The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-01-07
THE STABLE IN BETHLEHEM.
DR.. TALMAeE's HOLY LAND SERMON.
The Star of the East and It's Significance
Christ's Dominion-The Wise Men and
Their O~herings-The Christ
mas Jubilee.

DIR. Talmage's sermon last Sunday was
appropriate to the season. Its subject
was the "Christmas Jubilee" A crowd
which filed the Academy OF music, Brook
lyn, in every part listened to it in the
morning, and another enormous audience
thronged the New York Academy of
music to hear it in the evening, when the
doctor preached under the auspices of the
Christian Herald. His text was Luke ii,
10, Let US now even 90 unto Bethlehem"
Amid a thousand mercies we give each
other holiday congratulations. BY long
established custom we exhOrt each other
to healthful merriment. BY gift, by
Christmas trees which blossom and fruit
in one night, by early morning surprise,
by clusters Of lighted candles, by chill
dren's procession. by sound of the instru-
ments sometimes more blatant han musi-
cal, we wake up the night and p%rolong
the day. l wish you all in the grandest,
noblest and best sense. a merry Christmas.
The event c-ommemorated is the gladdest
OF the centuries. Christs cradle was as
wonderful as his cross. Persuade me OF the
first and l am not surprised ut the last.
The door by which he entered was as ire
mendous as the door by which he went
out.
l was last winter at the house where
Jesus lived while be was in Africa. 1t
was in Cairo, Egypt, the terminus OF that
terrible journey he took when Joseph and
Mary fled with him from Bethlehem to
Egypt to escape the massacre of Herod.
All tradition as well as all history point
out this house in Cairo a the one in
which these three fugitives lived while in
Africa. The room Is nine steps down
from the level of the street. l measured
the ROOM, and found il twenty feet long,
and seven and one-half feet high. There
are three shelvings OF rock, n OF which
i think was the cradle of our Lord. There
is no window, and all the light must rave
come from lantern or candle. The three
arrived here from Bethlehem, having
crossed the awful desert.
On the Mediterranean steamer going
from Athens to Alexandria | met the emf
nent scholar and t~heologian, DR.. Lansing,
who, for ~thirty-tive years, has been a resi-
dent of Cairo. and he told me he had been
ali over the road that the three fugitives
took from Bethlehem TO Egypt. He says
it is a desert way and that the forced Jour
ney of the infant Christ must ave been n
terrible journey. Coming up from Egypt
DIR. Lansing met people from Bethlehem,
their tongues swollen and hanging out
from the Inflammation OF thirst, and al
though his party had but one goat-skin of
water left, and that was important Tor
themselves, he was so moved with the
spectacles of thirst in these poor pilgrims
that, though it excited the Indignation OF
his fellow-travelers, he rave water TO the
strangers. Over this dreadful route Joseph
and Mary started FOR this land OF Egypt.
No time to make much preparation.
Herod was after them and what Were these
peasants before an irate king, Joseph, the
husband and father, one night sprang up
from his mattress in great alarm, the
beads of sweat on his forehead and his
whole frame quaking. He had dreamed
of massacres of his wife and babe. They
must be off, that night, right away. Mary
put up a few things hastily and Joseph
brought 10 the door the beast OF burden,
and helped his wife and child TO mount.
Why, those leaves of bread are not
enough; those bottles of water will not
last for such a long way. But there is no
time TO get anything more. Out and on.
Good-by to the lear home they expect
never again to see. Their hearts break.
1t does not need that ours be a big
house in order TO make us sorry TO
leave it.
ONGA NAO ills anu AOAkA NAO
deep gorge they urge their way. BY He
bron, by GAIA, through hot sand, under a
blistering sun. the babe crying, the mother
faint, the father exhausted. How slowly
the DAYS and weeks pass. Will the weary
three ever reach the banks of the Nile?
Will they ever see Cairo? Will the desert
ever end?- When at last they cross the
line beyond which old Herod has no right
TO pursue, their JOY is u%nbOunded. Free
at last. Let them dismount and rest.
Now they resume their way with less anx-
iety. They will find a place somewhere
for shelter and the earning OF their bread.
Here they are at Cairo, Egypt.
They wind through the crooked streets,
which are about ten feet wide, and enter the
humble house where / have been today.
But the terminus OF the journey of these
three fugitives was not as humble a. their
starting point at Bethlehem. III that Jour
ney across the desert ended in a cellar, it
started from a barn. In and around that
barn in Bethlehem We tarry today.
Everything humble around the barn,
but everything glorious overhead. Christ's
advent was in the history called the house
of Chin Ham: the night with diamonded
finger pointing down to the place the door
of heaven set wide open to look out; from
orchestral batons OF light dripping the
Oratorios of the Messiah ;" on lowest
doorstep of heaven the MINISTRIES of God
~discoursing of glory and good Will.
Soon after the white-bearded a~strolO-
gists kneel, and from leathern pouch
chink the sheckles, and from open
sacks exhale the frankincense and
rustic out the bundles of myrrh. The
loosened star the escaped doxology of
celestials the chill December night aaush
with May morn our world a lost star. and
another star rushing down the sky that
night to beckon the wanderer home again,
shall yet make all nations keep Christmas.
Are there no new lessons from the story
not yet hackneyed by Oft repeatal2 Oh,
yes. Know in the first place, it was a
sidereal appearance that led the way.
Why not a black cloud in the shape of a
hand or finger pointing down to the sacred
birthplace A cloud means trouble, and
the world had had trouble enough. Why
not a shaft of lightning, quivering and
flashing? Lightning means destruction, a
SCATTERING and consuming power, and the
world wanted no more destruction.
But it was a star, and that means Joy,
that means hope, that means good cheer,
that means a~scendency. a starI That
means creative power, for did mott morn
ing stars sing together when the portfolio
of the worlds was opened? A start That