The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1883-12-18 00:00:00

Moral Coutti exprem

DORCHESTER, DECEMBER 181.14 1181

CHRISTMAS-KEEPING.
Christmas is ono. more close upon as. and most of
us are preparing t web-me the ancient Chrietien
festival of peace and goodwill, grafted upon the more
ancient Pagan one of feasting and merry-making.
From the d gabbe character whioh this double origin
Ina given to the festival, Christina. recommends itself
to all sorts and conditions of men—aye, soda! women
and children. Most of one readers will, ef comes, be
aware t oat tho old Pagan festival of Yule-tide was
Iliad to o.lehres4 the turuieg•polat of the stin'e winter
retreat-the beginning of lengthened days and brighter
skim. Most people will acknowledge, even now, how
cheering it is ti them to think that they have passed
that lowest depth of wiutsr gloom marked by the
shortest day, and to know, even before they can
actually perceive, that "the days are beginning to
lengthen out." But it this facto,' aft sets us, with all
out peewit posers of repelUag darkness by the aid of
artificial illumination, how moots more moat it
have effected our rude ancestors, the gloom of whose
rude hovels was only lees depressing than the
unrelieved dark uees of winter night without.
It was • happy coincidence that the turning-point of
the winter solstice should also bee one the time for
celebrating the revival of moral and spiritual light
which commenos 1 with toe bath of • babe at Beth-
lehem. The annual commemoration of this auspicious
event was, as we bare seal, grafted on to the old
Yule festival, esti dil not entirely oupereele the
latter. li'nee the admixture of the religious with the
secular, of the spiritual with the physical, which gives
our present Christmas-tide si firm • hold upon
oomposite human nature. It is going on for two
thousand years since the combination was edeoted of
spiritual rej doing with physical festivity, sod still
Christmas comes round as fresh as ever to cheer
humanity when depremed by mid-whiter gloom. The
general character and effect of the festival is the suns
as ever, though the details of its osiebratioa are eon-
tinually being modified in consequent,/ of the changing
habits of civilised life. The central oharaotegistio
of Christmetrkeeping still continues to be—and may it
long remain—iodividual satisfaction expressed in
mutual oongratulation and benevolence. At MU
time politicians can temporarily mem their.oontentions,
mambas their disputes, and bushier-men their specu-
lations, to give play to more pleasant feelings than
those of animosity and cupidity. It is mind-refresh-
lug even to think that for a few days we shall b
relieved from the perusal of political diatribes and
stock•market quotations, and yield ourselves to the
more genial influences of Christmas card an! sec liar
Christmas literature. This relaxation of the mental
bow is becoming a greater necessity than ever in oar
present overstrained efforts to get wealth. Power, and
knowledge. It is • pleasant change when the struggle
to have more, t o be more, or to know mire than one's
fellows, gives way to the kindly endeavours to con.
ciliate the estranged, to relieve the distressed, and
generally to make ourselves happy in promoting the
happiness of others. The conditions of modern life
may only allow a temporary indulgence in this reminis-
cenoe of a gol len age, or anticipation of a millmnionii
hue in the feat that Christiniv alines bat o •9 • year,
and duos not atop ling with us when it comes, there
Is the more reaeon for making seasonable use of the
festival. What effect Christmas has upon the
least impressionable of us, may be beet con.
(*ivied by supposing that we had to 040101(111011
each aew year without the softening influence of this
genial festival, 111. onlf to be wldied, in lied, that
the Chri-tm is feeling which operates in out duneet.c
and tocial circles a gill jest now be extended to some
other spheres of human action. When the Christian
sentiments of " parioe ad go " are being out'
raged, not only by the doings of the Mahon and his
followers in the Soudan, but by France and her forces
he Tonqmin and M miaow:sr, and when the European
nation. are armed to the tooth in convquentis of their
mutual jealousies and enmities. it :moot be thought
super! nuns ti bring the human mind batik once more
to the contempistion of the manger-cradle at
Bethlehem. Humanity has badly failed to reach the
moral standard propounded to it in Chri.tianity ; but
It is something to hare that standard re-calls! to our
mental view every Chriattnas-tide. Toe union of
festivity and mirth, with kindliness and benevolence,
seems to us well worth attaining at a little seerifice
of money and business oonvenienoe ; and it is in that
spirit that we heartily wish all our readers
A MERRY CHRISTMAS.