The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-12-26 00:00:00

Our foubot Contsponbent.

LW. deem it right to state that twe du not at all trove
lavutity ourselves with our Correspondent's opinlonaJ

The influence which the associations of Christina,
exercise over Christian peoplee has been the theme of
many a writer. In our own land, especially at I Itrist-
an se- tide, the air 118131101 laden with good wiohee. I the
cities and in the villages, in the cottages upon the hill

sides, and in the scattered .IwelliNgs M;on the plains, all
classes prepare for this happy festival. Christmas Eve
is big with promse of rejoicing to millions of hearts,
both young and old, and no sooner have the bells
ushered in the morning of Cluistmas-day, than the
hours, ae they roll on, appear full of innocent delights.
There is a tradition amongst the children that
" Father Christmas" regularly makes his round in

tic, night, distributing gifts to good lio)s and girls.
In some cases an old stocking is mule the receptacle

of these present., and he little one's eyes dance merrily
as they dip their hands into it, without pausing much
to think by what mysterious agency the gifts have
. .

come there: In other instal] me, the ju-verniem-find theme

gifts under the pillow, and the speculations which for
days past have given very little peace to the senior
members of the household are at length set at rept.
Bright young eyes gleam with intense gratification as
the hidden treasures are drawn forth. In some
families it is a pleasant custom to arrange the mutual
presents on the breakfast tables, and where this is
done depend upon it that the meal, so far as the
children are concerned, it a matter of secondary

portanee. They are full of what their unknown
benefactor hint left for them in the night! Well, it in

good to hear the merry laughter of the young people,
and there is a general wish to allow them to be happy
while they ran, for as years creep along they bring
their own anaietiee with them. Let them clap their
hands with pleasure over the Christmas Tree, au aglow
with many-coloured lights, yellow with oranget
gilt bon-bone, and rich with presents both for chlAdren
and for servants. Let them be glad at a time ../rich,
while it commemorates a solemn festival, is male a
sort of ideal crown to the real mutual helpfulness
which has characterised the year.

But Christmas is anticipated with pleasure, not

only by those who, a quarter of a century hence, will
have left childhood behind them, and
_taken their

.-..-
places upon the great stage of human life. There is
no claw in our great and busy community to whom
Christmas is a matter of indifference. Take the suc-
cessive degrees in the social scale between the Queen
upon her throne and the pauper in the workhouse,
and it will be seen that all look forward to it, all join
in keeping up the celebration. The royal baron of
beef graces the sideboard at Windsor Castle, and the
retainers of the Sovereign are as blithe and gay as any
rank of society. The higher clauses, on Christmas-
day, abandon their elaborate dinners, turn their backs
upon soup, fish, entrees, tarts, jollies, and creams, and
sit down once more to what is known as the old
English fare --roast beef and plum-pudding. The
Cabinet Minister forgets the cares of State, and grate-
fully appreciates the rest which Christmas brings.
The politician on that day knows nothing of the
strife of contending parties, and is as glad of
a brief rest as the mariner is to reach a
haven of refuge after having sailed the surface of a
stormy sea. The railway magnate is oblivious to the
prices of stocks and shares. The merchant ceases to
study the fluctuations in the world's markets. The
purlieus of the Stock Exchange no longer resound with
the busy hum of voices; the usually active mart is a
desert ; the thoroughfares have ceased to teem with
traffic. The tradesman closes his shop, and bids his
assistant go for a holiday. The young men and
women who have left the roof trees of their parents to
do battle with the world, once more rejoin the family
circle, and love to talk of old times when that circle
was unbroken by unalterable laws against which there
is no appeal. The humbler classes, by paying in little
weekly sums to a Christmas Club, have managed to
Ile* upon their tables something a great deal better
than the fare which spears there at ordinary times;
the occupants of the Workhouses get their annual
treat, and hew they look forward to it they alone could
tell. Then, again, there is that army of urchins
Ilto have been gathered from the streets into the in.
dustrial and ragged schools, and who are entertained
th:.fieh the liberality of a benevolent public. Nor is
that nurnerms host of poorawho seem constantly to live
upon the borders of pauperism and to constitute its
fringe, forgotten at such a period as this. Again,
nobody who can afford anything at all can find it in his
heart to forget the postman, who has come to have a
vested interest in a Christmas box. Then there are
the tradesmen's boys, a class of youngsters who allow
no grass to grow under their feet when a gratuity is
to be had for the asking. Who would dream of laying
down to them the hard and dry principles of political
economy, to tell them thattheir employers had already
paid them their wages for the services they had yen.
tiered, and to excuse niggardliness by a plea of justice?
In fact all chews appear more firmly welded together
In the social organism. The observance of these
'lirionas customs is an indication of the close human
bonds uniting US below the relationship of employer and
employed, and is certai ily more lasting in its duration
and mole pregnant of blessing than the adopti in a
practical form of the old pagan motto "Every man for
himself and God for us all ! "
The bells which merrily ring in Christmas morning

are not only the symbols of rejoicing, but they call
crowds of worshippers to prayer and praise. At such
a time we can safely be Catholic in our sympathies
and endakte the sentiment which once floated over the
city of Bethelem "Glory to God in the highest, on
earth peacit and goodwill towards men." It is at such
a time thitt the saying of the golden-mouthed Chry-
sostoin rises to the mind "In all things, charity."
Not by one theological path alone are men led to
heaven, and whether it be amid the curling clouds of
incense, the elaborate ceremonial ; the swelling strains :
of music, or the sternest simplicity of piety,
man is presented with the conviction that there
is more than one acceptable way of glorifying
God. These outward and visible signs are, after
all, but varying manifestations of one common emotion
of thanksgiving. "Glory to the new-born King'
mingles with the hope that the love of God and the
love of man, which our Saviour came to teach, may
animate the hearts of the believers in all creeds. What
value do men attach to political animosities or religious
differences at a time when all are overflowing with good
wishes one towards another? "Many men have many
minds," and there never can be a universal agreement
either in politics or in religion. But throughout all
Christian lands, "A Merry Christmas" to each other
Is the universal aspiration as regularly as the season
toile r,,und. It is observed as faithfully in our vast
colonial possessions as in the dear motherland at home,
to which the settlers have bidden good-bye for ever.
NVitat matters it that in Australia at such a pen i a the
weather is the very opposite to that with which wears
accustomed le associate the festive season in this
country ? Vith them it is really Midsummer, but
It does not signify, for the celebration is made all the
same. Wherever the British flag throws out its furls
upon the breeze—even in the white-winged ships sail-
ing over the trackless highways ef the ocean—the
anniversary is anticipated for weeks, and the echoes of
the mighty deep resound with the good news of the
Messiah's advent—