Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-12-21
TALMAGE
SERMON
BY Rev.
BY Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,.
Pastor Of Jefferson Park Presby-
terrain Church. Chicago

ing Of family differences and the put
ting aside forever Of all dissensions. in
accordance with the spirit and teach
Ings Of the sacred season. The text is
Luke II. II. ION earth peace, good will
toward men,
Christmas day has the manger for
Its gem, with the home for a setting.
From time immemorial the commence
ration Of the birth of Christ has had its
true and real celebration not so much
in public festivity and church cere-
mOnial as i'm the family gathering
around the domestic fireside. Other
customs may change. new movements
may transform our social life, but the
Christmas family gathering maintains
its hold on society. The other day a
convict was liberated from Sing Sing
pcnitcntiary. He had been imprisoned
there for nearly thirty years. He was
pardcned. white haired old man of
siXty-four years. He went in a strong
limbed young man of thirty-tive. Up to
1903 he had never ridden on an electric
car: lac had never seen the wonderful
development of the telephone; he had
never seen an automobile or the mar
vclous development of doing business
through the typewriter. He said that
he was coming into strange and
new world ~ not the world he left,
but another he had never seen. But
though many customs may change
within quarter of a century the Gus
toms of Christmas day neither change
in a generation or a century. Christ
mas day always has been and we hope
always will be a family day. 1t is
we'll that at least once year the chill
dren and the grandchildren, the broth
ers and the sisters and the nephews and
the nieces, as well as the fathers and
mothers and grandparents, should be
gathered within the four walls of the
old homestead and it is appropriate
that the season for such reunions should
be that at which we celebrate the ad-
vent of our Lord.
Blood Thicker Than Water.
But though God "setteth the solitary
In families" though on Christmas day.
above all other days, he would have
us worship him i'm communion with our
kith and kim though we should delight
TO prove that blood is thicker than wa
ter, yet the startling fact remains I'M
controverted that the grinning skeleton,
which rattles its bones and clatters it's
teeth almost every Christmas eve in
almost every family closet. is the hid
eOus skeleton of domestic strife. By
this statement we do not mean that the
father and mother and the little chill
dren living within the four walls of q
house are necessarily unhappy or that
most homes are not peaceful and loving.
We do mean, however, that the fam
lily name, taken in it's larger relation,
Is not always a loving and harmonious
name. We do mean by this statement
that after the father and mother have
been carried out to their last resting
place. TO sleep the sleep of death under
a coverlid of snow. arrangements Otter
arise between the married children
We do mean by this statement that
many and many a home has been spill
from top to bottom on account of the
second marriage Of a father or a moth
er. We do mean that today all ovel
the United States brothers can b'
found at variance with brothers, sister,
with sisters and cousins with cousins.
This nation is struck through anC
through with family strife. The APP
palachan mountains. where Kentucky
Tennessee, Virginia and West Virgini;
meet, have aptly been called 1.-The Ian,
of the feud." There families have bat
tied with each other for generations
There the McCoys and the Hatfield
have well nigh eXterminated each 9th
err There the Towards and the Turn
ers have fought each other to the death
There the wounded John Philipott
shot dead the four Griffins, and he him
self was found unconscious among hi
slain. But though the Appalachian
can be called the land of the feud,
the whole United States can truthful
be termed "the land of family strife.
II ! were TO enter your family home
and learn the inner secrets of thos
homes in all probability there woul
be found not one family which anon
Its larger connections is not curse
with internal strife.
A Family Day.
Christmas day is essentially a famil
day. Would IL not be possible in Il
weeks before its dawn for you to a
range your family differences so tn;
on that day the old quarrel may be Sc
tied and all the hard thoughts and haI
words IL has engendered may be 70
given and forgotten? | would sugge
To- you today some reasons why sue
reconciliation may be and should
effected | would try. in the name
Jesus Christ. to have over the mang
brother clasp hands with brother. 81
ter with sister. parent with child al
child with parent. | would try TO
this because when the Christmas be
are ringing their carol no man. no W
man. can so truly honor the newbO