Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-10
THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.
DR.. Talmage on Christ's Lowly
Birthplace and It's Lessons.
Encouragesnents for Those Who Started
Poorly-Birthpiaces OF Noted Men
More Helping Hands Needed
Heavenly Promises.


suddenly there was with the angel null
titude of the heavenly host" Luke ii.
u, 13. He said:
AT midnight, from one OF the galleries
of the sky, a chant broke. To an ordinary
observer there was no reason for such
celestial demonstration. A poor man and
wife-travelers, Joseph and Mary by
name-had lodged in an clubhouse OF an
unimportant village. The supreme hour
of solemnity had passed, and upon the
pallid forehead and cheek of Mary God
had set the dignity, the grandeur. the ten
derness, the everlasting and divine signi-
fcance Of motherhood.
But such scenes had often occurred in
Bethlehem, yet never before had star
been unfxed or had a baton of light mar
shaled over the hills winged orchestra.
If there had been such brilliant and mighty
recognition at an advent in the house OF
Pharaoh, or at an advent in the house Of
Caesar, or the house of Hapsburg, or the
house of Stuart, we would not so much
have wondered; but a barn seems too
poor center for such delicate and arch
angelic circumference.
The stage seems too small for so great
an act, the music too grand for such un-
appreciative auditors, the window OF the
stable too rude to be serenaded by other
worlds.
No, sir. No, madam. 1t is my joy this
morning to tell you what was born that
night in the village barn; and as want
TO make my discourse accumulative and
climacteric, begin. in the first place, by
telling you that that night in the Bethle-
hem manger wasborn( first encouragement
for ali the poorly started. He had only
two friends--they His parents. No satin
lined cradle, no delicate attentions, but
straw, and the cattle, and the coarse joke
and banter of the camel drivers. No Won
der the medieval painters represent the
oxen as kneeling before the infant Jesus,
for there were no men there at that time
to worship. From the depths of what
poverty He rose until to-day He is honored
in all Christendom, and sits on the imperial
throne in Heaven.
What name is mightiest to-day in
Christendom? Jesus. Who has more
friends on earth than any other being!
Jesus. Before whom do the most thou
sands kneel in chapel and church and ca
thedral this hour? Jesus. For whom could
one hundred million souls be marshaled,
ready to fight or die: Jesus. From what
depths of poverty to what height of re-
nown! And so let all those who are poorly
started remember that they can not be
more poorly born, or more disadvantage
ously, than this Christ. Let them look up
to His example while they have time and
eternity to initiate it.
Do You know that the vast majority of
tho worlds deliverers had barnlike birth
places? Luther, the emancipation of relig-
ion, born among the mines. Shakespeare,
the emancipation of literature, born in an
humble home at Stratford- on Avon. Co.
lumbus, the discoverer of world, born
in poverty at Genoa. Hogarth, the dis
coverer of how to make art accumulative
and administrative of virtue, born in a
humble home ct Westmoreland. Kitto
and Prideaux, whose keys unlocked new
apartments in the Holy Scriptures which
had never been entered, born in want.
Yea, have to tell you that nine out of ten
of the worlds deliverers-nine out of ten
of the worlds messiahs-the messiahs of
science, the messiahs of law, the messiahs
of medicine, the messiahs of poverty, the
messiahs of grand dbenevolence-wereb born
in want
suppose that when Herschel, the great
astronomer, was born in the home of a
poor musician, not only one star, but all
the stars he afterward discovered, pointed
down to his manger. l suppose when
Haydn, the German composer, was born
in the humble home of a poor wheelwright,
that all the angels of music chanted over
the manger. o, what encouragement for
those who are poorly started! Ye who
think yourselves far down, aspire to go
high up.
stir your holy ambitions to-day, and
want to tell you, although the whole world
may be opposed to you, and inside and out
side of your occupations or professions
there may be those who would hinder your
ascent, on your side and enlisted in your
behalf are the sympathetic heart and the
almighty arm of One who one Christmas
morning about eighteen hundred and
lightweight years ago was wrapped in
swaddling clothes and laid in a mauger.
o, what magnificent encouragement for
the poorly started!
Second-Again, have to tell you that
in that village bsrn that night Was born
good will to men, whether you call it kind
ness, or forbearance, or forgiveness, or
geniality, or affection, or love. 1t was
no sport of high Heaven to send its favorite
to that humiliation. Ii was a sacrifice for
a rebellious world. After the calamity in
paradise, not only did the OK begin to
gore, and the adder to sting, and the ele-
phant to snite with his tusk, and the lion
to put bad use to tooth and paw, but under
the very tree from which the forbidden
fruit was plucked were Matched out war,
and revenge, and malice, and envy, and
jealousy and the whole brood of
cockatrices.
But against that scene I set the Bethle-
hem manger, which says: "Bless rather
than curse, endure rather than assault" !"
and that Christmas night puts out vindic-
tiveness. 1t says: "Sheathe your sword,
dismount your guns dismantle your bat
tories, turn the war ship Constellation,
that carried shct and shell, into a grain
ship to take food to famishing Ireland,
hook your cavalry horses to the plow, use
your deadly guppowder in blasting rocks
aud in patriotic celebration, stop your
lawsuits quit writing anonymous letters,
extract the sting from your sarcasm, let
your wit corruscate but never burr, drop
adj the harsh words out of your vocabu-
lary-'Good will to men,"
.sOp you say, 81 can't excuse it;
won't excuse it until they apologize; /
won't forgive them until they ask me to
forgive them" You are no Christian then
Il say you are no Christian, or you are a
very inconsistent Christian. If You for
give not men their trespasses, how can you
expect your Heavenly Father to forgive
your Forgive them if they ask your for
giveness, and forgive them anyhow.
Shake hands all around. s'Good viii to
men" r
n NV Lord Iasna dror. that snirit info
our hearts this Christmas hour. / tell you
what the world wants more than any thing
Ielse-more helping hands, more sympa-
lid