News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-12-31

honOred childhood Christ might
have made his first visit to our world
in q cloud. as he will descend on his
next visit in cloud. In what a
chariot Of illumined vapor he might
have rolled down the sky, escorted by
mounted cavalry, with lightning for
| drawn sword. Elijah had a carriage
of fire TO take him up; why not Jesus
a carriage of fire to fetch him down?
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 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 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 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 child
in the house. A throne, a crown, a
scepter, a kingdom, under charge.
Be careful how you strike him across
the head, jarTing 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 re-ocho. Do not say,
1T is only child" Rather say, 1t
is only an immortal" 1t is only a
masterpiece of Jehovah. 1t is only
being that shall outlive 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 a household he Looks
around all the worlds and all the uni
verse and then gives a child.
The greatest present that God eve:
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 the river. 1t was to the
cradle Of leaves, in which child was
laid, rocked by the Nile, that God
called the attention of history. 1t
was a sick child that evoked Christ's
curative sympathies. 1t was a child
that Christ set in the midst of the
squabbling disciples, to teach the les
son of humility We are informed
that wolf and leopard and lion shall
be yet so domesticated that a 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. 1t 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
all heaven, behold the child! Is there
any velvet SO soft as a child's cheek9
Is there any sky so blue as child's
eye? Is there any music SO sweet as
the child's voice? Is there any plume
so wavy as a childs 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 Infant2 Not Doors, not
ignoramuses, but Caspar, 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 l see these scientists
bowling before the beautiful babe, l
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. 1t 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 physicians2 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
rocks let us pray for wisdom to the
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, I'VE 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 woTShin