The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-25
The Happiness of Recipient and
Donor is Founded on the Birth
in a Manager
REV. r. L. PHALEN'S SERMON
AT CHURCH OF UNITY
The Birth of the Babe Was the
Beginning of 0verturning of
Old Nations and Old Evils

At the Church of the Unity, yester-
preached from the subject, 1.-THE man
ger: then and now" He took for his
text Luke ii:12: "And this is the sign
unto you: Ye shall find babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes and lying in
manager"
Mr. Phalen said: "To the thoughtful
mind there is very much more in the
Christian festival than appears on the
surface. The child, just opening it's mind
to the wonder and mystery of life,
grows restless with impatience. and ex-
citement to know what Santa Claus will
bring to put in his stocking or to hang
upon the Christmas tree all glorified
with its candles ana tinsel and show.
For weeks and days the mothers are
stormed with questions about the
strange old fellow who mysteriously
goes UP and down on Christmas eve, be-
slowing his gifts on rich and poor in
the huts and palaces of the world.
Wherever there is a cradle, wherever
there is a child, wherever there is a
mother and wherever there is a father
and the affection and love which make
home, there, throughout the length
and breadth of Christendom, measure
less thought and labor and sacrifice are
expended that the childheart and the
BABY's MIND MAY BE MADE
HAPPY
and glad at Christmas time The poor
mother who can give but trif1e goes
lovingly about her beautiful ministry of
a int he
rich mother in the midst of her wealth
and luxury.
Little do the children comprehend
the deep problem of faith and duty
which appeal to the philosopher and the
poet in connection with the historic
meaning and message of the hour. But
even the youngest child will listen as
eagerly to the story of the babe that
was born in manger as to the marvel
GUS tales of Santa Claus, and so come
to associate the joy and the gifts of the
season with the birth and the life of
him whose gospel makes the very heart
and substance of this Christmas time.
In the busy world of industry, in the
office and factory and store, the custom
of gift giving among friends at Christ
mas time brings an increased volume of
trade and an acceleration of all the
currents of business.
THE clerks and shop girls, the labor
ers and the faithful and forgotten SER
wants who furnish US food and our ma
terial comfort in our homes, our hotels,
on our railroads and steamships; the
quiet nurse in the sick chamber, the
thoughtful friend who remembers us by
some slight token of affection, all these
and the unnamed millions who
TOLL EARLY AND LATE TO PRO
VIDE
food and shelter, clothing and comfort
for those who depend upon them and
to add besides these things some little
gift at Christmas by self-denial and
extra hours of toil-these are to be re-
membered when we think of what this
day means and when we estimate it's
power among men.
The hard handed workman going
home on Christmas eve with the COW
eted skates for his boy, or the tired
washerWoman smiling as she pictures
the joy of her little girls sweet face
as she wakes on Christmas morning to
find a lovely doll on her pillow, these
honest hearts feel a gladness in giving
their gifts that comes out of the deep
est emotions of human nature.
1T is good that the world is so rich
and varied in it's life. that men and
thought and endeavor that a great
religious festival like Christmas can
minister through some thought or deed,
some sentiment or custom, some hope
or memory to everybody and to every
phase Of human nature.
THE gift giving, the home love, the
children's joy and the quiet happiness
that come with this blessed time are
very beautiful. Even the hardest heart
~
more kindly and gentle Z by hearing
even the faraway echoes of such a song
as that of Christ's nativity. But if we
stop here, we only see the outside Of
this great Christian festival. 1t is like
looking at a picture of the madonna
and child and seeing nothing more
that a mother and babe. Attractive and
holy, such a picture always is but we
do not penetrate to its secret until we
see in motherhood and childhood, as
represented by the great painters, the
longing and the hope, the love and
prophecy of the worlds deepest and
divinest faith. Nay, If we stop with
what appears we lose the beauty and
the power which rise above the tran
sient and the temporal into the per-
manent and the eternal
ut was a very obscure and lowly
spot in which Jesus Christ was born,
the light in this strange world who
had not even manger in which to
rest its little head. But being born
in poverty has not made any of these
babes rhe objects of the worlds rever-
ence. There was something about that
manger and that child of the gospel
which separate them from all others.
There must have been in his mother
something so rare and sweet, so pure
and womanly that all who looked upon
her face
FELT THE GRACE AND LOVE
of her gentle nature. Can any scepti-
cal objection make us believe that there
was not in that fair infant counte-
nance a hint nay revelation, of the
glory and sorrow, the labor and an
guish and tears through which he was
to pass from Marys arms in the man
ger to the agony and triumph of the
cross?
Surely nothing from nothing comes.
And If poets and scholars, orators and
gifted men and women have shown,
even in infancy the fore CLEANER of
their genius, we can not doubt that
even in the manger on that first Christ
mas there must have smiled on Mary's
breast a babe with a face like no
other baby's face into which the light
of the stars and the sun ever shone.
See, in that town Of Bethlehem, a
Jewish family of Galilee crowded out
into the shelter of the cattle on a
winters night because there was no
room for them in the inn No doubt
room would have been found if some
Roman governor had sought hospital
ity; but for a poor family from Cali
lee, a carpenter and his wife, it was
hardly necessary to make any stir. So
even today many lives are full, full
to overlooking, of almost anything but
Christ. and he and his claims
upon mind and heart and service, are
pushed out into the cold, into the man.
ger, but nevertheless they are on the