A GREAT company was gathered in the royal city of Bethlehem nearly nineteen hundred years ago. A decree had gone forth throughout the Roman earth that all the world should be taxed (Luke 2), and every functionary was at his post in the little country of Judaea, — once the center, the joy of the earth, yet now under the hated sway of Rome. But God had His eye on that city; to Him it was a center once more, and in it was born that day “a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (vs. 11). Surely, multitudes were assembled around Him, while regal surroundings were prepared for Him! No! Mary and Joseph were there, and He, the babe, the Son of God, “lying in a manger” (vs. 16), “because there was no room for them in the inn” (vs. 7). Such is man, such are we by nature — we have no room for Jesus here! Have you made room for Him in your heart yet? Herod and Pilate did not do so; the great ones did without Him: can you? He came to this earth in lowly guise, He was laid in a manger, an unexpected and unprepared-for guest; and He went out of this world for the same reason — no room for Him!
He came here to reign. His subjects would not have Him, and so He gave His life a ransom for His enemies who rejected Him. “He died the just for the unjust, to bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)). His very absence proves man’s guilt; and we belong to the same race which refused Him, for Jewish magnates and Roman soldiers were guilty of His committal and death. Search your own heart, and you will see that by nature you have no room for Jesus; neither had they.
And now? Ah, He is a Man in the glory of God! Heaven had room for Him; there He is, crowned with glory and honor! Do you love to think of Him thus? If so, you are happy, and you are assured that on the cross He died for you and bore your sins; and you can look up into His face in heaven, where all the glory of God shines, and say, That’s my Saviour! You have room for Him in your heart now, have you not?
And the future — what about that? He is coming again to receive us unto Himself. He has room in His Father’s house for those who, once His enemies, are now His friends; in fact, His anxiety to have you with Him in glory has gained Him an entrance into your heart, you have only opened the door, —
“Open the door, He’ll enter in,
And sup with you, and you with Him.”
But there is another side of the future to be thought of. Besides His coming for us, there is His return to take vengeance on them that know not God. Ah! there will still be people who have no room for Jesus, and God has no place in heaven for such, for is not He the center there? How solemn! At His birth they had no room for Him; at His death they cast Him out; at His coming again they are still strangers to Him! What will be the verdict? “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25).
It is said that a straw shows which way the wind blows, so a very little thing will demonstrate whose side you are on. There have been letters lately written to the daily papers complaining of the nuisance of an individual who accosts people in the streets on the subject of their eternal welfare, and inquires if they know the Lord. Putting aside all question of the propriety or impropriety of such a course, does not the animosity manifested indicate the enmity which the name of Jesus arouses, and show by the scorn and anger it causes that men still have no room for Jesus in their daily lives? “He is despised and rejected of men; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not” (Isa. 53). Alas, how true now, but how different will it be in the future! “He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:2525For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. (1 Corinthians 15:25)), and every knee will bow to Him then. Oh! come to Him now, while grace and mercy are His prerogatives. “Be wise now. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him” (Psa. 2). H. L. H.