December 26

The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. - John 1:14.

THIS intimates to us the Saviour’s intercourse and his sociableness. All great minds love and seek solitude. The Saviour loved and often sought retirement, and, had he pleased himself, he would have more frequently retired from public view; but he never refused the company of those who sought his presence, and therefore he did not refuse to be a guest when the Pharisee invited him to his table; nor did he refuse to be a guest at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. It was on this occasion he wrought a notable miracle, turning the water into wine. This condescension and grace drew forth the maliciousness of his enemies; hence the allegation, This man “receiveth sinners and eateth with them.” “John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil;” that is, he is melancholy and a recluse. The Son of man came eating and drinking; there was no excess, but “simple living” according to the common mode of life; and they say, He is “a wine-bibber,-a friend of publicans and sinners.”

This was a foul and scandalous reproach. But, though he did not love men’s sins, he loved their souls; and was concerned for their salvation. All through life he was never actuated by the spirit of the Pharisee, saying, “Stand by; come not near me; I am holier than thou.” He never indulged in the abominations of monasticism. He never said, Touch not, taste not, handle not. He knew that “every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, and sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” His prayer to his heavenly Father was, “I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil.” He was in the world, but not of it. We, also, are to be in the world, but not of it. His religion, if we understand it properly, calls us at once out of the world as well as into it.

Out of the world as to its spirit and principles and maxims, and what the apostle calls “the course of the world;” but into it as a field of action and a sphere of usefulness,-if there are any tried ones to be relieved-if any hungry to be fed-if any naked to be clothed, or sick to be healed -if there are the ignorant and uninformed to be instructed, the vicious to be reclaimed, or the lost to be saved.