Bible. Luke II, 14 -- Meditations; Christmas sermons
But shall our world be the limits of the wondrous tale? Though ever
and deeply interesting as the scene of redemption, just as to patriots
is the barest moor where a people fought and conquered for their
freedom, our earth holds in other respects but a very insignificant
place in creation. In a space of the sky no larger than a tenth part
of the moon's disc, the telescope discovers many thousands of stars,
each a sun, attended probably by a group of planets like our own:
their number indeed is such that many parts of the heavens appear as
if they were sprinkled with gold-dust; and probably there are as many
suns and worlds in the universe as there are leaves in a forest, or
rather, sands on the ocean shore.
Boldly venturing out into the regions of speculation, some have
thought that, if sin defile any of these worlds, its inhabitants may
share in the benefits of the atonement which Christ offered in ours;
and that beings further removed than we from the scenes of Calvary,
and differing more from us than we from the Jews of whom the Messiah
came, may, as well as we, find a Saviour by faith in Jesus; and that
for this end the work of redemption has perhaps been revealed to such
as, removed from our earth many millions of miles, never even saw the
planet that was its theatre and scene. There may be nothing in this. I
dare not say it is impossible; but these speculations touch the deep
things of God, and we would not attempt to be wise above that which is
written. Still, Scripture affords ground for believing, for hoping, at
least, that the story of redemption has been told in other worlds than
ours, and that the love of God in Christ--that fairest, fullest
manifestation of our Father's heart--links all parts of creation
together, and links all more closely to the throne of God. "He that
hath seen me, Philip," said our Lord to that disciple, "hath seen the
Father also;" and as I believe that He who delights to bless all His
unfallen creatures would not withhold from the inhabitants of other
spheres the happiness of knowing Him in His most adorable, gracious,
and glorious character, I can fancy them eagerly searching their
skies for a sight of our world,--the scene of that story which has
conveyed to them the fullest knowledge of Him they love, their deepest
sense of His ineffable holiness and unspeakable mercy. Not from pole
to pole, but from planet to planet, and from star to star, the love of
Christ deserves to be proclaimed; and it is a thought as grand as it
is probable, that the story of Calvary, not yet translated into all
the tongues of earth, is told in the ten times ten thousand tongues of
other worlds, and that the Name which is above every name--the blessed
Name which dwells in life in a believer's heart and trembles in death
on his lips--is known in spheres which his foot never trod and his eye
never saw. Such honours crown the head man once crowned with thorns;
and therefore did David, with the eye of a seer and the fire of a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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