Connecticut western news., 1893-12-28
CHRISTMAS SERMON.

Ol1xOI01 M hb .OlL1GMO1Ns THE TABERNACLE PULPIT FESTOON-
 ED WITH HOLIDAY GREEN.
 Rev. Dr. Talmage's Sermon on Christ the
 st.r-A Living, Speaking, Historic and : EvAn4elistic Star-A Discourse That
 G1ows With Eloquence.
 BROOKLYN, Dec 24.-In the Brook lyn Tabernacle today great audience assembled to participate in the Christ mas services. Standing before the or gan, festooned with Christmas greens, this sermon was delivered by Rev. Dr. Talmage, after the throngs had sung "The Star of Bethlehem. Text, Rev elation xii, 18, 1T am the bright and the morning star.
 This is Christmas eve. Our attention and the attention of the world IS drawn to the star that pointed down to the car avansary where Christ was born. But do not let us forget that Christ himself was star. To that luminous fact my
 
 text calls us.
 It seems as if the natural world were anxious to make up for the damage it did our race in furnishing the forbid den fruit. If that fruit wrought death among the nations, now all the natural product shall become symbol of bless ing. The showering down of the wealth of the orchard will make us think of him whom Solomon describes as the ap- pie tree among the trees of the wood, and the flowers of tangled glen and cultured parterre shall be the dew glinted gar land for the brow of the Lord Jesus. Yea, even the night shall be taxed, and it's brightest star shall be set as gem in the coronet of our holy religion.
 Have you ever seen the morning star advantageously? If it was on your way home from a nights carousal, you saw none of its beauty. If you merely turn ed over on your pillow in the darkness, glancing out of the window, you know nothing about the cheerful influence of that star. But there are many in this house tonight who in great passes of their life, some of them far out at sea, have gazed at that star and been thrill ed through with indescribable gladness. That star comes trembling as though with the perils of the darkness, and yet bright with the anticipations of the day. It seems emotional with all tenderness, it's eyes filled with the tears of many sorrows. It is the gem on the hand of the morning thrust up to signal it's com ing. Other stars are dim, like holy can- dlee in cathedral or silver beads count ed in superstitious itany, but this is living star, a speaking star, historic star. an evangolistic star-bright and brilliant and triumphant symbol of the great Redeemer. The telegraphic oper- ator puts his finger on the silver key of the electric instrument, and the tidings fly across the continent. And go it seems to me that the finger of inspiration is placed upon this silver point in the heavens, and its thrill through all the earth. Behold, bring you good tid ings of great joy which shall be to all people. Behold, am the bright and morning star. l" The meaning of my text is this: As the morning star pre- cedes and promises the coming of the day, so Christ heralds the natural and spiritual dawn.
 In the first place, Christ heralded the coming of the creation. There was time when there was no order, no sound or beauty. No wing stirred. No word was uttered. No light sped. As far as God could look up, as far down, as far out, there was nothing. Immeasureable solitude. Height and depth and length and breadth of nothingness. Did Christ then existp Oh, yes. By him were all things made that are made; things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth.'' Yes, he antedated the creation. He led forth Arcturus and his sons. He shone before the first morn ing. His voice was heard in the con- cert when the morning stars serenaded the advent of our infant earth, when, wrapped in swaddling clothes of light, it lay in the arms of the great Jehovah. He saw the first fountain laid. He saw the first light kindled. That hand which was afterward crushed upon the cross was thrust into chaos, and it brought out one world and swung it in that or bit, and brought out another world and swung it in another orbit, and brought ont all the worlds and swung them in their parti:nlar orbits. They came like sheep at tiA call of shepherd. They knew his voice, and he called them all by their names. Oh, 1t is an interesting thought to me to know that Christ had something to do with the creation. seq now why it was so easy for him to change water into wine. He first cre- ated the water. see now why it was so easy for him to cure the maniac. He first created the intellect. see now why it was so easy for him to hush the tempest. He sank Gennesaret. see now why it was so easy for him to swing fish into Simon's net. He made the fish. I see now why it was so easy for him to give sight to the blind man. He created the optic nerve. I see now why it was so easy for him to raise Lazarus from the dead. He created the body. of Lazarus and the rock that shut him in. Some suppose that Christ came stranger to Bethlehem. Oh, no. He created the shepherds, and the focks they watched, and the hills on which they pastured, and the heavens that overarched their heads, and the angels that chanted the chorus on that Christmas night. That hand which was afterward nailed to the cross, was an omnipotent and ere ative hand and the whole universe was poised on the tip of one of his fingers. Before the world was Christ was. All the world came dropping up out of the darkness, and he greeted them, as fa- ther greets his children, with good morning. or a good night" Hail, Lord Jesus, morning star of the first creation.
 Again, Christ heralds the dawn of comfort in Christian soul. Sometimes we come to passes in life where all kinds of tribulations meet us. You are building up some great enterprise. You havl built the foundatior--the wall