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24024079 | Faith at work, | Trowbridge, Gertrude Mary (Sherman) | 1,924 | 88 | faithatwork00trow_djvu.txt |
Class _ BN/'W *5
Book_ ‘AH _
Copyright N?___
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT
FAITH AT WORK
FAITH AT WORK
By^
GERTRUDE S. TROWBRIDGE
New York Chicago
Fleming H. Revell Company
London and Edinburgh
Copyright, 1924, by
FLEMING H, REVELL COMPANY
'BV'-hi s
Tt
Printed in the United States of America
New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street
OCT -9 1924
©C1A808287
VO t
■ 7*1318 . “>*+.
Foreword
In recent healing cults that claim to be based
upon the Bible, yet whose tenets are so confused
by extraneous comment that such foundation is
obscured, I have been greatly interested. While
studying these religions, I spent one winter in
regular attendance on their services and a year in
study of one especial cult. Such investigations
would have left my mind in confusion had I not
found certain laws, dangers, and advantages com¬
mon to them all.
My conclusion is that all the good points of these
revolts against older creeds are not new, but were
more strongly, simply, beautifully, and logically
expressed, ages ago in the Bible. The only novelty
that attracts attention is the dangerous permission
given to untrained people to apply systems of
mental healing to all forms of disease, many lives
being lost through this practice; although there are
also healings through faith in these teachings just
as there are faith healings at Lourdes and at other
shrines.
The work of modern psychologists and other
scientists is in great contrast, for while they are
daily unfolding spiritual laws that explain many of
the miracles of Jesus, these careful students state
limitations of their discoveries arid recommend
[ 5 ]
FOREWORD
their use slowly and with understanding, as they
search for further illumination of the psychic laws
of which our Lord was master.
It is interesting to learn that several famous
psychiatrists are suggesting daily prayers for
nervous patients and that people who depend upon
spiritual guidance are least apt to have mental
trouble. Professor James was not original in his
statements about great reserves, mental and spirit¬
ual, that we all possess, and should continually use,
but was putting into scientific language the words
of Paul.
One reason for the popularity of the new creeds
is the failure of many old-fashioned Christians to
reveal in their lives the joy, health, and effective¬
ness that Christ came to give. We have had a
hang-over of Puritanical gravity and lack of plia¬
bility that are neither attractive nor health-giving.
We can thank the new beliefs for awakening us
to that exaggeration of solemnity and the best cure
for it is a sense of humor and Biblical wisdom.
The latter we cannot obtain unless we return to
daily reading of the Bible and to following its
teaching. We have foolishly neglected that source
of power and it is no wonder that this generation
finds many depressed, spiritually starved, and ready
to swallow any cheering novelty without consider¬
ing whether or not their souls can digest it.
[ 6 ]
FOREWORD
Long before psychologists had recognized that
the soul is more impressionable at night and morn¬
ing, religions realized it and used the beginning and
the end of the day for prayers; the time that Coue
fixed for auto-suggestion. Catholics have matins
and vespers, Mahometans the muezzin calls, sun-
worshippers, devotions at sunrise and sunset; and
the most beautiful translation from the Sanscrit is
possibly the Salutation to the Dawn.*
Even ordinary people who consider very little
mystic meanings and states of mind are aware of
the need of spiritual uplift, night and morning.
A woman who dreaded morning depression al¬
ways hung on her bed where she could see it upon
awakening a sign, reading: “ I shall feel better by
ten o’clock.” She would have been better prepared
for the day by reciting the Salutation to the Dawn.
* Listen to the Salutation to the Dawn!
Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the
Varieties and realities of your existence;
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendor of beauty:
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived makes
Every yesterday a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day!
Such is the Salutation to the Dawn.
—From the Sanscrit.
17 ]
FOREWORD
Another asked: “ Have you ever felt so mad at
yourself at night that you wanted to kick out the
bottom of the bed? ,, The method of Brother
Lawrence would have helped the latter, for “ he
calmly examined his day to see if he had done well.
If not, he begged forgiveness. If he had done his
best, he thanked God, then gave himself no further
distress, but returned to the practise of the presence
of God as if he had never deviated from it.”
There is no substitute for this morning and
evening communion: putting ourselves in accord
with the Holy Spirit within us. It becomes a great
joy after constant practise, and it conquers fear,
anxiety, and other ills that flow from dark think¬
ing. For this inspiration, we need help from the
Bible and from church services.
From the unfathomable riches of the Bible* the
verses in this booklet are selected and presented
with other religious expressions as especially ap¬
plicable to some of the problems of our hurried
days in which we need the poise, serenity, and
power that only God supplies.
G. S. T.
Flushing, N. Y.
♦Unless otherwise indicated, the Bible quotations in this
book are from the American Standard Version.
The hymns quoted are from “The Pilgrim Hymnal,” and
are used by permission of The Pilgrim Press.
[ 8 ]
Contents
I. The Joyful Christian . . . .11
II. The Effect of Thought on Health . 15
III. Morning and Evening Prayer . .21
IV. Courage . ■.24
V. Steadiness . . . . . . .29
VI. Judging Others.34
VII. Some Attributes of God . . . .40
VIII. Work.44
IX. Simple Rife.50
X. Living with Others.56
XI. Wisdom.63
XII. Roosevelt's Reasons for Going to
Church.72
XIII. Home Ideals ..74
XIV. Prayers.75
[ 9 ]
■*
♦
‘
I
THE JOYFUL CHRISTIAN
And this is the message which we have heard
from him, and announce unto you, that God is
light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say
that we have fellowship with him and walk in the
darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we
walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
his Son cleanseth us from all sin.—1 John 1: 5-7.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with
unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of
the Lord, are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the
Spirit.—2 Cor. 3 : 17, 18.
Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say Re¬
joice. Let your forbearance be known unto all
men. The Lord is at hand. In nothing be anx¬
ious ; but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known
unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth
[ 11 ]
FAITH AT WORK
all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your
thoughts in Christ Jesus— Phit. 4: 4-7.
Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypo¬
crites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure
their faces, that they may be seen of men to fast.
Verily I say unto you, They have received their
reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy
head, and wash thy face; that thou be not seen of
men to fast, but of thy Father who is in secret:
and the Father, who seeth in secret, shall recom¬
pense thee.— Matt. 6: 16-18.
Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have
loved you; abide ye in my love. If ye keep my
commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as
I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide
in his love. These things have I spoken unto you,
that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may
be made full.— John 15:9-11.
Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance and of
my cup:
Thou maintainest my lot.
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places ;
Yea, I have a goodly heritage.
I will bless Jehovah, who hath given me counsel;
Yea, my heart instructeth me in the night seasons.
[ 12 ]
THE JOYFUL CHRISTIAN
I have set Jehovah always before we:
Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be
moved.
Therefore my heart is glad and my glory re-
joiceth:
My flesh also shall dwell in safety.
For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol;
Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see
corruption.
Thou wilt show me the path of life:
In thy presence is fulness of joy;
In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
—Ps. 16:5-11.
Be glad in Jehovah, and rejoice, ye righteous;
And shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
—Ps. 32:11.
Let all those that see thee rejoice and be glad
in thee.—Ps. 40: 16.
For the Kingdom of God is not eating and
drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in
the Holy Spirit. For he that therein serveth Christ
is well-pleasing to God, and approved of men. So
then let us follow after things which make for
peace, and things whereby we may edify one an¬
other— Rom. 14:17-19.
[ 13 ]
FAITH AT WORK
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and
peace in believing; that ye may abound in hope, in
the power of the Holy Spirit— Rom. 15 : 13.
ONE) INCREASING PURPOSE
The changing years, eternal God,
Fulfil thy perfect thought:
The ancient paths the fathers trod
Are widening out to pathways broad,
Because thy hand hath wrought.
Our sires adored and worshiped thee,
Yet feared beneath thy rod;
For clearer light, by which we see
Thy judgments and thy grace agree,
We bless thee, O our God.
They saw thee in the cloud and flame;
We see thee in the sun;
And praise thee that the years proclaim
Thy justice and thy love the same,
And joy and duty one.
Dear Father,—kind when most severe,
Most loving when most just;
To lead us on from year to year,
In pastures wide by waters clear.
Thy guiding hand we trust.
—Caroline A. Mason (1823-1890)
[ 14 ]
II
THE EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON HEALTH
Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop:
But a good word maketh it glad.— Prov. 12:25.
The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity;
But a broken spirit who can bear?—P rov. 18: 14.
A tranquil heart is the life of the flesh;
But envy is the rottenness of the bones.
—Prov. 14:30.
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick;
But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
—Prov. 13 : 12.
A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance:
But by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
—Prov. 15:13.
A cheerful heart is a good medicine;
But a broken spirit drieth up the bones.
—Prov. 17:22.
[ 15 ]
FAITH AT WORK
The merciful man doeth good to his own soul;
but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.— Prov.
11:17.
He that is steadfast in righteousness shall attain
unto life:
And he that pursueth evil doeth it to his own death.
—Prov. 11:19.
Casting down imaginations and every high thing
that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and
bringing every thought into captivity to the obedi¬
ence of Christ.—2 Cor. 10: 5.
For they that are after the flesh mind the things
of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the
things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is
death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace:
because the mind of the flesh is enmity against
God; and they that are in the flesh cannot please
God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,
if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. . . .
And, if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of
sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteous¬
ness. ... He that raised up Christ Jesus from the
dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies
through His Spirit that dwelleth in you.— Rom.
8:5-11.
[ 16 ]
EFFECT OF THOUGHT
Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any
man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God
destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such
are ye.— 1 Cor. 3 : 16-17.
Seeing it is God that said, Light shall shine out
of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the
face of Christ Jesus.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that
the exceeding greatness of the power may be of
God, and not from ourselves. We are pressed on
every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not
unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten
down, yet not destroyed; always bearing about in
the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of
Jesus, may be manifested in our body.— 2 Cor.
4:6-11.
Nay, in all these things we are more than con¬
querors through him that loved us. For I am
persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.—
Rom. 8:37-39.
[ 17 ]
FAITH AT WORK
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
service. And be not fashioned according to this
world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and
acceptable and perfect will of God.— Rom. 12: 1, 2.
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,
. . . that He would grant you, according to the
riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened
with power through his Spirit in the inward man;
that Christ may dwell in your hearts, through
faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the
saints what is the breadth and length and height
and depth, and to know the love of Christ which
passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all
the fulness of God.
Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think, accord¬
ing to the power that worketh in us, unto him be
the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all
generations for ever and ever.— Eph. 3: 14-21.
For we know that if the earthly house of our
tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from
God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the
[ 18 ]
EFFECT OF THOUGHT
heavens. ... Now He that wrought for us this
very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of
the Spirit. Being, therefore, always of good cour¬
age, and knowing that, whilst we are at home in
the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we
walk by faith, not by sight) we are of good cour¬
age, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from
the body, and to be at home with the Lord. Where¬
fore also we make it our aim, whether at home or
absent, to be well pleasing unto Him.—2 Cor.
5: 1,9.
Is any among you sick ? let him call for the elders
of the church; and let them pray over him . . .
and the prayer of faith shall save him that is
sick. . . . The supplication of a righteous man
availeth much in its working.— Jas. 5: 14, 16.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good
report: if there be any virtue, and if there be any
praise, think on these things . . . and the God of
peace shall be with you.— Phil. 4 : 9.
Enduring Soul of all our life,
In whom all beings blend,
[ 19 ]
FAITH AT WORK
Unchanging Peace ’mid storm and strife,
Our Parent, Home, and End ,—
Thro* thee the worlds, with all they hear,
Their mighty courses run;
Through thee the heavens are passing fair,
And splendor clothes the sun.
The tho’ts that move the heart of man
And lift his soul on high,
The skill that teaches him to plan
With wondrous subtlety ,—
These are thy thoughts, almighty Mind;
This skill is thine, O Lord,
Who dost by hidden influence bind
All powers in sweet accord.
No noble work was e’er begun
Which came not first from heaven;
No living deed was ever done
Without thine impulse given.
O fill us now, thou living Power,
With energy divine;
Thus shall our wills from hour to hour
Become not ours, but thine.
—E. Sherman Oakeey, 1888.
[ 20 ]
Ill
MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER
It is a good thing to give thanks unto Jehovah,
And to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High;
To show forth thy loving kindness in the morning,
And thy faithfulness every night.—Ps. 92: 1-2.
Yet Jehovah will command his loving kindness in
the day time;
And in the night his song shall be with me,
Even a prayer unto the God of my life.—Ps. 42: 8.
Yea, I will sing aloud of thy loving kindness in the
morning;
For thou hast been my high tower,
And a refuge in the day of my distress.
—Ps. 69: 16.
I will not give sleep to mine eyes or slumber to
mine eyelids;
Until I find out a place for Jehovah,
A tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob.
—Ps. 132:4-5.
[ 21 ]
FAITH AT WORK
O Jehovah, in the morning shalt thou hear my
voice;
In the morning will I order my prayer unto thee,
and will keep watch.—Ps. 5:3.
In peace will I both lay me down and sleep;
For thou, Jehovah, alone makest me dwell in safety.
—Ps. 4:8.
Commune with your own heart upon your bed and
be still.—Ps. 4: 4.
(After Jesus had healed the man with the with¬
ered hand.) But they were filled with madness;
and communed one with another what they might
do to Jesus. And it came to pass in these days, that
he went out into the mountain to pray; and he con¬
tinued all night in prayer to God.—L uke 6: 11.
And my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips;
When I remember thee upon my bed,
And meditate on thee in the night watches.
For thou hast been my help,
And in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
—Ps. 63: 5-7.
With my soul I desire thee in the night,
With my spirit I long for thee in the morning.
*—(From the Shorter Bible, page 417) Isaiah.
[ 22 ]
MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER
Woe to those who plan mischief,
And plot evil upon their beds !
When morning dawns they carry it out,
For it is in their power to do so!
—(From the Shorter Bible, page 376) Micah.
I will bless Jehovah who hath given me counsel;
Yea, my heart instructeth me in the night seasons.
—Ps. 15:7.
Anna, a prophetess of a great age . . . departed
not from the temple, worshipping with fastings and
supplications, night and day.— Luke 2: 36-37.
In nothing be anxious: but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your
requests be made unto God. And the peace of
God which passeth all understanding, shall guard
your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.—
Phie. 4:6-7.
Let pious thoughts he ours when sleep over¬
takes us,
Our earliest thoughts he thine when morning
wakes us,
All day serve thee, in all that we are doing
Thy praise pursuing.
—Petrus Herbert, 1566.
IV
COURAGE
For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness: but
of power and of love and discipline.— 2 Tim. 1: 7.
In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid:
What can man do unto me?—Ps. 56: 11.
Be strong and let your heart take courage,
All ye that hope in Jehovah.—Ps. 31: 24.
Keep sound wisdom and discretion:
So shall they be life unto thy soul,
And grace to thy neck.
Then shalt thou walk in thy way securely.
And thy foot shall not stumble.
When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid:
Yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be
sweet.
Be not afraid of sudden fear,
Neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it
cometh:
For Jehovah will be thy confidence,
[ 24 ]
COURAGE
And will keep thy foot from being taken.
—Prov. 3 : 21-27.
The righteous shall be had in everlasting remem¬
brance.
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings:
His heart is fixed, trusting in Jehovah.
—Ps. 112:6-7.
For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast,
therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of
bondage.—GAiy. 5:1.
My soul wait thou in silence for God only; for
my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock
and my salvation: He is my high tower; I shall not
be moved. With God is my salvation and my
glory; The rock of my strength and my refuge is
in God. Trust in Him at all times, ye people; Pour
out your heart before him: God is a refuge for
us.—Ps. 62: 5-8.
I sought Jehovah, and he answered me, And de¬
livered me from all my fears.—Ps. 34: 4.
Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the
feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will
[ 25 ]
FAITH AT WORK
come with vengeance, with the recompense of God;
he will come and save you.— Isaiah 35 : 3-4.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
High Shall abide under the shadow of the Al¬
mighty. I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge
and my fortress; my God in whom I trust. For he
will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and
from the deadly pestilence. He will cover thee with
his pinions, And under his wings shalt thou take
refuge: His truth is a shield and a buckler. Thou
shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, Nor for
the arrow that flieth by day; For the pestilence that
walketh in darkness, Nor for the destruction that
wasteth at noonday.—Ps. 91: 1-6.
So brutal was I and ignorant: I was as a beast
before Thee. Nevertheless, I am continually with
Thee; Thou hast holden my right hand. Thou wilt
guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive
me to glory. Whom have I in Heaven but Thee
and there is none upon earth that I desire besides
Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is
the strength of my heart and my portion forever.—
Ps. 73:22-26.
Finally, be strong in the Ford, and in the strength
of His might. Put on the whole armor of God,
[ 26 ]
COURAGE
that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and
blood, but against the principalities, against the
powers, against the world rulers of this darkness,
against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places. Wherefore take up the whole
armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in
the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand,
therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and
having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and
having shod your feet with the preparation of the
gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of
faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the
fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God.— Eph. 6: 6-18.
COME UP TO THE HELP OP THE LORD
Rise up, 0 men of God!
Have done with lesser things;
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of kings.
Rise up, O men of God!
His kingdom tarries long:
Bring in the day of brotherhood,
And end the night of wrong .
Rise up, 0 men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
[27]
FAITH AT WORK
Her strength unequal to her task:
Rise up and make her great.
Lift high the cross of Christ;
Tread where his feet have trod;
As brothers of the Son of Man
Rise up, 0 men of God!
—Wiliam P. Merriix, 1911.
[ 28 ]
V
STEADINESS
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not
in vain in the Lord.—1 Cor. 15:58.
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit ye like
men, be strong.—1 Cor. 16: 13.
Even things without life, giving a voice, whether
pipe or harp, if they give not a distinction in the
sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or
harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain
voice, who shall prepare himself for war? So also
ye, unless ye utter by the tongue speech easy to be
understood how shall it be known what is spoken ?
For ye will be speaking into the air.— 1 Cor.
14:7-9.
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor
•hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So, because
thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I
will spew thee out of my mouth.— Rev. 3:16.
[291
FAITH AT WORK
. . . We may have a strong encouragement, who
have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set
before us: which we have as an anchor of the soul,
a hope both sure and stedfast.— Heb. 6: 18-19.
Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in
any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling
away from the living God: but exhort one another
day by day, so long as it is called Today; lest any
one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin:
for we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold
fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the
end.— Heb. 3: 12-14.
But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of
God, who giveth all things liberally and upbraideth
not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in
faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like
the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.
For let not that man think that he shall receive any¬
thing of the Lord: a double minded man, unstable
in all his ways.— Jas. 1: 5-8.
