Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-12-29


OF March. or 2eth of September, or 25th of
December did not bother us then any
more than 1t bothers us now. 1t always
came ut the right time, although little
late and now we realize that Christmas
comes OPPORTUNITY, just after the shortest
day Of the wear, Dec. 81, and at the time
when days arc lengthen!nR and the sun is
recommending its upward course, telling
us that spring and summer are coming.
Oh. what forest of Christmas trees
trees bearing l2 manner of fruits-now
standing throughout the households of
Christendom oh, what hosannas are as
ccnding on this day, the Christmas of n
Saviour's birth, this year blending with
the Sabbath of Saviour's resurrection
Do you not feel the thrill, the glow, the
enlargement, the triumph of this day and
will not your charities go forth until you
sympathizc with the quaint old Christmas
carol-so old do not know who wrote it
its title. scatter Your Crumbs"
Midst the freezing sleet and snow
The timid robin comes.
In pity. drive him not away,
But scatter out your crumbs
And leave your door upon the latch
Fer whosucvoT comes.
The poorer they, more welcome give
And scatter out your crumbs.
All have TO spare, none are too poor,
When want with winter comes,
'And life is never all your own.
Then scatter ont the crumbs
Soon winter falls upon your life.
The day Of reckoning comes:
Against your sins, by high decree,
Are weighed those scattered crumbs.
Can the angel which -. John saw with
measuring rod measuring heaven or hath
any seraphic intelligence faculty enough
To calculate the magnificent effect which
1,s9S Christmas mornings and l,SSS
Christmas moons and l,S9S Christmas
nights have had on our poor old planet?
Let Us thark God that we live to see this
Christmas, the bells of which ring out 80
clear. SO inspiring, so jubilant-bclls of
family reunion, bells of church jubilee,
bells VI national victory. But had either
Molchior or Balthasar or Caspar, the three
wise men of the east, who had put down
the sacks Of aromatic frankincense or bags
VI chinking gold by the bare feet of the
infant Lord, reported to Hcrod's palace
She place where they found the child the
swift horses of executioners would have
carried death TO that babe Graded in
Mary's arm, and the Bethlehem star
would have beer star of tragedy, and
instead OF a sorg OF nativity, which the
nations are now chanting this day would
be chiefly memorable for the shrek of be-
reft motherhood
The One Pure Man.
Still further remarking upon the mar
row escape which you and l had and all
the world had in that babes escape let
mo say that had that HerodiC plot been
successful the one instance of absolutely
perfect character would never have been
unfoldcd. The world had enjoyed the
lives of many splendid men before Christ
cane. 1t had admired its Plato among
! philosophers, its Mithridates among he
| roes, its Hcrodotus among historians, it's
! PhidiaS among sculptors. its Homer
among poets its -Esop among fabulists,
( its -Eschylus among dramatists, its De
mosthenes among orators, its -fsculapius
among physicians. yet among the conterl
poraric, OF those men there were two opin-
ions, as now there art two opinions con-
corning every remarkable man. There
wee plenty in those days who said of
them. He cannot speak, or "Te cannot
sing. OF He cannot philosophize, or
His military achievement was a mere nc
! c!dont, or His chisel, his pen, his med
"a
rlausp given But concerning this fun
grown Christ, whose life was launched
tire decades before that first Christmas,
tho moan OF camels and the bleat OF sheep
and the low OF cattle mingled with the
ha1c'S first cry, while clouds that night
were Resonant with music, and star point
ing Gown whispered TO star, Look, there
he !e,'
That Christ, after the detectives of Hcrod
and PLATE and sanhedrin had watcher,
him by day and watched him by night
year after year, was reported innocent. II
Was found uut that when he talked to the
VaErant woman in the temple il was 10
tell her TOGO and sin no more, and that
! II he spoke with the penitcnt thief il was
t. promise him paradise within ~ hours,
and that aS he moved about he dropped
ease Of pain upon the invalid's pillow, or
light upon the eye that lacked optic nerve,
or put bread into the hands of the hun
cry. or took from the oriental hearse the
dead young man and vitaliZed him and
said To the widowed mother, Here he is,
-s,iVe and WELL" and she cried, My boy,
~ boy and he responded, Mother,
mother. And the sea, tossing too roughly
some Of his friends, by word easier than
a nurses word TO petulant child, hc
made it keep still. The very judge who
FOR other reasons allowed him TO be put Ia
death declared, Il find no fault in him ="
Was there ever life so thoroughly ran
sacked and hypercriticised that turned
out TO be so perfect a life? Now, can you
imagine what would have been the calam.
lily IN earth and heaven, what "a bereavo-
ncnt TO all history, what swindling not
only Of the human race, but of cherubim
and seraphim and archangel If because of
internal incursion upon the bed of that
Bethlehem babe this life of divine and
glorious manhood had never been lived;
The Christie parallels would never have
been uttered, the sermon on the mount,
all adrip with benedictions, never preach
ed, the golden rule, in picture frame of
everlasting love, would never have been
hung upfor the universe To gaze upon and
admire.
Can you imagine what scaritication
of the worlds literature would be the re-
moval of all Christ ever did and saidg Ii
would tear down the most important
shelves Of yonder congressional library,
and of the Vatican library, and of British
museum, and Berlin and Bonn and Wen
IA AID Madrid and st. Petersburg libra
ries, and St Paul's life would have been
an impussibility, and his epistles would
never have been written, and st. John
from the basaltic caverns of Patmos, would
never have heard the seven trumpets OF
seen the heavenly walls with IL layers OF