The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-12-25
AT THE FEET OF GOD


time above all others of the year
when love and kindness hold the
hearts of man. so that selfishness,
nor greed, nor cynicism, nor wretch
edness, nor wrong, have any place IN
all the world. On Christmas night,
wandered up and down the earth in
many guises, asking for food and
shelter. and we dare not turn any
suppliant from our doors nor any
good impulse from our hearts lest
we refuse the Lord himself. And so
it is that charity holds the season,
and love and thoughtfulness and our
best measure of good cheer must rule
the manner of it's keeping. 1t is the
most human feast day of our Chris
tain faith and is rich beyond all 9TH
ers in the benignity and sweetness
of it's influence.
Yet Christmas is not always a time
of Joy, nor is it's coming OF necessity
the happiest season of the year. AS
memories accumulate, the festival
loses the first careless gladness OF our
childish celebration and gathers mel
ancholy with the frightening years
To each of us sad mortals there
comes a time when the merry season
unmasks a hidden hurt, when the
glory of it's night no longer shines
with andimmed splendor all about US,
and when it's goodly company OF
angels sing of more sorrowful things
than peace on earth, good will to men.
In that day, our childhood's ecstasy
leaves us and the gay holiday drifts
into a time when long laid ghosts
come out of their graves to haunt
the hearts of those of us who would
forget them, when a little loneliness
bravely fought the whole year
through becomes an unbearable long
| ing. when old woes roll in full tide
back upon us and old wounds set up
new smartings, when laughter and
| clad words are but the outside armor
to guard our pains and sadness, ana
smiling faces only masks behind
which are hiding fear, and pain, and
protest heart deep and unutterable.
In this holy season, year after
year, do tender mothers brood with
| love over new born babes, as deep
filed with wonder and with mystery
as if the heaven had opened again to
herald each new miracle, yet knowing
too, each mother of them, in her heart
of hearts, that from the outstretched
arms of every little child there falls
the shadow of cross, and that on
each childish brow some day may
press the anguish of a cruel crown.
| To the clear vision OF these brood
ing mothers it is given to find that
the deepest meaning of the Christmas
season is not in the careless merri-
ment its coming brings to little chill
dren, nor in the light hearted happ1-
ness that youth finds in its joys, but
| in the faith and love that drown all
sorrow in the mystic blessedness that
Mary knew.
| Man byrman, ana woman by woman,
do we pilgrims on life's journey learn
the bitter stations of its road until
perhaps. alas. that Christmas season
comes when even the holly on our
walls CLOVIS red with sacrificial blood
| and our mistletoe shines only as the
crystal of our tears. Yet then, and
not until then, do we learn the wond-
err and the mercy of the Christ Child's
birth.
With this year comes the saddest
Christmas the world has ever known.
And it is not the life worn man or
woman, here and there, that pauses
now and prays for courage at this
birthday of the Holy Child, but it is
the whole world of men that keeps
the festival with pain and anguish,
with tears and cries and questionlngs
beyond all human help or healing.
1t is strange to think of the calmness
of that old night among the Judean
| hills. when the shepherds watched
their flocks and the angels sang their
| messages of hope to human kind It
was a most holy night. The serene
stars looked down upon the quiet
fields about a sleeping village, and
through the skies ., beckoning light
moved towards lowly stable and 3
mangen
This PEAR ASSN, ninete
since g. eIs me