Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-01-06

Man.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 25.--Services to-day
at the Brooklyn Tabernacle we're iubilant.
Professors Browne and Ali, with organ
and cornet, were unusually powerful, and
Mrs. Florence Rice-Knox sang three solos.
The thousands OF people who packed the
church and all the approaches seemed TO
join in the great chorus
He shall reign from pole to pole
With ilimitable sway;
He shall reign when, like a scroll,
Wonder heavens have passed away
Rev. Il. DE Witt Talmage, d. d., took
and Its Surroundings" His text was
taken from Luke ii, Is: "The shepherds
said one 10 another, let US now go even
unto Bethlehem and see this thing which
is come to pass" Dr. Talmage said:
One thousand years of the worlds eX-
istence rolled painfully and YEARLY along,
and no Christ. Two thousand years, and
10 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 civilizations. but the lips of the
earth and the lips of the sky made no an
swer. The world had already been atliuent
of genius. Among poets had appeared
Homer and Thespis and Aristophanes and
Sophocles and Euripides and Alexis
.agschylus, yet no Christ to be the most
poetic figure of the centuries. Among
historians had appeared Herodotus and
Xenophon and Ihucydides, but no Christ
from whom all history was to date back
ward and forward-B.C. and A. d. Among
conquerors Camillus and Manlius and
Regulus and Nantippus and Hannibal and
Scipio and Pompev and Caesar, vet no
Christ who was to be con9ueror of earth
and heaven.
But the slow century and the slow year
and the slow month and the slow hour at
last arrived. The would had had mathis
or concerts in the morning and vespers or
concerts in the evening, but now it is to
have a concert at midnight. The black
window shutters Of q December night
were thrown open. and some of the best
singers of q world where they all sing
stood there, and putting back the drapery
of cloud chanted peace anthem, until all
the echoes Of hill and valley applauded and
encored the halleluiah chorus.
At last the world has Christ, and Just
the Christ it needs. Come, let us 90 into
that Christmas scene rs though we had
never before worshiped at the manger.
Here is Madonna worth looking at. l
wonder not that the most frequent name
in all lands and in all Christian centuries
is Mary. And there are Marys in palaces
and Nlarys in cabins, and though German
and French and Italian and Spanish and
English pronounce it differently. they are
all namesakes of the one whom we find on
q bed of straw with her pale face against
the soft cheek of Christ in the night of the
Nativity. All the great painters have
tried on canvas TO present Mary and her
child and the incidents of that most famous
night of the worlds history. Raphael in
three different masterpieces celebrated
them. Tintoret and Guirandjo surpassed
themselves in the elaboration of the NIasi."
Corregio needed 10 do nothing more than
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 presentation of
the "Holy Family" But all the galleries
of Dresden are forgotten when think of
the small room of that gallery containing
the @Sistine Madonna" Yet all of them
were copies of st. Mathews madonna"
and Luke's Madonna" the inspired Ma
donna of the Old Book. which we had put
into our hands when we we're infants and
that we hope to have under our heads when
We die.
Behold, in the first place. that on the
first night of Christs life God honored the
brute creation. You cannot get into that
Bethlehem barn without going past the
camels, the mules, the dogs, the oxen. The
prutes of that stable heard the first cry of
the infant Lord. Some Of the old paint
ers represent the oxen and camels kneel-
ing that night before the new born babe.
And well might they lneel. Have YOU
ever thought that Christ came among other
things to alleviate the sutferings of the
brute creation? Was it not appropriate
that he should during the first few DAYS
and nights of his lille On earth be sur
rounded by the dumb beasts whose moan
and plant and believing have for ages
been prayer to God for the arresting Of
their fortunes and the rightins of their
wrongs? 1t did not merely happen SO"
that the unintelieent creatures of God
should heve been that night in close neigh
borhood. Not Il kennel in all the centur-
les, not n birds nest. not a worn out horse
on towpath. not herd freezing in The
poorly built cow-pen, not {; freight car in
summer time bringing the beeves to
market without water through 1000 miles
OF agony, not a surgeons room witnessing
the struggles of fox or rabbit or pigeon
or dog in the horrors of vivisection but
has an interest in the fact that Christ was
born in stable surrounded by Lrutes
He remembers that night. and the prayer
lie heard in their pitiful moan He will
answer IN the punishment oil those who
matreat the dumb brutes. They surely
have az much right in the world rs we
have.
In the first chapter of Genesis you may
see that they were placed On the earth be-
fore man was, the 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 prede-
cessors OF the human family. They have
the world by right of possession. They
have also paid rent for the places they oc-
cupied. v hat an army of defense all over
the land are the faithful watch dogs. And
who can tell what the world owes to
horse, and camel, and OK for lransporta-
ton? And robin and lark have bv the
caniaas with which they have filed
orchard and forest. more than paid for the
few grains they have picked up for theil
sustenance. When you abuse creatures Of
God Non strike its creator, and you insult
the Christ who, though He might have
been welcomed into life by princes, and
taken His first infantie slumber amid
lyrlan plush and cnnopied couches, and
ripping wa:ers from royal aquecucts drip
ping into basins OF ivory and pearl, chose
to be born on the level with cows horn.
or a camel's hoof or dogs nostri,. that
He rnlphl' he the n liza of ioo <>Fl