Connecticut western news., 1899-12-28

and will not cease until It haS destroy ed them. What a pronunciamento went forth from that black and bar barian throne, practically saying, "Slay all the babes under 2 years of age, and that wide slaughter will surely include the death of the one child that most threatens my dominion" Awful time was 1t for the occupant of that cradle! If he escape the knife of the assassin, then the wild beasts paw or the ban dit's clutch or the midnight chill be- tween Bethlehem of Jud@a and Cairo,
 Egypt, will secure his destruction. All the powers of earth and all the demons of hell bombarded that cradle.
 A Famous Town.
 Another shadow upon that Christie cradle was the obscurity of the place of birth Bethlehem was an obscure
 village. David, the shepherd boy, had been born there, but after he became
 general and king he gave it no signifi- canoe, 1 think never mentioning 1t but to ask for drink of water out of the old well to which he used to go in childhood--the village so small and unimportant that 1t had to be separat- ed in mind from another Bethlehem then existing and so was called Beth lehem of Judaa. There was a great capital of Jerusalem; there were the b beautiful cities on the beach of Galilee, any of them good place to be born | in; there were great towns famous at | that time, but the nativity we today celebrate was in village which Christ intimated had been called by some
 ''the least among the princes of Juda.' Christ himself was to make the town famous for all time and all eternity. o men and women of Messianlc op- portunity, why do you not make the place of your nativity memorable for your phifanthropies-by the churches you build, the free libraries you open, the colleges you endow? Go back to the village where you were born, as George Peabody went back to Danvers, Mass, and with your wealth bless the neighborhood where in childhood you played and near by where your father and mother sleep the last sleep. There are scores of such villages In America being generously remembered by pros porous HIGH illc UT uclptu III their last will and testament, and there are hundred neighborhoods waiting for such benediction from their pros porous sons. By some such charity in- vite the Bethlehem angels to come back again and over the plain house of your nativity ring out the old anthem of Good will to men," Christ, born in an obscure place, made it so widely known by his self sacrifices and divine charity that all round the earth the village of Bethlehem has It's name woven in gar lands and chanted in "Te Deums" and built in houses of prayer.
 Sunshine Breaks Through.
 But it is time we see some of the sum- shine breaking through the shadows on that cradle. For we must have jubi- lance dominate the Christmas festival. That was Walter Scott's opinion when in "Marmion" he wrote:
 Christmas gambol oft would cheer
 poor mans heart through half the year.
 It was while the peasant and his wife were on visit for purposes of en- rollment that Jesus was born. The Bi- ble translators got the wrong word when they said that Joseph and Mary had gone to Bethlehem to be taxed" People went no farther then to get tax ed than they do now. The effort of most people always has been to escape taxation. Besides that, these two hum- ble folk had nothing to tax. The mans turban that protected his head from the sun was not worth taxing; the wo- mans sandals which kept her feet from being cut by the limestone rock, of which Bethlehem is mostly made up, were not worth taxing. No; the fact Is that proclamation had been made by the emperor that all the peo- pie between Great Britain and Parthia and of those lands included should go to some appointed place and give their names In, be registered and announce their loyalty te the Roman emperor.
 They had walked 80 miles over rough road to give their names and take the oath of allegiance. Would we walk 80 miles to announce ouD alle- glance to our king, one Jesus? Caesar Augustus wanted to know by the rec ord on which that man and that wo- man wrote their names or had them written, just how many people in his empire he could depend on In case of exigency. How many men would un- sheathe sword for the Roman eagle and how many women could be de- pended on to take care of the wounded on battlefields? The trouble is that in the kingdom of Christ we do not know how many can be depended on. There are so many men and women who never give in their names. They serve the Lord on the sly. They do not an- nounce their allegiance to the king who, in the battles to come, will want all his troops. In all our churches there are so many half and half disci- ples, so many One-third espousers. They rather think the Bible is true, at any rate parts of 1t, and they hope that somehow Christianity will disNnthrall the nations. They stay away from church on communion days and hope when they have lived as long as they can in this world they can somehow sneak into heaven. oh, give in your names! Be registered on the church record down here and in the Lambs DoOh ol Lilc up lueFe Let dlI tue world know where you stand, if you have to go as far as Joseph and Mary walked, if you have to go 80 miles be- fore you find just the right form of worship and just the right creed.
 Divine Protection.
 Another gleam of sunshine striking through the shadows above that Christ ic cradle was the fact of special di- vine protection. Herod was determin- ed upon the child's destruction. The monster put all his wits together in stratagem for the stopping of that young life just started. He dramatized piety; he suddenly got religious; he would leave his palace and take char lot and have steeds whipped up, so that he could kneel at that cradle. We have to smile at what the imperial viii lain said when he ordered, "Go and search diligently for the young child, and l.<xt, T. T H.