Be not afraid! I am come, not to terrify you, but to bring you great and joyous tidings, in which not yourselves only, but the whole nation of the Jews, yea, all the inhabitants of the world, are deeply interested! For he, of whom all the prophets prophesied, and whom all the people of Israel have, according to the promise of GOD, long and ardently expected, even the MESSIAH, the Saviour and Deliverer, is this night born in Bethlehem, the city of David. Ver. 12. "And this shall be a sign unto you--" a sign, by which you shall know him, the moment you enter into his presence--"ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Scarce had the Angel delivered his message, when a whole choir of his celestial brethren burst forth with additional splendors from the midnight sky, and saluted the shepherds' ears with a birth-day anthem. Ver. 13. "And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising GOD, and saying:" Ver. 14. "Glory to GOD in the highest; and on earth peace, good-will towards men!" No expressions of joy could have been more admirably adapted than these, to so glorious an occasion: for the glory of the Divine Majesty was most eminently displayed in that gracious message of peace and reconciliation, of Love and Good-Will, which was here published to the world. If those pure and perfect Intelligences could thus testify their transport upon an event, in which an inferior order of beings were more immediately concerned; surely, that order are continually bound to render the highest and most grateful returns of praise, acknowledgment, and love! For us men, and for our Salvation, a GOD becomes incarnate. The ETERNAL WORD clothes himself in clay. He assumes our nature in its most helpless state; and is born, like one of us, a naked, weak, and wailing Babe. Thus began the mighty process of Redeeming Love! To rescue us from the misery of a fallen life; to restore the Divine Image to our souls; to regain, for us, that state of rectitude, of union and communion with GOD, which we had lost in Adam; and completely to repair the ruins of nature were the benevolent purposes, which the GOD of LOVE determined to accomplish by sending into the world his only-begotten SON. Well, therefore, might the inhabitants of Heaven, at the prospect of such ineffable goodness and condescension, break forth, enraptured, into these sublime and joyous strains: "Glory to GOD in the highest; and on earth Peace, Good-Will towards men!" Ver. 15. "And it came to pass, as the Angels were gone away from them into Heaven, the shepherds said one to another: Let us now go, even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the LORD hath made known unto us."