-¦$; 1

11 F

W:

w

y Uj<j ??-< /<¦(/ i'i/

OA.<Lt*UL.d.lLi^
/S99-

jLUL,

Murilloy pin.x

THE HOLY FA1VULY.
LOWER PORTION.

Branny fikoto.

XLbc Doty Jfamity
H Cforietmas ADeMtation

BY
AMORY H. BRADFORD

NEW-YORK
FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT
1899

Not holiest, not noblest — no high name,
Whose height misplaced may pierce me like
a shame,
When I sit meek in heaven!
For me, for me,
God knows that I am feeble like the rest! —
I often wandered forth, more child than
maiden,
Among the midnight hills of Galilee
Whose summits looked heaven-laden,
Listening to silence as it seemed to be
God's voice, so soft yet strong — so fain to
press
Upon my heart as Heaven did on the height,
And waken up its shadows by a light,
And show its vileness by a holiness.
Then I knelt down most silent like the night,
Too self-renounced for fears,
Raising my small face to the boundless blue
Whose stars did mix and tremble in my tears,
God heard them falling after, with his dew.
So, seeing my corruption, can I see
6

This Incorruptible now born of me,
This fair new Innocence no sun did chance
To shine on, (for even Adam was no child,)
Created from my nature all defiled,
This mystery, from out mine ignorance, —
Nor feel the blindness, stain, corruption, more
Than others do, or /did heretofore? —
Can hands wherein such burden pure has been
Not open with the cry, " Unclean, unclean,"
More oft than any else beneath the skies ?
Ah King, ah Christ, ah son!
The kine, the shepherds, the abased wise,
Must all less lowly wait
Than I, upon thy state. —
Sleep, sleep, my kingly One !
Art thou a King, then ? Come, his universe,
Come, crown me Him a King!
Pluck rays from all such stars as never fling
Their light where fell a curse,
And make a crowning for this kingly brow ! —
What is my word? — Each empyreal star
Sits in a sphere afar
In shining ambuscade.

The child-brow, crowned by none,
Keeps its unchildlike shade.
Sleep, sleep, my crownless One !
Unchildlike shade ! — No other babe doth wear
An aspect very sorrowful, as thou. —
No small babe-smiles my watching heart has
seen,
To float like speech the speechless lips be
tween.
No dove-like cooing in the golden air,
No quick short joys of leaping babyhood.
Alas, our earthly good
In heaven thought evil, seems too good for
thee:
Yet, sleep, my weary One!
And then the drear sharp tongue of prophecy,
With the dread sense of things which shall be
done,
Doth smite me inly, like a sword ! a sword ? —
{That "smites the Shepherd ! ") Then, I think
aloud
The words " despised," " rejected," every word

Recoiling into darkness as I view
The Darling on my knee.
Bright angels, — move not! — lest ye stir the
cloud
Betwixt my soul and His futurity !
I must not die, with mother's work to do,
And could not live — and see.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Ibpmn for tbe flDotber.
My child is lying on my knees;
The signs of heaven he reads ;
My face is all the heaven he sees,
Is all the heaven he needs.

And he is well, yea, bathed in bliss,
If heaven is in my face, —
Behind it is all tenderness
And truthfulness and grace.
I mean him well so earnestly,
Unchanged in changing mood;
My life would go without a sigh
To bring him something good.

I also am a child, and I
Am ignorant and weak;
I gaze upon the starry sky,
And then I must not speak;
For all behind the starry sky,
Behind the world so broad,
Behind men's hearts and souls doth lie
The Infinite of God.
Ay, true to him, though troubled sore,
I cannot choose but be :
Thou who art peace forevermore
Art very true to me.
If I am low and sinful, bring
More love where need is rife;
Thou knowest what an awful thing
It is to be a life.
Hast thou not wisdom to inwrap
My waywardness about,
In doubting safety on the lap
Of Love that knows no doubt?

