CHRISTMAS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2442, 24 December 1892, Page 2

CHRISTMAS.

The receding sands in Father Time's hour glass are rapidly nearing the mark which points to the advent of another Christmas, so soon to be followed by the ushering in of a new year. In the busy world around us are evident signs of its approach. Families, the individual members of which have for a time been scattered, are now preparing to unite the temporarily severed trees at all events for a brief season. Tradespeople, by their displays of those good thing which custom still believes to be seasonable, remind us daily of the coming festival, and on all sides the note of preparation is sounding. The Church has by special services invited worshippers to prepare to welcome the advent of its King in a suitable spirit, and the memories thus hourly reviving cannot but fail to stir within us those feelings of kindliness and good will towards one another that more than anything else make, or should make, the words " A merry Christmas to you" something more than a mere time-honored greeting. The season is one that calls at all times for a retrospective glance, and brief as a year looks when past the changes are manifold. Locally they have been comparatively few. One or two prominent men have left us for other scenes of operation, and one or two have entered, let us hope, a newer and brighter life. The geueral progress of the district is marked by some additional buildings and extensions of existing ones, but the year cannot altogether be said to have been one of unexampled prosperity. We have, however, held our own manfully, and probably advanced a step or two, if not in the direction of wealth, at least in a social sense. The world at large has suffered the loss of more than one illustrious personage, but their words and deeds not even time can make " fiy forgotten as a dream." Happily for those who survive them, they have left indelible impressions of their worth on the sands of time. It is not well, however, to dwell too much on the past. A looking forward to the future is an earnest of progress. " The year is going; let it go, Ring out the false, ring in the true." and, looking with [high hope and earnest resolve into the future, let us determine to profit and make the coming year bright with kindly deeds to those with whom we are individually associated, and fraught with good to all mankind. We wish our readers " A Merry Christmas."