Faith of Our Fathers – Part 7

The local historian G.R. Balleine was also a clergyman, and in 1940, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he penned a series of 52 lessons around the Apostle’s Creed. Balleine being first a foremost a historian, there’s a lot of history there that I’ve never come across before, and I have studied church history quite a lot.

He’s also master of the pithy anecdote or illustration to bring something to life, which is why Frank Falle says the original history, flowing freely, is a better book to read that its more worthy revisions. Joan Stevens was a fair historian, but she could not write nearly as well as Balleine, who has an almost intimate chatty style.

I’m hoping to put some or all of this book online on Sundays.

Faith of Our Fathers – Part 7
By GR Balleine

LESSON V.

The Birth of Jesus.

Jesus Christ, Born of the Virgin Mary.

PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Luke ii. 1-20.

TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " For your Sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich " (2 Cor. viii. 9).

AIM : To give a fresh and vivid presentation of the Christmas story.

HYMNS : " Once in royal David's city," and " While shepherds watched."

APPARATUS: Map to show Bethlehem. Christmas pictures. Model of an Eastern inn.: HoslEwoRR :

HOMEWORK: Write a letter from the stable-boy of Bethlehem describing the first Christmas night.

THOUGHT FOR TEACHERS:

Great Little One, Whose all-embracing birth

Lifts earth to Heaven, stoops Heaven to earth.

-R. Crashaw.

1. THE WEARY TRAVELLERS.

(a) One evening nineteen centuries ago two travellers were toiling up the steep hill to Bethlehem, Joseph, a carpenter from the north and and his newly married girl-wife, Mary. Bethlehem stands 2,500 feet above sea-level. It is called a " city," but that only means that it was surrounded by a wall. In size it was no larger than many an English village.

(b) The sun was sinking toward the waters of the distant Mediterranean, and the travellers were forced to hurry. If  they arrived after sunset, the city gates would be closed. Mary was so tired that she could hardly sit on her donkey, and Joseph had to support her as he trudged b y her side. At last they passed the gates, and reached the inn, hoping to find rest. An Eastern inn is very unlike an English one. Picture an open courtyard, with a well in the middle, surrounded by a high wall. On the inner side of the wall are arches, and over these bare little rooms, approached by a stone stair. The rooms are for rich visitors. Poor ones sleep in the arches. The mules and camels lie in the yard. The inn-keeper's room is over the arch which leads into the courtyard.

 (c) Let us imagine that the Bethlehem inn-keeper had a little son called Levi. All day Levi had been helping his father. It was the busiest day that he had ever known, for a census ordered by the Roman Government had brought crowds to Bethlehem. To please the Jews the Romans had allowed everyone to be enrolled in his family town, and Bethlehem was " the city of David." Other families might be slack, and not care where they were enrolled, but descendants of the Kings were proud of their lineage, and made a point of being registered in the royal city. So all day strangers had been pouring into Bethlehem, intent on proving their descent from David.

(d) Fortunately for Levi, visitors did not expect anything but shelter and water. They spread their own rugs on the floor for a bed. They lit their own fires in the courtyard, and cooked their own meals. Yet even so he was very busy.

By midday every room was let. By nightfall every arch was full. Then, just as the city gates were closing, came another knock. It was Joseph and Mary. Levi looked out. "Very sorry. We have no room." He was going to slam the door, when he caught sight of Mary's sweet tired face, and paused. " Do find us somewhere to lie down," said Joseph; " We have been travelling for three days, and my wife can go no farther."

(e) The boy thought a minute. "There is no room here to lie down even in the courtyard ; but we have a cave that we use as a stable. If you care to follow me, I will lead you to it, and you can sleep there." (Ancient Christian tradition is unanimous that our Lord was born in a cave. The Church of the Nativity is built over a cave 40 ft. long, 16 ft. broad, 10 ft. high. Many caves round Bethlehem are still used as stables.) It was very dark, very dirty, cold and full of cattle. Yet it was better than the open air, and Joseph thanked the boy, and took Mary inside.

