Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-01-12

fp'h ''.H~h '+N 49, N'fP' NPNN"'
and that Christmas night puts out vim
diCtivcnpss. IL says: 'Sacathe your
sword, dismount your guns. dismantle
your batteries, turn the waisAip Constel
lation, that carried shot and shell, into a
grain shop to take food 10 furnishing Ire
land, hook your cavalry horses TO the
pillow, use your deadly gunpowder in
blasting rocks and III patriotic celebra-
ton, stop Jour lawsuits, quit writing
anonymous letters, extract the sting from
your sarcasm, let your wit Coruscate but
never burn, drop AL harsh words out Of
your vocabllary-Good Will to men =
oh you say, Il can't exercise 1t; /
won't exercise ii until they apologize; |
won't forgive them until they ask me o
forgive them You are no Christian
them say you are no Christian, or you
are Il very inconsistent Christian. If you
forgive not men their trespasses, o can
you expect your Heavenly Father to for
give you? Forgive them if they ask your
forgiveness, and forgive them anyhow.
Shake hands all around.
GOOD WILL TO MEN"
Oh, my Lord Jesus, drop that spirit
into our hearts this Christmas hour. !
tell you what the world wants more than
anything clse-morc helping hands, more
sympathetic hearts, more kind words that
never die, more disposition to give other
people Il ride, and 10 carry the heavy end
of the load and give other people the
light end. and to ascribe good motives in
stead 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 10 men" That principal will yet
settle all controversies, 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-ridc intimated by the
prophet when he said: Holiness shall
be on the bells Of the horses"
g.. Again, | remark thai born that
Christmas night in the village barn was
sympathetic union with other worlds.
The only ekepticism / have ever bad
about Christianity was an astronomical
skcpticism which said why would
God out Of the heavens and amid the
Jupitcrs and Saturns Of the universe
have chosen our little bit Of a world for
the achievement Of Ills only begottcn
son when hC might have had a Vastcr
scale and vastcr worlds But my
skepticism is all gone as | come to the
manger and watch lis surroundings.
Now | see all the worlds are sisters, and
that when one wecps they all weep, and
when one sings hey all sing.
From that supernatural grouping IN
the clOpd-banks over Bethlehem, and
from the especial trains that ran down 10
the scene, ] find that oar world IS
beautifully aud %gloriously and magnil
Gently surrounded. The meteors are
with us, for Of them ran TO point
down to the birthplace. The heavens
are with us, because at the thought Of
our redemption they roll hosannas out OF
the midnight sky.
III NEW COVENANT.
Oh, yes; | do not know but orr world
may be better surrounded than we have
some times imagined; and when a child
is born angels fetch it, and when il dies
angels take it, and when an old man
bends under the weight OF years angels
uphold him. and when IA heart breaks
angels soOthe it. Angels in the hospital
to take care Of the sick. Angels in
the cemetery to watch u dead. Angels
IN church ready 10 fly h~eavenward with
the news of repcntant souls. Angels
above the world. Angels under the
world. 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, girdled by angels,
cohUrted by angels clouds Of angels.
Hear David cry out: The chariots of
God are 90, 600. Even thousands Of an
gels" Blu. the mightiest angels stood
not that night in the clouds over Bethle-
hem; the mighticst angel that night lay
among the cattle-the angel OF the new
covenant.
As the clean white linen sent in by
some motherly villagcr was being
wrapped around the little form of that
child emperor, not a cherub, not a seraph.
not an angel, not a world but wept and
thrilled and shouted. oh. yes, our world
has plenty Of sympathizcrs. Our world
is only a silver rung Of q great ladder at
the top Of which is our Fathers house.
Ne more stellar solitariness for our world,
not q ~fricndless planet spun out into space
to freeze, but a world in the bosom of di-
vine maternity. A star harnessed to a
manager.
4 Again, | remark that that
night born in that village barn was the
offenders hope. Some scrmonizers may
say ] ought TO have projected this thought
OF the beginning of the sermon Oh, no.
| wanted you TO rise toward it. / wanted
you TO examine the comedians and the
iaspcrs and the emeralds and the cbrysalis
before | showed you the Kohinoor the
crown jewel IF the ages.
Oh, that jewel had a very poor setting,
The cub of bear is born amid the grand
old pillars Of The forest, the whclp of the
lion takes its first step from the jungle
Of luxul.iant leaf and wild flower,
the kid OF goat is born in cavern chandel-
tered with stalactite and pillared with
stalagmite. Christ was born in a bare
barn. Yet that nativity was the offend
er's hope. Over the door of heaven are
written these words: None but the sin
less may enter here
CHRIST CLEANsES FROM SIN.
'Oh, horror" you say, that shuts us
all out" Christ came to the world IN one
door and He departed through another
door. He came through the door of the
mangcr and He departed through the
door of the scpulchre and His one bust
ness was 10 wash away our sin that one
second after We are dead there will be no
more sin about us than about the eternal