The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-12-22
AMUSEaENTS THIS EVENING.
THE CHRIsTMAS-TI TIDE.

THE CHRISTMAS TIDE.
At the end of each Christmas festival the
world is tired of Christmas literature and
holiday jollites. The people feel that there
has been surfeit of feasting and hilarity.
The children have talked of it incessantly in
anticipation, and the roar has been kept up
day and night for weeks, eliminating only
on the day of all days, and fringing away
by very tedious gradations over several sue
Feeding days. The experience is the same
the world over, from the steppes of Russia
to the rough cabin on the Colorado; from the
Krist Kindlein that comes to the children of
the Rhine to the mutilated Kris Kringle of
other lands. 1t is all alike, Kris Kringle,
Santa Claus or st. Nicholas. The Juvenile
mind is full of it and will not be denied.
Despite the worry and wear and expense of
celebration, it must be observed. Instead
of losing interest 1t is steadily gaining, and
though the usual glamour that once sur
rounded it may be dissipated in a measure,
the spirit of the feast is growing better I'M
derstood. The smoke and fire and izz, the
Bwsetmeats and presents and Hastings, are
but the hollowest manifestations of the uni
versal joy that is felt, just as the roar and
rattle of the Fourth of July are but the
expressions of patriotism wrought up to an
overflow on that anniversary. Our national
holiday is grand occasion for America,
but Christmas is the Fourth of July of all
the world
There is a significance about the celebra-
ton of Christmas that will not let it die. 1t
is worse than useless to grumble about the
money and expense OF festival 1t is I'M
Il. The celebration grows because the
rr,lent of gratitude and reverence grows
t. The selection of the day was purely
1ary, as all older people know but that
%fes little. The event that it commem-
S is so oyershadowing so vast in its in
.ce, that the day will probably come
when ali mankind will reverence the festi-
val for what It signifies. 1t is not necessary
that one should accept Christ as a personal
savior in order to a proper appreciation of
the debt of gratitude that the world owes to
edges the influence wrought by the man who
grew from the wonderful babe of Bethlehem.
Whether he was born on the twenty-ffth
dav of December is of little moment. 1t is
enough that He was born, and that He
wrought the great work for which He was
sent into the world. The grain of mustard
seed that was nurtured at Nazareth has
grown until it overshadows the world. The
peoples of all nations aud chimes, the inhab
itants of the islands of the sea, all feel the
effect and enjoy the benefits accruing from
the example of the man Jesus. His teach
ings are slowly but surely regenerating
the world. Absolute justice, tempered by
sympathy and love, is gaining everywhere.
Oppression is less and less observable The
whole world is freer and happier than ever
before. and the license of sin is steadily re-
treating before the liberty of righteousness,
Mankind is coming to better apprecia-
ton of Christianity through better under
standing OF us scope ana purpose. FROM the
narrow Interpretation once put upon it, it is
now given a liberality and practical ility
that its founder intended Christmas as the
great annual day of gratitude and rejoicing
should be celebrated universally. Let the
children shout and rejoice as they will, let
the fun and merry riot go on. But out of
all the chaos of clamor and the babel of
busy tongues there ought to be one hour
of serious thought Not an enforced puri-
tanical hour of cant and restriction but
momentary lull in the fun and frolic and
rejoicing, to seriously think Tor a time of the
significance of the day in order to better
appreciation of the reason for gladness and
gratitude. Through all the CLEAN of bur-
dened Christmas trees, and through the sa-
worry odors that rise like incense from the
Christmas tables, older eyes should read in
the history of the past the glad tidings of
great JOY that are to lead the people into the
paths prepared for them.