For, indeed, weakness in many things is not inconsistent with goodness,
and purity, and love. The manger has in this also a message for us. Out of
that mystery of helplessness came forth the Lion-Heart of Love, which led
Him, for us, to the winepress alone, and which, while we were yet rebels,
loved us with an everlasting love, going, for us, to a lonely and shameful
death. Take heart, then, remembering that it is out of weakness we are to
be made strong. Be of good courage--to-day may be the day of the enemy's
strength, when you are constrained to cry out: "This is your hour and the
power of darkness!" but to-morrow will be _yours_. The weakness and
humiliation of the stable must go before the Mount of Transfiguration, the
Mount of Calvary, the Resurrection Glory, and the exaltation of the
Father's Throne. Take heart!



II.

_A condition of complete dependence may be quite consistent with a great
vocation--the call, that is, to a great work_.


I suppose that there is nothing known to man so absolutely dependent upon
the help of others as a little child! Life itself begins in total
dependence upon another life, and is only preserved in still greater
dependence on powers outside itself--for air, for light, for heat, for
food, for clothes, for comfort--indeed, for every needed thing. This is
especially the case with the child. The young lions and sheep, the tiny
flies and the small fishes--these are all able to do something for their
own support; but the new-born babe presents a picture of complete