Show i— r — c” y J" i A IRRIVylL UNGEET the prophet held up bis hand A sudden cry smote the chilly air the red edge of the son creeping behind the snow cap of Everest seemed to the mulon the titude a reflection scythe which Gungeet held in with the reddened his hand blood of the Ranee's first born which had been offered as a to the sacrifice propitiatory Sun God It was the winter solstice — and the sun rays were so feeble that were sore the sun worshippers afraid that unless the blood by a of royal prince was shed for absorption would world their weakening god the 'pass into darkness and all would die As the sun rose higher in the heavens the multitude of worshippers exchanged gifts and on the crags and high places of the Mount of In the HimaGhoom which is above Darjiling to the sun god layas goats were sacrificed as a newwho was hailed by the multitude with the and renewed born babe refreshed blood of their princeling offering before birth of of the thousands years For Jesus of Nazareth this drama was enacted In the mountains of India and the tradition was carried by the merchants Into Persia Egypt and China to become later part of the Pagan saturnalia of the Roihans and the Druids For two centuries of the Christian era there evidence of any celebration Is no Indisputable of Christ’s birth The primitive Christians made It the festival like sensible opportunists of the "Light of All Nations" borrowing from the of all religions the east the birthplace birthday of the sun god which was held by the Romans (on the day when light got the betetr of darkness and the days began to get longer) as a great festival In celebration sun" of "the birthday of the unconquered The first historical account of the celebrawith the tion of Christmas day Is connected when who holding persecutor Dloclietlan court at Nlcomedla about 300 A D on learnaswere of a multitude Christians that ing celebrate the birthday sembled In the city to of Jesus ordered the church doors to be closso that ed and the building to be set ablaze In the flames all the worshippers perished was possessed of the most terrible Diocletian can be put moral forces of all heresies that ones Christianity by fire down by physical but his successor and sword Julian in the when Diocletian had done his next generation had to admit worst and done It thoroughly that all was In vain He may not In fact Oh "Thou hast conquered have said 1" thosgh Julian proved it the Early In the thirteenth century on church sanctioned Christmas feasting of observing the obligation day by removing abstinence whenever that festival should fall Is meant that on a Friday By abstinence flesh meat shall not be Indulged In and as the year was a day every Friday throughout Christspecially marked for such mortification cheermas must indeed have been somewhat less when the feast was In reality more than a fast by reason of Its occurrence on a Friday That however is quite forgotten by present-daand for close on 700 years observers A Christmas Christmas day has been observed by even the most piously inclined as the occasion for dulging in good cheer In "Merry England” the festival is made a one the days though thoroughly enjoyable have changed somewhat since Dickens rode through the streets of Londou and told of the In the scenes of Christmas he witnessed Joy lampllt streets Nowadays electricity has taken the place of gas and lamplight and stead of the slow wheezy horse vehicles of Dickens’ day the streets of Merry England are traversed by electric and oil motor cardinner preBut the good riages vails and from king to commoner all go to the place each calls home to eat soup goose or turkey potatoes sprouts mince Christmas and pies pudding "Stllle Nache heilige nacht” has been sung bein Germany for many untold Christmases neath the illuminated pine tree and its population of millions will enjoy their and honey cakes gingerbread In Denmark Christmas is a most important and beautiful festival all other Despite it preserves Its old character and Is changes celebrated universally among rich and poor In Russia the spirit of St Nicholas is rampant and the streets of St' Petersburg Moscow Riga and other centers are alive with drocbas all bearing happy exchanging calls and bearing each other presents which are opened at tables shrouded in vapor from the steaming samovars In New York Citytfhere will be millions of to surprise the children for with conspiracies our polyglot peoples no nation realizes to the extent the United States does the inner meanfor world of the festivals of the Christ the ing child Here more than anywhere else in the world the spirit of Christmas Invites our own happiness in seeking that of others and In of good will toward men the accomplishment we know we yearly replant the rose that blossomed in the snow of the first Christmas night 1 there Mister Santa Claus Hiking through the sky Careful lest you break the laws Speeding swiftly by Better give your car a rest In Its onward flight Come down here and be my guest Just for Christmas night Hi I'll show you a thing or two You’ll do well to see people — not a few— Waiting wistfully Hoping you will not forget They are waiting there I fear but te regret Doomed In the frosty air Little 4- Tableau there Many years ago says an old legend lived in a mysterious region a band of Christian monks whose life duty it was to plant seeds and grow crops of toys for Santa Claus These monks dressed in white to distribute gowns and wore Christmas wreaths about their heads From this tradition a Christmas pantomime A clever person can make could be devised many additions Arrange stage as a beautiful Christmas small trees here and place garden and there On these trees dolls and other toys While music is played appear to be growing softly the curtain rises disclosing the monks In the distance Is in the garden working heard the muffled sound of sleigh bells Santa Claus enters bows reverently to the