The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-01-11
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: 1.-The Barn aud Its Sur
roundings."

ana see tRtS thlHg VH1cH - coWe " puSS' -
Luke xii, 15..
One thousand years of the worlds exist.
ence rolled painfully and wearily along, and
no Christ Two thousand years, and no
Christ Three thousand years, and no Christ.
Four thousand years, and no Christ. Give
Us 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 affiuent of genius. Among poets had
appeared Homer and TheSp:s and Aristoph-
anes and Sophocles and: Euripides and Alexis
Eschylus 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. C. and A. D. Among the conquerors
Camillus and Manlius and Regulus and
Xantippus and Hannibal and Scipio and
Pompey and Caesar, yet no Christ who was
to be conQueror of earth and heaven.
But the slow century and the slow year
snd6the slow mouth and the slow hour at
last arrived The world had had mathis or
concerts IN the morning and vespers and con-
certs in the evening, but now it is to have
concert at midnight. The black window
shutters of December night were thrown
open, and some of the best singers Of world
where they all sing stood there, and putting
back the drapery of cloud, cEanted peace
anthem, until all the echoes of hill and val
Icy applauded and encored the Hallelujah
chorus.
At last the world has Christ and just the
Christ it needs. Come, let US 20 into that
Christmas scene as though We had never be-
fore worshipped at the manger. Here is
Madonna worth looking at wonder not
that the most frequent name in all lands and
in all Christian countries is Mary. And there
are Marys in palaces and Marys in cabins,
and though German and French and Italian
and Spanish and English pronounce it differ
entity, they are all namesakes of the one whom
we find on a bed of straw with her pale face
against the soft cheek of Christ in the night of
the Nativity. All the great painters have
her child and the Incidents of that
most famous night of the worlds
history. Raphael in three different
masterpieces celebrated them. Tintoret
''Adoration Of the Magi." Corregio needed
to do nothing more than his Madonna to
become immortal The madonna of. the
Lily" by Leonardo da Vinci, will kindle the
admiration Of all ages. Murillo. never won
greater triumph by his pencil than IN his
presentat ton of the ''Holy Family" But all
the galleries Of Dresden are forgotten when 1
think of the small room Of that gallery con-
tanning the Sstine Madonna" Yet all of
them were copies of st. Matthew's MA
donnan and Luke's Madonna the inspired
Madonna of the Old Book which we had put
into our hands when we were infants and
that We hope to 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-
they kneel. Have you ever thought that
Christ came, among other things, to alleviate
the sufferings of the brute creationl Was it
not appropri to 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 prayer to God for
the arresting OF their tortures and the
righting of their wrongsi 1t did
not merely "uappen so" that the unintelli-
gent creatures Of God should have been that
night in close neighborhood. Not kennel
in all the centuries, not birds nest, not
worn out horse on towpath, not a herd freez.
ing in the poorly built cow pen, not q freight
car in summer time bringing the beeves to
market without water through thousand
miles of agony, not a surgeons room witness
-
or dog in the horrors of vivisection but has
an interest in the fact that Christ was born
10 stable surrounded by brutes. He remem-
bers that night, and the prayer He heard in
their pitiful moan He will answer in the pun
ishment of those who maltreat the dumb
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, tho 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 defonce all owe, the
land are the faithful watch dogs. Aid
who can tell what the world owes to
horse, and camel, and OK for transport,
tion2 And robin and lark have, by the
cantatas with which they have filled orchard
aud forest, mora than paid for the few grains
they haze picked up for their sustenance.
When you abuse any creature Of God you
strike its creator, and you insult the Christ
into life by princes, and taken his first in
fantile slumber amid Tyrian plush ana
canopied couches and ripping waters from
ivory and pearl, choAc to he born on the
level with cows horn, or a camelS hoof, or
q dogs nostril, that he might be the allevla-
tion of brutal suffering as well as the re-
deemer of man.
Standing then as | imagine now 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
strike the rowel into that horses side. Take
off 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
to these birds caught too far north i'll the
winters inclemency. Arrest that man who
is making that one horse draw load heavy
enough for three. Rush in upon that sceno
where boys are torturing cat or transtixns
butterfly and grasshopper. Drive not off
that old robin, for her nest is a mothers
cradle and under her wing there may be
ehree 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 ever
shown 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 when he
said: s.Consider the lilies" than he showed
sympathy for the ornithological whel
be- said: "Behold the fowls Of the. air.
and the Quadrupedal world when he allowed
himself to be called in one place a 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 ferered meat for oul
American households
Behold also in this Bible scene how or
that Christmas night God honored child
hood. Christ might have made His first
visit to our world in cloud. In what