The Brookhaven leader., 1890-01-09
TALMAGES SERMON.
A Christmas Discourse Delivered
at Beyrout.


there the following seasonAble discourse
from the text;
Glory to God in the highest and on earth
peace, good will toward men Luke H., H.
AT last 1 have what longed fora
Christmas eve in the Holy Land. This
is the time of the year that Christ land
ed. He was a December Christ. This
Is the chill air through which He de-
scended. 1 look up through these
Christmas skies, and | see no loosened
star Fastening southwark 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 1t
the feet Of Him who, though once an
exile, is now enthroned forever. Fresh
up from Bethlehem, i am full of the
scenes suggested by visit to that viii
lage. You know that whole region of
bethlehem is famous in Bible story.
There were the waving harvests of
Boaz, in which Ruth CLEANED for herself
and weeping Naomi. There David the
warrior vas thirsty, and three men of
unheard of self-denial broke through the
Philistine army to get him drink. 1t
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" Cor people did not in those
days rush after the assessors of tax any
more thar they now do.
The village inn was crowded with the
ctran u.bn bol cop,n nv tho rom
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 been
more showily appareled l have no doubt
they would have found more comfort
able entertainment. That night in the
fields the shepherds, with crook and
kindled fires, were Watching their
flocks, when bark! 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 filed 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 to men, 1t 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, i'm
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 Examinations 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 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
hearts throbbing under rags, tend er
sympathies under rough exterior, gold
in 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 affluence,
and from their own privation learned to
speak and fight for the oppressed. Many
a man has held up his pine-kn6t light
from the wilderness until all nations
and generations have seen it, and off of
his hard crust of penury 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
Hailed. 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
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. @s
My subject also impresses me with
the thought that it is while at our USE
full occupations 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