The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1914-12-24
THE SPIRIT OF LOVE.

greatest anniversary observed Oy tHe Hu-
man race-the day on which we celebrate
the birth of the Lowly Nazarine, the Prince
of Peace, the Saviour of Mankind.
CHERRY Christmas!' What infinite sig
nifcance will be borne by these words
uttered to- morrow by scores upon scores
of millions of lips, speaking in scores OF
languages and by peoples of every quarter
of the globe, from the eternal ice OF the
North to frozen seas of the South! The
Unreasonable arms of the Spirit of Love
enfolds all Christendom in their magic en-
brace. The misanthrope of other times for
the moment forgets antagonisms to his
kind: the cold heart of him of cold bust
ness is warmed by the touch of the Spirit,
while about the heads of the joyous little
ones 80 loved by Him we almost see re-
Elected the halo that crowned the little child
to whom the Star of Bethlehem guided the
shepherds more than nineteen hundred
years ago.
What blessing to the world is this
Christmas spirit that once year rekindles
the genter fires of love and brings JOY and
gladness into the homes of so many mil
lions of all degree and in every cline! 1t
is a JOY to the young, but it is blessing,
manifold blessing to the old, for in the re-
Election of the youthful joy they live again
in youth, and the Spirit brings them dear
memories of the Long Ago. 1t touches the
heart of man and makes the great Christian
world nearer kin.
And we come for this brief time while
under the spell of the Spirit almost to obey
one of the mandates of Him whose birth
we celebrate; we almost love our neighbor
as ourselves. We recognize as our neigh
Dor those more unfortunate brethren and
the Spirit having opened our hearts we open
our hands and in the opening brighten the
whole earth with that wondrous light of
kindness and charity. It is good to be
able to turn sadness to gladness; it is a
blessed privilege to be able to relieve dis
tress-and this Christmas tide offers the
opportunities and the Spirit appeals to the
inclinations. Pity the suffering, pity the
stranger in strange land in these days of
festivity, but pity more him whom the
Spirit Of the Season has failed to touch.
He is the loneliest, the most God -forsaken
among men. The world is for him a
dreary waste; the light OF love with its in
finite brightness, the life, the joy of the
earth, does not shine for him.
However our souls may yearn, Time will
W %be III
and gray, may not gather about the Chin
ney place and hang up our stocking and
wonder how dear old Santa Claus will get
down the smoking chimney and what he
beds in the gray dawn to morrow and dis
cover with delighted shouts the thought
fulness of the icy North; we may MOI
await with beating hearts the summons te
the Christmas tree on which Santa Claus
that driver of reindeer who comes GU
sometimes prefers hanging his gifts-tha
glourious happiness of innocent CHILDHOOD
may not be ours again, but there is a hap
piness akin to that in living, pulsine
sympathy with the children; in sharing il
their pleasures. Weknow there is Santa
Claus and that his spirit, omnipresent
prevailing, is the Spirit Of Love
We can share in his good deeds and drinl
happiness from the cups of pleasure tina
he fills; we can feel the reflection upol
our wrinkling brows of the radiance h
sheds upon younger faces, and we cal
sincerely thank God for Christmas and it
spirit.
Christmas again! More could be sal
about this great day than about any other
when the religion of Christendom join
hands with all that is good and generou
and unselfish in mankind to celebrate tn
greatest anniversary in the calandar of tn
ages, and in that celebration move the hu
man soul, if only once year, to thos
good works that make it better or stronger
But we stay our hand. First thing we kno,
we would be saying over again those ia
miliar sayings that have fairly wor
gooves in the tongues of the human race
Yet, while the Christmas lore is old Christ
mas itself is new each time it comes. Ever
joy that comes with Christmas is just a
pleasing as though there had never bee
another Christmas. 1t can never grow ole
even though men cannot invent new thing
to say about it as fast as it returns. An
SO we leave you, good friends, wishing 20