The Brookhaven leader., 1889-01-10

sympathetic hearts, more kind words that
never die, more disposition 70 give other
people ride, and to carry the heavy end
Of the load and give other people the
light end, and to ascribe good motives In.
steed Of bad, and to find our happiness in
making othefs happy;
Out Of that Bethlehem crib let the bear
and the lion eat straw like an OK. "Good
will to men," That principle will yet set
tie all controversies, and under 1t the
#6r1d 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 intiriidated BY the
prophet when he said: "Holiness shall
be on the bells of the horses"
3. Again, / remark that born that
Christmas night in the village barn was
sympathetic union with other worlds.
The only skeptiGism ] have ever had
about Christianity was an astronomical
skepticism which said: "Why Would
God, out of the Heavens and amid the
Jupiters and Saturns of the universe,
have chosen our little bit of a world for
the achievements of His oniystegotten
Son, when He might have had a vastef
scale and vaster worldsE" But my skep-
ticism is all gone as l come to the manger
and watch its surroundings. Now l see
all the worlds are sisters, and that when
one weeps they all weep, and when one
sings they all sing.
From that supernatural grouping in the
cloud banks over Bethlehem, and from
the especial trains that ran down to the
scene, find that our world is beautifully
and gloriously and magnifcently sur
rounded. The meteors are with US, for
one of them ran to point down to the
birthplace. The heavens are with us, be-
cause at the thought of our redemption
they roll hosannas out of the midnight
sky.
Oh! yes; do not know but our world
may be better surrounded than we have
sometimes imagined, and when child is
born angels fetch it, and when it dies
angels take it, and when an old man
bends under the weight Of years angels
uphold him, and when a heart breaks
angels sooth 1t. Angels in the hospital to
take care of the sick. Angels in the Gem
etery to watch our dead. Angels In the
church ready to fly Heavenward with the
news of repentent souls. Angels all
around the world.
Rub the dust of human imperfectior
out Of our eyes, and look into the Heavens
and see angels of pity, angels of mercy
angels of pardon, angels of help, angels
crowned, angels charioted. The world
defended by angels-clouds of angels
Hear David cry out: ''The chariots oi
God are twenty thousand. Even thou
sands of angels" But the mighties
angel stood not that night in the clouds
over Bethlehem; the mightiest angel tina
yior lay tho oatfla--tha noal m
the new covenant.
AS the clean white linen sent IN by
some motherly villagers was being wrap
ped around the little form Of that Chilt
Emperor, not a cherub, not a seraph, not
an angel, not world but wept and
thrilled and shouted. Oh, yes, our world
has plenty of sympathizers. Our world
is only silver rung of a great ladder, a
the top of which is our Fathers house.
No more stellar solitariness for our
world, not a friendless planet spun out
into space to freeze, but a world in the
bosom of Divine maturity. A star
harnessed to a manger.
4. Again, remark that that night bOrr
in that village barn was the offender
hope. Some sermonizers may say ought
to have projected this thonght at the be-
ginning of the sermon. Oh! no; wanted
you to rise toward it. 1 wanted you to
examine the comedians, and the jaspers,
and the emeralds, and the chrysalis,
before / showed you the Kohinoor-the
crown jewel Of the ages.
Oh! that jewel had very poor setting
The cub of bear is born amid the grand
old pillars of the forest, the whelp of the
lion takes its first step from jungle Of lux.
uriant leaf and wild flower, the kid of goat
is born in cavern chandeliered with stall
actite and pillared with stalagmite.
Christ was born in q bare barn. Yet that
nativity was the Offenders hope. Over
the door of Heaven are written these
words: ''None but the sinless may enter
here"
"Oh, horror" you say, "that shuts us
all out" No. Christ came to the world
in one door, and He departed through an
other door. He came through the door of
the manger, and He departed through the
door of the sepulcher, and His one busi-
ness was so to wash away our sin that one
second afteY we are dead there will be no
more sin alb out US than about the eternal
God.
know that is putting it strongly, but
that is what / understand by full remis
sion. All erased, all washed away, all
secured out, all gone. That undergirding,
and overarching, and irradiating, and i'm
paradising possibility for you and for me
and for the whole race was given on that
Christmas night.
Do you wonder we bring flowers to-day
to celebrate such an event? Do you won-
der that we take organ aud cornet and
youthful voice and queenly sOloist to cele-
brate it? Do you wonder that Raphael,
and Rubens, and Titan Giotto. and
Ghirlandajo, and all the Italian and Ger
man painters, gave the mightiest stroke OF
the pencil to sketch the Madonna, Mary
and her boy?
Oh! now see what the manger was
Not so high as the gilded and jeweled and
embroidered cradle of the Henrys of En-.
gland, or the Louises of France, or the
Fredericks of Prussia. Now find out oi
that Bethlehem crib fed not so much the
oxen of the stall as the white horses o
Apocalyptic vision. Now find the swad
ling clothes enlarging and emblazonini
into an imperial robe for a conqueror
Now find that the star of that Christina
night was only the diamond sandal Of
Him who hath the moon under His feet
Now that come to understand that the
music of that night was not a complets
song, but only the stringing of the instru
ments for great chorus Of two worlds
the bass to be carried by earthly nations
saved, and the soprano by kingdoms O
glory won.
Oh! Heaven, Heaven, Heaven. shal
meet you there. After all our imperfec
tions are gone, I shall meet you there.
look out to-day, through the mist OF years
through the fog that rises from the col