The Penn's Grove record., 1892-01-01
REV. ~DR.
THE BROOKLYN DININE's SUM-
DAY SERMON.


The black WINDOW shutters Oh q DeComDer
| night were thrown open, and some OF the
stood there. and putting back thedrapery OF
cloud, chanted a.peace anthem, unsl all the
echoes of hill and valley applapded and en-
cored the Hallelujah chorus. Come, let US
| go into that Christmas scene as though we
had never before ~worsbiped at the hanger.
wonder not that the 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 diff
| ferentiy, they are all namesakes Of the one
| whom we find on a bed Of straw, with her
pale face against the soft cheek of Christ In
| the night of the Nativity. All the great
| painters nave tried on q to present
| Mary and her child and the incidents Of
that most famous night Of the worlds his
tory. Yet all of them were copies Of st.
| Matthews Madonna and Lukes Madonna,
the inspired 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 thu first
night OF Christs life God honored the brute
creation. You cannot get into that Bethle-
hem barn without going past the camels.
the mules, the dogs, the oxen. The brutes
of that stable heard the first cry of the in
fault Lord. Some OF the old painters repre-
| sent the oxen and camels kneeling tina night
before the newborn babe. And we'll might
they kneeii Have you ever thought that
Christ came among other things to alleviate
the sufferings of the brute creationf Was
firstf few days and nights OF His life on earth,
be surrounded by the dumb baastsf
Not a kennel in all the centuries not q
birds most, not q wOrnout horse IN q tow
path, nor a herd freezing in the poorly built
cow pen, not q freight car In summer time
bringing the beeves to market without water
through a thousand miles OF agony, not 9
surgeons room witnessing the struggles Of
fox and rabbit or pigeon or dog in the hor-
rors of vivisection but has an interest in the
fact that Christ was born In q stable sur
rounded by brutes. They surely have Is
much right in this world as We have. In
the first chapter of Genesis you may sea
that they were placed on the earth before
man was, the fish and fowl created the fifth
day, and the q~uAdrupsds the morning Of tbs
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 also paid rent for the places they Occur
pied. What a army Of defense all over the
land are the faithful watchdogs. And who
can tell what the world owes 70 the horse and
camel and ox.for transportationi And robin
and lark have, BY the cantatas with which
they have filed orchard and forest, more
thsn paid for the Few grains they have
picked up for thar s~ustenance.
Standing, then. a. I imagine now / do in
that Bethlehem night, with an infant Christ
on the % sid md the speeches creatures
of God on the other, i cry look out how you
strike the rowel into that horses side. Take
of that curbsd bit from that bleeding
.n.. $500 49, - Ala
back. Shoot not for fun that bird that h
too small Tor food. Forgstnot 10 put water
I'm the cage Of that canary. Throw out
some crumbs to those birds caught too far
north In the winters inclemAcy. Arrest
that mar b h making tat one horse draw
a load heavy enough for three. Rush In upon
that scsne where boys are torturing q cat
Drive hot OF that old robin, for her nest is q
mothers cradle. and under her wing there
may be three or four musicians OF the aky In
training: No more did Christ show interest
in the botanical world whom He said Con
sider the lilies " than He showed sympathy
for the ~ornithological world when He said
"Behold the fowls OF the air" and the quad
rupedal world when He allowed Himself to be
called In n place q lion and In another
piace q lamb. Meanwhile may the Christ
Of the bethlehem cattle pen q v mercy on
the suffering stockyards that are preparing
meat for our American households.
GBehold, also. in this Bible scene, how on
that Christmas night God honored child
hood. Christ might have made His first
visit 10 our world in cloud, as He will dc.
scsnd on HIS nsxt visit in q cloud. In what
q chariot Of fllumined vapor He might have
rolled down the shy, ssoorted by mounted
cavalry, with lightning for drawn sword
Elijah had . carriage OF fire to take Him up.
why not Jesus q carriage OF FIRE to fetch
Him DOWN. Or over the srched bridge Of
a rainbow the Lord might have descended.
Or Christ might haye he'd His mortality
built up on earth out OF the dust OF o garden,
as wasfAdam, in full manhood at the start,
without the introductory f~eeblsness Of in
fancy. No, mol Childhood was to be hon.
orsd by that event. He must AVE q child'a
| light limbs, and a child's dimplod hand, and
. child's beaming sye, and a child's TAKEN
hair, and ~babyhood was to b honored for all
time to come, and q cradle vast to mean more
than q grave. Mighty Godi May tho re
Election of that one child's facs be seem IN ~
infantile faces.
Easugh have all those fathers and mothers
on hand II they have a child in the house. A
throne, q crown, a scepter, o kingdom un-
der charge. Be careful how you strike him
across the head, Earring the brain. What
you say tpthim will be centennial and mill
lenial, and-a hundred years and a thousand
JNaAS - Aob otoP blo C$ap hkho tU-CLluOs 4O
not say, at is only q child" Rather say, at
is only an immortal" 1t Is only a master
piece of Jehovah.
it was a 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 at.
tention Of history 1t was a sick child that
evoked Christ's curative sympathies- It was
a child shat Christ set in the midst OF the
~squabbfing disciples TO teach the lessor Of
humility. Wears informed that wolf and
leopard and lion shall be yet so domesticatsi
that a little child shall lead them. A child
decided Waterloo, showing the army
Of Butcher how they could take
a short cut through the fields,
when, II the old road had been followed, the
PrKsian general would lave come up too
late to save the destiniss of Europe. And
to-day the child is to decide all the great
battles, make all the laws settle all the des-
TIMES and usher in the worlds salvation or
destruction. Men, women, nations, all earth
and all heaven, behold the child Is there
any velvet so soft as a child's cheeks Is there
any sky so blue as a child's eyef Is there any
music so sweet as the child's voicef Is there
any plume SO wavya 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 Iu-
fantr Not boors not i-gnoramuses, but
Caspar, Belthasar and Melchior, men who
knew all that was to be known. They were
the Isaac Newtons and Herschels and Far
radays OF their time. Their alchemy was
the forerunner OF our sublime chemistry,
their astrology the mother Of our magnih.
cent astronomy. They had studied stars,
studied metals, studied physiology, studied
everything. And when l see these scieu-
lists bowling before the beautiful babe I
see the prophecy of the time when all the
telescopes aud microscopes and all the Ley
den Jars and all the electric batteries and all
the observatories and all the universities
shalt 5C- &c Jesus. Il Is much that way al
ready. Where is tho college that oSss aSs
have morning prayers hat bowling ct the
mangerf Who have been the greatest ply
sicianss
omitting the names Of the living lest wa
should be invidious, have we not had among
them Christian men like our own Joseph b,
Hutchinson and Rush and Valentine NOT
and A~bererombie and A~bsrnethyf Who
have been our greatest scientistss Joseph
Henry, who lived and died In the faith Of re
0ospeas and Agassi1 who, standing WITH