Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, DEC. 24, 1892. Christmas 1832.

Manawatu Herald, 24 December 1892, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, DEC. 24, 1892. Christmas 1832.

» In lonely Judea. as some shepherds - were minding their flocks by nigh', they were startled by the heaven l \ message " I bring you good tiding of great joy, which shall be to all people " and to morrow for the 1893rd time will this event be commemorated. We are therefore enabled to once more wish our readers A. MERRY CHRISTMAS and trust that they will, in every way, enjoy the festivities and amusements of the season. An old distich bids us "At Christmas play, and make good chepr, For Christmas comes but once a year " and we are told by a better authority to " rejoice and be glad " as the season is essentially one of peace and goodwill. We have gallantly struggled for very many years tc i keep up the customs which are associated with an exactly opposite climate to that we live under, and honestly confess it a failure. With a melting sun, the Christmns fare, understood as usually partaken" of in England, is unpalatable, and the many games and romps, which u -ed to be so stimulating to one's blood, are too heating for the time of y*>ar, and it has also been a hard task to get these ways appreciated by (he young colonials who do not comprehend the associations attaching to them The season must therefore be shorn of m my of th? old, o'd ways, whifh vril be felt as a sort of wrench from the ties holding us to the land of our birth, but these are mere fancies and need not interfere in the g n^ral appreciation and rejoicing of the fact this day reminds us of. L?t us be happy and merry and do our best to make oth r* so, but we are bound to remember the fact •• Vever morninst wore To evening, hut some heart did break " and that this is so though the surroundings of mr circle miifhfc tempt n« to f >rget that it might bp ever >--o. We honestly triM our readers may long be spared to all health and jay, bat it will not be amiss to rememb r there are those less fortunate, and their grief will stand out more oppressive by reason of the g neral rejoicing being held around them. A thoughtful gift and a kin<lly w>vd will go far to soothe a Ing* which must be g ieved over. D -ath vis ; ts both h'gh and low and it is but lately that he claimed for his own that noble old man, the late puet laureate who wrote 11 Howe'pr it bp, it seems to me, TN only nob'e to be nood Kind b arts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood •"' In the cold north, in the equator, in the desert, in the swamp, on land and on the water will the pleasant wish " A Merry Christmas " be wKb^d, illustrating how far the blessed teachings of the laet two thousand years have extended beyond I the shores of the sea of Galil-"3. Snch memories, recalling the scattering of many families compel us to wish 14 But 0 1 for the touch of a vaniah'd bund, And th« sound of a voice that is still !"

' tvp !<n nv full well aitcli I wHh:v fli*p IVilk-itfas, ekcbpt in the ; Wa\ of reminding us that tta should ?>o fjim our- path through life that h i pang of parting may not be eittbVuei'ed by the thought of unUnd words spokeu too late to be withdrawn. Charles Dickens, in speak ing of the characters in one of his popular books has naid "If I have put into my book anything whbh tvin till the yoiuig mirid With bptter j i-houyhts of death, or s)ft-er> the grief of older hearts; if 1 have written one word which can afford pleasuve or consolation to old or s'oung in time of trial v I shall Consider it as something achieved — something which I shall be glad to look back upon in after-life." In as sincere a manner, but following in steps immeasurably behind England's most homely author, we do desire even that which he has said so well* We once again express the wish of A MERRY CHRISTMAS. to one and all, and ask for their assistance to " Ring out old shapes of foul disease, Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; King oitt the thousand wars of old, King in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free, The eager heart, the kindlier hand : King out tho darkness of the land, lling in the Christ that is to be.