The Farmville herald and farmer-leader. (Farmville, Va.) 1934-1957, 1954-12-24
Christmas

This editorial appeared on Christmas Day 1854
in the Lynchburg Virginisn. and was written by
DR. George w. Bagby, who spent much of his early
life in Buckingham and Cumberland counties and
wrote many articles from this locale This edi
torial the first thing he wrote which attracted
widespread attention. and began his rise to liter
AIRY eminence)
IT is said that our Christmas holiday is
but the revival and modification of
heather festival, old almost as the flood.
1t may be so: but to US its spirit is entirely
and truly Christian. Whatever rude and
hcathensh element there may have been
attached to it in former times has worn
away with the lapse of years-has dis
appeared before the mild and human. spirit
Of later and better dispensation Its
charm consists not alone in the remem-
brance of childish joys-in the recollection
Of what we We're and what we hoped in
the good old days of crammed stockings
and utmost faith in kriss kringle
Nor can our love and reverence for it
be wholly bounded and defined by the
general sentiments of mirth and good cheer
which characterize the Season" There is
something deeper and graver, which under
lies our outward and visible feeling. Some
thing of the solemn grandeur and mystery
of olden times pcnetrates the soul and gives
tone to our emotions. We partake, in some
sort, of what men felt and believed in the
daWning twilight of history. Our faith
like our feeling, becomes more simple.
childlike, confident. We return, as it were,
n hot p,ka IN,
the Mange. Its Virgin Mother is there. and
the Wise Men of the East with their gifts
Of frankincenSe and myrrh: the Star Of
Bethlehem shines brightly in the winter
sky; and 10, the shepherds are startled
from their sleep by glorious multitude of
angelsa celestial choir, who sing:
Peace on earth and good will to men"
THE glad tidings of that blessed song
seem to float over and through all
time-through the wreck of empires
through the long night of the Dark Ages
through war, peStilence and famine. the
overthrow of human hopes and human hap
piness-now dying away to the faintest
echo, as died away the purity of the rei-
gion it heralded anon rising as rose the
Reformation. the restoration of letters. of
arts, of liberty and morals-until in our
day it rings out clear and high and Joyful.
almost as when the strain immortal issued
from angel lips
With the socmnity Of these rccollec-
tons mingle others drawn from the history
of our Anglo-SaXon sires. We recall the
uproariouS festivities Of feudal times-the
great castle filled with all that earth air
and water could supply: we can hear the
Cracking laughter" Of the immense "yule
log as its flames go roaring up the wide
chimney: the grooming table with its great
smoking 'boar's head" and its wassa bowl
is present to our eye: the men at arms
the pages, the fool with his cap and bell
the maskers the glcemen, the great lords
and fine ladies seated according to their
rank. fcasting and making merry in their
bold oldfashioned way, And as that
warm tinted picture of the good old times
passes before Us, we insensibly grow sad.
Where now are the brave lords and