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Sermon #666 Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit - Volume 11

1 HOLY WORK FOR CHRISTMAS

NO. 666

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 24, 1865,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

“And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the sayingwhich was told them concerning this Child. And all they thatheard it wondered at those things which were told them bythe shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and ponderedthem in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying andpraising God for all the things that they had heard and seen,as it was told unto them.”Luke 2:17-20.EVERY season has its own proper fruit—apples for autumn, holly berriesfor Christmas. The earth brings forth according to the period of theyear and with man there is a time for every purpose under Heaven. At thisseason the world is engaged in congratulating itself and in expressing itscomplimentary wishes for the good of its citizens. Let me suggest extraand more solid work for Christians. As we think, today, of the birth of theSavior, let us aspire after a fresh birth of the Savior in our hearts—that asHe is already “formed in us the hope of glory,” we may be “renewed in thespirit of our minds”—that we may go again to the Bethlehem of our spiritualnativity and do our first works, enjoy our first loves and feast withJesus as we did in the holy, happy, heavenly days of our espousals.Let us go to Jesus with something of that youthful freshness and excessivedelight which was so manifest in us when we looked to Him atfirst. Let Him be crowned anew by us, for He is still adorned with the dewof His youth and remains “the same yesterday, today and forever.” The citizensof Durham, though they dwell not far from the Scotch border, andconsequently in the olden times were frequently liable to be attacked, wereexempted from the toils of war because there was a cathedral within theirwalls and they were set aside to the bishop’s service, being called in theolden times by the name of “holy work-folk.”Now, we citizens of the New Jerusalem, having the Lord Jesus in ourmidst, may well excuse ourselves from the ordinary ways of celebratingthis season. And considering ourselves to be “holy work-folk,” we maykeep it, after a different sort from other men, in holy contemplation and inblessed service of that gracious God whose unspeakable gift the new-bornKing is to us.I selected this text this morning because it seemed to indicate to mefour ways of serving God, four methods of executing holy work and exercisingChristian thought. Each of the verses sets before us a different wayof sacred service. Some, it appears, published abroad the news, told toothers what they had seen and heard. Some wondered with a holy marvelingand astonishment. One, at least, according to the third verse, pondered,meditated, thought upon these things. And others, in the fourthplace, glorified God and gave Him praise. I know not which of these fourHoly Work for Christmas Sermon #666www.spurgeongems.org Volume 112

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did God the best service, but I think if we could combine all these mentalemotions and outward exercises we should be sure to praise God after amost godly and acceptable fashion.I. To begin then, in the first place, we find that some celebrated the Savior’sbirth by PUBLISHING ABROAD what they had heard and seen. Andtruly we may say of them that they had something to rehearse in men’sears well worth the telling! That for which Prophets and kings had waitedlong had at last arrived and arrived to them! They had found out the answerto the perpetual riddle. They might have run through the streets withthe ancient philosopher, crying, “Eureka! Eureka!” for their discovery wasfar superior to his.They had found out no solution to a mechanical problem or metaphysicaldilemma. Their discovery was second to none ever made by men inreal value, since it has been like the leaves of the Tree of Life to heal thenations and a river of Water of Life to make glad the city of God! They hadseen angels! They had heard them sing a song all strange and new. Theyhad seen more than angels—they had beheld the angel’s King, the Angelof the Covenant whom we delight in! They had heard the music of Heaven,and when near that manger, the ear of their faith had heard the music ofearth’s hope, a mystic harmony which should ring all down the ages—thesweet melody of hearts attuned to praise the Lord and the glorious swell ofthe holy joy of God and man rejoicing in glad accord.They had seen God Incarnate—such a sight that he who gazes on itmust feel his tongue unloosed—unless, indeed, an unspeakable astonishmentshould make him dumb! Be silent when their eyes had seensuch a vision? Impossible! To the first person they met outside that lowlystable door they began to tell their matchless tale and they wearied not