Excerpt from Twelve Sermons Preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, and Before the University of Oxford Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh. - 1 Timothy iii, 16. At length, my brethren, the Advent season has reached its close, and we are at Christmas eve. The period of expectation is over, and we are almost entering upon the early hours of that great and blessed festival on which the Christian Church keeps the birthday of her Founder; the day upon which He whom Christendom names the Saviour of the world was born of a human mother and entered this world to take His place among the things and scenes of Time. The Apostle's words to Timothy put before us forcibly and concisely the great master-truth which gives Christmas its meaning Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh. It is not the birthday Of a mere Sage and Philanthropist, which we celebrate to-morrow. That might be in itself reasonable and natural enough; but Christmas means much more than that. Christmas means the entrance into the human world of One who was at once its Architect and its Judge, under conditions which made Him the peer Of the poorest and youngest amongst us. It is the introduction of a new principle of life - into humanity which we thus commemorate. It is in fact nothing less than a new starting point in the world's history. It is the opening of a new fountain of salvation for man, unknown to him before. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.