Connecticut western news., 1891-12-31

y lowing at the manger2 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 c. Hutchinson and Rush and Valentine Mott and Abercrom- bic and Abernethy? Who have been our greatest scientists2 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 were 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. We 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 worship.
 GOD IGNORED THE FIELDS.
 Behold also in that first Christmas night that God honored the fields Come in. shepherd boys, to Bethle hem and see the child. Mo-" they say, we are not dressed good enough to come in." Yes, you are; come in." Sure enough, the storms and the night dew and the braInbles have made rough work with their apparel, but none have better right to come in. They were the first to hear the music of that Christmas night The first announcement of a Saviour's birth was made to those men in the fields.
 There were wise;ss;c ss;c;;.',.s that night in Bethlehem and Jerusalem snoring in deep sleep, and there were salaried officers of government, who, hearing of it afterward, may have thought that they ought to have had the first news of such a'great event; some one dislnounting from swift camel at their door and knocking till, at some sentinels question, "Who comes there2" the great ones of the palace might have been told of the celestial arrival. No; the shepherds heard the first two bars of the music, the first in the major key and the last in the subdued minor, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men," An, yes; the fields were honored
 The old shepherds with plaid and crook have for the most part van ished, but we have grazing g-ou1 United States pasture fields and prairie about forty five million sheep
 and all their keepers ought to fol low the shepherds of my text, and all those who toll in fields, all vine dress CTS. all orcharlists, all husbandmen Not only that Christmas night, but all up and down the worlds history God had been honoring the fields Nearly all the messiahs of reform and literature and eloquence and law and benevolence have come from the fields. Washington from the fields. Jefferson from the fields. The presi | dential martyrs, Garfield and Lin coin. from the fields. Henry Clay from the fields. Daniel Webster from | the fields Martin Luther from the fields Before this world is right the overfowing populations of our crowd ed cities will have to take to the fields Instead of ten merchants in rivalry as to who shall sell that one apple. we want at least eight of them to go out and raise apples. Instead of ten merchants desiring to sell that one bushel of wheat, we want at least eight of them to go out and raise wheat
 The world wants now more hard hands, more bronzed cheeks, more muscular arms. To the fields! God honored them when he woke up the shepherds by the midnight anthem and he will, while the world lasts. continue to honor the fields. When the shepherds crook was that famous night stood against the wall of the Bethlehem khan it was a prophecy of the time when thrasher's fail and farmers blow and woodman's ax and oX's yoke and sheafbinder's rake shall surrender to the God who made the country. as man made the town.
 GOD iioNuRED BROTHERHOOD.
 Behold also that on that Christmas night God honored motherhood. Two angels on their wings might have brought an infant Saviour to Bethle- hem without Mary's being there at all When the villagers on the morn ing of December 26 awoke, by divine arrangement and in some unex plained way the child Jesus might have been found ill some comfortable cradle of the village. But no, no Motherhood for all time was to be consecrated, and one of the tenderest relations was to be the maternal re, lation. and one of the sweetest words, mother
 In all ages God has honored good motherhood John Wesley had a good mother: St. Bernard had good mother: Samuel Budget good mo- ther; Dodlridge good mother; Walter Scott good mother; Benja- min West good mother In great audience, most of whom were Chris. tians, asked that all those who had been blessed of Christian mothers arise, anl almost the entire assembly | stood ,1,, D,n,'t x-f,,, vaa bn1p inn 1,or