s and sparkling streams. He gave us
hunger that seeks bread, and it finds fields of golden grain and
orchards of rosy fruit. He gave us minds that seek truth, and they find
it; he gave us a craving for love, and heart matches heart. He set
eternity in our hearts and gave us deep instincts that reach after the
Infinite, hearts that cry, "Shew, us the Father and it sufficeth us."
Shall all lower needs be satisfied and this supreme search and cry of
the soul be disappointed and mocked? "And they found the babe," is the
answer to this need and promise. God sends us with all our deep needs
and mysterious longings to that cradle in Bethlehem, where they will be
exactly and fully matched and satisfied. He that hath seen this Child
hath seen the Father.

The shepherds, having seen for themselves, immediately began to make
known abroad the saying which was told them concerning the Child. The
gospel is a social and expansive blessing and cannot be shut up in the
individual heart. We are saved to serve, we are told the good news that
we may tell it to others, we get it that we may give it. And the more we
give it the more we get it, for this bread multiplies in our own hands
as we share it with others, as did the loaves beside the Galilean sea.
Great souls have ever grown rich by the lavish prodigality with which
they bestowed their gifts on others, and because Jesus gave himself God
hath highly exalted him.

First angels and then shepherds: how startling the contrast. Jesus has
deep affinities with both: on his divine side he is related to heaven,
and on his human side he is related to earth. And the first men he drew
to his side were shepherds, representatives of the common people. He did
not come as a member of any special class, especially of the upper
class. No one can ever save the world by winning over the rich and the
great. Society cannot be lifted from the top. Whoever would raise the
level of society must get his lever under its foundation stones. Taking
hold of the carved cornice will tear the roof off and lift it away from
the building, but raising the lowest stone will also push up the
spire's gilded point. He who elevates the peasant will also in time
elevate the prince. Jesus did not begin with Caesar, but with shepherds,
and then in three hundred years a Christian Caesar sat on the throne.

The gospel still works from beneath; going down into the slums of
Christian cities; working among the poor and degraded of