Lo ! Lord, I sit in thy wide space.
My child upon my knee;
He looketh up into my face,
As I look up to Thee.
George Macdonald.
(Slightly altered.)

Gbe Iboty family :
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION.
AT the very time when the person
ii of our Lord is being most re
morselessly investigated and criti
cised, his teachings and his influence
are finding an ampler place in the
lives and the affections of men. The
more earnest the attempt to disprove
his unique characteristics, the more
vitally he is found to be related to
the happiness and progress of the
race. One might as well try to
eliminate from light its power of pro
ducing color and beauty as to take

14 THE HOLY FAMILY:
out of history the work which Jesus
has accomplished, or to separate from
the forces which are leading civiliza
tion his inspirations, which are the
chief causes of benefit and blessing
in this modern world. Above the
broad and monotonous plains of
humanity Jesus rises like some Mat-
terhorn, and he is no more seri
ously affected by speculations con
cerning his origin and essential being
than is that gigantic mountain-peak
by studies as to the formation of
its rocks or the steady sweep of its
glaciers. Jesus has moulded or modified all
the institutions of men. He is no
more at home in the church than in
the state, in the cathedral than in
the family. Whichever way we turn

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 15
we come face to face with him. Are
we swayed by superstition in this ?
It is hard to believe that superstition
could continue, and become more
commanding, in the blaze of so much
light and for so many years. The
vital forces of civilization are not
born of ignorance and superstition,
although they may grow in the midst
of such an environment. If Jesus or
any other man long retains his place
in these days as an intellectual and
spiritual leader, it is because he has
something which the world needs.
Masses of people cannot be perma
nently deluded. Art, literature, ora
tory, laws, penal institutions, soci
ety, the family, and the state have all
received from Jesus their finest inspi
rations, and at the consummation of

16 THE HOLY FAMILY:
history they will unite in placing on
his head the many crowns.
In no department of life is the in
fluence of Jesus more apparent than
in art. His story has possessed an
exquisite fascination for great masters
from the earliest Christian centuries
to the present time. Among the best-
known pictures in recent years in
Paris are two by countrymen of
ours : " The Crucifixion," by the
younger George Inness ; and " The
Raising of Lazarus," by Mr. Tanner,
a colored man. The former has now
found a home in America, and the
latter was purchased by the French
government for the gallery of the
Luxembourg. The preeminent pic
tures in all the European galleries
are variations on the life of our Lord.

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 17
Are we in Dresden ? It is the " Sis-
tine Madonna." Are we in Florence?
It is the " Madonna della Sedia."
Are we in London ? It is " The Holy
Family." Are we in Rome? It is
"The Transfiguration." Are we in
Milan? It is "The Last Supper."
Are we in Paris? It is "The As
sumption of the Virgin." Are we in
Antwerp ? It is " The Descent from
the Cross." Are we in Madrid? It
is "The Ascension." The story of
Jesus is perennially attractive to ar
tists ; and in that fact there is deep
significance, for artists find their no
blest inspirations in realities, rather
than in dreams. The profoundest
philosophy may be pure speculation,
like "The Republic"; the most mag
nificent poetry may be pure imagina-

THE HOLY FAMILY:

tion, like " Paradise Lost " ; but the
noblest art is always loyal to ob
jective reality.
The most beautiful painting in the
National Gallery in London has long
seemed to me to be Murillo's " Holy
Family." It is not large, like Raph
ael's " Sistine Madonna," or Murillo's
"Assumption of the Virgin"; and it
has no exceptional advantage in its
location; but it shines in the midst
of all that galaxy of pictures as the
planet Venus shines amidst the other
stars in the wintry sky when one is
near to the equator. If it were pos
sible for me to put Murillo's work
into words, I could give my friends no
better Christmas gift. But words can
convey color and expression no more
than they can carry perfume. I offer

