The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1888-01-06

s4@er the lilies,0 than he showed sy IA
pathy for the ornithological 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 a lamb Meanwhile,
| may the Christ of the Bethlehem cattle
pen have mercy on the suffering stock
yards that are preparing diseased and
fevered meat for our American house
holds.
Behold also in this Bible scene how on
that Christmas night God honered child
hood. Christ might have made his first
visit to our world in a cloud, as he viii
| descend on his next visit in a cloud, In
what a chariot of illumined vapor be
might have rolled down the sky, escorted
by mounted cavalry, with lightning of
drawn sword. Elijah had a carriage of
fire to take him up, why not Jesus a car
riage of fire to fetch him down? Or over
the arcbed bridge of a 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,
mol Childhood was to be honored by that
advent. He must have a child's light
limbs, and chiId's dimpled hand, and a
| child's beaming eye, and child's faxen
| hair, and baby hood was to be honored for
! all time to come, and a cradle was to
mean more than a grave. Mighty God
May the reflection of that one child's face
be seen in all infantile faces. Enough have
those fathers and mothers on hand if
they have a child in the house. A throne,
a crown, a scepter, a 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 a hundred years and
thousand years will not stop the echo and
reecho. Do not say, st is only child"
| Rather say, cit Is only an immortal" It
| is only masterpiece of Jehovah. 1t is
| only being that shall outlive the sun and
moon and stars and ages quadrillennial.
| God has infinite resources, and he can
give presents of great value, but when he
| wants to give the richest possibl gift to
| q household he looks around all the worlds
and all the universe and then gives a
child. The greatest present that God ever
gave our world he gave about 1887 years
| ago, and he gave it on Christmas night,
and 1t was of such value that Heaven ad-
journed for a recess and came down and
| broke through the clouds to look at
it. Yea. in all ages God has honored child
hood. He makes almost every picture n
| failure, unless there be a child either
playing on the foor or looking through
the window, or seated on the lap gazing
into the face of it's mother. 1t was q child
in Naaman's kitchen that told the great
Syrian warrior where he might go and
get cured of the leprosy, ich, at the
seventh plunge in the Jordan, was left at
the bottom of tho river. It was to the
cradle of leaves In which a child was laid
rocked by the Nile that God called the at
tention of history. It was a sick child
that evoked Christ's curative sympathies.
It was a sick child that Christ set in the
midst of the squabhling d sciples to teach
the lesson of humility. We are informed
that wolf and leopard, and lion
shall be yet so domesticatsd that
little child shall lead them.
A child decided Waterloo. show
ing the army Of Butcher how they could
take a short cut through the fields when,
if the old road had been followe d. the
Prussan General would have come up too
late to save the destinies of Europe. It
was a child that decided GettysbUrQ, he
having overheard two Con federate Gem
erals in conversatio in which they de-
cided to march for Gettysburg instead of
Harri sburg, and this, reported to Gov
ernor Curtin, the Federal forces started
to meet their opponents at Getty burg.
And the child of to -dav is to decide all
the great battles, make all the laws, set
tie ell the destines and usher in the
worlds salvation or destruction. Men,
women, nations, all earth and all Heaven,
behold the child! Is there any velvet
sky so blue as q child's eye? Is there any
music so sweet as the child's voice? Is
there any plume so wavy as a child's hair?
Notice also that in this Bible night scene
Gdd honored science. Who are the three
wise men kneeling before the divine in
FAINT? Not Doors, not ignoramuses, but
Caspar, Belthasar and Melchior, men who
knew all that was to be known. They
were the Isaac Newtons, and Herschels,
and Faradays of their time. Their al
chemy was the forerunner of our sublime
chemistry their astroIogy the mother of
our magnificent astronomy. They had
studied stars, studied metals, studied
physiology, studied every thing. And
when 1 see these scientists bowing before
the beautiful babe, I see the prophecy of
the time when all the telescopes and mi
croscopes and all the Leyden jars, and
all the electric batteries, and all the OBJ
servatories, and all the universities shall
bow to Jesus. Tt is much that way al
ready. Where is the college that does not
have morning prayers, thus bowing at the
manger? Who have been the greatest ply
sicians? Omitting the names of the liv-
ing lest we should be invidIous, have we
not had among them Christian men like
our own Joseph G. Hutchinson, and Rush,
and Valentine Mott, and Abercrombie,
and Abernethy? Who have been our
greatest scientists? Joseph Henry, who
!
and Agassiz, who, standing with his
students among the hills. took of his hat
and said, ''Young gentlemen, before we
study these rocks, let us pray for wisdom
TO the God who made the rocks" To-day
the greatest doctors and lawyers Of Brook
lyn and New York, and Of all this land,
and of all lands, revere the Christian re-
ligion, and are not ashamed to say so be-
fore juries and Legislatures and Senates.
All geology will yet bow before
the Rock of Ages. All botany will
yet worship the Rose of Sharon. All
astronomy will yet recognize the Star
of Bethlehem. And physiology and aUat-
omy will join hands and say: We must,
by the help of God, get the human race
up to the perfect nerve, and perfect mus
Gle, and perfect brain, and per feet form Of
that perfect child before whom nigh two
thousand years ago Caspar, and Bel
thasar, and Melchoir bent their tired knees
in worship.
Behold also, in that first Christmas
night that God honored the folds. Come
in, shepherd boys, to Bethlehem, and see
the child. ''No," they say, I'VE are not
dressed good enough to come in" yes,
you are; come In" Sure enough, the
storms, and the night dew, and t he BRAN
bles, have made rough work with their ap-
parel, but none have a better right 60
| come in They were the first to hear the
mus C OF that Christmas night. The
first announcement Of a EaviOur's birth
was made to those men in the fields.
There were wiseacres that night in
Bethlehem and Jerusalem snoring in deep
! sleep, and there were salaried officers OF
government, who, bearing of It afterwnrd,
may have thought that they ought to
/ have had the first news Of such great
| event. Some one dismountng from
/ swift camel at their door and knocking
until az some sentinePs question: "Who