The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1897. CHRISTMAS-TIDE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 299, 24 December 1897, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1897. CHRISTMAS-TIDE.

For tke cause that l&oia assistance, For Eh. -BTons that needs resistance, Por the future in the distance, . And the good that m can do.

The -unchanging sentiment with which Christmas is welcomed by the whole of Christendom is one of the greatest triumphs of the conservative spirit. It is far from, desirable in such an imperfect world ..as this now is that that spirit should triumph often, for the hope of humanity lies in progress, not in standing still. This is a universally recognised-truth; even in politics where-the term conservatism, is most familiar, it connotes only a lesser form of liberalism. The fact is that we can only be absolute conservatives in respect to What, things or conditions of things we regard as perfect, or as near perfection as is now possible;. and these, with very few exceptions are limited to our fundamental ethical and religious ideas. In the same way it holds good that only those things which are genuine and true, and fulfil a right purpose, can long hope to endure in any age, but especially now a days, when change and improvement are synonymous watchwords. To this fact we must attribute in. no small measure the celebration of the Christmas festival under almost precisely the same conditions year after year and century after century. This is why we welcome it under the same old aspect and are altogether such hardened conservatives with regard to it. Insensibly in this instance we follow the apostle's injunction to bold fast that which is good; and while in most other matters we affirm tlfat change is the breath of life, we resent any interference with this-instr-tution that is hoary with the centuries. Innovations and novelties are

not to be tolerated in respect to Christmas. They are impertinences infinitely more out of place than modern improvements would be to the sacred architecture of Westminster Abbey. This is a province from which original ideas are strictly de* barred, and while 'originality is encouraged and striven after in every avenue of literature, it'is voted dull and quite inappropriate to be straining afteir- new , Ways pf tiling the old Christmas tales. It is the time-hon-oured formulas and phrases, the familiar sentiments, the simple wishes that we love to hear again'and }-et again at this time. "What in all the range of modern story or fine writing can exceed the divine beauty of the angels' message to the shepherds, or the simple heartiness of 'A Merry Christmas.' One could never improve on these" try- as he might, and no one would ask him "to try. The-no-: blest service it would seem':that we can render to' the great festival is to do all that we can to preserve it. un-touched-by the finger of change, so that it may stand for ever as a monument calling us back to the' early simplicity of our faith, and comforting us with those ever-accumulating associations that have endeared the season to successive, generations of mankind.

'I love, everything that's old,' said genial Oliver Goldsmith— vold friends, old tunes, old manners, old books, old wine.' But the fashion . nowadays is not that way. We run after, what is new; novelty is our fetish.to whom we sacrifice our ancient things. Old friends are passed by as bores the old tunes are said to be too 'tuney' for some and not sufficiently smart and 'catchy' for others, the old sedateness of manners gives • place to flippancy and pertness, the old books are pushed from the shelves to make room for the lightsome moderns, and the old wine —well, is there any old wine? Has it ever time to get old in this rapid age unless by aid^of the chemist? Yet in spite of all this change we must remain loyal to Christmas that is old with an age. few of these can lay claim to. It. must remain the same. Even at this side of the world, where climatic conditions take away from the season the exterior-aspects that to most of us seemed inseparable f rom-it : and. other methods of enjoyment than the old ones offer themselves, we have-not by one jot or tittle relinquished our hold cnt""the sacred institution: ■■_. They change their skies but not their hearts that roam.. Though we have neither blazing Yule logs nor glowing holly to light our Chris'tmastide, we cherish in the warmth of the summer sun himself no less generous sentiments than our friends do around the. brightest hearths in tbe Old Land, and a thousand blossoms supply the place of the missing holly. .

There is no fear of our forgetting Christmas because we cannot celebrate it under altogether the same outward, conditions that we associate with the time. If tbe internal conditions are present, if in our hearts we have learned to understand the significance to a great section of the world —and that, the. most civilised section— of all that the day commemorates, we cannot suffer the festival to fall into desuetude under any circumstances whatsoever. Other festivals may have withered and died, but this has struck its roots deep into the human heart, for it is the birthday of a faitb that spoketo the heart of man as no other faith had ever- spoken, and^ revealed the Deity as a God of infinite compassion and mercy. That heaven-sent promise and that benediction which blessed the poor earth nineteen hundred years ago was tbe rebirth of a new hope into the world, not merely a transitory hope that can cheer us along the rugged paths of life, but a hope that shines bright above tbe mists of tbe grave and,

' like a star. Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.'

As the birthday of such a hope, how could Christmas be other than" the most joyful of all seasons? Indeed, it almost seems superfluous that we should exchange seasonable wishes on the occasion, but as we said at the outset, the old formulas and phrases are sweet to say and "to hear, and Aye cannot finish these lines without wishing our readers 'A Merry" Christmas.'