St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-25
THE 1EssoN OF CHRlsrMas,

Christendom wisely rejects that NOR
bid and gloomy view of the proper OBJ
servance of these Christmas days which
day in rapt contemplation Of the tre-
mendous Significance of the event which
the day commentaries and of their
individual unworthiness of the sacrifice
ending the life to which the day gave
birth. raising over each soul cloud OF
fear and doubt as it looks into the be-
yond, vainly seeking to pierce the veil
which hides its mysteries.
Christendom, with all but universal
impulse, feels that in making the day a
festival of giving it more truly com
memorates the day and better appreci-
ates the significance of the wonderful
life which saw light in Galilee nearly
twenty centuries ago.
Whether we view that life from the
standpoint of the deist or the pantheist,
or from that of the devotee kneeling in
unQuestioning alteration at the Christian
shrine. it appears alike to each su-
preme gift, supreme giving. 1t came
to mankind out of that mystery which
is greater than that of death, and whose
solution death may be, a gift to man in
all that made it greater and better than
the lives of common men. 1t was what
Emerson terms the letting loose on this
planet by God of great thinker who
puts all things at risk. If nothing more,
it was the gift to humanity of another
of those supremacy endowed men who
strongly move mankind to higher planes
of thought and action. From its incep-
ton in the manger to its close on CAL
vary, the life of this great gift was itself
a constant giving of itself to its fellow
men, eliminating in the browning gift
when it laid down life itself for them.
1t is fitting that Chrstendom keeps in
mind this life of self-denying giving,
and symbolizes it on the recurrence Of
these birthdays Of the Christ by making
it a season of gift giving. If the gifts
be not perfunctory, if they come not
from sense of obligation or of duty, if
they come out of the heart and with each
thus goes something of the giver, the
season is one of the forces which make
for the humanizing of men, for broad
OliiliE VI lilCll ttulOo, lOl q ClOoCl anu
a warmer touch of man with man. Of
the pleasures of life the greatest Is that
which comes to the cheerful giver, for
he gets also the reflected pleasure from
the recipient.
But in a broader way, Christmas
teaches men a lesson which all the
humanizing effects of twenty centuries
of Christianity have not served to render
wholly needless. 1t is the lesson of
Christ's life applied to the daily life of
men, and practiced in their relations to
their fellows and society. 1t is the CIV
ing of some portion of ones time and
effort to the betterment of our fellows.
1t is the devotion to the right. ignoring
self, exalting public good over self
good, seeking what is right and abiding
with it, regardless of consequences; the
sacrifice of something, of time or means
or effort or ease for the common benefit.
1t is the resisting of temptation which
promises material gain at the cost of
right doing. 1t is the observance of the
injunction to be just to your fellow man,
just in your dealings. just in your
judgment, but with justice tempered by
consciousness of our common weak
ness,