Year: 1872




BT IN IN sSees


HIS his vii be don dome on earth as n heaven


Christmas What wealth OF Joy and gladness
In this one word What feelings OF love ana Chris
ian charity well up from every heart at the recol
lection Of what the day really sOf the great event
90 fraught with good to all mankind which 1t COM
memorates. And as one goes back in memory to
that night nearly nineteen hundred years ago,
when the shepherds guarding their focks learned
that Saviour had been born into the world, and
they beheld the divine babe laid In the manger,
wrapped in swaddling clothes, how can 1t be 9TH
erwise than but kindly feelings should prevail in
every household to-day-that old grudges should be
forgotten, old friendships made stronger and Chris
tan charity glow every where In brighter colors,
and


PEACE AND GOOD WILL
reign the wide world overS And the remembrance
of that lowly birth brings its lesson to us ALL for,
look at It as we may, as a day when families are
reunited and feasting and merry making rule the
board, it is in every cline, wherever the
light OF Christianity has been spread, day of
religious observance That lowly birth in
the stable was religious lesson, so to
speak, and as such it comes home to every heart
in the midst OF all our rejoicings. We who have
the means to rejoice to make our homes bright
with every surrounding suggestive Of the days
celebration; who will sit down at the table at din
ner to-day with the smiling faces OF those we love
clustered all about and the laughter that proceeds
from happy hearts ringing In our ears, IL we give a
Thought to the lesson, will remember that like Him
who had not whereon to lay his head, there are
many, very many, to-day for whom the general
rejoicing sounds harsh and unchristianlike There
are those In our midst who are suffering in many
ways, whose lips may mutter prayer OF thanks to
God for the mercy that the birth Of the Saviour
brought to man, but whose hearts rebel against


THE PEANS OF CHRISTIAN REJOICING
that 90 up from households or plenty who give no
thought to their poor neighbors. The day to these
suffering ones may. indeed, be religious day but
what cal be said Of the charity and mercy it
brings n they have nothing to eat or drink and
the little ones are crying from the cold while across
the way the lights nash from golden chandeliers,
where other little ones are shrieking with Joy at
the sight Of costly gew-gaws on the Christmas
treef Let us all to-day, then, take the lesson to
heart, and do what we can to make Christmas for
our poorer neighbors q real day Of rejoicing In
stead OF day OF sorrow, mayhap OF bitter curses.


And L for cold i hap 70 die,


Well bury il In Christmas pie,


And evermorc be merry.


Christmas as


FAMILY DAY,


o day when every member Of the family, big and
lttle feels II his b0unden duty to make merry will
OF course be celebrated right joyfully. 1t has be-
come OF late years to all the nations what Thanks
giving Day was wont to be In the oden time TO
the New Englanders where, by the by, they do say
that man who dared In Puritan land TO celebrate
Christmas was liable to be taken In hand by the
magistrates aud dealt with most terribly by due
process OF law. It Is but q very short time ago,
indeed that Christmas was considered OF suf1cient
cff IN iuati ifv tha pkaa
and the moncy-makers generally in closing their
places In honor OF the day. AS matter Of course
no reference is made to the long ago when our
good Dutch ancestors revelled in clouds Of smoke
and made the day


FEsTIvITY OF HUGE PROPORTIONS
fr ON morning to night. Probably the brightest
part OF the celebration In the family will be done
honor to by the youngsters. The day to them Is
the day OF all days, and for weeks back they have
been counting the hours on their fingers, and won
dering II 1t would ever come ut all this year. And
there Is nothing surprising about oil this. We
were all children ourselves once upon time, and
we all know with what palptating hearts we heard
the first intelligence from our dear mamma that
Christmas Day would come "next month";, and
with what eagerness we asked her every morning
after nurse had soaped the sleep out Of our eyes
hudded herself before the roaring nre on the
hearth, "Win next month be to-morrowf' And
then, don't you ell remember how our hearts sank
within NJ when we were told, In c0nnding whs-
per, for fear


SANTA CLAUS MIGHT HEAR
mamma tell the secret that next month wouldn't
come for q week longer; and then Christmas would
have to be waited for twenty-fOur long, dreary,
agonizing days. And what then made the waiting
for us in the longag0 all the more painful Is doubly
more so for the youngster Of the present time-the
display OF goods In the toyshops. or course every
little one who has toddied out for the past six
weeks with mamma has beheId with wondering
eyes and longing heart the thousand and one beau
tifu things In the wind0ws-the wagons, the en-
gines. the horses and the dollies HIS imagination
has been carried into


THG SEVENTH HEAVEN OF T0yDoM
by the riches thus strewn about; and when he
kuows chat they are oil reserved for the irIepds OF