New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-12-25
THE KING or 3U-D1Y.

One OF the most pauletlc CnrlsJinas Stollcs
that we know comes down to us from those
chilly early days in which, among the stern
shadows of the Puritan faith, Christmas fires
burned but feebly. 1t is written, too, 10y
grim old Quaker to whom Christmas was a
Pagan abominatiOn, who with his wife, child,
slaves and much property, set sail from
Jamaica about two hundred years ago to come
to the "savage wilderness of Pennsylvania"
The barkentine Reformation, IN which they
sailed, in trying to avoid the pirates
was wrecked on the Florida coast, and
for five months they wandered through
! trackless wideInesses, in the ipclemency OF a
| terrible Winter, trying to make their way
| northward. They were without money, clothes
or food. The Indian tribes which they en-
| countered were the fercest on the continent ;
| no white man had ever passed through them
| alone. Yet this band of starving, half-naked
wretches were helped on their way for the
sake of the child that they carried. Ii is IN
credible as a fairy tale, this story OF
the brutalized sayages crowding about
the babe, whom his father describes as
fair and comely to look upon" The expec-
tation of its coming went from tribe to tribe.
Through the whole Winter. as they journeyed,
the Indian women put their own children
from their breasts to suckle it, and gave it
part of their own scanty covering. The men
of the sbipwrecked party, hardy sailors and
negroes, tainted by the way. Several died. una
BILE to bear the terrible exposure and hunger.
| But the baby, which had been but puny thing
in its luxurious home, grew strong and rosy in
the arms of its savage, tender foster mothers )
it never was allowed to feel cold or hunger |;
] even the men, who staggered along over the
frozen mOrasses to their death, helped to COM
fort this one beloved thing which reminded
them of their own homes and the children
they should never see again.
The story which was a fact then, is true of
every age and country. Ii is the child that
| ia the king who never dies. 1t was this
| innocent, foolish, incOnsequsnt creature for
| whom the greatest Of monarchs, beloved OF
| God, centuries ago, lay fasting in agony for
many days, besieging heaven TO spare it to
him yet a little longer. 1t is this Baby
that has reused the whole world this
morning to a delightful madness. Think of
the MYRIAD of homes, from the palace in
Europe or the hut on the Western prairie,
Italian villa, Australian ranch, rose-scented
| cottage in the South or lonely Greenland mis-
sion planted on eternal Arctic SHOWS, to our swn
busy firesides IN Newly York, in which all other
thoughts and work are thrust aside to-day to
indulge the whims of this most unreasonable,
dearest of tyrants. There are few cellars or
| garrets iu this city so wretched that there
| has been no effort 10 keep the day, to delude
the miserable little paupers in them by some
scrap or rag of gayety that they too have
their share in the universal rejoicing.
| For the day We keep is the apOtheOsis OF
| Childhood. There was u profound meaning
| in the fact that God sent His Son to the help
Of the guilty, weary, hopeless world, neither
as king, nor magician, nor philosopher; but us a
Child. We go TO the words which he spoke
in his manhood, from all philosophers and
| theories to find the basis of truth when the
| pain and loss Of life, or our own sin and
meanness grow intolerable, it is to the figure
| upon the Cross that we turn. But the Babe
| in the manger has another and wider mean
ing. II signifies all that is innocent in these
human lives which each of us must lead all
that is tender and pure and dear-the mothers
love, which the most vicious man remembers,
the instinct of protection for the weak and
| helpless which he has long ago forgotten.
That divine figure Of the Infant Jesus shin
| ing down through ages of ignorance and vice