The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-12-25
cHR1srMAsLovE,s FESTIVAL.
From the Commoner.

From the Commoner.
Christmas is loves festival. Set
apart from the commemoration Of
into a great holiday which is observ-
ed throughout Christendom by rich
and poor alike. Even those who re-
fuse to take upon themselves the
vows of any church are constrained to
join in the beautiful custom which
makes both parents and children look
forward to this day with pleasant an
ticipations. For weeks before Dec. %
busy hands are at work, tiny savings
banks are gathering in their sacred
store and eager expectancy is written
upon the faces of the young. To the
boys and girls Santa Claus is a sort
of composite donor who monoplizes
the distribution of presents and who,
reading the minds of his little friends,
rewards the good land all are good
just before Christmas) with the very
toys that they themselves have Sc
lected, while the older ones learn by
experience that it is more blessed to
give than to receive. Back of Christ
mas and the Christmas present is love,
and the broad, brotherly love taught
and exemplified by the Nazarene is
not content with the remembranceS
which are exchanged as tokens of af-
lection between members of the fam
lily and between intimate friends; it
is compelling widening of the circle
to include the poor and the needy
though not of kith or kin.
What an instructor love is! How It
develops the one of whom it takes
possession! 1t is the mightiest infiu-
ence known among men. When once
it is awakened it dissolves all opposi-
ton. Dr. Parkhurst, the New York
clergyman, in illustrating the differ
ence between force and love said
QUOTED from memory that force is
the hammer which can break a block
of ice into a thousand pieces but
leaves each piece still ice, while love
is the ray of sunlight which, though
acting more slowly and silently, melts
the ice.
At this season of the year our
thought turn to the contemplation of
the new degree of love revealed to
the world by Jesus. To love between
members of the family and love be-
tween friends He added an all-per-
vading love that includes every mem
Der of the human race. Even enemies
are not beyond the bounds of this
love, for mans puny arms are not
strong enough to break the bonds
that unite each son of God to all his
brethren. Love is not stupid" says
Tolstoy. 1t makes known to us our
duty to our fellows and it will some
day rule the world. Force is the weap-
on of the animal in us; after it comes
money, which the intellect employs,
sometimes for good sometimes for
harm. But greater than all if love, the
weapon of the heart. 1t is a sword that
never rusts, neither does it break, and
the wounds that 1t leaves are life
saving, not life-destroying. No ar
NOR can withstand it and no antag
onist can resist it. But why try to
define this love or to measure its
scope? Paul, the apostle in his first
epistle to the Corinthians describes it
in language to which nothing can be
added and from which nothing can be
taken. Let his words suffice:
eff 1 speak with the tongues of men
and of angels, but have not love, l
am become BOUNDING brass or clang-
ing cymbal And if I have the gift
of prophecy, and know all mysteries
and all knowledge; and if 1 have all
faith, so as to remove mountains, but
have not love, 1 am nothing. And If
1 bestow all my goods to feed the
poor, and if 1 give my body to be
burned, Out nave lOI lON6s II punt
eth me nothing. Love suffereth long,
and is kind; love envieth not; love
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
doth not behave itself unseemly, seek
eth not it's own, is not provoked,
taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth
not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth
with the truth; beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things. Love never fall
eth; but whether there be prophecies,
they shall be done away; whether
there be knowledge, it shall be done
away with For we know in part, and
we phophesy in part; but when that
which is perfect is come, that which
is in part shall be done away. When
I was a child, 1 spake as child,
felt as a child, I thought as a child;
now that I am become man I have
put away with childish things. For
now we see in a mirror, darkly; but
then face to face; now know in part;
then shall I know even as also ] have
been known. But now abideth faith,
hope, love, these three; and the great
est of these is love-"