Connecticut western news., 1898-12-29
THE CRADLE OF JESUS
TARGET FOR EARTHLY AND DlA5CLiC HOST.L!TiES.

Subject of Dr. Talmage's Christmas ksermon - What Might Have Bccn
 Had the Babe Been Slain.
 Copyright 1sss' Sy Sation American Press AsS0-
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 25.-In most m usual way scene connected with tho nativity is emphasized by Dr. Talmago in this Christmas discourse; text, Mat shew ii, IS, "Herod will seek tho young child to destroy him. "
 The cradle of the infant Jesus had Eo rockers for 1t was not to be soothed by osoillating motion, as are the cradles of other princes. It had no embroidered pillow, for the young head was not to have such luxurious comfort. Though q meteor, ordinarily the most cratic and seemingly ungovernable of all skyey ap- pearancess had been sent to designate the place where that cradle stood and a choir had been sent from the heaven 1y temple to serenade its illustrious oe- cupant with an epic, yet the cradle was the target for all earthly and diabolical hostilities. Indeed I give you as my opinion that it was the narrowest and most wonderful escape of the ages that the child was not slain before he had taken his first step or spoken his first word. Herod could not afford to have him born. The Caesars could not afford to have him born. The gigantic oppres- sions and abominations of the world could not afford to have him born. Was there ever planned more systematized or appalling bombardment in all the world than the bombardment of that cradle?
 The Herod who led the attack was treaohery, vengeance and sensuality i'm pesonated. Asa sort of pastime he slew Hyrcanus, the grandfather of his wife. Then be slew Marianne, his wife. Then he butchered her two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus. Then he slew ADtipa- ter, his oldest son. Then he ordered burned alive 40 people who had pulled down the eagle of his authority. He or dered the nobles who had attended up- on his dying bed to be slain, so that there might be universal mourning aft CT his decease. From that same death bed he ordered the slaughter of all the children in Bethlehem under 3 years of age, feeling sure that if he massaored the entire infantile population that would include the destruction of the child whose birthplace astronomy had pointed out with its finger of light. What were the slaughtered babes 10 him, and as many frenzied and bereft mothers? If he had been we'll enough to leave his bed he would have enjoyed seeing the mothers wildly struggling to keep their babes and holding them so tightly that they could not be sepa- rated until the sword took both lives at one stroke, and others, mother and child, hurled from roofs of houses into the street, until that village of horse- shoe shape on the hillside became one great butcher shop. To have such a man, with associates just as cruel and an army at his command, attempting the life of the infant Jesus, does there seem any chance for his escapef Then that flight southward for so many miles, across deserts and amid bandits and wild beasts (my friend, the late missionary and scientist Dr. Lansing, who took the same journey, said it was enough to kill both the Madonna and the Childl, and poor residence in Cairo. You know how difficult it is to take an ordinary child successfully through the disorders that are sure to assail it even in comfortable homes and with all deli cate ministries, and then think of the exposure of that famous babe in villages and lands where all sanitary laws were put at defiance, his first hours on earth spent in room without any doors, and ofttimes swept by chilled night winds, then afterward riding many days under hot tropical sun, and part of many nights lest the avenger overtake the fu- gitive before he could be hidden in an. other land.
 The Mysterious Arrival.
 The sanhedrin also were affronted at the report of this mysterious arrival of a child that might upset all convention alities and threaten the throne of the nation. "Shut the door and bolt it and double bar it against him!" cried all political and ecclesiastical power. Christ on a retreat when only few days of age, with all the privations and hardships and sufferings of retreatl When the glad news came that Herod was dead and the Madonna was packing up and taking her Child home, bad news also came that Archelaus, the son, had taken the throne-another crowned in- fanny. What chance for the babe's life? Will not soma short grave hold the wondrous infane?'
 'Put him to death P was the order all up and down Palestine and all up and down the desert between Bethlehem and Cairo. The cry was: "Here comes an iconoclast of all established orderl Here comes an aspirant for the crown of Augustusi If found on the streets Of Bethlehem, dash him to death on the pavementl If found on hill, hurl him down the rockss Away with him !' But the babe got home in safety and passed up from infancy to youth, and from youth to manhood, and from carpenter shop to Messiahship, and from Messiah ship to enthronment, until the mighti- est name on earth is Jesus, and there is no mightier name in heaven.
 What want 10 call your attention 10 is your narrow escape and mine and the worlds narrow escape. Suppose that
 
 been successful! Suppose that delega- tion of wise men, who were to report to Herod immediately after they discov- cred the hard bed in the Bethlehem caravansary, had obeyed orders and re- ported ! Suppose the beast carrying the Madonna and the Child in the flight had stumbled and flung to death it's riders! Suppose Archelaus had got his hands on the babe that his father had failed to find Suppose that among the children dashed from the Bethlehem house tops or separated by sword of the enraged constabulary Jesus had per- ishedl
 What Might Have Been.
 Then, to begin on the outermost rim of my subject, Christmas festivities would never have been observed, Christ mas carols never sung, Christmas gifts never bestowed, Christmas games never played, Christmas bells never rung.