The shepherds were not only poor, but they laboured in their poverty; they were working men and they worshipped Him, the Working Man.  The wise men were not only wise, but they were rich.  They brought the treasures of the earth from the ends thereof and laid them before the Babe and the mother.  How fragrant the perfume of the frankincense and the myrrh, and how rich the lustre of the gold and silver in the mean surroundings of the hovel.  They took no thought of their costly apparel, they had no fear of contamination from their surroundings, no question of relative degree entered their heads.  As simply and as truly as the shepherds they worshipped the Christ.  The rich and the poor met together there, and the Lord was the maker of them all.

Was that baby-hand the shaper of destiny?  Was that working-hand the director of events?  Even so.  The Lord’s power is not less the Lord’s power though it be not exhibited in the stretched out arm of majesty.

Some of you who read this and many more who can not are poor, perhaps very poor, but you can stand beside that manger and look at that Baby’s face, you can reflect upon the Child, how He grew, what He said, what He did, until a cross casts its black shadow across your vision—­the war is raising many crosses and many there be that walk the via dolorosa to them to-day.  You shall be counted blessed if you can gaze at that cross until it is transformed by the glory of the resurrection.  And in it all you can see your God—­the poor man’s God!—­the rich man’s God!—­everybody’s God!

You can know that your God was poor, that He was humble, that He struggled under adverse conditions, that He laboured, that He was hungry, thirsty, tired, cold, that He was homeless, that He was denied many of the joys of human society and the solace of affection, that His best friends went back on Him, that everybody deserted Him, and that the whole world finally rose up and crushed Him down.  That he suffered all things.  Only a very great God could so endure.  Only one who was truly God could so manifest Himself in pain.

You can understand how He can comprehend what your trouble is.  Oh, yes, the poor and the bereaved have as great a right to look into that manger and see their God there as have the rich and the care free.

Now there is a kind of pernicious socialism which condemns riches as things unholy and exalts poverty as a thing acceptable to God.  That Baby came as well to the rich as to the poor.  Do not forget that.  It is not generally understood, but it is true.  He accepted gladly the hospitality, the alms, the gifts, priceless in value, of those who had great possessions and He loved them even as He loved those who had nothing.  The rich and wise also have a right to look into that cradle to see their God, too.  When we say He is the God of all classes we do not mean that He is only the God of the poor any more than we mean He is only the God of the rich.