Shiner Gazette. (Shiner, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 30, Ed. 1, Wednesday, December 21, 1898 Page: 2 of 8
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v Tyr wrus r w ft > yri 1ft fifTct r
ieace on Earth Good Will to
Men
Kirough all tie Centuries lias Thrilled the
KearU of Men and Urged to Nobler
Decili and Higher Alms
For fourteen hundtcd years the
Christian church 1ms made
Christmas or the feast of thu
Nativity of Jesus the chiefest
and gladdest of all its observan-
ces for twelve hundred jours
this festival lias been universal-
ly celebiated on the 25th day of
December From the beginning
Christmas has been dedicated to
the children as Easier by the
same law of fitness has fallen to
those of maturer years This law
of fitness which has determined
the use of Cliristuiasi as a festi-
val for the young rests on two
facts one psychic tho other his-
toric In the fltst place Christ-
mas is the memorial of the Child
Typical perennial prophetic
childhood walks1 in the traditions
of the nature and the nativity of
Jesus The pcrfect nesS hnd Inno
cency after which the race had so
long struggled were reached in
Jesus at a bound There they are
discerned by tho whole world en-
shrined in his bosoin and ex
piessed in his face Childhood
knows its own and can best uu
deibtandnnd interpret the speech
and tho thought of childhood It
taw its own in the Nativity and
found in the Babe and the Day
those things which fk and hold its
affections forever Better than
Helmed Cherubim
Or sworded Seraphim
cfcidiapd Jias readJhe tokens of
Epiphauy The voices of that
Epiphany ilud their echoes in the
Hosannahs of the little chll
dien who welcomed the Christ
on his entry into Jerusaem and
much more In the Christmas
songs of that universal childhood
which hiiB welcomed him into its
own heart Unto us a child is
bom unto us a son is given
The manner in which history
lias apprehended and appropri-
ated Christmas has emphasized
its dedication to childhood The
European nations particularly
1hose from which we are direct-
ly descended the Germans
Goths and Kelts who most dis-
tinctively adopt Christmas ns a
biiprerae festival transferred to
it the nobler ideas of tlielr my-
thology and the mortfliUman sen-
timents and pastimes of their
homelife Christmas tnm e to be
a sort of epitome of nthose na-
tional traits and beliefs which
thidugh the Jaw of selection sur-
vived to them from ihtafo old hea-
then life after they hadnreceived
the gospel from the1 missionaries
of Rome All thaMbus remained
was of the element and taste of
childish simplicity childishfaith
and fancy The Infancy of ana
tion is much the same asthe iut
fancy of individual life The ae
dulity of childhood is the off-
spring of that instinct which
once moved the whole race Folk-
lore is phylogenetlc history pro-
jected along the years of spirit-
ual and intellectual growth The
dwarfs the fairies and the genii
of modern nursery rhymes and
Christmas tales are the surviving
families of the innumerable kin
dreds of satyrs oreads gnomes
and elves Latinos and Asgard
as seats of power are the perpet-
ual rivals of empires mid repub
lies Thus it came about that tho
Christianized nations of Europe
seeking in their new faith a cen-
ter in which to fix the memories
of their race Infancy found it in
the feastpf the Naivlty
The earlier ages united tlie cal-
endars of the Eastern and West-
ern churches in he observance
and extended1 the feaBt from the
25th of December tothe Oth fif
January > ndt that either wis
knownitoJiOttliu dateiof the Sa
yiors birth for not even the year
of that greatest of hU events can
beflxed but the season coincided
with the winter solstice the time
when nayiujv begins in Levantine
countries to awake out of its an-
nual sleep and this fact com-
ported well with the larger won-
der of the event of the Life
which was thq Light of men
During the twelve days and
nights between Nativity and Epi-
phany tho slumbering credulity
of tin once pagan Kets and Ger-
mans awoke and clothed itself in
the better freedom of faith Then
ft was accoiding to thd new or-
der of their belief that benign
spirits It may be their diddei
ties transfigured walked the
ehrth and wrought wonders on
the land and Intho seas then It
was that strange transits oc-
curred amongst the stare and
moving lights illumined the for-
est glades and the beasts in field
and manger bowed down In obei-
sance and worship When nil
these things passed away or had
settled down into the common-
place of yearly memories one
thing was found to have re-
mained the use of Christmas as-
a festival of childhood and a
lime for the return of the over-
burdened souls of men and wo-
men to sit awhile amid the inno
cency and mirth of the seasons
and places whence they sprang
The record of Christmas is the
most certain light shining out of
the early Christian centuries and
everywhere the face on which
child and though it were abeurd
