®ljf fflran Tuesday, Deoembbb 24, 1918. The Peace Christmas.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16403, 24 December 1918, Page 6

®ljf fflran Tuesday, Deoembbb 24, 1918. The Peace Christmas.

Nor war, or battle's sound Was heard the world around: The trumpet spake not to the arm'd throng. We may not yet have reached the "universal peace through sea and "land" of which Milton Bpeaks, but to-morrow, for the first time since the nations wore plunged in war, Christmas Day will dawn on a world dominated largely by thoughts of peace, a world in which fear of what sad news the next hour may bring has, in the case of millions, of families, given place to the joyful assurance of the speedy and safe return home of those who for many months htvve lived in the shadow of death. There are many to whom even this Christmas can bring little joy, to whom it must be a time of sorrowful memories, never more poignant than at a season when goodwill and happiness are general. But even these mourners, we feel' assured, would not wish those who have cause for joy to abate their gladness/ Their own sacrifice is not forgptten, though the world rejoices in. the first Peace Christmas it has known for so long.

It has been said by someone that Christmas, as we know it to-day,, was invented by Charles Dickens. If that were true it would mean that there was something artificial in our celebration of tho day. That it is not true could be proved, if it were necessary, by countless quotations from old-time writers showing how deeply implanted in the minds of Englishmen for centuries past has been the desire to make Christmas the most notable holiday of the year. All that Dickens did, and he did it with a master's skill, was to quicken our sense of all that Christmas stands for and our enjoyment of the innocont happiness that it brings. It is, as he said, a good time, "a kind forgiving, charitable pleasant "time; the only time I know of, in the " Iqng calendar of the year, when men "and\women seem by one consent to " open their shut-up hearts freely and " to. think of people below them as if "they really were fellow-passengers to "tho grave and not another race of " creatures bound on other journeys." The war which has cost us so much has fortunately taught us many things, and not the least of them is a deeper concern for the welfare and happiness of the sad and sorrowing and unfortunate. The community's sympathies have widened, and at this time of rejoicing we may be suro that the fatherless and the widows will not be forgotten in their affliction. It cannot be a merry Christmas for all, but it can at least be happier than it would otherwise be if all do the duty which lies more heavily on us at Christmas time than at any other period of the year. And we believe they will. Christmas will be celebrated this year, unless all the omens are misleading, as it has never been celebrated tWore, the Christmas spirit, stronger

than ever, is abroad, and in the hope that to-morrow will be but the precursor of still merrier Christraases we wish our readers all the happiness that they can desire.