tillnightfall, crying, “Come and worship! Come and worship Christ, the newbornKing!” As for us, Beloved, have we also not something to relate whichdemands utterance? If we talk of Jesus, who can blame us? This, indeed,might make the tongue of him that sleeps to move—the mystery of GodIncarnate, for our sake bleeding and dying—that we might neither bleednor die! God Incarnate descending that we might ascend! Wrapped inswaddling cloths that we might be unwrapped of the grave clothes of corruption!Here is such a story, so profitable to all hearers that he who repeats itthe most often does best, and he who speaks the least has most reason toaccuse himself for sinful silence. They had something to tell and thatsomething had in it the inimitable blending which is the secret sign androyal march of Divine authorship—a peerless marrying of sublimity andsimplicity! Angels singing—singing to shepherds! Heaven bright with glory!Bright at midnight! God! A Babe!! The Infinite! An Infant of a span long!!The Ancient of Days! Born of a woman!! What more simple than the inn,the manger, a carpenter, a carpenter’s wife, a child?What more sublime than a “multitude of the heavenly host” waking themidnight with their joyous song and God Himself in human flesh mademanifest? A child is but an ordinary sight—but what a marvel to see thatWord which was “in the beginning with God, tabernacling among us thatwe might behold His Glory”—the Glory as of the only Begotten of the FaSermon#666 Holy Work for ChristmasVolume 11 www.spurgeongems.org3

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ther, full of Grace and Truth? Brethren, we have a tale to tell, as simpleas sublime. What simpler?—“Believe and live.” What more sublime?—“Was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself!” A system of salvationso wonderful that angelic minds cannot but adore as they meditate uponit. And yet so simple that the children in the temple may fitly hymn its virtuesas they sing. “Hosanna! Blessed is He that comes in the name of theLord.”What a splendid combining of the sublime and the simple have we inthe great Atonement offered by the Incarnate Savior! Oh make known toall men this saving Truth of God! The shepherds need no excuse for makingeverywhere the announcement of the Savior’s birth, for what they toldthey first received from Heaven! Their news was not muttered in their earsby Sybilline oracles, nor brought to light by philosophic research. It wasnot conceived in poetry nor found as treasure trove among the volumes ofthe ancient. It was revealed to them by that notable Gospel preacher wholed the angelic host and testified, “Unto you is born this day, in the city ofDavid, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”When Heaven entrusts a man with a merciful Revelation, he is boundto deliver the good tidings to others. What? Keep that a secret whose utteranceEternal Mercy makes to charm the midnight air? To what purposewere angels sent if the message were not to be spread abroad? Accordingto the teaching of our own beloved Lord we must not be silent, for He bidsus, “What you hear in secret, that reveal you in public. And what I tell youin the ear in closets, that proclaim you upon the housetops.” Beloved, youhave heard a voice from Heaven—you twice-born men, begotten again untoa lively hope—you have heard the Spirit of God bearing witness of God’sTruth with you and teaching you of heavenly things. You, then, must keepthis Christmas by telling to your fellow men what God’s own holy Spirithas seen fit to reveal to you!But though the shepherds told what they heard from Heaven, rememberthat they spoke of what they had seen below. They had, by observation,made those Truths of God most surely their own which had firstbeen spoken to them by Revelation. No man can speak of the things ofGod with any success until the doctrine which he finds in the Bible, hefinds, also, in his heart. We must bring down the mystery and make itplain by knowing, and by the teaching of the Holy Spirit its practical poweron the heart and conscience. My Brethren, the Gospel which we preachis most surely revealed to us by the Lord. But, moreover, our hearts havetried and proved, have grasped, have felt, have realized its truth and power!If we have not been able to understand its heights and depths, yet wehave felt its mystic power upon our heart and spirit. It has revealed sin tous plainly. It has revealed to us our pardon. It has killed the reigningpower of sin. It has given us Christ to reign over us and the Holy Spirit todwell within our bodies as in a temple. Now we must speak! I do not urgeany of you to speak of Jesus who merely know the Word as you find it inthe Bible—your teaching can have but little power. But I do speak earnestlyto you who know its mighty influence upon the heart, who have notonly heard of the Babe but have seen Him in the manger.Holy Work for Christmas Sermon #666www.spurgeongems.org Volume 114

