Oh. TALVAGES SERMON,
——————
The Brooklyn Divine's Sunday
: Sermon.
Subject; “The Sky Anthom.”
(Preached at Beyrout.)
Texr: “Glory to Godin the highest, and
oh seri peace, good will toward men "—
ke ii, 14
At last 1 have what I longed for, a Christ
mas eve in the Holy Land, This is the time
of year that Christ landed. He was a Decem.
ber Christ. This is the chill air through
which He descended. I look up through these
Christmas skies, and I see no loosened star
hastening southward to halt above Bethle
hem. but all the stars su gor the Star of
Bethlehem. No more Ay at any of them
run along the sky to point downward, In
(uietude they kneel at the feet of Him who,
though once an exile, is now enthroued for
ever Fresh up from Bethlehim, 1
am full of the scenes suggested by a
visit to that village. You know that
whole region of Bethlehem is famous in Bible
heart. Fretfulness and complaining dc
not belong w the family of Christian
grages which move into heart whey
the devil moves oul. Christianity
does not frown upon amusements
and recreations. It ianota ayni, itis not a
shrew, it chokes no laughter, it quenches ne
light, it defaces no ars. Among the happy,
it is the happiest. It is just as much st home
on the playground as it is in the church. It
in just as in the charade as it is ic
the psalm . It sings just as well in Sur
roy gardens as it prays in Bt. Paul's. Christ
died that we might live. Christ walked that
wo might ride, Christ wept that we might
laugh.
Again, my subject impresses me with the
[act that glorious endings sometimes have
very humble beginnings. The straw paliel
was the starting point, but the shout in the
midnight sky revealed what would be tie
lorious consummation. Christ on Mary!
p, Christ on the throne of universal do
minion—what an humble starting! What
glorious ending! Grace begins on a smal
scale in the heart. You see only men as trem
walking. The grace of God in the heart
a feobls spark, and Christ has to keep both
hands over it lest it be blown out. What an
bumble beginning! But look at that same man
when He has entered heaven. No erown able
to express His royalty. No palace able to ex
story here were the waving harvests of
Boaz, in which Ruth gleaned for herself and |
weeping Naomi. There David the warrior
was thirsty, and three men of unheard of
self denial broks through the Philistine army |
to get him a drink. It was to that region
that Joseph and Mary came to have their |
names enrolled in the consus, That is what
the Scripture means when it says they cams |
‘to be taxed” for people did not in those |
Jays rush after the assessors of tax any more |
than they now do.
The village inn was crowded with the
strangers who had come up by the command |
of Government to have their names in the
census, so that Joesph and Mary wers obliged
to lodge in tha stables. You have seen some |
of those large stone buildings, in the center |
of which the camels were kept, while run- |
ning out from this center in all directions
there were rooms, in one of which Jesus was
born. Had his parents been more showily |
appareled I have no doubt they would have
found more comfortable entertainment, |
That night in the fields the shepherds, with |
crook and kindled fires wera watch.
ing their locks, w heyy hark! to
the sound of wolres strangely sweet,
(’an jt be that the maidens of Bath shem have
come out 10 serenade the weary shepherds!
But now a light stoops upon them like the |
morning, so that the flocks arise, shaking |
their snowy flaece and bleating to their |
urowsy young. The heavens are filled with |
armies of light, and the earth quakes under
the harmony as, echoed back from cloud to
ioud, it rings over the midnight hills
wlory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, zood will to men.” It seems that the
«rown of royalty and dominion and power |
pieh: Christ left behind Him was hung on |
Ly io sight of Bethlehem. Who knows
at that crown may have been mistaken |
the wise men for the star running and
winting downward?
