The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-12-26 00:00:00

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,Starairittge Clutter, Scat an potrid

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2fith, iBB5.

A HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

Ong again the gladsome season of Christ-
mas is here, and for a space we set aside
tho cares and contentions of life, and devote
ourselves to making each other happy. Poli-
ticians forget, Onrinr, the holiday interlude,
the harshly defined' differences respecting
affairs of state. Liberals grasp with hearty
goodwill the ready hands of Conservative
acquaintances, and he who strikes a note of
'discord in the Christmas harmony is rightly
regarded as a disagreeable curmudgeon al-
together out of place in the social circle
gathered in celebration of the season.
Charity, the indissoluble accompaniment of
the calendar's chief festival, reigns supreme
by universal consent, and even the heart
strings of the miser relax a little under its
humanising influences. In every Christian
land man feels now more keenly and kindly;
the poor, whom we have always with us,
are with us in the bc-st sense at Christmas.
sharing the gifts which an inscrutable Provi-
dence has given to some with unstinting
hand, and more sparingly to others. Now
it is that we overlook the stern boundary
walls of class, caste, and position; and reach
down the open hand of melting charity and
bounteous brotherhcod to those that suffer
want, finding a full and rich reward in the
sight of saddened spirits singing the unac-
customed song of joy and mirth. It seems
essential, and happily tso, to the full enjoy-
ment of Christmastide that each of us shall
have done what we Can to increase the
pleasures of others. Those endowed with a
plentitnde of wealth are privileged to dis-
seminate the happiness which springs from
creature comforts to a greater extent than
those whose circumstances are comparatively
straitened, but we all may play some part,
however hnmble, in expanding the elastic
sone of Christmas jollity and goodwill, and
this, we take it, is the brightest and best of
the luxuries attendant upon the joyous time
which crowns the expiring year. At Christ-
mas the country rouses itself to see that
none within its bounds shall, for the day of
the feast of solemn remembrance at least,
suffer the pinch of poverty ; and though the
occasion of all this generosity of heart and
hand is essentially, as its name implies, of a
religious character, the bounteous spirit it
inspires knows no narrow limit of sectarian-
ism, but spreads to all men, women, and
children of: whatever creed; and if, per-
chance, we light upon some poor creedless
ones, even that is no barrier to the fall flow

of Christmastide benevolence. Long may
the season continue to cast its beautiful
benison of goodwill over the length and
breadth of the land, and chase away sorrow
and sighing with its thankful glow. Eng-
land—the larger England on which the
sun never sets—would cease to be itself
without its most national and characteristic.
festival. Its happy associations are in the
main the same wherever a son or daughter
of Albion is situated—far out on the ocean
the sailor sings his Christmas song, and
mingles in spirit with friends gathered
round the blazing fire in the loved old land
at home. Under the sultry Indian sky
• many an Englishman and woman, picturing
the seasonable snow and frost which form
part and parcel of their ideal Yuletide, make
merry as best they may in semblance of the
ceremonies of their) earlier, and, haply,
happier years; and at Christmas, more than
ever eh*, wish themselves back to swell the
cheery groups in which the absence of each
leaves a regretted vacant chair.- Where the
be-King reigns in the Canadian North-West
many a joyous Christmas shout will go up
from British lips; in the far-off sheepfarms
of Australasia the old English Christmas
fare will be discussed, and the old English
Christmas sports enjoyed; the Christmas
bells will ring English folk to church in
many an African settlement; English sol-
diers-, encamped in desert Nile-land, will
echo the merriment of their comrades com-
fortably stationed at head-quarters; in
every Continent and on many a scattered
island the carols and compliments of Christ-
mastide will be voiced in the English tongue,
and all hearts united by the season's bond.
Christmas, at its heartiest, seems somehow
to have been taken possession of by the ,
British and, intensified by the innate en-
thesis= of the AnFlo-Baxon race, it has
obtained almost as distinct an identification
with the national sentiment and oustumals
as the typical English roast-beef, itself an
indispensable accessory of the festival.
Christian nations Abroad do not celebrate
the sewn with the robust merriment which
hails the anniversary of the Nativity here.
In some lands the day is observed with more
magnificent solemnity, elsewhere an unbe-
coming and boisterous saturnalia marks the
recurring carnival; but Britain gives to
Christmas annually a fitting reception of
thankful greeting, in which great and small
mingle their heart offerings harmless mirth
and all-pervading charity. All that is
purest and brightest and best of the old
yule-tide revelry is retained and refined in
the fire of a true and trusting Christianity;
and so it is that our Christmas has a pecu-
liar charm to every British breast, One
could as well imagine an England without
Sabbaths, as an England shorn of its Christ-
m.e,ses. It is the time above all others for
the renewal of the tender ties of home af-
fection, sundered circles re-unite in its
happy glow; Christmas trumpets forth a
welcome carol tune of truce to stay for a
spell the battle of life, and the fray-worn
combatants rest in pea( eful joyousness unit.‘r
the holly or in the blazing firelight. The
school lad hails his Christmas holiday-tide
with a elsrion clan:Jur ; little children clap
timeir hands ii gleefni anticipation of it ap-
prGattli ; ;men and women everywhere catch
t'e• contagious heart-enlargt ment it induces;
eraedsires grow juvenile again by reason of
it resistless influence. Advancing Time is
rkweriess t.t) impair its charm, for, though
the romance hats fad.ol from the erst gaily-
gsrls.a,led Illay-day, and Hallowe'en and
MAItY anoblier red letter festival of antique
41V3 have been bereft of their accuitomed
association 'of mystery and mirth, Christ-
mhstide Iselds its own -in the squire's wide
hail and the cottage email" as merrily as
whoa Herrick sang its praises in immortal
Tone, or Sir Walter Scott struck from his
tuneful lyre the oft-repeated and ever en-
phoeions Christmas strain. Still "Christ-
mas tells the merriest. tale ;" Christmas yet
often "cheers the poor man's heart through
htlithe year ;" and if the Christmas-keepers
of our later time attach less importance to
the season's "broaching of the mightiest
ale," mankind is none the less happy be-
cause the Lori of Misrule has been deposed
from the mastership of the Yuletide cere-
monies. We, of the year of enlightenment
eighteen hundred and eighty-five, may cele-
brate our Christmastide with a measure of
joy as brimming as ever the happy time
ushered in since the angel-carol sounded
frotu cloud land on the ears of the Judien
Shepherds. May the suspicions season
exrry new happinee to tile heart of every
reader, and may each be found seeking to
lift rerrewrs shdw frola the path of some
lavehred fellow-mortal, is our sincerest
•ttensetade wish.

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