The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-12-22
The Christmas Mood.

The Christmas Mood.
Rev. Herbert Clegg in the Sibley
Tribune: The season of Christmas is
not a time to be indicated on
calendar. Time and Christmas have
nothing in common. What virtue can
there be in one twenty-four hours
more than any other? Christmas is
mood, and the world is unrestrained-
ly glad at the time we call Christmas,
because then we are in the Christmas
mood. A given day in December is
matter of the ticking of clock,
and a day in March or October would I
answer equally we'll Snow or sun
shine, frost or flowers are negligible I
quantities in sentiments of the soul.
Christmas is matter of heart I'M /
! pulse, of soul logic, which some /
! times is at variance with the logic /
/ of the school The spirit which re-
/ iuvenates the Grabbed hearts of busy
men and breaks down the cold. hard /
barriers of selfishness is the Christ
mas mood, and this knows no altman
i &C.
4 Christmas is mood. Why, then,
1 yex our souls with the petty question
! ing as to the right or wrong OF Santa
4 Claus? OF course there is a Santa
Claus, and he is as real as the Christ
mas mood Hear the merry shout OF
the children, see the sparkling eyes OF
the youth and hear the glad note
which throbs in the "reminiscences of
Il maturer years What means this
4 general gladness? What has caused
the grief and greed of our common
life to be forgotten? How comes it
that the age-old world, carked with
care and selfishness, is pulsating with
the generosity of new life? Is 1t
not that there has been new incar-
nation?
If liberty is incarnate in Uncle Sam
and justice is incarnate in Johnny
Bull. it were surely we'll within mod
Grafton to give generosity, kindness
and jollity an incarnation in good old
Santa Claus All kinds of saints
; adorn- sometimes disgrace-the &c
. clesiastical calendar Some in their
asceticism are far remote from U.S.
. Others make much ado about mat
! tiers we are careless Of but this jolly
hearted, child loving, generous and
/ gentle souled Saint Nicholas is so
near us, and is so at one with what
we think and do, we can almost mag
inc him making the blunders which
: are the badge of ordinary folks.
Christmas is a mood, and that mood
is Santa Claus.
The first Christmas discovered God
= in Jesus Christ, and he in turn has
: been discovering to the dull eyes OF
men our common humanity. Strange
as it may appear, man was swifter
!, to know the incarnate God in Christ
= than he has been to know the human.
: ity of which he is part The Psalmist's
question, What is MANI" received
short attention with the passing cen.
!, turtles Library after library has been
N written to show the humanity of the
,e divine Christ, but there seems to have
been reluctance to admit or recog
nize the divinity of humanity. Now
az we are awaking to the fact, and the
;e widespread humanitarianism OF the
i'd day is its glory. Some time ago a
re religious fanatic stood before crowd
III in Hyde Park and cried out in stem
torian tones, II am the Messiah
sharp-witted working man promptly
I'd punctured his pretension by retort
IL ing, Show us your hands" The
a worlds messiails have marks OF tot
We and sacrifice for others on their hands
k One of the leading magazines re
Gently devoted much space to showinl
the cost of crime. 1t piled figures OF
OF figures until it startled the reade
in with total cost Of crime of owe
er 81 ,00G, 100000 each year interesting
he it may be, but 1t is more l1eartenin
in to figure not how bad men are, blu
how good Forget that 1t costs s.
much for crime and remember wit
on a glad mind that on hospitals, san
to tariums educational enterprises an
or asylums there is spent each year cor
tie siderably more than half billio
as dollars. Forget the number of me
as who are enlisted in army or navy, an
think of the greater army of men an
women who are devoting time an
ill money to the alleviating of pain an
adj distress. Forget the greed and con
in mercialism, and think OF the good in
err pulse that somehow finds its expire
u.s. sion even from the most unlikel
are source. Observe with gladness no
h." every year 1000 young women are b
are ing sent forth on errands of mere
a as trained nurses from the school
ks how the best skill of the nation is e