Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1896 — TALMAGE’S SERMON. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE’S SERMON.

THE PREACHER DISCOURSES ON CHRIST S MISSION. The World’eGreat Emancipators Were All of Lowly Birth—The Offender’s Hope—The Season of Forbearance and Forgiveness—Good Will to Men. A Christmas Carol. In his sermon Sunday Dr. Talmage chose the universal theme of the season — the Christmastide. The text selected was, “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem.’’—Matthew ii., 1. At miduight from one of the galleries of the sky a chant broke. To an ordinary observer there was no reason for such a celestial demonstration. A poor man and wife—travelers, Joseph and Mary by name —had lodged in au outhouse of au unimportant village. The supreme hour of solemnity had passed, and upon the pallid forehead and cheek of Mary God had set the dignity, the grandeur, the tenderness, the everlasting and divine significance of motherhood. But such scenes had often occurred in Bethlehem, yet never before had a star been unfixed or had a baton of light marshaled over the hills winged orchestra. If there had been such brilliant nnd mighty recognition at an advent in the house of Pharaoh, or at an advent in the house of Caesar, or the house of Hapsburg, or the house of Stuart, we would not so much have wondered, but a barn seems too poor a center for such a delicate aud archangelic circumference. The stage seems too small for so great an act, the music too grand for such unappreciative auditors, the window of the stable too rude to be serenaded by other worlds. It is my joy to tell you what was born that night in the village barn, and as I want to make my discourse accumulative and climacteric I begin in the first place by telling you that that night in the Bethlehem manger was horn encouragement for all the poorly started. He had only two friends—they his parents. No satin lined cradle, no delicate attentions, but straw, and the cattle, and the coarse joke and banter of the camel drivers. No wonder the mediaeval painters represent the oxen kneeling before the infant Jesus, for there were no men there nt that time to worship. From the depths of that poverty ho rose until to-day ho is honored iu nil Christendom and sits on the imperial throne in heaven. Miglitest Name in Christendom. What name is mightiest to-day in Christendom? Jesus. Who has more friends on earth than any other being? Jesus. Before whom do the most thousands kneel in chapel and church and cathedral this hour? Jesus. From what depths of poverty to what height of renown! And so let all those who are poorly started remember that they' cannot be more poorly born or more disadvantngcously than this Christ. Let them look up to his example while they have time and eternity to imitate it. Do yon know that the vast majority of the world’s deliverers had barniiko birthplaces? Luther, the emancipator of religion. born among the mines. Shakspeare, the emancipator of literature, born in an humble home at Stratford-on-Avon. Columbus, the discoverer of a world, born in poverty at Genoa. Hogarth, the discoverer of how to make art accumulative nnd administrative of virtue, born in a humble home in Westmoreland. Kitto and I’ridenux, whose keys unlocked new apartments in the Holy Scriptures which had never been entered, born in want. Yes, 1 have to tell you that nine out of ten of the world’s deliverers were born in want.

I stir your holy ambitions to-day, and I want to tell you, although the whole world may be opposed to you, und inside nnd outside of your occupations or professions there may be those who would hinder your ascent, on your side nnd enlisted in your behalf are the smypathctic heart and tho almighty arm of one who one Christmas night about eighteen hundred and ninety-five years ago was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Oh, what magnificent encouragement for the poorly started. Sacrifice for the World. Again, I have to tell you that iu that village barn that night was born good will to men, whether you call It kindness, or forbearance, pr forgiveness, or geniality, or affection, or love. It was no sport of high heaven to send its favorite to that humiliation. It wns sacrifice for a rebellious world. After tho calamity iu paradise, not only did the ox begin to gore, and the adder to sting, nnd the elephant to smite with his tusk, nnd the lion to put to bad use tooth and paw, but under the very tree from which the forbidden fruit wns plucked were hatched out war and revenge and malice and envy aud jealousy and the whole brood of cockatrices. But against that scene I set the Bethlehem manger, which says, “Bless rather than curse, endure rather than assault," and that Christmas night puts out vindictiveness. It says, “Sheathe your sword, dismount your guns, dismantle your batteries, turn the warship Constellation, that carries shot and shell, into a grain ship to take food to famishing Ireland, hook your cavalry horses to the plow, use your deadly gunpowder in blasting rocks and in patriotic celebration, stop your lawsuits, quit writing anonymous letters, extract the sting from your sarcasm, let your wit coruscate but nev<£ burn, drop all the harsh words out of your vocabulary—‘Good will to men.’ ” “Oh," you say, “I can’t exercise it. I won’t exercise it until they apologize. I won’t forgive them until they ask me to forgive them.” You are no Christian then —I say you are no Christian, or you are a very inconsistent Christian. If you forgive not men their trespasses, how can you expect your heavenly Father to forgive you? Forgive them if they ask your forgiveness, and forgive them anyhow. Shake hands all around. **Good will to men."

