Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-12-27
CHRISTMAS.

1t is hOpelessly trite topic, say
the unthinking, that of the Christ
mas festival. The greetings are
perfunctory. The making of gifts
is burden. The day has lost its
old significance. There is a bitter
zirony in speaking of ''peace and
good WHIP when portions of the
world are actually at war and the
rest Of the world is always in pre-
paration for war. Thus not only
the cynic, but the critic, who is
more needless than cynical; and up
on the face of 1t the complaint ap-
pears to be largely true. The day
has undoubtedly lost much of that
peculiar sancti6ty and mystery with
which it was once nvested-much,
but by no means all-and to some
extent it's domestic and social cheer
has been transformed into less joy
Gus conventionalities and ''func-
tions." AS for the reign of peace
upon earth. 1t was been observed
in more than one war that the big
;gest battles are apt to be fought up
on Sundays, wherefore we could
scarcely expect the Christmas sea-
son to be exempt from strife.
But let us not shrink from the aw-
full charge of triteness. What is
there that is great, important,
beautiful, enduring, that is not
ttrite? The splendors 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 clockwork.
The majesty of mountain or ocean
us the most utter commonplace.
Ambition, sympathy, love and all
the passions are as old as humanity
itself, and as common. Nor is
there anything within our concep-
ton more common, more universal
80 human experience, more familiar,
more trite, if you will, than those
most inscrutable Of all human my
ssteries which we call life and death.
If thought and conversatio ton are to
avoid topics that are trite, they
must avoid all that are Of unfailing
interest and universal Importance.
There is, no doubt, certain de-
gree Of perfunctoriness is our wishes
for Merry Christmas So may
our daily greetings of good morn
Iing' and good night he ueemed
perfunctory. So may the addresses
land 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 imperceptibly, it may
be, but nevertheless surely, serve
to smoota throughnesses Of life and
TO sweeten and illume it. Perhaps
we can form some conception of
their benefcence if We can imagine,
FOR a moment, the world without
them, and how much less, pleasant
it would be. So the man, who, in
a fit of WEAKNESS or spleen, wishes
Christmas did not come even once
a year will change his tone if he
pauses for moment to think how
less cheerful, after all, the year
5Would be without this festival.
The TACT is, this and other like
celebrations grew up out of the felt
needs of the human mind and hu-
man society. The name and the
peculiar significance of Christmas
were given to 1t under the New
Dispensation. But the observation
of Yule, the decorated trees, the IL
luminations, the gifts, the greetings,
were old before our era was begun.
They were conceived and developed
in the dim dawn of our races his
tory out of the needs and the indie
Unable belongings of the human
heart. 1t is we'll that there should
be music and lights and feastings at
the very time when material nature
is most given up to cheerfulness and
gloom and death. 1t is well that at
times men should give gifts, and
wish good wishes, each to the other.
1t is we'll that Tor at least one day
in the year the war vexed world
should have stimulus to thoughts
of peace. It is a notable and worthy
achievement of the Christian church