Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-01-07
BETHLEHEM DAYS.
DR. TALMAeE RELATES HIS ExPE-
RIENcE AT cHRIsT's BIRTHPLACE.
Immortal Masterpieces Of Art which
Portray the scenes oa the Nativity.
Mission of Children In the scriptures.
The Shepherds and other Heroes

Mission of Children In the scriptures.
The shepherds and Other Heroes.
BRooKLYE. Dec. 27.-Rey. Dr. Talmags
preached this morning a sermon apprO
pirate 70 the Christmas season. Taking NJ
the subject OF the Nativity, he drew from II
lessons which. though perfectly legitimate.
are commonly overlooked. His text was
Luke ii. l6 ;'And they came with haste.
and found Mary and Joseph. and the Babe
lying in a manger."
The black window shutters of Decen.
Der night were thrown open, and some OF
the best singers Of world where they all
sing stood there. and putting back the
-drapery Of cloud, chanted peace anthem,
until all the echoes of hill and valley ap
plauded and encored the Hallelujah chorus.
Come, let us go into that Christmas scene ai
though we had never before worshiped 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 English pronounce it diff
srently. 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 the great
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
Ghirlandajo surpassed themselves in 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 con
tanning Sistine 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 OF 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 camels 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 sufferings of the
brute creationS Was it not appropriate
that he should, during the first few days
and nights of his life ON EARTH be sur
rounded by the dumb beasts, whose moan
and. plaint and believing have for ages
been prayer to God for the arresting of
their tortures and the righting Of their
wrongsf 1t did not merely happen so''
that the unintelligent creatures Of God
should have been that night in close neigh
borhood
Not kennel in all the centuries, not a
birds nest, not a wornout 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 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-
members that night, and the prayer he
heard in their pitiful moan he will answer
III tne puulSutll6uL Vi GuOSc WuO DblOTCtbt
the dumb brutes. They surely have as
much right in this world AZ 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 quadrupeds the morning of
the sixth day, and man not until the after
noon of that day. The whale, the eagle,
the lion. and all the lesser creatures of their
kind were predecessors of the human IA
mily. 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 faith
full watchdogs. And who can tell what
the world owes to the horse and camel
and OK for transportation And robin and
lark have, by the cantatas with which they
have filled orchard and forest 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 he
might have been welcomed into life by
princes and taken his first infantile slum-
ber amid Tyrian plush and canopied
couches and rippling waters from royal
aqueducts dripping into basins of ivory
and pearl, chose to be born on the level
with a cows horn, or camel's hoof, or a
dogs nostrii that he might be the aIlevia-
tion of animal suffering as well as the re-
deemer of man.
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
Standing, then. as imagine now do in
that Bethlehem night, with an infant
Christ on the one side and the speechless
creatures of God on the other, Icry look
hos, cfx-ie hn int huf
horses side. Take off that curbed bit
from that bleeding mouth Remove that
saddle from that raw back. Shoot not for
fun that bird that is too small for food.
Forget not to put water into the cage OF
that canary. Throw out some crumbs to
those birds caught too far north in the
winters inclemeney, Arrest that man
who Is making that one horse draw a load
heavy enough for three. Rush in upon
that scene where boys are torturing a cat
or transfixing butterfly and grasshopper.
Drive not off 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 gener-
alton more mercy than the present gener-
alton has ever shown, and in this marvel.
ous 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 in
terest in the botanical world when he said
Consider the lilies" than he showed
sympathy for the pathological when he
said Behold the fowls of the air" and the
Qladrupedal world when he allowed him
self to be called in one place lion and in
another place lamb Meanwhile may
the Christ Of the Bethlehem cattle pen
have mercy on the suffering stockyards
that are preparing diseased and fevered
meat for our American households.
Behold, also, in this Bible scene, how on
khat (yhristnas uiUht Cod honored child.