My subject, in the first place, impresses me
with the Tact that indigencs is not always |
significant of degradation. When Princes |
ars born, heralds announce it, and cannog
thunder it, and flags wave it, and llumina-
tions set cities on fire with the tidings. Some
of us in England or America remember the
time of rejoicing when the Prince of Wales
was born. You can remember the gladness
throughout Christendom at the nativity in
the palace at Madrid. Bat when our glorious
Prince was born, there was no rejoicing on
earth. Poor and growing poorer, yet the
heavenly recognition that Christmas aight
shows the truth of the proposition that in.
igeace 1s not always significant of degrada
tion
In all ages there have been great hearts
tarobbing under rags, tender sympathies une
der rough exterior, gold in the quartz, Par
ian marble in the quarry,and in every stable
of privation wonders of éxceliance that have
been the joy of the heaven y host. All the
great deliverers of literature and of nations
wera born in homes without affluence, and
from their own privation learnad to speak
and fight for the oppressed. Many a man
has held up his pine knot light from the wil
derness until all nations and generations
have sean it, and off of his hard crust of pen |
ury bas broken the bread of knowledge and
religion for starving millions of the
race. Poetry, and seience, and literaturs,
and commerce, and, laws and consti
tutions, and liberty. like Christ, were bors
he great thoughts which
2 ny of nations started in
ura corsers, and had Herods who waated
siay them and Iscariofs who betrayed
them, and rabbles that crucified them, and
sepuichres that eoufined them until they bars
forth in glorious resurrection. Strong char
acter, like the rhododendron, fs an Alpine
plant. that grows fastest in the storm. Maa
are like wheat worth all the more for
being flalled. Bome of the most uselu
people ww mid never Bave me Pore
tions of usefulness had they not boen
ground aad pounded . and bammered
in the foundry of disaster. When |
se Moses coming up from the ark of bul
rushes to ba the greatest Iawgiver of the
ages, and Amos from tending the herds to |
mika Israel trembis with his prophecios, and
David from the sheepcote to sway the post's
pen and the King's scepter, and Peter from
the fishing net to be ths great preacher at the
Pentecost, 1 find proof of the truth of my
proposition that indigence is not alway
ificant of degradation. ;
“$ty subject also impresses me with the |
Dy
the
o
$0
i
thought that it is while at our useful oc |
cupations that we have the divine |
manifestations, Had thoss shepherds |
gons that might into Bethlehem and |
risked their flocks among the wolves, they |
would not have beard the song of the is. |
in other words, that man sees most of God |
and haaven who minds his owa busines. We |
all have our posts of duty, and standing |
shore God appears to us, os ars all shop.
herds or shepsrdesses, and we have our |
flocks of cares and annoyances and anxieties, |
and wa must tend tham.
We sometimes hear very good people say
“If I bad a month ora year or two to de
nothing but attend to religious things, |
would bs a great deal better than Iam now.”
You are mistaken. Generally the best peo
pla are the busy people. Elisha was plowing
n the fleld when the prophetic mantle {
on him. Matthew was attending to his cus
tom house duties when Christ commanded
him to follow, James and John were mend.
ing their nots when Christ called them to be
of men, Had they been snoring in
the sun Christ would not have called their
indolence into the apostieship. Gideon
was at work with the flail on the
threshing floor when he saw the ol,
Haul was with great f hunting up the
lost asses when he found crownof Israel,
The prodigal son would never have reformed
and wanted © have returned to his father's
houses if he had not first gone into busine
though it was swine feeding. Not onoe ou
of a hundred times will a lazy man become
a Christian. Those who have nothing to do
are in very unfavorable circumstances for
the recsiving of divine manifestations. It is
not whan are in id but when you
are, lke Bethlehem sh watching
your flocks, that the glory and there
w joy the
penitent and forgiven.
My subject also strikes at the delusion that
the religion of Christ is dolorous and grief
in The music that broke through the
wess His wealth. No soeptre able to express
is power snd His dominion. Drinking from
the fountain that drips from the everiasting
Rock. Among the harpers harping with their |
barps. On a ses of glass mingle with fire, |
Before the throne of God, to go no mors out |
forever. The spark of grace that Christ had
to keep both hands over lest it come to ex
tinction, having flamed up into honor and
glory and imnmortality. What humble start |
ing! What glorious consummation |
The New Testament Church was on g |
Fishermen watched it. A zainst
the uprising walls crashed infernal enginery.
