Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1892-12-23
THE LIGHTS OF CHRIST
MAS.

800 80 SSANa1 b'p oHNiO ~ u bIt COlIl'
rnnsation for absence from bone Oh
this brightest and best of anniversa
ries i'll finding oneself in the streets
of London on the eve of Christmas,
spectator and part of the great
Christmas tide Of expectant. happy,
smiling humanity flowing in counter
currents through Bond street, Hol.
burn, the Strand, and eddying and
whirling around Charing Cross; and
when, with heart warmed with the
glow reflected from thousands of
sparkling faces to see this city Of n
million homes and thousand
churches blaze forth with Christmas
a lights from basement to roof, from
Ahancel to belfry, the mystic spell of
ae anniversary becomes wondrous,
Overwhelming, complete.
But when Christmas dawns, one
should leave the bewiltlering maze Of
this vast city for some old English
village where tho beauty and tradi
tons of the day possess cameo like
unity and relief; and tho farther this
shrine is removed from the rush and
roar of tie Nineteenth century the
sweeter will DO the flavor of the an
niversary and moro rcdolent of tho
old incense. The village green,
buttressed by the iyied church and
manse ut ono end, and the old hos
telry and snithy forge ut the other,
the noble hall half visible in its park,
and ancient farm houses noighboring
near, make up mis- en- scene for u
charming Christmas that cannot be
surpassed. Watching the assembling
worshipers hocking park and green,
you follow on, pause in Gods Aero
for look mt the old yew trees and
billowy sod where tho rude fovefa
theirs of the hamlet sleep, and enter
the rough stone tomple TO whose
plain interior tender and sympathetic
hands have lent II grace aud fresh
ness with clusters and festonns of
holly and mistleto, and where Christ
mas has been sacrctily celebrated for
centuries save whom CromwelPs sol.
diers put down the "papistical wor
ship or duling the pi'iablo War of
the Roses. Your mind dwells main
Nv in the mystic pnst during the ser
vice, for Celts, Britons, Saxons, Danes
and Normans have knelt before YOU
"n this spot, many OF them under the
Same roof, aud do not tho symbols
gathered from the remnants of OLD
Druidical groves blend tho cyedo of
the Christian with the worship of
Bell!
AS The day declines and you have
your choice between the hospitality
OF Norman hall and tho festivities at
some old farm house where the Sax
on dwells, HE then to the latter, for
Christmas is but play under the
patronizing smiles of rank and fash.
ION, while i'll the soil imbedded home
OF tho descendant of the Celt or Sax
on you shall see the greatest of Chris
tian anniversaries celebrating at the
same hearth with the first of pagan
festivals ms you saw them comlnem,
GRATED at the same mornin. nltarl
ana each claiming the day in honor
OF Its nativity. In the midst of the
fete where hospitality reigns with
giadness tho carols are heard with
out and the door swings wide open
Tor the singers. In they troop, and
and as they chant Saviour born
tins day in the cave of Bethlehem.
and OF peace on earth good will to
man. the blazing yule log OF the sun
worshipers illumines the room with
tidings of scarce less import, telling
that on this day the source of all
light and life have merged from the
grave of the winter solstice to breal,
the icy bands of death and restore to
man the fructifying spring, the ripen
ing summer and golden autumn. I
have chosen England for the loci of
my Christmas scenes, for there one is
brought into closer sympathy with
tue spirit and traditions of this great
dual anniversary than in our modern
America.
Centuries before the shepherds
watched their Hocks on the Syrian
hills in the dawn of the Christian Ella
the Egyptian priests had traced the
zodiac in the heavens and blazoned
IL.