The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1897-12-24
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once more-this glad. bright festival of
Christendom In consequence our
minds are full of thoughts of each other
and the gifts which, in imitation of
Gods great gift, we may bestow as ex-
pressions of our aft ction and regard No
time of all the year has so much of the
altruistic spirit 10 it as this. 1t seems
to be in the air, indeed it is the at
mosphere of the occasion. Every
heart and every home is burdeDed with
its own secret purpose in loves sweet
mil istry to others And so it should be.
for it is the anniversary of the browning
glory of Gods manifested life.
We cannot be too thankful for an occa-
sion thar 80 appeals to all that is best in
us-that forces upon us kind and loving
thoughts of others lives. There is
enough in the course of our daily living,
with its keen compositions and conflicts.
to arouse the baser side of Us. There is
too much III life that calls out our self
ishness. There cannot be too many
occasions when We are called upon to
think of others. The solidarity of life
the common interests that iphtre in It's
whole strHc ure-that is fact of which
we cannot he too grateful of, being re-
minded. Some of the highest motives
for noble living are to be found in these
thoughts.
But it is not only thought of others
that Christmas brings, but thought of
others with God present. We think of
others because God is presented to us rs
thinking of us all; and so we are called
upon to look at each other as bound up
in the same bundle of life, and to real
ize that brotherhood which the COMPETE
lions of life make it so hard for us to
remember. Gods Son comes to us, in
these Christmas rejoielngs. to remind us
of our common origin and common des-
tiny, and to deepen the family spirit of
the race.
Of course it is well understood that
there is no ground for believing that the
S5tl of December is the actual birthday
of the Christ. Indeed all the facts point
In an entirely different direct. on. But
this Christian festival gives to us very
striking exhibition of the wisdom of the
early Christians. The early church
found itself confronted with the tradi-
fions and ct,stnYns IF can+urios xrouav,
into the life of the people to whom it
made its appeal, and it made the wissst
use of existing facts that it could. 1t
gave Christian quality to them-trans-
forming them from orgies, diabolic and
degrading, into habits that exalted and
glorifed life.
Christmas is simply the old Roman
festival of the winter solstice-the season
of the peoples rejoicing as they found
they had passed the point at which the
days shortened, and had reached the
point at which they began to lengthen.
1t was the point at which summer
proved its victory over winter, when the
the sweetness aud glory of new clea-
ton. Que has TO admire the Christian
wisdom that llnke1 hHch festival with
the greatest and most Inspiring event in
the worlds history. To put into the
darkest time of all the year, when the
very forces of life seemed to be lying
PROSTATE under the power of decay and
death, this brightest bit of human history,
is to reveal sublime sense of the fitness
of things. 1t rang out the eternal music
of Christian optimism. 1t spoke the
gospel of eternal hope as it could not
otherwise have been more nobly uttered.
But Christmas is not a sentiment
merely. 1t is a fact that has left its
benefcent stamp everywhere, and this
nothing more than in the altered con-
ditions of womanhood and childhood. 1t
has given us the Madonna and the Babe
in art, and these in turn have given US
the sweetness and light that fill the
homes OF these closing years of the nine
teeth century. The Incarnation is the
sanctihcation of all life. It is the appeal
that has brought justice and righteous
ness INTO every realm of our existence,
and that is creating, more and more, the
conditions of civilization more divine
He comes again each Christmas time.
A larger, richer gospel bringing.
Filling the years, and every cline,
With more than set the angels singing"
JUSTICE of the Supreme Court Lippin-
colt in recent interview said: II have