The world said anathema. Ten thousand |
rejoiced at every seetiing defeat, and |
“Aha! aba! so we would have it"
Martyrs on fire cried: “How long, O Lord,
how long” Very humble starting, but ses |
the differance at the consummation, when
last
Himalaya
chain
shall
Of
human bondage, and |
ba
Mount Zion: and |
piace of Hun who trod the wave cliffs of |
Tiberias, and island shall call &
island, sea to sea, continent to continent, and |
shall strike back the shout of salvation to!
of God, and all heaven rising on their |
thrones, beat time with their scepters. Oh, |
what aa humble beginning! What a glorious
encing! Thrones linked to 4 manger, heavenly |
My subject also impresses me with the of
fect of Christ's mission upward and down.
ward, Glory, to God, peace to man. Wes
lod sent His Son into the world, angels dis
coverad something new in Cod, something |
they had never seen before. Not power, not
wisdom, not love. They knew all that be
fore. But when God sant His Son into this
warld then the angels saw the spirit of selfs
rit of self-sacrifice in
God, It is easier to Jove an angel on His
thrones than a thief on the ¢ross, a seraph
in his worship than an adulteress
When the angels saw God
ld not allow the most insignificant
angel in Geavesg Lo Oe urt--give up Plis oH,
His Son, His only, only aw
something that they hac thought of
before, and Ido not wonder that when Carist
started out cn that pigrimsgze the angols in
heaven clapped their wings in triumph and
called on all the hosts of heaven to help them
irate it, and sang so loud that the Beth
n shepherds heard it: “Glory to God in
the highest.”
the sp
in
HK
wal
or
crime,
who w
oe (rend
Son, they
never
Lak
But it was also to bs a mission of peace to
man Infinite holiness—accumulated de
pravity. How could they ever coms to
gether! The Gospel bridges over the dis
tance. Itbrings Godtous It takes us to
God God In us, and we in God Atone
ment! Atonement! Justice satisfied. sine
forgiven, eternal life securad, heaven built
on 8 manger,
But it was also to be the pacification of all
individual and international animosition
What a sound this word of peace had in the
Roman Empire that aon of the number
of people it had massacred, that prided itself
on the number of the slain, that rejoicsd
at the trembling provinces. Sicily pi r=
sica and Sardinia and Macedonia and Egypt
bad bowed to her sword and crouched at the
ery of har war eagles She gave her chiel
honor to Scipio and Fabius and Cesar--all
men of bloo What contempt they must
have bad there for the penniless unarmed
Christ in the garb of a Nazarine, starting out
to conquer all nations. Theres paver was a
piace on earth where taat word peace sounded
Teusively to the cars of the multitude as in
the Homan Empire They did not want peace
The greatest music they ever heard was the
f their captives. If all the
clanking chains of
blood that has been shad in battles could be
ay Of
Abel to the earth has {te
s=ho in the butcherios of all ages, Edmund
Burks, who gave no wild statistics, said that
Tha club that struck
be equal to that: but he had not seen into
sar times, when in our ownday, in America,
we expended threes thousand millions of dol.
iars in civil war,
Oh, if we could now takes our position on
march past! What aspectacle it would be!
sf Rad seas—one of water, tha rest of hlood
Pe rejoicing over the fal of the gatosief i
abylon, hare goes Alexander, ing |
forth his hosts and conquering all the world
but himsalf, the earth reeling with the bat
to gash of Arbels and Persapolis. There
goes Ferdinand Cortes, leaving his buthered
maeniss on the tables land: onca fra
grant with vanilla aad coverad over
Thers
oes the great Frenchman, leading his army
ywn through Egypt like one of its plagaes,
and up through Rassia like one of its own joy
slasts, Youder is the grave trench under the
There are the ruins
nhuman Sopoys and ths brave regimeats
sander Havelock avenging the insulted flag of
Britain; while cut right through the heart of
my native land is a trench in which thera lla |
me million Northern and Southern dead.
