r being_." Why, therefore, should the
Incarnation be thought incredible or impossible because it does not come
within the limitations of our present understanding and it is not
taught by our limited human experience. The sweet reasonableness of the
Incarnation, this conception by Divine power, this birth from the Virgin
mother, should appeal to all who think deeply on these subjects.

And yet perhaps the manner, place, and circumstance of this birth may
awaken wonder. Possibly you would have the King come as other kings
come, in pomp and circumstance, glory and majesty, with heralds
preceding, music playing, blossoms strewn, and people cheering. Oh, no,
that way did not seem the best way to the wisdom of God--a young girl,
an old man, in the stable, no other tendance, no luxury, no
comfort--poverty, humility, absolute.

Let us forget the Angel Chorus and the blazing star and go now even unto
Bethlehem and look into the manger at that Child, while the
uncomprehending cattle stare resentful perhaps at their displacement.
The King comes as a Child, as weak, as helpless, as vocal of its pains
as any other child. Not a Child of luxury, not a Child of consequence,
not a Child of comfort, but a Child of poverty; and in the eyes of the
blind world, if they had been privy to it, without the glorious vision
of the good man, Joseph, a Child of shame! If the world had known that
the Babe was not the Child of Joseph and Mary how it would have mocked.
What laughter, what jeers, what contempt, what obloquy, what scorn would
have been heaped upon the woman's head! Why the world would heap them
there now were it not that that portion of it which disbelieves in the
Incarnation, says that Joseph was after all the father of the Child.

Nor shall we go down to Bethlehem alone. The poor, ignorant shepherds
came to the cradle that night. They could understand. It did not seem
strange to them that their God was poor, for they themselves were poor.
I wonder how much the shepherds reflected. Theirs is a profession which
gives rise to thought; they are much alone in the waste places with the
gentlest of God's creatures. Their paths lead by green pastures and
still waters; they enjoy long, lonely hours for meditation. Did they
say:

"Ah! God has come to us as a poor man, not because there is anything
particularly noble or desirable in poverty, but because so many of us
are so very poor, and because the most of us have been poor all the
time, a