Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-01-01
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
DR.. TALMAOE breaches Oh
THE CHRISTMAS SEASON.
The Nativity OF Christ and Lessons Drawn
Therefrom-They Came In Haste and
Found Mary and Joseph and the Babe
In = Manger-A Night In Bethlehem.

though perfectly legitimate, are commonly
overlooked His text was Luke 2: IL "And
they came with haste, and found My and
Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger."
The black window shutters OF December
night -1ere thrown open and some OF the best
singers OF world where they all Sing stood
there, and putting back the drapery Of cloud,
I chanted peace anthem, until all the echoes OF
hill and valley applauded and encored she
hAlleluIah chorus. Come, let us go int that
Christmas scene as though we had never be-
| fore vorshipped at the manger Here Is q Ma
donna 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 English pronounce 1t differ
emily they are all namesakes OF the one whom
we find on bed OF straw, with her pale face
against the soft cheek OF Christ in the night OF
the Nativity. All of 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. Raphael, in three different
masterpieces, celebrated them. Tintoretto and
the alteration OF the Magi. Correggio
needed TO do nothing more than
his Madonna to become immortal The
Madonna OF the Lily, 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 contain
ing the Sistine Madonna. Yet all OF them were
copies Of st. Matthews 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 I'M
der our heads when we die.
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 camels
kneeling that night before the newborn babe.
And well might they kneell Have you ever
thought that Christ came among other things, 70
alleviate the sufferings OF tho brute creationg
Was 1t not appropriate that he should, during
the first few days and nights OF his life on earth,
be surrounded by the dumb beasts, whose moan
and plant and believing have for ages been q
prayer 10 God for the arresting OF their tor
lures and the righting OF their wrongs? 1t did
not merely happen so" that the unintlligent
creatures OF God should have been that night
IN close neighborhood.
Not q kennel in all the centuries, not birds
nest, not WORKOUT horse on tow-path, not
herd freezing in the poorly-built cow-pen, not a
freight car in summer time bringing the beeves
TO market without water through thousand
miles of agony, not a surgeons room witness
ing the struggles OF fox, or rabbit or pigeon, or
dog. in the horrors of vivisecton, but has an
interest in the fact that Christ was born in
stable, surrounded by brutes. He remembers
that night, and the prayer he heard In
their pitiful moan. he will answer
In the punishment OF those who maltreat
the dumb brutes. They surely have as much
right in the world as we have. In the first
chapter Of Genesis you may see that they were
placed on earth before man was, the fish and
fowl created the fifth day and the quadrupeds
the morning OF the sixth day, and man not
until the afternoon OF that day. The whale, the
eagle. the lion, and all the lesser creatures OF
their kind were predecessors Of the human
family. They have the world by right of pos
session. They have also paid rent for the
places they occupied. What an army OF de-
tense all over the land are the faithful watch
dogs. And who can tell what the world owes
20 the horse, and camel, and OK, for
transportation And robin and lark
have. by the cantatas with which
they have filled orchard and for
est, more than paid for the few grains they
have picked up for their sustenance. When
you abuse any creature Of God you strike ITS
creator. and you insult the Christ who, though
Princes, and taken his first infantile slumber
amid Tyrian plush and canopied touches, and
ripping waters from royal aqueducts dripping
into basins Of ivory and pearl, chose 70 be born
on the level with cows horn. or a camels
hoof, or dogs nostril, that he might be the
alienation OF animal suffering as well as the
Redeemer OF man.
Standing then, as imagine now do, in that
Bethlehem night with an infant Christ on the
one side and the speecMess creatures
OF God on the otner, ] cry, look
out, how you strike the rowel into that horses |
side Take of that curbed bit from that bleed
ing mouth. Remove that saddle from that raw
back. Shoot not for fun that bird that is too
small for food Forget not 10 put water into
the cage Of that canary. Throw out some
crumbs 10 those birds caught too far north in
the winters inciemency. Arrest that man who
Is making that one horse draw q load heavy
enough for three. Rush in upon that scene
where boys are torturing cat, or transfixing
butterfly and grasshopper. Drive not OF that
old robin, for her nest is mothers cradle, and |
under her wing there may be three or.
four musicians OF the sky in training
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 out TO them the angel, show |
them also the camel, and while they hear the |
celestial chant let them also hear the cows |
moan. No more did Christ show interest in the |
botanical world, when he said, Consider the |
lilies" than he showed sympathy for the or |
Astrological when he said, "Behold the fowls OF |
the air" and the quadrupedal world when he |
allowed himself to be called in once place a |
lion, and IN another place a lamb. Meanwhile, |
may the Christ OF the Bethlehem cattle-pen |
have mercy on the suffering stocl-yards, tina |
are preparing diseased and lowered meat for |
our American households.
Behold. also, in this bible scene, how on /
that Christmas night God honored childhood.
Christ might have made his first visit TO our |
world in cloud, as he will descend on his next
visit In cloud. In what q chariot OF illumined /
Tapor he might have rolled down the sky, |
escorted by mounted cavalry, with lightning /
Tor drawn sword. Elijah had carriage |
of fire 70 take him up; why not Jesus o
carriage OF fire TO fetch him DOWN. Or, |
over the arched bridge OF q rainbow the
Lord might have descended. Or Christ might |
have had his mortality built up on earth out OF
he dust Of q garden, as was Adam, In full man
hood at the start, without the Introductory
eebleness OF infancy. No, mol Childhood was
% be honored by that advent He must have
'hild's light limbs, and q child's dimpled hand
md child's beaming eye, and q child's haxen
lair; and babyhood was 10 DO honored for all
line TO come, and cradle was 70 mean more
han grave. Mighty Godl May the reflection
u that one child's face be seen in all infantile
aces.
Enough have all those fathers and mothers
m hand IL they have child in the house A
hrone, crown, sceptre. kingdom under
harge. BE careful how you strike him across
he head, Earring the brain. What you say TO
lin will be centennial and millennial, and
hundred years and thousand years will not