Connecticut western news., 1901-12-26

E6CGA7 i WASHINGTON, Dec. 22.-The discourse of Dr. Talmage is full of the nativity and appropriate for the holidays; text, Luke ii, 18, And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying In a manager"
 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 a peace anthem until all the echoes of hill and valley applauded and encored the halleluiah chorus. Come, let us go into that Christmas scene as though we had never before worship ed at the manager. Here Is Madonna worth looking at. l 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 pronounce 1t differently, they are all namesakes of the one whom we find on bed of straw, with her pale face against the soft cheek of Christ in the night of the nativity. All the great painters have tried, on can- vas, to present Mary and her child and the incidents of that most famous night of the worlds history. Raphael, in three different masterpieces, celebrated them. Tintoretto and Ghirlandajo sur passed themselves In the adoration of skAx Ia1 fr dn m more than his Madonna to become i'm mortal. The Madonna of the Lily" by Heonardo da vinci, will kindle the ad- .miration of all ages. But all the gal leries of Dresden are forgotten when | think of the small room of that gal lery containing the ''Sistine Madonna" lYet all of them were copies of St. Mat thew's Madonna and Luke's Madonna, the inspired Madonna of the old book which we had put into our hands when we were infants and that we hope to have under our heads when we die.
 Drute Creation Honored.
 < Behold, in the first place, that on the first night of Christ's life God honored the brute creation. You cannot get in- to 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 well might they kneeli Have you ever thought that Christ came, among other things, to alleviate the sufferings of the brute creation? Was it not appro- priate that he should, during the first few days and nights of his life on earth, be surrounded by the dumb beasts, whose moan and plaint and believing have for ages been a prayer to God for the arresting of their tor lures and the fighting of their wrongs? Not a kennel in all the centuries, not birds nest, not wornout horse on tOwpath, not a herd freezing In the poorly built cowpen, not a freight car in summer time bringing the beeves to market without water through thou sand miles of agony, not surgeons room witnessing the struggles of fox or rabbit or pigeon or dog in the hor- TOTS of vivisection but has an interest in the fact that Christ was born in a stable surrounded by brutes.
 Standing then, as I imagine now do, In that Bethlehem night, with an infant Christ on the one side and the speechless creatures of God on the oth- CT, 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; 4hrow out some crumbs to those birds caught too far north in the winters Einclemency; arrest that man who Is making that one horse draw a load heavy enough for three; rush in upon that scene where boys are torturing a. cat or transfixing butterfly and grass hopper; drive not off that old robin, for her nest is a mothers cradle and un- der her wing there may be three or four musicians of the sky in training. In your families and in your schools 3each the coming generation more mer- cy than the present generation has ever shown and in this marvellous Bi- lble picture of the nativity, while you point out to them the angel, show them the celestial chant let them also hear the cows moan.
 Masterpiece of Jehovah.
 Behold also in this Bible scene how bn that Christmas night God honored childhood. Childhood was to be hon. bred by that advent. He must have a child's light limbs and childs dim- pied hand and child's beaming eye md child's f1axen hair, and baby hood was to be honored for all time to come, and . cradle was to mean more than grave. Mighty Godl 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, crown, Q scepter, kingdom, under charge. Be careful how you strike him across the head. jarring the brain. What you say to him will be centennial and millen nial, and hundred years and thou sand years will not stop the echo and re-echo. Do not say. 'It is only 6 child" Rather say, "It Is only an i'm mortal" It Is only masterpiece ol Jehovah. It is only being that shal toutlive sun and moon and star ani ages Quadriennial. God has infinite resources, and he can give presents oi great value, but when he wants tf give the richest possible gift to house hold he looks around all the world. and all the universe and then gives 6 child. Tea, in all ages God has hon Ored childhood. He makes almost ev cry picture failure unless there be { child either playing on the floor O looking through the window or seatet on the lap gazing into the face of tn mother.
 It was a child in Naaman's kftchel that told the great Syrian warrio where he might go and get cured 0