Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1936. THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 64, 24 December 1936, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1936. THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS.

It is difficult to estimate the influence of Christmas upon the human race. For one-third of the earth’s population there is on Christmas Day a pause in the routine of mundane activities. No other festival commands an affection so widespread. In humble cottage and in stately mansion, in the ship upon the sea and in the snowbound cabin of northern climes, in the sunlit lands of the South, in teeming cities and in lowly outposts, Christmas is honoured. Not all who welcome it realise the deeper significance of the festival, but all may be said to appreciate the fact that the spirit of Christmas is something apart, something healthful and helpful, that descends like kindly dew upon a thirsty soil. That is the boon of Christmas, for which the world gives yearly thanks. Men celebrate the festival in their diverse ways, according to their upbringings, their dispositions and their faiths, but it is the glory of Christmas that upon that day at least there shall, by popular decree, be no room for hard and selfish thoughts, but a general relaxation of those invisible bonds and barriers which unfortunately play so large a part in every-day life. The potent tradition of Christmas works for good wheresoever it reaches, leavening the season of the year with its beneficent influence, exacting tribute from all, softening men's hearts, and bidding them call a truce to their bickerings and enmities. The kindly exchange of greetings, good wishes and tokens of remembrance, the family reunions which are a time-honoured feature of the season, reveal man in' a mood that becomes . him well. The outlook 'is widened, with thought, for the sick, the unfortunate and the erring thought which has this inestimable value, that it makes the thinker a better man or woman. Commemorating, as it does, the birth of a child, Christmas is peculiarly the festival of childhood, and the greatest joys are found in proportion as the little ones are made happy. So it is that those whose youth is left far behind find on that day a pleasure that rejuvenates them. Above all, the spirit of Christmas is the spirit of unselfishness. It is said that once, when General William Booth was asked to send a Christmas message to his world-wide army, he thought for a moment and then dictated one word which very finely expressed not only the genius of his great organisation, but also the spirit of Yuletide. That word was * Others.