The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1889-01-02

ride, anu TO carry tne nedVy Gnu VI eno
load and give other people the light end,
and to ascrb, good motives instead of
bad, and to find our happiness in making
others happy.
Out of that Bethlehem crib let TIE bear
and the lion cot straw like an OK. Good
will to men," That principle will yet set
tie all controversies, aud under it the
world will keep on improving until there
will be only two antagonists in all the
earth and they will side by side take the
jubilant sleigh ride intimated by the
prophet when he said: "Hollness shall be
on the bells Of the horses"
Ill Again, remark that born that
Christmas night in the village barn was
sympathetic union with other worlds. The
only skepticism l have ever had aoout
Christianity was an astronomical skepti-
cism which said: why would God out OF
the Heavens and amid the Jupiters and
Saturns of the universe have chosen our
little bit of world for the achievement OF
his only begotten Son when he might have
had vaster scale and vaster worldsg"
But my skepticism is all gone as come to
the manger and watch its surroundings
Now see all the worlds are sisters, and
then when one weeps they all weep, and
when one sings they all sing.
From that supernatural grouping in the
cloud banks ov, Bethlehem, and from the
especial trains that ran down to the scene,
l find that our world is beautifully and
gloriously and magnifcently surrounded.
oAaz 4. a.. Af
ran to point down to the birth place. The
Heavens are with us, because at the
thought of our redemption they roll ho-
sannas out OF the midnight sky.
! Obi yes; l do not know but our world
may be better surrounded than we have
sometimes imagined; and when a child is
born angels fetch 1t, and when it dies an
gels take it, and when an old man bends
under the weight of years angels uphold
him, and when heart breaks angels
soolhe it. Angels in the hospital take
care of the sick. Angels in the cemetery
I to watch our dead. Angels in church
ready to fly Heavenward with the news
of repentant souls. Angels above the
world Angels under the world. Angels
all around the world.
Rub the dust of human imperfecton out
of your eyes, and look into the heavens
and see angels Of pity, and angels of mer-
cy, angels of pardon, angels Of help,
angels crowned, angels charioted. The
world defended by angels, girdled by
angels, cohorted by angels-clouds Of
angels. Hear David cry out: "The char
lots of God are twenty Thousand. Even
thousands Of angels" But the mightiest
angel stood not that night in the clouds
over Bethlehem; the mightiost angel that
night lay among the cattle-the Angel Of
the new covenant
As the clean white linen sent in by some
motterly vilager was being wrapped
around the little form of that Child En-
peror, not cherub, not seraph, not an
angel, no a world but wept and thrilled
and shouted. Oh! yes, our world has
plenty Of sympathizers. Our worlds only
a silver Iung of q great ladder at the top
OF which our Fathers house. No more
stellar solitariness for our world, not a
trendless planet spun out into space to
freeze, but world in the bosom Of divine
maternity. A star harnessed to manger.
w. Again, l remark that that Christ
mas night born in the village barn
was the offenders hope Some SER
monizers may say Fought to have pro-
jected this thought at the beginning of the
sermon. Ohl no. wanted you to rise
toward it. WANTED you to ex mine the
comedians, and the jaspers, and the emer-
| L. ba oh liz, hafpra I ahONyad
you the Kohinoor-the crown jewel of the
ages.
Oh that jewel had a very poor setting.
The cub of bear is born amid the grand old
pillars of the forest, the wheIp Of the lion
takes its first step from the jungle Of lux
uriant leaf and wild flower, the kid of the
goat is born in cavern chandeliered with
slalactite and pillared with stalagmite
Christ was born in a barn. Yet that ma
tivity was the Offenders hope. OveI
the door Of Heaven are written these
words: "None but the snless may enter
here.''
20 horror" say you, ''that shuts us al
out" No. Christ came to the world In
one door, and he departed through another
door. He came through the door Of the
manager, and he departed through tht
door of the sepulcher and his one business
was so to wash away our sin that one sec
ond after we are dead there will be M
more sin about us than about the eterna
God.
know that is putting 1t strongly, bu
that is what understan by full remis
| oil ol
secured out all gone. That undergirdinl
and overarching and irradiating and inn
paradising possibility for you, and for me
and for the whole race was given on tina
Christmas night
Do you wonder we bring flowers to-day
to celebrate such an event? Do you won
der that we take organ and cornet anc
youthful voice and queenly soloist to cele
brate it? Do you wonder that Raphae
and Rubens and Titan and Giotto ant
Ghirlandajo, and all the old Italian ant
German painters gave the mightiest strok
of the pencil to sketch the Madonna, MARY
and her boy?
Oil now / see what the manger was
Not so high as the gilded and jeweled ant
embroidered cradle of the Henrys of Eng
land, or the Louises Of France, or tn
. Fredericks of Prussia. Now find out o
that Bethlehem crib fed not so much tn
oxen Of the stall as the white horses o
Apocalyptic vision. Now l find the swad
ding clothes enlarging and emblazoninl
into an imperial robe for conqueror
Now find that the star of that Christina
night was only the diamond sandal Of Hin
who hath the moon under His feet. Now
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