W K Tweedie
Luke 2:14. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Man may forget his own chief end on earth, to glorify his God, but the heavenly host never forget the purpose of their being. They praised their God when His word gave the world birth. They praised Him when the
1Taken, with editing, from Tweedie’s volume, Glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace.
Saviour came to do His work on earth. Another joy is felt by them – and another and another – as soul after soul repents; and “Glory to God in the highest” is ever the burden of their hosanna.
What a topic! Glory to God and peace to man in unison! Glory to God in man’s death would not have been strange, for it is right and reasonable that sin should suffer. But peace on earth, at the price of the blood of Him who is Jehovah’s fellow – peace on earth purchased by the agonies and the death of the Lamb of God, good will toward men made sure by the sufferings of an almighty Substitute – that was the most amazing topic, the most entrancing song of the angels.
And have you learned, my soul, at least to lisp it? On earth there is peace. The Prince of Peace bestows it. Do you enjoy it?
There is “good will toward men”. Do you believe it? Or do you still view God as a hard taskmaster, giving with reluctance, and delighting rather to withhold?
It is just at this point that the evil heart of unbelief is often unmasked; here even the believer is made painfully aware that the great controversy is not yet adjusted which began when Adam believed the tempter and denied the word of his God.
Most of our misery here below may be traced to the evil heart of unbelief as its fountain, and happy are they to whom it is given to believe; in whom faith works by love, purifies the heart and overcomes the world, because it receives and rests upon Christ.
And to urge the soul forward in that direction, meditate on what it is to doubt the Word of the Eternal. It is to imitate the tempter, to make God a liar – not merely to place a creature beside Him, but to lift that creature onto the throne. Surely the soul should recoil with horror from such impiety, and yet that is what the evil heart of unbelief habitually does.