The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1902-01-03
THEBIRmH OF CHRIST
An Appropriate Holiday Sermon by
DR.. Talmage.

christmas Scene nj the Manager In
she Rude Barn--Brute Creation
Honored-God's HonOred
Science.
ICopyright. 1901. by Loui: kopsch' ~ r.
This discourse of DR.. Talmage is full
of the nativity and appropriate for the
holidays; text, Luke 2:16: "And they
came with haste and found Mary and
Joseph, and the Babe lying in man
ger"
The black window shutters OF De-
~cember night were thrown open and
some of the best singers of world
where they all sing stood there ana
putting back the drapery OF cloud
chanted a peace anthem until aH'the
chorus of hill and valley applauded and
encored the halleluiah chorus. Come,
let us go into that Christmas scene as
though we had never before worshiped
at the manger. Here is Madonna
worth looking at. I wonder not tnat
the most frequent name in all lands and
I'm all Christian centuries is Mary.
And there are Marys in palaces ana
Marys in cabins, and, though German
and French and italian and Spanish
and English pronounce 1t d1nerently'
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
night of the worlds history. Raphael,
I'm three different masterpieces, cele-
brated them. Tintoretto and Ghirlan-
daio surpassed themselves in the ado
ration of the magi. Correggio needed
to do no more than his Madonna to pc
come immortal. The Madonna OF the
lily" by Leonardo da Vinci, will kindle
the admiration of all ages. But all the
galleries of Dresden are forgotten when
4 think of the small room of that gal
lery containing the "Sistine Madonna"
Vet all of them were copies of st. Mat
4hew'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
might of Cbrist's life God honored the
brute creation. You cannot get into
that Bethlehem barn without going
past the camels, the mules, the dogs,
AZ 30 Sf
heard the first cry of the infant Lord.
Eome of the old painters represent the
oxen and camels kneeling that night
before the newborn Babe. And well
might they kneel! Have you ever
thought that Christ came, among 9TH
-er things, to alleviate the sufferings OF
the brute creation? Was it not appro-
pirate that He should, during the first
few days and nights of His life on
earth, be surrounded by the dumb
beasts, whose means and plant and
believing have for ages been prayer
to God for the arresting of their tor
lures and the righting of their wrongs?
Not kennel in all the centuries, not
birds nest, not o WORKOUT horse on
zowpath, not a herd freezing in the
poorly built cowpen, not freight car
i'm summer time bringing the beeves
to market without water through a
thousand miles of agony, not sur
.geon's room 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 do,
In that Bethlehem night with an infant
Christ on 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
bat 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 a load heavy enough
for three; rush in upon that scene
where boys are torturing cat or
transfx.ng 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 mu-
sieians of the sky in training. In your
families and in your schools teach the
coming generation more mercy than
Che present generation 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 celes'
<fai chant let them also hear the cows