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I speak to those who have taken Him up in your arms and receivedHim as being born to you, a Savior to you—Christ the Anointed—Jesus,the Savior from sin, for you. Beloved, can you do otherwise than speak ofthe things which you have seen and heard? God has made you to tasteand to handle of this good Word of Life and you must not, you dare nothold your peace! You must tell friends and neighbors what you have feltwithin.These were shepherds, unlettered men. I will warrant you they couldnot read in a book. There is no probability that they even knew a singleletter. They were shepherds, but they preached right well. And, my Brethren,whatever some may think, preaching is not to be confined to thoselearned gentlemen who have taken their degrees at Oxford or at Cambridge,or at any college or university. It is true that learning need not bean impediment to Grace and may be a fitting weapon in a gracious hand.But often the Grace of God has glorified itself by the plain clear way inwhich unlettered men have understood the Gospel and have proclaimedit.I would not mind asking the whole world to find a Master of Arts nowliving who has brought more souls to Christ Jesus than Richard Weaver.If the whole bench of bishops have done a tenth as much in the way ofsoul-winning as that one man, it is more than most of us give them creditfor. Let us give to our God all the Glory, but still let us not deny the factthat this sinner saved, with the brogue of the coal miner still about him,fresh from the coal pit, tells the story of the Cross, by God’s Grace, insuch a way that Right Reverend Fathers in God might humbly sit at hisfeet to learn the way to reach the heart and melt the stubborn soul!It is true an uneducated Brother is not fitted for all work—he has hisown sphere—but he is quite able to tell of what he has seen and heard.And so it strikes me, is every man in a measure. If you have seen Jesusand heard His saving voice. If you have received Truth as from the Lord. Ifyou have felt its tremendous power as coming from God to you, and if youhave experienced its might upon your own spirit—why you can surely tellout what God has written within! If you cannot get beyond that into thedeeper mysteries, into the more knotty points, well, well, there are somewho can, and so you need not be uneasy. But you can at least reveal thefirst and foundational Truths and they are by far the most important!If you cannot speak in the pulpit. If as yet your cheek would mantlewith a blush and your tongue would refuse to do her office in the presenceof many, there are your children! You are not ashamed to speak beforethem! There is the little cluster round the hearth on Christmas night.There is the little congregation in the workshop. There is a little audiencesomewhere to whom you might tell out of Jesus’ love to lost ones. Do notget beyond what you know. Do not plunge into what you have not experienced—for if you do, you will be out of your depth—and then very soonyou will be floundering and making confusion worse confounded. Go asfar as you know. And since you know yourself to be a sinner—and Jesus aSavior, and a great one, too—talk about those two matters and good willcome of it! Beloved, each one, in his own position, tell what you haveheard and seen! Publish that abroad among the sons of men.Sermon #666 Holy Work for ChristmasVolume 11 www.spurgeongems.org5

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But were the shepherds authorized? It is a great thing to be authorized!Unauthorized ministers are most shameful intruders! Unordainedmen who are not in the Apostolic succession entering the pulpit—veryhorrible—very horrible indeed! The Puseyite mind utterly fails to fathomthe depth of horror which is contained in the idea of an unauthorized manpreaching and a man out of the Apostolic succession daring to teach theway of salvation! To me this horror seems very much like a schoolboy’sfright at a hobgoblin which his fears had conjured up. I think if I saw aman slip through the ice into a cold grave and I could rescue him fromdrowning it would not be so very horrible to me to be the means of savinghim, though I may not be employed by the Royal Humane Society.I imagine if I saw a fire and heard a poor woman scream at an upperwindow and likely to be burned alive, if I should wheel the fire escape upto the window and preserve her life, it would not be so very dreadful amatter though I might not belong to the regular Fire Brigade. If a companyof brave volunteers should chase an enemy out of their own county, I donot know that it would be anything so shocking although a whole army ofmercenaries might be neglecting their work in obedience to some venerablemilitary rubric which rendered them incapable of effective service. Butmark you, the shepherds and others like them are in the Apostolic successionand they are authorized by Divine ordinance—for every man whohears the Gospel is authorized to tell it to