Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-12-28

q carriage of fire to fetch hlm down!
Or, over the arched bridge of rain
bow the Lord might have descended
Or Christ might have had his NOR
tally built up on earth out of the
dust of a garden, as was Adam, in
fnll manhood at the start, without
the introductory feebleness of in
fancy.
No, no! Childhood was to be hon
ored by that advent. He must have
a child's light limbs, and a child's
dimpled hand, and a child's beaming
eye, and a child's faxen hair; and
babyhood was to be honored for all
time to come, and a cradle was to
mean more than a grave. Mighty
Cod May the reflection of that one
childs face be seen in all infantile
faces.
Enough have all those fathers and
mothers on hand if they have a child
in the house A throne, a crown, a
scepter, a kingdom. under charge.
Be careful how you strike him across
the head, jarring the brain. What
you say to him will be centennial
and millennial, and hundred years
and a thousand years will not stop
the echo and re-ocho. Do not say,
| ut is only a child" Rather say, 1T
is only an immortal" 1t is only a
masterpiece Of Jehovah. It is only
moon and star and ages quadrennial.
God has infinite resources. and he
can give presents of great value; but
when he wants to give the richest
possible gift to a household he looks
around all the worlds and all the uni
verse and then gives a child
The greatest present that God ever
gave our world he gave about 1891
years ago, and he gave it on a Christ
mas night, and it was Of such value
that heaven adjourned for a recess
and came down and broke through
the clouds to look at it. Yea. in all
ages God has hOnored childhood. He
makes almost every picture a failure
unless there be child either playing
on the floor, or looking through the
window, or seated on the lap gazing
into the face of the mother.
A CHILD TOLD HIM THE WAY.
It was a child in Naaman's kitchen
that told the great Syrian warrior
where he might go and get cured of
the leprosy, which at his seventh
plunge in the Jordan was left at the
bottom of the river. It was to the
cradle of leaves, in which a child was
laid, rocked by the Nile, that God
called the attention of history. It
was a sick child that evoked Christ's
curative sympathies. It was child
that Christ set in the midst of the
Equabbling disciples, to teach the les
Son of humility. We are informed
that wolf and leopard and lion shall
be yet 50 domesticated that little
child shall lead them.
A child decided Waterloo, showing
the army of Butcher how they could
take a short cut through the fields,
when, if the old road had been fol
lowed, the Prussian general would
have come up too late to save the deS-
TIMES of Europe. It was child that
decided Gettysburg, he having over
heard two Confederate generals in a
conversation, in which they decided
to march for Gettysburg instead of
Harrisburg, and this, reported to
Governor Curtin, the Federal forces
started to meet their opponents at
Gettysburg.
And today the child is to decide all
the great battles, make all the laws,
settle all the destinies and usher in
the worlds salvation or destruction.
Men, women, nations, all earth and
oil 1ahO17 hn child Tcf
any velvet SO soft as a child's cheek2
Is there any sky so blue as a childs
eye? Is there any music SO sweet as
the child's voice? Is there any plume
so Wavy as a child's hair
GOD HONORED SCIENCE.
Notice also that in this Bible night
scene God hOnOred science. Who are
the three wise men kneeling before
the Divine Infant? Not Doors, not
ignoramuses, but CASPIAN, Belthasar
and Melchior, men who knew all that
was to be known. They were the
Isaac Newtons and Herschels and
Faradays Of their time. Their alche
my was the fOrerunner of our sublime
chemistry, their astrology the mother
of our magnificent astronomy They
had studied stars, studied metals,
studied physiology, studied every
thing.
And when 1 see these scientists
bowling before the beautiful babe, |
see the prophecy of the time when
all the telescopes and microscopes,
and all the Leyden jars, and all the
electric batteries, and all the observa-
tories, and all the universities shall |
bow to Jesus. It is much that way
already. Where is the college that
does not have morning prayers, thus
bowling at the manager? Who have |
been the greatest physicians? Omit
ting the names Of the living, lest we
should be invidious, have we not had
among them Christian men like our
own Joseph G. Hutchinson and Rush |
and Valentine Mott and Abercrom-
bic and Abernethy? Who have been |
our greatest scientists? Joseph Hen
ry, who lived and died in the faith of
the Gospels, and Agassiz, who, stand
ing with his students among the hills,
took off his hat and said, Young
gentlemen, before we study these
1OSho ~ 10 R10J 1OA " AoNOLI w O1iO
God who made the rocks
Today the greatest doctors and
lawyers of Brooklyn and New York
and of this land and Of all lands re-
we're the Christian religion, and are
not ashamed to say so before juries
and legislatures and senates All
geology will yet bow before the Rock
of Ages. All botany will yet worship
the Rose of Sharon. All astronomy
will yet recognize the Star of Beth
lehem. And physiology and anatomy
will join hands and say, 1--WE must,
by the help of God, get the human
race up to the perfect nerve and per-
feet muscle and perfect brain and
perfect form of that perfect child
before whom, nigh twenty hundred
years ago, the wise men bent their
tired knees in worship.
GOD HONORED THE FIELDS.
Behold also in that first Christmas
night that God honored the fields.
Come in, shepherd boys, to Bethle-
hem and see the child. 'ENo," they