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 19
only a rude sketch of what is too
ethereal for human speech.
In the foreground are the figures of
Joseph and Mary, and standing be
tween them, slightly elevated, is the
child Jesus. Joseph looks straight at
the observer ; but Mary, with such an
air of absorbed love as not many per
sons, even among women, are capable
of, is looking at Jesus, whom the pa
rents hold by either hand. The Child
wears a loose robe ; his hair falls to
his shoulders, and his eyes are turned
neither toward his mother nor toward
Joseph, but upward, as if he actually
saw what the artist has endeavored to
suggest — the Heavenly Father sur
rounded by choirs of cherubim who
fill the spaces with light and joy and
song. Just above the head of Jesus

2o THE HOLY FAMILY:
hovers a dove, the emblem in all art
of the Holy Spirit.
To appreciate the exquisite natu
ralness and strength of the picture
one must look long into the eyes of
Mary and into the face of her Child.
Murillo was a Spaniard, and the first
artist, I believe, who dared to brave
tradition and, true to nature, repre
sent Mary as the Jewess she was,
with dark hair and eyes. Among the
faces of the Madonnas in the galleries
of the world this one, it seems to me,
best combines physical beauty with
lofty spirituality. This artist's model
is said to have been his own daugh
ter Francesca. Happy the father of
such a daughter !
Murillo was born in Seville in 1617,
and died in 1682. Of the artists of

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 21
Spain he is easily the chief, and of all
the painters of the world none is bet
ter entitled to immortal fame, with
the possible exceptions of Raphael
and Michelangelo. Among his other
works which are well known are " St.
Elizabeth of Hungary," "The Vir
gin Appearing to St. Francis," and
that miracle of beauty in the Louvre,
"The Assumption of the Virgin," for
which, in 1852, the fabulous sum of
about $520,000 was paid, probably
the largest price ever brought by a
single picture. In all Murillo's paint
ings of the Madonna and Child the
faces of the Virgin and Jesus are es
sentially the same ; and that is as it
should be, for no true artist could
ascribe to Him other than his own
highest ideals of spiritual beauty, and

THE HOLY FAMILY:

those ideals would not materially
change within a few years.
A study of this canvas, which some
times seems as if it must have been
painted in heaven, suggests certain
thoughts, which may or may not have
been in the mind of the artist, but
which are the truths that I will try to
interpret to my readers.

Ube ^Pical CbilD.
The face of Jesus in "The
Holy Family," unlike his face in the
" Sistine Madonna," where the eyes
speak of preternatural vision, is that
of a typical child. His features have
a touch of seriousness and just a
hint of premature age, but other
wise he appears to be what any

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 23
healthy child should be. Jesus is
represented in the Gospels as having
been a thoughtful, natural boy, who
grew as others grow, who was made
strong by exercise, and who probably
indulged in the sports and pastimes
of children. There came to him now
and then dim intimations of the future,
but similar intimations have come to
others. Mozart had already heard
the "heavenly harmonies" when, at
four years of age, he startled the
monks by an apparently intuitive
knowledge of the organ ; and Murillo
himself felt that he was an artist when
he was not very much older. It
would have been strange indeed if
Jesus had been denied such anticipa
tions of what his future would be.
The typical child was not a little

24 THE HOLY FAMILY:
angel, — not a precocious creature who
in boyhood bore the burdens and
thought the thoughts of manhood, —
but, possessed of infinite possibilities
and dimly conscious of larger spheres
beyond, he came to his strength and
power along the slow and often
wearisome path of growth. To human
eyes most children are essentially
alike. They resemble one another
far more than do adults. A dozen
small boys standing side by side, if
they happen to be of about the same
height and complexion, are difficult to
distinguish ; but when the years have
done their work, — when the lines in
those faces have been deepened, when
the form of those features has been
fixed, when the eyes have assumed
their final expression, — there is no dif-

