“HE made room for Himself in my heart to night.” The speaker’s face I could not see, for it was night, and we were driving rapidly in a cab to the railway station; but the intensity of the ejaculation assured me that the words were but the joyful expression of a newly-found spring of gladness in his heart.
More than thirty years have rolled away since those words fell on my ear, in the town of Chester, late one Saturday night. I was on my way from the West of England to Dublin, where I had meetings arranged for the Lord’s Day. Finding that I should have about four hours to wait at Chester for the night mail via Holyhead, the thought occurred to me that I might have a gospel meeting in the town during those hours of waiting. I communicated with a warm-hearted servant of Christ, a well-known grocer in the town, who immediately sent me a telegram saying, “Come along; we will arrange a meeting.”
Arriving about 6 P.M. my friend met me, took me to his house for tea, told me that twenty-four hours had sufficed them to intimate the meeting, and, Saturday night though it were, he was assured we should get the room—a good-sized one—full, and so indeed it was, crammed to the door.
My subject that night was the thrilling tale of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, as described in Luke 2, and the effect upon the shepherds of Bethlehem, when they heard the tidings of His birth. Our attention was particularly directed to the words, “And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (vs. 7). How strange and how sad that, when the Son of God visited the scene of His creation, there was in the haunts of man no room for Him.
Without doubt the decree of the Emperor Cæsar Augustus, as to the taking of the census at that moment, had filled the inn at Bethlehem: hence when Joseph and Mary arrived, humble and lowly in their circumstances, for them there was no room. Had they been rich and wealthy, I ventured to say I thought room would have been found; at least such is usually observable in hotels—place is found for men of wealth—for money can do most things, while the poor must stand aside.
Jesus, when He came into this world, was emphatically the “poor man.” This expression is frequently used of Him in the Psalms; and most touchingly do we read elsewhere, “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:99For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)). Blessed Saviour! what grace, what love, what lowliness of heart do we ever see in Him, even from the outset of His pathway here!
The words “no room,” in relation to Him and His birth, strikingly describe the moral attitude of man toward Christ. But, some might argue, the fact that there was no room for them in the inn was simply a coincidence connected with the emperor’s edict. Be it so, I replied; but can you explain to me the coincidence of the solemn fact that, up to this very hour, there has been “no room” in your heart for Jesus, my dear unconverted friends?
This query, I saw at once, greatly interested many of my auditors, as I pressed upon them what the awful state of the man’s heart must be that had “no room” for Jesus—i.e., in plain language, that man does not want God. I then showed, in contrast, how God seeks man’s company, by reference to another scripture, found also in Luke’s Gospel. We turned to the record of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, as narrated in Luke 14, “A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were hidden, Come; for all things are now ready” (vers. 16:17).
There we get God’s disposition and attitude toward man—He wants his company, and invites him. Now notice man’s response: “And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come” (vers. 18-20).
Without exception no one has a heart to go. Does this chill the one who spreads the feast? No; read on. “So that servant came, and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room” (vers. 21:22).
Divine love cannot be arrested by man’s cold-heartedness, nor thwarted in its purpose. If you, my reader, will not have a seat at God’s banquet, He will find another guest to fill that seat. How delightful are the words, however, “yet there is room,” words which might well gladden the heart of any anxious or inquiring soul that listened that night to the gospel, or reads it today. Yes, “yet there is room.” God’s feast, God’s invitation, God’s welcome yet remain, and “yet there is room” might well incline every gospel-hearer to say, “Lord, I respond to Thy call,” and immediately enter in.
If, my dear reader, you have never responded to God’s invitation up to this moment, let me urge you to do so now. If hitherto there has been “no room” in your heart for God’s blessed Son, understand this, that “yet there is room” in God’s house for you, and the like of you, where you may feast on the infinite love of God, which His blessed Son has come to earth to declare. Luke 2 shows us that there was “no room” in man’s world for God; Luke 14 shows us that “yet there is room,” in God’s world for man.
All this, in much fuller detail, passed before us that night, and then we glanced briefly at the effect upon Bethlehem’s shepherds, when they heard the angelic message, “Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10-1210And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. (Luke 2:10‑12)).
These shepherds of Bethlehem were the right kind of hearers of a plain gospel message. Without doubt there was a felt sense of need in their souls, and when they heard that God had been good enough to send them a Saviour, they were wise enough to avail themselves of and appropriate that Saviour without any delay. Whatever value they might set upon their sheep (and men are greatly influenced by their business engagements, even to the loss of their souls sometimes), these men appear not to have hesitated for a moment. The night was dark, and the wolves might have been about, and consequently their flock in danger of being seized and torn; but tidings of a Saviour to be seen eclipsed every other interest in their souls, and hence we read, “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, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger” (vers. 15, 16).
How sensible they were: they hear the gospel, believe it, and act upon it, as they say, “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see,” and furthermore, they lost no time—for “they came with haste and found... the babe lying in the manger.” They heard, they believed, they were moved, they sought, and found the Saviour. Happy shepherds!
Friend, have you done this yet? If not, imitate their action. Today you will find Jesus, not “lying in a manger,” but living at God’s right hand. If the earnestness that marked the shepherds be found in you, you will find the Saviour likewise, and, I expect, confess Him as they did, for we read, “they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child,” that is to say, their faith took the shape of practical confession of Christ, and then home they went, full of peace and joy, “glorying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them” (vs. 20).
The meeting closed; an after-meeting for anxious inquirers, however, went on, and many a soul that night, in deep anxiety to find the Saviour, found Him; light, peace, and joy filling many a heart that till then had been in darkness. It was quite a memorable scene, that meeting in Chester.
Busily engaged in dealing with anxious souls, I noticed not that the hands of the clock drew very near to ten, when my train was due out from the station. But my watchful friend, the grocer, came to the rescue, as he said, “Doctor, you must go immediately or you will miss your train.” Thanking him for his reminder I said, “Will you get me a cab?” and off he went in search thereof. In a few minutes the vehicle was at the door, and I jumped in, followed by my friend, who, at the same time said to another man, “Get in, and go to the station with the Doctor.”
I thanked the grocer for being so prompt in getting the cab, whereon he said, “Oh, this is a friend of mine who is a cab proprietor, and he went to his stables at once and got it.” Him I thanked likewise for his courtesy, and he replied, “I am very glad to be able to serve you in this way.”
“But were you at the meeting tonight?” I rejoined.
“Yes, indeed I was, and very much I have enjoyed it.”
“That is right, and have you made room in your heart for Jesus?” was my inquiry.
“Well, I could not quite say that.”
“What can you say then?” I replied.
“The fact is, sir, He made room for Himself in my heart tonight; I could not keep Him out any longer.”
He had been thoughtful about his soul previously, but had never come to any decision; but, thank God, that night Jesus got a place in his affections, his confidence, and his trust. Many a time I have heard since regarding him, that he began to follow the Lord that night.
Reader, I will not ask you to make room in your heart for Jesus, but I would, with all affection, urge on you to ponder the scriptures that we have been considering. If you do so I am persuaded you will get under what the great Dr. Chalmers used to call “the expulsive power of a new affection,” and, like the Chester cab proprietor, have to say regarding the blessed Lord, “He made room for Himself.”
W. T. P. W.