Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-01-04

watch dogs And who can tell what the
world owes to horse. and camel, and OK fol
transportation? And robin and lark have
by the cantatas with which they have q led
orchard and forest, more than paid for the
few grains they have picked up for their
sustenance. When you abuse any creature
of God you strike Its creator, and you in
sult the Christ who, though he might have
been welcomed, into life by princes, and
taken his first infantile slumber amid Tyrisn
plush and canopied couches, and ripping
waters from royal aqueducts dripping into
basins of ivory and pearl. chose to be born
on the level with cows horn, or camel &
hOof, or a dogs nostril, that he might be
the alleviation of brutal suffering as we'll as
the redeemer of man.
Standing then, asI imagine now do. in
that Bethlehem night with an infant Christ
on the one side and the speechless creatures
of God on the other, cry: Look out how
you strike tha 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 those birds caught too far
north in the winters inclemeucy. Arrest
that man who is making that one horse
draw a load heavy enough for three. Rush
in upon that scene where boys are torturing
q cat, or transfxing butterfly and grass
hopper. Drive not off that old robin, for
her nest is mothers cradle and under her
wing there may be three or four prima dom
mas of the sky in training. And in your
| families and schools teach the coming gen.
Grafton more mercy than the present genera
tion 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 when He said, "Consider
the lilies" than ne showed sympathy for
the archaeological when he said. "Behold
the fowls of the air." ana the quadrupedal
world when he allowed himself to te 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 dis
ea>ed and fevered meat for our American
household.
Behold, also, in this Bible scene how on
that Christmas night God honored child
hood. Christ might have made his first
visit to our world in q cloud, as he will de-
a chariot of illumined vapor he 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 Jesns a carriage of fire to fetch
him down? Or, over the arched bridge of
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 feeble
ness of infancy. No, no! Childhood was
to be honored by that advent He must
have child's light limbs, and child's
dimpled hand, and q child's beaming eye,
and child's f14xen hair, and babyhood
was to be honorpd for all time to come, aud
a cradle was tn mean more than grave.
M ghty God! May the reflections OF that
one child's face be seen in all infantlle
faces. Enough have all those fathers and
mothers on hand if they have a child in the
house. A throne. a crown, a sceptre,
kingdom under charge. Be careful how
you strike him across the head .jarring the
brain. What you say to him will be CEN
tennial and nilennial, and hundred
years and thousand years will not stop
the echo and re-e echo. Do not say, 1T is
only child" Rather say, sit is only an
immortal" It is Uniy laasterp;ee- "s
Jehovah. 1t is only being that shaI, out
live sun and moon and star, and ages
uuadrillennial. God has Infinite resources
and He can give presents of great value,
but when He wants to give the richest pos
sible gift to a household he looks around
all the worlds and all the universe, aud
then gives child The greatest present
that God ever gave our world He gave
about 1887 years ago. aud He gave ii on a
Christmas night, and it WAS of spch value
that heaven adjourned for recess and
came down and broke through the clouds
to l,.ok at it. Yea, in all ages God has
hoDoled childhood. He makes almost every
picture failure unless there be child
either playing on the floor. or looking
through the window, or seated on the lap
gazing into the face of its mother It was
child in Naaman's kitchen that tod the
great Syrian warrior where he might 20 and
get cured of the leprosy, which at his
seventh plunge in the Jordan. was left at
the bottom IF the river. 1t was to the
CT die of leaves in VIII ch child was laid
rocked by he Nile that G I'd called the at
tention Of history. 1t was a sick child that
evoked Christ's curative sympathes. It.
was 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 domes-
ticated 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 desrines Of Europe. 1t was child
that decided Gettysburg, he having over
heard two Confederate generals in con-
versation in which they decided to march
for Gettysburg instead of Harrisburg, and
this, reported to Gov. Curtin, the Federal
| forces started to meet their opponents az
Gettysburg. Aud the child of to-day is to
decide all the great battles, make all the
laws, settle all the destinles 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 a child's cheek ? Is there any sky
So blue as 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 alsn that in this Bible night scene
Coo honoIed science. Who are the three
wise men kneeling before the divine infant?
Not Doors, not iguoramuses, but Caspar,
Beithasar and Mechnir. men who knew all
that was to be known. They we're the
Isaac Newtous and Herschels aud Faradays
of their time. Their alchemy was the fore
runner of our sublime chemistry, their as
trology the moth of our magniiceu' as
tronomy. They had studied stars. studied
metals, studied physiology, studied every
thing. And when l see these scientists
bowing before the beautiful babe, see the
prophecy of the time when all the tele-
scopes aud microscopes, aud all the Leyden
jars, and all the electric batteries, and all
the obselvatories, and all the universities
shall bow TO JESUS. 1t is much that wav
| already. Where IS the college that does
not have morning prayers, thus bowing at
| the mapger? Who have been the greatest
| ply yscans? Omilting the names of the
living, lest we should be invdious, have
we not had among them Christian men
like our own Joseph c. Hutchinson, and
Rush, and Valentine Mott and Ahercrom-
bic, and Abernethy Who have been our
greatest scientists? Joseph Henry, who
lived and died in the faith of the Gospel,
and Agassiz. who. standing with his stu
dents among the hills, took off 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 tine
greatest doctors and lawyers of Brooklyn
and New York, and of all this land, and of
| all lands revere The Christian reliuinn and