Oh, the tears! Oh, the bloxd! Oh, the long
marches! Ob, the hospital wounds! Oh, the
martyrdom! Oh, the death! But brighter
than the light which flashed on all Shess
swords and shields and musketry is the light
that fell on Bethlehem, and louder thas tha
bray of the trumpets, and the neighing of the
shargers, and the crash of the walls, and the
ning of the dying armies, is the song
hat unrolls this moment from the sky,
sweet as though all the bells of heaven
rung a jubiles; ‘'Peaca on earth, good will
toward man.” Oh, when will the day come--
God hasten it!—when the swords shall be
turned into plowshares, and the fortresses
shall bs remodeled into churches, and the
men of blood battl fur rencswn shall be.
some good soldiers Jesus Christ, and the
cannon now striking dowa whole columns of
death shall thunder the victories of the
truth.
When we think of the whole world saved
wa are apt to think of the few peopls that
now inhabit it. Only a very fow compared
with the to come, And what a
cultivated. Do you
estimated
small know it ba
been authentically that three
fell upon Bethleham, and mors overwhelm.
ing than the song that fell on the ture
# where the flocks fed, there will be a
song londsr than the voice of the storm
lifted oceans, *‘Glory to God in the highest”
and from all nations “nd kindred and people
and tongues will come the response, '‘And
on earth peace, god will toward men™ On
this Christmas # el bring you good tidings
of great joy. Pardon for sll sin, comfort
for all trouble and life fcr the dead, Shall
we now take this Christ into our
hearts? The time is passing. This is the
closing of the year. How the time spesds by
Put your hand on your heart—one, two,
three, Three times less it will beat, life is
no like gazelles over the plain, Sorrows
over like petreis over the sea. Death swoops
like a vulture from the mountains. Misery
rolls up to our ears like waves. Heavenly
songs fall to us like stars,
I wish you a merry Christmas, not with
worldly dissipations, but merry with Gospel
gladness, merry with pardoned sin, merr
with hope of reunion in the skies with all
your loved ones who have preceded you. In
that grandest and boyt sense a merry
Christmas.
And God grant that in our final moment
womay have as bright a vision as did the
dying girl when she said: “Mother” —point-
with her thin white hand through the
window--""Mother, what is that beautiful
land out yonder beyond the mountains, the
high mountains® “Oh” said the mother,
“my darling, thers are no mountains within
“Oh, yes” she said,
“don’t you ses them —that beautiful land be-
yond the mountains out there, just beyond
ths high mountains?’
The mother looked down into the face of
her dying child and said: ‘My dear, I think
“Wall,
then," she said, ‘father, you come, and with
mountains.”
“my darling, I can't go with you,” ‘Well?
she said, clapping her hands, “never mind,
He is coming now, in His strong arms
mountains ™
Execution Methods in China,
The Boo-Chow eorrespondent of the
North China Herald, reporting recently
cutions in China are fixed.
tries the criminal knows
day of his death, and has time to prepare
for his fate. But in China al is different
At Pekin the vermillion pencil marks the
death warrant, which is immediately
a horse and rides off to his destination,
supplies fresh horses, and he
goes onward, sleeping and eating in his
saddle, never halting by day or night, in
sunshine or rain. After riding 700 miles
he reaches Soo-Chow
warrant to the Governor,
gers are instantly dis
district magistrate, who presides at the
and delivers the
Three messen-
satched, one to the
*
execution and who repairs at onee to the
place, a second to the eamp for an escort
and the third to the ja The
are bound, dragged before the
the lord of
lL. victims
image of
1,
then
hades, which is in the pris
i
pay their resp y are
placed in cages, carrie ites’ backs,
and at a rough trot
for the execution |
out
‘he nerve and
er trusted
in 800-Chow to take off more than three
{ there is a gre
ber of criminals assistants are employed.
There are generally from fifty to one hun.
dred executions per annum in Soo-Chow,
where all the criminals of Kiang Soo,
with a population of 21,000,000, sre ex-
ecuted. They are mostly pirates,
or four heads. ster ol
One Question Too Many.
Ex-Judge Nosh Davis was always
aoted, while he was on the bench, for
his pertinent gq witnesses,
One day a suit was tried
which a steamship company was required
to show cause why it should not pay the
damages which had
becn destroyed by the incontinent actions
of truck horses, frightened, as it was
slaimed, by the horrible and unearthly
whist] s steamship was
about to depart from the pier. One of
the witnesses was Michael Sweeny, an
Irishman, who was present at the time
of the accident
Stephen F. Nash, the counsel for the
plaint!T, asked Mr. Sweeny if hus horses
questions to
before him in
to certain goods
of the which
“They were not, sor,” he said.
