Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-12-28
Christmas.

<D-s---------------
s1eNN Christmas.
To-dayisthe anniversary Of the grand
testleventrins all our worlds history
Far. far backward, away in the unre-
corded past-long before the actions or
1.-The sdestiniies Of men or,oommunities be-
gam to beiehropicled, tradition--the pre-
sdecessor Of. history, tells US Of a golden
age in, which love, and purity, and
peace we're universal upon earth, and the
blissful Inhabitants walked ia sweet COM
nunion and ''6eld high converse with
Angels, sharing with their celestial yisi-
tors the spiritual joys of Heaven, as we'll
as. the natural delights Of their Eden
Home
But how long this primeval state con-
tinued, neither tradition nor history
brings US any report. The sad and
mournful fact, however, thai mankind
did fall away from this blessed estate,
needs no-argumcnt to prove. If it did
we need but unroll the blood stained rec
ord of thelrace since the dawn of authen-
tic history-to. open our eyes to the con-
flfcts Of the world without, or look upon
the iarring discords of the world within
Aus, to be too painfully convinced.
As man receded from his state 0
happy innocence, the spiritual part off
his nature became weaker, and the sen
suous stronger, until he finally became
SO wholly absorbed in merely natural
tbinesthat he even forgot his origin, and
closing UP the avenues of his mind
against all spiritual influx, became
wholly "of the earth, earthly" Selfish
ness becoming the controlling impulse
of his heart, sought its qualification, re
gardless of the rights or happiness of
Others. Mutual regard and loving help
fulness was banished from society, and
,avarice, ambition, Jealousy, hatred, re
venge, cruelty and all uncharitableness
found homes in the perverted affections.
angels could no longer consort with
man, aud the evil passions which drove
them away called to his bosom congo
.niaI spirits. which found in his lusts a
fitting habitation.
In the long, dark, and dreary ages
which succeeded, he sank further and
fartherinto mere naturalism, until the fact
Of his Immortality was almost lost from
his speculatiens and wholly SO from his
rational convictions But although man
thus turned himself away from his Gre
.atof, and wandered far from his Fathers
house, he could notget beyond thereach
ofthis Fathers love.
And hence, during this long apostacy,
by the ministry of Angels where that
was possiBIe,l BY Inspired Prophets and
Seers, By the use Of s.Correspondences'
in. ,iformnsg and an 'eseremohies," by the sym
beF baliFsp oegyPes)and RepHesentatiyess III by
all the means which could be employed
by Infinite Wisdom, he was held in con-
junction with his Maker. a
But at last every avenue by which
Divine. influences could reach his soul,
being closed and the race about to per-
ish-"When there was no eye to pity
and no arm to save" ''The Eserylast-
ing Father" that he might come nearer
to his unhappy children and open up
Atnew way of access to himself became
manifested in the form and person of
the Christians acknowledged ere
deemer." s
Promise, and prophecy, and occa-
sional CLEANS from the world beyond
--sss'foot- falls from the confines of the
Spirit Land''-had kept alive a vague
expectancy of coming Redeemer and
the ransom of the race from it's deep de-
graduation. But SO obscure had become
the perceptions of spiritual things, that
the highest aspirations of the best of
men looked only for temporal deliv-
erer-for mighty earthly 4Kingl The
nature of the disease was. not compre-
hendid; and men were not prepared to !
accept the provided remedy. Il
Eighteen hunered and sixty years ago,
in the'sesene stiffness of a ''star.llght'
night, a coIBpasy of humble shepherds
watched their focks as in, quiet groups
they fed in tie green pastures on the
dewey plains Of Judea, near Bethlehem :.
Their simple lives and soatemp mplative
habitslhad prepared them, Of all others,
to.,l,tersise the announcement of the
great event then transpiring,. And to
therp-- t4htiile, the world was wrapt in the
oblivion Of double slumber--a natural
and still profounder spiritual slcep-it