monks shows his empty pack which they slowly fill from the laden trees the curtain falls then The music continues rises (disclosing Santa Claus only who distributes the gifts to the children of the Sunday ' tschool The monks can be personated by older boys or girls V m' VJ( Cheery lot of little souls You would find them all If In seeking out your goals You should pause to call There they stand all in a row what’s the hitch Wondering Wondering why it is you gq Solely 'mongst the rich t bit of cheer They would deem Tiny though it be Sign that when the Yule is here With Its songs of gfee They were not forgotten sign Sent them from above They were heirs to a divine and Love Thoughtfulness Leave the They OP THE HIJ Idea of a new conning of If today Is an influence not an obsession with countless millions of people in all parts of the world With all Christians it Is a thrilling thought or a devout With some it is a faith wish The Adventand a prophecy deists under their various Adnominations — Evangelical Seventh Day vent Christians and Union Advent and Life reothers — look for Christ’s turn at a nearly date within the present age according to the same Hebrew prophecies of which forecast his birth at Bethlehem Judea There are in the United States alone with an aggregate of 2544 Adventist churches 100000 communicants The Jews expect a Messiah yet to come whose The Behalsts or cult a modern offshoot of Mohammedanism has made remarkable headway in Europe and America during the past decade or two- be of the Master has lleve that the already taken place in our time 'Their priests and propagandists declare it their mission to make known to the world the glad tidings that Beha Ullah the head of their faith who dwells in the flesh at Acre in Syria Is none and other than Jesus Christ come again to earth in fulfillment of the ancient prophecies Brothwhose "Universal The Theosophlsts erhood” was founded by Mme Blavatsky in In1875 with headquarters at Adyar Madras of Christ the incarnate appearance believe dia at the present in this world to be imminent moment They believe that the Jesus of our faith even now incarnate but not manifested to man will take a new body manifest himself visibly and lead mankind In the evolution of a an epoch of Christian so- higher civilization will clallsm in which wisdom and compassion of man at a time make a true brotherhood Christ wealthy to their own! don’t need your care Let your loying smile atone For the cupboard bare Seek the children of the poor Make their need your cause And you’ll make your wreaths secure Mister Santa Claus —John Kendrick Bangs in Harper’s Weekly m SHEPHERDS the lives of the present generation within ' jf ” jgur younger people of the FEDERAL HEALTH BOARD It Is gratifying to note that the bill for the creation of a federal health board will not be allowed to pass with out a protest Reports of organized rlslstance come from all parts of the country and it may be that the oppo-sltlon will soon be sufficiently solidified to defeat a project that promises infinite mischief for the community and suffering and injustice for the individual The proposal is based upon those specious claims Oat are notoriously hard to controvert If a federal health board were to confine its activities to of salutary advice the promulgation hpon hygienic matters to the abatement of quackery and to the purity of be possible to say drugs it might much' in its favor although it would stil) be difficult to say that such an But we know organization) is needed that it will attempt to do far more than this seeing that' its adherents have loudly proclaimed their intentions Indeed there Is no secrecy about them It is confidently expected that the board will consist of advocates of one school of medicine only and that the methods of that sdhool will be not only recommended but enforced upon the nation Indeed a board that was in any way representative of the medical profession as a whole would be stultified by its own Outside the domain disagreements of simple hygiene for which we need no federal board at all there is no single point of medical practice upon eclectics which allopaths homeopaths and osteopaths could be in unison Any board that could be devised by the wit of man must be composed of representatives of one school only and this means thgt all other schools are branded as of an Inferior caste even though nothing worse happened to them And something worse would happen to them If we are to establish 8 school of medicine if we are to assert that the government of the United States favors one variety of practice more than others why not establish also a sect ot religion and bestow special authorities upon Bapand Episcopalians? tists Methodists An established Bchool of religious seems somewhat less obconjecture sect than an established jectionable of conjecture Those whtf suppose that a federal board of health would have no concern with Individual rights are likely to find themselves undeceived It Is for the purpose of interfering with Individual rights that the proposal has been made We need no special to be aware knowledge of conditions that what may be called unorthodox methods of healing have made sad inroads into the orthodox Homeopathy claims It vast number of adherents who are just as well educated and just as intelligent as those who adhere to eclectithe older school Osteopathy cism and half a dozen other methods of practice ape certainly not losing ground Beyohd them Is the vast and increasing army of those who may be classed under the general and vague name of mental healers Those who are addicted to any of these forms of need have no doubt as unorthodoxy to the purposes of the federal health board Those purposes are to make It difficult for them to follow their fads and fancies to lead particular them and If necessary to drive them from medical unorthodoxy to medical orthodoxy Now the Argonaut holds no brief for any of the