The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-26
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
HEAVENLY MUSIC, A DISCOURSE FOR
THE SEASON OF GOOD WILL.
Christmas Sermon by the Rt. Rev. G.
KinIOch Nelson, ID. D., Bishop
OF Georgia, Atlanta, Ga.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
Deace. good will toward men.-Luke H. Ia.

Glory to God in the highest and on earth
peace, good will toward men--Luke ii, IA.
There is only one birthday of universal
interest, that is Christ's. And there is one
peculiarly proper theme for Christmas
day-the hymn which the angels sang to
wondering shepherds out under the cold sky
of night in far Palestine-"Glory to God in
the highest, and on earth peace good will
toward men,
It must have been a very lovely song
which caught the ear of the listeners lit
tie while before paralyzed with terror, and
what delight, inconceivable to us, must the
contrast have brought them! And what a
pity we think it that no one has ever been
able to trace the melody or even suggest
the strain to which those blessed words
We're set.
But perhaps it is just as well, for | am
not quite sure that all of us would appre-
ciate celestial music, so long have we been
accustomed to the garish sounds of earth,
and the mechanical harmony which stirnu-
lates lulls the senses. Most of us, no
doubt, prefer a popular ballad to the rust
ling of autumn leaves or the whirling
fugues of the windstorm, and fail to be duly
impressed with the ripple of the shallow
stream or the alternating treble and mighty
bass of the ocean.
Yet some of us can recall sounds that do
not seem to belong wholly to earth, as we
remember the gentle cadences Of love in
mothers voice, the innocent merriment of
children, the undisguised affection of a sin
cere friend.
But SO long as we have the message
which they brought, we need not be par
ticular about the tones which belong to
another sphere. What the angels meant is
clear: That Gods glory is the first of all
things to be considered, and that growing
out of it and forming part of it is peace
on EARTH and that the birth of Jesus Christ
is the event in all history which can recon-
cile earth to heaven, man to God
Here is one of the instances of Gods
strange way of teaching great truths. and
of doing great deeds. Just as of old he
picked out some herdsman and made
great prophet of him, and took away David
from the sheepfolds to make him ruler of
his people, Israel; just as fishermen and
taxgatherers were made officers OF his spr-
itual kingdom, and children were set before
old people, kings and princes, to show
them how they may become members of
that kingdom: so here the most glorious
and comforting truth and eternal benefit
was brought by angels to lowly shepherds,
watching their hooks Dy night.
The Messiah of whom many things had
been spoken and written in the law and
the prophets, and for whom the world had
waited for thousands of years, was not an
nounced first of all to the high priest
Caiaphas, or to the college of Jewish doc
tors and lawyers in the temple precincts,
or to Herod on his vice regal throne, or to
Plate in his mansion, no nor yet TO the
world by the public and official messengers
of the great Roman government. These are
the ways in which man would have
trumpeted a noteworthy occurrence. Far
otherwise is it done under the divine econ
omy. He begins with little things; the lit
tie springs to form mighty rivers, the rain
drops to supply the flood little seeds for
great plants, small, obscure workings in
the darkness to produce results that aston
ish the world, confound the wise and over
throw the proud in the Imagination of their
hearts
So here the sweetest sound that can APP
peal to human hearts was sung, not in
the banquet halls of the great, not in
the palace Of Augustus nor in the places
of popular resort. but at dead of night to
a few attentive men, living their simple
lives and commanding no influence in couIl-
ellis or assemblies.
That hymn, nevertheless, is now heard
all the world over while the paeans of
warriors, the war cries OF armies and the
voluptuous songs of royal festivals have
been relegated to oblivion. 1t is heard and
sung by increasing thousands every year.
from the North Cape to Victoria land,
and from Japan all the way around
to the islands of the Pacific. In stately
cathedral and crowded parish church
and little mission rooms away out on
the plains and steppes, IN the homes Of
the great and the cottages of the lowly,
it is sung or spoken Of to-day because It
contains the truth In which al men without