Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-12-25
A Lay SERMON.

The generous warmth of holiday cheer
is at hand; in the glow of good-feeline
and kindliness that now pervades the com.
munities of the civilized world we Law
aside daily cares for brief season Of
merry-making. The regret is that it is q
brief season; that we offer it as atonement
for year Of hardness and severity, and
turn back into the old grooves with so lit.
tie Of real regret.
We ring the bells and we raiEe the strain
We hang up garlands everywhere
And bid the tape1s twinkle fair.
And feast and frOllc-and then we 90
Back 10 the same old lives again.
The Christmas season has high Office
to fulfill It is lofty sentiment that
makes It the type Of goodwill, the messen-
ger and preacher of peace and praise
offering to the Ruler of the Universe. But
Its influence has outgrown the Christian
tradition Of which it was born, since it has
spread its benign influence over people IN
different to Christianity as religion, and
awakens the sympathies of those who deny
the divinity Of Christ.
One practical thought the day presents
is that as a people we are enslaying our
selves. The voluntary bondman to labor
is very little better than he who tolls in
involuntary servitude The eagerness
with which men embrace the opportuni-
ties Of this season for relaxation testifes
to the tenacity with which business and
labor still hold them in chains. The OBJ
ject Of the active men Of the day should
be, and appears to be, to win comforts
and enjoyments beyond the contribution
to bodily needs. But the truth is, that
the great mass of Americans wear
ont before they attain the desired
end; the culture of the tastes and the
moldins Of the desires by wise Judgment,
is put of for the future, under the miscon-
ception that certain conditions are essen
tial to mental delights, social enjoyment
and expansion in intellectual fields. 4
graver mistake cannot be made
What we need most to learn, and that
the season Of good viii should teach us
with greatest emphasis, Is that conditions
have very little to do with the develop
ment Of the better part. Goodness is not
a luxury for the favored, nor mental cult
ure TIE sole privilege of the fortunate men
of leisure. The humblest toilcr may make
his labor contribute to exalted pleasures,
and the development Of those lasting quail
titles which make life worth living. As a
matter Of fact, there is no condition forti-
fed by honest endeayor, that may not be
made 10 contribute to the personal well-be-
ing and that Of our fellows; no station in
life in which we may not cement bonds OF
true friendship and expand the moral ma
ture in the atmosphere of good companion
ship. But the slavery of labor that is per-
mitted to make captive the faculties, re
duces the men to the level of the mere
animal, actuated by the single aim of salts
flying the absolute bodily needs As some
philosopher has well said, unalleviated
labor Is one of the shortest roads to brutal
ity."
There has been no age in which the adj
vantages for the eultiyationo of the intellect
ual man we're more easily promoted than
this age; no period when the opportunities
we're so broad for the doing of good, nor
the means 50 economic as in this period no
time in which the qualification of the
loftiest Of human pleasures was more easily
attainasle than the present time. We can
conceive Of but few circumstances indeed
that can 50 combine against the honest
and courageous will as to crush out all
high aspirations.
The holiday season breaches to US SER
mon of reproach, if within its narrow com
pass only We find freedom from self-enslaye-
ment; if within its brief days all
the generous impulses of the
nature are compressed, TO be cofiined at
their close beneath the hard crust of unre-
hitting toll and unrelaxed seryitude to
business. The growth of our race is not
best manifest in its strife for worldly pos
sessions, bat in the steady and increasing
strength of the beat Of the hearts of men
in common sympathy.
We believe, despite the mad rush of