tual level of the world and gave it the power of making millions
of money. Shakespeare gave the world no new machine, but he opened the
eyes of men to see heavenly visions and thus enriched them with
treasures above all the gold of the world. Martin Luther invented no
steam engine or sewing machine, but he taught men the rights of
conscience and created our modern liberties. No material thing, however
powerful and splendid, can make a better world: this work calls for
better men. Therefore when God brings into the world a child endowed
with superior intellectual and moral power, though his gift is only a
babe and seems insignificant and hardly worth counting among so many,
yet he has sent one of the greatest gifts of which his omnipotence is
capable. An old German schoolmaster always took his hat off to each new
boy that came into his school, never knowing what elements of genius
might have been mixed in his newly molded brain. When Erasmus came out
of that school his prophetic instinct was justified. Never despise a
child, for in it sleeps some of the omnipotence and worth of God.

But the Child which God gave the world as its Christmas gift was no
merely human child however richly endowed. This Child was human and was
born in time, but he was also divine and came forth from eternity. The
possibilities that were sleeping in this Child were foreseen by the
prophet Isaiah in the names that were prophetically given him, every
name being a window through which we can look in upon his personality
and power, every title being one of his crowns: "His name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace." All these powers and possibilities are incarnated in this Child,
and he is working them out in a redeemed world. God made no mistake,
then, he gave us no small and common gift, but he did his best and gave
the world the greatest possible Christmas Gift when this Child was born.
All the grass in the world came from one seed, all the roses from one
root