The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1905-12-22

coming OF Christ.
The historians Of the period labor in
| describing it.
In an incredibly short time the bru.
| tai amusements of the amphitheater
in which the Roman matrons while
taking their supper were accustomed
to regale themselves with gladiatorial
combats and with the sight of lions
tearing innocent women and children
in pieces, shrunk abashed from human
sight and passed forever away.
The slave, whose master had the
| power Of life and death over him anil
who when he became old usually had
! him killed and fed to the fish in the
lakes that adorned his villa was found
seated at the same table with his
| master and closer to him than a
brother
The cripple and the uniformed men
in the streets of Athens, whom it had
been customary for centuries to pet
with stones whenever they showed
themselves, became objects of the
tenderest sympathy. In cities which
had been devastated with the plague.
SO that the nearest relatives fOrsook
| each other and tled-so Neander tells
us-the Christians remained behind
| and carried the fostering corpses OF
| the victims on their own shoulders to
| burial. For the first time in the his
tory of the world hospitals were
opened for the sick. Men committed
suicide rather than become soldiers
and kill their fellow men.
Stranger than all this, misers who
had toiled half century to accumu.
| late wealth and who loved their gold
| better than their lives conceived an
aversion for it, gathered it together
| and threw it down in front of the
needy, and with suffused eyes invited
them to help themselves. Some of
them travelled 500 miles to where their
lands were located that they might
sell them out and use the proceeds
| in this way.
1t would be impossible on any nat
ural principles to account for such a
marvellous and widespread change in
human nature. The only visible cause
was the circulation from mouth to
mouth of the story of the virtues, the
prosecutions and the cruel death of
Christ, but this story was no more
in Rome than a story told in this coun.
try about a good man in a foreign land
who had been killed by mob The
only rational explanation of the trans.
formation is the one given by the New
Testament writer's, who declare that
an unearthly spiritual influence ac'
companied this story wherever it was
| told
1t is as a relic of the great tidal
wave of brotherly love that our mod.
ern Christmas observances are most
significant and proper. The anniver,
sary of Christ's birth is unknown. The
! 'uSCluSu w SClCoIoIC IL oll eliC
winter solstice, and Numbered, so that
the day is historically the anniversary
of nothing whatever. Never mind il
is the conventional celebration Of the
most blessed event in all history. II
is a holy memento of che advent Of
humanity into man.
The only possible way of celebra
ting such a day is by demonstration
of universal gladness and good will
and this is the way in which it has
been celebrated from the beginning
The day should be something like the
Jewish jubilee year, when all property
reverted, all wrongs were forgiven, al
debts were Cancelled, all slaves were
freed and society turned over a new
leaf.
Let everybody shed his selfishness
to-day and do every
thing in his power to @ ~
produce a smile if not .AAAsYG Q
Joy and thankfulness in pvA@
| opo about him VIM