The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-12-29
CHRISTMAS SERMON.

by REV. B. F. MATRAU, RECTOR OF
CHRIST CHURCH, owossO, MICHIGAN,
DEC. 25TH, 1882.
Haggai 2d Chapter, 7h Verse" The De-
sire Of AU Nations Shall Come"
There is something verv impress
sive to the thoughtful mind in the
general observance of Christmas day.
Coming on week day business sur
renders its supremacy, or should do
so, in the community, and merry
making seizes the vacant throne.
Money accumulating quickly
stands aside, and money spending
frolcs in its place. The surly man
is ashamed. perhaps for the only time
in all the year, to be considered
surly on Christmas day. And as
the day goes round the earth it is fol-
lowed by wave of kindly sympathy,
until east and west arc shaking hands
and the whole world is encircled, as
by golden girdle, into good feeling
and brotherly affection. The poor
mans room rang with merriment on
this happy morning, perhaps more
heartily, than did palace walls with
"Merry Christmas. Little children
laughed it into sleepy ears before the
dawn, sick faces frightened upon
beds of pain as the sound of it came
muffled in the room, and even to the
depressed hearts of penitents and
mourners the chimes of its silvery
bells brought an unaccustomed peace.
And is there not something very
strange when we look at it from a
human point of view, that all this
Joy and kindliness of feeling, this
crowding into shops and stores of
such myriads solely to purchase tok-
ems of affection, has but a single
foundation. That is, nearly 1900
years ago, a young mother, so poor
that she could hire no better shelter
than that under the smoky roof of a
cave in the hillside, which was used
for the purpose of stable, brought
forth her frst-born child
1t seems to me, beloved, that no
reasonable mind can fail to feel how
impressive is this strange response of
the whole civilized world TO so hum
bic fact. Whatsoever may be the true
reason for it, our own experience
tells us that as "deep answereth to
Deep" SO do the universal instincts
of the human heart to the story Of
the birth in Bethlehem. 1t is no ex
planation to say that the event which
it commentaries is calculated to
touch the tenderest sympathies OF
the human heart. 1t is true that
around the home cluster the noblest
and purest feelings of our humanity,
and there are few CLEANS. of light
which so make the very walls of
house to smile as that which is kin
died by the gift of the frst-born
child.
But, except in the bathos of its cir.
cumstances, there seems to the eye of
sense nothing so strange in the birth
at Bethlehem. For the universal re.
ception Of the Christmas feast, it
seems to me that we must look to
the necessities of the human soul
itself. To such goodly and won
derful superstructure, there must be
strong and sufficient foundation.
The very duration Of this JOY, cen
tury after century, wherever the story
of Bethlehem has fallen upon the
human heart, bespeaks its origin in
the spiritual part of our humanity
for all that concerns man merely as
an inhabitant of time passes away
with the progress of time itself. 1t
cannot be, we assert, but that the
birth in Rethlchem satisfies come
great desire of the human soul, see-
ing that year after year, from genera
ton to generation, under all possible
conditions, with the currents Of ma.
tional life separated by the highest
barriers, the human race overfows
with gladness at the return of the
commemoration. And it seems 10
me that the most rapid retrospect Of
the religions condition of the human