Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1901-12-27
plunge In the Jordan was left at the

| tive Sympathies. 1t was chlld thal
| Christ set In the midst of the SQUAD
bling disciples to teach the lesson OF
humility.
A child decided Waterloo, showing
the army of Butcher how they could
take a short cut through the fields
when if the old road had been followed
the Prussian general would have come
up too late to save the destlnles OF
Europe. 1t was a child that decided
Gettysburg. he having overheard two
Confederate generals in a conversation
| in which they decided TO march for
Gettysburg Instead of Harrisburg. and,
this reported to Governor Curtin. the
Federal forces started to meet their
| opponents at Gettysburg. And to-day
the child is to decide all the great
battles. make all the laws, settle all
the destinies and usher In the world S
salvation or destruction. Men. women
nations. all earth and all heaven, be-
hold the child,
Notice also that in this Bible night
scene God honored science. Who are
the three wise men kneeling before the
Divine Infant? Not boor, not igno-
ramuses. but Caspar, Balthasar and
Melchior. men who knew all that was
to be known. They were the Isaac
Newtons and Herschels and Faradays
of their time. Their alchemy was the
forerunner of our sublime chemistry,
their astrolcgy the mother of our mag
nificent astronomy. And when | see
| these scientists bowling before the
beautiful babe ! see the prophecy of
the time when all the telescopes and
microscopes and all the Leyden jars
and all the electric batteries and all
the observatories and all the univer-
sites shall bow to Jesus. 1t is much
that way already. Where is the college
that does not have morning prayers.
thus bowling 81 the manger? Who have
been the greatest physicians? Omit
ting the names OF the living lest we
should be invidiOus. have we not had
among them Christian men like James
l. Simpson and Rush and Valentine
Mott and AbercrOmbie and Abernethy?
Who have been our greatest scientists?
Joseph Henry, who lived and died in
the faith of the gospels. and Agassiz,
who. standing with his students among
the hills. took off his hat and said.
Young gentlemen. before we study
these rocks let us pray for wisdom to
the God who made the rocks All
geology will yet bow before the Rock
of Ages. All botany will yet worship
the Rose of Sharon. All astronomy
will yet recognize the Star of Bethle-
hem
Behold also that on that Christmas
! night God honored motherhood Two
angels on their wings might have
brought an infant Savior to Bethle-
hem without Mary's being there at
all. When the villagers on the morn
ing of December rs awoke. by divine
arrangement and in some unexpected
way the child Jesus might have been
found in some comfortable cradle of
the village. But no. no. Motherhood
for all time was TO be cOnsecrated, and
one of the tenderest relations was 10
be the maternal relation and one of the
sweetest words mother" In all ages
God has honored good motherhood.
John Wesley had a good mother. St
/ Bernard had a good mother, Samuel
Budget a good mother, Walter Scott
a good mother. Benjamin West a
good mother. In a great audience.
/ most of whom were Christians, asked
! that all those who had been blessed
or Christian mothers arise, and almost
/ the entire assembly stood up Do you
not see how important it is that all
motherhood be consecrated? Why did
| Titan, the Italian artist, when he
sketched the Madonna make it an
| Italian face? Why did Rubens. the
German artist. in his Madonna make it
a German face? Why did Joshua Rey-
nOlds, the English artist, in his Ma
donna make it an English face? Why
/ did Murillo, the Spanish artist in
his Madonna make it a Spanish face?
| never heard, but | think they took
their own mothers as the type Of
| Mary, the mother of Christ
The first word child utters is apt
to be Mother" and the old man in
his dying dream calls, Mother, moth
err 1t matters not whether she was
| brought up in the surroundings of a
city and in an afIluent home and was
dressed appropriately with reference
TO the demands of modern life or
whether she wore the old time cap
and great round spectacles and apron
OF her own make and knit your socks
with her own needles seated by the
broad fireplace, with great backlog
ablaze, on winters night; it mat
ters not how many wrinkles crossed
and recrossed her face or how much
| her shoulders stopped with the bur-
dens of long life. if you painted a
Madonna hers would be the face. What
a gentle hand she had when we were
sick and what voice to soothe pain
and was there any one who could so
fill up room with peace and purity
and light? And what sad day that
was when we came home and she could
greet us not, for her lips were for
ever still. Come back, mother. in
these Christmas times and take your
old place and as ten or twenty or fifty
years ago come and open the old BIZ
Die as you used to, read and knee in
the same place where you used to pray
and look upon us as of old when you
wished us merry Christmas or a
happy New Year. But no, That would
| not be fair to call YOU back You had