The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-12-24 00:00:00

CHRI6TMASTIDE.

IN the commemoration of that which to some is
a festive season, and to others a solemn Christian.
festival for :he dislieeion is a wide one a
remarkable fact steeds out prominently and
commanas attentien. Year by year, time—at all
e-ents to bueiuess mu in great citiea—becoming
ore precious, teeir eugagements are mere
. e.eerons, Line their occupations more pressing.
werld's competition increases, it is found
autie, of life do not grow less exacting;
• - men tied that they have more
; leel with the acute intellects
shi,rp, by aseociation with their rivals, and
that ie drier to keep their standing they have to
pnt forth greeter exertions than those which
Mtherm thcy had been accustomed to make.
Ceder those circumstances, and when time is of
so :inch importance, it might be suppeced that
the meet would be =vide of it, and that less
attention would be paid to the celebration of an
event which happened nearly 1,9€00 years ago.
Yet the very reverse . .his is the case. So far
from less notice beine .. to Christmas than
in the centuries pee bee it vearie claims and
receives more. It i n ieetituti ai which be-
comes all thc more deapl3, ?v,ted as the ages go
On.
Christmas finds the Frgliah•speaking people
scattered in many a ler '77 i the of the
earth, and the ntterreoe . of the sea are on
that day represented it. white-winged ships
of their ent,rlri4,:. ET,u neither dietance nor
climate makes any difference in the universal
celebration of this annuli' festibsl. England has
belted the globe with her eel ;el ; whether
her dependencies are ee, 6 i'enecie, or as warm
as Hindoetan, as ferti A Cee'..n, or as un.
genial as the oceau.wahi.d. sbores of Newfound.
land, there is Christmas commemorated. There
is sometei'ng in the sound of the word which
brings back the recollections of other days. We
hen been told that "There's dearer dust in
memory's land than in the mines of rich Peru,"
and certainly the associations of Christmas are
of the tenderest which An have a place in the
human mind. It is at Christmas, that when
families ecu find it possible to meet all together
once a sear, they gather once more under the
same roof, and for a few brief and fleeting hours
forget the cares end eexieties of the outside
world. Indfmd, each househoM is a happy little
world in itself. Old times are talked over, and
circumstances in individual history are recalled,
carryinj the mind back to the years that have
gone and left pleasant reminiscences behind
them. But it I* not only in the domestic circle
that the mollifying effects of Christmas are felt.
Its human-,4ing influences Wend beyond the
;ndividnel borne, toning down the acerbities
irhich too often acroropany life's worry and tor-
- nioll, softening for the time- those political
'yf.ritiee that seem ins-iparable from a public
--.er, and causing men to forget for the time
t,. evalries that for the greater part of the live-
; • nor exist between them.

A .df,liration of Christmas is as universal
as ta ....yiiitstion of its lessons are wide-reaching.
In the traditional Christmas is bound
up ve.t, reprrsentations of frozen lakes the
particles of rime sparkling upon the ;boughs of
?ethics. i-rees in the obligne rays of a midwinter
sat, ani erishealthinl atuiospkere supplying
all the material for agreeable exercisc.. and re-
creation. But at the other aide of the globe,
where the colonists of Australia are founding a
new world, Christrna, 7omes at midsummer.
There is no blezing fii - in the grate, no yule
log, no temptation to ,a3t,rs to venture upon
the treachcrons surhr, thinly-frozsn pond,
no cold air to make so waieome the bright flame
which crackles on the berth with us In that
iar-off land the meridian soh is high in the
heavens or,i Christmas Day, and windows are
thrown op‘n to admit t 11.: passing breeze that is
to tei,per the intense heat. But notwithstand-
ing the contrist in atmol, heric conditions, the
Australians celehr,te Cllri4tulas quite as heartily
as it is observed in the roother-land at Leme, and
they appreciat., gir.ite as much as we do the
break in life's monotony and the diyu9uluation
of good wishes which Ic zii:tny a yr to come
Christmas will continuo 40 bring.