The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1885-12-24
Christmas Time.


. ton if all The triumph and su
: cess of life can compensate fl
what is sacrificed to them.
Even the stout hearted gro
tender under these Influences
, The smiles of the children an
their strange fancies and abidin
faith in happiness and in loy
have a power irresistible and ba
ter down all the stern maxim
and rigid rules which at all othe
times of the year seem so essen
tial to right living and thinking
Childhood is the perpetual mira
Gle working with a power univeI
sal and irresistible during al
these Christmas days.
The Christmas we celebrate a
this time commentaries th,
birth of little child. The mine
| of man turns instinctively bacl
to the stable at Bethlehem
Myth or miracle, fact or fable, al
legory or history, it was an even
of transrendent import. No de
lusion ever before wrought such
marvellous changes, and if one
rejects the whole story as incred'
ible, there confronts him still
greater miracle-Christianity it.
self, which, originating in a con.
spiracy among a few ignorant
fishermen on the Sea of Galillee,
has changed the whole course sof
history and redeemed a race by
its dreams and delusions from the
bondage of ignorance and baI-
barism.
This faith was never so potent
as it is to-day. 1t has mastered
the mind of man, is directing the
course of thought and the lines
of development, restraining the
wrath of man, and changing the
remainder of it to praise and
wonder. 1t endows even its re
jecters with wealth incalculable,
and curbs the power and the pas
'ions of the vile and the aban-
loned.
1t is a marvellous story. and
hough We have grown familiar
With it and seek to weigh it, and
ct metes and boundaries to it, or
'lse to put it aside and forget it,
will not be forgotten any more
han the star above US. A vague
ream, we are told, a I'd yet since
hat first Christmas morning the
7orld has not been the same, and
ever again can be. Since then
ew..dignity pertainsato woman
ood, slow though we be to see
!, and helpless infancy has a
ingdom of its own, and that
ingdom is the heart of man.
hat birth, important as it was,
iewed from the standpoint of
istorical theology, was of scarce
: less importance in that it was
revelation of the trinity of the
lmily as a social principle.
Christmas has an ever-growing
over over the consciences as (
ell as over the minds of men.-It
s memories are commanding,
S promises are hopeful and {
ealthful' Under its spell we be-
,me ideal.sts; faithful to those
stincts which from childhood
} old age widen little our pri-
N bars, and at Christmas, if not ,
gain in all the year, t
hough inland webe ,
!r sous have sisnt of hat immortal sea
hich brought US II ,.De..;' c
And SO by common consent the G
orld keeps this festival, not with '
lin pomp and pageantry, but as !
e children would have it kept, f
lth noise and shout and and an O
most unrestricted freedom. 1t v
aid hot be better kept; it could a
no way bring such unmixed c
light. and so strengthen in the
lid faith in happiness, tempor-
as we'll as eternal, which alone r
times makes life tolerable TO C
m. The Christmas days filled ii
it'll JOY and love expressed and t
ade manifest, are TO be TO each
ger heart, in time TO come, a T
of inspiration, just as y.
e memory of that Christ mas !,
pt nearly nineteen hundred ;.
ars ago is. for the race. the
urce of inspiration through the
es. Through all the days, to n
ange a little the poets words, tt
u>ic is siumberil.g in the heart W
humanity which some great
aster will yet touch Alright and
Ike melodies unheard before. =
lis is one message Of Christmas:
new faith in humanity and in ="
man worth. j: shows that all -
lnkind are touched by the I
ne influences, moved by the G
ne appeals, respond alike to the te
ne inspiring thoughts and feel
IS. The race has a higher ex :.
leHce because Of this, and the 90
RET of it lies hidden in the "
art Of little child. "
These are the thoughts that =
ne as each day we watch the "a "a