Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-12-25
Copyright. Louis Klopsch, 1901,

they taHle Win HdslC anu AouAa
and Joseph, and the babe lying in
.sger.f
black window shutters of a De
G night were thrown open and some
of best singers of world where they
all sing stood there, and putting back the
drapery of cloud chanted peace anthem
until al tue echoes of Hill and valley APP
pIauded and encored the halleluiah CHOIR
us. Come. let us go into that Christmas
scene as though we had never before wor-
SHIPPED at the Manager Here is a Madonna
worth looking at | wonder not that the
most frequent name in all lands and in
all Christian centuries is Mary. And
there are Marys in palaces and Marys IN
cabins and, though German and French
and Italian and Spanish and English pro-
nounce it differently, they are all name
sakes of the one whom We find on bed
Of Straw. with her pale face against the
sois cheek of Christ in the night of the
nativity. All the great painters have
tried, on CT nyas, to present Mary and her
child and the incidents of that most IA
nous night of the worlds history. Raph-
ael in three different masterpieces, ceie-
brated them. Tintoretto and Ghirlan-
dajo surpassed themselves in the dora
ton of the magi. Correggio needed to
do no more than his Madonna to become
immortal. The madonna of the Lily, .
by Leonardo da Vinci, viii kindle the
admiration of all ages. But all the gal
leries of Dresden are forgotten when |
think of the small room of that gallery
containing the "Sistine Madonna" Yet
all of them were copies of st. Matthews
Madonna and Lilke's Madonna, the in
spired Madonna OF the old book, which
we had put il to our hands when We Were
infants and that we hope TO have under
our heads when we die
Behold, in the first place, that on the
night of Christs life God honored the
brute creation You cannot get into 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
kneelng that night before the newborn
babe. And well might they kneel! Have
you ever thought that Christ came,
among other things, to alleviate the suf-
ferings of the brute creation? Was it
not appropriate 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 bel
lowing have for ages been a prayer to
God for the arresting of their tortures
and tho righting of their wrongs? Not a
kennel in all the centuries, not birds
nest, not a wornOut horse on towpath,
not a herd freezing in the poorly built
cowpen, not freight car in summer time
bringing the beeves to market without
water through thousand miles of agony,
not a surgeons room witnessing the
struggles of fox or rabbit or pigeon or
dog in the horrors of vivisection, but has
an interest in the fact that Christ was
born in a stable surrounded by brutes.
Care of Gods Creatures.
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 the rowel into
that horses side; take off that curbed 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
road heavy enough for three; rush in
upon that scene where boys are torturing
a cat or transfxing a butterfly and grass
hopper; 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 families and in your schools teach
the coming generatinn more mercy than
the present generation has ever shown
and in this marvellous Bible picture of the
nativity. while you point oat to them the
angel, show them also the camel, aud
while they hear the celestial chant let
them also hear the cows moan.
Behold also in this Bible scene how on
that Christmas night God honored child
hood. Childhood was to be honored by
that advent He must have child's light
limbs and child's dimpled hand and
child's beaming eye and a child's fiaxen
hair, and babyhood was to be honored
for all time to come, and a cradle was to
mean more than a grave. Mighty God.
may the reflection of that one child's
face be seen in all infantile faces!
Enough have all those fathers and
mothers on hand if they have a child in
the house. A throne, a crown, a scepter
a kingdom, under charge. Be careful
how you strike him across the head. jar
ring the brain. What you say to him will
be centennial and millennial and hun
bred years and a thousand years will not
stop the echo and re-echo. Do not say.
1T is only Il child" Rather say, 1T is
only an immortal" II is only a MASTER
piece of Jehovah. 1t is only being that
shall outliye sun and moon and star and
ages quadriennial. God has infinite re-
sources, and he can give presents OF
great value, hut when he wants to give
the richest possible gift to household he
looks around all the worlds and all the
universe and then gives a child. Yea, in
all ages God has honored childhood He
makes almost every picture a failure UNI
less 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 ky fs
1t was a childin Naaman's kitchen that
sold the great Syrian warrior where he
might 20 and. get cured of the ieprosy,
which at his seventh plunge in the Jor-
dan 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 attention of history. 1t
was sick child that evoked Christ's cur
alive sympathies 1t was a child that
Christ set IN the midst of the squabbiing
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