Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-01-26
ever ME SO thoroughly ransacked and

hypercriticised that turned out to be SO
perfect life? Now, you can imagine what
would have been the calamity to earth and
heaven, what a bereavement to all history,
what swindling not only Of the human
race, but OF cherubim and seraphim and
archangel, II because of Internal incursion
upon the bed Of that Bethlehem babe this
life OF divine and glorious manhood had
never been lived? The Christie parallels
would never have been uttered; the SER
mon on the mount, all adrip with bene-
dictions, 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 q scarifcation of
the worlds literature would be the re-
moval OF all Christ ever did and said? 1t
would tear down the most important
shelves OF yonder Congressional library.
and OF the Vatican library, and OF British
museum, and Berlin and Bonn and Vienna
and Madrid and st. Petersburg libraries,
and st. Paul's life would have been an i'm
possibility. and his episties 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 twelve layers OF illum-
| ined crystallization. 0 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
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 Joseph and Mary in
| that long and dangerous 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 Sayiour's
| nativity the flowers. for they aromatized
| the dreadful atmosphere of the stable, but
| the gold was just then the most important
| Offering. So now the Lord accepts your
| PRAYERS for they are the perfume of heaven,
| but He asks also for the gold which will
pay the expense Of taking Christ to all
| nations.
Still further remarking upon the narrow
! escape which you and and the world had
in the diversion of the prosecutors 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 q righteous peace.
Much has been made of the fact that the
world was at peace when Christ came.
Yes. But what kind of peacs was it? 1t
was a peace worse than war. 1t was the
peace of u graveyard. The Roman eagles
| had plucked out the worlds eyesight and
| plunged their beaks through the heart of
| dead nations. 1t was n peace spoken flby
u dying Indian chieftain when n Christian
| home missionary said to him, You have
been q warrior, and lave been in many
! feuds, but you must be at peace with all
|
dying chieftan replied: "That's easy
| enough. am ut peace with all my enc
mics, for 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
| peace to men," In His manhood Christ
pronounced the same doctrine, BLESSED
| are the merciful. Before the Bethe-
hem star flashed it's significance, the
theory was: BLESSED is wholesale cut
throatery. Blessed are those who can
kill the most antagonists. Blessed are
those who can most skillfully WELD the
| battleax. Blessed are those who can
stab the deepest with spear or roll a
| chariot wheel over the most wounded
| or put his chargers hoof on the most
dead" The entirely new theory of our
Christ was blessing for cursing, prayer
for those who despitefully use you,
foundries to turn spears into pruning
| hooks, redhot furnaces to melt swords
into molds shaped like plowshares. Ii
| gigantic acerbities and worldwide tiger
isms had, without any gospel opposi-
ton, gone on until now and been aug
mented by 1898 years of ferocity, by this
| time what would this world have been
turned into? You ueed not remind me OF
| the awful wars since the opening of the
year one of our Christian era; for If the
| earth has been again and again lacerated
into an Aceldama through improved weap-
| onry of death and more rapidity of fire,
| Prussian breechloader which in 1866 startled
the nations with unprecedented havoc
| eclipsed by contrivances that can sweep
| vaster numbers to death by one volley and
| telegraphy adding to gunnery new facili-
| ties for slaughter by instantly ordering
| armies to where they can do the most
wholesale murder-I say If all this woe has
| been wrought, how much worse would it
have been If the Christly revelation had
| not been let down from heaven ON five
runged ladder Of musical scale and there
had been no preaching Of good will all up
and down Christendom for nineteen CEN
turies! The Bethlehem manger has given
the most potent suggestion OF peace the
world has ever received. The cavalry
horses cannot eat out of that manger.
| l take another step forward in showing
the narrow escape you and had and the
world had in the secretion of Chrlst's birth
| place from the Herodic detectives, and the
clubs with which they would have dashed
the babes life out when say that without
the life that began that night in Bethlehem
| the world would have had no illumined
| deathbeds. Before the time of Christ good
| people closed their earthly lives in peace,
while depending upon the Christ to come,
| anu tHoEo were uuIeuliuVldu SdlHlS ana
Assyrian saints and Egyptian saints and
| Grecian saints and Jerusalem saints long be-
| fore the clouds above Bethlehem became
balcony filed with the best singers of a
world wherethey all sing, but cannot read
that there was anything more than a quiet
ing guess that came to those before Christ
deathbeds. Job said something bordering
on the confident, but it was mixed up with
| story of "skin worms that would de-
stroy his body. Abraham and Jacob had
little light on the dying pillow but CON-
pared with the after Christ deathbeds it
was like the dim tallow candle Of old be-
side the modern cluster OF lights electric.
know Elijah went up in memorable man
ner, but it was terrible way to goa
whirlw nd of fire that must have been
splendid to look at by those who stood on
the banks of the Jordan, but it was style
of ascent that required more nerve than
you and l ever had, to be a placid oc-
cupant of chariot drawn by such
wild team. The triumphant deathbeds,
as far rs I know, were the after Christ
deathbsds. What procession OF hosan-
mas have marched through the dying room
OF the saints of tha lpet niDataen Pm III aot