Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-01-02

tim. InOSe WHO nave nOtnlng 10 90
are in very unfavorable circumstances
for the receiving of divine manifesto
tions. 1t is not when you are in idleness,
but when you are, like the Bethlehem
shepherds, watching your hocks. that
the glory decends and there is JOY
among the angels of God over your soul
penitent and forgiven.
Ny subject also strikes at the delu-
sion that the religion of Christ is dol
orous and grief infusing. The music
that broke through the midnight heay-
ems was noI dirge, but an anthem. 1t
shook Joy over the hills. 1t not only
dropped upon the shepherds, but
sprang upward among the thrones. The
robe of Savior's righteousness is not
black. The Christian life is not
made up of weeping and cross bearing
and war waging. Through the revela-
tion of that Christmas night find that
religion is not q groan, but song. In
a world of sin and sick bed and SEOUL
chers, we must have trouble; but in the
darkest night the heavens part with an
gelic song. You may, like Paul, be
shipwrecked, but l exhort you to be of
good cheer, for you shall all escape
safe to the land. Religion does not
show itself in the elongation of the face
and the cut of the garb. The Pharisee
who puts his religion into his ply
lactery has none left for his heart. Fret
fulness and complaining do not belong
to the family of Christian graces which
move into the heart when the devil
moves out. Christianity does not frown
down amusements and recreations. 1t
is not cynic, it is not a shrew, it
nj 10 lon nn
light, it defaces no art. Among the
happy, it is the happiest. 1t is just as
much at home on the playground as it is
in the church. 1t is Just as graceful in
the charade as it is in the psalm book.
1t sings Just as we'll in Surrey gardens
as it plays in st. PauPs. Christ died
that we might live. Christ walked that
We might ride. Christ wept that We
might laugh.
Again, my subject impresses me with
the fact that glorious endings sometimes
have very humble beginnings. The
straw pallet was the starting point but
the shout in the midnight sky revealed
what would be the glorious consumma-
tion. Christ on MAry's lap, Christ on
the throne of universal dominion-what
an humble startingl What glorious
endingl Grace begins on q small scale
in the heart. You see only men as
trees walking. The grace of God in the
heart is feeble spark, and Christ has
to keep both hands over it lest it be
blown out. What an humble beginning!
But look at that same man when he has
entered Heaven. No crown able to ey-
press his royalty. No palace able to ex-
press his wealth. No scepter able to
express his power and his dominion.
Dripping from the fountain that drips
from the everlasting Rock. Among the
harpers harping with. their harps. On
seq of glass mingled, with fire. Before
the throne of God, to go no more out
forever. The spark of grace that Christ
had to keep both. hands over lest it
come to extinction, having famed up
into honor and glory and Immortality.
What humble starting! What glorious
consummation!
The New Testament church was on a
small scale. Fishermen watched it.
Against the uprising walls crashed in
fernal enginery. The world said
anathema. Tenthousand people rejoiced
at every seeming defeat, and said: AHA!
ahal SO we would have it" Martyrs on
fire cried: How long, o Lord, how
long?" Very humble starting, but see
the difference at the consummation,
when Christ with his mighty arm has
struck off the last chain of human bond
age, and Himalaya shall be Mount Zion;
and 'Pyrenees, Moriah; and oceans, the
walking place of Him who trod the wave
cliffs of stormed Tiberias, and island
shall callto island, sea to, sea, continent
to continent, and, the song of the
worlds redemption rising, the heavens,
like great sounding board, shall
strike back the shout of salvation to the
earth until it rebounds again to the
throne of God, and all heaven, rising on
their thrones, beat time with their scep-
ters. Oh, what an humble beginning!
What glorious ending! Throne linked
to manger, heavenly mansions to a
stable.
Ny subject also impresses me with the
effect of Christ's mission upward and
downward. Glory to God, peace to man.
When God sent his Son into the world,
angels discovered something new in
God, something they had never seen
before. Not power, not wisdom, not
love. They knew all that before. But
when God sent His Son into this world
then the angels saw the spirit of self
denial in God, the spirit of self sacrifice
in God. 1t is easier to love an angel on
His throne than thief on the cross, q
sefaph in His worship than an adultress
in her crime. When the angels saw
God-the God-the God who would not
allow the most insignificant angel in
Heaven to be hurt-giye up His Son,
His Son, His only, only Son, they saw
something that they had never thought
of before, and do not wonder that
when Christ started out on that pilgrim
age the angels in Heaven clapped their
wings in triumph and called on all the
hosts of Heaven to help them celebrate
it, and sang SO loud that the Bethlehem
shepherds heard it: GLORY to God in
the highest"
But it was also to be q mission of
peace to man. Infinite holiness-ac-
cumulated deprayity. How could they
ever come together? The Gospel bridges
over the distance. 1t brings God to us.
! 1t takes us to God. God in us, and we
| in God. Atonement! Atonement!
Justice satisfied, sins forgiven, eternal
| life secured, Heaven built on manger.
But twas also to be the pacifcation
of all individual and international ami
mosities. What sound this word of
peace had in the Roman Empire that
| boosted of the number of people it had
massacred, that prided itself on the
number of the slain, that joiced at the
trembling provinces. Sicily and Corsica
and Sardinia and Macedonia and Egypt
had bowed to her sword and crouched
at the cry of her war eagles. She gave
her chief honor to Seipio and Fabius
! and Cnaar-all men of blood, What
contempt they must have had there for