The Bossier banner., 1893-12-21
BENTON. IA.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER Fl, 1893.
Christmas.

Peace-will be celebrated over the
length and breadth of Christendom.
The story of the beloved Sons"
life may be told in few words, but
His influence no words can measure.
From artisans bench to the Temple
from the Temple to the cross-from
the cross to universal sovereignty.
While traversing the highways of
Judea or wandering along the shores
of Galilee a few thousands of the
humber sort listened to His glowing
speech, but after the shadows of Cav
airy gathered and passed He had the
world for an audience. Death chang
ed the peasant Teacher to ruler
whose sway increased until He be-
came suzerain of all the realms of
earth, which paid willing tribute to
His moral majesty.
During the three short years of His
public ministry it was His fate to be
misunderstood. The truths He ut
tered were so radiant that the eyes
of His nearest friends were blinded.
Perhaps the greatest agony He ever
suffered came from a sense of loneli-
ness, from mental and spiritual isola-
ton. Not one among His followers
could offer Him the sympathy of full
appreciation.
From first to last the public opin-
ion of cultured and official life in
Jerusalem was opposed to His meth
ods. For while He was tolerated
as well meaning but visionary. The
scholarly Sadducees smiled with un
surpassed disdain at His claims, and
the Pharisees treated Him with con-
tempt, as self-elected reformer who
would soon wear out His welcome.
But it became evident later on that
the confidence of the people was in
creasing; that His bold criticisms
were gradually carrying them to the
edge of revolution. In unstinted
terms of indignation He denounced
the spirit of the age, and the thunder
of His speech alarmed the whole
class of Temple officials. They were
so stung that they assumed the de-
fensive and stood ready to use any
means in their power, including in
trigue and bribery, to get rid of Him.
Their plot was successful. They
brought false charges, they suborned
witnesses and in the name of the law
He was condemned to die. The male
factors doom sealed His earthly Ca
reer and, to all appearances, the dan
gers which the new doctrines threat
ened were averted.
But oddly enough the words He
; uttered refused to be obliterated. He
had quarried in the bed rock of truth,
and those who came after Him used
that rock as the corner stone of q
universal religion. For three centu-
ries the converts of Christianity were
dragged at chariot wheels, torn by
lions in the arena, broken and bruised
in every way that human ingenuity
coald devise. Kings and rulers did
their best to exterminate them, and it
became the fashion among the higher
orders to spurn the religion of the
Nazarene as the wild dream of wild
dreamer.
To no purpose, however. It throve
in spite, if not in consequence, of
persecution, and after an appalling
series of disasters it vindicated its
right to existence. The Emperor
Constantine saw the glittering cross
in the sky as he stood on the south
ern slope of the Alps, and either by
impulse or conviction accepted Chris
tianity. It became at once the reli-
gion of the court, persecution ceased,
the dishonored was honored, tickle
fashion followed the sovereign with
applause and wore the cross as the
symbol of faith, and for the last ff-
teen centuries in all civilized commu-
mites it has been popular to admit
the authority of the Christ, and un-
popular to deny it.
The basis on which this nobler
faith rests is the injunction to love
God and to be neighborly toward
your fellow man. If the Church sees
fit to construct dogmatic systems and
to quarrel over the doctrines of their
creeds that is their business. To
scholars theological pickering may be
delight, but to the great body OF
the people it is positively discourag-
ing. When Christianity demands
simple purity of life, which every
body can appreciate, honesty of word
and deed, it appeals to every heart
in the universe and rightly demands
the allegiance and support of every
creature who has hope or fear of am
bition.
That is the kind of religion which
the Master founded, and for this rea-
son the world gives itself to rejoicing
when the Christmas bells ring.
May it be a merry day to old and
young among the readers of the
Banner.