per or the guests of the inn,
as the village was overcrowded, and the fact that these late arrivals
were compelled to put up with a place out in the enclosure, possibly a
cave, where the animals were kept, was no intended incivility or
uncommon hardship. Nevertheless, whatever may have been the reason, the
fact was that there was no room for Jesus in that inn the first night he
spent in this world, and this fact was sadly prophetic of his reception
in the world he came to save.

There were few places where he did find welcome: generally there was no
room for him even in places where he had the most reason and right to
expect it. And if it was no lack of hospitality that kept him out of
this inn, it certainly was the lack of this grace and the positive
presence of hostility that in after life excluded him from many places
where he wanted to be.

Jesus was not wanted in his own country: Herod tried to leave no room
for him there. He was not wanted in his own town: his neighbors tried
to hurl him down a cliff to his death. He was not wanted in his own
church: its ministers and doctors of divinity fell upon him in malignant
fury and at last crucified him. Even his own family found it hard to
make room for him in their inner circle. Small room was there in this
evil world for this pure and lowly spirit. Then why did he come to it?
Because he so loved it that he gave himself for it. Small room do we
still leave for Jesus as we crowd him out of our hearts and lives and
out of our social order and civilization with our selfishness and sin.
Is it a discouraging fact that there is so little room for Christ in the
world? Then let us note the fact that there is more room for him to-day
than ever before, and this room is ever widening.

How much that inn missed by not having room for this mother and her
babe! Its finest apartment lost a glory that fell upon the manger out
of which the cattle were fed. How much shall we miss if we do not have
room for Christ? There is one world where there is room for Jesus and
where he is wanted: heaven. And all who are like him shall find room
with him in its many mansions.

X. Angel Ministry

Jerusalem and Rome knew nothing of this event. The High Priest offered
the evening sacrifice unaware that it was rendered obsolete by the
coming of the true Sacrifice, and Caesar slept that night without a dream
that a Rival had been born who would uproot his empire and erect a
worldwide kingdom