others.Do you want authority? Here it is in strong confirmation from HolyWrit—“Let him that hears say, Come”—that is, let every man who trulyhears the Gospel bid others come to drink of the Water of Life. This is allthe warrant you require for preaching the Gospel according to your ability.It is not every man who has ability to preach the Word. And it is not everyman that we should like to hear preach it in the great congregation, for ifall were mouth, what a great vacuum the Church would be! Yet everyChristian in some method should deliver the glad tidings. Our wise Godtakes care that liberty of prophesying shall not run to riot, for He does notgive efficient pastoral and ministerial gifts to every many. Yet every man,according to his gifts, let him minister! Every one of you, though not inthe pulpit, yet in the pew, in the workshop—somewhere, anywhere, everywhere—make known the savor of the Lord Jesus. And let this be yourauthority—“Let him that hears, say, Come.”I never thought of asking any authority for crying, “Fire!” When I saw ahouse burning, I never dreamed of seeking any authority for doing mybest to rescue a poor perishing fellow man. Nor do I mean to seek it now!All the authority you want, any of you, is not the authority which canstream from prelates decorated with long sleeves—but the authority whichcomes directly from the great Head of the Church who gives authority toevery one of those who hear the Gospel to teach every man, his fellow,saying, “Know the Lord.” Here, dear Brethren, is one way for you to keep aright holy, and in some sense, a right merry Christmas!Imitate these humble men, of whom it is said, “When they had seen itthey made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning thisChild.”Holy Work for Christmas Sermon #666www.spurgeongems.org Volume 116

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II. We set before you, now, another mode of keeping Christmas by HOLYWONDER, ADMIRATION, AND ADORATION. “And all they that heard itwondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.” Weshall have little to say of those persons who merely wondered and didnothing more. Many are set a wondering by the Gospel. They are contentto hear it, pleased to hear it—though not, to them, in itself somethingnew—yet there are new ways of putting it and they are glad to be refreshedwith the variety. The preacher’s voice is to them as the sound ofone that gives a goodly tune upon an instrument. They are glad to listen.They are not skeptics. They do not cavil. They raise no difficulties. Theyjust say to themselves, “It is an excellent Gospel. It is a wonderful plan ofsalvation. Here is most astonishing love, most extraordinary condescension.”Sometimes they marvel that these things should be told them byshepherds. They can hardly understand how unlearned and ignorant menshould speak of these things! And they marvel how such things shouldever get into these shepherds’ heads—where they learned them, how it isthat they seem so earnest about them—what kind of operation they musthave passed through to be able to speak as they do!But after holding up their hands and opening their mouths for aboutnine days, the wonder subsides and they go their way and think no moreabout it. There are many of you who are set to wondering whenever yousee a work of God in your district. You hear of somebody converted whowas a very extraordinary sinner and you say, “It is very wonderful!” Thereis a revival. You happen to be present at one of the meetings when theSpirit of God is working gloriously—you say, “Well, this is a singularthing! Very astonishing!” Even the newspapers can afford a corner, attimes, for very great and extraordinary works of God the Holy Spirit! Butthen all emotion ends—it is all wondering and nothing more.Now, I trust it will not be so with any of us—that we shall not think ofthe Savior and of the doctrines of the Gospel which He came to preachsimply with amazement and astonishment—for this will work us but littlegood. On the other hand, there is another mode of wondering which isakin to adoration, if it is not adoration, itself. I think it would be very difficultto draw a line between holy wonder and real worship. When the soulis overwhelmed with the majesty of God’s Glory, though it may not expressitself in song, or even utter its voice with bowed head in humbleprayer, yet it silently adores.I am inclined to think that the astonishment which sometimes seizesupon the human intellect at the remembrance of God’s greatness andgoodness is, perhaps, the purest form of adoration which ever rises frommortal men to the Throne of the Most High. This kind of wonder I recommendto those of you who, from the quietness and solitariness of yourlives, are scarcely able to imitate the shepherds in telling out the tale toothers—you can at least fill up the circle of the worshippers before theThrone by wondering at what God has done! Let me suggest to you thatholy wonder at what God has done should be very natural to you. ThatGod should consider His fallen creature, man—and instead of sweepinghim away with the besom of destruction—should devise a wonderfulSermon #666 Holy Work for ChristmasVolume 11 www.spurgeongems.org7

