Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-12-16
The Christmas Spirit

The Christmas Spirit
Christmas is the day of all the year
best and dearest among the time
marks of our recurring calendar IL
is the day for peace and harmony IN
every heart and at every hearthstcne.
We celebate Gods chiefest gift to man
and discOrdant thoughts or contentious
have no place at the joyous festival
The Detroit Free Press says all should
ring clear and true and sweet as the
Yuletide chimes.
The spirit of Christmas is that of
Him whose birth is concentrated.
1t softens evil, sorrow and hopeless
ness with the magic touch of charity for
in charity is the embodiment of all the
Christian graces. 1t gives to goodness
a brighter luster and to solve noble
purpose. 1t is a spirit born in every
heart that can know its inspiration,
without regard to creed or race or sta
ton.
OF all the days to which man has
given special observance. Christmas
alone has grown in its power, its
beauty and its value. 1t has been
stripped of the grandly devised liturgy
and dramatic representations that had
their root in heather customs dis
PEELED by the true Christian spirit, but
the change has been of publication
and marks beyond cavil a clearer
conception o. the sublime fact that
the Son of Man is the Son of God.
That which is divine in our common
nature grasps its hngships with Him
whose spirit is the spirit of the Christ
mas time.
How potent, low more than human,
is this spirit appears best in the uni
versal obedience given to its sway. All
with unvarying regularity and with
hearty approval, bow in glad submits
sion to its established customs and
emulate the example, if they do not
indorse the faith of those to whom it
is indeed holy day. Strange miracles
are wrought by this same Christmas
spirit. 1t brings smiles to the face of
melancholy itself 1t gives life to
hope that seems dead. 1t exercises
the evils of hatred, malice and envy.
The old age it brings the keen. fresh
joys of youth and to childhood clear
er appreciation of the spirit that pre-
sides at their Christmas revels.
But above all, this spirit which is
the divine spirit of Christmas. makes it
a day of loving remembrance, of doing
good to others, of seeing that all about
us have at least one bright and happy
memory of the dying year. The adj
monition of this spirit is not alone for
universal rejoicing. but for individual
contentment and thanksgiving.
There is an ideal reached when mer-
~ children dance about the symbolic
tree glittering with remembrances that
fill the cup of childhood's Joys, when
each branch and twig yields some new
triumph of discovery. when the sweet
faced mother and romping father feel
not the burdens of years. but are
warmed with the youthfulness which
the spirit of Christmas makes perpet-
ual.
But the day fails of the fullness of
its observance if something of the
same bright cheer Is not brought TO
every home and every person. Those
who move in the same spirit of the
Christmas tine realize upon this day,
above all others that men are the
children of one God. one earth and
one common purpose. Good will and
self-ahnegation go hand in hand. They
seek the poor and unfortunate as did
He whose memory we consecrate. True
to the promptings of the Christmas
spirit. they would make It the best.
hrightes and sweetest of all the days
that make the year.