Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-01-12
BABE IN the MANGER
Rev. DR.. Talmage breaches
on the Birth Of
Christ.
low His Infancy Should En-
courage the Poorly
Started.
Christ the Angel OF the New Cow
enant-Famiiics and Kindred
Reunited Above.
THE BABE IN THE MANGER.

lObdN, NilN. 4OltLAC nv Nv cans
two appropriate solos. The Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage, ID. d., preached, tax
ing for his subject, 'Barnlike Birth
places" His text was:
aye shall find the babe wrapped In ssad-
ding clothes, lying In "A mangcr. And sud
denly there was with the angel a multitude
OF the heavenly host. Luke II. II, -.
At midnight from one Of the galleries
If the sky a chant broke. TO an ordin-
airy observer there was no reason for such
a celestial demonstration a poor man
and wife-travelers, Joseph and Mary by
name-had lodged in an clubhouse of an
unimportant village. 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 a star
been unfxcd, or had a baton Of light
marshalcd over the hills winged orches-
ira. If'thcre had been such brilliant and
mighty recognition at an advent in the
house OF Pharaoh, or at an advent ia the
house Of Caesar, or the house of HIaps-
burg. or the house of Stuart, we would
not 50 much have wondered; but "A barn
seems too poor a center for such delicate
and |archangclic circumference. The
stage seems too small for so great an act,
the music too grand for such unapprecia-
tive auditors, the window Of the stable
too rude to be serenadcd by other worlds.
ENCOURAGEMENT o II DOR
No, sir. No, madam. 1t is my ioyt his
morning to tell you what was born that
night in the village barn; and as | want
TO make my discourse accumulative and
climacteric, | begin, in the first place, by
telling you that that night in the Beth
iehcm manger was born o. encourage.
ment for all the poorly started. lie had
only two fr~iends-they His parents. No
satin lined cradle, no delicate attentions,
but straw, and the cate, and the coarse
Joke and banter of the camel drivers.
No wonder the medieval painters repre-
sent the oxen as kneeling before the in.
FAINT 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 mighticst today in
ChristeDdom? Jesus. Who has more
friends or earth than any other being?
Jesus. Before whom do the most thou
sands knccl in chapel and church and
cathedral this hour? Jesus. For whom
could one hundred million souls be mar
shaled, ready TO fight or die. Jesus.
From what depths Of poverty to what
height of renown! And SO let all 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 wo DIS delivcrers had barnlikc birth
places Luther, the emancipation of re
ligion, born among the mines. Shakes
peare, the emanc,pator of literature, born
in an humble home at Stratford-on-Avon
Columbus. the discoverer of the world,
born in poverty at Genoa. Hogarth, the
discoverer of how to make art accumula-
tive and administrative of virtue, born in
q humble home at Westmorland. Kitto and
Prideaux, whose 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 Mes.
slahs of medicine, the Messiahs of pow
ertv, the Messiahs Of grand ~bcnevolencc,
were born in want.
! suppose that when Herschel. the
great astronomer, was born in the home
of a poor musician, not only one star,
but all the stars he afterward discovered,
pointed down TO his manger. suppose
when Haydn, the German composer, was
born in the humble home of a poor wheel
wright, that all the angels of music
rchanted over the manager Oh, what en-
c~ouragement for those who are poorly
started! Ye who thiuk yourselves far
down, aspire TO go high up
CHRIST AS A HELPER.
J stir your holy ambitions today, and |
want to tell YOU, although the whole
world may be opposed to you, and inside
and outside OF your occupations or pro
LESSONS there may be those who would
hinder your ascent, on our side and en-
listed in your behalf are the sympathetic
heart and the almighty arm Of one who
one Christmas night, 1,SeS years ago,
was wrapped in %swaddllng clothes and
laid in a manger Oh, what magnificent
encouragement for the poorly started,
.. Again, | have TO tell you that in that
village barn that night was born good
will to men, whether you call it kindness,
or forbearance, or forgiveness, or genial
itv. or affection, or love. 1t was no sport
of high heaven TO send its favOrite to
that humiliation. 1t was sacrifice for a
rebelliOus world. After the calamity,in
Paradise, not only did the OK begin
to gore, and the adder to
sting, ard the elephant to smite
with his tusk, and the lion to put to bad
lse tooth and paw. but under the very
tree from which the forbidden fruit was
pluckcd were Matched out war and re-
venge and malice and envy and jealousy,
and the whole brood of cOckatrices.
But against that scene l set the Bethle-
bem manger. which says: BLESS rather