The Akaroa Mail. MONDAY, DECEMBER 24.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 150, 24 December 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. MONDAY, DECEMBER 24.

In accordance with a time honoured custom, we wish our numerous friends ar.d readers A Meiuiy Christmas. The very name of Christmas brings up numerous reminiscences ; memories and images of the pas.t arise, until we seem to liv-i for the time in an ideal world. Those of ns who have lived in the Old Country will recall with a sort of pleasing regret the Christmases spent at home. At' times-the face of the whole land is covered with snow, and the surface of the lakes and pools with a thick coating of ice, all nature seems frost-bound, ami the country appears as if it would never smile again. But, if without all seems cold and sterile, within all ifc light and gladness. Christmas-eve ! ■"Whilt a glorious time ! The games in the kitchen of the farm house, or in the hull of the mansion, the mixing of the wassail bowl, with the hot apples bubbling and hissing in the steaming liquor. Anon, the fun grows fast, and furious, unLii o.t the hear approach of midnight the bells from the church towers and the music of the waits in humble imitation of the celestial choir, tell the same glad etory which formed the burden of the Anthem first sung nineteen hundred years ago on the..plains, of Bethlehem. Christmas Day arrives, the churches decorated with branches oi tho broad leaved laurel, mingled with the sombre . yew and fragrant pine, rendered bright by the glistening red berrys of the holly. Kien, there is the yet solemn service, and this over tho family gathering succeeds, a scene of happiness yet often mingled with tearful regret ; for vacant places at the table tell of the absence of some loved ones, who, may be, are wandering in foreign lands, or have been summoned to " that bourne from whence, no traveller returns." Here ho\r -different the scene. Christmas comes to. us amid all the glory of an An.si-.ral summer. Our churches are, for* the nonce, converted into bowers of £:v;nery, amongst which choice flowers . gleam like bright gems. The air too is ■ heavy mth the perfume of many flowers. '•'■■• But there "is 'Jia same grand pld service, ..* the same family gatherings with their rL- -ftffflf>fa*anato greetings and tearful regrets

rejoicing, rnin.'.rled with genipl interaid affectionate Certainty nbt in ript ami £ And no/, letvuW/ok) a> j#Wt 'the past. ; In ojUf' and plenty have) feigned supreme*; no dire calamity has smitten us' like ja, destroying angel. It is true thei'oiieis been political Strife, but tha>'harikn6w\ passed away. We have suffered neither from famine or pestilence, nor have vrft had to endure the horrors of war. Iti S! the great outside world the case hast been far different. In India, with itp.-. millions of inhabitants, famine and pestilence, those twin scourges of the. human race, have slaughtered hundreds of thousands. Yet, it is refreshing to contemplate how good springs out of apparent evil. When the cry for help from the famished millions reached the Christian world, human i sympathy was "evoked to such ah extent that it gushed _*forth like a river, and, taking the form of substantial help, carried life itself to those who previously were starving with hunger. Then, too, the fierce struggle which has been going on between the Muscovite and the Turk the one for territorial aggrandisement, and the other in defence of country—has. sent tens of thousands to their last account. It is sickening to read the reports of the awful carnage that has taken place in the Russo-Turkish war, and'to think that whilst we are rejoicing at the advent of the Prince of Peace, | this terrible slaughter may still be going on. When we reflect on this, we cannot help fervently wishing that the event alluded to in the following simple, yet expressive, lines may be speedily realised :—

" Oh War ! to hearts and homes of men What sorrows dost thou send ; But a time is quickly coming, when Thine evil reign shall end. God speed the day when war shall cease, And earth to Heaven shall answer— peace !"