The Bossier banner., 1892-03-03

marvellous Bible picture of the nativity,
while you point out to them the angel,
show them also the camel, and while
they hear the celestial chant, let them
also hear the cows moan. Nomore did
Christ show interest in the botanical
world, when he said, Consider the
lilies" than He showed sympathy for
the ornithological when he said: BE
hold the fowls of the air" and the quad
self to be called in one place lion,
and in another place a lamb. Mean
while, may the Christ of the Bethle-
hem ,attle-pen have mercy on the suf-
fering stock yards, that are preparing
diseased and fevered 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 a
cloud, as He will ascend on His next
visit in a cloud. In what a chariot of
illumined vapor He might have rolled
down the Sky, escorted by mounted
cavalry, with lightning for drawn
sword Elijah had a carriage of fire to
take him up; why not Jesus carriage
of fire to fetch Him down. Or, over the
arched bridge of rain bow the Lord
might have descended. Or Christ might
have had His mortality built up on earth
out of the dust of the garden, as was
Adam, in full manhood at the start,
without the Introductory feebleness of
infancy. No, No! Childhood was to
be honored by that advent. He must
have child's light limbs, and a child's
dimpled hand. and child's beaming
eye, and child's fiaxep hair; and baby
hood was to be honorcd for all time to
come, and cradle was to mean more
than grave. Mighty God! May the
reflection of that one child's face he
seen in all infantile faces.
Enough have all those fathers and
mothers on hand if they aave a child in
the house. A throne, u crown, a scep-
ter, kiDgdcm under charge. De care
full how you strike him across the head,
Jarring the brain. What you say to him
will be centennial and millennial, and
hundred years and thousand years
will not stop the echo and the re-echo.
DO not say: ut is only child" Rather
say: ut is only an immortal" 1t is
only masterpiece of Jehovah 1t is
only a being that shall outlive sun and
moon and star, and ages quadrillen-
NAL. God has infinite resources,
and He can give presents of great
value, but when He wants to give the
richest possible gift to household, He
looks around all the world and all the
universe and then gives a child. The
greatest present that God ever gave
our world, He gave about eighteen
hundred and ninety-one years ago,
and He gave it on Christmas
night, and it was of such value that
Heaven adjourned for Il recess and
broke through the clouds to look at it.
Yea, in all ages God has honored child
hood. He makes almost every picture
failure unless there be child either
playing on the floor, or looking through
the window, or seated on the lap, gag
ing into the face of the mother.
1t was 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 sick
child that evoked Christ's curative syn-
pathies. 1t was a child that Christ set
in the midst of the squabbling disciples
to teach the lesson of humility. We are
Informed that wolf and leopard and
lion shall be yet so domesticated that
little child shall lead them. A child
decided Waterloo. showing the army of
Blucher how they could take a short
cut through the fields. when, if the
old road had been followed, the Prus-
sian general would have come up too
late to save the destinies of Europe. 1t
was child that decided Gettysburg, he
having overheard two confederate gen.
erals in conversation, in which thev
decided to march for Gettysburg in
stead of Harrisburg, and this, reported
to Gov. Curtin, the federal forces
started to meet their opponents at
Gettysburg. And to-day the child is to
decide all the great battles, make all
the laws, settle all the destinies and
usher in the worlds salvation or de-
struction. Men, women, nations, all
earth and Heaven, behold the child, Is
there any velvet so soft as n 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 ignoram-
uses, but Caspar, Balthasar and Mel
choir, men who knew all that was to be
known. They were the Isaac Newtons
and Herschels and Faradays of their
time. Their alchemy was the forerun-
ner of our sublime chemistry, their
astrology the mother of our magnificent
astronomy. They had studied stars,
studied metals, studied physiology.
studied everything. And when l see
these scientists bowing before the
beautiful babe l see the prophecy of