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 25
ficulty in distinguishing between them,
however much alike they may have
been in their cradles. Experience
rather than birth is the chief cause of
the differences between men. That
is readily granted' by every student of
heredity. If children of contrasted
parentage are reared in the same en
vironment they will usually resemble
one another. A change of surround
ings brings out characteristics which
otherwise might have remained unde
veloped. In every child there is
something which allies him to the boy
Jesus. If all were reared in an at
mosphere of perfect truth and love,
all might approach the stature of
Jesus. But let us return to that little Child
in the picture of Murillo. What do

26 THE HOLY FAMILY:
we see ? A boy resembling others of
his age, who suggests what all boys
were intended to be, and would be if
they were surrounded by the influ
ences and training which would de
velop only what is best in them.
The Gospels tell us that Jesus was
prepared for his ministry as we are
prepared for ours. He was made
perfect through suffering. He grew
in wisdom and stature. Intellectually
and physically he was different at
twelve from what he was at six years
of age, and was a far larger and lof
tier character at thirty than he was at
twelve. Forgetting for the moment
the story of the Annunciation, when
Mary looked into the eyes of Jesus at
the time the artist has chosen for his
picture, she had no more reason, so

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 27
far as we can see, to think her Son
would be the world's Saviour than we
have to dream such dreams of our
children. God may have some ser
vice for the little ones that other
mothers' arms enshrine, as holy even
as the mission of Jesus, when he be
came the Christ and was selected in a
unique sense to be the revelation of
God. Great is the mystery of child
hood. When we deal with men we
are dealing with what is in a measure
fixed; when we approach children we
draw near to those who are still in
the plastic age. How solemn are the
duties and privileges of a parent !
The artist paints what exists, or what
has existed, in some of its relations
or combinations ; the parent helps
to determine character and destiny.

28 THE HOLY FAMILY:
Jesus as the typical child is the reve
lation to the world of the infinite pos
sibilities of childhood.
TLbe fl&eal jFamilE.
In Murillo's picture the Child is
central, but almost equally attractive
are Joseph and Mary. For simple
and spiritual beauty the face of Mary
is unsurpassed in art. The group
together suggests the Holy Family,
or the ideal family. We are accus
tomed to speak of Jesus as the typical
man ; the artist has gone further and
given us a typical family. Here is
the doctrine of the Trinity in a form
concerning which there is never any
controversy — husband, wife, child,
one in the bonds of love. Every

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 29
family ought to be as holy as that
into which Jesus was born. His in
fluence on domestic life has been the
most potent of the forces which have
differentiated the households of to
day from those of two thousand years
ago. He has glorified woman as
wife and mother, and almost created
the modern home. Where his teach
ings are observed the family is hal
lowed and secure ; where they are
neglected it is occasionally sacred,
but the sanctity is without security.
One of the most beautiful phrases
ever heard on this earth is " the Holy
Family." What makes a family holy ?
Not the presence of a child in any
unique sense divine, but the presence
of that of which the child is the sym
bol, namely, love — pure, unselfish,

30 THE HOLY FAMILY:
and deathless. " Love is of God ;
and every one that loveth is born of
God, and knoweth God." The basis
of holiness is love. Some things are
too exquisitely beautiful for analysis.
The process destroys the beauty.
You may analyze a lily; you will
know more, but what will remain of
the flower when the analysis is com
plete ? Knowledge of how a thing
exists is not essential to appreciation
of its worth. Some things may be
more accurately described than ana
lyzed, and hints are sometimes more
truthful even than descriptions.
A wife died, in a home into which
no child had ever been born, and two
years after the husband died also ;
and the saying of his pastor as he
stood beside the silent form of his