ed face It is still a childs Vague
and dreamlike ate thcg prics of
King Olaf and the mighty beard-
ed earls of Noraway Equally
mythlike are the tales of the Sea
Kings of Jutland Engleland and
seagirt homes of the luter Sagas
but wherever the faith of Jesus
touched those Northern shores
and the story of the Nativity was
told a light gleamed forth
through the boreal gloom and
the Yulelog burning by fiord
and bight became a beacon to the
memories of nations to be born
of nations tluough the milleni
urns of Christendom England
greater Europe and America
havelighted their Christmas tires
from these Yulelogs and tell for-
ever the Yuletide stories told
centuries ago by the children of
a race in its intellectual Infancy
In Iceland the Christmas feast
had a meaning in the earliest
times which it scarcely had else
whore and in the stories and le-
gends of Iceland have been best
preserved the secrets which made
the Northern Christmas and by
inheritonce from it the English
Christmas so completely the fes-
tival and highduy of the Chris-
tian child The Norwegians who
in the Ninth Century discovered
and peopled tho shores of Iceland
weie pagans they had never
heaid the name of Christ but
they loved freedom and hated the
tyrannies of their King Harold
Fairhairjand because they would
not stay to be subject to him
they sailed away to make their
home on the lrozen shores of Ul
tima Thule They carried with
them the belief that their
heathen gods in whom theytrust
ed were doomed to destruction
It had been written in the decree
of their own birth that Odin
Baldlr and the rest must perish
So it happened that when In the
Tenth Century the missionaries
came to them may had only to
proclaim that Ifnldir was dead
and that the tri e and deathless
Savior and Lord if men was alive
in Jesus of Bethlehem At thlB
announcement tic whole nation
leaped to the doi r of the manges
in which the j mng Child lay
and like the Ma i did him hom-
age But like their German
brethren theyj carried a vast
store of their cMld and folklore
over to the olisJrvaucea of their
new faith TheMiatne of Allfit
dir applied topdin was trans-
ferred to JehoVifb and the Ed
da 1 or Yenerattle Grandmother
which had pieslned the stories
of Baldlr andftjhis worshipets
was now emplUjcd to preserve
th > tnlMt ild Ou ns t
mas who stops to think or who
even knows that the thousand
and one Christmas conceits un d
nursery fancies about giants and
dwarfs ajiout Rosy Red and Cin-
derella 4bout Boots and thu
Ogres about princes brave and
princesses as white as milk or as
red as blood all ending In Boots
marrying a princess and getting
a crown mnd Cinderella marry-
ing a prince and riding in a car-
riage and the dwarfs and giants
coming to the aid of Rosy Red
and the rest and killing the
Ogres for their treachery who
I say remembers that these have
come to us from the most distant
years and the most distant
North through the wideopen
door of thechildrens1 Christmas
feast Those faroff childrens
stories and Christmas fancies
were not mere pantomime warm-
ly declares Prof Max Muller
and there is according to the
same authority a real life in the
things for whichthey stand if
indeed only such a life as a child
can believe in We all young and
old believe in their better teach-
ing that good Is always reward-
ed and evil always judged This
surely is the meaning of these
stories in their relation to Christ-
mas for the angejs at the Natiy
ity sang the same truth as si
prophecy Peace on earth good-
will to men Christmas makes
possible the exploits of apocry-
phal lads and lassies given that
what is alleged of them stands
always for what lad and lassie
may do to make more good and
less evil in the world With this
faith in him nobody will doubt tho
history or genuineness of the lad
who slew all the giants in Corn-
wall and Wales or of the lassie
who rode on the North winds
back to the castle that lies east
o the sun and west o the moon
While yet an emperor claiming
the authority of the Caesars
Jw
reigned in the South the Norse
children were telling nt Christ
mastfde how the Beggar taught
tho haughty Princess to be a
good and foxing wife and how
Beauty found at last that the
Beast whom hq had married
wasthe handsomest and bravest
gentleman in all the world And
they said Sid these Norse chil-
dren in the same way and in all
but the very same words as the
l ngllfjh flnd American children
say it tolluy Ilere is the Beg-
gar land there is the Babe and
let yie cnbinj be burnt away
and nt last snip snap snout
this tales told out
In theSouth of Europe the
more diffuser ritual of the
Church nndnthe longer national
histories of vthew people made
Christmas ess a dsiffi uisllin g
service and1 fa r lijss a fljsSvapjf
the children than4nlthe Nbrth
An exception is tty bo made per-
haps of certain regions of the
Loire and certainly of the whole
of Province In these parts thp
Christmas festival and its car
oIb hnd from the earliest times
