Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1889-12-30
Special Telegram to the Register.


parents been more shOWily apparelled l
have no doubt they would have found
more comfortable entertainment. That
night in the fields the shepherds,
with crook and kindled fires, were watch
ing their flOcks, when hsrk! to the sound
of voices strangely sweet. Can it be that
the maidens Of Bethlehem have come out
to serenade the weary shepherds? But now
a light stoops upon them like the morning,
30 that the fOcks arise, shaking their snowy
ieecss and bleating TO their drowsy young.
The heavens are filled with armies OF light,
and the earth quskes under the harmony
as, echoed back from cloud, it rings over
the midnight hills: "Giory to God in the
highest, aud On earth peace, good will to
menu Ii seems that the crown Of royal
" and dominion and power which Christ
left behind him was hung on the sky IN
sight of Bethlehem. Who knows but that
that crown may have been mistaken by the
wise men for the star running and point
ing downward?
Ny subject, in the first place, impresses
me with the fact that indulgence Is not al
ways significant Of degradation. When
princes are born, heralds anusunce 1t, and
flsgs wave it, and Examinations set cities
on fire with the tidings. Some OF us in
Ens,and or America remember the time
when the Prince VI Wales was born. Nou
can remember the gladness throughout
Christendom at the nativity in the palace
at Madrid. But when our glorious Prince
was born, there was no rejoicing on earth.
Poor and growing poorer, yet the heaven
ly recognition that Christmas night elbows
the truth Of the proposition that indulgence
is not always significant Of degradation.
In all ages there have been
GRRAT HEARTS THROBBING UNDER RAGS,
tender sympathies under rough exterior,
gold in the quartz. Psrian marble in the
quarry, and in every stable of privation
wonders OF excellence that have been the
10Y of the heavenly host. All the great
deliverers Of literature and OF nations were
born in homes without sfiluence, and from
their own privation learned to speak and
fight for the oppressed. Many man has
held up his pine knot light from the will
derness until all nations and generations
have seen it, ard of of bis hard crust Of
penury has broken the bread of kno Wedge
ard religion for the starving millions Of
the race. Poetry, and scisncs, and litera-
ture and commerce, and laws, and con-
stitutions, and liberty, like Christ,
we're born in msDger. All the
great thoughts which have decided
the destiny of nations started in
obscure corners, and had HerOds
who wanted to slay them, and IscsriOts
who betrayed them, and rabbles that cru
sihed them, and sepulchers that confined
them until they burst forth in glorious
resurrection. Strong character, like the
rhododendron, is an Alpine plant, that
grows fastest in tho storm. Men are like
wheat, worth all the more for being hsiied.
Some of the most usaful people would
never have come to positions OF usefulness
haze they not been ground and pounded
and hammered in the foundry OF disaster.
When I see Moses coming up from the ark
of bulrushes to be the greatest lawgiver OF
the ages, and Amos from tending the herds
to make Israel tremble with his prophecies,
and David from the sheepcOte to swsy the
poets pen and the kings scepter, and
Peter from the fishing net to be the great
preacher at the Pentecost, find proof OF
the truth of my proposition that iudigence
is not always significant CT degradation.
NV subject also impresses me with the
thought that il is while at our useful Oc-
cupations that We have the divine mani
festations. Had these shepherds gone that
night into Bethlehem and risked their
fiOcks among the wolves, they would not
have heard the song Of the sngels. 10
other words, that man sees most Of God
and heaven who minds his own business
We all have cur posts Of duty, and etand-
ing there God appears to us. We are all
shepherds or shepherdesses, and we have
our fiocks Of cares and annOyance5 and
anxieties, and we must tend them.
BEST PEOPLE BUSY PEOPLE.
We sometimes hear very good people
say: 'If had a month or year or two
to do nothing but attend to religious things,
I would he a great deal better than l am
now" You are mistaken. Generally the
best people are the bnsy people. Elisha
was plowinR in the field when the prophetic
mantle fell on him. Matthew was attend
iug to bis custom house duties when Christ
commanded him to follow. James and
John we're mending their nets when
Christ called them to be fishers Of men.
Had they been snoring in the sun Christ
would not have called their Incidence into
the apostleship Gideon wss at work with
the fail on the threshing door when he
saw the angel. Saul was with great
fatigue hunting up the lost asses when be
found the crown Of Israel. The prodieal
son would never have reformed and wanted
TO have returned 10 his fathers house if re
had not first gone into business, though 1t
was swine feeding. Not once out Of
hundred times will S lszy man become
Christian. These who have nothing to do
are in very unfavOrable circumstances for
the receiving of divine manifestations. 1t
8 not when you are in idleness, but when
Won are, like the Bethlehem shepherd,
watching your fiocks, that the glory de-
scends and there is joy among tue spgels
of God over your soul psnitent and for
given.
NV subject slso strikes at the delusion
that the religion Of Christ is dOlorOu9 and
grief infusirg The music that broke
through the midnight heavens wss no. a
dir0e, but sn anthem. 1t shook Joy over