The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1912-12-13

IS Christ the Lord. =
We usually think that our proclamation should be of
the cross, but from it the cradle should never be excluded.
The shadow of the cross lay over Bethlehem, the yicarious
4 element in Christ's life dating back Of His crucifixion and
and even the prosecutions Of His puDlic ministry to the
hQaillatlon and suffering which attended his nativity.
The outlines Of the shadow that lies over the advent
A are easily traceable: Nature helped to east it. The rude
surroundings, the public gaze in which the Virgin
felt herself, her physical weakness, the socia suspicion in
which she was held, made the theory that this was a pre-
4 mature birth seem mos. likely. If His birth was prema.
ture' 1t IS easy to understand with what physical odds
Jesus ; life started. Society threw a part Of the shadow.
Jesus was born as an outcast no room for Him in the inn
Z and no chamber in a Bethlehem home. Beasts are born
in q stable. Chirsts human birth seemed to give Him
that rank. Some say this dd not seem so bad back in
those times. 1t seemed worse, for the ancients we're, if
Z anything, a ho>pitable people. For Him to have no place
10 De BORN among such people was q double humiliation.
The church is responsible, in part. for the shadow. When
Jesus presentation takes place. what do they otfer2 The
I least that was required, the sacrifice Of the paupers child.
q pair 81 turtle doves or two pigeons Even the Church
helped to advertise our Lords poverty. The government
cast its shadow here. ''tIerod sought the young childs
life to destroy it, and Great Dayid's Greater Son" conld
not remain in His ancestral city for His bovhood wears.
tie must away to a strange land and civilization, an exile
at less than three months of age. Providence had some
part N It, too. Joseph desired to bring the boy back into
Judah, the home OF His ancestors, but Archelaus, the new
king, was too mucA Iihc his father to permit tie risk. and
Jesus, the offspring Of David, had to grow up in Gentle
Nazareth and came to be called with reproach, a Galilean.
Darker than all was the shadow which human birth in il.
self cast. What sacrifice Jesus made when he entered a
human body He locked His infinite sight behind eyes
that would let Him see but a little way ahead: chained
omnipotence behind two human hands, weak and frail
at the best; tettered His untrammeled spirit, which had
liad the freedom OF the universe, to feet that held Him back
rather than aided His movements. Look into Ibis cradle
at a babe which at hrSt cannot see or move or speak. and
you are face to face with the best picture of Christs con.
deScenslon: How, then, can we leave the manager ont of
our proclamation? 1t is the best BACKGROUND we have to .
give the cross.
The Incarnation is a fundamental fact IF we 70.
)eet 1t, the cross OF Calvary has no more significance than
any other cross. The atonement derives its sionifcance
from the Incarnation. The shadow ofthe cross i owe tho
manger. Here is Gods meeting place with man. The
story OF the prodlgal who went away into a far country and
squandered his substance in riotouS living. is the worlds
parable. He determined to return. He say his fat}er
grasp his staff and hasten this way-conino a. Cod c.no
III The incarnation coming to meet his wretched. poverty.
stricken son. And now. behold the father has fallen mon ]
his neck and Is kis>lng aim. We are standing at the man.
ger. God ana man are reconcned here. Let rs receive the
mystery BY faith, the truth with heartfelt gratitude This
Is TO come home. For only in the setting out Of God to =
meet a hayward aud helpless world is there a possibility
OF the world, return to God