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Goodwin's Weekly I
I VOL. XVIII SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, DECEMBER 17 1910 No 9 I
I PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.
II NINTH YEAR
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HKc7"gOODWIN .... Editor
B Christmas Day
DP OLD the heathens celebrated on a certain
day each year the harvest that had come to
them. Before the earth had sunk into its
Hwnnual sleep it bad brought forth enough of food
Hi tide man and beast over until once more, its
Btest being over, it would put out its spring
Blooms, bring back the migratory birds that
Ktey might again raise their broods and fill
Hfe air with joyous songs, which were songs of
Baise for the return of the warm sunshine, at the
Hjjame time songs of hope for the harvest that was
Hk) be. The people on this day poured out obla
Htlons and offered sacrifices to Zeus, to Hera to
Geres, to Hermes the light of the sun to the
Horae, to Pomone to all the gods and goddes
Hses who annually, in one or another capacity, had
jbrought their harvests. The festival was carried
gn in games and races and feasting it was a time
Hof unalloyed gladness for the blessings that had
come, for the blessings hoped for.
HI But still the gladness was earthborn, the hope
Hvas limited to this life. But at last there came a
Blay, the events of which were to dissolve the
Bnyths of the ages; to broaden the visions of men
to beyond the stars; to give to man a dignity
Honly a little below that of the angels, and to ex
Hand the narrow hopes that before had been so
Umited, to one that held eternal life in its scope.
Hpie story as told in the New Testament is a sim
ple one, but no other statement inscribed in the
writings of men Is so fraught with grandeur, with
majesty; or with a promise so blinding in its
splendor. The simple words, "Peace on earth and
Hto man good will," in their fullness, meant that a
Bime was to come when wars were to cease; the
pear not!" was, too, a promise that there was
to come a time when pain was to be banished and
fee eva,yo itself was t0 lose lts darkness, and its
chill. The soft light that shone around the shep
herds was a symbol of that time to come when
tho universe should all be lighted and in the
jjbuls of men there should no longer be any dark
H ttibught; and when man, all his baser nature elim
inated, should stand forth celestial in stature and
inj life immortal. No wonder that the morning
stars on that morning sang together, all . their
golden axles attuned to a sublime anthem; no
wonder the sons of God shouted for joy.
So the harvest festivals with oblations and
sacrifices to unsubstantial gods, ceasea and
-. r. !p thelr place came our Christmas festival. It
Is next to the most sacred day of all the year;
1
the anniversary of the birth of the Prince of
Peace; the coming of the Immanuel; the anniver
sary of the day when the longing of the ages
gave way to a fixed belief; a belief the sweetest
and highest and most ennobling that ever came
to bless poor mortality; for it brought the wire
less messages of man's immortality and the cer
tain promise that beyond this there is another
life; where, while the ages ebb and flow, the soul
may go on exploring, with ever increasing knowl
edge, ever increasing joy in contemplating the
inmeasurable power and wisdom and mercy of
Him who framed the universe and "from whose
hand, the centuries fall like grains of sand," out
of whose mind men sprang and that the inten
tion all the time was that he was to be blessed.
We have a right to hail the day, to put lights
in our windows to welcome its coming; to fire
the yule log even as our ancestors did and with
music, with organ and harp and choir and joy
bells, to hail Its coming; with feasts to welcome
it; with humble exultation to rejoice in it, for
the bessings that are ours, for the hopes that
were kindled and the promises that heaven and
earth, God's messengers and God's stars united
in a praise service when it was given us.
Mostly Speculation
A GREAT many people believe that the world
runs in cycles; that many of its events are
determined by the watching stars. We have
had men explain that the lives of nations are de
termined that way. That like the tides of the
sea they have their times to rise, their times to
set, and have given old Rome as an example.
That as Romulus founded the city in 753 B. C,
it was in a period which had only about 1,300 or
1,400 years to run. It was the Iron Nation. Cen
tury, after century it pursued the mighty trium
phal way, all enemies going down before it. Its
greatness and power culminated about A. D. 70,
with the capture and destruction of Jerusalem.
Then misfortunes began to come and multiply.
