The New York herald., 1874-12-25
"A Merry Christmas =.

Chrlstlanlty-for 1t is the story Of the Chrls-
tan faith. 1t has become part of our civili-
zation. Carlyle once asked an English au-
dience whether they would not rather part
with their Indian Empire than with Shake
speare. We wonder what sacrifice we would
make rather than surrender Christmas.
Speaking from the highest moral standard,
we might say that this day brings no duty
and no opportunity that do not belong to
other days; that charity. humanity, peace
and kindliness of feeling rest with all seasons;
that in celebrating o special festival of char
ity we celebrate our own selishness. But
this would be an inference unworthy OF Chris
tans. Our virtues should have their ami
versaries, even as we concede them to our
patriotism and our sorrows. The honors we
pay Christmas do not release us from the con-
slant duty of charity and good will. But
/ even the most selfish man feels in the en-
+ chantment of the season the impulse to
make atonement for his hard life. In
Mr. Dickens almost classic Christmas story
he brings in the gruff and stern old miser to
whom Christmas had always been day
of sorrow, because he was compelled to give
his servants holidays, to dance reel and
shower presents on all around him. 1t was
impossible for the lonely, grasping, insatiate
money-lover to look unmoved on the glow
OF love and charity and benevolence that suf-
| fused the world. In this sense, therefore,
Christmas is blessed season, for it teaches US
all the highest and noblest duties. We have
never fully forgiven the Puritans for their
Punishment of Christmas, and we fancy much
of what was severe in their lives, and which
remains in the narrowness and bigotry of
their descendants came from the spirit which
would Danish all gods from the hearthstones
but one God, and concede Ito Him only the
attributes of vengeance and OF wrath.
1t is gratifying, therefore, to see Christmas
growing into our American lives in spite of
New England. Honor the Puritans as we
may, let us welcome this protest against their
chilling and binding faith. Our Ameri-
can charactero is becoming more and
more cosmopolitan. We are develop
ing ON individual American type. 1t
did not seem possible that this daily stream
into ours without affecting it in many ways
The American character would be faint and
pale indeed, like the thinnest form of SKINNED
milk, if it became the colorless expression
and essence of the nations from which we
came. But this is far from being SO. We
have the Spaniard, the Frenchman and the
Italian I'VE have absorbed the Indian, and
threaten to absorb the negro we have come
into relations with all civilizations, but the
distinctively Saxon-American element tr-
umphs over all. We adopt Christmas because
it is more than any other the Saxon festival
Carnivals and Lenten fasts and holy saints
days and Boyne anniversaries, special religious
and local customs in time fade away and are
only dimly remembered, as our Scotch friends
remember Hallow Eve but Christmas re-
MAINS 1t falls upon our life with the fervor
of the Saxon nature. The Catholic and the
Protestant look at it with the same eyes, for it
remains as one of the few remnants of that
common ground upon which all faiths once
met in fraternity. His Holiness the Pope will
not listen more cheerfully in his gorgeous
prison to the chimes which tell how a Saviour
was once born to. redeem mankind than the
poor country curate who tramps through the
snow to read the morning prayers and tell the
wondrous story of Bethlehem. It may be that
this widely spreading humanity which Christ
mas represents consecrates it as the festival of
peace and good will.
Our life is so much of contest, and so
many of us regard living as passing from fort
to fort and storming masked batteries, that it
is well we should have season Of truce. We
have so much strife in our modern society, SO
much controversy, SO much bitterness, SO
much envy, SO much depreciation. Friends
and brothers, we might we'll ask, under the
inspirations of the season, ''is there no true
life that brings with it peace? Must we al
ways live in this incessant angry roar of SLAM
der, hatred, hurrying us, no matter upon
whom we trample? What will these Congress
debates and strifes in Parliament and policies
of "blood and iron" and nations arming
against nations-what will all matter in an
other generation? Think how much anger and
bitterness of spirit have overspread the world
since this memorable morning centuries ago.
Are we nearer the realization OF the peace and
good will which then found its sacred minis
ter? Have we felt the lessons of the many
hundreds of Christmas seasons that have
come and gone? Are we gentler in our rela-
tions with one another, in our friendships, in
our associations, in personal duties? Do we
feel Christmas in our lives and in our civilza-
| tion?" Sometimes we fear, especially when
with a disheartened Spir1t we look
out on the world and see the same
ever living spirit of strife, like an
ever rolling sea, that we are no better
and that the lessons of this day have, SO far as
the world is concerned, died away with the
succeeding Christmas SHOWS. This would be