Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1873-12-24
4 Christmas EiOiliily.
From the Fredericksburg News.

NO more appropriate anu UcaulHui liiou'S
to THE Day we Celebrate" could be rendered
than the folIowiug, which we find laid aside
from valued exchange for use and reprouc
ton on this, our Yule tide OF 1873. And so
we give place this once to our eloquent con-
temporary, who says: La all Christian lands
with the ringing of bells, and psalm, and pray
er, and pageant, aud ceremonial the annlver-
sary Of the birth Of our Saviour will be crlc-
brared. Iu this, al least, all torms of Christian
belief are 10 accord The sublime simplicity of
the grand old hymn
when shepherds watched their fl"cks by
night,
All seated on the ground,
The Angels of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around,
still touches all our hearts, aud we are carried,
10 Inauguration back, as on u beam Of light,
through yearly nineteen dead centuries, to the
Syrian plain, and the Star that shonc 80 Won,
drously over Bethlehem. and The Christ ChlId
10 his Iowly maugcr. We see, as il were 10 II
vision, the alteration of the Magl; We smell
strange odors Of Myrrh and FrankincenSr, and
we hear as by an tuner sense, Angelic Voices IN
the sky, chanting their gracious words oil praise
and promise
GLORY to God in the Highest On earth
Peace Good will toward men j.
How these glad tidiugs passed, from lip to
lip, we know--slowy at first but suklng
deeply into the hearts Of the humble; filing
them with the Consciousness OF Spiritual
Presence, and clothing them with new thong hts
and nobler aspirations. How, in the tulness
of time, our Lord made himaeli known to the
people, and taught them, by parallels and ex-
ample, what it was meet they should learn and
do; how He wrought miracles, by virtue oil the
Divinity that was in Him; was traiuccd. and
tempted, aud prosecuted, and suffered death
upon the Cross. who is there, among all the
Christian peoples that have lived and died, who
has not laid to heart, the sad and sweet, aud
solemn, yet comforting story?
For nearly nineteen hundred years the day
OF his Nativity has been kept At first, II was
celebrated only by little scattered bands OF
Christian converts, in secret, and 10 the very
Valley of the Shadow of Death. But, openly,
pand joyousy and with stately rites and cere-
MONIES, as the Centuries rolled on, and Chris
tlauity rose to reverence on the ruins OF the
old Pagan crccds. The rcfued Greeks, and
the hardy Romans-thc Intellect, and the
Power OF the ancient world were dying out.
The Oracles were dumb Augurs and Sooih-
saycrs ceased their divinations, and the statues
of the Marble Gods fell from their pedcsas
before the Christian Cross and the Shepherd 5
Crook.
Earnest and enthusiastic missionaries went
forth into all known lands, and into the Isles
''Close gird!ed by the iuv;olate sea,
and taught the new faith to ignorant Kings
and to Chiettains, whose pastime was the
chase and the cngrosSing business OF whose
lives was to crcumvent and slaughter each
other. Wonderfully persuasive must have been
the eloquence OF these holy and self-denylng
mcu-ior there was no pride in the church of
those days-to have wrought the changes they
did, by means apparently SO Inadequate
Simple in their garb; abstemlous III their
mode Of living; their only weapon the
Cross they bore their only argument the Won
deriul story it >ymbolzed, they wandered from
country to country conqncrlng pr'JudIces, tear
ing up traditions by the roofs, subdulng the
rudest hearts to penitencc and better lives, and
illuminating the blood stained stones of heather
Affairs with the fires ola newer, aud purcr
and nobler faith.
And 50 it came to pass, with each recurring
year, that the anniversary OF our Saviour 5
birth became, by general accord, a season Of
High Festival The Church. as it grew 10
power and influence made the occasion memoir
able by the grandeur of its worship, aud the
spcndor fits pagcants. Castle and Hall !
Grange and Cottage Town and Village; Thorpe
and Hamlet, We'd with each other in hospital:
ty and joyousness And bells were rung, and
Carols sung and Baron and Scri, and Icoman
and Hind, were drawn closer together by the
sweet Influences Of the day, and the charities
that blessed and cousecrated it.
We too keep up the ancient and beautiful
custom; bu, under different conditions, OF life
and in different spirit. Yet, even to US
amid the Earring Of crecds, and the loss OF much
oil that chiIdlikc faith and simple unquestloning
reverence that disappears with larger know
ledge and the growth of skepticsm and infde-
ty-the day brings its joys and its remem-
ORANGES; its interchanges of gifts, and--let us
hope-that free handed lberaIity to the poor
and needy, which is epjoned not only by the
faith we profess. but also by our natural in
stincts and sympa,hies, and which, whilst it
gives richer flavor to the food We. share, and
a rarer bouquet to the wine We dispense, Is ne
best evidence of our thankfulncss to Him who
holds rich and poor alike in the hollow of his
hand And so-a merry Christmas to all; and
''as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every
il,n