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Sermon #168 The New Park Street Pulpit 1Volume 4 www.spurgeongems.org 1THE FIRST CHRISTMAS CAROLNO. 168A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, DECEMBER 20, 1857BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,AT THE MUSIC HALL, ROYAL SURREY GARDENS.“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.”Luke 2:14.IT is superstitious to worship angels—it is but proper to love them.Although it would be a high sin and an act of misdemeanor against theSovereign Court of Heaven to pay the slightest adoration to the mightiestangel, yet it would be unkind and unseemly if we did not give to holyangels a place in our heart’s warmest love. In fact, he that contemplatesthe character of angels and marks their many deeds of sympathy withmen and kindness towards them, cannot resist the impulse of hisnature—the impulse of love towards them.The one incident in angelic history to which our text refers is enough toweld our hearts to them forever. How free from envy the angels were!Christ did not come from Heaven to save their compeers when they fell.When Satan, the mighty angel, dragged with him a third part of the starsof Heaven, Christ did not stoop from His throne to die for them. But Heleft them to be reserved in chains and darkness until the last great day.Yet angels did not envy men. Though they remembered that He took notup angels, yet they did not murmur when He took up the seed ofAbraham. And though the blessed Master had never condescended to takethe angel’s form, they did not think it beneath them to express their joywhen they found Him arrayed in the body of an infant.How free, too, they were from pride! They were not ashamed to comeand tell the news to humble shepherds. Methinks they had as much joy inpouring out their songs that night before the shepherds, who werewatching with their flocks, as they would have had if they had beencommanded by their Master to sing their hymn in the halls of Caesar.Mere men—men possessed with pride, think it a fine thing to preachbefore kings and princes. They think it great condescension now and thento have to minister to the humble crowd. Not so the angels. They stretchedtheir willing wings and gladly sped from their bright seats above to tell theshepherds on the plain by night the marvelous story of an Incarnate God.Mark how well they told the story and surely you will love them!Not with the stammering tongue of him that tells a tale in which he hasno interest. Nor even with the feigned interest of a man that would moveThe First Christmas Carol Sermon #168www.spurgeongems.org Volume 42

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the passions of others, when he feels no emotion himself. But with joyand gladness, such as angels only can know. They sang the story out, forthey could not stay to tell it in heavy prose. They sang, “Glory to God onhigh and on earth peace, good will towards men.” Methinks they sang itwith gladness in their eyes—with their hearts burning with love and withbreasts as full of joy as if the good news to man had been good news tothemselves. And, verily, it was good news to them, for the heart ofsympathy makes good news to others good news to itself.Do you not love the angels? You will not bow before them and there youare right. But will you not love them? Does it not make one part of youranticipation of Heaven, that in Heaven you shall dwell with the holyangels, as well as with the spirits of the just made perfect? Oh, how sweetto think that these holy and lovely beings are our guardians every hour!They keep watch and ward about us, both in the burning noontide and inthe darkness of the night. They keep us in all our ways. They bear us upin their hands, lest at any time we dash our feet against stones. Theyunceasingly minister unto us who are the heirs of salvation. Both by dayand night they are our watchers and our guardians, for know you not,that “the angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear Him”?Let us turn aside, having just thought of angels for a moment, to thinkof this song, rather than of the angels themselves. Their song was brief,but as Kitto excellently remarks, it was “ well worthy of angels expressingthe greatest and most blessed truths, in words so few, that they become toan acute apprehension almost oppressive by the pregnant fullness of theirmeaning.”—“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good willtoward men.” We shall, hoping to be assisted by the Holy Spirit, look atthese words of the angels in a fourfold manner. I shall just suggest someinstructive thoughts arising from these words, then some emotionalthoughts. Then a few prophetic thoughts. And afterwards, one or twoperceptive thoughts.I. First then, in the words of our text. There are many INSTRUCTIVETHOUGHTS. The angels sang something which men could understand—something which men ought to understand—something which will makemen much better if they will understand it. The angels were singing aboutJesus who was born in the manger. We must look upon their song asbeing built upon this foundation. They sang of Christ and the salvationwhich He came into this world to work out. And what they said of thissalvation was this—they said first, that it gave glory to God. Secondly thatit gave peace to man. And thirdly, that it was a token of God’s good willtowards the human race.1. Firs, they said that this salvation gave glory to God. They had beenpresent on many august occasions and they had joined in many a solemnSermon #168 The First Christmas CarolVolume 4 www.spurgeongems.org3

