Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1892-01-01
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
DR.. TALMACE breaches ON
THE CHRISTMAS SEASON.
The Nativity of Christ and Lessons Drawn
Therefrom-Thcy Came I'm Haste and
Found Mary and Joseph and the Babe
In q Manger-A Night I'm bethlehem.

preached this morning sermon appropriate 10
tho Christmas season. Taking up the subject
OF the Nativity he drew from il lessons which,
though perfectly legitimate, are commonly
overlooked His text was Luke 2: ID "And
they came with haste, and found My and
Joseph, and the Babe lying In manger."
, The black window shutters OF u December
night -Tere thrown OPEN and some OF the best
singers OF world where they all Sing stood
there, and putting back the drapery OF cloud.
chanted q peace anthem, until all the echoes OF
hill and valley applauded and encored the
halleluiah chorus. Come, let us go into that
Christmas scene as though We had never be-
fore worshipped at the manger Herei is u 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
Mays in palaces and Marys in cabins, and
though German and French and Italian ana
Spanish and English pronounce IL differ.
emily they are all namesakes OF the one whom
we find on q bed OF straw, with her pale face
against the soft cheek OF Christ in the night OF
the Nativity. All OF the great painters have
tried, on canvas, to present Mary and her child
end the incidents OF that most famous night OF
the worlds history Raphael. In three different
masterpieces celebrated them Tintoretto and
Ghirlandajo surpassed themselves in
the alteration of the Magi Correggio
needed 10 do nothing more than
his Madonna TO become immortal. The
Madonna OF the Lily, by Leonardo da Vinci,
the galleries OF Dresden are forgotten when /
think OF the small room OF that gallery contain
ing the Sistine Madonna. Yet all OF them were
copies of 81. Matthew's Madonna, and LulIes
Madonna, the inspired Madonna OF the Old
Book which we had put into our hands when
we were infants and that we hope 10 have un-
der our heads when we die.
Behold, in the first place, that on the first
night of Chrst's life God honored the brute
| creation. You cannot get INTO that Bethlehem
barn without going past the camels, the mules,
I 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 kneel! Have you ever
thought that Christ came among other things, 10
alleviate the suIerings OF the brute creation?
Was ii not appropriate that he should, during
the first few days and nights OF his life on earth,
lie surrounded by the dumb beasts whose moan
! and plant and believing have for ages been
prayer 10 God for the arresting OF their tor
| lures and the rghting OF their wrongs? 1t did
! not merely happen So that the unintlligent
creatures OF God should have been that night
in close neighborhood.
Not kennel IN all the centuries, not birds
nest, not a WORKOUT horse on tow-path, not a
herd freezing in the poorlybuilt cow-pen. not q
! freight car in summer time bringing the becves
10 market without water through thousand
miles OF agony, not surgeons room witness
ing the struggles OF fox, rabbit. or pigeon, or
dog, in the horrors OF vivisecSon but has an
| interest in the fact that Christ was born in a
stable, surrounded by brutes. He remembers
that night, and the prayer he heard in
their pitiful moan he will answer
in the punishment OF those who maltreat
the dumb brutes. They surely have as much
right in the world as we have. In the first
chapter OF Genesis you may see that they were
( placed on 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 afternoon OF that day. The whale, the
eagle, the lion, and all the lesser creatures OF
! their kind were predecessors OF the human
family They have the world by right OF pos
session. They have also paid rent for the
/ places they occupied. What an army OF de
tense all over the land are the faithful watch
dogs. And who can tell what the world owes
70 the horse, and camel, and OK, for
transportation And robin and lark
have, by the cantatas with which
they have filed orchard and for
est 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 slumher
amid Tyrian plush and canopied couches, and
ripping waters from royal aqueducts dripping
into basins Of ivory and pearl, chose TO be born
on the level with cows horn. or a camels
hoof, or dogs nostril, that he might be the
! Redeener OF man.
Standing then, as imagine now do, in that
Bethlehem night with an infant Christ on the
one side and the speeches. creatures
OF God on the other, cry look
/ out how you strike the rowel into that horses
side Take Of that curbed bit from that bleed
ing mouth. Remove that saddle from that raw
back. Shoot not for fun that bird that is too
small for food. Forget not 10 put water into
the cage Of that canary. Throw out some
l.f-fr faN nnEfh Ia
the winters inclemency. Arrest that man who
/ is making that one horse draw load heavy
enough for three. Rush in upon that scene
where boys are torturing cat, or transhxing
butterfly and grasshopper. Drive not OF that
/ old robin, for her nest is a 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 generation more mercy than
! the present generation has ever shown, and In
this marvellous bible picture OF the Nativity
while you point out 10 them the angel show
them also the camel, and while they hear the
J celestial chant let them also hear tho cows
moan. No more did Christ show interest in the
botanical world, when he said, Consider the
/ lilies," than he showed sympathy for the or
astrological when he said, Behold the fowls OF
the air." and the quadrupedal world when he
allowed himself 10 be called in once place
lion, and I'm another place lamb. Meanwhile,
may tho Christ Of the Bethlehem cattle-pen
have mercy on the suffering stock yards, tina
are preparing diseased and levered meat for
our American households.
Behold, also, in this bible scene, how, on
that Christmas night, God honored childhood.
Christ might have made his first visit TO our
world In q cloud, as he will descend on his next
visit In cloud In what o chariot OF ilumined
vapor he might have rolled down the sky,
escorted by mounted cavalry, with lightning
for drawn sword. Elijah had q carriage
OF FIRE 10 take him up; why not Jesus O
carriage Of fire 10 fetch him down. Or,
over the arched bridge OF a rainbow the
Lord might have descended Or Christ might
have had his mortality built up on earth out OF
the dust OF a garden was Adam, in full man
hood at the start, without the Introductory
feebleness OF infancy. No, MOI Childhood was
20 be honored by that advent He must have q
childs light limbs, and a child's dimplcd hand,
md q child's beaming eye and a child's fiaxen
hair; and babyhood was 10 be honored for all
time TO come, and cradle was 10 mean more
than a grave Mighty Godl May the reflection
of that one child's face be seen in all infantie