Was that all the message? What were the glad tidings which would make everybody joyful?
Ah! Here it is: "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord!"
Did the shepherds turn and look eagerly towards the little village over the fields? "A Saviour? Christ the Lord?"
But hush! The angel has not finished his message: "And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."
And then, as if the news was too great and too glad for them to keep silence any longer, suddenly there was with the angel thousands more angels, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men!"
Then all the angels went back to heaven, and the shepherds said to each other, "Let us go, and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known to us."
So they ran very quickly to Bethlehem, and there, in the stable of the inn, they found Mary and Joseph, with the Holy Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in the manger!
Then the shepherds understood what the angel had meant about the "sign"; that this little Babe was the One they were looking for, and was to be the Saviour of the world.
How glad they were! They were only poor men, those shepherds, among the poorest in the land, but they had the honour of being told of God's great gift, and they had seen Him with their own eyes.
No wonder that they went out and told everybody they met that the Babe lying in the manger was Christ the Lord.