The Bossier banner., 1892-03-03
THE NATIVITY or JESUS.
Christnastide Sermon by Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage.
The Choosing of the Place for the Ad, ent
of the Holy Child Teaches Iessons
which are Sometimes
Overlooked.

was delivered by Kew. L. Dewitt Tai
mage in the Brooklyr tabernacle. His
text was:
And they came with haste and found Mary
and Joseph and the Babe lying in the manger-
Luke H. 16
The black window shutters of De-
cember night were thrown open, and
some of the best singers of a 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 applauded and
encored the Hallelujah chorus. Come,
let us go into that Christmas scene as
though we had never before wor-
SHIPPED at the manger. Here is 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 Ger
man and French and Italian and Span
ish and English pronounce it differ
emily, they are all namesakes of the
one whom we find on a bed of straw,
with her pale face against the soft
cheek of Christ in the night of the ma
tivity. 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 mas
terpieces, celebrated them. Tintoretto
and Ghirlandajo surpassed themselves
in the alteration of the Magi. Correg-
gio needed to do nothing more than his
Madonna to become immortal. The
Madonna Of the Lily, by Leonardo da
Vinci, will lSindle the admiration of all
ages. But all the galleries of Dresden
are forgotten when l think of the
small room of that gallery containing
the Sistine Madonna. Yet all of them
were copies of st. Matthew's Madonna,
and Luke's Madonna, the inspired Ma
donna of the Old Book, which we had
put into our hands when we were in
fants, and that we hope to have under
our heads w hen we die
Behold in the first place, that on the
first night of Christ's life God honored
the brute creation. You can not get
into that Bethlehem barn without go
ing 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 repre-
sent the oxen and camels kneeling that
night before the newborn babe. And
well might they lsneel! Have you ever
thought that Christ came, among other
things, to alleviate the sufferings of the
brute creationP Was it not appropri-
ate 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 prayer to God for the
arresting of their torturcrs and the
fighting of their wrongs? 1t did not
merely "happen so" that the unintelli-
gent creatures Of God should have been
that night in close neighborhood
Not kennel in all the centuries not
a birds nest, not worn-out house on
tow-path. not herd freezing in the
poorly-buiit cow-pen, not a freight car
in summer time bringing the beeves to
market without water through thou
sand miles of agony, not surgeons
room witnessing the struggles of fox,
or rabbit or pigeon, or dog, in the hor-
rors of vivisection, but has an interest
in the fact that Christ was born in n
stable, surrounded by brutes. He re-
members that night, and the PRAYERS
lie heard in their pitiful moan He will
answer in the punishment of those VIII
maltreat the dumb brutes. They
surely have as much right in this world
MS 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 on the fifth
day, and the quadrupeds the morning
of the sixth day, and man not un-
til the afternoon of that day. The
whale, the eagle, the lion and all the
lesser creatures of their kind were pre-
decessors of the human family. They
have the world by right of possession.
They have also paid rent for the places
they occupied. What an army of. de-
fense all over the land are the faithful
watch-dogs. And who can tell what
the world owes to the horse, and camel.
and OK, for transportation? And robin
anu i"ih nave, ny Tue cdnCataS with
which they have filed orchard and for
est, more than paid for the few grains
they have picked up for their susie
nance. When you abuse any creature of
Gods You strike its Creator, and Won
insult the Christ who, though He
might have been welcomed into life by
princes, and taken His first infantiie
slumber amid Tyrian plush and cano-
pied couches, and ripping waters from
royal aqucducts dripping into basins of
ivory and pearl, chose to be born on the
level with n cows horn, or a camers
hoof. or dogs nostril, that He might
be :he alleviation of animal suffering
as well as the Redeemer of man.
Standing then, as | imagine now [
do, in that Bethlehem night with an in
FAINT Christ on the one side and the
speechless creatures of God on the other
cry, look out how you strike the
rowel into that 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 ca