The Angels Song | Page 7

a very insignificant place in
creation. In a space of the sky no larger than a tenth part of the moon's
disc, the telescope discovers many thousands of stars, each a sun,
attended probably by a group of planets like our own: their number
indeed is such that many parts of the heavens appear as if they were

sprinkled with gold-dust; and probably there are as many suns and
worlds in the universe as there are leaves in a forest, or rather, sands on
the ocean shore.
Boldly venturing out into the regions of speculation, some have thought
that, if sin defile any of these worlds, its inhabitants may share in the
benefits of the atonement which Christ offered in ours; and that beings
further removed than we from the scenes of Calvary, and differing
more from us than we from the Jews of whom the Messiah came, may,
as well as we, find a Saviour by faith in Jesus; and that for this end the
work of redemption has perhaps been revealed to such as, removed
from our earth many millions of miles, never even saw the planet that
was its theatre and scene. There may be nothing in this. I dare not say it
is impossible; but these speculations touch the deep things of God, and
we would not attempt to be wise above that which is written. Still,
Scripture affords ground for believing, for hoping, at least, that the
story of redemption has been told in other worlds than ours, and that
the love of God in Christ--that fairest, fullest manifestation of our
Father's heart--links all parts of creation together, and links all more
closely to the throne of God. "He that hath seen me, Philip," said our
Lord to that disciple, "hath seen the Father also;" and as I believe that
He who delights to bless all His unfallen creatures would not withhold
from the inhabitants of other spheres the happiness of knowing Him in
His most adorable, gracious, and glorious character, I can fancy them
eagerly searching their skies for a sight of our world,--the scene of that
story which has conveyed to them the fullest knowledge of Him they
love, their deepest sense of His ineffable holiness and unspeakable
mercy. Not from pole to pole, but from planet to planet, and from star
to star, the love of Christ deserves to be proclaimed; and it is a thought
as grand as it is probable, that the story of Calvary, not yet translated
into all the tongues of earth, is told in the ten times ten thousand
tongues of other worlds, and that the Name which is above every
name--the blessed Name which dwells in life in a believer's heart and
trembles in death on his lips--is known in spheres which his foot never
trod and his eye never saw. Such honours crown the head man once
crowned with thorns; and therefore did David, with the eye of a seer
and the fire of a poet, while calling for praise from kings of the earth

and all people, princes and all judges, young men and children, rise to a
loftier flight, exclaiming: "Praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, all
ye angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts. Praise ye Him, sun and moon:
praise Him, all ye stars of light."

IV.
THE REDEEMER AND REDEMPTION ARE WORTHY OF OUR
HIGHEST PRAISE.
Let us bend the head, and, in company of the shepherds, enter the stable.
Heard above the champing of bits, the stroke of hoofs, the rattling of
chains, and the lowing of oxen, the feeble wail of an infant turns our
steps to a particular stall: here a woman lies stretched on a bed of straw,
and her new-born child, hastily wrapped in some part of her dress, finds
a cradle in the manger. A pitiful sight!--such a fortune as occasionally
befalls the Arabs of society--such an incident as may occur in the
history of one of those vagrant, vagabond, outcast families who, their
country's shame, tent in woods and sleep under hedges, when no barn
or stable offers a covering to their houseless heads. Yet princes on their
way to the crown, brides on their way to the marriage, bannered armies
on their way to the battle, and highest angels in their flight from star to
star, might stop to say of this sight, as Moses of the burning bush, "Let
me turn aside, and see this great sight!"
The prophet foretells a time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and, bound in the same stall,
and fed at the same manger, the lion shall eat straw with the ox. Here is
a greater wonder! This stable is the house of