The Owosso times., 1881-12-23
CHRISTMAS DAY.

that the regard, in which it has been
held, has found too exhaustive an
expression to permit much novelty OF
treatment, and realize how little has
been left unsaid concerning this love-
Hest Of the holidays, which it would
be wise or BETTING to say. 1t is true
that no festival has been more per.
sistently, httingly, and gracefully
honored. Our literature is redolent
with its fragrance and resonant with
its music. 1t has its odes, rounde-
lays, essays, romances, and its
triumphal anthems. Every gentle
thinker has tenderly treated it and
every poet has presistently sung its
praises. 1t has been for eighteen
centuries constant and beloved
theme. Who that has ever read them,
can forget the swelling organ poem OF
Milton, the CHEEKY pastorals of Her.
bert and Of Herrick, the exquisitely
accurate delineations of Addison, the
ever fresh and genial essays of Irving,
the fine Christian stories Of Dickens (?
We feel that it would be almost enough
to stop with this simple allusion, and
to limit our Christmas greeting to
this recognition of the good gifts
which it has brought us, and for which
we can never be too thankful.
But then, we still keep up the old
forms, as we ought, and as the heart
of every holiday is in the kindness
and mutual affection which it creates
and encourages, we must not let it
pass without repeating those aspira-
tons, those hopes, and those wishes
which custom cannot stop, and which
find congenial food in the iteration
and reiteration which the return of
this day SO universally provokes. More,
than this, it would be churlish in us
to let Christmas come and go without
extending to it cordial welcome.
But the great lesson of this day, that
which its origin and all its associations
enforce, is not so much, we think,
the duty of relieving the physical
necessities of each other, as of cult
vatipg sympathy for the sorrows
which are SO closely locked in every
human bosom, and which are only
apparent when there intensity forces
the unwilling tear.
Heaven forbid, however, that in
this cold hard season of the year,
when so many hearts are sad, and SO
many boards are ty,that we should
pen anything to stay the most open
handed, practical charity, or that
would tempt anyone to waste in sen
timental indulgences the glorious in
fluences of this blessed day. God
grant that very few homes may be
dark and desolate, on that day, in
this Christian land. 1t is the time to
enjoy most freely the good gifts oil
Him who rules the universe, and
overrules all things for human good
the birth of Whose Son, the Redeemer
of the world, it is designed especially
to commemorate. All! indeed, it is
time for laughter and for decorous
conviviality. Nowhere are these thing.
more welcome than in the dwelling
places of the poorer classes. 1t was
His earthly fortune, who established
our Christmas to be the first Christian
pauper, for, during a portion of his
earthly pilgrimage, he had not where
to lay his head. May we, as we re
call that sublime story of ineffable
sorrow and of unequalled heroism
remember that the poor, we have
always with us.
Let us, then, on the approaching
Christmas eve, recall our practical
duties. Let US, more especially or
that day, remember the homes thai
are only nominally such; the cellars
in which fever broods, and the dark
ness and dampness of which drive
the inmates into the streets the
garrets, not yet made classical, ir
which hungry men denounce. their ill
fortune; domiciles, which the sum-
rays never reach and from the WALL
of which clammy moisture is con
tinually exuded; retreats in which
every element of salubrity is wanting
and in which whole families are Miyel
with little regard for the common
decencies of life, and no provision
whatever for any of its comforts. Ant
let US especially upon this holiday
consecrated to Him who said, sSuAe
little children to come unto me, anC
forbid them moi, for of such is the King
dom of Heaven ION this day wher
SO may infant voices are singing
around us,-let us remember, sH6
sf1uffnL/y remember the childrey