Show At St Marks Cathedral A large congregation gathered at St Marks cathedral yesterday morning to attend at-tend the beautiful and impressive Christmas Christ-mas ceremonies The interior decorations of the cathedral were handsome and tasty The chancel was laid in white with ornamentations orna-mentations in green wreaths of pine and holly being suspended from the hammer beams while evergreen boughs and holly sprigs relieved each of the windows and added much to the attractiveness One of the chief featuses of the occasion was the unique and excellent music which was rendered by twenty young lads assisted as-sisted by the talented choir The following follow-ing is ORDER OF EXERCISES Organ nrelude f Pastoral in FJ ooHenn Smart Processional hymn 21 Wainrigbt 1G62 g t Venue Chant 13 Dr Hodges Gloria Patria I 2 Dr Hodges Gloria Patria 3 Rossini To Deum Laudamus anthem C K Fay Benedictus plain chantoo 00 Introit anthem J M North GlorlalibinnnnnnnnoonooDaumbach Hymn 17 Mendelssohn Rev N F Putnan delivered THE SERMOX from the following text Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass which the Lord had make known unto usSt Luke ii 15 He said The shepherds would know by experience the reality of the things which the Lord bad declared to them by the angels i herefore as soon as the heavenly messenger had closed their carol and disappeared dis-appeared from the view the shepherds determined to go to Bethlehem and see this thing which had come to pass And we read that they came with haste and found Mary and Josephand the babe lying In a manger Their haste betokens earnestness eagerness to know There is a haste that is a sign of uncertainty and doubt which discredits the supernatural and flees from one arm of flesh to another for support They that believe shall not make baste in this way they shall not spend their time nor wear out the energies of body and mind in a worry or a fretful anxitty about the future which worry out anxiety and help to push them on into that future at lightning speed Their belief in Christ shall deliver them from such distrustful dis-trustful haste But the same belief im pells them on to see and know the great realities of Christ in His teachings and His life The soul once awakened from sin is most eager to experience the truth of Christs doctrine and to prove the reality real-ity of the message which it has received Traditional belief is not enough for eager earnest determined men They will know by actual contact and experience Leaving the few sheep there in the wilderness wilder-ness away from men as the shepherd boy David had done on those very hills the shepherds of Bethlehem went with earnest baste to the city of David to prove the truth told them by the angels and to make their own hearts sure by experiencing it The first men who heard of Christs birth visited His cradle immediately The announcement an-nouncement acted as a magnet to draw them to Him The angels who have no personal concern in Christs salvation may seem to worship Him at a distance They bring THE GLAD NEWS of His birth from the throne of God to this lower world and wake their harps of joy and praise over the marvelous event and then go away But men come with eager haste to His cradle and worship at His vgry feet It was the first human compliance with the gracious invitation Come unto meThe birthday of Christ calls dear brethren breth-ren away from the usual reund of daily duties and bids us go with the shepherds to Bethlehem to see this thing which has come to pass which the Lord hath made known to us The call of the day has gone out into all lands It is not a select few who are bidden to Bethlehem today but that mangerbed has become the central cen-tral spot towards which the eyes of a world turn It is the anchor of a worlds hope We then this morning dear brethren breth-ren take our place in the Christiah hosts that show up to that central spot of the worlds life and history to see this thing which the Lord hath made known to us There is one and one only thought that can adequately fill our minds at a time like this a thought besides which all other marvels all other instances and displays of Gods interest in the concerns of His creatures crea-tures are thrown into the background It was the coming into this world the child of a virgin mother but otherwise under the conditions the common conditions condi-tions of our humanity of the everlasting ever-lasting and almighty Son of God It is this that faith beholds as it goes up to the city of David the inn the stable today one looks on the Babe in the manger Such an event can have nothing like it or parallel to it while this world lasts It is THE TURNING POIXT In the history of the world The gospel of Christ which as announced by His church from the first has made the incarnation of the eternal son what St Paul made it the centre and heart of all teaching worship obedience morality the fulfillment and end of all that was old the starting point of all that was new does in this ninteenth century cen-tury as she did in the first give this tremendous tre-mendous truth the paramount and sovereign sov-ereign place in her system of doctrine and ethics Tnis is the great thought the great fact that faces us this morning God has been made man This answers the question of the doubter and tells us why the world has gone after Him God our maker He that holds the world in the hollow of His hand laid aside His glory for the time and took our nature He did not merely insure to Himself a human body like ours but He was made a perfect man This is tile great truth of Christmas The perfect God became a perfect man Through the action of the holy spirit He took from the Virgin Mary our nature complete human body human soul and human spirit In this nature he lived and died as one of