Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-12-31

| Elijah had n carriage OF fire to take him
up; why not Jesus Il 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 a gar.
den, as WAS Adam, in full manhood at the
start, without the Introductory feebleness
of infancy. No, mol Childhood was to be
honored by that event. He must have a
child's light limbs, and u chid's dilnpled
/ hand, and child's beaming eye and a
child's haNen hair, and babyhood was to
be hOnored for all time to come, and a
cradle was TO mean more than II grave
Mighty God! May the reflection of that
one child face be seen in all infantile faces.
WELL SPRING OF PLEASURE.
Enough have all those fathers and moth
ers on hand if they have child in the
/ house. A throne, u crown, Il scepter, a
kingdom under charge. Be careful how
you strike him across the head, jarring the
brain. What you say to him will be cen
tennial and millennial, and hundred years
and thousand years will not stop the echo
and re-echo Do not say, ut is only a
child. Rather say, at Is only an immor
tai" 1t is only Il masterpiece Of Jehovah.
1t is only "A being that shall outlive sun
and moon and star and ages quadrillennial
presents of great value, but when he wants
to give the richest possible gift to t. house
hold he looks around all the worlds and all
the universe and then gives child. The
greatest present that God ever gave our
world he gave about eighteen hundred and
ninety-one years ago, and he gave it on
Christmas night, and it was of such value
( that heaven adjourned for recess and
came down and broke through the clouds
to look at it. Yea, in all ages God has
hoHored childhood. He makes almost every
picture Il failure unless there be a child
either playing on TIE floor, or looking
through the window, or seated on the lap
gazing into the face of the mother.
1t was a child in Mammals 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 Il child
was laid, rocked by the Nile, that God
called the attention of history. 1t was
sick child that evoked ChriSt's curative
sympathies 1t was child that Christ set
i'll the midst of the snuabbling disciples to
teach the lesson of humility. We are in
formed that wolf and leopard and lion shall
be yet so domesticated that little child
shall lead them. A child decided Water
loo showing the army of 3lucher how they
could take Il short cut through the fields
when, if the old road had been followed
the Prussian general would have come up
too late to save the dcstnies of Europe. 1t
was a child that decided Gettysburg, he
having overheard two Confederate gene
rails in a conversation, in which they de-
cided 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 tho laws. settle all the destinies
and usher in the worlds salvation or de-
struction. Men, women, nations, all earth
and all heaven, behold the childl Is there
any velvet so soft us a child's cheek? Is
there any sky SO blue child's eye? Is
there any music so sweet as the child's
voice? Is there any plume so wavy as
child's hair?
GODS RECOGN1TION OF SCIENCE.
Notice also that in this Bible nisht scene
God honored science. Who are the three
wise men kneelins before the Divine In
fantY Not Doors, not lgnoram 4ses, but
CaSpar, Eelthasar and Mechior, men who
knew all that was to be known. They were
the Isaac Newtons and Ierschels and Far
adays Of their time. Their alchemy was
The torerunncr of our sublime chemistry
their astrolOgy Inc mother of GU: maguiti-
cent astronomy. They had studied stars,
studied metals, Gtudied physiology studied
everything. And when | see these scien-
fists bowling before the beautiful babe |
STE the prophecy of the time when all the
telescopes and microscopes and all the Ley.
den lars and all the electric batteries and
al! the observatorles and all the universe
,.,It
way already Where is the college that
does not have morning prayers, thus bow
ing ut the manager? Who have been the
greatest physicians?
Omittiug the names of the living lest
We shCuit. be iuyidiuls, have we not had
among them Christian Incn like our own
Joseph {. Hutchinson and Rush and Val
entine Mott and Abercromhie and Aber-
ucthy? Who nave been cur greatest scicn-
fists? Joseph Henry, who lived and died
IL the faith OF the Gospels, and Agassiz,
who, standing with his students among thp
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 he greatest doctors ard
lawyers OF Brooklyn and New York and of
this land and of all lands revere the Chris
tan religion, and are not ashamed To say
so before lurlaS ana legislatures and sen
ates, Al 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 Bethlehem. And
physiology and anatomy will join hands
and say, We must, by the help of God,
get the human race up to the perfect nerve
and perfect 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.
Behold also in that rst Christmas night
that God honored the fields. Come in,
shepherd boys, TO Bethlehem and see the
child. NO" they say, 1--WE are not dressed
good enough TO come In" eyes you are;
come in" Sure enough, the storms and the
night dew and the brambles have made
rough work with their apparel, but none
have IA better right to come in. They were
the first to hear the music Of that Christ
mas night. The first announcement of a
Saviour's birth was made to those men in
the fields They were wiseacres that night
in Rot hlaho,n and IprusaleYO Snorjnu in