The Brookhaven leader., 1890-01-09

the fail on the threshing-foor when he
saw the angel. Saul was with great
fatigue hunting up the lost asses when
he found the crown of Israel. The
prodigal son would never have reformed
and wanted to have returned to his ia
theirs house IL he had not first gone into
business, though it was swine-feeding.
Not once out of hundred times will a
lazy man become a Christian. Those
who have nothing to do are in very un-
favorable circumstances for the receiv-
ing of di vine manifestations. It is not
when you are in idleness, but when you
are, like the Bethlehem shepherds,
watching your flocks, that the glory de-
scends and there is JOY among the angels
of God over your soul penitent and for
| igven.
Ny subject also strikes at the delu-
sion that the religion of Christ is dolor-
Gus AID grief infusing. The music
wbi5n broke through the midnight
heavens was not dirge, but an anthem.
1t shook Joy over the hills. 1t not only
dropped upon the shepherds, but 1t sprang
upward among the thrones. The robe
of Saviour's righteousness is not blacN.
The Christian life is not made up OF
weeping and cross-bcaring and war
waging. Through the revelation of
that Christmas night find that religion
is not groan, but a song. In world
of sin and sick he'd and sepulchers, we
must have trouble; but in the darkest
night the heavens part with angelic
song. You may, like Paul, be ship
wrecked, but 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 phylactery has none
left for his heart. Fretfulness and COM
planning do not belong to the family of
Christian graces which move into the
heart when the devil moves out. Chris
tianity does not frown upon amusements
and recreations. 1t is not a cynic, 1t is
not shrew, it chokes no laughter, it
quenches no light, it defsces no art.
Among the happy, it is the happiest. 1t
is just as much at hon G on the play
ground 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 prays 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-
ton. Christ on Mary's lap. Christ on
the throne of universal dominion. What
an humble starting! What a glorious
ending! Grace begins on 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 the same man when he has
entered Heaven. No crown able to eX-
press his royalty. No palace able toeX
press his wealth. No scepter able to
express his power and his dominion.
Drinking from the fountain that drips
from the everlasting rock. Among the
harpers harping on their harps. On sea
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 ex-
tinction, having famed up into honor,
and glory, and immortality. What
humble starting! What glorious con-
summation.
The New Testament Church was on
small scale. Fishermen watched it.
Against the uprising walls crashed in
fernal enginery. The world said anaht-
ema. Ten thousand people rejoiced
at every seeming defeat and said:
''Aha! aha! so we would have it," Mar
tyrs on fire cried: GLOW long, o Lord,
how long?" Very humble starting, but
see the difference at the consummation,
when Christ with His almighty arm has
struck off the last chain of human bond
age, and Ilimalaya 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 call to 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, ris-
ing on their thrones, beat time with
their scepters. Oh, what an humble be-
ginning. What glorious ending!
Throne linked to a manager, heavenly
mansions to stable.
My 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 be-
fore. 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-sacriice in
God. 1t is easier to love an angel on
His throne than a thief on the cross, a
seraph in his worship than an adulteress
in her crime. When the angels saw
God-the God who would not allow the
most insignificant angel in Heaven to
be hurt-give 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 pilgrimage the an
gels 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 shep-
herds heard it: 'Glory to God in the