The Newtown bee., 1906-01-26

All6 AAOVAI SAN%ASs
 CHRISTMAS. A SERMON BY REV G. L. FORTE OF
 SOUTH BRITAIN.
 8 custom which in the middle ages was the beginning of the Passion Play and also of all the old The middle ages were in- deed dark ages, yet not darker than all that had preceded, in fact, not so gloomy, for already the dawn of new era of widespread knowledge, inven- tion and improvement was at hand. However, the masses were illtterate; hence the church chose the simplest and the best way of teaching the i'm portant Gospel scenes; namely, by means of tableaux and crude stage presentation. From the lifting of the cross during a morning mass, to make OratiOn of this spectacular idea unto a stage setting in which Christ, the devil, and one or two disciples were personified, the beginnings of the the 0ter thus spread from the church out Wardly into an adjoining field, then was wheeled in carts through the streets, and just before ShakeSpeare's day was installed in special houses called theaterS. Thus we have seen that the theater is an offshot of the church service, that originally plays were biblical instruction. Hence if there is 8 need to-day for continued instruction through the eyes and ears the fault is not 90 much with the the ater as with the taste of the masses. The world produces what the people blows for the farmers of Palestine or to print books for the Zulus; there is no desire in these two cases for such things; hence on the same basis de- generate play, or the liquor traffic are the result, not the cause, of degenerate taste. The masses will get what they want; therefore the best and really the only way is to stop the desire for the evil, 1t is then to educate the peO- pie into better taste, higher ideals.
 AT cHR1s1MAs TIME
 in the cathedrals and larger churches there is presented in wax and toy fashion the manager scene in Bethle- hem-the mother and father and the little child in crude stall for animals, here Q donkey or two, there the wise men come to pay homage to the new. simplicity, the Star of the East shines resplendent in 8 painted heaven. Thus was the crude mind of 8 crude age also led back to the advent of our Savior; thus In an age when few could read were the gospel scenes presented and explained. This wax-wOrld is a good kindergarten method and appeals to childish fancy, yet the idea, of making vivid Q scene like that which took place at the birth of Jesus, is good one and we need some of it's purpose in our thought-life. A great lack with with us, I fear, is materialism and present-day absorption that makes the past to be forgotten or to appear very misty.
 Thus men that have come down to us through history did live. They had features, bodies, passions, plans like the men of to-day; they were discour- aged and re-encouraged as it is with us; they lived in contact with the earth, they saw it's beauties as do we. Why not make real our faith by pre- senting to ourselves the history of biblical characters, and Christ, in fact of xll leaders before and after Him, as men with human and natural being. Through Niagara Falls, which I hope to see, l shall be able to go back to the first Indian tribes that lived on the banks of the great river, even to the Mound builders-for all who heard it's roar heard what I will hear, and all who have seen it's awful falling mass of water saw what modern age sees. and of the adjoining hills and valleys saw in general the same contour of mountains, the same natural high ways and depressions. The rivers roll on as ever over the former boulders, the sun rises and sets with the former glow .and the former environment. This old earth links us to past that was as actual as the present, it keeps in it's scenery, it's waterways and mountains especially, and in all it's landmarks link that holds an endless chain from falling apart. Like a river humanity flows on, never to return, over the smooth surfaces of the rocks of ages. We have in all men and women of all past generations broth CTS and sisters, for with them we walk the well-trodden path.o of history-they came and went, we came and will go, and so on till eternity, the mystery, the awful mystery of man.
 NINETEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO
 THERE WAS BORN IN A HANGER
 a child that we touch through a his- toric continuity of men and events; and were we to go to Palestine and to visit his birthplace we could see with the wise men the sky line that these centuries have not changed; the rug ged mountain sides, the barren and dreary places of old. There is no change in the East; year after year finds the same dwellings the same costumes, the same manner, and hence can we not from what we have seen of pictures of Bethlehem, the little hillside village of southern Judea. Can we not see again what the Wise men saw; an actual scene, a real child. They came from afar bearing incense and gifts; at last they are on the outskirts of the village, they be- gin to climb upward on the narrow rocky path; the stars were blinking as will be the case tomorrow night, the big bear and the little bear and all the triangleS and other figures have stayed in their former places, the one storied stone grey huts piled up one agains, the other are still where they were when the wise men came; they ap- proach the place where the child lay and there we see with them the Say four of the world, born as any child, only in the humblest of surroundings, in . place where cattle were kept, real child, real straw, real men and women. Oh, that in our inner eye we might see, this morning, more wildly