THE TURNING POINT IN THE WORLD’S HISTORY
‘And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass.’
The birth of Jesus Christ is the turning-point in the world’s history.
I. He rules the life of men.—Whether you accept His claims and obey His words, or—which God forbid—you disbelieve the one and reject the other, this is certain: that He rules the life of men to-day. For the civilised nations of the world the years are reckoned from His Advent. The events of ancient history are recorded by the historian as having taking place so many years ‘before Christ’; and the years of our modern life are ‘years of our Lord.’ Anno Domini, we say; but we rarely think of how far-reaching a theory of history and of conduct is here suggested to us.
II. How great is this deeper influence which Jesus of Nazareth has exercised over the wills and passions of mankind! It is often said that Christendom is not really Christian; but it is quite certain that the difference between Christian and non-Christian countries as regards all that makes life pure and lovely and of good report is wide indeed.
III. The secret of that mighty influence.—Christmas is not only the festival of the birth of a great Master, not only the commemoration of the entrance of a great spiritual force into the world; it is the memorial of the Visitation of God. It was God Who became man, Who was born on this day—the Word Who became flesh; that is the centre of the Christian creeds.
Dean J. H. Bernard.