The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-01-05


BRooKnYN, Dec. 25.4-Seryices to-day
at the Brooklyn Tabernacle were jubilant.
Professors Browne and Ali, with organ
and cornet, we're unusually powerful, and
Mrs! Florence kiee-KnO sang three solos.
The thousands of people who packed the
ehufch and all the appl caches seemed to
joiniin the great chorus:
he shall reign from pole to pole
With i!limitable sway y .H TH
he shall reign when, like q scroll. r.-.
Yonder heavens have passed away.
Rev. T. De Witt Talmaee, D. D., took
as the subject of his sermon, "The Barn
and Its Surroundings His text was
taken from Luke ii, l5: "The shepherds
said one 10 another, let us now go even
unto Bethlehem and see this thing which
10 come TO pass.n DR.. Talmage said: ''C'
One thousand years of the worlds ex-
istence rolled painfully and weerily alol
and NO Christ. Two thousand years,
no Christ. Three thousand years, and no
Christ. Four thousand years, and no
Christ. "Give us o Christ, " had cried
ASA ian and Persian and Chaldean and
Egyptian civilizations, but the lips of the
eerlh and the lips Of the sky made no am
sSet. The world had already been affluenk
Of genius. Among poets had appeared
Homer and Thespis and AristophAnes and
SophOoles and Euripides and Alexis
AHsehylus, yet no Christ 70 be the most
poetic figure of the centuries. Among
historians had appeared Heredotus and
Xenophon and Thucydides, but no Christ
from whom all history was to date back
ward and forward-B.C G. and AID. Among
condueroTs Camllus and Manlius, and
Regulus and Xantippus and Hannibal, and
Scipio and Pompey and Cesar, yet no
Chr rist who was to be conqueror Of earth
and heaven. 'ur...-.. ".f5' trsa
But the slow century and the slow year
and the slow month and the slow hour at
last arrived. The world had had mathis
concerts in the evening, but now it is to
have concert at midnight. The black
window shutters of a December night
were thrown open, and some of the best
sin gers of world where they all sing
stood there, and putting back the drapery
Of cloud chanted peace anthem, until all
thelechoes of hill and valley applauded and
encored the hallelujah chorus.
AT last the world has a Christ, and Just
the Christ it needs. Come, let us go into
that Christmas scene as though we had
never before worshiped al the manger.
Here is a Madonna worth looking at.
wohder not that the most frequent name
in all lands and in all Christian centuries
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 differently, they are
all namesakes of the one whom We find on
20 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 Guirlandjo surpassed
themselves in the "Adorstion OF the Magi.
CoEregio needed TO do nothing more than
hid Madonna" 10 become immortal. The
@Madonpa OF the Lily" by Leonardo da
Vinci, will kindle the admiration of all
ages. MuEllS never won greater triumph
byIhis 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
we're copies Of st. Matthew'S @AIadonn
and Lukes 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.
Pehold, in the first place, that on the
first night of Christ's life God hon nored the
brute creation. You cannot get into that
Bethlehem 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 paint
ers represent the oxen and camels kneel-
ing that night before the new born babe.
And we'll might they kneel. Have you
ever thought that Christ came among other
things to alleviate the sutferings of the
brute creationP Was it not appropriate
that he should, during the first few days
and nights of his life ON earth be sur
rounded by the dumb beasts whose moan
and plant and believing have for ages
been prayer to God for the arrssting OF
their tortures and the righting of their
wrongs? 1t did not merely happen 80"
that the unintelligent creatures of God
should heve been that night in close neigh
borhood. Not kennel in all the cenur-
les, not q birds nest, not worn -out horse
on towpath. not a herd freezing in the
poorly built cow-pen, not freight car in
summer time bringing the beeves 10
market without water through 1000 miles
Of agony, not a surgeons room Witnessing
or dog in the horrors of vivisection bd
has an interest in the fact that Christ Wa
born in a stable surrounded by brutes.
III remembers that night, and the PRAYER
RE heard in their piti(ul moan He will
answer in the punishment of those who
mia treat the dumb hrutes. They surely
have rs much right in the world as we
hnye. .....,. .. ...,
In the first chapter of Genesis you may
see that they We're placed on the earth be-
fore man was, the tsh and fowl created
the fifth day, and the quadruped the
morning of the sixth day, and man moi
Until the afternoon OF that day. The
whale, the eagle, the lion, and all the
lesser creatures of their kind were prede-
EtssorS of the human family. They have
The world by right of possession. They
hive also paid rent for the places they oc-
ctlpied. " hat an army Of defense all oVel
the land are the faithful watch dogs. And
who can tell what the world owes tC
hor Q, and camel, and OK for trsnsporIa-
tion? And robin and lark have by the
can atas with which they have filled
On chard and forest, more than paid for the
few grains they have picked up for theil
sustenance. When you abuse creatures OF
God you strike its creator, and you insu II
ne Nhrlst WnO, lhouRh ne mlBnt naNt
been welcomed into life by princes, am
tRken His first infantile slumber am
lyrian plush and eRnopied -Couches, M
ripplinR waters from royal aqueducts drip
ping into basins of ivory and pearl, chose
TO be born on the level with cows horn
Or a oamel's hoof, or a dogs nostril, thai
He might.be the alleviation of brut, ufer'
ing as well 40 the redemer of man.
Standing then, as imagine now do
IN that Bethlehem night, with an infan
Christ on the one side and the speeches.
creatures Of God on the other, 1 cry: Lool
out how you strike the rowel into tina
die from that raw back. Shoot not for fur
that bird that is too small for food. Forge
not to put water into the cage of that ca