Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-01-05
BIRTH OF CHRIST.
DIR. TALxAGEs SUNDAY SERMON:
The Shepherds Resolve to Go to Beth
lehem.

TExT: "1n6 &hepherus Suso one 20 wv
other: Let US notg 90 eren unto Bethlehem,
and see this thing iShich Is come to pass. "
Luke xxii, Is:
One thousand years Of the worlds exist.
ence rolled painfully and wearily along, and
no Christ Two thousand years, and no
Christ Three thousand years, and no Christ.
Four thousand years, and no Christ Give
Us q Christ,n had cried Assyrian and Persian
and Chaldean and Egyptian civilization, but
the lips OF the earth and the lips Of the sky
made no answer. The world had already
been affiuent Of genius. Among poets had
appeared Homer and Thespis and Aristoph-
anes and Sophocles and Euripides and Alexis
Eschylus, yet no Christ to be the most poetic
figures OF the centuries. Among historians
had appeared Herodotus and Xenophon and
Thucydides, but no Christ from whom all
history was to date backward and forward
B. c. and A. d. Among the conquerors
Camillus and Manlius and Regulus and
Xantippus and Hannibal and Scipio and
Pompey and Cesar, yet no Christ who was
20 be conuueror Of earth and heaven.
But the slow century and the slow year
and the slow mouth and the slow hour at
last arrived. The world had had mathis or
concerts in the morning and vespers and con-
certs in the evening, but now 1t Is to have q
concert at midnight. The black window
shutters Of December night were thrown
open, and some Of the best singers OF world
where they all sing stood there, and putting
back the drapery of cloud, chanted peace
anthem, until all the echoes Of hill and val
Icy applauded and encored the Hailelujah
chorus
Al last the world has a Christ and just the
Christ it needs. Come, let US 20 into that
Christmas scene as though we had never be-
fore worshipped at the manger, Here Is a
Madonna worth looking at. wonder not
that the most frequent name in all lands and
in all Christian countries is Mary. And there
TO- and Marr in Ooh
and though German and French and Italian
and Spanish and English pronounce 1t differ
entity, they are all namesakes of the one whom
we find on a bed of straw with her pale face
against the soft cheek Of Christ in the night Of
the Nativity. All the great painters have
Ssr child Sh 'saSr' snd the Incidents of tnss n&
most famous night Of the worlds
history. Raphael in three dVerent
masterpieces celebrated them. Tintoret
and Guirlanjo surpassed themselves in the
"Adoration of the Magi-n Corregio needed
become immortal The 'Madonna Of. the
Lily" by Leonardo da vinci. will kindle the
admiration Of all ages. Murillo never won
greater triumph by his pencil than in his
presentation OF the "Holy Family" But all
the galleries Of Dresden are forgotten when
think of the small room Of that gallery con-
tanning the "Sistine Madonna" Yet all Of
them were copies of st. Matthew's Ma
DONNA and Luke's Madonna" the inspired
Madonna Of the Old Book which we had put
into our hands when we were infants and
chat we hope to have under our heads when
we die.
Behold, in the first place, that on the first
night OF Christ's life God honored the brute
creation. You cannot get into that Bethle
hem barn without going past the camels, the
mules, the dogs the oxen. The brutes of
that stable heard the first cry Of the infant
Lord Some Of the old painters represent
the oxen and camels kneeling that night be-
fore the new born babe. And we'll might
they kneel- Have you ever thought that
Christ came, among other things, to alleviate
the sufferings Of the brute creation9 Was it
not appropriate that he should during the
first few days and nights Of His life on earth
be surrounded by the dumb beasts whose
moan and plant and believing have
for ages been a prayer to God for
righting Of their wrongs? It did
not merely "uappen son that the unintelli-
gent creatures of God should have been that
3 night in close neighborhood Not kennel
In all the centuries, not a birds nest not
worn out horse on towpath, not q herd freez.
ing in the poorly bnit COW pen, not freight
car in summer time bringing the beeves to
market without water through thousand
miles OF agony, rot surgeons room witness
ing the struggles Of fox or rabbit or pigeon
Vi uUR tuo 0OTTOfS OIL VlVlS0CUlOn Oub mas
an interest in the fact that Christ was born
10 stable surrounded by brutes. He Temem-
bers that night, and the prayer He heard in
their pitiful moan He will answer in the pun
ishment of those who maltreat the dumb
brutes. They surely have as much right in
this world as we have.
In the first chapter Of Genesis you may see
that they were placed ON the earth before
man was, the fish and fowl created the fifth
day, and the quadruped the morning Of the
sixth day, and man not until the afternoon
OF that day. The whale, the eagle, the lion,
and all the lesser creatures Of their kind were
predecessors Of the human family. They
have also paid rent for the places they occn-
pied. What an army Of defence all over the
land are the faithful watch dogs And
who can tell what the world owes to
horse, and camel, and OK for transporta-
tion2 And robin and lark have, by the
4cantatas with which they have filled orchard
sand forest, more than paid for the few grains
they have picked up for their sustenance.
When You abuse any creature of God you
strike its creator, and you insult the Christ
who, though he might have been welcomed
Into Ijfeby princes, and taken his first In
,fantile siumber amid Tyrian plush and
pcanopied ,couches and ripping waters from
proyal aqueducts dripping into basins OF
ivory and pearl chose to be born on the
. dogs nostril, that he might be the allevia-
tion Of brutal suffering as well as the re-
deemer of man.
"a Standing then as imagine nowl do, in
that bethlehem night with an infant Christ
ON tie one side and the speechless creatures
Of God on the other cry: Look out how you
ffrike the rowel into that horses side Take
Of that curbed bit from that bleeding mouth
Remove that saddle from tnar raw Dach.
Shoot not for fun that bird that Is too small
for food. Forget not to put water into the
cage of that canary Throw out some crumbs
TO these birds caught too far north in the
winters inclemency. Arrest that man who
q making thar one horse draw load heavy
enough for three. Rush In upon that scene
where boys are torturing cat or transhxing
butterfly and grasshopper. Drive not on
that old robin, for her nest Is mothers
cradle. and under her wing tho 2 may ne
three or four prima donnas oi che Ky m
draining. And in your families and in your
schools teach the coming generation more
mercy than the present generation has ever
shown in this marvellous Bible picture Of the
Nativity, while you point out to them the
angel, show them also the camel, and while
they hear the celestial chant let them also
hear the cows moan. No more did Christ
show interest in the botanical world when he
aid ssConsiler the lilies,n than he showed
Wmpathy for the pathological when
he said: "Bshold the fowls Of the air,
and the quadrupedal world when be aliowet
himself to be called in one place lion and II
\ another place lamb. Meanwhile, may tn'
Christ OF the Bethlehem cattle pen hav'
mercy on the suffering stock yards that ar
preparing diseased and fevered meat for oul
issss Avysa hn,,eohnldQ s44f