Show w FIRST AS TREE HE conflict of h Christianity with withA A heathenism produced pro J no more A I Vl- Vl dramatic incidents than those which j VY have come downto down to us history halt o. o and myth half out b W d of the forests and 9 snows of northern r. r 1 f Europe where the g W cross confronted f and prevailed against the hammer ham mer of Thor Often Oft en the crisis came at Christmas which happened to correspond cor respond with the Yuletide festival at atthe atthe the time of ot the winter winter- solstice Longfellow has used one of these stories in King Olafs Olaf's Christmas Another in which real religious fervor fervor fer fer- vor arid and moral heroism play playa a part Is the story of the first Christmas tree There stands at Altenbergen in northern Germany a statue erected in 1811 in honor of ot Saint Boniface and the place of the statue Is said to be bethe bethe the site of the first Christian church churchin in north Germany Boniface who must not be confused with any of the nine popes who bore the name was a Briton by birth and his name was Declining high ecclesiastical honor he chose to tobe tobe be a mi missionary to the rude tribes of ot the German forests Of these tribes Tacitus tells us and we know that they were implacable in war and bloody In their worship but that among their virtues was a marked purity of private life and love of home Each year these people sacrificed to their gods One of ot N their holiest shrines was a great oak at Geismar There they gathered at midnight at atthe atthe the winter solstice and offered a fair air lad as a sacrifice to call back the retreating re reo I treating sun Thus they were assembled at the Yuletide In the tho year 72 As the midnight mid night approached an old priest raised the hammer to strike down the child when Boniface interposed a strong arm and an eager word He told them of a child who was born seven hundred hun I dred years before and how he showed show ed cd to men that they need offer no nomore no nomore more bloody sacrifices lie told them of lot the love of God and the beauty of his tiis service The stern men heard and believed Urged by the heroic missionary mis they hewed down the dark thunder oak the scene of of so many sacrifices The legend says say that when the tree fell It left a a young fir growing between between be be- tween the tho shattered branches branches' and unbroken un broken b by their fall Boniface told them to take that tree to their banqueting banqueting ban ban- hall to servo God with joy and feasting and to take for their Yule tree this one with roots unstained un stained with blood and with evergreen evergreen ever ever- green tol foliage age for a symbol of ot Immor immor- If part of tho story Is myth it is not I all myth and It is Bur surely ly a beautiful way of ot explaining one of ot the most beautiful of Christmas customs Youths Youth's Companion |