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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Christmas Celebrations, by Theodore Parker
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Two Christmas Celebrations
+
+Author: Theodore Parker
+
+Release Date: November 5, 2005 [EBook #17006]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jared Fuller
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS,
+
+A.D. I. and MDCCCLV.
+
+
+A Christmas Story for MDCCCLVI.
+
+By Theodore Parker,
+
+Minister of the 28th Congregational Society of Boston.
+
+
+
+
+
+Two Christmas Celebrations.
+
+
+A great many years ago, Augustus Caesar, then Emperor of Rome, ordered
+his mighty realm to be taxed; and so, in Judea, it is said, men went
+to the towns where their families belonged, to be registered for
+assessment. From Nazareth, a little town in the north of Judea, to
+Bethlehem, another little but more famous town in the south, there went
+one Joseph, the carpenter, and his wife Mary,--obscure and poor people,
+both of them, as the story goes. At Bethlehem they lodged in a stable;
+for there were many persons in the town, and the tavern was full. Then
+and there a little boy was born, the son of this Joseph and Mary; they
+named him JEHOSHUA, a common Hebrew name, which we commonly call Joshua;
+but, in his case, we pronounce it JESUS. They laid him in the crib of
+the cattle, which was his first cradle. That was the first Christmas,
+kept thus in a barn, 1856 years ago. Nobody knows the day or the month;
+nay, the year itself is not certain.
+
+After a while the parents went home to Nazareth, where they had other
+sons,--_James_, _Joses_, _Simon_, and _Judas_,--and daughters also;
+nobody knows how many. There the boy JESUS grew up, and it seems
+followed the calling of his father; it is said, in special, that he made
+yokes, ploughs, and other farm-tools. Little is known about his early
+life and means of education. His outside advantages were, no doubt,
+small and poor; but he learned to read and write, and it seems became
+familiar with the chief religious books of his nation, which are still
+preserved in the Old Testament.
+
+At that time there were three languages used in Judea, beside the
+Latin, which was confined to a few officials: 1. The Syro-Chaldaic,--the
+language of business and daily life, the spoken language of the common
+people. 2. The Greek,--the language of the courts of justice and
+official documents; the spoken and written language of the foreign
+traders, the aristocracy, and most of the more cultivated people in the
+great towns. 3. The old Hebrew,--the written and spoken language of the
+learned, of theological schools, of the priests; the language of the Old
+Testament. It seems Jesus understood all three.
+
+At that time the thinking people had outgrown the old forms of religion,
+inherited from their fathers, just as a little girl becomes too stout
+and tall for the clothes which once fitted her babyhood; or as the
+people of New England have now become too rich and refined to live in
+the rough log-cabins, and to wear the coarse, uncomfortable clothes,
+which were the best that could be got two hundred years ago. For mankind
+continually grows wiser and better,--and so the old forms of religion
+are always getting passed by; and the religious doctrines and ceremonies
+of a rude age cannot satisfy the people of an enlightened age, any more
+than the wigwams of the Pequod Indians in 1656 would satisfy the white
+gentlemen and ladies of Boston and Worcester in 1856. The same thing
+happens with the clothes, the tools, and the laws of all advancing
+nations. The human race is at school, and learns through one book after
+another,--going up to higher and higher studies continually. But at that
+time cultivated men had outgrown their old forms of religion,--much of
+the doctrine, many of the ceremonies; and yet they did not quite dare to
+break away from them,--at least in public. So there was a great deal of
+pretended belief, and of secret denial of the popular form of religion.
+The best and most religious men, it seems likely, were those who
+had least faith in what was preached and practised as the authorized
+religion of the land.
+
+In the time of David, many years before the birth of Jesus, the Hebrew
+nation had been very powerful and prosperous; afterwards there followed
+long periods of trouble and of war, civil and domestic; the union of the
+tribes was dissolved, and many calamities befell the people. In their
+times of trouble, religious men said, "God will raise us up a GREAT KING
+like DAVID, to defend and deliver us from our enemies. He will set
+all things right." For the Hebrews looked on David as the Americans
+on WASHINGTON, calling him a "man after God's own heart,"--that is,
+thinking him "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts
+of his countrymen." Sometimes they called this expected Deliverer, the
+MESSIAH, that is the ANOINTED ONE,--a term often applied to a king or
+other great man. Sometimes it was thought this or that special man, a
+king, or general, would be the Messiah, and deliver the nation from its
+trouble. Thus, it seems, that once it was declared that King HEZEKIAH
+would perform this duty; and indeed CRYUS, a foreigner, a king of
+Persia, was declared to be the MESSIAH, the Anointed One. But, at other
+times, they, who declared the Deliverer would come, seem to have had no
+particular man in their mind, but felt sure that somebody would come. At
+length the expectation of a Messiah became quite common; it was a
+fixed fact in the public opinion. But some thought the Deliverer, the
+Redeemer, the second David, would be one thing, some another; just
+as men now call their favorite candidate for the presidency a second
+Washington; but some think he will be a Whig, and support the Fugitive
+Slave Bill; some, a Democrat, and favor the enslavement of Kansas; while
+others are sure he will be a Republican, and prohibit the extension of
+Slavery; while yet others look for some Anointed Politician to abolish
+that wicked institution clear out of the land.
