Oh, what a mystery of humility - what a mystery of condescension and love!

(George Everard, "Help and Consolation from the Sanctuary" 1868)

"Behold! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel, which means God with us." Matthew 1:23

Who shall fathom this deep well? What a depth of marvels in the Word made flesh and dwelling among us! What depths in that name, Emmanuel!

"God with us! The mighty God!" - and yet needing a mother's tender care!

His goings forth from everlasting - and yet an infant of days!

The Heaven of heavens cannot contain Him - and yet He is wrapped in swaddling clothes!

The everlasting Jehovah His Father - yet a poor Galilean maiden His mother!

Many mansions in the Father's house are at His disposal - and yet He is denied a lodging in a village inn.

Worshiped by angels - and yet under the same roof with the beasts of the field.

Oh, what a mystery of humility - what a mystery of condescension and love!

Yes, innumerable are the benefits which Christ comes to bestow. He comes . . .
  to bind up the broken-hearted,
  to proclaim liberty to the captives,
  to give recovery of sight to the blind,
  to comfort all who mourn,
  to seek and to save those who are lost, 
  to give His life a ransom for many,
  to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons,
  to save sinners, even the chief,
  to save to the uttermost, all who come to God by Him - from guilt, wrath, and everlasting woe,
  to set them at His own right hand in glory, where they shall shine forever in the likeness of God!