Be not deceived, my beloved brethren. Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights, with whom
can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by
turning.— Jas. 1: 16, 17.
STEADINESS
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the
gospel of Christ: . . . that ye stand fast in one
spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the
gospel.—P hiIv. 1: 21-28.
Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to
serve one another. . . . Humble yourselves, there¬
fore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may
exalt you in due time; casting all your anxiety upon
him, because he careth for you. Be sober, be
watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
whom withstand stedfast in your faith, knowing
that the same sufferings are accomplished in your
brethren who are in the world. And the God of all
grace, who called you unto His eternal glory in
Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while,
shall himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.
To him be the dominion, forever and ever.—
1 Peter 5:5-11.
Jehovah declares: Keep the law and do what is
right;
For my deliverance is near at hand and my right¬
eousness about to be revealed.
Happy the man who does this, the mortal who is
loyal to it.
—(Shorter Bible, page 423) Isaiah.
[31]
FAITH AT WORK
Jehovah will lead you continually,
And will satisfy your soul in time of drought,
And your strength will he renew.
You shall be like a watered garden,
As a fountain whose waters fail not.
—(Shorter Bible, page 438) Isaiah.
Howbeit, the firm foundation of God standeth
having this seal: The Lord knoweth them that are
his: and, let every one that nameth the name of the
Lord depart from unrighteousness.—2 Tim. 2:19.
Having then a great high priest, who hath passed
thro the Heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us
hold fast our confession. For we have not a high
priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points
tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us,
therefore, draw near with boldness unto the throne
of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find
grace to help us in time of need.— Heb. 4: 14-16.
CHILDREN OF THE DAY
f Go forth, firm faith on every heart,
Bright hope on every helm;
Through that shall pierce no fiery dart,
And this no fear o’erwhelm:
[ 32 ]
STEADINESS
Go in the spirit and the might
Of Him who led the way;
Close with the legions of the night,
Ye children of the day!'
So forth we go to meet the strife,
We will not fear nor fly;
We love the holy warrior's life,
His death we hope to die:
We slumber not, that charge in view ,—•
‘ Toil on while toil ye may,
Then night shall be no night to you,
Ye children of the day!'
Lord God, the high and holy One,
Thine own sustain, defend;
And give, though dim this earthly sun,
Thy true light to the end;
Till morning tread the darkness dozvn,
And night be swept away,
And infinite sweet triumph crown
The children of the day!
— Samuel J. Stone:, 1868.
[ 33 ]
VI
JUDGING OTHERS
Let us not, therefore, judge one another any¬
more: but judge ye this rather, that no man put a
stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occa¬
sion of falling. I know, and am persuaded in the
Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; save
that to him who accounteth anything to be un¬
clean, to him it is unclean. For if because of meat
thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in
love. Destroy not with thy meat him for whom
Christ died. Let not, then, your good be evil
spoken of: for the Kingdom of Heaven is not eat¬
ing and drinking, but righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Spirit. For he that herein serveth
Christ is well-pleasing to God and approved of men.
So, then, let us follow after things that make for
peace and things whereby we may edify one an¬
other.— Rom. 14: 12-19.
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
and have not love, I am become sounding brass, or
a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of
prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowl-
[ 34 ]
JUDGING OTHERS
edge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove moun¬
tains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I
bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give
my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth
me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love
envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed
up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its
own, is not provoked, taketh no account of evil;
rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with
the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never
faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall
be done away: whether there be tongues, they
shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be
done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy
in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that
which is in part shall be done away. When I was
a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I
thought as a child; now that I have become a man,
I have put away childish things. For now we see
in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I
know in part; but then shall I know fully, even as
also I was fully known. But now abideth faith,
hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is
love.—1 Cor. 13: 1-13.
In righteousness shalt thou judge thy neigh¬
bor.— Lev. 19: 15.
FAITH AT WORK
Fret not thyself because of evil doers.
—PS. 37: 1.
Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what
judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto
you.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy
brother’s eye but considerest not the beam that is
in thine own eye? Or, how wilt thou say to thy
brother—Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye:
and lo, the beam is in thine own eye ? Thou hypo¬
crite; cast out first the beam out of thine own eye
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote
out of thy brother’s eye.—M att. 7: 1-5.
If ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heav¬
enly Father will also forgive you.— Matt. 6:14.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain
mercy.— Matt. 5 : 7.
Like as a father pitieth his children so Jehovah
pitieth them that fear Him. For he knoweth our
frame: he remembereth that we are dust.—Ps
103: 13.
(When the Scribes and Pharisees brought a sin-
[36]
JUDGING OTHERS
ning woman to Jesus)—trying Him that they
might have whereof to accuse Him. But Jesus
stooped down and with his finger wrote on the
ground. But when they continued asking him, he
lifted up himself and said unto them; he that is
without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at
her. And again he stooped down, and with his
finger wrote on the ground. And they, when they
heard it, went out, one by one, beginning from the
eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone,
and the woman where she was, in the midst. And
Jesus lifted up himself and said unto her:
Woman, where are they? did no man condemn
thee? And she said: No man, Lord. And Jesus
said, Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from
henceforth sin no more.— John 8:6-11.
Wherefore thou art without excuse, O man,
whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou
judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou
that judgest dost practise the same things.—
Rom. 2:1.
THE MIND OF CHRIST
Lord, as to thy dear cross we flee,
And plead to he forgiven,
So let thy life our pattern he,
And form our souls for heaven .
[ 37 ]
FAITH AT WORK
Help us, through good report and ill,
Our daily cross to bear;
Like thee, to do our Father's will,
Our brethren's griefs to share.
Let grace our selfishness expel,
Our earthliness refine;
And kindness in our bosoms dwell,
As free and true as thine.
Should friends misjudge, or foes defame,
Or brethren faithless prove,
Then, like thine own, be all our aim
To conquer them by love.
Kept peaceful in the midst of strife,
Forgiving and forgiven,
O may we lead the pilgrim's life,
And follow thee to heaven.
—John H. Gurney, 1838.
I like to believe that with anointed eyes we shall
see all the perplexities of our differing beliefs
blended into a perfect and comprehensible har¬
mony : and, whatever else any of us must alter or
drop in the light of perfect Truth, our love for each
other will stand unchanged and be the tie which
unites the new life and the old.—E. H. Packard.
God of charity, help me to remember how hard it
is always to be at one’s best, and to champion and to
[ 38 ]
JUDGING OTHERS
have faith in those severely criticized. May I show
patience, sympathy, understanding, to others, as I
would long to receive that kind of standing-by
when below the standard that I would set for my¬
self—A non.
[ 39 ]
VII
SOME ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
. . . His name shall be called Wonderful, Coun¬
sellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace.— Isa. 9: 6.
Jesus spake unto them, saying, I am the light of
the world: he that followeth me . . . shall have the
light of life.—J ohn 8: 12.
Jesus said unto them; I am the bread of life: he
that cometh to me shall not hunger and he that be-
lieveth on me shall never thirst.— John 6:35.
Jesus saith unto him: I am the way, and the
truth, and the life. No one cometh unto the Father
but by me.— John 14: 6.
Jehovah is my light and my salvation.
Jehovah is the strength of my life,
Of whom shall I be afraid?—Ps. 27: 1.
Jehovah is thy keeper. Jehovah is thy shade.
—Ps. 121: 5.
[ 40 ]
SOME ATTRIBUTES OF GOB
A father of the fatherless.—Ps. 68:5.
Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my
deliverer . . .
My shield, . . . my high tower.—Ps. 18:1.
Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty.—2 Cor. 3:17.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must
worship in spirit and truth.— John 4: 24.
Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of
persons; but in every nation, he that feareth him,
and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him.—
Acts 10:34.
For God is not a god of confusion, but of peace.
—1 Cor. 14:33.
He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God
is love.—1 John 4: 8.
The Lord is my shepherd.—Ps. 23.
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time
with you and dost thou not know me, Philip? He
that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest
thou, Show us the Father ? Believest thou not that
I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The
[ 41 ]
FAITH AT WORK
words that I say unto you I speak not from myself:
but the Father abiding in me doeth his works. Be¬
lieve me that I am in the Father and the Father in
me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.—
John 14:9-11.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husband¬
man. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit,
he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth
fruit, He cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.
Already ye are clean because of the word which I
have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it
abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide
in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much
fruit; for apart from me ye can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a
branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and
cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask what¬
soever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. . . .
Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved
you: abide ye in my love.— John 15: 1-10.
Many a young man would give his life for
Truth, Love, Light, Honor, Justice. These quali¬
ties rule his life and inspire his work. Yet he does
[ 42 ]
SOME ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
not name the sum of these attributes what they
are— God.—G. Me)rk£n.
Am I not a god near by and not a god far off ?
Can anyone hide himself in secret places and I not
see him ?
Do not I fill both heaven and earth? Jehovah
declares.
—(Shorter Bible, page 397) JkrEmiah.
“ GOD THROUGH ADD, AND IN YOU ADD **
God of the earth, the sky, the sea,
Maker of all above, below,
Creation lives and moves in thee,
Thy present life through all doth flow.
Thy love is in the sunshine’s glow.
Thy life is in the quickening air;
When lightnings flash and storm-winds blow,
There is thy power; thy law is there.
We feel thy calm at evening’s hour,
Thy grandeur in the march of night;
And, when the morning breaks in power,
We hear thy word, e Let there be light!’
But higher far, and far more clear,
Thee in man’s spirit we behold:
Thine image and thyself are there,
The indwelling God, proclaimed of old.
—Samuex Bongrexdow, 1864.
[ 43 ]
VIII
WORK
In all labor there is profit: but mere talk tends
only to penury.—(Shorter Bible) Prov. 14: 23.
Give diligence to present thyself approved unto
God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.—
2 Tim. 2:15.
He who tilleth his land shall have plenty of
bread; But he that followeth after vain persons
shall have poverty enough.— Prov. 28: 19.
For God will bring every work into judgment,
with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or
whether it be evil.—Ecau 12: 14.
But we exhort you, brethren, that ye abound
more and more; and that ye study to be quiet, and
to do your own business, and to work with your
hands even as we charged you; that ye may walk
becomingly toward them that are without, and may
have need of nothing.—1 Thess. 4: 10-12.
[ 44 ]
WORK
If any will not work, neither let them eat. For
we hear of some that walk among you disorderly,
that work not at all, but are busy-bodies. Now
them that are such we command and exhort in the
Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work,
and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not
weary in well doing. And if any man obeyeth not
our word, have no company with him, to the end
that he may be ashamed. And yet count him not
as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.—
2 Thess. 3:10-15.
Say not ye, There are yet four months and then
cometh the harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift
up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are
white already unto harvest. He that reapeth re-
ceiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal;
that he that soweth and he that reapeth may re¬
joice together. For herein is the saying true, One
soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap
that whereon ye have not labored: others have
labored and ye are entered into their labor.— John
4:35-38.
The man went away, and told the Jews that it
was Jesus who had made him whole. And for this
cause the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did
these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered
[ 45 ]
FAITH AT WORK
them, My Father worketh even until now, and I
work.— John 5: 15-17.
Whether, therefore, ye eat, or drink, or whatso¬
ever ye do, do all to the glory of God.—1 Cor.
10:31.
What does it profit, my brethren, if a man say
he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith
save him? If a brother or sister be naked and in
lack of daily food, and one of you say unto them,
Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled: and yet ye
give them not the things needful to the body; what
does it profit? Even so faith, if it have not works,
is dead in itself. Yea, a man will say, Thou hast
faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart
from thy works, and I by my works will show thee
my faith.— Jas. 2: 14-18.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works.— Eph. 2: 10.
For other foundation can no man lay than that
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if any
man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly
stones, wood, hay, stubble: each man’s work shall
be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,
because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall
[ 46 ]
WORK
prove each man’s work of what sort it is. If any
man’s work shall abide which he built thereon, he
shall receive a reward.—1 Cor. 3: 11-14.
The lazy man is wiser in his own opinion
Than seven who can answer intelligently.
The way of the lazy is hedged in with thorns,
But the path of the diligent is a well built highway.
Slack management brings only poverty,
But efficiency makes a man rich. . . .
He who gathers in summer acts sensibly.
He who sleeps in harvest behaves disgracefully.
►—(Shorter Bible, page 543) Proverbs.
If you see a man skilled in his business
He shall stand in the presence of kings.
And not in the presence of obscure men.
Set in order your work without.
Prepare for your work in the field:
And, after that, build your house.
—(Shorter Bible, page 544) Proverbs.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in
due season we shall reap if we faint not. So
then, as we have opportunity, let us work that
which is good toward all men, and especially toward
them that are of the household of the faith.— Gae.
6:9-10.
[ 47 ]
FAITH AT WORK
If from your midst you remove the yoke,
The finger of scorn and malicious speech.
And bestow your bread on the hungry.
And satisfy the soul that is afflicted.
Then your light shall be as noonday,
Jehovah will lead you continually.
—(Shorter Bible, page 438) Isaiah.
Trust in the Lord and do right,
Live in the land and act with fidelity . . .
Commit your way unto the Lord,
Trust in him, and he will work with you.
—(Shorter Bible, page 517) Psalms.
A man’s steps are directed by the Lord,
He establishes him of whose acts he approves,
For should he fail, he shall not go headlong,
For the Lord will hold him by the hand.
—(Shorter Bible, page 518) Psalms.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in
heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.— Matt.
11:28-30.
[ 48 ]
WORK
nkw diee with the: ne:w day
New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove ,—
Thro’ sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life, and power, and thought.
New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray ,—
New perils past, nezv sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
If on our daily course our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
Old friends, old scenes will lovelier be,
As more of heaven in each we see;
Some softening gleam of love and prayer
Shall dawn on every cross and care.
The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask ,—
Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer God.
Only, 0 Lord, in thy dear love,
Fit us for perfect rest above,
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray.
—John KebtE, 1822.
[49]
I
IX
SIMPLE -LIFE
. . . For I have learned, in whatsoever state I
am, therein to be content. I know how to be
abased, and I know also how to abound: in every¬
thing and in all things have I learned the secret
both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound
and to be in want. I can do all things in Him that
strengtheneth me. —Phii,. 4: 11-13.
. . . Godliness with contentment is great gain:
for we brought nothing into the world, for neither
can we carry anything out: but having food and
covering we shall be therewith content. But they
that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation
and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts,
such as drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil:
which some reaching after have been led astray
from the faith, and have pierced themselves
through with many sorrows.—1 Tim. 6: 6-10.
Charge them that are rich in this present world,
that they be not high-minded, nor have their hope
[ 50 ]
SIMPLE LIFE
set on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who
giveth us all things richly to enjoy; that they do
good, that they be rich in good works, that they be
ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying
up in store for themselves a good foundation
against the time to come, that they may lay hold on
the life which is life indeed.—1 Tim. 6: 17-19.
And Jesus said unto his disciples, Verily I say
unto you, It is hard for a rich man to enter into
the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say unto
you, It is easier for a camel to go through a
needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the
Kingdom of God. And when the disciples heard
it, they were astonished exceedingly, saying, Who,
then, can be saved? And Jesus, looking upon
them, said to them, With men this is impossible;
but with God all things are possible.— Matt.
19:23-26.
And he that was sown among the thorns, this is
he that heareth the word; and the care of the world,
and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and
he becometh unfruitful.— Matt. 13 : 22.
Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity,
Than he that is perverse in his ways, though he
be rich.
[ 51 ]
FAITH AT WORK
Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son;
But he that is a companion of gluttons shameth his
father.
He that augmenteth his substance by interest and
increase,
Gathereth it for him that hath pity on the poor.
—Prov. 28: 6-8.
These twelve Jesus sent forth and charged them,
saying, ... As ye go, preach, saying, The king¬
dom of Heaven is at hand. . . . Get you no gold,
nor silver, nor brass in your purses; no wallet for
your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor
staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food.—
Matt. 10:7-11.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent be¬
guiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be
corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that
is toward Christ—2 Cor. 11:3.
Better is little, with the fear of Jehovah,
Than great treasure and trouble therewith.
Better is a dinner of herbs, where love is
Than a stalled ox, and hatred therewith.
—Prov. 15: 16-17.
Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the
I 52]
SIMPLE LIFE
gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruc¬
tion, and many are they that enter in thereby. For
narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that
leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.—
Matt. 7:13-14.
But know this, that in the last days grievous
times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self,
lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, dis¬
obedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without
natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without
self control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, head¬
strong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than
lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but
having denied the power thereof: from these also
turn away.—2 Tim. 3 : 1-5.
Love not the world, neither the things that are
in the world. If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but
is of the world. And the world passeth away, and
the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God
abideth for ever.— 1 John 2:15-17.
Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is
like the beasts that perish.—Ps. 49: 20.
FAITH AT WORK
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
meekness, self-control: against such there is no law.
And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the
flesh with the passions and the lust thereof.— Gal.
5:22-24.
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy
and eat; yea come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend
money for that which is not bread ? and your labor
for that which satisfieth not?— Isaiah 55 : 1, 2.
And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes,
and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son
of man hath not where to lay his head.—M att.
8 : 20 .
FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH
Meek and lowly were his ways;
From his loving grew his praise,
From his giving, prayer;
All the outcasts thronged to hear,
All the sorrowful drew near
To enjoy his care.
When he walked the fields, he drew
From the flowers and birds and dew,
Parables of God;
[ 54 ]
SIMPLE LIFE
For within his heart of love
All the soul of man did move,
God had his abode .
Fill us, Lord, with thy desire,
All the sinful to inspire
With the Father's life;
Free us from the cares that press
On the heart of worldliness,
From the fret and strife.
Lord, be ours thy power to keep
In the very heart of grief,
And in trial, love;
In our meekness to be wise,
And through sorrow to arise
To our God above.
—Stoppord A. Brooke:, 1881.
[ 55 ]
X
LIVING WITH OTHERS
For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only
use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh,
but through love, be servants, one to another. For
the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this:
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye
bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be
not consumed, one of another.— Gal. 5 : 13-15.
God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth
in God, and God abideth in him. . . . There is no
fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, be¬
cause fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is
not made perfect in love. We love, because he first
loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his
brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his
brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom
he hath not seen.—1 John 4: 16-20.
There are six things which Jehovah hateth;
Yea, seven which are an abomination to him:
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood;
[ 56 ]
LIVING WITH OTHERS
A heart that deviseth wicked purposes,
Feet that are swift in running to mischief,
A false witness that uttereth lies,
And he that soweth discord among brethren.
—Prov. 6: 16-19.
If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also
walk. Let us not become vainglorious, provoking
one another, envying one another.
Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any
trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one
in a spirit of gentleness; looking to thyself, lest
thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s bur¬
dens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.—G ae.
5:25-26; Gae. 6: 1-2.
And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of
God, and into the patience of Christ.—2 Thess.
3:5.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty ;
And he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a
city.— Prov. 16:32.
And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the dis¬
orderly, encourage the faint-hearted, support the
weak, be longsuffering toward all. See that none
render unto any one evil for evil; but always fol-
[ 57 ]
FAITH AT WORK
low after that which is good, one toward another
and toward all.— 1 Thess. 5 : 14-15.
Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye
truth each one with his neighbor: for we are mem¬
bers one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let
not the sun go down upon your wrath. . . . Let all
bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and
railing, be put away from you, with all malice; and
be ye kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving
each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you.
—Eph. 4:25, 26, 31, 32.
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that
which is evil; cleave to that which is good. In love
of the brethren be tenderly affectioned, one to an¬
other; in honor preferring one another; in diligence
not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; re¬
joicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing
stedfastly in prayer; communicating to the necessi¬
ties of the saints; given to hospitality. Bless them
that persecute you; bless, and curse not. Rejoice
with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep.
Be of the same mind one toward another. Set not
your mind on high things, but condescend to things
that are lowly. Be not wise in your own conceits.
Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for
things honorable in the sight of all men. If it be
[ 58 ]
LIVING WITH OTHERS
possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with
all men. Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give
place unto the wrath of God: for it is written,
Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense,
saith the Lord. But if thine enemy hunger, feed
him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing
thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not
overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.—
Rom. 12:9-21.
Now we that are strong ought to bear the in¬
firmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Let each one of us please his neighbor for that
which is good, unto edifying. For Christ also
pleased not himself.— Rom. 15: 1-3.
As one that taketh off a garment in cold weather,
and as vinegar upon soda, So is he that singeth
songs to a heavy heart.— Prov. 25:20.
... Be ye therefore of sound mind, and be
sober unto prayer: above all things being fervent in
your love among yourselves; for love covereth a
multitude of sins: using hospitality one to another
without murmuring.—1 Pet^r 4:7-9.
If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while
he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart,
[ 59 ]
FAITH AT WORK
this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and un¬
defiled before our God and Father is this, to visit
the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to
keep oneself unspotted from the world.— Jas.
1:26, 27.
Let love of the brethren continue. Forget not to
show love unto strangers: for thereby some have
entertained angels unaware.— Heb. 13: 1, 2.
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due,
When it is in the power of thy hand to do it.
Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again,
And tomorrow I will give; when thou hast it by
thee.
Devise not evil against thy neighbor,
Seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.
Strive not with a man without cause,
If he have done thee no harm.—P roverbs 3: 27-30.
A brother offended is harder to be won than a
strong city;
And such contentions are like the bars of a castle.
—Prov. 18:19.
A perverse man scattereth abroad strife;
And a whisperer separateth chief friends.
—Prov. 16:28.
[ 60 ]
LIVING WITH OTHERS
Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith,
Than a house full of feasting with strife.
—Prov. 17:1.
It is better to dwell in the corner of a housetop
Than with a brawling woman in a broad house.
—Prov. 21:9.
Let thy foot be seldom in thy neighbor’s house,
Let he be weary of thee and hate thee.
—Prov. 25: 17.
Behold how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
—Ps. 133 :1.
He who brings trouble to his home shall inherit
the wind,
And he who is foolish shall become slave to the
wise.—(Shorter Bible, page 536) ProvKrbs.
As iron sharpens iron,
So a man the face of his friend.
As in water face answers to face,
So the heart of man to man.
Every heart knows its own sorrow,
And no other shares its joy.
[ 61 ]
FAITH AT WORK
Even in laughter the heart may be sad,
And the end of joy may be sorrow.
Many a man proclaims his own kindness.
—(Shorter Bible, page 533) Proverbs.
one eeock, one shepherd
O Son of God, zvhose love so free
For men did make thee man to he,
United to our God in thee
May we be one!
Join high with low, join young with old,
In love that never waxes cold;
Under one Shepherd, in one fold,
Make us all one!
O Spirit blest, who from above
Cam’st gently gliding like a dove,
Calm all our strife, give faith and love;
0 make us one!
So, when the world shall pass away,
We shall awake with joy and say,—
Now in the bliss of endless day
We all are one.
—Christopher Wordsworth, 1871.
[ 62 ]
XI
WISDOM
It is evident that man never attains to a true self
knowledge until after he has contemplated the face
of God, and come down after such contemplation
to look into himself.— Calvin.
Christianity is not a theory, or a speculation, but
a life. Not a philosophy of life, but life, and a
living process.— Coleridge.
My wish is this: to make the aged happy, to show
sincerity toward friends and to treat young people
with tenderness and sympathy.— Confucius.
If men so much admire philosophers because they
discover a small part of the wisdom that made all
things, they must be stark blind not to admire that
wisdom itself.— Fenelon.
God does not deceive you; he is deceived who
trusts too much to himself. God walks with the
simple, reveals himself to the humble, gives under¬
standing to the feeble, opens his meaning to pure
[ 63 ]
FAITH AT WORK
minds, and hides his grace from the inquisitive and
proud.— Thomas a Kempis.
It is a blessed soul which hears the Lord speaking
to it, and receives the word of consolation from His
lips.— Thomas a Kempis.
For everything that is loved enters with light
into the ideas of the mind: and this is eminently the
case, when that which is loved is truth: for all truth
dwells in light.— Swedenborg.
One’s own heart is the place the most free from
crowd and noise in the world if only one’s thoughts
are serene and the mind well ordered. . . . Do not
forget to retire to this solitude of yours: let there
be no straining or struggling in the matter, but
move at ease.— Marcus Aureeius.
Nothing could be more absurd than a command
that everyone should make himself happy, for one
never commands anyone to do what he inevitably
wishes to do.— Kant.
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger
men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.
Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the
doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you
[ 64 ]
WISDOM
shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at
yourself, at the richness of life which has come to
you by the grace of God.— Philips Brooks.
How large a part of our Godward life is trav¬
elled, not by clear landmarks seen far off in the
promised land, but as travellers climb a mountain
peak, by putting footstep after footstep, slowly
and patiently, into the prints which someone
going before us, with keener sight, with stronger
nerves, tied to us by the cord of saintly sym¬
pathy, has planted deep into the pathless snow of
the bleak distance that stretches up between hu¬
manity and God. ... So we ascend by one an¬
other. We live by one another’s blessings.—
Philips Brooks.
As one familiar with the sonatas and the sym¬
phonies of Beethoven, while passing along the
street in summer, gets, from out of the open win¬
dow, a snatch of a song or a piece that is being
played, catching a strain here and another there—
and says to himself, “ Ah, that is Beethoven. I
recognize that: it is from such and such a move¬
ment of the Pastoral,” or whatever it may be;—so
men in life catch strains of God in the mother’s
disinterested and self-denying love, in the lover’s
glow, in the little child’s innocent affections. Where
[ 65 ]
FAITH AT WORK
did this thing come from? No plant ever brought
out such fruit as this.— Henry Ward Beecher.
The common problem, yours, mine, everyone’s,
Is not to fancy what were fair in life
Provided it could be—but finding first
What may be, then find how to make it fair
Up to our means, a very different thing.
—Robert Browning.
Do not dare to be so absorbed in your own life,
so wrapped up in listening to the sound of your
own hurrying wheels, that all this vast pathetic
music, made up of the mingled joy and sorrow of
your fellow-men, shall not find out your heart and
claim it and make you rejoice to give yourself for
them. ... Be sure that ambition and charity will
both grow mean unless they are both inspired and
exalted by religion. Energy, love, and faith,—
these make the perfect man.— Phielips Brooks.
First, when I feel that I am become cold and in¬
disposed to prayer, by reason of other business and
thoughts, I take my psalter and run into my cham¬
ber, or, if day and season serve, into the church to
the multitude, and begin to repeat to myself—just
as children used—the ten commandments, the creed,
and, according as I have time, some sayings of
[ 66 ]
WISDOM
Christ or of Paul, or some Psalms. Therefore it
is well to let prayer be the first employment in the
early morning, and the last in the evening. Avoid
diligently those false and deceptive thoughts which
say, Wait a little, I will pray an hour hence; I must
first perform this or that. For with such thoughts
a man quits prayer for business that lays hold of
and entangles him, so that he comes not to pray the
whole day long.— Martin Luther.
Give us, O give us the man who sings at his
work. Be his occupation what it may, he is equal
to any of those who follow the same pursuit in
silent sullenness. He will do more in the same time
—he will do it better—he will persevere longer.
One is scarcely sensible of fatigue while he marches
to music. The very stars are said to make har¬
mony as they revolve in their spheres. Wondrous
is the strength of cheerfulness, although past cal¬
culation its power of endurance. Efforts to be
permanently useful, must be uniformly joyous—a
spirit all sunshine, graceful from very gladness,
beautiful because bright.— Thomas Carlyle.
There is one topic peremptorily forbidden to all
well-bred, to all rational mortals, namely, their dis¬
tempers. If you have not slept or if you have
slept, or if you have headache, or sciatica, or lep-
[ 67 ]
FAITH AT WORK
rosy or thunder stroke, I beseech you, by all angels,
to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning,
to which all the housemates bring serene and pleas¬
ant thoughts, by corruption and groans.— Ralph
Waldo Emerson.
There are those who want to get away from all
their past; who, if they could, would fain begin all
over again. Their life seems one long failure. But
you must learn, you must let God teach you, that
the only way to get rid of your past is to get a
future out of it.— Philips Brooks.
We are haunted by an ideal life, and it is be¬
cause we have within us the beginning and the
possibility of it. God is our continual incitement
because we are His children. So the ideal life is in
our blood and never will be still. We feel the thing
we ought to be beating beneath the thing we are.
Every time we see a man who has attained our
ideal a little more fully than we have it wakens our
languid blood and fills us with new longings.—
Phillips Brooks.
The longer on this earth we live
And weigh the various qualities of men
The more we feel the high, stem-featured beauty
Of plain devotedness to duty,
[ 68 ]
WISDOM
Steadfast and, still, nor paid with mortal praise,
But finding amplest recompense
For life’s ungarlanded expense
In work done squarely and unwasted days.
—James Russeee Towele.
I think the sweetest thought, the very central
idea, of the revelation of the character of God to
me, is this: that He does everything out of His
supreme will. There is no one thing that I can say
with more heartiness, or that has in it more echoes
of joy, than “ Thy will be done.” If anything
works righteousness in me or in you, it is God.
The nature of God is fruitful in generosity. He is
so good that He loves to do good, and loves to
make men good, and loves to make them happy by
making them good. He loves to be patient with
them, and to wait for them, and to pour benevo¬
lence upon them, because that is His nature.—
Henry Ward Beecher.
Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall
meet this day with the busybody, the ungrateful,
the arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All
these things happen to them by reason of their
ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who
have seen the nature of the good that it is beau¬
tiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, can neither
[ 69 ]
FAITH AT WORK
be inspired by any of them—for no one can fix
on me what is ugly—nor can I be angry with
my neighbor, nor hate him. We are made for
co-operation; to act against one another, that is
contrary to nature; and it is acting against one
another to be vexed and turn away.— Marcus
Aurelius.
It is not to taste sweet things, but to do noble
and true things, and vindicate himself under God’s
heaven, as a God-made man, that the poorest son
of Adam dimly longs. This dim longing for what
is noble and true, the still small voice which calls to
one imperatively in moments of temptation, is the
safeguard which, if hearkened to, not only protects
one in severe trials of manliness and womanliness,
but also incites to the formation of a fine character,
without which all acquisitions, all graces and ac¬
complishments, all talents and all learning, are but
as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.— Thomas
CaruyuE.
The real Christian plunges into hardest places to
work, bravely faces actual conditions, and does not
live in the clouds until Time lifts his feet from the
earth.
Whenever we put Christ’s teachings into prac¬
tise, they work with power. We can trust Him to
[ 70 ]
WISDOM
reveal further paths if we put our feet on those
already clearly shown.
When we are guests in the houses of friends, we
do not see the one who puts hot water bottles in our
beds on a cold night, or leaves flowers for us where
we may enjoy them. But the fact that they are
there makes us know that someone is looking out
for our welfare and our pleasure. How about the
warmth of the sun, the food provided, the flowers,
the skies, the entire beauty of nature?
We know that physical life is a fight, is full of
mystery, is full of revelations, from day to day.
Why are we surprised at the same conditions in
our spiritual life?
I certainly am a complicated Christian. I believe
with the Friends that I must wait for the Spirit to
lead me as I listen to my conscience. I am a Roman
Catholic in many moods, for stability and symbol¬
ism mean much in life’s confusion, and I believe in
confessing my sins and in retreats for spiritual re¬
freshment. I am a Puritan when facing actual dis¬
cipline of mind, and in realizing that children must
early meet training that will fit them to stand firm
for truth and right, without wobbling or a silly
sense of false optimism. I am a Swedenborgian
in delight in spiritual significance of common
things. And yet, I attend a Congregational Church
and love it, too.— Anon.
[71 ]
XII
NINE REASONS GIVEN BY THEODORE
ROOSEVELT FOR GOING TO CHURCH
I. In this actual world, a churchless community,
a community where men have abandoned and
scoffed at or ignored their religious needs, is a
community on the rapid down grade.
II. Church work and church attendance mean
the cultivation of the habit of feeling some re¬
sponsibility for others.
III. There are enough holidays for most of us.
Sundays differ from other holidays in the fact that
there are fifty-two of them every year. Therefore
on Sundays go to church.
IV. Yes, I know all the excuses. I know that
one can worship the Creator in a grove of trees, or
by a running brook, or in a man’s own house just
as well as in church. But I also know as a matter
of cold fact the average man does not thus worship.
V. He may not hear a good sermon at church.
He will hear a sermon by a good man who, with
his good wife, is engaged all the week in making
hard lives a little easier.
VI. He will listen to and take part in reading
[ 72 ]
ROOSEVELT'S REASONS
some beautiful passages from the Bible. And if
he is not familiar With the Bible, he has suffered
a loss.
VII. He will take part in singing some good
hymns.
VIII. He will meet and nod or speak to good,
quiet neighbors. He will come away feeling a
little more charitably toward all the world, even
toward those excessively foolish young men who
regard church-going as a soft performance.
IX. I advocate a man’s joining in church work
for the sake of showing his faith by his work.
—Theodors Roosevelt.
[ 73 ]
XIII
HOME IDEALS
May it never be used for conventional or showy
entertainment, but ever be a refuge of those who
long for a restful, cheerful haven, where music and
flowers and quiet companionship, without ostenta¬
tion and forced gaiety, are to be found, and where
time may be had to think and to talk of the para¬
mount issues of the day.
There children may play and be inspired to
think of the finer things of life and enjoy the
wholesome pleasures which lead to the right ideas
of entertainment; and also work with encourage¬
ment, so that the atmosphere of the House may
be one of rejoicing and of progress in Idealism
and Christianity.— Hexen Sherman Pratt.
[ 74 ]
XIV
PRAYERS
God of charity, help me to see the best side of
every person with whom I come in contact. Ret
me realize how bravely many of them go on in
spite of difficulties of which the world is unaware.
Let me help them with understanding and sym¬
pathy and refuse to listen to slander.— Anon.
O God, who art the author of peace and lover of
concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eter¬
nal life, whose service is perfect freedom; Defend
us, thy humble servants, in all assaults of our ene¬
mies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may
not fear the power of any adversaries, through the
might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.— Book of
Common Prayer.
Almighty God, I pray that I may always behold
the light upon the hills. Even when I am walking
in the valley may there be a reflected light from the
heights! Thy righteousness is like the great moun¬
tains ; help me to find strength in the gracious con¬
victions and not be afraid.— JowETT.
[ 75 ]
FAITH AT WORK
Give me grace, O my Father, that I may perse¬
vere in the work to which Thou hast called me, not
leaving it half-done, nor giving up when the first
enthusiasm has faded, and when other interests
arise to attract.—F. B. Meyer.
A PRAYER EOR UNITY
O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our
only Saviour, the Prince of Peace; Give us grace
seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in
by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred
and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us
from godly Union and Concord: that, as there is
but one Body, and one Spirit, and one Hope of our
Calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God
and Father of us all, so we may henceforth be all
of one heart, and of one soul, united in one holy
bond of Truth and Peace, of Faith and Charity,
and may with one mind and one mouth glorify
thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.—
Book op Common Prayer.
Almighty God, I pray for all struggling people
who are depressed in their impotence. Give them
a faith which will make them partners with Thee.
Let them lift their eyes upon their wonderful re¬
sources in Christ, and may they become more than
conquerors through Him who loves them! Teach
[ 76 ]
PRAYERS
us to believe that we Can do all things through
Christ who strengtheneth us.—JowETT.
Holy Spirit, help me to rejoice in Thee. Let me
not move as a slave, but as one of the family of
God. Take away from me all unworthy fear, and
fill me with a holy boldness.—JowETT.
Deliver me, O my Lord and Master, from self-
confidence, self-centredness, and self-consciousness.
Be Thou my confidence, and the centre of my
activities; and may I always be more conscious of
Thy presence than of the presence or absence of
others.—F. B. Meyer.
Heavenly Father, I pray that Thou wouldst en¬
rich the circle of my sympathies. Wilt Thou
graciously widen and deepen it ? Let me know that
I am growing in grace by the receding horizon, by
the growing dominion of my heart. Let me behold
the land that is very far off.—JowETT.
If this day I should get lost amid the perplexities
of life and the rush of many duties, do Thou search
me out, gracious Lord, and bring me back into the
quiet of Thy presence.— F. B. Meyer.
O that this mind may be in us all, which was in
[ 77 ]
FAITH AT WORK
the Lord Jesus, that we may love as Brethren, be
Pitiful and Courteous, and endeavor heartily and
vigorously to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
Bond of Peace, and the God of Grace, Mercy, and
Peace be with us all. Amen.— Thomas a Kempis.
O Lord, renew our spirits and draw our hearts
unto Thyself that our work may not be to us a
burden, but a delight; and give us such a mighty
love to Thee as may sweeten all obedience. Oh,
let us not serve Thee with the spirit of bondage as
slaves, but with the cheerfulness and gladness of
children.— Benjamin Jenks.
O Lord, Thou knowest what is best for us, let
this or that be done, as Thou shalt please. Give
what Thou wilt, and how much Thou wilt, and
when Thou wilt. . . . Behold, I am Thy servant,
prepared for all things; for I desire not to live unto
myself, but unto Thee.— Thomas a Kempis.
