Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1895 — TALMAGE’S SERMON. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE’S SERMON.

THE PREACHER DISCOURSES ON CHRIST’S MISSION. The Great Emancipators Were All of Lowly Birth—The Offender’s Hope—The Season of Forbearance and Ij ° f " ’ Forgiveness—Good Will to Men. ,A. . j A Christmas Carol. In his sermon Sunday Dr. Talmage chose - the universal theme of the season—the Christmastide. The text selected was, "“Now whep Jesus was born in Bethlehem. ii., 1. At midnight from one of the galleries of the skv a rli.-mt broke. To-an ord-t* nary observer there- was no reason for such a celestial demonstration. A poor man and wife trwve 1 ers, Joseph and Mary by . name—bird lodged in an out-, house of an unimportant village. The supreme—hour of solemnity had passed, and upon tho pallid forehead and cneek of Mary God had set the dignity, the grandeur, the tenderness, the everlasting and divide significance of motherhood. But stich scenes had often Occurred in Bethlehem, yet never before- had a star “beewiiiitixed'orhad a baton ufrirght rmtvshaled ever the hills winged orchestra. If the.ro had been such brilliant and 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 bayn seems too poor a center for such'a delicate and archangelic circumference. The stage seems too Sihall 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 JJrnt. night in' the viljjig'e barn, a'nd as'l 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 born encouragement for all the poorly started. He had-only two friends—they, his parents. No satin lined' cradje. no delicate attentions, but i-straw.qiiid the cattle, and the coarse joke and banter of the camel drivers? Np wonder the mediaeval painters- represent" the oxen ktieeling before tho infant ' Jesus, for ttp>re were no men there at that time to worship. From the depths of that poverty he rose until to-day he is l honored 'in all Christendom and sits on the imperial throne in heaven.

Slightest Name in Christendom. What name is mightiest to-dayin tendom? Jesus. Who has more friends on* earth than any ptfieb being? ,Jesus.' Before whom do the most thousands kneel in chapel paid church and cathedral this hour? Jesus. From what depths.or poverty to what .height of renown! And so let till those who are poorly started remember that they cannot be tub,re poorly born or more disadvantagebtfsfy than this Christ. Let them look up to his example while they have time and- eternity to imitate it. Do you know l(hat the Vast majority of the world’s deliverers had hornlike* birthplace’s? Luther, the emancipator of religion, born among the mines. Shaks-' pea re, the emancipator of literature, born in an humble homemFStrSttofiFOT-Aton.’ Colunibus, the discoverer of a world, born in poverty at Genoa. Hogarth', the discoverer of how to make art aecuraula’tive and administrative of virtue, born in a diumble home in AVcstmorSfttatl. Kitto and Frideaux, Whose keys unlocked new apartments in the Holy Scriptures which had never been entered, born in want. Yes, I have to tell you that nine out of ten of the world's deliverers were born in want. . » I stir your holy ambitions to-diiy, and J want to tell you, although the' whole world may be opposed to you, and inside and outside of your occupations or professions there may be those who would hinder your ascent, on your side and enlisted in your-behalf are the smypathetie heart and the 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 fop the World. Again, I hqve to tell yon that in that village barn that night was born goodwill to men, whether you calbfit kindness, or forbearance, or forgiveness, ‘or geniality, or affection, or love. It was no sport of high beaten to send its favorite to that humiliation. It was sacrifice for a rebellious world. After the calamity in paradise, not only did the ox begin to gore, and the adder to sting, and the clepliant to smite with his tusk, and the lion to put to bad hse tooth and. paw, btit'Umler the very tree -from which the. forbidden fruit was plucked were hatched 1 out war and revenge and malice andT?nvy apd jealousy and tile whole brood of cockatrices. But against that scene I set tls 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 tlrn plow, use your deadly gunpowder in blasting rbeks and in patriotic celebration, stop your lawsuits, quit writing anonymous letters, extract the sting from your sarcasm, let your wit coruscate but never 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 mon their trespasses, how can you expect your heavenly Father to forgive you? Forgive them if they ask your forgiveness, ami forgive them anyhow. Shake hands all around. “Good will to men.” ,1 ' - 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 on.d 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 thedion eat straw like an ox. “Good will to men.” That principle will yet settle all controversies, ’and under it the Will keep on improving until there will be/pnly two antagonists in all the earth,” and they will side by side take the jubilant sleigh ride intimated by tie

