Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1902-01-03
Or. TAIMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE az THE Noted
DIVINE.
subjscti Lessons Taught by the Nativity
On That Christmas Night God Hon.
ored Motherhood--A Tribute to Science
Most Famous Night in History.

On That Christmas Night God Hon.
ored Motherhood--A Tribute to Science
Most Famous Night In History.
WASHINGTON, d. C-The discourse of
DR.. Talmage is full of the nativity and APP
propriate for the holidays; text, Luke ii,
10, "And they came with haste and found
Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a
manger."
The black window shutters of Deem
Der 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 peace an
them until all the echoes Of hill and val
ley Gpplauded and encored the halleluiah
chorus. Come, let us go into that Christ
mas scene as though we had never before
worshiped at the manager. Here is Ma
donna worth looking at. 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
fish pronounce it 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 canvas, to present Mary and her child
and the incidents of that most famous
nightin the worlds history. Raphael in three
different masterpieces, celebrated them.
Tiutoretto 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 I 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
Bethlehem barn without going past the
cainels. the mules, the dogs, the oxen. The
hrutes 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 suffernes 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
tortures and the righting of their wrongs?
Not a kennel in all the centuries, not
birds nest, not a worn-out horse on tow
path, not 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 surgeons witnessing the
struggles Of fox or rabbit or pigeon or dog
in the horrors of viyisection but has an in
terest in the fact that Christ was born in
a stable surrounded by brutes.
Standing then, as / imagine now l do,
in that Bethlehem night, with an infant
Christ on the 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 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 load
heavy enough for three; rush in upon that
scene where boys are torturing a cat or
transixinE butterfly and grasshopper;
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
tht sky in training In your families and
in your schools teach the coming genera
ton more mercy than the present genera
ton has ever shown, and in this marvellous
Bib'e 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
thas Christmas night God honored child
hood. Childhood was to be honored by
that advent. He must have child's light
limbs and a child's dimpled hand and a
childe beaming eye and child's haXen
hair. aud babyhood was to be honored for
all time to come, and cradle was to mean
more than a grave. Mighty God May
seen in all infantile faces
Enough have all those fathers and moth
ers on hand if they have child in the
house. A throne, a crown, a scepter,
kingdom, under charge. Be careful how
you strike him across the head, Earring
the brain. What yon say to him will be
centennial and a thousand years viii not
stop the echo and re-eeho: Do not say,
only an immortal" It is only a master
piece of Jehovah. It is only a being that
shall outlive sun and moon and star and
ages qusdriennial. God has infinite re
sources, and He can give presents OF great
va,uc, bit when BE wants to give the rich
est pNstiNie gut 10 a nOusenOiu ne 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 a 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. It
was to the cradle Of leaves in which 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 a child that Christ set
in the midst of the squabbhng 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, il the old road had been
followed the Prussian general would have
come up too late to save the destinies of
Europe II was a child that decided Get
tyshurg, 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. End to-day the child Is to decide
oil tha 10 all he 1oxr