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The Lamb of God

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California, U.S.A. · Nov 25, 1930

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 57, No. 46.

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The Lamb of God

By Gwynne Dalrymple

GWYNNE DALRYMPLE
The Star of Bethlehem, which led the wise men to the city of David, did not shine down upon a world sunk in barbarianism. The age that beheld the Son of God clothed in human flesh was the age greatest, if we except our own, in culture, in knowledge, and in civilization.
Scholars and philosophers, artists and priests, teachers and orators, sophists and rhetoricians, capitalists, organizers, and politicians, all had contributed to make the world of that day what it was. Into that ancient civilization had been fused the deeds and thoughts of Plato, Aristotle, Hillel, Shammai, Demosthenes, Alexander, Vergil, Crassus, Julius, and Augustus. It was an age of powerful and brilliant achievement.
Yet all that mankind had accomplished in religious thought, in metaphysical speculation, and in organized activity had not brought men a pace nearer to their Creator. Sin reigned.
In Bethlehem, Jesus was born to unite men with God.
What this world would have been if He had never been born, or whether in that case a new civilization would ever have arisen upon the ruins of the old, are questions I shall not attempt to answer here. Yet whenever I see a hospital, an orphan asylum, a home for the aged, a mission for the fallen; whenever I compare the status of the women of the West with that of their unhappy sisters of the East; whenever I contemplate whatever influences for humanity, for gentleness, for sympathy, for refinement of word and thought and deed, for charity and love, may be in the world around us, I see the supreme value of Christianity to the world.
But pressing the question closer home, what does the birth of Jesus mean to me?
When Christ was born, there came into the world “God of God, Light of light, very God of very God;” and He is still the Light of the world, and my Light.
When Christ was born, there came into the world the Son of Mary, the brother of Simon and Joses and Jude; I see in Him that patient tenderness that forms at once the foundation and the crown of the true home.
When Christ was born, there came a Carpenter, who by His toil with saw and plane and ax has told me patiently to endure in the lowly duties that each day brings.
When Christ came into the world, there came the Saviour of Magdalene, and the last one who ever called Judas, “Friend;” so I know that while His love is in my heart I shall not despise those who are plunged into the mire of sin, nor shall I hate even those who have sunk into the pit of treachery.
When Christ came into the world, there came the great Believer,—the One who, beyond the malice of enemies and the cowardice of friends, supremely discerned the purpose of God; His faith did not falter, and His courage did not fail.
The birth of Christ meant that there had come the Lamb of God, who made one sacrifice perfect and complete; and through that sacrifice I live.
The birth of Christ meant that a Saviour came, who saves me.