The Angels Song | Page 3

infinite perfections, admits of no degrees, and is affected by no
circumstances whatever, it is otherwise with His declarative glory, as
old theologians called it. This, which I speak of, and which angels sung
of, consists in the manifestation of His attributes. Whatever it be,
though only the drop of water, which appears a world of wonders to the
eyes of a man of science, any work is glorious which reflects the divine
character in any measure, and still more glorious or glorifying which
exhibits it in a greater measure. God's glory expands and unfolds itself
as we rise upward in the study of His works--from inanimate to living
objects; from plants to animals; from animals to man; from man to
angels; from these to archangels, upward and still upward, to the Being
who, bathed in the full blaze of divine effulgence, tops the pyramid,
and stands on the highest pinnacle of Creation. That Being is God
manifest in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ--the redemption which He
wrought for us, through blood and suffering and death, being the work
which reveals God most fully to our eyes, and forming a looking-glass,
so to speak, to reflect the whole measure of divinity. This will appear if
we look at--
The Redeemer.--One of His many titles is the Wonderful. Anticipating
the royal birth at Bethlehem, and speaking of Christ in terms which no
other key can open but the doctrine of His divinity, Isaiah says, "Unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." With
pencils of sunlight God paints the rose; by arts of a divine chemistry He
turns foul decay into the snow-white purity and fragrant odours of a lily;
He fashions the infant in the darkness of the mother's womb; He
inspires dead matter with the active principle of life; in man He unites
an ethereal spirit to a lump of clay--wonders these which have
perplexed the wisest men, and remain as incomprehensible to
philosophers as to fools. Yet, as if there was no mystery in these but
what our understanding could fathom--as if there was nothing in these
to teach proud man humility and rouse his admiration--as if there was

indeed no wonder but Christ himself in all this great and glorious
universe, He is called by way of eminence the Wonderful. And why?
Because, as the stars cease to shine in presence of the sun, quenched by
the effulgence, and drowned in the flood of his brighter beams, these
lose all their wonders beside this little Child. To a meditative man it is
curious to stand over any cradle where an infant sleeps; and, as we look
on the face so calm, and the little arms gently folded on the placid
breast, to think of the mighty powers and passions which are
slumbering there; to think that this feeble nursling has heaven or hell
before it; that an immortal in a mortal form is allied to angels; that the
life which it has begun shall last when the sun is quenched, enduring
throughout all eternity. Much more wonderful the spectacle the manger
offers, where shepherds bend their knees, and angels bend their eyes!
Here is present, not the immortal, but the eternal; here is not one kind
of matter united to another, or a spiritual to an earthly element, but the
Creator to a creature, divine Omnipotence to human weakness, the
Ancient of Days to the infant of a day. What deep secrets of divine
wisdom, power, and love lie here, wrapped up in these poor
swaddling-clothes! Mary holds in her arms, in this manger with its
straw, what draws the wondering eyes, and inspires the loftiest songs of
angels. If that be not God's greatest, and therefore most glorifying work,
where are we to seek it? in what else is it found? "The depth saith, It is
not in me; and the sea saith, It is not in me!" Were we to range the vast
universe to find its rival, we should return, like the dove to its ark, to
the stable-door, and the swaddled babe, there to mingle human voices
with the heavenly choir--singing, Glory to God in the highest!
The fact that redemption yields God the highest glory will appear also
if we look at--
The Redeemed.--It is in them, in sinners saved, not in the happy and
holy angels, that God stands out fully revealed as in a mirror; long and
broad enough, if I may say so, to show forth all His attributes. To vary
the figure; the cross of Christ is the focus in which all the beams of
divinity, all the