New-York tribune., 1878-01-03
R2rTTONED POCKETS.

After Christmas and New Years the best
of Christians button up their pockets
1t is reaction, just as roaring farce
at night leaves us blue and miserable in
the morning, or the devout exatation pro-
duced by one of MoOdy's sermons ebbs out
i'm nervous crossness the next day. On Christmas
Day we were full of tender thoughts OF the
Babe and His wOndrOus work IN the
world. We were brmming over with kind
ness to the children and the poor. Now
that the Holidays are over, our pockets
are so nearly empty that we button up
the little left in them with the secret resolve
to pay our just debts, and give charity the
go.by. In the meantime, the pleasure, the
turkeys and lOaves we dealt about so lavishiy
are gone, and here are the children calling on
us for hourly self-sacrilice ; here are the poor
at or door, just as hungry, just as far nom
any chance of work and comfort as ever.
If guSb of benevOlence at the Christmas sea-
sou Is to satisfy cur conscience and pay off our
score of Christian duly for the year, Christmas
is a fraud ana makcsllift and no boon. Before
the new y,..r begins, it is worth while i0r rs
to remember that the children about our
hcar;hS will call on us on every day OF 1t for
Christmas warmth and love and cbeeriuness,
if we would make their lives Wholesome and
clean. AS for the poor whom the Mas
ter left with Us, the plain truth Is
that it will take something more than the fine
poetic feeling Of Christmas to carry that dead
weight through 1873. They are not 0ften
picturesque, nor worthy, nor grateful Nothing
was easier than to give our aims last Tuesday
to that unseen " least of His brethren" sick,
poor, or in prison. Bit when we meet him
next week, lazy. dirty, impudent, it viii be
exceedingly difficult to see any kinship to
Christ III him. We shall, very likely, iiud it
convenient TO shove the whole problem of
tramps, dangerous classes, discharged prison
ers, out of sight, and to give vent to our
religion by comfortable prayers and church
going. People, not unuaturaly' are growing
tired lately of the whole question, and think
OF these their brethren rs the devils rather
than Gods poor. THE TRIBUNE is secular
Journal and no religious preacher, but for the
sake Of common sense and fair dealing. ii
must remind its Christian readers that it is
not their pockets alone they are closing to
theses unlucky classes, but their brains and
hearts. The young man who had every mora
virtue under Heaven was told to go and sell
all that he had to give to the poor Ii is not
money alone that God demands for them now.
but infinite patience education, and oftenest
help to become honest, clean, hardwOriiing
citizens, instead of lazy, vile, theving wretches.
If we want to carry Christmas into every
day of the coming year, we shall have to take
up this burden: shut up our pockets against
selfish extravaganza and begin TO live, in how
ever small WAY FOR the help OF the big. hun
CRY, needy world outside of our own homes.
At the end of the year we shall have found
much ingratitude and bitter disappointment,
but Il widening and lifting of our own lives by
means of this human work and brotherhood,
into higher ground than We ever gained through
sermons or aims giving.