II. THE NEW-BORN BABY.

(a) In the middle of the night Levi was awakened by another knock. " Surely," he said, " no travellers can have got into the city at this hour ! " By moonlight he recognized Joseph. " Can you lend me a basin with some warm water ? My wife has just had a Baby Boy, and we want to bathe Him." Levi flew for his mother, and she hurried to the cave to help.

(b) Levi carried a lantern to light her to the stable. They found Mary lying on some straw, which Joseph had arranged for her, and in her arms the sweetest little Baby that Levi had ever seen. When He was bathed, Mary took from her bundle a long strip of linen, and wound it tightly round and round the Baby, beginning at his toes, and ending at his neck, untill He looked like a little mummy, and was unable to move either arms or legs. Mothers quite mistakenly thought that these swaddling bands were necessary. The Baby was already beginning to suffer from the ignorance of the people around.

 (c) Where could a cradle be found ? The only thing handy  was a manger, the long earthen trough into which fodder was put for the cattle. And there

 Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,

 The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.

The stars in the bright sky looked down where He lay,

The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

 III. THE SHEPHERDS.

(a) It was light before Levi returned to the inn, but he did not go to bed yet. He saw hurrying from cave to cave a group of shepherds. The Jews in New Testament days regarded shepherds much as we regard gipsies. They were the roughest men they knew. They spent most of their lives in the wilderness far from Synagogue or Temple. They could not keep the Sabbath. They could not live like ordinary villagers. The Rabbis said that no shepherd could be saved.

(b) These shepherds had been guarding their flock on the hills outside Bethlehem, and in the night they had seen a vision of angels. First one angel had appeared saying that he brought them "tidings of great joy." For centuries the Jews had been expecting the coming of a great Deliverer, Whom they called the Messiah or the Christ. Perhaps the shepherds had been discussing whether the Christ would be born in  their days. The angel's news was that the Christ had been born that night in Bethlehem-" Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour Who is the Christ, the Lord " : and the sign by which they might know Him was that He would be found in a manger. Then the sky seemed full of angels singing, " Glory to God in the highest."

(c) As soon as the gates opened, the shepherds hurried into Bethlehem, and began to search the stables to see which manger had a new-born baby in it. When Levi heard what

 They were were hunting for, he led them with pride to his stable. Mary and Joseph were astonished at their visit and so were the people of Bethlehem, for " they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this Child." The people "wondered," but they did not believe.  If the High Priest or the Ruler of the Synagogue had seen such a vision, the people might have been impressed,

but it seemed incredible that so important a truth would be revealed to mere shepherds. In a few weeks the incident was forgotten, but " Mary kept all these sayings, and pondered them in her heart," and I do not think Levi forgot them. Perhaps later he became one of our Lord's disciples.

IV. APPLICATION.

(a) Life may begin in deepest poverty, and yet produce the greatest and most beneficial results. No life has ever been such a blessing to the world as the life of Jesus, yet no tramp's baby was ever born in more miserable surroundings. Never say, Because I am poor, I cannot do much with my life. Think of Jesus, Who was born in a stable, and yet became the world's greatest Leader.

(b) God's best blessings often lie close to our doors unrecognized. There were seven or eight hundred people in Bethlehem, but we do not read that any but the shepherds came to visit Jesus. Hundreds prayed night and morning for the Messiah to be born, yet, when He was born, none of them came near Him or did anything to help His cause.'

(c) The Ruler of the Synagogue might have grumbled, Why did not God send me a vision ? God can only lead those who are willing to be led. The ignorant shepherds were leadable, and so God led them. The Bethlehemites had their minds so full of other things-perhaps the problem whether they would be able to make good their claim to be reckoned as members of the most aristocratic family in Israel -that they never noticed that the air was full of angels. God will lead, if we will listen ; but He can do nothing, if our minds are already fully occupied.