New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1890-12-24
A CHRISTMAS SERMON.
BY ROBERT BURDETTE.


poor is separated from his neighbor.-Prov
cribs. NIX: 4. tE
Dearly beloved: The Scripture
moveth us in sundry places, and
about once a wear, to yearn, with
bowels of compassion, for the poor,
to stretch out our hands to the
needy, to send load OF limbwood
to the widow, and to give the father
less a job of shove]ing off four dol
lars worth of snow for fifty cents.
We send a barrel of last summers
| clothing to the Montana Missionary
in the blizzard season; we buy a
fve-dollar ticket to a ten-dollar
charity ball, out of which we get fif-
teen dollars worth OF fun, and cry
| aloud 81 am he that considereth the
poor" Yea, verify, and thou con-
siderest him a nuisance. for hath not
the Wise Man said, "The poor is hated
even of his own neighbour" He
hath-see Proverbs, XIV: 2O-and
you are the very neighbor he was
thinking Of.
Beloved, let us consider this mat
ter a moment. indeed expected
that the announcement Of the text
would raise howl th2t might stop
the clock-"but none Of these things
| move me-" Let us see, not how
much you have done for the poor
this merry Christmas season, but
what you have done tor him all the
year round. am not given to criti-
cising Providence, but sometimes,
in my daring and sceptical moments
have thought that it might have
been money in the poor mans pocket
and "collops OF fat on his fanks,"
had he been built, as to his exterior
department., upon the plans and
specifications of the COW, with four
stomachs; or, with ~ storage lip like
a pelican. Then, when the rest OF
the world had it's annual spasm of
| Christmas benevolence, he might line
| himself with fat things full of mar
row, and hibernate until the next
December took US by the throat with
''la, grippe again, and the fear Of
| death should once more frighten
us into renewing our fire insurance,
and buying a cut-rate ticket
to heaven over the Phylactery
Broad Gauge. I cannot make you
| believe this now, when you have just
helped to decorate a Christmas tree
for the Blind Asylum; but if you
would recall this sermon-which you
| will motor remember the text which
| you cannot-about six months from
now, l think it would grow upon
| you, .. u.s.. -.
Cali the brethren Of the poor do
hate him; how much more do his
friends go far from him? He pur-
sueth them with words, but they are
gone" So it was in the days of
Solomon. Is it much better now?
This. Christmas week your heart is
warm; you say 'the first-born Of
the poor shall feed and the needy
shall lie down in safety" if it takes a
| dollar. But when the same poor
man came to you in October and
wanted to borrow seven dollars, you
even wished that you had a sword
in your hand that you might STAY
him. You can stand him once @ year,
when all the world is bent upon gorg-
ing him until he "loatheth the honey
comb" ;but to see the beggar lying at
the gate every time you go out, that
is trying. We could love him were
he a naked heather, far, far away in
benighted lands where we could new
er see him; but to stumble over him
every time we go to church or thea
tire, euchre- party or prayer-meeting
communion table or ballroom, this
makes us tired. But, brethren. he
isn't promised to US as an annual
blessing, like the latter rains; he's
an all-the-year-round reminder of
Gods riches and our stewardship,
"For the poor shall never cease out
Of the land; therefore / command
thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine
hand wide unto thy brother, to thy
poor and to thy needy in thy land"
Overhaul your Deuteronomy for
that; it will probably take you all
the rest OF the morning to find it, but
you VIII Iun dCIOSS q HuOle SOiuulo
of good things whileyo are looking
for it.
| Thanks to Christianity, thanks to
every church founded on the teach
ings of Jesus of Nazareth, we do take
better care ofour poor, n thousand
fold, than Solomon, or his father be-
fore him or his sons after him, ever
did. But we have yet to learn that
while spasmodic charity is better
than none, Christmas ought to last
all the year round. And, indeed,
there is no reason why it shouldn't.
Because no man knoweth Just when
it Should come. II we are positive