The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1907-12-20
A CHRISTMAS
LESSON
unday School Lessoni Tor Dec. q. 1907
Specially Arranged for This Paper

born this day in the city of David a
lisa viour, which is Christ the Lord.
Comment and Suggestive Thought.
The Effect of the First Christmas
Day Upon the World. What This
Power Has Accomplished.-The Test
of Power. How do we know what any
person or thing can do? BY what he
oh 1t has done.
I look out of my study window and
see a number Of black wires strung
along the street. They look as dead
as a door nail" But every day l hear
messages coming owe them from near
and from far owe the telephone.
Every night l see blazing lights from
the current passing through them.
Not long g q man just owe the way
touched one Of those wires, blown
down in a gale, and he was struck
dead. l know what those wires can
do by what they have done. There
fore, l Yet them alone in the street,
and l turn the switch with perfect con-
fidence when / want a light.
Last summer at Niagara l de-
scended 100 feet underground in the
city power house, and in a small brick
compartment, only a few feet square,
saw more black objects like great
rolls of iron wire. They seemed as
~lifeless and innocent as coils Of wire
in a store. l was told that the power
Of 10000 to 100, 1000 horses resided in
those black, dull objects. How could
I know? l knew by what they did. !
raw the cars moving all over the city,
and the streets and houses lighted at
night. And all the power and all the
light came from those black dynamos.
We see that with Christ came a new
cru Of the kingdom of heaven, with
new powers for the changing of this
world from the darkness Of sin into
the righteousness, love. peace, pros.
perity, and all that makes perfect peo-
pie in a perfect world. The progress
has been slow, but becomes more and
more rapid each century. The world
as 1t Is to-day tells us what Christ has
done for the world.
The more Christianity, the more hap
piness; the more of all that makes the
kingdom Of heaven. The blessings
lessen End sorrows multiply in proper
tion as there is less of the Christian
religion. THE new age stands as
yet half-built against the sky, but 1t
Is Christ that has built the new age
thus far, and that building is rising
faster md faster each year.
There is a great deal Of evil in the
world yet, In the best of countries, In
the best of people. But 1t Is evil fought
against. 1t is good gaining the vic
tory slowly but surely. The very rev.
Citations Of evil, the controversies and
conflicts, are signs that the power Of
Christ is working upon the evil, q
n~everendlng conflict till the good has
triumphed.
The Sun C%onquering Winter.-As.
tronomers are thinking that the planet
Mars is inhabited. Suppose that this
winter a gentleman from Mars should
come and make you a visit, being an
utter stranger to the ways Of this
world. You would show him the clean,
beautiful in their branching twigs.
''the fringes Of the hills" calm, cold
sunshine, no mud, no floods, but all
peaceful as death. But you tell him
that all this is nothing to what is com
Ing next spring-the snow melted
away, the fields covered with green,
the trees bursting into leaf and flower
the gardens radiant with color, the all
soft, with fragrance. A wonderful
transformation.
when does spring begin?" he asks
About the 21st of March," you re
ply.
But when the 21st of March comes
he finds snow and slush and mud ant
fogs and east winds and bare trees
and he exclaims, as Pliable did te
Christian when in the Slough of Des
pond. rs this the blessedness yor
were describing, the beautiful spring
you pictured to me with such enthusi
asm? Is this what your mighty sur
Is doing?"
You reply, these very things 70,
complain of are a proof Of the power
OF the sun, and of the coming of thu
spring l described. By these things
we know that spring is coming. The,
are a thousand times more hopeful
than the silent whiteness of winter.
We may personally feel this powe,
OF the coming of Christ. He came t.
save and change each n Of us. HI
calls us to accept Of him as our king
our leader, and our Saviour. When W,
give ourselves to Christ we do 10
always, though sometimes we dc
realize the greatness of the change
When Of two boys one makes hi
choice to become an educated maj
and the other to- live a low and selfsl
and sensual life, we do not always SCI
a great change or difference immedi
ately In the boys; bdt as the year
go by the difference grows create
and greater.
OF all things discovered In tn
worlds history-mines, treasures. new
worlds-none comnare with tho dis