Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1891-12-31
BETHLEHEM DAYS.
a. TALMAes RELATES HIS ExPE-
RlENcE AT cHRIST's BIRTHPLACE.

Immortal Masterpieces of Art Which
Portray the scenes of the Nativity
Q Mission of Children In the Scriptures
The Shepherds and Other Heroes.
. BRooKLYN, Dec. 27.-Rev. DR. Talmag,
! preached this morning sermon appro
triate TO the Christmas season. Taking VI
the subject of the Nativity, he drew from il
lessons which, though perfectly legitimate
are commonly overlooked. His text was
Luke ii, 10, And they came with haste
and found Mary and Joseph. and the Babe
lying in a Manager"
The black window shutters of a Decem.
her night were thrown open, and some OF
the best singers of world where they all
sing stood there, and putting back the
frapery of cloud, chanted peace anthem,
until all the echoes OF hill and valley ap-
plauded and encored the Hallelujah chorus.
Come, let us 20 into that Christmas scene as
though we had never before worshiped at
the Manager Here is Madonna worth
looking at. ! wonder not that the most
frequent name in all lands and in all
Christian centuries is Mary And there
IRE Marys in palaces and Marys in cabins,
aud though German and French and Italian
and Spanish and English pronounce it diff
Prently, they are all namesakes of the one
whom we find on bed of straw. with hei
pale face against the soft cheek of Christ
IN the night OF the Nativity All the great
4 painters have tried on canvas to present
/ Mary and her child and the incidents of
that most famous night of the worlds his
tory Raphael. in three different master
pieces, celebrated them Tintoretto and
tihirlandajo surpassed themselves in the
alteration of the Magi. Correggio needed
to do nothing more than his Madonna to
become immortal The Madonna Of the
Lilly, by Leonardo da Vinci, will kindle
the admiration of all ages. But all the
galleries of Dresden are forgotten when
think of the small room of that gallery con
tanning Sstine Madonna Yet all of them
were copies of St. Matthew's Madonna and
Luke's Madonna the inspired Madonna of
the Old Book, which we had put into our
hands when we were infants, and that we
hope to have under our heads when we die.
AMID THE BEASTS or THE STALL.
Behold, in the first place, that on the
first night of Christ's life God honored the
brute creation. You cannot get into that
Bethlehem barn without going past the
camels, the mules, the dogs. the oxen. The
brutes of that stable heard the first cry OF
the infant Lord Some of the old painters
represent the oxen and cames kneeling
that night before the newborn babe. And
well might they kneell Have you ever
thought that Christ came among other
things to alleviate the suiferings of the
brute creations Was it not appropriate
that he should, during the first few days 1
and nights of his life on earth, be sur
rounded by the dumb beasts, whose moan
and plant and believing have for ages
been prayer to God for the arresting Of
their fortunes and the righting of their
wrongsS 1t did not merely happen so'
that the unintelligent creatures Of God
should have been that night in close neigh.
borhood
Not a kennel in all the centuries, not
birds nest. not a wornout horse on tow
path. not herd freezing in the poorly |
built COW pen, not freight car in summer |
time bringing the beeves to market with.
out water through Thousand miles of |
agony, not surgeons room witnessing the
struggles of fox or rabbit or pigeon or
dog in the horrors of vivisection but has
an interest in the fact that Christ was born
in stable, surrounded by brutes He re-
that night, and the prayer be
heard in their pitiful moan he will answer
ia the punishment of those who maltreat
the dumb brutes They surely have as
much right in this world rs we have In
The first chapter of Genesis you may see
hat they were placed on the earth before
man WAS, the fish and fowl created the fifth
lay and the quadrupeds the morning of 1
5he sixth day, and man not until the after
noon of that day The whale, the eagle,
.he hon. and all the lesser creatures of their
kind were predecessors Of the human fa-
nily. They have the world by right of
possession. They have Also paid rent for
he places they occupied. What nm army
If defense all over the land are the faith
ul watchdogs And who can tell what
he world owes to the horse and camel
md OK for transportation And robin and
ark have, by the cantatas with which they I
AVE filled orchard and forest, more than /
Wild for the few grains they have picked
Up for their sustenance. When you abuse
my creature Of God you strike its Creator .
nd you insult the Christ who. though he
night have been welcomed into life by I
Irinces and taken his first infantile slum- |
'er amid Tyrian plush and canopied {
ouches and ripping waters from royal t
queducts tipping into basins of ivory S
nd pearl. cnose to be born ON the level a
With a cows horn, or camel's hoof, or /
og's nostril, that he might he the allevia- I
ion of animal suffering rs well as the re '
eemer Of man n
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. a
Standing. then. as,I imagine now do In 2
hat Bethlehem night, with an infant a
'hrist on the one side and the speechless D
FEATURES of Sod on the other, | cry look v
Mt how you strike the rowel into that &
orse's side Take off that curbed bit v
'om that bleeding mouth Remove that
id,lle from that raw back Shoot not for &
IN that bird that is too small for food 81
orget not to put water into the cage of G
nat canary. Throw out .some crumbs to Q
hose birds caught too far north in the c,
inter's inclemency. Arrest that man n
no is making that one horse draw a load r,
eavy enough for three. Rush in upon h
lat scene where hoys are torturing a cat q
I transfxing butterfly and grasshopper. n
rive not off that old robin. for her nest is S
mothers cradle, and under her wing II