant will also in time elevate the prince.  Jesus did not begin with Caesar, but with shepherds, and then in three hundred years a Christian Caesar sat on the throne.

The gospel still works from beneath; going down into the slums of Christian cities; working among the poor and degraded of heathen lands; and seeking the lowest tribes of men from whom have been defaced almost the last vestige of humanity and restoring them to the image of God.  Christ is saving the world as a whole.  He is not slicing the loaf of society horizontally, cutting off the upper crust, but he is slicing it vertically from top to bottom.

How wonderful is the simplicity and beauty of this gospel that shepherds are drawn by it.  It takes some brain to read Plato.  Shepherds would not get much out of Sir Isaac Newton, or a child out of Shakespeare, or a sorrowing heart out of Emerson.  But every one can get milk and honey for his soul out of the gospel of Jesus.  His wonderful words of life have the same sweetness and saving power for shepherd and scholar, peasant and prince.  However lowly and unlettered one may be there is wide room for him around the manger of this Child.

XIV.  The Star and the Wise Men

The birth of Jesus created a new center for the world and set heaven and earth revolving around his cradle.  All things began to gravitate towards him as by a new and more powerful attraction.  Angels sang, shepherds wondered, a new star glittered upon the blazing curtain of the night, and wise men came from afar to worship him.  These wise men were Persian priests, scholars, scientists, astrologers, students of the stars.  Rumors of a coming King or Saviour were widespread in the ancient world and doubtless had reached these worshipers of the sun to whom the stars were embodiments of deity.  A new star in their sky, whatever it may have been, would instantly attract their attention and receive from them a religious interpretation.  The celestial messenger was a fulfillment of their hope and a guide to their feet.  They were obedient to the heavenly vision, and across long burning stretches of desert sand they came and appeared in Jerusalem with their inquiry concerning the new-born King of the Jews.