Grant that we may now, this present day, seeing
it is as good as nothing that we have done hitherto,
perfectly begin to walk before Thee, as becometh
those that are called to an inheritance of light in
Christ.— George Hickes.
O Thou, who art the true Sun of the world, ever
[ 78 ]
PRAYERS
rising, and never going down, ... we beseech
Thee mercifully to shine into our hearts, that the
night and darkness of sin, and the mists of error on
every side, being driven away by the brightness of
Thy shining within our hearts, we may all our lives
walk without stumbling, as in the day time, and,
being pure and clean from the works of darkness,
may abound in all good works which Thou hast
prepared for us to walk in.— Erasmus.
O Eternal God, sanctify my body and soul, my
thoughts and my intentions, my words and actions,
and whatsoever I shall think, or speak, or do, may
be by me designed for the glorification of Thy
Name, and by Thy blessing, it may be effective and
successful in the work of God. . . . and let no
pride or self-seeking, no covetousness or revenge,
no little ends and low imaginations, pollute my
spirit, and unhallow any of my words and actions;
but let my body be a servant of my spirit, and
both body and spirit servants of Jesus.— Jeremy
Taylor.
O Thou, who art the Eight of the minds that
know Thee, the Life of the souls that love Thee,
and the Strength of the thoughts that seek Thee;
help us so to know Thee, that we may truly love
Thee, so to love Thee that we may fully serve Thee,
[ 79 ]
FAITH AT WORK
whose service is perfect freedom; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.— Geeasian Sacra¬
mentary, a. d. 494 .
Dig out of us, O Lord, the venomous roots of
covetousness; or else so repress them with Thy
grace, that we may be contented with Thy pro¬
vision of necessaries, and not to labor, as we do,
with all toil, sleight, guile, wrong, and oppression,
to pamper ourselves with vain superfluities. Give
us grace continually to read, hear, and meditate on
Thy purposes, judgments, promises, and precepts,
not to the end we may curiously argue thereof, or
arrogantly presume thereupon, but to frame our
lives according to Thy will.— Archbishop Grin-
DAIy, 1519 .
We pray for our land. . . . Raise up nobler
men—men that shall scorn bribes; men that shall
not run greedily to ambition; men that shall not be
devoured by selfishness; men that shall fear God
and love man; men that shall love this nation with
a pure and disinterested love. And so we beseech
of Thee that our peace may stand firm upon integ¬
rity, and that righteousness may everywhere pre¬
vail.— Henry Ward Beecher.
[ the end ]
[ 80 ]
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Class
Book
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIE
HOLY MIGHT
Corregio
Straws from me Manger
or
Thoughts On
Christmastide
SJtljtt ©bata!
H. B. RIES,
Censor Librorum
June i8tk, 1917
imprimatur
* S. G. ME5SMER, D. D.
Archbishop of Milwaukee
Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel 1917
/
Copyright 1917
Rev. James H. Cotter, L.L.D., Litt. D.
©CI.A470973
Straws From 4ie Manger
or
Thoughts On Christmastide
Re%). James H. Cotter, L. L. D. Litt. D.
\ I
Au4\or of
"Skakespeare's Art" and "Lances Hurled at &e Sun'*
Diederich-Sckaefer Co.
Milwaukee, Wis.
1917.
INTRODUCTION. , .'
THESE thoughts
Have appeared in
< TKe Columbiad and
The Columbian. 'That
me$ may be productive of
mought in me reader is
me wisk of
Hlie Author.
Ironton, Ohio,
June 7&, 19 17.
SEP -8 1917
DEDICATION.
H"he Author is pleased to
dedicate this volume to
Rt. Rev'd nixomas J. Shahan,
as an expression of reverence
for his Exalted Station, as
-well as a token of Esteem
for his renowned Scholar-
ship.
Ironton, Ohio,
June, 7&1, 1917,
CONTENTS.
I. The Promise of Christmas 1
II. The Advent of Our Lord - 3
III. Bethlehem's Night - ... 7
IV. Christ's Mother ----- 10
V. Christmas and Its Creed - - - -16
VI. A Christmas Box for Christ - - 19
VII. Christmas and Its Message - - 25
VIII. The Real Christmas - 30
IX. Christmas and the Little Ones - - 33
X. Christmas Benediction - 36
XI. Our Christmas Duty ... - 38
XII. Christmas Kindness .... 40
XIII. Christ, the Poor and the Children - - 45
XIV. Mars and the Christ Child 49
XV. Christmas Angels - - - - - 59
XVI. Christmas in Art 64
XVII. Christmas Loneliness - - - - 69
XVI'II. Christmas Sins - - - - - 71
XIV. Welcome the New Born Year - - 73
XX. New Year Greeting .... 76
XXI. New Year Gratitude - - - - 79
XXII. The Use of Time ----- 84
XXIII. The New Year's Value - 88
XXIV. Good Resolutions ----- 92
XXV. Little Christmas - .... 96
I.
THE PROMISE OF CHRISTMAS.
jHRISTMAS, of all the feasts,
not only makes the most pro-
found as well as happy impres-
sion, but covers more of the religious
year. It begins with the Ave of the
Angel and ends with the Ave of the
Magi. The Heavenly herald who salut-
ed the Virgin at prayer with his "Hail,
full of grace!" doubtless led the heavenly
hosts that made musical skies in Bethle-
hem when the expectations of the An-
nunciation were gloriously realized in
the Nativity.
Our mind reverts to the angel of the
Annunciation in Boticelli's great paint-
ing, now in the Pitti palace in Florence.
We never saw anything so devotional;
we never heard a voice as eloquent as
the mute homage given by Gabriel's wor-
shipping eye. It spoke as well as looked.
Memory, after two decades is even now
2 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
fascinated by the reverence of it all. That
the Ambassador from the courts of glory
should so venerate with all his soul lus-
trous in his eye the shy little virgin, sug-
gests the knowledge Heaven entertained
of the majesty of the new Eve. The facial
expression of the angel tells likewise of
the grand humility of our Queen, as it
betokens the fact that he is not at first
hearing, in any way understood. The
scene is suffused with the light of glory
flashing from the heavenly w 7 ing and
above all from Mary's royal benignity.
Here we learned for the first time from
paint on canvas, the full sense of The
Hail Mary, and often since have we felt
humbled in the thought that the paint-
er's color could say more than living lip
could dare express.
THE ADVENT OF OUR LORD.
II.
THE ADVENT OF OUR LORD.
"This is the month, and this the happy
morn,
Wherein the Son of heaven s eternal
King,
Of wedded maid and virgin mother born,
Our great redemption from above did
bring,
For so the holy sages once did sing
That He our deadly forfeit should release,
And with His Father work us a perpetual
peace."
ILTON wrote nothing more true
than these lines which chant of
Christ's birth, with our redemp-
tion and atonement its happy sequence.
The birth of Christ was the nativity
of charity. Before Christ came, love
was locked from the homes of men; in
fact, there was no such word as home,
for there was no such term as charity.
The cruelty of Herod, the ravenous
wolves of Rome, the "eye for an eye" of
4 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
the people nearest to Christ's laws — all
these were symbolical of an age when
men's hearts were as hard as the soldier's
breastplate upon which was shattered the
javelin winged with fierce hate. The
arena with its orgies catered to the thirst
for blood, and even the gentle maiden
hesitated not at home to stab her female
slave (perhaps of better birth then her-
self) nor, abroad in the balconies of the
Coliseum, to invert her thumb, and thus
vote for the death of a victim in the spat-
tered sands. Man pitted against man
tigers of Nubia tearing the victor over
his fellow to pieces — these were the ex-
pressions of a blood-drinking time.
In such a day, out from heaven comes
the angels with their love song, and out
from Mary's womb comes the Prince of
charity to contradict the mad spirit whose
purpose, as the satirist of Roman morals
says, was "to corrupt and be corrupted,"
and whose joy was to cut capers over the
victims of its murders. Christ smiles in
Bethlehem, and the heart of the old
world is warmed into a new life, and the
THE ADVENT OF OUR LORD. 5
summer of Christ's love is spread through
man's long and dreary winter of discon-
tent. He comes as a rebuke to earth's
selfishness, by asking nothing and yet be-
stowing royal gifts. He comes as a
paragon of kindness, by loving even
hate. He comes poor as a beggar, and
yet is earth's King and eternity's Crown.
He comes as a victor, and nevertheless
presents only the shivering form of a
little babe. He comes into the field as
a peasant, and yet not Caesar in all his
glory ever had name like unto His, nor
home to whose hallowed precincts the
generations make ceaseless pilgrimage. "^4
Never was there such a university as
Bethlehem's stable. There were laid the
fundamental principles of the colleges
of all time; there was commenced a sys-
tem of heavenly education that contra-
dicted all the usages of antiquity and
made for the wonders of eternity. There,
before the Infant's lips could speak, was
taught a lesson of love and humility that
has inspired the kindling zeal of a se-
raphic St. Francis of Assisi, or the self-
STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
^abnegation of the wonderful scholar of
Aquin, who dies in the dust gazing at
the Child of Bethlehem as Calvary's
martyr.
Great reason, then, have we to sing our
song of gladness, for the angels are ap-
plauding the deed of God's Son and in-
toning His glories in their heavenly har-
monies. Great arguments have we to
stand, not afar off and gawkingly wonder
at the marvels of Christmas night but,
near the cave, to let its light into our
minds, its love into our hearts, its grace
into our souls, and be one with the Holy
Family sheltered there.
BETHLEHEM'S NIGHT.
III.
BETHLEHEM'S NIGHT.
Shepherds at the grange,
Where the Babe was born,
Sang with many a change
Christmas carols until morn.
IONGFELLOW has written
beautiful things, but none so trip-
pingly happy as when the fires of
Christmas-tide lit genius at his page.
It has always seemed to us not merely
accidental that shepherds should, with
Night's "thousand eyes," first see the
wonders of Bethlehem. God, says Holy
Writ, is not studied in the whirlwind,
and if so, what greater calm for thought
than the frosty night with its stars and
sleeping hills? Meditation then breathes
its native atmosphere. God then is not
far away, no more than is the sky, the
Creator's footstool. The distractions of
the day have departed and quietude per-
8 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
mits us to hear the whisperings of con-
science, lost in the varied voices of busy
life. The shepherds' simplicity per-
mitted them to see Him who is sublimity,
for the simple and the sublime are
kindred.
Then, too, the innocent fleeces man-
tling the hills, tell us of the "Lamb of
God." The pitiful bleating of the ewe
for its lost one beautifully suggests the
anxiety of Him who in a later day was
"like a lamb led to the slaughter," and
who shed for us both tears and blood.
The shepherds' crook are now croziers
that are the staffs of our religious rulers.
Thus our dear Lord, in choosing night
and in first teaching shepherds, gave a
sweet prophetic touch to that aftertide
that would make sheep of wolves and
have the world led to "one fold."
Thus Christmas night in Bethlehem is
a forecast of the gentle sway of the
Heavenly Shepherd then, now, and for-
ever-more.
In the fields, too, and not in the busy
market-places, are the real followers of
BETHLEHEM'S NIGHT. 9
the Shepherd, for the great centres of
humanity have, today, no room for Christ
and prefer to his saving solicitude the
Herods of our time, the while the coun-
tryplaces of the world humbly follow
His compassionate and salutary guid-
ance.
10 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
IV.
CHRIST'S MOTHER.
jN December 8th, 1854, the dogma
of the Immaculate Conception
was proclaimed, thus making an
article of faith of the hitherto pious belief
of all the Christian ages from St. Ephrem
in the fourth century to the time of Bos-
suet, when the mighty orator in rhapsody
addressed Christ: "Thou art innocent by
Nature, Mary only by grace; Thou by
excellence; she only by privilege; Thou
as Redeemer, she as the first of those
whom Thy precious blood has purified."
Up to the sacred date of Mary's new
feast, the many generations had their ar-
guments and explanations for and against
the great question, but when Rome spoke
there was an end to discussion and true
Christians the world over in joy and
pride joined their voices in applauding
the great teacher of Christendom and in
CHRIST'S MOTHER. 11
hallowing the name of her who was her-
alded as Mother of God by an angel but
mother of man by our God.
Unlike other saints who were purified
in the womb, it was congruous to God's
infinite purity and eternal majesty that
His mother should never be for one mo-
ment under the dominion of His arch-
enemy, the devil, and so she was made
spotless in the first faint breathings of her
infant soul. She was not reclaimed
through Baptism from sin. She never
knew sin's grossness; she never felt its
taint; she was at no time a convert. God
preserved her ever as a glorious taber-
nacle to house His eternal Son. He,
whom the devil in all his fiendish malice
dared not tempt to impurity, was the
Child of a womb consecrated to a heaven-
ly work, for God's finger touched the
sanctuary where He was to abide, and
God's breath incensed the first moment
of the life of her who was to be so won-
derful in all His mysteries and miracles.
In exalting the Blessed Virgin, the
Church has uplifted womankind. To
12 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
know what Christianity has done for the
gentler sex in venerating Christ's Mother,
we have only to look at the nations to-
day that are disfigured by the sensuality
of Mahomet or by the orgies of heathen
worship. Woman there is not "the lesser
man," but a "soulless animal," whose
humanity is tortured by a perpetual con-
sciousness of beastly treatment. Through
Christianity, Mary is venerated and in
the same ratio w r omankind in general is
revered.
Mary is ever compared to Eve before
the Fall; if, before the Fall, therefore, to
a time when original sin did not exist.
The dear mother of Christ was always
as Eve once was — majestic in innocence,
undefiled by the "trail of the serpent."
She was declared by the Archangel Ga-
briel as "full of grace." If full, her
capacity was perfect, besides being per-
fectly satisfied. There was then no actual
deficiency; immaculate she was, and we
exhaust all the force of words and all
the elegancies of speech in singing our
CHRIST'S MOTHER. 13
litany of praises to earth's spotless Mother
and Heaven's Mighty Queen.
What glorious virtues our gentle
Mother had ! In Faith how she excelled !
She heard the infant cry; she saw His
utter helplessness; she was perpetually
conscious that her little strength bore
Him from place to place; she hid Him
from the cold; she fled with Him from
the tyrant; and despite all these things
she never once wavered in her belief that
her Child was her God.
In Hope how grand she was! Trust-
ing Divinity, she looked beyond human-
ity. She waited on God's pleasure and
dictated no conditions. She hoped on
perseveringly, although she never missed
the awful tests to be withstood. She saw
the brutal scourging, the cruel corona-
tion, the frightful death, and yet through
it all she was illustrious in patience be-
cause glorious in hope. She never
fainted, but ever trusted that the weak-
ness of humanity prefaced the strength of
Divinity — that the horrors of Calvary
14 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
were but the prelude to the glories of
Thabor.
In charity, what an exemplar is the
Blessed Mother! She hated sin and kept
far from it, but she loved the sinner even
though by his meanness and malice he
murdered her peace and Son.
All honor, then, to the Immaculate
Mother of the Saviour. Heresy has
hooted at the dignity of the Mother, say-
ing she is no more than any other woman.
God Himself thought otherwise, His
angels were of a different mind; His
saints contradict the thought of this
world. Heresy by expelling the Mother
has dishonored the Son, and so we have
the cursed lesson given humanity that
Christ was no more than any other man.
Christ and His Mother go together in
faith; to know one is to learn the other;
the doctrine of the one is supplementary
to dogma on the other, for you cannot ap-
preciate the Son without venerating the
Mother, as did He.
O, Mother Immaculate! take from our
soiled hands into yours all white and
CHRIST'S MOTHER. 15
beautiful the praise and the prayer given
to thee, making the one worthy of thee
and the other efficacious for us who know
that in thee the Lord of Glory has the
best memory of this sad earth from which
we pray and praise.
16 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
CHRISTMAS AND ITS CREED.
|HE doctrine of Christ's divinity
and humanity has been assailed
by the world and defended by the
Church, Christ's spouse, for whom He
specially prayed.
In the first ages of Christianity, the
Docetists and Gnostics denied the reality
of Christ's body, because, say they, sub-
stantially, it would be evil to suppose that
the great God of Heaven and Earth
would wed in his personality a subject so
base as human flesh. They forgot that
their defense of Christ's dignity was an
impeachment of his veracity, for, if
Christ had not a body, then His birth
would, blasphemy to say, be an idle trick
of the Divinity, his professed sufferings,
an imposition on our credulity, and He
himself, an imposter worse than Ma-
homet of a later day.
CHRISTMAS AND ITS CREED. 17
At another time, Sergius asserted that
the operation and will of Christ's human
soul were absorbed by His Divinity, again
impugning Our Lord's character, for it
is written, that Our Lord acquired knowl-
edge, improved His human thoughts, and
gave a better expression to them as years
grew with him.
Christ had a mother, on whose knees
He sat as a Babe, whose lips He kissed
in love, whose name He spoke in rever-
ence, whose commands He obeyed
promptly and perfectly. He had a
mother; a mother supposes birth — birth,
humanity — and the "Word made flesh,"
Divinity. Nothing could be wanting in
soul or body, else He would not be a
man; nothing was defective in Divinity,
or He would not be the Infinite, God.
Not only have the Natures, separately
regarded, been attacked by heresy but
also their union in one Person. Eutyches
was condemned by the Church for assert-
ing Christ had but one Nature.
Later on, Nestorius, and at another
time Gunther, was reprobated for dar-
18 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
ing to propagate the absurd fallacy that
Christ was two persons. There is but
one person, the second person of the
Blessed Trinity, for the reason that in
the Crib there was one babe. There are
two natures, one Divine, hence infinite in
itself; the other, human, nevertheless in-
finite in value; not because of itself, but
on account of the Divine Person in whom
it subsists, and of whom its acts are predi-
cable. Mystery of love and condescen-
sion! which should make us love Christ
all the more and doubt Him never.
A CHRISTMAS BOX FOR CHRIST. 19
VI.
A CHRISTMAS BOX FOR CHRIST.
GENTLE dash of heavenly light,
a chorus of tender and joyous
voices, the swirl of radiant drap-
ery softening the brilliant scene and rob-
bing of dread, with its kindly whiteness,
the purpose of the angelic strain — behold
the details of an event which made
Bethlehem's shepherds rub their eyes and
wonder they were awakened before
dawn. Behold the setting of a scene
which will never vanish from the sky-
wall of faith, for no Leonardo Da Vinci
painted in the colors, but angels' pig-
ments fashioned it, and the finger of the
Omnipotent framed the unique picture.
