The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-01-13
DIR. TALNAGE'S SERMON.
THE CHILD EMPEROR,

sky chant broke. 10 an ordinary observer
there may have been no reason for such celes-
tial demonstration. A poor man and wife,
travellers, Joseph and Mary by name, had
lodged in an clubhouse of an ordinary village.
The supreme hour of solealnity had passed,
! and upon the pal!id forehead and cheek Of
Mary God had set the dignity. the grandeur,
the tenderness, the everlasting and divine
significance of motherhood. S 'ch scenes had
| often occurred in Beth ehem but never before
had star been unfiXed or had baton of light
malshal!ed over the hills winged orchestra
If there had been brilliant and mighty
recognition in the sky at a nativity in the
house Of Pharaoh, or at nativity III the
house Of Cesar. or, in after ages at nativity
in the house of the Stuarts CT house Of Haps-
burg, it would not have been so wonderful;
but a barn seemed too poor centre for such
! delicate and archanGelic circumference, the
stage seemed too small for so great an act,
the music too grand for such unappreciative
auditors, the stable too rude to be sur
rounded by o:lrer worlds. No, sir; no
madam. 1t is my joy this morning to tell
you what was born that night in the village
barn, and that may make my sermon cumula-
tive and climacteric begin by telling you that
that night in the caravansary Of Bethlehem
there was born encouragement for all the
poorly started. He had only two friends.
His parents. No satin lined cradle, no deli
/
tie end the coarse jokes and banter Of the
camel drivers. No wonder the medieval
painters represent the oxen as kneeling at
the managers. There were no men there at
that time to worship. But from what depth
of humiliation had our Lord risen. 10 what
heighth! What is the mightiest name in all
Christendon to-day: Jesus Who has more
friends than any other being? Jesus. Before
whom to-day do church and cathedral and
ol topI2 For 1rhno, rnioht a
hundred million men be marshaled to
fight or die2 Jesus Oh what encourage
ment for the poorly started Was your birth
more disadVantageous: Were your surround
ings more poverty stricken? Do you know
that all the great deliverers Of the world
were born in barn like places' Luther, the
emancipation OF religion, born amid the mines.
Shakespeare the emancipation of literature,
born in an humble home at Stratford-upon-
Avon Columbus the discoverer of world,
horn in Poverty at Genoa. Hogarth, the
dis scoverer of how to make art administrative
of virtue, born in poverty at West
moreland. Pridcau and Kilto, whose
keys have unlocked apartments
of the Holy Scripture that had otherwise
never been explored, born in humble homes
and amid greatest privations. Nine out of
ten OF the worlds delivercrs, nine out of ten
Of tho worlds messiahs-the messahs of law,
the moss;ahs Of medicine, the messiahs
benevoence. the messiahs of philanthropy,
the messiahs of poverty, born in barn like
places / stir your holy ambition to-day if
YOU feel that there are those in your occupa-
tion or profession, or outside OF it. who are
trying to hinder your ascent and your
progress, and I want to tell you that
the sympathetic heart and the almighty
arm OF the son of God are on your side, and
you have all intimate and sympathetic friend
in the one who is wrapped in swaddling
clothes and lay in the manger. For all the
poor started what encouragement, AYE"
you say, ''He was divine and l am human"
Then I answer by saying that all the re-
sources of the Lord God Almighty may be
enlisted in your behalf and that at your first
call for help He will come for your deliver
ance.
Again, T remark, tha; in that Bethlehem
harm, that Christmas night was born good will
to men, whether you call it kindness,
forbearance, forgiveness, geniality, affection,
or love. 1t was no sport for high
heaven to send its favorite to that hui
initiation. 1t was sacrifice for rebelious
world. After the calamity in Paradise not
only did the OK begin to gore and the adder
to sting and the elephant to sInite with its
tusk and the lion to put to bad-use tooth and
paw, but under the very tree from which was
plucked that forbidden fruit there were
Matched war and revenge and anger and hate
and envy and jealousy and the whole brood
of cocatrices. Against that put the Bethle-
hem scene which practically says bless in
stead Of curse. endure rather than assault,
and that Christmas night seems to put out
all vindictiveness. 1t practically says,
dismantle the batteries; turn the war-ship
Constellation that carried shot and shell, into
a grain ship to take food to famishing Ire
land; hook your cavalry horses to the plow;
use your deadly gunpowder to blast rocks
and for patriotic celebration; quit your law
suits; stop your anonymous letters; take the
sting out Of your sarcasm; drop all harsh
words out of your vocabulary; let your wit
coruscate, but let it never burn. Good will
to men! "Oh," says some one, "You may
adopt that principle, I'll never adopt it. II
my enemy wants me to forgive him. he
will have to come and ask for forgive
ness" If you say that you are no
Christian, or you are very mean specimen
of Christian. If ye forgive not men their
trespasses neither will your heavenly Father
forgive you your trespasses. Forgive them
il they ask it; forgive them. anyhow Shake
hands all around. Good will to men, Oh,
Christ would drop this morning into all our
souls. What the world wants is more kind
words, more helping hands, more disposition
to give other people ride. more willingness
to take the heavy end of the load and give
them the light end, more disposition to
ascribe good motives instead Of bad, more
willingness to find our happiness in making
others happy. Out of the Bethlehem crib let
bear and lion eat straw like an OK. Good
will to men! That principle will become
dominant in all the earth until there will be
only two antagonists left, and they will side
by side take the jubilant sleigh ride to which
the prophet seems to point when he says:
"Holiness shall be upon the bells of the
horses"
Again I remark that on that Christmas
night in that Bethlehem when was born sym.
pathetic union with other worlds The only
scepticism that has ever touched me might
call an astronomical scepticism which said:
''Why did God go past Jupiter and Saturn
little bit Of q world for the achievement Of
his son, His only Son, when it might have
been on a larger scale and amid vastcr
worldsm But when come to the manger and
I see its wonderful surroundings, tho s"epti-
cism is gone. ] find all the worlds are sisters,
and when one weeps they all weep, and when
one sings they all sing. From that super
natural grouping in that cloud bank over
Bethlehem and from the especial trans that
ran down to the scene, 1 know that OTHER
worlds are in sympathy with Ours. The
metenrs are with us, for one OF them
ran to point out the Savior's birthplace.
The heavens are with Us, for at tho thought
OF our redemption doXologies rolled from the
midnight sky. Oh, my friend, l think that
there is more sympathy, more heavenly SYM
pathy with us than we sometimes imagine,
and that when n child is born angels fetch it,
and when an old man is borne down with the
weight of years angels support him. Angels
in the hospitals to heal the sick. Angels in
the cemetery to guard our dead. Angels in
the church to cry hcavenward the rews Of
rapentaat souls. Angels above the world.