Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-01-09

pect your heavenly Father TO forgive you
Forgive them if they ask your forgiveness
md forgive them anyhow. Shake hands al
.round. sGood will to men"
Oh, my Lord Jesus, drop that spirit into
,ur hearts this Christmas hour. tell you
Shat the world wants more than anything
lse-mors helping hands, more sympathe
ic hearts, more kind words that never die,
nore disposition to give other people ride
md to carry the heavy end OF the load and
give other people the light end. and to as
tribe good motives instead OF bad, and 70
lind our happiness in making others happy.
Out of that Bethlehem crib let the bear
md the lion eat straw like an OK. "God-
will to men," That principle will yet set
sle all controversies, and under it the world
will keep on improving until there will be-
.uly two antagonists in all the earth, and
boy will side by side take the jubilant
,leigh-ride intinated by the prophet, when
,e said: sHoliness shall be on the bells of
he horses.
III. Again, remark that bern that
Christmas night in the village barn was
sympathetic union with other worlds. The
My skepticism / have ever had about
Christianity was an astronomical skepticism
which said: "Why would God out of tbs
ieavens and amid the Jupiters aud Ssturns
f the universe have chosen our little bit of
he world for the achievements of his only
oegotten Son when he might have had
yaster scale and vaster words?" But my
skepticsm is all gone as come to the man
ger and watch its surroundings. Now see
all the worlds are sisters. and that when
ne weeps they all weep, and when one
sings they all sing.
Fiom Inat supernatural grouping in the
aloud-banks over Bethlehem, and from the
especial trains that ran down to the xcsne.
iud that our world is beautifully and
yioFi0usiy and msgaifceDtly surrounded.
The meteors are with US, for one OF thep
ran to point down to the birthplace. The
heavens are with us, because at the thought
f our redemption they roll hosanna out OF
the midnight sky.
Oh! yes; / do not know but our world
nay be better surrounded than We have
sometimes imagined; and whom child Is
oorn angels fetch it, and when it dies an
gels take it, and when an old man bends
nnder the weight of years angels uphold
aim, ard when heart breaks angels soothe
it. Angels iu the hospital to take care OF
he sick. Angels in the cemetery to watch
our dead. Angels in church ready to fly
heaVenward with the news of rapentant
souls. Angels above the world. Angels
lEder the world.
Rub the dust of human imperfection out
If your eyes, and look into the heavens and
see angels of pity, angels OF mercy, angels
IF pardon, angels of help, angels crowned,
angels charioted. The world defended by
angels, girdied by angels eohorted by an
gels-clouds of angels. Hear David cry
uut: "The chaliots of God are twenty
thousand. Even thousands of angels"
But the migbtiest angel stood not that
night in the clouds over Bethlehem; the
mightiest angel that night lay among the
eattle-ibe Angel of the new covenant.
AS The clean white linen cent in by some
motherly villager was being wrapped a.
round the little form of that Child Emperor,
'=ot cherob, not sefaph, not an angel.
cot a world but wept and thrilled and
shouted. Obi yes, our world has plenty of
sympathisers. Our world is only silver
rans Of great ladder at the top Of which
Is our Fathers house. No more stellar
solitariness for our world, not friendless
planet spun out into space to freeze, but a
sorld in the bosom of divine maternity. A
star harnes=ed TO maDger.
IV. Again, remark that that night born
IN that village barn was the offenda rs
nope. Some sermouisers may say ought
% have projected this thought at the begin
ninp of the sermon. Obi no. I wanted
.ou to rise toward it. / wanted you to az
anime the comedians aud the jaspers and
.he emeralds and the chrysalis before I
showed you the Kohinoor-tbe crown jewel
of the ages.
Oil that jewel had very poor setting.
The cub of bear ia born amid the grand old
pillars of the forest, the whelp of the lion
Iakes its first step from the jungle of lux
nriant leaf and wild flower, the kid of the
goat is born in cavern cbaudeliered with
stalactite and pillared with stalagmite.
Christ was born in a bare barn. Yet that
nativity was the offenders hope. Over the
door of heaven are written these words:
None but tle siness may enter here"
'sOb, horror," you say, ''that shuts us
all out" No Christ came to the world in
me door. and He departed through an
other door. He came through the door Of
the manger, and He departed through the
door of the sepulchre, and His one business
was so to wash away our BIN that one sec
ond after we are dead there will be no
more sin about US than about the eternal
God.
1 know that is putting it strongly, but
that is what understand by full remission.
All erased, all washed away, all secured
out, all gone. That undergirdipg and over
arching irradiating and imparadising possi-
billty for you, and for me, and for the
whole race was given on that Christmas
night.
Do you wonder we bring flowers oday
70 celebrate such an event? Do you won
der that we take organ and corpetand youth
full voice and queenly soloist TO celehate
4? Do yon wonder that Raphael and Rn
bens and Titan and Giotto and Ghirlandajo
and all the old Italian aud Grman paint
srs gave the Madonna, Mary snd her boy?
Oh! now l see what the mapger was
Not SO high the gilded and jewelled
and embroidered cradle of the Henrys of
England, or the Louises of France or the
F1edericks of Prussia. Now find out of
hat Bethlehem crib fed not so much the
oxen of the stall as The white horses of
Apocalyptic vision. Now l find the swad-
ding clothes enarging and emblazoning
into an imperial robe for eonqueror. Now
Fl I'D that the star of that Christmas night
was only the diamond sandal of Him who
bath the moon under His feet. Now come
to understand that the music of that night
was not a complete song, but only tbe
stringipg of the instruments for great
chorus OF two wards, the bass to be earth
ly nations saved, and the soprano by king
doms of glory won.
Oh! heaven, heaven, heaven. I shall
meet you there. After all our impsrfec-
tiops are gone l shall meet you there. l
look ont 10 dag, 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. / expecs 10
see you there as certainly as I ses You here.
What time we shall have in high CON
verse, talking over sins pardoned, and sor-
rows conf rted, and battles triumphant!
1 am going in. am going to take all
nv family with me- am going to take
ali my church with me. I am gong to
take all my friends and neighbors with me.
have SO much faith in manger and cross l
feel sure of it. am going to coax you in
am going to push you in. By holy STRAIT
agem am going 10 surprise you in. Yea,
with all the concentrated energy of my ma
ture-pbysicsl, menta,, spiritual and lrn-
mortal-I am going to compel you to go in.
like you SO we'll want TO spend eternity
with you
.I..y :