Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-01-02
CHRISTMAS LESSONS.
Dr. Telmage Draws Wisdom From
the Nativity.
Ronors to All Creation at the Birth OF tn,
Childhood Digniaed-Ths
Greatest Of All Gifts to
the Family.

In hissermon at Brooklyn. preached
the Sunday after Christmas day, Rev.
7. De Witt Talmage took his text from
Luke IL 10: sand they came with
haste and found Mary and Joseph, and
the babe lying in the manger." DR..
'Talmage said:
1.-THE 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 q peace anthem, until the
echoes Of hill and valley applauded and
sencored the hallelujah chorus. Come,
let us go into that Christmas scene as
though we had never before worshiped
sat the manger. Here is q madonna
worth looking at l 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 1t 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-
brated them. Tintoretto and Chirlan-
dajo surpassed themselves in the adora-
ton of the Magi Correggio needed to
do nothing more than his madonna to
become immortal. The Madonna Of
the Lily, by Leonardo da Vinci, will
l5indle 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 inspired madonna of the
old Book, (which we had put into our
Hands when we were infants. aud 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
sfhe 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 we'll
might they knee! Have you ever
rfhought that Christ came among other
things to alleviate the sufferings of the
brute creation? Was it not appropriate
sthat He should, during the first few
days and nights of His life on earth, be
surrounded bv the dumb beasts, whose
moan and plaint and believing have for
ages been q prayer to God for the ar
resting of their fortunes and the right
ting of their wrongs? 1t did not merely
4'happen so" that the unintelligent
creatures Of God should have been that
1night in close neighborhood.
Not kennel in all the centuries, not
birds nest, not O worn out horse on
rtowpath, not q herd freezing in the
poorly built COW pen, not freight car
an summer time bringing the beeves to
market without water through thou
sand miles of agony, not surgeons
room witnessing the struggle OF fox, or
rabbit, or pigeon. or dog in the hor-
srors of vivisection. but has an interest
in the fact that Christ was born in
stable surrounded by brutes. He re-
4members that night, and the prayer he
yheard in their pitiful moan; he will
answer in the punishment Of those who
smaltreated 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,
by the cantatas with which they have
hIled orchard and forest more than
paid for the few grains they have
picked up for their susteuance. 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 and canopied touches,
and ripping waters from royal aque-
ducts dripping into basins of ivory and
pearl, chose TO be born on the level
with cows horn, or camers hoOf,
or dogs uostril, that he might be the
alienation of animal suffering as well
as the redeemer 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
aowel into that horses side. Take
on that curbed bit from the
blesding mouth. Remove that saddle
from that raw back, Shoot not for
f.n that bird that is too small for food.
Forget not to put water into the cage
49, l,u