The news & observer., 1905-12-24
TIE UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD
THAT CHRISTMAS TEACHES.

described the deepS of its emotion;
asserts it's universal destiny in its
deeper and more profound appeal to
feeling disassociated from brain. 1t
is as though once a year the world
forgot, went into a trance, dreamed
dreams and was happy. The world
awakes and shakes itself and sighs. But
the season has left it's impress. has
wonderfully played upon simple
chords of the human heart. has made
children of men and angels of chill
dren SO that it is a time to remember
and to expect, the concrete passion
of the year, when brothers all, men
may be natural in their perennial sur
render to a time-old suggestion.
Christmas is something, but little
short of a test of the millennium. Verify
do the lion and the lamb lie down to-
gether Suspicious vanish hates lie
dormant, hearts swell with new and
strange emotions. The beauty of the
time has even a physical magic or
transformation. The good stands out
in wicked faces. We see and feel and
understand. The world stops and
takes stock of it's blessings and is sur
prised to find itself SO true at heart.
Pathos has a more radiant vesture; II
reveals itself in trivial circumstance.
touching the heart from a passing
smile. living in the exuberant happi-
ness of the crowds, wrenching with
fingers that hurt from a child looking
in a window. A glow, almost visible.
hangs about the streets and the shops;
eve dances to eye i'm the throngs; there
is a sense of a personal joke with
strangers, a jostle has the feel of a
caress: there is happiness and tender
ness and merriness, savored with a
sadness like unto that of the end OF
a long absence. The world. surprised
in its multiform egotism, remembers
suddenly that it is kin and recognizes
the relationship with smile that
lightens through a tear!
That is something of the Christ
mas spirit" that all feel, which is com
mon heritage, which is free in its en-
dowment as air. How many OF US
go further than to drink of the spirit
of the day like sparkling wine, than
TO sit in the glow of our own gladness
of heart and rejoice in what. much
or little, we may have been able 10
do for those whom we love on days
other than Christmas? Did all VINO
feel the Christmas tingle of kinship
running like electricity through their
veins pause to consider that the kim
ship is universal that it is heart
bonded instead of merely blood-con-
fined, the world would be the happier
i'm the day. 1t is easy to give to one
own. Generally speaking. that is the
business of the average life through
out the year. To give. even to sacrl-
ce. within the circle of the individual
home or the individual circle is beau
tiful but not un-mixed with everyday
experience. This Christmas spirit needs
a larger expression. 1t needs to be
lavished where it is not expected,
where it will bring a message from
the dark, where it will bring assur-
ance that the "fall of the sparrow" Is
something more than a fable. 1t needs
to strike with new confidence some
heart hungry for love, to bring as
surance to some soul of sweet depend
ence. 1t needs to be acted as we'll as
felt. to be voiced as well as preached,
to touch as well as to be enjoyed!
The right Christmas has been fixed
on a pattern of sublime simplicity. 1t
is gentleness immortalized, charity
unconscious, love impulsive. It's les
son is simply to listen to the heart, to
yield to tenderness. to time gift
with the thought of giving Each man
can give, every personality has with
i'm it the opportunity to reach without
It's shell. 1t lies within every heart to
crystalize it's sympathy, there is in
every will the arbitrary power to make
happiness.
The Christ brought into the world
the great idea so old that it had for
gotten. He taught the possibility of
Heaven on Earth. He spoke in para
bles of a love SO high that it was in
the reach of all. He touched the SIM
pie things, he taught the value of the
poor, he fastened on a child as the
ideal. After all the centuries through
which man has striven and grown and
learned, his lesson, SO easily learned,
so tempting to forget, remains in the
puzzle of life the one enduring phil
osophy. Burdened with sorrows, the
gentle, all-embracing love of His life
and character nevertheless taught
happiness as the highest duty and
pointed the one way to its attainment
in it's bestowal.
Immortal in it's essence. the spirit OF
his life touches every year the whole
world with it's charm. The symbol OF
the children has endured till it is the
eternal synonym of purity and of faith
OF right is Christmas a happy time: il
is happiest as we recognize the duties
of it's brotherhood.
mo paper Tuesday" writes an es-
teemed exchange. Happy man. But
The News and Observer folks. anxious
as they are for holiday, do not feel
70 IN, iucfian