The dispatch-news. [volume] (Lexington, S.C.) 1919-2001, 1922-06-07

ing that all the resources of the Lord
God Almighty may be enlisted in your
behalf, and that at your first call for
help He will come for your deliver
ance.
Again, remark, that in that Beth
leheno barn, that Christmas night was
born good will to men, whether you
call it kindness, forbearance, forgive
ness. genialty affection, or love. 1t
was no sport FOR high heaven to send
its favorite to that humiliation. 1t
was a sacrifice for: rebellious world.
After the calamity in Paradise not
only. did the OK begin to gore and the
adder to sting and the elephant to
smite with it's tusk and the lion to
put to bad use tooth and paw, but
under the very tree from which was
pincked that forbidden fruit there
were Matched war and revenge and
anger and hate and envy and jealousy
and the whole brood of cosatrices.
Against that I put the Bethlehem
srene which practically says bless in
stead of curse, endure rather than as
sault, and that Christmas night seems
to put out all vindictiveness. 1t prac-
scally says, sheathe the sword; spike
the guns; dismantle the batteries;
turn the war-ship Constellation that
carried shot and shell, into a grain
ship to take food to famishing Ire
land; hook your cavalry horses to the
plow; use your deadly gunpowder to
blast rocks and for patriotic celebra-
ton; quit your lawsuits; stop your
anonymous letters; take the sting out
Of your sarcasm; drop all harsh words
out of your vocabulary; let your wit
coruscate, but let it never burn. Good
will to men! "Oh," says some one,
You may adopt that principle, 1'n
never adopt it. If my enemy wants
me to forgive him, he will have to
come and ask for forgiveness. If you
saw that YOU are no Christian, or you
are a very mean specimen of a Chris
tian. If ye forgive not men; their
trespasses neither will your heavenly
Father forgive you your trespasses.
Forgive them if they ask it; forgive
them, anyhow. Shake hands all
around. Good will to men! Oh, that
the blessed spirit Of our Lord Jesus
Christ would drop this. morning into
all our souls. What the world wants
is more kind words, more helping
hands, more disposition to give other
people a ride, more willingness to
take the heavy end Of the load and
give them the light end, more dispo-
sition to ascribe good motives instead
of bad. more willingness to find our
happiness in making others happy.
Out of: the Bethlehem crib let bear
and lion eat straw like an OK. Good
will to men! That principle will be-
come dominant in all the earth until
there will be only two antagonists
lett, and they will side by side take
the jubilant sleigh ride to which the
prophet seems to point when he says:
sssssfoliness shah be upon the bells Of
AgaIn i reraar aat on that Christ
raas night ii that Bethlehem when
was born sympathetic union with
other words. The only scepticism
that has ever touched me. night call
an astronomical scepticism which
said: why did God go past Jupiter
and Saturn and all the mighty worlds
and cone TO our little bit of world
for the achievement. of ghis. son, His
only Son., when it might have been
on larger scale and. amid ;yaster
worlds?" But when I come to- the:
manger and I see, it's woaderful:sur-
roundings, the scenticism is gone L
find all the worlds are; sisters; and
when one weeps they all weep, and
when one sings they 'an2sings From
that supernatural grouping in that
cloud bank over Bethlehem and from
the especial trains that ran down to
the scene, 1 know that other worlds
are in sympathy with ours: The
meteors are with U.s.. for one of them
ran to point out the Savior's birth
place. The heavens are with US, for
at the thought Of our redemption dox-
ologies rolled from the midnight sky.
Oh, my friend, I think that here is
more sympathy, more heavenly SYM
patty with us than we sometimes
imagine, and that when a child is
born angels fetch it, and when an old