Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-11-03

cnIns are flushed as though from attempt
( ing 10 climb the sleeps, and lark and bul-
finch are flooding the air with bird orches-
ira. But WIS there in December. q winter
month. the barren beach between the two
oceaus Of redolence. was told | must
not 10 there at that season, told so before
started, told SO in Egypt the books told
me 50; all travellers that consulted about
it told me SO. But I was determined to
see Bethlehem the same month in which
Jesus arrived, and nothing could dis
suade me. Was ] not right ia want
| ing to know how the Holy Land
looked when Jesus came to it, he did
not land amid flowers and song. When
the angels chanted on the famous birth
night all the fields of Palestine were
silent. The glowing skies were answered
| by gray rocks As Bethlehem stood against
a bleak wintry sky climbed up to it, as
through q bleak wintry sky Jesus de-
scended upon it. His way down was from
warmth to chill, from bloom to barren
ness, from everlasting june to a sterile
| December. If | were going to Palestine
as botanist and to study the flora Of the
| land would go in March; but went rs a
minister of Christ to study Jesus and so /
went in December. wanted to see how
| the worlds front door looked when the
| heavenly stranger entered it.
The town of Bethlehem, to my surprise,
| is in the shape of a horseshoe, the houses
extending clear onto the prongs of the
! horseshoe, the whole scene more rough
and rude than c.n be imagined, Verify,
Christ did not choose soft, genial place in
which to be born The gate through which
our Lord entered this world was gate of
rock, a hard, cold gate, and the gate
| through which he departed was a swing
gate of sharpened spears. We enter a
gloomy church built by Constantine over
the place in which Jesus was born. Fifteen
lamps burning day and night aud from
century to century light our way to the
spot which all authorities, Christian and
Jew and Mohammedan,a agree upon as being
the place of our Saviour's birth, and covered
bya marble slab, marked by q silver star
sent from Vienna, and the words: Here
Jesus Christ was born Of the Virgin Mary"
HE WAS BORN IN A CATTLE PEN.
But standing there thought though
this is the place of the nativity, how differ
emit the surroundings of the wintry night
| in which Jesus camel At that time it was
a khan, or cattle pen. visited one Of
these khans, now standing and looking
| lust as in Christ's time We rode in under
the arched entrance and dismounted. We
found the building of stone and around an
open square, without roof The building
is more than two thousand years old. 1t
is two stories high; in the center are cam
els horses and mules. Caravans halt here
for the night or during long storm. The
open square is large enough to accommo-
date a whole herd of cattle, flock Of sheep
or caravan of camels The neighboring
Bedouins here find market for their hay,
straw and meats OFF from this center there
are twelve rooms for human habitation.
The only light is from the door. went
into one of these rooms and found woman
cooking the evening neal There were six
cows in the same room. On little eleva-
ton there was some straw where the people
sat and slept when they wished to rest. 1t
was in a room similar to that our Lord was
born.
This was the cradle of II king, and yet
what cradle ever held so much? Civiliza-
tion Liberty Bedemptionl Your par
don aud minel Your peace and lninel
Your heaven and minel Cradle of uni
versel Cradle of God The gardens of
solomon we visited this morning were
only type of what all the world will be
when this illustrious parsonage now born
shall have completed his mission. The
horses Of finest limb, and gayest champ Of
bit, and subimost arch of neck, that ever
brought Solomon down to these adjoining
gardens was but poor type of the horse
upon which this conqueror, born in the
barn, shall ride, when according to apoca-
lyptic vision all the "armies of heaven shall
follow him on white horsesn The waters
! that rush down these hills into yonder
three great reservoirs of rock, and then
pour in marvellous aqueduct into Jerusa-
lem till the brazen sea is fall, and the
baths are full, and Sloan is full, are only
nm imperfect type Of the rivers Of delight
which, as the .resGlt of this great ones
coming, shall roll on for the shaking of the
thirst of all nations. The palace Of Leb-
anon cedar from which the imperial cav
alcade passed out in the early morning,
and to which it returned with glowing
cheek and iingling harness and lathered
sides, is feeble of architecture compared
with the house of many mansions into
which this one born this winter month on
these bleak heights shall conduct us when
our sins are all pardoned. our battles all
fought our tears all wept, our work all
done.
THE CRADLE OF OUR FAITH.
Standing here at Bethlehem do you not
see that the most honored thing in all the
earth ia tho cradle? TO what else did
loosened star ever point? Towhat else did
heaven lower balconies Of light filed with
chanting immortals? The way the cradle
rocks the world rocks. God bless the
mothers all the world overl The cradles
decide the destinles of nations In ten
thousand of them are this moment the
hands that will yet give benedietion of
mercy or hurl bolts OF doom, the feet that
will mount the sleeps toward God or
descend the blasted way, the lips that will
pray or blaspheme. Oh, the cradlel 1t is
moro tremendous than the grave. Where
aremost OF the leaders of the Twentieth CEN
tury soon to dawn upon us? Are they on
thronesg No. In chariots? No. In pulpits2
No In lorumsg No. In senatorial hallsf
No In counting houses? No. They are
in the cradle. The most tremendous thing
II TIE Universe ana neTJ to God is to be a
mother Lord Shaftesbury said, Give me
q generation of Christian mothers, and
viii change the whole phase of society in
twelve months Oh, the cradlel Forget
not the one in which you were rocked.
iuNlltil bltt anu Npli Otlb hItit NAttdAS AuoJ
be standing i'm attic or barn, forget not the
foot that sway cd it, the lips that sang over
it, the tears that dropped upon it,sthe faith
in God that made way for it. The boy
Walter Scott did well when he spent the
first five guinea piece he ever earned as a
present TO his mother
Dishonor not the cradle, though it may,
like the one my sermon celebrates, have
been a cradle in barn, for think it was
a Christian era lie. That was a great cradle
| In ,.hinh AInnl1n I.lLh Inv for frnrl II