The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-26
AT ST. JOHNS EPISCOPAL
SPLENDID CHRISTMAS DAY SER-
 VICE YESFERDAY MORNING.
Eloquent Sermon Full of Excellent Lessons Preached by the Rector, Rev MT. Means-rhe Musical Programme Was the Best Ever Given at This Church.

Was the Best Ever Given at Thi
 Church.
 The Christmas service at St. Johns
 Episcopal church at 10 o'clock yester-
 day morning was an excellent one anc
 we'll attended It was fully choral and
 the regular church choir under the di-
 Fowler, rendered an especially good
 programme of festival music. In fact
 the music was the best ever given in
 the church, and given in faultless
 manner.
 The decorations, though simple, were
 very effective, being of holly and ever green
 The sermon was preached by the rec-
 tor, the Rev. Stewart Means, who took
 his text from the 11th chapter of Isaiah
 and the 9th verse, which reads: And a
 little child shall lead them." It was
 as follows:
 These words were written nearly three thousand years ago. They are
 part of that description of that Golden
 Age upon which even in the most ter tilUlC lllilcS llle eyes Ol tIlC 5lCdtCol VI
 the Jewish phophets were always fixed.
 The more disorganized society was, the more degraded the individual became, the more terrible their enemies appear ed to them, the more passionately their eyes were fastened upon this golden vision which always rose out of the ruins of their own histories upon the foundations of their faith in God. They did not and could not believe that he would give the works of his own hand over to self-destruction but sometime, out this frightful misery the eyes of men would be lifted up to Him and then when they had become His in heart and will the world would change to the eye and the glories of history that was bound close about the life of God would fill every soul. The fierce animals that roam the earth are in their nature part of that strange order which we cannot think will ever change yet at times it seems easier to think of wolves and tigers becoming pets of little children and joining in their play than to think that the men and women we know, the race to which we belong shall be so changed that sin and self ishness, lust and cruelty, shall be driven out of the heart. The one seems quite as improbable as the other. It is near three thousand years since Isaiah had his dream and the wolves and the tigers, the lions and the bears still roam through their accustomed haunts and hunt and are hunted by their world old enemy-man. And he, too is living in world that has not changed and he is part of state against which all hearts protest. He still loves evil and neglects good. He follows his own selfish aims and does cruel and wicked things. Fierce in his anger, unforgiv- ing in his wrath, the nations of the world are forever at strife, and war is as familiar to the world of to-day as it was terrible to Isaiah. Is it possible that this race of ours, so strong, so hungry, so full of terribes powers, SO remorseless in it's ambitions, so fierce in it's strife, so deadly in its hate, can ever be brought to that state in which these words or anything like them, can have any real meaning or stand for any act ual facts? Almost easier 1t would be for a little child to lead the lion from the desert or the tiger from the jungle than to guide the stormy and turbulent race of man into ways of pleasantness and paths ofspeace. Yet this day with all it's associations brings before us the influence of sweet and helpless child upon the worlds history Let me ask you then to think with me, in this con- nection upon this subject:
 I. The Christ Child's Rule.
 Weakness, helplessness, innocency, purity: These are the qualities which we associate and believe are the most prominent and striking qualities of childhood. As we look back there to the poverty of that little family, to the 1 helplessness of that babe of Bethlehem we cannot feel that anything but sen timental and poetic influence will ever issue from it. The things which make | men strong, the power that gives men rule and authority in this world of ours | are the keen brain and the strong hand, | the iron will and the firm grasp These | have been the characteristics which | have distinguished all those who have left their mark upon the history of the world The great rulers and organizers of society, those who have had the con- structive power by which civilization has been shaped and states built up are known for the force that bends all wills to their obedience and lead the restless energies of men into the new paths of history. If any one should be asked to point out what would be the most potent influence in the spiritual history of men they would look for some nature which would stamp it's energy upon the imagna- ions of men and make it's appeal to the sense of greatness which always re- spends so willingly to this large express sion of force in it's most convincing and overwhelming form This is the way the world has been ruled and this is the way we are always thinking the world will be ruled. Yet right here amid this order which we feel so very rises the face of a child. We have never seen it. Ages have passed since men looked into it yet we feel that in a very real way it was like the face of almost every child that has ever been born. We know what that is like There is not thing which gives us the sense of helplessness that it does. Ly- ing there in it's mothers arms there is no hand so weak that cannot crush it. And vnt about it is a strength that |