“But what Kind of an ear have your
“They have good ears, sor,” he an
“Did you hear the whistle yourself”
“did, sor.’
“Bat,” said Judge Davia, turning to
‘what
“A hand-~art, sor.”
“Ah,” said the Judge, turning apolo-
"
Natu-e's Remedy for Diphtheria
It is said that nature has her own
remedy for every iil to which flesh is heir.
discovered and some that have been found
out have no% become generally known.
Medical science has long sought for a
sovereign remody for the scourge of child.
hood, diphtheria, yet the colored people
of Louisiana, and perhaps of other local-
ities in the South, have for years known
and used a care which is remarkable for
its simplicity. It is nothing more nor less
than the pure juice of the pine apple.
“The remedy is not mine,” said a gen-
tleman, when interviewed, “it has been
used by negroes in the swamps down
South for years. One of my children was
down with diphtheria and was in a criti
cal condition. An old colored man who
heard of the case asked jf we had tried
pine apple juice. We tried it and the
child got well. I have known it tried in
hundreds of cases. Ihave told my friends
about it whenever I heard of a case and
never kuew it to fail. You get ari
pineapple, squeeze out the juice, and lot
the patient swallow it, The juice is of so
corrosive a nature that it will eut out the
di mucus, and if you will take
the fruit before it is ripe and give the
juice to a person whose throat is well it
makes the mucus membrane of his throat
sore, Chicago Tribune.
bh to be es
, which is
682 feet below the the Mediter-
level of
's This Your Likeness?”
Onn of the subtiest forms of selfish-
ness is that which comes from self
absorption in work. The greater the
work, the more ready conscienos is to
palliste or even to justify altogether
this selfishness. But lately the world
of critics was talking over Carlyle's
careless unconcern for his sensitive,
sometimes sick, and often suffering
wife. It does not relieve him from just
condemnation tus Lis sin was a com-
mon one; but if none but a sinless crit.
ie could throw the first stone, Carlyle
would not have been much hurt.
When first married the husband is
everything to the wife. Housekeeping
cares are small, or none at all; there is
little society; the days are long and
lonely; the wife counts the hours and
even the minutes for her husband's
return; and everything is ready for hus
coming, 8s though he were all the
world contained, as, indeed, he is to
her, But this cannot continue long.
Children come and dividé attention,
care and love, Bociety interposes its
claims, The church demands time and
thought. There are calls to return,
and meetings to attend, and dresses to
make, and baby to care for; and the
husband has to take a second place.
Now, though it is never casy for an
idol to step off from his pedestal or put
another one alongside himself, the hus-
band who has a moderate share of com-
mon sense will not expect the wife and
| mother to give the same exclusive
thought to him that the young bnde
gave, But # is no rare experience for
sorbed in other duties that her husband
recedes steadily from the first place to
the third and fourth, and finally goes
out of sight altogether. She no longer
watches for his coming; she is surprised
when he appears, and half disappointed,
tog, that be is home so soon, for this
bit of household work is not quite done,
or thas last stitch is not yet thken, and
she id really more anxious to finish the
than to her husband. The
| BORN B00
{ forgotten beenuse of the supposed larger
duties due to society or the church;
| and the wife, by her self-absorption in
a bustling life outside, does more to
| make her husband a pagan than
make pagans Christians, because the
she touches very nearly and the
other she influences only afar off.