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chorus to the praise of their Almighty Creator. They were present at thecreation: “The morning stars sang together and all the sons of Godshouted for joy.” They had seen many a planet fashioned between thepalms of Jehovah and wheeled by His eternal hands through theinfinitude of space. They had sung solemn songs over many a world whichthe Great One had created. We doubt not, they had often chanted,“Blessing and honor and glory and majesty and power and dominion andmight be unto Him that sits on the Throne,” manifesting Himself in thework of creation. I doubt not, too, that their songs had gathered forcethrough ages. As when first created, their first breath was song, so whenthey saw God create new worlds then their song received another note.They rose a little higher in the gamut of adoration.But this time, when they saw God stoop from His throne and become aBabe, hanging upon a woman’s breast, they lifted their notes higher still—and reaching to the uttermost stretch of angelic music—they gained thehighest notes of the Divine scale of praise and they sung, “Glory to God inthe highest,” for higher in goodness they felt God could not go. Thus theirhighest praise they gave to Him in the highest act of His godhead. If it istrue that there is a hierarchy of angels, rising tier upon tier inmagnificence and dignity—if the Apostle teaches us that there are “angelsand principalities and powers and thrones and dominions,” among theseblessed inhabitants of the upper world—I can suppose that when theintelligence was first communicated to those angels that are to be foundupon the outskirts of the heavenly world, when they looked down fromHeaven and saw the newborn Babe, they sent the news backward to theplace from where the miracle first proceeded, singing—“Angels, from the realms of glory,Wing your downward flight to earth,You who sing creation’s story,Now proclaim Messiah’s birth.Come and worship,Worship Christ, the newborn King.”And as the message ran from rank to rank, at last the presence angels,those four cherubim that perpetually watch around the throne of God—those wheels with eyes—took up the strain and gathering up the song ofall the inferior grades of angels, surmounted the Divine pinnacle ofharmony with their own solemn chant of adoration upon which the entirehost shouted, “The highest angels praise You”— “Glory to God in thehighest.” Yes, there is no mortal that can ever dream how magnificent wasthat song. Then, note, if angels shouted before and when the world wasmade, their hallelujahs were more full, more strong, more magnificent—ifnot more hearty—when they saw Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary tobe man’s redeemer—“Glory to God in the highest.”The First Christmas Carol Sermon #168www.spurgeongems.org Volume 44

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What is the instructive lesson to be learned from this first syllable ofthe angels’ song? Why this—that salvation is God’s highest glory. He isglorified in every dew drop that twinkles in the morning sun. He ismagnified in every wood flower that blossoms in the copse, although itlives to blush unseen and wave its sweetness in the forest air. God isglorified in every bird that warbles on the spray—in every lamb that skipsthe mead. Do not the fishes in the sea praise Him? From the tiny minnowto the huge leviathan, do not all creatures that swim the waters bless andpraise His name? Do not all created things extol Him? Is there anythingbeneath the sky—save man—that does not glorify God?Do not the stars exalt Him when they write His name upon the azure ofHeaven in their golden letters? Does not the lightning adore Him when itflashes its brightness in arrows of light piercing the midnight darkness?Do not thunders extol Him when they roll like drums in the march of theGod of armies? Do not all things exalt Him, from the least even to thegreatest? But sing, sing, oh universe, till you have exhausted yourself—you can not afford a song so sweet as the song of Incarnation. Thoughcreation may be a majestic organ of praise it cannot reach the compass ofthe golden canticle—Incarnation! There is more in that than in creation,more melody in Jesus in the manger than there is in worlds on worldsrolling their grandeur round the Throne of the Most High.Pause, Christian, and consider this a minute. See how every attributeis here magnified. Lo, what wisdom is here. God becomes man that Godmay be Just and the Justifier of the ungodly. Lo, what power, for where ispower so great as when it conceals power? What power, that Godheadshould unrobe itself and become Man! Behold, what love is thus revealedto us when Jesus becomes a Man. Behold, what faithfulness! How manypromises are this day kept? How many solemn obligations are this hourdischarged? Tell me one attribute of God that is not manifest in Jesus andyour ignorance shall be the reason why you have not seen it so. The wholeof God is glorified in Christ. And though some part of the