The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1899-01-06


~ your narrow escape and mine and
The worlds narrow escape. suppose
that attempt on The young child's life
had been successful! Snppcse. that del
esntion OF Wige men, who we're to re.
port TO Herod Immediately after they
discovered the hard bed in the Bethle-
hem caravausary, had obeyed orders
and reported! Suppose the beast carry
ing the Madonna and the Child In the
fight had stumbled aud flung to death
lis riders! Suppose Archelaus hnd got
his hands on the babe that his father
had failed to find. Suppose that among
The children dnsied from the lieihle-
hem house tops or separated by sword
Of the enraged constabulary Jesis had
pcrished!
Then, to begin on the outmost rim OF
my subject, Christmas festivities would
never have been observed, Christmas
carols never sung. Christina gifts
never bestowed, Christmas games never
played, Christmas bells never rnnE.
What mn awful subtraction from the
worlds brightness would have been the
MAILING of December 25 like other days
OF the year! Glorious day! After
Frightening England and Holland and
Germany for centuries 1t stepped across
the sea and pronounced it's benedic-
ticn on our shores. Why, we never get
over our childhood Christmases!
Father and mother joined in them.
They forgot their rheumatlsms and
shortpcss Of breath. and for awhile
threw of 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 allnrements as to who brought
the presents. and the %wonderment as to
how s'elghs drawn by reindeer could
come down the perpendicular, and
niterwara the disappointment ms some
oder brother or sister, with all the
mide Of discovery, tried to persuade us
that the chimney had not been the chan.
rel OF generous descent. Oh wha.
times they were, the C~hristmascs Of II
bnyhood and ~girlhood days! We still
feel In our pulses some Of the exit
bcrancc which we then uuwitting.y
stored up for future times, when the
eye might lose some Of its luster and
the foot somc of its spring and the heart
some Of its rebound. How holly and
rosemary and ivy and mistlctoa looked
interviewer! The Puritans may not
have liked the Cay, and John Calvin may
have pronounced il superstitious and
feared it would bring into religious oh
the saturnalia Of the heather,
the decorations Of ivy inappropi ate be
cause ivy had been dedicated to l:acchus
ard mistletoe had been associated with
Druidical rites, but we testify tina:
Christmas never did us any harm, and
the only objection we ever expressed
was that il was SO long n time from
Christmas 10 Christmas. Ecclesiastical
controversy as to whether 1t ought TO
be celebrated on the 9Th of January. or
@sth OF March, or 10Th az September, or
eth OF December, did not bother VA
then any more than 1t bothcrs us now.
!, always came at the right time, a.
though q little late. and now we r%ealizs
that Christmas m opportunely, just
the shertest day of the year. De.
81, and at the time when days |
IRE ~lengthenipg and the sun is recon.
ncncing It's upward course, telling us
that spring and summer are coming.
what a forest of Christmas trees
trees bearing IL manner OF fruits-row
standing throughout the households OF
shristendom. oh. what hosannas are
..cending on this day, the Christmas OF
, Saviour's birth, this year blending
With tho Sabbath OF a Saviour's resur-
rcctior!
still further remarking upon the mar.
low escape which you ana ! had and all
he world had In that babes escape, let
say that had that Herodic plot been
successful the n instance OF absolute
y perfect character would never have
unfolded. The world had enjoyed
he lives of many splendid men before
,hrist came. 1t had admired its Plato
'mong philosophers, its Mithridates
'mong heroes, its HeroGotus among
its Phidias among sculptors,
Is Homer among poets, its Aesop
lmong fnbulists. its Acschylus among
Its Demosthenes among or
TORS, its Aesculapius among physicians.
ret among the contemporaries Of those
men there were two opinions, as now
here are two opinions concerning
very remarkable man. There were
,lcnty in those days who said Of them:
lie cannot speak," or "lie cannot
Ing" or HE cannot philosophical or
His military achievement was a mere
Iccidcut." OF Ills chisel, his pen. his
prescription, never deserved
he applause given But concerning
his full.grown Christ, whose life was
aunchcd three decades before that first