The Newtown bee., 1895-01-04

TIFUL, EVEN IF IT WERE NOT TRUE.- CHRISTMAS SHOWS GOD WORKING IN HUMAN HISTORY, REVEALING IN THE
 "FULNEss OF TIME'' A CHILD KING.- WHAT THE LIFE OF THIS CHILD KING
 HAS ACCOMPLIsHED.-H BIRTHDAY
 GIFT TO THE wORLD.-THE MEAN
 ING OF THE GOLD, THE FRANKINCENSE
 AND THE MYRRH.-i CHRISTMAS SER MON PREACHED AT THE VIEWPOINT CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, DECEMBER
 B, 1894, BY OTIS W. BARKER.
 Text, Matt. 2: Il: "And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gl1tsi gold and trankincense and Myrrh."
 It reads like fable, and yet it is a fact, ,-the birth of the babe of Bethlehem ; the song of the angel host breaking in a flood of music over the hills of Jude l; the announcement to wondering shep- herds tending their focks of the ''good tidings of great joy" and the shepherds visit to the stone manager in the outhouse (the cradle there made because there was no room in the imp the coming of the divinely-led and star guided wise men from their Ear eastern home; the silence and gladness of the good Mary, as she cherished all these things in her heart; the rage of Herod on hearing that his cunningly-planned scheme had been foiled; the warning of the angel, and the flight in the night from the city of David to the ancient country of Mizraim, where Joseph's forefathers had served the journey back again to Juda, and the settlement in the hill country of Galilee |; the "silent years" of boyhood and youth, broken only by the visit at 12 to the cap ital city, and the questioning of the doc tors there; and then the three years of ever-opening wonders, ,--wonders of love, of power, of speech, of deed, of agony, of death, of resurrection; then from the shoulder If Olivet simple word of fare well; then the waiting of the disciples at Jerusalem till they should be endued with power from on high ;then the spread ing of the simple story of this matchless life through Palestine, and from Pales- tine, in all these later ages, into all the wide world,-all this panoramic picture of beauty and glory passes before us every time that the Christmas bells chime, and the glad carols of the chill dren ring, and the December sun and stars ray out their greeting to this blessed anniversary of peace and good- will.
 It reads like fable; and, even though it were myth, of no stronger fabric of truth than the filmy threads of which dreams are made, even though it were only tale of the imagination, it were we'll to repeat it because of it's wonder ful beauty. But it is fact; indeed, it is chain of living, glorious facts, every link sweeter than flowers, richer than gold, stronger than steel. Christmas day stands for history, far-reaching, wonderful, divine history.
 THIS EVENT, THE BIRTH OF JESUS,
 was far-reaching history. It reached backward to the time when Adam was driven because of his sin out of Paradise, and the gracious promise was made that the woman's seed should bruise the ser pent's head. From that time the lines had been conyerging until in David's line and David's city they reached their focus and eliminating point. 1.-The fulness of time" had come. All time has but two chapters. The first chapter is the Old Testament, filled with prophecy of the Messiah to come. The second chap ter is the New Testament, ushering in the Messiah and pointing forward to the time when time shall be no more, when beneath the feet of the great Conqueror mans last enemy shall have fallen.
 What if men have doubted this his tory! What if they have not believed it because 1t was so wonderful, because they could not grasp the truth of Heav- en bending itself down to earth to touch it's sorrow and it's sin, and earth lifting itself up to Heaven to be relieved of it's lead of guilt and wrongl God works in history whether men believe or deny. Men did not believe that the American Colonies could free themselves from Great Britain; they secuted the thought of that narrow fringe of land along the Atlantic coast being more than match for the mighty empire of King George, cf that weak army of raw recruits. ill., disciplined and half-starved, following a solitary leader and marking their way by blood-prints in the snow, overcom- ing the victorious troops of many hard campaign. Thirty years ago men did not believe that the Union could be maintained; they openly declared that the Confederacy must win. and that to prolong further the fight was useless shedding of blood. Men did not believe that a steam-yessel could cross the At fantic, saying that DO vessel could be built of sufficient tonnage 50 carry the coal required for such 6 goyage: and, when their declarations ca this point were being proclaimed the loud- 1 cat, steam-yessel was announced as having arrived in port. Men did not be- Ieve Ia telegraphy until OFT great cities were joined by wires along which the 1