Connecticut western news., 1890-12-31
&4a3@ CANAAN, CONN, WEDNESDAY,, DECEMBER 31. 1890

east came to Christ. They were not fools, they were not imbeciles. The record distinctly says that the wise men came to Christ. We say they were the magi, or they were the alchemists, or they were the astrologists, and we say it with depreciating accentuation Why, they were the most splendid and magnificent men of the century They were the naturalists and the scientists They knew all that was known You must remember that astrology was the mother of astronomy, and that alchemy was the mother of chemistry, and be cause children are brighter than the mother you do not despise the mother
 It was the lifelong business of these astrologers to study the stars. Twenty two hundred and fifty years before Christ was born the wise men knew the procession of the equinoxes, and they had calculated the orbit and the return of the comets Professor Smith declares that he thinks they understood the distance of the sun from the earth. We find in the book of Job that the men of olden time did not suppose the world was fiat. as some have said, but that he knew, and the men of his time knew, the world was globular. The pyramids were built for astrological and astronomical study. Then the al- chemists spent their lives in the study of metals and gases and liquids and solids, and in filling the worlds library with their wonderful discoveries They were vastly wise men who came from the east, and tradition says the three wisest cane-Caspar, @ young man; Balthazar, a man in midlife, and Mel chior, an octogenarian the three wisest men of all the century They came to the manager. a.....
 So it has always been-the wisest men come to Christ, the brainiest men come to the manager. Who was the greatest metaphysician this country ever has produced2 Jonathan Edwards, the Christian. Who was the greatest astronomer of the world2 Herschel, the Christian. Who was the greatest poet ever produced2 John Milton, the Chris tian. Who was the wisest writer on law2 Blackstone, the Christian. Why is it that every college and university in the land. has chapelG They must have place for the wise men to wor- ship Come now, let us understand in ounces and by inches this whole matter
 In post-mortem examination the brain of distinguished men has been examined, and will find the largest, the heaviest, the mightiest brain ever produced in America, and I will ask what that brain thought of Christ. Here it is, the brain weighing sixty three ounces, the largest brain ever produced in America Now let me find what that brain thought of Christ. In the dying moment that man said ''Lord, believe, help thou mine un- belief. Whatever else do, Almighty God, receive me to myself for Christ's sake. This night shall be in light and joy and blessedness." So Danie Webster came to the manager. The wise men of the east followed by the wise men of the west
 PRESENT HELP IN TROUBLE.
 Know. also in this scene that it was a winter month that God chose for his sons nativity. Had it been the month of May-that is the season of blossoms Had he been born in the month o1 June-that is the season of roses Had he been born in the month of July that is the season of great harvests Had he been born in the month of Sep tember-that is the season of ripe or chards Had he been born in the month of October-that is the season of upholstered forests. But he was born in a winter month.
 It was in closing December that he was born to show that this is Christ for people in sharp blast, for people under clouded sky, for people with frosted hopes, for people with ther- mometer below zero. That is the req son he is so often found among the des- titute. You can find him on any night coming off the moors. You can see him any night coming through the dark lanes of the city. You can see him putting his hand under the fainting head in the pauper's cabin. He re- members how the wind whistled around the caravansary in Bethlehem that De cember night, and he is in sympathy with all those who in their poverty hear the shutters chatter on a cold night. It was this December Christ that Washington and his army worshiped at Valley Forge when without blankets they lay down in the December snow
 It was this Christ that the Pilgrim Fathers appealed to when the May flower wharfed at Plymouth Rock, and in the years that went by the graves digged were more in number than the houses built Oh, l tell you we want . December Christ, not a Christ for tair weather, but D. Christ for dark days clouded with sickness, and chill ing with disappointment, and suffoca ting with bereavement, and terrific with wide open graves. Not springtime Christ, not summer Christ, not an autumnal Christ, but 8 winter Christ. Oh, this suffering and struggling world | needs to be hushed and soothed and rocked and lullabied in the arms of sympathetic Omnipotence! No mother ever with more tenderness put her foot on the rocker of the cradle of sick child than Christ comes down to US, to this invalid world, and he rocks it into placidity and quietness as he says, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth give unto you"
 MERCY TO THE ANIMALS
 Notice also a fact which no one