The morning times., 1896-12-28
TALMAGE's XMAS THOUGHT
Eloquent Divine Oh "fhe Barn
and Its surroundings"
THAT NIGHT In THE MANGER
Vivid Word Picture of the Humble
Things on Which the Infants
Eyes Opened Plea for the Dumb
Brute az Well as Mankind at This
Joyous season.

DR. Talmage preached in the morning
yesterday at the First Presbyterian Church,
and his Christmas sermon was from the
text: Luke iil5--'The shepherds said )ne
To another, Let ms now go even unto Betble-
benz and see this thing which is come 10
pass"
The barn and its surroundings was
his subject, and in part he said:
One thousand years of the worlds eX-
istence rolled painfully and wcarily along,
and DO Christ Two thousand years, and
no Christ Three Thousand years, and TO
Christ Four Thousand years, and no
Christ Give us a Christ" had cried
ASsyrian and Persian and Chaldean ard
Egyptian civilization, but the lips OF the
earth and the lips of the sky male no
answer.
Tie world had already been affluent
If genius. Among poets had appeared
Homer and Thcspis and Aristophancs ana
Sophocles and Euripides and Alexis eschy-
lus: vet no Christ, To Toe the most poetic
figure Of the centuries. Among historians
had appeared HerodOtus and Xcnophun
and Thucydides; but no Christ, from whom
all history was 10 date backward and for
ward-B. c. and A. ID.
Among cGnquerors Camilius and Manlus
ana Regulus and Xantippus and Scipio and
Pompey and Caesar; yet no Christ. who
was to he conqucror of earth and heaven.
Worlds Desire Granted.
But the slow century and the slow year
ard the slow month and the slow hour at
last arrived. The world had had n.atins
or concerts in the morning and vesper3 or
concerts in the evening, but now it is TO
have a concert ut midnight
The black window shutters OF a De
Cenlber night We're thrown open, and some
of the best singers OF a world where they
all sing stood there, and, putting back
the drapery Of cloud, chanted peace an
them, until all the echoes of hill and valley
applauded and encorcd the Hallelujah
Chorus.
At last the world has a Christ. and Just
the Christ il needs. Come, let US 20 into
that Christmas scene as though We had
never before wOT>hippel at the mamger
Here is a Madonna worth loking at. |
wonder not that the most frequent name in
all lands and in all Christian centuries
is Mary. And there are Marys III palaces
and MaTys in cabins, and though German
and French and Italian and Spanish and
English pronounce il differently, they are
all nameSakes of the one whom we find
on couch OF straw, with her pale face
against the soft cheek OF Christ in the
night of the Nativity.
His Lowly Birthplace.
Behold, IN the first place, that on the
first night of Christ's life God honored
the brute creation. You can not get into
that Bethlehem barn without going past
the cameis, the mules, the dogs, the oxen.
The brutes of that stable heard the first
cry of the infant Lord.
Some of the old painters represent the
oxen and camels kne cling that night
before the newborn babe. And well might
they kLeel! Have you ever thought that
Chu st came, among 9th er things, to
alleviate the Suffcrings OF the brute Crea-
ton? Was it not appropriate that lie
should, during the first few days and
nights of His life on earth, he surrounded by
the dumb beasts, whose moan and plant
and believing have for ages been pra yer
to God for the arresting of their tortures
and the righting of their wrongs?
1t did not merely happen So that the
have been that night in close neighbor-
hood. Not kennel in all the centuries, not
a bird s nest, not a worn out horse on tow
path, not a herd freezing in the poorly
built cowpen, not q freight car in summer
time bringing the beeves TO market without
water through a thousand miles Of agony,
not a surgeon room witnessing the strug-
giles of fox or rabbit or pigeon or dog in the
horrors of yiviscction, but has an inter
est in the fact that Christ was born in a
stable, surrounded by brutes. He rcmcm-
berS that night, and the prayer He heard
in their pitiful moan He will answer in the
punishment of those who maltreat the dumb
bruUes.
Their saviour, Too.
They surely have q much right in this
world as we have.
In the first chapter of Genesis YOU
may see that they Were placed on the earth
before man was-lhe fish and fowl created
the fifth day and the quadrupeds the
morning of the sixth day and man not
until the afternoon of that day. The
whale, the eagle, the lion, and all the
lesser creatures of their kind We're pred
ecessors of the human family.
They have the world by right of pos
session. They have also paid rent for the
places they occupied. What an army of
defense all over the land are the faithful
watchdogs. And who can tell what the
world owes to the horse and camel and OK
for Transportation? And robin and lark
have, 10y the cantatas with which they have
filled orchard and forest, more than paid
for the few grains they have picked up
for their sustenance.
When you abuse any creature of God you
strikeits Creator, and you insult Christ who,
though II e might have been welcomed into
life 10y princes and taken His first infantile
siumber amid Tyrian plush and canopied
couches and ripping waters from royal
dpearl, chose to be born on the level with
cow S horn, or a camel's hoof, or q dogs
nustril that He might be the alienation
Of animal suffering as well as the re-
dcemer of man.
Care for Bird and Beast.
Standing, then, as / imagine now i DO
in that Bethlehem night with an infant
Christ on the one side and the speechless
creatures of g Cd on the other, / cry leo K
out how you strike the rowel into that
horses side. Take that curbed bit from
that bleeding mouth. Remove that saddle
from that raw back. Shoot not for fun
that bird that is t. small for food For
get not to put water into the cage o. that