Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-23
/" CHRISTMAS"
MR.. MASSEY PRESENTS THE CHRIST
MAS THEME WITH ILLUSTRATION.
A Tribute to the Influence of that
Great and Revered Author,
Charles Dickens

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day ST. John K, 10: II am come that they
might have life and that they might have
it more abundantly," and said:
"When we come scrutinizingly to inquire
what that life really is which Jesus desired
bis followers to have, and to have abund-
antly, we feel that we can answer it is just
that life that Christmas observances most
appropriately represent, that mutual good
will, that reciprocal sentiment, that kind
ness and mellowed cheer that enter into the
occasion and make it in all the revolving
year the hsppiest, the heartiest, the hottest
season. Christmas then comes as the
brightest day that marks the history of our
civilization, the one particular day that in
its practices brings into more salient relief
the characteristics that by universal &C.
acknowledgement are at the very foundation
of all enlightened progress. And what
Jesus came TO do was to give life in this re-
gard, and Christmas with its affectionate
offices is the perpetual acknowledgment
to the value of the life that now is, and of
Jesus as its eternal inspiration. The great
beliefs Of humanity flow out of a proper
adjustment of the relationships of life, and
can never be entertained as realities apart
from relationships in which the best tenn
porsl good is permanently secured l do
not mean material good, but good of an
other description, the good that comes to
US through kindly emotion, through the
practice OF charity, through everything that
elevates the standard of living and gives
dignity TO this present existence. And it
is Just such things as these that are the out
come Of the teachings and ministry of
Jesus. He spoke of higher things, of God
the Father, of heavenly inheritsnce and
of an immortal hope, but these things have
no reality now, and had not with him, ex-
cept as they are made the consequence of q
life in which they are already felt to be in
tangible possession.
The goodness, the gentleness, and the
ever watchful care Jesus associated with
the infinite Father, can only be appreciated
as human fatherhoud is made to be their
temporal but actual reflection heavenly
inheritance can only be understood as our
earthly inheritance is found rich and grand
in its inclusion of things of essential worth,
and eternal life can have no meaning but
as it IS the continuation of eternal living
here. With this appreciation of the min
istry of the divine Master can there be any
question why liberal Christians keep Christ
mas, and why We delight to exalt the men,
DRY of Christ? He is not God to us, but
HE IS MORE THAN ANY GOD
Could be, as the high human example of
what our human lives should be, and he
reveals God in the only natural way in
which God can be revealed, by making an
exalted human nature the expression of
the divine excellence. U God, thou art
an infinite Christ, exclaimed Starr King.
o Christ, we can respond, Thou art the
eternal portraiture of the invisible, thinning
in Thy majestic character the attributes
of the highest and the hottest one.
And now with this conception of the
life which Jesus came to impart, let US see
by an illustration or two how the apprecis-
ton of this life has entered into our mod
ern consciousness, and let US do this by in
quiring whether what the world is now
willing 10 acknowledge as the type of liy-
ing that calls for an almost reverent recog-
milton is what is confessedly the outgrowth
of Christian influence. Let me then first call
up the literature that makes the strongest
appeal TO the Christian heart. Its liter
AZURE that especially recognizes the truth
of the statement that the life Jesus came
to impart was a life that connects itself
with our present relationships and employ
ments. This literature has come to be dis
tinctively called Christmas literature,
literature that has for its object the ex-
altation OF our common human life-the
showing the kindly sentiment, the. win
ming grace. the impregnable virtue that
may reside under every variety of external
condition, and that because of this posses
sion of essential being by every child
of God, the enforcing the duty upon
every one to so conduct himself that hu-
mainly shall not be restricted in the enjoy
ment of any rightful privilege, or retarded
in its progress in moral and spiritual de-
Yelopment.
81 allude to the literature that Charles
Dickens aud those following in his foot
steps have given to the world.
THE advent of this literature marked
new era in the history of Christian thought.
Perhaps, as an exhibit of the older litera-
ture and of the sentiment it enforced, a
short quotation from Millions ode On the
Morning of Christ's Nativity would be
useful. Milton writes:
This is the month and this the happy morn
Wherein the Son OF heavens eternal King,
OF welded maid and virgin mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring.
For SO the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us perpetual peace.
''The special life then that Jesus was
thought 10 have brought was life sfar off,
q future life only to be conceived of in
metaphysical relations, and the care for this
future life frequently left little thought for
the proper development of this present life,
and so the claims Of humanity upon the
devotees of religion were almost absolutely
ignored This was the condition Of affairs
that induced Charles Dickens to give to a
heartless, needless world that remarkable
series of Christmas stories, The Carol,
THE Chimes and The Cricket on the
Hearth, and through which. without g
word Of theology, without a single moral
Injunction pragmatically enforced, be sc
put new meaning and life into Christmas
observsnces, that Christmas has ever since
COME WITH HAPPY BENEDIcTIoS
To great multitudes of the sons of man
As against the selfish care for the salvation
of the soul the great novelist confesses 6
care for the good things CT this presen
life, and puts the obligation upon all t.
see that these good things are somewhat
equally distributed. And he does this be
cause Of his recognition made without cant
but with reverent aeknowl edgment of thu
great truths Jesus brought, the fatherhood
of God and the brotherhood of man, anC
because of which re relationships hu
man life may frequently be pre-
SeOted as QleQlileO, eDHOOleu Suu PlO
riffed. Scrooge, with his money anC
grasping sonl has no conception of TIL
benisons of heaven that perpetual.
rest upon Robert Cra:chet and his it'll
family in pinched but honorable poverty
Aldermen Cute and Filler and Sir JOSEPH
Bowley, with their hsrd theories of CHART!
mechanically and theoretically distributed
cannot oe made to feel the touching patho
that resided in the lives Of Toby Week ant
his faithful daughter Meg with her 'brigh
eyes-eyes that would bear world OF look
ing in. before their depth was tathomed; an,
what can the sinister. eyed, malicious mind
ed Tackleton know of the angels that dcmi
ciled under the roof OF John the Carrie
and his devoted Dot? What's homer say
the rich man, -four walls and ceiling
when John refuses his invitation TO spent
the anniversary of his wedding day ava,
from the home that conseerated so mncl
of affection and duty and sacrifcei bu
John. while he does not reply TO the argu
ment. knows that home, 10 be truly home
is the hearts domicile and nothing else.
Now the point have been soheltous 0
making is that the work this new literature
has done hiss been to give new dignity e
human life, and while confessing the obi
CATION of universal love, enforcing
through a recognition of the worthlness G
the beings who claim the administration c
this love ut cur hands. Jesus has bee
r,,ads a GOD and the m eSssCe he has bee