The Russellville Democrat., 1889-01-10


 rounded. The meteors are with us, for one of them ran to point down 10 tho birthplace. The heavens arc with us, be- cause at the thought of our redemption they roll hosannas out of the midnight sky.
 Ohl yes; I do not know but cur world may be better surrounded than we have sometimes imagined, and when child is born angels fetch 1t, 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 cem- etery to watch our dead. Angels ill the church ready to fly Heayenward 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: ''rhe chariots of God are twenty thousand. Even thou sands of angels.r 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 seraph, not an angel not world but wept and thrilled and shouted. Oh, yes, our world has plenty of sympathizers. Our world . is only @ silver rung of great ladder, at the top Of which is our Fathers house. Iio more stellar solitariness for our world not friendless planet spun out into space to freeze, but q world in the bosom of Divine maturity. A star harnessed to manager.
 4. Again, remark that that night born in that village barn was the offenders hope. Some sermonizers may say l ought to Have projected this thought at the be- ginning of the sermon. 0hl no; wanted you to rise toward it. I wanted you to examine the comedians and the jaspers, and the emeralds, and the chrysalis, before I showed you the Kohinoor-the crown jewel of the ages.
 Oh! that jewel had very poor setting. The cub of bear is born amid the grand old pillars of the forest, the whelp 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 stal- actite and pillared with stalagmite. Christ was born in bare barn. Yet that nativity was the ofender,,s hope. Over the door of Heaven are written these worlds ''None but the sinless may enter here"
 "Oh, horror" you say, that shuts us all out" No. Christ came to the world in one door, and .e departed through an 1 other door. He came through the door of the manager, and He departed through the door of the sepulcher, and His one busi ness was so to wash away our sin that enc second after We are dead there will be no mo re sin about Us than about the eternal God.
 know that is putting it strongly, but that is what 1 understand by full remis : sion. All erased all washed away, all secured out, all gone. That undergirding, and overarching, and irradiating, and inn paradising possibility for you and for mo and for the whole race was given on that Christmas night.
 Do you wonder we bring flowers to-day to celebrate such an event? Do you 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?
 Ohi now I see what the manager was. Not so high as the gildei and jeweled 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 1 find the swad- ling clothes enlarglng and emblazoning into an imperial robe for a conqueror. Now I find that the star of that Christmas night was only the diamond sandal of Him who hath the moon under His feet. Now that I 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 irnperfec- tions are gone, 1 shall meet you there. I 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. l expect to see you there as certainly as l see you here. What time we shall have in high converse, talking over sins pardoned, and sorrows comforted, and battles triumphant.
 I am going in. am going to take all my family with me. l am going to take all my church with me. | am going to take all my friends and peighbors with
 .f, F-,s Efs I cross feel sure of it. l 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-I am going to compel you to go in. like you so well 1 want to spend eternity with you!
 Some of your children have already gone. Some time ago l buried one of them, and though people passing along the street and seeing white crape on the door bell may have said: ''It is only a child" yet when the broken-hearted father came to solicit my service he said: "Come around and comfort us, for though she was only fifteen months old, We loved her so much.v An! it does not take long for a child to get its arms around the par ents' whole nature.
 What a Christmas morning it will make when those with whom you used to keep the holidays are all around you in Heaven! Silver-haired old father young again, and mother, who had so many aches and pains and decrepitudes, well again, and all your brothers and sisters and the little ones. How glad they will be to see youl
 They have been waiting. The last time they saw your face, it was covered with tears and distress, and pollid from long watching, and one of them, l can imagine to-day, with one hand holding fast the shining gate, and the other hand swung toward you, saying: Steer this way, iatner, 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 -. EllI- E...-...L -I-..E l..