Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-12-25

sewing wOman's needle and all that
learned talk about gate called the
needles eye" only belittling the hy-
perbole. Power of sarcasm: The hypO-
critics styled by him 1.-The whole who
need not a physician" His power of
peroration: The crashing of the tim
bers of the poorly built house on the
beach of the Mediterranean. Power to
take advantage of circumstances:
When an auditor asked him whether
they ought to pay taxes to Caesar,
Christ practically said, eff any gentle
man in this audience has in his pocket
Roman penny, l wish he would just
hand it up to me-" And some one
handed him a penny, such as you can
now find in some of the museums, the
diverse of it bearing the face of I'll
beriuS, the emperor, and the reverse
the words "PontifeX MaXimus,' the
other title of the emperor, and then
came the overwhelming answer of
Christ, Render to Caesar the things
that are Caesars and to God the things
that are Gods"
But we must not only look at him
from a worldly standpoint. How he
smote whirlwinds into silence, and
made the waves of the sea lie down.
and opened doors of light into the mid
night of those who had been born
blind, and turned deaf ears into gal
leries of music, and with one touch
made the scabs of incurable leprosy
fall off, and renewed healthy circula-
ton through severest paralysis, and
made the dea9 girl waken and ask for
l. L.
ed down the clouds, until at - o'clock
at noon it was as dark as II o'clock at
night, and starting an influence that
will go on until the last desert will
grow roses and the last weak lung
make full inhalation, and the last case
of paresiS take healthful brain, and
the last illness become rubicund of
cheek and robust of chest and bound
ing of foot, and the last pauper will
get his palace, and the last sinner
taken unto the warm bosom of a par
doning God! Where did all this start?
In that cradle within sound of bleat-
ing sheep and believing cattle and
amid rough bantering of herdsmen and
camel drivers. What a low place to
start for such great heights! o artists,
turn your camera ObScura on that vii
lage of Bethlehem! Take it all in
the wintry skies lowering, the fiocks
shivering in the chill air, Mary the pale
mother, and Jesus the child.
An Eternal Jubilee.
So have shown you the shadows
and the sunshine of that Christie era
die of Bethlehem. In these Christmas
times I realize that there are many era
dies under shadows. Oh, the story of
empty cradles all up and down the
earth in cabins and palaces! There
are standing in garretS or in store
rooms cradles that will never rock
again. Rachel mourning for her chill
dren and will not be comforted be-
cause they are not" But through all
the shadows break CLEANS of sunshine
as the clouds of the Christie cradle
were cleft by glorious light. Escaped
from the struggles through which we
have all passed and must yet pass,
those little ones took heaven at one
bound Instead of an earthly career
it is a heavenly career, with capacities,
with velocities, with opportunities be-
yond ourcOmprehension. Instead of eel
ebrating on earth the Saviour's birth
they stand in the Saviour's presence.
Instead of the holiday celebrations of
the old homestead it is to them eternal
jubilee at a table where the angels of
God are the cupbearers and amid fes-
tivitieS that resound with a laughter
and a music and blaze with a brilliance
and glory that eye hath not seen
nor ear heard" No use in wishing
them a merry Christmas, for the mer-
riments of heaven ring out upon them
from temples that are always open,
amid pleasures that never die. oh, it
is not dull heaven, but lively heav-
en-, for there are so many children
there! They throng the streets. They
look out of the House of Many Man !
SionS." They stand on the beach to see
the fleets cast anchor within the vale. !
They crowd the gates with greetings |
when the old folks come in. They clap |
their hands in an eternal gladneSS. |
They dance in an eternal glee. See |
you not the sunshine that pours into |
the shadows of that cradle until they |
are all gone?
But shadows have their uses. There |
must be a background to every good |
picture. Turner always put at least a |
feck of cloud ON his canvas, and the |
clouds of earth will be the background |
to bring out more nightly the bright |
ness of heaven. And will it not be glo-
rious if after all this scene of earthly |
vicissitude we meet again in our Fa- |
theirs house and talk over the past in |
an everlasting holiday? But mean
while look out for the cradles. How
much they decide for this world and |
the next! When Wellington was born
at Mornington, England, that decided
Waterloo and saved Europe. When