The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-24

we Must Put Our Christmas Song Into
Life-Morning Exercises by Sunday
School.
Christmas exercises were held by the
Sunday school of the First M. e. church
yesterday morning. The service was
held in the body of the church, when
was tastefuliy decorated with Christ
mas green's and flowers, and an eXcel-
lent programme in which the children
participated was conducted by Assist
ant Pastor Beach and Superintendent
Bartholomew
Rev. DR. Gardner S. Eldridge, pastor
of the First Methodist church, delivered
a sermon in the evening entitled THE
Song of Life"
The text was: Luke ii, IA: GLORY to
God in, the highest, on earth peace,
good will toward men,"
Dr. Eldridge said in part: This is the
real song of life A prophecy of what
shall be. This wonderful song borne
by angelic voice, thought and heart
throught the far off Judean night is
the very song that our humanity, often
sadly out of tune, is trying to put into
the voice, thought and heart of life.
Strange that the highest glory of God
should be sought for in the life of man,
when we look away into the infinite
sky DEPTHS, when we lift our ewes to
the great dome of the temple lit with a
candelabra of stars!
when we consider the sun, the moon
and the stars what is man?' When
we consider" why this very word con
slider marks distinction The stars
are glorious, but only man can drink
that glory; can consider. Only man
can enter into the secrets, the councils,
the sympathies of God. Yet in man
there is a deeper diviner glory than
even this, glory within waiting to be
revealed
One Christmas day I saw some little
children looking at their presents. Toys
books, ornaments, dolls, everything that
could gladden. the heart of child. They
spent about ten minutes examining the
toys, and then I saw them all in the
back yard with some broken pieces of
china making thngs-houses, mud pies,
etc. Made up things can never fill a
child's life Give them Gods air to
a few pieces of china and let them
make something. There's something in
them. Some secret witness of God
struggling to stand forth Some glory
Striving to utter itself.
And this is the real glory of man,
not to read secrets trace philosophers
and drink glory, but to take up the
broken pottery of life and build a new
and better world.
1t is not enough for Edison to read
secrets, he must make them speak the
speech of God. 1t is not enough for
Tennyson to catch the rhythm of the
sea on his sensitive soul, he must set it
again to the music of song and send it !
rhrobbng through the world. And it is |
not enough that we attend the angelic /
concert, that we be merry listeners to
this great Christmas song. One must
put it into life. We must make it echo |
through the world till every heart and
every home, and state take up the song !
"Glory to God in the highest, on earth
peace"
In this struggle to put the song into
life we are conscious of discords, disap-
pointments and failures. Yet all are
struggling for some common center
some point Of harmony, some axis
around which to revolve. Some princi-
pie of peace of harmony
AS in the world of music first came
the melody and afterwards the master
to lift all the melodies into one sub
lime harmony, so in life we have first
thousand snatches, guesses, attempts.
failures, jangling out of tune till the
coming of the One Master to lift all life
into harmony. The one Master who
came with the message of peace. Not a
of words. Words are weapons
of war rather than peace Not yet a
of thought, for every man has
his individual viewpoint. The great
of harmony lies deeper in life.
Not thought or words, but life. When
F. W. Robertson was laid at rest hum
dreds of mourners surro unded the
grave. There were Quakers, and church.
men, Roman Catholics and dissenters
and nobility. All discord-
ant creeds found one harmonious center
In the life that had lived and loved and
passed beyond
And this harmonious life men Iivel
What lies deeper? Not the song, but .
the child. Just the life of the child. .
Gods gracious mystery reckoning and
leading ever toward the depths of life.
If the child keeps in touch with the
eternal father we shall have here Gods
supreme revelation =
Then some day the child will cross
INTO manhood; will take upon his Shout
iers the responsibility of God. And
another, heroic figure will rise before
is. And under his leadership we shall
near CALL not to enter into the en1ov-
nent of the old world, but to arise and
make new world better, a diviner ;.
ct to the song the angels sang.
And when in our life, in our exper- /
ence, we have awakened to the fact :,
hat God himself in some mysterious y
way is in the child, then we shall go
onward joyously knowing that our
ask is possible.