The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-01-11


they roll hosannas out Of the midnight
sky.
OH. yes; I 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 it. 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 imperfection
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 Of
God are twenty thousand. Even thou
sands of angels" But the mightiest
angel stood not that night in the clouds
over Bethlehem; the mightiest angel that
night lay among the cattle-the angel Of
the new covenant.
As the clean. white linen sent in by
some motherly villagers was being wrap
ped around the little form of that Child
Emperor, not cherub, not a seraph, not
al duS613 nOb WOT1Q DuG W6pb anu
thrilled and shouted. Oh, yes, our world
has plenty of sympathizers. Our world
is only a silver rung Of a great ladder, at
the top of which is our Fathers house.
10 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 q manger. ss1
4. Again, I remark that that night born
in that village barn was the Offenders
hope. Some sermOnizers may say ought
to have projected this thought at the be-
ginning of the sermon. Oil no; 1 wanted
you to rise toward it. I wanted you to
examine the comedians, and the jaspers,
and the emeralds, and the chrysalis,
before 1 showed you the Kohinoor-the
crown jewel Of the ages.
Oh sthat 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 Jungle of lux
uriant leaf and Wild flower, the kid of goat
is born in cavern chandeliered with stall
actite. and pnlared with stalagmite.
Christ was born in a bare barn. Yet that
nativity was the Offenders hope. Over
the door Of Heaven are written these
wordss ''None but the sihIess may enter
here"
"Oh, horror" you say, "that shuts us
all out" No. Christ came to the world
in one door, and Ee departed through an =
other door. He came through the door of
the manager, and BE departed through the
door of the sepulcher, and His one bust
ness was so to wash away our sin that one
| second after we are dead there will be no
mo resin about US than about the eternal
God. i
know that is putting. it strongly, but
| that is what I understand by full remis :
siOn.s sAll erased, all washed away, all
| scodred out, all gone. That undeFgirding
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? Doyou 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?
Obi now see what the manger was.
Not so high as the gilded and jewe1ed and
| embroidered cradle Of the Henrys of En-
gland, or the Louises of France, or the
/ Fredericks of Prussia. Now find out of
| that Bethlehem crib fed not so much the
oxen of the stall as the white horses of
| Apocalyptic vision. Now find the swad-
| ling clothes enlargIng and embIazoning
! into an imperial robe for a conquerOr.
Now find that the star Of that Christmas
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 complete
song, but only the stringing of the instru-
ments for a great chorus of two worlds,
the bass to be carried by earthly nations
saved, and the soprano by kingdoms of
glory won.
Oh Heaven, Heaven, Heaven. shall
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 cold
| Jordan, through the wide-open door Of
solid pearl, to that reunion. 1 expect to
see you there as certainly as / see you
| here. What timeswe shall have in high
| converse, talking over sins pardoned,
and sorrows comf0rted, and battles
triumphant.
I am going in. 1 am going to take all
| my family with me- L am going to take
all my church with mess.I am going to
take all my friends and neighbors with
me. have so much faith in Manager and
cross L feel sure of it. 1 am going to coax
| you in. am going to push you in. Yea,
! with all the concentrated energy of my
nature-physical, mental, spiritual and
immortal am going to compel you to go
in. I like you so well 1 want to spend
eternity with you!
Some of your children have already
gone. Some time ago 1 buried one of
| them, and though people passing along
the street and seeing white Grape on the
door-bell may have said: sit is only a
| child" yet when the broken-hearted
| father came to solicit my service he said +:
| tCome around and comfort US, for though
| she was only fifteen months old, we loved
| her so much" All! it does not take long
| for a child to get it's arms around the par
/ ents' whole nature.
/ What Christmas morning it win make
when those with whom you used to keep
! the holidays are all around you in Heaven
/ SilYer-haired old father young again, and
\ mother, who had so many aches and pains
! and decrepitudes, well again, and all
4 your brothers and sisters and the little
4 ones. How glad they win be to see you'll
They have been waiting. The last time
/ they saw your face, it was covered with
tears and distress, and pallid from long
watching, and one of them, I can imagine
to-day, with one hand holding fast the
shining gate, and the other hand swung
I toward you, saying:
Steer this way father, steer Straight for me;
Here safe in Heaven am waiting for thee.
Oh, those Bethlehem angels, when they
/ went back after the concert that night
! over the hills, forgot to shut the door.
All the secret is out. No more use Of try
ing to hide from US the glories to come.
It is too late to shut the gate. 1t is block
AIDED wide open with hosannas marching
this way, and hallelujahs marching that
/ way.
! What almost unmans me is the thought
that it is provided for such sinners as you
and have been. If it had been provided
only for those who had always thought
| right, and spoken right, and acted right
You and I would have had no interest in