Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-12-26
$tauntolt Spectator.
WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 26
Christmas Morning.


And he called his name Jesus.-Matthew,1 25
There must be some good and suffi-
cient reason, says the New York Herald
of Sunday, why the people of so many
nations should set Christmas apart
from all the other days of the year
There must be peculiar significance
connected with If Or its special OBJ
servance would have lapsed long since.
When we find that what we have
thought to be a diamond is only paste
we are apt to throw the thing away
with some expression of disgust but
if the stone is really IA gem the passage
of time does not dim our appreciation
of its value, and we leave it as an heir.
loom to our children.
In ike manner, if the heeting CEN
tnries, each one of which has &C.
companied three generations to the
churchyard, have held this season
sacred and worthy of observance we
may safely conclude that it represents
certain ideas, aspirations and hopes
which the world would not willingly
partwith. We cannot help having great
respect for the deliberate judgment OF
mankind, for they have never yet
handled coin for a hundred years
without knowing whether it was ger.
uine or counterfeit.
If, therefore, the day on which we
celebrate the birth of the historic
Christ still holds its sway throughout
the civilized world it is safe to conclude
that under cover of that night when
the angels sang their overture of peace
and good will something happened Of
transcendent importance, and that we
do well to look back through the mists
of time that we may catch a glimpse
of the little village of Bethlehem and
of the star which the shepherds fo!-
lowed where the Babe lay"
There are two interpretations of the
events which began with the manger
and ended with the crucifxion.
The first comes from impartial critic
of history and the second from uni
versal tendency to ecclesiasticism.
The critics have certainly been I'M
partial, and possibly little rough in
handling the subject. Their attitude,
however, appeals for approval to every
one of us, whatever our intellectu al
peculie critics may be. The agnostic,
the Hebrew, the hermit in the Punjaub
and the Christian, judging the matter
from a purely secular poiut of view,
must agree, and do agree, that if the
life and teachings of Christ were to he
eliminated from our consciousness the
catastrophe. The German nationalist.
the French iconoclast and the Ameri-
can repudiator of any supernatural
element in the Scriptures cordially ad-
mit-though they shrug their shoulders
at the creeds of the Church-that tie
man Jesus has been accorded Il dual
Immortality, for though He went from
Calvary to heaven His personality is
projected into human affairs and exer-
cises such controlling influence that
We may say almost literally that He il
a citizen of the world in this nineteenth Il
century.
The sole purpose of His life was to
teach some simple truths, and to do il
with such emphasis that they would
leave their impression, just as the di,
in the mint leaves its design Oh the
gold coin. These truths are not numer
GUS, and. they should not he befogged
by learned explanations. What all
men are expected to live by all men
onght to be able to understand with
out any great effort, and Jesus, who
talked mostly to ordinary folk, said
nothing which needs explanation by
rabbi, priest or pastor.
He taught that God is not implaca
bic, but parental, thus appealing to
the highest motives of which human
nature is capable; that we are to mete
out to others the measure of love He
gives to us; that gentle, a guiding
and a solicitous Providence is con
stantly active for our benefit, and that
it neither slumbers nor sleeps" that
sorrows, trials and struggles are Just
as necessary to the soul as fire is when
metals are to be purified, and that
another life with d different environ
ment awaits US when the heavy gates
of death swing on their hinges and the
golden bowl of time is broken.
There was not one listener in His
vast audiences, as He preached ON hill
side or seashore, who could possibly
misunderstood His meaning. They
may have been astounded, but they
He was protector and a friend.
These are the ideas which have been
injected into the race, and been trans
formed into an impulse which leads US
to 10 ok for the ideal and strive to at
tain it. These are the ideas which lie
at the foundation of individual hap
piness and of national prosperity
These are the ideas which have made
our civilization what it is, giving good
cheer to encouragement and consola-
ton to the afflicted. There is no power
on earth which can destroy them or
make us forgetful of them, for when a
man has gold he forever after rejects
copper. We may be satisfied with
darkness until the sun rises above the
hill tops, but from that radiant mo
ment no one can persuade US to sit in
the shadow any longer.
The second Interpretation. which is
by the Church, is coningling of these
simple truths with vast amount of
bewildering side issue statements,
to the scholar but of no
practical use to the mass of the people.
1t is misfortune that men have been
urged to look at the Bible through
spectacles, for the spec
tacles fit very few eyes and the image
of Christ becomes blurred, like a
picture out OF focus.