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scheme for his redemption and that He should, Himself, undertake to beman’s Redeemer and to pay his ransom price, is, indeed, marvelous!Probably it is most marvelous to you in its relation to yourself, that youshould be redeemed by blood! That God should forsake the thrones androyalties above to suffer ignominiously below for you! If you know yourselfyou can never see any adequate motive or reason in your own flesh forsuch a deed as this. “Why such love to me?” you will say. What shouldyou and I say, if David, sitting in his house, could only say, “Who am I, OLord God, and what is my house, that You have brought me up to now?”Had we been the most meritorious of individuals and had unceasinglykept the Lord’s commands we could not have deserved such a pricelessgift as Incarnation! But, Sinners, offenders who revolted and went fromGod further and further, what shall we say of this Incarnate God dying forus? “Herein is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us.” Let yoursoul lose itself in wonder, for wonder, dear Friends, is in this way a verypractical emotion! Holy wonder will lead you to grateful worship! Being astonishedat what God has done, you will pour out your soul with astonishmentat the foot of the golden Throne with the song, “Blessing andhonor and glory and majesty and power and dominion and might be untoHim who sits on the Throne and does these great things for me.”Filled with this wonder it will cause you a godly watchfulness. You willbe afraid to sin against such love as this! Feeling the Presence of themighty God in the gift of His dear Son, you will take off your shoes becausethe place where you stand is holy ground. You will be moved at thesame time to a glorious hope! If Jesus has given Himself to you. If He hasdone this marvelous thing on your behalf, you will feel that Heaven itselfis not too great for your expectation and that the rivers of pleasure atGod’s right hand are not too sweet or too deep for you to drink! Who canbe astonished at anything when he has once been astonished at the Mangerand the Cross?What is there wonderful left after one has seen the Savior? The ninewonders of the world? Why, you may put them all into a nutcracker and achild’s art can excel them all! This one wonder is not the wonder of earthonly, but of Heaven and earth and even Hell itself! It is not the wonder ofthe olden time, but the wonder of ALL time and the wonder of eternity.They who see human wonders a few times finally cease to be astonished.The noblest pile that architect ever raised finally fails to impress the onlooker—but not so this marvelous temple of Incarnate Deity! The more welook the more we are astonished! The more we become accustomed to it,the more we have a sense of its surpassing splendor of love and Grace!There is more of God, let us say, to be seen in the Manger and theCross, than in the sparkling stars above, the rolling deep below, the toweringmountain, the teeming valleys, the abodes of life, or the abyss ofdeath! Let us, then, spend some choice hours of this festive season in holywonder—such as will produce gratitude, worship, love and confidence.III. A third manner of holy work, namely, HER HEART PONDERINGAND PRESERVING, you will find in the next verse. One at least and let ushope there were others, or at any rate let us ourselves be the others—onekept all these things and pondered them in her heart. She wondered—sheHoly Work for Christmas Sermon #666www.spurgeongems.org Volume 118

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did more—she pondered. You will observe there was an exercise on thepart of this blessed woman of the three great parts of her being—hermemory—she kept all these things. Her affections—she kept them in herheart. Her intellect—she pondered them, considered them, weighed them,turned them over—so that memory, affection and understanding were allexercised about these things.We delight to see this in Mary, but we are not at all surprised when werecollect that she was, in some sense, the most concerned of all onearth—for it was of her that Jesus Christ had been born. Those who comenearest to Jesus and enter the most closely into fellowship with Him willbe sure to be the most engrossed with Him. Certain persons are best esteemedat a distance, but not the Savior! When you shall have known Himto the very fullest, then shall you love Him with the love which passesknowledge. You shall comprehend the heights and depths and lengthsand breadths of His love. And when you shall do so, then your own loveshall swell beyond all length and breadth, all height and depth.The birth most concerned Mary and therefore she was the most impressedwith it. Note the