Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-12-26

moan Of camels and the bleat of sheep
md the low of cattle mingled with the
babe's first cry. while clouds that night
were resonant with music, and star
pointing down whispered to star, "Look,
/ there be is I"
A Perfect Life.
That Christ, after the detectives Of
Herod and PLATE and sanhedrin had
watched him by day and watched him
by night, year after year, was reported
innocent. It was found out that when
he talked to the vagrant woman in the
temple it was to tell her to ego and
sin no more and that if he spoke
with the penitent thief it was to prom
ise him paradise within "a hours, and
that as he moved about he dropped ease
Of pain upon the invalid s pillow. or
light upon the eye that lacked optic
nerve, or put bread into the hands of
the hungry, or took from the oriental
hearse the dead young man and vitaliz-
ed him and said to the widowed moth
er, tHere he is alive and we'll, /" and
she cried, my boy, my boy!" and he
responded, Mother, mother - And the
sea, tossing too roughly some of his
friends, by word easier than a nurses
word to petulant child he made it
keep still. The very judge who for 9th
ers reasons allowed him to be put to
death declared, 81 find no fault in
him" Was there ever life SO thor
oughly ransacked and hypercriticised
that turned out to be so perfect life?
Now, can you imagine what would
have been the calamity to earth and
heaven, what bereavement to all his
tory, what swindling not only of the
human race, but of cherubim and sera-
phim and archangel, if because of infer
nal incursion upon the bed of that Beth
lehem babe this life of divine and glo-
rious manhood had never been lived?
The Christie parallels would never have
been uttered; the sermon on the mount,
all adrip with benedictions, never
preached; the golden rule, in picture
frame of everlasting love- would never
have been hung up for the universe to
gaze upon and admire
Can you imagine what scarifcation
of the worlds literature would be the
removal of.all Christ ever did and said?
It would tear down the most important
shelves Of yonder Congressional library,
and of the Vatican library, and of Brit
ish museum, and Berlin and Bonn and
Vienna and Madrid and st. Petersburg
libraries, and st. Paul's life would
have been an impossibility, and his
epistles would never have been written.
and St. John, from the basaltic caverns
of Patmos, would never have heard the
seven trumpets or seen the heavenly
walls with 10 layers of illumined crys-
utilization. o wise men of the east!
am so glad you did not report to the
imperial scoundrel at Jerusalem where
the babe was, for the hounds would
have soon torn to pieces the Lamb, and
1 am so glad that not only did you
bring the frankincense and the myrrh
to the room in that caravansary, but
that you brought the gold which paid
his travelling expenses and those of Jo-
seph and Mary in that long and danger
Gus flight to Cairo, in Egypt, and paid
their lodging and board there and paid
their way back again. Well enough to
bring to the barn of the Saviour's ma
tivity the flowers, for they aromatized
the dreadful atmosphere of the stable,
but the gold was just then the most i'm
portant offering. So now the Lord &C
cepts your prayers, for they are the per-
LULU VI ASdNCI, OOU 1iO aGhS d1OO LUZ
the gold which will pay the expense of
taking Christ to all nations.
When Peace Came.
Still further remarking upon the mar
row escape which you and | and the
world had in the diversion of the perse-
cutors from the place of nativity. let
me say that had that Herodic raid upon
the swaddling clothes been successful
the world would never have known the
value of a righteous peace. Much has
been made of the fact that the world |
was at peace when Christ came. Yes.
But what kind of a peace was it? It |
was peace worse than war. Tt was the
peace of a graveyard. The Roman eagles |
had plucked out the worlds eyesight |
and plunged their beaks through the
heart of dead nations. 1t was a peace /
like that spoken of by dying Indian
chieftain when Christian home mis-
sionary said to him, "Yo on have been
warrior, and | suppose have been in
many feuds, but you must be at peace
with all your enemies in order to die
Alright" The dying chieftain replied:
"That's easy enough. I am at peace
with all my enemies, for I have killed
all Of them"
That was the style of peace on earth
when Christ came, but the spirit of ar
bitration, which is to garland the tomb
of this century and coronet the brow of
the coming century, is consequent upon
the midnight anthem above Bethlehem,
two bars to that music, the first of di-
vine ascription and the second of earth
ly pacifcation. "Glory to God and
peace to men, In his manhood Christ
pronounced the same doctrine, "Blessed
are the merciful. Before the Bethle-