The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-12-29

"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" Magnetic and epi-
grammatic this inspired peasant
Useless attempts he declares as
'pearls cast before swine;" unimpor-
tant results lie describes as the at
tempt TO gather figs of thistles."
Allegories! Why, the parallels are
all allegories, and how lie flung them
out upon His audiences, whole arm
fuls of amethysts and emeralds and
diamonds and rubies!
But we must not only look at Him
from n worldly standpoint. How He
smote whirlwinds into silence, and
made the waves of the sea lie down,
and opened doors of light into tho
midnight of those who had been born
blind, and turned deaf ears into gall
leres of music, and with one touch
made the scabs of incurable leprosy
fall off, and renewed healthy circula-
ton through scverest paralysis, and
made the dead girl waken and ask
for her mother, and at His crucifix-
ion pulled down the clouds until at
~ o'clock at noon it was as dark
as 10 o'clock at night, and started
an influence that will go on until
the. last desert will grow roses, and
the last case of paresis take healthful
brain, and the last illness become
rubicund 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 aud
believing cattle and amid rough ban
tering of herdsmen and camel driv-
ers. What a low place to start for
such great heights! o artists, turn
your camera obscura on that village
of Bethlehem! Take it all in--the
wintry skies lowering, the flocks shiv-
ering in the chill air, Mary, the pale
mother, and Jesus. the child. No
wonder that Paul Neronese and Cuyp
and Rubens and Tintoretto and Cor
reggie and Perugino and Ghirlandaio
and Raphael put their best pencils in
that scene. Lord God, by Thy gra-
cious 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 Judean story.
So have shown you the shadows and
the sunshine of that Christie cradle OF
Bethlehem. In these Christian times l
realize that there are many cradles un-
der shadows. Oh, the story of empty
cradles all up and down the earth, in
cabins and in palaces! There are stand
ing in garrets or in storerooms cradles
that will never rock again. Rachel
mourning for her children and will not
be comforted because they are not"
But through all the shadows break
CLEANS of sunshine, rs 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 Heavenly career,
with capacities, with yelocities. with
opportunities beyond our comprchen-
sion. Instead of celebrating on earth
the Saviour's birth they stand in the
Saviour's presence. Instead of the hol-
iday celebrations of the old homestead
II is to them eternal jubilee at a table
where the angels of God are the cup
bearers and amid festivities that re-
sound with a laughter and a music
and blaze with a brilliance and a glory
that eye hath not seen nor ear heard"
No use in wishing them n merry Christ
mas, for the merriments of Heaven ring
out upon them from temples that are
always open, amid pleasures that never
die. Oh, it is not n dull Heaven, 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 with
In 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
one flock of clouds on his canvas, and
the clouds of earth will be the back
ground to bring out more nightly the
brightness of Heaven. And will it not
be glorious If after all this scene of
earthly vicissitude we meet again in
our Fathers house and talk over the
past in an everlasting holiday. 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 de-
cided Waterloo and saved Europe.
| When Handel was born in Halle, Sax
I