The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-12-27
CHRISI'S MISSION.
Rev. Or. Taimage breaches q Christ
mas Sermons
The Worlds Greatest Emaneipators Were
All of Lowly Birth - The Offenders
Hope->easOn of FOrbearance and
Forgiveness-Good VIII to Men.

! chose the universal theme of the sea-
son-the Christ,n Aside. The text Sc
| lected was. Now when Jesus was born
| in bethlehem. Matthew ii, /.
At midnight from one of the galleries
of the SKY chant broke. To an or
| binary observer there was no reason
for such celestial demonstration. 4
poor man and wife-travelers, Joseph
and Mary bv name-had lodged in an
| clubhouse of an unim portant village.
! The supreme hour of solemnity had
passed, and upOn the pallid forehead
and cheek of Mary God had set the dig
nifty, the grandeur, the tenderness, the
everlasting and divine significance of
motherhood.
But such scenes had often occurred
in bethlehem, yet never before mad a
star been unfixed or had baton of
light marshaled over the hills winged
orchestra. If there had been such
brilliant and mighty recognition at an
advent in the house of Pharaoh, or at
an advent IN the house of Cesar, or the
house of llapsburg, or the house of
Stuart. we would not so much have
wondered, but barn seems too poor q
center for such delicate and archan-
gelic circumference. The stage seems
too small for so great an act, the music
too grand for such unappreciative au-
ditors. the window of the stable too
rude TO be serenaded by other worlds.
1t is my joy to tell you what was
worn That night in the village barn,
and as ! want to make my discourse
accnmujative aud climacteric l begin
in the first place by telling you that
that night in the bethlehem manger
was born encouragement for all the
poorly started He had only two
friends-they his parents. No satin
lined cradle. no delicate attentions,
but straw. and the cattle, and the
coarse joke and banter of the camel
drivers No wonder the midaival
painters represent the oxen as kneel-
ing before the infant Jesus, for there
were no men there at that time to
worship. From the depths of that
property he arose until to-day he is
honored in all Christiandom and sits
on the imperial throne in Heaven.
What name is mightiest to-day in
Christendom? Jesus, Who has more
friends on earth than any other being?
Jesus, Before whom do the most
thousands kneel in chapel and church
and cathedral this hour? Jesusi From
what depths of poverty to what height
of renownl And so let all those who
are poorly started rememb Der that they
can not be more poorly born or more
disadvantageouSly than this Christ.
Let them look up to his example while
they have time and eternity to imi-
tate it.
Do you know that the vast majority
of the worlds deliverers had barnlike
birth places? Luther, the emancipation
of religion. born among the mines
Shakespeare the emancipation Of liter
allure. born in an humble home at
Standardization. Columbus. the dis
coverer of a world born in poverty at
Genoa. Hogarth, the discoverer of
how to make art accumulative and adj
ministrative of virtue, born in an
humble home in Westmoreland. Kitto
and Prideaux, whose keys unlocked
new apartments in the Holy Scrip
lures which had never been entered,
born in want. Yes, have to tell you
that nine out of ten of the worlds de-
Iliverers were born in want.
l stir your holy ambitions to-day,
and l want to tell you. although the
whole world may be opposed to you,
and inside and outside of your occupa-
tons or professions there may be those
H. hi
your side and enlisted in your behalf
are the sympathetic heart and the al
mighty arm OF one who one Christmas
night about eighteen hundred and
ninety-tive years ago was wrapped in
swaddling clothes and laid in n man
ger On. what magnificent encourage
ment for the poorly started!
Again, have to tell you that in that
village barn that night was born good
will to men. whether You call it kind
ness, or forbearance, or forgiveness, or
geniality, or affection, or love
1t was no sport OF high Heaven to
send its favorite to that humiliation.
1t was sacrifice for rebellious world.
After the calamity in paradise, not on
| " did the OK begin 10 gore, and the
adder to sting, and the elephant to
sm.te with his tusk, and the lion to
put to bad use tooth and paw, but un-
der the very tree from which the for
hidden fruit was piucked were Matched
out war and revenge and malice and
envy and jealousy and the whole brood
of cOckatrices
But against that scene / set the
bethlehem manger, which says, BLESS
rather than curse, endure rather than
assault" and that Christmas night
puts out vindictiveness. 1t says,
''Sneathe your sword, dismount your
guns, dismantle your batteries, turn
the warship Constellation, that car
ries shot and shell into grain ship 10
take food to furnishing Ireland, hook
your cavalry horses TO the pillow, use
your deadly gunpowder in blasting
rocks and in patriotic celebration.
stop your law suits, quit writing an
onymous letters, extract the sting
from Your sarcasm, let your wit corus-
cate but never burn, drop all the harsh
words out of your neutrality-suspicious.
will to men,"
On" you say, Il can't exercise It
/ won't exercise il until they apollo
glze. | won't forgive them until they
ask me to forgive them" You are no
Christian them say Won are no Chris