The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-01-06

A DAY OF GLADNESS.
l., Patience, Generosity and Love
Prevail in Home and Heart AZ
Christmas Time.

What tender memories that magic
word calls up!
How the page of life rolls back and
we read maybe, with fearful eyes the
characters written there, and through
the long closed corridors OF the past
we hear the soft echo of the footsteps
of those who have gone out from among
MS. and come back no more.
But while Christmas saddens, 1t Is
always a season of rejoicing. There is
hardly any home so poor in this broad
land, let us hope, that the children can
not hang up their stockings and hope
70 find something in them when morn
ing dawns.
And if there be such homes, would IT
not be quite as well for people who en-
dow colleges, already possessed of am
ple means-who build churches with
steeples which pierce the skies-who
sport diamonds that do them no earth
w good would it not be just as well
if they would set apart yearly por-
ton of what they spend so needlessly,
as fund to give the poor around them
a happy and comfortable Christmas?
God has no need of steeples hundred
or two hundred feet high He can hear
prayer just as well from one elevation
as He can from another, Christ was
born in manger, and lie never
preached in any costly cathedrals, yet
His words have come down to us
through the ages-ever new, ever
beautiful and sweet, to fill our hearts
with hope, and to make glad these lives
of ours which otherwise would be but
as the apples of Sodom.
And, remembering what Christmas
commentaries. it should ever be a sea-
son of good will toward men" Petty
differences should be buried so deep
that no winds of idle gossip would be
able to uncover them. We should re
member our own frailty. and have
charity for our neighbors. And when
the joy bells ring on Christmas morn
ing, happy is the man who can listen
to them and say truthfully: 81 have
no hardness in my heart this day for
any living thing"
Shall we give presents at Christmas?
Certainly, if the heart prompts the
gift, not otherwise.
In so far as you can, let Christmas
be a day, not OF so much feasting that
the doctor will be needed the next day.
but an occasion of good cheer 1t is not
necessary to anybody's happiness that
there should be a great many kinds of
dishes. One can eat, with comfort and
respect to his digestion, only about so
much, and everything above that is a
WEAKNESS and vexation.
And too often the woman who does
her own work is so completely tuck
cred out" with her preparations for
Christmas that she has no heart for
anything; and when everybody has
Toasted and praised her dinner, she
looks at the stupendous array of dishes
she has to wash, and groans in agony
of spirit. And she may well be for
given if she says, as she often does:
THANK heaven that Christmas comes
but once year!"
On Christmas day, put away cares
and the remembrance of all troubles
and perpleXities, so far as YOU can.
Let everybody have as good time as
1t is possible to have Eat your tur
key with no thought that perhaps
tomorrow you may have to dine on
salt pork.
Indulge in no discontinued refiec-
tons concerning your richer neighbor,
who is able to wash down his costly
Christmas viands with champagne.
BE thankful for what you have, and
make the best of it. Likely as not it is
good deal better than you deserve.
Give your horse an extra feed, and
treat the cat and dog to the chicken
bones, and let them have Christmas,
too
Fill the children's stockings if you
can-even if you have to cut off your
cigars and soda water to meet the
emergency.
And for one day in the year let chart
ty, patience and love prevail in your
home, and in your heart-and let that
day be the anniversary of the ever
memorable and glorious day on which
Christ was born.-Kate Thorn. in Ny
Weekly,