Hearken to the heavenly chorus,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace to men of good will!" —
which awoke humanity from its sluggard
sleep of darkness, and still causes us,
20 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
children of twenty centuries after, to look
aloft and wonder. The sleeping Jacob,
in the olden time, as he rested his head
on the hard pillow made of Haran's
blocks, saw angels going and coming
from the gateway of the sky, but the Gali-
lean night-watchers beheld a seraphic
army breaking through the blue, hiding
in eclipse the stars of night as they sang
of the God of Day, now, in assumed
humanity, cuddled in a corner of earth's
night.
As curious, if not as innocent, we rise,
and in spirit join the shepherds obeying
the suggestion, "Let us go over to Bethle-
hem, and let us see this Word that is to
come to pass, which the Lord hath
showed to us." Crossing the frosted
field, stepping on crunching grass and
crackling grape leaf, we enter the cave
made glorious with heaven's greatest
wonder, the birth of God incarnate.
The shepherds produce their frugal
gifts, hidden under their fleecy cloaks;
kings, bejeweled with the luxury of
Eastern authority, lay down their crowns,
A CHRISTMAS BOX FOR CHRIST. 21
the while they offer their proud gold,
and homage make, and smoking incense
bring. What have we? Our hands are
empty of offerings, our souls tenantless
of worth ! We stand abashed, and would
fain skulk away, but the fascinating eyes
of the Babe are on us and will not let
us go; the tender Mother interchanges
glances at us and Him and holds us to the
place; the solicitous and simple foster-
father of the new-born gives us courage
to remain, for by his peasant character
he helps to offset our pitiful plight. Kneel
we must, since royalty is bowed, and so
we consult our poverty to find something
to be made worthy as a gift to Him, whose
coronation as King of man happened
while He lay on straw, with no throne but
a manger, no temple but a stable.
Three gifts we have wherewith to do
adoration to the Trinity of which He is
the second person — three gifts withal as
royal as the three sovereigns whose jin-
gling and caparisoned camels bore them
from afar. We have Will, Memory, and
Understanding; the first wherewith to re-
22 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
solve, the second to regret, and the third
to learn our abasement.
Our will, we offer. Yes, but conscience
tells us it is a cripple limping on a crutch.
We know it, but history informs us, too,
that God has more than once hung up
the crutch as a trophy of His mercy, sent
the beggar away enriched, and made the
infirm bound like the roe, in joy and
praise and promise. Let us, then, in
shame kneel here in the shadow, where
the poor light does not reach, and give
Him what He gave and we all but de-
stroyed, our will, that he may re-erect it
and give us strength, to climb the heights.
He has no word of condemnation; the
lustre of His smiling eye will be for us
ever a light serene to guide us on life's
dangerous way. "Wonderful," indeed,
the Child has, according to Isaias, proved
himself, for our poor gift seems to please
Him just as much as the offerings of the
generous, presented on adoring knee.
After all, the divine Child came to give
more than to receive. He has everything,
and, in the last analysis, we, nothing.
A CHRISTMAS BOX FOR CHRIST. 23
Encouraged, we offer memory. A ray
from His face shows us the basket of
abominations we dared present Him, but
his infinite pity touched the gift and
straightway our wretched ingratitudes,
strewn over our barren past, are hidden
from our eye with the gilding of the glory
of His compassion.
Our understanding, we present, but
fain would fly away as His wisdom shin-
ing the while, shows us the lamentable
want of consideration that prompted our
gift and the immeasurable follies that
made it repulsive even to our own poor
sight. Christ pities us, and by a gentle
touch of His infant finger reassures us,
giving instead of the smoking torches of
profane learning, the clear light of His
grace to kindle our intellectual progress,
bestowing his laws gentle as was he lov-
ing — and establishing His Church, the
treasury of truth.
From Bethlehem we return, to find in
Christ's Church everything realized in
fact. On our altars He is re-born; in our
tabernacles He is cribbed; in our sarictu-
24 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
aries He awaits rich and poor, learned
and ignorant, purpled and beggarly, vir-
tuous and vicious. He has a word of
commendation for the wise, a term of
pity for the foolish, a voice of solicitous
counsel for the sinner.
With the thought of the time when our
soul shone in innocence begotten of the
loving Babe, let us offer the Sacramental
Christ our filial homage conjoined with
contrition for our lost past. With the
consciousness of our vacillating natures,
let us give Him our will that He may
bestow fortitude, our memory that He
may hear its moan and take from it its
saddled burdens, and our understanding
that we may ever know His voice, be it
in the infant cry of Bethlehem, the su-
perb logic of the Man, or the dying groan
of Calvary's Martyr.
Let this, then, if naught else, be our
Christmas box to the dear Christ, whose
birth was the author of all the cheer, good
will, and mirth of the very same world
that forgets Him now, as it denied Him
shelter nigh twice ten hundred years ago.
CHRISTMAS AND ITS MESSAGE. 25
VII.
CHRISTMAS AND ITS MESSAGE.
[HEN prophets have veiled their
faces, beholding in dazzling
vision the Expected of Nations,
even through the mists of distant ages;
when celestial choristers have grown
wildly ecstatic in their rapt song announc-
ing the Wonderful ; when the lines of the
evangelist tremble with devotion as they
narrate the unique details of Bethlehem's
marvelous story, what approach will be
made the discussion of the sublime theme,
Christmas? With heart dull, with mind
unmusical, with soul uninspired, breath-
ing words, not warm like the tender flute-
notes of the gentle shepherd, but cold as
the hoarfrost that fleeced Christ's cave,
we would fain fly in fancy to the hillside,
thrilled with wonderment, and there,
prostrate among the night-watchers, beg
heaven for one touch of starlight to say
26 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
that which will prove fitting servitor to
the majesty of the Newly Born.
What good has Christmas done for
mankind? Wonders, from every view-
point. Christmas reversed the current of
human thought and deed, made men re-
gard moral beauty superior to physical or
intellectual beauty, right more than
might, even though encased in the mail-
coat of Augustus, patient poverty better
than wealth, honor more than station, and
Christmas faith a gift more dear than
kingly title. Alone in its greatness is this
work, but more glorious does it appear
when we consider the means whereby it
was wrought.
Were the world our Lord's coun-
sellor, it would say: Come, O Christ, in
the splendor of Thy kingship I Bring Thy
retinue of angelic warriors who, in the
olden time, struck dead the proud hosts
of Sennacherib! Send thy angels through
earth's kingdoms, to trumpet Thine ad-
vent! Then wilt thou bring about great
things, for the philosopher over there at
CHRISTMAS AND ITS MESSAGE. 27
Athens says rightly, "The means must
be proportionate to the end."
How false does human prudence show;
how weak does human strength appear,
when we consider the ways of Christ!
He came, not in strength and yet con-
founded the strong, for Bethlehem,
though humble, has had more pilgrims to
its shrine than all the proud palaces of
the world. He came, not panoplied with
legions, for the meek Galilean never drew
the sword, and in a later time, rebuked
St. Peter for unsheathing it in holy anger.
He came, not with glory, for that would
countenance pride and flatter mankind,
whose arrogance brought "death unto
the world and all our woe." He was born
in a place like the vault of the dead, and
pride was mocked at his bringing forth.
The world never saw a royal birth so
humble, never saw a king use such means
of subjugation, never saw a subjugation
so complete, so catholic.
Humility was one of these rare means.
Christ in his crib is God on his eternal
throne. He there tells human reason that
28 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
it is most like Him when it learns its de-
pendence and bows before mystery. He
tells us that the wisest are those who
have learned their own ignorance. He
tells humanity that humility is the best
wisdom, as it empties the soul of self and
makes room for God's grace. And here
let us consider that the Divinity was born
in a place where humanity did not dwell
— in a cave untenanted, and not fashioned
for human residence; so will He come to
our hearts with His grace and promise
of glory, if we rid them of self and of the
human, even though in the process, as in
the cave, well nigh nothing will be left.
Charity, whose law was ignored by the
world, was another instrument in the
hand of Christ for the world's conversion.
Before the Babe's lips could speak the
after-doctrine, His infant form taught the
the wondrous lesson. As, at His birth,
the herdsman was as welcome to Bethle-
hem as the Eastern King; so in the after-
time poor Mary Magdalene was received
on the same footing with the ruler of
Capharnaum. Our dear Christ never
CHRISTMAS AND ITS MESSAGE. 29
counted out of His love even the Jew who
denied His mother shelter, Herod whose
cruelty would lap His blood, the Pharisee
whose envy hounded Him to slaughter.
He loved with His immense heart the
world that hated Him, and finally love
triumphed in changing hate into love.
This was Christ's way; it should be ours,
and our lives would every one, have suc-
cessful issues.
We stand, alas! enraptured by the
meanings of Christmas and awed by its
mysteries, but, mistaking admiration,
which is only natural, for emulation,
which is virtue's fruitful parent, we let
the great day go as it comes, — a mystery
that remains outside us, never touching
us with its glory. Were we to rightly
accept Christmas and its message, we
should become true christians inflamed
with zeal for the Christ whom men and
nations are every day ruthlessly betray-
ing.
30 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
VIII.
THE REAL CHRISTMAS.
[HEN a sightless woman said : "the
only real blind person at Christ-
mas is he who has not Christmas
in his heart," she uttered, from out her
darkness, a truth as beautiful as a ray of
light. There is something pathetic and
profound in a blind girl's pen — pathetic
because of her curtained light, profound
because begotten free from the distrac-
tions that blindness exclude. So in this,
her saying, there is a tender feeling as
well as a solid sensible idea. Is it not
very true that unless Christmas in its
meaning, enters the soul, there is no real
Christmas? A man may have eyes that
will see well anything physical and yet
will not perceive the meaning of Christ-
mas, will not feel its sentiment, will not
compass its religious sense. He is, in
very truth, blind. On the other hand, the
THE REAL CHRISTMAS. 31
poor girl who gropes her way through
life may feel more deeply and touch more
tenderly the great truths that give Christ-
mas its being and its name, and she, in-
deed, though darkened physically, radi-
ates with light and sees well.
From the day when the poor man cried
out to the Author of Light and Life,
"Lord, that I may see!" to Goethe who,
when dying, prayed for "light! more
light!" men dread darkness; and yet how
little they value Truth that is the light of
the "mind's eye," that is the grace of life,
and the promise of everlasting light.
It is remarkable how much the sense of
feeling makes up for sight, so much so
that in the super-sensitive finger tips of
a blind Italian sculptor there was found
actual grey matter, proper to the brain.
Another blind genius declared that all
the eyes are good for is to keep one from
running into a wheel-barrow. Be this
as it may, it would seem that the only time
the blind are blind is when they are re-
minded of their infirmity. This is hard
to understand, for it is difficult to see how
32 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
the loneliness of perpetual night would
not beget melancholy, and how impati-
ence to see all the prismatic beauties of
the earth and sky would not create
wretchedness. We ought to thank the
good God who has given us eyes to see,
and so read His name and glory on every-
thing. We should perceive His heavenly
lessons and with eyes lustrous with hope,
longingly look for a happy hereafter,
where the vision of bodies and minds and
souls will be luminous forever. We
should see Christmas rightly, love truly
Him whose natal day it is, and correctly
learn from Him the sublime lessons of
Faith, Hope and Charity.
CHRISTMAS AND THE LITTLE ONES. 33
IX.
CHRISTMAS AND THE LITTLE
ONES.
[HE feast of Christmas is the great
feast for the children. Around
the Babe group the babies. With
wonderment they encircle the manger, be-
hold the infant Christ, and look again and
marvel again when the story of His
Divinity is told. To think that such help-
lessness is associated with omnipotence,
such smallness of form coupled with
eternal majesty, such babyishness with
knowledge that sees through the souls of
the onlookers, such annihilation with that
creative power which made and holds in
his hands the lamps of night that swing
from the skies above the generations that
are his creatures! All this makes the chil-
dren of today ask questions that betoken
how deeply the birth of Christ strikes
the hearts and souls of innocence.
34 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
How we should abhor the paganism
that is ruthlessly making inroads on all
our hallowed truths ! Pity the poor child
that does not feel Christmas in its heart
by being in Baptism a brother of the
Holy One lying on Bethlehem's straw.
Pity the parent whose impious life shuts
out from his home the sacred truths of
faith that had their birth in Christ's Na-
tivity. And yet, what the evangelist said
is still true; "He came unto His own and
His own received Him not."
There are many who would delight in
obliterating the Christian era; who
mourn for the days of barbarism; who
hate the name of Christ and His Church
and scowl at all His institutions ; who,
professing piety, compromise Christ's
truth; who sing not "Glory to God in the
highest," but glory to the king of the pit
by befouling earth with hellish deeds and
diabolical principles.
May the infant Christ keep our babies
true children, sweetened in their manners
by the reverence that the Christ Child
instills and sanctified in their lives with
CHRISTMAS AND THE LITTLE ONES. 35
the tender, beautiful, and consistent
truths that were born in Bethlehem, bred
in Nazareth, gird the world, and live in
eternity.
36 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
CHRISTMAS BENEDICTION.
|OW many of us, in spirit, have
looked into the skies of Bethle-
hem with their moon shepherd-
ing the white stars, have heard the music
and been thrilled by the magic of the
sights and sounds mysterious. Many
would wish to have knelt with the
herdsmen and the Magi, and would
have taken the little hand of The Baby
and pressed it down on their heads for
blessing. And yet are we not inconsis-
tent? We have not to travel all the way
to Judea for heavenly privileges! They
are, like Wisdom in Holy Writ, seated
at our thresholds. On the altar, Christ
has His Bethlehem. In the Benediction
of the Blessed Sacrament, the same dear
hand that gave benizens to devotees is
raised over the hearts, minds and souls
of adorers. He blesses all in most gen-
CHRISTMAS BENEDICTION. 37
erous fashion — the poor fellow who
skulks into a corner near the door and
gives maybe only a periodical visit, and
the ardent heart that throbs in unison
with His Sacred Heart in Holy Com-
munion. All receive the favor of our dear
Lord, some, that vice may be everlastingly
reprobated, others that goodness may be
perpetually sustained.
In the olden time, men went to Christ;
in our blessed season, Christ comes to
men. His love is diffusive. He is housed
in many tabernacles and has in Benedic-
tion the same light that lit the sky and
cave in the Holy night, and now fills
Heaven with majesty and glory.
Bowing down heart and head before
Him, let us ask the Christ to make strong
the one and bright the other, so that we
may not be of the crowd that merely ad-
mires but does not emulate.
38 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
XL
OUR CHRISTMAS DUTY.
GLANCE around the world
shows us how we should draw
nearer the Child Jesus in Bethle-
hem. In France, atheism scorns Him;
in England heresy deforms the doctrine
of His personality and makes Him far
different from the Divine reality; in
America, Santa Claus is rapidly usurp-
ing the Babe's throne in the children's
affections, making the holy name of sacri-
fice a term for greed. Distant and black
lands never saw the white face of our
glorious Divinity, the while our own
white civilization has blackened the
majesty of the Infant.
At whose door then, will the blessed
Mary knock, if not at ours? We are the
beneficiaries of the Divine Child. No
gift we craved had ever to be asked for
twice, and every gift we get from Heaven
OUR CHRISTMAS DUTY. 39
is inestimable. Let us then not permit
the indignity to the Blessed Mother of
waiting beyond our gates, but let her en-
ter and make a spiritual triumph in our
hearts. Let Christ change them, wretched
stables to tabernacles, making of our
minds sanctuary lamps where true and
holy light will shine, of our souls, all
turbulent with worldly cares, a retreat
wherein He may lay His head, as did
He pillow it upon the breast of St. John
at the Last Supper, to whisper us rest that
will forecast peace and joy and glory
everlasting.
40 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
XII.
CHRISTMAS KINDNESS.
[NLY the devils have hatred in
their hearts on Christmas morn-
ing, for the glorious chant,
"Peace on earth," never makes music for
the damned. It behooves us, then, to
keep far from hell and cling close to the
Church that comforts and guides us. We
anticipate the joys and graces of Christ-
mas, as through Advent we are led thereto
by the blessed angel of charity that will
"prepare the way" before us.
We should be kind to our neighbor so
that the gentle Christ will know us when
He comes. Kindness will not only help
our souls, but help our health and even
our looks; the man who smiles is the man
who escapes biliousness or dyspepsia and
wins where gloom fails. His face is as
summer, whereas scorn makes winter.
Frozen faces are the most rigid scenes for
the very reason that we expect in the
CHRISTMAS KINDNESS. il
human countenance subtle and happy mo-
bility.
And how can we be kind when we
have, nothing to bestow? There is none
so poor who has not rich gifts for his fel-
low. Take a simple word! Is there any-
thing so cheap in the mouth of the
speaker, so dear in the ear of the hearer?
It costs nothing, for a word is breath, u a
trifle thin as air," and yet a word can
"knit the ravelled sleeve of care," can give
comfort where medicine vainly seeks to
bestow strength, courage where disaster
would daunt, and, wonderful to say, can
even save a soul. A word coming warm
from the heart will be remembered when
the dust of years is upon our faculties.
Are not kind words for all of us the best
gifts we ever received? Have not elegant
letters withered? have not books been
frayed? have not beauties, in the domain
of art, crumbled? but over them all and
through the wrecks of the years, does not
the kind word come as lustrous as if
spoken this hour, as hallowed as if it orig-
inally winged its flight from heavenly
42 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
courts and choristers? Deny not the kind
word, blessed in itself and blessing in its
influence, and which, costing nothing,
brings for our fellow a world of rare de-
lights! Deny not the kind word which
is cognate in character to the song of the
angels that awoke with its burst of
heavenly harpipny sleeping night in
Bethlehem! jTDeny not the charitable
word which will bring more than the
smile of Christ at Christmastide, as it will
bring Christ Himself to make of our soul
His home!-^J
We should, in this gracious season, cul-
tivate the habit of thinking well of others.
It is a happy thing to see good, and not to
be anxious to ferret evil. And there is
much good in everyone. If we want to
see wrong, let us look within and measure
swords with it at close range; if we want
to note good we will, little though it be,
see more outside than within. Strange
yet happy result, the saints were only
miserable when they were face to face
with self in contemplation. It is well
for us all that we are mysteries to our-
CHRISTMAS KINDNESS. 43
selves or we would, as sings the psalmist,
"perish in humility." Think well of your
neighbor! and you will see him as you
would desire him to be, for objects are
ever clothed in the color of our spectacles,
and we alas too often, mistake the subjec-
tive for the objective.
We should be kind in words, as a prep-
aration for the Christ-Child's coming.
We should give, especially to the poor.
To give betokens true Christianity. Our
idea of the great Creator is compassed in
the thought of the Great Giver ; our love
of Christ is kindled by the coals that
burned the frankincense, itself a gift from
royal hands to heavenly Royalty bestow-
ing Itself.
