The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-12-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
DISCOURSE APPROPRIATE FOR THE
PRESENT HOLIDAY SEASON.
Subject Is the Nativity-How God Hon
ored Chtldhood-Motherhoo for All
Time Consecrated by the Scene In the
Humble Stable at Bethlehem.

| Copyright, 1901. Louis Klopsch, N. Y.)
| Washington, Dec. 22.-This discourse
OF DR.. Talmage is full of the nativity
ana appropriate for the holidays; text,
Luke H., is, And they came with haste
and found Mary and Joseph, and the
| babe lying in manger"
The black window shutters of De-
cember night were thrown open and
some OF the best singers of world
where they all sing stood there, and
putting back the drapery of cloud
chanted peace anthem until all the
echoes of hill and valley applauded
and encored the hallelulah chorus.
Come, let us go into that Christmas
scene as though we had never before
Worshlped at the manger. Hero is a
Madonna worth looking at. l wonder
not that the most frequent name in
All lands and in all Christian centuries
As 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
s2rently, they are all namesakes of the
Sne whom we find on bed of straw,
xlth her pale face against the soft
cheek of Christ in the night of the
Eativity. All the great painters have
tried, on canvas, to present Mary and
aer child and the Incidents OF that
gnost famous night in the worlds his
| tory. Raphael, in three different mas
terpieces, celebrated them. Tintoretto
| end Ghirlandajo surpassed themselves
IN the alteration of the magi. Correg
sio needed to do no more than his Ma
| donna to become immortal The Ma
donna of the Lily" by Leonardo da
| plnci, will kindle the admiration of
all ages. But all the galleries of Ores
den are forgotten when l think of the
email room of that gallery containing
| The 'Sistine Madonna" Yet all of them
were copies of st. Matthew's Madon-
"a and Luke's Madonna, the inspired
Madonna of the old book, which we
had put into our hands when we We're
infants and that we hope to have under
our heads when we die
| Behold, in the first place, that on the
night of Christ's life God honored the
l
that Bethlehem barn without going
past the camels, the mules, the dogs,
| the oxen. The brutes of that stable
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 we'll
might they kneel! Have you ever
i hot rict
things, to alleviate the sufferirgs 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 a prayer
to God for the arresting of their tor
lures and the righting of their wrongs?
| Not a kennel III all the centuries, not
d birds nest, not worn-out horse on
| towpath, not herd freezing in the
| poorly built cowpen, not freight. car
| in summer time bring the beeves to
| market without water through thou
sand miles of agony, not a 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 imagine now l
| do, in that Bethlehem night with an
| infant Christ on one side and the
| speechless creatures of God on the
other, cry: Look out how you strike
a.,
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 load heavy enough for three;
rush in upon that scene where boys
are torturing Il cat or TRANSMITTING
butterfly and grasshopper; drive not
off that old robin. for her nest is a
mothers cradle and under her wing
there may be three or four musicians
of the sky in training. In your fami-
lies and in your schools teach the COM
ing generation more mercy than the
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
child's light limbs and a child's dim
pied hand and child's beaming eye
and a chiid's tiaxen hair, and babyhood
was to be honored for all time to come
and cradle was to mean more than a
grave. Mighty God. may the reflec-
fin, IF 1,ot g 60 L.