+
+When the nation was in great peril, the people said, "the Messiah
+will soon come and restore all things;" but probably they had no very
+definite notion about the Deliverer or the work he was to do.
+
+When Jesus was about thirty years old, he began to speak in public.
+He sometimes preached in the Meeting-Houses, which were called
+Synagogues,--but often out of doors, wherever he could gather the people
+about him. He broke away from the old established doctrines and forms.
+He was a come-outer from the Hebrew church. He told men that religion
+did not consist in opinions or ceremonies, but in right feelings and
+right actions; that goodness shown to men was worth more than sacrifice
+offered to God. In short he made Religion consist in Piety, which is
+Love to God, and Benevolence, which is Love to Men. He utterly forbid
+all vengeance, and told his followers "love your enemies, bless them
+that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
+despitefully use you and persecute you." He taught that the soul was
+immortal,--a common opinion at that time,--and declared that men who
+had been good and kind here would be eternally happy hereafter, but the
+unkind and wicked would be cast "into everlasting fire prepared for the
+devil and his angels." He did not represent religion as a mysterious
+affair, the mere business of the priesthood, limited to the temple and
+the Sabbath, and the ceremonies thereof; it was the business of every
+day,--a great manly and womanly life.
+
+Men were looking for the ANOINTED, the Messiah, and waiting for him to
+come. Jesus said, "I am the Messiah; follow me in the religious life,
+and all will be well. God is just as near to us now, as of old time to
+Moses and Elias. A greater than Solomon is here. The Kingdom of Heaven,
+a good time coming, is close at hand!"
+
+No doubt he made mistakes. He taught that there is a devil,--a being
+absolutely evil, who seeks to ruin all men; that the world would soon
+come to an end, and a new and extraordinary state would miraculously
+take place, in which his followers would be abundantly rewarded, and his
+twelve most conspicuous friends would sit "sit on twelve thrones judging
+the twelve tribes of Israel." Strange things were to happen in this good
+time which was coming. But spite of that, his main doctrine, which he
+laid most stress upon, was, that religion is piety and benevolence; for
+he made these the chief commandments,--"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
+with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; thou
+shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
+
+He went about in various part of the country, talking, preaching,
+lecturing, making speeches, and exhorting the people to love each other
+and live a noble, manly life,--each doing to all as he would wish them
+to do to him. He recommended the most entire trust in God. The people
+came to him in great crowds, and loved to hear him speak; for in those
+days nobody preached such doctrines,--or indeed any doctrines with such
+power to convince and persuade earnest men. The people heard him gladly,
+and followed him from place to place, and could not hear enough of
+him and his new form of religion,--so much did it commend itself to
+simple-hearted women and men. Some of them wanted to make him their
+king.
+
+But while the people loved him, the great men of his time--the great
+Ministers in the Hebrew church, and the great Politicians in the
+Hebrew state--hated him, and were afraid of him. No doubt some of
+these ministers did not understand him, but yet meant well in their
+opposition; for if a man had all his life been thinking about the "best
+manner of circumcision," or about "the mode of kneeling in prayer," he
+would be wholly unable to understand what Jesus said about love to God
+and to man. But no doubt some of them knew he was right, and hated him
+all the more for that very reason. When they talked in their libraries,
+they admitted that they had no faith in the old forms of religion; but
+when they appeared in public they made broad their phylacteries, and
+enlarged the borders of their garments; and when they preached in their
+pulpits, they laid heavy burdens on men's shoulders, and grievous to be
+borne. The same thing probably took place then which has happened ever
+since; and they who had no faith in God or man, were the first to accuse
+this religious genius with being an infidel!
+
+So, one night they seized Jesus, tried him before daylight next morning,
+condemned him, and put him to death. The seizure, the trial, the
+execution, were not effected in the regular legal form,--they did not
+occupy more than twelve hours of time,--but were done in the same wicked
+way that evil men also used in Boston when they made Mr. Simms and Mr.
+Burns slaves for life. But Jesus made no resistance; at the "trial"
+there was no "defence;" nay, he did not even feel angry with those
+wicked men; but, as he hung on the cross, almost the last words he
+uttered were these,--"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they
+do." Such wicked men killed Jesus, just as in Old England, three hundred
+years ago, the Catholics used to burn Protestants alive; or as in New
+England, two hundred years ago, our Protestant fathers hung the Quakers
+and whipped the Baptists; or as the Slaveholders in the South now beat
+an Abolitionist, or whip a man to death who insists on working for
+himself and his family, and not merely for men who only steal what he
+earns; or as some in Massachusetts, a few years ago, sought to put in
+jail such as speak against the wickedness of Slavery.
+
+After Jesus was dead and buried, some of his followers thought that he
+rose from the dead and came back to life again within three days, and
+showed himself to a few persons here and there,--coming suddenly and
+then vanishing, as a "ghost" is said to appear all at once and then
+vanish, or as the souls of other dead men are thought to "appear" to the
+spiritualists, who do not, however, _see_ the ghosts, but only _hear_
+and _feel_ them. Very strange stories were told about his coming to men
+through closed doors, and talking with them,--just as in our time the
+"mediums" say the soul of Dr. Franklin, or Dr. Channing, or some great
+man comes and makes "spiritual communication." They say, that at last,
+he "was parted from them, and carried up into heaven," and "sat on the
+right hand of God."
