Yet we regret that some of those symbols had not been more reverenced
by Protestants, as the possible occasion of good thoughts, and, among
others, we regret that the day set apart to commemorate the birth of
Jesus should have been stript, even by those who observe it, of many
impressive and touching accessories.
If ever there was an occasion on which the arts could become all but
omnipotent in the service of a holy thought, it is this of the birth
of the child Jesus. In the palmy days of the Catholic religion they
may be said to have wrought miracles in its behalf; and in our colder
time, when we rather reflect that light from a different point of view
than transport ourselves into it, who, that has an eye and ear
faithful to the soul, is not conscious of inexhaustible benefits from
some of the works by which sublime geniuses have expressed their
ideas?--in the adorations of the Magi and the Shepherds, in the Virgin
with the infant Jesus, or that work which expresses what Christendom
at large has not begun to realize,--that work which makes us
conscious, as we listen, why the soul of man was thought worthy and
able to upbear a cross of such dreadful weight,--the Messiah of
Handel.
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