Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-01-16
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES Sun.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Birth of Christ

hem Luke IL, Is
Amid a thousand mercies we give each
other holiday congratulations. By long
esta bllshed 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 children's professions, by
sound of instruments sometimes more blatant
than musical, we wake up the night and pro-
long the day. wish you all, in the grandest,
noblest ana best sense, q merry Christmas.
The event cOmmemOratei Is the gladdeSt of
the centuries. Christ's cradle was as won
derful as His cross Persuade me of the first
and am not surprised at the last. The door
by which He entered was as tremendous as
the door by which He went out.
/ was last winter at the house where Jesus
lived while He was in Africa. 1t was in
Cairo, Egypt, the terminus of that terrible
journey on foot which He took when Joseph
and Mary fed with Him from Bethlehem to
Egypt to escape the massacre of HerOd All
tradition, as we'll as all history, points out
this house in Cairo as the one in which these
three fugitives lived while in Africa. The
room Is nine steps down from the level of
the street. measured the room and found
it twenty feet long and seven and half feet
high. There are three shelVings of rock, one
OF which think was the cradle Of our Lord.
There no window, and all the light
must have come from lantern or cradle The
three arrived here from Bethlehem having
crossed the awful desert.
On the Mediterranean steamer going from
Athens to Alexandria / met the eminent
scholar and theOlOgian, DR.. Lansing who for
thlrty-five years has been resident of Cairo
and he told me that he had been all over the
road that the three fugitves took from
Bethlehem to Egypt He says it is desert
way, and that the forced journey of the in
fant Christ must have been terrible Jour
ney. Going up from Egypt DR.. Lansing
met people from Bethlehem, their tongues
swollen and hanging out from Inflammation
of thirst, and although his party had but one
goatSkin of water left and that was import
ant for themselves he was so moved with
the spectacle of thirst in these poor pilgrims
that, though it excited the Indignation of
his fellow Travellers he gave water to the
strangers Over this dreadful route Jo-
seph 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 quakng. He had dreamed of
Inassacres of his wife and babe. They must
he OFT. that night, right away. Mary put I'D
a few things hastily, and Joseph brought to
the door the beast of burden, and helped his
wife and child to mount Why, those loaves
of bread are not enough, those bottles of
water will not last for such long way But
there is no time to get anything more Out
and on. Good-by to the dear home they ex-
pec5 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,
Over the hills and down through the deep
gorge they urge their way. By Hebron by
GAIA, through hot sand under a blistering
sun the babe crying, the mother faint, the
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 un-
bounded. Free at last Let them dismount
and est Now they resume their wav with
less anxiety They will find place some
where 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 Rut
the terminus of the journey of these three
fugitives was not as humble as their STARTING
point at Bethlehem. If that journey across
the desert ended in a cellar it started from
a barn. EVERYTHING humble around that barn,
but everything glorious overhead. Chrst's
advent was III the hoStery 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 ora
torios Of the Messiah: on lowest doorstep of
heaven the MINISTRIES o. God discoursing of
glory and good will. Soon after the white
bearded aStrOlOgiStS kneel. and from leathern
exhale the frankincense and rustic out the
bundles or myrrh. The lOoSened star; the
escaped doXOiOgy of celestials; the chill De-
cember night atiuSh with May morn: our
world a lost star aud another star rushing
down the sky that night to beckon the wan |
dere~ home again. shall yet make all = ations
keep Christmas
Are there no new lessons from the story
not yet hackneyed by oft 1epeataI? Oh, yesI |
know III the first place, it was a sidereai an |
1pearance that led the way. Why not black
cloud III the shape Of a hand or finger point |
ing down to the sacred birthplace cloud |
means trouble and the world had had trouble |
enough. Why not shaft of lightning ouiv- |
er1ng ana flashing and striking down TO thu |
sacred birthplace? Lightning means destr,1c- !
Coh, scattering and consuming power. and !
Che world wanted no more destruction.
but 1t was star, and that means joy. that |
mems hope, that means good cheer. that |
means ascendency. a star! That means |
creative power, for did not the morning |
stars sing together when the portfolio of the |
worlds was opened; A star! That means DE-
tense, for did not the stars fight in their
courses against SiSera and for the Lords
people? A star! That means brilliant con-
Unuance, for are not the righteous to shine
as the stars forever andsever? A star. That
means the opening of eternal joy The dav
star i'll the heart The morning star of the
Redeemer
Inc unusual appearance that night NAV
have been strange con junction OF worlds. As
the transit OF Venus III our time was fO1efOl
many years ago by astronomer. and asCrOr,-
olnerS can tell what will be the conjunction
OF worlds a thousand years from now. so Uhev
can calculate backward; and.even infidel as
fronomers have been compelled to testify
that about the year l there was a very u1l- |
usual appearance in the heavens. The Chi
nese record, of course entirely independent
- ~ a.