The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-26

the knowledge that some human be- ings are suffering. Whatever be our station or position in the world we share with the lowest and most wretched the lot of physical pain. The same cold will pierce our bones and leave us shaking and wretched. the same thirst will parch our lips. the same hunger will eat at our starved bodies, the same disease will make our blood grow thin. make the head throb and the nerves prick and jingle, and the heart grow still.
 We are so familiar with pain that we do not stop to estimate the terrible wonder of. 1t all. what 1t all means. 90 heartless, so causeless, so purpose less. so inexorable. That suffering world, known and unknown of my common flesh. I see. I fell the vast ness of the agony of earth. This has been the cry from many devout life before Christ came as that life looked out upon the world of the mystery or Pain.
 In the face of pain and death. do what they will, argue as they may. men cannot shake off the obstinate questionings of the meaning of pain and the end of death. Without Christ. what answer can men give to those questions? Without Christ what an- swer are you giving to those aues- tions? What is Pain? What Is Death?
 Second-There Is the Fact of Igno- rance. the infirmity of the mind. am we'll aware that we live in an age of educational revival, that perhaps nev- CT in the history of the world has there been the interest in education that is now apparent, and never has there been such widespread diffusion of the elementary principles of knowl- edge. am not unmindful of the fact that the mental achievements of the race have been far beyond anything that history records, that we live in an age of great things. But the ques- tion is what do we know of the ele- mentary and Fundamental things of our own lives and of the worlds life?
 In spite of all our vaunted knowl- edge, think of the darkness which surrounds the creation of this uni verse. think how little we really know about our bodies, our minds, our souls. How hayy and dim is our conception of God, how uncertain our faith in the life to come, how gross our ideas of heaven and hell. It is an open ques- tion whether with all our modern knowledge we really know any more about the things that are worth know ing about than our fathers did with out it. The mystery of this heart that beats so wild, so strange in us all. There come times when we feel like children in the dark. when we stand in the presence of the great mysteries of life and know not what to say nor where to turn. This fact of our ig- norance about the most obvious ques- tions of life, and our helplessness to do away with that ignorance, is one of the strangest. darkest problems of this world.
 Third-But there is another mystery. more far reaching, more terrible than these two. and that Is the mystery of sin. the infirmity of the soul. Without Christ what can we say about the meaning of sin? There 1t Is. always present among mankind. interwoven with all that is greatest among men, the universal heritage of the human race, for says the apostle. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" How terrible it Is to think that wherever you turn in history you will find the presence of moral evil at work. Whence comes this enemy into the lot of all men? Whence this fas- cination to sin? Whence the Idea that there should be such a thing as sin at all? What Is sin, and why may not men do as they like without any bangs of conscience, without any fear of pun ishment, or any sense of responsibility?
 Now these are some of the funda- mental facts of life that all men must face and answer, and there was a time when no one could tell what 1t all meant,-whither all these things were drifting.-whether there was any rem- edy,-whether there was any hope. For the world without Christ knew not God. The experience of ages attests 1t, that is. no ray of hope, no possibility of light, save one, and that Is the great gift of Gods love, which we are cele- brating today.
 Tae eternal Word of God. the ever lasting Son of the Father. was made flesh and dwelt among us. God Is with us in the fullness and complete ness of all that goes to make up hu- man nature; He has been with us in the sharpest pain that can rack the hu- man frame; He has emptied Himself of His Divine attributes and has been with us In all the limitations of our earthly knowledge. crying out in the hour of darkness and forsakedness, My God! My God!" He has been withNus even to the extremity of feeling the power of temptation. going out alone to meet the great enemy of the human race.
 This is the message of Christmas Day. a glorious and blessed message |. Is, that God has stopped to share the lot of man. What a message of hope and joy this Christmas morning should bring to these hearts of ours, for though the mystery of pain and of darkness and of sin may be around us for a little while longer. we know that the time will come when all these things shall have passed away for ever. and all shall be clear and bright; we know 1t because we know One, who for our salvation came down from