rship, a city beautiful for
situation, magnificent in its architecture, sacred in its associations
and world-wide and splendid in its fame, should have been honored with
this supreme event in the history of the Jews. But an ancient prophet,
while noting its comparative insignificance, had yet put his finger on
this tiny point on the map and pronounced upon it a blessing that caused
it to blaze out like a star amidst its rural hills. "But thou, Bethlehem
Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of
thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose
goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." And so proud
Jerusalem was passed by, and this supreme honor was bestowed upon the
humble village.

Great men, as a rule, are not born in cities. They come up out of
obscure villages and hidden nooks and corners. They originate closer to
nature than city-born men and seem to spring from the very soil. The
most noted birthplace in Scotland is that of Burns: it is a humble
cottage with a thatched roof and a stable in one end of it. The most
celebrated birthplace in England is that of Shakespeare, and again it is
a plain cottage in a country village. Lincoln was born in a log hut in
the wilds of Kentucky, Mohammed was the son of a camel driver, and
Confucius the son of a soldier. The city must go to the country for its
masters, and the world draws its best blood and brains from the farm. It
was in accordance with this principle that the Saviour of the world
should be born, not in a city and palace, but in a country village, and
that his first bed should be, not a downy couch, but a slab of stone.

VII. The Wonderful Night Draws Near

"Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled." This is the point at
which the orderly and scholarly Luke opens his account of the birth of
our Lord. It seems like going a long way off from and around to the end
in view. But there are no isolated facts and forces in the world and all
things work together. When we see providence start in we never can tell
where it is going to come out. If God is about to bless us, he may start
the chain of causation that shall at length reach us in some far-off
place or land; or if he is about to save a soul in China he may start
with one of us in the contribution we make to foreign missions. Caesar
Augustus, master of the world, from