+
+His friends and followers went about from place to place, and preached
+his doctrines; but gradually added many more of their own. They said
+that he was the Anointed, the Messiah, the Christ, who was foretold in
+the Old Testament, and that did strange things called Miracles; that at
+a marriage feast, where wine was wanted, he changed several barrels of
+water into wine of excellent quality; that he fed five thousand men with
+five loaves, walked on the water, opened the eyes, ears, and mouths of
+men born blind, deaf, and dumb, and at a touch or a word brought back
+a maimed limb. They called him a SAVIOUR, sent from God to redeem the
+Jews, and them only, from eternal damnation; next, said that he was the
+Saviour of all mankind,--Jews and Gentiles too; that he was a Sacrifice
+offered to appease the wrath of God, who had become so angry with his
+children that he intended to torment them all forever in hell. By and by
+his followers were called CHRISTIANS,--that is, men who took Jesus for
+the Christ of the Old Testament; and in their preaching they did not
+make much account of the noble ideas Jesus taught about man, God, and
+religion, or of his own great manly life; but they thought his DEATH
+was the great thing,--and that was the means to save men from eternal
+torment. Then they went further, and declared that Jesus was not the
+son of Joseph and Mary, but THE SON OF GOD and Mary,--miraculously born;
+next, that he was GOD'S ONLY SON, who had never had any child before,
+and never would have another; again, that he was a GOD who had lived
+long before Jesus was born, but for the then first time took the human
+form; and at last, that he was THE ONLY GOD, the Creator and Providence
+of all the universe; but was man also, the GOD-MAN. Thus, gradually,
+the actual facts of his history were lost out of sight, overgrown with
+a great mass of fictions, poetic and other stories, which make him a
+mythological character; the Jesus of fact was well-nigh forgot,--the
+Christ of fiction took his place.
+
+Well, after the death of Jesus, his followers went from town to town,
+from country to country, preaching "Christ and him crucified;" they
+taught that the world would soon end, for Jesus would come back and
+"judge the world," raising the dead,--and then all who had believed in
+him would be "saved," but the rest would be "lost forever;" a new world
+would take the place of the old, and the Christians would have a good
+time in that Kingdom of Heaven. This new "spiritual world" would contain
+some extraordinary things; thus, "every grape-vine would have ten
+thousand trunks, every trunk ten thousand branches, every branch ten
+thousand twigs, every twig ten thousand clusters, every cluster ten
+thousand grapes, and every grape would yield twenty-five kilderkins of
+wine."
+
+But everywhere they recommended a life of sobriety and self-denial,
+of industry and of kind deeds,--a life of religion. Everywhere the
+Christians were distinguished for their charity and general moral
+excellence. But the Jews hated them, and drove them away; the Heathens
+hated them, and put many to death with dreadful tortures; all the
+magistrates were hostile. But when the common people saw a man or a
+woman come out and die rather than be false to a religious emotion or
+idea, there were always some who said, "That is a strange thing,--a man
+dying for his God. There must be something in that religion! Let us
+also become Christians." So the new doctrine spread wide; not the simple
+religion of Jesus,--piety and morality; but what his followers called
+Christianity,--a mixture of good and evil. In two or three hundred years
+it had gone round the civilized world. Other forms of religion fell to
+pieces, one by one. Judaism went down with the Hebrew people, Heathenism
+went down, and Christianity took heir place. The son of Joseph and Mary,
+born in a stable, and killed by the Jews, was worshipped as the ONLY GOD
+all round the civilized world. The new form of religion spread very
+much as SPIRITUALISM has done in our time, only in the midst of worse
+persecution than the Mormons have suffered. At this day there are some
+two hundred and sixty millions of people who worship Jesus of Nazareth;
+most of them think he was God, the only God. But a small number of men
+believe that he was no God, no miraculous person, but a good man with a
+genius for religion. All the Christians think he was full of all manner
+of loving kindness and tender mercy. So all over the world to-day,
+among the two hundred and sixty millions of Christians, there is great
+rejoicing on account of his birth, which it is erroneously supposed took
+place on the 25th of December, in the year ONE. They sing psalms, and
+preach sermons, and offer prayers, and make a famous holiday. But the
+greater part of the people think only of the festival, and very little
+of the noble boy who was born so long ago in a tavern-barn in Judea. And
+of all the ministers who talk so much about the old Christ, there are
+not many who would welcome a new man who should come and do for this
+age the great service which Jesus did for his own time. But, as on the
+Fourth of July, slaveholders, and border ruffians, and kidnappers, and
+men who believe there is no higher law, ring their bells, and fire their
+cannons, and let off their rockets, making more noise than all those
+who honor and defend the great Principles of Humanity which make
+Independence Day famous,--so on Christmas, not only religious people,
+but Scribes, and Pharisees, and Hypocrites make a great talk about
+"Christ and him crucified;" when, if a man of genius for religion were
+now to appear, they would be the first to call out "Infidel!" "Infidel!"
+and would kill him if it were possible or safe.
