Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-28
THE SAVIOR IS BORN.
His Coming Honors First Of All the
Dumb Brute Creation.
EXT A TRIBUTE TO CHILDHOOD.
How the Fields We're HOnored When Angels
Proclaimed Peace.
A DIVINE BLESSING ON MOTHERHOOD

propriate to the Christmas season. His text
was Luke PIG, ''And they came with haste,
ard found Mary and Joseph, and the babe
living in a manger.
The black window shutters of December
night were thrown open, and some of the
best singers of a world where they all sing
stood there, and putting back the drapery
OF cloud chanted a peace anthem until all
the echoes of hill and valley applauded and
encored the Hallelujah chorus. Come, let
us 60 into that Christmas scene as though
We had never before worshipped at the
manger Here is a Madonna worth looking
at.
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 Eng
lish pronounce it differently they are all
namesakes of the one whom we find on a
bed of straw, with her pale face against the
soft cheek of Christ on the night of the Ma
tivity. All the great painters have tried, on
canvas, TO present Mary and her child and
the incidents of that most famous night of
the worlds history.
God Honors His Brute Creation.
Behold in the first place, that on the first
night of Christ's life God honored the brute
creation. You cannot get into that Bethle-
hem barn without going past the camels,
the mules, the dogs, tine oxen. The brutes
of that stable heard the first cry of the in
fant Lord Some of the old painters repre-
sent 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 suffer-
in-s of the brute creation? Was it not ap-
propriate that he should, during the hrst
few days and nights of His life on earth, be
surrounded by the dumb beasts, whose
moan and plaint and believing have Tor
ages been prayer to God for the arrest1ng
OF their tortures and the Tighting of their
wrongs? 1t did not merely happen so that
the unintelligent creatures of God should
have been that night in close neighborhood.
Not kennel in all the centuries, not a
birds nest, not a worn-out horse on tow
path not a herd freezing in the poorlybuilt
cow-pen, not freight car in summer time
bringing the beeveS to market without
water through 1000 miles of agony, not
surgeons room witnessing the struggles OF
fox, or rabbit, or pigeon, or dog. IN the nor
rorS Of VlviSection, but has an interest IN
the fact that Christ was born in a stable,
surrounded by brutes. He remembers that
night, and the prayer he heard in their pitt
full moan, he will answer in the punishment
of those who maltreat the dumb brutes.
The Right of Beasts to Live.
They surely have as much right in this
world as we have. In the first chapter of
Genesis you may see that they were placed
on the earth before man was, the fish and
fowl created the fifth day, and the quadru-
peds the morning of the sixth day, and man
not until the afternoon of that day. The
whale. the eagle the lion. and ali the lesser
creatures OF their kind were predecessors
of the human family. They have the world
by right of possession.
They have also paid rent for the places
they occupied. What an army of defense
all over the land are the faithful watch
dogs. And who can tell whatth world owes
TO the horse. ana camel and OK for trans
portation? And robin and lark have, by the
Cantatas with which they have filed orchard
and forest, more than paid for the few
grains they have picked up for their sus-
tenance. When you abuse any creature of
God yon strike its Creator.
Standing then. as / imagine now l do, in
that Bethlehem night with an infant Christ
on the one side and the speechless creatures
OF God on the other, L cry. look out how
Won strike that rowel in the horses side.
Take OF that curbed bit from that bleeding
mouth. Remove that saddle from that raw
back. Shoot not Tor fun that bird that is
TOO small for food. Forget not to put water
into the cage for 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 load heavy enough for three.
Teach Mercy to the Children.
In your families and in your schools teach
the coming generation more mercy than the
present generation has ever shown, and in
this marvellous Bible picture of the Nativity
while you point ont to them the angel, show
them also the camel, and while they hear
the celestial chant, let them also hear the
cows moan.
Behold, also, in this Bible scene how, on
that Christmas night, God honored child
hood. Christ might have made his first
visit to our world in cloud, as He will de-
scend on his next visit in q cloud. In what
a chariot of illumined vapor He might have
rolled down the sky escorted by mounted
cavalry. with lightning for drawn sword.
Enough have all those fathers and mothers
on hand If they have child in the house. A
throne, crown, sceptre, a KINGDOM un-
der charge. Be careful how you strike him
across the head, jarrIng the brain. What
you say to him will be centennial and mil
lennial, and hundred years and thousand
years Will not stop the echo and re-echo.
God has infinite resources and He can give
presents of great value but when He wants
TO give the richest possible gift to a house
hold He looks around all the worlds
and all the universe and then gives q child.
The greatest present that God ever gave our
world He gave about 1891 years ago, and he
gave it on Christmas night.
The Child to Rule To-Day,
And to-day the child is to decide all the
great battles, make all the laws, settle all
the destinies, and usher in the worlds salva-
tion or destruction. Men, women, nations,
Is there any velvet as soft as a child's
cheek? Is there any sky so blue as a child's
eye? Is there any music so sweet as the
child,s voice? Is there any plume so wavy
as child's hair?
Notice also that in this Bible night scene
God honored science. Who are the three
wise men kneeling before the Divine Infant?
Not Doors, not ignOramuses, but Caspar,
Belthasar and Melchior who
knew ali THAI was to be known.
NpwfOnS
and Herschels aud Faradays of their
time. There alchemy was the forerunner
OF our sublime chemistry. their astrology
the mother of our magnificent astronomy.
They had studied stars, studied metals,
studied physiology, studied everything
And when ] see these scientists bowing be-
fore the beautiful babe see the prophecy
of the time when ali the telescopes and
microscopes and all the Leyden jars, and
all the electric batteries, and all the obser-
vRtories, and all the universities shall bow
to Jesus. 1t is much that way already
Behold also in that first Christmas night
that God honored the helds Come in, shep-
herd boys. 10 Bethlehem and see the child
NO" they say, "we are not dressed good
enough to come in" "Nes, you are: come
in.
shepherd Boys the First to See Jesus.
Yet they were the first to hear the music
of that Christmas night The first announce.
ment of a Savior's birth was made to those
men in the fed. There were wiseacres that
night in Bethlehem and Jerusalem snoring
in deep sleep, and there were salaried Off
GERS 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 dismounting from
swift camel at their door and Knocking till.
At some sentineHs question, "Wno comes
there?" the great ones of the palace might
have been told OF the celestial arrival No;