The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-01-23

and a hundred years and a thousand
years will not stop the echo and reecho
Do not say: 'It is only child" Rath-
er say: "It is only an immortal" It
is only masterpiece of Jehovah. It is
only being that shall outlive sun and
moon and star and ages quadriennial.
God has infinite resources. and He can
give presents of great value, but when
He wants to give the richest possible
gift to a household, He looks around
all the worlds and all the universe and
then gives child. Yea, in all ages God
| has honored childhood. He makes al
most 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.
| It was a 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 child was laid, rocked
by the Nile, that God called the atten-
tion of history. 1t was sick child that
evoked Christ's curative sympathies.
1t was a child that Christ set in the
midst of the squabbling disciples to
teach the lesson Of humility. A child
decided Waterloo, showing the army of
Blucher how they could take a 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
child that decided Gettysburg, he
having overheard two confederate gen
erals in a conversation in which they
decided to march for Gettysburg in
stead of Harrisburg, and, this reported
to Gov. Curtin, the federal forces
started to meet their opponents at Get
tysburg. 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 de-
struction. 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 boor, not igno-
ramuses, but Caspar, Balthaser and
Melchoir, men who knew all that was
to be known. They were the Isaac
Newtons and Herschels and Faradays
of their time. Their alchemy was the
forerunner of our sublime chemistry,
their astrology the mother of our mag
nifcent astronomy. And when / see
these scientists bowing before the
beautiful Babe I see the prophecy of
the time when all the telescopes and
microscopes and all the Leyden jars
and all the electric batteries and all
the observatories and all the universi-
ties shall bow to Jesus. It is much that
way already. Where is the college that
does not have morning prayers, thus
bowling at the manger? Who have
been the greatest physicians? Omit
ting the names of the living lest we
should be invidious, have we not had
among them Christian men like James
Y. Simpson and Rush and Valentine
Mott and Abercrombie and Aber-
nethy? Who have been our greatest
scientists? Joseph Henry, who lived
and died in the faith Of the Gospels,
and Agassiz, who, standing with his
students among the hills, took off his
hat and said: young gentlemen, be-
fore we study these rocks let US pray
for wisdom to the God who made the
rocks" All geology will yet bow be-
fore the Rock of Ages. All botany will
yet worship the Rose of Sharon. All
astronomy will yet recognize the Star
| of Bethlehem.
| Behold also in that first Christmas
night that God honored the fields.
| Come in, shepherd boys, to Bethlehem
and see the Child. "No,' they say;
1--WE are not dressed good enough to
come in" eyes, you are. Come in"
Sure enough, the storms and the night
dew and the brambles have made rough
work with their apparel, but none has
better right to come in. They were
the first to hear the music of that
Christmas night. The first announce
ment of saviour's birth was made to
those men in the fields. There were
wiseacres that night in Bethlehem and
Jerusalem snoring in deed sleep, and
there were salaried officers of govern
ment who, hearing of it afterward,
may have thought that they ought to
have had the first news of such a great
event, some one dismounting from
swift camel at their door and knock
ing till at some sentinel's question:
| 'Who comes there?" the great ones o.,
the palace might have been told of the
Celestial arrival. No; the shepherds
heard the first two bars of the music,
the first in the major key and the last
in the subdued minor: "Glory to God
in the highest and on earth peace, good
will to men," All, yes, the fields were
| horo
The old shepherds, with plaid and
crook, have for the most part vanished,
but we have grazing on our United
States pasture fields and prairie about
42 100000 sheep, and all their keepers
ought to follow the shepherds of my
text and all those who toll in fields
all vine dressers, all orchidists, all hus-
! bandmen. Not only that Christmas