Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-12-24
CHRISTMAS: A MIRACLE OF
THE FORGOTTEN MORAL LAW
once Every Year, Despite All That the
World Can Do, II Knows One
Day Of Peace

TO live together in reason and friendlincss.
lie can have faith in the tariff or in his
| political party or in his bank But Christ
mas is not for him. He will tell YOU fcrcely
that an ironc world. blinded and brwildered
by its hatrcds and aching with innumcrable
wounds, has had to wait too long for the
fulilment of the Promise
The mood Of iron pcSsinism will grip him
until a day or two before Christmas Then
he mclts and goes forth to spend money with
both hands, tn buy clothes for children and
food for the hungry and foolish and elegant
| things for his friendS--and if he be an
ultra modern among millonares a la valliere
| or precious stones for the cook. The magic
that operated in the world for almost two
| thousand years before Dickens tried TO
| auaIy2' it descends quietly upon him
II dr>rrndS on everybody like n thing out
OF tn" skies. II You wish to try an interest
| ing experiment. you will find it almost inn
| roSSibl" 10 get yourself arrested today or
tomorrow Traffic policemen will b. for
bearing. Their patience will have a fine. an
! almost mystical quality. Ii you should
| happen TO be arrested. the magistrate prob.
| ably would send you home and beg you to
| behave-uncsS you were proved to be ex-
traOrdinarily mean.
For day or two the statesmen of Europe
will not talk as II they had been drinking
heavily. Governments will not wave their
lists in the faces of other governments.
Lights will shine. Family diferences-and
they can be as deep and dark as any of the
dlherenceS that separate proud nations-will
be bridged. Cousins will seem tolerable or
actually charming. Limousincs all silk and
silver, will trund" up and down dark alleys,
and ladies and gentlemen viii get out of them
10 climb to the places where the baked meats
oi charity are warmed on oil stoves. and
l""y VIII press clunpS of money into the
handS OF astoundcd babes. People do not
always know why they do these things once
year. But there is reason for it
Christmas is a lucid interval thai is sent
"Nr b"nedlctiou upon an irrational world
II Is fixed and assured by the calendar, by
III" most deeply cherished traditions Of civ
lIlzatlon and by hopes and resolutions that
never are absent from the human mind.
though they are often obscurcd under ac.
cumulatcd debris
1t is in the light of thc Implication Of
these days that things done and left undone
Uy men and states always will be finally
assessed and judged. The standards are
hNed ana they are permanent. and once a
year We have 10 sit down and consider and
accept them. SO people hur money around
a. II they were made suddenly aware Of its
comparative UseeSSness. Politicians >top
lying about each other. They have a fleet
ing impression thai il isn't decent. Rich
men >lt down with the poor and go away
Wondering whether the I,oor with their pa.
t"ur", their open -h"artedness and their wise
i"Ld"rn' -. arr NOT, after all the rich
LII" becomes for 4 litrlr while whar II |
ought 10 b" all through tine wear.
IA"r" A." many Wis" Men sui u the