Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-01-30
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: Lessons Taught by the Nativity
On That Christmas Night God Hon
Ored MotherhoOd--A ribute to Science
Most Famous Night in History.

DIR. Ialmage IS full OF the nativity and ap-
propriate for the holidays; text, Luke ii,
16, And they came with haste and found
Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in 4
manger."
The black window shutters of Decem-
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 a peace an
them until all the echoes of hill and val
ley applauded and encored the halleluiah
chorus. Come, let us 60 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
lish 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
ard the Incidents of that most famous
night in the worlds history. Raphael in three
different masterpieces, celebrated them.
Tintoretto and Ghrlandajo surpassed
themselves in the alteration of the Magl.
Correggio needed to do no more than his
Madonna to become immortal The Ma
donna of the Lily" by Leonardo da Vinc,
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 ell of them were copies of st. Mat
thew's Madonna and I.uke'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
IL e y, Go NJ al tnA
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
we'll might they kneel! 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
prayer to God for the arresting of their
tortures and the righting of their wrongs?
Not kennel in all the centuries, not a
| birds nest, not 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 CnTOuHH Il lHOuSdntl III itS
| of agony, not a surgeons witnessing the
struggles of fox or rabbit or pigeon or dog
| in the horrors of vivisection but has an lu-
terest in the fact that Christ was born in
o stable surrounded by brutes.
Standing then, as | imagine now 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 Toy
! fun that bird that is too small Tor 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 incemency; arrest that man who
| is making that one horse draw load
heavy enough for three; rush IN upon that
! scene where boys are torturing cat or
! transixing butterfly and grasshopper;
| is a mothers cradle and under her wing
| there may be three or four musicians oi
/ the 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
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 a child's light
limbs and a child's dimpled hand and a
child's beaming eye and a child's faXen
hair. and babyhood was to be honored for
| all time to come, and a 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
L Ill fo+h ovid h.
ers on hand if they have child in the
house. A throne. crown, scepter, a
I kingdom. under charge. Be careful how
| you strike him across the head, Jarrlng
the brain. What YOU say to him will be
centennial and thousand years will not
stop the echo and re-eSho; Do not t.1s say,
only an immortal" 1t is only a master
piece of Jehovah 1t is only being that
shall outlive sun and moon and star and
ages quadriennial. 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 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 a 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.
I III was Il CIllu III hi'Ni.Si
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 a child
was lain, rocked by the Nile, that God
called the attention of history, 1t was "a
sick child that evoked Christs 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 TODAY the child is to decide
all the great battles. make all the laws,
! yot.lo all tho dastipieS and usher in the