O my Lord Jesus, drop that spirit into all our hearts this Christmas time! I tell you what the world wants more than anything else—more helping hands, more sympathetic hearts, more kind words that never die, more disposition to give other people a ride and to carry the heavy end of the load and give other people the light end. and to ascribe good motives instead of bad, and find our happiness in making others happy. ' Good Will to Men. Out of that Bethlehem crib let the bear and the lipn cat straw like an ox. “Good vyill to men.” That principle will yet settle all controversies, and under it the world will keep on improving until there will be ou)y two antagonists in all the earth, and they will side by side take the jubilant sleigh ride intimated by the prophet when he said, “Holiness shall be on the be|]s of the horses.” Again, I remark that born that Christmas night in the village barn was sympathetic union with other worlds. From that supernatural grouping of the cloud banks over Bethlehem and from the especial trains that ran down to the scene I find that our world is beautifully and gloriously and magnificently surrounded. The meteors are with us, for one of them ran to point down to the birthplace. The heavens are with us, because at the thought of our redemption they roll hosan-< nas out of the midnight sky. Oh, yes, I do not know ,but our world may be better surrounded than we have sometimes imagined, and when a child is born angels bring it, and when it dies Angela take it, and when an old man

trtitrtr the weight of >eara angel* uphold him, and when a heart break* angels soothe it. Angels in the hospital to take care of the sick. Angels in the cemetery to watch our dead. Angels it) the church ready to fly heavenward with the hews - of repentant seuts. Angela above the world. Angels under the world. An. gels all around the world. Human Imperfection. Rub the dust of human imperfection out of your eyes and look into the heavens and see angels of pity, angels of mercy, angels of pardon, angels of help, angels crowned, angels charioted. The work) defended by angels, girdled by angelsj cohorted by angels—clouds of angels. Hear David cry out, “The chariots of God' are 20,000, even thousands of angels.” But the mightiest angel stood not that night in the clouds over Bethlehem} the mightiest angel that night Hy among the cattle—the angel of the new covenant. As the clean white linen was being wraped around the little form of that child emperor, not a clierob, not a seraph, not an angel, not a world but wept and thrilled and shouted. Oh, yes, our world has plenty of sympathizers! Our world is only a silver rung of a great ladder at the top of which is our Father’s house. Na more stellar solitariness for our world, no other friendless planets spun out into space to freeze, but a world in the bosom of divine maternity, a star harnessed to a manger. Again, I remark that that night born in that village barn was the offender’s hope. Some sermonizers may say I ought to have projected this thought at the beginning of the sermon. Oh, no! I wanted you to rise toward it. I wanted you to examine the carnelians and the jaspers and the crystals before I showed you the Kohinoor—the crown jewel of the nges. Oh, that jewel had a very poor setting! The cub of bear is born amid the grand old pillars of the forest, the whelp of lion takes its first step from the junglo of luxuriant leaf and wild flower, the kid of gout is born in cavern chandellered with stalactite and pillared with stalagmite. Christ wns born in a bare barn. Chrlat’a Mission. Yet that nativity wns the offender's hope. Over the door of heaven are written these words, “None but the sinlesa may enter here." “Oh, horror,” you say, "that shuts us all out." No. Christ camo to tlie world in one door and he departed through another door. He came through the door of the manger, and he departed through the door of the sepulcher, and his one business was so to wash away our sin that after we are dead there will be no more sin about us than about the eternal God, I know that is putting it strongly, but that is what I understand by full remission. All erased, all washed away, all scoured out, all gone. That undergirdling and overarching and irradiating aud Imparadising possibility for you, and for me, und for the whole race—that wns given that Christmas night. Do you wonder we bring flowers to-day to celebrate such nn event? Do you wonder that we take organ and youthful voice nnd queenly soloist to celebrate it? Do you wonder that Raphael nnd Rubens nnd Titinn and Giotto nnd Ghirlandnjo, nnd all the old Italian nnd German painters gave the mightiest stroke of their genius to sketch tho Madonna, Mary nnd her boy?

