Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-01-06

| where boys are torturing n cat or transiN
! ing butterfly and grasshopper. Drive not
! off that old robin, for her nest is o mother S
cradle and under her wing there may be
three or four prima donnas of the sky in
training. And in your families and in
your schools teach the coming generation
more mercy than the present generation
has even shown in this marvellous Bible
picture of the Nativity. while
you point out 10 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 i'll the botanical
world when he said, "Considef the lilies. y
than He showed sympathy for the ornitho-
logical when he said. "Behold the fowls
of the air." and the quadrupedal world
when he allowed himself to be called in
one place lion and in another place q
lamb. Meanwhile, may the Christ of
the Bethlehem cattle pen have mercy on
the suffering stock yards that are prepar-
ing diseased and fevered meat for our
American households.
Behold also i'll this Bible scene how on
/ that Christmas night God honored child
hood. Christ might have made His first
visit to our world i'll cloud, rs He will de-
scend on His next visit in q cloud. In
what chariot Of Illuminated vapor He
might have rolled down the sky. escorted
bv mounted cavally with lightning of
drawn sword. Elijah had q carriage of
I fire to take him up: why not Jesus car
rage of fire to fetch Him down? Or, over
the arched bridge OF rainbow the Lord
might have descended. Or Christ might
have had His mortality built up on earth
out of the dust of garden, as was Adam,
in full manhood at the start, without the
Introductory feebleness of infancy. No,
no! Childhood was to be honored by
that advent. lie must have chld's light
limbs and child's dimpled hand, and q
child's beaming eye, and child's tlaxen
hair, and babyhood was to be honored for
all time to come, and cradle was to mean
more than o grave. Mighty God! May
the reflection of that one childs face be
seen in all infanti!e places. Enough have
nil those fathers and mothers on hand if
they have child in the house. A throne,
a crown, scepter, kingdom under
charge. BE careful how you strike him
across the head, jarrinG the brain. What
you say to him will be centennial and
millennial, and 100 years and 200 years
cannot stop the echo and re-echo.
DO not say sit is only q child"
rather say sit is only an immortal. :"
1t is only a masterpiece of Jehovah.
1t is only being that shall outliye
sun and moon and star, and ages quad
rillennal. God has infinite resources, and
can give presents of great value, but when
He wants to give the richest possible giit
to household He looks around all the
world ana all the universe and then gives
child. The greatest present that God
ever gave our world He gave about 1887
years ago, and He gave it on Il Christmas
night, and it was of such value that
Heaven adjourned for a recess and came
down and broke through the clouds to look
at it, Yea, in all ages God has honored
childhood. He makes almost every pict-
ure failure unless there be q child either
playing on the floor, or looking through
the window, or seated on the lap gazing
into the face of its mother 1t was child
in Mammals kitchen that told the great
Syrian warrior where he might go and get
cured of the leprosy. which a: his seventh
plunge in the Jordan, was left at the bot
tom of the river. 1t was TO the cradle of
leaves in which child was laid, rocked
by the Nile, that God called the attention
of history. 1t was sick child that evoked
Christ's curative sympathies. 1t was
child that Christ Sat in the midst of the
squabbling disciples to teach the lesson of
humility. We are info. med that wolf and
leopard and lion shall be yet SO domestic
Gated that little child shall lead them.
A child decided Waterloo, showing the
army of Blucher how they could take q
short cut through the fields, when. if the
old road had been followed, the Prussian
General would have come too late 10 save
that decided Gettysburg, he having over
heard two Confederate Generals in con-
versation in which they decided 10 march
for Gettysburg instead of Harrisburg. and
this, reported to Gov. Curtin, the Federal
forces started to meet their opponents at
Gettysburg. And the child of tot day is to
decide all great battles, make all the laws,
settle all destinies, ana usher III the worlds
salvation or destruction. Men, women,
nations. all earth and all Heaven, behold
the child! Is there any velvet so soft as a
child's cheek? Is there any sky so blue as
child's eye? Is there any music SO sweet
as the chllds voice? LIS there any plume SO
wavy as a child's hair?
Behold also in that first Christmas night
that God honored the fields. Come in,
shepherd boys, to Bethlehem and see the
child. "No," they say; eve are not dressed
good enough to come ill.," Yes, you are,
come in" Sue enough, the storms, and
the night dew, and the brambles have
made rough work with their apparel, but
none have betterright to come in. They
were the first to hear the music of that
Christmas night. The first announcement
OF Savlours birth was made to those men
IN the fields. There were wiseacres that
night in Bethlehem and Jeruaalem snoring
in deep sleep, and there were salaried OIL
GERS OF the government who, hearing of ii
afterwards, may have thought that they
ought TO have had the first
news OF such "a great event,
camel at their door and knocking till at
some sentinel's question, "Who comes
there!" the great ones of the palace might
have been told of the celestial arrival. No:
the shepherds heard the first two bars of
the music, the first in the major key and
the last in the subdued minor: "Giory to
God i'll the highest and on earth peace,
good will to men," All, yes; the fields
were honorsd. The old shel herds with
plaid and crook have Tor the most part van
lshed, but we have grazing-on onr United
States pasture fields and prairie-about
4o,u00,0d0 sheep, and all their keepers
ought to follow the shepherds OF the tevt,
and all tho c who toll in fields, ali wine
dressers, al orcharlists, all husbandmen.
Not only that Christmas nigh. but al! up
and down the world history God has been
IGNORING The fields. Nearly all the lucssiaLs
OF reform, ana tcralure, and eloouence,
and law, and benevolence. have come from
the fields. Washington from the field;
Je er,on from he fields: The Presidential