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I < V- 7 I IDE CHKOHICU Strives To Be A Cleon Newspaper, Complete Newsy and Reliable Volume XLIX ®hp Clinton Chrnntrto If You Don't Read THE CHRONICLE You Don't Get the News Clinton, S. C, Thursday, December 22, 1949 Number 51 THE CHRISTMAS AFTERGLOW ' By WILLIAM L. STIDGER In Christian Herald the next room he could hear her rich contralto voice softly singing. “Silent night, holy night . . . "Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace . . As the husband heard wife’s rich voice singing his young above the into his eyes, a lump into his throat, and he knew for the first time what the real spirit of Christmas meant. clatter of the dishes, a mist came It meant carrying that spirit into the everyday tasks of life through all the year "And the shepherds returned t their sheep.” JHE annual celebration of Christ mas makes us all a little kinder, taller and gentler. There is an “Ari zona afterglow” to the Christmas celebration which leaves a crimson, golden glory in our skies and in the skies of the whole world. Whenever I come to the Christmas season and begin to catch the beauty of this immortal story, I am taken back several years to a Greek class taught by the New Testament schol ar, Dr. Marcus D. Buell, at Boston University School of Theology. He had given us his interpretation of the Scriptures account of those char acters who had been mysteriously summoned to the stable, and then began to speculate on what happen ed to them afterward. He said: “I always like to translate that icxi "And the shepherds returned” in this way: “And the shepherds re turned to their flocks.” Or, if you wish: “The shepherds returned to their sheep.’” “That translation is true to the Greek and it is even more true to, the universal experience of life; air grandeur of a Niagara; and we man, after any great spiritual ex- k now that, once having had such perience, must go back into the ev- But where the loves and labors ^are. Now that the King has gone this .way, Great are the things of every day. j And, if Edwin Markham had not: confirmed the interpretation that Dr. 1 Buell gave us of the Christmas story, 1 then John Masefield in “The Ever lasting Mercy” did so most effective ly in these lines: He who gives a child a treat Makes joybells ring on heaven’s street; He who give a child a home Builds palaces in Kingdom Come; And she who gives a child its birth Brings Savior Christ again to earth. If the poets had not taught me this truth of the Christmas story, life itself has taught it. Most of us know what it means to have sum mer vacation experiences which lift our souls into new spiritual beauties. We have visited the Yosemite, the Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, the Catskills, the thundering, awe-inspir- eryday things of life. We have to go back to the dishwashing, to the sweeping of floors, the darning and mending of little stockings, tne pat ching of pants; back to the grocery store, the bookkeeping; back to the tall buildings in the cities; back to what might be called the mundane things of life; back to living aijd making a living. “■I want you young gentlemen to note what the text says about what happened to the participants of that early Christmas dranja. Note that the Wise Men, after having seen the im mortal Christ Child with their own eyes, each returned another way to his country. And, if you use your God-given imaginations, you will know that each of those Wise Men— for they were wise men—went back to his country a bigger, taller, kind er and better and wiser man than had not fused in my soul the inter experiences, our souls have never been the same. We cannot always be on vacation. We cannot always dwall on some mountain peak. We cannot alwavs live close enough to touch the stars. 1 We ultimately have to come back from vacations and the Christmas experiences. We must, like the shep herds, get back to our flocks. But, glory be to God, we can bring back with us the memories and the spir itual ecstasies of great experiences into the mundane walks of life! “And the shepherds returned to their sheep.” But when they re turned they had a great and rich and lifelifting memory of kneeling at the manger of a little child, of angels singing, of a star shining in the sky. And, even if the poejs had not taught me, and life’s experiences when he came to that great rendez vous.” There was a hush on tha* crowd of students as their favorite teach er continued: “And note, young gen tlemen, what it says about the mo ther of Jesus, one of the most beau tiful sayings in the New Testament, . a poem in itself. It says: “And all-ical Seminary. I they that heard it wondered at those > In that book there was a story pretation my old theological teach- 1 er gave me of the Christmas story, ( then a book I read a few years ago j gave me a