There were triumphs after that, but more humilla.
tions. Thirteen hundred years from 753 B. C.
would carry through to A. D. 547. Looking at
the record, we find that in that year of 547, Rome
was having but a brief breathing spell, it having
been swept in turn by the Huns, the Goths and
the Vandals, and vexed by revolts in a dozen
states. In that year of 547 Rome had been three
years annexed to the Eastern Empire, and the
ancient pagan rule swept away forever.
Well, the Theosophists tell us that we are mis
taken in searching among terrestrial things for the
unrest that is upon the world; that a great period
whose cycles began before the coming of the Mes
siah is drawing to a close, that within the next
very few years marvelous events are to happen,
for when these mighty cycles draw near to a
close, they have throes like a dying animal. That
we may look for earthquakes which in places will
change the face of nature; furious eruptions of
volcanos; fearful electric storms, and many an
other phenomenon which cannot be traced to any
terrrestrial cause; that their influences are already
at work upon the souls of men; that they account
for the revolutionary spirit that seems to possess
the earth, as seen in Turkey; in Persia; in China;
in Portugal; in Mexico nd Central America; in
the political excitement which has raged in the
United States since shortly after Congress met a
year ago, in the unnatural crimes that are re
corded in every day's daily papers, and which are
but premonitions of still greater disturbances that H
are to rack the mental and physical world. ?
It is an interesting theory, and who can com- "! M
bat it, for who knows? We believe In the star of
Bethlehem, at whose coming the morning stars 11
sang together; science traces their going and 0
coming, but what science can touch the deeper
springs? Who can tell the mystery of wireless
telegraphy? Science tells us that it is that mys- ffl
terlous vital force of nature, electrically brought !
more and more under the human will, but who 11
can tell us of that force itself; of its birth and 11
career and why in these latter years it has even 11
partially surrendered to man's subjection? The 11
ancients saw it blaze on Sinai, heard its voice in 11
the thunders, and said it was but the flash of the
Infinite eye and but tho echo of the tread of the ;
Infinite footstep. But now man has made it his M
messenger, and sends his thoughts upon its view-
less currents, into the night and storm, over moun- H
tains, over raging oceans and Into the very teeth B
of the hurricane, but it finds its way and delivers M
the message unerringly. What other power may ,
be sending the same agent to stir the souls of '
men to unrest? And what is coming of it all? j
Who knows? But over and through it all there 11
is a guiding merciful mind and we may believe 11
that whatever there may be it is going to bo for f H
the best. Ll
People East And West IH
A LEARNED writer in a great eastern news-
paper devotes much space in explaining the
radical difference between Americans in the
eastern and western states. There is not much H
in that; that is not much worth discussing. Most
men of middle age know both the east and tho
west. The majority of eastern men of middle age
know only the east, and down deep have a H
thought that when people leave the cast and H
go west, they simply camp out. That gives JM
many of them a provincialism which it is some-
times hard to get along with, for It is of that
kind which no amount of explanation can rid
them of; they listen with the look of sleep-walk- M
ers on their faces, and go on thinking just the M
same. When -Mark Twain went among them, M
built a homo and became one of them, and when
a few people of "quality" reported that he was M
all right; they took to him generally, and every M
extravagant phrase of his was repeated with
wonder and delight, and not one of them ever M
realized the kind of school he had graduated M
from on the rough slope of Mount Davidson, ' M
that save for that school he probably all his life M
would have remained as he was for his first :H
thirty years until he entered that school of wits :
and wags and toughs and generous and brave ; H
frontiersmen. Men begin life as little animals; H
for three months the ordinary puppy has the ad- i-fl
vantage of them in intelligence. After that he III
knows what ho learns. In the east tho schools 3 I
have tho advantage as a rule, while the west ex- I
tends a broader experience. In the east so- fl
ciety enforces its limitations; in the west there I
is a broader freedom; less excluslveness, more i I
appeals to the generous sentiments of people, I
and so ordinary people east and west are differ- I
ent, but the difference comes only from training I 'fll
and environment. j 1 K
Then climate and scenery have their influ- 1 1 fl
ences. Tho man who dwells on the desert or in fjH
