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VOL. LXXXVI. RICHMOND
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And they came with haste, and found both
Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the
nuinyrr.?uuse 2 : J 0.
Great is the joy of discovery. When Columous
stood at last on the shore of San Salvador,
nil his perils and disappointments were forgotten.
After Adam? and Leverrier had shown
where to point the telescope, how solemn the joy
of the watchers of the skies when the new
planet Neptune swam into their ken. All the
world followed Stanley as he plunged into the
African wilderness in search of Livingstone,
and rejoiced together when the tidings of discovery
eame. It is great to find a continent,
greater to find a world, greater still, it may be,
to find a man.
The makers of the modern world have all
been discoverers. They have pushed their adventurous
way into new regions of truth, and
have vastly enlarged the boundaries of the
Known. Bacon, Newton. Darwin, Stevenson,
Morse and the rest of the goodly company of
pioneers have been like the man who found the
treasure hidden ill the field. In their joy they
have gladly paid all the toil and weariness of
ihe years, that they might buy that field.
But what search was ever like that of these
shepherds? "They found the babe." "We
have found him, of whom Moses and the prophets
did write." Not a new world, but the Maker
of the new world. Not a new application
of truth, but him who said. "I am the Truth."
Not a lost explorer, but One who seeks and
finds lost humanily. Not a nugget of gold or
diamond, but the Pearl of Great Price. The
joy of the first Christmas was the joy of a great
discovery. Every new disciple cries, "I have
found the Lord." The heart of the Christmas
joy is the discovery of Christ.
Who are the discoverers? Simple, humble,
childlike folk. Not to Herod, sensual and
cruel, spinning his court intrigues, did the
great disclosure come. Not to the priests,
slaves of an exacting and deadening ritual and
filled with ecclesiastical ambitions. Not to the
gay and frivolous capital. But to these poor
and unspoiled peasants, on the lonely hills,
where the great dome set with stars makes men
reverent, and in the silences of the night the
ibought is lifted up toward God. In their
hearts they cherished the great expectation of
their race. And when the vision came, thev
made haste to Bethlehem and put the angelic
ennouncemcnt to the test of fact.
It is always so. The truth, hidden from the
eyes of the multitude, was always there, awaiting
the sensitive spirit that would respond to
it, as steel to a magnet. No force, evoked by
modern wizards, but has been latent in the
universe from the beginning. Beyond the
western ocean the veiled continents have waitv
. ed for their Columbus. The invention often
seemR so simple, so inevitable, that we wonder
no one thought of it before. The shepherds
. NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA. DECEN
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were watching. Visions come to the man with
open eyes and expectant spirit. The priest
who held in his arms the child Jesus, when
Mary presented him in the temple, saw nothing
unusual in the babe. But as the mother
I assed out with the child in her arms, the heart
of Simeon, as he met them, thrilled with a
strange tumult. Bethlehem was unconscious of
the majesty within its borders, but wise men
came from the Far East to do him homage.
They who cultivate the simple heart, the rever
CHRISTMAS CONSECRATION.
Maud M. Cuninggim.
O Child divine, O Babe of ancient Bethlehem,
We worship at thy feet, as kings of old,
And bring our incense, myrrh and golden
treasure?
Our wills, our hearts,?the richer, rarer gold.
O infant Saviour, we, too, come and kneeling,
Would look again upon thy gentle face;
And gazing there, would seek thy deep revealing
Of all our sin within, and thy rich grace!
Didst thou not stoop to wrap thyself in weakness
And wear the garment of our flesh and blood,
That thou mightst show thine infinite compassion,
Seeking to woo our wayward wills to God?
Like wise men and like shepherds, high and
lowly,
The world comes back to kneel in rev'rent
prayer;
And we, in spirit, world-worn, homesick pilgrims,
Would join them 'round the Saviour's cradle
there.
O Babe divine, 0 Saviour ail-forgiving,
Thine be the glory and thine all the praise!
In us no merit lies to claim thy favor?
Thou our Immanuel art thro' endless days!
cnt and expectant spirit, the open mind, and
who are ready to put their visions to the test,
are the great discoverers.
What did they discover? Men always find
more than they are aware of. Columbus died
and knew not that ho had uncovered a new
world. Later astronomers based upon the discovery
of Neptune results of which Leverrier
did not dream. Stanley opened the gates oi
empire. The inventors and philosophers ha7C
introduced social and economic changes which
they could not have forseen. The shepherds
were looking for a national hero and deliverer.
They found the world's Redeemer. Every disciple
has new surprises awaiting him.
For practical uses this world is only a generation
old. We must discover it anew for our:
selves. The disciples exclaimed, "We have
found him," although the shepherds had found
him thirty years before. With all the help of
the past's accumulated experience and the
'/pal Presbyter/an e
jthern Presbyter/an
IBER 25, 1912. NO. 5\ ?
1 - ... v
simas joy
stimulus of its unfulfilled hopes, each new generation
must rediscover truth for itself; every
*oul must find its own Christ.
The shepherds found the Christ in a strange
and unexpected place. Where shall wc look
lor him in this day of the world? We shall find
kim in many places where his presence has been
unsuspected. He himself has pictured the surprise
of those ministering souls who did not discover
him, when they served the least of his
brethren. Many a Saint Christopher has beeu
rewarded by the unexpected vision. We shall
find him in our daily work, if it be done with
faith and patience, those talismans that make
us heirs to the promise. The guests at Caul
"tasted the water that was made wine, and
knew not whence it was: (but the servants
which drew the water knew)." "The wedding
guests got what they came for?good company
and good wine," comments Professor Peabody;
"but the servants, doing their daily business,
found the Messiah and knew that it was
i.e." The meaning and worth of life are revealed
not only to the brilliant thinker and the
mystic. Even more surely do they come to the
faithful worker.
"The Son of God's love came down from above
To dwell with the men that work."
The splendor of his presence falls on the
pathway of many a toiler, to light his road to
...v v^icauai unjr. we saaii nna aim in too
movements of modern society. Beneath tne
harsh cries of selfish striving, one may hear in
Ihis age as never before the call to social service.
Men are dreaming of universal peace.
They are looking for the new heavens and the
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, and
si riving, often in the strange and crude ways,
to bring in that Heavenly Kingdom. No one
can read the signs of the times and fail to discern
the dominance of the Christian ideals.
"All ye are brethren." "Bear ye one another's
burdens." "For their sakes I sanctify
myself." Do you r.ot hear the voiee of Christ
in the summons of our modern world'
We may find him, then, on every side in this
complex life of ours, if we have the insight to
penetrate to its heart. In the halls of state, in
the marts of trade, in the lecture-rooms of our
universities, the peaceful home circle, the city
slum and the quiet beauty of the hills. The
world is alive with has presence. "Prepare to
meet thy God," and walk with him in the joyous
fellowship of loving service. In the church
"which is his body," he will greet you in your
fellow-disciples. In the worship of his Father's
house, you will hear his voice, solemn and
sweet, with its counsel and comfort. The
Pharisees searched their Scriptures in vain for
a trace of him, but you will find him there on
every page. And when your ideals of life take
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