Connecticut western news., 1901-12-26

IS lO ueClue du tue BIchl Ddtles, mdhc all the laws, settle all the destinies and usher in the worlds salvation or de- struction. Men, women, nations, all earth and all heaven, behold the child!
 A Tribute to Science.
 Notice also that in this Bible night scene God honored science. Who are the three wise men kneeling before the Divine Infant? Not boors, 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 astrology the mother of our mag nifcent astronomy, and when l see these scientists lowing before the beau tiful babe I see the prophecy of the time when all the telescopes and micro scopes, and all the Leyden jars, and all the electric batteries, and all the observatories, and all the universities shall bow to Jesus. It is much that way already. Where Is the college that does not have morning prayers, thus lowing at the mangerf Who have been the greatest physicians? Quitting the names of the living lest we should be invidious, have we not had among them Christian men like James Y. Simpson and Rush and Valentine Mott and Abercrombie and Abernethy? Who have been our greatest scientists? Jo- seph 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 recog. nize the Star of Bethlehem.
 Shepherds Were Welcomed.
 Behold also in that first Christmas night that God honored the fields. Come in, shepherd boys, to Bethlehem and see the child. "No," they say; i've are "Yes, you are; come in." Sure enough, the storms and the night dew and the brambles have made rough work with their apparel, but none has a better right to come in. They were the first to hear the music of that Christmas night. The first announcement of Saviour's birth was made to those men in the fields. There were wiseacres that night in Bethlehem and Jerusa- lem snoring in deep sleep, and there were salaried officers of government who, hearing of 1t afterward, may have thought that they ought to have had the first news of such a great event, some one dismounting from swift camel at their door and knocking till at some sentinePs question, Who comes thereT' the great ones of the palace might have been told of the ce- lestial arrival. No; the shepherds heard the first two bars of the music, the first in the major key and the last in the subdRed minor, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to menr' Ah, yes, the fields were honoredi
 The old shepherds with plaid and crook have for the most part vanished, but we have grazing on our United States pasture fields and prairie about 100000 sheep, and all their keepers ought to follow the shepherds of my text, and all those who toll in fields, all vine dressers, all orchardists, all husbandmen. Not only that Christmas night, but all up and down the worlds history, God has been honoring the fields. Nearly all the messiahs of re- form and literature and eloquence and law and benevolence have come from the fields. Washington from the fields. Jefferson from the fields. The presi- dentiar martyrs, Garfield and Lincoln and Mckinley, from the fields. Henry Clay from the fields. Daniel Webster from the fields. Martin Luther from the fields. Before this world Is right the overdowing populations of our crowded cities will have to take to the fields. Instead of ten merchants In rivalry as to who shall sell that one apple we want at least eight of them to go out and raise apples. Instead of ten merchants desiring to sell that one bushel of wheat, we want at least eight of them to go out and raise wheat. The world wants now more hard hands, more bronzed cheeks, more muscular arms. To the fields! God honored them when he woke up the shepherds by the midnight anthem, and he will, while the world lasts, continue to hon. or the fields. When the shepherds crook was that famous night stood against the wall of the Bethlehem khan, 1t was a prophecy of the time when thrasher's fail and farmers blow and woodman's ax and ox's yoke and sheaf binders rake shall surrender to the God who made the country, as man
 made the town.
 Motherhood Consecrated.
 Behold also that on that Christmas night God honored motherhood. Two | angels on their wings might have I brought an infant Saviour to Bethle- hem without Mary's being there at all. | When the villagers on the morning of l Dec 26 awoke, by divine arrangement | and in some unexplained way the child
 Jesus might have been found in some l comfortable cradle of the village. But I no, no! Motherhood for all time was to | be consecrated, and one of the tender 1 est relations was to be the maternal re lation and one of the sweetest words
 mother" In all ages God has honored good motherhood. John Wesley had g
 good mother; St. Bernard had a good
 mother; Samuel Budget, good moth
 CT; Doddridge, a good mother; Walter
 Scott, good mother; Benjamin West, a
 good mother In great audience, most
 of whom were Christians, I asked tha,
 all those who had been blessed oi
 Christian mothers arise, and almost
 the entire assembly stood up. Do yor
 not see how important it Is that al
 motherhood be consecrated? Why did
 Titan, the Italian artist, when ht
 sketched the Madonna make it an Ital
 ian face? Why did Rubens, the Ger
 man artist, in his Madonna make it {