us In the manger in the little home at Nazareth in the baptismal stream in the wilderness of the temptation in the agony on the cross and in the tomb in the preaching preach-ing to the spirits in prison and in the rising ris-ing out of the grave the person was even that of the Son of God In no place and at no tiqie did that person sink into abeyance or change to another or human person It was ever the Son of God existing exist-ing under the form and in the nature of man THE WORLD WONDERS at this marveL How can it do otherwise Unbelief cries out impossible yes impossible im-possible with man but not with God With him nothing is impossible This is the explanation of all we see and hear and are today It is true that pure intellect cannot lay hold of this marvelous truth and appropriate appro-priate it bold hard unfeeling reason cannot can-not appreciate even if it can apprehend the fact of God thus coming down to take hold of man in his lost state to redeem to restore and to save him And if God were pure intellect or even if the highest and controlling attributes of His nature were the intellectual the thought comes that perhaps the incarnation would not have taken place and man would not have been redeemed Cold unfeeling intellect sitting sit-ting upon the throne of the universe would hardly have stooped to earth to take this nature of ours But God is not pure intellect His highest attributes attri-butes are not the intellectual not stern hard inexorable intellectuality which uninfluenced would leave the world and men to their own fate is He 1 No God is love It was the controlling dominating power of love that brought God down from heaven and clothed Him in our nature God so loved the world that i t I r V > > < i He gave His only begotten Son Here is the truth here is the justice What pure intellectuality would leave to its own ruin love stoops to take hold of and save Intellect In-tellect acting alone never would consent to clothe a higher nature with a lower Intellect Intel-lect in man uninfluenced by other properties proper-ties of his nature does not take hold of one i ed fi ish eioJ in misfortune and lift him up it docs not stoop to the man in the gutter and stand him on his feet it does not visit the widow and fatherless in their affliction it does not feed the hungry and clothe the naked It is love that controls und impels men to help their fellows in misery It is only love that can move and overcome the intensely SELFISH CHARACTER OF PURE INTELLECT In contemplating the divinity of our Lord we must not lose sight of His perfeci manhood man-hood He was perfectly divine and the truthof today is that He became perfectly perfect-ly human perfect man He cid not cease to be God He did not put away His divine nature nor did He mingle it with our human nature He simply took our human nature and wrapped His Godhead in it as the babe is wrapped in his swaddling cloths The Incarnation then is I say a fountain of new life to perishing men Of the sanctified sanc-tified humanity of the Son of God Hemakes us partakereby His spirit and more especially espe-cially through the sacraments which He has ordained In baptism we are boin anew and made to drink at the fountain of this new life In the holy communicn Ho feeds our regenerate being with ever fresh communications of His holy natnre to remedy and correct the earthly tendencies tenden-cies of our fallen and disordered faculties that our sinful bodies may be made clean b v His body and our souls waste 1 through His most precious blood And this beloved is the thought that I would leave with you on this great and ever blessed day The event of today must come to each one as a personal thing The Son of God humbled himself to take human nature for you He is the babe in the manger for you He is the child on Marys breast because of you breathes the pestilential airs of earth He walks the streets of Jerusalem the lanes of Galilee He toils at the carpenters bench He gives His body to be broken His blood to be shed for you Pilgrims from the heathen world continue to come and offer their gold OJld I rUANKINC3XCE AND MYRRH at the cradle Jesus Shepherds continue to go to see the bight and to prove the truth which they have heard But what was all this to us if on this holy Christmas day our hearts are far away and tiiow not Him who is born our Savior our lordl Oh let this fountain of new lIfe flow out into our souls and bodies too that we way ever live with Him who came on the first Christmas day to live with us move with men that He might redeem restore and save and so bring us back to God and make us one with Him The eternal son became a child for our sakes and we must become aslittle children In love and truth fulness of God in kindness aud charity to our fellows in the purUy and devotion of our own hearts and bodies to His service ere we can enter the gates of His eternal kingdom This day which declares the love that passes our understanding must warm and cheer the hearts of the poor whom we always have with us Cnrist is their friend and as we drink from the fountain of that new life which His incarnation incar-nation has opened for them and us the the great truth of the friendship the brotherhood of all for whom He came to earth to help and save is the correlative relative thought of the incarnation Godlikeness likeness in humility and love in cheerful helpfulness to all about us Oh thou child of Mary make us like 1 thee in this noblest Christian virtue of love and charity TIlE CLOSING EXERCISE Ascription Rossini Offertory Cantlque de Noel Adam g gA nci Presentation Chant Ki Sanctus Sir F A GOnseley Gloria In Exceisls Ancient Chant noon Hymn 25 Adeste Fldelesoo 0000 Recessional Hymn 21 Saved by His love incessant we shall sing Eternal praise to heavens almighty King Amen |