The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1889-01-10

CHRIST'S BIRTH.
Rev. DR. TaImage, finds q subject for his
Christmas sermon in Barn. Like
Birthplaces.
The Rev. r. De Witt Talmage, b. d.,
preached, taking for his subject .sBarnlike
Birthplaces.0 His text wns: "Ye shall find
the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes,
lying in q manager. And suddenly there was
with the angel q multitude Of the heavenly
host."-Luke ii, IL, ID.
At midnight, from one Of the galleries Of
server there was no reason for such q celes-
tial demonstration. Apoor man and wife
travellers, Joseph and Mary by name-had
lodged in an clubhouse of an unimportant
village. The supreme hourof solemnity had
passed. and upon the pallid forehead and
cheek Of Mary God had set the dignity, the
grandeur, the tenderness, the everlasting and
divine significance of motherhood
But such things often occurred in Bethle-
hem, yet never before had q star been unfixed,
or had q baton of light marshaled 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 ad-
vent in the house of Cesar, or the house of
Hapsburg, or the house OF Stuart, we would
not so much have wondered: but q barn
seems too poor O center for such delicate
and archangelic circumference. The stage
seems too small for SO great nm act, the mu-
sic too grand for such unappreciative audi
tors, the window of the stable too rude to be
serenaded by other worlds:
No, sir. No, madam: It 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 eli
l begin, in the first place, by tell
ing you that that night in the Bethlehem
manager was born (I.) encouragement for all
the poorly started. He had only two friends
were His parents. No satin-lined
the cattle, and the coarse joke and banter of
the camel drivers. No wonder hemedieval
painters represent the oxen as k~neeling be-
fore the infant Jesus, for there were no men
there at that time to worship. From the
depths Of what poverty He rose until today.
He is honored in all Christendom, and sits on
the imperial throne in heaven.
What name is mightiest today in Chr1sten-
dom? Jesus. Who has more friends on earth
than any other being? Jesus. Before whom
do the most thousands kneel in chapel and
church and cathedral this hour? Jesus. For
whom could loo, 00O 900 souls be marshaled
ready to fight or die? Jesus. From what
depth of poverty to what height of renown?
And SO let oil those who are poorly started
remember that they cannot be more poorly
born, or more disadvantageously, 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
the worlds deliverers had barn-like birth
places. Luther, the emancipation of religion,
born among the mines. Shakespeare, the
emancipator of literature, born in an humble
home at Stratford on Avon. Columbus, the
discoverer of a world, born in poverty at
Genoa. Hogarth, the d~iscoverer of how to
make art accumulative and administrative
OF virtue, born in IN humble home ut West
moretnnd. Kitto and Prideaux, whose keys
unlocked new apartments in the Holy
Scriptures which had never been entered,
born in want. Yes, I have to tell you that
nine out of ten ofthe worlds deliveries, nine
out of ten of the worlds m~essiahs-the
messiahs of science, the messiahs of law, the
messiahs Of medicine, the messiahs of
poverty. the messiahs of grand benevolence
were born in want. .rs
astronomer, was born in the home of q poor
musician, not only one star. but all the stars
that he afterward discovered, pointed down
to his manger. I suppose that when Haydn,
the German composer, was born In the hum
bic home of a poor millwright, hat all the
angels of music chanted over the manager.
Oh, what encouragement for those who are
poorly started | Ye who think yourselves
far down, aspire to go high upl
/ stir your holy ambitions to-day, and I
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 yonr as.
cent on your side and enlisted in your behalf
are the sympathetic heart and the almighty
arm of One who one Christmas night. about
1883 years ago, was wrapped in swaddling
clothes-and laid in o manger. Oh, what mag
nificent encouragement fort the poorly startedl
III. Again, / have to tell you that in that
village barn that night was born good will
to men, whether you call it kindness, or for
%bearance, or forgiveness, or geniality, or at
lection, or love. It was no sport Of high
Heaven to send it's favorite to that humilia-
ton. 1t was a sacrifice for q rebellious
world. After the calamityin Paradise, not
only did the OK begin to gore, and the adder
to sting, and the elephantx0 smite with his
tusk, and the lion to put to bad use tooth
and paw, but under the very tree from which
the forbidden fruit was plucked were Matched
out war n revenge and malice and envy,
and jealousy, and the whole brood OF cocka-
trices. ,-a
But against that scene I set the Bethlehem
Manager, which says: "Bless rather than
curse, endure rather than assault" and that
Christmas nightputs out vindictiveness. It
says: Sheathe your sword, dismount your
guns, dismantle your batteries, turn the war
ship Constellation, that carried shot and
ishing Ireland; hook your cavalry horses to
the pillow, use our deadly gunpowder in
blasting rocks and in patriotic celebration,
stop your law suits, quit writing anonymous
letters, extract the sting from your sarcasm,
let your wit coruscate but never burn, drop
oil the harsh, words out Of your vocabulary.
"God. will to men,"
"Ohl" you say, ~ can't exercise 1T; I won't
exercise it until they apologize; I won't for.
give them until they ask me to forgive them.'
You are no Christian then-Isay you are no
Christian, or you are q very inconsistent
Christian. Hyou forgive not men their tres.
passes how can you expect your Heavenly
Father to forgive you? Forgive'them if they
ask your forgiveness, and forgive them any.
how. Shake hands all around. "Good will
to men,"
"Oh, my Lord Jesus, drop that spirit into
our hearts this Christmas hour, l tell you
what the world wants more than anything
else-more helping hands, more sympathetic
hearts, more kind words that never die,
and to carry the heavy end of the load and
give other people the light end, and to as
cribe good motives instead of bad, and to
find our happiness in making others happy.
Out of that Bethlehem let the bear and the
lion eat.straw like IN OF .Good will to
men," That principle will yet settle all con.
troversies, and under it the world will keep on
improving until there will be only two anita.
gonists in all the earth, and they will side by
side take the jubilant sleighride intimated BY
the prophet when he said, Holiness shall be
on the bells of the horses !"
III. Again, / remark that bornth Christ
mas night in the village barn was sympa.
thetic union with other worlds. The only
skepticism / have eve had about Christianity
was an astronomical skepticism which said;
"Why would God out of the heavens and amid
the Jupiters and Saturns oftho universe, have