The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1869-12-25

IL bears the date OF December 10Th, and we speak
to all our readers as if we were addressing them
on that day This is the first time this has oc-
curred since we became connected with a news
paper, and, more than ever before, do we feel
this sheet,
A MERRY CHRISTMAS.
This is holiday season all over The world
Wherever the sun shines to-day, provided Chris
lianiiy acknowledged there, good cheer and mer-
riment will prevail The savings of year, for
this special occasion, will be invested all will
try to be happy, forgetting, for brief season,
the cares and perplexities of life, its trials and
universities, remembering only that this is
Christmas, and tina; sit comes but once year"
1t would be interesting to know how many
turkeys, the peculiarly of the season, will be
consumed to-day how many chickens and geese
and ducks will go the way that many have gone
before them-how many pounds of candies will
serve to aid the many glasses of ''egg-uog'
which will be drank to-day in giving US a head
ache against Tomorrow.
But, although it is day of general joy and
anniversary of the greatest day which ever
dawned upon Christendom-when a SAVIOR was
born into the world to redeem mankind from
800 ''The of that forbidden tree
- Whose mortal taste brought death into world,
And all our woe, with loss of Eden"
Have Cur readers ever seriously reflected upon
the occasion which this day commentaries I?
Looking far back into the ages gone, we find
that man, feeble man, had disregarded the COM
mands of Him whose voice spoke into being our
world and formed into order the chaotic
materials of which it was then composed. He
had issued command which our first parents
presumed to violate. For this sin man was
cursed and to relieve him of that curse the same
God that had created the world sent His Son
down from the courts of Heaven, to suffer and to
die, that we Through His poverty might become
''rich," and Through His death have life
eternal" Eighteen hundred and sixty-nine
years have passed since then-a period full OF
startling events-and yet we all love 10 hear re-
counted, and to reflect upon that great event.
As through glass darkly" the old patriarchs
had seen the great salvation which was to come
!
when Messiah acould come-a time of which
the Prophets spoke and the ''sweet singer of
'Israep' had foretod. He came; but how Not
in the pomp and glory expected by the Sons of
Abraham-not with power-not in grandeur or
with worldly show-but poor, humble and unan-
nounced by any startling event. The shepherds
on the hills of Chaldea, while they felt the 'glory
"of the Lord round about them, heard an angel
voice from the heavens saying TO them, "Behold,
u bring you good tidings of great joy, which
''shall be to all people, for unto you this day is
"born in the city of David a SAVIOR which shall
'be CHRIST the Lord" At the announcement.
1.-THE multitude of the heavenly hosts praised
"God, and proclaimed ''peace on earth and
goodwill toward men," A deputation of these
Chaidean shepherds followed strange star
which appeared in the heavens until it rested
over stable in Bethlehem, and there in that
humble tenement, they found the infant Jesus
and fell down and worshipped him, "and pre-
scented Him with gifts gold and frankincense
sand myrrh." Doubtless to this event may be
traced the custom Of giving and receiving gifts
at Christmas. How many hearts have been made
glad to-day by the bestowal of presents, after
the manner of the first institutors of this yearly
offering of affection and love how many kind
remembrances OF friends will be preserved for
coming years
Christmas has from time immemorial been set
apart as a day of social reunion. Friends and
relatives scattered as wide as the SEAS" come
together, as in childhood's hour, and around
the family hearth-stone live over again their |
youthful days, reviving memories long buried |
and scenes forgotten in the busy whirl of life
The associates of other years are greeted with an
enthusiasm which has long laid dormant, and |
the events of other years are enacted over again.
These reunions will not be the least agreeable |
feature of to-day, ard to the reunited house
holds which The Union will reach on this 18th
ofDecember we TENDER most gladly, the 'com- |
" pliments OF the season." But much of the
old enthusiasm with which Christmas was once
observed has passed away. Its romantic illu- |
sions-the poetical mysteries which once cluster |
ed around it-have all gone-melted in the light |
of perhaps better but not happier cviza- |
ton. The misletoe bough-the yule log-the |
boar's head-the hearty festivities of Christmas |
in the time OF our English fathers have given |
way TO a property and decorum which is of |
doubtful benefit to US. In fact the children |
now feel the greatest enjoyment of Christmas -
They have no care, no anxiety for the future,
and, can enter with spirit into all the fun and |
hiarity of the season, social discipline and strict
notions of propriety being generally and prop |
erly relaxed. As they climb our knees to-day,
or dance around their Christmas trees would il |
not be well TO insil into their young minds the |
meaning of all this? to tell them of the Christehild
who first saw being eighteen hundred and sixty |
nine years ago, and TO tell them what He came |
for? Youthful lessons are notably the most en- |
during, and ii may be that those of to-day, to |
our children, may never be forgotten.
But while there are thousands of happy hearts !
to day, there will also be thousands of sorrow |
ing ones. Many i'vacant chair will there be |
at family reunions, and many tear will be |
dropped in memory of those who ''are not."- |
To the hearts OF these, we hope that record |
ed memory will mirror forth the cherished faces |
OF the absent ones, and renew the covenant bond |
to meet "where parting is no more"
And now, to all, old and young, rich and
poor, we wish "Happy Christmas" May
their enjoyments of to-day never be forgotten,
and may they enter upon the new year soon to
dawn upon US with renewed hope and courage.