The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-02-02

10 JVul AdAAoW cSCdpe duu IQlue anu
the worlds narrow escape. Suppose
that attempt on the young child's life
had been successful! Suppose that del
egation of wise men, who were to re-
port to Herod Immediately after they
discovered the hard bed in the Bethlc-
hem caravansary, had obeyed orders
and reported! Suppose the beast carry
ing the Madonna and the Child in the
fight had stumbled and flung to death
its riders! Suppose Archelaus had got
his hands on the babe that his father
had failed to find! Suppose that among
the children dashed from the Bethle-
hem house tops or separated by sword
of the enraged constabulary JESUS had
perished!
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 IS like other days
Of the year! Glorious day! After
Frightening England and Holland and
Germany for centuries it stepped across
the sea and pronounced its benedic-
ticn on our shores. Why, we never get
over our childhood Chr;stmasesl
Father and mother Joined in them.
They forgot their rheumatisms and
| shortness Of breath, and for awhile
threw off the sorrows of lifetime while
they struggled with us as to who should
first in the morning shout the "Merry
Christmasl" Then there were all the
innocent allurements as to who brought
the presents, and the wonderment as to
how sleighs drawn by reindeer could
come down the perpendicular, and
afterward the disappointment as some
older brother or sister, with all the
pride of discovery, tried to persuade us
that the chimney had not been the chan
mel of generous descent. Oh. what
times they were, the Christmases of our
boyhood and girlhood days! We still
feel in our pulses some Of the exu-
bcrance which we then unwittingly
stored up for future times, when the
eye might lose some. Of its luster and
the foot some Of its spring and the heart
some of its rebound. How holly and
rosemary and ivy and mistletos looked
interwoveni The Puritans may not
have liked the Gay, and John Calvin may
have pronounced it superstitious and
feared it would bring into religious OBJ
servance the saturnalia of the hcathen,
the decorations Of ivy inappropriate be-
cause ivy had been dedicated to Bacchus
ard mistletoe had been associated with
Druidical rites, but we testify that
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 it ought to
be celebrated on the 9th of January, OF
2sth of March, or goth Of September, o,
2sth of December, did not bother us
then any more than it bothers us now
. It always came at the right time, al
though little late, and now we realize
. that Christmas comes opportunely, JUS
J after the shortest day of the year, De
cember FL, and at the time when day
, are lengthening and the sun is recon
: mencing its upward course, telling u
: that spring and summer are coming
| Oh, what a forest of Christmas trees
} trees bearing IL manner Of fru1ts-nov
standing throughout the households o
Christendom! Oh, what hosannas ar,
, ascending on this day, the Christmas o
, a Saviour's birth, this year blendin,
t with the Sabbath Of Saviour's resur
rection!
Still further remarking upon the mar
row escape which you and had and al
|. the world had in that babes escape, le
' me say that had that Herodic plot beel
successful the one instance Of absolute
ly perfect character would never hav
! been unfolded. The world had enjoye,
the lives of many splendid men befor
Christ came. It had admired its Plat
among philosophers, its Mithridate
among heroes, its Herodotus anon,
historians, It's Phidias among sculptori
its Homer among poets, its Aeso
among fabulists, its Aeschylus anon
. dramatists, it's Demosthenes among OF
! ators, its Aesculapius among physician.
. yet among the contemporaries of thos
men there were two opinions, as no,
!, there are two opinions concernin,
! every remarkable man. There wer
. plenty in those days who said of them
,, HE cannot speak" or He canno
, !, sing" or He cannot philosophize." o
:; His military achievement was mer
4 accident" or His chisel, his pen, hi
, medical prescription, never deserve
the applause given" But concernin
this full-grown Christ, whose life wa
: launched three decades before that frs
Christmas, the moan of camels and th
bleat of sheep and the low Of cattl
!, mingled with the Babes first cry, Will
!, clouds that night were resonant wit
= music, and star, pointing down, whit
: pered to star: "Look, there He isl"
II That Christ, after the detectives q
n Herod and Pilate and sanhedrin ha
S watched Him by day and watched hill