Fifth Sermon for Christmas Day: On Man’s Twofold Misery and the Twofold Mercy of God, and on the Consolation Which the Poor Find in the Nativity

“‘ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, Who comforteth us in all our tribulation.’’—1 Cor. i. 3-4.

Blessed be the Father “for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us,” and sent us His own Beloved Son, in Whom He is well-pleased, to reconcile us by His death that we might “ have peace with God,” and to become Himself not only the Mediator but also the Pledge of our reconciliation. With so loving a Mediator, my brethren, we have no need to be disquieted ; and with so faithful a Pledge, there is no cause for diffidence. But you will say, “ What manner of Mediator is He Who is born in a stable, is laid in a manger, is wrapped in swaddling clothes like other infants, weeps like other infants, and lies weak and helpless like other infants ? ” Nevertheless, He is in truth a most powerful Mediator, and is seeking the things that are to our peace, not negligently (as we do ourselves), but zealously and efficaciously, even in this state of seeming impotence. He is indeed an Infant, but the infant Word of God, Whose very infancy is divinely eloquent. “ Be comforted, be comforted, My people, saith your God.” This is what Emmanuel, God with us, is saying to us now. This is what the stable is crying out to us, and the manger, and the Infant’s tears, and the clothes that cover Him. The stable announces that a shelter is provided for the poor man who fell among robbers. The manger reminds us that food is being ministered to the same man who “ is compared to senseless beasts and is become like them.” The tears and swaddling clothes proclaim that his raw wounds are being washed and bound up. For Christ has no need of such things. He wants none of these for Himself, but all are for His chosen. “They will reverence My Son,” said the Father of mercies. They will, indeed, O Lord, and they do reverence Him. But who? Not the Jews to whom He was sent, but the elect for whose sake He was sent.

For we reverence Him in the manger, we reverence Him on the cross, we reverence Him in the sepulchre. Lovingly do we embrace our God, become a tender Child for us; lovingly do we honour Him, all covered with blood for our sakes, pale with the pallor of death for our sakes, laid in the tomb for our sakes. Most devoutly do we adore our Infant Saviour with the Magi; most affectionately do we clasp Him to our breast, with holy Simeon, ‘‘ receiving Thy mercy, O God, in the midst of Thy Temple.” For He is the Same of Whom we read, “ The Mercy of God is from eternity.” Surely there can be nothing co-eternal with the Father save the Son and the Holy Ghost. And Each of these Two is not so much merciful, as Mercy Itself. But the Father Himself is also Mercy. And these Three are not three mercies, but one Mercy, just as They are one Essence, one Wisdom, one Divinity, one Majesty. Nevertheless, since Godis called the ‘‘ Father of mercies,” who does not see that the name of Mercy specially and by appropriation designates the Son ?

And justly is He called the “Father of mercies,” “to Whom it is natural to show mercy always and to spare.”

But some one may object to this, and say, “ How is it natural to Him ‘to show mercy always,’ since His ‘judgments are a great deep,’ according to the Psalmist ? Neither is it said that ‘all His ways are mercy, but that ‘all His ways are mercy and truth,’ that is, mercy and justice. And the same Prophet implies that He is not less just than merciful, in the words, ‘ Mercy and judgment I will sing to Thee, O Lord.’”’ I grant all this, my brethren. “He hath mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth.” Still I say it is natural for Him to show mercy, for He finds in His own Divine Nature the motive and impulse to this. But if He also judges and condemns, that is because we compel Him, as it were, to do so. And thus it is clear that mercy proceeds from His Heart in a manner very different from punishment. But listen to what He says Himself by the Prophet Ezechiel, ‘‘ Is it My will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that He should be converted from his ways and live? ”?” Rightly, therefore, is He called, not the Father of judgments, or of vengeance, but the “ Father of mercies ” ; not only because mercy appears to belong more to a father than indignation, and because “‘as a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear Him” ; but also and especially because (as I have said) He discovers in Himself alone the motive and impulse to show mercy, whereas when He exercises judgment or vengeance the cause is in us.