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 31
friend was : " He has sobbed himself
to sleep." That sentence revealed
the life of one household.
Charles Kingsley was a brave,
chivalrous spirit, who delighted in ac
tion quite as much as in meditation.
He was once asked if he believed
that we should recognize our friends
after death. His answer revealed a
whole life-history : " If my wife is my
wife and I am Charles Kingsley we
shall surely know one another there."
I have sometimes thought that the
finest dedication ever written for any
book is that of Principal Fairbairn in
his monumental work entitled "The
Place of Christ in Modern Theology."
It is as follows : " This book is dedi
cated to my wife, whose quiet help
fulness and fair companionship have

32

THE HOLY FAMILY:

made the twenty-five years of our
wedded life years of happy labor and
gracious peace."
Did even Robert Browning ever
write anything more exquisite than
his tribute to Mrs. Browning? After
speaking of how the world regarded
her, he adds : 1

Ah, but that 's the world's side, there 's the
wonder ;
Thus they see you, praise you, think they
know you !
There, in turn, I stand with them and praise
you —
Out of my own self, I dare to phrase it.
But the best is when I glide from out of them,
Cross a step or two of dubious twilight,
Come out on the other side, the novel,
Silent, silver lights and darks undreamed of,
Where I hush and bless myself in silence.
l " One Word More."

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 33
When the late Dr. William M.
Taylor, of the Broadway Tabernacle,
was making an address before the
council called for his installation in
New York, after stating his theologi
cal beliefs, he spoke of (I think) three
little graves on the other side of the
sea, and added words like these :
" And I have been preaching out of
that experience ever since."
The other day there entered the
cabin of a ferry-boat on the North
River a coarsely dressed Italian. In
the appearance of the man there was
nothing attractive, but two little chil
dren kept closely to his side as if they
knew in whom they trusted, while in
his arms he carried a baby that was
evidently ill. No mother was ever
more tender. Arrived at the city, he

34 THE HOLY FAMILY:
entered a car and sat down in a cor
ner, with one child on each side, and
the baby snuggling closely against
his face. The look of reverence on
the faces of men and women who wit
nessed the sight was as reverent as
is often seen before a shrine or in
a cathedral. The roughness of the
man was sanctified by his evident
affection for the children. Holy fam
ilies are found wherever the bond
is pure, unselfish, Christ-like love ;
wherever the one treasure is affection
which cannot be destroyed ; where
parents reverence their children as the
dearest gifts of God and as immortal
as God himself; and where children
serve their parents with a devotion
and fidelity that are like nothing so
much as religion. Wherever true

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 35
love is, there is a " holy family " —
whether there be any child or not.
And may we not go even farther, and
add, wherever such love is, and
where it is guarded as the divinest
thing on this earth, there is the very
essence of the "holy family," even if
the earthly desire for companionship
and parenthood has thus far been de
nied. The holy things are not those
which at special times come down out
off heaven from God, but those with
which our lives are daily filled.
Every star is as sacred as that which
shone above Bethlehem ; every child
is intended to be what the Christ-
child was ; and every family has pos
sibilities like those of. that family in
Nazareth.

36 THE HOLY FAMILY:

TLbc Ulnseen fllMnfstrs.
Above the figures of the Holy
Family in Murillo's painting, unseen
by Joseph and Mary, and only dimly
apprehended by the boy Jesus, in
glory ineffable, is the face of the
Heavenly Father graciously looking
down on that earthly home, while
all the spaces of the air are filled
with cherubim singing for joy over
that which they are beholding below.
Such is the artist's dream. But is it
altogether a dream ? Did not our
Lord say that in heaven " their angels
do always behold the face of my
Father which is in heaven " ? Is
there not something prophetic in the
universal conviction of a deep and

Murillo, pinx.

THE HOLY FAMILY.

Braun, pkot.

UPPER PORTION.

