Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-12-28

clare from observation, that no speaker
that have ever known could have from
that point made any audience hear one
word OF sermon.
His power OF hyperbole: A camel try
ing to crowd its hump through the eye Of
a sewing woman's needle and all that
learned talk about gate called the nee
dies eye only bclittling the hyperbole.
Power of sarcasm: The hypocrite styled
by him "the whole who need not a ply
sician." His power of peroration: The
crashing of the timbers Of the poorly
built house on the beach Of the Mediter-
rancan. Power to take advantage of cir
cumstances: When an auditor asked him
whether they ought to pay taxes to Cie-
sar Christ practically said, 'lf any gen
tlemar in this audience has in his pocket
n Roman penny, | wish he would just
hand it up to me-" And some one hand
ed him penny, such as you can now find
in some of the museums, the diverse OF
it bearing the face of Tiberius, the en-
peror, and the reverse the words "Ponti-
fex Msyimus," the other title of the en-
peror, and then came the overwhelming
answer of Christ, Render to Cgsar the
things that are CGsar's and TO God the
things that are Gods" Magnetic and
epigrammatic this inspired peasant Use
less attempts he declares as ''pearls cast
before swine unimportant results he de-
scribes as the attempt to gather tgs of
thistles." Alcgories! Why, the para
bles are all allegories, and how he flung
them out upon his audiences, whole arm
fuls of amethysts and emeralds and dia-
monds and rubies!
Viewed From worldly Standpoint.
But we must not only look at him from
worldly standpoint. How he smote
whirlwinds into silence, and made the
waves Of the sea lie down, and opened
doors of light into the midnight of those
who had been born blind, and turned
deaf ears into galleries of music, and
with one touch made the scabs of incur
able leprosy fall off. and renewed healthy
circulation through severest paralysis,
and made the dead girl waken and ask
for her mother, and at his crucihxion
pulled down the clouds until at IL o'clock
at noon it was as dark as ~ o'clock Mt
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 rubcund of cheek and robust Of
chest and bounding of foot, and the last
pauper will get his palace, and the last
sinner taken unto the warm bosom of a
pardoning God, Where did all this start?
In that cradle within sound of bleating
sheep and believing cattle and amid
rough bantering of herdsmen and camel
drivers. What n low place to start for
such great heights, O artists, turn your
camera obscura on that village of Beth
lehem. Take it all in-the wintry skies
lowering, the flocks shivering in the chill
air, Mary, the pale mother, and Jesus,
the child No wonder that Paul Vero-
nese and Cuyp and Rubens and Tintoret-
to and Correggio and Perugino and CHR
laudajo and Raphael put their best pen
ellis in that scene. Lord God, by thy
gracious spirit, fix that Madonna in all
our souls. SO these thoughts come in
upon us at this gladdest part of the year.
Swing softly, bells, on Christmas morn,
Wake not the King of Glory
Swing soft and swift across the snow
The old Jud@an story.
So / have shown you the shadows and
the sunshine of that Christie cradle Of
Bethlehem. In these Christmas times |
realize that there are many cradles under
shadows. oh, the story of empty cradles
all up and down the earth, in cabins and
in palaces. There are standing in garrets
or in storerooms cradles that will never
rock again. Rachel mourning for her
children 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 strug-
giles 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 OPP
portunties beyond our comprehension.
Instead of celebrating on earth the Saw
tours birth they stand in the Saviour S
presence. Instead Of the holiday celebra-
tons of the old homestead it is to them
eternal jubilee at table where the an
gels of God are the cupbearcrs and amid
festivities that resound with laughter
and a music and blaze with a briliance
and a glory that eye hath not seen nor
ear heard" No use in wishing them a
merry Christmas, for the mcrriments of
heaven ring out upon them from temples
that are always open, amid pleasures
that never die. Oh. it is not a dull heav-
en-, but a lively heaven, for there are so
many children there, They throng the
streets; they look out of the blouse of
Many Mansions;" they stand on the
beach to see the fleets cast anchor within
the vale; they crowd the gates with greet
ings when the old folks come in they
clap their hands in an eternal gladness;
they dance N an eternal glee. See you
not the sunshine that pours into the
shadows of that cradle until they are
all gone?
The Uses of shadows.
But shadows have their uses. There
must be background to every good pic
ture. Turner always put at least one fiecls
OF cloud on his canvas, and the clouds
Of earth will be the background to bring
out more nightly the brightness of
heaven. And will it not be glorious if
after all this scene of earthly vicissitudo
we meet again in our Fathers house and
talk over the past in an everlasting holt
day. But meanwhile 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 Handel was born in Halle, Saxo-
ny. that decided the oratorios OF Judas
Maccabeus" and Esther" and "Israel
In Egypt" and "Jephthah" and "Mes-
sinh." When Eli Whitney was born at
Westboro, that decided the wealth of
all the cotton fields of the south. When
Gutenberg was born at Metz, Germany,
that decided the libraries of all Chris
tendon. When Clarkson was born in