Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-12-26


of those divine sufferings And. further.
more when we know that Christ to-
day in heaven is glad that he was able
to suffer for us in order TO save us.
what happy day Christmas ought to
be for all. Salvation for all, life for
all. eternal emancipation for all who
will today kneel by the side of the
manager. Am | right when | declare
that the angelic messenger of the first
Christmas morn should be the most
honored of all messengers when he
announced the redemption of the
world through the birth of Gods Son
in the manger:
The Nativity, in the next place, meant
joyful tidings. because by the incarna-
ton of the Son of God in the body of
little babe the human race was able
to grasp the great doctrine that God
was a God OF love and not a God of
hate or God of Indifference 1t is
one fact to preach truth; it is another
to preach truth so that it is under
stood by the common people. 1t is one
fact 10 talk about God as a spirit: it
is another to talk about God as Christ,
who was bone Of our bone and flesh of
our flesh and who was tempted as we
are tempted. God was the same God
before the first Christmas morn as he
is today. But since Jesus Christ came
to earth we, the common people, have
been able to understand him in a way
we would never have been able to do
without the incarnation.
Let me illustrate how the beauty of
Gods love is simplified in Christ's life
Charles Lamb and some of his bosom
friends were met together one even
ing in London house to talk on liter
airy topics During the conversation
some one said: Think if Dante was
to come to life again and enter this
room. How we would welcome the
man whose feet had trod the fiery
pavements of the inferno, whose eyes
had pierced the twilight, whose lungs
had breathed the still, clear air of the
Mount of Purgatorio, whose mind had
contemplated the mysteries Of glory
| in the highest heavens!' Suppose"
said another shakespeare was to
come to us tonight, or Milton or Homer
or Virgil?" All" said Lamb. his
whole face Frightening. ''how I should
fling my arms up! How we would
welcome those kings of thoughtful
menu Suppose" said another, Christ
was to come, what would we do?"
| With that Charles Lambs face chang
| ed instantly as he said, ''Of course we
would fall upon our knees and wor-
| ship him."
God Is a God of Love.
All, yes, Charles Lamb was right. No
| man can look upon or study the face
| of Christ without clearly and simply
| grasping the great truth that God is
| God of love and not God of hate. AS
| famous unbeliever wrote in reference
| to Christ: Where is the man, where Is
the sage, who knows how to act, to suf-
| fer, to die without weakness and with
| out display? My friends, men do not
| invent like this, and the facts respect
| ing Socrates which no one doubts, are
| not so we'll attested as those about
Jesus Christ. If the death Of Socrates
be that of sage the life and death of
| Jesus are those of a God" Jean Paul
Richter wrote these words about
| Christ: ''The hottest among the mighty
the mightiest among the holy. lifted
| with his pierced hands empires of
| their hinges and turned the stream of
| centuries out of it's channel and still
| governs the ages" Oh, my friends, can
| not, will not you see the truth that the
| birth of Jesus Christ has simplifed the
| divine truth; that God is a God of love
and not a God of hate? Can you not
feel through the simple story of the life
| and death of Jesus Christ that we are
| able to learn that God loves us even
| with a greater love than any human
parent bears his own child? Thank
| God today for the message of his love.
| A short time after Jesus was born, in
| order to satisfy a jealous fear, Herod
ordered all the little boys in the region
Of Bethlehem to be slain by his sol
diers. Think of a ruler having such
| power as that and being able to use 1t
as he would. But the slaughter of
those baby boys was only small part
of Herods infamies. Herod's whole
reign can be tracked with blOOdshed.
Herod brutally slew his wifes brother
Joseph and her mother and his wife.
He slew every one who dared to lift a
voice against him in his kingdom. Then
in order that his death might be time
or national mourning we learn from Jo-
sephus that he gave orders for the chief
men Of the Hebrew nation to be gath
cred in the hippodrome and to be there
slain on the night of his own death. If
the people. as he knew, would not be-
wall his death he took measures to in
sure their sorrow for another cause He
would not have the night of his death
a period of joy and rejoicing. Such a
man was the ruler of Judaea in that
day. All, yes. there never was Il dark
er or more hopeless time in Jewish
history than when Jesus was born.
Thus we find the Hebrew people long
ingly-oh, so longingly-ookin for a
Messiah at this time.
Christ Has Not Foraker Us.