The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1893-12-26
OUR CHRISTMAS EVE.
BY GEORGE W. FERREI..

There IL no anniversary In all IN
! wears calendar which has been cele
brated 80 much and so elabOratel il
art and literature as that of Chris ma
eve. There is a subtle infiuenc'
about it, intangible, impalpable ant
as rare as the blue sunlight or thu
golden vapor in heaven.
Poets and painters have expended
their genius upon it from the tim.
when the big bright Star of Bt hle
hem shone in splendor upon the pain'
and peaks of Palestine until the
present. Minstrels have PLACED il
imperishablv upon the pages of loesy
and art has wrought it into fort rs OF
fantasy and attitudes of exquisite
symmetry.
But the spirit of the anniversary is
so elusive that it really lies hiddin in
the secret sanctuarics of the hear and
refuses to be evoked save by the still
small voice of the soul or the tOuih of
memory and tears when the mind
turns to thoughts of the days thai are
no more.
Christmas eve is largely tim, for
gladness and gloriication. The very
atmosphere is surcharged with lap
piness. The strange star that guiled
the wise men to the place of theSa-
vior's birth, is more brilliant e7en
than in the days OF old when the
prophets and priests filed the fbly
Land with prediction and mavell,ng
The face of childhood is beamng
with expectancy and joy. The
branches of the evergreen tree are
burdencd with trinkets and keepsales,
with playthings for Little Boy Bl,e,"
and with substantial remembra,ces
for the older folk. There are green-
cry ana gladdess everywhere, and the
golden singers chat encircle the MD
night sky are melojious almost in
ract as well as in fancy.
1t is likewise a season of hOne-Om-
ing and reunion. Families and
friends who have been separated by
sea or land gather again about the
festal board and find peace and con-
tentment in the happy faces and the
warm clasping Of hands. The mother
welcomes her boy back 10 the old
rooftree. The wife hastens to greet
a husband whom some cir
has kept from her side
for many weary months. Brother
greets brother and the bride, who |
went forth year ago from under a
bower of blossoms and with shower
IF kisses on her fair forehead. returns
and it may be holding in tender
.aress babe with scarcely less divin-
ty than that in the manager at Beth
chem.
Christmas eve is also a time of
and 10 some a time of
earful remembrance. There NAV he
vacant chair, in which one little
'ear ago some loved one was seated,
Tut whose silence and sleep cannot be
'roken by the Ginning OF bells or the
Merry laughter of innocence and
'Outh.
Friends may be far beyond the
'multitudinous seas They NAV
ave wandered to the other side Of
he western mountains. They may
leep beneath the pillows of the broad
Atlantic or may be at rest under the
oses of California. The solemn
pirit of absence haunts hundreds of
ousehOlds in manifold forms.
But whatever of gloom or glalncss
r greenery there NAV be round about
:. we cast our eyes upward ami see
he blessed Star of Bethlehem leading
ne radiant host of heavenly pilgrims
: they twinkle and travel beyond the
Zach of earthly endeavor. 1t shines
18th the same sublimity a. in the
ncient Palestinian times and He Of
HON it is so unchangeably significant,
still Lord of all.