Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1883-12-20

form and dual number could not bt
constructed into an idol. But the OAK
never lost its reputation for sanctity
and was held sacred to JOve; and it i
curious to find how long it retained it,
/ pre-emncncc in Britain.
The author of Magma Britannia, in
his account of the Hundred Of Croy.
land, describes great wood belong
ing to the archbishops, said to have
consisted wholly of oaks; and among
them was ono that bore mistletoe,
which some persons were so hardy n
to cut dowE for the gain of selling it to
the apOthecarieS of London, leaving a
branch OF il TO sprout out; but they
proved unfortunate after it, for one OF
them Tell lame, and others lost an eye.
At length, in the year 1878, certain
man, Notwithstanding he was warned
against ii, upon tho account of what
the others had suffered, adventured to
cut the tree down, and he soon after
broke his leg, To fell oaks hath long
been considered fatal, and such as be-
lieyc it produce the instance of the
Earl of WinchelSea, who, having
lellod a grove of oaks, soon after found
his countess deal in her bed suddenly;
aud his eldest son, the Lord Maidstone,
was presently killed by Is cannon, ball,
1t is rather curious, too, that certain
English oaks have been named Coos
pei" trees and Apostles.
The Greeks had custom, long re.
tanned by the Athenians, of carrying
each new year TO their ncighbors'
houses an olive branch, "the doves
branch, y just as we find the mistletoe
carried from house to house, at the
same season, by the Colts of Armorica
and Great Britain. 1t was beyond
doubt an allusion to that glaucous
branch which was a pledge of resurrec.
ton to Noah from his symbolical grave,
tho r0muS teiiccS olirae; and admitting
this We can SEQ clearly why righteous
branch should be a name of the great
healer of all ills, in whom cuminate
tho purity and pathos of the sublime
mystery OF love and death.
Stukely says "the Druids laid the
mistletoe on their altars, an emblem of
the salutferous advent of the Messiah" "
Some such meaning may possibly have
been dimly underlying the smoke OF
their sacrifice; but for us the atmoS.
phere is clear. Christmas is with us
once more, and the miStIetoc; and love
and death have again taken up their
places conspicuously by our tireside,
those otherwise vacant places!
Let us apply ourselves once more to
the task of greeting Christmas kindly. |
remembering for those who have be
Scared and wounded in tho past years
battles, there is still one circumstance
which makes Christmas festivities en-
without which they would not
be even possible; and that is, that we
have the children with us.
In reverence for their blissful igno-
rance, a vail is drawn over all that,
till fate has forced it upon them, they |
have no need to know, and the very |
fact of walking with this vail drawn,
and acting the part of perfect sym.
pathy with their childish glee, brings
with it q reality of warmth and re-
freshment which has served again and |
again 10 re-invigorate the world and its
toilers; whilst behind it all lies a sure
and certain prospect which the dwell
ers in royal palace and the inmates of
he lowliest cottage alike may lay to
heart. For, saws Love,
The shadow passeth when the trees shall fall,
But | shall reign for ever over all.n