The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-01-09
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject; "The Sky Anthem"
preached at Beyroutl

TEXT; "Glory TO God il the highest, and
on earth peace, good lriH totoard men,
Luke H.. H.
At last have what l longed for, Christ
mas eve in the Holy Land. This is the time
Of year that Christ landed, He was Decem-
Der Christ This Is the chill air through
which He descended. Hook up through these
Christmas skies and see no loosened star
Fastening southwark to halt above Bethle-
hem. but all the stars suggest the Star OF
Bethlehem. No more need that any of them
run along the sky to point downward. In
quietude they lmeel at the feet of Him who.
though once an exile, Is now enthroned for
ever. Fresh up from Bethlehem, l
am full Of the scenes suggested by
visit to that village. You know that
whole region Of Bethlehem is famous in Bible
story. There We're 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
self denial broke through the Phistine army
to get him drink. II was 10 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,n for people did not In those
days rush after the assessors OF tax any more
than they now do.
The village inn was crowded with the
strangers who had come up by the command
OF Government to have their names in tho
census, so that Joseph and Mary were obliged
to lodge in the stables. You have seen some
of those large stone buildings, in the center
OF which the camels were kept, while run
ming out from this center in all directions
there were rooms, in one Of which Jesus was
born. Had his parents been more showily
appareled have no doubt they would have
found more comfortable entertainment.
That night in the fields the shepherds, with
crook and kindled fires, were watch
ing their focks, when bark to
the sound of voices strangely sweet.
Can it be that the madens Of Bethlehem have
come out to serenade the weary Shepherds
But now light stoops upon them like the
morning, so that the flocks arise, shaking
their snowy fleece and bleating to their
drowsy young. The heavens arc filled with
armies of light, and the earth quakes 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 10 men," II seems that the
crown of royalty and dominion and power
which Christ left behind Him was hung on
the sky in sight of Bethlehem. Who knows
but that that crown may have been mistaken
by the wise men for the star running and
pointing downward?
My subject, in the first place, impresses me
with the fact that indulgence is not always
significant of degradation. When Princes
are born, heralds announce it, and cannon
thunder it, and flags wave it, and illumina-
lions set cities on fire with the tidings. Some
Of us in England or America remember the
time Of rejoicing when the Prince of Wales
was born. You can remember the gladness
throughout Christendom at the nativity in
the palace at Madrid. But when our glorious
Prince was born, there was no rejoicing OH
earth. Poor and growing poorer, yet the
heavenly recognition that Christmas night
shows the truth Of the proposition that in
digence is not always significant Of degrade
ton.
In all ages there have been great hearts
throbbing under rags, tender sympathies un-
der rough exterior gold in the quartz, Par
ian marble in the quarry, and in every stable
of privation wonders Of excellence that have
been the joy of The heavenly host. Ali the
great daliverers Of literature and of nations
were born in homes without aflluence and
from their own privation learned to speak
and fight for the oppressed Many man
has held up his Pine knot light from the will
derness until all nations and generations
have seen it, and Off of his hard crust of PEN
ury has broken the bread of knowledge and
religion for the starving millions of the
race. Poetry, and science, and literature
and commerce. and laws, and consti-
buttons, and liberty. like Christ, were born
in manger. All the great thoughts which
have decided the destiny of nations started in
obscure corners, and had Herods who wanted
to slay them, and Iscariots who betrayed
them, and rabies that crucified them, and
sepulchres that confined them until they burst
forth in glorious resurrection. Strong char
acter, 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
people would never have come to posi-
tions of usefulness had they not been
ground and pounded and hammered
in the foundry of disaster. When |
see Moses coming up from the ark of brl-
rushes 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, | find proof of the truth of my
proposition that Indulgence is not always
significant of degradation.
My subject also impresses me with the
thought that it is while at our useful oc.
equations that we have the divine
manifestations. Had those shepherds
gone that night into Bethlehem and
risked their focks among the wolves, they
would not have heard the song of the angels.
In other words that man sees most of God
and heaven who minds his own business We
all have our posts OF duty, and standing
there God appears to us. We are all shep-
herds or sheperdesses, and we have our
hocks of cares and annoyances and anxieties,
ard we must tend them.
we sometimes hear very good people say:
III had a month or year OF two to do
nothing but attend to religious things, 1
would be great deal better than lam now .
You are mistaken. Generally the best peo-
pie are the busy people. Elisha was blowing
in the field when the prophetic mantle fell
on him. Matthew was attending to his GUS
tom house duties when Christ commanded
him to follow. James and John were mend
| ing their nets when Christ called them to be
fishers of men. Had they been snoring in
the sun Christ would not have called their
Incidence into the apostleship. Gideon
was at work with the fail on the
threshing floor 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 fathers
house if 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 unfavorable circumstances for
| the receiving of divine manifestations 1t is
not when you are in idleness but when you
are like the Bethlehem Shepherds watching
| your focks that the glory descends and there
is joy among the angels of God over your soul
| penitent and forgiven.
My subject also strikes at the delusion that
the religion of Christ is dolorous and grief
infusing. The music that broke through the
midnight heavens was not a dirge, but an an
them. 1t shook joy over the hills. 1t not
only dropped upon the shepherds, but it
sprang upward among the thrones The
robe of a Saviour's Righteousness is moi
black. The Christian life is not made up of
weeping and cross bearing and war waging.
Through the revelation of that Christ
mas night l find that religion is not a
| groan, but song. In world of sin
and sick bed and sepulchers, we must have
trouble; but in the darkest night the heavens
part with angelic song. You may like
| Paul, be shipwrecked, 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 complaining do
not belong 10 the family of Christian
| graces which move into the heart when
the devil moves out. Christianity
| does not frown upon anusements
and recreations. 1t is not synic, it is not a
shrew, it chokes no laughter, it quenches no
| 1iorbf lafa art l.