Feilding Star. SATURDAY, DEC. 22, 1888. A Merry Christmas

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 75, 22 December 1888, Page 2

Feilding Star. SATURDAY, DEC. 22, 1888. A Merry Christmas

It is always a pleasure to write, or speak, the words, " A Merry Christmas," although they are necessarily, from the sorrows and uncertainties of life, tinged with melancholly. Each succeeding one brings us nearer to that inevitable day when we shall be born again, and called into a new and higher life, which will have no end. We are now reminded of those who have passed away, or rather gone before us, to " that bourne from which no traveller returns." It is wt j ll that such thoughts should arise, because they bring forcibly before us the duty we owe to each other of forgiving that we may be forgiven ; of putting aside all those bitter animosities which are so easy to excite and so hard to quell, in the every day aftairs of life. Human nature is weak, and the task of self conquest is made thereby doubly hard ; but the harder the battle the more honorable the victory. If, instead of thinking bitter things of! those we imagine, or we even positively know, have despitefully used us, we were to put ourselves in their places, and estimate fairly the provocations we may have given, there is a strong probability that our own verdict would be against ourselves. Very few men indeed are guilty of acts of malice unless they have some degree of justification. That there are exceptions to this rule we know too well, but these are irresponsible individuals, who are not accountable for their peculiar idiosyncracies, and who should be more the objects of pity than dislike. They will have their reward. Fortunately, the great ma6s of Christian men at this festive season have been accustomed, from their youth upwards, to clear their minds of all the evil thoughts or passions, which may have accumulated during the expiring year, and to them our remarks are merely intended to strike a respondent chord in their memories. For ourselves, we can only say that we have wittingly done no man wrong, and when, in our public capacity as journalists, we have felt it our duty to correct, admonish, or advise, we have only done so under a strong sense of the responsibilities laid upon us by our position. In conclusion, we wish our readers and clients A Meery and a Happy Christmas, and hope the prosperity, which now obtains among them all, will continue for many years, and may they live many years to enjoy it.