West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1888-01-05
BIRTH OF CHRIST.
DIR. TALMAGE's SUNDAY SERMON:
The Shepherds Resolve TO Go TO Beth
lehem.

TEXT; "The shepherds said one 10 an
other: Let us not0 90 eren unto bethlehem,
and see this thing l0hfch Is come 10 Pdss"-
Luke xxi, 10.
One thousand years Of the worlds exist.
ence rolled painfully and YEARLY along, and
no Christ Two thousand years, and no
Christ. Three thousand years, and no Christ
-Four thousand years, and no Christ Give
us "A Christ, 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 nfliuent OF genius. Among poets had
appeared Homer and Thespis and Aristoph
anes and Sophocles and. Enripides and Alexis
Kschylus 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. &. and A. ID. Among the conquerors
Camillus and Manlius and Regulus and
Xantippus and Hannibal aud Scipio and
POmpey and Caesar, yet no Christ who was
10 be conqueror of earth and heaven.
But the slow century and the slow year
and tho slow mouth and the slow hour at
last arrived The world had had mathis or
concerts in the morning and yespers and con
certs in the evening, but now IL is to have q
concert at midnight. The black window
shutters OF n December night were thrown
open. and some of the best singers of n world
where they all sing stood there, and putting
back the drapery Of cloud, chanted peace
anthem, until all tho echoes of hill and val
ley applauded and encored the Hallelujah
chorus.
At last the world has a Christ and lust the
Christ it needs Come, let us go into that
Christmas scene as though we had never be-
fore worshipped at the manager. Here is q
Madonna worth looking at wonder not
that the most frequent name i'm all lands and
in all Christian countries is Mary. And there
are Marys in palaces and Marys in cabins,
and though Germ IN and French and Italian
and Spanish and English pronounce il differ
emily, they are all namesakes of the one whom
we find on n bed of straw with her pale face
against the soft cheek of Christ in the night of
the Nativity. All the great painters have
S Sar cS Sn canvas any TO present Mary and
most famous night of the worlds
history. Raphael in three different
masterpieces celebrated them. Tntoret
and Guirlanjo surpassed themselves in the
Alteration OF the Magin Corregio needed
TO do nothing more than his "Madonnan TO
become immortal. The "Madonna Of the
Lily by Leonardo da Vinci, will kindle the
admiration of all ages. Murillo never won
presentation of the "Holy Family" But all
the galleries of Dresden arc forgotten when [
think OF the small room of that gallery CON
tanning tho Sistino MADONNA Yet ali Of
them were copies of St. Matthews " Ma
DONNA and Luke's Madonna - the inspired
Madonna OF the Old Book which we had nut
into our hands when we were infants and
that we hope 90 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 well might
IaN AZ
Christ came, among other things, TO alleviate
the sufferings of the brute creationl Was il
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 n prayer to God for
the arresting of their fortunes aud the
lghtlng OF their wrongsi 1t did
gent creatures of God should have been that
night in close neighborhood. Not kennel
IN all the centuries, not n birds nest, not a
worn out horse on towpath, not herd freez.
ing in the poorly built COW pen, not freight
car in summer time bringing the beeves 20
market without water through a thousand
miles ot agony, not a surgeons room witness
ing the struggles of fox or rabbit or pigeon
or dog in the horrors OF vivisection but has
an interest in the fact that Christ was born
IN stable surrounded by brutes He remem-
oerS that night and the prayer He heard in
their ptiful moan He will answer in the pun
brutes. They surely have as much right in
this world as we have.
In the first chapter of Genesis you may SEQ
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 the world by right of possession They
have also paid rent for the places they occn-
pied. What an army Of defence all over the
land arc the faithful watch dogs And
who can tell what the world owes 70
horse, and camel, and OK for transporta-
uoni And robin and lark have, by the
cantatas with which they have filed orchard
and forest, more than paid for the few grains
they have picked up for their sustenance
w hen you abuse any creature Of God you
strike It's creator, and you insult the Christ
VINO though he might have been welcomed
into life by princes, and taken his first in
1antiie slumber amid Tyrian plush and
canopied cOuches and ripping waters from
royal aqueducts dripping into basins Of
ivory and pearl, chose 20 be born on the
level with cows horn, or a camel's hoof or
a dogs nostril, that he might be the allevia-
ton OF brutal suffering as well as the re-
deemer OF man.
Standing then as / imagine now I do. in
that Bethlehem night with an infant Christ
on the one side and the speeches creatures
OF God on the other, / cry Look out how YOU
btIlhe the rOWci INTO that horses side. Take
of that Curbed bit from that bleeding mouth
Remove that saddle from that raw back
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
20 those birds caught too far north ina the
winters inclemeucy. Arrest that man who
ls making that one horse draw n load heavy
enough for three Rush i'm upon that scene
where boys are torturing a cat or transnIing
butterfly and grasshOpper Drive not or
that old robin, FOR her nest Is a mothers
cradle, and under her wing there may be
three or four prima donnas OF tho sky i'm
training. Aud in your families and ina your
schools teach tho coming generation more
mercy than the present generation has ever
shown in this marvellous Bible picture Of the
Nativity, while you point out 20 them the
angel, show them alss the camel, and while
I they hear tho celestial chant lot them aleo
I hear the cows moan. No moro did Christ
7 show interest I'm the botanical world when be
said: Consider tho lilies. than he showed
sympathy for the ornitholOgical when
he said: behold tho fowls OF the air
and the quadupodnl world when he allowed
himself 20 be called Boo one place "a lion and in
another place % lamb M 1uwhile. may the
Christ of the Bethlehem c0ttio pen have
mercy on the suffering stock yards that are
preparing diseased and fevored meat for our
American households
Behold also fro this Bible scene how on