CHRISTMAS EVE: A PHANTASY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 259, 24 December 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHRISTMAS EVE: A PHANTASY.

By REV. 11. S. .McCLI'.I.LANI)

l t is a quaint, lancy of niiiie. lor which I can furiii-h no adequate reason. that tlio indefinable diann and bewitchment of tlio Christ mas season loaches it.s zenith on Christinas Kvo. Christmas morning, with all its noi.sy niorrmunt, with its laughter of happy children. and greeting of gonial friends, can never e(|iial for mo the sacramental joy of those mystic hours that immediately precede its coming. 1 haw -pent Christmas in tho city and in the country, and I know not whether Nature my mother, or Humanity my brother. has done tho more to till mo with this strange hi lief, Utat on Christmas Evo the earth around us. tho sky above us. and tlio heart within us is peculiarly responsive to tlio Spirit of God. 1 have spon-t Christmas Kvo in the country, and have sten the sky so mysteriously beautiful that it liLvdod no great imagination to isay that, "the heavens were lull of an angelic host singing and praising God." Not once in the year that was dying had the l'n_ si en Artist painted so wondrous a sky pi ture as that which He reserved for the world on that auspicious night. I remember now how tho torccis of earth and heaven seemed to join in a holy conspiracy to make more beautiful than ever tho sullen doiid-drifts above us, the gloomy forest and tho karron moor around. Low in the west the sun sank into the Sf't with a peculiar splendour, tingeing the brown hills with deepest purple, and blazing through the forest like a sea of flame. For hours it seemed to last, tho unearthly glory of that evening, lieloro it was translated by the alchemy of hoaven into the cold and starlit isiletice of that sacramental night. It was an evo on which a man might walk with God. for the spiritual seemed the only real.

I ha ve spent Christ ma Eve in the city, and have witnessd such deeds of love and sacrifice as would move the .stronger man to tears. There docs .seem to be some truth in the mediae/a I fancy that at the Christinas season the heart of humanity is sanctified anew with the spirit of the Christ-child. If 'this he so the solemnisation of the Christ mass takes place on Christinas Eve. If you would kindle anew, lay friend, the dying embers of your faith in the divine ancontry of humanity, tsand for a moment on Christmas Eve in some bu-y thoroughfare of this restless city, and watch the faces of th« hurrying throng. Full of anxiety, 1 doubt not. many of them will be; hi t it is the anxiety that brings peace an 1 joy to others, not unhappiniss and pain. You will sec a moving cro.vd of people, of all sorts and conditions, dominated by a motive that is strange to many of them, by the principle of giving instead of getting, and their faces cannot hide tliiir wonder at t liepossession of this new-found joy. Seine of them, you will say. are half-asham-ed of their unselfishness, trying their utmost to make you !>elieve mey are nmc htoo self-possessed to take any notice of this annual festival of jov. Rut when they get home, they will cretp through the hall with the pesents they have bought for parent or child, for lover or friend, as though they hid some guilty soeret in their bosom, not knowing that within the soul of them the Holy Child of Bethlehem is cradled once more.

All this you will see on Christmas Eve. and how much more! Mat(e;--,>f-fact mothers and sensible fathers creeping up the stairs at midnight, with elongated bundles oil their shoulders, listening in breathless expectancy outside half-openrd lnxlroom doors! Christmas Eve! Tt. is the most magical hour of the Christmas festival, when the Christinas bells aro tinging and the Saviour-music, like a dream from heaven, echoes through the deepest recesses of the human heart.