name of God iswritten in the universe, it is here best read—in Him who was the Son ofMan and, yet, the Son of God.But let me say one word here before I go away from this point. We mustlearn from this, that if salvation glorifies God, glorifies Him in the highestdegree and makes the highest creatures praise Him, this one reflectionmay be added—that doctrine which glorifies man in salvation cannot bethe Gospel. For salvation glorifies God. The angels were no Arminians—they sang, “Glory to God in the highest.” They believe in no doctrine whichuncrowns Christ and puts the crown upon the head of mortals. Theybelieve in no system of faith which makes salvation dependent upon thecreature and which really gives the creature the praise. For what is it lessSermon #168 The First Christmas CarolVolume 4 www.spurgeongems.org5

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than for a man to save himself, if the whole dependence of salvation restsupon his own free will? No, my Brethren. There may be some preachersthat delight to preach a doctrine that magnifies man. But in their Gospelangels have no delight. The only glad tidings that made the angels singare those that put God first, God last, God midst and God without end—inthe salvation of His creatures—and put the crown wholly and alone uponthe head of Him that saves without a helper. “Glory to God in the highest,”is the angels’ song.2. When they had sung this, they sang what they had never sungbefore. “Glory to God in the highest,” was an old, old song. They had sungthat from before the foundations of the world. But, now, they sang as itwere a new song before the Throne of God—for they added this stanza—“on earth, peace.” They did not sing that in the garden. There was peacethere, it seemed a thing of course and scarce worth singing of. There wasmore than peace there. For there was glory to God there. But now manhad fallen—and since the day when cherubim with fiery swords drove outthe man there had been no peace on earth, save in the breast of somebelievers, who had obtained peace from the living fountain of thisincarnation of Christ. Wars had raged from the ends of the world. Menhad slaughtered one another, heaps on heaps. There had been warswithin as well as wars without. Conscience had fought with man—Satanhad tormented man with thoughts of sin.There had been no peace on earth since Adam fell. But, now, when thenewborn King made His appearance, the swaddling band with which Hewas wrapped up was the white flag of peace. That manger was the placewhere the treaty was signed, whereby warfare should be stopped betweenman’s conscience and himself, man’s conscience and his God. It was then,that day, the trumpet blew—“Sheathe the sword, oh man, sheathe thesword, oh conscience, for God is now at peace with man and man at peacewith God.” Do you not feel, my Brethren, that the Gospel of God is peaceto man? Where else can peace be found but in the message of Jesus? Golegalist, work for peace with toil and pain and you shall never find it. Go,you that trust in the Law—go to Sinai.Look to the flames that Moses saw and shrink and tremble anddespair—for peace is nowhere to be found, but in Him, of whom it is said,“This man shall be Peace.” And what a Peace it is, Beloved! It is peace likea river and righteousness like the waves of the sea. It is the peace of Godthat passes all understanding, which keeps our hearts and minds throughJesus Christ our Lord. This sacred peace between the pardoned soul andGod the Pardoner. This marvelous connection between the sinner and HisJudge—this was it that the angels sung when they said, “peace on earth.”The First Christmas Carol Sermon #168www.spurgeongems.org Volume 46

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3. And then they wisely ended their song with a third note. They said,“Good will to man.” Philosophers have said that God has a good willtoward man. But I never knew any man who derived much comfort fromtheir philosophical assertion. Wise men have thought from what we haveseen in creation that God had much good will toward man—or else Hisworks would never have been so constructed for their comfort. But I neverheard of any man who could risk his soul’s peace upon such a faint hopeas that. But I have not only heard of thousands, but I know them who arequite sure that God has a good will towards men. And if you ask theirreason, they will give a full and perfect answer. They say, He has good willtoward man for He gave His Son. No greater proof of kindness between theCreator and His subjects possibly can be afforded than when the Creatorgives His only begotten and well beloved Son to die.Though the first note is God-like and though the second note ispeaceful, this third note melts my heart the most. Some think of God as ifHe were a morose Being who hated all mankind. Some picture Him as ifHe were some abstract subsistence taking no interest in our affairs. Hark,God has “good will toward men.” You know what good will means? Well allthat it means and more, God has to you, you sons and daughters ofAdam. Swearer, you have cursed God. He has not fulfilled His curse onyou. He has good will towards you, though you have no good will towardsHim. Infidel, you have sinned high and hard against the Most High. Hehas said no hard things against you, for He has good will towards men.Poor sinner, you have broken His Laws. You are half afraid to come to thethrone of His mercy lest He should spurn you—hear this and becomforted—God has good will towards men, so good a will that He hassaid and said it with an oath, too, “As I live, says the Lord, I have nopleasure in the death of him that dies, but had rather that he should turnunto Me and live.”So good a will moreover that He has even condescended to say, “Come,now, let us reason together, though your sins are as scarlet, they shall beas wool. