The Globe-republican., 1901-12-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
DISCOURSE APPROPRIATE FOB THE
PRESENT HOLIDAY SEASON
Subject Is the NativIty-How God Hon
ored ood-Motherhood for All
Time Consec-ated by tue Scene In the
Humble Stable at bethlehem.

and appropriate for the holidays; text,
Luke ii, is. and they came with haste
and found Mary and Joseph, and the
babe lying in a Manager
The black window shutters of 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 a peace anthem until all the
echoes Of hill and valley applauded
and encored the halleluIah chorus
Come, let go into that Christmas
scene though we had never before
worshiped at the Manager Here is a
Madonna worth looking at. I wonder
not that the most frequent name in
all lands and in all Christian centuries
is Mary And there are Marys in pal
aces and Marys in cabins, and, though
German and French and Italian and
Spanish and English pronounce it diff
ferently, they are all namesakes of the
one whom we find 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 canvas, to present Mary and
her child and the incidents OF that
most famous night in the worlds his
tory Raphael, in three different mas
terpleceS, celebrated them. Tintoretto
and Ghirlandajo surpassed themselves
in the alteration of the magi- COrreg-
gio needed to do no more than his Ma
donna to become immortal The Ma
donna of the Lily" by Leonardo da
V1nci, will kindle the admiration of
all ages But all the galleries of Ores
den forgotten when [ think of the
small room of that gallery containing
the .sSistine Madonna" Yet all of them
were copies of St Matthew's Madon-
| ma and Lukes Madonna, the inspired
Madonna of the old book. which
had put into our hands when we were
| infants and that we hope to have under
our heads when we die.
Behold, in the first place, that the
night of Christ's life God hOnored the
brute creation. You cannot go into
| that Bethlehem barn without going
| past the camels, the mules. the dogs,
| the oxen. The brutes of that sta bic
heard the first cry of the infant Lord
| Some of the old painters represent the
oxen and camels kneeling that night
| before the newborn babe And well
| might they kneel! Have you ever
| thought that Christ came, among other
| things, to alleviate the sufferings 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 have for ages been prayer
| to God for the arresting of their tor
lures and the righting of their wrongs?
| Not kennel in all the centuries, not
tOwpath, not a herd freezing in the
| poorly built cowpen, not a freight car
in summer time bring the beeveS to
market without water through a thou
sand miles of agony, not surgeons
room Witnessing the struggles of fox
or rabbit or pigeon or dog in the hor-
rors of vivisection, but has an interest
| in the fact that Christ was born in
a stable surrounded by brutes.
Standing then, as I imagine now
do, in that Bethlehem night with
| infant Christ side and the
speechless creatures of God the
other, l cry: Look out how you strike
| the roweI into that horses side; take
| off that curhed 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 a load heavy enough for three;
rush in upon that scene where boys
are torturing a cat transfixing
butterfly and grasshopper; drive not
off that old robin. for her nest is a
mothers cradle and under her wing
there may be three four musicians
of the sky in training. In your fami-
lies and in your schools teach the COM
present generation has ever shown
and in this marvellous Bible picture of
| the nativity, while you point out to
them the angel, show them also the
camel, and while they hear the celes-
tial chant let them also hear the cows
moan.
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 a
chi1d's light limbs and a child's dim
pied hand and a chiIds beanlfng eye
and chiid'S daxen hair, and babyhood
was to be honored for all time to come
and cradle was to mean more than
grave Mighty God, may the refec-
ton of that one chiId's face be seen in
all infantile facesi
Enough have all these fathers and
mothers on hand If they have a child
in the house A throne, a crowd a
scepter, Kingdom, under charge. Be