Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1919. THE CHRISTMAS SEASON.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1708, 24 December 1919, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1919. THE CHRISTMAS SEASON.

Opportunities for the full - enjoyment of the holiday season are this year un- ■ usually numerous. Full train, aorvises are running on all lines for the first time since 1915. Holiday excursion faros, which ’were discontinued during the second year of the . great war, have been restored, and. with unrestricted freedom of movement, people are moving to and fro, so that family reunions and. the renewing of friendly, relationships are the general order of the day. With picnics, sports gatherings, and race meetings taking place all over the country, and with abundance of good cheer throughout, the 1919 Christmas season, so far as New Zealand is concerned, should be true to its name as the festive season of the year. With the , world nominally at peace, and the groat enemy -of civilised humanity defeated, the elections over, and a cessation of the party wrangling which characterised: the political campaigning of t.h& last few weeks, nothing should hinder that spirit of peace and goodwill between man and. man, that was breathed over the eastern world on the dawn of tho first Christmas morning 1919 years ago. For the Christian world, at least, the season is one of hope and rejoicing. However much men’s hearts may have trembled and been saddened by the .grim' experiences of the last five years, the peace that victory has brought to us, remains as an inspiration and cheer for the future. Right has replaced Might, and if it has not altogetnor triumphed, as we hoped it would do, the mighty have at least been “put down from their seats”; the “counsels of tho wicked have been brought to naught,” and the mightiest armies ever put in tho field, organised and equipped as no armies have ever been before, have been routed. We have had, as a nation and an Empire, periods of depression; days qf darkness, gloom and uncertainty; the sons and daughters of the Empire on active service abroad have suffered privations and agonies, and have made tho supreme sacrifice in defence of the liberties of mankind. There wore days during the last five years when hope almost failed us, when we read of Haig’s warriors fighting with their backs to the wall, and of the onward rush of the German hordes towards Paris; there were other days when men questioned tho existence of an over-ruling Providence, and despairingly asked, “Why does not the Almghty intervene? Why does He permit these hideous massacres, and the terrible destruction that everywhere acjcompanies the German advance? Those days, we believe, - have happily gone. They have left their impress upon most of us, and there are sad hearty in New Zealand, and throughout tlje world to-day—mothers mourning for their children; wives for their husjiands; fathers for their sons, anH’ children for the parents they will never see in this worm again. The war has been hideous in its cruelties, criminal in its outrages upon mankind, infamous in its atrocious treatment of civilian non-combatants, arid almost wholly destructive of the good faith which should exist between man arid man. It has left its aftermath of anguish and fear, but tho clouds arc dispersing, and the nations are emerging once more into the sunlit atmosphere of peace. And, since it is not good for man to sorrow over-much, or over-long, we do well to rejoice that The Night of Suffering has ended, and the. Day of Gladness has come. Most or “our Toys” are hack from the war; some are returning within the next day or so, and early in .the Now Year all or our men \vill have' returned. For us the war is'well over. We may “eat, drink arid bo merry” to-day, even though “the golden ago of peace” yet waits to lie ushered in,-for the day « suiely coming when tills ml earth ot V

ours will once again hear the music and songs that toll of Eternal Peace and Truth, when—- . . Truth and Justice then Wat down /eturn to men, ' • Orbed in a rainbow,j and, like glories wearing, Mercy will sit between Throned in celestial sheen.; There is much in the world to make us rejoice, and, if. wp have profited by the lessons of the past five years, we shalldo so,, acknowledging with thanktul hearts the truth of the eternal, verities of which this Christmas speaks" to all Christian peoples?' There is no need that we should take our pleasures sadly, as the much libelled Englishman is said .tbvr do. iyo can rejoice with grateful hearts that we are living in a land far removed from the troubles and turnon that still afflict the Old World, at peace amongst ourselves, and looking forward to the progressive development and strengthening of our young nation. And if such bo the frame of mind - in which Christmas finds us we shall be m a fair way of onco again experiencing that Merry Cliristmas and Happy New Year, which is the “Standard s wish for each and all of its readers.