The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-01-07

The greatest present that God ever
gave our world, he gave about 1891
years ago, and he gave it on a Christ
mas night, and it was OF such value
that heaven adjourned for a recess
and came down and broke through
the, clouds to look at it. Yea, in all
ages God has honored childhood. He
makes almost every picture a failure
unless there be a child either playing
on the floor, or looking through the
window, or seated on the lamp, gazing
into the face of the mother.
1t was q child in Naaman's kitchen
that told the great Syrian warrior
where he might go and get cured of
the leprosy, which at his seventh
plunge in the Jordan, was left at the
bottom OF the river. 1t was to the
cradle Of leaves, in which a child was
laid, rocked by the Nile, that God
called the attention OF history. 1t
was a sick child that evoked Christ's
curative sympathies. 1t was q child
that Christ set in the midst OF the
squabbling disciples, to teach the les
son OF humility. Weare informed that
wolf and leopard and lion shall be vet
so domesticated that little child
shall lead them. A child decided Wa
terioo, showing'the army OF Butcher
how they could take a short cut
through the fields, when, if the old
road had been followed, the Prussian
general would have come up too late to
SAVE THE DEsTINIEs OF EUROPE.
1t was a child that decided Gettys-
burg, he having overheard the confed-
crate generals in a conversation in
which they decided to march from
Gettysburg instead of Harrisburg;and
this, reported to Gov. Curtin, the fed
eral forces started to meet their oppo-
nents at Gettysburg And today the
child is to decide all the great battles,
make all the laws, settle all the des-
tenies and usher in the worlds saliva
ton or destruction. Men, women, ma
tions, all earth and all heaven, behold
the child! Is there any velvet so soft
as a child's cheek? Is there any sky
SO blue as a child's eye? Is there any
music so sweet as the child's voice? Is
there any plume so wavy as a child's
hair?
Notice also that in this Bible night
scene God honored science Who are
the three wise men kneeling before the
Divine Infant? Not Doors, not igno-
ramuses, but Casper, Belthasar and
Melchoir, men who knew all that was
to be known. They were the Isaac
Newtons and Herchels and Faradays
OF their time. Their alchemy was the
forerunner OF our sublime chemistry,
their astrology the mother of our
magnificent astronomy. They had
studied stars, studied metals, studied
physiology, studied everything. And
When I see these scientists bowling be-
fore the beautiful babe, l see the
prophecy Of the time when all the tele-
scopes and microscopes, and all the
Leyden jars, and all the electric bat
teries, and all the observatories, and
all the universe shall
BOW TO JESUS.
1t is much that way already. Where
is the college that does not have
morning prayers, thus bowling at the
manager? Who have been the greatest
physicians? Omitting the names of
the living lest we should be invidious,
have we not had among them Chris
tain men like our own Joseph C.
Hutchinson and Rush and Valentine
Mott andAbercrombie and Abernethy?
Who have been our greatest scientists?
Joseph Henry, who lived and died in
faith of the gospels, and Agassiz, who,
standing with his students among. the
hills took off his bat and Said:
1!Young gentlemen before we study
these rocks, let us pray for wisdom to
God who made the rocks" Today
the greatest doctors and lawyers Of
Brooklyn and New York and of this
land and of all lands, revere the Chris
tian religion, and are not ashamed to
say so before juries and legislatures
and senates- All geology will yet bow
before the Rock Of Ages. All botany
will yet worship the Rose of Sharon.
All astronomy will yet recognize the
star of Bethlehem. And physiology
and anatomy will join hands and say,
1--WE must, by the help OF God, get the
human race up to the perfect muscle
and perfect brain, and perfect form of
that perfect child, before whom, nigh
twenty hundred years ago, the wise
MEN bent their tired knees in worship.
Behold also in that first Christmas
night that God
HONoRED THE FIELDS.
Come in, shepherd boys, to Bethlehem
and see the child. No." they say,
1--WE are not dressed good enough to
come in" Eyes, you are; come in"
Sure enough, the storms and the night
dew and the brambles have made
rough work with their apparel, but
none have a better right to come in.
They were the first to hear the music
OF that Christmas night. The first
announcement OF a Savior's birth was
made to those men in the fields. Not
only that Christmas night, but all up
and down the worlds history God
had been honoring the fields. Nearly
all the messiahs of reform and litera-
ture and eloquence and law and be-
nevolence, have come from the fields.
Washington from the fields. Jefferson
from the fields. The presidential
martyrs, Garfield and Lincoln from
the fields. Henry Clay from the fields.
Daniel Webster from the fields. Mar
tin Luther from the fields. Before this
world is right, the Overlooking popula-
tons OF our crowded cities will have