any crosses and many there be that walk the _via dolorosa_ to
them to-day. You shall be counted blessed if you can gaze at that cross
until it is transformed by the glory of the resurrection. And in it all
you can see your God--the poor man's God!--the rich man's
God!--everybody's God!

You can know that your God was poor, that He was humble, that He
struggled under adverse conditions, that He laboured, that He was
hungry, thirsty, tired, cold, that He was homeless, that He was denied
many of the joys of human society and the solace of affection, that His
best friends went back on Him, that everybody deserted Him, and that the
whole world finally rose up and crushed Him down. That he suffered all
things. Only a very great God could so endure. Only one who was truly
God could so manifest Himself in pain.

You can understand how He can comprehend what your trouble is. Oh, yes,
the poor and the bereaved have as great a right to look into that manger
and see their God there as have the rich and the care free.

Now there is a kind of pernicious socialism which condemns riches as
things unholy and exalts poverty as a thing acceptable to God. That Baby
came as well to the rich as to the poor. Do not forget that. It is not
generally understood, but it is true. He accepted gladly the
hospitality, the alms, the gifts, priceless in value, of those who had
great possessions and He loved them even as He loved those who had
nothing. The rich and wise also have a right to look into that cradle to
see their God, too. When we say He is the God of all classes we do not
mean that He is only the God of the poor any more than we mean He is
only the God of the rich.

He came to all the children of men and they can all stand by that cradle
this morning and claim Him as their own; ask, receive, and share in His
blessing. The light that shone in the darkness lighted impartially the
world. Some of you are blessed with competences and some of the
competences are greater than others. What of it? The poor man may serve
God acceptably in his poverty and the rich man may serve God acceptably
in his wealth. There is one God and though He is King of Kings and Lord
of Lords, even though He may lie lowly in a manger, yet the kingdom of
Heaven is like a republic--it is a democracy in which all are equal, or
if there be distinctions they are based on righteousness alone--saving
only the distinctions Divine.

Now there is one other condition into which