Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY DECEMBER 24th. 1917. CHRISTMAS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY DECEMBER 24th. 1917. CHRISTMAS.

I hk festive season of the year has agau t-omo to its eve of celebration, and lik the three which have gone before, i clouded with the heavy pall of wai Ibis dour environment robs the seasoi ol its customary joyous note, and give a deeper tone to the occasion. Instea< of a care-free world with the individual wrapped only in their own eaj>ao,ity—wrapped only in their own persona concerns, and measuring their joys In their own capacity for pleasurable on joy moil t, we have a world oppressoc and borne down by a load of trial anc tribulation, and all classes are partici put mg in tile burden. It is- a remote community indeed which has not boei touched the war. On every side there are marks which tell of the toll ol war, its ravages and desolation. When we contemplate the vast area of Europe, portions of Asia and Africa surfeited by the long-drawn out war carrying destruction and devastation in its train speculate on the vast preparations going forward in America to participate in the great conflict; and realise that in the distant outposts of '-he antipodes we, too, are drawn into the vortex of this all embracing struggle, we realise but faintly, perhaps, the tremendous magnitude of the tit an tic struggle going forward with ceaseless energy. This period of the year is the time given over to a world reminder of the great Christian ideal. Before the war, living in a fool’s paradise, it was thought that ideal was so (irmly planted in the hearts of man that never could there break loose so desperate and so deplorable a struggle as now over-spreads the world. Wo had a wrong perspective of the ideal, perhaps ; certainly all nations have not assimilated the ideal, as the most idealistic pourtraved it. “Peace on earth and goodwill to all men,” has proved a meaningless message to some nations. They believed in the triumph of might over right, at any cost, to suit their own aims and ambitious; and so sure were they of their ground work that now for over forty months and more they have contrived to keep the world at grips, and the tense struggle goes on with little sign of relaxation, and very little immediate hope of cessation. “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless mil lions, mourn.” How true is that statement in these advanced times of the twentieth century—when the Christian era was thought to he growing hoary with age. Yet after all these centuries there has broken loose a fury no less demoniacal, indeed more terrible still, than the wild license of the Huns win over-ran European territory, before Christianity held sway. Our puny scheme of civilisation appears to have broken down. Surely the lessons of the Christmas season have been wrongly applied. The hope and aim of Christian life has been distorted, and a false doctrine takes its place. Hon 1 can the world he put right?. Not by force, certainly. The reform must came from within. Perhaps the war is a visita'- i tion to purify all the false heresies, and give a clear vision in the end. Tts destructive power is so vast, that surely

it cannot be all in vain. There must be some .set purpose shaping the end of the war. Perhaps if the reform of the individual came first the greater reform of the community would follow. Withal, there can bo no more peaceful and cheerful message to mankind, than ‘‘Pence on Earth, 'goodwill to all men.” if that could be accepted at its liberal value by all mankind, how soon we would ‘‘ring out the false, and ring in the true.” That is the condition of mind and condition of international life wo must assume and practice in reality if we would attain that righteou s enjoyment of life which is conveyed one to the other in the time honoured wish of ‘‘A Mcrrv Christinas.”