News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-01-12

rior where he might 20 and get cured
et the ieprosv, which at his seventh
plunge in the Jordan, was left az
the bottom of the river. 1t was to the
cradle of leaves in which child was laid,
rocked by the Nile, that God called the at
tentOn of history. 1t was a sick child that
evoked Christ,s curative sympathies. Itwas
child that Christ sat in the midst of the
s1uabbling disciples to teach the lesson of
humility. We are informed that wolf and
leopard and lion shall yet be so domesticated
that little child shall lead them. A child
decided Waterloo, showing the army of
Blucher how they could take a short cut
through the fields, when, if the old road
had been followed, the Prussian gen
eral would have come up too late
to save the destnies of Europe. 1t
was a child that decided Gettysburg,
lie having overheard two Confederate Cen
2raIs in Il conversation, in which they de-
cided to march for Gettysburg instead Of
Harrisburg, and thssrep1rted to Governor
| Curtin, the Federal for es started to meet
! their opponents at Gettysburg. And the
child Of to-day is to decide all the great bat
ties, make all the laws, settle all the desti-
| nies and usher in the worlds salvation or
| destruction. Men, women, nations, all earth
and all heaven behold the child Is there
any velvet so soft as child's cheek! Is there
any sky so blue as a child's eye! Is there any
music 50 sweet as a child's voice! Is there
| any plume so wavy as a chids hair?
Notice also that in this Bible night scene
| God honored science Who are thI three
! wise men kneeiing before the divine infnutS
! Not bOOrs, not ignoramusas, but GASP AZ, Bel
! thasar and Me,chiOr, men who knew all that
was to be known. They were the Issac New
| tons and Herschels and FaradaYs of their
| time. Their alchemy was the forerunner of
! our sublime chemistry, their astTology the
mother of or magnificent astronomy. TheS
had studied stars, studied metals, studied
! physiology, studied everything. And when I
see these scientists lowing before the beautiful
! babe, | see the prophecy of the time when all
| the telescopes and microscopes, and all the
! Leyden jars, and all the electric batteries,
and all the observatories, and all tho
! universities shall bow to Jesus. IL is much
| that way already Where is the college that
does not have morning prayers, thus bowling
at the manger, Who have been the greatest
physicians! Omitting the names of the liv-
ing, lest we should be invidious, have we not
had among them Christian men like our own
Joseph C. Hutchinson, and Rush, and Nalen-
tine Mott, and Abercrombie, and Abernethyf
Who have been our greatest scientistsi Jo-
seph Henry, who lived and died in the faith
Of the Gospel, and AgasSiZ, who, standing
with his students among the hills, took Off
his hat and said: young gentlemen, b5fore
we study these rocks let us pray for wisdom
to the God who made the rocks" To-
day the greatest doctors and lawyers
of Brooklyn and New York, and of all
this land, and of all lands, revere the Chris.
tian religion, and are not ashamed to say so
All geology will yet bow before the Rock of
Ages. All botahy will yet worship the Rose
of Sharon. All ASTRONOMY will yet recognize
the Star of Bethlehem. And physiology and
anatomy will join hands and say: We must
by the help of God get the human race up to-
the perfect nerve, and perfect muscle, and
perfect brain, and perfect form of that per-
feet child before whom nigh twenty hundred
years ago Caspar, and Belthasar, and Mel
chior bent their tired knees in worship.
