Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-01-18
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly DisOOurses of the Great
BROOKLYN Preacher.
Subject: ''BarnIiIxe BirthpIa-
ces.:

TEXT: aye shall find the babe Wrapped
IN sicdddliRg clothes, lining ia a nanger
ana suddenly there tUaS IOith The angel a
munttude of the heavenly hoSt."-Luke il,
l2-13
AT midnight from one of the galleries Of
tine SKY a chant broke. To an ordinary OBJ
server there was no reason for such a celestial
demonstration. poor man and wife
travellers, Joseph and Mary by name-had
lodged IN an clubhouse OF an unimportant viii
lage. The supreme hour of 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 scenes had often occurred in
Bethlehem, yet never before had star been
unfxed, or had a baton of light marshaled
over the hills winged orchestra If there
had been such brilliant and mighty recogni-
ton at an advent in the house of Pharaoh,
or at an advent in the house of Caesar, or the
house OF Hapsburg, or the house of Stuart,
we would not so much have wondered; but
barn seems too poor center for such deli
cate and archangelic circumference The
stage seems too small for so great an act, the
music too grand for such unapprecaJive
auditors, the window of the stable too rude
to be serenaded by other worlds.
No, sir. No, madam. 1t 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 climac-
teric, | begin, in the first place, by telling
you that, that night, in the Bethlehem
manager, was born a. encouragement for all
the poorly started. He had only two friends
they His parents No satin lined CRADLE no
delicate attentions, but straw, and the cattle,
and the coarse Joke and banter of the camel
drivers No wonder the medieval painters
represent the oxen as kneeling before the
infant Jesus, for there were no men there at
that time TO worship From the depths of
what poverty He rose, until to day He IS hon
ored in all Christendom, and sits on the I'm
perial throne in Heaven.
What name is mightieSt to-day in Christen-
doml Jesus. Who has more friends on
earth than any other beingl Jesus. Before
whom do the most thousands kneel in chapel
and church and cathedral this hour? Jesus.
For whom could one hundred million souls
be marshaled, ready to fight or del Jesus
From what depths OF poverty to what height
ofrenown! And so letall 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 barnlike birthplaces9
Luther, the emancipation of religion born
among the mines. Shakespeare, the enamel
pator of literature born in a humble home
at Stratford-on- Avon Columbus, the dis
coverer of a world, born in poverty at Genoa.
Hogarth, the discoverer of how to make at
accumuative and administrative of virtue,
born in a humble home at Westmoreand.
kltto and Prideaux, whese keys unlocked new
apartments in the Holy Scriptures which had
never been entered, born in want. Yea,
have to tell you that nine out of ten of the
worlds deliverers, nine out of ten of the
worlds messiahs-the messiahs of science,
the messiahs of law, the messiahs of medi-
cine, the messiahs of poverty, the messiahs
OF grand benevolence-were born in want
l suppose that when Herschel, the great
astronomer, was born in the home of poor
musician not only one star, but all the stars
he afterward discovered, pointed down to his
manger. | suppose when Haydn, the Ger
man composer, was born in the humble home
of poor wheelwright that all the angels of
music chanted over the manger. Oh, what
encouragement for those who are poorly
started. Ye who think yourselves far down
aspire to go high up
| stir your holy ambitions to-day, and
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 your ascent,
on your side and enlisted in your behalf are
the sympathetic heart and the almighty arm
of One who, one Christmas night about
eighteen hundred and eighty EIGHT years ago,
was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid
in a manger. Oh, what magnificent an
couragement for the poorly started
II. 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 af-
lection, or love. 1t was no sport of high
heaven to send its favorite to that humilia-
ton. 1t was a sacrifice for rebellous world.
After the calamity in Paradise, not only did
the OK begin to gore and the adder to sting,
and the elephant to smte 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 and
revenge, and malice and envy and jealousy,
and the whole brood of cockatrices.
But against that scene set the Bethlehem
manger, which says: BLESS rather than
curse, endure rather than assault" and that
Christmas night puts out vindictiveness. 1t
says: "Sheaths your sword, dismount your
guns dismantle your batteries, turn the war
ship Constellation, that carried shot and shell,
into a grain ship to take food to famished
Ireland. hook your cavalry horses to the
pillow, use your deadly gunpowder in blasting
rocks and in patriotic celebration, stop your
lawsuits, quit writing anonymous letters, ex-
tract the sting from your sarcasm, let your
wit coruscate but never burn, drop all the
harsh words from your vocabulary-Good
will to men,"
"Ohn you say, 81 can't exercise it I won't
exercise it until they apologize; won't for
give them until they ask me to forgive
them" You are no Christian them say
consistent Christian. If you forgive not men
their trespasses, how can you expect your
Heavenly Father to forgive you2 Forgive
them if they ask your forgiveness, and for
give them anyhow. 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 more
disposition to 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 instead of bad, and to find our
happiness in making others 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 settle all con-
troversies, and under it the world 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 init
mated by the prophet when he said "Holi-
ness shall be on the bells of the horses"
III. Again, / remark that born that Christ
mas night in the village barn was SYM
pathetic union with other worlds. The only
skepticism 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 uni
verse have chosen our little bit of world for
the achievements of His only begotten Son
when He might have had a vaster scale
and vaster WorldsW But my skepticsm is
all gone as 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 glori
ously and magnifcently surrounded. The
meteors are with us, for one of them ran to
point down to the birthplace. The heavens
are with us, because at the thought of our
fha,r roJl l,oeonnae, o,,& ~ tbo