The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1898-12-31


persisted!
Then. to begin on the outmost rim OF
my subject, Christmas festivities would
never have been observed, Christmas
carols never sung. Christmas gifts
never bestowed. Christmas games never
PLAYED, Christmas bells never rung.
| What an awful subtraction from the
worlds brightness would have been The
making Of December 25 Ike other days
of the year! Glorious day! After
Frightening England and Holland and
Germany for centuries il stepped across
the sea aud pronounced its benedic-
tcn on our shores. Why, we never get
| over our childhood Christmases!
| Father and mother joined in them.
| They forgot their rheumatisms and
| shortness of breath, and for awhile
| threw OFF the sorrows OF q lifetime while
they struggled with us as to who should
Fl rst in the morning shout the Merry
Christmas!" Then there were all the
| innocent allurements as to who brought
| the presents, aud the wonderment as to
how sleighs drawn by reindeer could
come down the perpendicular, ana
afterward the disappointment as some
older brother or sister, with all the
hide Of discovery, tried topersuade us
that the chimney had not been the chan
mel OF generous descent. Oh wha;
times they were, the Christmascs of our
boyhood and girlhood days! We still
feel in our pulses some OF the eNu-
bcrance which we then unwitting'y
scored up for future times, wien the
eye might lose some Of its luster and
the foot some of its spring and the heart
some Of its rebound. How holly apd
fesemary and ivy and mistletoa looked
interviewer! The Puritans may not
have liked he cay, and John Calvin may
have pronounced it supersiitious and
feared il would bring i9t9 religious OBJ
scryance the saturnalia Of the heather,
| the decorations Of ivy !nappropria be
cause ivy had been dedicated TO l;acchus
| ard mstletoe had been associated with
Druidical rites, but we testify thai;
| Christmas never did us any harm, and
the only objection we ever expressed
was that it was so long time from
| Christmas to Christmas. Ecclesiastical
controversy as to whether il ought 10
be celebrated on the 9th of January, or
2Jth of March, or Goth Of September, or
| eth of December, did not bother Us
then any more than it bothers us now.
Can you imagine what specification
of the worlds literature would be the
removal of all Christ ever did and said
Ii would tear down the most importanl
shelves of yonder congressional library
and of the vatican library, and of Brit
ish museum, and Berlin and Bonn anc
Vienna and Madrid and St. Petersburg
libraries, and ST. Paul's life would have
been an impossibility. and his epistle'
would never have been written, and 81
John, from the basatic caverns o
Patmos, would never have heard tn,
seven trumpets or seen the heavenly
wall with II layers of illumined crysta,
lzation. Oh, wise men of the east,
am so glad you did not report to the I'm
perial scoundrel at Jerusalem wher'
the babe was, for the hounds would have
soon torn to pieces the Lamb, and an
so glad that not only did you bring thu
frankncense and the myrrh 20 thu
room in that caravansary, but that yo'
brought the gold which paid his travei
ing expenses and those of Joseph ant
Mary in that long and dangerous figh
to Cairo, in Egypt, and paid Their lodg
irg and board there and paid their wa.
back again! Well enough to bring to tn
barn of the Saviour's nativity tn
flowers, for they nromatized the dread
full atmosphere of the stables, but tn
geld was just then the most impcrtan
: Offering So now the Lord accept
4, your prayers, for they are the perfum
OF Heaven, but lie asks also for the gol
which will pay the expenses of taLin
Christ TO all nations.
| Still further remarking upon the nal
: row escape which you and l and til
; world had in the diversion of the pei
secutors from the place of nativity, IL
me say that had that IIerodic raid upo
the swaddling clothes been successf'
n the world would never have known I'll
value of righteous peace. Much hf
I been made of the fact that the worl
j was at peace when Christ came. Ye
i But what kind Of peace was it?
Il was a peace worse than war. 1t was tt
Il peace of graveyard. The Roma
q eagles had plucked out the worlds ey
r. sight and plunged their beaks throug
W the heart of dead nations. II was
Il peace like that spoken of by dying L
/! dian chieftain when a Christian hon
ID missionary said to him: "You ha'
& been warrior and / suppose have bee
d in many feuds, but you must be at pea,
lie with all your enemies in order to
n Alright" The dying chieftain replie'
he THAT'S easy enough. / am at pea
re with ali my enemies, for have kill
all of them"
ii That was the style of peace on ear
I'd when Christ came, but the spirit of Q
ID bitration, which is to garland the ton
IN OF this century and coronet the brow
r! the coming century, is consequent up'
IN the midnight anthem above Bethlehe
is two bars to that music, the first of
nc vine ascription, and the second of cart
IN ~ pacfication. GLORY to God a
!" peace to men," In His manic
I'd Christ pronounced the same doctrin
Id blessed are the merciful." Before I
r. EotbIaban stnr flashed it's sipuificnn