The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-12-29
CHRISTM .

enough for Kingdoms and empires tC
have crumbled; long enough for great
cities to have flourished and fallen
long enough for new world to have
been discovered; long enough] fol
countless armies whose mailed tread
shook the earth to have melted into
unremembered dust; long enough fol
the very names OF millions who
thought their fame secure to have
faded forever from the memories O
men.
Ninteen hundred years is long
time. But among the million names
that have been forgotten, how strange
ly One Name has clung to the world's 's
memory, how strangely the fame of il
has spread abroad over the whole
earth, how strangely the brightness
of it has grown brighter and brighter
until in all the universe there is no
light like it.
Strsngly, we say, for of all that men
call miracles there Is nothing so
strange as that this Name should have
so persisted, should have so grown in
beauty and brightness and power.
Ia nr 40 a, D,., L., L. -
lowliest of shelters, in the lowliest of
villages, in the lowliest of countries;
the child of obscure parents and of an
outcast and subject race; untaught;
toiling with his father at an humble
trade; teaching despised doctrine;
dying at last at the hands of the pub
lie eXecutioner a malefactor's death
Why should the name not have been
forgotten? No monument was reared
anywhere IN all the world, even unto
this day, to perpetuate il. No book
was left to carry 1t down in mems
memories. None of the great or the
rich or the powerful, only obscure men
and hum BILE, were left in charge of 1t
Surely. reckoning as men reckon, the
name should have persisted long ago.
That it should have survived, not only,
but that it should have become power
in the world Incompatible with that
of any other name, surely nothing is
stranger than that.
JESUS OF NAZARETH Why have
men not forgotten him?
Because God sent him. Because
God sent him and made him an ex
ample and gave him a message. Made
him AN example of purity and tender
ness and patience and love and just
ness, and mercy and kindness, and
sympathy and charity and obedience
and courage and strength and wis
dom. Gave him . message that has
brought healing on its wings, that
has softened and comforted the worlds
hard and heavy heart, that has taken
"the feeble hands and helpless crop.
ing blindly in the darkness" T." and laid
them in Gods hand, that has lifted
the lands up out of the night, that has
been q shield and buckler to the ma.
tiOns that have heard and needed it.
that has brought Love and Hope down
from heaven and made them abiding
guests in the souls of men.
And 30 il is not strange after all
that men should remember Jesus of
Nazareth. Remembering that God
sent him, remembering the example
he was and the message he brought,
IL is not strange that men have
cherished his name, have loved 1t and
revered it and blessed it and died for
it.
And it is not strange that sever
'gainst that season comes wherein
our Savior's birth is celebrated" men
go about rejoicing, speaking cheerily
and tenderly, giving gifts and max
ing little children glad. Dynasties
IN W rise and rule and perish, king
doms and empires may crumble,
great cities may flourish and fall,
countless armies may melt into dust,
the very names of mllllons whom tho
word calls great may fade forever
from the memories of men, but until
the elements shall melt with fervent
heat and the heavens be rolled to.
gether as a scroll, the name of JESUS