Connecticut western news., 1891-12-31


 butterfly and grasshopper
 Drive not off that old robin, for her nest Is mothers cradle. and under her wing there may be three or four musicians of the sky in training In your families and i'll your schools teach the coming generation more mercy than the present generation has ever shown. and in this marvel ous Bible picture of the Nativity. while you point out to them the angel, show them also the camel and while they hear the celestial chant let them also hear the cows moan
 No more did Christ show interest in the botanical world. when he said, Consider the lilies, than he showed sympathy for the ornithological, when he said, Behold the fowls of the air, ' and the quadrupedal world, when he allowed himself to be called in one place d lion and in another place a lamb. Meanwhile, may the Christ of the Bethlehem cattle pen have mercy on the suffering stock yards that are preparing diseased and feveled meat for our American households
 GOD IGNORED CHILDHOOD.
 Behold. also. in this Bible scene. how on that Christmas night God honored childhood Christ might have made his first visit to our world in cloud, as he will descend On his next visit in a cloud In what a chariot of illu1nined vapor he might have rolled down the sky. escorted by mounted cavalry, with lightning for drawn sword. Elijah had carriage of fire to take him up; why not Jesus a carriage of fire to fetch him down2 Or, over the arched bridge of a rain bow the Lord might have descended. Or Christ might have had his nor tality 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.
 Mo- 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 child's beaming eye. and a childs flaxen hair; and babyhood was to be honored for all time to come, and a cradle was to mean more than grave. Mighty God 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. kingdom, under charge. Be careful how you strike him across the head, ja11'ing the brain. What you say to him will be centennial and millennial, and a hundred years and a thousand years will not stop the echo and re-echo. Do not say, Ut is only child" Rather say, Tt is only an immortal" It $ only a masterpiece of Jehovah. It is only a being that shall olltlive sun and 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 household he looks around all the worlds and all the uni verse and then gives child.
 The greatest present that God eyer gave our world he gave about 1891 years ago, and he gave it on 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 failure unless there be a 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 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 tho river. It was to the cradle of leaves, in which 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 squabbling disciples, to teach the les son of humility. We are1nfo,med that wolf and leopard and | n shall be yet so dome;iticated that little child shall lead them.
 A child decided Waterloo showing the army of Butcher how they could take 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 tinies of Europe It was child that decided Gettysburg, he having over heard two Confederate generals i'll a conversation. in which they decided to march for Gettysburg instead of Harrisburg, and this, reported to Governar 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 all heaven. behold the child Is there any velvet so soft a, a chlld's cheek? Is there any sky so blue as child's eye? Is there any music so sweet as the chill's voice? Is there any plume so wavy as d child's hair.
 f GOD HONORED SCIENCE.
 Notice also that in this Bible night scene God honored science. Who are the three wise mon kneeling before the Divine Infant? Not boors, not ignoralnuses. but Caspar, Belthasal and Melchior. men who knew all that xuaC tn Iva lzDnxyn rT'nav ,ynre fhe