But it may be further asked, wherefore then is He scalled the “‘ Father of mercies, ' rather than the Father of mercy? “God hath spoken once,” says the Psalmist, “ these two things have I heard, that power belongeth to God, and mercy to Thee, O Lord.” But the Apostle represents to us this same mercy as manifoldin the one Word, in the one Son, when he calls God “ the Father,” not of one mercy, but “ of mercies,” and “the God ” not of some, but “‘ of all comfort, Who comforteth us in all our tribulation.” ‘‘ The mercies of the Lord are many,” as the Prophet Jeremias in his turn bears witness; and they need to be many, since “ many (also) are the afflictions of the just, and out of them all will the Lord deliver them.” One is the Son of God, and the Word is but one; whilst our manifold misery demands not only great mercy, but even “a multitude of tender mercies.” Yet perhaps on account of the two substances which are united in man, namely, the flesh and the spirit, and in each of which he is miserable, we may speak not improperly of human misery as twofold ; although in reality man is subject to a multitude of miseries, both in body and in soul. Many in truth are the tribulations we suffer in our material and in our spiritual part, but He Who “‘ made the whole man sound on the Sabbath day,” delivers us from all our necessities. Since, therefore, the one and Only-Begotten Son of the Father has already come for the sake of our souls, viz., to “‘ take away the sins of the world,” and is to come again for the sake of our bodies, to raise them up and to make them “ like to the Body of His glory,” it ought not to seem unreasonable if I say that this twofold mercy is acknowledged when God is called the “ Father of mercies.” For by taking to Himself the two elements of our human nature, the soul, namely, and the body, He, the Lord our God, seems to say to us, ‘‘ Be comforted, My people,” not once only, but with reiteration, as before through His Prophet, “ Be comforted, be comforted, My people.” Thus are we given assurance that He, Who did not disdain to assume both our flesh and our spirit, has also the will to save both.

But whom do you think He will thus save? His own people, doubtless. For even now, at His first coming, “ He will save—not everyone, but—His people from their sins.” And, in like manner, it is not every body, but only the “ body of our lowness ” that shall hereafter be “made like to the Body of His glory.” It is therefore His own people He comforts, that is, “the humble people” whom He will save, as the Psalmist testifies, when He will “ bring down the eyes of the proud.”’ Shall I tell you more clearly who are His people? < To Thee is the poor man left,” says the man according to God’s own heart. And Christ Himself says in the Gospel, “ Woe to you that are rich, for you have your consolation.” Would that we, my dearest brethren, were always desirous to be found amongst that happy people, who, so far from being threatened with woes, are rather comforted by the Lord their God! Why, indeed, should He comfort those who have their own consolation ? No, the speechless Babe in the manger offers no consolation to the garruolus ; the tears of the Infant Christ do not comfort the lovers of mirth ; His poor swaddling clothes suggest nothing consoling to them that “ wish to walk in long robes ” ; the crib and the stable have no comforting lesson for such as “love the first seats in the synagogues.” But perhaps they will declare themselves satisfied to let all this consolation go to those who “ wait with silence for the salvation of God,” to those who mourn, and to those who are clad in the livery of the poor. Let them know, therefore, that the angels also will comfort none others. For it is to the “ shepherds watching and keeping the night-watches over their flock ” that the joy of the new light is announced, and for them the Saviour is said to be born. Upon the poor and the toiling—not upon you that are rich and “ have your consolation,’ and with it the divinely-denounced woe—the “ day of sanctification has dawned ” amid the watches of the night, so that the “ night (is) illuminated as the day,” or is rather changed into day, since the Angel says, not “ this night,” but “this day is born to you a Saviour.” For “the night is passed and the Day is at hand,” the true Day of true Day, the Salvation of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is over all things and is Himself true God, blessed for evermore. Amen.