St. Paul daily globe., 1895-12-22
our SUNDAY SERMON.
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Tiipgs Of doy $Es; 5:S5 $:

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| the. central shining of it came an
angel, bearing this message, and a
/ whole, choir and multitude Of angels
came thronging out behind him, in
bright array, with the voice of sing
! ing, chanting praises and hallelujas
and thanksgivings. "Glory to God" !"
ran the refrain of the hymn, "and on
earth peace"
The great world lay in darkness.
1t was night, and winter, not only
overhead and under foot, but in
mems hearts. People looked out and
where. A great sadness and despair
had laid hold upon the race. The
! old religions were dead or dying.
Men were asking questions about
; God and getting no answers, or lies
| for answers. There was no guide;
! there was no clear vision. Here and
! there some sage or prophet, like the
! dim Bethlehem stars, had a bit Of
light from heaven to offer for the
! directing of mems feet; and the
| Pickering lanterns Of conscience and
| philosophy showed a step or two OF
the immediate way. But the world
was in the night.
When the light began to shine there
in the neighborhood of the Bethle-
hem pastures, the men who saw it
| were afraid. Behold, I bring you
good tidings of great JOY" sang the
! herald angel in the glory of the
Christmas sky, and the men hid their
faces. That heaven should be open,
that a messenger from God should
| really speak to the inhabitants of
earth seemed too good for anybody to
believe. "The angel Of the Lord
came upon them, and the glory of
the Lord shone round about them,
and they were sore afraid"
Away with fear; away with the
black night! Hail to the sun and
the dawn and the new era, and
smiles and singing and glad hearts!
The old is passed away; behold all
things are new! Good tidings of great
Joy 1 bring you. That is the charac
teristic Christian message. That is
why the Christian church is set in
the midst of the dark world today.
Is it not a dark world-outside the
church? where men and women trem-
BILE in the midst of their pleasures
and look ahead with fear in their
hearts, and nothing satisfies; and
there is no serenity, no peace!
Take away the thought of God,
Danish the life everlasting out of
human hopes, and what is left? The
only way to be happy, if we lose
trust in the Almighty Father, and
look at death as the end of all life,
is just to keep from thinking. Do
not think; divert your mind with
work or with amusement; do not
look up nor ahead. For if you do
you will see the night about you;
you will discover that it is winter
and black midnight.
But the church of Christ brings
glad tidings of great oy to all these
men and women under this black
sky, and makes the whole world
bright and new and wonderful and
WOl Ill WllllS dIIu Slclu. lIC Shoi I'll
takes a word out of the angels
Christmas sermon, and makes it
description of all it's teaching. We
preach the gospel" Our message to
men is the message of the gospel.
And gospel" means good tidings.
The errand of the Christian church
into this world is to tell the best
piece of good news that anybody
ever heard, and to change night into
day the whole world over; and to
bring great joy into everybody's
heart.
There is no place in our religion for
long faces and melancholy voices, no
room in it for dependency and dis
eellra cement. The emphatic word in
1t from the beginning is this word
10y" Whoever knows that God is his
father, and that the Lord Christ is
his sure Savior, and that the grave is
but an open gate into celestial coun-
try and a heavenly company and a life
eternal-hoW can he help but be glad
all the day long. Sorrow comes, pain
gets entrance into life, disappointment
besets us; there is tribulation, as was
promised; but in the heart Of the true