The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-01-09
CHRISTMAS JUBILEE.
DIR. Tatmage Discourses on the
Great Christian Festival
birth OF Our Lord-The Month Well Chosen
The Saviour's Mission For Those
Under CIouded Skies and
With Frosted Hopes.

In his sermon at Brooklyn on the las
Sunday of the old year Rev. L. De Wit
Talmage took for his subject 1.-THE
Christmas Jubilee" His text was Luke
Ii Is: Let us now go even unto Bethle
hem" The noted preacher said:
Amid thousand mercies we give each
other holiday congratulations BY long
established custom we exhort each
other to healthful merriment. BY gift
by Christmas trees which blossom and
fruit in one night, by early morning sur.
prise, by clusters of lighted candles, by
children's procession, by sound of in
struments sometimes more blatant than
musical. we wake up the night and pro-
long the day. The event commemorated
is the gladdest of the centuries. Christ's
cradle was as wonderful as His cross.
/ 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 which He took
when Joseph and Mary fed with Him
from Bethlehem to Egypt to escape the
massacre of Herod. All tradition as
well as all history point 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
sheivings of rock, one of which think
was the cradle of our Lord. There is
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, DIR.
Lansing, who for thirty-fve years has
been a resident of Cairo, and he told
me that he had been all over the road
the three fugitives took from Bethle-
hem to Egypt. He says it is a desert
way and that the forced journey of the
infant Christ must have been terrible
journey. Going up from Egypt DR.. Ian
sing met people from Bethlehem, their
tongues swollen and hanging out from
the Inflammation of thirst, and al
though his party had but one goat skin
of water left, and that was important
for themselves, he was so moved with
the spectacle of thirst in these poor pill
grims that, though it excited the indig-
nation of his fellow-travelers, he gave
water to the strangers. Over this dread
full route Joseph and Mary started for
the land of Egypt. No time to make
much preparation. Herod was after
them, and what were these peasants be
fore an irate King? Joseph, the hus-
band and father, one night sprang up
from his mattress in great alarm,
the beads of sweat on his forehead and
his whole frame quaking. He had
dreamed of massacres of his wife and
babe. They must be off that night,
right away. Mary put up 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 a long
way. But there is no time to get any
thing more. Out and on. Goodbye to
the dear home they expect never again
to see. Their hearts break. Over the
hills and down through the deep gorge
they urge their way. By Hebron, by
GAIA, through hot sand, under blister
ing sun, the babe crying, the mother
faint, the father exhausted. How slow
the days and week pass.
When at last they cross the line be-
yond which old Herod has no right to
pursue their Joy is unbounded. Free at
last. Let them dismount and rest.
Now they resume their way with less
anxiety. They will find a place
somewhere for shelter and the earni ,g
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 to-day. But 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 cellar, it started from
a barn. In and around that barn in
Bethlehem we tarry to-day.
Every thing humble around the barn,
but every thing glorious overhead.
'Christ's advent was in the hostelry
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 orches-
trail batons of light dripping the orato-
rios of the Messiah; on lowest doorstep
of Heaven the MINISTRIES of God discourse
ing of glory and good will. The loos-
,ened star; the escaped doxology of ce-
lestials; the chill December night afiush
with May morn; our world lost star,
and another star rushing down the sky
that night to beckon the wanderer home
again, shall yet make all nations keep
Christmas.
Are there no new lessons from the
story not yet hackneyed from oft re-
peatal? o, yes. Know in the first
place that it was sidereal appearance
that led the way. Why not a black
rcioud in the shape of hand or finger?
A cloud means trouble, and the world
had had trouble enough. Why not a
shaft of lightning quivering and flash
ing and striking down to the sacred
birthplace? Lightning means destruc-
ton, SCATTERING and consuming power,
and the world wanted no more destruc
ton.
But it was star, and that means Joy,
that means hope, that means good
cheer, that means ascendancy. 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 defense, for did
not the stars fight in their courses
with Sisera, and for the Lords people?
A star! That means brilliant continu-
=anoe, for are not the righteous to shine
as tke stars for ever and ever? A star.
frha1 means the nneninr of eternal inH