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‘There was no room for them in the inn.’
Luk_2:7
I. No room in the money market.—Let us seek out the great exchanges. Room enough and to spare for smart bargaining in ‘futures,’ for the gamblers in rotten stocks; room for the hard, keen fighters for bulls and bears and rings; but for Him Who came to prove that love was the true riches and hard work most blessed wealth, for Him Who came to give, not get, and to live and die, as we should say, not worth a penny, where was there room?
II. No room in the homes of luxury.—Or go to the homes of the great and fashionable, where misery lies in the fact that they find all their luxury and all their wealth gives no rest unto their souls. What room at the splendid feast or the scented rout is there for Him Who said, ‘How hardly shall they that trust in riches enter the kingdom of heaven,’ and Whose meat, the last time men saw Him break His fast, was a little broiled fish and a piece of bread and a bit of honeycomb?
III. No room in industrial centres.—Go now away to the great manufacturing centres; enter into the offices and see, here, a secret commission being bargained for; there, some little arrangement by which the textile fabric made will look like something it is not, and sell at a certain price as the real article which no one could produce at the price. Or enter the sweater’s den, and find at what price of blood the fine ladies of the land are content to be dressed in beaded lace and embroideries, at what price of weariness of finger, and almost foodlessness, the shirt-maker will supply the well-fed gentleman with his fine linen and bravery of show in cuff and collar.
IV. No room in the worldly life.—Or leave the great industrial centres in their hours of work, and go off to the theatre, or to the race-ground, to the rabbit-coursing field, to the football field, to the music-hall, to the liquor saloon. Are we conscious that the air is pure and right and fit for the breathing by those who would follow the Son of Man and be made like unto Him in all things? Is there room for this Saviour Jesus in the play where death is mocked at and conventional morality is made a laughing-stock; at the race-course or the football field where sport is forgotten in the craze for risking a little money on the event; in the rabbit-coursing field where for a drink or the chance of a shilling or two by way of a bet, harmless dumb creatures are torn limb from limb; in the liquor saloon, where, though a wife or a daughter comes with tears to beg the liquor-seller not to supply it to the alcohol-mad father or husband, a relentless and remorseless hand will complete the ruin and degradation it lives by? What room for Christ there?
Christ comes, and He finds there is no room for Him in worlds of restlessness and selfishness that most need His presence.
Yet still in humble hearts of simple and sincere people, who look to heaven as their home, and to Christ as the Truth, the Life, and the Way that leadeth unto the Father; still in such hearts, as in the hearts of the little children who delight to think of that first Christmas morning, there is a welcome and there is room.
Rev. Canon H. D. Rawnsley.
Illustrations(1) ‘When caravans of traders and of pilgrims became more common, khans were built for their reception, and it was doubtless the sense of the duty of providing for the traveller that prompted their erection, as an act of public benevolence. These khans usually offered merely the protection of their walls, and the shelter of the unfurnished chambers to the traveller, who was obliged to bring with him all he would want, to attend to his own beast, and to prepare his food with his own hand. Inns of this description are still in use in Syria, and consist of an oblong courtyard surrounded by buildings; the entrance is by a spacious vaulted archway, with heavy gates, closed and barred by night. The buildings contain a number of arched recesses, open in front towards the courtyard. The floors are raised about three feet above the level of the court, and in the wall at the back of each recess is a door, giving access to a chamber, where the traveller can sleep. Behind the chambers run ranges of stabling for the beasts. In the centre of each of the three sides is a large vaulted hall, where the travellers can meet together, and through these halls the stables at the back are reached. Stairways lead up to the flat roofs at the angles of the court, and during the hot season the roofs are used as sleeping-places. There is usually a well of water in the middle of the court, and sometimes a stone chamber built over it. Such was probably the Inn of Bethlehem. It is thought by many that from very early times an inn had stood upon this spot, and that the “habitation of Chimham, which is by Bethlehem,” mentioned in Jer_41:17, stood on the same site.’
(2) ‘But if Chimham’s inn was ten times as great as it was, it could not hold any but the first comers. Soon all the courtyard is packed with the beasts of burden. Soon all the raised colonnade round the court is filled with families and their household stuff. But if we had been there when now the eventide was drawing on, and the flame of the fires in the caravanserai was beginning to brighten, we should have seen a man who claimed to be of the house and lineage of David, lead up and help tenderly to dismount a young girl, his espoused wife, being great with child. They have journeyed leisurely to avoid over-fatigue—they must pay the penalty. There is no room for them in the inn. The last possible corner of space was filled three hours ago. The man pleads in earnest. He is of the royal family of David. He has come all the way from Nazareth; his wife is great with child; and I can well believe that there was that about the Virgin’s anxious face which went home to the guard of the khan gate, and he bethinks him of the stable at the back, there in the great limestone cave, where the keeper of the caravanserai has bestowed his own house-folk, and his own beasts of burden, and his own oxen for the night. Thither does he lead them, and glad enough of such chance of rest are the weary travellers. On one day in the week of their sojourn the Lord was born.’
CROWDED OUT
I. From some homes.—The house rings with laughter and boisterous revelry, but the name of Christ is never once mentioned. Christ would be an unwelcome guest in that home. There is no room for Him. Again, the pleasures may be all perfectly innocent—but it is purely selfish enjoyment. There is no room for Him in the hearts which are troubled only about making things enjoyable and nothing more.
II. From some hearts.—The Lord comes and seeks shelter in an inn. ‘What a fertility of thought, sentiment, impression, feeling,’ says Dean Gulburn, ‘is there in the heart of a single man! It is like an inn or hostelry—there are every instant fresh arrivals and fresh departures. There are a thousand doors of access to the heart—conversation, books, incidents, means of grace, all the five senses; and passengers are busily thronging in and passing out at every door.’ And hither Christ comes every day in the year. How is it with you? Jesus is here, ready to come in and take up His abode in your heart. Is there room for Him? He comes, ‘a gracious, willing Guest,’ but never to thrust Himself on an unwilling host. He is here to-day just as really, just as truly, as He was in the stable of Bethlehem. Have you room for Him? or is that busy inn of your heart so full of worldly, anxious, unbelieving, covetous, impure thoughts, that by this motley throng Christ is actually crowded out!
Oh, make room! Perhaps you will have to give up a great deal—perhaps you will have to sacrifice everything—before there will be room for Him. Well, sacrifice everything. You will never repent it. He will repay you a thousandfold. He will adorn and beautify your life, and make it ‘all glorious within’ with His own sweet Presence, even as He filled with glory the unclean manger in which he lay.
—
Rev. J. B. C. Murphy.