+
+
+
+Well, one rainy Sunday evening, in 1855, just twelve days before
+Christmas, in the little town of Soitgoes, in Worcester County, Mass.,
+Aunt Kindly and Uncle Nathan were sitting in their comfortable parlor
+before a bright wood-fire. It was about eight o'clock, a stormy night;
+now it snowed a little, then it rained, then snowed again, seeming as if
+the weather was determined on some kind of storm, but had not yet made
+up its mind for snow, rain, or hail. Now the wind roared in the chimney,
+and started out of her sleep a great tortoise-shell cat, that lay on
+the rug which Aunt Kindly had made for her. Tabby opened her yellow eyes
+suddenly, and erected her _smellers_, but finding it was only the wind
+and not a mouse that made the noise, she stretched out a great paw and
+yawned, and then cuddled her head down so as to show her white throat,
+and went to sleep again.
+
+Uncle Nathan and Aunt Kindly were brother and sister. He was a little
+more than sixty, a fine, hale, hearty-looking, handsome man as you could
+find in a summer's day, with white hair and a thoughtful, benevolent
+face, adorned with a full beard as white as his venerable head. Aunt
+Kindly was five-and-forty or thereabouts; her face a little sad when you
+looked at it carelessly in its repose, but commonly it seemed cheerful,
+full of thought and generosity, and handsome withal; for, as her brother
+told her, "God administered to you the sacrement of beauty in your
+childhood, and you will walk all your life in the loveliness thereof."
+
+Uncle Nathan had been an India merchant from his twenty-fifth to about
+his fiftieth year, and had now, for some years, been living with his
+sister in his fine, large house,--rich and well educated, devoting his
+life to study, works of benevolence, to general reform and progress. It
+was he who had the first anti-slavery lecture delivered in the town,
+and actually persuaded Mr. Homer, the old minister, to let Mr. Garrison
+stand in the pulpit on a Wednesday night and preach deliverance unto
+the captives; but it could be done only once, for the clergymen of the
+neighborhood thought anti-slavery a desecration of their new wooden
+meeting-houses. It was he, too, who asked Lucy Stone to lecture on
+woman's rights, but the communicants thought it would not do to let a
+"woman speak in the church," and so he gave it up. All the country knew
+and loved him, for he was a natural overseer of the poor, and guardian
+of the widow and the orphan. How many a girl in the Normal School every
+night put up a prayer of thanksgiving for him; how many a bright boy
+in Hanover and Cambridge was equally indebted for the means of high
+culture, and if not so thankful, why, Uncle Nathan knew that gratitude
+is too nice and delicate a plant to grow on common soil. Once, when
+he was twenty-two or three, he was engaged to a young woman of Boston,
+while he was a clerk in a commission store. But her father, a skipper
+from Beverly or Cape Cod, who continued vulgar while he became rich,
+did not like the match. "It won't do," said he, "for a poor young man to
+marry into one of our fust families; what is the use of aristocracy if
+no distinction is to be made, and our daughters are to marry Tom, Dick,
+and Harry?" But Amelia took the matter sorely to heart; she kept her
+love, yet fell into a consumption, and so wasted away; or, as one of
+the neighbors said, "she was executed on the scaffold of an upstart's
+vulgarity." Nathan loved no woman in like manner afterwards, but after
+her death went to India, and remained years long. When he returned and
+established his business in Boston, he looked after her relations, who
+had fallen into poverty. Nay, out of the mire of infamy he picked up
+what might have been his nephews and nieces, and, by generous breeding,
+wiped off from them the stain of their illicit birth. He never spoke of
+poor Amelia; but he kept a little locket in one end of his purse; none
+ever saw it but his sister, who often observed him sitting with it in
+his hand, hand hour by hour looking into the fire of a winter's night,
+seeming to think of distant things. She never spoke to him then, but
+left him alone with his recollections and his dreams. Some of the
+neighbors said he "worshipped it;" others called it "a talisman." So
+indeed it was, and by its enchantment he became a young man once more,
+and walked through the moonlight to meet an angel, and with her enter
+their kingdom of heaven. Truly it was a talisman; yet if _you_ had
+looked at it, you would have seen nothing in it but a little twist of
+golden hairs tied together with a blue silken thread.
+
+Aunt Kindly had never been married; yet once in her life, also, the
+right man seemed to offer, and the blossom of love opened with a dear
+prophetic fragrance in her heart. But as her father was soon after
+struck with palsy, she told her lover they must wait a little while, for
+her first duty must be to the feeble old man. But the impatient swain
+went off and pinned himself to the flightiest little humming-bird in all
+Soitgoes, and in a month was married, having a long life before him for
+bitterness and repentance. After the father died, Kindly remained at
+home; and when Nathan returned, years after, they made one brotherly and
+sisterly household out of what might else have gladdened two connubial
+homes. "Not every bud becomes a flower."
+
+Uncle Nathan sat there, his locket in his hand, looking into the fire;
+and as the wind roared in the chimney, and the brands crackled and
+snapped, he thought he saw faces in the fire; and when the sparks rose
+up in a little cloud, which the country children call "the people coming
+out of the meeting-house," he thought he saw faces in the fire; they
+seemed to take the form of the boys and girls as he had lately seen them
+rushing out of the Union School-house, which held all the children
+in the village; and as he recognized one after the other, he began
+to wonder and conjecture what would be the history of this or that
+particular child. While he sat thus in his waking dream, he looked
+fixedly at the locket and the blue thread which tied together those
+golden rays of a summer sun, now all set and vanished and gone, but
+which was once the morning light of all his promised days; and as his
+eyes, full of waking dreams, fell on the fire again, a handsome young
+woman seemed to come forth from between the brands, and the locks of her
+hair floated out and turned into boys and girls, of various ages, from
+babyhood to youth; all looking somewhat like him and also like the
+fair young woman. But the brand rolled over, and they all vanished in a
+little puff of smoke.
