and possibility. God brought only a child into the world that night, but
in that Child were sheathed omnipotent wisdom and mercy and might to
save the world.




IX. No Room in the Inn


"There was no room for them in the inn." And so Jesus came into a world
where there was no room for him in the habitations of men. After all
this preparation through which the centuries grew into readiness for his
coming, after all these types and prophecies, sacrifices and symbols,
after all this weary waiting and passionate hope and all these golden
dreams, when the promised One came there was no room for him and he was
not wanted! "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." Was
there ever a greater and sadder anticlimax and a more cruel
disappointment? Let us admit that there may have been no fault in this
matter, no lack of hospitality in the keeper or the guests of the inn,
as the village was overcrowded, and the fact that these late arrivals
were compelled to put up with a place out in the enclosure, possibly a
cave, where the animals were kept, was no intended incivility or
uncommon hardship. Nevertheless, whatever may have been the reason, the
fact was that there was no room for Jesus in that inn the first night he
spent in this world, and this fact was sadly prophetic of his reception
in the world he came to save.

There were few places where he did find welcome: generally there was no
room for him even in places where he had the most reason and right to