y. Louis H. Ruge began his 
by saying: 
‘he cover design of a leading 
igazine suggested this subject to 
. The picture is that of a young 
n holding a spray of mistletoe 
the head of a young woman, 
0 iy. but expectant, is awaiting 
s kiss under the charming Christ- 
is Spray. 
Not a very profound inspiration 
3 a sermon, someone may Say. 
le, but a pleasant memory and 
ditation perhaps for many. 
Just an inconspicious sprig of Ku- 
pean evergreen with little white 
ers, but the subject of volumns 
mythology and the mystic rites 
the Druids that held it in pecu- 
1 “Ad Geog 
e Spirit of the old English 
st ‘mas custom is invoked where- 
r this sacred sprig of the ancient 
alts s is seen. And Irving in his 
etch of ‘‘Christmas Eve’’ charm- 
gly refers to the old custom of the 
ss under the mistletoe. 
~The ghosts of forgotten whisper- 
igs and vows arise and stand be- 
fore us in the flush and fervor of 
Sa ortal youth. The dim forms of 
mbling antiquity and forgotten 
is orie scenes resurrect themselves, 
he figures of the classic amorists, 
to re-enact the passionate and tragic 
ale of age-old, immortal love. Ar- 
che ologists when they can _ read 
nothing else in the mystic signs of 
fragments of ancient times can read 
he sign of the kiss. 
4 ust a cheap picture on the cover 
' a popular magazine and the old, 
old Beary of youths’ amors are re- 
Pron the wisest man of the Bible 
uses the kiss in Canticles 1:2 to ex- 
press spiritual ecstacy in the lan- 
mage of human endearments when 
says, ‘‘Let him kiss me with the 
ses of his mouth, for his love is 
tter than wine’ 
_ Without any very serious motive 
ir in bringing this thought before you 
‘th lere are yet moral meditations with- 
pu ekering mouth of the babe with 
its lips of innocence pressed against 
the wrinkles of age to the amorous 
indulgences of the prodigal revelling 
‘in a far. country. 
n the range of the subject, from the | 
_ The kiss is the symbol of love es- 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
KISSING 
pecially, the outward demonstration 
of the warm pulse beats of the heart. 
The memory of one kiss comes 
back to'us all the sweet benediction 
of a mother’s good-night prayer. It 
was the first token of a mother’s 
love to our awakening sense and 
dawning intelligence. 
The memory of the first pure kiss 
of our amorous youth comes to 
our jaded emotions as a sweet-scent- 
ed breeze over fields of June flowers 
and cool mountain lakes to revive a 
sluggish pulse. 
And if the theme tonight shall 
arouse some slumbering affections 
for the dead or the living it will 
not have been in vain. 
Jacob and Rachel, in the sweet old 
Bible love story that makes the sa- 
cred page more real, may teach us 
the moral of an undying affection. 
Adonis and Venus are after all liv- 
ing flesh and blood and soul in every 
age. The tale of Antony and Cleo- 
patra, shorn of its bolder amors, tell 
us of the glory of the deep and pas- 
sionate emotions that none other 
than the great Creator has imparted 
unto man. The bodies of these his- 
toric lovers have disappeared in the 
_ashes of corruption but the spirit of 
their amors is deathless and incor- 
ruptible. 
Every sin in the catalogue of hell 
may have been born in a kiss to tor- 
ture the soul and blacken the page 
of man’s career, but every sin in 
the catalogue of hell has also been 
subdued and sacrificed on the altar 
of pure affection and passionate de- 
votion. 
There are all kinds of kisses, true 
and false, clean and unclean, holy 
and unholy, clothed in virtue and 
clothed in vice. It makes a vast dif- 
ference how a kiss is given and con- 
strued and who gives it. Its lan- 
guage and meaning is infinite. 
There is the kiss of idolatry. The 
ancients kissed their household 
gods. The Greeks were such idol- 
atrous worshipers of art that they 
kissed the edges off, until ivory and 
marble and bronze could not resist 
the ardent osculatory process. 
It was an act of reverence for the 
ancient Jews to kiss the hand and 
throw the kiss toward the object of 
worship. They kissed the sacred 
he Above Unique Theme for a Sermon Drew More than the Average Number 
3 of People to the Manchester Congregational Church last Sunday Evening. 
scrolls and edicts as a sign of rever- 
ential submission. 
The kiss was a sign of submission 
and subjection as when Mary kissed 
the Master’s feet, a common form of 
humble subjection to a superior. 
For a monarch to allow this saluta- 
tion of a subject was a mark of 
honor. 
It is told of a Yankee trader who 
was permitted to kiss the foot of an 
oriental potentate. In pressing an 
ardent kiss there he bit off and car- 
ried away one ‘of the costly gems 
with which the monarch’s sandals 
were embroidered, which would not 
have occurred to every one and illus- 
trates the proverbial Yankee thrift. 
The kiss was ever a sign of recon- 
ciliation between enemies at times 
and treaties of peace have been seal- 
ed with this sign. 
It is so palpably a sign of friend- 
ship that treachery often commits 
_its cowardly deeds under the cover 
of a kiss as when Joab met Amasa 
under the sign of friendship and 
slew him. Let there be no false and 
hypocritical kisses for Judas has 
forever made this one of the foul- 
est things on earth. 
There were holy kisses in the ear- 
(Continued to page 29.) 
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