The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-12-26
LESSON OF THE NATIVITY
Dr.. Talmagc Says On That Christmas
Night God fouored
4 Motherhood.
A Tribute to scicnre- Most Famous Night
In Hstory.

10, ''And they came with haste and found
Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in
manger."
The black window shutters of Decem-
ber night were thrown open, and some of
the best singers Of a world where they all
sing stood there and. putting back the
drapery OF a cioud. chented peace an
them until all the echoes Of hill and val
ley applauded and encored the halleluiah
chorus Come, let us go into that Christ
mas scene as though we had never before
worshiped at the manger Here is Ma
donna worth looking at. l wonder not
that the most frequent name in all lands
and in all Christian countries is Mary.
And there are Marys in palaces and
Marys in cabins, and, though German and
French and Italian and Spanish and Eng
lsh pronounce it differently, they are all
namesakes of the one whom we find on a
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 canvas, to present Mary and her child
and the incidents of that most famous
night in the world history. Raphael in three
different masterpieces, celebrated them.
Tintoretto and Ghirlandajo surpassed
themselves in the alteration of the Magi.
Correggio needed to do no more than his
Madonna to become immortal. The Ma
donna of the Lily" by Leonardo da Vinci.
will kindle the admiration of all ages. But
all the galleries 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. 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
first night of Christ's life God honored the
brute creation. You cannot get into that
al -,,,tA xos.. 81 tl,o
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 lineel! Have you ever
thought that Christ came. among other
things, to alleviate the sufferings of the
brute creation? Was it not appropriate
that He should. during the first few days
and nights of His life on earth, be sur
rounded by the dumb beasts, whose moan
and plant and believing have for ages been
a prayer to God for the arresting of their
tortures and the righting of their wrongs!
Not a kennel in all the centuries, not a
birds nest not a worn-out horse on tow
path, not a herd freezing in the poorly
built cow-pen, not a freight car in sum
mer time bringing the beeves to market
without water through thousand miles
of agony, not a surgeons 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 born in
stable surrounded by brutes.
Standing then, as | imagine now I do,
in that Bethlehem night, with an infant
Christ on the 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
~ - A =. i
forget not to put water into the cage or
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 load
heavy enough for three; rush in upon that
transfxing butterfly and grasshopper;
drive not off that old robin, for her nest
is n 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 genera
ton more mercy than the present genera
tion has ever shown, and IN this marvellous
Bible picture of the nativity, while you
point out to them the angel. show them
also the camel and 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 a
childs beaming eye and a child's faxen
hair. and habyhood was to De honored for
all time to come, and 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 moth
ers on hand if they have a child in the
house. A throne, crown, scepter, 4
kingdom, under charge. Be careful how
You strike him across the head, jarring
the brain. What YOU say to him wa be
centennial and thousand years will not
stop the echo and re-echo. Do not say,
ut is only child" Rather say, at is
only an immortal" It is only q master
piece of Jehovah. 1t is only being that
shall outlive sun and moon and star and
ages quadriennal. God has infinite re-
sources, and He can give presents of great
value, but when He wants to give the rich
est possible gift to a 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 failure unless there
be 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 in the Jordan
was left at the bottom OF the river. 1t
was to the cradle of leaves in which q child
was lain, rocked by the Nile, that God
called the attention of history. 1t was a
sick child that evoked Christ's curative
sympathies 1t was child that Christ set
in the midst of the squabbling disciples to
teach the lesson of humility. A child de-
cided Waterloo. showing the army of Blu
cher how it could take 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 Get
tysburg, he having overheard two Confed-
crate generals in a conversation in which
they decided to march for Gettysburg in
stead of Harrisburg, and, this reported to
Governor Curtin, the Federal forces
started to meet their opponents at Gettys-
burg 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,
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 Doors, not ignorpmuses, but
Caspar, Rathasar and MelchiorA men who
knew all that was to be known. %hey were
the Isaac Newtons and Herschelstand Far
adays Of their time. Their alchymy was
the forerunner Of our sublime chemistry,
their astrology the mother of our magnih.
cent astronomy and when l see these