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X’ : / . f THE CHRONICLE Strives To Be A Clean Newspaper, Complete Newsy and Reliable Slip If You Don't Read* THE CHRONICLE You Don't Get the News Volume XLVIII Clinton, S. C, Thursday, December 23, 1948 Number 52 BometltUUf, the. Atujeli Sa+uj. SERMON BY ROBERT CASPAR LINTNER In Christian Herald large and small, in cities and tiny»derment of the shepherds and the i seems again frightfully, frightening- I that leaps unbidden, to our singing ly near. hearts and lips? ' country places? Do you know the j lavish gifts of the wise men. Nor is that all! More than food and; Before you give a glib answer to j score °. 1)0 y° u know h° w many of ‘<c;k) r y to God . . . and—on earth freedom are at stake/ The angel cho- that query you may recall in shame ! the chil dren a hd youth and parents „ j it w :tu tui.. tu_t a / y. i. u!—nf vour oommnnitv who nart pas- c • • • We are not worthy of Christmas rus concerned itself with earthly that our America spends more each f y° ur community, who part eas peace only as a second thought; the year on alcoholic bevergaes than we *1/ admission Prices at the tick leading motif in that heavenly an-1 scrape together to preach Christ in * them boomed forth so majestically ’ our homeland and its far-flung line I that you wouM have thought we! of Christian outposts. And that isn’t never .have failed to heed it. funny! It’s something for which to j “Glory”—it rang out—“glory to God hang our heads in shame. It ought to Have you read the Christmas Story to plenty and peace and security and | in the highest ...” ' prompt us to resurrect the sack- recently, in Matthew and in Luke? Do you recall the beauty and state liness of the words that tell of the coming of the Prince oif Peace? Can you read those words without being conscious of a strange nostal gia—a wistfulness for the world He] came to bring us? For ours is not the kind of world of which the angel chorus sang on i that glorious night. Matthew, once a publican in the lush employment of Caesar, told of men both wise and rich who brought their gifts to lay at the feet' of the newly born Mes-! siah. Discerner of political intrigue, ! Matthew wrote of a frightened Her od,- feverishly demanding to know ] the King’s birthplace and foully pre- ! tending homage where only hatred; and fear and murder lighted their j lurid fires in his dark heart. The one time publican listed the princely gifts spread out in homage before the King, and then disclosed the stealth and the expediency of the rich Magi who, fearing to fall into the clutches of the crafty Herod^ went back to their own country by a different route. Luke, physician and artist that he was, spread the wonderment of sim ple shepherds on his canvas, deftly showing them finding their way through the starlight to the inn 1 where He was cradled, to kneel then,' having no gifts but their homage and their love to offer Him for whose coming they had reverently prayed for years. Then Luke spread light and glory through the darkness where only a dun lantern had glowed. The story | erf the Lord shone through the dim- et windows of motion-picture houses,' and its Greatest Gift unless these care enough for the glory of God to | ma g nific ent words from long ago assemble in public worship once a haunt us and challenge us to glorify week or once a month or once be- j n unnumbered ways and in decency, we find rampant insecurity. I Do those words mock us too as we cloth for which the Old Testament After the most taggering expend!- ! feast at our laden tables this Christ- Hebrews had a use! tures of blood and treasure that have 1 mas and go smugly out to sing our Do you get around much among ever been emptied out for peace in neighborhood carols? Is the glory of churches and have you troubled to : Bethlehem and the exultant singing all the history of, the world, war i God our chief concern, the theme notice the attendance ' tween Christmas and Easter. unstinted measure, and then try ear- We’d better look into that — and nestly and laboriously to build the some other matters—if we still have fabric of a world in which both it in us to be mowed when we read righteousness and peace shall flour- again of the shining of the star above ; ish. And We had better be at it in churches of the heavenly voices and the won- quickly! nees and the heavens were a-throb with such music as earth had never I heard before. Listen! Hear it again! 1 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will ...” A lovely picture, complete with sound and such technicolor as Holly- j wood would give a rajah’s ransom to lay its hands onl But that picture mocks us for our failure to build the sort of world for which the Saviour came and died.' It shames us because we have al lowed the Christmas Story to be only a fitfully remembered mural in our minds and no tan enshrined fresco in the holy of holies of our hearts. We turn to it once a year when the lights gleam amid the tinsel and the i trappings on the trees that grace our hearths, but it should be infinitely more than that to us. We need to remember it constantly as a divine challenge to glorify God and build a peaceful world. We should be rest less and intrepid crusaders for the sort of world which the heavenly chorus sang in the wonder of that first Christmas. - j This Christmas 1&48 is no time for* smugness and selfishness. All think ing Christians must feel obligated to bring our world closer and .closer to the ideals of the Prince of Peace. I Your children may be very happy and your home cheerful and bright. There may be gifts for all beneath your roof, and your windows may all be ablaze with lighted stars and can dles, but how poor and dark and embittered and enchained is this world for which the heavenly chorus over Bethlehem had bright hopes! Recently I heard a highly educated and deeply religious Jew as he told of his trip to Europe to visit the Jew ish organizations and see how con ditions were. He spoke of Italy as the “hot spot” in connection with the Jewish crisis in Europe, and said he could not yet reveal some things he had learned there. But he told of small Jewish refugee boys, 8 to 10, many of whom had seen their own fathers and mothers killed before their very eyes. These urchins, he told us, have forgotten how to smile. He deliberately tried to make them laugh but he failed. They had noth- j ing to laugh at! Their shrunken world has become laughterless! But that isn’t all. Those small boys are being trained in the techniques of war, so that they can be shipped to march against Arab armies in the I very land to which the Prince of Peace came! , . Then they are being trained for certain death, you say! Do you think they fear that? They live in a drab and embittered world where smiles have no place and no meaning. Hands — blood-bathed hands — have reached out to strip the bright stars from their dark sky. Shall they be afraid to die when life has had its meaning snatched aw r ay? I Even though we shrink from pes- , simism, we live in days when real-! ism lays a heavy hand upon us. We live in a world where slave labor is ’ flaunted in the face of civilization. 1 The coneentration camps bwilt by Nazi hands are still populous, though under the msh of other than German keepers. The lethal flames of race hatred are being fanned. The gnaw- { ing pangs of hunger havd claimed millions of victims. In a world that has every right, by all that is holy, May the desires of your heart be granted at this glad season and the New Year open its doors of success and happiness to each of us is the wish of your city officials. It's good to know that Christmas i holds the same old warmth and friendly glow. There are wishes old but true in this Christmas greeting, with the same old fashioned friendlinest that we have always had for those about us. CITY of CLINTON L. E. BISHOP. Mayor W. B. OWENS, City Clerk and Treasurer MRS. ARTHUR HOWARD, AaUstant BOARD OF ALDERMEN: Hugh C. Ray, L. L. Copeland. Sr., W. M. McMillan. L. W. Cooper. Woodrow L. WUmb, 3 AND ALL CITY EMPLOYEES Crain* \- T