+
+Aunt Kindly sat at the table reading the Bible. I don't know why she
+read the Gospels, for she knew them all four by heart, and could repeat
+them from end to end. But Sunday night, when none of the neighbors were
+there, and she and Nathan were all alone, she took her mother's great
+squared Bible and read therein. This night she had been reading,
+in chapter xxxi. of Proverbs, the character of a noble woman; and,
+finishing the account, turned and read the 28th verse a second time,--
+
+
+_"Her children rise up and call her blessed."_
+
+
+I do not know why she read _that_ verse, nor what she thought of it; but
+she repeated it to herself three or four times,--
+
+
+_"Her children rise up and call her blessed."_
+
+
+As she was taking up the venerable old volume to lay it away for the
+night, it opened by accident at Luke xiv., and her eye fell on verses
+12, 13--
+
+
+_"But when thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends not
+thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbor, lest they also
+call thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a
+feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind; and thou shalt be
+blessed; for they cannot recompense thee."_
+
+
+She sat a moment recollecting that Jesus said,--
+
+
+_"Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of
+such is the kingdom of heaven;"_ and had also denounced woe on all such
+as cause these little ones to offend, and declared that in heaven their
+angels continually behold the face of the Father.
+
+After a few minutes she turned to Nathan, who had replaced the brands
+in hopes to bring back the vision by his "faculty divine," and
+said,--"Brother, I wonder if it would not be better to make a little
+change in our way of keeping Christmas. It is a good thing to call
+together the family once a year,--our brothers and sisters and nephews
+and nieces,--we all of us love the children so much, and have a good
+time. I would not give that up. The dinner is very well; but the evening
+goes off a little heavy; that whist playing, we both dislike it; so much
+talk about such trifles. What if we should have a Child's Festival on
+Christmas night, and ask all the little folks in the town to your nice
+New Hall,--it will be done before that time, won't it? It will be a good
+christening for it; and Mr. Garrison, whom you have asked to speak there
+on New-Year's day, will like it all the better if baptized by these
+little ones, who 'are of the kingdom of heaven.' Surely little children
+may run before the great Liberator."
+
+"Just what I was thinking of," said Uncle Nathan; "as I looked at the
+sparks of fire, I was saying to myself, 'I have not quite done my duty
+to the boys and girls in Soitgoes.' You and I," said he, rather sadly,
+putting the locket in his purse and pressing the gold ring gently down
+on it, "you and I have no children. But I sometimes feel like adopting
+all the boys and girls in the parish; and when I saw that great troop of
+them come out of the school-house last week, I felt a little reproach,
+that, while looking after their fathers and mothers, I had not done more
+for the children."
+
+"I am sure you gave the town that great new school-house," said Kindly.
+
+"Yes, that's nothing. I furnished the money and the general idea; Eliot
+Cabot drew the plan,--capital plan it is too; and Jo Atkins took the
+job. I paid the bills. But how will you arrange it for Christmas?"
+
+"Well," said Kindly, who had an organizing head, "we'll have a
+Children's Party. I'll ask all under fifteen, and if some older ones
+come in, no matter; I hope they will. Of course the fathers and mothers
+are to come and look on, and have a real good time. We will have them
+in the New Hall. I wonder why they call it the New Hall; there never was
+any old one. We will have some plain cake and lemonade, music, dancing,
+little games, and above all a CHRISTMAS TREE. There shall be gifts on
+it for all the children under twelve. The people who are well to do will
+give something to buy the gifts for the children of their own standing,
+and you and I will make up what is wanting for the poor ones. We'll have
+little games as well as a dance. Mrs. Toombs,--Sally Wilkins that used
+to be,--the minister's wife, has a deal of skill in setting little
+folks to play; she has not had much use for it, poor thing, since her
+marriage, six or seven years ago. What a wild romp she used to be! but
+as good as Sunday all the time. Sally will manage the games; I'll see to
+the dancing."
+
+"The children can't dance," said Uncle Nathan; "you know there never was
+a dancing-school in town."
+
+"Yes they can," said Kindly. "The girls will dance by nature, and the
+boys will fall in, rather more clumsily of course. But it will do well
+enough for us. Besides, they have all had more practice than you think
+for. You shall get the pine-tree, or hemlock, and buy the things,--I'll
+tell you what, to-morrow morning,--and I will manage the rest."