call this life of self-absorption a subtle
form of selfishness, because | am-
bition makes social care a delight and
| social daty a pleasore; what t}
good woman imagines to a self-dens-
al is really an enjoyment,
sion. We have
Ie
SOCInd
fli
i
16
ia :
if not a pas
Known Ww i
WOAary «
who woul
Wore never i Inve
sOCIetY di
were taken ont of 1
But this sa
far oftener seen
the wife. He
gives
busine
bile
i his
ss, aud gives only a frin and
fragment of thought to the woman he
idol zes for a month, with rare
fidelity of masculine afl Or {for
twelve-month, When Le com home
he leaves his mind in the counting
room and only brings his body to the
BUH r-t ible,
ted, 1 of
ana
Or even,
§
i
often positively cross. His
him that, if she be sensitive, she learns
to study him fartively before she ven-
nres to :ddress him, even
of the evening fireside; and if she be
not sensitive answers back, and
each sharp battle of words scparstes
them farther and farther away from
each other. The best men are most
easily subject to this unconscions form
of subtle seMishness. The higher the
thoughts and the larger the works, the
greater the danger and the easier the
self-exouse. The min ster who
ted to the interest of his chureh, who is
full of tenderness in the pulpit, and of
respectful consideration in
appears not unfrequently at hos
accommodating, thoughtiess o
easily irritated, in a word, sel Hi
| may be wholly nneconscious o fish
ness. In one sense he is not selfish, for
his thoughts are not om sedf, but on his
sermon, his church, or his perplexed
| parishioners. But he puts his work
| first and hae family second, and forgets
! Paul's declaration that he who fails fo
provide for his own family is worse
than an infidel. And to provide for
one's own family is to provide not
| merely food and clothing, but consider-
{ ation and love.
sho
society,
unn-
others,
| David, **thon art the man,” but we will
{ If you want to know, ask your mate
| husband or wife—to read this article
| thing of wour face can be seen in this
{ mirror, — The Christian at Work.
El ——a
A Few Hints.
| air will cause the finest powder to “
pear blue, and at such times it should
should powder be loft alone.
yoints, however, can only be decided
yy experience, hints anc suggestions
being of little use to the novice.
When the hair is worn low on the
neck, it is a good iden to nse a pair of
tiny combs to draw it down so as to
hide the ugly portion of the neck, and
the hair is so amenable that in time it
will grow there naturally. Some of
these combs have simply a narrow gold
border, others a tiny edge of Rhine.
stones, and others stil a row of garnets
and Bhine-stones set alternately. The
first named are the prettiost, for, after
all, gems that seem to be what they are
not, ave never quite refined.
ss
Preparing for Another Possibility. —
“Mamma, I'm sorry 1 dis’beyed
oul”
y “I'm glad to know it, Flossia,’
“Mamma, I'm drefful sorry.”
“Yes, little dear.”
“Mamma, "uc just as sorry as can
be.” :
“That's enough of ‘sorry,” dear. You
needn't heap it up.”
“Well, mamma, maybe some of it
will do for next time I dis’bey.”
a ———— 3
Tus crooked shall be made straight
when osught.
Turns will al be romance in the
Jord as long are young hearts
SUNDAY : CHOO0L LESSON,
FUNDAY JANUARY 12, 110.
The Song of Mary.
LESSON TEXT.
Luke l : 8005. Memory verses, 49, 51)
LESSON PLAN.
Toric or THE QUARTER :
Saviour of Men.
Jorun the
Goroex Texr vor TE (QUARTER:
Glory to God in the highest, and aon
earth peace, good will toward men.
Luke 2 ; 14,
Lipssox Tovic : The Naviour's coms
ing lleyaice od ver.
His
rf 1. As an Homor to
{ Mother, vs, 46.4%
1 2 Asa Mere
vs, 0 4
{ Asi Help to th
Ys
vy 10 the World
Lessox OUTLINE
e Needy
Gorpen Texr: My sound doth mag-
nify thie Tord, and Jr spark hath re-
Joteed in God my Savwur.—Luke 1 :
46, 47.
Darny Home It
A.
ADINGS ©
) pon
Lake 1 : 46-05.
The song
The song of
it song
David
Psa
David.
18a,
saved,
He ¥Y. 5 :
SONY
3 -
WeV,
CAVen 8 new
14 :
of heaven.
15:34. 'B
-
LESSON ANALYSIS,
I. AS AN HONOR TO HIS MOTHER.
I. Arousing Her Gratitude:
My soul doth magnify the Lord (46).
My heart exulteth in the Lord (1 Sam.
