The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1902-02-15
oh. TALNAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE ~ THE NcTEl
4 DIVINE Z
Subj eot, Lessons Taught by tho Nativity
On That Christmas Night God Hon.
Ored Motherhood-AT Tribute to Science
Most Famous Night In History.

Most Famous Night In History.
WASHINGTON, D. C.-The discourse Of
DR.. Talmage is full of the nativity and ap
propriate for the holidays; text, Luke ii
l6, "And they came with haste and found
Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in g
| 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 a 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 ct. 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.
| 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 world history. Raphael in three
diffeyent masterpieces, celebrated them.
Tintoretto and Ghirlandajo surpassed
themselves in the alteration Of the Magi.
Madonna to become immortal. The Ma
donna of the Lily" by Leonardo ia Vinci,
! will kind,e the admiration Of all ages. But
ell 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
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
we'll might they lneell Have you ever
thought that: Christ came, among other
things, to alleviate the sufferings of the
brute creation? Was 1t 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
TEXTURES and the Fighting Of their wrongs?
Not kennel In all the centuries, not
birds nest, not WORKOUT horse on tow
path, not herd freezing in the poorly
built cow-pen, not a freight car in sum
mer time Bringing the beeyes to market
without water through a thousand miles
of agony, not 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
q stable surrounded by brutes.
Standing then, as I imagine. now ] Go,
in that Bethlehem night, with an infant
creatures Of God on the other, I 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
is making that one horse draw load
hessy enough for three; rush in upon that
scene where boys are torturing a cat or
transGxing butterfly md grasshopper;
drive not off that old robin, for her nest
Is 4 mothers cradle and under her wing
there may be three or four musicians OF
the sky ia training. In your families and
in your schools teach the coming genera
ton more mercy than the present genera
Bible picture Of the nativity, while you
poiut out to them the angel, show them
also the camel, and whle1t hear the |
celestial chant let them Also hear the
cows moan.
Eehoid also in this Bible scene how on
thet- Christmas night God honored child |
hood. Childhood was to be honored by
H.~A IL kay- Oh 4to Ev,f
limbs AID child's dimpled hand and a
chi!d's i,aaming eye and q child's faxsn |
hair, a1d babyhood was to be honored for
all time to come, and cradle was to mean |
more t',sn a grave. Mighty Godl May |
the reflection of that one child's face be |
seen in all infantile facesl -
Enough have all those fathers and moth
srs on hand d, II they have child adI IN the
kingdom. under charge. Be careful how
you strike him across the head, jarfng
the brain. What you say to him win be
centennial and thousand years will not
stop the echo and re-echo. Do not say,
at is only a child" Rather say, ut is
only an immortal" It is only master
piece Of Jehovah. It is only being that
shall outlive sun and moon and star and
sources. ard He can give presents of great
va!,.c, 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 child. Yea, in all ages
God has hopored 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 TIE face of the mother.
It was child in Naaman's kitchen that
told the great. Syrian warrior where he
might 20 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
wGs lain, rocked by the Nile, that God
called the attention Of history. It was a
nick child that evoked Christ's curative
ynpathies. Il vas child that Christ set
IN the midst Of the equabbling disciples TO
teach the lesson Of humility. A child de-
,ided Waterloo. showing the army Of Blu |
,her how it could take ehort 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
Eiircpe. It was a child that decided Get
sys5ur". he having overheard two Copfed-
crate generals in a conversation in which /
they decided to march for Gettysburg in
.tead 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
III the great battles, make all the laws,
,ettle all the destinies and usher in the
worlds salvation or destruction. Men,