Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1886.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXX, Issue 304, 24 December 1896, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1886.

. Christmas comes but once a year — And when it comes it brings good cheer. Mant of our old oustoms and institutions are fading out of use and recognition, and we are becoming so . modernised that habits of a few years ago belong to a past and forgotten generation. But Cbrißtmas is Christmas still, and its kindly traditions, its solemn ' memories, and its sacred Bymbolisui will never become obsolete while we are British and while we are Christian. 'On tbe limitless expanse of ocean, amid the snow-wreaths of i Canada, on the sun-scoroheu Australian plains, in the heat of the great Dark .Continent of Afrioa, among the starving millions of India whom Christian hands are feeding, tomorrow's dawn will be greeted with the old yet ever new exchange of good wishes, and heartß, callous and indifferent at other times, will pulsate with an unaooußtomed kindly thought to the memory of the long ago. Whether under the burning summer of the Southern Hemisphere, or confronting, the icy blast of the JMorih, to-morrow will be the saored day.of days to hundreds of millions of peoples. In our own old homeland, there will be sharp contrasts of feasting and starvation, ooay : warmth and shivering cold, dainty children happy round the blazing Yule Log, and hungry waifs wi'h longing eyes and wan faoos peering against the glass of the windows for a glance of the happiness that is not for them. Thousands of souls will be breathed into human bodies ere to-morrow's sun sets, and other thousands will have left their earthly tenements to be gathered to Him who gave them. There will be rejojeing oyer births, over marriages, over meetings, oyer success, and there will be 'sorrow o\ver death, over bereavement and partings, over faiure. Truly there are no such sharp contrasts at any time of the year as at this Noel season, when the rioh and the poor, the well fed and the hungry, the happy and the miserable are i brought under the sway of common sentiment ! The people wjio dwell in. this Southern Hemisphere may miss Borne of the associations of Christ- ; mas ; but many of those associations : can be dear to memory only to thoße who were able to enjoy ' them instead of suffering from them. The snow in the streetß and on the houses and the ice on j th# Streams apd lakes "may be a j ■—»* adjunct to phrißtuias when j pleae»~. '" clad and wpll.-fed, 1 we are warmij tl, <> hardship I j but they only add iotu. ' * M of life to those who are withoau. To him who keeps Christmas in _ the heights of an Australian sum- i mer the recollection of the cold lii

northern winter time of Deoember may be as the " shadow of a great J rock in a desert land." But when * the sentiment is analysed it must be i confessed that a summer Christ- 2 mas, thongh divested of iraditional ahd historic charm, has fewer of those sharp contrasts of happiness p and misery, plenty and want, so e typical of the Noel of Continental I Europe and tho Yule Tide of I Britain. We have our poor always jj with us in this Southern Hemis- I phere, and the stress of living grows keener. But we are spared the horror of frozen corpses and huddling, starving women and ohildren told of by English papers every winter. But let n» not forget, that though our poor may not die in the snow, or starve in \ tbe grip of an iron frost, we may i still find that the good thngs of ' life are not enough, to go round to all in equal shares. Let us give of our abundance, for giving to those who need is the only true celebration of Christmas. He who wipes the tear from the weeping eye, lie who assuages a heart-pang, he who feeds the hungry, he who gives a short hour of happiness to those who have been bereft, will themselves be the happier to-morrow, and the more entitled to spend a happy Christmas. "Think of others." That is the Christmas precept of the Christian man, woman, or child, and, ministering to others, we ourselves shall be ministered unto. ( Behind us there is the memory of good left undone. Before us there are, perhaps, carping care and the hidden anxiety of the unknown future. But for the present season — all too short — let us try and be as free from trouble as we may. While we rejoice let us do what we can to make our poorer and less fortunate fellow-colonists rejoice too, and then shall we have truly earned the right to enjoy A Mekuy Christmas.