2:11
11] ma
Lord (Psa. 34 : 2
rd, O my soul (Psa. 103 :
1
Blessed be the Lord, the
Luke 1
Awaking Her Joy:
My spirit hath rejoiced in Ge
Saviour (47
My soul shall |
Psa 33 C
I will joy i
(Heb, 3
130
God of Israel
: 68).
ii.
wa
i$
Blessing her Memory:
1 halt’ antl man
i genersta ¥ shall oadl m
the familh
4 ¥ '
aball al
Lien, 1
hall anil
shail call 3
thes
blessed
All nati
3: 12).
Hail, thou that art highly
1:28).
ons u happy (Mal
fave
red (Lake
Blessed is the womb that bare thee
(Luke 11: 27.
1. “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”
(1) The gracious Lord; (2) The
grateful soul. —{1) Benifits receiv.
ed; (2) Grace extolled.
2. “My spirit hath rejoiced in God
my Saviour.” (1 A rejoicing
sparit; (2) An sample incentive ]
A happy experience; (2) An bonor-
ing Grod,
i
“He that 1s mighty hath done to
me great things” (1) The mighty
God; (2) The lowly subject; (3) The
abounding grace; (4) The just ador-
ation.
te
AR ANERCY TOTHE W
I. Blessing the Reverent:
His mercy is unto them that
odYi.
fear him
Shewing m that love
me (Exod
Which keepeth merey
that love him (Deut 7:
The mercy of the Lord 18
that fear him (Psa. 103: 17)
Covenant and mercy with
love him (Dan. 9:4).
ii. Scattering the Proud:
He hath scattered the proud (51).
ith them
n them
up
them that
Job 5: 12).
Every one that is proud
(Job 40: 11)
Thou hath scattered
(Psa. 80: oy
The Lord will root up the house of the
{ proud (Prov. 15: 25).
i1i. Exaiting the Lowly:
i He hath exalted them
gree 2).
| 1 exalted thee ou
16: 2).
..abase him
thine enemies
of low de-
t of the dust (1 Kings
wople {Psa. 8) : 19).
Whoroover shall humble himself shall
be exalted (Matt. 23 : 12).
that he may
exalt you (1 Pet. 5 : 6).
1. “His mercy is unto generations
and generations.” (1) The scope
God's mercy.
. “He hath scattered the proud.”
(1) God's antagonists; (2) God's re-
sources; (3) God's triumphs. —(1)
The scattered adversaries; (2) The
scattering arm.—{1) Antagonisis
combined; (2)
tered.
“Ie... hath exalted them of low
degree.” (1) The Lord concerned
for the lowly; (2) The lowly exalted
by the Lord.
111. AS A HELP TO THE NEEDY.
1. Feeding the Hungry:
The hungry hath he filled with good
things (53). :
Unto all people a feast of fat things
(Isa. 26 : 6).
My servants shall eat, but ye shall be
fe (Jaa. G5 : 18).
are they that h i... thoy
shall be filled (Matt, 5 : 8).
They shail hunger ne more (Rew. 7:
16).
il. Helping His Servant:
He hath bholpen Israel his servant
Bb . i "
Thou hast been the helper of the father.
Jess (Pea. 10 : 14),
1 40),
The Lord
them (Pua,
1 will strongtisen ths; yea, 1 will help
thee is he rn 1 ih 3 Lr
(Hab 18 : 65 be SH a
Iii. Fulfilling His Work:
As hie spake nnto our fathers (55).
There fa lod not aught: all eame to
puss (Josh, 21 : 45
Not one thing hath f+iled of all the
good Goud spake hh. 28 : 14).
My words shall not pass away (Matt.
24 303.
He is faithful that promised (Heb. 10 ;
255.
1. “The hungry he hath filled with
good things,” (1; Hungeriny mor-
tals; (2) Heavenly food. —(1y Hu-
man necessities; (2) Divine sup-
pli i.