Kindness to the poor whom we see is
the surest and best way of showing our
love for Christ whom we do not see. To
make Christmas an occasion to grasp
everything and give nothing is pagan in
its selfishness, and in no way Christian in
its sacrifice. To dry a tear of suffering,
to stifle a sigh of sorrow, to keep the little
life in God's creature that starvation
44 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
threatens, — these are the works that bring
recognition from the Christ who came to
give, until His gifts ended with Calvary
where He clothed beggarly and poverty-
stricken humanity in the royal purple of
His blood.
So, then, we would fain enlist our
energies under the banner of the great
precursor, St. John, and give a little
homily on charity as a guide to the rich
love of the Yuletide. It makes no differ-
ence what gifts we receive if we do not
make sure to get for ourselves the best
Christmas blessing, the grace of that
Christ whose love is so constant. Friends
may prove false, and of them it may be
true what poor Ophelia voiced when in
anguish she said,
) (C Rich gifts wax poor
When givers prove unkind," —
but Christ has never faltered in His love,
though we have done our foolish best to
provoke Him to the course. He has ever
been tenderly devoted, from the time
when His little wondering eyes opened on
the queer scenes that greeted Him in
Bethlehem.
CHRIST, THE POOR AND THE CHILDREN. 45
XIII.
CHRIST, THE POOR, AND THE
CHILDREN.
jOT among the wealthy, with their
well-stocked pantries, not with
the comfortable, unused to
omitted or delayed meals, but to the poor,
the abandoned, or the orphaned, has
Christmas its fullest significance. The
dear Christ was for the poor, of the poor,
and by the poor, and He delights to visit
the poor. Where there is no flame on the
hearthstone, He kindles one ; where there
is no plenty, He makes with His gracious
benignity, the starveling forget distress-
ing want, where the sweets of life are ab-
sent, He sits down and produces all the
joys of hope. His gentle hand lovingly
presses the rough palm of toil; His com-
passionate eyes make the heart of pain
forget its throb. His glory illumines the
46 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
dark home of misery. All His life, Christ
spent among the poor and afflicted; He
was never a frequenter of the palace; the
hut was always the goal of His pilgrim-
age, and so, at Christmas time partic-
ularly, is His presence felt in the orphan-
age, in the home of distress, at the bedside
of Suffering.
Our dear Lord always enjoyed little
children. Painters have them tumbling
all over Him. His tender thought: "Suf-
fer the little children to come unto Me,"
will ever endear Him to innocents. As the
great strong man, as well as the Eternal
God, Christ sympathized with juvenile
cares, condescended to play with little
ones, blessed the loving mothers and was
in every truth, a child in His gentleness.
So He comes, with His old affection, to
the youth of today. The Christmas let-
ter brings Him; the little postal card,
with its picture of the Nativity, is His
smile upon children; the gift is enriched
with the dear name of Bethlehem's Babe.
In pagan times, Jupiter thundering
terrified creatures who were made to feel
CHRIST, THE POOR AND THE CHILDREN. 47
like purposeless toys of fate. In Jewish
history, Jehovah was conceived as the
powerful leader of armies. Now, a Child
is the center of childish interest, and
around the little one of Bethlehem the
children are grouped, pointing out to
each other the wonderful items of the
tender story. His weakness is all so kin-
dred to their own that they love Him as
their little brother; where His majesty is
stabled is so like their own poverty, that
they compassionate Him; being neglected
by the world He came to save, endears
Him to their loving hearts that thrill
with fervor as He shakes in cold.
After the children go the parents, un-
til around the manger throng thousands
of devotees. How wonderful is it all!
How strange the ways of God confound-
ing all the pomp of a silly and conceited
world.
Most of all, now, owing to the solici-
tude for children of our last great Pope,
the little ones come nearer to our Lord
than ever before. As reason is dawning
on the hill-top of life, the children will,
48 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
in the early morning of their years, offer
their hearts to the Christ-Child. In Holy
Communion, they will not only associate
with their Divine Friend but house Him
in their hearts and recompense Him for
the denials of Bethlehem. Mfay Mary's
dear and blessed infant be ever a joy to
us all and a reminder of the Glory of that
Kingdom where He is enthroned forever
and forever.
MARS AND THE CHRIST CHILD. id
XIV.
MARS AND THE CHRIST CHILD.
jETHLEHEM has so changed
prophecy into fact that the
prophet himself seems like a his-
torian. Thousands of years before the
Nativity, Isaias says: "For a child is born
to us; and a son is given to us; and the
Government is upon his shoulders; and
his name shall be called, Wonderful."
Who was this child of mystery and
prophecy? God Almighty. Yes, God,
whose smile is Heaven's bliss, whose
frown is Hell's horror; God, whose ex-
tended hand calmed chaos as, later on, it
did Genezareth's troubled wave, and
whose creative wish order and beauty
instantly and joyfully obeyed; God,
whose thoughts now come to the sky as a
star, now to the earth as a flower and then
drop to the depths of ocean as a pearl;
God, whom the tyrannic Pharao feared
and the sublime Moses worshipped, from
whom Solomon took wisdom and Josue
50 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
power, without whom humanity's mil-
lions would not be, who rules the des-
tinies of nations, and who finally will
judge the generations without witness,
without counsellor, without jury.
Yes, well has prophecy and truly has
fact called the Christ, Wonderful. This
little infant, incapable of independent
motion, is the God who moves the
heavens. To this little mind is traceable
all the divine designs made manifest in
the workings of ages. This little head
domes all the knowledge that spans every-
thing from the Trinity to the number of
insects that people the fullness of sum-
mer. This little hand has traced the
course of the stars far off in their unseen
windings. This little half opened eye has
seen that which Man's best imaginings
can but negatively suggest. This tiny ear
has heard the glorious chants of cherubim
and seraphim, before commenced the
music of the spheres, the first morning of
creation.
Yes, the Child born is indeed Wonder-
ful. He is the God of Majesty, though,
MARS AND THE CHRIST CHILD. 51
instead of the purple of Augustus, he is
clothed in the coarse garments of the
poor. He is the God of Eternity, though
in time his infant breathings dampen one
of the poorest places in this fair earth. He
is the God of power, though now only
humble shepherds acknowledge him
King. He is the God of greatness, nar-
rowed mysteriously to a little crib. He
is the God of science, for Bethlehem has
proved to be a school where was taught
a better philosophy than Athens could
boast — than Romans embodied in their
lives — a school more lasting in its founda-
tions and with more students at its shrine
than Roman and Grecian together could
count.
Such and so is Christ's Divinity, which
with His humanity, make one Divine per-
son, for Christ is as mysteriously man as
He is wonderfully God. He had a human
heart, sensitive to the sorrows of man, for
as one of us He felt kindred miseries —
sensitive to love, for He loved His mother
and mankind. He had a human body to
feel the cold of the cave and the agony of
52 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
the mountain. He had a human will to
wish for better things. He had a human
intellect capable of improvement at His
humble craft of carpentry. He was a
man, perfect in all the faculties of a man,
but distinct in His humanity from His
Divinity.
So was Christ, God and man — not was
He God alone, for His humanity was
pronounced in affliction — not was He
man alone, for His character was shown
divine in miracle.
Christmas then, should not be a season
for unmortified and irreligious thought
and deed, but a time when our hearts
should grow bright in their charity as the
coals that burned the eastern incense, — in
their faith strong as the King's who
swung their censor before the crib, — in
their hope unfaltering as those who fol-
lowed the constant star until its ray, as
with a golden finger, pointed out the
place where lay the King of angels and
of men.
Now what was the effect of Christmas
in the world? Think on the grand work
MARS AND THE CHRIST CHILD. 53
commenced in Bethlehem. Little did
barbarism in its rock-built citadel dream
on that cold December night, long years
ago, that in a bleak field of Judea there
was born a lamb, whose death would be
its death. But so the sequel proved, for
Christ came to destroy the empire of sin
and barbarism had to be cast out, even as
Ishmael from the tent of Abraham, to
make way for the new heir. In so doing,
Christ renewed the face of society, as
paganism was brutal, bloody and beastly.
Christ came, and glory to His name for-
ever, all things were changed. Instead
of Paganism with its proud cruel Caesar,
wearing on his brow the diadem that a
thousand regal crowns combined to
fashion, and bearing in his hand the
scepter of the world, we have the humil-
ity and meekness of an apostle who ruled
earth not by the power of arms but by the
virtue of Christ — instead of man's lust,
history proudly pens the brave mortifica-
tions of the martyrs who flung their
bodies to the arena rather than throw
their chaste souls to the Devil — instead of
54 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
hatred of enemies we have charity, in-
stead of vengeance, generosity, briefly, to
generalize, instead of men set on the earth
and the earthly, we have them looking
far beyond to a bright hereafter and
beautifying their souls by saintly deeds
to fit them for the eternal presence of all
beauty and all sanctity.
This is what Christ's birth has effected
in the world, and for this we owe Him
our brightest love, our best gratitude, our
most sincere adoration. This is what
Christ has done, and no one but Christ
can do the gigantic work of the near fu-
ture as of all time. Christ, the Prince of
Peace, can alone bring rest to a weary,
blood-bedaubed world. No one knows
when the most awful war of all time will
end, but this is known, as Christ is known,
that only the babe of Bethlehem can now,
as on the Galilean Sea, whisper peace.
Even statesmen of the world pronounce
this. Channing, in one of his masterpieces
of Oratory, declared that "war will never
yield but to the principles of universal
justice and love, and these have no sure
MARS AND THE CHRIST CHILD. 55
root but in the Religion of Jesus Christ."
Here, in passing, we might add how the
American orator of the past and the Pope
of the present are in accord, and how both
agree with the dictum of Benjamin
Franklin that "there never was a good
war or a bad peace." The devastating
campaigns of Europe do not rhyme with
the sentiment of Homer : "The chance of
war is equal and the slayer oft is slain,"
for it is no longer as Roderick Dhu in
Scott's martial story has it:
"Man to man and steel to steel
A foemans vengeance thou shalt feel!"
War now is the farthest possible thing
from the feats of bravery that made the
ages of chivalry almost picturesque. War
now is the turning of the crank of a mur-
der machine so, while the trenches may
crush combatants, they can never make
heroes.
No wonder that the Father of Christen-
dom begs for peace from the Babe of
Bethlehem, for more than the loss of
lives, terrible in its millions as this is,
more than the destruction of grand cathe-
56 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
drals whose sweeping lines copy the skies
bending over them, more than the waste
of cities razed to the ground, more than
the broken hearts that groan their Kyrie
Eleisons in this gracious season, more
than the starvation and the want making
desolate communities once happily fed
from the bounty of generous nature, more
then all this is the loss to Bethlehem's
Babe of the souls He came to save. No
one certainly will hold that, even though
the massacre is legalized, the place to pre-
pare for Eternity is while men are strenu-
ously engaged in killing each other. If
war is Hell, said of a less cruel time than
now, how can dying men pray therein and
fit their souls for God's judgment. To
pray is to think, and men cannot think of
eternal interests in the horrible distrac-
tions of battle. Prayer without thought is
a bubble that never reaches Heaven for
it bursts in the air that envelops earth.
War is largely the result of giving to
the nation what belongs to Bethlehem, a
sort of idolatry of country, hypernation-
alism. Patriotism is an obligation of Re-
MARS AND THE CHRIST CHILD. 57
ligion but patriotism should not ascend to
f etichism on the one side no more than de-
scend to betrayal on the other. The Babe
has first place, and this compliment to
Christ is not an insult to country but its
first best blessing.
Oh, may the trumpeting angels that
awoke the shepherds in the olden time
make music in the smoking skies of Eu-
rope and silence the bugle calling men to
slaughter! Oh may the little Babe lead
the nations from carnage to kindly
thought! Oh may the cannon of cruelty
be silenced and, in the calm created, may
the gentle accents of peace be heard —
that peace which in the time of Christ's
coming, locked even the pagan temple of
Janus in Rome and sang its song over the
hills of Judea and in the field where
Eternal Gentleness was born. May we
soon be able to say with Longfellow :
''Peace! and no longer from its brazen
portals
The blast of wars great organ shakes
the skies ,
And beautiful as songs of the immortals
The holy melodies of love arise"
58 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
May the peace that Christ breathed in
Bethlehem as well as in the horrors of
Calvary make Americans brothers every-
one, loving their country and the sacred
privileges of liberty with the sweetness
of the Christ, by cherishing faith in Him
who alone gives Christmas its reasons
and is parent to its joy. May the Christ
Child be again pronounced "Wonder-
ful," by bringing men from brutal Mars
to peace, smiling in the charity and con-
cord of Christmas.
CHRISTMAS ANGELS. 59
XV.
CHRISTMAS ANGELS.
jHEN the angels from Heaven's
high court awoke the shepherds
with their radiance, that antici-
pated the morning, and with their song,
so wonderful in voice and sentiment,
mankind's mind was drawn not only to a
consideration of the subject of the glad
messengers, but to the thought of the
happy visitors themselves.
Angels were not strangers to this sad
earth. They were here before on grand
errands. Our desolate first parents en-
countered one; Abraham entertained
them in his tent; by one the Virgin
Mother of the Christ was saluted rever-
entially. Attendants on the throne of the
Most High, they brought divine dis-
patches from our God, and when angels
delivered their words, unlike the great-
60 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
est authors' works, they became imperish-
able messages to the generations.
"Glory to God in the highest," sang
they on Judea's hills, and so from the
sacred mounts, our altars, still come the
same voices in the Gloria of the Mass.
The poor, too, are there to hear the glad
tones and take heart, as did the night-
watchers of old ; while the rich are taught
as were the Eastern Kings, that virtue is
the true jewel and faith alone lights to the
skies.
"Glory to God in the highest" glory
for giving us His Son, who came to teach
an ignorant world, to direct its destiny, to
inspire its hope, to enrich it with grace,
to endow it with worth, to lead it from
its erring course to the Heaven for which
its creatures were intended. Poor, Christ
came, for He wanted nothing from the
world, but the world needed and got
everything from Him; charitable He
came, to give and not to take; for He had
not the obligation of saying "thank you,"
to any earthly host; humble, He came, for
pride had already parented sin and He
CHRISTMAS ANGELS. 61
would have none of its nonsense or its
pomp. Glory to His name! All we can
give is the uplifting word, for He has in
Himself all power, all majesty, all per-
fection, all illimitable happiness.
"On earth peace to men of good will,"
Men of bad will belong not to Christ but
to His enemy; they are outlaws, who de-
serve not the blessings of peace, who
merit not the benisens of hope. With the
angels, we repeat the blessed words, love
for the men of good will and pity for him
who has formally subtracted himself from
the ranks of the blessed. We rejoice with
the choirs of earth, in the household of
the faith and with the poor fellow who
mistakes falsehood for truth, and, never
doubting his position, does his best, for
he too, as theologians tell us, if baptized,
belongs to Christ's Kingdom.
Christmas gives every true or good
man a "Sursum Corda," by uplifting his
hope and with it his heart, to the gener-
ous and solicitous Christ.
Joining the heavenly outburst in the
Mass, we sing with minds assured of
62 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
Christ's care, and hearts encouraged by
His love, "We praise Thee; we bless
Thee; we adore Thee; we glorify Thee;
we give Thee thanks for Thy great
glory." "We praise Thee/' for Christ
alone is perfect excellence. "We bless
Thee/' for all our gifts at Christmastide
and in every hour of every season, are
from His bounty. "We adore Thee,"
for the helpless Babe of Bethlehem is
identical with the God of Eternity, and
all our powers, His gifts, should be pros-
trated before our Redeemer, our God and
our All. "We glorify Thee," for who
has given us life but God, who has pre-
served us but God, who has enriched us
but God ; who has Heaven to bestow but
God? "We give Thee thanks for thy
great glory," for we could not subtract
from Thy glory, if our malice would try;
no more than we could add, if our virtue
would attempt, for Thou art immeasur-
able in Thy magnificence, and we are
only little atoms on the molehill of one
of Thy innumerable worlds.
To all well meaning Christians, then a
CHRISTMAS ANGELS. 63
happy Christmas in the words of the
Christmas angels — to the poor who have
little that Christ may grant them His
love, which will make them poor no
longer; to the rich that they may extend
charity to the poor, and not shut their
hearts against Christian sympathy and
solicitude — to both, a flooding of the soul
with all the melody, the joy, the hope,
and the glory that is in the Christmas
Angel's Song.
64 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
XVI.
CHRISTMAS IN ART.
R. KEPPEL has made a beautiful
collection of pictures of the na-
tivity, entitled "Christmas in
Art/' in which figure some exquisite
things from Durer and Rembrandt. For
this we should be grateful, as the collec-
tion will do much to offset the heretical
and foolish nothings that are carted to
the stores as presents for Christmas. In
commenting on the Nuremberg build-
ings that figure in Durer's works, instead
of the Palestine backgrounds that might
be supposed to be subjects for the Mas-
ter's brush, Mr. Keppel seems to apol-
ogize for the artist. Now there is no rea-
son in Durer's choice for even a smile.
Who knew better than the master him-
self what he was painting? Surely if he
could build up the homes and streets of
Nuremberg in his great creations he
CHRISTMAS IN ART. 65
would find no difficulty in raising the
stately antiquities of the Land of Promise.
We will, then, interest ourselves not with
the fact, but with its reason.
The masters of the olden time were
everyone Evangelists, using the brush or
chisel instead of the stylus or pen. They
appealed to the devotion of the people
through truth, and from their works they
removed all distractions that would di-
vert their attention from the main pur-
pose of their pious pictures. They sought
to make onlookers behold only the scene
that uplifted faith. They cared not for
the trappings and accidentals; substance
was the quest of their brush.
If the eyes of the Babe were all lumin-
ous with love, his form all wondrous with
Divinity, their work to them was well
done. Stone walls of this or that char-
acter did not enter into their calculations,
save to bring forward the theme upon
which their genius worked and prayed.
Durer painted familiar views in his
backgrounds so that there would be no
distractions to the mind that dwelt on the
66 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
great central scene. There was nothing
new in the still life, only the familiar ob-
jects of every day; and so the thought and
feeling of the reverent remained in un-
disturbed wonder on the actors of the
mighty drama.
Masters, like Durer and Rembrandt,
painted their prayers and for the prayer-
ful. The man of prayer has no eyes for
the background ; only the foreground has
charms which the environment of the pic-
ture did not dispute, and hence every-
thing that tends to rivet attention on the
main purpose of the artist is a help to the
sublime and heavenly scheme of the can-
vas. Strange scenes and exceptional
streets would be sins against the attention
that prayer requires and would no better
express the triumphant genius of the
artist's towering mind, for the man who
can make one landscape can just as easily
fashion another. This, we believe to be
the great reason of homelike grounds in
Bethlehem's wonderful story, as the effort
to have it otherwise would be no help to
the artist's fame and might have a de-
CHRISTMAS IN ART. 67
pressing effect on the painting's high pur-
pose.
