The Trouble Brought by Christ

“When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled” — Matt. ii. 3.

Theke were four kingdoms congregated at the Christian dawn — the kingdom of nature, the kingdom of knowledge, the kingdom of worldliness, and the kingdom of unworldliness. The kingdom of nature came in a star, the kingdom of knowledge in the Magi, the kingdom of worldliness in Herod, and the kingdom of unworldliness in the child-Christ. Only one of the kingdoms was troubled by the child. Nature did not fear Him, knowledge did not shun Him; Herod alone trembled at His coming.

My soul, art thou afraid of the coming of Christ into thy life? Dost thou fear that He will narrow thee? Nay, but He will narrow that which narrows thee. He will not destroy thy love of nature, for He is the crown of nature. He will not dispute thy right to knowledge, for He is the end of knowledge; but He will expel from thy heart the Herod that imprisons thee. He will deny the power of Herod to make thee happy, and He will prove His denial even by thy pain. Wouldst thou rather be without that pain? Hast thou forgotten the pool of Bethesda? An angel came down to trouble the waters, and then the waters wTere powerful. Thou, too, shalt be powerful after thou hast been troubled. Thinkest thou that the stillness of primeval chaos was a calm There was no calm till the Spirit moved. Only when the face of the waters is ruffled by the breath of the life Divine is the mandate truly heard, “Let there be light.”