Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1880-12-27
MERRY CHRIsTMAs.

Merry With the Thought OF sins tor-
Riven-Merry With the Thought Of
Troubles Comforted.
Special Dispatch to the Register.
NEw YoRK, December 26.
BROOKLYN Tabernacle was crowded
to-day, over 5000 persons being present
at the morning service. The church
was handsomely decorated with every
description Of flowers. The music was
charming. Mrs. Florence Rice Knox
sang "The Nativities." A boy choir OF
seyentv.tive voices chanted. Geo. w.
Morgan, organist, and Professor Ali,
cornetist, rendered music from Beeth-
oven, Haudel and Hayden.
Subject ofthe eSermon-"rhe Msngtr."
rsxt-Iuke II, 1918: Eye shall find the babe
wrapped Ia swaddling clothes, lying i'll IN m
ger Aud suddenly there was with the angels
q multitude OF the heavenly host
At midnight from one of the al'eries
OF the sky a chant broke. There seemed
TO the ordinary observer no reason for
such celestial demonstration. A poor
man and wife, travellers, Joseph and
Mary by name, had lodged in an out
house OF an unimportant village. The
supreme hour OF solemnity and anguish
had passed and upon the pallld fore-
head and cheek of Mary God had sat
the dignity, the grandeur, the tender
ness, the everlasting and divine signiti-
canoe OF motherhood. But the world
thousand times before had witnessed
such a scene, yet never before had star
been unfixed or had baton OF light mar.
shalled over the hills winged orchestra.
Had there been such brilliant and
mighty recognition at an advent in the
house of the Caesars or the house of the
Pharoah's or the house CT Stewards or
the house of Hapsburg We would not so
have wondered. But barn seems too
poor q centre for such angelic and arch
angelic circumference, stage too small
for such great act, and music too
grand for so inappreciatiye auditors, the
windows OF the stable too rough To be
serenaded by other worlds. No, sir.
No, madam. 1t is my business this
morning to tell you what was born that
night in that village barn.
First, That night was born encour.
agement for all the poorly started. On
ly two friends, and those his own par
ents. No satin.lined cradle and no del
icate attentions, but the straw and the
cattle. and the coarse joke and banter
OF the camel drivers. Well might the
old medieval pictures represent the
oxen as kneeling in his presence, for no
Others were there to worship. Born
away down
In the Depths Of Poverty.
but climbing to the worlds admiration
aud to the throne Of heavenly dominion.
What name is most potent in all Chris
tendon to-day1 Jesus. Mho has the
most friends? Jesus. Before whom do
the most thousands kneel in chapel, or
log cabin, or church, or cathedral wor-
ship7 Jesus. For whom could an army
of a hundred million be gathered ready
to fisht or die? Jesus. Well, what an
encouragement to all the poorly started.
You cannot be born poorer or more dis
sdyantageously than was Christ But
with the example of Him above you,
and all time and eternity before you,
take jubilant courage. The most OF the
worlds deliverers have started in barn.
like birth-places. Luther, the emanci-
pator OF religion, was born among the
mines. Shakespeare, the emancipation
of literature, was born in an humble
room at Standardization. Christie
pher Columbus, the discoverer ola conti-
nent, Was born in poverty at Genoa. Ho-
garth, the discoverer OF how to make art
the patron of virtue, born in obscurity
at Westmoreland. Kitto and Pride
aux. whose KEYS unlocked the apart
ments of the Holy Scriptures hitherto
unentered, born in man. Nine out oil ten
OF the messiahs oi science. the messiahs
o,lsw, the messiahs of medicine, the mes
siahs Of poetry, the messiahs OF histo.
ries, the messiahs of great benevoIence
horn i'm a barn. When William Her
sche!, the astronomer. who discovered
so many worlds, was born in = poor
musicians home. suppose not only
one star but all the stars pointed to his
manger. When Ilaydu, the great COM
poser, was born in an humble wheel
fights home. l suppose all the angels OF
Heaven chanted above MS manger. U,
We who are born low down, espire 10
climb high up and depend upon it,
though all others try to keep YOU back
and all men in Your occupation and
outside OF it may oppose your ascent,
on your side is the sympathetic heart
and the omnipotent arm OF Him, who
on Christmas night, and about 1850
wears ago, Was wrapped in swaddling
clothes and laid in the manger.
Again born that night in the caravan.
sery was goodwill to man, whether
YOU call il kindness or sympathy or
helpfulness or love. 1t was no sport OF
high heaven TO send its fsvorite TO such
q humiliation. 1t was
supernal Scripture
for a rebellious world. After the calam-
ity IN Paradise not only did the OF be-
gin to gore and the aider to sting and
the elephant to strike with his tusks,
and the lion to put to bad use tooth and
paw, but under the very tree from
which the forbidden fruit was plucked
were hatched out war and revenge and
hate and envy and jealousy and malice,
A great brood Of cockatrices. Against
all that I set the Bethlehem manger
which says better to bless than to curse,
better 10 suffer than to assault. And
that Christmas night pronounces its
benedictton On all nations II says to
the world: Sheathe your sword, dis.
count your guns, dismantle your bate
riss, turn the war ship constellation that