THE SAME OLD ADAM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 13, 23 December 1911, Page 8

THE SAME OLD ADAM.

I . . J ; AFTER TWO. THOtSAXD. TEAKS. I (Br Jexsy' When.) j. For nearly two thousand years the. world ha? celebrated Christmas and vet .j( is.a Vestival that is older than Chris--1 tianitv .itself. .Centuries and ' centuries ago, when there was. no thought, no knowledge that a. Christ child' w:is to lio born who: 11:15 10-change the v,-hole, history of the world, there had. been, annually, a great festival' at the time of the winter solstice when life had reached if* lowest el)b. and'the first. faint piqniifo of its reueival iva.-s about, to make itself felt.. .... Authorities hnvn differed as to whether the festival of the nativity of-Christ was fixed for this'dale.because'of tho existing pagan festivals.'or whether it coincided ' l>v ohauce. .Itowevev, the imni"niorinl oiist-wanees of heathen days were quickly transferred to 'it, l>Mh in Northern and - Southern: Furo]* 1 , by I he, newly-converted nations. It was a. natural thing, for the pagan' festivals were all associated- withHie idea of nativity: among tho Xortliern people with the'new birth of the daylight year and the renewal of tile life of na-' tun;: among the Creeks with divine births |—the holy birth at F.leiMs, and the 'birth of tiie infant Difinysins at Delphi. Whatever customs'and beliefs have been questioned and overthrown in the cnursn of centuries, the story of tho nativity in Bethlehem has remained wherever' tho white races have planted their standard, and tlial is in most of the countries of the world. But, while the story has travelled do\vu to us through all tho ages it would seem .as though, in. these latter vears, the doctrine which it ha.s taught ha.s become-old-fashioned, and that instead of "Peace on earth," we have now "Blessed ore the strife-makers," for it is power, and riches, and dominion that are the -prizes apparently to bo fought for. Most people,. in looking back over tho year nearly ended, will rea.liso how thin' has - beeii the crust that has kept the whole 'world- from being embroiled in a whirlpool of disrordant activities. It was only a Short while ago that Germany and France were tlviug at e.aeh other's throats over Morocco—a. war that would uot have beeu fought out between" thoso two countries alone. . Tho papers' liavo been full of the atrocities cortiinittcd during a war that is still waging'between-Turkey and Italy. There is,war in'-China and, only a short while ago, there was something slightly approaching internal .war in England..' In spito of the centuries that liavo gone-by-aJi' the achievements that have gone with them-it would soem. that there aro still strong traces of tho old Adam left in civilised humamly—llio .samb old passions aro their, even in these days of his Majesty King - George the Fifth in the year, Alino Domini, litll.. Perhaps, it is iii the lact that ba.d is "badder"' than it. used to be—is regarded with a greater ccnueinnation—that the levelling up of humanity at large-is most apparent.