The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-01-21

hem house tops or separated by sword
of the enraged constabulary jesus had
| persisted!
Then, 10 begin on the outcost rim OF
| my subject, Christmas festivities would
never have been observed, Christmas
carols never sung. Christmas gifts
never bestowed. Christ mas games never
! played, Christmas bells never rung
What an awful subtraction from the
worlds brightness would have been the
making of December 25 like other days
of the year! Glorious day After
Frightening England and Holland and
Germany for centuries it stepped across
the sea and pronounced Us benedic-
ticn on our shores. Why, we never get
over our childhood Chr!stmases!
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
Christmas" 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
atterward the disappointment as some
older brother or sister, with all the
pride of discovery, tried TO persuade us
that the chimney had not bee the chan
mel Of generous descent. Oh wha:
times they were, the Chuistmases 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 it's spring and the heart
some of its rebound. How holly and
rosemary and ivy and mlstletoa looked
interviewer! The Puritans may not
have liked the Cay, and j ohm Calvin may
have pronounced it superstitious and
feared it would bring into religious OBJ
servance the saturnalia Of the heather.
the decorations of ivy inappropr ate be-
cause ivy had been dedicated to l,acchus
ard mistletoe had been associated with
Druidcal 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 10
be celebrated on the 9th of January, or
2Sth of March, or Goth of September, or
25th 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 important
shelves of youder congressional library.
and of the vatican library, and of Brit
ish museum, and Berlin and Bonn and
Vienna and Madrid and St. Petersburg
Libraries, and st. Paul's life would have
been an impossibility, and his epistles
would never have been written, and 81;
John, from the basaltic caverns OF
Patmos, would never have heard the
seven ,trumpets or seen the heavenly
wall with IL layers of illumined crysta..
liZation. Oh, wise men of the east,
am SO glad you did not report to the i'm
perial scoundrel at Jerusalem where
the babe was, for the hounds would have
soon torn TO pieces the Lamb. and am
so glad that not only did you bring the
frankincense and the myrrh 10 the
room in that caravansary, but that yo,
brought the gold which paid his travel.
ing expenses and those Of Joseph and
Mary in that long and dangerous flight
to Cairo, in Egypt, and paid their lodg.
irg and board there and paid their way
back again! Well enough to bring to the
barn of the Saviour's nativity the
flowers, for they aromatized the dread.
full atmosphere Of the stables, but the
geld was just then the most impcrtan;
Offering. So now the Lord accepts
: your prayers, for they are the perfume
OF Heaven, but He asks also for the gold
which will pay the expenses of taking
Christ to all nations.
Still further remarking upon the mar
row escape which you and | and tn.
world had in the diversion of the per
secutors from the place of nativity. lei
me say that had that Herodic raid upon
the swaddling clothes been successful
the world would never have known the
value of righteous peace. Much has
been made of the fact that the worlt
was at peace when Christ came. Yes
But what kind of peace was il? Il
was peace worse than war. 1t was tn;
,, peace of a graveyard. The eRomal
eagles had plucked out the worlds eye
: sight and plunged their beaks through
the heart of dead nations. II was
!, peace like that spoken of by dying In
dian chieftain when a Christian HON,
missionary said to him: "You hav,
, been q warrior and suppose have beer
in many feuds, but you must be a, peac,
with all your enemies in order to di
Alright" The dying chieftain replied
That's easy enough. am at peac
with all my enemies, for I have killet
all of them"
! That was the style of peace on cart
! when Christ came, but the spirit of ar
bitration, which is to garland the toni
OF this century and coronet the brow o
the coming century, is consequent upol
the midnight anthem above Bethlehem
two bars to that music, the first of Di
vine Inscription. and the second of earth
. ly pacification. "Glory to God an
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