Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-12-20
Christmas Joy.

Wer W say GudI III IL Uuo ndppleSt ulHe
of the year, because we choose to make
it so. There is profound philosophy in
this answer, for life in general is
what we choose to make it. Our opti-
mism or .pessimism is not determined
by the way we reason nor by our abil-
ity to reason; neither is it determined
by the way we feel, nor by what we
suffer; but it is determined by the at
titude of our wills. The optimist wills
to believe in soul of goodness, even in
things evil, and it is this primary atti-
tude Of will that determines the way
he thinks and feels. We are happy in
Cbristmastide because we believe that
it is worth while to be happy and
choose to enter into the spirit of happi-
ness. But the same may be said of
other happy seasons as well. Why
is Christmas the happiest time of all?
Ancient and deeply seated GUS
tom may be urged in the way of expla-
nation. The celebration of the Nativity
of Christ is as old, almost, as the
Christian era. This Christian observ-
ance is one of those intangible, yet
very tangible, ties which bind nations
together, and unite the life of the pres
ent to countless past generations
The atmosphere of Christmas is
alive with q spirit of a common per-
ennial Christian humanity. Our Christ
mas joy is not an individual experience,
but one which brings us into fellow
ship with the heart of Christendom
in its vast extent and duration. lay,
more. This custom of rejoicing at the
time of the winter solstice was hoary
with antiquity when the stable of Beth
lehem was still unbuilt.
Many Yule-tide observances are
of pagan origin. The early Christian
fathers, wisely assuming that Christ,
was not come to destroy but to fulfil,
retained such popular pagan custom,
as were the innocent expression of ele-
mental human joy. So the habit of
Yuletide rejoicing is older than Chris
tianity itself, as old in fact, at the
time when primitive man first learned
to see in the northward turning sun
the promise of another summer and of
the rejuvenescence of nature. Yes the
habit of rejoicing at Yule-tide is SO an
cient and deeply seated, that we could
as soon alter the form of our blood
corpuscles as eradicate that habit.
Nature herself has had much to do in
making this the gladdest time of the
year. The beginning of the SUMS re-
turn after his six months decline gives
the incentive and occasion for festive
Joy. The enforced leisure ofthe winter
furnished the opportunity, while in
door warmth and cheer, in contrast to
and IN defiance of, the falling snow
and biting blasts, gave to this rejoicing
Its keenest zest. In this time and re
glon of natural gas we have been de-
prived largely of our inheritance of
blazing logs and comfortable chimney
seats. Here and there one with the
courage to do it land incidentally the
means rises in rebellion against the
gas stove and installs good old
fashioned hearth on which he can
burn fragrant logs of hardwood at
Yule-tide, and mantel beneath which
Santa Claus, emerging, finds the expect
ant stockings.
This reminds us of another very inn
portant element in the Joy of Christ
mas-tide, an element for which we are
indebted to the Christian meaning of
the festival. The day which celebrates
the birth of the infant Redeemer is pre-
eminently the festival of childhood.
Some sapless philosophers think that
the world is fast becoming old and
worn out, that the Golden Age Gf
there ever was one) is in the past. and
that all that awaits us is mould and
darkness. But do not believe a word
of such stuff-especially not at this sea.
son of the year. By providing that
our race shall come into the world in
stalments, God has wonderfully as
eN~N~>> WIG POI POouai yoututulU06S anu
vigor of humanity. The world was
never so old and seemingly PLAYED
out as it was just before the Babe of
Bethlehem was born to make it young
again. The knell of Engand's doom
had sounded in 1781-according tc
some of her wisest statesmen: but
shortly came Robert Burns and Will
lam Wordsworth singing the poetry of
child life and the home, and British
power expanded to heights and breadths
undreamed of. The nation or the
race that makes much of its children is
sure to be a vigorous and growing
people. The age that enters into the
spirit and life of childhood is sure to
be an age of achievement. BY its Cos
pei of the Infancy, Christianity has tax
en- captive the heart of humanity and
has entered into the very center of its
deepest faith, its brightest hope and it's
tenderest love.
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