THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1907. A CHRISTMAS GREETING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9013, 24 December 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1907. A CHRISTMAS GREETING.

However viewed —from ai-forthodoxor heterodox * the Churches or those who disregard both Churches and Creeds—the Festival of Christmas is an event held in the high est reverence among all European nations. To millions Christmas Day is a holy day, as well as a holiday, and for a long time before its arrival the Christmas season is eagerly looked forward to by old an-l young as the.period in which the greatest enjoyment is to be found in the course of the year. It is safe to say that no changes in religious sentiment, no iconoclastic movement, will ever sweep away, or even attempt to sweep away from the heart of man the reverence for the Great Teacher or for the day which commemorates His birth. Apart from relTgious feeling, the great festival of the year is hallowed by the purest associations, and unt'il sentiment is obliterated from humanity each recurrent Christmas Day must find a welcome among all peoples in all Christian lands. It is at this time that, the cares of business thrust aside for a brief period, the scattered members of families are enabled to foregather, and once more draw together sundered family ties. It is. at this time that foes are more apt to become friends, and. that friendships which long absences have copied become cemented in the bonds of personal fellowship. |lt is a time when "openhanded charity" plays a more con-

spicuous part than during the rest of the year; when the pocfr and distressed, happily never entirely overlooked in this country, receive more general and generous consideration than at any other period. It is a time when the beauty of goodness, which is innate in most human hearts, expands and blossoms as the rose; when love, forgiveness and charity form the basis of human inspirations and human actions; and when mirth and revelry, innocent and revifying, makes life wholly enjoyable for the moment, and braces the men and women and youth of the community for the struggles of the ensuing year. As we write the peopb of our own district, in common with all the rest of .'the dominion, are preparing fov the enjoyment of the festive season. We wish them pleasant weather and a pleasant holiday a very Merry and Happy Christmas.