Mysteries of theology...

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas.  Ours was quite wonderful but I must admit that the day after Chrismas has long been one of my favorite days.  It is, in a way, the true New Year's Day...may it be so for all.  Here is William Ellery Channing's sermon, "Jesus Christ the Brother, Friend, and Savior" continued:

"II.—In the next place let us rejoice that the birth of Jesus was so humble. He was cradled in a manger! I repair to that lowly spot, and look on that infant born in poverty, with a complacency which no condition, however splendid, would give me. And I thus feel great joy, because the humble birth of Jesus was an introduction to the hardships and sufferings of his career. His manger was the foreshadow of his cross. And to the sufferings and the cross of Jesus, more than to all else, do we owe our knowledge of his Spirit, Mind, and Character; of the peculiar strength, tenderness, disinterestedness and expansiveness of his sympathy and love.

To this view I ask your attention. I rejoice then in the clouds which gathered early, and continually thickened around the outward lot of Jesus, because the light within him broke through and changed them into resplendent glory. Our great privilege as Christians is that we know the Mind and the Character of Jesus, and these were brought out by the condition in which he was placed. How often great virtue is hidden, how often great power slumbers, for want of an appropriate sphere, for want of the trials, by which alone true greatness can be revealed. Had Jesus been born under a regal roof, rocked in the cradle of ease, and surrounded from birth with imposing pomp, he might have lavished gifts with a bountiful hand, but the omnipotence of his love would never have been known as it now is...

To this comprehension of the Mind and Character of Jesus Christ, I attach infinite importance. To me, it is the greatest good received from him. In so saying, I know that I differ from many Christians, who rejoice in Christ's birth chiefly because he came, as they think, to purchase, by his sufferings, the pardon of their sins. I rejoice in his birth, chiefly because he came to reveal, by his suffering, his Celestial Love,—to lay open to us his Soul, and thus to regenerate the human soul...Thus was he revealed as the express Image of Divine Perfection...

You see, then, why I delight in the human and the humble birth of Jesus. It lays open to me his Character, his Mind, his Spirit, his Divine Goodness. Others are more interested in studying Christianity under different aspects. Not a few attach supreme importance to the right decision of the question, " what Rank Jesus holds in the universe—whether he be God, Archangel, or Man ? " Such inquiries it is nowise my wish to discourage; for all truth has its value. But for myself I ask to comprehend the Character of Jesus. I ask to approach his pure Spirit, to learn his thoughts, feelings, emotions, principles, purposes. I ask to comprehend more and more of that Love, which was so calm, yet so intense, within his heart. I ask to comprehend that expanded Philanthropy which embraced a world,—that tender Philanthropy, which, amidst this unbounded expansion, entered into the griefs and wants of the obscurest individual,—that disinterested Philanthropy which could surrender and endure all things even for the evil and unthankful,—that spiritual Philanthropy, which looked with constant and infinite concern on the Soul of man, which felt for his sins far more than for his pains, which reverenced him as Immortal, and thirsted to exalt him to Immortal Excellence. These are the Mysteries of Theology which I am most anxious to explore. To understand Christ's Rank, I should esteem a privilege ;—yet I may know this, and be no better and happier for the truth. But to discern the beauty, loveliness, harmony, and grandeur of his Mind, this is a knowledge which cannot but exert a creative and purifying power on every one who can attain to it."

Blessings