The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1905-02-10
FARMvILLE, VA, FRIDAY FEBRUARY 10, 1905.

/ we WoNl0 never nave Dcfh dhit w hl
without the incarnation.
Lot me illustrate how the beauty Of
| Gods love IS simplihed In Christ's life
Charles Lamb and some Of his bosom
friends were met together one even
Ing in a London house 10 talk on liter
ary topics During the conversation
some one said: Think If Dante was
to come to life again and enter this
rooml 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 heayensw Suppose" "
said another, Shakespeare was to
come to us tonight. OF Milton or Homer
or VirgilY" "Ah," said Lamb. his
whole face Frightening. how | should
ding my arms up. How we would
welcome those kings Of thoughtful
menw Suppose" said another, Christ
was to come, what would we dor
With that Charles Lambs face chang
ell instantly as he said, "Of course we
would fall upon our knees and wor-
ship him"
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 a
God Of love and not a God Of hate. As
a famous unbelieyer 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 doubtf, are
not so well attested as those about
Jesus Christ. If the death Of Socrates
be that Of a sage, the life and death OF
Jesus are those Of a God" Jean Paul
Richter wrote these words about
Christ: "The holiest 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 its channel and still
governs the ages" oh, my friends, can
not, will not you see the truth that the
birth Of Jesus Christ has simplihet the
divine truth; that God is a God Of love
and not a God Of hateI 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 rs even
with a greater love than any human
parent bears his own childi 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
dlers. Think Of a ruler having such
power as that and being able to use it
as he would. But the slaughter OF
those baby boys was only small part
OF HerOd's infamles. Her0d'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
voice against him In his kingdom. Then
in order that his death might be time
Of 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 hlppodrome and TO be there
slain on the night Of his own death. II
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 bis death
period OF Joy and rejoicing. Such
man was the ruler Of Judaea in that
day. All, yes, there never was a dark
er or a more hopeless time in Jewish
history than when Jesus was born.
Thus we find the Hebrew people long
ingly-oh. so longlngly-looking for a
Messiah at this time.
My brother, as Christ came to Jeru-
salem at the darkest time Of Hebrew
history, can he not come to you this
Christmas day, even though II may be
in the dark days Of your llfei Is It
dark for some Of youi Is your life sad
with sin, sad with sorrow, sad with
bitter disappointment? DO you need a
Saviour now? "The whole thought and
idea OF all that Is told about Christmas
day" wrote Dean Stanley, suggests
the consoling, cheering thought that,
however gloomy our lot. however dis
tressed our portion. the Almighty God
has not forsaken US" Even in the
darkest hours Of our lives Christ will
come to us as he came to Bethlehem
In the darkest hours Of Hebrew his
tory. Are we going to reject Christ as
PLATE and the Jews rejected himl
Having accepted the glad tidings Of
great Joy that Jesus came to save,
shall not you and ! on this glorious
Christmas Sabbath day start forth to
announce. as did the angelic messenger,
that Christ has come to save all who
will believe on himi