The Newtown bee., 1896-01-03
xs wNssS cure habitual constipa- k1OOQ 8 EaA2S sien. Prica 25c per box.

Sherman, ConnecC1cuC'
 Hood's Pills ss ssoa. IsGes Prios a5c. per box. given; but this day is the best kept day of all the year. One after another we turn our holidays from their original meaning and make them days for mere sportsand fun. Thanksgiving has lost much of it's uniqueness as day for the gathering of the scattered family at the old homestead on the farm; in the bang and noise of ''the glorious Fourth' we are forgetting the Declaration of Inde- pendence and with what sacrifice the foundations of our government were laid. But the name alone will keep Christmas day; it must ever be the "Christ- day." All the world will in some sort keep Christmas-day, and acknowledge Christ as wonderful Man, as a great Prophet, as a remarkable Teacher, as 8 correct Guide; but how much of the world will acknowledge Him as a Saviour? That is the question.
 "Unto you is born this day in the city of David Saviour, which is Christ the Lord''-that is the way the angels put 1t. Jesus principal work is to save. He is the Christ, the anointed One of God; He is the Lord: He is Ruler; but, before all else, He is the Saviour. I have never yet found any one to dispute that Christ was most wonderful Man. We cannot do that; every time we speak of an event as occurring so many years before Christ, and every time in the past year that we have written at the top of our letters, ''In the year of our Lord 1885," we have acknowledged that, for we have made Him the central figure in history.
 NO OTHER MAN THAT EVER LAvED
 has had any influence to compare with His, we say; but how many of us ac- knowledge Him as Saviour? The hard est task for the minister is to aAake men have any sense of their sin; for paying one's debts so easily goes for purity of life, living respectfully so easily pass es for sincerity of heart. But how many pay their debts, or begin to pay their debts? They owe Jesus ten thousand talents of love, obedience and reverence; but they have paid only few pence. If one has looked down deep into his heart, he has found great
 onging there which Jesus alone can fill. The first journey of the needy heart is in search of 8 Saviour. The shepherds were first, they sought Saviour; the Magi sought King.
 Why is it that men acknowledge Christ as Teacher, or 8 Guide, or a Prophet, or a Miracle-worker, before they acknowledge Him as 8 Saviour? Because there is some humiliation in that, because it takes some courage to surrender, because it means some bow is lost and undone. The soul that cries "Unclean!'' is on the way to pardon. Oh, what blessed Christmas this would be, if many would see in it the birth of a Savior to their souls |! That is the curse of the age,-indiference, lethargy, con- tent, too easy-going, too little disposed to fiud fault with itself, too little feeling of the need of Saviour.
 That there was no room for Jesus in the Bethlehem inn implies that some- thing else had usurped the room. There was room in the inn, but it had been taken up. The lodging quarters were occupied. Travellers were there ahead of Joseph and Mary. Travellers were there who filled the places and did not care to give way. It is so when Jesus is crowded out of our hearts-something else has usurped the room. The pleas ures of life are, there, and they fill 8 large place the sbusiness cares of life are there, and they fill large place; the household duties of life are there, and they fill 8 large place. There are so many things to think of and so many things to do; it requires such an effort just to keep along; it takes such a strug- gle just to make the two ends meet. The pace of life gets faster. The ten- dency is more and more to employ every ounce of energy which foot and head d and heart and brain and hand possess in the bare struggle for existence. No, it Is not because men do not acknowledge the claims of Jesus to be their Master that they do not accept Hims it is not because they do not hear His knock at the door of their hearts; it is not be- cause they are unfamiliar with the mes sage, II am the Way and the Truth and the Life.'' They know that, they know all about it, it is
 AN OFT-REPEA TED STORY
 to them; but they are too busy, the seed of truth has fallen among briars and thorns which have grown up and choked 1t. These persons are the guilt lest of all. They know, but they do not act on their knowledge; they hear, but 1t is only hearing of the ears.
 Now Jesus might have been admitted Into the inn, if the.travellers had crowd ed together more closely; perhaps some of them would have been crowded put, but they might have made room. So 10 life is too busy to stop to think about Jesus, no heart too encumbered by care, no soul too distracted by worry.