Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-25


us, and the revelation of the blessed truth
of God will be made clear before us, and we
will find Christ even as the Bethlehem
shepherds found him, and will know Christ
as they did, and better.
The shepherds were watching their hock'
the astronomers were studying the stars, the
fishermen were mending their nets, when
the word of the Lord came. Every day the
Lord Christ comes to us in the opportunl7
ties, in the temptations. in the decisions, In
the blessings of our daily business. Every
day, in the persons of his brethren, the
down-trodden and poor, the Lord Christ lies
Graded in a stable.
The Element of Beauty.
And, 10, the angel of the Lord came upon
them and the glory of the Lord shone round
about them. And suddenly there was with
the angel multitude of the heavenly host,
praising God. There begins the making of
Christmas beautiful. God himself painted
the night sky with Christmas colors, and
sent the angels to sing the Christmas an
them We do well to make the house of
God as fair as we can make it, and to bring
into the service of God the harmonies of the
loveliest music ''The glory of Lebanon
shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine
tree and the box together, to beautify the
place of my sanctuary; and I will make the
place of my feet glorious" That old
prophecy finds fulfllment here to-day
The Christmas story teaches us the lesson
that is taught by all the flowers and all the
glowing skies, the lesson of Gods love Of
beauty. God was not satisfied to make this
great world useful; he made it lovely. 1t
was not enough that Jesus should be born
in Bethlehem in the midst OF significantly
humble surroundings, in the stable, but the
sky outside must blaze with glory, and the
blessed angels must chant praises A plain
voice out of the clouds, speaking simple
words of common prose, telling the Christ
mas truth, would have been a sufficient
revelation; but no; there must be strains of
poetry, and choruses and anthems with
celestial orchestration, taking up the words
and glorifying them with glad, resouDding
strophe and antistrophe, refrain and anti
phone, lifting them up with acclanations
and alleleuias.
Transformation of the Centuries.
Thus have we taken that plain upper
room in which the church began, and we
have made it as worthily beautiful as our
hands have been able all down the centuries,
built it out OF stone, adorned it with color,
brought into it more and more our best and
loveliest, of carving and embroidery and
painting, and glorifed it into magnificent
cathedrals
And we have taken that homely supper
which is the central service of our religion,
and we have changed the simple table into
marble, and made the earthen dishes into
plates of gold, and set the words of the
Master, like gem In glowing jewel, in
the midst of praises and alteration.
And we come to-day with the church gar
nished with green, and with the service
ringing with sweet music, into the pres
ence OF Him who sent the Christmas angels
into the glory of the midnight sky of Beth
lehem.
"And the angel of the Lord came upon
them, and the glory of the Lord shone
changed into day, and every cloud was
touched with heavenly color, and every
drop of dew on the dark grass of the hill
pasture shone like the jewels in the high
priests breastplate.
The Source of Best Sunshine~
That is the miracle which the Christmas
angel works all the world over The
Christmas story teaches a wonderful secret
that will make the sun shine at midnight,
that will turn the blackest clouds into the
curtains of Heaven. For the bightest sun
shine does not depend at all upon the sun,
it comes out of the heart. If we have the
Christmas spirit in our hearts the very
glory of the Lord will shine all round about
US. The light that glimmered in the stable,
the light that beamed out of the Bethlehem
skv-it lighteth every man even to-day who
will let it burn within his breast. 1t is the
blessed light of love. The Christmas spirit
is the loving spirit, the spirit of unselfish
love.
There is story how the devil, coming
once to earth at Christmas time could find
no entrance anywhere, could not get any of
his evil thoughts into human hearts, for
every heart was full of the blessed Christ
mas spirit There is no place for the devil
in an unselfsh world.
Now what we want is to have this good
Christmas time continued, kept over to-
and the day after, and the month
after, and all thr7ugh the year. We want
TO have that year which begins next week
year full of Christmas spirit, year in
which the unselfsh love of this holy sea-
son shall not at any time be absent from
our hearts. Then shall the Christmas les
son be learned as Christians ought to learn
It. Then shall we receive the fullest meas
ure of the Christmas benediction.
GEORGE HODGES