The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-12-28

then gives a { child. Yea, in all ages God
has honored childhood. He makes al
most every picture a failure unless
there be a child either playing on the
floor or looking through the window or
seated on the lap gazing into the face
of the mother.
1t was a child in Naaman's kitchen
that told the great Syrian warrior
where he might go and get cured OF the
leprosy, which at his seventh plunge
in the Jordan was left at the bottom
of the river. 1t was to the cradle of
leaves in which a child was laid, rocked
by the Nile, that God called the atten-
ton of history. 1t was a sick child that
evoked Christ's curative sympathies.
1t was a child that Christ set in the
midst of the squabbling 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 destinies of Europe. 1t was
a child that decided Gettysburg, he
having overheard two confederate gen.
erals in a conversation in which they
decided to march for Gettysburg in
stead of Harrisburg, and, this reported
to Gov. Curtin, the federal forces
started to meet their opponents at Get
tysburg. And to-day the child is to
decide all the great battles, make all
the laws. settle all the d~estinies and
usher in the worlds salvation or de-
struction. Men, women, nations, all
earth and all Heaven, behold 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, Balthaser and
Melchoir. men who knew all that was
to be known. They we're 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
nificent astronomy. And when I see
these scientists bowling before the
beautiful Babe I 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 o~bservatories and all the universe
ties shall bow to Jesus. 1t is much that
way already. Where is the college that
does not have morning prayers, thus
bowling at the manger? Who have
been the greatest physicians? Omit
ting the James 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 Aber.
nethy? Who have been our greatest
scientists? Joseph Henry. who lived
and died in the faith of the Gospels
and Agassiz, who, standing with hi,
students among the hills, took off hi:
hat and said: "Young gentlemen, be
fore we study these rocks let us pray
for wisdom to the God who made the
rocks" All geology will yet bow be
fore the Rock of Ages. All botany will
yet worship the Rose of Sharon. Al
astronomy will yet recognize the Stal
of Bethlehem.
Behold also in that first Christina.
night that God honored the fields
Come in, shepherd boys, to Bethlehem
and see the Child. NO" they say
tive are not dressed good enough tt
come in" Eyes, you are. Come in
Sure enough, the storms and the nigh
dew and the brambles have made rougl
work with their apparel. but none ha
a better right to come in. They wer
the first to hear the music of tina
Christmas night. The first announce
ment of a S%aviour's birth was made t.
those men in the fields. There wer
w%iseacres that night in Bethlehem an,
Jerusalem snoring in deed sleep. an,
there were salaried officers of govern
ment who, hearing of it afterwar6
may have thought that they ought t
have had the first news of such a grea
event, some one dismounting from
swift camel at their door and knocl
ing till at some sentinel's question
"Who comes there?" the great ones o
the palace might have been told of III
CNlS9tidi iva w. lHt SHtpHtIu
heard the first two bars of the musi,
the first in the major key and the las
in the subdued minor: GLORY to Go
in the highest and on earth peace, goo
will to men" All, yes, the fields wer
honored.
The old shepherds, with plaid an
crook, have for the most part vanished
but we have grazing on our Unite
States pasture fields and prairie abou
100000 sheep, and all their keeper
ought to follow the shepherds of IN
text and all those who toll in fields
all vine dressers, all orchidists, all hui
bandmen. Not only that Christine
night, but all up and down the world
history, God has been honoripg til
fields. Nearly all the messiahs of r,
form and literature and eloquence an
law and b~enevolence have come fro1
the fields. Washington from the field
jefferson from the fields. The pres
: Dental martyrs, Garfield and Lincol
| and Mckinley, from the fields. Henri
Clay from the fields. Daniel Webst,
from the fields. Martin Luther fro
! the fields. Before this world is rigl