Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-12-31
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
DR.. TALMACE BREACHES ON
THE CHRISTMAS SEASON.
The Nativity of Christ and Lessons Drawn
Thorefrom-They Came In Haste and
Found Mary and Joseph and the Babe
In Manger-A Night In Bethlehem.

iHoreiTom -luey Came IN hasto anu
Found Mary and Joseph and the Babe
In q Manger-A Night in Bethlehem.
BRooKLYN, n. y, Doc. "a, DIR Talmage
preached this ruorning sermon appropriate to
| the Christmas season. Taking up the subject
Of the Nativity he drew from IL lessons which,
though perfectly legitimate, are commonly
overlooked His text was Luke 2: 49, "And
they came with haste, and found Mary and
Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger."
The black window shutters Of o December
night were thrown open, and some OF the best
singers OF u world where they all sing stood
there, and putting back the drapery OF cloud,
chunted peace anthem until all the echoes of
hill aud valley applauded and ehcored the
halleuIah chorus. Come, let us go into that
Christmas scene as though we had never be-
fore worshippcd at the manger. Here is q Ma
donna worth looking al. wonder not that the
| most frequent name in all lands and in all
Christian centuries is Mary. And there are
Marys In palaces and Marys in cabins, and
though German and French and Italian and
Spanish and English pronounce it differ
emily, they are all namesakes OF the one whom
we find on bed of straw, with her pale face
against the soft cheek OF Christ in the night of
the Nativity. All of the great painters have
tried on canvas, to present Mary and her child
and the incidents Of that most famous night Of
the world history. Raphael in three different
masterpieces, celebrated them. Tintoretto and
Ghirlandaio surpassed themselves in
the alteration OF tho Magi Correggio
needed to do nothing more than
his Madonna TO become immortal. The
Madonna of the Lily, by Leonardo da Vinci,
will ldndle the admira ton Of all ages. But all
the galleries of Dresden are forgotten when l
think of the small room Of that gallery contain
ing the Sistine Madonna. Yet all of them were
copies of st. Matthews Madonna, and Lukes
I Madonna, the inspired Madonna OF the Old
Book, which we had put into our hands when
we were infants, and that we hope to have IN
der our heads when we die.
Behold, in tho first place, that on the first
night of Christ's life God honored the brute
creation. You cannot get into that Bethlehem
barn without going past the camols, the mules
the dogs, the oxen. The brutes of that stable
heard the first cry OF the infant Lord. Some OF
the old painters represent the oxen and camelS
kneeling that night before the newborn babe.
And well might they kneel! Have you ever
thought that Christ came among other things, to
alleviate the suGerngs of the brute creation?
Was Il not appropriate that he should, during
the first few days and nights OF his life on earth,
he surrounded by the dumb beasts, whose moan
and plant and believing have for ages been
prayer to God for the arresting OF their tor
lures and the Fighting OF their wrongs: 1t did
not merely happen so" that the unintlligent
creatures OF God should have been that night
In close neighbOrhOod
Not kennel in all the centuries not birds
nest, not o WORKOUT horse on tow-path not o
herd freezing in the pOorly-built cOw-pen, not
freight car in summer time bringing the beeves
to market without water through thousand
miles of agony not n surgeons room witness
ing the struggles of fox rabbit. or pigeon, or
dog, in the horrors Of vivisoction, but has an
interest in the fact that Christ was born in
stable. surrounded by brutes. He remembers
thpt niuht nd hn mr.
their pif.ful moan. he will answer
in the punishment of those who maltreat
the dumb brutes They surely have as much
right in the world as we have. In the first
chapter of Genesis you may see that they were
placed on earth before man was, the fish and
fowl created the fifth day and the Quadrupeds
the morning of the sixth day, and man not
until the afternoon of that day. The whale, the
eagle the lion, and all the lesser creatures of
| their kind were predecessors Of the human
family. They have the world by right Of pos
session. They have also paid rent for the
places they occupied. What an. army of de-
Tense all over the land are the faithful watch
dogs. And who can tell what the world owes
to the horse, and camel, and OK, for
transportation? And robin and lark
have, by the cantatas with which
they have filed orchard and for
est, more than paid for the few grains they
have picked up for their sustenance. When
you abuse any creature OF God you strike Its
creator. and you insult the Christ who, though
he might have been welcomed into life by
Princes and taken his first infantle slumber
amid Tyrian plush and canopied couches, and
ripping waters from royal aqueducts dripping
into basins If ivory and pearl, chose to be born
| IN the level with cows horn. or a camel'S
hoof or dogs nOstril, that he might be the
alienation of animal suffering as well as the
Redeemer OF man.
Standing then, as imagine now do, in that
] ttnH
one side and the speeches. creatures
! Of God on the other l cry, look
! out, how you strike the rowel into that horses
| side Take off that curbed bit from that bleed
! ing mouth. Remove that saddle from that raw
! back. Shoot not for fun that bird that is too
small for food. Forget not TO put water into
! the cage OF that canary. Throw out some
| crumbs to those birds caught too far north In
| the winters inclemency Arrest that man who
| IS making that one horse draw a load heavy
| enough for three. Rush in upon that scene
| where boys are torturing a cat or tranShXing
butterfly and grasshopper. Drive not of that
! Did robin, for her nest is mothers cradle, and
ander her wing there may be three or
/ tour musicians of the sky in training.
! In your families and in your schools,
! leach the coming generation more mercy than
! The present generation has ever shown, and In
this marvellous bible picture Of the Nativity,
! while you point out to them the angel, show
!
| celestial chant let them also hear the cows
moan No more did Christ show interest in the
! botanical world, when he said, Consider the
J lilies" than he showed sympathy for the Or
| Astrological when he said, Behold the fowls OF
The air." and the Quadrupedal world when he
! allowed himself to be called in once place
| ion and in another place a lamb Meanwhile,
may the Christ of the Bethlehem cattle-pen
| nave mercy on the suffering stock yards, tina
are preparing diseased and levered meat for
our American households
| 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 q cloud as he will descend on his next
! Gisit in cloud In what q chariot OF illumined
! Fapor he might have rolled down the sky,
! escorted by mounted cavalry, with lightning
| Tor drawn sword. Elijah had carriage
| Of fire TO take him up; why not Jesus
| carriage of fire To fetch him DOWN Or,
! over the arched bridge of a rainbow the
! Lord might have descended. Or Christ might
| have had his mortality built up on earth out OF
! the dust OF garden, as was Adam, in full man
| hood at the start, without the Introductory
| !eebleness of infancy. No, no! Childhood was
! 10 be honored by that advent He must have
! ,hild's light limbs, and child's dimpled hand,
| and child's beaming eye, and child's haxen
! lair; and babyhood was to be honored for all
| time to come, and a cradle was to mean more
! than a grave. Mighty God! May the reflection
Of that one child's face be seen in all infantile
| faces
Enough have all those fathers and mothers
on hand If they have q child in the house.
! throne, a crown, u sceptre, a kingdom under
| charge. Be careful how you strike him across
| the head, EARRING the brain. What you say to
him will be centennial and millennial, and a
| hundred years and thousand years will not
! stop the echo and ro-echO Do not say, 1T is
| only child" Rather say ut Is only an i'm
mortal" 1t is only masterpiece of Jehovah.
It is only being that shall outlive
sun and moon and star, and ages
| luadrillenniaL God has infinite resources,
and he can give presents OF great
| value, but when he wants to give the richest
| oossEll, ,,iFt To houseboId looks around all