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be whiter thansnow.” And if you say, “Lord, how shall I know that You have this goodwill towards me,” He points to yonder manger and says, “Sinner, if I hadnot a good will towards you, would I have parted with My Son? If I had notgood will towards the human race, would I have given up My Son tobecome one of that race that He might by so doing redeem them fromdeath?” You that doubt the Master’s love, look to that circle of angels. Seetheir blaze of glory—hear their song and let your doubts die away in thatsweet music and be buried in a shroud of harmony.He has good will to men. He is willing to pardon. He passes by iniquity,transgression and sin. And mark you, if Satan shall then add, “ButSermon #168 The First Christmas CarolVolume 4 www.spurgeongems.org7

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though God has good will, yet He cannot violate His justice, therefore Hismercy may be ineffective and you may die”—then listen to that first noteof the song, “Glory to God in the highest,” and reply to Satan and all histemptations, that when God shows good will to a penitent sinner, there isnot only peace in the sinner’s heart, but it brings glory to every attributeof God and so He can be just and yet justify the sinner and glorifyHimself!I do not pretend to say that I have opened all the instructions containedin these three sentences, but I may perhaps direct you into a train ofthought that may serve you for the week. I hope that all through the weekyou will have a truly merry Christmas by feeling the power of these wordsand knowing the unction of them. “Glory to God in the highest and onearth peace, good will toward men.”II. Next, I have to present to you some EMOTIONAL THOUGHTS.Friends, does not this verse, this song of angels, stir your heart withhappiness? When I read that and found the angels singing it, I thought tomyself, “Then if the angels ushered in the Gospel’s great Head withsinging, ought I not to preach with singing? And ought not my Hearers tolive with singing? Ought not their hearts to be glad and their spirits torejoice?” Well, I thought, there are some somber religionists who wereborn in a dark night in December that think a smile upon the face iswicked and believe that for a Christian to be glad and rejoice is to beinconsistent. Ah, I wish these gentlemen had seen the angels when theysang about Christ! For if angels sang about His birth, though it was noconcern of theirs, certainly men ought to sing about it as long as theylive—sing about it when they die and sing about it when they live inHeaven forever! I do long to see in the midst of the Church more of asinging Christianity. The last few years have been breeding in our midst agroaning and unbelieving Christianity. Now, I doubt not its sincerity, but Ido doubt its healthy character. I say it may be true and real enough. Godforbid I should say a word against the sincerity of those who practice itbut it is a sickly religion.Watts hit the mark when he said—“Religion never was designedTo make our pleasures less.”It is designed to do away with some of our pleasures—but it gives usmany more—to make up for what it takes away. It does not make themless. O you that see in Christ nothing but a subject to stimulate yourdoubts and make the tears run down your cheeks—O you that alwayssay—“Lord, what a wretched land is this,That yields us no supplies,”The First Christmas Carol Sermon #168www.spurgeongems.org Volume 48

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come here and see the angels! Do they tell their story with groans andsobs and sighs? Ah, no. They shout aloud, “Glory to God in the highest.”Now, imitate them my dear Brethren. If you are professors of religion, tryalways to have a cheerful carriage. Let others mourn. But—“Why should the children of a kingGo mourning all their days?”Anoint your head and wash your face—appear not unto men to fast.Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say unto you rejoice. Specially thisweek be not ashamed to be glad. You need not think it a wicked thing tobe happy. Penance and whipping and misery are no such very virtuousthings, after all. The damned are miserable. Let the saved be happy. Whyshould you hold fellowship with the lost by feelings of perpetualmourning? Why not rather anticipate the joys of Heaven and begin to singon earth that song which you will never need to end? The first emotion,then, that we ought to cherish in our hearts is the emotion of joy andgladness.Well, what next? Another emotion is that of confidence. I am not surethat I am right in calling that an emotion, but still in me it is so muchakin to it that I will venture to be wrong if I am so. Now, if when Christcame on this earth God had sent some