True Words for Brave Men | Page 5

borne about on Him a man's body, a man's
soul and spirit--He was born like us--like us He grew--like us He
rejoiced and sorrowed--tempted in all points like as we are, yet without
sin--able to the uttermost to understand and help all who come to God
by Him. He has bruised the serpent's head--He has delivered us from
the power of darkness, and brought us into His kingdom. Through His
blood we have redemption and forgiveness--yes! through Him who,
though He was laid in a manger, was yet the image of the unseen God.
And by Him, and for Him--that Babe of Bethlehem--were all things
created in heaven and earth--and He is before all things, and by Him all
things consist. All heaven and earth, and all the powers therein, are held
together by Him. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness

dwell; and having made peace through the blood of His cross, to
reconcile by that child all things unto Himself--all things in heaven--all
things in earth."
This should be our boast--this should be our glory--for this do we meet
together every Christmas day.
But what is all this to us if that Blessed Man be gone away from us?
Our souls want more than I have told you yet. Our souls want more
than a beautiful and wonderful story about Christ. They want Christ
Himself. Preaching is blessed and useful if it speaks of Christ. Our own
thoughts are blessed and useful if we think of Christ. The Bible is most
blessed and useful containing all things necessary to salvation, for it
speaks of Christ. Our prayers are blessed and useful if in them we call
and cry earnestly to Christ. But neither preaching, nor thinking, nor
praying are enough. In them we think about Him and speak to Him. But
we want Him to speak to us. We want not merely a man to say, your
sins may be forgiven you; we want Christ Himself to say, "Your sins
are forgiven you." We want not merely a wise book to tell us that the
good men of old belonged to Christ's kingdom--we want Christ Himself
to tell us that we belong to His kingdom. We want not merely a book
that tells us that He promised always to be with us--we want Him
Himself to tell us that He is really now with us. We want not merely a
promise from a prophet of old that in Him all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed, but a sign from Christ Himself that this nation of
England is really now blest in Him. In short, we want not words,
however true words, however fine words, about Christ. We want Christ
Himself to forgive us our sins--to give peace and freedom to our
hearts--to come to us unseen, and fill us with thoughts and longings
such as our fallen nature cannot give us--such thoughts and feelings as
we cannot explain in words, for they are too deep and blessed to be
talked about--but thoughts which say to us, as if the blessed Jesus
Himself spoke to us in the depths of our hearts, "Poor, struggling, sinful
brother! thou art mine. For thee I was born--for thee I died--thee I will
teach--I will guide thee and inform thee with mine eye--I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee."

Well--you want Him--and you want a sign of Him--a sign of His own
giving that He is among you this day--a sign of His own giving that He
has taken you into His kingdom--a sign of His own giving that He died
for you--that He will feed and strengthen your souls in you with His
own life and His own body.
Then--there is a sign--there is the sign which has stood stedfast and
sure to you--and to your fathers--and your forefathers before
them--back for eighteen hundred years, over half the world. There is
the bread of which He said, "Take, eat, this is my body which is broken
for you." There is the wine of which He said, "This cup is the New
Covenant in my blood, which is shed for you, and for many, for the
forgiveness of sins." There is His sign. Don't ask how. Don't try to
explain it away, and fancy that you can find fitter, and soberer, and
safer, and more gospel- sounding words than Jesus Christ's own, by
which to speak of His own Sacrament. But say, with the great Queen
Elizabeth of old, when men tried too curiously to enquire into her
opinion concerning this blessed mystery--
"Christ made the Word and spake it, He took the bread and brake it,
And what His Word did make it, That I believe, and take it."
He said, "This bread is my body