“The he hath
away.’ Vorldly
Spiritual destitution, {1; Rich
among men; (2) Poor before God
J. **He hath holpen Israel lis serv.
ant.’ (1 The lowly servaut; (2)
The Lordly helper 1) The serv-
aut's need; (2) The Master's aid,
rich
(1
sent emply
fulness; 2)
-—
LESSON BIBLE READING,
THE LOKD'S MOTHER,
The Marys of Scripture:
The wife of Cleopas (John 19
Matt. 27 : 56
Mary Magdalene (Luke B 1
17 : 61)
The sister of Lazarus
42 : John 12 : 3).
The mother of Mark (Acts 12 : 12)
The mother of Jesus (Luke 1 : 26-28
2. Acts of the Lord's Mother:
acts (Luke 2 1 19, 51).
ie ni
pA ’
: Matt,
2
Luke 10
le (Luke 2 ods
rlibors
(John 2 : 1-5).
Matt. 12 : 46).
cr
od .
ng her Christian lot (Acts 1:
rs ———————— AA
LESSON SURROUNDINGS,
EVEXTS, Zacharias,
loubt In regurd to
he angel,
He returns from the sanctuary,
to the peoj
ISTERVENING
having expressed «
(STI N
igns
he
w
from Jerusale
in the sixth
was at
m, po-sibly
after
some distance
wionth
moni
wr the miraculon
Perplexed, but be
the
Ld
to Mary, foretell
lieving, she receives
shortly afterwards go to vist Ler
kinswoman Elisabeth. (The event nar
sted in Matthew 1 : 18-25 probably ce-
i after the return of Mary, though
yoteerian Elisabeth's unborn
] he entrance of Mary,
1 a blessin
The sor
of Mary to
message, and
or
»
or
Zacharias
and Elisabeth, country,”
in a city of Judah Some sup-
pose the city was Hebron, a Lewitical
city in 1hat region, as intimated above.
Thomson and others sccept "Ain Kanm,
the traditional birthplace of the Baptist
as the “city” referred to. This was a
small village four miles west of Jeruss-
lem. Juttah is also named, bul this
view rests on the assumption of » read-
ing (““Juttah” for *“Judah™) unsup-
ported by any manuscript authority.
Time. — According to the chronology
already indicated, the visit of Mary
took place in April, year of Rome 749
(B. « This six months after
Mary
returned apparcatly before the birth of
the Baptist.
Prusoxs,
Was
Mary, the poetess; Elisa
beth was present, but no other person
is mentioned.
Iscipexts.—This song of Mary, eall-
ed the “Magnificat,” receives its name
from the first word of “The Vulgate,”
Jerom Latin version of the Serip-
“Magnificat anima mea Dom-
The chapter is remarkable in
having another inspired hymn besides
this, the “DBenedictus” of Zacharias
The “Magnificat,” as a liturgical rite,
was apparently introdaced into the
Western Church by Ceesarius of Arles,
in the tune of Gregory the Great, and
was sung every day at vesper in Rome,
It may be called the first Christian
sono
BODE
£ "%
tures,
m.”
. i ——.
Extreme Heat in All Countries.
The following figures show the ex.
the world: Bengal, 150 degrees Fahren-
bet; Borgu, Sahara Desert, 153 de-
grees; Persia, 125. degrees; Caleutts,
india, 120 degrees; Central American,
Republic, 129 degrees; Cape of Good
Hope, South Africa, 105 degrees;
Greece, 109 degrees; Arabia, 111 de-
grees; New York, 102 degrees; Bpamn,
Cuba, China and Jamaica, 110 degrees;
France, Denmark, Russia and the
100 degrees; Eng-
land, Ireland and Portugal, 88 degrees;
Teeland. 42 degrees, and Nova Zembia,
point. — SY, Louis Republic.
Few people are clearly conscious of
in the
which a man confesses freely are, as a
rule, not so much fanlts as mere pecou-
liarities. He doesnot think them really
blameworthy, nor dorshe ex others
to do so. But his real faults he i= blind
to in himself, and keen-sighted for in
others, As Julins Charles Hare says:
“Do you wish to find cut » person's
weak points? Note the failings he has
the quickest eye for in others. They
may not be the very failings he is him-
self conscious of, but they will be their
next-door neighbors. No man
tas a rival ™