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Show Our Eiterary CabSe Christmas the Universal Inspiration; by Miss Anna ' Maguire (class 1903), OgJen, Utah. "The dawn of Christ is beaming blessings o'er a new-born world." New-born . indeed was the world at the dawn of Christ; new-born to a higher, holier life; new-born to a light which will continue to shed its resplendent rays when the smouldering ruins of time shall be no more. Even after two thousand years, what a spirit of sweet peace steals over the toiling, restless world as it stops in its onward course to contemplate the mystery mys-tery of Bethlehem. What pathos! what majestic sublimity in that midnight mid-night scene, where the Majesty of Heaven, robed, not in ermine and purple, but in the humble parb of poverty, pov-erty, looks out with human eyes upon the world of His own creation! Lowly, indeed, was the Babe in the manger, yet at His coming "the heaven of the angels opens for one glad moment and the midnight skies are overflowed with melody. Ages before the herald-anthem of the angels resounded re-sounded through the hills of Judea, the pulse of humanity hu-manity had -been quickened by the expectation of that Promised One; for the poet-prophet, Isaiah, inspired by the vision of that first Xmas, had sung of the coming com-ing of the Virgin's Son, Emmanuel; Israel's great patriarch, pa-triarch, thrilled by the fore-gleam of the coming of the Messiah, had yearned that he might see His day; I while all adown the centuries a weary world sighed for the miracle that was to be. How universal-was 'the tradition of ' the coming of a Redeemer: 'Tis true, the sublime truth underwent many changes in its passage through the turbulent stream of time; yet among every people its bright buds of promise sprang forth, to twine their fair garlands gar-lands of hope and consolation around every great literature lit-erature of the world. It had found its way to the ice-bound shores of Finland, to bloom in theSagas of the north; it had penetrated the sun-burnished land of the Hindus, to enwreathe with its fair blossoms their natioal epic; nay, it even found a place in vice-steeped Rome, where its mystic fragrance exhales sweetness in the Eclogues of Virgil. Lowly, indeed, was the stable in which Christ was born, yet this humble spot was the birthplace conspiration con-spiration inspiration hieh. and pure, and holy. Standing in the mellow twilight of that sacred scene, the artist has glorified his canvas with reflections caught from its radiance divine; lingering in fancy-near fancy-near that lowly crib, the musician has imbibed the heaven-born strains of the angols until his soul has burst forth in melody; beneath the shadow of that humble shed, the poet has breathed in the inspiration for the tublimest outpourings of his soul. Who, after looking upon the beauty of Corregio's "Holy Night," can doubt the inspiration of that first Xmas in Bethlehem? Who, listening to the strains of Handel's "Creation" can question the power of the inspiring theme? Who, reading Milton's "Ode on the Nativity," can fail to see that his puritan soul was touched for one brief moment by the divine beauty of that scene of all scenes? Nor is the inspiration of Xmas limited to the fine arts; its divine magic touches and glorifies the whole world, but pre-eminently is its power felt in the Christian Chris-tian home. What mother, as she bends over the child of her care, is not inspired by the humility and virtue of that Mother in Bethlehem? As the Xmas bells in vibrant music greet the midnight mid-night air, how many hearts turn to the Xmas scenes of childhood with all their inspiration of joy and peace! Everyone, from the monarch on his throne to the exile on the lonely shores of Siberia, sees in the embers of the yule-log faces and forms from out the shadowy past facres and forms which gladdened the Xmas days I of infancy. Fancies these may be-which rise and fall with the flickering flame, but the inspirations of love and hope which they bring to the soul are lasting. . .But. where is the inspiration of Xmas, found in the higher, purer, holier light than in the Church, wo'se tree masses on Xmas morn renew the three-fold birth of Christ, whose, every ceremony, every act, makes real the anthem which rang through the valleys of Judea "Gloria in Excelsis Deo!" i |
