The Daily Texarkanian., 1898-12-24

approach of the coming day by a
display of marvellous toys and beau
tiful picture books.
Little children have been observ-
ed standing near enough to the
large plate glass windows to meas
ure their little noses ON the frosted
glass, in their eagerness to get as
near the treasures as possible and
the longing look In their eyes, said
palmer than words could tell, how
acceptable these trinkets would be
to them.
Mysterious looking boxes have
been noticed carted away to our
express Offices, bearing tokens of
remembrance to some one a far off
in the distance, but near and dear
in remembrance.
Kind messages have been, and
are being sent, both by wire and
post to distant climes, to loved ones,
bearing words of cheer and love,
and all in memory of the blessed
Christ-child and all because Christ
mas is at hand.
Only once did the Heavenly host
say "Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good will
toward men," but since that mem
orable night nearly nineteen hun
dred years ago, the same Christmas
message has been repeated millions
of times, in all clirnes and in all
languages.
Truly can we repeat the above
paragraph with new meaning, tor
since our last Christmas tide we
have had war of no mean proper
tion and we have come out in the
right and can exclaim in the Ian
guage of the Immortal bard:
"G rim visaged war has smoothed
his wrinkled front, and the Prince of
Peace has proclaimed peace and
good will toward mem
With all of this, we are sorry to
say that all over the world, today
there are alterations among friends
and kindred. There are broken
homes and arrangements of all
kinds, and instead of healing the
rents as we should we are perhaps
tearing them wider apart. And
why so? Let each of us answer,
and God grant that a special mes
sage of peace may enter all hearts.
There are many homes this
Christmas time that are not what
they were last year-perhaps there
is a prodigal son or daughter; per
haps there is a vacant chair that
reminds us of some one who has
gone away; or it may be there are
living sorrows that we can tell to
no one, and which make some feel
that there is no Christmas Joy for
us, God grant that it is not so
with youl
Try and find some blessing and be
grateful; try and do something for
some one else, and be glad of the
opportunity, There is a beautiful
law of compensation that when we
do most for others who are lonely,
sad and comfortless, we do most for
ourselves-we grow rich by giving,
How the loving heart of Mary
must have throbbed when the Babe
was placed in her outstretched
arms To be sure, she had been
denied the privilege of fashioning
with her own fingers a dainty ward
robe such as mothers so delight in,
but for all that, she was destined
to wear the Queenly crown of moth.
erhood and her Son was foreor-
dained TO wear the royal robe of
righteousness,
Every one has a different mean
ing of Christmas, To the small boy
II means hre-crackers, toy pistols,
rabbit hunts and full stomachs and
a generally good time
To the girls II means dolls and
other femininity fixing, and they
should not be overlooked by their
parents In search of suitable pres.
ents,
To the venerable people It means
more, aud they In their way ex.
tract as much enjoyment during
the Christmas tide as do the chill
dren.
Then we say
"loOp ON more wood tho wind is chill.
But lot II whistle IA II win,
Won keep our merry ChrIstmOsstllL'