The Rtur of Christmas, Oh! now I see what tho manger was. Not so high the gilded and jeweled and embroidered cradle of tho Henry* of England, or the Louis of France, or the Fredericks of Prussia. Now I find out that that Bethlehem crib fed not so much the oxen of the stall us the white horses of Apocalyptic vislpn. Now I find ths swaddling clothes enlarging and emblazoning into on imperial robe for a conqueror. Now I find that the star of that Christinas night was only the diamonded sandal of him who hath the moon under his feet. Now I come to understand that the music of that night was not a completed song, but only the stringing of the Instruments for a great chorus of two worlds, tho bass to be carried by earthly nations saved, and tho soprano by kingdoms of glory wo*. Oh, heaven, heaven, heaven! I shall meet you there. After all our imperfections are gone I shall meet you there. I look out to-day through the mists of years, through the fog that rises from the cold Jordan, through the wide open door of solid pearl to that reunion. 1 expect to see you thero as certainly as I see you here. Home of your children have already gone, and though people passing along the street and seeing white crape on the doorbell may have said, “It is only a child,” yet when the broken-hearted father came to solicit my service he said, “Come around and comfort us, for we loved her so much.” Reason of Rejoicing* What a Christmas morning it will make when those with whom you used to keep the holidays are all around you in heaven! Silver-hnired old father young again, and mother who had so many aches and pains and decrepitudes well again, and all your brothers and sisters and the little ones. How glad they will be to see you! They have been waiting. The last time they saw your face it was covered with tears and distress, and pallid from long watching, and one of them I can Imagine to-day, with one hand holding fast the shining gate, and the other hand swung out toward you, saying: Steer this way, father, steer straight for me, Here safe in heaven I am waiting for thee.

Oh, those Bethlehem angels, when they went back after the concert that night over the hills, forgot to shut the doorl ’ All the secret is out. No more use of trying to hide from us the glories to come. It is too late to shut the gate. It is blocked wide open with hosannas marching this way and hallelujahs marching that way. In the splendor of the anticipation I feel as if I was dying—not physically, for I never was more well—but in the transport of the Christmas transfiguration. What almost unmans me is the thought that it is provided for such sinners as you and I huve been. If it had been provided only for those who had always thought right, and spoken right, and acted right, you and I would have had no interest in it, had no share in it. You and I would have stuck to the raft in midocean and let the ship sail by carrying perfect passengers from a perfect life on earth to a perfect life in heaven. But I have heard the commander of that ship is the same great and glorlbus and sympathetic one who hushcd<the tempest around the boat on Galilee, and I have heard that all the passengers on thp ship are sinners saved by grace. And so we hail the Ship, and it bears down this way, and, we conie by the side of it and ask the captain two questions: “Who art thou? And whence?” And he says, “I am Captain of salvation, and !am from the manger:’’ Oh, bright Christmas morning of my soul’s delight I Chime all the bells. Merft ’Christmas! Merry with the thought of sftis forgiven, merry with the idea of sorrows comforted, merry with the raptures tOj come. Oh, lift that Christ from the manger and Jay him down in all our hearts! We may not bring to him as costly a present as the Magi brought, but we bring to his feet and to the manger to-day the frankincense of onr joy, the prostration of our worship. Down at his feet, all churches, all ages, all earth, all heaven. Down at his feet, the four and twenty elders on their faces. Down, the. “great multitude that no man can number.”' Down, Michael, the archangpl! Down, all worlds at his feet and worship. “Glory to God in the highest* and on earth peace, good will to menf*