Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-12-23
CHRISTMAS SERMON.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE ON THE BIRTH CT
CHRIST.

Merry with the Thought of Sins For
: given.
WASHINGTON Dec. 22.-In his sermon
today DR.. Talmage chose the universal
theme of the season-the Christmastide
The text selected was, ''Now when Je-
sus was born in Bethlehem" Matthew
ii, 1.
At midnight from one of the CALLER
les of the sky chant broke. To an or
binary observer there was no reason for
such celestial demonstration. A poor
man and wife--travelers, Joseph and
Mary by name-had lodged in an out
house of an unimportant village. The
supreme hour of solemnity had passed,
and upon the pallid forehead and cheek
of Mary, God had set the dignity, the
grandeur, the tenderness, the everlast
ing and divine significance of mother
hood.
But such scenes had often occurred in
Bethlehem, yet never before had star
been unfixed or had baton of light
marshaled over the hills winged orches-
ira. 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 Caesar, or the house Of
Hapsburg, or the house of Stuart, we
would not SO much have wondered; but
a barn seems too poor a center for such
delicate and aIchangelic circumference.
The stage seems too small for SO great
an act, the music too grand for such
unappreciative auditors, the window of
the stable too rude to be serenaded by
other worlds.
A Humble Birth.
1t is my joy to tell you what was
born that night in the village barn, and
as 1 want to make my discourse cumu-
lative and chmacteric I begin III the
first place by telling you that that night
in the Bethlehem manager was born en-
enlargement for all the poorly started
He had only two friends-they his par
entS. 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 medieval
painters represent the oxen as kneeling
before the infant Jesus, for there were
no men there at that time to worship.
From the depths of that poverty he rose
until today he is honored in all Chris
tendon and sits on the imperial throne
IL heaven.
What name is mightiest today in
Christendom? Jesus. Who has more
friends on earth than any other being?
Jesus. Before whom do the most thou
sands kneel in chapel and church and
cathedral this hour? Jesus. From what
depths of poverty to what height of re-
nown! And so let all those who are
poorly started remember that they can
not be more poorly born or more disad-
vantageously than this Christ. Let them
look up to his example while they have
time and eternity to initiate it,
s Do you know that the vast majority
of the worlds deliverers had barnlike
birthplaces? Luther, the emancipation
of religion, born among the mines.
Shakespeare, the emancipation of Etera-
ture, born in humble home at STRAIT
ford on-Avon. Columbus, the discover
er of world, born in poverty at Genoa.
Hogarth, the discoverer of how to make
art accumulative and administrative of
virtue, born in a humble home in
Westmorland. Kitto and Prideaux,
whose keys unlocked new apartments in
the holy Scriptures which had never
been entered, born in want. Yes, I have
to tell you that nine out of ten of the
worlds deliverers were born in want.
l stir your holy ambitions today, and
/ want to tell you, although the whole
world may be opposed to you, and in
side and outside of your occupations
or professions there may be those who
would hinder your ascent, on your side
and enlisted in your behalf are the sym
pathetic heart and the almighty arm of
one who one Christmas night about 1875
years ago was wrapped in swaddling
clothes and laid in manager. Oh, what
magnificent encouragement for the poor
ly started
Good VIII To Men.
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 it's ia
vorite to that humiliation. 1t was sacri-
flee for rebellious world. After the ca
lamity in paradise not only did the OK
begin to gore, and the adder to sting,
and the elephant to smite with his tusk,
and the lion to put to bad use tooth and
paw, but under the very tree from
which the forbidden fruit was plucked
were Matched out war and revenge and
malice and envy and jealousy and the
whole brood of cockatrices
But against that scene I set the Beth
1ehem manager, which says, ''Bless rath-
er than curse, endure rather than as
sault," and that Christmas night puts
out vindictiveness. 1t says, 'FSheathe
your sword, dismOunt your guns, dis
mantle your batteries, turn the warship
Constellation that carries shot and
shell into grainship to take food to
furnishing Ireland, hook your cavalry
horses to the pillow, use your deadly gun