a peculiar flavor of innoconoy
and childish mirth But this has
always been true of everything
Provencal Vr heremen are trou
badours andwomen are as tho
stars to be wprshiped children
must needs have mirth for their
nurserymaid
In tho Isle of Man and on the
Keltic shores of Cornwall a chih
drens Christmas seonif to have
flourished fr6m the first preach-
ing of Christianity Stories of
enchantment and adventure have
been told at the Manx firesides a
thousand Christinas nights while
the Irish seas boomed and broke
along the rooky shores Tho apple
suspended before tho gaping firo
placo sputtering out the nectar
drunk from Manx sunshino and
dew and tho ludy faces of childron
telling fortunes and singing
Christmas melodies in the glow
of the peat fires are memories
older than the oldest records laid
up in Ruihen Castle or the So dor
Cathedral
The history of the childrens
Christmas in England and in our
own country is thp history of the
best that our freedom and our
faith can show Iritlfls atileaflt
we have bpen t ug to our oescont
and traditions we have kept
our hearty ydung by 5 passing
them annually through ttiej n
chantments pf Christmas The
ingenuity and devotion of our
Christendom have united to fix
and enhauce the interest of child-
hood in this festival Nor has
tho labor beca in vain The in
stincts ot childhood are still re
trospectional they still make
their center at the cradle of tho
Babe of Bethehem
The establishment of Saint
Nicholas as the patrdn of Christ-
ians shows how completely the
day has been dedicated to child 4
hood Long before anybody
dreamed of giving him charge of
the cheer and gladness of Christ-
mas Saint Nlcholns was tho
childrens friend He was born in
faraway Patara in that old
and wearjhearted Syria where
mirth and jollity lmve always
had but little place But from
his childhood he was reckoned a
saint and became the protector
oflittle children and the defend-
er of youth and maiden On tho
day of His birth so his story goes
he stood up in the bath and with
folded Viands mutely thanked
God that he saw the light IIu
has been a bringcr ot light ever
siuqe iThe German children be-
lieving thisms no other people do
pray on Christmas Eve for
Christinas lighj <
When Saint Nicholas found a
place in the bo6k of the saints
he was adopted by the Russians
as a national patron and wus
given charge of the childrens
joyous festival Thus it happens
that it is Saint Nicholas himself
who comes on the night before
Christmas to fill the little ones
stockings and load the Christ-
mas tree with presents for young
and old Very far from the lands
of snow and winter was his birth-
place but when Northern favor
and affection moved him to a
home under the Northern stars
SaintNicholas put off hisoriental
robes of linen and his eremite
countenance and put on winter
robes of fur and a round and jol-
ly face likef those of his Musco-
vite chidren and needs he must
be Muscovite even to traveling
with reindeer and sledge From
Russia his famo spread tothe
Netherlands wheie as Santa
Clau s the Dutch children sang
to him their oldtime Christmas
songs and came to believe him
the very maker of all their
Christmas joys
The Christmas tree so popular
with the young people in this
country is not a thing of yester-
day It may be fairly doubted
jfjJhere Is another belonging of
thelNorthern Christmas so old
aathis same Weihnachtsbaum
with its tapers and its burthen of
presents unless indeed it be the
presents themseves the giving
of which wasbeyond any doubt
suggested by the offerings of the
Wise Men made at the cradle of
the Baber
It used to be a custom in Eng
< ibid for the poor and the serving
people to carry small boxes
about on Christmas to receive
offerings and testimonials from
ithegenerous hearted and from
fier employers Many poor chll f
dren went from house to house
singjng Christmas caroles and
thrusting itheir tiny boxes in
through the half open doors But
a better thing has come to pass
in our day Many rich people now
seek the poor to do them service
0n the glad day of the Saviors
birthremembering how he said
It is more blessed to give than to
receive Inasmuch as ye did it
to one of my little oneu ye did it
untoine Many Christian chll
drenflnd vtbtilr truest happiness
dn Christmas day in seeking to
make thq poor and slck ones hap
Djby dividing their good things
with them in the name of Him
whp was once a little child
R v H M DuBoso in Texaa
Christian Advocate
A waitresi may not know o club
from a spade but she can easily
raise tho douoo by simply drop-
ping a troy
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Habermacher, J. C. Shiner Gazette. (Shiner, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 30, Ed. 1, Wednesday, December 21, 1898, newspaper, December 21, 1898; Shiner, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth111387/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1&rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .