The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-01-03
CHRIsTS MISSION.
Rev. Or. Talnage breaches q Christ
mas Sermons
The Worlds Greatest Emancfpators Were
All of LOwly Birth - The Offenders
Hope-SeasOn OF Forbearance and
EOrGiveness-Good WIN TO Men.

Bon-the Christmastide. The text se-
| lected was, Now when Jesus was born
In Bethlehem" Matthew ii, 1.
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. A
poor man and wife-travelers, Joseph
and Mary by name-had lodged in an
! Clubhouse of an unimportant 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 had a
star been unfxed or had a baton of
light marshaled over the hills winged
orchestra II 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 Hapsbur3, or the house of
Stuart, we would not SO much have
wondered, but barn seems too poor a
center for such delicate and archan-
Relic circumference. The stage seems
too small for SO great an act, the music
too grand for such unappreciatiYe 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 I want to make my discourse
Faccumulative and climacteric I 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? JesusI Who has more
friends on earth than any other being?
Jesusl Before whom do the most
thousands kneel in chapel and church
and cathedral this hour? Jesusl From
what depths of poverty to what height
of renown! And so let all those who
are poorly started remember 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 emancipator of liter
ature, born in an humble home at
Stratford-on-Avon. Colum bus, the dis
coverer of world, born in poverty at
Genoa. Hogarth, the discoverer OF
how to make art accumulative and ad-
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-
liverers were born in want.
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-
tions or professions there may be those
who would hinder your ascent, on
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-fve years ago was wrapped In
swaddling clothes and laid in man
ger. Oh, what magnificent encourage
mcnt for the poorly startedl
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.
It was sacrifice for a rebellious world
After the calamity in paradise, not on
ly did the OK begin to gore, and the
adder to sting, and the elephant to
snite with his tusk, and the lion to
put to bad use tooth and paw, but I'M
der the very tree from which the for
bidden 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 curEe, endure rather than
assault" and that Christmas night
puts out vindictivenesa 1t says,
''Sheathe your sword, dismount your
guns, dismantle your batteries, turn
the warship Constellation, that car
ries shot and shell into a grain ship to
take food to famishing Ireland, hook
your cavalry horses to the plow, 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 vocabulary-'Good
will to men.
oh" you say, ST can't exercise it
I won't exercise 1t until they apollo
pize. I won't forgive them until they
ask me to forgive them" You are no
Christian ti4sn-I say you are no Chris
tian. or you are a very inconsistent
Christian. If you forgive not men
their trespasses, how can you expect
your heavenly Father to forgive you?
Forgive them If they ask your forgive
ness. and forgive them anyhow. Shake
hands ali around. Good viii TO
men"
O my Lord Jesus, drop shat spirit
into ali our hearts this Christmas timei
tell you what the world wants mors