300 GREEN TRAILS AND UPLAND PASTURES 



that it is. I find it there, at any rate, and I never 

 read the "Carol" any more. 



"The meek and gentle Jesus," whose meekness and 

 whose gentleness have been far too much insisted 

 on, would have quite other ideas of the spirit of Christ- 

 mas. If ever a flame was born into the world to incite 

 men to a passion not for charity but for love, not for the 

 spirit which finds satisfaction in handing down to 

 those below, but in raising those below to full equality, 

 not for almsgiving but for justice, that flame burst 

 into light in the manger of Bethlehem. When shall we 

 realize that Jesus was a radical? That He was so rad- 

 ical that He is even yet not understood ? When shall we 

 realize that the chant of the multitude of the heavenly 

 host, heard of those shepherds who were abiding in 

 their fields by night, can never be fulfilled so long as one 

 half of the human race has so much that it finds self- 

 satisfaction in making Christmas gifts to the other half, 

 and the other half has so little that it knows no good- 

 will for covetousness, and no peace for hunger? "Peace 

 on earth, good-will to men!" Yes, that was the chant 

 of the heavenly host, and to-day the guns are booming 

 and the world is red with blood that the nations may 

 have more trade, while little children toil in mills and 

 factories, and pregnant mothers bow with work and 

 hunger. What more than those simple shepherds have 

 we done? They went and worshipped. We fill a 

 basket with the leavings from our ample board, and 



