Christmas and Christianity. Nearly two thousand years have passed since Christ came to earth, and while His natal day is becoming more and more widely known and cel- ebrated, the world is still far from understanding His simple philosophy of brotherhood. Meantime, in spite of all these unwholesome facts, and many more as disagreeable ones which could be mentioned, the world is slowly but steadily advanc- ing toward the Christ standard.
Humanity is cleaner and kinder than it was even a few hundred years ago.
Because the pagans had been devoted to baths, the church considered bodily purity synonymous with impiety of the soul. Monks were allowed two baths a year in the middle ages, and a moistened corner of a towel, which was common property in the convents, served for the nuns' occasional ablutions. Even in the seventeenth century it caused a sen- sation in a convent, when a duchess who had turned her thoughts to religious matters for a season demanded a foot bath. The desire for clean extremities was deemed unregenerate. That was less than two hundred years ago, and to-day our churches believe that cleanliness is next to godliness, and an untidy Christian is as rare as a clean native Indian.