Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-12-24
THE SUPREME CHRISTMAS
OF SECULAR HISTORY
The Deep and Noble Import of This Years
Festival Awakens New Hopes in
the Heart Of Mankind

The Deep and Noble Import of This Years
Festival Awakens New Hopes in
the Heart Of Mankind
uOPE in the hearts Of men replaces
IL the bitter irony of four Christmases,
Knocked by the hideous tragedy Of war.
Joy in this revolution is warranted, but
it is ecstasy Of a singular kind not I'M
mixed with awe. For never since the
wondrous star first beamed on Bethle-
hem. never in nearly two thousand years
has the import of a Christmas day been
so profound. The centuries melt away.
THE smoke and stir of this dim spot
which men call earth" vanish before the
white light of eternal truth. Conscious
ness thereof has been instilled by tragic
travail and sacrifice in the souls OF hu-
mainly. Never has the armor of justice
been so palpably manifested. 1t may be
donned or rejected, but men can never
say they did not know it was at hand.
The cynic, of course, will come for
ward with the merciless pages of history.
Admittedly, it is a shameful record,
often a base betrayal of spiritual ideals
to which millions of SANE men subscribed
but which all too few of them, when
banded into nations, Endorsed in deeds.
But it is not merely airy optimism which
sees in the authentic tale of national
greed. national scltishness and national
turbulence lessons not comparable with
the one which the world has now had the
opportunity to learn.
Plain as these are, not all statesmen
are reported as yet willing to acknowl-
edge them. Time was when such digni-
taries as those at the Congress Of Vienna
and the equally myopic Congress of Ber-
lin could nave directed the world accord
ing to their purblind vision. But a vast
and mighty brotherhood of war-wrung
peoples is now alive to such perils. 1t
beholds the ~uneXampled privilege Of re-
afashioning a complex civilization that
has gone awry on a basis whose general
principles are Of transparent simplicity.
Perfection in the reconstruction is in
herently inconceivable since human
nature is frail and evil is bound to survive
Tile HiO5I stringent ioLS u HS ilOSI Sl-
GENTLY organized league of nations. But
an approximation Of accomplishment,
heartening to a degree which history has
not hitherto revealed, can be achieved
with honest reliance on the most ele-
mental and familiar of ideals.
For nearly two millenniums the mil
lions of the race have paid tribute to
these ideals on Christmas, fattered them
selves upon their realization in deeds Of
charity, tolerance, generosity, open-mind-
edness and warm-heartedness upon a
single day in the long calendar of the
year and then relapsed into the familiar
round of selfshness. Not even a hideous
war and the warnings that it utters can
make the path of virtue one on which
the individual can be expected invaria-
bly,, serenely and instinctively to tread.
We do we'll to open our hearts and render
amenable our impulses at Yuletide.
But nations are supposedly the admin
istrative expression of the best and most
civilizing forces extant in the subdivi.
sions of an uneasy world. Germany
misconceived this theory, emphasized or
gained power, exempted it from all
ethical safeguards and she fell. Her ok,
ample is before all other Governments
our own included, and these Governments
represented by bodies of men trained tc
think more clearly thar some of the
humber Of their constituents, are nov
empowered to apply their efforts to 6
reconstruction in which not the weak,
nesses but the firmest bulwarks of mora
rectitude will be manifested. Nothing
could be less obscure than their mean
ing. Their spirit s precisely that o.
Christmas.
And that is why the significance o.
this ancient, beautiful and soul-revivine
festival is Of such present MAGNITUDE. A
day which mankind, freer from delusion!
than ever before, conceives as the fna
gateway to a peace instinct with at leas
some Of the aspirations of the Divin'
Founder Of Christmas justifes the io,
with which it will be hailed here and il
far-lung realms that know His name.
l. 49,