Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-12-23


and appropriate for the holidays: text,
Luke ii. 16. And they came with haste
and found Mary and Joseph and the
Babe lying in a manger."
The black window shutters of a De
cember night were thrown open. and
some Of the best singers of a world
where they all sing stood there and,
putting back the drapery of cloud.
chanted q peace anthem until all the
echoes Of hill ard valley applauded and
encored the haileIuiah chorus. Come.
let US 90 into that Christmas scene as
though we had never before worship
ed at the manger. Here is Madonna
worth looking at. / wonder not that
1he most frequent name in all lands
and i'm all Christian centuries is Mary.
And there are Marys in palaces and
Marys in cabins. and, though German
and French and Italian and Spanish
and English pronounce it differently,
they are all namesakes of the one
whom we find on Il bed of straw, with
her pale face against the soft cheek of
Christ in the night of the nativity. All
the great painters have tried, on can
vas, TO present Mary and her child and
the Incidents of that most famous night
of the worlds history. Raphael, in
three different masterpieces. celebrated
Them Tintoretto and GhirlandajO sur
passed themselves in the alteration of
1he Magi. Correggio needed to do no
more than his Madonna to become i'm
mortal. The Madonna of the Lily" by
Leonardo da Vinci. will kindle the adj
miration of all ages. But all the gal
leries of Dresden are forgotten when
i think of the small room of that gal
lery containing the 'Sistine Madonna"
Yet all of them were copies Of st. Mat
lhew's Madonna and Luke's Madonna,
the inspired Madonna of the old book
which we had put into our hands when
we were Infants and that we hope to
have under our heads when we die.
Brute Creation Eonored.
Behold. in the first place, that on the
first night CT Christ's life God honored
The brute creation. You cannot get in
TO that Rethlehem barn without going
past the camels, the mules the dogs.
the oxen. The brutes of that stable
heard the Crst cry of the infant Lord.
Some of the old painters represent the
oxen and camels kneeling that night i
before the newborn babe. And well
might they kneell Have you ever !
thought that Christ came. among other
things, TO alleviate the suferingS of ,
the brute creation? Was it not appro-
pirate that he should. during the first /
few days and nights of his life on
earth. be surrounded by the dumb
beasts, whose moan and plant and
believing 1--we for ages been a prayer
20 God for the arresting of their tor
lures and the righting of their wrongs? !
Not kennel il all the centuries, not f,
birds rest. rot vornout horse on
towpath. not herd freezing in the
poorly built cOwpen, not freight car
in summer time bringing the beeves to /
market without water through Il thou
sand miles Of agony, not a surgeons
room witnessing the struggles of fox ]
or rabbit or pigeon or Cog in the hor- ,,
Tors of vivisection but has an interest
in the fact that Christ was born in
stable surrounded by brutes.
Standing then, as l imagine now
do in that Bethlehem night, with al
infant Christ on the one side and the
speechless creatures of GCd on the 9TH
er, cry: Look out how you strike the
rowel into that horses side; take off
that curbed bit from that bleeding
mouth; remove that saddle from that
raw back: shoot not for fun that bird
that is too small for food; forget not to
put water into the cage of that canary;
throw out some crumbs to those birds
caught too far north in the winters
inclemency: arrest that man who is
making that one horse draw load
heavy enough for three; rush in upon
that scene where boys are torturing
cat or transfiXing butterfly and grass
hopper; drive not off that old robin. for
her nest is mothers cradle and I'M
der her wing there may be three or
four musicians of the sky in training.
In your families and in your schools
teach the coming generation more mer-
cy than the present generation has
ever shown and in this marvellous BIZ
BILE picture of the nativity. while you
point out to them the angel, show them
also the camel. and while they hear
the celestial chant let theI3 also hear
the cows moan.
Masterpiece of Jehovah.
Behold also in this Bible scene how
on that Christmas night God honored
childhood Childhood was to be hon
ored by that advent. He must have
child's light limbs and a child's dim
pied hand and q child's beaming eye
and child's faxen hair, and baby
hood was TO be honored for all time to
come and IL cradle was to mean more
than grave. Mighty God. May the
reflection OF that one child's face be
seen in all infantile faces.
Enough have all those fathers and
mothers on hand if they have a child