The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-12-20
Peace and Good Will.


With this issue we anticipate, but a
few days, the coming of that day that,
almost nineteen hundred years ago, on
the plains of Bethlehem, IA proclaimed
by angel choristers, Peace on earth, good
will to men. OF all the various holiday
seasons observed, and honored by the
civilized world, there are none so well
calculated to strengthen our Christian
faith, so widespread and far-reaching in
all to which it relates, so joyous in its
nature, so reverent in its tone, as is the
celebration of the day which gave to lost
humanity in the flesh the Redeemer of
the world. From its very nature it is a
home festival. The purity, the privacy,
the sweetness of all that the words love,
and home implies, rests upon the teach
ings of him who "spake as W. man
spoke" The mission of Christ was one
essentially Of peace and good will to
men. In order, then, to keep this Christ
mas festival in the spirit of the Master,
it should be made prominently a season
Of reconciliation, q reunion of heart and
of hand, not only OF those bound togeth-
er in bonds that have never been riven,
but a coming together of hearts long es-
tranged and of hands long unclasped.-
This was the spirit and mission of that
his followers consecrate this happy sea-
son to the same blessed work? Beneath
the joyousness which dwells in every
rightly constituted home and beams from
the eye of friendship and love, there is
underlying in every generous nature a
feeling of thankful content and a recog-
milton of the great and glorious benefits
which were conferred on our fallen ma
ture by the nativity and mission of
Christ. No event among the many mo-
meutous issues of the worlds history has
had SO powerful an effect upon human
progress, past, present and prospective,
as the event which this season brings in
fresh review before q civilized world
The blending of the religious and the So
cial feeling which so peculiarly belongs
to Christmas, is not the least of it's pecu-
liarities. The Creator and the creature
seem drawn together by a community OF
joy, and the attributes of the Goldman
seems at this blessed season to be in
some degree shared by his people in a
spirit of b~enevolence, which is SO mark
ed a feature of the celebration of this
day, wherever the birth and mission Of
the Redeemer has been made known
More at this season than at any other, by
some subtle influence, is the heart of a
common humanity softened. Love to
God and love to man becomes a pleasure
as well as a duty. Softening the asperi-
ties, tearing away the rubbish that has
been accommodating and encrusting and
hardening the heart, bringing into fuller
development that latent feeling of n
common brotherhood of man, which
needs only the spirit of'Christ, manifest
ed in the flesh, to bring into fond and
loving embrace. Coming, as it does, in
the wintry season OF the dying year, dou-
bly, welcome is the warmth of that affec-
ton whose hand is extended in acts of
benefcence, mercy and love, making
thrice blessed the hallowed memories of
this happy Christmas days greetings
While it is becoming and proper that We
should thus Joy and rejoice over the
blessed privileges which a Christian civ
ilization makes ours, it is well to remem
Der that: although wide as is the knowl-
edge connected with this happy season,
there is yet many portions of the globe
where the story of Bethlehem and the
cross has never penetrated. Let us,
therefore, who enjoy this great boon,
give to Christmas day a hearty, joyous
welcome, with the fervent hope that an
other year may add largely to our I'M
numbered blessings. AS well as swell
the anthem of voices which shall re-echo
the glorious hymn of "Peace and good
will toward men, which this day is the
burden OF every grateful heart. A Hap
py Christmas to every reader of tie
DEMOCRAT.