Connecticut western news., 1892-12-29
AT THE TABERNACLE.
THE LESSONS TAUGHT BY BIRTH DATES AND ANNUAL HOLIDAYS.


 i DATES AND ANNUAL HOLIDAYS. All Other Anniversaries Are Inferior in I Importance to Christmas--The Year 1893 ] h Certain to Be 2 Memorable One-Na- ] turs's Lesson of Growth and Decay. BROOKLYN, Dec. 25-The sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Talmage this morning was of character especially appropriate to the holiday season, and was listened to with rapt attention by an audience that crowded the Taber- nacle. Before beginning his discourse the preacher gave out the opening hymn: Joy to the world: the Lord has come;
 Let earth receive her king.
 l The text selected was Colossians ii, 16, sIn respect of holy day"
 What the Bible here and elsewhere calls holy day we, by change of one letter and change of pronunciation, call holiday. But by change of spelling and accentuation we cannot change the fact that holidays have great significance. Al long as the world stands Christmas day and New Years day and Easter day will be charged and surcharged with solemn suggestiveness and holy mirth. Whether you take the old style of my text and call them holy days, or the mod ern style and call them holidays, they somehow set all my nerves a-tingle and my deeper emotions into profoundest agitation. am glad that this season we have the holidays completely bound- cd. For years, Christmas day starting in the midst of one week, and New Years day starting in the midst of another week, we have been perplexed to know when the holidays began and when they ended, and perhaps we may have begun them too soon or continued them too long.
 But this year they are bounded by two beaches of gold-Sabbath, Dec. 25, 1899, and Sabbath, Jan. 1, 1893. The one Sab bath this year commemorates the birtl of the greatest being that ever walked the earth; the other celebrates the birth of that which is to be one of the greatest years of all time; the one day super natural because of an unhinged star ard angelic doxology. and the other day ma. ural, but part of 8 procession that started with the worlds existence and will go on until the world is burned up; boti. the first and the last days of these holi- days coming in with Sabbatical splendor and solemnity, and girdling all the days between with thoughts that have all time and all eternity in their emphasis. How shall we spend them2 At hap hazard and without special direction. and they leaving. as they go away from us. physical fatigue and mental exhaus- ton, the effect of late hours and reck- lessness of diet adding another chapter Co the moral and spiritual and eternal disasters which have resulted from mis- spent holidays2 Oh, mol A stout and resounding mol for all the eight days.
 propose that we divide this holiday season, the two Sabbaths of the holiday and tho six days between, into three chapters-the first part a chapter of illustrious birthday; the second part chaptsrof annual decadence; the third part 8 chapter of chronological introduc- ton.
 BIRTHDAYS OF THE GREAT.
 First, then, chapter of illustrious birthday. Not day of any year but has been marked by the nativity of some good or great soul. Amd1g discoverers the birthday of Humboldt was Sept. + and of David Livingston March 19. Among astronomers the birthday of Isaac Newton was Dec. % and of Her schel Nov. 17. Among orators the birth day of Cicero was Jan. 3 and of Chrys- ostom Jan. IA. Among prison reform CTS the birthday of John Howard was Sept. 3 and of Elizabeth Fry May 1. Among painters the birthday of Raphael was March 28 and of Michael Angelo March 6. Among statesmen the birth day of Washington was Feb. 22. of Hamilton May and of Jefferson April 2 Among consecrated souls the birth day of Mrs. Hemans was Sept. 25, of Lucretia Mott Jan. and of Isabella Graham July 29. But what are ali those birthdays compared with Dec. %, for on or about that day was born one who eclipsed all the great names of all the ecenturies-Jesus of Bethlehem, Jesus Of Nazareth, Jesus of Golgotha, Jesus of Olivet, Jesus of the heavenly throne?
 The greatest pictures have been made about scenes in his lifetime. The greatest sacrifices on field of battle or in hospital or on long march or in inartyrdom have been inspired by his self abnegation The finest words of eloquence ever spoken have been uttered in the proclamation of his Gospel The grandest oratorios that have ever. rolled from orchestras were descriptive of his life and death. There have been other orators, but none like him who "spake as never man spake." There have been other reform ers, but none like him who will not have completed his mission until the last prison is ventilated, and the last blind eye opened, and the last deaf ear un- stopped, and the last lame foot bounds like roe. and the last case of demeutia shall come to it's right mind. There have been other discoverers, but none like him able to find how man may be just with God. There have been other deliverers, but none like him, the res cuer of nations. There have been other painters, but none like him who put the image of God on a lost soul. No won der we celebrate his birth, Protestant church, Catholic church, Greek church, St. lsaac's of St. Petersburg, St. Peters tt Rome, tho Madeleine at Paris, St. Paul's in London joining all our Ameri- can cathedra,s and churches and log cabin meeting houses and homes in keeping this pre- eminent birth festival.
 THE sUPERNAL LIGHT.
 Elaborate and prolonged efforts have been made to show that the star that pointed to the manager in which Christ was born was not what it appeared to be, but 8 conjunction of Jupiter and Sat urn- Our wise men of the west say that the wise men of the east were mistaken. Astronomers, you know, can calculate back yard as we'll as forward, and as they can tell what will occur hundred years from now among the heavenly