The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-01-23
THEBIR"H OF CHRIST
An Appropriate Holiday Sermon by
DR.. Talmage.
Christmas Scene at the ManEer in
the Rude Barn-Brute Creation
Hon0red-GOd's HOnOred
Science.

| Science.
| Copyright 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. VI
Washington,
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 a man
ger"
The black window shutters of De-
cember night were thrown open and
some of the best singers of a world
where they all sing stood there, and
putting back the drapery of cloud
chanted a peace anthem until all 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 a Madonna
worth looking at. I wonder not that
the most frequent name in all lands and
IN all Christian centuries is Mary.
And there are Marys in palaces and
Marys in cabins, and, though German
and French and italian and Spanish
,
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
| and the incidents of that most famous
| night of the worlds history. Raphael,
in three different masterpieces, cele-
brated them. Tintoretto and Ghirlan-
dajo surpassed themselves in the ado
ration of the magi. Correggio needed
to do no more than his Madonna to be-
| 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
l think of the small room of that GAL
lery 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
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 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 worn-out horse on
towpath, not herd freezing in the
poorly built cowpen, not freight car
in summer time bringing the beeves
to market without water through
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 ina gine now do,
in that Bethlehem night with an infant
Christ on one side and the speechless
creatures of God on the other, I cry:
Look out how you strike the rowel into
hot rsl AL, -
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
transfixing butterfly and grasshopper;
drive not off that old robin, for her
nest is mothers cradle and under her
wing there may be three or four mu-
sicians OF the sky in training. In your
families and in your schools teach the
coming generation more mercy than
the 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-
tial chant let them also hear the cows
moan.
Behold also in this Bible scene how
on that Christmas night God honored
childhood, Childhood was to be hon
ored by that advent. He must have
child's light limbs and a child's dimpled
hand and a child's beaming eye and
child's flaxen hair, and babyhood was
to be honored for all time to come, and
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!
Enough have all those fathers and
mothers on hand if they have child
| In the house. A throne, crown, a
| scepter, a kingdom under charge. Be
| careful low you strike him across the