That is the grand consummation which, to the vision of the Angels, was comprehended in this simple saying, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Let us clearly observe that it is not merely the future hope, but the present fact, which causes the Angels’ rejoicing. The Saviour is born, the King is revealed, the work of redemption is actually commenced. “Glory to God,” they exclaimed, “in the highest, and on earth peace; goodwill toward men.” The goodwill of God toward men is now embodied in the Babe Who is Christ the Lord; or, as it is translated in the Revised Version (in different words, but with the same meaning), God’s goodwill is manifested “to men in whom He is well pleased.” It is much more than a general declaration of peace and goodwill. It is a grand revelation, a revelation which opened the heavens and evoked from a host of Angels, such as had never before nor has since been seen, a burst of glory to God for the blessing that from that moment there was a living Saviour in human form in the world. Now I wish to urge this fact upon you this morning in all its glorious reality, because it is in that fact alone that we can find comfort and help amidst the dark distress of such a Christmas as this, and because it affords us the one supreme guidance in our deep perplexity. The feeling is in all our hearts, and the phrase on many lips, “What a contrast is exhibited by this tremendous and cruel war to the words of hope and peace in the angels’ song,” and the old complaint is uttered, Where is the promise of His coming--the coming of the Prince of Peace? But we have only to consider the immediate sequel of the first Christmas Day, to realize that the assurance given by the angels, and their joy, involved no such facile creation of a time of peace and righteousness as the eager hopes of men imagine. The first result of the Saviour’s coming to His people, and claiming their trust and allegiance, was that they rejected Him and crucified Him. He rose from the dead and sent His Apostles to proclaim His resurrection and His full assumption of His power as a King and Saviour, but they continued to reject Him; and the result was that, instead of entering on that Kingdom of righteousness and peace and glory of which their prophets had spoken, their nation was crushed in scenes of “blood and fire and vapour of smoke,” and all the bright hopes of Zacharias were apparently extinguished. So the world went on, Christmas after Christmas, and century after century, through successive scenes of war and destruction and desolation, of which the spectacles of which we read day by day afford us a horribly vivid example. If the angels’ song had meant simply to promise peace on earth, it was contradicted by the experience, not merely of bitter times like the present, but by every year and every century which followed.