Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1875-12-25
APERFEoT CHRISTMAS.

A christmas day, to be perfect, should
be clear and cold, with holly-branches
in berry, blazing fire, a dinner with
mince-pies, and games and forfeits in
the evening. You can't have it in per-
lection if you are very fine and fashion
able. Neither, alas can IL be enjoyed
by the very poor; so that, in fact, O
perfect Christmas is impossible to be
had till the progress Of things has dis
tributed comfort more equally. But,
when we do our best, we are privileged
to enjoy our utmost; and charity gives
us right to hope. The completest
enjoyer of Christmas (next to lover
who has to receive forfeits from his mis-
tress), is the holiday school-boy who
springs up early, like q bird, darting
hither and thither, out Of sheer delight,
thinks Of his mince-pies half the morn
ing, has too much of them when they
come (pardon him this once), roasts
chestnuts and cut apples half the even
ing, is concious of his new silver in his
pocket, and laughs at every piece of
mirth with a loudness that rises above
every other noise. Next day what q
peg-top will he not buy what strings,
what nuts, what gingerbread! And he
will have new clasp-knifs, and pay
three times too much for it. Sour or
anges also will he suck, squeezing their
cheeks into his own with staring eyes;
and his mother will tell him they are
not good for him-and let him 60 on.
A Christmas evening should, if pos
sible, finish with music. 1t carries off
the excitement without abruptness, and
sheds repose over conclusion of en-
joyment.
A word respecting the more serious
part of the day g ubject alluded to above.
1t is but word, but it may SOW seed
of reflection in some of the best natures
especially in these days of perplexity
between new doctrines and old. It ap-
pears to us that there is point never
enough dwelt upon, if at all, by those
who attempt to bring about a reconcil-
iation between belief and the want of it.
1t is addressed only to the believers in
Providence, but those who have that
belief, if they have no other, are num-
erous body. The point is this-that
Christianity, to say the least of it, is o
great euent. 1t has had wonderful
effect on the world, and still has even
in the workings OF its apparently-unfil-
ial daughter, modern Philosophy, who
could never have been what she is but
for the doctrine of boundless sympathy
grated upon the elegant self-reference
of the Greeks, and the patriotism of
the Romans, which was so often mere
pretext for the most upneighborly injus-
tice. Now, SO great an event must
have been in the contemplation of Provi-
dence-one of the mountainous of its
manifestation, and if we say, even of
a Shakespeare and a Plato land not
without reason), that there is something
divine" in them, that is to say, some
thing pertaking of more energetic and
visible portion of the my sterious spirit
breathed into mankind, bow nuch
more, and with how much more
reverential love, ought we not to
have divine impression of the nature
of Him who drew the great line between
the narrowness of the Old World and
the uniyersalities of the New, and ut
tered to earth, through the angelic or
gan of His whole being, life, and death,
that truly celestial doctrine, "Thine
of others!-Leigh Hunt.