New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-25
CHRISTMAS.

1t is n hopeIessIy trite topic, say the unthinK-
ing that of the Christmas festival 1he greet
jngs are perfunctory. Tie making OF gifts Is
a burden The day has lost its old significance
There is a bitter irony IN speaking OF peace
and good wiz when large part OF the world
is actually at war and the rest OF the W0Tld
i in preparation for war. Thus not only tAe
cynic but the critic, who is more needless thah
cynical; and upon the face Of 1t the complaint
anpears 10 be largely true. The day has I'M
doubtedly lost much of that peculiar Sanctty
and mystery with which il was once INFESTED
much but by no means ail-and to some eX-
tent its domestic and social cheer has bteh
transformed into less joyous conventonalltes
and functions" AS for the reign of peace upon
earth it has been observed in more than
one war that the biggest battles are apt u
he fought upon Sundays, wherefore we couli
scarcely expect the christmas seisoh u oe
exempt from strife
But let us not shrink from the awful charge
of triteness. What is there that is great i'm
nortant beautiful. enduring. that is not triteE
The snlendors of sunrise and sunset, which
animate the pens Of poets and the pencils OF
artists, are repeated day after day with the
mechanical regularity of cloclwork. The maj
esty of mountain or ocean is the most utter
COMMONPLACE Ambition, sympathy, love and
AL the passions are old as humanity Itself
and as common. Nor is there anything within
orr convention more common, more universal
to human experience more familiar, more trlIe'
if you will than those most inscrutable OF all
l,u.nan mysteries which we call life and death.
# thought and conversation are to avoid topics
that are trite they must avoid all that are OF
rufailng interest and universal Importance.
There is no doubt. a certain degree OF per
functoriness in our wishes for Merry Christ
mas" So may our daily greetings OF Good
m9rDiuc" and Good night be deemed perfume
tory So may be the addresses and signatures
of our letters-"Dear Sir" TO one whom we DO
not esteem as dear, and Yours truly to one
whose we are not at all. Nevertheless, these
commonplace amenities, all impercepubly, it
may be, but none the less surely, serve TO
smooth the roughnesses of life and to sWeeten
ard illumine it, Perhaps we can form some
concenfion of their beneficence il we imagine
FOR moment the world without tnem, anu
how much less pleasant it would be. 80 the
man who in Il fit of WEAKNESS or Spleen wishes
Christmas did not come even once year VIII
change his tone if he pauses for moment TO
think how less cheerful after ALL the year
would be without this festival
The fact is this and other ike celebrations
grew I'D out of the felt needs of the human
mind and human society. The name and the
peculiar significance of Christmas were given
IN if under the New Dispensation. But the OBJ
servance of Yule the decorated trees, the iliu-
Mutations the gifts. the greetings, were Oh
before our era was begun. They were con
ceived and developed in the dim dawn CT our
races history, out Of the needs and the inde-
Unable Iongings of the human heart. 1t is well
that there should be music and lights and feast
ings at the very time when material nature
is most given up to cheerlessness and gloom
and death. 1t is well that ut times men
should give gifts. and wish good wishes. each
TO the other 1t is well that for at least one
day in the year the war vexed world should
have a stimulus to thoughts of peace. 1t IS
notable and worthy achievement OF the ChT1S-
Han Church that It should have Identified such
= dav and sucb deeds with one Of the two great
festivals of the Christian year.