Connecticut western news., 1893-09-28

have never yet had enough to eat, not
 a banquet at which few favored men
 and women of social or political fortune shall sit, but such banquet as Christ
 ordered when he told his servants to Ego
 out into the highways and hedges and | compel them to come in." Let the may
 ors of cities and the governors of states
 and the president of the United States
 proclaim a whole week of legal holiday l at least from Christmas day to New | Years day.
 Added to this let there be at that in ternational moral and religious exposi-
 tion mammoth distribution of sacred
 literature. Let the leading ministers of
 religion from England, Scotland, Ire
 land, 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 conversations 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 propose America as the coun- try for this convocation? Because most other lands have state religion, and
 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 cities? Answer-By that time-Dec. 25, 1900 these four cities of New York, Brook
 lyn, Jersey City and Hoboken, by
 bridges and tunnels, will be practically
 one and with an aggregate population
 of about 6,O00,000. Consequently no other part of America will have such
 immensity of population.
 Why do I now make this nomination of time and place? Answer-Because such stupendous movement cannot be extemporized. It 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 programme wor-
 thy of such a coming together.
 Why do I 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 l in farmhouse and of no royal or prince I ly 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 1 towns and neighborhoods of Christen- dom, and indeed in lands outside of | Christendom, where printing presses have been established, and I feel that if there is anything worthy in this proposi- ton it will be needed and adopted. On the other hand, if it be too sanguine, or | too hopeful, or too impractical, am sure | it will do no harm that have expressed my wish for such an international jubi- | lee, celebrative of the birth of our I'm manuel.
 My friends. such a birthday celebra- | tion at the close of one century and | reaching into new century would be something in which heaven and earth l could join. It would not only be inter | national, but interplanetary, interstel- lar, interconstellation. If you remem- l Der what occurred on the first Christmas night, you know that 1t was not 8 joy confined to our world. The choir above 1 Bethlehem was imported from another world, and when the star left it's usual | sphere to designate the birthplace all astronomy felt the thrill. If there be | anything true about our religion, 1t is that other worlds are sympathetic with | this world and in communication with | it. The glori6ed 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 l take part in the 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 1 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:
 "Hearl Hearl''
 | Ayei Ayel think myself such a vast | kl,44
 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.
 do not say 1t would be, yet who knows
 but that our blessed and adored Master,
 pleased with such plan of worldwide
 observance, might say concerning this
 wandering and rebellious planet, "That
 world at last shows disposition to ap-
 preciate what have done for it, and
 with one wave of my scared hand I will
 bless and reclaim and save it."
 That such 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, saintly,
 cherubic, seraphic, archangelic and di-
 vine, is beyond question. Oh. get ready
 for the worlds greatest festivityl 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 "19oO''
 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
 a somewhat unusual way of expressing
 my love for the great central character
 of all time and all eternity. He is the
 infinite nonesuch. The armies of heaven