Wonderful and assuring are these words: "Like the stars in the vast " circuit of their appointed path, Cod's purposes know no haste and no delay." When the hour strikes, "when the fulness of the time" comes, God acts!
The promise of the Redeemer made to our first parents was thrilling, and "they looked for its speedy fulfillment." But Adam and Eve lived and died "without the sight." Then patriarchs and prophets repeated the promise and kept alive the hope, but the Messiah still tarried.
Devastating wars and terrible famines came and went; empires rose and fell; the yoke of the oppressor and the bondage of sin weighed heavily upon the souls of men, until finally Cod's great clock of prophecy pointed to the hour. Then suddenly, it seemed the promise was fulfilled! And "the hopes and fears of all the years" converged on Bethlehem.
Now another event awaits fulfillment the return of the One whose coming brought hope to a dark world. The centuries have been long and trying since the seer penned the promise, "Behold, I come quickly." To the scoffer and to the unbeliever it may appear that "all things continue as they were from the beginning." 'But to him who is "waiting and watching," a thousand un- .mistakable signs herald the glorious day. We are moving more swiftly than we realize toward the hour when men will pay homage, not to a Babe in Bethlehem, but to the conquering "King of kings and Lord of lords"!
While at this season everything combines to help us see by faith His star above the dark background of war, and as we catch the echo of the angels' song of long ago, let us also live in the anticipation of that radiant morning when the shadows of sin will be no more. While we sit around our Christmas fires may our hearts be warmed and literally "burn within us" as we anticipate that day of realities, and contemplate His fathomless love. What a day it will be when "Hebrew hallelujahs mingle with Centile hozannas" proclaiming, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."
This is the Christ-tide yet to come!
