The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-01-08
CHRISTMAS LESSONS.
DR.. Talmage Draws Wisdom From
the Nativity.
Honors to All Creation at the Birth of the
SayiOur-ChIldhood Dignified-The
Greatest of All Gifts to
the Family.

In his sermon at Brooklyn, preached
the Sunday after Christmas day, Rev.
7. De Witt Talmage took his text from
Luke ii. 16: "And they came with
haste and found Mary and Joseph, and
the babe lying in the manger." DIR.
Talmage said:
! OThe black window shutters of a De-
cember 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 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 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 differently, 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 history. Raphael,
in three different masterpieces, cele-
bratcd them. Tintoretto and Chirlan-
daio surpassed themselves in the adora-
ton Of the Magi Corregyio needed to
do nothing more than his madonna to
become immortal. The Madonna of
the Lily, by Leonardo da Vinci, will
lxindle the admiration of all ages. But
all the galleries of Dresden are forgot
ten when | think of the small room OF
that gallery containing the Sistine ma
donna Yet all of them were copies of
st. Matthew's madonna, and Luke's
madonna, the in ,pired 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.
Behold, in the first place. that on the
first night of Christ's life God hOnored
the brute creation. You cannot get in
TO 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 new born babe. And well
might they kuee! Have you ever
thought that Christ came among other
things to alleviate the sufferings of the
brute creation? Was it not appropriate
that He should, during the first few
days aud nights of His life on earth, be
surrounded bv the dumb beasts, whose
moan and plant and believing have for
ages been n prayer to God for the ar
resting of their tortures and the right
ing of their wrongs? 1t dill not merely
happen so" that the unintelligent
creatures of God should have been that
night in close neighborhood.
Not kennel in all the centuries, not
birds nest, not a worn out horse on
towpath, not herd freezing il the
poorly built cow pen, not freight car
in summer time bringing the beeves to
market without water through thou
sand miles of agony, not n surgeons
3 | GODI1 NllIlCNNlli5 bAit osA vs. ~ - Ac-Nf ~
rabbit, or pigeon, or dog in the hor-
rors of vivisection, but has an interest
in the fact that Christ was born in a
stable surrounded by brutes. He re-
members that night, an1 the prayer he
heard in their pitiful moan; he will
answer in the punishment of those who
maltreated the dumb brutes.
What an army of defense 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 trans
portation? And robin and lark have,
bv the cantatas with which they have
filed orchard and forest more than
paid for the few grains they have
picked up for their susie nance. 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 slumber amid
Tyrian plush aud canopied couches,
and rippling waters from royal aque-
ducts dripping into basins of ivory and
pearl, chose to be born on the level
with a cows horn. or camers hoof,
or dogs nostril, that he might be the
alienation of animal suffering as well
, as the redeemer of man. Standing
; then, as l imagine now do, in that
! bethlehem night with an infant Christ
, on the one side and the SpeechleSs
, creatures of God on the other, l cry,
look out, how you strike the
rowel into that horses side. Take
| off that curbed bit from the
bleeding mouth Remove that saddle
! from that raw back. Shoot not for
fun that bird that is too small for food.
J 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 inclemencv. Arrest tlat
! 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 transhxing but
terfy and grasshopper
No more did Christ show interest il
the botanical world, when He said
Consider the lilies" than He showed
= sympathy for the archaeological wher
He said, Behold the fowls of the air
and the quadrupedal when He allowed
Himself TO be called in one place lion
and in another place lamb.
r Behold, also, in this Bible scene, how
on that Christmas night God honored
/ ! childhood. Christ might have made hi
: ! first visit to our world in a cloud, as he
will descend on his next visit in cloud
In what chariot of illuminated vapo
he might have rolled down the sky, es
corted by mounted cavalry, with light