The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-30
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
 BY THE REV. FRANK DE WIT TALMAGE, D. D.


 1 leading a small donkey by a bride. Upon
 the back of this animal sits pale faced young girl. The weary traveller says to
 the innkeeper "Can we have a lodging at your tavern tonight?" The innkeeper i looks at the mans rough clothes, and i he says to himself. "Humi No money 1 there. This is my time for making money. 1 must not let sentimentality get the I better of me. No" he replies sharply; | there Is no room. Do you hear? No room." Then the man comes a little closer to the innkeeper and anxiously 1 whispers something and then points to I the pale faced girl upon the diminutive 1 beast of burden. The innkeeper looks quickly up. He is almost ready to yield as he sees the poor sick woman. Then 1 his mercenary spirit again gets the better l of him. He quickly shakes his head and ! replies: No, no; no room, l tell you. IT l your wife is to be sick tonight l do l not want her here" But says the traveller, whom we all know now to be l Joseph, the carpenter, where shall we 1 go? What shall we do?" And we can 1 imagine how the husband would plead for shelter for his wife. But the inn l keepers heart is hard, and he IS un- moved by Joseph's appeal. There may really have been no room, as he sa1d' and how could he be expected to turn l out people who were already installed to | i there Is no room. If the case Is as ur- | gent as Joseph represents, why. not go l into the stable? There is room there, 1 and it is a shelter. So Joseph accepts, and there, with no comfort or privacy, Jesus l is born, and the manager from which the horses eat serves as a cradle for the heir of the ages. Let me read to you perhaps the most pathetic verse in all l the Bible. And she brought forth her hrstborn son and wrapped him in sWad- ding clothes and laid him in a manager, l because there was no room for them in 1 the inn"
 The Sin of Mercenariness.
 Can it be that the avarice of Bethle- hem's innkeeper is today gnawing at any of our hearts? Tell me, if you had been that innkeeper and Jesus mother had come to you would you have taken her in at a financial loss? Do you, oh business | man. show any more kindness to your employees and the poor than that tavern keeper showed to Joseph? Are you shy ] lock in the business world, demanding your last pound of flesh, no matter whose heart you are cutting into? Are you a ghoul of the night, crawling over the pat 1 tleflelds, rihing the pockets of the slain, with no compunction about where the I money comes from? Have you no mose mercy upon those who are financially Tn 1 your power than had the Marley or the l Scrooge of the novelist? Oh, that today 1 the mercenary selfshness of our past l1fe might forever pass away! Oh, that today the Christmas chimes could ring out | cheeful call to all the poor all the suf- | ferIng, all the sick, all the troubled, to come to our doors and find shelter and Christmas refuge.
 But again the scene changes. Now, ln- stead of being in the Jerusalem capital Hoo If Qnt | hem, we are away back among the Ze- l hulon hills at Nazareth, where Mary and | Joseph lived at the time they started down to Bethlehem to be enrolled for the l census, at the end of which journey Jesus was born and laid in manager. As we | nave found no room for Jesus in the pal ace and no room for the infant Christ in | the inn, so we now find no room for Jesus in the homes of purity and responsibility. 1 Did you ever stop to consider perhaps the most important reason why Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea?
 The Climax of Mary's sickness was drawing near. Two or three months be- | fore the memorable December the news had been scattered everywhere that all the men of Judaea must go to their place of | registration. But what shall l do, hus- band" says Mary. ''I cannot be left alone l here" "No." answers Joseph, "but | think we can make some arrangements 1 among our old Friends. Remember, Mary, we have lived in Nazareth all our lives and we have relatives and friends" But
 Joseph" answers Mary you seem to
 forget We had many friends eight months ago, but we have no friends now Dc you not know that all my girl friends and their mothers look upon me with
 scorn? Not one of them now will let me come into their homes. Oh, what shall l do? What shall I do?"
 Joseph's Anxiety.
 | I see the face of Joseph, the carpenter,
 become set and anxious. He knows only too well that his young wife has told
 the truth. He goes from street to street | and from home to home. He piteously
 says: twill you take Mary? Will you care for her while I go south?" Then every
 door is slammed shut in his face. No
 roomi No room" the old friends cry.
 No room. No room We do not want
 such a woman to live in our house even l for night" Now. hear the awful news.
 No one would take Mary into their homes
 because they thought she was bad
 woman Therefore. Jesus had to be born in a barn. Not only the door of the Beth
 lehem inn was shut against Christ, but
 the doors of all the homes of Nazareth. l They also were shut against poor Mary in
 her time of need. Can you not read | between the lines as I speak the words
 
 in the inn?'
 l We are sorry. We think the people were hard, and yet, alas, alas. how often to- | day Jesus Is refused entrance into the
 homes of our modern Nazareths, When
 He comes to us in the guise of the home l less and the poor, do we not critieise their character, reproach them with inn 1 providence or misconduct? Only the de- serving poor have a claim, and even theirs | Is unwelcome Alas. how often we turn
 our backs upon His repentant Mary Mag
 dalenes and social outcasts when as re-
 pentant sinners they come knocking at
 our door, saying: Let me in. Let me in Oh, for Jesus sake, let me in When | these poor social outcasts come begging for help at your doors in Christs name,
 will you try to help them back to Chris
 tian purity and truth? By the grace of God, may We cleanse them and purify them. May we guard them and protect
 them for the sake of Him whose birth
 brought unjust scandal on His mother.
 But how about the synagogues? Were
 they any more willing to receive the new
 born Christ than was the palace or the public taverns or the homes of His Nag
 areth boyhood? Nay, nay. The priests and ] Levites cried out as did the innkeeper: l "No room, no room. There is no room
 here for newborn Christ" The door of
 the temple was shut against Him just -