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‘When they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary His mother, and fell down, and worshipped Him.’
Mat_2:11
I. The best for the poor.—They worshipped him immediately. Did they think that it would be a mistake to pour out all their costly gifts before so poor a family? No, they offered all. The way of the world is only to give valuable presents to rich people. Small gifts are good enough for poor people. And if these Magi had gone the way of the world, when they found what a poor family it was they had come to, they would have kept back most of their expensive offerings, and given just what would do decently for the poor family before them. They did the reverse. They gave their best. They offered all. And so they proved their thorough Faith. They not only worshipped Him, but they also made Him offerings, which showed that their worship was no empty form, but a reality, although they must have been astonished more than one can express, that, after all their journeys and all their marvels of the Divine Star, it was only to a peasant’s cradle that they had come.
II. Our commonplace duties.—How often must not we have been astonished when, after some series of circumstances which has caused us much perplexity, all that we come to is some very commonplace ending, some new position in life where the duties seem excessively commonplace, extremely unimportant, hardly worth taking particular notice of. Beware if you think this. Those commonplace duties are like the Bethlehem Cradle. In them, in fulfilling them, you shall find Christ. If it has been worth God’s while to lead you to them, it is worth your while to attend to them. In doing them with all your heart you are worshipping Him, even as the Magi were worshipping the Lord of Heaven in the lowly cradle. ‘With all your heart,’ I say, and with all your means and powers. Do not say, ‘This is a very unimportant matter, I will only give it such pains as it is worth.’
III. God’s leadings.—In all that God leads you to undertake, be it ever so small to look at, do your best. The Magi offered their best, and so they went away with a blessing. Therefore in all that God leads you unto—do your utmost. Who are we that we should be able to judge what is important and what is unimportant? If it had not been important, would God have led you to it? That is enough for us; remembering that if we do our duty, holding back nothing, the humble duty on which we spend our all will have been to us as the Cradle of Bethlehem to the Magi. In it we shall have found Christ.
Illustration
‘God guides us as much, and perhaps much more, by the things which happen to us in our daily lives, than by any inner speaking to our hearts. And this is most especially true in the earlier stages of our religion. As a matter of actual fact, it is by no means safe for those who are comparatively beginners to trust to their power to understand the inner voice of God’s guidance. It takes time and experience to enable them safely to discriminate between what is really Divine, and what is only their own fancy. There can be no mistake about plain facts. The message of our circumstances is usually very distinct. Of course we can shut our eyes to it, if we please: or we may turn our eyes away from it. But generally circumstances are so clear that we have to turn our eyes away in order to avoid seeing what they mean. Hence for beginners it is best to gather God’s will about them from His outward leadings, just as it was not by an inner voice, but by a visible Star, that God led these Gentiles to the Cradle of the Lord.’
‘And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.’
Mat_2:11
I. The offering of wealth.—Gold may be taken as representing our substance, our goods, our material wealth. It may be taken as the symbol of what we have to give in alms or charity. But it stands for more: for talents, for power, for ability, for whatever may be turned to account in the Lord’s service. All work, all material, have their worth in gold. This first oblation, then, represents the offering of that which is external to us.
II. The offering of the soul.—Next in order comes the frankincense; of what is that the symbol? It is a substance which, once kindled, sends up sweet clouds to the sky. It is the symbol of religious thought directing itself lovingly and longingly towards God. As the gold stands for what is outward, so the frankincense typifies what is inward. There is the life of contemplation, as well as the life of action, and in every full character these run together.
III. The offering of penitence.—What more remains? The last offering, completing the rest—the offering of the myrrh. This stands evermore for sorrows. There is one thing which we can all give to God. To lay our sorrows upon Him; to offer to Him the pain, the heart-sickness, the penitence; to lift the hands to Him when the iron enters the soul; that is to make to Him the offering of the myrrh which symbolises the sorrow of the world.
The Rev. Morgan Dix.
Illustration‘The claims of our Lord upon a Christian include His sovereign right to all we are, and to all we possess. We “are not our own.” If “the life be more than meat,” and if it be not our own, how can we claim as our own that which is, under the most prevalent conditions of possession, the resultant or product of life? If the Psalmist could say, “It is God that girdeth me with strength,” surely the Christian may say the same; and if acquisition be amongst the results of the exercise of God-given strength, then these results are traceable to their Source, and, finally, they belong to Him. No man may reasonably or justly claim a higher authority over his wealth than the authority to administer it. Even this authority is to be subject to the still higher authority of the moral governor of the universe. “God in all things is to be glorified.” ’