CHRISTMAS, 1889.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2313, 24 December 1889, Page 2

CHRISTMAS, 1889.

There are a few miserable iuulviduals m every community whose wont it is to look sourly upon those who regard Christmas as a festive season, and who seek to establish for themselves a reputation for superior wisdom by affecting to despise such trivialities as the nterchange of the Compliments of the Season, and the penning of Christmas editorials. According to these self- r I appraised Solons, a dignified contempt for other people's small mindedness m these particulars is the attitude which should be assumed by those who occupy that higher plane where they themselves fondly imagine themselves to be seated, only a step below the diimajores, but they little think that this ridiculous assumption of superiority on their part only makes them a laughing stock, and that their utterances Which sound m their own ears as the roar of the lion, are easiiy^detected by the crowd whom they despise as but the bray of the ass that would fain conceal his identity under the stolen skin of the king of beasts. Out upon such vain, puffed-up, sour, i cynical idiotsl Let them come down from I their pinnacle of pride and hide themselves m the tubs to which they and their pretensions Bhould alike be consigned. Better still, let them kick those tabs into a Christmas bonfire, and pitching into the bright flames with them their vanity and cynicism, let them stretch forth the right hand of hearty goodwill and grasp that of their fellow man and fellow woman, and join for once m the warm and friendly greetings which mark that season of seasons of all the year, when all the world should think with kindly affections of our common kinship. For not only m poetry but m actual fact Christmaetide is blessed, and full of blessing. It brings together scattered families, it revives friendships, it softens or extinguishes hard feelings and bitternesses, it awakens the kindliest sympathies, it brings to mind those sacred sanctions which make our life so great m its possibilities, both as towards tbe here and the hereafter, and the song of the angels floats m at the windows of every household with its message of peace and goodwill. Let us then deck our homes with flowers, and spread our tables with abundant oheer, and m welcoming Christmas, merry Christmas, once again, let us pass from one to another the good old-fashioned kindly greeting which wishes for each and all A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.