The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-01-08
DIR. TALMAGES SERM
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE sT4Hlss- -fee Ne 4ED
DIVINE.

DIVINE.
Subject: Lessons Taught by the Nativity
On That Christmas Night God Hon
ored Motherhood-A Tribute to Science
Most Famous Night in History.
WASHINGTON, D. C.-The discourse of
Dr. Taimage 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
manger."
The black window shutters of Decem.
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 so 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 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
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 in the world history. Raphael in three
different masterpieces, celebrated them:
themselves in the alteration of the Magi.
Correggio needed to do no more than his
Madonna to become immortal. The Ma
donna of the Lily" by Leonardo da Vinci,
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 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
well might they kneel! Have you ever
thought that Christ came, among other
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 plaint and believing have for ages been
q PRAYER to God for the arresting of their
tortures and the righting of their wrongs?
Not a kennel in all the centuries, not
birds nest, not worn-out horse on tow
path, not a herd freezing, in the. poorly
built cow-pen, not freight car IN sum-
mer time bringing the beeves to market
without water through thousand miles
of agony, not q 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
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 tor
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
transfxing 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 musicians OF
the sky in training. In your families and
in your schools teach the coming genera
tion 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 child's dimpled hand and
child's beaming eve and q, child's faxen
all time to come, and cradle was to mean
more than grave. Mighty God! May
the reflection of that one child's face be
seen in all infantile faces! =,
Enough have all those fathers and moth
ers on hand if they have child in the
house. A throne, crown, scepter, a
kingdom. under charge. Be careful how
you strike him across the head, jarring
the brain. What you say. to him will be
centennial anu u CuOCSdnu yeais wiz NV
stop the echo and re.echo. Do not say,
ut is only a child" Rather say, 1T is
only an immortal" 1t is only 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 h ID He looks looks
and then gives a child. Yea, in all ages
God has honored childhood. He makes
almost every picture 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
1t was a child in Naaman's kitchen that
told the great Syrian warrior where ne
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 lain, rocked by the Nile, that God
called the attention of history, 1t was a
sick child that evoked Christ's curative
sympathes. 1t was child that Christ set
in the r,idst of the squabbling disciples to
teach z lesson of humility. A child de-