The Lord's Merry Men

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Lord's Merry Men

(Sy

REV. A. H COLLINS)

The first Christmas Day was heralded with shining star and singing angels. The white-robed host chanted: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.” Each Christmas-tide, in the long roll of the ages, has come to the same accompaniment of-gladness. One of the great gifts of the Advent season is the gift of joy. We hail the day with chiming bells and peals of laughter, with carol and roundelay, with smiles, and handshakes, and kind wishes, for Christmas opens new founts of fine feeling. It is the birthday of hope and the prophet of universal peace. Under the benign influence of the season, hearts grow kinder and even “Scrooge” sheds something of his meanness. The Bethlehem idyll has deeper meanings, but its social value is incalculable. Could we spread its kind spirit throughout the. golden year, what a blessed change it would make I Again we join the merry makers and in no merely conventional way wish for our readers “A merry Christmas.”

“ ’Tis. a comely custom to be glad Joy is the grace we say to God.’Mr. Chesterton says that the discovery of nonsense was the greatest revelation of the nineteenth century. But even Homer nods sometimes, for though Chesterton means levity, we doubt the accuracy of his date; and if by il nonsense” he means laughter and fun, those were not discoveries of last century. Erasmus, who was one of the wisest of men, wrote an essay, “In Praise of Folly.” The word nonsense needs definition. True nonsense is aimless humour, the humour that makes fun, as distinguished from the humour that makes fun of something, or somebody. “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.” Not only is laughter human; it commonly goes with greatness. Beware of the man who cannot laugh. Professor Davidson, writing of Mohammed, makes this shrewd remark that “he had the indispensable mark of a great man, he could laugh.” Solemnity and sanctity are poles asunder; dullness is not holy, nor solemn stupidity a sign of . grace. Dr. Johnson maintained, that laughter is a judge of men; that a man might disguise himself in the raiment of speech, but never in the ripple of his laughter. Livingstone trusted the savage who laughed. When there was a twinkle in his eye, there was a spark of heaven in his heart. “No vicious fellow could laugh like that,” he said. The dictum of Carlyle was that “No man who has laughed in full abandonment, can be wholly and irreclaimably bad.” Of course all laughter is not of that noble and revealing type. It may be “as the crackling of thorns under a pot.” There is the laughter of incredulity, like that of Sarah, the laughter of scorn like that of Nehemiah’s enemies, the laughter that is cruel and wicked, as when it makes sport * of a cripple- Nevertheless it is wise to join the company of “God’s merry men,’- as St. Francis styled his brethren. There are some things in life that will never go until we laugh at them. Grave sins call for tears, but our silly foibles and P re ' judices need chuckles. Some of us will never get rid of our vanity till we laugh at ourselves. There is a real ministry for goodnatured ridicule. If man descended from animals, the animal that takes the longest to work out, is the intractable donkey. Our bad tempers make us look ridiculous, and we should borrow a mirror, to .see how foolish we look -

Not tears but good honest laughter is the cure for our meanness, as when a preacher told his audience of a man who once a . .week put a threepenny bit into the collection plate, and expected it to grow into a vicar, two curates, a pipe organ and surpliced choir! Readers of the Drumtochty idylls will recall the drollery of the story of ,the Scottish parson, who ended his sermon on the parable of the sheep and the goats, by saying: “Go home, my brethren and ere you retire to rest, kneel down by your bedside, fold your hands, and close your eyes and r ask yourself solemnly, ‘Am I a goat?’ ” We might all become more tolerable and lovable if instead of saying, “Am I a sinner?” we would ask, “Am I a goat?” A good many of our fears call for honest laughter. A modern author rightly says, “The sacred bird of Pharisaism must, I fancy, have been the owl; the solemn, wise-, looking, mournful old owl, a night bird missing all the joys of day. Jesus drove it out, and I sometimes think that He made the sparrow the sacred'bird of Christianity. Its cheery humour, its endless vivacity, its indomitable pluck, its blithe acceptance of the provision of Providence, all commended it to' Him. He loved the sparrows for their gaiety. He drew from them one of the sweetest lessons that ever fell on human ears. Two of them were sold for a farthing, but none died without God near- What then of us, more in value than many sparrows? That message has been like bells at evening, pealing to many a pilgrim. A grain of faith from the sparrow’s breakfast table has fed many a man’s courage. A grain from the sparrow’s breakfast has grown into a tree of

faith whereunder many a soul has found . shade in the desert trail. And'many a man ; ' ” lias gone singing into the gates of death with ’ a plume of sparrow’s feathers in his helmet.” ; Christmas will do us a real service if its coming helps us to go back to our tasks and our cares, with brave hearts and smiling - faces. The mind re-acts on the body. Health '' is largely determined by our mental moods. It was no mere chance that when David played on his harp “the evil spirit departs. ed” from Saul. Neither was it simply miraculous that in the presence of : "Jesus, evil spirits left their unhappy victims. : Darkless flies at dawn, and at the coming of Christ’s radiant personality the powers of darkness sped. Religion has always had its gloomy prophets, and? are u& Centuries before! the Christian 'the“Preacher”. wrote, “I said of laughter it is . ' mad, and of mirth what doeth it?” But in . fairness be it remembered, that if religion , gives the world some melancholy men, it is conspicuous for the other sort, men who > make music of morality, and set statutes .to :< song, and with good reason. ■ The normal mood of nature is blithesome. Nature sings. I have seen gardens glorious as Eden, trees on which angels might have dropped their ’ shining robes in passing, and I have heard birds sing as though their hearts were a . ' fountain of joy.

We have heard too much about “Nature red in tooth and claw.” . Browning gets nearer the truth of things when he declares, “I find the sky not grey but rosy, earth not grim, but fair of hue.” If the universe declares one thing more than another, it is the goodness and mercy of God, who takes * pleasure in. the works of His. hand. For sleek and lusty folk, who never missed a meal in their life, to sing of the world as “a desert dreer,” is as comic as it is false. God’s providence is “large and kind,” and He moves by long strides to great issues. Nor can I join in the harsh strictures passed on men. There is more to praise than blame, We should not judge human nature by the police records, and the revelations of the divorce court,but by the silent heroisms, the unheralded loyalties and friendships .. nourished in countless obscure homes, by the - patience, the hopefulness, the unselfishness, and bravery of men and women.

The religion of Israel was a joyful ..'<s religion. The feast, the song, and the dance . expressed joy. The temple worship was | choral and liturgical. The religion of the New Testament is a message of grace abounding, victory universal and life immortal. It’s most characteristic word is “Be of good cheer.” “Give us,” prayed Robert Louis - Stevenson, “give us to go blithely on our business. Help us to perform . . the petty round of irritating concerns with laughter and kind faces.’-? After a fearful . attack of haemorrhage’ he said, “Literally, no man has more wholly outlived life thanl and still ’tis good fun.” So with courage and gaiety he pursued what he called his “task of happiness,” and when he was very ill, he said to his friend, “Good-bye Wakefield. Remember, fill your life with laughter and sunlight. That la the . best kind of success, to radiate happiness.” The child heart is the merry heart, and when the prodigal came back home “They began to be : merry.” Reader, I wish’ you and ~vours A MERRY CHRISTMAS.