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 37
constant interest on the part of the
gods, or the one God, in all that takes
place on the earth ? Did he not say,
" Ye are of more value than many
sparrows " ? If God cares for lilies
and birds, will he not regard the in
terests of men ? Was there not a
deep truth in the old faith — I will
not call it a superstition — that every
man had his guardian angel who al
ways followed him, seeking his wel
fare ? I am inclined to think that
what was thus symbolized is glori
ously true : that angels of God (they
may be those whom we have loved
on the earth — I do not know) do
watch over all in their toils and trials ;
that they are the messengers of Him
who can forget or overlook us no
more than we can neglect or forget

38 THE HOLY FAMILY:
our dear ones. There is an unseen
universe, and it is near to every man.
Such is the teaching of science as
well as of revelation. In that uni
verse there are colors which our eyes
cannot see, sounds which our ears
are too dull to hear, and perfumes too
delicate for our coarse senses to de
tect. If there are colors, sounds, and
perfumes in the unseen, why not also
beings too spiritual for our physical
sight to perceive, but not too ethereal
for the companionship of our spirits ?
Whether demonstrable or not, such is
the teaching of Scripture, and such
has been the faith of millions in all
ages. " Are not their angels min
istering spirits, sent forth to minister
to such as shall be the heirs of salva
tion ? " Did not angels herald the

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 39
advent of Jesus ? Did not angels
appear unto him in the garden ? Do
we not sing :
Hark ! hark, my soul ! Angelic songs are
swelling
O'er earth's green fields and ocean's wave-
beat shore;
How sweet the truth those blessed strains
are telling
Of that new life when sin shall be no
more !
But some find belief in the unseen
to be difficult, if not impossible. They
say: " We do not understand. We
would believe, but we cannot." Yet
those very persons find no difficulty
in believing that there are inhabitants
on far-away stars ; sometimes they
even intimate that dwellers on the
nearer planets may be signalling to

40 THE HOLY FAMILY:
the earth. Is it harder to under
stand that beings too ethereal for our
mortal eyes may dwell on the earth,
than that the stars are the abodes
of intelligent creatures ? Murillo has
fittingly expressed a truth which the
world will never give up, although
it may never be demonstrated by a
logical process or discerned by the
senses. Divine Providence presides over all
human affairs. No man " walks with
aimless feet." History is not a series
of accidents. Every life is a plan of
God, even though human freedom
may sadly interfere with that plan.
On the earth we serve one another,
and the more nearly perfect the one
who is served, the swifter and gladder
the service becomes ; so, when our

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 41
loved ones pass from the limitations
of the body, it is not reasonable to
suppose that they lose human inter
ests. Rather let us believe that under
freer conditions they continue in the
sacred ministry of love and sacrifice.
We dare to believe that death does
not change human interests, but only
the mode in which human faculties
operate. As Murillo has represented
the Father and the shining ones look
ing down on the Holy Family in Naza
reth, so, we will believe, they hold
watch over all the families of the
earth, and by secret intimations and
loving ministries seek to win them
from the things that perish toward
the worthier joys which are celestial
and without end.
Have not many during these days

42 THE HOLY FAMILY:
of the world's great gladness caught
the accent of a voice that is still, or
felt as in a dream the pressure of a
vanished hand? It was not all a
dream. If ever there were angels,
there are angels now. If they ever
cared for the welfare of mortals, they
are seeking their welfare now. The
earth is not so dark that God and
those who dwell with him cannot see
what is enacting here. The nearer
we get to one another in sympathy
the more impossible seems any spir
itual separation ; and the nearer one
gets to God the more intense is the
realization that he besets us behind
and before, and that his mercy and
ministry alike are everlasting.