simple story to press it; deep into my heart. The book was entitled ‘The Little Old Lady,” and it was Written by Dr. Lynn Harold Hough, then dean of Drew Theolog-! things which were told 'hem by the shephe. is. But Mary keot all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” On and on the great teacher went with his original interpretation of the Christmas story, impressing about a little boy in a humble home! who, on Christmas night, had been I permitted to stay up far beyond his • usual bedtime to sit on his daddy's | lap and. look up at the lighted j Christmas tree, while the mother; (as usuual) was in the kitchen wash upon us the truth that the vital ing the dinner dishes. Finally worn | thing about the spirit of Chrstmas is how it eventuates in human life. If the glow and glory of the Christ mas experience makes a human be ing taller, kinder, more loving, more conscious of the needs of other hu man beings, then it becomes real. It is what carries over into life that out by the day’s festivities and ex citements, that little tyke fell asleep on his father’s lap and dreamed a dream. He dreamed that a white angel came drifting into the room, fl^w up to the top of the Christmas tree, gently lifted the topmost candle from its socket, flew down to the j causes it to have meaning and pow er. ! little boy, put it in his hand and j The poets have taught me that Dr. j sa icl to him: “Never let the candle 1 Buell’s interpretation of the Christ- j 0 f Christmas love go out. Keep it mas story is the universal and the practical interpretation. Edwin Markham caught its full meaning In his poem “The Shoes of Happi- burning all the year!” Then the lit tle fellow stirred sleepily on his father’s lap. The father called out to the young ness,” the last stanza of which reads: mother in the kitchen: “I guess he’s Now have the homely things becn, as j ee p. h as t> een too much' made ;for him. I’ll take him upstairs.” 1 Sacred, and a glory on them laid. | Gently he carried his son up to For he whose shelter was a stall, undressed him, slipped bis The King, was born among them w hit e pajamas on, and laid him in all- , - ibis little bed without waking him. He came to handle saw and plane. Then he tucked him in, bent over To use and hallow the profane. ianc | hissed his hot cheeks good-i Now is the holy not afar In temples lighted by a star. Holland Opens Holiday forty night. But, just as he lifted himself from that good-night kiss, the little boy stirred, reached his arms around I his father’s neck, pulled him down until the father’s cheeks were i against his baby face and said sleep- 1 In Holland, th* Christmas season lily, “Daddy, please don’t let thej begins early, on the fifth day of candle go out or the Christmas an ] December. That is the eve of the name-day of St. Nicholas, the good Bishop of ancient Myra. It is told of him that he wandered the streets in*the dead of night, leaving food, clothing and money at the homes of his most needy parishioners. gel go sway Mystified, that young father went downstairs and told the mo ther what the boby had said, won- ! dering what it was all about. Butt the mother, wiser in the ways of Idren than most men are, said: On the night of December 5, St. “Jimmy’s been dreaming, that’s all. Nicholas, or “SinteHclaas,” as the Dutch call him, returns, according to legend. Dressed in full regalia, with his jeweled miter on his head and bearing a golden staff, he rides on a white charger. With him is alas and. alack, has a rod for-chil dstn who qo not deserve a gm. And to me, what he seems to have dreamed makes good sense—we must keep the. beautiful spirit of Christmas alive in our hearts all the years through, rather than just on Christmas week or Christmas Piet, his Moorish servant. Piet car-.day.’’ Then she went to her ries a bag fUtejl with gifts but also, dish-washing with little Songs sing ing In her heart, and whan the fa ther went back to his reading in Chrlstmos makes glad the hearts of all < . | end we are truly grateful for an occasion ♦hat makes each of us more considerate of out fellawman. Too often we neglect to tell our friends and loved ones the kind thoughts-' we he we fail to express our thanks for the many blessings and favors that come our way. Christmas, then, is doubly welcome. We ore each mindful of the deeds and thoughts t of others and we find it appropriate to ex press the finest wishes to those about us. Would that each of us would sustain this Ottitude through the days to cc.ne. As for us, we pledge to strive for thet goal, today, tomorrow, and A DELIGHTFUL CHRISTMAS TO ALL CITIZENS OF CLINTON AND THIS ENTIRE COMMUNITY L. E. BISHOP. Mayor W. B. OWENS, City Clerk and Treasurer BOARD OF ALDERMEN: MRS ARTHI R HOWARD. AansUnt Hugh C. Ray, L. L. Copeland. Sr.. W. M. MaMHIaa. L. W. Cooper, Woodrow L. WUson. Jamet Crain* AND ALL CITY EMPLOYEES