Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-12-26

It isannounced that Christmas is not Chris
tian, and that we are merely celebrating
without knowing it, a festival as old as the
religious sentiment in man, on whose pagan
gadness the Christian priest and moralist
have vainly tried to cast a shade Of gloom
Suppose we accept it as q new discovery that
the Yule log is but survival of the fire Of
Baal that the evergreens are merely por-
tiOn of the radiant adornment with which the
worshiper of PhUbus Apollo welcomed the
first flash from the spokes of the chariot Of
Helios returning from Hyperborean SHOWS
that the mistletoe is remnant of the Druid
ical mystery of cutting down the symbol Of
midwiDter-tho fatal tree that killed Baldur
the Beautiful-and that the children's toys
are suggestion of propitiatory sacrifice to
the Sun-god in whose quiver were life and
health. as well as destruction and pestilence
The festival is no less noble because it links
the latest revelation of God to man with the
blind cropping of humanity after the Infnite.
The spirit in which the pagan celebrated tho
festival of the winter solstice was but dim,
far-of suggestion of the exultation with
which the Christian could welcome the
worlds returning day. the rising of the Son
of Righteousness upon the midwinter dark
ness of mankind. If the old and the new
meet in Christmas, so do the old and the new
in Christianity if the feast of the Ruler of
Use of light and warmth and fruitful seasons,
the festival of the Nativity brings to the
Christian the assurance of peace on earth and
goodwill toward men.
The truth was certainly not hidden from
the pagan world, however imperfectly it may
may have been apprehended and acted on.
TO do justice and judgment is more accept
able to the Lord than sacrifice" And yet
each succeeding celebration of the advent of
ID l.. A. I Al.
need of the admonition: go ye and
learn what that meaneth, l will have mercy
and not sacrifice" Pope's method of dispos-
ing of theological quarrels may not be very
elevated one, but men are exceedingly apt to
agree with the poet that his mode of faith
cant be wrong whose life is in the right"
Unfortunately, the disposition is equally
prevalent to assume the converse of the prop
osition, and to lay upon Christianity itself
the responsibility for the errors of its un-
worthy professors. The reminder is always
seasonable that the most effective kind of ev-
idence to Christianity is pure life, and the
most unanswerable testimony to the divine
character of its Founder is the perennial
power of His precepts and example to make
men like unto Him. We need less a revela-
tion of the "Christ that is to be- than pa
tient, self-denying imitation OF the Christ
that was. 1t is too true that the great Teach
er who cast the trafhckers out Of the temple
and belabored with all the force of divine in
dignation the religious Journalists of His time,
would find much of the same kind of work to
do here and now. But as the Greek who
worshipped Apollo and Diana had reached a
far purer and more elevated conception Of
the sun-myth than the Phpuican who par
ticipated in the odous rites of Baal and Ash
%orntss E5iStsR 9 dfX HXa th sthesA A dh hIs
satisfied doubt, has far nobler ideal of his
relation to God and his duties to man than
the jew of the time of Tiberius. 1t were fol-
ly to deny that the old religions of our race
had their progressive aspects, but it were great
er folly still to maintain that they had enough
of the elements of truth and conviction to
keep them from decay and rottenness The
ineradicable vitality of Christianity is at once
the proof and the pledge of its unfulflled mis-
sion of raising mankind into communion
with God, and of turning mems hearts to a
closer sympathy with their fellow And
on this Christmas morning, MS on all that
have preceded it, there is abundant promise
to all who take pains to look for it that the
progress of Christianity, like the path of the
true Christian, is ''as the shining light that
shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
". J. Times