The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1890-01-16
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Brooklyn Divine breaches
at Beyrout.
Christmas Sermon in which Hc
Gives UticraEIcPS u some Thoughts
InSp:rct by the Song OF the An.
.tIS at the Eirth OF Christ.

Tent: "Glory to Cod in The highest, and
on earth peace, good ,ciA to'ra'd men,
Luke H.. II.
At last have what longcd for. Christ
mas eve in the Holy Land. This is the timc
OF year that Christ landed. IIo was Dccem-
bcr Christ. This is the chill mir through
which lie descended. Hook upthrough these
Christmas skies, and see no looscned star
hastenmg southwark to halt above Bcthlc-
hem. but all the stars suggest the Star of
Bethlehem No more need that any of them
run along the sky to point downward. In
quictude they knscl at the feet of Him who,
though once an exile, is now Hnthroned for
ever. Fresh up from. Bcthlehim, l
am fun of the scenes suggested by a
visit TO that village. You know that
whole region Of Bethlehem is famous in Bible
story. There were the waving harveStS of
Boaz, i'll which Ruth glesa;Iei fer herself aud
-Weef:iifg-4EaOmi. There David the warrior
was thirsty, and three men OF unheard OF
self denial broke through tho Philistine army
to get him a drink 1t was to that region
that Joseph and Mary came TO have their
names enrolled in the census That is what
the Scripture means when it says they came
ITO be taxed" for people did not in those
days rush after the assessors Of tax any more
than they now do.
The village inn was crowded with tho
strangers who had comolp by the command
of Government to have their ranes in tho
census, SO that Joseph and Mary we're obliged
Ito lodgo in the stables. You have seen some
of those large stone buildings in the center
Of which the canicls wefo Kept; while run
ming out from this center in all directions
there were rooms, i'll one of:which Jesus was
born. Had his parents been more showily
un.orn1nl a. ho louht ibay- would hnv
found moro comfortable entertainment.
That night in the fields the shepherds, with
crook and kindlcd fires, were watch
ing their nockS, when bark! to
the sound of voices strangely sweet.
CAN'T be that the maidens of Bethlehem have
come out to sercnadc the weary shepherds?
But now q light stoops upon them like the
,uoruing, SO that the ilocks arise, shaking
their snowy fleece and bleating to their
drowsy young. The heavens are filled with
armies of light, and the earth quakes under
the harmony us, echoed back from cloud to
cloud, it rings over the midnight hills:
'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will to men" 1t seems that the
crown Of royalty aud dominion and power
which Christ left behind Him was hung oh
the SKY in sight of Bethlehem. Who knows
but that that crown may have been mistaken
by the wise men for the star running and
pointing downward?
My subject, in the first place, impresses ma
with the fact that indulgence is not always
significant of degradation. When Princes
are born, herahis announce it, and cannon
thunder it, and flags wave it, and illumina-
Gons set cities on fire with the tidings. Some
of us in England or America remember tia
time Of rejoicing when the Prince of Wales
vas born. You can remember the gladneSs
throughout Christendoin Mt the nativity III
the palace at Madrid. But when our glorious
Prince was born, there was no rejoicing OH
earth. Poor and growing poorer, yet the
heavenly recognition that Christmas night
shows the truth of the proposition that III
digence is not always significant of degrade
tiop.
In oil ages there have been great hearts
throbbin9 under rags, tender sympathies un-
der rough exterior, gold in the quartz, Par
ian marble in the quarry, and in every stable
of privation wonders Of excellence that have
been the JOY of the heavenly host All the
great dclirerers of literature and of nations
wcre born in homes without aifluence, and
from their own rrivation learned to speak
and fight for the oppressed. Many man
has held up his pine knot light from the will
derncss until all nations and generations
have seen it, and oil of his hard crust OF pen
ury has broken The bread Of knowledge and
religion for the starving nlillions"of tie
L Y,
and commerce, ard laws, and consti-
tutions, and liberty. like Christ, were born
in manger Al the great thoughts which
have decided the destiny Of nations started in
obscure corners, and had Hercds who wanted
to slay them. aud 1scariots who betrayed
them, and rabHles that cruciiied them, and
sepulchres that confined them until they burst
forth in glorious resurrection. Strong char
acter, like the rholodendron, is all Alpine
plant, that grows fastest in the storm. Men
are like wheat, worth all the moro for
being la"d some Of the most useful
peoplo would never have come to posi-
tions Of usefulness had they not been
ground and pounded and hammered
in the foundry OF disaster. When l
see Moses coming up from the ark OF bull
rushes to be tho greatest lawsiver OF the
ages and Amos from tending the herds to
mako Israel trcmblc with his prophecies, and
David from the shecpcote to sway the poets
pen and the Kings sccpter, and Peter from
the fishing net to be the great preacher at the
Pentecost, find proof Of the truth Of my
proposition that indgence is not always
significant of degradation.
My subject also imrresSes me with the
thought that it is while al our, useful oc-
cupations that We ha'e the divine
manifestations. Had rnose shepherds
gene that night into Bethlehem end
risked their flo"';s among the wolves, they
would not have heard the song OF the angels.
In other words that man secs most OF God
and heaven who minds his own business. We
all have our posts of duty, and standing
there Col appears to Us. We are all shep-
herds o: sheperdesseS, and we have our
focks of cares and annoyances and anxietieS
and we must tend them.
We sometimes hear very good people say:
"lf had 4 month or year or two to do
nothing but attend to religious things,
would be Il great deal better than lam now"
You are mistaken. Generally the best peo-
pie are the busy people. Elisha was plowing
in the field when the prophetic mantle fell
on hun. Matthew was attending to his Gus
tom house duties when Christ commanded
him to follow. James and John were mend
ing their nais when Christ called them to be
the sun Christ would not have called their
Incidence into the apostleship. Gideon
was at work with tho fail on the
threshing floor when he saw the angel.
Saul was with great fatigue hunting up the
lost asses when he founl the crown of Israel.
The prodiGal son would never have reformed
and wanted to have returned TO his fathers
house il h, had not first gone into business,
though it was swine feeding. Not once out
of n hundred times will Il lazy man become
Christian. Those who have nothing to do
are in very uufavorable circumstances for
the receiving Of divine manifestations 1t is
not when you are il iillencsS, but when you
are, like the Bothehem shepherds, watching
your loclis, that the glory doscends and there
is joy among the angels Of God over your soul
penitent and forgiven.
Ny suhjest also strikes at the delusion that
the religion of Christ is dolorous and grief
intusing. The music that broke through the
midnight heavens was not a dirge, but an an
them 1t shook joy over the hills 1t not
only dropped upon the shepherds, but it
Gprlng upward among tho thrones. The
rob, Of Sayiour's Righteousness is not