+
+The next morning it was fine, bright weather; and the garments blossomed
+white on the clotheslines all round the village; and with no small
+delight the housewives looked on these perennial hanging-gardens,
+periodically blooming, even in a New England winter. Uncle Nathan
+mentioned his sister's plan to one of his neighbors, who said, "Never'll
+go here!" "But why not?" "Oh, there's Deacon Willberate and Squire Allen
+are at loggerheads about the allusion to slavery which Rev. Mr. Freeman
+made in his prayer six months ago. They had a quarrel then, you know,
+and have not spoken since. If the Deacon likes it, the Squire won't, and
+_vice versa_. Then, Colonel Stearns has had a quarrel and a lawsuit with
+John Wilkinson about that little patch of meadow. They won't go; each is
+afraid of meeting the other. Half the parish has some _miff_ against the
+other half. I believe there never was such a place for little quarrels
+since the Dutch took Holland. There's a tempest in every old woman's
+teapot. Widow Seedyweedy won't let her daughters come, because, as she
+says, you are a temperance man, and said, at the last meeting, that rum
+made many a widow in Soitgoes, and sent three quarters of the paupers to
+the almshouse. She declared, the next day, that you were 'personal, and
+injured her feelings; and 'twas all because you was rich and she was a
+poor lone widow, with nothing but her God to trust in.'"
+
+"Oh, dear me," said Uncle Nathan, "it is a queer world,--a queer world;
+but after all it's the best we've got. Let us try to make it better
+still."
+
+Aunt Kindly could not sleep much all night for thinking over the
+details of the plan. Before morning it all lay clear in her mind. Monday
+afternoon she went round to talk with the neighbors and get all things
+ready. Most of them liked it; but some thought it was "queer," and
+wondered "what our pious fathers would think of keeping Christmas in New
+England." A few had "religious scruples," and would do nothing about it.
+The head of the Know-nothing lodge said it was "a Furrin custom, and I
+want none o' them things; but Ameriky must be ruled by 'Mericans; and
+we'll have no Disserlutions of the Union, and no Popish ceremonies like
+a Christmas Tree. If you begin so, you'll have the Pope here next, and
+the fulfilment of the seventeenth chapter of Revelations."
+
+Hon. Jeduthan Stovepipe also opposed it. He was a rich hatter from
+Boston, and a "great Democrat;" who, as he said, had lately "purchased
+grounds in Soitgoes, intending to establish a family." He "would not
+like to have Cinderella Jane and Edith Zuleima mix themselves up with
+widow Wheeler's children,--whose father was killed on the railroad five
+or six years before,--for their mother takes in washing. No, Sir," said
+he; "it will not do. You have no daughters to marry, no sons to provide
+for. It will do well enough for you to talk about 'equality,' about
+'meeting the whole neighborhood,' and that sort of thing; but I intend
+to establish a family; and I set my face against all promiscuous
+assemblages of different classes of society. It is bad enough on
+Sundays, when each man can sit buttoned up in his own pew; but a
+festival for all sorts and conditions of children,--its is contrary
+to the genius of our republican institutions." His wife thought quite
+differently; but the poor thing did not dare say her soul was her own
+in his presence. Aunt Kindly went off with rather a heavy heart,
+remembering that Jeduthan was the son of a man sent to the State Prison
+for horse stealing, and born in the almshouse at Bankton Four Corners,
+and had been bound out as apprentice by the selectmen of the town.
+
+At the next house, Miss Robinson liked it; but hoped she "would not ask
+that family o'niggers,--that would make it so vulgar;" and she took a
+large pinch of Scotch snuff, and waddled off to finish her ironing.
+Mrs. Deacon Jackson--she was a second wife, with no children--hoped that
+"Sally Bright would not be asked, because her father was in the State
+Prison for passing counterfeit money; and the example would be bad, not
+friendly to law and order." But as Aunt Kindly went out, she met the old
+Deacon himself,--one of those dear, good, kind souls, who were born
+to be deacons of the Christian religion, looking like one of the eight
+beatitudes; and as you stopped to consider which of that holy family he
+most resembled, you found he looked like all of them. "Well!" said he,
+"now ma'am, I like that. That will be a _Christian_ Christmas,--not a
+Heathen Christmas. Of course you'll ask all the children of 'respectable
+people;' but I want the _poor ones_, too. Don't let anybody frighten you
+from asking Sip Tidy's children. I don't know that I like colored folks
+particularly, but I think God does, or he would not have colored 'em,
+you know. Then do let us have all of Jo Bright's little ones. When I get
+into the State Prison, I hope somebody'll look after my family. I know
+_you_ will. I don't mean to go there; but who knows? 'If everybody had
+his deserts, who would escape a flogging?' as the old saying is. Here's
+five dollars towards expenses; and if that ain't enough, I'll make it
+ten. Elizabeth will help you make the cake, &c. You shall have as many
+eggs as you want. Hens hain't laid well since Thanksgiving; now they do
+nothing else."
+
+Captain Weldon let one iron cool on the anvil, and his bellows sigh out
+its last breath in the fire and burn the other iron, while he talked
+with Aunt Kindly about it. The Captain was a widower, about fifty years
+old, with his house full of sons and daughters. He liked it. Patty, his
+oldest daughter, could help. There were two barrels of apples, three
+or four dollars in money, and more if need be. "That is what I call the
+democracy of Christianity," said the good man. "I shall see half the
+people in the village; they'll be in here to get their horses corked
+before the time comes, and I'll help the thing along a little. I'll
+bring the old folks, and we'll sing some of the old tunes; all of us
+will have a real old-fashioned good time." Almira, his daughter, about
+eighteen years old, ran out to talk with Kindly, and offered to do all
+sorts of work, if she would only tell her what. "Perhaps Edward
+will come, too," said Kindly. "Do you want him?" asked Almira. "Oh,
+certainly; want all the LOVERS," replied she,--not looking to see how
+her face kindled, like a handsome morning in May.
