Merry Christmas to All of You!

As a Christmas post here, I've decided to use a piece of Charles Spurgeon's 1854 Christmas Eve sermon. Apparently, lots of people are familiar with this fabulous message, but I'd never heard it before. Our pastor played this video at church yesterday, and I thought it was fabulous. This is the reason that we celebrate Christmas. A transcript of the sermon passage used in the video is included below.

“Immanuel.”

It is wisdom’s mystery, “God with us.”

Sages look at it and wonder. Angels desire to see it.

The plumb-line of reason cannot reach half-way into its depths.

The eagle wings of science cannot fly so high and

the piercing eye of the vulture of research cannot see it!

“God with us.” It is Hell’s terror! Satan trembles at the sound of it.

His legions fly apace, the black-winged dragon of the Pit quails before it!

Let Satan come to you suddenly and do you but whisper that word,

“God with us”—back he falls—confounded and confused!

Satan trembles when he hears that  name, “God with us.”

It is the laborer’s strength—how could he preach the Gospel,

how could he bend his knees in prayer,

how could the missionary go into foreign lands,

how could the martyr stand at the stake,

how could the confessor acknowledge his Master,

how could men labor if that one word were taken away?

“God with us,” is the sufferer’s comfort, is the balm of his woe,

is the alleviation of his misery, is the sleep which God gives to His beloved,

is their rest after exertion and toil.

Ah, and to finish, “God with us” is eternity’s sonnet,
is Heaven’s hallelujah, is the shout of the glorified,
is the song of the redeemed, is the chorus of angels,
is the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky!
“God with us.”

Merry Christmas!