Arizona republican., 1898-12-25
OUR MORNING SERMON
THE TRUE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS.
By wILLIzn E. HARnON,
President Newspaper Sermon As
 soCiatiCn, Boston, Mass.

Behold, I bring you good tidings of
 great joy, which shall be to all people. Luke ii:1O.
 In an olive grove on the Bethlehem
 plain stands a little chapel known by
 the name of The Angels to the Shep-
 herds" It marks the traditional site
 of the fields where the shepherds
 watched their f1ocks on that first
 Christmas night, when the angel of
 the Lord came upon them, and the
 glory of the Lord shone round about
 them" There. to the wondering ears
 of these lowly men, first came the
 strange message which was to be to
 all people glad tidings of great joy:
 Unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord"
 It is this m0mentous event which the Christian world is celebrating today the coming of the Christ child into our earthly life. This is why we engage in such a festival of joyousness as comes but once year, and it would be hard to find a person in our whole land whose life is not more or less bright ened by the spirit which moves through all things at this Christmas time Many
  highest and truest meaning of the day, but they cannot help partaking of the magnetic current Of life and joy which sweeps through the civilized world On this day of days.
 The spirit of Christmas is certainly joy. That strange intangible something which comes into our lives for a few moments at a time-comes to the most of us too rarely-1eaves us all too soon. .I.-l I. ephemeral of all our emotions, and yet the best day of the year is given to it's celebration. And why? Is it not be- cause, while so feeting, it represents the highest point to which the human spirit can attain? And may l tell you of way by which even this most precious of Gods good gifts can be ours alway?
 Joy seems to me to be the b1ossoming out, the fulflment of perfect peace Peace is the certain fruit of perfect love. And while, like most emotions, we cannot command joy to come to us, yet in controlling our actions we can command peace, and out of peace will come the longed-for joy
 'On earth peace, good will toward | men, sang the herald angels over Bethlehem's fields. The Christ child | came into the world to show us the | meaning Of perfect love. No person who ever lived held within himself | such a wonderful, ever-renewing fouE- tain Of love, freely open to the whole | world, as did this little heir of the | manager. Even while growing up into | manhood, though history tells us little | of his younger years, we know that | such a character must have been an ever-living inspiration to all with whom it came in contact.
 I often try to imagine just how much Jesus knew in these younger days of the wonderful power within him, or whether he knew of it at all; but we must always feel that at any rate his life was so delicately adjusted to the harmonies of nature that even if it did not realize itself, all those who came into touch with it must have realized a sense of the presence of something diff ferent from ordinary man. If as many think. Christ began to realize his mis- sion only as he passed into manhood li we can imagine the wonderful, over whelming sense of love which rose as he recognized the heart-poverty of all the world, which was apparently with out his gift.
 Love seems such a small thing. and yet rightly understood it is the moving force in creation. We sometimes won der why joy is so infrequent with us; but if we realized how rarely our lives were filled with that sweet, unselfish love which Jesus gave to the world the question would never repeat itself. We should see before us the reason of our and it's solution as well. If we only knew how easy it is to love others Many will differ from this statement, but that is only because they love themselves. Take selfshness out of consideration. Even though you { do not believe that unselfishness will bring any reward or any return, just take self out Of the question and sub stitute therefor some sort of a love the love of a pet, of child, of father or mother-let it be perfectly unself- ish, and see how quickly a sense of peace, even though sometimes mingled with sorrow at love unrecognized but always peace, will creep into your life. Sometimes it will seem so strong and overwhelming that the very fountains of the deep appear to be opened, and the peace of God floods your sOuli And then you will begin to see that this is the solution of life-begin to see that out Of love only comes peace, We will realize that no matter how much the thing we do may apparently help our selves, when it is done for that pur- pose, the reward is dearly bought. And On the other hand we shall see that an act done for another, no matter how small it may be, if from a pure and sincere motive, will bring a sense of peace far out of proportion to the mag litude of the act. '.. 4t-a:
 I know a thousand and one thoughts come up against this theory Of life. The