The Daily News TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 302, 24 December 1907, Page 2

The Daily News TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21.

CHRISTMAS. The of delightful cli--• li liul 1 is with us again. and v. c ;i:c li-ai ly all glad. The break in 11k■ incnoioiiy of the daily routine occasioned by thy uncivil festival effects such change-. even if these changes are evanescent, that Christendom is given a tonic it nmch needs". our bodily ni.i - chiiicry become lubricated, enabling the wheels of Hie to i ! vn] w more freely during the course of it coming year, but the spice of humanne-s thai all unconsciously gather in contact with joyous humanity is a mental stimulus tint is as necessary as food. Come to think of it. Christinas time is almost solely a season of good. It is the season of giving and

receiving, the season of merriment, the season of good wishes, reunions, travel anil heartiness. There never was a Scrooge who, meeting his fellow-mail and coming in contact with "our finest national asset.'' the children, but did not want to buy the biggest turkey for the Bob Cratch'itts of the world. There never was a heart so hard that the season of festivity, the time of the Xativity did not soften it. The asperities of common daily business life, if not altogether removed, are allowed to lie dor-

mant. and there is the possibility that the asperities may not wake again. Many a mother with a loved son far away, is full of joy as the boat or the tram brings the wanderer to the sacrament of home welcome. Many a father Sees the whole picture of his past life, and particularly the bright colours in the picture as lie greets a daughter to the home-coming. Many there be who, severed because of being *' not understood," reunite and understand.

In Xew Zealand the year that is ebbing away has been one of peace, of progress, of expansion, hard work and endeavour. It has been another stepping stone on the highway to nationhood, a glad advance in the direction of success. Individuals, like nations, have advanced. Some, perhaps, there be who have in their climb used their fellow-men as rungs in the ladder. Others there are who have stepped down, and decline still farther as the festivals come again. Such as these offer the chance to those who have succeeded to infuse some of the brightness of the glad season into their lives, it is better to be glad once iii the year, even if one is not glad for the rest of it. Who is there, hearing the blare of the tin trumpet of childhood and seeing the joy of the children, does not laughingly "curse" the trumpet and oless the children. Joy is infectious, and the Health Department has not proclaimed it a notifiable disease. The news travels last. Trains and steamers, buggies, bikes and bullock dravs bring the tidings in the shape of bright laces and glad hearts. Even if Christmas brings but a thought of a distant home to ivhicli the thinker cannot go, Christmas is worth while, lo some of us the joy-season brings pictures of the Old Home and the Yule Log and the earth wrapped in a birthday garment of white.

It may suggest the pealing of mellow hells from belfries grey with the moss of ages and redolent ol British liistory. it may bring softening thoughts of those who were with us at Christmas in the dear oht times—sad thoughts, perhaps, hut tinged with a glad satisfaction that nicniorv is still green. But most of all should "Christmas time limn vividly on the lens of the soul, the living present. Christmas is the story of a lowly babe, and of lowly shepherds who travelled far and strove to reach a goal—and reached it. To-day Christinas should be a time of resolve, as well as one of light-hearted jollity and festivity. There is so much 10 do and so little time to do it before next Christinas. To many the mere resolve to conquer next year is a guarantee of its accomplishment. To others less strong-willed it may be the occa-

sion for an infusion of greater strength, it is the outstanding idea of Christendom at this season to "have a good limeand it only requires a little thought on tlie part of those who have resolved to have a good time that their fellow-man not so happily circumstanced should have a good time too. We know that it is the charming custom at Christmas time to make presents to the poor. Tlie "poor we have always with us," even in New Zealand, and it is known by anyone who cares to ponder on the matter that a Christmas joy is doubly enjoyed if joys are infrequent. Therefore, if it should occur to you that ill making great preparations lor you and yours that someone not you or yours, requiring assistance, could be made happy by you, even if you sacrifice a little, do it.

Dun't let tlie idea uf having Die l»g- ---■ gest time ou record olj.-?c>h you. There is always " the morning utter/' Don't have any '•morning after." but see that somebody else lium a " yesterday." lierc ill New Zealand the particular joy* that still claim our Home relatives are impossible. Here there is a brighter season. a season of open-air and exenr-ion, of bimmier raiment and glad junketings. Here there is lc*s poverty, and there are no stories of people who have no Christmas cheer, being luuud dead in the *uu\v or frozen on a doorstep. We cannot be the benefactors to the world that tsuit'ers, but we can relieve >ome ,-uttering on our little section of earth. Soon enough Christmas will be gone, but the oppor-

' tuuity never leaves us. if Christmas stirs the heart to good deeds, if Christmas gives you an opportunity to make amends, if Christmas is regarded by you as the season of the year when you must be most human, most kind, most generous, let Christmas stay in your soul all the glad year round. Mirth and Charity go well in hand. Kindness and good cheer are brothers. Gladness, gaiety, and the palm of friendship and brotherhood consort successfully. When Christmas is over, and when you ponder on itrs past gaieties and joys, you'll ponder the more happily if you have given to any beside yourself, what we wish every reader, A MEliltY CHRISTMAS.