black creature down from Heaven,(if there are such creatures there), to tell us, “Glory to God in the highestand on earth peace, good will toward men.” And if with a frowning browand a stammering tongue he delivered his message—if I had been thereand heard it—I should have hesitated to believe him. I should have said,“You don’t look like the messenger that God would send—stammeringfellow as you are—with such glad news as this.”But when the angels came there was no doubting the truth of whatthey said, because it was quite certain that the angels believed it. Theytold it as if they did, for they told it with singing, with joy and gladness. Ifsome friend, having heard that a legacy was left you and should come toyou with a solemn countenance and a tongue like a funeral bell, saying,“Do you know So-and-So has left you £10,000?” Why, you would say, “Ah,I dare say,” and laugh in his face. But if your brother should suddenlyburst into your room and exclaim, “I say, what do you think? You are arich man, So-and-So has left you £10,000!” Why you would say, “I think itis very likely to be true, for he looks so happy over it.”Well, when these angels came from Heaven they told the news just as ifthey believed it. And though I have often wickedly doubted my Lord’s goodwill, I think I never could have doubted it while I heard those angelssinging. No, I should say, “The messengers themselves are proof of thetruth, for it seems they have heard it from God’s lips. They have no doubtabout it, for see how joyously they tell the news?” Now, poor Soul, youSermon #168 The First Christmas CarolVolume 4 www.spurgeongems.org9

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that are afraid lest God should destroy you and you think that God willnever have mercy upon you—look at the singing angels and doubt if youdare. Do not go to the synagogue of long-faced hypocrites to hear theminister who preaches with a nasal twang, with misery in his face, whilehe tells you that God has good will towards men.I know you won’t believe what he says, for he does not preach with joyin his countenance. He is telling you good news with a grunt and you arenot likely to receive it. But go straightway to the plain where Bethlehemshepherds sat by night and when you hear the angels singing out theGospel, by the grace of God upon you, you cannot help believing that theymanifestly feel the preciousness of telling. Blessed Christmas that bringssuch creatures as angels to confirm our faith in God’s good will to men!III. I must now bring before you the third point. There are somePROPHETIC UTTERANCES contained in these words. The angels sang“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.”But I look around and what do I see in the whole wide world? I do not seeGod honored. I see the heathen bowing down before their idols. I mark theRomanist casting himself before the rotten rags of his relics and the uglyfigures of his images. I look about me and I see tyranny lording it over thebodies and souls of men. I see God forgotten. I see a worldly race pursuingmammon. I see a bloody race pursuing Moloch. I see ambition riding likeNimrod over the land, God forgotten, His name dishonored. And was thiswhat the angels sang about? Is this what made them sing “Glory to God inthe highest?” Ah, no. There are brighter days approaching. They sang“Peace on earth.”But I hear still the clarion of war. And the cannon’s horrid roar—not yethave they turned the sword into a plowshare and the spear into a pruninghook! War still reigns. Is this all that the angels sang about? And while Isee wars to the ends of the earth, am I to believe that this was all theangels expected? Ah, no, Brethren. The angels’ song is big withprophecy—it travails in birth with glories. A few more years and he thatlives them out shall see why angels sang. A few more years and He thatwill come shall come and will not tarry. Christ the Lord will come againand when He comes He shall cast the idols from their thrones. He shalldash down every fashion of heresy and every shape of idolatry. He shallreign from pole to pole with illimitable sway. He shall reign, when like ascroll, yonder blue heavens have passed away.No strife shall vex Messiah’s reign, no blood shall then be shed. They’llhang the useless helmet high and study war no more. The hour isapproaching when the temple of Janus shall be shut forever and whencruel Mars shall be hooted from the earth. The day is coming when thelion shall eat straw like the ox, when the leopard shall lie down with theThe First Christmas Carol Sermon #168www.spurgeongems.org Volume 41010kid—when the weaned child shall put his hand upon the cockatrice denand play with the asp. The hour approaches. The first streaks of thesunlight have made glad the age in which we live. Lo, He comes withtrumpets and with clouds of glory! He shall come for whom we look withjoyous expectation, whose coming shall be glory to His redeemed andconfusion to His enemies. Ah, Brethren, when the angels sang this therewas an echo through the long aisles of a glorious future. That echo was—“Hallelujah! Christ the LordGod Omnipotent shall reign.”Yes, and doubtless the angels heard by faith the fullness of the song—“Hark! the song of jubileeLoud as mighty thunders’ roar,Or the fullness of the sea,When it breaks upon the shore.”