The Yale expositor., 1907-12-20
A CHRISTMAS
LESSON
Sunday School Tor Dec. u. 1907
Specially Arranged for This Paper

Comment and Suggestive Ihouent'
The Effect of the First Christmas
Day Upon the World. What This
Power Has Accomplishments Test
of Power. How do we know what any
person or thing can do? BY what he
oh it has done.
l 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 hear
messages coming over them from near
and from far over the telephone.
Every night / see blazing lights from
the current passing through them.
| Not long ago man just over 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, 1 let them alone in the street,
and | turn the switch with perfect con-
fidence when l want a light.
Last summer at Niagara I de-
scended 100 feet underground in the
city power house, and in a small brick
compartment, only 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. / vas told that the power
Of 10000 to 100000 horses resided in
those black, dull objects. How could
| know? / knew by what they did. |
saw the cars moving all over the city,
and the streets and houses lighted at
/ MI nd a
light came from those black dynamos.
We see that with Christ came new
era 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 it 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 and sorrows multiply in proper
ton as there is less of the Christian
religion. The new age stands as
yet halfbuilt against the sky, "but it
is Christ that has built the new age
thus far, and that building is rising
faster and 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 it 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, a
never-ending conflict till the good has
triumphed.
The Sun Conquering 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.
white, snow-covered ground, the trees
beautiful in their branching twigs,
1.-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 air
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 and
fogs and east winds and bare trees,
and he exclaims, as Pliable did to
Christian when in the Slough of Des-
pond, Us this the blessedness you
were describing, the beautiful spring
you pictured to me with such enthusi-
asm? Is this what your mighty sun
is doing?"
You reply, These very things you
complain of are proof OF the power
OF the sun, and of the coming of the
spring / described. By these things
we know that spring is coming. They
are a thousand times more hopeful
than the silent Wilderness of winter. ="
We may personally feel this power
| ~
save and change each one of us. He
calls us to accept of him as our king,
our leader, and our Saviour. When we
give ourselves to Christ we do not
always, though sometimes we do.
realize the greatness of the change.
When of two boys one makes his
choice to become an educated man
and the other to live low and selfish
and sensual life, we do not always see
a great change or difference immedi-
ately in the boys; but as the years
go by the difference grows greater
and greater.
or all things discovered in the
worlds discrepancies, treasures, new
worlds--none compare with the dis
covery, each in his own experience, OF
Jesus Christ.
/ or all memorial days, the celebra-
/ ton OF Christmas by the giving Of
. | ..sf4a fo tho uoOaf annronrfafa for AZ