The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-12-20
NEW VERSION OF
CHRISTMAS IDEA
DR.. Brown Says Old Roman
Holiday Has Become a Habit
and No More.
BELIEF OF THE ANClENTS
SAYS FESTIVAL ANTEDATED THE
BIRTHDAY OF CHRIST.

Christmas spirit and its origin were Ut
tered bv the Rev. William ThurstOn
Brown at Unity han yesterday Follow
ing are excerpts from the sermon which
set forth the ideas Of the Rev. DR.. Brown:
III a stranger from some other planet
should come TO our earth ana stay Win
us lust one year. spending thai year in
what are called the Christian nations, ne
would discover that the people OF these
Christian nations mark enc day IN the
year as they mark no Otner- Among al
the many holidays which We men and
women of these different nations keep
one alone would stand out above all the
Others-and that one would be what we
call Christmas. Such stranger WOulu
notice that this one day Is marked u
certain ways as no other is marked On
that day, all the people OF all the Chrls-
tan nations. regardless Of creed or no
creed, do certain things which they do
not 90 on any other day in the year
they mark that day by gifts TO those
whom they love. 1t would seem 10 MN
a very striking thing; a wonderful, re
markable thing. And it is wonderful
thing that all kinds OF people, good and
bad as we called them, wise and ignorant
poor and rich, loving or unloving, gen
erous or misery, all kinds Of people feel
cannot help feeling, the influence OF this
widespread custom.
of such a stranger should ask people
right and left why they make these gifts
on that particular day, perhaps rev.
a very few, would say;
we are doing this i'm memory of the
savior of the world, who was born on
this day
"A very few might say that, but it
would not be quite true. Nine-tenths Of
MS, or more, if we told the truth, would
say:
day because our fathers and mothers did,
and their fathers and mothers and so on
back through hundreds OF years, We keep
Christmas, We try to make children hap
by, we do these unusual things because
it is a custom TO do 50. We didn't make
Christmas-We found it here
but this stranger from another plan
ct might not be satisfied with such an
answer. He might say:
" want to know where this day came
from, for 20 know how such day came
into being In the first place is far more
wonderful than simply to know that mill
lions or people every year Keep Jhat Gay
without knowing any other reason for
doing so than that it is AN old custom,
perhaps a very good custom
How Christmas Came.
IF, then, we shall think for a little
while today how Christmas came TO be
In the first place, it is not merely for
the purpose OF learning a new fact, as
We might do, by reading some book, but
rather for the purpose of finding out how
Christmas OF any other day may be the
expression Of a Joy which we ourselves
feel, and not merely something We have
taken from the hands Of others. More
and more are we finding out that we
can have nothing by proxy.
Suppose we think, then, today, how
what we call Christmas first became a
sacred, beautiful, joyous, religious thing
in the lives of men. A great many peO-
pie are going 10 be surprised TO learn
that the thing which has made the tWen-
ty-fifth day of December what 1t is-a day
of such widespread gladness, day which
all sorts of men and women almost un-
consciously accept as a religious event,
does not date from the birth OF Jesus,
does not have anything Immediately 10 do
with Jesus.
I'VE know now that il was not till the
year 352-more than 800 wears after Je-
sus was cruCified, that the 18th Of De-
pember was made the date of the Christ
mas festival. Why the 18th of Deem
ber2 Why not some other date2 There
wasn't the slightest reason for believing
that Jesus was born on that date not
the slightest. That date was chosen be-
cause it was the time of a very old fes-
tival which the whole Roman world was
keeping, which the Roman world had re-
Ceiyed from those who had preceded them
"a festival that had come from times be-
yond all records. What was it that the
rulers OF the Christian church did when
In the year $50 they called the 25th of
December Christmas and said it was to
be kept as the birthday of Jesus? BY
that act they recognized the great power
over the hearts Of the people of their old
religion.
The Christmas Spirit.
the Christmas spirit come from and how
did il arise, and how may it become as
real and joyous, ana not merely Gus
tom, to us? Let US see. What is IT that
happens in nature about the 18th of De-
Cember? What great beneficent thing
would those first men ana women wit
ness at that time in the year2 They would
witness the apparent turning of the sun
northward. The makers of the Christ
mas festival lived i'm the same zone in
which we live. They saw the sun, after
the last Of June, begin to descend lower
and lower Toward the horizon and the
days grow shorter and shorter. With that
apparent movement Of the sun all the
vegetation of the earth seemed slowly 10
fade and die. The leaves grew brown
and fell, the fruit ripeRed and dropped
10 the earth the fields grew bare and
brown and finally the whole earth seemed
frozen and lifeless Those first men and
women did not understand that process
as we do. All they saw was the effects.
They learned that as the sun rose higher
and higher after the middle OF winter, the
whole earth began TO live again TO put
forth grass and leaves and flowers and
fruit. And when It began 10 so down
the opposite process took place. We can
understand, then, with what feelings Of
JOY and gratitude they hailed every year
the time when the sun stopped in its
downward course and began 70 come back
again, bringing leaf and grass ana flow
ers and fruit in his train. Right there.
as nowhere else, the spirit or religion. as
well as the festival of Christmas, had
its birth.
But the picture is not complete until
one other fact is added. And that other
fact is that all sorts and conditions Of
men and women shared equally in the
benefits which the returning sun brought
with il. and so all alike shared the feel
ing of JOY and gratitude out of which this
festival grew up There We're no masters
and no slaves, That is a known fact. the
result of scientific investigation. That
early world, as all students of the sub
ject agree, was a world of economic
eQuals-as much so as your family or
mine. Every member Of a tribe was the
economic equal of every other. All ex-
2 = p