The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-12-26


household he looks around all the
worlds and all the inverse and then
gives child. Yea, in all ages God
has honored childhood. He makes al
most every picture a failure unless
there be 4 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 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 ill 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 attention of history. 1t was
a sick child that evoked Christ's cura-
tive sympathies. 1t was . child that
Christ set in the midst of the squab-
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 ii 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 generals in 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 worlds
salvation or destruction. Men, women,
nations, all earth and all heaven, be-
hold the child.
Notice also that in this Bible night
scene GOO honored science Who are
the three wise men llneeling 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 astrology the mother of our mag
n1ficent 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 at 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
Y. Simpson and Rush and Valentine
Mott and Abercrombie and Abernethy?
VINO nave 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 26 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 to
be the maternal relation and one of the
sweetest words mother" In all ages
God has honored good motherhood
John Wesley had good mother. St.
Bernard had good mother Samuel
Budget good mother, Walter Scott
a good mother, Benjamin West
good mother. In great audience.
most of whom We're Christians, asked
that all those who had been blessed
of Christian mothers arise, and almost
theeentire assembly stood up. Do Won
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 Rev
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 l 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
eri" IT matters NOT wl,otl,ar che yo,