Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-01-02
DIR. TALMAGE IN SYRIA.
A SERMON SUGGESTED BY THE To-
CALITY AND SEASON.

l.
Brooklyn, was at Beyrout on the 24th Of
December, and preached to q group Of
friends on The Sky Anthem His
text was Luke ii, IA: GLORY to God in
abe highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men, on which he deliv-
cred the following DISCOURSE:
At last i have what l longed for, q
Christmas eve in the Holy Land. This
is the time of year that Christ landed.
He was q December Christ. This is the
chill air through which He descended
] look up through these Christmas
skies, and see no loosened star hasten
ing southward to halt above Bethlehem,
but all the stars suggest the Star Of
Bethlehem. No moro need that any Of
them run along the sky to point down.
ward. In quietude they kneel at the
feet Of Him who, though once an exile,
is now enthroned forever. Fresh up
from Bethlehem. am full of the scenes
suggested by visit to that village. You
know that whole region of Bethlehem is
famous in Bible story. There were the
waving harvests of Boaz, in which Ruth
CLEANED for herself and weeping Naomi
There David the warrior was thirsty,
and three men of unheard of Sc If denial
L
get him 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 asses
sors of tax any more than they now do.
The village inn was crowded with the
strangers who had come up by the COM
- 30 khas~
names in the census, SO that Joseph and
Mary were obliged to lodge in the sta
BILE. You have seen some of those
large stone buildings, in the center of
which the camels were kept, while run
ming ont from this center in all direc-
tions there were rooms, in one of which
more showily appareled 1 have no
doubt they would have found more
comfortable entertainment. That night
inthe fields the shepherds, with crooks
and kindled fires, were watching their
focks, when bark! to the sound of voices
strangely sweet. Can it be that the
maidens of Bethlehem have come out to
serenade the weary shepherdsP But now
q light stoops upon them like the morn
ing, so that the fiocks arise, shaking
their showy fleece and bleating to their
drowsy young. The heavens are filled
with armies of light, and the earth
duakes under the harmony, as, 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 and dominion and
power which Christ left behind him
was hung on the sky in sight of Beth
lehem. Who knows but that that crown
may have been mistaken by the wise
men for the star running and pointing
downward?
My subject, lin the first place, impresses
me with the fact that indigence is not
always significant of degradation. When
princes are born, heralds announce it,
and cannon thunder it, and flags wave
it, and illuminations set cities on fire
with the tidings. Some of us in En-
gland OF America remember the time of
rejoicing when the Prince of Wales was
born. You can remember the gladness
throughout Christendom at the navity
in the palace at Madrid. But when our
glorious Prince was born, there was no
rejoicing on earth. Poor and growing
poorer, yet the heavenly recognition
that Christmas night shows the truth of
the proposition that Indulgence is not
always significant of degradation.
In all ages there have been great
hearts throbbing under rags, tender
sympathies under rough exterior, gold in
the quartz, Parian marble in the quarry,
and in every stable or privation wonders
of excellence that have been the Joy of
the heavenly host. All the great de-
iverers of literature and of nations
were born in homes without affluence,
and from their own privation learned to
speak and fight for the oppressed,
Many man has held up his pine knot
Light from the wilderness until all ma
tiohs and generations have seen it, and
off of his hard crust of penury has
broken the bread of knowledge and re-
ligion for the starving millions of the
race. Poetry, and science, and literature,
and commerce, and laws, and consti-
tutions, and liberty like Christ, were
born in a manger.
All the great thoughts which have de-
sided the destiny of nations started in
obscure corners, and had Herods who
wanted to slay them, and Iscariots who
betrayed them, and rabbles that crucified
them, and sepulchers that confined them
until they burst forth in glorious resur-
rection. Strong character, like the
rhododendron, is an Alpine plant, that
grows fastest in the storm. Men are
like wheat, worth all the more for being
failed. Some of the most useful peo-
pie would never have come to positions
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 bulrushes to
be the greatest lawgiver Of the ages, and
Amos from tending the herds to make
Israel tremble with his prophecies, and
David from the sheepcote to sway the
poets pen and the kings scepter, and
Peter from the fishing net to be the
great preacher at the Pentecost, fine
proof of the truth of my proposition
that indigence is not always significant
of degradation.
My subject also impresses me with the
thought that it is while at our useful
occupations that we have the divine
manifestations. Had those shepherds
gone that night into Bethlehem ant
risked their fiocks among the wolves
they wouldsnot have heard the song OF
the angels. In other words, that mar
sees most of God and Heaven who minds
his own business. We all have our
posts of duty, and standing there Goo
appears to ust We are all shepherds OF
shepherdesses, and we have our hocki
of cares and annoyances and anxieties
and we must tend them.
We sometimes hear very good people
say: IF i had q month or year or two
to do nothing but to attend to religious
things, would be good deal bette
than am now" You are mistaken
GAnernllv the hest manila nra the bus,