News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-09-28
himself to the world let the world give

himself to the world let the world gave
itself to him.
WHY do [ propose America as the coun
try for this convOcation? Because most
other lands have a state religion, anC
while all forms of religion may be toler
ated in many lands America is the only
country on earth where all evangelical
denominations stand on an even footing
and all would have equal hearing in such
an international exposition. Why do
select this cluster of seacoast citiesi
Answer-By that time-Dec. 25, 1900
these four CITIES of New York, Brook
Ign, Jersey City and Hoboken, by
bridges and tunnels, will be practically
one and with an aggregate population
of about 100000. Consequently no
other part of America will have such
immensely of population.
Why do l now make this nomination
of time and place? Answer-Because
such a stupendous movement cannot be
extemporized. 1t will take seven years
to get ready for such an overtowering
celebration, and thework ought to begin
speedily in churches, in colleges, in leg
islatures, in congresses, in parliaments,
in all styles of national assemblages, and
we have no time to lose. 1t would take
three years to make a programme wor-
thy of such coming together.
Why do l take it upon myself to make
such a nomination of time and placer
Answer-Because it so happens that in
the mysterious providence of God, born
in farmhouse and of no royal or prince
" descent, the doors of communication
are open to me every week by the sec
ular and religious printing presses and
have been open to me every week for
many years, with all the cities and
towns and neighborhoods of Christen-
dom, and indeed in lands outside of
Christendom, where printing presses
have been established, and feel that if
there is anything worthy in this PROPOSE
ton it will be needed and adopted. On
the other hand, if it be too sanguine, or
too hopeful, or too impractical, 1 am sure
it will do no harm that l have expressed
my wish for such an international jubi-
lee, celebrative of the birth of our I'm
manuel.
My friends, such birthday celebra-
ton at the close of one century and
reaching into new century would be
something in which heaven and earth
could join. 1t would not only be inter-
national, but interplanetary, interstel-
lar, interconstellation. If you remem-
Der what occurred on the first Christmas
night, you know that it was not joy
confined to our world. The choir above
Bethlehem was imported from another
world, and when the star left its usual
sphere to designate the birthplace all
astronomy felt the thrill. If there be
anything true about our religion, it is
that other worlds are sympathetic with
this world and in communication with
it. The glorified of heaven would join
in such a celebration. The generations
that toiled to have the world for Christ
would take part in such jubilation and
prolonged assemblage.
The upper galleries of Gods universe
would applaud the scene, whether we
heard the clap of their wings and the
shout of their voices or did not hear
them. Prophets who predicted the Mes
siah, and apostles who talked with him,
and martyrs who died for him would
take part in TIE scene, though to our
poor eyesight they might be invisible.
The old missionaries who died in the
malarial swamps of Africa, or were
struck down by Egyptian typhus, or
were butchered at Lucknow, or were
slain by Bornesian cannibals would come
down from their thrones to rejoice that
at last Christ had been heard of, and so
speedily in all nations. At the first roll
of the first overture of the first day of
that meeting all heaven would cry:
"Hear! Hearr'
Ayei Ayel think myself such a vast
procedure as that might hasten our
Lords coming, and that the expectation
of many millions of Christians who be-
lieve in the second advent might be
realized then at that conjunction of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. l
do not say it would be, yet who knows
but that our blessed and adored Master,
pleased with such q plan of worldwide
observance, might say concerning this
wandering and rebellious planet, THAT
world at last shows disposition to ap-
preciate what 1 have done for it, and
with one wave of my SCARED hand will
bless and reclaim and save it,"
That such a celebration of our Lords
birth, kept up for days and months,
would please all the good of earth and
nightly speed on the gospel chariot
and please all the heavens, sanity,
cherubic, seraphic, archangelic and di-
vine, is beyond question. Oh. get ready
for the worlds greatest festivityI Tune
your voices for the worlds greatest an
them. Lift the arches for the worlds
mightiest procession. Let the advancing
standard of the army of years, which
has inscribed ON one side of it $1,000"
and on the other side 1901" have also
inscribed on it the most charming name
of all the universe-the name of Jesus.
Whether this suggestion of worlds
celebration of the nativity be taken or
not, it has allowed me an opportunity in
somewhat unusual way of expressing
my love for the great central character
of all time and all eternity. He is the
infinite nonesCch. The armies of heaven
drop on their knees before him. After
Bourdaloue, before overwhelmed au-
diences, has preached him, and Milton
in immortal blank verse has sung him,
and Michael Angelo has glorifed the cell
ing of the Vatican with his second COM
ing, and martyrs while girdled and
canopied with the flames of the stake
have with burning lips kissed his mem
DRY, and in the hundred and forty and
four thousand" of heaven with feet on
seas of glass intershot with sunrise, have
with uplifted and downswung baton,
and sounding comets, and waving ban
ners, and heaven capturing doxologies
celebrated him, the story of his lowell
ness, and his might, and his beauty, and
his grandeur, and his grace, and his in
tercession, and his sacrifice, and of his
birth, and his death will remain untold.
Be his name on our lips while we live,
and when we die after we have spoken
farewell to father and mother and wife,
and child letus speak that name which
is the lullaby of earth and the transport
of heaven.
Before the crossing of time on the
midnight between Dec. 81, 1900, and the
list of January, 1901, many of US will be
gone. Some of you will hear the clock
strike IL of one century and an hour
after it hear it strike 1 of another CEN