“Christ the Lord Omnipotent reigns.”IV. Now I have one more lesson for you and I have done. That lesson isPRECEPTIVE. I wish everybody that keeps Christmas this year wouldkeep it as the angels kept it. There are many persons who, when they talkabout keeping Christmas, mean by that the cutting of the bands of theirreligion for one day in the year, as if Christ were the Lord of misrule, as ifthe birth of Christ should be celebrated like the orgies of Bacchus. Thereare some very religious people that on Christmas would never forget to goto Church in the morning. They believe Christmas to be nearly as holy asSunday, for they reverence the tradition of the elders. Yet their way ofspending the rest of the day is very remarkable—for if they see their waystraight up stairs to their bed at night, it must be by accident! They wouldnot consider they had kept Christmas in a proper manner if they did notverge on gluttony and drunkenness.They are many who think Christmas cannot possibly be kept exceptthere be a great shout of merriment and mirth in the house and added tothat the boisterousness of sin. Now, my Brethren, although we, assuccessors of the Puritans, will not keep the day in any religious sensewhatever, attaching nothing more to it than to any other day—believingthat every day may be a Christmas for all we know and wishing to makeevery day Christmas if we can—yet we must try to set an example toothers how to behave on that day. And especially since the angels gaveglory to God. Let us do the same.Once more the angels said, “Peace to men.” Let us labor if we can tomake peace next Christmas day. Now, old gentleman, you won’t take yourson in—he has offended you. Fetch him at Christmas. “Peace on earth.”You know that is a Christmas carol. Make peace in your family. Now,Brother, you have made a vow that you will never speak to your brotherSermon #168 The First Christmas CarolVolume 4 www.spurgeongems.org1111again. Go after him and say, “Oh, my dear fellow, let not this day’s sungo down upon our wrath.” Fetch him in and give him your hand.Now, Mr. Tradesman, you have an opponent in trade and you have saidsome very hard words about him lately. If you do not make the matter uptoday, or tomorrow, or as soon as you can, yet do it on that day. That isthe way to keep Christmas—peace on earth and glory to God. And oh, ifyou have anything on your conscience, anything that prevents yourhaving peace of mind—keep your Christmas in your chamber, praying toGod to give you peace. For it is peace on earth, mind you, peace inyourself, peace with yourself, peace with your fellow men, peace with yourGod. And do not think you have well celebrated that day till you can say,“O God—With the world, myself and YouWherever I sleep at peace will be. ”And when the Lord Jesus has become your Peace, remember, there isanother thing, good will towards men. Do not try to keep Christmaswithout keeping good will towards men. You are a gentleman and haveservants. Well, try and set their chimneys on fire with a large piece ofgood, substantial beef for them. If you are men of wealth, you have poor inyour neighborhood. Find something wherewith to clothe the naked andfeed the hungry and make glad the mourner. Remember, it is good willtowards men. Try, if you can, to show them good will at this specialseason. And if you will do that, the poor will say with me—indeed, theywish there were six Christmases in the year.Let each one of us go from this place determined that if we are angry allthe year round, this next week shall be an exception. That if we havesnarled at everybody last year, this Christmas time we will strive to bekindly affectionate to others. And if we have lived all this year at enmitywith God, I pray that by His Spirit He may this week give us peace withHim. And then, indeed, my Brothers and Sisters, it will be the merriestChristmas we ever had in all our lives. You are going home to your fatherand mother, young men—many of you are going from your shops to yourhomes.You remember what I preached on last Christmas time. Go home toyour friends and tell them what the Lord has done for your soul and thatwill make a blessed round of stories at the Christmas fire. If you will eachof you tell your parents how the Lord met with you in the house ofprayer—how, when you left home, you were a happy, wild blade—but havenow come back to love your mother’s God and read your father’s Bible—oh, what a happy Christmas that will make! What more shall I say? MayGod give you peace with yourselves. May He give you good will towards allThe First Christmas Carol Sermon #168www.spurgeongems.org Volume 41212your friends, your enemies and your neighbors. And may He give yougrace to give glory to God in the highest.I will say no more, except at the close of this sermon to wish everyoneof you, when the day shall come, the happiest Christmas you ever had inyour lives—“Now with angels round the throne,Cherubim and seraphim,And the Church, which still is one,Let us swell the solemn hymn.Glory to the great I AM!Glory to the Victim Lamb.Blessing, honor, glory, might,And dominion infinite,To the Father of our Lord,To the Spirit and the Word;As it was all worlds before,Is and shall be evermore.”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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