Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-01-16

il flashed and swayed and swung ana naiE@d
with joy celestial as though Christ IN nasoe
tn save our world had rushed down without
His coronet, and the angels OF God mad hurled
it after Him! -
the wise men of of the East came to Christ.
They were not fools, they were not lmoecleS-
The record distinctly says that the wise men
came to Christ. We say they were the nagl
or they were the alchemlsts, or they were
the PSYCHOLOGISTS, aud We say it with depre-
ciating accentuation. Why they were the
most splendid and magnificent men OF the
century They were the naturallsts and
the scientists. They knew all that was
known. You must remember that astro.o2y
was the mother of astronomy, and that
alchemy was the mother Of chemistry, and
because children are brighter Ioah Ihe
mother you do not despIse the nother
twas the lifelong business of these aStroi-
ooers to study the stars. Twenty-Five hum
bred and fifty years before Christ was porn
the wise men knew the procession Oh tne
equinoxes, and they had calculated the ornlC
and the return OF the comets. PROFESSOR
Smith declares that he thinks they under
stood the distance OF the sun from the eartn:
We find in the book of Job that the man OIL
olden time did not suppose the world was ua''
as some have said, but that he knew, and
the men of his time knew, the world was
globuIar. The pyramids were built for as
THEOLOGICAL and astronomical study. Then,
the alchemists spent their lives in the study
of metals and gases and liquids and solids,
and in filling the worlds library with their
wonderful discoveries. They were vastly
wise man who came from the East, and ira
dition says the three wlsest came-Casper,
Young man: BalthaZar, a man OF mldnte,
and Melchior an octogenarlan. The three
wisest men of all the century. Ihey came 70
the manger.
So it has always been-the wlsest men
come to Christ, the brainiest men come TO the
manger. Who was the greatest metaphyslclan
this country ever has produced? Jonathan
Edwards. the Christian. Who was the great
est astronomer OF the world? Herschel, the
Christian. Who was tho greatest poet ever
produced? John Milton, the Christian Who
was the wisest writer on law? Blackstone
the Christian. Why is it that every college
and university in the land has a lapel? They
must have place for the wise men to wor-
ship. Come now, let us understand in ounces
and by inches this whole matter. In post
norton examination the brain OF dstin-
guished men has been examined, and will
find the largest, the heaviest, the mightiest
brain ever produced in America, and Will
ask what that brain thought of Christ. Here
it is the brain weighing sixty-three ounces
the largest brain ever produced in America.
Now let me find what that brain thought of
Christ. In the dying moment that man said:
lord, believe help Thou mine unbellet.
Whatever else do Almighty God, receive
me to Thyself for Christ's sake. This night
i
ness" So Daniel Webster came to the manger.
The wise men of the East followed by the
wise men Of the West.
It was in closing December that He was
born to show that this is a Christ Of people
in sharp blast, for people under clouded sky,
for people with frosted hopes for people
with thermometer below zero. That is the
reason He is so often found among the desti.
tute. You can find Him on any night
coming off the moors. You can see Him
any night coming through the dark lanes of
the city. You can see Him putting His
hand under the fainting head in the pauoers
cabin. He remembers how the wind whis-
tied around the caravansary in Bethlehem
that December night, and He is in sympathy
with all those who in their poverty hear the
shutters clatter on a cold night.
1t was this December Christ that Washing
ton and his army worshiped at Valley
Forge, when without blankets they Law
down III the December snow. It was this
Christ that the Pilgrim Fathers appealed to
when the Mayfower wharfed at Plymouth
Rock, and in the years that went by the
graves Sgged, We're more in number than
the houses built. Oh, [ tell you we want
December Christ not a Christ for fair
weather, but Christ for dark days clouded
with sickness, and chilling with disappoint-
ment, and suffocating with bereavement,
and terrific with wide open graves. Not a
springtime Christ not summer Christ, not
an autumnal Christ, but winter Christ.
Oh, this suffering and struggling world
needs to be hushed and soothed and rocked
and lullabiedin the arms of sympathetic Om-
Impotence! No mother ever with more ten
derness put her foot on the rocker of the
cradle of sick child than Christ comes
down to US, to this invalid world, and He
rocks It into pIacidity and quietness as He
says, MY peace give unto you; not as the
world giveth give unto you"
Notice also the fact which no one seems to |
ia a.
sheep and the cattle, and the horses. and the
camels in order that He might be an alleviat-
ing influence to the whole animal creation.
1t means mercy for overdriven, underfed.
poorly sheltered, CALLED and maltreated
animal creation. Hath the Christ who
compared Himself to dove no care for the
cruelties of the pigeon shooting? Hath
the Christ who compared Himself to lamb
no care for the sheep who are tied and con-
torted, and with neck over the sharp edge
OF the butchers cart, or the cattle train
in hot weather from Omaha to New York,
with no water-ifteen hundred miles of
agony?
Hath the Christ whose tax was paid bv a !
fish, the coin taken from its mouth, no care
for the tossing fins in the fish market? Hath /
The Christ who strung with His own hand |
the nerves of dog and cat no indignation for /
the horrors of vivisection? Hath the Christ
who said ''Go to the anti no watchfulness
for the transfxed insects? Hath the Christ
who said Behold the fowls Of the air"
Himself never beheld the Outraees |
heaped upon the brute creation which
cannot artiuulate its grief? This Christ
came not only to lift the human race
out of its trouble but to lift out of !
oang and hardship the animal creation. In
the glorious milennial time the child shall
lead the lion and play with the cockatrice
only because brute and reptile shall have no
more wrongs to avenge. To alleviate the !