The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-12-25 00:00:00

Eke (tottrbritige *beam

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25th, 1850

CHRISTMAS.

As every year,on Christmas again coming round,
the thought must of necessity cross the mind of
the least reflective person that there is a mighty
difference between the present age and that in
which occurred the events associated with the
dawn of Christianity; and that after a lapse of
nearly two thousand years there must be some-
thing substantial in a festival which in our more
degenerate days is commemorated by the vast
populations of Christendom in every clime and
in all civilized lands.

At the commencement of the Christian era,
the known world was, no doubt, more or less
under the sway of Imperial Rome. The Romans
were accustomed to take possession of such
territories as suited them, without much refer-
ence to the wishes of the inhabitants. At times
they met with fierce resistance, such as that
which was offered to their schemes of conquest
by the Carthaginians, whom, after a prolonged
struggle, they defeated in the end. The people
of Parthia at one time worried them much, and
Parthian arrows are to this day spoken of as
weapons terrible in their nature. Then they
had trouble with the Gauls, and with the Britons,
and with the Jews still more so; but up to this
time they had held their own, and Augustus
Ccesar, in the pride and plentitude of his power,
and the unquestioned fulness of his authority,
sent forth the imperious mandate that all the
world should be taxed. There was no appeel
from his stern decree; and thus it came to pass
that the people of Judrea flocked into the towns
to be taxed by the Roman officials who were set
over the provinces. To us it seems etrauge to
talk of all the world without including the yak-
spreading territories of the United States, then
not in existence as such, their boundless area
being then covered in great part with primeval
forests and illimitable prairie. But the posses-
sions of the Romans were at all events upon
three continents; and at the time when the
Gospels were written the Empire of Rome was
in all its glory. Its merchant princes were
accustomed to enjoy the breezes of the 'Mediter-
ranean amid the luxuries and splendour of
Pompeii, and what the magnificence of the city
was like, recent discoveries have shown. It has
been said of Augustus that he found the city of
Rome of brick and left it of marble. Its armies
had proved themselves invincible; its Senate
gave laws to diverse and distant peoples; it
carried a high degree of civilization whenever
its influence extended; its wealth was boundless
and its power unrivalled anu supreme. And so
it was until the Christian religion began to lose
its hold upon the inhabitants of what was truly
enough in those days the Empire City. Gradn-
ally it sank under the weight of its own magni-
ficence ; a prolonged freedom from molestation
engendered a feeling of false security; and by.
a vast number of barbarians in the centre
of Europe swept down upon the place and gave
its inheriiince to others! Whilst stood the
Colosseuff, Rome did stand; when fell the Col-
osseum, Rome did fall.
The passing away of centuries, the mutations
caused by the advance of time, the changes ren-
dered necessary in the administration of human
affairs after a lapse of nearly two thousand years,
do not affect the celebration of Christmas. Em-
pires rise and fall, dynasties flourish and decay,
revolutions sweep over continents, and irresis-
tible political convulsions shake the power and
change the fate and destinies of nations. In
the face of all these Christmas makes it appear-
ance amongst the peoples once a year, bringing
with it a remembrance of the message of peace
and good-will delivered so long ago. The uni-
versal suspension of business in town and country
on Christmas Day in an age when there is so
much push and whirl and competition, is no
slight testimony to its influence. Adequately to
commemorate it there are months of preparation.
When it comes it proverbially brings good cheer.
Bringing together long separated relatives and
friends, its- pleasant reminiscences] linger
long afterwards in the recesses of the memory.
Its agreeable reunions, its happy fireaides, its
delightful associations for children, whose merry
laughter bids dull care begone from the minds
of their seniors when the work of life has begun
to tell upon them, all combine to make Christ-
mas welcome in every household in the land.
The Royal baron of beef graces the sideboard
at Windsor Castle; but in the cAtage of the
most lowly of her Majesty's subjects, the arrival
of Christmas has also been provided for. To the
utilitarians who would reduce the Affairs of life
to a dead level, and allow no room for the exer-
cise of sentiment, it may be pointel out that
Christmas, year by year, furnishes an increasing
amount of employment amongst large numbers
of the working classes. But there is no occasion
to give Christmas a hearty greeting by placing
it on that one practical ground alone. In times
like these, when man moves forward to the inex-
orable cry of "On! on! on !" it is grateful to
pause in the journey, to find the air laden with
good wishes, to see bright and morr3 feces in
our homesteads, to break life's monotony in a
way which shall carry with it pleasing recollec-
tions of joyous incidents in the toilsome march
of life, and to reflect. when the Christmas bells
ring out their merry peals over the lighted dwel-
lings of listening multitudes, that for many cen-
turies yet
,to come, as in those which have fled
away, the tolebretion will go on, and that the
song which floated over the far-off .city of Beth-
lehem so long ago will be as ever —" On earth
peace and good-will toward men I"