Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-12-23
BEAUTIFUL STORY Of
The CHRIST CH|LD|N
ELOQUENT SERMON
LEI USGOT0BETHLEHEM'
TEXT OF REV. DR.. ROLLINS
Pastor of the First Methodist
Church in Christmas Sermon
Tells Graphically of First
Christmas the World Knew
Centuries Ago,

The story OF Christmas was the
them of a sermon in almost every
pulpit in the city yesterday. Rev. DIR.
Rollins pastor of the First Methodist
church yesterday morning preached
an eloquent sermon from the text,
LET Us Go to Bethlehem" Luke 2:l5.
The sermon follows:
Again the tireless rounds Of days
and months brings us TO the we'll
nigh universal acknoWIeog cement of
that august event - prophets long
foretold of angels bending nea the
earth to touch their harps Of gold.
The highest orders of seraphic life
Join voice n touch with simple
%peasantry and earth ana sky and men
and angels throb and TEEN with life
efulgent beside the lowly cradle Of
the infant Christ. The rude and sim
Pile shepherds, pious and devout even
in their extreme ignorance voiced the
ever increasing yearning of the hu-
man hear when they said one to the
other let us go to Bethlehem For
was II not here II found that sad
sepulchral rock that was the casket OF
Heavens richest store. To Bethle-
hem. then, let US this morning, after
the ldpSe OF twenty centuries since
the birthright more Irvine than all
the race-wend our way and as did
the humble men in the long ago see
what this is that has come to pass
in the lowly hamlet.
Bethlehem means house of bread.
From this vantage ground of lowli-
ness and simplicity began the bread
which came down from heaven to
break itself TO feed the hungry life
of sin famished humanity.
1t was a dreary little hamlet OF mud
houses some six miles south of the
Holy City, from whose gold tipped
towers the simple homes of Bethle-
hem's humble jewellers might be seen
rising more than two thousand feet
into the clear sky among the Judean
hills.
1t was the birth place and the boy.
hood home of David, the warrior
king; he whose touch among the
strings of the immortal harp set all
the on-coming ages atune to the sub
FINEST religious poetry the world has
even known. David, in whom was
marvelously combined the sagacious
statesman, the matches poet'-as
saws John Lord-"who bequeathed to
ali ages a lofty and beautiful psalmo-
DIV. and as well the David-who, with
all his faults and weaknesses, was a
man aIteT the ntdIl oI hOu HiliStil'
How wonderful and o lasting the
songs he sang. The sermons of the
church are forgotten, but the songs
endure.
THUS have his songs become the
treasured property of mankind, re-
sounding in the anthems of different
creeds and carrying into every land
that anne voice which on Mount
Moriah was raised in sorrOwful long
ings or ectastic praise
Here was the deep rock hewn well
for whose waters. cool and refreshing,
David longed in the ave Of Adnl-
lam.
From Bethlehem went Naomi in
the flush and pride of fortune and IN
viting years-and bac to Bethlehem
came Naomi, widowed and in tears
but with her came the sweep-temper-
ed and faithful Ruth about whom
there has been woven the sweetest
and most ideal pastoral to fail from
the pen of man.
Here, to the north of the little VIII
lage, was the sacred spot where ia
cob gave bac to mother earth, dust
to dust, ashes to ashes-the loved
form of Rachel, the mother Of Ben
tamin and Joseph.
And herein his same adobe VII
Iage was later heard the voice of
lamanation and Of crying the moth
ers whom the prophet of the ancient
days depicted as Rachel. dying a
hundred deaths when the sword and
cruel hate of Herod sought. but
sought in vain, to take the young
Christ's life.
Apart from being the birth place
Of the King when he came TO his
own, Bethlehem is a city of no mean
history.
1t was into this hill country Joseph
and his bride came in obedience to the