ole in hot Grst( hTtCt
that God honored the fields. Come in, shep-
herd boys, to Bethlehem and see the child
t'No," they say; 1--WE are not dressed good
enought to come i'm ''Yes, you are, come
in." Sure enough the storms and the night
dew and the brambles have made rough work
with their apparel, but none have better
right to come ill., They were the first to hear
the music of that Christmas night. The first
Announcement of a Saviour's birth was made
TO those men IN the fields. There were wise
acres that night in Bethlehem and Jerusalem
snoring in deep sleep, and there were sal
aried officers of government who, nearing
of it afterward, may have Thought that
they ought to have had the first news OF
such great event, some one dismouEtIng
from a swift camel at their door and knock
ing till at some sentiners question: VINO
comes thereP' 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 miner: "GlorY to God
in the highest, and on earth peace, good VIII
to men," All, yes; the fields We're honored-
The old shepherds with plaid and crook have
for the most part vanished but we have graz
ingon our United States pasture fields and
prairie about forty-tive million Sheppard all
their keepers ought to follow the shepherds
of my text, and all those who toll in the fields,
all wine dressers, all orchardists, all bus
bandmen. Not only that Christmas night
but all up and down the worlds history God
has been honoring the fields Nearly ali the
messiahs of reform, and literature and elo-
quence, and law, and benevoleuce, have
fields, jefferson from the fields. The fTes;~
The fields Henry 'ti ciav If from % the e
Daniel Web ter from the folds Martin
Luther from the fields. And before this
world is right the overAowing populations OF
our crowded cites will have to take to the
fiel!s. Instead of ten merchants in
rivalry as to who shall sell that
one apple, we want at least eight
of them to go out and raise apples
Instead of ten merchants desiring to sell that
one bushel of wheat, we want at least eiSho
of them to so out and raise wheat Tie
world wants more hard hands, more bronzed
cheeks, more muscu ar arms To the helds!
God honored them when de woke up the
shepherds BY the midnight anthem, ana de
will while the world lasts. continue to honor
the fields When the shepherds crook was
that famous night stood against the wall OF
the Bethlehem kahn, it was prophecyO o tre
time when the thresher's fail, and farmers
nIou, and woo1man's AK, and oXs yoke, and
sheaf binders rake shall surrender to the Goa
who made the country as man made the
town.
Behold also that on that Christmas night
God honored motherhood. Two angels on
their wings might have brought an lnfahO
Saviour to Bethlehem without Mary's being
there at all. When the villagers, on Inc
mo, ming of Dec. 26 awoke, by divine ar
rangement and in some unexplained way
the child Jesus might have been Iouhd III
some comfortable cradle of the village. but
no MOI Motherhood for all time was to be
consacrated, and enc of the tenderest rela-
tions was to be the maternal relation, and
one of the sweetest words mother" IN an
aces Col has honored good motherhood.
John Wesley had good mother, st. Bernard
had a good mother, Samuel Budget good
mother, Doddridge a good mother Walter
Scott good mother, Benjamin West good
mother. In a great audience, most or
whom were Christians | asked that all those
who had been blessed of Christian mothers
arise, and almost the entire assembly stood
I'D. DON'T you see how important 1T Is that
all motherhood be consecratedf why did
Titan the Italian artist, when he skelched
the Madonna, make it an Italian faceg why
did Rubens, the German artist, in his Madon-
ma. make it German face! Why did Joshua
REYNOLDS the English artist. in his Madonna,
make it an English face! Why did Murllo,
the Spanish artist, in his Madonna make 1t
they took their own mothers as the type OF
Mary, the mother of Christ When you hear
soma one in sermon or Grafton sp7ak IN
the abstract of good, faithful, honest
mother, your eyes fill up with tears while
YOU say to yourself: That was my mother.
The first word child utters is apt TO be
Mother and the old man in his dying
dream calls "Motherl mothern 1t matters
not whether she was brought up in the sur
roundings of a city and in atfiuent home,
and was dressed appropriately with refer
ence to the demands of modern LIE, or
whether she wore the old-time cap and
great round speCtaceS and apron of her
own make, and knit your socks with her own
needles seated by the broad fireplace, with
great back log ablaze on a winter
night 1t matters not how many wrinkles
crossed and recrossed her face, or how much
her shoulders stopped with the burdens of
long life, if you ainted Madonna hers
would be the face. What a gentle hand she
had when we were sick, and what voice to
coothc pain, and was there any one who
could so fill up a room with peace, and
purity, and light! And what sad day that
was when we came home and she could greet
us not, for her lips were forever still.
Come back, mother, this Christmas day,
and take your old place, and as ten,
or twenty, or fifty years ago, come
and open the old Bible you used to
read and kneel in the same place where you
used to pray, and look upon us as of old
when you wished us a Merry Christmas or
Happy New Year. But no? That would not
be fair to call YOU back. You had troubles
enough, and aches enough, and bereavements
enough while you are here. Tarry by the
throne, mother, till we join you there, your
PRAYERS all answered, and in the eternal
homestead of our God we shall again keep
Christmas jubilee together. But speak from