prophet when he said!, “Holiness shall be on the bells of the horses.” , Again. I remark that born that Christinas night intney illage’barri'wassyhipa,thet:<• unfoiryitftir othen = TvorldS. JExam that supernatural (grouping pf'TFe ckmch hanks.over Bethlehem ahd/ffomthe especial trails that ran dotWrto I find that our world isrinfautifullyiaiid 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, becatise at the thought of our redemption they roll hosannas out of the midnight sky. . 'I Oh, yes, I do not know but our world <mdy bo better surrounded than we have sometimes imagined, and when a Child is born angels bring it, and when it dies angels take it; and when an bld . man • -bends finder the weight of years angels uphold him, and when a heart breaks ■ar+g-eJs-sootlre..iL Angejs in the hospital to take care of the, sick. Angels in t-het cemetery to watch our dead. Angels in the church ready to fly heavenward with the liews ofivepentant the worWI. undefThe world. Angels all arouml the wen'kl.— •*' - Human Imperfection. Rub the dust of human imperfection out of your eyes and look into the heavens and see afigels of pity, angels of mercy, angels qf’pardon, angels of help, angels crowned, angels charioted. The wnrhl,. 'defended by - angels, girdled by angels, cohorted by angels—clouds of angels. Hear. David i-ry' out, “The chariots of God are 20.0(10, even thousands of angels.” ’But'l|ie mightiest angel stood not that night in the clouds over Bethlehem; the mightiest angel that night lay among the cattlcT-the angel of the new covenant. As the clean white linen was being wr.-tped aroumj' tjje little form of that child emperor, nAt a cherub, not a’.seraph, not an angel, not a world but wept and thrilled and shouted. Oh, yes, our world lias plenty oftsympathizers! Our world is only a silver rung of a great ladder at the )~tTqj’<Tf~THTirir^~Wtft r 'Noy more stellar solitariness for our world ether, friendless planets s"pun 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 tidsj thought at the beginning ofdhe■sermon. Oh, no! 1 wanted you to rise toward it. Pwanted you tjo examine the carnelians and the jaspers and the crystals before I showed you the Kohinoor—tho crown jewel of the ages. Oh, that jewel had a very poor setting!’ The cub of bear is borii amid the grand old pillars of the forest, the whelp of ‘ lion takes its first step from the jungle : of luxuriant leaf and wild flower, the kid of goat is born in cavern chandeiiered with stalactite 'and pillared with stalagmite. Christ was born in a bare barn.

'J Christ’s Mission. Yet that nativity l was the offender's hope. Over the door of heaven are written these ( “None but the sinless may enter here.” “Oh, horror,” you say, “that shuts us all out.” No. Christ came ,to the world hi one doowand he departed through.another door. /Ie came through the door of the manger/ and he departed through the door of the sepulcher,-and his one business was so toHvnsh away our sin that after we a're dead there will be ho mote sin ahemt us than about the eteruaL God. I know that is putting it fjtrongly, but that is what 1 understand by full remission. All erased, all washed away, all scoured out, all gone. That undergird- - ling: and overarching nnd irradiating and irfiparadising possibility for you, aiid for aie, ‘arid for-the wbple race—that whs given tlitit Christmas night. Doyon wonder we bring flowers to-day to celebrate smm an event? Do you wonder that we take organ and youthful voj.ee and queenly soloist to celebrate it ? Do you wonder that Raphael and Rubens and Titian and Giotto and Ghirlandajo, and all the old Italian and German painters gave the mightiest stroke of their genius to sketch the Madounij-, Mary and her boy ? The Star oft Christmas. Oh! now I see what the manger was. Not so high the gilded and jeweled and embroidered cradle of the Honeys of England, or the Louis of France, or the Frpderreks of Frussia. Now I find out that that Betlilehem crib fed not so much the oxen of the stall as the white horses of Apocalyptic vision. Now I find-the swaddling clothes enlarging and emblazoning into an imperial robe for a conqueror. Now I find that the star of that Christmas 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- of tlie instruments for a great chorus of two worlds, the bass to be carried by earthly saved, and the soprano by kingdoms of glory won. Oh, heaven, heaven, hea'ven! I shall meet you there. After all our imperfections are gone 1 ;shall meet you there. I look out to-day through the mists <of years, through tlfefog that rises from the cold Jordan, through the wide open door of solid pearl to that reunion. I expect to see you there as certainly as 1 see you here. What a time we shall have in high cdliterse, talking over the sins pardoned, and sorrows comforted, and battles triumphant! Some of your chihlrCm 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 cable to solicit my service he said, “Come around and comfort'us, for we loved her so much.”

Feason df Bcjoicing. What a Christmas morning it will make when those with whom you used to keep the holidays are all around you in heaven! Silver-haired old father young again, and mother who had so many aches and pains and decrepitudes well again, apd 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, ami 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 Swunjj out toward you, saying: Steer this way, father, steer straight for me. Here safeJn heaven I am waiting for thee. Oh, those Bethlehem angels, when they went fhtek after the concert that night over the hills, forgot to shut the door! 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 though that it is provided for such sinners as jto« and I have 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 ii rt,. had no share in it. You and I woult to the raft in midocefin and lu the ship sail by carrying "perfect passen gers from a perfect life, on earth to t perfect life in heaven. Bnt I have heart the commander of that ship is the sam< great and glorious and sympathetic ont who hushed the tempest around the boat on Galilee, and I have hoard that all th< passengers bn the >lup a4’o sinners savot by grace. Apd so we fijilthe ship, and ii 'bears down this way, and w£ come by th< shle of it and ask the\ caprain two ques tions: “Who art thou? And whence?’ And lie says,“l am Captain of salvation and lam from the manger,” Oh, bright Chrifttmaamorning of my soul’s-delight Chime aTT the bells. Merry CfifistmffsJ Merry with the thought qf sins forgiven merry with the idea of sorrows comforted merry with the. raptures to eome. Oh, lift that Christ from the manger and lay hin down in aM bur-hearts! We may not bring to' him as costly a present as th. Magi brought, but we bring to his feet and to the manger to-day the frankincenst of our joy, the prostration of our worship - Down at his feet, all churches, all ages, all earth,., at his feet" the four and twenty elders on their faces Down, the “great multitude that no mat can number.” Down. Michael, the fifth, angel! Down, all worlds at his feet an, worship. “Qlory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to men!”