+
+One sour old man, who lived off the road, did not like it. 'Twas a
+Popish custom; and said, "I always fast on Christmas." His family knew
+_they_ did, and many a day besides; for he was so covetous that he
+grudged the water which turned his own mill.
+
+Mr. Toombs, a young minister, who had been settled six or seven years,
+and loved the commandments of religion much better than the creed of
+theology, entered into it at once, and promised to come, and not wear
+his white cravat. His wife, Sally Wilkins that used to be, took to it
+with all her might.
+
+So all things were made ready. Farmers sent in apples and boiled
+chestnuts; and there were pies, and cookies, and all manner of creature
+comforts. The German who worked for the cabinet-maker decorated the
+hall, just as he had done in Wittenberg often before; for he was an
+exile from the town where Martin Luther sleeps, and his Katherine, under
+the same slab. There were branches of Holly with their red berries,
+Wintergreen and Pine boughs, and Hemlock and Laurel, and such other
+handsome things as New England can afford even in winter. Besides,
+Captain Weldon brought a great Orange-tree, which he and Susan had
+planted the day after their marriage, nearly thirty years before. "Like
+Christmas itself," as he said,--"it is a history and a prophecy; full of
+fruit and flowers, both." Roses, and Geraniums, and Chrysanthemums, and
+Oleanders were there, adding to the beauty.
+
+All the children in the village were there. Sally Bright wore the medal
+she won the last quarter at the Union School. Sip Tidy's six children
+were there; and all the girls and boys from the poor-house. The Widow
+Wheeler and her children thought no more of the railroad accident.
+Captain Weldon, Deacon Jackson and his wife, and the Minister were
+there; all the Selectmen, and the Town Clerk, and the Schoolmasters and
+Schoolma'ams, and the Know-nothing Representative from the South Parish;
+great, broad-shouldered farmers came in, with Baldwin apples in their
+cheeks as well as in their cellars at home, and their trim tidy wives.
+Eight or ten Irish children came also,--Bridget, Rosanna, Patrick, and
+Michael, and Mr. And Mrs. O'Brien themselves. Aunt Kindly had her piano
+there, and played and sung.
+
+Didn't they all have a good time? Old Joe Roe, the black fiddler, from
+Beaver Brook, Mill Village, was over there; and how he did play! how
+they did dance! Commonly, as the young folks said, he could play only
+one tune, "Joe Roe and I;" for it is true that his sleepy violin did
+always seem to whine out, "_Joe Roe and I, Joe Roe and I, Joe Roe and
+I_." But now the old fiddle was wide awake. He cut capers on it; and
+made it laugh, and cry, and whistle, and snort, and scream. He held it
+close to his ear, and rolled up the whites of his eyes, and laughed a
+great, loud, rollicking laugh; and he made his fiddle laugh, too, right
+out.
+
+The young people had their games. Boston, Puss in the Corner, Stir
+you must, Hunt the Squirrel round the Woods, Blind Man's Buff, and
+Jerusalem. Mr. Atkins, who built the hall, and was a strict Orthodox man
+a Know-nothing, got them to play "Break the Pope's neck," which made a
+deal of fun. The oldest people sung some of the old New England tunes,
+in the old New England way. How well they went off! in particular,
+
+     "How beauteous are their feet
+      Who stand on Zion's Hill;
+      And bring salvation on their tongues,
+      And words of peace reveal."
+
+But the great triumph of all was the Christmas Tree. How big it was!
+a large stout Spruce in the upper part of the hall. It bore a gift for
+every child in the town. Two little girls had the whooping cough, and
+could not come out; but there were two playthings for them also, given
+to their brothers to be taken home. St. Nicolas--it was Almira Weldon's
+lover--distributed the gifts.
+
+Squire Stovepipe came in late, without any of the "family" that he was
+so busy in "establishing," but was so cold that it took him a good while
+to warm up to the general temperature of the meeting. But he did at
+length; and talked with the Widow Wheeler, and saw all her well-managed
+children, and felt ashamed of his meanness only ten days before. Deacon
+Willberate saw his son Ned dancing with Squire Allen's rosy daughter,
+Matilda,--for the young people cared more for each other than for all
+the allusions to slavery in all the prayers and sermons too, of the
+whole world,--and it so reminded him of the time when he also danced
+with _his_ Matilda,--not openly at Christmas celebrations, but by
+stealth,--that he went straight up to his neighbor; "Squire Allen,"
+said he, "give me your hand. New Year's is a good day to square just
+accounts; Christmas is not a bad time to settle needles quarrels. I
+suppose you and I, both of us, may be wrong. I know I have been for one.
+Let by-gones be by-gones." "Exactly so," said the Squire. "I am sorry,
+for my part. Let us wipe out the old score, and chalk up nothing for the
+future but good feelings. If a prayer parted, perhaps a benediction will
+unite us; for Katie and Ned look as if they meant we should be more than
+mere neighbors. Let us begin by becoming friends."
