The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-12-26
REV. FATHER COYLE
breaches SERMON
Stately Ceremonial at ST. Paul's
Church Christmas
aCH0IR SINGS FINE MUSIC
Miss Bertha Van Merkestyn Was In
Exceptionally Good Volce-coI-
lection for the Orphans Was
Very Generous.


1V.ou ctoths Will tho 1NSN' @"eAASA ~
eoert as eeIebrant. the Rev. Father Kit
rick as deacon and theiRev. Father coyle
as sub-deacon. Mr. Tomlin acted as
master of ceremonies. The ceremonial
was very impressive.
The choir sang I.ajaers brilliant festi-
val mass. No. 6. with orchestral accom-
paniment Miss Bertha Van Merkestyn,
the solo soprano. was in exceptionally
fine voice, and SO was Mr.. Herbert. the
solo bass.
Mr.. Herbert sang the Veni Creator,
and Miss Van Merkestyn sang for the
onertory Torrentes "Ecce Pants Ange-
lorum," music to the hymn Show Us
Thy Ways. o, Lord" The ancient hymn
of the church. "Adeste Fidelis." was
sung by the choir in the place OF the
Benedictions CT the mass.
A collection was taken for the orphans
and a large sum was contributed.
The Sermon.
| Father Coyle preached a sermon ON
Christmas joy. His text was;
| "eBhold, bring you good tidings of
great joy, that shall be to all the people;
for this day is born to you a Savior.
who is Christ the Lord
After an eloquent Introduction the
preacher said:
'This is Christmas Day, for you. for me,
for all of us, a different day from all
the days of all the year. 1t is the birth
| day of the Son of the God of Love. the
day when all our hearts have naught
| but kindly feelings for all men, for the
sake of Him who ON this day left the
| heavenly courts to become a pauper
mas, when all earth resounds with the
| Savior's name, from the first Christmas
| in the long ago. No blare of trumpets
| them proclaimed that the King of Kings
was born. The Emperor Augustus, in
| his marble palace on the Palatine Hill,
dreamed not that tllen was born in lowli-
ness and poverty, il. a little village of an
| obscure province of his worldwide en-
| pire. child, WHOSE dominion in days to
region from Antioch in the east, to Spain
and Britain in the then EXTREMIST west,
and further still. TO lands and countries
then undreamed of. to lands where Ro-
| man foot had never trod, where conquer
| ing Roman legion had never planted
standard.
1.-THE sages and philosophers of the
worlds intellectual center, dreamed not
that then had come among men a babe,
who, in after years, would preach a creed
that would overthrow their schools and
gods they adored, a creed that, when
their names and the doctrines of the
strange cults they taught, would be by
| men forgotten, or known only to the cur
ious student of history and archaeology,
would flourish and extend. and be the
consolation and the comfort Of millions
and millions OF men.
First Thought.
This Is Christmas Day. The first
| thought that strikes us Is that Gods
ways are not the ways OF men, Were
Gods ways our ways. then, not In a low
| ly cavern would the Christ be born, but
| In a golden, glittering palace, like to the
| palaces ST. John in Patmos saw, In his
visions of the heavenly Jerusalem. His
| mother would be. not a lowly Hebrew
maiden, meek and humble and unknown.
| but some proud and naughty princess,
whose very word gave law unto ten
| thousand serfs and slaves; Not lowly
| shepherds should bend in alteration, but
the princes and rulers of the nations Of
| the earth. All. but God is not the god
of the rich alone, not alone the god Of
| those who lord 1t and rule IT over their
| fellow men. He is the God of broad
humanity, the god whose delight is to
| be, not with the Children of lordlings and
princelings, but to be with the children
| OF men.
Christ's Crib.
This is Christmas day. Let US APP
| proach the Christmas crib What do we
see? A cold cherries cavern. Standing
| there, lost in amazement at the mystery
enacted. the just man Joseph, most hon
ored by God of men. There too. kneels
Mary, the pure. in speechless alteration,
she. whom for her share in today's mys-
terry, future generations forever shall
style blessed, and there, the central figure
the child. He. who seemingly so weak
and helpless, yet poises in His infant
hands the universe, and guides In their
course planet, and system, and sun. Was
ever scene so fraught with Importance
TO the race of man as this on which we
gaze, and there have been some wondrous
scenes in the earths strange story.
"Tyrants with victorious 11ordes. have
overrun provinces and empires, and made
naughty monarch their liege vassels, in
the days when might was right. In later
days, what thrilling deeds Of daring we're
witnessed on the eastern fields, where
Christian knighthood and Saracen brav-
cry tried issue in days Of chivalry. and in
these, our own days. days of comparative
peace, days when for long intervals the
war drum tbrobs not, and the nations
furI battle flags, what wonderful achieve
ment OF mind. what invention. discovery
and wit.
ssYet, from all this today we turn, from
every scene Of war and romance in the
wars and rebellions OF the nations. who
strove successfully or non successfully
against tyrants and tyranny. from scenes
Of mind achievement In our own wonder
full age Of progress, from all these we
turn today, and find our minds and our
hearts on the Bethlehem cave. All. that
little scene, to which today nearly five
hundred million Christians turn. has done
more for humanity than the grandest
achievement Of mind and skill, and more
consolation, more comfort, more joy Is
ta,t ~ rra, todav IN the cont en- Mat ion