The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1864-12-24
GHRLSTN1S.


feasts and frolics, it is Christmas still in
all that constitutes its essential glory.
Its light shines through clouded sky :;
but it is the light of the Star of Bethle-
hem. which is only more luminous and
beautiful when earthly hopes have set,
and are no longer able to rival or eclipse
its calm and benignant radiance.
This time-hallowed festival, the oldest
and most universal in the Christian
world, has been ever cherished with pc.
culsr love and reverence by the people of
our sunny land. Whilst Puritanism has
always frowned upon it with sour and
austere visage, as it has upon every
cheerful and innocent enjoyment of man,
Christmas has come down to us from a
Cavalier ancestry with untarnished
honors, and is welcomed as the Queen of
Festivals in every heart and every home
1t may be that we cannot celebrate it now
with the proiusion and reyelry of former
days; but it never ought to have been a
day of revelry, and enough is left us of
the necessaries of life to minister to our
wants and the demands of hospitality and
charity This is the season, above all
others, when we should remember the
poor and suffering, and prove by our
own experience how much more blessed
it is to give than to receive.
Incongruous and inconsistent as ex-
cess and intemperance have ever been in
the celebration of such festival, they
would be peculiarly disgusting and
shocking in this hour of national trial.
There is time for all things--a
time to laugh and time To weep-cer,
tainly this is not the time for insensate
10y. There is scarcely fireside in the
Confederacy which has not vacant
chair in the Christmas circle. The IA
Their the husband, the brother, gone
forever, or miserable captives in North
ern prisons. The very homes of thou
sands have disappeared from the face Of
the earth; fruitful regions transformed
into deserts battle-felds white with the
bones of the unburied dead hospitals
crowded with sick and dying, and count
less hearts breaking with the agonies OF
lat har npf 4 In AZ at
others cannot touch our sensibilties, the
possibility that their fate may be our
rance of natures which have never known
, affiction, and which can fill high the cup
of revelry and dance with light hearts
amidst such calamities as have rarely
visited the human race. With a vast
army at our very doors thirsting for
our destruction, and powerful Co
vernment preparing TO strike one more,
and that a colossal blow, it would
better become US, like the people of
Nineveh, TO wear sackcloth and ashes
and, upon oar Bonded knees, invoke the
Almighty to spare his people, than to
mark the hallOwed festival Of Christmas
by scenes of intemperance and dissipa
ton. Common respect for the SORROWS
Of. those who have suffered so fearfully
by this war, and an intelligent love of
our own future happiness, alike teach us
to be moderate in our enjoyments, and
to remember the words Of the prophet,
reproving the Jews for their worldly
Joy during the invasion of their country
by the Persians "And in that day did
the Lord God Of Hosts call to weeping,
and to mourning. and to badness, and
to girding with sackcloth And behold
joy and gladness, Staying oxen and kill
ing sheep, eating flesh and drinking
wine: let US eat and drink, for to-mor-
row we shall die. And it was revealed
in nine years by the Lord of Hosts.
Surely, this iniquity shall not be purged
from you till We die, saith the Lord God
of Hosts"
If ever, then, Christmas should be
observed in its true character of reli.
gious festival, it is the present anniver.
sary. Amid all our tribulations. one
deep, unfailing fouRtain of joy and con-
ISOLATION remains-that Christ was born.
Amid the overhanging darkness shines a
Eight which may cheer the saddest and
calm the gayest heart. Amid the tu
multi Of human passions and the clangor
of battle, still sound those angelic
strains which ravished the shepherd
ears, heralding the birth Of the Prince OF
Peace Peace Blessed word What
richer gift could Heaven have of
fered to earth ? We, at least, can ap-
preciate the full significance of such a