+
+Colonel Stone took his youngest daughter, who had a club-foot, up to
+the Christmas tree for her present, and there met face to face with
+his enemy's oldest girl, who was just taking the gift for her youngest
+brother, Robert,--holding him up in her bare arms that he might reach
+it himself. But she could not raise him quite high enough, and so the
+Colonel lifted up the little fellow till he clutched the prize; and when
+he set him down, his hands full of sugar-cake, asked him, "Whose bright
+little five-year-old is this? What is your name, blue eyes?" "Bobbie
+Nilkinson," was the answer. It went right to the Colonel's heart. "It
+is Christmas," said he; "and the dear Jesus himself said, 'Suffer little
+children to come unto me.' Well, well, he said something to us old
+folks, too: 'If thy brother trespass against thee,' &c., and 'If thou
+bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath
+aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar; first be
+reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.'" He walked
+about awhile, thinking, and then found his neighbor. "Mr. Wilkinson,"
+said he, "it is bad enough that you and I should quarrel in law, but let
+us be friends in the gospel. As I looked at your little boy, and held
+him up in my arms, and found out whose son he was, I felt ashamed that I
+had ever quarreled with his father. Here is my hand, if you think fit
+to take it." "With all my heart," said Wilkinson. "I fear I was more to
+blame than you. But we can't help the past; let us make amends for the
+future. I hope we shall have many a merry Christmas together in this
+world and the next. Perhaps Uncle Nathan can settle our land-quarrel
+better than any jury in Worcester county."
+
+Mr. Smith, the Know-nothing representative, was struck with the bright
+face of one of the little girls who wore a school-medal, and asked her
+name. "Bridget O'Brien, your honor," was the answer. "Well, well," said
+he, "I guess Uncle Nathan is half right; 'it's all prejudice.' I don't
+like the Irish, _politically_. But after all, the Pope will have to
+make a pretty long arm to reach round Aunt Kindly, and clear through the
+Union School-house and spoil Miss Bridget,--a pretty long arm to do all
+that."
+
+So it went on all round the room. "That is what I call the Christian
+Sacrament," said Deacon Jackson to Captain Weldon. "Ah, yes," replied
+the blacksmith; "it is a feast of love. Look there; Colonel Stearns and
+John Wilkinson have not spoken for years. Now it is all made up. Both
+have forgotten that little strip of Beaver-gray meadow, which has
+cost them so much money and hard words and in itself is not worth the
+lawyer's fees."
+
+How the children played! how they all did dance! And of the whole
+sportive company not one footed the measure so neat as little Hattie
+Tidy, the black man's daughter. "What a shame to enslave a race of such
+persons," said Mr. Stovepipe. "Yet I went in for the Fugitive Slave
+Bill, and was one of Marshal Tukey's 'fifteen hundred gentlemen of
+property and standing.' My God forgive me!" "Amen," said Mr. Broadside,
+a great, stout, robust farmer; "I stood by till the Nebraska Bill put
+slavery into Kansas, then I went right square over to the anti-slavery
+side. I shall stick there forever. Dr Lord may try and excuse slavery
+just as much as he likes. I know what all that means. He don't catch old
+birds with chaff."
+
+Uncle Nathan went about the room talking with the men and women; they
+all knew him, and felt well acquainted with such a good-natured face;
+while Aunt Kindly, with the nicer tact of a good woman, introduced the
+right persons to each other, and so promoted happiness among those too
+awkward to obtain it alone or unhelped. Besides this, she took special
+care of the boys and girls from the poor-house.
+
+What an appetite the little folks had for the good things! How the old
+ones helped them dispose of these creature comforts! while such as were
+half way between, were too busy with other matters to think much of the
+eatables. Solomon Jenkins and Katie Edmunds had had a falling out. He
+was the miller at Stony Brook; but the "course of true love never
+did run smooth" with him; he could not coax Katie's to brook into his
+stream; it would turn off some other way. But that night Katie herself
+broke down the hindrance, and the two little brooks became one great
+stream of love, and flowed on together, inseparable; now dimpling,
+deepening, and whirling away full of beauty towards the great ocean of
+eternity.
+
+Uncle Nathan and Aunt Kindly, how happy they were, seeing the joy of
+all the company! they looked like two new Redeemers,--which indeed
+they were. The minister said,--"Well, I have been preaching charity and
+forgiveness and a cheerful happiness all my life, now I see signs of
+the 'good time coming.' There's forgiveness of injuries," pointing
+to Colonel Stearns and Mr. Wilkinson; "old enemies reconciled. All my
+sermons don't seem to accomplish so much as your Christmas Festival,
+Mr. Robinson," said he, addressing Uncle Nathan. "We only watered the
+ground," said Aunt Kindly, "where the seed was long since sown by other
+hands; only it does seem to come up abundantly, and all at once." Then
+the minister told the people a new Christmas story; and before they went
+home they all joined together and sung this hymn to the good tune of Old
+Hundred:
+
+     "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
+     Does his successive journeys run;
+     His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
+     Till moons shall wax and wane no more.
+
+     Blessings abound where'er he reigns;
+     The prisoner leaps to loose his chains;
+     The weary find eternal rest,
+     And all the sons of want are bless'd."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Two Christmas Celebrations, by Theodore Parker
+
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