Mr. Keppel truly declares, "as in the
case of ecclesiastical architecture and
sculpture, the finest pictures are those
produced in centuries past and not
those of our own too sophisticated
day." And why? Because the past
held the ages of faith, when truth
was worshipped in Religion and sought
in every department of mind, un-
like our conceited time, when art is
ruined by the mercenary spirit that works
for money and makes no grand sacrifices
to truth to show devotion thereto. Heresy
began as an iconoclast and has since
wrecked genius in preferring the profane
or pagan subject to the inspirations that
were in color or form ecstatic pronounc-
ments of the principles of Christianity's
Creed. Shifting scenes are not subjects
for the steady mind of genius, and so
heresy has discouraged religion's art and
encouraged in the same degree the
world's frivolities. Art is poetry, and
heresy's stock in the world market is
68 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
mathematical prose that makes the hard
lines of reason the yard-stick wherewith
everything in heaven and on earth is
measured.
Only religion can inspire a Christian
classic for the reason that religion is
truth, and truth on and off the canvas,
appeals eloquently to eye and mind. One
cannot have truth in art and falsehood in
faith, for what is true in religion must be
true in every department of intellect.
This is why only Christian masterpieces
are the priceless inheritance of history,
and this is why Mr. Keppel's declaration
is orthodox.
CHRISTMAS LONELINESS.
XVII.
CHRISTMAS LONELINESS.
HE greatest foe to the happiness
universally wished in this graci-
ous season is loneliness. Friends
may fill the cornucopia with rich gifts of
heart and hand ; they may bestow nature's
blessing in color schemes of fruit and
flower, and yet the absence of one dear
soul mutilates the picture with a sharp
shadow. There is one voice away from
the chorus that spoils the melody of
kindly words. An absence there is that
outweighs the joys of generosity. Music
fails to distract, for its minor key has a
tearful pathos, while eloquence, with its
soulful longings, brings the mind to
heaven's glory, but on the way fancy
visits its friend. Even in prayer, a van-
ished face will peep in on our pieties.
Strange that in this great world, with
its swarming myriads, so similar in na-
70 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
tural characteristics, there is for every
man or woman, old or young, one heart
that is dearest, some one mind that en-
kindles fervor, some one soul that is kin-
dred with whom we make glad holiday.
Yet, so it is, and there is little comfort in
the thought that only kind hearts deeply
feel, for they are often well nigh smoth-
ered in the desolation they themselves
create in brooding on the past and the ab-
sent.
Well, in the eternal holiday above, our
smiles will never be a disguise for tears
and our memories will not be veiled in
mist.
CHRISTMAS SINS. 71
XVIII.
CHRISTMAS SINS.
|T all times, sin is to be hated as the
product of Hell and a dismal
guide thither, but never does it
appear more atrocious than in the graci-
ous time when the Innocent and Beauti-
ful thrilled earth and sky with His Na-
tivity.
Is there anything so jarring to the ear
as a shot from a revolver Christmas morn-
ing? What a contradiction to the peace
that the birth of our Lord betokened!
And yet how many smoking guns tell of
bloody murder in lands blessed by faith
in Him Who came as the Messenger of
Peace and was heralded by gentle angels.
The watchfulness of the Galilean
shepherds is a far cry from the drunken-
ness that mars the mind and kills the
souls of men, for whose salvation all the
wonders of Bethlehem were wrought.
72 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
Still drunkenness degrades our time and
men give their stomachs a higher consid-
eration than their heads. The whole
meaning of Christmas is lost to the glut-
tonous appetite of him who mumbles
idiotic jargon instead of gracious prayers
— who joins his voice to the clanging
terrors of Hell instead of blending his
hymns of hope with the songs of Christ-
mas.
The paganism of our time pushes
against the piety of devotees and pro-
claims Christmas whiskey as one of its
awful wares. So the very name of Christ-
mas is prostituted from its heavenly
dignity by devils in human guise, and is
made an adjective to qualify the very
sources of sin.
Selfishness of all kinds, and sin is al-
ways selfish, is entirely outside the pur-
pose and aims of Christmas, which is a
grand expression of sacrifice, for
"Christ," says St. Paul, "annihilated
Himself, taking the form of a servant,"
when He came to Bethlehem of Judea.
WELCOME THE NEW BORN YEAR. 73
XIX.
WELCOME THE NEWBORN
YEAR.
ITH its resolves and its hopes,
New Year comes. Happy is he
who tempers the poetry of en-
thusiasm with the philosophy of his his-
tory, not dwelling morosely on past de-
linquencies nor too sanguinely on future
anticipations. Nor should the sorrows of
the past, while steadying our hearts, be
permitted to throw their long shadows
into the future's sunny vale. Let us make
the year new and not have it the fac-
simile of the old — new in life, new in
character, new in work, remembering
that the more we depart from the old and
realize the new the better it will be for
us all.
The old has had its day and brought
us little measure of virtue. We have
cheated ou r selves in cheating it. *T^55pi4e~
{he joys oT faith, the light of heavenly
74 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
laws, the unerring guidance of the
Church the monarch of the ages, we have
been as the commonalty around us —
measuring ourselves by their standards
and not by the exalted criterions of
Christ's gospel. Let us leave all this with
little regret, and with grand hope salute
the rising morning. The God who gave
us the year will not throw us as straws
on the crest of life's wave, but will give
us the means of progress, and there is no
progress if not toward the God who creat-
ed us, who bestowed the consciousness of
immortality, and the hope of heaven.
The past year is a cemetery filled with the
/bones of onetime strong purposes; filled
with pet schemes that sickened in irreso-
lution and died before the will compassed
them; filled with dead days that had no
pith nor purpose for the worthy here and
the salutary hereafter. Over it all could
be written an epitaph, for through it all
never went a hosanna.
Memory, then, brings regrets, but let
us not mope. We are on earth yet, and
that very thing should buoy us up with
WELCOME THE NEW BORN YEAR. 75
new courage, for every hour is a new
creation with God's cherished purpose
persevering in it, reminding us every
hour of our destiny, animating us every
hour to its realization, and dominating
us every hour, despite our stiff perverse-
ness. Notwithstanding, then, the somber
colorings of memory and the sorry
twinges of regret, let us step to the fu-
ture with confidence and joy. Let us give
our hand to the all-wise Father who
leads us by His hand, gentle yet strong.
As the bell tolls for the past, let us not
fear the sorrow that the coming year may
bring.
We will never have true joy until life's
puzzle is explained to us by religion's
cheery mind. The more religious light
shines for us on life, the more satisfaction
life itself will give. Forget, then, all
ugly things that deform, or, if remember-
ing, blot them out by penance. Enjoy
life by enjoying the new year! Enjoy the
new year in adoring Him who gave life,
grace to enrich it, and glory as its prom-
ised crown!
76 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
XX.
NEW YEAR GREETING.
T seems like irony or a cruel jest,
in these terrible days of war, to
wish our neighbors a happy New
Year. How can men be merry or hearts
be happy when Hatred and Sin and
Death are so busy in the world? Yet is
there hope of better things, of brighter
days to come, of a more heavenly reign
of justice and mercy and righteousness
on earth, of divine comfort and sweet as-
surance to the doubting and the fearful
in the words once spoken by our Blessed
Lord to one of His favored servants: "I
am come to cast fire on the earth, and
what will I but that it be kindled ?" That
heavenly fire is the fire of love, of peace
and law and brotherly concord, not the
devasting conflagration of war and hat-
red.
But alas! man is prone to evil, and to-
NEW YEAR GREETING. 77
day the world has forgotten the Prince of
Peace wrapped in swaddling clothes and
laid in a manger. The nations of Europe
have drawn the sword of death, and the
song of the angels — "Glory to God in the
highest and peace on earth to men of good
will!" — is drowned by the voice of battle,
lost in the harsh roar of guns, where
brother faces brother in murderous mood.
Yet shall the fire of love be enkindled
on earth and the flames of war be ex-
tinguished and utterly cease, for God is
not mocked. His ways are inscrutable
ways and His providence beyond the ken
of man. But of this let us rest assured;
out of all this misery of broken hearts
and desolated homes shall come at length
the "truce of God," that shall be not an
idle figure of speech but a sweet reality
in the hearts of men and nations. Through
all this blood and slaughter, God is work-
ing out benign ends for the world. He is
opening the eyes of men to the folly of
war and hatred, and to the wisdom of
peace and love. Out of the chaos of these
78 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
terrible days His mercy will yet evolve a
new reign of celestial order on earth.
Because this is so, because this is the
faith of all who know that "God's in His
heaven," and that, despite present ruin
and devastation, "all's well with the
world," confidently looking for the better
days to come, with a sure hope in the ful-
fillment of His love, we may wish one an-
other a Happy New Year.
NEW YEAR GRATITUDE. 79
XXI.
NEW YEAR'S GRATITUDE.
NOTHER year from out Time's
vast ocean has broken its waves
on the shore of eternity, bearing
on to its God black hulks as well as white
sails — souls lost forever as well as souls
gained forever. And now that we have
heard the bell toll for the old year that
has gone and that happy and hopeful we
enter on the new, we are forcibly remind-
ed of the fact that life and death are side
by side, even as the last moment of one
year touches the first second of the other.
We are impressed with the thought that
the bell will one day solemnly tell our fel-
lows that we, too, have gone. It behooves
us, then, while life is ours to use time in
the service of the God of time, to begin
the new year with new resolves that will
preface a new life, so that one day the
blessings of grace may be happily blended
in the delights of glory.
80 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
And here we would fain guess what the
future will reveal. The future will be
the fac-simile of the past in everything,
save the changes we ourselves make.
Trusting, as ever, on God's generosity,
we hope to get the time to make the need-
ed change.
Time, how precious! Time, the price
of eternity! Time, in thirty-three years
of which our dear Lord taught and saved
the generations of mankind! Time, in
which saints wrought the golden deeds
for which God girt their temples with
ever-green chaplets! Time, the day of
God's mercy, mercy so great, indeed, that
it seemingly contradicts divine justice!
Time, which, if once spent well, will gain
us heaven! Time, which, were it possi-
ble to spend twice, would undo hell.
Have you ever thought how a soul,
now lost in the dungeons of the damned,
would act were it allowed to come to
earth to live again and hope for a period?
It would never return to its anguish so
intense would be the virtue of its short
life — a life which would in its intensity
NEW YEAR GRATITUDE. 81
equal here the lustre of the glorified be-
yond.
How, then, will we spend our time
well? By thanking God for the past, by
noting its faults and by begging His
blessing on the future. The past is one
continued pearl string of God's charities,
and it befits us to sing in the transports of
Isaias: "I will remember the tender
mercies of the Lord, the praise of the
Lord for all the things that the Lord
hath bestowed upon me."
What has He bestowed? Life and all
the blessings of nature and grace; Life,
for every year is a new creation, since
preservation in life is a continued act of
creation. Life is the principle of all
happiness. Without life, we could not
actually enjoy anything, nor could we
hope for possible joys. It gives light to
the eye, causing it to recognize beauty
pillowed on the snows of winter or re-
clining on the young arm of Spring. It
gives the ear the power to charm the soul
with that harmony which swells the
throat of the little bird or pulsates in the
82 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
pipes of the organ thundering reverence
to God. It gives the power of speech,
which makes earth echo with kind words
and sweet songs. Of all this is life the
parent, and the father of life is God.
God had given us Nature. For us he
surrounds the seed with mystery, causing
it to burst the sod and sprout forth in
green loveliness. He rears its head and
with his unseen power props the grain-
laden stem. He makes of Autumn a
mighty storehouse, wherein are packed
rich products for his myriads of crea-
tures. He gives us flocks, as he gave
Abraham, and when our faith fails us in
Him, as Nature's God, He gently chides
us, saying, "Oh ye of little faith," your
life to Me is dearer than the lily, your
soul more fair.
Grace gives the highest reason for
thanks. Here we are urged by Christ to
sanctity and Heaven. God is kinder to
us than we are to ourselves. He has made
us Christians, when so many men, abom-
inable as is the stone they worship, pray
to idols. He has made us true Christians
NEW YEAR GRATITUDE. 83
possessing not man's changing ideas, but
thoughts fixed and unchangeable from
God Himself. He has given us the sacra-
ments which the wealth of the universe
could not buy, since they cost the wealth
of the heart of the world's God. So We
should be generous, as divine prodigality
certainly should beget human generosity.
To give our thankfulness the character
of true logic, we should note our ingrati-
tude. You may say you confessed it.
In what have we been derelict? Con-
science will answer, as truly it is written,
"Conscience is the test of every mind."
Perseverence is a great desideratum.
A want of perseverance makes the dying
man a torture to himself and a dread to
those who look into his eyes as hopeless
of heaven as of bodily strength. Persever-
ence gives the face a smile in which pain
is drowned, gives the eye a quiet content
which betokens a close view of heaven.
Then let us endeavor to make this Chris-
tian year truly a year of grace and so
make it the dawn of the new and eternal
year of God Himself.
84 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
XXII.
THE USE OF TIME.
|EW YEAR'S, with all its joys,
sorrows, hopes and fears with all
the revelations of the old year
and all the lessons that experience therein
pronounced, comes again. Maybe stunned
with grief, amazed at disaster, or mayhap
bright with delight and hopeful in suc-
cess, you meet the new year's morning.
Whatever earthly loss or failure may be
yours, there is one thing you will remem-
ber, and that is that there is no true
anguish but sin — that, no matter what
pleasure lures you, there is no real joy
save that which virtue parents. Grief,
and all earthly mishaps will not freeze on
a heart suffused with the light and
warmth of heavenly hope, will not trou-
ble the great depths of a mind steadied
with Christian principles, will not drop
as leaden weights to weary, into soul rich
NEW YEAR GRATITUDE. $5
in grace that happily heralds glory. Nor
will success intoxicate the Christian who
estimates everything, not by life's transi-
ent year, but by God's eternal day.
We all pray for time. Let us use it! It
is an inestimable gift. How much we
can learn in its golden round! What
books can be read and studied! What
songs can be sung! What good work
done! What great deed accomplished!
What prayers can be said uplifting us
heavenward to think on something more
than the stars and the sun — the good God
who decks night with the signet rings of
His creative hand and enriches our work-
ing hours with the beauty and power of
His solar light! What knowledge of
Christ we can gain in the hours His
mercy bestows ! What a banquet we may
enjoy at God's altar, where we can, in a
measure, make our Lord's strength our
strength, our Lord's blood our blood, our
Lord's body our body, so that the health
faith gives may make our souls strong,
the brightness it yields may light our
minds, the beauty it bestows may be the
86 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
decoration as well as the force of exalted
character.
Time gives us all these opportunities.
Let us find hours for useful and de-
lightful pursuits, by wasting none. Let
us ask ourselves every day what did we
so that our days will not be corpses strewn
along life's highway! Let us examine our
conscience and see what idea, refining or
heavenly, we added to the honeycomb of
thought! What development gave we
the heart? What nourishment the soul?
What sacraments have we cherished as
more than angelic visitors? What work
have we done to bless the day withal, so
that its light may not have shone in dark-
ness?
These salutary questions will not
fatigue but strengthen, will not beget
melancholy but joy, will not be foolish
but wise, and will remind us of the fact
that we are made not for our own pur-
poses but for God's grand intents, that we
are not fashioned as victims of an idle
fatality, but are unerringly destined for
immortal bliss, that we are not purpose-
THE USE OF TIME. 87
less accidents, but creatures of heavenly
design, that we are not part of the mud we
step on, but are kindred to Christ, bene-
ficiaries of His bounty and heirs of His
glory.
Time will end; eternity, never; let us
appreciate the one as the preparation for
the other.
And yet when we think how we sweat
for Caesar and how seldom we have a
moist brow for Christ we feel how un-
worthy we are of time and all its benizens
and hopes. We will then begin the New
Year with an act of contrition, continue it
with an act of love, end it, if it is yet ours,
with an act of hope, and over all, and
through all, let faith shed its lustre and
thrill with its power.
STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
XXIII.
THE NEW YEAR'S VALUE.
lOW valuable is time! A second
in a Derby may bring fortune or
lose fame. Yet in the great con-
test for immortality we trifle with dear
hours, with dearer days, with dearest
years.
Through the proper use of time, the
wonders of the world, the marvels of art
and science, the splendors of literature,
have been wrought. Nevertheless, we
foolishly sit waiting for tomorrow to
bring us a boon, and do not see that we
are overlooking one, in gazing beyond the
present hour, rich in abundant possibili-
ties.
The worth of life is inestimable. We
should then act "in the living present,''
for life is action. We should not rot in
the face of the sun, but let it gild our la-
bors that should themselves be glories that
THE NEW YEAR'S VALUE. 69
would outlive the sun in their immortal
characters and destinies. Let us live well
and so multiply our years, for one who
"well lives, long lives."
When we think that the dying Chris- i
tian can be saved, while his life goes out
under the wheels of a train, if he only says
from the heart, "the Lord have mercy on
me," we can esteem the worth of a mo-
ment. When we consider that a few \
years fashioned a Stanislaus Kostka, we I
can appreciate the mighty value of our \
days. When we contemplate the fact that
our own time is the price of everlasting
happiness, we feel like hurrying, as did
St. Paul, to "redeem the time," and to
make up to the future what our sorry past
lacked.
Approaching the new year, we guess at
what changes it will work in our lives.
Looking at the past and the present, we
have all reason to fear that the future will
be kindred thereto — that, as Coleridge
says in the Death of Wallenstein "I n to
da y already walks tomorrow." ,_
o God alone we must look for that im
90 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
provement in spiritual health that will
save our lives from being one long dis-
ease. From God alone, and not from our
own efforts, we must seek that gracious
favor that will make our days a promise
of the eternal years. Before God alone
we must kneel for perseverence so that
our eyes, fading in death, may see Para-
dise closer than did Moses, Palestine,
viewed from the brow of Horeb.
The older a man lives, the less faith
should he have in man and correspond-
ingly the more in his God. The world
has betrayed its every declaration; God
has kept his multitudinous promises. We
should serve with fruitful time the One,
and eschew the other as a cheat and a liar.
The present moment is ours; the next is
God's; let us make this rich in merit so
that w r e can bargain truly for the other,
for the best way to get a second gift is to
appreciate and use well the first.
