The Russellville Democrat., 1890-01-09
THE "SKY ANTHEM"
Sermon Delivered by Rev. T. De-
 Wit Talmage at Beyrout.
The Lessons of Christ's Advent and Ms sion on Earth-A Christmas Merry with Gospel Giadness and
 Psrdoued Sin.

Beyrout came on the programme as the Christmas stopping place of Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, and while there he delivered the following discourse, from the text:
 Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. good will toward men.--I4uke L., i4.
 At last I have what longed fora Christmas eve in the Holy Land. This is the time of the year that Christ land ed He was December Christ This is the chill air through which He de- seconded. l look up through these Christmas skies, and I see no loosened star hastening southward to halt above Bethlehem, 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 kneel at the feet of Him who, though once an exile, is now enthroned forever. Fresh up from Bethlehem, l am full of the scenes suggested by visit to that vil- lage. You know that whole region of Bethlehem is famous in Bible story. There were the waving harvests of Boaz, in which Ruth gleaned for herself and weeping Naomi. There David the warrior was thirsty, and three men of unheard of self-denial broke through the Philistine army to get him drink. It was to that region that Joseph and Mary came to have their names enrolled in the census. That is what the Script ure means when it says they came ito be taxed, " 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 com mand of government to have their names in the census, so that Joseph and Mary were obliged to lodge in the sta bles. 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 direc- tions there were rooms, in one of which Jesus was born. Had His parents beer more showily appareled l have no doubt they would have found more comfort able entertainment That night in the fields Che shepherds, with crook and kindled fires, were watching their flocks, when harkl to the sound of voices strangely sweet. Can it be that the maidens 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 are filled with armies of light, and the earth quakes under the harmony as, haa rl fn o1 i rings over the midnight hills: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to menw It 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 down. ward?
 My subject in the first place, im- presses me with the fact that indulgence is not always significant of degradation. When Princes are born, heralds an nounce it, and cannon thunder it, and flags wave it, and illuminations 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 bora there was no rejoicing on 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 deg radiation.
 In all ages there have been great
 carts throbbing under rags, tend CT sympathies under rough exterior, gold
 the quartz, Parian marble in the quarry, and in every stable of privation wonders of excellence that have been the joy of the heavenly host. All the great deliverers of literature and of nations were born in homes without affiuence, and from their own privation learned to speak and fight for the oppressed. Many a man has held up his pine-knot light from the wilderness until all nations and generations have seen it, and off of his hard crust of pcnury has broken the bread of knowledge and religion for the starving millions of the race. Poetry, and science, and literature, and com merce, and laws, and constitutions, and liberty, like Christ, were born in a manager.
 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 rabbis that crucified them, and sepulchers that confined them until they burst forth in glorious resur- rection Strong character, 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 positions of usefulness had they not been ground and pounded and hammered in the foundry of disaster. When l see Moses coming up from the ark of bulrushes to be the greatest lawgiver of 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 BItat predcHeE dt bne ISnttcOaJ, unu proof of the truth of my proposition that indigence is not always significant of degradation.
 My subject also impressss me with the thought that it is while at our use ful occupations that we have the divine manifestations. Had those shepherds gone that night into Bethlehem and risked their fiocks 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 shepherds or shep- herdesses, and we have our flocks of cares and annoyances and anxieties, and we must attend them.
 We sometimes hear very good people