excesses and the superstitions connected with the care of the But body In which this age is bo rife it does feel concerned for the preservation of human liberty and for the rights of the individual to doctor himself in any way he pleases so long as he does not Indubitably threaten the He may health of the community take large doses or small ones or no doses at all he may be massaged anointed with oil or prayed over Just as the whim of the moment may dictate and probably it makes no particle of difference which he does But he has the right to choose just as be chooses the color of his necktie or the character of his underclothing It is not a matter in which any wise government will seek to interfere This is precisely the liberty that the health board Intends to take from ' him Orthodox medicine conscious of its losses is trying to buttress itself by federal Btatute to exalt allopathy to the status of a privileged caste and to create an established school of medicine just as some other countries have allowed themselves to create an established school of religion It Is for the common sense of the community to rebuke that effort and to rean unwarranted invasion Upon elepel mentary human rights— San Francisco Argonaut Includes only a tew enumeration sectB and creeds that either of the look for a new birth of Christ or believe that such a reincarnation has already and recently taken place The idea more or less definitely formulated animates an incalculable number communities and individuals not of smaller ' taken account of here fact that however And it is a significant widely at variance their theories and grounds of faith may be all these millions of Adventists meet on common ground in the popular In the belief that this present age reproduces world’s cycles the Augustan age of old Rome and decadent civilization with its and accompanying spiritual unrest The earthly scene Is set for some new and awesome act in the drama of Eternity The Scriptures of old and the signs of the times today thoughtful men point out alike warn ns that the hour of fate is at hand have done their best and their Christfans worst to the Church of God for now over eighteen centuries and she stands today a mournful Broken exhibition of their devastating work of warring sects and divided into hundreds she no longer hears the voice that inspired the to church' is time expect that Truly it early the Lord will himself arise and come to rebuild the spiritual Zion and restore the waste Jerusalem Although places of the spiritual we "know not the day or the hour” yet the time when the Lord’s coming- is at hand is not us The signs which altogether hidden from are to precede and usher in his coming are plainly and abundantly set forth in Scripture to watch for them and and we are exhorted know that the time Is near All these predicted signs in the social moral political civil ecclesiastical and spiritual spheres declare the' Adventists are now either fulfilled or fulfilling All the ecclesiastical prophecies of Christ’s second coming rest on the same foundation— the fulfillment of previous Biblical namely and the assumption that this inprophecies dicates further fulfillments yet to come It is claimed that inasmuch as the birth of Christ was foretold (Isaiah vii 14) and that the birth should take place In Bethlehem of Judea (Micah v 2) and the several other prophe- cles concerning a Messiah (Isaiah Psalms xvt 10) all came to pass precisely at the time and in the manner prescribed that the fourth prophecy relating to the second appearance of the Messiah demands expectant belief In the New Testament the third and fourth chapters of Second Timothy and the jot St Matthew are regarded by many as forecasting the present condition of ChrisWe are living in the divided state tendomof the decadent Roman Empire The nations are torn with strife and contention and are supporting millions of men in arms in anticipation of vast wars In the near future Such was the condition of the world at the time of “In the last days perilChrist's first coming ous times shall come” men were to depart from the faith and go In devious ways Atheism infidelity socialism and anarchy have risen in a great wave that is eatfng at the very foundations of our religious political and social life In the way of physical portents It Is estimated that there have been more earthquakes within the last century or so than in all previous times In the recorded history of the world A Drain of the Company-What do these signs of the times heavenly On his way home from the theater and earthly phenomena political and religious wnere he had seen a performance of mean? To the upheavals Adventists they Othello” Bobby was unusually quiet mean that Christ Is coming again and soon “Didn’t you enjoy the play” his asked at last grandfather “Oh yes very much” replied Bobby The Mistletoe there’s one thing I “But grandpapa Does don't quite understand the Some of the names by which this plant was black man kill a lady every night?”— called are "mlsselden” or more Youth’s Companion commonly The above “missel” This plant was venerated by the pagans of Greece and Rome There Is reference to the mistletoe in the works of Virgil in the Edda and in Celtic legends Druids collected It with I great solemnity The Prince of Druids cut it j with a golden sickle Ancient Britons reverenced only that mistletoe wbich grew up on the oak trees The white berries which bring a blush to the fortunate maiden's cheek give the quick admirer the right to kiss any person caught under the mistletoe bough Its charm is against the evils of a lonely single life “Papa “No that?” Natural Deduction are lawyers always daughter "Because pers about read their I why do you so much in ask the pv Kindred 8plrits "Lady” said Plodding Pete “I ain't a square meal In two days" “Well” said the - resolute woman as she turned the dog loose "neither has Toweer so I know you’ll excuse him ” had r |