Let us not permit sin to eclipse our sun
and blot out our day, but let every hour
be a gracious one that makes for Heaven
in its fine sense and purpose. Time is the
THE NEW YEAR'S VALUE. 91
porch of ete rnity./ It is more, for of it is
the verse ot Y oung in "Night Thoughts"
too true :
"Time is eternity;
Pregnant with all eternity can give;
Pregnant with all that makes arch-angels
smile
Who murders time, he crushes in the birth
A power ethereal, only not adorn d"
May we daily learn that there is noth-
ing true but Heaven and none like unto
God, its King. May we ever learn that
time was given us solely to acquire truth
and light its deeds through earth's dark-
ness to eternity. So doing, our lives will
be prayers that will ensure a truly happy
New Year.
92 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
XXIV.
GOOD RESOLUTIONS.
ANY men, remembering the
broken resolves of last year, will
smile at others and themselves,
when it is a question of registering resolu-
tions for the New Year.
Now, this is all wrong. Good intentions
have lapsed, it is true, and may again fall
short of realization, but this is no reason
why they should not be made. Life it-
self consists of up and downs — of acts of
contrition as well as of hope. We should
not discount ourselves any more than we
should depreciate our fellows. A good
resolve, in itself, is a good deed. It is a
shame to break faith with our promises,
but it is a greater shame not to even at-
tempt to be better, by being guilty of lazi-
ness, to the extent of not even dreaming
of higher things.
Our resolutions are broken, not be-
GOOD RESOLUTIONS. 93
cause of themselves but because of the
weakness of human nature. The man who
would undo advancement by not com-
mencing with a resolution would lay the
axe to the root of the efficiency of pen-
ance. Is not every confession largely a
declaration of broken promises, of lapses
into sin, or omissions of virtuous works?
The sacrament's efficacy is not to be im-
peached for the wretchedness it undoes
and the encouragement it bestows ; so the
penitent's confession is not to be consid-
ered false because he fails again. He re-
solved because of strength; he failed be-
cause of weakness. We may fail even
though we resolve ; we will never succeed
if we omit resolution. The man who re-
solves has courage ; the man who does not
is an unqualified coward. The man who
resolves has faith, for he believes in God
and trusts Him. Cicero anticipated
Christian truth when he declared in his
Tusculan Disputations, "A man of cour-
age is also full of faith." Courage, then,
should brighten the new year with its in-
teresting glow. The exquisite lines of
94 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
Farquhar should stimulate our new en-
deavors :
Courage, the highest gift that scorns to
bend
To mean devices for a sordid end.
Courage, an independent spark from
heaven s bright throne,
By which the soul stands raised, triumph-
ant, high, alone.
Great in itself, not praises of the crowd,
Above all vice, it stoops not to be proud.
Courage, the mighty attribute of powers
above,
By which those great in war are great in
love.
The spring of all brave acts is seated here,
As falsehoods draw their sordid births
from fear.
Let us resolve, then, and resolve so
grandly that the practical conclusions of
our resolutions will come as the necessary
sequence of our ardent purpose.
Our wills, 'tis true, are weak, but God
is strong, and if we couple our endeavors
with His desires we need not fear the
aftermath. God has given us the New
Year; let us dedicate it to Him who gives
"the increase;" the devil has already
robbed God's Kingdom of too many souls
for us to add to the awful disaster. To
GOOD RESOLUTIONS. 95
the Christ, who is as harshly treated now
as was He in the olden time by the inn-
keepers of Bethlehem, we offer not
swords for they were never acceptable to
the meek Lord, but our resolutions that
He may consecrate them and perfect
them. The greatest honor is the proud
title of defender of the faith, in an age
which, like the Greeks of old, impiously
deems Christ a stumbling block and
Christianity itself a scandal.
STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
XXV.
LITTLE CHRISTMAS.
jOW "stale, flat and unprofitable"
are the ways of this world can be
gleaned, even through hurried re-
flection, from a consideration of Epipha-
ny. Read all the follies of the dailies and
then think how they pale into insignifi-
cance before the details of an event that
happened two thousand years ago. The
commemoration of the Kings' visit to
Bethlehem's crib engages our hearts at-
tention, while the record of the living day
inspires only the mind's passing notice.
Such a thought as this made Lew Wal-
lace not fear that his chapter in "Ben-
Hur" on the journey of the Wise Men,
would hold the modern reader when
crude themes of our times make him look
away.
No wonder the sublime prophet
heralded Epiphany with the glorious
GOOD RESOLUTIONS. 97
words: "Arise! be enlightened, O Jerusa-
lem; for thy light is come and the glory
of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, be-
hold, darkness shall cover the earth and
a mist the people ; but the Lord shall arise
upon thee and His glory shall be seen
upon thee. And the Gentiles shall walk
in thy light, and kings in the brightness
of thy rising."
The star that led the royal pilgrimage
to the Judean stable is symbolical of all
this light that Isaias in rhapsody foresaw.
It gleamed through the mist of expect-
ancy; it shone through the darkness of ig-
norance, and in the brightness of its shin-
ing Melchior, Balthasar, and Caspar rode
to the blessed borders of the Holy City.
Entering the portals of the immortal
chamber, they lay down their crowns,
typical of making reason minister to
revelation, and with their crowns, their
hearts in loving service to the King of
Kings. They vie with each other in gen-
erous expression to have their authority
consecrated by the living hand of Him,
from whom all rights flow. They are vir-
98 STRAWS FROM THE MANGER.
tually exalted to thrones eternal, and,
from men of doubt and dreaming, they
are canonized by the shining face of the
Eternal.
What a lesson the Epiphany has for a
world, whose chief crimes come today
from disorder created by disrespect for
authority. False theories about the origin
of rule are agitating the minds of men,
who take off their hats to nothing, un-
like the venerable majesties at the sancti-
fied crib. The words of St. Paul : "All
power is from God" are ignored. Men in
misnamed religion, the very worst form
of the mad world's crimes, constitute
themselves their own guides in faith,
making reason usurp revelation instead
of being led thereby. So they end their
lawless course in destroying Holy Writ
today that but yesterday they deemed
their sacred guide in faith and its duties.
They land with Herod, the destroyer, in-
stead of keeping to the course of the
Magi. They follow the lights of reason
and not the heavenly lead of Christ, and,
like the infamous king, they slaughter,
LITTLE CHRISTMAS. 99
not babes indeed, but souls, and end in
disaster. In the state there is no rever-
ence for authority. Subjects usurp the
privileges of rulers and despise the be-
hests of law, forgetting that they only are
true men who conquer self and put law in
the place of whims.
The falseness of the principle that au-
thority comes from the people has made
the people themselves lack reverence for
constitutional power. It is true the peo-
ple can, by their votes or by inheritance,
name the ones they desire invested with
authority, but God alone bestows the
power.
If men would regard well the conduct
and the devotion of the visitors to Bethle-
hem, then socialism, anarchy and the rest
of the Herods in the systems of our day
would be frustrated, and Christ's infinite
splendor would shine on rulers and peo-
ples.
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process.
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide
Treatment Date: August 2005
PreservatlonTechnologies
A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive
Cranberry Township. PA 16066
(724)779-211-
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
:
014 626 180 2 J*
(...TRUNCATED) |
unk81039814 | A Christmas meditation. | Gilman, Lawrence | 1,916 | 32 | christmasmeditat00gilm_djvu.txt | .
mm$
A CHIUSTMAS
MEDITATION
•■<>
LAWRENCE GILMAN
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11:1 1 lli!
Class
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.
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C0EHUGH7 DEPOSIT.
A Christmas Meditation
A Christmas Meditation
By
Lawrence Gilman
New York
E» P* Dutton & Company
6ZI Fifth Avenue
--r* .
Copyright, 1916
BY
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
GCT 28 1915
"Cbe Iknfcfeerbocfeer Qtees, Hew JtJorft
*>CI.A446145
AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
TO MY BROTHER
JOSEPH GILMAN
IN RECOGNITION OF HIS INTEREST IN THESE
FUGITIVE REFLECTIONS ON AN
IMMEMORIAL THEME
NOTE
The following reflections con-
tain, in a revised and somewhat
extended form, the substance of
an editorial which the author
wrote for the Christmas, 19 10,
issue of Harper's Weekly. He is
indebted to the courtesy of the
proprietors of the Weekly at that
time, Messrs. Harper and Bro-
thers, for permission to make
this use of his contribution.
' ' They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more. . . . For the Lamb,
which is in the midst of the throne,
shall feed them, and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters: and
God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes." — Rev., vii. : 16, 17.
A Christmas Meditation
AS the years take their
ever-quickening passage
across our hearts we are
likely to find Christmas a
more and more difficult ordeal
for the spirit. No man or
woman who has known the
common lot of mutation and
sorrow can face the day with-
out misgivings, without a quail-
ing of the soul for which there
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
need be no shame. The
thronging memories of dead
years are never so poignantly
insistent as on that festival of
festivals. The gayer our merri-
ment, the braver our recourse
to those pleasures that warmed
the soul of Elia, — "the cheerful
glass, and candlelight, and fire-
side conversations, and innocent
vanities, and jests, " — the more
importunately do we remember ;
the more vividly actual become
that dear and silent company
who take their places among us
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
on that day: whose eyes smile
at us gravely, with incorrigible
tenderness, across the laughter
of those whose presence is so
much less evident to our sense.
And how steady is the growth
of that phantasmal gathering!
How increasingly numerous are
those unbidden but passionate-
ly wished-for guests, who have
come before the lights are lit,
who bring no gifts and can take
none from our eager hands, who
linger after the last footfall has
3
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
grown faint in the sharp air,
who remain after the house is
dark and still, empty but for
ourselves and them! There are
times for all of us when, recall-
ing the terrible epigram of
Victor Hugo, — that we are all
under sentence of death, with
an indefinite reprieve, — we won-
der desperately how long it
will be before the only guests
we shall care to summon to
our festivities are those who
need no summons, for whom we
need burn no lights: when our
4
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
thoughts may be as the thoughts
of Alexander Smith, meditating
alone on Christmas night: "I
hear a sound as of light music, a
whisk of women's dresses whirled
round in dance, a clink as of
glasses pledged by friends.
Before one of these apparitions
is a mound, as of a new-made
grave, on which snow is ly-
ing. I know, I know ! Drape
thyself not in white like the
others, but in mourning stole
of crape; and, instead of
dance music, let there haunt
5
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
around thee the service for the
dead!"
It is upon this year's Christ-
mas, perhaps, that we find our-
selves looking into the firelight
and saying to a beloved and
close-held Memory, with an
elegist of today: "There has
been twilight here, since one
whom some name Life and some
Death slid between us the little
shadow that is the unfathomable
dark and silence." Or we are
hearing, it may be, the ineffably
pathetic voices of those children
6
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
of vision seen in the revery of
Lamb: "We are nothing; less
than nothing, and dreams. We
are only what might have
been.
Nor is Christmas, as we meet
it after the going down of many
suns, colored with no darker
emotions than those of grief
and elegiacal regret. To every
man of sensibility, to every ideal-
ist, conscious or unconscious,
— and who of us is not, in some
fortunate hour, an idealist? —
7
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
the Christmases that come in
our autumnal years are certain
to be embittered by despond-
ency over the unbridged gap
between aspiration and ful-
filment, over the lengthening
record of our futilities and be-
trayals. The flood of affection
and generosity that surges about
us at this season dislodges and
casts up from the hidden places
of the soul a thousand memories
of injustice and negligence, of
harshness and egoism, which, we
had fatuously thought, were
8
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
cancelled by the mere act of
forgetfulness. The most buoy-
ant among us know at times
these moods of disheartenment
that are the sombre corollary
of the Christmas season. They
cannot forget the lost hours
that call to them reproach-
fully out of the past; they
understand that haunted and
touching cry of a poet of the
Gael:
The dead are happy, the dust is in
their ears.
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
But is there not a lucid inti-
mation for the spirit in precisely
this fact of Christmas melan-
choly? Surely the secret of
happiness and the secret of
peace lie folded one within the
other; and the profounder signi-
ficance that Christmas hides
behind the gentle beauty of its
pageantry — does it not reward
the most moderately patient
scrutiny, if only that be intrepid
and unwavering and direct? It
is the lesson that is taught by
the ancient Wisdom of the East
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
when it tells us that our only
hope of abiding happiness lies in
our privilege of seeing it through
other men's eyes: that this
is the secret of peace. And
what more shall you glean from
that but the simple truth which
was taught in Palestine: that
only he who loses his life shall
find it? We know that the
precious things of the world
fade and pass with the mere
transit of the years. We know
that the inexhaustible richness,
fascination, and savor of life as-
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
sure to us, as individuals, no last-
ing happiness. "There's night
and day, brother, both sweet
things; sun, moon, and stars,
all sweet things; there's likewise
a wind on the heath. Life is
very sweet, brother." Sweet,
indeed, and infinitely desirable;
but little to be trusted as a source
of enduring personal delight.
Through the night and through
the day and across the heath
may troop the ghosts of how
many abortive hours — of how
many unperformed kindnesses,
12
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
abandoned generosities, fore-
gone ideals! The sublime re-
buke of the stars can be
intolerable. The wind, that
mysterious awakener of the
past, can bring an unutterable
sadness upon the spirit. So
that, in the end, we are tempted
to cry out, with Shankara, "It
is not this ! It is not this ! "
But we look upon a new
heaven and a new earth, full of
serene and transforming light,
when we come to understand
13
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
what was really meant by that
behest to love our neighbor as
ourself : when we perceive that,
far from exhorting us to love him
as we love ourself, it tells us — as
one of the wisest counsellors of
our time has revealingly put it —
that we are to love him as being
ourself: * ' In the splendid hour
of illumination, we are alone in
the silence and darkness of the
immortal world. Yet not alone,
for the inmost holy of holies is
full of the souls of men. In that
dread presence all are one, and
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
that one the Soul. . . . Thence-
forward, we need not go abroad
to find our other selves. They
come to us, pressing closely round
our souls, in vision or in blind-
ness, in sadness or in mirth, in love
or hate. But above love or hate
or sorrow is the immemorial
essence of our common soul . . .
all move in the one Light."
It is as an indication of
this august secret of human
life that Christmas has its
deepest and most exquisite
15
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION
significance. It offers us a
diviner opportunity than a mere
provocation to generous and af-
fectionate thought. For in the
sudden radiance which it throws
upon the world we may see, with
a magical and tender clarity,
those other souls that flock con-
tinually about our own : that are,
indeed, ourself . We shall know,
then, with a certainty beyond
dismay, that in the Supreme
Self, which is the Eternal, our-
selves and all other selves are set,
"as the rays are set in the Sun. M
16
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process.
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide
Treatment Date: August 2005
PreservationTechnologies
A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive
Cranberry Township. PA 16066
(724)779-2111
^':jfc;;ite: ;s^:;-ji±;: **:;ri£-:.:,M. ::
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
■■■I
014 625 874 8 §
(...TRUNCATED) |
unk81010574 | Bethlehem bells. | Hoadley, B. J. | 1,912 | 72 | bethlehembell00hoad_djvu.txt | "\n\n\nB V \n\n45 \n\n\n\n\n\nClass \n\nBook \n\nCopigtit^ . \n\n\n\nCOPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. \n\n\n\nBETH(...TRUNCATED) |
09022920 | Christmas builders, | Jefferson, Charles Edward | 1,909 | 56 | christmasbuilder00jeff_djvu.txt | "BV \n\n\n\n45 CHRISTMAS \n^^'^ BUILDERS \n\n\n\n\nCHARLES ED^VARD \nJEFFEKSON \n\n\n\nj^m \n\n\n\n\(...TRUNCATED) |
16023976 | A fire in the snow, | Jefferson, Charles Edward | 1,916 | 56 | fireinsnow00jeff_djvu.txt | "B V \n\n\n\n\n\nBook \n\nCopyiij \n\n\n\nij. \n\n\n\nCQEXRIGHT BEPOSm \n\n\n\nA FIRE IN THE SNOW \n(...TRUNCATED) |
15027906 | A greater Christmas, | Keigwin, Albert Edwin | 1,915 | 88 | greaterchristma00keig_djvu.txt | "<^.i?'^. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nnM€i \n\n\n\nm^m \n\n\n\n'm:m. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n^Y \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n(...TRUNCATED) |
17028358 | My little town | Kirkland, Winifred Margaretta | 1,917 | 46 | mylittletown00kirk_djvu.txt | "\n\n\n\n\n»^ -•« \n\n\n\n♦*o« \n\n\n\n\nit ** \\ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n,0* *o.. ^5(...TRUNCATED) |
16004430 | The first Christmas story, | Locke, Charles Edward | 1,915 | 56 | firstchristmasst00lock_djvu.txt | "B V \n\nL55 \n\n\n\n\n\n\ni \n\n\n\n\nClass _BY4^ \nBook A«*_^5 \n\n\n\nCopyright ]^^. \n\n\n\nCOP(...TRUNCATED) |
unk81039812 | A Christmas message to you with the New Year. | Page, Villa Faulkner | 1,909 | 66 | christmasmessage00page_djvu.txt | "B V \n\n45 \n\n:P3 \n\n\n\n& Cfjrfetmass Jffles&age \n\ntogOtt \n\n&ttf) tfoe Jtefo gear \n\n\n\n\n(...TRUNCATED) |
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in Dataset Viewer.
Library of Congress Public Domain Books (English)
This dataset contains more than 140,000 English books (~ 8 billion words) digitised by the Library of Congress (LoC) that are in the public domain in the United States. The dataset was compiled by Sebastian Majstorovic.
Curation method
The dataset was curated using the LoC JSON API and filtering the Selected Digitized Books collection for English books.
Dataset summary
The dataset contains 140,000 OCR texts (~ 29 million pages) from the Selected Digitized Books Collection of the Library of Congress.
Size
The size of the full uncompressed dataset is ~47GB and the compressed Parquet files are 26GB in total. Each of the parquet files contains a maximum of 1000 books.
Metadata
The book texts are accompanied by basic metadata fields such as title, author and publication year (see Data Fields).
Languages
Every book in this dataset has been classified as having English as its primary language by the LoC.
OCR
The OCR for the books was produced by the Library of Congress.
Data fields
| Field | Data Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| lccn | string | The Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) which is also the id in the item URL (https://www.loc.gov/item/{lccn}) |
| title | string | LoC metadata field for book title |
| author | string | LoC metadadata field for author |
| year | int | LoC metadata field for publication year |
| page_count | int | LoC metadata field for page count |
| filename | string | Name of the LoC plain full text OCR file |
| text | string | Content of the LoC plain full text OCR file |
Copyright & License
The full texts of the LoC Selected Digitized Books Collection are in the public domain in the United States. The LoC rights statement for the collection states: "The books in this collection are in the public domain and are free to use and reuse." It is the responsibility of the dataset user to comply with the copyright laws in their respective jurisdiction. The dataset itself, excluding the full texts, is licensed under the CC0 license.
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