way in which her concern was shown—she was awoman and the Divine Grace which shines best in the female is not boldness—that belongs to the masculine mind. Affectionate modesty is a femininebeauty, and from now we do not read so much of her telling abroadas pondering within. No doubt she had her circle and her word to speak init, but for the most part she, like another Mary, sat still in the house. Sheworked, but her work was most directly for Him, her heart’s joy and delight.Like other children, the holy Child needed care, which only a mother’shand and heart could exercise. She was, therefore, engrossed with Him. Oblessed engrossment! Sweet engagement! Count not that to be unacceptableservice which occupies itself rather with Jesus than with His disciplesor His wandering sheep. That woman who broke the alabaster box andpoured the ointment upon our Jesus Himself was faulted by Judas. Andeven the rest of the disciples thought that the poor had lost a benefit, but“she has worked a good work on Me” was the Savior’s answer. I desire tobring you to this thought—if during this season you retiring, quiet ones,cannot speak to others, or have no desirable opportunity or suitable giftfor that work—you may sit still with Jesus and honor Him in peace.Mary took the Lord in her arms. Oh that you may bear Him in yours!She executed works directly for His Person—imitate her! You can loveHim, bless Him, praise Him, study Him, ponder Him, comprehend HisCharacter, study the types that set Him forth and imitate His life! And inthis way, though your worship will not blaze forth among the sons of menand scarcely benefit them as some other forms of work, yet it will bothbenefit you and be acceptable to your Lord. Beloved, remember what youhave heard of Christ and what He has done for you! Make your heart thegolden cup to hold the rich remembrances of His past loving-kindness!Make it a pot of manna to preserve the heavenly bread on which saintshave fed in days gone by!Let your memory treasure up everything about Christ which you haveeither heard, or felt, or known! And then let your fond affections hold HimSermon #666 Holy Work for ChristmasVolume 11 www.spurgeongems.org9

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fast forevermore. Love Him! Pour out that alabaster box of your heart,and let all the precious ointment of your affections come streaming on Hisfeet. If you cannot do it with joy, do it sorrowfully! Wash His feet withtears, wipe them with the hairs of your head—but do love Him—love theblessed Son of God, your ever tender Friend. Let your intellect be exercisedconcerning the Lord Jesus. Turn over and over by meditation whatyou read. Do not be loiter men—do not stop at the surface—dive into thedepths!Be not as the swallow which touches the brook with her wing, but asthe fish which penetrates the lowest wave. Drink deep draughts of love!Do not sip and away—but dwell at the well as Isaac did at the well Lahairoi.Abide with your Lord—let Him not be to you as a wayfaring man thattarries for a night, but constrain Him, saying, “Abide with us, for the dayis far spent.” Hold Him and do not let Him go! The word “ponder,” as youknow, means to weigh. Make ready the scales of judgment. Oh, but whereare the scales that can weigh the Lord Christ? “He takes up the isles as avery little thing”—who shall take Him up? “He weighs the mountains inscales.” In what scales shall we weigh Him?Be it so, if your understanding cannot comprehend, let your affectionsapprehend. And if your spirit cannot compass the Lord Jesus in the armsof its understanding, let it embrace Him in the arms of your affection. Oh,Beloved, here is blessed Christmas work for you, if, like Mary, you lay upall these things in your heart and ponder upon them!IV. The last piece of holy Christmas work is to come. “The shepherdsreturned,” we read in the twentieth verse, “GLORIFYING AND PRAISINGGOD for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told untothem.” Returned to what? Returned to business to look after the lambsand sheep again! Then if we desire to glorify God we need not give up ourbusiness. Some people get the notion into their heads that the only way inwhich they can live for God is by becoming ministers, missionaries, or Biblewomen.Alas, how many of us would be shut out from any opportunity of magnifyingthe Most High if this were the case? The shepherds went back tothe sheep pens glorifying and praising God! Beloved, it is not office, it isearnestness! It is not position, it is Divine Grace which will enable us toglorify God! God is most surely glorified in that cobbler’s stall where thegodly worker, as he plies the awl, sings of the Savior’s love1 Yes, glorifiedfar more than in many a cathedral where official religiousness performsits scanty duties.The name of Jesus is glorified by yonder carter as he drives his horseand blesses his God, or speaks to his fellow laborer by the roadside asmuch as by yonder Divine who, throughout