The weekly intelligencer., 1893-09-30


concert hall and preaching place which
l suggest for this nineteen hundredth |
let music crown our Lord. |
Bring all the orchestras, all the orato-
rios, all the philharmonic and Handel |
and Haydn societies. Then give us |
Haydn's oratoria of the Creation, for |
our Lord took part in universe build
ing, and without Him." says John, |
''was not anything made that was
made" and lIandel's messiah" and
Beethoven's "Symphaslies," and Men
delssohn's ''Elijah," the prophet that
typified Christ, and the grandest com
positions of German and English and
American masters, living or dead.
What an arousing when $4,000 join in
Antioch or Coronation or Ariel, rising
into IIallelujah or subsiding into an
almost supernatural Amen!
Added to ALL let there be banquets,
not like the drunken bout at the Met
ropolitan opera house, New York, cele-
brating the centennial of Washington's
Inauguration, where the rivers of wine
drowned the sobriety of so many sena-
tors and governors and generals,
but banquet for the poor,
UlC lCculIlR VI VI
sands of people of world in which
the majority of the inhabitants have
never yet had enough to eat; not n
banquet at which few favored men
and women of social or political for
tune shall sit, but such banquet as
Christ ordered when he told his serv-
ants to ''go out into the highways and
hedges and compel them to come in"
Added to this let there be at that in
ternational and religious exposition a
mammoth distribution of sacred litera-
ture. Let the leading ministers of re-
ligion from England, Scotland, Ireland,
France, Germany, and the world, take
the pulpits of all these cities, and tell
what they know of Him whose birth
we celebrate. At those convocations
let vast sums of money be raised for
churches, for asylums, for schools, for.
colleges, all of which institutions were
born in the heart of Christ. On that
day and in that season when Christ
gave Himself to the world let the world
give itself to Him.
Why do 1 propose America as the
country for this convocation? Because.
most other lands have a state religion,
anu Willie Ill lOTIIlS VI lOh may pC
tolerated in many lands, America is
the only country on earth where all
evangelical denominations stand on an
equal footing, and all would have
equal hearing in such an international
exposition. Why do select this clus-
ter of seacoast cities? Answer: BY
that time, December 25, 1900, these
four cities of New York, Brooklyn,
Jersey City and Hoboken, by bridges
and tunnels, will be practically one,
and with an aggregate population of
about 4,000,0 900. Consequently no other
part of America will have such i'm
mensity of population.
Why do 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 the work ought to be-
gin speedily in churches, in colleges, in
Legislatures, in congresses, in parlia-
ments, in all styles of national assem-
blages, and we have no time to lose.
1t would take three years to make a
| programme worthy of such n coming
| together.
Why do take it upon myself to make
such a nomination of time and place?
Answer: Because it so happens that,
in the mysterious providence of God,
born in a farmhouse and of no royal or
princely descent, the doors of commu-
nication are open to me every week by
the secular and religious printing
presses, and have been open to me every
week for many years, with all the cities
and towns and neighborhoods of Chris
tendon, and indeed in lands outside of
Christendom where printing presses
have been established, and / feel that
if there is anything worthy in this
proposition, it will be needed and
adopted. On the other hand, if it be
too sanguine, or too hopeful, or too i'm
practical, am sure it will do no harm
that l have expressed my wish for such
an international Jubilee, celebrative Of
the birth of our Emmanuel. My friends,
such a birthday celebration 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 international, but inter
planetary, inter-stellar, inter-constel-
lation.
If you remember 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 birth
place 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
Heaven would join in such a celebra-
tion. The generations that toiled to
have the world for Christ would take
part in such jubilation and prolonged
assemblage. The upper galleriesof 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.
Aye! Ayel l bethink myself such a
vast procedure as that might hasten
our Lords coming, and that the ex-
pectation of many millions of Chris
tians, who believe in the Second Ad-
vent, might be realized then at that
injunction 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 plan of worldwide observ-
ance, might say, concerning this wan
-dering and rebellious planet: ''That
world, at last, shows a disposition to
appreciate what 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.
Whether this suggestion of worlds
celebration of the nativity be taken OF
not, it has allowed me an opportunity
in a somewhat unusual way of express
ing my love for the great central char,
acter of all time and all eternity. He
is the infinite None-such. The armie:
of Heaven drop on their knees before
Him. After Bourdaloue, before over
whelmed audiences, has preached Him
and Milton in immortal blank verse
has sung Him, and Michael Angelo has
glorified the ceiling of the Vatican
with His second coming, and martyrs