Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1866-12-25
CHRISTMAS.

CHRISTMAS.
--Fyer 'gainst that season comes,
Wherein our Sayiors birth Is celebrated,
nj, bird Of dawuing singeth all night long
md then. they say. no spirit stirs abroad;
nc nights are wholesome; ;hen no planet
strikes:
yo fairy takes. nor witch hath power to charm,
% hallowed and 80 gracious IS the time.
According to chronologists, to-day is the
anniversary Of the birth Of the Savior I
established as such in the fourth ee'tury /
nf the Christian era.
An Christendorn, by common consent I
this day commentaries the as most giori~
Gus and august event in the annals Of the
human racc-the birth Of n Redcemer
and Mediator between uod and Man.
Nearly nineteen hundred years have |
rolled away since the Star in the East,
above the plains Of Bethlehem guided |
the shepherds to the place where the
young child Law Men who sheer at the
doctrines Of Christianity often seek to
decry its efficacy by dwelling upon the
fact that though It's apostles have been
preaching Christ Crucifed al that while.
more than half Of the world is heather
and barbarous still Nay, indeed, that
while hardly the smallest quarter of the
globe, Europe, is professedly Christian
Africa, China, the Indies and 81 the isles
of the sea nearly all-are stepped in
idolatry about as deeply as they were
before Messiah came-and that, if Ameri-
ca has her churches by the mile, or the
acre, the proportion of Christians among
those who "do not believe, is an infalli-
bic demonstration that Christianity, after
all, is but human institution-for, If it
were divine it must have spread farther
and wider-it would have embraced the
entire universe within It's folds, long
ere this. The grand mistake Of the false
philosophy which reasons in this wise, is,
that il undertakes to measure the designs
aud purposes Of an infinite and all-Bise
Providence, by the finite and short-sight.
ed standard of human reason. Nineteen
hundred years is a mighty period Of time,
in the calculations Of men, it is true, but
as nothing in the sight Of Him which
art, and vast, and is to come" and in
whose sight "a thousand years are but as
yesterday The peace on earth and
good viii to men, of which the birth Of
the lowly Nazarene was the blisslul
harbinger, has made, is now making,
and We believe will continue to make, a
mighty progress, in all lands, until the
lights of Christianity irradiate every cor
ner of the earth The signs Of the times
all tend to foster that glad anticipation.
And, il the world Is 50 wicked as it IS
to>day, may we not well ask, how much
more wicked would it have been if left
without the Christianity which has been
ciyilizing and humanizing It for the last
eighteen hundred years IL there are
people and nations still without the pale
Of its blessed influence, ia our day and
generation, let the skeptic remember that
there were nations and races sunk in the
lowest abyss of heathenism at the begin
ming Of the Christian dispensation, which
are now greater and happier and more
humaaized-beeause they are Christians
than were Greece, or Rome, or Babylon,
in the palmiest days Of the Pagod And
If this has been accomplished since the
fishermen were sent out to preach the
Gospel, what may not be hoped for from
like agencies and like influences under
Providence, in few centuries more,
by the generations that are to come after
us2
From the earliest period Of the cele-
bration of the day, it has been regarded
as a cheerful festival, as well as day Of
Christian commemoration At the pres
ent time, in all Christian countries, it is
the occasion of cessation Of business,
and a religious, domestic, and merry
making time by all classes. We derive
our customs chiefly from the old English
Christmas, as handed down TO MS by our
immediate ancestors. They are modified
by Our national characteristics 1t has
become the grand holiday season Of the
country The young and the Old married
and unmarried, rich and poor, high and
low, all look forward to it. In the South
ern and Southwestern regions, mot a fire.
side, howeyerihumble, not a cabin, wheth-
er its inmates were white or black, bond
or free, but have been wont TO feel the
joyous Influences Of this day. Long may
it continue to be festive time, and long
may our readers, big and little, live to
enjoy it
Twas Christmas broach'd the mightest ale;
Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;
A Christmas gambOl of would cheer
A moor mans henrt through half the vear