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I.

1. Consider the revelation thus delivered by the angel — "Unto you is born a Saviour." Jesus is horn a Saviour; we do not make Him a Saviour; we have to accept Him as such. Neither does salvation come from us or by us, but it is born to us.

2. Consider the outward sign by which the Saviour was to be known — "A babe lying in a manger!" Children are the saviours of society: the human race renewing itself perpetually in the freshness and innocence of childhood is prevented from becoming utterly corrupt. This is just the lesson the world needed. Philosophy, art, law, force, all had tried to raise mankind out of sin, and all had failed. In the fulness of time "unto us a Child is born," and in the weakness of that Childhood, the human race is renewed, its flesh comes again "as the flesh of a little child."

II.

1. What a message from heaven to a world weary of life and sick with sin — "Unto you is born a Saviour!"

2. What a message to those who are trusting in the pride of intellect, or in the pride of wealth, or in the pride of earthly position, or in the pride of character — "This shall be the sign: a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger!" The signs which betoken the presence of the Eternal are not always such as commend themselves to men's reasoning, for we are living among shadows which are not realities, although we mistake them for such.

(Canon Vernon Hutton, M. A.)

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KJV: For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

WEB: For there is born to you, this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.