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 43

Sunset an& Sunrise.
Two pictures lie before me on my
desk. One is a photograph of Mu
rillo's " Holy Family," the other a
photograph of the younger George
Inness's " Crucifixion." The former I
have already tried to describe. The
latter also is a great painting. In
the foreground is a curious crowd
from Jerusalem; in the shadows of the
distance lies the city itself; the hea
vens are black with lurid clouds ; not
far away are mounted soldiers keep
ing back the inquisitive people; on
the hill in the distance are the crosses.
On the right hangs one thief, and on
the left another ; but there is no
third cross. In its place is a blaze of

44 THE HOLY FAMILY:
light from which a rainbow rises and
throws its splendor far over the black
ness of the sky. From the home in
Nazareth to that "green hill outside
the city wall " was only about thirty
years, counting by time, but how vast
was the distance when measured by
experience ! If life is measured by
heart-throbs, there was a whole eter
nity between Bethlehem and Calvary.
But events must always be consid
ered in their relations if their mean
ing is to be understood. Beside
these two pictures should be placed a
third. It is Raphael's idealization of
"The Ascension," in the gallery at
Madrid, in which with supernal art
the master has attempted to depict
the disciples gazing into heaven as
their Lord disappears in the glory.

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 45
The beauty and innocence of a holy
family where love is supreme do not
prophesy all there is in life. The
eyes may not be sharp enough to see
the distant shadows, but they are be
ginning to gather. No child can be
forever held by his parents' hands.
Sometime he must stand alone, and
then, if not before, the struggle will
begin. Sooner or later the cross
rises in the way of all who live. It
cannot be escaped. It is impartial,
and meets prince and peasant alike.
It should be allowed to make us
neither passionate nor pessimistic.
We look upon the face of a sweet,
pure boy, and the knowledge of what
is before him makes us rebellious and
angry. But that is only because we
do not look far enough. The bane of

46 THE HOLY FAMILY:
our thinking is that it is not thorough.
A little light shows objects in distor
tion ; fuller light reveals them as they
actually are. If we think only of the
cross in the distance, life appears to
be an awful irony ; but if we look be
yond the cross to the resurrection
and the ascension, and do not allow
ourselves to believe that any true
human life is completed until it is
thus glorified, then existence itself
becomes blessing.
These three pictures show the
progress of human experience. At
first all are children ; and if all could
remain children they would be much
alike, innocent and weak, until the
end. But life necessitates growth ;
growth involves struggle, pruning,
overcoming of obstacles, the gradual

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 47
accumulation of grace and strength.
Among men, growth is attended by
misunderstanding, sorrow, pain, but
ever also by increased achievement.
And why so much struggle, suffering,
and achievement, only to die ? Why,
indeed ? Better no growth than
growth simply for destruction. But
that is not the end.
There is no death; — what seems so is
transition.
"Thy brother shall rise again."
God cannot be confined in the
grave ; neither can a child of God.
So the cross is followed by resurrec
tion, and ascension. The Holy Child;
the Man made perfect through
suffering; the apparent eclipse of
hope, and the final bursting of

48 THE HOLY FAMILY:
the bands in unhindered progress,
are the stages through which men
move toward Him whom they may
forever approach, but whose glory
can never be fully appreciated or
fathomed.

Ube SHvine iRevelation.
The Holy Child; the ideal family;
the unseen ministry ; the dawn, the
sun setting, and the sun rising again,
what are these but successive stages
in the revelation of God to man ?
The summit of knowledge is the
revelation of God. But the highest
knowledge is never well communi
cated by words ; the only medium
for its expression is life. You may
discourse in a learned way about

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 49
love, but the humblest youth who
clasps by the hand the maiden of his
choice knows more about its mys
teries than even a divine revelation
in words alone could convey. God
cannot be described. Definitions are
only hints, revealing what is hidden
as well as what is disclosed. God is
holy : what is holiness ? He only
begins to know who has begun to
overcome evil and to be pure. God
is love. He knows best what God
is who best has learned to love in the
only way possible for men, namely,
by loving another human being like
himself. We begin existence as chil
dren with infinite possibilities, and
our chief problem is to have growth
in stature matched by growth in the
knowledge and appropriation of God.

