The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-01-26

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 ever shown,
and 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 than when he said: econ.
slider the lilies" than he showed SYM
pathy for the pathological when he
said: Behold the fowls of the air." and
the quadrupedal world when he allowed
himself to b, called in one place lion
and in another place 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 worl in a clou |, as he will
descend on his next visit in cloud. In
what chariot of illumined vapor he
might have rolled down the sky, escorted
by mounted cavalry, with lightning of
drawn sword. Elijah had arriage Of
fire to take him up, why not Jesus car.
riage of fire to fetch him down? Or over
the arched 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 feeblsness of infancy. No,
no! Childhood was to be honorei bv that
advent. He must have a chill Ii III
limbs. and chld's dimpled hand, and a
child's bsaming eye, and a child's faxen
hair, and bahyhood was o be honored for
all time to me. and a cradle was to
mean more than grave. Mighty God!
May the reflection of tieat one child's face
be sem in all infantile faces. Enough have
those fathers and mothers on hand il
they have child in the house. A throne,
a crown, scepter, kingdom under
charge. Be careful how you strike him
across the head, Earring the brain. What
you say to him will be centennial and
millennial, and hundred years and a
thousand years will not stop the echo and
reecho. Do not say, sit is only a child"
Rather say, SIT is only an immortal" 1t
is only masterpiece of Jehovah. Il is
only being that shall outlive the sun and
moon and stars and ages quadrillennal.
God has infinite resources, and he can
give presents of great valu3, but when he
wants to give the richest poss IDLE gift to
a household he looks around all the worlds
and all the universe and then gives q
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 recess and came down and
broke through the clouds to look at
1t. Yea. in all ages God has honored child.
hood He makes almost every picture a
failure, unless there be a 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 q child
in Naaman's kitchen that told the great
Syrian warrior where he might 90 and
get cured of the leprosy, which, at the
seventh plunge in the Jordan, was left at
the bottom of the river. 1t 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.
1t was sick child that Christ set in the
midst OF the squabbling disciples to teach
the lesson of humility. We are informed
that wolf, and leopard, and lion
shall be yet So domesticated that
little child shall lead them.
A child decided Waterloo, show.
ing the army of Butcher how they could
take short cut through the fields when,
II the old road had been followe d, the
RUSSIAN General would have come ND too
late to save the destinies of Europe. 1t
was child that decided Gettysburg, he
having overheard two Con Tolerate Gen.
erals in conversation in which thew de-
cided to march for Gettysburg instead of
harrl sburg, and this, reported to Gov.
ernor Curtin, the Federal forces started
60 meet their opponents at Gettysburg.
And the child of o-day is to decide all
the great battles, make all the laws, set.
5ie all the destinies and usher in the
worlds salvation or destruction. Men.
women, nations, all earth and all Heaven.
behold the child! Is there any velvet
10 soft as child's cheek? Is there anv
ky so blue as a child's eye? Is there any
music SO sweet as the child's voice? Is
mere any plume so wavy as child's hairs |
Notice also that in this Bible night scene
iod honored science. Who are the three
wise men kneel;ng before the divine in.
ant! Not Doors, not ignoramuses, but |
;aspar, Belthasar and Melchior, mon who
NEW all that was to be known. They
we're the Isaac Newtons, and Herschels. |
md Faradays of their time. Their al.
'hemy was the forerunner of our sublime |
hemistry, their astrology the mother of |
'ur magnificent astronomy. They had
tudied stars. studied metals, studied |
physiology, studied every thing. And
when see these scientists bowling before
he beautiful babe. see the prophecy of |
ne time when all the telescopes and mi
roscopes, and all the Leyden jars, and
III the electric batteries, and all thu OBJ
ervatories, and all the universities shall
low to Jesus. It is much that way al
eady. Where is the college that does not
ave morning prayers, thus bowling a. the
hanger! Who have been the greatest phy.
lcians! Omitting the names of the liy-
ng, lest we should be invidious, have we
OF had among them Christian men like
ur own Joseph c. Hutchinson, and Rush,
nd Valentine Mott, and Abercrombie.
nd Abernethy? Who have been our
reatest scientists? Joseph Henry, who
we'd and died in the faith of the Gospel.
nd Agassiz, who, standing with his
tudents among the hills, took off his hat
nd said, young gentlemen, before we