The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-12-28
THE BIRTH OF CHRIST
An Appropriate Holiday Sermon by
DR.. Talmage.
Christmas scene mt the Manager in
the Rude Barn-Brute. Creation
Honored-God's HonOred
lei
copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch. y. VI
ashingtOn.

tCOpNrlSnt, lSuli ny GOulS hlopSFl' - III
Washington.
This discourse of DR.. Talmage Is 1ull
of the nativity and appropriate for the
holidays; text, Luke 2:16: And they
came with haste and found Mary and
Joseph, and the Babe lying in a man
ger"
The black window shutters of a De-
some of the best singers of a world
where they all sing stood there, and
putting back the drapery of cloud
chanted a peace anthem until all the
chorus of hill and valley a%pplauded and
encored the halleluiah chorus. Come,
let us 90 into that Christmas scene as
though we had never before worshiped
at the manger. Here is a 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 it differently,
they are all namesakes of the one
WYNN VIZ nv oA a bCu VI L
her pale face against the soft cheek
of Christ in the night of the nativity.
All the great painters have tried, on
canvas, to present Mary and her Child
and the incidents of that most famous
night of the worlds history. Raphael,
in three different masterpieces, cele-
brated them. Tintoretto and Ghirlan-
daio surpassed themselves in the ado
ration of the magi. C~orreggio needed
to do no more than his Madonna to be-
come immortal. The madonna of the
Lily" by Leonardo da Ninci, will kindle
the admiration of all ages. But all the
galleries of Dresden are forgotten when
l think of the small room of that gall
lery containing the "Sistine Madonna"
Yet all of them were copies OF s.. 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.
Behold, in the first place, that on the
night of Christ's 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 kneeling that night
before the newborn Babe. And well
might they kneel! Have you ever
thought that Christ came, among 9TH
err things, to alleviate the sufferings of
the brute creation? Was it not appro-
pirate that He should, during the first
few days and nights of His life on
earth, be surrounded by the dumb
beasts, whose means and plant and
believing have for ages been a prayer
to God for the arresting of their tor
lures and the righting of their wrongs?
Not a kennel in all the centuries, not a
birds nest, not a worn-out horse or
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 a
thousand miles of agony. not a sur.
geon's room witnessing the struggles
| of fox or rabbit or pigeon or dog in the
horrors of vivisection, but has an in.
| terest in the fact that Christ was borr
in a stable surrounded by brutes.
Standing then, as I Imagine now l do
in that Bethlehem night with al infant
Christ on one side and the speeches
creatures of God on the other, [ cry;
Look out how you strike the rowel into
that horses side; take off that curbec
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 int
the cage of hat canary; throw gu
some crumbs to those birds caught too
far north in the winters inclemency,
arrest that man who is making tina
one horse draw a load heavy enough
for three; rush in upon that seen,
where boys are torturing a cat OF
tra1 Skiing butterfly and grasshopper
drive not off that old robin, for he
nest is a mothers cradle and under he
wing there may be three or four mu
sicians of the sky in training. In you
families and in your schools teach tn,