The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1896-12-23

dumb sorrows that you cannot tell to
you whose burdens are heavy and chaf-
ing; to you whose way is narrow and
dark I: to you who are puzz'e as to the
meaning Of life'and your own existence
to you write.
Be patient at this season OF rest AID d.
version to ponder the words Of hum
BILE soul gszing upward TO interpret to
himself the lightning flash OF unanimous
thought that leaps from country to coun-
try at Christmas-tide.
-.
The great and the head-wise are often
wrong while the humble and obscure
serve to make and transmit the public
opinion that gradually overthrows error.
Note that the wise men were turned aside
to Jerusalem while the simple sheperds,
patiently doing their wearisome duties
by night, untroubled by the puzzling
questions of the Magi, learned more than
these about "peace and good will "
-.
Since their day each age has through
ts wisest tried to recreate and interpret
anew the fragmentary career Of the low
ly man. They have darkened his coun-
sci with words, they have smothered the
breadth OF his purpose, they have tried
to wall around the sea Of his goodness,
they have attempted TO seal up and con.
iue the sunshine of truth. But over
against the limiters Of light, the monop-
olists of heaven, the head-wise interpret
ers, must beset the heart of the common
people, who, like the man born blind,
cannot argue down sopbistries and puz.
zle out intricate faiths, but can simply
fail back upon the unanswerable demon
stration of peace and goodwill, "where-
as was blind now see." Because he
was 80 real man, tempted like them
selves, the great common heart has held
fast to him through centuries OF rspine
and licentious II s'among bis prof, ssed
interpreters, through ages OF ere d max
ing and creed-breaking, through cycles
Of bloodshed and ,rsecution by the
professed opponents OF peace and good
will Have miracles ceased II is a
miracle that any of his plain teachings
should still live; yet steadily the light
has climbe the mountain sidts OF pr
version ard now shines full strongly
dow into the valley of the shadow OF
death that we traverse.
50
Because then his friends were the low
ly, his mourners the tainted and TIE
bereft, his most faithful servan through
all ag,s the outCa'ts and the obscur
becaus also this is the Peoples Age,
the age OF democracy wh-n the right to
think and to learn is no lnrgar denied to
US by the lofty ones, may it not have CONF
to pass that this time of al times m ,st
remote from the customs, the ideas that
surrounded Jesus, il the best fitted after
all to measure the length and breadth OF
the announcement of ''psace and good
will" that has so long remained echo
less
s's
And what is he to us, we anxious, bur
dened workers? Whatever else sectar-
les may discover in him, to this soul he
seems to be "just one OF u.s." We be-
lieve that his temptations were not mere
theatric displays, that his suffering WIS
not feigned. We know what agony il,
not less did ne; in our cases we can too
often trace it back to a breach Of law,
but not so could he, and thus the greater
poignancy in his sufferings We do not
lower him by thus thinking of him, but
we raise ouis Ives to higher, nobler
humanity. surely that wss the work he
came to do Because he was a man, man
hood is glorious; because he triumphed
over evil, manhood is helped to trample
temptation under foot; because lie re-
manned pure and undefled, there is ever
just before us an examplar to copy We
discover him to be no splitter of theolog-
zeal hairs no creator and enforcer OF a
set belief save in God, the father Of all,
from which cause we are his sons, and
brother OF Jesus. "Deeds, not creeds
deeds are creeds," his forward cry. IT'S
creed enough to see in him career to
initiate. "Creeds first, deeds afterwards, u
the opposing words OF those who, by
their human folly, would have darkened
the light that rose in the human heart
from his cart or.
-.
Through him we see that those who
never understand their grandeur, whose
hearts never throb with noble purp6 a,
whose power never rejoice TO run the
race Of life, are those who look outward
from within perpetually, as though the
universe circle for them alone. To sach
wrapped up in self, whose souls needs
must be saved though all Others perish,
willing to take but unwilling TO give,
dead though appearing to live; to all
such his life gives rebuke. From him
we learn a truth that the graf world
around is fast graspiDg; that he who
gives most gets me he is filled with
good things and crowned with glory and
honor imperishable, who scatteIeth all
Of good that lac has, that his soul is bss