Excerpt from The Great Optimist and Other Essays
I Sat before the open fire last night - the eve of this high day - and half-way dreamed again The Story. Among the resting hills of old Judea were the flocks sleep-folded, and under the trees the shepherds guarded them. The little town of the House of Bread was sleeping, too, save in a stable, where a woman lay, and near her a strong man keeping watch. Away to the west Rome slumbered in her glory, and further on beyond the uncoursed seas the dream and hope of future times lay yet unknown. All was quiet and very peaceful in Bethlehem. Then came the first faint cry of one new-born, and that triumphant burst of song from out the skies, and the Wise Men bending low before the Manger, and then the long line of fruitful years which brings us to the present.
The lesson of that first Christmas needs no retelling, for it repeats itself on each successive dawning of the day. The story of how that Manger was the first throne of the King of Kings can be made no more impressive than is its own simple record.
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