The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-12-26
CHRISTMAS.
The Origin of the Beautiful Christian
Festival.
The Day OF Carol. Prayer and Games-Gen
HospitaIity-HObby Horse
and santa Claus.
George VIM. Curtis. in Harper. ]

ing an English Christmas which he had never
seen, he replied that, although everything
that he had described might not be seen at
any single house, yet all Of it could be seen
somewhere in England at Christmas. He
might have answered, also, that the spirit OF
what he had described was visible everywhere
in Christendom on Christmas day.
..some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our SaviOurs birth is celebrated,
The bird OF dawning Singeth all night long.
And then, they say. no spirit dares stir abroadS
The nights are wholesome then no planets strike
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
SO hallow'd and so gracious is the time"
This is the Christmas sentiment of to day,
as il was of Shakespeare's time. 1t is the
most human and kindly of seasons, as fully
penetrated and irradiated with the feeling
of human brotherhood which is the essential
spirit of Christianity, as the month of June
with sunshine and the balmy breath of roses.
Santa Claus coming down the chimney load
ed with gifts Is but the symbol of the grac-
iOus influence which at this time descends
from heaven into every heart. The day
daWns with a benediction; it passes in holt
day happiness; and ends in soft and penSive
regret. II could not be the most beautiful
of festivals if it were dOctrinal, or dOgmatic
or theological or local. 1t is the universal
holiday because it is the Jubilee OF a uniyer-
sal sentiment, moulded only by new epoch
and subuy adapted to newer forms of the
old faith.
THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS.
Christmas looks out at US from the dim
shadow of the growth of the Druids who
knew not Christ and it is dear to those who
now renOunce the name of Christian. The
Christmas log, which Herrick exhorts his
merrie, n.errie boys to bring with a noise to
the firing is but the Saxon Yule-lOg burning
in the English hearth, and the blazing holI-
day temples of Saturn shine again in the
illuminated Christian Churches 1t is tie
flat0o
youth kisses the Christian maid. 1t is the
holly OF the old Roman Saturnalia which
decorates Bracebridge Hail on Christmas
eve The huge smoking baron of beef the
flowing oceans of ale, are but the survivals of
the tremendous eating and drinking OF the
Scandinavian Walhalla
The Christian and ante-Christian feeling
blend in the happy season, and the Christian
observance mingles at every point with the
pagan rite. 1t is not easy to say where the
Daganism ends and the Christianity begins.
The carols and the wassail the PRAYERS and
the games, the generous hospitality, Hobby
Horse and the Lord of Misrule, Maid Marian
and Santa Claus, are a curious medley of the
old and the new. As the religious thought
OF all ages and countries, when it reaches a
certain elevation, flows into an expression
which makes the Scriptures OF the most di-
Vergent nations harmonious the history of
this happy festival is evidence of the COM
mon humanity of the earlier and later races;
and the stronger in Bracebridge Hall, mus
ing by the glowing hearth of Christmas-eye,
as be watches the romping revelry beneath
the glistening berries, and listens to the
waits carOlling outside in the moonlight or
as be is wakened on Christmas morning by
the hushed patter of children's feet in the
passage, ana the shy music of childrens
voices at his door, may well seem to hear
more celestial strain, and to catch deeper
meaning in the words, Before Abraham
was ! am"
TIE ENGLISH CHRISTMAS.
The English Christmas tradition makes
good cheer the glory of the day. Forty years
ago, when Leech was beginning his career,
Kenny Meadows was the character artist
of the Illustrated London News, and its CHIEF
holiday pictures were drawn by him.
They were all scenes of eating and drinking
of games and jollity. They were full of bot
ties and smoking bowls, of roast beef and
plum-pudding and mince-pie. of burning
brandy and kissing under the mistletOe.
"Old Christmas" was represented as a flow
ing-bearded Satyr crowned with ivy and
pouring huge hagons of wine, or as a rollick-
ing boon companion stretching out one hand
TO the spectator over decanters and jugs and
glasses while the other holds an open tank
ard. The typical faces of the Christmas fig
ures were those OF the rubicund middle-class
john Bull, and his hearty daughter gayly
resisting the efforts of the young soldier
under the permissive bough; or of the bux-
ON chamh ermaid and greedy children in
frenzy OF delight over the smoking plum
pudding. Christmas, according to these de-
lectable pictures, was all guiding and COB
bling, l0ve-making and other blindmans
buff; and as the reader of to-day looks with
amused curiosity at these holiday sketches
of yesterday, he too, like the stranger by the
fire in Bracebridge Hall, through all the fun
and the feasting, hears the music of the old
Christmas song:
Twas Christmas broaehed the mightiest ale,
Twas Chris tmas told the merriest tale,
Christmas gambOl Oft would cheer
The poor mans heart through half the year"
This is the spirit of Dickens Christmas,
and OF Thackeray's, and, in q great degree.
OF Irvings, touched in al OF them by the
modern humanitarian sentiment. 1t is the
traditional English Christmas when no man
should go hungry. For there is no Joy upon
an empty stOmach-except, indeed, the thin
ecstasy of the starving saints in old pictures,
and they were already dehumanized. This
rs a Christian truth which asceticism has for
gotten. To identify squalor, emsciation. and
denial OF all human delights with especial
sanctity was TO degrade the rich and gener-
Gus religious spirit which taught that all the
world Is for mans benefit and pleasure IL
was George Herbert of whom Richard Bax-
ter said that he sang one whose business
in this world was most with God, and. whose
beautiful lines,
'Sweet day. so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal Of the earth and SKY"
are fresh when they were written; who
also said,
''Forus the winds do blow,
The earth doth rest. heavens move. and fountains
flow;
Nothing we see but means our good,
As our delight or as our treasure;
The whole is either orr cupboard of food
Orcabinet of pleasure"
Christianity does not decline any whole
some use or beauty OF the world, and ii
would be a sorry preacher in the Church en-
powered and scented with Christmas greens
who did not hold that Christmas good cheer
contemplates body well as soul.
THE KSIcKERBocKER CHRISTMAS.
While their neighbors upon Massachusetts,
Bay were banning Christmas. the Dutch al
New Amsterdam gladly welcomed and hon
ored him, and nowhere has he been 50 traly
at home upon the continent in the Dutch
city. The character of the inhabitan Is nat
urally determined that of the day. 1t wa:
less an ecclesiastical festival than a social
and Domestic holiday. The glittering trees
of gifts was its lighted and decorated altar
and hearty good eating and drinking mere
its genial ceremonial rites Hereditary Dutch