50 THE HOLY FAMILY:
He who receives God manifests God.
The boy Jesus thus grew, and day
by day was filled according to his
powers with the divine. In his child
hood he reflected all of God that a
child could, — which was very little ;
only innocence, not strength. Then
came the silent years. That was the
period of his preparation. If there
had been anything unique in those
processes of making perfect, it is
probable that the world would not
have been left in darkness concerning
them. At length the preparation
was complete, and the glory could be
reflected. Then the veil was re
moved, and the world beheld in a
man all it could know of the charac
ter of God.
There had been many other reve-

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 51

lations. In the glory of nature, its
meadows and mountains, its seas and
storms, God's wisdom and majesty had
appeared ; but it required a true hu
man life to interpret to men the divine
character. By the process of growth
that Man was prepared ; and in the
Child, in the family, in the unseen
ministry, but, most of all, in the years
that we have called the sunset, when
he moved toward his death, is mani
fested the eternal nature of the
Father, who forever lives, not to be
ministered unto, but to minister ;
whose love not even what men call
death can fully express ; who cannot
die, and whose children cannot die.
In Jesus we see pure humanity full of
Deity, as a bay is full of the ocean, or
the noon of light ; the bay is not the

52 THE HOLY FAMILY:
ocean, and the noon is not the uni
verse of light ; but the one shows
what the ocean is, and the other what
the universal splendor is. Other
men, if they were as good and pure
as he, might be as full of God and
equally reflect him ; but they are not
as good and pure, and do not so re
flect him. The same sun shines on a
tarnished and on a polished reflector,
but the effect is not the same. The
same God who dwelt in Jesus dwells
in all men ; but all do not equally
show forth the brightness of the
Father's glory.
These thoughts are suggested by
the study of one of the noblest pro
ductions of human art. The great
artists are always great teachers. In
this picture are immortal messages

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION. 53
concerning the typical child ; the ideal
family ; and above both, watching
over them and never leaving them,
the unseen ministry of the Eternal
Father and the angels of God. This
Child's life had its dawn and its sun
set; but the sunset, with its cross and
death, was followed by a new dawn
of resurrection and ascension. And
such is the divine order. The sub-
limest revelations always come
through the processes of living. Art,
music, speech, alike fail when the
elemental truths must have utterance.
Even the Gospels are only the rec
ords of what Jesus lived ; and taught
because he lived.
" The life was the light of men."
The Holy Gospels were condensed
in the Holy Family.

© Ibappp Ibouse.
" 0 selig Haus, wo man Dich aufgenommen."
O happy house ! where thou art loved the
best,
Dear Friend and Saviour of our race,
Where never comes such welcome, honored
Guest,
Where none can ever fill thy place;
Where every heart goes forth to meet thee,
Where every ear attends thy word,
Where every lip with blessing greets thee,
Where all are waiting on their Lord.
O happy house ! where man and wife in heart,
In faith and hope are one,
That neither life nor death can ever part
The holy union here begun;

Where both are sharing one salvation,
And live before thee, Lord, always,
In gladness or in tribulation,
In happy or in evil days.
O happy house! whose little ones are given
Early to thee, in faith and prayer, —
To thee, their Friend, who from the heights
of heaven
Guards them with more than mother's care.
O happy house ! where little voices
Their glad hosannas love to raise,
And childhood's lisping tongue rejoices
To bring new songs of love and praise.
O happy house ! and happy servitude !
Where all alike one Master own;
Where daily duty, in thy strength pursued,
Is never hard nor toilsome known ;
Where each one serves thee, meek and lowly,
Whatever thine appointments be,
Till common tasks seem great and holy,
When they are done as unto thee.
55

O happy house! where thou art not forgot
When joy is flowing full and free;
O happy house ! where every wound is
brought,
Physician, Comforter, to thee.
Until at last, earth's day's-work ended,
All meet thee in that home above,
From whence thou camest, where thou hast
ascended,
Thy heaven of glory and of love!
Karl Johann Philipp Spitta.
Translated by Mrs. Eric Findlater.
(Slightly altered.)

56

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08844 9716

¦