The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-01-09
glory and immortality. What humble start.

Tue uprising walls crashed informal enginery,
The world said anathema. Ton thousand
people reJoiced at every seeming defeat and
said; "Ahai aha SO we would have it.n
Martyrs ON fire cried slow long, o Lord,
how longY Very humble starting, but 500
the difference at the con Illumination, when
Christ with His almighty arm has struck Off
the last chain OF human bondage, and
Himalaya shall be Mount Zion; and
Pyrenees, Moriah; and oceans, the walking
place OF Him who trod the wave cliffs OF
stormed Tberias, and island shall call 10
island, sea 10 sea, continent TO continent, and
the song OF the worlds redemption rising,
the heavens like great sounding boaSd.
shall strike back the shout OF salvation TO
the earth until itrebounds again TO the throne
OF God, ana all heaven, rising on their
thrones, boat time with their scepters. Oh,
what an humble beginning What glorious
endingl Throne linked to manger, heavenly
mansions to a stable.
My subject also impresses me with the eff
feet OF Christ's mission upward and down.
ward. Glory, to God, peace TO man. Whom
God sent His Son into the world, angels dis
covered something new in God, something
they had never seen before. Not power not
wisdom, not love. They knew all that be-
fore. But when Col sent His Son into this
world then the angels saw the spirit of self
denial in God, the spirit of self-sacrifce i'm
God. 1t Is easier TO love an angel on His
throne than thief on the cross, 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-gve up His Son,
His Son, His only. only Son. they saw
something that they had never thought Of
before, and 10 not wonder that when Christ
started out Gu that pilgrimage the angels in
heaven clapped their wings in triumph and
called on all the hosts of heaven to help them
celebrate ii, and sang so loud that the Beth
lehem shepherds heard it: GLORY to God in
the highest.n
| But it was also to be mission of peace to
man. Infinite holiness-ac de-
pravity. How could they ever come to-
| getherl The Gospel bridges over the dis
lance. 1t brings God to us. 1t takes us to
| God. God in us, and we in God Atone
ment! Atonementl Justice satisfied, sins
| forgiven, eternal life secured, heaven built
| on manger.
But it was also to be the pacifcation of all
Individual and international animosities
What sound this word of peace had in the
Roman Empire that boosted of the number
| OF people it had massacred, that prded itself
on the number Of the slain, that rejoced
at the trembling provinces Sicily aud Cor
sca and Sardinia and Macedonia and Egypt
had bowed to her sword and crouched at the
cry of her war eagles. She gave her chief
honor to Scipio and Fabius and Cssar-all
men of blood. What contempt they must
have had there for the penniless, unarmed
Christ in the garb of a Nazarine starting out
to conquer all nations. There never was
place on earth where that word peace sounded
so extensively to the ears of the multitude as in
| the Roman Empire. They did not want peace.
The greatest music they ever heard was the
clanking chains of their captives. If all the
blood that has been shed in battle could be
gathered together it would upbear n navy.
| The club that struck Abel to the earth has its
echo in the butcheries of all ages. Edmund
Burke, who gave no wild statistics, said that
there hal besn spent in slaughter thtrty-five
thousand millions of dollars or what would
be equal to that: but he had not seen into
our times, when in our own day, in America,
we expended three thousand millions of dol
lars in civil war.
Oh, it we could now take our position on
some high point and see the worlds armies
march past! What spectacle it would BEL
There 60 the hosts of Israel through a score
of Red seas-one of water, tho rest of blood.
There go Cyrus and his army, with infuriate
yell rejoicing over tho fall of the gates Of
Babylon. There goas Alexander, leading
forth his hosts and conluarinS all the world
but himself, the eirth rseling with the bat
tie cash of Arbeia aal PerSepolis There
goes Ferdinand Cortas leaving his buthered
enemies on the table lands once fra
grant with vanilla aud covered over
with groves of Towering cacao. There
goes tho great Frenchman leading his army
down through Egypt like one OF it's plaques,
and up through Russia like QUE of its own icy
blasts Wonder is the grave trench under the
shadow of Sebastopol There are the ruins
of Delhi and Allahaba1, and yonder are the
inhuuan Sepoys and the brave regiments
under Havelock avenging tho insultel flag of
Britain; while cut right through the heart Of
my native land is trench in which there lie
one million Northern and Southern dead.
n, tl,f fl,,I nNlt (fh 4I,oIa
marches! Oh, the hospital wounds! Oh the
martyrdom! Oh, the death! But brighter
than the light which flashed on all these
swords and shields and musAetry is the light
that fell on Bethlehem, aud louder than the
bray of the trumpets, aud the neighing of the
chargers, and the crash OF the walls, and the
grooming of the dying armies, is the song
that unrolls this moment from the sky,
sweet as though all the bells of heaven
rung jubilee: peace on earth, good will
toward men, Oh, when will the day come
God hasten it!-when the swords shall be
turned into plowshares, and the fortresses
shall be remo1eled into churches, and the
men Of blood battling for renown shall be-
come good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and the
cannon now striking down whole columns OF
death shall thunder the victories Of the
truth.
When we think of the whole world saved
we are apt to thnl, of the few people that
now inhabit it. Only very few compared
with the populations to come. And what a
small part cultivated Do you know it has
been authenticity estimated that three
fourths of Europe is yet all barrenness,
and that nine hundred and ninety-one
one-thousandth part OF the entire
globe is uncultvated? This is all
to be cultivated, all inhabited and
all gospehzed. Oh, what tears of
repentance when nations begin to weep, Oh
| hot yyla,, continents hnrip IN
pray! Oh, what rejoicing when henispheres
begin to sing! Churches will worship on the
places where this very hour smokes the blood
of human sacrifice, and wandering through
the snake infested jungles of Africa Christs
heel will bruise the scrpents head. Oh, when
the trumpet of salvation shall be sounded
everywhere and the nations are re-
doomed, light will fall upon
every town brighter than that which
fell upon Bethlehem, and more overwhelnl-
ing than the song that fell on the pasture
fields where the flocks fed there will be
song louder than the voice of the storm
lifted oceans, GLORY to God in the hig hest,
and from all nations and kindred and people
and tongues will come the response, And
on earth peace, good will toward menm On
this Christmas Eve bring You good tidings
of great joy. Pardon for all sin comfort
for all trouble and life for the dead. Shall
we now take this Christ into our
heartss The time is passing. This is the
closing of the year. How the time speeds by.
Put your hand on your heart-one, two,
three. Three times less it will beat. Life is
passing like gazeles over the plain. Sorrows
hover like petrels over the sea. Death swoops
like vulturc from the mountains. Misery
rolls up TO our ears like waves. Heavenly
songs fall to us like stars.
/ wish you a merry Christmas, not with
worldly designations but merry with Gospel
gladness, merry with pardoned sin, merry
with hope of reunion in the skies with al
your loved ones who have preceded you. In
that grandest and best sense merry
Christmas.
And God grant that in our final moment
we may have as bright vision as did the
diving girl when she said: 'Mother'-point-
ing with her thin white hand through the
window Mother, what is that beautiful
land out yonder beyond the mountains, the
high Mountains 'Oh," said the mother,
''my darling, there are no mountains within
sight of our home" "Oh, yes she said,
don't you see them-that beautiful land be-
yond the mountains out there just beyond
the high Mountains
The mother looked down into the face OF
I II. \ L.,,1-