the country like Boanerges, isthundering out the Gospel! God is glorified by our abiding in our vocation.Take care you do not fall out of the path of duty by leaving your calling,and take care you do not dishonor your profession while in it! Think notmuch of yourselves, but do not think too little of your callings. There is notrade which is not sanctified by the Gospel. If you turn to the Bible, youwill find the most menial forms of labor have been in some way or otherHoly Work for Christmas Sermon #666www.spurgeongems.org Volume 111010connected either with the most daring deeds of faith, or else with personswhose lives have been otherwise illustrious.Keep to your calling, Brother, keep to your calling! Whatever God hasmade you, when He calls you, abide in that, unless you are quite sure—mind that—unless you are quite sure that He calls you to something else.The shepherds glorified God though they went to their trade. They glorifiedGod though they were shepherds. As we remarked, they were not menof learning. So far from having an extensive library full of books, it isprobable they could not read a word. Yet they glorified God. This takesaway all excuse for you good people who say, “I am no scholar. I never hadany education. I never went even to a Sunday school.” Ah, but if yourheart is right, you can glorify God!Never mind, Sarah. Do not be cast down because you know so little.Learn more if you can, but make good use of what you do know. Nevermind, John! It is, indeed, a pity that you should have had to toil so early,as not to have acquired even the rudiments of knowledge—but do notthink that you cannot glorify God! If you would praise God, live a holy life!You can do that by His Grace, at any rate, without scholarship. If youwould do good to others, be good yourself. And that is a way which is asopen to the most illiterate as it is to the best taught! Be of good courage!Shepherds glorified God and so may you!Remember there is one thing in which they had a preference over thewise men. The wise men wanted a star to lead them. The shepherds didnot. The wise men went wrong even with a star—they stumbled into Jerusalem.The shepherds went straight away to Bethlehem. Simple mindssometimes find a glorified Christ where learned heads, much puzzled withtheir lore, miss Him. A good doctor used to say, “Lo, these simpletonshave entered into the kingdom, while we learned men have been fumblingfor the latch.” It is often so. And so, you simple minds, be comforted andglad!The way in which these shepherds honored God is worth noticing. Theydid it by praising Him. Let us think more of sacred song than we sometimesdo. When the song is bursting in full chorus from the thousands inthis house, it is but a noise in the ear of some men—but inasmuch asmany true hearts, touched with the love of Jesus, are keeping pace withtheir tongues—it is not a mere noise in God’s esteem! There is a sweetmusic in it that makes glad His ear. What is the great ultimatum of allChristian effort? When I stood here the other morning preaching the Gospel,my mind was fully exercised with the winning of souls. But I seemed,while preaching, to get beyond that. I thought, Well, that is not the chiefend after all—the chief end is to glorify God and even the saving of sinnersis sought by the right-minded as the means to that end!Then it struck me all of a sudden, “If in Psalm singing and hymn singingwe do really glorify God, we are doing more than in the preaching becausewe are not then in the means—we are close upon the great end itself.”If we praise God with heart and tongue we glorify Him in the surestpossible manner—we are really glorifying Him then! “Whoever offers praiseglorifies Me,” says the Lord. Sing, then, my Brethren! Sing not only whenyou are together, but sing alone! Cheer your labor with Psalms and hymnsSermon #666 Holy Work for ChristmasVolume 11 www.spurgeongems.org1111and spiritual songs. Make glad the family with sacred music! We sing toolittle, I am sure, yet the revival of religion has always been attended withthe revival of Christian Psalmody.Luther’s translations of the Psalms were of as much service as Luther’sdiscussions and controversies. And the hymns of Charles Wesley andCennick and Toplady and Newton and Cowper aided as much in thequickening of spiritual life in England as the preaching of John Wesleyand George Whitefield. We need more singing! Sing more and murmurless! Sing more and slander less! Sing more and cavil less! Sing more andmourn less! God grant us today, as these shepherds did, to glorify God bypraising Him.I have not quite done with them. What was the subject of their praise?It appears that they praised God for what they had heard. If we think of it,there is good reason for blessing God every time we hear a Gospel sermon.What would souls in Hell give if they could hear the Gospel once more andbe on terms in which salvation Grace might come to them? What woulddying men give whose tune is all but over if they could once more come tothe House of God and have another warning and another invitation? MyBrethren, what would you give, sometimes, when you are shut up bysickness and cannot meet with the great congregation—when your heartand your flesh cry out for the living God?Well, praise God for what you have heard! You have heard the faults ofthe preacher—let him mourn them. You have heard his Master’s message!Do you bless God for that? Scarcely will you ever hear a sermon whichmay not make you sing if you are in a right frame of mind. George Herbertsays, “Praying is the end of preaching.” So it is, but praising is its end,too. Praise God that you hear there is a Savior! Praise God that you hearthat the plan of salvation is very simple! Praise God that you have a Saviorfor your own soul! Praise God that you are pardoned, that you are saved!Praise Him for what you have heard!But observe, they also praised God for what they had seen. Look at thetwentieth verse—“heard and seen.” There is the sweetest music—what wehave experienced, what we have felt within, what we have made our own—the things that we have made touching the King! Mere hearing may makesome music, but the soul of song must come from seeing with the eye offaith! And, dear Friends, you who have seen with that God-given eyesight—I pray you, let not your tongues be steeped in sinful silence! Speakloudly to the praise of Sovereign Grace!One point for which they praised God was the agreement between whatthey had heard and what they had seen. Observe the last sentence. “As itwas told unto them.” Have you not found the Gospel to be in yourselvesjust what the Bible said it would be? Jesus said He would give youGrace—have you not had it? He promised you rest—have you not receivedit? He said that you should have joy and comfort and life through believingin Him—have you not had all these? Are not His ways ways of pleasantnessand His paths, paths of peace? Surely you can say with thequeen of Sheba, “The half has not been told me.”I have found Christ more sweet than His servants could set Him forthas being. I looked upon the likeness as they painted it, but it was a mereHoly Work for Christmas Sermon #666www.spurgeongems.org Volume 111212daub as compared with Himself—the King in His beauty! I have heard ofthe goodly land, but oh, it flows with milk and honey more richly andsweetly than men were ever able to tell me in their best trim for speech.Surely what we have seen keeps pace with what we have heard! Let us,then, glorify and praise God for what He has done.This word to those who are not yet converted and I have done. I do notthink you can begin at the seventeenth verse, but I wish you would beginat the eighteenth. You cannot begin at the seventeenth—you cannot tell toothers what you have not felt. Do not try it. Neither teach in the Sundayschool, nor attempt to preach if you are not converted. Unto the wicked,God says, “What have you to do to declare My statutes?” But I would toGod you would begin with the eighteenth verse—wondering! Wonderingthat you are spared—wondering that you are out of Hell—wondering thatstill does His good Spirit strive with the chief of sinners! Wonder that thismorning the Gospel should have a word for you after all your rejections ofit and sins against God!I should like you to begin there because then I should have good hopethat you would go on to the next verse and change the first letter and sogo from wondering to pondering. Oh Sinner, I wish you would ponder thedoctrines of the Cross. Think of your sin, God’s wrath, judgment, Hell,your Savior’s blood, God’s love, forgiveness, acceptance, Heaven—think onthese things! Go from wondering to pondering!And then I would to God you could go on to the next verse, from ponderingto glorifying. Take Christ! Look to Him! Trust Him! Then sing, “I amforgiven,” and go your way a believing sinner and therefore a saved sinner,washed in the blood, and clean! Then go back, after that, to the seventeenthverse and begin to tell others.But as for you Christians who are saved, I want you to begin this veryafternoon at the seventeenth—“Then will I tell to sinners roundWhat a dear Savior I have found!I’ll point to Your redeeming blood,And say—‘Behold, the way to God!’ ”Then when the day is over, get up to your chambers and wonder, admireand adore! Spend half an hour also like Mary in pondering and treasuringup the day’s work and the day’s hearing in your hearts and then close allwith that which never must close—go on tonight, tomorrow and all thedays of your life, glorifying and praising God for all the things that youhave seen and heard!May the Master bless you for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON—Luke 2:1-20.Adapted from The C.H. Spurgeon Collection, Version 1.0, Ages Software, 1.800.297.4307PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMONTO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST.

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